PeteF3
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Warrior will take Rude deeper into parts unknown than any other living thing. This may be the first step taken in attempting to humanize the Warrior a bit--the promo itself is just as blithering as ever but he's now wearing half of his normal facepaint and the other half is just a Warrior sign painted on the cheek. I think this is the "carnival facepaint" look that I believe was discussed on the 1990 preview podcast.
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Improve YOUR engine's performance with Arrogance!
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Bobby insists that Rude now be introduced as "The next WWF Champion," and Brother Love obliges. The serious-ing of Rude continues as it's declared that there will be no more Rude Awakenings until Rude has the title. This program is still waiting for something out of Rude besides promos, regardless of how good they are. This is another good one, but it isn't exceptional.
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From El Dandy, Angel Azteca, Lawler, and Dundee...to this. Yay. Zhukov regales us with the Soviet anthem, then Volkoff declares he's a better singer and aims to prove it...by singing The Star-Spangled Banner. That certainly gets the crowd going but it's a pretty Frank Drebin-level rendition that's mercifully cut short by Boris (just imagine that being done today--it might get a respected road agent shitcanned or something). Boris thoroughly beats Volkoff down outside the ring and then inside the ring with his boot, which draws the DQ. Volkoff gets up and runs after him. So that's the big Nikolai babyface turn. They really go all-out with this in the coming months (it was apparently something Nikolai really wanted to do after the dissolution of the USSR had begun) but this was pretty underwhelming even by the low standards set by the Bolsheviks. Zhukov's work actually was fairly heated, but the junior half of a JTTS team putting a rather dominant beatdown on his partner doesn't seem like an effective method of launching a new babyface push.
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Darn--if we can find that Pringle heel turn it's a must for the errata set, because I was digging the build to it. LOVE Borne's little mini-promo to the camera as he takes in the theatrics involving Kerry and Percy. Pringle is mic'd up for God knows what reason. Pringle's wailing, much like Brother Love, just skirts the line on the side of "good annoying" and not "mute/change the channel annoying." "SAVE ME, MATT--MY FAMILY DON'T CARE ABOUT ME NO MORE" gets a laugh out of me. Sort of a drawn-out finish with Pringle trying to lower a chain into the ring, but Kerry gets it and levels Borne with it for the victory. As Pringle is being lowered into the ring and crying and begging everybody in sight for help, he tosses a loaded sock to Borne who goes nuts on Kerry with it, then beats up a security guard and then Tony Falk to boot. Kevin finally breaks into the cage for the rescue. The brawling felt really heated and legit but Kerry was just SO limited by this point and it's really showing, though he's still better in this setting than he'd be in the WWF. Really good post-match though that keeps Borne looking strong.
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Lawler goes for the insta-cheap heat by insulting the Rangers and Cowboys, two teams that had much to feel insulted about at this time. Fun dynamic here with heel Lawler vs. babyface Dundee though I'm not overly crazy about a World title match taking a backdrop to the Tessa angle. That part is well-done, however, with Tatum attempting to kidnap Tessa after his pleas to change go unheeded, with Lawler playing the part of counselor in the middle of the match. The distraction enables Lawler to score a cheap win and the fight over Tessa continues afterward with a really fun Dundee/Tatum brawl that turns into a Lawler/Tatum beatdown. Jarrett and Adams make the save and the fight continues with the babyfaces eventually running the heels off. Fun little match but a much better post-match angle.
