PeteF3
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Shockingly great action at the finish. Hayes still has his left hand and the 'birds have their charisma--lots of "DDT" chants from Freebird fans in the crowd, though the Pistols draw pops for their big spots as well. Some great high-flying offense from the Pistols, but they make the mistake of doing their finish on Garvin when they've already laid Hayes out with it, bumping the ref. Fantasia, in a preposterous bird outfit reminiscent of the Tenga Warriors from Power Rangers...I should just slit my wrists now for remembering that and Googling the name...runs in and lays out both Pistols with second-rope DDTs, giving the Freebirds the pinfall and the U.S. Tag titles.
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All that about Hulk, but man, is it hard to avoid artifice and gimmickry in this setting. It all applies to Beefcake as well. And while I've said how WCW missed the boat on proper sets for their talk segments, it's hard to envision a money promo in a faux barber shop environment. War metaphors are one thing but I'm even less comfortable with Hogan talking about "horrors of war" and casualties, especially when he's following it up with cult rhetoric about his Hulkamaniacs taking up his battles for him and making barber shop rhymes in regard to Slaughter. This was lousy.
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Sano is practically a freelancer now, working for SWS, doing this shot, and soon to show up in UWFI. The stand-up stuff was great and there were some incredible takedowns and suplexes--not to mention shootstyle DDTs! This also had the real feel of a time limit draw, making Sano's dragon suplex and wakigatame for the tapout a genuine surprise. All that said...this is still a 26-minute shoot-style match and my patience was tried a number of times while the guys were on the mat. This is a career match for Shamrock and another feather in the cap for Sano, but I liked the other two good shootstyle matches more.
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Of the 3 increasingly broad and theatrical shoot-style matches from these debuting promotions, this is the broadest yet, with a Boston crab attempt and reversal and Fujiwara lounging in a leg scissors, resting his hand on his hands. I think UWFI had the best of the 3 matches we saw, since that was one that could go either way while the other 2 were to put over each company's top star, but this is still very good.
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Mr. Hughes intimidates Jim Ross into going to ringside so Alexandra York can offer Dustin Rhodes "the most lucrative contract in the history of the York Foundation--in fact, the most lucrative contract in the history of professional sports." Jesus, that line was absurd when Dusty was still clinging to it in the mid-'80s. That MAY have passed the smell test in 1975 when there was no such thing as free agency. Dustin and York basically say they're going to hook up in a hotel room as part of the negotiation.
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Bobby's whole career has been based around safety in numbers, while Arn has been defending the TV title by himself for a solid year. I guess Zenk's little reign is basically erased from history. Not much to say about Arn's promo other than it was naturally another good one, while Eaton delivers his one line just fine.
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No one could seriously be surprised at the news that Christopher was Lawler's kid, could they? He looks like a dead ringer for him here, clean-shaven. This is easily the best Memphis studio match of either of the first two '90s Yearbooks. There's a strong story of Gilbert wanting to get his hands on the DWB and Anthony avoiding him and a huge payoff when Gilbert finally gets his hands on him. DWB himself looks great, just decimating Christopher and then hightailing it whenever Gilbert comes in. Gilbert and DWB have an awesome brawl at the announce desk with Gilbert throwing everything he can at him, including a great *SMACK* when he waffles him with a 3-ring vinyl binder. Gilbert comes back for the second fall with a broom and we get another crazy brawl before things settle down with an FIP segment on Gilbert. We go off the air with Gilbert and Anthony still beating the shit out of each other to set up their singles match at the Pipkin Building. Fantastic stuff that really, really builds well to the upcoming singles bout. -
Embry's "retired" Lawler, and laid out Jarrett, Keirn, and Gilbert...and he's forced Bill Dundee out of the USWA for 30 days. Okay, I can see the criticism about Embry feuding with everybody. The decision is disputed however, leading to a board meeting with Dundee, Embry, Eddie Marlin, Miss Texas, Tojo Yamamoto, and Paul Neighbors all in attendance. The controversy revolves around a dazed Paul Neighbors raising Dundee's hand after counting a pinfall on him. Seems pretty cut-and-dried to me, actually: Embry won, Dundee needs to take a hike. Embry's tantrums are always fun, though. And just how many shots of Jack did Neighbors down before this?
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Sherri's dressed for a wedding, for some reason. Another strong interview from Ted.
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Top 3-5 MOTYC for sure. This wasn't worked like an exhibition at all--the pacing and layout and struggle in holds was much closer to a match in Japan. Casas carries himself like an asshole throughout, with hate being behind his every move and using low blows and chokes with impunity. But he also has Santo's best moves scouted. We get some incredible hate-filled matwork in the third fall, if such a thing exists, with great teases of the camel clutch and a gorgeous sequence where Casas reverses a Romero special only for Santo to reverse it right back into a half-Romero, half-camel clutch that I thought would be the finish. But there's too much hate here for this to end with a submission, and instead Casas reapplies his choke/sleeper thing one too many times and gets DQ'd for it. More, please!
