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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    You and me both. But the problem is EVERY WRESTLER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE does it. Don't get me started on guys who think that headlocking a standing Riki Choshu is a good idea.
  2. PeteF3
    Okay... Peter, 30, from Columbus, Ohio. My father was a longtime wrestling fan so I was exposed to it right from the start. My first wrestling memory would either be the Piper/Snuka coconut attack (which was pretty scary to a two-year old) or the Jesse Ventura/Ivan Putski arm wrestling match--whichever came first. This all came with the rise of WWF nationalism and the Rock 'n Wrestling Era, and in hindsight I regret not coming along a few years earlier when Columbus was part of the Georgia Championship Wrestling circuit. As it was, as a child I was fully in favor of the glitz and showmanship of the WWF over the "bad wrestling," which was just about everything else. Still, knowledge of a wrestling world beyond the WWF crept in. I liked the AWA action figures as much or more than my extensive WWF LJN collection, so I had passing knowledge of what was going on there. Certain guys still drew my attention--Flair, the Road Warriors, Abdullah the Butcher. I plowed through books my dad had like George Napolitano's Pictorial History of Wrestling and Roberta Morgan's Main Event, so I had knowledge of a pre-Hogan WWF world of guys like Backlund and Billy Graham. My fandom start waning in 1989--after Hogan thoroughly vanquished Savage at WrestleMania 5 I found little reason to invest more time in the WWF, and Zeus was not enough to bring me back. Then we got the Warrior/Hogan build to WrestleMania--I ordered WM because it was WM but truthfully my thoughts in the Yearbook threads are very much the same as what I was thinking watching the buildup promos at the time. This general souring on the WWF came at a time when I got hooked on the Apter magazines, and suddenly I was reading about some of the craziest shit I'd ever heard of: a dude named Jerry Lawler who wins and loses his belt every other week and throws FIRE(??). The Moondogs wreaking havoc on the city of Memphis and throwing battery acid into people's eyes? Everyone talking about what this Bill Watts guy was doing to WCW? I was becoming a Memphis fan without even seeing their product and becoming a WCW watcher the more old WWF favorites like Steamboat and Rude turned up on its programming. This type of urban-legend wrestling would continue to fascinate me through the rise of ECW in the mid-to-late '90s. I continued to stick with the WWF more or less out of habit and a few odd angles that I really got into, like the Backlund heel turn. But 1994 and '95 were lean, lean years. I'd seen my first Japanese wrestling at a gathering of fans in 1994 (Hansen vs. Misawa...don't know the date, just that Misawa went over and Hansen worked over his elbow with a briefcase at one point) but wasn't hooked in by it yet. The Monday Night Wars finally made wrestling a must-watch again, and that's where I spent almost every Monday night for the next 4 years until I went off to college. It was then that wrestling ceased to be a must-watch and outside of a few brief flings, it's remained that way. I follow what's happening and will check out the stuff that's pimped, but I generally agree with Parv that the WWE presentation is so formulaic and stilted that I find it hard to sit through it for any appreciable length of time, regardless of the actual wrestling talent level which I'm sure objectively blows the 1989-90 product out of the water. Post-college finally gave me the opportunity to start buying shit online and I was finally watching this talked-about Japanese (and later, British) stuff for myself. I'm now at the point where I honestly don't need a strong weekly show anymore, as there's simply too much good shit that's new to me even if it's far from new. That includes 99% of the lucha that's ever been recorded, most of the joshi that's ever been recorded, and the territorial finds on these Yearbooks and '80s sets. I'll be set for a good long while. Favorite matches: - Hart vs. Austin, I Quit - Andre the Giant vs. Killer Khan, 4/1/82 - Flair vs. Steamboat + post-match attack, Music City Showdown - Jumbo vs. Tenryu, 6/5/89 - Billy Robinson vs. Giant Baba, 1976 Favorite wrestlers: Flair, Jumbo, Austin, Billy Robinson, Terry Funk, Stan Hansen, Bobby Eaton, Mitsuharu Misawa.
