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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    So...yeah. A few matches ago I was talking about the genuine coolness of 2 Cold Scorpio. Well, here's Exhibit A in how to completely shit all over that. These kids aren't in school, so 2 Cold is going to have them STEP their way to class. To terrible music, to boot. That's not Salt or Pepa or Spinderella with him, is it? Yes, PG-13 is still in the lead for Best Urban Gimmick in Wrestling History Through '93.
  2. PeteF3
    Did any schools actually make money from these wrestling fundraisers? Even though they sound carny as fuck, I wish we'd gotten one of these in school, instead of selling cheese & sausage or candy every year. Austin Idol is back from some apparently crippling car accident two years ago. He puts over the promotion and the area, in a way more low-key interview than his usual bombastic style. Idol vs. Iron Sheik is quite a bit past its sell-by date as an issue, though Sheik actually looks a bit more jacked than he has recently. Idol is then presented a FedEx package from "TF & Collections," and it's a threat for Idol to "pay up." The interviewer mentions two phone calls from two different people regarding the package--sounds like the Funk Brothers to me.
  3. PeteF3
    Crazy overbooked match with almost too much to talk about. The Bodies are subbing for the Stud Stable, who didn't show up on time for their tag title shot due to a flat tire. Mantell is hilarious ranting about this, and ranting about Cornette without turning himself babyface. And Caudle is in his glory, egging Dutch on. Fuller & Golden show up with suitcases and street clothes, but are escorted from ringside. Great action follows, with some killer double-teams from the Bodies, including a wicked flapjack/gutwrench/powerslam thing. Then a crazy-ass finish--Mark Curtis gets creamed and knocked from the apron, we run through a bunch of teased finishes, then Killer Kyle runs in, then the Stud Stable come back out, then Dutch tosses a foreign object to Morton (!), then BOBBY EATON runs in and hits the Alabama Jam and the Heavenly Bodies are once again tag team champions. Cornette delivers a great gloating promo--the two greatest tag teams of all-time are now one unit. Soon the Stud Stable are out to confront them and Cornette makes the mistake of bringing up the Stud's "four flat tires." And now it's on again! Holy shit, what an awesome brawl. The build to this 3-way match has been the best build of any match in quite some time, in any promotion. This is not the #1 match for January, but this package as a whole is the single best thing to take place in the month of January. It's still a very good match, and the booking is absolutely masterful.
  4. PeteF3
    The Blonds theme is here! The one that got reused for about 9 million other guys, but I still think of it as the Blonds theme. Basic but good production here as we get footage of the champs getting laid out at the Clash. Fun sprint with a cool finish, as Douglas does a rolling reverse cradle on Austin, but Pillman creams him with Air Pillman from behind. What a great month of television for WCW. Yes, it's officially a pity that Watts was mere weeks away from being forced out.
  5. PeteF3
    I always wondered why that Lawler/Perfect incident never got any follow-up. Turns out that it did--just in Memphis only. Eddie Marlin, Jeff Jarrett, and Danny Davis lead the way for the King, complete with fanfare. Lawler is receiving congratulations for something or other--I guess he's regained the Unified title or gotten a title shot. Lawler again expresses his desire to put his belt up against the WWF title, which the Royal Rumble would have given him the opportunity to do. Jerry tells us that Curt Hennig had it in for him as soon as Lawler stepped into the locker room, all because of the big blemish on his Perfect Record--the AWA World title loss. Perfect sends in a green screen promo. It's hard to see where Perfect's in the wrong in this specific instance--we saw Lawler was already eliminated. Perfect points out Lawler's silly crown, like he stepped out of an Imperial Margarine commercial. Strong promo--this definitely seems like a hot main event for the MSC. Jerry rebuts. PG-13! This is, without a hint of irony or exaggeration, infinitely cooler and more culturally on the mark than PN News or MOM ever were. Not bad for two skinny white boys from Tennessee. The effects are cheap and dated but this is a genuinely good intro video.
