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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    I don't know if anyone in history has ever gotten laid by dropping the "I just watched the entire final two years of WCW" line. But if anybody deserves to, you do, Jerome. I just beg you, for your own sanity, that if you must watch any other wrestling at all that you pick an '80s set, or a Yearbook, or a high-quality Japanese TV season.
  2. PeteF3
    Hogan makes sure to milk fan reactions before getting to the near-murder of his best friend. Hogan's promo once he gets to brass tacks is very good, though. VERY tepid reaction for Beefcake--Hogan is still over, but Beefcake had been away for way too long and the Manhattan Center simply wasn't buying his story. Beefcake regurgitates Hogan's promo, and I'm wondering if "big man upstairs" is some designated, forced "medical facility"-esque euphemism. Jimmy Hart's babyface turn is cemented as he's introduced as a red-and-yellow-clad manager for Hogan. God knows why Jimmy was so gung-ho about ending Hogan's career in 1990 but is now so concerned over Beefcake and shamelessly kissing up to Hogan. "TODAY IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!" That's a line designed to draw heel heat in the Memphis studio, dammit. So sad that Jimmy's first chance to cut loose on the stick in the WWF after 8 years of work is for this. Bringing Hogan back and immediately sticking him in a feud over the tag titles seems to be almost a tacit admission that the glory days of Hulkamania were past--a hedging of bets.
  3. PeteF3
    Better action than one might expect, though Tatanka is really only good for short bursts. Good, well-done finish to continue the story of Tatanka having Michaels' number.
  4. PeteF3
    I normally love the rare glimpses of Quiet Hogan, but like those Beefcake interviews there's an air of phoniness permeating this--even considering that this is wrestling we're talking about. I don't know if even the densest mark could buy how exciting the future of Hulkamania was. Hogan's semi-apology is EERILY similar to the shit Ryan Braun was saying after his suspension came down. Especially the mock-surprise "Turns out I'm human" part. It's truly uncanny--if Hogan starts accusing these tabloid terrorists of anti-Semitism, I'm outta here. Hogan wants to be the leader of the '90s, and the "do as I say" part of Hogan is gone. BELIEVE IN HULK HOGAN. I didn't outright turn on Hulk just yet at this point, but as I said...the excitement over seeing him come back simply wasn't there. The shark-jumping moment hasn't arrived, but Fonz Hogan is on the waterskis and off the ramp.
  5. PeteF3
    Lights out, not sanctioned by WCW--truly a Bill Watts show to the end, even weeks after his departure. A great gimmick to make Sting the biggest underdog in the world, having to drag Vader around the ring to win. This is an absolute fucking war, with both guys doing a terrific job of putting this stip over as Vader's "home." Sting hits some big offense but every bit of it feels earned--the build to and execution on the big German suplex is tremendous, and I too loved Sting's koppo kick. That and a whole lot of other stuff is set up beautifully, as spots build on each other and there are callbacks to earlier sequences in the match. Not to mention both guys beat the absolute shit out of each other. This is Sting at his absolute most vicious, in a manner that I don't think we'll ever see again. Honestly, this may eclipse the Regal/Finlay wars for total brutality--I don't know if that blood gushing out of Vader's ear was a blade job or Sting being just that ferocious. MOTY anywhere in the world through the first two months. This was the first WCW PPV I ever ordered and even with Watts gone this show couldn't have been clearer in spelling out the points of difference between it and the WWF. We had two southern tags, a Japan-style cruisers match with a dash of American influence, guys from multiple promotions, a garbage brawl between Cactus and Orndorff, and a brilliantly worked gimmick match all on one show. Pity that Muta and Maxx Payne had to kill the pace or we'd be discussing one of the all-time perfect PPVs.
  6. PeteF3
    Flair is another in a long series of great talkers who didn't translate into great commentary. The closing stetch of this isn't great but it's a bit better than I remembered--my memories were of a terrific show absolutely slowed to a fucking crawl by the deadly combo of Muta and Maxx Payne. Cutting to the finish doesn't make it quite as bad. Muta hits the handspring, very slowly follows up with a backbreaker, then very slowly follows up with a moonsault attempt that misses. A second attempt hits the knees, and Windham implants him with the DDT for the NWA World title. Big heat for the staredown with Windham and Flair afterward--Ric shoots Windham a great, subtle grin and struts away.
