Dai Posted January 17 Posted January 17 17 hours ago, wandshogun09 said: Two hour Mike Awesome compilation has gone up today. Had a skim through and, as you’d expect, it’s almost all matches featuring Masato Tanaka. Other ones are his ECW matches against Spike Dudley, New Jack and 2 Cold Scorpio, and his WCW match against Bam Bam Bigelow at Starrcade. You kind of have to include some Tanaka stuff if you’re doing a Mike Awesome comp but I’d have liked to have seen a bit more variety in this one myself. There’s got to be some more fun and lesser seen TV matches and fancam stuff they could’ve thrown in. I’ve never seen the Scorpio match so I’ll be giving that a look but apart from that, it’s matches we’ve all probably seen countless times. Oh well. I do love that match with Spike from Guilty As Charged 2000 though. Pretty much an extended squash match, which is kind of odd as a PPV main event, but stupidly entertaining to watch Awesome launch him all over the place. I’ve said it before though, for all the table spots, chair shots, nasty bumps and stiff clotheslines in that match, this for me is easily the most brutal bit of the match… Big Mike obviously underestimated the amount of beer, sweat, piss and god knows what other fluids (bodily or otherwise) that concrete was slick with. Horrible landing. Is there much more from Awesome though? Crazy to think because his matches with Tanaka are legendary, but with the exception of one Spike match, it seems like everything else he did was completely forgettable. Awesome might be a very unique case where his entire career is defined by matches with just one wrestler. His WCW and WWF runs are non events through no fault of his own, but even during his peak ECW run, there doesnt seem to be a whole lot. Ive seen him against Kid Kash and Rhino during this run, but they were nothing to write home about. Then he seemed to waste time pissing around in a tag with Raven against the likes of Dreamer/Tanaka and the Impact Players, all of which is a bunch of nothing. Very bizarre career, when you think of it. How do you have a best of Mike Awesome and not start with the JT Smith squash as well? Thats as famous as the Tanaka matches. Theres a bunch of other Tanaka matches they left off too, most noticeably the TNN match which most people agree is the best match they had. I seem to remember his best WCW match was against Kanyon on PPV, too. The bump Scorpio did for the finish was insane in that match too, even moreso considering he must have been under a WWF contract at the time. Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 17 Paid Members Posted January 17 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dai said: Crazy to think because his matches with Tanaka are legendary, but with the exception of one Spike match, it seems like everything else he did was completely forgettable. Awesome might be a very unique case where his entire career is defined by matches with just one wrestler. His WCW and WWF runs are non events through no fault of his own, but even during his peak ECW run, there doesnt seem to be a whole lot. Ive seen him against Kid Kash and Rhino during this run, but they were nothing to write home about. Then he seemed to waste time pissing around in a tag with Raven against the likes of Dreamer/Tanaka and the Impact Players, all of which is a bunch of nothing. Very bizarre career, when you think of it His run in ECW was surprisingly short, to be fair. He was only there full time from September 99 to March 2000! If ECW wasn't a mess, if Awesome had stuck around and if RVD hadn't of got injured in January (three big ifs) he would have had loads of good potential opponents (RVD, Sabu, Jerry Lynn, Tajiri, Steve Corino, Sandman, Super Crazy) and could have had a pretty epic run. Edited January 17 by LaGoosh Quote
WyattSheepMask Posted January 17 Posted January 17 (edited) 14 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: His run in ECW was surprisingly short, to be fair. He was only there full time from September 99 to March 2000! If ECW wasn't a mess, if Awesome had stuck around and if RVD hadn't of got injured in January (three big ifs) he would have had loads of good potential opponents (RVD, Sabu, Jerry Lynn, Tajiri, Steve Corino, Sandman, Super Crazy) and could have had a pretty epic run. Was talking with a friend last night after we watched the compilation, and we came to the conclusion that Mike was tailor made for ECW. His act was never going to work above a certain level in WCW or WWF because the top guys would never be taking those kind of bumps (Mrs McCool famously didn’t want to work with him during the Invasion for that very reason) but in ECW, despite being the “smart workrate crowd” of the time, give them big move after big move for 10 minutes and they absolutely lapped it up. Edited January 17 by WyattSheepMask Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 17 Paid Members Posted January 17 Also Mike was huge in ECW. In WCW and WWE in that time period his size/physique was nothing special or standout. People say his ECW matches didn't have psychology but those people are buffoons. A huge coked up steroid maniac in an environment with no rules? Why wouldn't he just absolutely murder everyone instantly with endless powerbombs, chair shots and chucking fools through tables?! Makes way more sense than him doing limb work or whatever. I loved the man. The Spike Dudley match is a masterpiece. He had the best theme song around. Quote
Dai Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Shocking to find out his main ECW run was so short! Crazy. I agree about the Spike match. Someone on here years ago described it well, where it was a case of turning a traditional match on its head, and doing everything backwards. Just checked Cagematch, and he was in FMW as far back as 1990, which I find shocking. Pretty much from 1991 he was there full time by the looks of it. A month before The Undertaker debuted in WWF, Awesome was in a main event in FMW against Onita, which I cant get my head around. In all the years of tape trading and discussion, nothing in all these years of FMW are talked about with Awesome, either. A black hole of a full time career spanning most of the 90s. Ill throw this match in here as well as a nice addition to that comp. Kobashi vs Awesome from NOAH is probably some of his best work, with Kobashi bumping like a mad man for Mike. That German suplex where he lands on his head is particularly nasty. Quote
