PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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That poor kid. How evil was I to wonder if this was going to be an angle set-up?
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Eric Embry immediately crashes a Moondog Spot squash and the other babyfaces team up to run off the Moondogs. Lawler brings out Marlin and Guy Coffee and asks for a 4-on-4 match. "Are you people sick of seeing the Moondogs??" NO, not yet! Embry cuts one of the most passionate promos of his career, and that's saying a lot. Embry even brings up that he got more cards and letters in the hospital in Memphis than his call-to-action campaign in Texas did! They're really trying to hype this as a Final Showdown, but that can't possibly be the case--the 'dogs still have the tag titles, for one thing. Good to see the babyfaces standing tall, though. What's noticeable is how the USWA roster has thinned mightily in the past year--Lawler shouldn't have to be doing double-duty like this with two rather heavily hyped matches.
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Lawler recites his standard company-champions historical piece in relation to this big GWF vs. USWA title match with Eddie Gilbert. Lawler has a tendency to repeat his promos, because he's also cut plenty of them regarding Eddie Gilbert wanting to be him, but they're always compelling. Lawler draws the distinction between guys like Harley Race and Randy Savage wanting to imitate him and Gilbert wanting to be him. Gilbert is given the chance to respond and calmly stands up, then fucking SNAPS, choking out Lawler and screaming about how he's going to kill him, before Dave Brown hastily tells them to go to commercial. Incredible segment that has that Memphis chaos while also putting over the title vs. title match as a Big Deal. I don't think it eclipses the all-time great Memphis segments (Snowman debut, the Jarrett/Gilbert brawl, and maybe Eric Embry attacking Paul Neighbors and Michael St. John) but it was an incredible piece of business, and also remarkably efficient. Gilbert doesn't ramble on the mic or get into a back-and-forth with Lawler, he just loses it.
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Two hot matches, two run-in DQ finishes, two great performances (from what we see) by Richard Lee. I so want to see Marlin vs. Lee in an actual match. -
Papa Shango returns to ringside after a Warrior victory over Brian Knobbs, in possession of one of the Warrior's wristbands, and goes into a trance. Then Warrior suddenly clutches his stomach and falls off the apron. Vince speculates appendicitis but Perfect is adamant that it's a Shango curse. It's not hard to see why this was such a complete disaster. Luckily we're spared the later segment that shows Warrior puking in the locker room.
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Is Crush supposed to be living in this place? Because all junkyard mechanics walk around in neon purple and yellow spandex.
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Onita and Goto TOGETHER?? This IS weird. With all the FMW guys I guess I should have expected as much, but I was not expecting this to start with an ECW Arena-style brawl. Meanwhile Casas and Santo are doing their own thing in the ring, a lot of the same spots as the night before but executed smoother in front of a psychotic crowd and with chaotic shit happening all around them. The crowd is obviously nuts for Santo but Goto and Onita get big pops for about every move they do as well. I think this actually could have improved by sticking one of the Americans on the technico side and letting Onita and Goto go at each other, but that's a minor quibble for an amazing spectacle that feels ahead of its time, and does a better job blending wrestling and brawling than just about anything ECW ever did. Not a complaint but an observation: I found it curious that Santo, the super mega star of the match, ate a pinfall but didn't score a victory of his own, letting both partners get the spotlight at the finishes.
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Some fun stuff here. Onita and Goto came to work, and while they're not outstanding fits for the style they basically work against each other and that's always gold. Santo and Casas are incredible, with Santo doing some of the most gorgeous armdrags in wrestling history. Mascaras provides a few nice holds and no-sells a lot. Giant Warrior is tall. The ending was kind of WTF, to the point where I seriously wonder if everyone knew it was supposed to be 2/3 falls, because they worked this like a 1-fall match, and there are some spots where the non-Mexicans don't seem to know the usual lucha rules.
