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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    We don't often see a heel interrupt an interview and get decked for his trouble with no preamble whatsoever, but it happens here. I'm guessing that the footage Fuller's so steamed about is from the week before, which I'll get to soon. When I first saw Fuller as a face, I was wondering how he'd pull it off, since he was so good as the big blustering heel with a hint of sleaze. Well, it's a shame he's in a territory with hometown legends like Lawler and Dundee and young stars like Jeff, because he'd be one of the top faces in quite a few other territories. He promises a buttkicking and delivers like few others I've seen, and he and Jeff make a better team than I ever dreamed they would. It's too bad in a way that he's going heel again in SMW (even though he's great at it), but at least we have a couple of matches with him and Jeff against the Dogs in January before he leaves and Lawler takes his place in the feud.
  2. garretta
    Even though we don't have this on either the '91 or '92 Yearbooks, I wouldn't be shocked if this was one of Prichard's final matches in the USWA, and that the piledrivers led to some kind of indefinite suspension which cleared the way for him to go to SMW. As is usually the case in Memphis, when there are women involved in a match or angle, they get most of the attention whether they can actually work or not. Fortunately, other than a few tackles and some hair-pulling they kept CJ away from Jackie, who could probably hurt her for real like she'd swat a fly, whether she means to or not. I'd like to see how Embry sold five piledrivers in a row too, but he doesn't have any more segments on this Yearbook, and I don't think we see him again until mid-January. He probably left for a while to go home for the holidays, since I don't think he was a native Tennesseean. (Even if he brought his family with him, being piledriven five times is a perfect excuse to take a holiday vacation.)
  3. garretta
    Not the best promo Jake's ever cut, but it's more than enough for this setting. Not only does he set up the Rumble and continue the issue with Savage, he also takes a veiled shot at Beefcake when he references Bruti's love of fast motorcycles, among other things (like powerboats, for example). Beefcake gulped visibly after that line, which is why I figure it was a shot, intentional or not. I thought it was interesting that they accompanied Jake talking about Liz with footage of the slap from Tuesday in Texas. I thought they'd be a little more judicious in how they used that footage, since I'm sure there were parts of the country where running stuff like that could have led to serious repercussions. Dallas comes to mind for sure after what happened to the USWA. After hearing Jake talk up his alliance with Taker, I can't help but wish that it was a bit more explicit, even for a short time (I know Taker turned in February to set up Mania VIII). They just seemed like such a natural pair. I loved Gino's constant potshots at Jake, which was a luxury Vince didn't even allow himself on the air. Then again, by now there was little coming out of Vince's mouth that wasn't straight-up hype, and obnoxious hype at that. Heenan's closing taunt over the shot of Liz holding her cheek had to be approved by Savage, as protective of Liz as he was. It simply had to be. If Beefcake's not an active wrestler, why is he still wearing tights? A suit's too much to ask, but why not jeans and a T-shirt or golf shirt?
  4. garretta
    Maybe the best babyface promo I've ever heard from Piper, and the best part is that he keeps going even as he's locking Percy in the casket! Only a verbal master could handle something like that. I thought for a second that he was going to say, "At fifteen I wanted to be a professional wrestler, and they gave me Perfect's father Larry 'The Ax' Hennig. Squashed me in ten seconds flat like the punk I was then. Not exactly what I had in mind........." (According to legend, Larry was Piper's first opponent. They wrestled in Winnipeg, and Piper really was squashed in ten seconds. Too bad that in Vince's world, the Mr. Perfect character has no father worth mentioning.) I kind of hate to keep picking on Percy, but this was another rotten performance from him. His mugging and eye-rolling took Piper's serious (for wrestling, anyway) message and made it seem like the usual promotional bunk. Yes, it hyped the Rumble, but it was a stirring message completely on its own as well. Again, the fault isn't with Percy Pringle (or Bill Moody, if you prefer) the man, it's with the concept of Paul Bearer the character. He could have been just as legitimately scary and creepy as Taker, but it's almost like Vince wanted to take the sting out of Taker a bit, so he made Bearer goofier and more kid-accessible. Everyone in the audience who's at least heard of The Addams Family knows exactly who Percy's trying (and failing) to imitate, and at this point I'm sorry that John Astin's just a little too old to come to the WWF and show the world how the character of Gomez Addams is supposed to be done. Odds are that he'd actually add more to the Taker character than Paul Bearer has so far.
