Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[El-P]

The Sandman's retirement match at Janela's Sprink Break was the clusterfuck it needed to be. Although like everytime on Janela's shows, it went overboard. Cut the middle part of the match and only do the Invisible men bits (keep Missy Hyatt showing up because come one, although it looked awful it was cool to have her), the HILARIOUS hundred ref run ins and the awesome Mick Foley appearance (yes) and it would have been perfect. Then again, perfection for Sandman would have been wrong. 

Brodie Lee Jr. vs Joey Janela was as good as you'll see a 14 years old work an epic main event match. Give Janela tons of credit for this (he's still underrated), but Brodie looked great for what it was. Maybe if he's serious about it he can be the next Nick Wayne, teenage prodigy. Chris Bey showing up was cool, it's always cool to see Chris Bey walking around. 

Jack Perry teaming with Marko Stunt was tons of fun too.

Masata Tanaka is 53. How the fuck does he looks and works so *great* still ? 

Show was overall way too long though and really it doesn't hit like it used too, as the context is very very different from 7-8 years ago. Effy vs Allie Katch was pretty horrendous, the Atticus Cogar vs Hayabusa match was kinda there, it was odd for me to see Hayabusa II as I was a huge FMW fan back then but he has the blessing of Ezaki's family and looks decent at it (but nothing special either, although I probably should not judge from an Atticus Cogar match). The one thing that is obvious watching these indy shows on Mania weeks is that really, unlike years ago, most of the best talent is already signed or featured one way of another in a major company.

Josh Barnett basically saying it was the end of Bloodsport for now and making vague reference about keeping his integrity tells me some shady WWE business was going on. The latest shows, which I passed on, was tons of WWE people, which really negated this idea of cool super indy matches in a shoot-style environment. I always came off feeling the the Bloodsport shows were better on paper than execution anyway. There was usually 2-3 really cool matches, but also tons of tedious stuff on these. Oh well. Maybe he'll just do straight WWE Bloodsport next year for Mania week-end.... (see what I did there)

[C.S.]

5 hours ago, JRH said:

There's also the option that he decides to go back to the WWF around 1996 or so so he can wrestle Austin and Vader again (as well as matches against Owen, Bulldog, or even Shawn Michaels).

I don't see that happening, for a couple of reasons:

1. Vince McMahon was clearly never really a Steamboat fan - at least not to the same degree.

2. Vince Russo definitely wouldn't have been.

"Learn how to cut a promo, bro."

"Turn heel, bro, because swerve, bro."

"Join The Oddities, bro."

[ohtani's jacket]

Yeah, Steamboat in the WWF in 1996 wouldn't have ended happily. His retirement basically coincided with the end of his style of wrestling. He may have been able to extend things in 1995, but honestly, he would have been better in the indies post 1994, similar to how the Rock 'n' Roll Express were better whenever they popped up in the indies than in the big two. If Smokey Mountain had continued that may have been an option. Heyman would have surely brought him into ECW. They basically used everyone in the Monday Night Wars, so there's a chance he would have featured alongside Luger & Co. as the defender of WCW, but we all know how that was booked. If he made it to the Invasion, he probably would have fared better in 2000s WWE than mid-90s WWF.

[Chess Knight]

Steamboat on late 90s WCW syndicated shows being put in random matches with Finlay and Kaz Hayashi and Villano IV would have ruled.

[TheBean]

You know, I was actually thinking Steamboat in ECW could have been a possibility but yeah SMW seems more likely in terms of finding some success. I definitely like the idea of him working WWF with Vader & Owen. It probably would have been short lived. And him working Saturday Night and Thunder here and there with those guys would have ruled. It makes me think of the Larry Z vs Regal stuff in '94. He comes out of semi-retirement to teach some guy a lesson for a summer program 🙂

[JRH]

It would be a definite styles clash, but I'd like to see what Steamboat could have done with Raven (either in ECW or WCW).

[sek69]

I think Raven would have been smart enough to put something together that would have been pretty great.