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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    He also seems to refer to INXS themselves as a "new sensation," which I don't think was really the case in 1990. Penetratingly insightful questions from the DJ when Jarrett actually shows up. "We Are Dynamite" wasn't nearly this half-assed of a video.
  2. PeteF3
    "Elvis P. Presley"?? Surprised JYD didn't cite who made the "We shall overcome" speech, Martin S. King. Strong promo, though. "Needing to be outside for cell phone reception" has to be one of the lamer reasons to justify Lawler not being live on the WMC program. Lawler promises to send JYD back to the junkyard and more or less baits black fans into showing up to support the Dog, then throws in a shoeshining reference to add some class to the promo.
  3. PeteF3
    Between DiBiase's abuse of Virgil here and his being upset with Virgil picking #1 for him at the Rumble, it almost seems like they were teasing the babyface turn already. I guess that was something they always planned to keep in the holster until the time was right.
  4. PeteF3
    Yes, it barely is worth mentioning because it's so self-evident, but I miss 4+ weeks of knowing the entire card for a pay-per-view. Dusty refers to Sapphire as his "brown sugar"...how did I miss stuff this overt as a kid? As a kid whose favorite event was the Rumble and had most of the early matches practically memorized, I feel the obligation to point out that Gene only mentions 29 guys. The Widow Maker was gone at this point (for awhile, but for some reason was announced for the Rumble anyway) and evidently the Red Rooster hadn't been named as a replacement yet. Pretty amazing how much hype the Brother Love Show with Sherri and Sapphire got. The undercard matches don't even get a mention.
  5. PeteF3
    Hogan starts off somewhat respectably, even the talk about hoping to draw #1 isn't TOO over-the-top, and he at least has the decency to refer to "29 top contenders." Then he talks about eliminating wrestlers by posing and causing them to faint and it all goes off the rails. Hogan calls out the Warrior beforehand and all but guarantees they'll meet one-on-one, which I had no recollection of whatsoever. Brother Love corrects him and tells him that Mr. Perfect will be his opponent at the end--well, score one for Brother Love on that one.
  6. PeteF3
    I actually thought this match was about 5 minutes longer than it needed to be, but when Tenryu was in it was fucking ON. The Jumbo/Tenryu stuff is the stiff hatred you'd expect with some great fluid sequences thrown in. More well-done worked-shoot type stuff with the stiff kicks and the other folks at ringside seemingly objecting to his treatment of Takagi, prompting Tenryu to go nuts on them with a table and everything else before getting beat down for his trouble. Unfortunately that leaves Kawada alone in the ring with Jumbo and that ends predictably. It sucks that there are only about three more months of this feud.
  7. PeteF3
    And he was barely 30 years old! This wasn't quite as good as the title change but Buzz brings lots of varied offense all centered around Arn's back and ribs. Arn's comeback is just getting going when he gets laid out by J-Tex. It's a wonder Ole even bothered to sell the splash, because he didn't sell anything else.
  8. PeteF3
    He's also trying to affect a vaguely southern/western accent to cover up his New Yorkness, and that isn't helping. This is awkward as hell, and at times that actually enhances Cactus' supposed craziness and other times it really detracts.
  9. PeteF3
    The babyfaces really come off all as selfish dicks here, or at least Embry and Adams do. As much as Lowrance tries to sell Embry's shove of Toni to the floor as an accident...yeah, no way on that. Then they beat the shit out of each other over a misunderstanding while leaving Dundee to the wolves. This continues the Embry/Adams split that was beginning at the end of the World Class '80s set, and I'm intrigued as to where this is going, knowing that Steve Austin is going to be making his presence felt soon.
  10. PeteF3
    Hah--I liked the first UWF match and found this to be everything I hate about the style. Circle each other, trade holds, get up, circle each other some more. Every so often unleash a shoot kick to keep people's attention. That's a gross oversimplification of course and there was stuff to like here, but it felt like trawling through a sea of nothing much happening. I didn't get a sense that either man was ever in danger outside of some work over the cross armbreaker towards the beginning and Maeda trying to escape the anklelocks at the very end. Yeah, I get that building parity was the point but there are ways to show parity outside of getting up and resetting 38 times.
  11. PeteF3
    Even as someone who found 90% of '80s UWF to be a total chore to sit through, this was a really fun fight. They're clearly more comfortable in the style years later (duh) and they cut a fast pace and a good false-finish tease for Anjo taps out to the choke for real.
  12. PeteF3
    A fucking power bomb from the Warlord! You know it's a great WWF tag when you watch it immediately after an All-Japan tag and come away thinking the WWF match was better. And I think it was. The POP worked as good of a pace as you can expect and Warlord...bumped well for the huracanrana, at least. They worked some fun squashes in JCP but this is probably their standout match. I haven't seen anything else that really comes close. Even Fuji was useful here, being a strong presence at ringside without overwhelming the match or bringing it down with blown timing.
  13. PeteF3
    Fantastic effect of Gene Okerlund cutting into All-Japan programming with WWF pay-per-view carriage news.
