garretta
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After seeing this interview, I have no idea how Vince messed up the LOD/Demolition feud so badly. The formula's very simple: Bring in Hawk and Animal (preferably with Precious Paul) and have them cost the Demos the belts at SummerSlam as they did in real life. Instead of the six-mans with the Warrior which did nothing for anyone, start the feud with some wild, inconclusive brawls at house shows. Slowly establish Ax as the manager outside the ring to counteract Paul. In the middle of all this, put the belts back on the Demos for the last time, most likely in late fall. Ramp up the feud to a higher, more violent level as you go, and have the LOD score some six-man victories. Paul would be their partner, and either Eadie could join Smash and Crush or they could find another heel to team with somewhere else. Then, have the Demos make one last challenge at Mania VII: if they win, the LOD doesn't get any more title shots. If the LOD wins, the Demos break up for good. The LOD wins and moves on to the Nasty Boys. Simple. Instead, we got the return of Fuji, the "who's really who?" bullshit, and the eventual and complete burial of one of the most dominant tag teams of the last three or four years, regardless of promotion. Bret got screwed out of a singles push for the second time, the LOD never looked the same without Paul and became kiddified, and I don't remember the Nasties being pushed as much special in spite of the fact that they held the belts, because everyone knew that they were keeping them warm for the LOD. I'll see for myself when the calendar turns to '91; the point is, Vince had greatness in his hands, and as he so often does, he crumpled it into a ball and threw it away for no good reason. By the way, I can't decide which was funnier: Ax referring to Mean Gene as Howard (could that have been a rib on Cosell?) or Crush calling him an amoeba (if you look at Okerlund in the right light, there could be a slight resemblance...........)
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I'd have to agree with AJ here, although this segment wasn't bad for what it was. You could tell that Volkoff had new life and was doing something he cared about, probably for the first time in years. Duggan was the perfect choice to befriend him, since he was the all-American patriot, and even Brother Love wasn't bad here, as he betrayed his so-called "principles" for about the ten millionth time and declared world peace a hoax and Nikolai a traitor. It's just too bad that Volkoff was on the scrap heap and Duggan was headed that way, because at least a little more should have been made of this booking-wise. Come to think of it, that lady in the front row did look a little like Brother Love!
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Pretty standard face/heel dynamic here. You can tell that they're trying to push the Rockers because they get the third babyface slot along with Beefcake and Hillbilly. Why Warlord as the other heel along with Quake, though? I would have loved to have seen Perfect in that slot, considering that he's with Hogan's archenemy Heenan and that they have history together. Maybe they were thinking about a Hogan/Warlord program at some point in the fall, only to change their plans. Didn't the Rockers cut an earlier promo where one of them (I forget which) actually said that Hogan should think about retiring, or do I have my teams mixed up?
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This one was fun, You can tell that both Teddy and the coach were having a blast. Yes, it's overacted and repetitive, but what isn't in the WWF around this time? Better this than hearing the Warrior blather about "normals" for five minutes straight. The major problem they're running into is that too many of these feuds are taking too long to blow off on TV. In this new cable age, house shows weren't enough; in order for a feud to have a true conclusion, it needed to end on a pay-per-view or SNME (in a match that actually made the show with Vince and Jesse calling it, not just a dark match at the taping or a Coliseum Video exclusive). We know that this feud didn't get that treatment, so all these vignettes seem rather pointless unless you actually went to a house show that had this match on it or saw the tape that this match made. That doesn't mean that the vignettes themselves weren't well done. I think we all need to change our perspective on what's meaningless or not when it comes to the big two American companies in the nineties and stop expecting segments to have a "point". Just enjoy them for their own sake and move on.
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Not to sound like a music critic or anything, but Jimmy and the Hammer were barely even lip-synching here. Poor Greg looked like he wanted to be anywhere else on the planet, even through his sunglasses. When even the two people who are supposed to help you the most barely look interested, you can pretty much bet that your time has passed, and that's what was happening to Honky. Once he got squashed by the Warrior at SummerSlam '88, he was washed up. No wonder he balked at dropping the IC belt to Savage at the original Main Event; he knew that without the "greatest IC champion of all time" bit, he had nothing to offer, and this segment shows that he was right. Bobby and Gino were the highlights, with Bobby screaming "One more time!" and Gino's remark about people heading for the vomitories. Has anyone actually heard a bathroom called that, or did Gino make up that word out of thin air?
