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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    I'd never seen a man almost literally wrestle himself until now. Arn works 90% of this match on offense, even when he's milking the clock at the end. The only clean move Zenk hits is the finishing dropkick. Okay, I'm exaggerating slightly, but you get my point; he sure didn't look much like a man who could be a champion. Usually, the challenger in this kind of bout, especially when he's working with a hurt champion like Arn was supposed to be, spends most of the match on offense taking It to said champion. Here, it was Arn who wrestled like that, spending most of the match destroying Zenk's back. What made it worse was the "winning streak" they'd built up for Zenk before the match. If the man's supposed to have won forty-five matches in a row and is facing a champion who's been beaten half to death by Doom, there's really no reason for him to be cautious, even if he's wrestling Arn Anderson. As several others have said before me, this title change felt like a total fluke, like something JR knew would be reversed as soon as Dusty got there and that he did just because he could (which turned out to be exactly the case, apparently) The knee injury fakeout might be the most realistic I've ever seen, and shows why Arn's the master worker he is. It was so good that JR felt compelled to call back to it when Zenk briefly worked on Arn's leg toward the end of the bout. Why more guys didn't sell injuries like this on occasion I don't know, because it's as effective as any spot there is. From the Let's Copy Vince.........Or Not Department: JR exclusively refers to Arn's opponent by the nickname "Z-Man", much like the WWF does with all of its gimmick names by now. However, Bob Caudle goes back and forth between "Z-Man" and Zenk's real name. It's strange that Bob would do that with the acting booker (at least for this match) sitting right next to him. I wonder how JR felt about that, since they were clearly trying to push the man as "Z-Man", not Tom Zenk. As a one-man show, this may be the best of the year. As a competitive bout, it ranks fairly low. You get the feeling from the start that Arn's having an off day, and that he'll be able to beat Zenk rather handily once he's physically right, which kind of makes the whole thing pointless. They did everything here but give two-thirds of the TV belt to Simmons and Reed.
  2. garretta
    Okay, I found this one on Disc 16. This is what ECW would have looked like if it had started in Minnesota. Actually, that may not be entirely fair, because the crowd here definitely believes in what they're seeing, unlike a lot of the "too hip for the room" ECW crowds I've seen in the past, who know that they're part of the show and do their best to show off at every turn. Waltman is an excellent psycho midget heel here, especially early on, while Lynn's more than ready to fight fire with fire. The announcers foreshadow Joey Styles with their many "Oh, my Gods!" and such, but again, they come across as genuine instead of as a paid shill trying desperately to shoehorn an expected catchprase into his call. I had a bit of trouble picking up individual spots at times due to the camerawork, but you can't expect a bar in suburban Minneapolis to look like Madison Square Garden. How crazy must these two have been to brawl outside in subzero weather, even if it was only for a few seconds? I understand that they want to talk up their product, but should the PWA, a local Minneapolis independent promotion, have been wasting its time and breath taking shots, even indirect ones, at the WWF? They're not even to the point yet where they're an alternative to an alternative, so it may be smarter business not to even acknowledge the competition at this point, lest you remind your paying customers that they could be giving their money to the unquestioned number one wrestling organization at the time (for better or worse) and its two biggest stars, one of whom (Hogan) was not only a national celebrity but also probably still a local icon from his AWA days.
  3. garretta
    This wasn't quite the classic that the September match was, but it still packed plenty of action, plus the two teams were much more familiar with each other, which raised the hatred level quite a few notches. Misawa and Kawada take much of the offense and deliver sound thrashings to both Jumbo and Taue, who absorb their thrashing but still have enough guts to hang tough. Then we have the rapid-fire finish, where both teams empty their respective bags of tricks but can't quite get the winning fall until Kawada's German suplex on Taue wraps things up for the youngsters. If this had gone longer or had slightly more offense from Jumbo and Taue, we might have been looking at even a better match than 9/30. But we can't quite have everything, as both teams have to have something left for the rest of their Tag League bouts. Given that restriction, this match was as good as possible, and just misses joining 9/30 in my Japanese top three for the year.
