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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. PeteF3
    The beginning lost me, as things were slow and there were some really eye-rolling spots like the triple abdominal stretch. Plus this really would have been better off had the door been locked and this had been climb-out only. I concentrated on the Indians game for awhile and came back and this got a lot better--I didn't notice a turning point, but they smartly had Mankind & Shamrock work over the Rock 2-on-1 to build sympathy on the newly turned babyface, and the crowd slowly gets more and more into things. The big spots down the stretch are much better, especially the double People's Elbow.
  2. PeteF3
    Crash TV, baby. Good go-home angle for Breakdown, as Austin's disguise caught me off-guard. Shane is still unbearable and after 2 months on the job still has no idea what his character is supposed to be.
  3. PeteF3
    Well, this one was definitely cleared, as we get a quickie intro from Rob himself. The action we see is a little more underwhelming than in ECW videos past. And enough of the "Breaking News" graphics already--that shit's for a post-9/11 world, not 1998.
  4. PeteF3
    This was a hell of an expense from both a supply and labor standpoint.
  5. PeteF3
    Thomas Edward Gilbert, Jr...yeah, thanks for that info, Joey. Can the powers-that-be in ECW decide if their fans are knuckle-dragging morons or the smartest fans in the room, please? Joey finally provides an interesting tidbit as Dreamer blithers, pointing out that this story broke on ecwwrestling.com, back when news breaking on a website and then being acknowledged on TV later was still sort of novel. Jack Victory, fat as ever, comes out and accuses Tommy Dreamer of being a kissass. He uses a bunch of f-bombs so you can tell he's serious. Dreamer responds with a long string of bleeps himself. A bald Rod Price makes the save and Paul E. has resorted to turning his hardcore pet promotion into a rehash of early-'90s Global. Can't wait for the debuts of Sweet Daddy Falcone and Scott Putski to fill the Sandman's void. Justin Credible does a Sandman imitation and pounds Dreamer into oblivion with his new Singapore cane gimmick. Funny how like 35 cane shots don't carry an iota as much effect as Sandman doing ten of them to Dreamer a few years ago.
  6. PeteF3
    Lawler spins a yarn, detailing the history of his feud with Andy Kaufman and then this supposed dust-up on-set with Jim Carrey. Apparently Carrey took his method-acting a bit too far and, upset over not being allowed to take the suplex and piledriver himself, spit at Lawler and precipitated a pull-apart on the set which became a national news story. A work all the way, but Lawler makes this compelling.
  7. PeteF3
    I'm pretty sure AJ Styles did a brainbuster a few weeks ago, which surprised me even more.
  8. PeteF3
    Well...I've seen worse. At least it's an effort to market one of the Vanilla Midgets.
  9. PeteF3
    Benoit actually gets in some clever lines but they fly over the crowd's heads. McMichael's much more blunt and to-the-point promo about hunting Eric down in his house gets over better. Definitely a holding pattern of a segment with the main foil off in Japan, but Flair and Arn in a holding pattern is still pretty enjoyable.
  10. PeteF3
    Ross and Lawler were filming their parts for Man on the Moon. Cornette is doing yeoman's work trying to carry Shane all the way through this broadcast, and he mostly succeeds in getting the storylines over while Shane just cheerleads obnoxiously. This has a lot of 3-way cliches like the triple sleeper and one guy lying comatose on the floor, but the action down the stretch heats up, with Shamrock and Rock working really well together--as you'd think considering how often they've wrestled each other all year. No finish and presumably no #1 contender for next week--not that it will end up mattering anyway.
  11. PeteF3
    Why is the babyface constantly getting heat on the heel? This is total back-asswards booking. I can't wait until Goldust comes back and beats the shit out of this guy.
  12. PeteF3
    A goddamned face turn for the Disciple as a main event angle. In fairness, it's One Warrior as well as a Disciple, thus preserving the integrity of the name. If Hawk or Animal join, then we'll have problems.
  13. PeteF3
    Oh, it's Elizabeth--is she still with the promotion? Anyway, this segment is another winner and it's awesome to see Flair control a somewhat non-WCW city crowd like this. This is a US company doing a Japanese-style angle and actually doing it right--lots of people knew about the underlying story here and the ones that didn't could easily fill in the blanks themselves. Flair was off TV for 6 months and it was presumably Bischoff's fault--all you need to know.
  14. PeteF3
    The announcers do a decent job of covering for this, talking about how Raven was talking to him as he immobilized his head. Villano V takes home the Dumbshit of the Year Award by charging in and kicking at Raven while the guy's trying to save his brother's career.
  15. PeteF3
    These segments somehow manage to be both completely bonkers and totally one-note and samey, at the same time. Smoke, Warrior, rambling, disappearing, unconscious Disciple, Hogan freaking out, repeat.
  16. PeteF3
    Really good match but I wasn't grabbed as much by the mat portions as I have been in other RINGS matches and Tamura matches, so I don't know if I see this on a Year-end list. The standup portions, particularly after the knockdowns, were amazing, and this would be a cinch MOTYC if the matwork were as compelling.
  17. PeteF3
    Yeah, I had no inklings at all that this was a shoot. Some really beautiful mat exchanges here and some good stand-up, too.
