PeteF3
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Doug was revealed to be under the guise of the Lone Ranger the previous week on television, resulting in this match. Another good-looking double-juice fest that sees Embry getting the pin after whacking Gilbert with the Texas flag. The post-match comeback by Doug is pretty tepid, but this picks up when Eddie hits the ring. Dr. Tom Prichard makes the save for the heels and I really, really want to see Eddie vs. Embry again.
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Texas shows some sass that somewhat masks her rather inadequate speaking abilities. Lawler's slap of Texas is reeeeally uncomfortable, since Texas sells it like brass knucks. The Texas Ranger is apparently Jeff Gaylord.
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I actually rather liked this angle as a payoff to the ongoing Andre/managers stuff. Nice to see Jimmy getting one over on Andre. The Giant takes his lumps despite apparently needing Jimmy's assistance to get to the ring. I can't fathom that there were any plans to actually run this as a match, but they give this angle a hell of a lot of time, and for what it is it's a decent way to make use of the guy in his advanced years. "One thing you gotta say about Andre, he did a lot better than Damian did!" I miss heel Savage.
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Virgilina was going to be on the Olympic team but for a chromosome issue. Virgil's an East German swimmer? This was SO not the right direction to go in this feud--thank God it was house show-only.
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I liked this a lot, too. In fact if there had been a shred of doubt over who was going over and thus was more heated, it'd probably pull ahead of Gordy/Misawa. Really liked Kawada trying to end it early with the power bomb and the payback spot with Kawada powerslamming him onto the exposed concrete. Ending was a touch anticlimactic, maybe, but Kawada losing on the AJPW equivalent to a flash pin was a nice way of making him look strong in defeat. This wasn't a total Kawada carry job either--Doc is sort of back in my good graces again.
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Maybe the first instance of Misawa's elbow being put over as a killer in its own right. I'm guessing the first 10 minutes weren't too special so it's all for the best that they were cut, as the bomb-fest at the end was really good.
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Not sure this was better than the Tokyo Dome match but it did have a tad more structure to it, with Hase & Sasaki getting to come off as closer to equals. Rick is still in an unusually giving mood and Scott turns in one of his better individual performances to date. Shitty Frankensteiner aside, this was a hell of a match. -
Holy shit, that ending had me gasping out loud. Honaga makes the mistake of tearing Liger's mask and gets brutally tortured as a result. Liger decimates Honaga with a chair, including a great diving chairshot to the floor, and this takes on the feel of the Ali-Floyd Patterson "what's my name" fight/exercise in brutality. But unlike Ali, Liger keeps the beatdown going just a little too long and Honaga is able to make a comeback. I love the fact that Honaga's counters and offense focus mostly on low blows. Next to the incomparable Buddy Rose, he may be the most accomplished ballshot artiste in all of wrestling when it comes to both volume and variety. Right as I'm about to snarkily congratulate Honaga for his fluke title reign and ask if it was worth it, he sits on Liger in the corner and pulls out ANOTHER fluke victory. I've always preferred All-Japan to NJPW but the appeal of the latter is growing more and more clear to me. There's no way to pick a winner and loser in a 6-man tag, much less a singles match, and even Fuchi at his dickish best probably couldn't construct an epic match around turnbuckle pads and groin attacks. Honaga may not be any good against anyone besides Liger but he definitely brings out something different in Liger just as Liger does to him. I could watch this feud for awhile yet.
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Owen is pretty demonstrably better as a more aggressive guy fighting for something and heeling it up, in contrast to how he usually is in New Japan. Clipped to hell, to the point where we only see 2 falls, but I'm not sure this isn't the best Owen match of either of these two years.
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For two such contrasting personalities and styles that would seem like natural opponents, this is surprisingly heatless, especially in comparison to the previous match. There are some good big vs. little spots once Manami starts her first comeback, and then Aja does a dropkick off the apron and smacks the arena floor in a bump that's almost as dangerous (and stupid, and masturbatory) as any Cactus Jack Nestea Plunge. There is some scattered stuff here that I liked, such as Toyota's funky armwork and Aja's leg trip counter of a German suplex. But there is a LOT of sloppiness, like Toyota not being able to do any of her suplexes and that shit with each woman constantly countering/slipping off the turnbuckles. And moreso than that, the match NEVER SEEMS TO END. Long matches are one thing, but there are about 9 million counters and 2-counts and the "my turn your turn" stuff at the end goes on so interminably that I never once feel that either woman is remotely in danger of actually losing, because none of the counters or near-falls have any meaning. This ends in a time limit draw because God forbid I get a decisive finish for waiting around this long. Being a joshi noob I get the vibe that this was an attempted elevation of Toyota by having her hold her monster opponent to a draw. Neat in theory, but the execution was lacking and more importantly the crowd that was highly into Yamada/Hotta wasn't nearly as into this, even during the furious exchanges at the end. Based solely on gauging crowd reaction after the fact from a culture 20 years and thousands of miles removed, I can't argue that this match was even an objective success.
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Yeah, UWFI matwork is more engaging than this was. They finally got something going towards the end but Yamada gets a flash pin when it looked like it could have kept going. I don't know what Hotta said afterward but I'm sure it was something cool and badass.
