Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

PeteF3

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10269

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    DiBiase heaps more abuse on Virgil but Lords his family over him. Virgil is on the verge of rebelling but that breaks him and he picks up DiBiase's money. Good promo from DiBiase and the crowd was really, REALLY wanting to see Virgil fight back.
  2. PeteF3
    Iraq had a deadline of 1/15 to withdraw from Kuwait before the UN Coalition went to combat. The WWF touches on this...for the sole purpose of setting up a Sgt. Slaughter promo saying most of the same stuff as before about standing side-by-side with President Hussein. The U.S. on the verge of war is basically being treated the same way as a WWF title match. I think it's possible to incorporate current events into a wrestling angle in a reasonable, if not necessarily tasteful, way. But it needed something besides the WWF's hamhanded, sledgehammer of plot approach.
  3. PeteF3
    I know I wasn't that high on the chain match, but the grittiness and intensity and atmosphere there was undeniable. The weapons-fest that this descends into felt about as gritty and intense as an episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show. I don't know how else to describe people flinging around oversized nunchuks and bamboo sticks the size of telephone poles (while laying the shots in as lightly as possible because they're too heavy to do anything else with). One of the apparent stablemates standing by with a frigging hockey stick (always a big draw in Japan) just added untintentional humor that this match was desperately trying to avoid. Kyoko also blows every big spot she tries--she airballs on the Tenryu reverse elbow, almost kills herself doing a plancha, almost Hayabusas herself trying to do a springboard something-or-other, and the leapfrog-Bull-into-a-corner-kick spot was a neat idea but looked like she did as much damage to herself as to the opponent. So, all that shit needed to go away. And it did (except for Inoue), and we got back to an actual wrestling match with a pretty good build to the ending. I liked Nakano & Inoue's counter to the double-Irish-whip spot a lot, and it was a good way to get Aja out of the picture and leave Bison alone against both opponents, which spells doom. The contrasting images of Bison on the chair in despair and Aja stewing stoically is pretty great. But this was yet another joshi match that, even for a big stipulation blowoff type match, crammed more into it than the match needed. Maybe Toyota and Hokuto could have given them some pointers on how less is more.
  4. PeteF3
    Toyota junks the rapidfire style due to Hokuto coming out with a giant cast and splint on her arm. That lasts for about a minute and a half before Toyota rips it off (and emphatically breaks the splint over her knee just to drive the point home) and Hokuto basically has to resort to nothing but dives and high-risk moves because her arm won't let her do anything else. She gets a slight opening when Toyota buggers her leg on a dive (irony!) She kicks out of a few big Toyota moves but misses one last go-for-broke somersault. Toyota wraps her back up in an armbar and we get a submission. That's absolutely the right finish but color me surprised to see a joshi title match end on a tapout. Great different dimension from Toyota here--I wish we'd gotten this Toyota when she first met Hokuto after the big leg injury. So far January '91 has been on fire from pretty much every promotion imaginable.
  5. PeteF3
    Fujinami seems like he's aged quite a bit since we last saw him at the end of '89, and he's clearly not back in prime shape yet. Fujinami clearly isn't on the level of his '80s best but this is a pretty good fight that fits in well thematically with the Texas stuff we've just been watching. Vader gets a cut in the eye again but manages to come back with a lariat and splash to win the IWGP Heavyweight title. I can get on board with Fujinami maniacally throwing punches at a cut if he can't do the chain wrestling and dives he used to do.
  6. PeteF3
    Okerlund implies that Hussein was on WWF TV giving those boots to Slaughter. Warrior talks of hourglasses and...for fuck's sake...minefields. The invasion of Kuwait and war in the Middle East is only serving as a basis for wrestling metaphors. Absolutely no one in this company seems to have any clue of what's actually happening in the real world. That's not even necessarily a problem, but then leave the fucking real world out of things.
  7. PeteF3
    Total war, with Funk throwing more incredible punches and both guys flinging themselves into the ringside table and posts, and Lawler breaking a particle board over Funk's head which makes a lovely popping sound. This is one of the stiffest matches in the history of a building that, while it's had a multitude of frenzied brawls, I don't really think of as a house of stiffness. Funk clotheslines Tony Falk and that draws a DQ. Sort of an '80s Japan structure where guys use weapons with impunity but abusing a ref ends the match. I'm just fine with that.
  8. PeteF3
