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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    What the fuck was with Savage reciting a Dusty Rhodes catchphrase at the beginning?
  2. PeteF3
    One of several issues with this main-event push for Luger is the WWF's rather backwards and undignified portrayal of Japan. Running supposed Japanese newscasts that look like propaganda pieces--describing Luger's bodyslam as a hiptoss and editing to make Yokozuna look dominant--and having a guy intentionally sing an awful version of the Japanese anthem at SummerSlam is over the line. Having a monster heel from Japan (I know, not really, work with me) is one thing. Turning an entire country--one who's been an ally of the U.S. for almost 50 years at this point--is another entirely. The point of all this is that Cornette, god of managing that he is, actually finds a way to make this shit plausible, drawing on real-world events of the time with U.S. companies being taken over by the Japanese. He went even further with this in other promos, getting heat on the Detroit auto industry and comparing the Heavenly Bodies to superior foreign imports. And his talk about Jack Tunney utilizing crooked interpreters when dealing with Yokozuna was pretty damned funny, as was Vince's indignant reaction to that accusation. Cornette approves of the contract, and as great as he is he still looks SO weird in this setting. Even after working with the company for another 10 years or so, it's still odd to see him trading barbs with McMahon and Jack Tunney after all this Yearbook viewing. Vince & Bobby are doing live commentary over the ring mics for all this, which is similarly weird. Luger signs, and then Cornette drops the news that Luger will never get a rematch if he doesn't win. WHERE WAS THAT WHEN YOU WERE ASKED POINT-BLANK ABOUT ANY FURTHER STIPULATIONS, TUNNEY??! Vince just whines about "chicanery" and "fine print." Luger cuts a fairly effective promo in response, while Yokozuna just stares at him like the baddest motherfucker around. This is a segment practically designed to flash TITLE CHANGE at you, as the WWF and USWA had done in the past, which makes the SummerSlam finish all the more baffling. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
  3. PeteF3
    Luger got in with the wrong crowd at the University of Miami--though one wonders if those '80s Hurricane teams even had a "right crowd." If Luger really had to leave for disciplinary reasons, he must have done some heavy, heavy shit. Lex talks about how he wanted to use football as a stepping stone instead of letting football use him--smart idea, and he clearly had that same attitude with regard to wrestling which as we know now, didn't work out as well for him. A plan to attend Stetson University and get a law degree turned into a tryout with Championship Wrestling from Florida. Two non-WWF promotions mentioned in the span of two weeks, holy shit. The best of these segments so far. As negative as I've been on this push, none of it is strictly Luger's fault. It's the fault of just about everybody else in the company. In hindsight, I really wish the WWF had simply hedged their bets a little more before the Stars & Stripes Challenge. Give Luger just a few soundbites announcing his intentions beforehand to slam Yokozuna. Don't have him wave the flag, cut jingoistic promos, or even specifically target Yokozuna--he's still the Narcissist, and let the announcers stress that he's doing it for his own ego. If Hogan sticks around, you can have Luger beg off afterward and pretend it never happened while going through with the initial plans. If Hogan leaves (and they had to know this was at least a possibility even before he dropped the title), go full-bore with Lex and do his turn a little more gradually and with a little bit of his Narcissist attitude left over, until the REAL babyface turn comes when he comes to the aid of a Tatanka or a Duggan or a Crush--just as WCW did in February 1990. Unfortunately I don't think Vince and the WWF was capable of that level of nuance as far as booking and character development at this point.
  4. PeteF3
    One of the longest MSC clips seen since the 1980's. Overbooked in that classic Memphis style, but psychologically sound and they do throw some wrinkles at us. Still not a fan of promotions arbitrarily overturning referee's decisions as a booking crutch--either enact a full instant-replay system or stick to the "referee's decision is final." Or find a more creative way to do it, like they did with Heenan overstepping his bounds in the IC title match on Raw.
