PhilTLL

It's in my signature. I tweet about random annoyances, TV, sports, political/economic/social bullshit, and once in a great long while, wrestling. I promise you'll be disappointed! If you're not reading signatures, it's @PhilNotPhil.

Dean Ambrose's terrible wannabe tope.

One of my absolute favorite things about Valentine is that he steps into dropkicks with his chest, and if you don't hit him, he won't sell it. I'm looking at you, Tom Zenk.

Sting vs Chris Sullivan, WCW Pro 3/14?/92: This aired on every show this week, but was always credited to Pro. Ross on commentary. Very quick squash sets up the first proper angle between Vader and Sting, as Vader tries to jump Sting but Sting gets the jump on him instead. Unfortunately, Vader no-sells the Splash and tosses Randy Anderson 10 feet. Then Vader no-sells a chair shot, looks Sting right in the eye as he catches his top rope cross body into a power slam, and splashes him. Sting valiantly and painfully stands up, and gets a chair shot and second rope splash for his effort. The top 4 faces plus Bagwell and Zenk come out to stare at Vader in awe and haul a *completely* limp Sting out. Great segment. This sets up the first bunch of Sting/Vader house show matches, which apparently ran most of April until Vader broke Sting's ribs and he missed most of May.

In addition to these two, there's also a less frequently shown Zbyszko one where he references cancer, sterility, and tendon-off-the-bone injuries, and eventually turns it into a promo. "Don't be a jerk or you'll never be at the top of your sport for 17 glorious years." And a Freebirds one where they talk about doing crazy things, but not stupid things, like standing in front of a train, or steroids. I guess cocaine and whiskey are crazy but not stupid.

This one is new, the one on the set is mislabeled. That one is actually the rematch on 7/26, which is also on Classics.

The actual (only?) worst thing continues to be the wacky "stereo" audio.

Both of these, please & thanks. It is absolutely criminal that Howard Finkel is only 65, still employed by WWE, still has the voice, and doesn't announce matches at least once a year.

As a kid it was a natural companion to my sports obsession, then as soon as I clued into the work I became fascinated with how the work is accomplished--bumping, cooperation, selling, structure, timing, facials, character work, etc. And I still love watching an actual match, all the movez~~ and worked striking and brutal spots that can still make me gasp. And all the bravado, lifelong absorption of which has made me one of the snappiest dudes in my postal area code. And all the drama. And...

One thing I never noticed about this show before is that all the heat is coming from parts of the audience you can't see. In other words, everyone in view of the hard camera is a stone-faced asshole. There's a big guy in a brown sweater and newsboy cap who I would reach back in time to punch if I could. But no matter, this match and two thirds of this show will always sit well with me.

Ricky Steamboat vs Cactus Jack, Worldwide 2/22/92: If you like high concept and body part work, and really who doesn't, this is a fun little time. Paul E. is out so he and Schiavone can work overtime to get over the story. Cactus is there under pay of the DA to work Steamboat's neck, so that's literally all he does, not even attempting pins. I wonder if they had Paul cut a promo to explain this to the live crowd. Cactus sneaks under the ring to jump Steamboat, which is neat, and from there the neck work is good: tons of kicks and punches, a little guardrail stuff, some apron stuff, elbow knee and leg drops, a long bit of choking with Steamboat's black belt. Steamboat's selling is obviously great. Steamboat makes multiple fiery comebacks, which Tony and Paul dispute the meaning of, and nearly chokes out Cactus with the black belt. Weird finish with a reversed pin and over the top rope DQ win for Steamboat. **, C Rick Rude vs PN News, Main Event 2/23/92: Was Rude *this* good in 1992? On the rare occasion I haven't fast forwarded PN News, I've had to admit he is not quite as bad as El Gigante. Coincidentally, they're now teaming here and there, killing two birds with one stone on the fast forwarding and giving us Gigante trying to dance. At least Gigante was good-humored about his character. I WANT DA BELT!! Anyway. Will this be News' career match? Rude jumps him during his extra shitty rap (he has to fit in "Ravishing Rick Rude and that doesn't go well) and we go directly to the chin lock. News powers him up and into the buckle. Scoop slam. Corner charge. He's going for his fat splash already! He obviously misses and we get the Rude Awakening for the 1:00 finish. False start on the proving anything about anybody here, but now I've already written all this... Anderson/Eaton vs. Windham/Simmons, same episode: Decent action here, but I'm mentioning it for two things. Early on, Arn shouts across the ring and signals to Simmons that he should shine his shoes, which of course makes me do this :-| in 2015 and makes Schiavone uncomfortable enough that he only refers to it as Arn "making those suggestions" when he bravely asks for a handshake moments later. Unfortunately, rather than unleashing righteous rage, Simmons immediately tags out. What he does do is a pretty good FIP selling the left arm. (First and a half notable thing: This match airs during the two on-screen week reign of Simmons as a US tag champ, but of course without his title partner or the belt.) The other thing is that this is a classic appearance of the "pinning a non-participant" finish, and what a cluster it is. Windham apparently pins Eaton with a flying lariat--Arn not interfering, Bobby not kicking out, and Nick Patrick counting 3. A moment too late Zbyszko hits the ring, which has been teased the whole match by Paul screaming "CRUNCHER!!" into his phone, but unfortunately he's followed by Dustin Rhodes. A brawl breaks out until Dustin whips Zbyszko into a Windham lariat, and Patrick counts the Windham on Zbyszko pin. Schiavone takes pains to explain referee discretion to us.

