soup23

This was worth the wait for me. Buzz starts out going after the hand and in a great move Rich gets a glimpse of offense in using his leg. Buzz remains on the attack and Rich is bloodied three minutes in. He really is a bloody mess and only gets some offense in on a low blow. The cage gets introduced and the blood continues to pour as this match reaches that visceral level where you can feel the hatred of both men. Tremendous punches are shown by Rich. Buzz is presented as a great heel that is resourceful and able to capitalize even when overwhelmed. His piledrivers were tremendous and utilized to allow him to take advantage. Rich's head is a complete reddish hue halfway through the match. Buzz misses a big elbow drop and the crowd comes alive. Rich cant get up and is fighting laying down with kicks and the punches on the ground showing both the fatigue of the beating and the fighting nature of Wildfire. A great exchange happens with both men just waylaying into each other with stiff shots that Rich takes the advantage on. Rich then bites Buzz. Rich misses a fist drop from the top rope and the damage that was worked on in the onset by Buzz on the fist and arm is worse now. Buzz misses a wild splash into the corner to a huge pop. Rich's selling off the blood loss is next level with him wobbling after performing each move. Rich sends Buzz wobbly into the cage and is able to cover him to pick up the win. Buzz is a complete bloody mess as well and has to be consoled by Ellering after the match. Finish may be slightly anticlimactic but strike exchange leading up to it with both bloody is something to behold and even at 12 minutes, this felt like the perfect length. I compare it to something like Necro vs. Joe. ***** As an added bonus we get Ole going after Ellering and get the main event of the show. Ole is in his jeans and boots and rips them going after Paul. Paul had a bandage in the hype for this show and that gets opened up and the blood is flowing again. The match is all Ole on offense until Paul gets an inverted atomic drop. Ole gets sent into the cage and is cut open along with everyone else. Crowd rallies around Ole now that he is in peril. Ole makes his comeback with his clubbering forearms and we get a good strike exchange before Ole just tackles Paul down. Ole sends Paul head first into the cage and then hits a stomp off the middle rope. In a surprise, Paul reverses the tide again sending Ole head first into the cage. Ole fires back and we get another great strike exchange with Ole getting the knockout blow and winning. Closing angle finishes with Jake Roberts coming and whipping Ole with his belt and leaving him a bloody mess in the cage. This portion is really fun but it also shows the difference in intensity that we just watched with Buzz and Rich and the fact that in Georgia at this moment, Rich had more heat with the crowd than anyone including Ole. This felt like a way to shoe horn Ole in as the closing moment of the night.

This was worth the wait for me. Buzz starts out going after the hand and in a great move Rich gets a glimpse of offense in using his leg. Buzz remains on the attack and Rich is bloodied three minutes in. He really is a bloody mess and only gets some offense in on a low blow. The cage gets introduced and the blood continues to pour as this match reaches that visceral level where you can feel the hatred of both men. Tremendous punches are shown by Rich. Buzz is presented as a great heel that is resourceful and able to capitalize even when overwhelmed. His piledrivers were tremendous and utilized to allow him to take advantage. Rich's head is a complete reddish hue halfway through the match. Buzz misses a big elbow drop and the crowd comes alive. Rich cant get up and is fighting laying down with kicks and the punches on the ground showing both the fatigue of the beating and the fighting nature of Wildfire. A great exchange happens with both men just waylaying into each other with stiff shots that Rich takes the advantage on. Rich then bites Buzz. Rich misses a fist drop from the top rope and the damage that was worked on in the onset by Buzz on the fist and arm is worse now. Buzz misses a wild splash into the corner to a huge pop. Rich's selling off the blood loss is next level with him wobbling after performing each move. Rich sends Buzz wobbly into the cage and is able to cover him to pick up the win. Buzz is a complete bloody mess as well and has to be consoled by Ellering after the match. Finish may be slightly anticlimactic but strike exchange leading up to it with both bloody is something to behold and even at 12 minutes, this felt like the perfect length. I compare it to something like Necro vs. Joe. ***** As an added bonus we get Ole going after Ellering and get the main event of the show. Ole is in his jeans and boots and rips them going after Paul. Paul had a bandage in the hype for this show and that gets opened up and the blood is flowing again. The match is all Ole on offense until Paul gets an inverted atomic drop. Ole gets sent into the cage and is cut open along with everyone else. Crowd rallies around Ole now that he is in peril. Ole makes his comeback with his clubbering forearms and we get a good strike exchange before Ole just tackles Paul down. Ole sends Paul head first into the cage and then hits a stomp off the middle rope. In a surprise, Paul reverses the tide again sending Ole head first into the cage. Ole fires back and we get another great strike exchange with Ole getting the knockout blow and winning. Closing angle finishes with Jake Roberts coming and whipping Ole with his belt and leaving him a bloody mess in the cage. This portion is really fun but it also shows the difference in intensity that we just watched with Buzz and Rich and the fact that in Georgia at this moment, Rich had more heat with the crowd than anyone including Ole. This felt like a way to shoe horn Ole in as the closing moment of the night.

