Matt D

It would probably be more productive if someone other than you made that point though.

What's the actual week we're looking at, because Zayn/Kruger 2/3 Falls was on the 1/1 NXT I think and is worth a look. It's not as good as the best of the 2013 NXT output but it has weeks of build, is, sort of the climax of years of Kruger's character development, shows that NXT has sort of claimed the 2/3 falls match as a trademark and is totally willing to change it up. The match itself was really well paced with what I thought was a very strong second fall. Good logical transitions, good looking offensive from both guys, nice finish. I don't think we'll remember it much in ten years, but for the week, sure.

Neidhart was using a cobra clutch he called the ANVILIZER

I just want to see Rowan/Harper/Bryan vs Goldust/Cody/Rey. Is that a vote option?

The problem is that if there is an established opinion that is one way or the other, oftentimes if you disagree you're seen as just aiming to be different so you stand out. I'm still going to post what I think of the show, but I am really hoping to avoid that. You must be new to PWO, Loss. You can say what you want here so long as you're willing to listen to others and back it up.

Don't worry; Dylan lives here.

I'm really curious what every wrestler ever thought about the Von Erichs' partying.

When I'm watching random things from the 90s, I often jump in to see if it was covered on a yearbook to see everyone's thoughts (because even in the ones with not a lot of people commenting, you still get Charles' and I value his on this stuff). In that regard, it's an amazing resource.

You are actually quite good at getting close to the best possible interview you can get in these scenarios, I think. A lot of that WWF stuff is actually easy to find, be it in his shoot interview or others, so this was a great and fresh read.

The novel is even better.

Random quick reviews. I'm just going to burn through a few things I haven't hit yet or that i want to see. Goldust vs Marc Mero - Raw - 7/1/96 I've seen next to no face Mero in WWF. What the heck is his gimmick? Coked out? I'm going to go with coked out. Austin is guest commentating. Sloppy, fast-paced stuff to begin until Dustin dives out to take a break. Rinse and repeat, though the second time around it looks better. Marlena goes near Sable on the outside, Mero goes out, Dustin goes out, Mero chases Dustin back in. Dustin catches him in the way in. Transition. While they play up the Marlena/Sable stuff Dustin has on yet another rear chinlock. Hope spots, cut offs, taunting, chinlock. Pretty sloppy roll forward pin hope spot nearfall. Dustin's stuff looks pretty good during the heat segment but it's sure not compelling. Fiery comeback ends with Mero distracted by Marlena and Sable and eating a Curtain Call. It's WWF Wrestling by numbers and the execution is adequate but not strong enough to put it ahead of the pack. Past the shine, the first transition, and the Marlena/Sable extracurricular, it'd be a perfectly fine early card WWF House show match from 1985. Goldust vs Marc Mero - Summerslam 1996 The shine is pretty good. Goldust turns on the athleticism early on. They move into an arm control section which is mainly good for Dustin's selling. Dustin elbows out of a hammerlock and it's back and forth for a minute but he takes over with a drop down punch then a back body drop over the top that's pretty nasty. Pretty good heat segment with some nice outside stuff. Goldust goes to the chinlock but it's a signal for Mankind to come out to menace Sable and Dustin switches it up a bit in the ring while it's going on so it's not all that bad. Mero fights up and Goldust cuts it off with a big knee and follows up with a few minutes of work on the ribs. Mero comes back with an abrupt back elbow off the second rope and goes ahead to hit a lot of his spots, including the Badd Day. It's all pretty dead at this point. Mero hits a lot of stuff without much drama, all to lead up to the Wild Thing (shooting star press) debut. Marlena has the ref distracted though, which allows for the countout. It's another one of those cases where the timing of Marlena distracting is a little weird. Anyway, Goldust comes back and hits a rather dangerous looking Curtain Call for the win. Post match Dustin menaces Sable and Mero gets his heat back. It would have been a really good Raw match but it was more of a mid point of the feud than the end of it so it was just okay for a Summerslam match. Dustin looked good and it WAS better than the actual Raw match (though that might have had a better shine). It was just paced weird. Goldust vs The Stalker Barry Windham - Raw - 10/21/96 This is a set up for Survivor Series. Hunter and Crush are out with him. Windham has Mero, Henry, and Rocky with him. I know how these go. Five minutes. Brawl with everyone at the end. Steve Austin on the phone to talk about his own stuff to go to Brian Pillman's house. Meanwhile, the guys in the ring have come to work. Windham is broken down and reminds me way too much of Mulligan, but he's running the ropes better than you'd think. They're laying it into each other fairly well and when they come back from the commercial break, both guys selling, you buy it. Shortly thereafter it all breaks down. It's a shame that we didn't get a little more because it was probably the best you could hope for given the conditions. Goldust vs Jerry Lawler - Raw - 12/30/96 I'm pretty sure this was set up by a King's Court where Goldust fully turned face. HHH and Honky are announcing with Vince, which is sort of surreal. This is more of an angle than a match as they were early into the HHH/Goldust feud that would go all the way to Mania. Lawler knows he only has a couple of minutes and he actually starts quickly. Great looking offensive, playing to the crowd like no one else, using their response as a distraction to lead to the transition. Dustin is working as a basic babyface, not playing up the gimmick much at all, but Lawler vs a 94 styled babyface Dustin is still pretty great. Unfortunately, we just get a snippet of it before HHH kidnaps Marlena, Mero tries to make the save and Dustin leaves the ring. Ah well.

