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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Slow start to this--not the usual Doc/Gordy/Ace kind of slow with a lot of laying in holds. Just deliberate. And there's good stuff to be found, like the little football tackle dick-waving contest between Doc and Patriot. This picks up and turns into a hell of a match, with a closing stretch that wouldn't be totally out of place among the great early-'90s All-Japan tags. Kobashi works as sort of the juniory, in-peril member of the team, which I could see being a source of criticism, but...well, that's what Kobashi does. And while Patriot is fine, he's best served as an apron cheerleader who just comes in to hit his big spots. There's lots of neat counter-wrestling in between all the big bombs and some cool double-teams. It's probably too long to have been included on a pretty loaded Yearbook in full but this is probably the best AJPW match not to make the cut.
  2. PeteF3
    Yeah, apropos of the "carrying" discussion in the main section...some might want to say that applied here, but I dunno. I suppose Kikuchi could get credit for "holding this together" but RVD seems like the more dynamic worker and he's the more over guy in the match, at least by the closing stretch. He hits most of what he does with a minimum of RVD sloppiness and meandering, and what sloppiness is there is covered for nicely. This had a slow start punctuated by RVD's unique moves, with a pretty hot finishing stretch where Kikuchi steps his game up some even though he's clearly far from what he once was in terms of energy and speed. I find it amazing and more than a bit scary that he was a full-timer in NOAH for another 14 years after this.
  3. PeteF3
    I wouldn't want Muto to be like this all the time, but in occasional doses against the right opponent it works perfectly. Muta even gets to show the value of an American learning excursion, with his interactions with the referee when it comes to his foreign object usage. Tenryu really makes this with his incredible punches and comeback.
  4. PeteF3
    I also read in a circa-'96 Observer that Casas at Arena Mexico was like Flair in the Carolinas--wildly cheered, regardless of his "official" alignment.
  5. PeteF3
    The real October Giants: Also, on a more productive note for Parv: Dory & Kikuchi vs. Taue & Akiyama.
  6. PeteF3
    Hat tip to Dylan for pimping this on Twitter. I'm going to have to re-evaluate the Satanico/Pirata Morgan match from 11/26--I had that as the #9 Match of the Year worldwide and the top-ranking lucha match, and I think this compares favorably. This is every bit of the war you'd want to see between these two--I don't know if both are rudos (though Casas is the crowd favorite) but it doesn't much matter. Both guys happily beat the living shit out of the other and both guys provide some great sympathetic selling. Each fall gets time to breathe, and Casas is absolutely unreal working both on top and underneath. He takes an awesome bump over like 3 rows of ringside seats, and his kicks and comebacks are out of this world great. This is about as stiff and high-impact as lucha gets, and I think works great as a match to watch for people who aren't into lucha. The third fall also has a great running story of who can make their high-risk move attempt pay off first, like a lucha title match. Both guys miss at first and you know it's going to come down to who can be the first to hit their top-rope move. Even some really great lucha matches don't always have three good finishes for each fall, but here each fall works.
  7. PeteF3
    Vince's almost never-seen half-brother was supposed to be at that show, too. Since I'm approaching that time period in my Yearbook-viewing, i regret that Baba either never could close or try to close a deal to bring Nobuhiko Takada into AJPW in late '96, a move that would have given the promotion a needed shot in the arm. I'm not sure just how good Takada vs. Misawa or Kobashi would actually be, but they'd be big money matches and he and Kawada could have brought the Budokan house down.
  8. PeteF3
    Wait, I thought Sasuke was out of These Days because of the skull injury, but he's wrestling a singles match a night later? Okay, whatever. Good Lord, but this crowd is psychotic. Rey and Psic basically received polite applause but the audience is just losing their shit over this. It's a good match and of course Sasuke is making a brave comeback, but it was a little surprising to hear. I liked this well enough and I'm a guy who's way down on earlier Dragon and current Sasuke. I really liked Dragon dropping Sasuke on his head with a DDT to legitimate crowd heat--about damned time Asai learned some character work. This didn't wear out its welcome, either, which is often a big flaw with these type matches. Pretty good juniors match but the crowd is something else, and it elevates this to something a little more special.
