PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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I know I just mentioned this but the side-by-side comparison of the Lawler/Snowman angle with this horseshit is staggering. The best-done angle of the year right along with the worst. I'll conceded that I enjoyed the description of Rocky King as a "human licorice stick." The rest of Arn's promo is pretty great as he channels Jules Winnfield. But holy heaping Christ, the Horsemen should be so above having to come out to interview sets acting like they left their burning crosses in the back. -
Woman is out as Horsemen manager, but Herd states that there is no definitive evidence that Ole Anderson hijacked the cage (???). If evidence does come out, Ole will be suspended as well. The Horsemen don't take to this well. Windham makes a veiled reference to his previous stint under Herd and blames Herd's hiring incompetence for the raising cage.
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This feud has taken a rather odd twist with Lawler and Snowman doing a semi-double-turn (even though Lawler was a heel to start with). Lawler accuses Snowman of constantly having his hand out and talks about what happens to a snowman in the winter time when the sun comes out. I liked the setting of this one quite a bit, actually. Lawler doesn't do a lot to put Snowman over but he doesn't bury him either--I'd be fine with heel Lawler promos like this.
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Snowman cuts a babyface-esque promo semi-apologizing for his debut. He rambles a lot about the poor officiating in the previous matches and complains about Kerry Von Erich being the referee, but then Eddie Marlin comes out to rescue the segment and explains that Kerry hates Lawler as much as Snowman does, and explains what having a black World Champion would do for Memphis' fanbase. Snowman is placated and makes up with Eddie and Dave. I wonder if they felt they had to tone things down at this point, or if they weren't ready to pull the trigger on a full Lawler babyface turn. I'm really looking forward to how Leon Spinks gets involved but I can't say that I care too much for a babyface Snowman.
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This looks even better than the previous week's match...again, it's incredible how a few well-done shoot-style takedowns and punches looks way, way more chaotic than a Moondog brawl. Same finish as before with Snowman accidentally punching the referee to receive the TECHNICAL LOSS, but referee Big Lou Winston fights back and the Snowman/Winston fight is almost as good as the match. Winston with short but pointed comments promising to come after the Snowman after Lawler takes care of him first. The most fascinating angle of the year continues. Absolutely incredible the difference between Memphis' race-card booking and WCW's.
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Very good promo from DiBiase, as he talks to an apparent former inmate who claims to have been beaten by the Boss Man. Nailz is neither seen nor referred to, which makes me question DiBiase's dirt-digging skills somewhat. Okerlund talks to a foreman who claims that the Boss Man "wouldn't beat anybody," and credits him for having this job. This really is a fine example of the WWF's brainwashing savvy at work. Boss Man has gone from a guy who routinely abused jobbers after matches (not to mention Brother Love) with his nightstick to an upstanding officer who "wouldn't beat anybody" and is a work-release pioneer.
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John Brazelle is no Eddie Marlin, that's for sure. It's amazing how over Toni is already, and I think it's more of a testament to how good Jeannie was at getting under the fans' skin. The match is barely that as Bronko Lubich gets decked and the bout is thrown out, leading to more post-match catfighting, Adams spanking Jeannie, and Jeannie slapping Chris some more.
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Agreed with all of the above. There are way cool moments in the opening of Misawa smacking Jumbo in the face both literally and figuratively, but the matwork portion isn't really anything special, other than more Misawa slaps on rope breaks. Then Misawa eats a few near-falls and gets in a backslide and that backslide is when this sucker picks up, big-time. It isn't the best run of near-falls ever by All-Japan standards, but the actual ending stretch beginning with Jumbo elbowing Misawa as he goes for the headbutt and hurting his own arm--forcing him to go for the high-risk dropkick instead of the reliable Jumbo Lariat and paying when he misses it--is sublime. Misawa reverses the back suplex reversal as most of us know and is now a legitimate main event threat...even if this isn't really a "torch passing" moment. Seeing the ever-stoic Misawa break into a pretty big smile during the post-match is a special little moment among a much bigger special moment.
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The complication with that is that in Misawa's obit, Meltzer reported that Baba supposedly called an audible on the Jumbo/Misawa finish upon seeing/hearing the "MI-SA-WA" chants from fans filing into the arena that night and seeing the business that Misawa gear was doing at the merch table. Anyway, a good clip job can make almost any match look like a classic but this nonetheless looked way better than the first title change, though an absolutely jacked crowd didn't hurt either. We pick up with a rare Hansen Lariat that doesn't directly result in the finish as Gordy manages to roll outside the ring. Gordy turns things around with the DDT that won him the Triple Crown but it's only a hot near-fall here. We trade some shit back and forth that still looks way more organic than the near-fall-fest in the Jumbo match before Hansen gets in another Lariat and collapses onto Gordy for the victory. Hansen's desperation roll-up attempt right before that was an awesome little spot. Gordy's legacy as the Tommy Rich of All-Japan is cemented.
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Fun little match as Fabuloso Blondy is probably the scuzziest wrestler in history, but for a guy who looks as unbelievably out of shape as he does he's quite the fun little bump machine. The third fall goes completely off the rails as Blondy crotches Lizmark on the turnbuckle and he lands on his head, which is sold huge and gets Satanico pissed off at him. Blondy turns on Satanico, then Mendoza turns on Aguayo (or vice versa), then Chicana makes the save for...Christ, now I don't even know who the technicos were coming in. Fun organized chaos regardless, though.
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Match of the night, hands down. Casas twists Asai up and Asai has to play hit-and-run, mostly to no avail until the end, when he hits an absolutely gorgeous Asai moonsault and then straitjacket suplexes his way to victory. Good sort of body-part-based build up to the finish, as Asai whiffed on his first springboard moonsault attempt and jiggered his knee, giving Casas an opening to work it over.