Looking back a second before we move forward. It looks like the biggest thing we missed in the missing summer 1981 footage was the Destroyer face turn and feud with Buddy. We also missed Princess Victoria and Velvet Mcintyre coming in, but it seems like they didn't work mixed matches with Buddy but with Stasiak instead. They're moving on with the Borne/Rose match post-real life incident, but I'm almost certain the match was going to end with either Rose or Borne under the management of the other. Pretty sure the plan is changed to a Loser Leaves Town match. Rose and Stasiak won the tag belts. Regal's belt was held up in the "Army in a Cage" match after Borne came out but I think Regal got it back. I'm sure you'll all be glad to know that Buddy has some lotion that lets him break the Masterslock. They've been building him up to a title shot vs Regal. Buddy Rose vs King Parsons - One Fall - 11/7/81 Sandy Barr has a great ref's shirt, yellow with a wrestler guy on the back and BARR written out. Rocky Johnson ("the highest ranking black wrestler in years. At one time had seen him ranked at 4th") has come in, so this is all set up for that. Buddy prays in the corner to start and the fans grumble. Initial top wristlock up is won by Parsons. Buddy complains about the hair. Granny at ringside is pissed. Repeat. I've never noticed Parsons crazy chest tattoo before. Top Wristlock for a third time. This time Buddy goes for the hair and Barr catches it. Buddy garners some heat after the break. A Rose front headlock is reversed with Parons placing him on the top rope. Parsons rears back and Buddy falls off the top to the floor. When he comes back in he claims a tights pull. Rose full nelson is reversed by a Parsons butt thrust. Parsons does a full nelson of his own. Buddy sells it well and goes for the butt thrust too and then leaning forward but Parsons is ready and doesn't break the hold. Buddy drops out of it and rolls but ends up right back in it. I don't know if anyone works these full nelson spots better than Buddy and it's been a while since we've seen them but it's weird to me that he's doing it when Masters is in the territory using the hold as his finish. Buddy finally grabs the leg to get out and then, after getting kicked off a figure four attempt and into the ropes, manages a pretty lame cartwheel and the subsequent taunting. He then turns around right into a dropkick. After a kickout, Buddy takes a powder. Buddy comes back in and gets trounced in a greco-roman knucklelock exchange, this time saying that Parsons was twisting his finger or that the tape on the wrists was illegal or something. The fans are getting increasingly annoyed. Good opening comedy stuff here with a couple of new twists. It ends with Buddy cheapshotting Parsons against the ropes and taking over with the big back elbow. He chokes on the top rope and hits a big back body drop (which Bonnema makes sure to point out that he calls a shoulder throw no matter what anyone else calls it). Buddy plays King of the Mountain but Parsons comes back with a headbutt. You can tell they were planning on Sing staying around since they had talked up previously a battle of the headbutts between them. Buddy sells a punch to the gut off the rope huge. Great over the top sell/bump. Parsons follows this with a flying butt butt. They do a nice bit of roperunning into a ref bump. Buddy follows up with blatant cheating, an extended choke over the top rope. The fans are starting to get restless with one getting too close to the ring when Rocky Johnson comes out of nowhere to save Parsons and knock Buddy out of the ring. Barr recovers in time to count out Rose (who makes a show of it, at least, grabbing the rope at the last second). Parson picks up the win. Fun comedy stuff early. A good ref bump. A nice debut for Johnson. This was functional but did what it was supposed to. I like Parsons in Portland. Buddy Rose vs Rocky Johnson - One Fall - 11/7/81 Later in the night, Johnson debuts vs Stasiak with a quick win. It's brisk but enjoyable as Stasiak's grumpy old man demeanor works well with Johnson's stylized moves. Post match, Rocky Johnson tells Don Owen he wants Buddy right then and right there. Owen says sure, and if Buddy refuses he loses his loser leaves town match vs Borne. You can almost tell that they're switching the focus from Borne to Johnson here. I could be wrong since the results from this era are a little sparse. It's weird because Meltzer in both the Borne and Rose bios made a bit deal about how the Borne/Rose feud only picked up after the incident and it's been the exact opposite. Just one big blow off, it seems. Anyway, Buddy's livid, but he has to take the match. Johnson is, of course, immediately over. Buddy immediately slides out under the bottom rope instead of locking up. Fans chanted "We Want Rocky(with Rocky somehow one syllable)" in the Stasiak match. Here, they go all out with the "Rocky, Rocky" chant. Great punch sequence early on. Johnson blocks a barrage and then jabs his way back, ending with a huge wind up and a great Buddy bump/slump into the corner. This match is definitely a showcase for Johnson, who lands out of a monkey flip on his feet. Buddy Rose is as good as anyone in the history of wrestling of putting over another wrestler's attributes and spots with his own body language and reactions. Moreover, he makes everything Johnson is doing look so easy and simple. They work a sequence where Johnson puppets Buddy up and down with a wrist lock. Finally, though, Buddy gets an eyerake in the corner and starts grinding away. This match is all about getting his opponent over in is debut night, so when Rocky kicks out, Buddy goes flying. He finally gets in a cheapshot to take over and starts on the back. A few shots in, Rocky ends up in a bear hug. They work it well, with Rocky selling hard and every time he's about to get a shot in, Buddy cinches it up more. Buddy whips him into the corner hard and locks the bearhug back on. So far as bearhugs go, this is really good. They draw out the final elbow smash that gets him out. Immediately thereafter Buddy goes right back to the back and sets up for the Robinson backbreaker. Johnson floats over and hits an O'Connor Roll off the rope with a nice back bridge for the win. Johnson makes sure to sell the back post-match. Buddy complains about the trunks. That's how you debut a hot new babyface. (that is despite some guy flashing his shirt open in front of the camera, causing Bonnema to randomly go "And Idiots Are now walking In front of the camera.")

