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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    Bob's reaction to Lawler patting him on the shoulder is FANTASTIC. Backlund is playing things far more low-key than usual, which makes him downright scary. I like Bob as the heel outsider.
  2. PeteF3
    McMahon decides to rub in the Kid's victory and the post-match embarrassment. Classy, Vince. That's a real effective way to get an apology out of him. Bigelow's talk of "disrespect" is TOTALLY out of the Aaron Hernandez/John Lackey/Davey Richards macho-bullshit sports posturing playbook, and it's fantastically played. Bam Bam finally snaps and goes into full promo mode, issuing a challenge to LT--no pads, no helmet, no teammates .
  3. PeteF3
    More USWA TX by Numbers. I enjoyed this, and loved Buddy as the timekeeper, but I think I would have liked it more if I'd watched it coming right off the '96 Yearbook as Loss did. Instead I've been watching since 1990 and Lawler's shtick isn't nearly as fresh. DWB hits the Bucksnort Blaster, but even though we're 20 minutes into the match, Landell rings the bell at 2 and declares that the 60-minute time limit has expired. This is definitely a week of senior referees overruling special guests, as Mark Curtis pulls a Nick Patrick and takes charge. All for naught, as Lawler steals the SMW title with Buddy's help. The lights out match isn't much--Landell beats on the semi-conscious White Boy but falls victim to a fluke roll-up. But he gets to lay out DWB again after the match, so this feud isn't anywhere near settled. The time was definitely right to change the title, as it was growing stale on DWB thanks mostly to a lack of legitimate challengers.
  4. PeteF3
    This seriously had a "reputation"? There are good things here, and nothing really *wrong* with it, but it's pretty much USWA-TX By Numbers all the way. Stall, stall, complain to ref, stall, cheap chain finish. The ringside brawl looked good and there were more near-falls than usual down the stretch, and Landell stalling isn't *bad*, but there wasn't much remarkable about this either.
  5. PeteF3
    The "first 10 minutes" stip is dumb enough, but it SORT OF makes sense on house shows (i.e., not television). It doesn't make sense at all when the TV Champ is actually doing his job. Silly match stips aside, this is a nice solid TV match as Arn knows how to do best. Savage goes along with all of this--this is very much an Arn match with limbwork and a slow build to the finish. Hogan should take notes--Savage struggles with Arn, sells shots from the Colonel, backs off when Meng approaches him...and does anyone think this hurt Savage at all? It just made his comeback look gutsy rather than scripted a la Hogan's power bomb pop-up.
  6. PeteF3
    Pillman and his disturbingly tiny shorts are in Hollywood, where the Baywatch writers dub him CALIFORNIA BRIAN. "It's got a great ring to it!" If OJ and Tonya & Nancy were what dominated wrestling in '94, Baywatch is what's driving wrestling in '95.
  7. PeteF3
    Very good production that does its best to erase the bad taste of the Clash.
  8. PeteF3
    Wright is only 2 years older than John Cena. I have no doubt he could have been a bigger star than he was, though his career as it was is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Cheesy as hell, though the computer-generated dancing bathroom sign guy was oddly captivating, like something out of a Kraftwerk video 15 years earlier.
  9. PeteF3
    It's a BOYZ N THE HOOD MATCH between Rich & Gilbert and PG-13.
  10. PeteF3
    Abysmal match with a startling lack of heat for much of it. Savage vainly attempts to elevate this by bumping around and selling like a loon, but no dice. The big elbow spot is of course absurd, and I would have given anything for Butcher to pop up the same way at the finish. The reviving elbow was silly, but the post-match was actively destructive for business. It's to Vader's credit that he had enough built-up heat that SuperBrawl was a success anyway. The sad part is that up until Hogan's revival, the showdown with Vader no-selling Hogan's punches and overpowering him was really, really good. Heenan declares that after SuperBrawl, Baltimore is going to look like Kobe, Japan. Well, at least he didn't say Hiroshima.
