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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    This attack was right out of the Horsemen playbook. It's nice to know that this was actually done to cover up a real injury, because if it was just an angle you'd think that they'd have targeted Dustin instead. Cactus and Abby are a strange choice for a "red carpet" style interview, but it was worth it to see Abby in a shirt and tie, complete with kendo stick. Does anyone else think that DDP being the only one to shake Bischoff's hand (other than babyface Windham) was due to their real-life friendship more than anything else? I appreciate your dislike for Bischoff, Pete, but how can you tell he's being an insincere ninny off of what little we saw of him here? He's no less sincere than anyone else who's ever done an interview like this, at least to me.
  2. garretta
    Why didn't the non-title match with the "Screaming Eagles" make the set? We don't see the buildup to this, so it really seems out of nowhere. Then again, Arn and Larry are still pushing the Patriots as their top challengers, and they're going to start the angle with Dustin at Havoc, so what really was the point of involving the Birds to begin with? Not that Michael and Jimmy didn't look good battling the champs here, but even fans watching in real time had to be confused if they'd figured out that most guys only pursue one feud at a time. The promo itself was superb, a perfect balance of Larry's snobbery and intellectualism and Arn's straight talk. Tully will always be Arn's best partner as far as I'm concerned, but Larry's moving up quite quickly, and I've only seen them wrestle on this Yearbook. How grand it would be to put them in a time machine and send them to the UWF in '86 so they could meet the original Birds in something close to their prime. Strange to see Cappetta conducting some interviews, although he does nothing more than hold the mic. I guess it's cheaper than using Solie or Schiavone (but wouldn't Tony be there regardless?)
  3. garretta
    Add my voice to the approving throng. They've really tried to build up Simmons not only as a top contender to the World title, but an upstanding citizen, someone the fans would be proud to have as their champion. The training sequences were fairly standard, but I liked the use of the Bowden piece from the Clash, plus footage of Simmons shaking hands with Bowden. You can tell what a big deal this is for Ron, both in kayfabe and real life. Well done to one and all!
  4. garretta
    Almost everyone else has said what I was going to. I applaud the Turtles for not only wrestling in those suits, but being as athletically impressive as they were while doing it. This was booked as a kind of exhibition match for the Turtles and Robin Hood, and they shone as expected, to the point that I'm still not sure who all the heels were. When I saw that a group of Ninja Turtles was wrestling on this Yearbook, I thought back to a match I saw on Will's Smoky Mountain set between a guy in a Ninja Turtle costume and Jim Cornette. This was back when Corny was trying to get himself over as a top heel not only out of the ring but in it, for the simple reason that he couldn't count on anyone else to show up for a given card. At any rate, the guy in the suit looked absolutely terrible, and not just because Corny booked himself to be in control. He could barely do anything except lay around in chinlocks, and if I'm not mistaken the bout ended in a DQ against Corny, so there wasn't even a clean pin. I expected something similar in this match, and I don't mind saying that I wasn't looking forward to watching it. Boy, was I surprised. Not only was there thrilling athleticism and high flying, but plenty of brutal strikes and good brawling, culminating in Robin Hood taking a double crotch job on the ringpost. The dive train might have been the best I've ever seen, and didn't feel like a rote spot at all. I was kind of disappointed that we didn't have a dogpile pin with all four Turtles instead of a Robin Hood submission win, but that's my only problem with this match. It's the best I've seen so far from a promotion that I just haven't been able to get into before, and I hope we have at least one more match out of it to see if this one can be topped (I'm betting it can't). Was Champion really one of the Turtles? If so, which one? We know it wasn't Cowabunga!