  4. garretta
    This match felt like the start to a long feud, as these two brought more hatred to this bout than they did in any of their programs all year long. You really got the feeling that they wanted to pound the hell out of each other, which is exactly what they did. One aspect of this that few realize is that Piper's arthritic hip had to be killing him here. That's probably one reason why he's dirtier than usual, even for him; he probably couldn't wrestle at this point, literally. But he could sure fight. Curt adapts well to this style and really lets everything hang out. It's obvious for more reasons than one that Rod's not getting the title- for one thing, Curt had just gotten it back two weeks ago- but he satisfies himself and his public by laying Curt out cold with the belt at the end. It's a shame that these two couldn't have had more matches when one or the other wasn't nearly crippled; by the time Rod's hip had been replaced and he was able to get back in the ring, Curt's back was out. Would Piper have been a better IC champion than Bret after SummerSlam '91? Probably not; it was Bret's time to shine. But if Vince had chosen to go with Piper instead, it would have been a solid choice based on this match. I guess Bobby was either home for the holidays or off the road due to his neck; it's very odd to see him not make MSG. I guess Lord Alfred was in his tweener mode by now, as he was pro-Perfect for most of this match. Granted, the style that Piper was using made it hard to defend him, but it's still odd to hear the bland, gentlemanly Lordship that I remember supporting heels. Giving them credit where it's due, yes, but not supporting them. Sadly enough, another WWF announcer has started going downhill: Howard Finkel. I hate that unnaturally high voice he used to do the intros here, especially when he has what I consider an ideal ring announcer's voice to begin with. I know Vince was all about loudness and high energy almost to the exclusion of everything else by now, but that style fits certain people better than others. Howard's definitely one of the others. As good as this was, it simply can't compare to the spectacle of Hogan/Warrior or the surprise goodness that was Hogan/Hansen. But it noses out the Rockers/Harts title change that wasn't to finish my WWF ballot for this year at number three.
  5. garretta
    Quite the spirited match here, as Hokuto and Minami show no fear of Aja. The cut Minami suffers in the first fall is pretty horrific by female standards, but it doesn't deter her from fighting in the least. This match threatens to get out of control a few times, but with the exception of Aja using the trash can (which she should have been disqualified for), order is kept. Hokuto doesn't like the way her team lost the titles, so she hits Aja with a dropkick off the top after the match. There was noticeable clipping in only one place here: the beginning of the third fall, as Bison was knocked cold at the end of the second fall by the piledriver, but we pick the match back up with her on offense against Hokuto. Joshi has been a really pleasant surprise for me on this set. It's a thrill to know that there are women out there who can actually apply holds and moves like the men. I'm definitely looking forward to more in future yearbooks.
  6. garretta
    This seemed to me to be In full, unless you count losing the ring entrances as being clipped. All the action seemed to be there. This was an extended Bull squash, and she was so far in control that she refused to use the nunchuks that were thrown to her. What was the story behind Bull and Kyoko's embrace after the bout? Was Kyoko one of Bull's posse? If so, why did they fight? Was there dissension? If there was, it was certainly ended by Bull's rather convincing (to say the least) victory.
