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WingedEagle

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Everything posted by WingedEagle

  1. WingedEagle
    "Worst match ever" feels like taking it too far in the other direction. Both guys looked like competent pro wrestlers, and, most importantly, they had the crowd with them the whole way. The truly terrible matches tend to lose a lot of the heat they had at the start. Yeah, its not something you can point to that suffers from awful execution or that makes an absolute joke out of wrestling. Its just incredibly long with nothing compelling happening much of the way. That's tough for me to sit through.
  2. WingedEagle
    *That* is awesome 2.0.
  3. WingedEagle
    That it's boring and repetitive. That they spend too much time climbing. I don't even think it's good. All of that and then some. It wasn't as violent or intense as a cage match should be, they did nothing to generate heat missing from the lack of falls and basically worked a slow, repetitive chase and repeat for 30-35 minutes. I haven't watched it in forever, so I could easily think otherwise the next time I watch it, but this is the type of thing that comes to mind for worst the match ever thread. Slow, never ending and not at all appropriate for the feud and build.
  4. WingedEagle
    No question, the sheer volume of material that the regular headliners had to come up with doesn't make an entirely fair comparison with Fuller. If he was responsible for that much its possible I'd think a lot less of him. That being said, I didn't find any other headliner there nearly as grating as Cornette when he was in punch line mode.
  5. WingedEagle
    I came into this without any hype or notion of what to expect. Wow. Talk about pleasant surprises. We get a tense handshake to start and a crowd that is super hot right away. Quick, intense trading of strikes between Hotta & Kansai early and this would continue throughout. Kansai destroys Takako with kicks and a sleeper before Hotta kicks her brains in. We then get a reverse chinlock, but this is not Rick Rude or Randy Orton style. This is wrenched and worked as a legitimate impact hold. Oz gets a turn to have her face kicked in but roars back with a sick DDT on Hotta, who continues what has to be her career performance with an inverted gutwrench and absolutely sick piledriver / power bomb on Oz. The heat for AJW as heels here is just off the chats, and continues with chair shots and brawling outside. Yeah, the Takako armdrag spot is completely blown but turn your attention to Hotta taunting the crowd and ladies kicking each other's heads in and you'll move right past it. Hot sequence with Hotta laying out Oz with a lariat, then eating a Kansai lariat, who goes down for a Takako dropkick. Hotta hits a *disgusting* piledriver on Kansai, but Oz breaks it up. The finishing stretch is great with rapid bombs, saves, stiffness and hate. Oz finally pins Takako with a dragon suplex after a strong run ton of counters at 29:44. What an incredible match. Big JWP celebration afterwards with crowd chanting Ozaki. They bring a picture of someone into the ring and it seems like a hell of a joyous scene. I have the Hotta/Kansai match from Dream Slam on another comp and definitely need to give it another look, although I know it never reached anything like this level. At this point its certainly my MOTY through the first 3 months. ****1/2
  6. WingedEagle
    I'd definitely add Dutch & Bob to the list as well. I know I'm alone on Fuller and perfectly okay with that. I absolutely ate up his mic work during the 3 way feud with the Bodies & RNR. That promo where he's doing curls before the match? Hilarious. There's a guy who doesn't need any character direction at all. Whether its on point or over the top, it always comes across as legit with him. At least to my jaded yankee ears
  7. WingedEagle
    Who do you feel was a better promo than James E. in Smoky Mountain? Without pulling up the roster and relying solely on a few names I've watched recently -- Fuller, Wright, Sytch, Pritchard and Sullivan. Don't get me wrong, when Cornette chose to focus on a particular match and the surrounding issue he could be really entertaining and effective. But way too often it seems like he's more interested in hearing his own voice and trying out material for a radio or stand up show.
  8. WingedEagle
    How about Jim Cornette? Not a wrestler, but his mic work is not holding up as anything particularly remarkable. I don't know if he'd end up in my top 3 or 5 promos in SMW.
  9. WingedEagle
    I definitely see Bryan winning the title at Mania so that the entire Superdome is chanting with him. I'm not nearly as confident he's winning the Rumble yet. I'd want to see some kind of angle tomorrow teasing him in a title program to get that ball rolling to be super confident in a Bryan win, but regardless of the Rumble I fully expect him to be in that scenario come Mania.
  10. WingedEagle
    Bret vs. Owen at Summerslam '94.
  11. WingedEagle
    I'll have a line by line rebuttal forthcoming. Looking forward to that too. Every time I read people who love Lawler, they make tangible, well reasoned points for why they regard him so well. I may not see all of it when I watch the matches myself, but I can appreciate that there are specific things working for them there.
  12. WingedEagle
    Wow. For ages I just couldn't understand what I was missing on Lawler as he's someone who's highs I love but are much fewer and further apart for me than for many other top guys, and someone who is absolutely revered by numerous people who's opinions I strongly respect. You just managed to some it up perfectly for me.
  13. WingedEagle
    I've always thought this is one of the ultimate "you had to be there" matches. On its own, without much/any context or even familiarity with follows, its at worst very good and at best a great but not classic match. But if its something you see in the proper context, having followed All Japan in the 80s? I can't argue with someone coming at it from that perspective who contends its one of their favorites or an incredibly meaningful match. I'm just too young to have been lucky enough to be in that position.
  14. WingedEagle

