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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 19, 2024 15:52:12 GMT -5
There are some good TV matches on Worldwide and Saturday Night if you do a little cherry picking. Yeah, I've been watching Saturday Night on Peacock (I'm on 1993 now), and the overall quality of the wrestling is pretty good. It compares favorably to contemporary WWF, though there are some too long rest holds sometimes.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 18, 2024 15:51:24 GMT -5
The Equalizer was equalizing...I've got nothing. Not even a good smartass comment. That's just another headscratcher from WCW. I'm not sure why the Shockmaster was the Shockmaster either, for that matter.
You're right, while WWF wasn't exactly batting 1.000 in 1993 (apologies for the baseball metaphor) they weren't nearly as messed up as WCW in terms of the decision making.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 18, 2024 13:02:33 GMT -5
I watched WCW Clash of Champions 25 from November 10, 1993.
Once again we have Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura on commentary.
The Opening Match is WCW International Heavyweight Title: Rick Rude (champ) vs. Road Warrior Hawk.
Hawk seems like an odd choice to deserve this title shot, but whatever.
This match was awful, a lot of standing around then some power moves, and it ends in a double countout. Next please.
Next is The Equalizer v. The Shockmaster. Uh, I take back what I said about next please. This was another bad match, and the Sockmaster wins with his bearhug slam, or whatever you call it. At least it was only a couple of minutes long. I liked Fred Ottman well enough in WWF but he hasn’t been to impressive so far in WCW, and the Equalizer is just awful.
Next is WCW TV Title: Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) vs. Johnny B. Badd. Regal is the defending champ. This was a decent match, though the crowd started a boring chant during a long headlock (and I can’t say as though I blame them). Badd knocks Regal silly with his left hook (an illegal punch, of course) and covers for the pin, but Sir William puts Regal’s foot on the rope after two to save his master. And while Badd is arguing, Regal rolls him up for the win.
Next match is Steve Austin v. Brian Pillman. This match breaks Jesse’s heart, and mine too. This is the official end of the Hollywood Blonds, possibly the greatest tag team of all time, in my humble opinion. WCW should have kept them together longer. Anyway, this was a very good match with good storytelling, as you’d expect from these guys. Austin wins when Pillman goes to the top to go Air Pillman but Col. Parker grabs his foot, and he falls, allowing Austin to cover him for the win.
Next match is for the U.S. Title: Dustin Rhodes (w/Dusty Rhodes) vs. Paul Orndorff (w/The Assassin). Rhodes is the champ. Rhodes backdrops out of an Orndorff piledriver attempt then Paul misses a kneedrop and Dustin small packages Orndorff for the win.
After the match, Orndorff and the Assassin start beating on Dustin, then Dusty starts clobbering the Assassin, then tries to take his mask off. Orndorff makes the save by hitting Dusty with a foreign object, but Dustin comes back in to save his old man.
The match itself was so-so (I actually thought it was boring, with too many long rest holds), and the post-match stuff was more entertaining than the match itself. They’ve been trying to build an Assassin-Dusty Rhodes feud (which is ostensibly why Assassin was managing Orndorff in the first place) and this is apparently the outcome of that.
Next match is The British Bulldog and Sting vs. The Nasty Boys (w/Missy Hyatt) for the WCW Tag Team Championships. The Nasty Boys are the champs, of course.
Rick Rude comes out and gives Davey Boy a Rude Awakening on the wooden entrance platform before the match starts, so it’s basically a handicap match for Sting for quite a while as Davey Boy tries to recover.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty good match. Sting wrestled by himself admirably for quite a while before Davey Boy made his triumphant comeback. Davey Boy power slams Knobbs but the ref isn’t there to count, and Sags come off the top rope with the elbow to the head to allow Knobbs to instead pin Davey Boy, with the ref turning around just in time to see that. This ending was too similar to the ending of the Nasties’ match in Halloween Havoc vs. Scorpio & Bagwell but otherwise was fine.
