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Loss

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Everything posted by Loss

  1. Loss
    One point where I do agree is that Tony seemed to have a genuine affection for the big stars of the Mid Atlantic/JCP era. The Flair bond always came through on commentary, and Steamboat and the Rock & Rolls are two others who probably fall in that category. Really, that's where Tony and David shined -- Magnum, Windham, the Rock & Rolls and whatever other top babyfaces always felt like wrestlers where when David Crockett talked about them, the fandom was a shared experience. I am doing a crappy job of explaining that, but it's a difficult thing to put into words. Both the hardcores and casuals were excited about those guys at the time, so it played to everyone.
  2. Loss

    Cena/Lesnar

    Loss replied to Slasher's topic in Pro Wrestling

    Which is funny considering that he and Undertaker worked ridiculously hard to get HHH to bleed hardaway at this year's Wrestlemania.
  3. Loss
    Bix has the problem with "control segment". I have the problem with HHH referred to "Levesque" by third-rate hack news sites -- it reads like someone is trying to show how smart they are by proving that they know someone's real name. That's probably a byproduct of one of the first things I ever saw online being "Bollea will never job to Borden" and cringing. So we all have our things.
  4. Loss
    The Tony Schiavone complaints were from people who didn't understand the role of an announcer and how wrestling works. In general, people are a little more informed now and realize that announcers just say what they're told to say.
  5. Loss
    It's never a waste of time to argue with anyone! Except Bryan Alvarez.
  6. Loss
    Well, some companies can't even book their world title properly now. But yeah, I do agree that it's possible to have several titles in a promotion and make them all valuable. If you look at the origin of territories creating TV titles, their purpose was to have a title that could be defended on television to draw ratings. That's why I always thought it was silly that the tournament to crown the first champion took place at an Omni house show. In a perfect world, the tag titles would be main event belts on equal standing with the world title. Your secondary titles may not be the guys who are headlining, but they are guys who could very easily move into the top spot if needed. Somewhere along the way, the idea became to give wrestlers belts to get them over. I can't think of a single time in history that has ever worked. I think it's a better idea to put belts on wrestlers people care about.
  7. Loss
    I would say that there usually isn't the same amount of depth in the tag team division that there is in singles to warrant two titles. There also typically wasn't this hierarchy booking in tag divisions that made clear the difference in the type of teams that challenged for one title vs the other. The Midnights and Fantastics could have just as easily feuded over the world titles in '88. 1990 WCW had one of the deepest tag team rosters I can recall a company having, and I'm not sure they needed two titles.
  8. Loss
    The number of titles were fine at different times in JCP when the belts were pushed as important. During the Dusty/Tully period, they could headline house shows with TV title matches. After 1986, that would not have been possible. The U.S. title was probably a main event championship until the end of Rude's run in '92. I generally agree that less is more on titles, but at different points, JCP was able to make them a key part of the big picture. But still, I agree there were too many. What has hurt championships in all promotions has been when something gets branded a midcard belt. That tells me I don't need to care. If you look at how the IC title was presented in 80s WWF, most of the wrestlers who had runs with it were headliners who were seen as stars. It also had a unique appeal and while it's forgotten sometimes, there was a segment of the WWF fanbase that probably followed that title picture more closely than anything in the company. Devaluing of belts is something that actually pre-dates what we often refer to as "modern wrestling". For the national promotions in the US, I think you can trace it all the way back to the 80s.
  9. Loss
    For 1995, I rated 62 matches at **** or better, if that answers your question. Compared to other years: 1992: 79 1993: 99 1994: 53 (Through September - still watching) 1996: 61
  10. Loss
    How do I respond to this question without getting in a semantics debate with you over what "great" means? I enjoyed every match in my top 100. This was one of them. Clarify your question, please.
  11. Loss
    As much as I liked Rude, I never liked how he made every babyface work a camel clutch and hip swivel mocking into their routine just so he could put his knees up on the third attempt. It's a good spot, but to make everyone do it?
  12. Loss
    Saying the heel ought to be "boring" is simplifying that theory and taking it in a different direction that I'm not sure was intended. But heels typically do less highspots. That doesn't mean they have to cut them out. Bobby Eaton worked them in - along with some other great moves - and the crowd never turned him because he knew what he was doing.