  5. garretta
    I remember reading these threads before I started the Yearbook and hearing through them about what an epic series Misawa and friends vs. Jumbo and friends was. Suffice it to say that I'm disappointed, and that's putting it mildly. Yes, the matches feature lots of good action, more than in most North American tags at this time. But Misawa and company never seem to truly break through and distinguish themselves as equals, or even slight superiors. They hang in, give gutsy performances, even have Jumbo and crew on the run from time to time. But you always know who the superior side is, and they generally show it in dominating fashion. In this match, for example, not only is Kikuchi put to sleep clean as a sheet, which is bad enough, but Misawa is obliterated by one of Jumbo's big boots so he can't interfere. It would have been one thing if he'd been pulled to the outside by Taue and had to fight him tooth-and-nail on the floor, but to have him taken out of action so definitively on top of Jumbo's clean submission win makes me question how Misawa ever got rematches with Jumbo and Taue like the one we'll see in early September, with Kawada taking Kikuchi's place. Wouldn't the fans have grown tired of seeing Misawa's side dominated? It wasn't just the finish either; many times Misawa came in to break up a pin attempt on Kikuchi, and instead of letting the referee get rid of Misawa, Jumbo or Taue would simply throw him over the top rope like yesterday's garbage. That's not the way to establish your opponents as true threats to you, and everyone involved in this bout has been around long enough to know it. If you judge these bouts by in-ring action, as most people here seem to, they're all solid three-and-a-half to four-star bouts, and any of them would be a Match of the Night on a North American card. If you're looking at it from the perspective of trying to tell the story of a overarcing battle between two factions of which each match is a chapter, the chapters are repetitive and the story is predictable and in need of a fresh twist in a hurry.
  6. garretta
    I'm not sure what you guys mean by "lack of urgency"; I though that both of these ladies showed a ton of desperation right from the opening bell. Scorpion tried to annihilate Suzuki with brute force, while Suzuki tried her best to send Scorpion home one-legged. The near-fall sequence at the end was a bit hotter than the last one because there was so much more on the line. A brilliant counter of a victory roll by Scorpion into a powerbomb gets the win, the mask, and the belts for Cutie, and Scorpion unmasks respectfully if not cheerfully. It's kind of a shame that JWP won't be around a whole lot longer; with workers like these and the style being booked, they could have been a sold alternative to AJW, although Aja and Bull were simply too unique not to be the biggest stars of women's wrestling in Japan and JWP had no one to match or eventually surpass them. The Scorpion might have come the closest, but losing her mask sort of takes away from her mystique a bit. I'm glad to see that JWP returns in a slightly different form later in the decade.
  7. garretta
    This match reminded me of the Warrior/Taker body bag match from MSG, right down to the three piledrivers and the urn shot leading to the babyface's win. Come to think of it, Taker looked none the worse after that match, either. You knew something screwy was going on when Tito got most of the offense in the first half of the match; unstoppable zombie Taker never sold for anyone else who wasn't Hogan or Warrior like that. To Tito's credit, he worked hard enough that the win didn't feel like something unfathomable; even the undead can have an off night once in a while, and it's up to his opponent to take advantage of it. Percy's mugging at ringside is way too much. It was too much down in Dallas too, but at least he was playing something resembling a human being down there. Here, It looks like he's so hooked on/entranced by whatever's supposed to be in the urn that he doesn't even watch the matches. He certainly doesn't show any concern when Tito's clearly in control and Taker can barely stagger around the ring. I'm becoming less and less of a fan of his as time goes on, although the gimmick needs a manager and no other manager in the WWF even comes close to fitting the bill. This win and the crowd's reaction to it supposedly put the idea in Vince's head that Tito might make a good short-term choice as WWF champion while they toured Europe the following year. According to Tito, it was himself, Bret, and one other babyface I can't remember right now. He was as surprised as anyone that Vince considered him after he'd had such a long midcard run, but was willing to take the belt for the duration of the tour and drop it when the tour was finished. Vince ultimately decided to go with Bret, though, and even Tito said that it was a much better idea to put the belt on someone with a long-term future. I'm not sure whether I believe the story, but take it for what you think it's worth. Taker may have lost, but he certainly came out unscathed; this loss wasn't designed to hurt his push one iota. Pete asked up above why Vince brought Mel Phillips to this card. I'm guessing that 1) He was already there, having served as the ring announcer for the London card two days before; 2) The match needed English introductions if they ever wanted to put it on Coliseum Video (I'm not sure if it made one of the "Around the World" tapes or not); and 3) Should Taker have gotten uppity for whatever reason, they could have shown this match back in the States, dubbed English commentary over it, and used it to bury (no pun intended) both the Taker character and the wrestler and manager behind it. The Flair bout and this one may be Tito's last two really good, competitive WWF matches. From here on out, he was a slightly better version of S.D. Jones and Leaping Lanny Poffo as his career wound toward retirement.
