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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    This was a showcase for both Windham and Regal, and a good one too. We got to see Barry as a mat wrestler and Regal as someone who does more than wrestle on the mat, which was a treat on both sides. I wouldn't have thought that Barry could hang with Regal in the hold department, but he did. You can tell that they have plans for Regal by the way they set up his defeat, with his leg getting caught in the ropes leading to a knee injury. He needed to lose, of course, but they left him looking pretty strong in defeat. If he ever gets another shot at Barry and doesn't hurt his knee, who knows what may happen? The Barry-Arn stuff at the start looked really good, and it's a shame that nothing ever really came of it. Being NWA champion wouldn't have meant much in WCW by now anyway, but it would have been a nice feather in Arn's cap like it is in Barry's at this point. Tony and Jesse have cut the bullcrap, I'm glad to say, and they were at their best here. I liked Jesse's non-response to Tony's question about whether he would like to be a manager (I think he would have been good at it right after he retired, but by now it would almost be a step downward). I also liked Jesse telling Tony that he had to ask the tough questions, such as getting Barry to comment on Flair, then after Barry walked out on the postmatch interview upon hearing the Flair question, chiding Tony for riling Barry up and getting the interview cut off. Tony just gave a small smile and shrug to the camera as he and Jesse said goodbye, which added to the whole thing, and we closed with Jesse telling him, "You ain't exactly Mike Wallace". A few more months of stuff like that and they could well be the top broadcast team in the business, especially since Dave Brown has to carry Corey Maclin and JR and Heenan are saddled with an increasingly unlistenable Randy Savage. I'm not sure what they hoped to accomplish with the whole Windham avoiding Flair thing. I almost wonder if they had an idea of Barry going back to the Horsemen at some point, so they didn't really want to commit to a Flair-Windham feud. It seems a bit strange for the NWA World champion to be a part of a group he wouldn't lead, but they could have used that as a springboard for a feud a few months down the road, with Barry as champion being outraged that he's still playing second fiddle to Flair, who's not a champion of any kind. I just have a hard time believing that Paul Roma was the best they could do to complete the group once Tully backed out. (Actually, they could have used two new members, since Ole counted to get the group to four even though he didn't wrestle.) Would someone be willing to go through some available results and see if Jesse's claim of never wrestling either Mulligan or Barry holds up? I could see him missing Mulligan, but he and Barry had to be in the ring together at some point for Vince in 1985, even if it was just in a battle royal.
  2. garretta
    Nagai got in one lucky kick for a knockdown and that was about it. The rest of the time, he was trying to keep Han from twisting him into a pretzel. Ultimately, he failed. If Han had cared to learn the traditional pro style, the right promotion could really have made some money with him, given his rep as a mat wrestler. What promotion that would have been I don't know, but it's a safe bet that it wouldn't have been an American one.
  3. garretta
    This was like three different matches in one. The first fall was a mat classic, with Dragon eventually prevailing but both men looking excellent. The second fall was all about Casas getting serious in an effort to tie things up, repeatedly using the scorpion deathlock in an effort to get Dragon to tap and finally doing so. Then he hit the low blow between falls and it all broke loose. I thought Dragon's performance in the third fall made the match, as he not only overcame the low blow, but two missed dives to the floor where he clearly (and perhaps legitimately) turned his ankle. His perseverance paid off in the end with a victory, and a spectacular one at that. The fans were going wild for him at the end, as well they should have been. The only false note was the handshake afterward. I know it's traditional and all that, but would anyone who'd just gotten kneed in the privates turn around and shake the hand of the man who did it not even ten minutes before in a real-life situation? Tradition has its place, but it shouldn't be allowed to override logic and common sense this blatantly. Why did the referee count Casas' shoulders after he slipped off the turnbuckle early in the third fall? I thought I recalled reading somewhere that it was permissible in certain situations, but I'm not sure when or why a referee can choose to do it.
