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This show, which took place in the James Brown Arena, was so bad it killed its namesake a few weeks later.
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Apr 3, 2020 06:01
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I remember hearing Heyman's alternate idea for CM Punk eliminating Big Show and thinking it still didn't sound like a great idea... but gently caress me anything would have been better than what we did get.
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Apr 3, 2020 06:37
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Jerusalem posted:I remember hearing Heyman's alternate idea for CM Punk eliminating Big Show and thinking it still didn't sound like a great idea... but gently caress me anything would have been better than what we did get. I get where he's coming from though, and Big Show deserves credit for being willing to help him out as well, and if the end goal was to legitimise Punk in one night, you could do a lot worse than what Heyman had intended. IMO, I don't think people would have shat so much on the match, if it weren't for Vince being a contrarian dickhead. Like, if Bobby Lashley absolutely, positively HAD to win, don't do it by taking Sabu out of the match, making Punk look like an idiot and having RVD get beaten by loving Test. Like, it's Test. Who gives a gently caress about Test? He hadn't been relevant since HHH crashed the wedding and DX kicked the poo poo out of him.
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Apr 3, 2020 06:51
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CM Punk was on the jobber express on his way to getting released until Shawn loving Michaels happened to ask Vince & co why the gently caress were they doing everything they could to bury this guy to the earth's core
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Apr 3, 2020 17:06
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Shawn also notably got fired once for drunkenly berating Vince on his perceived misuse of Chris Jericho (it was right after Jericho had done a bit ambushing someone while disguised as Doink the Clown. Piss drunk Shawn was flabbergasted they'd waste Jericho by making him Doink)
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Apr 3, 2020 22:04
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Hey Doc watch WM23 next
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Apr 4, 2020 02:19
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Brian Zane of Wrestling With Wregret just reviewed WM23 this past week so the events of that show might be a bit too fresh on my mind for a full rewatch, but I guess I could give it a shot.
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Apr 4, 2020 02:29
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Watch an old Wrestle Kingdom.
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Apr 4, 2020 07:33
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Rick posted:Watch an old Wrestle Kingdom. Maybe the one that got Lo Ki fired from NJPW
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Apr 4, 2020 13:37
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El Gallinero Gros posted:Maybe the one that got Lo Ki fired from NJPW someone review whatever show this was 
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Apr 4, 2020 14:33
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DJExile posted:someone review whatever show this was If someone wants to do it, it's from the 18/3/2000 CZW X-Spelled show I think. Because that was the last time Ki wrestled in CZW, in a tag match with Mercury against Ric Blade & TCK. It's on Highspots Network & also on IWTV forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Apr 4, 2020 |
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Apr 4, 2020 19:39
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I have still been doing my watch through but honestly Wrestlemania 5 and 6 are too bland and boring to bother to post about. I'm only halfway through WM7 though and really loving it. You can see why they started to do the double main event thing actually, because the point where you would have to switch to tape 2 on the VCR is after the middle main event. If I remember correctly they edited the obvious middle cut out of the Blu Ray versions but I guess they went back to the home video releases for the network for some reason. The Macho King vs Ultimate Warrior Career vs Career match is so weird. It's probably Ultimate Warrior's best match, but like there's the haircut, the lack of running to the ring and like the really confusing bit where he hits Savage with a finisher, but he hesitates and leaves the ring like he's going to just let Savage win, starts calling for his jacket but then Sheri harasses him and Savage hits him from behind. I guess it makes sense after this because Warrior does like 2 absoutely brutal looking spears and his normal gorilla press after that and Savage is so beat down that Warriors pins him with a foot on the chest, goes out and puts his jacket on immediately, then begins to celebrate on all four posts, and Savage is still so down that Warrior does a foot pin on him again and he's still not moving. The aftermath is one of those things that causes a lot of complicated emotions because we know everything that was happening behind the scenes with Macho and Elizabeth. But I'll be damned if I still didn't find myself with tears in my eye over the reunion. It really is one of the better things that's ever happened in WWE history.
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Apr 4, 2020 23:34
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forkboy84 posted:If someone wants to do it, it's from the 18/3/2000 CZW X-Spelled show I think. Because that was the last time Ki wrestled in CZW, in a tag match with Mercury against Ric Blade & TCK. Ok early 2000s CZW, give me your grimey-rear end best. Singles Match Jon Dahmer vs Patty O'Brien It's St. Patricks Day time and CZW is ready, with the "giant leprechaun" Patty O'Brien making his way to the ring and pelting the crowd with t-shirts, frisbees and hats (or maybe more t-shirts).  A decently sized crowd is unsurprisingly into free stuff. Jon Dahmer comes out, accompanied by a valet. After a short verbal exchange the match starts. Maybe two minutes in, the valet interferes, costing Dahmer the match (and earning an elbow drop in the process).  This is not off to a great start.  Midnight (?) comes out to announce he's retiring, but his speech gets cut short when he gets jumped from behind by Mercury. Unprotected chairshots to the head follow. At the end of the segment he gets back on the mic and vows revenge. I'd stay retired after those chairshots. Some barely-out-of-his-teens goober comes out with a new wifebeater for Wifebeater and gets speared for his troubles by the ref (who almost DDTs himself in the process). Ugh... Ultra-violent Arm Wrestling Match Zandig vs Justin Case  This is just a garbage fire of a segment in the beginning and the crowd ruthlessly shits all over it. They break (or slip out) of the grip a couple of times until their hands get barb-wired and taped together. Zandig throws a headbutt (as you do in an ultra-violent arm wrestling match) and opens himself up. Wifebeater does a run-in and weed-whacks Zandig in the back (some good horrified shrieks from the audience). Lobo saves Zandig and weed-whacks Wifebeater's bare chest.  OUCH. Wifebeater with Kronus and some other dude in tow make a swift exit but not before they get challenged to a match against Lobo & Zandig. We get a backstage segment with Zandig on the hunt for Wifebeater. He finds Kronus instead and convinces him (via cash) to turn on Wifebeater later. "This muthufucka will pay" indeed. Nick Berk & Trent Acid are in the ring, talking trash about Johnny Kashmere. They get interrupted and what follows is another beatdown / save segment but this time it's with 100% more homophobic insults. Both from the workers and the crowd. Massively cringeworthy stuff. Tag Team Match Low Ki & Mercury vs Ric Blade & TCK Finally some wrestling (and we're 38 minutes into an hour and a half event). And it's time for our baby-faced assassin.  Blade and Mercury start off with chain-wrestling and end with Blade doing backflips and a few whiffed kicks. Pretty regular fare now, but I could see why he had a following back then. Low Ki gets tagged in and eats a kick from Blade. TCK tries to do a springboard something of the back of Ric but slips and eats the ropes. Crowd lets him now he hosed up just in case. Mercury does a really nice sprinboard moonsault off the ropes to the outside, Blade follows with a decent springboard senton. Low Ki sets up a ladder inside the ring: https://i.imgur.com/pMzCsgz.mp4 Just drops like a sack of potatoes, LMAO. Now, you could almost feel bad for him, but just a short while later: https://i.imgur.com/Tj7965J.mp4 JESUS, gently caress this dude. Ki and TCK end up staying in the ring while Blade and Mercury go off, probably looking for a place to pull off a dumb spot at. https://i.imgur.com/SDilJgo.mp4 NAILED IT! Meanwhile in the ring TCK tries to superplex Ki through a table but he takes the brunt of the damage in the end. Poor camera guy keeps running between the ring and the Blade / Mercury car crash. TCK covers Ki, ref counts to 3, Ki kicks out (it's loving close tbh, and the angle sucks). Ref calls for the bell. We don't get any fallout from that unfortunately, as we cut to... CZW Tag Team Title Match The Haas Brothers (c) vs The Bad Crew Bad Crew is cutting a promo, but Haas boys interrupt and a begin to brawl. Both teams trade chairshots (thankfully protected) and throw each other into chairs a bunch. After a while they venture back into the ring and a match breaks out with Charlie playing the face in peril. Some middling action follows and poo poo breaks down again and then we hit this spot: https://i.imgur.com/08Jq2Vr.mp4 Just so graceful... The Haas Brothers slowly get back into the driver seat: https://i.imgur.com/nmqVigh.mp4 Until they're able to hit an elbow drop on one of the Bad Crew and get the win. Tag Team Match Johnny Kashmere & White Lotus vs Nick Berk & Trent Acid Berk & Acid get on the mic but get shut down by Kashmere & White Lotus. Rampant homophobia from the crowd again. This also quickly turns into a brawl all around the venue. That in itself wouldn't be too bad if they all stayed in close vicinity to each other, but instead we get the camera dude trying to follow the action on both sides and making the viewer dizzy in the process. Acid and Kashmere move outside and we follow but nothing exciting happens. More homophobia. Kashmere and Lotus win via a assisted powerbomb onto a trash can. We can move onto the main event. Fans Bring The Weapons Tag Team Match Lobo & Zandig vs Kronus & Wifebeater Sooooooo looks like that weed-whacker was not gimmicked at all  https://i.imgur.com/MsopP3t.png huh? The action quickly spills to the outside:https://i.imgur.com/ETeeTkG.mp4 There goes Smack Shack. The rest of the match is your regular death match shenanigans. Kronus indeed turns on Wifebeater and Smack Shack to their huge chagrin. Zandig and Lobo are victorious. The show ends with some backstage interviews, in which surprise - more homophobia. Well... This was certainly grimey all right. The VHS tracking added a vibe to this whole experience, too. Compared to the rest the tag titles match was passable, the Low Ki tag could've been fun if it didn't crash and burn so beautifully. The rest was pure trash which I might dip back into. Maybe it gets better. Edit: I tried to make the .mp4s show up, but uhh I suck I guess so have the links instead. J-Ro fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Apr 5, 2020 |
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Apr 5, 2020 07:12
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There is something about that particular era of indies, before ECW was dead, before the first indy boom kicked off, that's really appealing to me even with the propensity for unprotected chair shots & shoot headbutts. Like you say, it's grimey, the footage that exists is VHS quality, a lot of the guys are absolute liabilities but man, look, Ric Blade was a pioneer despite being botchier than Sabu in his prime and Blade vs Ki was a genuine indy dream match in 2000 because CZW & JAPW had a lot of heat at the time. I enjoyed reading that
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Apr 5, 2020 09:56
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Considering rewatching DDT Ultimate Party for this thread but I might have to change the format up since its an eight hour show and I'm not taking that many screenshots
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Apr 5, 2020 19:31
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Jerusalem posted:Good idea! The Wrestling Classic - November 7 1985 I don't recall ever seeing this show before, either it wasn't available at the video store when I was a kid or I watched it and completely forgot everything that happened in it. Rarity covered this in her excellent thread and I know I posted in reaction to it at the time, but my mind still holds ZERO memory of the events within. I'm starting to get a baaaaaad feeling about this. The show opens with cheesy 1980s graphics and a voice-over declaring that the World Wrestling Federation is "The recognized symbol of excellence in Sports Entertainment". They sure as gently caress don't say that anymore. A young Vince McMahon appears on screen and it's clear he was jacked even then, which is hilarious since I always remember thinking of him as the dweeby weak guy on the commentary team as a kid. Anyway tonight is... gently caress, it's a 16 Man Elimination Tournament. gently caress. gently caress. They'll be giving away a Rolls Royce and Roddy Piper faces Hulk Hogan in the main event, which should be fun. Vince joins Lord Alfred Hayes and some blonde lady I don't know in front of a giant tournament bracket backdrop, and it's oddly charming watching the lady point to the bracket matches with a pointer (having to kneel at one point to get to the lower ones) while Hayes stammers his way through an introduction and Vince stands really, really uncomfortably close to him while he does it. They're in the Rosemont Horizon, and a delightfully low rent video package shows some of the wrestlers or their managers literally picking names on scraps of paper out of a glass fishbowl. Jack Tunney, looking decidedly uncomfortable on camera, says a whole lot of nothing to Mean Gene who doesn't even try to turn chickenshit into chicken salad. Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura are the commentators, and they don't even have a table, they appear to just be sitting on seats wearing headsets... it's kinda bizarre. I'm not going to go into depth on each of the matches because I'd be here all night, so here's a quick breakdown: Adrian Adonis vs. Corporal Kirchner This is quick match, won by Adonis when he blocks a suplex attempt into a DDT and gets the 3 count. Adonis is the heel but I'd only know that because the audience boos him and Jimmy Hart is his manager. Kirchner isn't exactly full of babyface fire, either, and Adonis' postmatch promo backstage makes it clear he was the right choice to win. The most interesting thing about this match was looking up Kirchner's history in the company and finding out he was pronounced dead by WWE on October 15, 2006.... and upgraded by WWE on October 21, 2006 to actually alive and in very good health. Dynamite Kid vs. Nikolai Volkoff No entrances for this, they're both just in the match and ready to go. Crowd loses their loving mind at Volkoff singing the Russian National Anthem. Dynamite hits a top rope dropkick IMMEDIATELY after the anthem when the bell rings and gets the 3 count and the crowd is in a patriotic fervor over the evil foreigner being beaten by the... good... foreigner! Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Ivan Putski Despite getting talked up in a pre-match promo by Mean Gene, Putski doesn't get an entrance but Savage gets the full deal. Savage is in full heel mode, taking powders, avoiding direct confrontations, and eventually cheating after Putski started putting a beating on him by uses the ropes for leverage for a quick pin before cheesing it out of there. Ironically, Putski was supposed to be a powerhouse and did look impressive physically, but Macho Man was taller and while leaner didn't look much less muscled comparatively speaking. Nikolai Volkoff screams at Vince McMahon about not being prepared for his match with Dynamite Kid but vowing to get the last laugh. Davey Boy Smith vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat I was looking forward to this match a lot and the short amount we got was really good. Despite the commentators bizarrely talking up Davey Boy's technical skills, it's very much Bulldog's power vs. Steamboat's speed and they make it work really well. Even here when he was roughly 50% of the size he would eventually get, Davey Boy is massive, to the point you that even in standard definition you can still see his bacne  . Unfortunately this is over quickly following an injury angle where Davey Boy hurts his groin missing a dropkick and hitting the ropes. The referee (who is AWFUL, he's constantly out of position and his counts lack any drama) immediately calls off the match and Steamboat is announced the winner. Steamboat is in fantastic pure babyface mode, checking on Davey Boy, lifting the ropes to help the medics get him out, taking only a perfunctory moments to celebrate his victory before worriedly accompanying Davey Boy to the back. Ricky Steamboat was (and remains) a fantastic babyface and he really should have been utilized better by WWF.Junkyard Dog does a backstage promo with Mean Gene and man he's really not very good at it. I remember him being a lot more exciting than this when I was a kid. Junkyard Dog vs. The Iron Sheik This is not a very good match. After about a minute of back and forth, Sheik manhandles the ref and the Dog headbutts him and then pins him and that's basically all there was to it. Oh thank God Terry Funk is here. He's a heel but I don't care I love him. Jimmy Hart takes the mic from Mean Gene who looks utterly stunned and lost without it. Funk spits tobacco on the camera, loving gross! Terry Funk vs. Moondog Spot This ruled! Terry Funk announces he doesn't want to have this match and he is sure Spot doesn't want to either, so suggests they both leave the ring, get counted out and call it a draw. Spot agrees after making Terry leave first, then starts to head to the back when Funk jumps him from behind and tries to race back to the ring. Spot catches him, they brawl outside briefly and Funk accidentally flings Spot back into the ring and gets HIMSELF counted out. He loses his poo poo and it's the best, it's just the best  Don Muraco and Mr. Fuji are interviewed backstage. Muraco isn't a particularly compelling interview but he does at least do a good job despite being a heel of talking up Tito while also assuring Gene that he's better. Don Muraco vs. Tito Santana The commentators note Tito is the Intercontinental Champion, with Jesse Ventura warning should have stayed out of the tournament since he risks an injury that might force him to relinquish the title. The is longer than the others so far but not very exciting, and the ending is a disaster. Muraco pins Tito and gets the 3 count, then Santana rolls up a celebrating Muraco and ALSO gets the 3 count and is declared... the winner? Gorilla explains that Tito had his foot on the rope even though we could see that was now the case, and they make it worse by going to the replay where we again do NOT see it. Ventura makes the point that Tito didn't have his foot on the rope and Gorilla can't do much more than a lame assurance that even though they didn't see it on their monitors it DID happen. This was really bizarre. Bobby Heenan is interviewed by Mean Gene backstage where he smugly explains that he has an open $50,000 bounty on Paul Orndorff and is confident one of the competitors in tonight's tournament will successfully cash it in. Heenan's great of course, and I love the simplicity of this storyline: there's a tournament and Orndorff is a marked man, and Heenan nicely lays out that just because one guy doesn't succeed in taking Orndorff out, there'll be a long line waiting for their shot afterwards and EVENTUALLY one of them will wear him down. They don't call him The Brain for nothing. Cowboy Bob Orton vs. Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff This is the final match of the first round and Cowboy is looking to cash in on that bounty. Orton of course has that loving cast on his arm, but it's targeted by Orndorff as a weakness rather than a weapon. They go back and forth, Orndorff is impressive and Orton is present, but the ending is almost as bad as Muraco and Santana. Orton makes a big point of adjusting his cast as the ref is distracted and Gorilla Monsoon is losing his poo poo, then whacks Orndorff with a forearm and... gets DQed immediately. Orndorff is almost immediately up and a house of fire, whacking Orton with multiple shots as he flees the ring, kind of making it seem like the shot from the cast (which Orton had been wearing the entire match) didn't actually do anything DQ worthy in the first place. Orndorff doesn't do a bad job of selling that he's slightly out of it though and has to have the ref explain to him that he won the match, but it is another bewildering ending that even the commentators are openly questioning and being confused by, let alone the audience at home. Alfred Hayes appears to be openly molesting the female co-host (Suzanne?) which is treated like a joke by Vince. They then go through a lengthy and rather pointless recap of the round we just saw, with Hayes offering his takes on each of the matches. To make matters worse, once it is finally done, Vince then runs through each of the quarterfinal match-ups, and Terry Funk obviously misses his cue as Vince falters and tries to improvise some dialogue until Funk finally arrives to cut a raving promo that salvages the awful segment, calling Alfred Hayes a "big-eyed joke". Dynamite Kid vs. Adrian Adonis Jesse Ventura just ups and walks out in the middle of the match to go talk backstage to the Macho Man. This is much more competitive than Dynamite's first match, helped by Adonis still being a good worker despite clearly being past his prime. Dynamite gets the win when he survives a distraction by Jimmy Hart and Adonis accidentally bumps Jimmy himself, allowing Dynamite to get the pin (he doesn't do an offensive move after the bump, just pins him). Adonis throws a hilarious tantrum post-match, acting like a toddler lying on his stomach flailing his arms and legs about. Jesse Ventura is interviewed backstage and explains to Mean Gene that he used Round 1 to pick up on the flaws of the other wrestlers, and has now passed on that information to Macho Man who he is backing to win the tournament. It's a neat touch and a good angle for a heel commentator to be using his position to his advantage like that. It's especially great when Jesse says all this and then follows it up with a declaration that now he's gonna go back to commentary and be completely unbiased : Ricky Steamboat vs. Macho Man Randy Savage Oh my loving God this is gonna rule. This is two years before their classic Wrestlemania 3 match and I wonder how well it holds up. Sadly the answer is it is lacking by comparison, far too short and with too abrupt an ending. What is there is a blast though, Steamboat is - of course - a fantastic face and he takes most of the match and looks great. Macho Man sells his rear end off for Steamboat, and cheats to win out of nowhere with a foreign object pulled out of his tights he uses to get a shock win before cheesing it out of there with Elizabeth. A disappointingly short match. I don't know anything about Moondog Spot and his backstage interview with Mean Gene doesn't do him any favors, his gimmick is apparently a caveman or a crazy old man or something and Gene can't get blood from a stone and cuts off the interview fairly quickly. Moondog Spot vs. Junkyard Dog This match has a 15 minute time limit. I feel like they're not gonna use it all. It doesn't, Junkyard Dog quickly defeats and pins Moondog and... counts the pin himself? And it counts? The commentators say it doesn't and this won't be an official result... and then Howard Finkel announces Junkyard Dog is the winner and Monsoon has to quickly come up with some bullshit about a ringside judge giving Finkel the nod to let him know. There's been a LOT of this on this show, the commentators don't know the results and are reacting naturally and it isn't meshing with Vince's design at all. He would go on to fix this clear problem in later years by... forcing the commentators to only ever say EXACTLY what he wanted them to say  Bobby Heenan insists to Mean Gene that Tito Santana might turn out to have no morals and try to cash in on the bounty by taking out Orndorff with unsavory means during their match. Paul Orndorff vs. Tito Santana Jesse Venture REALLY turns up the racism on commentary, far beyond the gentle ribbing I mostly remembered him frequently offering Tito during my childhood. On the plus side, he calls back to his earlier commentary about Tito risking unnecessary injury in this tournament, pointing out one of his legs is taped up now and he still has at least one more match to complete. In a not so good callback, Gorilla Monsoon points out that forearm shots are legal despite the fact Orton got DQed earlier for a forearm shot with the cast that he'd been wearing the entire match. The Face/Face Dynamic doesn't really work sadly, and the match grinds to a halt when Santana starts selling a leg injury. They end up brawling outside and both get counted out, which is a really loving weird ending to a match between two faces. Neither guy seems to know what to do about it and just kind of meander back into the ring, Weird. Alfred Hayes is still sexually harassing Suzanne but Vince calls him away to talk through the Semi-Finals. Junkyard Dog gets a bye into the final thanks to the last fight which is... why wouldn't they arrange things so that Macho Man - the last heel left -got that spot instead? Hulk Hogan (C) vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper for the WWF Heavyweight Championship Wait, what? This match is NOW!?! Not the main event? I know that was something NWA shows used to do, but I'm surprised to see it on a WWF show even back in 1985. Hogan cuts a promo backstage that is oddly restrained for a 1980s Hogan promo, looking weird with his giant head and not wearing the traditional yellow and red yet. The sound mix is off and you can barely hear Hogan's music, and it keeps playing as Piper tries to haul the belt off of Hogan and then they begin brawling as the ref calls for the bell. The crowd is on fire though, they've been lively all night but they're super excited to see Piper get his from their hero, Hulk Hogan. This feels very much like a proto-Hogan match, all the usual spots are there but they don't feel fully formed yet, everything isn't quite in place or doesn't happen with the practiced ease he'd soon have as he hit a formula he liked and stuck with it. Piper cheats his rear end off, of course, leading into a ref bump during a Hogan comeback and Piper grabs a chair and offers a timid, weak little shot to Hogan's back. Hogan survives, wrestles the chair off of him and throws Piper into a Sleeper, but as the ref recovers Hogan's chance for a clear victory over Piper is wrecked by Bob Orton rushing the ring and attacking him with his cast. Mr. Orndorff comes to Hogan's aid and they chase the heels off, and Hogan celebrates for the adoring crowd after being announced the winner by DQ. This was a deliberate strategy by Roddy Piper, by the way, he'd make a point of never being beaten definitively by Hogan, and as a result he was able to stick around as a main eventer for a lot longer than many of the others who were fed to Hogan, lost and then disappeared either back down the card or off to another promotion. Junkyard Dog does another poor promo backstage with Mean Gene, livened up when a frantic Jimmy Hart arrives babbling that he can't sleep at night without seeing the Junkyard Dog, who humiliated him, and he means to have his revenge. Amusingly, the camera stays on Jimmy and Gene for most of this section and we don't see what if any reaction JYD actually has. Macho Man Randy Savage vs. The Dynamite Kid Another potentially great match. Jesse Ventura accurately points out that JYD has an extremely unfair advantage and Gorilla just dismisses the complaint with a,"That's the luck of the draw" non-answer. The match is good but yet again oddly short, with both guys demonstrating a nice mixture of speed and power. Charmingly with the benefit of hindsight, Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura absolutely lose their loving minds at seeing a top rope suplex, a move that in the modern day is barely a transition move anymore. In an interesting finish, Macho Man takes the suplex but then is able to use one of his legs to hook Dynamite's and roll his shoulders back onto the canvas instead of his own. The ref counts the pin and Dynamite thinks he has won, becoming shocked when Savage is declared the winner. Part of what makes this work is that Savage isn't just magically okay, he had enough presence of mind to hook the leg but he's absolutely smashed from taking the suplex otherwise. He lays on the concrete postmatch and Elizabeth has to help him up and to the back, while Ventura demands - not unreasonably - that Gorilla Monsoon acknowledge Savage's ability to improvise in the moment. The Rolls Royce Classic being rewarded happens next and oh my God this segment is loving death. Vince and Suzanne have a dreadful bit of back-and-forth, with Suzanne not being a good actor and Vince throwing in lots of creepy innuendo. Then Howard Finkel has a bunch of suits that nobody gives the slightest gently caress about to give little speeches before announcing who is winning the Rolls Royce Sweepstake. Oh God it's miserable, the crowd doesn't give a gently caress and actively boos because they just want to see wrestling. The speakers scream into the mics to be heard over the uninterested crowd, it's a complete clusterfuck, somebody even tosses garbage into the ring they're so fed up. Finally Alfred Hayes announces the winner is Michael Hambly from Illinois. The crowd boos. Howard Finkel dies a little on the inside. Mercifully, the segment ends. Hulk Hogan and Paul Orndorff are interviewed back in the locker room by Mean Gene, and Hogan throws out a challenge to Roddy Piper and Bob Orton to face them in a tag team match. Junkyard Dog vs. Macho Man Randy Savage Thank God, it's the final match. Savage comes out clutching at his back and Ventura points out that it's an unfair situation for him since Junkyard Dog got a bye. Monsoon smugly asks if Ventura would say the same thing if the positions were reversed, and hilariously Ventura responds,"...yes!" The match kicks off with Savage cowering behind Elizabeth as a shield, then he grabs a chair as the bell rings. The ref makes him drop it but he picks it back up and throws it at JYD who... catches it and begins headbutting it! That was a cool spot, and the crowd is delighted by it. Savage continues to avoid actually getting into actually going toe-to-toe with JYD, even going out to talk poo poo to the crowd. Finally he has to fight though, and the much fresher JYD easily takes control. He applies a bearhug to work over Savage's injured back as Mean Gene joins Monsoon and Heenan on commentary and they rave about how this will be remembered as one of the greatest shows in wrestling history (Narrator: it wouldn't be). Savage actually manages to get the upper hand at one point, though to his credit he makes every moment he's physically on offense look like he's in agony. It doesn't stop him doing top rope axe-handles to the outside though, with Monsoon enthusiastically declaring that is a "20 foot drop" which it quite clearly isn't.... and then... and then he hits JYD with a chair. Why the gently caress that wasn't a DQ I have no idea, the ref was looking right at it and making his count but he doesn't even blink. Savage gets them both back in the ring and goes for the top rope axe-handle, but JYD punches him in the gut and then sends him flying with headbutts and eventually gets Savage caught up in the ropes. JYD eventually knocks him to the outside and.... Savage gets counted out. I hated this finish but the crowd goes insane so I guess I can't say it didn't work... but really? This was the ultimate planned end result of a 16-man tournament? The guy who wins got a bye through to the final AND won on a countout... and he's a face!?! Ventura even gets into the ring and angrily screams into the mic about how unfair it all is and how he isn't letting this go without putting his protest on the record. Mean Gene acts like this is a ridiculous complaint, and when Monsoon says the same when Ventura rejoins him. Junkyard Dog, for his part, basically just stands around in the ring looking confused. The show ends with Vince and Lord Alfred Hayes making creepy comments towards Suzanne, leering and laughing as they say their goodbyes. This was a bizarre show, it certainly felt different from Wrestlemania but not really in a good way. With the benefit of hindsight, there are disturbing seeds for what would go on to be major issues with WWE in the modern day: short matches; strange heel/face dynamics; officials not being in on what is actually supposed to happen; unsatisfying endings etc. They still hadn't quite hit the full cartoon dynamic that carried them through the rest of the 80s yet either, which was largely able to sideline or dwarf those issues because everything was so wild and fun. But also, I can't pretend that it didn't work in the building. Apart from the disastrous Rolls Royce segment, the crowd was hot all night and they were ecstatic with the ending. They played along almost entirely with the heel/face alignments even when the actions of those characters made no sense, and most importantly they had themselves a good time. Good for them, I'm glad they enjoyed it, because sadly largely I didn't.