  8. garretta
    Not a fan of this one. First, the wrestlers only seemed to go for serious pins at the end of each round. Second, the ref was constantly out of position and counted slowly once he got into position, which means that either he was one of the most incompetent refs ever or knew the finish was a draw and decided not to bother counting false finishes. There was also at least one other instance of a perfectly legal move (I want to say it was a Taylor powerslam, but I could be wrong) that wasn't counted for some obscure reason that only Otto Wanz knows for sure. Beyond all of that, though, there was too much stopping and starting within roundsl. It seemed like they tied up in a test of strength/Greco-Roman knucklelock every thirty seconds whether they needed to or not, thus grinding the action to a halt. I realize that the round system and the different ways the rules are enforced make for a special kind of match pace, but these guys were European veterans and should have known how to keep matches exciting within the framework provided, which they didn't here. These bouts are nice curiosities, especially when they feature prominent North American workers. As it stands now, though, I honestly don't know if I could sit through a whole disc or a whole set of them.
  9. garretta
    They sure do things differently in Austria, as Wright gets the clean win here with an armdrag/hiptoss combo, which is an opening gambit almost everywhere else. The problem with these European matches for me isn't the round system, it's the inconsistent officiating. The worst example is the use (or lack thereof) of the top rope. At one point, Wright tries to pull the old shoulderblock from the apron/sunset flip over the top and into a pin combo, but the referee won't count. However, at other points in the match both guys perform aerial moves off the top and get counts. For those of you who are bigger experts than me in European wrestling (which is just about everybody on the board), can you explain exactly what the rules are concerning the ropes and how they can be used? At one point, the ref also refuses to make a count after Finlay runs into Wright's boot on a corner charge, which I've never seen before anywhere else. The edits here were small, and I could still follow most of the action. I couldn't hear the ring announcer admonishing the wrestlers in English, though, which was a shame. Pete's right about the "hair-pulling" spot looking ridiculous. I'm guessing that it was a staple of Finlay's act which Wright went along with just for laughs and crowd heat. By the way, does Wright remind anyone else of a taller and more muscular Baron Von Raschke?
  10. garretta
    Just what you'd expect from two master brawlers: a war that goes all over the place with little regard for the rules of wrestling, their own health, or the health of their fellow professionals, like the Japanese photographer. It was still going on outside when the tape cut off. I liked Woman in her Fallen Angel getup, but couldn't she have sold the spinning toehold a bit more? She wasn't a wrestler and hadn't worked out her legs any more than the average human, so what was she doing running around on two good legs at the end of the bout? Did Kevin say a magic spell over her knees while we weren't looking, or give her the betel nut (or however it's spelled) to make her forget the pain? Out of all the weapons used to great effect in this match, one was conspicuous by its absence: Terry's branding iron. I didn't see Terry flip the bird or hear him cuss much, and I was looking forward to both after reading the other comments. That's one disadvantage to watching handhelds; if you turn away for a second or miss a camera cut, you're potentially missing out on something important. Who was this Metal Maniac who came to Sully's defense after the match? Did he become someone important afterward? As entertaining as this match was, could you imagine Funk with Sully behind him in Florida or Memphis in the early eighties? Talk about a riot waiting to start, especially once Sully found the devil!
