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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    Short but sweet match used to tease a Rockers/Harts tag feud more than anything else. As usual in these captain's matches (at least in the WWF), the partners interfere and the whole thing gets tossed. As some others have said, this probably wouldn't be on here if not for Montreal. Tony and Gino are awkward together to say the least. If Tony had stayed in the WWF, it might have been best for Vince to move one of them to Superstars, where each of them could have paired well with Jesse. But we all know how likely it was that Vince would have given up the A show, so Tony would probably have been relegated to the Coliseum Video/Prime Time exclusives with Lord Alfred, since he didn't work well with Heenan in the WWF any more than he did in WCW. Gino turns semi-heel here just for the hell of it, claiming that he loves the tension between the two teams. Weird to hear from good old Uncle Gorilla.
  2. garretta
    The King finishes the job on the Destroyer that he began on everyone else. Maybe he was just tired after beating Champion half to death, but he's a lot more subdued here except for a brief segment with a stepladder. Next stop: The Boogie Woogie Man.
  3. garretta
    Wow. Did this lead to a Champion/Lawler match at some point, or was this just an excuse to get Chris out of Memphis? This isn't the type of beating someone usually recovers from, in either a real life or kayfabe sense. For once, the fans boo their King with some gusto, which may be why it was booked this way in the first place. Off to watch the other Lawler squash on this disc!
  4. garretta
    Not really much else to add, except that the tweener stuff would be by the boards after WrestleWar in favor of Luger's full membership in the Dudes with Attitudes.
  5. garretta
    It's the hoopla surrounding the match that makes it what it is; as Pate said above, the actual issue between the two was dead by now, probably since SummerSlam at least. I disagree that all Hogan was there for was to be carried. He does what he does, which is get the crowd on his side and keep them there. Mania V was a better match, as were any of the matches in '86, but it's the spots with Buster that were the point of the whole affair, as Buster angers Savage enough by interfering with his top rope moves and ejecting Sherri from the building for Savage to challenge him after the match. We really didn't need the slow count storyline as an add-on, though. The only problem is that it took too long for Buster to get fired up. It's almost as if he didn't know that he was supposed to clobber Randy until Hogan pushed him almost literally into Buster's fist. I'd have liked to have seen Buster woof back just a little. Being crazy enough to challenge the heavyweight champion of the world fits the Macho Man character to a tee, and he's obliging enough to sell for Buster like he was killed. One small nitpick with the Hogan formula: you would think that the heels have seen tape of the Hulk-Up and would know not to just throw punches and look scared when he starts to shake. Just once I'd have liked to have seen a heel actually attempt a move and force Hogan to counter it while still Hulking up, just for something different. But that would have confused all the little Hulkamaniacs too much, I guess. I still have Bret/Shawn to watch, but as of right now this is my WWF Match of the Month for February and slips into third place for my WWF Match of the Year, knocking out Piper/Savage from 1/22.
  6. garretta

    Matches of the month

    garretta replied to Loss's topic in 1990

    Through January: WWF: Garvin/Valentine (Royal Rumble 1/21)- Two all-time greats given one last chance to have an old-school classic, and boy, do they deliver. This is my overall number one. Rockers/Powers of Pain from the Garden 1/15 is second. Piper/Savage for Coliseum Video from Miami 1/22 is a distant third NWA: Flair/Eaton (Main Event 1/7): Very seldom do you see a World title match this great on TV. Arn's TV title win over Muta and defense against Buzz Sawyer run a close second and third. Best of the rest: Liger/Sano (New Japan 1/31)- Anyone who says Japanese wrestling is staid needs to watch this on a continuous loop for about three days. They'll need that long to believe what they're seeing. Jarrett/Travis Guitar on a Pole from the USWA is a surprising second, with the Joshi tag third. Overall: 1. Garvin/Valentine 2. Liger/Sano 3. Jarrett/Travis- An absolutely incredible brawl that almost singlehandedly redeems the Dallas version of Jerry Lawler in my eyes. Not that Jeff and Billy Joe weren't good here, but The King was the star, as he has been in both halves of the promotion all month long (with the exception of his horrible performance against JYD). Just for something different, I'm going to make my "ballot" cumulative, although I'll be sure to highlight the best match each month even it it doesn't crack my overall top three. Back with February soon!
