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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    This question is for anyone who watched this in real time: Who did you think the Million Dollar Team's mystery partner might be? Someone who was returning? A major defection from WCW? I didn't have much of an idea myself, but given that problems were already brewing between Teddy and Virgil on house shows, if they hadn't landed Taker I could see Virgil being the mystery partner and costing Teddy a fall in some way. (The match I'm referring to was in Greensboro on October 28, according to Graham Cawthon, Virgil cost Teddy a match against Dusty and choked Teddy out with a towel when he objected afterward.) I'm not sure they felt the need to explain the Grand Finale; it was supposed to be the same as all the other elimination matches except for the possibly uneven sides. I would have liked the winners to split some sort of cash prize just to make things a bit more interesting, but what do immortals like Hogan and Warrior need with money anyway? They do what they do for their fans and the greater glory of Vince! I find it interesting that this is the only year that they had a grand finale; this was probably so they could end the night with Hogan and Warrior standing united as one. I'll watch the match for review purposes soon, but as I recall it wasn't much of a competitive bout even though the heels had a two-man advantage and a full team (the Visionaries) on their side. The egg didn't exactly get a ton of hype here either; I wonder exactly when Vince settled on the Gobbledygooker as what was going to hatch. The promos here were standard, with plenty of uses of "survive", "survival", etc. to pound us over the head with the idea that this was indeed the Survivor Series. Hogan sounded a bit subdued, and, in a real headscratcher, the Warriors got no mic time at all. The Hulkamaniacs/Disasters match is clearly supposed to be the main event among the known matches.
  2. garretta
    I highly doubt Vince saw anything serious whatsoever in Buddy, Kevin, especially with that look. For all we know, he was brought into the company mainly for this commercial, with whatever matches they got out of him a bonus for Vince and a payday for him. The commercial itself is surprisingly good for a parody. Not necessarily funny, but well done. It's a pity that Vince couldn't let his booking be this creative as well.
  3. garretta
    Excellent work here by Warrior. They've finally succeeded in making him relatable to the average fan, but it's too little too late. If you'll notice, there's no paint at all on Warrior's face here. Maybe this look and attitude could have sustained him a bit longer if they'd thought of it beforehand. At the very least, they could have done the Hogan/Warrior Mania rematch they'd obviously been planning for a year, with Hogan getting his win back. Where that would have left Sarge or the Savage retirement angle I have no idea.
  4. garretta
    First of all, where was Sherri? Maybe since Randy wasn't actually wrestling, Vince didn't want to have to pay her just for an interview segment. How cheap van you get if that's the case? They're supposed to be a duet. At any rate, other than being carried in on a throne (which was a nice touch), there wasn't much royalty about this interview. I've always gotten the feeling that Randy didn't really put his heart into being king, unlike Race and Haku, he already had an established character, and the whole king routine sort of crimped his style a bit. He made allowances for it from time to time, but he never let you forget that you were watching the Macho Man, no matter what Vince chose to call him. Sherri, on the other hand, was a better queen than any of the kings were a king, if you know what I mean. She topped Heenan as the "royal mouthpiece" by a comfortable margin, and that's not easy to do. I enjoy Mean Gene's chemistry with Randy; the two of them just seem to fit together, and Gene knows how to get the best out of the character more than any other interviewer, including guys like Brother Love. This may be one for the "WWF/E Linguistic Quirks" thread: When they refer to the incident where Sherri slapped Warrior, no matter who talks about it, they almost always say she slapped him "not once, not twice, but three times". I have no idea why Vince wanted it drawn out like that, but it's one of those things where he's almost literally speaking through others, and it's kind of creepy. Same thing with "hiding behind Sherri's skirts", though that doesn't come up as often. Savage wasn't hurt, at least hurt enough to miss time; he wrestled the night before Survivor Series in Providence, beating Warrior by countout. Apparently there just wasn't a place for him on the card, hard as it is to believe.
