garretta

I couldn't get into this knowing that the match in Knoxville turned out to be a gyp. Never has so much hot air been wasted on something that turned out to be so totally meaningless. On the off chance that they actually went through with the stop for the people in Knoxville (Bullet Bob is unmasked and banned after he loses), I wonder how they explaned his return, and under the same mask yet. They probably didn't even bother, come to think of it.

These two really felt like old friends taking what could be their last ride together. It was a tad theatrical at times, but that was inevitable due to the presence of the camera. When did Ric and Gene become so close? I guess they either befriended each other while Flair was in the WWF or became friends while they were both in Minneapolis at some point. Whatever the case, they weren't acting the way they were just for a wrestling interview. (If they were, they were two great actors.) I'd have thought Beth and the older kids at least would have gone to the arena to see the match in person. Maybe they couldn't get a babysitter in time or something. By the way, Pete, the older daughter was most likely Ashley, the one whose boyfriend Ric would get into a fight with years later. Line of the Segment: An anonymous Flair child, seeing that Beth has left the front door open too long: "Shut the door! I'm freezing!" I'll bet Ric howled his head off when he saw that on tape later; it's a shame he and Gene apparently didn't hear it, as it could have eased the tension slightly during the ride.

Strange as this may sound considering the way I've blasted WCW's booking lately, I didn't have a problem with this. It was clearly done as a shock ending to wake up the crowd, and it certainly did that in spades. It might have worked better if the falls had been reversed, with the over-the-top DQ used to end the match and create controversy, but what we got did the trick. I didn't see Austin get rammed into the post, and Jesse claimed he got busted open when he knocked heads with Fuller at the end of the first fall. Not that it matters much; I just thought I'd point it out. Unfortunately, Tony seems to be in one of his "Shut up, Jesse, and let me call these matches" moods. He completely no-sold Jesse's reference to "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia", which was actually a pretty clever way to acknowledge the problems with the lights without blaming anyone for them. As an aside, he seems to be a pretty cool guy in the few interviews I've heard with him, so maybe he was just fed up with all the political crap that WCW was infamous for long before the Monday Night Wars, especially since he'd had designs on running the company at one point. His mistake was letting his frustration show on the air. Could he have thought that Jesse and Heenan were deliberately trying to make him look ridiculous with their wisecracks? That would explain his attitude toward them both.

I agree with Magnum. Gigolo Jimmy could have been anybody and the match would have played out the exact same way. It was a decent five-minute match, but not much more than that. I liked Bob admitting that he never talked about Corny as Manager of the Year because he'd never voted for him. In any other sport, that would be a case of extreme bias, but in wrestling, where you're allowed to openly dislike your enemies, it was refreshing honesty. I also liked Dutch saying that Tracy should worship the ground he walks on for picking his (Tracy's) name out of the hat. We'll miss this kind of humor when Dutch leaves in the spring.

I saw something completely different from the rest of you, I guess. I saw Tenryu throwing his hardest shots and Hara barely bothering to sell them. I saw Hara throwing nothing but headbutts and clotheslines. That made the match choppy (as in too much stopping and starting) and dull. Also, the camera angle stank, with each man being completely cut off from view at times; luckily, we didn't miss anything worth mentioning. I didn't hear the chops, either. In fact, I heard next to nothing (although that could be because I have a fan going in my room). Stiffness or not, I could have lived quite nicely without ever seeing this. Why the hell were they fighting, anyway? I thought they were on the same side.

There are certain managers that I would buy getting involved to the point Corny was here, but Corny himself isn't one of them. He looked far too much at home hitting the Harrises with stop signs and hubcaps for my taste, and footage like this is just another example of how full of shit Corny is when he blasts hardcore wrestling as a style. SMW is the leading practitioner of the style at this point, and not just occasionally either. Furthermore, Heyman isn't picking up plunder and wasting guys with it, and neither is Papa Jarrett in Memphis. Isn't the racquet enough of a weapon for him to use? On the other hand, we also have to consider the non-kayfabe realities of staying afloat, especially when it comes to SMW. By this time, Corny was probably getting whispers that Vince was after some of his guys full-time, so why would he push people who may not be there in a month, or even a week? As I've said before, some of the push Corny gave himself was out of necessity. He knew he would be there to get involved in whatever feud he was pushing, so why not make those feuds about himself and only himself wherever possible? Who cares about plausibility or looking good for kayfabe when you're trying desperately to stay open by hook or by crook? He knew he'd hate the WWF on a full-time basis, his bridge to WCW had already been nuked, Memphis was a step down, and he couldn't stand Heyman. He was literally fighting for his own survival in the business, at least as he saw it. As good as the action was at times, SMW was a no-win situation for Corny almost from the start, and this feud proves it. If the Harrises and the Dogs had both stayed, the matches would have been bad, but at least they'd have filled the card. Once they were fired, four more pieces of talent were gone from an already shrinking pool. When you just may be the best heel worker of the people you have left, you almost have ​to push yourself as equal to a wrestler, even if you really aren't.

