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Loss

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Everything posted by Loss

  1. Loss
    Last few minutes. Mabel runs (well, walks) in and has a staredown with the Undertaker then hits him with a belly-to-belly in an awkward sequence that gave Undertaker the win by DQ. The crowd chants for Diesel before he and Shawn make the save. This crowd is a booker's dream. Suddenly, Shawn, Diesel, the Gunns are in the ring with Owen, Yoko, Davey Boy and MoM on the outside.
  2. Loss
    Last few minutes. Decent action once Yoko's neverending nerve hold finally does actually end. Hot crowd again, so I guess Grand Rapids, MI was just a great audience for them. The Gunns win the tag titles. Diesel and Shawn congratulate them post-match.
  3. Loss
    Cornette was helping book before SMW folded? Are we sure? I'm not doubting you, I just want to verify that, because I wonder if there are enough hours in a day at a certain point.
  4. Loss
    Jannetty is on fire and this is one of the most heated WWF matches of the year. While it's good to see him back in the WWF, it's also a little sad, because he's been American wrestling's best journeyman in 1995. Really good, really fun match. There is a great spot where Sunny hugs Candido to comfort him, Jannetty attacks him from behind, tricks Sunny into hugging him, she goes to slap him, he ducks, and she hits Candido. Sunny is an excellent manager at this point. The crowd is REALLY, REALLY into Marty -- to a point where it might surprise you.
  5. Loss
    Trying to think of who some of the known biggest tape-watching nerds in wrestling are. Rey, Juventud, Waltman ... I'm sure there are others. Name them.
  6. Loss
    Also worth noting: If you look at the percentage of great wrestling to bad wrestling, the bad wrestling percentage is way higher. I'm not sure if the ratio of bad books, bad movies and bad music to good is higher (it very well may be), but sometimes, basic competency receives praise because basic competency is not something that's a given. The bar is admittedly low sometimes, because there's so much bad stuff out there. On a show with 8 matches, if one match is generally logical, it's going to receive praise -- maybe more than it deserves -- because it's surrounded by so much crap. Proper context matters a ton.
  7. Loss
    Hirata looks really good here. I enjoyed the opening matwork with him grinding his knee into Muto's face, and he also has some nice headbutts and kicks. This is built around him pushing Muto further than expected. His nearfalls aren't getting much heat at first, and as the match progresses, the audience is more convinced of his chances, which is always great to see. One of those matches that isn't GREATGREATGREAT, but is exactly as good as it should be considering their card placement at this point in time. Really good.
  8. Loss
    Last few minutes. Davey Boy subbed for Owen (I know the storyline reason, but I have no idea the real reason). Owen runs in at the last minute to do the job. The action looked really good, and I'd like to see this match in full sometime.
  9. Loss
    Bret's tope to start things off was on the highlight reel for a long time. Lafitte takes some nasty bumps off of missed moves, including a missed somersault plancha to the floor. This is a Bret Hart match, but it's a deviation from his typical match. If there's a such thing as a Bret Hart spotfest, this is a Bret Hart spotfest, and a really fun one.
  10. Loss
    Luger does a sit-down interview about his time so far in WCW and his problems with Randy Savage. Well done.
  11. Loss
    Tony Schiavone is proud to introduce Dusty Rhodes as the new co-host for WCW Saturday Night. YES! Dusty defines clubberin' and says he sat down in a room with Ted Turner and decided to put wrestling on TBS years ago. HA!
  12. Loss
    Last few minutes of Sting vs Regal. Eaton tries to interfere and Flair runs him off. After the match, Flair pleads to Sting to be his partner, but Sting isn't having it. Knowing the end result of all this makes Flair's performance here even better. Flair even gets on his knees and begs Sting. GREAT segment.
