Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

garretta

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3562

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    Most of what I had to say has already been said. These four brought the house in this one; as Pete said, the action never stopped even briefly, and each team came within a whisker of taking it all at the end. Zenjo mentioned how they held back the eye work until it could be most effective, and he's absolutely right. Kawada's ribs were the first target, and only when Kawada desperately needed a tag to give himself a rest did the fun begin. I've seen work like Jumbo and Taue did here on limbs quite a bit, but never an eye. Most guys here in the States just don't work body parts that aren't limbs quite that viciously. This was so well done that it was actually tough to watch at the end, especially when Jumbo raked Misawa's eye along the guardrail in what has to be the most heelish action of the year that didn't involve a cobra or a casket. If this had been the States, Jumbo may not have gotten out of the arena alive. To top things off, he went to the eye to get out of pin attempts numerous times in the final minutes. I wouldn't have expected such sick work out of someone like Jumbo, but was it ever effective. And so the Misawa/Jumbo feud wraps up for '91 no closer to being settled than it was at this time last year. Each side has had big wins over the other, but neither side has put the other away yet. I already know that Jumbo left the sport for a while due to illness sometime in '92, so I'll be interested to see how close Misawa came to a definitive final victory before Jumbo left. One thing's for sure: in terms of match quality, this is the feud of the nineties so far, bar none.
  2. garretta
    This is how all babyface matches of any sort should be wrestled. Too often, promoters book matches like these to be resthold after resthold, or have guys doing obscure matwork no one's ever seen attempted before. Even forearm exchanges are only done occasionally and as a prelude to some non-finish cooked up so that the fans won't think of either man or team as a loser. Needless to say, that's not the case here, as Misawa and Kawada turn into Jumbo and Taue for one match only, mostly focusing their offensive efforts on Kikuchi, the weak link who really isn't. He keeps up with both guys, and unlike Pete, there were times that I believed he and Kobashi would pull the upset just for the sake of variety. Unfortunately, Kikuchi still couldn't absorb a ton of high-end offense, so he was eventually worn down and put away by Misawa. I keep looking for Kikuchi to turn the corner in one of these matches and actually score a fall on a bigger star to jumpstart his career, but that hasn't happened yet, unfortunately. Kobashi and Kikuchi's doubleteam finisher is one of the few of that particular type which actually looks like it can knock the wind out of someone. It's sort of le bomb de Rougeau with a frog splash at the end, and it looked tremendous here. Heel spot of the match: Kawada throwing Kikuchi out on top of Kobashi after Kobashi had just checked on Kikuchi before Kikuchi went back into the ring. It was like Kawada was saying, "If you're worried about him so much, here he is!" The next match we have from this tournament is at least Round 3 between Misawa/Kawada and Jumbo/Taue, which should be yet another classic in the series. Can't wait for it!
  3. garretta
    This match was at its best when it mixed in traditional pro wrestling throws with the shoot style holds and moves. Boss in particular was good at this, at one point even breaking out a powerbomb. of all things. In general, Anjo and Boss looked like the better all-around unit, such as there can be a unit in this kind of match, and the outcome was never really in doubt. This was a lot better than I remember the first shoot style tag on the set being, although I agree that shoot style is best as a singles discipline. I can't think of too many established teams who would do well in a promotion like UWFI; the one that comes to mind off the top of my head would be the Steiners, but I don't think they'd be quite as willing to take pain and stiffness from others as they are to dish it out themselves.
  4. garretta
    The last few minutes of this was pretty good, especially with Backlund bringing the suplexes, which you don't often see in shoot style. Unfortunately, the first twelve or so minutes, with nary a point scored (or deducted, if you will) killed this for both the crowd and me the home viewer. The idea of Takada trying to avoid being down on the mat and Backlund trying to avoid Takada's kicks had promise, but all it really led to were a bunch of restarts, and shoot style has enough of those as it is. I know that shoot style is methodical by its nature, but moist of these matches have at least a few roipe breaks in the opening minutes to keep the fans invested. Nice pop during the intros for Backlund, whom a lot of the fans in attendance evidently remembered from his days as WWF champion. Forgive me, but I have to ask this: since Takada made Backlund legitimately submit, does he get to claim the WWF title, which Backlund still swore at the time he never lost to Sheik?
  5. garretta
    I agree with El-P; this was a tremendous match, as these two old partners straight-up beat each other half to death. I don't know why people seem to have trouble with Hara; I came into this match expecting to watch some washed-up old geezer who could barely crawl around the ring, and while he wasn't called upon to do much athletically, he sure looked like a real beast throwing clotheslines and headbutts. Could it have been a case of Tenryu giving away too much to an old friend and former partner? Quite possibly, but Hara still had to go out there and execute, and he did. Tenryu looked to be in real trouble many times, and though his kicks looked brutal, they still weren't enough to take Hara off his feet. In the end, it took a desperation powerbomb for Tenryu to escape with the three count. The postmatch started off a little confusingly; for one thing, I had no idea who Tenryu was throwing the trophy at. But soon Yatsu and Haku appeared, and while we didn't exactly get the most brutal beatdown in wrestling history, it served its purpose, which was to reunite Tenryu and Hara and start a new feud for them against another one of Tenryu's old partners. Haku definitely looked good enough here in the little I saw of him to warrant his spot in the Royal Rumble, and I'm wondering what another singles run in the WWF in '92 would have been like for him. Since Heenan wasn't managing anymote, maybe you take advantage of his Japanese experience and give him something close to what ultimately became Yokozuna, complete with Fuji as his new manager. I know he was a little small to be a believable sumo guy, but you could say that while he's learned the sumo ways and integrated them into his style, he still has all the other skills that made him so dangerous, and the only way to keep those skills was to lose most of the weight he'd gained during sumo training, It would have beat seeing Yoko haul his increasingly fat ass around the ring while only being able to chop, headbutt, and sit on people. I'm also looking forward to the Tenryu match with Hogan coming up in December. Hopefully for all of our sakes, Tenryu will put up a better fight against him than Flair did in their MSG rematch.