Last match is for the WCW World title: Vader (w. Harley Race) v. Ric Flair. Vader is the champ, of course. This was a really good match. I found it quite enjoyable and it was certainly the best match on this card. The only problem with it was – hold onto your hats – yet another stupid WCW ending. Flair gets out of the way of a Vader moonsault then covers Vader for the three-count and a HUGE pop, but no, apparently the referee, who haad been knocked down by Vader, was just crawling along the mat, and what everybody thought was him hitting the mat one, two, three times for the count was just him crawling along the mat to go over and call for the bell, as he is disqualifying Vader for knocking him down. So we have another stupid, moronic, cheap, confusing ending. Even Jesse Ventura, who is a pro-heel announcer, said that Flair got robbed. I can tell by some of Jesse’s comments over the past few months that he’s baffled by some of the things that WCW did. So are we all, Jesse
After the match, Austin runs out to help Vader beat down Flair, but Dustin Rhodes and Shockmaster run out to make the save. Then Flair challenges Austin and Vader to a tag match and reveals his partner will be Sid Vicious. Sid was supposed to take over to Flair as WCW’s big babyface, but then he decided to stab Arn Anderson 20 times with a pair of scissors in a hotel room fight, so the WCW will have to go with Plan B. Speaking of that stabbing, I think that happened before this show aired, but they’re still making it sound like Sid is part of their future plans, with him supposedly steaming up with Ric Flair.
All in all, this was a decent show. The main event was excellent, and the Hollywood Blonds match and the Tag Team Championship match were good. The rest was mostly filler but not bad for “free TV”. Well, not really free since you’d need a cable or satellite subscription to get TBS, but you know what I mean.
Ugh, and now we’ve got ANOTHER WCW PPV coming up in just 10 more days!
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 18, 2024 12:58:40 GMT -5
I saw Halloween Havoc 1993.
We start off with a goofy minimovie as some kids trick or treat at Tony Schiavone’s house, and Schiavone lives in a haunted mansion and pulls off his Schiavone mask to reveal…a monster!
Anyway, we have yet another last minute lineup change to a WCW PPV/big event– Yoshi Kwan is out and Paul Orndorff will take his place vs. Ricky Steamboat. Actually, that’s not a bad thing.
Also, we’ve got Schiavone and Jesse Ventura on commentary. Tony is dressed for Halloween as Jesse (which is pretty funny) and Jesse is dressed as some sort of demented doctor.
First match is a six man tag team match with Ice Train, Shockmaster (now sans shiny stormtrooper helmet and dressed like a construction worker) and Charlie Parker (the native American) versus Harlem Hean (Kole and Kane) and the Equalizer (AKA Evad Sullivan). The good guys win when Shockmaster gets Kole (AKA Booker T) in a bearhug, then falls on top of him for the three count. I guess you could call is a bearhug slam. That’s better than his previous closer, which was just a bearhug. So the future Booker T has jobbed to the Shockmaster at the last two WCW PPV’s. Uh, okay. Anyway, this was not a particularly good match, but considering that most of the guys involved were not very good workers, this was probably the best that could be hoped for.
Next up is Ricky Steamboat vs. Paul Orndorff. Paul Orndorff (who is again, an injury replacement) introduces a new manager, the Masked Assassin. This match started very slowly, but eventually turned into a pretty good match. Orndorff wins by countout when he knocks Steamboat out of the ring, and the Assassin, who had slipped Something into his mask, headbutts Steamboat, knocking him out. This was a bit of a weird match. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Steamboat was the heel here. He used heel tactics, included roughing up the ref twice. Really strange. He was vicious and was kicking Orndorff’s butt for the first ten minutes. Since these two didn’t really have a feud going at he moment, I’m not sure where all of Steamboat’s anger came from.
Next match is for the WCW TV Championship- Lord Steven Regal (champ) w/Sir William vs. British Bulldog. Personally, I really liked this match. There was a lot of good mat wrestling – it was a nice surprise to see Bulldog going for that rather than relying on his power moves (until towards the end of the match) versus the consummate mat wrestler in Lord Steven – but the crowd didn’t seem to appreciate it. Anyway, the TV championship matches have a 15 minute time limit, so Davey Boy only had 15 minutes to try and get the win. Bulldog has a flurry of offense and nearfalls towards the end, but time runs out on him, as he’s got Regal pinned but the time expires on the two-count, so Regal retains his belt.
Next match is for the WCW US Championship- Dustin Rhodes (champ) vs. Steve Austin. The graphic lists Col. Parker as Austin’s manager, though that hasn’t actually happened yet, so someone in the graphics department was premature. Typical WCW. Austin has Rhodes pinned, and has his feet on the rope. The ref counts one-two-three, so Austin naturally and rightly thinks he has won, and gets up and celebrates. However, the ref apparently changed his mind and decided that he saw Austin’s feet on the rope, so says the match will continue. However, Austin is unaware of this, and Rhodes rolls him up for the three count. What an unbelievably stupid finish. If the ref saw Austin’s foot on the rope, then why the heck did he count three? This was an okay match with a bad ending, and bad endings will be a common theme for this PPV.
