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El-P

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Everything posted by El-P

  1. El-P
    Another great Cornette promo, but I'm getting tired of all the gimmick and stipulation matches. On the same TV show we also get to hear a promo about a "football helmet on a pole" match. Jeeez...
  2. El-P
    I don't think so. They were NWA/WCW guys through and through. The RW were huge stars for years in the NWA circuit and early on in WCW, and spent merely two years in WWF, in which they weren't used that well, ending their stint with a ridiculous puppet. Road Warriors coming back was just a homecoming. Ironically they ended up spending more time in WWF late in their career, when they were way past their prime. The Steiners's stint in WWF is barely a footnote. No big match, no big feud, after less than one year that were fed to the Quebecers and basically disappeared from sight. They were huge star in WCW in the early 90's and them coming back when they did during the MNW era was basically WCW stars making a comeback after disapearing for a few years (Japan was their second home as far as star power goes). Luger, well, he was a big name in WWF for a while, although one that just didn't work there (in every sens of the word), and by the summer of 1994 he was in a mid-card feud with Tatanka and the Million Dollar Corporation. Six montsh later he was thrown into a makeshift tag team with the British Bulldog in the nearly deceased tag division. Luger had worked on top of WCW for years and was a big deal to them and their audience from day one of his push to the day he departed, I think his comeback is another case of just a big WCW star coming back after being misused in WWF. In a way Luger showing up on Nitro feels like Shane Douglas showing up in the ECW arena in early 96 : the prodigal son has come back after WWF failed to do anything with him. The perception that WWF is the big game in town is true in most cases, but those three names really bare the NWA/WCW name on their forehead. Flair was obviously the same thing. Vince never really knew or enjoyed how to push legit stars from another company. The interesting thing is that the turnover happened after WWF really recieved a huge influx from former WCW "stars" or "would-be-stars" like Foley, Austin, Pillman, Mero, Simmons, Scorpio, Vader. Of course they wouldn't all play a major role in the turnover, of this bunch arguably only Austin & Foley did (well, Mero did too because he brought his wife), but it's interesting to see that in 1996, WWF's undercard really was invaded by a bunch of former WCW talent (lot of which had passed through ECW in a way or another). The circulation of talent is what made wrestling fun and what modified the streams of the different product, and it's really something that painfully lacks today. Okay, I'm ranting at this point.
  3. El-P
    SMW sure had a good editor, because it's a super efficient old-school wrestling video. Having real music always helps too.
  4. El-P
    Fun TV match, but I don't see how the hold work was particulary compelling. It was nice and all, but earlier on Terry Taylor and Steven Regal worked a mat-based match with simple holds (namely a whole segment around a body scissor) that was much more focused and told a better story. This was a nice match that showed that Austin was more than able to hang out with Sting. The ending was kinda cheap, and poor Brian Pillman really finds himself back into Flyn' Brian mode of Stinger's little buddy like it's 1990 all over again. Feel the frustration. Did I mentionned Col. Parker is quickly annoying on promos ?
  5. El-P
    I'd rather be Rick Martel. Retired early (although he made that brief and really good comeback which was fucked up by both of Harlem Heat's incompetence), made money in real estate, got a good life outside of wrestling. Scratch that, I'd rather be Jesse Ventura or Ray Rougeau, who retired even before getting injured (both around 35 years old), made shitloads of money and live a good life. (read : I'd rather be a smart worker who saved his money and got into other ventures early, whatever the era)
  6. El-P
    Ok, now that I have rewatched it in context, I made a 180° on it. I totally agree with Loss on the Tenryu remark, that's exactly what I thought when rewatching this, Flair basically worked a Tenryu match, going at it with stiff chops and good looking punches. The is the apex of Flair working babyface and shows pretty much what he would have been if he had worked mostly babyface during his career. That being said, I wouldn't call it a great match, although it's a slow build match that gets better as it goes, and the emotionnal post-match does a lot to carry it over the top, but I certainly wouldn't put it in the same category as any Vader vs Sting matches. But a very good to excellent match ? Yep, without a problem. The ending sucks, but the pop it gets is so great that it almost nullifies it, as at this very second Flair is the champ again, has saved his career and everything is good in the best world possible. So, all in all it's a very fine match to end a very frustrating card (cut off Rude vs Boss & Austin vs Rhodes so the Nasties could work 30 minutes, to a DQ no less), and a pretty terrible 2/3 of a year.