In some ways they made their own bed on it though.

Smackdown 1/3/14 Cody and Goldust vs The Wyatt Family - I'm curious what people will think about this match. There's a smaller Goldust FIP and a longer Cody FIP including an extended Rowan control section. I though Rowan's stuff looked pretty good in general. His clubbering/brawling is a lot better than it used to be (he had a good stretch with Goldust) and he's begun to use a number of unique moves that make a lot of sense for his character and work really well for a heel control section, specifically the fists to the temples, the claw/throw, and the outright face pulling. This is one of the better performances from Cody in a FIP position that I've seen. His emotive selling runs the gamut, though. Sometimes (like in the holds) it's pretty good but the fish-eyes/open mouth when he takes a bump gets a little old. Up until now, Goldust has mainly been using the Code Red as a big late match house-cleaning move or for a near fall but here he used it in order to set up the end of his FIP and I thought that was a great use of it. Cody's flip over sunset flip works best as a hope spot too (and he's mainly used it after a hot tag lately). Harper showed great presence as usual, maneuvering Rowan back into the ring at one point and catching a really nice Cody dive (and the moonsault) perfectly. I think maybe his big power moves can be a little too big; case in point this time, the sitout powerbomb. Goldust broke it up instead of Cody kicking out but I think that's the sort of move to be used more sparingly in the current environment. The gator roll is a really great move to immediately follow a comeback cutoff. Dustin works the crowd like no one in wrestling today. I liked the finish because it felt different than a lot of what we've gotten recently. Good start to the year. Usos/Shield got more time than I was expecting but wasn't as fun as the Usos vs Wyatt's sprint from a couple of weeks ago. I haven't seen the main yet.