  7. garretta
    I liked this a lot better than the Doom/Horsemen street fight. Even though there was no blood, it felt like a lot more of a desperate struggle, mostly because of the obvious effort both men had to exert to touch all four corners. All in all, I still would have rather seen them allow the cowbell, but the lack of it didn't affect the match nearly as much as I thought it would. Luger went toe-to-toe with Hansen quite effectively, giving as good as he got, and Stan really looked like he wanted to kill Luger. My favorite spot in the match was Stan using the rope as a whip, which I'd never seen before but made up for the lack of a cowbell about as much as possible. I liked Paul putting over both men's attempts to affect the other's breathing, which would daze them enough to make it easier for the opponent to drag them to the corners. It's details like that which make him a much more effective commentator than I ever thought he'd be. As for JR, he crammed every football reference he possibly could into each man's intro, and I'm honestly surprised that he didn't sneak in any references to Luger's college GPA or his turning down an appointment to Annapolis. He can still be effective, but he's relying on catchphrases and well-known facts more and more as time goes on, which makes him very predictable and unable to react to his partner, whomever it is. The double finish was done much better here than in the street fight, especially because it actually led to a decision. There was no doubt about the replay; Pee Wee Anderson clearly saw Luger touch the last corner just before he was run over, so the correct call was made. Of course, Stan needs to still look good in Japan and have something to do if he ever comes back, so we get the second finish, with Nick Patrick declaring him the winner after he (legitimately) touches all four corners. That's how you do a screwy ending; Luger got the duke because Hansen was done in the U.S. for now, but if he'd stayed, they could have used the controversy to continue the feud and lead up to a blowoff at WrestleWar '91, either in a straight cage match or an "I Quit" match, to name two possibilities. Getting back to the announcing for just a second, I thought it was strange that JR completely ignored Paul's attempts to liken this restart to the one in the Sting/Sid match at Havoc. Even though this one would have favored a heel (and one that he was disgusted by to boot), it was a perfect opportunity for him to be what he always claims to be: a historian. There's something really off about JR when he works with Heyman, for whatever reason. Whether there's personal heat, or whether JR simply doesn't like working with heel commentators (with his good friend Corny as the exception), I'm not sure. He's still great with Bob Caudle on Saturday Night, but his work with Heyman has been subpar at best. By the way, Hansen never played for the Colts. He was drafted by them in the eleventh round of the '72 draft, but never made it out of training camp. This wasn't quite good enough to make the top three, but might have made a top five and would have definitely been in a top ten. Too bad we never got the rematches that Luger teased afterward.
  8. garretta
    Sorry, I didn't feel this one. Street fight or not, it should have gone 15-20 minutes. If ECW guys who weren't half the workers these four guys were could try to commit murder on each other for the length of a regular tag match, surely these four could have done it. It wasn't short because it was a street fight anyway; it was short because WCW tried to run a fifteen-match card in three hours, which was completely ridiculous. Also, the double pin was a joke. If they didn't want Doom to drop the belts and they didn't want the Horsemen to take a clean loss, they shouldn't have booked the match to start with. How about a good old-fashioned TV title defense for Arn? How about Barry squashing a midcarder to reestablish himself as a contender in the minds of the fans? I don't know what you do with Doom in that case, since there were no credible face teams to put them against except the Steiners (who of course were busy in the tournament), but there had to have been a better solution out there. We got a nice brawl, but take away the weapons and we could have gotten that during a Danger Zone segment. Match of the Year candidate? Give them ten more minutes and a clean title change that kickstarts the Doom breakup angle and you've got a case. As it turned out, this was just one more short match in a night full of them.
  9. garretta
    This was as close to a squash as you can get in a title match. Kerry only got in a few licks; most of the match belonged to Curt (and Teddy). The fact that they had Curt use the Perfectplex proves it; even though Kerry could rightfully claim that DiBiase hit him with the IC title belt, the last image we saw was Kerry being pinned clean by a wrestling move. There's really nowhere else to go for Kerry after this, and he doesn't. I don't even think he faced Teddy on TV; as far as most of the fans knew, Teddy went right from Dusty and Dustin to Virgil with nothing else in between. So much for Vince loving and always wanting the Von Erich family in the WWF. Piper and Honky actually had some nice chemistry here; with a little time, they could have developed into a good color team. Unfortunately, Honky left not too long after this. I liked the "Finkel gets bought" angle, as Howard is about the last person you'd expect the Million Dollar Man to be able to get to. The problem is, Vince, Piper, and Honky talk over Teddy's ring announcements. I'm sure he hammed it up for the crowd with insults during Kerry's introduction, but the TV audience never heard those insults, if they happened. I know Teddy got involved in the finish, so the angle wasn't a total waste, but if we weren't actually going to hear him do the ring announcing, they should have just had him come down from the back at the very end, like they usually did with run-ins. On the plus side, I guess Howard got to enjoy his money, provided that he was allowed to keep it. Considering that Kerry never got to do much as IC champion and probably only won the title since the plan was for Beefcake to win originally, they probably should have just had Curt keep it and challenge Honky's record for longest reign, although they probably wouldn't have mentioned it much by the time SummerSlam '91 rolled around, considering that Honky was long gone. Taken together, Curt's reigns would have lasted just a hair less than sixteen months, breaking Honky's record by almost two months.
