PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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I'm really, really lost as to the criticism of Hogan's selling at KOTR. Why book a fireball finish if he's *not* supposed to sell the eyes? Ross put over the eye injuries afterward, though admittedly it's somewhat talked over by Heenan and Savage. There's lots of interesting stuff going on in that match but I don't have any issue with Hogan selling (Bix also pointed out that the fire "didn't even hit him in the eyes," but in kayfabe it did). Edit: I'm 99% sure the photographer was Wippleman. -
So was Catherine White's identity 100% confirmed? I remember Dave reporting her as being Kathy Gagne one week, but then a few weeks later walking that back without actually saying who she really was. That was me buying L'Age D'Or...at 50 bucks for a book in a language I don't speak it's admittedly a rather pricey lark, but I'm hoping there's some good info in there and that it's a bit more organized than Bob Plantin's massive but messy ALPRA site.
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Even the worst segments of Raw displayed just how far ahead of WCW the company had gotten. In addition to the good brawl here, it can't be overstated how important it was that Ross was back on commentary. Cole could have made these segments unwatchable, but with Ross selling them to the fullest extent they ranged from good to merely eye-rolling at worst.
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Well, if it's any consolation, that was probably a gimmicked bat. But yeah, the fact that even a gimmicked bat is broken over somebody's head and it's not an angle designed to write somebody off TV for six months is a disturbing trend. Heel Sable is even less tolerable than regular Sable. We get a big clusterfuck and then a hookup with Debra and Val, that I have no memory of. Babyfaces? Heels? Besides Sable, I guess, you won't find any here.
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They really had something going here with babyface Vince, but decided to hit the reset button instead in a few weeks. The "LOSER!" chant at the end was great, coming after Shane's opening promo.
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The best thing about the Corporate Ministry is the organ/"No Chance in Hell" mash-up entrance music. Shane cuts an okay enough promo railing against the loser fans who live paycheck to paycheck and drown their sorrows in vodka, but it comes off as a little tryhard and desperate. But hey, it worked. Shane needs to be more of a loudmouthed jerk with less trying to be GRRR EVIL. A bunch of ex-Corporation members forming their own group isn't bad on its own, but Mankind, Shamrock, Show, and Test are as mismatched and ill-fitting together as the early Wolfpac.
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George vs. Robinson was supposed to be for Savage's reinstatement if George won, but that was rendered moot last week when Piper reinstated Savage anyway. George is certainly pleasing to the eye but this is a pretty funny video in light of Bischoff's proclamations that WCW wasn't going to stoop to the WWF's level in terms of sex and swearing.
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I don't know why or how, but Asya actually looks kind of attractive in this particular setting. And that's all I've got to say about that. Triple-A rambles at Kevin Nash while a Norman the Lunatic lookalike annoys the production truck. Torrie Wilson's back, after it had been reported that Nash had gotten her shitcanned. Now *she's* caring about *David's* well-being. Storytelling! Oh goody, it's the start of the David Flair "George Gulas by design" push. He gets to wrestle tonight with Charles Robinson as the referee. David displays his boundless energy and charisma here as he monosylabically responds to Ric's encouragement. Ric waits for David to leave before telling Arn and Charles that he's wrestling Meng. Roddy Piper makes a thoroughly unwelcome return and is justly ignored in his constant asking of where the President's room is. He finds it and levels Flair with a trash can. Piper beating up a cop is so fucking ridiculous. Ric wants Scott Steiner to beat up Nash, and Steiner's eager to oblige. Uh, did we miss something? Steiner settles for beating up Buff. They actually *did* split up a few weeks ago in a segment the Yearbook (justifiably) skipped. Boy, have we taken a wrong turn since last week. It's pretty easy to see now how much worse this was for WCW's ratings than the Fingerpoke. The Fingerpoke was one failed attempt at an "epic" angle--this is jus a repeated embarrassment of one of their only remaining certifiable ratings draws, week after week after week.
