PeteF3
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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. -
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.
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Foreigners are one thing, foreigners who come off as Aryan superman heels are another. I mean, I don't think anyone saw Pete Roberts or Don Nielsen as some sort of invader type.
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Heenan drops the bombshell that Jameson is the son of Christopher Lloyd. I can see it. We get a clip from what is probably the least terrible of Hulk's starring vehicles, as damning with faint praise as that may be. Vince actually says the words, "Ricky Steamboat," which surprises me. This whole thing was much better than the last Hogan interview--I think it's a near-universal axiom that low-key Hogan is much better than the usual shouting Hogan. Hulk hypes the Desert Storm Match with Sgt. Slaughter.
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There was way too little build for Fujinami on television--one press conference angle wasn't enough. More TV footage of Fujinami working, whether it was taped footage from New Japan or some TV squashes or anything. God bless Dusty for somehow tying in his friendship with Willie Nelson into an analogy about Fujinami. These entrances are absurd, by the way. That and in contrast to the Hansen/Vader feud, WCW didn't go to any lengths to educate fans that this was something besides American Champion vs. Evil Foreigner. Thus, we get Flair trying to work heel and Fujinami work babyface in the face of "USA" chants. The time wasn't right yet for a no-frills "two guys wanting to be the best" championship match. The match itself is fine, and I liked it better than the Dome match, and to some degree I'm surprised that they held the crowd as well as they did. Part of me wants to give credit to WCW for something different, but the other part sees the failures here as being pretty self-evident.
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There's a definite point of difference on display here with how WCW and the WWF structured their big events. You know the WWF would have had Big Josh/Black Bart or Spivey/Morton in this death slot rather than a title match. This isn't technically unsound or anything but this is definitely the wrong spot on the card for this match. I think I liked this more than Loss but it was still kind of a disappointment. And for God's sake, will Dusty decide if he wants to break the Horsemen up or not? "I'm doing it on my own" and then relying on outside interference is kind of a heel staple that can draw heat, but the constant false starts here are getting annoying in the X-Pac kind of way. Thank God Sid is leaving as maybe that will force WCW's hand a bit.
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Different kind of pre-match video, that sort of comes off as a memorial tribute. This was okay, but after a pretty awesome opening I had hopes that this was a "so overrated it was underrated" found-then-lost classic. The best part was the Lex vs. Rick opening, with Rick in an unusual position of being a pinball bumper stooging for Lex's power spots. That climaxed with Sting's awesome dive to the floor. But the match didn't reach those heights afterward, as this was very much a my turn/your turn-fest but with spots not as well-done as in the Tokyo Dome match. I get the dream match aspect of this and most dream matches probably *should* be booked as spotfests, it's just that this one wasn't that special. One thing that was noticeable was that as soon as the referee got bumped, you saw fans immediately start to stand up and look to the aisleway, which probably isn't something you want to condition your fans to do to that degree--sadly this would only become a worse problem in the years to come. The finish is what it is, and probably an improvement over a standard DCOR or other non-finish. Nikita transitions nicely into a new feud.
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Simmons is busted open, which surprises me on multiple levels since I've never seen that before and we had double-juice in the taped fist match. The football talk is out of control, and this crowd that was so hot for the U.S. Tag Titles has been killed off. This is actually a surprisingly good sympathy selling performance from Simmons, but while I understand that as a major babyface Ron was going to have to get that act down, I have to think a more decisive victory was in order here.
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Mark your calendars: Sid carries a match. Despite Dusty's pre-match attempt at a save by proclaiming that a pin in this situation is just as bad as going on a stretcher, this is in fact a stretcher match that ends in a pinfall. This is about as bad as Sid/Nightstalker in all honesty, and the post-match angle is shit, too. For all his size Gigante has no strength and I'm actually surprised that he got the Gang up at all, as shitty as that bodyslam looked. Sullivan hits Gigante with powder and the Gang takes him down with the stretcher and some of the weakest weapon shots of all-time. Gigante took the OMG and Sullivan's best shot and came back, so...what's the intrigue in this match-up, exactly?
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This was mesmerizing while it lasted--just a total barrage of stiffness, violence, blood, and hate. Double the length of this sucker and you could have a MOTYC. As it is, it's just a fantastic brawl that's the best of their series.
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This sort of seems like a waste of Hansen--I'm not sure what he was still doing here at this point. This is some of the better stuff Missy Hyatt ever did.