  11. garretta
    You can tell by this match that Windham's star isn't in the ascendant as far as the title goes; if it was, Hughes would have been squashed like a grape in under two minutes, and Harley would have been knocked for a loop at the very least. As it is, Barry's used as a model to show off Hughes' skill set, which is much greater than most people in his position. Someone in another thread commented that Dusty perhaps saw Hughes as the next Ray Traylor/Big Bubba Rogers, in that he had enough skill to transition from bodyguard to wrestler. This match is a great argument for that position, as Hughes dominates it for the most part, showing off great athletic ability, tremendous ring smarts, and a willingness to pull out every possible stop to win. Harley's great here too, looking like he could still wrestle at least occasionally. I loved the diving headbutt spot on the floor, and was actually waiting for the famous Race kneedrop to go with it. Is it too much physical action for a manager? Yes, if you hold Harley to the same standard as most ringside managers. But seven-time World champions who can still go a little get special dispensation in my book, as long as they can still make their spots look good and are willing to take their beating when the time comes. Harley fits both of those criteria. It almost makes me wonder what guys like Heenan, Fuji, and J.J. Dillon, who were all pretty fair wrestlers, could have done in terms of real ringside damage if Vince or whoever the promoter they were working for at a given time was would have let them. Fuji in particular could still go some in the mid-eighties when he was managing Muraco. I liked how JR and Heyman put over Hughes as almost a paid bounty hunter employed by Luger to eliminate Barry from the title picture, but they or whoever was feeding them material made a real mistake when it came to explaining Simmons' absence. Speaking at a Boys' Club? Is that the best they could do? Why not wrestling somewhere else, or just enjoying a night off? Actually, since this was a TV taping, I'll bet he was there and they just didn't want him to come out so Luger and company could get some uninterrupted heat by bashing Barry's head in, which is actually pretty smart thinking. I think this is the last time we'll hear JR and Heyman together calling a match; they don't call any matches together in October that I remember, and after Havoc Heyman's out as a commentator and comes back as the manager of the debuting Rick Rude on the 11/16 WCWSN, with the Dangerous Alliance formed in full the following week. After the closing brawl between Windham and Hughes, I'm not sure why they didn't sign a rematch between them for Havoc; it would have been a much more effective way to keep Hughes from causing trouble than simply banning him from ringside. Luger just standing there watching Hughes literally doing his fighting for him was a great visual, as was Harley trying to get Hughes out of Dodge at the end before Barry snapped for good and all and rained down a heaping helping of Texas whoop-ass on all three of them, Luger included. As usual, I agree with Pete; this was the best segment of the entire Luger title run so far. Lex is finally established as a heel champion in the Flair mold, complete with entourage and his own special brand of arrogance to make the package total (pun intended). We'll see if he can sustain this level of character excellence throughout the rest of his title reign.
  12. garretta
    This was just a basic match, nothing more. Tony's in-depth commentary is actually the star, as he builds up Josh as a real student of the game. In reality, Borne was too talented for this gimmick and probably wanted to incorporate more moves and holds into his matches, and WCW decided that that was the way to explain it. The arm work by both guys was nicely done, but none of it ends up going anywhere. Pete brought up the terrible finish, and the only reason I can come up with for it was that they needed to cut the match short for whatever reason. I've never seen a post shot that didn't draw blood used as an excuse for a disqualification before, and Cappetta was giving the announcement before Borne even had time to sell it. They've pulled this sort of thing before with other seemingly out-of-nowhere DQs, and time has to be the main reason. Post shots aren't legal, of course, but incidental ones like that aren't grounds for a DQ unless there are other factors in play. If I hadn't seen Jeannie with Austin in Dallas, I would have never known how good she really was. She's just been a typical valet here doing typical spots like the hair pull we saw in this match, nothing special. At this point Heyman will be an upgrade when the Dangerous Alliance starts up in WCW come November. The only time Jeannie has figured in an angle so far was when she accused Dustin of sending her roses before his TV title bout with Austin a while back. On a totally unrelated note, I wonder if the Bruise Cruise came off as scheduled. Looking through the '92 Yearbook matchlists, I don't see any segments devoted to it, and you'd think that a recap of it would have made the set somehow, since WCW made such a big deal out of it.
