PeteF3
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Austin is so far ahead of everyone else in wrestling at this point that his commentary, good as it is, tends to overshadow even a crazy war like this one. His headset going out right as he was about to talk about the alleged Foley-McMahon conspiracy was a great touch. Funk goes all-out trying to get Mick over, doing a moonsault off the balcony and taking and giving some hellacious weapons shots. This is good work with some fantastic booking, as Foley establishes himself as both a sellout and a bloodthirsty savage willing to cripple anyone to get what he wants, and we even continue the slow build to the Stooges become full-fledged on-air characters, first with Brisco last week and now Patterson this week. And of course, that ending--maybe the best closing image in the history of Raw. This could end up being the most enjoyable WWF TV match of 1998.
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Not sure why they *can't* do this stuff now--they do it for NXT. This was a terrific video, on the level of the stuff setting up WM14. An unspoken implication is, "This is what these guys did to each other when they were *friends*!" Makes you want to see what they'll do as enemies.
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I was just reading a Cracked article a few days ago about how "porn superstar" is one of several jobs made obsolete by the Internet. It sure as hell isn't my field but there aren't really any Jenna Jamesons around nowadays, it doesn't seem.
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This works better than a typical "shoot" segment because these guys break character in a way without actually breaking character or kayfabe at all. A good bit of inside-television stuff that still gets the proper storyline across. "I wasn't fat like I am now--in fact, Jerry, I was kind of studly!" Lawler and Bearer share a good laugh over how Undertaker's mother seduced virginal young Paul on the kitchen floor of the funeral home, resulting in Kane. Lawler does an "out of character" (again, not really) apology afterward.
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"When I came out, you threw Dude Love into my face. How does it feel to have the truth thrown into yours?" *smack* One of Vince's best lines ever, and a great capper to an awesome segment that shows just how far ahead the WWF had pulled in front of WCW in terms of storytelling and thought put into each segment. We finally get a sea change for Mick's character as Vince delivers a speech that he's probably delivered during contract negotiations a hundred times. Austin responds by trashing the Love Shack and forcing Vince to attempt to defend himself with the ring bell and hammer.
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Yes, a dumb angle that was as obvious as the most hackneyed, cliched Memphis segment except Memphis segments tend to have good interviews. Okerlund's bad here, too--he seems to have checked out along with all the rest of the WCW announce crew, all of whom have deteriorated badly this year. Brian Adams does a shoulder breaker on the floor, which apparently is more devastating than a shoulder breaker in the ring. And yet, various combinations of Scott, Rick, and Bagwell would repeat this same basic angle over and over and over and OVER for at least the next 6 months!
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A bullrope match for Slamboree? Yeah, I'm down with that. Another strong in-ring (sort of) segment as Raven continues the workrate run of his career. In an ideal world this could possibly, conceivably set up Raven as a semi-main event player but of course the Glass Ceiling is now in full effect in WCW.
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Better than any match at Wrestlepalooza '98. I love how Jericho adds some real bite and venom to his usual pre-match promo, making him a little more than just a comedic smartass. Bore Us Malenko is a stone-faced jobber who's slightly better built than a Mulkey brother, with a big "1" on his tights to signify how many holds he knows. He does in fact do his one hold here (a wristlock) before Jericho makes a Misawa-esque comeback to destroy him.
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WHY ARE WE *STILL* GETTING INTRODUCTORY VIGNETTES FOR THIS GUY?
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We're officially in a full-fledged trend of mid- and undercarders getting laid out left and right by the Big Stars ™, and man does it suck. And it's only going to get worse. I know it's just Scott Putski and Kidman, but God forbid we keep our points of difference from the WWF going. Savage actually cuts a good promo in the middle of this mess, hyping up his match with Bret Hart at Slamboree. Curt Hennig is introduced as the newest Wolfpack member and yeah, this is a complete mishmash of a stable. Konnan accuses Brian Adams of being Hogan's Mascot--no, KDawg, the Disciple is a different guy.
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Ridiculous promo where Douglas veers completely into "Old Man Yells at Cloud" territory and where he can't decide if he's a heel or a babyface. He makes fun of the Big Two and it's talked up how gutsy he is, then starts in on Flair again thinking he's still a Bischoff asskisser for some reason, and naturally the crowd who'd just been popping for major stars who still weren't a pimple on Ric Flair's ass as a draw or a talent, turns on Douglas. And that line about Shawn Michaels being a pussy for not wrestling with a concussion sure has aged poorly, hasn't it? Taz and his re-mixed music, "War Machine" with no lyrics but with Taz soundbites, and he shits all over the idea of Douglas being a gutsy hero. Taz gets a VERY tepid response for his promo and his attack. The Junkyard Dog was more over than any of these guys. Is this the least consequential PPV of the Yearbook era? I can't think of another one where no matches at all, not even finishes, made the Yearbook.
