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Everything posted by Loss
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This is a result of Angle issuing an open challenge, which he calls an Olympic challenge. Rikishi is still selling the injured knee. I'm a sucker for injuries sold over multiple matches. Angle goes all over the place selling for the stinkface, to the point he bails and gets himself intentionally counted out pretty quickly. When he tries to bail, Jericho stops him and tosses him back in, where he eats a Rikishi Driver and is about to eat a Bansai Drop until the Radicalz hit the ring before 2 Cool makes the save. Fun post-match moment when Jericho and Chyna join Rikishi and 2 Cool in their dance. While the match wasn't much, everything outside the match is kinda everything I wish this company was all the time -- cool mish-mashing of talent, feelgood moments and stars on the rise as far as the eyes can see.
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[2000-02-27-WWF-No Way Out] HHH vs Cactus Jack (Hell in a Cell)
Loss replied to Superstar Sleeze's topic in February 2000
I think I side with Chad on this actually. I think both are all-time classics, but I do think No Way Out is the slightly better match, if only because from the very beginning it's a super intense fight with a lot of great intensity and action, whereas I think the Rumble really struggled to get in a groove for a while and had the crowd actively turning on the crowd brawling at the beginning. When I've watched brawling matches around this time, I have really grown to appreciate tight brawls that can keep most of their stuff in the ring, so that made me appreciate this more than the Rumble. I also think this was the climax of the feud that really officially secured HHH's place on top for good. He retired Mick Foley. He showed a new and even more violent side we hadn't seen from him before, literally playing with fire and remaining the champ. Foley shot for the moon in what was intended to be his last match, both in terms of the big bumps and props and the wrestling. I thought the fundamentals -- the punching, suplexing, kicking, DDTs and other wrestling base stuff he used looked really snug. I don't want to get in too much of an argument over which one was better, but I do think this one deserves to be talked about as an all-time classic just as much, and I'm not sure it is. I was pretty captivated by this from beginning to end. ****3/4 -
Based on some of the bumps we've seen Big Show take so far in 2000, I have to ask how he's still walking in 2017, much less in great shape. I'm focusing mainly on the one from the crowd over the guard rail on the floor. This was a weird match because I liked the action and thought Show looked great, even if he was wrestling a bit too even just like he did with HHH in January, but the heat only picked up when Rock was in control. This has been the second match tonight where the referee hasn't cleared the ring when a weapon has been brought in, which is ridiculous. They also give Show a visual fall, a staple of 80s WWF booking of heels. Shane McMahon makes a triumphant return, only to screw Rock and give Big Show the win. So at this moment, Big Show is going to Wrestlemania and The Rock is not.
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I remember Dave putting every single match on this show at *** or better, this one included, and that raising some eyebrows, but I'm glad this holds up.
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Fun match. I liked how Malenko took on the antagonistic housefly role and kept poking at Rikishi and getting out of dodge throughout the match to set up the finish. I also like Rikishi's long-term selling of the leg injury, which has been going on even from previous matches. I can see the argument that this isn't the best use of the Radicalz, specifically Benoit, but they already had Wrestlemania mapped out when he came in less than a month before this show, so I can understand him not being in a higher-profile match. He moves up quickly after this show. Saturn and Malenko don't, but I think Benoit was the main guy they were after anyway. Light-hearted fare, but a good match. ***1/4
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[2000-02-27-WWF-No Way Out] Edge & Christian vs Matt & Jeff Hardy
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
I couldn't really get into this. It's good to see these teams into a traditional tag match, everyone worked hard and they did a technically good match that was well laid out, but it's hurt by both teams being babyfaces and the heat not being there. Edge and Christian ends up as the de facto heels I guess, but it's not very inspired because they aren't heels ... yet, at least. The big story here is Terri Runnels turning on the Hardys, which is a good move, as she doesn't really fit in with them anyway. Good stuff with the APA post-match angle. Terri was smart. -
[2000-02-27-WWF-No Way Out] New Age Outlaws vs D-Von & Bubba Ray Dudley
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
The NAO stuck around a couple more months to put over Edge and Christian post-heel turn, but yeah. From here on, they become more and more irrelevant by the week. Good riddance. The Dudleys win the tag titles and from here on, the tag team scene revolves primarily around three newer, fresher teams. -
[2000-02-27-WWF-No Way Out] Chris Jericho vs Kurt Angle
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
This was a good, heated match between two guys who were clearly climbing the ladder pretty rapidly. Chyna is such a ridiculous albatross on Jericho at this point. I wish they'd slow down the action just a little bit because there are times they do something really good and don't give it quite enough time to resonate, but the crowd was with them all the way. I too liked the way the finish was set up, although it was some really shoddy refereeing to know the belt is in the ring and just leave it there for a few minutes when the action spills outside. I thought it was a nice touch that Jericho had his elbow taped up when he attacked Kurt in the parking lot later in the show, considering the work done on it in this match. Both guys look like future headliners, which turned out to be the case. ***1/4 -
[2000-02-27-AJPW-Excite Series] Vader vs Kenta Kobashi
Loss replied to Loss's topic in February 2000
I've talked a lot about how I don't really like how Kobashi works with Vader, and he didn't really change things up here, but I do think this is the best match I've seen them have against each other by far. This match had enough good stuff going for it that it worked on its own terms. I liked the stuff they did around Kobashi's taped up ribs, and this is actually a tremendous selling performance from Kobashi with classic world title match slow build. The win feels like a bigger moment than just a title change because of Kobashi's great selling. Anyone who thinks Kobashi never really evolved past the up-and-comer role owes it to themselves to watch this. This is a guy who has very much arrived. ****1/4- 15 replies