  5. PeteF3
    How do you know which it is? Most noticably, All-Star has a big star pattern on the ring mat and a slicker, somewhat Americanized presentation in general. I think they were the only ones doing graphics at the start of rounds. That said, the sharing of Joint and All-Star of the television slot doesn't begin until you get to '86.
  6. PeteF3
    I think Singh is about the most boring WOS worker ever, for whatever that's worth. For Roach to get a match that good out of him is a credit to him as a worker. The heavies are definitely going to be more about storytelling than slick work, for the most part. When they hit, they really knock it out of the park--but the style definitely is more conventional as a whole.
  7. PeteF3
    Why the fuck would you arbitrarily add a no-DQ stip after the fact? Clearly the referee and wrestlers weren't clued in on this. The matwork and struggle here were tremendous--that build to the butterfly suplex spot was something out of All-Japan. The finish is of course bullcrap but Orndorff's sheer energy is enough to make up for it. When it comes to simple stomp-and-punch-based beatdowns, I'm honestly not sure if a wrestler in history was better than Mr. Wonderful.
  8. PeteF3
    More great stuff, and yet I still found myself more impressed by the two Hase upsets. The hate here was nonetheless off the charts, especially the flurries in the corner with both guys going for each other's eyes, in a scene that really looked like it was about to get out of control before things settled down. Both guys start to bust out moves you don't normally see, and Hash throws a WICKED powerslam to transition to offense at one point. Tenryu finally powerbombs Hash into oblivion and picks up his biggest win of this feud yet.
  9. PeteF3
    Yeah, the first Disney tapings had at least one or two WCWSNs taped there. Feel the artifice.
  10. PeteF3
    Really weird that Boss Man would go from this setting to showing up in WCW shortly. Did Bischoff just drive a dumptruck full of money up to his house or what?
  11. PeteF3
    "Razor Ramon musta been drunk or somethin'!" JC Ice may be more correct than he could ever know. Funny promo all around. I could have watched these three go at it for a lot longer. Presumably this sets up a Monday tag match, which I'd pay money to see.
  12. PeteF3
    Okerlund's role has become increasingly marginalized, as he only has a few weeks left with the company at this point. The '93 Observers have interesting stuff about these Face-to-Face segments, and how demoralizing they were for the roster, since they had to fly up to Connecticut on a supposed day off to do them all. I get how localizing the promos again after years of generic Event Center segments would be a logical attempt to rebuild a failing house show business, but I'm sure the wrestlers saw this as a step back. Yokozuna speaks! (In that he says whole sentences, rather than just shouting "BANZAI!")
  13. PeteF3
    I thought this was really good, just not as transcendent as the first two Hase matches, as Hiroshi closes out one of the greatest weeks of wrestling I've ever seen. Hase is really one of the most versatile guys ever--there is so much he can do offensively that looks smooth and polished like he's been doing the moves for years, even though he only busts them out when necessary. Whether it's leveling Chono with stunners or in this case, all the stuff targeting Fujinami's bad back. He almost puts Fujinami away with a dragon suplex, only for Fujinami to turn the tables and use his own golden arm bomber to regain the advantage, eventually putting him away with a scorpion deathlock set up by Hase's bad wheel. An anticlimactic final, yes, when you compare it to '91 and the other two Hase matches--but the story of the underdog Hase going on a George Mason/VCU-like run was still compelling. I thought Fujinami looked good here, though the decision to put the IWGP Heavyweight belt back on him in '94 still puzzles me.
  14. PeteF3
    Holy shit, the Hash match was a sleeper MOTYC and I thought this was better. Better back-and-forth action, better momentum swings, payback spots, more near-falls, and just incredible psychology from start to finish with Hase targeting Chono's bad neck and Chono going after Hase's taped-up ankle. The neck sort of gets forgotten about but the ankle comes into play several times throughout the match, with Hase switching tactics trying to pay Chono back by going after his own leg. I really loved the dueling figure-fours-on-the-floor spots, not to mention the whole closing stretch. Hase uses the same counter he used to pin Hash but can't put Chono away, hits his Northern Lights suplex but can't bridge, hits the NLS again and DOES bridge but still can't put Chono away...just when you think Hase has fired every bullet in his chamber, he busts out an STF variation and gets ANOTHER shock victory! This has to be his career high point from both an artistic and level-of-push standpoint. I liked this as much as any match to take place in Japan all year, and I'm aware of the implications of that statement.