This really is a cut above the numerous DA tags and six-mans that have already occurred. The transition of Dustin's headscissor takedown into him getting tossed over the top is beautifully timed and executed. Taylor is a welcome addition on commentary.

Ah yes, a finish that will forever remind us of (married) Mick Foley's creepy, neckbeardy real-life crush on Melina.

WCW is cranking out good to great sub-10:00 matches on a regular basis in this period. Fantastic detail work here. The only thing I like more than a move resulting in visible damage to the attacker's bad limb is when the attacker is smart enough to use the good limb next time, like Rude's gut knees.

That's terrific. Hayes always seemed like a guy who could talk literally nonstop if he had to. "Well you know Big Josh, coming up Sunday March 1st at 3 PM in the UIC Pavilion, we're gonna beat up Mr. Hughes and Vinnie Vegas--Vinnie Vegas? Man, that sounds like something out of Las Vegas!" - Ron Simmons is less than revelatory, WCW Pro Chicago 2/8/92. The card actually sounds great, topped by Sting/Rude in a cage, Abby vs Cactus (which naturally didn't happen), Windham vs Zbyszko "one fall death match," and Rhodes/Steiners vs Eaton/Arn/Austin elimination match. Zbyszko gets political on Todd Champion, Worldwide 2/15/92: "Let me tell you something about Chumpion. This kid is a victim. Chumpion, you are being used by the Dangerous Alliance as just another example that the DA mean exactly what we say. This kid is suffering from delusions of grandeur. He thinks he's still a Desert Storm fighter, he thinks he still a hero reverend by the people of America. Jerk, nobody cares because they don't have any jobs! You think they care about you? You're gonna find out how much they care about you when the Cruncher is rubbing your face from one corner of that mat to the other! Son, I've forgotten more wrestling moves than you're ever going to know running around the desert eating some kind of a sand bug. Because you, punk, are in the ring with the heaviest member of the DA! The top thug of an extremely Dangerous Alliance! Jerk." Their match is surprisingly watchable and easily gets the Full Worldwide Point.

Sting vs Big Van Vader, Worldwide 2/8/92: I believe this is the first televised Sting/Vader match. Schiavone questions Sting's crazy bravery for taking the match--obviously Vader is there to soften up Sting for Luger, but why would Sting even do this? Vader slaps Sting twice and jaws with him to start. Vader wins the power battle and floors Sting with the corner punches. But Sting punches back and hits an early Stinger Splash! A clothesline, Vader is down, and he bails! Sting is all over him but gets distracted by Harley just long enough for his running charge to turn into a STUN GUN ON THE RAIL! Jesus. Short arm clothesline to the concrete by Vader. Sting is already staggering. Side suplex. Vader misses a whip clothesline, but hits the second chance so hard that Randy Anderson is checking for a knockout! Sunset flip attempt only gets the big butt splash and Anderson is checking again. Two big elbow drops. Beautiful selling from Sting here. Running bell ringer splash staggers him out of the corner, he eats a scoop powerslam and running splash, and he is DONE. Kickout gets a huge pop! Stiff punches and knee to the ribs by Vader. Whip reversal! Sting tries for the scoop slam but is too weak, but flips to escape a vertical suplex attempt and gets his own side suplex! Now the scoop slam. Top rope splash for 2! Missile dropkick and Vader is outside again! They tussle for awhile until Vader eats post on a bell ringer attempt for the count out in about 6:30. Race attacks Sting and gets the splash and Scorpion until Sting sees Vader coming around and planchas him. Really fun sprint, a sign of things to come, and a nice little moment in history. They really do fit together right away. ***1/4, B/B+ On a side note, around this time WCW is showing packages in which Sting and Luger beat Sid and Flair in flashbacks. Ha. (And, in the SuperBrawl pre show, the Steiners going over LOD and the Nasties.)

