PeteF3
Members
-
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by PeteF3
-
Who's idea was it to have Tony Anthony, Doug Gilbert, and the Dirty White Girl out for an interview and have DWG do all the talking? This is hyping a MSC match where the loser's woman has to eat a can of dog food. That's about the most Memphis match stip of all-time. Dundee gets slapped but is helpless to respond, but Vicki comes out and dares Kimberly to slap her instead. Predictable two-on-one until Vicki makes the save. This wasn't a terrible segment but it was about as Memphis-by-numbers as it gets and needed Dundee's fired-up response promo to save it. -
Warrior peeking out from the curtain after his name is dropped is a nice little directing touch. Sherri has a royal proclamation for a Savage title match--it just needs the Warrior's John Hancock. Jack Tunney's office has been no help and Sherri believes the Warrior is illiterate. Brother Love is pretty awesome here, too. Warrior tears up the contract and after a few slaps from Sherri and demands for Savage to come out, Warrior gets in a genuinely good line for the first time this year, believing Savage has "found LUUUUV somewhere else." Seriously, even something like THIS is all the Rude feud needed, at least at the start. This isn't the angle of the year or anything but we've got two dynamic personalities (or three, really) all bouncing off each other directly. It's also a breath of fresh air for Savage to finally be out from the suffocating Rhodes feud.
-
Very good match, better structured if less spectacular than the Malenko/Kikuchi bout. Rogers and Kobashi provide the High-End Offense and some pretty complicated double-team sequences with their partners, while Ace and Fulton bring the heat and the brawling. Kobashi gets yet another pinfall to continue his mini-push.
-
"There's only one World Champion, and he's the guy right here with the pink boots on." Quote of the year. All the talk about the belt dating back to 1905 is particularly galling considering any goof in a mask can apparently get a title shot. Sting gets the duke and then tears the mask off to reveal a red mask underneath. Then the familiar hooded figure appears in the rampway and stares down Sting, who acts like he's seen a ghost. Ross and Caudle sell this as best they can. Sting cuts a frustrated interview afterward admitting he couldn't get the job done tonight, and then Sid Vicious comes down to demand a title shot of his own. Sting tells him to take his case up with the Championship Committee, which only serves to get him attacked when he turns his back. Sid screams at us as we go off the air.
-
What a great fucking series. This is better than any Flair/Sting match save MAYBE Clash I. Flair is particularly vicious at times here, especially outside, and he even throws in a few curveballs to his standard spots, like thumbing Luger in the eye as he's Flair Flopping. Eventually we tease a DCOR, but Luger beats the count only to get waylaid by Stan Hansen in a pretty neat visual as the camera angle makes Stan come out of nowhere. Luger is choked out by the bullrope and left laying to set up Halloween Havoc. Agreed that Flair could have easily done a pinfall job here. With Luger not having to challenge him for a title it would have done wonders for Lex and as we all know Flair is practically immune from the ill effects of any job at all. Hell, by proxy it would have helped out Hansen, too. Ah well--the finish isn't bad at all for what it is and the match itself is very good.
-
Holy shit, it's BUDDY ROBERTS. I had no idea this actually happened. Check that, it's GENERAL BUDDY LEE ROBERTS. They're back in Confederate gear and this is as close to the UWF/World Class 'birds as we'll ever get in WCW, I believe. Jimmy and Michael cavort around Hollywood and naturally wear their wrestling gear while doing it. It's too bad they were pretty much zeros in the ring at this point because from a strict personality standpoint both guys had a lot to offer.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Craig Johnson name-checks The National--the Frank Deford-edited sports paper that had one Dave Meltzer in its employ. Meanwhile Jeannie shows off x-rays of her broken hand, but is more upset about Toni yanking her hair, and follows up with more alimony threats. Really good stuff from Jeannie here. Now it'll be Austin vs. Adams in a chain match and this probably isn't a necessary addition to the feud. Chris & Toni are out yet again but this time they retain the upper hand on the heels. Percy eats a low blow and chairshot, Austin a superkick, and Jeannie loses more hair. The war has only just begun. That's what I was afraid of. The Adams promo is interrupted, as Percy and Austin do a number on him with a wooden club. Toni gets nailed in the perpetually injured ribs with the timekeeper's hammer. Toni gets tied to a chair and Percy is about to give her a trim when Chris recovers and runs the heels off...until Percy downs him with a chairshot and it's Chris who gets his hair cut. By God, they've gotten me interested in where this goes yet again. This seems to be building to a hair vs. hair stip, possibly involving the valets, that we won't ever see. That sounds like a hot ticket and it'd be interesting to see how the promotion would weasel their way out of the payoff.