Kamaras-Tash Posted January 17 Posted January 17 19 hours ago, wandshogun09 said: Two hour Mike Awesome compilation has gone up today. Had a skim through and, as you’d expect, it’s almost all matches featuring Masato Tanaka. Other ones are his ECW matches against Spike Dudley, New Jack and 2 Cold Scorpio, and his WCW match against Bam Bam Bigelow at Starrcade. You kind of have to include some Tanaka stuff if you’re doing a Mike Awesome comp but I’d have liked to have seen a bit more variety in this one myself. There’s got to be some more fun and lesser seen TV matches and fancam stuff they could’ve thrown in. I’ve never seen the Scorpio match so I’ll be giving that a look but apart from that, it’s matches we’ve all probably seen countless times. Oh well. I do love that match with Spike from Guilty As Charged 2000 though. Pretty much an extended squash match, which is kind of odd as a PPV main event, but stupidly entertaining to watch Awesome launch him all over the place. I’ve said it before though, for all the table spots, chair shots, nasty bumps and stiff clotheslines in that match, this for me is easily the most brutal bit of the match… Big Mike obviously underestimated the amount of beer, sweat, piss and god knows what other fluids (bodily or otherwise) that concrete was slick with. Horrible landing. WWE wouldn't have the rights to any of the Fancam stuff would they? Sure that's all owned by RF Video. Not sure if they might have been able to get access to his FMW run god knows who owns that but he had some crackers over there. Quote
Dai Posted January 19 Posted January 19 Another strange one from the Vault. A mid 99 WCW event, with shite set, but a massive crowd. Thought those things never went together. Same place as where WM 17 was, apparently, and it looks like even in the middle of 1999 it sold a shit load of tickets. Bizarre to see a Bobby Eaton entrance from a massive Nitro show in 1999. Plenty of rubbish on this show, too. Quote
Chili Posted January 19 Posted January 19 1 hour ago, Dai said: Another strange one from the Vault. A mid 99 WCW event, with shite set, but a massive crowd. Thought those things never went together. Same place as where WM 17 was, apparently, and it looks like even in the middle of 1999 it sold a shit load of tickets. Bizarre to see a Bobby Eaton entrance from a massive Nitro show in 1999. Plenty of rubbish on this show, too. I'm not being funny here, but I'm completely lost on why this upload of a WCW Nitro episode to their vault channel is strange. Is there something on the show or in the footage that's new or weird? Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 19 Paid Members Posted January 19 Couple of really fun uploads on the WWE version of the Vault. The episode of Shotgun Saturday Night with what ended up being the closest we ever got to Steve Austin vs Terry Funk… And a 30 minute compilation of matches under five minutes long… The usual suspects. Watching Tazz vs Kurt Angle from Royal Rumble 2000 again there, about as perfect a debut as you could’ve hoped for with Tazz. Same gimmick and name (with an extra ‘z’) as he’d already established in ECW, belting new theme tune, it’s in his home state but at MSG, has a short action packed match with Angle and is the first to hand him a loss. I remember genuinely thinking he was gonna be instantly in the main events after that. Only for him to then be pissing about with Bossman and Albert on the very next PPV. No surprises to see Owen Hart vs 123 Kid from King Of The Ring 94 in there. That match is really the daddy of the sub-five minute matches, isn’t it? Beautiful. Even Art Donovan couldn’t ruin that one. The thing that immediately springs to mind for me when I think of that match is always the brutal baseball slide Owen nearly decapitates Kid with at the start but watching the match again just now, this is utter filth as well… Quote
Paid Members JNLister Posted January 19 Paid Members Posted January 19 How can you do Mike Awesome matches one day and then Matches Under 5 Minutes the next and still not have: Quote
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted January 19 Paid Members Posted January 19 (edited) The most WWF PPV of all-time has gone up too. Royal Rumble 1991. An all-timer roster (and Dino Bravo). Amazing opener. The greatest run-in ever. The angle with Virgil's turn that's a million times better than Sami Zayn and the Bloodline. All whilst exploiting an actual war in the middle east. Could watch this show every single day. No lies. Edited January 19 by tiger_rick Quote
Snitsky's back acne Posted January 19 Posted January 19 Early Rumble matches were brilliant, 1991 being no exception. All action, hot crowds. No laying around while others do their spots. God I miss when wrestling was like this. Quote
Paid Members JNLister Posted January 19 Paid Members Posted January 19 For some reason, I've got it in my head that Mountie-Koko B Ware was cut from the show after the live broadcast. It's in here, but it's also on Netflix and was on the WWE Network. Is it possible Sky showed it on delay and cut it for time reasons or am I just imagining it? Quote
Chili Posted January 19 Posted January 19 10 minutes ago, JNLister said: For some reason, I've got it in my head that Mountie-Koko B Ware was cut from the show after the live broadcast. It's in here, but it's also on Netflix and was on the WWE Network. Is it possible Sky showed it on delay and cut it for time reasons or am I just imagining it? Cut from my old Silver Vision version of it, but AFAIK it appeared on every other release/broadcast except the home video at the time. But like how we didn't get Haku/Harley Race from Rumble 89 either. Great show Rumble 91. Definitely a show for me where the undercard overshadows the Rumble itself, interesting it's the opposite with 1990 and 1992 on either side. The Big Boss Man/Barbarian match doesn't get near enough love, it's a really enjoyable match with great heat. Quote
Chico Torres Posted January 20 Posted January 20 1991 Rumble should be in the conversation for greatest WWF shows ever. To me the whole of 1991 is the peak of WWF, it’s fully formed with the over the top gimmicks, larger than life characters, insane angles (detailed in a post a few days ago)…just full on steroid and coke madness and also the year when WWF exploded in the UK and everyone was watching it or talking about it even if they didn’t have Sky. Definitely one of the shows I rewatched constantly, it’s an amazing show. Also Iraqi Sgt Slaughter was fucking awesome. Quote
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