PeteF3

Well, this is the performance of KAORU's career so far from what I've seen--she works not one but two LOOONG face-in-peril segments. This is also worked almost as a captain's match, with Ozaki spending most of this match on the apron directing traffic while her two henchwomen do her dirty work, and KAORU doing much of the same on the rare opportunities she has to tag out. This really turns when Ozaki drops KAORU with a Liger bomb through a table, and KAORU gets busted open and brutalized by double-teams from Sato and Amano. Her team gets a good run of their own off the hot tag, but KAORU finds herself getting beaten down again. She gets in a few hope spots, but Nagashima, who notably hadn't done much of anything the entire match, suddenly makes the save for her opponents. KAORU finally goes down soon after that--yeah, I already know enough to know that Nagashima isn't the trustworthy type. She walks out rather than stick around to check on her partner, though she doesn't seem to be a part of Oz's group just yet, though she's certainly a fit for it. There were some awkward spots here but this was still a very good match to establish Oz Academy as a force.

Yes, welcome to the best angle WCW ever executed. It's useless to recite all the neat touches they got right here because they've been gone over, but the match really *is* good until it stops in its tracks. The biggest thing about this is WCW intentionally sabotaged their own second hour just to get this angle over. The main event of Giant vs. Arn Anderson turned into the Giant squashing Greg Valentine--they deliberately put on a shit show to get over the chaos the company had been thrown into by the Outsiders. This is some of the ballsiest, most daring booking of all-time, and proof of just how bulletproof Nitro was as their winning streak had already started. Even with the card being ruined, they threw in just enough "hooks"--who's the 4th man? Where did Savage go? Will anyone be coming back?--to keep viewers wanting to see if anything more would happen.

They kept showing this even though Badd was long gone from the company (hence the black bar over his face) and Luger & Hart weren't together anymore. "Oh, WCW" never did quite go away, even as Nitro was now just about bulletproof.

Hard to believe this signing ended up working out after all.

I actually thought Hall was the best of the 3 here, though all of them have something to offer. Next a "short film" that I have absolutely no recollection of, as the Outsiders jump Sting in the parking lot and slam the trunk down on him. I'm not sure this was ever actually shown on Nitro, though I could be wrong.

In previous Yearbooks I remarked that Kobashi-Taue was the one Four Corners singles match-up that, despite some very good showdowns, didn't seem to have that "definitive" match. Well, we've found it. Or I have, at least. The struggles over the chokeslam attempts are terrific and I love how Kobashi manages to transition back to offense when his back is up against the wall--first with a daring legdrop to the floor and then with a tornado DDT. He really seems to overcome long odds--I was *thinking* Kobashi was the champ going into the 1/97 match but I couldn't remember for sure, so I was left in suspense as to whether this was his big title victory and if it was, just how the hell he was going to get there as Taue was pounding the shit out of him. But he does make that comeback and we get our second 6-year build-up paid off in the same show. This could finish in the top 10-15 MOTY list.

A little on the disappointing side--the first half of this was wrestled in slow motion, and not in a subtle '70s-style way. There were just stretches of neither guy doing much of anything, without even any cool work from Fuchi taking apart one of Kikuchi's limbs. The drama down the stretch is better, and this pays off a VERY long-running storyline and rivalry that stretches back 6 years, but it's clear that Kikuchi has lost several steps since his peak.

IIRC the only other guy to engage with the crowd off-the-cuff was Breeze. He responded to a "That Was Gor-geous" chant with a loud, "I KNOW!" Doesn't sound like much but it did stand out.

Yeah, the back suplex was really the only bad spot with Mongo. His shoulder tackle was great and he even busted out a dropkick that put Renegade and Erik Watts to shame. Sting works pretty much the entire match and it's better for it. Woman prevents Debra from handing Mongo the briefcase, and Savage gets it and uses it on Benoit for the win. That seems to be the payoff to the Elizabeth/Savage money angle. Then we get a bizarre promo from Sting talking about Leos and horoscopes and something or other. Lex offers up some more pointed, fiery comments. Savage threatens to take out Hogan in Sturgis before the title match. I don't remember what Flair was doing this night, but I don't think the Flair/limo storyline went anywhere.

Apparently DeMott is pleading "no contest" to the allegations but is stepping down http://www.twitlonger.com/show/niv902

Hell, a big lummox like Mr. Hughes is apparently turning out a prolific rate of indy talent. The correlation between in-ring skill and training skill just isn't there.

Kevin Dunn is probably my pick, too. He might be worse and have done as much damage to wrestilng as Russo. My all-time least-favorite performer could very well be late-'90s "if you don't like me, bite me" Rick Steiner. Just a complete unprofessional jackass with not one redeeming quality.

