garretta
-
Posts
3562 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by garretta
-
There was some good and some bad to this. First, the good. It says something about how popular the WWF still was even during a business downturn that they could procure an actual warship for something like this. It added to the atrmosphere in a way that not even a jam-packed Madison Square Garden could have. Also, none of the non-wrestlers (with the exception of Burrell, and I think he was the "designated coward", if you will) treated this like a joke. They all tried the best they could to actually slam Yoko instead of just playing around. It made sense that none of them could come close, although Fralic at least got him up a little. By the way, what I mean by "designated coward" is that at least one person had to make out like they were afraid in order to put over what an impossible task slamming Yoko was supposed to be. Burrell, who had just been drafted by the NBA and presumably needed to protect his future, was the perfect candidate. Third, I liked Yoko taking timeout to eat some rice, as if he thought it would put enough weight on him quickly enough to make him harder to slam. Luger gets the biggest thumbs-up here, naturally. In this setting, his promo on Yoko and Fuji worked perfectly, and may be his best ever. It might have seemed strange for the Narcissist to all of a sudden turn up as a flag-waving patriot, but God bless the man, he made it work. The slam looked a bit off, but it served its purpose, and it made sense that Luger wouldn't be able to get Yoko completely over his head. The loaded forearm shot before the slam was a nice touch, and now I know why Fuji insisted in Luger wearing a pad for it at SummerSlam. As for the bump he took, it may have been the one that convinced him and/or Vince that he was getting too old to be a full-service manager and led to Corny coming in. I didn't watch regularly by now, but I'd be surprised if he bumped anymore after this. Okay, now for the bad. First, I had absolutely no problem with Tatanka trying to soften up Yoko before trying to slam him. What I had a problem with was guys like Backlund, who knew that Yoko needed to be softened up, yet just stuck their hands under his crotch, tried one half-hearted lift, then gave up. The rules for this seemed to vary by competitor: Tatanka and Yoko had a decent little mini-match, while Savage and Backlund were pushed away by Earl Hebner after one attempt apiece. There should have been a time limit, say three minutes, during which the competitors could work on Yoko a bit and Yoko would be free to stop them if he could. If they couldn't slam him in the three minutes, their time would be over. Of course, that could have led to the wrong guy (say, Savage) slamming Yoko by accident and killing SummerSlam dead in the water. I give Rousson a pass on the anthem, since he was also competing in the event. That said, couldn't they have gotten a bigger name somewhere in New York to sing it if they truly wanted this event to be a big deal? The biggest minus for the event was Vince's "commentary". He was in full-on "barf all over yourself" mode, and it really took a lot away from the proceedings, mostly because he was doing it before anyone did anything worth hyping. By the time Luger came out of the copter, he was already unbearable, and of course afterward he was worse. Where the hell was JR to do live commentary, even if there wasn't going to be an actual broadcast? His call would have been so much more informative and exciting it wouldn't have been funny. Hell, I'd have taken Gino in a pinch, even as far as he's gone downhill lately. Anything but Vince giving himself internal surgery on national television, The sad thing is, if he ever got a clue as to how bad he was becoming, the odds are that he didn't care one bit.
-
Teddy definitely drove the bus here in what may be his last real money (no pun intended) promo in the WWF. This is the old Million Dollar Man, the one who tried to buy Hulk Hogan, the one who crippled Jake Roberts, the one who treated Virgil like dirt until he snapped. We haven't seen much of him since he and Rotundo got together, but we saw him here and it was glorious. I hope we actually see the Teddy-Waltman match on the set. Hall really didn''t have to do much except put his hands on Teddy and Mike in order to complete the turn, which he did. I don't think he quite knew how to play Razor as a face yet, which might account for him being a bit off. Fortunately, he would learn soon enough. Rotundo was next to useless here. There may be a good heel character somewhere deep inside him, but Irwin R. Schyster isn't it. The only way he can get any heat with anyone is to call them a tax cheat, and since when does stuff like that matter between say, April 16 of a given year and March 1 of the following year? A version of the Michael Wallstreet character may have gotten over well, but Vince had to have his little dig at the IRS, and we ended up with Schyster instead. Why doesn't the man just go whole hog and wrestle in his glasses? He couldn't possibly look any more ridiculous than he does already. I've never see a Steiners-Money Inc. match, so I'm looking forward to the one on this disc. We've seen Mike work with the Steiners before, but it'll be interesting to see how they work with Teddy, who was breaking down rapidly by now if I recall correctly. Savage and Heenan arguing about their shows was cute, but did we really need Randy to say that he and Todd Pettengill could beat Money Inc.? I'm guessing that they won't be around much longer as a team, which is why Randy got away with burying them like that.