  11. PeteF3
    Okay, getting back to this years after the fact, I think WCW was using "The Man Who Stands for Law & Order" as a placeholder name--they used that term a lot while waiting for the Angel gimmick to be finalized. Really cool tease by Schiavone as we join in, reminding us that Bockwinkel stripped the Angel of his name and nightstick and how that "really got under the skin of the Guardian Angel." Sting and Avalanche do the accidental-headbutt-to-the-groin spot that they were fond of. Sting hits four Stinger Splashes, a bodyslam, and the Scorpion to decisively ice this one away, but Angel won't call for the bell, so Nick Patrick takes it upon himself to do it. Angel's not exactly in the wrong here--Bockwinkel trusted him to officiate then threw him under the bus. It's a two-on-one beatdown on Sting before the babyfaces make the save. Okerlund: "What is this, the old Big Bubba Rogers??!" Subtle, Gene. Take some notes from Schiavone. The old Big Bubba Rogers is back, which was the proper way to go. The Angel gimmick and the repeated jobs to Vader absolutely killed Traylor's babyface character.
  12. PeteF3
    The Faces of Fear have jumped Dave Sullivan, cut his hair, and cut up the "magic slippers." That would be venturing dangerously close to Barber territory if I were a trademark attorney. Mercifully I think that's it for the #1 Hulkamaniac push for Evad. Savage is back to being Hogan's lackey, decked out in red and yellow and basically serving no purpose except to be the second half of a call-and-response act. Standard stale Hogan promo, though I'm amused by Hulk referring to "Vader Time," as if that's his given name. RIC FLAIR is mentioned on TV for the first time since Havoc! Hulk and Savage are now the "Monster Maniacs," because apparently Hulk is more obsessed with the letter M than the folks at MI6.
  13. PeteF3
    About time. "Hey Bobby, look what I brought ya!" Flair and Vader are not buddies...yet.
  14. PeteF3
    Tully's offensive flurry is terrific, but he looks like shit. A Horseman, even an ex-one, should be out in a suit for street attire, not looking like some random fan. Styles beats us over the head about this being the OLD Tully Blanchard, the brawler. So why the fuck do you book him to work a 60-minute Broadway??! How many of those did Horseman-era Tully have? Commentary and booking issues aside, this is a hot segment with tremendous heat.
  15. PeteF3
    Quick and dirty promo from Raven outlining his plans for Tommy Dreamer. I have to agree that at least so far, the bad goth poetry is a feature and not a bug. We don't want Raven being too "cool."
  16. PeteF3
    The sound quality is terrible, but has the bonus of drowning out the dialogue. For the love of God, somebody get these guys some lozenges. "Thank you, Mr. Dangerously"--okay, that was funny.
  17. PeteF3
    In addition to being on vacation, the prospect of two 60-minute draws in a week is what's been keeping me from diving into '95 head-on. So putting this on was more of a "let's get this out of the way" thing than real eagerness on my part. But in the end...put me in the minority but I liked this more than the Triple Crown. In fact it fell closer to the story I had booked in my head for that match, with Kobashi taking a beating and managing to withstand it. This has the added bonus of a terrific performance by Misawa--who I don't recall ever seeing being portrayed as The Man to this extent to this point in his career. Every time he's in, the dynamic totally shifts--he's the House Afire every time, and aside from a short segment underneath when Kawada levels him with a kick as he's going for his reverse-headbutt-thing, he's pretty much untouchable. After the standoff/parity stuff to open with Kobashi and Kawada, the majority of the opening 20 minutes are a long shine sequence by Misawa & Kobashi and they deliver in spades. It does fade a little in the 35-45 minute range, but we still get an excellent underneath performance by Kobashi and a big pickup towards the end. I think this is further evidence of the last-minute nature of the TC booking because this felt like a draw being strategically booked to put over certain storylines, whereas the TC felt like a draw for the sake of a draw. And that's fine, but this was ultimately a more satisfying match.
  18. PeteF3
    Fixed for accuracy.
  19. PeteF3
    Darryl Peterson had a cool gimmick, was an under-the-radar good promo, was an accomplished amateur wrestler, and trained in the New Japan dojo. He had all the tools to be a legitimate major star, but it never came together for him anywhere. Here, it was decided that Maxx Payne was too similar to the Undertaker, so they ramped up the cheeseball factor and stuck him in some of the worst ring attire in the history of wrestling.
