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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Just Austin & Pillman at this point, no Blonds name and more importantly, no kickass Blonds theme. Old-school ring intros with everyone already in the ring. This is spectacular. All four guys look great but Douglas is the shocker of the bunch because he fits in perfectly. I'm skeptical that I'll ever see a better Douglas performance in a match, even in ECW. He busts out the Kyoko Inoue backwards bodyblock thing at one point, and works some great, fast sequences with both guys. The ending is a treat, too--we get a little All-Japan moment with both partners making saves and preventing saves, and a great false finish after a usual heel tag victory staple (Austin diving off the top on the covering Douglas). Austin creams Douglas with a title belt for the DQ, which is the right finish to set this up as a feud proper. Douglas blades (!!!) and we get another awesome heel beatdown as both guys are beaten and whipped with the tag title belts. Good fiery promo from the babyfaces afterward vowing revenge. Douglas' promo is good but his picture-perfect teacher's enunciation in this context is kind of funny. Have I mentioned that WCW is on fire this month?
  2. PeteF3
    I used to think George Costanza was punching above his weight with the girls he'd land, but then I saw this guy. Heenan is on his way into the Manhattan Center, but he's been replaced by Rob Bartlett. Whoever made that call deserves a Cactus Jack shovel to the head. Bobby is back to pre-tape, with another Narcissus promo. His go-to ice cream-horse manure comparison is brought out. We miss Heenan in drag, but we get Heenan dressed as Rob Bartlett's Hasidic uncle Morty. I seem to recall Heenan finally getting granted access at the very tail end of the show. Not the most auspicious debut for RAW, but it's a new live (mostly) show with a brand new setting. Between the intimate arena set-up, studio-style layout (with guys going outside the arena and coming back, and being able to go to and from the broadcast table), and brand new booking tropes for the WWF like multiple angles on one show or matches being set up to take place in the same hour, this is about the most Southern wrasslin' that the WWF has ever been to this point.
  3. PeteF3
    Cactus may be the one guy who got a positive boost in his entrance music from the Slam Jam album. I'm an unabashed sucker for "Mr. Bang Bang." I'm not sure if this match was as good as SuperBrawl III, but it's a hell of a fight and I really appreciate that they worked two very different matches even though both were street-fight-type bouts. If it had to be one or the other then the rarity of this plus the significance of the face turn makes this a slam-dunk pick. Orndorff is his usual vicious self and takes some fairly hellacious bumps in his own right. Harley Race makes the mistake of shoving Cactus back into the ring one too many times and eats a clothesline off the apron. That brings out Vader, and Jack is triple-teamed into oblivion in a terrific angle. Loved Race in his suit dropping a picture-perfect kneedrop, and Orndorff choking Jack out with the belt while Vader rained splashes down on him. Race is positively giddy over his selection, until Cactus Jack emerges from the crowd with a shovel and goes crazy, hitting everything that moves. Awesome match and two awesome angles to follow. WCW television is on fire right now. Turning Cactus babyface is a bold and out-of-the-box booking move that really paid off for his career--big props to Watts or Rhodes or whoever's idea this was.
  4. PeteF3
    The fact that the Robinson match was a mess is precisely why I think it's so great. It's not quite as good as Robinson/Baba but there's no shame in that--that's a MOTD contender. There's no Inoki match of that era where it looks so likely that he's going to lose and therefore none quite so dramatic. Even if it's Billy going off on his own, that just adds to the match's mystique for me. I liked the Brisco match when I saw it too, but almost entirely because I thought it was an otherworldly performance from Jack while Inoki was sort of along for the ride.
  5. PeteF3
    Not much to add from the previous rundowns here. The final half of this was really well-laid-out, with the surprise return of Heenan and the great use of the brass knucks. Also a bold move to have your babyface champ submit twice--even with Flair using the ropes, that's something that simply didn't happen in North America until at least the 2000s. It does meander, yes, but it's a hell of a match and a fitting swan song (sort of) for Flair in the WWF. Actually, a 30-minute Ironman between these two on TV or PPV would probably be as fondly remembered as Rude/Steamboat.
