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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    This may have been the best match of the series, and it's a shame that it's also apparently the last one. We've seen a good part of this match before at other times, but what strikes me here is the desperation on both sides, particularly at the finish. The towel sequence was great, and it's been a while since we've seen such a simple object spot be so effective. But it extends to the champions as well: Steamer being so desperate for a tag that he runs down the apron away from his corner, thus ensuring that he won't be there once Shane finally gets there; the sequence outside the ring where Shane slams Austin on the floor so he can't interfere while Steamer tries to put Pillman away, and Steamer deliberately throwing Austin over the top rope in a attempt to save the belts that Randy Anderson doesn't see. I'd forgotten about Austin busting Douglas in the head with one of the belts after the Clash match, but this belt shot's even bigger, as it brought the Blonds the titles. I noticed that Austin and Pillman had matching tights. I guess the Hollywood Blonds name came soon after this. Looking back, it almost seems like the knee was going to be a convenient excuse for why Steamer and Shane lost the belts, even with the finish we got. The announcers have really been pushing the idea that Shane's next to useless out there, which leaves Steamer two on one during their matches. Tony and Jesse were a bit better here, mostly because the excitement of the match kept them on task. Tony was almost like Vince here, correcting Jesse's grammar and playing the straight-laced dweeb who doesn't quite know how to take the rough-and-tumble ex-jock. If things stay on that level between them, they'll be no less listenable than Vince and Jesse were on SNME: a bit of a chore at times, but nothing that out-and-out ruins matches for the viewer. Having said that, Tony needs to pick up the excitement level a notch or two and start calling moves more. He seems to have come down with Vince's "What a maneuver"-itis of late, and that's a big comedown for an audience who's used to JR's knowledge and precision. It seemed like Jesse was trying to create dissension between the champions by constantly bringing up how Steamer wasn't there when Shane was trying to tag him. Douglas-Steamboat could have been an interesting series, either with Shane playing the young hothead who turns his back on his wise veteran partner or Steamer as the bitter veteran who can't stand the fact that his young partner gets just as much adulation as he does, if not more. I wonder what's next for the new champions; there aren't that many viable babyface tag teams around who can give them a real tussle. Bagwell and Scorp aren't championship material, and Steamer and Shane are apparently about to break up. This is where they could have used Rock 'n' Roll if the working agreement with SMW wasn't 99.44% dead. (I think Arn's appearance at Bluegrass Brawl was the last major SMW match that featured WCW talent, Bobby Eaton may have stayed around for a few more shows as a favor to Corny, but he was definitely back in WCW full-time by late April.)
  2. garretta
    I liked this one, but knowing that the Blonds get at least one more shot at the titles this month, it wouldn't have killed Bischoff to put Austin and Pillman over here in order to create some drama. As it is, they've lost what was for all intents and purposes a handicap match, what with Shane selling his knee on the apron for most of it. I don't buy the Blonds as true contenders now, and I don't think anyone else watching at the time did either. Steamer was excellent as the man who knew that it was pretty much up to him, that Shane was a decoy at best. Austin and Pillman knew it too, and did a grand job of beating Steamer to a pulp. No one move or series of moves stand out, but there was tremendous teamwork involved, and Steamer sold everything as only he can. I could do without him going to the wrong corner twice in the same bout, though; even though he's supposed to be on Dream Street, he should have an idea of what his partner looks like. Shane's selling was above and beyond the call, to the point that you really believe that his knee's ruined and he's unable to wrestle the match. There's an excellent worker within him that he allowed to be buried under the filth and bullshit of "The Franchise" in ECW. Does anyone else think that Pillman should adopt a more heel-like nickname? "Bodacious" would fit perfectly, considering that his partner is "Stunning". I could see them keeping his face theme and nickname while waiting to see whether he got over or not as a heel, but he's definitely over now. In related news, they're not officially the Hollywood Blonds yet, which is a bit surprising. I thought they adopted the name shortly after they got together. Eric was no Lance Russell, but he was tolerable here, and he seemed to be really excited about calling a match like this. As long as he has someone like Larry as a partner to provide nuts-and-bolts analysis, he should be just fine. He shouldn't work with Jesse under any circumstances, though; I don't think they ever did it, but I think someone like Gordon Solie would have been an ideal partner for Jesse, though I'm sure that thought would have given Eric the screaming flibbertygibbets. The sad fact is, as execrable as Tony and Jesse have become together, there's simply no one else in the company who can work with the future Governor. I'm looking forward to the other match between these two teams this month; can the Blonds rebound from this loss and prevail in what almost surely should be their final title shot, at least against Steamer and Douglas? Stay tuned!
