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garretta

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Everything posted by garretta

  1. garretta
    Vince seems to have learned from the mistakes he made with Warrior as champion. Too bad he won't get much of a payoff long-term. That said, they're starting to focus too much on Warrior/Taker, which isn't bad in itself but gives away who's winning this match (although Gino acknowledges that the fans could be waving goodbye to Warrior in response to a Heenan quip). If this was the way they wanted to go, they should have been pimping a possible post-Mania feud for Savage as well, maybe even sowing the seeds for him and Jake. I honestly don't know which other babyface they could have sent him after had he won, except for round three with Hogan, which would have been a step backward (if you can call a World title program such a thing). I liked the references to Mania VI and especially to the destruction of Brother Love. No, beating the hell out of someone who was never a wrestler doesn't guarantee anything against Savage, but it means that Warrior's on a positive roll and has momentum (at least of a sort), which is always a good thing heading into Mania.
  2. garretta
    I'm not sure what promo Soup was watching, but this was an all-time great windbag rant from Terry. He tears down Memphis, the aging, child molesters, Lawler, Jackie Fargo and who knows what all else in about five minutes, and does it without coming off as out of control. The art of being insulting and rude without screaming at the top of one's lungs is completely lost in wrestling these days, and that's a shame, because Terry comes off as legitimately scary here. The only thing that might have been a bit out of bounds was calling Fargo a pervert, but Jackie doesn't seem like the type who would mind that as long as he could make money out of it or help others to do so. I have only one complaint: After so long out of the territory, it would have been nice to hear why he hadn't been back since winning the Unified title and why he put bounties on both Lawler and Gilbert. After Memphis TV had made such a big deal out of the bounties, you'd think someone would have told Terry to at least refer to them during this promo. Also, I found Dave and Michael's comments kind of weird. I get that they're trying to paint Terry as being afraid of Lawler, but he comes off as such the opposite of that it just makes Dave and Michael look like they're indulging in wishful thinking because they're Lawler fans (which they are, of course).
  3. garretta
    Just another wild night at the MSC. I actually liked that Eddie had to eat the pin here; it shows that just because he's on the "right" side of this particular fight doesn't mean that his own tactics can't be used against him effectively. The clips we saw were absolutely wild, but what else do you expect when the honor of two states full of prideful hotheads is on the line? (No offense to any Texans or Tennesseeans on the board.) As for the studio brawl, it again took too long for Lawler to make the save. You'd think that he, Jeff, and Eddie would be ready for stuff like this with Embry and Prichard in the building. I like Embry and Prichard declaring that they should be in the Southern title tournament, and that they went after the Tenneseean whom they most likely see as the weak link. Jeff's not as experienced as Lawler or as dastardly as Eddie, so they had to think he was an easy touch. I have a feeling that they'll be proven wrong soon enough!
  4. garretta
    There's really not much to say, except that Prichard's a far better man than me to take bumps like that from a worker renowned for being stiff and sloppy like Warrior was. This was an absolutely brutal beating to give to someone not used to taking one. I know Bruce probably learned the basics of bumping and selling from Dr. Tom at some point, but he wasn't wrestling on a nightly basis. Vince and Piper were definitely having a great time, but I didn't notice any undue burials of Brother Love. I think there was always the option to bring him back as long as Bruce was under contract and the situation called for it. I guess this made way for Beefcake's Barber Shop after Mania, and given how mediocre Beefcake could be on the mic, plus the fact that Ed Leslie most likely had to avoid physical contact at the time to avoid knocking his face plates out of joint, we may be wishing for the return of the good Brother sooner than we think.
