PeteF3
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Damned if the Bruise Brothers don't look halfway-competent here. Their offense looks okay and they put the Rock 'n Rolls offense over. Of course, Ricky Morton could probably drag a compelling match out of El Gigante & Zeus. Cornette whacks Robert Gibson with the tennis racket and the Bruise Brothers are new Smoky Mountain Tag Team Champions.
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Strong words from Tracey, vowing to re-hospitalize Brian Lee. Lee comes out and they have a good back-and-forth--it's incredible how much better Lee has gotten on the stick, as a talker and a personality. As the brawl erupts, Fytch yanks Smothers' hair and waits for him to hesitate from hitting her, allowing Tammy to spray him in the eyes with something.
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Disco laments how Tennessee rednecks are too stupid to have any discos around, listening to miserable honky tonk country music instead. He's going after Danny Davis' USWA Middleweight title. Dave Brown is nonplussed.
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I mentioned this in one of the threads, but if there's a '93 Errata set then it needs to touch on the Brian Christopher vs. Chris Adams feud from July, with Toni Adams as Christopher's heel valet. Thanks to an accident of timing, the significance of that feud wasn't as obvious as it was once the 1990 set was out.
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Paul Neighbors has begun a heel turn and blatantly favors Christopher throughout the match, calling Lawler for phantom hair pulls and unclean breaks while ignoring Christopher doing the same. Christopher also has MISS SIMPSON in his corner--none other than our favorite wrestler's wife from 1990, Toni Adams! Too bad this Yearbook pre-dated 1990, because there was a whole Chris Adams/Brian Christopher feud over this that I'm sure would have been touched on more had its significance been known. After a ref bump, we get the debut of Vampire Warrior, the guy presumably behind Prentice that Lawler was talking about. He's still wearing his Black Phantom/Blackhearts gear at this point. I'd say objectively this has to be the most successful of all of the Memphis monster gimmicks. A number of jobbers try to save Lawler from the 3-on-1 (with Macklin particularly marking out for TD Steel), but to no avail. Fun segment, about as Memphis as Memphis gets.
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Lawler's bold prediction came true, as he has regained the Unified title from Owen Hart. Lawler has words for some monster that Bert Prentice is bringing in. Jennifer puts herself into the conversation for Best Bumper with that dive off the Jetski. Yeesh.
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Legit top 5 MOTYC. This was truly fantastic, with no Negro Casas to fuck things up for us. Felino is probably not the best luchador of his day but he might be the guy I most wish had made it to WCW--he had incredible amounts of energy, crazy bumping skills, and enough high-flying that I think he could have gotten over. Agreed on how American this is, with full-blown "control segments" and body part psychology, building slowly to the big bumps and dives in the third fall. Ciclon takes two of the nastiest post shots I have ever seen, and all three winning submissions look suitably nasty. The only thing holding this back from being a true MOTY rather than just a candidate is that Felino's third-fall victory seemed to come a little too easily for my liking--he'd just eaten a huge dive and was getting the shit kicked out of him, but a few punches is all that turned the tide. That's a really minor nitpick, though. This is one of the best lucha efforts since 1990. How is it I'd never heard of Ciclon Ramirez before getting to this set?
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Like the 6-man WCWSN--very basic and workmanlike, but good. This was worked almost like an undercard U.S. match, with Akiyama mostly working basic holds and mid-range moves toward the end.
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Same promo as last week, more or less. Gilbert announces a plan to tax the people of Philadelphia. And then talks about a brother named "Freddie" (???)
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Somewhere between PN News and Rakim, there is Oscar. I still think "Mabel" is the most ludicrous name in WWF history. I guess they went with that over Agatha, Prudence, or Millicent. That they didn't change it when they attempted to push him as a top heel was unfathomable.
