Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

garretta

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3562

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    Whether you like tis match or not depends on how much comedy you like with your wrestling. Fortunately, I like a lot, especially when it's as well done as this. A major difference between this bout and the JYD bout is the absence of Terrence Garvin; Marc's solo call of the bout adds to its entertainment value immensely. No, this isn't one of Lawler's best performances; it's the Boogie Woogie Show from start to finish, and all Lawler has to do is react properly, which he does. I like that the postmatch stuff goes right up until the show signs off, and if Jimmy doesn't get the title, he at least gets some revenge. From a wrestling standpoint, the worst match of the year so far. From a pure entertainment standpoint, it's in the top half, and I'm not kidding in the least.
  2. garretta
    This is Curt's first televised loss, or at least the first one shown. I feel better about him losing his perfect record to Warrior, who was being built for Mania VI, than I did his losing his first pay-per-view match to Beefcake, who was an upper midcarder at best, at least as things turned out. (I know he was supposed to get the IC belt a few months later before he got hurt, but if he'd really been worth putting a belt on, Vince would have let him win it two years earlier instead of swapping him out for Warrior.) At any rate, Warrior shows a little more than his standard power match here, though not much, and Curt's bumping, which many say is too theatrical, fits well. As for the commentary, Lord Alfred's gushing over Mr. Perfect was a bit much (A great role model for America's youth? The man of the nineties? Come now, your Lordship), and he called Hillbilly Jim "Billy", which Jim and Gino thankfully no-sold. This was about the time he started switching personas from face to heel to neutral and back like undershirts, and it's disconcerting to hear. He was much better when he played it straight several years before. Not a bad match for what it was designed to do, and I wish we could have gotten more from these two during Warrior's title reign.
  3. garretta
    The best bell-to-bell match yet from the USWA, as this has lots of good action even before the Stud Stable's second breakup. Lee looks like he fits right in with Fuller as a partner, and it's good to see what Jarrett and Dundee can do as a team in a serious setting as opposed to their comedy match from earlier this month with Travis and Garvin. To add my two cents to the continuity discussion, I can't figure out why Jarrett would run the two halves of his territory as completely different promotions in the age of cable TV. AJ commented that he told himself that Dallas didn't count when faced with things like the different title lineages, two breakups for the Stud Stable, and such. Well, I'm sure Jarrett meant for it to count, but he couldn't (or wouldn't) find a way to unify the booking in such a way as to make sense to both fanbases. If you have to rely on the fans to choose which parts of your overall story to believe and which parts not to believe, your promotion is in big trouble.
  4. garretta
    Almost too much falderol for my taste in the first half, although I knew what they were going for with Garvin. The second half wasn't bad, but why did we need Akbar? Were they doing something with him where he had his finger in every pie, or was he heat insurance in case the crowd didn't have the right reaction to the Memphis invaders and Garvin? I wonder what Papa Fritz thought of the direction in which Jarrett took his promotion. Dallas used to brand itself as a rough-and-tumble territory where only the tough guys survived. Now, the vast majority of the matches and angles were being played for comedy. That couldn't have done much for his pride.
  5. garretta
    Okay, now I get it. Yeah, by that standard, calling guys like Mike Awesome and Kerry Von Erich stupid muscleheaded steroid freaks and Jeff Jarrett a sexual predator who uses wrestling to get girls were horrible decisions on Lawler's part. But like I said, I don't think he cared much about any towns outside the Memphis loop, where the fans would forgive him anything, even as a heel, and pack the arenas simply because he was local legend Jerry Lawler. Those fans thought he was gold no matter what, as we've seen in the segments where he "insults" them and they practically beg for more. Thanks for the clarification, Charles.
  6. garretta
    Not as long and bloody as other matches of this type, but that was undoubtedly due to it being televised. Austin already shows a ton of promise, and Chris has all he can do to get the win thanks to Akbar's men, whom I can stand to see less of, at least in this particular feud. Can't wait to see where this issue goes from here, as a match like this usually signals the end of a program, and I know that won't be the case with these two any time soon.
