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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    Just for the record, Cornette probably deserves a lot of credit for Kane becoming as big as he did. The Halloween influence, the ripping off of the cage door, the very idea of Hell in a Cell itself...that all came from Cornette, though as Loss alluded to, all of those elements were lifted from elsewhere which Cornette doesn't deny (the cage door rip came from how Doug Furnas debuted in Continental, Hell in a Cell came from the Last Battle of Atlanta). And more importantly than all of that, it was Cornette who kept Kane and Undertaker apart and developed the idea of Kane trying to get at Undertaker by destroying other people. Russo wanted Undertaker to come right back and drive Kane through a table or something like a week after Badd Blood. It's easy to shit on Kane and how stale he got and how stupid some of his angles were later, but a gimmick that initially looked like Black Scorpion Redux became a more-than-useful member of the roster for almost 20 years, thanks a lot to Jacobs' execution but also thanks a lot to Cornette's vision.
  2. PeteF3
    And I'll throw my hat into the ring as well. Best Nitro match ever and a U.S. MOTY and something I hope to place in the worldwide year-end list. Page being Page, is one of the only guys on the WCW roster still working with pride and he clearly set out to put on a great match on this night. That's not to knock Sting, who could have coasted on this, but Sting is more of a guy willing to go with the flow at this point than a guy who's going to push others to perform at a higher level. With a motivated DDP, though, he brings the goods, even busting out the old top-rope splash. There are some terrific near-falls out of the various piledrivers here, and even though the finish is recycled from their previous Nitro match, it's a great finish and built up to a lot better. Even Schiavone's enthusiasm sounds genuine for the first time in awhile, as he seems to be having flashbacks to classic NWA title matches of better times. Against all odds Nitro is putting together a bit of a hot streak.
  3. PeteF3
    These doctor and nurse actors are horrible. Ric Flair enters the rec room with his entrance music playing (???) eager to watch Nitro, but Nash has moved from The Graduate to an even hipper and more-with-the-times ripoff of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest as the nurse won't let them watch the show. Charles Robinson is in charge now. Apparently JJ is happy about this. Flair's on the phone with Robinson and he's pissed and being harrassed by the other inmates. The unnamed Asya makes her debut. Robinson is out with Gene and continues to be one of the better things about this era, at least outside the tag and cruiserweight divisions. He's not quite at the heights of Bill Alfonso in 1995 because he's working in a colder environment, but he's not far off and could have been an asset in another time and place.
  4. PeteF3
    In the Observer two weeks before this, Dave dropped a rather random-but-ominous note that WCW had brought in Ted DiBiase to co-host the last PPV in audio form for either the Internet or the hotline, because Rude had no-showed it. Unrelated deaths occurring on the same day are sort of a morbid curiosity of mine--this Monday, of course, was also the same day as the Columbine High massacre.
  5. PeteF3
    I daresay this is my #2 MOTY so far, behind the 3/6/99 AJPW tag. Is it telling that my two favorite BattlArts matches are ones that completely dump on the style? Ikeda is really good but Otsuka is just on another level here--he's seemingly capable of doing absolutely anything and executing it to perfection, whether it's shootstyle, high-flying, bomb-throwing...he could probably be a great shtick/comedy worker if he wanted to.
  6. PeteF3
    Stale, maybe, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. As a match in isolation, though, this was very enjoyable with quite a bit of thought clearly put into it for such a garbage brawl--every spot gets paid back somehow, from one guy to the other. And even now it sort of had me guessing as to exactly what the hell they were going to do to get past the Shane-as-ref stip. They came up with a pretty good finish under the circumstances, and Vince plays the finish and post-match really well and shockingly understated. He's just helped Austin and conceded the smoking skull belt to him, but was clearly conflicted and ambivalent about doing so. WHERE TO, STEPHANIE? Every passing segment gets us just a little bit closer to the end of the Ministry.
  7. PeteF3
    Good show-closing angle to kick this feud into another gear. We've had the dream match aspect, the soap opera aspect, and now it's all about people kicking each others' asses. Dundee promises a repeat of the famous concession stand brawls of yore, and points out that only he can do what the Fabs have just done to the King of Memphis.
  8. PeteF3
    Keirn really does sound pissed off and pushes the limits of what you normally say on Saturday morning local TV. And he takes a shot at Lawler and Dundee temporarily blanking on the team they beat last week to boot. The promise here--who knows if it will be fulfilled--is that the upcoming tag title match in Kennet, Missouri won't have any women or gimmicks involved, just four men.
  9. PeteF3
    Lawler and Dundee as constantly bickering buddies continues. Is this just the natural order of things, is it a red herring, or is it building to something? Maybe we'll find out in the next match with the Fabs.
  10. PeteF3
    Yeah, the Impact Players come off as pretty dumb here. Sabu being "restrained" in the back is an eye-roller while RVD is being pounded down 4-on-1 in a supposed singles match. Oh, and this is supposed to be a singles match, because Styles mentions that RVD would have to pin D-Von to win...so naturally they fuck up the finish and Bubba Ray covers for the winning fall. Nice quality control, guys.
  11. PeteF3
    Wonder what the interest rates were. A contemporary press release cited "32 million" WCW fans, a figure that sounds even more generous than the number of households with "affection for WWE programming."
