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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Think this might have been a repeat promo. Use promo code ECW when visiting DraftKings FanDuel Jenna Jameson's website.
  2. PeteF3
    And even so, it's still an improvement over the mess that was the build to the WM13 main event. Getting the Tyson/Austin program over is the priority--there's still 6 weeks until WrestleMania and there'll be time enough for Austin/HBK heat, since at least that match is set in stone (barring the possibility that HBK would be forced into retirement or try to use it to get out of doing a job, which had to be strong in the coming weeks).
  3. PeteF3
    King is a natural fit for wrestling--too bad he was a big enough scumbag to make your average wrestling promoter look like a choirboy. Don reveals that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has ruled that Tyson's suspension applies to wrestling as well...which actually was not true, as the head of the Commission was a wrestling fan who didn't see this as any different from Tyson appearing on any other TV show. But it works for storyline purposes. There will be an Austin-Tyson confrontation, it just may or may not be in the capacity of a match.
  4. PeteF3
    This was a Hail Mary pass, going after a disgraced and suspended boxer and spending enough money to do it so that WCW couldn't swoop in and steal him, as they attempted to do. But it paid almost immediate dividends.
  5. PeteF3
    The switch from Owen back to HHH is no prize, either. Okay-ish match but it's getting harder and harder for in-ring action to mean anything...and I'm trying not to be a broken record with this, and with the WWF's rash of injuries around this time it's even the smart thing. But it is what it is. I do admire Dustin's attempts to use HHH's knee-centric offense and I liked Luna in a black wig standing as a stone-faced, ersatz Chyna.
  6. PeteF3
    Not much of a match--nothing terrible, but yeah, the NAO aren't much yet outside of their catchphrases and the heat isn't really there. Cactus and Charlie go nuts with chairs and get disqualified, which earns Jimmy Korderas a mandible claw. Road Dogg is buried under chairs and is hit with a moonsault for good measure. Afterward the Legends get jumped in the interview area by DX and the Outlaws to put hype on the 8-man No Way Out main event. I was actually surprised to hear Ross tease possible Owen-Austin dissension during the match, as I recall that being pretty much wiped from history after Montreal until Owen turned again.
  7. PeteF3
    Michaels is all for Austin vs. Tyson at WM, since it means he won't have to defend his title against him. The insincere "role model" stuff is starting to wear thin considering how much it's been done across both shows. The reveal of his ref-stripe shirt was clever.
  8. PeteF3
    Jericho's playing his old Smoky Mountain insincere-babyface character ramped up about 1000%, and doing it on purpose this time.
  9. PeteF3
    Same here, though Spicoli making sure to hit a DVD and asking for a cover after Juvie's been massacred was pretty funny, as was him trying to gladhand Savage. I saw a touring version of The Book of Mormon today and Spicoli's character would have fit right in with the other Elders. Savage wants Luger again but doesn't want any help from the NWO. Bischoff attempts to make peace, but Hogan and Savage have words, with Hogan saying the NWO had to try to bail Savage out and Savage responding that Hogan doesn't look as good without the big gold belt. Totally agree that this should have ended up being MegaPowers vs. Outsiders, and that this reeks of Hogan trying to marginalize Hall & Nash. Hogan vs. Savage just isn't a match-up we need to see yet again.
  10. PeteF3
    Yeah, Nash isn't trying to be cool here--he's just a disingenuous little shit. "Being the SPORTSMAN that I am--!" Nash's commitment to this crap actually makes this funnier than your average Nash promo. Nash dubs himself Big Sexy the Giant Killer. Pointless Chris Farley reference at the end aside this was an amusing promo.
  11. PeteF3
    JJ delivers some remarkably prescient talk about how other sports have passed rule changes designed to mitigate the bigger, stronger athletes of today. This isn't a terrible idea in a vacuum, but a.) Dillon was completely emasculated from day 1 on WCW TV and has absolutely no credibility, b.) WCW had ignored and flouted its own internal logic for so long, sometimes by design and sometimes not, and c.) We were past the days where a guy like Bill Watts could really get this angle over *and* have the necessary quality-control for his announcers to get it over, d.) Late-'90s wrestling was all about breaking the rules, not getting heat by doing it. Dillon threatens criminal prosecution toward Kevin Nash if he uses a power bomb, to a chorus of boos. Just more stupid, convoluted shit in the main event--I don't recall if this ruling ever got resolved or if it was just forgotten about like a lot of things in WCW. The only other positive to this is that it is at least something different, in a main event scene that's been very same-old, same-old for the past several months.
  12. PeteF3
    Back in the '95 Yearbook I wondered if Brad Armstrong had ever worked heel--as himself--outside of the SMW-USWA feud. Well, I've gotten an answer. Goldberg is officially a mega-face now--really, anyone who's pushed as invincible for a period of time is going to be seen as a babyface. From the Road Warriors, Hogan, Undertaker, and Kane to this.
  13. PeteF3
    It'd been the way of the industry for a about two years prior to this, but this was a pretty brilliant way of directly catering to a different demographic than what wrestling typically goes after.
  14. PeteF3
    What I liked about Akiyama here was the sheer *number* of brand new movez he threw at Misawa in an all-out attempt to get the upset win. We get exploders and high knees and blue thunder bombs and your usual Akiyama shit, but we also get some different suplexes, a brain buster, a tombstone on the floor, and some other unique offense I can barely even describe. Misawa's control segment was fairly restholdy and dragged this down quite a bit, but they picked this up again with a darn good closing stretch. Intentional or not, I liked the touch of Akiyama busting out "new" offense all throughout the match only for Misawa to respond with a new move of his own to seal the win. I wouldn't vote for it for an AJPW Best of the '90s list either but I enjoyed this way, way more than a number of pimped '97 matches. Post-match, hype for the big first AJPW Tokyo Dome show is officially on. Don't know if Kawada was named as the challenger yet but it doesn't sound like his name was mentioned.
