PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Arn was never going to light the world on fire as even a quickie house show main event single, but in a perfect world this match would have co-headlined a Clash.
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It doesn't do much for Nikita's aura for Jesse to be towering over him. Really odd timing to all this, as Nikita is just now giving his answer to an envelope he received from the Dangerous Alliance at WrestleWar. Nikita tells Madusa off, and says he's targetting Rick Rude's U.S. title to set up that program.
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Genericized local promo hyping the Heavenly Bodies.
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Extensive highlights of Memphis in better times. God, I want to see that whole barbed wire match--the post-match beatdown is fantastic.
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That Lance Russell line was spectacular. "These are NOT Jerry Lawler's kids!" Dave Brown with the cold, hard facts. "Brian Lawler" aka Fred the Elephant Boy cuts a promo while the other kid tries to collect money from the fans until Lawler runs him off. Lawler tries to hype this Monday as the greatest night in his professional career--Lawler against Mike Doggendorf AND Mike Samples!
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Lawler puts Coraluzzo over as a representative of Andy Kaufman's estate who first got into Lawler's life after Andy's death. Now he's after Lawler with two of his "illegitimate children" from New Jersey. Coraluzzo sends in a pre-tape, where he laments Lawler stealing the Unified World title back from Kamala, forcing him to "ship him off to New York" to an organization without as much tough talent! Ha! He's on his way to Memphis, at least if his secretary can get him some half-price airfare. Hey, there he is! Coraluzzo is there with Mike Doggendorf, a big musclehead who takes exception to one too many Lawler insults and attacks. Until some of the other heels hit the ring and...pull Doggendorf off (???) Richard Lee is trying to help get order restored??! Well, this was an okay angle but that ending doesn't make a great deal of sense.
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I had a Cuban-American friend in middle school who was a huge Razor fan, so I guess that's one point in favor of the accent.
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Sherri debuts her mirror. Shawn pays some lip service to his IC title program with Bret, but this is a really bad, awkward interview. Sherri seems a little wasted holding a mirror and fawning, instead of being a raging psycho.
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The set-up of this is worth going out of your way to see. From Gordy and Doc's funny interview describing the Puerto Rican situation--"IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE??"--to Watts completely shitting on the NWA board of directors and the entire concept in general. Ross and Ventura continue burying the NWA President as the match starts. I'm not sure if this is the best match for either team--I really did like one of those Misawa/Kawada tags and that '91 Tokyo Dome match. However, I don't believe Misawa and Kawada could have worked a match like this at this point in their careers. These teams complement each other amazingly well--Doc and Gordy have enough pull (literal and figurative) to keep the Steiners more grounded than usual, and the Steiners aren't all that content to lay around with the MVCs in holds. What we get is the stiffest, most UWFI-esque mat-based match on North American soil since Snowman was challenging for the Unified World title. But this is three times as long and builds into some good highspotty action. These guys lose their way a little bit towards the end, which includes the most delayed "didn't see the babyface tag" referee reaction in wrestling history. But the finish itself is good and very out-of-the-box with Scott never actually getting to make the real hot tag. The whole match was out of the box, and while Doc & Gordy I don't think ever really got over with a North American audience I wish this emphasis on holds and matwork could have continued. -
Can someone tell me whether or not WCW has padding outside the ring? I don't think I picked up on a definitive answer to that question during the match. There are some great spots here, but yeah, this isn't much of a psychological masterpiece. A match with 3 outsiders on American TV probably SHOULD be a spotfest, but there are some eye-rolling moments towards the end like Liger wowing everybody with an Asai moonsault--an absolutely mindblowing move in the context of American wrestling in 1992--and Benoit up and raring to go three seconds later. Right after that, Pillman takes like two moves and then does a slow crawl to his corner like he's Ricky Morton having taken a 15-minute beating. And if Wellington looked "better than expected"...sheesh, I can't fathom what he was normally like, because I thought he sucked. I liked him kicking Pillman from the apron and his missed missile dropkick, but he was also either clumsy as hell or just sandbagging the shit out of Liger throughout the match. This was fun, but even for go-go spot-a-thons there are better ones throughout the year.
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Sting is looking very dapper in tuxedo-themed facepaint. Odd to be hyping a GAB main event before Beach Blast has even happened yet.
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Rude cuts a great promo, also making threats towards that "old seahag" Bonnie and the little lizard--who's going to support them when the Ironman is over?
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I'm surprised the first one of these was successful enough to warrant a sequel. Scott Steiner is hilariously awkward for his 2 seconds on camera. I've never much cared about going on cruises but I really, really wanted to see one of the TV programs taped on one of these.
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A Lance Russell sighting! Am I the only one who was watching in 1992 and horribly, horribly, HORRIBLY confused by the return of the "NWA" with its own separate titles back again? I was one of those people who thought the NWA->WCW thing was a simple name change, and that this was akin to...I dunno, the NFL deciding to crown AFL Champions again. Actually it WAS sort of like that. Apparently Frey wanted to completely drop the "WCW" stuff entirely and rebrand as the NWA name all over again, which was how this deal got struck, and I guess it was something Watts couldn't undo. Hype for the possibility of an all-Dangerous Alliance quarterfinal. This is twice now that they've hyped Austin as the "longest-reigning" TV Champion which is patently false unless maybe you limit it to WCW only, which is kind of an empty record in 1992. This is a nicely-done, Pure Sports Build type segment with some effective quick-and-dirty promos, which makes Bischoff's presence with Russell all the funnier.
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Watts comes across really well. WCW is not going to be a "macabre cartoon" like some other promotions--when Jake the Snake and Sting are in a horror movie dive bar shooting laser beams out of their eyes at each other, it'll be done with REALISM, dammit. Ole Anderson is the new senior referee, something that I don't think ever went anywhere.