  7. garretta
    The biggest main event in the history of free TV that absolutely no one cared about. Muta got one huge pop when he entered; otherwise, it was all about Sting. Even Sawyer doing a Jimmy Snuka special from the top of the cage mattered not one bit. Even JR and Corny gave up on it after a while. The only interesting thing about it was the Horsemen begging off from J-Tex, but no one cared enough about J-Tex for it to mean anything. Either this match or the turn needed to be done on the Saturday night show, even if the audience was only a fraction of what it was here. At the very least, once they could see that the crowd just wanted Sting, they should have called an audible and let Sting get his hands on Flair in the cage for a few minutes. It didn't have to be a scheduled match or have a finish, just let them brawl and have Pillman and Zenk or the Steiners come down to hold off Ole and Arn. Get Sawyer and the Japanese out of Dodge and let the show end on the six-man war going on in and out of the ring, which would have been similar to the ending we got. Anything would have better than what ended up happening, and that's not even taking Sting's injury into account. By the following week, everyone had settled into their roles, but it was too late, at least for Sting. I haven't seen Bash '91 yet, so I can truthfully say that this is the biggest WCW disaster I've seen up until the Bischoff era.
  8. garretta
    We needed a match to foreshadow Flair's turn, and we got it here, as Ric pulls out some of his tamer dirty tricks. Zenk also looks good here. Like the backstory with Zenk originally supposed to wrestle Luger, but Lex was boycotting TV until the Clash, at which I don't believe he appeared. The story, according to what we hear from JR during the bout, is that Luger was supposed to take what became the Horsemen's spot in Funk's Grill at the Clash, so it looks like they were teasing heel Luger vs. face Flair and the Horsemen before the turn. One of wrestling's great lost opportunities, as it turned out. Loved the byplay between JR and Corny, and Corny was heelish while still doing solid color work, which takes effort that plenty of guys don't exert. Nick Patrick is miked and he knows it, as he's the only referee in history to do a dissertation on why he stopped a count in a side headlock spot. Woman wasn't distracting, surprisingly (except for Corny) and we get one last heavy dose of hype for the cage match at the Clash. A satisfying night of work for all concerned.
  9. garretta
    A beautifully done organic face turn here. It comes right out of Bossman's character, which automatically makes it better than so many turns where "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is the closest we get to an explanation, and we're automatically supposed to forget the former heel's history. Great use of Brother Love here to fully explain the angle so there's no mistaking the motivations of those involved. I hated Vince talking over Teddy and Slick at the end, though. Three random comments: 1) If they'd gone the other way and kept Bossman heel, a program with him and Jake would have been terrific. 2) This could have also been a nice springboard to Slick's "Reverend" character if they'd thought of it at the time, with Slick backing Bossman and Teddy having to deal with both Jake and the Twin Towers. 3) To anyone with a sense of American history, Slick/Bossman was a bit of an odd pairing. Why would any self-respecting black man take under his wing a fat white prison guard who more than likely spent most of his time beating up black inmates at the Cobb County jail? (Come to think of it, why did I just call Slick a self-respecting black man when he was portrayed as a money-hungry fast-talking pimp?)
  10. garretta
    That's a good point, Charles. But then why not blow off the J-Tex thing earlier? You can't do both in the same night, especially the way they did it. Maybe you do the turn as a shocker at the very end of the program, but that's the only way. I have to watch the match again, but as I remember it, not too many people gave a crap about it after the turn; they were too worried about what Sting was going to do. Maybe Flair figured that since Muta and Dragon Master were going back to Japan it wouldn't really matter in the long run no matter what; after all, his main issue was with Terry Funk, and they'd settled that at Clash IX. But then, why hype the cage match so hard, to the exclusion of almost everything else, including (for the most part) a pay-per-view? Each possible answer leads to more questions.
  11. garretta
    Nice little tag bout here, and unbelievably, Garvin is the star in my eyes. He did the heel cornerman shtick, including the obligatory game of "Hide-A-Chain", very well, and if his voice weren't so campily high-pitched I'd say he has a future as a manager, at least in Memphis and Dallas. The actual match was a bit too quick to end, but I guess they were running out of time and wanted to get to the beatdown, which as others have said was done well. Loved seeing "Beauty" on the back of Garvin's chair. Missed the old couple flipping him the bird; I'll have to rewatch just for that.
  12. garretta
    This portion of one show captures all the chaos of Memphis. Two major angles in fifteen minutes; there was no other show quite like it at the time. I've looked at the March and April threads, and it doesn't seem like the Stud Stable breakup goes anywhere. What a shame; a singles feud with Fuller would have been a nice showcase for Lee. Loved psychotic Lawler, and digging up an old Lawler vs. Race title match to explain the beginnings of the Lawler-Valiant relationship shows a respect for history that not even WCW matched back then. Poor Nate. I hope that wasn't real McDonalds food. Can you just imagine the scene when the order was placed if it was? "Yes, this is the USWA, and we'd like a Big Mac, two large fries, and a Coke to go. Make the bread soggy; the Big Mac's going to be smashed in a valet's face"! More respect for history, as we see some old Mid-Atlantic clips in Valiant's music video, plus a stray TBS clip if I'm not mistaken. Excellent job!
