PeteF3
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Kanemoto didn't look too comfortable here at all. Some good dives and sequences but I didn't think much of the match itself, especially considering the talent involved. -
This loses marks off the bat from the lack of awesome Muta entrance music. I've found it really bizarre that this quasi-TNT format change with celebrity hosts would include all these super-long 2/3 fall matches with non-wrestling announcers would have to commentate on. Big mixed message being sent. You'd never see the WWF forcing us to listen to a football player for hours at a time on any show. There is some good stuff here and the basics are all done well, and Muta does get over pretty well by the end of the match, but dear Lord is it a chore to sit through 30 minutes of this at a time. This could have been a very good match in about 1/3 of the time. Muto is a strong candidate for Most Unimproved Wrestler at this point of the year.
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Very realistic, Pure Sports Build promo from Arn. He outlines his future plans and strategy for dealing with Sting in a title match--take the crowd out of it and take a limb away.
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I liked the Pillman match better, maybe only because there are scarce amounts of Pillman vs. Dangerous Alliance guys, but this built into something really good and heated. There should be a thread discussing spots that seemed to primarily exist in one promotion: early '90s WCW was the exclusive home of the tombstone reversal. Any babyface match in mid-'90s WCW had the "two guys cross body each other" spot. All-Japan loved the "get up in a backdrop suplex but kick off the top rope" counter.
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During the Simba match, Vince rebutted Piper with a seemingly scripted zinger about Piper always wearing a kilt (in reference to Atlas "getting back to his roots"). Sounded like the whole thing aired exactly as planned.
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Great performance from Dutch, and the wrestlers are okay. I did notice Landell sort of laying in the bridge rollup--he needs to enroll in a Jushin Liger course in how to try to fight out of pinfalls.
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Repeated lines notwithstanding this is Horner's best promo to this point. Landell says that Bob Armstrong must be punch-drunk, and whines about having to put his $5,000 on the line.
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It's a special Saturday night show at the Mid-South Coliseum, and Gilbert has gone from defending the Global belt against Jerry Lawler, to Jeff Jarrett...to King Cobra. Gilbert puts this over as well as he can. Gilbert and Dave Brown have great chemistry together.
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I have absolutely NO recollection of Crush being in the WWF until just before his match at SummerSlam, to give you an idea of just how memorable these segments were.
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I think this would be the last hardcore, adult WWF angle in a series going back to the previous fall. It is too long of a segment, and I don't know if the WWF even tried to explain why an unsigned, ostensibly untrained maniac just out of the slammer would be handed a WWF contract. But the beatdown itself is sold great and the crack of the nightstick shots to the leg is pretty chilling. Vince and Perfect put this over huge on commentary, too. I hope the segment showing the Boss Man's photos from WWF Magazine is on this set, as that was one of the most effective articles in that magazine's history.
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The "proper" Nodowa showed up in the 6-man just before this. Don't know if that was the true debut or not. Another excellent tag, what else is new. It's not as good, but that this is able to stand up to a back-to-back viewing with the legendary All-Asia tag before it is a testament. Misawa works FIP(!) for a bit before Kikuchi actually gets a hot tag run before the inevitable beatdown follows. This time there is no hot tag to be made--Jumbo has Misawa's saves well-scouted and takes him out, allowing Taue to hit a killer chokeslam for the pin. A well-needed victory for Jumbo's side, who from a Yearbook perspective had appeared to be losing the war over the past few months.
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Booker does come off as a future star here. Ray has strong words for the "Ebony Beach Bums--whatever they want to call themselves." Somehow I think a team of two black guys talking in early-'90s California surfer slang could work as a gimmick.
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DEE DEE TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. One of the most joyous wrestling experiences you could ever imagine. This was one of my puro gateway drugs and I suspect it was for a lot of other people as well. In addition to all the other awesomeness this is probably Kikuchi's peak as an *offensive* wrestler, at least so far. He hits some nice moves and comes off as perfectly credible going up against Furnas. I guess I can't really give it a full ***** but once it gets going after the initial JIP point it's about the most perfectly executed wrestling match ever done.
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Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Mariko Yoshida & Takako Inoue, ?/?/92 I don't know which of these two I saw since the Youtube video didn't provide a date. Ten minutes shown with a highlight of Malenko doing an exploder/t-bone suplex off the top turnbuckle, if that helps. Fun look at what the AJW mid-carders were doing--they certainly don't hold back. Hasegawa works as the underdog/junior member role again and Debbie, someone I've never seen before, looks very impressive. They build nicely to a hot closing stretch in the time given (though I understand the AJW editors were the most skilled "match clippers" ever in terms of not making it look like you missed anything). This is another tag hurt by a horribly timed finish, with the referee arbitrarily stopping a count at two and signaling that a comatose Hasegawa got her shoulder up. That's an Angel Hernandez-level bad call. Blue Panther vs. Ultimo Dragon, 1/5/92 I wouldn't call this a truly great match but Panther gives one of the most selflessly great performances I've ever seen. Dragon is still wet behind the ears, but his highspots are pretty spectacular for the time. This is designed as a Dragon showcase so Panther gives him the vast majority of the match, to its detriment as Dragon on the mat instead of throwing bombs and dives isn't all that interesting here. They do build well to some terrific near-falls and both guys hit some big moves, before Dragon pulls off a major upset. It's easy to give your opponent lots of offense when you're going over, but to put over a relative youngster as well was a very bold move by CMLL and Panther.
