Matt D

I catch about HALF of these notes when I'm bored at work. Most of the US ones, but for the japan ones, about half and missed this one. But Loss PMed me and twisted my arm, so uh... way too long a write up. If you want to skip to my main thoughts, just head to the EDIT at the end. Sorry: I have ZERO context here. I've never seen a UWFI match. I've never seen Gary Albright match, so far as I can tell, and I don't even know who Yamazaki is. No idea. Anyway, let's go. I LOVE Vader and Tenta on the stairs backstage at the beginning. Great image. They get in the ring and Albright has a killer presence to him, while Yamazaki seems the odd man out in the land of the giants. Vader getting pumped up by Tenta's stomping taunt is just awesome and then the second they announce his name he's on Albright, with Tenta being one of the few people in the world I buy holding Vader back. They go to the floor and before the match even begins there's this serious air of excitement. Yamazaki starts with a visceral flurry of kicks and it just decimates Vader; like I've never seen in the opening of a match before. It's shocking and one reason why Vader is so good, because I can't imagine someone like Sid giving like that to a guy so much smaller than him. This isn't 2004 Vader either. This is prime 1994 Vader. The follow up is great too since Yamazaki does okay right until the second the distance gets cut and then WHAM! he's dead. Vader's gut punches in the corner are nasty but what I really loved was the feeling of inevitability once he hit the waistlock. Yamazaki was trying to grasp on to th apron but it didn't matter one bit. That German Suplex was god's will, and Vader even knew it. He wasn't mad from the previous flurry. He wasn't pumped from hitting his big move. The look on his face is purely matter of fact. This is just how nature operates. The large German Suplex the small. You think it's about to all happen again when Vader catches one of the Yamazaki kicks that follow so when he hits the enziguri, it actually has a lot of weight behind it. Very good opening stretch. Everything meant something and nothing was just shrugged off. When Tenta comes in (and the fans seem almost disappointed that Albright doesn't get the tag while things reset), they replay those early leg kicks, but this time, Tenta just shrugs it off and the crowd responds accordingly. Another catch-enziguri, leading to a Yamazaki offensive flurry and I guess a guillotine choke (great camera work to show Tenta fighting to block it from the inside). I'm not sure why they did the repitition except for to show that while the leg kicks didn't work other things he did to Vader would? (EDIT: after finishing the match I, of course, understand the why, well played). Anyway, he powers out and hits some cool hundred hand slaps. Yamazaki keep trying the leg kicks (And Quake is a little more hurt/winded so they work somewhat), but he keeps getting pushed back by those palm thrusts. Tenta just plants himself in the middle of the ring and keeps Yamazaki back. The palm strikes push him into his corner, and while the camera doesn't show it well, the fans' reaction make me figure out the initial story here. Yamazaki has something to proof and keeps refusing Albright wanting to get into the ring. He goes for an armbar once (And Wikipedia says that's his finish!) realizes that it's not going to happen and thinks better of it, rushing over to make the tag. All perfectly logical and sound. Albright takes him down immediately (and yes, Tenta really goes over for him) and the match is suddenly totally different.He tries to get position on Quake who just manages to ooze in the middle of the ring, an imposing human gravitational pull. Quake powers up and uses leverage to toss Albirght and then they fight, first over Tenta's chokes, then with some nasty driving knees to the gut. Albright is super aggressive surprising Tenta by taking the fight to him and when he doesn't back down, but instead calls out Vader, it's enough to make the big man shrug and agree to the tag. I have to admit, after the build within the match, it's a bit anticlimactic. After an initial flurry, Albright single-leg takes down Vader and then goes back to trying to wrestle an advantage upon him, but that's sort of the point. Albright just knows not to go toe to toe with Vader, because Vader charges in again, pummels, and gets taken down, back to the matwork. (Since they're building to a single's match this is smart and makes sense too). And then Albright gets Vader in a waistlock and it has NONE of the inevitability of the one from earlier in the match. Instead there's curiosity and anticipation and when he gets him over, audible gasps and sustained applause. I wish Indy Wrestling worked on a 10 count finish rule. Because when the second German happens, it's only after Vader's down for a number of counts and because of that it's surprising but also meaningful. Vader gets up at 8 or 9, does NOT tag (Because this is about pride), and this time Albright comes to him and he responds with mean looking fists. When Albright gets up, Vader forces the issue (including slapping the ref mildly), and pummels the crap out of Albright. No room for flashy amateur wrestling now. Albright gets back up, and they switch positons out of the corner a few times until Vader tags (which is now fine since he proved what he wanted to). Earthquake picks him up for a huge power slam that almost feels out of place in the match for just how traditional it is, and then slaps on a just as huge Boston Crab. The way he ragdoll moves him back into the center of the ring is just great but Albright keeps twisting to the side which allows him to crawl out and get to the ropes. It's a real simple escape but I'd never seen it before and it looks totally believable despite its simplicity. Quake girths him back into the corner, tagging Vader in, who gives him a bit back suplex leading to not the world's hottest tag. There's some sense that Vader just wants to slam the life out of him and doesn't care about ring positioning like former WWF Tag champion Tenta does, but that's me trying to make sense of a kind of lame hot tag. Yamazaki's superfresh and comes in with another flurry of kicks and then works for a takedown followed immediately by a cool looking heel hook. Vader is just too big though, and rolls to he ropes by his corner. Caught kick. And a DUCKED enziguri in a lovely bit of continuity. The meaning inherit in that callback means that the power bomb that follows is totally believable (more so because it looked like Vader had to work for it a bit) and hey, that's the finish I guess. Works for me. Albright and Vader have another pull apart to finish and then Vader's quite well-spoken in the back. Good match. It came together better than I expected in the end, as a lot of it seemed to be made up of mini stories between the guys in the ring at the time. But it really did come together. Even the lack of the hot tag was fine since that wasn't the sort of story they were telling. To me, Quake absolutely fit, because despite a lack of flashy/technical offense, everything he did was so believable and he had a really solid presence there, even when it was just Albright trying to find SOME position upon him on the mat. I bought that being such a challenge just due to his size and strength. And yes, despite the size difference Yamazaki played his role nicely as well. Glad I saw it, thanks. EDIT: Gave it some more thought now that I know the context. What I like the best about the match is just how much it accomplished while being both logical and exciting. 1.) It got Vader and Tenta's heat back from the loss the week before. 2.) It built anticipation to Albright vs Vader (Challenger vs champion) with the brawls, by showing that Albright could both outwrestle Vader AND get him over in suplexes. 3.) Tenta came out of it looking like a huge imposing force. 4.) Yamazaki came out of it as a scrappy fighter whose kicks let him stand up to guys far larger. He only lost the match because he went back to the same move one too many times. 5.) Vader came out as a dominant monster able to recover so quickly and so dangerously. And this was all from the wrestlers knowing how much to give and how much to take. It wasn't a traditional southern tag, but it managed to accomplish exactly what it was supposed to without sacrificing either logic or excitement. And the crowd ate it up.