  5. garretta
    I didn't pick up the Modern Day Warrior reference either, Kevin, and I was listening for it. Warrior was the star of this segment, managing to hype not only his team's match, but also the Grand Finale and the Gobbledygooker's egg, which no one else has done yet. A rare bit of humor from Warrior too, as he threatens to scramble whatever hatches out of the egg if it looks like Brother Love. I think they're subtly starting to build up to Warrior ending Brother Love's career in the spring, as he destroys the podium seemingly at random, and Brother Love continues to antagonize Warrior every chance he gets, even more so than his usual guests. By the way, Prichard shouldn't have taken the neckbrace off for this segment; this was (presumably) still being taped in Indianapolis, and the crowd had seen him with the brace in the other two segments taped that night (for 11/3 and 11/10). I guess you could call it a bit of a nitpick, especially since he sold the DDT so well in the other two segments, but it's little slips like this that take away whatever semblance of reality the WWF has left at this point.
  6. garretta
    Not much to add, really. I didn't think the Demos had too much trouble talking in the masks, although I did notice that they didn't have paint on underneath. I don't think they would have been nearly as scary or as iconic simply wearing masks; no one wore facepaint in quite the same way as Demolition, and I think that distinct look helped them get over so big. It surprises me that Crush was as good as he was here; he's improved a lot since he came on the scene a couple of months ago, which is to be expected when you're working closely with a master promo like Bill Eadie. Notice how convenient it is that the upcoming ruling that in essence suspends Ax for life is handed down after Survivor Series. I guess they didn't want to have to put either Fuji or Heenan in a pay-per-view match at this late stage of their careers, although Heenan had filled in for Tully at Survivor Series the year before and Fuji would be donning the tights alongside the Orients quite a bit in the months ahead. Speaking of Heenan, where was he during this segment?
  7. garretta
    This is a well-done segment, but Brother Love should have been out of action for this taping, which would have been aired 11/3, 11/10, and 11/17. Then he could have returned (with a neckbrace, of course) to second Taker at Survivor Series. The Brain could have been a guest host and done this segment all by himself. Honestly, Prichard screamed a little too much to be believable, both in terms of the segment and his own "injury"; Heenan showed much better fake emotion. The only thing missing was an "off-camera" moment with the two of them laughing about what suckers the audience (including Bossman and his mother, presumably) was, but I guess they wanted to portray Heenan as desperate to avoid his matches with Bossman and thus willing to be "sincere" as only he can be. I must admit seeing Bobby and Brother Love on their knees together made me smile.
  8. garretta
    I really don't have much to add to this. Even if Vince didn't have the plan in place for Warrior to drop the belt at the Rumble yet, surely he wasn't going to last past Mania VII, which still makes this intro a bit late to say the least. I wonder how long they kept it once Hogan was on top again.
  9. garretta
    Apparently Stan's given up tobacco on interviews, though Paul still didn't want to get spit on. That's the best wrestling-related news I've heard all day! I liked how Stan put over the Madman; he certainly didn't have to, since other than having Luger as a common enemy the two of them have nothing to do with each other. I think a Stan/Heyman combination could have made quite a few waves, but they're also effective as temporary, reluctant allies. I wish Stan's schedule would have allowed him to do more as U.S. champion, because he's starting to fit in with WCW well now that he's less of a cartoon.
  10. garretta
    This whole bunch of segments was ridiculous. Half a million bucks for a singles match to determine if you get a tag team title shot? I wouldn't pay that much for a tag team title shot itself, especially if I'm a six-time World singles champion like Flair. The yacht and limo bit is just as bad, and this whole sequence is out of character for Flair who, Horsemen aside, has been all about individual glory, not tag team glory. Half a million or the limo and boat for a shot at Sting? That would have been a memorable main event no matter when or where it was held, and if they wanted to do a segment like this, those should have been the stakes. Let Barry and Arn fight Doom, and either ditch the Scorpion crap altogether or blow it off for good at the Clash, with Flair/Sting possessions vs. title headlining Starrcade. Also, Teddy's acting like too much of a punk around Flair. During an actual match, when you're trying to inspire your team, mouthing off to Flair or even slapping him like Teddy did is understandable if not acceptable. During a segment like this, it knocks Flair off of the pedestal he still should have been on as WCW's most decorated wrestler. I agree with Loss about the green screen, and also that it took four separate segments to hash all this out. Two would have been plenty.