My fantasy booking is basically along the same lines. I think I put it in one of the Armchair Booking threads. I'm desperate for Bryan/Lesnar, but I realise it's a long shot and I'm not unhappy with most of the other options. I really wanted the December PPV vs Hunter leading to the Rumble berth yeah. Granted, I also wanted them not to run Orton vs Bryan at all after Summerslam.

Do we need more elaboration of the Honky Tonk/Macho issue that apparently cost him the title? I know there was some real dissection of that here recently and why it was factually unlikely that he was ever in line for the title. I don't have time to track it down now though.

This is an elaborate trap for Parv, right? Oh just ask him for good Sid stories.

Goldust handhelds #1 Goldust vs Yokozuna - 8/4/96 - Ottawa This is not the best VQ you will see this week. Goldie makes an open challenge to everyone since Ahmed Johnson isn't there. He calls everyone chicken-shit, gets a ton of heat and the place comes unglued when Yoko comes out. Dustin rolls out while Yoko comes in and then rolls in to attack him from behind. He gets a few shots in. Yokozuna no sells and strikes back to the crowd's delight. Dustin rolls back out and starts to the back. He heads back and complains about the count, about Yokozuna, about the ref, about everything. Nice heat-garnering. He rolls in and asks for the handshake and they milk it for all its worth. Yoko refuses. They lock up and do a bit of rope running (well Dustin, does). He runs into an elbow and rolls out to the floor, taking a pratfall and stalling some more. Finally Dustin comes back in, lures Yoko into the corner, and eyepokes to take over. Dustin is all punches and clubbering here, making good use of Yoko's broad back to do some drumming. Two clotheslines stagger him. Since this is a babyface Yokozuna match, the third one knocks him down. Goldust follows up with a blatant low blow stomp and the chest taunt. Lots of booing. Dustin's trying to keep the heat segment compelling here, throwing in a knee along with the punches but he's very limited on what he can do to the big guy here. Finally, he looks exasperated and goes for a headbutt. Yoko's head is too hard. Goldust falls over and we get our comeback. A few strikes, a samoan drop, a legdrop and a pin. I would sum this up as pretty decent stalling followed by an uninspired heat segment. Ultimately disappointing. Mankind/Goldust vs Undertaker/Shawn Michaels - 9/29/96 - MSG - Handheld Again, not great VQ. Kind of interesting pairings though. Undertaker in the ring as Sexy Boy is playing is kind of surreal. Thankfully it's short lived as the heels try to ambush. Babyfaces fight back. Undertaker is brawling with Mankind on the floor. Michaels is doing a corner ten punch on Goldust. They do a cute spot out of it. Mankind temporarily disposed of Taker (I think by reversing a whip into railings/stairs/etc). Shawn is beating Goldust around the ring and mounts another corner. Mankind comes in and stalks Michaels who leaps back off the second rope with an axe-handle only to turn right into a great Goldust punch. Mankind plays King of the Mountain, keeping Taker out as Goldust really beats the snot out of Michaels. This is a chaotic scene. Mankind adn taker end up brawling back on the outside as Goldust keeps on Michaels. Taker makes it back in first and flips Goldust around. After a moment of begging we get the double choke toss and a crazy Michaels dive over the top to Mankind. The ref is exasperated. Taker is tossing Goldust from pillar to post. The ref finally gets Michaels into his corner and Mankind slinks to his. By this point we've moved past the initial beating/brawling into something resembling a shine. Taker is hitting Dustin with some big power moves and Dustin is bumping and selling for him. they move on to arm control stuff, then quickly into Michaels/Dustin rope running, ending with Michaels eating the drop down punch. They fake a transition with Mankind tagging in but Michaels makes it to Taker immediately and they do a bit of a reset, going back to the arm offense and Old School. I think Taker actually looks