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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    The postmatch was so powerful that it made the match itself completely irrelevant, so it's hard to remember that Randy actually beat Jake clean here. I don't know if there could have been any other ending possible under the circumstances, especially with what was to come. Jake did work on the bitten arm and did so quite impressively, and Savage sold it just as impressively. I was afraid that they would both forget about it as far as working the match went. Did Jake legit crack a rib when Randy blocked the DDT the first time, or was he just playing possum? If he was selling it was a great job, because he did it right up until Liz hit the ring. I love how Randy's determination to kill Jake led to the whole postmatch mess. He was right to blame himself; if he'd just taken the three-count and run, none of what happened afterward would have happened. With all of the DDTs Jake was giving to Randy, surely he had a spare in his back pocket for Earl Hebner. I didn't need to hear Earl's constant yelling and screaming; it did nothing to advance the angle and was a pain in the ass to boot. Getting back to the match for just a second, this is one of the few times that Heenan simply wasn't funny. The jokes were his standard stuff, but they just didn't belong in a match like this with all of its overtones. He was a lot better once he started selling fear of the (nonexistent) cobra in the bag. Gino was passable, but if almost killing Randy with the cobra didn't get Jake suspended for life, why should he be suspended for striking Liz? Shouldn't Tunney then go back and suspend every wrestler who's slapped Sherri around? Calling it despicable and saying that Randy would be out to end Jake's career the next time they met would have more than sufficed. I could have done without him trying to browbeat Bobby into agreeing with him, foo. The fantasy booker in me is still trying to figure out how to improve on Liz's part of the postmatch, but there's not much else they could have done. If Jake was supposed to have a cobra in the bag, she couldn't very well have slapped him, because if he'd dropped the bag both she and Randy would have had it. She was in good shape by all reports, but unless Jake worked with her for weeks beforehand she couldn't have taken the DDT or the short clothesline, even if Randy had agreed to let her (which he almost certainly wouldn't have, and who could have blamed him?). Maybe she could have come in swinging a chair, but she'd never done it before, and a mistake would have made her look foolish. By the way, you can clearly see that Liz still didn't have a mark on her after Jake "slapped" her, no matter what Gino said. Also, I would have thought Liz would have sold it a little by shaking her head or acting dazed, but she didn't. Maybe she forgot to in all the excitement. Nice save by Jack Tunney, perhaps the first of his presidential career. But Jake upstages him by shouting to the camera the punchline to this whole mess: there was never a cobra in the bag. Unfortunately, no one bothered to register this: not Tunney, not Gino, and not Heenan. To paraphrase a timeless philosophical question: if an angle happens in wrestling and everyone ignores the payoff, does it still make money? Jake laps Randy on the mic so badly here it's criminal. Randy's back in full Macho Madness mode for his prematch promo, and (impossible as it may be to believe) oversells his anger afterward. Laying down on the floor and damn near getting into the fetal position? Come on, Mach. Even for what Jake did, that's going too far. Actually, they shouldn't have even had a postmatch interview with Randy; he should have been incommunicado in the back making sure that Liz was all right and selling his own neck and arm injuries. As I said, Jake was better than ever on the mic, but between the slap and his postmatch interview where he begged Randy to bring Liz back so he could hit her again, and maybe even somehow turn her into something he may want, I can see why Liz's family demanded that Randy end the angle. I know that wrestling's a work, but if I had a sister like Liz I wouldn't want someone as crazy as Jake's supposed to be telling the world that he's going to try to make my sister as evil and sick as he is. My favorite part, though, was when he hugged Mean Gene gleefully and told Gene to congratulate him. More than anything else, that gesture reaffirmed that in his own mind, Jake hadn't done a blessed thing wrong since SummerSlam. Unbelievable stuff. Pete brought this up in the Hogan/Taker match thread, but I think the reason we didn't hear from Hogan about what happened was that his interview was taped before the card, and he wasn't supposed to "know" about it yet. Then again, with Taker turning face soon and Hogan wanting a win to go out on, what would have been the point of interjecting him into this feud on top of the ones he already had? Taker and Jake were fighting each other at Mania, so who was left for Hogan to get vengeance on for Savage, even if he'd wanted to? I haven't seen Kevin Sullivan's legendary Satanic run in Florida, but there's no way in hell (no pun intended) that it's any creepier than what Jake's doing now, It's just plain impossible. And on that note, so ends the 1991 Yearbook for me. See you in '92, everyone!
  2. garretta
    This was a lot more action-packed than a lot of trios bouts I've seen, and the teamwork was excellent on both sides, with great double and triple-team spots throughout. Dandy and Satanico were the stars, and their rivalry picked up right where it left off last year. There was too much chaos to accurately analyze most of what went on, but I loved Pirata's flying bump into the steel post during the third fall; it's something I would have expected out of Mick Foley, not a Mexican luchadore. The DQ finish to the third fall was an excellent way to set up another Dandy/Satanico hair match, and the irony of it probably wasn't lost on the viewers; it was a low blow that Satanico didn't throw which led to him being disqualified in the third fall of the first hair match, which meant that his head was the one shaved. This one, which he did throw, will either directly or indirectly lead to a second hair match almost a year later where it could happen again. If more trios bouts were like this one, I'd be a whole lot more comfortable with the style. Good work by one and all!