  3. garretta
    This was a nice mixture of styles for the Australian audience: A little lucha, a fair bit of Japanese juniors, and some good old-fashioned North American brawling. We've seen better from these two, but this audience hadn't, and they ate it up with a spoon. Liger gets the clean win with a moonsault. It seemed to me that the audience wasn't quite sure who to cheer and who to boo, as both men were cheered and jeered at various points. We got a short glimpse of a Dean Malenko/Benoit match at the very end of the disc that looked promising. Was it just the next match on the disc this match came form, or was it a contender to make the set?
  4. garretta
    It's just a thrill for me to see midgets doing more than comedy spots, so I rate this a little higher than the rest of you. The match-ending dive train was better here than in some heavyweight matches. On the downside, the rudo team seemed to run out of spots midway through the second fall; it seemed like they were just waiting for the time when they could go home. I didn't see the submission of Felincito; I thought the fall was over when Ramirez pinned Morgan. I don't know if I could take a full set of these matches, but they're fine for an occasional diversion.
  5. garretta
    This might be one of the best TV matches of the decade. Usually, we get a bullshit finish in featured bouts like this, and we do here too, but in this case it's literal, as Ron's found to be full of the aforementioned. Even though I knew it was coming, he's played his "pathetic old man with a thousand and one ailments" character so well that to see him walk perfectly normally and have enough balance to nail Tracy with the knucks was still a legit shock. I can't remember the last time an angle was paid off quite this exquisitely. The only false note was Dutch, as he pulled the old blind heel announcer routine. I would have much preferred him to say something like "Hallelujah! It's a miracle! Ron Wright can walk, ladies and gentlemen!" The match itself was one of the fiercest brawls I've seen in a TV match, as both men juiced and threw so many great punches that it was hard to keep up with them all. I don't believe we saw a hold for the whole bout, just high-impact strikes, and that includes the flying bodypress that Tracy missed. I'm sure we'll see a few holds from these two before their feud's done, but the brawl we got here fit perfectly after what Tony did to the Stars and Bars. Even though it didn't make the set, I'm glad to see that Dutch is back in the ring. SMW should have used him as a wrestler more than they did, and I wonder if they didn't let him wrestle more because if he did, the only experienced color guy they would have had available on a weekly basis would have been Corny. I'm sure that Dutch and Tony had crossed paths a few times here and there before arriving in SMW, but I'd have laid down good money to see them in a heel vs. heel series for the SMW title. Just a suggestion twenty-three years after the fact: Since Tony was playing a durned supposed Yankee from New York in this feud, they should have let him come down to a recording of Steve Kamen's "I Love New York", which (as some of you may remember) was the theme of New York State's tourism commercials for about ten years beginning in the late seventies. (I would have suggested "New York, New York", but Sinatra's version is such a classic that the song itself may have drawn cheers even though a heel was using it.) I can't wait to see the next chapter in this feud, which is most likely the Tennessee chain match at Bluegrass Brawl. If this match was the appetizer, the main course ought to be out of this world!
  6. garretta
    I was a bit surprised that Choshu and Fujinami worked so well as a unit, considering their past. You see former enemies teaming in feuds like this all the time, but there's usually at least a small hint of tension between the former feuders. Ishikawa needed to be put over as a strong member of the WAR side, so he needed to get the win here. It might have been a bit bigger if he'd pinned Choshu, but I understand why NJPW wasn't prepared to go quite that far. This could have been a little wilder, but it was nice to see a regular match between the two sides. I'm sure there will be plenty of out-of-control stuff to come later. Besides, the ending was about as crazy as it gets. I loved Ishikawa busting out both Choshu's scorpion and Fujinami's dragon sleeper on the men who made them famous. Nothing like a little move-stealing to up the hatred just a bit more. Choshu sure showed his frustration at the end, as well he should have; Tenryu and company have gotten the best of NJPW at almost every turn so far. NJPW needs to pull its socks up and turn the tide in a hurry! (Note: I have yet to get to the February ten-man tag.)
