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PeteF3

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Everything posted by PeteF3

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. PeteF3
    Wrestling companies have exploited situations both real and made-up for so long that in some ways I can't blame people for being cynical about this. He wins the crowd over by the end, though, as Ol' Hacksaw always seems to do.
  5. PeteF3
    "HELLO, LEXINGTON!" Yeah, no question where the inspiration for this came from. One of the great blends of intentional and unintentional comedy in the same segment, which is a hard feat to pull off in any medium.
  6. PeteF3
    Jericho explains the meaning of the TV title, and being a TV company he feels he has its most important title. So if Phil Goldberg can have a security entourage, he should have one, too. Jericho has hired his own cameraman and security firm to give us Jerichoholics a backstage peek, and closes it out with a sickeningly goofy grin to the camera. As far as teased elevations to the upper card that won't go anywhere, this is way better than the Eddy Guerrero shit.
  7. PeteF3
    Boy, the contrast in unopposed Nitros between this and 1995 is pretty readily apparent. This whole show felt like a swing and a miss when WCW had a golden opportunity to put the screws to the WWF, having put together a bit of a ratings win streak against all odds. I don't know why I'm even trying to parse the logic of these segments but how *does* this smoke only knock out certain people at a time?
  8. PeteF3
    Eddy's cutting a promo on Bischoff but still acting like the smarmy heel he's been for a year and a half, so the result is absolutely no heat. Not that anyone should buy this as any kind of legitimate main event elevation for Eddy, either.
  9. PeteF3
    This is a noble attempt but it shows the difference between WCW and WWF production. Even if it were done more promptly, I'm still not convinced this is a feud anyone really wanted to see.
  10. PeteF3
    Yeah, there's no way Disciple's head could be pried away from Hogan's rear end for that long without somebody noticing. All the '60s Batman iconography isn't doing much for updating Warrior's image for the late '90s.
  11. PeteF3
    That may have been part of it, but the main reason is that Heat was the A-show this week due to Raw's late timeslot.
  12. PeteF3
    Yeah, I liked this, too--probably my favorite overall Snow segment as it recalls the sitdown interviews of 1997 but Al remains true to his character, with plenty of exposition for fans who don't know the deal with Avatar or Leif Cassidy. That said, yes, this is months too late and it took way too long to get from Snow's first appearance to his first real match.
  13. PeteF3
    Good table-setter of a segment. This is probably going to be a show built on teases and subtlety as it aired something like an 11:30-1:30am timeslot, so there's no sense in giving away too much.
  14. PeteF3
    This felt like May all over again--that's a good thing, in case you were wondering. Vince has a master plan for Breakdown, but he doesn't get the chance to reveal it just yet.
  15. PeteF3
    I was actually getting into the action here, and thought it was about as good as I've ever seen Lance Storm look...but that ending, Jesus. First, Dawn Marie blows her interference spot, forcing Candido to stupidly get off Storm early for no reason. Then we get Tammy small packaging Storm for the win, with Tammy being the announced winner. Joey Styles doesn't try to justify this, just loudly yelling, "WE HAVE SEEN HISTORY!" Heyman seems to have entered his 1988 Dusty Rhodes phase of just trying to throw whatever shit at the wall he can to draw a reaction. Also, someone explain to me why Candido feels the need to be aping 1991-era Rick Steiner, please.
  16. PeteF3
    Pretty tepid brawl--ten guys in that little studio plus Bruno, plus Hales in the shark cage, and then Brandon Baxter later, just feels way too cramped. Weapons shots aside this is mostly worked by guys trying not to break nails. The post-match angle where Baxter locks himself in the cage with Stacy also doesn't feel as hot as it should.
  17. PeteF3
    I'm not really sold on a cassette tape as proof, either. Stacey puts an exclamation point on this segment with a knee to Baxter's groin. I like Brandon in this role but I agree, this needs to go somewhere.
