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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    The crowd was probably wondering what one-half of the Orient Express was doing coming to Tony and Kim's aid, and I can't blame them. This bout was about as random as it gets, and if it hadn't been for Tanaka almost putting Embry's eye out by accident, there would have been no reason on earth to have a rematch, especially since Falk's run-in was the high point of the original bout. I loved Embry's promo, mostly because he's got to be one of the gutsiest bastards who ever lived for managing to make sense after what had just happened to him. I'm not sure if he was in pain or not, and I really don't want to know, but if he was, it must have been almost unbearable. You know how I feel about man-on-woman violence, and I still wish that they hadn't shown Embry slugging Kim, but this is one of the few times that those who might be tempted to claim that she deserved it (in a purely kayfabe context) just might have a case. She did grab him first, and was going to hold him for Tanaka. (Actually, I'm wondering if the whole sequence wasn't improvised so Embry wouldn't have to take any more shots from Tanaka until he got his eye looked at.) Embry seems to imply that there's a past history involving the Anthonys and Tanaka, but I've never heard of one. Can anyone fill me in?
  2. garretta
    I only watched the clip that was on the disc, which was mostly Sting's Hogan-like comeback and celebration. Luger at 295? Wow, he must have really thought he'd take the bodybuilding world by storm. Since Luger was leaving, it might have been okay for Sting to get the submission, but I'm not sure they wanted any problems with Luger over how he dropped the belt. They needed to have their big moment of coronation for Sting, and they wouldn't have gotten it if Luger had walked out and left Sting to wrestle Hughes or Race, or if they'd had to give him the belt by forfeit. By the way, where was Hughes? I would think he would have been at ringside for his client one last time. JR and Jesse worked together well from what little I heard, but I could tell that JR really wanted to call the match his own way and not have to worry about dealing with Jesse. These may sound like contradictory statements, but I think they worked together well mostly because this was still a one-shot at the time. It'll be interesting to see how the chemistry evolves when they're paired on big events regularly and JR isn't inclined to be generous. I liked the fans calling Sting back down to the ring for a curtain call of sorts; I can't remember that happening any other time, at least in that fashion.
  3. garretta
    The brawl was almost ECW-like, with the goofy weapons used. Window shutters? Are you kidding? I was watching mostly to see how JYD fared in this no-holds-barred type of environment, but other than helping Jeff crotch BBD, he really didn't do a whole lot of any note. Spotty in particular looked like a walking heart attack (which, sadly enough, he eventually was). As Loss said, this feud's really better with four than six, so the need for the third man on each side had to be eliminated. Boy, did BBD's leg take a brutal pounding the likes of which faces, even angry ones, seldom give. I'm not sure whether BBD submitted or the referee simply called things off because BBD obviously couldn't defend himself anymore. Lee's getting stronger on the mic, but his words ring hollow as a result of the beating his guys just finished taking. I'll be interested to see just what his revenge for Jeff and the King consists of. I know he's trying to convey disgust, but did Corey have to call the Dogs, the promotion's number one heels at the moment, "stupid"? If they're so stupid and easily dismissed, how come they're beating the pants off of Jeff and Lawler every chance they get and getting away with it?
  4. garretta
    Nice that the GWF acknowledged the deaths of Sawyer and Tojo, neither of whom ever drew a check from them. It's also nice that they reminded everyone that even someone like Tojo was a human being with a family. I wonder what they did for him in Memphis, where he was both so hated and so loved (at various times) for so long. Bruce Prichard's getting a big push as the GWF's top manager. I can't comment much on his stable (though Big Bad John really seems like a stiff), but I wonder if Vince had any idea of the potential that he let get away. Brother Love might have been something interesting if they'd kept him at ringside.
  5. garretta
    The setup and delivery here is so good that it almost feels legit. If only the man in question hadn't been one of the most despised heels in the history of east Tennessee. In all seriousness, this is an excellent, out-of-the-box angle that only someone operating under the radar as Corny was would have dared to try in this way. I wonder if any marks were actually taken in by this and sent Ron money, and if so what did SMW do with it?
  6. garretta
    Thank goodness for that. Thanks, Migs!
