Loss

This was tons of fun. As much as I enjoyed watching it on tape, I probably would have enjoyed seeing it live even more, because half of the enjoyment of all of this is the way the crowd reacts. But let's walk through the match, because I think it's a really good one, and the family relationship dynamic opens up the possibility to do more things that you don't see all the time. Rey and Juventud start out. Juventud is quickly schooled and gets out. Rey Sr. comes in and wants Fuerza to get in the ring, but Fuerza turns away from him and is not interested, pointing to Juventud, almost as if to say, Juventud is right there, wrestle him! Rey and Juventud go to the mat and it looks incredibly smooth and great. At the end of his exchange, Juventud lands on his tailbone, which makes for a great moment with Fuerza. Fuerza tries to console him by massaging his butt and gets heckled by fans, which seems to hurt his feelings. He then thinks he has the secret to helping Juventud recover -- spanking him! Juventud takes exception. They return to action and Juvi is about to put Rey in an Indian deathlock, but makes the fatal mistake of stopping to do a Rick Rude-like hip swivel. Rey Sr. takes advantage of the opportunity and punches him in the face. The elders then tag in and put together a pretty nice, fast-paced sequence. If it feels at all like a call back to a previous era, it's only because Rey and Juventud were so advanced. Fuerza gets mad at how fast the match is and slaps Rey Sr. But he gets slapped back much harder. It knocks him off his feet, so he pleads to the referee to restore some order. He then tries to slow thing down by making hairpulling accusations. In an awesome moment, the fans are heckling Juventud from the apron, and concerned father Fuerza comes over to see what the problem is. Then, the young/old pairings get mixed up and we get Juventud in with Rey Sr. Juventud poses and no one is impressed, which seems to genuinely hurt his feelings. Meanwhile Rey Sr. socks Fuerza who is standing innocently on the apron. Now, it's time for Rey Jr. and Fuerza to go at it. Rey wants to fight and puts up his fists to box. It's a bad idea, as Fuerza slugs him and cuts off every highspot he tries with some great looking uppercuts. He gets overconfident and Rey ends up getting the best of him with a flying headscissors, then a rana from the apron to the floor. In a touching moment, Juventud immediately runs over to comfort Fuerza and just asks everyone to please be quiet. Sadly, no one obliges. Juventud comes in to avenge his father, going after Rey Sr. quickly, then tagging in Fuerza when he is vulnerable. They get in some family bonding, as Fuerza throws some nice punches while Juventud sneaks in a dropkick. Eventually, Rey tags in and is doubleteamed by the father-son duo. Juventud lands a beautiful missile dropkick on Rey while he is in a doomsday device position, but he goes up top again and gets crotched on his second attempt. Rey Sr. and Rey Jr. give Juventud a double superplex. Fuerza tries to save him, but ends up accidentally elbowing Juventud, leaving both prone to be pinned and resulting in the technicos winning the first fall. Now it's time for the second fall. Realizing he and Juventud are going down a bad path, Fuerza is immediately down on his knees asking for a truce from Rey Sr. He offers a handshake and then tries to hustle Rey Sr., but it doesn't work. This pisses Fuerza off and he punches him in the face. Juventud comes in and is all "What Dad said!" and lands a legdrop. Anytime either Rey tries to comeback, Fuerza's punches are the equalizer. Now Rey and Juventud are back in. We get some fabulous high-flying. It was probably the best stuff of its kind anywhere in the world at the time, which shouldn't surprise anyone. The Guerreras doubleteam Rey Jr., and Fuerza does his great drop-the-guy-to-the-mat-while-sneaking-in-a-knee-to-the-balls spot. In another Hallmark moment, Juventud has Rey pinned after a top rope splash but he pulls him up because he wants to have a family moment and Fuerza is distracted. Finally, Juventud pins Rey Jr. with a fallaway slam into a bridge to take the second fall. Feeling good, Juventud goes after Rey Jr. with a vengeance to start the final fall, running him into all four ringposts outside the ring while the elders duke it out inside the ring. Rey Sr. has Fuerza pinned, but Juventud makes a last minute save. By this time, Rey is to his feet and ends up paying back Juventud by throwing him into all four ringposts. Juventud is tripping over himself to get away from Rey, who is all about getting revenge and does a beautiful somersault plancha to the floor. He brings Juventud back in, they brawl for a minute, and they both kick each other in the balls simultaneously. Both elders immediately see this as an opportunity and run in to pin Rey and Juventud simultaneously and now they are both left to represent their teams. They have a great few minutes of wrestling with some close calls, culminating with Rey Sr. bringing it home for his team with a surfboard pinning combination. An outstanding performance from all four, and a great match, both in terms of action and psychology. It's like the greatest single collection of Midnight Express/Rock & Roll Express sequences I have ever seen, with athleticism at a different level. If I was making a comp of my favorite matches, I think this would be on it. I think it falls slightly short of being an all-time classic, not because of any outward flaws, but more because the switch never completely flips to make this as aggressive as I like my wrestling. But everything else about it is near-flawless. Wonderful, entertaining, highly enjoyable wrestling.

. There's lots of Flair awesomeness in this video, but the part of the video I linked to is my favorite.