  5. garretta
    We finally hear something from Teddy about this feud. It seems like they were trying to imply that he had something to do with Piper's accident, which would have been a little added fuel to the fire had they chosen to go there. Virgil beating Haku seems like a big deal until you consider that Haku was just kind of playing out the string; he wasn't even in a singles bout at Mania. It's still an upset, but not as monumental as it would have been a couple of years prior. I loved Piper not being able to watch as Virgil scored the three count. Also, did anyone catch Heenan just shrugging and walking away while Teddy lost his mind? That was a perfect reaction; it's like he was saying to Teddy, "Oh, well, pal, you're on your own. This isn't our fight anymore." I loved Mean Gene chastising Piper in the opening by comparing him to Evel Knievel. Gene's really been on top of his game so far this year, more so than in the last few. You'd have to go back to the height of the Rock 'n' Wrestling boom to see more consistent good work from him.
  6. garretta
    The Hogan promo is nothing new, but it says something that Vince and Piper sell more outrage over the "medic" being beaten than they do over Hogan's T-shirt being burned a week later. Could Vince have possibly known that he'd gone too far and wanted to soft-pedal the T-shirt burning to avoid outrage from fans and advertisers over the comparisons between the shirt and the American flag? Mean Gene continues to be this match's best salesman. His disgust at Sarge's actions is palpable, much more so than that of the other announcers. A tremendous job from someone who too few people take seriously.
  7. garretta
    They should have burned either the poster or the shirt, not both. This was overkill. And Vince was too busy hyping Mania to sell outrage, which takes a lot of the sting out of it. It's almost like he (the character) was beyond being angered by Slaughter and was just accepting what happened as an everyday occurrence not worth comment. Mean Gene was much better here, even walking out on the interview rather than seeing his friend's shirt burned. The crowd was hot, but who knows how much of that might have been artificial? I thought we were getting away from the weapons analogies, but Sarge sure brought them by the bushel. I do admit to being amused by the "I'm one tough mother Scud" line, but one clever line does not a good promo make. He'd just done too many of the same type of interviews for them to matter much anymore. Adnan is useless as usual. Once and for all, Vince, no one's going to mistake him for the real Saddam Hussein, so let this man speak English! I thought we'd have seen Sheik by now, but I guess he didn't appear till after Mania. Given what little I remember about his run, I'm sure that was a good thing, because he was terrible in the ring and (like Adnan) nothing on the mic. The latter isn't his fault, though; he couldn't do his usual interview schtick without being exposed as Sheik, which Vince didn't want.
  8. garretta
    There's too much going on here to comment on it all, but I'll try my best. The Savage/Warrior promos are getting less hokey by the week. They're deemphasizing the King gimmick for Savage and getting him back to his roots as Captain Weirdo (that's a compliment, by the way). He never really needed the crown in the first place. It'll be a shame to see him break up with Sherri, though. As great as the Liz reunion was, she had no real interest in performing anymore, so a part of his character died when Sherri left. As for Warrior, other than telling Savage to file for bankruptcy (Chapter 13), he's more on point than he has been in months. I liked how they explained the absence of the scepter by having Randy say that he didn't need it now that he'd knocked Warrior's brains loose with it. Jake and Martel were short and sweet. Like Pete, I'm wondering why the "snake eyes" references are only starting. Maybe Jake felt they were too obvious, although that doesn't explain Martel. Nothing from Virgil and Piper or Teddy, which shocks me. Gene references an earlier incident from this show that didn't make the set. Can anyone fill us in? Another surprise: None of the three title matches get promos. We heard from Hogan earlier, but nothing from either champions or challengers otherwise. The LOD has a few words for Herc and Romeo, and that's it for the wrestlers (I think). Willie and Regis sound natural in their promos. The "Hulk rules and Willie sings" line sounds good enough to be ad-libbed (though I know it wasn't).Count me in for that Okerlund/Nelson duet! I almost forgot the "Queen of England", and I wish I had. I still don't get the point, and I still say it looks and sounds more like Margaret Thatcher than Her Royal Highness. No mention of the instant replay thing. I'm guessing this is when Costas pulled out over the Slaughter angle. No mention of Alex Trebek yet, either.