  7. garretta
    Three excellent Jumbo matches in one sitting's probably too many for me, because I'm running out of words to describe the performances. Jumbo knocks Kawada silly before the bout can really start with one of the stiffest open-handed shots I've ever seen, and spends the rest of the bout trying to do it again, even breaking out things like a piledriver on the floor and his partner Taue's Golden Arm Bomber, also on the floor. Kawada counters by top-notch work on Jumbo's leg, which isn't as brutal as Hansen's but is just as effective. In fact, that's one of my biggest complaints with the finishing run; Kawada has Jumbo down to one leg midway through the bout, but abandons his handiwork in his zeal to get the win. Of course, most limbwork ends up being undersold like that, since we as fans want both wrestlers to be fighting hard at the finish of a match. I liked Kawada's desperation to get the stretch plum on Jumbo, but he had to know he was too close to the ropes the last two or three times he applied it. Sure enough, there was Fuchi with a towel in his hand, although I doubt he would have used it. The powebomb sequences were okay, but not nearly as memorable as Jumbo slapping Kawada into near-unconsciousness. I'd actually like to see that spot brought to the States at some point, though who would hit hard enough to make it work I have no idea. It's tailor made for someone like Ronnie Garvin, to cite one example. Watching this bout along with the Hansen title change shows you just how ripe Jumbo was to be plucked when Stan beat him. Could the endless war with Misawa and friends (Kawada included) have taken its toll, and now that Jumbo may have lost the Triple Crown title at least in part because of them, what kind of payback will he have for them in the coming months? I can't wait to find out!
  8. garretta
    A tremendous bout, maybe the best of its kind I've seen from All-Japan. It had one mission from the start: to show that Kenta and Kikuchi weren't simply punching bags for Jumbo and friends anymore. It succeeded brilliantly, as Taue is in severe danger of losing the match for the first ten minutes and again at the end just before the finish. I loved the teamwork between both teams; sometimes it gets lost in bouts like this where so many of the participants also have individual issues. If some of the tags had been a bit hotter, it would have been a perfect Southern-style tag. The doubleteams from Kenta and Kikuchi were first-rate. Of course, Kikuchi had to play punching bag at some point, and he's great at it as usual, but he never stopped fighting back, trying to take the offensive and turn things his team's way. In that respect, he's an even better plucky babyface than Ricky Morton, who could take a beating like no one else but seldom if ever fought back while doing it. The sheer number of nearfalls Kenta and Kikuchi got amazed me, as did the fact that it took Kenta being knocked out of the match and leaving Kikuchi two-on-one to set up the winning fall. Even at that, it took two Jumbo Drivers for Jumbo to put Kikuchi away. Now that no member of Misawa's side of the feud can justifiably be considered a weak link on a regular basis, it's going to be interesting to see how things play out as the year progresses.
  9. garretta
    The story of the match for me was Stan destroying Jumbo's knee. He's not one to do much limbwork normally, and I never expected him to stay with it. But he did, and he did it without having to become another worker; in other words, he worked on Jumbo's knee the way you'd expect Stan Hansen to. His slams on the railing and table outside were vicious, and I particularly liked when he simply ground his knuckles into the back of Jumbo's leg. The net effect was to put Jumbo totally behind the eight-ball, unable to use the Jumbo Driver to put Stan away and forcing him to hope that the rest of his offense would be enough. In the end, of course, it wasn't, though he showed tremendous heart in kicking out of one lariat before the second knocked him out. Jumbo's work on Stan's arm didn't end up as compelling under the circumstances, but he still did it well, and we were left to wonder whether Stan would be able to use the lariat at all. Jumbo's standing over-the-shoulder arm stretcher looked brutal, and I liked him hammerlocking Stan's arm and ramming it into the post. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but Jumbo wasn't normally that aggressive except against Misawa and friends. Jumbo's last championship match, huh? I guess the end for him is coming quicker than I thought. I better enjoy him while he's here! I liked Hansen's brief English promo at the end. It sounded suitably respectful while at the same time taking a shot at Jumbo for defending the Triple Crown so seldom. Of course, in Japanese it could have been translated "I'll kill every baby in Tokyo!" or "Chicken nuggets are really made of squirrel meat!" for all we know.