  7. garretta
    This definitely had some anger to it, but there was also a lot of laying around. The overreliance on kicks hurt this too, as it almost seemed like a shoot-style bout at times. Shoot-style is fine when that's what I'm paying to see; but I would have liked a bit more pro-style here. Having said that, the kicks from Kitahara looked brutal, and from the way the referee was fussing over Kobayashi I wonder if he wasn't legitimately knocked silly by at least one of them. The pull-apart at the end ensures that this war's far from over, and that's good, as I'm looking forward to more action from the front-liners on both sides.
  8. garretta
    The psychology for this one was a mess. Both guys did great legwork in the first part, but then they realized that Liger still had to do some flying spots, so he was up on his feet in no time as if Dean had never worked his leg at all. Even the finish was a mess; Liger's just had the anklelock put on him twice, seemed inches away from having the bone snap like a twig, and then springs up and catches Dean with a Frankensteiner into a pin? Maybe in the moment I would have bought it, but now it just seems like they had the wrong kind of layout for what they wanted to accomplish here. Or maybe Liger's just an unprofessional no-selling bastard. Pay your money and take your choice. Hopefully we see a rematch where these two put on the classic we know they're capable of, because this certainly wasn't it.
  9. garretta
    The finish and the commentary derailed this match. Some Rookie of the Year Bagwell is, getting pinned after a virtual lovetap from Austin. Why not just have Pillman cut him off, hit him with a finisher, and pin him clean? It isn't like he's being pushed to anything meaningful. Scorp continues to look like a rising star. The fans are way into him, and he's got an athletic skill set like no one else's in the promotion right now. Coming over the top rope to land on Austin's arm after Bagwell tagged him in for the first time was a real "wow" moment. As I fear will be the case more often than not this year, Tony and Jesse made this match almost unwatchable. I've given up trying to figure out why Tony acts the way he does around the Bod; all I know is that you'd have to go pretty far to find a more unprofessional commentary team in the business right now, and 95% of it is Tony's fault. I could give a whole laundry list of instances, because they crop up all over the place here, but I don't want every review of a match they call to be a list of announcing gripes and nothing more. I guess you could say that their problem isn't their unprofessionalism as much as it is that they bring our attention to it. For example, Tony starts to make a point, calls for a response from Jesse, and is promptly told that Jesse doesn't feel like talking and will respond when he damn well pleases. There's nothing at all funny about this, and because they were so good in the WWF together, I'm beginning to suspect that they were told to do stuff like this by Bischoff to get tongues wagging, almost like a feud. Okay, but what can the endgame possibly be? They're not going to wrestle, and even if they were eventually going to choose proxies to duke it out on their behalf, what purpose would it serve? They're the top two announcers in the promotion and have to work together regardless. All it does is take potentially good matches and help turn them into trash. There was one patented "what the hell moment", though: Jesse compliments Austin on dancing as well as Scorp during one sequence. While he's doing that, Steve tags Pillman, who starts choking Scorp. Tony promptly asks Jesse, "What's a chokehold for?" Jesse can't believe his ears and asks Tony what he thought of Austin's dance, but Tony no-sells this and again asks, "What's a chokehold for?" Jesse then has to explain what a chokehold is to someone who's been calling matches for ten years. You could make this stuff up, but why the hell would you want to? Hopefully the two Steamer/Douglas-Blonds title matches remaining on the set this month will be action-packed enough that they'll be in main event form, which is still pretty good. Did WCW ever formally acknowledge on the air who was supposed to be on the Championship Committee? Tony and Jesse are talking about the Omni footage (which was good, but nothing special) during the intros, and Jesse calls the Blonds the uncrowned tag team champions. Tony tells him to take his case to the Championship Committee, and Jesse says that he's doing it right then, since Tony's on the Committee. It would make sense that a veteran announcer like Tony would be on such a committee, but I don't ever remember WCW making a big deal about stuff like that before.