  7. garretta
    Are you saying that Lawler never learned how to cut your idea of a "productive" heel promo, Charles? I find that hard to believe, considering how long he was around even by then. I'm having trouble framing an answer for you. Let me put it this way, and maybe we can keep the dialogue going a bit: Why should a pighead like Lawler care a damn if the ignorant, stupid, smelly fans he hates show up on Friday night to boo him out of the Sportatorium? Wouldn't it be easier for Lawler (the character, not the promoter and territory co-owner) if there were as few fans of Awesome's as possible to distract him and give Awesome the "home-field advantage"? Maybe that's where we see things differently: I'm talking exclusively in terms of the character Jerry portrays. You're thinking of the Lawler who owns part of the territory and wants to draw a good crowd, which doesn't enter my thinking at all because I don't see it on the disc I'm watching. To me as I'm watching, Max Andrews and his syndicate run the USWA and Lawler's just an employee, just like Jack Tunney runs the WWF and Vince McMahon is the nerdy announcer and nothing more. Now, if you're asking me if the decision Lawler made in having his character cut a promo like that (splitting hairs, I know, but I have a point) was good or bad, I'd have to say it depends. I've never believed that Jerry put his heart and soul into Dallas; he was Memphis all the way and only worked Dallas because he had to. Maybe he legitimately didn't care if Dallas fell on its butt, especially if he was wrestling someone he barely knew. I never even knew Mike Awesome had worked Dallas before I saw this segment, and maybe Lawler really didn't want to work with him and figured the loss was worth the fun he'd have at his expense beforehand. Or, more likely, he figured that those kind of promos packed MSC every week and they'd do the same with no alterations for the Sportatorium. Like I said, I'm not even sure if we're having the same conversation. Am I putting too much stock into what I'm seeing onscreen and not worrying enough about the business side of things, or are you worried too much about what goes on behind the scenes to take the stuff we see at face value? It seems like it's one of the two.
  8. garretta
    I decided to get the squashes and shorter matches for the month out of the way before the bigger matches, so I actually appreciated JR's recap of the US tag title situation, even though I know the match where the MX stole the belts is here on the Yearbook. The match was pretty typical, but it's always fun to hear JR run Corny down, knowing how close they are behind the scenes. I wonder what the scoops JR promised on the Hotline were. I also wonder who came up with the name and costume for Zan Panzer (or, as Corny inevitably called him, Zamfir Panflute). The crowd goes crazy for Pillman and Zenk taking the belts back, and it's a shame that the Road Warriors and the Steiners were ahead of them in the pecking order, because I think they could have gone a lot farther as a team than they ended up going.
  9. garretta
    The match was actually the best part of the whole segment. The camerawork was so bad I couldn't see Onita mist the ref, and the color man must never have worked a wrestling match before; even Superstar Billy Graham and Pete Doherty knew better than to talk over the play-by-play guy when he was calling the action. It would have been interesting to see Onita work his Japanese deathmatch style here, but that wasn't going to happen for a small crowd watching a small-time promotion. Nice curiosity, though.
  10. garretta
    Bravo doesn't even get an extended run on offense. A few punches, the side slam, and that's it. It would have almost been better to see Hogan against Brian Costello or Van Van Horne. They could have worked Quake in too, as he ended up with more offense after the match than Bravo got during it. I would have howled if they'd had Warrior say "the hell with this protection garbage" and take Hogan's head off with that clothesline. He'd have been the hottest heel in WWF history to that point, which is what he should have been after the promos he delivered to set up Mania. But Vince had to have his little storybook.........
  11. garretta
    Nice match, and Austin looks good, even factoring in Adams' help. Of course, Falk lets himself be convinced by Akbar that Austin's brass knucks belong to Adams, thus setting up the DQ. Love the idea that some ladies at ringside would actually smoke cigars just so they could blow the smoke in Akbar's face. You'd never see that kind of heat today, even if smoking was allowed in the arenas. It's early in the feud yet, but I can't help but think of Adams as a perfect bounty hunter for Vince in '97 or '98 if he hadn't had his drug issues. He and Austin show great natural chemistry, and I could just imagine Chris as the English snob counterpart to Austin's beer-swilling redneck. The promo afterward was decent, especially Chris's insistence on referring to Austin as Steve Williams. It's sort of a heelish move, but what he's gone through recently at Austin's hands provides justification for it.
  12. garretta
    This is definitely the same match as the one the previous week. Not only is Percy's commentary the same, so is Marc's.
  13. garretta
    Yeah, the full match belongs on another set off of what we see here. It's a shock to me to see the hot tag not made, because we almost always get it in American matches. It's just a big a surprise to see Tenryu quit literally the second that he was about to be saved, which explains Hansen's turn perfectly. Nice touch having Jumbo make the final save on Tenryu, and there's none of this instant reconciliation stuff, as Tenryu promptly attacks him. If I rated clipped matches, this would be my top All-Japan match so far this year, but I don't. It's definitely the foreign angle of the year so far, though.
  14. garretta
    Nice debut here for the Miracle Violence Connection, as they win the AJPW tag team championship. I was surprised that Yatsu went down clean for the Stampede, but if he was leaving the promotion, there's my explanation. Looking forward to more Doc, both as a tag wrestler and a single. I liked him well enough in Wattsland, but I'm curious to see why he's a legend in Japan.
