Matt D

Damn it if that studio audience in 1993 didn't love the Cole Twins

They presented it in a way that it was allowed. I'm okay with it. in another setting other than 1991 WWF it might have bothered me, but the rules are whatever they say the rules are. It's not real. Within the confines of the story they were telling, it worked. I also figured that the ref was just terrified of him, but that's probably more rationalization than it needed. The Jerry Lawler vs Kerry Von Erich match on the AWA set needs rationalization (the ref was a Memphis ref and thus didn't care when he blatantly saw the chain attacks fifty times in the match) because of the setting and how it was worked. This? Not so much.

A match can be all choking/avoidance of a choke and still be good. This match is good in context of Survivor Series where Taker really just goozled and contained Hogan to a huge degree. Here, Hogan plays a sort of scared desperation that I don't remember ever seeing out of him in trying to avoid the choke. Honestly, it's not really worth my time (or yours) to write up both matches, but I will say that I enjoy them both mainly in the context of each other and more broadly in a linear progression of how they laid out Hogan matches over the few years before it.

Ambrose submitting to taker (who then got absolutely demolished, no?) felt like an event and meant a whole lot more than Rollins losing to kane clean in the first match of a random Smackdown with no build. I'm fine with one of the Shield eating a loss but they should build it into a moment. Hell, WCW, for all its faults, made Chris Jericho beating Nick Patrick feel like it mattered since it was one of the first real losses for a NWO guy and they presented it as mattering.

Had Rollins eaten a pinfall yet in a singles match? I might have missed that.

The smackdown results seem like a good start. Shield's first pinfall loss is to Kane on a random Smackdown.

Rose vs Adonis - 2/3 Falls - Rip chained to Steve Pardee This is the last live broadcasted wrestling show, so I assume the sheepherders have been bloodying up people. Owen sounds a little depressed by the idea. I know the legend was that the move to 11:30 actually helped the ratings since everyone rushed home to see themselves on TV. Is that true? Anyway, after the shenanigans from before Rip is chained to "rookie of the year" Steve Pardee. Pardee impacts things immediately by making the heels unable to have a stalling conference, frustrating Buddy to the delight of the crowd. Adonis chucks Buddy into Rip to start off which Buddy made look like a million bucks. Buddy hammers the arm intensely but Adonis comes back and Rose ends up headbutted to the floor again, right into Rip. The crowd is really into this. Buddy puts him immediately into a full nelson which is pretty well worked in the Adonis strength escapes and Buddy pulling the hair to cut it off. There's a great little touch where Buddy slams Adonis' head into the turnbuckle to weaken him enough to bring him down. I'm not a huge fan of a full nelson base but it's done well and when Adonis escapes the fans pop big. He nails Buddy and puts him in one of his own. Buddy tries to escape by lifting up Adrian and we end up in comedy hour with Buddy trying an elaborate escape only to end up back in it and then eating an Atomic Drop that sends him out of the ring. They reset into a test of strength and Buddy knees him immediately only to get totally out finessed. Adonis goes for the spinning toehold but Buddy kicks him over the top rope where he gets stuck which I think is our proper transition in the first fall. Buddy starts to really dismantle the hamstring/leg. And puts on an Indian deathlock. We get a long anklelock that Adonis finally turns out of. It's pretty funny. Buddy just hangs on with the leg until Adonis jams him with it. Adonis sort of shrugs off the leg work a bit too quickly in his comeback having a big comeback before he rolls Buddy up for the fall. This was easily the longest first fall I've seen in Portland and they did a good job of having a back and forth match with some limbwork and some comedy and some real hate. It wasn't my favorite structurally but it was still good. and geez, this second fall is 15 minutes. I may have overwritten that first fall as it was really back and forth. I'll just sum this up. Rip stooges a lot early in the second fall on the outside. We really get a full reset. Buddy's taunt as he charges into the corner is beautiful and of course he misses like he's supposed but then he takes over with a grinding front facelock. Adonis gets some hope spots and Buddy keeps grinding him down. We get some great fan shots during the facelock. And this is pretty much an endless facelock. The hope spots are good but it's just sort of there, to be honest. Buddy starts to go for the fall as they announce the time left but Adonis escapes from the Robinson backbreaker attempt and hits an atomic drop for the real come back. Adonis misses a top rope splash and Rose goes up himself. Pardee shakes the roles though and Buddy stumbles into Adonis who turns him over to win the fall and (I think) transfer the feud from Adonis to Pardee. I have to admit, I didn't love this match nearly as much of some of the stuff I've seen lately. I like that they really varied up the 2/3 falls structure and the first fall was pretty good. I don't mind a single-hold based match which is what we really got with the second fall, but this one sort of fell flat for me. As always they did a great job moving things along and keeping the territory rolling though.

if it's any consolation, the "Told you so" article to be written in 5 months will probably be all the sweeter now?