  10. garretta
    This wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. Randy was tremendous, and you can tell that's he thrilled to be working meaningful matches again. But there were no nods to either the historical or present relationship between him and Lawler. If Randy hadn't acknowledged that he knew who Dave was, it would have been easy to forget that he'd ever worked Memphis at all, let alone been one of its biggest stars and Lawler's toughest and most hated opponents. I could have choked that down with some difficulty; after all, eight years is a long time in the business, and Savage has a much bigger reputation and a lot more to brag about since he left Memphis, so mentioning that he'd been just another pretender to Lawler's throne might have been counterproductive. But they're appearing together every week right now on Superstars, which I assume can be seen in the Memphis market somewhere. One of them should have brought up how being made to work together made their skin crawl, that every time he sat next to the other guy, he wanted to punch him in the face right in front of the world, because he knew that until they met in the ring, the issue of who the better wrestler was would never be settled. It doesn't matter which one gave the speech; the point is, it should have been given. Each of them is capable of it, and it would have added some context to a feud that as of now has none, at least not officially. Instead, we get par-for-the-course Lawler insults about Randy's Slim Jim breath. Bleech. Dave didn't bat an eyelash when Randy grabbed his tie; remember, he's been around when Randy's done a lot worse on an almost-weekly basis. One good thing about this round of the feud is that apparently Sherri will return at some point to be in Randy's corner. Huzzah, the Royal Couple reunited! I can't help but wonder, though, what the Memphis crowds would have made of Liz, or if like a lot of the WWF guys who came down to Memphis, she would have changed her personality slightly in order to fit in. If you'll recall, she was originally supposed to be a cold-hearted scheming type who could handle herself on the mic, as she did in some of Savage's first confrontations with Hogan. It was only later that she became the precious flower of womanhood we all remember so well.
  11. garretta
    This had more action than I thought it would. I'll say this: Jerry and Brian sure didn't take it easy on each other out there. Of course, whenever we get a Unified title match for free, there's an ulterior motive, and this one's eight hundred and fifty pounds worth of Men Before They Were On a Mission. Mabel looks a lot like Vader, as quickly as he moved here, and it's obvious even at this point that he's going to be the bigger star of the two. He even cuts a short, mostly unintelligible promo on Lawler, which shows you why they got Oscar as a manager when they went to work for Vince. We also get a brief brawl from Jeff and Brian that doesn't have much time to develop. Brian gets to show off every piece of heel schtick Daddy taught him, and I'll say again that Brian does them better than Jerry did, at least from what I've seen. Maybe that's because I've only seen Jerry as a kind of reluctant heel in Memphis and as Mr. I Couldn't Care Less in Dallas. At any rate, it's all there: cutting a promo in mid-match, threatening to take his belts and go home, and the Lawler family's old standby: Chain, Chain, Is There a Chain? Jerry doesn't do much except punch before Mo and Mabel put a stop to everything. I'm kind of disappointed that Frank Morrell was the referee, this match cried out for Kevin Christian (Lawler). Can you imagine having to referee a match between your father and your brother? Come to think of it, maybe he was asked and declined. I know I would have. Corey acting like every monster heel is a pest ("Get on outta here!") is past old and heading for ancient. He doesn't even sound all that outraged that Lawler was nearly crushed to death. I know we're a ways away from Lance's return (he stops in SMW for a while first), but I'm looking more forward to it every time I hear Corey's voice. How many championships does Brian have now? I count three: Southern, Texas, and tag team. I wonder whose turn it is to book Memphis right now.
