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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    I didn't care for this one much. This felt like a Flair/Pillman singles bout with Zenk and Arn thrown in for good measure. The chop exchanges between Flair and Pillman are all this one really has to recommend it, as Flair and Arn had almost no continuity in what was supposed to be a bout that showed off their skills as a team. Yes, Pete, the DQ was weak, but they needed to end the match and get to Flair and Arn's brawl with Doom. Unfortunately, we saw less than fifteen seconds of it before the feed went to break. How Loss could tell what kind of heat the thing had in fifteen seconds I have no idea. (I'm talking after the initial expected pop when Simmons and Reed showed up out of nowhere.) I would have been more interested in Tony's interview with Jack Brickhouse than anything that we got out of this match. I'll bet Jack had some wonderful stories to tell, even if they were all kayfabed. Nice mention by Tony of Flair's past as a tag team champion, even if it was kind of glossed over in order to plug his World title reigns (which was perfectly understandable). Has Arn defended the TV title since the Horsemen turned heel? If he has, I wonder why you guys didn't include at least one or two of those matches on the set.
  2. garretta
    And so we have the build to a hair match that, as far as we know, never took place. This was a rather chaotic segment, as it seems that everyone but Craig barely avoids getting a haircut. Toni carrying Jeannie's hair around like she does here seems a bit off-kilter. Usually it's the heels who brag in that fashion, like Ken Patera and John Studd did after they cut Andre's hair years ago. I wonder if Toni kept those locks of hair like Studd supposedly did; the story goes that Big John kept the hair he cut from Andre during that angle long after it turned gray. Nice to see Chris working with the "We Want Jeannie!" chant that started during his squash. I honestly couldn't tell if it was a splinter faction who honestly wanted to see Jeannie get revenge on Toni or if it was a group who wanted to see Toni finish the job on her. Given how Chris and Toni have been acting lately, I suppose it could go either way. CVE more than likely came back to this feud in some form or fashion once Kevin's promotion took over from Jarrett. I realize that all five of the people involved had ties to Texas and probably didn't want to move, but with a little explanation and a few well-done video packages, this feud could have gotten over in Memphis. The only thing Jarrett would have had to watch out for is not to turn Austin face accidentally with too many prolonged beatdowns on Adams. Maybe a valets tag would have sold: Jeannie and Kim vs. Toni and Vicious Vicki. Ah, the possibilities............ And that's it until January. Apparently Craig came to Memphis for a while as a house show announcer, if I read right. Can't wait to hear how he does!
  3. garretta
    You knew that when these two started out slowly and JR mentioned the time limit, this was going the distance. There are a few nice exchanges in this, but nothing earth-shattering. In overtime, Stan comes out and distracts Ricky, allowing Bobby to knee him from behind and score the pin. You mean to tell me that Gibson (who was presumably in the building and watching) saw Lane come out and didn't come out himself? Once again, the top babyfaces in WCW are made to look like total nitwits by the booking. I get that having Gibson out there would make the booked finish ridiculous, since he would have been expected to go after Lane, but surely that's not the only way Bobby could have gone over. Then again, this promotion can't even book its main moneymaking angle (the Scorpion) believably, so why should we expect it to be smart when it comes to what's basically a gimmick match/series that features midcarders and tag wrestlers? Nice to see Terry Taylor after his one-shot in Texas a month or so back. It sounds like he was going to be a babyface-leaning commentator before the York Foundation came along. They really need to stop hyping one possible matchup over the other when it comes to the gauntlet. JR and Bob spend so much time discussing Eaton/Sid that it's obvious who's going over. They never once mention even the possibility of Morton/Sid, even though that would be the traditional face/heel matchup.
  4. garretta

    Matches of the month

    garretta replied to Loss's topic in 1990

    I better get a few of these down while I'm thinking of it. Sorry I've been so lax. Rankings are through August, as I'm about halfway through September: WCW: 1. Flair/Luger (WrestleWar) 2. Midnight Express/Southern Boys (GAB) 3. Rock 'n' Roll/MX (WrestleWar) USWA Texas: 1. Adams/Austin (Barbed Wire, 5-11) 2. Kerry/Borne (5/11) 3. Jarrett/Travis (January, Guitar on a Pole) Japan: 1. Doc/Hansen 2. Liger/Sano 3. Misawa/Jumbo (6/8) Overall: 1. Flair/Luger (WrestleWar) 2. Liger/Sano 3. Misawa/Jumbo (6/8)
  5. garretta
    What I want to know is how fast Vince had to think on his feet to come up with the stuff about Atlas being proud of his heritage and legally changing his name. I'm almost sure he didn't mean for there to be any connection between Saba Simba and Tony Atlas until Piper started in; you can tell that we're supposed to believe that this is a totally new wrestler who's never competed in the WWF before. I can almost picture Vince making the remark about Piper wearing a kilt while holding up a card that only Piper could see saying "SHUT THE HELL UP OR YOU'RE FIRED!" Piper goes into obedient shill mode quick, fast, and in a hurry, although he does get in one last zinger about the headgear, which looks absolutely ridiculous. One other question: Why not simply dub in new commentary, with Heenan filling in if necessary? They could have made up some excuse for Piper's temporary absence. Maybe Vince felt he needed to give at least passing acknowledgment to Atlas's past, since the magazines would no doubt reveal his true identity soon enough.
