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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    More of the same from the previous month, with some spots that are more death-defying but also more that are blown. RVD cripples Sabu with a super fisherman buster and scores the pin shortly afterward. Sabu is seemingly too hurt afterward to say "I respect you" into the mic or shake hands, but he drags himself away from the paramedics to come back to the ring. Paul E. calls RVD back out, and Sabu extends his hand again, but RVD tells him he's a piece of shit and leaves with Fonzie and Taz.
  2. PeteF3
    Very good match, that takes the Douglas-Jannetty template and improves it with better opening matwork and more Extreme™ action with chairs and tables. I dug Douglas busting out more high-flying offense out of desperation, like springboarding off a chair. And the Chekov's Gun stuff with the table (teasing someone going through it, not delivering, then sending somebody through it with a sudden fall later) always gets me. Also have to give credit to everyone for getting me to think "time limit draw" (having called that as the finish with Gertner's 25-minute time call) and then going to a finish anyway. A really, really dumb post-match angle follows, as Douglas spends 9 hours talking about everyone he's ever worked with in his life, acting as a humblebragging babyface for some unexplained reason. They drag this out FOREVER even though it's obvious through all this respect garbage that someone's hitting somebody else with the belt. It ends up being Scorpio, after Douglas hands the belt over to him thus looking like a total moron, which could work if his character was that of a moron--but it isn't.
  3. PeteF3
    I really liked the angle to set this up, with the Eliminators jumping the Pitbulls and Dreamer at the gym and Styles & co. having to break into the show with impromptu coverage "on the scene," after the fact. The Pitbulls were taken out, forcing Dreamer to bring in the Gangstas. A crowd of 90% white guys throwing up the "X" sign as Natural Born Killaz plays is always amusing. I actually thought Dreamer looked pretty good in general, even aside from that loony Eagle's Nest bump. Saturn also brought a lot of fun actual wrestling offense to this thing. Dreamer puts a cinder block on Lee's groin and brings a chair down on it, as Lee had done to him earlier--that really, really should have been the finish, but they drag the match out some more before New Jack puts Saturn away with a diving chair shot. This goes on way too long with a few pin saves too many after waiting too long to get Stevie, Beulah, and Kimona involved, but it can't be accused of being boring.
  4. PeteF3
    Fuck, that was going to be my line. I actually *do* think the idea could have worked, but...yeah.
  5. PeteF3
    This threatens to go off the rails when the match gets overshadowed by the arrival of Flair, Liz, and Woman to the "VIP area," but the production recovers to re-focus on the two athletes in the ring. Quick sprint in that classic Nitro style, but a good one with a few near-falls that had me biting.
  6. PeteF3
    The early highlight here is Kong putting on a reverse Indian deathlock the way her partner so often does, and Kyoko successfully encouraging her to do her clap hands/hip shimmy move. Other than that, there wasn't much new under the sun for the body of this. They all worked hard and quick, but it felt very house-showy and run-of-the-mill, despite some last-second pin saves. The "new" stuff came at the very end, when Hotta and Kong started trading submissions--a sequence that pays off with Hotta getting on a cross armbreaker and getting Kong to tap! That *feels* like a historic result, at least. Overall, this was fine, but inconsequential.
  7. PeteF3
    Yeah, the story is they were going for Elizabeth here, but were so worried about a potential (justified) slander suit that they covered their tracks to the extent that no one could possibly have picked up on it.
  8. PeteF3
    Page roots through a garbage receptacle and tries to foist some (presumably fake) rodeo tickets off on a passerby. Ha, they're yesterday's tickets.
  9. PeteF3
    Funk's promo is sort of rambling and is a quasi-babyface promo to start, which is odd standing next to Pogo and Quinones--then he says Onita has the "heart of a chicken" and all is right. He went from kindly old grampa Terry to a psychotic to a disingenuous shit all in one interview. Pogo does the all-time worst dramatic avoid-the-barbed-wire acting I have ever seen. He stands with his feet planted on the mat, flailing his arms like a jazz-hands routine in a pathetic attempt to look "off balance." Then Tanaka eats the barbed wire explosion instead. Funk brutalizes Hayabusa's leg with a chair before slapping on the spinning toe hold. Incongruous spinning toe holds in weird settings will never not be entertaining to me. Oh, wait, Pogo after using his sickle is handed a BUTCHER'S KNIFE and he starts sawing Tanaka's back. You know what, fuck this shit. Pogo is such a horrible load that he can't even make me care about someone coming back to give him a taste of his own medicine, because it never fucking happens. Next chapter.