Pillman was conspicuous by his absence, as the breakup of the Hollywood Blonds is on the horizon.
Oh, and Austin clobbers Rhodes with the belt after the match.
Next up is for the WCW Tag Team Championship- 2 Cold Scorpio and Marcus Alexander Bagwell (champs) w/Teddy Long vs. Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Saggs) w/Missy Hyatt.
First of all, Scorpio & Bagwell won the tag team title from the Nasty Boys on WCW Saturday Night just the night before, so they enter this as champs instead of the Nasties.
This was a good match (though the heat segment on Bagwell lasted too long), and the Nasties won when Scorpio hit the 450 splash (his finisher) on Knobbs and covers, but Saggs hits him from behind with his boot, allowing Knobbs to cover for the win (as the ref was distracted by Missy’s shenanigans before). The ending could have been better (yet another chaotic tag team finish, like every WCW tag team match of this era), but the match was otherwise enjoyable, as Scorpio and Bagwell make a pretty good team. I have no idea why they decided to give them the belt for one day only to lose it the very next day, though. That doesn’t make sense (could just be WCW being WCW) but I wonder if it had something to do with their dumb habit of filming things months in advance and something liked out so they decided to switch things because of that.
Next match is Sting vs. Sid Vicious (w/Col. Rob Parker). There were two refs in the ring for this match, though I don’t know why and the announcers didn’t mention it. Maybe both guys were told they were supposed to referee this match, i.e., WCW being WCW. At one point both guys were outside the ring for about a minute but weren’t counted out. Anyway, Sting wins Col. Parker (who is Sid’s manager, mind you) accidentally grabs Sid’s foot instead of Stings, tripping him and allowing Sting to fall on top of him, then he continues to hold onto the wrong foot while Sting pins Sid for the win. Sid is rightfully wroth with Parker after the match and let’s just say that their union is dissolved. A stupid finish to what was just an okay match.
Oh, and there was a fanboy in the crowd (front row) who looked just like Sting. Same haircut and very professional looking face paint job.
Next up is the International World Title Match: Ravishing Rick Rude (champ) vs. Ric Flair (w/ Fifi). The status of Rude’s belt is pretty confusing. I’ll bet most fans didn’t really understand it and probably stopped caring at some point. So convoluted. This had been the NWA World championship belt, then WCW I guess split from NWA so WCW wasn’t really recognizing this belt and was just referring to it as the “gold belt”. Then. The WCW International Committee convened and decided that they do recognize this belt, so now I guess it’s called the International Heavyweight Title, I guess.
Anyway, for some reason which I can’t fathom, they decided that they need two refs for this match, and Terry Taylor is the special guest referee who will work on the floor. By the way, during the match, Jesse complained that Taylor was calling the match in favor of Flair and it’s pretty hard to disagree with him.
Guess what, another stupid and chaotic ending. Rude sends Flair into the ref (Randy Anderson) knocking Anderson down. Taylor enters the ring to act as ref and Rude clotheslines him down, too. Then Rude pulls out a pair of brass knuckles, but Flair ducks the punch then back suplexes Rude. Flair then picks up the knuckles and hits Rude with them, then covers Rude. Taylor is about to count Rude out, but Anderson stops him and disqualifies Flair, as he apparently saw Flair use the brass knuckles. The crowd hated this, and was chanting “bulls!t” over it.
As to the match itself, just another okay match. Two great wrestlers that didn’t really bring their A game. This match was boring for long stretches, though it did have some good moments as well.
Oh, and after the match Flair grab the belt, even though he didn’t win it, then Rude grabs Fifi, slings her over his shoulder, and starts walking away with her, caveman style. Flair takes exception to that and attacks Rude and gets him I the figure four. The officials break that up and Rude takes off with his belt.