  4. garretta
    This was the Jake Roberts show, plain and simple. Even though he's in a foreign country, he's still scary and twisted enough to turn what should be an epic match between two old rivals completely on its ear by his mere presence. Konnan wasn't on his game from the start because of it, and Caras was enough of an opportunist to take advantage. The actual match didn't just take a backseat, it curled up in the trunk and took a nap. We'll probably never know this, but from what I know of Jake and Caras, it wouldn't surprise me if their fight was a ruse to draw Konnan outside the ring. Of course, with Jake being who he is, it also wouldn't surprise me if he beat the hell out of both Caras and Mascarita Sagrada just because they were there. Jake looked a lot better beating up Sagrada than Bundy did squashing Little Beaver at Mania III. I have nothing against Sagrada, but I'd have loved to see Jake DDT him just to put the topper on this whole package. I don't care much about the retirement stip being enforced, because I'd love to see Konnan get his hands on Jake. For that matter, I wouldn't mind seeing Caras get a piece of Jake if they weren't co-conspirators in what we saw here.
  5. garretta
    This match takes the place of the one the week before as WCW's Match of the Year to this point. It was worked a little more traditionally, but not so much that we were allowed to forget that two fugitives from the nut house were in the ring, or out of it as the case may be. (I should make it three, considering some of the shots that Harley took from Mick,) Mick looked like he may have had Vader's number at one point, but the toll of two hard bouts against a 450-pound man was too much, and eventually Vader took control for good. Again, I don't get why Mick's the bad guy here. Do any of you know if he called the match? Even if he did, Vader could have refused to do the powerbomb on the concrete, which would have meant that Mick would have had to somehow launch himself into the bump he took on the floor. For that matter, Harley could have refused to pull back the mats, which would have made the bump at least a little safer. Neither of those happened which means that the match layout was agreed to by everyone, road agent included. At most, Mick deserves one-fourth of the blame, with the rest being split between Harley, Vader, and whoever booked the finish. Would I have booked it? Probably, only I would have made sure the mat was still in place. The powerbomb itself was needed to paint Vader as someone who will stop at nothing to injure those whom he wants out of the way, Tony and Jesse were great here, although part of that was undoubtedly awe at what these two maniacs were putting themselves through. Jesse was brilliant in the postmatch, especially when he reminded Tony of what Mick had said in the promo we saw earlier about not wanting any more matches with Vader for his family's sake: "There may not be any rematches, or any more matches for Jack, period." I also liked that he went to help load Mick onto the stretcher, although we didn't see him because the crowd around the scene was so big. It was too dark to see Jesse in the ambulance, too. For an outfit whose production has rightfully been excoriated at times over the years, WCW got this one right by going silent for the last few minutes. The ambulance scene looked and felt more legitimate than any other I've seen in wrestling in quite a while, probably because it was. But there were no announcer histrionics, no talk of what it meant in the grand scheme of things, no shilling for a pay-per-view, just a look at what it's like for a wrestler to be taken out on a stretcher. Regardless of whose fault the injury was, it was nice to see the moment treated with the gravity it deserved. How the hell did Davey Boy get a shot at Vader on pay-per-view so quickly? Based off of this angle, my choice to face Vader at SuperBrawl would have been Barbarian, assuming he was still around.
  6. garretta
    I liked this more as a Bam Bam performance than a Bret one. Bigelow looked really good here, busting out a variety of offensive moves to hurt Bret's back after a couple of brutal-looking post shots. I especially liked the double underhook backbreaker, which I've never seen before, I used to read in the magazines about how gifted he was in the ring, but I've never seen him work like he had skill until this match. Size and agility, yes. Skill, no. Bret blew off the back injury too easily in my book. He never struggled to move around the ring, and he certainly had no trouble doing exactly what he wanted to do. I wouldn't make a big deal out of this except that Bammer looked so good working Bret's back over that it's a shame that nothing came of it, even short-term. Normally Bret's a very good seller, so I'd be interested to know what was wrong with him in this match. JR sounded more at home with the WWF style here than he did at Mania, and what a difference working with him makes in Heenan. There are still a few jokes (why would you use Heenan if you didn't want humor?), but even when he's tried to be serious, he's seldom been this good. Not only does he add his two cents about the back injury and talk about what Bret's going through, but he also talks about what he'd do if he were in Bammer's shoes, some of which Bammer actually does. It was a treat to listen to him, and a tip of the cowboy hat to JR for bringing it out. His magic didn't work on Savage, though; maybe he's trying to tell Vince that he doesn't want to be in the booth anymore in the only way he can, by being below average and hoping Vince will take the hint. Whatever the case may be, he added nothing to the match except what's fast becoming a tired spiel about the R-E-S-P-E-C-T he has for Bret. (Heenan: "Thank you, Aretha Franklin!") Story of the Night: I really enjoyed Heenan talking about how old-timers used to tape different parts of their bodies in order to both sucker opponents into going after body parts that weren't hurt and to hide injuries. I've never actually heard Heenan talk about his younger days in the business while commentating before, at least not without a punchline at the end. Too bad Savage can't do anything more than accuse Heenan of calling him an old-timer, which he never came close to doing. Watching this match makes me want to see a Bret-Yoko match in full to see how he'd do against a guy even bigger and meaner than Bammer. Somehow, I don't think a victory roll will be enough to get him the win.