  3. garretta
    This was a pretty hard-hitting match for TV, especially syndicated TV. In fact, this almost felt like a Clash match, with the amount of time spent by each man trying to disable each other's limbs, which both men executed flawlessly. There wasn't much out-and-out contempt or hatred expressed once the intros were done, but that really wouldn't have fit Arn's more cerebral character in particular. JR did the best he could to put over the former partnership, but because he was prohibited from using the words "Four Horsemen", he had a bit of a tough time. In fact, Arn's prematch trashtalking session with Barry probably set things up more concisely in that regard. This is the first show since Havoc, so they're trying to set up different programs for both Barry (a singles feud with Abby) and the Enforcers (a feud with the returning Steiners). A couple of questions: How did we get from the Steiners as the Enforcers' next challengers to Larry Z slamming the car door on Barry's hand? Was Luger that bereft of credible challengers that Dusty decided Rick was the only person in the company who could possibly draw money with him? And could Barry have originally been the one to electrocute and brawl with Abby in the Chamber of Horrors instead of Cactus? Why else would he have been put on the heel side in the match when he'd been allied with Simmons since right after the Bash? Good to hear JR calling Arn out for going to the top on his injured leg. Play-by-play men didn't usually bother getting so deeply into strategy by now, preferring (or being forced to) shill everything under the sun instead. Same thing with telling us about how Barry's offense actually affected Arn's leg. I'd have loved to hear a similar dissertation concerning Arn's work on Barry's arm and shoulder, but we only had seventeen minutes. In a similar vein, was Arn using his bad knee to get Barry in the gut a planned spot or not? Either way, Arn sold the potential damage brilliantly. Since this match was taped before Havoc, Simmons involves himself, and JR covered for it by musing about how fun it would be if Simmons and Windham teamed to go after the Enforcers. Of course, Havoc had just established Barry and Dustin as the top contenders due to the car door attack on Barry's hand. Had Barry hurt his hand yet when this match was taped? It just seems so weird that we started out with (presumably) Simmons and Windham as the top contenders for the tag belts and ended up with Dustin and Steamboat taking them. Finally, you would think that Larry would be somewhere lurking around, but for whatever reason he wasn't. Then again, the restart segment which led to Arn being pinned wouldn't have worked so well with him out there, because why would a motormouth like him not protest a restart in order tom distract the ref from counting Arn's shoulders down? I'd be kind of curious to hear how Tony commentated this one for Chicago Pro myself.
  4. garretta
    l liked this one a good bit. Muto and Chono are developing into a great team, and they certainly had the advantage in continuity and crispness. Hash and Norton tried to compensate for this with size and strength, and it worked for quite a while. Norton has been a revelation in both the Steiner tag and this one; it's little wonder that he basically homesteaded in Japan, because he found his niche there in a way he probably couldn't have here in the States, mixing his power moves with just enough skill to stay credible. In the end, it's Muto and Chono's ring smarts that prevail, as Hash thinks he's scouted Muto's moonsault and tries to stop it, only to be suplexed off the second rope by Hase. Muto then scampers up top and nails the moonsault anyway for the big win. The fans really seemed to be into Muto more than usual here; could that be one of the reasons why WCW chose him to team with Sting against the Steiners the following month in the Tokyo Dome? You would think that if NJPW had had its druthers, they would have wanted the Steiners to challenge Muto (without the paint) and Hase for the IWGP belts, since that match had never happened, at least on a stage like the Dome.
  5. garretta
    Okay, I found this buried on Youtube in a playlist. Just type in the four wrestlers' names and the date and look around until you find it. This was a bit of a novelty, as Misawa sends his number two and number three after Jumbo and Taue. The first half of this is actually worked like Jumbo and Taue are faces, as Kawada and Kobashi do a wonderful job controlling Taue and working on his neck. The second half is worked like a more traditional tag between the two sides, with Jumbo and company dishing out the punishment, particularly on Kobashi who ends up eating the fall. I particularly like Taue's use of the top rope for clotheslines, almost like it's a regular part of his offensive repertoire. The spot where Kawada has Jumbo wrapped up in the bodyscissors sleeper on the inside while Kobashi is slowly putting Taue out the oid-fashioned way on the floor is another favorite of mine, and Taue's shocking return to break up the sleeper on Jumbo signals the beginning of the end for Kawada and Kobashi. They must have had a lot planned for Kenta, because it takes two powerbombs from Jumbo to put him down for the count. I don't exactly consider this one a "must see before you die", but it's a nicely done break from the same old same old in All-Japan.
  6. garretta
    YouTube or Dailymotion only, please. It's not worth crashing my computer for one match. I should have specified that in my earlier post.