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Good, tighter version of the 2/3 falls match. Austin is really coming into his own, as he's got a bit more in his arsenal that he can do besides that cool clothesline. And Ventura remains a breath of fresh air on commentary, at least so far. Well-done screwjob finish with Austin doing a terrific job of hide-the-belt. I was always a little confused over the purpose of this quick TV Title turnaround--Watts was coming in right at this point, so maybe this was him hitting the reset button.
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Lee doesn't offer much but DWB bumps and sells for him the best he can, though not well enough to really save the match. Lee gets caught with a foreign object that Anthony brought into the ring, and gets DQ'd. Another glorious win for our babyface champion. The post-match is what really makes this, as Orndorff goes nuts on Lee with a briefcase, and when Hector Guerrero tries to make the save he gets strung up by his own necktie. Orndorff has always been great at doing beatdowns and this is no exception. This is enough to make me want to see a Lee/Hector-Orndorff/DWB tag.
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Random thoughts as I go: - Man, that Tyson/Detroit card kind of died on the vine, didn't it? Meltzer was always a sucker for "who would win in a shoot" digressions, both in the newsletter and when he was semi-regularly posting on Classics. For such a non-starter of a topic he did go on about it for awhile. - Joe Isuzu was a commercial spokesman for Isuzu Motors, who would put on a transparently-phony-sincere act and make outrageous claims like their trucks sat more people than the Astrodome, or how you could save $2 million by buying 2,000 cars during their latest sale. I don't quite get the tie-in with Brother Love and Geraldo Rivera either. - Lance Russell was on WCW Pro at this point in addition to his hotline duties. But he didn't do the localized versions of Pro that aired in Chicago and NYC, which are most of the shows in current trading circulation. Caudle seemed in and out, but he did co-host WCW for awhile with Ross. - The WNN Kerry stuff is interesting--he was apparently practically signed, sealed, and delivered to debut with the NWA but no-showed a taping or something and that was that. - I remember Nitron from the '90 Yearbook, but that could well be leftover stuff taped from '89. - To Chad's point about the babyface roster: in the newsletter discussing Sting's injury, Meltzer justifies the Luger turn by pointing out that otherwise the company's #2 babyface was...Norman the Lunatic. - Ah, the MOD Squad, the poor man's State Patrol. "Rudimentary but better than expected" pretty much summed up their stuff with the Nightmares on the Memphis set. Granted, the Nightmares were probably an even better team than Pillman & Zenk. - I can see both sides of the Mascaras/Foley deal. Foley was going to still be around, Mascaras wasn't. That Mascaras was unwilling to meet his opponent halfway is a legit criticism, but Foley can't do a whole lot at this point besides take crazy bumps. One other thing I'd add to Foley's legacy that separates him from the other garbage/ECW guys is I still would have him as a top 10 all-time guy on the mic. - Speaking of the babyface roster, if they could have cajoled Muta into staying overseas, there was clearly some potential in babyface Muta. I get that he was Japanese, but he was also flashy and exotic, far moreso than Jumbo or Tenryu or any other Japanese visitor. I think he had similar "exotic" appeal that Jimmy Snuka had circa 1983. Interesting that Chad brings up a Tully babyface act. I'm more on Parv's side on that front. I don't think I'll go full-bore into Fantasy Booking (but I might). The true upper-midcard feud with wheels was not Face Tully vs. anybody, but Heel Tully vs. Babyface Arn. I would much rather have seen that than an Arn/Tully reunion, in fact.
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The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling
PeteF3 replied to ohtani's jacket's topic in Megathread archive
I know some people really hate the Bridges match. Bridges is past his prime and Nagasaki is nearing the end of his active career, it's from 1987 when British wrestling was dying as a national TV sport, and it's got an Americanized finish. But when I saw it, I liked it way more than I should have. (But then I really like Bridges). Bridges/Rocco vs. Nagasaki/Shane Stevens is probably a match that made OJ want to gouge his eyes out, but I also thought that was fun, but it's not much of a Nagasaki showcase. Two more matches that served as gateways for a lot of people: Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers from 1975 (though they had about 7,000 matches against each other) and Johnny Saint vs. Robbie Brookside. Saint/Brookside is very exhibitiony but Saint runs through all of his trademark spots in greatest-hits fashion. -
Or it's an indication that the decision was made to transition the title to Hogan and Sheik was the next scheduled challenger. When Stan Stasiak won the title from Pedro, it wasn't because he was thought of as a major heel--he was Pedro's opponent when the decision was made to go back to Bruno. That was literally all that went into the process (that, and "Don't change the title at MSG because someone might die"). There's the alleged story about Backlund wanting to drop the title to someone with an amateur background, but that's not one I really believe.
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Hair aside (if that's possible) Lane's promo is outstanding. Jackie Fulton is a cripple and Bobby Fulton is impotent!
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Dutch pushes himself as doing hard, investigative journalism. Horowitz disputes his 0-43 record--"I thought it was only 25, 26!" Horowitz was a talented worker but got saddled with the jobber gimmick--not just being a jobber, but being defined by being one--for so long that it became impossible to extricate himself from it.
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Kudos to the USWA for setting up a big title unification match and giving us a decisive, satisfying finish. That wasn't too much to ask.
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Prentice laments the closing stores and half-mast flags as a response to Jerry Lawler's accidental title unification, and promises to regain the title for US, the fans. Gilbert vows to quit wrestling if he can't beat Lawler--not go to the WWF, or WCW, but quit entirely. Another money promo.
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Lawler sells this as well as possible, tying in the facepaint to the gifts given out at the end of The Wizard of Oz. But still, there's ripping off gimmicks and then there's blatantly, openly SAYING you're ripping off gimmicks. Oakes doesn't exactly reek of charisma here.