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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    I mute or DVR-FF ads at almost every opportunity nowadays. But when I got my SNME set, I was positively giddy when a particular show still had the commercials.
  2. PeteF3
    I'm about the only guy online who still likes Dory, it seems. Even on Classics he's invariably the top guy mentioned in a "Most Overrated" thread. I thought Dory was the MVP of the '75 Open League, which is not a small feat considering that was a tournament that included Baba, Jumbo, Destroyer, Harley, Murdoch, and Horst Hoffman--not to mention Dusty and Abby. Dory/Horst is a MOTYC, Dory/Jumbo looks great even though we only have the last 10 minutes of a 30-minute draw, and he even has a fun match beating the shit out of Abdullah the Butcher and actually showing some fire. It's sort of damning with faint praise but that tournament also had the best Baron Von Raschke match ever.
  3. PeteF3
    I guess I see Sheamus, Sarge, and Gordy as "power wrestlers." At some point suplexes and backbreakers went from being finishers to being "regular" moves and thus the technician/power-wrestler divide got blurrier. I don't think having a submission finish in and of itself is de facto proof of a technical wrestler. Sheamus' big thing is kicking people's heads off more than the Cloverleaf. Gordy was about picking you up and throwing you down again as much as it was the Asian Spike. Sarge at least had the kayfabe Marine training but was still about knocking people around than taking it to the mat. Valentine? I don't see any issue calling him a "technician" at all. Not only did he have the figure 4 but MOST of his matches were about methodically setting the opponent up for it, Anderson-style. That's an indication of a true technical wrestler. Piper doesn't even come close--his background (kayfabe, at least) was boxing and he was all about how he grew up as a guy literally fighting his way up from the streets. That more than counteracts the fact that he had a sleeper--and earlier, a swinging neckbreaker--as a finisher. Savage and Shawn are high-fliers--hit and run guys. I can't think of either guy using a submission at all outside of maybe slapping the figure four onto Ric Flair. DiBiase's "technician" status is probably a triumph of hype and marketing and gimmickry over actual ability, but I guess he passes the Potter Stewart "know it when I see it" test with me. On top of just having big moves, "smoothness" is an indication of technical ability in a pro wrestling sense and DiBiase certainly had that. He had a sweet powerslam that looked like he was leveraging his opponent over than doing a Steve Williams/Davey Boy-style show of strength, and he still had a submission finish pre-MDM (the figure four--the "official" finisher which still applies even if most name opponents were finished by a glove to the head).
  4. PeteF3
    Hype for SummerSlam: 2/3 falls, only 2 members of Demolition at ringside. Then they move on to daring the Legion of Doom to come jump them. They then decide to dedicate their tag title victory to Brother Love, "their good friend," for some reason.
  5. PeteF3
    PEACE IS FOR PANSIES. SGT. SLAUGHTER IS DECLARING WAR ON PEACE AND ON YOU, VOLKOFF. I know Steve Beverly absolutely flipped his lid at the closing shot of Slaughter pointing an assault rifle at the camera, basically threatening to shoot any fan who supported peace or Volkoff. It's doubly disturbing now. Ventura says he completely agrees with Slaughter's stance which is also pretty crazy when heard with 2012 ears. This is actually a pretty hilarious combination of a classy ceremony with the most un-PC wrestling promos seen in the WWF in years. Ventura invokes noted political stalwart Andrew Dice Clay and says that if Volkoff can't speak the Pledge of Allegiance he should get out. I'm going to miss Jesse on this yearbook.
  6. PeteF3
    This was pretty good. Onita gets fucked up early with several explosions and eats most of them throughout the match, which only exacerbates the effect when Goto gets whipped full-on and tangled into the ropes. Onita's fired-up facials as he's trying to fight out of the figure four really sell this as much as the gimmickry. The fucker still won't go down until Onita basically just DDTs and power bombs him into oblivion. What fucking kills this for me is the overdubbed commentary. I know FMW has long had an issue with its golf-style announcing but it's still not any easier to take.
