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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    Very Pure Sports Build stuff, and well done. Bret discussing Shawn's "hiatus from the little beating he took" was laugh-out-loud funny.
  2. PeteF3
    This was a ton of fun, in front of a super-hot (and big--14,000+ paid and 17,000 in the building) MSG crowd. The Diesel/UT brawling is actually really good for the brief moments we see it, and I actually was a fan of the unusual layout. Undertaker has a compelling program for the first time since the first go-round with Yokozuna 2+ years ago. A little bit of House Show Bret creeps in here, and for maybe the first time Shawn really does look like the hotter, superior worker of the two, as he sells Bret's stuff pretty beautifully. The UT/Shawn faceoff is GREAT, to the point where you wonder why it took another year and a half for them to finally work a singles program. Diesel, who never tagged into the match, makes a second return with a chair and clobbers UT and Bret with it to draw a DQ. Shawn is upset but forgiving...until he turns his back and Diesel clobbers him, then scampers away when UT sits up to cement his full heel turn. Diesel would later explain this by Shawn telling him his back hurt and asking him to do some chiropractic work on it--"I just did what he asked and all of a sudden, I'm the bad guy."
  3. PeteF3
    What a goddamned month this has been for the little folks. I liked this a ton, with the Otani story continuing at the end in magnificent fashion, after being a gutsy bastard for most of the match surviving Liger's offense. The matwork isn't Samurai-Otani levels but it's pretty awesome in its own right, and leads to a fantastic standoff where Otani's arm and Liger's leg are just dangling. I've never been crazy about the shotei as a finish but they sell it about as well as possible here, with Liger being quick to dive on top and wrap Otani up after hitting it.
  4. PeteF3
    1990 was a rough intro to lucha trios and tags, as the first several all seemingly had a bunch of turns and angles that didn't make a great deal of sense to non-Spanish speakers (and maybe to some Spanish speakers too). The action and the booking do get better. But you'd better get used to subpar camera work.
  5. PeteF3
    "Man Kind" the Mutilator is in Memphis! His ear is Lawler's future. "Something STRANGE there," intones Lance Russell.
  6. PeteF3
    *wakes up* Hey, it's 2015, so is this match over yet? Christ. Ultraman looks better than he did in the January match, but for the love of Christ...he goes through two tables (one of which is on fire), takes a somersault legdrop off the top with a chair, AND a tombstone, and kicks out of all three of those and more. And the run-ins were okay in the first match but here it's just overkill and more of the same, just with crazier stunts. Eventually both guys kick each other in the groin, and I guess Psicosis gets up first or something. jdw's review lists this at 24:09, but it felt more like 4 hours.
  7. PeteF3
    I liked the ECW match better too, but that may have been the atmosphere, instead of one hard camera and overdubbed post-produced commentary overshadowing the crowd. Also, this match is going to suffer in coming right after two MOTYCs that also featured a ton of high flying. Finish is overbooked to hell with run-ins from Halloween, Los Bandilleros, a bunch of guys dressed as X-Men, and Konnan, but the clusterfucky brawl is pretty fun with Konnan picking off every rudo with a swing of the baseball bat (in trying to think of a major league slugger to compare Konnan to, the color guy offers up Tony Armas, which was amusing to me). The referee being knocked into a coma off a Halloween DDT is a little absurd, but we got an actual finish after all the bullshit and the crowd seemed to improve.
  8. PeteF3
    They seem to be teasing a Shiryu turn in this very match--he kicks Naniwa in the groin at one point, sparking a disagreement with Sasuke and a near-walkout. Anyway, if there's a theme to the first couple weeks of March '96, it seems to be "back to basics." We got a heavily matwork-intensive JWP match, a big lucha clusterfuck with more matwork than flying, and this--each guy pairs off and they work holds instead of going into high-flying or shtick. I get that there's lots of build to flying in Japanese juniors wrestling, but the matwork seemed longer and more intense here than in most Michinoku Pro bouts. Then we get some intrigue with Shiryu, a nice FIP segment on Tiger Mask, some incredible dives including Shiryu's incredible somersault topes, and some incredible reversals and near-falls. Delfin continually trying to drop bombs on Shiryu only for him to flip out or counter every time was an amazing sequence. Then the tight camera shots really add to the closing stretch, as guys are flying in from off-screen to make last-second saves. One last dive train later and Tiger Mask puts Taka away with the tiger suplex. This was fucking spectacular and the lucha elimination match has a very short run as #2 running MOTY, I'm afraid. Maybe the only thing holding this back from the #1 spot is TM's FIP segment ended just a little too cleanly, with TM channelling Sayama by popping back up and no-selling most of his beating when it was time to go back on offense. I enjoyed the spotfesty opener at Wrestle Kingdom 9, but even if the action was a bit more advanced, it couldn't compare to this in terms of combining amazing athletecism with great character work.
  9. PeteF3
    I'm going to stick with Samurai vs. Otani as my running MOTY, but this is an easy 2nd place. Non-stop action, terrific matwork, good flying, and even some brawling, too. Plus they ran through 7 eliminations in about 20 minutes with all of them making "sense" and not feeling like a Survivor Series rush-job. Santo taking a pin was kind of a surprise, but it was set up well with him eating a low blow from Felino ("ESTE ES UNA FELONIA!" screams Dr. Morales), who basically sacrifices himself to a DQ so that Wagner can finish the job.
