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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    The matter-of-fact "she's out" brings to mind Tony Schiavone's reaction when Dave Crockett got Sickled. "David's down...we'll be right back."
  2. PeteF3
    Suicide. In retrospect you have to wonder if CTE played a role or not. No way to know, but if (emphasis on *if*) it did that's a little scary considering he had a short career that wasn't particularly bump-heavy.
  3. PeteF3
    Well, it's 2 years later, but let the record show that Vince refers to the fans and arena "in Arizona" a few times, when they cut back to Kelly & Shane. Yeah, a lot of fun, and deliberately more lighthearted after the torture porn that was the I Quit Match. Not really something that falls within the realm of a traditional star rating, but fun and creative--final camera angle notwithstanding. Vince calls this and is weirdly sort of half-Mr. McMahon and half 1995-era Vince, which is jarring and at times hilarious. "That's not real liquor, by the way--real liquor has never touched the Rock's lips!" Into Pro Wrestling Mostly territory for a second...interestingly, aside from the Puppy Bowl, there's not much halftime counterprogramming left. After the Wardrobe Malfunction incident of '04, halftime started to get notice again. Then after a few too many years of old guys, bottoming out with what was left of the Who, the NFL and Super Bowl turned to getting the biggest stars in music to perform. Now, I'm not sure there's a lot you could do that would work as a ratings draw--wrestling or otherwise. The gimmick worked with In Living Color because that came at a time when the halftime show if not the game itself was usually completely embarrassing. Then Michael Jackson put a stop to it for a few years, then it started back up again with Celebrity Deathmatch and then this. But after a few years of it being a fad, the idea seems to be extinct.
  4. PeteF3
    "Get it?" indeed. A rare example of the Undertaker being allowed to appear in a comedy segment.
  5. PeteF3
    This was an admirable effort and I don't want to shit too much on a match with 6 students in it, but MAN does this go completely off the rails at about the 2/3 mark. The opening is about as good as any '90s juniors 6-man you care to see. There are a few sloppy spots as you'd expect, and Crazy Max isn't quite Kaientai when they're not in the ring with 3 veterans like they were for our first glimpse at them a few weeks ago. Still, Shiima still does so many little things that are terrific and there are some great ideas for spots here even if they're not always executed 100%. SAITO offers some terrific matwork and innovative holds that had me itching for more. Hoo boy...then we get to the portion where Shiima is down 2-on-1. Aside from being laid out rather backwards as Shiima suddenly starts working like a sympathetic underdog babyface, Dragon almost murders him with an ugly, UGLY 450 that splits his lip open and pretty clearly concusses him, and the next few moments where Shiima is clearly out of it and Dragon and Magnum are trying to stall/cover for it are intensely uncomfortable to watch. I wasn't far removed from that feeling watching the I Quit Match, saying in my head, JUST GO HOME ALREADY--END THE MATCH. At least he cheats to eliminate Dragon. Shiima manages to recover somewhat but the match doesn't, as the final portion of this feels like it's wrestled in slow motion in comparison to the first part and it's not "epic selling" either--these guys were just gassed and/or out of ideas. Shiima hits the Iconoclasm but takes about 7 minutes to climb to the turnbuckle in a really contrived set-up for Tokyo to get up and crotch him, and Tokyo finishes with a shooting star press that's almost as ugly as the 450. Again, a very admirable effort from 6 guys who are still wrestling beyond their years, but the flaws in this were gaping and impossible for me to ignore. To my own surprise, coming off that MPro match, for the most part the babyfaces outworked the heels.
  6. PeteF3
    Hahahaha, everyone's beaten me to my obligatory "Joey Styles ruins everything by telegraphing it" spiel. This actually would have been a really good segment without him. Buh Buh Ray's Grunge impression just consists of him talking in a really high voice, but it's still funny. He also gets off some great below-the-belt lines--"I don't see the ugly old rat I used to fuck around here anymore," and a crack about Rocco's age. Then Buh Buh cuts a good serious promo that sounds exactly like something Paul Heyman would come up with to explain an unplanned absence. To the live audience, this was probably an effective swerve. To us, the TV viewer, it loses a lot from the commentary.
