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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    DiBiase is just the most gigantic prick ever, beating up a crippled Piper. He gets counted out because of it, but Piper and Virgil get laid out afterward as Sherri makes a very quick career recovery. Virgil exhorts Piper to get up literally, the same way Piper did to him figuratively. Nice touch though the impact is definitely is dissipated considering what just took place earlier in the card.
  2. PeteF3
    Those of you who feel like they missed out on Savage's first Royal Rumble attack, fear not: it's included in the video package, complete with one of my favorite moments ever: the light fixture shot. Not much else to add here. I'll just point out that we have a ton of obvious nods to history in the post-match, but one during the match that I'd forgotten was Savage draping Warrior's throat over the guardrail, with Heenan pointing out that this is something he's done before. That's SUCH a great little touch, a desperation gambit from Savage that he hadn't unleashed in four years, that longtime fans would have picked up on that adds a little bit of spice to an already-transcendent whole. One of wrestling's absolute best chill scenes. I should be annoyed by Heenan shitting all over the reunion and pointing out how this wasn't the time for him to be cracking jokes, but like the possible mechanical flaws in the match that's meaningless. His curt response, "I'd rather have the match" is one of my all-time favorite Bobby quotes, that just sort sums up who the Brain was.
  3. PeteF3
    What a creative audience-participation-style match. Jake did a really great job of getting that aspect over on Prime Time and it works here. There's probably a little too much pointing and near misses here, but Martel provides some amusing comedy spots to show how out of his element he is. Scott Keith and other people who only rate matches based on how many power bomb variations are in it have always held this up as a worst-match-ever candidate, but it's a satisfying payoff to a surprisingly intense feud. Afterwards Marla Maples disappears in a crowd of Jimmy Hart proteges as the Nasty Boys celebrate their tag title win as only they can do.
  4. PeteF3
    Really great closing stretch--all the Neidhart-vs.-Nasties stuff should be a trainwreck but it's just as good as when Bret's in, or better. A motorcycle helmet to the back of the Anvil's head nets the Nasties the tag titles, I guess to justify their contracts. At the time I thought it was a foregone conclusion that the titles were changing here and that they'd then be on their way to the LOD. But when Monsoon talks about the crowd being in shock, that definitely is the vibe that comes off--I really think this result blindsided them.
  5. PeteF3
    Good way to kick off the show. Haku & Barb don't quite come off as impressively as I'd like for this to be a real hidden gem on the level of that POP match we keep coming back to, but there are some great spots here that build off one another--like the assisted huracanrana that gets turned into a neat assisted stungun when the Rockers try it a second time. This is an absolutely jacked crowd, at least until the rapidfire oh-shit-we're-behind-schedule matches later on. That's not always the case with LA crowds but it's greatly appreciated here.
  6. PeteF3
    Ever since Sarge's Iraq alliance reached a breaking point shortly before the Royal Rumble and he switched to the "Slaughter Rules" bit, it's been Hogan who's been constantly invoking war metaphors, the troops, and the flag, which makes this stuff self-aggrandizing even by Hulk's standards. ALL DEAD SOLDIERS ARE HULKAMANIACS--holy mother of God, this is insane. Hogan promises to bring the WWF Title to the sky with him so these casualties can wrestle him for the WWF title. I will never, ever complain about hearing God Bless America during a baseball game again. That little piece of show-off jingoism is subtle and understated compared to this. This was beyond words--probably worse than any WM6 promo. I think being content to rid the WWF of Sgt. Slaughter's reign of terror would have worked as a hook just fine, Hulk.
  7. PeteF3
    Simmons plays a brick wall and has some cool counter-spots of his own in addition to the selling and bumping from Rogers. He does come off as a future star here and there's big heat for the Reed run-in at the end. I guess things were up in the air as to whether Reed would stay in WCW at all or go back to rodeo--Meltzer reported a few times that Reed was out-and-out gone. Maybe WCW actually had an excuse for the tepid, stop-start nature of this feud.
  8. PeteF3
    Incredible Flair promo where he calls out Sting for not believing himself as the Man the way Flair does, and did even after losing the title. Are there any handhelds of these Flair/Sting/Gigante cage matches?
  9. PeteF3
    Keirn is one of the most underrated talkers ever. Now I'm starting to think Skinner was as big of a waste as Saba Simba and Big Josh were.
  10. PeteF3
    Dundee doesn't come off as particularly sympathetic here, cutting a promo on Jamie like he's any other opponent. Coal miner's glove match this coming Monday at the Not-MSC. DID YOU KNOW Bill Dundee has never lost a pole match?
  11. PeteF3
    DID YOU KNOW? Memphis Wrestling on WMC is the longest-running 90-minute weekly locally produced original-content episodic television entertainment show to have its 400th episode air in 1991?? More episodes than I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, The Simpsons, Meet the Press, Cheers, the entire CSI franchise, and Turn-On combined.
  12. PeteF3
    So much for Lawler's planned hiatus. This is a unique way of producing a promo that I liked.
  13. PeteF3
    I can't believe Fargo is still wrestling, even if it's basically against a manager. Embry & Prichard lay him out afterward and Embry shoves the Texas title in his face. They gloat for a bit and then hit the ring to prepare to do the same to Danny Davis.