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This reminded me of the kind of multi-man tags that Vince would run at the Spectrum every once in a while just prior to Hogan coming in. A few of them made it to Coliseum Video back in the day, and their express purpose was to make sure that the fans saw as many different combinations of wrestlers in the ring as possible, which would most likely explain why they weren't elimination matches. They were "a whole card in one match", according to the hype, and most of them featured Andre, who would squash one of the unlucky heels like a grape to take the final fall and send the fans home happy, kind of like Choshu did to Kurisu here. The only difference is that this match was two out of three falls, while the Spectrum matches were mostly three out of five. One added twist in this match was the scrum spot, where all ten guys would brawl in one corner. I never saw that in the Spectrum matches, mostly because Andre cleaned house on everyone. There was also fighting outside the ring in this one, complete with chair throwing by Kurisu, which also never happened in Philly. Finally, it seemed at times as though the ref in this match completely forgot who the legal men were supposed to be; two guys would be fighting, then be replaced by two totally different guys after some type of distraction spot. I liked the five-on-one sequences we saw from both sides as well. (Neither of the above spots happened at the Spectrum.) Overall, I'd say this bout was more action-packed, as it actually featured moves rather than just a brawl followed by Andre taking out the garbage. But as nice as seeing Choshu lariat Kurisu out of his boots was, nothing compares to seeing Andre squash Mr. Fuji or one of the Samoans flatter than a pancake. So this match does well in comparison to the other matches on this set, but loses to the rosy nostalgia of Coliseum Video in my mind. Where was the Giant when we needed him?
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There's not much else to say about this one that hasn't been covered in greater depth above. This is the kind of match that people can point to as proof of the old adage "The name on the marquee is wrestling". In the three falls and over thirty minutes of this bout, there are only a few brief sequences of anything other than mat wrestling, yet it never bores or feels dry. I guess you could call this Mexican shoot style if you wanted to, and it's a lot more exciting than Japanese shoot style, maybe because they're not trying to make it into a different sport. Some of the hold sequences and combinations are different, but this is professional wrestling the way we know it, with the contestants fighting for a real championship. As someone stated earlier, this is also a face/face match that is wrestled in a clean, intense manner throughout, with no "oops, I just broke the rules" spots that start an all-out war, like you often see here in the States. That's another huge point in its favor. Loss said that these two guys weren't trying to put on the greatest match of all time, which was probably true. But they were definitely looking to put on a bout that the fans would be proud to see between two of their favorites, and this they accomplished in spades. Even the more aggressive spots like the dive to the outside by Azteca or the hotshot bump Dandy took into the top turnbuckle weren't anything close to dirty, for lack of a better word. Was this the greatest match of all-time? Not for me, not by a longshot. That honor still goes to Hogan-Andre at Mania III, which isn't close to a good match athletically but has hype and context surrounding it that make that point totally irrelevant. It's definitely the best lucha match I've seen, and one of the few I've totally understood. Is it the match of the half-year? No, that's Flair-Luger, which was a big match worked on a big scale. But it's most certainly an honorable mention, which I didn't think I'd ever say about a lucha match. Maybe I just dig the singles format more than the tags. Looking forward to more from Mexico!
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Okay, the server ate my first try. From the top, as nearly as I can remember: This was the classic wily veteran/plucky youngster match, with the added bonus that not only didn't Misawa quit, he took the fight to Jumbo. I loved watching Jumbo's growing frustration as it became clear that this young punk wasn't going down without a fight. Nothing he tried was putting Misawa away, and Misawa was beating him to the punch almost every time he turned around. Finally, he got desperate once too often, and that's what led to his downfall. One thing I noticed was the type of bumps Jumbo took in the match. He must have hit the back of his head at least five times, which seemed to add more to his overall confusion and exasperation at how the match was going. Then, of course, he wiped himself out in the ropes, which led to the finishing sequence. If he was reluctant to do the job here, it didn't show up in his work, as he literally almost killed himself to get Misawa over as a credible main eventer. I also loved the "Misawa!" chants by the crowd. They really seem ready to accept a new crop of main eventers now that Tenryu and several others are gone. It's going to be interesting to see what happens to All-Japan over the rest of the year as the new blood settles in and mixes with established veterans like Jumbo. This is my new number three for my Japan "ballot" with one match left to watch in June.