  13. Loss
    I think back to Cody inducting his father in the HOF a few years back, and wonder why they can't just capture that. He was awesome there. If he was that guy all the time, he'd be over.
  14. Loss
    Fantastic match, in the top handful of New Japan matches for the year. Eddy isn't as stoic as he normally is in the Black Tiger outfit. He does all the stuff you'd hope he would and is a total heel, which is great. Everyone is excellent in this, but Eddy was the glue. There is a pretty badly blown double team spot from Benoit and Otani right before the finish, but it wasn't enough to take too much from this. Otani's dazed, glassy eyed selling is always awesome.
  15. Loss
    Pretty amazing career retrospective that I had wanted to see for years and never had a chance to see until this yearbook. Clips of him against pretty much everyone and some great lines from some of his promos. You see this and realize exactly how WCW should have presented Flair -- as this almost untouchable icon. Great, great, great.
  16. Loss
    Ricky Morton cuts a tremendous promo on The Gangstas for hitting him right above the eye with a blackjack. New Jack says he was at home asleep and had nothing to do with it. He says Morton was drunk in Memphis and bumped his head on a table. Then, Jim Ross hosts Bob Armstrong and Jim Cornette arguing, and that's a combination I could watch for hours and not get bored. Pretty great. Finally, Cactus Jack shows up and says he's here to defend Boo Bradley from the mistreatment by Chris and Tammy. Hey, they're working the Kevin Sullivan angle from WCW into this. All of this is gold!
  17. Loss
    More of an excuse for Randy Hales and Scott Bowden to have a brawl. The match could have built to something good if it kept going.
  18. Loss
    Backlund and Vince are phenomenal in this. Backlund cuts a scorched earth promo on Skaaland for costing him the WWF title. Arnold Skaaland apologizes for throwing in the towel and offers a handshake, but Backlund refuses to shake his hand and attacks him. This was awesome. Bob Holly scolds him for hurting someone (Ha!) and I was hoping Holly was about to get attacked on principle, but it wasn't to be.
  19. Loss
    Agreed that this is too calm and doesn't really fit the usual violent style of a hair match, but it's hard to dislike a match where all of their stuff looks so good. Miguel's boxing style punches throughout this are awesome, and I love Emilio's bumping, especially when he falls backward through the middle rope off of a back elbow. Good match.
  20. Loss
    Great match in a good year for Takada. As much as I normally enjoy Sano and would rank him well above Takada, I thought Takada was the star in this match. It reminded me of the '93 Tamura match in how Takada carried himself as The Man and knew exactly how much to sell.
  21. Loss
    If you listen to the Borne Again promos, his delivery and inflection is almost identical.
  22. Loss
    Borne is a Piper clone, but a good promo. No one else could have done so much with Doink.
  23. Loss
    Yes, because referees have to prepare by boxing.
  24. Loss
    So why did Yamada stop teaming with Toyota in '95? Hasegawa stepped up and took that spot most of the time. I was just curious. First fall had some of the great Takako heeling that I always enjoy, but I was hoping for more. Toyota is placed in some pretty painful looking submissions. Her jump to the top rope off of the Irish whip is always a nail-biter because it requires so much balance and I wonder if she's going to fall. I liked the second fall a lot for selling the cumulative fatigue of the match, at least from Toyota and Kyoko, who have been in the most for their teams. Takako takes the match in a different direction, trying to build sympathy on Toyota while throwing some brutal knees in her face and putting her in more fun submissions. The Inoues keep doing trade-off DDTs in repetition in a great sequence. The third fall sees the pace pick up out of desperation from both sides, as they are tied at a fall a piece. I'm looking forward to the Toyota/Takako match later in the month based on their interaction here. Lots of close calls, as you'd expect. A few miss moves, as you'd expect. My least favorite fall, but still lots to like about it. It was a small thing, but Takako's reaction to securing the win was the best part. While I thought this was a great match and don't have much critical to say about it, there were so many similar matches during this time period that I would really like them to break new ground, or do something unique to make the match stand out. That seemed to be missing here even though I really enjoyed this, and after the 1992, 1993 and 1995 yearbooks of long Toyota tags, and the ones earlier in '94, I'm a little burned out. Maybe I wouldn't have liked the 1/95 tag so much if I saw all of these first and wasn't so ready for something different. When all the 90s are released and I re-watch the yearbook highlights in chronological order, we'll see how they hold up.
  25. Loss
    Part of it is annoyance that I can't figure out of if the "s" is silent or not.
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