really good here. Mankind eats his stuff well, and his timing on some things (like choking Goldust after no-selling a cheap knee from the outside off the ropes, and turning to take a Mankind clothesline over the top), is very good. Yes, he no sells a lot of it, but it's a balance. I think there's an inherit value in the heels getting to do it to him in the first place. It makes you feel like they have the advantage and are a force. They're on offense and while they're not scoring a goal, the ball's not on their side of the field either. Taker holds his own on the outside until Michaels complains, gets taken out by the ref and Bearer comes out of nowhere with an urn shot. The ref goes to check Bearer and Mankind uses the distraction to utilize a chair. One thing I'll say about Shawn is that he's a great Robert Gibson in the corner when his partner's getting killed. Goldust and Mankind's offense on taker looks good. Taker's a fascinating case to me, because he can sell effectively by just laying still and dead in the ring. That would bore most crowds if it was someone else, but it means something specific to them if it's taker. His punching from his knees flurry on Mankind hope spot is pretty great too (the cut off was a really well timed neckbreaker). Something happens on the outside I can't quite make out (Lothario? Pulls Bearer off the apron?), but in the chaos, Taker makes the hot tag and Shawn comes in and cleans house on Mankind and Goldust first with a chair and then with the forearm/kip uip/axehandle. He strikes up the band but gets nailed from outside by Goldust and then cut down by Mankind in a nice spot that sends him out. This is immediately followed by the plunge on the outside. Undertaker tries to cut in but Goldust uses the ref as a shield and we get our second heat segment. I think Dustin and Michaels have pretty good chemistry and Dustin and Foley work together well as heels, so this is all pretty good. I particularly loved Foley's diving side headbutt/elbow while Michaels was in the tree of woe. Michaels gets a hope spot nearfall out of some questionably timed rope-running, gets cut off and Dustin slaps on the ol' rear chinlock. I will say that he works it better than he did a year ago at this point, from what I can tell. it's pretty tedious though, and my least favorite thing about heel Goldust. In a vacuum, though, it works, and it works here because he's good at feeding Michaels' comeback and then cutting it off. His pacing/timing/variation/execution of hope spots/cutoffs is probably my favorite thing about him as a heel. I love the next sequence. Micheals ends up in the tree of woe again, but sits up as Foley goes for the dive. Foley recovers first and goes for the Mandible Claw but he's shaken enough that Michaels can toss him into Goldust on the apron. Michaels did such a good job in this after a pretty solid heat segment that you're clamoring for him to make the hot tag and it's painful when Dustin breaks it up. He cuts him off at the last second, and sets up Michaels for a Superplex. Michaels fights back only to have Foley grab his leg from the apron. He kicks him off and hits flying clothesline to Foley on the apron that's pretty cool visually. Dustin tags in but can't stop the hot tag. Taker cleans house. I really like Dustin's sell of the big boot. Mankind blatantly calls a "neck drape over the top rope from the outside" spot which Taker just walks into. Weird. It's just a set up for Dustin recovering enough to jump off the top into a choke an the fans are chanting "Rest In Peace" so I guess it was harmless. Chokeslam. Tag to Michaels. Elbow off the top. I really hate the Elbow off the top as the SCM set up. Dustin ducks it though, which I didn't expect at all. We get a (let's say unique) finishing sequence with Dustin taking Shawn out with a clothesline, doing the fondling pin on Shawn, tossing him into the corner and setting up for the Curtain Call. Shawn floats over, kisses Goldust, and hits the SCM. This was probably one of my favorite Michaels performances from 96 that I've seen. There was a lot to like and I thought the heat segment on him was really