Next up is our feature match, Vader w/Harley Race vs. Cactus Jack. It’s the “Spin the wheel, make the deal” match. The wheel landed on Texas Death Match. The rules are a bit confusing. No DQ’s, falls “count” anywhere, pinfalls don’t count. After a pinfall, there’s a 30 second rest period until the next “round” starts. The first person unable to get up after a ten count, after the next “round” starts, loses the match. So in other words, you need to beat your opponent down badly enough that he can’t get up for at least 40 seconds (30 seconds for the rest period plus the additional 10 seconds that you need to get up in in order to avoid being counted out after the next “round” starts). This is a non-title match, by the way, though Vader is the champ.
These guys have a feud going back a few months, so perhaps this is the blowoff to that feud.
This was a great match, just as you’d expect in a Vader vs. Cactus Jack match with no DQ’s and falls anywhere. A lot of blood and violence and quick the brawl! The only complaints are the 30 second rest period between falls interrupted the flow, and yet another stupid ending. Both guys were down, then both guys get up before the count, but Harley zaps Jack in the leg with a tazer, so Jack falls back down. The ref turns and sees Jack down then declares Vader the winner. The end was confusing, the crowd didn’t seem to know what happened (and I don’t blame them) and it seems like they could have done something better than that. Jack gets his revenge with a double arm DDT on Race after the match, though.
For some reason, Jack was going to slip down the card even though he was massively over with the fans. Just WCW being WCW. I read that Mick Foley was so fed up with WCW that he was hoping that Vader would end his career in this match and he could collect on his Lloyd’s of London insurance policy, but no such luck.
All in all, there weren’t any terrible matches here (though the opening match was mediocre at best) but there was also only one really good match – Vader/Jack – and the whole thing was marred by the ending of just about every match being bad, stupid, confusing, or all of the above.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 18, 2024 12:53:04 GMT -5
It's not AI if it isn't independently thinking. It isn't intelligent if it is only following parameters set within its programming, which is all those things are doing. They are basically just search engines which then combine the information into a structure, based on the parameters set up in the coding. Intelligence is the ability to process that information and draw conclusions and create new thoughts, not just splice it together and spit it out. That's the problem with marketing and the media, because they grab onto buzz words, even (and especially) when used in error. I've had my own recent experiences with softwares that are purported to be "intelligent. My landlord uses an admin app to handle rent collection and maintenance requests, so he doesn't actively need to manage his properties (because he is, basically, an F-up). My renters insurance policy was just updated, so the app prompted me that my insurance was expiring and needed updating. On multiple occasions I uploaded new proof of insurance but it kept returning an error code, saying it was missing my name. My name appeared on two areas of the document I uploaded. The problem was, no human set of eyes ever got involved, beyond mine, to recognize that the software was in error. I went through this during the previous couple of years; and, in both instances, the landlord had to go into the app and override it to accept the document. He begged off that he couldn't do it this time, until the existing policy had lapsed, which sounded like lazy BS, to me. I tried again, with the same results and texted him that it was after the expiration of the old policy, it still wasn't accepting my new and he would have to get off his ass and do it manually. Then, I noticed on the app portal that he had my first name misspelled and realized that the app was using a search function, based on how the landlord or his office person entered my name into the app (I had no ability to enter anything other than phone and e-mail information, not name). My first name is Jeffrey (though I have gone by Jeff since I could speak); but, he, like many others, reversed the E and the R, into Jeffery. It's "Jeff-ree," not "Jeff-er-ee." I notified him of that fact and he could at least figure out how to edit that. I uploaded again and didn't get the error message. Computers are tools; they don't think (yet, anyway). They follow their programming and are limited by it. Granted, many humans are limited by their "programming," but, they can alter their own programming and move beyond. A computer can't without new instructions (as it stands) This is why I have never fully trusted automatic systems and digital storage. Too many manufacturers and users think they are infallible, when all evidence supports the conclusion that they are not. Anything created by Man is inherently flawed, because Man is flawed. If you assume that something can go wrong, you can develop alternatives, for when it inevitably does. Thank you. I think the term AI is way overused and misused. It's just another buzzword to get people's attention.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 17, 2024 7:23:36 GMT -5
I dare you, dbutler69 , ask an AI if Hulk Hogan wrestled at Wembley Stadium… Copilot said no. Hulk Hogan did not wrestle at Wembley Stadium. Although he was present at Wembley Stadium during the 80s and 90s, he was not part of any wrestling match there. Instead, he recalls being there alongside Michael Jackson and Mr. T, interacting with Make-A-Wish kids. During that time, Hogan was involved in a heartwarming effort to create music for a child’s family after the child passed away. The album they produced went on to top the Billboard charts, and this experience led to Hogan’s involvement in music production with Simon Cowell1. However, his wrestling activities did not take place at Wembley Stadium during that period.