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I'll qualify this by stating that I'm not sure I'd vote this ahead of Liger/Sano (yep, I'm still on that one). On everything else...agreed. It's easily a GOAT candidate as far as mat-based matches go, as not only does everything look painful and torturous but everything moves organically. The holds just flow into each other but it looks like shoot counterwrestling as opposed to contrived "headlock->headscissors->cradle->backslide" rote sequences. There are like two resets in the entire match--everything else is one hold progressing into another punctuated by a ropes-running/highspot or two. Then after we're tied up at 1 fall apiece the big bombs start coming as both men sell increasing desperation. The match never really stops moving but there is just enough to sell how huge the top-rope and dive moves are, especially loved Dandy selling the pain of hitting the diving headbutt and his fantastic bump into the front row on Azteca's tope. A rash of near-falls includes the single best near-fall of the set--they TOTALLY had me taken in when Azteca countered the back suplex with a victory roll. Instead it's merely the last bullet in Azteca's chamber as the Dandina puts him away right afterward. Azteca blows off the post-match handshake and again issues a hair vs. mask challenge. I approve!
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Dittos to a degree, but I think I liked this more than Loss or Childs. In addition to the mariachi music I also enjoyed the voiceover describing the match and finish as though it were Phil Mickelson trying to select between a 5 and 7 iron. All of Aguayo's offense looks pretty awesome and Hamada takes a beating, but his victory came a little too easily for my liking. The Brazos take exception to Aguayo's post-match handshake and turn on him, and this is the most heated part of the segment but also the part I got into the least.
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Weird opening with Lawler in a mask, because I guess all wrestlers have to be in masks and capes. Kind of an odd blend of honesty about the size of the USWA yet not breaking kayfabe, while also pushing Lawler as still being a babyface. Lawler acknowledges the eagerness of fans to be insulted by him. Much better than the Connie Chung piece and much more honest about things like lack of health insurance or a pension, with Lawler coming off pretty well.
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Not knowing about the '89 Dome show result (or this one for that matter) I definitely got into the story of Hash smacking Choshu in the mouth figuratively as well as literally. Choshu takes over with his usual stuff but it all looks good and he throws in a top-rope kneedrop that comes off as a desperation move. Hash is out on his feet with lariats when he busts out a spinning heel kick to get the big upset victory.
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Atlas with words for Chief Thunder Mountain, who's big but had to stay up all night studying for a blood test and has an IQ one point less than a banana. Atlas would have been a better "surprise" for Flair than the Junkyard Dog.
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Flair is livid that the NWA has signed a World title match for the Clash for Flair vs. JYD. Flair doesn't like a lot of people in this sport for professional reasons, but for personal reasons, he doesn't like JYD. Flair promises that JYD will not high-five Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, or go on Arsenio Hall as the first black World Champion at his expense. "When Janet Jackson wrapped her arms around THIS, she wasn't thinking about the Junkyard Dog!" Then he namedrops Paula Abdul in a rather racially confused moment. Unbefuckinglievable. This is already a runaway for Worst Angle of the Year. I'd rather watch ten million Warrior promos than watch Flair do everything short of putting on a white hood.
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Well, wouldn't you know it: a perfectly timed, quintessential example of the "other" types of race-related angles I was comparing Lawler/Snowman to. Flair and Ole go from casual racism when referring to Rocky King to referring to him as "boy" and then later talking about showing JYD "what they do to guys like Rocky King back in Minnesota." Um...kudos to WCW for tackling the issue of Midwest racism? JYD cleans house and cuts a promo on Flair. Godawful. JYD was over with the crowd, but fuck me, this was everything the Lawler/Snowman angle hasn't been. The crowd pop for JYD and the fact that the racists are being booked as heels are the only two things saving this. Physically JYD looked horrible and Flair should be so above this bullshit. Oh, actually, during the first King interview I thought the surprise was going to be Ole's old buddy Thunderbolt Patterson, so in that way JYD is almost a pleasant surprise. -
This surprise is filling me with a greater and greater feeling of dread.
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Why the living fuck is this airing AFTER the PPV?
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The Horsemen are done talking about title shots for Luger and for Sting, and demand to know what information Ross has that's apparently a "surprise" for the Horsemen.
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About the most realistic-looking brawl ever in a studio that's seen its share of brawls. I don't know how legit uncomfortable Dave Brown was with all of this but it REALLY comes across in his attempts to host these segments, which just adds to the effect.
