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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    The Guinness Records stuff is a pretty cool way of getting Kazmaier's legit credentials over. I'm not totally sure what exact record Kazmaier is going for, but regardless Anderson and Zbyszko come out and level Kazmaier in the ribs with a giant workout plate.
  2. PeteF3
    Badd has some flashes of good stuff but there are also a ton of really awkward stalls and resets here. Some of that was by design, I think, so they could get the fans to notice the box at ringside (which the cameras never catch, of course). Some of it was just plain inexperience. Plus the timing of the ending seemed blown. Still, it was a sign that Badd had potential. The post-match is fantastic, with Cactus Jack finally looking like a killer and delivering an awesome elbow from the second turnbuckle to the floor. Both Big Two promotions are starting to look revitalized.
  3. PeteF3
    Pillman's "first" match back since the loser-leaves bout. The Yellow Dog is one of those lame angles that was a horrible thing to watch and yet still leaves you feeling ripped off that there was no conclusion. Sort of like the insane Lex Luger push of '93. They make the right move in ditching Hayes & Garvin to start with, allowing Badstreet and Pillman to go balls to the wall without any distractions. Pillman takes 4 or 5 insane bumps and Badstreet brings more charisma than Brad Armstrong has ever showed in his life, and this is the most energetic crowd for a WCW event in months. Actually this is one of the better WCW bouts of the year.
  4. PeteF3
    Bucanero is laughably unrecognizable, looking like a mini-Tugboat in blackface. There was some fun stuff here and some of the sequences were incredibly complex, but a lot of this looked excessively choreographed--I particularly groaned at Kendo doing a bunch of kip-ups while the rudos just stood there. Plus lots of flipping around like an old-school kung phooey movie instead of guys hitting each other. And I could have done without the 49th "heel holds opponent for partner to hit and gets hit himself" spot. Still, the highspots we saw were fun and well-executed and the American-style finish was unique to see.
  5. PeteF3
    Hey, the #3 and #4 AJPW match on one card. Funny how often that sort of thing happens. This gets off to a different start as Hansen waylays Kobashi with a Lariat before the bell, and Kobashi spends the first half of the match in a coma before managing to mount a furious comeback. Kobashi clings to a sleeperhold despite getting suplexed, rammed into the ring apron, and sent over the guardrail in an awesome display to get over Kenta's determination. Eventually he falls to the Lariat but Kenta gets one step closer to finally getting a huge singles win.
  6. PeteF3
    Yeah, Misawa's shoulder was a reoccurring theme throughout the summer of '91--there was one tag match (or 6-man) where they actually stopped things and restarted with Kawada in his place. One thing I noticed this time around was lots of work around Jumbo's head. Jumbo wasn't in a lot of peril until the final stretch but seemingly every Kawada kick, Misawa elbow, and Kawada's big enzuilariato was targeted at his head or upper body--great way of foreshadowing and building to the big finish. Kawada gets his moments to shine as well, as you get the feeling that Misawa wouldn't have been able to make his comeback without Kawada's timely intervention. Misawa comes back to apply the facelock and gets Jumbo to tap, which comes across as big of a deal as his 4/90 pinfall. Probably the #3 AJPW match of the year at this point.
  7. PeteF3
    I'm not even sure if Mrs. Rude thought that Rick Rude was the greatest IC Champion ever. His whole reign was built around a primitive WWF-style swerve finish, after all. Well, so was Honky's, but Honky held the belt for 37 years. A confrontation with Bill Apter in the middle leads to the burning poll questions of who the greatest IC Champion is AND who has the greatest neckbreaker. The wrestling world is ABUZZ about these two issues, according to Tony Rumble. There's nothing sadder in wrestling than someone yelling "SHUT UP!" at a crow that isn't saying anything. George Napolitano tries to offer some insight while Rumble blithers and does a horrible job of acting surprised when the two guys in question come out. Rude concedes that Honky Tonk is great--a GREAT, BIG FOOL. Oh, snap. The only unironically enjoyable thing about this mess was hearing the classic World Class theme again.
  8. PeteF3
    The Dragon Master is the new Unified World Champion, but hey, let's see Lawler plug a karate school first. Only the King could pull that off. It may or may not be telling that Lawler only describes the finish instead of us seeing it. Lawler brings in Dutch Mantell to act as ringside enforcer to prevent future Christopher Love interference--hearty ovation for the Dutchman and Dave Brown is enjoying this a little too much. "Have you seen Stan Hansen?" Ha! Mantell makes some homophobic cracks towards Love and fears having to touch him, but offers to knock Love out so long as Lawler helps him find Stan Hansen. If Hansen were to actually make a return to the territory, then that would perhaps be the greatest payoff in wrestling history.