  7. PeteF3
    Schiavone is positively frothing at the mouth getting to call a Rock 'n Rolls match again. Another beautiful match, with more great counters and classic southern tags spots in front of a very appreciative audience. The ending picks up with a brilliant sequence where Gibson counters a Bodies double-team, he and Morton try to double-clothesline Prichard who ducks so they nail Lane, Prichard is gloating and pointing to his head, and turns around into the double dropkick. And that's not even the finish, as we get another hot sequence immediately after involving Cornette. This is another standout performance by Lane, who may honestly be at his peak as a worker here, mere months before his retirement. He simply wasn't this consistent in 1990. Great tag and this whole storyline, whatever the plans were, should have continued. These guys fit right into where WCW was at the time.
  8. PeteF3
    I didn't even pick up on the "killer instinct" part. The hindsight portion of commentary that stood out to me: Ventura ripping Schiavone a new one for having the temerity to call the two guys "athletes," and not wrestlers. Jesse's head would explode if he watched Raw today (I know he guest-hosted a few years ago, shut up). Anyway, this is just a beautifully worked match. The opening chain wrestling is fantastic, and they have lots of Japan-style counters and counters-to-counters not usually seen in the U.S., but with Benoit heeling it up some. I'm not one to romanticize Benoit in the slightest--the '90 Yearbook was the first time I'd watched half a second of him since that shit went down. But this was truly the first time I could watch a Benoit match with a smile on my face. No crazy head bumps, either. Great crowd, too--way cool to see all the applauding like a '70s British crowd. I really, really, really would like to have seen what Watts would have done with Benoit, just as I wish we could have seen Watts use the British Bulldogs in Mid-South (it almost happened). A nominal contender for WCW Match of the Year--just a pity it's also only a nominal contender for WCW Match of the Night.
  9. PeteF3
    A lot of arguing over the cornermen, or something. In my experience, Jim Duggan's argument over bowing to Meng at Uncensored '95 is the gold standard for excruciating stalling in wrestling, but this gives it a run for its money. Incidentally, I think Vulcano is one of those seconds and that it's Rocco Valente who's teaming with Arce here. Los Destructores show some mat skills but holy hell, are they not afraid to stall the shit out of a match. Not all that compelling stalling either. There are some tremendous moves here, with the technicos' flying and some of Los Destructores' high-impact double-teams. And some good hot near-falls down the stretch. I loved the technicos doing a funky double-team submission and then the other rudo diving on top to turn it into a double pin-attempt (it's useless to try to describe it and I can't even tell the rudos apart, but trust me--it was cool). And seeing "new" guys is always fun. But this is not going to be a top finisher for 1993 lucha highlights.
  10. PeteF3
    One thing to keep in mind was the original brackets. Note the flip-flop of Duggan/DiBiase and Jake/Rude. In that one, the only feasible finals is in fact Hogan vs. DiBiase. Since I don't think they'd take the belt off of Hogan just to put it back on him a month later, one can suppose this lends credence to the idea that DiBiase was walking out with the belt at one point. I think one of the "outs" was going to be DiBiase paying the Gang to fake an injury or otherwise bow out of their 2nd-round match, but who knows how they'd book Hogan to eat another (presumed) pinfall.
  11. PeteF3
    A mostly, but not entirely, Yearbook-centric list: #1. Genichiro Tenryu. This NJPW/WAR stuff is about the greatest shit ever. I'm still clinging to my "AJPW was better" mantra but this is the kind of thing they could never have pulled off again once Choshu & co. left. #2. Barry Windham. Possibly Best in the World for the first quarter (at least) of '93. #3. The Rhodes Family. Token modern representatives. If Cody develops as a sympathetic babyface--the only lacking part of that Raw tag--then he could develop into that Bryan/Punk class of worker. #4. Doink the Clown. Even if some of his promos were more or less lifted verbatim from the Burton Batman, it's still fun to watch Borne completely nail this role. And the Yearbook hasn't even gotten to his matches yet. #5. The Scorpion. Three Yearbooks ago, but still one of the great lost workers of all-time. I find her story, or lack thereof, oddly compelling.