  7. garretta
    I'm not the biggest trios fan going, but I'll admit that this looked like a very well-worked match that relied much more on mat wrestling and basic submissions than most matches in this style, which made it easier to follow. My problem with this had nothing to do with the work; I could barely tell the difference between Satanico and MS-1, and I had a little trouble telling El Brazo and Brazo de Oro apart as well. You'd think I'd be able to tell who I was looking at after watching so many trios matches over the last two Yearbooks, but such isn't the case. It wasn't until just the other day that I found out Super Porky and Brazo de Plata were one and the same! For whatever reason, I'm still having trouble grasping the trios style even after the 80s lucha set plus these two Yearbooks. Is there any hope for me as a "smart" fan at all?
  8. garretta
    Could someone post a video link? It was on YouTube when I looked it up a few months ago, but if it still is I can't find it.
  9. garretta
    I'm not sure if this is the greatest American tag ever, but it's in the top ten. Most of the really good comments have already been posted, and I agree with just about all of them. After this match, how can Dusty justify breaking up the Enforcers? Not that Bobby Eaton isn't a superb tag wrestler, but Arn and Larry are magical together. It's their performance that makes this match what it is: the opening moments, when they act for all the world like they're going to walk out because Steamboat's presence so completely unnerves them, to Arn's masterful stall on the outside (which ended with "He's just a man"), to their excellent strategy in choosing Steamer to doubleteam in order to frustrate Dustin into constantly interfering and distracting Nick Patrick (more about that in a second), it just may the best tag performance I've ever seen from Arn, and that includes his teams with both Ole and Tully. You'd think that Dusty would want to keep a team that works that well together, especially since they'll be adding Heyman soon as icing on the cake. Instead, Arn gets Eaton as a partner (they won the belts too, so it's not a waste, but Bobby just doesn't seem like he'd fit with Arn the way Larry does), and more importantly, The Cruncher's sent out on his own to no good end. It just seems like a waste of a perfectly wonderful team. About Dustin: Yes, isolating and doubleteaming Steamer was great heel strategy well executed, but since JR and Tony (rightfully) brought up Dustin's emotional reaction to it, the mark in me is left to wonder why Dusty didn't train him not to fall for such an obvious ploy, especially from a guy whom Dusty himself had fought so many, many times. That's a jarring flaw in most tag matches, by the way, and one that should have been eliminated by this point. A face getting overly emotional once or twice in a match over a particularly blatant bit of cheating is one thing; constant run-ins and referee distraction spots don't do anything but make the "Robert Gibson", if you will, of the match look like a selfish idiot for putting his partner in constant danger. Quite frankly, I'm surprised a situation like this wasn't used in a heel turn at some point: have the FIP lose the fall clean instead of getting the hot tag, then berate and attack his partner for allowing it to happen through his own sniveling and complaining. Dustin was close to crossing that line here, although Steamer turning heel would have served no purpose whatsoever after the huge pop he got when he was revealed. The handling of the reveal was tremendous. I liked Tony speculating that it could be a Japanese wrestler (although the dragon's head was about as big a giveaway as there could possibly have been in retrospect), and JR and Tony popped as much as the crowd did when Steamer finally showed his face. Arn in particular sold Ricky's presence like death: "OH NO! NOT RICKY STEAMBOAT!" You would have thought it was Andre in his seventies prime instead. Excellent commentary from JR and Tony. There were no memorable one-liners, but this match didn't need them; the straight-ahead sports commentary we got here was perfect. I loved Tony's history lesson about Steamboat and the tag team title, though I doubt most of the younger viewers either knew or cared about Jay Youngblood and Paul Jones. One minor nitpick: They probably shouldn't have a had a name graphic for Steamboat. How is it that the broadcasters and ring announcer have no idea that he's under that head, yet the graphics person knows enough to have his name in the Chyron within a few seconds? Is he a relative of one of the faces whom they let in on the secret? That's what I would be wondering if such a thing had caught my attention back in the day. Image of the match: Windham lifting Steamer high in the air after he's revealed to the audience. Normally, you see that kind of stuff after a bout, but the crowd was so hot that they needed to share that moment with their returning hero.
  10. garretta
    This wasn't quite on the level of last year's match in the Tag League, but it was still good. I thought Stan and Doc made excellent FIPs, and the work on Doc's back by Stan 'n' Dan was superb. I loved how Doc could barely get Spivey over for the powerslam right after, and then was unable to cover for even a one-count. Considering who we're talking about, that was a fine piece of selling. We had the old temporary two-on-one routine again, this time with Doc out on the floor, and I really hope we've seen the last of that spot for quite a while. Doc's attack on Stan's lariat arm was another brilliant piece of business, but unfortunately we don't get to see if Stan sold the attack or not, as we don't have any more MVC matches from the tournament. Doc certainly doesn't sell a back injury in his and Bamm Bamm's match two days later against Misawa and Kawada. I don't know what was up with that botched spike piledriver from Hansen and Spivey. It's almost like they got their signals crossed and couldn't straighten them out for love nor money. Fortunately, one blown spot doesn't ruin this otherwise solid bout. I know that Watts brought Doc and Bamm Bamm to WCW mostly because Doc was his protégé, but he wouldn't have gone too far wrong bringing in Hansen and Spivey either. I could imagine them having great matches with the Steiners just like the MVC supposedly did.