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I think I developed a staph infection just watching this. Good God that ring was disgusting. Well, I thought this was good. But just "good." Maybe even really good. Nowhere near the high-end lucha matches of the early '90s, overall or just involving Santo. The first fall had some excellent matwork but the second was just by the numbers, and I simply wasn't compelled by Espanto on offense. The third fall ramps the intensity up and if there's one thing Espanto did do that was really great, it was time his kickouts. Santo gets about 47 false finishes on him before Espanto pulls out a small package counter for the upset victory. I think the match was better than I'm giving it credit for, but the rest of the thread is talking this up as a MOTYC and I'm just not seeing it.
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I'm not sure these constant 2/3 fall matches were really the way for a company in 1992 to be going towards, but this was quite good and maybe Austin's best all-around performance so far.
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The Crush Gals phenomenon got a write-up in the Wall Street Journal at or near their peak, which is what led to the WWF's interest in them.
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The initials "WWF" are mentioned on WCW television. I missed this when it happened but it would have had me passed out on the floor if I'd seen it. Rude answers the question pretty well. We get into Ricky Steamboat's stalking of Madusa and then we get some sub-Jerry Springer sleaze from the audience, as lady after lady announce their affairs with Ricky Steamboat. Ross sort of shits all over this and Doug Dillinger carries one of the chicks out of the studio. Rude is really good here, especially his disingenuous shock and apology to Mrs. Steamboat. The angle itself is more "sounded good in theory."
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Nothing special about this that I saw. Hughes daring Koloff to keep up with the shoulder tackles only for Nikita to catch him with a dropkick was a cute spot, and Hughes took some solid bumps. This was better than it looked on paper but nothing really worth preserving.
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Jesse takes credit for Fred Couples' victory in the Masters, before Paul E. rants about K. Allan Frey's conspiracy against the Dangerous Alliance. The matches and action have been terrific, as well as a lot of the little side angles, but the "hostile company takeover" portion has almost been forgotten until now. And yes, I can't believe that WarGames is only about two weeks away. So far we've seen one off-hand mention of it by Ross, and he didn't name any actual members of Sting's Squadron.
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On what grounds does DWB deserve reinstatement? Kimberly is no Percy Pringle.
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Right at this point Global stopped flying in outside talent and went to using almost exclusively Dallas-area guys. Gilbert is terrific here, as a laid-back, suited, quietly confident smarmy heel instead of the screamer he was before. Gilbert calls out the USWA for not really having an "open door policy" and then, in perhaps the ultimate insult in the face of prior King promos, refers to Jerry Lawler as a "company champion"! That's cutting it to the bone, right there. Eddie Marlin interrupts a confrontation between Gilbert and Guy Coffee to declare that without him, Jerry Lawler would have come out and pounded Gilbert's brains in. Marlin wants Gilbert to have a chance to work his way up and Coffee wants him thrown out of the studio. Eventually Dr. Tom Prichard comes out to settle this, and eventually they talk Gilbert into putting up the GWF North American title for this Monday! This is a very rushed (relatively speaking) rehash of the Snowman angle in many aspects. There are plenty of worse angles to rip off and Gilbert has quite a strong argument, having been seen on national TV with this championship.
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Great promo from Embry, who's due to be released in the morning. As good as Embry is as a heel, I still like him even more as a babyface. Richard Lee rebuts with his strongest promo to date, with words for Eric Embry, the team of Jarrett & Lawler, and Charlie Trapper, who's so fat he has to turn sideways to knock on a door. It's Lee vs. Trapper in a boxing match this Monday--Worst Match of the Year candidate? Possibly!
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Don't order ME to have a Happy Mother's Day, Sarge. It must be May sweeps, because this is quite the high-level match for Superstars. Mountie is quickly out at ringside and puts together his new shock stick--the (I can't believe I remember this) "Great American Scream Machine." Sarge takes his requisite loony bump over the turnbuckle but otherwise looks physically shot. Flair does a decent job of covering that slingshot attempt. Eventually Mountie gets the opportunity to zap Slaughter and Flair gets the pin--screwjob or not it's refreshing to see a star match on Superstars end decisively. Mountie sings while Sarge does a stretcher job. I think they tried to pass of the new stick as being "20,000 volts"--I guess this plus the new theme song were a semi-desperate attempt to re-push the Mountie. Fun character but this was definitely a guy with a limited shelf life. After going to jail there wasn't a ton to do.
