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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Tammy Fytch, of the famous New England Fytches, is a Wellesley College student going into wrestling because "big men who aren't too bright amuse me." After becoming a manager, Fytch promises to get into announcing and promoting, and thinks Bob Armstrong won't be around for long. Her personal life is SMH-worthy to say the least, but I really, really like this gimmick and already like Tammy's energy and chemistry with Caudle, even if she doesn't have the camera system down pat yet. I'm just going to enjoy this run. Whatever issues one may have with his political rants, Cornette has always had a much better handle on current events and the real world than almost any other promoter, and it especially shows in Smoky Mountain. This gimmick could probably even be brought back, but Tammy comes off as a real person here whereas a WWE revival would just be a cartoony, schoolmarm rehash of RTC-era Ivory.
  2. PeteF3
    Boy, could Bret have made that "knock me out when I cough" signal any more obvious? That brunch attack results in an official investigation from Jack Tunney's office, and we're let in on the metal plate and screws in his forearm as a result of the motorcycle accident. Because it's part of his anatomy, there's nothing Tunney's office can do about it! There have been remarks on the old-school booking of 1993 WWF, and this definitely has the feel of a southern wrasslin' angle, a la the Infernos' "orthopedic boot." Luger with his ridiculously poofy hair cuts a fun little smug promo about how life isn't fair. He looks like he's been on a three-day bender, not very Narcissistic at all. I don't know of many on PWO who consider Mean Gene to be a vital, integral part of their wrestling programming--I don't. But the quality dropoff of these Update segments from Okerlund to Gorilla is palpable.
  3. PeteF3
    Billy Joe Travis is back once again, a babyface backing Jeff Jarrett. Christopher's punches and offense look pretty good. This is a nice studio match when Simply Divine--Rex King & Steve Doll in their full Well Dunn get-up--attack Jarrett and Travis. The USWA is officially beginning to look like WWF Developmental, with Simply Divine and Jarrett soon to be making their way up North.
  4. PeteF3
    Lawler ribs Macklin over his pronunciation of Keiser, Arkansas then utilizes Dave Brown's meteorological expertise to determine if his softball game will be able to be played. Lawler promises to confront that "sea hag" Sensational Sherri if she shows up today.
  5. PeteF3
    Basically a Han showcase with a few token Nagai hope spots. Always fun to watch Han improvise like a jazz musician but I don't think this would be one of his high-end performances.
  6. PeteF3
    Slow start, but the pace picked up considerably at the end with a lot of fun double-teams and attempted double-teams and counters.
  7. PeteF3
    If I have the story right, "Garvin loses a retirement match and comes back to torment the winner as a referee" was something that was planned with Arn or Tully at some point and never came off. With Garvin floundering in the WWF, he was given the chance to take a release, get jobbed out, or pitch something--so he had that angle in his back pocket and saw a kindred spirit in Valentine who was also phasing down.
  8. PeteF3
    I can't believe Stu Saks is still with the magazine.
  9. PeteF3
    I'm not there yet, and I've got lots more to view. But right now I'm pretty close to fucking hating Ultimo Dragon, and at the very least I'm fairly sure he had no clue how to put together a match himself. I can take or leave Toryumon/T2P/Dragon's Gate and all that, but from what I've seen that detail seems to have seeped into his students in a major way. Dragon's matches on the Yearbooks are never about, "What's he going to do this time?" It always seems to be, "How is Liger, Casas, Eddy, or whoever going to drag something decent out of this guy?"
  10. PeteF3
    Funk is about to interview who I think is Hunter Q. Robbins III when he's clobbered by Eddie Gilbert with a chair. Funk returns the favor during a Gilbert interview later. Things would get crazier than this, but the hardcore element to ECW was pretty much pushed from the start.
  11. PeteF3
    Believe it or not I think this is Bret's first appearance on Raw. Footage from the WrestleMania brunch of Lex Luger knocking Bret out. Then he calls out Yokozuna and Hulk Hogan--yeah, between that, the "people's champion" talk, and the talk of Bret going after the title again, I think that's all fairly solid evidence that a Hogan/Bret match was in the cards. Bret drops his trademark catchphrase, which may well be another first--I don't recall that popping up regularly for another year or more.
  12. PeteF3
    A little disappointing and awfully one-sided in favor of Savage, as Lawler is mostly content to lie around and get beaten on. I still think Savage vs. Bret had way more legs as a WrestleMania main event than what we got, but that's without the benefit of knowing what Vince and Hogan's plans were regarding the Heavyweight title. How can a match not sanctioned by either the WWF or USWA have the Unified title on the line? Anyway, Sherri climbs the cage and interferes for a cheap DQ but does a great beatdown on Lawler afterward, until she accidentally clocks Randy and gets stripped to her underwear, complete with almost fully exposed boob, in the process of escaping the cage.