  6. garretta
    I liked this one a lot. Dynamite brought most of the offense, but Harley held her own more than I thought she would. Each woman did excellent work on the other's legs, and Dynamite's kicks looked positively brutal. Not to be missed is her work on the outside, where she seemed like she was putting extra oomph behind her whips to the guard rail. But my single favorite spot has to be that sick-looking back suplex Harley gave to Dynamite on the floor. It looked like it could have fractured Dynamite's skull, and she sold it like it almost had until she left the arena. She couldn't even bow to the crowd without help, and she's lucky she wasn't concussed legitimately. Maybe she was, who can tell? The only strange thing was that Harley didn't just go for the cove once she rolled Dynamite back into the ring; maybe she wanted to win with a "cleaner" move (which she did with another suplex variation). This is the best joshi match I've seen far this year, but it looks like there are some real barnburners coming up over these last couple of months, so it'll be interesting to see if it's topped and if so, by whom.
  7. garretta
    A couple of nice spots (the heels falling apart after Charles gets repeatedly squashed in the corner, a double slam on Porky off the top by MS-1 and Morgan, Porky's splash to end the second fall), but nothing all that memorable. I have to be in the right mood to watch a match like this, and I wasn't, so this was bound to be kind of a chore for me. I didn't understand most of the comedy either, and that's probably a language/cultural thing. Put it all together and this was a match I watched to get to the next match, nothing more. I am curious about one thing, though: What if the Brazos meant the DA (any combination) in a six-man on TBS?
  8. garretta
    It's not the result I have a problem with here. Pete's right; Steamer doesn't need the TV title as long as he and Dustin are the World tag champs. But the restart was pointless if it was only going to last five seconds; it needed at least a little more action before the inevitable DQ. I would have also liked to see Arn involved somehow, since he's the one teaming with Bobby at the Omni, not Austin. (I'm not exactly sure if Dustin was still supposed to be in Europe, but if he wasn't, he should have been involved too instead of Windham.) I can see why Austin still has such glowing praise for Steamboat, because he singlehandedly turns around the way Austin works, even at this early stage of their situation. Austin works more methodically and scientifically than I've ever seen him here, culminating in the backbreakers that finally get Steamer to release the headlock/front facelock that he's had on forever, or so it seems. By the way, I've never seen a regular wrestler (as opposed to a muscleman or island savage type) maintain a side headlock after getting his own head rammed into the turnbuckle three times. Whoever thought of that spot deserves a little extra in their Christmas stocking. I must have missed the Austin clothesline spot, but if it's what I think it is, I've seen Steamboat feed that way for Muraco and (possibly) Jake during their WWF feuds. I wonder where Heyman was when this match was taped. Was this a planned absence so we could get the beginning of the Steamboat/Medusa situation, or was he in trouble with the front office over something (which wouldn't shock me in the least)? Austin's back work is great too, and that's part of what Steamboat brings to the table when he's in there with young guys like Austin: the ability to ground them and encourage them to show off their skills. His selling also encourages that: "Gee, if I got a reaction like that out of Ricky and the fans with that move, let's see what this one does." They can't keep teasing Ricky striking Medusa if they're not going to have it pay off somehow. Ideally, this part of the angle shouldn't happen at all, but if Hulk Hogan, the biggest hero wrestling's ever seen, can use Sherri Martel as a punching bag on a consistent basis, Steamboat should have no qualms about doing so with Medusa as long as Medusa initiates contact like she has the past two weeks. I have no problem with JR promoting all the cards upcoming in WCW over the next week; in fact, I wish the WWF had done the same during the match commentary occasionally. One of the more annoying things about the WWF was that each house show existed in its own universe except for rare (by this time, almost nonexistent) title changes. No injury that took place at a house show was ever acknowledged, even when common sense dictated otherwise. (I'm thinking of Dynamite Kid's severe back injury that occurred at a house show in Hamilton, Ontario in December of '86. Although they really could have made some hay out of it, specifically by putting over Muraco and Orton as the guys who caused the Bulldogs to lose the belts, thus giving themselves another major heel team, they chose not to. Instead, we got the title switch to the Harts with no ring intros- covering up the fact that Dynamite couldn't walk and had to be carried to the ring piggyback by Davey Boy- and Dynamite being knocked totally unconscious by a relative love tap from Jimmy Hart's megaphone when dead-on shots, even those that caused guys to lose matches, were usually shrugged off within seconds.) Anyway, it's a nice little bit of hype for cards that may need it and really lends credence to the idea of WCW as a national promotion Interesting that Dusty's pushing Scotty Steiner as a top contender to Austin's TV title. Even though Dustin and Steamer are the current champions, there had to be more money in the Steiners eventually getting the tag titles back somehow than there was in ultimately fruitless singles feuds, such as the one Rick had just finished with Luger. Put another way, it makes no sense for two primarily singles wrestlers to hold the tag team title while your best tag team is floundering around looking for something to do as singles wrestlers. I guess Medusa will be something like Jimmy Hart, in that she'll have different outfits for every match, or at least different types of outfits for the different DA wrestlers: a suit for Eaton, a frilly dress for Austin, a backless dress for Rude, etc. One thing I'm wondering, though, between Arn and Larry Z, the two guys in the DA who could be considered blue collar, which one does she wear the T-shirt and jeans for? I wonder if JR really went home to Oklahoma before taking in the Omni card on Christmas night? As good as JR can be solo, I'm ready for The Bod to make his first WCW appearance; I'm interested to see if they mesh as badly to my ears as JR claims they did.
