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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Bobby has already been unveiled as a member of the Dangerous Alliance on another program, forcing Schiavone to call this after the fact and inform us of what's going to happen. It appears that the Alliance is just Eaton, Rude, and Madusa at this point. They tell an effective enough story here and the work is all good, but there's no heat--I'm guessing this was taped before any TV viewer in attendance was compelled to care about this as anything other than a random syndie tag. Eaton does the same indignant tag-and-then-drag-partner-over-the-top-rope turn that Windham did on Luger three and a half years earlier, and is back where he truly belongs.
  2. PeteF3
    Gary Young's perm has been unmatched by anyone in wrestling history if not human history.
  3. PeteF3
    That tag match is one I'd never heard of before. There's an absolutely incredible moment where Arn has Garvin trapped in a body scissors and Garvin is trying to stand up out of it, and he absolutely levels Arn with one of the greatest forearm punches ever, like it crushed Arn's head against the mat. Crockett's call of the finish was spectacular too, and shows that he really did get what needed to be put over: "GARVIN JUST KNOCKED RIC FLAIR, THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, OUT! COLD!" Too short and one-sided to be called a great tag match but definitely one of the most fun and heated sub-10-minute matches ever.
  4. PeteF3
    Jake cuts another fantastic promo goading Savage into the ring. It is pretty silly that referees so stridently attempt to prevent Savage from entering the ring but don't do anything once Jake starts beating him down. That said, once the cobra is out and biting, they do a good job of getting across that in-ring help for Savage is impossible, particularly with Jake beating up medics and threatening everyone else with the snake. Savage sells this incredibly as even through the canned "MACHO" chants this crowd is obviously horrified. Whether or not the resulting feud bombed, this segment was the perfect blend of hardcore, edgey booking with the WWF's slick production values--which with the shaky cameras and chaotic atmosphere don't come off as TOO slick.
  5. PeteF3
    Mustafa, Skinner, Bully, and Berzerker--has there been a worse team in Survivor Series history? Do the two teams in the Smoking Gunn vs. Smoking Gunn match of '96 count if they were just on the Free-For-All? Between getting pushed as a quasi-lackey for the Undertaker and teaming up with the likes of the Warlord and Mountie, Flair already feels like one of the guys (teaming with Ted just seems like the natural order, though). Mr. Perfect is his new executive consultant.
  6. PeteF3
    It's self-aggrandizing, yes, but citing Psalm 23 in reference to the Undertaker is pretty fitting. Going to John 3:16, less so. Hogan also has words for Ricflair--the light that blinds the Undertaker will also blind you, Ricflair. Heavy pushing of the crucifix getting torn here.
  7. PeteF3
    As good as she was used throughout her WWF stint and as over as she was, I generally think Liz is a horrible performer. She got over by proxy from Randy, by looking good, and being a one-of-a-kind presence simply by virtue of being a petite good-looking woman. That said, she's tolerable in measured, pre-taped settings like this.
  8. PeteF3
    I knew this match had a rep, but holy fucking shit. Cactus is lightyears away from where he was in 1990, throwing some good strikes and having all manner of clever spots and transitions. I particularly loved Cactus dodging the Stinger Splash, Sting putting on the brakes and trying to dive at Jack from the turnbuckle, and Jack catching him and giving him a stungun. Counters to counters--always mark-worthy. Sting takes a great deal of punishment himself, but dodges a chairshot and hits a great dropkick to Jack on the apron. Absolutely brutal Nestea Plunge follows with Jack's head missing the floor mats. Jack is out, possibly legitimately, and Sting locks on the scorpion for the UTC victory. Ending is sort of the usual self-mutilating Foley bullshit but at the same time Jack looked nigh-unstoppable during the match, so it comes off as the only way to put Jack down. WCW Match of the Year. Yes, I said it, I liked this better than WarGames. The only negatives were a.) Jim Ross commentating like this great match was getting in the way of all the things he had to plug, and b.) the lack of continuity with this being taped before the Clash, with Sting carrying the U.S. title belt and showing no signs of any knee injury.