Luger had to have huge ring rust here.

Honestly, if you could come up with one match that would be considered the most important one of my youth, it'd either be this or Bret vs Perfect from Summerslam 91.

His knee DISINTEGRATED

I tend to agree with Bill Dundee.

Now THAT I could see happening here. (It's Tully) Alright, granted, I've seen very little 84 NWA, but I think the inherit problem with Tully as TV champ in 85 is that his US title run is basically interchangeable. It feels like a lateral move for him. Part of that is due to the WCW show starting the championship challenge, so he ended up defending the belt a little more on TV than he probably would have, and had matches very similar to his TV title matches. Like I said, I haven't seen much 84 NWA, but I can't imagine his act was better pre-Baby Doll. There are a lot of great choices though.

If they did it as a family unit like the Von Erichs, it could work okay. Hell I could probably come up with a great WWE HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2013 LANNY POFFO video, going on about how he was one of the first (if not the first) published wrestler authors, the suit of armor, Poffomania, how he managed Perfect and the Beverly Brothers, how he was one of the first people to popularize the moonsault in NA. That he's one of the few people with a win over Hogan. They could spin the hell out of it pretty easily.

It does not sound like that, and even then, it makes LESS SENSE. "By the power of myself, I'm the world's smartest man..."? Maybe if it was the power of something else, like Greyskull.