For the record, this was shot 1/7/92 and originally aired on Worldwide the weekend of 1/18, during which the 1/16 title change was just then being announced on the TBS shows.

I really love how Steamboat spends the first few minutes mostly on the ramp doing feature spots due to the too-specific over the top rule, and Schiavone tries to analyze it as a good strategy. Morton puts Liger into ring 2, then follows him into it for a somewhat contrived but enjoyable feature segment and then a mutual elimination. Does that match exist? We shall see. Actually, multiple guys just wander over and the director misses multiple eliminations. Luger and Vader! Harley throws his hands up as if to hail the clash. Luger gets Vader with a clothesline! Hot damn. The Arn, Dustin, Hughes, Simmons elimination sequence is pretty neat. Totally a mystery why the multiple angle stuff doesn't appear until the final four rather than in the beginning, when it would have been useful. The end is good work, but an unfortunate reminder that Sting is booked in two programs at once since the Clash. Hey, wait, JR literally says that in the wrapup. The show was okay but a total waste of a Starrcade and much less memorable than the Clash before it.

The next week on WCW, the Pistols beat the Patriots in a 2 out of 3 falls match. The Patriots are broken up for 60 days, nominally on TBS but practically on all shows, to inflict their horrors on the singles scene. Yay.

First in a series of 100. Austin gives Steamboat the respect he deserves. The faceoffs feel important in hindsight/cognitive bias. Austin is growing every week in this period, working with bunches of decent to excellent workers but rarely winning clean. The epic headlock sequence could be in a training video. Austin moved into the back work so naturally I'm surprised he picked the sleeper for the rest/submission spot and not something more appropriate. Steamboat is excellent throughout here, continuing his MVP level run since his return. Fake finish and real finish are a bit messy but plenty of good stuff here.

From the work at home files, John Cena is cohosting the third hour of Today. Nobody else on the roster is even capable of that in terms of name recognition and personality.

The Canadian vs Mando Guerrero, steel cage match, Olympic Auditorium 11/30/77: Piper is okay when feeding and selling for Mando, but actively bad for the most part on offense here. His execution is very weak and his brawling rarely rises above okay. Finish comes at about 9:00 when Piper goes face first to the steel on a cross body attempt and Mando pins him with a top rope Thesz press, then exits over the top for the win. Afterwards someone who I think is Black Gordman tries to attack Mando, but they go back up the cage wall together and Mando beats them both in the cage for awhile longer. *1/2 Roddy Piper vs Chavo Guerrero, 2/22/78: Piper is back in LA without the mask. We get a nice promo on Hector, as Roddy points out he's fought Hector's brothers, father, and mother, and plainly rips off the "laughing and joking" line from Dusty, subbing in "smoking and poking" for the 2nd part. Piper is accompanied by Hiro Ota. Piper tries to play the bagpipes but Chavo stops him--surprisingly no bagpipe destruction. Piper looks much better as himself, stalking Chavo and popping him with headlock punches, elbows, and knees to the face to start. He has also learned the art of the staggering sell. Chavo heads outside and Ota tries to nail him, but that just stokes Chavo's ire and he tosses Ota in...where Piper immediately bails and assigns Ota the match! Ota is wrestling in jeans and a t shirt. Chavo beats him down but we get camera shots of a load in Piper's hand. It's powder that he hands to Ota, but Ota hits the ref instead. Piper goes to Plan B and starts wailing on Chavo with a bagpipe pipe! They quickly get him in 2 on 1 and Piper really goes to town, nailing him over and over in the face, throat, and torso. He counts a fake pin for Ota, and eventually a new ref comes in, gets tossed by Piper, watches Piper beat Chavo with the pipe some more...and then counts the pin for him. I guess this was no DQ all along? Hector hits the ring! Piper gets him down with the pipe, but he's too fresh, and quickly wrestles the pipe away. Hector absolutely smashes Piper a few times in the face, and he blades quick and hard, then takes a crazy back drop over the top! Hector su grito de guerra! He beats Piper into the seats and the chapter ends. ***1/4 for the whole thing. All the commentary on these was in Spanish.

I usually have one or two "projects" going to keep me from choice inertia, interrupted frequently by newly acquired or aired stuff, tips from here, or nostalgia rewatch. I work at home and my job has a lot of "hurry up and wait," so I frequently switch between background noise (MLB Network, this time of year) and wrestling. I don't have a wife or kids or anything worthy like that to occupy my time.

I would really love to see the full version of this and the 45:00 TLD of Steamboat/Rhodes-Arn/Eaton that they show the last 4:00 of. Someday, someday, maybe. Agree that Sting looks great here.

It really is weird that the Network has crazy high bitrates for video, even SD, but all the audio is a piddling 96kbps.