  12. PeteF3
    Historical note: this is Jim Ross' final WCW appearance. Flyin' Brian desperately needs to lose that theme music--it screams babyface. These lumberjacks are an interesting compendium of guys that would become huge stars for other promotions later in the decade--even Tex & Shanghai would gain greater fame elsewhere. Signs That Peter Is Too Easily Amused: we get one, and only one, Cole Twin as a lumberjack. Pillman is finally coming into his own as a heel. He does some fine opening work with Nick Patrick and timing hair pulls, and he and Austin do some well-timed tandem spots. Pillman brings some new offense that works the back and allows Steamboat to sell his ass off as only he can do. The double cross body would become a Pillman staple, as well as a staple of every babyface-vs.-babyface match up through the Nitro era, and we see it here. Fun finish, as the lumberjacks get into the requisite brawl, Steamboat locks in a figure four, Austin interferes, and Pillman accidentally levels Austin with a great-looking clothesline leading into a roll-up. It sort of seems anticlimactic but matches probably SHOULD end during the commercial break from time to time.
  13. PeteF3
    Windham blows off the mention of Ric Flair, who gets hyped and shown on-screen. That's as much Flair hype as they could probably legally get away with at this point (the WWF was late in faxing over his official release, then after getting prodded, they faxed a release but "accidentally" forgot to get it notarized, and the mess wasn't cleared up until days before the PPV). The ending to Starrcade is mentioned--Windham points out that Muta never pinned him and that the NWA World title is a bigger goal than the BattleBowl ring.
  14. PeteF3
    Cornette on commentary and the Bodies making nuisances of themselves are the big highlights. The match is just there, aside from Fuller's awesome suplex thing. Caudle hypes a SMW Wrestling School at one point, which amuses Cornette considering who's in the ring. He and Caudle continue: "I know, you're going to say that when the Rock 'n Rolls get in the ring with the Heavenly Bodies, they're REALLY gonna go to school." "NO! That's what Ric Flair would say, all the Heavenly Bodies are going to do is beat their stinking brains in!" Oh, and there's also Dutch's tantrum after the ending.
  15. PeteF3
    The Dirty White Boy had declared himself a proud Yankee, which was a genius gimmick--as someone else pointed out in another one of these threads, Cornette was a genius for devising specific heat-drawing gimmicks for this area of the country. I'm not sure where the DWB/Nightstalker alliance came from, but having Nightstalker hold the locker room door shut was great. Burning the Confederate flag is whatever, but the visual is cool and DWB's handcuffing and attack are done well.
  16. PeteF3
    I don't know if all this stuff (aside from the obvious parasailing incident) is true. I can only say that at the time, when I saw Beefcake reciting it on Raw, it reeked of phoniness and a desperation sympathy plea. Could have been Beefcake's delivery, could have been the WWF environment and their general handling of "big" issues. Vince's recitation is much, much better. Hogan is put on the same plane as the Big Man Upstairs--no shock there. If anything it's a promotion for the Lord from being the "#1 Hulkamaniac." Our timeline is a bit off as we're hyping the match for Monday night--Vince does another great job of hyping up Money Inc. as total bastards. It's great to see some heat finally put on DiBiase again--he spent most of 1992 in purgatory despite holding the tag titles most of the year. I did think Beefcake was legitimately insane for attempting this comeback, and was genuinely fearful that he'd get hurt again. Even as a formerly Little, now Adolescent Hulkster, I found myself strangely unexcited by the prospects of a 1993 return.
  17. PeteF3
    MOTY right now. New Japan takes this in two falls but WAR is left with an "out" as the main man Tenryu suffers an arm injury at the hands of Kido and only rejoins the match about .5 seconds before Kitahara's tapout. So, so much to love here--I agree that these 5-on-5 New Japan matches are about the best match types ever. This felt even more like a WWF Survivor Series because you had that vibe of seeing guys interact that never would in any other circumstance--Kido vs. Tenryu? Hase vs. Fuyuki? If those guys ever faced off in singles matches, I sure don't know about it. This is the first time I can definitively see Fujinami as being "back"--it's easy to look better with 9 other guys, but when he's in he looks close to the Fujinami of old, which was refreshing. Iizuka takes another shitkicking of almost Steiner-esque proportions. Kido is the wily veteran of the match who almost plays a Ueda-vs.-UWF type pivotal role, as he's the one who rather improbably knocks Tenryu out of commission--that whole sequence was tremendous. Hase's FIP segment towards the end is terrific, as they really have you biting on the near-falls and buying into the idea that these WAR mid-carders are going to actually put Hase away. He makes a great comeback--Hase's golden arm bomber may be my favorite comeback move ever--and makes the hot tag to Choshu, who creams Kitahara with two lariats and there's a great moment as Tenryu finally crawls back into the ring, and the New Japan guys immediately swarm him and the rest of the team. Just a great way of getting over how vital Tenryu was to the team and how concerned Team NJPW was with keeping him at bay. I don't know if having Tenryu play the same role that Baba played in the famous 12/89 tag was intentional, coincidence, or just Tenryu suggesting a previously successful idea, but it was still a great nod to history. More build to a big Tenryu/Hashimoto showdown before this. I really want to see that, and I'd really like to see the seemingly uninvolved Masa Chono get mixed up with this.