Yeah, I was stuck in GA which is a mistake I won't repeat next time. Every time the action spilled outside or someone made an entrance, the VIP fans stood up much to our annoyance. I completely missed that Owens stomp for that reason. Hell, I couldn't even tell--was Owens continuing to attack Riley afterward and Balor made a save, or did Balor just come out because he's the Next Challenger? Edit: Rob McCarron of Shake Them Ropes is saying this will air on 4/22. Hopefully it's the whole show (minus Show/Ryback which I'm assuming will be dark). Everyone deserves a chance to see Cesaro/Neville.

Thoughts on NXT Columbus...TL;DR is that this was a kickass show with no dead spots and only a few bad spots. - They had the full set-up going, with the usual Full Sail entrance and monitor (though no LCD ring apron, I don't think). Packed house that sold out almost immediately after tickets went on sale, so a crowd of 2,200 or so. Also, cameraman were all over the place so this show could well end up in part or in full on the Network. - Triple H dropped by to open things. Shouldn't have been a surprise in retrospect given that this is tied to the Arnold Classic but the crowd liked it. - Itami/Balor vs. The Vaudevillains. No body paint for Balor--I was secretly hoping for a Brutus Buckeye motif, but that'd probably be too much to ask for. Short but the most traditional and old-school-feeling match of the night. This was a smark crowd, as you'd expect, but they went along and booed the Vaudevillains--didn't seem malicious as compared to what was to come. Itami teased the GTS--again, and got cut off--again. He worked a short but effective FIP segment and Balor wiped out both guys after getting the hot tag. - Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks. Bliss is from Columbus so she got the hometown pop and had lots of family there, but Banks was even more over (lots of out-of-towners, too, so not everyone felt the hometown connection nor did they all go along with Corey Graves' "O-H!" chant). Another short match but Bliss busted out a ton of roll-up variations, which was fun. She hit Banks with a baseball slide to the floor and then something happened--unfortunately in the GA section seeing any action on the floor was a longshot, but Bliss won by countout. Crowd didn't like that ending at all, but it was refreshing to see someone *not* get jobbed out at home. - Tyson Kidd vs. Baron Corbin. Hostile reaction to Corbin with a lot of Kidd fans. Kidd did lots of classic heel stalling for awhile, as the traditional count-the-seconds game petered out, then played hit-and-run. This was actually a good match, but it was a total Kidd broomstick job and the crowd shit on Corbin in a big way. Naturally he won it with the End of Days. For some reason this was the longest match of the first part of the show. - Big Cass vs. Wesley Blake. Amore & co. were WAY over and the crowd recited their usual rap word-for-word, then Amore asked "the Australian guy" to "didgeridoo himself a favor" and skedaddle-- Amore definitely has a gift for getting over even the cheesiest lines. You can pencil in Blake/Murphy vs. Amore/Cass for the next Takeover show, I'm guessing. That said, while Cass does engage the crowd a bit better, I'm otherwise at a loss as to why he was so over while they shit on Corbin, because he definitely didn't look any better. Cass had Blake down for the Empire Elbow, but Murphy distracted him allowing Blake to roll him up and win. Pretty mild reaction for the tag champs. - Ryback vs. The Big Show. Or, How to Almost Kill a Hot Show in One Match. Crowd was NOT appreciative of seeing either of these two, and they generally worked lighter and looser than some of the WWF guys I'd see in a half-empty Columbus Convention Center in the late '80s. A sampling of crowd chants: "CM Punk," "Captain Insano," "Feed Me S'mores," and so on. Show, to his credit, rolled with the punches--at one point he addressed calls to retire by bringing up his guaranteed contract, which got the crowd laughing and prompted a "Ten More Years" chant. After about 3 or 4 more near-falls than were necessary Ryback mercifully ended this. This match actually wasn't terrible at all and was well laid out in a vacuum, but it had no place here and the crowd never gave it a chance. Presumably this was booked because Ryback appeals to the juiceheads flocking to Columbus this time of year for the Arnold Expo and so BIg Show could be appreciated by said juiceheads seeing Just How Big He Was Live™. - Intermission. Buy shit! Not at $25 for a t-shirt, though. *Two* Network ads, because a hardcore NXT audience is one that really needed to be sold on buying WWE Network. - Kalisto vs. Tyler Breeze. This brought the crowd back--for whatever reason I was expecting a semi-hostile reaction to Kalisto but that didn't happen. Big pop for the entrance, lots of "LU-CHA" chants. Breeze was over too, and we had lots of "Not the Face!" and "That Was Gorgeous!" chants throughout the match. I didn't notice until now that Breeze's phone provides a live feed direct to the NXT video board, which is terrific. I couldn't help but notice by this point that the match layouts were starting to get very samey--shine, heel chinlock, comeback. With almost EVERY transition revolving around some sort of kick. It's replaced the ducked clothesline in the WWE Style. Breeze countered the Salida del Sol and hit him with the Beauty Shot to win. - Ric Flair surprised everyone by coming out--he remarked that he used to constantly come here to rag on the Buckeyes but as national champions, he couldn't even do that anymore. That led to Charlotte vs. Bailey which was easily the best match of the night to this point. At one point Bailey rammed Charlotte into all four turnbuckles and Charlotte topped it with a Flair Flop. Followed by a neat transition where an overexcited Bailey ran over to high-five Ric, only for Charlotte to level her from behind. Bailey is proof that the "just wants to have fun" character CAN work, if the performer believes in it AND can back it up in the ring, which she can. Charlotte won with the Natural selection. - Alex Riley vs. Kevin Owens. The reaction to Riley was mostly one of confusion, despite this match being set up on the last NXT show. Owens was over huge, the biggest or maybe the second-biggest pop of the show at this point behind Balor. Just an extended squash with Owens decisively putting him away with a pop-up power bomb. Afterward Balor came out and brawled with Owens, with Owens rolling away and bailing before Balor could hit the double stomp. - Sami Zayn came out to address the crowd. He wasn't "medically cleared" to wrestle yet, but delivered a pretty fiery and passionate promo in support of NXT that the crowd ate up. He dropped the dreaded "wrestling" word, but asked the crowd not to get him in trouble when a "BETTER THAN RAW" chant started. - Main event was Adrian Neville vs. Cesaro. I should note that no matches were announced before this, just a list of names appearing, all of which were the usual NXT gang, so Kidd and Cesaro were both surprises. This was the match of the night and is something I hope turns up on the Network so I can get reactions from others--sometimes it's hard to objectively rate a match live, especially one with as much crowd support as this. The usual dueling chants and "This is Awesome" stuff, but the smarky crowd never got overwhelming to the point of me wishing for a Great White-style inferno to consume them, either. Unfortunately I missed the spot that got the biggest reaction, which was Neville attempting a moonsault off the guardrail only for something to happen to him and Cesaro to throw him back in for a near-fall. It got a huge ovation, though, whatever it was. Cesaro did a fucking awesome job tying Neville up into knots and keeping him grounded while also tearing up his back. We got a tease of the Swing, an actual Swing, and a good comeback by Neville climaxing with him hitting a huracanrana off the entrance stage. We started getting a little spotty at this point, as the guys moved into a highspot/lie and sell/highspot pattern, but it worked and the spots hit. Neville tried for a Frankensteiner off the top, but Cesaro blocked it and was about to hit a top-rope Ricola Bomb, only for Neville to counter that and hit the Frankensteiner anyway. Neville popped up and went for the Red Arrow, but Cesaro got up and crotched him on the turnbuckle, then pulled him off and Neutralized him for the pin. - After ovations for both guys and a thank-you from Jojo, end of show. From the quick ticket sales and positive fan reaction I have to think that if plans continue for NXT to tour outside Florida, that their promise to return to Columbus "sooner than later" will come true. As cynical as I am about modern WWE, I'm all for it. NXT isn't quite perfect but this blew away the two lousy PPVs we got at Nationwide Arena, to say nothing of your average '80s-'90s house show. This was a motivated locker room who were all setting out to perform well, in front of a much larger-than-usual crowd.

