PeteF3
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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.
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I can't imagine many things less comfortable to watch than bodybuilding. Unique setting for a syndie interview, which I approve of. We're back to focusing on Savage's tights pull--apparently this is officially it for Elizabeth. Reading between the lines doesn't HAPPEN to HELP Ric Flair.
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That was quite funny coming directly off the first Yearbook appearance of La Parka. The promo overall, less so.
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This had to be one of the very first AAA shows, if not the first. And they sure as hell aren't skimping on the names in this one. Dig La Parka working a full-on Undertaker/Bray Wyatt gimmick, coming out all somber and stoic, with a lantern. I'm pretty sure the first fall ended with Santo getting a submission on Panther with the camel clutch, and all the chair-related stuff outside was extracurricular and post-fall. Loss summed this up for me--crowd-pleasing with lots of big names, but Aguayo looked his age and Fishman looked pretty awful. The brawling especially at the beginning was pretty tepid, and they got my attention much more effectively with Santo's way cool headscissors and Octagon finding new ways to do armdrags. More goofiness in the third fall as Fishman tears off Octagon's mask and Aguayo immediately tears off Fishman's. Both referees are in disagreement as to whom gets disqualified. Pretty sure the technicos had their mask taken off first. Speaking of '80s WWF, all three technicos beat up the official who ruled against them because they're babyfaces and anything they do is justified. There were some fun parts to this but I wanted more takedowns and flying instead of the brawling we've got. Lucha can give us some awesome-looking brawls but this wasn't it.
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This was a better version of Arn vs. Big Josh--better setting, better heat, and Windham is a more dynamic opponent. Plus the body part work paid off better--even Windham's flying lariat to end the first fall was indirectly set up by his leg giving out as he was climbing the turnbuckle. Full credit to them for not losing a crowd through 30 minutes of work. But that third fall ending...fuck. If they were going to go 30 minutes, they could have easily just went to the time limit draw and saved the Austin run-in for afterward.
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Madusa gets in some good lines, pointing out that Missy is only good for "BLOWING...hot air." This was more entertaining than it should have been.
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At some point in '91 he got a TV pinfall victory over Davey Boy Smith. That was a shocking result both then and in retrospect, considering that Davey was extremely well-protected because of his international marketability. Graham has it on the 8/5/91 Prime Time, I guess as a last-ditch effort to give any sort of credibility to the Triangle of Terror going into SummerSlam.
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Why couldn't Landell cut loose like this in WCW? After ranting non-stop for about a minute, Landell's "Hey Tim, good buddy, how ya doin'?" completely cracks me up. Horner and Landell knock out the audio as they brawl to the back. The $5,000 is still up for grabs.
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Bobby Fulton sends in a phone promo and gets bleeped in the process, vowing revenge for tearing up Jackie Fulton's knee. Cornette, Prichard, and a giant hairpiece with Stan Lane hiding underneath it are out to respond. Cornette produces an "I WILL WORK FOR FOOD" sign for Jackie to wear once the Bodies finish taking out his knee.
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More gold from Anthony and Wright.
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I hope business spiked for this, because the build to this match has been incredible. Enough to make up for the program fizzling the year before with Gilbert's walkout, return, and face turn. This is one of Lawler's very best promos of the '90s so far.
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A study in contrasts: Eddie Gilbert's reaction upon his #6 ranking with Stan Hansen's the year before. Tremendous promo, with Gilbert rattling off the names Lawler has faced and more or less declaring this to be the final showdown. No DQ, no countouts, no holding up of any belts. I'd like to think we'll get a clean unification finish but I'm about 99% sure that isn't going to happen.
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Pity the mic is so visible on Razor's white jacket.
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"Mmmm...evil goo." Okerlund recites the recent history of Papa Shango, including the angle I loved from the previous week--"HIS OPPONENT'S FEET ARE ON FIRE!!!" Shango doesn't say much of note but just when Mean Gene thinks the interview's over, Shango casts another spell and that goo comes down Okerlund's hand.
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Not much to add about this. Kawada's big TC challenge ultimately did very little to get him over in any way--he was decisively beaten down and the message was clearly sent that he wasn't at a true singles main event level yet. That's not the story at all with this, as Kobashi even through doing the job comes off as the gutsiest bastard in the history of the company. Some of his kickouts had me almost literally hopping out of my chair. Jumbo and Taue debut the Holy Demon Army "backdrop+chokeslam" spot that I thought for sure was the finish, but Misawa stuns me by coming back from that sick guardrail bump, goes THROUGH Jumbo, and makes the save. Then Taue hits the power bomb and Kobashi kicks out of THAT. Two of the absolute greatest near-falls I have ever seen. Kobashi even gets a mini-comeback, and I'm getting emotionally involved at this point--"Kenta, tag out--TAG MISAWA, GODDAMMIT." But he doesn't, and his comeback derails. Nonetheless Misawa & Kobashi absolutely come across as the team of the future. The point about the conservative booking is well-taken--I'm fine with Kobashi doing the job here but I'm hoping probably in vain that he gets a big victory at some point before the year is out. A pinfall on Taue, Doc, or Gordy doesn't seem like too much to ask for but I don't know if I'm going to get it. Kobashi looked great but I am hoping for a follow-up to this.
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Fine match that sort of dies down after a hot start. They weren't quite able to recreate the Kobashi/Hansen magic that also came after a big opening, as there was some meandering outside the ring. The finish puts Hansen over convincingly but does seem pretty out-of-place as he just sort of methodically takes Kawada apart. I guess they figured Hansen needed such a victory after barely eking his way past Misawa twice.
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Definitely some piped in crowd noise, but if you watch enough pre-Raw WWF you'll learn to tell visually how into things a crowd is, and they were definitely into this. Anyway, there was some excessively long chinlockery here, but this was a fun match with a really fun closing stretch. Shawn is surprisingly good at doing cut-offs here, and the Sweet Chin Music so much more enjoyable when it's a hot countermove rather than a finisher with all the big stomping theatrics preceding it. Bret turning the teardrop suplex into a sunset flip was a particularly neat counter. I vaguely remember this and one other non-ladder CHV match that Shawn won by countout, so I even popped a little bit myself when Bret got the winning roll-up.