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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Bischoff, starfucking ninny that he is, is decked out in Planet Hollywood merchandise and palling around with Mongo McMichael. Sting hypes the first episode of Nitro and his match with Flair. Sting is kind of amusing here.
  2. PeteF3
    The true nature of the family relations between Flair and the Andersons was always...let's be generous and call it "flexible." Even within the span of a single interview, as I don't think Okerlund was ever clued in on the family history. Disjointed, but Ric's delivery is so great that it doesn't matter. This is the best WCW storyline of the year, weak though the competition may be. They've successfully booked an anticipated match between these two longtime friends without compromising or cheapening either character.
  3. PeteF3
    Cornette rants as only he can. He's drunk with power now that the Bodies are double tag champions. The THUGs interrupt and lay the Bodies out with wooden boards! First they busted up Del Ray's forehead, then the White Boy goes to town on Prichard's leg. Robert Gibson in underwear...yeah, okay, there's attempted realism and verisimilitude and then there's taking things too far.
  4. PeteF3
    Chip Kessler is no Gordon Solie, as if that wasn't obvious. I'm not as cynical about this as El-P is--the fact that they brought out the widows of Sam Bass and Whitey Caldwell indicates that Cornette was making a genuine effort, at least. It is a case of diminishing returns, though. A proclamation is read from the Mayor of Kingsport declaring it Ron Wright Day. This card consisted of the various wrestlers booking their "dream matches," and Dirty White Boy's is to wrestle Ron Wright. White Boy goes down to a FINGERPOKE OF DOOM--who says Kevin Nash didn't draw on Cornette as a booking influence?
  5. PeteF3
    Jesse James sticks up for his father, and Lance quickly puts him in his place. I'm pretty sure Brian Armstrong at least participated in some 6-mans with his family in SMW, but he definitely wrestled there as the masked jobber the Dark Secret.
  6. PeteF3
    Hokuto's veiled black wedding dress entrance attire is so awesome. That she jumps Toyota and does a fucking somersault plancha while wearing the thing is all the more awesome. There's not a fuck-ton of substance here, but since this is basically a one-off I'm much more forgiving of the spotfesty nature. I could have done without all the table stuff, though that seems to be a major part of Toyota's game now, so whatever. Hokuto does provide some great counters to keep this somewhat grounded. She also does her new husband's Strangle Hold, and of course applies it without five times as much torque and energy as Kensuke ever did. Toyota comes back to hit two Northern Lights bombs to put Hokuto away with a bit of an insult to it as well.
  7. PeteF3
    Bull Nakano vs. Kyoko Inoue, 9/2/95 I'm...not all that sure what to make of this, honestly. But I think I really liked it. This has the feel of a very extended squash, as for 90% of this Bull seems to either shrug off or have an answer for every single thing Kyoko tries. And for awhile this was feeling like a step back for Kyoko. Even though her WWF stint was over with, Bull had taken a sort of elder-stateswoman role, and having already vanquished Kyoko in a WWF title match earlier I wasn't seeing the purpose in having Inoue put her over so strongly again when it was pretty clear who needed the win more. Kyoko gets not one but two DRAMATIC ONE-COUNTS off Bull's guillotine legdrop, and controversy over that spot aside I think it worked here. That forces Bull to go for the somersault guillotine legdrop, and *that* gets two. So Bull goes for the moonsault, which misses. I do love that recurring progression in Bull's big matches. Now, Kyoko chooses to follow this up by unsuccessfully attempting to apply a surfboard, which was not a direction I would have gone in. It's her first opportunity to truly impact Bull and that's a hold designed for the opening feeling-out process, not after a major transition. It gets a little wonky from there, but Kyoko and Bull pull this back together when Inoue starts going for the Niagara Drivers. Two of them followed up by a power bomb nets...a 3 count?! Yeah, that totally caught me off-guard, which is to this match's ultimate credit. Like I said, this feels like a hard match to rate--I had some issues with the psychology and I was so prepared to hate the result it seemed to be building toward ("Kyoko is gutsy and tenacious but completely overmatched," like Kobashi in 1990-91 against Hansen, which was not the right story to tell at this point) that the end result is leaving me puzzled for a proper star rating. But, bottom line, it's a milestone win for Kyoko that seems to come at the right time, and good on them for pulling the trigger and for so completely fooling me.
