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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Tenzan has improved tremendously but is still raw and at times sloppy, and this comes off as a Hash carry job. But it's a great performance by Shinya, who throws an awesome dropkick, kicks the shit out of him as you'd expect, and absolutely compresses Tenzan with a brainbuster to score a decisive victory.
  2. PeteF3
    They tease a Landell no-show/walk-out, as Cornette produces BRIAN LEE to take Brad on in the Nature Boy's place. And...oh, wrong chapter. Not worth tracking down but I'd be curious if Brad could drag Lee to something good. I'd be cautiously optimistic. Since Brad's already wrestled once, we can jump straight to the heat, as Landell absolutely peppers him with some awesome punches. But he wrestles on the level, and the lumberjacks (all 3 of them) don't get involved until Cornette and his Militia appear at ringside. In the confusion, one of the tennis rackets makes its way to Brad, and as Buddy and Cornette argue he clobbers Landell with it to take the vacant SMW title. Hulk Hogan would be proud of that kind of unprovoked cheating from a babyface. Landell is incensed after the match and teases punching out Cornette, but Jimbo bails. Buddy settles for tearing into him on the mic.
  3. PeteF3
    Well then, I guess we now know who booked the finish to Over the Edge '98, don't we? Poor Al is inconsolable at the loss of his tag partner.
  4. PeteF3
    I actually think more could have been done with a babyface Vader and would have been interested to see where it went. God help me for saying this, but this is pretty well-booked. Vader isn't suddenly a happy gladhander just because he's feuding with heels--he's got Hogan's back, but he still wants Hogan's title. "I'm gonna get in the SHOWER!" Well, that could have been replaced by a better line.
  5. PeteF3
    Hogan is back in the Dungeon, with some spectacular candy-striped tights. Hogan challenges the entire Dungeon, but is confronted by the Giant, who rips off the crucifix just to bludgeon the comparisons to '87 over our heads some more. Vader fights off the Dungeon drones but can't affect the Giant. It's enough for Jimmy, Savage, and Sting to escort Hogan to safety--where the hell did everyone COME from??!! Russo-era backstage segments had more internal logic than this. Giant vs. Vader wouldn't have been any good in '95, I don't think, but it's a match that seems like money left on the table. I can see that big staredown drawing a huge pop if they had put it in a ring instead of...yeah, a spa.
  6. PeteF3
    Cornette didn't use ether--the Dirty White Boy was downing too much Knoxville moonshine and passed out dead-drunk. Glad that's cleared up. It was a clean sweep for the Militia at the Super Bowl of Wrestling...except for top lieutenant Buddy Landell. Budro, sporting his sharp suit again in accordance with the modern WWE dress code, is out to insist that Cornette will *not* be in his corner at Fire on the Mountain.
  7. PeteF3
    Pro-shot version of the Super Bowl title change we already saw. Smothers' piledriver on Prichard literally goes *through* a table, making a hole rather than cutting it in half.
  8. PeteF3
    Not sure if this is a different week of TV or what, but here's a little final footnote in the Rock 'n Roll Express' SMW career (until Ricky Morton returned right at closing time). The Headbangers and Snow & Unabomb get involved, and there's more dissension between the Rock 'n Rolls and the THUGs.
  9. PeteF3
    Damn, this is a dream match that I'd love to see in full. Wolfie executes a picture-perfect double sunset flip on both Bodies at the same time. Dr. Tom eventually clocks Wolfie with the racket to capture both the SMW and USWA tag titles. PG-13 vow to regain their belts--this Monday, Cornette is barred from ringside.