  3. PeteF3
    Just barely in, but big props to Jason for bringing up the Sting/Sheik Persian clubs segment. I thought that was a brilliant subversion of a cliched angle.
  4. PeteF3
    Holy shit, it's Tessa! Tatum is back to being a CHANGED MAN. That is one empty-looking Sportatorium. Neat arm work here from both guys. Tatum levels Dundee with a great shot to the nose and a wicked superkick, but gets suckered to the apron by Tessa for a hug, allowing Dundee to get a quick roll-up for the pin. The heat and intensity had long since disintegrated but this may actually have been the best-worked match of the feud.
  5. PeteF3
    I liked Michael Wallstreet making a cameo just to high-five his longtime pal Windham.
  6. PeteF3
    The non-finish makes sense to me. Ross puts it perfectly afterward, saying that these eight men can only be contained by the WarGames. That's what you need to establish with a match like this. Anyway, this is a good match with Pillman managing to stand out even among the other eight guys, though everyone looks good here--even Sid, who actually takes some fine bumps for the Steiners. Ross mentions that the Clash will take place in the CNN Center atrium, which sadly did not come off--I'd really like to see what the atmosphere would have been for that.
  7. PeteF3
    Boy, Sting sure sounds broken up over losing his title. Actually from listening to this you wouldn't even know that Flair beat him for the belt, just that he regained it. Hype for an 8-man tag match between the two WarGames teams.
  8. PeteF3
    This is a little more believable misogyny than the later Madusa feud which covered most of the same ground. Paul E. is aghast that women have invaded the last great American male domain--the workplace! I would suspect and fear that promos like this may have babyfaced Paul E. to the traditional wrestling fanbase.
  9. PeteF3
    "The Macho King wasn't hurt!" Well...okay, whatever. Right after Tugboat's entrance we get Monsoon & Piper gushing over Shane Douglas, which is pretty funny now. I'm glad we got a snapshot of his forgotten run at this time. When I got the Rumble Anthology I remember distinctly liking this the least of the pre-'00s Rumbles. Martel and Valentine turned in great performances but you also had guys like Tito and Herc lasting forever too, and the problem was none of those four guys had a prayer of actually winning it, so it all seemed for naught. Tugboat gets big boos for going after Hogan and there's a big pop when Hogan eliminates him. Heenan's epic towel toss when Perfect gets eliminated is another highlight. Davey Boy tosses Martel and that gets a big reaction. The fact that Gorilla apparently never, ever bothered to learn the names of the Nasty Boys is on full display here. Decent enough closing stretch, with a false finish of sorts, that functions as the blowoff to the Hogan/Earthquake feud. 'Quake attempting a pin is still ridiculous. Why not have Hogan dodge an Earthquake splash or something? The eliminating clothesline is pretty weak, too. Still, this all did its job. Hogan winning was the only realistic result, at least once the title changed hands. Piper and Gorilla gush about the troops in the Middle East making Slaughter & Saddam surrender, just to sour everything.
  10. PeteF3
    DiBiase beats Virgil up after a miscommunication spot then beats the Rhodes family singlehandedly, as Dusty's full-time in-ring career comes to a somewhat ignominious end. DiBiase rants on the mic afterward as only he can do. The crowd's woken up now and is DiBiase ever pissing them off, he even gets a drink to the back. As Virgil kneels down to pick the belt up, DiBiase turns away from him to gloat some more, and the rising crowd reaction egging Virgil on, to the nuclear climax when he clocks him with the belt, to the standing O as Virgil stands stoically over DiBiase, is one of the most chill-inducing moments in company history. Piper is really fucking incredible here, too--going from resigned disgust with Virgil to almost creaming his pants. One of the highlights of his WWF babyface career. And...well, I'm repeating something I said earlier again, and it's not coming as news to anybody. But is there a remote possibility of a partnership being pushed on any company's television for four years nowadays before pulling the trigger on a split? Especially when such an angle writes itself as effectively as this one does? Don't think anything from today can match this. The tease of Virgil's independence would be pushed right from the start and the payoff would come sometime between Big Four PPVs.