  8. PeteF3
    Oh dear God, I don't care if I never see the 6/95 match again. Seeing these two go 30 a second time to no result sounds like pure torture. Oya's arm work is mostly good, as is Hayabusa's spin kick that sparks his comeback. Oya is still in the running with Mike Rotunda and Al Perez among wrestling's all-time biggest mechanically sound heat vacuums, though. Give me SOME reason to care about you or the match you're in, please. This picks up when Hayabusa gets to unleash his flashy offense, though throwing out a shooting star press for a routine 2-count seems a little over-the-top. I ended up liking this okay, but I'm still way more down on this series than everyone else here. They didn't totally telegraph the draw, which is to their credit, and the fans were going more and more nuts for each near-fall. In another context, I could see myself really liking this, and I'm definitely coming around on Hayabusa, who has all the makings of a truly standout worker.
  9. PeteF3
    I can't say that they ever made me care too much about who won or lost, which is almost a deathblow for creating a compelling match. It was well-executed, but had a lot of problems. Loss touched on most of them, but also they really didn't do a good job of the "big pin attempt while partner holds off the other opponent from making the save" stuff that's so standard in puroresu--doubly disappointing because these two teams should be well-familiar with each other and have their chemistry down cold. While I liked Kyoko quickly equalizing in the second fall, the falls felt incredibly disjointed, much like the spots closing down the stretch. Kyoko kicks out of the JOCS, which draws a big pop and should be treated as a huge deal, but really isn't as that's quickly forgotten about so they can get in another 10 near-falls. And man oh man do I HATE that beat-before-the-3-count thing the AJW ref does. Hate hate hate it. And it's even more annoying here than it's been in the past. This is decent, since they execute what they do well and Toyota does some really nice spots, but that's it--there's nothing new under the sun here.
  10. PeteF3
    Nah, it was revealed that Marianna was faking it, because bitches be that way, amirite? The most hilarious part of this storyline was Marianna coming out with a black eye during a Chaz/Godfather match, and naturally THAT got the pimp incensed, and he went nuts attacking Chaz for it.
  11. PeteF3
    I think I liked the '93 match the best, and I thought the 5/94 match was probably about as good--not that this is overrated, but I liked that '94 match more than seemingly anyone else. This was a brutal war that doesn't come off as *too* excessively brutal, and is still pretty steeped in psychology and logical transitions. Kansai was great at playing keep-away from Aja's Uraken, and when she finally goes after Aja's arm it's a great turning point. It goes back to what Loss said in the Arn/Regal review about making fans wait for a psychological payoff. Aja sells it beautifully and she's pretty much thrown off her game for the rest of the match. Dynamite, left for dead at a few points, looks like she's overcome the longest odds in the world thanks to a combination of fighting spirit and smarts. The best joshi singles match of the year and yet another top-10 MOTY candidate.
  12. PeteF3
    God knows why, but since I had the Network fired up anyway, I may as well watch this entire monstrosity. Diesel cuts another bad, forced promo before the match. He makes a Pulp Fiction reference, the most current pop-culture nod in the history of Kevin Nash promos. Diesel really is trying here, and to be fair so is Mabel, but Mabel in particular just isn't any good. His clubbering looks like shit and other than a few nice big fat man spots, that's all he has. Even his belly-to-belly looks incredibly weak here. Diesel busts out a pescado and follows up with a pretty neat bump into the ringpost. Ref gets bumped and MOM perform one of the lamest 2-on-1 attacks you'll ever see. Lex Luger makes an attempted save, but Diesel takes him out. Luger fights off Sir Mo, and Diesel comes back to win with a forearm off the second turnbuckle. I know we complain about the WWF/E Style being too reliant on finishers ending matches, but two PPV main events of Diesel not being able to do the Jackknife for the victory is pretty weak. I agree--bad, but not worse than the Sid feud. They really did try, but this was the equivalent of a one-off Spectrum main event between Hogan and a geek heel like the One Man Gang, not a legitimate PPV main event. Diesel gets an admittedly nice reaction for the win, but I can't imagine any fan seriously wanting to see this match.