  10. garretta
    I liked the different way the match was constructed, with Steamer's hot nearfalls at the start. It looked like he borrowed quite a few of them from Mania III, but they were still compelling. I didn't really notice his selling very much, but it's never bothered me before. Austin's offense is getting crisper all the time. Maybe being in there with a ring general like Steamboat relaxes him and allows him to concentrate on making everything look its best; it sure seems that way. Medusa was used effectively, and it was nice to get reminders that Steamer has justification for the way he feels about her, despite the vicious lies that the DA tries to spread about him being a woman-hating bully. As I mentioned above, the match structure was a good way to hide the fact that this was going to a draw; the old "challenger has champion down for two and three-quarters just as the bell rings" bit is so old that it applied for AARP back in 1975. I might be the only one who didn't mind JR here. When else is he supposed to promote WCW programming and upcoming events other than during the matches? Besides, unlike Vince and his crew, he manages to stay on top of the action in the ring. His plug for the hotline was unnecessarily cute for its own good, but I had no problem with the rest, including the Blimpie plug. If free food helped to fill Center Stage for the upcoming taping, it was time and money well spent. I tried to catch what WCWSN was being preempted for, but I couldn't. It sounded like golf, and I know that Turner had the rights to a few tournaments back in those days. I'm curious to know which tournament it might have been. Nice line from JR about Heyman being a skinflint when it comes to paying his wrestlers. Maybe he had a crystal ball!
  11. garretta
    This was mixed at best. The only part that was really well done was Sid's promos both before and after. I didn't know that there was a perfectly decent smarmy asshole trapped inside that huge body, and I thought he was better before the match than after, although his reasons for turning on Hogan and how he got them across were more logical than anything we'd seen in the "friend turns on Hogan" department since Andre on Piper's Pit. Unfortunately, whatever subtlety Vince once had in booking turns on Hogan is long gone. Most of the other ones were obvious in hindsight, and Savage in particular was no great surprise, but there wasn't even the faintest attempt to hide what was coming here. What's worse, Hogan never needed Sid at any point in the match; Flair and Taker never really put him in much danger except for the figure-four, which Hogan easily reversed. I remember vividly Bundy and Studd beating the living dogcrap out of Hogan before the Orndorff turn, and how Hogan struggled over to his corner only for one of the heels (can't remember which) to "accidentally" knock Hogan into Orndorff. Then came the doubleteam, and Hogan was DOA. Everyone watching knew that the Heenan Family was finally going to put him out for good........and then here came Orndorff like a whirlwind to clean house. We know what happened next, but the build was exquisitely suspenseful. No such luck here, as Hogan not only dominated during the bout except for a few seconds, but cleared the ring afterward while looking out for Beefcake at the same time. He shouldn't have been pinned here (and would have flat-out refused to be), but he should have been tombstoned or chokeslammed or put in the fgure-four afterward. With Sid gone for the hills, Beefcake would have had a real choice to make: his face or Hogan's life? More importantly, Sid's absence would have meant more than a minor annoyance for Hogan, and the desire to make Sid hurt as he had hurt at Flair and Taker's hands would have been great motivation for him to give up the title match at Mania VIII and go after Sid instead. As it is, his feelings are hurt because Sid walked out on him. Big deal, you jackass. It's not like you needed him anyway. Vince and Heenan were both way under par here. Vince was in full "scream my lungs out and hopefully the audience will think this crap is fun" mode, and Bobby was trying too hard to push the idea of dissension instead of just mentioning it once or twice and then letting events unfold. Also, the better Curt gets at being a mouthpiece, the less we need Bobby as a cheerleader for Flair and the more obnoxious he sounds in that role. (I know we didn't get any promos from the heels here, but the few times I tuned in live during the year, Bobby sounded more and more out of place as Flair's "advisor". It'll be interesting to see if that holds up as I go through the discs.) The basic problem was that Bobby was seldom seen with Flair and Curt after the Rumble, so he really didn't seem like part of the act so much as someone who wished he was. He sounded the same way during Flair matches in WCW too, from what little I've seen. By the way, excellent move to minimize Sid's turn by mentioning Hogan's match with Flair at Mania, Vince. The man's so busy hyping and shilling that's he's lost all concept of how to tell a wrestling story in the booth. No wonder he needed JR. I didn't mind Beefcake's presence or his inabllity to take bumps as much as I did Vince acting like Flair or Taker even breathing on him was tantamount to drawing a gun and shooting him dead. If he's cleared to be at ringside, that means he of all people knows the risks and is ready to assume them, at least for my money. Did Beefcake need to get physically involved? Of course not; he's probably the only person in the match who acted like you'd expect someone in his position to act. But if he had gotten involved, he could have been figure-foured or chokeslammed with no damage to his face, so Vince was just running his yap for no logical reason whatsoever. (He would never, ever have been allowed to take a tombstone or flying clothesline from Taker in his condition.) Moment of the night: As mentioned several times above, Mooney setting Sid up to talk about his actions at the Rumble, then pulling the mic away to talk to Hogan instead. Maybe Sean's best WWF moment ever. Not even Mean Gene could have pulled it off so smoothly.