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Selection bias and limited sample size issues notwithstanding I'm not sure Brazo de Plata isn't the lucha MVP of the year so far. He runs through some fantastic-looking offense and athletic spots here including a killer triple splash to end the first fall. Second fall is quick 'n dirty just to bridge us to the third, which brings us to a series of fantastic false finishes that I'm not used to seeing in a trios match, especially the tecnicos doing a triple surfboard thing and Porky almost pinning all three of them, and Atlantis getting the Atlantida just a little too close to the ropes. Octagon finally makes himself useful towards the end and Atlantis was good throughout, but this definitely came off as a Brazos showcase.
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This isn't quite an ideal setting for Earthquake. He gives Vince the gift of Damian's skin as well as dice: snake eyes, naturally. 'Quake comes back out in an apron and chef's hat and they're trying to do a slow build with this, but the audience is clearly hip to what's going on as soon as the guys start eating. Vince is appalled and flips the tray over and storms off. Yeah, I can see why this segment became a Wrestlecrap staple.
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"Was she trying to find out who the dad was?" Ha! That's one advanced security camera system for it to pick up sound.
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Beefcake's no Paul Bearer--he sensitively asks Jake what it was like to be tied in the ropes while Earthquake "stomped a mud puddle" in Damian. How compassionate. Jake calls out hunters who go after animals who don't have guns of their own, then unleashes a new, bigger snake--Damian's big brother Lucifer. Beefcake gets a peek at him, but not us yet.
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"You're nothin' but a Yellow Dog, pal!" Oh boy. I know exactly where this is going, and that angle wasn't a good idea when they did it with Windham in Florida the first time. Windham cuts a pretty good cocky douche promo though he comes close to burying Pillman.
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Okay, now this is starting to get silly. Embry's laid out Jarrett, Gilbert, and Keirn all in the span of one TV program while getting credit for the absence of Jerry Lawler.
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Secretly I didn't quite think they'd actually go through with a barbed wire glove match, and they didn't. The DIRTY WHITE BOY makes a surprise return to lay out Gilbert before the match starts. I'm not really close to being tired of Eric Embry yet but the return of DWB definitely freshens things up quite a bit. Gilbert is out to recite his history with Anthony--he was a Maker of Champions for Tony Anthony, and now Anthony will meet his Maker! Great line from another standout Gilbert promo.
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Embry comes out with a copy of PWI Weekly and another magazine as "proof" that Lawler has to retire--then he offhandedly brings out a tabloid that talks of an illicit affair involving the Ultimate Warrior! Clips from Dallas as Dr. Tom Prichard clobbers Jeff Jarrett with a briefcase to give Eric Embry both the Texas and Southern Heavyweight titles.
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Perfect threatens to put every one of his opponents in caskets, starting with Davey Boy Smith and Winston. That's a tad over-the-top.
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IRS finally gets to the point of all these vignettes: the wrestlers of the WWF are flim-flamming, dishonest thieves. Motivation at last. The Nasty Boys jump Boss Man after a squash and the feud they'd been teasing since Mountie's debut gets set into motion five months later. Mountie is the only real law & order in the WWF, and obligingly leaves when Mike Chioda tells him to--because unlike the Boss Man, he respects the law.
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This is the "Battle for Bam Bam" all over again. You'd think Slick would be able to entice Andre with a snazzier locale than an arena loading dock--the limo effect is sort of killed there. Slick is no Teddy Long, but Andre seems to be having fun with these.
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I see that Mr. Realism with his Realistic Fighting with Real Fighters is allowing his opponent to fight, realistically, wearing an earring. Christ. That bit of suspension of disbelief-shattering aside, I talked about how theatrical the first UWFI match was, but this is probably moreso. Not in terms of big stiffness but Vrij has a heel charisma about him and even directly plays to the crowd a time or two. He has a few aggressive moments but this definitely plays like Rikidozan as the conquering hero facing the foreign invader, which is an odd stylistic choice for the first(?) RINGS main event.
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This is a total war, and one that's far more theatrical than most UWF matches. There are a lot of "near-falls" here and Tamura even throws in a Samoan drop/Death Valley driver-looking thing. Coincidentally this is right where I come on-board with shoot-style and hopefully have fewer and fewer bitchy comments to make as we go through the rest of 1991 and beyond.
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The armwork here was really hurty and aggressive, with Hase's kneedrops onto the elbow looking particularly vicious. Each guy takes turns trying to work the arm and then we gradually build into bombs, with Liger taking advantage of an injured rib/stomach area to get some near-falls of his own. Then he runs into a Hase golden arm bomber and that turns the tide more or less for good. Liger withstands most of Hase's finish attempts but the Northern Lights suplex puts him away. Really good stuff, miles ahead of Hase's '80s juniors work.
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The salary cap effectively prevents NFL (or NHL, or NBA, or to a lesser extent MLB which has a "luxury tax" on payrolls over a certain threshold) teams from getting too big. The Dallas Cowboys are the richest team in the NFL and one of the richest in the world but they only have so much money to spend on players, the same amount as Buffalo or Cleveland.