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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    I didn't have a problem with Cornette, actually. He was in a lot and got in offense, but it generally made sense. Plus I'll always mark when unexpected workers do the somersault dive to the corner to make a tag, and Cornette busts out one of those here. Loss' other criticisms are perfectly valid, though. For all the heat they get on the stick (or New Jack gets, rather), the Gangstas just haven't brought the goods in the ring. There are spots designed for them to bump and stooge and they just can't do it--witness New Jack's tepid selling of the low blows in the corner. Del Ray or Landell or Fuerza Guerrera would know how to get across that their dick was on fire. New Jack just lays there. The FIP segment doesn't offer much besides clubbering. I like matches involving longtime heels wrestling as faces but keeping all of their old tricks, thus giving their opponents a taste of their own medicine. But there are probably at least 10 Bockwinkel AWA matches that get that story across better than this. The attack on Bob Armstrong is the most heated and best-worked portion of the segment.
  2. PeteF3
    Blaze cuts a humble country-boy promo as the unlikely new SMW champion. Take this promo set-up in another direction and one could easily see a heel turn for the White Boy coming out of it. Landell rants about how everyone in the building cost him the title ("like Dallas in '61"...okay). Buddy's great when complaining about unimportant things--he's even better when he's truly been embarrassed. Blaze is only good for pinching moonshine in Ashland, KY and drives a moped as opposed to Landell's Mercedes-Benz.
  3. PeteF3
    So I guess DWB was attacked before his title match with Lawler, as Bobby Blaze substituted and upset Lawler for the SMW title. Landell is having his way with Blaze, showing some good offense, when he goes for the chain and DWB yanks it from him, leading to a rollup and another upset. For all of Cornette's stated distaste for ECW, in this match involving a glorified prelim wrestler we have a broken table and a recreation of the Mikey Whipwreck angle. Could be a coincidence, could not be.
  4. PeteF3
    Lawler does his touring Don Rickles act, but there seems to be an undercurrent of anger and rage this time that isn't always there.
  5. PeteF3
    I still think the Clique tag was a bit better, but yes, this is terrific. The work on the knee is awesome, the heel cut-offs are awesome, and Backlund is such a bastard constantly interjecting himself from the apron. Even Davey Boy finally getting hip to Backlund's interference and countering it was well-done. Davey Boy and Owen are also almost always gold together.
  6. PeteF3
    This was so successful that I remember Slim Jim actually re-cutting Savage back into the same commercial later on.
  7. PeteF3
    This was a lot of fun, actually. It's worked tornado-style but it never once descends into clusterfuckery--there's a storyline throughout with Malenko & Benoit taking Taz's leg apart and Sabu doing an admirable job of fighting 1-on-2. All the spots hit, and Sabu eventually goes down thanks to a nasty top-rope power bomb. Even Public Enemy was tolerable in their involvement. Rocco takes a brutal bump against the guardrail from his wheelchair and they hold their own in the post-match brawl. 911 heaves Taz down onto everybody in a cool spot and then Sabu follows with a dive, nicely setting up the ill-fated Triple Threat (I'm assuming). Could ECW have actually made Benoit a better worker? He's seemingly moved past being a Dynamite Kid cosplayer into being a guy with his own personality and who comes off as legitimately dangerous. Paul E. made a number of guys into bigger stars than expected but finally figuring out a way for Benoit to contribute to a North American company in a meaningful way is one of his better creative triumphs.