-
I'm watching this a tad out of order, but I wanted to see how Tammy did as a ringside manager, and she was fantastic here. Not only did she do a great job on the finish, but she seemed really into the match beforehand, which isn't always the case with females at ringside. She also showed some strength when she rolled Curtis back into the ring for the final pin count, which is something I've seldom seen a woman do. I fully agree with those who say that Lee's a hundred and eighty degrees better as a promo as a heel. His spiel isn't new by any means, but it's such an improvement over his face mic work that it feels fresh. I loved Tammy making her part of the interview all about herself; she's not even paying lip service to the idea that Brian makes a move without her. Even the line aboiut Hillary being President sounds less like a delusion and more like a way to rub female power in the face of male chauvinist pgs everywhere. You go, Tammy! I understand that you can't really threaten a woman with violence in 1993, but the spanking spot never looks good, even when the babyface pulls it off. You know damn well he's barely touching her, and the whole thing looks ludicrous. At least Brian saved us from seeing it here.
-
Heading where, Soup? There's not one of these that could be seen as having anything to do with wrestling whatsoever. Eddie doesn't even seem to be having fun in these; he says his lines and goes through the motions, but there's no passion whatsoever. Heyman seems to be much more into these than he is. It doesn't help that the premises, such as they are, are laughable. Most of this segment's about whether two guys should kiss Eddie's hand or not. Is this for real? This is what you booked for yourself, Eddie? No wonder Heyman took over before you flushed this promotion straight down the toilet. Eddie as a TV host doesn't exactly do much for me either. He sits there and belittles the crew, Jay Sulli, and Tod Gordon, but makes no effort to put over any potential feud partners for himself. The best he could come up with for an angle is Ron Jaworski? I sincerely can't believe how badly he's bungling the crown, which is something he's supposedly wanted in one form or another since he was a boy. They need to get Terry Funk back into the picture in a hurry. Yes, I know Lawler feuded with the likes of Andy Kaufman and Adam West in Memphis, but he had some actual feuds with wrestlers to build credibility for his crown first, which Eddie hasn't come close to doing yet.
-
This was completely bizarre on all kinds of levels. Most of these have already been touched on, but you also had a reluctant cameo from Jay Sulli, who continues to make a case for Worst Announcer of the Year, and the ECW production crew, of all people, making fun of the pizza in the pizza shop. Paul was at least somewhat funny calling everyone Vinnie. and the civilians were good sports more or less, but Eddie, the so-called star of the segments, was so far below par it was ridiculous. The more he hangs around Philadelphia, the clearer it becomes that he's strictly a southern act. He needed to either mend fences in Memphis or try SMW, where he wouldn't have been head booker, but would have been a great addition as a second front, so to speak, in the Armstrong-Corny wars. Just dust off some of the stuff he used to drive Bill Watts crazy in the UWF and put Bullet Bob in the Cowboy's place. It would have kept the feud hot while Corny was off doing WWF appearances. I heard some of the jokes about Missy, but I must have missed when they were talking about Medusa, not that that's a great loss under these circumstances.