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Oh, of course DUSTY gets a damned interview set. If you want to call a few bales of hay and a curtain with a black dot on it a "set." WTF...are they pushing Jason Hervey as a heel? Why the fuck didn't they continue with this? He'd be a natural. News comes out and you know he's authentically street tough because he uses words like "'hood" and "jam." And kisses up to Dusty, of course. News lasts about 3 lines into said jam before completely losing his place. It's too bad he came along when he did, as a Flight of the Conchords Hiphopapotamus gimmick could have been money. An actual rap gimmick was something fresh in wrestling at the time, even more than a decade after it took over mainstream music, and it could conceivably have worked. But this is so not the way to go about it.
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Watching the '90 and '91 yearbooks, this is sort of like seeing your local bar act land their first big record deal. Veronica looks good, maybe better than Jeannie, but is pretty charismatically challenged, and too similar to Alexandra York character-wise. For that matter, they could have brought Woman back. Austin comes off as a future star but was clearly given absolutely no direction for his debut promo. "None of your business, interview's over" isn't really an auspicious start.
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Not a change for the better, I don't think.
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Quick and to the point. Not to enter "get off my lawn" territory to too great of a degree but this accomplished in about 3 minutes what an average Raw does in 15.
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Jarrett and Fuller talk up their next opponents: Tex Salinger & the Master Blaster. Remains to be seen if that's Al Green or Mark Canterbury. This might be the first time I've heard Fuller talk in a normal voice.
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Embry is seething over the reinstatement over the Mighty Mouse of the Mid-South. Embry makes threats towards Lawler and hypes the arrival of "The Texas Ranger" and his opponent, "The Lone Ranger." Oh, that's not confusing or anything.
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Jamie seems contrite about his past behavior, then calls out Eddie Marlin and via contract finagling, offers to serve Bill's 30-day ban for him. Marlin says he'll probably get in trouble with the "main office" but goes along with it. We'll see where this goes--could be a babyface turn, could be another set-up. I kind of hope it's the former because we've already had enough Jamie fakeouts.
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Warrior blithers about sweat and mildew while looking very pregnant. Savage teases a confrontation with the Warrior. Nothing quite evokes the idea of strongman badassery than calling somebody a Michael Jackson lookalike.
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This doesn't make the ice cream bars seem all that appetizing. I have never, ever in my entire life been able to find a package of these things. Ever. Bearer gleefully whoops it up over the death of Damian. Did a little tearrr trickle down your cheeeeeek? Jake rebuts: "It's okay not to fear death my man, you've got to fear the living, 'cause those the ones that'll hurt you ... Growing up, I learned the first breath I take just got me a little bit closer to the last breath." After scaring Bearer off, Jake closes with more threats for the Earthquake. He hasn't had the opportunities of guys like Lawler or Flair, but Jake has probably been the most consistent promo of anyone on these first two '90s yearbooks, and knowing what's to come I find it very hard to believe that he'll be unseated for Interview of the Year when it comes to Award Time.
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Fuji and Andre together...a closed-captioner's miracle nightmare combination. Fuji offers Andre very more money to be mean and nasty, but Andre isn't sure if he wants to be that way. Fuji bows one too many times and gets his face in a cake as the rest of the restaurant (including perpetual hanger-on Arnold Skaaland) laughs hysterically in an over-the-top Lawler/Cole way.
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[1991-03-29-USWA Texas] Bill Dundee vs Eric Embry (Cage)
PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in March 1991
This is a THUNDERDOME TORTURE CHAMBER MATCH--a clever way to add some meat to the gimmick match without the need for blood or use of the actual cage at all. Yamamoto again finds a way to get involved...maybe if they didn't have the cage come to a stop six inches above the mat. This time an ether-soaked rag puts Dundee down for the decisive 10-count. I dug Michael St. John going all-out to sell the effects of it. Both belts get held up, which seems a little excessive unless they plan to phase one of them out, which probably would be for the best. -
[1991-03-29-USWA Texas] Jeff Jarrett vs Tom Prichard (Cage)
PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in March 1991
This was worked well, if a little meandering for a bit, though I'm rapidly tiring of big gimmick matches where the gimmick is unable to be used, presumably per ESPN. Just makes the Texas leg look much more like a poor man's Memphis--especially adding in that there are far fewer unique-to-Dallas angles and feuds, and it all adds up to a promotion that's dropped off in a big way from 1990. Clever little finish with Dr. Tom framing Jarrett for using a chain and seemingly retaining the belt on a Dusty Finish, but then a Dusty Finish to THAT finish as the Southern title gets held up. If this is the last chronological Jarrett/Prichard match then I wish this had ended a little more decisively, but they have me interested to see where this goes. -
Fuck, Loss made my post way before I had a chance. Yes, Doc & Gordy get a little less exciting with every subsequent match--it seems most of their great matches are made by their opponents. Yes, they take way too much of the match--which would be okay, but most of what they have to offer in control are random clubbering and half-assed half crabs. In fact I can now see the criticisms others made of Adonis & Murdoch (which I didn't agree with then or now) in the MVCs. Still, the closing stretch is pretty great with Gordy frantically trying to save Doc from the facelock, but being unable to save him from the tiger driver thanks to plucky Kawada. As uninspiring as the MVCs on offense were, it still feels like a monumental comeback for Misawa to get the victory.
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Yeah, I don't see how this makes a Best of Decade list, just by virtue of being clipped as much as it was. I get the novelty factor and the action was very good, but not Can-Ams/Kobashi & Kikuchi good, either. I've said this already but Jumbo is still one of the all-time best "top guy vs. lower-ranked guy" workers ever.