  5. garretta
    If I didn't know better, I'd swear that JR's trying to bury Heyman singlehandedly. I know babyface announcers are supposed to show disgust for heel managers and their tactics, but there's a way to do it and a way not to do it. I've seen JR interact with heels both before and after this, and he was never this bad. He'd get in a heel's face occasionally as every announcer does, but he'd never make faces behind the guy's back as if to say, "Don't pay attention to this idiot, folks". If I'd been Dusty, I'd have either warned JR not to do that again or assigned Tony to be the exclusive interviewer of the DA. Fortunately, Paul rises above JR's juvenile behavior to almost literally declare WCW dead and buried, last rites and all. Apparently Sting is hurt, and the rest of the faces are hereby served notice that they won't stop the DA, which in turn won't stop until Paul has a seat on the Board of Directors. Leaving aside the obvious question of what good it would do Heyman to have a seat on the board of a company that no longer exists, this is the best promo work he's done since his return to managing. There's a great combination of glee and menace almost oozing out of his pores, both over the supposed elimination of Sting and the upcoming eliminations of the other babyfaces. The one thing I don't like is that Arn and Larry are superior promos to Heyman even at his best, and yet they're just standing there saying nothing whatsoever. To tell the truth, Arn's even better than Rude, and yet Rude's the only other guy who talks, and barely at that. Take a tip from less eloquent managers like Fuji once in a while, Paul, and just stand there looking inscrutable while your best talker (Arn) tells the world how it is, has been, and always will be. The tux thing didn't bother me much; Medusa looked stupid in hers, and I think Rude's always going to be in a robe so he can take it off to show his body whenever the mood strikes, which it didn't in this case. Paul got away with indirectly mentioning both the WWF and The Four Horsemen........or did he? Verbal asides like those may not have been the main reason why he was fired in the summer of '92, but they certainly didn't help his case to be retained.
  6. garretta
    Cactus and Sting could have been an interesting team, considering what's happened between them. Cactus and Hammer........I can't have a nightmare that scary. Mick does a wonderful job here putting over the fact that he and Abby are out to win Battlebowl, not just cripple people, while Abby finds a fascinating plaything in JR's mic cord. I liked the ending with the two of them beating each other over the head with Abby's stick, but JR could have sold it a little better. He must be going through an exceptionally grumpy stretch, between smarting off to Rude and pretty much dismissing two of the promotion's scariest heels as overgrown children. "While they finish playing"? I get that Rude and Luger are bigger heels than Mick and Abby right now, but this almost sounds like the prelude to a burial. I know Abby in particular has to be close to leaving, since he never stayed too long in one place if he could help it (at least in North America), but there was no need for JR to try to emasculate him like that. To echo Kevin's point, a Control Center that fully explains the concept of the Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl would do a lot of good right about now. I've managed to figure things out (I think), but I could always use an official explanation to make sure.
