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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    Not much else to cover here. This was a tremendous brawl, probably the best native Japan brawl of the Yearbook series so far. Who knew that the second bananas on the Misawa/Jumbo feud despised each other as much as the captains did? Taue's work on Kawada's knee was as stiff as could be, and that ten-count on the railing by Kawada opened up one of the nastiest cuts that I've ever seen outside of a weapons or cage match. I was surprised that we didn't get more spots with the referee checking the cut; I think they would have added some drama, not that this match needed any more. The ending was a shock, so much so that I had to rewind in order to see exactly what the finish was. But Kawada's leg is so damaged that he's the one flat on his back afterward. Was this win a fluke? Can Kawada score another win when Taue's not half-dead from blood loss? I'm sure we'll find out before too long. I liked Jumbo and Misawa peering out from behind the curtain to watch their teammates go at it, but not rushing down to ringside and trying to interfere like they probably would have been booked to do here in the U.S. The message being sent is that while this match is important in the overarching Misawa and company/Jumbo and company feud, both men respect their partners enough to let them go at it on their own. They'll have their time again soon enough.
  2. garretta
    This was probably the best American brawl I've seen on the Yearbook series so far. If there was a weapon handy, these two used it, and they punched the living hell out of each other to boot. Everyone harps on the three consecutive piledrivers that Funk practically no-sold, but I can't think of one move by either man other than Terry's sleeper that was sold for more than five seconds, even the shot Lawler gave Terry with the board. Hell, I think Tony Falk did the best selling job of the whole bout with the bump he took off of the clothesline that got Terry DQed. For someone who supposedly hated hardcore wrestling, Lawler proved in this bout that he could more than hold his own in a match that was based mostly on weapon use. The thing that really got to me was that the whole "technical loss" thing wasn't even paid lip service to. I guess that was used mostly for Memphis TV purposes to begin with, but if ever there was a blatant DQ by a champion to save a title, it was here. The thing was, they probably could have stood to do it in this case, since Terry was barely wrestling in the territory at all by now; if it wasn't for him being the mastermind of the whole bounty thing, there wouldn't even be a need to mention him on Memphis TV, and I doubt he did much more for Dallas. This just shows once again that no belt was as important as the physical presence of Jerry Lawler. Whatever the Kingfish happened to be doing was the main event, period. Sometimes I wonder why Jarrett even bothered with the Unified title, or indeed any title, in the first place.
  3. garretta
    I guess I'm still getting used to chair use not constituting an automatic DQ in All-Japan. Take that sequence away and it was the typica; up-and-comer vs. veteran match. Kobashi does his best here, and he'll definitely be a force to reckon with in the future, but even coming from a damaged arm the lariat's too much for him in the end. I'm sure Kobashi won't be slapping Stan around in any rematches, but he showed that he'll be a tough opponent for him, not shy about working the arm in an attempt to disable the lariat. It didn't work this time, but it's an effective strategy for the future. How refreshing it is to see Stan without that godawful tobacco. I don't doubt that he chewed outside the ring, but seeing it on interviews in WCW, and even as he was coming to the ring, was sickening. Thankfully, he doesn't need that crap to remind the Korakuen Hall audience that he's from Texas.
  4. garretta
    Sorry, but I really didn't care for this much. The Downtown/Uptown stuff with Bruno was fine in small doses, but his constant repetition of it really got annoying, especially since that was all he did on the mic. Not a word about how he and Terrence hooked up, not a word about the other guys in his stable (though he did name them), nothing. Add that to Terrence barely even locking up at all without the chain in his hand and you don't come up with much. Lawler does what he can to save it, and seeing Terrence run from the haircut Lawler was trying for was a hoot, but there really wasn't much else to recommend here. I would have loved to hear Dave reference the past history between Lawler and Terrence last year, back when Terrence was the King's number one Dallas fan and chief sycophant, but we all know that the two sides of this promotion acknowledge each other as little as possible. Interesting that Doug Gilbert's still in Memphis and teaming with Tony Anthony under Bruno's guidance; I thought he'd follow Eddie right out the door. Also, Bruno doesn't mention Kim, though that doesn't mean she's not still there.