  11. garretta
    I don't get it; if this was 80% of the other wrestlers in the world, a lot of people would be applauding how well the opposing team worked over Kawada's knee, how it showed psychology and dedication to working a body part the way it ought to be worked, But since it's Doc and Bamm Bamm, it's boring? I know we'd all rather see them use their fists, forearms, and feet to mulchify everything in sight, but give them credit for at least trying to work a bit like the natives. At any rate, I liked how Misawa and Kawada never backed down from the big bad gaijin and were able to outsmart them on several occasions. The spot where Kawada anticipated Doc's tackle and caught him full on with a dropkick in the face is in my top five spots for the year, and I liked how Doc was taken out of action right after Misawa was so that Kawada didn't have to go two-on-one with Doc and Gordy, which couldn't possibly have ended well. As it was, the short time Kawada was subjected to their tender mercies by himself probably ended up costing him and Misawa the match. I'm not sure I like the idea of Misawa constantly having to miss major time in big tag matches because he's hurt on the floor. Once in a while it adds to the drama; too often and it's a booking crutch and a turnoff. because how can anyone reasonably expect his team to win when they're one man short? And if they do win, it makes the opponents look weak for having the man advantage and not being able to capitalize on it. This is the second or third time in the past month that I've seen Misawa taken out, and it's already getting old, at least for me.
  12. garretta
    I was afraid that I would neither like nor understand one second of this before I sat down to watch it, and so it happened. I kept going hoping it would morph into a WCWSN squash match or a Piper's Pit circa 1985, but no such luck. The blood, the drama, the mask ripping, none of it registered. Never having been a fan of the Thundercats or of any of the characters on the Fantasia side didn't help much either. Nor did the fact that I'm not the biggest trios fan in the world, and that I still struggle to understand a lot of stuff that isn't U.S. based with English commentary, even though I've watched a lot of Japanese, Mexican, and European matches on the 80s sets and Yearbooks. That's why I have so little to say about foreign matches compared to American matches and interviews. At any rate, I'm sure this was fun for those of you with more cosmopolitan tastes in wrestling than mine.
  13. garretta
    This match was all about desperation: Jungle Jack's desperation to win it before they completely ran out of gas, and Kyoko and Yamada's desperation to get the fall on Bison before Aja made her presence felt. This makes it all the sweeter that it's Aja whom they beat to win the tournament. The action was so fast at times that I had trouble remembering who was supposed to be in the ring on each side, but I actually liked both the quick pace and the fact that Jungle Jack wasn't shown as being tired until the very end. I probably could have done without the weapons section un the middle and the brawling all over the arena, but as I've said before, the crowds have come to expect it in Aja matches by now, to the point where they'd probably be upset if there wasn't one. Besides, she looks like such a monster swinging that trashcan! I liked Kyoko and Yamada crying in the middle of the ring after the win; it helped to get over exactly how big an accomplishment beating even a weakened Jungle Jack was, especially in such a prestigious setting. Where was Bison at the finish? I seem to recall her getting knocked out to the floor, but she was nowhere to be found even after the pin, when the officials were attending to Aja in the ring. You'd think she'd have come back in for that at least.
  14. garretta
    This one was a lot more of a wrestling match than I thought it would be, considering who was involved. There was one sequence in the middle where everyone went crazy with weapons (I think the fans expected it and would have been disappointed if they hadn't gotten it), but otherwise this was worked stiff but straight. Bull and Aja took a lot more than they have in their singles bouts with each other, and although it shouldn't have surprised me that they were just as good without weapons as they were with them, it did. In the end, the most vulnerable person in the ring lost the fall, as Akira took a backdrop from the top to go with the moonsault she'd wiped herself out on a few moments before. I'll be interested in seeing what Jungle Jack has left for the tournament final both physically and emotionally, especially since they're not going back to the dressing room between bouts while the other team is relatively fresh, not having spent the last twenty-five minutes being beaten to a pulp by Bull Nakano. My guess is that it can't be much, but Aja and Bison aren't the type to back down from a challenge either. Batten down the hatches, folks!
  15. garretta
    These two couldn't top last year's match in terms of violence, so they didn't try. Instead, they wrestled a meat-and-potatoes match that was every bit as compelling in its own way. Satanico knows what it could mean if he loses his head like he did last year, and Dandy knows that Satanico won't allow himself to be played with, so they just decide to wrestle. The first fall was too fast, and midway through the second fall this was looking like a Dandy squash. But Satanico takes advantage of Dandy talking to the official to turn the tide, and from there he gets a rather easy win to even things up. The third fall was a tremendous back-and-forth match with a legitimately shocking ending considering the wrestlers involved. I don't think too many people anticipated Satanico getting a perfectly clean pin off of a Dandy figure four attempt, least of all Dandy. But he takes his head-shaving like a man, and we're left to wonder if there will ever be a rubber hair match, I know I would pay to see it! I agree with those who say that the referee was too involved in the first two falls, but he got out of the way for the third fall, which was good to see, especially considering how little rulebreaking there was in that fall compared to the other two.