  13. PeteF3
    We get quick highlights of a Windham/Arn confrontation from Saturday Night, which I guess solidifies Arn's face turn on a national level. What a stiff, hard-nosed struggle of a match--every move feels like it's earned and this is as gritty as hell. Bill Watts would have loved it. Both guys tear apart the other's arm and Windham has to resort to eye rakes and punches, and it feels like something he has to do to keep the title rather than something he has to do because he's the heel. As brilliant as he was as His Lordship, some more babyface Regal would have been nice to see. It would have been interesting to see Regal vs. Benoit at this point, for instance, or Regal vs. Austin or Rude. Regardless this is probably the #3 or 4 WCW MOTY to this point, on the level of the best early-year tag bouts and just behind Vader/Sting and Benoit/Scorpio.
  14. PeteF3
    I've made no secret of my preference of that deliberate joshi pace and JWP in particular, and I still think the closing stretch here went too long. In fact, having forgotten about the "60m" graphic at the beginning, I thought they were SCREAMING time limit draw, and I confess that that took me out of the match completely. After about the 47th two-count, I thought "there's nothing more these two can do to each other" and was just counting the minutes until the bell rang. Kawada and Taue had just put on a clinic in how to work a time limit draw that had elements of suspense building to a surprise finish, and this wasn't it. In fact it was closer to that fucking interminable Toyota/Kong draw where the moves eventually lost all meaning. Then Bull dropped the somersault legdrop and got the 3-count, but it was too little and too late to undo how I was feeling down the closing stretch. I don't want to shit on this, because the pacing was good, and the selling and moves were all well-done and they did a good job of transitioning from stiff matwork to weapons and brawling and back and forth again. But this definitely needed ten minutes shaved off of it to even come close to MOTY contention. It wasn't nearly as bad as that Toyota/Kong match which I absolutely hated, and it's almost an insult to even bring that up as a comparison. But at best it reminded me of the first Shawn vs. Angle match which got GOAT or Greatest WrestleMania Match of All-Time consideration from some people, and simply had too much of a good thing in terms of false finishes for me to see it that way. It's too bad, because I could really have gotten behind a joshi match based on submission holds and rollups for credible near-falls. In some ways this is more of a match to be admired than loved.
  15. PeteF3
    Interesting perspectives here, with some comments coming before anyone had seen those Lynn/Kid matches. This is definitely closer to that end of the spectrum than an ROH-style spotfest, even with Sabu's presence. There is some sloppy stuff because hey, Sabu--Sabu going for the top-rope Frankensteiner and Kid spiking him with an attempted power bomb was a true holy shit moment. Kid makes a comeback with some tremendous dives and we get a bullshit finish with Sabu yanking the referee in front of a Kid dropkick. Kid was tremendous here as he was all throughout '90 and '91, lending some classic babyface shine-heat-comeback structure here in-between Sabu's spots, which still stand out as pretty crazy. As with the Lynn/Kid bouts, these are two guys who know how to hurt their opponent with stuff that happens to look spectacular, instead of doing stuff consciously designed to look spectacular. Honestly, I'm not sure there's a wrestler I'm more looking forward to seeing in the mid-to-late '90s than Sabu. Not because I think he's an all-time great or that he'll be in the running for any Most Outstanding Wrestler honors--but I do think he's a fascinating worker and his Hostile City Showdown match with RVD is a match I credit with converting me into a workrate geek (yes, I'm almost afraid to look at that match now). I've barely seen him since the mid-'90s, and now that I've come all the way around again into a "working smart, not hard" mentality, I'm particularly anxious to see how he holds up. I have to say this was an auspicious first look.
  16. PeteF3
    I fucking hate watching these matches with Ventura edited out. I was hoping to find an uncensored version with Jesse on commentary online, but no luck (I used to have a videotape of it, so it's out there). I'm not normally impressed by matches that just consist of one guy taking legit shots, but there's a bit more to that here. Cactus catching Vader in an avalanche and bodyslamming him was a cool spot, and Cactus' comebacks in general have more pep to them because of the beating we see him take. Yes, part of this is Foley jacking off, but at least it's still somewhat serving a larger purpose in telling the story.
  17. PeteF3
    Somehow I knew Cornette's talk of embarrassing the Rock 'n Rolls was going to lead to a tar and feathering. I feel vindicated, though Ricky sure does come across as dumb walking directly into Cornette's trap. Lots of talk about one of these teams leaving Smoky Mountain Wrestling, which I assume means that Stan Lane is not long for the in-ring wrestling world. Morton's promo is awesome, with some tremendously effective use of swear words.