  5. garretta
    This match was much better than the one a week later, as it was more about the feud that was still going on after so long. These two really brought the hatred, and this may be Young's best overall performance so far in the yearbook series. This was a bit more of a back-and-forth than the other match we saw between these two, but Embry still got his chance to sell; either he's getting better at it or I'm just noticing it more. I didn't like the brawl in the crowd, though. Unless you know the camera's following you, as it did in ECW almost all the time, it's best to keep the action of your match in the ring or at least around ringside. The stip attached to this one really made no sense. If the Texas title is being held up (as it apparently was, judging by the fact that we saw the first round of the tournament on 1/25, a week later), then why guarantee the winner of this match a shot at it, particularly since these same two guys ended up paired in the first round as we saw? Guaranteeing a title shot to the winner of a certain match works best when you actually have a champion for that winner to take a shot at. (I know that they could simply have given Embry the first shot at whoever won the tournament, but if that was the plan, Michael should have spelled it out better on commentary.) I wonder where Ak really was. Actually, I'm wondering if Jarrett didn't tell him to take that week off, since this was taped just three days after the U.S. went to war against Iraq. I don't think people with turbans around their heads who claimed to have become rich off of Arab oil money were exactly popular in Dallas at that moment in time. I wonder if we'll get one last rubber match before Embry turns heel in a couple of months. I certainly hope so!
  6. garretta
    I agree that having Pillman so competitive with Rogers was a mistake if they were trying to build him toward a showdown with Flair. Od course, once Dusty took over, the plan was changed, and I'm not so sure that that wasn't for the best, considering that Brian had all he could do here to escape with his life against a lower midcarder at best. Yes, the work was good, but it shouldn't have had to be. This should have been bing, bang, boom, and out in under a minute. Forget the crazy "falls don't count for five minutes" stuff and allow Rip to be squashed for once. I don't think the ref blew any spots here. I got the impression that this was supposed to a Texas death type of match in that you could pin your opponent all you wanted to and the ref would count it for you, but it wouldn't end the match until after five minutes had passed. JR did a horrible job of explaining it if that was the case, but I find it hard to believe that they would allow such obvious incompetence to stand on national television if the referee had messed up. This was well past the time when redoing matches was accepted practice when necessary. I'm guessing that Dusty simply wanted to make his own Clash main event, which is why Scotty was subbed in against Flair and the mini-angle was shot at the Meadowlands. But why Scotty instead of, say, Sting (who was theoretically owed a rematch as the former champion)?
  7. garretta
    We talk about Dundee/Tatum being dated, but this feud's still going on after over three years. Embry doesn't really project a babyface vibe anymore with the blond hair. Fortunately for him, he's in there with one of Ak's men, so he'd be cheered regardless. Young really works hard here, dominating the match with a well-done bearhug which Embry sells beautifully. It seems like Jarrett's trying to push Embry as Texas's answer to Lawler with the punches and the pulling down of the strap, but the magic doesn't work this time, as Young blasts Embry with the chain and scores the three count. I haven't seen the other match between these two yet, so I can't compare them. This seems like a typical quick tournament match, done to set up the rest of the bracket. It'll be interesting to see what these two do when they have the spotlight all to themselves.
  8. garretta
    I think the idea was supposed to be that USWA Texas was in suspended animation, if you will. That means that the feuds that were still going on when the promotion closed in early September would be picked back up where they left off wherever humanly possible. The Dallas portion of Dundee/Tatum hadn't quite ended yet, though it was winding down, so this was a chance for a final blowoff. All that said, this was sort of perfunctory. Neither man really got to do much, and Tessa (who looked as good as ever, by the way) suckering Tatum like she did here should have happened earlier in the feud. The highlight of the match for me was hearing Michael St. John on commentary. He worked alone here, and he was miles better than he is in Memphis, mixing competent play-by-play with a few interesting historical nuggets, though I'm not sure whether those nuggets were actually true or not. For instance, I never knew that Bobby Shane was an influence on Dundee. I also liked that he actually acknowledged Bill's Scottish heritage; too many people had heard a real Australian accent by this time to be fooled into thinking that Bill was really an Aussie. Not a bad first effort from the returning Texas promotion. Looking forward to more.