  6. PeteF3
    Excellent work, a studio-wrestling psychological masterpiece with body parts getting worked over and affecting both guys offensively and defensively as the match goes on. The switch to legwork comes off very organically, and Steamboat figure-fouring Windham is a great payback spot, leading to an even better spot with Windham just kicking away at Steamboat's injured leg like a maniac to get out. Count me in as another guy who liked the finish, and Matt's point about the swerve nature of the ending and Kevin's about how this actually puts the referee over in a good way are well taken. And of course the post-match is good, too. I recall the SuperBrawl III build being very good on just about all levels, and the idea that Watts was getting things together (from a product standpoint if not a profit standpoint) right when he was let go seems to have a lot of teeth to it.
  7. PeteF3
    I suppose it would hit closer to TNA than it would WWE, thinking about it some more.
  8. PeteF3
    Even though they're doing similar, worked stuff with Big Show and the Rhodes family, something about a wrestler talking about having his livelihood cut off because he suffered an injury probably hits a little close to the bone. It's similar to how the WWE may recycle any number of angles from the past, but I don't think we'll ever see a re-do of the Drunk Hawk or Drunk Scott Hall stuff.
  9. PeteF3
    Vader flashes a "Super Bowl ring"--even if it was a counterproductive thing to say about the #1 heel, I can't help but think of Jesse's comment, "Wait a minute, the Rams have never won a Super Bowl! What did he get, a loser's ring?!" That's just a sidenote, because the football talk is effective at making Vader seem like a human being while he still comes off as a monster even in this setting. Hey, wait, there's footage of the title change! No one ever talks about Vader's mic skills but he's really one of the most underrated talkers ever. This is the best promo of his that I've seen, putting over Sting and Simmons while still establishing himself as the Man.
  10. PeteF3
    Robert Fuller is upset about not getting a tag title shot, and praises Jim Cornette as a manager while taking shots at his mediocre team. Golden recites the Fuller/Welch/Golden family tree, which always gives me a headache--if a Welch ever married a Samoan, I believe there would be a rip in the fabric of the universe. Highlights of Christmas Chaos--Cornette takes some tremendous bumps and further proves himself as a legitimate in-ring worker. Meanwhile the Bodies get a pin on Gibson with the help of Prichard's loaded boot, but the Stud Stable are making nuisances of themselves at ringside, and that allows Morton to get in a shot of his own for the Rock 'n Rolls to get the win. A face-off between the Stud Stable and Bodies follow. Eventually the Studs get taken down with the tennis racket. The Rock 'n Rolls come back to make the save, but during an attempted handshake the Studs jump Ricky & Robert! Great booking to establish a three-way feud without turning the Studs babyface. Cornette is out paying tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness month with his pink jacket and pants, talking of the big Welch/Fuller family reunion that's scheduled as soon as the parole board meets. Lane's comparisons of the Studs to minor league baseball and hockey teams continue to amuse me. When Sawyer Brown's in the Smoky Mountains, they watch Smoky Mountain Wrestling!
  11. PeteF3
    Highlights of the Clown's antics, antagonizing the Big Boss Man, Tatanka, Marty Jannetty, and Bob Backlund. Ray Rougeau browbeats him for his jokes always being at other people's expense--those typically are the best kind. Borne instantly has this act down cold, going from manic and giggly to serious as he talks about taking children's smiles away. Doink was another target of the smart fanbase at the time, but just like Papa Shango I liked the gimmick then and I like it now. Difference being Borne was absolutely on fire as a worker, with some fine matches on the Yearbook and quite a few that didn't make the cut--the Superstars match that ends the feud is probably the best singles match of Brian Adams' career.
  12. PeteF3
    No complaining about being in Bret's shadow yet. As Owen talks about the Dungeon, Razor flies into the screen and levels him with a clothesline. "Daddy teach you that one, mang?" Razor's a supreme dick here. Basic but effective and well-done angle. Okerlund is good here, though a few weeks later--I don't know if it's on the Yearbook--he tops himself with "The actions of this Clown are DEPLORABLE."
  13. PeteF3
    These matches do lose a bit without Jumbo's involvement. Even seeing the team come out to Taue's theme and not his was jarring. The Akiyama/Kikuchi exchanges are the highlights here--they match up well and it's not inconceivable for either guy to pin the other. Jun ends up getting the win, which is huge, though it's still not enough for the two sides to be close to equal yet.