  12. garretta
    I liked this for the sprint that it was. Nothing really substantive is going to happen with six guys like this in just over seven minutes, but at least we got a clean finish, which is rare for a match of this type that's also this short. The thing that stood out the most to me is the extended segment off of the missed tag between Dustin and Steamer. First of all, they really stretched it out in order for the heels to tripleteam Dustin. Second, Steamer looked like a real crybaby. How can a veteran like that keep the ref distracted when he knows what the heels are doing to his partner? I know this spot is as old as tag team wrestling itself, but there has to be a way to work it without making the babyfaces seem incompetent and emotionally fragile, Tony and Larry make a much smoother team than Tony and Jesse. I liked Tony teasing Larry about all the legends he put out of wrestling, and Larry went along jovially. I also liked the spot where Larry stumbled over the words "Slam Meet". Tony jokingly offered to write it down for him, and I could tell that it was a joke between colleagues. If that had been Jesse, they'd have gotten into a nasty fight that would have lasted for the rest of the match and wouldn't have put Slamboree over for beans. Also, kudos to Larry for talking about how the guys needed to keep their emotions in check; we saw what happened when they didn't in the spot with Steamer that I referenced above. I'm so glad that Larry wasn't swept out of the booth with all the recent changes in the wake of Watts' and JR's departures. (By the way, the last vestige of the Dangerous Alliance is now dead, as Larry's back to being "The Living Legend" instead of "The Cruncher".) I forgot to add that Dustin's got quite an impressive rogue's gallery after him. Windham, Rude, and Orndorff all as top contenders should equal a busy and compelling next few months for the US champion. I'd love to see these guys get more than seven minutes to see what they could do in a six-man tag. If they do, we may be looking at the Six-Man Tag of the Year in North America.
  13. garretta
    These guys were supposedly out on the floor doing crazy stuff during the break, and if I'd seen it, I'd have most likely thought much more of the match. As it was, what I saw was pretty blah for teams with the reputation of these four. Not even the concession stand stuff at the end could save it, although it was a noble effort. I don't know if Bartlett's impression of Vince played a role in his eventual firing, but it sure as hell should have. The amazing thing is that we were actually expected to believe that this was the real Vince, not just Bartlett impersonating him. If that's the case, it was up to Bartlett to try and actually sound something like the man, even if he was going to goof on him. The reason Rich Little is such a great impressionist is that he actually sounds like the people he's doing; he's doing his jokes, but he's doing them as Jimmy Stewart or Jack Benny or whomever. He's not just sounding like a dipshit who hates his job and wants to be let go so he can get back to doing real work, like Bartlett does here. Between the chaos of the match and trying to deal with Bartlett, Gino and Bobby were understandably a bit lost here. They need to be on different sides of the fence in order to be at their best, but Bartlett forced them to try to work together in an effort to overshadow him, and that's disastrous. About the only argument they got into was over whether Bobby would wear a toga at Mania or not. By the way, the ink must not have been dry on JR's contract quite yet, because it sure sounds like Gino's going to call Mania at this point. So the Nasties were supposedly going to get the shot at Money Inc. that Hogan and Beefcake ended up with, huh? Considering that no one with a working brain and a knowledge of wrestling could have possibly thought that Hogan was coming back just to be a tag team champion, I wish they would have left that match alone and just had Hogan come out to challenge Yoko. Beefcake could have been in the Nasties' corner as a guest. It's amazing that they could hold the Landon Awards during a blizzard. Then again, some of the celebrities involved may have been on a tight schedule and not able to come back to the New York area for a while. Did they really hope to show part of the ceremony live? I think I'd have rather watched the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
  14. garretta
    There's not a whole lot else to say about this, except that there was one person crazier than Sully: Kanemura. No truly sane man blades like that for any angle, exclamation point. This didn't need the spike to the arm to be sickening; the blade job from the head was more than enough. Also, this automatically disqualifies Corny once and for all from complaining about hardcore wrestling. I don't remember more than a handful of ECW matches that were bloodier or more senselessly brutal than this. If I'd been a station owner and had time to preview this tape and saw this match on it, I'd have found a movie to air in SMW's place, with a stern warning that next time Corny tried this bullshit, the switch would be permanent. What we as loyal longtime wrestling fans can appreciate as a brilliant exhibition of just how bloodthirsty Sully is, those who may be new to the sport or are just flipping through the channels will most likely be sickened by. As a station owner, there's no way I'd offend the second group to keep the first happy. There just aren't enough people like us, not now and not in 1993. Bob may have been legitimately horrified, which made his call all the better. I loved him imploring Dutch to go down and stop the massacre, and for one of the few times in my life I wish the word "fuck" could be said on television, because instead of the stuff about not breaking his contract I'd have loved Dutch to simply ask Bob, "Are you fuckin' crazy?" Nice move by Lee to simply get everyone out of harm's way instead of confronting Sully right then and there. Not only does it save their interaction for the house shows, but it's the logical thing to do when one guy's bleeding out and the other's too small to defend himself, especially against a madman like Sully.
