PeteF3
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So many weird little things to get through before we get to the big stuff. The sudden presence of the Dirty White Boy, and Kimberly, neither of which I could have expected. I also had no idea that "BSK" was used as a kayfabe stable name at any point anywhere. Easily the best Power Pro segment ever to this point and one of the best segments of the year. This isn't far behind the all-time classic Memphis Yearbook segments like Lawler/Snowman and the big Jarrett/Gilbert confrontation. Doug Gilbert makes a surprise appearance clearly playing off real-life animosity between him and the PPW camp, as Dave Brown channels his distaste for the likes of Scott Bowden and takes that same tone of voice when dealing with Gilbert attempting to use a live mic. Knowing now that many of Brown's arguments with Bowden were shoots, this had *me* thinking that Dave was shooting again. It takes on another level with all the talk of Gilbert being a "loose cannon" who can't be trusted with a live mic knowing what's to come in that regard. And as pointed out, none of this is too inside-baseball for anyone to grasp. I don't know what the backstory is here, but I didn't need to--I could tell just from everyone's tone and the little bit of backstory that the heat between Gilbert and Hales was very much real. The highs in Memphis get fewer and farther between as the '90s go on, but this segment proved that when they get the opportunity they can still knock an angle out of the park.
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I still want more of the righteous indignant Corino over the sniveling coward, but he *is* really good at being a sniveling coward, isn't he? The "MAESTRO, HIT MY MAN'S MUSIC!" stuff was great. Corino begs off of a title match so Spike Dudley gets it instead. It goes about how you'd expect but Spike gets in a few offensive spots, like hitting the Acid Drop off the ring apron over the guardrail. Taz gives Spike a handshake afterward and to my shock and amazement doesn't immediately level him with a Tazplex.
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Loss summed up my feelings as well. The first 20 minutes or so of this are *great*, with some nice stiff matwork and really great laser-focused psychology. Kobashi starts off working the ribs with all kinds of shit he doesn't normally do, but the transition to arm work is pretty nicely done as Kobashi opens the door with a big armbreaker off the apron onto the guardrail. Again, we see stuff out of Kenta we simply don't see, and he manages to actually get some attempted arm submissions over as credible "near falls" despite the almost complete abandonment of submissions in the company. That said...it does go off the rails for sure. Not as badly as the '97 Misawa-Kawada match, the other big example of this trope, but it's a similar, better version of that match. Kobashi getting out of the TD '91 *and* making a comeback...I get that they wanted to top 1997 but that seemed to be a bridge too far for me. "Perplexing" is the right word for this, because it's absolutely a MOTY-level bit of work, but it's also problematic in the way that I found the '03 match to be problematic when I watched it (like 12 years ago). This will make the list--the good parts are as good or better than the Misawa-Kawada match and the bad, despite everyone's complaints, isn't nearly as bad. But they were clearly attempting to top the '97 matches and...well, maybe that was an impossible task considering 1/97 is my #1 AJPW match ever, but in the end they didn't do it.
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Nash promises to be about 90% for the Bash, and will be all right with the help of some cold beverages. Okay then. They try to make a huge deal about the elbow drop being reinstated for the match Sunday, which kind of loses its luster in the face of attempted vehicular homicide and internal injuries.
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As little as I care for her as a performer or even as a figure of beauty, I'm sort of torn on Sable--she wasn't in a conducive environment in regards to women's rights or health, and it's not like she barged into Titan Tower demanding to be pushed. Vince liked what he saw, pushed her to the moon, and she became a major ratings draw whether we like it or not. In the end, there was probably merit to her lawsuit, but not $140 million worth.
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God almighty, you don't normally associate Malenkos (real or fake) with stiffness, but was this a fucking war or what? There are slugging-it-out portions here that rivaled what we just saw with Tenryu and Hash, but these guys can also bring finesse and build to a climactic finish and intricate matwork and even some High-End Offense that the previous match simply lacked. Carl has been one of the biggest revelations of the past couple of years and I really need to see more of him, and I think he would have killed it in a bigger environment in Japan as well. Great intensity, great matwork, and some neat moves that I really don't think I've seen since. Maybe another MOTYC and I certainly don't remember seeing this many of these in 1998. -
Answering a question from two years ago: Gunn had been released in a post-WM purge along with Public Enemy, the Oddities, and some others. Barton looks out of place a few times but isn't offensive or anything, and I love how over his left hand is. Ace pins Akiyama after several near-falls and a million different Ace Crusher variations in what had to have been a pretty major upset. The foreigner well was drying up, so you have to give it the ol' college try with somebody, I guess. All in all a fun finishing stretch here.
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Hash's first match since the Dome disaster in January. He's dropped a lot of weight and otherwise looks like he never left. Why yes, I could in fact watch these two go at it all day. I wish it had gone 20+ and it might make a year-end list. As it is it's simply a very enjoyable slugfest between two of wrestling's greatest minimalists.