    Current WWE

    WingedEagle replied to Smack2k's topic in WWE

    Definitely says something. Seeing this, along with the note in this week's WON that Vince is determined to have the entire Superdome chant with him, I have to believe he's winning the title at Mania. I don't know if it'll close the show, as Taker or Cena (and obviously Taker vs. Cena) are likely to be pushed ahead of it, but definitely see that as a moment they're looking to get to. Not sure how else they restructure things. Taker/Cena, Brock/Batista and Orton/Bryan get you there, but a lot of the scuttlebutt has Taker/Cena being saved for Mania in Texas. Not that it matters, but I'd also hope something like Cena/Taker gets more of a sustained build than is possible at this point as opposed to how they threw together the Punk match last year.
  15. WingedEagle
    YES!! Yes a thousand times over. There's a great opportunity here for some some Saving Silverman jokes that too many people would find distasteful, so we'll simply leave it as saying this relationship is much like when a good buddy marries someone you absolutely hate, and all of your friends agree as well. Happened in my circle recently. Hell, even my guy's dad says his daughter in law is cold. Needless to say we a lot less of him than we used to. Fortunately, Hansen never put a ring on it.
  16. WingedEagle
    New York. Much New York. Happy to help in any way to make that one happen. But it has to happen. Understandable if you want to extend it to NJ to account for the NWA shows, Manias 4/5 and 29 and of course Summerslam '97.
  17. WingedEagle
    Blonds are not yet doing the Blonds routine or introduced that way. Hot start with Steamboat wrestling with passion and purpose instead of starting slow and waiting for a hot tag. Pillman was such a great heel -- really dialing up the whiny and smarmy here. I found this had an unusual structure with Austin the heel in peril much of the way on Austin until Pillman interferes and tags in to flip things on Steamboat. You can really see the Blonds developing their act and routine here. Pillman takes his trademark bump off the apron to the railing but Austin stays in control. Steamboat does his standard flip out of a back suplex and hot tags Douglas who comes in and looks *great*, with a a powerslam off an attempted sunset flip and a senton off the top. Finishing stretch gets really hot after what had been a methodical build, before Austin hits Douglas with a belt shot for the DQ. Champs with a strong promo afterwards looking for revenge. Can't argue that this is one of the finer Douglas performances out there. ***3/4
  18. WingedEagle
    I think anything under 5-7 minutes has to be DQ'd. WOAT has to be painfully long and torturous.
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  20. WingedEagle
    Definitely More raunchy than typical WWF skit to this point. Then we get Heenan trying to get into Raw. We see the classic opening video package. Heenan promo setting up Perfect for Narcissus, who's on the way in and debuting at the Rumble. Heenan then in a Lincoln beard trying to get into Raw. Talking about his nephew with discounts and good bagels. This made me laugh but my mother would not have been happy had she heard him. I'm kind of surprised this humor didn't get a little more heat at the time, but I guess politically correct wasn't yet the trendy thing.
  21. WingedEagle
    Street fight to see who replaces Rude in a Thundercage match at the Clash. I thought Cactus wrestled pretty safely here given his rep in brawls, but maybe that only holds up when judging him compared with other guys rather than his own insanity. Race keeps pushing Cactus back in when he's outside. Cactus finally has enough and lays out Race, then Vader & Race attack Cactus with Vader splashing him out. Interview with heels after, where Race is so great. Cactus then attacks them with a shovel to mark his face turn. I did not remember in the slightest that this was the official face turn, so it was fun to see it again. **3/4