-
-
-
Lawler forces Marlin's hand into re-hiring the Gilberts by threatening to quit himself. Eddie cuts an awesome promo that turns Lawler's accusations about attempted homicide into a shot about Andy Kaufman, his past of idolizing the King, and his goal of having the Gilberts go down in the same class as the Funks and the Briscos, all in 30 seconds. But yes, this is extremely rushed, even by Memphis standards. The fallout from the Marlin attack alone should have eaten up a week or two at least. Instead that's brushed to the side almost immediately.
-
Eddie Gilbert hitting Jerry Lawler with a car is totally bogus, dude! Major pukus maximus! Eddie Gilbert is also sporting major wiggage. What an absolutely flabbergasting production decision from a promotion that was still clinging to kayfabe in many ways. The previous Lawler promo almost hypes Monday night to be another Snowman shoot-type situation, and then we get this. "Other wrestlers react to the big angle" can be an effective storytelling element but this is so not the way to go about it.
-
I have no idea how true this is but I have read they wanted to head off calls to the police. On the other hand, senior citizen Eddie Marlin is walking around fine and dandy after being brained with a chair and beaten down 5 days earlier, so maybe that's just how Memphis rolls. Lawler is awesome, of course, and is sporting a nasty bump above his right eyebrow. He basically threatens to stalk Eddie Gilbert and gain his revenge outside of the world of wrestling, the same way Gilbert tried to do to him.
-
Eddie STILL isn't getting his $5,000. Gilbert believed that Brickhouse Brown would split the prize money with him, but Brown eliminates him instead. That leads to a big beatdown on Brickhouse and Gilbert taking the check. Eddie Marlin's threats of a fine don't work, and when he climbs into the ring, he pays for it. Eventually he manages to get the mic and scream Lawler's name, and the King makes the save. The announcers actually do attempt to cover the delay, explaining that the other battle royal participants were showering and/or going home after being eliminated. This Monday: the Gilberts vs. Lawler & Brickhouse, and Eddie Marlin vs. Sam Lowe in a cowboy boot match. Holy shit, that sounds fantastic. Gilbert declares that he and Doug ARE the USWA and without them, this rinky-dink promotion would be playing in front of empty arenas. Marlin finally calls their bluff and evicts them from the studio. Oh yes, THIS angle. As Jerry Lawler comes out to see them off, Eddie suddenly floors the gas pedal and Lawler goes fucking FLYING. Dave Brown is so shocked that he undersells it to such a degree that it's some pretty unintentionally brilliant understated announcing. Apparently the car was only supposed to paintbrush Lawler--instead we came close to live televised vehicular homicide.
-
-
Piper's dig at Jim Bakker is kind of eye-rolling but his shot at Steven Seagal makes me laugh. Martel brings out Arrogance in a Magi prop nicked from a church nativity play. Martel makes a LOT statements relating to vision/seeing/eyes...this would come off as incredibly cryptic normally but I think we all know where this is going.
-
-
Underwhelming. I'm not sure what the story with the ref was supposed to be about (oh, it's Gedo--that explains...absolutely nothing) and it was pretty dippy that the trashcan was even in the cage to begin with. Nakano, who has basically been sold as being invincible for this yearbook, starts despairing and crying like 8 minutes in because her guillotine legdrop doesn't render Kong comatose. Eventually Kong, like Sir Robin, bravely runs away to victory. That wasn't the WM3-esque payoff to Bull as Unstoppable Monster Heel that I was hoping for. Afterward both ladies talk trash on the mic and appear to either be ready to start fighting again or start making out. Turns out to be the former. All snark aside I didn't *hate* this--they did work hard and there was some attempt at trashcan-centered psychology. Taking out the monster's leg/knee is a pretty sound strategy and the blood on the leg adds to the effect. Still, I know where I'd rather be given a choice of wrestling cards in Japan to attend on this night.
-
Top 3 MOTYC. I don't have a lot to say about this, frankly, but this is definitely a "past midnight" feeling with how long the near-fall stretch goes. I thought the suplex-reversal callback came towards the end of the match, having forgotten there were 10+ minutes of bomb-throwing to come afterward. Even the first backdrop nearfall I thought would be followed up with just another backdrop for the pin. It was, but not without yet another teased Misawa comeback in-between. Just awesome stuff all around that makes Misawa look pretty much as strong as the June victory did.
-
Two of the blown spots have tangential things that really jumped out to me. First when Kikuchi splatters to the floor, Tommy Rogers doesn't miss a single beat. Two seconds later he's charging out to the floor to continue to lay the hurt on him--it looks as natural as if it were a planned transition. Second was the entire visible crowd practically leaping out of their seats in shock and horror when Kikuchi can't decide if he wants to take a back body drop or a flapjack and splits the difference by spiking his head into the mat. Seeing Fulton and Rogers work quasi-shoot-style with Joe again was a treat, too. If you're looking for a multilayered Triple Crown or AJPW 6-man, forget it, but this match isn't any less fun.
-