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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Manami brings the WWWA belt with her, presumably just to troll Kong. That adds a personal bent to this right off the bat, as Kong & Inoue go to town and Toyota & Yuki can do underneath sympathy selling, lending a storyline to this that the good but exhibition-y opening 8-woman tag lacked. This is an absolutely terrific match, blowing the Double Inoue March tag out of the water. Everyone is all-out here in an effort to steal the show, but at the same time the match never becomes bloated or spot-heavy. The undercurrent of Toyota & Yuki working as underdogs having to fight and claw their way to having an advantage stays strong throughout. Terrific near-falls down the stretch and some terrific spots as well. Kong absolutely kills Toyota with one of the greatest Urakens ever. Yuki saves her once but Kong quickly puts Manami down for good afterward. This is a top-10 MOTYC at this point.
  2. PeteF3
    The Weekly Pro Wrestling Tokyo Dome show was the biggest wrestling event of 1995, the most historic, and the Observer readers' choice for Card of the Year. So I figure it should be looked at. I didn't want to watch the whole card but enough matches look interesting and/or have a rep that I'm going to come close... The opening ceremony is pretty comical, with the cheesy glittering curtain and electric organ music. This is a 64,000-seat domed arena and it comes off like a local TV quiz show or Rotary Club banquet. Reviewing this matches may prove a little difficult, since by necessity they're sort of "out of context" and presented for outsiders rather than playing into ongoing storylines. So I hope I have something to offer besides "the usual fall-out-of-bed good match." But that's what this is. Good action showcasing all eight ladies with a neat finish. Kansai stood out as the match's best worker, as you'd expect, and Oz was disappointingly absent, or at least didn't really stand out. No one else did, though they all worked hard.
  3. PeteF3
    Not much to say about this one, but it's an impressive 2/3 fall sprint in a match built for sprints. This gets a little TOO clusterfuck-y at the end, with Sabu doing more long furniture-arranging, but for whatever reason I'm surprised at how good he was in this setting overall.
  4. PeteF3
    Well, this is going to be the most balls-out TV match of the year, I expect. This is worked at a joshi-level pace the whole way, for better (the advanced moves, the pacing not seen on WWF TV) and for worse (Bull takes a German suplex on the floor and sells it like a hip toss). Not much of a psychological masterpiece but for a 7-minute TV sprint loaded with big moves, this is fun as hell and a must for any supplemental set. Blayze regains the Women's title and has her nose broken afterward by a debuting Rhonda Singh. Singles match of Madusa's career?
  5. PeteF3
    This is for Bull's WWF Women's title. Hot start as Bull attempts a superplex and Kyoko, accidentally or not, knocks her all the way to the floor in a sick bump. Then Kyoko pulls out her vault-up-and-spring-backwards counter using the guardrail in a cool spot. This is a solid, workmanlike match. I wouldn't call it essential, but it's well-laid-out and psychologically sound, and has a more stripped down, traditional shine-heat-comeback-finish layout than your average AJW bout. Kyoko gets some good hope spots and near-falls, kicks out at 1 on the Guillotine Legdrop, and Bull has to bust out the somersault variation to put her down. This felt like a traveling-champion bout, which it sort of was, and thus was unique to an AJW setting.
  6. PeteF3
    I know what you mean, Loss. My MediaMonkey music collection redefines the term "anal-retentive," from capitalization rules to the genre tags down to the order of composers. With the '90s section having Supplemental Viewing forums open, I'm going to start moving my "Other 199[x] worth watching" posts to their own threads. Edit: Of course it took me all of one post to fuck things up ("3/26" instead of "03/26"--sorry) but I think I've got the hang of this. I hope my tagging of the Weekly Pro show at the Tokyo Dome is okay--I'm leaving out the promotion names for that one. Three other things for anyone else adding threads: 1. Note the date format, as above. Two digits for everything! 2. Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma? Not Charles. It's "Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito." Not "Chono, Tenzan, & Saito." 3. Matches in Tokyo should be tagged by the venue, not the city.
  7. PeteF3
    Darnielle was a regular at the Olympic Auditorium as a kid, and Chavo was his favorite wrestler. He's also written odes to Ox Baker and Greg Valentine. How mainstream-over in the UK is comedian Jack Whitehall? He's a big enough fan that he's actually gone through training.