  13. garretta
    I'm not really into matches like this because I can't get past how crazy people like these are. You couldn't get me to step into a ring full of barbed wire fenced in by an exploding cage for all the money in the universe, work or no work. I agree that the ref is probably the best worker and bumper out of the three of them. As for the bell-to-bell match, I don't see how anyone can break it down and talk about it in terms used by wrestling reviewers. It's a simulated human cockfight, plain and simple, just like all the other matches done this way. Blood, gore, and explosions; you might as well talk about the structure and aritistic merit of a battle in World War II. There were a few token holds, mostly done to avoid the cage, which I guess was smart. Sorry, guys, but give me good old Memphis bullshit any day.
  14. garretta
    I liked this a little better than most of you, as Yamazaki overcame two near-knockouts to get the submission win with the ankle lock. A gutty comeback performance, and Yamazaki was still selling the effects of Anjoh's kicks to the midsection as he was leaving the ring afterward. Nothing earth-shattering, but a harmless way to kill fifteen minutes.
  15. garretta
    We didn't see a whole lot of this, but what we did see was a master class in tearing up a body part taught by Professor Fuchi. Almost every move he makes is targeted to the knee, and although Kroffat tries to keep fighting bravely, even throwing the towel Furnas tossed to stop the match back at him, the referee eventually sees enough and awards the match to Fuchi over Kroffat's heated objections. Does anyone think Kroffat could/should have been disqualified for throwing the referee around so much? I've seldom seen anyone abuse Japanese refs the way Kroffat did while he was still ambulatory. Could the ref have been a dojo student who needed to learn how to bump and sell in the referee's role?
  16. garretta
    Someone had to rescue Sid, so why not Duggan? I really can't think of anyone else who would have fit the bill except Hogan, and his focus is on Flair for now. I agree with Pete that Jake does a masterful job of convincing people that he really is a karate expert from Mexico or whatever El Diablo's supposed to be. Savage even refers to him as a possible friend of Santana's. Maybe once, Randy, but not anymore! The visuals of Taker and Percy coming to the ring, the casket being wheeled to ringside, and of course the cobra are striking (no pun intended), but another thing I'll remember is Randy's performance on commentary. Sid is his personal insrtrument for vengeance against Jake, and Randy agonizes over what it's gotten him, and also about not being able to do anything about it. For someone who's doing post-production commentary at a studio in Connecticut, he does an amazing job of convincing the audience that he's ready to leap from the booth and rush to ringside to help Sid as Sid has tried to help him. Of course, that doesn't happen, but there's another proxy ready and waiting in Duggan, who unties Sid but doesn't dare go after Taker and Jake while the cobra's loose. Sid acts like he wants to get at Jake and Taker right then and there, but as Vince says himself, he'd be foolish to try it, since Jake would presumably just toss the cobra at him. Seeing Duggan come down to help Sid against Jake, I'm reminded of something Jake said once in an edition of The Snake Pit just before the first Survivor Series (I think). He calls Duggan the only friend he has in the WWF, and history shows that most of the time when Jake needed a partner for one reason or another as a face, he ended up with Hacksaw. Not that that has much to do with the current situation, but a Duggan/Jake series where a past relationship, even a casual one, was alluded to might have been something nice to see. As to why Duggan got DQ'ed against Taker rather than do a clean job, I'd imagine that Vince was saving any Duggan pinfall losses for a more opportune time, although I can't think of one more opportune than this that presented itself for the rest of Duggan's WWF career. Did Duggan have his two-by-four with him when he came down? If he did, I don't remember seeing it. .