  6. garretta
    This was an "excuse match", as in a match that's an excuse to run an angle. Unfortunately, the angle they ran really had nothing to do with either of the participants, so it was kind of pointless. If they were going to paint anyone, it should have been Dundee, not Brickhouse. If they were going to run an angle with Brickhouse, he should have been the one wrestling Anthony. (Brickhouse is one ugly broad, by the way.) Aside from all that foolishness, the camerawork was atrocious. We didn't need a lingering shot of Kim while the action was going on, and whoever was directing missed way too much of the postmatch beatdown. Danny Davis gets busted open and we don't see it, Jerry Calhoun gets waylaid by Eddie and we don't see it, Sam Lowe comes over to gloat to Dave and we don't see it. Instead, we see every last detail of Kim painting Brickhouse's face, which could have been left to a surprise reveal at the end. Bad, bad directing choices, and worse yet, none of this really went anywhere because of the USWA title tournament, which took up the next two weeks if you count the number one contender's round robin. I guess they wanted to do something shocking to promote the show's time change; they were on an hour earlier for several weeks in the fall due to a commitment to air Notre Dame football. (It wasn't the NBC network package that still airs to this day, that didn't start until '91. They might have been the local Memphis station that aired the games in syndication that year.)
  7. garretta
    I liked this one a lot, and it's a good appetizer for future Southern Boys/MX bouts that never happened, as far as I can tell. This was a pretty even bout until the end. I agree with Heyman; why would Tracy go up top to finish Eaton off when he knew there was a broken rope? It was a stupid move both in a kayfabe sense and in a real-life sense. Fortunately, he didn't kill himself, no thanks to Corny. Bobby didn't need to grab the tights to make sure of the pin, but he did just because, which is a classic heel move. Nice interplay between JR and Paul here, as I guess JR decided to be sociable this week. Again, I'm impressed with Paul as a match analyst, although two guys giving Corny a hard time about anything and everything was a bit hard to take. I tried to get a good look at Corny's tie to figure out where the FFA (Future Farmers of America) crack came from, but I couldn't manage it. Nice to hear Paul gush about Bobby even when he can't stand Corny. The bit about Paul securing an interview with the Black Scorpion made me smile, knowing how much Ole despised Heyman in real life. It could have very well developed into WCW's version of David Shultz and John Stossel, all right. (Nice zinger, JR!) I thought JR was doing so well with the football references, then he starts picking on Alabama out of nowhere right in the middle of the action. At least wait for a resthold, JR. Can't wait for Morton/Eaton!
  8. garretta
    I don't know what disgusted me more: Bull getting screwed by an incompetent referee, or the fact that Aja spends half the bout beating the hell out of Bull's leg with a trashcan, only for Bull to be moving around as well as she ever has like nothing happened. Yes, there was a gash on her leg, but it didn't appear to bother her one bit. I also noticed that the ref got beaten up with no consequences whatsoever. If the guy isn't going to enforce the rules, what the hell's he doing in the cage to begin with? The fact that he was beaten up by two ladies, albeit the two toughest ladies in the promotion, isn't going to help his career any. No wonder AJW went to escape-only rules for its cage matches. (Personally, I think that's the way all cage matches should be. Cage matches are one of the few things where the WWF had it right and the Southern promotions had it wrong. If two people hate each other enough to fight in a cage, I want to see who's tougher and can take more of a beating, not who the better wrestler is.) I'm with Soup; after the athleticism and skill shown in the first few joshi bouts, things have taken a significant downturn with the introduction of Aja and Bull. Hopefully, business picks up again in the near future.