  18. PeteF3
    Yeah, you kind of wish Hales had another heel threat on his side who was capable of standing up to Lawler. I like Travis but he's played out in that regard and it's hard to buy him as a true main eventer the way you could with Dundee or Idol. Hales continues to get more and more comfortable in this role, and while it may be a bit of an ego trip to book yourself as lead heel, you can't accuse him of booking himself to be overly dominant either.
  19. PeteF3
    We continue the storyline of Bret wanting to be friends with Sting despite being a heel, and he saves Sting from Hogan using the belt, telling Hogan "you gave me your word." The argument leads to a countout and then a pull-apart back in the ring. As Hogan challenges Bret to an impromptu singles match, smoke fills the ring (after a false start or two) and the NWO lies unconscious...except Hogan, cowering in the corner. Warrior will continue to demonstrate how selective his magical powers are in the weeks to come. I get why they felt the need to turn Bret, but making him a Hogan lackey did nothing but undermine the big showdown they had planned.
  20. PeteF3
    I dunno, I actually thought JJ was being an ass and was hoping Arn would verbally put him in his place like he did Deano. Still, this is definitely an angle that served as a point of difference with the WWF and the fact that Arn just walks away and says very little serves as a progression.
  21. PeteF3
    Good photo-op but I remember Bobby Heenan absolutely eviscerating WCW for how little they really milked this compared to what they could have done...and what the WWF no doubt would have done. McGwire was the biggest American sports story in 1998...figuratively and literally.
  22. PeteF3
    In fairness to the OP, Hogan's other partner wasn't the Disciple, it was Bret Hart. Wait...that's even WORSE because it just makes Stevie Ray stand out that much more. Ray can't even be bothered to appear at ringside to surround the Warrior. What exactly *is* Bischoff's status? His "suspension" was never lifted to my knowledge but apparently he's still signing contracts and making orders.
  23. PeteF3
    They almost lose the crowd early on because they don't get Austin's matwork, which I thought was a cool wrinkle well-explained by the announcers. But...it doesn't get over. And I can't really bitch about late-'90s Attitude Era crowds only popping for catchphrases because this was a hot crowd all night who popped for all the right spots and seemed to "get" wrestling as you expect a NYC crowd might. By the end, they're back into it, and all in all you can't really say they ripped anybody off. They had the opportunity to climax with a great main event to mark this as an all-time classic PPV--instead you "just" get a good solid main event that sort of pales in comparison to other WWF title matches over the past year in terms of action, drama, and theater. It's probably not any worse than the WM14 main event but lacks that match's real-life implications and sense of a sea change in wrestling history--so in the end, WM14 remains the superior show. Still, going in this match was going to have completely suck for this not to be a lock for #2 PPV of the year and maybe #2 show of the year overall, and it didn't do that.
  24. PeteF3
    A breakout match for both guys for sure. It's not as good as the Shawn-Razor series but it's a hell of a match in its own right. On the worse side, the pre-ladder action isn't that great, but it benefits from the looser restrictions, which means we get a lot more hatred and violence and blood than the previous ladder matches were allowed to show. There was some pretty ridiculously slow ladder-climbing, though as the match went on I thought they were able to cover for it fairly well with Triple H's (rather legit) bad knee and Rock not being able to see for the blood in his eyes. Outside of WM14, almost all WWF PPVs for the past 2 years had been characterized by weak undercards and saved by a strong main event--this definitely feels like one of the rare complete shows from the time period, with good stuff up and down the card.
  25. PeteF3
    Yeah, the Outlaws really can't bring the goods in the ring to back up their entrance--this match proves it, though Foley does his damnedest to try to make something out of it and get sympathy on himself by being absolutely brutalized. It's just that the NAO can't really sustain a compelling control segment. JR does a really good job of trying not to heel the Outlaws too much by pointing out that this match is the fault of McMahon and Kane, not them, but Gunn's post-match promo sort of ruins that. Kane appears in the Dumpster and brings a sledgehammer down, presumably on Mick's head, as JR loses it.
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