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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    The best interview of the year so far. Even though he probably shouldn't have been a heel in WCW after 1990, he's knocking it out of the park in his final sustained push as a Top Guy.
  2. PeteF3
    Really good studio match, with the old "to the expiration of time" stip that we haven't seen in seemingly forever. Rich & Gilbert win the first fall after a board is broken over Brian Christopher's head. He can't continue, so Bill Rush orders the second fall to be wrestled as a singles match. Lawler and Gilbert continue to put on some good action before this breaks down with run-ins from Rich, Bowden, Downtown Bruno, and a returning Brian Christopher. Christopher is pretty awesome in the post-match brawl, going nuts with a gas can, destroying Rich at the announcer's desk, and dropping Scott Bowden with a superkick.
  3. PeteF3
    Ah, it's been too long since we've seen a lot of these guys. Really good first fall, with Dandy and Satanico tearing it up on the mat and a terrific long finishing sequence, including a false finish which isn't always common in the primera caida. The second fall sadly isn't nearly as good, as we get a lot of meandering brawling that doesn't seem to mean much. Things pick up with another hot closing stretch, when Casas catches Santo with a small package to allow the rudos to sweep this 2-0, despite Santo's shoulder being up. I approve of more build to more Casas-Santo. It may well be the #2 match of the year but I really can't see this finishing in the top 10 or 15 by year's end.
  4. PeteF3
    Raven introduces us to his newly won ECW World title, as well as Kimona Wanalaya. Tommy Dreamer responds with a candle metaphor. Cactus delivers his famous Doritos promo, attacking Mikey for not appreciating the beauty of fall foliage, for replacing his Leonard Cohen tape with the Satanic ritual music of Ozzy Osbourne, and of course for leaving Doritos in the car. Shane Douglas is back, thank goodness. JT Smith regales us with some Dean Martin. Bill Alfonso's teeth yell at us. The Pitbulls threaten the Eliminators...again. The Gangstas make their return, featuring an actual speaking role for Mustafa. Every time Raven tried to show Beulah his pain, she faked it. Raven whines about society before talking about what a loving, compassionate guy he is. 2 Cold Scorpio loves a good woman, and brings in his latest--the ECW TV title belt. All the hos is for 2 Cold! The Pitbulls threaten the Eliminators...again. The Eliminators respond...again. Saturn shaves off the rest of his hair.
  5. PeteF3
    Smarky crowd over in England, as they do the "SAS-KAY! *clap* *clap* *clap*" chant right from the start. Not a bad little match at all--the tiny ring probably makes the more elaborate spots impractical, but they make do with what they have. Actually this serves as more evidence that the Michinoku Pro guys were far more than spot monkeys--they had strong commands of the basics: mat wrestling, heel/face work, how to build a match, comedy, etc.
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  7. PeteF3
    Savage was so absurdly banged up at this point that it's a wonder he was able to wrestle at all, and if a promotional war wasn't going on, he wouldn't have been. The Observers have been talking for months about Savage needing to get his arm fixed, but he just keeps going. For the second time in a week we get an Established Superstar going 50-50 (actually more like 25-75 in this case) against one of WCW's recent young-gun signees. There's no reason why this couldn't have continued onward, with Benoit and Eddy getting pushed as being at Savage or Luger's level. Benoit dominates, but takes a sick bump off a missed tope to set up the flying elbow. But Savage goes after Flair when Flair goes after Liz, and Woman turns on him. Savage gets beaten down, we get a SWERVE as Hogan initially runs the Horsemen off only to be attacked by Flair again, then the Giant and Zodiac continue their little drama, then Savage comes back...and then Savage calls out Elizabeth for not warning him about Woman! Intrigue! Crash-TV at its finest. Overbooked a little bit, but everything still made sense and made you want to keep from flipping the dial. The use of Woman to start with didn't make a great deal of sense but it's not like she didn't have like 57 fake-turns and fake partnerships in ECW.
  8. PeteF3
    Vince of all people accusing Ted of running a money-losing subsidiary is the height of ridiculousness. Like any WWF fan gives two shits about Ted Turner's money or his stockholders. Freud would have a field day with that last line about Ted wanting to tell off his father when he sees him again.
  9. PeteF3
    The WWF drops its biggest bomb of the Monday Night Wars to date, giving us about the biggest free-TV match feasible. Tim White gets knocked into a coma, which allows Diesel to drop Undertaker with two Jackknives, with no sitting up this time. Bret and Diesel brawl to the back.
  10. PeteF3
    We get another Mankind clip first. Foley thinks he's finally found a home--a Hardcore Home. Speaking of Japanese guys the WWF didn't get enough mileage out of as babyfaces, here's Hakushi. There are slow parts here, but this is much better structured than an average cruiserweight spotfest, and this feels more like a shortened and tightened-up version of those Lightning Kid-Jerry Lynn matches from years past.
  11. PeteF3
    Not a bad little match, but the Yokozuna face turn is the story. Yoko would show himself to be a surprisingly good talker in this role, so yeah, as a babyface he could have been something. That said, the weight is noticeably out of control here and would only get worse.
  12. PeteF3
    "Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya," as 2 Cold put it at the ECW Arena.
  13. PeteF3
    Not as good as the Psicosis matches, as this is sort of an extended Rey squash. Juvy deadlifting a baseball-sliding Rey into a German suplex was a nice spot, though. Rey wins with his favorite finish, the second-rope Splash Mountain turned into a huracanrana. Trying that move on Rey is as futile as attempting to power bomb Kidman or back body drop Mr. Perfect.