  7. garretta
    I thought the other faces were trying to pull Sting off, alveit half-heartedly. I remember JR saying that they were rooting for him to break Rude's leg, though, and you never see that from a group of faces. I was paying more attention to the amount of people who simply could not pull Sting off of Rude. I counted Medusa, Heyman, and at least one (maybe two) referees. I'm not even sure El Gigante could have done the trick, though. I loved the idea of Rude's big yap getting him in trouble, and of Heyman practically prostrating himself trying to stop Rude, but Rude ignoring him completely. Rude actually got the advantage for a second with another of his patented clips, but it didn't last long at all. Why is Rude taking press slams on his stomach? Is that a way for him to tell fans that his washboard abs are for more than just show, or is he having back trouble? JR got more than a bit mouthy at the very beginning of this. I guess his disgust for Heyman (both real and kayfabed) drove his mouth to overtake his common sense. Let's just hope it doesn't become a pattern, at least where Rude's concerned. Heyman he can insult till the cows come home. I wasn't surprised that the troops didn't come down to save Rude; who wants to wade into the middle of a crowd of bloodthirsty babyfaces and risk permanent injury? Besides, Rude got himself into this with his own big mouth, so let him dig himself out. "Come here, pal!" was a good line, but it would have been much better if Sting hadn't realized what he'd said right afterward.
  8. garretta
    This might be the most athletic that I've ever seen Sting. He clearly dominated Rude in what we saw, and had answers for both Medusa and Heyman besides. Unfortunately, his temper got the best of him as he fired Rude over the top right in front of the referee to earn a disqualification and save Rude's title. As wild as this was, I think the following month's finish would have worked better. On Christmas night at The Omni, they had another rematch, which again went to Rude on a DQ when Sting refused to break the Scorpion. As wild as the finish we saw was, I think the other would have fit better for a serious blood feud, and it wouldn't have made Sting look like an idiot in the bargain. Medusa looked like she was in for a spanking from the Stinger before Rude clipped him. She knew her way around the rung pretty well, having been a former AWA World ladies' champion, and they seem willing (at least so far) to use that to the DA's advantage. Borne making the first save is a bit strange, since he wasn't involved in the Sting/DA feud, at least not as a main player. Steamer and Dustin should have been the first two out of the locker room. Line of the segment: JR calling Heyman "The original Thanksgiving turkey". I wish we had at least the finish of the rematch; as I said, it sounds even more intense than this one!
  9. garretta
    No, DR, the tape just cuts off before she finishes. As for the segment itself, we all know that Missy doesn't write her own stuff; she's barely capable of even reading it, or so it seems (I've heard that she's actually very intelligent away from the ring), so we have to ask ourselves why Dusty and Herd want to make this guy a stereotypical Japanese heel when he's so much better than that. We've seen ourselves on the Yearbooks just what he can do, and he and Pillman would seem to fit together like a hand in a glove. But I guess they want to make sure there isn't any split in the crowd, so they're making Liger into a lighter, quicker version of Mr. Fuji. All we need is for him to throw salt and scream "BANZAI!" through his mask before every match and we're set. Hopefully Liger can overcome this garbage and show the WCW fanbase what he can do. I'm guessing that this segment doesn't last too much longer, because I don't see it on the matchlist for the '92 Yearbook. I'm hoping that they found something useful for Missy to do in the new year, but this outfit being what it is, I tend to doubt it. She hasn't been the same since she and Eddie Gilbert split up (professionally), and about the only thing that may revive her career is to find a wrestler who needs a valet, stand next to him, and look silently pretty. Then again, there are plenty of women who can do that, so she may just be better off quitting the business altogether.
  10. garretta
    Thanks, Pete. I thought it would be something like that. I don't agree that it would have legs, but that's mostly because Sarge was winding down by this point, plus the fans never really loved him as much as they did before all the turncoat garbage. If Vince had gone with a feud like this, it would have been mostly to get Tatanka over as a heel, which meant Sarge would have jobbed clean for the most part. Duggan could have filled the bill just as well.
  11. garretta
    Yet another one of those WWF vignettes where if you don't recognize the guy as a wrestler, you won't find out by watching it. I'll give Vince a pass on this one, since it's Tatanka's first appearance, but let's hope we get to wrestling-related stuff sooner rather than later. Pete, my gears are probably a bit slow, but how do you see Tatnaka as a possible heel to feud with Sarge? I guess you could have Tatanka target him as a modern member of the military that once forced the natives off their lands, but Sarge is a Marine, not a foot solder. Could you explain what you meant if you're reading this?
