PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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I have no clue what the "Dustin" picture is supposed to be about. Was this a signing that fell through? Anyway, Arn announces that in addition to Flair, Sid Vicious will also be gunning for Sting's title, and asserts that anyone hospitalized in the future will not be the fault of the Horsemen, but Sting.
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This is easily, even in clip form, the Memphis MOTY, and could easily be a low-level MOTYC or better in full. Crazy start with baseball bats going everywhere, and an incredibly tense finish that gets over the babyfaces as decisive winners, keeps the heels looking strong, and doesn't make you feel ripped off about the stips. The post-match brawl actually has its own control segments and transitions and all of that, as Tessa is again prevented from stripping the DWG but this time the babyfaces counter what looks like another long beatdown when they regain the baseball bats. Poor Tom Burton eats a baseball bat from Anthony after having been repeatedly piledriven and having fire thrown at him. The heels get the numbers advantage again until Jeff Jarrett makes the save. Now this week it's another Texas Death Match, but this one with tornado/bunkhouse rules. Tom Burton will be shackled to a ringpost with both valets handcuffed to each hand, presumably as some sort of make-good for all the abuse he's had to suffer as the DWB designated whipping boy. Lawler talks about all this and the heels consider coming out again, but are wary of another surprise Dundee appearance and leave Lawler be. The heels are still paranoid about Dundee lurking about and Burton actually checks to see if he's hiding in Dave Brown's coat. Gilbert accuses a photographer who sullied the good looks of Eddie Gilbert by making him share film stock with Jerry Lawler, so Anthony throws coffee at him and Gilbert takes his camera. Gilbert says he's been asked why he gave up a six-figure salary with Turner to return to Memphis: he wants Jerry Lawler to pass the torch to him the way Jackie Fargo passed the torch to the King. Another great, long Memphis segment that's barely digestible. However, at some point the Kimberly/Tessa thing needs to come to a conclusion. The T&A part of this angle is far less compelling than everything else. It seems they're more or less promising that the DWG's getting nekkid this week much like Sting promised a legitimate conclusion at the Bash, so hopefully that's the case.
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1.) New Japan. Best variety of matches and probably the first set to actually end on a high note until AJPW came along. 2.) Mid-South. Probably #1 in terms of depth. NJPW had several matches that I (and others) hated. Mid-South had about two matches for the whole set where I thought, "That wasn't that good." I was convinced that McAdam's old website header about Mid-South being the Best Wrestling There Ever Was, was true (since he was clearly going by U.S. promotions only). 3.) All-Japan. Agreed about fewer surprises, and less variety as well. It did end with the strongest year, which helps. May also have been deeper than NJPW even if the peak wasn't quite as high. Really 1-3 are in a major cluster and really I could see arguments for any of them being the "best" set and some of it depends on how I feel on a particular day. 4-6 are much the same way. 4.) AWA. Some bias here because it's the set I viewed most recently, but this edges out the other two territory sets by virtue of variety and surprises. I mean, John Studd and Jesse Ventura actually turning in good performances? Col. DeBeers being decent even if I wasn't nearly as gaga over him as the committee? Even as the promotion was dying I got a kick out of all the random names who would show up for 1 TV taping and then vanish. A lot of the '88-'89 stuff was a real chore, admittedly, and the booking lagged pretty far behind the other territories even if the action held up way better than its reputation. 5.) World Class. Never really had a deep roster even at its peak so there was a lot of repetition when you plow through about 8 years of material in a few weeks. I also failed to really get sold on Kevin Von Erich as a superworker even though I liked plenty of his matches. Next to Mid-South it had some of the most creative finishes of its day and the Embry run from '89 was a revelation. 6.) Memphis. Again, 4-6 could conceivably be in any order. There really weren't a lot of studio matches that I was that high on and many of the arena bouts were clipped. The high-end stuff was equal to anything else in the U.S. but I don't think it could match the other sets in terms of depth. 7.) WWF. Remains to be seen if the re-do ranks higher but there are a lot of things about the style that I'm just not crazy about. This also had other issues that the Will sets didn't have: no order to the matches, matches on the set in hacked-to-death clip form when full(er) matches were available, a less-organized nominating process, basically no WWE 24/7, etc. etc. etc. 8.) Other Japan. 'Nuff said. I needed the novelty stuff (the JPW matches, the Brits showing up in UWF) to make it through.
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An extension to power bombing Kidman: headlocking Riki Choshu. At least a headlock is a basic hold that everyone knows rather than people who never did power bombs suddenly deciding it'd be neat to try with Kidman, but it doesn't make it a transition I'm any less sick of seeing.
