[1992-05-30-WCW-Saturday Night] Great Muta vs Brad Armstrong (2/3 falls)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The match where Scott Keith pulled some statement out of his ass that this was ****1/2 and a great example of "improvising a match with five minutes notice", or whatever he said. No clue where he even got that, or if he just made it up like he does most other things he said. This needed to go on the yearbook, as it has developed a little bit of a reputation based on that, but this is an incredibly long, boring match. Muta never put out in the U.S. after the '89 run. Ross and Rachtmann seem aware that Muta is holding back and try to cover for it. The last 30 seconds of the first fall see some action and are sort of fun, but everything else in the first fall is throwaway material. The second fall is a little better, but not really up the potential of what these guys could do if Muta was coming to work. I'm not sure why I included this on the old DVD club disc.

[Tim Evans]

If you want to beat a case of Insomnia, just watch this match. Only thing i liked about it was Rachtmann's commentary.

[FLIK]

I liked this more then both of you. Matches built around solid, very basic traditional matwork has always been something i've enjoyed, atleast in small doses and when i'm in a certain mood. It sure as hell isn't ****1/2, not something i'd actually say is worthy of being on a set like this either, maybe around *** if you want to toss around snowflakes but either way, I enjoyed it well enough. They could have done more but I wasn't bored or disapointed by what they did do.

 

Only thing i liked about it was Rachtmann's commentary.

Paraphrasing

JR early on "these 2 are very familiar with each other, Brad's wrestled him over in Japan before"

20 seconds later from Ratchman "Brad has no clue what he's in store for here"

 

Aside from that bit of goofiness, Rachtmann was pretty damn awesome on commentary actually. Would have dug having him around as a regular.

 

Also, really weird seeing both guys come out to no music.

[shoe]

This was long. It had some cool stuff in it, but overall, misses the mark. Almost like the longest squash match possible. I too liked Rachtman here, and he was by far the best of the bunch of guest commenators we have had so far. He came across as a fan of the '"sport".

[BackToBionic]

If it had been one fall, they may have been able to condense it into a watchable match.

[El-P]

Funny I may like this more than most then. I thought it was a good match with a lot of really smooth exchange. That said, Brad Armstrong, if solid as hell, has never been the most exciting wrestler in that he never gets to the next level. The more I watch him, from any era, be it the 80's or 90's, the more I think there's no reason he should have been pushed more than he has. As far as Muta goes, well, I'll admit it, I'm a big Muta fan, he's a guy I never get bored of watching. Love his maneurism, his explosive burst, his facials. It was pretty much a clean Muta match, did felt like a prolongued competitive squash, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Calling it a great match is smoking something illegal though. I thought it was a good little TV match than went too long but I blame Brad more than Muta for the dullness at points.

[Kevin Ridge]

Too long. Should have been just one fall. Feel likes they are starting to wear out the 2 out of 3 falls match at this point. Wasn't bored like some of you but more indifferent to things. Thought Ricky was one of the better of the guest commentators. Not that he had much competition.

[Zenjo]

This is such an insult to Muta, having to go so long against a Jabroni like Armstrong.

[WingedEagle]

I like Muta in the right setting and Armstrong is not someone you'd ever say is boring, but man was this ever slow and boring. I understand they were having 2/3 falls main events every week, but you can do that without dragging them out like this. Served no purpose and no one came out of the match looking better. The highlight here are promos from Windham & Arn setting up next week's main event.

 

**1/4

[PeteF3]

This loses marks off the bat from the lack of awesome Muta entrance music. I've found it really bizarre that this quasi-TNT format change with celebrity hosts would include all these super-long 2/3 fall matches with non-wrestling announcers would have to commentate on. Big mixed message being sent. You'd never see the WWF forcing us to listen to a football player for hours at a time on any show.

 

There is some good stuff here and the basics are all done well, and Muta does get over pretty well by the end of the match, but dear Lord is it a chore to sit through 30 minutes of this at a time. This could have been a very good match in about 1/3 of the time. Muto is a strong candidate for Most Unimproved Wrestler at this point of the year.

[MikeCampbell]

I watched this the first time on Will's Brad Armstrong comp way back when, and watching it again here didn't help matters at all.