  11. garretta
    This would be an effective segment if we knew what Paul's problem was with Luger and why he needs a newcomer to take him out instead of just letting Hansen do it when he can spare a few moments. As it is, although Paul plays his part well, this does nothing for me. By the way, this segment should be dated 11/3.
  12. garretta
    I didn't care for this one. I understood it fine, unlike a lot of lucha matches, but I didn't like it. The terrible DQs in the first two falls ruined it for me; if you're going to book two screwjob finishes to build to a future bout, at least make them good. Have one of the guys use a chair or the ring bell, or clothesline the referee, or have four guys come out of the audience and interfere. The second fall was actually worse than the first; you couldn't even manufacture intent on Satanico's part, and to make things worse, what ref hasn't taken blows ten times worse and never faltered? If you as a booker only want to give the audience one fall of decent action, book a one-fall match. Don't pad the match with two extra "falls" that you're only going to ruin through paper-thin DQs. The third fall was decent enough, and I applaud Satanico for bleeding to help the cause, but this was a major disappointment. Even though I didn't understand much of the prematch, I could feel the scorn coming from Satanico as he addressed Dandy. By the way, what was Atlantis doing there? Dandy didn't use him as a second for the match or anything, at least as far as I could tell. Nice devil outfit on Satanico's ring girl. It seems like something Vince would have come up with so the audience knew that Satanico really was Satan himself come to earth.
  13. garretta
    This one should have aired. Somehow, someway, this one should have aired. It was that good. I'm not one who analyzes every spot to see how crisply it's executed, so unless a wrestler flat out stops dead in his tracks in the middle of a move, I don't tend to see botches. To me, this looked as it should have except for the rope break, and that could have been included too as long as it was fixed before the third fall, which it was. I think WWE Home Video must have cut the supposed "fit" Bret and Jim threw about the broken rope, because I didn't see any foot-stomping or hear any swearing or screaming from either of them. Honestly, if I hadn't read this thread, I wouldn't have known anything was wrong other than the obvious. Anyway, both teams here broke out new moves for the occasion, and this really gave the bout a different flavor than the paint-by-numbers matches that were becoming all too common in the WWF by then. The Harts seemed determined to make Marty and Shawn look as good as they could in victory, and they accomplished that. This might be the best Rockers match I've seen, definitely on a par with their stuff against Buddy Rose and Doug Somers in the AWA. I've seen the Harts look better over the years, but they did their part as well as could be expected. I especially liked the spot where they invert their "partner slam", which usually involved the Anvil slamming Bret on top of a prone opponent. It was nice to see Bret attempt it with Jim, and he did it fairly easily to boot. I also give Bret credit for finding a way to execute the Hart Attack as well as he did to end the second fall. I'll admit that he looked a little unsure at first, but he figured things out quickly enough. I thought the deciding fall finish was quite inventive, and the type of finish that tag team specialists such as the Rockers would come up with. I've always heard that the reason the match didn't air wasn't the broken rope so much as that Vince decided to rehire Neidhart, whom he'd canned before that particular taping. Bret was supposed to start another singles push right after this, and he wasn't happy that Vince decided to keep the belts with the Harts. I can't figure out why Vince didn't air the match somewhere or other and let the Rockers keep the titles; if it was too long for NBC, make it a special feature match on Superstars. It would have taken up about half the program, but so what? (I know that this was a Challenge taping, but Vince would have undoubtedly commandeered this for the A show regardless.) This would have given the Rockers about a four-month title reign before they dropped the belts to the Nasties at Mania VII; after that, we could have seen the slow build of the breakup angle throughout the summer, as we did in real life. The Harts did nothing special with the titles while they held them anyway, mostly because no heel teams were set up to challenge them. There was a half-hearted feud with Rhythm and Blues, but that was as good as it got. No Power and Glory (at least on TV), no Orient Express, no Faces of Fear (who, you'll remember, lost to the Rockers at Mania VII), nothing. They didn't even give Demolition a televised rematch. This is my WWF tag match of the year, and it has the honor of unseating Garvin/Valentine for number three on my overall WWF ballot, mostly because it was a title change whether Vince chose to recognize it at the time or not.
