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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    GAEA calling their championships the "AAAW" titles was no coincidence, I take it. Nothing fancy here--just two big hosses (inasmuch as ladies can be hosses) beating each other up. Masami is sort of in her Super Heel persona for at least the first part, but she drifts away from it as the match goes on and wrestles more conventionally. She does have a fantastic reaction to a Nagayo kickout, pouting to the referee like a teenage girl being told by her parents that she has to stay in and study. The match doesn't really build up to a finish, though, as Nagayo just sort of methodically wears Masami down and puts her away. Okay, but this is sort of Hogan-Warrior-like in that it's carried by the star power (even in a foreign environment, the crowd seemed into things) than the brilliant work.
  2. PeteF3
    Satomura might be the best pure babyface of the year, in a bad year for pure babyfaces. So spunky and full of energy that she makes Tsuyoshi Kikuchi look like Raven. She also has a good dynamic with Kato, who's bigger and more of a methodical asskicker while Satomura's all about high-flying and motion. Nagashima and Sato are fine, but I'm still waiting for them to really wow me on a consistent basis. This is a little spotfesty, but their reach doesn't exceed their grasp and they hit most of what they do (except Sato trying a Tenryu/DiBiase reverse elbow off the top and missing by 2 feet). This match also ends precisely when it needs to with a cool finishing move. Nothing that changed the world but I want to see a lot more of Satomura.
  3. PeteF3
    I thought Austin announcing he was going to hunt down Pillman in his home was an absolutely awesome and compelling set-up, and Pillman's initial promo is quite strong. And then it just goes off the rails. The commercial break right as Pillman cocks the gun when he hears that Austin is outside, and ESPECIALLY the break to static right as Austin enters just feels so phony and desperate that it would ruin things even if the gun itself was a good idea. Then we have to listen to Vince and Lawler in Owen Mode for most of the rest of the night, stumbling around another WWF linguistic quirk talking about "explosions" instead of gunshots. Austin's fight with the goons outside was really cool, at least. Well, except for the STAGE LIGHTS in the driveway that get into the shot in a bizarre production failure. Lawler really does sound visibly disgusted with this--I've never, EVER heard this tone of voice from him before, and this is a guy who's actually used guns in angles in Memphis! This had the makings of a killer (HA!) segment, but the damn gun had to ruin things.
  4. PeteF3
    Marlena looks absolutely smoking. She jobs in short order and asks for a re-shoot.
  5. PeteF3
    Good angle but this feels like a pretty Russo-riffic turn in a vacuum, though of course the build-up may shed some light on this. I agree that Wolfie being aligned with Dundee doesn't seem to work, and we don't get much in the way of an explanation either.
  6. PeteF3
    I didn't find this to be the most dynamically-worked shootstyle match by any means, but it was memorable because the character work was so strong and it had possibly the strongest face-heel dynamic in the history of the style. Plus they incorporated the wrasslin' elements like the giant swing beautifully. This is gritty and sloppy and tough and feels like a war of attrition. That said, I wouldn't put this quite at ****1/4, and I'm not sure it's even my favorite BattlArts match of '96, but it was a lot of fun.
  7. PeteF3
    Was Power Hour still doing original content or did it become almost entirely repeats by this point?
  8. PeteF3
    Holy Lord, Angle sounds COMPLETELY different from how he would even 3 years later. Jarring as hell. We finally get a match to put Taz over as a killer who backs up what he says, instead of a typical cheating '80s heel. Guido gets in just enough hope spots to make this match something other than a routine squash. Taz calls out Sabu again afterward.
  9. PeteF3
    Styles passive-aggressively takes shots at Olympic silver medalist Matt Ghaffari--who was in negotiations with WCW at this time--and future ECW Champion Mark Henry. That leads to the introduction of gold medalist Kurt Angle. Angle is a long way away from knowing anything about pro wrestling at this point. Little Guido gets his amateur credentials put over by Styles while he also puts over Angle. Taz is out next--he could have been an Olympian, but he'd rather make money.
  10. PeteF3
    Austin's solo interview is just as good as what we get here, where he outs McMahon as a "greedy, selfish promoter" who's pulling Monsoon's strings and wants the payday of an Austin-Bret match--hence no suspension for Austin for his actions on Pillman. Then he complains about having to fly to Stamford while they're sending camera crews to Bret's house and Pillman's house and promises to be in Cincinnati next week, setting up that ill-fated angle. But this came off great at the time. On the Yearbook itself Bret has joined us, and this segment even more than the Pillmanizing incident is really what made Austin what he is--Bret is a tremendous, underrated interview but he's completely outclassed here, as just about everyone else in the business was or would be when trying to match what Austin was doing. Austin leaves Bret so effectively in the dust that he has to practically beg Bret to say anything. Then we get another example of the WWF going, "Okay, now where do we take this?" as they have Austin snap again and trash a production assistant and the studio. I think this was the same Raw where Austin actually stormed the update desk as Dok Hendrix was shilling the PPV, complaining about having to wait for his segment. Despite the taped nature of the show the WWF was going all-out in its pre-taped segments to try to create a point of difference from Nitro. Truly a banner night for Stone Cold.
