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Beast

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Everything posted by Beast

  1. Beast
    Not as good as the Daniels-Dragon opener, but still better than anything else not involving these two for these opening RoH shows. Same sort of deal as the prior match, Low Ki runs wild, Daniels slows it down and works on the neck, Ki makes a comeback, the end. Diminishing returns trying the same story again and other than Low Ki using the same crossface early on that Daniels beat Dragon with, there wasn't really any followup or evidence Ki had taken note of Daniels-Dragon. I did like how Ki won with a submission, showing that each of these guys can win either way. To me, Daniels comes out of these matches looking the most impressive. He defeated Dragon clean, then more than held his own against Low Ki even with it being his second match of the night. Weird booking here as I know they probably saw Dragon-Ki as the big match of these 3, but why have the token heel wrestle his second match against the fresh superstar? Seems obvious that Dragon will win (with the Cattle Mutilation) in the main ensuring each guy wins 1 match, but maybe I'll be surprised.
  2. Beast
    This was great. I wasn't completely into it at first as I assumed Dragon was obviously winning to set up a winner take all match vs Low Ki in the main event. After the feeling out process, Daniels breaks the momentum with a back suplex and starts focusing on Dragon's neck. Daniels was vicious, hitting all manner of suplexes and neck holds, with Dragon hitting some nicely timed hope spots throughout. The finish was built up perfectly with Dragon unable to lock in the Cattle Mutilation due to the neck damage. When Daniels hit the piledriver, I was beside myself wondering how in the hell would it come off believable for Dragon to come back from that. And he didn't! Crossface by Daniels and Dragon tapped! The announcers were immediately better than the first show, building up Daniels' focus of the neck, talking about how it'll help his finisher while also commenting that Dragon never taps. Daniels's decade of extra experience paid off. Dragon was having a respect-driven match, putting on holds, playing clean. Daniels took advantage, damaging the neck, and Dragon was never able to respond with the same level of self-assuredness and string together enough moves to keep the control. After a 1st show main event where Daniels was the designated whipping boy, this match alone rehabbed him for the new RoH audience. Exceeded my expectations.
  3. Beast
    Taped 1/7/02 from Madison Square Garden, New York Random YouTube find, this was a nice surprise and a really good squash. Christian is European champ and has his awesome operatic post-break up music. Low Ki is one month away from winning the 1st RoH main event. This Metal also had Crash Holly vs. Prince Nana and Saturn vs. Xavier so it's total WWF vs. 2002 RoH inter promotional war (held in MSG!). Those squashes are nothing special; Nana blows up big time against Crash and shows why he moved into managing and the Saturn/Xavier match is too long and doesn't really have a flow (although Xavier looks fine and Saturn doesn't eat him up). This match is on another level and it's clear that both Christian and the announcers (Coachman/Kelly) have some semblance of respect for Low Ki. He's put over on commentary from the start as someone they've seen be impressive and by the end they are talking about this was no easy match for Christian. This is his 7th appearance on Jakked/Metal, facing Crash Holly twice, Essa Rios twice, Raven, and Malenko & Saturn (teaming with Alex Arion). This is the only one I've seen and it makes me want to hunt down some more. Low Ki sells well, including a brutal looking bump from the apron to the barrier that makes Christian look like a beast. Christian works on the ribs and does an interesting corner submission bending Low Ki over the top turnbuckle as well as a nice gut buster. Low Ki gets a comeback with a bunch of his signature kicks and moves which look great. He goes for his Phoenix Splash, Christian moves, Low Ki lands on his feet and then gets hit with the Unprettier for Christian's victory. Obviously Low Ki's size was a huge detriment (as it still was when he came in as Kaval) and he probably was happy as King of the Indie scene, but he looked great and made Christian look tremendous. Especially compared to the other RoH squashes on this same show, Low Ki came across as someone to keep an eye on. This was his last appearance as a WWE jobber which makes sense as with RoH & TNA starting, he wouldn't need the exposure. If anything, this was a cool reminder as to why Low Ki was getting so much buzz back then as he certainly stands out as something more than the average WWE enhancement guy.
  4. Beast