  12. garretta
    I guess it depends on how JR and the other announcers try to sell Vader when the time comes for him to challenge Sting. As long as they don't oversell how awesome he is and how Sting has almost no chance against him barring a miracle, I won't complain too much.
  13. garretta
    I'm aware of all of that, and I stand by my statement. To be fair, most of my trouble came when they were on the move or far away from the camera.
  14. garretta
    Jumbo and friends destroying Misawa's knee was the story, and Fuchi was the star, as he came up with more different ways to torture Misawa than ten other people. It's tough to hit precision dropkicks to a small area like a knee or thigh, but Fuchi did it consistently here. Kawada and Kobashi were great fired up partners for Misawa, and Taue brought plenty of muscle to back up Jumbo. It seems like the two sides are trading wins in multi-man matches, so neither side truly has the advantage at this time, but the action is still stellar. This particular match wasn't quite on par with some others, though, especially considering its length; judging by where we joined it, they had to have gone at least 40-45 minutes total. Could someone please invest in different color tights for either Jumbo or Fuchi? Their faces look enough alike that when they both wear black trunks, it's tough to tell them apart.
  15. garretta
    If you like armlocks and short-arm scissors for twenty minutes out of twenty-five, this match is for you. I don't blame Bobby for it; he's at his best against an aggressive heel who will beat his brains out if he doesn't use his superior scientific skill to keep him in check. We know Lawler can be exactly that when and if he wants to be, but as is usually the case outside of the Memphis loop, he doesn't. As much as I hate his usual "hide the chain" schtick, it would have been ideal here in moderation. Instead, he's got it in his head that he's going to out-Backlund Backlund, and all he manages to do instead is bore the roof off of the joint. Backlund's much more experienced in working on arms, and although he's not a dynamo, he keeps things at least moderately entertaining. I particularly liked the forearms he threw that landed right under Lawler's armpit. Lawler pulls the strap down eventually, but that means nothing here, and he can't even use the piledriver; Backlund does instead, and it looks devastating, though we go right back to the arm afterward. Lawler does get a few nice punches in right before the finish, but it's too late to save the match. Maybe a little more Lawler mic work would have helped, but I doubt it, especially since it would have been hard to hear on the disc. I'm not sure what they would have been circa 1982 in MSG, but part of me hopes that we see Mr. Backlund in Memphis at some point trying to provide elucidation for the plebeians just to see what the King would do about it.
  16. garretta
    Booking him as unable to be picked up and tossed around like a guy half his size doesn't turn him into '87 Andre, Childs. He can move around as much as he likes on his own; I just don't want Sting or Rick Steiner picking him up more than once a match, if even that. There should be a question of "What the hell do you do with this guy, anyway? He moves like a lightweight, yet not even Sting can move him without almost killing himself. This guy's completely unstoppable!" To further your analogy, maybe late seventies Andre would suffice. I know he was probably in decline even then, but that's the earliest I've seen more than a clip or two of him.