  14. PeteF3
    That is some butt-ugly facepaint--puke green & puce. Okay-ish promo by Warrior standards, one that we've basically heard before. This time he adds that the Undertaker only needs to worry about burying the career of the Macho King.
  15. PeteF3
    For whatever reason (and I see it's not just me) the work over Kikuchi and Kobashi was among the least interesting work of any AJPW 6-man. I'm all for Kikuchi getting destroyed and Fuchi taking legs apart, but it seemed pedestrian this time around. This perked up big-time when Misawa was in or Kobashi and Kikuchi were throwing double-teams at everyone. That just made the Jumbo Army more desperate. Taue puts Kikuchi down with the golden arm bomber-thing that's sort of being pushed as a one-shot insta-kill at this point, which never really worked and that move was junked. A wise decision.
  16. PeteF3
    Sid's "whirlybird backbreaker" = the sometime finisher for Al Perez, the Ally-coptor. I want to say Oz used this as well (the "Emerald City Twister"). Yes, that's my first feedback contribution.
  17. PeteF3
    What a gloriously done screwjob finish. That's fucking All-Japan levels of layering, except instead of long-term selling, learned psychology, and escalating moves it's multiple ref bumps and escalating foreign objects and run-ins. Jarrett loses but not only does he look smart, he looks like a tough SOB who needed 3 guys and a manager to put down. And the heels get to look crafty for managing to pool the wool over the eyes of two referees. I stand in awe of the USWA's ability to manufacture creative bullshit finishes regardless of the stipulation.
  18. PeteF3
    Yeah, I honestly didn't see a lot of great chemistry here--definitely not in the early going and certainly not to the level of Sting and Muta. They almost lose me early on but come back to put on a pretty good closing stretch, and even the ending is pretty well-executed for what it is. I dunno why they felt the need to bring in Fujinami for a U.S. PPV main event, but if you're going to do that this is as good of a way as any to establish him to American audiences and quickly. Sorry, but my MOTN goes to the IWGP tag title match.
  19. PeteF3
    It's the Steiners, so you're probably not going to get a lot of depth--meaningful or not. So, Rick and Scott are pretty great at throwing bombs and generally pretty lousy at selling. How do you work around that? You let them work on top and let Hase play FIP, duh. I have to say I really dug the semi-shoot-style amateur takedowns at the beginning of the match, and at the beginning of Hase's comeback. He's an Olympian--this *should* be a case where the Steiners are overmatched on the mat for once. I can get behind a bomb-throwing-fest if the bombs are well-done and the Steiners' shit all hits here, plus you had Sasaki hitting one of the most awesome lariats ever on Rick. Match of the Year? No. Match of the Night? We'll have to wait and see, though I definitely thought it was better than Liger-Nogami. Match of the Week? Ditto--I only see Flair/Fujinami and Jarrett/Prichard as challengers. The Steiners now hold three separate tag championships all at once, which has to be a record.
  20. PeteF3
    Really good start to this match and then it dies down. These two do have really solid chemistry due to past experience and are pretty clearly on the same page throughout, which isn't always the case in these crossover type matches. Both the moonsault and Stinger Splash are attempted twice and are countered twice, though at least they're countered in different ways each time. Muta catches Sting with the mist and then hits a reverse cross body for the pin. I think Sting did want a really good match here, but Muta wasn't always as willing to go along--plus he blew some weird stuff like that almost-horrifying monkey flip bump. I'm actually surprised Sting did a job here considering this is a match that was presumably aired back home. He did get some protection with the mist to the face. Sting lays Muta out with the deathlock after the match to retain some heat.
  21. PeteF3
    I suspect the markets with appropriate tennis venues have better indoor venues for wrestling nearby. For example, the tennis stadium at the Home Depot Center in LA hosts a couple boxing cards every year, but that venue only seats about 8K. 8K seems like too large a venue for indies and TNA, but not big enough for summer slam. That said, it is a pretty good place for boxing, so I don't think your idea is too far fetched. For what it's worth, the "Roman Coliseum" at WrestleMania 9 was a converted tennis venue.
  22. PeteF3
    Hah--I watched the NJ '80s set and this still feels like my first Nogami match. I do love the Kabuki gear for Akira and alt-color outfit for Liger. I wonder if anyone else like me was introduced to Liger through this match (or pictures of it, in my case) and for years thought of the green & gold as the "standard" Liger colors. Anyway, I wasn't really as high on this as everyone else, I guess because this felt like a total one-man show by Liger. And a fine show it was, but Nogami just wasn't compelling enough as an opponent or aggressor for this to be a standout great match. His offense was pretty pedestrian, though credit to whoever booked the ankle injury to give him something to focus on. Liger was great but the overanalyzer part of me couldn't help but notice how his ankle injury seemed to come and go as was convenient for the plot.
  23. PeteF3
    I doubt it, considering how knocked around he got at the show itself. Kind of a weird booking decision, though.
  24. PeteF3
    I hated Brother Love. In the sense that I wanted to see a babyface come onto his show and kick his ass. For me he was the precise opposite of "X-Pac heat" in the most precise way possible.
  25. PeteF3
    One week before the show is certainly an odd time to have the contract signing. Savage and Warrior cut promos on each other, before the Undertaker comes out to stare the Warrior down.
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