  9. PeteF3
    This felt like that Rock 'n Rolls-Midnights Clash match where they decided to do all new spots, just to push themselves. There's some familiar stuff here but there's a lot of new stuff too--some of it successful, some of it not. It's rare to see Rey and Psic not on the same page, but that actually happens at times--particularly with that weird deal on the ring apron with one of the two audibly swearing at the timing. Actually getting raw audio of these two in the ring is one of the big highlights. Rey wins with a lucha-ized variation of a Billy Robinson/Johnny Saint/Dory Funk spot, and thank God for changing that, at least. This isn't a high watermark of the feud by any means but it was a good change of pace just when one may have been starting to adopt a "seen it" mentality to this series.
  10. PeteF3
    There's not much more to say about this. As the DVDVR guys put it, it's spot-fu, but it's the greatest spot-fu match of all-time. Actually I don't know if that statement is strictly true, but it's got an argument. It's another top-10/15 MOTYC in what's turning into an excellent year for MOTYCs. It's just a shame that Sasuke couldn't have been here--then again, maybe that means Yakushiji is the man out and we wouldn't have wanted that.
  11. PeteF3
    Chris Masters, though he arguably falls in the Show/Henry category. My pet perfection: guys wrestling for extended periods while still in their entrance gear, and guys doing wrestling moves in street-clothes--even better if it's a suit or a tux.
  12. PeteF3
    This was a good angle but it would have had more impact if we hadn't seen about 30 Savage beatdowns already. From a kayfabe standpoint he had maybe the shittiest year of any main eventer in history. We also get some trademark Kevin Sullivan read-between-the-lines stuff, as it's supposed to be implied that the Nasty Boys are being used to distract security or head off help. Just a shot of them chaining the locker room door or something would have been appreciated instead of us having to figure this out and assuming the entire WCW locker room is a bunch of chumps. I don't know how anyone could possibly have expected Savage to win at Havoc.
  13. PeteF3
    Hall and DiBiase talking is definitely way more compelling than the in-ring action.
  14. PeteF3
    "It's been almost 15 months since Jarrett slithered away from the spotlight in shame." SO WHY THE FUCK ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT HIM? (He asked rhetorically).
  15. PeteF3
    Good stuff that would all be for naught.
  16. PeteF3
    There's still some typical mid-'90s cheesiness here but this was definitely a more intense and personal promo from Undertaker than we'd been used to seeing.
  17. PeteF3
    This felt like AJW as booked by the WWF. Lots and lots and LOTS of playing to the crowd by Aja, and then we delve into finisher-trading and countering like a modern-day WWE main event. Aja gradually grinding Manami into dust with holds in the beginning was really good, but the blown spots and awkward set-ups from Aja as noted above take this down in a big way. Even the finish is way more WWF-like than AJW. That's not in and of itself bad, but a lot of this isn't even *good* WWF main event-style work. It's striking how far AJW has fallen in '96.
  18. PeteF3
    I'm with Loss. I couldn't get into this and I really liked the earlier BattlArts stuff. The pure wrasslin' stuff (suplexes, spin kicks, etc.) was a lot more compelling than the shootstyle work.
  19. PeteF3
    Sarge got another 10+ years of employment out of this. I'll take financial security over self-respect.
  20. PeteF3
    Yeah, this doesn't work when it's almost all Styles, as he hypes both the 10/5 and 10/26 ECW Arena shows. I question the Doc/Gordy-Eliminators match being "the most historically significant match in the history of the ECW Arena." Spike Dudley has debuted--I had no idea he was around this early. While the ridiculous hype train is running, Styles laughably attempts to pass off a rather tepid Buh Buh Ray vs. D-Von brawl as the most extreme in ECW's history. Main event is an Ultimate Jeopardy tag match: if Brian Lee gets pinned, he loses his hair. If Raven gets pinned, he loses his ECW title. If Sandman gets pinned, he gets ten lashes with the cane. And if Tommy Dreamer gets pinned, Beulah must leave ECW.
