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[1991-01-05-WCW-Saturday Night] Brian Pillman vs Rip Rogers


Loss

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The story here was that Rip wanted a match where falls wouldn't count for the first five minutes. He argues that this is the reason for his losing streak -- it simply takes him a long time to warm up. Interesting that they announce a Flair/Pillman match at the Clash. I never knew that was the original plan. I thought this was an excellent match. It's really the best of all the Rip Rogers matches including the end of '90. I think they were trying to give Rogers a visual fall at the 5-minute mark that wouldn't count because of his own big mouth, but the referee blew the spot. Pillman jumps off the top of the entrance in a great spot! Pillman feuds with the Horsemen and flirts with a main event spot over the next few months, so I'm not sure how wise it was to have him so competitive with Rip Rogers here, but at the same time, the match is really good.

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Pillman feuds with the Horsemen and flirts with a main event spot over the next few months, so I'm not sure how wise it was to have him so competitive with Rip Rogers here, but at the same time, the match is really good.

Pillman was the Rey of the period but WCW was far too stupid to capitalize on this. Like Rey Pillman could be plugged in credibly against anyone on the card and he was completely credible. He stayed over whether he was working Rip Rogers or Ric Flair and the crowd came with him. If WCW wasn't fucking idiotic they would have put him into that sliding scale slot for good and really developed it. Fucking idiots.

 

Also if you liked this wait til you get to the Windham feud

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't really gotten into these Pillman/Rogers matches. I respect the effort, but there's something about Rogers that doesn't quite connect with me. I get that he's playing a moron. Yet I still cringe every time he does the fucking airplane spin. They handled the stip oddly, with Pillman going for a bunch of pins in the opening five minutes. I get doing it once to make it seem like he was thrown off, but again and again? And why did the ref just count them instead of making a show of not counting them? The whole thing just felt off despite some cool stuff from Pillman that got the crowd going.

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I agree that the stipulation was not executed as well as it could have been. Rogers pinning him right before five minutes would have been a nice moment, then have the ref re-count after 5 minutes and PIllman kick out. This featured some big bumps and dives but I think I liked the first Pillman/Rogers match overall better.

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Great stuff on the floor--I'm a sucker for actual wrestling moved and spots being done outside the ring. We have that and a strong finishing sequence, with Pillman cleverly getting Rogers to duck a move from the top, opening him up for a sunset flip. That said, this official (whom I've never seen) completely fucks over the 5-minute stip by counting every pinfall and ruining whatever they were trying to build to.

 

Ross plugs the WCW SEXY WRESTLER CONTEST after this. Z-Man won (spoiler).

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  • 3 weeks later...

Of course Pillman goes for a pinfall attempt in the first 30 seconds. Now I’m confused as they both start doing pinfall attempts on each other and the referee is counting them. Oh! Rogers with the double ax handle off the top rope to the outside and Pillman completely takes out the barricade. The referee seems to not know the rules. Pillman with flying clothesline on top of the entrance way! Pinfall nonsense aside this was pretty good match with some big moves.

 

Here’s your chance to participate in WCW sexiest wrestler poll. Michaels Hayes?

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

I agree that having Pillman so competitive with Rogers was a mistake if they were trying to build him toward a showdown with Flair. Od course, once Dusty took over, the plan was changed, and I'm not so sure that that wasn't for the best, considering that Brian had all he could do here to escape with his life against a lower midcarder at best. Yes, the work was good, but it shouldn't have had to be. This should have been bing, bang, boom, and out in under a minute. Forget the crazy "falls don't count for five minutes" stuff and allow Rip to be squashed for once.

 

I don't think the ref blew any spots here. I got the impression that this was supposed to a Texas death type of match in that you could pin your opponent all you wanted to and the ref would count it for you, but it wouldn't end the match until after five minutes had passed. JR did a horrible job of explaining it if that was the case, but I find it hard to believe that they would allow such obvious incompetence to stand on national television if the referee had messed up. This was well past the time when redoing matches was accepted practice when necessary.

 

I'm guessing that Dusty simply wanted to make his own Clash main event, which is why Scotty was subbed in against Flair and the mini-angle was shot at the Meadowlands. But why Scotty instead of, say, Sting (who was theoretically owed a rematch as the former champion)?

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  • 1 year later...

The stipulation is kind of wonky and probably could have been put over better if it was just worked into the match naturally, like Rogers knows he's a slow starter so he has to really stooge and prevent being pinned that way. Despite that though, I really liked this one, and it might be my favorite of their feud? I don't think I've seen the guardrail fall over like that before, that looked pretty rough. More hard hitting fast action, I can't complain.

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  • 1 year later...

Good match despite the ridiculous 180 they did on the stip. They only tried to pin each other for the first 5 minutes, when id didn't count. Then when it counts there were exactly 0 near-falls leading to the Pillman win. Beautiful. The Pillman dive from the stands was sweet, as was his signature bump (although that was a little scary).

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  • GSR changed the title to [1991-01-05-WCW-Saturday Night] Brian Pillman vs Rip Rogers
  • 1 year later...

Rip has a stipulation added that no pinfalls count within the first five minutes, but Brian goes for pins and the referee counts them anyways. They also brawl outside the ring for what felt like minutes and the referee refused to start counting them out.  Dodgy officiating aside, Brian's quick pace keep me entertained and I quite like Pillman faking out Rip before hitting a sunset flip to get the win. Dumb stipulation, solid wrestling. 

★★¼

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