  13. Loss
    This is one of the best babyface promos I've ever seen. It's not as emotional as the previous interview acknowledging his past, but it's almost as great. "Hey Jimmy. I'm glad that my past seems to be on your mind. See, my past is something that I have forgotten about but you choose to keep bringing it up. That's fine and dandy. I lived that life. See, Jimmy Cornette, I've done a lot of things I've never even told you about. I've been in houses sleeping on floors, guns pulled to my head. Let me tell you something -- I've been in the sewers with rats like you before, boy. I've been down as low as a man on the face of God's green earth can get. But let me tell you something Jimmy, I overcame all of that. And the beating that you all gave me in Barbourville, hey -- it was a heck of a beating. But let me tell you something, baby. Here I am. Right here. Anytime you want it. Let me tell you something -- you got that brain dead Tommy Rich. Everybody out there see that haircut that Tommy Rich has got on? He looks like Sgt. Carter. He's really trying to live the gimmick, ain't he, baby. He's taking that 'top lieutenant' to heart. Rich, I'm gonna stomp a mudhole in you and walk it dry. You'd be better to go through hell with gasoline britches on, boy, than to mess with me. 'Cause I forgot more about pokin' eyes, givin' low shots, and pullin' hair than you've ever known in your stinkin' life. You wanna know who the wannabe is? I'm lookin' at him right now. Tommy Rich is the best thing you've got goin' on, Cornette. You better pack it up and send it home, 'cause I'm gonna kick your stinkin' brains in and form my own one-man militia!"
  14. Loss
    Lawler does his typically fun "talk about the weather" promo before the match starts, talking about the Cleveland Browns and even wearing Browns tights. Nice studio match. I'm SHOCKED that a chain plays a role in the finish.
  15. Loss
    It shows you where the company is at this stage when they come out together ... to Shawn's music. Shawn also does almost all of the talking. This is a promotion that doesn't do things like that by accident. Not sure why Shawn feels the need to do his full intro in wrestling gear. Owen, Yoko and Cornette interrupt before Shawn and Diesel even get a word in. Cornette gets in a funny jab at Vince while telling him they're going to take one of the belts. Shawn points out that only he is allowed to make fun of Vince.
  16. Loss
    Goldust is in a movie theater. This one is a bit scary.
  17. Loss
    Awesome match. Very accessible, and something I'd recommend for any lucha primer comp. Silver King is such a charismatic babyface that could have gotten over in the U.S. if he was presented in the right way. I guess you can say the same for Miguel Perez as a heel. This is paced like an American-style match, the crowd is audible, there's blood and a sharp face/heel dynamic and the counts are paced like those in an American match, so many of the things that normally make lucha tough for newbies aren't there. Silver King has some great high-flying offense and is really good at winning over the crowd, but he's not really good at keeping his hair. It goes bye-bye.
  18. Loss
    NO NO NO. No one ever said it was the only thing that mattered. That has been said by me in this thread multiple times (and ignored every time). It is the bare minimum. The point is that if a wrestling match can't make sense, it can't possibly be good, NOT that all it takes for a wrestling match to be good is for it to make sense.