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Apr 8, 2020 10:53
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Summerslam 1990 is boring, not much to say about it (other than Sweet Sapphire turning on Dusty being one of the saddest fake things to ever happen in wrestling), I only watched because I wanted to see the Sgt. Slaughter redebut. As I said in the discussion thread, the crowd was more confused than mad. That wasn't the case by Survivor Series. Survivor Series 1990 is actually a pretty decent PPV. It's infamous because of Gobbledy Gooker, but the show itself is full of a lot of crisp action not typical of the WWF in this period. People gotta hurry to make sure to get all their poo poo in and they do it and it looks good and the matches are snappy. There's a show long story of setting up the main event which is a match between all the survivors and the booking on the way there makes sense. Ironic because this starts an era of "Plans Change" WWF booking for several years that hadn't really been the case prior to this since Vince took over. The show laid the groundwork to some matches that would've probably been dream matches at Wrestlemania that never were. They were blown off at various forgotten Main Events, if at all. Still it was nice to see the groundwork to it on this show, and to wonder what might have been. I guess it would've probably still been Warrior vs Macho and Hogan vs Slaughter (which was already a change because the long term booking suggested that Earthquake was Hogan's original foe), just with the titles flipped, but the undercard would've been very different. Away from the ring, Vince was already starting to lose control, with people being fired or leaving in pay disputes, etc, and they would not even be mentioned on the air of this show. The heels are very dominant on most of this show. A thing to note is that Dusty, who lost his smile after Sapphire and him were broken up, has shed the Polkadots by this point. Unfortunately for Dusty this match also features the debut of Undertaker. No one really knows what to make of him, the crowd included. Half the people are cheering for him, probably because he is just destroying dudes. Finally, after eliminating Dusty, Undertaker and Dusty brawl to the back, but unfortunately nothing ever came of this. Sgt. Slaughter ultimately gives a promo that is really one of the most salacious things I imagine to most Americans ever to show up on TV. Imagine someone doing a promo where they aren't just vaguely anti-American, but taunting the president, and mocking the troops and their meals. And this went out over Armed Forces TV on Thanksgiving day. Wild. The rest of his team gets utterly destroyed, three dudes squashed in less than 5 minutes, but then Sgt. Slaughter alone slowly eliminates three of the faces by himself. I think this might be the toughest Slaughter was ever booked because his future matches in the WWF were pretty limited. He also is just destroying Tito, but because of the Survivor match gimmick, obviously he couldn't win because it would've meant having to go against Warrior and Hogan and he was being purposely kept away from them. So he ends up getting DQed because General Adnan came in to attack Tito after a ref bump, forgetting that Survivor Series matches (at the time) had TWO referees. We have a reverse Dusty finish, where the crowd is meant to have thought Tito tapped out, but what actually happened was the second referee disqualified Slaughter. The Gobbledey Gooker is honestly funny. I'm sure I would've been pissed if I was watching in the era, but as an artifact of the past, this loving turkey comes out and dances with Mean Gene in the ring while doing some pretty impressive feats of athleticism for someone wearing a turkey costume (because as we would later learn this was Hector Guerrero). Funny stuff. The final survivor match is a Hogan/Warrior circlejerk. Not the greatest thing on Earth but I had some nostalgia for it for sure. All in all, a pretty good show.
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Apr 12, 2020 05:21
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God I know it happened but I'm still surprised every time I remember that the Gobbedlygooker and the Undertaker debuted on the same show.
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Apr 13, 2020 02:49
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Jerusalem posted:God I know it happened but I'm still surprised every time I remember that the Gobbedlygooker and the Undertaker debuted on the same show. I've heard that the Undertaker was worried he was the one coming out of the egg. Now that's one for the "what if?" thread.
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Apr 13, 2020 02:52
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Vagabundo posted:I've heard that the Undertaker was worried he was the one coming out of the egg. Now that's one for the "what if?" thread. Hector Guerrero's Wrestlemania Undefeated Streak is a thing I never knew I wanted.
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Apr 13, 2020 10:27
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Jerusalem posted:Hector Guerrero's Wrestlemania Undefeated Streak is a thing I never knew I wanted. Picture that clip from Undertaker's WWF debut, with Roddy Piper on commentary shouting "LOOK AT THE SIIIIIZE OF THAT" as he saunters down the aisle, shot from a low angle. Except he's awkwardly climbing down from that egg platform.
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Apr 13, 2020 11:21
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Hey everyone, sorry about not posting updates for a while. December to Dismember almost defeated me, and then Persona 5 Royal happened.  I'm almost done with P5R now, so it's time to start figuring out what to do next. While I still have my WWE Network trial, I kinda... don't want to give WWE any more views right now so I'll do something a bit different. Technically, the next show I'm covering isn't even an old PPV, but let's face it - May 2019 might as well have been a decade ago. So, with that in mind, my next PPV review is going to be AEW Double or Nothing 2019!
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Apr 16, 2020 16:36
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Doc M posted:So, with that in mind, my next PPV review is going to be AEW Double or Nothing 2019!
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Apr 17, 2020 12:45
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Let's Watch: AEW Double or Nothing 2019, Part 0 (Buy In) As I said, Double or Nothing is technically not an "old" PPV by any stretch of the imagination and as such it shouldn't qualify for the old PPVs thread, but like I also said May 2019 might as well have been ten years ago. This time, I'm not only going to go through the entire PPV but also the Buy In preshow. I generally don't cover preshows in these reviews because A) they're usually not easily available and B) they don't really matter much. However, the Buy In is an important moment in wrestling history because it is quite literally our first glimpse at All Elite Wrestling as a promotion, so I feel it's worth a look before we get to the actual PPV. The preshow opens with clips from the big AEW press conference in Las Vegas earlier in the year, and we're ready to go. Excalibur and Alex Marvez welcome us to the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, and seem to slightly mess up their timing immediately.  There will be some awkward moments with the commentary and the production in general as the night goes on, because this is the first AEW show and some rough edges are inevitable. Marvez in particular never quite seems at home in the commentary booth and would transition into the role of a backstage interviewer a few months down the line. Excalibur and Marvez hype up the matches we'll be seeing tonight. A curious omission here is the six-woman joshi showcase match, which I remember made a lot of people including myself quite worried because there had been rumors the match wasn't happening due to visa issues with the talent. There had already been some major worry and rumors surrounding the cancellation of the match between "Hangman" Adam Page and PAC, as apparently that match could not take place because PAC was an undefeated champion in Dragon Gate and a loss on an AEW show would have hurt him. So, that's one exciting match that got scrapped for the time being, and another one that may or may not be happening. Not exactly the most auspicious way to get off the blocks for the All Elite crew, but let's see how the first official AEW match fares. Ring announcer Justin Roberts introduces the first ever Casino Battle Royal. Whoever wins this match will face the winner of tonight's Kenny Omega/Chris Jericho main event and compete for the AEW world title at the next major PPV. The Casino Battle Royal is a bit of a strange and gimmicky battle royal variant, as the participants are divided into groups based on the suit of the special card each of them drew before the match. Here are the full rules:  Fair enough. The Clubs are the first ones in the ring, with a couple of recognizable faces (well, in hindsight anyway, as I had no clue who Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Michael Naka-Naka-Nakazawa or Brandon Cutler were a year ago) in there along with some face-painted dude called Sunny Daze and a double amputee wrestler named Dustin Thomas.  I have nothing but the utmost respect for Dustin and I'm happy for him for getting to perform on a big event like this, but I also imagine there must have been more than a few people making terrible jokes about rear end-kicking contests that night. The match starts and MJF immediately goes to stomp on Dustin Thomas, calling him "Lieutenant Dan". Oh, MJF. Cutler works on MJF but MJF gets the upper hand and talks more trash. Nakazawa lathers himself with baby oil as he so often does, and goes through his usual slippery antics. Daze almost throws Cutler over the top, but Cutler stays on the apron and gets back in. MJF heels it up some more and gets massive boos from the crowd before going for Cutler again and then bullying Thomas some more. The Diamonds are about to join the match, so let's see who we've got. Brian Pillman Jr. and Isiah Kassidy are the first Diamonds to enter, and Pillman immediately brutalizes Kassidy by tossing him into the guardrail next to the ramp. He then gets suplexed on the ramp for his troubles by Jimmy Havoc and Joey Janela, the latter accompanied by his valet Penelope Ford. But wait, who is that hooded man wearing a "10" scarf at the top of the ramp? Why, it's Shawn Spears! I forgot he was in this match. One of the big issues with the Casino Battle Royal is that wrestlers don't get individual entrances or introductions, so if you're not familiar with these guys it can be tough to figure out who some of them are. Spears lays out MJF and gets a huge pop. I definitely forgot he debuted as a face in this match. The Hearts are about to enter, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't three minutes but whatever. Our next entrants are Billy Gunn, Glacier(!), Jungle Boy and Marq Quen, and there's one more... whoa, that's a big boy. His name is Ace Romero, apparently. As Romero makes his way to the ring, Jungle Boy hits a headscissor takedown on Janela who sells it by spiking himself on his head. Glacier gets in the ring and MJF mocks him with a ridiculous crane kick pose. MJF has been pretty great in this match so far. Glacier sweeps the leg and takes MJF down, but is sent to the outside by Sunny Daze. That was through the ropes, so Glacier's still in the match. Daze tosses Nakazawa on the apron and eventually eliminates him as the announcers suggest the baby oil might have backfired on him. Janela lights a cigarette while Glacier spits mist in Daze's face, freezing him with his cryomancer powers. He then gets unceremoniously tossed out by MJF. As Billy Gunn stalks MJF who is still taunting Glacier, we cut to Janela to discover his cigarette is now firmly stapled into his forehead. Meanwhile, Our latest entrants are Luchasaurus, Marko Stunt (as I yell "THAT IS AN ACTUAL CHILD!" at my TV while watching this live), Sonny Kiss and Tommy F'n Dreamer. Marko manages to take down Billy Gunn in the ring, but Billy is still in the match. Marko flosses but MJF pushes him from behind. Dreamer gets knocked off the apron but isn't eliminated because he hadn't entered the ring yet, and runs into Luchasaurus and Sonny Kiss. Ace Romero notices the three of them and BIG BOY TOPE SUICIDA!  