  12. garretta
    The only really compelling promo in here is Jake, and leaving taste aside, how in the world do you follow him? Hacksaw, Tito, and the Nasties try their best, but the usual wrestling prattle pails in comparison to Jake's (darkly) inspired eloquence. He's having the run of his life here, and one can only wonder how big the aborted '86-87 heel run vs. Hogan would have been if he'd been this hot on the stick. I didn't much like the idea of classifying Sid's presence as a "rumor". If everybody who's anybody is supposed to be in the thing, with some guys even working twice, the bigger shock would be if Sid wasn't involved. Gene, just do what you do every year and say you'll be back with more names next week. Being overly cute gets you nowhere. Haku and Volkoff for Jannetty and Saggs? I'm not sure about Nikolai at his age, but Haku is definitely an upgrade, even though we all know he isn't getting the title (and surely knew it in real time, too). Hopefully we hear from the three biggest names in the match (Flair, Hogan, and Taker) sooner rather than later. You'd think they'd have been the first three people heard from, but Kevin's probably on target about Vince wanting to give the midcarders their brief time in the sun first.
  13. garretta
    That's it? No speech, no angle, nothing? They could have done this on Update and saved the trouble of getting Blassie to fly in for the taping. It's nice that Mean Gene gets a brief hug. I'll bet he was legitimately well-liked among the boys, since from what I've heard he could certainly hold his own when it came to partying. Both Piper and Savage are apparently gone from commentary, since their in-ring careers are heating up. This isn't the best introduction to Curt as a color man; he spends most of his time trashing Bret and putting himself over, although he's retired. Not being Bret's biggest fan is one thing, especially when Bret beat him for the IC belt, but this sounds like sour grapes that he knows he won't able to do anything about, at least any time soon.
  14. garretta
    I haven't seen the Tuesday in Texas match yet, so I'll just say that putting the title on the line at the Rumble was inspired, if a bit self-serving, thinking on Vince's part. He knew that Flair had to be champ at some point to maximize his potential, but there was no way he wanted Hogan losing to Flair in a title match, even via the kind of screwjob we saw at MSG in November. What to do? Set it up so that Flair doesn't have to pin anybody to get the belt, yet can still be put over as a world-class athlete and a worthy titleholder. Flair can rightfully brag that he beat every top star in the WWF to win the title, and each entrant in the Rumble can claim that Flair still hasn't pinned them one-two-three, so he can be set up believably against any one of them. Of course, guys like Nikolai Volkoff and Jerry Saggs aren't getting anywhere near the title, but that's beside the point. As a side benefit, this introduces the stipulation that the winner of the Rumble will receive either the title (in years when it's vacant) or a shot at the title at WrestleMania, which they still use today and which has made the Rumble the special event that it is. When Vince gets a good idea, it's a really good one. Of course, we all know what happens when he gets a real stinker, don't we? I agree about Mean Gene trying to pass off Tunney's announcement as live being a rotten, badly executed idea. He's never done it before, and I hope to hell he never tries it again.
  15. garretta
    The best part is, Dr. Tom didn't insult CJ at all; he merely said that she could give Eric all the new looks she wanted, but that didn't change the fact that Dr. Tom was still the Southern champion. An attack like this over something so innocent proves that, new look or not, Embry's still a dangerous psychopath who will do anything he can to injure those who displease him. Too bad we won't be seeing a whole lot more of this feud, as Dr. Tom will soon be opening a practice on the other side of Tennessee for SMW. Interesting that Dr. Tom being rammed into the bell was sold by Dave and Corey as being every bit as dangerous as the DDT on the floor, if not more so. Then again, the bell in the Memphis studio sounds a lot heavier than those used by the WWF and WCW, so it probably would be more dangerous as a weapon if it were used in a real fight.
