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PeteF3

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  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. PeteF3
    Warrior rambles some more but this is at least punchier and quicker than his other promos. But not any less stupid, as Disciple has to feign unconsciousness while also kneeling.
  6. PeteF3
    A good match given time, but definitely uneven--the middle part drags because Kidman still isn't really a ring general and there's too much time doing nothing in-between highspots. That said, the pop for the title change (and some of the near-falls before that) is huge and Kidman seems like a good, fresh young face to build a Cruiserweight division around now that most of the old guard are working as heavies and actively refusing to compete for the title anymore. And while he spaces out his moves a little too much, I do like how good Kidman's basic offense--the elbow drops, leg drops, and suplexes--looks. He still wrestles like a product of his time rather than an indy ROHbot of today.
  7. PeteF3
    I liked how Saturn builds up every other guy in the Flock, except Lodi who just gets a "good luck."
  8. PeteF3
    Well, WWE has gotten marginally better at this since Chad's post, but probably not by enough. As for this, there have been better show-closing clusterfucks and I'm not sure Austin is fully recovered yet from SummerSlam. The mini-alliance between Rock and Mankind is an interesting development setting up a neat payoff to come.
  9. PeteF3
    I swear even in this brief clip, Regal looks out of it. I like the gimmick in a vacuum but it may have been better served for a guy who couldn't wrestle that well.
  10. PeteF3
    Venis really does come off as a douchebag for '90s dudebros. I have no problem with Terri getting revenge on Dustin for what he did last November, a narrative that Jim Ross at least briefly attempted to pay lip service to, but El-P explains why the angle isn't going to age well at all. I have one other problem: even though I'm predisposed to dislike Venis' character for multiple reasons, Dustin is actually *too* good of an actor. He sells anguish so well that I can't help but view him as the babyface and Venis as a sadistic heel, whether that was the intention or not.
  11. PeteF3
    Rock picks up a huge win over Kane, with some help from Mankind. Yeah, Rock has arrived as a top guy. Even in 1998, wins and losses mattered. Mankind reveals that he lucked out at SummerSlam in two ways: he partially blocked the sledgehammer blow with his hand, and he didn't look all that good to begin with. He accepts Undertaker's challenge, and reveals he's developed some more scientific skills and is looking forward to a fair fight. He demonstrates said scientific skills by taking his sledgehammer to some trash cans.
  12. PeteF3
    I'm amused by Roland Alexander speculating on how he could make APW bigger than it is...if he felt like it. I would love to see more of Vince critiquing actual matches. I'm with Jim Ross in "admiring the effort." I don't really see either guy as WWF material, at least not in the late '90s. Modest may have come 20 years too early.
  13. PeteF3
    ...and Terry because of his bilingualness(?) was tasked with teaching Taka Michinoku to speak English when they were together in the WWF.
  14. PeteF3
    I mean, Stan Hansen on the rare occasions he was asked to speak on AJPW television in the '90s, spoke in English with subtitles. So did the Funks even though they're definitely fluent in Japanese. If I were a pro athlete I doubt I'd trust the media as far as I could throw them, whether I spoke the home language or not.
  15. PeteF3
    Grisham *is* kind of a clueless asshole, though.
  16. PeteF3
    http://members.f4wonline.com/august-24-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-warrior-makes-wcw-debut-wo-hof-96876 I presume this is the missing Observer Kris was referring to. On the website, just missing a link in the Archives.
  17. PeteF3
    Laughably bad action--I thought about firing up this match in full to see if it's truly a WMOTYC but I think we have enough here to determine that it is. Hogan is a total idiot here, as the dumbass rules are that you can win by pinfall even before everyone has entered in the cage--with a title shot on the line, why is this not just a 9-man battle royal in a WarGames cage? Anyway, everyone's out and Hogan has rendered Kevin Nash dead, but he doesn't cover because he has to wait for Warrior to make his entrance. There are about 370 other things wrong with what we see, from the blown finish to the inexplicable sudden presence of security, to...whatever. This show's reputation as one of the worst PPVs ever is well-deserved.