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JYD makes his final public appearance, about a month before his death. Eadie looks almost the same as ever--the wrestlers have gotten old, but the mask-and-suit look hasn't.
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Travis is STILL clinging to the single-long-leg tights, bless 'im. And bless PPW for giving us a decisive and satisfying finish--if any promotion could have devised a screwjob finish for a stretcher match, Memphis is it. But we get a really good studio brawl with a few modern touches like the drop toe hold onto a chair and the finish with Christopher doing the Tennessee Jam with a chair over Travis' head. That's a pretty good way to effectively knock him out long enough to strap him to the stretcher for the win. You have to credit PPW for not just giving us longer matches on TV but also working hard to completely change the look of the studio as much as possible. Even the handheld close-up cameras during the interviews give this a fresh view of things even if the concept is, as Migs said, anachronistic.
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Not to speak for Loss or goodhelmet but I'm virtually certain that it would have been touched on if '93 had come out after 1990 which had Toni all over it.
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It's at least a year too late, but this was a satisfying effort in the end--in fact it might be the match I've enjoyed the most in 1998 so far. It's kind of a Kawada carry-job, but it works--and I actually kind of like the idea that Kawada just went out and executed his game plan and won. The big gimmick for this, as big of a gimmick as AJPW gets, was that this match had no time limit. That brings to mind visions of an overindulgent 45-60 minute "epic" and we didn't get that here. In a way the relatively perfunctory victory served as a sort of swerve in its own right, even though this conclusion seemed pretty foregone (what could you possibly do with Misawa if he wins again?). MOTY for the first 5 months, though certainly off of these guys' mid-'90s peak.
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A way fresh match-up for All-Japan. The negotations going into this Dome show were a compelling soap opera in and of themselves: - Long and at-times comical negotiations with the WWF over the use of talent, with everyone from Austin and Michaels on down being named as possibilities to work the event. At one point there was consideration of allowing Vader to do a job for an AJPW guy in exchange for All-Japan returning the favor, with speculation that that would involve Akira Taue putting over the Undertaker (!). - Talks involved Johnny Ace coming to the U.S. and working a Raw dark match. They turned sour when Gerald Brisco & Bruce Prichard made a trip to Japan. First, Baba was offended that he turned up for negotiations and not Vince. Second, AJPW's liasions explained very clearly (and correctly) that mainstream Japanese audiences had little knowledge of most U.S. stars besides Vader and Shamrock (the Road Warriors fit that description as well but no one seemed interested in them at this point). Unfortunately for AJPW, the day that Brisco & Prichard arrived in the country was the day that news of the Austin-Tyson angle broke in Japan, which was a huge deal and a front page sports story. Naturally, Gerald & Bruce saw Austin all over the place as being a sign that the WWF being bigger than ever worldwide and that they were fed a line of bullshit from the All-Japan office. - Eventually AJPW decided to focus on an almost all-Japanese event and announced the top matches of Misawa vs. Kawada, Akiyama vs. Hase, Akira Taue vs. Koji Kitao, and Kobashi & Mossman vs. Hideki Hosaka & Mike Awesome. Fan reaction to this announced card was overwhelmingly negative and immediately sent AJPW scrambling into rebooking the show. Then Kitao naturally refused to do a job for Taue, which made the decision to cut ties with him all the easier. Negotiations re-opened with the WWF and they finally got a drawing card in Vader, which allowed them to move Kobashi into a match where he wasn't going to be completely wasted. And a fun closing stretch of a match this is. Kobashi carries himself like the Man here and goes out to try to make this show special, even busting out the Moonsault successfully for the first time in a while (or so it seems). Hansen is Hansen, and even though he's lost a step or four his presence can still carry him a long way. Only Stan could fuck up a top-rope dive so badly and still make it look like it hurts in the end, which is all that matters. Kobashi manages to fight off Hansen and Vader down 1-vs.-2 and eventually puts Stan away with a series of flash pins. My first thought was for a guy carrying himself like The Man, Kobashi could have used a more decisive victory, but I think the circumstances of Ace being out and being alone against two monsters supports the finish they went with. -
NJPW was trying to not-so-subtly push out some of its higher-paid veterans in a cost-cutting move. Honaga, Masa Saito, and a few other guys got severance packages to retire (I think Inoki and Choshu were wholly separate situations). Amusing video, as Honaga goes from a wide-eyed clean-cut young boy to an opportunistic scuzzball before our eyes. I bet he'd end up being Matt D's favorite NJPW junior worker.