-
I didn't like what we saw here at all. Yes, the Vader moonsaults looked great, and Sting coming over the top rope into the ring to save Davey after the second one was debatably just as impressive as the original move. But this felt really wrong. It did nothing for Sting and Davey whatsoever despite Davey's desperation pin; I have no doubt that Vader can kick either one of their asses at will the next time they meet; he's done it before in both cases, and he and Sid once again had Sting so beaten down that Nick Patrick was asking if he wanted to quit, just like Vader did in the strap match at SuperBrawl. I've never seen a face that badly beaten by a heel before once, let alone twice. I heard the "Vader" chants, which were so loud that Jesse had to acknowledge them. It's hardly a new thing for certain fans to chant for a monster heel, but unlike most promotions, WCW never even experimented with Vader as a face during this run. That's a good thing, because they really didn't have any heels that would have been credible challengers for him aside from Sid. Speaking of whom, there wasn't much of him in the clip we saw. I know he's not the worker Vader is by a longshot, but if he's going to be a big deal going forward, we need to see more of him in action. There wasn't much of note said on commentary, but I liked Patrick firing back on Race and Fuller when they questioned if he could count: "I can count real good!" There was more, but I couldn't quite catch it. You may claim that it's a ref getting himself over needlessly at the expense of the wrestlers, but I loved it. Sometimes heel managers just need to be put in their place. This would have been so much better with a clean, decisive pin on Vader, preferably after a powerslam from Davey. As it is now, I'm not looking forward to their rematch, which will probably be just another extended Vader squash regardless of the finish.
-
I don't think we're supposed to believe that Lawler really piledrove Oewn eight times. The clip we saw showed four, and that's more than enough under any circumstances, even if Lawler's completely out of control as he seems to be here. Lawler's stuff is pretty standard and mostly a rehash of his original promo a couple of weeks before, but that's enough for this segment. As for Owen, he's really a mess here. This has never been his issue; he's just in Memphis because Bret's supposedly afraid to show his face. But to hear Owen talk here, you wouldn't even know he has a brother. The "King of Harts" stuff is a nice line, but it doesn't fit these particular circumstances at all, where Owen is pretty much Bret's stooge and nothing more. Shouldn't Bret be the "King of Harts", at least as far as Memphis goes? Maybe they knew he couldn't come in for a while and didn't want to tease something they couldn't deliver, but it still doesn't make much sense. Neither does Prentice, for that matter. If no one else is available. send Howard Finkel (who's already established as a heel to the Memphis audience because of his earlier appearances) as the Harts' mouthpiece; the Memphis regulars should be nowhere near this except for Lawler and whatever partners he may need at a given time.
-
I don't know about you, but it sort of takes away from the Hart-Lawler feud a bit for me when someone like Bert Prentice gets involved. I understand that someone has to be in Memphis to speak for the Harts when they're not available, but Bert Prentice isn't exactly the cream of the crop in Memphis as far as managaers go, now or ever. I have no idea who else they could have gotten, but there had to have been somebody who seemed to be more on Lawler's level. Knowing that Jeff and Jennifer are brother and sister adds a bit to the On the Road segment. I liked Jeff teasing Jennifer about being happy when Brian was Southern champion (and hey, for all we know, he and Jennifer may have dated at one time or been close friends away from wrestling; they seem to be in the same age range). The bit on the jet ski could have only been done with family, whether they were acknowledged as such or not, and it was nice to see Jeff help her back into the boat after her spill, which looked pretty scary. I can just imagine Jennifer running up to their dad when he saw them again and whining, "Daddy, Jeff promised not to let me get wet!" Jeff as the new Fabulous One? That would have been more exciting earlier in Jeff's career; now it feels sort of desperate, like Jackie knows he can't come back as often as he used to and needs to give the name to somebody, since Stan Lane's retired and Steve Keirn's the backup Doink. Not that being Jackie Fargo's surrogate is ever a bad thing in Memphis, but it would have been a bigger deal three or four years before.
-
This was pretty cut-and-dried, as Tunney and Vince announce the main event for SummerSlam. Pete mentioned that he believes that Vince had already given up on Luger before SummerSlam. It's a thought, but if he had, couldn't he have done what he did for Warrior five years before and simply sidelined Luger with phony injuries (maybe even from a minor crash of the Lex Express) and substituted whomever he wanted? The problem is, of course, who does he substitute? Hogan's bridge is burned, Bret's already working twice, Crush is out injured and even a worse talker than Luger, and Savage really isn't a believable opponent for Yoko. Hall may have been a good choice if they'd started to officially turn him sooner, but they didn't. That's probably why Luger got the shot anyway, even if Vince knew he wasn't putting the belt on him. Gino mentions that Fuji's "lips are sealed" concerning the situation. They would remain so forevermore, as Corny would come in as Yoko's American spokesman the following Monday (8/2) on Raw. Corny and Yoko really don't seem like much of a fit, but I haven't seen a whole lot of them together, so maybe I'll change my mind once I do. It's a shame that this wasn't a few years earlier, as Fuji was excellent as "Master Fuji" during Demolition's epic tag title run. Of course, that was mostly because he smiled and bowed a lot while Bill Eadie did most of the talking.