  14. garretta
    This was number three of the big three tag matches at Havoc. I was impressed by Ric and Arn's work; while they weren't exactly a new team, they were new at working a standard tag match rather than a "common enemies match" against two singles faces, and they were excellent, like they'd been teaming for years. Doom worked as the faces because there was no other choice; if the Horsemen had been adopted by the crowd in this bout, there was always a chance that it could have spilled over to the other Horseman with a match that night, who of course was Sid. That would have meant that Sting might have had to work heel, which would have put the final nail in an already leaky title reign. Besides, Simmons was surprisingly good at being FIP, and it gave the Horsemen a chance to show off their tag team skills. The crowd wasn't exactly alive for this until the end, as JR is forced to point out. The only thing they could have done to get the crowd behind one of the teams was have Simmons and Reed dump Teddy Long and go full babyface, and that would have broken up a money act. It took until the impressive run of nearfalls at the end to wake them up, and the double countout finish soured them all over again. I realize that this feud had a ways to go, but a shock title switch might not have been a bad idea. Of course, that would have meant that Flair couldn't have been the Black Scorpion at Starrcade, but I think the world could have gone on spinning without that just fine. I liked Teddy slapping Flair just for the shock value of it. It didn't get Simmons and Reed any sympathy, but it established the fact that they were going to stand up to Flair in particular and not be on tiptoe around him just because he was a former six-time World champion. JR and Heyman were slightly more tolerable as a unit after a rough beginning, but as long as JR was going over Simmons and Reed's football histories, how about a word or two concerning Reed's history with Flair from Mid-South and Florida, where Hacksaw was one of the top contenders for the World title? It just added to an overall off night for JR, although he could have been hurt here because he was a face-leaning announcer with no faces to cheer for. This was good for what it was, which was a lot, but it was nowhere near the other two Havoc tag matches we saw. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the feud unfold, though.
  15. garretta
    I'm glad I'm not doing rankings beyond the top three in each promotion or country, because it's hard sometimes to tell these six-mans apart. That's not a bad thing at all, as you know you're going to get a great match every time Misawa and his friends take on Jumbo and his friends. But it makes it hard for me to say, "I like this aspect of this match better than that aspect of that match." This reminds me in so many ways of the Jumbo/Tenryu feud; the entertainment factor's off the charts, but it's like trying to break down the chapters of a book individually; is Chapter 4 of a mystery better than Chapter 8 when the "book" plays out over multiple volumes and we're only now getting familiar with the ancillary characters, at least some of them? Anyway, the MVP of this match was definitely Kobashi; it wasn't just that he took a ton of punishment, it was where he took it and how he responded to it. I can't imagine what its like to wrestle a match, particularly one as intense as this was, with a broken nose. But he not only managed it, he thrived in spite of it. He took all of Jumbo's best offense in rapid succession and managed to kick out at the last second at least three separate times before he was finally pinned, and before that he had Jumbo on the run from his own offense for quite a few minutes. That's the main thing I like about these matches; they're truly back-and-forth contests, with neither side getting a sustained advantage for very long and no one looking like they're outclassed. Yes, the classic Southern tag formula is great as well, but it would be tough for any one man to sustain a beating for twenty minutes of a thirty-minute match like this one and still have the match come off as believable. I'm sure it's happened, but it's pretty rare. We saw just enough of Misawa/Jumbo to whet the appetite for Round 3, and Kawada and Taue are developing quite a neat little shadow rivalry; I loved their spots in the crowd, and the work done on Taue's back by Misawa's side was just as vicious as that done by the Nasties against Scott Steiner, though they didn't sustain it for nearly as long. This was probably the best of the three Misawa/Jumbo six-mans we've seen so far, but I still like the forty-five minute tag draw the best out of every match in the whole series, singles bouts included. It certainly did what it was designed to do, though, which is leave the people wanting to see more of Misawa/Jumbo as a main course, with a side dish of Kawada/Taue. Count me in for that combo meal!