  15. PeteF3
    Cornette is such a weak sissy that he plays women's tennis. I guess it could be taken as a gay crack, but I always viewed it as a "Cornette's a wimp" crack.
  16. PeteF3
    One thing about Japan heavies--in both major promotions--is that matwork in the '90s has taken a back seat to big moves. As a result, a lot of the opening matwork consists of the same surfboard reversals and facelocks. That's not necessarily a complaint, just an observation. But it does contrast heavily with the matwork on display here, which feels really organic and strategic, especially on Hase's part as he tries to neutralize Hashimoto's size and his kicks. They throw in a lot of great little touches, like Hashimoto blocking the figure four and Hase improvising a modified version of the hold, pushing on his ankle with the bottom of his boot rather than wrapping his calf around it. Awesome shit. It's not really enough to hold off Hashimoto from unleashing his big guns, though. And LITERALLY right as I'm gathering my thoughts about how Hase looked great but the match never really came across as having Hashimoto in legit danger of losing, Hase levels him with a golden arm bomber and gets the three-count (?!?!). I mark out in my chair. Don't care how fluky it looked, that completely blindsided me, as much as any New Japan match ever has. I want to make room in my MOTY top 10 for this, for sure.
  17. PeteF3
    Glad to see Kitahara dressed appropriately. This is super-heated and fun as all hell--Liger vs. Tenryu is every bit as good as you'd expect and I want to see them wrestle each other 100 more times. Crowd was absolutely nuts whenever Liger went on offense against him, especially when he tried to take out his knees. In some ways it almost seems like Jushin was wasted in the juniors division--he wasn't SO small that he couldn't have been a credible heavy, though they did their best to separate him from the heavyweight pack by making him wrestle Tenryu like he was outweighed by 150 pounds.
  18. PeteF3
    Doink had challenged Savage at the desk the previous week, then dazzled us with THREE Doinks--another in the ring, and a third in the balcony--in an awesome moment. This isn't the greatest possible followup, but it's pretty much the first time Doink had been decisively outsmarted and beaten and humiliated. Doink biting Savage to sucker him into going for a chair and then clobbering him was a fine transition, and Doink's constant mocking of Savage, even when Savage counters him, is also great. I was fine with this result from a booking standpoint but there was still so, so much more that could have been done with Borne in this role. Keep him strong and you'd have intrigue in a Doink vs. Undertaker, Joker-Batman mind-games feud.
  19. PeteF3
    My inside knowledge at this point consisted of an account on the old Prodigy system-the Wrestling portion of the Sports BB (before it had its own) was a real shithole at this point, with some strong posters and every other post being a fake WRESTLER X DEAD/IS GAY thread. So reading alleged Raw spoilers and seeing that Jim Cornette had showed up had no effect on me--"Yeah, RIGHT." *click* Then Cornette showed up on WWF television. Despite the #1 promotion in the U.S. taping its television in what appears to be a parking garage, this segment is every bit as glorious as the seemingly impossible dream made it out to be. Heenan absolutely kills himself putting Cornette over--one thing that's clear in his later shoot interviews is that this fawning was legit. Heenan was a true fan of Cornette's, which makes me feel all warm and happy. So often in wrestling and elsewhere, two such people would be jealous and spiteful towards one another. Then Cornette cuts another great promo, his past almost fully acknowledged and another wrestling promotion mentioned by name on WWF programming. Just mindblowing shit.