So, while Hogan was at Wembley Stadium for a different purpose, he did not step into the wrestling ring there
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 17, 2024 7:22:26 GMT -5
I’d asked it for details on the first ladder match to take place in the WWF, to see how accurate it would be. AI is absurd. Another member here posted a question to ChatGP to clarify how Lex Luthor found out about Kryptonite in the 1978 movie - and the answer mentioned Emil Hamilton. AI conflates things. I was asking one question once about the 1989 Batman movie - and the answer implied Penguin had appeared with Joker in the first movie. An absolute joke! Which AI are you using? Copilot or Google Chrome? It should be AS -= artificial stupidity.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 17, 2024 7:20:30 GMT -5
Here’s a blast from the past: I did enjoy those compilation tapes. Here, there was a real novelty of seeing Hulk Hogan & Roddy Piper team up to face Ric Flair & Sid Justice (Hogan and Piper had teamed up previously, such as one 1987 bout against Kamala and Paul Orndorff), but this is the first time I saw them as a unit. Also, the peculiar trio of Bret Hart & The Natural Disasters took on The Mountie & The Nasty Boys, which was a good bout. Tatanka vs Warlord was a rather spirited bout, and, unlike so many matches on these Coliseum compilations, ended with a pinfall (home video releases did show a *lot* of DQ matches, it felt).Macho Man vs Berzerker was quite fun. The other matches were solid, although Bushwhackers, Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Sgt. Slaughter vs Nasty Boys & Beverly Brothers was merely okay. This was the third and final Battle of the Superstars compilation. Agreed! I just finished watching Invasion of the Bodyslammers and Bashed in the USA and there sure were a lot of DQ/countout finishes! Some entertaining stuff in there but it would sure be nice to have some more clean wins.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 17, 2024 7:16:08 GMT -5
What did you type in to get that bogus result?
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 11, 2024 15:33:16 GMT -5
Fall Brawl ‘93 is a horrible PPV that doesn’t deserve 3 hours of anyone’s life. I either disliked the matches or found that they were overlong - or didn’t live up to expectations. Steamboat/Regal is the only good match on the card, if you ask me (Steamboat was always a good seller). The Nasty Boys vs. Roma & Anderson should have been half the time. Who decided it should be nearly 24 minutes? Rude/Flair was a dream match on paper, and in theory, going 30 minutes should have meant a dream match for those two, but, much like Windham/Flair at the previous PPV, it just didn’t work. Lack of chemistry? An off-night? Who knows? WarGames was horrible. A bearhug finish is anti-climatic. Also, it felt like a random alliance on both sides. Yes, it’s okay for babyfaces to team with other babyfaces, and heels to team with other heels, without requiring a storyline, but Vader/Vicious and Harlem Heat seemed a random alliance, as did the babyfaces, if I’m honest. In 1992, Sting’s Squadron against The Dangerous Alliance made sense, as the Alliance had been a plague on WCW’s babyfaces. WarGames bouts from previous years made sense. And it’d make sense again (1994’s WarGames is so underrated, I know you’ll get to that). But WarGames should occur based on existing feuds, not because WCW wants to randomly throw something together. (I hate how WWE made Hell in a Cell a PPV, that should be a blowoff match for hated rivals) I smiled when you mentioned the random pairing of Orndorff and Equalizer. We’ve covered it a lot, but WCW really went to town on random pairings. Random pairings might be fine on TV as one might just accept it as two guys seeking a payday, so Ric Flair and Berzerker teaming up can probably be seen in those terms, but PPVs are supposed to be different, with high stakes and meaningful pairings. In my opinion, of course. Maybe just like comics, we need logic: if Riddler and Lex Luthor are gonna team up, give us a reason why, not just because an editor wants it one month. I guess I just prefer PPV tag pairings to make sense, it felt like WCW just drew names out of a hat. Incidentally, Fall Brawl ‘93 was the final WCW PPV released on tape in the UK (by a company called First Independent) until Uncensored 1997. Seems someone in WCW didn’t care for us Brits. I’d have been lost without tape traders, and I appreciate my mother for writing a lot of cheques (at least until I was old enough to earn my own money). Yes, Steamboat/Regal was definitely the best match on the card. The tag match with Bagwell & Scorpio (against that random tag team) was only watchable because of Scorpio. And yet, the other matches were either too long or just plain bad. and I also agree that random tag teams are fine for a "free TV" match but I expect bigger stakes/better pairings for a PPV. Wow, you were (are) a dedicated fan of US wrestling to go through all that to keep up with WCW back in the day! Good job!