Can't say I expected that. Romero and Luchasaurus have a big boy fight in the middle of the ring, but I think we can safely say Romero is the biggest boy. Tommy brings out a trash can full of plunder, and it lands right on Luchasaurus. Trash can lid shots to everyone, trash can to Havoc's face followed by an Ace Crusher. Luchasaurus chokeslams both members of Private Party, and the Joker is about to come out. The last man in the match is "Hangman" Adam Page, whose knee is taped up as a result of his match with PAC in England (which was booked to explain why the Double or Nothing match wasn't going to take place) Wait, shouldn't there have been five wrestlers in that last group? Hangman cleans house in the ring and faces off with Joey Janela. They exchange flurries of blows, until Hangman murders Janela with the Dead Eye. Hangman tries to lift Romero but that's not gonna work. Jungle Boy and Marko now attack Romero with some double team offense, but Jungle Boy gets crushed by Romero when attempting a sleeper. Romero launches Marko out of the ring, right on top of Private Party. Quen doesn't quite manage to catch him so he lands pretty hard. Jungle Boy throws Romero out but Janela clobbers him. Janela gets DDT'd by Spears after kicking Dustin Thomas, and now Thomas motions for a 619. Thomas hits the 619 followed by a 450 off the ropes, but MJF knocks him right back down and puts him on the top rope. Shawn Spears goes for Thomas, who throws Spears out by using the ropes as leverage. I most definitely forgot Shawn Spears' first appearance in AEW ended with him being eliminated from the match by a guy with no legs. MJF then eliminates Thomas, Gunn hits the Fameasser on Cutler but Cutler blocks it and gets right back up to eliminate Gunn, only for MJF to eliminate him from behind. Luchasaurus with some strikes on Janela, goes for the chokeslam and JESUS GOD HE MURDERED HIM  I know that was safer than it looked, but goddamn. Butt-based offense by Sonny Kiss on Dreamer, but the Innovator of Violence doesn't appreciate it and throws Sonny out. Business finally picks up as Orange Cassidy makes his entrance about ten minutes after the rest of his group. I had no clue what the gently caress an Orange Cassidy was, so this was slightly confusing. Orange then starts delivering some of his trademark stiff kicks to Dreamer, and at this point I basically understood what his deal was.  However, Dreamer doesn't seem to know what to make of the King of Sloth Style and knocks him down with a hard right hand. Orange kips up with his hands in his pockets, but Dreamer still isn't impressed and promptly throws him out. Jimmy Havoc staples Dreamer in the forehead and in the dick because why not, and now Dreamer's out. Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy knock Havoc down and MJF tries to throw Jungle Boy to the outside, Jungle Boy holds on but Havoc bites his fingers and eliminates him. Now it's down to the final four as Page, Havoc and Luchasaurus stalk MJF and beat him up, MJF goes to the outside but not over the top so he's still in. Page and Havoc work on Luchasaurus and then start pummeling each other, Havoc's got the advantage but Page counters the Acid Rainmaker to send Havoc to the apron. Luchasaurus kicks Havoc out of the match and goes for a tombst... oh, it's just some silly pancake gutbuster thing on Hangman. Hangman finally throws Luchasaurus out, and the bell rings. "Hangman" Adam Page has won the Casino Battle Royal! No, wait, he has not, as he soon discovers when MJF tosses him over the ropes. Hangman lands on the apron, and MJF is too busy celebrating to realize Hangman's still in. MJF eats a Buckshot Lariat and gets eliminated with a clothesline, and that is it for the Casino Battle Royal. Hangman Page has won the right to face the winner of tonight's main event, and it'll be for the world title at All Out. I don't think they called it All Out yet, but whatever. The Casino Battle Royal is kind of a trainwreck. It's got some fun spots and colorful characters, but I don't think AEW should have opened their first show with a glorified comedy match. Leading up to the show, the Elite and Tony Khan talked about how AEW was planning to go for a more sports-style presentation, and this most definitely was not that. I remember some posters in the live GDT saying AEW was just TNA again, and based on this match alone I couldn't really disagree. Battle royals are difficult to rate in general, and I feel the casino gimmick didn't really add much to the match aside from the Orange Cassidy bit. Two stars out of five. ** "You need to order this match," says Alex Marvez. I know commentary, especially live commentary, is really tough if you're not used to doing it, so I'm not gonna dunk on Marvez too much for his gaffes and general awkwardness. That being said, I'm glad he's no longer in the booth because he's much better as an interviewer. Excalibur and Marvez go over the card again, and there's still no mention of the joshi match. I was really quite worried about the fate of that match, because I really wanted to see Yuka Sakazaki. Alicia Atout interviews Kylie Rae backstage. Kylie is very hyped about the show, but is interrupted by "The Librarian" Peter Avalon who shushes her. He then gets shushed by "The Librarian" Leva Bates, and the two have a shush-off as Kylie awkwardly looks on. I'd like to take this moment to say two things: - Kylie Rae is great and I wish she'd come back to AEW. - The sound of shushing is basically nails on a chalkboard for me, so that segment was loving dreadful to sit through. At least it was short, but AEW didn't do themselves any favors by putting this segment with these insufferable characters after the gimmick battle royal. Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes hype package. Most people seemed to have low expectations for this match and figured it might be a solid three-star outing with enough smoke and mirrors. I mean, it's Stardust vs. Goldust, how good can a match like that be? In any event, it's time to head back to ringside as Sammy Guevara makes his entrance. He's not the Spanish God yet, instead calling himself "The Best Ever" which is honestly kind of a crummy nickname. He does, however, have the panda head in all its fluffy glory.  I miss the panda head. Apparently it was a pain in the rear end to transport, or something like that.  Sammy's opponent is "Superbad" Kip Sabian, who isn't really showing any superbad tendencies here and plays the role of a bland babyface. As Kip makes his entrance, Guevara reclines on the ropes and looks smug. Sammy Guevara rules. I'm not going to provide blow-by-blow commentary here because I can't keep up with these guys. This is the match they should have kicked off the preshow with, to show what awesome matches AEW has to offer. These guys work very well with each other, doing all manner of flippy poo poo. Sabian hits a springboard rolling senton on the outside, and Sammy returns the favor by nearly flattening the cameraman as well as Sabian. Sabian locks Sammy in the Cruciatus Clutch, which is a great name for a submission if you ignore the fact it's a Harry Potter reference. More flippy poo poo, standing SSP from Sammy gets a two count from referee Aubrey Edwards. Springboard dropkick takes Sammy down, both men off their feet. Guevara tries to suplex Sabian over the ropes but Sabian hangs on to suplex Guevara, but Guevara counters that into another suplex on the floor. That was crazy. Guevara drapes Sabian on the guardrail, climbs up onto the apron and HOLY gently caress GUILLOTINE SSP  Both men are down again as we get a loud "holy poo poo" chant. Yep, that sounds about right. Sammy motions for the 630 and climbs up to the top rope as Sabian's back in the ring, Sabian gets the knees up. Deathly Hallows by Sabian, and that's that. This was a great showcase of AEW's young talent. I had never heard of either of these guys before this match, but they pulled out some impressive stuff out there and Sammy in particular already looked like a superstar. I don't have any particularly strong feelings towards Sabian, but he's fun to watch in the ring and is much more entertaining now that he's paired with Penelope Ford (both onscreen and in real life). The match was a total spotfest and rather short as well, but that's fine because it did its job and helped remind us that yes, there is going to be some real good wrestling on this show. Three stars. *** Sadie Gibbs video package, showing her training and hitting various wrestling moves on her training partner. We go back to Marvez and Excalibur as we're only six minutes away from Double or Nothing. Excalibur says they're about to introduce the third man in the booth, Boomer Soomer (sic) himself, Jim Ross! We see JR backstage, making his way towards ringside, but before we get to his proper introduction we cut to the parking lot where a large black pickup truck has just rolled in. The left rear window opens, and it's...  DOGGO   Oh, and I guess Cody and Brandi Rhodes are there too. This is followed by some goofy scenes with the members of the Elite, with Kenny Omega giving a silly Hacksaw Jim Duggan-style thumbs up and Matt Jackson encountering Michael Nakazawa backstage and seeming disturbed. Matt meets up with Nick, who superkicks a security worker asking for credentials. The Being the Elite intro plays as the group enter the arena to an enormous ovation and A-E-DUB chants. Everyone takes turns to welcome us to the first-ever All Elite Wrestling show and cut a short promo about how cool this whole thing is. The preshow actually cuts out mid-sentence while Cody is talking ("We're about to make--"), which is not exactly the smoothest end to the Buy In but there you go. Next time, we'll actually start the show. I'm looking forward to this one a lot. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Mar 21, 2022 |
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Apr 17, 2020 22:04
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I didn't hate the Buy In as much as others did at the time, and today it's pretty fun as a weird time capsule (remember babyface Shawn Spears?), but it did a poor job advertising the actual PPV, which was nothing like what we saw here. They were clearly experimenting with stuff and trying to see how far they could take the goofy tone of BTE on actual TV. The answer was "not far" since they quickly abandoned the backstage skits and BTE is borderline non-canon these days.