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Ye gods, that national anthem rendition was almost Carl Lewis-bad. Francis Scott Off-Key, indeed. This might be the fullest video footage of the event that we have. I must have missed this Raw, because I don't remember seeing this--I just remember feeling ripped off that this thing wasn't televised. Bill Fralic and Crush come close and actually get Yokozuna halfway off his feet, but can't finish. Randy Savage is the last person left, and can't come close. The landing of the helicopter is quite cool, as are all the fans turning to look at it while Pettingill is doing his wrap-ups. And out comes the Narcissist. To a tepid initial reaction, albeit with some "LEX" chants. Luger STANDS UP FOR AMERICA. Fuji spits on Luger in response and gets heaved from the ring--quite the spry bump from the oldster. This was quite the slick production, but part of it still comes off as overwrought and phony. Luger going from the Narcissist to an American Hero in the span of two seconds just reeked of desperation, and Vince comes off as a gullible sucker. Furthermore--and I get that Vince had the Feds breathing down his neck and felt it necessary to maintain a clean image--the Reagan Administration and the era of super-patriotism was (temporarily) over. Grunge was a bigger deal than Cyndi Lauper or Stars & Stripes Forever. The WWF immediately comes off as being behind the times with this New Hogan attempt--not something that applied the Old Hogan in 1984. I may have more to say about this as the Luger push continues, but watching at the time this was came off as one of the most intolerable periods in WWF history. And I had sat through the WM6 build.
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I know Things Were Different Then but I think it's kind of crazy that Flair's in-ring return was on a taped program before his "actual" live return. Anyway, there was nothing spectacular here but this was a good, solid, hard-hitting workmanlike match. Roma was pretty useless but the other five were very good, and Flair is certainly re-energized after his hiatus. Flair gets a hot tag with about 60 seconds of TV time left and goes nuts on the whole heel team, then figure-fours Barry as the other Horsemen cut off the Blonds in a cool All-Japan 6-man moment. Windham heaves Nick Patrick to the floor to draw a DQ, kind of a clever bullshit finish when it looked like they were going to the draw. -
What a perfect follow-up to my point about SMW and WCW vignettes. A doctor has advised Catherine White to bring somebody from Jack's past to jog his memory. Cleveland is too dangerous for Colette, so next on the list is a gravely concerned Dustin Rhodes. Cactus invites Dustin to regale his mates with one of his country tunes, before Bang Bang tells everyone to leave. Dustin does the pistol thing and Cactus responds in kind, before Bang Bang gets everything shut down. THE BIGGEST THING THESE PROMOS ARE SETTING UP IS A FUCKING CATHERINE WHITE VS. "BANG BANG" FEUD. FOR FUCK'S SAKE. AT LEAST THE BLACK FUCKING SCORPION SERVED A GODDAMNED POINT. Yes, I will agree, there are glimpses of Dustin the Actor here.
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Fytch's whiny bitch character is falling into place. Lee's logic in turning makes perfect sense, as he points out that Tracey Smothers had every babyface in the locker room watching his back when the DWB put a bounty on him, but Lee didn't get the same benefit with Kevin Sullivan. And he points out that Smothers impeded himself in Lee's business and got the title shots at DWB that Lee was entitled to. Then we get some stunningly innuendo-laden stuff involving Fytch--"he's so big!" Very good piece of business, and instantly Lee's best promo ever. On 1/10 the budget this is better put-together than anything WCW has done this year.
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Good-looking action, and possibly Owen's first match as a heel. Lawler goes nuts with piledrivers, drawing a DQ and setting up a no-time limit, no-disqualification rematch. Owen Hart and Bert Prentice are a hilariously mismatched couple. Owen for the first time proclaims himself the "King of Harts"! Owen is pretty scattershot in his promo but his patented whiny heel shtick is already there. Lawler notices that Owen is 6 inches shorter than he was before the match started. This is one of those "spell the result out without breaking kayfabe" promos, as they more or less spell out that Lawler is getting the Unified title back.
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Yeah, this is great--spectacular, even--but I didn't come away from it thinking, "Greatest 6-man ever." I don't think it's far off, just not quite as memorable as the 4/92 6-man where all the babyfaces get their submissions in on the Jumbo Team, to name one example that sticks out. They did attempt a sort of rehash of the 4/90 Misawa/Jumbo "things getting out of control" moment where Kawada and Misawa start stiffing the shit out of each other, climaxing with Kawada cheap-shotting Misawa with a stiff kick as Kyohei Wada is restraining him. There was some hate and stiffness throughout this, but things still settled down into a more traditional AJPW 6-man. I agree that Kobashi pinning Ogawa is kind of an underwhelming result that doesn't add much to the story, though the build to the moonsault and Misawa restraining Kawada on the apron were done well.