 

I am curious about the whole "five minutes notice" myth though, because it *IS* WCW, where such disorganization isn't exactly uncommon. According to Graham's site, the match was taped on the same night as the prior week's 2/3 Falls six man on May 11th. So, I guess it's possible that someone forgot to post the lineup, or left it off the lineup until it was coming up and the agents and such were scrambling wondering where Brad and Muta were at, which would also explain no entrance music if the guys in the truck weren't expecting it.

 

Of course, how exactly does this get to be even a little bit known, unless it's something that Dave would have reported?

[Loss]

Also, even if it was true, wrestlers call matches in the ring all the time, so I don't see what the big deal is.

[MikeCampbell]

Also, even if it was true, wrestlers call matches in the ring all the time, so I don't see what the big deal is.

Brad said in his ROH Shoot, that he always preferred to call things in the ring, so I'd be surprised if it wasn't.

[Brian Elliott]

This is such a disappointing match that I had to comment on it. Probably the most basic match either ever had, stretched out over 30 minutes.

 

A match I'll remember for a long time, and not for the right reasons.

 

Is there a reason it made the set?

[garretta]

This is my first exposure to the two-out-of-three fall main events on WCWSN. Let's see what they look like:

 

First fall: Holy cow, was this ever boring. There had to be a miscommunication somewhere along the line, because I've never seen a first fall in a two-out-of-three paced like this. I'm honestly wondering if they forgot themselves and were trying to work a classic babyface scientific draw, then realized about eighteen minutes in that they had about twelve more minutes to score three falls.

 

I've certainly seen better from Muta, but at least he (presumably) has the excuse of coming in from Japan. If ever someone wants to know why Brad gets the rap he does, show them this match. His lack of pep here is totally inexcusable. He and Muta should have each pulled out every highspot that worked in their Japanese encounters and used them all here in an effort to tear down the house. Instead we get nearly twenty minutes of matwork that goes absolutely nowhere. When even Randy Rachtmann can tell you're dogging it, you're in big trouble.

 

JR tries to explain it all as strategy, and mixes in a few shills to keep the audience from falling asleep. Rachtmann at least knows enough about wrestling to sound halfway intelligent, and even throws in an NHL reference which JR either can't figure out (not surprising, since he's from Oklahoma and has spent most of his life working in non-NHL markets) or chooses to no-sell. It takes two small packages from Muta to cop the first fall, and this is almost certainly going to end up a time-limit draw unless some major aspirations are put in gear posthaste.

 

Muta's previous stint in WCW is almost, but not quite, ignored, and the impression I get is that we were originally supposed to believe that this is Muta's first major match in the States ever. To his credit, JR realizes that that's ludicrous and does a nice job putting over Muta's 1989 winning streak.

 

Second fall: The action's a little faster-paced, but not much. The only thing of any real consequence that happens outside of Muta's winning pin is that he appears to knock himself silly headbutting Brad, and injure his eye to boot. Typical of Brad in this match, he either can't or won't follow up. At least we got to see Muta hit the handspring elbow and the moonsault, which are always worth the price of admission on either side of the Pacific.

 

Again, it's Rachtmann who calls Brad out on his lack of energy here, and I'm wondering if the reason Brad half-assed it is because he was booked to lose two straight to a guy who was in and out of WCW so often during this time that he wasn't part of any storylines or even mentioned on television. That wouldn't jibe with all we've heard about what a consummate pro he is, but the only other explanation is that he wasn't physically up to par. Regardless, it's hard to fathom why Corny wanted him as the top face in SMW if he was capable of pulling stinkers like this on the national stage.

 

On an unrelated note, WCW loves to put together teams that have never teamed before to represent New Japan on its big shows. I've never seen Hase and Nogami together before, certainly not on this set, and yet they're the number two seed in the NWA tag title tournament? How about the actual IWGP champions, Vader and Bam Bam, or if you want to save Vader for Sting, how about a team like Muta and Hase, who have actually worked together before? I guess they figures that it really didn't matter, since only diehard fans would know either man, or any New Japan guy other than Muta for that matter.

[dawho5]

I like the old school matwork, but after the finish I am a little puzzled by the need to take that long for fall 1.  Did they not know how much time they had?  J.R> & Rachtman for the most part work really well together and I wouldn't mind seeing Rachtman back.  One good thing about the slow mat wrestling is that it gives JR a chance to really shine on commentary.  He is at his absolute best when calling a scientific mat wrestling match. 

I get why Brad never got past the midcard despite the skillset.  I do recall a match where he was playing heel in a costume and showed a ton of personality though.  maybe he needed a weird masked gimmick to get him to the next level.