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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Blah blah Attitude Adjustment blah blah Total Package blah blah arrived. These interviews aren't bad, and Luger/Race/Hughes aren't a bad combination, but this heel turn is still coming off as an anticlimax. Dangerously editorializes about Luger's greatness, and...does he really expect us to buy that no one has ever given him credit for his intelligence before? Did Paul E. zone out every time he called a Luger match with Jim Ross?
  2. PeteF3
    Seeing the growth of Chono in this tournament has been an experience, from his heatless, underwhelming match against Choshu to a guy who looks ready to carry the company on his back. The work in the AJPW 6-man may have been a bit stronger overall, but that match simply didn't have the stakes that this one had--it was a routine 6-man that happened to be longer and better than the others. This, more than anything in 1990, seemed to signal the arrival of a new era in New Japan. Choshu and Fujinami have their place but they're shunted to the background here and throughout the tournament as a whole. At this point I'm actually digging New Japan more than AJPW for the year, which I never would have expected a year ago. Sadly I don't think New Japan heavies will quite reach this high again on a consistent basis while there's still more All-Japan greatness to come. Close call but I have to put this as the #1 MOTY.
  3. PeteF3
    I admit--I'm liking this tournament, I really am. But this stretch of the Yearbook with all these big NJPW matches right after the other has not been the easiest portion of these two Yearbooks to get through. Aside from the Chono/Choshu match that I didn't care for the matches have all been good to fantastic, but with all the Climax action as well as a comparably long lucha title match I was nonetheless thrilled to see Dave Brown and Gene Okerlund and Lex Luger, among others, to provide a break. Throw in some long, horrible hours at work and there have been several days this week where planned Yearbook viewing got axed. That's an incredibly roundabout way of saying that these matches may be bleeding together or the stop-start nature of my viewing may be clouding my judgment, because my first reaction is that Mutoh-Vader's run as the possible New Japan MOTY has run into a brick wall already. I liked this better than that match as well as the earlier draw. Chono comes off as the toughest motherfucker alive, getting kicked to death by Hash but having enough wits to work over Hash's leg to provide the opening when he needs it. Chono's dropkick that takes Hash's leg out is a great way to spur a comeback, and Choshu's earlier submission has made the STF into the deadliest submission in the country--and its legend grows with the finish here.
  4. PeteF3
    Patriot whiffs on the Patriot Missile and hurts his shoulder, so Buddy Landell takes the opportunity to cost Chris Walker the match against him so he can feast on the injured Patriot in the TV Title tournament final. Landell takes apart Patriot's shoulder and is such a jackass here, strutting around the ring and nonchalantly crossing his legs on the pin attempts. Good work in the figure four and then Landell uses the ropes one too many times and Patriot gets in a rollup for the pin. Good match with incredible heat, the loudest the Sportatorium has been since Kerry Von Erich was there. Patriot comes off as cheesy when working the crowd but the guy is over. Patriot's promo is pretty good, coming off as a tough no-excuses guy rather than an asskissing gladhander. Patriot certainly had a good look but came at a time when masked wrestlers were passe in the U.S. and when patriot gimmicks in general were doing the same, even in the wake of a war. He was a great athlete and looks to be an underrated promo to boot, but the looseness of his offense always has stood out to me, particularly in All-Japan but in the U.S. as well. Obviously that's low on the list of what makes a big star in the States but it's one of a few things that was working against him.
  5. PeteF3
    The Cox and Lane tandem reaches its inevitable conclusion, as Cox refuses to allow Lane to use the tennis racket, and he gets dropkicked into Lane and pinned and knocked out of the Global Tag Title tournament. Lane and Cornette lay Cox out with the racket afterward--surprised they were even allowed to show racket shots. Johnson talks about how disgusting this is moments after describing Cornette's attack in terms of tennis terminology. Cornette complains about getting saddled with Steve Cox afterward and starts pushing Lane as a singles wrestler. We need to savor every moment of Cornette that we get on these yearbooks. Supposedly the WWF was interested in having Cornette as manager to Ric Flair and I'm baffled as to how that, or Cornette coming in to take over for Heenan, never came off.
  6. PeteF3
    They're pushing the "Attitude Adjustment" down our throats as Luger's new finish. Luger with words towards Ron Simmons--I think this is premature to put Simmons in this spot but at least they're attempting to build a challenger.
  7. PeteF3
    Good studio match that makes you want to see this in a full arena setting, be it the Pipkin Building, MSC, or Sportatorium. Predictable finish as Eric Embry runs in for the DQ, and they take a page from the Jumbo Tsuruta playbook (as all Memphis heels do) and drop Anthony's knee onto a chair. They continue to work over the knee with Tojo's Texas flag before Jeff Jarrett makes the save. Miss Texas tries to attack Jarrett and she gets a punch to the face for it! Well, at least they tried to justify it this time. Strong segment all-around from the match to the post-match attack.
