PeteF3
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I cared for very little of this. AAA comes across very much as how the WWF would work lucha style--lots and lots and lots and LOTS of playing to the crowd, crowd-pleasing characters and pantomime-type spots in general, heels threatening to walk to the back, etc. All standby spots of your typical WWF house show opener of the time. Misterio is barely recognizable and I keep waiting for him to do something spectacular, but nope. Well, there was that moonsault to the floor--just too bad the only guy within five feet of him was his partner. Heavy Metal does some nice moves and Winners and Calo provide a few cool dives, but overall this was a mess. Incidentally, it kind of undermines Calo's hip-hop dance gimmick when Winners is busting some moves during his intro and Calo comes across more like -
This was pretty good and Taue standing up to Hansen right from the start and getting a nice run of offense was enjoyable to watch. Still, "pretty good" puts this at the least of the Triple Crown matches and the criticisms earlier in the thread are all evident: there is no way anyone could possibly be buying Taue as being on Hansen's level at this point, and Taue's offense in general is pretty wonky. It doesn't help that a lot of his offense is power-based bomb-throwing stuff that Hansen isn't really built to take and Taue doesn't have the strength to execute.
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Fujinami is still relatively hidden but he's looking better than he has in a while for the quick bursts that he's in. This is worked incredibly stiff all around, with some crazy bumps off routine moves and lots of hard hitting strikes. It's a little long considering there aren't a lot of dramatic near-falls and the story, intentional or not, of Sasaki staying in too long and not tagging when he has opportunities plays into the finish, when he gets caught in a 2-on-1 and eventually beaten down. It's going to take a lot for this year's G1 to match last year's but I'm interested in seeing what they can do.
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Yeah, Chono was working full-blown heel here. I'm not up on my NJPW history but I thought his heel turn was a few years away, but that's clearly how they were positioning him for this while Koshinaka works as a valiant underdog despite leading an ostensible heel stable. So we have that bit of weirdness and the dueling superplexes spot which was marginally better than dueling tombstones but not by much. Once we get past that bit of jerking off and get to Chono trying to open Koshinaka up, we get a hell of a match. Koshinaka gets in a great run of near-falls but once Chono kicks out of the dragon suplex, you (and Koshinaka, judging by his reaction) get the message that Shiro has no more bullets in his chamber. Chono comes back in short order with a fine sequence of each guy countering each other's hip attacks and Yakuza kicks. Shiro fights off one STF but eventually succumbs to a second one. Chono won't let go then clobbers Koshinaka on an attempted post-match handshake and most of the native roster eventually comes in to break it up. Yes, Kengo Kimura being the centerpiece of the post-match scrum was weird--it seemed he hadn't done anything since the Fujinami feud in '87. I am glad to see this Yearbook give some coverage to Heisei Ishingun.
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Heh, I liked this way more than the other match. Shamrock getting the shit kicked out of him and then making a dramatic comeback told more of a story in 30 seconds than just about anything in the undercard bout.
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The slap fight at the beginning and the super-stiff headbutts were great, but I didn't think anything of the mat portions at all. I'm open-minded to matches involving guys I've never heard of but other than "Takahashi throws killer headbutts" I didn't pick up anything of note about either wrestler.
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I swear I remember reading that this angle was booked on the fly because Nitro was running short.
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Lane's head gear is even more ridiculous than his hairpiece but at least they're working some old-school heat-drawing with it.
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Dutch is ON LOCATION from Bucksnort, Tennessee, with a guard dog and DWB's home address--an abandoned school bus. White Boy staggers out from his beauty sleep and has a morning drink that sends the dog scurrying away in a funny moment, before wiping himself on Dutch's poncho. White Boy is putting up his Smoky Mountain career against Lee's SMW title, and I think that pretty much spells out the result. Priceless segment, and the build for Fire on the Mountain has been pretty great.
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A study in contrasts between promo styles of Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton. Morton lost everything when he turned his back on the fans, and now he's coming back to help Gibson out. Golden and Fuller don't buy Morton's story and don't consider him to be a part of SMW.
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Rude leads Nikita through a pretty solid match, that turns into a backstage battle royal. Good segment and WCW is finally segueing guys from one feud into another in effective ways.
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Also Jesse refers to being "up in Antarctica," which I don't think is geographically possible. Quick and to the point promo, too bad there won't be much to this title reign. After all the great build-up last October, it's astounding what a non-factor Ron Simmons has become from his Luger loss until his upcoming title victory. I know he missed most of the rest of '91 with an injury but he really should have been a part of Sting's Squadron, probably in Nikita's spot. Obviously that's hindsight because the World title plans were presumably shelved until Watts came along in favor of one of Dusty's guys, but a lot of effective build has been undone and it will likely serve to undermine Simmons' title reign.