Where did you go on Scurll vs. Hero from REv Pro?

Impressive run going 59 shows without having a portion being cut

PIllman was more than likely a casualty of not really being involved in the Dangerous Alliance feud all that much besides ancillary contact. That combined with me watching the Rude vs. Pillman match for the tv special and liking it but not thinking it was anything special dropped him bit in my eyes. Still a really strong year but 1992 WCW is stacked with good performances. I would have had him above someone like Bobby Eaton for me.

This was a straight up war of attrition. The thing that I really appreciated about this was that the ending brawling sequence in the gravel pit was just as heated and intensified as the first exchange. Terry really sold the pain level he was willing to fight through to dish out punishment. It was an amazing display on his part and really made this match have a gripping feeling of escalation unlike many other matches I have seen. ****1/2

This started out really strong. I wish this had the close up camera work as some of the shots looked brutal and intense. I did think this progressivly petered out towards the end but the final submission that Terry locked in looked really good. Finish was anticlimatic and felt forced but otherwise another strong Terry performance and I really liked what I saw from Aero Boy here. ***1/2

This and the Wotan match are a great 1-2 punch. This mixes in more wrestling and submissions but also featured some great out of control brawling and super stiff strikes in between the holds. Terry brings a good overarching story working on the leg/thigh area of Cavernario and I also thought for a predictable non finish type, the ball shot exchange was a fun way to show these guys still were going for it at the conclusion. ****

Simmons vs. Vader is probably something we should have checked out. We just run up against the grind of too many matches and even here we left 3-4 on the floor that looked interesting like Muta vs. Armstrong 2/3 falls.

META comment from the board in the past week or so.

Like the way you weaseled out Graham in going with Orndorff. I would look to see where Raven, Cactus, Sabu are at around this time as I think there could be some fun stuff with those characters interacting with Watts and Co.

Enjoy Jack Brisco giving Von Kramer the business.

Are any of the upcoming ECW talent guys available to pick up? Still feels like these shows are more suited for 1985 than 1991. I know you can rebirth characters like Backlund in 1994 WWF but with him, Uncle Ivan, JYD, Valentine, etc all having pretty big roles, you are going to have to basically revive all these guys to make them seem relevant.

You signed Bellomo again???? Please be rid of these Titans WWF guys.

Glad this dime store imitation of Vince Sr. got canned. Sorry Parv but the "wrestler of the century" pattern seems really grasping at the aging fans of the Carolina's and the wrestling domestic market was already shrinking in 1991-1992 for the lack of creation of a new batch of stars. Sting possibly could have came out looking stronger or it could have appeared he went on a rampage through the nursing home.

Love the list Mick. Great year for high end stuff.

We want Frey! We Want Frey!