  16. garretta
    My first try got eaten, so I'll just say thanks to Jingus for the information about Falk. I couldn't think of anyone else who might fit the bill, and I know that Steve Lombardi was Kim Chee in the WWF, so who better to be Friday than the USWA's answer to Lombardi? Good point about Lawler, Hak, and the surfboard as well. The last thing Memphis needed was Lawler out of action for a period of time with an accidental, legitimate concussion.
  17. garretta
    I don't know what was more impressive: a hardcore version of Kamala who could actually move around and look like he knew where he was, or Paul Neighbors having enough of Friday and beating the hell out of him. I hope we got a match between Neighbors and Friday at the next MSC card, even if it's not on the Yearbook. Hak may not have been able to lift the surfboard and hit Lawler with it if it was too heavy for him. Then again, if that's the case why use it at all when you can just use the good-old fashioned steel chair? That's part of the reason they're there, for Pete's sake. To think that Kamala went from this to pinning people who were on their stomachs and going bowling with Slick in the course of a year. This match and the previous Lawler match (which I haven't seen yet, but they give it eighteen minutes on TV, so it can't be too horrible) proved that Kamala could still work well enough within the confines of his gimmick that he didn't need to be made a complete idiot out of. Why Vince chose to make him one of the few people in wrestling whom George Steele could be considered smarter than, I can't begin to say. Why he insisted on calling Friday Kim Chee, I can't say either. Maybe it's an obsession he has with dog meat (which is what kim chee means in Korean). Speaking of Kamala's handler, who played him in Memphis? It has to be a worker, with his timing and the way he could throw punches. My candidate (and I'm being serious): Tony Falk.
  18. garretta
    This was actually cute in its own way. Calm Embry is a nice change of pace, although he might have overdone it a but here. Dave goes from mockingly rolling his eyes to shaking his head in wonderment at what CJ has wrought, although what this meant for Dr. Tom and the Southern title was unknown at the time. I'm not sure that the idea of this segment was putting over the match stipulations; it was introducing CJ and furthering the dissension between Falk and Embry. Hair matches don't really need to be put over, because they're self-explanatory. Lose the match and be shaved bald; a moron could understand that. There were other priorities at work here, and they were tended to quite nicely. CJ telling Tony that she'll make him over like she did Embry if Embry loses was the perfect cliffhanger; not only does it further Falk's isolation from Embry, it brings up the idea that losing the match may not be the biggest deal in the world to Embry. That can't be right, though, especially against Prichard, so what does the "master manipulator", as Dr. Tom calls him, have up his sleeve for Monday night? CJ can actually talk a bit, it seems, which is an improvement from most of the other women of Memphis that we've seen over the last two yearbooks. Let's hope she keeps it up!
  19. garretta
    I completely overlooked the stuff from the week before, so this is my first look at Embry with short hair and a valet. Based on what I saw here, it's definitely not an improvement. I've read ahead, so I know CJ's presence will be explained in one of the interviews I have to catch up with, but if she's going to interfere in matches, she has to look a little better than she did here. Memphis is famous for valets who can't do a thing physically, but this is going too far. Kevin had it right; it looked like she was trying to rub her feet on Dr. Tom's back. Soup, on the other hand, had it wrong; even Liz would interfere more advantageously than that. In fact, she already has; remember her taking her skirt off at SummerSlam '88? Tony sure looked hapless here hitting Embry with the Texas flag, but what else can they do with him except have him take over for Eddie Marlin? He's done everything else in the USWA. Too bad the Southern title won't do Embry a blessed bit of good as far as getting a shot at Lawler goes; he's moved on to his old pal Kamala, which is a shame because Kamala, even if he trades the title with Lawler once or twice, has no long-term future in Memphis, at least not like the one they've already pissed away with Embry (and Prichard, for that matter).
  20. garretta
    This was basically a spin kick vs. lariat match, with Choshu and the lariat finally winning. Other than the test-of-strength filler and a couple of headlocks, I can't remember any other hold or move being used in the match. I've seen much better from both of these guys. This wasn't quite in "What's this doing on here?" territory, but it was awfully close.
