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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    Bischoff and the Outsiders ride in on a dumptruck flanked by a police escort. So begins one of the most out-of-the-box PPV concepts in wrestling history, that sadly simply didn't work. We'll see if what we see holds up but this show was critically lambasted and called a Worst PPV Ever candidate as soon as it was over, even though the production and "look" was praised at the time. I also wonder if holding this event on a Saturday had anything to do with the lack of buys. I don't know if there was a legit reason for that or if it was different for difference's sake, but Sunday evening PPV had become an ingrained concept in wrestling by this point. Part of me is actually a bit surprised to hear Ted DiBiase shout, "WCW sucks!"
  2. PeteF3
    Meltzer said they were making a genuine attempt to conceal Rude's identity with this gimmick, but it clearly didn't work. Rude is way, way over, though, and he cuts an effective promo. It ends with Pitbull 1 making his return to the ring and destroying Shane.
  3. PeteF3
    Styles feebly attempts to get this show back on track after the attack on Dreamer. I remember really liking Taz's promos watching these shows at the time, and they're the one other ECW thing aside from the Douglas/Pitbull halo angle that I wish the '96 Yearbook had more of. Taz calls out the stupidity of ECW fans chanting for Sabu when he's in Japan, "cuz he's so loyal to you guys," then points out that RVD--"that little faggot with the long hair, kissing Baba's ass and all the Jap asses"--is over there, too. In almost anybody else's hands these slurs and swear words would come off as desperate, but Taz makes it work. He then goads the crowd into a "Fuck Sabu" chant then calls them out for doing it. Really good job by Taz of projecting the aura of a badass while in no way coming off to the ECW fanbase as somebody worth cheering.
  4. PeteF3
    This is sold way out of proportion to the brutality (or lack thereof) of a rather tepid sneak attack. After seeing Dreamer go off the Eagle's Nest through 4 tables, this doesn't really compare. Tommy Rich, God bless him, shows the Triple Threat how it's done in a second attack backstage.
  5. PeteF3
    Not sure why they felt the need to not have Flanagan cut this promo himself. PG-13 give this video the respect it deserves.
  6. PeteF3
    Fun little segment from the John Cena of his day.
  7. PeteF3
    Smothers wearing black gloves and giving the Black Power salute = only in Memphis, baby. This is sort of USWA-by-numbers, complete with the standard Memphis ref bump, but it's still fun and the boys are still working to build on your cliched Memphis finishes, at least. Downtown Bruno gets bumped and misses interference from Wolfie D, but not Brian Christopher's retaliation, so he overrules Bill Rush and gives the DQ win to Shaquille Ali. I'm fine with a Bruno turn and return to management, if that's where they're headed with this. He's not a great manager but he works well in Memphis and seems like he'd have more impact in that role than as an anonymous referee.
  8. PeteF3
    Terrific match--a true RINGS For People Who Hate RINGS special. Han dominates a lot of this but Tamura is terrific as well, especially in the early going as he's frantically trying to escape Han's grasp, with the speed and flair of a high-flying US or lucha babyface. He gets in one big hope spot at the end (a shot to Han's ribs, shock of shocks) but Han is simply too much for him at this point. Your #2 MOTY, for now at least.
  9. PeteF3
    The finish to that Hayes/Hunter match is one of the coolest tag sequences I've ever seen. Footage of prime Al Hayes is a pretty major find.
  10. PeteF3
    Pretty good action here, with Luger stepping up his game and busting out some new things. Luger holds off Nash and Syxx for awhile before Syxx connects with a leg drop off the turnbuckle to confirm the inevitable DQ. Luger is swarmed but WCW finally makes a save, as the Steiners run out to even things up. The nitpicker in me wishes Eddie Guerrero were out there because of his issue with Syxx, as that would have done a lot for him, but this is a solid enough ending to a Clash concept that was sort of past its sell-by date.
  11. PeteF3
    Good match but felt derivative of the GAB, which had an even hotter crowd. I enjoyed this but I can't believe they dragged this thing all the way out to Bash at the Beach.
  12. PeteF3
    Very Max Headroom setting, which is hardly befitting the Giant in 1997, despite the good promo.
  13. PeteF3
    Fuck it, I liked this more than Starrcade. I find it hard to criticize a match for being "tone deaf" when it involves the crowd this much, all the way until the brawl or whatever sapped everyone's attention. I didn't find myself caring much about any heel-face dynamic or lack thereof this time (and I'm a guy who's absolutely hammered Ultimo for bad/nonexistent character work), I was just biting on who was going to win.
  14. PeteF3
    Hogan cuts sort of an '80s Hogan exaggeration-filled promo talking about using his pythons to land a 747 at O'Hare. Then he starts to say something about the Giant's mother, which brings the Giant out only to be held back by security. He breaks through just as we go off the air.
  15. PeteF3
    Good stuff from Bischoff even though this approaches the line of being overindulgent.