  15. PeteF3
    Underwhelming action during and after the finish, and for fuck's sake, if Hogan and Nash want Savage gone, why not just fucking punk him out already? I don't get why all of a sudden the NWO is acting passive-aggressive for the first and only time, other than to draw things out cuz ratings. Seems to me Savage as a crazed lone wolf fighting everybody instead of being the most emasculated part of the NWO would be quite the ratings draw, but what do I know.
  16. PeteF3
    I agree there wasn't much new here, but these two are so good at the basics that they can still craft a compelling match just on stuff we've seen. Both guys have standard, but awesome transition spots to really carry the momentum swings throughout, and Bret finally looks like a fresh new arrival in this setting rather than a third wheel as he's mostly looked like in his WCW run. I do kind of wish they'd changed something up at the finish, but Bret wins decisively after pretty much methodically tearing Flair apart. Incidentally, the sniping between Schiavone and Heenan is really reaching a breaking point with me--it doesn't reflect well on either guy and I'm not going to try to blame one more than the other, the bottom line is we're really reaching the point where they seem to be at each other's throats and not in an in-character heel-and-babyface-banter type of way.
  17. PeteF3
    Giant with one of the worst hot-coffee sells I've ever seen...I can't believe I just typed that or that I have other incidents to compare this to. He just bends over for like 30 seconds while Nash gingerly sets him up for the power bomb. Crowd goes almost silent with shock when Giant hits. Announcers in the post-match don't know whether to get over an eye injury or a neck injury.
  18. PeteF3
    Well...you can't accuse this finish of being predictable, now can you? Still dumb on just about every level from both a booking and execution standpoint--Spicoli bumping around for Dusty jumped out at me, too. What was the point of that? And why exactly do we need to protect Larry with a DQ finish? Dig that "LARRY SUCKS" post-match chant, too, so at least this got Larry over as a sympathetic babyface. /s In an American wrestling environment that's falling steadily more under the influence of Vince Russo, the most Russoriffic turn yet so far is one he didn't even book.
  19. PeteF3
    That finish was holy-shit worthy, because it looked for a second like Jericho was going to ganso bomb him off the turnbuckle. But Rey's short enough that he just transitions into the Lion Tamer. Rey has to tap due to an injured knee, and Jericho is AGHAST that he would be greeted with boos afterward. So he obliges the crowd by tearing Rey apart some more, chaining his leg to the ring steps, and whacking it with a giant steel box. Strong post-match angle to give Rey some more time off and get Jericho over as the biggest the division had ever seen, and the run that made Jericho a superstar is going full-speed ahead now.
  20. PeteF3
    Yeah, probably Raven's best singles match--and it's not a broomstick job as he brings his (orthopedic) working boots here. There are some good payback spots giving this more structure than a typical ECW run-in-fest, like Benoit doing the drop toehold on the chair and then Raven taking a bump into the guardrail as Benoit did at the outset. Huge pop for the Crossface, and I'm going to become a broken record shaking my head at how WCW didn't capitalize on all these hugely over mid-carders, aren't I? Raven's pre-match spiel is also good--quick, to the point, and actually serves a purpose as Raven promises to "feast on Benoit's pain" and then does exactly that at the finish. The only big knock on this is the cringeworthy-in-hindsight and monumentally stupid diving headbutt onto the chair.
  21. PeteF3
    Good opener and the kind of thing you were only going to see from WCW in a PPV or Monday night setting. Chad mentioned this already but what struck me is how much some of this stuff looked like it *hurt*--they really lay in some of the chops and punches to a degree not normally seen in lucha, and even a lot of the dives and misses were high-impact, particularly Silver King's fall to nothing on the floor and Dandy's tope. Sadly the #1 takeaway of this is that La Parka should have been pushed way harder than he was. His charisma and antics transcend any language barrier.
  22. PeteF3
    This restraining-order angle is SO, SO dumb, but there's some other good stuff here with Nash refusing to help Savage and of course the great closing visual of Giant tearing the ring apart. The WWF/E would later make this a staple of Big Show matches and angles but WCW shows that they could pull a stunt like this off effectively when need be.
  23. PeteF3
    The Sting shirt is the only one I'd be caught dead in.
  24. PeteF3
    Yep, that's a MOTYC. I thought Tamura carried this totally but Mikhail to his credit didn't fuck anything up, and did a great job of matching Tamura as they were in dueling leglocks at several points during the match. Mikhail's other high point was his back-and-forth rolling to try to escape a knee bar, which was almost something you might see on World of Sport but works seamlessly in RINGS here. Tamura continues to be the Best in the World ™, a master class in striking, mat working, and good old wrasslin'-style theatrics.
  25. PeteF3
    Of course the use of all the wrasslin' spots has already been covered extensively. In addition to that and all the awesome matwork there was really good build to Ishikawa's finishing double armbar, with Otsuka really putting over the struggle to the point where you really believed it'd be over if Ishikawa could get it fully applied. A very good match...neither Ishikawa nor any other BattlArts-centered guy made my GWE ballot and I have a feeling that if I could have completed the Yearbooks before the project ended that wouldn't have happened. Oh well, something to keep in mind for '26.
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