  16. garretta
    Anyone who says the Nasties couldn't work after seeing this bout knows nothing about wrestling, period. This was definitely the best tag match of the year so far in North America, and they're the reason why. We all know what the Steiners can do, but they're at their best when they have an opponent who can match them move for move and bump for bump, and the Nasties not only match them, they surpass them, at least in this bout. Their work on Scotty's back is first rate, and they don't let the brawling sequences which flare up from time to time distract them from it. After Sags' attempted superplex in the opening seconds, that work is done with basic moves, but those moves are executed so crisply that they seem extra brutal. They really come across as monsters from the streets who are scared of nothing, as evidenced when Sags is busted open by a chair shot from Rick and calmly comes back up to the apron ready to go a few moments later. I think we should have gotten a "By God!" from JR for that, but he only acknowledges it in passing, and only after Heyman registers shock. This isn't one of his best pay-per-views, and he almost seems legitimately angry about having to work with Paul instead of Bob Caudle or Gordon Solie. Just because the Nasties do most of the work doesn't mean that the Steiners don't shine. Scotty's not a Ricky Morton-level FIP, but he's good under these circumstances, and he and Rick still get to bust out their big moves. I find it hard to believe that Paul had never seen the top-rope bulldog before, but that's a nitpick. My two favorite spots from the Steiners were the front-and-back Steinerlines off the top from Rick that laid both Nasties out and the Frankensteiner that ended the match. Was it a botch, was it a receipt, or was it a new version of the move designed to look more impactful? Whichever it was, it drew a gasp from me, and I don't gasp when watching wrestling much anymore. Credit to Knobbs (I think) for taking it and getting back up for the postmatch attack. What made that attack more memorable than the standard sore loser routine was the Pearl Harbor job on Scotty at the interview platform. Having Knobbs dress up as a vendor was a truly inspired bit of business, and whoever came up with it deserved a raise. Maybe I'm too used to "AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, HE'S BROKEN IN HALF!" level stuff from JR, but I think he undersold this criminally. Heyman's glee more than made up for it, though. You wonder if he would have ended up managing the Nasties if they'd stuck around; it sure seemed here like things were headed that way. The topper actually comes right before we go to the ring for the World tag title match, when JR's had enough of Paul's attitude and snaps, "Are you gonna say something intelligent or just stand there laughing like an idiot?" Maybe they were going for a Monsoon/Heenan vibe with these two, but even that team suffered when Gino forgot himself and started screaming at Bobby too much. The fun is gone from this kind of announce team when the babyface starts bullying the heel and showing anger with him; either JR didn't understand that or didn't give a damn, and all he succeeded in doing was making Heyman look as sympathetic as the Paul E. Dangerously character could look (which wasn't very much at all, but my point still stands). They either needed to put JR with a straight color man or tell him to not worry so much about the match in the ring (which, as Heenan has since pointed out, the viewers can see for themselves and don't necessarily need to be told about), and learn to be wrestling's version of Bud Abbott. At any rate, this is my Match of the Year so far, displacing Flair/Luger at WrestleWar. It had a clean finish, more hatred, and a postmatch that was rare for its creativity at the time. For that matter, the amount of rule stretching during the match (chairshots and such) was rare for a match that wasn't billed as a street fight. I wish we had more matches between these teams, and I'm sorry that the Nasties never came close to having a match like this in the WWF, at least from what I can remember.