  8. PeteF3
    Hahahahaha. Jannetty of course hasn't updated his ring gear in 10 years and wouldn't for another 10 after this, and it's never looked more out-of-place than it does here. Douglas works SOO loose and moves so stiffly, it's a stark contrast to his WCW work and in contrast to the rest of ECW. I'm not asking for the guy to be Stan Hansen, but there's no snap or impact to any of his strikes, moves, or bumps. It's hard not to notice regardless of how good the match is. All that aside, this turns into a hell of a match. They throw in a few token brawling spots but they fit well into the match, as opposed to doing crowd brawling and chair spots for the sake of doing them. Jannetty works that stuff into his signature style very effectively. Ultimately it's Marty holding this together, as seemed to happen with him so, so often. He didn't have Shawn's star power but ultimately I think he had a better grasp of psychology and had better ways than Shawn of covering up a lack of offense. Marty gets a few hot near-falls and Douglas has to pull out a power bomb counter and tights grab to retain the title by the skin of his teeth. Now I want to see Jannetty team up with Snow in this setting because they both looked surprisingly good.
  9. PeteF3
    I didn't dislike this as much as you guys but it did go too long. Raven says nothing much of note and the Broad Street Bullies are pretty underwhelming, though I think partly by design since they were brought in by Richards. What's with all the 1993-era Philly indy guys showing up tonight? Stevie trying to superkick the stop sign and doing a bunny hop to sell it was the highlight of this. The Bullies looked awful and the brawl was rather tepid.
  10. PeteF3
    The match is horrible of course, but it's ancient history as soon as it's over. Clever reveal as Funk comes out of a box dressed in a sheet and also dressed as Sandman. Good beatdown but as per ECW custom it goes on too long. Tommy Dreamer attempts a save after the jobber brigade is dispatched, but can't bring himself to cane Funk and gets taken out as a result. Then Shane Douglas is in and Woman makes him an offer to unify the Triple Threat with her group. Douglas teases it for a bit and then saves Cactus! I didn't remember that part. This was still too long but the closing angle with Woman and Douglas wrapped this up nicely.
  11. PeteF3
    Good, chaotic pull-apart segment. Hogan has a strap with him so you know where this is going. Bockwinkel ejects both men from the building. Amazingly he doesn't grant Hogan an interview while fining Vader and Flair $50,000 for antagonizing him. Check out the not-at-all intrusive shot of five Turner interns and secretaries devoted members of the WCW female fanbase chanting for Hogan.
  12. PeteF3
    Stock New Jack promo with a few good lines as mentioned above. I'm not digging where this Black Culture vs. Confederate Flag-Waving Babyface is going, though.
  13. PeteF3
    Landell cuts the promo of his life, with profanity and everything. Landell can make the biggest issues out of the most inconsequential situations. Lawler cuts the best of his SMW promos. He doesn't soil his hands on filth like us! White Boy responds in kind.
  14. PeteF3
    Really good match, I daresay the #2 domestic MOTY after Bret-Diesel. Dundee unleashes some new offense, and the transition to Lawler's piledriver coming out of the leg clips was pretty masterful. Dundee is a master of working tweener and getting wins that aren't quite on the level but don't have a solid thing to point to to make it a screwjob either. Lawler goads Dundee into a rematch even though Bill wants to enjoy 30 days as World Champion. Some fat biker guy who looks like the Motor City Madman if he let himself go wants a shot, too. Bill says Lawler gets the first shot. Wrestlingdata says this guy is Lanny "Moondog Cujo/Cousin Junior" Kean. Cyrus and Crusher Bones beat down Dundee until Lawler makes the save. Pretty underwhelming on the heel challenger side.
  15. PeteF3
    Really well-done stuff from Lance and Dave, going over the specifics of their relationship with Gilbert and touching on what made him a success. A good music video follows, with some of Eddie's earliest Memphis clips leading to a bell salute.
  16. PeteF3
    Gilbert worked one SMW taping before bailing, as he always did. He really looked like hell.
  17. PeteF3
    Dreamer's still trying to figure out his hardcore look in a post-suspenders world. I actually liked what we saw of the match, though Dreamer dropping a frying pan on Richards' groin while a few seconds later Richards is getting a count from the referee for using a chokehold is absurd. Raven, either through a ninja stealth technique or a slick editing job, magically appears behind Dreamer in the ring and holds him for a Stevie Kick. Richards goes for another one but Dreamer drops down, uppercuts Richards in the groin, and sunset flips him for the pin. Cute, well-done finish. Raven is "held back" by Richards and the referee afterward, like a baseball player who really wants to look like he's going to charge the mound without actually doing it. Four touchdowns in a game = four tables broken in the Brian Lee match?
