Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

PeteF3

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10287

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    This is another AJPW title match that runs a little too long, but it didn't overstay its welcome quite as badly as the late-'94 TC matches. It's an excellent match with a star-making performance from Ace. He's not GREAT here but he's booked strongly and comes off as the gutsiest bastard alive. He does lots of impersonations here too--he mocks Kobashi's moonsault taunt, does the Doc stomping taunt, and then mimics Kobashi's loopy selling of the backdrop driver when he gets hit with a legdrop. Kobashi and Misawa are spectacular together, busting out some sweet double-teams. That powerbomb+top-rope splash was so great that it was almost wasted where it was. That could have been used as a legit finisher or hot near-fall spot. Kobashi also assists Misawa with doing a double tiger driver. Doc got to be a bit of a nuisance, but his selling of the leg was pretty great and he was at least finding new ways to get involved. I don't see this as the MOTY even for the first 3 months, but it might be the All-Japan match I've enjoyed most so far in '95.
  2. PeteF3
    College GameDay has a celebrity on every week to make picks for Saturday's games. Steve Austin was the guest this week--not really that unusual, they were in Arlington, Texas. Then analyst/paid clown Lee Corso quizzed Austin on the whereabouts of Lady Blossom. I about spit up my water and missed Austin's response.
  3. PeteF3
    Sapphire was ALWAYS, to my knowledge, referred to as a manager. Just like Elizabeth was, even though both essentially played the role of a valet. The line isn't always clear, but my rule of thumb to tell the difference is: 1. What did the promotion refer to them as? (Liz = manager. Sherri = manager, at least for Savage and DiBiase, since she was only Shawn's "girlfriend" Virgil = not a manager). This trumps all other criteria. 2. If the ringside second has no official or oft-quoted title, then were they the brains of the operation or not? Did they give orders or take them? This comes up way more in the Monday Night Wars era which was filled with guys who accompanied others to ringside but didn't have a named occupation. Almost the Attitude Era eye candy were valets, with the exception of Trish Stratus (always the boss behind T&A) and possibly Terri Runnels. To me, Trish was a manager--period. Sapphire doesn't fulfill #2, but since the WWF called her a manager, that's what she was. And she was infuriating in either role. Here's who I picked for Worst Manager after viewing each '90s Yearbook, which gave an excellent cross-section of managers all across the business: 1990 - Sapphire 1991 - Coach 1992 - Ronnie Lotz 1993 - Paul Bearer 1994 - Jimmy Hart. Lotz was a goof who showed up for a few cups of coffee in Memphis, an area that saw no shortage of shitty and/or useless, small-time two-bit managers. Bearer may not objectively deserve the award, since he was pretty effective, but I like Babyface Bearer and his Lion Sleeps Tonight falsetto only slightly more than I liked Sapphire. Hart as Hulk Hogan's babyface lapdog was intolerable, and gets bonus demerits for falling so far from where he was at his peak.
  4. PeteF3
    For my money Sapphire is a runaway winner for 1990 and Coach equally so for '91. Sapphire is one of my least-favorite characters of all-time, and the heel turn wasn't enough to save that. Coach was a monumentally harebrained idea, and the fact that he was directly replacing the Brain was all the more insulting. I have little love for Paul Jones, but of all these candidates I genuinely think he was the best ringside guy.
  5. PeteF3
    Yes, as bad as Bagwell was. The WWF lucked out that this was a taped Raw because things were held up for 30+ minutes.
  6. PeteF3
    Okay-ish psychology-based action but slow. Evidently Kawada tore up Hansen's arm because Stan is selling like it's hanging by a thread, and does a full-blown Triple H laying for 30 seconds after hitting his finisher before covering for the 3. Not an auspicious reign for Kawada, winning the title in a disappointing match, not having a victorious title defense, and still firmly behind Misawa in the pecking order as best I can tell and closer to even with Kobashi than with Misawa.
  7. PeteF3
    I didn't hate this nearly as much as you two, but I was definitely disappointed. This is a straight elimination tag, btw, a la Survivor Series. I didn't know that at first so the quick pin on Felino didn't bother me, but by the end when I realized where this was going and Felino was in and out in 3 minutes without doing anything, I felt really cheated. Dragon sucks, nothing new there, but Dandy and Salvaje didn't really contribute anything either besides a nice missile dropkick from Dandy. Jericho ends up getting the big push here and I thought the closing stretch with Casas was pretty decent, with Casas sort of guiding Jericho by the hand through a passable closing stretch. But Jericho just isn't there yet as a babyface--he still has the air of somebody trying too hard, from his cheesy working of the crowd to his too-advanced-for-his-own-good offense to his ridiculous pratfalling fatigue sell after getting the big win. Not horrible, but the wrong guys were featured.
  8. PeteF3
    I tend to agree with Matt on Fuji. Not great, not even good. But he had two surefire heat-drawing gimmicks (the cane and the salt) and sometimes that's enough. He hasn't won any of my Yearbook WON Awards, I don't think. If he did it was just by default.
  9. PeteF3
