PeteF3
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Yes, this blew the earlier 8-man out of the water. The first and final falls are chaotic, but not as much as the earlier match, and the second fall is utterly brilliant. Everyone gets a chance to show off what they can do, and the Parka-Lizmark comedy sequence is absolute gold. Not sure what prompted the Psicosis-Parka dust-up, but the other two rudos have a bigger one over who gets to pin Sagrada. That leads to their downfall, and Black Cat is triple-teamed into oblivion after the match. Meanwhile Los Gringos Locos and their magically-playing entrance music (was Pena ahead of his time or what?) come out to stare down the tecnicos to tremendous heat. -
There are JCP promos out there for a Piper-Funk house show match in Toronto (with Funk claiming that his mother is Canadian, I guess to ingratiate himself as the babyface).
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Bret has said that he was scheduled to work with Jake coming out of WrestleMania VIII (which I'm not sure works--Jake quit the morning of the show and I think they were already pushing HBK as a title challenger), and that he had never worked with Jake.
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Or alternatively, posed shots of pre-WWF guys passed off as current. Someone who didn't watch TV and only followed wrestling through the mags would think Hogan had a full head of hair up through the end of the '80s.
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Okay poor-man's-Adams-Jeannie-and-Austin stuff. Sandman's image is pretty much in place now, with the cigarettes and the canes. I liked this for what it was, but seeing Sign Guy and the other mutants cheering for Peaches getting abused is enough to make me wish a big carbon monoxide leak would take out everyone in the Arena.
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June 3, 1994! Sabu vs. 2 Cold Scorpio! Yes, when you think of this date, THIS will be the wrestling match forever linked to it! These promos are money, though.
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Lame. What's the significance of the Penn State hat?
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Sting vs. Vader, Slamboree '94 I barely have any breath left after the Bullrope and Broad Street Bully matches, but okay, one more to go. This isn't on the level of the best of this series--a lot of it's more low-key, and even mat-based until they unleash the big bombs at the finish. Vader working over Sting's knee is an interesting way to go, but it works. A lot of this is standard, including all the Harley Race bits, and if Slamboree had an overriding flaw it was an overreliance on referee drama, as we get a gratuitous ref bump here. But we've still got great Sting power spots, still got great moves from Vader, and a few nice twists and turns. Sting hits an awesome splash off the top to regain the vacant International World belt. The fall-out-of-bed match between these two, but those are always welcome. Schiavone was fantastic during this, it should be noted, reciting almost the entire history of this rivalry and placing every spot in its necessary larger context. A rare instance of Sting/Vader not being match of the night, which speaks to how strong this card was.
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I cannot believe in all this gushing that no one mentioned Kevin Sullivan doing a FUCKING DROPKICK. There's your goddamned 1994 Best Wrestling Maneuver Award, right there. This probably *did* go a tad too long, but it was still fun as hell--and yes, a bit grittier and dare I say more realistic than Spring Stampede. I didn't really mind the ending, just Schultz going from badass knocking out Saggs to not doing anything during the post-match attack. Still, the post-match features two markout moments from all fucking people, Maxx Payne and Evad Sullivan. This is EASILY the best positive moment of either man's careers--you know it's a brilliantly laid-out moment when I'm marking for fucking Evad clobbering Knobbs with a crutch, and Payne's epic guitar shot is a great callback to SuperBrawl. Everything a satisfying blowoff brawl should be. What a great goddamned card, with so many great *different* kinds of matches. Unless there's another big joshi show that's at Dream Rush or DreamSlam levels, then I don't see how the Card of the Year Award isn't locked up right now.
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Parker's 6' 7", 300 pound blond former World Champion is...an out of shape Barry Windham. At least they basically came out the day before and outright told us that it wasn't going to be Hogan. Barry has the awesome Arn Anderson heel theme, but not much else going for him at this point, which is too bad. The action isn't terrible but Windham simply doesn't have it anymore.
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They couldn't repeat the Spring Stampede magic but they made a noble effort. This was a down-and-dirty, gritty fight whereas the Bunkhouse Match was a little more traditional and theatrical. Dustin controls most of this as makes sense, since this is "his" match. Buck still smoke-and-mirrors his way to something compelling, using every available trick he has to inflict pain on Dustin even though he doesn't have much in the way of offense. The Colonel's little run-in is fun--one of the amazing things about Fuller in this role is how he projects vulnerability and weakness. Lots of managers do that, but not many managers are 6' 8" wrestlers. Somehow Fuller can go up against Dustin or even Brian Pillman and still look overmatched. Great foreshadowing with the earlier Dusty video--that becomes important as Dustin is left alone for a surprise attack from Terry Funk. The legends who wrestled were definitely far better utilized than they were in '93 where they just stuck out.
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Well-done, well-produced ceremony. I can't help but shudder to think how this would have gone over had they continued this into the late '90s. Just one year later the entire thing would seemingly just be a set-up for the Angelo Poffo attack.
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I could have watched these two go for hours. Zbyszko is now in the 1986 Bockwinkel role of the veteran babyface who still wrestles dirty and gives the heels their own medicine, and it's glorious. He and Regal are perfect for each other. Philly crowd was hostile but they did explode for the upset, so give 'em partial credit, I guess.