  7. El-P
    Holy shit what a disapointment. Just as it was getting really good, 2 straight falls and Dustin loses the title. It could have developp into an excellent match, but as it is, it's kind of a downer. Not a very good year for Dustin, although much of it is not is fault (working with Maxx Payne, a shot Rick Rude, in the shadow of his father during the Orndorff match, horrible Wargames match thanks to Harlem Heat, Shockmaster and Sid). Well, at least it was surprising, but not less of a disapointment to see the match end like that.
  8. El-P
    Really well done, serious and "real", but Flair as a family man is a hoot. Gene, as annoying as he could be sometime with the hotline, really added to the flair, no pun intended, of the WCW product. Made it feel more big time, and working with Flair just felt so right.
  9. El-P
    Great job by WCW production. Excellent video opening.
  10. El-P
    Watching Jesse Ventura's shoot interview, I'm amazed at how good Jesse comes off. Well, not that amazed, but he comes off a lot more humble and down to earth than I would have ever thought. Sure he puts himself over quite a bit, but never in an obnoxious way, and really comes of more like a very smart guy, much smarter than pretty much anyone else (which kinda explain why he did so good with himself too). I loved the part where he explains that he wouldn't hang out much with other wrestlers and stay in his room a lot, and the end result is that he's been married with the same wife, his first, for the last 37 years. Of course he's as articulate as ever so he's a great story teller. Only wish it wouldn't be RF in front of him asking questions, as he's as inept as ever (a few times during the interview Jesse talks about stuff that happened during his WWE HoF induction, and of course toward the end of the interview RF asks him : "Would you like to go to the WWE HoF ?". What a cretin.)
  11. El-P
    Say it again. Macho King was the epithome of awesome. And Queen Sherri... Should have got the belt back on him with this gimmick at some point.
  12. El-P
    I like those snowy vignettes.
  13. El-P
    I recon it's odd to see a Harris boy selling blunder shots from Cornette the same way they do from the Moondogs. Well, you can argue they suck at their job, which they do, but it's also the booking and Cornette pushing himself too much here. Anyway, I couldn't care less about those two teams. (at time SMW really looks like a proto-ECW in many ways)
  14. El-P
    Too bad it was basically a Nitro match, but a fun one. I always wished Del Ray had been pushed in single at one point, too bad he didn't last in WCW.
  15. El-P
    That is the best part of this segment. These tapes from Murdoch are so low-tech, there's something a bit seedy here...
  16. El-P
    Murdoch is insane. Not a big fan of the whole Bullet deal though, but I'm enjoying the heels he get thrown against, Funk, Sullivan, now Murdoch.
  17. El-P
    Well, I don't argue against the first part of the sentence. And he was a precursor to the HOF candidate, the infamous WCW Yetay... Wasn't that a Rick Rubin idea BTW ?
  18. El-P
    Prince Kharis : wrestling the way it used to be, and the way you like.... wait ! What ???
  19. El-P
    Substantial matches on TV is the only thing that lacks in SMW. This one is pretty cool, but it's only a backdrop for the major feuds involving, yikes, the Bruises and the Moondogs. Put those two teams together and have them crap the ring in a lame brawl and let the Bodies and R'n'R work a thousand matches together. Anyway, good match and the post-match angle with Tracey and DWB is great. That's the big positive of Cornette's booking, and that's pretty rare in wrestling sadly.
  20. El-P
    Flair is great is this setting. I love these kind of interviews because it feels legit and real. The build to Flair vs Vader was simple and excellent.
  21. El-P
    Didn't realize Bischoff already had such powers in 1993. I thought he got in charge only in 1994.
  22. El-P
    So, 100 million $ down the drain. Jeez, could I have just one, I promise I'll do a much better use than this.
  23. El-P
    What happened with Davey Boy anyway ?
  24. El-P
    Ah, Vader being Vader was great. He really had *it*, he was special.
  25. El-P
    Red hot debut for Ray Trailor. What was the situation with Davey ? Was he fired for any specific reasons ? He sure didn't last very long despite having good matches with Vader. Anyway, the whole gimmick infringement is so blatant here, what were they thinking ? Of course coming back as Big Bubba would probably wouldn't have got a superstar reaction like it did here. Bubba was off AJPW, so it's not exactly a jump from WWF to WCW, still just a few months after Gene Okerlund it's indeed quite interesting to see Bossman in WCW as a sign of things to come. The difference being that Trailor was still in his prime, as showed by this spectacular performance, an excellent TV sprint that put a fire under Rude's ass. Best Rude match of the year ? I would say so.
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