tim
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Everything posted by tim
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Very similar to their earlier match, which I liked more for compactness. This is definitely a your turn-my turn kind of match, total spotfest, but the spots looked good and the match never got boring. Definitely a match understandably more exceptional in its day than it is now. The car spots are still cool. Fun stuff, not great.
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Vince McMahon taking some relatively tame off-color quotes and feigning moral outrage is something else.
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These have all been really good. Definitely very effective hype for a big debut; gives you a glimpse into what Mankind's motivations will be and establishes him as likely a force to be reckoned with.
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This is really good stuff. Really pushing the envelope in relation to everything else in WWF or WCW, and Goldust really lays it on thick, especially with the bagpipes.
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Really good TV match. Kid is really effective working as a heel on top, which is a position his size obviously handicaps him against. The kicks look really good. Michaels' comeback is great with a really good looking moonsault and a flying forearm that actually looks like strong offense. Great ending with a Kid top rope legdrop missing by a hair to set up the SCM.
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Good match that gets better as it goes on. I particularly liked the Sting no-sell spot toward the end when Flair is chopping him and punching him with Sting standing there. They make this feel like a really big deal. Luger interferes to DQ Sting! I'm still liking the Luger/Sting storyline a lot, both of them get over the finish and trajectory of the angle real well after the match. If they're still trying to sell that Luger is sincere, if heelish, in his trying to help Sting the way he got Sting DQed is lazy; but if they're trying to make his negative impacts on Sting more and more transparent to build to a full heel turn, it works.
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I enjoyed this match. An exhibitiony Psi/Rey match, but they get all their standard spots in, they're executed great and look really good, and the match never gets boring. The match doesn't really feel like a competition and there's nothing in it that exceptional in the context of these two working each other, but it was a good match to put on for the live crowd.
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Good match, I thought it was shoot style until the suplex and pin attempt. Really hot crowd. Koshinaka gets a good run of offense with dragon suplexes. This match didn't feel all pro-style but definitely wasn't shoot style, and not any kind of mixed-shoot style either. Just a pro match with vaguely shoot style elements. Takada picks up the decisive win and looks strong.
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Awesome match; the second match on the set so far I think hit particular MOTYC quality. This doesn't flow like a traditional wrestling match, it's 'messy' in the best way a match can be, tons of strikes with a good dose of hate. Hashimoto is clearly bringing more firepower to the match than anyone else and those overhead chops are some of the best things in wrestling. Hashimoto hits a sick double footstomp followed by a great, cheeky fuck you pose. They just take it to each other the whole match and it's all pretty great; things get especially heated at the end with an awesome suplex spot from Takayama to Hashimoto and a submission tease that the crowd totally buys. Hashimoto puts it away in the end with a triangle submission.
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Really good match, a little hurt by the crowd and Otani's no-selling the really good leg work. This starts off with a little bit of some more super nasty matwork with Samurai and Otani and quickly gets nasty all around. Malenko had some really nice lucha-y exchanges with El Samurai. The opposing team all joins in to work over Otani's leg; an especially great spot is Otani being in a figure four near their corner, and the other two guys kicking at him as he reaches for the ropes. A short, explosive sequences with Otani and Samurai ends the match after Samurai hits a nice lariat to the back of the head followed by a powerbomb.
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Vince going over the top insane for Michaels' relatively tame entrance is hilarious. Really good opening with Shawn a house of fire, include an awesome, awesome dive off the top rope. Once the match gets settled down, everything is executed fantastically but somehow it was hard for me to really get into the match itself. Maybe the pacing or rhythm of it. But still, there were lots of spots and moves I appreciated, especially the powerslam on the floor, and the ending sequence was really good. Shawn as a character right now feels strange. It's not hard to predict that he would go on to connect much better as a heel.
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Hell of a TV segment. Good promo to start off with and the match ruled. Really well worked, classic style studio tag match, but the end was really exceptional. You have about 3 spots that in a studio tag would be GUARANTEED to end the match but it keeps going, one after the other, until the faces pick up the big win. Post-match promo is really good, with some good mic work from Armstrong, and a nice angle to end it. I still think the Vader angle was the best single TV segment of the year so far, but overall USWA takes it for best TV product.
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I really loved this; I loved it for what it is, but even still there's a much better match buried in what we got. Without the long rest period for the commercial break, without going all the way to the draw and shaving off several minutes, this could have been a really great match. But I still love what we got. Watching ECW in the full context of 1996 makes me appreciate it even more, and I generally enjoy ECW. In 1999, or 2000 when I was watching it live, WWF and wrestling in general had already fully embraced excess. But in 1996 you see ECW as fans at the time saw it, as the avant-garde of something really significant. Whether you like what it was leading to in wrestling or not, there's a feeling of being ahead of the curve, and of seeing something totally different from what you could get from WWF or WCW. The crowd is so enthusiastic and rowdy; you don't get crowds like that anywhere today. And although ECW is very self-conscious in its pushing the envelope, it still feels sincere. This match was excessive, bloated and at times stupid; but felt totally unlike what you'd see anywhere else in American wrestling, had totally insane spots and was hugely entertaining. Watching this I really felt an appreciation for how fans of ECW at the time related to the product.
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CMLL brings it with a trios again -- and another 2-0 to boot! Match starts with some rudo schtick but then we get some nice matwork from Dos/Panther and Charles/Dandy pairings, before finishing the first fall with some flashier offense for the tecnicos. I don't know if it's pure bias from style preference, but although today you see juniors do all kind of flips and over the top offense, somehow it's just not as graceful and awe-inspiring as when Santito busts out the flashy offense. Second fall starts off as a good extended rudo mugging, tecnicos stage a great comeback but then the rudos all beat down on Santo and rip at the mask for the 2-0 DQ. Would've liked to see this one go to a third fall, and would have liked to see more matwork in the beginning, but this had enough good stuff that I sure didn't feel cheated by the ending.
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