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I really enjoyed the storytelling in this one. It's the classic "gritty youngster is seemingly outmatched against wily veteran, but won't back up a step" routine. Misawa takes it a step further, though; he not only won't quit against Jumbo, he takes the fight to him, sometimes rather insolently. Jumbo wants to tear him limb from limb for being so insolent, but finds this a hell of a lot easier said than done, and eventually makes the one critical mistake that leads to his downfall. One thing I definitely noticed was the number of bumps that Jumbo took on the back of his head. This played into the match, as not only is he confused by Misawa's refusal to back up from him, but he's also constantly smacking the back of his head in the ring, on the floor, and even on the railing, which disorients him further. Then there's the wipeout bump he takes to set up the ending. If he was reluctant to take a pinfall loss here, it sure didn't show up in his work, as he almost literally breaks his neck to get Misawa over as credible. I also loved the "Misawa!" chant. Clearly the fans of All-Japan were ready to embrace a new star, and on this night, they had their first chance. I'll be interested to see where his journey goes from here. My new number three for Japan with one match to go in the half-year. Looking forward to more matches between these two!
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Thanks for the tip, Ohtani. I'll keep that in mind for future viewing.
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This match was definitely worked differently, as each man now knew after their February bout that they couldn't simply run the other over and come out with a win. So they took it to the mat for a while to try and wear each other out, but that didn't work either, so they went right back to beating each other senseless. Each shot meant something, as did the strength spots where each man slammed the other and Hansen echoed Dynamite Kid with a snap suplex. In the end, Hansen was desperate to get out with his hide, so he brought out the bullrope and that was it. Was it the classic that the February match was? No, but would that match have been a classic if Vader hadn't lost his eye? It's hard to tell. Each man worked a more strategic match here, and while we all enjoy two big guys beating each other to death, the idea of wrestling is to do whatever you can to score a three-count, and sometimes that involves taking your opponent to the mat and laying on him. I like the intentional blade job by Vader around the eye that he lost, as it told the Tokyo fans that what happened once could very well happen again. Luckily for Leon, it didn't. These two probably had a better match in them, but what we got was still excellent. Not enough to crack my top three, but a treat nonetheless.
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I liked this one a lot. The brawling sequences, especially the kicks, looked really stiff, and I really enjoyed the leg work from Kobashi, as he seemed determined to either get the submission from Kawada or take Kawada's leg home with him. Kawada's a tremendous underdog after about the first ten minutes, not only gutting out submission attempts but coming through with brutal kicks and forearms at just the right time to stop Kobashi's offense. Then, we started getting the nearfalls, and Kawada almost won the match on at least two separate occasions before finally pulling the final cradle seemingly out of nowhere. He sold the leg tremendously throughout, and was still selling it as he was helped back to the locker room. That's the only real complaint I have about the match: toward the end, as the time limit started approaching, Kobashi abandoned the leg in favor of the cruiser-style pinning sequences. They may have looked flashier and popped the crowd more, but they ran counter to the story he'd told so beautifully throughout the rest of the bout. From what everyone has said in this thread, though, these two guys are still learning, and better matches lie ahead. I'm looking forward to them. This one just misses my top three for the year in Japan so far, as Hogan-Hansen (my working number three behind Hansen-Doc and Liger-Sano) is just too good and too rare to leave out.
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I noticed two things in particular about this match: 1. Kendo was the most over guy in this promotion at the moment, yet he really doesn't do much that makes him different from anyone else. It's indescribable, really, but then charisma often is. 2. In several earlier threads pertaining to matches from this promotion, people have mentioned drunk and/or disrespectful crowds. This was one of them. The only one really over was Kendo, and most of the moves, particularly in the last two falls, got the so-called "Warrior/DiBiase treatment". It's the first time that I've really noticed a Japanese crowd doing that, and it's horribly distracting. The jumpy fan cam doesn't help either. Not a bad match, much easier to follow than most of the trios matches so far. Still, I'm glad to be done with this type of match until July.