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I don't know who any of the Vipers are besides Psicosis and keeping track of which Vato Loco is which is a fool's errand, but I'm not sorry I saw this. The big payback spot where Los Vipers all used chairs to block dives by Los Vatos Locos was a highlight, as was of course Enigma getting strung up upside-down and handcuffed, allowing Los Vipers to win a 4-on-3 to win the first (only?) fall. Sangre Chicana and Cibernetico precipitate a crazy post-match brawl. Not one for the end-of-year awards but a lot better than some of the other bullshit ECW-inspired lucha in the late '90s.
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They lost the titles by countout, to Rose & Somers, but the match aired on TV. The announcers didn't even attempt to explain why the titles changed, they treated it like it was a matter of routine. (Well, it was in Memphis, and outside the U.S. and Canada, but in the AWA...)
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There are a few ill-timed dead spots here that hold this back from being a top-5 MOTY type match, particularly Muto blowing his counter to the power bomb and then meandering into the figure four where the crowd dies off. Still, everything else about this was a blast, especially Tenryu unleashing all kinds of new offense. His reaction to his own top-rope Frankensteiner was pure gold. I *knew* Tenryu wasn't walking out of this with the IWGP title but they still had me biting on a few near-falls, and it's hard to ask for much more out of a dramatic closing stretch than that. This went 25:37 and probably could have stood to get cut down to about 20, but this remained one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.
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I think I have this as #3 MOTY so far--it's safe to say that at least for one night, the old Vader was "back." He looks fantastic here, unleashing his killer offense and also doing some of the best selling of his career. Some of that is just great bumping, but he really sells those Misawa elbows like death, both at the start of the match and at the end. Japan doesn't tend to let sentimentality get in the way of realism in its booking, but in the wake of the Baba ceremony there was no other way for this Dome main event to end.
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Um...well, I knew Candido wasn't hurt *that* bad, but the ripping-the-halo-off got me. *shrug* I think it was because ECW had been recycling angles all year and I thought they'd try another re-do of the Douglas/Pitbull halo angle. Everyone works the mic well here and Corino acquits himself in one of his first big spots, getting in some eye-opener lines but being a much more natural smug heel and far less tryhard than Justin Credible. Candido making sure to do a diving headbutt just to show off his neck was a nice dickish exclamation point on all this.
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There's one more key piece of music from that SNME that needs to be seen in its original format: the Roddy Piper "My Way" video.
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Good pick for a pilot TV show main event. Yeah, HHH is out of place, but there's a dearth of top heels outside of the Undertaker and he's a better pick than anyone else. The match itself is sort of a typical Monday night TV main event but the post-match is super-hot, with a bunch of moving parts that never feels overwhelming.
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Yeah, this is actually all pretty well-booked. Bullshit with the Ministry aside, we set up the Undertaker as an evil fuck who makes even Vince seem sympathetic, we get Vince helping Austin, and now with Rock turning babyface as he should, we have a readymade heel for Austin to fight next--and it's a fresh new role as it's not someone Vince wants as champion either. Of course I'm discussing this booking in isolation, conveniently ignoring the Higher Power payoff that renders most of this talk irrelevant. It's good big-picture booking for now and a good segment layout here, with a gradual build until Austin is finally the one to break through and make the save. Even the close-up visual of Stephanie freaking out while the glass breaks in the background is great. Jim Cornette doing commentary in this environment is WEIRD. He doesn't do a *bad* job at all, but it's weird. I'm sure when I get to the Observer back issue in question it will explain where Lawler was but I have no memory of Cornette being on TV this late.
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Yeah, this was a less-than-ideal way to utilize Stasiak, who was never great and maybe never even good but probably could have filled a longer-term role than this.
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Good face turn, though once Shane comes out Loss' comments about Rock being too reliant on his catchphrases ring true here. He's reciting rote lines and Shane is actually cutting a promo on him. Oh well, minor complaint, because this segment accomplished what it set out to do and provides some intrigue for later tonight.
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