  8. PeteF3
    Jerry Lawler throws fire at Leatherface, and his apron catches on fire! That's an easy finish for Lawler and a wild sight. Dave Brown is in the WMC parking lot interviewing Jerry Lawler, burning marshmallows and burgers over a barbecue as a metaphor for what's going to happen to new Unified World Champion Awesome Kong and Reggie B. Fine. It'll be a title match as well as Lawler's hair against Fine's fur coat. Yeah, fairly odd in a kayfabe sense that Awesome Kong is a threat to get Lawler to put up his hair and not Embry, or Gilbert. Lawler burns a faceshot of Reggie B. Fine as an exclamation point for this promo.
  9. PeteF3
    Eddie Marlin thanks everyone for Homecoming '91--the return of the USWA to the Mid-South Coliseum. The USWA also now has all wrestlers under an open contract, which eliminates a bureaucratic step in signing matches. He announces a lights-out match between the Dirty White Boy & Girl against Eric Embry & Miss Texas--no disqualifications, no time limit, loser of the fall gets their head shaved! That's a pretty big-sounding match that I hope is not an excuse for another copout on the stips. Embry is incensed, threatening to literally kill Marlin if something happens to him. Now a plaque from the Mid-South Coliseum celebrating the USWA's return to the building--evidently the issues over the rent and the parking fees and the concessions have been resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Even in the legitimate office setting with presumably legitimate executives I'm halfway expecting/hoping to see Leatherface run out and take a chainsaw to the plaque.
  10. PeteF3
    I'm a fan of working multiple programs at once but this business of Warrior going through this "training" and also hyping SummerSlam doesn't work at all. It could work easily, if the hype wasn't around Sid Justice and instead around the problems of whether Warrior is reliable in his current state, but I guess the WWF can only work so many storylines into a match at once. Jake regales us with how the Warrior now trusts him, and then we see Warrior digging a grave to what appears to be Hell, judging by the orange light down there. Warrior comes across the skull of poor Yorick--and now Jake says he has to bury the Warrior so he can bury his fear. Warrior is now much more enthusiastic about going along with this than he was about laying in the casket. This somehow was simultaneously the best and most bizarre of these segments.
  11. PeteF3
    Hogan and Warrior make threats towards Sid Justice, if he fails to referee the match down the middle.
  12. PeteF3
    Despite not being a fan of his at all, Mutoh has forced his way into strong Wrestler of the Year contention. Absolutely fantastic desperate, hit-and-run tactics from Mutoh, who takes some sick offense from Vader, in front of a psychotic crowd. The near-falls don't feel self-conscious here at all, even when both guys eat the other's finishers and kick out. You just get more involved in the match, wondering what could possibly put the other away. There was so much big offense here right from the start that the match length feels just right. With no feeling-out process or slowdowns, it stands to reason that such a match isn't going to go 25+. This won't win MOTYC over the big All-Japan six-man but it's a top 5 contender.
  13. PeteF3
    Oh, good, it wasn't just me. "Good but not MOTYC" is exactly how I felt watching it, and that's not a fair standard to judge it a disappointment as a result, but knowing that this was a title match and the rep of both guys, somehow I expected more than just a really good match. The finishes to the first two falls may not have even been there, as they come off as rushed and perfunctory--"let's get this shit to the third fall." On Classics there's a thread detailing how a lot of older vets didn't like 2/3 fall matches--all-time greats who worked a lot of them, too, like Jack Brisco and Buddy Rose. There have been lots of fantastic matches of that type but I think you can see the downsides of the stip here. They ran through a lot of offense with a ton of near-falls at the end, and there were some great struggles like Atlantis getting out of Panther's backbreaker/surfboard thingy only to nearly get pinned when Panther reverses his reversal. But even then, all the near-falls honestly came off as ROH-style, 2.9 wrestling overkill. I also picked up on the announcers gushing over what a great, important, legendary, epic title match this was like Michael Cole beating us over the head about "WrestleMania Moments," and that didn't help me either. This was really pushed hard by everyone involved as the Lucha Match of the Year which means I have to hold it to higher standards, and it simply wasn't.
  14. PeteF3
    Yeah, bad match, with even Tenryu turning in a subpar performance. I know it was their big finish, but man did Tenryu go down really absurdly easy here. I'd have thought Hara would have at least gotten a pin save in. The quasi-swerve Tenryu job is the only worthwhile thing about this.
  15. PeteF3
    Great job of putting over both guys, not just in the context of the tournament but knowing that this rivalry is going to be carrying the New Japan heavyweights in the months and years to come. Chono pays Hashimoto back for everything he does to him and Hash gets to survive the STF that put Choshu down. One can generally call a lot of time limit draws in advance but I didn't get that vibe here at all until the last few minutes when you started hearing more rapid time calls.