  16. garretta
    This was a wild one, to say the least. I wasn't aware that these two had a history that would lead to a match worked this way, so it was a bit of a surprise to me. Fuerza made this bout with a first-rate rudo performance. There were too many great spots to list them all, but my favorites were tying Octagon's mask to the top rope and arguing with a ringside patron about ramming Octagon's head into the patron's empty seat while standing on Octagon's neck. He wasn't all heel spots, though; the guy showed solid wrestling skills even as he was hamming it up, plus he really took it to Octagon in the brawling sequences and took as good as he'd given when the time came. He's definitely one of those underrated workers whom the 80s Project and the Yearbooks raise the awareness of so brilliantly. I forgot to say that Fuerza's tactics are so blatant that even the rudo-leaning referee had had enough of him by the early part of the second fall and called the match more fairly from then on. A performance dastardly enough to reform a referee; who'da thunk it? Octagon kept up as well as could be expected, showing fire and breaking the rules when necessary but also outwrestling Fuerza when the chips were down. I loved the ways he won his two falls: a spinning belly-to-belly to take the first and the armdrag off the top rope followed by a short arm scissors to win it all. I'd never seen either of thse finishes before, and they looked fantastic. I've taken so much time to go through this Yearbook that I don't remember all of the candidates for Lucha Match of the Year, but I would definitely put this match in my top two or three.
  17. garretta
    I'm not sure what all the complaints are about, because I liked this one just fine. It was end to end action, with plenty of great submission work in the first half and lots of innovative doubleteams in the second. Things went back and forth from minute to minute, not in a your turn/my turn sense but in the "match could go either way at any time" sense. It's true that a few of the moves weren't exactly crisp, and things tended to get sloppier as the wrestlers got more tired. But the lightning-fast pace and their willingness to try things that we've seldom seen (especially in women's wrestling) more than make up for that in my eyes. This may not be a first-tier joshi match for '91, but by my reckoning it's got a firm spot at the top of the second tier.
  18. garretta
    I liked what we saw of this one; the problem is, we didn't see enough of it. Not only was this heavily clipped, but the camera angles in what was left weren't any too swift, either. Fuerza and Shadow looked really good in the tag portion, and while I don't believe that Shadow intentionally got himself disqualified just so he could have a chance to unmask Santito, he certainly wasn't going to pass up the chance when it was dumped in his lap. He and Santito put on a really good second half, which was again marred by a combination of awful camera work and bad editing decisions. I agree with almost everyone else that the visual of Santito bleeding through his mask is always striking, and even though I couldn't hear it, I'm sure the arena exploded when he got the three count. Like Zenjo, I wish that the whole match was available; if what was shown was that good, I can only imagine how good the complete bout is.
  19. garretta
    I must be in some kind of weird mood, because this is another match I didn't care for. As is the case so often, Pete said it before I could: Taker wasn't a main event-style wrestler yet. He showed that he could be in later years, but even though the gimmick and the character are close to pitch-perfect, the wrestling is still at jobber level. I don't give a damn how some people justify (or don't justify) it, that amount of choking is wrong. Of course, Andre got away with it too when that's all he could do, so there's precedent for it. But more than how the rules are or aren't enforced, this shows that Taker not only has no business being champion under the circumstances in which he got the title, but under any circumstances whatsoever, at least at this point. So why was he chosen? I'd rather have had the lousy Repo Man pull the upset than this guy; I'm sure they could have found some way to link him and Flair. Or maybe give Teddy a short run at long last; six days is better than nothing, and there aren't any two more natural allies that I can think of among WWF heels (except maybe Jake and Taker) than Flair and Teddy. Taker wouldn't even sniff the belt for another six years at least after this, so why did he need it now? Did Vince really not want a World champion under three hundred pounds or without bulging muscles? If that's the case, why did he turn around and give it to Flair at the Rumble when he could have put it back on Taker or a multitude of other guys? I never thought I'd see the day when Hogan had a broomstick match, but he sure did here. He somehow turned what could have been one of the most boring World title matches in history into a decent spectacle, if not a decent bout. Just like he did with Andre, he turned the selling of the choke/face claw into a work of art, and the camera work helped here as well, as you could literally see the life being choked out of Hulkamania. Heenan's unrestrained glee reinforced the point on commentary, as he was finally getting to see his longtime nemesis being put down for good, or so he thought. Taker was basically a three-move wrestler at this point: rope walk, flying clothesline, and tombstone. We saw the first two, which were well done. Where he excelled was in no-selling and playing undead; the only move Hogan made which knocked him down immediately was the big boot right near the end, other than that, he was on his feet at all times, which made Hogan's performance all the more compelling; You could see him thinking, again just like with Andre: "How the hell can I get this guy off his feet without getting myself arrested?" As for the finish, it was good because it was different, but that didn't mean it was good, period. Again, just like at Survivor Series, Hogan attacks Flair for no reason outside, so you could say that he brought his own problems on himself. If he doesn't knock down Flair, who in turn wipes out Tunney, he at the very least gets away with the ashes in the face bit, which he's done quite often before with other foreign objects. Instead, Tunney's revived by Flair at just the right time, which leads to the belt being held up.(although, as Tunney points out in the promo announcing his ruling, Joey Marella's decision isn't overturned). Gino was tolerable until the very end, when his cheering for Hogan even in the light of what had just gone down became too hard to take. Instead of putting over the weirdness of what we'd just seen, he insisted that even though Tunney had clearly seen what Hogan did, he still had no right to do anything whatsoever about it. Both he and Heenan stank at getting over the aftermath, mostly because Bobby was too busy worrying about Flair and gloating over Hogan's demise. He did at one point say that Marella should restart the match, but at no time is stripping Hogan of the belt even mentioned as a possibility, as it should have been. Maybe they were trying to make sure that Tunney's decision would come across as a complete shock when he announced it over the weekend.