  15. garretta
    I had no idea that this interview actually took place in a ring until I read it just now. I thought that they were in some sort of passageway or cave. This would have been pure comedy in the hands of some other promotions, but no matter how crazy Sully gets here, there's a menace about him that grounds him in reality. It's the same with Dutch; I wanted to laugh at this whole setup, especially since I know damn well that Dutch is full of crap concerning his academic background, but I just couldn't bring yourself to do it, even though some of the material (like the brown LTD stuff, apparently) is meant to be funny. The "Dastardly Die of Destruction" (the thing deserves a name, so I gave it one) sounds a whole lot more menacing than Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal. It's a pretty safe bet that they didn't have any fire matches, though; some of the arenas and high school gyms SMW ran at the time would have gone up in flames in no time flat had there been an accident of some sort. I forgot to mention this before, but the idea of SMW paying for Sully's therapy is truly inspired, if for no other reason than the only way for him to pay them back is to work in the territory, which is the last thing Bullet Bob wants. At this point, Corny may be the most inventive booker currently working in the United States, and the gap between him and the guy in second place (probably Pat Patterson) is pretty wide.
  16. garretta
    Wow, was this good. Tony's more than just the stereotypical bellowing Southern wrassler, and this may be his best promo to date. He's funny, menacing, hateful, scornful, and arrogant all at once, and he uses his props like a magician. We've seen props be used to illustrate potential damage before, but this might have been the best example of it yet. I especially liked the flour bag exploding when it got hit with the chain, and flour scattering all over the place to the point where each of Tony's chain shots for the rest of the promo raised a white cloud. Unbelievable. Now I know why most babyfaces are supposed to be the strong, silent type who just want to get in the ring and wrestle. There's no way on earth that Tracy can top this promo, especially with his earnest Southern patriot routine. It's almost unfair to even ask him to try, and he's pretty good on the mic for the type of character he portrays. Count me in with those who wonder how the references to Tracy liking his women thorny and bushy and being so full of booze that he can't wrestle properly made it to air. I have a little easier time with the gun stuff, since most people from that part of the country (or at least those Corny wanted to attract) are hunters and gun lovers. I'm having a hard time figuring out the Central Park routine. It's obviously a delusion, but are we supposed to think that Tony's crazy enough to believe that he's actually in New York, or are we supposed to be insulted that Tony thinks we're stupid enough to actually believe that he's in New York?
  17. garretta
    I didn't like this much. Again, bad booking hurts a match more than great work can help it in my eyes, and this was yet another incredibly stupid finish. First, Harley was on the apron for far too long. If the guy can't get physically involved anymore, forget about that and just use him as a spokesman on TV. Patrick looked like an idiot for not forcefully ordering him to get down. Second, Sting brought this whole deal on himself. Patrick didn't just take a bump, Sting slugged him. Babyface overenthusiasm takes place all the time in wrestling, but seldom does it lead to consequences as disastrous as this. I'd have rather had Nick get sandwiched by Vader, or even have Harley get in a lucky punch. Third, regardless of the above, Vader beats Sting clean as a sheet. If you're going to do a spot where Harley costs Sting the belt by ramming him face first into the post, then have that be the knockout blow and use it to lead directly to the pin, especially in a World title match. The minute Vader splashed Sting for the last time, it became a clean win for him, especially since he's beaten Sting so many times before. Maybe if this was their first match and there was doubt that Vader could win, I'd feel differently, but to be honest, Vader has owned Sting so thoroughly in the matches we've seen that I'm getting tired of seeing Sting get shot after shot at the title. (I realize that Sting was the champion coming into this match, but Vader was going to hold it again by the time TV was taped, so this match really didn't matter to the average TBS-watching fan.) It's about time to get Cactus or Barby (if he's still around) ready as Vader's next challenger. To be honest, I don't understand how this gets hyped as one of the great rivalries in history. Vader's had far too many wins, by fair means or foul, and Sting's looked stupid far too often for my tastes. Flair was much better as a rival for Sting, and Hansen's the closest thing I've seem to a rival for Vader so far.