  9. garretta
    Hashimoto starts fast, including a bodyslam, and ends fast. The rest of this is all Vader. I don't think this finish was all that cheap, considering the pounding Hash took. I clearly got the sense that he was lucky, but he was also smart enough to avoid an obviously telegraphed avalanche against the post. They sure weren't going to have Vader beaten clean, so if they wanted a victory for his opponent to build a feud, it was either this or some kind of DQ. I was surprised that Hash got to slam Vader so early in the match. Most promotions would have saved a spot like that for closer to the end, when it would have brought down the house.
  10. garretta
    Two things stand out about this match for me: 1. The frightful beating that Kobashi took. The suplex off the apron to the floor was bad enough, but what about Kawada executing a picture-perfect running powerslam on the floor? I've never seen it done like that before, and Kobashi's lucky he wasn't legitimately hurt. That he was able to get back in the ring afterward and finish the match shows just how tough he is, both kayfabe-wise and in real life. 2. Misawa and Kawada's teamwork. I saw Kevin's comment that Ace and Kenta were the better team, but I disagree. If Misawa and Kawada were wrestling in America, they would have been hailed as revolutionary with the kinds of double teams they busted out. Not just one, but four or five over the course of the bout. I'm sure they'll get better from here, and that's scary, because they already look like one of the top working tag teams in the world. If they'd been teaming a little more regularly. I'd call them the second-best team I've seen this year behind the MX. What we saw here was great, and I have no doubt the full bout would have been a serious contender for my Japan "ballot". Hope to see more from these teams in the future!
  11. garretta
    This is another one that was joined in progress originally, as opposed to being clipped especially for the set. I really don't know what to make of this. Everything just seemed off; from the announcing to the offense to the finish. It almost seems like Tenryu wanted to have a shoot-style element to SWS, because I've never seen a so-called "regular" wrestling match end because a wrestler couldn't get up after repeated kicks to the head. It also seemed as if the finish should have come before it did; Tenryu noticeably stops kicking Takagi several times as if waiting for the ref to count Takagi out, then resumes when he realizes that that's not going to happen. It could have been a planned spot, but it looked way too tentative and awkward regardless. As for the commentary, whoever was doing it had to be auditioning for Vince. There was no other explanation for the constant going back and forth between Japanese and English, which I've never heard before in quite that way. Now, why Vince would want a native Japanese announcer, even for the co-promotions he did with SWS, I have no idea. Come to think of it, the commercials we saw at the start of the segment were written in English too for whatever reason, though they were voiced in Japanese. I'm wondering if they were produced in Stamford, or at least with the help of WWF personnel. This was a strange bout all the way around. Maybe it was just because it was SWS's first-ever show, and the bugs will be worked out later. I'm looking forward to seeing how this promotion progresses.
  12. garretta
    This is actually joined in progress, even though we clearly have all that was broadcast of it. This was the best Fantastics performance I've seen yet, particularly from Rogers. I'm with Childs; in WCW, the Tastics were always promoted as, if not quite a minor-league version of Rock 'n' Roll, as their replacement at best, right down to feuding with the Midnights. They've shone of their own accord on this set, though, and this is the best example yet. Rogers was great, but Fulton was great when he needed to be as well, particularly on that insane flapjack that damn near broke Kikuchi's neck. I read that Matt doesn't like Kikuchi kicking out of the Tastics' offense. I don't really have much of a problem with it; he's going to be a part of Misawa's army going forward, and probably already was, so he needs to be put over as a tough guy who Jumbo and company are practically going to have to murder in cold blood to beat. Besides, he ended up taking the pin in the end, so Rogers and Futon had enough in the tank to beat him. If it had been Malenko, who wasn't involved in the promotion's big money angle, Matt would have a point, and maybe it should have been, but as it is, it's no big deal to me at all. I don't rate clipped matches as a rule, and that's a shame, because this would have knocked Hogan/Hansen out of my Japan top three with no problem. A tremendous performance by all concerned.
  13. garretta
    Like Vince, I found it kind of weird that the referees went to those lengths to protect Heenan, and that there were so many of them. Two or three would have proven the point and still "restrained" Bossman. And what on earth was Rene Goulet going to do in a suit and tie? The Power and Glory stuff had an added dimension given Herc's past in the Heenan Family, but as usual when push comes to shove, heels look out for their own interests, even if it's just squashing a pair of jobbers. I wonder if Haku or Barbarian (or even Rude himself) would have made the same choice? This was the best segment of the whole Bossman/Heenan feud without question.
  14. garretta
    More pointlessness with Rude and Bossman's mom. I still can't buy Rude as the mastermind behind all this; it would make more sense for Heenan to tell Rude what to say, not the other way around. Nice mention of Piper's previous history with Rude, especially concerning the Rude Awakening (the finisher, not the kiss), which he took at least once on national TV when Rude attacked him during The Brother Love Show.