quite good. Dustin plays his role well, though I don't think it's anything that stands out that much. As a set up for the next match: Goldust vs Sid - Raw - 10/7/96 Sid is probably one of the top five over babyfaces in the history of the WWF. He was a babyface for so short a time in his three runs but the fans respond to him in such a massive way. This is to build him up for the match vs Vader at the next PPV. I liked it a lot, actually, though it's ultimately as slight as you'd expect for a glorified squash. It's still a pretty good, straightforward, five minute match. They fit a lot of stuff in and some of it (like the slapfest) was pretty compelling. Mankind/Goldust vs Sid/Undertaker - 10/25/96 - Indianapolis - Handheld So, just like the last match, just Sid instead of Shawn? Oh good, there's no time limit. Lots of ambient noise but it sounds like Dustin has a ton of heat here. Mankind brings Goldust flowers and it's all something else. I kind of love this team. The camera pans away from Dustin/Mankind as the bells start to toll which is a shame, since Dustin had put his hands over his ears and was jumping up and down. Brawling to start. Goldust eats Takers punches well. They clear the ring and the fans chant like crazy for Sid. Dustin back in and I love the dumbfounded way Sid sells Dustin's punches. He's like a punch out character. Whomp whomp whomp. It doesn't last long. Sid throws him around the ring and they start the arm control stuff. Dustin is hamming it up, screaming for Mankind and it's great. I've never seen him sell so broadly during this period. He's crashing about for Taker. Transition is a blind tag and Mankind nailing Taker as he swiped for Bearer over the top rope. Heels cut off the ring and grind Taker down. Goldust is great in this match. After a swinging neckbreaker cut off, Taker sits up anyway. Goldust's reaction is to go nuts and run around him to tag Mankind. Taker sits up again and Bearer hands Mankind ashes. Taker knocks them into Foley's face and makes the hot tag. Sid's goofy hammer punches are way too much fun. He goes fo rthe power bomb on Foley but Dustin gets him with a double axe handle from behind. He goes for the choke slam on Goldust but Foley comes off the second rope towards him. He catches him in a choke too but Goldust and Mankind hit the DOUBLE LOW BLOW KICK. There's an element to this of the referee being totally unwilling to DQ the heels since they're so bizarre and crazy. They're getting huge amounts of heat for choking/dismantling Sid. Eventually Foley either hits him from the outside in or hits himself as the chair bounces off the ropes. I can't tell and ultimately it doesn't matter. The fans chant for Sid. Goldust grounds him with the reverse chinlock but Mankind has to rush in. Goldust holds him. Mankind hits him. The fans get more and more riled. Foley gets on the mandible Claw but sid POWERS OUT. Goldust nails him from behind and Taker's had enough, rushing in as everything breaks down. Everyone ends up on the floor but Goldust rolls in after Sid and cuts him off. He follows it up by stalking up Sid's prone body and uh, ending up in the testicular claw. The fans pop huge and amazingly this is somehow just a hope spot as Sid goes for a legdrop instead of making the tag and misses. Foley gets a chair, gives it to Goldust who tries to slam it into Sid in the corner. Sid gets his foot up, makies the hot tag. Taker lifts the chair up between Goldust's legs. I have to admit Dustin probably should have sold this a bit more. He's reversing an irish whip the next second only to get flying clotheslined. Sid tags back in, hits a lame pile driver, and it all breaks down again. Taker and Mankind fight down the alley. Whatever happens in the ring we miss, but it ends with Dustin doing a ten punch on Sid in the corner, followed by fondling and the same inverted atomic drop they did in the TV match. This sets up the choke slam and the pin. God was Sid over. Anyway, this was another pretty good tag. Mankind and Goldust made for very solid partners and this was as good as I've seen Dustin look in 96 other than maybe one of the Shawn matches.