  7. garretta
    I thought that this was tremendous, perhaps WCW's Match of the Year so far. Even the lack of Jesse on commentary didn't hurt this like I thought it would. I don't understand the "Foley's jerking off" references. I know what the phrase means, but I don't know how the hell it can apply here. Can any of you prove that Mick in essence sabotaged the match by ordering or otherwise encouraging Vader to forget whatever plan they may have had going in and just keep hitting him in the face instead? How do you know that wasn't the plan to begin with? Remember, Cactus Jack is just as crazy as Vader if not more so, and Vader knows it. He also knows that he's in for the fight of his life if he lets Cactus have his way for even a moment. So why not just forget the wrestling stuff and pound the hell out of him? I don't doubt that some of the shots were legit (though we don't have anyone's word other than Mick's, and he's trying to make himself look good), but I don't imagine that a match between them was ever going to feature much in the way of what El-P called "good actual work". The finish was a stroke of genius, as we saw Cactus lure Vader into charging him on the safety rail, then move out of the way. Vader looked like he hit hard, and I wouldn't doubt that he legitimately bruised a rib or two. I loved him throwing the piece of rail around at the end as if he blamed it for the loss. Harley can still bump when he has to, God bless him. He adds more to Vader's matches that way than he does as a spokesman. Tony was actually more tolerable by himself, even though I hated Vince editing Jesse off of his DVDs on general principle. I loved Tony's line the first time the rail was knocked over: "There goes the furniture!" I'm really looking forward to the rematch, although I'm not sure if this bout can be topped for sheer brutality without the use of weapons.
  8. garretta
    This match represents the downside of interpromotional feuds. Even if they'd wanted to, the USWA couldn't put the Unified belt on Randy because he was committed to broadcasting Raw on Monday nights. I'm not even sure Vince would have let him work on the nights a taped Raw aired, in order to present the illusion that even the taped episodes were live. On the other hand, Savage didn't come all the way to Memphis to lay down for Lawler and never be heard of again, so the Kingfish couldn't pin him clean either. And on the third hand, this feud had so much buildup and so much past history that the fans had to be promised a war to end all wars. Put all three of those conditions together and you get what we saw, which was the USWA taking the entire selling point of the match (non-sanctioned, anything goes) and throwing it out the window. Even as a regular cage match, this was bad, but the DQ on Sherri would have at least been explicable. But ending a (so-called) no-rules, do-whatever-the-hell-you-want match with a pedestrian DQ after having Lawler rather lethargically take a one-sided pounding for the whole thing is just plain asinine. Uniless you got a thrill out of seeing Sherri stripped, these was nothing in this match to be recommended at all, and I didn't. As much as I hate man-on-woman violence and have railed against Papa for using it, if there was ever a time to have Lawler piledrive Sherri, this was it. She had it coming as much as she ever did, and she would almost certainly have taken a piledriver if asked. If she wouldn't, or they didn't want to go there, just have Lawler pop her in the jaw one time, not even hard. She rolls to the floor, Lawler runs off Savage, and everyone goes home at least content. Can you imagine what the old-timers who remember the original Lawler-Savage feud had to be thinking after watching this? They were probably rooting for the two of them to get into a fight on Superstars (which they should have, even if their previous history with each other was ignored) and were certainly looking for a spirited bout here. Even with the ludicrous booking, we should have at least had that. Why Lawler mailed it in on this of all nights, I can't say. Did he think letting Randy have almost all of the offense would keep him in Vince's good graces? Why should that have mattered? Was Vince even paying attention to what was going on in Memphis at this point? If this was all we were going to get, WMC should have aired one of the classic bouts between these two during Randy's original run and left it at that. It would have made everyone concerned look a hell of a lot better than they should have after this mess.