  14. PeteF3
    This might be the most Southern tag match in AJPW history. Plucky babyface Tiger Mask gets brutalized and bullied around for a long FIP segment before making the hot tag and Jumbo goes nuts. They do a great job of holding off the Tenryu/Jumbo one-on-one confrontation while giving us a few violent outbursts to keep us satisfied while wanting more. Finish was very clever, and I actually thought it was a super-cheap DQ for a second. The set-up to it, with Tsuruta seamlessly knee-breaking Fuyuki off the top turnbuckle, was also pretty awesome. An apparent schism appears in Tenryu's stable afterward.
  15. PeteF3
    Cactus weighing 259 is probably a stretch even at this point, too. Sullivan practically orgasming when Cactus delivers the elbow is pretty disturbing. As green as Foley is, lots of the usual Cactus staples are already in place.
  16. PeteF3
    No hint or foreshadowing of a Horsemen turn yet. It's a fantastic touch that Cornette can look at Woman and his first thought is of trading stock (and I don't think he meant it as a euphemism).
  17. PeteF3
    The days before parents could take to Twitter to complain about wrestling heels bullying their children. These kids seem like they're having a blast when Lawler insults them, which is exactly how I would be if I were in the Memphis studio in 1990.
  18. PeteF3
    Dear Lord, Champion looks disturbingly like a girl I knew in the 4th grade, only his hair is even bigger. The other jarring thing is how different Steve Austin sounds. Cobra's comments are much stronger and more focused now that he's a challenger again instead of the champion, and that he has the upper hand on Lawler.
  19. PeteF3
    I get Lawler is a legit Browns fanatic but I don't totally get how buddying with Art Modell and insulting the Denver Broncos is quite supposed to be heat-gathering in Memphis, but that could be part of the cell phone bit's almost dadaist charm. Actually the funniest part of the whole thing for me is Lawler making sure to hold the working phone up to the mic so it could send feedback out to the annoyance of everyone within earshot.
  20. PeteF3
    Fuck I want video of that guitar-on-a-pole match. Kudos to the perpetually unheralded Marc Lowrance for keeping a straight face during Travis' attempted rendition of Gypsies, Tramps, & Thieves.
  21. PeteF3
    Not an all-time classic but it's everything you'd want out of Arn vs. Muta at their peaks. Especially loved Muta busting out the not-yet-a-cattle-mutilation and Arn powering out of it. The failure to land Tully Blanchard is really what cocked everything up for 1990 and onward. My dream scenario would have been rival Horsemen gangs, with Flair, Arn, and Sting on one side and Tully having his own side. That could have prevented the babyfaces from being too dominant of a force while adding a new dimension to what was growing into a tired premise.
  22. PeteF3
    Both men make comparisons of Dory Jr. to Norman the Lunatic, which is completely unprecedented and yet both men sound like they make sense. I still don't quite get the underlying cause of the Sullivan/Norman feud, which I suspect is due to Sullivan booking his own angles. And I came out of this anticipating a Sullivan vs. Dory Jr. feud which I don't really think was the goal. That said, I dig Sullivan as a suited, calm, rational guy who happens to be pure evil rather than a cartoonish Gamemaster. I hope there are further Sullivan interviews where he wears a suit and extolls the virtues of Phil Collins and Huey Lewis & the News so that we can continue seeing this dynamic.
  23. PeteF3
    Love the Fanfare for the Common Man flourish at the beginning of Flair's usual entrance. Also love the Flair vs. Cornette dynamic--for two guys who were JCP/WCW mainstays it's amazing how little they ever got a chance to interact. Eaton takes an absurd bump getting thrown off the ring apron into the barricade, which arguably tops the two floor bumps he takes during Flair's comeback. Really great focused work on Flair's throat and neck when Eaton is in control and an awesome fiery comeback by Flair, with a few teases and cut-offs, with a great one being Flair catching the kneedrop off the top which allows him to go to work to set up the figure four. Flair basically wrestles clean until the very end when he gets a chance to use Cornette's racket. It's not quite as great as Bockwinkel in the late '80s in terms of being a crafty cheating babyface outsmarting the heels at their own game, but the dynamic of Cornette and the Midnights meeting someone who can fight just as dirty as them is still there. Good stuff--if this match had run on the Clash of the Champions instead of the match we got it'd be remembered as a classic.
  24. PeteF3
    Macho played it to the hilt but I thought the King act pretty much screamed mid-card, based on both past history of the gimmick and Savage's feud with Rhodes which felt like it lasted for 6 years without going anywhere. I know that was SOP for the WWF main event heels for the entire run of the promotion up until the Monday Night Wars, but it doesn't make it any less of a waste.
  25. PeteF3
    The birth of Sting: All-Too Trusting Dumbass. Flair and Ole put him over, and Arn does the same while also hyping the Clash main event. I still don't agree with the decision to turn Flair back to a heel, but this was still shaping up to be a promising angle until Sting's injury blew it all to hell.
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