  11. PeteF3
    Didn't care for this, as good as Nick Patrick was, and I have no real desire to check out the match in full. Kudos to Nick and Hogan for turning the crowd against them, though. But the finish is overbooked to shit and this is yet another example of a WCW star getting emasculated, as had happened to Savage for most of '96, with him not getting a ghost of a chance of revenge as promised on Nitro. In some ways it's as bad as Booker's job to Triple H at WrestleMania. And man, am I not looking forward to seeing Roddy Piper again. It was a nice shock at the time, and he looked good in the spring, but I just don't like a WWF stalwart being the big conquering hero who finally faces down Hogan with a story based entirely on a WWF past. But, Bischoff gonna Bisch. Hogan seems like he's actually trying to move Piper along, but when Piper says he's shooting I don't think it's a scripted faux-shooty comment. Neither is Hogan when he says, "Let's dispense the backstory." He succeeds in getting Piper to get to the point, but the segment sort of peters out instead of building to a big climax making you want to see more.
  12. PeteF3
    The babyface spots suck, but at least they come against another heel team, and in some ways I admire Col. Parker for staying true to his character (and Sherri as well). I have to give credit to Hall & Nash for laying out a strong match and going 50-50 with Heat, putting over all their offense and giving themselves a somewhat fluky victory. Sadly this is pretty much it for the tag titles meaning anything.
  13. PeteF3
    Put me with Dylan and El-P. This was fantastic, even if it was greatly enhanced by the fact that I didn't know what the result was going in, so I was biting on every near-fall. Loved Dean's mean, aggressive streak and I loved the fact that we got a high-flying cruiserweight match with some meat to the story besides Pure Sports Build stuff (though there's that, too). Maybe Dean's matwork isn't quite as spectacular as it is at GAB, as he's content to use more U.S-style holds here, but those holds are well-worked, too. And it's about 9 million times more effectively laid out and smarter than that match, while also getting more time than their Nitro match. A more than fitting conclusion to maybe the best overall ring-based feud of the year in the U.S.
  14. PeteF3
    Austin now has the glass-breaking entrance, and his reinvention is pretty much complete. Incredible segment, naturally, that incidentally shows how far Pillman has fallen in addition to how far Austin has risen. Pillman, the guy who a few months ago seemed to lapping the entire rest of the business in terms of being cutting-edge, comes off as completely emasculated and impotent now--yeah, it's the injury and yeah, it's the WWF setting...but Austin just completely leaves him in the dust as a "loose cannon"--partly because while Pillman always seemed crazy and liable to do anything at any time, he still rarely come off as DANGEROUS. Austin took his template and added that element of danger to it, and the rest is history. Gerald Brisco takes an incredible bump here--not the last time we'll see Austin abuse him. Sadly we miss out on Austin blocking the ambulance with his car and then heaving his keys all the way across the parking garage. The WWF at this time were starting to become masters of booking hot angles, typically involving Austin, and *then* going, "Okay, now what can we add to it?" We'll see this again on Monday night and we'll see an all-timer, also involving an ambulance, in a few months.
  15. PeteF3
    You can't say these guys didn't give the fans what they wanted to see. Lee has the decency to sell the big fall like death, assuming he was selling at all.
  16. PeteF3
    There was a thread on here awhile back about kayfabed, acknowledged weaknesses in wrestlers. I think we can add Volk Han's ribs to that rather short list--it seems like every match there's a standup exchange where he takes a shot to the ribs and goes down like he's been disemboweled. It's his Jumbo Killer. That leads to some great near-falls on this and Han responds to the second one by dumping Naruse over the top rope, earning a yellow card (!). But Han is Han and has Naruse's number on the mat (plus he murders him with a really unique and awesome-looking sambo-style suplex at one point). Really good match with Naruse coming off as a gutsy bastard even in the face of being outskilled. Loved his somersault escapes from Han's standing armbars.
  17. PeteF3
    I think this is one for the "can a wrestler really be carried" file in the thread on the main board. Not that Mikhail sucks or anything, but this match is made by Tamura applying whacked-out submissions to what is essentially a log. It's enough for this to be a good match even if Mikhail comes across as being along for the ride. Sometimes carrying is about focusing on what a limited guy can do well and working to his strengths, and sometimes it's about said limited guy trusting his opponent to do that with him and not trying to dominate the match.