  21. garretta
    This was really two separate matches: the first half was all Hogan, the second half all Flair. That meant that it wasn't quite the epic encounter most fans were picturing; then again, in order to be that epic it would have had to be NWA World Champion Flair vs. WWF World Champion Hogan before 100,000 fans at the Rose Bowl sometime in '86, winner take all. That never came close to happening, so this was the next best thing. We got to see each man whip up on the other, and both sets of fans (make no mistake, there were quite a few visible Flair fans at the Garden on this night) came away thinking that their man gave his opponent the beating he'd been meaning to for years. There was only one problem: the commentary. Vince finally had the match most wrestling fans had dreamed of for over seven years in his number one market, was sitting right there to call it in fact, and how does he frame the whole thing? He tells a story which has Flair and Curt as nothing more than operatives of Percy's, out to soften up Hogan for the match that really matters with Taker at Tuesday in Texas. That brought what happened in the ring down about a hundred notches. Anyone could have been used in that spot, even Steve Lombardi. It didn't need to be someone who up until a week or so ago had his own separate and arguably more compelling issue with Hogan. That issue needed to be dealt with entirely separately. Ideally, the match at Survivor Series would have been Hogan/Flair with Taker doing the interfering instead of the opposite, which would have made this a rematch with Flair defending against Hogan. As it was, once the whole "real World champion" hook was all but eliminated, both by Hogan's loss to Taker and Tunney's decision to, in non-kayfabe terms, strip Flair of his gimmick, this became a match with nothing at all on the line, and I'll bet some fans would rather have seen Taker defend against Hogan instead, with Flair either fighting Piper again or someone else entirely. Let me try and explain what I mean by Tunney, a kayfabe President of the WWF, stripping Flair of his gimmick. Everyone knows that the NWA belt had to go back, that Flair couldn't keep displaying it on pain of the WWF being sued into oblivion. That's all fine and dandy. But they missed an opportunity to really keep the gimmick hot. Okay, so you don't want me (Flair) displaying another organization's belt, Mr. Tunney? Fine, any old belt will do, and I'll prove it by using one of your old belts. Let's see you blur a belt that your organization made. It's like Jake Roberts and his snakes; it's not the snake (or the belt) that matters; it's the man who possesses them, and until I'm beaten, I'm still the Real World champion. Deal with it! This, in essence, makes a virtue out of necessity; Flair needs to display a WWF-approved belt, so give him one but don't blur it. That gives it at least some symbolic value and allows Flair to rub Tunney's nose in his own decision. But that didn't happen, of course, and Flair didn't look particularly badass thumbing his nose at Tunney's decision with a tag belt nobody knew even was one. Anyway, back to the match. I liked Heenan asking to go to ringside when Curt didn't show up, and I'd have loved to have seen it. Curt's really earning his keep outside the ring, though, as he's able to get physically involved at least somewhat, helping Flair with leverage on the figure-four and handing him the knucks he used to knock Hogan out here. Ideally, Heenan would handle the talking Flair doesn't and Curt would be the ringside muscle, but they seldom chose to work it that way. For whatever reason, Vince hates to identify his "officials" by name. I'm sure a lot of longtime MSG viewers recognized Tony Garea, but Vince refused to say his name. He also refused to acknowledge the other "official" in the ring, who was none other than referee Earl Hebner's twin brother Dave. Was the finish cheap? Not under these circumstances. Contrary to what Loss said above, this was the worst time to give Hogan a second straight televised pinfall loss, screwy or not. Flair's cheating had to be acknowledged and punished, the way it wasn't at Survivor Series, in order to reassure the fans that it wouldn't be tolerated at Tuesday in Texas. Anything less and the buyrate for TIT would have plunged through the floor, at least in the New York area where this outcome was known. Who wants to see Hogan potentially cheated three times in a row and pay top dollar to do it? Not anyone with common sense, that's for sure. This was a good first bout for what it was. Hopefully the rematch in December will have a tad more zing.
