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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    I thought this was kind of silly and petty on Austin's part at the time and even a bit out-of-character, but looking back on it now I think it works. Austin didn't care so much about stealing the belt but more about making sure Michaels had a justification for coming to the ring so he could get some licks in on him after last week. Not only is Austin a match for DX, but DX is a much bigger threat to Austin than the NOD ever were--what we have are two diverse and commanding personalities pushing each other to something pretty compelling.
  2. PeteF3
    Different strokes and all that but I still simply do not get how someone could find Sable more attractive, much less more talented, than Sunny. It might be just as well that Sunny be kept in these goofy little side skits because Russo would probably have no idea how to write a strong independent woman.
  3. PeteF3
    That finish had Bad Idea written all over it. Where else was Hall expected to fall except right on Scott? An increasingly rare "traditional" sign-off on a Monday night.
  4. PeteF3
    Total catchphrase-fest with nothing of note said. What is with the premature NWO music cues these past couple of weeks? Nash can't wait for Syxx-Pac to return, which of course will never happen.
  5. PeteF3
    Savage wipes out on an axhandle to the floor and lands on the guardrail in a brutal-looking spot, shades of Crush dropping him and cutting his tongue open back in '93. He makes a comeback, with a timely assist from Liz, and hits the big elbow only to get swarmed by the rest of the NWO and beaten down. No spraypaint but this is otherwise straight out of 1996. Hogan staggers away from the ring, but right as we're about to cut out, Savage breaks through the pack and attacks Hogan! THAT was cool. This is still the wrong feud to go with as an NWO breakup, but that was cool.
  6. PeteF3
    Benoit and Malenko and Eddie, of course, though they weren't top guys either. This goes on too long and was too much too soon, but...I liked this. Goldberg blows a few things down the stretch but nothing too egregious and nothing that looks noticeably fake or contrived, and his takedowns and submissions are still pretty cool. This maybe would have been better off as a semicompetitive 3-minute match instead of 5, but for awhile there Regal, contrary to the popular story, seemed to be making Goldberg look *better* instead of showing him up.
  7. PeteF3
    This was a pretty good segment in isolation, and Savage's line about beating Hogan from El Paso to Juarez was great, and gets a monster pop. But yeah, this is a little much to be giving away on free TV. These past two weeks feel like WCW is panicking a bit which isn't necessary--the WWF ratings shot up for Tyson but they still didn't beat Nitro and they went back down to the usual levels the next week. I don't remember where this goes but I wonder if this isn't actually a SWERVE and they'll delay the Savage/NWO split for awhile.
  8. PeteF3
    Then everybody QUIT FUCKING AROUND AND UPLOAD THIS ALREADY. Holy shit, this could be a legit MOTYC if I can find a full version because the closing stretch is just heart-stopping. Liger levels Otani with a supah fisherman bustaaaa...for two. One of the great near-falls of these Yearbooks, had me totally roped in until Otani got the shoulder up. He does a great sell afterward, Hulking Up but also continuing to put over the move as he constantly backs away from Liger, partly as if he's trying to buy time and partly because he seems concussed and doesn't know where he is. This takes another 2 or 3 twists after *that* and even after only 9 minutes this is exhausting just to watch.
  9. PeteF3
    Like the vast majority of Shane Douglas promos, this has enough false finishes that it feels like an overindulgent ROH match, or Dudley Moore parodying Beethoven. Still a decent one, and Candido's around to keep Douglas grounded and this from getting too self-serious. I think the explanation for all this was *supposed* to be that Rick Rude was the guy who turned Bigelow against the Triple Threat, and he's no longer there to hold any influence over Bam Bam. It's the best I've got.
  10. PeteF3
    Well, if I were making a stable, I'd take Bigelow over Lance Storm, wouldn't you? Not sure what's in it for Bigelow but we'll see. This was decent enough, the Kevin Dunn Shaky-Cam was in full-force and you can actually see the cameraman doing it when they go back to the wide shot. Francine is also uncomfortably, downright dangerously skinny here. She can't weigh more than 90 pounds.
  11. PeteF3
    Think I liked the Tanaka match a bit more because you got the sense that he was constantly threatening to end it with either the cross armbreaker or a deadly kick, whereas Gedo doesn't have as many weapons. He does nicely focus on Tajiri's arm and shoulder, though, and this is an effective enough, basic heel-face match. It's nothing to change the world but it is an enjoyable fundamentally sound match.
  12. PeteF3
    They packed a hell of a lot into 8 minutes, with Tanaka working a hard-nosed BattlArts style and Tajiri working as a more typical Japanese junior with a few lucha flourishes--not to mention the Yearbook debut of the Tarantula. As far as 8-minute junior matches go I thought this smoked the Thunder tag, and that was pretty good in its own right.
  13. PeteF3
    Match ends as soon as it begins as Billy Gunn runs in, followed by DX. An iconic (or should be iconic, but it seems only people like us remember it) image follows with Austin tied in the ropes with Michaels taunting him with the belt and Austin shooting daggers at Shawn with his eyes. The save is made by a returning Cactus Jack and Terry Funk...well, it did kill the angle, as Foley outright said in his first book, but it somehow feels less exploitative for them to come right back that night, so call it a wash. Also good foreshadowing before the match as JR notes that two ambulances have arrived again at the arena. Speaking of political bullshit on Nitro, note that Owen Hart is nowhere to be found here. Still, a super-hot closing segment and Shawn vs. Austin officially has heat to it.
  14. PeteF3
    "Does someone want to gag Mero or at least take the mic from him? Maybe we could have a WRESTLING match." I'm loving it when Ross gets real-life snippy with the show format.