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 11, 2024 13:38:36 GMT -5
The WWE Hall of Fame is meaningless until the Rosati Sisters are inducted.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 11, 2024 13:36:21 GMT -5
Another month, another WCW PPV.
I watched WCW Fall Brawl 1993, the first Fall Brawl PPV. This is the moment we’ve al been waiting for – the PPV debut of the Shockmaster. This has Wargames as its main event. A lot of empty seats in this arena. We’re in Houston and it’s Schiovane and Ventura again.
First match is WCW Television Championship: Ricky Steamboat [c] vs. Lord Steven Regal w/ Sir William. The story here is that Regal attacked Steamboat which I think was supposed to happen the day before on WCW Saturday Night (but doubtless was actually filmed long before) so Steamboat comes in with taped up ribs and a vendetta against Regal. I was really looking forwatd to this match. It starts out as a brawl, which is not at all what I expected, as Steamboat is furious with Regal. However, after a few minutes of that it settles into a very nice mat wrestling match (which the Houston crowd doesn’t seem to care for) and Ricky does a reat job of selling the injured ribs, and we see that it affects his performance (how nice when wrestlers can actually sell injuries realistically) and ultimately Regal wins when Steamboat is struggling to skin the cat (due to the aforementioned rib injury) and Sir William walks by and whacks him with his umbrella, allowing Regal to win the match with a German suplex. Nd we have a new Television Champion! Good match overall with good psychology and storytelling. I can’t believe that I heard a “Steamboat sucks” chant during this match, though! Wow, tough crowd. Also, once again the stupid over the top rope rule. Steamboat throws Regal over the top rope, but I guess because it just so happened to occur where the raised entrance platform was, it wasn’t a DQ. Uh, okay. I once again have to agree with Jesse Ventura’s complaints on that one.
Next match is Charlie Morris vs. Big Sky. Charlie Morris is a Native American with a Tatanka-like gimmick, though he’s not in as good of shape or as good a wrestler as Tatanka. He’s only been in WCW a few weeks at this point, I believe, and he’s here in a PPV. Big Sky (who’s got to be close to 7 feet tall) was in a tag team with Vinnie Vegas (AKA Kevin Nash, and it looked to me like Big Sky was the taller of the two!) until Vinnie jumped to WWF recently and became Diesel. So now Big Sky (who played Wolverine in the first X-Men movie) is a singles wrestler. This match was awful, and had no place in a PPV. The crowd chanted “We want Flair” less than a minute into this match and “boring” not long after and frankly, it’s hard to disagree with them. Anyway, Norris wins with a bicycle kick followed by the cover. Next match, please.
Next match is 2 Cold Scorpio and Marcus Bagwell vs. The Equalizer and Paul Orndorff. Too Cold & Bagwell have been together for a while and Orndorff/Equalizer are a randomly thrown together tag team, so guess who’s going to win. Scorpio/Bagwell win with Scorpio’s 450 splash onto Equalizer in a chaotic ending (like every WCW tag team PPV match) for the pin. This was a decent match. Not really PPV quality, but better than I was expecting, considering that the Equalizer (Evad Sullivan) was involved. Oh, and Orndorff and Equalizer attack Scorpio and Bagwell after the match, natch.
One complaint about this match is the ref once again clearly completely ignoring the rules in that chaotic ending.
Next up is Shanghai Pierce (w. Tex Slazenger) vs. Ice Train. This is another match that had no business on a PPV. Pierce is in an established tag team wit Slazenger, but hasn’t wrestled much singles in WCW. Ice Train is very inexperienced. He’s got a tremendously muscular physique, but is just not any good in the ring. He’s got a gimmick that reminds me a lot of Tugboat. Tugboat wanted to be a tugboat and made those tugboat tooting sounds, and Ice train wants to be a train and actually says “choo choo!”. For real. A kid friendly gimmick, anyway but that’s not going to go over with a lot of middle aged guys. He’s a likeable enough character, though. Anyway, this is a typical (though not very good) power vs. power match, though I did like when Tex & Shanghai held each end of their bull rope and Ice Train just ran through it, crashing the two heels together. That was cute. Oh, and Ice Train wins with a power slam. On to the next match, please.
