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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    As a postscript Lawler has the most flagrantly race-baiting fan interaction in the history of the business after this, telling a "Sambo" to shine his shoes and pulling on his lips to make them look bigger. That's a nice way to kill the fun of this off.
  2. PeteF3
    Funk has 97-year old Bulldog Brower as his cornerman. He gets in the faces of the ringside fans but has support from Vladimir. This is a pretty crazy set-up that would never be done today or even in 1991 in any sort of controlled environment. Come to think of it, I think Memphis actually ran this type of match AND gave the fans leather straps, at one point. Despite Funk's efforts this is one anti-Lawler crowd. Funk actually takes swings at and shoves around the lumberjacks who try to toss him back into the ring. Eventually Funk accidentally slugs the ref and the match descends into chaos. Brower's trash talk as he beats on Lawler is pretty amusing. I have nothing to say about the match itself but this was quite a compelling, one-of-a-kind spectacle. Great visual at the end, as Funk wanders through a pile of broken bodies on the floor like fallen soldiers in the burning of Atlanta in Gone with the Wind, with Lawler threatening to throw a chair at him.
  3. PeteF3
    I liked this segment okay, with Gigante counting Flair down being a nice touch. But it definitely comes across as small-time to be hyping an Omni house show on national TV.
  4. PeteF3
    Nikita's back on the juice again.
  5. PeteF3
    Oh, this won't end well. Brian should have challenged him to a squeegee-on-a-pole match.
  6. PeteF3
    Maybe there's a higher plan, but...why would Team Texas blatantly instigate Gilbert into getting involved in their tag match? Why not force Jarrett into a 2-on-1? So there are issues with this build, but Gilbert is so awesome here that it doesn't matter too much. As great as Gilbert the heel was, Gilbert the tweener might be even better.
  7. PeteF3
    What did Jarrett expect, really? Great promos from Lawler and Gilbert, who still have no love lost for each other despite Gilbert being an ostensible babyface in the Texas vs. Tennessee feud.
  8. PeteF3
    Gilbert as the babyface-with-an-edge is great. He almost gets the pin by countering Embry's chain with brass knucks of his own, but with Frank Morrell bumped, Tojo slips Embry...something. I thought it was a screwdriver or a grill lighter, but whatever it is puts Gilbert down for the 3. Embry & Prichard are incensed that they're not in a round-robin tournament to get a title shot at the Unified World title, so they take their frustrations out on Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett declares the Unified World title is meaningless as long as Embry and Prichard are around, and pulls himself out of the tournament in order to get a tag match with Embry & Prichard. Neither Lawler nor Gilbert are willing to give up the tournament to be Jarrett's partner. Tension is still high between Gilbert and the babyfaces.
  9. PeteF3
    Their big idea for Steamboat, as I recall from WWF Magazine, was to feud him with Skinner. You know, reptile-hunting and all that.
  10. PeteF3
    I have no recollection of this at all. This is truly bizarre.
  11. PeteF3
    A fitting way for Brother Love to go out. Getting nearly 3 years out of this gimmick (not to mention a comeback in '96) was honestly an impressive feat on the part of Prichard and the WWF.
  12. PeteF3
    Okerlund way overstates the despicability of Slaughter torching the Hulk poster--more indication that they really, really wanted that to be a U.S. flag. A much more fun angle follows as Sarge beats up Dale Wolfe after a squash and then beats down a medic for good measure. Slaughter may as well have dumped a million gallons of oil on all his Little Hulksters, brother! I'm liking Slaughter's performances, even the distasteful ones, but Hogan is absolutely coming off as phony and jingoistic. If anything, Sarge is downplaying the Iraqi allegiance and Hogan is doing his best to keep it in the forefront. So who's being distasteful?
  13. PeteF3
    The definite highlight was Embry and Jarrett's microphone battle leading to an awesome roll-around fisticuff brawl, not far behind Lawler/Snowman and Jarrett/Gilbert as far as those go. Dundee pins Young in a basic but really cool-looking finish, and Young is blamed for it afterward by Embry and Yamamoto. After a shove to the mat, Embry pretends to calm things down and then cheapshots Young from behind. The beatdown is on, but after getting rammed into Tojo's briefcase, Young does a Hulk-Up and makes a comeback before Steve Austin runs in to help Embry out. Young makes for an incredibly unlikely babyface but I like where this is going.
  14. PeteF3
    I thought this started a little slow for it to be ahead of Jarrett/Gilbert as far as Memphis-Texas MOTY, but it finished very strong. Good near-falls and a really fun twist on the cliched foreign object finish, with Prichard slipping a plate over his boot and cold-cocking Jarrett with an enzuigiri instead of using a chain.
  15. PeteF3
    Being a Santo/Casas novice I STILL got that "touring match" vibe here. It had good stuff with some great takedowns from Santo and bumps from Casas, but nothing really stood out either.
  16. PeteF3
    There wasn't much to this. Hard to get into Combat as a monster in the face of seeing work from Bull Nakano and Aja Kong and when all I can think of when seeing her is "Butch Japanese Cyndi Lauper." She's not terrible but there's no charisma or panache to her performance at all--it's all "this is where I scream, this is where I use a chain, this is where I hold my throat in pain" as though she's working off of crib notes. Kudo provides a few near falls and this is bland and inoffensive but not really an auspicious Yearbook debut for either woman.
  17. PeteF3
    This is really a straight-up wrestling match that happens to have a lot of blood and a filthy mat. Other than a little chair flurry near the beginning, it's all in the ring and it's all about Onita weathering Goto's offense and trying to come back, which he does. Probably a top 2-3 MOTY at this point.
  18. PeteF3
    I didn't think this was bad but I do think this was pretty underwhelming, and agree that things were far better when the natives were on offense. The takeout of Misawa should make for major drama, but it simply doesn't because Williams and Gordy continue to sort of go through the motions even when they have Kawada down 2-on-1, and the "can Kawada pull off the miracle?" excitement just isn't there.
  19. PeteF3
    It wasn't skipping out, specifically--it was the knowledge that he skipped out and that the whole family was dead. If something had happened to Nancy & Daniel that required Benoit to either stay home or fly home, it wouldn't have taken him out, too.
  20. PeteF3
    I'll say off the bat that I had work that day until 11pm and by the time I got home the full story was out. So personally, I had absolutely no period where I knew the whole family was dead but didn't know the cause. That being said...it was already known that Benoit had backed out of the Night of Champions PPV because of a "family emergency." To me advance notice like that would rule out carbon monoxide. It would have taken out Nancy & Daniel, maybe, but it wouldn't account for Chris.
  21. PeteF3

