Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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It begins! Scott Hall debuts on Nitro using his Razor Ramon voice and implying that he's there to start a war on behalf of the WWF. Where could this be going?
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Joined in progress. Ahmed was knocked out by Owen's cast for the finish, then Goldust tried mouth to mouth to revive him. Vince's reaction to this is great. Ahmed goes on a rampage backstage looking for Goldust.
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Highlights of In Your House, with a full explanation of the power outage and what happened when the power was out. Then, DiBiase gets interviewed while Austin stands there like a stone, saying if Austin can't win his strap match against Savio Vega that he will leave the WWF.
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You can still feel the disarray after the power was out, as the arena seems distracted and the heat seems less than it should be. But Shawn is fired up and looks fantastic early on, pulling out lots of fun babyface sequences he almost never does. But what's weird is the environment in the crowd where you can hear a lot of people talking amongst themselves. I like Davey Boy's power moves here, especially the over-the-shoulder backbreaker. Shawn takes an amazing staggering bump off of a criss-cross sequence to the arena floor. He also does a really terrible slingshot clothesline. Earl Hebner takes a hell of a bump. The atmosphere is not befitting of a PPV main event here, and this feels far more like a modern-era RAW main event than a 90s PPV main event. I know Shawn had some type of public freakout during or after this match, either directed at a fan or the timekeeper or because he didn't have enough time for the match or something, but it wasn't evident watching here. Anyone explain?
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Notable for Flair putting Armstrong over, if only by DQ. But mind-boggling in a few ways. First, it's actually a hell of a match even though it's short, as Armstrong seems to be putting forth a big effort. Second, it's on Pro, which was being taped from MGM at this point. This is the first syndicated match on the set, and the cheer/boo stuff looks even more stupid in hindsight than it did at the time. Third, the announcers ignore it, but Woman is holding the world title for Flair at ringside, so this had to be at least a month old. Had Armstrong won the cruiserweight tournament or made a strong showing, this result would make sense. But why protect Brad Armstrong in a syndicated match against the world champion? It also makes me wonder how long Flair was originally supposed to hold the belt, before they ended his run early for missing a house show. Very WCW in every way.
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This. This is the coolest find on this yearbook thus far. THE ROCK debuts in the USWA, teaming with Brian Christopher against Lawler and Dundee. I'm not sure if Rock had matches in front of crowds prior to this or not, but it's really fun. Lawler and Dundee go into all out heel mode and walk him through some nice sequences. He does a promo with Brian Christopher before the match and Christopher does most of the talking while Rock has one line to deliver, which he pulls off well, but he obviously still had a long way to go as a promo. Lance Russell's facial expressions while Christopher and Rock talk are great. Dundee takes exaggerated bumps off of every Lawler move, including two rolling bumps off a collar-and-elbow tie up. Lawler walks Rock through a nice sequence where he manages to make him look like a talented aerial wrestler, believe it or not. Nice piece of trivia and interesting to see how Lawler and Dundee work with green guys as well. Very much worth watching.
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The entrance area looks very Chi-Town Rumble '89. Just thought I'd get that out. Now this I got. Great, advanced mat wrestling that emphasizes the struggle to lock holds in when the other guy is so skilled. Awesome exchanges and some brilliant almost pro-style takedowns by Ramazi. I wouldn't say there was showmanship but the action was good enough that it elevated the match where both guys got over to me as stars, and I felt like I was seeing something special. That's never having seen or heard of Ramazi and having very little exposure to Yamamoto. The best RINGS match I've seen by far, and now I don't feel like I need more exposure to the style to understand it. I just needed to see the right match.
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I still need more exposure to this style. I didn't get this at all. The exchanges didn't even really look all that stiff, with Nyman looking like he was pulling his strikes. I blame myself because this stuff is pretty pimped. Not sure what I'm missing.
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Taue wins the Triple Crown! I didn't like this as much as Kawada/Kobashi, but still a very good match. The selling wasn't as good and the offense wasn't as good, and it's hard for me to watch the two matches back to back and not compare them to each other. I do like the typical All Japan style of teasing moves multiple times and delivering them later. Misawa seemed a little off. Usually, he's got an ironclad grip on his spot in these matches, and I don't want to say that wasn't there, but he wasn't The Man in the same way he normally is. The match wasn't laid out in a way where Taue got as much momentum as he could have from the win. They seem to be going through the motions a little, although these guys going through the motion is still very good wrestling. Criticisms aside, I did enjoy this match.
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I love the Hogan/Andre-style controversial nearfall at the very beginning of the match. Kawada just completely dominates the early part of this match until Kobashi has enough and snaps. There is some nice attention to detail in the bumping style. In Flair matches, he punches or chops a guy while holding his arm and the guy gets up on his own. In this case, Kobashi pulls Kawada up for each chop himself, which is a nice touch. They both potato each other after tempers flare with some wicked shots, which Kawada sells beautifully. Kobashi's top rope shoulderblock (which is one of my favorite moves anytime anyone does it) is a thing of beauty. Kawada does a takeover into a Fujiwara armbar at one point, which gets almost no pop, which is interesting to me, because it shows the difference in fan education between the two promotions, as it still doesn't get too much of a pop when Kobashi does it as a revenge spot a couple of minutes later. Kawada hits Kobashi so hard in the face with a high knee that he injures his ankle before finally finishing off Kobashi. Another good match between these two, I'm looking forward to the hour draw later on the set.