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I don't know where or how 411mania got that list but PWInsider said there are no extras. Which sucks.
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I kind of hope Omega/Okada III is like a 15-minute sprint. I also hope Toru Yano sweeps his way to the finals, so we'll see which one is more likely.
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I have to admit I'm pretty surprised that we're getting Omega/Okada III in the G-1 at all, and not even in the finals. But Allan's booking proposal makes sense.
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Definitely an upset. No strong feelings on this one way or another. I can't say that I rolled my eyes at this at any point, unlike the '98 final.
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Hirata got this "spot," so to speak, by virtue of working with Owen in Stampede in Owen's earliest days in the business.
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JR and Lawler's argument over Stephanie is pretty funny, another example of what separates the WWF from WCW even when the WWF misfires badly at the macro level. They find an amusing way of getting around the Corporate Ministry being barred from interfering by having Jeff Jarrett do it (there was some reason or another for that feud to start, damned if I remember what).
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Note that GTV goes to static as soon as Terri starts talking about her wedding night with Dustin.
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JR: "That's the straw that broke the camel's back right there!" This after Vince has already been booked against Ken Shamrock in a Lion's Den Match. I'm not sure this won't end up being the best-booked WWF storyline of 1999, honestly.
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AW, SON OF A BITCH. One of the worst booking moves (not the *dumbest* in a Beaver Cleavage, Henry-and-Sammy sense, but the most potentially damaging) of the era, and in a way could have been seen as the WWF's Fingerpoke of Doom in its "Sorry, the show you've been watching has been a lie!" contempt for the audience. However, what separates it from the Fingerpoke of Doom (aside from WCW being even more incompetent as Chad points out) is the follow-up I talked about in 2014 and that I stand by. WCW thought they were creating brilliant television, while *somebody* in the WWF realized that a reset button on the Vince character wasn't going to be enough and that they had to give us something more. It doesn't completely redeem the segment, but it does help.
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I won't lie: this is nearly the hardest I've laughed at any segment on any Yearbook. The sight of Nash comically shoving his hand through the window and fumbling with the door handle just sent me into fits. The angle of course is an infamous moment in WCW history but I had never seen it before. This was almost Shockmaster levels of hilarity.
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Yeah, the idea of Piper vs. Flair AGAIN for control of the company AGAIN is just flabbergasting. Piper chastises Buff for not main eventing MSG, because there's nothing like outright telling your audience how much better and more prestigious the competition is. WCW is turning into TNA by the minute. I suppose I should be thankful that there's *some* attempt at using Piper to try to put over youngish talent--I wouldn't necessarily do it with Buff, but I'll chalk that up as a simple difference of opinion. No, the execution is where this really fails. On its own, this is a bad but not horrible segment that I suspect is going to lead to much worse things.
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"YOU ARE A STUPID PER-SEE-UN." Savage is such a sad sight. Just completely out of touch and out of it, like he's aged 10 years since his knee injury. Bischoff's cackling at this will have you begging for the understated subtlety of the Repo Man. The sad thing is--as if I actually have to break down what's wrong with segment--the sewage doesn't LOOK impressively messy, since whatever they're using all sort of bunches together instead of completely soaking Macho. Also, Savage doesn't really sell humiliation, he sells annoyance and inconvenience. Bischoff thinks this is the funniest thing in history while Tony sounds like he's 3 seconds away from sticking a gun in his mouth. Bobby, God bless him, actually tries to put over how angry Savage is going to be in a vain attempt to actually sell people on a PPV, but to no avail as Bischoff cuts him off so he can laugh some more.
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Hey DJ Ran: as the board's resident Cleveland Indians fan, quit speaking for us, you poseur. "Mick something-or-other"...Foley as the Greater Power *would* have been interesting.
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Randy Savage arrives at Nitro with some of Mark Henry's work. He's wearing a bright pink feathered jacket that seems to the same purpose as when Jim Cornette wore a white jacket.
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We get a brief glimpse of the first GTV bit, with Mark Henry stinking up a bathroom to the consternation of D'Lo. As enthralling as it was the first time. Austin refuses to divulge the identity of the Greater Power as he's interviewed by some guy I've never seen or heard of before, and who definitely does not fit the description of the ideal WWE Announcer that Kris and Bix talked about on the last BTS.
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Terri and Jackie don't quite have Sunny's panache with a squirt gun.
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Somehow Dave Brown is missing and Corey Macklin is locked inside a cage in the parking lot. Only in Memphis. Angle looks promising in his move execution and we get Fatu's requisite inside-out clothesline bump but Angle doesn't seem to be over at all. Neither does anyone else involved in this, really. Angle attempts a gratuitous dive off the top turnbuckle after the match is over and hurts his knee when he misses, then Smooth goes to town on it with a chair. Well, you pretty much brought all that on yourself, Kurt.