Whatever you think about the matches these promos led to, there's no denying that Murdoch still brings the goods verbally. I liked his lady as well, wondering if Mama Corny was going to come through or not but obviously having the time of her life house shopping without coming across as a greedy hussy. I detected a slight note pf (kayfabe) disrespect to Corny in Murdoch's tone of voice, but why would someone as tough as Murdoch give "little Jimmy boy" a second thought? After all, his mother's the one paying the freight (including past bail). Assuming that these weren't filmed in front of a green screen, I'm wondering how Murdoch ended up in Colorado. You'd think someone as passionate as he supposedly is about Texas would have found someplace to settle there. These vignettes have me hoping that I run across a tape of Armstrong-Murdoch from Florida at some point. It sounds like they had a real humdinger of a feud, which wouldn't shock me a bit considering who we're talking about.

I remember watching some of this on Will's SMW set, and there wasn't supposed ​to be any suspension of disbelief. We were ​supposed ​to know that it was Bullet Bob all along. The question was: Could Corny get the mask off and provide visual proof that it was him, or would Bullet Bob drive Corny around the bend first by beating his guys and denying him the opportunity to supply that proof? That said, I don't like the match talked about on this promo, because there's no way in the world that either stipulation can be fulfilled. We all know perfectly well that Corny isn't going to stand for having his head shaved (as indeed he didn't), and we also know that the Bullet's not going anywhere. We also know that Murdoch didn't take a haircut in Corny's place, which would have been a decent substitute. So how did they get out of it without killing Knoxville as a town? I'm honestly not sure; Graham's site (which has some SMW results) says that Murdoch pinned Bullet Bob, which means that Bullet Bob should have been unmasked and banned for life. But we know they never even teased that, much less followed through on it. I guess Bullet Bob got out of it someway, probably by beating the hell out of Corny. Knowing that takes the shine off of this promo completely, despite great performances from both wrestlers and Corny himself. I especially liked Murdoch quoting Dusty, of all people. Unfortunately, when all of that ultimately leads to nothing, what's the difference how good the promos were? More importantly, how did a welcher like Corny stay in business for almost another two years?