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I think Eddie was actually holding onto him. The stips Morton talked about last week aren't evident here, as this is worked as a normal match. Doug Gilbert makes a surprise return and Eddie is once again Unified World champion, and presumably it's off to Smoky Mountain for Ricky.
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Good segment marred by terrible video quality. Flair points out, "I've been beating up people in facepaint for my whole career!" Flair getting physical in a suit and Perfect using his belt lend a southern vibe to this, which was nice to see. Officials quickly break up a near-fight between Warrior and Savage--where were they when Savage was going after Flair?
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The first time I saw Razor shove the guy in the fountain it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. It's amazing how good Hall is in this role already--underneath the fake accent and exotic setting are strong, focused promos.
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Not a bad match at all, built more around dramatic climbs up the ladder and bumps off of it, rather than a lot of ladder-as-weapon spots. We do get Shawn taking a slingshot bump into the ladder, though. This was definitely something that needs to be on a Yearbook considering how influential this match type would become. A far, far better version of Kevin Sullivan vs. Norman in that regard.
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These Coliseum Videos were filled with all sorts of weirdness like this--Ross calling a Ric Flair match or matches with Bret as IC Champion when Bret won and lost the WWF title right as Ross made his TV debut. Plus Heenan is talking about Savage as a broadcast partner rather than a blood enemy of Flair's. It's even more jarring in a Yearbook setting. Ross and Heenan sound like they'd rather be anywhere else than in the studio overdubbing commentary and the heat machine is in full force. Michaels is working hard here and the other three are working like they're at the end of a 20-date road trip which they may well have been. Pretty disappointing match results. I know the WWF doesn't normally care about this thing but Savage and Michaels jumping into the ring from the apron and immediately going to near-falls and the finish really bothered me. At least run a pier-six brawl for a bit so we can buy the idea of confusion over the legal men.
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Jim Ross! By-the-numbers finish, and DiBiase doesn't even get the dignity of jobbing to the Earthquake Splash, as 'quake simply drops an elbow for the pin.
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The phrase "real world champion" appears for the first time since January. Perfect rattles off all the injustices Jack Tunney has pulled against Ric Flair since his arrival--video distorting the belt, his Royal Rumble number, and the WrestleMania title match change (which Monsoon seems to think was Flair being "pulled out of the card" and goes off--as Heenan said, "Shut up Monsoon.") Flair is incensed that "some blowfish with paint on his face" has his spot at SummerSlam--oh my God, that's the greatest description of the Warrior ever. This was another VERY strong interview, the best since the WM8 post-match. Perfect really added a lot here, dropping the historical nuggets that you don't always see in a WWF interview where so often it seems that nothing existed prior to 3 months ago.
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Decent wrestling action and then the Smoky Mountain debut of Robert Fuller. He and Golden lay out Gibson with a boot and Fuller's belt, and where, oh where, can Gibson find a partner to take the Stud Stable on? Strong segment and beatdown.
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And in fact, he has the best line in this segment and it's a total throwaway. As Bobby is whispering to Armstrong, he incredulously asks, "What, do they get a chainsaw now or something?!" This is an almost to-the-letter redux of the Midnights/Fantastics contract signing in World Class with Cornette banned from ringside, bargaining that stipulation away, and ending up with a worse one. There it was Cornette having to be guarded by "Little John" and here it's Bob Armstrong appointing himself guest referee. Guess which version I like better. Cornette's tantrum is a classic, though one wonders just how effectual Cornette would be if the ring is going to be surrounded by barbed wire.
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Ricky Morton ducks an attempted chain shot and backslides Gilbert to win the Unified World title. Gilbert takes his frustrations out afterward--Lauren Davenport helps him handcuff Morton to the ropes and Gilbert brutalizes Paul Morton, and even drops him with a piledriver! Crazy to see a guy who looked as frail as Morton getting knocked around like that. Eddie Marlin tries to break things up and takes a great bump off a Gilbert punch. Marlin in the studio calls Gilbert out and once again we have a heel who would have been fired, but gosh darn it, the babyface just wants him in the ring THAT BADLY. So instead it's a $5,000 fine. Gilbert wants Marlin to do a Ross Perot and "get out." Morton interrupts a Gilbert match against Tony Falk (babyface now?) and runs him off. This Monday there won't be any referee at all--match goes until one man can't continue. Sounds good to me. It's nice to see the Unified title being contended for among other guys even if you know it'll always end up back with Lawler eventually.
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The least of these vignettes so far. Razor explicitly states that he's after the WWF Title, which seems to be an indication that they had major plans for him from the start.
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I thought the invoking of the kid was pretty cheesy, but BBM wrapped it up well--he even gets bleeped!
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"They're going absolutely WILD! ... Well, as wild as the British ever get, that is!" Mean Gene with the huge slam on our allies. Effective video piece follows--I'm surprised they showed the Warrior in street clothes.