  7. PeteF3
    I liked this promo, without the THIS IS A SHOOT stuff. At least Taz vs. the Rock is something that *could* concievably have happened. Taz vs. Hogan is just kind of hilarious. It's kind of telling, though, that no actual member of the ECW roster is mentioned.
  8. PeteF3
    Well, this was burned through way, way too quickly. Both as an angle and as a match. I wish they'd found some sort of cover story for why no one came out to help Lawler, when a barrage of babyfaces were out to help Bruce Prichard earlier.
  9. PeteF3
    I can't say that I'm enamored at the prospect of a Hales vs. Prichard feud, but Dave does a fantastic job of getting this angle over.
  10. PeteF3
    Sort of a re-do of the Goldust-Pillman angle from '97...these stips almost never work in favor of the babyface.
  11. PeteF3
    This was something quite short of "fundamentally solid"--there's some sloppiness and some awkward transitions and some more Big Two cosplaying (Matt doing the Scott Hall "ooh I'm scared" move as well as a crotch chop). But man, if you're not into this by the end, I'm not sure if you have a pulse. This is like a rinky-dink version of the Kobashi/Kikuchi-Can-Ams tag with the hometown factor and the megapops down the stretch, and when the big spots do hit, they look great. Even the ref bump finish is carried out well and this builds to a logical and crowd-pleasing finish, rather than a 2.9-fest. I'm no 2000s-'10s indy expert but I definitely haven't seen anything that's this satisfying--another match that's more than the sum of its parts, and maybe a dark-horse pic for US MOTY.
  12. PeteF3
    The NWO deign to make an appearance on Thunder, but they're not getting paid enough to run. Rey and Konnan are sacrificed just to get the Hogan-Flair match over.
  13. PeteF3
    You know, if the booking of the mid-card were as sensible as the booking of the main event, why not have *Venis* dress as the Blue Blazer and cost Shamrock?
  14. PeteF3
    Shamrock and Boss Man had been given saltpeter before the bout which supposedly would make them immune from Debra's advances, but not immunity from Koko B. Ware running in dressed as the Blue Blazer and walloping Shamrock with the guitar, to give Owen & Jarrett the tag titles, an angle and finish lifted from the famous Fabulous Kangaroos-Miller Brothers match of 1957.
  15. PeteF3
    Ah, Super Bowl halftime...a history in its own right. The phenomenon had rebounded after being a long-running joke a few years before this when they landed Michael Jackson, but had slid back into irrelevance and would stay there until the wardrobe malfunction of 2004. The door was back open, after In Living Color had pioneered the idea, of counterprogramming, and the WWF was the perfect company and audience to try it with. This is another long and drawn-out segment after we got one to open the show, but at least these segments are advancing the story in major ways.
  16. PeteF3
    Yes, Austin was clearly sloshed here, and it showed. Have to say that as far as Russo gaga goes, this is all kind of logical and forward-thinking in its own way. Vince probably should have known his own rulebook better, but what the hell--it's not any different than Ted DiBiase not realizing that selling the WWF title was impossible. Austin stumbles his way through the end of this, but the end result--Austin vs. Vince in a cage--sells itself.
  17. PeteF3
    "Over 25 profiles" = 26, yes? That gives us a look at about 7% of the active roster.
  18. PeteF3
    Bret was nursing a legit groin injury at this point, but the main reason he was inactive is that WCW had told him they didn't have anything for him to do. Yes, really. This of course is a legendary promo and I've even already commented on it, but the 1993-like backstage setting looks weird in the Monday Night Wars era and makes this look more like an episode of WCWSN than Nitro.