  9. garretta
    Again, what the hell was the man supposed to do? He was cast in the role of American hero. Was he supposed to refuse it or downplay it just because Vince decided to make his opponent more distasteful than usual? Was he only supposed to talk about the moves he was going to use during the match, with no mention at all of the poster burning? Was he supposed to not bring up his USO tour, as if it was something to be ashamed of under the circumstances? Remember, the USO had to have known that the WWF was going to use this tour for its financial gain. If they didn't want Hogan to sell pay-per-views off of it, why did they let him do it in the first place? I guess what I'm saying is that there's no sense taking the moral high road in a situation where there's none to be had. The best Hogan could do was play the hero to the hilt and make himself look as good as possible, and that's what he did here. Any changes in that role had to come from Vince, and he wasn't changing a damn thing at the time. This angle was coming off exactly as he wanted it.
  10. garretta
    Yes, the Brain was a little off tonight, but even at that, he got off some goodies. "This guy's closet could burn and he'd be out about six bucks." Who else in wrestling thinks like this man? Was Stephanie the one who asked Bobby why he talked behind people's backs and was nice to them to their faces? I'd love to be Vince's clothing designer, that's all I know. I'd finally have someone willing to buy my gladrags! How did the Andre grape-crushing segment not make the set? I've heard a bit about it, but I've never seen it.
  11. garretta
    A step above the usual USWA music videos, which all seem to feature both music and footage from four or five years before. I'd have gone for more of a country flavor than heavy metal, since they're supposed to be from Texas, but it's hard to turn down a free song, especially one that was commissioned by the wrestlers themselves. I couldn't understand the brief promo at the end, but that's mostly because the music drowned it out. It'll be interesting what these guys bring to the Tennessee/Texas feud.
  12. garretta
    I agree with AJ; there really isn't much point to doing something like this, except that Vince might have thought that he could fool the mainstream news organizations of this country into thinking that Queen Elizabeth would actually have something to do with WrestleMania. Are we sure this was supposed to be Queen Elizabeth? Actually, it looks and sounds more like a knockoff of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It would be just like Vince and his minions to not only get the two of them mixed up, but not to care once someone pointed out the mistake (if it was ever pointed out in the first place).
  13. garretta
    These continue to be goofy and well-done. Mean Gene may be the best spokesman this business has ever seen; he's willing to do anything and everything to sell the product he's advertising, including having a two-by-four dropped on his foot by a half-blind Jim Duggan. Vince still has him on the payroll, but I haven't heard of him doing much for WWE anymore, and that's a shame. At the very least, he could do some stuff with the legends whenever they come around.
  14. garretta
    There isn't much here except Steamboat throwing a fireball, just like there wasn't much to this whole run. If a feud with Keirn was the best thing Vince had to offer, Ricky was better off with Turner. Strummer has the story right over why Ricky left, at least according to Ricky's shoot. I've always thought it was a way for Vince to get rid of someone he had neither plans nor any need for while also getting payback for his departure in '87 and possibly damaging his reputation within the business. Of course, it all backfired spectacularly, as he was an important player in WCW right up until the time he was injured.
  15. garretta
    Larry's promo is great, and hits all the required points: "Fifteen glorious years", "trip to Larryland", and so on. Hearing him call out Flair was a little weird to me too after seeing them together in WarGames, but Larry's not one to worry too much about friends, so it's more likely that he took a good offer from the Horsemen than anything else. At any rate, Sting's the one who answers the challenge, and for a mini-angle to set up a match on TBS's C-show, this was pretty heated, with the locker rooms clearing and everything. One thing I noticed: At one point when Larry's talking down Sting, he asks, "Do you have the guts to get into the ring with the heavyweight reputation of the world?" I think he was going to say "heavyweight champion of the world", referring to the AWA World title, and caught himself at the last moment. Remember, he'd originally been scheduled to bring the AWA belt to WCW, but that angle was cancelled by Jim Herd, which is too bad. Even if it really didn't mean anything anymore, the AWA belt would have been a decent centerpiece in this situation.