  6. PeteF3
    I always wondered why that Lawler/Perfect incident never got any follow-up. Turns out that it did--just in Memphis only. Eddie Marlin, Jeff Jarrett, and Danny Davis lead the way for the King, complete with fanfare. Lawler is receiving congratulations for something or other--I guess he's regained the Unified title or gotten a title shot. Lawler again expresses his desire to put his belt up against the WWF title, which the Royal Rumble would have given him the opportunity to do. Jerry tells us that Curt Hennig had it in for him as soon as Lawler stepped into the locker room, all because of the big blemish on his Perfect Record--the AWA World title loss. Perfect sends in a green screen promo. It's hard to see where Perfect's in the wrong in this specific instance--we saw Lawler was already eliminated. Perfect points out Lawler's silly crown, like he stepped out of an Imperial Margarine commercial. Strong promo--this definitely seems like a hot main event for the MSC. Jerry rebuts. PG-13! This is, without a hint of irony or exaggeration, infinitely cooler and more culturally on the mark than PN News or MOM ever were. Not bad for two skinny white boys from Tennessee. The effects are cheap and dated but this is a genuinely good intro video.
  7. PeteF3
    Doc & Gordy have stepped up their game considerably--they had the great matches with Jumbo & Taue and another really good one here. They actually work some new holds and do some interesting stuff in them instead of deciding to slap on a half crab and stand there. Plus there's a neat build-up to Kawada being beaten down and taking the fall, before he makes a comeback and hot tag only for Misawa to promptly get cut off. Doc ends up pinning Misawa to win the tag titles. I'm guessing the Misawa/Kawada split was already planned by this point so you have to get the belts off of them. That said, Misawa does the job here and then does two more jobs in the Carny--one to Gordy and one to Stan. I get setting up title matches, but I think three prominent pinfall losses by your Triple Crown champion in 5 months is too many. I'm going to go against the grain here somewhat: I think the Clash tag title bout is the month's #1 match.
  8. PeteF3
    Oh, dear God, Rob Bartlett. I think he mostly shuts up for this, though. The Manhattan Center may be my all-time favorite weekly wrestling venue. Even if it's a bad sign for the WWF that they were running a venue that small. For a hated career-ending grudge match there sure are a lot of drop toe holds and mat reversals going on here. I'm not really complaining, because the work is good and sort of different for the WWF Style. It's just odd. Perfect goes to the floor, and oh my God, that cues a commercial break! The more things change... This soon does get a lot more vicious, with some really stiff punches from Ric. Holy crap, blood--I had no recollection of that at all. Perfect wins with his standard finish--opponent goes for a back body drop and gets Perfect-Plexed--prompting yet another classic tantrum from Heenan. This is a match that got pimped for awhile and then started getting tagged as Overrated--now looking at it again, I think it's so "overrated" that it's underrated again, because I thought this was a hell of a match. More intense than your average WWF bout and they kept the bout moving as befits a TV main event. A worthy WWF swan song for Ric, as this is one of his better matches for the company.
  9. PeteF3
    It may seem more obvious in retrospect, but just like with Bret's title win I can't adequately described how flabbergasting Yokozuna winning this was. Before the match started I pegged this to come down to Flair vs. Perfect. Then they both went out early, so I figured it would come down to Undertaker or Savage. Then Backlund started getting the marathon push, and I actually thought he'd win it. At best, Yokozuna was the #6 pick for me, behind all of them. It wasn't until Savage's feet hit the floor that I believed for even half a second that they'd headline any PPV, much less a WrestleMania, with Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna. It'd be the equivalent of John Cena working a tag title match while WM gets headlined by Daniel Bryan vs. Big E. Langston. The ring clears as soon as Savage gets in, after a failed attempt at ganging up on Yoko. '90s Backlund would never be as over as a babyface as he was by the end of this match--every teased elimination, his elimination of Martel, and his actual elimination by Yokozuna all get loud reactions. Yoko and Savage work almost a full-fledged match in their own right--this would have to be the longest closing stretch for the Rumble until that year Undertaker and Shawn went at it for awhile. Yoko's timing and selling are already pretty much impeccable, staggering just enough so that it looks like both Backlund and Savage have an opening to knock him over the ropes, before decisively cutting them off. Then that stupid ending. Oh well, the match was going great before then. I forgot the stupid Caesar & Cleopatra bit surrounding all this. Yokozuna has this act down pat and he's way better than I credited him for at the time, but he was probably a year away from being a legitimate headliner.
  10. PeteF3
    This is a good setting for Lex and he's a quality addition to the roster at this point. Heenan excitedly disrobes Luger and practically creams his pants rattling off all of Luger's body parts. Bobby begs Lex for a soundbite so we can hear the beautiful, melodious tones from his mouth. Luger and Heenan call out Mr. Perfect, which basically gives away the loser-leaves match scheduled (but already taped, IIRC) for Raw the next night. Bobby continues to bloviate as the curtain falls over him. Fun segment.
