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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    This had a fantastic first fall, with Hamada working some incredible athletic spots, Kendo continuing to work the crowd like a champ, and Aguayo being incredibly fun in his new babyface role after working as a big, bruising heel for his first few appearances. The rudos provide probably the greatest array of heel miscommunication spots in any match in history. Aguayo gets the fall for his team and the crowd chants for Kendo anyway. That's charisma. The second and third falls don't quite live up to the first, as there's a bit of meandering and despite some stiff strikes the rudos are a bit less compelling on offense than working comedy stooge spots. All 3 babyfaces looked great throughout. It's too bad Hamada was such a stumpy little guy--he literally looks like an extra-tall midget--I think it hurt him on the believability scale, as he would have been better off as New Japan's junior ace than Sayama based purely on talent and ring smarts.
  2. PeteF3
    Standard Lawler spiel about company championships, but he isn't too eager to defend the title against anyone Lee Marshall names as a challenger.
  3. PeteF3
    Definitely listless, if you can describe two guys really smacking each other with some of the strikes and lariats as "listless." This borders on indy 2.9-ness at times, and I didn't quite buy Gordy's comebacks nor did I buy the finish. I mean, I SHOULD buy a DDT as a one-shot kill, but this is AJPW where that move isn't a Jake Roberts-level knockout. The AJPW announcer loses his shit after the 3-count and this had to be seen as a pretty major upset, so that and the post-match celebration with Doc were nice. I was particularly amused by a contingent of Japanese fans proudly holding up a Confederate flag.
  4. PeteF3
    I think this went on by taping date rather than air date. This match actually took place before some matches in the previous round, maybe even before the entire rest of the tournament. IIRC this was also a scheduled semifinal that turned into a title match when both of the other quarterfinal matches went to no-decisions.
  5. PeteF3
    He got it cut again at WrestleMania VI. Genius literally milked this haircut stuff for the rest of the year. I saw a match on Youtube where he goes up against Dustin Rhodes in a match that had to be from December, and his poem makes note of his hair having grown back.
  6. PeteF3
    Jim Cornette's idol and good friend Eddie Haskell.
  7. PeteF3
    Also, as for why Brother Love was given the time of day by the WWF (kayfabe-wise), it was revealed in an early segment that Ted DiBiase was paying for his air time. Chalk me up as another one who found Love to be "beat him up" annoying rather than channel-changing annoying. He got me to pay attention each week hoping a babyface would kick his ass (or, at the least, something exciting would happen even if it was someone kicking the babyface's ass).
  8. PeteF3
    Great little bit of Hansen suddenly becoming the aging, sympathetic veteran, getting a cut worked over and seemingly barely hanging on for most of the match. Even the decisive Lariat is done with a bit of desperation, as though it was an all-or-nothing home run attempt. With I think one exception I was never overly enamored with the Hansen vs. Doc tag bouts, so this was a really pleasant surprise.
  9. PeteF3
    I remember that from an old RSPW post by Keith, so I think it may be genuinely his.
  10. PeteF3
    Really fun, crowd-pleasing spotfest, but not quite as well put-together or even well-executed as the joshi match. I get not having the rudos do as much spectacular shit but the match kind of bogged down for a bit after the awesome between-fall attack on the ring floor. Things perked back up with the rowboat+impactante spot that I really thought was the finish. However, Casas comes back to counter Super Astro's little springboard-headbutt move and Boston crabs him for the victory. Actually I thought Astro was the star of the match (not that anyone was bad) from a work standpoint--loved seeing the fat little guy fly and take some crazy bumps like the whip into the crowd. Kendo was clearly the star from a charisma standpoint, though he was definitely much better working the crowd and being on offense than selling or bumping for the rudos. I just got cross-eyed reading that Luchawiki excerpt.
  11. PeteF3
    Crowd is definitely doing that "whoooah...OH!" stuff they were doing for Warrior-DiBiase, but by the end they were genuinely into it. I wasn't particularly taken in by Iwamoto or Kimura but Aja worked for 3 and the babyfaces were all game, though Kong vs. Toyota was clearly the highlight of the bout, especially a series of tremendous near-falls towards the middle between the two. It was a spotfest, but as with the earlier joshi stuff the transitions all made sense and we got a really strong sympathetic performance from the babyface team when they were working underneath, with a few great moments of having the heels on the ropes like the rapidfire legdrops into the rapidfire planchas that Aja emphatically put an end to. Aja gets in a spinning backfist and a big German suplex to put Toyota away, getting the heels over but also coming off as a skin-of-the-teeth escape victory. Kind of a weird post-match confrontation that looks like the teams are either going to continue fighting or start making out.
  12. PeteF3
    Good promo from both Austin and Jeannie, weirdness over the photograph aside. Another super-hot brawl between these two. Just when Adams is getting bitched out again by Austin and Jeannie, Toni Adams runs from the locker room, takes out Jeannie, and then actually has the brass to try to take on Austin. We get an Adams comeback as well as a Toni/Jeannie catfight. Austin throws Toni across the ring but that only barely deters her. Fired-up promo from Toni afterward as this feud kicks into another gear.