  9. garretta
    Not a bad little match before the run-in. I continue to be impressed by Brian; he's probably the best full-time heel in Memphis at this point, and he's only going to het better with experience. He has his dad's routine down pat, plus he adds some technical ability that Jerry probably has but doesn't show much. He definitely outworked Jeff here, and I'm about ready for Jeff to turn heel, which I know is coming up later this year sometime. This guy needs to be freshened in the worst way. I loved Dave's reaction to Brian's antics, particularly this: Brian: Dave Brown, tell Jeff Jarrett that the fist is illegal! Dave (in a "Give me a break!" tone of voice): Jeff, the fist is illegal. That's the story of the match: Brian continually punching Jeff (and with some good shots, too) while complaining when Jeff punches him. Not the most original or compelling story in wrestling history, but it was enough to kill six minutes. I'd like to see these guys get more time without having to worry about run-ins, because I think they're capable of a much better match than this one turned out to be. Is anyone else curious what Brian and Kevin talk about during those complain-to-the-ref spots? I'd imagine something like this: Kevin: Stop throwing fists, Brian, or I'll tell Dad on you. Brian: Go ahead, I'll just get a head start on the butt-kickin' I'm gonna give him Monday night! Kevin: You and what army? Brian: You just wait a couple minutes and you'll see what army! Kevin: Oh, yeah? Brian: Yeah!
  10. garretta
    This was the perfect wrapup to the rivalry and a hell of a way to kick off the new team. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" was never more apt. Not that these two didn't try like hell, of course, but they're each so tough and know each other so well that each move has a countermove. The moves that did hit in this one had a real sense of struggle attached. In this case, unlike most, a draw felt right and was quite satisfactory. Based on what I saw here, I'm really looking forward to the new team, which should take AJPW by storm. I'm also looking forward to these two renewing their rivalry for many Carnivals to come.
  11. garretta
    Real nice bunch of folks. At least I know now why Corny felt free to go as far as he did, Thanks, AJ!
  12. garretta
    I understand all that, AJ, but if they were still on the air, and in fact going into a promo with the Bodies where they were still fighting, Caudle should have taken a few seconds and told us what the hell happened. Sorry, no pass from me here.
  13. garretta
    So that was it? They didn't even bother to announce a decision. We all knew that there wasn't going to be any kind of finish, but at least disqualify both guys because Corny jumped in the ring. It's almost like this whole match and the angle before it (Bob picking Prichard's name out of the hat to face Eaton) never even happened. If it wasn't for the commentary, there would have been literally nothing to this match at all, but it was worth the eight minutes I spent watching this to hear Bob, Dutch, and Horner make fun of Corny. Otherwise, this whole thing was a waste of time. They should have booked an Eaton-Horner rematch (with a Prichard run-in to further the dissension story) instead.
  14. garretta
    Owen looked good here, but not quite enough to beat a monster like Bam Bam. Still, he more than held his own, so you know we haven't seen the last of him. Conversely, Bammer did his job well, but if he'd been going anywhere fast he'd have looked a lot more dominant. His big opportunity in the WWF had come five and a half years earlier and fallen by the wayside because of his bad knees. Now he's a monster in a promotion who already has a bigger one (Yoko) as its top heel, with the further advantage of a ready-made program with Hogan. Bammer may have been better off homesteading in Japan, as he was similarly blocked in WCW by Vader. I'm not sure whether Owen hurt his knee legit or not; it certainly seems plausible that he did, and that's all that matters here. When the 1993 version of Vince McMahon is the best announcer in a given match, that match is in big trouble, Lawler won't give the faces any credit, and Savage won't give the heels any credit. Lawler's practically reading from an open joke book, and Savage goes back and forth between semi-English and speaking in tongues. Ugh and double ugh. Heenan probably didn't want to do two tapings in two days, but surely there's a better color guy out there than these two. Bring Curt back; he was just getting good when they pulled the plug on him in favor of Lawler. Hell, I'd rather hear Hillbilly Jim than Lawler and Savage at this point, and Hillbilly was only passable in 1990 with Gino and Lord Alfred on MSG house shows.
