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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    I've seen this before, but not in the context of the rest of late 91/early 92 WWF. From the minute Shawn addressed their host as "Beefcake", you could tell that the heel turn was coming, but it still delivered in a shocking way that remains so even after all the weapons stuff we saw during the Attitude Era. I seemed to remember Shawn kicking Marty through the window, but throwing him through it bodily seems so much more violent. Kudos to Marty for the grisly blade job as well, and I'm surprised it didn't have an red X attached like Savage's did after the cobra bite. Shawn ripping the magazine and only holding up his half to the camera drives the point home one last time. The only thing that might have made this a bit better is if there was just a bit more mystery as to who was turning. Marty's actions, particularly in the Flair clip, could be interpreted as heel-like just as much as Shawn's. The problem was, Marty wasn't nearly the talker Shawn turned out to be; he talked too fast and tended to use clichés. Then again, so did Shawn until this very interview. The Rockers were just as good a talking tag team as most of their type were, which is to say not very. Even Ricky Morton, who was above average, was pretty much canceled out by the marblemouth who was Robert Gibson. Gino and Heenan did an excellent job not telegraphing the whole business either before or during, which only added to the surprise. Bobby was on fire after, claiming that Marty jumped through the window trying to escape and that he knew Shawn was going to turn all along, when not thirty seconds before he was saying stuff like, "They need each other" and "They're no good without each other". He continues to impress me as a color man as well as a comedian, and I wonder why WCW was so stupid as to let him slide downhill once he went there. Thank heaven we have two more years of first-rate Heenan to go through before the decline begins. I wonder why this was done on Challenge instead of Superstars. I'm thinking that Vince wanted blood to seal the breakup, so he had it done on Challenge so Beefcake''s window could be used. Also, the cobra bite and subsequent blade job had only happened about six weeks before on Superstars, so maybe Vince thought it was best not to use blood on that show again quite so soon.
  2. garretta
    There was no mention of how Hogan had won the last two Rumbles, which was strange. The nods to history were nice, and like a few others have said, quite unexpected in the context of 1992 WWF. I didn't like the shot at Tunney, nor did I like the fact that out of the three people Hogan called out, two (Savage and Sid) were faces. One would have been sufficient to get over the "every man for himself" bit. The fact that Flair wasn't one of the people called out signified just how done Hogan (and Vince) were with him already, at least as far as being "The Man" was concerned. MSG three weeks ago killed almost all desire I have to see Flair touch Hogan ever again, and, quite frankly, it's diluted Flair's Rumble performance for me as well, mostly because I'm almost sure Flair would never have even sniffed the belt if Hogan hadn't been scheduled to go away after Mania and Vince hadn't needed a transitional heel champ for Savage to beat. On a much more somber note, Mean Gene's liver disease is beginning to be noticeable here. He's not as drawn as he'd be later on in WCW, but he's doesn't quite have the (relatively) youthful appearance he's had since his AWA days. I wouldn't be surprised if his sickness was as much of a factor in the downfall of his work as the cheesier atmosphere of Attitude Era-WCW.
  3. garretta
    You know something's up when they don't have video footage of a title change. They did tell a neat little cover story, though. I don't know of too many guys who actually wrestled with a 104-degree fever, but it's the sort of thing a babyface is supposed to do, even if it sounds stupid. It's nice to know the backstory behind all of it, and I like that it's Piper getting the title shot, since he's never held a belt in the WWF before. His promo was full of inventive ways to rub the word "kilt" in Jacques' face, and stands as proof that he still had the verbal goods when he chose to bring them, which unfortunately wasn't very often by now. Why was Jimmy even with Jacques? If the man whose function is being a mouthpiece isn't going to talk, his name better be Arnold Skaaland or he's a waste of time and money. (A few words of introduction don't count.) Jacques himself has completely dropped the ball promowise since the Mountie character was introduced; his brand of screaming psychopath is distinguished from all the others in the WWF only by his accent. I much prefer the goofy, sleazy Jacques from the days of the Rougeaus' heel run. With all of the controversy surrounding Bret here, it's hard to believe that he'll be WWF champion in just a little under nine months, and that he'll beat Flair for the title to boot. How quickly wrestling changes!
