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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    Re: Styles...Lord knows I'm not the one to go back and check but it seems his TNA work is being better received now than it was in '06 when a lot of people were still dismissing him as a spot monkey. El-P sounds pretty high on him in the running TNA thread and he's not the only one praising his work in that era.
  2. PeteF3
    Probably closest to Chad on this. This did feel bloated and 2.9-ish, and I was ready to write this off completely, but some of those near-falls off the elbow smashes were pretty darn great and fooled me, and it was enough to get me invested into the match. I'm not sure if I like this match-up stylistically--Hayabusa is talented but this makes multiple singles matches where he's failed to get me emotionally invested in who wins and loses. I love Tanaka to death, but I think both guys might come across better with a strong heel opponent like Gannosuke, Kanemura, or Awesome. Against each other, the match feels more like an athletic exhibition. And the finish is pretty darn arbitrary--I don't know why Hayabusa had to go with the Falcon Arrow again when it seemed like he consciously left some big moves in his holster, which would make sense in a match like this so you could bust out something like the Stardust Press to finally put Tanaka down. All the points in the world for effort and the NJPW Juniors-style layout didn't bother me in and of itself, but this needed to be either trimmed down OR just totally balls-to-the-wall by the end, with tables, chairs, or massive highspots instead of guys just trading elbows and suplexes.
  3. PeteF3
    This felt like a bigger ripoff than the Austin-Kane non-match, in all honesty. At least when the WWF has been baiting and switching lately, they've attempted to provide a super-hot angle designed to make you forget that you didn't get the match you wanted. Sting flying back up into the rafters has been played out, just like every other show-closing angle WCW has run since the fall. The hook-up this time seemed extra awkward and the NWO really looked like idiots just standing there. And why can't we get some new music for Savage already?
  4. PeteF3
    Just like the La Parka angle, they cleverly cover up any possibility of a guy being exposed while doing the entrance--here, Lenny Jericho jumps Malenko in the aisle. Lane does an adequate enough job of passing for Jericho and has everyone fooled, and does a good imitation of the arrogant-cover pose. He taps to the Cloverleaf in short order, but Malenko's apparent title win is cut short as he's leveled from behind by Jericho, who even pops Lane just because he can. A fun angle and Jericho is easily the best and freshest part of the entire WCW roster.
  5. PeteF3
    In a world without Austin vs. McMahon, we could be kickstarting a sleeper Feud of the Year contender.
  6. PeteF3
    Bam Bam cuts a good promo as the Taz Killer. Joey Styles has some troubles with the camera. Bill Alfonso declares that next week's TV will be all about Sabu--evidently they're teasing a Sabu-New Jack feud. RVD blows off a Sabu high-five in a funny moment. Joey Styles complains about Lance Wright. Jerome Young is no studio Gangsta. Francine isn't impressed by Al Snow, while Shane Douglas continues to stew. Head talk has ruined Shane and Francine's love life. Douglas screams over how little he's bothered by Al Snow and his fans.
  7. PeteF3
    Dig this main event. Mercifully Austin ends this as soon as it begins, but Michaels is here after all! Austin gets dropped with another superkick, but we go off the air before we see what he does with a steel chair. Good closing angle that took *me* in about 18 years later.
  8. PeteF3
    This is one of the greatest match builds in the history of wrestling. It really goes back to the fall with how they consciously kept Austin and DX apart. Whoever mapped this promo out for Tyson did an excellent job--"You think *I've* had it fair in my life? ... Fair is winning."
  9. PeteF3
    Austin was an asshole, but it almost seemed by design, since even Ross and Kelly were calling him out for his behavior. And while it's not a major focus of the segment, Austin states toward the end that he thinks Vince set him up and knew that Michaels & Tyson were in cahoots--which may or may not be true, but if it is, then he has a lot more reason to be pissed off. Austin closes it out with a strong promo hyping WM14 and also threatening Triple H. A good promise of what's to come--it's becoming more and more clear that Vince does not want Austin to be the WWF Champion, a position that would be outright stated in the coming weeks.
  10. PeteF3
    What is with Shawn not wanting to work taped Raws all of a sudden? Michaels gloats over the DX acquisition of Mike Tyson as well as his big superkick on Austin the previous week.
  11. PeteF3
    And whose bright idea was it to have the Giant as FIP? It's not dumb to work over the neck injury but it goes on for awhile with nothing much of interest happening. Despite Tony's best attempts at selling the historical significance of this, all the moving parts that Loss mentioned sort of take the crowd out of this and the whole ends up being less than the sum. The Disciple lays out Savage with the Apocalypse--ooh yeah, feel that burn at a low-level WWF tag team--and Hogan gets the pin.
  12. PeteF3
    Hogan points out that it was Savage's choice to bring his EX-wife into the locker room to be one of the boys, and she DID the boys. Big "ooooh" from the crowd for that one. I still don't much care about seeing this match-up again but you can't fault the effort on this promo, which is full of fire and hate and venom.
  13. PeteF3
    Interesting traveling-NWA-champion style match for ECW but I didn't much care for this, and the crowd's constant chants toward Francine pissed me off mightily and served as a really bad distraction. If they can't be engaged, why should I be? Badly set-up finish as well. From Douglas' promo it's clear that they're building toward Douglas vs. Snow for the next PPV.
  14. PeteF3
    There were other FBI matches in '97 that I liked better than this, but this was a lot of fun. Candido and Storm had a fun shtick that was actually fresh at the time, and they don't overdo it. They confine most of the petty bickering to before the match and a few key spots during, but still gel as a team. Dissension is teased afterward between Smothers and Rich.
  15. PeteF3
    Yes, that punch was one of the stiffest you'll ever see, and Usuda's face afterward is a testament to that. I'm glad it was worked as a game-changing moment in the match instead of an excuse for two guys to try to show how tough they are.