  22. garretta
    Mind-warping stuff is more like it, Loss. This would make sense if they had separate champions for all the shows, with the World champion going back and forth among them, but they never thought of that, apparently. As they tried to do it, it was all just one great big mess. By the way, just to clarify, was TBS then its own universe as well? There was at least some connection between WCWSN, Power Hour, and Main Event; remember the Gauntlet in the fall of '90? Or was each show on TBS separate? Thanks for the info!
  23. garretta
    This was okay until the finish, which was dumb on a couple of different levels. First of all, I could buy the whole bit about Josh checking on Rich after Taylor nailed him with the computer if he'd shown any reluctance at all to lock up with Rich at any time in the first two matches, But he hadn't; he treated him like Morton and Taylor until it was the convenient time for him to go soft-hearted and cost his team the belts. Second, if Morton whacking Rich on top of the head caused him to bleed like a stuck pig, shouldn't Borne have been bleeding as badly from the back of the head after Morton clobbered him? Either Tommy was busted open hardway or someone got sloppy somewhere. The heels had much the better of this, working together almost flawlessly as a unit. That makes sense, considering that Morton and Rich had been face tag team partners shortly before they were recruited by the Yorks and that Ricky and Taylor had been partners at least occasionally in various territories. The last truly cohesive face unit to hold the titles had to be the LOD and Dusty back in the mid-eighties. Interesting point that Pete brought up about the computer. I don't think it was an actual computer, now that I got a look at it. I don't know what object could be made to look like a laptop, but I don't think anyone would use an actual computer as a weapon in a fight even if they had one handy. Besides, I had a laptop back in the day, and they're a lot heavier to lift and control than they look. They're also very sensitive, and if they were used to hit people as often as the Yorks do it, eventually pieces of the thing would be scattered all over the ring. The syndicated announcing in WCW, particularly for Main Event, continues to be abysmal. Tony calls this match like he's reading the schedule of buses to Poughkeepsie, only perking up long enough to plug his hotline bit with Rich to be aired the following day. This isn't the announcers' fault entirely, though; if I was calling nothing but matches I knew to be recorded weeks in advance, some of which have been rendered utterly useless due to circumstances that have happened since their taping, I might not be so enthusiastic either. So Zenk has signed a match with Luger, has he? Where? When? I'll bet it's not at the Omni, or we'd have heard about it ad ridiculum for weeks now. Way to bury Rich by saying that the only man who can execute the hangman's neckbreaker/Rude Awakening is Rude. Or could that have been an insider's warning for Rich to stop using the move now that Rude was on the scene?