  10. PeteF3
    Some odd SMW loyalists on the heel side--Brian Lee makes sense, Gorgeous George III and Pat Tanaka less so. Lance Russell, for some reason, is doing live commentary over the house mic. The USWA win by handcuffing everyone from SMW to the cage, and thus win 5 minutes with their handcuffed opponents. But Billy Jack Haynes turns on Tommy Rich and there's a big brawl, with keeper of the key Brian Christopher getting involved. Too confusing to really follow, as evidenced by the lack of live heat. Doug Gilbert is out to talk about Eddie's death and his joining the USWA Dream Team--which he agreed to do, for Eddie. It's hard to snark on this, but this is pretty meandering and unfocused. It gets better when he directs his attention to Billy Jack Haynes and an upcoming first-blood match against Brian Lee.
  11. PeteF3
    Mutoh has gone through quite the resurgence in '95, after several years of Lazy Mutoh polluting a lot of singles matches. Chono has, as noted a few times, had quite the resurgence himself, but I'm starting to think Norio Honaga did this style with a little more panache. He doesn't have Chono's star power, though, nor does he have goons to run interference like Hiro Saito does here. We even get a total U.S. style "YOU! OUT!" from referee Tiger Hattori as he ejects Saito from ringside. But Mutoh is busted open in the process, and while this is hardly an early-'90s Muta Scale performance, the blood flows pretty freely. Ending is a little too similar to Sasaki-Hash for my liking, as both guys go from getting their asses kicked to hitting two big moves for a fluky pinfall. Unlike Sasaki, Mutoh puts an exclamation point on things by effectively kicking Chono's ass after the match. Pretty good, though so far Mutoh/Koshinaka has been the best match of the tournament.
  12. PeteF3
    Pretty solid and straightforward, from a work and psychology standpoint. Hash kicks the shit out of Sasaki, but Sasaki keeps targeting Hash's legs and using it to buy time and counter moves, before getting in a fluke pinfall. Not much wrong with it, but while Sasaki is better than I remembered, I really hate how he applies his various Strangle Holds. Those are some STFU levels of weak.
  13. PeteF3
    The streak ending seemed far more upsetting to the "casuals" than the hardcores.
  14. PeteF3

    Current WWE

    PeteF3 replied to Smack2k's topic in WWE

    Facebreaker could be a dumbed-down name for the DDT.
  15. PeteF3
    '80s women's wrestler Despina Montagues (of AWA '80s set semi-fame) was--or is--married to Tarzan Goto. And of course, Kevin Sullivan & Woman.
  16. PeteF3
    What's there to argue about? I've come to realize I'd draw more reaction for awarding Best Interview to Dave Sullivan and Most Underrated to Duke the Dumpster, but I refuse to compromise my principles. Unquestionably. And New Japan wasn't bad but was sort of in a holding pattern after the Tenryu stuff was blown off, sort of waiting for the Next Big Feud which wouldn't arrive until the Chono turn and wouldn't really kick into gear until '95. AJPW got its TV time slashed, which was devastating. The Big Two were depressing as all hell. In short, there's no way on earth this year was better than '92, and the Yearbook as a whole wasn't as entertaining as '90, if only because '90 was fresh and with a bunch of "new" uncovered stuff. One thing that struck me about '94 was--even as the international scene as a whole was pulling away from the U.S.--it was hard for any one wrestler to stand out. Like I mentioned, lots of folks seemed to show up for a great match and then were gone again, at least in this setting. The early part of the decade seemed to (without going back and spreadsheeting appearances for everyone) have more consistency throughout the year. It's not always easy extrapolating isolated appearances for luchadores and joshi folks and compare them to the week-to-week (essentially) appearances by the U.S. folks. I do think Vader's match with Takada was a huge, huge win for him from both a financial and artistic standpoint. And by the end of the year I was, against my better judgment, almost drooling at the opportunity to see him take on Hogan--both at the time and watching it again. Not many have inspired that kind of reaction with me. It was sort of like seeing all those Tony Atlas promos and all those Dawna Teen Reports for ICW, waiting for the two to finally meet. Yeah, and like, Best Booker? Who the hell do I vote for? Who WAS AJW's booker? How much did he or she have to do with the interpromotional shows? I would have gladly voted for them, since I was tired of giving the award to Choshu each year, but that info isn't known to me. In retrospect, yes, the UT/Yoko work was good. The ending and post-match was, at the time, the dumbest thing I had ever seen (in wrestling or anywhere else). No question who won the box office, but I actually had problems with the booking of the Gringos Locos feud before When Worlds Collide, some of which may have been mitigated by greater knowledge of Spanish and some of which may not have been. AAA refusing to shit or get off the pot with regard to Blue Panther's alignment grew more and more annoying. First he's turning technico. Now he's teaming with rudos again. He's feuding with LGL as a lot of other rudos are. But he's aligned with Jake, who's aligned with LGL! ARGH. Art did have some choice quotes for that show. "These two guys could go all night!" "Well, there's a 60-minute time limit for this final..." "That's insane! They couldn't last that long!" Thank you. And my aim for '95 is to give as few "positive" awards to the Big Two as possible with the chance of a clean non-sweep, since pretty much none of them will be deserved.