  15. garretta
    My God, what Vince could have done with this if he'd wanted to. Lawler's close enough to his heel character here that he could have spun this as Savage coming to the aid of someone he still considers a friend, and we could have had not only sellouts in Memphis and around that loop, but a solid upper-midcard feud in the WWF that would have used both of these guys a hell of a lot better than they ended up being used. Maybe this would have messed up the Bret feud a bit for Lawler, but why not have him go against both Bret and Savage, and throw in a quest to be WWF champion for good measure since both of these guys are former champions? Nah, we'll just have Lawler recite from old joke books and make the WWF fanbase wonder just what the hell Vince ever saw in a washed-up old coot with a silly crown instead. The amazing thing is, Vince had to know exactly what was going on in Memphis, but he never once allowed himself to think that maybe he'd made a mistake putting these two guys (and Sherri too, for that matter) out to pasture. Sherri hasn't missed a beat on the stick; she isn't exactly glib, but the fact that she sounds for all the world like she just escaped from the wacky ward makes up for it. That and the fact that she slapped Lawler hard enough to rock him after one of the most unfunny "jokes" he's ever told. She also called Corey out for what he is in two simple words; I think "Hi, Lance" was a deliberate, intended shot at the fact that Corey's done nothing but a two-cent Lance Russell impression ever since he showed up behind the desk at Channel 5. His answer? "Aw, Sherri......." Can't they let the man stand up for himself when he's being insulted? Dave would be so much better by himself it's not funny. If they need a vacation replacement, bring in Bob Caudle from Smoky Mountain, or better yet, have the Lancer come home for a couple of weeks, since he's doing SMW now. My other favorite moment in this segment was seeing Eddie Marlin get the snot kicked out of him by Savage. Breaking up a piledriver on the studio floor is one thing; making yourself look like a he-man by actually throwing Savage to the ground is something else. He deserved to get stomped flat, especially if he'd already put his hands on Randy before as his interview claimed. He's long been known for being extra-aggressive physically, so it makes sense that a wrestler would have enough of him eventually. It was just a question of which wrestler. I'm definitely looking forward to the cage match, especially since it looks like we get one of the longest clips of Memphis action in the Yearbook series to date because of it.
  16. garretta
    I was so busy watching Heenan that I never even saw Savage doing anything with his toga. Anyone who didn't get at least one chuckle out of this probably shouldn't call themselves a wrestling fan. I'd rather have Bobby riding backwards on a camel and giving the watching world a free look at his swimming trunks than listen to Tony and Jesse bicker at each other over on the other channel, and I'd absolutely rather hear JR quoting the hotel brochure at Caesar's Palace than Corey Maclin doing anything whatsoever. Say what you want to about the in-ring product, but the WWF's overall television shows (by which I mean announcing and production values as well as matches) can't be topped, or even approached, by anyone in the world at this time. JR's addition just adds to their lead. The one I feel bad for is Gino. Yes, he's gone downhill pretty far and pretty fast, but to go from play-by-play at the Rumble to a twenty-second cameo, if that, at Mania is a pretty big step down. If he hadn't been one of the McMahon family inner circle, he'd have probably been better off going to WCW or even ECW, considering that he lived in the Philly suburbs. He'd have brought instant credibility to a new promotion that needed some, and even at half of his former abilities he'd have been better than Jay Sulli. Could you imagine a lead announce team of Gino and Terry Funk? I think they'd have been a riot together. Savage and his babble may be okay on Superstars, but he needs to bring more to the table than "Do the thing, YEAH!" if he's going to be tolerable on pay-per-views, even alongside pros like JR and Heenan. Heenan branding the camel he was riding on an "attack camel" might be a Line of the Year candidate. It's hard to imagine that he'll be out of the WWF by the end of this year.
  17. garretta
    Not a bad match. There was quite a bit of nice double- and triple-teaming, which at least showed that these guys understood how to work as units. Too often these matches are more like six-man battle royals with little or no heed paid to teamwork at all. The featured matchup here seemed to be Volador vs. La Parka, since they got almost all of the first fall to themselves and sizable chunks of the other two as well. I'm guessing that La Parka's unmasking in the third fall was accidental, since Volador seemed to actively help him put it back on instead of laughing at him or trying to humiliate him in some other way. I've seen the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker in almost every lucha match I've watched on these Yearbooks so far, but I've only seen it rarely in Japan and never here in the States. What makes that move so popular in Mexico? What was with La Parka dancing with a fan after the match? The only other heel that I've seen welcome fans into the ring is Rick Rude when he used to kiss a lucky woman (who more often than not was a plant, from what I've heard).