  15. garretta
    Nothing we wouldn't hear again many times in the future, but this was all new to us then, so it really resonated. Hearing Superstar talk about the awe his surgeons felt when they looked inside of his legs and saw the decay there is especially haunting. Bruno was just there to pile on a bit; we'd hear more details from him in years to come. Sadly, the predictions made here are more or less true twenty-five years later, as most of the guys that even we marks could tell were on the gas are either dead or badly broken down. You could make a case that except for one brief blip in 1997-98, the business has never really recovered.
  16. garretta
    From one extreme to the other, as Tony's seriously angry about having to put the title on the line against Onita without his consent. The calm and cool from last week is long gone. Yet another home run promo. Can't wait to watch this match later!
  17. garretta
    Tony channels Ric Flair a bit before going into his own verbal comfort zone. Another tremendous promo from an unexpected source. The question is: How did he get so good on the stick all of a sudden? On another note from a previous promo (March 3, I believe), the idea of Tony Atlas wrestling Ivan Putski in 1990 tickles me for some strange reason.
  18. garretta
    I was too distracted trying to figure out Page's accent to worry much about the Diamond Dolls. He's from Jersey in real life, and I believe he was billed. at least at that time, from Las Vegas. So how does he end up talking like Dusty Rhodes' nephew from the poor side of town? I'm pretty sure he was supposed to be the face here against Paul, but you can tell that he doesn't really know how to go about it yet. He'd do much better a few years later as a face wrestler in WCW. I'd have liked to see him in a battle of wits with Paul just for kicks, though.
  19. garretta
    Did Will cut the tape off, or did the show go to break before Paul really got started? By the time they actually got to Condrey and Gilbert, the interview ran for about ten more seconds. Other than saying that Paul's as glib as usual, it's hard to judge the promo when it's cut off like that, regardless of who did it. Nice dig at Captain Lou; I wonder if Savoldi ever tried to bring him into ICW.
  20. garretta
    What the hell was that? I've seen strange in my days as a fan, but this takes the cake. Was this Diamond Jim Brady a wrestler? Did this lead to a match or program? Or was this just some guy's idea of a cheap thrill? I know I didn't recognize either Brady or the Pink Assassin, which can only be a good thing, considering what I saw. No wonder ICW didn't last.
  21. garretta
    Where was Vince's head, signing Atlas to be Saba Simba? He'd have been a hell of a heel challenger to either Hogan or Warrior, and Slick would have been a perfect fit as a manager although Tony was miles better than him on the mic. He could have also gone solo like Bad News Brown did. Orndorff-Idol sounds like a fun indy feud. Cox brought this up just above, but did this match take place, on this card or any other around the same time? The video was a Memphis special, but it was nice to see Idol going to town on the Road Warriors.
  22. garretta
    The content wasn't much different than you'd find in a lot of different promos around this time, including the potshots at Tyson for losing his title, but the delivery continues to amaze me, considering what a marblemouth Tony was in the WWF. He could lose the laugh, though; it does nothing for his image. Did the Rochester Roadblock ever amount to anything?
  23. garretta
    Interesting that Embry challenged the Kerry/Travis winner, but not entirely unprecedented. You have to tease face/face programs every once in a while to keep things lively. I didn't like him threatening the cameraman, though; even most heels ignore the technical people. The rest of this tends to drag a little, and basically restates for the record that Embry really doesn't like Akbar and his men. I must have missed Percy mugging for the camera. Too bad this (apparently) goes nowhere.
  24. garretta
    Nothing special about this, but who on either side of the USWA can hold a candle to Lawler as a promo? Bill Dundee in his own way, but that's it. I think I liked Awesome better as a screaming madman in ECW. At least he had Jeff Jones to do his talking for him.
  25. garretta
    The King's great, as usual. As to Pete's question, we're supposed to give a fuck about who Lawler's wrestling because we're not supposed to believe his bullshit. We're supposed to believe that he's a bigmouth who'll run scared the second Awesome flexes at him. Sure, in this day and age when we know about putting butts in seats and how to do that effectively, Lawler's promo sounds like a burial. But we're supposed to be thinking like 1990 marks, not 2014 smarts, even though we're watching in 2014. By the standards of March 31, 1990 in Dallas, Texas, this is tough talk from a no-talent Memphis chickenshit who never saw the day when he was as big and strong as Mike Awesome, and who wets and craps his pants both at the thought of facing him at the Sportatorium next Friday night. It's not entirely fair to watch some of this stuff unless you're prepared to "forget" now what you didn't know then. It does the wrestlers a needless disservice.
×
×
  • Create New...