​First fall: ​This one gets started before Don can finish the introductions, as the faces hit the ring swinging. This is Piper's baby from start to finish, as despite what looks to be a legitimately injured thumb he cleans house on the Clan almost singlehandedly, even throwing punched with the injured hand. He gets the pinfall after a nasty-looking DDT on Assassin, and the RBA leads one fall to none about eleven minutes (disc time) into the match. Matt Borne is the special referee here, and the Clan has a point about him trying to fast-count pinfalls on them. We all know that Matt's got his own problems with Oliver and company, so it'll be interesting to see just how his officiating affects the bout going forward. For the record, I couldn't tell if his final three-count of the fall was fast or not, though it probably was. At first I thought Piper's bad thumb was a story concocted by Don so he could get Piper out of the tag title match without making him seem like a coward; after all, how could he and Buddy defend the Northwest belts if he was wrestling for Vince? But I looked it up on Graham's site, and Piper actually wrestled and beat Tony Rocco on March 9 in Sacramento. The next night he forfeited a match in Los Angeles against Tony Garea, and he had to be subbed for on March 14 in White Plains, New York. I don't think the thumb was nearly torn off as Don claimed, but a broken thumb is certainly a possibility. That was a vicious DDT Piper laid on Assassin. Since he used very few holds or moves in the WWF, it's always interesting to see him bust out a move that I didn't think he knew. Assassin sold the effects brilliantly in the promo between falls. There was no time for this sort of thing in the first fall, but I honestly hope we don't get any teased dissension spots between Buddy and Rod in this match. I hate reluctant partner angles; if two wrestlers can't trust each other normally, why would the presence of a common enemy change things? Matt and Oliver look almost like twins; for a second I wondered why Rip was making sure that Don got out of the ring safely at the start of the match, only to realize just now that it was Matt. I know that this was impossible, but since the RBA needed another partner in order to make this match a six-man tag, I wonder what would have happened if Piper had asked Don to bring in his regular WWF partner Paul Orndorff. I don't think Paul ever worked Portland, and if he did he wasn't nearly the name there that Hack was. I normally like Wiskowski's promos, but I think he was reaching with the crack about finding out Buddy's real sexual preference. He provably should have stuck to calling him gutless instead. ​Second fall:​ It looks for a while like the RBA's going to steamroll the Clan in two straight; Piper and Buddy even turn the inevitable miscommunication spot to their advantage against Assassin. But the masked man plants his loaded hood in Buddy's midsection, and the heels finally take control. After taking a sizable beating, Buddy makes the hot tag to Hack, who comes in on fire. But he's eventually dragged into the heel corner, and while Matt's busy restraining Buddy and Piper, Oliver clocks Hack with some kind of foreign object and gets the three count just before Piper can make the save. We're even at a fall apiece with about fifteen minutes of disc time remaining. I said up above that I don't care for reluctant partner or dissension spots, but this one was handled very well. It would have made no sense for special guest Piper to fight Buddy, so they hugged it out and doubleteamed Assassin instead. The funny thing is, this match would be forgotten a little more than a year later when Piper came in to fight Buddy on the Owen sixtieth anniversary card; they each made out like they hadn't crossed paths in years. Matt was a bit more impartial in this fall, although he still hasn't had to make a tough call against the face team yet. I'd like to see just one tag behind his back by the faces just to see if he'd allow it or not; it's a bit of a surprise to me that we haven't seen that spot already. (They did it in the third fall, and Matt allowed the tag with no problem whatsoever.) The way Stan and Coss are hyping how gutsy Piper's being throughout the match, I wonder if he really was ​defying doctor's orders by wrestling. Normally I'd say that stuff like that was just announcer hype, but knowing how Rod felt about Don and the city of Portland, it wouldn't surprise me if he decided to wrestle injured, knowing that it might be a while before he'd appear again at the House of Action. Poor Hack; as popular as he still is in Portland, here he's the third man on a one-man team. I get the feeling that the fans would have been quite content to see Piper fight the whole Clan by himself if that had been possible; even Buddy seems a bit superfluous here, as hard as he's working. Third fall: ​Piper plays FIP for most of this fall, as the Clan directs a brutal attack on his injured hand. Several times, the announcers wonder how he's even staying conscious, let alone trying to fight back. Eventually Piper gets out of trouble and tags Hack, who stages a brief rally before he's ​overwhelmed. But it helps to have a man on your side who makes his living as a heel these days, as Hack gets close enough to his corner for Piper to pass him a foreign object, which he promptly uses to knock Oliver into the middle of Easter. Three seconds later, the RBA is victorious. After the match, Tom Peterson tries to give an award to Buddy for being the wrestler whom the fans believe did the most for Portland wrestling in 1983 (the Frank Bonnema Memorial Award), but the ceremony's first interrupted by a bloody Matt, who was tripleteamed by the Clan immediately following the match, and then by Oliver, who has chains with him. In the end, Buddy gets his award, and it seems like we're headed for a six-man chain match pitting the Clan against Matt, Buddy, and Piper, whom Buddy graciously dedicates his award to. I'd pay a pretty penny to have a tape of that six-man chain match. Even if Piper had to be replaced by Hack, I have a feeling that it would still be incredible. There was so much chaos after the match that I missed how Matt got bloodied, but his promo in the Crow's Nest was glorious. I only wish we could have heard more of it. By the way, that looked like Curt Hennig who came out to restrain him; I thought he'd left Portland by now. Poor Tom Peterson looked like he had no idea what to make of Matt raving in front of him. That just goes to show that no matter how much wrestling you watch (or sponsor) on TV, seeing it live is an entirely different experience. I liked the faces trying to break Assassin's hand as payback for the Clan's work on Piper's thumb. If Rod really had an injured thumb, I admire him for allowing it to be worked on as relentlessly as the Clan did. If he didn't, he might have before the match was over, just like the Clan predicted before the match. I liked Piper using his famous line "You don't throw rocks at a man who's got a machine gun". He used the same line on a ​Pit ​that aired that very day on ​Championship Wrestling​. His target? Andre, who had lifted him out of his chair after he (Piper) had spent the entire segment making fun of Andre in every way he could think of. That Pit ​was the opening segment of Piper's Coliseum Video tape back in the day. Stan and Coss may have seemed a little too forgiving of Hack for using a foreign object to get the win, but considering what Stan in particular had been through at Oliver's hands, I'm inclined to forgive them for it.