  10. garretta
    This was more like an exhibition than an actual competitive match. I was impressed by Lou's ability to still do the basics well at the age of 74, and they even gave him a couple of near falls, which was a nice touch. The failed powerbomb was his undoing, though, as Chono locked him up for the submission soon after. I liked the big ovations for both men before and after the match. If New Japan had put this card on videotape with English commentary, it might not have been a bad tape to rent. Especially for older fans, seeing Bock and Thesz go one last time would have been a nice way to kill a few hours.
  11. garretta
    What we saw here was good, as Casas goves Liger all he can handle but ends up losing in the end thanks to a nifty back superplex. This was basically a spot showcase for Liger, and the crowd popped for them all as expected. I'm with Loss; after the Sano match I expected more five-star classics from Liger this year. I hope we get them as the decade progresses. As an aside, the bow and arrow may look hurtful, but doesn't it take too much cooperation to be believable? A few slaps in the side is supposed to weaken you enough that you'll give your opponent your arms without thinking? Really?
  12. garretta
    If there was ever such a thing as effective bullshit, this match qualifies. Several storylines are advanced without much physical activity: the bounty on Lawler, the Lawler/Gilbert feud, the return of the Fabs (actually, I believe that this was Keirn's first appearance, with Stan and Corny still to come), and Eddie's desire to be the new King of Memphis. When Eddie refused to put the Southern title up on free TV, it was clear we wouldn't get much wrestling action, and we didn't. The best spots were Lawler ramming Eddie's head into Sam Lowe's chair and the chain work from Eddie, which he does better than Lawler, mostly because he actually wrestles in between chain shots. I thought the ref bump spot with Calhoun came way too early, but they managed to make it work. The finish was predictable, as Pete said, but it was a great way to introduce Keirn into the situation, much more effective than just having him wrestle a match and cut a promo on the Memphis Mafia afterward. Bruno annoyed me on commentary. There was too much "see no evil" for my taste, and the whole idea of him putting Lawler out of wrestling all by himself is too farfetched even to be a good joke. He had a few good lines, though; his best was when he suggested that Dave could collect the bounty on Lawler by hitting him from behind with his (Dave's) microphone. Actually, I would have liked to see Dave get physically involved once in a great while like Lance was, at least as far as getting stuff dumped on him (remember Jimmy Hart covering Lance with flour?) and other non-strikes. I'm pretty sure the main reason they stayed away from that was to protect Dave's integrity as a meteorologist. What was the "bug" in the lower right hand corner of the screen? I couldn't make it out, but the last part looked like a "30", as in Channel 30. Were WMC angles shown often on the syndicated Memphis shows? If this was a Channel 30, what market would it have been in?
  13. garretta
    This was a good back-and-forth match, and that's the problem. Unless they planned to push Rogers (which they clearly didn't), he should have been competitively squashed and not allowed to do so much of the stuff he's so praised in this forum for. I'm not talking Mario Mancini being the Undertaker's personal crash test dummy, but not far off from that, either. To put it another way, Tony brought up Taylor's (kayfabe) dissatisfaction with not getting more title shots. Even marks know that there's a pecking order, and that Rogers is on the lower rungs of it, so how is having to fight for his life to beat him going to help Taylor seem like more of a threat to Arn, for example? If anything, these matches elevate Rogers while making Taylor seem ordinary, if not a bit below ordinary. (Pillman's in the same boat, by the way.) As it all turned out, nobody benefited from any of the Rogers matches we saw this year; Rogers wasn't pushed, and Taylor and Pillman lost luster by not beating him decisively. The matches were certainly entertaining time fillers, but ultimately meant nothing in the long run. Weird Call Alert: Tony called an Irish whip as "going for the run". Technically correct, but not something you expect to hear, especially from a veteran announcer. By the way, Rotunda win the December 30 Chicago match referenced here by pinfall over Taylor.