  18. PeteF3
    Yeah, but this really seems unsolicited, because Dustin dumping Terri is like ancient history and most viewers in 1998 weren't even watching, as a look at the Raw ratings would indicate. At least Baby Doll and Liz seemed like they needed rescuing from bad situations. And Venis is *so* annoyingly one-note as a character--he's doing Triple H dick-joke shtick that we've already seen, but that's literally all he has going for him as a personality.
  19. PeteF3
    Triple Threat vs. Triple Threat at the ECW Arena. Yee-ha.
  20. PeteF3
    You knew as soon as the Lawler/Carrey bit hit the papers that they'd find a way to incorporate it into the ongoing PPW storylines. Stacy's reaction to this accusation is about as it should be. Hales then again accuses her of breaking up the marriage to Paula. But now we get intrigue--Brandon Baxter, after pretending to be in love with Stacy the past few weeks, now seems to have developed real feelings for her, and comes out to defend her from Hales. A Dangerous Liasions-esque plot twist or a set-up? We'll see in the coming weeks, I guess. Stacy gets nailed accidentally as Hales and Baxter have a pull-apart.
  21. PeteF3
    This is probably going to end up being very Yearbook-centric, but let's dive in: Current favorite wrestler to watch: Nakamura is fascinating, and has a Jumbo/Flair-esque ability to put on compelling matches with guys way under him on the totem pole. Last fun match you saw: Sting vs. Goldberg on the '98 Nitro, the night after Fall Brawl. WCW follows up its worst PPV show with one of its best-ever Nitros. The return of Flair is the big deal, but the crowd remains hot for this and Sting actually crafts a very good TV main event. A rare instance where you get to see Sting really carry a guy. Wrestler you want to see more of: Dalton Castle. See below. Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): ROH's last TV taping in Philadelphia. Not nearly as mind-numbing as syndie TV tapings in the late '80s, but man it was long. My main takeaway was, why the hell is ROH not building around Castle as their #1 guy? Before, during, and after the show he was by far the most popular person on the roster. But all they could do for him creatively is have him and his two "boys" job in a nothing 6-man tag to the Cabinet. Match you're most looking forward to watching: Nak vs. Joe, probably. More anxious to see the fallout after Takeover and who goes where with regard to the main roster. Last fun interview/promo you saw: The Rock cutting a brutal, misogynistic promo on Chyna, with the entire Nation holding her down and DX trapped in their locker room with a forklift parked in front of their door ("Get her on her knees, where she belongs!"). Rock was only a few weeks from turning babyface (temporarily) but this may have been him at his most despicable. To the point where I'm not sure I feel right calling it "fun," but it was definitely effective heat-building for the ladder match at SummerSlam '98. Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: Dave's review of Wrestling with Shadows in the 9-21-98 Observer. A strong evaluation of the movie itself, tidbits on scenes that were cut, and even some more (speculative) motivation on why Vince did what he did, as it related to WCW marketing Bret in Canada. Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: The Brawl-for-All-centric edition of Between the Sheets. Great to see a relatively even-handed evaluation of the concept and the performers in it. It was an unequivocal failure but I think there's more to the story than "LOL Russo." Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: Watching the WWF's resurgence in the spring of '98. 1997 was probably better artistically overall but from the post-Rumble Raw to KOTR or so is one of the most scorching-hot runs in company history. Even the stuff that didn't work, didn't seem to matter when the main event booking was so strong. Favorite recent post on this board: I was amused by Tatanka starting his own "You still got it" chant at a recent indy show. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): In 1998, it might be watching the rise of the Rock, who might be the best thing about WWF TV with the Austin-Vince feud probably having peaked artistically. Now...even though I admire it more than like it, probably the CWC.
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  23. PeteF3
    I was ready to be all cynical about running this match on TV for free, and thinking it was a waste to try to follow up on the Flair return with something even this monumental. But far from being burned out, this Greenville crowd seems extra-jacked and Sting guides Goldberg through a hell of a TV main event. A long time ago the WTBBP guys asked if Sting had ever carried anybody, and I've been trying to find examples in the Yearbooks since that question was asked. We have another answer tonight, and a better one than the Norton NJPW match from years ago. Sting brings out some trademark early-'90s WCW spots like the tombstone reversal, and the fakeout and counter of the Spear attempt to set up the Scorpion was great, too. We had the Last Great WCW Moment a bit ago--now I wonder if this isn't the Last Great Sting Moment. I don't like the ending or the post-match and I think this could have easily ended with Goldberg Spearing his way through a Stinger Splash, but it was mostly a satisfying match befitting these two WCW-made stars.
  24. PeteF3
    Is this the Last Great WCW moment? I suspect so--and what a moment indeed. Probably a top-5 segment for Nitro, that's not only a complete chill scene (my favorite spot among many is Ric instantly switching gears, turning off the waterworks, and re-emerging as the Nature Boy once he talks about a party in town) but works as a wrestling angle as well, making you want to keep watching and see just where this is going.
  25. PeteF3
    Man, the Big Two were just obsessed with angles playing off real-life alcoholism at this point, weren't they? I guess the best thing I can say about this is that everyone from the performers to the announcers treat this with the gravity that it deserves...or would deserve, or...God, I have a headache. The presence of Nash and Konnan even seems logical without totally shattering the fourth wall. This is certainly crass and exploitative but from a pure execution standpoint it beats your average Russo shooty-shoot angle.
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