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This was a hell of a slugfest, to say the least, and one which those who only remember Wanz as the big joker who got the AWA World title so Verne could take a free German vacation wouldn't expect. The knockdowns were treated as near-falls here and sold really dramatically, which took a few minutes for me to get used to, but once I did, it really added to the drama even though I don't think a count got past five. The outside ring announcer almost acted as a second referee with his constant warnings to Vader about getting out of the corner and hitting Wanz after the bell. I could just imagine Finkel doing that to guys like Savage and DiBiase at MSG: "Mr. DiBiase, break clean. I SAID BREAK CLEAN!" Great selling by both men here, as Wanz looks like he's been beaten half to death early on (complete with bloody mouth) and Vader seems like he can barely hobble later. Neither man probably had had much experience at selling considering their size and gimmicks, so it was nice to see them do it so well. (If Vader was legitimately hurt, as some suspect he was, this might be the performance of his career.) I know that there are more European matches coming down the road, and I can't wait to see them!
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This match is all about the third fall, which features one guy taking a suicidal bump and four other guys all turning on each other because of it. Three turns occur in less than five minutes, but somehow it doesn't feel like hotshottting, even if it's more than a tad confusing. The only one who stays out of the mess is Sangre Chicana, and I like his little piece at the end as the refs are tending to Lizmark; you can see him throw his hands up toward the ring as if to say, "Hello, this man just got killed over here, and you jerks could care less! What the hell's the matter with you?" (Come to think of it, Chicana was a rudo here, so that would actually make four turns, wouldn't it?) There were more American-style brawling spots here than are usually found in a lucha bout, so it was a bit easier for me to follow, even with all the turns. Loved Timbs waving the American flag at the start, and also the glove he was wearing at one point, which might have been made of that flag. He does the obnoxious foreigner from a neighboring country bit better than Dino Bravo, that's for sure. As I said, not your typical lucha match, but it was a treat for me. Hopefully, there are more like it as we go along.
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The most interesting part of the match to me was that Kendo was so over with the crowd. I thought that he was a native the way they were chanting his name and popping for everything he did. Other than that........same old story for lucha and me. I didn't see psychology, grittiness, storytelling, or anything else anyone who commented saw. I saw armdrags, backflips and somersaults that led nowhere in particular. By the time the rudos attacked everyone in the place after the match (this after they'd just won clean), I'd long since given up. I keep looking for that magic match which will allow me to begin appreciating the style, but I haven't found it yet.
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This was a revelation to me just like Joshi was; these guys worked a serious match, unlike 98% of the North American midget matches I've seen. The first two falls were the normal gymnastics that's impossible for me to care about, but the third fall turned a bit hardcore, much more so than with the bigger luchas, and also featured the dissension between the rudos, which I liked. Then came the attack by the bigger guys, which was a thousand percent more realistic than King Kong Bundy squashing Little Beaver at Mania III. My favorite part was when Mascarita Sagrada flattened one of the regular size guys with a flying bodypress and looked like he wanted to take everyone in the place on, only for Mascara Sagrada to practically carry him back to the dressing room for his own safety, kind of like Scooby-Doo rescuing Scrappy. Even if a lot of the work didn't mean much to me, it was still nice to see the less tall working seriously. For that reason alone, this was worth seeing.
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This is the first European rules match I've seen, and I like the rugged flavor. This match wouldn't feel out of place in most Southern promotions. The round system takes a bit of getting used to, and there are times when the ends of the rounds come at inopportune points and hamper storytelling. It's almost like the competitors forget themselves and are just going along doing their thing when the end of the round comes right in the middle. I can imagine that it takes a while to adjust if you've been wrestling in North America or Japan. I can see why so many people like Finlay; he looks and acts like a true tough guy. So does Wright, for that matter. I was expecting a mat wrestling clinic. so the (mostly) spirited brawl we got instead was a pleasant surprise. The refs seem to be sticklers for enforcement here more than most other places; I'm wondering if the round system forces them to keep much closer control for reasons of timing. The ref in this bout didn't seem like he was going heel, but he was up in the guys' faces a bit more than usual. Looking forward to more European matches!
