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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    God, i love promos of 4-5 guys all getting in little quick soundbites in succession. The combination of Funk, Buck, Parker, Meng, and Arn in a cowboy hat and bandana are actually more intimidating than the Gangstas and their posse, even in this environment. Exposer is right--this is truly the last gasp of classic southern wrestling.
  2. PeteF3
    In some ways I'm surprised that Mustafa looked as competent as he did, but this is pretty much a nothing match and I don't agree with the decision to job the Gangstas this quickly. They get their heat back in a big way by flagrantly re-enacting the Rodney King beating on Ricky Morton after the match. There hasn't been a Yearbook yet with so much current-event pandering, not even during the height of the Gulf War. New Jack cuts a great post-match promo backing up everything he said earlier about fighting as opposed to wrestling. "We the wrong niggas to mess with!" Uh, wow. The Rodney King re-enactment and the n-bomb come off as more cynical and/or desperate than just pure wrasslin', even though I understand the motivation behind the gimmick and respect Cornette for taking risks.
  3. PeteF3
    Scott Bowden unveils his newest charge, the mysterious Dark Patriot! Two whole words into his promo and Dave Brown interrupts, "THAT'S DOUG GILBERT!" Good work, Dave. Meanwhile the Moondogs are out to wrestle Mephisto & Dante and I think I know where this is going. Scott Bowden tricks Spot into chasing him outside where the masked guys slam the door behind him and lock him out, allowing Rich & Landell to come in and repeatedly bash Spike with chairs. Spike and Spot are fatter and even more out-of-shape than they were in '92, and Spike cannot do sympathy selling at all. He just kneels there while getting his head bashed in. This was all very well-done up until Spike had to start selling.
  4. PeteF3
    Landell and Rich show off the effects of having to wrestle the Moondogs. Rich will lose money by going to the hospital to get stitched up--THANKS, OBAMA. In the first part of the year it was Tonya & Nancy, then it was about Michael Fay--now angles are all about the baseball strike.
  5. PeteF3
    Doc's first defense and I believe Kobashi's first TC challenge. This was good, really good, though I can't help but call it a disappointment in the face of how good Doc has been over the past 12 months and how great Kobashi was in '93 particularly. They were mostly victims of their own high standards. The first part of this was very '00s-Kobashi, with all the chops and staredowns. It's a little slow going but it's a little something different for an AJPW main event. It's long and not an all-time classic, but I didn't really see it as "masturbatory." The first 25 minutes of this, the most advanced move we see is a Doctor Bomb. Kobashi only provides a moonsault and a German, and except for being bodyslammed to the floor was pretty light on the super-crazy bumps. Doc finally puts him away with a backdrop into the turnbuckle followed by a backdrop suplex for the pin. Really good match but not as good as 7/93 or Doc's matches earlier in the year.
  6. PeteF3
    It seemed like they were running low on paint. Still a legitimately good way to close an historic TV program.
  7. PeteF3
    Historic moment, though this is another match with pretty terrible work at the finish. Douglas throws some of the worst strikes you'll ever see. Then the famous post-match promo--hey, check it out, blatantly canned "E-C-W" chants. Dennis Coraluzzo cuts a newscast-style man-on-the-street promo and talks of going to the NWA Board of Directors and says that Douglas is still the champion. Tod Gordon gets around that by folding Eastern Championship Wrestling and opening a new company, Extreme etc. etc. How very Japanese shoot angle-y of everyone. Stop referring to "the ECW," dammit.
  8. PeteF3
    Pretty terrible action, though I marked for Woman clocking Dreamer over the head with the cane at the finish. Tod Gordon wants to restart the match but Dreamer demands to take the 10 shots. This sure is drawn out. Woman is great here but there's not a lot of drama wondering if Dreamer is actually going to bow down to her. This seemed effective enough to get Dreamer over as a tough guy, I guess.