Turner had then (and still has today) a huge contract to televise NBA games, so NBA players talking about Flair was mostly a case of coroporate synergy, although I think Daugherty has been mentioned a few times as a real-life friend of Flair's. I was shocked that they mentioned the WWF by name too, especially when Vince wasn't yet extending the same courtesy. But mentioning it was one thing; adding their title reigns in as part of Flair's overall record was truly mind-blowing. Great job, guys! The only other Starrcade they could have shown was '84 (when he beat Dusty) so I wasn't too upset about the lack of wrestling clips. They showed the important one for this feud ('83) complete with original commentary, and I'm content with that. I loved Jesse at the beginning of the segment. He's a heel supporter right or wrong, even when the opposing face is a favorite of his too, like Flair is. He's consistent, I'll say that for him!

If WCW's booking had matched their video production, we might still have two major wrestling promotions in North America. This was excellent, but based on their track record lately I'm betting that the match doesn't follow suit. I've heard good things about Flair-Vader, but I've heard good things about other WCW matches before and had problems with them which were so big that I refused to review the matches beyond a few sentences. If they can't be bothered to put on a match I can enjoy, why should I waste my time writing about the slop they give me instead? Part of me wishes that the WWF and WCW had been cooperating at this time just so we could have seen a clip of Flair winning the '92 Royal Rumble, which is still the greatest performance I've ever seen out of him.

Since the numbskulls running this company couldn't be bothered to give this match a proper finish, I won't bother myself giving it a proper review. (No, Sid's unseen run-in doesn't count; if he was able to do that, they should have left him in the match and just gone ten minutes instead of thirty, even if they had to bury the match after he was fired.) There's only one thing about this match that I'll acknowledge: Arn's tremendous performance after wrestling a full tag match earlier in the program. That was the point of his FIP segment; not only were Vader and Austin beating him to death in this match, but he'd already wrestled earlier, and not against scrubs. (Well, I know Orndorff wasn't a scrub. Yoshi Kwan I'm not sure about.)

First fall: ​Who are the women dumb enough to enter a predominantly male battle royal? I honestly don't know of any who might survive more than a minute or two except for Moolah, and even she'd have a tough time unless there are a bunch of junior heavyweights in the field. I didn't know that Gene Kiniski was accepting matches this late, but someone must have thought an awful lot of Regal as a worker to book him against a Northwest legend like Kiniski. As for the match at hand, both guys do some solid work on their opponent's midsection, particularly Regal. Buddy takes control with a series of front bodyslams (dropping Regal on his chest and stomach), but he goes to that particular well once too often, and Regal forces his way on top and hooks the leg to score the three count and take a one fall to none lead about twelve minutes (disc time) into the match. Those front bodyslams I just talked about looked absolutely brutal. I've never seen anyone use one that didn't look like a botch until Buddy did it here. It's a perfect move to use when you're working on someone's ribs, and I'm surprised that more guys didn't use it. I'm also surprised that more guys didn't work on Buddy's midsection the way Regal did here. It was certainly a big enough target, and around this time in his career Buddy got winded pretty easily, so it should have been the first place most guys worked on. It's interesting that that there was some sentiment for Piper being the Northwest Wrestler of the Year despite doing only one weeklong tour of the Northwest. Frank had to specifically state that he wasn't eligible for consideration. I liked Frank talking about Buddy's week in the dunk tank and how it might be affecting him in the ring. That's no exaggeration; his muscles are probably stiff from falling into the cold (I assume) water so often, and that may be one reason why he's a bit slower than usual in this fall. We'll see if he's able to get back to normal as the bout continues. ​Second fall: ​The rib work continues for a while on both guys, then Buddy attacks Regal's back, ramming it into the steel post and delivering an atomic drop on the floor. Regal's weakened back plays a part in costing him the fall, as he attempts a small package to reverse Buddy's suplex from the apron into the ring, but can't hold it. Buddy's able to reverse the small package and score the pin to even the match at a fall apiece with about seven minutes of disc time remaining. You don't see the stomach claw very often, but here both guys use it as a pain-inflicting hold, if not necessarily a submission hold. As Frank pointed out, it takes an awful lot of energy out of the guy on the receiving end. I liked Frank reluctantly giving Buddy credit for being a great athlete after seeing him kip up in the middle of the match. Frank very seldom lets the audience know flat out which side he's on, so when he says things like, "You hate to give credit to Buddy Rose, but you almost have to", it's a real surprise. Even Gordon Solie, who was always held up as the very soul of impartiality, was pretty openly pro-face, at least more so than Frank appears to be most of the time. Frank did an excellent job explaining the implications of this match on the Northwest title picture, which made it just as important as if it had been for the belt. It's rare that stuff like that is spelled out for the viewer in such detail, regardless of the era we're talking about, but Frank can do it better than anyone in the business at this time with the possible exception of Lance Russell. The promo with Buddy and Oliver was just okay, mainly because Rip did most of the talking. I got a kick out of Buddy referring to himself as a computer, though. Also, Frank cut the interview short ("He may not be through talking, but we're through listening") for one of the few times on this set, although Rip managed to finish his thought before the break anyway. Third fall: ​A clip of the confrontation Buddy referenced between himself and Princess Victoria is in the extras. Buddy continues to work on Regal's back early in the fall, but misses a second atomic drop on the floor. Regal then works on Buddy's back for a while. The finish comes after Buddy shoots Regal into the ropes off of a side headlock. As Regal rebounds, he knocks Sandy down like a ton of bricks. Oblivious to this, he wraps Buddy up in a victory roll, but no one's there to count. Regal sees this and goes to attend to Sandy, only for Buddy to roll him up and score the three count. Frank tries to say that Buddy pulled Regal's tights, but I honestly don't think he did, unless it was very slight and to the camera's blind side. In the postmatch promo, Buddy demands a title shot the following Tuesday in Kiniski's place, and Regal agrees. I didn't think Kiniski was wrestling any sort of full schedule by then, certainly not enough to be a potential champion. I talked about Buddy throwing the Northwest belt into Mt. St. Helens in the Extras thread. Everyone with a working brain knew that he wasn't really going to do it, but I'll bet the threat of it was enough to draw a crowd to Mt. St. Helens anyway, assuming that he won the match. Don usually shows up on camera to make card changes like this, so it's odd that he didn't do so here. Maybe he was in the men's room or taking an urgent phone call, or maybe he just missed his cue. Buddy's slingshot backbreaker looks great here, and as long as the guy applying the hold doesn't accidentally get himself pinned, they could really hurt their opponent with it. I think I've seen it a few times in lucha matches, but Buddy's the only guy I've seen use it here in the States.