  22. WingedEagle
    The first 15-20 minutes here dragged. I mean really, really dragged for me. Lots of meaningless armwork that wasn't remotely as compelling as in Windham-Steamboat. Then you've got Hart easily and repeatedly applying Flair's own finisher to him without having to soften him up too much. What is that about? They buy more time with some light brawling outside before again returns to Flair's finisher but at least this time the knee became a focus. Hart takes the first fall with a roll up. Now its Flair's turn to work the knee and Flair evens things up with a figure four using the ropes, then goes up 2-1 the same way. I liked how that third fall happened so quickly as it built on the damage just inflicted. The crowd really got behind Bret being down late and the last 5-10 minutes with the quick falls was very well done. This was good. They did a lot of smooth things and after a meh start much of what they did was logical and played out throughout the match. But if you telling me you're going 60, you need to do a lot more than simply last 60 to keep things interesting and compelling along the way, because I know the finish isn't coming until the late 50s at best. That's one reason I strongly prefer the Kawada/Kobashi hour draw to this, but hardly the only one. Much like that kid encouraging the Heat after they lost that home playoff game to the Celts, and before Lebron became a monster, I find myself telling Flair & Hart "good job, good effort." Just not enough to win. ***1/2
  23. WingedEagle
    Semifinal in US Title tourney. Barry Windham was so great. His kicks and punches look the way you think they would in a fight. Windham focuses on Steamer's arm with strikes and hammerlock on mat as well as snapping the arm over the top rope. He works the heel schtick by attacking outside, rolling in to stop the count and then heading out to deliver more punishment. Steamboat takes over and lays in some arm work of his own. They collide mid ring and Windham takes an awesome bump out of the ring and into the railing. Windham big DDT. Great timing and pacing by both here, making every move matter with selling, not just rushing to get stuff in. What good is a perfect steak if they take it away after you smell but before you can dig in? This was a great, smart match that was marred with a bad finish. Fun post-match brawl with Douglas, Dustin & the Blondes. ***3/4
  24. WingedEagle
    Talks about Vader's football history, then focuses on Sting as top contender. Says Simmons is great, but only stole the belt because he was prepared for Sting on that night. Little strange to see Vader in this setting, but he delivers here as he almost always does.
  25. WingedEagle
    Studd Stable promo with Dutch looking for tag title shot, followed by highlights of the Bodies & Cornette vs. RNR from Christmas Chaos. The way this is shot makes it look like a bigger building than usual for SMW. RNR win when Studds distract Bodies to retain titles. Afterwards, Bodies & Studds get into it before the RNR is out for the save. Instead of shaking hands the Studds attack the RNR. Smothers & Horner save. Good angle. Then a Bodies promo with Cornette wanting the titles back, talking about Studds as small time champions. Not much has changed in my thoughts on SMW -- *love* the Studd Stable & Dutch. Love the RNR as selling babyfaces for them. Love Pritchard's work. I know I'm in the minority, but man, Jim Cornette does not do it for me most of the time. But this 3-way feud is still unique and really well executed.
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