  20. garretta
    This really didn't feel like much at all. It should have, but it didn't. I remember when the IC title was just as big a deal to the fans as the World title, even more so because you knew that Backlund/Hogan/Savage wasn't losing to just anyone. The IC title match was the best chance to see a title switch on any given night, and the announcers really hyped it up as a second main event on commentary. But this one could have been wrestled at any point in either man's WWF tenure- in fact, it was at least twice on television, including in April on SMNE- and not been much different. It wasn't worked with the urgency or intensity that a match to determine the number two wrestler in a promotion should be, although there were some nice spots here and there. Generally, it was just another twenty-minute workrate draw, the kind of match Vince liked to put on every so often throughout the Hulkamania era to prove that this really was a wrestling promotion and not the steroid circus his detractors liked to think it was. I could tell it wasn't going to be much special when Gino and Bobby spent the first six or seven minutes focusing on Sherri, and not in a professional context, either. Most of you know that I've come to expect and enjoy their byplay over the years, but they're usually able to at least mix it with some wrestling talk when the match is important enough. Here, it clearly wasn't, and they must have known it going in. The IC belt might as well have not even been on the line given how often it was mentioned, and at no time was a DiBiase nearfall punctuated with, "We could have a new champion here in Madison Square Garden!" Heenan tried some halfhearted strategy talk, but Gino wasn't interested except for a couple of times when he ripped each man for not attempting his finisher (which Teddy eventually did, but not Bret). Of course, there weren't nearly as many nearfalls as there should have been, either. Loss has it right; Bret and Teddy knew they were going twenty to fill time, so they went out and went through their spots competently, but with little sense of excitement or drama. Sherri outworked them both, and the spot where she rang the bell when Teddy had Bret in the Million Dollar Dream was an inspired idea that was wasted here, quite frankly. So, for that matter, was Bret's dive over the top onto Teddy toward the end. It absolutely had a place in a match between these two, but it should have come in one that was more heated and with a greater sense of something being at stake. Of course, we had the requisite hype for the Rumble, which I don't mind in and of itself but which has a tendency to overwhelm the action going on right in front of the viewer. Maybe it's the way Gino and Bobby phrase things, but there seemed to be a sense of, "This match might be nice, but it means nothing. The only stuff that really matters is coming January 19 on pay-per-view!" Way to treat your so-called mecca, Vince, and no wonder MSG Network dumped you. I'm sure the ratings were going downhill too, but networks like MSG Network are always looking for cheap programming, so they could have at least done a highlight show each month had they wanted to. But why waste airtime on a product that not even the man putting it on truly cares about? One last pet peeve: Title matches should always have a one-hour time limit at house shows, even if everyone knows they won't go that long. It sets them apart from the other preliminary and midcard matches. I can understand having special time limits for TV shows and pay-per-views that only have a limited amount of time on the air, but house shows could (theoretically, at least) go all night long by now; the 11PM State Athletic Commission curfew hadn't existed for years.
  21. garretta
    I guess I was watching something different, because Hogan looked way out of sorts to me here, which isn't surprising considering that he was doing as little as he could get away with in the WWF by now and knew he'd have to work a thousand percent harder here. To his credit, we see lots of holds we rarely see out of him in North America, and I'd have never thought him capable of executing the enzugiri not once, but twice. Still, unlike in the Hansen match, you get the feeling that Hogan knew he was outside of his comfort zone and didn't like it much. Tenryu gets way more than I thought he would, kicking out of the ax bomber once and the legdrop twice. in what may be my favorite spot from the last two Yearbooks, he even takes the ax bomber full force, but manages to get hold of Hogan's leg, take him down and apply a double toehold. Stuff like that never happened to Hogan in the WWF, and I don't think it ever happened in Japan before this either. Pete talking about how Hogan might have gotten the finish changed explains a lot; if Tenryu, the ace of SWS, was going to do the job for anyone, Hulk Hogan included, he was going to look like Superman doing so, especially since he was the one who was supposed to go over in the first place. It's interesting to consider what they would have done if Tenryu would have refused to change the finish. It's not like you can promise fans Hulk Hogan, even in 1991, and replace him with just any guy wearing trunks and boots, especially for an event that you're calling Superwrestle. I wonder if Earl Hebner worked any other matches on the card. I also wonder if Vince didn't insist on one of his own people as the referee so Tenryu wouldn't get any ideas about shooting on Hogan. For the record, I doubt very seriously that that thought entered Tenryu's mind. Then again, this is Vince we're talking about, and God only knows what enters his mind at times. I feel like I need to clarify something before someone else jumps on me, When I say that Hogan did as little as he could get away with in the WWF, I mean that he did the bare minimum for each opponent. Flair let himself be dominated, so Hogan did just that, but he needed to work harder against guys like Sarge, which he did as well. He almost never went out and wrestled a good match just because, though.