The stuff about Slazenger and Pierce was okay, but the highlight of this segment was Cactus putting over Vader even though he still hates his guts. Believe me, Mick, I'm sure Flair knows all about Vader not fearing anyone, since he almost crippled Flair at Battlebowl. I'm curious to know what problem Mick could have had with Mean Gene. Whatever it is, it had to have happened later in his run, because there don't seem to be any problems in this interview. Is it just me or does Maxx bear more than a slight resemblance to Taker here? The voice is certainly different, but the look's more than a little similar, intentionally or not.

I noticed Vader saying that he's now the man who truly "rules the world". I think their explanation for Sid's departure was that Vader had injured him, so that makes sense. Again, I'm wondering why Harley was still with Vader, since Vader has all but the last line of the interview and does it about as well as it could have possibly been done. They're paying Harley to say "Flair, he owns you"? No wonder Bischoff got such a bad reputation for wasting money.

There isn't much to see here other than the Lawlers teaming for the first time that I can remember and Midget D being pitched over the top rope. The Gilberts interfered before too much else could happen. I can't wait to hear how they got hooked up with Toni Adams, of all people. If there's one reason above all the others why I'll be glad to get through this Yearbook, it's that Lance is coming home to Memphis sometime in '94 and we'll hear less of Corey. Even in small doses, that man is excruciating to listen to.

I'll bet that final salute was unscripted. If you didn't know how close Gino and Bobby were in real life, you probably wouldn't be able to figure out why Gino was the one who got to throw Bobby out as opposed to his being suspended indefinitely by Jack Tunney or some such. After all, Gino had no official position in the WWF at this time except as an announcer. Fortunately, we do ​know, and that's what makes the moment so special. It was a classy gesture by Vince to let it happen, and to allow Heenan to play it for laughs to boot. I could have stood for him not to throw in his two cents on play-by-play so we could hear what Gino was saying, but that's a nitpick. I can't wait to hear some of the things Bobby said about Gino to get himself tossed; I wonder if they'll be on the Waltman-Michaels match, which I have yet to watch. I'll always remember Heenan talking about how he and Gino cried in the hallway once they got back to the hotel after this show. I often wonder if Gino might have made it to Atlanta eventually if he hadn't been part of the McMahons' inner circle. He most likely wouldn't have stayed long due to his health problems. but hearing him call Hogan's heel turn, among other things, would have been something else. Hell, just to hear him and Heenan cutting up in the studio again would have been something else. One thing's for sure; he was never the same, and neither was Bobby. It wasn't just on the air, either; a lot of their mutual zest for the business left when they separated, although their individual health problems also played a part. The same could be said for Okerlund. And so the expansion era well and truly ends, at least for me. See you in Atlanta, Brain, and I hope you enjoyed your toilet paper!

