PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Horrible, horrible, horrible. As bad as the worst WCW segments we've seen in '99. I'm not getting where any of this "sincerity" comes from, because Francine's acting in this is awful and we've gotten so much "shoot" bullshit from Shane (oh, I'm sorry, I mean TROY MARTIN) that it's impossible to buy this as such whether it is or not. There's no quicker way for me to NOT buy something as a shoot than to say that it is one. I'm also really fucking sick of Shane taking continued cheap shots at Big Two guys suffering legitimate injuries--here, he compares how he handled his elbow injury to how Ultimo Dragon handled his. Just when I think this segment couldn't be any more interminable, Justin Credible has to be the person to interrupt Shane. Congratulations Paul E., you found the one person on the roster to make me wish we could just have more of Shane talking by himself. Credible rants a bunch, Douglas and Francine and Dreamer get laid out, and now after years of being the most despicable heels imaginable we're supposed to feel sympathy for Shane and Francine. Well, call me cold and callous if you must, but I don't. -
PE are buried and turfed from ECW, as they didn't want to go along with Paul E.'s plan to drop two straight matches to the Dudleys instead of going 1-1. The Dudleys proclaim the best tag team of the past, present, and future, which draws out New Jack. Mustafa's with him, but he immediately turns on Jack and we get yet another long Dudley beatdown. Second verse, same as the first. Mustafa is a "mysterious benefactor," which is a role for him that defies credibility. Before the reveal I had to laugh at Joey Styles wondering just WHO WOULD HAVE PAID OFF MUSTAFA? Like it would have taken a seven-figure payout and not a $50 check guaranteed not to bounce. I can think of about 9 million matches I'd want to see before getting to New Jack vs. Mustafa.
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Stacy has been hanging up posters offering her valet services to anyone besides Jerry Lawler or Sean Stasiak. We see in a bumper that she also has turned down Randy Hales and Brian Christopher. On the interview set, Stacy declares Terri a "slut" and says she can do just as much as Sable, to the intensely uncomfortable reactions of Dave Brown. Lawler really comes off as whiny in all this. Stacy screws with both wrestlers, as advertisement for her ringside services. Neat idea, but YOU CAN'T HAVE ROPE BREAKS IN FALLS-COUNT-ANYWHERE MATCHES. Or in an "Explosive Match," as they call this. Match ends way too quickly, with an unintentional assist from Stacy.
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Really good heat for this considering what charismatic black holes the NWO B-teamers are. Unless he had some miracle in FMW, which is quite possible with the right opponents, this has to be Horace's career highlight. Vince comes out to make this look like yet another instance of Vanilla Midgets getting fucked over, but Benoit and Malenko pull through with guts and smarts--a good way to put the team over on the way to presumably bigger and better things. *snorts derisively*
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Wait a second...Vince comes out the night after a PPV in a neckbrace selling the previous night's match, Mankind comes out limping selling the previous night's match, and now Ric Flair is out selling the previous show's beatdown. Don't these idiots know that if you sell a match for any length of time *after* the match, you'll ruin your star power? Good thing today's modern WWE performers don't have that problem. Flair outs the NWO and Hogan as not being "cool" after all and points out that Hogan needs celebrities, props, and the belt handed to him in order to be World Heavyweight champion. Ric effectively downplays Monday night's disaster and cuts his usual awesome promo hyping SuperBrawl as a match, with high emotions and high stakes but no other outside overthought bullshit. This is great, as usual, but I'm getting tired of this months-long pattern of WCW force-feeding us a crap angle where Flair gets destroyed and Ric attempting to save it after the fact. Sadly, the pattern isn't done.
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There was an off-camera angle on Nitro involving Luger supposedly jumping Rey backstage, so Rey gets some revenge by attacking Luger in his limo. Too bad--Lex in his natural role as a big stooging meatheaded jock idiot would have been a good first heavyweight feud for Misterio. At least if there was any chance of Lex putting him over decisively without a post-match beatdown--knowing Lex and his surprising bouts of unselfishness in the late '90s, that was a legitimate possibility.
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Best joshi match of the year and a legit MOTYC in its own right. This was worked at an incredible pace, as you'd expect, but the big submissions were still put over huge, the way each woman frantically tried to escape them--for a match with almost no 2-counts there sure were a lot of "near-falls." Yagi also has a totally unique bridge version of the Saito suplex that I've never seen before but want to see stolen a million times.
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This was a lot of fun--the ladder match stip almost seemed like an afterthought, as aside from a few token bumps off the ladder, this is much closer to their typical match. Nothing super-outstanding but far easier to watch than their Rumble match. And the heat is incredible--one of the loudest reactions of the entire show comes from Austin simply standing up after Paul Wight makes his presence felt. Mania is set, and we go off the air as Austin sneaks up behind the new champion...
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One of Austin's bigger pops, but also maybe the most heat you'll ever see Vince McMahon get. This is at least two notably jacked-up crowds in Birmingham to see wrestling on Monday nights. It's a 20-minute promo, but no one gets too much time and numerous stories are moved forward. Paul Wight is named the guest referee for the WM15 title match, which might telegraph the result of tonight's main event just a little.