  11. PeteF3
    Fired up the whole match because I wanted to see if it held up to the other high-end Warrior matches. Adnan ranting in Arabic in the pre-match interview while we get a shot of a burnoose-wearing, bug-eyed Slaughter nodding his head is one of my favorite images ever. Adnan and his flag are there and Slaughter makes reference to turmoil in the world today, but his promo is otherwise refreshingly free of world event talk and is almost back to the "America needs a new leader" rhetoric from the summer. Warrior blithers about foxholes in the desert but is kind of okay in response. Warrior counters an attempted clothesline with the Iraqi flag and rips the flag apart to class this whole feud up a little bit. It certainly gets the crowd going, though. Sarge bumps like an absolute loon for Warrior's pedestrian offense which keeps things going, until a made-over Sherri runs to the ring. Sherri grabs his leg and Warrior stupidly chases her to the back, where Savage levels him with a clothesline and engineers one of the greatest mid-match beatdowns in history, complete with the light standard to the body which I thought was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Warrior slooowly makes his way back to the ring while Sarge keeps breaking the count, which is a pretty nice attention to detail. Slaughter does a lot of kicking with the pointed boots while mugging at every opportunity. It's a bit pedestrian of a heel control segment but it's all nice and focused on the back to set up the camel clutch. Standard Hulk-Up comeback, interrupted by Sherri and Savage, and a scepter to the head leads to the shock title change. Don't ask me why I wrote up a big recap of this match of all things. This isn't a great match but it's another bout on the level of the Main Event stuff that Warrior had with DiBiase and Rude, with Slaughter doing a great job of feeding for a routine Warrior performance. I can't deny that the pre-match stuff really galvanized the crowd or how deflated they seemed after the title change, either. It's incredible that Sarge went from being utterly washed up to being WWF Champion in the span of about 6 months. I talked earlier about this but it bears repeating how this run was a personal triumph for Slaughter even if it was a failure on business and taste levels.
  12. PeteF3
    I kinda really, really want to see Savage vs. Slaughter. This is probably Sherri's best work on the mic to this point. Warrior comes out but doesn't say anything, which prompts Sherri to try a different tack. This was absolutely wild for the time, as Sherri opens Warrior's jacket and gropes him. Sherri gets on her knees and the throbbing intensity is actually building here, before Warrior yells NOOOOOO. Savage flips out and runs from the locker room to the interview set in about 6 seconds, but Warrior is long gone. Best Warrior promo of either Yearbook. But man alive, he comes across as such a fucking coward.
  13. PeteF3
    Hey, it's a Rockers tag in January that's a WWF MOTYC, maybe the winner. Where have we heard this story before? Except the OX are a lot more capable than the Powers of Pain. I remember being absolutely blown away by the stereo move sequence at around the halfway point, especially the first time I saw a Tiger Feint. The only time this comes close to dragging is the OX's heat segment on Shawn, but that also went a lot longer than I recalled as I remember this being a very heel-in-peril match and it was more even than I gave it credit for. January's greatness continues.
  14. PeteF3
    Cornette is a leech, just like Jimmy Hart, Downtown Bruno, and Reggie B. Fine. It's a battle to determine the best team in Memphis history between Lawler/Dundee and the Fabs. Jeff Jarrett in the babyface corner to counteract Cornette. I suspect that a bounty collection will be attempted.
  15. PeteF3
    Pay downgrade or not, what a relief it must have been for Cornette to finally get a chance to cut loose on the mic in meaningful angles after spinning his wheels for most of his last year in WCW.
  16. PeteF3
    Pretty good closing stretch based around reversals and counters more than giant bombs, with Jumbo finding a way to withstand the Lariat in a cool moment. Hansen goes for a second one but Jumbo takes a page out of Baba's book with the jumping neckbreaker to regain the Triple Crown. These guys were always better off against each other in heated brawls. I get AJPW just ran one of those and that their big title matches were generally worked on the level, but that could have provided a nice change of pace at least for the pretty staid opening portion.