-
Luger does what he does well, but he's not really articulate enough to be a top face in the WWF manner. Hogan and Warrior may have spoken in tongues at times, but at least they were the type of speaker who people stopped to listen to, even if they came away saying "What the hell was that?". Luger doesn't fit that description, which is why he had Harley as a mouthpiece for his WCW World title run. I actually thought Vince was good here. He's still good on interviews and straight hype; it's when he actually has to call a match that he's bad. If he had more sense than ego, he'd put JR on Superstars and Raw now that he's signed him and retire from the booth, but when has Vince ever had more of anything than ego, grapefruits excepted?
-
I don't think the desperation was in the angle; it was in the man chosen to be its face. Luger's never given a damn about anyone but himself for very long, so to see him as the number one patriot and best hope for America feels wrong. That said, who else was there to both fill the superpatriot role and go after Yoko? Hogan was on his way out, Duggan wasn't a serious contender for anything anymore, and Bret was too busy with Lawler even if you scrap the American hero bit. Savage is just about the only other choice, and he's not the superpatriot type either. To be honest, this looks like something designed for Hogan before he quit, and I'm not sure he wouldn't have pulled it off better, bus and all. Actually, there is one other choice I just thought of: Lawler. I don't know if he could have slammed Yoko believably, and he's not really big enough to be a superman, but instead of attacking Bret over the crown, have him take Hogan's part after the "injury" caused by the exploding camera. Lawler's best character is the Memphis everyman turned king, so instead of making him a dime-store joke book comedian, let him fight for the WWF's honor against Yoko, both in the WWF and the USWA. They could even have done a quickie Memphis belt switch to keep the MSC hot if they wanted. He wouldn't have been champ for long, of course, but it would have been a better story than this turned out to be in the end.
-
True enough, Pete. I guess that means the entire WCW production staff was in on it from the beginning, which means that the suits at Turner Broadcasting were in on it as well, making this the first-ever legitimate conspiracy against a heel (Vader) in the history of professional wrestling. Am I close? It would've been better just to have Mick interfere at Beach Blast out of nowhere and hit Vader in the head with a chair.
-
Yeah, I think we've reached the end of the line here. The next one of these (which I don't believe made the set) should be the last one, with Cactus reclaiming his memory and family and setting his sights on getting revenge on Vader. If they draw it out any more, it's going to be hard to care what they do, even if it ends happily. I didn't think the acting here was all that horrible, considering the material they were doing. This isn't Shakespeare; it's not even All My Children. I truly hope that wasn't really Dewey Foley, though. He looks to be too young to understand that Daddy's just playing around when he says that he doesn't know him. It still seems to me like Bang Bang's auditioning for a heel run. I wonder if she ever worked in the business again after this (assuming it wasn't Jackie/Miss Texas in the first place). Kathy (I'm still working on the assumption that this is Kathy Gagne-Zbyszko, since it's never been definitively proven otherwise) has improved a bit over these segments. If anyone's been working with her, it's probably Larry, since I don't believe either Greg or Verne could act their way out of a Ziploc bag, even in a wrestling skit. (Actually, we have proof that Greg stinks; remember the Rambo skits with Sarge?)
-
Eddie sounds more southern here than he did in Memphis or Mid-South for some strange reason. Jay Sulli's annoyance is the wrong kind of annoyance for a segment like this. Gene Okerlund may be annoyed at the heels' actions when he films them "on location", but he never acts like he doesn't want to be there. Sulli sounds legitmately angry that he's even in this segment, which means that he's either a terrible actor or a complete unprofessional. The only new pieces of material here are the "tax" on the people of Philly and this new brother Eddie claims to have been hiding for his entre life. The rest of this is the standard cheap heat stuff that Eddie's done a merely average job with since this whole angle started. If this kind of stuff is what we would have had if Lawler had passed the torch in Memphis, I'm glad he never did. I like the shots with Eddie actually trying to interact with his public, who don't quite seem to know what to make of him but accept him rather cheerfully. Who knows what other crazies they might have seen on the streets during their lifetimes? A joker wearing a cape, crown, and "Love me, love my dog" T-shirt might be a welcome change of pace for some of them.