  9. garretta
    This was notable mostly for all the different ways that JR and Dusty avoided saying, "Paul E. was distracted by Missy's breasts." There were more euphemisms than the number of seconds in the match, for heaven's sake. To nitpick just a tiny bit, if this had been a real arm-wrestling match, Missy's win wouldn't have counted because Paul never really locked up with her, his hand was wide open when she forced it down. Those special referees introduced before the match somehow managed to miss that, unfortunately for Paul. I seem to remember that Rhubarb Jones was the regular ring announcer for the WCWSN tapings at Center Stage around this time. If that's true, it's kind of odd that they'd have Gary Cappetta do a great big celebrity intro for him here, even with his DJ credentials. I liked how Rhubarb saluted the troops just before he introduced Missy and Paul; unless I'm totally forgetting it, Vince never had Howard Finkel do any such thing before or during a WWF card, even the ones that were being fed overseas. If he had, it might have taken a bit of the sting out of having their World champion portrayed as an Iraqi sympathizer.
  10. garretta
    Dusty's promo said it all. It was probably one of his best, and it had absolutely no wrestling content whatsoever. I wonder if it was partially done out of frustration with the way Vince was shamelessly using the war to not only paint Sarge as a turncoat, but prop him up as a wrestler when he had next to nothing left. Regardless of the reason, it was tremendous, and you can tell that the crowd loved it as well. It's a pity that WCW didn't think as much of the Stinger in 1990 as his fans obviously did. Other than the win over Flair at the Bash, 1990 stank for him, and dreadful booking (Black Scorpion, anyone?) was the main reason why. Maybe with Dusty back in the booker's chair (and safely retired), 1991 will turn out better.
  11. garretta
    That was more brutal than 90% of the piledrivers I've seen. Now I know why wrestlers work their necks so much; you take a move like that on an unprotected neck and you're looking at time in the fracture ward. I'm surprised they had Taue walk out relatively unaffected except for a sore neck. A stretcher job, or at least help back to the locker room, wouldn't have been out of place.
  12. garretta
    I think we may have had a few too many racquet shots between the ending of the match and the postmatch beatdown, but it got the job done. Of course, no MSC footage is really as hot as it could be because of the continued subpar commentary. Honestly, Michael St. John and whoever this other guy is could make the bloodiest, goriest beatdown in the history of the business sound like a collar-and-elbow tieup. If my announcers can't sell it, why should I as a fan believe in it, especially when I suspect (as even the densest fans probably did by now) that it's all phony as an eight-dollar bill anyway? With no help from the commentators, it's up to the promos to sell the angle, and when you have Dundee, Corny, and Lawler doing your promos, there's nothing whatsoever to worry about. I like that they didn't try to sell Dundee's injury as a throat injury; that meant he could still talk, albeit a little more softly than usual. Both he and Lawler still can't quite believe that the little stupid punk who ran around carrying Jimmy Hart's bags in the hokiest-looking sailor suit you ever saw could possibly turn the Fabs against them for Terry Funk's blood money, even as they vow to get the last laugh on all three of them. That might have been the one thing missing from the Gilbert feud; Lawler was so busy matching Eddie insult for insult that he forgot to get heat on Sam Lowe, who was pretty much missing in plain sight after his initial turn. A few references to busybody photographers who think they know the business, such as the ones he's directing toward Corny now, certainly couldn't have hurt. I loved Lawler threatening to get extra nasty after the match, and I also noted the Jackie Fargo mentions from Dundee. I would have liked Lawler to subtly acknowledge somehow that he's been guilty of trying to win matches with his mouth in the recent past, and it didn't work for him, just like it won't work for the Fabs. Of course, in Lawler's case, the fans loved every second of it, even when he was supposed to be the most despicable man in the territory. Corny was great here as usual, and Keirn's surprising me with how good his heel promos have been so far. Stan's the weak link, just like Bobby Eaton was with the MX, and that's another surprise, since I liked his humorous introductions of Corny in WCW. I wonder if the Fabs worked that particular schtick in Memphis (having Corny introduce them); I know the Heavenly Bodies did in SMW. with Tom Prichard doing Corny's intro. If I'd been Dundee, I would have been insulted that I wasn't worth at least ten grand to Funk; after all, I'm the only man in the last ten years who's gotten rid of Lawler for any length of time ('85 loser-leave-town).