I really hated one part of his poems. when he said.. "By the power of the genius and the world's smartest man," .... it just never fit! Maybe With instead of By. I don't know.

Me too. I think the video game had a huge amount to do with him getting a good reaction, so the timing was good. Hopefully he gets into the HOF next year off of this, and they get Race to put him in. Honestly, I wish there was a role for him, but I just don't buy him as a bodyguard (except for MAYBE in the Corporation Bossman role). I guess he could be the world's most awesome haystacks calhoun. Actually, the only role that I can REALLY buy is the Angelo Poffo/Larry Hennig role for his kid. And hey! Jesse White is absolutely the #4 guy I was looking for. He's the perfect guy to round out the anti-flair legacy coalition.

There's a history component now anyway. I can see us arguing who the greatest TV champion of all time was.

Oh man, big business indian casino Tatanka would have been awesome.

Even then, they never REALLY indicated it wasn't Tito. It was just Tito with a new skill set (and a new finisher which actually was a HUGE boon to his typical match structure). He was still El Matador Tito Santana. Same with the Bulldog. He was still The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith more often than not.

Davey Boy Smith eventually became The British Bulldog when he came back as a single. Jacques Rougeau became just The Mountie (then Jacques, because tag team members never have a last name even though everybody knows who they are). And don't forget the awful Freddie Joe Floyd which was a rib on Brisco, quite humiliating after years of being well known as Tracey Smothers. The Stalker is another historically terrible repackaging, but I think it went the other way around, as they first didn't say his name at all then introduced him as The Stalker Barry Windham since it was obvious, then of course Barry got all Blackjacked up. Barry really never fit in WWF after the US Express deal, he went from bad gimmick to bad gimmicks there. Glad he went back to WCW in 99. I think there's an alternate reality where Patterson talked Vince into using Widowmaker Barry Windham in the Zeus role in 1989 in a King's Court gimmick with Savage, Sherri, and heel Rockers as Sherri's knights. I wish I lived there.

It's also funny how they dropped guys names. It was jarring in 92-93 when someone would, upset, randomly call Perfect "Hennig." and after a couple of months, Kerry Von Erich was no longer a person but just "The Texas Tornado!"

It's interesting. To me, in a lot of ways, the myth of mid-south really overlooks everything that made 1984 work. I think the focus will be on Dibiase, on Duggan, on JYD, maybe Butch Reed and Ladd, maybe Magnum and Wrestling II, maybe Orndorff, Williams, Volkoff, Roberts, the Freebirds, and now that he's back in the fold MAYBE Terry Taylor. You could easily tell A story of Mid-South without the RnRs or the Midnights, without the attempts to remake JYD, without a whole lot of truth and it becomes a nicer neater story.

His shoot is really interesting actually. I heard it while stuck on a train marooned in the snow once. He mentions getting absurd levels of heat in texas to the point where they dialed things back, and I believe that. He has a certain athleticism that Adrian Street did not, but Street had the amazing wrestling and more of an uncomfortable physicality. Poffo was cowardly. Street was coy.

I was tuned out in 96, VERY tuned out. I scramblevision watched Bash at the Beach's main event because of the hype (which is underrated these days. people forget the ad campaign for that) but the only other memory I have of the year was being excited for the idea of Perfect wrestling again.

Obviously someone needs to start a kickstarter project to buy the rights to unseen footage we ALL want to see.

I think even with guys like Arn and Tully, they WERE rebranded. They were the Brainbusters. Heenan was stressed in their success. Tully in WWF wasn't Tully in NWA. It's slight and subtle, but you can tell that thre's a difference in how Vince even talks about them as an announcer. Now The Nasty Boys are just the Nasty Boys.

Honestly, the three words in the english language I never want to see together are "jeff gaylord update"

Could someone look into what Dave said in that interview (the one on Graham's site) about house show takes being cut? We haven't talked about that, right?

in the late 90s, early early 00s, during the boom, those WWF games were HUGE. Just huge social things amongst teenagers.

http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/mehaffy40.htm Nothing earthshattering but it's actually a good sum up of a number of things we've covered here over the years.

it's not even Cole. It's Scott Stanford.