  16. garretta
    Considering the quagmire that Ole dragged WCW into during 1990, going back to the future with Dusty was the best thing that could have happened. He's picking out the stuff that worked, like we see here. An impromptu brawl that results in a champion being unofficially pinned is a great way to hype a title match without putting too much of a black mark on a champion's record, and I was glad to see it here, especially with Flair in a suit. I guess Barry's main purpose here was to be dwarfed by Gigante, and he did that job very well indeed. I loved how Flair fed Gigante his line directly. They could have made a ton of money with Gigante "I WANT DA BELT!" T-shirts. We sometimes forget that TBS was still a local Atlanta station in addition to being a national superstation. If it's true that they had no syndication in Atlanta, then promoting Omni shows on their only Atlanta outlet was absolutely necessary. The national audience either had to like it or lump it. Besides, it was kind of neat to hear about out-of-town house shows; hearing the rundown of an MSG, Meadowlands, or Nassau Coliseum card was one of the perks of getting the WWF on WWOR during the mid-eighties, and WWOR was just as much of a national superstation as TBS was. I guess the Danger Zone segment with Sid didn't make the cut at the last second. Would anyone care to tell us why?
  17. garretta
    The video was impressive, but didn't someone tell whoever shot this that the Soviet Union, at least as Nikita knew it, was dead by now? Of course, he could have been using the flag as a reminder of what he used to be, in which case it was a great piece of motivation/psychology. Yes, Nikita's bigger than when we saw him working for Abrams against Uncle Ivan, but he'll need a lot more than extra bulk to go toe-to-toe with Luger, who's improved vastly since they last crossed paths as opponents four years ago.
  18. garretta
    Great fiery promo from Pillman, but I don't remember an actual Pillman/Sid series. If there was one, it was pretty brief. The way the injury's bandaged makes it more like a cut than a broken bone or separated shoulder joint. The point's still made, but it would have looked more authentic if Pillman would have at least had his arm in a sling.
  19. garretta
    I wasn't aware of that, Pete. I was paying attention to what I was seeing, not what the wrestlers were saying. He must not have yelled too loudly, because I never heard it. Still, unless you knew carny language or how the boys called spots, if you heard just the names of the moves you'd assume that Sid was telling his victim what he was planning next, or maybe deliberately trying to fake them out by telling them the wrong move. So it still added to the story if you could pick it up, whether it was meant to or not.
  20. garretta
    Okay, what hasn't been said about this match? First of all, I was surprised at how well Zbyszko fit in. If you expected to see cowardly, stalling Zvyszko, or as close as you can come in a match like this, forget it. He mixed it up as willingly and viciously as anyone else here in a way I've never seen out of him before. He proved that he was an inspired choice as Arn's sub, and I'm excited to see more of him in WCW as a result. By the way, Arn did a superb job in the JJ Dillon managerial role, even climbing the cage at one point when the Horsemen were in trouble. We all know that he legitimately wanted to be in there, but since he couldn't, watching his performance outside was a real treat. I noticed that Dusty started the match on commentary trying to hide his accent as best he could, but getting caught up in the action caused it to return. Was it his idea to hide it, or was that a directive from Jim Herd and the Turner brass? JR was peerless on commentary. He was a master storyteller telling one of the most compelling stories you're likely to find in this business, and he not only rose to the occasion, he took the occasion with him. The only big match call that might have been better was Hogan/Andre at Mania III, but that match wasn't at a constant fever pitch of violence like this one was, plus Gino had the greatest commentator who ever held the job alongside him. Not that Dusty isn't good, but he's no Jesse. Now on to the obvious. Yes, this was, at least for the most part, the Brian Pillman show. He and Barry started it off at a hundred miles an hour, and it just kept going from there. Everyone had their moments, but always the story came back to Pillman and how he was faring. How in the world he wasn't made Flair's next big challenger after this I have no idea. I know Gigante did big business with Flair, but Pillman trying to gain revenge on the Horsemen by taking the thing they hold dearest of all would have been the hottest angle of the year bar none. Oh well, at least we have the Windham feud as a substitute. Sid's spot-calling didn't bother me. It was like he was saying, "Even if I tell you to your face exactly what I plan to do to you, you still won't stop me!" In other contexts, it would have taken away from the atmosphere. Here, it added to it. Now to the finish. Yes, it