  13. garretta
    I don't think we needed a ref bump, an outside-the-ring attack, and an over-the-top DQ in the space of a minute or two, but I guess Luger/Spivey at WrestleWar needed to be set up some way. It's amazing that Sting supposedly had no idea what was even going on outside. I can see not being able to fight off Doom in order to stop it, but he should have at least registered what was going on. There weren't really any permanent face teams for Doom to feud with other than the Steiners (which had already been done), so I can see why Dusty would want to break them up and get whatever money was left out of them as opponents rather than partners. Besides, I think Reed was close to leaving the business to be a full-time rodeo cowboy, so Simmons would have been left on his own soon enough. It's kind of a shame that Peanuthead got lost in the shuffle, though; he was a hell of a lot better than Slick as an African-American manager, and was probably one of the top three or four in the business overall (though that didn't mean a whole lot by '91, as managers were starting to slowly be phased out). It's a shame that Vince was so committed to Patterson as his chief booker, as I'd have liked to hear Dusty take the same roles in the WWF as he did here in WCW. Then again, with Vince refusing to call the action more and more as time went on, and Dusty never being noted for his insightful color, Superstars and SNME just might have become completely unlistenable had Dusty replaced Piper in the booth. Dusty worked better with straight play-by-play guys like JR and Tony, and the WWF didn't have any of those by then, since Gino was starting to slip (and much preferred working with his pal Heenan anyway).
  14. garretta
    Boy, the Fabs and Corny are really taking to this bounty hunting stuff, huh? First Gilbert, then Lawler, now Jeff. Watch out, Dave Brown, you may be next! Corny really seems to be having fun here, and if even a fraction of what we heard about his last year in WCW is true, it's easy to see why. Sure, Memphis may be a wee bit too small of a pond for him, but better to have fun frolicking in a small pond than have to constantly fight to avoid drowning in a big one. Besides, working a program with Lawler, Dundee, and Jeff in Memphis isn't exactly minor league. The Fabs seem to be adapting well to life as heels, although it really didn't take much adapting on Stan's part, since he'd just come with Corny after being one half of the MX. All we need now are some promos from Funk and we'll be all set. I'm guessing he was in Japan around this time, which would explain why we haven't heard from him yet, at least in Memphis. (I know he worked at least one match in Dallas against Lawler, since we have it on the set.)
  15. garretta
    I couldn't get past the chew. For Christ's sake, Dusty, stop having Stan come out with that shit in his mouth. How the hell can anyone concentrate on what he's saying with gobs of it all over the place? Now his mouth's so full of it he can barely be understood. If you can't promote a Texan without using chewing tobacco as a prop, then don't hire any more Texans. I think I heard something about how Vader can use his mask and Stan can use his cowbell. Is this supposed to be a no-DQ or anything goes match? I don't think they were teasing a Sting/Hansen program here. The time for that would have been while Sting was champ a few months back. Especially with Stan not wrestling in WCW full time, what would be the point? If all you want is a one-off payday for Stan, Vader's a perfect opponent for him.
  16. garretta
    This was so short that I missed everyone but Flair and Windham. I guess Arn and Sid were at another table. I'd have been wondering about LT if I'd been a fan too. I mean, it's not like Luger was just a random babyface; he and the Horsemen have a history going back literally years. From a kayfabe standpoint, if he's supposedly close enough to LT for the man to be in his corner two days before a Giants playoff game, he's close enough to tell LT that story and to invite him to hang out with him and the Stinger instead. I guess whoever was the head of the booking committee that night was so proud of signing LT to be a part of the card that he didn't care about anything else.