  17. garretta
    There's not much else to say that hasn't been said already. This match puts both guys over, and Rude's selling of his injured knee may be the best I've seen yet from him. What I liked best about it was that Heyman's interference didn't lead to the pin; while it certainly cheated Pillman out of a possible win, Rude earned the win himself with the Stun Gun and the Rude Awakening. While Heyman may be the evil genius behind the DA, they (almost) always win matches on their own merit when push comes to shove, which not even the Horsemen could claim. Excellent discussion by JR of the strategy in the weeks leading up to Steamer-Rude at SuperBrawl; how each man could be in danger from their various opponents, and how Steamboat in particular has a target on himself everywhere he goes. I loved JR's call in this match; no shilling, all kinds of great strategic info, and wonderful storytelling. He didn't even shoehorn in any references to Pillman's football career, and those of us who are longtime viewers didn't miss them a bit, believe me. I thought Pillman was motivated here; he didn't have as much energy as he did against Flair, but there was always a personal issue of some sort between the two of them, whereas this match was more or less just a match, although a very good one. By the way, was the US belt on the line? The disc cut off the first part of Gary's ring announcements.
  18. garretta
    I agree that the in-ring action was much better than you'd see in the WWF at this time, but WCW could have taken some characterization lessons from Vince, particularly in regard to monster heavyweights. Simply put, you don't throw them around like midgets, because if you do, they're not monsters anymore; they're just fat slobs who need to hit the gym more and lay off the second helpings of dessert. I get that Sting and the Steiners are well-conditioned athletes who should be able to do things normal guys can't, but it still shouldn't be as easy for them to suplex and slam guys like Vader and Hughes as we saw it was. Sure, they sold when the time came, but it didn't really mean much because the fans already knew that they were the superior athletes and would reassert themselves when the chips were down, as they did. Does this stuff really matter, some of you may ask? If you think it doesn't, ask yourself this: suppose that instead of slamming Andre just before dropping the leg and getting the pin at Mania III, Hogan slammed him the first time he went for it about ten seconds in. Would Andre have looked nearly as unbeatable? Would the drama of seeing him slowly squeeze the life out of Hogan midway through the bout have been nearly as great? Would the slam at the end have meant anything at all? If you want another example, think of their rematch. Why was there a sense of things going wrong for Hogan, even before the evil twin Hebners? Because no matter what he tried, Andre wouldn't go down. We know that he couldn't now, of course, and we know why. Still, watching it in the moment, Hogan's inability to take Andre off his feet until late in the bout was a great way to signal to the little Hulksters even before Earl and Dave got involved that Hogan might not have an easy time. This is really going to haunt WCW when they have to inevitably build Vader up as an unstoppable monster going after Sting later in the year. Do they really think most of the fans are going to forget seeing Sting handle Vader with ease in this bout? You can play the "trouble in River City" card that I referenced above once or twice as far as Sting having trouble moving or lifting him goes; after that, the fans will wonder what's wrong with their hero. He slammed Vader like nothing in February, so why can't he do it now? Hmmm, something's not kosher about this........... In other observations, it's odd to hear Tony doing JR's shilling for him. What's even odder is that he promotes the Omni card for that night on one hand, then encourages the fans in the Atlanta area to call in to JR's show on the other. If someone's at the Omni enjoying the matches, they aren't listening to JR's show, or so you'd think. Besides, wouldn't JR presumably be at the Omni himself, since he's WCW's top announcer? Even if he's not working, wouldn't he want to go there to keep up with what's going on? (Knowing this outfit, the answer to the last two questions is probably no.) Tony calling an Irish whip an armdrag simply shouldn't have happened, and it definitely shouldn't have made air. It's amazing how many stupid mistakes a veteran like him can make. He didn't wait to go downhill until the Nitro era; his fall was already well underway, and didn't happen from nearly the height that many assume it did in the first place.