  17. garretta
    I don't ever need to see the Nasty Cam again. It's stuff like this that earned the WWF the reputation it's always had as the lowest common denominator in both the sports world and the entertainment world. Piper is on fire here, talking about how Flair has reawakened the man who damn near killed Snuka, beat up Mr. T, and kicked Cyndi Lauper. I don't think that's necessarily true; that Piper would have pulled a pair of brass knucks out of his kilt and shattered Heenan's jaw as a warning to Flair. But the point is made, more or less. I love how Heenan, the man who brought Flair to the WWF to take out Hulkamania, bends over backwards to disassociate himself from Flair's actions when he realizes that they could earn him a trip to the hospital if he's not careful. Piper makes sure to say that he doesn't want Flair's belt, he just wants to beat him up. He's going to be generous and allow Hogan to take the belt instead. What a guy! Piper really brings the past history to this segment; when Sean mentions Hogan, Piper starts by saying that the two of them still don't see eye-to-eye after nearly seven years, even though they've teamed up against common enemies in the past and have another one at the present time in Flair. I can't imagine any other babyface being allowed to say that they have differences with Hogan. Even Jake was cool with him when they were both faces, and almost every other face has worshipped at his altar unabashedly. I don't recall even guys like Orndorff or Muraco acknowledging that tension still existed between them and Hogan once they turned. The NWA belt is once again disrespected, with Piper referring to it disparagingly as "ten pounds of tin" at least twice, to Vince's profound delight no doubt. The ironic thing is, most of the guys currently on the roster would have given their eyeteeth to have that belt just a few short years before, and some of them had even fought Flair for it, including Piper. I liked the callback to Rod's involvement in the Virgil/DiBiase feud, although Virgil's almost completely on his own now that he's Million Dollar Champion. Skim milk at three in the morning, huh? No wonder Piper's warped! Sean continues to demonstrate his unfitness to be Prime Time host; when Piper and Heenan hotly debate Flair's actions and their aftermath, Sean intervenes not to play peacemaker, but to hype the Hot Ticket pay-per-view, which was seen by about six people, all of whom probably lived in the Hogan household. I guess it's not Sean's fault that he has to shill, but he could have found a much smoother way to segue between the argument and the shilling.
  18. garretta
    No, Soup. The smart money says that Vince ditched the show due to falling ratings. I can't confirm this independently, but I know that Prime Time switched to its final format, the roundtable, not too long after this. If you remember, Vince left the dying carcass of TNT in Okerlund's hands so Gene could be blamed for its cancellation, and it wouldn't be a shock if Sean was the designated patsy here. He's not at ease, barely interacting with Heenan and still sounding for all the world like he was running down the next big local show in the Events Center. Why Vince insists on using him for play-by-play and host roles that require him to have chemistry with someone other than Lord Alfred (who can work with anyone) I have no idea. Just keep him in front of a teleprompter; it's where he works best. As for the segment itself, it's a two-man show with Savage and Heenan. Plants or not, you can feel a genuine connection between Randy and the crowd, and he works them expertly. Yes, the signs and chants were obviously preplanned, and Heenan having to go through the crowd of protesters was funny, but not much else. The strength of this segment lies in the studio, where Savage makes a fool out of the Brain in every possible way, right down to sticking him with the check for the lunch date with his contest winner. If Vince and Gino aren't going to be around to play off of Heenan, the guests need to pick up the slack, and Randy does so spectacularly here. If he and Jake were actually engaging right now, I might say that hijinks like this were taking away from the feud, but since they're not, and since we all know that the drama will be turned up to eleven in a matter of a few weeks, I find it all perfectly acceptable. By the way, kudos to Bobby for knowingly playing the fool so well. It had to be hard for him to do stuff like this knowing that he couldn't get his heat back anymore, since he wasn't actively managing except for occasional appearances with Flair. But he does what needs to be done, holding up the "Reinstate" sign like a trooper and allowing himself to be punked. The difference between stuff like this and his other humiliations is that he knows in character that he's being humiliated and that there's no one coming to save him, which makes the whole thing even funnier. (I hope everyone gets that I'm talking about the Weasel character being humiliated and knowing it, not Heenan the performer, who's always been in on the joke.) I didn't know that Randy and Liz had a hotline of their own. Boy, Vince really tried his best to separate the little Hulkamaniacs from their piggy banks, didn't he? A better number might have been 1-900-OHH-YEAH, though.