I read over my review of the August MSG match just now, and that's helped me put this match into context. This one was decidedly worse, and it wasn't like the first one was too great either. First of all, this was another example of what Corny derisively calls a "stumble, bumble, and fall" match from his man Yoko. Please, Vince, for the love of heaven, don't book this guy in any more cage matches. They emphasize how woefully out of shape and lacking in conditioning he is. Every time he goes to the mat, it seems like it takes him an hour to get up, which meant in this match that Bret had to constantly climb the cage instead of going through the door to try to win, since he would have made it out the door before Yoko could have stopped him almost every time he tried. Gino kept getting on his case about it, which made the whole thing stand out even more. What the hell is it your business how they get out, you big ape? I don't usually agree with those who say that Gino makes himself look smarter than the wrestlers by pointing out mistakes that aren't their fault, but this is one case where that definitely happened. I don't know how he could have realistically avoided talking about how exhausted Yoko seemed throughout the match, but to blame Bret for being an idiot when all he's trying to do is save Yoko from embarrassment because he (Yoko) is almost too damn fat to step in the ring is just plain wrong. The salt bucket stuff worked better with Lawler than it did with Fuji. How we ended up with Corny talking to Yoko before the match but not appearing at ringside I'm not sure; I thought he made all the TV tapings with Yoko. Anyway, the spot where Bret kicks Fuji away from the door really only pays off if Fuji's down for the count. To not only have him get up, but throw the salt in Bret's face twice was just plain ridiculous. I'd have rather seen the Quebecers or Levy interfere and maybe touch off a brawl with Owen to set up the Rumble match, though how that would have looked if the tape came out after Owen's turn I don't know. Gino and Levy need work. I know they're trying anything and everything to replace Heenan, but some of Scott's asides audibly perplexed Gino, so I can imagine what they do to the audience. Danny Davis looks like Shemp Howard? Maybe he does, but is this the time to be mentioning it? On the other hand, he brought a sense of history to the table that wasn't often seen in the WWF at this time, as he recognized not only Fuji's past as a tag team champion, but also Gino's long-defunct team with Killer Kowalski. To hear names like Toru Tanaka and Mr. Saito on a WWF broadcast in December of 1993 is an unexpected and pleasant surprise. By the way, Gino really was ​a frequent challenger for Tanaka and Fuji during their first title run in the mid-seventies with a variety of different partners. One thing Gino said that I found disturbing was when he declared that Bret should throw himself off the top of the cage to the floor the minute he got his second foot over the top of the cage. When Levy reminded him that doing that would almost surely mean broken bones for Bret, Gino replied, "Is the title not worth some broken bones?" No, Gino, especially if those broken bones leave you unable to defend it. He's been shooting from the hip for a while now, but not quite to this extent. The bad news is, it's going to get worse once he loses Joey and his health starts downhill. Maybe Vince made him WWF President after Jack Tunney left simply to get him out of the booth. After hearing things like that, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Even though this match wouldn't be seen until the tape it made hit the market, if you look at things chronologically Bret's now officially out of the title picture. It's a miracle that he got a rematch this late, and now that he's lost to Yoko cleanly in a second cage match. he'll need to do something drastic to work his way back up the ladder. Fortunately for him, the Rumble's only a month away.

What I saw was pretty good, but the camerawork was awful, especially in the postmatch brawl. It took me a while to realize that Terry and Sabu were still brawling on the floor. I had no idea in the world what the ref could have possibly been waving off until they popped up. I liked the mix of regular wrestling and extrreme spots, but I still think that bringing a table into the ring should be an automatic disqualification. Outside the ring, tables look as dangerous as they should; inside the ring, the ref looks like a complete fool for not trying his best to either keep the table out or get rid of it if a wrestler manages to sneak one in. I didn't see Sabu's leg hit the one he used, but Terry doesn't need an opening like that to go for the spinning toehold, so it really doesn't matter much. If Sabu had kept working like this instead of constantly trying to top his own insanity, he'd be in a lot better shape today, and that goes for all the guys (including Terry) who took a needed breath of fresh air in wrestling (the extreme style) and proceeded to run both it and themselves into the ground. Are we sure that this is ACW and not E​CW? Would ECW have been running a house show loop yet? Steelton's a Harrisburg suburb, which makes it likely that someone simply misidentified the promotion in question. On the other hand, Philly's had plenty of small indy promotions over the years, and ACW could very well be one of them, although what they'd be doing as far west as Harrisburg I have no clue.