  9. garretta
    I have my troubles with shoot style, and PWFG's even worse because it doesn't put its scoring system on the screen. Still, I liked the intensity of the strikes from both men, the mat sequences were pretty good, and I thought that Wilkins sold the TKO just fine. Sometimes in boxing, a guy will bounce right back up after the referee waves the bout off; just because you were stunned enough to be unable to answer a ten-count doesn't necessarily mean that you won't feel better in a short time. Besides, he had a legit bloody nose, so I'm sure the people knew he'd been in a fight. The intensity and ferocity of the strikes made a match I enjoyed, but if I was submitting a ballot for Match of the Year, there are too many other contenders ahead of it for it to finish anywhere near the top half.
  10. garretta
    This one was an out-of-control war from start to finish, and the natives should consider themselves fortunate to escape with a win. Hansen's in one of his more psychotic moods, as he jumps Misawa before the bell and gets even crazier from there. He even fires a chair at Misawa right in front of the referee, who doesn't do a blessed thing about it. Spivey isn't just window dressing, as he tortures both Misawa and Kawada with well-executed Bostpn crabs. In the end, Misawa's desperation frog splash from the top takes care of Spivey, for which Hansen exacts revenge by back-suplexing Misawa on the floor and almost dashing his brains out in the process. I like both teams, but I like Misawa and Kawada better when they're in there with Jumbo and company trying to fight for their place in the All-Japan hierarchy. This natch was certainly exciting enough, but Misawa and Kawada spent most of it fighting from behind after Hansen and Spivey backjumped them, and that kind of match doesn't allow them to show off their wrestling skills. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do against their friends Kikuchi and Kobashi later in the tournament, and I'm also looking forward to Hansen/Spivey vs the MVC, which should be a real treat for slobberknocker fans everywhere.
  11. garretta
    This was kind of a mixed bag for me. First of all, if I hadn't known going in that that was the same Terrence Garvin who wore me down to my last nerve in commentary back in '90, I would never have guessed it. Not just because of his look, but because for the first fall and change of the match, he was actually a credible wrestler who took the fight right to Eddie and even pinned him clean in the middle to take the first fall. Then Eddie remembered who he was and took command, but Terry proved to be just as good at selling as he was on offense, really getting across the damage that the figure-four was doing to his leg both times Eddie applied it. I hope he was successful as a face, because he certainly had the tools to be. Eddie turned in a capable performance as you'd expect, but a couple of the booking decisions really hurt him here. For one, the figure four was on too long both times he applied it. The match took fifteen minutes by my count, and it seemed that Eddie had Garvin in the figure four for thirteen or fourteen of them. At least Terry was working toward a reversal during the third fall, but by then I was wondering why his leg hadn't already snapped like a twig. The crowd didn't really seem to mind, but the amount of time spent basically doing nothing in the hold aside from Eddie pulling on Terry's shoelaces for leverage (which most of the crowd probably never saw) was interminable. We also had a phantom finish, as ESPN's censorship struck again. We never actually saw the fireball that Eddie threw at Terry to end the match, and if they hadn't shown the very start of the sequence on replay, I would have suspected that they (Craig and Bruce) had made it up. The real question is: Why even book a fireball finish for a televised match if you know that ESPN will never let the fireball be shown? That's either blind arrogance or inexcusable stupidity, take your choice. And before anyone talks about it looking cool for the fans in the Sportatorium, they weren't expecting that type of finish in the first place, so how disappointed would they have been if they didn't get something they never knew they wanted in the first place? Eddie's work on Terry's leg was absolutely masterful from beginning to end. If I'd been booking, I'd have had Terry pass out on the figure four to lose both falls, which would really have gotten the hold over as a killer weapon in Eddie's arsenal. As great as his performance in the ring was, Eddie's mic work left me shaking my head. "I'm running for President" out of nowhere, with no buildup and no followup? And what was up with how he talked to Boni (if that was her) before the bout? He looked and sounded higher than a kite. It almost had to be pretaped in the afternoon, because Eddie wasn't visibly impaired during the match. About the only thing Eddie said that made sense all night was his complaint about Garvin pulling his tights to take the first fall, ane that wasn't really needed since this match was billed as a no-disqualification bout. Fifteen minutes for a two out of three fall match is just plain too short, period. Garvin getting the first fall should have been a lot bigger deal than the announcers had time to make it out to be. "Gilbert Wrestling Federation". Inevitable, but still kind of cute. Nice to hear Craig again. I didn't think that Bruce had left Vince entirely, so it was kind of a shock to hear him. I wonder if Brother Love would have gotten over with the Sportatorium crowd. Nice line by Craig about the Redskins placekicker being one of Eddie's heroes. That reference was no accident, by the way; for those of you who are outside the country or don't follow football, the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins hate each other with a passion. So Craig wasn't only making a rather clever football reference, he was providing Eddie with a little heat insurance.