  16. PeteF3
    For Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal, Bill Watts cut a promo explaining the whole "lights out" concept that was so good that Loss transcribed it for a Yearbook thread: "A Lights Out Match. Just what do we mean by that designation? How did it all get started? In the late 60s and early 70s, probably the most innovative and aggressive promoter in wrestling was Eddie Graham of Florida. He was one of the staunch supporters of the National Wrestling Alliance and a member of its Board of Directors. As the oldest and most prestigious organization, its members were very conservative in that era, and their events were considered as sanctioned by the NWA. As with every type of event that competed for the entertainment dollar, participants were always pushing the parameters to accelerate the excitement level. Athletic creativity and intense personal rivalries sought newer and more potentially dangerous concepts to culminate their showdowns. From cage matches, then in Texas was born the Texas Death Match, then Boris Malenko created the Russian Chain Match, then Dusty Rhodes invented the Bullrope Match. In Tennessee, someone invented the Coal Miners Glove Match, the Scaffold Match, and somewhere else, the First Blood Match -- each of these new events more exciting and more dangerous. The NWA as a body did not want to officially be a party to or to sanction these type of matches. Thus Eddie Graham devised the Lights Out Match, which very simply is this: No, the match is not wrestled in the dark. It was just a symbolic turning off -- momentarily -- of the arena lights at the end of the officially sanctioned card to signify the end of that card, and to immediately turn the lights back on and have the unofficial or unsanctioned bout. Thus the term, Lights Out Match. Now with Jake the Snake versus Sting, again we have new parameters -- all of the most dangerous of these types of bouts, plus one not even revealed called the Spinner's Choice, have been placed upon a wheel of chance and called Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal. Because of this, WCW has designated it a Lights Out Match, a match not sanctioned by WCW. Because of the Spinner's Choice possibility, we're going one step further. We're having Jake the Snake and Sting sign a waiver absolving WCW of any liability. They assume all responsibility. They spin the wheel and make the deal." Coal Miner's Glove unpleasantness aside, I maintain that this was a gimmick that WCW should have kept. There's no reason why they couldn't have run it in '94 for Flair vs. Hogan.
  17. PeteF3
    It went an even 28:00 bell-to-bell, with a long post-match angle. I didn't think it was that great of a match but if anything it was too long, not too short.
  18. PeteF3
    Reese was actually in the Stuck Mojo video but the announcers pretend not to have seen him before. He immediately takes a bump over the rope for Page so he's immediately Just Another Guy instead of a monster who might be of some use. That's pretty nitpicky though because the rest of this segment is really good. Lots of stiff shots among all three guys and Raven and his Flock are put over in the end. I like how *efficient* this was--they get a guardrail into the ring for Raven to DDT Page and Benoit on but with a bunch of Flock members to interfere we don't need to waste time rearranging furniture.
  19. PeteF3
    It's not the first use of Jerichoholics but it may be the first time he declares himself our role model and a Paragon of Virtue ™. I wish Bo Dallas had this kind of an edge to him when he was running this gimmick. The fact that Jericho is legitimately dangerous on top of being delusional and funny is really what puts him over the top as a compelling character.
  20. PeteF3
    This is an honest-to-God wrestling promo from Raven and it's a good one, with the angsty poetry not overwhelming the storyline from getting across.
  21. PeteF3
    Jenna looks cuter here than in her normal *cough* workplace attire.
  22. PeteF3
    The Triple Threat now have all the gold in ECW. This is one of Shane's best promo efforts, gloating over the fallen Taz and then issuing a challenge to Al Snow, who ruined Living Dangerously for Douglas and who represents everything Douglas hates about wrestling and ECW.
  23. PeteF3
    A hotline plug...what year am I in? Heyman threatens to fire Candido or Storm if they turn on the other.
  24. PeteF3
    Gennifer Flowers is coming to WrestleMania! Her promo is better than Pete Rose's. Cheap bait and switch as Austin is jumped on the ramp and eats a Superkick, right before a pretty huge TV main event. After the break, we have our Main Event Interview. Kane retrieves the bell and destroys a fan in the process--he takes a wicked bump from a chokeslam on the floor. Marc Yeaton is forced into the ring and is ordered by Paul Bearer to perform a ten-bell salute for the Undertaker. Of course the whole gimmick is all about death but this feels just a little skeevy coming about 2 weeks after Louie Spicoli's death and Pillman's death four months ago. He's thanked with a chokeslam and tombstone. Bearer cuts a scorched-earth promo on everyone who didn't believe him and this crowd is getting HOT. Finally the lights go out and the *bongs* start, almost to the point of annoyance--but that's actually played up well, as Bearer screams for the music to stop and it just keeps going. Finally we get to brass tacks, as the Undertaker returns--he was absent not because of Kane and Bearer, but because he was explaining to his parents why he'd have to fight Kane. And then closes with a warning that unlike as children, there'll be no parents to save Kane at WrestleMania. Fuck...yeah, it's comic book wrestling at its comic bookiest, but I liked this more than any Warrior promo because everything Undertaker said served a purpose and got the angle and match over, and they never lost the crowd. Lord knows this angle will get worse but this was a well-done and effective segment. The WWF is just leaving WCW in the dust creatively and it's going to be pretty glorious to see it pay off financially.
  25. PeteF3
    It's a swerve, but man, if you're going to do it, do a SWERVE. Reports going in were all about how WM was going to be an attempt by Tyson to try to rehabilitate his image, and instead they go in the exact opposite direction. Just mindblowing stuff that made you want to see what was going to happen next, a time when the end of Raw was the worst time of the week because it was the longest possible time until the next show. Of course this ended as it was predicted to from the start, but at the time we had no idea how they were going to get there.
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