  18. garretta
    I agree with Kevin that all refs should be required to learn leapfrogs and dropdowns to avoid being bumped, at least occasionally. When the move to get out of the way means that said ref is distracted and doesn't see the heel break the rules, that's a bonus in my book. Kudos to all involved, especially Corny for booking this finish and Hildebrand for executing it so well. Bobby must not have lasted long as champ, because he was back in WCW full-time within a few weeks.
  19. garretta
    Not a bad little video, actually. I wonder if Payne was actually the one playing the song. I'm looking forward to seeing this guy in the ring, as I've heard a lot of differing opinions about him.
  20. garretta
    Bret's video was nice, and I could see Vince using "Respect" as a theme for Bret if he still used outside music. It just seems to fit the character he was portraying at the time. I liked the video clips a lot, and how they seemed to match the lyrics when possible. I was shocked to see Flair footage after he had gone back to WCW so recently, although I've always heard that he and Vince parted ways amicably. Who was the black guy that Bret dropped a leg on in what looked like a dome? Logic says that it was probably Shango, but the guy looked a lot like Bad News Brown from what little I could see. I hated the contract signing. First, Heenan was right; not waiting until the contract was signed to attack Bret could have been the biggest mistake of Yoko's life. He almost lost out on a guaranteed title match because he couldn't wait to beat Bret up and squash him. Where was Fuji, who should have tried to stop him at any and all costs? No wonder Meltzer consistently called him the worst manager of this era. Between allowing this attack and verbally agreeing to the match with Hogan at Mania on Yoko's behalf, he displayed the intelligence of the proverbial kernel of corn rolling down a storm drain. Second, while Bret getting to his feet after being splashed might have showed guts and fortitude and all that other good stuff, it really made Yoko look weak, not to mention guys like Duggan. I realize that a full-blown stretcher job may not have been advisable so close to Mania, but at least have Bret helped out of the ring by Sarge, Garea, and the like. Now Yoko's win looks like a total fluke in retrospect, which may have been exactly what Vince wanted considering that Hogan was getting the belt back at Mania. For once, a major angle plays out on Challenge. Maybe they were preparing the show to be more of a 1A show than a B show, since JR was coming in to host it after Mania.
  21. garretta
    The Andre tribute was beautiful. This was so much better than the stuff I've heard that they do today, with the long, drawn-out tributes, the entire roster in the ring, and (in some cases) angles being made out of a guy's death. One thing I noticed is that there was just as much footage of heel Andre as there was of face Andre. I understand that his heel run had come more recently and thus was more remembered by the current fans, but it was shocking at the time to see a dead wrestler's heeldom celebrated. In the pictures we see of him as a heel here, he looks like he's having the time of his life, which is wonderful for him. I still would have turned him face and retired him after he lost to Hogan at Mania III, though. If JCP/WCW or another American promotion could have found a use for him, good for everybody. As for the Landon Awards, I honestly had no problem with the segment, even if it was done with good publicity in mind. But why take ten minutes out of a sixty-minute program (minus commercials) to do this? Couldn't they have cut it in half, deep-sixed the "just say no to drugs" stuff and Hogan complaining about the lack of food at the wrestlers' table (which was tacky even as a joke at a function like this) and just shown him introducing Vince and Vince accepting? We also didn't need all the celebrity shots at the start, which were just a way of saying, "See, we are too big-time entertainers. REALLY! We hang out with Susan Lucci and Leslie Nielsen and Sara Lee Kessler and all the beautiful people!" (At the time, Ms. Kessler was a news anchor for WWOR, which either had been or still was the WWF's main station in New York, depending on when they switched to the Fox station, WNYW. WWOR was also a superstation which carried all three WWF syndicated shows to a nationwide audience. Within months, it would hire Sean Mooney as a news anchor when he was let go by the WWF.) I don't doubt for a moment the sincerity of all involved, even if the piece comes on several degrees too strongly. I just wish we hadn't had to sit through ten minutes of it.