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Apr 17, 2020 22:50
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I did a thread a while back where I picked a random year with a RNG (starting from 1985), looked up how many PPVs there were that year (in all promotions), then did another RNG to determine which one I'd watch. I'll do the same format for this thread. RNG 1985-2020 gives me 1994. This page tells me there were 41 major promotion events that year, but if there are any I can't get a hold of because they're too obscure, I'll roll for a different one. RNG 1-41 gives me WCW Fall Brawl 1994: War Games. Sweet. I'll watch tonight and update later. [edit] Fall Brawl '94 in Roanoke, Virginia starts with a rundown of the card with hilariously campy 90s Command & Conquer style graphics. Commentary is Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan in a neck brace. The commentary table is up against the ring at the heel corner. Weird. -Johnny B. Badd vs Lord Steven Regal for the TV title: Regal's wrestling technical as always, Marc Mero is still wrestling the 80s style in '94: atomic drops, arm wrenches, knee lifts. He even wins Regal's title with a surprise backslide. They mention it's Badd's first singles belt. -After a recap of Flair and a Masked Man injuring a face Hogan's knee, Okerlund shills the WCW HOTLINE! The masked man was later revealed as Hulk's best buddy Brother Bruti turning heel. I'm guessing the hotline didn't tell you that. -Cactus Jack vs Kevin Sullivan, Loser Leaves WCW: Foley is probably in the best shape of his life here, while a beer-gutted, balding-yet-mulleted Kevin just looks like somebody's dad. Cactus pulls up the floor mat early, and then takes a stupid bump from the top to the cement. It's a quick match with some Dave Sullivan interference, and Jack is gone. Foley had been pulling double duty in ECW (Eastern, pre-Extreme), so I guess he went back there. -They keep mentioning that they're #1, so I assume they were beating WWF in ratings here. -WCW Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel announces that Stunning Steve Austin (with hair) vs Ricky Steamboat for the US title is canceled due to Steamboat's neck injury (too bad, I would've liked to see that). Steamboat has to forfeit the title to Austin, but Austin still has to defend it... against Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who surprise pins him in 5 seconds. This is the worst timeline. -Security throws out a "loudmouth fan" at ringside wearing a Blacktop Bully shirt. It's Barry Darsow, AKA Demolition Smash/Repo-Man. -Stars & Stripes (pre-'Buff' Marcus Bagwell & The Patriot) vs Pretty Wonderful (Paul Roma & Paul Orndorff) for the Tag Team titles is sort of a mix of old and new styles. I'm not too familiar with Del Wilkes but he was under the Patriot mask. The ref doesn't see Patriot's hot tag, so he's not the legal man for the pin, allowing the heels to retain. It's weird to see a match end in a clean heel win because the faces were idiots. -#1 Contender Triangle match: Guardian Angel (Bossman) vs Vader vs Sting: This was an absolute booking clusterfuck. A Triangle match is a mini-tournament where they flip 3 coins, and the odd man out sits out for the first singles match, then fights the winner. First is a Guardian/Vader hoss-off. Vader wins after interference from Harley Race, his manager. Then they explain the rules of the time limits during the match, which the live audience only learns about due to the ring announcer. Each of the matches had a 15 minute time limit, but the first one didn't go that long. Sting/Vader does. Then it goes into 5 minute overtime, which ends just as Vader's about to get a pinfall. There's still no winner so it goes into Sudden Death, which means the first person knocked off his feet loses. Harley tries to interfere again, so Angel comes back and takes him out. Then, like a big stupid idiot, the ref pushes Race and Angel up the aisle to get them to leave, missing Sting taking Vader off his feet. The Masked Man takes out Sting, and the ref sees Sting down just as Vader gets up, and declares Vader the winner. What a mess. I have no idea who was supposed to look good coming out of this. -There's a very long segment where they show the entire duration of a phone call between Hogan (the champ), and Ric Flair (not the champ but holding a belt and calling himself the champ). Hogan puts his career on the line, supposedly meaning he can't wrestle for WCW OR ANYONE ELSE EVER AGAIN. The segment drags on and on and it's absolutely filler, likely to pad the time Steamboat/Austin would've taken. Bockwinkel makes it a cage match at Halloween Havoc. -The Wargames team names are "Nasty Dream" and "The Stud Stable". I'm not making that up. It's Dusty, Dustin, and the Nasty Boys vs Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, and Col. Robert Parker. Arn and Dustin start and go at it for 5 minutes. Heels win the coin toss, and Buck is in for the 2-1 advantage for the next 2 minutes. Then it's Saggs, Funk, Knobs, a very reluctant Parker, and finally Dusty. Boots and belts are used as weapons, and it's a chaos brawl. It's engaging but there's like no actual wrestling in it. Once Dusty gets in for the Match Beyond, the faces quickly clear the heels out and beat the poo poo out of Parker, who submits to Dusty's Figure Four. -There's a weird amount of commentator banter post-match. Like seriously 10 minutes of it. It's almost a post show. And then there are actual credits rolling? I didn't realize they did this; I wasn't watching WCW at the time. Ah, OK, that makes sense. Executive Producer: Eric Bischoff. That tells me more than any segment could. Overall: This pretty much sucked. Not even really sucked, just boring and full of lovely booking. There was a TON of padding, and less than 80 minutes of wrestling on this 2 hour 45 minute PPV. Most of the matches were either really short or too long, and featured really odd decisions. Even Sting/Vader was kind of lame (and the booking killed it), and Wargames was just "heels gain the advantage until the faces all beat up the weakest guy". The whole thing seemed like a commercial for Hogan/Flair the following month. If nothing else, at least every match on the card was FOR something. There was either a title or a contendership on the line for every undercard match, and then the main event was 2 rings, 8 men and a cage, so that's something too I guess. But literally the only match I would've been stoked to see, Austin/Steamboat, was canceled. 
sticklefifer fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Apr 18, 2020 |
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Apr 18, 2020 02:12
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Summerslam 91 is actually a good show. If I'm a bit incredulous it's because Summerslam is mediocre at best most years. It starts with a six man tag between Brtish Bulldog, Ricky Steamboat and Texas Tornado against Power and Glory and the Warlord, that didn't make a lot of sense from a booking standpoint, but it's a decent enough match, with minimal Warlord or Hercules ringtime. Througout the show we're lead to believe that Macho Man is talking with fans about getting married on the 1900 line. It's kind of funny but pretty silly. Mr. Perfect vs Hitman match that has been featured a million times in Hitman and Perfect collections. It's definitely pretty good, I'm not sure it lives up to modern standards but it's definitely one of the better matches of the era. Somehow Natural Disasters have a good tag team match with the Bushwackers which seems almost impossible. Andre on the sideline is really sad, he can't stand even with crutches, though. LOD runs in to save Andre from getting Earthquake squashed. (Earthquake is also moving around a lot less now, catching him just a couple years ago despite his size he's incredibly quick). Virgil finally gets a win against DiBiase and gets the Million Dollar belt. Virgil might be the first in Vince's era to get over higher than his push, but they let him get the win here, even after Sherry interference. Virgil gets a good four month push here but would go back to jobbing out in a few months. Mounty vs Bossman does suck and the vignettes are kind of bad too unless you're a cop lover I guess but they're short and off the show soon. Nasty Boys vs LOD is a no DQ match and Roddy Piper actually does a good job justifying why the ref is there, saying "he was there to make sure the guys don't go too far and encourage them to finish the match when it's over." It's relatively tame nonetheless for a no DQ match, but again two tag teams that don't have good matches do pretty good here. It's a fun brawl, one of the big problems with both these teams is their offense looks extremely fake, but either they're working stiff or doing better in this one. The crowd is really pumped for the LOD title win. You might notice that it's 100% faces winning to this point, but IRS would break that streak. He has a quick, but decent match against Greg The Hammer Valentine. The last match is a tag team match of Slaughter, Adnan and Mustafa vs Ultimate Warrior and Hogan. This is an infamous match because Warrior would be fired after the show, and there's various conflicting stories as to why or exactly what happened but basically he threatened to no show. Match went on anyway, Warrior chases Sgt. Slaughter's friends out of the ring, never to be seen again (until he was rehired a while later). Hogan calls out Sid and they do a pose and Sid at this point is gassed as hell, he's huge. Show finishes with the Hogan and Elizabeth wedding. It's very sweet. The one wrestling wedding where nothing goes wrong. Well, other than the reality of it all.
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Apr 20, 2020 05:48
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Let's Watch: AEW Double or Nothing 2019, Part 1 Well then! It's been a while, hasn't it? It's been a crazy year and I've gotten distracted by various projects and other nonsense, but I was always going to get back to this eventually. It's finally time for AEW Double or Nothing 2019!  The show opens with the US national anthem, performed by Chris, Veronica and Jadelyn Jackson. Personally, I've always thought the best-ever rendition of this song was Leslie Nielsen's rousing performance in The Naked Gun, and if you ask me all sports events should just play that instead of wasting money on all these performers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ZsDdK0sTI Following the national anthem, we see a promo package hyping up the matches and showing highlights from the press conference in Vegas. I still love the Double or Nothing theme song and I'm glad they brought it back for the 2020 event. Man, I miss live crowds. Jim Ross, Excalibur and the world's most awkward man, Alex Marvez hype up the card, and they're still not mentioning the joshi showcase (as I alluded to earlier, there were some rumors going around that the joshis couldn't get their visas sorted out and the match wouldn't happen). I'd better see Yuka Sakazaki or I'll be very angry. But never mind that, it's time for the first match!  The opening match on AEW's inaugural PPV sees SCU take on the Stronghearts. Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian do their Worst Town shtick to pump up the crowd, and while I'm not necessarily a huge fan of said shtick they are excellent wrestlers with plenty of charisma. Christopher Daniels was one of my favorite wrestlers in the mid-00s but sadly never really got a chance to shine in a major promotion while in his prime. Sure, his work with AJ Styles and Samoa Joe in TNA's X-Division is legendary, but he was good enough to hold a world title in any promotion.  The Stronghearts are CIMA, T-Hawk and El Lindaman, not to be confused with Till Lindemann. I'd never seen T-Hawk and El Lindaman before, but of course I'm familiar with CIMA and know exactly how good he is (very). The announcers talk about OWE bringing pro wrestling to China, but I think that just kinda fizzled out at some point and there was some stuff about OWE relocating to Cambodia or something before COVID hit and everything went to poo poo. JR keeps calling them the Chinese contingent, and I'm not entirely convinced that he doesn't actually think the wrestlers themselves are Chinese instead of Japanese. Daniels and CIMA start in the ring, lots of fast-paced action as they trade arm drags and all that cool stuff. This show was the first time I'd seen Daniels in... poo poo, probably over a decade, and while he might've lost a step or two he's still a very good wrestler. T-Hawk and Kazarian are tagged in and slow things down for a bit. Scorpio Sky tags himself in and hits a nice dropkick on T-Hawk. Scorpio Sky is awesome, but that doesn't stop T-Hawk from flattening him with a huge sitout spinebuster. El Lindaman enters the ring and just look at how cool this dude is.  Wrestlers who only wear trunks and short boots always look extra naked. It's a very powerful look. Lindaman and T-Hawk go to work on Scorpio with some double team moves, for which AEW rules give them ten seconds instead of the usual five before the illegal man has to get out. You know, I also really like the AEW logo on the canvas. I wish they'd bring that back. Kazarian and Daniels hit some slingshot leg drops on Lindaman, and now SCU is in control with Daniels as the legal man. CIMA clobbers Daniels with a knee drop, and the pace picks up again. CIMA and T-Hawk with some double team moves on Daniels, the Stronghearts are firmly in control at this point as they work on Daniels. Daniels hits the STO and makes it to Scorpio for the hot tag, Scorpio comes in like a house of fire and takes down CIMA and T-Hawk. The numbers game eventually proves too strong and Scorpio eats a couple of big moves including a lovely German suplex by Lindaman for a nearfall. Scorpio tags Kazarian in and Kazarian nearly pins both CIMA and T-Hawk, but doesn't quite get the three count. TOPE SUICIDA by Daniels takes Lindaman down, CIMA and Scorpio now the legal men, big slingshot cutter by Scorpio and this match is awesome. Daniels and T-Hawk take each other out with a double clothesline, and we get a big AEW chant from the crowd. ANGEL'S WINGS! DEADLIFT GERMAN SUPLEX! METEORA! Kazarian dives out of the ring and hits a headscissors on T-Hawk, Scorpio dives out of the ring with a tope con giro to take out CIMA and T-Hawk. Kaz has Lindaman in a tombstone position, BME by Daniels and that'll do it.  1-2-3 and SCU is victorious in the opening match. Wait, did they call that finish the "Best Meltzer Ever"? That's awesome. That was a very good match, both teams worked their asses off and I hope we'll see more of the Stronghearts some day if the COVID situation ever allows it. Of course, SCU would become the first-ever AEW tag team champions, and this was an excellent way for them to introduce themselves to the audience. I give this match four stars out of five. ****  Allie has joined the announce team for the next match, which is the first women's match in AEW history as Kylie Rae takes on Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. and Nyla Rose.  