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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    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!
  2. PeteF3
    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.
  3. PeteF3
    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.
  4. PeteF3
    Savage actually cuts a local-centric promo, which I didn't know they were still doing.
  5. PeteF3
    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.
  6. PeteF3
    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.
  7. PeteF3
    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...")
  8. PeteF3
    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.
  9. PeteF3
    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.
  10. PeteF3
    Fuck me, Jason Hervey is back to haunt my life again. Windham says that Dustin is one of Hervey's biggest fans, which makes me lose a lot of respect for the Natural. Windham is targetting Austin's TV title. He quickly confronts an Undertaker-looking fan heckling him, while Missy holds the microphone, and it's Paul E. with a fake beard. Cute segment even with Hervey polluting it.
  11. PeteF3
    The Bodies aren't concerned over their tag tournament finals opponent, whether it's the Fantastics or the Maulers/New Zealand Militia.
  12. PeteF3
    Embry looks like hell, and warns Lee and the Moondogs to pray that he never regains his sight.
  13. PeteF3
    Confusion over the Southern title, as Eddie Marlin oversteps his authority for the second consecutive week.
  14. PeteF3
    It's hard to believe that Crush got over at all--these may be the worst promotional vignettes the WWF has ever done.
  15. PeteF3
    Martel, due up next, has to disinfect the ring of Tatanka's smell first. Tatanka shoves him off the apron and Perfect accuses him of sneaking up from behind, "just like a typical Indian!" Tatanka attempts a chop off the apron but eats Arrogance into the eyes. Tatanka sells it big but somehow I don't recall weeks of blindness, so maybe Martel was ordered by Jack Tunney to water the cologne down. Martel makes off with some eagle feathers that he makes look fashionable. Kind of dopey, but Martel is so committed to his role that you have to respect him.
  16. PeteF3
    Spanish overdubs of a Spanish woman holding an English conversation with a French man.
  17. PeteF3
    These guys actually made the PWI 500 that year, so I'd assume McAdam knew whose palms to grease in the Apter mag world. Fulton cuts a decent promo to start--but "Freight Train" is not a good name for a robe-wearing trash-talking heel. This was sort of what I expected the first Kid/Lynn match to look like--some impressive spots mimicking the stuff making the tape trading rounds at the time. That's what this was, without those matches' build, hatred, and psychology. That said, indy 2.9 nise-All-Japan wrestling was not nearly as widespread as it was in the ROH days through today, Fulton is somewhat attempting to work as a traditional heel, and Wilcox busted out a few submissions and pinning combinations I still haven't seen. It hasn't aged well at all but I can see why it generated the buzz that it did. And yes, the table spot or to be more exact the way it was worked was ridiculous.
  18. PeteF3
    This was whatever. Horribly blown top-rope dive by Norton and an anticlimactic finish.
  19. PeteF3
    The closing stretch did meander into a bit of a mess at times, which is the only thing holding this back from MOTYC-dom in its own right. It's still a hell of a match with three terrific performances and Keiji Muto...well, he had a great '91. This is really the Hase and Bam Bam Show, however. Hase has had a number of standout performances so it's hard for me to say this is his best, but it's definitely the best Bigelow performance I think I've ever seen. Hase slugging it out with Vader brought to mind the great Vader/Dustin opening at the Clash, and Hase hitting the Northern Lights on him was a markout moment. Really great closing moments, as Muto is cut off from a pin save but Hase kicks out anyway, and then Muto is held up inches away from a second pin save, just like Kevin Dyson at the goal line in the Super Bowl, as Hase goes down.
  20. PeteF3
    No, Samurai isn't as good as Liger, at least not here, but this is not Liger vs. a broomstick by any stretch. Sammy is awesome just destroying Liger at the start and heeling it up to the crowd, he's awesome selling the beating (and I love that he never bothers to remove the remnants of his mask, wearing it like a bandana and having it flop over his eyes when he's prone on the mat), and he makes an awesome comeback after Liger's paid him back several times over. Incidentally, another little bit that I thought was great was Liger trying to hit a German suplex, and being ready when Samurai tries to do the reverse punt to the nuts--shifting his body turning it into a backdrop suplex instead. Great little play off the previous encounter. I didn't think the submission portion dragged this down at all--they worked it so well with so much hatred and urgency that it was one of my very favorite parts of the match. There are some spectacular spots, of course, but this is all about Samurai coming in as an overconfident dick and Liger coming back to kick his ass, with Sammy showing that he's a little more than just a lucky cheapshot artist towards the end. On the contrary, I expect this to age BETTER than just about any NJ juniors match to come, because the storytelling element is there and the layout is different than the typical juniors contest. This match had a great deal of buzz in the first Liger/Samurai thread, so I came in with pretty high expectations. For better or for worse, expectations can play a huge role in how I view a match, so that means this match had strike 1 going against it from the start. To me it's *****. Easily. It's one of the 2 or 3 best matches of the 2.33333 Yearbooks I've watched, possibly better than any '80s NJPW match. It was really fucking good, is my point here.
  21. PeteF3
    Count me as another one who liked the finish. Fit in with the story of the match, with Misawa having to get his shots in when he can. A good flash finish in an AJPW setting makes for a refreshing change of pace. Probably a stronger overall match than their bout the previous year, though that one was maybe a little more action-packed. This was a little more psychologically fulfilling and organic, with a good build to the closing stretch and Misawa doing a terrific job of working underneath.
  22. PeteF3
    Somehow they turn Nikita's U.S. belt shot into a quasi-babyface act because Luger didn't care about the fans or autographs. Hilarious. More excuses follow for Nikita's actions at SuperBrawl--so if he HAD clobbered Luger and cost he and Sting the tag titles, that would have been okay? Nikita kisses up to Sting to make up for that. At least they're not whitewashing these episodes. Nikita explains that he left WCW due to the political situation in Lithuania and trauma over the Sting/Ben angle in another rather clever rewrite of history. Nikita brings up the Magnum car accident and babyface turn in 1986...and you can tell that Dusty had a big hand in writing this.
  23. PeteF3
    Prichard's Piper impersonation is relatively subdued here. In USWA-Texas it was blatantly out of control. If there's one pukehole Stanfield Lane does NOT want to go to, it's Beckley, West Virginia.
  24. PeteF3
    Embry thanks the fans for their concerns, and is in disbelief that Richard Lee & the Moondogs would try to intentionally blind someone. He delivers a warning to Lawler, Jarrett, and anyone else who faces the Moondogs. Great follow-up to a terrific angle.
  25. PeteF3
    The departing Prichard regains the Southern title. Maybe Bill Watts booked this finish.
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