-
I may need to see more of the Harrises, but from what I saw here, they weren't too awful. Granted, Ricky and Robert had a lot to do with that, but they still had to know what to do and when to do it, even if "it" was basic stuff. Personally, I think the Harrises look more like Dutch Mantell's little brothers than Brody's, but that's just me. I'm a bit surprised that the Harrises won the belts here, but keep in mind that, at least for the moment, the focus of the tag scene in SMW was Armstrongs-Bodies, with the belts taking a back seat, That means that Corny could get away with a shock title change like this, especially if he was the direct cause of it. As Loss said above and I've said repeatedly, at the end of the day there's only one heel of any consequence in SMW, and his name is James E. Cornette.
-
Not much worth commenting on here, as both Raven and Disco deliver as you'd expect. One thing I wasn't thrilled about was Disco dismissing a reigning champion like Davis as a tomato can. That completely decaluses both the title and the wrestler who holds it, especially when it's said by someone who's never wrestled in a territory before. Did the USWA ever ackowlege that Johnny Polo had been Scotty Flamingo just a few weeks before (and probably hadn't left the territory between gimmicks)? They've been good about acknowledging things like that in the past; the only reason I can think of that they wouldn't is if Vince had specifically given Levy that gimmick to develop in Memphis before bringing it to the WWF and told Papa and Lawler not to spoil it for the fans who watched both promotions.
-
Nothing really special here, although a Mulligan mention mught have been more effective than talking about how he grew up watching Barry grow up or whatever he was supposed to mean. This one's more important than your first? Do you really expect us to believe that, Ric, especially since the NWA belt is now at best the third-ranked singles belt in WCW behind the World title and the US title? Sorry, no sale here.
-
I hope whoever Miss Bang Bang was ended up with a full-time job; she's the best actor in all of this, including Mick. I still say Mick as a sailor had some potential if they'd chosen to go that way. The character's not even supposed to be "real", and yet he's getting over with me at least somewhat at least solely because of Mick's brilliance. I just said that Miss Bang Bang was better, though, and that's because there's no "What the......." factor for the audience to overcome; we haven't seen her before that we know of, so it's easier to believe right away that she is who she says she is, while Mick's appearance alone would cause most people to do a double take. Dustin was decent here, but he didn't fulfill his purpose, and why use him anyway? Was Barby out of the company by now, and if he was, couldn't they have brought him back for a one-shot? Who's more likely to jog an amnesiac wrestler's memory: a guy in a cowboy hat and flowered shirt or a monster in tights, boots, and a painted face? Depicting the homeless as a bunch of thieves and beligerent antisocial jerks doesn't help this whole deal. If they were smart, the next installment would take place in a mental hospital, with Mick admitted as a patient. I've had enough of "the streets of Cleveland". I wouldn't give Catherine White ten seconds in a fight with Miss Bang Bang, even if she really is Kathy Gagne-Zbyszko. Speaking of which, does Miss Bang Bang remind anyone else of Miss Texas? I'm fairly sure that that's not who she is, but the resemblance has to be more than just coincidental.
-
The angle itself seems like a novel idea, but it's hard to know what to think right now. I'll need to see more. The main takeaway I have from this is that Gino's gone completely over the edge. Enticing fans to write letters to Tunney asking him to give Luger a title shot is one thing; trying to browbeat them into doing it while slandering Tunney is something else. We know this wasn't his own idea, so I have to wonder if Vince was even then thinking about an evil or obstructionist heel authority figure type. If he was, Jack Tunney's about the worst possible choice he could make. Besides, he's been impartial and stiff on camera for far too long to both get over as a heel and deliver the promos heel authority figures need to deliver. Did any of you out there ever see or step into the Lex Express? If you did, was Luger with it at the time? I've heard stories that he didn't always go with the bus, which defeats the angle's purpose entirely. I've also heard that some of the other boys resented Luger for having a custom-made bus while they had to bust their asses in order to make commercial flights. I can't exactly blame those who thought that way, especially since Lex's whole push turned out to be such a colossal dud.