  14. garretta
    Interesting short version of what could have been a much more in-depth match on a bigger stage. Now we know that Adams didn't lose his hair in what was left of the Austin feud, as he has full and flowing locks here. Speaking of Chris, even though JR acknowledged the ovation he got, he never mentioned Chris' American past with either World Class or Watts; if you didn't already know about him, you'd think he just stepped off the boat from London. After they gave Chris his ovation, the crowd died. They didn't care a whit for any of the other three wrestlers here because they didn't know anything about them. Turner should have had all seven foreign teams either wrestle a match here in the States or tape a match to be sent over here to air on TBS to at least partially familiarize the crowd with their styles, but other than the "South African" team, we didn't see any of the other teams before Starrcade, thus ensuring that the Steiners were the only team that really mattered. If that was the best they could do, they should have either just brought Muta and Saito over to wrestle for the U.S. belts or found a regular WCW team for Rick and Scotty to work with. Could JR have cared any less about this match? The references to "Rey Misteric" really bothered me. If the man cared anything about the match at all, he'd have spent some time actually researching who these guys were. If he was the expert he claimed to be, he should have known something about Smiley, Konnan, and Misterio even without in-depth research. Bad jokes aside, Heyman was the only one really into the bout itself, giving us tidbits about the Mexican and British wrestling styles and even telling us about Konnan's previous knee injury. Meanwhile, all JR could do was snark about giving Paul a "yap-ectomy". My opinion of him as an announcer is starting to go downhill in a hurry. (Extra minus points to the normally fabulous Gary Cappetta for calling Rey Sr. "Misterioso", which JR picked up on as well, unfortunately.) Were these bouts shown in Mexico? Assuming that Rey Sr. wasn't legitimately hurt, doing an injury angle with him either makes it absurdly easy for the Steiners to move on to the finals, provides Rey Sr. and Konnan with a readymade excuse for losing to give to the fans back home, or both.
  15. garretta
    Yet another surprisingly good TV match from Rogers. He and Pillman meshed quite well, and while Brian was in no real danger of losing, Rogers still looked like he could beat any man in WCW on any given day. My favorite spot was when Rip was too busy yelling at the cameraman to notice Brian coming up behind him and got nailed by a haymaker. JR had the line of the match as Rogers got tossed back into the ring: "There's no one in his way now!" JR really harped on Pillman's football background here, as we now learn that he played for the Bills and was a Playboy All-American at Miami of Ohio. (Actually, he was a legit second-team All-American, but he got cut by the Bills in the 1985 preseason before he could play for them.) The problem is, he's still going into a bit too much detail that doesn't really translate into getting these guys over as wrestlers. Talking about Pillman's Bengals career is okay, since he still had friends on the team at the time, was from Cincinnati, and wore striped tights, possibly as a tribute to the team. Other than that, it falls into the category of putting over Butch Reed as an NAIA All-American: true enough, but a bit of a reach to being up in a wrestling context. I liked Bob's line comparing the Scorpion to Milli Vanilli. My question is: Did he come up with it on his own? He really doesn't seem hip enough to know who Milli Vanilli is, but these old guys can surprise you sometimes. When did they change Dick the Bruiser's role at Starrcade? JR clearly states here that he's going to referee the O'Connor tournament finals, but he ends up as the ref in the main event instead. I'm wondering if New Japan might have objected to having Muta and Saito in a match with a guest referee, but I can't imagine why they would.