    USWA-Texas, how I've missed you! Redman Tobacco has seized control of the lucrative sponsorship contract from Renegades Rampage, but otherwise it's the same Sportatorium we know and love. Except the crowd is hotter than it's been since the Von Erichs' heyday. This is surprisingly matwork-based which is not only really well-done but the work pays off big-time throughout the match--Gilbert has a hurt arm, Jarrett has a hurt leg. Fantastic work in the figure-four with Gilbert using Jarrett's boot laces for leverage. After James Beard gets bumped, Gilbert pulls a chain from under his towel, but Jarrett gets it and uses it for the apparent pin. Unfortunately he makes the same mistake he made against Jerry Lawler and gets caught with it again, and the Southern title goes back to Gilbert. What I love about Gilbert is that he wrestles mostly on the level and only cheats either incrementally to gain a slight advantage--and just enough for you to notice--or at the very end. His heeling here amounts to a few closed fists and the work with the bootlaces, while the chain doesn't make an appearance until the finish. It's what separates Lawler the heel from Ric Flair the heel, and what separates Gilbert as well. This really does seem like an exciting time to be a USWA fan, as there's more energy in the Sportatorium than in a long time with grandiose plans being tossed about in the sheets by Pedicino. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
  9. PeteF3
    Paul E. sells the hell out of that slap, almost as over-the-top as Lawler selling Nitron's punch.
  10. PeteF3
    Film footage of the WarGames cage being constructed. Michael Hayes is Uncle Sam, Sting is Rambo, Sid is Sid. Quick and effective.
  11. PeteF3
    This was a fairly gallant attempt at breaking into the NYC market, with the biggest football name yet, but this kind of thing probably should have been best-served on the NY edition of Pro instead of on TBS. I'm not sure Dangerously being in Big Cat's corner was ever really explained in a kayfabe way.
  12. PeteF3
    What was "new" about this, exactly?
  13. PeteF3
    Great stuff on the floor--I'm a sucker for actual wrestling moved and spots being done outside the ring. We have that and a strong finishing sequence, with Pillman cleverly getting Rogers to duck a move from the top, opening him up for a sunset flip. That said, this official (whom I've never seen) completely fucks over the 5-minute stip by counting every pinfall and ruining whatever they were trying to build to. Ross plugs the WCW SEXY WRESTLER CONTEST after this. Z-Man won (spoiler).
  14. PeteF3
    Fuck a Tom Prichard, we needed BodyDonna Rip in 1996. Pillman may be able to beat Rip Rogers in a sprint, but with pinfalls not counting in the first 5 minutes he's entering Rogers' world.
  15. PeteF3
    They do love doing on-location vignettes with DiBiase. I was secretly, vainly hoping for DiBiase to do a Ric Flair elbowdrop onto the cowboy hat, which would have made this the Segment of the Year.
  16. PeteF3
    They actually acknowledge the Hogan-Warrior showdown from the year before. I remember them showing the Ax-Smash showdown from '89 multiple times, usually at the first Rumble report of the year. Love confronts Hogan with the possibility of Hulk having to face Earthquake & Bravo 2-on-1, and then facing Tugboat. Hogan cuts a similar promo to last January, wanting to be #1 so he can go through the whole field.
  17. PeteF3
    Royal Rumble is gonna be a NON-TITLE MATCH, OOOOOOH YEAH. Warrior is interviewed in the locker room by Okerlund in a...normal (!!!) setting. Despite the valiant attempt and focused promo, Warrior is back to being a raving loon. I EXPECT NOTHING LESS FROM YOU SGT. SLAUGHTER AND THE IRAQIS THAT FOLLOW YOU THAN TOTAL SURRENDERRRRR. *snort*
  18. PeteF3
    Very good closing stretch and they were able to at least hold my attention the whole way through. The final near-fall right at the bell was well-timed too, which you don't always see. Too long for its own good, as Kawada-Kobashi was some months earlier, but an interesting look at a mid-card joshi match for the era.
  19. PeteF3
    I do kind of wish the matwork had come at the beginning, but from that point on this was gold. None of Bull's tendencies that annoyed me in 1990 were on display here and all the big moves were given time to breathe. The interference was completely superfluous but at least it was quick, and the moves and near-falls down the stretch were top-notch. I suppose Hokuto surviving the Guillotine Legdrop, a second-rope tombstone, and a power bomb only to fall to a bridge suplex may have been a tad weak, but I kind of liked Nakano winning on what was essentially the joshi version of a flash pin. This honestly did a lot more for Hokuto than the cage matches did for Aja.
  20. PeteF3
    This came across as very U.S.-like babyface vs. heel, actually. Kobashi is actively trying to avoid wrestling at Hansen's level (not just because he's a "good guy" but because that's basically suicidal), so we get Hansen swinging chairs like a maniac while Kobashi works the arm. The result is inevitable but Kobashi gets to show off quite a lot here.
  21. PeteF3
    Well, I thought this was ultimately underwhelming. The setting is probably the grittiest in the history of wrestling between the torn-up ring, chains, lighting, and blood. And there were some great spots here--the dive, both guys tumbling over the top rope to the floor, and I-forget-who getting slung into the seats. But there was a lot of dead time and it took a long while to get going. I also thought a lot of the strikes were bad--and that was doubly disappointing because I know Fiera knows how to pound the shit out of somebody and Estrada seems like a guy willing to oblige him. Then the sheer WTF-ness of the ending...I'm not opposed to a double-KO but the referee suddenly deciding to officiate this like an Olympic match (topical!) with a 1-count finish was too fucking much.
  22. PeteF3
    Ladies and gentlemen, Roberto Rojas.
  23. PeteF3
    I've already seen this disc. I finished the set awhile ago--before I started the '90 yearbook, I think. I have the matches rated, though I haven't sent in a ballot yet. I just plowed through Disc 30 of 1990 today and spent a shit-ton of time going over an imaginary WON Awards ballot for the year. I have to be at work at 7am tomorrow. Yeah, I guess I'll be there.
  24. PeteF3