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None of this technical, mat-based title match lucha shit here--Fuerza crotches Santo on the ringpost and both guys dive onto each other with impunity. Santo electric-chairs Fuerza off the turnbuckles and then applies La De a Caballo for the submission to win the first fall...and, oh, fuck, it's a one-fall match. Yeah, this ended just as it got going, then.
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This had a fantastic first fall, with Hamada working some incredible athletic spots, Kendo continuing to work the crowd like a champ, and Aguayo being incredibly fun in his new babyface role after working as a big, bruising heel for his first few appearances. The rudos provide probably the greatest array of heel miscommunication spots in any match in history. Aguayo gets the fall for his team and the crowd chants for Kendo anyway. That's charisma. The second and third falls don't quite live up to the first, as there's a bit of meandering and despite some stiff strikes the rudos are a bit less compelling on offense than working comedy stooge spots. All 3 babyfaces looked great throughout. It's too bad Hamada was such a stumpy little guy--he literally looks like an extra-tall midget--I think it hurt him on the believability scale, as he would have been better off as New Japan's junior ace than Sayama based purely on talent and ring smarts.
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Definitely listless, if you can describe two guys really smacking each other with some of the strikes and lariats as "listless." This borders on indy 2.9-ness at times, and I didn't quite buy Gordy's comebacks nor did I buy the finish. I mean, I SHOULD buy a DDT as a one-shot kill, but this is AJPW where that move isn't a Jake Roberts-level knockout. The AJPW announcer loses his shit after the 3-count and this had to be seen as a pretty major upset, so that and the post-match celebration with Doc were nice. I was particularly amused by a contingent of Japanese fans proudly holding up a Confederate flag.
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I think this went on by taping date rather than air date. This match actually took place before some matches in the previous round, maybe even before the entire rest of the tournament. IIRC this was also a scheduled semifinal that turned into a title match when both of the other quarterfinal matches went to no-decisions.
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Jim Cornette's idol and good friend Eddie Haskell.
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Also, as for why Brother Love was given the time of day by the WWF (kayfabe-wise), it was revealed in an early segment that Ted DiBiase was paying for his air time. Chalk me up as another one who found Love to be "beat him up" annoying rather than channel-changing annoying. He got me to pay attention each week hoping a babyface would kick his ass (or, at the least, something exciting would happen even if it was someone kicking the babyface's ass).
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Great little bit of Hansen suddenly becoming the aging, sympathetic veteran, getting a cut worked over and seemingly barely hanging on for most of the match. Even the decisive Lariat is done with a bit of desperation, as though it was an all-or-nothing home run attempt. With I think one exception I was never overly enamored with the Hansen vs. Doc tag bouts, so this was a really pleasant surprise.
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I remember that from an old RSPW post by Keith, so I think it may be genuinely his.
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Really fun, crowd-pleasing spotfest, but not quite as well put-together or even well-executed as the joshi match. I get not having the rudos do as much spectacular shit but the match kind of bogged down for a bit after the awesome between-fall attack on the ring floor. Things perked back up with the rowboat+impactante spot that I really thought was the finish. However, Casas comes back to counter Super Astro's little springboard-headbutt move and Boston crabs him for the victory. Actually I thought Astro was the star of the match (not that anyone was bad) from a work standpoint--loved seeing the fat little guy fly and take some crazy bumps like the whip into the crowd. Kendo was clearly the star from a charisma standpoint, though he was definitely much better working the crowd and being on offense than selling or bumping for the rudos. I just got cross-eyed reading that Luchawiki excerpt.
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Crowd is definitely doing that "whoooah...OH!" stuff they were doing for Warrior-DiBiase, but by the end they were genuinely into it. I wasn't particularly taken in by Iwamoto or Kimura but Aja worked for 3 and the babyfaces were all game, though Kong vs. Toyota was clearly the highlight of the bout, especially a series of tremendous near-falls towards the middle between the two. It was a spotfest, but as with the earlier joshi stuff the transitions all made sense and we got a really strong sympathetic performance from the babyface team when they were working underneath, with a few great moments of having the heels on the ropes like the rapidfire legdrops into the rapidfire planchas that Aja emphatically put an end to. Aja gets in a spinning backfist and a big German suplex to put Toyota away, getting the heels over but also coming off as a skin-of-the-teeth escape victory. Kind of a weird post-match confrontation that looks like the teams are either going to continue fighting or start making out.
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Good promo from both Austin and Jeannie, weirdness over the photograph aside. Another super-hot brawl between these two. Just when Adams is getting bitched out again by Austin and Jeannie, Toni Adams runs from the locker room, takes out Jeannie, and then actually has the brass to try to take on Austin. We get an Adams comeback as well as a Toni/Jeannie catfight. Austin throws Toni across the ring but that only barely deters her. Fired-up promo from Toni afterward as this feud kicks into another gear.
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Yeah, this is all of Lawler's worst instincts as a heel in one package. Bill Dundee is an insignificant speck who only Texas idiots could cheer for who's never won anything or accomplished anything and never will. SO WHY THE FUCK SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT THIS MATCH? I get the fact that the heel is supposed to be wrong, but unless you're going for a 1-2-3 Kid/Mikey Whipwreck type angle, both the babyface and heel at least need to be emotionally invested in the match. Dundee gets over simultaneous issues with Lawler, Tatum, and Tony Anthony (managed by Ronnie P. Gossett--glad to see he's still getting work). "My heart isn't on my sleeve, it's in here, brother!" Very good stuff.