  17. garretta
    Just your standard Lawler studio promo, which is gold. I love the mention of Jimmy Hart along with the likes of Downtown Bruno and Reggie B. Fine. The Colonel may be gone, but the hatred lives on, at least on Lawler's end. (I notice that Lawler didn't mention his own manager from less than a year before, Ronnie P. Gossett.) Not to nitpick, but I'd call the Fabs the best full-time team in recent Memphis history. That said, Lawler and Dundee actually held a recognized World tag team title with the AWA belts in '87, so you could argue that they were more successful. I know that Corny provably wasn't in the mood to talk much about WCW even if Jarrett allowed it, but it almost seems like they're trying to say that the Fabs are Corny's first-ever truly elite clients. Just once before this feud's over, I'd like to hear even a veiled reference to the MX, especially since Memphis fans would be familiar with all three members of Corny's version.
  18. garretta
    This match definitely had a "hurry up and get it over with" feel to it. Then again, if Eddie was gone, Doug was probably headed out right behind him, so they wanted a title change as quickly and definitively as they could get it. I know we only saw a few short clips, but I didn't see Kim anywhere around, and I would have thought we'd have at least one interference spot from her so Corny could counteract it. If she wasn't even at ringside, you know this was a rush job. At any rate, even if the title change was a little flat, the aftermath definitely wasn't.
  19. garretta
    He'd have gotten a road agent's job somehow or other with one of the Big Two (probably WCW) eventually, Pete. Plenty of other guys did who had lesser careers. Believe me, he wouldn't have been hurting for money or employment.
  20. garretta
    The finish of Flair/Sting made no sense, if only because they did nothing with it afterward. Sting being screwed meant absolutely nothing in the long run, because the feud for the title was over and Flair had won about as decisively as he was ever going to. I guess that's one reason why Sting never showed much public distress over losing the belt; he knew his time as challenger was done, even with the screwy finish we saw. The football match was way, way too short; there wasn't much more than we saw in the clips, if Graham has the correct match time. Plus, why was it done with over-the-top rules? My guess is that it's hard to pin someone's shoulders flat if they have pads and a helmet on. JR didn't mention if it was a title match or not; I'm assuming it was, though, which makes this perhaps the strangest U.S. title bout in WCW history to date.
  21. garretta
    If you've almost been run over by a car, what's a little thing like a spike piledriver on the concrete floor? Seriously, there were times that Memphis tried to function without Lawler in the past, and they ended up taking a bath at the gate. It's part of the logic of the territory by now that Lawler will be there every single Monday night regardless of what's done to him, so talking about how an injury should be sold or anything else similar is useless. Memphis chose to throw that kind of storytelling out the window long ago, and that's how they're surviving. What would you rather have if you're Jerry Jarrett: a half-full MSC with Dundee/whoever on top against the Fabs and Lawler selling the injury like a dedicated wrestler should, or a jam-packed MSC with Lawler no-selling the injury, on top with Dundee against the Fabs, and beating the living hell out of everything that moves like the attack on TV never happened? If the fans don't care about logic, why should you as the promoter? Since they're mentioning Fargo on TV, I'd expect to see him before too long to counteract Corny. I'm interested to see if he can say more than "You stink!" and "pally" in a promo. I'm sure he was a great talker in his day, but in one promo on the eighties Memphis set, he must have told Jimmy Hart that he stank thirty times in sixty seconds!
  22. garretta
    This was a great "shock" turn. Not that anyone expected Corny to stay face for very long, even while he managed Memphis favorites like the Fabs, but you kind of expected a building of tension, some arguments between Corny and Lawler during which the Fabs take Corny's side, and we're off and running. Instead, with quite literally a "BOOM!" courtesy of Corny's racquet, we cut to the chase almost immediately. To really put himself over as a mastermind, Corny details how the Fabs ran Eddie Gilbert and the Memphis Mafia out of town (at least for the moment), then targeted Lawler. Amazingly, Corny still gives the King his props; if Lawler wasn't so tough and so smart, they'd have faced him straight up, but since he is, they had to backjump him in order to stand any chance at all. Keirn recounts his own reasons for wanting revenge on Lawler, while Stan tries the crown on for size. I liked the idea of Corny and the Fabs being bounty hunters for Terry Funk, and I'm wondering how not only Lawler, but Gilbert will get revenge on him once they're all in the same place. Eddie Marlin is about as good as you'll see him in trying (unsuccessfully) to shout Corny down, and Dave Brown is probably legitimately stunned here, since he didn't like to know what was supposed to happen on the show beforehand. His soft-spoken disbelief makes the moment even more effective. I know Corny won't be in Memphis long, but I'm sure looking forward to seeing him (and the Fabs) while they're here. It ought to be something else.