  4. garretta
    Nice little segment here, though not having Luger as an active part of it certainly hurts. The promo he cuts is rather generic; even though they're best friends outside the ring, surely Luger could have had some sharp words for Sting here. Sting certainly has some for Luger, as he wishes that he could grab him off the street and drag him into the ring right then. You'd think they'd have paid Luger extra to show up for this in person, but at this point that would be like giving Vince and the WBF free publicity, even if Luger going there hadn't been formally announced yet. Jesse gets a pretty good ovation here. The high-fiving with Sting didn't bother me; he's always liked certain babyfaces, and it would figure that he'd like a bleached-blonde surfer dude from California. Plus, maybe they were still trying to figure out just how heelish he would be on commentary for a one-time guest appearance, especially since JR doesn't work well with heel partners not named Cornette. Frey's a decent promo for a suit It'll be interesting to see just how much we hear from him on-camera during his tenure. He's better than Herd, and he's certainly better than Jack Tunney. He's got a ways to go to get to Eddie Marlin, but Eddie's a former wrestler who used to cut promos for a living, so being second best to him after one appearance isn't a bad place to be. No voiceover comments from JR. We usually get some stuff from him while wrestlers or matchmakers are heading to the interview area. Was he just out on a break, or could he have been protesting Jesse's presence already?
  5. garretta
    I'll make a deal with you, Michael: I'll tell you my excuse for anything you like if you'll tell me yours for writing this song. From the ass-kickers of "Freebird" and "Badstreet U.S.A." to the midcard clown act epitomized by this......whatever. Unbelievable. This isn't quite as embarrassing as Dok Hendrix for Hayes, but it's awfully close. Of course, WCW made things a thousand times worse with their inexcusable technical screwup, but where was Hayes saying, "Look, you dim bulbs, we can't hear the stupid song! How can we lip sync to it if we can't hear it?"
  6. garretta
    This is Paul's best promo since he returned to managing. Serious, calm, and oh so deadly. You know that he, Rude, and the rest of the DA aren't kidding around now, if they ever were to begin with. We didn't even really need Rude here, although he does an excellent job putting over both his current feud (Sting) and the one that's just now heating up (Steamer). I would think that most of the fans who cared to know about Magnum and his accident did, so using him this way wasn't too obscure for them. I don't recall Magnum becoming involved in this angle, but I wasn't following WCW very closely at the time.
  7. garretta
    This didn't do much for me. The first two falls were too quick, and if it hadn't been for Perro being busted open I feel like I could have skipped them and not missed a thing. The third fall was worked at half speed, which I guess was the way to go considering that one guy couldn't wrestle and the other was selling blood loss, but it still bored me. The two brief cameos by Jake interested me more than anything either wrestler did for the whole thirty minutes. I appreciate the irony of the third fall finish, but that's about all. To top it off, we miss the actual unmasking entirely. Come to think of it, I also liked the heels beating up the ref that was supposedly in their back pocket. Other than that, I could have lived quite well without ever seeing this, which I seem to be saying or thinking about almost every non-American match lately. I enjoyed the subtle product placement for Corona; could you imagine ads like that for Skittles or Nestle Crunch during WWF broadcasts in the eighties?
  8. garretta
    I wouldn't have been one of the people throwing money here. The Youtube description of the match called this a four-way match, and I think I would have liked it better if it had been. As a straight tag, this was subpar; there was no continuity between the teams whatsoever, and only a token few doubleteam spots (one of which, the double dropkick from the top by Jericho and Dragon, was my favorite spot of the match). I can't blame it on the style either, because I've seen plenty of lucha tags with more teamwork than this. More importantly, this bout only reaches second gear a handful of times. Dragon and Dandy do a hot nearfall sequence at the beginning of the third fall, and that's the match's high point. The rest of the time this is nothing more than an exhibition of nice mat wrestling that would have been just as effective as a collection of singles matches. Add that to the ridiculous way falls are done (do all falls have to be sweeps?) and while I can't say that the match was a snoozer, I can say that it was a disappointment, especially since I've seen much better performances from all four guys.
  9. garretta
    This seemed like the blowoff to some sort of hot feud, but not being familiar with '92 joshi, I couldn't even begin to guess what it was, so it just seemed like endless chaos to me. Maybe watching the '92 Yearbook will help. It seemed like there were about a million pin saves in this one, which I didn't like. Here in North America, we're conditioned to only one or two a match, which makes each one mean more. Not a criticism (since I really have no idea what I'm talking about), just an observation.
  10. garretta
    This one was a bit sloppy in the first two falls, but cleaned up its act in the third. But even when the execution was sloppy, these four gave off the vibe of going all-out to win, so the sloppiness was forgivable. It had a bit of everything, from shoot-style exchanges to a chair-throwing melee, so everyone should like at least part of it. I wish I could say more, but I've seen so little of these workers that the spots they performed make more of an impression than they do themselves. Still, if you like joshi, you should definitely check this one out.
  11. garretta
    This was a great technical and high flying showcase, particularly for Panther, who when I've seen him has always been a cheating rudo. Here he ditches the rulebreaking and attempts to go move for move with Ultimo, but still comes up just short at the end. I liked the quick thinking by Ultimo that won him the third fall. The German suplex has been used so often by both guys that he knows Panther will be ready for it, so he turns the bridge into a cradle that Panther can't possibly escape. Judging by the length of the intros here, this was either the opener or possibly the second match. If either of these are true, the rest of the card had a hell of a lot to live up to. I wasn't exactly a huge Nitro-era WCW fan, so I honestly don't know this: Did Ultimo use mist as part of his ring entrance there like he did here? It seems odd that a Japanese babyface would use mist, but given the company's backward attitude toward the Japanese, I wouldn't say it's impossible. (To be honest, I was kind of surprised to see it in this match as well.)
