PeteF3
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The SummerSlam card is beginning to fall into place. The Ultimate Warrior isn't mentioned once.
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Yeah, this was a really drawn out squash. But a well-done one. There really is build to Toyota finally getting something in on Bull, as she has to back off and re-strategize, and then finally gets some offense in by diving at her from the top. Manami never really does get a "run," though, as she's constantly getting cut off including on a plancha to the floor just when it looked like she had something going. Toyota gets absolutely destroyed at the finish, taking a second sick lariat bump and then getting dropped on her head for the closing powerbomb. This is as monstrous as I've seen Bull look (which isn't exactly a ton) but she threw in other stuff like the Northern Lights and attempted diving legdrop without compromising any of that.
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And THIS is the USWA-Texas segment of the year so far. A much hotter start and the work in the chinlock/sleeper is much better. Austin takes some loony bumps to the floor and there are some great moves done by both guys, plus Toni finally gets some shots in on a helpless Jeannie which is long overdue. It's great that there's some actual psychology surrounding the catfights with Toni's perpetually injured ribs. One catfight spills onto the announcer's desk and Percy Pringle accidentally gets decked, leading to him grabbing Toni and imploring Jeannie to hit her. Chris Von Erich makes the save on Percy, Austin ties Adams in the ropes and goes after Chris, Jeff Jarrett makes the save for Chris, and Iceman Parsons comes out to attack Jarrett. Absolutely awesome stuff all around.
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Kabuki surprises me by still being in AJPW, then we get OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE in a '90s All-Japan match from Stan Hansen, and then he and Jumbo win the Tag Titles, too? What year is this?? -
I'm sure these come off better when spaced out. These aren't as good as the Rude promos but in some ways I actually mind them less because we at least had a strong angle to kick this feud off, and this is just sort of bonus material. The Rude vignettes are promos in search of a feud--something beyond Rude beating the Warrior a year and a half earlier.
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This is a surprisingly intense brawl that was really getting going until a cheap over-the-top-rope DQ. Caudle even acknowledges that Hansen & Rich were partners at one point, which is a nice nod to history. I groaned at the finish at first, then Hansen nails Pee Wee Anderson with a lariat and throws a tantrum in the ring before leveling Rich with the cowbell, and it hits me that he must have an All-Japan tour lined up. Nick Patrick announces that Hansen has been suspended for 30 days and fined $5,000. Hansen goes nuts and runs both Ross and Patrick off before taking his frustrations out on the interview set. NOBODY POTATOES SUSPENDS ME!
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Pretty cheap to hype the stip of having two referees only for Downtown Bruno to singlehandledly make chaos anyway. A distraction allows Snowman to roll Lawler up for the victory and then the DWBs and Wild Things hit the ring for another beatdown of Lawler. Snowman lurks in the background for awhile, then suddenly comes to the aid of Lawler & Dundee. It's not quite the MegaPowers, but it's a pretty stirring moment in and of itself. Snowman's interview is interrupted and--dear God in heaven--Snowman vs. Jeff Gaylord is signed as a Unified World title match for Monday. THIS IS GONNA BE THE BIGGEST MELDOWN SINCE THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR PLANT IN RUSSIA, Y'KNOW WHAT I'M SAYIN'?? Regardless of Snowman's claims that this will be "one of the most exciting championship matches of all-time"...forget JYD/Soultaker, this is the Worst Theoretical Match-Up That Actually Happened. Or may have happened, depending on when Snowman walked out.
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After the events of Monday night, Tessa and the Dirty White Girl will both be handcuffed to their respective turnbuckles and the winning team's valet can do whatever they want to the loser. Both valets basically promise to strip the other and this is possibly the sleaziest match stip of the pre-Monday Night War era. Lawler has illegally taken out two of Tony Anthony's partners with the piledriver. John Tatum laments the fact that his 86-year old mother can't eat because doctors say he'll be on the shelf for 6 months. Anthony laments his own situation until Eddie Gilbert comes out to set things right. It's Anthony & Gilbert vs. Lawler & Dundee Monday at the Coliseum.
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Anthony looks good, giving us a dropkick in addition to all of his other crisp offense. The DWBs continue beating down their opponents after the match until Jerry Lawler walks tall with a baseball bat. I liked Lawler's savate kick to set up the piledriver on Burton--don't think I've seen that out of him.
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Gilbert accuses Dave Brown and Jerry Lawler of having his $5,000. Mark Curtis makes an appearance, as a Gilbert fan pulled out of the crowd for a picture, only to get socked in the face as Gilbert accuses him of having the money as well. I suspect this isn't the last of Gilbert's paranoid Ricky Roma act.
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The Hart Foundation continue to express their plans to regain the Tag Titles and bring up that tag teams are supposed to be 2-on-2. Demolition comes out and Ax points out that the Hart Foundation are the only team to come with built-in excuses before losing a match. The Harts make an impromptu challenge, 3-on-2 for the titles, but make the mistake of turning their backs when they head to the ring, and pay for it.
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"HELL NO I'm not retiring." For a minute I was a Little Hulkster again. Yeah, I said it. This is not only Hogan's best babyface promo, it's probably his best acting job period.
