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Loss

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Everything posted by Loss

  1. Loss

    WWE Backlash 2017

    I think it makes sense that there are double standards for people perceived as better workers, and I don't even see that as anything to run from in all cases as long as people are honest about it. Wrestler X is on steroids and sucks. Wrestler Y is on steroids and is great. Of course I'm going to have less of a problem with Wrestler Y getting a chance to headline.
  2. Loss

    WWE Backlash 2017

    I'm not a fan of guys winning the Royal Rumble, then winning the title at Wrestlemania, then only being champion for less than two months. But that's probably an outdated complaint at this point, even if I do wish new champions at Wrestlemania were the centerpiece until at least Summerslam. And I don't even like Orton. It's not about him. It's just short-sighted in a way where it's obvious they have no clue where they are going a few months from now. No problem with them creating a new star. That part is great. I wish they had taken a few months to build him up first, and I wish they had maybe picked someone that fans were clamoring to see climb the ladder. But it is what it is, and a new star is better than no star at all. If it helps them break into new markets, fantastic. It would be even better if they could get past their tokenism (look how long they have been looking for "a Latin star" post-Rey, as in one Latin star), but the game has changed. WWE fans are no longer the customers. Instead, they are the product, and the real target audience resides on Wall Street.
  3. This was not very good, and the commentary was distracting and borderline unbearable. They seemed like they were trying to get themselves over more than the match. AJ messes up a couple of moves and Taylor actually outworked him here, although he wasn't overly impressive or anything himself. With other AJ matches thus far, his inexperience only really showed relative to where he is now or where he'd be in a few years. Here, it just showed. Everyone has missteps here and there, though.
  4. This was fun. Amazing that this is wrestling, but it most certainly is. I don't really have much else to say. The absurd quotient is certainly high.
  5. I have always liked how these two have worked together, and this match looks like a solid addition to the cannon, but I don't think we see enough of it to fairly assess. I liked what we got, I think it's worth watching, and I'll argue with anyone who disagrees that Shadow WX is a very underrated death match worker, but we only saw highlights this time out, sadly. In the upper echelon of my favorite death matchups, though. NR
  6. Lioness Asuka is starting to annoy the hell out of me turning every match into a weapons-heavy hardcore match with tons of interference when I know it's beneath her. I hated this, and both are good workers, which made it sting more. Give us a wrestling match, Lioness, we know you can do it.
  7. Wasn't the Felino run-in a post-match angle? I think that's why the match halted. Everything before that was just tremendous in terms of the interesting wrestling action and outstanding comedy. I would have liked a finish proper, but Felino is one of Santo's best opponents ever, and if a match is set up between them, that's great for the TJ fans of the time period. Anyway, if the match actually ended with the Felino run-in, which was my interpretation, this was really great. If it continued, it was still great, but does lose its way, as Chad said. I'm going to err on the positive side until I learn different, though. ****1/4
  8. This is absolutely the best trios match I've seen so far. The Atlantis-Shocker, Villano-Pierroth and Perro-Ano feuds all have my immediate attention, with Villano-Pierroth getting top billing in how the match is laid out. Villano has been a really intriguing wrestler since losing his mask in how they've kept him red hot because of the sympathy on him and because of the change in his character. Pierroth turned on him, so this has strong heat, and their battle turns bloody quickly. Meanwhile, Atlantis and Shocker have great chemistry, providing more wrestling than anyone else in the match while also getting across the idea that there's nothing polite about their exchanges. I loved how this kept building to a fever pitch. To me, the finish to the second caida could have worked as a finish for the match, but they weren't done with their crescendo, and the third fall was just awesome in giving back and forth teases and continuing to build heat. Amazing how much stuff they packed into so little time, and the best promotion in the world featuring the best talent in the world continues to produce the best matches in the world. ****1/2
  9. I wish they were letting Angle do more of his cornball comedy, though, like they hinted his first night in. ("That's not how you spell soft.")
  10. As booker, Flair in the late 80s wanted to sign Bret, DiBiase, The Rockers, Savage and Hennig, which would have left the WWF still #1 but with a pretty pathetic roster while playing to WCW's strengths. Especially if they got Arn and Tully back as a team without those hold-ups, and Rude still jumped as he did later. Flair had already made contact with Bret specifically (at a WWF house show in Nashville the night before Wrestle War '89 where he suggested he could help him get a good deal), but Herd wouldn't spend money, so it didn't happen. Savage was interested in talking to Herd (When Savage said he felt loyalty to Vince, Liz famously responded, "We'll go where the money is") and Herd offered him less than he was already making, so he felt insulted and cut off any talk of jumping immediately. DiBiase and Hennig were strong possibilities a few years later, to the point that they had debut plans for them, but they never came to fruition.
  11. If you like action, this is your match! Everyone looks great and aims to dazzle, and sometimes, that alone can be pretty cool. Zumbido is just awesome. I've said it before, but he really is a Shawn Michaels with better execution and more offense. He really sets the tone here and everyone gives their best in this short, but high-octane match that manages to further rivalries and pop the crowd all at once. I remember how you'd always hear lucha fans talk about Nitro matches like they weren't really worked in a lucha style, and that's true. This of course was, but it was also incredibly accessible to anyone going into the style cold, and it would have absolutely worked as a Nitro match just the same. ***3/4