  18. PeteF3
    I'm surprised they showed Diesel standing next to the obviously taller David Robinson.
  19. PeteF3
    Bret Hart owes the Japanese people an apology for the "slanted" remarks he's been making. Intentional or not? Not one of Shawn's better promos, as there's just some token remarks about the WM11 title match and Shawn gets worse on the stick the less focus that he has. Sid's promo is actually better. I know the story is they didn't decide to turn Shawn babyface until after the WM11 match, but...Sid's got his own entrance music already? Hmm.
  20. PeteF3
    Vader with a shoutout to his kid in his pre-match promo. Flair gets a hero's welcome for his interview, while there are audible boos when he name-drops Hogan. Pretty much a pure babyface promo from Ric. Hogan mis-uses the word "understatement" for the third straight interview. Hulk has been attempting to pay lip service to the idea that Vader can seriously hurt him, but despite the fact that this show sold well (as I said, the match sells itself) you'd like to think Hogan could have raised his game a bit, the way he did with Earthquake. Instead, Hulk's talk about this being the Most Important Night of His Life just rings hollow. Hogan makes threats to Ric Flair, and I hope this interview didn't play on the video monitor, because that isn't going to endear himself with this audience. SHOOT, VADER, SHOOT was a rallying cry for us smarks on RSPW, and it even became my Prodigy screen name for awhile. Anti-Hulk Hysteria was at a fever pitch, maybe to an even greater degree than it would be at Uncensored '96. So this is a match I could not possibly have objectively evaluated until now, almost literally decades after the fact. As it is...it's pretty damned good. Vader doesn't really seem to work any lighter than usual, despite the supposed signed document preventing him from stiffing Hogan. After so much Hogan-By-Numbers in the buildup, Hulk does do a pretty effective job of selling frustration and even fear when his opening attacks have no effect on Vader. So Hulk tries going to mat wrestling, which is a development that's very well-called and explained by Bobby & Tony. He finally takes over when Vader makes a mistake on the floor, but can never really sustain anything. Hulk takes one of the more brutal bumps I've ever seen him take on a Vader chokeslam. Vader brushes off the big boot and legdrop, and even gets a visual pin on the Hulkster with Randy Anderson knocked out. Eventually Flair comes in, Anderson recovers, and it's a DQ, but it's a DQ leaving you wanting to see another match. Hogan sort of bitches Flair out afterward, but it is put over that Vader & Flair were going to double-team him into oblivion if not for Savage & Sting. In the end, Hogan stepped up his game after all, as seemingly all of Vader's opponents have had to do.
  21. PeteF3
    A segment I found laughable in 1995 that hasn't gotten any better. "Some athletes still care about THEIR fans." You hear that, Roger Clemens--oh, I guess I just used that one.
  22. PeteF3
    Meet your athletic potential WITHOUT performance-enhancing drugs. You hear that, Roger Clemens? Lots of love here for HealthSouth CEO and future white-collar prison inmate Richard Scrushy.
  23. PeteF3
    Hogan by numbers. I've seen worse from him, but I've also seen a lot better. Like I said, this match sells itself, so these promos aren't actively hurting anything. The idea of Jimmy Hart "counteracting" Ric Flair is too ludicrous for words.
  24. PeteF3
    Hogan/Vader is a match that sort of sells itself, but Flair's promise to be at ringside is pretty much a clincher. Ric is immediately a shot in the arm for WCW programming.
  25. PeteF3
    I think I remember reading that Grillo *was* going to be Malenko, before someone decided that was too obvious and they stuck the outfit on the real Ciclope.
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