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This earned a big fat whatever. Gilbert makes some token attempt to get some heat by insulting the Phillies, 76ers, and Flyers, but otherwise this goes nowhere.
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Funk implies that he knows the Dark Patriot's true identity, all while talking directly to Tod Gordon holding the mic instead of the camera.
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Catherine White is hotter than Fifi. There, I said it. And I'll say it again. The World's Most Well-Groomed Bum leads White, and us, to Cactus Jack, regaling other bums with philosophical musings about his life at sea. We also meet his new girl, and her name is "Bang Bang." He's barely on-camera for two minutes but Jack already sounds tired of this shit by the end of the segment, and I can't say as I blame him.
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Fifi is really eager to get Dusty Rhodes' autograph. Cute. Dusty is now a "big time producer at Turner Broadcasting." Dusty is putting over Dustin and Rude when a DOORBELL rings. Oh, of course the Assassin would ring a doorbell before entering a set. He accuses Flair's guest of being a Dusty Rhodes imitator. Assassin is so fat and out of shape that his mask barely fits on his head, but there's genuine heat for this. At the time it really seemed like they were building to a match between these two, which was a terrifying thought. Assassin implies that he'll get Dusty back into the ring by going after his family. God help me, because a Dusty/Assassin feud is not a direction WCW needed to be heading in, but I kind of liked this. The Assassin is still one of the greatest heels ever, and these are two old pros who know how to work the stick to get a reaction.
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Looking good, Eric. The difference in production values for WWF and WCW PPV reports are palpable. Footage of a chaotic brawl from Worldwide, that goes from backstage to the ring to outside. His talk show segments are awful, but you can't help but notice that the only high-quality angles and interviews going on in the company are revolving around Ric.
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Very good angle, and holy shit, that beatdown was pretty great. This is instantly the best thing Brian Lee's done on his own. Quite a few fans are actually pleased with this development.
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An abbreviated version of one of the Fargo videos from '90 or '91--definitely an old clip as it's got Michael St. John's voice. Lawler is out and is he fired up, explaining why he's gotten bad and mean. He doesn't give a hoot about anyone up North--not Vince, not Finkle, and not the Hart brothers. And then he eviscerates the WWF and Bret for instituting another "King" by virtue of "some rinky-dink tournament, beating three measly wrestlers" (!), then follows it up with a classic line about the Whopper. This is up there with the best Texas vs. Tennessee promos, in that this exact same promo could air on WWF TV and be a great heel promo. And now Lawler makes fun of Bret for having his little brother take care of his business for him! Lawler produces a photo of him laid out on the ring steps at the hands of Owen Hart--if that was an intentional nod to KOTR with Bret in the same position, then that's awesome. He closes it out with one more killer line: Owen may not just get the Whopper, he may get flame-broiled, too! Dave Brown is practically speechless. One of the best Lawler promos in God knows how long. One of his best ever. Between what's happened and what's going to happen between the WWF and Memphis, this looks like the leading candidate for Feud of the Year.
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Monsoon is on the phone browbeating "Kevin"--Dunn?--over which title changes took place where, before bringing us up to speed: the Monday after King of the Ring, the Steiners took the tag title belts from Money Inc. in Columbus, and a young PeteF3 was there to witness it. Money Inc. regained the belts two nights later in Rockford, but turned around and dropped them back in St. Louis. I have never understood why the Columbus title change hasn't seen the light of day--it was the opening match at a Challenge taping and there are still shots that look like camera footage. But it hasn't gotten release on Coliseum Video, WWE 24/7, or anywhere else. In an extremely interesting development, the Rockford match looks like IT was taped as well--that or just a slick editing job of previous footage. Gorilla hypes return matches against Money Inc., and tells us that the next title change could happen in YOUR hometown! He isn't wrong--seeing the first shock title change was the coolest thing in the world. I dunno if it's even possible to measure if this moved the needle at all but it was an extremely effective booking tactic.
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People all over the NYC/NJ/Philly area are grateful that Eddie Gilbert has arrived and become the King of Philadelphia. A video follows of Gilbert in action set to a Masterpiece Theatre theme knockoff. Was that Doug Furnas in there?