  9. PeteF3
    Vince's ridiculously perky "IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!" inexplicably made me giggle. Bearer's guest is world-renowned broadcast journalist Bobby "The Brain" Heeeenan??, who's rocking the suit-and-tennis-shoes look. Heenan calls out Hogan and then Piper, who leaves the comfort of his green-screen effect to confront Heenan. Piper spits on the belt, spits on Heenan, and storms off--not a smart move, Roddy.
  10. PeteF3
    Hah, I liked this quite a bit, though it's clearly the least of the 3 matches we see. Madusa--God bless her, she really tries, but the execution for the most part just isn't there and that drags this down at times. And holy crap are there some uncomfortable moments here--I'm all for snug work and realism but some of the kicks unleashed by Kansai and Madusa were brutal, as was Madusa clobbering Saito in the back of the head with a chair. As was Saito's blade job. Still, Harley gave a really good sympathetic performance and had some good kickouts before succumbing. Concussion issues aside the use of the chair was smarter than just about any weapon use in any AJW match on these yearbooks, and the out-of-the-ring brawling felt more realistic than the Itchy & Scratchy bullshit from Bull and Aja earlier in the year and at times in 1990.
  11. PeteF3
    Goddamn, I need to see more of this promotion. I mean, I GUESS the opening was a little my turn/your turn-ish, but when the counters are as sensible and creative at the same time as the ones here were, then I can overlook that. Masami has maybe the most awesome facials in wrestling history--she has the o-face when she's inflicting pain, the googly-eyed monster stare, and a great "I'M ANGRY" reaction after Yamazaki has gotten the better of her on the floor. 99% of these would look like absurd, trying-too-hard face acting in the hands of most other workers but Devil makes them work. And...hey, another women's match where moves have consequences and there's long-term shit. Masami is still selling her wounded leg after doing power bombs and every time Yamazaki is on the mat she's performing or attempting another cool leg takedown. Yamazaki kicks out of two power bombs, the second one I was really buying as the finish, and counters a third to pull out a victory that comes off as an upset. Scorpion-Suzuki never really slowed down while still giving everything time to breathe. This certainly gave things time to breathe but probably did slow down a bit about 2/3 through, plus some of the choreographed shit on the apron I could have done without. Otherwise we'd have two joshi MOTYCs on roughly even ground. Great match for what could be the card of the year.
  12. PeteF3
    Holy shit--it's some joshi girl who showed up on a random World War 3 PPV in the '90s against some other chick in a mask whom I've never heard of, in a promotion that I didn't know was a thing, and it's AWESOME. Suzuki does some awesome work destroying Scorpion's arm and Scorpion provides some awesome jack-of-all-trades offense. She can mat wrestle, she can fly, and she can throw some pretty great suplexes. I'll have to go back and re-examine some of the early-year stuff that's faded from memory but this looks like the joshi MOTY. The matwork came off as important rather than time-filling and moves had consequences. I love this style of joshi so much more than the go-go-go style that it's absurd. Best discovery of the set so far.
  13. PeteF3
    Really awesome third fall that descends into a slugfest, then some high-flying, and then back to mat wrestling with some great counters and desperation escapes by Guerrera. Something for everybody, but all the style transitions feel organic, rather than disjointed. Regardless of which year it's from it's a hell of a match.
  14. PeteF3
    Tsuyoshi celebrates his new haircut by getting obliterated, again. Jumbo manages to fend off a few Misawa pin saves while landing bombs on Kikuchi, but oddly finishes him off with an atomic whip and then a...sleeper. ISTR All-Japan on a bit of a submission kick at this point and I think they were trying to build up legitimate match-ending holds for each guy. Misawa already had his facelock, Kawada had the Stretch Plum and a sleeper of his own, and even Kobashi put out somebody with a body vice backbreaker. Or it could just be a bit of foreshadowing.
  15. PeteF3
    Cut to the reception highlights, narrated by Lord Alfred Hayes. With Savage actually coming close to speaking in his normal voice (!!), not that it's much different from his wrestling voice by this point. They milk this for a long while, which is a nice effective way of getting over the shock of the cobra. Undertaker clobbers Savage with the urn and Jake terrorizes Liz with the cobra before being run off by Sid. I could have done without Hayes or the camera angle changes but this was a chaotic, well-done angle and a good way of hitting the reset button on Jake's heel turn. Generally speaking any wrestling show (or home video in this case) that goes off the air in the midst of brawling or chaos is automatically better than a show that doesn't.