  9. PeteF3
    Ah, the best of both lucha worlds: this is for some championship of some sort, so we get a trios match worked as a lucha title match. That means lots of cool matwork in the opening fall, and we slowly progress to dives--but at no point does this ever stray from two teams trying to Win the Match. Big heat for the Infernales beating down all three Brazos to end the second fall, even after it was already won. Some great near-falls in the tercera caida with some great mat-based reversals. MS-1 and El Brazo eliminate each other as MS-1 attempts a way cool leg submission/cradle thingy but pins himself as well in the process, and Morgan reverses a victory roll to score the win and titles (presumably) for Los Infernales. Five of the six guys here looked great while Porky was more on the okayish side by comparison--jury's still out but he may be the one Brazo who's better suited for comedy than straight-up wrestling, though he did get in his dive to the floor that always gets the crowd going.
  10. PeteF3
    Okay, I liked this too but I have to break on one aspect: the punching in the corner with Oro's butt bumping against Charles was cute in concept, but the execution spoiled it for me. That aside, it was a blast watching the Brazos do their usual act but as total babyfaces--you feel like they've earned the cheers and the chants that they've worked and suffered so hard to achieve over the course of these Yearbooks. Porky absolutely crushes all three opponents with a top-rope splash to decisively win the second fall, and the rudos' communication falls apart in the third. The rudos ducking an attempted Brazo tope, only for the Brazo to slap Charles in the head causing him to turn on his partners was a much better heel stooge spot.
  11. PeteF3
    Real good match and a nice novelty in the stream of Super Generation vs. Jumbo's Army tags. Misawa actually takes a Jumbo-esque role here when in with Kikuchi, sort of casually dismissing his attempted offense and forearming him to death. He doesn't channel Jumbo completely but it's still a neat role change for Mitsuharu. Kobashi and Kikuchi rarely appear ready to pull off an upset but they get a lot of kickouts to get them over as never-say-die underdogs.
  12. PeteF3
    I think Akiyama vs. Omori from the '00 Carnival needs to be on there for the novelty factor...and it's not like it's gonna eat up a ton of space.
  13. PeteF3
    Well, now I feel worse for shitting all over the Gran Davies stuff--I'm up to the mid-November Observers where it's reported that he died just two days after this match, after refereeing another match where he was a focal point as a heel ref.
  14. PeteF3
    In hindsight, they'd have been better off saving Sting/Rude for last, with the excuse that Sting was going to be given every moment of available satellite time to make it back to the arena. Nonetheless, for such a nothing program in an anticlimactic slot with the chances of a title change being virtually nil, this is heated with a very good closing stretch. Luger escapes the top-rope bulldog via rope. Scott Steiner, Mr. Hughes, and Harley Race all get involved with Hughes eating a Frankensteiner. In all the chaos, Luger whacks Steiner with the title belt for the victory. Hey, whatever happened to Ron Simmons?
  15. PeteF3
    The words "Dangerous Alliance" are uttered for the first time on this Yearbook. I can't say enough about how shockingly great Tony Schiavone has been this year. He was awesome rattling off Mid-Atlantic history during the tag title match and he's expressing some Lance-and-Dave levels of disgust with Rude and Paul E. here.
  16. PeteF3
    This is one of the great sub-five-minute matches of all-time. Everything about this is great, from Paul E.'s promo talking about how Sting doesn't care about the Little Stingers, to the growing pop as the ambulance arrives and Sting gets out, to Paul E.'s panic, to the other babyfaces exhorting Sting to get to the ring. The match itself is a great sprint and a fantastic selling performance by Sting. He gets to show off what he can offensively, Rude gets some good opportunistic moves in, and Sting gets a big kickout after Paul E. whacks him with the phone. Another Paul E. distraction nets Rude the belt and the beginning of a great title reign.
