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

[wandshogun09]

They had a couple of matches on PPV in 93. Halloween Havoc again and I think Starrcade. They were fine but I didn’t think they were especially great given who was involved and compared to the 91 match. The main memory I have is one of them being a 2/3 Falls match that just ended really flat with Austin going 2-0 with one being a DQ and the other being something shit like a small package. Not bad matches but not as good as I thought they’d be. Post-91, their best stuff was in tags, IMO. Austin/Rude vs Rhodes/Windham from Great American Bash 92 being a highlight for me. Vaguely recall one on Saturday Night that I liked better than their PPV matches in 93 as well. 

[IronSheik]

I just watched the mid 90s match between Owen Hart and Shawn Michaels where they work a mysterious head injury and black out of HBK in the middle of the match which brings it to a premature end.

Owen and Jim Cornette work it very authentically. Commentator Vince takes off the headset and enters the ring then medical staff. Good execution from all concerned.

Edited May 29, 2020 by IronSheik

[Wrasslin]

1 hour ago, IronSheik said:

I just watched the mid 90s match between Owen Hart and Shawn Michaels where they work a mysterious head injury and black out of HBK in the middle of the match which brings it to a premature end.

Owen and Jim Cornette work it very authentically. Commentator Vince takes off the headset and enters the ring then medical staff. Good execution from all concerned.

Except Hebner - who of course just kicks Michaels a few times to see if he'll wake up.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Wrasslin

[Version1.0]

Tazz vs Al Snow ... on PPV in a standard singles match.

I totally forgot this ever happened. It was not good. Al dominated most of the match.

Fully Loaded 2000

Edited May 30, 2020 by Version1.0

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Watched New Year's Revolution from 2005.

Very much a one match card, with the Elimination Chamber. The rest of the card was pretty dire, although I think that the injuries to Eugene and Lita may have hampered the card somewhat, the latter match in particular I feel was ended abruptly due to the injury, which looked pretty nasty.

On to Royal Rumble 2005 now, apparently there is a bad injury in the Royal Rumble match as well....

[Devon Malcolm]

Clash of the Champions XVII

Starts off with a Big Josh vs Thomas Rich lumberjack match that had no right to be as much as fun as it did. Rich is now in the Yorke Foundation, which must be a blessed relief for the poor sod after two years of being booed as a babyface. Josh continues his winning streak!

Then if you want an indication of how shit someone is, it's if they can't have a good match with Bobby Eaton. Bobby looks fucking fed up with Firebreaker Chip and can't be arsed carrying him after a while, so they wrap it up with a bridged suplex that Chip kicks out of well before 3. Bobby walks off. Not good.

Z-Man finally won a match, cheating to beat the Diamond Studd who then batters him after the match. Quite right too.

Steve Austin tried to carry PN News to a decent TV title match, couldn't, and so cheats a win out of him after about five minutes.

Somewhere around this time, Sting got battered by Luger coming out of another bloody box. But Sting did get felt up by Madusa for his troubles so every cloud. There's a fan in the front row who gets told off for holding a sign telling Madusa his hotel room number and that he's left a key outside for her. Worth a try!

Cactus Jack beat Van Hammer in a crap match. Can't be arsed saying anything else about this.

Then Dustin Rhodes revealed his surprise! tag partner Ricky Steamboat to face The Enforcers for the tag titles. The place went fucking NUTS. It's a really good match but something irks me about it and that is that the hot tag wasn't to Steamboat. Why?! The roof would have fucking flown off. The babyfaces win but The Enforcers aren't happy!

Johnny B. Badd apparently passed muster for a light-heavyweight title match against Flyin' Brian. Yeah fuckin right. Not much here aside from Badd splitting from Teddy Long at the end.

Sting hobbles to the ring in time, having made it back from a Medical Facility, to defend the US title against Rick Rude. Rude wins after loads of cheating and with Sting on one leg. If you thought Paul Heyman usually looks like he stinks, you should see how drenched with sweat he is in the interview afterwards. Must be honking.

Rick Steiner got thrown a world title match against Luger, and it's a good one, as you'd expect before Luger smacks him with the belt for the win.

Starrcade Lethal Lottery next. Uggggggghhhhhh.