Buddy Rose vs Sal Martino 2/3 Falls - August 4, 1979 Owen announces they're moving the time slot from 11 to 12:30 to boos. I have no idea who Martino is. Think it's Bellomo actually. He hits an out of nowhere body press for a lightning first fall as the crowd goes nuts. 29 seconds which at the announcement makes the crowd pop more. Start of the second fall they tease a roll up and Buddy takes a powder pissed off.They slow things down with a Martino headlock base. Rose is expert at using the tights to put him in a tight pin position. Stunt granny is pissed off too. Martino grinds as the crowd counts but Rose backs out and takes another powder. Buddy starts to work on the arm but gets pulled into a headlock again. Fun stuff. This reminds me more of an AWA match with the use of a single hold for a base with the heel cheating to getting out only to end up back in it. We get a cut and end up with both guys standing again. Apparently we're in the third fall and the big transition was on a missed body press which sounds like a good comeback. Buddy won that fall. He has the advantage here too, working over the back. Martino sells a bearhug well but Buddy's lean forward head tucked bearhug is not his best stuff. Martino finally claps his way out and reverses a corner toss to do endless shoulder thrusts. They do the Dylan-hated headlock/collission spot but here it at least made some sense as they used the headlock as a base so much. A third cross body but this is just a 2 count tease. Martino goes off the ropes and runs right into a HUGE billy robinson backbreaker. Probably the best I've ever seen; super cocky pin and that's the match. Fun stuff, a totally different structure than most 2/3 fall matches we've seen. Shame for the cut though. The way he did the Robinson backbreaker would stand up to any 2013 finisher in the world, I think. It looked huge. Interlude: Rips promos are pretty brutal still. They're very simple with a lot of Either/Ors but his delivery is the clunkiest thing in the world. Buddy is still amazing though. Rose vs Adonis - 2/3 Falls - August 31, 1979 Don Owen is rocking an awesome suit again, but Buddy's robe is even better. Barr bars Rogers from ringside and they have security taking him away. Buddy stalls to begin. Buddy seems desperate to avoid contact at first and humorously crashes into Barr in the corner. When they finally get into it, he keeps taking cheap shots on Adonis only to get hit back hard and back away. They do some good back and forth including buddy eating a great monkey flip and a huge body slam before getting dropkicked out to the floor.He comes back in and tries a slam only to get press slammed by Adonis. This is a well put together first part of a match and Adonis' babyface work really needs more attention from people. Shine ends with a missed splash and buddy hitting a bodyslam backbreaker and a series of killer double stomps. He hits another elbow to the midsection and does a roll through for the first fall. Pretty awesome pinpoint stuff after the missed splash. Good first fall. As with most Portland 2/3 falls matches the second fall continues from the first with Buddy laying in to the stomach including the awesome stomach claw. This is great and just an example of Rose's versatility, as if we need more of that. Adonis is great making it look like death as he fights back. Buddy breaks a comeback by going to the hair and Granny is pissed again. They're really basing this second fall off the stomach claw and I love it. Adonis then goes to the hair and punches his way out which feels like comeuppance on Buddy. Adonis selling, punches Rose out of the ring. Buddy rabbits but Adonis slips in and does a sunset flip on the outside and Barr counts it which is hilarious. Adonis pulls him in and hits a top rope elbow before putting on his finish, the spinning toe-hold for a submission and the second fall. I'm really liking this match. Buddy starts the third fall selling the leg but all over Adonis. He immediately hits the Billy Robinson backbreaker but on his bad knee and he flails around selling it taking forever to get to Adonis who just gauges the hell out of Buddy's eye with no sign that he's about to let go. Vicious looking stuff. Rip Rogers runs out to break it out for the DQ and they start on Adonis' eye. they sell it that someone from the crowd threw a pen at Rose but Rose gets it instead thanks to Rip and nails Adonis the eye in it. Good match, good angle, sets up the next match. The usual great stuff.