  9. PeteF3
    Yes, they had one singles match in the King of Cable tournament (thanks, wrestlingdata!) Also a bunch of 6-mans on opposite teams, don't know if any were for TV.
  10. PeteF3
    Shot in the dark: they could conceivably have wrestled in Germany.
  11. PeteF3
    Full match is a Worst Match of the Year candidate, albeit not as long as the Night the Line Was Crossed. This featured an almost legendarily silent crowd, but by the time we join in they're actually pretty vocal--so I guess kudos go to both guys. Nothing about this storyline or build ever made sense and the climax, from the match finish to the Nielsen/Kennedy postscript, answers no questions.
  12. PeteF3
    I was prepared to slog my way through this, as my memories watching it live conform to most of what's been posted here. Imagine my surprise when I thought this actually was pretty good. Oh, calling it ***** or any kind of MOTY is batshit crazy even by '94 WWF standards, and the match definitely suffers from length. Steiners/Money Inc. and the Bret/Yokozuna matches are much tighter examples of how escape rules with '90s WWF PG limitations can be worked. Still, this had some great intense work in the beginning and better spots than I remembered, like both guys repeatedly diving for the closing door and both guys taking great crotch bumps onto the top rope. There are probably about 5 or 6 more attempted climbs and teases than there needed to be, even if the "near falls" are done quite well. A pretty insane crowd helps this tremendously. Throw in a terrific, JCP-style post-match with babyfaces trying to storm a padlocked cage, and all in all you have a match I ended up enjoying more than I expected.
  13. PeteF3
    The three most red-hot rumors around (from my Prodigy account and one mid-level dirt sheet I subscribed to) were: Perfect to WCW, Bundy to the WWF, and Rick Rude to the WWF. All three were perceived to be done deals, but as we know only Bundy came to fruition.
  14. PeteF3
    Classic denial from the Hart parents. Davey Boy makes his return! Bruce and Neidhart awkwardly trade barbs with each other as Lawler tries to stir shit up. Bret laments that things have come this far, but acknowledges that this has to be done to end the feud. Well, that's not happening.
  15. PeteF3
    Probably the low point of Luger's career and the high water mark for DiBiase as a manager. Well-executed angle and a good beatdown--Tatanka busting out the Million Dollar Dream was a clever touch. But Tatanka was just about the worst heel ever, and he suffered from Ricky Morton Syndrome in never substantially changing his look. He needed to go full-Wahoo when he was with Tully Blanchard, slicking his hair back and wearing suits.
  16. PeteF3
    Not good, no. His cohort Marc Lowrance was much better, though Lowrance I don't recall getting *really* good until the latter part of the decade. Lowrance was never going to be a moves encyclopedia or break down the pressure points of the figure four, but he could sell you on buying a ticket or get over an angle or despicable heel act like nobody's business. Mercer did have very good chemistry when interviewing the Freebirds, I'll give him that.
  17. PeteF3
    Another Pat Patterson special. Not that these guys didn't work hard, but lots of Pat touches are here. Plus some great callbacks to the previous title change and the turnbuckle pad. Payton is used pretty much perfectly--he's ineffective for a bit, but gets the big hometown pop for when he finally gets his hands on Shawn. These guys throw a few offensive wrinkles at us and there are some cool counter-moves going on. Throw in some pretty nuclear crowd heat and this may well take Match of the Night honors. The seeds of the Diesel/Shawn split are sown afterwards--with the long Razor feud pretty much blown off here, I think the time was right for that even if it led to some bad decisions. Hey, young Jarrett Payton!
  18. PeteF3
    Obviously not any kind of joshi classic but by WWF women's standards, very good. Bull was pretty much a perfect major opponent for Alundra--she had familiarity with Madusa, she had a fantastic unique look, she fit in with Luna looks and personality-wise, and she had a wide array of "wow" moves like busting out the scorpion crosslock here, which gets a great reaction. And she was seemingly out of things to do in Japan besides work various interpromotional bouts, so it didn't feel like the WWF was poaching talent. As someone who always considered the women (even the Bomb Angels) to be FF material as a kid, Bull made an immediate impression on me. Fun to revisit this now that I view Bull as a Japan-based worker more than a gaijin guest-starring in the U.S.