  19. garretta
    For as great a feud as this was, this match was a bad ending. The result was fine (Savage had to go over decisively, and he did), but I don't like how it happened. I guess it comes down to this: Was Jake making noise about leaving? I thought that happened closer to Mania, which is why Taker squashed him so decisively. But it almost seemed like they were trying to bury Jake right then and there. It would have been one thing for Randy to kick out of the DDT, but for him to not only get up from it, but to come back to life and destroy Jake after taking it? Frankly, I'm surprised that Jake let it go down that way, because the DDT is basically dead as a finisher going forward. In fact, that may be why so many people felt free to use it as a transition move, which was already starting to happen anyway. Even more than the snake in the bag, the DDT was the most dangerous thing in Jake's arsenal, and now it's gone, at least as the killer finisher it always has been before. To compound the felony, why was Jake walking back to the locker room without help after getting his throat slammed off of the barrier? He sold it perfectly, and that's the problem: You can't act like you can't breathe one second and shrug it off with a few coughs a minute or so afterward because you (supposedly) have another hot angle to do that requires you to be at full strength. He should have been at least helped out by the refs, if not done a stretcher job like Steamboat did back in '86, and he absolutely, positively shouldn't have been speaking. If a stretcher job was too intense for Fox, they should have thought ahead and had Randy work twice at the Rumble. Let him use the bell on Jake's throat or head after he beats him, and use Steve Lombardi to replace Jake in the Rumble and have him eliminate a guy or two as a thank-you for years of loyal service. Or have Liz run down and tell Randy he's done enough before he can use the bell, which might be the better ending anyway considering the story being told. Was Jake's nose broken legit? It sure seemed like he was bleeding from there after Randy's elbow early in the bout. The promos beforehand were excellent, but Jake's was a further illustration of why Liz's family was after Randy to end the angle before what I have to assume was looking like a Mania blowoff. That brings up an interesting counterfactual: if Hogan still fights Sid, Savage fights Jake, and Piper still drops the IC belt to Bret on his way out, who challenges Flair for the title at Mania? Why did they insist that Jake slapped Liz when it's as clear as day that he hit her with a jab? Is slapping a woman any less heinous than punching them?
  20. garretta
    I didn't like this at all. The "controversial" finish wasn't needed, as Big Bad John was in absolutely no danger at any time. Eddie looked like a jobber out there, and it all came to nothing in the end, as Big Bad John went nowhere, at least not under that gimmick. Were they trying to present Esposito or whatever that ref's name was as being on the take from Bruce? It seemed like they were, but if so, James Beard went along with his decision way too quickly, which made Garvin look like a sore loser on Eddie's behalf. I was waiting for a fireball or a crotch shot too, but Eddie went along with the stip, cracking only after Bruce slapped his face. Then we had Big Bad John making Eddie and Garvin both look ridiculous again with his unbreakable backbreaker. Add all this to the fact that I think "kiss my foot" matches are legit disgusting and have no business being booked, and you can see why this is my least favorite match on the set thus far. Bruce should have just come out as some variation of Brother Love. There was no way for him to disguise his voice; it was too well known. He should have tried dressing in blue instead of red and calling everyone "my children" and see if that kept Vince's lawyers off his back instead of looking like an aging hippie. The interview with Boni wasn't a bad idea, but someone should have clued her in that Bruce would be at ringside instead of the announce table. Hearing her ask "Where did you find him, Bruce?" and Craig answering by continuing his match call without acknowledging the question at all made the production look amateurish and slipshod, not a show on what was even then one of the top cable networks in the country.
  21. garretta
    I'd like to think that it was Lawler handing Jeff all that stuff from behind the curtain, but it probably wasn't. I didn't mind Jeff getting handed the weapons from the back; he isn't the type to carry them to ringside with him, especially when he has to wrestle a bout against another guy altogether. It makes sense to me that he had an arrangement with a stagehand or someone similar to stand by the plunder stash and hand him stuff as he calls for it. Lee may not have liked the idea of his boys being waffled with all that stuff, but he sure wanted to grab every bit of it he could so that he and the Dogs can possibly use it against Jeff and Lawler next time. His complaining that Jeff could hurt someone is typical, but rich just the same in light of all the objects his Dogs have used to bloody everyone in sight but Dave and Corey over the last month or two. I liked the Dogs roughing up The Shadow as well as Jeff; it proves that they're wildmen who are more than capable of attacking anyone, friend or foe, any time the mood may strike them.
