PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Yeah, the Wolfpack is completely irrelevant now and has been for a few weeks. At least Nash is trying to give this situation the gravity it theoretically deserves.
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I have to wonder what the other passenger in the car was thinking. This did *not* sell me on watching New Jack vs. Jack Victory at The Pay-Per-View TM.
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A good closing stretch, but not much better than that. I would be stunned if this compared positively to the earlier Liger-Otani in full.
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On the other hand he had quit multiple times over the content of the show before being talked back, until leaving for good.
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This was a pretty holy-shit moment, that of course means nothing in the long run.
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Jericho spares us having to listen to Ron Misterio Jr. talk. JoJo is one thing, his credibility was shot eons ago--Malenko's really starting to come off as an easily-manipulated idiot now.
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For whatever it's worth, Wikipedia and wrestlingdata put Mrs. Yamaguchi at 22-23 when this went down. Phase 1 of an angle that will get repeated over, and over, and over.
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Yeah, the NAO definitely seemed to have peaked with the Mankind/Charlie feud. There aren't really any other tag challengers for them with the LOD 2000 reinvention failing, so they drop the titles to two singles stars instead. Not a complaint, in some ways it's downright Crockett-esque. Speaking of old-school booking tactics that still work (as opposed to the old-school ones that don't work, like most of the stuff in the BATB main event), I love D'Lo's chest-protector gimmick.
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Highlights: - DDP springing to the top turnbuckle and coming off with a good-looking clothesline. Lowlights: - Everything else. A WMOTYC candidate, honestly. Rodman was a mess here and likely on something--Malone totally outworked him, as scary as that sounds. The layout as mentioned makes no sense. Even though I just praised his ability to lay out and work a simple match with a limited opponent like Goldberg, the bloom is really off Hogan as even a smart worker at this point. You simply cannot build a PPV main event in 1998 around rinky-dink bullshit like complaining about phantom hair pulls, double noggin knockers, ten-count turnbuckle rams, and other shit out of the 1986 WWF Tag Team Formula 101 Textbook. The only thing missing was Gorilla Monsoon there to yell, "Holy mackerel! It's pandemonium!" and other assorted cliches. What the hell happened to the people agenting the '97 BATB main event? Cheap-ass finish that was one step above a Fake Sting in terms of lack of creativity, and of course it's the goddamned Disciple who gets the heat for the win. Six days after the Georgia Dome WCW has gone right back to looking like a promotion on fumes. -
A flat match for a pretty consistently flat PPV. Rey still isn't 100% and it shows, and Jericho isn't really the guy to hold a high-flying cruiserweight match together.
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Best Stevie Ray match ever. I respect Chavo for playing this role to the hilt but it's just not over. Not only is it not the best gimmick for him, but he's been jobbed out for so long that he can't be perceived as really mattering. The WWF may have found a way to get him over without actually winning, but that's beyond WCW's capabilities at this point.
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This was some pretty compelling television even if it's the most Stone Cold-esque angle yet. They at least give Lawler some extra motivation by implying that it was Hales & the Giant King who drew first blood, so to speak. This felt like a breaking news story and I liked all the cutaways to various other parts of the studio.
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From the Terry Funk fakeout onward, they finally attempt to switch things up a bit instead of re-treading the same material. I'm mostly over Gertner but I did appreciate his heeling on the crowd by not going along with his own catchphrase. Jack Victory's attempted sneak attack on New Jack doesn't work this time, as Jack turns and catches him with the guitar as he runs in. Douglas goads Taz into invading the commentator's booth where he's jumped by Bam Bam Bigelow. Dreamer gets a measure of revenge by driving a chair and a barbed wire board into D-Von's head.
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Eddy talks about "taking Chavo under his wing" and it doesn't even sound insincere, particularly coming off his congratulating Goldberg. It's like they're doing a double-turn.
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I had that reaction to Mabel, too. WTF was that?? Angle-intensive main event that's barely a match, owing to it being inhuman for even Vince to be asking Mankind to work 2 days after KOTR. They cover for everyone's limitations nicely--Mankind doesn't have to take any bumps, and they keep the ring bathed in red light to cover for the fact that that isn't Kane.
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Lawler's attempts to sell this as the funniest thing in history is probably what's most annoying about this in retrospect--er, that and the semi-racism. Jason Sensation manages to get even JR to crack up--"I LOOK LIKE A DAMN ROAD SIGN."
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I agree with Sleeze about the legdrops falling flat--that's doubly stunning considering that even at this stage Hogan should still have his timing and general ring-smarts down. This is an incredibly basic, bare-bones layout but most of it works, since they don't try to do too much and Hogan at least on this night is way more professional than Hall. I love the anticipation during the climactic 3-count--until Charles Robinson's hand hit the mat for the 3rd time, no one *really* knew if Hogan was actually going to go down or if he'd Hulk Up out of the Jackhammer. When he does stay down, the Georgia Dome becomes unglued. For one night, for all the second-guessing over how they handled the Streak to this point, WCW seems to have gotten it right again.
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Hall looks sloshed, no question. He does his double-point maneuver toward the ring even though there's no one in it. Another moment that's rather cool on its surface, despite being a bad match, but also speaks to WCW's lack of a plan. Again, just imagine Goldberg plowing through NWO guys, one by one, starting from that Thunder months ago when he finally came to WCW's aid. Drag it out until Hogan is forced, against his will, to put the title up against him. Goldberg passed by 100-0 like it barely mattered--you could have gotten Goldberg to 99 and then set up Goldberg vs. Hall on PPV as a main event-level attraction in its own right. So, so many missed opportunities for the sake of spiking one big TV rating and live gate.
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Gene talking about how Bagwell came close to dying was probably better left unsaid. It was actually true--Bagwell went through some major scares while in the hospital--but *sounds* implausible and melodramatic. That said, they had an angle and a wrestler that people could believe in, despite Buff's rather wooden delivery here. And they pissed it all down the drain for the sake of a SWERVE.
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This is a good angle that would have been better with even a semblance of long-term planning. We set up this scenario where Jericho and Dean can't touch each other until the Bash, and we establish it and blow it off in the span of 3 minutes, 6 days before the show. Consider how much more effective this could have been with Jericho trying to egg Dean on over a number of weeks while trying to restrain from attacking Dean himself.
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As bad as he was on commentary, I always liked post-turn Mongo as a talker. He was good as a loudmouth trash-talker and he's good in a more low-key setting here. The Horsemen reunion talk is beginning, and in an ultimate insult to Flair, the plan was to proceed without him at this point.
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Malone will be a Rodzilla Killa come Bash at the Beach. Not a great interview because DDP's interviews tended to all be the same around this time (Hollywood...SCUM...HOGAN) but yes, better than last week. This main event build is almost idiot-proof, hence the huge buyrate the show would do.
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Crowd likes this and I dug the atmosphere, but this was a pretty bad segment. Lawler retired the previous week and now he's back and all butt-hurt that Hales has crowned a new Giant King. Well, gosh, Jerry, you sort of brought that on yourself, didn't you? After a possible interesting change of direction the previous week, we're right back where we were with a low-rent Austin vs. McMahon feud. The subsequent brawl is heated but the only person who really knows what they're doing out of 4 people is Lawler. For an unstoppable monster, Silva backs down awfully easily.
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Flat segment. The gone-crazy gimmick didn't really help Chavo, Jr., even though he tries to commit to it, because he continued losing all the time.
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Somehow at the same time these vignettes simultaneously look too slick for Raven's aesthetic while also coming off as incredibly cheap.