  14. PeteF3
    Some of the whiffs were too jarring to ignore (like that lariat), some like the power bomb just looked like a natural struggle. A fight like this SHOULDN'T look pretty. That said, I'm somewhere in-between Loss and Ditch on this. They get mucho credit for getting a Dome crowd to be as loud as they were, but as a spectacle and a match I actually liked the tag bout better.
  15. PeteF3
    Even with Sasaki swapped in for Animal, this really does feel like a dream match from the start, and even with Sasaki there you really have no idea who could possibly lose (the Hell Raisers had been pushed to the moon since forming in the fall, squashing teams left and right in 5 minutes--this wasn't some deal where you had Gordy & Doc facing Jumbo & Ogawa). The stuff with Hawk and Scott at the open are great fun, with Hawk having the strength and agility to shrug off everything Scott tries. So the Steiners have to isolate Sasaki, and pretty much brutalize him but can't stop Hawk from making saves. CRAZY Doomsday Device to the floor, but it appears Hawk and Scott were the legal men so while Sasaki and Rick take it to the ring, Tiger Hattori counts both teams out. Yeah, I guess I should have seen the bullshit finish coming, even in 1993 Japan. Not only was this full of great spots, these four lummoxes put together a more psychologically sound match than either of the first two!
  16. PeteF3
    Oh come on, Masahiro...green tights with a familiar white pattern on them? Who's jealous of whom here? This was better than the juniors match, though still far off from each men's respective peaks in '91. There were some neat spots involving the ramp--I particularly liked Muta missing the handspring elbow and almost Tommy Young-ing himself against the ropes. There was quite a bit of dead time in the first half of the match involving Muta wandering around, but it got better as it went along. Still, I can't help but notice the NJPW heavyweights have regressed while the AJPW guys don't seem to have approached their peak.
  17. PeteF3
    Another special Tokyo Dome outfit for Liger--this time he's in blue. The armdrags-into-standoff opening seems pretty fresh in comparison to the '90-'92 Yearbooks but looks incredibly indieriffic now. I realize I'm falling into the trap of reviewing the match I wish had been booked rather than what was actually booked, and maybe I'm just too Americentric in my viewing of this...but I feel like an "outsider" from WAR coming in and taking the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title could have been booked as being a bit more shocking, and the subsequent title matches worked accordingly. Tenryu is tearing shit up with everybody and really comes off as an agent of chaos, while this is worked like a run-of-the-mill juniors match. I guess Dragon didn't yet have the ring presence and smarts of a Honaga, Sano, or Kobayashi in order to work that way. So this interpromotional title war features lots of interpromotional surfboards and interpromotional drop toeholds. Dragon slips off the top at one point, but I can't say that it bothered me--he did still manage to hit Liger, after all. Dragon follows that up with a tremendous dive over the guardrail and both guys splatter against a ringside table and we finally have our first truly hot moment of the match. Dueling tombstone reversals and Dragon...oh, THAT'S the slip y'all were talking about. Yeah, that's bad. Dragon to his credit doesn't try to do it all over again and just moves on. Liger comes back and finally we get some intensity, with a power bomb on the floor and a stiff palm strike to the jaw. Ah, and we're back to sitting in holds. There really hasn't been any focus to any work at all, from either side. Moves are traded, kickouts are performed, Liger wins with a top-rope huracanrana. High-end mediocrity is a good way to put it. There were some cool high-impact dives, but this feels like someone simmed a FirePro match between these two and then they based the real match off of that. There was no attempt at a focused "gameplan" from either guy, no real build to the big moves, and I didn't bite on a single near-fall. Liger's top-rope DDT should have been a "that's it" moment with Dragon's kickout being a holy-shit spot...but once Liger stayed down after hitting the move I knew he was going to slowly crawl over that would give Dragon the opening to escape, so the drama was all gone. That type of sell could have worked if I'd thought the match could have ended at any of the other near-fall points, but the drama just wasn't there--that's pretty inexcusable considering the interpromotional nature of the match and Liger's past rep. This was an off night for him and a hugely disappointing performance from Dragon, who comes off as a charismatic black hole in comparison to Liger's other opponents the past few years.