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WCW is starting in earnest its awful, awful, horrible trend of muting the TV feed for the ring announcer. I just talked about this in the USWA segment, but this shit matters to me. WCW forced this practice on us for the rest of its existence and I hated it every single time. Funk is greeted with ECW chants and goes out to the crowd to exchange pleasantries with Hat Guy. This started off awesome, with an incredible display of strikes on the outside, and Blanchard's shots all through the match looked fantastic. Funk does what he does, shame about that attempted turnbuckle piledriver. I liked this a lot while it lasted, but it did end too quickly.
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Flair skirts the line between babyface and heel rather well, here. This really felt like a classic Crockett promo, setting and Hogan talk notwithstanding.
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Apparently the Volunteer Slam results aren't quite out yet as there's no discussion of DDT'ing the Dirty White Girl. Jake makes excuses for not having the title, blinding DWB, and his weight gain in increasingly unconvincing fashion. His sarcastic "oops" when making reference to light was amusing. Some of these analogies are a little forced but this is another standout promo--yet again, creepy and menacing but still not a rehash of his '91-'92 stuff.
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I rather liked this segment, and even Bedlam looked decent even in a Paul Heyman "hide the weaknesses" kind of way. Tracey Smothers' mom saw so many visitors in her double-wide trailer bedroom that she put in a revolving door. That brings Smothers out but Bedlam decks him with brass knucks and opens him up. A bloody Smothers wants a coal miner's glove match, which is appropriate for this area of the country I guess. Pinning Randy Savage and taking out the #2 babyface is probably an overreach for a guy like Bedlam, but I do like Cornette in a relatively fresh setting feuding with someone besides the Rock 'n Rolls.
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Corey Macklin is now in a role that suits him, as TV ring announcer. I always hated how Crockett television and '90s Memphis never had one. Looked bush-league. This screams angle from the start, and indeed Scott Bowden, apparently freshly turned, runs in and tosses powder into Lawler's eyes and Gilbert pins him immediately.
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The Million Dollar Man has a lot in common with dead people. DEAD PRESIDENTS, THAT IS! Paul Bearer can't find the Undertaker because he doesn't have the resources. This is on the low end of DiBiase on-location vignettes but at least this shit is going somewhere. And the nod to history is very much appreciated.
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A guy with 1991 Akira Taue hair regales us with the story of serving the Undertaker at a Dunkin' Donuts. As fascinating as it sounds.
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I think the Queendom tag is a hair ahead of this, because of the utterly unique and transcendental story being told. But I do think this is an improvement over 12/93. That was about Kobashi sort of backing into his biggest win. Now he's pinned Hansen and is pretty much an equal to both of his opponents. Rivalries with both guys are given time to develop, and with the '93 RWTL finish and all the nasty knee work here it seems that a Kawada/Kobashi feud is in full force now. Misawa does an excellent job at playing the Man--making saves, countering attacks, but showing enough vulnerability to put the Holy Demon Army over while also letting Kobashi get his share of the spotlight. Taue contributes some of the most heart-stopping near-falls and kickouts ever before he finally succumbs. Definite #2 MOTY, hands down.
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PWI were always in the pocket of any prominent non-WWF promotion, going back to Vince banning their photographers and trying to prevent his wrestlers from appearing in their magazines at all.
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Slow, but not bad. It's hard to dislike any match where the heel suckers the babyface in with a phony knee injury, then does jumping jacks and squats afterward just to be a dick. If Jake were in halfway decent shape this could have been pretty damn good, because he's so good at ring smarts and creativity. He just can't keep it up physically for 20+ minutes. Jake takes out Mark Curtis and tapes DWB to the ring ropes, as Kendo the Samurai comes out with his bag. Jake kills a jobber while Kendo carries the referee off, and only the Dirty White Girl can save her man. Jake grabs her and taunts the helpless DWB with her for a bit, before pretending to back off and then dropping her with the DDT. This only had about 1/5 the impact of Jake slapping Elizabeth, since that was a monumental event and we've already seen Kimberly get abused off and on. WAY too many clapping fans too, which makes this rather uncomfortable. Kimberly is about to get the snake treatment when FINALLY the other babyfaces wake up and run Jake off. Jake's post-match promo from the commercial tape didn't make the set but it's well worth tracking down. Jake at his creepy best--almost apologetic and ashamed of his own actions at first before suddenly breaking into laughter and talking of the "lesson" he taught DWB.
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I question any ranking system that names Mikey Whipwreck a title contender. I was actually digging this squash and Mikey's insane bumping for Pitbull's decent but not otherworldly offense, and doing my best to tune out the commentary. The finish is even a neat idea, as Whipwreck literally covers Pitbull by accident. Too bad PITBULL'S SHOULDER IS COMPLETELY OFF THE MAT. And spare me the "Do you believe in miracles?!" shit. Man, that was bad. There's a bit of sentimental value to this for me, as reading about this angle in the Apter mags is what made me start to take notice of what was going on in ECW, moreso than the tables and the violence and the chokeslams. So I actually didn't dislike this as much as the others, but it definitely came off better in magazine form.
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HEY CHAMP! HEY CHAMP! HEY CHAMP! HEY CHAMP! This was an introductory vignette passed off as a wrestling promo. What a bizarrely edited video. Also, Rocco Rock sounds EXACTLY like The Office's Michael Scott as "Prison Mike."