  18. PeteF3
    This is a tale of two matches, as the stuff before the gaga is really, *really* dull and heatless. It's easy to complain about Raven's matches being way overbooked, but you watch the work here and you can see why it had to be done. I'm about ready to write this off as an overrated mess that people only liked because it sucked less than the rest of this card, but then we get a rather masterfully constructed spot where Kidman is about to drop the shooting star press on Saturn, only to level Raven with a dropkick for a monster pop. Saturn follows up with the DVD, but Lodi distracts the ref just long enough for Raven to kick out. We go through myriad false finishes and twists and turns and it's all frankly quite overdone, but it *works.* The crowd gets louder and louder with every kickout and even cynical old me is guessing and wondering what's going to happen next. I really can't name many matches that started off this badly and then got this good.
  19. PeteF3
    Ridiculous that this didn't lead to anywhere, even a one-off. It didn't even lead to Jericho feuding with any *other* top star, which would have been a boon. Jericho may have been able to make something watchable out of a program with, say, Luger, or Piper.
  20. PeteF3
    I like how Okerlund doesn't oversell this, not really believing Jericho but still sort of taking him at his word.
  21. PeteF3
    Snow will probably never be as over in the WWF as he is at this moment. He actually controls the crowd well for most of this, though the Stooge Is Right doesn't quite work. We do get a semblance of a payoff as he whacks Patterson in the family jewels with Head. Still kind of ridiculous in the era of Crash TV that this guy has been asking for a meeting and asking for reinstatement for 3 months.
  22. PeteF3
    Clearly they have bigger plans for the Rock, as he calls out Undertaker and Kane for attacking him last week.
  23. PeteF3
    I don't know if I'd put this up there as one of the great Triple Crown psychological masterpieces--this was basically a war of attrition, two big studs trading chops and a few bombs with one (Kobashi) outlasting the other. It's a very good Kobashi-as-"ace" match, though, weathering a flurry of offense from Taue but still coming off as a top guy in doing so. Against all odds, AJPW is turning out to have quite an enjoyable 1998 and I hope we can close out with a strong Tag League. It wouldn't last, but pieces seem to be moving to freshen the company's direction a bit...and one major piece is still to come.
  24. PeteF3
    This was great--it took me back to years ago when I tried to make my way through all of Dan Ginnetty's AJPW season sets of the early '90s and seeing all these awesome forgotten mid-card matches that got time to breathe in the 1-hour AJPW timeslot. But I also liked it for all the reasons Loss mentioned--Ogawa stands out precisely because he's not on the level of the other top AJPW guys and he wrestles like it, with a tinge of guts, desperation, and a willingness to do anything to get an edge. I always think of him as a perpetual rookie, even though he was actually a 12-year pro by this point. I also liked how two big turning points came on guys borrowing moves from their respective new partners: Ogawa busts out a tiger driver and Akiyama turns the tide later on with a Kobashi double arm DDT. I don't feel like it can be a true MOTY contender, but who knows--but I did enjoy it as much as any other 1998 All-Japan match, and it deserves an extra snowflake just for Ogawa getting one over on Jun and stopping to point at his own head, as though he'd stepped out of the Budokan and into the Mid-South Coliseum.
  25. PeteF3
    Hey, what do you know...WCW just decided to prove my point in the Duggan thread for me. Let's piggyback of a real and emotional cancer diagnosis announcement with a phony neck injury angle. Okay, that bit of cynicism aside I have one more major gripe with this angle: NO ONE IS CLUED IN THAT "LEFT-HANDED" MEANS ARN'S BAD ARM. We have to figure it out for ourselves because Schiavone, Heenan, Marshall, Bischoff, and even Arn himself all have simultaneous brain farts and fail to get that part of the stipulation over, when that should have been a major plot point to plant doubt in the fans' minds as to if Arn can win or not. Okay, enough negativity: everything else about this was terrific, especially Bischoff, who is back to playing a cocky little prick but not drowning in ego, either. That it plays on real-life events and emotions and plays on the feelings of many, many WCW viewers is icing on the cake.
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