It's a repeat. With all he's done since the first airing, they had tons if new footage that they could have used for a fresh profile if they'd wanted to. This reminds me a bit of all the videos that used to be recycled in Memphis, and it makes SMW look just as cheap as it did Memphis.

Give these two credit for one thing: they laid it all on the line here. This felt like it was longer than ten minutes, but in a good way. I especially liked the recurring theme of each guy knowing the other so well that they had the other's big moves scouted. The most impressive instance of that was Pillman dropkicking Austin out of mid-air, which was such a great spot that they showed it during the final replay segment. I didn't mind Austin not going for Pillman's throat; as Kevin noted above, the knee was a much more recent injury which led directly to the Blonds losing the belts, so it made sense that Austin would try to hurt Pillman there. It's kind of a shame that Pillman didn't have a corresponding injury to work on against Austin; maybe he could have developed one if the match had been given more time. I liked both guys wearing Hollywood Blonds tights; in fact, if I'd been booking WCW and I hadn't been able to think of anything else for Pillman to do, I'd have thought about finding Brian a partner and reforming the Blonds as a face team until something better came along for him. If you wanted to keep the Blonds edgy (which is how they work best), Bobby Eaton would have been perfect for the role. I liked Jesse pining for the reformation of the Blonds, and even Tony sounded somewhat regretful that this match had to happen. I noticed that there was no attempt to tell whatever backstory the feud had, which is surprising. They probably knew that this was a one-off and didn't want to waste much time with it, but what about the fans who may have been away for a month or so and turned on the Clash to see the Blonds beating the hell out of each other and Fuller in Austin's corner? It's almost like they were saying, "Just trust us, they hate each other now." Why? We never got an answer in this match. Hell, we barely got an answer when Austin turned on Pillman originally. I hated the finish. If you know that these two aren't going to meet again in any sort of substantive match and want the feud to be over, have Pillman do the clean job and build him back up later. Fuller interfering like he did would seem to set up a rematch, only it doesn't. Not only that, but now that Sid's gone Fuller has no one else for Pillman to fight in order to continue the issue. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that Pillman had given notice and this was his last match on the way out. This isn't exactly a burial, but it's a definite dead end for Flyin' Brian; where can he possibly go from here? Certainly not to Battlebowl or Starrcade; he was left off of both cards entirely. Line of the Night goes to Tony, after Jesse says that he can't bear to see the Blonds tear each other apart: "Close your eyes. I'll tell you when it's over." Once and for all, was Sid in the building or not? I think he'd already stabbed Arn and been suspended, but Tony threw me for a bit of a loop when he said that Okerlund had seen Sid earlier in the evening. They also played up Fuller being scared that Sid would violate his restraining order and come down to knock his (Fuller's) block off.

This match has two overlapping stories: 1) Kawada and his knee injury and 2) the need for Taue to do the vast majority of the work by himself if he and Kawada are to advance in the tournament. Doc and Bossman destroy Kawada's knee to the point where I wonder how he was able to work the final at all just two days later. As for Taue, they really turn this into his show by the end, as Kawada's only job is to keep Doc occupied while Taue tries to finish Bossman off, which he finally does. I loved Bossman after the match; he knows that he and Doc had a golden opportunity to get to the finals if only they could have either beaten a guy who was on one leg or a guy whom they had two on one for most of the second half of the match, and they couldn't manage either one. Doc comforts him, ostensibly by reminding him that Kawada and Taue are the toughest tag team in the world for a reason. Could Bossman/Bubba have lasted in AJPW? Maybe or maybe not. But there's no reason he couldn't have kept coming over for events like this had he wanted to. The energy he brought to the two matches we saw was outstanding, and he could have brought it every year without necessarily challenging for the Triple Crown. Of course, he was probably paid better to do what he did in the States, and he may have worn himself thin even as an attraction; he wasn't as physically awesome or charismatic as someone like Andre, who could light arenas up all over the world just by walking down the aisle. Still, we have these two matches to prove how far Ray Traylor has come as a worker since the day seven years before when his claim to fame was that a Dusty Rhodes chair shot couldn't knock his hat off. I haven't seen Kawada and Taue's match with Hansen and Baba yet, but seeing Stan in particular going nuts on Kawada's knee should be a treat.

