PeteF3
-
Posts
10285 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by PeteF3
-
Impassioned promo from Von Erich that's pretty on-point. Kerry's gravitas is undeniable.
-
Lawler cuts the same dinosaurs/mind-readers promo he cut on Mike Awesome, a promo that applies almost too perfectly to Kerry Von Erich. I do like that Lawler puts over KVE as a physical specimen and points to the brains as a point of difference between the two, rather than just talk about another incompetent opponent who couldn't beat anybody.
-
Snowman is the new Unified World Champion, thanks to Leon Spinks. This time around there will be no referee in the ring.
-
The Triple Crown Champion challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight title? Why is this match not well-known (to my knowledge)? The lack of lost eyeballs? Anyway, it's a Hansen match that's not in All-Japan. The ring announcer intro may as well have gone, "This contest is scheduled for one fall with a bullshit finish." That's just sort of a basic prerequisite. And I thought this was pretty awesome and the match of the night. A super-hot start with furniture being thrown all over the place and Vader taking a spectacular pop-up bump off the Lariat. I could watch these two pound the crap out of each other all day. I didn't get any stalling vibe from Hansen--I thought his bailing out fit in quite well considering he was in the rare position of facing someone whom he couldn't bully around. If anything they probably do go outside one time too many. Brawls outside the ring being a near-fall as they are in Japan, it's sort of an unfair tease considering we were getting a no-decision anyway.
-
Hamaguchi takes the same opening gambit he used against Jumbo when he was similarly overmatched, jumping Choshu before the bell. He quickly bloodies Choshu outside before Riki screams something as he reverses Hamaguchi into the guardrails and the double juice is on. Hamaguchi runs through his whole arsenal, but YOU CAN'T HEADLOCK RIKI CHOSHU. The Outlaws seem to be awfully premature in their attempts to throw the towel in, and Choshu has none of it, dispatching Super Strong Machine as he tries to cover Hamaguchi up and pinning him after a third or fourth Riki Lariato, despite Hamaguchi's best attempts to Hulk Up his way through them. Really fun match and another great feisty performance from Animal. The Outlaws leave their mark on Choshu afterward.
-
Definitely broader and more theatrical than a typical UWF match, and also one of the fighters is dressed as a cartoon superhero. Aoyagi is pretty much on the defensive for most of this, actually. He gets in a few nice kicks but the mask-ripping just serves to piss Liger off and Aoyagi pays for it. Yeah, it's not a great match, but it's really really fun and engrossing just to see Liger sort of out of his element...is Liger vs. Sano: The Sequel (as part of the UWFI feud) anything like this? They had a match then, right? The only thing that actively annoyed me about this was the round-ending bell...with all the "saved by the bell" false finishes it felt like the match had like 3 endings, and then when the ending finally came no one was quite sure what to make of it until Tiger Hattori raised Liger's hand.
-
Atlas don't need to hollar and scream about how much food he ate to get overweight. Good little low-key, quietly cocky promo from Tony.
-
That was...disturbing.
-
USWA Texas has so many segments that are similar to each other that I can't always tell what's new or what's a repeat, and the same goes for this. This is either a repeat or the second time that Dundee's been rammed into a chair set up on the ring apron after saving Tessa from a Tatum kidnapping. "Everybody seems to want to close the barn door after the horse leaves." Jesus, Bill, could you not come up with a good lipstick-on-a-pig metaphor? -
Matt Borne is the Boogeyman, and he's GONNA GETCHA. Pringle cuts an absolutely psychotic promo directed towards Chris, who's sitting on Doris' couch watching this. If Fritz & Doris don't keep Chris away, they're going to "lose another one." Holy merciful fuck, that tops the promo where Pringle praises his "idol" George Wallace on the tastelessness meter. Not BAD, maybe not even really objectionable...but tasteless. Pringle comes off as a guy completely over the edge, which separates his tasteless bullshit from the tasteless bullshit the Horsemen are spewing. I dug the little nod to history with Pringle taking credit for making Eric Embry and preserving the USWA, too.
-
Poor Chris. Unlike Mike, he really did badly want to be a wrestler. His promo isn't bad at all, actually, and then Percy comes out to browbeat him. I absolutely could not stand Pringle as the manager of Rick Rude but he was great as Eric Embry's call-to-action babyface manager--a very tricky role to play--and he's good here. Percy attempts to slap Chris but Kerry Von Erich and Matt Borne are quickly out and Percy is exposed as quite the coward, having to protect himself from Chris with a chair.
-
Austin just brutalizes this guy, repeatedly dropping him on the hardwood floor. He eventually gets disqualified as Jeannie starts slapping West around, and Adams & Toni run the heels off. Fired-up promo follows--what IS Jeannie trying to accomplish, anyway?
-
I approve of psychotic babyface promos. Orndorff in particular is spazzing out something fierce.
-
I know I just mentioned this but the side-by-side comparison of the Lawler/Snowman angle with this horseshit is staggering. The best-done angle of the year right along with the worst. I'll conceded that I enjoyed the description of Rocky King as a "human licorice stick." The rest of Arn's promo is pretty great as he channels Jules Winnfield. But holy heaping Christ, the Horsemen should be so above having to come out to interview sets acting like they left their burning crosses in the back.
-
Woman is out as Horsemen manager, but Herd states that there is no definitive evidence that Ole Anderson hijacked the cage (???). If evidence does come out, Ole will be suspended as well. The Horsemen don't take to this well. Windham makes a veiled reference to his previous stint under Herd and blames Herd's hiring incompetence for the raising cage.