I really liked Kylie Rae and it's a shame we never saw her in the AEW women's division. She recently retired from wrestling altogether after a stint in Impact Wrestling, and I wish her well on whatever she decides to do next. Nyla Rose already has a great look here but isn't quite the finished article in terms of her in-ring work, that'll come eventually. Baker, in case you didn't know, is a dentist, and her music and video are the exact same ones she's using now as a heel. I always thought her entire presentation screamed heel, but it took them a while to actually turn her. I'm glad they did, because the Role Model gimmick is amazing and one of the best things in AEW. Before the match starts, Brandi Rhodes comes out in her ring gear. It looks like she's going to enter the match, which isn't ideal because Brandi isn't very good in the ring. However, that turns out to be a swerve and she's actually here to add someone else into the match. She's going to make this match... awesome.  Hell yeah! Britt and Nyla look aghast while Kylie Rae happily claps along to Awesome Kong's theme. This is now officially a fatal four-way match, and everyone immediately attacks Kong. Kong tosses Britt and Kylie aside and faces down with Nyla, who gets sent to the outside. Kong brutalizes Kylie and Britt but gets thrown out, and now it's Kylie going for a rollup for a two-count. Britt and Kylie go at it now, and Baker actually mocks Kylie for a bit there. Britt tries to go for a diving crossbody but Kong catches her, Kylie takes both down on the outside but now Nyla takes control. Big spinebuster absolutely wrecks Kylie, but only gets a two-count. Nyla going for the Beast Bomb but eats a Slingblade from Baker. Nyla is still very much in control and murders Baker with a Samoan Drop, goes for the Beast Bomb again but Kylie reverses into a sunset flip, Baker breaks up the pin. Nyla goes up top but Baker and Kylie try to superplex her, Kong comes in and powerbombs all of them off the top!  Kong has Britt in a powerbomb position on the outside, but opts for a spinning backfist instead. Excalibur mentions Kong learned that from Aja Kong, and confirms we are in fact going to be seeing Aja Kong in action later tonight. I remember being very happy to hear that while watching this live, because Aja Kong owns and it also meant we'd see the other joshis in action too. Amazing Kong goes for a powerbomb on the apron, but Baker fights out and lands a superkick on the jaw of Kong. Kong falls off the apron but is still standing... until Nyla comes out of nowhere and spears Kong into the ring steps. That leaves Kylie and Britt alone in the ring, Britt goes for a rollup but Kylie kicks out, big kick to the head but Baker is still in the match and hits the spinning neckbreaker. Kylie looks out of it but kicks out at 2.9. Nyla and Kong are still on the outside as Kylie hits a deadlift German suplex, El Lindaman style, for another two count.  Kylie is fired up but walks straight into a superkick, and I just love the visual of her ribbon flying right off. Baker hits a sitout neckbreaker for the three-count, and that'll be that. Not the most amazing match ever in terms of ring work, but very entertaining nonetheless. ***˝ We see clips of Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho preparing backstage, and then it's time for bow-wibbity-bow-wibbity-Best Friends, Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor. Yes, Justin Roberts actually calls him "Beretta" here.  They're facing off against The Hybrid 2 - Jack Evans and Angelico. This should be pretty fun. As we wait for the bell to ring, Evans keeps talking trash to no one in particular, as he so often does. Jack Evans does not need a microphone. His voice is loving powerful.  Evans and Trent start the match off and Evans is still talking. Chuck gets in the ring and we see some tag team action, and YOU GOT TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY... oh, never mind, TH2 double dropkick them in the back. Evans with a handspring back elbow, takes himself out of the ring and lands on his feet. TH2 are clearly the heels here, but the crowd gives them a massive ovation because they're cool and good. Flippy poo poo from Evans gets a two count. Angelico uses his Mexican submission style on Trent with some flashy holds, but Chuck breaks it up. Trent takes Angelico off his feet and goes for the tag, but Evans knocks Taylor off the apron and proceeds to argue with referee Bryce Remsburg. I don't think Evans has stopped talking since this match began. Evans runs into a massive clothesline by Trent, and now Trent makes the tag to Chuck. Taylor throws Evans onto Angelico in the corner, FALCON ARROW in the middle of the ring. Nobody kicks out of the Falcon Arrow! Well, nobody but Jack Evans, anyway. Standing Shiranui (or Sliced Bread, if you prefer) and double foot stomp by Chuck on Angelico on the floor, Trent with a tornado DDT on Evans. Chuck is the legal man and hits the stomp on Evans, but Evans kicks out of the pin attempt. The Best Friends beat Evans up some more and land the Sole Food/Half and Half, YOU GOT TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!  Crucifix into the crusher for another nearfall. The Best Friends are in control but Angelico sweeps Chuck off the apron, and now it's TH2's time to shine with some flashy double team stuff. Angelico has Trent in a fireman's carry and Evans launches off Trent to hit a moonsault on Chuck on the outside!  Holy poo poo. It's Angelico and Trent now, Angelico with the crucifix buckle bomb. 630 SPLASH by Evans, Chuck breaks up the pin! Trent rolls Evans up but Evans kicks out. The crowd begins a THIS IS AWESOME chant, and I kind of agree. Evans doesn't, as he yells "THIS ISN'T AWESOME, I'M AWESOME!" Doomsday Sexy Chuckie Knee to Evans, Chuck with a Tope con Giro to Angelico, and... uh... whatever this is called!  1-2-3 and the Best Friends win the match. Another excellent match, four out of five stars. **** After the match, the Best Friends want to bring TH2 in for a hug but they seem a bit reluctant, but there we g--oh, the lights went out. Oh dear.  WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE? Wait, who are they? The lights go out again, and when they come back on the ring is surrounded by spooky perverts. The spooky perverts beat up both teams and pose in the ring as the crowd chants "WHO ARE YOU?" This, of course, is The Dark Order, but we don't know that yet because I don't think AEW had quite figured out what to call the Super Smash Bros. yet.  Tag yourself, I'm the one on the left. The lights go out again and we go into an AEW promo package. There's a bit of a look back at the previous year's All In. Apparently, Double or Nothing sold out in four minutes, which is pretty good going. I think this is a promo for the next PPV... yep, there it is, All Out in Chicago on August 31, 2019. The announcers hype up All Out, and JR tells us to check out AEW.com for more information. AEW.com is in fact not the All Elite Wrestling website.  I think that's where we'll stop for now. Next time, we'll start off with AYAYAYAYAYAYAY 
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Dec 5, 2020 |
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Dec 5, 2020 12:54
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I love El Lindaman, he's such an aggressive little prick & "cocky prick" is basically my favourite wrestler type. loving sucks he's stuck to the hip of CIMA which means permanent freelancer status, popping up in all sorts of little & almost big promotions in Japan without a proper home to actually have settle in & build up a great rivalry. (Stronghearts/OWE are actually running Japan sporadically, but all the shows that make tape are broadcast on a Japanese PPV service so I haven't seen anything) Most of his rated stuff this year has been tag matches with T-Hawk, they had a good tag match on DDT's Peter Pan with Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ueno, & another good one was for the DDT 6 Man tag belts as DAMNHEARTS (Tetsuya Endo, T-Hawk & El Lindaman) faced Eruption (Saki Akai, Yukio Sakaguchi & Kazusada Higuchi) on the DDT TV Show #7, & in Big Japan last month for the BJW Tag belts against Astronauts (Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura). But for singles action I recommend his match with Shoki Kitamura in Zero 1 on 1st November which is on Youtube. And yes, agree that Jack Evans habit of never shutting the gently caress up is great. And I'd forgotten how poorly the Dark Order reveal went over at the time. Pretty impressive booking from AEW that they've been rehabbed so strongly.
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Dec 5, 2020 14:32
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Loving the look back at Double or Nothing!
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Dec 5, 2020 14:34
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Let's Watch: AEW Double or Nothing 2019, Part 2 It's time for the six-woman joshi showcase as Hikaru Shida, Ryo Mizunami and Riho take on Emi Sakura, Aja Kong and Yuka Sakazaki!  Leading up to the show, Tony Khan and Kenny Omega talked about how the joshi wrestlers would essentially be AEW's version of the WCW cruiserweight division, showing off a style of wrestling rarely seen in US promotions before. Let's see how this big showcase goes.  I don't remember if I'd seen Riho prior to this PPV. I recall seeing an Ice Ribbon show in 2012 or so, but can't say for sure if Riho was on the card. I wouldn't be surprised if she was, because she started wrestling at 9 years old and would've already been active in 2012.  I don't know much about Mizunami because I've never really followed joshi. I do like her colorful look and personality (which gives me a Japanese punk rock vibe) and she's no slouch in the ring either, but that's really all I can say about her at this point. I apologize in advance if I accidentally call her Mizutani at some point, because that name kept popping into my head for some reason.  This was also my first encounter with Hikaru Shida, and she immediately came across like a star. I actually forgot she didn't have the entrance video with the mirror suit yet (instead, both teams have generic videos with the Japanese flag, some JPGs of the wrestlers, and their names in Generic Asian Font #38), but everyone including her do have their theme songs. If you haven't listened to Shida's "SHINING SAMURAAAI" theme in full, you should because it's great. It's got both a face-melting heavy metal section and a lounge jazz break, and she apparently plays piano on it.  Speaking of amazing theme songs, here's Yuka Sakazaki. Prior to this, I'd only seen the occasional clip and heard her theme, but those were more than enough to get my attention and I'm not exaggerating even slightly when I say one of the main reasons I bought Double or Nothing was to see the magical girl in action.   Emi Sakura's theme is godawful but Yuka's air guitar somewhat makes up for it. I should probably get around to watching Gatoh Move/ChocoPro at some point because it sounds amazing.  Here's Aja Kong. Aja Kong is gonna gently caress you up. Any questions so far? Back in the mid-90s, Aja worked some WWF shows and scared the poo poo out of Vince McMahon by, well, being Aja Kong. After her match with Chaparrita Asari, Vince complained about her working too stiff and the joshi experiment ended there. Can you imagine being one of Vince's cronies and having to inform Aja Kong that her services are no longer required because she works too stiff?  Yuka actually gets some streamers when she enters the ring, which is a nice touch. You don't usually see streamers at US shows because there are no trainees around the ring to clean them up.  The match starts with Shida and Yuka in the ring. Some fast-paced action there, and Yuka gets to show off some of her personality as well. Mizunami and Kong are tagged in and Kong unsurprisingly overpowers her. Mizunami tries to topple Kong and eventually knocks her down with a shoulder block, but eats some strikes to the face and gets taken down. Riho and her mentor Emi are now tagged in, great little sequence there and I love how the crowd just goes "OHHHHH" when they see Riho's moves. Yuka is tagged in and Alex Marvez sounds completely mesmerized as he says "magical girl." He sounds like Brock from Pokémon in that episode where a Gastly disguises itself as a beautiful maiden and hypnotizes Brock and James.Yuka hits a splash off the top rope on Riho, step-up huracanrana, great action there. Dropkick by Yuka takes down Riho, Yuka covers and Riho bridges out of it.  That gets another "OHHHH" from the crowd and rightly so. I was super impressed by this spot when watching this live. I also have to say I hadn't quite realized how much I've missed Riho in AEW until I started rewatching this match. Emi comes back in and puts Riho in the Romero Special before tagging Kong back in. We get a "THIS IS WRESTLING" chant from the crowd, as Kong attempts to kick Riho's spine out of her body. Kong flattens Riho with an elbow drop for a two count and follows up with a piledriver. Shida and Mizunami break up the pin and Yuka now goes for a cover, but Riho kicks out and tags Mizunami in. Mizunami comes in like a house of fire and pushes Kong into Yuka before taking Kong down with a spear. Machine gun chops in the corner by Mizutani, she pumps up the crowd before landing a big clothesline and a German suplex on Yuka. Big lariat by Mizunami takes Yuka down, and now it's Riho against Kong again. Riho hits the 702 (619) and goes for a top rope crossbody but gets wrecked by Kong.  Somehow, Riho kicks out. Kong climbs up top and misses an elbow drop, Riho tags Shida into the ring and Shida goes for a brainbuster, but can't get Kong up for the move. Cheap shot to the back by Emi on the apron, Emi distracts referee Aubrey Edwards as Yuka throws a metal can (the same one Kong carried during her entrance) to Kong. Shida dodges the metal can and grabs her kendo stick from the corner. Shida briefly disarms Kong and throws the kendo stick aside, but Kong clobbers her knee with the can as she comes off the ropes and follows up with a hit to the head. Emi is ready to rock you and gets the crowd into it as well, big double underhook backbreaker takes Shida down. Shida fights back and now we have a strike exchange in the middle of the ring as Shida and Emi scream at each other. Shida lands a knee strike right to Emi's face, and Riho follows up with double knees to the back of the head. Emi is on the apron, Shida climbs up and lifts Emi up for a superplex. That kinda ruled. Mizunami hits a guillotine leg drop off the top and Shida covers, but Yuka breaks it up. Mizunami and Riho try to suplex Kong but she reverses and suplexes both, they land on the outside and Yuka follows up with the Magical Girl Splash.  Kong plants Shida with a brainbuster and Emi follows up with a moonsault, Shida kicks out at two but the bell rings anyway and Emi seemingly picks up the win, although it's Shida's music that starts playing for a second. Aubrey Edwards isn't having any of that nonsense and gestures that this was most definitely a two count.  