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PeteF3

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  1. PeteF3
    I don't mind the roster being here, since Vince's tournament announcement pertained to a healthy chunk of them. Austin 3:16 is now a collector's item: the new expression to sweep the globe is McMahon 3:16--I've Got the Brass to Fire Your Ass! We cut to commercial on a cliffhanger as Austin is suddenly seen live outside the arena, in the hunting gear he talked about the previous night. This is the start to one truly bizarre Raw, one of the most Russoriffic to this point, but even with this goofy set-up, shit's still building logically on things that happened before and it's clear that there's some semblance of long-term planning in the main events.
  2. PeteF3
    They brought Buffer out for this. Seriously. Hogan threatens Buffer to get his "Beverly Hills crew cut out of my world." Hogan reveals that Horace is his nephew and I'm completely lost as to what the point of this is. The fans, who have been feisty and impatient all night, are not having any of this. Hogan blithers some more and man, has this guy's coolness factor evaporated over the past year or what. I've talked of ECW having fallen behind the times--Hogan is completely off in his own world as much as the Warrior is. Warrior appears and fails to rescue this segment or win over the crowd. Warrior gets spraypainted and legdropped--nice throwback to the days of '96, and yeah, why didn't they just do this and skip the Horace crap?
  3. PeteF3
    Sayles Belton turns the crowd around with Puckett and Randle, then clinches it by unveiling Ric Flair back in his original hometown. Knowing what we know about Kirby now I shudder to think what kind of trouble he and Ric got into on the town on this night. The police officer is pretty funny here, too: "You're from around here, and you know what our jails are like!"
  4. PeteF3
    This was good and solid and Kidman continues to surprise me by how fundamentally sound he is...but if you're one to place emphasis on crowd reactions, and I am one of those people, then it's hard to call this match anything but a failure.
  5. PeteF3
    Good overall segment, minus the commentary doing anything except talk about the match. If this were the WWF, the incessant talk about how this "could" be the end of Goldberg's streak and that a loss is inevitable would be taken as a sign that the company is ready to end the megapush--in WCW, it may just be the announcers winging it. The action in the match is good and Jericho gets in a good run of offense, and even gets a win when Goldberg runs in and spears him. Good post-match pull-apart too--from reading recaps I think the build to this match was better than the Yearbook gives it credit for. Of course, there are only so many segments from any given 3-hour Nitro that you can include.
  6. PeteF3
    Oh, that's what the UNICEF reference was about--Goldberg was doing something with them. Jericho takes this opportunity to issue another challenge--"I will knock the hair right off your head, jerky!" He then gets offended that DDP wants to challenge for Goldberg's title and not Jericho's Unified World TV title. DDP responds with words for "Jerkicho." I'm on board with this as a match, no question.
  7. PeteF3
    Whisper is here, but no Skye yet. Bret Hart has issued a challenge for Sting--wow, what a creative followup to the challenges issued toward each other last week and the week before that. And now, a look at UNICEF (??!).
  8. PeteF3
    Another match with cognitive dissonance between the storyline and the match layout. Austin's going from not giving a shit and not wanting to crown a new champion, to checking for submissions. Austin should be seated in a ringside chair downing Steveweisers and letting these two beat each other up. In the end, this is yet another proof that it isn't the title that's over, it is (or *should* be) the guy that's holding it. Paul Bearer comes out and we get maybe the first instance of the "guy prepares to hit somebody with an object, then turns around and shockingly hits the other guy" spot in the Russo Era that we'd see a million more times. It doesn't lead to much except it seems to officially put Undertaker and Bearer back together as full-fledged heels and set up Kane as a sympathetic babyface going forward. Austin hunts Vince down backstage, unsuccessfully, though he does run into Owen Hart in an amusing moment ("I don't know, I'm retired.") McMahon then orders the video screen to be pulled up, and finally fires Austin. Huge heat for this, and Vince hesitates a bit before launching into his famous soundbite, which a creative person *might* be able to interpret as regret and a possible explanation for Shane re-hiring Austin only to screw him--but, we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?
  9. PeteF3
    Yeah, even by Attitude Era standards the face-heel dynamics are all screwed up. Val was getting monster pops for weeks on end and Ross was justifying Terri's behavior by harkening back to that interview the previous November, but now that Goldust is back, JR is getting on Terri's case and lamenting how broken poor Dustin's heart must be. Oh well, it's good to have Goldust back and it's great to see Venis' shitty character get some comeuppance. There's some really solid work here and I think they really wanted to have a good match, but the lack of heat until the comeback as well as the weird stop-start nature of the match hurt it. It started off really strong with some intense brawling and then got bogged down in body part work when that wasn't entirely called for. Then we get the same finish we just saw with Felino and Santo! I love it when that happens, and I think this is the second time a Felino/Santo Yearbook match has been followed by a WWF undercard match with the same ending. Terri looked fantastic here, for the record.
  10. PeteF3
    Man, '98 seems like it's been the quietest year for lucha so far in the '90s. Even reading along in the Observers, there have been a few apuestas matches that drew big gates, namely La Parka vs. Pierroth Jr., but very little that had me thinking, "Man, I wish the Yearbook had included that." But I love these two and I love this match-up. I think I liked the '97 matches a bit better, but this certainly did a great job of building to some huge moves, whereas in '97 the matches were more bombfests, as if the masks and outfits had been donned by the Steiner Brothers. This has some really cool technical wrestling to go along with that and a really well-done finish that Santo sells like death. Definitely a lucha MOTYC if possibly not one on a worldwide level.