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I guess this is as close as we'll get to seeing Lawler vs. Snowman in full. Another bit of Redneck UWFI but even more surprising coming from Jarrett and Parsons. It's good stuff but I can't stress enough how much more compelling Lawler/Snowman was--that wasn't just a shoot-style fight, it was a fight between two guys who plausibly hated each other's guts and were truly fighting for something. This is a shoot-style fight between two guys who were booked to have a shoot-style fight. Same finish as the initial Snowman matches as Parsons slugs the referee and the match gets thrown out. Parsons makes threats towards "Jessica" after the match. ROOTY-POOT~! is uttered. A Snowman interview is hyped, with him holding the Unified belt. Oh, NOW we're acknowledging the Memphis title changes?
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Sid's comments could actually be construed as a shot at Flair. Arn is fantastic, even by his standards. His talk of being up all night plotting and how the '90s Horsemen formed "by necessity" makes him come off as a Captain Ahab-level monomaniac in getting the title back on Flair.
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Fuchi and Kikuchi always have a great dynamic together and I really love how this is worked like a Big Man vs. Little Man match even though it's two juniors and Fuchi doesn't even do a whole lot of power spots. I get Loss' point about bombs that aren't--the holds are worked so long and intensely, especially the Boston crabs, that any kind of big move comes off as a "bomb," even though neither guy has a lot of those in their arsenal. Kikuchi gets to kick out of the backdrop suplex, so Fuchi has to resort to a German to put the fucker away.
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Curse that absence of Evansville footage. 2/3 falls, "just like the good old days."
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This is pretty much the interview that cemented the Demos heel turn, though there was never a pivotal fundamental moment of such. Crush's paint looks like the cheap designs Ax and Smash wore soon after their debut, though he has the interview style down pat.
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This was pretty meandering and Flair-vs.-Sting by numbers for about 3/4 of the way, with Sting doing way too much no-selling for my taste, especially for all of Flair's chops. Overbooking aside I got into the Dudes with Attitudes forming a human wall to stave off the Horsemen and the finish was pretty well put-together and Sting's victory is a genuinely cool moment. The victory speech definitely felt flat. I'd rather listen to it than the Warrior's talk of Normals but yeah, he gushed over Flair a little too much for what was supposed to be a hateful feud.
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Dead crowd until the end and there's a long stretch where they appear to be distracted by something. Never saw this as anything other than solid, though the crowd came alive when Teddy Long got trapped in the ring with Gibson.
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Really strong, well-laid out finish with a crowd that's really into it. Luger has shown no signs of slowing down from his hot '89 and, as it turns out, the sudden face turn hasn't hurt him yet.
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A top 3 U.S. MOTY, maybe #1. Not much else to add but it's incredible how much more over the Southern Boys were than the two former World Champions and national stars in the previous bout. A testament to great tag work and to the Midnights & Cornette as well. Some of the greatest southern tag near-falls you'll ever see mark the end of this one: both tag finishes AND a babyface switcheroo attempt before a well-timed Lane enzuigiri allows Eaton to eke out a victory.
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I know this match primarily for Jim Ross making one of the all-time great announcer saves, in regards to Race's crown gear, speculating that Harley must be a fan of the Sacramento Kings. Actually JR, I think he'd be a Royals fan. This is a pretty impressive bomb-throwing sprint albeit with a marked lack of heat. Race throws some wicked clotheslines in addition to his usual arsenal and surprises me by rolling through a cross body to get a clean pin.
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Great Austin promo, though not really one they really should have been running considering the TV situation as he regrets not breaking every bone in Toni's body and promises to put her and Chris in wheelchairs. Jeannie has some good lines and tells Craig Johnson to stop looking down her dress, but she sort of goes off the rails and starts rambling as this segment anticlimactically peters out.
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Jarrett and Travis are hyping an upcoming tag match against Devastation (is the "Inc." gone now?) when suddenly Iceman King Parsons crashes the area. Iceman is upset that Jarrett has a job with the USWA and he doesn't, and eventually security and John Brazelle escort him away from the ring area in a fairly intense scene. Later on Iceman, even though he was supposedly arrested for trespassing, crashes the area again after a Jarrett squash and another shoot-style fight takes place on the floor. Now Iceman is taken out in handcuffs as Jarrett threatens John Brazelle that if he doesn't get a match with Parsons, he quits. It's a re-do of the initial Lawler/Snowman angle but this doesn't really measure up. It's not a total failing because we're talking about the Angle of the Year, but the attempts at shoot/spontaneity fall pretty flat. The camera catches Parsons right as he makes his entrance and there are a lot of convenient reaction shots, though everybody plays their role well. Furthermore, while Snowman was only known to listeners of local black radio or readers of black newspaper coverage in Memphis, the Iceman is a longtime Sportatorium staple and the crowd is clearly excited and happy to see him back. The second segment comes off much better. We again get a convenient camera shot of the Iceman's entrance but the intensity is upped a bit with some very good use of selective bleeping. Still, Snowman's intentions were clear from the get-go ("The USWA is racist") while Iceman's issues with Jarrett seem more personal and I'm having some trouble grasping each guy's motivation. Hopefully some backstory is spelled out going forward. For a guy who was almost a clown act for most of his career, whether babyface or heel, Iceman does make for a good thug troublemaker.
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Tatum, for once, delivers an intense, heated promo. Tessa is like the women he used to pick up in bars: at 8 o'clock she looked good, at 10 o'clock she looked great, at midnight she was a goddess, and when he woke up at 10 the next day she was a dog! Great interview. A first-blood match for Friday's Sportatorium card is hyped. Dundee rebuts in a taped segment.