  11. PeteF3
    Good timing: we pick up right before an incredible suplex spot to the floor, and then the big Sherri babyface turn as she clocks Shawn as he tries to get up. Heenan is INCENSED. Some hot near-falls follow with Shawn continuing to bump like a pinball, and some clever twists on the usual spots like Shawn missing his superkick. Sherri accidentally creams Jannetty with her shoe, and Heenan goes off on the funniest misogynist rant since Paul E.: "PILEDRIVE HER! ... Look at her beg, 'I'm just a dumb harlot!'" Only Bobby can make domestic abuse funny. Shawn wins in one of the first but not last examples of heel Michaels completely outsmarting his babyface opponent. Jannetty jumps Shawn in the locker room, and this looks like a feud that's going to continue, except Jannetty would get fired after working the next TV taping. I guess that puts a capper on this feud for good.
  12. PeteF3
    Scary how good Akiyama is at this point. I wouldn't put this up against the best Kroffat/Furnas matches as far as All-Asia tags go, but it's not terribly far behind. Akiyama already has quite a bit of stuff he can do on offense and he sells well down the stretch. The psychology of a long All-Japan match isn't always about consistently selling body part A that was worked on in the opening minutes, but can be more about seeing a wrestler's "energy bar" give away, like in a video game. The best AJPW matches are ones where that energy bar is treated in a consistent way--enough near-falls to keep you on your toes, but when you get to the finish, you say, "Yep, that's the end." I don't know if I'm explaining this well but it's something that separates the best of AJPW from the worst of modern-day indy 2.9 wrestling--near-falls for the sake of near-falls. This is all a roundabout way of saying Jun is picking up in this aspect very, very quickly among all the other shit he can already do.
  13. PeteF3
    Crazy match and an effective finish. Gilbert using a dolly as a weapon was pretty inspired.
  14. PeteF3
    Good match where both guys wrestle cleanly but with intensity--the best kind of babyface match. Makes you want to see a PPV match between the two that we never get.
  15. PeteF3

    General thoughts on 1991

    PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in 1991

    There is definitely more from that G1 in general I need to see, as someone (I think Childs) had pimped a few other matches worth viewing including Vader vs. Norton (!). Reading the criteria Dave spells out, work *does* matter in terms of WOTY. One could probably say the criteria are analogous to that of the WON HOF--that someone who's truly otherworldly in one category can make up for a deficiency in the other, but that they should ideally be a positive in work, influence, and drawing. If we ever get '80s Yearbooks I'm sure I'll vote for Hogan, too. But...I think Hogan in those years offers some positives from a work standpoint. The stuff re: Jumbo is well-noted. If I'm picking pure favorites, he'd beat out Mutoh in any time period you can name up to and possibly even including the era of decrepit 6-man comedy Jumbo. Maybe I can revoke Mutoh's award later like I did Han's 1992 ROTY.
  16. PeteF3

    General thoughts on 1991

    PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in 1991

    Expectations play a huge, huge role in how I rate matches and wrestlers. I'm not saying that's the correct way of doing it, but that's simply how it is. It's why Tony Atlas got a nod for 1990 Best Interview over Lawler, Jake, or the other usual suspects. I had conditioned myself to think Mutoh was overrated as fuck and Jumbo was the GOAT--unfortunately for Jumbo that leads to me holding him to a higher standard and fortunately for Mutoh he can get a bonus for surprising me. It also is a fact that I've seen everything from AJPW in '91 and '92 that's out there that matters, while my NJPW knowledge prior to these projects was limited to the juniors and a lot of other scattershot stuff mostly involving WCW guys. I still think Mutoh's overrated and I still think Jumbo's the Best, but...Mutoh surprised me in '91, and Jumbo didn't, so he inherently stuck out more. Without going through every G-1 match again, I definitely didn't like Chono's first match with Choshu, and I think I liked Mutoh more in general throughout that tournament including the final. Fujinami in '91 was in a prime spot on cards on both sides of the ocean but had to set some sort of record for falling back-asswards into most high-quality matches that his own performance and standards didn't deserve. And in the end it was Mutoh's Match of the Year that stuck with me more than any one Jumbo performance.
