Everything posted by El-P
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My 50 favorite matches
I realize that it's something I'm totally incapable of doing today. I don't keep track of anything I watch, I don't do any rankings anymore, I don't keep any list anymore. I would have totally answered this question 6-7 years ago.
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[1993-07-18-WCW-Beach Blast] Hollywood Blonds vs Arn Anderson & Paul Roma
I couldn't disagree more. I thought this totally dragged, they went way too long and got virtually no heat until the hot tag by Arn, which got heat for 15 seconds until people realized Roma was the guy who just came in. Roma has zero charisma as a babyface, so his face in peril segment was boring and wooden, Lance Storm couldn't have been worse. His work was mechanically ok, but really, Z-Man would have been much better as far as getting a connection with the crowd, that's how useless Roma was here. Arn is just not that great in a babyface in peril role either, although much better, but two long babyface in peril segments with two miscast babyfaces just makes the match kind of a drag to me, although the Blondes were really good. All in all, a mediocre match that could have been really good if it went 15 minutes with the Blondes bumping and selling their ass off before stealing the win. Plus booking an overlong match just before a garanteed 30 minutes match (Dustin vs Rude) is a flagrant booking mistake.
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WCW ongoing thread
The build to Beach Blast 1993 is absolutely tepid. Apart from a really good Blons & Windham vs Horsemen (minus Roma who barely gets in), no good match on TV. No good angle either (well, no angle at all). They have Flair cutting one or two good promos on Windham and a nice brawl on Worldwide, but that's pretty much it. The main event is solely built on the infamous Cheatum video. Dustin vs Rude seems like an afterthought after 6 months of anticipation, and the undercard is a big nothing. They were going into a transitionnal period, moving the tapings to Orlando soon, and searching for a new booking team. It shows, this is difficult to go trough. Oh, and Steve Austin did a 6 minutes clean job to Paul Roma. Holy shit.
- [1993-06-12-SMW-TV] Rock & Roll Express vs Ron & Don Harris
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[1993-06-05-SMW-TV] Jim Cornette vs Tim Horner
Smothers was blinded, and apparently deaf too, couldn't he hear Horner ? I don't see were this is going, although a heel Tim Horner could work. Cornette has a pretty good punch himself, I guess he was taught by Eaton. He has gained a lot of weight in the past 2 years though, the difference is striking with the first SMW shows.
- [1993-06-05-SMW-TV] Down and Dirty: The Armstrongs and Heavenly Bodies & Jim Cornette
- [1993-05-29-SMW-TV] Down and Dirty: Rock & Roll Express and Tammy Fytch
- [1993-05-29-SMW-TV] Interview: Bob Armstrong
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[1993-07-03-WCW-Saturday Night] Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Paul Roma vs Hollywood Blonds & Barry Windham
Finally a long, exciting match on TV. Man, Barry was great. Blowing his knee really ended his awesome run of nearly three years of constant post-prime excellence. It's funny how they just don't involve Roma at all. Poor guy. Flair alreally had turned into Tenryu at this point, which really at 44 I'm totally fine with (although Tenryu at the same age was way way better than Flair). Bye bye great Barry Windham, it has been awesome.
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[1993-07-03-WCW-Saturday Night] Lost in Cleveland
You can see in this one that Dustin has the ability to turn any stupid shit into something. Really one of the best at escaping the whirlwind of suck of bad writing, as he would show later during the Goldbooker era. So yeah, this is actually pretty funny thanks to Dustin kinda getting caught up into being called a good country singer. Foley and Dustin could have done so much more together in WWF when they got paired up for a while.