  7. PeteF3
    In a way I now wish I hadn't listened to the USWA-TX/Global podcast because that spoiled the Lawler babyface turn. This is a really fun match nonetheless with some great stooging from Young and even Falcone was perfectly okay. Awesome finish as the heels use a riding crop on both Lawler and Jarrett, but Lawler retaliates by pulling out his trusty chain as well as a SECOND chain to give to Jarrett. Spectacular. Unfortunately Tony Falk only sees the chain and not the riding crop, leading to a DQ win for Devastation, Inc. and a piledriver on the referee. Like Loss I wonder if that's going to be a factor in this "deal with the Devil" that Johnson and Pedicino were hyping.
  8. PeteF3
    Zrno is in the short trunks, Schumann in the tights. This will be fun as it's my first chance to see Marty Jones as a heel. This crowd is absolutely jacked for Zrno, chanting "MI-LE" non-stop every time he's in the ring. Schumann isn't really that good and is basically just a big musclehead but his reversal of the Hart Attack where he gets Finlay to clothesline his own partner is absolutely fucking brilliant and gets a huge reaction. The third fall takes a really unexpected detour when Schumann gets busted open and Finlay & Jones go from rather routine heels to being particularly vicious in going after the cut. Schumann ducks a flying attack by Jones and he and Finlay both tumble to the floor for the countout. This is a tag title change that the crowd pops huge for and is treated as a Big Deal. Fun match. If not the most Southern tag match in continental European history it's not far off.
  9. PeteF3
    A fantastic brawl with Austin taking two absolutely insane bumps: the dive to nowhere on the floor and the missed tackle against the post, with Austin smacking it so hard his helmet flies off. Somehow they book a DQ finish in a no-DQ/no-countout match when Percy Pringle runs in and helps engineer a 2-on-1 on Adams. The psychology surrounding the football gear is actually quite clever which puts this an additional notch or two above the usual garbage brawl.
  10. PeteF3
    I really hate how they can't have a proper set or even a background for the Louisville Slugger. Just one of those details that makes the WWF look so much more professional.
  11. PeteF3
    Yep. Definitely Rayo and definitely a horse.
  12. PeteF3
    Same promo as SNME, with fewer animal puns and more screaming.
  13. PeteF3
    We finally get around to mentioning the SummerSlam co-main event. Rude promises to leap off the cage onto the Warrior. Warrior looks like a reject from White Lion as he rebuts. He's evidently taken diversity training as he's no longer abusing the "normal" Sean Mooney.
  14. PeteF3
    They have bears in Africa? Lord Alfred and "Jim" encounter Koko B. Ware searching for a mate for Frankie, Damian (with Jake using the opportunity to cut a promo on Bad News), the Bushwhackers walking with the Nairobi Express (an underrated tag team if there ever was one), the "anthropoid" Jimmy Snuka running around, and some unfriendly natives--Slick & Akeem. Hayes has to bail Jim out at every stop in their search for the mouth of the Yanghtze River. Hayes is pretty great and Gene is pretty shamelessly bold in pratfalling around like an idiot.
  15. PeteF3
    They have bears in Africa? Lord Alfred and "Jim" encounter Koko B. Ware searching for a mate for Frankie, Damian (with Jake using the opportunity to cut a promo on Bad News), the Bushwhackers walking with the Nairobi Express (an underrated tag team if there ever was one), the "anthropoid" Jimmy Snuka running around, and some unfriendly natives--Slick & Akeem. Hayes has to bail Jim out at every stop in their search for the mouth of the Yanghtze River. Hayes is pretty great and Gene is pretty shamelessly bold in pratfalling around like an idiot.
  16. PeteF3
    The crowd is absolutely jacked for this. Even with WWF TV being sound-sweetened beyond death you can tell visually that the reactions here are genuine. No, there isn't much beyond the false finishes and the referee switch, but those are some pretty great false finishes and some great fiery comebacks from Tito. Heenan is absolutely outstanding here--he has a camera trained on him for most of the match and makes the most of it. His little signal to Perfect to switch from a chinlock to a chokehold was a great bit of subtle managing.