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Well-said, Jimmy. Demolition and the LOD are in conflict as to who's impersonating whom. Fairly standard LOD promo. I'm okay with them appearing on Brother Love--no way was the WWF capable of being out of the box enough to do anything different--but there's definitely something wrong about the LOD talking about their "good friends" the Hart Foundation and Vince gushing about how they must be taking their Hulk Hogan vitamins. Unfortunately every babyface had to be a glad-handing one, which really doesn't suit Hawk or Animal at all.
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There was actually some build to this, as Herc & Roma had been working as an undercard tag team for a few weeks. Now they have Slick, a great team name, and as we'll see a killer tag finisher. I don't see any reason why an honest push couldn't have gotten them to the tag titles, but the Nasty Boys ended up falling into the WWF's lap.
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We start with Vince & Jesse making reference to the expensive gifts that Sapphire is receiving. In retrospect I should have seen where that was going from a mile away. As I alluded to in the Arsenio thread, this Rude/Warrior booking makes no sense at all. They've scheduled an SNME title match AND a Cage match for SummerSlam? Would it have killed them to run a hot angle on NBC and get to the Cage Match from there? I guess they wanted both main events to be announced at the same time, but that really fucked up the timing of this feud. Rude isn't up to his usual standards here, but Heenan is great, almost out-preaching Brother Love.
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I have to admit this is the first thread in which I've seen a lot of love for the 8/92 match. It has a unique finish that gets the elbow over as a killer and is a pivotal moment, but I didn't think much of the match. I agree with Loss that the 3/92 match is much better. Anyway, not much to say about this but the ending stretch was very good from what we saw, though it is disappointing if the match was really all about armwork. The 3/92 match was the same layout but Hansen's Lariat had a much greater air of desperation about it, like Hansen was sacrificing his own arm to get the home run swing. This is a little more routine.
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I have new respect for Arsenio after reading that. Rude starts by calling out Arsenio for not taking the opportunity to spank Madonna (???) when offered the chance. They give the hard sell for a Rude/Warrior title match on SNME. Nonsensical booking aside, Heenan is great here, comparing his alleged "cheating" to Earl Weaver or Tommy Lasorda getting provoked by umpires. The Arsenio tights are spectacular. Rude had the best ring attire in wrestling history. I think it's fantastic that we have a major talk show with WWF guys acting in character putting over the storylines with a cooperative host. No way there's a forum for anything like this today.
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"I have a question from Bill Albright..." "WHO??!!" "Our next question is from Elena Parsons..." "WHO??!" "Our last question is from Steven Cohen..." "WHO??!" In a way, ever since I got to the ICW stuff on this yearbook, my whole life has been building to this moment. It did not disappoint.
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Parsons is out to do what he does best--beat up on Uncle Toms. As he gets into the ring to show Skip Young what bein' black is all about, Jeff Jarrett tackles him from behind and we get a big pull-apart. Skip Young will be guest-reffing their match on Friday and exhorts the locker room to "LET 'EM FIGHT," but nothing comes of it, though Parsons does deliver a jumping headbutt to John Brazelle that's barely sold in a funny moment. I still don't know why these two hate each other so much beyond "That's the program" but these are good segments nonetheless.
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After watching the NJ '80s set I'd rather watch 500 Tiger Mask matches than anything involving Shiro Koshinaka again. TM and Dynamite struck gold at least one time--the Koshinaka/Takada matches were just fucking mind-numbing. I guess objectively speaking Takada is as much to blame but I actually liked some of his stuff on that set including the much-maligned Cobra match. If/when the Portland set hits I could change my mind, but I have very little enthusiasm for the Sheepherders and the more I watch the less upset I get about what they became in the WWF. Before they turned into shitty comedy workers they were shitty brawlers. Tellingly the best 'herders match I've seen is against the Fantastics at Clash II and it's pretty much a straight tag and not a barbed wire juicefest. I don't think he's really seen as a superworker but he got some love during the World Class '80s set: I cannot fucking stand Gino Hernandez once he stops talking and starts trying to wrestle. Thought he was actively terrible in his singles matches and the tag matches were good by virtue of Chris Adams and the opponents. His matches were heated and he was charismatic, but all the guys in Will's OP are charismatic too. I think Skandor Akbar is a pretty terrible manager in all aspects. No timing at all at ringside, tended to stumble or get lost on the mic, and that fucking Texas accent. That Devastation Inc. came off as effective as it did in '89 is a testament to the forgotten genius of Eric Embry. Give me Adnan any day--came off as more of a threat and was actually authentic. But Akbar's a southern wrasslin' staple so he tends to get most of the love.
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