Agreed. Really, the idea behind a heel arguing with a fan is to sell for the fan. Hogan did a job for the old lady, which is what made it great.

That was outstanding. Hogan was also getting deafening heel heat there. At times, he proves why he was the master for sure.

I'm not sure about the ratings for The Surreal Life, Celebrity Rehab or the boxing match with Joey Buttafuoco, but One Night In Chyna did sell well, as did her issue of Playboy. She drew wrestling fans to porn. She has also been a star in more places than Lesnar and the company was drawing better when she was in a high-profile spot. Chyna is a surefire HOFer.

The second lowest point of the past 30 years, yes. He shouldn't get blamed for that, but it just shows he didn't do much in wrestling.

Last few minutes. Taz and Grunge go through a table at the same time, so it looks like now we have Rocco Rock vs Sabu. Rocco puts Sabu through the table in a pretty nasty looking spot, even though at this point I mostly look at broken tables as a comedy spot. But the referee missed it. Then, Johnny Grunge is choking out Paul E., but Sabu ends up putting Rocco Rock through a table. So Sabu and Taz win the tag titles. The idea of the referee missing a tag or a pin attempt isn't crazy to me, but missing a table breaking? Hilarious. They brawl for a little while after the match. Sabu is about to do some double tables spot, but Benoit cuts him off and powerbombs Sabu off of one table onto Rocco Rock laying on another table. This stuff needs to be represented because it's a time capsule of the era, but it really doesn't hold up well.

I've seen this match many times, and I think while it's a good match, it is interesting because it shows some telling things about Paul Heyman's vision of wrestling. He would book a good match for the sake of having a good match, but he would throw it out cold and it was always in a niche spot on the card. WCW got criticized for doing the same thing, yet I never saw a difference between how Heyman used "wrestlers" and how WCW used "wrestlers". Meanwhile, the stuff that was built up well rarely resulted in a good actual wrestling match. The one thing that always stands out to me when watching this -- in a negative fashion -- is Joey Styles' commentary. Declaring something a match of the year before it's over is really overbearing, but more than that, the comment that the match had more actual wrestling in the first five minutes than any PPV match had in the previous five years was nauseating. 1994-1995 was probably the peak of Snow's career, oddly enough, even though he did work on a bigger stage and was seen by more people a few years later. And this match is a good feather in his cap. It's a nice showcase for both guys, but I think Snow was a better fit in SMW. It's also worth noting that this match wasn't intended to get over Snow or even Benoit -- it was intended to get over ECW.

Next, we get Buddy Landell. Landell is upset about being shut out of the title picture and says he's the reason everything happens in SMW -- Lawler is champion because of him and Dirty White boy is NOT champion because of him.

This is a tremendous heel promo. Lawler is such an over the top asshole. I love it!

Cornette's color combinations are incredible. They show the Bodies and Gangstas fighting after Super Sunday Night Fever and Cornette taking a decent bump over a table. He still gets way more involved in this stuff than I think a manager should. A single punch from a wrestler should take him out of commission. All that said, they brawl into the street and encounter some traffic, and this is a hell of a brawl. Cornette gets off some unbelievable jokes under the guise of saying if he said them, New Jack would call him a racist: "The Gangstas are so black, lightning bugs follow them around" "New Jack got arrested for trying to blow up a bar, but he burned his lips on the tailpipe" "What do you say to a Gangsta in a three-piece suit? Will the defendant please rise?" Yeah, and I'd say he'd be right. Then he says that's New Jack's card, that New Jack would also say that if he said they didn't deserve to be SMW tag team champions and didn't take responsibility for their own actions. Depends on the context there, I suppose. Cornette talks about a "certain segment" that won't take responsibility for their own actions and are quick to cry discrimination. Cornette says "You're an embarrassment to your people" and ... yeah. Your people?

The Gangstas aren't scared of Tracy Smothers and Scott Armstrong. "You bring your flag, we'll bring ours. We'll show you which X is more powerful." I'm being redundant, but this is heavy stuff.

They are sick of wrestling PG-13. I wish there was a match out there with these guys.

WWF announcers: STOP TALKING AT THE SAME TIME THE GUY ON CAMERA IS TALKING. Shawn announces that he is on the hunt for a new bodyguard. He also says he promised he would have Diesel as his guest, and he brings out a cardboard cutout that looks positively huge next to Shawn. He makes me laugh when he says he has no backbone and is scared stiff. He ends on a serious note and says he will win the WWF title as he knocks down the cutout. Good segment. They do a camera angle that makes the Heartbreak Hotel set look really cheap and small at one point.

Let's compare UFC numbers to The Condemned numbers so we can prove once and for all that Steve Austin means less to wrestling fans than Brock Lesnar. It seems rather obvious that's the case.

This is spawned by watching some SMW fancams last night and hearing some funny lines from fans. "At least he doesn't throw punches like a girl like Lex Luger" "Lawler has been wrestling Dundee lately, he should be fine taking a few punches" I also recall the obnoxious Rob Feinstein smark talk during Liger/Pillman (and apparently some other Meadowlands handhelds). Anyone have others to add?