Weirdly, you made the good stuff sound pretty good.

And how many times did Warrior just beat the snot out of her between the two?

I really like Lawler on commentary in 1993. He had a lot to offer between the magistrater being so quick and hilarious, the fact he has a joke for everything and some pretty good heel chemistry with Savage where you could sort of tell they had history even if it was never really drawn upon. And it's obvious how big a hit it was when he left and we were suddenly saddled with poor Stan Lane.

Sherri was the hardest worker on the WWF roster in January 1991. I'm not sure anyone even came close.

HHH featuring the Shield is such a great terrible idea.

I wish Bock did more steady announcing in 87-89. What I've heard from him has been great.

Neither here nor there but it's funny how rehearsed Rip seems in his promos around this time. The one where he breaks down Buddy's body from head to toe is particularly weird. Buddy vs Stan Stasiak - 7/28/79 -2/3 falls I've kind of been looking forward to this. I'm not sure why. It might be that Stan has a main event aura to him that a lot of the other guys Buddy's been wrestling with doesn't. This is is a title match and I want to see what Buddy does with it. Hey! the single arm push-ups. I don't think I've seen these in this run of matches. Stan was around 42 here and he definitely had a grizzled look to him. They start with stooging boxing with Buddy praying in the corner, ducking our of the ring, yelling at the crowd and stalling big. Rip comes out to cheer Buddy on. Buddy fears the heart punch and then Dutch comes out to chase Rip away. Buddy gets pissed only to have Adonis get him back in the ring. Once they get Buddy back in he immediately gets punched. It's pretty funny stuff. Buddy takes right over with a cheap knee and starts dismantling Stasiak only to get outpunched again. This is really good Portland First Fall wrestling. Buddy gets in charge again and works a long draping of Stasiak over his knees which is kind of weird but worked well enough. It builds to Buddy really going over the back with knees and stomps and a big slam on the floor which was a big deal spot. Buddy finally hits a huge Billy Robinson backbreaker for the first fall. Good stuff. Stasiak is good enough to keep selling the back into the start of the second fall and Buddy targets it almost immediately. Lots of solid backwork and little flourishes like Buddy pulling Stan's tights to get him down after a brief comeback. They go into the catapult set up bow and arrow over the knees again. It's not the world's best looking submission but given the context of the match and the flailing stasiak selling, it sort of works. Stan hits the rope and a quick knee drop but he's selling like crazy and gets nailed before he can fully recover leading to a Buddy bear hug which is kind of a weird choice. Both guys work it well with Stan going for punches only to get held back by wrenching pain. He finally gets the punch in but Buddy's right back on him. He's selling huge here. Buddy whips him into the corner and hits a huge bodyslam. He goes for it again but Stan reverses it and hits a killer heart punch for the second fall. This is a really good match so far. Between falls Buddy is selling the heart punch like death, literally. Rip starts giving him CPR at one point. Third fall starts with Buddy selling big. Stan's pretty much recovered from the backwork but he's had time to. Buddy's trying everything to avoid contact here. He heads out but gets fast counted back in. Stasiak's offense is all punches here but they look good and it fits his boxing background. This lasts a couple of minutes until Buddy gets a knee up to counter a back body drop. They do some positively 2013 finisher teases where Buddy almost hits the Robinson backbreaker and Stasiak counters by trying to hit the heart punch but Buddy gets out of the ring at the last second. Rip distracts Stasiak but gets hauled away by Dutch and Adonis. Stasiak hits that back body drop and we have three minutes left. Buddy stooges around the ring but gets caught coming back in. Stasiak goes for a third heart punch but Buddy hits the deck and Stan hits the post. Buddy starts on his hand with STasiak's comeback being ineffectual as he has to use his left hand. He finally hits Buddy with a right but hurts his own hand in the process and can't hook the leg. They do the headlock double collision spot that Dylan hates in the third act of a match. Stasiak does this awesome counter to get out of the pin by tapping Buddy on the back making him think that it's Sandy Barr breaking up the pin and time runs out leading to the draw. It didn't have as much zing of hate as some of the other things I've seen but it was a great straightforward TV match. This really highlighted the strength and versatility of the Portland 2/3 falls main event.