  10. PeteF3
    This was a true holy-shit moment. Now, a few years earlier, a team that hadn't been on American TV in 2+ years suddenly returning would likely not have gotten any reaction at all. But one thing about the Monday Night Wars is they brought back a lot of lapsed fans from the '80s, who appreciated and liked seeing the stars of their fandom turn up. We saw it with Jake the Snake getting a monster ovation at the Royal Rumble and we see it here. Both these teams have lost a step or nine from when this was a true Dream Match, but this was surprisingly enjoyable nevertheless. Really fun to see the Roadies get tossed around. Finish is a little clusterfucky but the Roadies get a cheap win thanks to Animal using a spiked gauntlet on Rick.
  11. PeteF3
    Not as good as their previous TV bouts. Eddy does take an absolute shitkicking here, taking all kinds of stiff Benoit chops and other big bombs from him. This is also notable for being perhaps the first occurrence of Benoit's rolling German suplexes. Guerrero blocks a superplex attempt and catches Benoit with the frog splash to get a surprise win for the second week in a row. Not a bad match but I liked the more back-and-forth nature of the Nitro match.
  12. PeteF3
    Here's something you don't see every day: a joshi match that's worked entirely on the mat. Oh, there are two instances of brawling outside the ring, but other than that this is 20:40 of pure matwork. Oz comes in selling a rib injury, which gives Yagi an opening and a focus for just about everything she does. She's otherwise overmatched, but every time she hits or puts a hold on the ribs, Oz crumples. The matwork is really, really damned good, with all the holds being well-worked and a good variety while still maintaining a psychological focus. And with the deliberate pace and all the camera close-ups this really feels like a 1983 Florida studio match in a JWP setting. And they build up to a satisfying climax with almost no near-falls. Overall this is too "slight" of a match to really be a Yearbook entry, particularly in a loaded year, but it's well worth watching for its uniqueness.
  13. PeteF3
    Assuming Leveque did the job it would also hardly be above WCW to show an old match of his, once it was known he was WWF-bound.
  14. PeteF3
    Two guys hold up banners shilling a Pillman 900 line, then Flyin' Brian himself gets into a confrontation with security. Bischoff leaves the booth to get him escorted out. Yep, hard to get excited over this now. At least Paul E. had a vision of where he wanted to take things. I don't think Bischoff and Sullivan did.
  15. PeteF3
    These are better when they're actually attacking what's wrong with the competing promotion rather than being used as part of some petty corporate "feud" that only one side gives a shit about. 1-900-LYING-BALDY...very clever.
  16. PeteF3
    Shawn introduces us to Jose Lothario. Bret rebuts--Shawn reminds him of a tennis ball bouncing around the ring, but doesn't have many effective moves besides the kick. Bret would fit right in at PWO, lucha-bashing aside.
  17. PeteF3
    This is a pretty lucid, focused, and fiery promo by Piper. Good segment that improves upon the Diamond Mike-Pink Assassin dynamic thanks to the talent involved.
  18. PeteF3
    DDP, having lost all of his money in putting it up to get more title shots at Badd, costs Johnny the TV title with a diamond cutter on the arena floor. And that's it for Badd in WCW. He had a truly amazing run considering he debuted at the same time as PN News and Arachniman. Badd cuts one of the most fiery promos of his career afterward, but it would be for naught. Good for him for cashing out, though.
  19. PeteF3
    Pretty good action but I thought this went on too long, though I grant that it's late. The standing O before and after the match are legitimately nice moments.
  20. PeteF3
    It's a spotfest, but holy fuck, what spots they are. The execution these two have is just unbelievable. Even Juvy's relatively basic Japanese-inspired suplexes and throws look awesome. Rey gets power bombed onto the hood of a car and then pops back up to give Juventud a huracanrana off the hood onto the sidewalk. Oh My God indeed.
  21. PeteF3
    Pillman is out with his lawyer, his agent, and an Eagles player and looking very dapper as they lay waste to a bunch of opening-match guys. Sort of a re-do of the Queens angle and Shane does more swearing in place of actually saying anything.
  22. PeteF3
    Pretty chaotic angle, with Pillman using his cousin and her toddler kid as human shields. Fascinating in its sheer audacity and not the last time we'll see a kid being uncomfortably close to extreme ECW action. Unfortunately this stuff looks worse in hindsight now that we know that Douglas-Pillman isn't going anywhere, that Hogan was already working to undercut Pillman by throwing him in the Doomsday Cage, and that Pillman's career and life would soon be altered by the big car wreck. Tod Gordon gets ECW security to get Douglas to the back after they eject Pillman, but Bill Alfonso ends up confronting him and they have yet another brawl that's better than it has any right to be. Taz lays out Gordon and Bam Bam Bigelow makes a surprise appearance to run off Taz.
  23. PeteF3
    Sid sitting at the WMC announcer's booth wearing a suit and holding a mic is an image that could probably be my new wallpaper. It's a funereal scene as PG-13 have been forced out of the USWA, thanks to Tommy Rich and a timely use of a fire extinguisher, a move treated as the most horrifying possible act. Even Sid is shocked and appalled. PG-13 send in a taped goodbye.
  24. PeteF3
    The Pitbulls change things up--this week, their threats are toward the Bruise Brothers. There's one I'll be sure to add to the Supplemental Viewing section. "Can of whoopass" is said on a wrestling show for perhaps the first but oh so not the last time. Sandman and Missy Hyatt make eyes at each other. Missy's still pretty hot at this point. Stevie and "Stan" Fargo strut for us. Dances with Dudley attempts the same. I wonder how many takes that Buh Buh Ray/Meanie bit took without either one cracking up. Brian Pillman cackles in his limo. "Wassamatta you?" JT Smith asks us. The Eliminators cut their weekly promo on the Pitbulls. Taz and Alfonso don't appreciate the ECW shakycam. Big Dick Dudley grunts. Pillman misinterprets the Constitution again.
  25. PeteF3
    I've had about enough of Pillman's act by this point.
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