  15. garretta
    This was a hard match for me to get into. First, Missy Hyatt on color took me right out of the moment. She was useless when Crockett tried her on color in '87 after he bought Watts out, and she's just as bad here. She gives absolutely no impression at all that she cares one fig about the match or its outcome, or is even too sure what's going on. Worse yet, JR feels compelled to play straight man for her after ignoring Heyman during the Eaton match; if that was his own decision, it flat-out stinks. When I think of how she could be an integral part of the whole Lawler/Gilbert feud in Memphis simply by doing what she's so good at (being a pot-stirring hussy) and yet chose to be misused like this, I just shake my head. As for the match, this was much like the Flair match: an intriguing matchup done in by outside interference. Pete may be right in saying that this match wasn't supposed to be part of the gauntlet, but it was presented as part of the gauntlet for a reason. What I can't figure out is what that reason is. Was this supposed to lead to a Steiners/Horsemen tag feud in case the Doom angle fizzled or produced a reaction that Ole didn't like? It sure seemed that way to me, as the next logical step is surely a match for the U.S. belts. Were they thinking about putting those belts on the Horsemen to elevate them a bit and make the Doom feud mean more? Or were they going the other way and trying to send Rick and/or Scott after Arn's TV title? Nothing came of either scenario, so we end up with a whole bunch of nothing in particular, and not a particularly well-booked bunch either. (Assuming that this was simply supposed to be a random non-title bout that was added to the gauntlet after the fact, restarting the bout after Arn's pin seems a bit too much. There had to be another idea here that was scrapped.)
  16. garretta
    An extremely physical match which you'd expect from Scotty, but not Bobby. I know they tried to push Scott as a singles star on and off for a while, and this match shows why, as he keeps up with Bobby move for move and bump for bump. I agree that the hype for Scotty/Flair practically gives away the result of this match, but you didn't really think that they'd put Flair in the gauntlet without having him wrestle, did you? He was excellent on commentary here, much more so than I remembered him being back in the eighties. I loved Heyman kissing his rear end figuratively and his hand literally. Paul was great at putting over the strategy of the bout, and you couldn't tell that he still had issues with Corny and the MX. JR was.......let's say in his own world. He could have been calling the match solo for all he paid attention to Heyman, though he did talk to Flair occasionally. I wonder if he actually asked to call matches solo at one point and was told he had to have a commentator, so he deliberately chose to freeze them out as if to say, "You may have to sit next to me, but I don't have to talk to you if I don't want to." He talked to Caudle (of course) and Corny, but not to Heyman or (apparently) to Jesse a couple of years later. His idol Gordon Solie did the same thing; he engaged with Roddy Piper on Georgia broadcasts, but from what I've heard, he barely even acknowledged his partners while doing Florida. Looking forward to Flair/Scott.
  17. garretta
    Nice reintroduction for Keirn, who's coming in to compete in the title tournament. Wouldn't this song better suit a heel? I'm assuming Keirn's coming back as a face.
  18. garretta
    A different type of interview segment here, as Lawler and Dundee each bring up their heel pasts to illustrate what they'll stoop to in order to gain the number one seed in the title tournament. Jarrett can't top that, so he just says that he'll be ready for anything. I like the subtle divisions that are made not only between the three faces, but between the veterans (Lawler and Dundee) and the youngsters (Gilbert and Jarrett). Gilbert and Jarrett each dismiss the past as irrelevant and claim to be the future of Memphis, which is what you'd expect. You get the feeling that Jarrett's not too keen on having to fight either Lawler or Dundee, both of whom are not only his friends, but have been regular partners this year on both sides of the USWA. Lawler and Dundee are long past caring one way or the other, of course, and all three want to feast on Eddie, who only gets a few seconds at the very end, but still manages to make his point. I wish some footage existed of this tournament; it would have been something to see what the three face/face matches were like. It sounds like the winning wrestler has to beat all three of the other guys in succession to win, and that the whole thing resets once someone loses. In other words, the same two guys can wrestle each other multiple times in the same night until one guy wins three straight matches. Interesting way to run a tournament, but a straight round robin would only have six matches, which is kind of short for a card unless all the matches go twenty minutes or longer. Does anyone know if any other matches were booked for that night?
  19. garretta
    I agree that this is a little bit lighter than what you'd expect after what's gone down between Lawler and Gilbert recently, but I think they needed to give the fans a bit of a break while still advancing the storyline to the best of their ability. Nice answer by Eddie, encouraging the members of his fan club to spraypaint nice things about him on the car. I also liked him encouraging the ring girls to stay out at the desk during his interview. I liked the DJ's line about Gilbert needing the last rites after the coal miner's glove match with Lawler at the Catholic high school. That's a tad more clever than we usually get when it comes to cameos like this. I've never even seen the original Sam Bass, and I still know that Sam Lowe is a pale imitation. It fits the storyline, but it also smacks of exploiting the dead.