  12. garretta
    The in-ring action here was very hard-hitting, especially for syndicated TV, but what struck me here was the NWO-like vibe surrounding the DA. They're really being presented here as a force that could wreck the whole of WCW, which ties in with the original point of the angle- Heyman wanting a seat on the Board of Directors- very nicely. I'd even go so far as to say that they're portrayed as a more dangerous combined force than the Horsemen were. The Horsemen were presented as four guys out for personal glory who would hurt anything in their path; the DA is presented here as a group who doesn't care what happens to themselves as long as WCW is wrecked in the process. It's not a huge difference, but it's a marked one. I loved the partner sacrifice spots both teams did here, particularly Steamboat protecting Dustin after he was posted (which we didn't see). For all of their virtue, you very seldom see a member of a babyface team physically protecting their partner like that; most of the time, they're just content to whine to the referee, which invariably makes any bad situation worse. (We saw that here too, when Dustin had Arn down for what could have been a winning backslide if Simmons hadn't been jawing with Pee Wee Anderson). I would have appreciated some footage of last week's attack on Simmons which set this match up; I don't think it made the Yearbook. Heyman looked like a real crybaby on the phone with Medusa (by the way, that's a good way to explain her and Rude's absence from the postmatch beatdown). Then again, who expected anything else? And for those who say Paul took too much heat from the DA, remember that this angle was all about him (Heyman) from the start. It was his firing from the booth and his desire to pay WCW and Turner Broadcasting back for it that led to this version of the DA being formed. The wrestlers weren't irrelevant, certainly, but they were meant to play second fiddle to their manager at all times, much as the Heenan Family members were in the WWF. Tony even mentioned that what most fans would like to see is Heyman taking his own beating, which unfortunately would never happen (and didn't). Austin as a power wrestler? That's going to take some getting used to. Is JR the only one allowed to mention Beautiful Bobby's last name? Most guys who have a nickname get their full name mentioned as well, at least in WCW. I guess the lack of a last name was a holdoiver from the MX days, when Corny never mentioned anyone's last name (except his own, of course). I get the feeling that Rude was always supposed to be the protected one, the one who didn't come out unless 1) he was going to wrestle or 2) Sting was going to be the DA's latest victim of a beatdown. Nice way to protect both his own aura and that of the U.S. title. From what I can tell, the faces didn't win too many of these six-mans, so it's a good thing that we got to see this one!
  13. garretta
    Thanks, Andrew. That's the copy I thought I'd found, but somehow I lost it!
  14. garretta
    YouTube this, please!
  15. garretta
    Like so many standalone lucha bouts, it was tough for me to get into this. I could see that the match was being worked well, but I had no real emotional investment in it one way ord the other. On the Yearbooks, you at least see the matches in some sort of context, even if it's incomplete. This bout has two things you rarely, if ever, see here in the States: 1) All three falls in a best-of-three match end via submission and 2) The abdominal stretch actually causes Estrada to submit. I'm so used to most announcers here talking about how X wrestler would never submit to an abdominal stretch because Y wrestler has applied it so poorly. Estrada not only submitted to the hold once Lizmark applied it, but he did so pretty quickly. Who were the seconds for each man? I thought I heard something about a Brazo in Lizmark's corner, but the guy in the red mask looked nothing like one of them. I didn't recognize Estrada's second either.
  16. garretta
    Maybe I'm a bit too used to Aja and Bull for my own good, but I was a bit underwhelmed. Not that this was boring, exactly, but there weren't a whole lot of high impact moves. It was basically Toyota trying out all kinds of fancy submissions and cradle/bridge suplexes, none of which was enough to put Inoue down for the count. Inoue brought what little high-end offense there was; her near-chokeslam from the top produced the hottest nearfall I've seen in quite a while. But in the end, Toyota put her in one more suplex predicament than she could get out of. Not a bad match, but a lot more basic than the ones the Yearbook series tends to feature when it comes to joshi. I must admit that I love Toyota's rolling cradle. How she has the balance, strength, and stamina to keep that move up for as long as she does without passing out or causing her opponent to pass out I have no idea, but it looks spectacular.