went against the stated WarGames rules, but really, who else could have taken the loss, even through a teammate? The Steiners are supposed to be the next best thing to unstoppable, and a big-pay-per-view loss so soon after losing the World title would have finished Sting for good. If Brian had quit for himself, how could he have been rebuilt? Since when are noble, heroic babyfaces supposed to care about their own injuries? This was the only way.The only other thing they could have done was take Pillman out of the cage and force the faces to fight four-on-three, but someone from that side would have still had to quit, and that someone still would have been diminished. Gigante being the one to tell Nick Patrick to get in there and look at Pillman only added to the poignancy of the whole thing. Who else was going to do it, since Sting and the Steiners were still fighting for their lives? I liked that Patrick took the decision on his own shoulders, and that Tony kind of foreshadowed something like this in the opening when he read the rule about the head referee (Patrick) making the final decision on all aspects of the match. They had to have told the audience earlier in the card that Arn couldn't compete and would be replaced by Zbyszko in order to avoid potentially massive refunds. We just don't see it here on the discs. (Yes, I know about cards being subject to change, but that still wouldn't have stopped the phone calls or the potential embarrassment, even if Turner didn't actually have to pay anything.) This one's my Match of the Year so far, even with Warrior/Savage (which I've seen before) still to come. There may be more violent matches, more emotional matches, and matches where the crowd is into it more fervently. But I highly doubt we'll see a match for the rest of the year that combines violence, emotion from the participants, and crowd heat like this one does. A superb job by all concerned.
  21. garretta
    This wasn't exactly Match of the Year material, but I liked the story it told, which was apparently about a thousand degrees different for me than it was for some of you. I thought that this was about Doc and Gordy being such a dominant team that not even Misawa and Kawada, two of the best native wrestlers in the promotion, can take them on without risking (and in Misawa's case, sustaining) serious injury. In that context, I'm surprised that Misawa and Kawada got as much offense as they did. Kawada's kicks and Misawa's high-flying kept the gaijin off balance for a while, but once they were figured out, they were so much toast. Misawa won't be in any shape to compete for a while, which should serve as a warning to the rest of All-Japan not to mess with these two monster Americans. Kawada didn't look too solid either at the end, come to think of it. I like the teases of the Stampede, which is apparently being treated as such a killer move that even seeing Doc set up for it requires the partner of the intended victim to do whatever they can to prevent its use. Unfortunately for them, Doc's powerslam is every bit as lethal without him having to use the turnbuckles for extra leverage. I liked that they showed the teams' records for the year to date underneath their names; it made the match feel like more of a sporting contest. Did we need to see quite so many shots of Misawa lying unconscious at the end? Misawa was doing his best to fight off Doc and Bamm Bamm, but his efforts were being ignored in favor of showing Misawa doing absolutely nothing. A shot or two here and there plus seeing him being carried back to the locker room would have been more than sufficient. Just out of curiosity in case we see them again soon, which exact belts did Doc and Bamm Bamm hold at this time?
  22. garretta
    This was a nice twist on the Royal Rumble, with pinfalls allowed. I wish the WWF had tried this just once to see what would have happened. Was Akbar potentially heading for a career in broadcasting? He did a great job calling this match straight, not even showing all that much favoritism toward his own guy Gary Young. Michael St. John was fairly inoffensive, but this promotion misses Craig Johnson as lead announcer. They really pushed the "no friends" routine, with Dundee, Travis, and Jarrett going at each other quite spiritedly at one point. Kong, who was the odds-on favorite to win based on his size, was eliminated very cleverly. The Khris Germanys and Ed Robinsons of the world made this feel small-time through no fault of their own. You'd think guys like Lawler and Embry might have been talked into participating to really get this event over as a big deal. Nice little mini-match between Jarrett and Dane to finish things up. You knew Jarrett was going over, but Dane made a decent showing of himself. By the way, when did he turn heel? The last time we saw him in August of '90, he was Dundee's partner against the Rock 'n' Roll RPMs. Does anybody know if they ever ran an event like this again? This might have been a good way to determine a number one contender for the Unified title at an MSC card, providing that Lawler was busy with other things.