I do think Buck could have been a pretty good heel in 94 ECW just by going opposite to type and controlling the pacing of the match in a way that would drive the crowd irate, kind of like Foley did, but without that vaguely ironic undertone.

You Vill Have Fun. Or Else.

Shawn Michaels/Bret Hart/Diesel vs Mabel/British Bulldog/Yokozuna - 11/10/95 - Nassau Coliseum - Handheld 94/95/96 WWF is a bit of a blind spot for me still but I'd never even heard of this match until I started looking at fancam lists for Dustin matches and on paper it's fascinating. The idea of Bret and Shawn teaming this late in the game is compelling in and of itself. The whole show is interesting actually. Skip vs Ahmed Johnson, Dean Douglas vs Savio, early Goldust vs Jannetty, Smoking Gunns vs the insane team of Jean Pierre LaFitte the Pirate and Kama the Ultimate Fighting Machine, Yankem vs Godwinn (okay maybe not that), Heel Owen vs Face Bam Bam, Hunter vs Razor. - It should be noted that Backlund is the special ref in this and does absolutely nothing until the post-match stuff. I forgot and thought it was Chioda at one part of the match. - Bret's body language is interesting in this from the get go. He moves to the apron first and is sort of lacon, leaning on the top rope and watching. Shawn and Diesel high five and butt pat and he just watches. The crowd sounds pretty hot, though some of that could be where it's being filmed from. They're taunting Bulldog and Yoko with a USA chant which neither Mabel or Bret entirely know how to deal with. -Shine #1: Fun Bulldog vs Shawn segment to start. Bulldog really keeps up with him. Best part is a cutesy eyepoke from Shawn. Diesel cheers on. Bret watches. Diesel comes in and hits some power moves on Bulldog. Yoko tags in and the crowd really wants to see it. -Transition to Heat #1: OHHHHkay, I see what's going on here. We're right before Survivor Series 95. Diesel hits the ropes off of a Yoko shoulder block and knocks Bret off the apron. Bret storms back in. Shawn plays peacemaker. I had to go back and check to make sure they didn't run this on Raw. Yoko capitalizes, going to Diesel's eyes and then knocking Shawn off the apron. Diesel fights back, almost gets him down but gets squashed by a samoan drops off the ropes. Bret breaks up the pin. -Heat #1: Ok, so there is no heat. Bulldog misses an elbow. Mabel misses an elbow. Diesel rolls to bret for the tag for (not so) Hot Tag #1. I was going to say that Diesel as face in peril with two hugely smaller guys on the apron, both of whom are known for their selling, would have been really weird. -Face Comeback #1/Face Shine #2: Bret Five Moves Of Dooms Bulldog but Mabel breaks up the Sharpshooter for Transition to Heat #2.It's a shame that we didn't get more tags with Bret after he really developed them because it's a really good way to fill time, hit a comeback. -Heat #2: Mabel tags in. Bret is still selling. Shawn is pissed on the apron, though I'm not sure why. I don't know how many times Mabel wrestled Bret but it's a good match up. Mabel just demolishes Bret in the corner, rakes his eye all the way across the ring on the top rope and tags in Yoko. USA chant starts back up for Bret. Poor guy. Nerve hold time, but at least the crowd is into it. Oh man, Mabel grabs the HUGE Japanese flag from Cornette or Fuji or whoever's on the outside that I can't see due to the fancam and waves it from the corner. Great visual and the fans eat it up. Massive heat. Shawn's on the second rope cheerleading for Bret to get up. Surreal. Bulldog tags in and we get a headlock spot with missed tags and irate Michaels charging in and heels switching and Yoko legdrops and all that good stuff. Mabel's great in this. He eats a second rope hope clothesline by Bret but only weeble wobbles, then rights himself and falls forward, not backwards, landing with a headbutt. Nice cutoff. Bret gets out of the corner at the last second, dives and rolls with great timing to Hot Tag #2 to Diesel. -Face Comeback #2/Finish - Diesel cleans house. Everything breaks down. They do a "whip all three heels into the center of the ring" spot which Bret accomplishes on Mabel by getting behind him and pushing, which is a nice, believable touch. Some nice looking stuff here. The Diesel big boot on Mabel looks good. I really like the Rocket Launcher splash that Diesel and Shawn do. Yoko tries to splash to break up the pin but Shawn moves and he lands on Mabel. The second gets involved but gets tossed and Shawn hits SCM in the middle of the ring for the win. -Post match, Bret has to deal with the indignity of celebrating to Sexy Boy, which he does by hanging out in the babyface corner, leaning forward, his back to everyone. Backlund remembers he's getting a paycheck that night and stomps over to attack Bret from behind. Diesel catches him and tosses him. Bret walks over and tries to figure out what the hell just happened. Shawn plays peacemaker again. Bret stalks around annoyed. Shawn pats him on the butt as he leaves. Well, I'm not sure if it's must see or anything but if I had been at this show and it was my main event, I would have been fairly happy with it.