  16. PeteF3
    The presentation gap between this and WCW was huge, but...I really, really, really hated this whole set-up at the time, though not as much as the Rhodes feud. I chalk it up mostly to being an immature fourth-grader than a true failing on the WWF's part. But in some way it feels insulting to sell a PPV on a wedding and a foregone conclusion of a tag match with heels so long past their sell-by date. I didn't order it, but if I had and NOT gotten any sort of wedding angle on the show proper I'd have been furious. We get highlights of Savage and Elizabeth's WWF careers, including WM4 and Elizabeth trying to save Savage from the Honky Tonk Man. Really well-done stuff. Not Making This Up Dept.: Shazam has this song as "Together" and attributes it to Savage & Elizabeth's wedding. Did this song make it onto some WWF soundtrack CD? Some anonymous guy is the best man--after The Office finale in which Dwight and Angela's entire ceremony consisted of a few token family members and then all co-workers, and having it pointed out how little that resembles real life, I actually kind of find this refreshing. The WWF moreso than any other promotion was always one that tried to suppress any semblance of any wrestler's personal life on-air, I guess because they felt it would hurt their characters. Heenan is absolutely on fire here. And you just knew Savage would replace "I do" with "OOOOOH YEAH." This is quite the brilliant production, there's no denying that. Enough that I can sort of forget about how it all ended up.
  17. PeteF3
    Warrior closes out his first WWF stint in anticlimactic fashion, chasing the managers back to the locker room so Hogan can have the victory and spotlight to himself. Hogan heroically tosses "victory powder" into Slaughter's face while Sid is distracted for the pin. Hogan invites Sid back out to pose. Bobby: "This must be the Match Made in Heaven, right?" Mountie gets on the wrong side of some derelict cellmate and has to answer to his buddy, who questions him about the feeling of leather against skin. That's probably the most shockingly adult bit of WWF programming until 1996 or so.
  18. PeteF3
    Hogan is feeling the same rush he felt on January 23, 1984. Yep, the Andre feud, the War to Settle the Score, and the comeback against Earthquake don't quite compare against Sgt. Slaughter, a washed-up ex-champion, and a manager. Warrior makes absolutely no attempt to tie in his feud with Jake and the Undertaker--Hogan and Okerlund have to do it instead.
  19. PeteF3
    Another match better than you'd expect, except that this is worked as a USWA-TX-style no-DQ match with referee distractions and cut-offs and man is that annoying. I knew a Nasties/Cactus Jack-style brawl was too much to ask for, but still. All four guys did work hard, though, and they cut a nice quick pace and threw in a few wrinkles like the swerve on the heel miscommunication spot with the motorcycle helmet. Mountie attempts to make a break for it, but the local hick cops throw him in the cell anyway.
  20. PeteF3
    "WE SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE! YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT--OOOWW!" A Nasty Boys interview is sandwiched around the Mountie arriving in jail and getting his mug shot taken. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY PICTURE!" "So, I guess the Boss Man kicked your butt, huh?" "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" *click* The LOD are already hyping a feud with the Natural Disasters, as they rescued Andre the Giant from an attempted attack. Mountie gets fingerprinted before we hear from the Triangle of Terror and Sid Justice. Bootleg video surfaces of the Triangle of Terror attempting to make Sid Justice a First Lieutenant--hey, they actually made an attempt to make the camera footage and angles look impromptu instead of planned and rehearsed.
  21. PeteF3
    A much better match than you'd expect, with some surprisingly vicious punching and the Mountie getting the rare courtesy of kicking out of the babyface's finisher.
  22. PeteF3
    Great attention to detail, as they point out that DiBiase wrote it into the contract that the belt would only change hands on a DQ or countout--in contrast to how DiBiase regained the non-sanctioned title at WM6. This is the #3 WWF MOTY behind the retirement match and Desert Storm Match, Virgil turning in a great fiery performance in his comebacks and splattering on the floor on a missed pescado to boot. DiBiase is just a supreme dick, and gets the crowd rabid for Piper to do something, but it was the right move to keep Piper physically out of things and let Virgil have the victory and the moment on his own.
  23. PeteF3
    Another great one-man performance from Heenan.
  24. PeteF3
    Hennig has fallen off since his AWA days, but considering the state of his back this is quite the gutsy performance with some particularly nutty bumps, especially getting hiptossed on the floor. Bret kicking out of the Perfect-Plex came off as a big moment, but I agree the build-up to the move wasn't that good--in hindsight I wish we'd have gotten the old "opponent tries a backdrop" finish that we saw in a million Perfect matches, as that would have been a much more effective false finish. Perfect puts over Bret big-time on his way out--for the second SummerSlam in a row, I got a Bret Hart title win that stunned me when I heard about it. "He's a TAG wrestler! He's not supposed to be winning singles titles!" The early '90s would be a period of me constantly being taken aback by each renewed Bret push.
  25. PeteF3
    We get a Coliseum exclusive to open, as Savage is happy but nervous, and freaks out about Lord Alfred's crooked bow tie. We get the requisite psycho Vince intro. I like the Survivor Series and Royal Rumble intros better with Vince screaming out the name of every participant. I wanted to see Vince sell us on Greg Valentine vs. IRS.
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