  16. PeteF3
    Good opening and good ending with sort of a soft middle. Muto going all out at the start was great but the Fujinami control portion seemed lacking. It didn't really bother me or seem noticeable in the match with Vader but this did feel more like Fujinami was along for the ride than a great match between equals. This was the first time I've ever seen the "repeated pinfall attempts" series actually pay off with a win, so that was nice to see. A big "in with the new" feel to this tournament so far.
  17. PeteF3
    This was better than the Dome match but it still felt like Liger was carrying things along. Nogami just doesn't have the compelling, sleazy desperation that Honaga did. He does a decent job of hanging on the mat here and setting up Liger's highspots. The highspots pepper a series of intense matwork and pro-style submission work instead of just more highspots and bombs, which is a nice way of building to the upset finish without having Nogami have to kick out of a bunch of Liger Bombs and SSPs or try to match Liger with his own big moves that he clearly doesn't have.
  18. PeteF3
    Fantastic match, one that feels like a proto-version of Vader vs. Sting. This is dominant heel vs. plucky babyface stuff all the way, with Vader spending a long time in control and using a dragon sleeper and scorpion deathlock just to be a dick. The backslide was a little weak but Fujinami's comebacks before that were all great.
  19. PeteF3
    Man, outside of the upset ending I didn't care for this at all. I thought Choshu looked pretty lethargic, not to mention out of shape, and much of the match was built on striking with strikes that didn't look all that good. Then you get an oddly muted crowd, whether they were just quiet or didn't really buy Chono as having a chance, I don't know. Big disappointment considering Choshu's rep and how good Chono had looked in the tag bouts.
  20. PeteF3
    Jake's last televised match as a babyface until 1996. Seeing Andre here was just sad.
  21. PeteF3
    This is fun and fast-paced for six beefy guys, but this illustrates how far ahead of the pack AJPW was than everyone else when it came to 6-man layouts. You get six well-defined characters in those matches with definitive strengths and weaknesses relative to everyone else, and it comes through in virtually every spot in the match. Here you have Haku as sort of a monster and Nakano getting hidden as sort of the underdog, but that's about it--everyone works the same against everyone else. Still, the action was all well-done and the post-match confrontation was nice and intense. This is definitely an environment conducive to Haku, and he could have been a depth asset to any of the big Japan promotions.
  22. PeteF3
    I guess this is a match that had to happen. It's not an all-time great and likely not as good as a heel Eaton vs. babyface Morton, but it does its job well enough. Eaton throws awesome punches, there's a great post bump...and a shitty Dusty Rhodes finish (not to be confused with a Dusty finish). Oh, and I think Morton would still project "scuzzy" quite well even if he did get a haircut and new tights.
  23. PeteF3
    There are a few things holding this back from being a MOTYC. The stretcher stip in the middle is a little wonky, though not a huge deal considering the time it takes to set up the cage and the tease that Cactus won't make it for the 3rd fall. The bigger issue is a falls-count-anywhere/stretcher/cage match that ends in a fucking double DQ. That's Capital Combat levels of shitty booking--no reason why Cactus couldn't have eaten a pinfall after being down 2-on-1 to the Gilberts. And what the fuck did Cactus do to get disqualified, anyway? But, this is clearly a coming-out party for Mick. Now he's added a ton of effective offense to his arsenal to go with his crazy bumps, and combined with Gilbert's selling he's improved tenfold as a worker because of it. He's gained weight but keeps moving at full-speed for most of the match--no wasted motion on anybody's part here. I think this could have been better as a three-match progressive series rather than cramming all of these gimmicks into one bout, but once you take the booking out this is one terrific brawl.
  24. PeteF3
    Stan Lane, the greatest tag wrestler of all-time, is forbidden from entering the GWF Tag Title Tournament without a partner. So he's assigned Steve Cox--they're the original Odd Couple! Cornette and Lane are fine with this because they could win the tournament with anybody, but they treat Cox as a hanger-on. This is funny stuff, especially Cornette's half-hearted ring intro.
  25. PeteF3
    Looks like the Badd babyface turn is on already. Austin's promo is interrupted by Lady Blossom checking out her new earrings--"Johnny B." gave them to her. Austin browbeats her and they storm off. It almost goes without saying that World Class Jeannie is better than this subversive Miss Elizabeth wannabe. The U.S. title has been vacated, to be held in a "one night round robin" tournament. Involving Barry Windham, Nikita Koloff, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Dustin Rhodes, Sting, Steve Austin, Diamond Studd, Z-Man, Yellow Dog, and Johnny B. Badd. WTF, Gordon--do the people producing this segment not know what a "round robin" is? We get a post-match interview from the GAB from Luger, talking up his attitude adjustment and new frame of mind. Well, this is timely. Gordon updates us on the World Tag Title tournament. I know the Flair firing and Steiner injury weren't planned, but two title tournaments ongoing at the same time is a little much.
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