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[2000-02-27-AJPW-Excite Series] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama
Loss replied to Loss's topic in February 2000
It's a little hard to put what I just watched in a coherent review. I have a lot of disconnected thoughts floating around about it in my head. There are a lot of superlatives I want to bestow upon this match, many of which are "this was the best example of ___ that I've ever seen". Let me step away for a second and get some water. ... ... Still here? Ok, thanks for waiting. Now, I'll try to get it right. This was to me far more about Misawa than it was Akiyama. To watch 1990s All Japan is pretty much to see much the story of Misawa -- seeing him lead a resistance against Jumbo and his friends, watching a two-year journey to his first Triple Crown win, seeing four Triple Crown reigns, seeing classic rivalries develop with Jumbo, Kawada, Kobashi, Steve Williams and others, seeing partnerships with Kobashi, Akiyama and Ogawa. He's either directly or indirectly involved in almost everything happening the entire decade, and his presence is felt even when he isn't involved. Kawada vs Doc in the '94 Carny final, for example, did not involve him, but was set up for the winner to face him on June 3 at Budokan Hall. Even when Misawa wasn't there, he was there. So I watched this and thought, wow. Misawa is one tough bastard. Yes, he lost. But think of everything he's endured before now and all the challengers he's knocked down over and over and over. Compared to other challenges, especially natives, Akiyama's rise was incredibly fast, but even Akiyama needed a few years to figure him out. I think that knowledge helped Akiyama, the years of competitive intelligence, the years of seeing great wrestlers step up to Misawa and fall again and again and again. He realized he could have no restraint. He wasn't the first to realize that. But in 1994, when Kawada realized that, it meant countering a simple side headlock with a backdrop driver in the opening minute of a match. That wasn't enough. For Akiyama, it meant the most brutal transition I may have ever seen in a wrestling match: a throat-first drop toehold on a guardrail, to set up some nasty neck work. Much has been said about All Japan's constant top this mentality, and their tendency to raise the bar to the point that the style was no longer sustainable. I have even said some of it myself. But this is an example of escalation that was sustainable. Taken properly, this is a safe bump, even if it looks pretty ugly. It's just one example of the type of escalation we see in this match that I think represents where in an alternate universe, the All Japan style could have gone and endured for much longer with less barrier of entry. Aside from the exploder on the apron, there's not really a spot in this match I'd point to as excessive, and even that was sold like hell. In fact, Misawa sold the hell out of everything throughout all of this. A lot of times, when people talk about the strengths of everyone, specific labels are sort of applies to everyone. Kobashi is the offense guy. Kawada is the selling guy. Misawa is The Man. Taue is the lesser guy. Akiyama is the guy who could never quite pull it all together and perform at the level of his forefathers. Those of us who have watched a lot of these guys realize that that all of these labels are limiting in an unfair and reductive way, and this match exemplifies that as much as any. Obviously, Akiyama had a great night (Hell, he's had a great year!), but Misawa's selling is what made this work. It was pretty much perfect in getting over a victory as deserving. He got over his own resourcefulness, and the match was laid out in a way to highlight that, but in selling Akiyama's mat attack so effectively and in attempting to pop up after that exploder avoidance near the end and being unable to do so, he also got over that this match was unlike the other matches. Akiyama wasn't going to chase him for years. His time was now. I don't know if this will end up being the best match of the decade or not. There's still thousands of matches to see, and my mind remains open. But if it was, that would be a pretty high high, even if it did come early. *****- 34 replies
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I was hesitant to rate this at first, but I think 7:08 of 13:50 is enough to make a fair assessment. I am enjoying Devil Masami in 2000 far more than I would have expected, I think because she brings so much psychology to her matches. She still does monster better than Aja in my opinion, whose strengths are better described in other ways, and she's really good at emphasizing the differences between her and her opponents. Hyuga also continues to impress, but we're still a few months away but her getting a real opportunity to shine in a long singles match, although they will come pretty regular after that for the rest of the decade. Hyuga/Bolshoi is a team I'd like to see again, especially when working opposite Devil. The dynamic was very similar to the Rockers-Powers of Pain in those exchanges. ***
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[2000-02-26-XPW] Chris Candido vs Damien Steele (Falls Count Anywhere)
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
I really like Chris Candido, but we caught him at a rough time in his life and this is not at all a good match. Yeah, Tammy Sytch really does seem to be going through a major depression. She reminds me of Britney Spears doing the "Gimme More" performance at the 2007 VMAs. I thought the announcer saying, "This isn't the violent crap we've been seeing for the last hour, this is the good stuff," would have some refreshing honesty about how bad XPW is if this match happened to be good, but sadly, it wasn't. The lights go out and when they come back on, Shane Douglas has arrived, fresh off of quitting WCW (he'd be back with the start of the Russo-Bischoff regime in six weeks) and cuts one of his typically bitter, long-winded promos, mostly directed at Flair and Hogan. There's a level of delusion here that I'd call great heel work if I didn't think he was really shooting. Douglas tries to call Bill Busch in the ring but receives his voicemail. What a tool. Funny how he went crawling back to work with those guys first chance he got. -
If they think by getting the belt on Brock, they can then have someone beat him who is going to carry the company, I can see how they convinced themselves that main event builds for the future.