  23. garretta
    I don't know how "straight" this match was, but it was a war from the opening bell. Onita busts Goto open within the first couple of minutes with some of the most brutal headbutts you'll ever see, and we're off and running. There was less weapons usage, but once you've tried to kill each other in an exploding barbed wire cage, what other weapons can hurt you? Old-fashioned chairs and tables were still in liberal use at the beginning, and Goto takes a piledriver through a table with almost no ill effects. I think we need to suspend all notions of what constitutes normal selling in FMW. Let's face it, these guys are all basically indestructible or they wouldn't be wrestling this kind of match. And what's so special about a piledriver through a table considering what else these guys have done to each other? They're the closest we've come to wrestling robots; a certain move done at a certain prescribed time will put them down for a three-count, and they'll bleed on demand, but to consider either one of them hurt at any time Is ridiculous, at least in a kayfabe sense. It was nice to see some wrestling moves as a change of pace, but I'm reminded of a quote from Baseball Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean. He used to broadcast games in the fifties, and he was known for having the worst grammar and diction in television at the time. Or course, that was just an act; he was really a man with an average (for the time) education, and he was quite capable of speaking correctly. So he did an inning or two of a game one day in perfect English just to prove he could. Then he turned to his broadcast partner and said, "That's enough of that poop. Now it's time to make some money." So saying, he mangled the next inning beyond all hope of repair. My point? It's nice to see these guys trying to wrestle, but that's not what they're best at. They're best at beating the living shit out of each other and having sloppy, ugly matches that feature no artistry or "good work" whatsoever. As I said above, they're robots in human form, and robots shouldn't wrestle. They should fight and bleed and no-sell and look like they're too sloppy to take care of each other in the ring. That's what makes them money, and that's what the public wants to see from them.
  24. garretta
    A great match gone to hell in an eyelash. If there was going to be a Doom run-in, this match should have been a two or three-minute quickie, with no chance to turn into anything memorable. After all, the start of Doom's breakup is what you want the fans to remember if you're Dusty, not the tag match that was spoiled before it. Doom should have hit the ring a couple of minutes in, annihilated Armstrong and Horner like they were nothing, then gone to it with Arn and Barry. Either that or it should have been a total jobber team in there with the Horsemen. Ruining a match that could have meant something and wasting a tremendous FIP performance by Armstrong was inexcusable. For that matter, Arn and Barry's best performance as a team to date went by the boards too. Where was Teddy? You'd think he'd have been leading the charge out of the locker room. Simmons and Reed didn't look all that unhappy with each other specifically, more like chagrined that their plan didn't work. I'm wondering if this match became the origin of Doom's breakup after the fact (as in, the breakup angle was conceived after this match was taped and JR was told to retcon it on commentary later.) That would also explain Teddy's absence. If I didn't know better, I'd swear Dusty was going to give the Lightning Express at least a midcard push based on their performance here. You don't hang with the number one contenders to the World tag team titles for close to twenty minutes otherwise. I think it's more than somewhat possible based on what we see in this week's Horsemen matches that they were ticketed for the negative title reign the Freebirds got and refused it, which would explain why the Birds were suddenly elevated to top contender status and why their win was so fluky. I'm not sure when Dusty would have switched the belts, since the Horsemen were busy with WarGames at WrestleWar, but there would have been a way if there had been the will. The correct verdict should have been Arn and Barry by DQ, since Doom attacked them but didn't touch Armstrong and Horner.
  25. garretta
    Thanks, Tim. I'll try to keep it straight!
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