  18. PeteF3
    One of the best WWF syndie matches of the Yearbooks, maybe the best. Nothing that will change the world but an effective sprint with some cool offense and bumping. Shame about the ending--I'm about 99% sure that was a legitimate knee injury, or an exacerbation of an existing knee injury, and we got robbed of one last Owen comeback.
  19. PeteF3
    Green screen promo from Savage--MACHO MONDAY at the Mid-South Coliseum, Savage and Lawler in a cage, not sanctioned by either the WWF or USWA. Yes, I approve of this. Lawler is out in the studio to rebut and holy shit, SHERRI. She's not exactly smooth on the mic, but her energy isn't deniable. "Hi, Lance!" Okay, that was legitimately LOLworthy. Lawler points out that the only difference between Sensational Sherri and garbage is that garbage gets picked up occasionally. Sherri loses it and fucking LEVELS the King for that. Lawler grabs Sherri is about to PILEDRIVE HER ON THE STUDIO FLOOR, and holy shit, Savage is here! In all black street clothes, looking like the craziest most dangerous nutcase in history! Savage is about to return the favor to Lawler when Eddie Marlin is out to break *that* up, only for Marlin to get laid out by Savage. Things continue to break down with Lawler making his own comeback before we head to break. Holy shit, one of the best USWA segments in ages--just one blindside after another. Sherri and Savage together again feels so, so right.
  20. PeteF3
    Primo performance from Hansen making Kobashi look like a million bucks. By the end, Hansen is actually working hope spots and making desperation moves just to keep pace with Kobashi, before catching him with the Lariato as Kobashi makes a dive off the second turnbuckle. A terrific find--it's just too bad no one apparently got a tape of Hansen putting over Kawada in the same tournament.
  21. PeteF3
    On one hand it sucks these matches aren't complete, but on the other, my match-based, short-attention-span brain is sort of grateful. That '91 G-1 Climax is one of the best wrestling tournaments ever but all those matches in one huge bunch weren't exactly a breeze to sit through. Maybe JerryVonKramer's "peaks and troughs" philosophy of card-booking really is the soundest one. So, consensus at the time and among others today is that Kobashi was Best in the World™ in '93, but looking at these matches it's hard to see how he's better than Kawada. Not that Kobashi isn't awesome here, but this is so much more coherently laid out than the Misawa match, with longer stretches of each guy working on top and a continuing story of Kawada having a bum knee, which constantly gives Kobashi openings to either kick out of or counter Kawada's big moves. This really feels like Kobashi is in the fight of his life, while the Misawa match came off as a particularly long card opener.
  22. PeteF3
    Really good action but also can't really hold a candle to the previous bout. I agree that this was pretty spotty and my turn your turn. Kobashi kicking out of not one but two tiger drivers did seem pretty pivotal in his development, and I did like the finish--the closest AJPW main event equivalent to a flash pin.
  23. PeteF3
    Incredible match, just as good as their 1/15 brawl but of course totally different. This match is loaded and loaded with counterwrestling. But not WWE Main Event-style counters to create artificial drama--the story that's clearly pushed here is that these two know each other like a book by now and are seemingly ready for everything the other tries. Taue somersaulting out of the Fujiwara armbar attempt and booting Kawada in the shoulder blade was one of a number of gorgeous escapes here. And some terrific near-falls as you'd expect. When Kawada kicks out of the nodowa there's a beautiful camera shot of Kawada sitting up semi-bug-eyed, and you can almost see the thought bubble above his head asking, "Did I really kick out of that? Is this match still going?" Kawada hits a second power bomb but the bell rings, taking me by surprise. I had no idea the draw was coming, but of course with the story of the match there really is no other ending--there's nowhere else to go with this feud, at least until next year's Carnival. So the two shake hands, though they're not exactly acting like blood brothers yet. (Interestingly the Observer initially reported that Kawada was going to strike out on his own upon splitting with Misawa--I don't know that was simply bad info or there was an active change in plans. I also STR there were still glimmers, at least in the WON, that Jumbo could become available someday.) Best AJPW match of the year so far, and maybe Taue's best or second-best singles match to this point.
  24. PeteF3
    Laying around, lazily applied holds, long arbitrary and non-selling-related pauses between moves...this is everything you want out of the MVCs colliding. Gordy's clothesline is about the lone highlight.
  25. PeteF3
    Thank you for all that. I'm trying to build my joshi (and lucha) knowledge while spoiling as little of the rest of the '90s as possible. Oh, for fuck's sake.
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