    WWE TV 7/30-8/5

    Beast replied to Beast's topic in WWE

    Wow, that's solid. I'm surprised in this day and age no one has done that as a wink wink line in a promo to Seth.
  5. Beast
    Finally listened to the show with Conrad as a rebuttal to Bischoff's episode on Jericho. Really good stuff. Conrad and Jericho have good chemistry and it's refreshing to hear that when they go back and forth over details and opinions, both guys come off as truthful. Like there's a moment where Jericho calls out Bischoff for drinking with the boys in WCW and how Vince would never do that, and Conrad brings up the famous stories of Vince partying in WWF. Jericho doesn't deny it, but he does try to put the differences in context and it ends up being an interesting conversation. In contrast, Bruce and Bischoff are so focused on either playing a character or looking good that when Conrad calls out possible BS, it turns into a no, yes, no, yes circle. Hopefully Bruce will eventually do a show on Jericho as well and we can get Conrad doing a WWE ep with Jericho. I'm sure Jericho has his agenda and certain things are spun, but it certainly feels more legit and it's easy to believe him since he and Conrad seem to respect each other a ton.
  6. Beast

    WWE TV 7/30-8/5

    Beast replied to Beast's topic in WWE

    OK, but that's just ignoring the 4 years of start and stops prior to this most recent deal. This happens over and over and over and over. And he had lost to Lashley the night before on PPV, but all of a sudden that doesn't matter and Roman still gets the title shot.
  7. Beast

    WWE TV 7/30-8/5

    Beast replied to Beast's topic in WWE

    Kinda is...? Who else has the resume like Roman? And this doesn't include any time after he lost a title, because the rematch clause is assumed. In the thread, Cena is brought up as a comparison but even he would win big matches to set up shots. This is literally Roman losing big matches then being placed into championship opportunities over and over, like they think it will make him a Daniel Bryan underdog. Either way, this isn't something that happened over and over before this era of WWE, unless you're including guys getting shots on a house show loop or something.
  8. Beast
    Fans of WWE are now like fans of McDonald's, Coca-Cola or Apple. It's cool to like the product, but to feel the need to defend every thing they do as corporations is silly. Yeah, the Saudi deal is making them a ton of money. But they don't need it and they're apparently not passing on any of that influx to the wrestlers themselves. And to bow down to the Saudis and leave all the women off the card and then turn around and run a an all-women PPV in America as some sort of progressive milestone is transparent and forced. Yeah, billion-dollar companies are going to do terrible things, but that's not an excuse in and of itself and the current WWE product isn't nearly good enough to choose to keep watching with your head in the ground. It's so sad to me that WWE has never been stronger and yet the wrestling product has never felt less important. And now they're like bulletproof when it comes to business decisions and raiding the indies (cuz NXT is so awesome!!!!!) and pushing Roman for four years straight as Lex Express 2.0.
  9. Beast