[wandshogun09]

I still can’t believe Madusa was with Greg Valentine around this time. Can only assume she’d heard the talk of his stamina and only getting warmed up after 30 minutes because he looked like a melted waxwork of Barney Rubble at the best of times. 

[Devon Malcolm]

Starrcade 1991

Ugh, why did they feel the need to lumber Starrcade with a shitty tag team gimmick. Sodding Lethal Lottery.

Starts off with WCW Rookie of the Year (1991-ongoing) Marcus Alexander Bagwell teaming with Jimmy Garvin against Michael PS Hayes and Tracy Smothers. Felt like it went on for fucking ever. Bagwell and Jimmy Jam won, I fell asleep.

Steve Austin and Rick Rude vs Big Josh and Van Hammer felt even longer. There was a funny spot when Josh went to do the log rolling spot on Rude and he no sold it. Otherwise a bloody snooze.

Rhodes and Morton went against Zbyszko and El Gigante. Larry made this match by trying to bark instructions at Gigante who didn't understand any of them. The blondes won with a double drop-kick that both of them missed.

Bill Kazmaier and Jushin Liger beat DDP and Mike Graham in a match which is still going on now. Some decent stuff between Liger and Graham but this was about three decades too long.

Then, surprisingly, Luger and Arn squeezed past Terry Taylor and The Z-Man in a genuinely good match. Taylor looked actually good here which I'm going to assume is from Arn / Lex magic. But I actually liked this.

The next two matches were made by Abdullah the Butcher though. It was supposed to be Cactus Jack and Buddy Lee Parker vs Steamboat and bloody Todd Champion. But Abby got confused, thought he should be Cactus's partner, and beat the absolute shit out of Buddy. Who then, hilariously, did a slow crawl to the ring, got some loud chants, and promptly got pinned. Then Cactus beat him up. Superb!

Then Abby was actually in a match partnering Sting against Pillman and Bobby Eaton. This match was fucking nuts. Abdullah beat the shit out of Sting, so Pillman fought Abdullah off him. Then Eaton started attacking Pillman. And it was like this the whole match. This is the sort of thing they should have done more of in this stupid event. A tag match where everyone's beating up their own partners.

Vader and Mr. Hughes beat Rick Steiner and The Nightstalker in a match which I could only describe as fucking dump. Nobody knew what the fuck they were doing, nobody knew what was happening at the end, and nobody seemed to care. A total mess.

Scott Steiner and Firebreaker Chip beat Arachnaman and Johnny B. Badd. Wasn't as good as I was hoping for considering Armstrong and Freakzilla's presence but it was still passable.

Ron Simmons and Thomas Rich, with his slicked back hair and crack addict eyes, beat Steve Armstrong and PN News. God this was fucking boring. When does PN News go away, honestly I'm sick of his stupid outfits.

The Battle Royal, with the two rings, was obvious turd. Even JR and Tony Schiavone didn't know what was happening half the time. Then Luger botched the ending as well.

Just take this event out the back and shoot it in the head. I'm never watching it again.

[gmoney]

PN News genuinely has no appeal whatsoever. He's absolutely horrible to look at and is one of the slowest rappers I've ever heard. Men on a Mission are 10 times the act he was and they were still cat shit. 

[Bellenda Carlisle]

My internet wasn't working properly so I watched a pack of 12 Masato Tanaka v Mike Awesome ECW matches I had, I really enjoyed them even though all the matches are identical. 

I like Mike Awesome, his physique and athleticism are crazy and his face looks like a cross between Roddy Piper and British Bulldog. Tanaka's spot of taking brutal chairshots to the head all the time looks so shit now.

Their match at One Night Stand was great but after watching all the earlier matches it was a bit sobering seeing Mike weaker and in worse shape and knowing it's not a happy ending for him not long after.

Joey Styles says "It's a shame he didn't succeed in taking his own life" about Mike on commentary at one point in that match as well which was a bit rough. A much better bit of commentary was in one of the earlier matches when Cyrus went; "Yeah baby does Francine make you horny?" In Austin Powers' voice for no reason other than it was 1999.