-
We don't even know if MOM are going to be faces or heels yet. Actually, they might have been more effective as heels right from the start, as long as they didn't turn into a Northeasterm version of the Gamgstas. Pete, you complained about the name of Mabel. Well, Oscar and Mo aren't too much better, quite frankly. But I get the idea that Vince was deliberately trying to make them squares in order to eliminate any chance that they could be taken for militant street people. In other words, make them as white as possible while still pushing them as brothers. At least Oscar raps better than PN News did, for whatever that's worth.
-
First fall: I liked Larry paraphrasing Flair's classic line "To be the man, you gotta beat the man" during the intro. He can get away with stuff like that without sounding cheesy or overproduced, and he's one of the few who can. Tony's grasp of history eludes him here. as he misstates that Flair won his first NWA World title in 1979. It may have been an innocent slip of the brain, but given wrestling's penchant for rewriting and cleansing its own history at the drop of a hat, I tend to doubt it. I'm not sure where I read it, but someone said in one of the Blonds threads on the board that Austin and Pillman were wrestling like a '70s tag team by this point in their partnership, and I thought they might have meant the Andersons. It turns out that they meant the Yukon Lumberjacks, who are one of the worst kick-and-punch teams ever to win a championship. One Austin suplex was about all I saw that could be called wrestling; the rest was heel schtick, which is fine for most heel teams but terrible for the Blonds, who proved that they were better than that sort of thing long ago, or so I thought. The towel spot is overused, and definitely wasn't needed here; why on earth does "the tag team of the nineties" need that sort of stuff to beat two old guys whom they've repeatedly dismissed as old geezers who aren't fit to lace their (the Blonds') boots? It just doesn't make sense, especially when they've had some great bouts lately, like the one we saw earlier in the set against Scorp and Buff. The fans wanted Flair, and they sure got him. There was no hint of ring rust whatsoever, and he really seemed happy to be back in Horseman country. Arn was great as a face not-quite-in-peril, as he managed to stay in the match despite getting the worst of most of his exchanges with Austin and Pillman, I thought they'd acknowledge at least in passing that Arn and Austin used to be stablemates, but they didn't, even though it might have added a bit more emotion to the proceedings. Tony and Jesse seemed a bit out of sorts here. Jesse's age cracks about Flair and Arn seemed to legitimately tick Tony off, and he was audibly disgusted with Jesse's comparison of Arn to a bottle of Ripple. These two have to be them most inconsistent major announcing team in quite a while; when they're on the same page they can be terrific, but when they're not, they may be the most unlistenable announcer pairing in quite some time. I guess it all depends on who gets out of bed on which side before a given card. Flair beats Pillman with a flying forearm to put his team up 1-0. Second fall: There were more chops thrown in the first few minutes of this fall than in most of the other matches on this disc put together. Flair wasn't a bad FIP, but the Blonds were more in their element trying to destroy Arn's knee. Tony reminded the audience that a knee injury was what had kept Arn out of the ring in the early part of the year, and Jesse really added to the sense of drama by constantly pointing out that the Blonds were keeping him from tagging Flair, which might end up costing Arn both the match and his career. Tony wanted no part whatsoever of Jesse's assertion that Flair and Arn had to be wishing that they'd signed for a standard one-fall bout, which would have meant a title change already. I'm not sure why, because Jesse was absolutely right. I think Tony had just had enough of Jesse for one night and wanted to call the match in his own way since it was Flair's big return and he was a favorite of Tony's (which is understandable, given how long they'd worked together in JCP). The DQ was expected, because Flair wasn't going to need the World tag belts if he was challenging Barry for the NWA title. People tend to forget that Barry was in a sense an original member of the Blonds, since he and Pillman formed a very good team before he (Barry) left to pursue a singles career and Austin replaced him. Roma making the save in street clothes didn't exactly float my boat; he should have had an earlier match so we could see how he'd wrestle as a Horseman. I loved how intense the postmatch brawl between Flair and Windham was; in some ways it was the most intense action all night. Barry's promo before that wasn't exactly Shakespeare, but it set up the feud very nicely. With the full beard, his height and his intensity on promos, Barry's really becoming the closest thing WCW has to a monster heel outside of Vader. Too bad he'll only be at his peak for another month or so before he hurts his knee.