Could be a fun thread. What are your favorite heel/wrestling fan exchanges?

Awesome post! Tokyo Magnum is really lucky that Alex Wright would sacrifice his time to help him improve his dancing skills. What an amazing, reckless display of disrespect. I don't know what he did, but I'm sure it was bad!

That was the case for Wrestle War '90, but not for Capital Combat. At Capital Combat, there was debate over whether they should pay off the Luger chase by giving him the belt, or wait and pay off the Sting chase. They went with Sting, but not everyone agreed with that. Luger was actually asked to do a job here using his injury as an out, but refused, feeling he had been promised the title too many times and was tired of not getting it. Dave sympathized with him on that decision, saying WCW needed to crack down on this sort of thing, but Luger had a case and wasn't the guy to use as an example. As an aside, Dave laid out a great scenario where they would overplay Luger's staph infection as a potential career-ender, have him go down at the hands of Flair at Capital Combat, then do a promo saying that he is retiring because he let the fans down. He promised he would win the title (which he did in the build based on guidance from the bookers, which is why Dave understood him not wanting to do a pinfall job), and he failed to do so. Fans would be begging for him to come back, run Flair-Sting in the interim, and when Luger finally comes out retirement after a few months, Flair/Luger is suddenly a hot issue again and doesn't even have to be for the belt. I really like that scenario quite a bit. As it stands, I don't want to say this was the last time Luger was over as a headliner, but he was never as over as a headliner again as he was when this round of the Flair feud ended.

Steve Austin vs Brock Lesnar will not be a shoot. The end. *************** Well, I'll rant a little more. The appeal was in seeing a phony in a real environment. Dave greatly overestimates the impact and quality of Brock Lesnar's initial run among wrestling fans, and think he's a greater part of the consciousness today than he is. He had a two-year run that ended almost 8 years ago during a down period for the company. Get over it. And please stop overcovering the guy's every move because of his legitimate athletic credentials. The real end.

No, just a hair crisis du jour.

Not Democratic? We have open threads asking for recommendations here and at DVDVR from as many people as possible. We use as many of them as we can. We usually end up with more recommendations than we have room for, so inevitably, things have to be cut. It's inherent with any project. Is there something not Democratic about that whole process? Here is the source of my frustration. The people who recommended we put a specific match on a set complain when it gets included, because something else should have been there instead. Of course we want to include all the stuff that's supposed to be there. That's the whole point in asking for recommendations. How in the world are we supposed to know these things without the case being made in detail in advance? In the case of the 1995 Yearbook, we had tons of recommendations. Tons. We also had more 60 minute draws than on any set so far. Those take up space. Lots of matches over 30 minutes, possibly more than on other sets. Those take up tons of space too. I mentioned in the Asuka/Hotta thread that I will be asking people to tier their recommendations in the future. I think that will help all around. We welcome comments about things that should have gone on the set, but of course, we prefer knowing about them in advance. And maybe I should be more clear -- finding out what other people have liked is the easy part. The problem is rarely, if ever, that we don't know that great matches take place. This is why we ask people to defend their cases in the threads -- because at crunch time, when one show has three matches and one has to go, we can look at those and figure out what to put on and what not to put on.

January: #1 - Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue (AJW 01/04/95) ****3/4 #2 - Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 01/19/95) ****1/2 #3 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/95) **** #4 - Bret Hart vs Diesel (WWF Royal Rumble 01/22/95) ***3/4 #5 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 01/24/95) ***3/4 #6 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase (NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/95) ***3/4 #7 - Cactus Jack vs Terry Funk (IWA Duel of the Wilds 01/08/95) ***1/2 #8 - 1-2-3 Kid vs Bam Bam Bigelow (WWF Action Zone 01/15/95) ***1/4 #9 - Jeff Jarrett vs Razor Ramon (WWF Royal Rumble 01/22/95) ***1/4 #10 - Jerry Lawler vs Dirty White Boy (SMW Super Saturday Night Fever 01/28/95) *** #11 - Randy Savage vs Arn Anderson (WCW Saturday Night 01/28/95) *** #12 - Cactus Jack vs Sabu (NWC 01/13/95) #13 - 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly vs Smoking Gunns (WWF Monday Night RAW 01/23/95) #14 - 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka (WWF Royal Rumble 01/22/95) #15 - Buddy Landell vs Tracy Smothers (SMW Super Saturday Night Fever 01/28/95) #16 - El Samurai vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/95) Overall thoughts: Some of these may seem a little perplexing, but I really think the Four Corners tag and Steiners vs Muto/Hase were comparable in quality overall. Both had good patches, both had rough patches. Bret/Diesel was a one-sided carry job, but it was a more structured, cohesive match than either of those, which surprised me. And Hashimoto/Sasaki was exactly what it needed to be and fit the setting perfectly. As much as the WWF was in the doldrums at this point, they were doing pretty well in the ring.

This is so, so good. I miss when this was the public persona of Mick Foley. Cactus does a promo comparing himself to The Sandman and hyping a future Texas Death match between them. The promo is good enough to make me interested, when I wasn't interested at all.

Raven is sitting in a classroom going on and on about his childhood. Yeah.