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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    "Nightmare Matches" at the Big One--first Woflie has to face the Dundees in a handicap match, then he teams with Jesse James Armstrong to wrestle them in a barbed wire match with the loser getting painted yellow. Doesn't get much more Memphis than that.
  2. PeteF3
    I'm no MMA expert but I did have the same observation Childs did: this was hurt by the ban on punching and ground striking. As a result, when things went into the mat, we got a lot of fumbling around and stalemating but not a ton of action, and for awhile I was wondering what this was doing here--the early Pancrase stuff I understood, and worked as a non-worked companion piece to the other shootstyle stuff of the early '90s. That said, the last five minutes of stand-up striking, are hugely dramatic and are as exciting as any worked shoot, and Bas' finishing knee is a true holy-shit moment. This really does illustrate how cooperative even the most no-frills matches are in UWFI and RINGS, but it also shows the appeal of real fighting in the end. Ultimately I'm glad I saw this.
  3. PeteF3
    Sid teams up with some Special Olympians to win a tug-o'-war against an elephant. That elephant should have known better than to tangle with Sid in Sid's natural environment, the softball diamond. JR hypes up a 50,000-crowd for an Exhibition Stadium show, which seems a tad exaggerated. Meanwhile Mr. Backlund makes his return, and hypes up the man who will win the "WWWF Champion." But first, a man he has a lot of abomination for, but a man he respects as an amateur and a professional: The Iron Sheik! Ross: "I thought the Iron Sheik was in a home somewhere!" Sheiky still knows how to get heat after all this time. JR and Kelly shit all over this and Sheik is cut off by a commercial break.
  4. PeteF3
    This was kind of disappointing, in comparison to the previous bouts between these two. Bullshit finish as well, though it's understandable as Mero was already pegged for the finals and Austin can't be doing jobs now. Even still, it wasn't well-executed or built up to. Pillman on commentary hypes up an interview at Mind Games with Bret Hart, and also teases that he and Owen have reconciled. Interesting development--I thought Bret wasn't officially signed until October or so, but they're already building up the big Bret/Austin clash to the point where you'd think it was a done deal.
  5. PeteF3
    It isn't JIP, but there is a cut after Hansen levels Kobashi with the tope (or the power bomb on the floor--I forget which) and they go back to being inside the ring. Anyway, yeah, this was spectacular and an out-of-nowhere MOTYC. And from the looks of it, Hansen's last great singles match. He's past the point of being able to take big bumps, so he and Kobashi rely on stiffness, timing, and smart work instead, to this match's credit. I've read criticism of Kobashi for not carrying himself as an ace, but he does that here--from the moment he jumps Hansen before the bell, he comes off as the aggressor and the champion here, while in a reversal for this feud Hansen comes off as the guy needing to prove something. He gets in his share of licks, though, and Kobashi does some fantastic punch-drunk selling. Then Hansen almost tops him when he accidentally Lariats the post, which is the turning point of the match. He gets in a super-hot near-fall when he hits Kobashi with a right-armed Lariat, but it's not the "correct" arm and it's not enough to put Kenta down. Kenta going for the Lariat at the end and Hansen having to play keep-away, and failing, is a wonderful, beautifully poetic capper to this match and this rivalry. It feels every bit as impactful and sea-changing as Aja putting down Bull Nakano with the guillotine legdrop. In comparison to the 7/93 and '94 matches, this seems like a Lost Classic.
  6. PeteF3
    Shit, with Bret giving them an "in" with that show, that's probably exactly what they did.
  7. PeteF3
    I may be able to do something about that.
  8. PeteF3
    Similar story to the 6/7 match but I still liked that one a bit better--Ace had a good performance in that one, too. Misawa does another great job of letting Akiyama shine and basically coming in to make saves or swing momentum, and Doc does much the same with his partner. The result has everyone looking good.
  9. PeteF3
    Well, this has already been broken down, analyzed, dissected, reassembled, and had all those things done to it again. But aside from the opening awkwardness with Mongo and the closing awkwardness with Giant's promo (that final "I sat at the table...." remark was unintentionally hilarious) this was an incredible segment. They get Luger & Sting out of the building, and after a long clusterfuck of a match the NWO get higher ground and pick off everyone on both teams, before the Giant makes his presence felt. I'm fine with this turn even if Davey Boy (or Waltman if they could have gotten him early) would have been a better option. The post-match chaos is a pretty incredible scene, in front of a traditional wrestling crowd that gives the NWO the heel heat they deserve instead of seeing them as "cool."
  10. PeteF3
    Fun interview, and I loved the callback to the old Right Guard ad at the end.
  11. PeteF3
    First part of this was just a lot of fumbling around on the mat, but this got better as it went along. Tanaka looked fantastic, throwing tremendous energy into his bumps and providing some great-looking offense. Really good finish, too, that ends at just the right time after the heels get eliminated.
  12. PeteF3
    Austin pays lip service to his Intercontinental Title tournament bout with Marc Mero, and then moves onto the meat of this promo: a challenge to Bret Hart. He even throws threats toward Brian Pillman for having the audacity to cut him off. Austin is immediately head and shoulders above almost everyone else in the company as a promo, it's no wonder he turned into a babyface. Even Pillman, who spent the entire first half of the year trying to be above it all and too cool for school, looks weak and ineffective by comparison.