  19. Loss
    I felt the need to break down some of the points from the first post. Two things: (1) Wrestling is not "fake fighting", and I never have cared for that term. It's "fake sport". There is a difference. In theory, the competitors should be trained and skilled. This is why I get so frustrated by arguments that Rey isn't credible. He's trained and highly skilled. He can perform moves that other wrestlers can't. This makes him credible within the confines of a sport. It's not about looking at guys on a surface level and making assumptions about who would win in a shoot. That's not how I see credibility. That mindset is simply a byproduct of Vince McMahon and steroids. For a wrestler of Rey's size, it's important he is really good in the ring, because that's where he gets his credibility. If a small guy can't sell convincingly and can't execute his offensive repertoire competently, it's going to be impossible for him to get over. Big guys like the Great Khali have shortcuts at their disposal that Rey doesn't to make them credible, so maybe they don't have to be quite as highly skilled to be successful. But even their credibility is not based on look alone. Khali is clumsy and has trouble executing basic wrestling moves. Maybe if they met in an alley, Khali would clean Rey's clock, but they are meeting in a ring, which is supposed to be athletic competition, and skill matters as much as or more than toughness. Also, the basic goal of a wrestler is not to hurt their opponent, it's to win a match. Sometimes, there is no way to win a match without hurting the opponent, so that's why they do things that hurt. But in good wrestling, the end result is to win. So looping this all back together, good wrestlers are skilled and have credibility. Good matches have wrestlers trying to win them. I don't like comparing wrestling to fighting because barfighters, as a rule, don't train for their sport. (2) Yes, real fights follow logic in the sense that people like us want it from the wrestling we watch. If Person A kicks Person B in the balls in a real fight, they're going to sell it. (1) Good movies are much, much more common than good wrestling matches. If you look at bad wrestling matches, what are most of them missing that keep them from being good? Your milage may very, and your answer may differ depending on which style, promotion, or era you're thinking about. But for the American wrestling fan, we often find that to be something not done particularly well in bad matches. So yes, I agree that having a match that makes sense is just basic competence, not greatness. The point was never anything to the contrary. The point was more that it's impossible to achieve greatness without that basic competence. Why is this discussed? Because often times, we see wrestlers who learned to run before they learned to walk, so they have some impressive tools at their disposal, and no clue how to properly use them. (2) By the same logic, a movie that had great characters, themes and style, but had a terrible story arc would be acknowledged as such. They are routinely acknowledged as such. No. Wrestling is not realistic. Realism and believability are two words I try to stay away from when discussing wrestling. Plausibility is not a word I shy away from. Neither is logic. There are some death-defying wrestling moves -- and some mundane regular moves -- that aren't particularly realistic. But they don't have to be. I think I have talked about this before, but I see wrestling as mythological. A wrestling promotion can set up their mythology to be whatever they want it to be. Certain moves are more dangerous than others. Certain wrestlers are more dangerous than others. Certain things matter and certain things don't. Those of us who watch a great variety of wrestling all the time have had to learn to shift paradigms constantly. I have preferences like anyone does, but for the most part I'm pretty lenient about what that mythology should entail. What I care about is a viewer is that mythological consistency. If the piledriver is a dangerous move, and someone sells it in half-assed fashion, that's bad bad bad. If the piledriver is a transitional move and someone sells it in half-assed fashion, maybe that's a little less grating. Booking establishes the norms and frameworks for the wrestlers to work within. No. It's the bare minimum. Matches that don't accomplish that bare minimum can't be good, no matter what else they have going. Great matches just continue expanding on that.
  20. Loss
    I think that's breaking it down too much. It's not that complicated. Wrestling that makes sense is good, and displays good psychology. Wrestling that doesn't make sense is bad, and displays bad psychology. We tend to break things into categories too much when discussing this stuff. It's too fragmented. That we're at a point where we're asking if it really matters if wrestling makes sense honestly embarrasses me a little.
  21. Loss
    Super match! The best lucha match of the year, and one of the top matches from anywhere for that matter. Some truly spectacular high-flying, probably more so than any of their other matches even. I was pretty blown away by this. I'm at a bit of a loss for words to really describe it well, but this was great! At this point, Rey and Psicosis (and Juventud) were probably the best aerial wrestlers in the world. This has every big highspot you would want to see from them, executed crisply to boot. But the matwork they start off with is superb too.
  22. Loss
    Well yeah, that was after this match. The feud fell off the rails pretty much immediately, but the match started it out on the right foot.
  23. Loss
    Footage of the Raven/Cactus vs Dreamer feud, set to Mad Season's "I Don't Know Anything".
  24. Loss
  25. Loss
    Tommy Dreamer explains what it means to be hardcore, and tries to convince Foley that fans are appreciative of the risks wrestlers take. Noooott a statement that looks too bright in retrospect.
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