  12. garretta
    I disagree with Loss; this was about as definitive a finish as you could possibly have, almost like Flair had served notice and was doing a final job on the way out of the company. He's treated like a nameless, faceless Superstars jobber who showed up at MSG looking for a hundred bucks and free catering, as Hogan not only beats the living hell out of him, but humiliates him by using his finisher to greater effect than he (Flair) has in years. Make no mistake; Flair's done after this, at least as it relates to Hogan. I've seen all I need to see from this feud, and I'm not looking forward to the redo in '94, which is every bit as bad for Flair if not worse, from what I've read and heard. It's actually more definitive that Flair takes the countout here, because he's left laying on the floor of MSG like a used-up piece of garbage who doesn't want any more of the Immortal One, the superman who can't even be put down with a brass knucks shot right on the button. Heenan would have had a better chance against Hogan coming straight from the booth, for heaven's sake. Speaking of the Brain, he's at his apoplectic best here, but Hogan's so dominant that he comes off as whiny and pathetic even for a weasel. His ramblings about the Rumble come off as empty threats. So what if Flair (or anybody else) can win the title by tossing a bunch of guys over the top rope? When it came time to do it one-on-one, Flair was destroyed by the real WWF champion, the man who'd still have the belt in a fair world, the man who made him look like the pretender he is and left him laying on the floor at the number one arena in professional wrestling. If this match had gotten around outside of the New York area, Vince couldn't have put the belt on Flair without making the WWF look like a total joke. I've heard of guys losing to set up challengers prior to a title switch, but never, ever like this. If this had been the Mania VIII match, I would have felt ripped off unless I was a card-carrying Hulkamaniac, and even then it would have felt like a letdown. "This jabroni that Hulk just beat is supposed to be the real World champion? What kind of wrestling do they have on that other channel, anyway?" Before I forget, what was the deal with Gino referring to this match as taking place on New Year's Eve when it clearly took place on December 29? The only thing I can think of is that MSG Network didn't run this card live, instead showing it on tape two days later. If Gino knew that was the plan, he might have been trying to make the card sound as if it was taking place live. Either that or he was slowly going completely senile and forgot which day it was. Speaking of Uncle Gino, he was actually the highlight of this one, taking such glee in Hogan's every move and relishing the idea of throwing Heenan's complaints right back in his face, responding to them on at least one occasion (I can't remember which for the life of me at the moment) with a hearty "So what?" And so ends the dream feud of the eighties: Hogan reigns supreme (belt or no belt, pinfall victory or no pinfall victory) and Flair, despite his later success, is shown to be unable to compete with the best the WWF has to offer, having to win the title at the Royal Rumble after Hogan was eliminated by a jealous Sid and only being able to keep it because Hogan chose to settle his score with Sid before "retiring" instead of thoroughly destroying Flair once and for all at Mania for the world to see. And even at that, he still lost to the WWF's second best in Savage. I think I'd have rather seen him as Spartacus.
  13. garretta
    When you break it down, this is nothing more than a captain's match, a way to showcase the tag team titles without actually putting them on the line. But with workers like these, it turns into so much more. While this match doesn't exactly reinvent the sport, it provides a mix of styles that you don't see very often in one match: there's good limbwork from both guys (you can tell that Bobby's been learning from Arn, the way he goes after Steamboat's arm), high flying, and even a brawl into the crowd that takes no less than Doug Dellinger to break up. Then Steamer gets the pin off of a well-executed but random crucifix, and we add a heel beatdown, a save by a vengeful babyface, and the near-striking of a not-so-innocent woman to our bag of treats. In short, this match had something for everyone. Conspicuous by his absence: Paul Heyman. I have no idea where he was, but he wasn't missed. That's because Medusa filled in more than capably. I loved seeing her stomp on Steamer's robe, and I also liked her trying to interact with both Steamboat and Pee Wee Anderson. She even tops Ricky in the comedy department; when he yells "Shut up, witch!" (JR: "He said witch! Yes, he did!") she comes back with a line straight out of Alice: "Kiss mah grits!" The funny part is, Heyman's set her up as a cool Bond Girl type, complete with European accent. Where I come from, most European girls don't sound like Flo the waitress. The "will Steamboat strike Medusa or not?" bit was well-played. You can tell he wanted to, but he's trapped by his own persona. If he levels Medusa, you can bet that Heyman and the rest of the DA will have the time of their sweet lives over the next few weeks mocking him as the family man who beats up on defenseless women because he can't beat men like Austin and Eaton straight up, and he can't bear that, at least not yet. I'm sure Medusa will provoke him beyond endurance before all is said and done, however. Nice explanation for Dustin's absence (wrestling in Dublin, Ireland) to set up Windham making the save for Ricky instead. Steamer and Barry would have made a hell of a team if WCW had chosen to go that way. The part about Dustin wrestling in Dublin on the night of December 14 was absolutely true; he teamed with Bill Kazmaier to beat the Enforcers. I'm sure this trip was well-known in advance, and that Dustin was just sitting in the back at Center Stage when this match was taped, but it's a rare thing at this time for a promotion to care enough about continuity to make sure that Dustin didn't come in to make the save for Ricky on a show that was supposed to be plausibly live from Atlanta when he's supposed to be all the way across the Atlantic. Line of the match: JR, as Eaton flies off the top rope only to be caught right in the face by Steamboat's feet: "He's from Hunts-VILLE!" I also loved JR's rant about how he thought Bobby was a nice guy until he joined the DA. He sounds more like a jilted drinking buddy than a professional announcer, yet somehow it works in this instance. Why is Bobby still using the knockoff MX music when Corny and Stan are both long gone, not to mention Dennis Condrey? Which genius believed that Mr. Hughes vs. PN News was a main event match for the bottom-level syndicated show, let alone one of the TBS shows? If it was me, I wouldn't even use this match as an interstitial at five o'clock on a Wednesday morning between Headline News and I Dream of Jeannie. Count me as someone who would love to see at least clips of the 45-minute Omni match between Dustin/Steamer and Arn/Eaton.
  14. garretta
    I really couldn't get into this much. Shoot style is hit-or-miss for me as it is, and this was one of the misses. I appreciated Han's superior athleticism, and that's about where it ended. The submission sequence confused me because it looked like a massive tangle of legs, and since Han had the better of the offense just prior to that, I assumed he had the winning hold on Maeda instead of the other way around. The only really exciting moment came when Maeda almost took Han's head off with a spin kick. Other than that, this was all a mishmash. I hope Han gets better as he gains more experience, because tight now he looks about the same as most other rookies, though he's a tad more athletic, as I mentioned above.