  13. PeteF3
    Wolfie D discusses accusations Jamie Dundee made about Wolfie and a woman, or something. Jamie comes out and talks about Wolfie abusing his 88-year old grandmother, and that earns a physical rebuke. I wasn't aware there was now a USWA Television Title. Pretty strong studio match which naturally involves Bill Dundee. He, Samantha, and the woman come back out and distract Wolfie, allowing Jamie to cold cock him with a chain and take the title. Jesse James Armstrong and his fabulous hospital scrubs are in to make the save.
  14. PeteF3
    Great match in front of a finally-hot crowd. This is SO not a joshi-style match at all--it deliberately starts slow and deliberate, and builds into a war of attrition rather than a 100-mph-spotfest, with strong chop-down-the-tree psychology and character work on Kyoko's part. She's SO easy to root for, and the disappointment when she finally goes down is palpable. Probably the best women's match of 1996.
  15. PeteF3
    JT Smith and Little Guido train under the Rocky statue. Taz calls out Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, and Dr. Death. Brian Lee cuts the same promo he's cut for the last 2 months. Dreamer and Beulah rebut. JT Smith wants to invade YOUR town--Guido isn't as eager. D-Von threatens the cameraman with a chair. Buh Buh Ray manages to sound threatening while still holding onto the remains of the stuttering gimmick. The Dudleyz are slowly morphing into legitimate threats. Guido abuses the Rocky statue. 2 Cold Scorpio talks about nothing in particular. The Gangstas show off the ECW Tag Title belts. D-Von delivers his catchphrase. Big Dick Dudley grunts. Damien Kane and Lady Alexandra...they're still around?? Gary Wolfe wants to break Shane Douglas' neck. Shane and Francine gloat some more. Doug Furnas manages to make his way through an interview selecting Dan Kroffat as his partner. RVD responds with his dream partner...Sabu. Until the last segment this was a pretty lame edition of Pulp Fiction, with a lot of repeated stuff (more than usual) and guys talking about themselves without actually hyping anything specific.
  16. PeteF3
    DiBiase's last flirtation with relevance. I don't see how anyone could seriously have bought him as a Horseman at this point, though that would have been pretty kickass a few years earlier.
  17. PeteF3
    Raven's wrestling on one leg, so this is piled with even more bullshit than usual. The 2-on-1 stuff is terrible and this only gets marginally better after that, though I will say that Pitbull 2 works hard and looks pretty good--I'd say the Pitbulls are the surprise workers of mid-'90s ECW so far. He even gets to pin Raven. Underwhelming post-match angle too, though it's hard to blame Tyler. Overall this just went on, and on, and on.
  18. PeteF3
    Enjoyable, but this dragged really badly when they were fighting in the crowd and there's some sloppiness down the stretch. That tombstone looked GHASTLY--like Owen Hart/Steve Austin bad, but luckily RVD seems okay. It's good to see Furnas actually put on a half-decent singles match, since Kroffat gets the bulk of the credit for their tag work and has a number of good singles bouts of his own.
  19. PeteF3
    Definitely the best RINGS match to this point, as Loss said it really felt like a competitive match than guys just noodling around on the mat, with both guys having to improvise their way through various submissions. Han pulls a win out of his ass when he looks completely done for, a very well-done finish that also adds to this. I don't know if my anti-shoot bias will ever have me place such a match in my MOTY list but this comes as close as anything since the big Takada matches.
  20. PeteF3
    Pitbull Gary Wolfe shows off his halo, courtesy of a blown DDT by Shane Douglas. Shane and Francine gloat in the back of a limo. Brian Lee calls out Tommy Dreamer. A bug-eyed Terry Gordy responds. Taz threatens Steve Williams. The Dudleyz threaten D-Von. Kiss tries to hitch a ride to the show--when a car passes them by, Richards drops Schiavone's famous Bash at the Beach line. Meanie tries to get people's attention by showing off some leg. And it works! New Jack gets jumped during the Pulp Fiction segment AGAIN. I guess that SMW security force were the victim of budget cuts.
  21. PeteF3
    "What's the Denver Post doing in Rome?" This is just two guys bullshitting, but this type of promo really hadn't been done before this. Nash Outdated Reference count: Spartacus and Mr. Ed.
  22. PeteF3
    Terrific segment as everyone has said--everyone is fantastic here. Well, Benoit's just sort of there, but he does his job well enough. Arn is spectacular, and it's too bad that the WCW team didn't really seem to do anything monumental in the match itself after the fire-and-brimstone-inspired promo we got here.
  23. PeteF3
    Another thing that ruined WWF Lex was the total and sudden 180 his character did. You can debut him as a heel if you want, but you can't go from Narcissist to All-American in one week.
  24. PeteF3
    Hey, I liked 1991 Schiavone! I just didn't care for Ross that year, but Schiavone carried him really effectively.
  25. PeteF3
    I think there's a distinct possibility that that Main Event Arn/Taylor match was a repeat of one of the syndie bouts.
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