  10. PeteF3
    Forget the explosions for a second...that power bomb towards the end that almost broke Combat's neck, holy SHIT. This was well-worked, and I appreciated the almost Memphis-barbed-wire match opening, where the barbed wire acts more like a lumberjack match than as a weapon, keeping the workers in the center of the ring. They milk it for so long that you literally forget about the coming explosions, adding to the shock of when Kudo finally hits and the bombs go off. And the build to the final explosion was the best of all, with both girls taking the full brunt after each had taken one apiece earlier. And Onita wasn't just great afterward, he was great *during* the match. Kudo climaxes this with probably the only way possible, which is debuting(?--the crowd didn't seem to know what was up until she dropped her) the Kudo Driver, forcing Combat to end her career on her back. As good as it was, and it's the best joshi match of the year so far and probably a top-3 death match of the '90s so far, I really can't place it in my Running Top 5 for the year. It *was* just that hard to watch at points. Combat's never going to be a favorite of mine, but it's been fun watching her progress from doing her lame monster act against Kudo in 1990, surprising me by teaming with Kudo and at least attempting to keep up with Toyota & Yamada in '93, and progressing into a grizzled-babyface-type role at the end of her career. She was able to carve out a quality of work to be proud of when she could have easily sunk into a decrepit Pogo/Tsuchiya/Nakamaki-type career.
  11. PeteF3
    This was pretty good, but as smart a worker as Foley is (no, really) neither he nor Kanemura quite have Onita's flair for the dramatic in this setting. There is some really good work, though, like the battle on the apron that ends with Cactus' plunge into the wood and glass, and some good near-falls. Middle of the road as far as these things go, I'd say.
  12. PeteF3
    Taz shits on Devon Storm. Missy shits on Howard Stern. Tommy Dreamer bets Raven "has no..." cut to a shot of Kimona holding a cat. Dances With Dudley tearfully laments his wheelchair-boundness and D-Von channels Jules Wennfeld and debuts his first catchphrase. Blue Meanie charms Miss Patricia with his knowledge of Hamlet and armpit farts. New Jack threatens the Eliminators. Meanie wows Stevie by telling him he got to second base, presumably with Patricia. Stevie sulks. Bill Alfonso is NOT a used car salesman. New Jack gloats about vandalizing the Eliminators' locker room, and the poor cameraman is run over by guess-who. New Jack and Mustafa get jumped and get X's spraypainted on themselves.
  13. PeteF3
    Not as good as the first Flair-Giant match, though we do get a few token cheating spots.
  14. PeteF3
    Something only the Yearbook can provide: we fade out on Shawn and Davey getting into a brawl, and fade in on Finlay and Regal doing the same thing. Cool effect. And this was of course awesome--tighter than the Uncensored match but totally unique. These guys pretty much topped every crazy ECW brawl for sheer intensity. I also love that they actually managed to build a match in this setting, with a really well-done build to the finish considering what they were doing.
  15. PeteF3
    Agreed on the uncoolness of Lothario constantly accompanying Michaels around. Did "babysitting" duties really have to include being on-camera after WrestleMania? Vince doesn't help either, even as Shawn cuts one of his better babyface promos. Cornette tops that with one of the scorched-earth promos of his life--with more energy than just about anything he did in 1995 in either the WWF or SMW. "YOU SIR, ARE A FORNICATOR." After Diana smacks Shawn, he declares that we all know "who wears the pants in the Smith family," and the brawl is on right as we go to commercial.
  16. PeteF3
    Pretty unique, authentic-looking segment.
  17. PeteF3
    The TV version of this cuts a 12-minute match down to about 3, which is infuriating. Thankfully a fuller version is on Youtube. Kandori vs. anyone is a dream match, just because her style is so unique for joshi, a world where people tend to work the same no matter how big or small they are. Shinobu just picks her spots and grinds you into dust on the mat. I've called out Nagayo a few times already but she definitely knows how to work smart, if not always hard. Nagayo vs. Kandori is the big selling point here (it's their first meeting, if I have this right), with the partners mainly window-dressing. Kandori utterly abusing Sato is fun, and there's a great moment where Sato counters a kick and executes a flawless takedown into a toe hold, and Kandori channels her inner Ronnie Garvin (or not so "inner," with that hairdo of hers) and no-sells it completely, making faces at her. I know nothing about Omukai but she does throw some good suplexes and shows some good flexibility as Nagayo returns the favor by abusing her. Sato gets Kandori to chase her around allowing Nagayo to drop Omukai with a DVD. I liked the Yamada match the best of the show but this was another good one that whets the appetite for a singles match that may or may not actually happen.