  18. PeteF3
    Another realistic sitdown interview from Arn--and God bless them for continuing to attempt to pass this guy off as a born-and-bred Minnesotan. Frank discussion of knee injuries follow, and then Arn drops the bombshell that Bill Watts has not yet renewed his contract for 1993, because it was his kid who took Arn out. I could see this angle making the WWF INTENSELY uncomfortable were it to run on 24/7 or online today. Arn gets back into promo mode and scarily vows that if he doesn't have a wrestling contract, he'll have to take Erik Watts out through other means. This would lead to some dumb shit, as I recall, but this was a very effective way to transition Anderson into the planned Watts/Rude feud.
  19. PeteF3
    The title change was actually scheduled to take place the night before in Philly. Bill Watts was there, a camera crew was sent...and Simmons no-showed the card. That necessitated the change in Baltimore (symmetry!) instead, and if the dwindling gates under Simmons' reign as champ wasn't enough to knock him out of the top babyface spot for good, that little stunt surely did. So, yeah, we get Eric Bischoff breathlessly reciting play-by-play of the match over still photos of Simmons and Vader. Underwhelming, but WCW simply couldn't continue with Simmons as champion.
  20. PeteF3
    Lawler is optimistic about the state of wrestling in 1993...yeah, that ain't happening, and you'll be one of the reasons why, Jerry. Lawler uses the WCW hiring of Dundee and his WWF television work to put over the USWA (and himself). Lawler brings up a Moondog Battle Royal and how Mike Samples cost him $10,000 (I was hoping he would add, "...and one Cadillac, you fuckin' shit," but nope). Quick film clip follows--THE CHRISTMAS CREATURE! All right! Lawler comes off a little whiny here, complaining about foreign object use in a Moondog Battle Royal. Mike Miller comes out of nowhere flinging a chair at Lawler's head. Hot pull-apart follows, with an implication that he and Lawler had gotten into a "real" fight away from the ring (Lawler brought up the facial injuries but danced around the cause). Mike Miller and Mike Samples are quite the step down from when Gilbert, Embry, and the Moondogs were the USWA's top heels, but this was as effective of a use of them as one could come up with.
  21. PeteF3
    Sappy song but the action clips are tremendous. Dundee is going on one last tour to thank the USWA fans, and amazingly no angle results from this.
  22. PeteF3
    Not quite as good as Starrcade, but a hell of a TV match worked with stunning intensity. Loved Steamboat busting out the Anderson-style hammerlock slams, and there are a number of stiff shots and big moves throughout, climaxing with Windham leveling Douglas with a DDT on the concrete. The Douglas FIP segment in general was very well-done, with well-timed hope spots and teases, and this is the most complete pre-Franchise Douglas performance that I've seen. Then things get goofy--Steamboat is working a hot FIP segment of his own when Dustin Rhodes comes down to check on Douglas, then gets tagged in and Mike Atkins allows it. I believe we need to consult Mike Pereira over the legality of all this, but as dippy as this idea is it's all worth it to hear Ventura melt down over it. Rhodes hits an AWESOME cast shot to Windham's face and knocks him out for the pin. I still think Pillman is miscast as a heel at this point, but he and Windham are really starting to gel as a team, and I'm curious as to when and how the decision was made to move from a Pillman/Windham team to the Hollywood Blonds.
  23. PeteF3
    Good promo from Heenan, but there was absolutely no money in a guy wrestling as "Narcissus." Wise move to change that. I along with most of the WWF audience of 1992-93 needed that dictionary definition.
  24. PeteF3
    This is definitely '94, but still an appropriate way to kick off '93. New Generation indeed.
  25. PeteF3
    Thanks Loss. '93 WWF was a lot better, too--I can't adequately describe what a boost Monday Night Raw gave to the product. Aside from Heenan's antics and the Perfect face turn, Prime Time's panel format had turned into the most sterile wrestling program in the history of television. Plus Ross' arrival meant a number of long feature matches on Wrestling Challenge (which I refuse to believe is a coincidence). Raw was hot, fresh (live or no more than a week in the can), and unpredictable in a manner that the WWF sorely lacked. Plus '93 is right when I cut off my All-Japan TV viewing (this was right when the Benoit murders happened). So I've got the widely proclaimed greatest in-ring year in history to see. And more lucha! More Smoky Mountain! The WWF/USWA invasion, which got me into tape buying! And the birth of ECW! One thing I am dreading is the absolutely nauseating Luger push. My Least Favorite Wrestler and Most Overrated awards may as well be filled out right now. And unfortunately, WCW falls off once Bischoff takes over.
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