    Kamala

    PeteF3 replied to Exposer's topic in The Microscope

    Kamala vs. Hogan, MSG 1/19/87. No-DQ match. Probably his best WWF effort. Different time period and all but the '87 Kamala was a bit closer to the territory Kamala--an outsider not quite comprehending of our society rather than the '92 version who even as a heel is portrayed as retarded in the literal sense of the term. This is not a match but a good look at how Watts was able to use him as an actual force and not a comedy gimmick.
  22. PeteF3
    Oh my God, did Vince raid Rick Rude's closet?? "Do you realize that on your wedding night, if you'd have killed her, you'd be out by now?" Heenan then gets into it with a 3[/] 10-year old kid and makes another crack about Andre.
  23. PeteF3
    Heenan is pretty confident about dealing with Andre from the safety of the bathroom. Bobby is great as usual.
  24. PeteF3
    "Yeah, he went home! He went home!" --Dusty with one of my favorite calls ever during one of the greatest match openings ever. I wanted to do an eight-man breakdown of this the way that Loss did for the 1992 edition of this match, but it's 3 a.m. and I'm forcing myself to stay awake to prepare for an overnight shift tomorrow. Maybe later. This is probably the performance of Pillman's life, coming off as the bravest and gutsiest bastard who ever lived. Ross' fawning over Pillman's football accomplishments don't sound remotely cloying or affected--it just seems self-evident. Everyone, even Rick Steiner which surprises me in particular, takes some incredible punishment and bumps throughout, and as usual with such a genius gimmick, there isn't one second of down time at any point. The finish...yeah, the finish. Babyfaces plain and simply didn't submit in those days. Yes, it would have been better for Sting or the Steiners to submit on Pillman's behalf the way Steve McMichael would do some years later, but you keep Gigante involved and keep up the Gigante/Pillman tandem that they were pushing. It could have been better thought out and it's a bad omen of Dusty's booking regime, but I can't say that it's a horrible finish considering how badly fucked up Pillman appears to be, either. It's not like the Horsemen stole the victory. They cover for things afterward pretty well--it was Nick Patrick who made the call, not anyone else. This is my MOTY to this (early) point, or at worst co-MOTY along with Santo/Brazo.
  25. PeteF3
    The Freebirds entrance is possibly the most absurd thing I've ever seen--and that's coming weeks after watching the whole Black Scorpion saga! This is professional wrestling at its absolute least cool. Or in the words of George Carlin, "Freebirds, you ain't cool, you're fuckin' chilly. Chilly ain't never been cool." Reed accidentally clobbers Simmons with brass knucks, leading to a tag title change. How ridiculous that in a promotion that includes the Steiners, Arn & Barry, Doom, and even Morton & Rich, that the Freebirds get booked to hold the belts for any length of time. Simmons is beaten down by the knucks more afterward at Long's behest. There was build, but this split still comes off as rushed--Doom still had a lot to offer to the tag division and there was still mileage in another Doom/Steiners program as well. I can admittedly see the logic in getting behind Simmons as a singles babyface, as the crowd is way into his big spinebuster and powerslam and he has more to offer in the future than Reed would. After all this we get a 12-year old sweepstakes winner whose favorite wrestlers are...Doom. This is some Office levels of awkwardness here, folks.
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