  18. garretta
    It's too early to talk about Match of the Year, but this was definitely February's Match of the Month. The thing I liked most was that everybody got a chance to really go, and there were all sorts of different styles to appreciate: Tenryu and Choshu grounding and pounding, Fujinami and Fuyuki flying, the shoot-style influence of Kido and Kitahara, and exciting mixtures of all of the above. Even Hara, whose offense seems to be limited to clotheslines and headbutts, really looks good doing what he does. Both sides are left with positives: NJPW gets the sweep, with Choshu scoring both falls and Kido injuring Tenryu's arm, but WAR controls the body of each fall, working over Fujinami and Iizuka. The next time there's a match like this (the thinking on their side goes), all we have to do is keep Choshu out of our hair and we can beat these bums. One trap that this match didn't fall into is trying to hide anyone. All ten guys got extended segments in the ring, although Choshu seemed to be in there just a little less than the others. Coming out of this, I'd not only like to see the obvious matches like Choshu-Tenryu and Hash-Tenryu, but almost all of the other possible combination in both singles and tag matches. I'd especially like to see if they follow up on the arm injury story with Tenryu and Kido. Now that this feud is pretty much back on even terms, where will it go from here? I for one can't wait to find out!
  19. garretta
    I thought that this was above average; nothing too spectacular, but definitely enjoyable. Was it just me, or did the sides seem to change in the middle, with Taue's group (particularly Ogawa and Akiyama) going face and Misawa's becoming more aggressive? A total paradigm shift like that could have been a real shot in the arm to this feud. Both Ogawa and Akiyama took impressive beatings, and Akiyama continues to show that he belongs in the same ring with the elite of All-Japan, even if he's not quite at their level yet. It's a good indication of how much Baba thinks of him that he gets a nearfall on Misawa at least once in every six-man I've seen with the two of them in it so far. It's not that Taue's incapable of being a group leader, but he needs a strong number two, and who better qualified to be that man than the other side's number two? It'll be interesting to see Kawada against Misawa and Kobashi on a more-or-less permanent basis moving forward.
  20. garretta
    It almost seems like ECW tried to get Bruno to come in, was turned down, and made a bog deal out of calling Terry a living legend to rub it in Bruno's face, or so they thought. If they wanted to showcase Terry's acting talents, couldn't they have chosen a clip where he comes out on top? Showing someone getting decisively beaten by anyone, let alone an actor with no athletic reputation like Scott Bakula, is no way to get them over as a top wrestling talent, especially to the cynical Philly audience. They got away with it in Terry's case because of his past glory, but it can't become any sort of habit. In the few matches I saw Sulli and Stevie in on Will's ECW set, I thought they were pathetic. Was Stevie ever a wrestler? He sure talks like one, but in the footage I saw, no reference was ever made to him potentially getting in the ring. Jay's one of those overly earnest types who treats wrestling like the most serious sport on earth, which not even greats like Solie, Russell, and JR do at all times. That makes listening to him a real chore. Eddie was probably too busy booking the first couple of months to get in the ring, which is why he was content to be a manager and instigator. He and Snuka sound like an extremely interesting pair, to say the least. I'm not sure about crowning your TV champion before your regular champion. It gives the TV shows a focus, but if the matches are too good, the TV title becomes more important than the heavyweight title. Sometimes, as in Abrams' UWF, the heavyweight champion is never crowned at all.
  21. garretta
    Thanks for the info, AJ!
  22. garretta
    I didn't this much, mainly because Savage and Heenan insisted on bantering over top of most of it. I couldn;t tell what they were saying either, so the whole segment ended up a mishmash except for a few good lines ("Shawn is great!", the Grover/Oscar mixup, and one or two others). Shawn's still too self-absorbed to do truly heated, hate-filled mic work; he gives the impression of being above both the fans and the sport itself. He'll ground himself a little more as time goes on. When Bobby called Shawn the greatest IC champ of all time, I thought Randy would stick up for himself as well as for Curt, but he didn't. Shawn and Luger would have made a pretty good regular tag team, and in a world where Kevin Nash didn't exist, Luger would have also been a good muscleman for Shawn while maintaining his own career. I liked Vince telling Shawn that he acts the way he does because he feels that he's not worthy of the fans' love and respect. That's the kind of question/statement that Vince would pose when he hosted TNT and actually cared about getting characters and storylines over instead of the company and its ability to make a spectacle, and I was glad to see it return. Too bad the return wasn't permanent.