  17. garretta
    This was a hell of a bloody brawl, and kudos to Fiera for taking all those bumps on the outside, including the insane toss over the chairs in the first fall that left him busted open for the rest of the night. Fiera looked so much like Jimmy Snuka with his match-ending leap off the top that it wasn't funny. Casas played an especially slimy rudo here, sticking his fingers in Fiera's nose and mouth on several occasions and taking great joy in opening up his cut. After seeing this performance. I'm surprised that he had a Flair-like following anywhere at any time. I'm not really familiar with hair match protocol in Mexico, so maybe someone can answer me this: Is it customary for a defeated wrestler to allow his opponent the first pass with the razor once the head shaving begins as a gesture of sportsmanship? I don't recall seeing anyone do it before Casas did it here, and considering the hell he and Fiera had just put each other through, the gesture surprised me to say the least. I really liked this one; it fit the tradition of bloody, desperate lucha hair matches perfectly, yet still ended on a surprisingly sportsmanlike note. That combination equals a classic in my book.
  18. garretta
    What story there was revolved around Ozaki's injured lower back, and even that didn't last too long. This was basically a contest between Toyota and Ozaki to see who could execute the best cradles and moonsaults; once we got past the first few minutes that's all we seemed to see out of either one of them. What Ozaki was doing attempting so many moonsaults with a sore back escapes me. I know that AJW is a go-go-go at all times promotion, and JWP isn't that much slower, but it seems to me that there were other moves she could have used to show off her agility. This was watchable, but nothing earthshattering. How is it that Ozaki got twice as long of a postmatch interview as Toyota did, even though Toyota was the winner? I've never seen anything like that in wrestling or any other sport I've followed.
  19. garretta
    It certainly is, Who, as he wrestles the vast majority of it by himself after Misawa and Kobashi take out Taue. The two-on-one is becoming more and more prevalent in All-Japan tags, and I don't like it at all, especially when Taue's on his feet and almost ready to go. You'd think these guys would be doing whatever they can to get back into the match as soon as they were able, but they don't. Taue could have been back in the match at least two minutes sooner than he was. Worse yet, the payback spot on Kobashi where he gets laid out on the floor happens too late in the match to do any good, as Misawa's in cement mixer mode and goes through Fuchi with ease, while a miraculously semi-healed Kobashi holds off Taue, who gets some measure of revenge with a postmatch attack. The in-ring work was nice here, but the bad booking choices negate it. I'm not really looking forward to too many more All-Japan tags like this one, regardless of the greatness of the workers involved.
  20. garretta
    RVD is sort of the sacrificial lamb here, as Kawada stretch plums him to death twice, only to break it off to take care of Hansen, then powerbombs him for the pin. The version I saw on YouTube was clipped down to the last twelve minutes, so I didn't see much of the teasing Who spoke of. RVD doesn't seem too far out of place here, though he's obviously green, and Hansen is Hansen, even though Kawada takes care of him much more convincingly than I've seen Stan taken care of in a long time; he ends the match flat on his face on the floor. This one was interesting because of the Hansen/RVD pairing, but otherwise unremarkable.
  21. garretta
    I was like you, Who. Fuchi had to have dropped Kikuchi on the back of his head at least ten or twelve times in the span of five minutes, and while I'd forgotten about Misawa and how he was killed, I wonder if Kikuchi wasn't eventually knocked out legitimately, and also if the finish was planned the way it was or if, for the lack of a better term, Fuchi's needle got stuck. I'm not suggesting for a second that he was shooting, but sometimes in the heat of a moment guys get in a rut. Of course, if the finish was planned Fuchi seemed like the most despicable man on Earth for trying to splatter Kikuchi's brains all over the Pacific. Kikuchi looked good early with his fast start, and I thought that he'd finally get the dominant win I've been waiting for him to get since 1990. Unfortunately, the passage of fourteen months since the end of the '91 Yearbook doesn't seem to have changed his place in the pecking order much. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing his growth throughout 1992.
  22. garretta
    I certainly didn't expect the ending we got after Bolshoi spent the majority of the match destroying Mariko's leg, which was extremely well done. I also liked Mariko's work on Bolshoi's back, which was never quite forgotten. But the ending made sense in that Mariko's own leg was too damaged to properly apply submissions from a standing position, so she grabbed the closest thing handy which she could attack on the mat, which was Bolshoi's leg. One other thing I liked about this bout was that there was very little stuff that didn't belong. We got a couple of suplexes and moonsaults toward the end and a high-impact move here and there, but other than that, this match was all submission holds, which seems like an obvious way to work a match like this but isn't done very often at all. Most of the time here in the States, the wrestlers have to go for pins five or six times each until the marks finally understand that they don't count, which renders the whole concept of a submission match moot. Here, not a single pinfall was even teased let alone attempted, which warmed my heart. I'll definitely keep my wye out for these two ladies (neither of whom I'd ever seen before) in the future.
  23. garretta
    YouTube this, please!
  24. garretta
    YouTube this, please!
  25. garretta
    Re-YouTube this, please!
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