  18. PeteF3
    I didn't mind this either. First time seeing Bat--she's feisty and stiff and takes some bumps but she also looks like a middle-aged elementary school teacher. I can't say that she has 1/4 of Bison Kimura's presence, even if I never saw Bison as any kind of elite worker. Toyota and Yamada seem like the best tag team in the world at this point, as they work pretty seamlessly with each other and their opponents. I'm 3+ Yearbooks in and had only seen a smidgen of joshi before that, but I didn't notice any unusual amounts of screaming here.
  19. PeteF3
    Jimmy had tried to talk Money Inc. out of taking the match the previous week, so I guess there was a shred of build to that. I was hoping Beefcake's sob story interview from that episode was on here, if only to see if I remembered that "SO KILL YOURSELF!" from the audience correctly. Beefcake gets sent to the ropes and IRS catches him with the briefcase to draw a DQ. Hart tries to stop the beatdown and gets sent to the floor. This angle isn't badly done, and Money Inc. and IRS in particular are pretty good in selling just how much joy they get out of destroying Beefcake. But man, the lack of heat is pretty astounding, especially considering the generally rowdy Manhattan Center audience. Vince does what he does best, which is sell angles. He even goes into Owen Mode (or perhaps more tastefully, Pillman with a Gun Mode). The bloodstain on the mat was a nice touch.
  20. PeteF3
    The rudos take the first fall with another triple-submission, and Arturo Rivera practically orgasms in delight on commentary. Then the rains come and this gets pretty crazy--that ring looks like a knee ligament tear waiting to happen, and it's amazing that they did as much as they did. Konnan almost has me fooled with his knee injury, but then he does (or attempts) some athletic stuff with no problem before going back to selling it. It reminded me of Krusty the Clown playing Franklin Roosevelt on stage--"OH, that's right, I'm crippled!" Santo and Eddy attempt a double Doomsday device at one point, but the timing is off and only Santo hits. The rudos eventually rip Santo's mask off and we get another DQ finish. Los Hermanos Dinamitas really come off as dicks here at the end and I hope this was put over on commentary as well as it came across viewing it--Eddy and one referee (the other gets punked out, which I think is a lucha Yearbook first) try to cover Santo's face as the rudos continue to go to work on him, then the heels celebrate and get their music played. Not as good as the first match but this was fun.
  21. PeteF3
    This is the #2 MOTY at this point behind the AJW-JWP tag (I know I said the Clash tag was the Match of the Month but I was forgetting something). Great opening--I think I've said this elsewhere, but I'm a mark for ring action with entrance gear still on. So we have 6 guys beating the shit out of each other *and* doing dives in ring jackets and capes--perfection. The first fall looks like a mostly-standard "rudos blitz the technicos and quickly win," just with more intense brawling. But after getting one pin, suddenly a miscommunication spot leads to Misterio coming back with great-looking rollups on Psicosis and Heavy Metal. Great little booking change-up. There was another rudo argument, but this was set up by a definitive fuck-up instead of some vague conflict as we saw the previous week. Things settle down a bit with Misterio getting worked over and eventually pinned with a funky cradle/submission by Metal that I think Dandy used in one of the hair or title matches we saw. More action in the third fall with a crazy dive train, starting with Misterio taking a ridiculous bump to the floor and highlighted by Winners taking an even more ridiculous faceplant against the barricade. Captain Misterio gets laid out and pinned by Metal again. Incredible coming out party for Rey. His offense looked spectacular and was almost all perfectly executed, and he really looks like a wrestler of the future--and his bumps and selling were terrific as well. If this match had taken place a month and a half earlier that Rookie of the Year award would be all locked up.
  22. PeteF3
    Some spectacular matwork to open, and I loved Tamura constantly going back to the half crab, over and over. The outcome was never much in doubt but it was a nice ace-in-the-hole for him--the shootstyle equivalent of a hope spot. Eventually Takada asserts himself and kicks his way to a rare TKO victory. This was very much Takada-as-traveling-champ, and the result was a hell of a match. Full credit to both guys.
