PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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This might not have been tolerable in full but the bits we see are pretty good, minus Dreamer being an idiot at the finish. I'm about as tired of Jack Victory as I am of the Disciple.
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Are there any missing Raws besides the first Raw Bowl (and the most recent ones)? Maybe some of the non-Monday episodes, but even a lot of those are up now.
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I don't want to plug my own posts, but in the '97 Yearbook threads I also observed how much tangible influence Cornette had over the product--even as he was being further marginalized and shock value was taking greater precedence over wrestling. The Goldust-Vader feud is just one example: underneath the whacko Artist stuff you had an angle about a cowardly heel faking injuries to avoid taking on a badass babyface. Cornette was also the one who insisted on Undertaker and Kane being kept apart until WrestleMania. Russo wanted Undertaker to immediately fight back by attacking Kane like a week after his debut.
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Yawn. Taz's monologue and FTW belt don't mean anything because ECW has nothing to rebel against anymore. If they wanted to be rebellious in mid-1998 they should have gone to an ROH-style Pure Sports Build model. (I know Heyman claims he was about to do that had ECW survived but that seems like a pretty post-facto explanation to me). Taz and Bigelow have an okay-ish match of sorts, but it wasn't so good that it made you want to shell out money to see it again on PPV. Storm & Candido lay out Taz afterward, but use Rolling Thunder and then mock Sabu & RVD's trademark taunts, bringing those two out. Sabu then wants at Taz, but Alfonso calls him off and it seems that an uneasy alliance is being formed.
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Francine's finally had a few sandwiches lately and doesn't look like she's about to snap in half anymore. This is a quick 15-second bit after the intro, making this the GREATEST SHANE DOUGLAS PROMO OF ALL-TIME.
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'Taker apparently walked out of the building rather than face Kane & Mankind, so Vince swapped Austin in for him, just because he could. Pretty straightforward stuff here, and fairly predictable at that. I'll sure as hell take it over the stuff we got with Kaientai and Sable, though. Fully Loaded seems like a pretty minor PPV but the long build to SummerSlam is in full force.
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This was a fun TV match given quite a bit of time for the era and some real thought put into it--Rock doesn't exactly zero in on X-Pac's bad neck but he does just enough for JR to get the psychology over, and the false finishes are all well-done. After D'Lo upset HHH to win the European title (and his sheer joy at being Champion of Europe is fantastic), you could definitely buy that they'd even things out by changing the IC title as well. Instead Jim Korderas for some reason disqualifies X-Pac for HHH's interference even though he wasn't the official of record. Chyna beats him up afterward. The girl in the audience looked like a plant to me, considering the camera found her before HHH did.
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Jackie calls out "Sal" and asks how many pounds she can lose in 6 days. Oh, I guess it was "sow." Lawler is starting to get unbearable reacting to this. Sable comes out wearing a tablecloth which is promptly ripped off. These last two segments were objectively effective but man, this is not the high-quality side of the Crash TV era. Edge lays out Mero for no discernible reason.
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"I think we've had all the Japanese culture tonight that we can stand!" JR hasn't changed much since the time he wondered if there were any nice-looking Orientals. I'm pretty sure there won't be a single Val feud that I'll like until the awesome hate-filled one with Rikishi.
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Undertaker committed one of his gravest sins ever last week: he HURT MR. McMAHON'S FEELINGS. I am personally aghast. This went on a little long and is sort of an ominous forebear of opening Raw segments to come, but Vince is Vince and his act and gimmick are still fresh. And we get a nice payoff for Vince's long soliloquy as Undertaker lays out his entire inner circle and storms off, never saying a word.
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[1993-02-21-WCW-Superbrawl III] Vader vs Sting (Strap)
PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in February 1993
Clearly "dragged with the strap" meant that you couldn't just detach yourself and race around hitting all 4 turnbuckles, or drag Harley Race to all four corners instead. After all, Sting attempted to *carry* Vader to all 4 posts earlier in the bout and that was allowed. -
Sting is wrestling in black trousers which is almost as bad of a look as the red Crow paint. Meanwhile Hall continuing to wear red and black because they can't be bothered to get him new ring attire is chalked up as "mind games." Sartorial critiques aside, the action here isn't bad and a very loud crowd helps. Finish is lame as all get-out, though, as Bret Hart distracts Sting and leaves him open to the Outsider's Edge. Note how the commentators don't particularly treat this title change as any kind of pivotal moment--the original goals of the NWO simply don't matter anymore and as Loss has said, they're just another stable.