  15. garretta
    I think we can all agree that Takada was a jerk and that Berbick had a right to be mad, and even to walk out if he felt he had to. But why didn't he foul Takada on the way out? Just get underneath somehow and bury his fist right in Takada's crotch? His life might not have been worth a plugged nickel if he had, but he'd have looked better than he did simply taking a walk. In all seriousness, I can't figure out why Berbick stood there with his hands down if he believed he was being screwed. I know this is easier said than done, but he should have found a way to blast Takada, even if it meant taking his gloves off and grabbing a handful of hair to make sure he (Takada) didn't go anywhere. I'm sure he wanted to be paid, and he knew they'd never pay him a dime if he fought back that way against the national hero, but he really did look bad, not just by walking out (which, again, is understandable) but by losing his temper as he was leaving. I didn't understand the postmatch ceremonies at all, but I'll bet they were having a grand old time dismissing Berbick and every one of his fellow boxers as fakes and cowards who couldn't stand up to real men and cried like babies when the going got tough. I thought I understood "Mike Tyson" in there somewhere. Was Takada actually challenging Iron Mike? I know he wasn't feared universally like he was before Buster Douglas got a hold of him, but there's such a thing as pressing your luck. Berbick was thirty-seven and on the downside of his career, while Tyson was just twenty-five and still regarded as a genuine tough guy with both a mean streak and a crazy streak. I don't think any match between the two of them would have ended well for Mr. Takada.
  16. garretta
    This was too short; by the time the flow got going, it was time for the finish. Great action for the time they had, though. What I was most struck by were the little things: Heyman acting like a coach when Bobby got frustrated enough to go after a fan, not only verbally telling him to ignore the fan but actually putting an arm around him and steering him back to the ring; Bobby taunting Dustin in the corner after a particularly hard right hand with, "Where's your daddy now, big time?"; Pillman actually hitting a dropkick on Bobby when Bobby's perched on the top rope ready to interfere; Bobby loudly yelling "Oh, shit!" after a particularly deep Steamboat armdrag sent him to the outsude. Yes, there's a pattern, as Bobby was the DA's MVP here with Larry Z a close second. I continue to be more than impressed with the WCW version of Larry; if I was voting in the GWE poll, his work during '91 in WCW would put him securely in the bottom half; before this, I wouldn't have even considered him, as I found his cowardly stalling act tiresome after only viewing it a few times. Nice nod to history by JR, acknowledging Barry and Arn as former partners. While I'm at it, they seem to be acknowledging Sting's previous knee injury quite a bit lately as well. Good job, gentlemen. Now I'll give you double your salaries in Monopoly money if you name the organization that Barry and Arn belonged to as well the man at the head of that organization in the name of whom they did their dirty deeds. I like JR acknowledging the DA's depth; any organization which can trot out a six-man lineup like they did here and still leave the U.S. champion and the TV champion on the bench is certainly deep. I loved Sleeze's team name for the faces here, and I wish they'd have thought to use it. Can you imagine Cappetta saying: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, presenting.......ALL GOLD EVERYTHING!" JR's line of the match, after Arn's been rammed into the turnbuckle by Dustin a thousand times: "Arn and those buckles have become fast friends." By the way, the wrong man got the winning fall, even after Bobby's interference. Zbyszko had been tagged, according to JR, but somehow it was Arn who pinned Pillman. Oh well, as long as it was a DA member......... Looking forward to many more of these matches!
  17. garretta
    This felt like a three-minute squash stretched out to last twelve minutes. The Pistols didn't exactly look good, but the Patriots were greener than little apples. Meanwhile Tony's so bored he mixes up the teams, calls a spot where one of the Pistols rams Chip's knee into the concrete a headbutt, and tells the world that come Starrcade, "The Young Pistols could find themselves on opposite teams, and so could Tracy and Steve". Other than the Pistols trying to tear out Chip's knee, there's not a whole lot going on wrestling-wise. Meanwhile, Tony says that Tracy must have been a jerk from the start of his career because he acts like one now. Whatever you say, Dr. Schiavone. Oh, did I forget to mention that the Pistols so obviously blow a doubleteam spot that Tony's compelled to talk about it on the air? Who came up with the idea of "WCW Special Forces", and why would it, whatever it is, include a firefighter and a young muscleman with no discernible occupation outside of wrestling? Why is moving from the South to Wyoming a heel act? Or are Steve and Tracy really heels because they fancy themselves a couple of cowboys now? Since when is being a cowboy a bad thing in the South? I seem to remember some promos where Smothers and Armstrrong "renounced" their Southern heritage or some such, but to move to Wyoming and become cowboys? They'd have been better off becoming the Patriots instead; God knows they'd have been better at it than the two nothings they just beat. (Now that I think of it, I seem to recall that Turner didn't want a babyface tag team wearing the Confederate flag on their tights like Smothers and Armstrong did. That's certainly a noble sentiment, but again I ask, cowboys from Wyoming? While we're at it, if they wanted the Pistols to have some heat, why are they trying to push them as if the Southern Boys had never existed, right down to taking away their last names? Yes, Tony makes a mention of Smothers doing autograph sessions in the past here, but for the most part Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong (the Southern Boys) are treated as totally different people than Tracy and Steve (the Young Pistols). Did either Firebreaker Chip or Todd Champion amount to anything in the business? Why was Chip called "Firebreaker" instead of Firefighter anyway? I've never heard the word "firebreaker" used in any other context than when talking about this one wrestler. (I just Googled "firebreaker", and every mention of the word on Page 1 of the results refers to wrestling.) I'm not sure if this is the worst overall match or segment I've seen in the first two Yearbooks, but it's probably the worst match or segment from a major American promotion on the first two Yearbooks.