  12. Puerto Rico matches from the 2000s will be a nice treat when we are able to retrieve them. I wish we had more of it and hopefully we'll get an unexpected gift there at some point during the project. Savio Vega is the referee in question. The match looks fine if unremarkable, but what stands out to me about IWA compared to WWC is that the production is much better.
  13. Note to anyone who watches this after us: Just skip the first 25 minutes of this. It goes on and on and on. When that ends, it goes on some more. Then the match starts. This was better than the worst ECW garbage brawling, but it was closer to that than the stuff I've liked in matches from Ian and the Corporal thus far. Too much focus on weapons and stunts not enough on the actual brawling. Didn't hate it, didn't love it, but overall it missed the mark.
  14. I can never figure out with Bad Crew if they are supposed to be babyfaces or what since they don't really work in a pronounced way and we've seen them take on both roles on the same show. At the very least, I guess they are on a defacto level here. This was a very good tag with the BSB carrying things. Trent Acid was a really special talent. I imagined him as a daredevil spot guy since most of his more famous matches were in CZW, but so far, he's shown himself as a good old school tag wrestler. ***1/4 (On a personal note, this was interesting to watch in some ways because it about a year after I came out, and the match was built around "faggot" chants, so it reminded me of the climate at the time.)
  15. How frustrated would Shawn get by the less intense style of pretty much every WCW headliner? I can see it getting to him if he can't have the types of matches that he has always been able to have. In that sense, outside of his close friends and Flair, he might have wanted to do matches with the Benoit-Jericho-Eddy-Rey-Kidman group just to give him someone to work with. Having a mid-sized heavyweight with more of a workrate style in main events would have been a net positive for the undercard, even if it meant they were just rising up the card to do jobs. I think he'd put it aside for megastars like Hogan, Savage and Goldberg, but he'd probably want to murder Sting, Luger and DDP.
  16. That speech was amazing. Anyone who thinks Dave no longer has any passion for wrestling should really listen to that speech.
  17. The broom spot made me laugh out loud. These two always work hard against each other, but the match just never clicks despite their best efforts. I'm reminded how tremendous the 24/7 gimmick was for the Hardcore title when it was fresh. Fun segment.
  18. I'm having WCW flashbacks with the Vanilla Midgets in a short match while the announcers talk about the main eventers. Luckily, it's an anomaly and not the pattern at this point, as Benoit and Jericho were both in the middle of major pushes. Fun, short TV match with Tazz and Saturn interestingly getting to rub elbows with two guys who have climbed past them. Tazz is FIP and they build to the Jericho hot tag and the pin over Benoit as the final hard sell for Backlash.
  19. The booking decision that got them what all pro wrestling booking strives to achieve -- coverage in USA Today! David Arquette wins the WCW World Title because ratings and two weeks in, Russo's run goes to shit. We don't need to walk through the disaster this one was again. All I can think of is Russo complaining on Austin's podcast that pro wrestling looks like something anyone can just come off the street and do now because the stars just look like ordinary guys, yet he's also the one that conceived this. It goes beyond the Arquette decision too. Check out the wrestler (DDP) punching the non-wrestler (Bischoff) and the non-wrestler doing the pop-up bumping for each strike. This is all maddening to watch, to the point it's sort of uncomfortable.
  20. Steiner completely overtakes the commentary and they sort of ignore the match. I was not a fan of Big Poppa Pump at all really, but I have to say that there would be huge interest in building up Scott Steiner in this era against Brock Lesnar now if that was possible. Kind of a blah match, but Steiner vs Booker is set up for Slamboree. Lash, Chavo, Van Hammer and Hugh Morrus attempt a save to foreshadow one of the lamest stables in wrestling history.
  21. Marc Mero is at ringside looking very Johnny B. Badd-like again. Kidman's pre-match promo has lots of venom and gloating over sidelining Hogan on Monday night. An interesting match. Horace is so unpolished and there are a few times he looks like he's about to kill Kidman with his sloppy execution, but his fire is really good and they cut a breakneck pace, which fits the storyline of him seeking to avenge his uncle. Give credit to Kidman for really putting on his working shoes in this one, flying all over the place and being a trooper. And give Horace credit for working super hard. Crazy finish with Kidman doing a bulldog from the inside turnbuckle to the floor on a table. I have liked everything Kidman has done since turning.
  22. I might be overrating this, but I am shocked at how freakin' GREAT this is. I'm not sure where I picked up this habit, but when skimming New Japan cards to figure out what matches I want to watch, I've sort of trained myself that whatever match(es) involve Hiro Saito (after the 80s), Michiyoshi Ohara or Tatsutoshi Gotoh are probably skippable. Now I'm wondering if I've truly missed out on some great stuff. The fans got really invested in the dual dynamic of heavies vs juniors *and* veterans vs young guys, and they dovetailed nicely. The pop for that second fall victory of Takaiwa pinning Saito is just off the charts. I do agree that the wrong team won, but I also think the vets were extremely giving and the young guys had some amazing surprise kickouts that made them look really strong. This could have been a really strong long-term feud with legs. As it stands, it's a great one-off. ****
  23. Not much of a match but pretty significant development for sure. Looking forward to the Crazy Max vs M2K feud.
  24. To become the son-in-law, he would have had to get that storyline. And would he have gotten that storyline with Bret still around?
  25. With no Hall, Nash or Shawn around, is HHH even considered a future headliner? Especially when Bret is the highest paid guy and the one with power, and the one that (a) refused to do a job for him on a European tour and ( refused to beat Rock on TV?
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