  15. PeteF3
    Is this the best Billy Gunn singles match ever? It's nothing great but as a TV match go and as Gunn matches go, it's pretty good, with Gunn executing okay and Owen working really hard. Despite being emasculated over the past month, Owen is still over and the crowd still pops for the Sharpshooter teases. Eventually Owen is beaten down 5-on-1 by the NAO and DX, and Shawn & Hunter encourage the Outlaws to toss him off the ramp, too. It's broken up by officials (as the crowd boos, heh), as DX keeps encouraging the NAO to push the envelope and fight for those ratings. Yes, this is definitely an episode that made the Outlaws as they're more or less the centerpieces of the entire show with almost every segment revolving around them at least indirectly.
  16. PeteF3
    There's some stuff here that I *should* hate, like the use of insider terms and the cheapening of real-life injuries as have occurred and will occur in the future, but in the end it's the performance of Jim Ross that carries this. It's not as overall effective as the backstage NWO attack at Disney, but it does work--at least for now. I like that they gave us more or less a full match before the Dumpster angle--there's not much we haven't seen before but the action is good. And any falls-count-anywhere match with wrestling spots on the floor--here Funk turns a suplex onto a ladder into a small package--is never going to be all bad. Use of "over" aside, no one really compromises their characters here--even Mero and Savio being out there, despite being heels, is understandable and well-explained by Ross--"they all have families to feed." This was the first time the WWF had run this angle in the middle of a program as opposed to the end and this kind of show-stopping, format-destroying angle that Russo was never afraid to write. It didn't always work but I don't think it's something that WWE has really attempted in years, though doubtless they wouldn't carry out a fake injury angle to this extent these days.
  17. PeteF3
    Really strong segment with two dynamic personalities going at each other, after being kept apart for months. DX are campaigning for Austin to fight Tyson at WM, but Austin quickly sets the record straight--whether it's at WrestleMania or not, he's still coming for Michaels and still coming to take his title. Finally DX have met their match in an opponent, both in-character and in real life.
  18. PeteF3
    From 9 to 10, DX will no longer use the words [bEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP], and from 10 to 11 will not use the words [bEEEEEEEEP].
  19. PeteF3
    All the bullshit aside that everyone's mentioned, this still ends up being a decent segment with Hogan being at his most insecure and petty (in-character), not wanting Savage to be the first one to beat Sting.
  20. PeteF3
    What's the over/under on how many times we utter some variation of this line in 1998? On the other hand, last week we all agreed that Hogan was undermining the Outsiders by making the Savage conflict all about them, so in this instance, I have to side with Nash looking out for Nash. This was a good promo and I can totally see Kidman doing the tiger driver on his own and WCW having to scramble to cover it.
  21. PeteF3
    This was okay, but I think soup has it nailed--a lot of lucha matches start slow with perfunctory opening falls and then get better as they go along. This started off great and then trailed off, without much of a story being told through the falls and some nonsensical stuff like Venum Black constantly picking Super Crazy up when he has him beat. Panterita del Ring also dragged this down pretty badly every time he was in--he came off as older and clumsier than everyone else in the match by an order of magnitude. They attempt to push this into semi-epic territory by having everyone get eliminated in the third caida until it's down Juventud and Pantera, who both eliminated multiple guys. Juventud boots Pantera in the groin to set up the win. I thought Aguila was the standout guy here with some amazing high spots and execution. All in all, it was worth it to finally get a look at Promo Azteca--the atmosphere isn't bad but it definitely feels a bit more minor-league and less heated than CMLL or AAA and you miss the usual Galavision announcers. And getting a look at Super Crazy is significant as well, though he sort of gets lost here.
  22. PeteF3
    A strong TV match with a lot of inventive team spots crammed into 7 minutes, including a teased double-pin foiled by Malenko blocking the frog splash with his feet. It is kind of telling that Lee rattles off all these Cruiserweight title reigns for 3 of the 4 guys, and Malenko and Eddie have a U.S. title apiece, and then Benoit can simply "contend for any title."
  23. PeteF3
    Hall is still sporting the Syxx t-shirt, which may have been an act of open rebellion for all I know. The Mid-South Coliseum is pretty pro-NWO tonight, though there are plenty of boos for both. Hall then complains about how he's being left out of the title picture after WW3, and makes threat toward...Roddy Piper. Can't wait for that one. Dusty does his best to try to make sense of this stupid turn, by blaming the corporate takeover of WCW for killing wrestling tradition and shunting him to color commentary where he had to carry Tony Schiavone. He throws in a nonsensical swipe at Internet smarks too--ooh boy, he used shoot terms, I'm interested now. I might like Heel Dusty better if he changed anything about his delivery, but as it is this is all just dumb and not really any better than Shane Douglas' shooty-shoot crap, just a way for Dusty to try to leech off of something hot the way he always did when he was a booker and to possibly try to settle some grudges that the fans at large don't give a shit about. I mean, what the hell was this building to? Dusty vs. Larry in a match? I would have loved to see Larry respond to this by bringing up those mysterious old photos again. Hey, it wouldn't have been higher above the fans' heads than half of this promo was.
  24. PeteF3
    The gimmick was a "you had to be there" sort of thing, but this was a very well-done video, and the visual of Snow in the center of the ring being showered with foam heads is pretty great.
  25. PeteF3
    Everything the Triple Threat does is a DAMN SHOOT. Oh, shut up. Van Dam sets a new record in the "Van Dam lift," which gives me a cramp just watching it. Bam Bam confronts Taz in the parking lot and gets him to team up against the Triple Threat, with a future TV title match between the two upcoming.
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