  18. garretta
    What was Flair supposed to do, Brain? Take it upon himself to beat Shawn in under three minutes the way he supposedly should have? For the record, I didn't like this performance by Flair any more than anyone else seemed to, but it had its purpose: to put the last straw in the Rockers breakup angle (though the match wouldn't be seen for several months, and then only on home video). In fact, I'd venture to say that if it had been televised, you could make a good case for Jannetty going heel. He knew Shawn was knocked silly and couldn't defend himself, but instead of finding a way to revive him somehow so he could continue in a match he'd dominated, Marty simply rolled him back into the ring still out colder than a wedge, thus giving Flair a ridiculously easy pin. If Jannetty had been my partner and pulled that stuff, he'd have gotten a lot more than a superkick through a fake glass window. I didn't like Flair getting virtually no offense. I know that the essence of the character, especially by this time, is that he talks a better game than he brings to the ring; he claims to be the greatest wrestler in the world, but other than some chops and a kneedrop, he doesn't tend to do a whole lot. He's a lot like Foley in that you go to see his signature spots and bumps more than a classic match. Right now, however, he's actually defending a belt (at least in his own mind) that he claims to be more important than the WWF title, so you would think that he'd be a little more motivated to show what he can do. But he's not, and though part of that can be laid squarely at Vince's feet, since Flair had to know by now that he wasn't going to be The Man even if he won the title at the Rumble, part of it is on Flair himself. You'd think that a new atmosphere and fresh opponents would motivate him to turn back the clock to the pre-Horsemen days when he wasn't simply a punching bag for every babyface who was mad at the group, but he's still standing there and taking it without trying to fight back for the most part. Curt's more menacing outside the ring than Flair is inside, to the point where Sean and Lord Alfred still laud Curt as one of the most physically dangerous men in the WWF even though he's strictly a manager. Who here has ever heard of such a thing? If it hadn't been so close to Shawn's turn, I would have said that Flair knew Shawn was looking to showcase himself for a possible singles run and was choosing to help him out. But the turn was already set in stone; there was no need to convince anyone of anything. As I said above, Flair didn't need to squash Shawn in three minutes (or even look like he was capable of doing so), but he needed to be more than a bleached blonde version of the Honky Tonk Man, which he's turned into too many times from about 1986 onward, though never quite this blatantly. The video distortion still looks ridiculous, especially since the NWA belt is long, long gone. If Flair wants to wear an old WWF tag team belt into the ring and claim that it's the Real World championship belt, call him out for his delusion on commentary and make him look like a fool just like you would every other heel, although you would then have to explain how Flair got his hands on a WWF tag team belt. Better yet, have him buy a new belt for himself like Teddy did with the Million Dollar Belt. When he wins the title at the Rumble, have him decree that that belt is the new WWF World title belt and the one he'll be defending, since the original WWF belt was once around the waists of losers like Hogan and Savage and he doesn't want it to touch his waist. Talk about a heat-getter! I don't think Lord Alfred was playing heel here, but he certainly admired Flair and let it show, while Sean chose to follow the party line established by Vince that Flair was just another pretender who would fall before Hulkamania. His Lordship stopped short of approving of Flair's wearing an unrecognized belt into the ring, though. I didn't really understand His Lordship's definition of the difference between a manager and an executive consultant, and I doubt he did either, but it was fun to listen to. This is definitely the low point of Flair's WWF run so far. If after watching this match you would have told me that Flair would be WWF World champion in a little over a month, I'd have placed a phone call to the wacky ward on your behalf.
  19. garretta
    I didn't like this at all. Oh, the match we saw was good, very good in fact. Sting vs. Eaton was very well done, and the interference from cornermen Pillman and Abby (with an assist from Cactus) made for a very fun, if slightly surreal, atmosphere. This match was much better than their match in November of '90, which was marred by the ridiculous Black Scorpion garbage. The problem was, this was supposed to be a tag team match, and it never was, not even for a second. I have a hard enough time with the idea of two separate ideas like a random tag tournament and a battle royal being combined in the first place, but if we're going to have tag team matches, let's have tag team matches. Partners fighting each other should have been immediately disqualified, period. The intrigue of the Lethal Lottery should have been: How do Sting and Abby fare when they're forced to actually work as a tag team should? Of course, Abby's a horrible example since he's not really a team type of guy anyway, but my larger point stands. Instead, we just have a random brawl that we could have had on any WCW show, with Pillman helping out his buddy Sting even though it means he doesn't advance to the battle royal, which is supposed to be the idea behind the whole evening. In fact, he's happy that he lost, because that means that Sting won. How ridiculous is that? I understand that with the success of the Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble, it seemed like a good idea to combine elements of both and see what kind of pay-per-view could be made out of it. But this isn't the combination Dusty needed to come up with. I'm not exactly sure how I would have fixed it had I been asked to; the best I can come up with would be to divide the roster into two camps. one nearly all faces and one nearly all heels, then do almost all standard face/heel tag matches with the exception of one, maybe two. The teams would still be a little something different, but the philosophies would mesh. This match, for example. would have been Sting/Pillman vs. Abby/Eaton. A fresh matchup, but still one that could be conducted as a normal match, at least as normal as an Abby match can be. I got more of a kick out of the brawl between Cactus and Abby, and it's a shame that they never really had a feud in WCW, because it would have been a classic. I didn't envy the security people who had to try to break it up at all; Mick and Abby were having such a good time fighting that they didn't especially care who they hit. For that matter, I'm surprised Heyman didn't try to bring Abby in to feud with Mick in ECW. Maybe he did and the money wasn't to Abby's liking, which is highly likely. Line of the match: Tony, talking about why Abby might have stolen a pencil from the broadcast table: "He sure isn't going to take notes on this match." You'd think the camera people would have been smart enough to see Pillman starting to slam Abby and cut to it, or at least that the videotape people would have captured the moment so that it could shown on replay. This being WCW, neither of those occurred. Thank heaven JR and Tony broke the rule about announcers only calling what they can see on the monitor so they could at least tell us about it. Where were Heyman and Medusa? JR even brought this up on commentary. Did the idea of a member of the DA having to team with someone like Pillman offend them to the point that they chose to stay away in protest? It would certainly play into the Heyman vs. Turner Broadcasting storyline if that was the case. Or was there another. more obvious explanation?