  13. PeteF3
    Yeah, this is all of Lawler's worst instincts as a heel in one package. Bill Dundee is an insignificant speck who only Texas idiots could cheer for who's never won anything or accomplished anything and never will. SO WHY THE FUCK SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT THIS MATCH? I get the fact that the heel is supposed to be wrong, but unless you're going for a 1-2-3 Kid/Mikey Whipwreck type angle, both the babyface and heel at least need to be emotionally invested in the match. Dundee gets over simultaneous issues with Lawler, Tatum, and Tony Anthony (managed by Ronnie P. Gossett--glad to see he's still getting work). "My heart isn't on my sleeve, it's in here, brother!" Very good stuff.
  14. PeteF3
    See, I would think that if the Superdome was ever going to host it, it'd have done so by now. I wonder if the WWE has felt that it simply couldn't fill the building. Despite being a tourism haven New Orleans is a poor city and quite small compared to the big markets that tend to host the show...and that was the case before 2005. It's been a bigger issue since.
  15. PeteF3
    Vince has to be drooling over the eventual possibility of running JerryWorld and breaking the WM3 attendance mark. Doesn't he?
  16. PeteF3
    But Dangerfield's character is an inbred redneck asshole. He's really the quintessential usual context. Herb Stempel at least was a supergenius savant game show contestant.
  17. PeteF3
    Herb Stempel has wrestling on the TV during a scene in Quiz Show. Wrestling in the 1950's didn't quite carry as great of a stigma as it would later on but it was still a jarring sight. This is as ridiculously obscure and pedantic as it gets...but in the Violent Femmes' video for "American Music," the LJN figure of Slick appears as a prop.
  18. PeteF3
    Pretty perfunctory match, with good heat and okay action but nothing really standing out. Animal does a better job as FIP than you would expect, and I liked his shoulder tackles from all fours to get Windham off of him. Bizarre finishing sequence in which Sid apparently jumps his cue to interfere, causing the bell to ring, but the four participants keep working it straight and Ross & Cornette have to struggle to explain that Sid didn't actually "make contact." Then we run two exact same false finishes with Arn trying to hold down one RW's leg on a pin attempt, but the Roadies kick out anyway. Then Sid & Ole run in for the real DQ. Sting and the Dudes with Attitudes quickly run the Horsemen off as Ross shouts "THERE'S UNITY IN THE NWA!" We could have used a few more moments like that 6-7 years later. I was expecting this to be a Road Warriors burial as this has to be one of if not their very last NWA appearance. But despite needing help they're still standing tall at the end.
  19. PeteF3
    Sid is doggedly still sporting the tux. Arn talks up the Road Warriors but also points out that they're still human. Flair says he'll be in the front row to see it.
  20. PeteF3
    Of COURSE the first thing you talk up about Stan Hansen is his fucking football background at West Texas State. Ross points out that Hansen has been exiled from wrestling in the U.S. Hansen declares he's been wrestling in "the Third World with the Peace Corps people" (!) Hansen rants about his suspension being up with tobacco dripping all over his mouth. Stan is pretty much a cartoon character already.
  21. PeteF3
    Weird music plays and we get shots of Big Van Vader's smoking-helmet entrance, but nothing more.
  22. PeteF3
    Rick Steiner and the Samoan Savage recreate the opening to 2001: A Space Odyssey. To shill a wrestling hotline. Yes.
  23. PeteF3
    Lawler explains what it means to "delegate authority," and instead of taking out Dundee himself and collecting a John Tatum bounty, he's bringing in...THE INHUMAN. Lawler is already teasing a babyface turn for this guy.
  24. PeteF3
    Loud and noticeably mixed reaction for Lawler's entrance. Lawler poo-poohs Snowman's beatdown of him during the match as well as his choice of attire. We get the Magic 101 deejay and his masked bodyguard that we saw earlier again. Then we get some not particularly attractive ladies parading around ringside and this is getting bizarre. "Bundy the Gorilla" is also there and I'm smelling an angle, if Bill Watts hasn't poisoned my brain. Lawler and Snowman then start trading trash talk, and Snowman wearing what is presumably a competing radio station shirt is a really nice touch. Lawler delivers a much more traditional pro wrestling-style promo until Snowman dares him to enter the ring, bringing out Eddie Marlin, who shuts down the idea of having a match on television. For Lawler's match with Freezer Thompson, Downtown Bruno and somebody are shoehorned into things taking notes as Lawler continues to dare Snowman to enter the ring. Lawler still works heel, getting Calhoun to intervene against Snowman so he can drop an elbow into Freezer's groin. Sort of more of the same here with some really weird diversions. A guest referee for Monday night is hyped but his identity is never disclosed that we see.
  25. PeteF3
    Another fascinating addition to 1990's most fascinating angle. This is possibly the shootiest-looking match in history to not take place in a shoot promotion in Japan. Lots of wild, swinging haymakers, clinching, shoot takedowns, and going for the eyes. In some ways it almost comes off as inherently kayfabe-breaking because it legitimately feels way more out of control than a Moondogs match with a dozen foreign objects and tables getting involved. Snowman decks Jerry Calhoun in short order for the DQ and now I'm really anxious to see more from this. About as perfect of an appetizer-type match as you'll find. Kudos to Lawler and the promotion for giving us some of the most out-of-the-box booking you'll ever see in wrestling.
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