  22. garretta
    Whose idea was it to do that split screen? It really distracted me from the promo, and it had nothing to do with Jeff or the upcoming match; it was just a random Michaels video package that they could have shown at any other time. It's a shame, because Shawn is at his cockiest here and deserved everyone's undivided attention. This promo makes me wish that the WWF acknowledged Memphis within the body of its own shows. Shawn making an open challenge for Mania and having Jeff come out of the crowd and take him to the limit sounds so much better than a match with Tatanka, especially if the USWA is mentioned prominently. Of course, that would have meant explaining why Lawler's such a jerk on WWF TV and a hero in Memphis, but I'm sure Vince would have figured out something. Were the WWF guys in Vegas for Mania already, or did they just shoot this promo by a random poolside? Either way, it was an inspired choice.
  23. garretta
    I don't think that the song and the video had anything to do with WrestleMania specifically; I think it was just a general song about wrestling that happened to be titled "WrestleMania", although I seem to remember the WWF using this as their Mania theme for quite a few years after this. I'm guessing this this was taped sometime around Survivor Series '92, given the constant references to that card. I think that would also explain the presence of guys like Duggan and Bossman, who was still around at that time (He beat Nailz in a nightstick on a pole match at Survivor Series). We didn't need the rest of the lyrics; as Loss said above, the chorus and the music were enough to make this memorable. The video featured clips of at least one interesting match: Taker against Bam Bam Bigelow. It's a shame that they weren't programmed together; Bammer would have made a much more interesting feud partner for Taker than Gigante did, that's for sure.
  24. garretta
    Am I the only one who though that when Arn did the Horsemen sign that he was teasing a possible Flair appearance as a cornerman at the Bluegrass Brawl? Oh, what a coup that would have been for Corny, even for one night! Arn takes over the talking here as he has in the other promos we've seen lately, and he brings the Studs into things quite nicely. Ironically, by this time next year he would be a member of WCW's version of the Stud Stable, with Fuller as his manager. Nice to see Bullet Bob taking care of business again. The Orndorff "suspension" was, of course, a cover for his defection to WCW. This is from the previous week's promo, but I'll throw it in here: I loved Arn comparing Bobby to a windup doll whom Corny manipulates all over the place, mostly because that's the way almost all of the fans thought of him at this time. It's only been in the last few years that we've discovered just how special of a worker he really was. Between Ricky's line about gelding a stud and Arn's reference to a certain young lady in St. Louis, I'm surprised that at least some stations chose to air this promo without bleeps. SMW is in the heart of the Bible Belt, after all. I know that almost all of Arn's promos were included because they're so rare, but I'd have liked to have seen at least one answer promo each from the Bodies and the Studs in order to see for myself what they thought of Arn as Rock 'n' Roll's partner.
  25. garretta
    You can tell that Arn was really stoked to be in SMW. This may have been his best promo work ever under the circumstances. I vaguely remember watching the Sullivan-Kanemura match on Will's set (I'll get to it on this disc when I have rime) and there are no words to describe it. Arn knew that the crowd would have trouble forgetting what they'd just seen, so he used it as a segue like no one else in wrestling could have, and in the process made Corny and the Bodies seem almost as evil as Sully in their way. For once in his life, Ricky was the second-best promo in a segment, and that takes some doing, especially during this run. The use of Bobby's "betrayal" was interesting, and leads me to believe that Corny thought that the SMW/WCW crossover was going to continue at the time this was taped, with Arn and Bobby's feud being played out over both promotions in addition to Rock 'n' Roll/Bodies. The possibilities that this would have opened up over the summer of '93 would have been tremendous, including an appearance by Flair and the other Horsemen once the group was reformed. (Corny says he once tried to get Flair to come to SMW, but it didn't work out.) As it turned out, not only was the crossover dead, but I don't think Arn and Bobby's feud ever got off the ground in Atlanta, either. Off to watch the reveal promo, which certainly should have made the set.
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