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I continue to be blown away by the proficiency of Japanese women wrestlers. The heels in particular were excellent here, and of course Kong was a revelation. You wonder how these women could have revolutionized American female wrestling if they'd come here, but the Jumping Bomb Angels had tried that a couple of years before and so outclassed Judy Martin and Leilani Kai that Vince had the WWF women's tag titles scrapped for good, if I remember the story right. I couldn't tell which one was Bison and which one was Grizzly (I was unable to hear the announcements at the start either), but they're a hell of a team, much better than the Honey Wings. I had trouble hearing the crowd due to the fan cam, but if these women really took a bored or indifferent crowd and got them into this match by the quality of their work alone, it speaks volumes as to how good they are. Of the limited amount of joshi matches I've seen so far, this is my number one.
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Lucha's hit-and-miss with me, and this was a miss. You guys saw great work, I saw constant backflips, leapfrogs, and reversals that led to nothing I could understand. Satanico's arm work was nice, and I liked the work on Dandy's back. Other than that, nothing. This project's teaching me once and for all that, for better or worse, I'm almost strictly a U.S. Southern style fan with a bit of WWF mixed in. Japan's okay, although I prefer the brawls to the technical classics or shoot-style stuff. Lucha means almost nothing, no matter how good the work. I'm digging Joshi a bit, but compared to the slop that the American promotions call women's wrestling, anything's liable to stand out. I guess this makes me some kind of wrestling philistine.
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From the time Takada scored two straight knockdowns to tie up the match at 2 1/3, this really felt like a struggle to avoid every possible rope break and knockdown situation, which is exactly what it should feel like. There was still a lot of laying around early, though. The crowd seemed way into this on Maeda's side, and they erupted when he pulled out the victory. Too often, matches like this only produce polite applause, so it was nice to see a crowd really into one of them for a change. I've never seen one of these matches hit the five-knockdown limit; one guy or the other always submits before then. Do any of you know of a match that was won on knockdowns instead of a submission?
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My Japanese match of the year so far. This is everything you'd expect the matchup to be on paper, as neither one of these guys takes a backwards step from the other. Doc's in control a little more often, but Stan's never out of it, always getting a shot in here and there to let the fans know he's still in there fighting. The finishing lariat looked sickening, especially in slow motion. I've never seen either of these two use the headbutt as much as they did here, but it fits the style of the match perfectly. WCW should have signed a Doc/Hansen US title match sometime later this year as part of Stan's American run. I have no illusions about it being as violent as this, but it would have been the gritty, action-packed type of match that Turner always seemed to pride itself on, but didn't deliver as often as one might think. Hansen may be my Wrestler of the Year so far, as he has all three of my top spots for Japanese matches, with the Vader rematch from June 12 still to come. Flair and Hogan have two spots each for their respective promotions.
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I liked the matwork too. The Japanese style of lucha seems a lot more accessible to me than its Mexican counterpart so far on this set. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that Asai blew off the damage done to his knee just before the finish. I'm not as much of a stickler for continued selling as some, but that was too obvious not to notice. This is something Asai definitely needs to work on going forward. The Mexican imports are really showing their mat skills here, which is something that's hit-and-miss in their matches at home. I wonder if the Japanese stars adapted as smoothly when they toured Mexico? This promotion continues to deliver solid bouts.
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This isn't exactly the kind of match you'd expect from a lucha libre inspired promotion. While there's some nice aerial action, the majority of this bout is just a basic tough wrestling match. Both men do well and execute what they choose to use very nicely. I thought Perro was mostly a weapons wrestler, but he busted out a few crisp moves and outshone Hamada at times. The finish and subsequent brawl once Perro's seconds turned on him really got the crowd going. It seemed like they were setting up a tag match of some sort with Perro and Hamada as partners which doesn't appear to have made the set. What a pity. Probably the best match from this promotion that I've seen so far.
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Great match, especially for a tournament final. You could see the desperation with these two, as they each tried to win before they dropped over from exhaustion. Some of the execution might have been a bit sloppy, but you would expect that after two or three hard matches for each participant, especially since Toyota was just nineteen. I guess the cut on Hotta's head must have been hardway, since Toyota didn't work on it throughout the match. Joshi's still new and exciting to me after years of watching American women's wrestling, so I might be a little more forgiving than some of you. This isn't a match of the year candidate, but it's an early contender for my Japanese Match of the Month for June.