  19. PeteF3
    So Col. Parker gets off scot-free even though he and the Stud Stable have done just as much damage to the Rhodes family. "Hey everyone--Ric Flair won't be on TV or at arenas in the near future!" Great business decision.
  20. PeteF3
    My God, it's like the old mini-movies without the budget. It's a Nasty Boys-centered bar--dig the record scratch and music stoppage when Dusty finally confronts them, like an '80s teen comedy trailer. I actually ilke the idea of the Nasties taking up Dusty's offer simply because fighting in a WarGames would come naturally to them, but...yeah, this could have been executed better.
  21. PeteF3
    Cactus recites his past history with Sullivan in a neat little footnote to this angle, before amicably breaking up the team. But that isn't good enough for Evad, who badgers him about first breaking the team up and then speaking bad of Kevin when he's not here. He calls Cactus the wrong name and then grabs him, so Cactus responds with a DDT on the floor. Jesus, Cactus was trying to play it peaceful--Evad brought that whole thing on himself because he's an annoying little shit. He's already starting the "#1 Hulkamaniac" stuff, too. He and Cactus are in different worlds.
  22. PeteF3
    Candido is now sporting the old El Olympico open-faced mask to hide his bald head. That match ended up being a total disaster that killed SMW's best town--Morton was pinned in the match but rather than shaving his head, the Rock 'n Rolls teamed up to cut off Candido's. Not only did fans completely shit on Morton not adhering to the stips, but the electric razor they brought to shave Candido's head malfunctioned, and all they could do was snip off a bit with some scissors, so the fans never really got any head-shaving at all. Losing the Bodies was a pretty big blow but one that they weathered, but this was something I'm not sure SMW ever really recovered from. We see the final fallout of the Candido/Lee team, as one more Lee screw-up leads to a break-up, on account of Lee thinking too much for himself. Candido realizes this, so he and Tammy have brought in a new partner who's bigger, stronger, meaner, and stupider: his childhood friend/bodyguard Boo Bradley, working a total Rick Steiner Varsity Club gimmick.
  23. PeteF3
    The Gangstas are now painting a black "X" on opponents after beating them. New Jack threatens to rip the Rock 'n Roll Express' eyes out so they can see him kicking their own ass.
  24. PeteF3
    Payton's a legend and all but a running back named "Sweetness" who sounds like Michael Jackson isn't quite the guy you'd expect to counteract a pro wrestler. I'm surprised they didn't use the Fridge here, or even Steve McMichael.
  25. PeteF3
    Hogan actually put on a hell of a selling performance here, but now we're getting to see Flair start to get bitched out. He doesn't touch the injured knee at all to start despite it being the focal point of the match, which goes against Flair's entire MO--to the point where Heenan has to basically call him out on it. Hogan no-selling Flair's chops and suplexes on one leg is pretty absurd even if he does sell the actual knee. This finally does pick up once the knee comes into play, and Hogan being unable to finish his Hulk-Up routine because he can't execute his trademark moves is pretty clever and well-done. Then a ridiculous clusterfuck of a finish that wasn't executed well even before Michael Buffer's horrible announcing (and it doesn't do much for making WCW "mainstream" and "big time" if the announcer can't be bothered to comprehend the basic rules). Hogan gets jumped by the masked man again and in hindsight the Arn Anderson mannerisms are obvious. Mercifully Sting is the one who makes the save and not Bruti. This was all pretty well-done and a fairly strong running story throughout the Clash that makes you want to keep watching television to see where it goes, but there are also lots of red flags about what WCW is going to be about going forward. Hogan took over the whole show and Schiavone is now firmly up his rear end after being a Flair mark for most of his career, and lots of empty talk about WCW being the new "#1."
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