  14. PeteF3
    Cactus displays a "WW F'N F" t-shirt and invites us to Join the New Generation on the back. Fantastic. Mikey is terrific here but the Eliminators, especially Kronus, are pretty clueless. They have some nice spots and Total Elimination is one of the most badass tag finishers ever, but Kronus heaves Mikey with a belly-to-belly right into the corner and stands there picking his nose allowing Mikey to tag out. Pretty anticlimactic hot tag. Mikey refuses to allow Cactus use a broken bottle as a weapon, and the ensuing miscommunication nets the Eliminators the tag titles. Cactus and Raven lay Mikey out afterward, and then Francine suckers the Eliminators into an attack by the Pitbulls. Kronus eats a Superbomb and Saturn gets hanged with a chain, and Francine cuts off his hair as a measure of revenge for her eating a Total Elimination earlier. Angles were pretty good, the match not so much.
  15. PeteF3
    Savage has made the egotistical mistake of a lifetime! Flair has now beaten Hogan twice (??) on national television. Flair isn't impressed by Savage's ex-wife/Flair's ex-girlfriend being in Randy's corner. I'm going to start using "graphic disorder" as a euphemism for blood from now on.
  16. PeteF3
    Funny to see Eddy in such vastly different environments (and personas) back-to-back. Luger isn't that compelling on offense overall but he's a great douchebag bully heel here, and he does as much as he can to sell for Eddy's offense. I really like the counters and counters-to-counters involving the Torture Rack at the end. Randy Anderson is in as Luger finally gets the Rack applied, but it's a reverse Dusty finish! Holy shit, Eddy with the victory! Great moment even as Lex gets his heat back afterward. Yes, there's no way this match happens the way it does in '98 or '99.
  17. PeteF3
    Another match that failed to get out of first gear. More solid than the 8-man tag and not a bad watch, but these guys aren't exactly going all-out for the Sapporo Dome crowd.
  18. PeteF3
    This sounds horrible but I had real trouble remembering and keeping track of who was whom. That said, this never really got into second gear--it seemed like Nagata and to a lesser extent Kakihara were the only guys bringing some hate and intensity to this. There are UWFI tag matches that work very well, but adding in more guys past that tends to be asking for trouble, though this throws in a few double teams and saves that you wouldn't see in a pure UWFI setting. It was worth it to see the mid-carders from both promotions work against each other but there were a multitude of NJPW-WAR mid-card bouts that were more enjoyable.
  19. PeteF3
    Tony wasn't at WM6, but his last appearance as an announcer on Challenge aired that same weekend.
  20. PeteF3
    I wonder if it's not trickier with live music than dubbing an entrance theme, though. The music is playing while Lawler and Vince are talking and it may not be on separate audio tracks.
  21. PeteF3
    I suspect there may be music rights clearance issues with the Raw Bowl episode. They had a live marching band who were playing real songs (I recognized "You Can Call Me Al," and there were others).
  22. PeteF3
    That is one giant cage. The best part of that is that it eliminates a lot of the contrived drama involving guys slooowly climbing out of a cage barely taller than they are--this really does feel like an ordeal to try to escape. Lots of giant bombs here, and the image of both guys standing on top of this cage that's probably a 20-foot drop to the floor is an intensely dramatic and scary one. Damian interferes and both guys get crotched on top of the cage and fall into the ring for a double KO. Kind of a lame finish for what's really a spotfest of a match, but this was fun.
  23. PeteF3
    Halme wears boxing gloves, as befitting his supposed background, but it looks kind of silly in this setting, particularly when he attempts cross armbreakers and such. This is a study in contrasts--the standup portions are awesome and heated, as Halme is basically a big monster base for Nagai to try to chop down. It's the most over Halme has probably ever been. On the mat is a different story--Nagai has a huge advantage there and Halme comes off as very tentative (or clueless, to put it more bluntly). This climaxes with a great false finish as Nagai furiously rains kicks down on a standing Halme, who suddenly Hulks Up and floors Nagai with one uppercut to the midsection for a hot 9-count. Nagai quickly and somewhat anticlimactically takes him down and puts him away with a figure four anklelock. Not a high-end shootstyle/RINGS match by any means but probably the high watermark for Tony Halme's career. He's still not a good worker but he's a believable enough monster and Nagai was able to carry this the rest of the way.
  24. PeteF3
    This may be the first BattlArts match I've ever watched. It's shootstyle with a lot of pro wrasslin' elements--some stick out (guys picking up their opponents off the mat by the hair, punches while stomping the mat) and some make you marvel at how they fit them into a shootstyle match organically (Funaki's diving headbutt, fisherman buster, and plancha). There's one ten-count, but most of the knockdowns are ignored and guys are generally allowed to attack opponents on the mat. I could really get behind this, and this style could serve as a gateway drug for people (such as myself) not as enamored with shootstyle. Funaki and Usuda are much improved from their '95 PWFG bout, so this is far stronger even if Ikeda isn't quite the godlike force he came across as then. Really fun match that has me itching to see more from this group.
  25. PeteF3
    "Dead tired"? What gave you that conclusion, the fact that the Hulk-Up gets like NO reaction at all? Hogan isn't even drawing boos like he has on Nitros past, it's more like indifference. This is another Ric Flair Nitro sprint that I have little to say about, but Hulk doing a job is always going to be noteworthy.
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