  21. PeteF3
    Nash on the Fake Sting: "He's the best impostor in professional wrestling!" Ha. He also compares Bill Murray to Ross Perot, a resemblance I don't really see. Hall asks Nasty Nick Hogan if he likes race cars--ooh, that's a line that seems different in hindsight. The Nasty Boys show up, and the Giant has joined us. Saggs does the Ace Ventura butt-talking bit in impersonation of Eric Bischoff, which I understand real-life Eric was NOT amused by. Kyle Petty is here as the Nasty Boys stuff themselves. Hogan cuts a promo on Randy Savage. Now Liz is with us and doesn't seem to be enjoying it. Giant points out that Hogan is getting him movie roles even though he can't act. Giant did have a planned role in Liar, Liar that got cut. I don't think Hulk could get Brad Pitt or Kevin Costner, though. Really good wrap-up to this, as Liz makes her way out of the hotel room only to be confronted by a psychotic Randy Savage in the hallway. I agree that this angle is starting to make sense in hindsight, but the problem is I don't think the announcers ever actually elaborated on what the hell was going on, and we had to make it out ourselves. That's not the easiest thing to do in ideal circumstances, but many viewers were rapidly bouncing back and forth between Raw and Nitro making it even more difficult. We can criticize the WWF Sledgehammer of Plot but sometimes it's a necessary evil.
  22. PeteF3
    Thing is they were teasing things already with Bischoff going "missing" a few times, so maybe they were just sitting on the turn with it in their back pocket for the right time. Bischoff invoking the names of Lou Thesz and Pat O'Connor just seems weird coming from Bischoff, even if it's effective for the promo. I did like Eric admitting that his worst mistake was bringing Hogan into the company.
  23. PeteF3
    I REALLY liked this--it takes the March MSG tag and improves on it. Pretty much balls-to-the-wall action throughout starting with Shawn's terrific plancha, with Shawn and Mankind in particular working with great velocity and Goldust and Undertaker bringing their working boots, too. I love Goldust's drop-down-and-uppercut-the-opponent move, a great little transition spot. He's finally coming into his own as a heel worker. Double-FIP structure--yes, the Undertaker actually works a heat segment in a tag match. Not too long, which is the right move, though it's pretty well-done considering that's so not his ideal role. Michaels works some pretty nicely complicated sequences with both guys--at one point he's in the tree of woe and flips out of an attempted Mankind diving strike to the top turnbuckle, dives off and gets caught in the Mandible Claw, then gets out of it by running Mankind into Goldust on the apron. Also a VERY cute finish where Shawn uses Goldust's own tricks against him. This was a treat.
  24. PeteF3
    Interestingly, this opens the same way that Dustin-Vader Clash match did, with Dustin in the Vader role spitting on Shawn in the corner and then eating a spear and a flurry of punches. Shawn in particular works pretty balls-out here, taking some trademark bumps, while Goldust gets to show some uncharacteristic aggressiveness. This is short on shtick and stalling on long on Dustin beating the fuck out of Shawn, with some punches that look awesome even from the stands, and also focusing on HBK's back. There aren't a ton of super high-end ladder spots, but they do use it effectively and in some creative ways, particularly Goldust dropping Shawn with a bulldog across it, and the finish where Shawn uses the ladder as a springboard to flip out of the Curtain Call and hit the superkick. The cameraman has to stop the tape a bunch of times down the stretch to preserve the battery so we miss a transition or two, but I agree with Gregor that with a little more time this easily could have fit onto a PPV of the time period. Good effort and maybe the first truly good Goldust match in the WWF.
  25. PeteF3
    Austin's already starting to set himself apart: Owen Hart, doing commentary, had just interfered in a Mero/Bulldog match prior. Austin warns him that if he does it again, he'll whip his ass after he's done with Bret! Interesting times for Bret, as Ross and Owen hammer that this could be his last WWF match, and I think the uncertainty was still there. Austin's familiar in-ring mannerisms are coming into shape, as we get the Thesz press-and-punches and a few other Stone Cold touches, but he still works like an old-school heel, constantly bailing out, offering fake handshakes, walking out and jawing with fans, etc. The whole match is very '70s-style and deliberate, as they stick to the mat for the first portion before moving to a quicker pace. Nothing blowaway, but a VERY well-structured and well-built match with a nice finish. Very interesting proto-look at this feud and anyone who watched this at the time had to be excited at the prospect of a long PPV match between these two.
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