  16. garretta
    I don't know what else there is to say about this abomination. Now we get crazy women attacking Sting out of nowhere? Ole was out of tricks, and not a moment too soon, thankfully. I liked Paul saying that first JR, then Gordon was the Scorpion. He has a point; the man could conceivably have been anybody. As Paul also said, every last clue could have been nothing but a trap (as indeed they all turned out to be, since Flair was the one who was unmasked). JR finally wonders about six weeks too late how the Scorpion gets into the WCW production truck, which should have been the very first thing he brought up. As Pete said, he comes as close as he ever would to openly taking an on-air dump on a given angle, stating that he doesn't like this kind of stuff in wrestling. Of course, that's easy for him to say now that Ole's either already been sacked or soon would be in favor of Dusty, and that he gets to be the interim booker himself. Rex isn't useless here, but his day as a seriously pushed act (at least in the Moondog gimmick) came and went nine years before in the WWF when he, King, and Spotty were tag team champions with Albano. Interestingly, the gear he wears in this match is similar to the gear he wore then, with the dark blue pullover shirt. Concerning the Christmas card at the Omni that JR mentioned, there were only eight matches, not nine, and the only way you get four main events is to count the Steiners' match with the Master Blasters. It's a good thing that the Scorpion (Flair) didn't win the title at Starrcade, because in honoring Sting's commitments he would have defended against........himself! (Sting won the Omni match on a countout after Flair's pin with his feet on the ropes was disallowed.)
  17. garretta
    My favorite part of this was Honky ducking the question of how he'd try to stop Taker in the Royal Rumble. He finally answers, "A little song-and-dance routine", which is so typical of him. Deep down, he has no chance if Taker gets his hands on him and he knows it. Brother Love is quite effective here as a mouthpiece, and I'm left to wonder again how much better he would have gotten if they hadn't signed Percy and developed Paul Bearer instead. I must have missed the roses being spread over Mancini's body; I know there was no mention of it on commentary. Andre/Taker would have been a dream faceoff in the Rumble, however brief it may have ended up. In fact, Taker could have made a huge name for himself by eliminating Andre singlehandedly. I would have posted the results from the Portland, Maine card on December 27 that was mentioned in the insert, but Graham doesn't list them. The known matches were Kerry/DiBiase, Bossman/Heenan, LOD/Orients, Rockers/Power and Glory, and Jake/Martel. The other four wrestlers he mentions are Savage, Snuka, Tony Atlas (as Saba Simba), and Shane Douglas. My guess at matchups is Snuka/Savage and Atlas/Douglas, with Shane playing the heel in the latter. Oddly enough, a lot of the guys on this card are working in Auburn Hills, Michigan on the same day, and there's no mention of the Portland card being a matinee. (In case you're wondering, December 27, 1990 was a Thursday.)
  18. garretta
    Seeing this gives me a new appreciation for Hayes and Garvin. They're still not the classic Freebirds, but they have their own kind of sleazy charm. I loved the Monsoon/Heenan vibe between them and Lance, and just like with Gino and Bobby, you can tell that they liked being around each other off camera as well as on. These were well-done comedy segments, and whoever thought of them should have been put to work making the Black Scorpion watchable, if such a thing was possible. Just checking: Charles and Lido are Hayes and Garvin respectively, right? Why was it necessary to have a different announcer on the Chicago feed? I get why WCW would want to have special features and/or matches for such a big market, but why have Tony as the announcer instead of Lance? Was Lance thought to be too southern to get over in Chicago? Could it have had something to do with the fact that WGN was a superstation, and thus the Turner suits thought that Tony would project a more "national" image? In any case, they definitely made a mistake; Tony was solid, but nowhere near as fun and watchable as these three.