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Jungle Jack vs. LCO, 5/24/92 Per advice from Zenjo in the thread on the other joshi tag from that date. I liked this one quite a bit better than the Toyota/Hasegawa match. The stuff I complained about re: lack of structure, and lack of differentiating attributes to each wrestler, wasn't here at all. LCO comes in with a definite gameplan (TM Jim Ross)--work over Bison, keep Aja out of the ring and preferably off the apron as much as possible. When Aja is in, try to double-team the shit out of her. They still cut a fast pace but the overarching strategy went into just about everything the workers did. A ton of near-falls towards the end when it really looks like the divide-and-conquer strategy is going to pay off, but Bison hangs on just long enough for Aja to recover from the piledriver on the floor and tag in, and then it seems as their final chance to win has slipped away. Unfortunately there's some really badly timed stuff in the closing stretch--Hokuto is supposed to counter a second-rope power bomb into a huracanrana that doesn't work well, and then it seems Mita gets knocked legitimately loopy on Kong's spinning backfist, leading to a stretched-out and rather woefully done finish with Aja pulling a Sabu and repeating a spot that didn't work the first time. I think I have this as the #3 joshi match of '92 that I've seen, behind the 2/3 fall Jungle Jack tag and Aja vs. Bull.
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This was enjoyable because they hit almost everything they tried, but man oh man, anyone who would accuse the Steiners of lacking form in their matches should take a gander at this one. Yoshida getting whipped into the turnbuckle and turning it into a dive on Toyota was a daring and clever spot, and I actually liked Sakie quite a bit here even through her relentlessly spin kick-centric offense. Other than a very vague sense that Inoue & Yoshida wanted to isolate the "junior" Hasegawa in the ring, I caught no discernible storyline here--everyone works the same pace and the same style and seemingly has the same strengths and weaknesses, so there's little variety or feelings of momentum shifts that you get in a good AJPW 6-man, where everyone works differently against everyone else. Still, as spotfests go this was well done and some of the near-falls and counters down the stretch were very good.
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I do think this was the best of the DA 6-mans (though not as good as the 4-man as Loss mentioned). This is the first truly standout Eaton performance on the set, as he works a fabulous sequence with Steamboat and is back to being the big-offense, big-bumping Beautiful Bobby of old. Also a very clever finish that furthers the Zbyszko dissension angle (that leads to the most anticlimactic wrestling breakup in history, but oh well).
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Good afternoon, Freebird Enterprises, could you hold please? Good afternoon, Freebird Enterprises, could you hold please? Good afternoon, Freebird Enterprises, could you hold please? Bischoff in the Bill Mercer put-upon announcer role is pretty funny. He meets up with an almost-unrecognizable, but even better-looking, Precious. I'm not ashamed to admit that I actually liked this. It was over as soon as it began, but Precious reinvented as a no-nonsense businesswoman trying desperately to keep the Freebirds in line and on focus was a gimmick that had potential. For the first time in awhile, Hayes and Garvin actually come across as being in on their own joke. Now, the question of whether they're supposed to be babyfaces or heels remains. They're sort of chummy with Bischoff and have words for Valentine and Taylor, but Hayes is a heel again under Watts, so...who knows.
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Dave Casper, the old football player? These are some random-ass guest hosts. Page, who has "GOOD" and "GAWD" on each of his sleeves, hypes a segment that sounds like a precursor to GTV. Page and Paul E. have some decent chemistry as Page introduces bootleg camera footage of Paul E. trying to stiff the two chicks from the earlier segment who were accusing Ricky Steamboat. Babyface turn? I'm not sure what the purpose is of DDP fingering heel tactics or coming off as being responsible for babyface run-ins. A good brawl erupts, with Paul E. getting his pants stripped.
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Somehow the bottom rope has gone missing, forcing Embry and Christopher to work a match with no rope-running. The Moondogs bide their time before running in. Embry refuses to back down and is actually holding his own for a bit against Spike, Cujo, and Lee. Just as he's about to get overwhelmed, Lawler and Jarrett make the save. Embry reiterates his pre-match promo about getting revenge on the Moondogs, while Lawler cuts a motormouthed version of his standard church-bulletin promo (even hyping a Gospel Jubilee!)
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Don't like the finish here, or Gilbert's presence. Plus the camera angle makes it impossible to believe that Morrell couldn't have seen Gilbert tripping Prichard. Doesn't do a thing to get Christopher over, since Prichard countered everything he personally tried. Billy Travis is back! He's going to shove that Southern title up Christopher's ass, and beats the shit out of him afterward.
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This is how to book an outside champion as an outsider, Vince. Gilbert comes across as above everything else going on in the USWA. Also, I approve of more Gilbert/Jarrett matches.
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"Look, he's still got that stuff all over his face--oh no, wait, that's paint." HA! Warrior wears a ring jacket for the first time in his life. Convenient. Warrior would be an ideal victim for a guy like Shango considering he's a guy who would CLEARLY believe any sort of magical hoo-hah Shango would try to offer up. Warrior is on a verbal roll when the black ooze starts streaming down his face. Obvious set-up aside that's an incredibly effective visual and this is the kind of thing I can get behind in the right setting, so long as I don't have to watch the matches.
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Flair's answering machine message is priceless. Bizarre setting but a good promo. Unfortunately this is probably the very last mention of Elizabeth on WWF television. I'd be curious as to what this was supposed to be leading to.
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Oh good, here's that puking footage. This was the height of my Apter mag-reading and this was something they absolutely lost their minds over. For once their blatant anti-WWF stance seemed pretty justified. Okerlund sells this as best he can, as does Shango during his promo. Like I said, I got a genuine kick out of the black ooze and jobbers getting set on fire. But this shit was awful. Not Black Scorpion awful, but it's one weak-ass main event program.