Fun beginning with Sunny taking a birthday cake to the face. Then cut to the finish as a debuting Faarooq Asad waylays Ahmed Johnson. I don't know who thought that gladiator look was a good idea, but it sinks everything because this is actually a hell of a good beatdown by Simmons, and would have had so much more impact if he were still dressed like a member of Doom.

THE NIGHT KIMONA WANALAYA DANCED ATOP THE ECW ARENA. This came about because of the broken ring and technical issues that plagued A Matter of Respect.

Babyfaces enter first. Interesting. Sid is absurdly over--any time he's not in, the crowd is chanting "SID! SID! SID!" There are some awkward moments--one caused by an interfering fan, some caused by Sid's timing being way off--and you could question some of the booking of the match layout. But this is a fun all-action match. The result is the correct one, but I really hated the babyfaces getting their shine back afterward. I guess that's the WWF for you, unless the heel is Shawn or Triple H.

Oh fuck yes. Japan's grumpiest bastard against its cockiest bastard. In 1990 we had Memphis brawlers working UWFI-style, 6 years later we've got a UWFI guy working like a Memphis heel. Anjo showboats, he cheapshots, he bails, he stalls...he's just awesome. There's a brilliant spot where he's got a standing toehold on Tenryu with his boot on his throat, and when the referee starts counting Anjo breaks...the toehold. Keeps his foot in place the whole time until the ref finally gets tired of his shit. Then he has the nerve to complain about Tenryu using closed fists, only to use the referee as a screen so he can level him with a high kick. Tenryu is just as awesome when he finally has enough and unloads on him, and they work two terrific false finishes when Anjo escapes the power bomb and turns it into a reverse cross armbreaker. But Tenryu withstands both that and the Ground Cross and that means Anjo has fired all of his bullets. Tenryu creams him with a lariat and puts him away with the power bomb, but Anjo still has to be an ungrateful dick afterward. Yeah, it's a huge step down for UWFI to go from feuding with NJPW to feuding with WAR, but I want more of this.

Dundee accuses Wolfie D as a leech, a user, and a discarder. As proof, he brings Midget D out of the mothballs. Wolfie ruined his marriage, his house, his car, and his job as a computer expert! As well as a returning Jamie Dundee! Dave Brown is incredulous at this, rightfully pointing out that it was Dundee who lost the LLT match. JC laments how Wolfie never called him when he was in Puerto Rico, but it was Bill who brought him back. Wolfie is eventually out to rebut, and cuts a strong promo in his own right. Wolfie's point about all the hotels in Puerto Rico rings truer in a pre-cell-phone world. Bill eventually sucker punches Wolfie and D is triple-teamed and beaten with his own hubcap. Good angle, but I don't know what the story was about Jamie going to Puerto Rico--whatever it was, it kind of killed the Cyberpunks dead and the angle petered out to an anticlimactic conclusion.

Alfonso rants more about massage parlors and ties it into Taz's training methods...er, somehow. The Taz/Sabu hype is now on. New Jack affects an Amos 'n Andy-type voice while holding up a noose, as he mocks undercover racist Jim Cornette, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and monies still owed. "Pay da hoes!" This is such a monumental deal that even Mustafa speaks. Joey Styles hawks Heat Wave '96 on home video before he's interrupted by the Eliminators. The Eliminators cut their usual promo in hype of a Four-Way Dance. Stevie Richards talks of his own painful childhood...and adulthood. Brian Lee owes Raven his soul. Bluedust shows concern for Stevie's cut. Then he and Miss Patricia do stuff. Shane Douglas cuts the most concise promo of his life. The Gangstas call out the Bruise Brothers, Eliminators, and Samoan Gangsta Party, but their attention is drawn by a honking car. They gawk at the car like a deer in the headlights, allowing the Samoans to jump them. New Jack eats a brainbuster on the street pavement.

Raven is inflicting the pain of his parents' divorce on others. As far as others in his age group, Tyler Fullington definitely has it over Amanda Ultimate Warrior, but probably not that kid that tried to dribble a basketball for Ted DiBiase.

And here I thought they were cleverly splicing Saturn and the guy in the ECW shirt into the video setting. This is one of ECW's lazier video efforts.

Yeah, that didn't seem like the planned finish, but it did add an air of realism to a style that still can't help but resemble wrasslin' in terms of building up to a dramatic ending. I also loved the spot where Kohsaka countered a kimura by wrapping his leg around Han's and basically suplexing himself just to get into a better position on the mat. This is a good match that I can't really call great in good conscience, though I do think Loss would like it more if he viewed it again today.

Flair's challenging for the IWGP title for what may be the only time--the second of two "this actually happened" matches on the same July 17 card. And like the first match, there isn't much to this besides the novelty of seeing these two together. Flair busts out every cheap-heel move he can in this setting, and Hash does do a great over-the-top sell of an eye poke (as does the announcer: "THUMB! THUMB! HASHIMOTO BULAINDO!"). Lots of Hash doing the Sting no-sell of Flair chops, too. Both guys try hard but the ending is too sudden and Flair is simply too past it to consistently make it in a Japan setting now.

Savage comes in limping, having done a clean submission job to Ric Flair the previous night in the same arena. Unfortunately for such a weird novelty of a match-up, this is every 1996 Savage match you've ever seen--Randy gets the crap kicked out of him, hits three offensive moves the whole match, and wins with the elbow. To his credit, Savage takes the Liger Bomb, fisherman buster, and Shotei like a pro. But the match is fairly empty, with Liger logically targeting Savage's bad wheel but completely going away from it in the second half of the match. Not a waste of time because of the "yeah, this actually happened" factor but not really much of a match.