I really liked this a lot. You don't often see four heavyeights go nonstop like this, especially in the preliminary round of a tournament. I thought Baba was tremendous here. I find it hard to believe that this was nothing more than a carry job, or three guys having a great match in spite of the fourth. Sometimes greatness isn't about how many moves you can execute or how athletic you are. Even in his younger days, I'd wager that Baba didn't move as crisply as Misawa and Kobashi did here. But what he did, he made count, just as he did in this match. He made me believe that he could actually pin Kobashi or Misawa clean, and that's really what counts. I thought I saw some instances where either one of them could have pinned the old man, but took too long to cover, which added to the sense that Baba might just be able to sneak up on them and get the win before they woke up and realized how dangerous he still could be. Before I interrupted my reading to make sure I got my comments down, I saw what the original plan for the tournament was. Given what the MVC was, and how rusty Teddy was in the AJPW house style, I think we actually got the better end of the deal. Bossman adapted well, and he and Doc could have been a powerhouse team if he'd stayed. As for Baba, his presence brought a whole new dynamic to this match. Who in the arena didn't leave that night thinking about dream matches like Baba/Kenta and Baba/Misawa? Okay, so they wouldn't have worked in reality due to Baba's age and limitations, but the fact that he looked good here made the idea of him taking on the young guys not quite as farfetched as it would have seemed before this bout. I'll have to watch and see how Kawada's work is affected in his subsequent tournament matches by his bad knee. It's a shame he was hurt, because as great as guys like Misawa and Kobashi are, they're not the force of nature that Kawada can be if and when he gets rolling. I noticed that in the match Smothers was in, his partner was in the ring the whole time, according to John's post. Tracy's looked fine in the SMW matches we have on the set before this, so was this just the way the match was booked, or did he get hurt once he got overseas?

The sleeper spots were impressive, but Kevin's right when he says that one of them should have been the finish. I kept yelling for each side in turn to go back to the sleeper instead of going for the predictable suplexes and powerbombs, but to no avail. It's almost like Japanese women don't know how else to win matches. Quite frankly, I'm surprised Chigusa got pinned off of the legdrop without yet another German suplex as insurance. Juniors often have the same problem, but at least they can fly and do matwork spots, which are hit and miss with the ladies. This also would have been helped if I'd been more familiar with the workers. We've had a ton more AJW than JWP when it comes to these Yearbooks, so I'm much more familiar with Aja, Bull, and the like. I think I even got Devil and Plum mixed up; I assumed that Plum was wearing the purple singlet, but from the comments about the interaction between Devil and Chigusa, I guess it was Devil in the purple and Plum in the flowered getup. This was actually a very good bout, but its main spot didn't really pay off, so it gets knocked down a bit in my eyes. I'm willing to give this group another chance, though, as this is the first of their matches that I was entertained by from beginning to end. I hope there are plenty more where this one came from!

Shawn comes off as much more serious here than he has before, and I like the change. He looks good in a three-piece suit, and his promos are better without losing their sassy edge. I especially liked the line about Hall combing his hair with a porkchop. He truly seems ready to buckle down to the business of being a champion and a superstar. Hall's slow talking hurts him against someone like Shawn, and I wish they'd found a way to keep the rest of the Razor Ramon gimmick while losing that cadence; he really does ​sound like someone from the ghetto who's too mentally slow to compete in the white man's world. The "sorry to burst your bubble" before he pops Shawn's gum got a mild chuckle from me, though. This is the first time that I can remember a wrestler's music being magically ready when he does a "surprise" run-in. I have no idea why Vince started doing that, except that he thought that music was such an integral part of a wrestler's presentation that fans may have been confused whenever someone appeared without it. It wasn't the first time Vince had ever played wrestling fans for clueless morons, and unfortunately it would be far from the last. As for Reo, they picked the wrong guy for the role, because Reo's accent and Brother Love's sound far too much alike for their own good. It's a wonder Prichard didn't accidentally throw in an "AH LOOOOOOVE YEEEEEEEEWWWWW!" at the start of the segment by mistake. It's obvious from Stanfield's corral jokes and Vince's line about Reo "not sounding that way before the operation" that Vince created this character to be a joke on Bruce as much as on Dusty; at least Brother Love was taken somewhat seriously despite his outlandish look. If Vince had had any real plans for the character; it would have lasted more than a few weeks, and more than two of his segments would have made the set (the other being Reo's visit to "the Hart house" with Shawn before Survivor Series). I'll say it yet again: They couldn't get Piper to take a day or two off from his movie schedule every few weeks to come back and revive Piper's Pit?​ Granted, Rod wouldn't have been quite what he used to be by this time, but he would have been miles ahead of junk like this, just like he was whenever they trotted him out on Raw​ years later. Does anybody know anything about this Wizard character Prichard portrayed? Don't tell me the man did an Ernie Roth impression. Or was it King Curtis Iaukea? Either way, it sounds like an even worse trainwreck than Brother Love and Reo Rodgers put together.