  24. garretta
    Pete said it best; this was a classic NWA World title match held in a WWF setting. Both guys looked really motivated here, which Lord Alfred noted on commentary. Each man got his spots in, but they didn't feel as if they were being done just to do them. The one exception might have been the referee shoving match; referees were seldom if ever touched in the WWF except when they needed to bump, and they never touched the wrestlers, which accounts for the line from His Lordship about Tunney being in attendance for the match (which wasn't true either in reality or kayfabe; if it was, they'd have shown him) and Earl Hebner being due for a trip to his office. I was watching this match mostly to see how they worked together after hearing about the controversies between them, and if there was any basis for problems. I never saw it. Bret fit into Flair's formula as well as any WWF wrestler possibly could, yet still fought back and didn't just let Flair get his spots in without working for them, like a lot of guys in WCW did. I loved the brawling sequences, which looked surprisingly stiff, and the scientific wrestling was probably better than in any WWF match which has made tape in the last two years. As for Curt, I still don't think he's the best fit as Flair's manager, but he added a lot to the contest without having to bump, which still would have been painful for him at this time. I liked how he dragged Flair to the ropes to break up Bret's sharpshooter, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually hit the ropes with their hand to cover up the fact that they were vibrating after one of the wrestlers used them for leverage, like Curt did to cover up for Flair here. It's a spot more heel managers should have thought of, and I'm surprised Curt had enough presence of mind to do so after such a short time as a manager. The countout finish was to be expected; Flair had no business with the IC belt, yet he couldn't lose either, clean or otherwise. Bret's slip off the apron probably would have been Curt holding Bret's leg if Curt had been up to par physically, but as it was, it was a fresh finish in a match that didn't figure to be important enough to need one. Sean Mooney has no business calling a Flair match, period. As much as I don't mind Flair being one of the boys more or less, hearing him called a "superstar" by Sean felt second-rate. There was no mention of the feud between Bret and Curt, and they never talked about how Bret beat Curt to win the IC belt in the first place, which didn't mean much but would have been a nice nod to history. I did appreciate Sean referring to the "outlaw belt", though; no other WWF announcer has put it quite that succinctly. They're already trying to soft-peddle Hogan/Flair, and worse than that they're changing their own storyline by claiming that Flair never wanted to face Hogan and that Hogan is the one trying to goad Flair into a match. Why would he want to do that? Does he want to be the Real World's Champion? It may seem like nitpicking to bring that up, but when the entire reason for Flair's presence is supposed to be that he came looking for Hogan after Hogan had ducked him for ten years, this attempt at changing stories midstream comes across as totally ridiculous. In a way, this was almost too good not to be on regular TV. I think a nationally televised countout win over Bret would have established Flair as someone worthy of being called the Real World Champion and really put some intrigue into his house show matches with Hogan. As it was, it's probably the best dark match ever to be released exclusively on Coliseum Video, and maybe one of the best matches ever to be held at a WWF syndicated taping.
  25. garretta
    First, this match was taped on 11/5, which was two weeks before the Enforcers lost the titles. That would help to explain the crowd; they probably spent half the match wondering where the hell Larry was and why this wasn't a title match. As for the match itself, Dustin looked superb here fighting two men, while Austin and Arn were decent, considering that they'd never teamed before. This has to be Jeannie's last televised appearance ever, as Steve was introduced as a member of the DA that night at 6:05. The turn wasn't badly executed, and I'll bet Arn remembered it move for move, since Barry did it to Luger while wrestling the Busters. (Note: I call Tully and Arn the Brain Busters when I talk about them as a team even in the Crockett years because I like the name and to avoid confusion with the Horsemen unit as a whole.) Bobby didn't put nearly as much effort into it as Barry did, but the circumstances were different; that was a World tag team title match, and Barry cost himself and Lex the belts, while this match was a syndie midcard tag that would end up being forgotten except for the turn itself. But the real problem was with the WCW production staff. If you know ahead of time that there's going to be a turn, doesn't it make sense to air the turn before it's announced on another one of your shows? Tony doesn't even try to show disgust or anger with Bobby, even after the fact, and he's not really invested in calling the action because the match itself doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, so we end up with a whole bunch of blah. Worse yet, there are no shots of Bobby walking back to the locker room, so the turn doesn't really sink in for those few who might not have known about it. If they had to show the match this way, they should have had Heyman come in and do gloating commentary about what an idiot Dustin was and how he's the second victim of the DA behind his buddy Sting. He could have also put Arn and Austin over as DA members, since they would be announced as such on the same weekend that Bobby was. It's not exactly a golden opportunity lost, but it's something that could have been used to the DA's advantage. The sad part is, there have been many instances over these first two Yearbooks of WCW matches being aired too long after something important has gone down which involve one of the people wrestling, thus forcing the announcers into some rather embarrassing spots and requiring them to explain things that are suddenly more complicated than they have to be. It only gets worse as time goes on, from what I've heard, and that's one reason why WCW wasn't able to overtake the WWF until the Monday Night Wars era, when both Raw and Nitro were live more often than not.
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