  16. PeteF3
    Goddamn, I had no recollection that Bret quitting and Savage's shock return were going on at the same time. People were expecting Savage to end up in the WWF pretty much until this very moment. This feels like WCW's high watermark to this point in history. An electric crowd in a jam-packed arena that felt like the center of the sports universe in 1997. A '97 Raw-type segment with the announcers frantically trying to stay on format while their show gets hijacked, then the debut of Sting's rappel-from-the-rafters entrance which is an awesome moment. Huge amounts of intrigue here, but I agree with the general disappointment of this not really going anywhere.
  17. PeteF3
    On top of everything else that makes this show feel like a sea change in the WWF's presentation, they're starting to humanize the Undertaker a bit, as he basically wrestles this match as a routine big man and they make a big point about how Vader broke his ribs at the Rumble. Other than the orbital bone injury that was basically an excuse for a Halloween mask, that's not a storyline they tended to run with Undertaker very often in the mid-'90s. Another crazy brawl to wrap up a super-hot show.
  18. PeteF3
    Monsoon lays out the main event for Final Four, though he forgets to name the date and then blows off Vince's handshake in a funny moment. Austin is back out to rant some more, and what a glorious job he does of it. More elements that make this segment a few months ahead of its time--guys coming out for multiple segments, a feeling of chaos, JR screaming to cut to commercial break, teases and cut-offs within the confines of an interview, just fantastic stuff.
  19. PeteF3
    Bret raises some strong points, but couches in a few whiny moments like, "Oh, you only have to beat 29 OTHER GUYS to get another title shot." Fabulous promo. Bret's "...so I quit" hits you like a punch to the gut, as does his walkout with no one on commentary and Vince chasing after him. Then just when it looks like we're going to commercial, Austin is out to run Bret down just as effectively as Bret ran down the WWF. "The bottom line, son, is when the goin' gets tough, the Harts get goin'...BACK HOME." Then a "knock it off" at the fans who dare to cheer for him--fantastic. Austin rips into Monsoon, Sid, the Undertaker, and even Howard Finkle in the span of about 45 seconds. This definitely feels like a turning point in the booking and the "feel" of Raw. JR hypes up the 60,525 fans at the AlamoDome. Pretty telling that they couldn't even kayfabe the 75,000 figure they were throwing around in advance of the show. Still, considering where the WWF was in 1994 and '95 that's a hell of a gate.
  20. PeteF3
    As a non-expert put me in the camp that AJW had too many titles. I didn't like how mid-'80s Crockett did it and even if AJW's championships are more tiered than JCP's U.S./National/TV title clusterfuck there were still ways of getting over "tiers" without titles. See: All-Japan. Anyway, really good closing stretch here, badly blown finish aside. Kyoko's frantic desperation is sold wonderfully, and Inoue contributes some fine work of her own. Kyoko attempting to lariat Takako off the turnbuckle a la Hansen/Kobashi and Inoue turning it into a wakigatame was a great spot and a rare submission-based false finish for AJW. As for the finish itself, I put 100% of the blame on the ref. Officiate it like it's a shoot, dude.
  21. PeteF3
    Ito holds Kong to a draw, which feels like a significant result.
  22. PeteF3
    Darn. 1996 was building all the way up to the MOTY at the end and '97 blows it off in the first month. But what a fucking match it is. Kobashi's the champion but he feels throughout this contest like the challenger, because in essence that's what he is. Misawa will have to fight to keep his spot but it's Kenta who really has something to prove. He comes through with probably his best performance to date--his selling, his timing, his comebacks and aborted comebacks, and his work on Misawa's arm are all top-notch--the arm work particularly stands out because Kenta's not really a "grab a body part and go to work on it" kind of guy, but he works that sequence perfectly here. And in fact his usual formless offense actually adds to the dynamic here--you're wondering in a kayfabe sense, "Uh-oh, Misawa blew out his arm...but does Kobashi know how to capitalize on that? Oh, shit, yes he can." MJH compared this to Bret-Owen earlier but the US match analogue I actually saw here was Shawn-Mankind, in terms of how the match built and progressed through a series of mini-matches. Misawa shines to start, Kobashi gets a token run of control where he never *really* seems to take control, Misawa shines again before blowing out his arm, then Kenta blows out *his* arm, etc. Over the course of 42 minutes this thing never went off-track and always felt like it was going somewhere. It's a close call, but I really think I enjoyed this more than 6/3/94--the suspense down the stretch was greater as both guys were working with one arm and it seemed impossible for either to put the other away.
  23. PeteF3
    Jun's biggest singles win to date, and some great booking as AJPW probably needed, at this point, to train their fans not to expect every big match to go 20 minutes and wait until then to really get invested. This was a match Riki Choshu could have booked. I marked out hard for the sudden finish and this had the feel of a great TV sprint.
  24. PeteF3
    I remember someone on Wrestling Classics posted a clip of a heel Baba coming into Florida to collect a bounty on Rhodes' head, and Hisa Tanabe remarked that he was surprised Baba would do that, based on some sort of heat between the two. I'm not sure why Baba would care about Dusty winning the title in '86, though.
  25. PeteF3
    I think you're thinking of the stepover facelock. Uh...yeah--that hold definitely plays a major role in 1991.
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