  13. PeteF3
    I really, really like Razor's pre-match promo, for whatever that's worth. Even the visual of the camera following him from the interview set out the entrance was nice. And whatever--this is easily the US MOTY and better than WM10. Not a *ton* better, but better. Things that struck me the most are: the pre-ladder portion is REALLY good. I thought the WMX pre-ladder portion was pretty underrated too, but they go balls-to-the-wall here even before the ladder gets involved, busting out new spots like Razor doing his blockbuster/fallaway slam off the turnbuckle. Thing #2: the family-friendly WWF style prohibited them from actually using the ladder as a weapon, so it's cool to see the many, many ways that Shawn and Razor get around that. Both try to take shots with the ladder and miss (with a great build on the WMX baseball slide spot as part of this). Both "accidentally or was it?" knock each other with the ladder. Both do moves *on* the ladder, but without actually picking it up and whacking them with it. Razor takes Shawn's leg apart, which is a two-pronged strategy (can't hit the Sweet Chin Music, can't climb the ladder). I didn't have any problem at all with Shawn coming back from that. It's not like he kipped up and started hopping around on the bad leg--he was able to sell the long-term effects of Razor's work without limping around like the overactor he often is. His pulling himself up to the top turnbuckle with just his arms, that sparked that comeback, was *very* well-sold. And I'm no Shawn fanboy looking to make excuses for him--his comeback was a fucking comeback, and I'm fine with that. The blown finish is admittedly pretty bad, especially the second time Shawn whiffs on the belt resulting in a trademark Shawn hissy-fit. But the initial attempt at covering, with Razor taking a fine bump to the floor, was quite well-done. I don't know if this qualifies as a top-10 MOTY for the entire world, but I could see it finishing there at year's end. Great show all around and maybe the best Razor performance ever. Afterward we cut to Dean Douglas in the classroom, where he defines the word BAD for us, making sure to differentiate from the street/slang version of the word. Thanks, Dean. He's pretty much a Franchise clone by this point though, so I guess Douglas' vision of the character won out eventually. Anyway, this spiel pisses Razor off and he confronts Dean face-to-face. "Wait just a second, this is a classroom, and we don't need any violence here!" I've always liked that line for some reason. Dean tries to cheap shot Razor as he turns to leave, and eats a punch to the face, to set up one of the most ill-fated feuds of the year.
  14. PeteF3
    The mind boggles at what Garofalo would have thought of the product at this time. She had to be dying inside.
  15. PeteF3
    The PTC certainly didn't like it. But the Super Bowl was actually on FOX that year and we all know what their S&Ps are.
  16. PeteF3
    Getting Karelin to do this was such a big deal that this match got coverage in places like the New York Times. How many other Japanese wrestling matches can say that? (Yes, I know the Crush Gals got a Wall Street Journal write-up in their heyday, which is how and why the WWF ended up booking them).
  17. PeteF3
    "Dean Malenko happens to be nursing a very, very badly sprained ankle." Bret's sarcastic "Oooh!" face is even funnier than the El Dandy crack.
  18. PeteF3
    I think it's clear that someone in charge knew the reveal itself was going to be a big pile of shit, so they immediately tried to make us forget about it with a bigger swerve with Austin as the new CEO. To that effect, the segment was really well-done.