  8. PeteF3
    Staying mostly out of this, but both the NBA and MLB have expanded since 1997--more games means more attendance. MLB's attendance on a per-game level is still strong but not as good as it was up until the '94 strike.
  9. PeteF3
    Miss Texas is here as Sgt. Rock, and she has words for the Wolfman. Fun fact: Wolfman getting a push was because he had a stake in that shady supplement company that was sponsoring Smoky Mountain television. Terry Gordy is a very sad sight. Cornette threatens Butch Cassidy some more, then talks of a tag or 6-man involving Jos LeDuc. Finally we get a glimpse of the Cornette of old, on SMW's farewell TV show.
  10. PeteF3
    With Bullet Bob having ownership of the USWA, Randy Hales is forced to "cut in" to the regularly scheduled programming. Jerry Jarrett and his massive gun collection recount the history of his partnership with Bob Armstrong, and...then sort of trails off. Then breaks out a Rudyard Kipling poem to justify why the hell anyone would agree to put their house and all worldly possessions on the line in a wrestling match. Jerry's rambling gives me time to do some searching and discover the Smoky Mountain Massacre was a guy from Dale Mann's indy outfit which promoted Kentucky. Jeff is standing by with Randy Hales, with words for Brian Gerard James. Way more fire and passion from Jeff than his father. I demand a Jeff/Jerry/Eddie Marlin vs. Bob/Brad/Jesse James Armstrong 6-man tag. Good promo, though I really could have done without his morphing into his WWF Double J persona at the end. And Jerry sure didn't sound angry in his promo, despite what Jeff said.
  11. PeteF3
    Tracy isn't defending the USWA tag titles against a couple of jabronies like PG-13. JC and Wolfie are out to rebut, pointing out that everyone from the Smoky Mountains is a coward--then tries to goad Tracy into a shot by making comments about his mother and his illegitimate kid! Somewhere a now-powerless Jack Tunney is tut-tutting away. Smothers just pouts and reaffirms his stance, so JC splashes him with a cup of...something or other. Tracy calls JC out later and they have a hot "match," but are quickly interrupted by the Smoky Mountain Massacre. I don't think that's a Kong, as he makes even the Kongs look lithe.
  12. PeteF3
    Bullet Bob hopes Brother Cory can find a job at a car wash and Lance Russell can find a job as a caddy, while Dave Brown will be counting clouds somewhere else. Then he invites Randy Hales to dig a hole and disappear in it. Bob has also uncovered a scandal of Enron-esque proportions, as there's nothing left in the USWA funds, embezzled at the hands of Jerry Jarrett. Bob will even grant a return match if Jerry puts his house on the line! Bob doesn't want to have to keep commuting from Florida, and he doesn't just want the company--he wants everything the Jarretts have. Both dads in the respective corners for next Monday--I'm sold!
  13. PeteF3
    Overbooked to hell, with run-ins from EVIL BRAD ARMSTRONG, Tracy Smothers, the Smoky Mountain Massacre (some fat guy in a mask--I'd have bet money that it was one of the Kongs but no one seems to have a clue who he really was), Bullet Bob, and Downtown Bruno. After a million swerves and false finishes it ends with Jesse taking the match with an assist from Dad, thus giving the Bullet part ownership of the USWA. Brad Armstrong, the Rock 'n Roll Express, and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi as the Bizarro World Heels is the great lost Survivor Series team of 1995. Is this the only instance of Brad working heel as himself?
  14. PeteF3
    I liked this a bit better than everyone else, though it's certainly not a standout match. Devil has lost a step or six but she's surprisingly good at playing the in-peril role, not something I'm used to seeing her in. Sadly, Ozaki doesn't do much of anything, and after such a long period of Devil being in trouble, the hot tag is an anticlimax that gets almost no heat. Also, that spot where every lady tries a power bomb only for the opponent's partner to counter was...creative, but a little too cute and contrived for my liking. That said, they got me into the story of if the (presumed) underdogs KAORU & Fukuoka could put Devil away, and held my attention all the way through. I didn't call the time limit draw at any point, which isn't usually the case though the JIP undoubtedly helped in that regard.
  15. PeteF3
    A UWFI match with double-teams, Mongolian chops, knee drops, figure fours, a dive off the turnbuckle, floor brawling, saves, and low blows...there's very little resembling traditional shootstyle here but the sheer energy, hate, and at times WTF-ness of the match-up made up for that. This is a far better hybrid of shootstyle and wrasslin' than anything in the original UWFs, since the characters are so strong and the bigger moves are still done in an organic way that you could almost buy in a shoot setting.