    I do think credibility is defiinitely Monsoon's strongest point. It may be because he constantly got himself over, sometimes at the expense of the workers or his broadcast partner, but in the end fans of the product tended to believe what he said.
  10. PeteF3
    It's not always cut and dried like that--and there are guys like the Reds' Marty Brennaman above who shit all over the best players by focusing on the negative all the time. Those tend to be "made men," institutions who have been with a team for decades and are pretty much untouchable, though. In that case they're putting over The Brand much like modern-day WWE, and Reds Slugger #37 or Latino Player #52 don't Play the Game the Right Way ™. Still, a lot of local guys are not remotely going to come close to shitting on a player unless it's something that can't be ignored, and even then they'll tend to spin something good out of it. Player A can't hit a lick, so they'll gush over how well he plays defense. Player B can't hit OR field but will get praise for his clubhouse leadership or the fact that he "does the little things." Etc. etc. etc. Like in wrestling, some guys can pull that act off credibly and some can't, but the stuff I'm talking about is so common that it's a cliche. There are thousands of not millions of baseball fans who would be aghast at the suggestion that Derek Jeter is a terrible defensive player, because he's completely above criticism and has been for almost his entire career.
  11. PeteF3
    I know this isn't your field but I'm not sure that's the case. One area where the analogy doesn't hold up is that in real sports there are national announcers and then local announcers, and local announcers are expected to hype up the team and sell tickets. So are national guys to some degree (see: Tebow, Tim and Manziel, Johnny) to sell TV ratings if not fill stadiums. But local announcers have a similar balancing act in having to get over various talking points the front office wants them to, calling the action, and being able to build trust with their audience.
  12. PeteF3
    I do think there's a line to walk between selling everything as being great and selling out your own credibility. No question Brennaman shits on the team too much, much like Jim Ross was sometimes capable of doing. But as I mentioned earlier...a wrestling announcer has to maintain a shred of credibility if he wants to sell you on anything at all. And sometimes that means calling a spade a spade with regard to what's being shown. If Ross describes a shitty match as "bowling shoe ugly" but then hypes up a promising youngster like a Brian Pillman, fans will notice. "Ross isn't going to lie to me, he didn't lie about that earlier crapfest. I better pay attention to this guy!" Rings a lot less phony than New Generation Era Vince.
  13. PeteF3
    Disappointing compared to the '94 matches between these two. Apparently the double-turn that put each guy into their more familiar roles has now taken place, as SATO does heelish stuff to start with like working over Delfin's knee in the ropes, and Delfin is a total babyface down the stretch. The closing stretch is pretty hot but the opening portion was in like 0th gear. And some of the hotter portions of the match are missed by the stationary camera missing stuff on the floor and in the corners of the ringside area. I don't know if this was the story or not, but I'd like to thinK SATO sort of sold his soul to the heel side having been frustrated at losing his mask and hair to Delfin in the previous year.
  14. PeteF3
    No question. Flair needed to tear Santana's leg to pieces and then figure four him for the submission. Then preferably keep it on afterward until Tito was screaming for mercy. Instead we get, IIRC, a cheap roll-up and hook of the tights finish. Okay for a traveling champion, but Flair was a true "newcomer" for the first time in years and needed to be put over like one or insist on being put over like one. On top of that, England was about the worst possible spot for Flair to have one of his first televised matches. That isn't anybody's fault, it's just horrendous luck, but it was all the more reason for Flair to put his foot down and insist on going over strong.
  15. PeteF3
    I was under the belief that Bobby and Tony hashed out their differences when they did a Legends of Wrestling video game together some time ago. Heenan does seem like a guy who holds grudges, though.
  16. PeteF3
    That is odd. I've seen Dave talk about brother vs. brother before, on the Classics board. He did cite Bret/Owen that time and praised the angle for being well-booked and believable. He also pointed out that Ole/Lars worked because Ole was such an ass that you would believe his own mother wouldn't like him.
  17. PeteF3
    There's The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, a full-fledged wrestling Off-Broadway play about an Indian wrestler who's forced into a terrorist gimmick.
  18. PeteF3
    Vince and Cornette sit in front of a green-screen designed to look like ringside for some reason. This is effective in its way, but is VERY dry. I think that's the word I'd sum up '95 WWF with--it's the same problem that permeated the company in the second half of '92 as well. Dry, conservative, and downright stodgy. Past the "old school" line. Bam Bam finally spices things up and reiterates his challenge to LT, and LT accepts an offer to appear with Bam Bam at the Harley-Davidson Cafe.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. PeteF3
    This was so successful that I remember Slim Jim actually re-cutting Savage back into the same commercial later on.
  25. 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.
×
×
  • Create New...