PeteF3

Well, even if nothing changes on the WWE side of things, some good can come out of printing and saving those comments on Kennedy's blog: anyone who accidentally swallows poison can read them to induce vomiting. And yes, I got the Ban Hammer as well. I'd love to know what TOS we actually violated.

Making my way through the new IWE box set (1974-81). Only seen a little bit and some of the matches are just hacked to death (Mighty Inoue/Mad Dog Vachon is just the last 5 minutes of a 2/3 fall title change), but the big one of this set is Verne Gagne vs. Billy Robinson in a complete, 40-minute TV match for the AWA title in late '74. Really, really good--not as good as Robinson's matches with Inoki and Baba, but really good. Verne is of course physically past it but is clearly one of the *smartest* workers of the '70s, if clearly not the best. Subtle heeling on his part, with clenched fists and goading Robinson into losing his cool and making a mistake, the psychology surrounding the sleeper hold...all makes up for a very satisfying '70s mat-based match. The only two main drawbacks: 1.) The double-KO finish is less than satisfying...though they still build to that very well with two false finishes just before it: a near-double-countout where both guys get back in at 9.9 and another double-KO after a Verne back suplex, where Robinson recovers at the last second enough to land a hot near-fall. All 3 of those moments had the crowd thinking it was over. 2.) We get entirely too familiar with Gagne's rear end. Robinson yanks him off the apron by the trunks and goes a bit overboard... The IWE sets are well worth picking up, at least if you're into '70s stuff. They're not going to be filled with all-time classics the way an AJPW/NJPW set would be, but they provide several very good matches (Gagne/Robinson, and Kobayashi/Kimura and Kimura/Mulligan from the first set) as well as interesting glimpses of Red Bastien, Bill Watts, and others in longish singles bouts. And all in master quality.

Both, if you could. Thanks. PM'd you. -- Loss, 03/31

IWE Heavyweight Title: Strong Kobayashi © vs. Rusher Kimura (7/9/72) This came off the first IWE Box Set, which covered 1969-74. A match listing that catches one's eye--not because it's a dream match-up of two brilliant workers, but it's a native -vs.-native title match in 1972, a full two years before the Inoki-Kobayashi showdowns that were supposedly the first big native-native matches since Rikidozan-Kimura. Perhaps the IWE had less of a choice in these matters, being a 3rd promotion with a skeleton crew of a roster. I watched this more for the historical value than anything else, but I was very pleasantly surprised by Strong's work. He is "the man" of IWE fending off the challenge of the #2 native in the company, rather than an outsider serving as the victim of an extended squash match against Inoki. Kobayashi takes Kimura apart on the mat to start with some neat takedowns and holds, particularly a crucifix arm-and-neck bar with Strong working it to the hilt: pulling back on Rusher's other arm, rubbing his face in the mat with his legs, and raining legdrops down on the back of his head. Unfortunately, Kimura never could do much on the mat and here he can't do much more than lie there while Kobayashi does the bulk of the work. Kimura does bring a bit of his fire and striking to the end of the fall, heeling it up with punches and an eye gouge before putting Strong away with a double arm suplex. (10:22 shown; there appeared to be a clip in the early stages.) Down a fall with his title on the line, Strong wastes no time kicking Rusher's face in to start the second. A swinging neckbreaker, a front facelock, and a delayed vertical suplex later and it's quickly tied up at 2:11. Rusher appeared to get his shoulder up but the referee counted three regardless. The third fall is little more than both guys trading bombs back and forth. The psychology of the first fall--Strong controlling things on the mat and Rusher gaining advantage through fighting and strikes--falls by the wayside. However, these two bring a whole lot of offense for a match in 1972: a few different suplexes and some big elbowdrops from Strong and a piledriver from Rusher. Rusher is able to kick out of the suplex that put him away in the second fall, then manages to counter Strong's atomic drop (his finisher) with the All-Japan "push off the ropes" spot, but whiffs on a big splash attempt and is put away with a back suplex (with the ref horribly botching the count), as Strong retains the title at 4:26. This obviously lacked the historical impact of Strong-Inoki, as well as that match's red-hot crowd. But these two did a nice job of raising the crowd's intensity as they moved from matwork to throwing big moves at each other as the falls went on, making for a much more satisfying match. It's not an all-time classic and I'm not going to go about pushing Strong Kobayashi as the Great Lost Worker of the '70s, but he looked very good carrying a match here, maybe as a result of greater motivation in being the ace of a company rather than New Japan's #3 native. Worth a look.

The Big Boss Man vs. The Barbarian ('91 Royal Rumble) I knew I'd seen a good match when I first/last saw this 15+ years ago and certain folks on the 'net have praised it since, so I was almost hesitant to watch it again off the Rumble box set in case it didn't live up to memories. Luckily for me, it did. Most of it due to the Boss Man, as he moves and bumps around like a freak. Barbie pulls his weight, as he had the strength to throw around the Boss Man with a few nice moves (slamming him backfirst into the post, and a nice backbreaker in addition to his flying clothesline), but it's the Boss Man's show here. The LONG finishing sequence is not something you normally see in the WWF, especially at this time, but it starts with Boss Man landing a hotshot and the Barbarian getting a hand on the ropes at the last second--with the crowd *sure* that that was ending the match. Boss Man has to use the ropes himself to escape a pin after the Barbarian hits his clothesline off the top. Boss Man quickly comes back to hit the Boss Man Slam, leading to the markout moment of the match, as a WWF heel actually escapes a face's finisher when Barbarian literally gets one fingertip on the bottom rope to break the count. A great, great near-fall, at least by the standards of 1991 WWF... The finish is fine for what it is but is still my one quibble with the match. This was part of the Boss Man's feud with the Heenan Family and his quest to go through each member, one by one. As what is essentially a feud match (even if the real issue was between Boss Man and Heenan with Barbarian only tangentially involved), it seemed less than satisfying for the Boss Man to win with a roll-through on a top rope body press. Especially since the Barbarian wasn't really going anywhere while Boss Man was headed for an IC title match at WrestleMania. Flukiness aside, it was a clean victory, Heenan high-tailed it out of there to stall the ultimate payoff, and this was a surprisingly hot, exciting match in front of an amped crowd.