  19. PeteF3
    I didn't have a problem with Hall carrying the ladder out--it was an impromptu challenge match, after all. Not an all-timer of a ladder match, but I might have liked it more than Eddy vs. Syxx. Hall clearly lays this out and draws upon WM10 for inspiration as a lot of the same spots are there. Still, a dumb finish that doesn't satisfy anything (even though Goldberg does get a monster pop for the double spear, which is a spot that will never not get over) except to put heat on SCOTT NORTON.
  20. PeteF3
    Gee, who do you think Stevie's trying to rip off with the look and all the talk of his "$500 shirt"? The Wolfpac arrive on a private jet and make noise about "trimming the fat," but the only fat that gets trimmed is Curt Hennig. Vincent, Adams, Horace, Norton, and Stevie remain. Then the group arrives in a box and we get an entire segment revolving around Stevie Ray's choice of attire. Fascinating.
  21. PeteF3
    Speaking as a retailer, Dillinger is in the right here. Stan Lane would be proud of Bischoff's efforts in disguising his haircut.
  22. PeteF3
    A fun show as usual...as for how far to go, I think the departure of the Radicals would be a good stopping point. I can only speak for me but it seemed like that was the moment where there was truly no return and that WCW was forever consigned to #2. Realistically they'd probably already reached that point, but that felt like the death knell. Anything else is just playing out the string, and whatever noteworthy moments came after that seem to be well-covered by the RuView episodes. '99 is certainly a depressing year, but maybe until the Russo jump you could burn off 2 or 3 months at a time, like in the early shows, and concentrate more on the bigger stories.
  23. PeteF3
    Hmmm...the fact that Finkle takes special care this year to explain how going through the ropes isn't an elimination doesn't sound like a massive red flag or anything. Leave it to Russo to try to kill off the Rumble match because gosh darn it, it's just not interesting enough on its own. So we get STORIES, people coming into the ring with no one to fight, Kane eliminating himself because of the presence of asylum orderlies, Mabel being kidnapped, Vince doing commentary on his own match...and yet, with all this ridiculous overthinking and overbooking, we get maybe the most unimaginative ending possible. Surely there had to be a better fuck finish leading to a Vince win than a lame distraction that makes Austin look like a complete idiot. I think the 2015 disaster eclipsed this as far as bad Rumbles, but this is certainly the worst to date and one of the worst ever.
  24. PeteF3
    I'll allow the delay in playing the recording, since a.) Rock wanted to settle a personal grudge with Mankind by inflicting punishment on him first, and b.) you could argue that the Corporation thought they were being clever in delaying it so that they wouldn't blow their cover, even though their scheme was blown the next night on Raw anyway. I actually had a bigger problem with Rock climbing up to the platform for no real reason other than to set up the big bump into the electrical panels--not a terrible idea for a big spot, but the set-up beforehand was contrived and it's forgotten about 5 minutes after it happens. As for the match...as work, especially before the brawl to the back of the arena, it's pretty good--by 1999 WWF standards, maybe even great. Mankind's mini-comeback while handcuffed is well-done also. As theater, I can't say it wasn't engrossing. As a heated hate-filled grudge, I have to say both guys put across their agendas well, separating this from some other late-'90s exercises in brutality and gore. The chairshots were icky to watch even for me live at the time and it's certainly gotten worse since then. I can't excuse it other than to say that it was a means to an end in pushing this feud to another level and that it was compelling to watch in a sick sort of way. We'll see if this holds up as the WWF MOTY--there won't be a ton of competition, but there's still two Austin/Rock matches and the No Mercy ladder match that I'm pretty sure I've never actually seen before.
  25. PeteF3
    Just playing devil's advocate here: TNA got burned because Drew Galloway got hurt at a WCPW show and they had to re-do Bound for Glory because he couldn't wrestle. If a guy's out for one day, he misses a month's worth of TV. I can see the company wanting some sort of insurance policy.
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