  17. PeteF3
    Embry is a blond once again and looks sleazier than ever. Funny how lack of moves is brought up because in terms of pure offense I thought this brought more than most post-buyout Texas matches with the exception of Jarrett/Gilbert. This isn't a match of great substance but for a bomb-throwing-fest, Texas-style, this was pretty good. After his miracle run of 1989, I'm always happy to see Eric Embry back working in the Sportatorium.
  18. PeteF3
    As great as the AJPW epic is I think the promotion was worse off for the (more or less) disappearance of matches like this. This is a total out-of-the-box-for-its-time war based on blood and hate as much as bombs and near-falls, though we do get those two towards the end. I don't know if it will come through on this yearbook yet but I love how Kawada's enzuilariato becomes a recurring element of his matches this year after its insta-KO appearance here.
  19. PeteF3
    Yep, MOTYC and the Match of January so far. What a great month this has been, and there's still some greatness to come. The first fall is sort of standard and not MOTYC level but everything from Santo's segunda caida comeback onward is pure gold. Both guys bleed like stuck pigs and Santo hits some tremendous dives when his back is against the wall. Near falls abound in the third fall, with Brazo getting to escape the Santo camel clutch twice.
  20. PeteF3
    York and Missy make cracks about Paul E.--York's computer is only able to calculate the abilities of athletes, so it won't help Missy with Paulie. Dangerously comes out and makes more insinuations about how Missy got and is keeping her job, then goes into a patented Paul E. misogyny rant after Missy runs off. He's about to do the same with Miss York but immediately changes his tune when Michael Wallstreet comes out. Funny stuff. I've always dug the York Foundation gimmick but what made WCW change its tune regarding having TWO women on the roster? Woman brought so much more to the table than Terri did.
  21. PeteF3
    Big Cat gets a visual fall (as such) on Lex Luger in the football match. Unbelievable. Hey, it's Vladimir, and he's a Horsemen fan! Ric Flair takes two visual falls himself from Sting, but lands on top after a collision and gets the pinfall, despite Sting's foot being on the rope. The first of two World Championship reset buttons to be pressed within the span of a week.
  22. PeteF3
    As an added note, Eddie Gilbert no-showed the previous Monday's MSC card and apparently (though not for that long, looking at the match listings) walked out on the promotion entirely. So that burial from Cornette was just that. Now I wonder if this wasn't a panic turn, though one always has to wonder how long any Cornette babyface run can truly last. EDIT: An Observer confirms the Fabs turn was planned, and that Eddie would turn babyface to team with Lawler against them. Would have been interesting to see though I think it was way too early to turn Gilbert at that point.
  23. PeteF3
    Lawler is back out--he would have expected Cornette to be a sellout but expresses disappointment with the Fabulous Ones apparently not having any pride of their own. Lawler & Dundee vs. the Fabs for Monday. I guess at this point they felt they couldn't run a MSC show without Lawler on the bill, but yeah, you'd think they could have the Fabs go over a team like Dundee & Davis first. A great promo, though.
  24. PeteF3
    The Fabs make a show of watching Jerry Lawler's back during an interview, only for Cornette to clobber Lawler with the racket and the Fabs drop him with a spike piledriver on the floor. Cornette calls "Terry" on his portable phone and informs him that he's "2 for 2"--they ran Eddie Gilbert off and just broke Lawler. Cornette reveals the master plan: they couldn't collect the bounty on Lawler by going after him head-to-head and there was a chance that the Memphis Mafia could collect it first, so they earned Lawler's trust and thwarted the Mafia before making their move. Eddie Marlin comes out to get in Cornette's face and this face-off is as great as one would expect. The Fabs vs. Lawler and a partner is more or less signed for Monday night.
  25. PeteF3
    Lane is working pretty half-assed here. The Fabs' return came off as a big moment but the title change less so.
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