  22. garretta
    I'm glad most of you enjoyed this, because I sure didn't. The problem wasn't the match itself, but the finish and how it made Frank Morrell look. Let's put it thus way: when Dave Brown, of all people, publically buries your referee's decision, he's really been made to seem brainless. One of the kayfabe rules of refereeing is to be consistent in your enforcement. If you're going to call the match strictly by the book, do it for both guys. If you're going to let anything short of murder go, do that for both sides too. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by Friday and literally pushed around all over the studio by Kamala, then throw the match out when Lawler tries to defend himself with a fireball. The minute Morrell screamed at Lawler, "I'm not having it!" I said to myself, "Sure, Frank, at least not until this Monday night at the MSC." Think about it: How many times has Lawler thrown fire right in front of Morrell and the other Memphis refs with not a word said? But now, since Frank's put out about Kamala shoving him halfway to Arkansas, he's going to crack down and play Mr. Law and Order? I kept waiting for Lawler to bring up all the other fireballs he's thrown during his career with no consequences, but he didn't. Eddie was brilliant in saving the situation by all-but-officially reprimanding Morrell for not disqualifying Kamala right away after the first shove. Loss and Soup brought up Memphis's attention to detail, and it comes into play here, as Dave mentions that Kamala incurs a $1000 fine every time he touches Morrell. This hasn't been brought up often, but it's a nice way to remind the people that Kamala's actions aren't going altogether unpunished. Kamala may have looked better once or twice, but I can't remember when. Sure, Lawler's selling with everything in him to help out one of his own creations, but Kamala himself is more athletic physically and sharper mentally than he has been at any other time for any other promoter. As Pete said, he's a wrestler trying to win a match, not a trained animal sent by his handlers to sic somebody. About the only thing he didn't try was the splash off the top, but with the studio ring, that was probably just as well. I could be wrong, but I think the guy playing Friday was different than usual. He seemed a bit bigger, and he threw his strikes in a somewhat similar fashion to Kamala when he was attacking Lawler. The strike-throwing is easy to imitate, of course, but I wonder how many jobbers in Memphis at the time weighed around three hundred pounds. as this particular Friday seemed to.
  23. garretta
    I didn't like this one at all. First of all, as we've seen in their other matches on this Yearbook, both of these guys have so many other holds and moves they can use to win matches that asking them to wrestle a match such as this is like asking them to wrestle with both hands tied behind their backs and both feet tied to their asses. They each "forgot" the stip at least five times per fall, which led referee James Beard to go around constantly with his hands outstretched in the universal gesture for "What do you want from me?" If they actually did forget the stip and go for pinfalls, shame on them. If the booker told them to constantly go for pins in order to hit the crowd over the head with the idea that they didn't count, double shame on him for taking the crowd for a bunch of redneck peabrains. More important than that was a huge structural failure. In a match like this, it really makes no sense to go for any hold other than the one you're supposed to win with. Lynn should have been teasing the sleeper about once a minute, and the same goes for Waltman and the tombstone, especially since each of them had to win with their hold twice. In three falls, however, I counted exactly two teases, both by Lynn of the sleeper. I wouldn't have even minded Lynn kicking out of the tombstone at least once just to show that Waltman still had to pin him even after he piledrove him. It's a little tougher to do constant false finishes with the sleeper, but Waltman taking off for the ropes like a kicked dog once he felt it being applied would have sufficed nicely. To add to the insanity, the third fall only came about due to Waltman being knocked out by a chain shot from Raven, of all people. Outside interference in a match like this? Are you kidding? Maybe if this was a one-fall bout, or if Lynn hadn't put Waltman out with the sleeper twice before in other matches and you wanted to protect him as a challenger, but not after Lynn put him out clean as a sheet for the third time just minutes earlier. The horse isn't only out of the barn at that point, it's galloping down the street at a hundred miles an hour. Also, a sold boo to ESPN for clipping the second and third falls to what I have to assume was about the halfway mark. We missed one of those sleeper teases I talked about earlier, plus who knows what else that might have changed a lot of opinions on this match. Maybe if we had the whole thing bell to bell and the missing parts showed some decent psychology and struggle for the winning holds, I'd be more impressed with this match. As it is, it's definitely the least of all the Waltman-Lynn matches we have on this Yearbook. I like Bruce Prichard leaning ever so slightly heel on commentary; he isn't full-on Brother Love by any means (that might have gotten the GWF sued by Vince), but it's a subtle reminder of the most famous on-camera role he'll ever have in the sport. Craig was his usual damn good self, and both broadcasters outdid themselves trying to get the stips over, which wasn't easy when all three of the participants, including the referee, kept either forgetting or ignoring them (Beard made at least one one-count and was down in position for several others before he remembered the rules, and kept making the wrestlers break holds at the ropes although I'm pretty sure this was a no-DQ match because of the stips.)