Next up is Arn Anderson and Paul Roma vs. the Nasty Boys for the WCW tag team championship. FYI, the Horsemen are faces and the Nasty Boys heels. This match shows some of the problems with WCW’s habit of filming things months in advance, and having storylines set in stone. First of all, the big reveal (as the Nasty Boys teased a big surprise) was that they took on Missy Hyatt as their manager. However, since they’ve already filmed content in front of audiences with this, a lot of people already knew. There were even people in the audience here with signs about Missy being with the Nasty Boys, so these people knew enough in advance to come up with those signs. I’m not sure what she’s suppose to add to the team, but whatever. For that matter, the Nasty Boys wining this match was already known. Finally, doing this doesn’t allow you to change stories on the fly if you find the crowds reacting differently than you expected.
Anyway, on to the match. Whenever Sags came in, the crowd chanted “Porky Pig.” Cute. The crowd was pretty brutal to Missy, too, throwing dollar bills her way and calling her a crack whore. And I thought Philly sports fans were tough!
The Nasties had bragged before the show that they’d win the match with a doomsday bulldog. When they tried it during the match, Arn Anderson spoiled the bulldog by shoving Sags into the ring and giving him a spinebuster, allowing Roma to hit a flying splash on Knobbs, but then Sags hits him with a flying axehandle (which the ref didn’t see) and roll out of the ring, allowing Knobbs to cover Roma for the wins. This match hd some decent moments, but was too long at 24 minutes and overall not that great. Man, I wish the Hollywood Blonds were still the tag team champs at this point!
Next up is Cactus Jack vs. Yoshi Kwan (w. Harley Race) in a Bounty Match. WCW keeps having these bounty matches which don’t seem to be anything different than a regular match. Like I guess just calling it a bounty match is supposed to raise the stakes.
Anyway, first of all, Yoshi Kwan, like all good Far East characters (such as Charlie Chan) was played by a white guy – Chris Champion. I guess maybe WCW was trying to capitalize on the popularity of Mortal Kombat by creating a Raiden-like character. I totally get that, and am fine with it, but couldn’t they have at least gotten an Asian wrestler for that role? He does a lot of martial arts style kicks and has used some sort of weird looking nerve hold as his finisher (don’t worry – he won’t get a chance to employ that here). I’d seen some of his matches before that and I found his performance enough.
Second of all, the Cactus Jack storyline going on right now is a classic example of WCW screwing up a good thing, as Mick Foley himself has said. They had a great feud between Jack and Vader. In the last of a series of great matches, Vader powerbombed Jack on a cement floor, and he left on a stretcher. Meanwhile, Harley Race took the little leather bag that Jack had stated contained what was most important to him in life. WCW sent a reporter to look in on Jack in the sanitarium where he’d gone to recuperate. It turns out that he had amnesia and had no idea who he was, and had disappeared from the sanitarium. So for weeks we get vignettes of this reporter looking for Jack, asking people here and there. She eventually finds him living on the streets in Cleveland, living with some woman, with no memory of his wife, son, and previous life. By the time of this PPV, WCW had apprarently seen the error of their ways in this silly storyline (better late than never) and Jack cut a promo saying that the whole amnesia and homelessness stuff was a ruse on his part to psych out Harley Race. Jack actually cut a really good promo here. I’ve read that Jack wanted the whole angle to play out in such a way as to build sympathy for him for his triumphant comeback, presumably with some vignettes of him in the hospital, but WCW decided to go the comedy route instead. Anyway, this is building up for a Vader/Jack fight at next month’s PPV, Halloween Havoc.
On to the match. To be honest, this match wasn’t much and wasn’t particularly good. Certainly not PPV quality, anyway. They both spent a minute or two outside the ring after Jack clotheslined them both over the top rope, but no double countout because…reasons. Anyway, Jack wins with the double arm DDT then suplexes Harley Race, who’s standing on the apron, into the ring and takes his beloved little mysterious bag.