  17. garretta
    I've never seen one of these actually end on points before, so this was something new. I liked how the match was built around each man avoiding the other's best weapon: Takada's feet and Fujiwara's head. Takada is knocked down twice by Fujiwara's head early, and it gets to the point where he locks up with one hand on Fujiwara's head to stop any more lethal headbutts. Nice touch. It's a shame no "normal" wrestlers used the headbutt to the side of the head and neck the way Fujiwara did here; they always clashed forehead to forehead, which might have looked more impressive but no doubt left fans wondering why you'd take a chance on hurting your own head by clashing it full force with your opponents' head. Fujiwara may have the most twisted grin I've ever seen on a professional wrestler. This man enjoys his work for sure, probably too much for his own good. I know all wrestlers sweat to a degree, but it's really noticeable with these guys, especially since there's so much of a struggle for each hold. Unfortunately, while we saw plenty of sweat and underarm hair, we missed several major strikes and at least one knockdown that I remember. The people filming these matches need to stay on the ball at all times. Speaking of which, I'm not sure if it was a slip on the ref's part or fast maneuvering by Fujiwara, but Takada clearly knocked him down once and received no credit for it, and Fujiwara clearly grabbed the ropes at least once to break a hold, then let go. I guess if you make your way up before the ref can start his count or take your hand off the ropes, as Fujiwara did, it's not really a knockdown or a rope break.
  18. garretta
    The youngster Funaki gives it his all and has Maeda on the run for the first part of this, but the master slowly wears him down, dominates for a while, then gets the win with a choke. I'm not exactly sympatico with shoot style, but I admire how focused it is on limbwork. In almost every match, there's a concerted effort by both performers to injure an arm or a leg and force their opponent to either tap out or continue minus a point of balance. In a world where "regular" pro wrestling is becoming dominated more and more by either highspots or hardcore brawling, this is a refreshing change.
  19. garretta
    This one felt a bit clunky in spots, but it still delivered. I think Takano's being positioned to be Tenryu's main rival, as he doesn't back down from the veteran and spends the first half of the match taking the fight to him, for better or worse. But he's eventually worn down, and Tenryu prevails, though not as easily as you might think. Takano busts out both some shoot-style stuff and a bit of his old junior heavyweight Cobra offense, all of which looks good (except for his missed dive over the top to the outside, of course). The ankle injury thing seemed a bit strange. If they wanted to do an injury spot, why not do it earlier in the match so Takano could work it a little? Could Tenryu have possibly legitimately turned his ankle outside? Considering some of the dives he was doing, it's not impossible. I noticed that there was barely any English commentary, which makes sense with two native Japanese in the ring. The English speaker managed to get in what's becoming a standard line about the temperature, which was once again over forty degrees Celsius, in case anyone was curious. Who was the girl the broadcast kept showing? Was it a wrestler, a beauty queen, or some other type of national celebrity?
  20. garretta
    I agree, Pete, although it would have been neat to see Piper have Sarge's exact run (minus the Iraqi sympathizer garbage). It turned out for the best, though, as he needed to have his hip fixed and wouldn't have been able to wrestle at Mania anyway. If he'd tried to tough it out, his match wouldn't have been much to write home about, and Warrior in particular might have injured him worse, if only by accident.
  21. garretta
    Of course the angle was tremendous, though I'd still rank what I've seen so far of Jake/Martel ahead of it, because Jake's performance has been on another level that not even the Dream can touch. But it's a shame that Dusty's going to be made to look bad on the way out. He's lost two high profile matches in a row to Savage regardless of the circumstances, and he's going to be dominated in the upcoming DiBiase feud, even jobbing to Virgil cleanly in under a minute at one point. "Time honored tradition" my ass; the man deserved to go out a winner in his last major run as an active wrestler, or at least not as such a definitive loser. But that's not the story here; the story is Teddy's beating of Dustin. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it happened here instead of on Superstars, where the blood could at least have been spoken of. This would have been a stellar angle no matter where it took place, though. Everything about it was executed to perfection. First, they went to the trouble of actually buying off the fans in the front row with money, then having Teddy and Virgil flank Dustin instead of being ejected by the refs and having to return later. The slow build and Dusty having to make the difficult choice of which sworn enemy to leave himself wide open for are what made this a classic. Eventually, he makes the only choice he possibly can, but he's too late; not only has he lost the match, but Dustin's been busted wide open. What happens after that is just as epic. Instead of running off the heels, Dusty simply covers Dustin and takes a few last kicks from Teddy and Virgil on their way out. Even though it no doubt made Dusty seem a bit wimpy to some, it gets across the message that this feud isn't just about wrestling; Teddy's out to destroy Dusty's family. First he bought Dusty's woman, now he's hurt Dustin, and the Dream can't take it anymore. The scene goes out on Dusty in tears, cradling Dustin's head. This has to be Dusty's most powerful performance since Ole, Arn, and Flair broke his leg in the cage at the Omni. It's a shame that Vince couldn't just let the scene end there without segueing to one of those stupid Oktoberfest skits he crammed down our throats all night. That aside, Vince was great here, and so was Piper. You almost wish that Rod would have let up on Dusty for being distracted by what was happening outside, but he was always a loner and never had to (or wanted to) worry about anyone but himself, so it's easy to see why he couldn't understand what Dusty was going through. He was great in the aftermath, though, promising that Dusty would get revenge on DiBiase for himself and for Dustin. As for Vince, he's been better at selling angles than calling matches for years, and that trend continues here. Truthfully, he'd be much better as a color man with Gino calling the action, but his friend Dick Ebersol, who was his partner on SNME, no doubt insisted that he do the play-by-play, not that Vince needed to have his arm twisted. Savage and Sherri do their thing as well, and I liked Randy ripping up the Warrior poster and Sherri leaning into the ring to encourage him at one point in the bout. I'm a bit surprised he didn't get at least a few licks in during the beatdown on Dusty, but the WWF only rarely permitted people not directly involved in a feud to participate in attacks and such, and the Savage/Dusty issue had really been over since SummerSlam. Awkward announcing moment: Piper goes off on a mini-tirade about female reporters in sports locker rooms, using the case of Boston Globe reporter Lisa Olson (Rod misidentifies her as Susan Olsen of Brady Bunch fame) as an example. Vince no-sells uncomfortably for a moment, then with an effort steers the conversation back to the match at hand. I have to wonder if one of the reasons that Savage was eventually added to the booth is because Vince didn't trust Rod to stay on script. In another example from this match, Piper openly contradicts Vince's storyline by flat-out stating that Warrior's afraid of Sherri. Were things like these simply a case of Piper wanting to be his own man, or did he want to turn heel, at least in the booth?
  22. garretta
    This was good for the novelty factor more than anything else. Nice to see that Ace still had something to offer as a worker, although I don't know how his projected return to the WWF would have worked out. Somehow, I can't see him getting near Warrior in anything more than a non-title TV squash, and there weren't really any hot young babyfaces that could have used whatever rub he had left to give. Memphis would have been a good spot for him, as he meshed well with Jeff here. Maybe he could have helped the faces out against Gilbert and company, although since he wasn't all that good on the mic as a face he'd have been better off as one of Eddie's cronies. The match itself wasn't anything great, but we got to see Jeff in a different atmosphere, which is interesting. I can't figure out why they spelled his name "Jallett", though. I heard Lawler's name dropped by the commentators, so they most likely acknowledged at least some of his Memphis history. He works well against both Tenryu and Kabuki, although I'd have liked to see him give Tenryu more of a scare before taking the pin. As I said earlier, Orton was solid too, particularly in his sequences against Kabuki. I liked seeing the official time clock on the screen, although it was a tad distracting at first. The English/Japanese hybrid announcing is another matter altogether, it was just enough of the worst of both to sound awful. I noticed that the referee was Caucasian, so my hypothesis about Vince sending potential employees to work over in Japan as a sort of audition appears to be holding water for now. I got a chuckle out of the "Exciting Announcer" graphic.
  23. garretta
    This bout was too methodical to be the grudge match that they were obviously looking for. Uncle Ivan did some nice work on Nikita's back, but I really didn't get a sense of hatred from him, despite Bruno's best efforts to give him one on commentary. Nikita started off fast and ended with the figure four, but did diddly squat in between. They tried to save this with Ivan's attack on the referee and a short postmatch brawl, but it was too late, at least for me. The two matches from October are the only two matches we'll see from Abrams on this set, which shows you how lacking the promotion was as far as in-ring action. When the best thing to come out of a promotion was the halfhearted Piper's Pit imitation that was Captain Lou's Corner, it's obvious why the promotion failed. The only good thing about it was that we actually got to hear Bruno do some decent commentary for a change instead of searching in vain for something intelligent to say during Vince's replays.