  19. garretta
    Nobody came off too well here. Lawler seemed like he was rubbing salt in an open wound, both literally and figuratively, while Travis seemed like a man who doesn't know when he's been thoroughly outclassed. The best thing that these two can do is to get as far away from each other as possible before they make even bigger idiots out of themselves than they already have. If there's one word I'd like to see eliminated from wrestling's lexicon, it's "punk". Lawler using that word on someone who's obviously younger than he is is bad enough, but Travis using it on a veteran like Lawler is simply ridiculous. It's like a son calling his father a punk in the middle of an argument. Surely there were other words Travis could have used that meant the same thing and would still effectively convey his anger. Wasn't Travis a Tennesseean? Seeing the Texas plates on his car in the WMC parking lot a couple of segments ago made me remember that he was billed from Jackson (I think), Tennessee early in his career.
  20. garretta
    Now we're holding ring jackets hostage? What is this, wrestler's kindergarten? Is the hook for this feud supposed to be whether Lawler or Travis is the bigger brat? And has Travis so much as mentioned once any desire he might have to become Unified champion? If he has, I must have been asleep or daydreaming, because I haven't heard it yet. I agree with Loss; right now the whole Embry/Marlin saga is more entertaining and better executed than this angle is. Given Travis' inferiority in almost every way to Lawler, I doubt this will change any time soon. In fact, what I'd really like to see is Lawler in a second match on the card, teaming with Jeff and Fuller against the Texas Boys in Marlin's place to try to bring at least some closure to that whole mess.
  21. garretta
    Okay, I finally got a chance to take a look at this. First of all, Lawler/Embry hasn't really ended. It's stalled, mostly because Travis not only interfered in last week's Lawler/Embry match, but in Lawler's unification bout with Gilbert at the MSC. Costing the King two big matches is more than enough reason for Travis to be his next target, especially since it allowed his two biggest enemies to either beat him (Embry) or escape from Memphis without being beaten (Gilbert). If I'd been a Memphis fan, I'd have wanted to see Lawler/Travis too, especially since Embry's still got unfinished business with Jeff, Marlin, and Fuller. All of that said, that's all the further this needed to go. The match was set up perfectly. We didn't need to get into autographed guitars or program raffles. I understand why they wanted to show the softball footage, and it was neat seeing Lawler hobnobbing with legitimate superstars in both baseball and country music. But the only way I could have understood the smashing of the guitar would have been if Travis had broken it over Lawler's head and allowed Bull to get a pinfall, which would have been Lawler's second consecutive pinfall loss on TV. When was the last time that happened, if ever? Instead, Travis simply smashes the guitar on the floor like a spoiled idiot, then rips up the autographed program. This shows how small-time he really is, in my view. He's not meant to be a real danger to Lawler, just something to tide him over until the next big feud comes along. The smashing of Travis' car was a nice piece of revenge, but we really didn't need to see Lawler sink that low. As others have said, it seemed out of proportion to the wrong done to him. And again, Travis doesn't do much except stamp his feet and stick out his lower lip, only threatening violence against Lawler once Embry and Prichard are safely holding him out of harm's way. The man they needed to run this angle was the real Honky Tonk Man, not this blond-haired wannabe. Say what you will about his ability or perceived lack thereof, Cousin Wayne could make the fans really hate him, and the idea of him coming home to Memphis and targeting his cousin Lawler, and perhaps joining up with the Texans, would have produced heat like Memphis hadn't seen since the heyday of.........Eric Embry. As it is, I really don't expect, or particularly want, to see this feud last past the end of October. Travis may be decent lower in the card, but he doesn't belong on Lawler's level, especially the way he's carrying himself now. Maybe he can feud with Cowabunga the Ninja Turtle instead.