I think, and this is going to be a hard thing to really debate, that while part of it was his energy and his selling and his hope spots and pluckiness, some of it was the simple fact that he personally saw himself as a bigger star than he was. I think it had to mess with him a bit when he was tagging with the 1-2-3 Kid at the start of 94 and the crowd was chanting 1-2-3 and not Marty.

Even Axel Curtis would be better.

No, no, it's a sledgehammer on the wall of his office. I can see why you'd be confused.

Once they add JTG to the group, you know they're in trouble. Seriously, though. They will get the depush. No new talent in "WWE" history has survived without it. You can look at everyone from Bryan to Barrett to Sheamus to ADR. New character debuts. Gets over. Is pushed hard. At a certain point they get depushed heavily to see how they'll take it. When pushed again they've immediately become just another guy. In a lot of ways I don't think the Shield should have gotten over. Rollins' in the flack jacket is just a weird visual. There was so much room for them to screw up their six man tag style and it's a miracle that they've been all on the same page and have shown proper cohesion and restraint, especially given the indy bullshit background of two of them. Their whole "justice" purpose is pretty shoddy and they were outright shown to be flunkies for Heyman at one point. Really, there's nothing separating them from the Nexus except for the fact that they've been hugely protected in the ring. It's a lesson of how almost anyone can get over if handled well and almost anything can fall apart if not handled well.

Rose/Rogers vs Starr/Adonis 2/3 Falls - 7/7/79 Buddy and Rip are sporting bandana headbands. For those who care, Rip is clean shaven which looks weird but sort of highlights the physical resemblance between he and Buddy. Pretty sure this for the held up belts. Rose stooges all over for Starr doing a pretty good job flailing about and selling. He eats one killer dropkick after they break up a Rose attempt to interfere. It wasn't so high but he leaned into it. Nice little spot with a begging off Rogers getting pushed from behind by Adonis right into a headlock takeover. Buddy takes a huge looking bump off the screen in a heel miscommunication spot. Faces take out Rose, trying to come back in with charging billy goat headbutts and then Adonis wins fall#1 on Rogers with the spinning toehold. Buddy didn't get in at all. Fun shine. Rip is pretty good at starting falls by selling. In Portland, btw, the person who loses the fall has to start the match and can't tag until there is physical contact. Rip gets pulled right back into the faces' corner. We get some comedy stooging Heel In Peril as Rogers tries to make the tag until Bully runs in and hits. It was pretty entertaining, flailing stuff but this is a fairly big match in context and I think it went on a bit long in general. I really like Adonis FIPs from this era. Rose's stuff looks really good against him and Adonis is great at making desperate comebacks only to get cut off at the last second. It took me a while to really start to buy him as a babyface wrestler but he's really dynamic in these tags. Anyway, Rip cuts him off with a long chinlock/sleeper, which doesn't look great except for the fact that they keep moving with it. I do like the Rip/Rose pairing. It brings out a different dynamic than Rose/Wiskowski (which I of course liked). More energy, some more stooging, a little more desperation, a little less methodological. Here they keep cutting off hope spots by putting on a desperate hold. Starr finally has enough on the outside and comes in. Barr stops him and the heels hit first a double clothesline which Starr manages to break up and then a head-held second rope flying knee strike which looked pretty brutal for the second fall. Third fall has Adonis fighting out of the corner. I really love the structural shortcuts in these 2/3 fall matches. You can get the hot tag at the start of the third fall, which is what we get here. Starr gets in and starts unloading on Buddy but buddy hits a quick cheap shot and they trade blocked atomic drops. Roddy comes out and Buddy collides into him on the apron letting the faces roll him up for the win and the titles. This was a pretty abrupt third fall but felt totally in character for Piper as his sort of punch drunk way of interfering cost the heels the belts and moves us right back to Rose vs Piper which is what the crowd really wanted anyway. Good functional stuff.

It really is amazing how meaningless Mania has become. If I had to choose I'd choose going to the Raw after over Mania itself in a heartbeat.

I would have liked a bit more wearing down and beating on each other personally but it was brisk and interesting at least. not sure I'd call it necessarily good.

The eventual Shield depush is going to be nasty.

Traditionally, I feel like Vince's biggest issue has always been not knowing what to do with their excess money. Part of me thinks that if, instead of screwing around with icoPRO and the WBF and the XFL and the movies, they had created a more robust developmental system or focused even more money into breaking into international markets like it looked like they'd be doing with Shane in Japan or whatever, and just doubled-down on their main product, they would have been so much better off.