Kong goes for the spinning backfist but Shida avoids it and Emi gets hit instead. Riho takes Kong down with a diving crossbody, Shida KO's Emi with the running knee strike and now it's a three count. That was a very entertaining match. Not much in the way of story here, which is kind of a running theme on this show (which is understandable because this is the first AEW show), but everyone - except maybe the timekeeper - looked good and got to show off their skills in a fast-paced and hard-hitting contest. Of course this was never going to be the best joshi match ever, that wasn't the idea anyway. The goal here was to introduce this style of wrestling to a wider audience, and they did a very nice job at that. The crowd really got into it once they saw what these ladies were capable of, and obviously Riho and Shida would get super over with the crowd once Dynamite got going later in the year. I give this match four and a half stars out of five. ****˝ I was debating between four and four and a half stars, but since these star ratings are completely arbitrary anyway and this is one of my favorite matches of the night, I figured I might as well go with the latter. The only real criterion for these ratings is how entertaining I found the match, and I definitely was entertained by this one. Alex Marvez talks about #AEWDON trending on Twitter and urges us to tell any lapsed wrestling fan friends of ours about AEW. I was basically a lapsed fan myself prior to the show because I'd been completely ground down by WWE's horseshit, and only really watched older stuff. Next up, we've got Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes. Brother vs. brother, generation vs. generation. The match Cody and Dustin wanted to do at Wrestlemania but never got the opportunity to, because according to Vince McMahon nobody would want to see it. Cody (as Stardust) and Dustin (as Goldust) did have a match at Fastlane 2015. Before the match, Goldust had a backstage segment with Dusty Rhodes (in Dusty's final storyline before his death) and told him he wasn't going to leave the ring until he managed to bring his brother Cody home. Sounds great! Real emotional stakes there! Wanna guess how that match went? If you guessed "Goldust won a short match with a rollup," congratulations! You've fully grasped the nuances of WWE booking.  In the promo package before the match, Cody talks about how he loves his brother but at some point, the dying animal has to be put down. Dustin, meanwhile, says he's seen it all in his 30 years in the ring and his legacy will be intact no matter what happens. This is very much billed as Dustin's one last ride before his retirement.  Of course, before we can get to the match, we've got an overblown Cody entrance to get through. There's a very HHH-esque throne on the entrance ramp, and Cody proceeds to smash it with a sledgehammer.  This was pretty silly but certainly went over well with the crowd. According to conventional wisdom, smaller promotions mocking WWE like this tends to look a tad bush-league, but WWE deserves every single bit of mockery and more so gently caress them right in the ear (besides, this was really the extent of it, as Cody finally got it out of his system). It also made some people extremely mad, as I discovered when I was looking through the Fire Pro Wrestling World Steam workshop for Cody CAWs (the one I'd downloaded in a bigger pack wasn't installing properly for some reason) and saw a comment from June 2019 with some guy talking about how great it was that he could finally squash Cody as HHH in Fire Pro. Yep, that'll definitely show him.  Dustin enters to a song that sounds a lot like Goldust's theme and then morphs into what is basically a Green Day song. That Goldust intro is no longer part of the theme, probably because it was too similar to... well, Goldust's theme from WWE. I quite liked it, but I'm not too mad about it being removed from the song. The referee for this match is Earl Hebner. Was this his only AEW appearance? He looks old as poo poo. The match hasn't even started and the crowd is already chanting "THIS IS AWESOME!"  Cody and Dustin start a bit tentatively, with Cody showing some arrogant mannerisms because he's the heel in this match. Cody hits the Rhodes uppercut and takes Dustin down with a tope suicida to the outside. Dustin fights back on the outside and hits a rolling senton off the apron, prompting a "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" from JR and probably a considerable number of viewers. I can say for sure that I didn't expect to see that from Dustin.  Dustin takes control with some punches and Cody escapes out of the ring. Cody heads to the crowd to collect his thoughts and take a swig of water before sliding back into the ring, and Brandi throws the water in Dustin's face. That swings the momentum back to Cody, who hits a picture-perfect powerslam. Dustin is able to fight back again and looks to be going for the Shattered Dreams, but Cody removes the middle turnbuckle pad and Dustin thinks twice about it. Dustin rushes at Cody but rams his face into the exposed turnbuckle, and Cody gets the advantage back as Dustin is sent to the outside. Brandi spears Dustin on the floor as JR goes "WHAT KIND OF FAMILY IS THIS?!"  Earl Hebner ejects Brandi with a vintage YOU'RE OUTTA HERE, and as Brandi argues with Hebner, Diamond Dallas Page comes out and carries Brandi to the back. Meanwhile, Dustin is bleeding. He is bleeding profusely. Holy poo poo, he is gushing. Cody proceeds to smear the blood on his chest.  Dustin is blinded by the blood in his eyes so Cody's got the upper hand, and the blood is just staining the mat at this point. Good lord, that is a lot of loving blood. Cody continues the offense, and this looks to be just a matter of time as the blood POURS from Dustin's head onto the canvas like someone turned on a faucet. Curbstomp by Cody gets a two-count and OH GOD DON'T ZOOM IN ON THAT AUGGH I've seen plenty of deathmatches and assorted blood and guts style wrestling stuff over the years, but this is still pretty hard to watch at times. Dustin hits a powerslam out of nowhere and the crowd explodes. Cody manages to get the Figure Four locked in and screams at Dustin to tap, but Dustin keeps fighting and reverses the hold.  That ring looks like a Hotline Miami mission just took place in it. Cody tries to use his weightlifting belt as a weapon but Hebner takes it away from him, now Dustin has the belt and pulls down the back of Cody's tights. Cody's quite literally showing rear end now, and Dustin spanks him with the belt. CODE RED by Dustin! Where did that come from? The crowd is going absolutely ballistic. TOP ROPE ARM DRAG by Dustin, Cross Rhodes, Cody kicks out! Dustin goes for another Cross Rhodes but Cody kicks him in the balls, Disaster Kick, Cross Rhodes and that'll be... no, Dustin kicks out!  Dustin lands a headbutt and goes for the Cross Rhodes again, he hits it! Cody once again kicks out and the crowd is losing their minds. Some are chanting "THIS IS AWESOME" while others look extremely worried for Dustin's wellbeing. The brothers trade punches in the middle of the ring, BICYCLE KICK by Cody, both guys take each other down! Cody kicks out at 2.5. Cody goes for... hm, that kinda looked like a Vertebreaker? Dustin is down on the mat, Cody picks him up and hits another Cross Rhodes and covers, Earl Hebner counts to three and this match is over! What a match. Amazing. Cody heads towards the ramp but looks back at Dustin and returns into the ring. Dustin backs away from Cody because he thinks Cody's come to beat him up some more. The crowd chants "THANK YOU DUSTIN" as Cody picks up a mic and tells Dustin he doesn't get to retire here. Cody needs to ask him a favor.  Cody talks about the upcoming Fight for the Fallen in Jacksonville. He is booked in a tag match with a partner of his choosing against the Young Bucks. But he doesn't need a partner. He doesn't need a friend. He needs his older brother, he says as his voice cracks.  The brothers hug, the fans chant Dusty's name, and there is not a dry eye in the building as Cody and Dustin leave together.  Excalibur trying to wipe away tears underneath his mask is one hell of a visual, and I'm not ashamed to admit I had to wipe some away myself when I watched this live. What can I say about this match? I had no real expectations because I didn't know what these two were actually capable of, but they absolutely tore the house down. I had genuinely forgotten wrestling could even be like this, packed with so much emotion and telling such a beautiful story even when the match itself is this brutal bloodbath. I was already into the show, but this right here is the moment I became a wrestling fan again. Five stars. One of the best matches I have ever seen. ***** With that, I think it's time for a break. Of course, we've still got plenty to come, including the championship belt presentation and two great matches... DMorbid fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Dec 6, 2020 |
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Dec 6, 2020 12:56
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Let's Watch: AEW Double or Nothing 2019, Part 3 (FINAL) Before we get to the AEW championship presentation, the announcers recap the Casino Battle Royale from the preshow. That, of course, was won by "Hangman" Adam Page, who will be facing the winner of tonight's Kenny Omega/Chris Jericho main event at All Out in August. Guest ring announcer Jack Whitehall introduces the man who will present the title belt - Bret "Hitman" Hart!  Bret enters to a pretty decent knockoff of his classic theme. The belt was originally supposed to be presented by Ric Flair, but he had to cancel due to a health issue so Bret is here instead. I think this is an improvement, frankly. Bret is very glad to be here for a "sold out World Championship Wrestling event" and doesn't quite remember when All Out is actually going to be, but that's okay. It's been a while, like he says. Bret invites Adam Page to join him in the festivities. Hangman comes out to join the presentation, and as he's shaking hands with Bret we hear the fart synths of MJF's theme.  MJF comes out and does his thing, at one point telling Bret to look out because there's a fan coming out to attack him, which is of course a reference to the idiot who attacked Bret at the WWE HOF event a couple of months prior. MJF calls the audience jealous nimrods. Nimrod is a very solid insult and should be used more often. MJF talks trash to Hangman and says a horse can't be the face of AEW. Now, I'm at least 80% sure that Adam Page is a man, not a horse, but I may be mistaken. MJF says race horses that break their legs get taken out back and shot, alluding to Page's kayfabe leg injury suffered at the hands of PAC in England. MJF's getting nuclear heat from the crowd. He suggests Page winning the battle royal was a fluke and that he should relinquish the title shot to a real man. Sure, give it to Steven Regal, that sounds good to me. MJF briefly starts calling himself the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be, but realizes mid-sentence that oh wait, that catchphrase sucks. No, Maxwell Jacob Friedman is better than you and you know it. He can't quite finish that sentence either because Hangman takes a swing at him. MJF calls Hangman "Seabiscuit" and offers him a sugar cube. MJF turns to leave, but is interrupted by Jungle Boy walking down the ramp.  MJF would love to wrestle a pre-pubescent teenager (his words) but is too busy at the moment and walks off, only to be interrupted again. This time it's... oh gently caress, it's Jimmy Havoc. gently caress Jimmy Havoc. Putting that aside for a moment, this early AEW stuff is really weird to watch because they were clearly in that awkward phase where they hadn't quite figured themselves out yet, what with babyface Jimmy Havoc and Jungle Boy showing up in a world title segment. Sure, it makes sense here because these guys were the final four in the battle royal and three of them are pissed at MJF, but it's still pretty strange to see.  Havoc (ugh) and Jungle Boy haul MJF off, and Bret shows off the belt for the first time. Big Plat in the house. Apparently, Bret fell off the stage at some point while heading to the back. The poor guy never has any luck whatsoever. At least he wasn't injured.  LUCHA BROS. CHALLENGERS. CERO MIEDO. MEET US IN THE... no, that doesn't quite work. We get a Young Bucks/Lucha Bros promo package, showing off the Lucha Bros' attack on the Bucks at the AEW press conference to set up this match. The Bucks say they're slightly worried about ring rust because they haven't wrestled in a while whereas Penta and Fenix have been active all that time, which is going to be one of the big storylines of this match. The Bucks aren't too concerned because they've been doing this for a long time and are very good at what they do. We then see the Bucks attacking the Lucha Bros at an AAA show to win their tag titles, which are on the line in this match. Let's go.  Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix are wearing masks on top of their masks, because why not. Cero Miedo means no fear, as Alex Marvez helpfully translates for us. Marvez also informs us that when the Lucha Bros were kids, they'd wrestle each other around the house and wear underwear on their heads as masks. I'm not sure if we really needed to hear that detail, but that's why they pay Alex Marvez the big bucks. I was vaguely familiar with Penta and Fenix prior to this show, but I don't think I'd ever seen one of their matches before.  Hey, it's the Flying Elvises! We hear the big introductions and even a Mills Lane style "I want a good clean fight" pre-match speech from referee Rick Knox. Have we seen that on later shows? I quite liked that, it adds to the big match atmosphere and sports feel.  Matt Jackson interrupts Pentagon's Cero Miedo sequence, the fiend (not to be confused with The Fiend). Penta gets it done eventually and tags in his younger brother, Nick tags himself in and Fenix armdrags the two of them. Some impressive action by Fenix and Nick there, the two trade shoulder blocks and start slapping each other in the center of the ring. Brainbreaker by the Lucha Bros who are on fire here, more double team moves and a cover, but Nick kicks out. As Alex Marvez hypes up the upcoming Fyter Fest, Nick takes down both Bros with a tierras/arm drag combination and tags Matt in. Gorilla press to Fenix, spear to Penta, Matt takes control of the match and tags Nick back in. Penta talks trash to Matt, and while I'm not super fluent in Spanish I definitely got the gist of that. Excalibur describes it as Pentagon "insulting Mama Buck," which is the nice way to put it. Nick accidentally stomps on Matt as Penta pushes him into harms way, but the Bucks recover nicely from the miscommunication and stay on the attack. Another miscue gives Penta the opportunity to monkeyflip Nick onto Matt in the corner, and now it's Fenix in the ring again. Escalera and HOLY poo poo WHAT WAS THAT, I can't even describe what just happened there, I just saw this big blur of springboard jumps with a headscissors at the end. I don't think the laws of physics apply to Fenix. Penta now working on Matt but eats a flipping stunner, both men down, Fenix is tagged in and knocks Nick down on the apron, Matt does the Locomotion followed by the Sharpshooter on Fenix, another Northern Lights to Penta. Nick with a huge slingshot facebuster to Fenix, followed by a moonsault off the apron to Pentagon. That was another completely insane sequence, followed by a lariat/bulldog combo. The Bucks have the Bros in stereo Sharpshooters now, but the Bros make it to the ropes. I have no idea who the legal men are at this point. 450 splash but Penta breaks up the pin, gets thrown out of the ring for his efforts. Running buckle bomb/enzuigiri combo on Fenix, who is now set up on the top rope...  