  17. PeteF3
    What's with the "loophole" talk? A champion no-showing a title defense sounds like a perfectly valid reason for stripping the belt. Sting hijacks an ambulance, which is a silly development in a pretty well-done angle.
  18. PeteF3
    Is this the greatest substitute in wrestling history? I'm hard-pressed to think of another one that compares. The Enforcers have one of the all-time great heel reactions--"NOT RICKY STEAMBOAT!", Arn making bug-eyed faces, and then my possible favorite: Arn caressing his tag title belt, as though the match is already lost and he's giving it his goodbyes. This is the hottest WCW crowd since the beginning of the year if not all year, and after a fine babyface showcase we get some classic heeling by the Enforcers before the big comeback and victory. I don't think this was as good as the best 1990 tag matches involving the Midnights, Rock 'n Rolls, and Southern Boys, but it has a more compelling, "bigger" storyline and more star power to it, and that counts for a lot. I know business was a long way from turning around, but we've just seen the debut of Cactus, Rude, and Steamboat and coming soon will be Vader, Nikita, and others. Things are looking up for WCW in a post-Flair world.
  19. PeteF3
    Sting is at a MEDICAL FACILITYTM. Ross and Bischoff have trouble connecting while someone tells Schiavone to get his head out of the shot. Sting's knee swelled up to three times its normal size, but he gave a thumbs up.
  20. PeteF3
    Just when you think the box angle has been forgotten, Sting is out to receive what he is told is his final box. A bunch of bodybuilders bring out a Middle Eastern-looking caravan, and out steps a belly-dancing Madusa, who evidently has more interest in Sting's Stinger than she let on. We're approaching the end of the year and we've come full circle with facepainted babyfaces being propositioned by female managers. Lex Luger clips Sting from behind and takes apart his bad knee. Good payoff. The fact that Luger vs. Sting has gotten no lip service at all has felt weird, and this is a good way to re-ignite a match-up that every WCW fan really wanted to see and also put it off at the same time, as Sting will have to deal with the re-injured knee as well as Rick Rude first. Am I imagining this or did Jake Roberts not ultimately take credit for the boxes ten months later?
  21. PeteF3
    This is something the WWF would never, ever, EVER think of doing at this time--the Royal Rumble was as daring as it got in that regard. So in that sense it's an effective marketing gimmick for WCW. Still, I've never been crazy about all-tag-team shows, at least in the U.S., and you'd like for Starrcade to be a show to settle or start big feuds and storylines instead of acting as a gimmick PPV for the second time in three years.
  22. PeteF3
    Sid tore a bicep which knocked him out of the Survivor Series and the Jake feud. It's November, so Savage and the WWF have election puns on their mind. Savage wants to take on Jake and the "rest of his rat pack snake pit" which is a spectacularly mixed metaphor that still makes sense.
  23. PeteF3
    Madusa simply does not pull off seductive. Sting is kind of endearingly goofy in this promo, especially in his response to the Stinger line.
  24. PeteF3
    Psycho promo from Paul E. in which he decries how Clarence Thomas can get to the Supreme Court while he gets dumped on, while Rude puts over Sting while also confidently predicting a U.S. title victory. Sting/Rude clearly comes off as the Clash's biggest match.
  25. PeteF3
    Dustin is serviceable here and Arn is brilliant with multitudes of career advice for the young Rhodes. Until children reach puberty, they should be seen and not heard, so Dustin needs to shut his mouth and listen. And he needs to not jump on the end of Barry Windham's lightning bolt (it sounds better when Arn says it)--"because the life you save may be your own." Dustin sees that there's no Larry Z around and challenges Arn to step into the ring, but Arn informs him that nothing in the world is free and walks off. At this point they're still hyping Windham as Dustin's (possible) partner at the Clash. I'll be interested to find out at what point Dustin's actual partner was signed. As of early November there was nothing in the Observers about it.
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