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The "I've just watched ..." thread


mikehoncho

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I watched WCW Fall Brawl 1995 last night. Don't recall ever having actually watched it before.

If anyone ever mistakes me for having a good mind for wrestling, or being a semi-competent booker, I should probably point out just how much I enjoy 1995 WCW, and that might change their mind. It's bloody brilliant!

 

Johnny B. Badd versus Brian Pillman is a genuinely brilliant opener, going around half an hour, with Pillman around his peak as an in-ring performer, somewhere on the cusp where "Flyin' Brian" meets "Loose Cannon", and the match in general feeling quite ahead of its time. I don't think I've seen a better Marc Mero match than this - which isn't high praise, admittedly.

Craig Pittman vs. Cobra is a waste of time bit of gimmicky nonsense, but funny to see them using the "rappelling from the rafters" spot for (at best) a career midcarder in a sub-2 minute match, years before it became one of WCW's most iconic visuals.

DDP vs. The Renegade was boring dross - and I'm not really doing a good job of making this sound like a good show, am I?

 

Luckily, it all picked up with Harlem Heat vs. Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater! This was brilliant WCW daftness - Harlem Heat seemed to never have a clean win, but couldn't just grab a handful of tights, it needed to be utterly convoluted. So this one saw Buck and Slater lose the tag belts while Robert Parker was in the second ring, and Sherri Martel fell in love with him, then the Nasty Boys did a run-in for no reason at all. And it was bloody glorious. The Parker/Sherri romance angle is glorious silliness, and I kind of miss weird comedy angles built around non-wrestlers.

Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair is a superb match, the promos building to it are fantastic from both men, and Bobby Heenan on commentary is as good as he ever was in WCW. Everything builds to really feel like this is a hugely significant match, and there's just so much going into it, that even with a screwy finish that doesn't quite work, I'd be hard pressed not to say this could edge close to my all-time favourite matches on a good day.

 

The main event. Oh God, the main event. Full disclosure: I love the Dungeon of Doom. I think they're absolutely everything wrestling should be - just a group of weirdoes and freaks that you can't possibly imagine doing anything else in life. This is superheroes vs. monsters, and it's wonderful. Hogan's team are all done up in camo and military facepaint, because it's Wargames, and I like the effort to make them look like a team and like they've dressed up especially for a big match. The match itself is mostly dross, aside from a funny bit where Zodiac gets stuck in between the two rings, just bouncing off the ropes into Hogan's fist. Hogan in a Wargames match just looks and feels wrong. The Giant runs in after the match and snaps Hogan's neck, while they're still doing the "Andre's son" schtick, and I absolutely bloody love it.

Wrestling needs a Dungeon of Doom. I don't think wrestling gets much better than having a manager leading a stable of heel monsters against an all-conquering babyface. I got really excited to see that Kevin Sullivan is leading a stable called Warbeast in PCW-Ultra, but too many of them are just generic indie big lads, they need a Shark, a Kamala, and a Yeti.

 

I'll leave you with this tremendous promo. Some of the most charismatic lads in wrestling, talking utter shite. And Jimmy Hart's just happy to be there.

 

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20 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Ban him please @Chest Rockwell

People who don't read Off Topic may find that harsh, but a disturbing pattern of wrongness has been established, and Pat's taste in '90s WCW stables is just the icing under the cake.

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After perusing XWT-Classics, I ended up getting a hold of all the old Wrestling Challenge and Superstars weekly shows. Nearly all squash matches, but it's amazing how easy it is to consume compared to the long winded shows we get these days. Me and my young'un have been watching these shows pretty much all week and have loved it, yet we can barely get through a whole episode of Raw nowadays.

Also amazing is how they make every match, every moment and every promo feel important, Heenan and Monsoon are on fire every episode. Cracking stuff.

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I watched the 96 Royal Rumble and it struck me how Shawn Michaels was the template for Kofi Kingston's present role in Rumble matches, in terms of hanging on by the skin of his teeth, except not nearly as contrived.

After being eliminated by Shawn, Diesel throws a sulk and casually batters British Bulldog on his way down the ramp, before Bulldog scampers away tail firmly planted between legs.

Was Bulldog a heel at this point? 

I can't believe he was made to look like such a jobber.

He was still pretty relevant at this point.