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This was pretty pathetic. 1998 Nash is perhaps the laziest wrestler of all-time and Hall is on another planet. Watch Scott literally fling himself into the doors either because his timing is off or Nash can't be bothered to make an effort and look like he's throwing him.
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That's crazy talk--Nitro main events are for WWF main eventers, Goldberg, Sting, and DDP. No breaking through the glass ceiling allowed.
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Just a monumentally dumb direction to go, after an angle the previous week that legitimately had people buzzing. This is at least our second phony babyface turn that ends with Rick getting attacked, and this stupidity wouldn't stop WCW from trying to repeat this over and over and OVER. The Steiner vs. Steiner issue, which may have been a big deal once upon a time, is pretty much dead by this point. Injuries derailed the turn as soon as it happened, and I'm not sure if fans really wanted to see this match even in 1993-94.
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Pretty fun--I wish the ground work were half as compelling as the stand-up portions, but the strike exchanges were wonderfully stiff and heated. Maeda is pretty out of shape by this point but they manage to work around that.
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[1993-02-06-WCW-Saturday Night] Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies
PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in February 1993
They still had a PPV match commitment to hype and an angle to continue, so I don't think they could just edit it off entirely. SuperBrawl was still a Watts show pretty much all the way. As for the WWF Presidency, I'm guessing a.) Watts wasn't interested in any role where he didn't have absolute power, and b.) bringing in Watts would have defeated the purpose of cutting costs, which is why Tunney was let go in the first place. -
Bert Prentice as a straight-laced announcer is pretty amusing. This is sort of closer to 1997 OMEGA in that this is almost a choreographed pretend-wrestling match, but it is interesting to see Jeff Hardy work as a dominant bullying heel, which isn't something he ever got to do too often. Shannon is raw but he does show some pretty great execution on his big spots, and puts Willow away with a primitive version of the YoshiTonic.
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Definitely the best segment of this feud so far. Hales gets in some real low blows while he has security restrain Lawler outside in the hallway--telling the people of Memphis who think Lawler's such a hero to ask his first wife, Bill Dundee, his two kids, Jerry Calhoun, and his second wife just what a "good guy" Lawler is. Then Hales declares that Stacy is "nothing but a two-bit--..." and Dave Brown cuts him off right there. That's enough to get Lawler to break through the human barricade and chase Hales out to the old familiar WMC parking lot. Macklin and DAVE BROWN run after him to prevent a piledriver on the asphalt, along with what look to be WMC bigwigs. Obviously the the best days of even 1990's Memphis are long gone but this was the closest PPW has come to recapturing them. I too hope there's something more to this feud past Giant Silva, who might not be any better as a worker than Giant Gonzalez.
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Definitely a unique match that I'm pretty sure we never got in a WWF setting. It sounds much better in a Memphis setting.
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Just as soon as Hales gets a change of clothes, he promises to unleash dirt on Jerry Lawler as it relates to both his career and his personal life. Bite your tongue, Pete, bite your tongue...
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Footage after Raw, where Lawler is distracted by Jim Cornette and attacked by the Giant King, who weakly chokes him out and closes a door on him. Yeah, a real weak-sauce way of ending Lawler's career--a far cry from getting heaved over ringside by Jos LeDuc or getting dumped off the bleachers by Bill Dundee. This angle was lessened for me because I pretty much saw the fakeout coming--almost no wrestler who appears in a sling or a cast ever actually needs one. Hales declares that he doesn't feel sorry for Lawler, because he started the whole thing--clearly, Jerry screwed Jerry. Lawler gets out of the wheelchair and we end up seeing way more of Randy Hales than any of us ever wanted to.
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Hales is awkward and wooden as ever, but that sort of adds to the deadpan effect of "...to the few fans he has left."
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Arn puts Dean and the Horsemen supporters in their place--describing the nature of the commitment to being a Horseman and contrasting who he was with who he is, as symbolized by the giant scar running down the back of his neck. Truly a spellbinding segment and one of the best promos of the year.
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Probably all of the above. Hall's heart clearly isn't in this.