  20. garretta
    If Flair/Eaton for the World title wasn't the best match in Power Hour history, this one was. It had the feeling of a Clash bout that there just wasn't time to get to the previous Tuesday night, which is definitely a compliment. Both guys brought their A game, particularly Mick, who hasn't looked this good at any time in the previous two years. Yes, the bumps are sick, perhaps cringe-inducing for the squeamish. But they show an all-out effort commensurate with the magnitude of the match. When it comes to going all-out, few go as far out as Mick Foley. I'm pretty sure that Mick knocked himself out legit with that last bump off the apron. If it was a planned spot, Sting would have taken him back into the ring to apply the Scorpion. As it was, there was no way he could drag nearly three hundred pounds of dead weight that far, so he just put the hold on right where they were. Mick didn't move, scream, or struggle either, and I have to believe that he'd have put on the sales job of his life if he'd been able. There was only one thing missing: blood. Of course, very few people could have gotten away with blading on TBS at that time, and Sting and Mick probably figured that they didn't need to do it regardless of the match stipulations, so they didn't. Sting may have gotten away with it if he'd chosen to do so; I don't think Mick would have. JR got off a ton of good lines at Mick's expense; my favorite was when Mick had the trashcan over his head, which inspired JR to quip: "Cactus Jack is where many people feel he belongs: in the garbage." There were plenty more where that one came from too. Did they really have to advertise the fact that Tony was calling the same match for Worldwide? Duplication of resources is bad enough, but to call attention to your inefficiency by mentioning it on the air, especially when you've compounded the felony by airing the match on TBS as is, with Sting still U.S. champion and no sign of a knee injury whatsoever. JR did his best to update everyone while doing the commentary, but that doesn't make up for showing the match when it was already out of date in the first place. JR's shilling didn't help the situation, but TBS always considered Power Hour Part 1 of a whole pie in which the other two parts, particularly WCWSN, were just as important if not more so, and their matches had to be hyped sometime. They had a real doozy on tap at 6:05 that night, by the way: the Steiners against Luger and Hughes. Was the mic spot a conscious idea on someone's part, or did Mick lose his train of thought for a second and think he was in an "I Quit" match? Either way, both men played it up so naturally that it didn't matter. I loved Mick's T-shirt, which had to be custom-made for him. Second-best JR line of the match, after Mick does Cactus's "BANG BANG": "He had to be playing cowboys and Indians as a kid and fallen out of a tree." By the way, this kind of match was making the rounds of the TV shows, with different wrestlers being matched up,
  21. garretta
    I could barely hear what Lee was saying in the taped segment over Spotty's growling and yowling. Nice picture of Spotty's stitch marks from where Jeff busted him open. Spike's injured too, but since I couldn't understand Lee I have no idea how. Richard, if you really and truly control your Dogs, tell them to shut up while you're talking. The squash has to be the single bloodiest that I've ever seen, and I'm surprised that WMC aired it, to be honest. T.D. Steele was the referee, not one of the wrestlers, but it doesn't matter, since he gets his share of the whipping too. The shots of the bloody canvas as they go to break in a vain attempt to end the chaos really weren't necessary. The bone shots the Dogs gave to Fuller in the MSC clip were absolutely brutal, and Fuller sold them all like a champ. As I mentioned before, it means more for the Dogs to hurt Fuller than Jeff, mostly because of Robert's preexisting reputation as one of the baddest dudes in Tennessee. They don't keep him down for long, though, as he cuts a killer promo vowing revenge in order to maintain the proud Fuller-Welch wrestling heritage. I'm not sure if this is his best promo ever, but it's certainly one of the top two or three he's cut during this face run. Finally, we get a serious promo from Jeff, but it's interrupted by yet another beatdown from the Dogs, who eventually attempt to hang Jeff from the top rope, beating up T.D. Steele when he comes back for a second helping minus his referee's garb. This was the weakest part of the segment, mostly because Jeff sold his hanging terribly. You can see him clearly giving verbal instructions or cues to the Dogs, and even if that can be excused as opening his mouth and searching for breath, by the time the segment finally comes to an end he should be a lifeless lump, and he's not. He's still actively trying to escape, and I think I even spotted him helping his Grandpa Eddie get the noose off of his neck. This is a shocking lapse from someone who should know better; after all, he was raised in the business. Jeff's bad performance aside, these segments still established the Dogs as a team to be feared in '92, a team so dastardly and unpredictable that no one was safe in their presence at any time. Considering how far out things have gotten since Lawler/Embry was shelved, the grittiness of the Dogs is a welcome change of pace. It's a shame that Fuller left for SMW before he could do much more, but I think Jeff found a more than adequate replacement for him, to say the least.
  22. garretta
    This is one of those matches I'm glad I saw once but don't ever want to see again. After all the blood and gore, Tiger does the job to a bunch of suplexes. Talk about irony! If the finish hadn't taken place in the ring, I'd have questioned why they even bothered to put it up in the first place, since 95% of what we saw happened outside. By the way, I hope they didn't get too much dirt in their cuts, which could have led to something a lot worse than a kayfabed injury. Nice use of the top rope, which had apparently broken earlier, as a weapon. A broken rope doesn't really matter much in a match like this, of course, but at least they didn't completely forget about it. Applause for the attention to detail in showing the medical staff covering both wrestlers afterward in order to avoid hypothermia. I have a feeling that most American promotions would forget about something like that. I actually remember reading about the original island match between Inoki and Saito in PWI and thinking 1) "How cool is that?" and 2) "How the hell did they actually pull it off in the first place?" Guess I got my answer. Finally, does anyone know what monument Hase was praying in front of after the match? Maybe that will give us a clue as to why this match was staged the way it was.