    General thoughts on 1990

    PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in 1990

    WWF Match of the Year: 1. Roddy Piper vs. Mr. Perfect (12/28) 2. The Rockers vs. The Powers of Pain (1/15) 3. The Rockers vs. The Hart Foundation (10/30) Honorable mentions: Hogan vs. Earthquake (8/27), Hart Foundation vs. Demolition (8/27), Warrior vs. DiBiase (11/23) NWA/WCW Match of the Year: 1. The Southern Boys vs. The Midnight Express (7/7) 2. Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger (2/25) 3. Doom vs. Barry Windham & Arn Anderson (Street Fight, 12/16) Honorable mentions: Flair vs. Eaton (1/7), Rock & Rolls vs. Midnights (2/25), Doom vs. Flair/Arn (10/27), Eaton vs. Scott Steiner (9/21). A lot of great wrestling to choose from even in a decaying promotion. AJPW Match of the Year: 1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (9/1) 2. Misawa/Kobashi/Taue vs. Jumbo/Kabuki/Fuchi (5/26) 3. Misawa/Kawada vs. Jumbo/Taue (9/30) Honorable mentions: Misawa vs. Jumbo (6/8), Doc vs. Hansen (6/5), 8/18 6-man NJPW Match of the Year: 1. Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (1/31) 2. Keiji Mutoh & Masahiro Chono vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase (11/1) 3. 5-on-5 match (6/26) Honorable mentions: Liger vs. Pegasus Kid (11/1), Zbyszko vs. Saito (2/10), Choshu vs. Hashimoto (5/28) Lucha Match of the Year Besides the Two El Dandy Matches: 1. Pirata Morgan vs. El Faraon (11/16) 2. Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. vs. Cien Caras (9/21) 3. El Hijo del Santo, Satanico, & Eddy Guerrero vs. Los Brazos (9/14) Women's Match of the Year: 1. Aja Kong vs. Bull Nakano, Cage Match (11/14) 2. Elimination Match (11/17) 3. Manami Toyota vs. Yumiko Hotta (6/17) WWF Angle of the Year: 1. DiBiase buys out the front row to attack Dustin Rhodes 2. Rick Martel blinds Jake Roberts 3. Randy Savage jumps the Ultimate Warrior on the Main Event NWA Angle of the Year: 1. Barry Windham returns as a Horseman/Horsemen attack the injured Sting 2. Teddy Long and Doom engineer a kidnapping of Ric Flair and hijack the Horsemen limo 3. The Midnight Express destroy Brian Pillman's throat USWA Angle of the Year: 1. Eddie Gilbert and Jeff Jarrett argue over the Southern title, the Unified title tournament, and their personal lives 2. The Snowman debuts by hijacking the WMC studio 3. Leon Spinks costs Lawler the Unified World title USWA-TX Angle of the Year: 1. Kerry Von Erich and Matt Borne brawl into the parking lot 2. John Tatum's nervous breakdown (throwing a jobber at the fans) 3. Austin & Jeannie assault Toni Adams with a kendo stick
  25. PeteF3

    General thoughts on 1990

    PeteF3 replied to Loss's topic in 1990

    I bet you were feeling really great when you passed me at the beginning of December.
×
×
  • Create New...