  22. garretta
    Total, utter trash. Travis comes off as a whiny spoiled brat here, and whatever the King did to his car windows is richly deserved and probably should be done again. In a previous thread, Pete said that Lawler was coming close to burying Travis on the mic, like he did his babyface opponents in '90. Well, Travis and guys like King Cobra and Mike Awesome have one thing in common; they can't come close to Lawler on the stick, and if they get into a verbal battle with a master like him, they're going to look stupid whether for intends for it to happen or not. But Travis looked especially bad here, and that's his own fault. I thought for a moment that he was going to break down and cry on Michael's shoulder. Why Lawler is even wasting his time and effort on this joker I have no idea. I'd almost rather he was feuding with the likes of the Dragon Master or Leatherface again. I don't look forward to watching the angle that started this feud, that's for sure.
  23. garretta
    I haven't seen the big angle yet, but I agree with the general consensus just based on what little I've seen from Travis in this run so far. Whatever he did to Lawler, he's not worth this kind of anger; he's had virtually no career compared to the King, and his main claim to fame, as I've said before, is doing a second-rate Honky Tonk Man impression. Meanwhile, Embry and the Texans are still running wild, and Lawler apparently can't give a care less, which is completely out of character for him. There's something off about this, and Memphis usually runs its angles a lot more logically no matter how crazy some of them may seem. I apologize if I sound a bit off the mark here; I'm trying to fit in some quick promos before a night of dinner and Wild Card baseball, and the twenty plus minutes of the original angle that began this feud simply doesn't fit into my schedule at the moment.
  24. garretta
    Serious question: Where was Papa? I know owners really weren't supposed to be involved physically, but you'd think that if one non-wrestling member of the Jarrett/Marlin clan would get involved, it would have been Jerry, not Eddie. He's at least a little younger, and having Eddie go toe-to-toe like this while still supposedly hurt and in a neckbrace simply shouldn't be happening. For that matter, did we ever get any explanation of how Embry and company turned Tony Falk? He was still refereeing not too long ago. This was more of a continuation of the previous brawl than a separate incident, so I won't jump on the overkill bandwagon, but we really don't need to see Pops Marlin in these things anymore until his neck heals, especially since his contemporary Tojo got to sit this one out. Let the active wrestlers tear the studio to pieces if WMC will let them, but keep the noncombatants out of it. At least Embry and company haven't attacked Dave or Michael yet, for which we can all thank heaven.
  25. garretta
    Heenan was an odd choice to do this interview considering that he was managing/advising Flair at the time, but the interview itself was classic. We've heard just about all of Flair's classic lines by now, but they sound fresh in the new surroundings. Talk about being slow on the uptake: I just recently realized that the whole "be a pro" routine from Vince toward Piper and Savage was mostly a cover for the fact that they were doing commentary in post-production instead of live at the arenas (except, of course, for the time that Vince got laid out). Not that constant brawls in the booth would have been a good thing, but at least we could have seen reaction shots of Piper and Savage when Flair and Jake respectively were talking. It's unbelievable that Rod and Randy were talking over the start of Flair's promo until Vince (somewhat reluctantly) cut them off. These three do that all the time, and it's really annoying, especially since you can't tell what anybody's saying. Are they just being ignorant, or are they getting so wrapped up in what they're saying that they misjudge when the person being interviewed starts to talk? If it's the former, shame on them; if it's the latter, whoever's helping them out in the studio needs to cue them better as to when a promo starts.
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