  24. garretta
    I decided to watch this one a bit differently. Knowing that this was going to have fan commentary, I decided to put myself "live" at the Meadowlands right next to them and answer the question, "How would I have felt having to listen to their comments live while trying to enjoy the match?" The answer is, in one word, horrible. Don't get me wrong: I could still see Liger and Pillman busting their asses out there, particularly Liger, who has overcome Dusty's pathetic attempts to cast him as the sneaky coward Jap. He and Pillman went at it move for move and spot for spot, and if anyone in Atlanta had cared much about the junior division and truly promoted it, this could have been one of the most talked about feuds in WCW history. I'd had experience with what Childs calls "Jersey smark" commentary on the WarGames handheld from July, and it wasn't too bad. The people doing it that night decided to play it straight for the most part, and the jokes and insider references they made at least pertained to the match and the workers involved in it. That wasn't the case here. From what I could gather, the guy operating the camera was a Liger mark, hated Pillman, and wanted Liger to heel on Pillman. More than that, he wanted to see the Shooting Star Press, and called for it every chance he got. There were some "ooohs" for the high flying, but for the most part, he and his "color commentator" discussed an upcoming Tokyo Dome show, what I think was their friend's backyard fed, and Hulk Hogan, of all people. Any action on the floor was serenaded with a loud "Get back in the ring!", and he spent a lot of time complaining about possible non-finishes. He was definitely an Observer reader, as he brought up Meltzer and his star ratings from time to time. It seemed to me that this group was in it for the spots, not the top-to-bottom match. When Liger and Pillman flew, or when one of them used rougher than usual tactics on the other, the group's collective ears perked up. Otherwise, this was a textbook case of "Excuse us for wrestling while you're talking". They even mocked Cappetta for calling it a classic contest as he announced Liger the winner. (To be somewhat fair, they were mocking Gary, not the match itself.) Obviously I couldn't have stopped these guys from doing their thing, but I would have made a mental note not to buy tickets next to them the next time I came to the matches. This is the type of fan that gave rise to the modern spot monkey; since more and more people like this came to the matches with the death of kayfabe, the boys got the idea into their heads that highspots were the only thing the paying customers would respond to, and it was either kill yourself in the ring or die at the box office. Bye-bye storytelling, bye-bye psychology, bye-bye older fans. It's kind of a shame for these guys that they felt so above it all here, because this was one hell of a match to say the least. One consolation for us Yearbook watchers is that we have SuperBrawl III, all professionally shot and commentated, if we want to see Liger and Pillman go at it again, this time with our undivided attention. These jokers probably gabbed all through that match, too.
  25. garretta
    This was a much better match than I thought it was going to be. Steiner and Norton looked damn near unstoppable for three-quarters of it; Norton may have been limited as a wrestler, but he looked like a beast doing what he did, and there was surprising continuity between himself and Steiner, as they dominated Hase and Muto each in their turn. Rick's pride and cockiness was what undid everything, as he chose the wrong time to make it personal between himself and Hase, which led to completely ignoring almost a sure three-count on Muto, who then made the tag which eventually led to the upset win for the natives. I'm not sure if any of you out there have the original copy of the tape or TV show, but if someone does, did the tape cut out before Muto and Hase shook hands with Rick, or did they snub him (in kayfabe, of course) over what happened between him and Hase? Norton was one hell of a better substitute partner for Rick than Kazmaier was, I'll say that for him. Kazmaier was one of the men for whom the saying "doesn't know a wristlock from a wristwatch" was invented, while Norton did what he did as well as he could. Had he come to WCW around this time, I could see him being given a decent midcard push, provided that he could talk at all. If the finish was a deliberate build on the Steiners' bad reputation, it was excellently done, as Rick looked surprisingly natural playing the arrogant bully, much like Scott did later on as Big Poppa Pump. What a run of excellent tag matches from Japan, The All-Japan matches are definitely better, but this one was hardly chopped liver. What I'd like to see now is a match between the reunited Steiners and either Misawa/Kawada or Jumbo/Taue. It's too bad in a way that Watts decided to bring Doc and Bamm Bamm home when he was looking for a Japanese team to oppose the Steiners, because either of the two teams I just mentioned would have been excellent opponents for them as long as the native Japanese weren't presented as stereotypical Jap heels (which, knowing Watts, they probably would have been.)
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