  19. garretta
    This was the match that I believe the tournament was an excuse to have, and what we saw was very, very good. I don't recall Muta and Saito being any sort of regular team, yet they worked very crisply here and came across as a real threat to the Steiners. I expected Rick and Scotty to go over in a dominant manner, but instead they escaped with some illegal but nifty double-teaming. I liked Paul asking if the Japanese would get a U.S. tag team title shot if they won, and I think they'd have been a nice addition to the tag team scene in WCW if they'd chosen to stay here. Nice touch to have Tiger Hattori, the top NJPW referee, as the official here. Since we didn't see the opening part of the bout, I wonder if it was mentioned that he worked for New Japan, as did Muta and Saito, and if JR even subtly questioned whether he could be objective. Paul claiming that the "USA! USA!" chants were actually "Japan!" "Japan!" chants for Muta and Saito may have been standard operating procedure for a heel, but if I'd been Turner management, I'd have had a chat with him about it. My rule would have been: no support of foreign heels on commentary, even by another heel, in times of international crisis, period. We were on the brink of a major shooting war, and the last thing we needed from a major pay-per-view wrestling show that was being beamed to the troops was some idiot commentator blowing off "USA!" chants. In the regional days, when shows weren't being beamed overseas, you might have been able to get away with that stuff, but not now. Nice to see Rick and Scotty put over the troops in the Middle East during their celebration. "Kick some butt!", indeed.
  20. garretta
    What we saw wasn't a scheduled match. There had been a match between the two teams earlier in the night, but this was a Gilbert/Idol sneak attack following a battle royal victory by Lawler. That's why Lawler could piledrive Eddie with no consequences. That's also why this looks slow; these four guys had worked a regular tag match plus a battle royal and now were doing this brawl to (presumably) end the evening, which meant that they were working three times in one night. Calhoun adds to the confusion by trying to count a pin on Lawler. Actually, this was a smart way to promote the bounty angle, as Eddie and Idol come across as so desperate to collect the money that they'll attack Lawler even when he's waiting to give a fan the money she won in the Christmas raffle, thus potentially endangering said fan. I noticed that the lady never came to the ring, so either she was somewhere else in the building (ladies' room, concession stand), or they somehow managed to tell her not to go to the ring when her name was called without breaking kayfabe, though how they could possibly manage that I have no idea. I hope she got her money somehow. I agree that the teased crotching of Lawler was a nice callback to one of the most infamous moments in Memphis history. Unfortunately, the idiot announcers totally undersold it. One of them even said something to the effect of, "They're looking to give (Lawler) a career-ending injury that'll put him out of action for a while." Honest to God, where do they find these announcers for the MSC cards? On the eighties set, we either had Lance Russell, who was one of if not the best in the business, or Randy Hales, who was very good once you got past his rather thick accent. Now, it sounds like a couple of public access employees or college students from Memphis University calling the matches. Either tell these guys to show some fire or bring on Corey Maclin. Could anyone tell if Brian was the New Kid whom Lawler hit in the brawl? I can just hear Jerry on the ride home: "Oh, gee, sorry, son. I thought you were Eddie Gilbert!"
  21. garretta
    Anyone watching could tell that Morton and Rich weren't getting seriously pushed, as Horowitz and Storm got way too much offense. It was nice to see that Horowitz was actually a competent wrestler, though. Anybody else catch the spot where Rich tagged Morton for the double dropkick while Ricky was still in the ring? Apparently the referee didn't, and neither did Tony. We get a rare face appearance from Vader here, as he clears the ring of the Freebirds. Unfortunately, he either no-showed the December 30 card in Chicago or was never booked for it in the first place. Whatever the case was, he didn't wrestle there that night, according to Graham Cawthon. In fact, his only known match in December had already taken place; he beat Moondog Rex on December 1 in Milwaukee.