  18. PeteF3
    Decent enough little bout with Nakanishi being the second straight guy to show charisma and fire that he didn't offer up in WCW. Muto fully filling in for Scott Steiner was pretty fun and he embraced the role completely. ****1/2 is nuts, but there is definitely some stuff here that I can see Dave marking for. I don't know what to feel about the spot where Muto tricks Kojima and Nakanishi into clotheslining each other--it's something that Wile E. Coyote probably wouldn't fall for, but on the other hand it was a novel and fun little twist to the match.
  19. PeteF3
    Nagata holds his own nicely here, and shows way more fire and energy than he seemed to in WCW in months to come. Liger's "na na boo boo" taunt of Otani may win Best Maneuver Award on my Observer ballot. Otani is incredible again--unless there's another Dandy or Casas match that blows me away in the next 2 months, the Most Outstanding Wrestler award is his to lose. The suplex exchanges with both Liger (climaxing with Otani rolling through a German, taunting Liger, only to run into a shotei that he sells like death) and Samurai are just sublime. Otani looks dead and buried but manages to make a comeback and score the win practically all on his own. Finish may have been a tad on the sudden side but hey, the "right" match length is often a tricky endeavor. Really fun stuff.
  20. PeteF3
    Yeah, sort of with Ditch here. The run between minutes 10 and 15 are the best of the match and really some of the best you'll see in UWFI, period--Yamamoto kicks Scott off and Scott goes flying across the ring taking a great theatrical bump that's pure wrasslin', and Yamamoto follows it up with a dropkick (!). It's very much a babyface comeback. Then both guys go on to murder the other with suplexes, and that's clearly the hottest point of the whole match. However, the first portion is pretty middling and they go back down to earth after that, without any other peaks to come as the time limit draws nearer. There's good work, but as the time calls got more frequent neither man really seemed to react. One could argue that both were spent, or that like an NHL team in the waning minutes of regulation they were content to play it out and take the sure draw/point rather than risk running themselves into defeat. This is still a good match with some great selling by Scott and a fine fiery perfromance by Yamamoto, that would have fit right in with any UWFI card when the promotion was at its peak.
  21. PeteF3
    Pretty sure this is the same guy who was "Red Dog Lane" in Mid-Atlantic as well.
  22. PeteF3
    Tommy Dreamer waxes poetic about Brian Lee. Bill Alfonso cuts a promo in the middle of a hurricane. Sabu fears Taz, you know. Footage follows of Fonzie and Taz crashing Monday Night Raw. Shane Douglas shows off his TV title and gloats to Gary Wolfe some more. Dreamer's on top of a wall, apparently this is hype for the High Incident scaffold + tables match. Sign Guy Dudley cuts a promo for the hearing-impaired. Doug Furnas talks about RVD and Sabu. Lori Fullington is going through Raven withdrawal symptoms. RVD gives a pep talk to Sabu. New Jack tells us it's not a black thing or a white thing--it's an extreme thing. Dreamer philosophizes some more. The Eliminators want Doc & Gordy. The MVCs will do their talking in the ring.
  23. PeteF3
    Typical Douglas promo in that there's a good kernel of an idea, done in an overly verbose way. This is better and tighter than many others, though. I like the idea of Shane thinking he's justified in shaking the halo because he finds it "hardcore," and using the ECW crowd's own language and desires against them.
  24. PeteF3
    This is a well-done angle and you KNOW it's serious business when Savage is speaking low-key. That said, this is yet another "Savage walks off the set" ending when I really think this could have been improved if Savage had run to the ring and punked out Benoit. God knows the guy could have gone over *somebody* at some point between May and his title match, and it wouldn't have hurt for him to "send a message." Plus it would have been less over the top than Savage setting out to kill Hulk. The stuff with Hogan firing the 3 NInjas director and replacing him with the Giant is terrific, by the way. Who else noticed the shoot comment that Savage directed toward Bischoff? "We both know business is fragile"--Savage's contract was due to expire (and may well have expired, with Havoc being a final obligation) and was widely believed to have wanted out of the company while all this was going on.
  25. PeteF3
    I like Sting's not-Crow look and his facials as the NWO are speaking (Hall points out that "nobody knows cheap imitations better than us"), but one big problem I always had with the Crow Sting is that he couldn't incorporate the gimmick into his promos. Granted, he didn't have to speak as much, but when he did, the same old Surfer Sting came out. Good move not having him talk for another year and a half.
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