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Akiyama is phenomenal here, and Kawada and Taue do a great job of selling his offense. He has some really awesome fast-thinking counters to the big moves of the other team. I love the open-handed slap exchanges between Akiyama and both guys, and that being kind of a centerpiece of the match, and the source of many revenge spots. Kawada kinda toys with him and gives him some awesome looking boots to the face. Misawa is reliably great here too, but this is a match about Akiyama. Not knowing the result coming in, I was pretty surprised he got a pinfall over Kawada. So Misawa and Akiyama now have the tag titles! Excellent match. Slightly abrupt finish, but still great. -
Probably the last taped match Dick Murdoch ever had. Fun match for comedy, facial expressions and selling. Interesting to see Murdoch in this setting. Because they milk every single sequence for all it's worth, everything gets a big pop. I love the let the other guy back in the ring stuff. The matwork is actually really nice and basic too, the kind of stuff that's very easy to follow and translates well to house shows. Definitely not a classic, but I enjoyed it.
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Beulah: "Hey Kimona, did you ever ride Space Mountain?" Kimona: "That was before my time." The Dudleys also go crazy driving around a parking lot with D-Von on the hood. Bill Alfonso answers a payphone and screams that he's told this person not to call when he's doing promos. Then he says, "Oh, hi Mom."
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DDP finds out that he won't get his title shot against The Giant for winning Battlebowl, because he was eliminated without the ref seeing it earlier in the match, which he wasn't at all. I'm reminded of how PWI used to always make fun of WCW's anonymous decision makers, because they were sometimes the "executive committee" and sometimes the "championship committee".
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Really good tag match, and a standout one for Barbarian, whose power spots got over big against Sting. Flair is also a riot on commentary.
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Terrific match, and in retrospect, this was the time they should have moved forward with an Eddy Guerrero push. This match had very little heat in the opening minutes and about seven minutes in, fans were chanting his name and popping huge for everything. Flair and Eddy worked well together, and the market research that was done around this time showing that Eddy was the most likable wrestler in WCW proved that they had something. This could have led somewhere good. They gave them 20 minutes on Nitro, which was rare during this time. It seems like WCW main eventers who worked with Eddy on occasion enjoyed it because most of them sold quite a bit for him, Luger earlier in the year and Flair here.
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Highlights of the Godwinns winning the tag titles from the Bodydonnas in MSG. I liked the Sunny/Phineas stuff. The best moment of that feud is later o this set.
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Not sure what the logic was in doing an all midcarder battle royal as the main event of the show, unless none of the top guys wanted to put over DDP. Weird show, but DDP wins the title shot against The Giant at the Great American Bash. Zero heat for all of this, but good for WCW sticking with the DDP push, actually having a plan to make a star over the long term and not abandoning it because results don't come immediately. Rarity.
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DDP visits a hairstylist who gives him a makeover. In a funny moment, when he sees DDP, he says he needs all of his appointments for the rest of the day cancelled. This is insanely cheesy, but pretty funny, especially because it's DDP, there's nothing you can really do to make him over.
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Short match, kinda Russo-ish in booking, but still really fun, with a really good build to Savage decking Flair, getting a huge pop for doing so. The Flair/Savage feud was going well, but dropping the title to The Giant and the NWO coming in kinda killed it in its tracks before they could pay off the feud.
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The match is fine, but obviously, that's not why this is here. This is here for the famous Clique Curtain Call that resulted in HHH being depushed for a few months, as Shawn, Diesel, Razor and Helmsley said goodbye in front of everyone. Considering that Helmsley wasn't over at all at this point and no one cared about him, he looked kinda silly out there next to three genuine stars.
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Does Chris or Nancy's family have grounds to sue the Fayette County sheriff's office for fumbling the investigation so badly? I'm not offering an opinion either way on whether or not they'd be in the right if they did, I'm just asking the question.
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Lawler agrees to team with Dundee not because they're best of friends, but just because it's a business proposition and Lawler thinks winning the tag titles will put him in a good position to get a rematch against Jarrett. Of course, you can't expect a bad match with these four, and halfway through, Lawler gets into the match and starts sneaking in a few cheapshots. Dundee ends up hitting Ice (I think) with a foreign object to win the USWA tag titles.
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Looks to be similar to Texas Death Match rules. Not far at all behind Toyota/Kudo, and a pretty great brawl. The gap between the two matches is small enough that I could see someone preferring this match. Toyota/Kudo has way more heat and drama, but this one has more wrestling and the brawling is in the same ballpark.
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Nothing really going on in this one. Shane Douglas, The Eliminators, Sandman and The Gangstas do promos about stuff.