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[1998-04-30-FMW-Fighting Creation] Hayabusa vs Mr Gannosuke
PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in April 1998
I really dug the atmosphere here of a big-time, serious match for the gold. And I respected what they were trying to do, at least, basically running an FMW version of a lucha title match with dry body part work building to big bombs at the end with a glorious feelgood celebration. But like with Childs and soup, they just didn't get there for me. The early body part work is sound and focused but still dull, and the transition to the big moves at the end doesn't really feel earned, nor do many of the transitions down the stretch. There are a lot of good near-falls here and some plays off their previous match, which is always appreciated. But Hayabusa still blows stuff and still doesn't really seem fundamentally sound. He's spectacular and charismatic but as an overall worker I still think Tanaka utterly smokes him and Gannosuke is better too if only because he has a better grasp of the basics. Even among matches I've qualified as "more to be admired than loved," I've seen better on these sets. -
[1998-04-29-Pillman Memorial Show] Steve Austin promo / 10 Bell Salute
PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in April 1998
A different side of Austin than you get on WWF television, though he's still recognizably Stone Cold. -
Seems like they're going to go with the idea of Bret wanting to beat Hogan for the title, but Savage interrupts in a pretty groanworthy development. You really risk pissing fans off when you fuck them over too many times, and the fact that the reason isn't really all that consequential--this isn't like revealing the Greater Power or Vince's first professional match or even the identity of the Hummer driver--actually makes it *more* annoying that we don't get a payoff rather than less. Why was Savage not out the previous week to confront Bret? Best I can figure, the only answer to that is, "Because there wouldn't be a closing segment tonight." Which is pretty shitty storytelling.
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Alex is back from a 5-month vacation in Germany--actually he suffered a devastating aneurysm, but that's not getting in the way of his dancing. This is kind of an awkward and downright bad promo, but that's actually part of Alex's Eurotrash douchebag appeal. He's escorted out, which is just as well as he presumably has to be back to Dance Centrum in Stuttgart in time to see Kraftwerk.
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Fun little preview of what we'll get at Over the Edge. Vince is terrific on the outside and turns in one of the best timekeeper's performances ever, not only his selling of Gerald Brisco's devastating eye injury but also his sternly getting up and warning Brisco not to allow a double-countout. Ross is at his indignant best, at least until Over the Edge. "Do you want to referee this match now?" "I COULD DO A BETTER JOB THAN HIM!" Vince ends up clobbering Brisco with the belt and Gerry takes a NASTY spill, cutting his head open both on the edge of the gold plate and I believe the ring steps as well. It was still absolutely wild to see Vince getting physically involved to this degree, though it would probably get overdone in the years to come. There's still a lot of attention to long-term detail and the impact of main event matches influencing other angles in the company. Dude Love makes a reappearance and his failure to win the title here would have long-lasting consequences for Goldust.
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We get our first reference to "The Big Valboski," as well as the first of about 9 million "did you find the [small household object]?" questions as euphemisms for blowjobs.
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THAT'S the Foley we need to see--he's storming out, pissed at not getting a re-match for the title. Vince confronts him, but makes sure that we the viewer don't get to see it. "I OWN THAT MIC, I OWN THAT CAMERA, SHUT IT OFF!" Now they're mitigating the Dude Love promos a bit by making it clear that he's basically acting that way under Vince's orders.
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As I mentioned at the end of 1997, Vince is (for a little while) putting an end to the necessity of the "cool heel." There's nothing cool about this and it's all the better for it. He begs for sympathy and doesn't get it, announces an impromptu title match tonight, appoints Gerald Brisco as the referee with the capacity to fire Austin and strip him of the belt if he touches him, and gets thrown off a bit as the crowd starts chanting for Austin. That kind of spontaneous reaction is something you tend to miss out on in the world of scripted promos. Vince and Brisco emphasize that Gerald will officiate according to the TIME-HONORED TRADITION of WWF officials.