  11. PeteF3
    I actually thought the match was a ton of fun--I hate Koshinaka and he didn't bother me at all here, and Tenryu continued to look good in a strong comeback year for him. It ain't no Kandori/Hokuto tag as far as dissenting-partners matches go but the action and the crowd are hot and it had me guessing a few times. My only complaint is that Tenzan went down awfully easily as soon as Koshinaka made his comeback. I agree on the who-gives-a-fuck nature of the post-match angle, though.
  12. PeteF3
    Hales apparently made some sort of off-color remark around Brandon Baxter's father, who was killed when he was 2, as part of this babyface turn. That might be a tad over-the-top, but it's nothing new for Memphis, I guess.
  13. PeteF3
    Francine dares anyone to try to strip her in the ring. Presumably this sets up a Francine/Tammy or Francine/Dawn Marie catfight in the near future.
  14. PeteF3
    Now I ask you: how *else* would Dreamer vs. Credible end besides Spike Dudley pinning the One Man Gang? Question #2: is that actually Rod Price or is it G. Gordon Liddy having fallen on hard times? Yeah, this was yet another ECW match where you could call out every spot before it happened. OMG cutting off the attempted low kick was the only semi-novel part of the match, but you still knew he was going to be the one to go through the table in the end.
  15. PeteF3
    Gertner strolls through the toughest part of Buffalo at 3:30 in the morning with a $100 bill taped to his head--but he's not afraid, because he has the Dudley Boyz with him. Buh Buh Ray practically spells out that he's going to try to incite a riot at the upcoming show, daring the toughest people in Buffalo to take a shot at him.
  16. PeteF3
    Good point--no reason not to run a 6- or 8-man tag between the Horsemen and 4 random NWO guys at Havoc.
  17. PeteF3
    Nitro made a gallant effort, for the most part, but it just couldn't compare to this. This isn't a spectacular match, but it is well-worked and the insane crowd elevates it to something special, almost like the famous Dallas 10-man tag a year and a half after this. Rock looks good at FIP and his comebacks are strong, especially when he gets Kane up in the Samoan drop which looks like and is sold as a great feat of strength. The masked SWAT officer reappears, as Vince had warned Austin earlier that he would need eyes in the back of his head. Austin takes a nightstick shot and gets worked over, and Vince is happy as we go off the air, once again counting the minutes until next Monday night.
  18. PeteF3
    Rock isn't glossing over his past with Austin, and he's not happy about their partnership tonight. But not as unhappy as Mark Henry and D'Lo, it seems.
  19. PeteF3
    "Just LEAVE THE DAMN THING ALONE--you've got what??" These little Foley cameos are some great blink-and-you'll-miss-it goodness. Subtlety, in wrestling? In Russo-land? We're seeing it.
  20. PeteF3
    Austin wreaking in havoc in various vehicles seems like something that should get old, but it never, ever does. Everyone sells the angle great--Lawler's squealing is for once a perfectly appropriate reaction. Austin comes out and basically tells us that he won't declare a winner at Judgment Day. McMahon is out in a motorized cart, flanked by a big dude in a mask and SWAT uniform, and I think I know where this is leading. Vince cuts Austin off with a flank of guard dogs--"You were saying...?" Vince makes the main event, and it's a big one, with Austin and Rock teaming up for the first time. Vince tries to continue and you can barely hear him over the "ASSHOLE" chants--wild. Chicago was a pretty hot Nitro crowd but it pales in comparison to this. Vince laments what has happened in his life over the past few weeks--due to his crushed ankle, he may never play polo again! This is hot hot HOT.
  21. PeteF3
    Heartwarming, but the excess amount of slant rhymes puts Henry behind Lanny Poffo for me.
  22. PeteF3
    Buffer speaks of the Warrior/Sting team as being "for the first time in professional wrestling history," even though Warrior made vague reference to their past earlier, and then Tenay makes a more explicit reference after the intros. Oh, that WCW quality control. The match is pretty hot as Warrior is wisely kept from doing anything more than the bare minimum. Predictable finish but you knew you were in for gaga to start with, I guess. Sting makes his own save with two baseball bats as the Wolfpack is rendered even more superfluous. I wonder if this is the only time Warrior ever wrestled Bret? In an alternate universe that match was scheduled to main event the '93 Royal Rumble.
  23. PeteF3
    Bischoff tries to take some cheap shots as McArthur's parents, but then makes the mistake of shoving him in trying to get into the suite. He's swarmed by security in an awesome scene. Flair is out and is as giddy as ever. The Last Great WCW Angle continues in strong fashion.
  24. PeteF3
    A prelude to Positively Kanyon.
  25. PeteF3
    Well, it's a year and a half later, but...I don't know about Sabu, but the Sandman thing was pure speculation, just based on the fact that the laughing started right as Sandman signed with the company, so people figured there'd be a connection. Okerlund gamely attempts to lend some gravity to this situation, trying to make this brother vs. brother match something other than a routine mid-card feud, but that goes out the window after about 8 seconds. "GET THAT DUMMY OUTTA HERE!" Chucky actually draws a big pop for telling Okerlund to shut the hell up, but that quickly turns when he transparently begs us to go see his new movie, complete with opening date.
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