  18. PeteF3
    There's a horrible moment early on here as Yamada climbs up the ropes, then has to turn and literally call Satomura over to the corner so they can do their spot. Bad, bad form, but they manage to make up for it with a simple but effective and universal story, of Satomura trying to fight her way through despite being outsized, out-experienced, and generally overmatched. Satomura's flailing, crazed, desperate fist-throwing gets that over, and she also has a million different ways of taking Yamada down into a cross armbreaker, constantly keeping her off-balance. Toshiyo for her part works like a faster Tenryu, casually cutting Satomura off with some great punches and of course her kicks. Then she caps it by tapping Satomura herself with the cross armbreaker. Good stuff and probably the most immediately accessible GAEA match so far. Yamada consoling a hysterical Satomura afterward like Triple H and that kid is one of the more "aww" moments of the year.
  19. PeteF3
    There's good work among all four ladies, but GAEA's refusal to air the ring intros is frustrating for a noob such as myself. I had to search around in a futile attempt to figure out who was whom and I still don't know Numao from Nakano. Anyway, Sato shows off some cool mat skills and the girl in the full leotard throws some awesome kicks, like a poor woman's Kansai. Action is good but marked by some sloppiness down the stretch, like a reverse flying elbow from Sato that misses by a mile, and some bad timing on the pin saves. Sato taps the kicker-lady with a leglock to win.
  20. PeteF3
    Hash plain and simply has a better flair for the dramatic than Muto (or almost anybody else for that matter), and I think that's the #1 reason why this match smokes both of the Takada/Muto bouts. Takada also works harder, but the intensely dramatic stand-up moments and kick exchanges, climaxing with Hashimoto's incredible ducking legsweep, are what make this. Of course Takada wasn't going to get in a ton of offense, for reasons we've already established, but as a blowoff to this story it worked perfectly. On my running MOTY candidacy list this is currently at #4 (behind Otani/Samurai, the MPro 6-man, and Taue/Doc). Time will tell if it finishes in the top 10.
  21. PeteF3
    No fancy-ass shit here (except those two topes). Fujinami starts off hot, goes for the tope one too many times, gets his nose busted, and then this is just a flat-out war. This isn't as good as it would have been around 1988 but it's a hell of a match for two guys on the downside (even though Tenryu is timeless, both from a conditioning and a style standpoint). Edit: Oh God--Tenryu's "hey, you gotta little somethin' on your nose" to Fujinami after the match is one of the greatest moments of the year.
  22. PeteF3
    I've been higher on '95-'96 ECW than others and I still didn't much care for this. There were a few cool moments that would have had more impact in another more familiar setting, like Muta writing on Shinzaki's stick on Jinsei's blood, and misting his way out of the power bomb. But this was mostly Shitty Muto and that tended to overshadow things even when Shinzaki was working hard.
  23. PeteF3
    Cringe-worthy moment of the year: Liger attempts to do the Jumbo Tsuruta drop-the-guy's-knee-on-the-guardrail spot, misses, and instead drops Sasuke's groin on it. Yeeowch. Yeah, this match-up is actually less interesting the more Sasuke is portrayed as an equal, as opposed to an underdog. Sasuke isn't as compelling working holds from the top as from the bottom, and then he blows off the cool legwork. Liger mostly holds this together, but at one point he drops Sasuke from the turnbuckle, levels him with a knee off the top that looks to knock him out, signals that he's going to drop Sasuke on his head again to put him away, and...puts on a crossface chicken wing. REALLY curious move there from one of the smarter workers around--were they seriously expecting people to buy that as a potential ending? Liger is no Mr. Backlund--he uses that hold as a matwork opener, not a finish. There was still good stuff here and the Sasuke victory took me by surprise, but the Super J-Cup match between these two is the one you want.
  24. PeteF3
    Fantastic match and...well, we'll check out Survivor Series, but this should be at worst the #2 WWF match of the year. This is a great layout on top of a fantastic underneath performance by Shawn and a fine performance by Diesel as the confident dick. Loved the payback spots with the low blow, and the symmetry of both guys using bystanders' footwear as weapons. And the Jackknife through the table is of course an all-timer of a spot. There's also an almost odd shoot vibe running through this at times, with Diesel threatening before the show to swear on live TV and making threats towards McMahon--for two buddies that weren't always concerned with selling the company storylines, there's a great undercurrent of true visceral hate, from Shawn's stoic entrance to his downright angry victory celebration. This is the Shawn we needed to see as ace of the company--a resourceful tough guy willing to mix it up instead of a happy-go-lucky male stripper.
  25. PeteF3
    Almost like a sprint version of the Uncensored match, faster and tighter. Regal CLOBBERS Finlay with a clothesline that knocks him off the apron--Stan Hansen woulda been proud of that one. Then Finlay takes a sick bump getting dropped on the guardrail, and chairs and plundah get involved and it's a double-DQ. Finlay punctuates this with a tombstone on the arena floor.
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