  20. garretta
    This was a housekeeping segment, but a fun one. I love how Lawler pretty much encourages his followers to commit vandalism on poor Eddie Gilbert's brand new hunk of junk. I guess if Airport Toyota's willing to eat the loss in exchange for free publicity, who are we to complain? Nice chair throw by Eddie, incidentally. As for the tournament, what purpose would further burying Snowman serve? If he really did stop showing up on cards, he's already proven that he's undependable, lazy, and lacking confidence in his own ability to be a solid professional wrestler. Lawler was better off doing what he did: hyping the tournament and talking up the big names that were coming in to try for the title. I've read ahead a bit, and I'm glad we'll see quite a few of the tournament matches on upcoming discs. (By the way, I'm betting that Snowman didn't show up, if he was even officially invited in the first place.) A coal miner's glove match headlining a card at a high school gym? Gee, Memphis really is different, isn't it?
  21. garretta
    I actually think Eddie is the perfect heel to pull off racist stuff like this. He's a scum-sucking bottom-feeding piece of shit who's willing to go to any depths to humiliate, degrade, and destroy anyone in his path. He's not supposed to be classy like Flair; he's supposed to be one step lower than the scum of the earth, and people like that care nothing for intelligent racial discussion. If you as a promoter are going to hang on to the outdated notion that racism makes money, this is the type of heel you want doing your dirty work. Anthony was window dressing here, nothing more.
  22. garretta
    We needed an answer from Eddie to make things even, and we sure got one. This may have been the clearest explanation I've ever heard as to why Eddie wants to get rid of Lawler; he wants the crown of Memphis and the respect that goes with it, and he'll go to any means necessary to get it. He may be the scariest foe Lawler's ever faced (outside of Dundee, of course) because he simply doesn't care what he has to do to get Lawler out of the way. Tremendous stuff. Dave really shines here too; he's rarely offended by the heels like Lance was at times, but this is an exception. I loved his indignant "Don't call him (Eddie) king!" response to Sam Lowe, and his outrage at Eddie even being in the building really let the crowd know that a line was about to be (or had already been) crossed. By the way, who was under the Nightstalker mask?
  23. garretta
    This is the kind of chaos Memphis was always able to pull off so believably. What really makes it good is that Lawler, as angry as we all know he is, was able to calmly explain what we were seeing in the video and analyze why he thought it happened. I've seen him do segments like this before, and they're always gold. They do so much more to hook fans and sell matches than your typical screaming wrestling promo. I love how he compares Eddie to an obsessed Hollywood stalker who's out to ruin the person that they supposedly idolize, which was actually true on some level if the backstage gossip is to be believed. The brief allusions to past history going all the way back to Lawler's broken leg over ten years before are also a touch of genius. I feel silly calling this a promo or interview in the traditional sense; let's call this one of the best "talking segments" of the year so far.
  24. garretta
    The segment itself wasn't bad, and Kim's continuing to progress nicely on the mic; she's better than Tony right now. But to waste this segment on a dog food match? Are they running that low on stips involving the women now that Kim's been stripped? Even though I'm sure that it's really Dinty Moore stew in an Alpo can or some such, it's still disgusting to even imagine a human female eating dog food. And if it is really dog food.......well, there's a reason no one takes American females seriously in the wrestling business to this day, and matches like these are it. Nice to hear Tessa mentioned in passing, by the way.
  25. garretta
    What part of this equation are you guys not getting? Lawler needed to keep Eddie from going to jail and still save a halfway decent house for the MSC forty-eight hours away. He didn't have time to let things play out; It needed to happen exactly as it did, rushed or not. Otherwise, the Memphis PD was apparently ready to arrest Gilbert on sight. What should Lawler have done, let Gilbert go to jail so we could spend the show worrying about Eddie Marlin, who's too damn old to be taking bumps anyway, getting lovetapped with a chair? Screw Eddie freakin' Marlin and the rocking chair he should have been sitting in; Lawler should have been acting as his own onscreen matchmaker and authority figure by now anyway, since everyone probably knew he was doing the booking if they chose to know it. And anyway, the whole thing was Gilbert's fault for giving the car too much gas. Kudos to the King for getting the USWA out of a potentially crippling situation with as little collateral damage as possible. One week's house is a small price to pay for preserving your overall livelihood.
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