  23. garretta
    I'll say this one last time: This title change should never, ever have happened once we actually went to war. If Vince didn't want to fire Sarge, he should have had Warrior squash him in thirty seconds flat, then take out Adnan for good. After that, let Sarge be the new Duggan, taking on the midcard foreign menaces and shilling GI Joe, IcoPro, and whatever other stuff they can think of for the next five or so years. Maybe Sarge and Duggan could have been a nice midcard tag team. I don't know how you do the Savage turn in that case, and Warrior/Savage is a hell of a bout to lose, but the title had to not go on Slaughter, no matter what damage it did to the WWF's future plans. What we saw of the match was below average, as Sarge looks shot in the ring. Honestly, Savage does ninety percent of the work; reading Pete's recap, I remember Savage attacking Warrior in the middle of the match, and that's what sets the table for Sarge. He doesn't do much on his own at all. Even his bumps (which we don't see here) are nowhere near championship caliber, never mind what they were when Sarge was in his prime or just past it. Not for the first time or the last, Vince tries to shove a square peg into a round hole, and loses a 100,000-seat Mania at the LA Coliseum with a hot potential main event in Hogan/Warrior II and has to settle for the LA Sports Arena, which they couldn't even sell out, if I remember correctly. I know all the carny bullshit about only the money and the miles being real, but if I'd been Sarge, I'd have rather headlined a high school gym card in Dog Crud, North Dakota in front of a hundred fans than take Vince's money this way. Surely he could have stood to be just a little poorer and kept his self respect, especially since he was booked in such a way that Hogan had to totally destroy him when they finally met. Of course, Vince being who he is, we not only didn't get that, we got another pay-per-view main event where Hogan just may have been the soundest worker out of the six participants, including the guest referee. But that's another story for another day. I almost forgot about Gino. I love the guy, but he has a tendency in his later years not to live in reality. Sell shock and disgust as best you can; that's what Vince is paying you for. But don't tell me that the pinfall I saw wasn't a pinfall, and that Earl Hebner saw what he clearly didn't (and wasn't supposed to) see. Piper calling for more referees to reverse the decision was a better reaction, although we all knew that it wasn't going to happen. It took until after Howard announced Sarge as champion for Gino to finally accept it, and by then he was parroting Piper, who was excellent here. I would have loved for him to be able to get in the ring with Sarge during this run to take out some of his anger; unfortunately, his hip was going bad, and he was headed for replacement surgery.
  24. garretta
    Never mind if Scotty was as good as or better than Flair on the mic. The real question is, was he even as good as Rick, who was supposed to be punch drunk/mentally slow? I have my doubts about that. Personally, I'd have pushed Rick before Scotty for a singles career, if only because Rick was a former TV champ. As for Flair, that was a nice line about the Turner/Fonda marriage being the greatest romance of all time. Too bad it didn't last, like Flair's own marriages. Memo to Dusty: Please don't let wrestlers quote Shakespeare who probably think of something to drink (Shakes' Beer) when they hear the name, as evidence by Scotty's total butcher job on The Bard here. Michigan education or not, neither Steiner brother will be qualifying for Mensa any time soon.
  25. garretta
    Missy again acts more serious than usual, this time during her workout. It really seems like they wanted to try to push her as the first lady of WCW. Meanwhile, Paul does his Martin Luther King imitation. I'll say this: WCW's really treating this as a big deal, at least in proportion to who this feud features. The only one who's kind of laughing it off a bit is JR, probably because he still has to deal with both of them every week (Paul on Power Hour, Missy on Main Event) and probably just wishes that they'd both shut up and let him call the matches by himself.
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