  19. PeteF3
    The work here is probably the best of the series to this point...but it all still feels empty. This is pretty much the starting point that led to things like Kurt Angle video packages where he promises that his match with Samoa Joe will be the Match of the Year--wrestlers whose kayfabe goal is to put on an aesthetically pleasing match more than winning. That's simply a change in philosophy that I have never been able to get behind. In fairness, I can't fault the crowd as much as Loss did initially for not buying what was being sold--because that would imply that these two made any effort to actually connect with a crowd to begin with. Instead they wrestled in a vacuum, didn't advance anything, and didn't tell any real story besides, "these two are even." I can't blame the fans for not wanting these two to leave, really--at the time, and looking at WCW '95, it's hard to envision the company having any clue how to utilize these guys. Malenko's post-match promo gets over, since he does every Mick Foley cheap pop trick he knows, but is pretty awful.
  20. PeteF3
    "It seems that familiarity over the years...has bred a little contempt." Flair tops the great Arn promo from just before, dropping a bunch of historical references and playing this just perfectly--subtly implying what Arn's actual role in the Horsemen has always been.
  21. PeteF3
    One of the best interviews of the year. How can a promotion put on a feud this serious and realistic alongside the Dungeon of Doom kiddie show? On the other hand, I suppose it's to Sullivan's credit that he's willing to put guys in situations that best suit them.
  22. PeteF3
    Dundee wins a reverse-decision in a loser-leaves-town match against Buddy Landell, thanks to the timely intervention of Frank Morrell. Frank then proceeds to kick Landell's ass after the match, which is either a very effective final burial or some rather over-the-top booking. Commissioner Bob Armstrong (said by Lance Russell with a perfect note of disgust) is out to take exception to this, and it's as awesome as you could hope for. Bob laments how the USWA has robbed Landell of the chance to feed his family because they're beholden to a yes-man like Dundee, "the original Australian shrimp on the barbie." Bullet Bob is doing his exact same SMW shtick, including the hat-flipping and the clip-on tie, but as Dundee and Bob are about to go at it, Jesse James Armstrong debuts with a surprise sneak attack, putting Dundee out with the Dreaded Shinninomaki ™. PG-13 make the save. The Dundees vs. the Armstrongs is a feud I can get behind. More Evil Commissioner Bob, please!
  23. PeteF3
    This feels like it should have been a total trainwreck, but this works really well as an extended squash on a guy in way over his head. Fujiwara breaks back some of his old wrasslin' spots like no-selling the turnbuckle shots, and Taka tries to work his style as best he can, but Fujiwara has an answer for everything he does. That PWFG was forging an alliance with Michinoku Pro didn't speak much for the future of the promotion, but this was a very interesting little footnote. If BattlArts is like more of this, then I say bring it on.
  24. PeteF3
    Good match, with some great submissions by Dos, but he sure does spend a lot of time mugging to the crowd. Like, a lot. Like, every two freaking seconds. To the point of annoyance. Luckily he cuts it out as the match goes on. Dos splatters Sasuke with a power bomb off the apron to the floor, a true holy-shit spot that was almost out of place in its audaciousness. They have the decency to have that be the climax, with Sasuke killed dead and going down afterward. I suppose a legend like Dos wasn't going to fly halfway around the world to do a job in a gymnasium with no seating.
  25. PeteF3
    Is it? If you have an insane amount of wrestling to watch and you can only tackle a small, probably recommended, sampling if those initial matches gives a real poor impression then I wouldn't want them to waste time on those wrestlers. Would it be nice if they could get at least 7-10? Yep, but save that for wrestlers with some redeeming qualities otherwise I can't even imagine how many wrestlers will just have to be looked over. Bull Nakano and Jaguar Yokota have no redeeming qualities? The idea of judging a wrestler based on one match is preposterous. Can you imagine if people did that under normal circumstances? What happens if you choose a bad match to start with? Well, I think the point of this forum is to direct people to matches where that won't happen. The joshi thread ideally will have a link to one of the Bull vs. Aja matches as opposed to Bull vs. Madusa from Road Wild.
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