[WyattSheepMask]

OTT Wrestling have just released a ‘National Stadium Showcase’ compilation. Some really good matches on there and runs just under 2rs40mins. Matches included are:

* Timothy Thatcher v Minoru Suzuki (OTT Fourth Year Anniversary)

* Session Moth Martina & Kay Lee Ray v The Angel Cruzers (OTT Being The Elite)

* The Kings of the North v The Lads from the Flats (OTT Scrappermania 3)

* Jordan Devlin v Mark Haskins (OTT Being The Elite)

* Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks v Will Ospreay, Ryan Smile and Lio Rush (Scrappermania 3)

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by WyattSheepMask

[CleetusVanDamme]

9 hours ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

Tanaka's spot of taking brutal chairshots to the head all the time looks so shit now.

I hate seeing Awesome get him with the chair-shot from the top rope, full blast. They were having the same match on fucking house shows! I have no idea how Tanaka's brain isn't liquid at this point.

[Devon Malcolm]

Clash of the Champions XVIII

This was definitely one of the better CotC.

It started with the Steiners vs Vader and Mr. Hughes. It strikes me, watching Vader's early days in WCW, that it wasn't until he got together with Harley Race that he started to be the Vader we all recognise. And like most of Vader's matches, part of the fun was watching Harley bumping like he was 20 years younger. Four big bastards twatting each other, splendid, with the Steiners winning.

Bagwell and Flyin' Brian then beat Tracy Smothers and the Taylor Made Man. This was actually a pretty decent match although I realised, watching this one, that too many guys did flying crossbodies in this era of WCW. Still, at least it's better than superkicks.

Johnny B. Badd beat Richard Morton. This was going ok until the end when Badd reversed a crossbody (told you) and it just wasn't a pin at all and half the crowd didn't realise it was over.

PN News then beat DDP. News had his stupid Yo Baby Yo outfit back on. Amazing to think where DDP would end up going with his career after jobbing to this dipstick.

Cactus Jack and Van Hammer then had a fucking mad brawl that went out into a bloody stable that was near the arena. Missy Hyatt ended up in a horse trough. Abdullah the Butcher started battering both of them. This was great.

The Freebirds then beat Brad Armstrong, now free of his spider powers, and Big Josh. The crowd absolutely hated Josh doing the log roll. This wasn't nearly as good as I expected, surprisingly. The Freebirds didn't look arsed at this point.

Vinnie Vegas then defeated Thomas Rich with a tiger feint crucifix armbar in a 35 minute classic. Oz who?

Rhodes, Windham and Simmons then beat Arn, Larry and Bobby in a superb six man tag. Arn and Bobby are tag champions now. Stop doing title changes on house shows, you knobs. Barry then cut a superb promo afterwards, something he was always underrated with.

Jesse Ventura was on commentary for the first time in WCW for the final match. He was introduced earlier in the night to a mixed reception and poor Tony Schiavone didn't look best pleased. But he was still superb for the main event, which ended weirdly as both Steamboat and Sting pinned Steve Austin at the same time, which enraged Body. There was a great spot in this where Steamboat and Sting did the heel team trick of not tagging, with the crowd lying through its teeth telling Nick Patrick they did tag. Rick Rude did some marvellous atomic drop selling as ever. Top match.

Good stuff.

Superbrawl II next!

[BomberPat]

I don't know what the conventional opinion on Jesse in WCW was, other than JR being stubborn and refusing to work well with him, but I thought he was doing some of his best work there. Even when it's clear he doesn't know the product all that well, he really tries to make sense of what's going on and get the story over to the audience in a way that's lost on most colour commentators.

[Devon Malcolm]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I don't know what the conventional opinion on Jesse in WCW was, other than JR being stubborn and refusing to work well with him, but I thought he was doing some of his best work there. Even when it's clear he doesn't know the product all that well, he really tries to make sense of what's going on and get the story over to the audience in a way that's lost on most colour commentators.

He was superb during the Liger vs Pillman match at the start of Superbrawl 2. He comes into it saying he doesn't know much about Liger but that he's looking forward to seeing him, and puts him over increasingly as the match progresses. He was great especially during babyface vs babyface matches when he called it evenly as sometimes he would go a bit too heel-ish during regular matches.