    WWE TV 7/30-8/5

    Beast posted a topic in WWE

    Starting the thread just so I can post this nifty compilation of times where Roman Reigns lost and was rewarded with a title match or a number one contenders opportunity before his next match...per Reddit. https://streamable.com/o76oa
  10. Beast
    Unique in that it's the only real important angle shot using this era of Prime Time, similar to the Piper/Rude feud had the benefit of being that for the Heenan/Monsoon era of Prime Time. As a child watching the clips of this angle on the Survivor Series VHS, this blew my mind because I'd never heard of Prime Time Wrestling, but it looked so different. I wasn't aware that WWF had a platform to pull off something like this, at least not on Raw or Action Zone. One of the more "realistic" WWF angles of the '90s? Imagine having enough faith in Perfect, Heenan, Flair, Savage, Razor, Duggan, and Jim to pull off a half hour long drama detailing the redemption of Mr. Perfect.
  11. Beast
    Michaels and Bulldog had better chemistry than Michaels and Bret. Davey looks amazing here and the power vs speed dynamic is well done. Heenan points out that Bulldog may be just as fast as Michaels, which may be an overstatement, but he certainly keeps pace with Michaels here. Interesting thing is that on both syndicated shows that aired the morning before this show, each of these guys had a feature match. On Superstars, Bulldog made his last IC defense against Repo Man. On Challenge Michaels beat Bossman (by countout when Nailz distracted Bossman) in a match that may have been just as fun as the Bulldog one had it gotten more than 4 minutes. There are moments in the Bossman match that are so crisp and well done that it's a damn shame they didn't interact more. Bossman, like Bulldog, was able to combine power with technique and would have been a strong challenger for Michaels years later with the roles reversed. For locations that aired Challenge on Sunday, the Bossman match was replaced by the SNME Bulldog match as something that happened the night before. Luckily, the 11/14 version is on Youtube. Another fun note is that Perfect mocks Bulldog during the Repo match for wrestling so soon before his major title defense, claiming he's guaranteed to lose. Yet on Challenge Heenan praises Michaels for doing the same thing, saying it proves what a top competitor he is.
  12. Beast
    Joe Aiello, known as Joe Bevens in WWF.
  13. Beast
    They did a throw from Vince & Perfect to the Challenge crew at the beginning of the 10/31 Superstars. It happened on a Challenge taping, but was part of a special "simul-cast" where it aired on both Superstars and Challenge that weekend. Means it aired on Superstars first even though it was a Challenge "feature match". Headshrinkers are the only team that feel fresh. Not a surprise Disasters and Nasties are basically done after this, though I wish we'd gotten some big matches with Headshrinkers and either team. Agreed that they should have gotten the title win instead of Money Inc., but the title change was done as much to turn the Nasties face. The Survivor Tag match still feels very stale. Imagine, it was originally Disasters/Bushwhackers vs. Money Inc./Beverly Brothers, two feuds that had been going on all year. Headshrinkers should have gotten the Beverly's spots, as well.
  14. Beast
    Great match, still holds up. No tropetastic 3-way spots with one guy on the outside taking a breather leaving the other 2 to have a singles match, rinse repeat. The various "set pieces" are all creative and pulled off well. I also enjoyed how most of each man's signature moves are hit, but pin attempts are all broken up by the third man. Same with submissions. There's a feeling that whoever wins will be the one who timed their spot just right, which happens when Ki is able to take out Dragon while he's got Daniels in the Cattle Mutilation. Reminded me of wrestling video game multi-man logic. Stun the guy who's just hit his finisher, then hit your finisher as well as on the third guy. Even Daniels taking the fall doesn't hurt his aura at all as he does enough (and is frequently put in 2 on 1 situations) to make the finish seem less of an indictment of his ability compared to the other two. Set the stage for a promotion to keep eyes on back in 2002, although Corino and Gargiulo go overboard in declaring this to be the best match they've ever seen, even before the ending. Certainly by far the standout of this first show and it's gotten me excited to see the Round Robin followup.
  15. Beast
    Peggy Rich did some damn fine acting here. Triple turn with Valiant/Tojo turning heel after mocking Rich's mother and attacking him leading Tommy to turn face. Angle was good, but Rich had only been back in Memphis (and heel) for 2 months so this was obviously a rush job after Jerry Jarrett had cold feet in pairing heel Rich vs a returning face Jerry Lawler the next month. Crowd was quiet, but I took that to be more stunned than uninterested. Lance Russell's severe annoyance at Tommy Rich getting bloodied rather than any actual concern was pretty interesting. I've seen more mid/late '80s Memphis and his reactions seem much more in tune with what's going on around him. Just my opinion, but he didn't do much to help the fans along in cementing the three sudden turns happening.
  16. Beast
    Watched this on a random 1980 Memphis episode, my first taste of the era. Pinfall only 14 man battle royal for the new Memphis TV title. No over-the-top eliminations meant some very crowded pin attempts, but they made it work with dog piles and flash small packages accounting for most of the pins. It's too bad that the episodes on YouTube usually feature local interviews that were filmed after the episode airing. So right before this is an interview with Valiant & Tojo about taking on Rich & Dundee and Valiant is full heel. Then in the Battle Royal I was confused because one side was Valiant/Tojo/Koko/Dundee and another was Tommy Rich, Bobby Eaton, and Danny Davis and I couldn't tell who were the good guys. Turns out Valiant turned heel on Koko after losing the battle royal and then he and Tojo cemented their turns by attacking Tommy Rich who preceded to dump Jimmy Hart and turn face. Whew. Was able to fill in the context questions after through Scott Bowden's treasure trove of Memphis-related columns online. Guess Koko was basically prelim-level at this point, so the TV title obviously wasn't meant to be a top tier deal, but was mainly a backdrop for the major angle.