  24. garretta
    Let's face it; this was basically a handicap match until the very end, and it was perhaps the best handicap match I've ever seen. The MX didn't know they were finished yet, but the time wasn't far away, so they really turned up the intensity, and Ricky was right there to meet them. So many great moves by Stan and Bobby here: Bobby's slingshot backbreaker, Bobby's combination DDT and Diamond Cutter, and of course the rocket launcher on the ramp. Ricky took one last beating like the Hall of Famer he is, complete with extra-vicious racquet shots from Corny. Once Rich tagged in and the Southern Boys got involved, though, it all went to hell. Why book such a silly run-in? If it had been the racquets carried by Smothers and/or Armstrong that caused Rich to get the fall, then it would have been tolerable. As it was, Tommy pinned Lane after hitting him with Corny's racquet, which he could have done without Tracy and Steve's help. So the finish didn't really advance the Southern Boys/MX program, it cheapened Ricky's last match with the MX, and it didn't really do much for Morton and Rich as a team, since the win was portrayed as a complete fluke. That's a hell of a trifecta. I loved Heyman on commentary here. Other than taunting Ricky from time to time about Robert not being there for him, he played it totally straight, giving the MX props for their excellent work and correctly pointing out Morton and Rich's inexperience as a team on several occasions. He even grudgingly praises his sworn enemy Corny. JR didn't react much one way or the other, preferring to call the match essentially by himself. There had to be at least some awkwardness between the two; early in the bout, when Paul demanded that JR praise Eaton for a clean break, we got nothing but stony silence. Usually we get at least a reply of some sort. You can tell me all you want to about JR playing babyface to Heyman's heel, but Paul didn't really play the heel here, so I'm not buying it. It'll be interesting to hear the dynamic between them in the other two Havoc matches we have here. This was a great opener. Hopefully the rest of the card lives up to it.
  25. garretta
    It was hard to get into this one, even though what I saw looked good. I'm much more into storytelling than how the in-ring portion of a match looks; Bobby Eaton could be out there bumping his ass off for everyone but Bob Caudle, but if that bumping doesn't mean anything in the big picture going forward, it does nothing for me. In other words, I knew going in (even from a 1990 perspective) that the Steiners were WCW's new Road Warriors, and that their big feud with the Nasties was getting blown off at Havoc, so there was no way that the MX were going to be allowed to really look good against them, and they didn't. There was no real sense that the belts were in any danger, so all the offense of the MX was just a bunch of gymnastics. When push came to shove, the Steiners still ran them over and looked damn near unstoppable doing so. When Rick kicked out of Corny's racquet shot, which seldom happened, everyone in the world knew that the jig was up. From a work perspective, it was the Steiners showcasing the awesome moves: Scott's double underhook powerbomb (which JR could barely call), the top rope bulldog, and a sweet-looking finish that I'd never seen before. Usually in an MX match, it's Stan and Bobby busting out the innovations. Line of the match: Bob saying that an MX win would "throw a wrench into the monkeyworks" for Halloween Havoc. Hey, it works that way too! I liked how JR and Bob briefly teased MX/Nasties several times, and if we hadn't seen the Nasties attack the Steiners so brutally, I might have bought that it was possible for the MX to pull the upset. It's interesting that they set it up so the MX would have inherited the Steiners' obligation to give the Nasties a US title shot instead of simply making their own match with Morton and Rich into a US title match. I guess that was a clue to who was going over here for those who knew enough to see it. I'm guessing that would have left us with Steiners/Morton-Rich at Havoc under that scenario. I know that they had to promote the Omni cards, since TBS was still a local Atlanta station at this time in addition to being a nationwide superstation. But hearing about matches like the Eaton/Sid taped fist match, which I had no opportunity to see living in Pittsburgh, would have frustrated the hell out of my fifteen year-old self in 1990. (For the record, that match never took place. According to Graham Cawthon, Luger subbed for Bobby and beat Sid in a straight-up match which I assume was for the US title.)
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