-
This feud has taken a rather odd twist with Lawler and Snowman doing a semi-double-turn (even though Lawler was a heel to start with). Lawler accuses Snowman of constantly having his hand out and talks about what happens to a snowman in the winter time when the sun comes out. I liked the setting of this one quite a bit, actually. Lawler doesn't do a lot to put Snowman over but he doesn't bury him either--I'd be fine with heel Lawler promos like this.
-
Snowman cuts a babyface-esque promo semi-apologizing for his debut. He rambles a lot about the poor officiating in the previous matches and complains about Kerry Von Erich being the referee, but then Eddie Marlin comes out to rescue the segment and explains that Kerry hates Lawler as much as Snowman does, and explains what having a black World Champion would do for Memphis' fanbase. Snowman is placated and makes up with Eddie and Dave. I wonder if they felt they had to tone things down at this point, or if they weren't ready to pull the trigger on a full Lawler babyface turn. I'm really looking forward to how Leon Spinks gets involved but I can't say that I care too much for a babyface Snowman.
-
This looks even better than the previous week's match...again, it's incredible how a few well-done shoot-style takedowns and punches looks way, way more chaotic than a Moondog brawl. Same finish as before with Snowman accidentally punching the referee to receive the TECHNICAL LOSS, but referee Big Lou Winston fights back and the Snowman/Winston fight is almost as good as the match. Winston with short but pointed comments promising to come after the Snowman after Lawler takes care of him first. The most fascinating angle of the year continues. Absolutely incredible the difference between Memphis' race-card booking and WCW's.
-
Very good promo from DiBiase, as he talks to an apparent former inmate who claims to have been beaten by the Boss Man. Nailz is neither seen nor referred to, which makes me question DiBiase's dirt-digging skills somewhat. Okerlund talks to a foreman who claims that the Boss Man "wouldn't beat anybody," and credits him for having this job. This really is a fine example of the WWF's brainwashing savvy at work. Boss Man has gone from a guy who routinely abused jobbers after matches (not to mention Brother Love) with his nightstick to an upstanding officer who "wouldn't beat anybody" and is a work-release pioneer.
-
John Brazelle is no Eddie Marlin, that's for sure. It's amazing how over Toni is already, and I think it's more of a testament to how good Jeannie was at getting under the fans' skin. The match is barely that as Bronko Lubich gets decked and the bout is thrown out, leading to more post-match catfighting, Adams spanking Jeannie, and Jeannie slapping Chris some more.
-
Agreed with all of the above. There are way cool moments in the opening of Misawa smacking Jumbo in the face both literally and figuratively, but the matwork portion isn't really anything special, other than more Misawa slaps on rope breaks. Then Misawa eats a few near-falls and gets in a backslide and that backslide is when this sucker picks up, big-time. It isn't the best run of near-falls ever by All-Japan standards, but the actual ending stretch beginning with Jumbo elbowing Misawa as he goes for the headbutt and hurting his own arm--forcing him to go for the high-risk dropkick instead of the reliable Jumbo Lariat and paying when he misses it--is sublime. Misawa reverses the back suplex reversal as most of us know and is now a legitimate main event threat...even if this isn't really a "torch passing" moment. Seeing the ever-stoic Misawa break into a pretty big smile during the post-match is a special little moment among a much bigger special moment.
-
The complication with that is that in Misawa's obit, Meltzer reported that Baba supposedly called an audible on the Jumbo/Misawa finish upon seeing/hearing the "MI-SA-WA" chants from fans filing into the arena that night and seeing the business that Misawa gear was doing at the merch table. Anyway, a good clip job can make almost any match look like a classic but this nonetheless looked way better than the first title change, though an absolutely jacked crowd didn't hurt either. We pick up with a rare Hansen Lariat that doesn't directly result in the finish as Gordy manages to roll outside the ring. Gordy turns things around with the DDT that won him the Triple Crown but it's only a hot near-fall here. We trade some shit back and forth that still looks way more organic than the near-fall-fest in the Jumbo match before Hansen gets in another Lariat and collapses onto Gordy for the victory. Hansen's desperation roll-up attempt right before that was an awesome little spot. Gordy's legacy as the Tommy Rich of All-Japan is cemented.
-
Fun little match as Fabuloso Blondy is probably the scuzziest wrestler in history, but for a guy who looks as unbelievably out of shape as he does he's quite the fun little bump machine. The third fall goes completely off the rails as Blondy crotches Lizmark on the turnbuckle and he lands on his head, which is sold huge and gets Satanico pissed off at him. Blondy turns on Satanico, then Mendoza turns on Aguayo (or vice versa), then Chicana makes the save for...Christ, now I don't even know who the technicos were coming in. Fun organized chaos regardless, though.
-
Match of the night, hands down. Casas twists Asai up and Asai has to play hit-and-run, mostly to no avail until the end, when he hits an absolutely gorgeous Asai moonsault and then straitjacket suplexes his way to victory. Good sort of body-part-based build up to the finish, as Asai whiffed on his first springboard moonsault attempt and jiggered his knee, giving Casas an opening to work it over.
-
None of this technical, mat-based title match lucha shit here--Fuerza crotches Santo on the ringpost and both guys dive onto each other with impunity. Santo electric-chairs Fuerza off the turnbuckles and then applies La De a Caballo for the submission to win the first fall...and, oh, fuck, it's a one-fall match. Yeah, this ended just as it got going, then.