  17. PeteF3
    Even before Savage you had guys like Frenchy Fuqua, Lester Hayes, Mel Hall, and Hawk Harrelson running around. Ochocinco and TO didn't invent the ostentatious pro athlete.
  18. PeteF3
    For whatever reason, Budokan put a bunch of restrictions on the NJPW shows run there that AJPW didn't have to worry about: no fighting on the floor, a stricter curfew, and a few others I'm not remembering. Sumo Hall was smaller, but NJPW was able to do things like run shows 7 nights in a row and draw well for all of them.
  19. PeteF3
    SOUTH OF MARS AND NORTH OF HELL, OOH YEAH. I think Savage, despite how over-the-top he was, still managed to come off as authentic. He really did seem like a guy who was just that crazy, instead of a guy trying to act crazy. That Bruno promo is one of the greatest money babyface promos I've ever seen. It's on the same level as "That's hard times" and Eric Embry before the final showdown with PY Chu-Hi (and let me just say how proud I am that I was able to compare Bruno Sammartino with Eric Embry--but man, Eric's promo was great). In many ways Bruno is a far more ideal representation of the "American Dream" than Hogan--the quintessential turn-of-the-century immigration story. That's a lot more relatable to us grown-ups and even more relatable to the generations before us than Hogan, who came off as a guy carved from granite.
  20. PeteF3
    I'm excited to finally see some footage of Quasimodo and Le Bourreau de Bethune pop up. Quasimodo's not going to be confused with Billy Robinson, but that unique stungun move he busts out at around the 12:50 mark was a true holy-shit spot.
  21. PeteF3
    Big upset that really felt earned, as Koshinaka had Mutoh on the ropes for most of this. Mutoh looks tough and resourceful, but that power bomb off the turnbuckle was a holy shit moment and really felt like the finish. Smart move to have Mutoh escape via the ropes instead of kicking out--he really looked dead and they got a near-fall that was surprising but also made sense instead of just being a cheap excuse for a 2.9. I'm to the point now where I no longer hate Koshinaka.
  22. PeteF3
  23. PeteF3
    Gordy was practically (or literally) a full-time Japan worker at that point. Roberts was just old and frankly not of much use anymore. In fact, he had to be talked out of retirement by Gary Hart for the Von Erichs angle, years earlier. Keep in mind that he had a full career as a fake Valentine and then half of the original Hollywood Blonds all before becoming a 'bird. He did very briefly show up again in 1990 as part of the Freebirds/Southern Boys feud, but WCW wouldn't even let him work a 6-man tag, and he had to be a cornerman.
  24. PeteF3
    I'm enjoying 1995 Raven, at least. Moreso the booking than the promos, but the matches have been fine and the gimmick comes off as incredibly fresh for the era.
  25. PeteF3
    Probably the best of the ECW videos so far. I didn't know there was a proper video for "Say It Ain't So" until now--I guess "Buddy Holly" got too much of the attention.
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