  23. garretta
    This was a tough one. As brutal as the beating the DA gave Sting was, I couldn't get fully into it because I was trying to rebook the setup in my head. As usual, Pete's right; Bagwell comes off as a real dummy here for not accepting the shot against Austin, which had to make even the biggest mark in the world shake their head in disbelief. Sure, Heyman most likely has a trick up his sleeve, but it's still a shot at a World champion; accept the match and make the DA play out their hand. This would have been better if Bagwell had gotten a big head and challenged Austin himself, which would have brought out Heyman to laugh at him. Bagwell gets tired of being laughed at after a minute or so and pops Heyman, which brings out the troops and leads to Bagwell's beatdown. Sting comes out to make the save, and we go on from there. Either that or find some other reason for Sting to be attacked; heaven knows the DA really doesn't need an excuse to beat the hell out of Sting at this point. Keep in mind that TBS was still serving as the local station for WCW in the Atlanta market, so in many ways they were trying to be a national promotion and a regional promotion at the same time. Hence the shoutouts to Sprayberry High School. Actually, Buff looks like he could still be in high school here. Did anyone else catch the comment that JR made when Buff put his opponent away with the cradle suplex? "Perfectly executed." Shoutout to Curt? A shot at Vince? My money's on both. Did anybody else expect Judy Bagwell to come down out of the stands and attack Heyman when Paul mentioned Buff's mom and dad? I liked Paul visually illustrating the two types of breaks people get in wrestling with the aid of the cast. The man may be a bit too loud for my taste at times, but he can also be wonderfully clever in ways not too many other managers can be (or choose to be, In many cases). Speaking of which, his tantrum when Bagwell mentioned Sting is one of the rare times that I enjoyed seeing him totally snap. The other faces were way late coming out of the locker room. I get that you don't want fourteen guys brawling all over the arena, but at least one or two could have come out before Sting's knee was pounded with that unbreakable cast a hundred times. JR's eyerolling act usually comes about when Heyman takes shots at Turner Broadcasting, so in those cases it's understandable. If only he didn't do it 80-90% of the other times Paul opens his mouth as well.
  24. garretta
    What we saw of this served its purpose well: to set up Sting/Luger at SuperBrawl. That match is going to have a hard time topping the faceoff here, which was about as action-packed a sequence as I've seen in quite a while. Maybe it's because they're such good friends in real life, but Sting and Luger brought it all here, and so did Harley, who still bumps like a champ despite all of his injuries. I'm surprised they booked the brawl on the floor, which almost never happens in a battle royal but might have been the best part of the bout that we saw. I can't wait to see what happened between Sting and Abby after hearing it hyped so heavily. Nice to see the setup for the Steamboat/Rude feud. This marks the first time that I've seen the skin-the-cat move backfire on Steamer. Rude slapping the Rude Awakening on Sting helps keep that feud hot, but JR's right: Usually in battle royals there are extra referees to make sure that eliminated wrestlers go straight to the back, but if there were any here, they conveniently fell asleep at the switch. I loved Luger mocking Sting's "OWWWWWW!" Why can't he show that kind of personality (or any other kind, for that matter) a little more often? Lice of the segment goes to Tony, who quickly corrects JR's assertion abut Luger and Sting's status with "They're not just stars, they're superstars!" Not only is it true, but it's a nice subtle dig at Vince, who was overusing the word then and definitely still does today. This is for Phil: Why is it unfortunate that Sting's in two feuds at once? As long as both of them are well-executed, I think that it adds a bit of spice and depth to the product to have guys targeted by two enemies at once. It sure beats the WWF, where guys are so deeply trapped in their own feud bubbles that they barely even interact with anyone else on the roster, face or heel. Where was Hughes? I didn't see him with Harley or in any other sequences involving Luger. Had he been in Battlebowl earlier?
  25. garretta
    Count me in as one of those who isn't quite sure what this was doing on the syndicated B show. Don't get me wrong, this was a good match for what it was, but to not only make it a cage match, but a Thundercage match, seems like overkill even with the finish of the match the previous week. To make it non-title renders the whole thing pointless, although I suspect that that was mostly because Dustin and Steamboat would be getting the tag titles in just a few days. Since this was going out in syndication, they probably didn't want too much blood, but thank heaven they allowed some in the postmatch brawl to at least partially justify the cage's presence. Nice to be able to hear at least some of the trash talking going on. My favorite spot was when Taylor taunted Zenk after he caught his boot, sneering "What are you gonna do?" and got his answer with an enzugiri. Wrestling needs more comedy like that. Was there any significance to Cappetta giving the weights for the faces, but not the heels? I guess they figured that announcing champions at weights under 235 (as all three of the Yorks were) would make the match seem uncompetitive on paper. Terri trying to get the key from Nelson was a nice piece of business and shows that she's learned to work at ringside fairly well. It's a pity that her interviews from around this time didn't make the set so we can judge how far she's come in that respect. When did JR start calling the matches for Pro? Was Lance on his way out or already gone? This is one of the few Pro matches in the first two Yearbooks that didn't come from WGN. We may not have had blood, but we sure had some uncomfortable crotch shots, particularly from Rich. It's rare that you see the same guy take two low blows in the same bout like he does here. I think I've said this before, but it bothers me when people imply that Vince didn't really know how to book a cage match. In most territories, even though cages were certainly used as weapons, their main purpose was to ensure a fair match where holds could be exchanged and maneuvers executed without interference. In the WWF, they only used the cage if two guys wanted to beat the living hell out of each other. Thus, it was more of a test of manhood to escape the cage after beating your opponent to death than it was to get a pinfall on them. Keeping people in and out so a fair wrestling match could be held was barely a priority, although they paid lip service to it. If Blassie, Albano, and the other managers would have been willing to take the bumps, Bruno, Backlund, and Hogan would have probably taken them into the cage while the match was still going and beaten them to a pulp too, as they often did after the match. it's sad to see the Yorks go, at least as a full-time stable, but with the DA on the scene and only room for one heel supergroup, I guess it was inevitable.
×
×
  • Create New...