  12. PeteF3
    Bottom line: Honky Tonk Man did the WWF and all of us, the viewers, a gigantic favor in the end.
  13. PeteF3
    I agree that there's too much vehicular stuff going on on these past few weeks of Raw, but with JR back, and Austin and Rock going at it, all really does seem right, or as right as 1999 American wrestling can get. I could have done without Shane's EVIL BAD GUY FACE but coming out of nowhere to whack Austin with the shovel and take the belt back was a good final exclamation point for the go-home show.
  14. PeteF3
    Stephanie tearfully talking about how Vince is the only person left that she knows and who's standing by her is a pretty clear indication that, yes, sadly, he was going to be the Higher Power all along and wasn't some fallback option. Melodramatic but as good of a segment involving Mideon as you could hope for. Vince tries to back a car into Mideon against a wall. It wouldn't be a Russo segment without a crazy stunt.
  15. PeteF3
    Sort of pretending that Austin may have died last week seems like a little much, and I don't get why Rock is doing a funeral thing when that's Undertaker's gimmick. That's not Lillian Garcia shining the Rock's shoes in that bumper, is it?
  16. PeteF3
    A really fun match with a way-overthought finish, which has been the story of WCW since Starrcade '97 and would continue for the rest of its existence. Things just sort of peter out after Mickey Jay gets speared, which is too bad because this was a hot main event that really had you thinking you might see a title change on TV. Instead, we have a Slamboree PPV with the stench of death all over it.
  17. PeteF3
    SMH. Not much more to be said. The first Flair segment was almost equal parts fun and depressing. This is similar, except without the fun part.
  18. PeteF3
    Parts of this were funny, parts of this were sad, a few parts were just dull, but overall the segment kept your attention, sometimes for the right reasons. That said, I think this is the segment that definitively proves that for all of WCW's faults in 1999, *some* of the blame has to fall on Flair himself. He's the one who's bookending the decades with selfish decisions to turn himself heel because he's more comfortable that way, but now for one of the first times in his career he refuses to commit to it--Flair of course is a big Gator fan and buddies with the Head Ball Coach, so he shamelessly kisses up to the Gainesville audience and babyfaces himself all over again while also trying to sell that he's become a crazy old embarrassment. Piper is beyond useless at this point but Flair set him up to fail here. Oh, and Psicosis' Cruiserweight title victory is only the second-biggest shock of the show, #1 now being that WCW is actually going to run Flair vs. Piper on PPV in 1999. Flabbergasting--that match was past its sell-by date two years before this.
  19. PeteF3
    I don't know if it's the best Nitro ever, but it's certainly on the short list of them and on the short list for U.S. MOTYCs. They *did* lose the crowd for the length and sheer volume of highspots, as there's a "boring" chant just past the midway point and they're actively booing every save and kickout at one point, after starting off hot. I'm willing to chalk up part of this to "crowds can be wrong sometimes" because it wasn't poor work or overwork that provoked that reaction, it was a bunch of Spurrier-worshipping Gator assholes who probably were impatient for the chance to sing along with some Wolfpac catchphrases and--*smack* Okay, hatred for the University of Florida aside, back to the match: it's a stirring display of spot-fu but like those great Michinoku Pro 6-man tags, it's a really really *good* display of spot-fu, with the spots hitting, the spots having impact behind them, and the numerous transitions all making sense. This style would burn itself out very quickly if we got it every week but Nitro needed way more of this and way more matches like that WCWSN tag to create a point of difference from the WWF, the same way WCW did so successfully in 1995 and '96. Between the ending of WCWSN and this match one might *almost* think WCW is a hot promotion. Oh, and not knowing who won this, the finish was a markout-worthy shock and Psicosis does a great job of celebrating like it's the biggest win of his career.
  20. PeteF3
    A bunch of meth-heads beating each other up...and Tommy Rogers. Even among '90s indy scuzzballs, the Fabulous Rocker truly stands out.
  21. PeteF3
    This was great, with incredible heat, and the post-match was right out of 1986 Crockett. Non-stop action before, during, and after the match, and the three-way feud over the tag belts is the best and most compelling thing on either Monday night program right now.
  22. PeteF3
    I was hoping for a payoff for the missing Dundee angle and I'm still hopeful they'll spin it into something, but as of now it looks like he legitimately had trouble getting to the studio.
  23. PeteF3
    Stan Lane doesn't say a whole lot, but Stacy promises to be a distraction even if she's stuck in her own personal cage while the Fabs and Lawler/Dundee have their cage match coming up in Jonesboro. All is not so rosy between Lawler and Dundee, though it never is.
  24. PeteF3
    Hayes continues on the comeback trail. I didn't take his addressing of Kulka as "cousin" to be literal--it was like how he always referred to Gordy and Buddy as his brothers.
  25. PeteF3
    Satisfactory is the way to put this. Not a blowaway great Final, and maybe not a blowaway great match like you'd hope for if this were 1993 Vader and Kobashi, but a good match with a really hot closing stretch, and an improvement over their League match. Vader's counter German was a great transition spot that pretty much spelled doom for Kobashi despite a few nice kickouts. I know it's All-Japan and not the U.S. but Vader doing the handshake and hug with Kobashi afterward is a little jarring. In any case, Vader seems to have recovered any slowed momentum from his loss to Misawa and is now on a roll heading into his Tokyo Dome title defense.
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