  20. PeteF3
    This is a low-key interview whose editor was apparently on ADD, with weird transitions and random cuts to black and white. Luger's father was a concert pianist who stressed that Luger could only participate in sports if he got straight A's and participated in chorus or band as well. Luger's perceived arrogance was just because he was TOO SHY as a youngster. Yes, that's why he stared at himself in a mirror and cheap-shotted people with a loaded forearm. Give me a goddamned break. I'm sorry, I get what people are saying about the contrast with Hogan, and Luger does come off as a well-spoken, healthy dude. But this hasn't gotten any easier to sit through and I can't help but look at it through a superficial "He was the goddamned Narcissist a few months ago" lens that simply isn't going to go away. Incredibly, Luger's emergency babyface turn in WCW was handled about 100 times better than his emergency babyface turn in the WWF. It could have been pulled off with Luger keeping a bit of his previous attitude, just like he did when he initially confronted the Horsemen. THAT could have been just as contrastable to Hogan, if they'd done it right. Instead, he's treated like a newcomer and like the previous months didn't happen. It's insulting and patronizing--the Sgt. Slaughter turn all over again, with the exploitation aspect dialed down a notch but the company brown-nosing turned way, way up. As a developing smark adolescent I hated Luger with every fiber of my being at this point. As someone slightly more mature, I have nothing personal against the guy and I realize that this stuff isn't his fault. It's simply a sign that Vince and the WWF are completely lost at this point from a main-event and promoting perspective, even as the other booking and work are nearing a peak. If someone could have combined the '93 mid-card with a stronger and FRESHER main event babyface, this is a promotion that could have been really special to watch.
  21. PeteF3
    Lots of stalling here, but Steamboat mocking Regal and then grabbing him by the finger when he points at him was all pretty amusing. Schiavone and Larry Z are having way too much fun calling this. Regal with some killer arm work before we go to the draw. Sort of a nothing match, but a fun nothing match--if that makes any sense. Regal and Dundee do a post-match interview that would draw fire from an anti-defamation group if it were a portrayal of any other ethnicity besides the British. Dundee does a hilarious "English" accent and Regal insists that he was warming up for "some important cricket matches next week." Steamboat's been around the horn enough to know a BLOKE like Regal comes and goes all the time--ooh, them's fightin' words. Regal decries Steamboat for his lack of manners and decorum. Steamboat thought of that and slaps Regal with a black glove, and throws the gauntlet down at him. That, apparently, means war. Man, Regal has a long way to go to refine this gimmick.
  22. PeteF3
    Fifi holds the NWA World title on the Flair for the Gold set while Flair gives us a "believe in yourself" motivational speech. Flair's always an easy listen but there has been a lot of Flair-by-numbers on this set. Agreed that he needs something to do--normally I love it when Flair starts rattling off challengers but here it just seems like a way to BS through the promo.
  23. PeteF3
    Bob Armstrong and Sandy Scott announce two upcoming matches: a Rage in the Cage between the Rock 'n Rolls & Armstrongs vs. Cornette, the Heavenly Bodies, & the Bruise Brothers. And Bob Armstrong vs. Jim Cornette in a lumberjack match with the other babyfaces and heels surrounding the ring with tennis rackets. The Big Boss Man will referee both bouts AND Armstrong will refund the fans' money if he doesn't send Cornette to the hospital (same hospital in the same ambulance!) And he'll retire from wrestling. That's a hell of a lot of stips, but Armstrong explains it very well. Bob is one of the greatest babyface promos ever. It's up there with his Four Faces of Fear promo among his very best ever. Cornette's trademark wrath, anger, cowardice, and prissiness all on display--as a bonus, Cornette subtly alludes to the Big Boss Man's history and teases that he may be able to once again attain his services. Also, ever the heel, Cornette fears just how badly Armstrong will hospitalize him while also gloating to the fans that they won't be getting their money back.
  24. PeteF3
    In some ways this feud feels like the end of the line for the Classic Version of Jerry Lawler. Memphis would hang on for 4 more years, with some quality stuff in there, but I suspect this may be the last time Lawler is involved in a Feud of the Year Candidate.
  25. PeteF3
    WHINY BRET! 1997 comes early! Loved it, loved it, loved it.
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