  22. garretta
    This was a tremendous low-key promo from Paul and Arn. It puts the Steuners over like a million bucks, but says the DA is worth a million and one. I liked that Paul brought up his praise of the Steiners from the booth; too many times heel managers give their opponents either no credit or grudging credit, so this is a nice change of pace. Arn does a masterful job tying this situation to real life; unlike most of the rest of America, Paul and the DA are willing to take chances on each other, and that's what makes them great. Could Arn spin a yarn or what? With that kind of verbal firepower behind him, Bobby could afford to be the strong, silent type, like he was with Corny and Stan. This has to be one of the first recorded instances of Jim Ross being referred to as JR, although I think Flair did it once in a while before this. I don't think it ever caught on in WCW the way it did later in the WWF, though. Paul's wrong about one thing: the Steiners do come off the top, though hardy with Bobby's athletic skill and grace. I'm almost glad we don't have to hear the Steiners' answer to this; if they do their usual schtick, they'll come across as a couple of real meatheads compared to the cultured, educated gentlemen of the DA.
  23. garretta
    I never knew any of that. Thanks for the info, Pete!
  24. garretta
    If I was Jack Tunney, I'd be complaining to Vince like you wouldn't believe. What a hamhanded way to switch the title match from Hogan to Savage. Since when did Tunney ever listen to a heel? Since when did any organization president anywhere in wrestling ever listen to a heel? Talk about destroying his credibility. This could all have been avoided if Vince hadn't tried to swerve the fans by leading them to believe that Hogan/Flair had any chance of happening at Mania. The match should have gone to Savage right from the start, with Hogan/Sid penciled in as the other half of the double main event when the time came. Flair was on top of his game, and he decided to play it cool all the way for once. He made out like he was mad about the switch from Hogan to Savage, but quickly recovered by making the first intimation of his affair with Liz. Curt's still improving as a mouthpiece; he's becoming a good table-setter for Flair. As for Randy, his promo was in the style of the ones he cut early in his feud with Jake; not much schtick, much more plain-spoken than you'd expect the Macho Man to be. It's a welcome change, as a lot of his earlier stuff was too crazy for even those who liked him to follow. Sid was very good, although I didn't like the fact that he claimed to be bigger and stronger than anyone Hogan's ever faced before; that's Andre, period. He was doing the teeth-grinding and mumbling bits, but he still sounded articulate and intelligible. Hogan was a whiny twerp by comparison, especially with his continued verbal attacks on Tunney. For Pete's sake, Vince, if you want to turn Tunney heel (there's a mind-blowing concept if ever there was one), then do it. Otherwise, tell your top babyface and number one worldwide role model for kids to stop picking on him. To add to the question of when the rumors that this was to be Hogan's last bout began, when did Whippleman/Bruno come on board as Sid's manager, and why him? I think Curt would have been good in Sid's corner, or if they wanted to keep him exclusive to Flair, how about Hogan's buddy Jimmy Hart?
  25. garretta
    This is the kind of hot brawl that a territory needs to put itself on the map. I've never associated guys like Tim Horner and Bobby Fulton with hardcore brawls like this, but they (and Jackie) do very well against Uncle Ivan, Golden, and whoever Vladimir's supposed to be. If Vlad's supposed to look like Nikita, then someone needs to have their eyes checked. He's not even a believable monster Russian. What else did he ever do in the business? He sure didn't have much of a future in this gimmick. When I watched Will's SMW set, I fell in love with Bob and Dutch as a commentary team, and I was reminded of why when I watched this. Bob always keeps things on the straight and narrow, which allows Dutch to run wild if he chooses. But he doesn't, at least not as often as you'd think. In this case, his threat to write a letter to Bullet Bob is a perfectly reasonable response for someone who doesn't wish to see innocent people get beaten up, and although you know he's irritated, he doesn't yell or scream or make all kinds of idle threats. He always leaned heel in SMW, but first and foremost he was out for himself. Not many commentators can truly pull that off well; about the closest I've come across might be 1981-82 Roddy Piper in GCW, and he eventually went full-on heel and started wrestling. Outside of a few bouts with Fuller and Golden in '93, Dutch stayed out of the ring. Corny didn't put himself in the credits, I notice. Not that it's a big deal, but most promoters or bookers gave themselves a producer or executive producer credit on their promotion's TV programming. Even Vince was listed as an executive producer of SNME during its days on NBC, and I could have sworn I saw his name in the end credits of various USA shows occasionally. (He was also listed as the executive producer of WrestleMania I, which is the only one I know of ever to have end credits.)
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