  17. PeteF3
    This is a lot to digest, and I may develop some thoughts of substance later. But the first thing that jumps out at me was Watts going from talking about Vince taking the magic out of the business to I DON'T LIKE FAGS, FAGS DON'T LIKE STRAIGHTS, THAT'S JUST MY OPINION. I know the interviewer brought up The Crying Game first but that was LOL-worthy. I want to know who the specific wrestler was who talked to Watts about how he drew money in the WWF. It can't be anyone else but Rick Rude, can it?
  18. PeteF3
    Kind of too bad Barbarian left as soon as he turned babyface, because I think there was potential in this team continuing. Good promo from Cactus, who isn't changing a thing despite turning babyface. I shudder to think how the WWF would have treated this at the time.
  19. PeteF3
    We get a penetrating internal monologue from Sting, as we hear the doubts and fears belied by his Up Close promo. This is interspersed with Vader yapping with packing peanuts snow falling over him. "Where is this Castle of Fear, anyway?" Jesus, that's the kind of thing you want to find out before leaving in the helicopter. "Where is this Castle of Fear?" "STING, I'VE SPOTTED THE WHITE CASTLE." I live a few miles from White Castle headquarters but this doesn't really look like Columbus. Vader's in a harem or something as chicks eat apples seductively, if that's possible. They point out that "he's here," yet ten seconds later when Sting walks in, Cheatum and the others excitedly point out again, "HE'S HERE! HE'S HERE!" Vader screams so loudly he shatters a mirror. Sting's putdown is bad enough, but he makes up for it with one of the worst deliveries in the history of cinema. Vader challenges Sting to a strap match, VADER-STYLE, and is about to pull him into some randomly appearing flames, when the strap explodes. TO BE CONTINUED...AT SUPERBRAWL III. This was the first WCW PPV I ever ordered, and it WASN'T because of this. Holy crap, this made Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal look good. And before the year's out it's going to get worse!
  20. PeteF3
    Windham looks like the Best in the World in the first month of '93, and it's absurd that Scorpio didn't go farther than he did. He had terrific moves, he knew how to pace them, and he was able to come across as legitimately cool. Awesome unheralded sprint.
  21. PeteF3
    Sting breaks down his title loss at GAB '92 to Vader as well as his King of Cable win. I can't keep talking about how cool these realistic interviews are, but that's all I have to say. And from that, we go to...the White Castle of Fear. I'm convinced some of the dumber WCW ideas came from people higher up than the Executive VP. That includes RoboCop, Oz, and the various mini-movies. This stuff took place under three different regimes all with rather wide differences.
  22. PeteF3
    My burning question from the previous segment is answered--the Russian Warhead is Boris Zhukov. That's a letdown. Mr. Tennessee rants about showing some videotape, as we awkwardly and slowly transfer to an interview with Cornette and the Heavenly Bodies. They're coming after the Bullet. Listening to Mr. Tennessee I'd swear it was Brian Christopher, but apparently he's none other than WCW jobber Larry Santo.
  23. PeteF3
    Dutch is on a first-name basis with most of the Gulf Coast, because he's beaten most of the people up down there. He calls out the Iron Sheik, the Junkyard Dog, the Russian Warhead(?), and Austin Idol.
  24. PeteF3
    Holy shit, the Honky Tonk Man! Wasn't expecting that at all. He's doing his WWF babyface shtick and I'm thinking this is a set-up for something. Ah, yep, old decrepit Eddie Marlin has Alzheimer's preventing him from communicating. Marlin comes out and puts him in his place. They have a good back-and-forth--no surprise that Honky still thrives in this type of setting. He calls out "Little Jeff Jarrett," but quickly plays innocent as soon as he appears: "I don't think I know this young man." Ha! "What titles have YOU held recently?" Honky has no response to that. As I said, Honky fits in this promotion like a glove. I'm sure his ego would get in the way of any kind of extended run, but I think he could do just fine working Memphis heel shtick in this setting.
  25. PeteF3
    Good but not to the next level is about right. This started great with Santo and Espanto tearing it up on the mat, and it ended very good. But it did meander a bit in the middle, and there were some bad spots like that Steiner bulldog and some mistimed pin saves. Santo & Eddy make for a very good team however, and I like the sort of Japanese layout they sometimes bring to their matches with high-impact moves leading to guys scrambling to make pin saves. Estrada took a number of loony bumps, as expected, and I loved his casual kick to the groin that turned the second fall the rudos' way. Santo provided a spectacular dive about 3/4 of the way across the ring, and held a lot of this together.
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