  16. PeteF3
    Fun as hell. Spotfesty, but when the spots are this good, who cares?
  17. PeteF3
    "I can't believe this, but this was what was reported" addendum: when Vader was officially let go by WCW and he was prepping for shoulder surgery while deciding his next career move, Dave reported that the planned finish of this match was for Vader to attempt and miss a shooting star press (!!!) and for Hogan to escape. But Hogan was too far away from the corner, so Vader tried to improvise a senton thing and fucked up his shoulder. I think we're all, especially Vader, better off that that attempt didn't take place. Sounds unbelievably scary just thinking about it.
  18. PeteF3
    Pretty disjointed match famous for the MASSIVE negative reaction Hogan gets. The boos are audible over his entrance music and just get louder as the match goes on. It made the Albany crowd at the '92 Royal Rumble look subdued. Yeah, the brawling on the floor leading to Hogan doing his trademark takedown spots didn't make any sense to me, either, and a lot of the big moments just don't feel big, due to the throwaway nature of such a dream match and the seeming inevitability of the run-in fuck finish. Giant continues to be booked very well, though. They took the 1989 Zeus template and applied it to a guy with a little more upside.
  19. PeteF3
    Okerlund accuses Jimmy Hart of being the "original Benedict Arnold." I thought Benedict Arnold was the original Benedict Arnold. Hart points out that Sting got shunted to the background when Hulk's new best friend Randy Savage appeared on the scene--nice little play off of a real-life power struggle.
  20. PeteF3
    Like I said about the snowballing effect with my example, how much do you want to bet that starts to get some attention by some WWE slanted outlets in order to, not discredit what Punk said outright, but to cast some doubt on the complete truthfulness of Punk's claims. I mean it wouldn't change a thing since there is way too much smoke in other instances besides Punk, but something stupid and dangerous like a DUI charge, even if it went away quietly based on whatever reasoning (BAC wasn't legal limit, cop was being a quota seeking ahole, or being an ahole based on Punk being a pro wrestler, etc), I can see being brought up as a way to discredit Punk's IRL character. That should be easy enough to verify through public records if someone is able to do it. I'm ignorant on this stuff - is telling you that a violation of attorney-client privilege? Wikipedia sez yes, even if you're no longer representing that client.
  21. PeteF3
    Really fun match that of course gets forgotten about in the wake of the ending. This would get repeated and done to death a million times afterward, but here it's fresh and it's an angle that people really believed and were emotionally invested in--maybe the first such angle the WWF has run all year if not multiple years. And there was no real Sledgehammer of Plot stuff here--even the foreshadowing with Lawler and Vince recounting all the punishment Shawn took the previous night is handled with some subtlety. I wonder if this led to the highest ratings in WWF Mania history.
  22. PeteF3
    Ahead of its time on SOO many levels. It's remarkable a.) how much this, by design or not, plays off that sitdown interview with Vince earlier in the year, and b.) how much it foreshadows what's to come with Mr. McMahon. But other than outing Vince as the guy in charge, this is refreshingly free of the shooty-shoot stuff while still feeling real.
  23. PeteF3
    I think, the 3rd time around, these two finally hit it out of the park. Oh, the first match was excellent and the second almost as good, but I think this is the best and most complete of the three. Once Bret counters the first Jackknife, this hits another gear with some creative spots and surprising intensity for the WWF environment of the time. Weapons even get involved, and Bret takes two pretty insane bumps down the stretch, one from the missed plancha and one into the table--really one of the better table spots in history because there was no contrived set-up. It was just dropped on you out of nowhere. Diesel played the sympathetic hesitancy note absolutely letter-perfect here, in setting up the finish. And of course the post-match is great too, as Diesel lays waste to the entire refereeing corps and gives Bret two Jackknifes, a pretty holy-shit moment at the end of a match full of them. I don't think this is the WWF MOTY--the ladder match still holds that title--but this still a real feather in the cap for both guys.
  24. PeteF3
    The WWF would very slowly start incorporating some more adult elements to close out the year. Starting...now.
  25. PeteF3
    Bob Backlund gives "Bill" a dressing down. Backlund may well have been a more effective challenger than Bob Dole was.
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