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Is there a better match where the participants have rhyming names?
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They scrapped Undertaker-Cena because they thought they match had no benefit in building for the future, and that once the match was over, it set up nothing long-term. I actually thought that was pretty awesome, but it would be even more awesome if it extended to all the matchmaking on the show, and even better than that if some of the ideas thrown out for HHH (even here) involved helping creating a new top babyface.
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[2000-02-26-ECWA-Super 8] Christopher Daniels vs Scoot Andrews
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
I liked this match a lot. Built slowly and had the feel of a big tournament final that felt fitting for the moment. Lots of grounded body part work with some escalation near the end without too much excess. Scoot Andrews has impressed me in everything I've seen from him so far. I also like Daniels at this stage. The finishing stretch seemed like it was just about to go into overkill, and they walked all the way to the very, very edge wrapped it up right before it got there. Not the most exciting match in the world, but good work that seems like an updated take on an Arn Anderson match, just with a little more high flying toward the end. ***1/2 -
[2000-02-26-ECWA-Super 8] Christopher Daniels vs Vic Capri
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
This got a little too cutesy with the counters and new versions of moves at times for my tastes. It just made the match seem a bit amateur where Daniels-Modest didn't come across that way at all to me. -
Disco Inferno drinking Surge on the way to the ring! What a sham that was. I used to try drinking Surge to stay awake to study Freshman year of college and it never worked for shit. Other stuff around this time that was supposed to provide similar effects was Jolt and Water Joe, which was -- get this -- caffeinated water. I think this is the end of PG-13's run in WCW, but I have enjoyed it. They have alternated from babyface to heel week-to-week as needed and had pretty good stuff on the C shows. This was a solid tag match against Vito and Johnny The Bull, both of whom I always liked and thought had potential to go farther. JC works as FIP and does a good job of it and they really do craft a compelling match with no real push or anything, even if the crowd doesn't bite.
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[2000-02-26-WCW-Saturday Night] Elix Skipper vs Billy Kidman
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
Really fun match. Elix Skipper looks like he should be on the main shows. They definitely kept things moving. I liked this a lot myself. In previous years, I usually found Kidman's matches on the C shows to be among the best pretty consistently for whatever that's worth. *** -
Jamie Noble ... well, Howard ... is here! Mike Tenay's story, if true, of being at an autograph signing with the Nitro Girls and getting lectured by a fan for not giving 3 Count their due is amazing. Yang and Howard don't have the Jung Dragons gimmick yet, but the in-ring chemistry is there with 3 Count even here. I too am looking forward to this whole series! One of the very few bright spots in 2000 WCW.
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[2000-02-26-TWA-Total Impact-TV] Spanky vs Tiger Steele (Hardcore)
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
Tiger Steele goes from being unbelievably awful to merely notably bad when he has the huge size difference and the hardcore match gimmicks to work with. So they took the obvious path with those options and turned in a perfectly acceptable match. This was well put together. -
[2000-02-26-OVW-TV] Rico Constantino & Damaja vs Rip Rogers & Jason Lee
Loss replied to soup23's topic in February 2000
Short match, but a bit subdued and Cornette wasn't quite as grating as he has been recently even though I still think he could take it down another notch and also let the other announcer talk more. Short match but good action. Can we get one competitive match without funny business? OVW booking and presentation really sucks so far, even when the matches aren't half bad. -
This was a super fun match for how they mixed and matched the talent. Everyone had a clear role that they didn't overstep, and as a result, everything clicked really well in a way where I think the match was way better than it had any right to be considering the level of a lot of the talent involved. Good mix of comedy, action and heat seeking. Fun studio wrestling. ***
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Two of the best brawlers out there. I love how even in the middle of such fast punches, Wolfie attempts to cover himself when he's being hit. It's the details. The action is consistently better at this point on Power Pro, but I still think it's too early to say that as a takeaway talking point because MCW is still getting its footing. The intensity of this thing is off the charts. JAPW got me to tolerate light tubes, but Smothers got me to love it in how he used it here. I always love the difference in crowds, as even in 2000, the Memphis crowds still pop more for babyfaces and heels than big spots or weapon shots. It takes Tracy a little long to set up the table, which is the only thing that separates this from an all-time great short match like Owen-Shamrock in my mind, and that finish is pretty scary since the table was a bit far. Hell of a short match, probably the best short match of 2000 thus far. ***3/4