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I’m continuing to work through the Network’s top 100 Raw moments. Recently got through 30-20 ish and had some thoughts.

30ish - Ric Flair’s retirement - what a perfect sendoff. It’s just a shame he came out of retirement and rendered it all meaningless. At least it was in TNA so nobody saw or remembers it.

High 20s - Undertaker/Lesnar pullapart - I’d forgotten how well done this was. They’ve tried to recreate it a few times since but it just hasn’t been as good. Worth rewatching to remind yourself. Undertaker’s last great angle?

26 - Roman/Cena shoot promos - this was very high up. I hadn’t seen them before, but there’s no way this should be anywhere near the best ever moments on Raw? Hmm. Even if they’d just swapped it with ‘Bret screwed Bret’ which was at 27 and, although untrue, set the stage for big things down the line, which these promos did not.

25 - Dudleys powerbomb Mae Young through a table - I just don’t understand. How did she live?! I really don’t understand. It can’t just be that she’s mega tough. You can’t do that to an 80 year old woman and not kill her. How did they do it?! How?!?!?

High 20s - Kid beats Razor - amazing to see how much reaction a simple 1-2-3 can produce. The contrast between this and if something similar happened today would be remarkable. You’d probably get a chant and general apathy. This is something special.

19 - Test/Stephanie wedding episode - pretty much the whole episode it seems. What you realise going through this whole list is how heavily the McMahons feature throughout the whole thing.

Now that might be because it’s a WWE list, or it might be because the McMahons always make sure they get the most memorable angles, or maybe they are just the best at everything... I don’t know.

Anyway, it’s nice that Test gets into the top 20 Raw moments because of this. And, via a ‘previously’ video, so does the bit from Rebellion 99 where Bulldog lobs the bin at Stephanie’s head in the epic search for his title shot.

The whole thing is just peak 1999. Test wrestles a match about an hour before his wedding, and walks down the aisle to his entrance music. Restraining orders, vehicle damage, many many backstage vignettes where the camera is invisible. And the whole thing turning out to be Triple H having got Stephanie blind drunk, and married her against her will, as part of the set up for a match with Vince at Armageddon, but it’s okay, because it turns out Stephanie is fine being married to Triple H anyway and ... Attitude didn’t improve when Russo left.

18 videos to go!

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1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

25 - Dudleys powerbomb Mae Young through a table - I just don’t understand. How did she live?! I really don’t understand. It can’t just be that she’s mega tough. You can’t do that to an 80 year old woman and not kill her. How did they do it?! How?!?!?

It's quite smoothly done, but if you watch carefully you can see where the camera cuts and she's replaced by the first Ultimate Warrior, before discreetly switching back during another crowd shot.

Don't listen to anyone who tries telling you it's clearly Shawn Michaels' chin. That just wouldn't make sense.

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The Rock and Triple H's Ironman match.

Another classic.

I heard there was heat against Rock for not preparing adequately, blowing up and getting lost, but personally I thought it was close to perfection; never a dull moment.

Undertaker's interference was allegedly botched, but I didn't think it was that bad.

Some of the modern wrestlers could watch it and learn a thing or two about pacing and psychology and making sure every move means something e.g. Owens, Styles and Rollins.

P.S. Rock's bladejobs are just the worst.

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I used to religiously watch WCW Worldwide on ITV between say 1992 and 1995 when they stopped showing it. It's what originally got me into wrestling along with SummerSlam 89. 

Anyway, I'm sure it's common knowledge on here but somehow I never knew about this until today. 

I don't know how I missed it at the time but Rick Rude vs Vader was supposed to happen at Slamboree in 1994. Supposedly with Rude as babyface? Of course the match didn't end up happening because Rude fucked his back up in that match with Sting in Japan which ultimately ended his career. 

Real shame. I'd have loved to have seen how this would've played out. What was the crack? Was Rude turning full-on face for this? 

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Marc Mero vs Triple H from IYH: Beware Of Dog is quietly one of the best matches of 1996. Mero puts in an insanely good babyface performance, selling the arm, struggling to find a way to fight back and starts wildly throwing out every single move he can think of off the top of his head that doesn't use his arm. Not too big on the slingshot finish, but loved how it came about, Trips need to rub Sable's nose in it and make her watch him win costing him the match. All so simple, all so good.

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