Show of hands, and I'm just curious: how many people here really loved Bunkhouse Buck back in 1994?

The Orig Williams book talks a lot about his troupe of female wrestlers. The book is carny as hell though.

I have different ways of watching different things. Time is such an issue for me that I usually do real time play by play. I imagine reading my write ups are a terrible chore and I mainly have them for my own sake so I can go back later. I assume they're some sort of a resource for SOMEONE but I can't always imagine how. The honest truth is that with my attention span , it helps me a lot to keep the narrative of a match straight while I'm watching it. I try to hit various things like transitions, interesting offense/selling, cut offs, etc. The bones and muscle of the story. I can go back a year later and everything I care about in the match is right there for me. They were also a ton of help when I wrote my Buddy essay so they can be useful if I want to put the work in to come to broader conclusions. They're also a ton of help when I am ranking 80s sets and what not. I usually watch current WWE stuff and come out with a sentence or two. I kind of like is my bullet point/real time with some edits style that I used for the two Snuka matches over the last couple of days. I could see myself going with that for things that I'm not watching as some sort of "project" but aren't new things I'm just breezing through. Ultimately I A> Enjoy myself and B> make it through a decent amount of content, so I suppose on those levels it's a success.

-Snuka's early Flair flop is ridiculous, especially relative to the violence of the double forearm he got hit with. -I don't think Brody should ever do a leapfrog. I'm just saying.The dropkick is okay, I guess. -His stuff looks pretty good here, though and Terry's selling of it is downright great, especially the kicks. -Dory shouldn't dropkick. -I liked the Dory/Snuka rope running, though it was sloppy as hell. There was something organic about it and the Brody punch to break up the toe-hold was huge. It was huge and sort of led to a mini transition with Snuka taking over with the headlock afterwards. -It'd be nice if Dory worked a little harder from underneath in the headlock. They keep it moving at least, but his selling felt lifeless to me. -The ending of this segment is smart with Terry's little distracting swipe which builds up tension for the Terry vs Brody section. -Terry is such a great FIP. He sells so broadly and all over the ring. His hope spots are so desperate but this is japan not the south so we don't a bunch of cut off hope spots leading to a hot tag. Instead he gets a premature tag to Dory and Terry just dives from the top to the outside and the next thing I know Dory has Snuka in an abdominal stretch. -After the reset that brings Terry back in, we get a really good punchfest between he and Brody. If there's a narrative to the match, I've sort of lost it by his point.The action's good, but I can't say I care a ton about what I'm watching. -Ok, almost on cue, they start giving me some legwork, which is nice. I love Terry coming in to stop Brody from breaking up the toehold, since he broke it up earlier in the match. Snuka seems to be in the thing forever while we get the Hansen clothesline on the outside. I love Dory's confused look as he tries to figure out where his brother is. -Dory going into Brie Mode in response is sort of great. I have no idea if it's a blade job or not. That's how good his punch flurry is. He's fighting Brody at his own game though and ultimately loses that fight. -The Dory showing fighting spirit against impossible odds stuff is compelling. I don't really love Dory's selling or anything, but I don't need to. The story itself is compelling enough. I don't see why Brody's tag was particularly impressive. He already interfered to break up the spinning toe hold twice. Does he get DQed if he does it three times or something? It was stupid of Dory to put the hold on again in the first place but he was beat up and desperate. It doesn't kill the back half for me which I thought was good. They took a few connective pieces from the first half of the match which helped but ultimately, I thought the whole thing was more disjointed than I would have liked. None of that is particularly fair to the match though. It was better than I was expecting from an excitement/action/execution standpoint, certainly, and it was probably the right match for the crowd. It's not good to judge entirely on what you would rather see as opposed to the match you did see, but I know what I like at least. I will say that in a vacuum I liked just about everything from the reset with Terry and Brody punching each on. I just didn't love the match as a whole.