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Presumably damage control over Sid's walkout. I know for a fact that the Shango gimmick in general and the puke angle specifically were the final straw(s) for a LOT of longtime fans, who gave up on the WWF. I was always fascinated by Voodoo as a child so I got a kick out of the gimmick, but this is SUCH a step down even from Sid as a main event heel.
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Savage actually cuts a local-centric promo, which I didn't know they were still doing.
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Good match, but Albright's suplexes (and a powerslam!) were what jumped out more than what Takada did, though his escape of a German attempt by tripping Albright and applying a toehold was a nice spot.
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This is actually crazy good considering these guys' ages and inactivity. Not nearly as good as their match 12 years earlier, but that was a Best of the Decade candidate.
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[1992-04-17-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Stan Hansen vs Mitsuharu Misawa
PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in April 1992
I might be the highest person on this match yet. Part of this came from watching the '92 season and getting REALLY emotionally invested in a possible Misawa victory--this is as close as he'd gotten yet to knocking Hansen off, closer even than the Triple Crown match earlier in the year. He went in with the right gameplan, did almost all the right things...but didn't quite take Hansen's arm out enough. Maybe this didn't have the big bombs and near-falls of a typical big AJPW main event but I really, really liked that this was a focused, limb-based struggle that was really the greatest possible WCW television main event. Jim Ross would have been in his glory calling this ("Misawa, who was a special teams standout for Saitama A&M...") -
Really good insight from Hervey--NOT!!! That little jackass still can't decide if he wants to be a heel or a face--hey, "jackass," that's a good word! VELOCITY! Okay, I think I've got most of that out of my system. Good Lord, was this a tough listen. This is a bold booking move, and both guys are nicely focused on certain body parts, but the match comes off as being long for its own sake and none of the finishes have anything to do with all the limb work. Instead we get two rollups and a spinebuster on the guy who hadn't had his back worked over. I liked Josh using atomic drops as transition moves, playing off Arn's injured back, his submissions, as well as using the Northern Exposure as sort of a weardown move. Arn was Arn, but this wasn't as good as his tighter TV title bouts.
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I like the thought of Paul E. schmoozing with Jesse. Madusa is in tears at the treatment Ricky Steamboat has given her, first striking her and now "sexually harrassing" her. For fuck's sake guys, the Thomas/Hill hearings were 6 months before this and the Lisa Olson incident over a year before. Try to stay on top of things--that goes for everyone in wrestling. Madusa still does "ditzy dumb blonde who's also an asskicker" well, though. The lights go out and Steamboat's in the balcony and Madusa screams like she's in a horror movie and Steamboat resurrects his WWF fire-breathing gimmick. Ross and Hervey talk about how uncharacteristic this is of Steamboat--are they trying to give credence to Paul E. and Madusa's story or something? Rude and Madusa cut a good promo--I always thought Madusa was one of the all-time worst on the stick but she's been pretty good in this role. Steamboat had his nose taped, so this Yearbook missed Steamboat finally striking Madusa after weeks of build-up, and then being immediately apologetic and getting absolutely waylaid by the Dangerous Alliance and having his face rubbed in cement. That was a spectacular angle, sold awesomely by everyone from the fringe DA members, to the babyfaces making the save, to Schiavone on commentary, to the Apter mags ("DON'T HURT MY DADDY"). But the follow-up just seems "off." I actually like the idea of Rude trying to break Steamboat's "family man" image, but... 1.) There needs to be some doubt as to whether Steamboat's actually doing this, and I don't think anyone would actually buy the accusations. 2.) More importantly, it's coming WAY too close to the Flair/Liz angle and reeks of copycatting.