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CWF Tombstone according to wrestlingdata. Looks like the lovechild of 911 and Rick Steiner, but listed as separate from either.
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I'm guessing Lawler's Re-Tweets are automated.
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Co-sign on the Santana match. I actually thought the Hair vs. Hair Match with Beefcake on SNME was perfectly acceptable, even decent.
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Hogan half-asses his way through a promo. Flair shows up in the pick-up and as we've established, the announcers have no idea what's happened. Did no one clue them in that the company President hadn't shown up to his show and was missing? Hogan had offered a 20-count but Flair just barely starts stumbling out of the truck at like 15, so Hogan just sort of has to trail off. The Horsemen are effectively buried for like the 37th time since 1996. You know part of why Austin was so effective? He didn't have people running out to save him either, but he was SMART. If the Corporation finagled their way into jumping him in a cornfield, he'd come back with heavy machinery of his own and run them all over in response. Schiavone says "this is the worst" several times. Preach it, Tony.
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There was actually a "blowoff" to this on another episode of MadTV, I think Bret vs. Piper in an armwrestling match. Debra Wilson explained that she didn't want to see Sasso continue to get hurt so she--oh God, somebody shoot me. Bret thought so highly of this that he didn't even discuss this travesty of a match in his book, just the MadTV stuff and the match with Piper. Sasso does work hard, but the announcers don't even give any lip service to this as any kind of serious affair. Wilson hits Sasso with some horrible chair shots and Bret needs a screwjob finish to beat a fat sketch comic. I'm sure he was thrilled to have been forced into jumping ship for this.
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Haha, despite my self-imposed WCW boycott I did end up seeing a bit of Nitro this week and the unopposed week previous, and came on in the middle of the helicopter shot wandering what in the living fuck I was watching. But I haven't seen this bit of infamy in full, so some bullet points as we go through: - Arn gets arrested because he...punches Disco Inferno a few times. Yeah. - We get about 6 camera-angle changes in the first 2 minutes, with about 4 different angles inside the limo. You know what, forget what I said--this movie-style multi-camera setup is far worse than the half-assed pseudo-documentary style of shooting. - The two actors (or random Turner suits wanting to be on TV) in back with Flair are horrible. - "SIX cops?!" Yeah, that's kind of a minor overreaction to a random backstage brawl. - The helicopter with its giant spotlight is of course beyond ludicrous. After the movie-style footage we've seen, we're back to reality TV, and with the bouncing spotlight moving from limo to Hummer and back, it looks like we're watching someone shine a flashlight on a darkened Japanese monster movie model set. It's a ridiculously expensive shot that manages to look incredibly cheap. - Hey, Bischoff outsmarts Flair again. What a shock. Flair sure doesn't come off very smart when he assures the suits to "relax, there's nothing wrong." - Nash cosplaying as a ninja would be laughable if this segment wasn't already part of an infuriating string of show-length angles. - Why do these guys all need to hide their identities, exactly? Despite Dillinger's efforts with Arn, it's not like they've ever had to face arrest for anything they've done in the past (except of course for power bombing people). - Boy is that droning helicopter annoying. All this expense and they couldn't invest in some decent sound editing? - This goes on...and on...and on, with false finishes and everything. I guess to justify the money spent/assuage Hogan's ego. - So...the point of this is that "Flair will never see SuperBrawl"? Did I get that right? Could Hogan maybe repeat that line another 273 times so that Marlee Matlin can get it? - Forget the babyface getting redemption--how do they expect to DOUBLE-TURN these two after all this??! How the fuck do you redeem Hogan after what he's done for the past 2 months, much less the past 2 and a half years? - Then Ric is saved by a passing trucker or something, just to make all this even more ludicrous. "Fairgrounds...Fairgrounds..." Insane. I say this as someone who LOVED the Teddy Long limo kidnapping--so it's not an idea I'm vehemently opposed to. But the execution is about 9 million miles apart.
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About as good as you'd expect--Vince gets in a shred of offense, but not too much, and gives everybody who wanted to see him get destroyed what they came for. I don't hate the idea of hiding under the ring, but yeah, in kayfabe-ville it makes no sense for Paul Wight to wait for as long as he did. Why not pop out as soon as the bell rang, or while Austin was waiting for Vince in the cage? Of course, Loss already answered that in another thread--because there wouldn't be a match. Still, a minor complaint, and it's only a red-herring anyway with an actual finish that's much more creative. They made it clear through gestures that Vince was ordering Wight to heave Austin into the cage, so I don't think it does so much to make him look stupid--no, they'll take care of that in due time. Interesting that Cole spends so much time talking about how Austin "won't let Vince have the last word." What have I been saying about the difference between Vince and Bischoff at this time? Thanks for making my point, guys.
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Overall this wasn't a particularly strong effort of a show considering the gigantic (41,000) crowd, easily the biggest in Raw history. Boss Man's offense is pretty terrible, but Vince's "victory" and the post-match are all done well. The closing image, of the whole Corporation holding Austin down in the corner and Vince talking trash at him, is terrific.