-
I really didn't feel much here one wau pr the other. If it had been a random match featuing these two and not part of the NJPW/WAR deud, I have to question whether it would have ecen made the set. Fuyuki dominated most of the bout, with Hase just getting enough stuff in to seem competitive. That's understandavle, since this is a WAR card. Whoever said that he worked like Tentyu was right; he looked a lot like him too, at least in this match. What's the story behind Ricky Fuyuki changing his first name to Samson? He certianly wrestled more like a Samso than a Ricky in this bout, even no-selling some of Hase's punches. It was nice to see how the midcard was faring in this feud, but I'm ready for Tenryu-Hash.
-
This didn't impress me much. First of all, laet me say that Barry was tremendous here. This is what he could have been for his whole career if he'd wanted it badly enough, and with his varied offense and ability to make his opponents look good he would have been a first-rate NWA World traveling champion. Unfortunately for him, he was too young to credibly beat Harley, and Flair at his peak had everyhring Barry had and a winning persona besides. There was just no place for Barry at the top until now. Unfortunately, Scorp wasn't the best choice to challenge him on this night. Who knows if he really went to Japan before this match or not? It doesn't matter, because he looked terrible except for one or two minutes toward the end where he crammed in all his offense and managed to make himself look like he belonged in the ring with Barry. He should have been on the offensive from start to finish, making everyone in attendance actually believe that he could not just pin Barry, but beat him decisively. We never got close to that, though, and on balance, Barry handled him with ease. Someone like Bagwell could have given Barry almost the exact same bout, except that his aerial offense wouldn't have looked as good. Hell, stick Roma in there with him to build the issue between him and Flair. He might not have deserved to be on such a big stage, but Scorp didn't either, and even Tony and Jesse knew it. Speaking of whom, they were at their near-best. Not quite main event level, as Jesse throws in a few too many bad jokes about Norfolk and the name of its arena, but close enough, Tony's learning the art of bemused tolerance for the Bod that Gino and JR had before him, and that he himself showed when they teamed in the WWF. That makes Jesse better and more willing to talk about the matches. I liked him calling out Barry for perhaps taking Scorp too lightly, but also for putting Barry over in every possible way, including as a near-equal to Scorp in the air. There was a bit too much talk about Johnny B. Badd and Maxx Payne for my taste, but that's because I haven't seen that angle. Michael Buffer was better here than I remembered him being later, much closer to a real boxing announcer and not just Mr. "LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUMMMMMMMBLLLLLE!" I thought at first that he gave Barry the "Lone Wolf" nickname himself just for the intros, but it turns out that WCW really was pushing him that way. Too bad; if they'd been smart, they would have changed plans and stuck Barry back with the Horsemen until they could find a better fit than Roma was, then worked a turn angle on Flair in time for Starrcade (which, of course, Barry missed anyway due to his knee injury). Line of the Night: Nothing really stood out above the rest, but I got a kick out of Jesse sticking up for his old friends in the Navy: "At least there aren't many jarheads (Marines, I'm assuming) or Army grunts here in Norfolk."
-
First fall: Let me say right off the bat that this is already better than the Big Josh-Arn match from '92, and we haven't even gotten to the second fall yet. Of course, part of that is due to the blessed lack of Jason Hervey. They're playing up the multiple Doinks right from the start, which is one more aspect of the character that started out so brilliant with Borne and turned into bad comedy once he left. Jannetty actually holds his own with Borne scientifically, which isn't exactly a huge shock but is still unexpected because you still think of the high-flying Rockers when you think of him. There's nothing earth-shattering about this workwise, but I enjoyed the fake-out crisscross spot immensely. Again, it's hard to think of Marty as a psychologically sound wrestler, particularly when he's in there against a character that's almost pure psychology, but he pulls it off well here. It's obvious that Heenan's time in the WWF is running out. No one's even remotely interested in setting him up the way he needs to be set up, and most of his good lines are meant with some form of "Shut up, Heenan!" I thought Savage was improving in that regard, but he's not. Between that and proclaiming that everyone in the world loves Marty and wants to see him wipe out Borne in two straight, he's really grating on me so far. Vince perked up when he had something to hype (Waltman-Hall), but his match calling is still the