  23. garretta
    For the first time (but not the last) we get a glimpse of Mick Foley the man during a promo. I agree that this was needed, because the Cactus character, much like Mankind later, simply isn't a natural babyface. But if fans can't bring themselves to root for the deranged madman Cactus Jack, maybe they can give it up for family man Mick Foley (although he's not referred to by name here), who's putting himself on the line for a second time against the man who nearly bashed his head in so his family can eat and live comfortably. I liked Cactus holding Vader's mask up like a scalp as he talked. I rust he tore it off of Vader at some point during the first match. I definitely want to see both matches now, because the first one sounds brutal just by the looks of Mick here and the second one should be even worse based on its buildup. if the lead announcer of a given promotion says that he doesn't want to be around to see a match as Tony does here, you know (or at least hope) that it's going to be a war.
  24. garretta
    It seems like the original plan may have been Bret-Luger and Hogan-Yoko at King of the Ring, with Bret and Hogan going over, then a Bret-Hogan showdown at SummerSlam, with Hogan positioned as the heel. No one, but no one was ever called "the people's champion" when Hogan was in his prime, even when guys like Piper (just to name one) were demonstrably more popular than he was at a given time. After watching this, it seems like the only reason Vince brought Hogan back and put the belt on him was so he could drop it to Bret cleanly at SummerSlam and then either retire or leave the company. All the talk of Hogan being an Andre-like special attraction really sounds hollow now; how can a man pop a house like Andre used to if the champion can beat him, and possibly make him submit to the Sharpshooter to boot? No wonder Hogan referred to the WWF belt as a toy when he toured Japan. I'm not suggesting that this was the right thing to do, but if I'd been where Hogan was I might have simply taken the belt home and put it on my mantelpiece the way Lawler did to Verne. Vince could have crowned as many new champions as wanted, but they would have all been second-rate because they never had the guts to step in the ring with Hogan, let alone beat him. At any rate, this wasn't one of Bret's better promos, but it was nice to hear "the best there is/was/ever will be" for one of the first times. Just like the phrase "excellence of execution" Bret or whoever suggested that he use that phrase in almost every promo beat a good thing into the ground. Sounds like Bartlett's gone already. Is twenty-three years too long a time to wait to pop a champagne cork in celebration?
  25. garretta
    Tammy Sytch is another example of someone whom Vince McMahon helped to ruin. While he certainly didn't put pills in her mouth or force her to make porno flicks, he was the one who took a bright, attractive, naturally talented girl and made her over in his own image of what a female in wrestling should be. I didn't watch the Sunny character much, but what I saw wasn't half as good as this, her first-ever promo. Furthermore, while this may seem blasphemous to some, Tammy does more for me in terms of attractiveness than Sunny ever did. I could actually see my eighteen year-old self developing a crush on her if she'd been going to St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA (my alma mater) instead of Wellesley. (Speaking of which, I know Tammy was going to college in real life at this time, but I forget where, except that it wasn't Wellesley.) At any rate, she's extremely well-spoken for a first-timer, and she doesn't forget that she's supposed to be a heel; I love her condescending tone when she talks about how big sweaty men who aren't too bright amuse her. Bob's not quite sure how seriously to take her; he's been ordered to hold the mic while she talks, but her plans to become a promoter, an announcer, and eventually the commissioner take him completely by surprise; can a nineteen year-old girl really do all that? Corny knows how to increase the heat for her, making Hillary her idol in the middle of the Republican-leaning Bible Belt and making her a daughter of one of New England's leading families, as well as having her attend a Women's Ivy League school like Wellesley. By the time she's ready to do more than just talk on TV, the fine people of the Smoky Mountain area will spit on every step she takes, no matter how young and pretty she may be. I wonder why Corny switched her last name so slightly. What's the difference between Fytch and Sytch? I wish Tammy had followed the path her character planned to take in this promo. By most accounts, she had the wrestling mind to at least try to pull it off. Any path at all would have been better than the one she's still going down right now.
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