Paying homage to the Motor City Machine Guns there. Superkicks to everyone, Fenix and Matt take each other down with double clotheslines. Matt and Penta on the apron, exchanging strikes, I'm sure this won't lead into any crazy poo poo. They knock each other down but I don't think this is over yet. Fenix is on the apron now and HOLY gently caress  I should probably consider switching to GIFs. Penta jumps off Fenix's back to hit a destroyer on Matt on the apron, and Fenix immediately follows up with a slingshot destroyer of his own on Nick for a two count. Fenix dives off Penta's shoulders to hit a plancha on the Bucks on the outside, more big double team action and down go both Bucks again. Escalera to a Senton Atomico by Fenix for another two count. Penta and Nick are the legal men now, Penta looking to break Nick's arm but Matt comes to the rescue with a superkick. Matt with the half and half on Penta, Fenix goes for the flying nothing and is met by stereo superkicks, big boot by Matt in the corner, sets up Fenix on the top rope once more... shades of El Generico as Matt plants him with the BRAINBUSTAAAAHHHH! Bang for your Buck but Penta kicks out! Another double team coming up, assisted package piledriver for another near fall! The Bucks go for the Meltzer Driver but are stopped in their tracks, Penta snaps Matt's arm! Matt somehow survives that but eats a Penta Driver. Meanwhile, Fenix has murdered Nick on the stage and Matt is alone in there with both Lucha Bros, he's not looking too good. Fenix sets him up on the top rope and motions for the end, but Matt jumps down and grabs him into a tombstone position, Nick has returned and....  MELTZER DRIVER! Penta is nowhere to be found after a superkick from Nick, Matt covers Fenix and Rick Knox counts to three. The winners of this match and still AAA World Tag Team Champions - the Young Bucks! That was just crazy, balls to the wall action all the way from the opening bell. The Bucks maybe suffering from ring rust didn't come into play as much as I expected, and in general there wasn't much in the way of storytelling here. That's why I don't think this match is as good as, say, the Bucks vs. Omega/Hangman from this year, but it certainly was entertaining as all hell. Four and a half stars. ****˝  It's time for our main event as Kenny Omega takes on Chris Jericho for a shot at the AEW title at All Out.  This promo video is pretty great, as we see Jericho training at an MMA gym while Omega goes for the Rocky IV training montage in the Winnipeg wilderness. Jericho's entrance features a bunch of wrestlers cosplaying as his previous gimmicks. Was that Orange Cassidy with The List?  We see the Lionheart, the List and the Light-up Jacket, but then it's time for Judas to start playing and the man himself to walk out. There is a Cracker Barrel, uh, barrel in the ring for some reason.  Jericho is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers and one of the reasons I bought this PPV. Finding out what a stupid idiot chud he was in real life sucked really bad and I kinda wish I didn't enjoy his work as much as I do, but there you go.  Kenny's entrance gear is probably a reference to something but I don't know what. I kinda like the long version of Battle Cry that plays during his entrance here. The lengthy intro adds to the Big Match Feel(tm), I think. Battle Cry was written and performed by LittleVMills, a Canadian musician who does a lot of metal covers of video game songs and such. Here he is collaborating with Mick Gordon. This, of course, isn't the first time Jericho and Omega are facing each other, as Omega defeated Jericho at the Tokyo Dome with an One Winged Angel on a chair. Jericho has trained hard to avoid a repeat, and he has promised to introduce a new finisher named the Judas Effect tonight. Before we get to the match, someone needs to to get that Cracker Barrel out of there because this isn't a Cracker Barrel Clash. It turns out getting a large barrel through the ropes is a bit of a struggle for the ref and the ring crew worker, but Jericho channels his inner Donkey Kong to assist them.  I'm sorry. Okay then, now we're ready to go. JR calls Jericho "smart and well-read," which I found mildly amusing. Omega gets the early advantage with chops and elbow strikes and goes for the V-Trigger, but Jericho dodges it and Omega knees the turnbuckle instead. Omega goes for a huracanrana but Jericho catches him and locks in the Walls. Omega has to scramble to the ropes and to the outside. Jericho follows with a low dropkick through the ropes, knocking Omega down. Jericho knocks Omega's head into the timekeeper's table and rings the bell, declaring himself the victor. Omega fights back, the two brawl on the outside and Jericho gets dumped on the timekeeper's table now. Omega goes for maybe a moonsault off the barricade but nearly loses his balance, and it looks like Jericho saves Omega from falling off before actually pushing him off and into the crowd. Jericho picks up a video camera from one of the camera crew as Excalibur calls him Generico a couple of times. Well, have you ever seen Chris Jericho and El Generico in the same place at the same time? Omega spits water into the camera lens and lands a missile dropkick to take Jericho down. We've got playoff rules going on here so Paul Turner isn't bothering to count these two out. Back in the ring now, Omega with You Can't Escape and a moonsault press for a two count. Jericho shoves Omega's face into the turnbuckle to regain the advantage. Jericho with a missile dropkick of his own for another two count. Strike exchange in the middle of the ring, Omega gets the upper hand but runs into a massive lariat for another two count. Omega's nose is now bleeding and Jericho immediately targets it, but Omega takes him down with a huracanrana. I think that's a legit broken nose as well and if I recall correctly, Jericho did his best to protect it for the rest of the match. Jericho grabs a table but Omega kicks it into his face and flattens Jericho with a tope con giro, using the table to knock him down. Omega places the table on top of Jericho.  BAH GAWD! I didn't notice until now that Jericho's elbow seems to have hit Kenny's face on the landing there, which I'm sure didn't help matters in terms of his injured nose. The table is somehow still intact and Kenny sets it up. Both men back in the ring, Kotaro Crusher, hooks the leg for another two count. That nose is looking pretty bad.  Kenny goes for a Snap Dragon but kicks Jericho in the back of the head instead and follows up with a V-Trigger in the corner, driving Jericho's face into the turnbuckle padding. Jericho now up top, Omega goes for a super back suplex... oh, he's got the hands locked, goes for an avalanche Snap Dragon but Jericho blocks it, Omega finally lands a huge back suplex off the top and both men come crashing down. Omega covers, Jericho kicks out once again. Both men slow to their feet, but Omega gets there first and goes for another V-Trigger, Lionsault, Omega gets the knees up, V-TRIGGER, goes for the One Winged Angel but Jericho gets out and reverses into a release German suplex, another Lionsault and ugh, that looked bad.  Just landed right on Omega's head there. I've helpfully included a timestamp so you can watch it yourself, that was absolutely on purpose and I most definitely didn't accidentally leave the Fite player controls onscreen. Usually when someone goes for the Lionsault, I'm worried for their head and neck as my mind flashes back to Hayabusa's horrific injury back in 2001, but here it seems Kenny was out of position and Jericho landed awkwardly on top of him. A second Lionsault, this one lands properly and Omega kicks out at two. The Codebreaker is blocked, V-Trigger, hooks him up for the Tiger Driver '98 but Jericho's not taking that bump. Instead, he backdrops Kenny over the ropes and through the table that was set up earlier! I know this is playoff rules, but shouldn't throwing someone through a table be a DQ? Not complaining, just an observation. Then again, Kenny already used the table as a weapon before and Paul Turner didn't seem to mind, so whatever. Kenny gets back onto the apron, tries to get in the ring but Jericho lands the triangle dropkick to take him down again. Meanwhile, the Fite player decides it doesn't want to load the rest of the VOD.  Okay, we're back. The player doesn't seem to like pausing and rewinding. Kenny and Jericho are on the top rope, Jericho perhaps going for a superplex but Omega knocks him down, diving forearm countered into the Codebreaker! Kenny barely kicks out and Jericho can't believe it. Yes, JR, Jericho's looking all puffy from all those strikes to the face. Definitely for that reason. Omega fights his way back to his feet, SNAP DRAGON! Another one! Omega has gone through untold amounts of punishment but somehow keeps going. V-TRIGGER! Goes for the One Winged Angel, Jericho rolls through and goes for the Walls, Omega counters and hits a sloppy-looking Tiger Driver '98 for another nearfall.  That looked a bit wrong, like Jericho was expecting a normal Tiger Driver instead of this variation. V-Trigger, Jericho blocks it and locks in the Walls in the center of the ring. Omega tries to make it to the ropes but Jericho pulls him back into the center and applies the Liontamer!  I will always mark out for the Liontamer even when it's not particularly crisp. Omega manages to power out of the hold and knocks Jericho silly with another V-Trigger. One Winged Angel, Jericho reverses... oof, that looked really bad.  JR calls that the ugliest DDT he's ever seen. Kinda looks like Jericho was going for a powerslam or something. Omega kicks out of the pin attempt and makes his way back up, but Jericho hits an enzuigiri to take him down again. Jericho goes for another Lionsault but Kenny catches him in the OWA position, Jericho again counters into a DDT but this time without the botch. Codebreaker takes Kenny down and is sold like death, both men struggling to their feet, JUDAS EFFECT!  This finish seemed a bit abrupt at the time, largely because it was the first time anyone saw the Judas Effect and it hadn't yet been established as this insta-death finisher. Especially the live crowd seemed a bit confused at first, but they get over it pretty quickly and I think some of the fans are singing along to Judas after the match. I give this match three and a half stars out of five. It did its job, got the story across and had plenty to enjoy, but there were a several major botches that could've ended really badly and hurt the flow of the match as they had to set up the spots again. Kenny's nose injury would've also affected the quality of the match to some degree even though he did a fine job working through it. Still a good match, but things didn't quite line up on this night and these two can do better. ***˝ Post-match, Jericho grabs a mic and tells us how great he is and that he's gonna be the first AEW champion. As Jericho claims he's the one that made AEW happen and demands thanks from the fans, the crowd explodes for a completely unrelated reason as Jon Moxley makes his way through the stands and into the ring. Jericho turns around and is shocked to see Mox, screaming "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Nice little callback to their feud in WWE a few years earlier.  Leading up to the show, there had been some rumblings about a possible Moxley appearance, but those were largely dismissed as wishful thinking. Mox had let his WWE contract expire the previous month, fed up with the terrible booking and storylines he constantly found himself trying to fight against. Eventually, he decided it wasn't worth it and decided to quit once his contract ran out. For all WWE knew, he was retiring. Mox actually showing up at Double or Nothing was a huge "holy poo poo" moment and a big deal in general, as evidenced by the crowd losing their minds upon seeing him (Mox was so ground down by WWE's bullshit that he thought the fans might reject him, seeing him as that lovely Dean Ambrose geek). Moxley hits the Paradigm Shift on Jericho and another one on Paul Turner as the crowd goes absolutely ballistic. Kenny is still conscious, so I think we know what's coming next. Mox goes for the Paradigm Shift but Kenny fights back and they spill to the outside, now brawling among the crowd who are still going apeshit over what they're seeing. The brawl continues and they find the giant novelty poker chips (which Kenny apparently demanded at the last minute, so they ended up costing AEW a lot more than they normally would've). Both men get on top of the stack of chips, PARADIGM SHIFT!  Mox isn't done and slams Omega off the stack of chips! Kenny comes crashing down and Mox takes in the cheers as the show ends. Look at this guy, he's loving it.  My overall grade for Double or Nothing 2019 is an A. If I wanted to be objective, I could drop that down to an A- because there were some botches and production gaffes on this show, but I'm not going to do that. For me, Double or Nothing was the show that made wrestling fun again. Great matches and a huge moment at the end, one of the hottest crowds ever, what's not to enjoy? This was the show that turned me into a wrestling fan again, and that is far more important than some rough edges here and there. I'm not sure what I should watch next time, but I did notice Impact had some old TNA PPVs uploaded so maybe I could check one of those out. I think their old weekly PPVs might also still be on YouTube or Dailymotion... DMorbid fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 13:44
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Great job! Also does anyone else remember the Bucks building up a secret new finisher on BTE in the weeks before Double or Nothing? That's a thing that happened and I didn't just dream it, right?
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Dec 9, 2020 14:14
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duckdealer posted:Also does anyone else remember the Bucks building up a secret new finisher on BTE in the weeks before Double or Nothing? That's a thing that happened and I didn't just dream it, right?
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Dec 9, 2020 14:18
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Doc M posted:You're not dreaming, that was also brought up by the announcers during the match itself. Alex Marvez thought the MCMG homage was the new finisher, but Excalibur told him it wasn't. Interesting! I wonder if we will ever see it.
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Dec 9, 2020 14:33
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i wonder if it's the BTE trigger. I don't think they were using it until after the Revolution match this year, but I'm not sure.
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Dec 9, 2020 23:56
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Double or Nothing 2019 was pretty much the perfect PPV to launch a new promotion with.
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Dec 10, 2020 00:09
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It was the rope hung springboard 450 thing they were building to before the Lucha Bros match, wasn't it. I remember that was what looked like was being set up during the tease segment on BTE where the camera gets set to not see the move.
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Dec 10, 2020 01:15
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