pits. To be fair, Bobby's line about Roger Clinton hanging out underneath the ring wasn't needed, but the man's probably tired of sitting with two people who don't want to work with him anymore. Borne hits the Whoopee Cushion splash to go up 1-0. What does it say about Vince the announcer when he won't even call moves by the stupid names he gives them himself? Second fall: The object of the hype machine in this fall is Yoko's slam challenge. Vince is so busy putting over Bill Fralic that he almost misses a close nearfall. Meanwhile, Heenan chimes in about a female jockey from Newark named Martina. He must really be bored stiff. Borne was tremendous as usual, and I loved him doing the double axhandle off the top right in front of Savage, who predictably complains about it. Borne's version looked excellent, but Savage's was a real killer, especially during his first heel run. Just ask Ricky Steamboat. As for Marty, he hits the loudest chorus of Sweet Chin Music I've seen yet, and Borne knows just how to bump for it. If Marty had stayed in the WWF, it would have been interesting to see which Rocker got "custody" of the move. Marty wins with his rather pedestrian finisher, the flying fist, to tie the match at one fall apiece. Third fall: Let's start with the finish. I like the idea of the double Doinks being discovered, which leads to Borne's (Keirn's?) disqualification. What I don't like is that Savage is the one who alerts Earl Hebner. Maybe if they were building to a Savage-Doink feud (which would have been great), I could buy it. But they weren't; they never even followed up on anything of the kind from what I can tell. Even worse was Heenan coming to the rescue of the Doinks, which leads to a heated argument between him and Savage. None of the above was ever going to draw a red cent, especially anything with Heenan involved, so why not use Crush or Curt, who have had high-profile encounters with Doink in the last few months? Usually one guy in a WWF feud can't make a move without the other one trying to stop him, so why mess with that formula now? Borne's work on Jannetty's legs is tremendous but a bit rushed. Marty still sells it like a champ, even crumpling in pain after hitting a backdrop. I'd have liked it better if Borne had at least tried to work the leg in the first two falls, but with the WWF you have to take what little solid wrestling you get and be happy with it. Kudos to Vince for at least acting like he's interested in how a figure-four works, which gives Savage the opportunity to explain it a bit. Randy isn't half-bad when he's got something important to talk about or get over. From the Make Up Your Mind Already Dept.: Heenan's favorite line about Doink is that he's like Jello: there's always room for more. Okay, Weasel, then why do you go along with Doink when he calls multiple Doinks an illusion? I think these two could have had a pretty decent feud if Vince had chosen to go that way. That didn't happen, of course, but what we got here is probably the televised Match of the Year in the WWF so far, with only the Bret-Flair Boston handheld topping it overall.
-
This had to be a rib on Bischoff the way the Black Scorpion was a rib on Jim Herd. You know, Eric asks for ideas in a booking meeting and Ole, just to be a smartass, says, "Well, why don't we bring Dusty out of retirement?" Eric asks who he can fight, and Ole says, "Well, it can't be Flair, since he's a face now. Harley can't bump much, and he's busy with Vader. Wait, I have it! Nick Patrick's dad. You know, The Assassin!" The sad part is, this actually felt hotter than most of the other stuff WCW was doing at the time, and as long as they kept it short, they may have been able to put on a crowd-pleasing, if not good, match. But Pete's right; they didn't need to be teasing a legends feud as a major money-making program. If Hamilton (Assassin) wanted to bring someone in to go after Dustin and Dusty would have been in Dustin's corner, fine and dandy. I'm not sure who he would have gotten, but he obviously still had the verbal skills to be a good manager, probably better than Harley's, or even Fuller's as Col. Parker. But to tease not just one match, but a program between himself and Dusty? And to make it worse, it seems like they were implying that the Assassin might have been eventually revealed as Dusty's father. (Why else would Hamilton refer to "what (Dusty's) mother and I talked about"?) It might have been biologically impossible, but when there's money to be made, who cares about biology? The rest of this was good, and I especially liked Dusty putting over Dustin-Rude before Hamilton interrupted. That's how you use the Dream as an onscreen character in retirement, Eric. It seemed when the feud first started that Dusty would be in Dustin's corner for their matches, but they never pulled the trigger on that, opting for this slop instead. If this was a rib from Ole, none of us are laughing. If this was a serious idea........well, this is the company that just made Paul Roma a Horseman, so why should stuff like this surprise us?