  17. PeteF3
    This was a disappointment especially in light of the POP match earlier, which may not be totally fair. Crush blows a lot of things, even his normally reliable tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, while Smash doesn't offer a lot besides ax-handlery. Ax as the outside man is honestly the best worker of the team. The Rockers themselves are fine but I can't call this one of their standout performances, either. I do like the finish which is maybe a bit Memphis heel-ish for what are supposed to be big bruising tough guys, but gets the advantage of having three men over. Ax's interference is protested by both the Harts and LOD, to no avail. Also, "A LOVE TAP??!" Vince's incredulous reaction cracked me up. Highlight of the match, hands down.
  18. PeteF3
    I'm guessing they got a shiny new merchandise catalog, at least. Unique setting to this, with Vince doing a rare-for-the-time in-ring interview and Ventura alone on commentary. It's not quite as good, but Hogan hits a lot of the same notes as he did n his comeback speech and he's still more low-key than usual. Earthquake and Bravo try to corner Hogan, but Tugboat comes to help get them to back off.
  19. PeteF3
    More animal analogies in the green-screen promos. As forced as some of this was it actually forces the Warrior into focusing on-point. And it's better than having Okerlund involved. There's a whole lot about this feud that I don't get at all. There's a cage match already signed for SummerSlam that isn't mentioned once. The WWF was always about what was happening NOW--6 months ago may as well have been ancient history. Yet the entire basis of this feud was, "Rude beat the Warrior a year and a half ago." All of those training vignettes aren't mentioned either in any way, even by Ventura--I guess THAT'S ancient history, then. Rude is pretty decisively beaten even if it's by a countout and we get Heenan getting beaten up, too. Joey Marella doesn't call for a bell even after clearly seeing Heenan interfere twice. Not to mention an idiotic spot with Marella lifting the Warrior's leg three times on the sleeper. Now, all that aside--and it's a lot of "all that"--Rude was great here. Rude going into a boxing stance and just pummeling the Warrior with punches may be the best spot of any match in this series, and it's a damn good series as far as ringwork goes. I love how they keep building and building on the "block the Rude Awakening" spot. At WrestleMania, Warrior turned it into a clothesline. At SummerSlam, Rude ducked the clothesline and caught Warrior in a sleeper. Here, Rude uses a thrust kick and immediately hits the neckbreaker anyway. This is also another good Warrior performance by his standards, as his selling and bumping are actually pretty good.
  20. PeteF3
    Alfred Hayes in safari gear and Ventura is dressed like Skinner. They really milk the animal kingdom puns for all they're worth. This is pretty much Jesse's swan song for this yearbook--two weeks later he'd be gone.
  21. PeteF3
    Holy fuck, you weren't kidding about Rice. In the Lynn match he's working a Raven/Jackyl-style prophet gimmick and coming out to the Doors "The End," which is an awesome out-of-the-box entrance theme about the last thing I expected to see ever.
  22. PeteF3
    Good stuff from Malenko being pushed as a hot young babyface star, which hardly fits him but credit for trying. The tricked-out quasi-shootstyle matwork is sort of beyond Rice's capabilities, but he gives it a go even though he doesn't pull everything off.
  23. PeteF3
    Jim Backlund is already going the "Gigolo" gimmick, looking like a scuzzy indy cruiser version of the Undertaker. Fun little match though it's kind of one-sided in favor of Rogers. Backlund misses a big top-rope legdrop and gets caught in a German suplex for the pin.
  24. PeteF3
    Quasi-NWO-style angle here as Tommy Rich interrupts a Sting/JYD promo to say, "They got Luger." Luger is out with his shirt torn up and carrying a club. And that's it. Luger is moving around pretty well for someone who allegedly got attacked.
  25. PeteF3
    I have no clue what the "Dustin" picture is supposed to be about. Was this a signing that fell through? Anyway, Arn announces that in addition to Flair, Sid Vicious will also be gunning for Sting's title, and asserts that anyone hospitalized in the future will not be the fault of the Horsemen, but Sting.
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