- [1993-06-26-WCW-Saturday Night] Lost in Cleveland
- [1993-06-26-WCW-Saturday Night] Flair for the Gold: Dusty Rhodes
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WCW ongoing thread
There it is, I'm at the point where watching WCW gives me headaches. For the first time since I began my WCW project with 1989, I'm finding the product so bad it's embarrassing. And it's not because of a lack of talent in the roster. In term of matches, Clash 23 was actually very good, with the great Scorp vs Windham match, a cool 6-man which had Dustin Rhodes really shine against Rude/Vader and Sid (who did look useless compared to the other two of course), and the fun Hollywwod Blonds vs Arn/Flair (fun because of the work, not the bad booking). Plus Lord Steven debuts around this time, so there is some good stuff. But the TV is just marred with god awful segments, highlighted by the rotten triumvirat of suck that are Cheatum the Evil Midget/Searching for Cactus Jack/Flair for the Gold. There is not much left in term of good match on TV despite the quality workers. Babyface Horsemen with Roma just don't work, Roma's implication makes the thing awkward as hell. As heels maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but Roma as a face working along Arn and Flair is pretty eye gouging. I'm not particulary fond of Flair's comeback either, as it sets the time machine back 3 years, and it didn't mean anything at the box office. I'm already dreading Flair vs Rude feud, as I remember the matches being quite boring. As it wasn't enough, you get the Assassin calling Dusty Rhodes every week on TV. Thrilling. This is clearly the lowest point ever hit by WCW thus far, as even the boring Summer of 1990, the months of Black Scorpion and the beginning of Bill Watts were far from being just this shitty.
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[1993-06-19-WCW-Saturday Night] Exploding Boat
There's so much horrible things in this. Amazingly horrible. This may be the apex of pre-Russo Wrestlecrap material. Even "there are no Hulkamaniacs here" doesn't approach this masterpiece of suck. The incredibly bad acting (Harley Race is so godamn awful in these segments, bless him). The ridiculousness of the whole thing. The insistance of having that EVIL MIDGET showing up. The kids. The fact Sid and Vader are dressed up in their wrestling gear. Davey Boy saving Sting from a terrorist bombing. And the worst of it all : Sid Vicious in FLIP FLOPS ! Who is the genius who came up with this stuff anyway ?
- [1993-06-19-WCW-Saturday Night] Flair for the Gold: Col. Robert Parker
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[1993-06-19-WCW-Saturday Night] Lost in Cleveland
You don't say. On the same show, you had this shit, another useless Flair for the Gold, Assassin calling for Dusty Rhodes, Roma as a Horseman, Cheatum the Evil Midget and an aborted match between Orndorff and Steamboat, because god knows we don't want any good wrestling on our wrestling show.
- [1993-06-19-WCW-Saturday Night] Interview: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Paul Roma
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[1993-06-16-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXIII] Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs Hollywood Blonds (2/3 falls)
The Austin does the camera into Arn's DDT is an amazingly quick and crisp sequence. Awesome job by both. I wouldn't say Flair looked old either, as a matter of fact I thought he was a lot of fun here. But he was without a doubt the lesser worker of the three, as Austin and Pillman were on fire, and Arn not too far behind. That being said, I thought the booking sucked and the writing was on the wall, as the Blonds couldn't get a fall on Arn. I mean come on, it's not like Arn doesn't do jobs, so why can't the world champ get one pinfall in a 2/3 ? Especially since the end result is a little dubious to me, the Blonds losing the fall via DQ should make Flair & Arn the champs. Anywway, to me it showed that Ole and Dusty just weren't focused on the future on the company, and that Flair coming back wasn't good for guys like Austin/Pillman/Dustin who should have been the future. Flair was 44, and he already was nostalgia at this point, especially as a face. I didn't know this Clash spunned the break up of the Blonds. It's a shame, they were so much fun together and built momentum, personnality and star power together. Poor Pillman, the guy worked his ass off for years, finally gets a break as a heel and still doesn't get his dues. The whole evolution of his character is understandable, he worked so hard to get so little every time around, no wonder the guy finally became a bit cuckoo. On a funny notes, gotta love the absolute lack of reaction for Roma's save at the end. It's a super pro-Horsemen crowd, and Roma gets crickets when he makes his run-in.
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[1993-06-16-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXIII] Barry Windham vs 2 Cold Scorpio
Scorp brings the offense, but Barry is the one putting it together. He's been consistently excellent to great as soon as he turned heel, and it's not like he was any worse than very good as a face before. MOTYC, probably Barry's swan song. Windham has probably been the best worker in WCW in the span of the three years since he came back in 1990.
- General thoughts on 1990
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Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 3
Trip wants a payday? John Paul wants his win back.
- [1993-06-12-WCW-Saturday Night] Lost in Cleveland
- [1993-06-12-WCW-Saturday Night] Lost in Cleveland
- [1993-06-12-WCW-Saturday Night] Interview: Steven Regal & Sir William
- [1993-06-12-WCW-Saturday Night] Vader and Sid vignette