  23. PeteF3
    The All-Japan guy was Joel DEATON, who was also one of the Thunderfoots and did underneath work for JCP under the Deaton name. No relation to Len Denton. May or may not be related to fellow JCP underneath guy Vernon Deaton (lots of conflicting info over that).
  24. PeteF3
    Random thoughts that come to me during the listen... Jerry Jarrett as WCW booker in 1990 is an all-timer of a What If. At the time, Jarrett was absolutely on fire in both Memphis and Dallas from a creativity standpoint. Of course, that leaves the future of those promotions in doubt and if he keeps all 3 of them he'd doubtless spread himself way too thin. I tend to agree with Chad that the general hotness of the promotion matters more than what's being "given away" on TV, even pre-Monday Night Wars. Lots and lots of promotions have put big matches on TV. All the Japan promotions, World Class, and Portland basically didn't run TV squashes at all. Mid-South always had hot television. It could be argued that Watts in particular burnt himself out, but I'm not sure how long of a shelf life any "boom period" in wrestling can really have no matter what you do, at least with the promoters running wrestling in 1990. "Local TV" = Worldwide and Pro. Or Superstars, Challenge, and Spotlight, for the WWF. There's no question the WWF was far ahead of WCW in this regard, with them running Event Centers. I know it doesn't sound all that intuitive, especially now, but wrestlers talking of coming to the Ohio Center or the Market Square Arena to settle their issue did matter. The WWF Event Centers had gone mostly generic at this point, but I do know Meltzer reported a noticeable uptick in ticket sales when the WWF ran a localized angle for Oakland where Dino Bravo put Hogan on a stretcher after a match with Earthquake, and Hogan appeared on Bay Area television discussing it and vowing revenge for the next show. Woman wasn't Sherri, but I do think she added to the Horsemen and the idea that they wanted Missy as their "only" woman is something I find imbecilic. Sheiky, incredibly, would stick around all the way through at least the end of 1990, with I don't think a single match on television. But he did work a full house show schedule. (EDIT: Sheiky turns up at the Bash, working his old enemy Mike Rotunda!) The racial stuff with Rocky King is every bit as bad as Meltzer makes it out to be. And yes, Flair and Ole's promos sucked, too. Even if the delivery and the lines were good, and some of them were, the content was so horribly distasteful that it can't be overlooked. I think Ole's issue re: managers on commentary is that they were entertaining on commentary to the point where it would endear them to fans and it would hurt their heel heat in arenas. I'm sure Jesse Ventura would have gotten cheers had he made house show appearances, though admittedly it never seemed to hurt Heenan. Objectively speaking (as objective as one can be about music) I have to go with U2 as the top rock band in the world at this point, though I think they were in sort of a transition period as Achtung Baby wasn't out yet. That Cappetta/Gigante interview makes sense in the abstract, but yeah, that didn’t come off well. I only have conversational knowledge of Spanish but Parv’s comments about Gigante’s charisma is spot-on: he is no Alfonso Morales or Pierroth, Jr. Not having seen Callous/Pillman specifically, I agree that he's looked better than expected in 1990. I can buy that this match was sort of underrated. Can't believe there was a J. Tapper shoutout. He must have been a personal stylist for some Turner bigwig, maybe Ted himself. Lameness of the finish aside, I liked that MX/R'nR match a whole lot. They didn't hit everything they tried, but there was some truly awesome shit there. Eaton coming off the top to cream Morton as he went for the huracanrana was one of the all-time great tag transition spots. I can think of a bunch of great Kroffat singles matches in All-Japan, but I'm not sure I can recall even seeing a singles Furnas match period, much less a really good one. These go-go-go Clashes are going to get worse before they get better. Clash XV in particular is a total mess in this regard. The difference between Gigante and Andre is pretty stark and definitive. Andre wasn't as tall, but he looked MASSIVE--he looked otherworldly, like a giant out of The Odyssey. Or The Princess Bride. Gigante didn't have any of that--he was just a skinny guy who happens to be freakishly tall. It's almost like expecting Conan O'Brien (who's 6'4") to come across as an intimidating wrestler. Main event performance worse than JYD...could Scott Steiner at the Royal Rumble against Triple H be a qualifier? Was Raja Lion vs. Giant Baba the main event of that card?
  25. PeteF3
    Vader just levels Thames with a punch right at the bell. They could have ended the match right there. Vader ends up getting disqualified afterward, as Race manhandles the referee before putting paint on Thames, as Vader whips him with the strap. This whole show was built well--pity they couldn't get clearance in time to hype Ric Flair.
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