  20. PeteF3
    I'm not sure what exactly the logic was behind this booking--the Gunns were taken out of the tournament by choice, not because of injury--but this is a fine match. And it's worked between four guys who want to win at any cost, which is the best kind of babyface match. Lots of nifty double-teams here, particularly from the Gunns. The gimmick was cheesy but their work is perfectly acceptable. Both of them are better than Tatanka, but not as good as Bigelow, so in the end I think I liked the Rumble match slightly better.
  21. PeteF3
    Vince apologizes for the unprofessional actions of Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow and announces a suspension without pay. SHOOT NAMES! Another attempt at realism, though all this would be shattered when "technical problems" prevented Bam Bam's apology and they tried to turn it into a comedy skit.
  22. PeteF3
    Some okay action once we've gotten past the rapidfire entries and gotten over what an unbelievably weak roster this was (7 tag teams in a 30-man Rumble, including the Bushwhackers and Well Dunn, and the Blu Brothers who were mysteries and probably confounded people who were wondering why the same nobody got to come in twice.) Murdoch is tons of fun, throwing a dropkick and working cool shit with Shawn, Fatu, and Henry Godwinn. Shawn's near-elimination is pretty rewind-and-watch-again worthy...I dunno, I thought the finish was pretty clever, even if THREE fakeout Dusty finishes on one show is a little...well, Dusty-like.
  23. PeteF3
    I thought Tatanka sucked--out of shape, lazy, and just a bad heel all-around. Holly was just there, but wasn't a fuck-up or anything. Kid and Bam Bam were on another level. I have to disagree on the one-man show part, too. Bam Bam kept up with the Kid just as much as he did on TV, and was doing just as much to hold this match together. Kid wasn't working with a crash test dummy when he did that cool huracanrana spot, after all. All those miscommunication and timing spots could have made for a mess, but Bam Bam was in perfect position each time. This is a refreshingly southern tag layout all around with all the double-teams and distraction spots and hot tag teases--it just needed a better Ricky Morton than Holly and another heel who was stronger than Tatanka, and it'd be one of the better WWF bouts of the year. As it is, it was still pretty enjoyable with half of the participants turning in excellent performances. The big angle of course comes afterward, as Bigelow shoves down a laughing LT. This might be the first "shoot angle" the WWF ever ran, as the booth goes silent and you (at least in the original broadcast) faintly hear Lawler say, "Vince is not here, he's gone off headset" as though the situation were legitimately out of control. Then we awkwardly (by design) go to a video recap and come back to a somber apology from Vince. Kind of out-of-the-box stuff.
  24. PeteF3
    I have a few problems with this match from an agent's perspective: they ran the exact same story as Jarrett/Razor, from the knee injury to the false finish, except ramped up several notches. While the knee work makes sense in both contexts, that's the type of thing the WWF is historically very good at avoiding. That being said, on its own this match is excellent, probably a bit stronger than KOTR and I liked that match more than just about anyone else here. Bret's heeling goes from subtle to blatant, with some really clever spots like tying Diesel around the ringpost with his wrist-tape, and one of the best of Bret's many "playing possum" spots. I will say that unlike his stronger matches in '94, Diesel really felt along for the ride for this. It's definitely the Bret Show all the way, and it's one of his better performances, but it's definitely more broomstick-y than one would expect. Bret pretty much managed to undo the booking faux pas in how the new babyface ace was handled. Cheap-o finish but I don't know what else you could have booked, which is yet another strong indication that this match shouldn't have been booked to start with.
  25. PeteF3
    Pretty good match that got better as it went along. Stalling was a staple of WWF PPV openers at the time, so it was to be expected here. And Jarrett pointing to his head will never not be entertaining. There isn't much advanced offense for the first part of this but both guys take some pretty hellacious bumps to the floor. The second half gets better and the moves get bigger, and we get a very cool near-fall involving Razor's back superplex that gets reversed and reversed again, Jumbo/Misawa-style. Jarrett wins clean, which seems to blindside the crowd who I don't think gave Jarrett much of a chance going into this. Basic match, but a psychologically sound one. And basics matter.
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