  13. garretta
    Not the biggest fan of Paul's abortion comments; they smack of an indy trying desperately to make a name for itself any way it can. Atlas's heel persona definitely looked good; this is a man who could barely put two words together as "Mr. USA" for Vince a few years before. A gimmick like this taken to the WWF would seem to have more potential than Saba Simba. Can't wait to see more of him.
  14. garretta
    This is the first I've seen of ICW, but already I can tell that Paul's probably the best thing about it. Anyone know who the interviewer is?
  15. garretta
    The wrestlers were fine in these, but who the hell approved the announcer's copy? By the time I finished trying (and failing) to make sense out of it, the commercials were over. Anyone want to admit to wearing these things? (I didn't, and I don't know that I would admit it if I did, even on an Internet message board).
  16. garretta
    Being the Dogface Gremlin, where else would Rick wear his Roos but on his hands?
  17. garretta
    They could have done a longer song hyping up the main event at least. I'd like to think that they left Sting in as a clue to his appearance at ringside during Luger/Flair, but I know better. This is WCW, after all.
  18. garretta
    Can't wait to find out why Ole buried Pillman. He seemed like a star in the making from what I remember seeing.
  19. garretta
    I get why this had to happen the way it did; the Horsemen are supposed to be one unit who work to protect Flair's title, not challenge him for it. Okay, fine. Flair believes in his heart of hearts that bleached blondes with long flowing ring robes and cocky attitudes should always be booed and isn't comfortable doing that character as a babyface. Also fine. But why do it that night? Why not clean up the J-Tex feud, then do this on WCW the following Saturday? So it's two weeks before the event. So what? It's not like Sting's going to actually not wrestle Flair, so your main event wouldn't change. This wipes out the Stinger's knee injury, since there would be no cage for him to slip on. You could also keep Luger heel and build to a Sting-Luger World title program once Flair's rematches were done. Instead, as Laney said above, you kill the big main event of this card, since the only thing anyone in Corpus Christi wants now is Sting to wipe out all six of its participants by himself, then you lose your pay-per-view main event due to Sting's freak injury and have to turn your former long-term top heel baby, which wouldn't be bad except that Flair's already definitively beaten him on pay-per-view a little over a year before, and you can't go for a shock title change since Flair flat-out refuses to put him over clean. Four days (in TV time) is all you would have had to wait, and everything could have come off as planned. Instead, the seeds were planted for the company's eventual marginalization, if not outright destruction. Who knows what a clean transition to Sting done at the prescribed time might have meant?
  20. garretta
    Luger's cheered by at least some of the people before he even opens his mouth. Ole's very good as the consigliere of the Horsemen, and even though he won't wrestle much anymore after WrestleWar, he's a very believable tough guy manager type. Still would have liked to hear from Flair, though. Corny obscured Ric's slip off the apron from the camera's view, but the people sure saw it, and they went ballistic. I like smirking Luger here; it's as if he's saying, "You've gotta be kidding me, right? I know how you work, I used to run with you. And if you think you can scare me, think again!" The only false note was Luger saying the stuff about setting deadlines instead of meeting them, then promising an answer by the end of the show as the Horsemen demanded. He should have tried to make them wait until the following week, then fought off a beatdown when they objected. That's a minor flaw in an excellent segment, though.
  21. garretta
    Very sportslike interview from JR and Sting here. I agree that Sting struck all the right notes, especially since he wasn't coming back any time soon and Luger's rather rushed face turn hadn't begun yet, though it would a little later in the same show. Sting also echoes what Flair himself has often said: without the belt, he's lost. That puts over Flair's desperation to hang onto it against Luger, and also further explains the turn on Sting himself. Good job all around.
  22. garretta
    Pillman actually holds up against Flair in the promo department here, which is surprising. The stuff about who the Bengals beat wasn't as true then as it would become later in the decade, as they were just a year removed from their trip to Super Bowl XXIII. Woman comes out with Flair just to give him an excuse to defend her honor. Should be a great match.
  23. garretta
    Tremendous promo duel between two masters, and for once in his life the King comes in second, although it's close. I only hope the Memphis match that they were hyping was better than the Dallas bout we saw earlier on the set (though that match stinking as badly as it did was mostly Lawler's fault, not JYD's). Again, Lawler's heavily cheered by the WMC audience despite his best effort at being despicable, although I'm betting that the Dog had more than his share of fans two days later at MSC.
  24. garretta
    Nice finish here. The only thing I didn't like was that Marc talked over Lawler's remarks. He should know better than to talk over a promo after all these years, especially since all he was doing was reiterating the finish.
  25. garretta
    Even when he's insulting them, the Kingfish belongs to his people. The only one who sticks to the intended script is Dave, who just wants to get on with the format as usual. Oh, to see this live!
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