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Bring your pizza. Just...wow.
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Clips from the Mid-South Coliseum as Snowman gets into things with Eddie Marlin, security, and what appears to be several fans. A fantastic chaotic scene that the ringside crowd seems to believe is 100% real. Marlin and Brown do an incredible job of what Memphis has always done best: get even the most absurd angles and developments over as being completely plausible. This isn't even absurd or unrealistic, but I love the explanation that Snowman is getting a public forum to prevent future incidents such as the one at the MSC. Marlin almost immediately cuts Snowman off and brings out King Cobra, who denies encountering racism on a business or promotional level, but has on an individual level. Cobra actually does a good job of dismissing the resulting boo birds with a "They're not in the business, so they wouldn't know." One time where that talking point has validity. Snowman constantly shits all over Cobra while he's talking, pointing out that he lost the title as soon as he won it and that he's nothing but a whipping boy. Snowman referring to Lawler last week and now Cobra this week as "boy" is a surefire reaction-getter. Snowman brings in two members of his posse. Norvell Austin's brother says that putting Lawler in the ring with Snowman would be the same as putting Al Bundy in the ring and dares Lawler to run Snowman off himself if he's truly "The King." Lawler comes out and demands to cut through the BS by offering a title match at Snowman. Marlin shuts him down, saying that he's the one who signs the title matches and that just gives Snowman another opening. Marlin gets fed up and leaves after declaring the USWA won't sanction a match, but says the two can fight in the ring if they want. More back and forth, with Lawler actually getting flustered for about the first time I've ever seen, and it's more or less promised that Lawler and Snowman will go at it Monday night, despite Lawler's scheduled title match with Jeff Gaylord. Another hot segment. Eddie Marlin was great again, not quite able to maintain control but still keeping credibility intact as an authority figure.
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Same promotion, same feud, different worlds.
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Rude's training. He's the only man to have beaten the Warrior. We get it already. Rude and Heenan are still good but have him beat the Warrior down or let him PIN somebody in the ring, for God's sake.
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There's a really weird thing at the beginning with Vince & Jesse leaving the booth to "get a bird's eye view" of the show. Was there a shot of an empty booth that they had to explain away after the fact or what? Vince just didn't want to announce over the big angle? Hogan threatens Jimmy Hart when Earthquake doesn't initially appear, until he gets dropped from behind by a chair and hit with three Earthquake splashes. Hogan gets stretchered out and here we get Vince to berate the officials. This was an unbelievably rushed segment that came off VERY "off" for some reason, especially by the high standards set by the WWF production crew. The effectiveness of the angle is more to the credit of the marketing after the fact than it was in the actual execution, if that makes any sense. I don't know if the Hogan "retirement" video shows up on this set (the one with the stringed dirge version of Real American) but that did far more to get the angle across than the actual attack did.
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I'd like to see Punk & Heyman re-enact this.
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We have our second shoot angle in the span of a week as Misawa & Jumbo do a quasi-reenactment of the Choshu/Maeda shoot kick and the Hansen/Tenryu NOBODY POTATOES ME pull-aparts. Most of the great AJPW 6-man tropes are here: Jumbo being grumpy, Kobashi getting his knee dropped on a table, Fuchi tearing people's limbs up (though Kabuki takes more of that role here), and the hot run of near-falls. The only jarring thing is seeing Taue on Misawa's side. I suppose Baba hadn't quite finalized who was going to be with whom just yet. Taue is booked rather strongly here himself, getting his own moments of standing up to Jumbo and being in on the closing stretch. Misawa gets the pin on Fuchi with the tiger suplex and even though Fuchi is the clear #3 man on the team the victory seems like a major upset for Misawa's side. #2 MOTY at this point. A huge breath of fresh air that All-Japan needed after a lackluster opening quarter.
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Those figures look awesome.