  17. Beast
    Ha, yeah I guess I've finally seen the light.
  18. Beast
    Yep, that's basically why I finally stopped subscribing. We have different viewpoints on what makes something a great match now. Lots of overlap, but his 2018-centric outlook doesn't connect with me and throws context out the window. His mantra is older workers weren't working for today's audiences so you can't judge them years after the fact, but that's irrelevant. Great matches hold up and once a while a current match joins their ranks. I'm sure this has been said before (maybe in this thread), but it's like saying Avengers: Infinity War is the greatest movie of all time because it's effects are better than The Godfather's. Probably why he seems to stomach current WWE more than most here. He'll criticize the booking on a daily/weekly basis, but since they're all doing moves, it's still great. The roster is jam-packed, but matches lacking any sense of storyline (or without logical booking) don't do it for me, no matter how impressive the dives are.
  19. Beast
    Dave seems to feel that older 4/5 star matches don't hold up compared to today's best work. That's an outlier opinion here, correct? Like, maybe Bret & Owen weren't doing a bunch of high flying moves at WM X, but the psychology and actual back and forth is better than 99% of what occurs today. Same with something like Murdoch vs. Windham. It's frustrating because when he pulls out that card, it's impossible to argue with him about hyperbole because the logic is already gone. He's consistent in saying today's wrestlers and matches are the best wrestling's ever been.
  20. Beast
    Invasion podcast hits the WWE apologist bingo: A) It wasn't worth going after any of the bigger stars because they were on huge contracts and wouldn't want to come in (disregarding Flair and the nWo came in immediately after the angle ended). B ) Bagwell and Booker was the absolute best pairing they could have put on as the initial WCW match, despite tales of Bagwell being unfit to perform backstage. Bruce also claims WCW and their wrestlers were so unpopular that it wouldn't have made a difference if they save the initial match for next week's Raw in Atlanta. C) DDP wouldn't have gotten over as his WCW character in WWE anyway so why not have him stalk the Undertaker's wife instead of have him run in from the crowd to Diamond Cutter wrestlers? Bruce acts like WCW 2000-2001 cancels out anything that came before it, so obviously DDP, Goldberg, Booker T, etc... weren't over anymore.
  21. Beast
    And again I'll be the contrarian and say this is much better than the Bret match that precedes this on Invasion '92. Interesting thing about this is it fits in perfectly after that prior match because it feels like Michaels watched and took notes on Flair/Bret. Here, Flair starts to pull out the same bag of tricks, but Michaels is prepared and counters over and over so Flair has to work harder. Even the quick fisticuffs sequence seemed more intense than the Bret ones. Flair seemed very, very motivated and Michaels matched his energy. Yes, Flair gives Michaels most of the match, but that's typical of his work in the NWA against most non-jobber opponents. This was a major TV match for the Michaels/Jannetty angle and good on Flair for making Michaels look like the next Pillman. If anything, this contrasts the Hart match in that this feels like Michaels is letting Flair call it and coming out smelling like a rose, while Bret didn't want to defer to the heel and had more of a clash of a styles because of it. The ending came too quick, both in terms of the bump not looking that vicious and in terms of lacking any sort of heat segment for Flair, but everything about this felt more exciting. Even Perfect got involved after not doing much last time. Really fun match.
  22. Beast
    Guess I'm the only one to agree with Bret and Flair that they had little chemistry. This was a bit of a mess. No real rhythm and there were some clear mixups. Flair really didn't come off as much of a threat to Bret as he lacked any sort of offensive moveset and didn't compensate with heel tactics. The first big Bret sell spot consisted of an inverted atomic drop, knee drop and two whips to the corner. Yet Bret sold it like he was near death, despite not taking too much from Flair for the first 6 minutes. That continued as the match went on. It was generally fine, but they didn't play off each other and Bret especially seemed like he was going through the motions. Not to the extent of the Hogan/Typhoon match that preceded this on the VHS tape (total generic Hogan match), but it sure didn't feel like either man went out to have a memorable first meeting.
  23. Beast

    WWE Hidden Gems

    Beast replied to NickH's topic in WWE

    Before. His match with Brawler was basically his first time in front of a crowd.
  24. Beast
    The timing doesn't make sense if this was the Saturday morning show. Unless I'm mistaken, this would have been the next WCW show following Clash XVII, where Eaton was a face (in a face-face match with Firebreaker Chip) and he did the subtle clue of telling Sting he had more than enough time to get back for the Rude match. So Schiavone acting like viewers would have seen Eaton with the DA before this is wrong and ruins the match. Not even just in terms of spoilers, but also it lacks any emotional response from Tony. It's also confusing to have Anderson & Austin team if they weren't actually part of the DA yet. Eaton had issues with both men throughout 1991 and I'd like it if Paul E. brought that up when unveiling the complete group. Guess I'll find out as I continue. It's a cool storyline and one I didn't realize existed for years. I was always confused as to how Bobby Eaton was a face in 1991 and then all of a sudden was a member of the DA.
  25. Beast
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