  22. garretta
    I'd have appreciated this segment more if I hadn't known what it led to (Flair as the Scorpion). As it is, it's rather flimsy. Given two weeks, Flair should have been able to get away from his "kidnappers" somehow and shown up to wrestle Doom. Alternatively, the Horsemen should have found him, wherever he was, and broken him out, laying out Teddy's "kidnappers" in the process. Obviously, neither of the above happened. In an earlier thread, Pete brought up the possibility of Doom actually being involved in the Scorpion conspiracy, and that might have been an interesting way to go. Have Teddy reveal that Flair and the Horsemen paid him off to "kidnap" Flair so Ric could skip out on the tag title match and dress as the Scorpion in an attempt to get the World title back. As for why he would help the same organization that's trying to take the World tag team titles from him, the answer is simple: money. The Horsemen had it and were willing to pay it. Reed's okay with this, Simmons isn't, and the seeds for Doom's breakup are planted. (This also leaves WCW without a "real" Scorpion, since Flair admitted that he's only dressing as him to take advantage of Sting. Guess what? Let Ole and Jim Herd figure out how to get out of that mess all by themselves, because I couldn't give less of a shit if my colon was removed.) I liked Teddy hamming it up un the front of Flair's limo, do-rag and all. I wish we could have heard more of what he was saying to Flair, but the camera work was supposed to be amateurish this time, as opposed to all the other times when it's been that way through sheer incompetence. (By the way, why were most of the kidnappers white? Shouldn't Teddy have outsourced the job to a few brothers from the ghetto?) As a standalone segment, this was pretty good. It's a shame that it's (indirectly) tied into the Scorpion mess and thus follows it into my junkpile for that reason alone.
  23. garretta
    Nice to see Barry back, and in buttkicking mode to boot. Arn's tremendous as always. If they were looking for a way to add heat and intrigue to the Horsemen/Doom match at Starrcade, they've certainly found it. I'm guessing that Barry was rehabbing some sort of real-life injury during his time off. I seem to remember something about broken toes earlier in the year. Or was it a knee injury? Actually, to answer my own question, it was both. According to Graham Cawthon, Barry suffered a broken bone in his left foot in Macon, Georgia on August 28 against Lex Luger, then in another match with Luger the following night in Rome, Georgia, he hyperextended his right knee and broke a few toes (no mention of which foot). In both matches, he was subbing for Sid. Other than his one-off at Havoc, I don't think he appeared from that day until now.
  24. garretta
    I specifically skipped ahead to this segment to see how they put a bow on the whole Scorpion mess after Starrcade. First of all, Flair's imitation of a sonovoxed Ole is absolutely dreadful, even as a joke. It sounds like he's either clearing his throat or barking like a dog. I kind of like the haircut, though. The promo is standard Flair gaga, but that's a massive improvement over anything and everything the Scorpion has ever said. Second, why would finding out that Flair's the Scorpion make Sting sick inside? He had to at least wonder in the back of his mind if the whole thing wasn't a Horseman mind game from beginning to end, and now he knows for sure. I could see him being angry and wanting to get Flair in the ring as himself to settle this once and for all, but sick? Maybe if it was Luger or Pillman or one of his other friends, but a known cheat and manipulator like Flair? I'm not buying it. I agree that it's a good thing the Scorpion mess is finally over (even though I still have the actual Starrcade match left to watch). What a pity that it made Sting's first title reign into a complete shambles, As excited as most fans were to see new blood win the belt in July, they're probably going to be just as relieved that it's back with Flair in a few weeks.
  25. garretta
    Arn's clearly the star of this segment, as he even gets into it briefly with his future manager Heyman. He may look like death warmed over here, but he's in plenty good enough shape to put Zenk in his place. It's not so much that Zenk's a bad promo, it's that Arn's better than just about anyone else in the game right now. The supposed "win streak" of Zenk's would have been a lot more credible if 1) he'd gotten some of those wins over main event talent and 2) we'd seen those wins on TV. I'm sure at least a few of them would have popped up on the Yearbook if this had been part of an actual Zenk push instead of an attempt to create drama for a match that has next to none on the surface. Pete mentions how Vince's head would explode if he'd heard one of his guys cut a promo like this. That's exactly why Heenan did almost all the significant talking for the Brain Busters when they were in the WWF: Tully and Arn's promo style was far too adult and competition-based for Vince, while Heenan knew how to get heat the way Vince wanted it gotten. Of course, the fans were so busy chanting "Weasel" at Heenan the second he showed his face that it really didn't matter how good at getting heat Tully and Arn were or how they got it.
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