That would be an upper mid-card match in Kikuchi's hometown. Kawada got heat in his All Asia matches in 1988 and 1989. Look up when he got his first TC title challenge. Or look at the spunky heat Mutoh got in the Summer Night Fever match in 1987. He didn't get an IWGP Title match until *1992*. Grant, he was in the US for a chunk of that time. But he started his second run with the IWGP Tag title in April 1990, had that great heat in the title change in November of that year, had the great heat against Vader and Chono the following August... and still had to wait until May 1992 to get his first title shot. And Mutoh was a much bigger star in 1990-92 than Kobashi was. I think people are projecting where Kobashi was in May 1992. He was here: Jumbo Hansen Misawa Gordy Williams Kawada Taue Kobashi He was 8th in the company. He was 3rd on his own *team*. His lead partner (Misawa) had all of 3 challenges by that point in the 4 years the title existed. Misawa lead partner (Kawada) just got his first challenge the prior October. Taue hadn't gotten his first challenge year, and he was Jumbo's lead partner. All Japan's business was hot in 1992-94 as it had been in 1990-91. They would just start the Misawa-Kawada rivalry for the TC later that year at the Anniversary Show, at a point when those two hadn't even broken up their team. Misawa-Kawada was hot through 1994, and didn't really get played out until the end of the following year. At that point Kobashi was already pushed up into the TC mix, and was effectively #4 in the promotion as Hansen was moved off to the side, Gordy OD'd and Williams had the Narita Nightmare. I think you are severely undercutting how hot Kobashi was with the crowd in 1992 from quite frankly people that have watched the footage more recently. People have gotten nice reactions and good heat throughout history. There are very few crowds with the poise and electricity of Kobashi in that 1992 match. Onto Muto, you yourself talk about how much time he spent in the US and there is also the G-1 Climax run in 1991 where he is clearly positioned as one of the signature men in the promotion.

Yep me, him, and Meltzer are three peas in a pod.

Well I am throwing a lot of love at Cena vs. AJ and the main event. Guess I am in the minority around here.

He challenged for the Triple Crown in September of 1994. That is 2.5 years after the nuclear heat that is seen in the 5/25/92 tag. That is a good bit of patience all for a Triple Crown challenge against a rival making his first defense. What is a point of comparison for someone else that over that had to wait that long for a shot?

That trios was so much fun. Perro and Satanico is my dream tag team becuase of how well they compliment each other but both provide a different vibe.

Hogan-Sid 92 Luger 93 Rocky Maivia Shawn-Sid 96 If a dog begs for a bone and I give him a bone and then he loves me for it, and then tomorrow the same thing happens, is it mastery? Hogan/Sid 92 is an interesting thing. I am not sure if Hogan was refusing to refine his role at all or if Vince should have strong armed more. Still, it was a pretty isolated moment with huge backlash that happened at the Rumble 92. This is why I negate the Sid vs. Shawn match as well. Look, SID has something that elicits cheers at certain points. People realize how foolish they are so they quickly move away from it but it is there. Luger in 93 is a good example and Diesel I guess in 95 although he was pretty stubborn with that one giving him a year long reign. I actually think Vince could be broken into two rankings from the 90's as I see his back half as a 9 or so and the front half in the 7 range.

The Heyman rankings are fascinating: Mastery over crowd: 6 I would bump this up. Heyman knew which legends could come in and create the desired reaction he was garnering in his universe. Really besides the over-reliance of Justin Credible in the latter years, I can't think of an ECW competitior that Heyman really missed on in getting the desired reaction. In his universe, he was able to sell his fans that RVD, Sabu, Sandman, Raven, Dreamer, Taz were the perennial underdogs that could just as easily be going against Mr. McMahon and tackling the NWO. Innovation: 9 This feels a bit high but is close to where I would rank it. Going through the 90's yearbooks, there was a lot of promotions that were running garbage style brawls around the time period Heyman gained control of ECW. Sabu was already a known entity working this type of style. I feel like much like ROH just being the central hub for this trend in wrestling, ECW provided the same harbor. Angles: 8 This feels spot on. Heyman is strong in this area and the ECW angles that are memorable are still as relevant when thinking about angles from the time period 20 years after the fact. Quality of Cards: 3 As much as I really hate ECW as a style, this probably could be bumped up slightly. The major cards that ECW offered were mostly met with praise in the current period. The fan cams we have seen show a really good mix of undercard wrestling with garbage brawls up top. Finances: 3 Too high. Paul finances is an embarrassing situation from his reliance on Vince funding to asking talent to float him money. I sincerely feel that there is no reason ECW couldn't evolve in an indy promotion with garbage on top and been successful in the 2000's if there was a more sound financial backing within the braintrust. Talent spotting / New stars: 8 Heyman gave opportunity to those that haven't had much before. Yet, I do think in the 2000-2001 area, he really missed the boat on bringing in a lot of talent that was just dying to break out. Hard to imagine some of the ECW stuff in 2000 when there was a reserve of guys that were really big deals just 1-2 years later.

Interested in the ranking of Vince from the 90's in mastery over crowd. Besides the Austin rise (which they gave him an avenue at first to do due to the curtain call) and the Rocky heel turn to the Nation, I felt they generally got the reaction they set out to achieve.