Next is Ric Flair vs. Ric Rude for Flair’s NWA World Championship belt, though they never actually say NWA, just calling it the “world title”. I guess NWA and WCW were on the outs (again) at this point. Fifi, who is the maid on Flair’s talk show, comes out with the Nature Boy, to our surprise. Rude grabs the mic and says after he wins, he’ll take Fifi with him (the feud started when Fifi rejected Rude’s advances and slapped him) so I guess this is a Fifi match? Anyway…
Rude wins when, Flair has him in the figure four, but the ref is talking for Fifi (I have no idea why, maybe asking for a date?) and Rude pulls out some brass knuckles and slugs Flair, then covers for the win when the ref turns around. We have a new world champ! One funny thing in this match is that you could clearly hear Flair ask the ref “how much time” so the announcers tried to sell it like Flair was worried about the 60 minute time limit might expire soon.
I know these guys are two legends, but to be honest, this match was pretty boring. There was some psychology in there, but this match went about 31 minutes and I’m pretty sure that over half of it was rest holds. This would have been much better if it had been half as long.
Finally we get the War Games Match: Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, & The Shockmaster (w/ Road Warrior Animal) vs. Big Van Vader, Sid Vicious, & Harlem Heat (w/ Harley Race & Col. Parker)
Rhodes is selling rib injury he suffered the day before (on an episode of WCW Saturday Night that was probably recorded weeks ago) with taped ribs, and he foolishly gets in the cage first, ahead of his teammates – to face Vader. They have a pretty cool exchange for that initial 5 minutes before the next man (one of the Harlem Heat guys) enters the ring. Announcers making fun of Shockmaster’s clumsiness. They seem to be plying him up for comedy after the accidental Clash of the Champions debacle. He played the surprising hero, though, in a lame finish, as he got one of the Harlem Heat guys (Kole, the future Booker T, I think) into a bearhug and Kole submitted. What a terrible finish!! I was also wondering, how can ref even tell if someone gave up when he’s outside the ring? Anyway up until then, the action (just under 17 minutes) was okay but not nearly as good as last year’s Wargames match and probably one of the weaker Wargames matches. Neither Vader nor Sid came across as monster heels. Dustin looked really good here, which kinda surprised me. I’d call him the MVP of this particular Wargames match.
So we had 3 title change hands in this PPV. I think that all 3 previous title holders had the belts for a matter of days or, at most, weeks. I guess turnover is the rule at WCW. I think heels hold all the many WCW belts at this point, by the way.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 11, 2024 13:34:36 GMT -5
I think the tennis court one was on WrestleFest 1992, which also featured The Berzerker showing us how to host the perfect party. A year earlier, WrestleFest 1991 gave us some hair cutting tips from Brutus Beefcake. I need to check out the Bushwhackers/Lord Alfred Hayes remodelling a house segment because I don’t believe I’ve seen that. Smack ‘Em, Whack ‘Em did feature Yokozuna cooking tips. I wonder, could that have been the tape featuring Bushwhackers/Hayes? IRS’ tax tips on SuperTape 1992 were fun, there’s a video for that one: Yes, Smack 'em Whack 'em is the one. Good job!
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 11, 2024 7:25:59 GMT -5
Did anyone own these? I loved the segments on some of those Coliseum tapes, such as Bret Hart sharing his art, Mr. Perfect discussing his stamp collection, etc. On the WrestleFest ‘93 tape, there was a Bobby Heenan/Gene Okerlund segment where they’d broken down. Heenan produced a road map, and Okerlund said, “What is that, it looks like toilet paper?” All good fun. I also liked how there were exclusive matches on those tapes. For many years, the only way to see the Bret Hart/Ric Flair WWF Championship match was on a Coliseum tape, Smack ‘Em, Whack ‘Em. No, I didn't own these, but thank you for pointing them out. I've just checked and they're available on Peacock, so I've added them to my watchlist, and I'll watch them in the not too distant future. As far as the Coliseum segments, they are hit or miss. Some are really enjoyable (I recall some humorous back and forth between Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund on a tennis court) and some are a bit of a waste of time (the Bushwhackers showing Lord Alfred Hayes how to remodel a house dragged on too long and was too silly) but I'm looking forward to checking out Bret Hart's art and Mr. Perfect's stamp collection when I watch those videos.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 11, 2024 7:20:14 GMT -5
Hope the prison authorities saw this on PPV - and tracked an escaped prisoner down: Wonder if Hulk Hogan was backstage watching this match, prior to his ‘main event’ at Wembley… I think Nailz's crime was impersonating a professional wrestler.
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