Arn Anderson v Ronnie Garvin (NWA ?/4/86)
--Not even David Crockett's abysmal commentary could stop this from being a small bucket of fun. Only last around eleven minutes, but Arn's so awesome at getting you interested in what he's doing, and the match turns out pretty great in that short time. A good chunk of the match is basically slow & power-struggle...."y", but they do build it up into some captivating title chase parts. Oddly enough though the best parts in the match were the slow parts, and i'd give 100% of the credit to Anderson. At one point they're in an arm lock power struggle and Arn's losing so he complains about hair pulling, then the ref goes to check if Garvin's actually doing & AA does it behind his back & jerks Garvin to the mat in a headlock. Then Garvin pulls AA's hair in retribution so he looks like the cheater. DQ finish with Tully probably set up a good little feud so it's forgivable. Anderson's also the greatest ever at "drunk-punching".
Arn Anderson v Bobby Eaton (WCW 19/5/91)
--Probably about as good as a midcard 12 minute TV Title match gets. The whole thing going in was the fact Eaton was a tag wrestler his whole career, and was looking for his big break as a singles performer (TV Title was pretty big), while Arn was viewed as maybe the greatest TV Champion ever. It was great. Anderson started off being the "crafty veteran singles wrestler", trying to really squash Eaton and get it done quickly. My favourite part was him shoving Eaton off of the top turnbuckle into the ramp they used to have. Bobby looked like he could've fucked his knee if he landed one second earlier. Anderson works on the leg the most of the rest of the match and eaton had some pretty great comebacks. Bobby getting the win was great too.
Steven Regal v Arn Anderson (WCW 20/2/94)
--Goes nearly a half hour so of course it was great, but there was something missing, and I can't put my finger on it. Nothing to complain about overall, seeing Regal with his face only a mother could love grinding Anderson's body parts where the bones stick out is about as good as it gets. I'm going on a ledge and saying Regal's one of my favourite sellers too. I love how he scrunches his face when in certain predicaments and yells out an "AOWH" at times like when he gets caught in a leg scissors. This match was really Regal trying to keep his TV Title by going the full half hour since he figured he couldn;t beat Arn cleanly, and he didn't. His manager helped him with a cheapshot win at the end with like eight seconds remainding in the time limit. Regal having a taped leg the whole match was weird considering Anderson hardly ever touched it until the end, but whehn he did the crowd went nuts, but they didn't really...build it off from that. Awesome match though, these two are becoming two of my favourites to watch ever.
Showing posts with label 1991. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1991. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Looky what I found
Wrote these MONTHS ago and dug them up from a thread on a forum. Expect more wow-I-forgot-I-wrote-this-I'll-blog-it posts as well.
El Hijo del Santo/Solomon Grondy/Rayo de Jalisco Jr v Perro Aguayo/Mascara Ano 2000/Cien Caras (EMLL 9/9/90)
--This was just overly *too much* fun in the best way possible. Went for like twenty minutes I think and had me hooked the entire time with not a single second boring, not one second. It kind of opened my eyes to a couple thing too, like Perro being a damn entertaining guy to watch. Right when the bell was rung he had already gone straight for Santo and Santo was paying him back the whole match almost ignoring his partners and just singling him out to full-force rip him apart. I always thought Perro was a Bruiser Brody-type who was awkward with selling and barely moved, but he was pretty nimble and bumped well. Going to have to watch some of his simgles stuff. Another guy I thought was impressive was Grondy, he's fat, like, fatter than Mark Henry fat, but he was doing all he could to squash the rudo team and make the crowd cheer. He even did this neat little dropkick to send Ano 2000 to the outside and then faked a jump over the ropes. It had bezerk crazy stuff like that consistantly, hell the second fall ended in a total referee-ignoring all-over-the-place brawl with trumpet music in the damn background. Cien Caras had his mask taken off by Jalisco too which caused him to have his face covered by a black clothe and scamper out of the arena. This is the sort of "why I watch Lucha Libre" match.
El Hijo del Santo/Eddy Guerrero/El Satanico v El Brazo/Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata (EMLL 16/9/90)
--Brazo de Plata (I think t was him) was awesome in this here. If he wasn't jumping on Santo with his fat glutes he was doing dive presses to try to kill El Satanico. Everyone else was great, too, but he was on fire. Loved it when all three Brazos grabbed Santo in a mocking manner to pose for the video camera and then tried to take his mask off. Santo's like Liger, man he'll kick the crap out of you for trying to his mask off, then he'll dive out onto you because he fucking can. Eddy was already good in 1990 and he was doing a really good job at playing the young guy trying to make a name and stay competitive with everyone else. Felt like every wrestler had some role to play for the match and it couldn't have been much better.
El Hijo del Santo v Brazo de Oro (UWA 13/1/91)
--Yay this holds up. The first and second falls aren't anything "classic" or anything but watching Santo beat Oro bloody with the ring post after losing the first fall is an awesome way to spent a few minutes. In the first fall Oro was great at making Santo look vulnerable and almost pathetic, and in the second it was pretty much swapped around with Santito bursting into a different gear and kncoking Oro senseless. Third fall is probably what you'd expect from mask vs. hair match, switching it to "classic" levels of awesome, full with all the near falls, planchas and dives you could hope for in a match like this. Oro's no 180-pounder like Santo, either, when he dives he takes his whole gut with him and really lays into you. No fancy mat work in this one, just two pro wrestlers beating each other bad and making you forgot they're only 5'7" apiece. One of the best matches of 1991 imo.
Negro Casas v El Hijo del Santo (UWA 3/1/91)
--"Perfectly in sync" is an understatement for how good these two are together, they make everything they do look so effortless without any screw-ups or botches, they're bordering on Flair/Steamboat levels. Some the things Santo would do looks impossible for a human being to pull off, and doing it with such flow and connectivity with his other moves, it blows your freaking mind. Pretty different match from some of their others, this was almost all submission-based work with near-fall stuff near the end. No Negro being a cheat and trying to mock Santo, no Santo trying to rip out Negro's hair. They just wanted to be the better man and wrestler and beat the other cleanly. Negro getting the clean win was unexpected for me, too.
El Hijo del Santo/Solomon Grondy/Rayo de Jalisco Jr v Perro Aguayo/Mascara Ano 2000/Cien Caras (EMLL 9/9/90)
--This was just overly *too much* fun in the best way possible. Went for like twenty minutes I think and had me hooked the entire time with not a single second boring, not one second. It kind of opened my eyes to a couple thing too, like Perro being a damn entertaining guy to watch. Right when the bell was rung he had already gone straight for Santo and Santo was paying him back the whole match almost ignoring his partners and just singling him out to full-force rip him apart. I always thought Perro was a Bruiser Brody-type who was awkward with selling and barely moved, but he was pretty nimble and bumped well. Going to have to watch some of his simgles stuff. Another guy I thought was impressive was Grondy, he's fat, like, fatter than Mark Henry fat, but he was doing all he could to squash the rudo team and make the crowd cheer. He even did this neat little dropkick to send Ano 2000 to the outside and then faked a jump over the ropes. It had bezerk crazy stuff like that consistantly, hell the second fall ended in a total referee-ignoring all-over-the-place brawl with trumpet music in the damn background. Cien Caras had his mask taken off by Jalisco too which caused him to have his face covered by a black clothe and scamper out of the arena. This is the sort of "why I watch Lucha Libre" match.
El Hijo del Santo/Eddy Guerrero/El Satanico v El Brazo/Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata (EMLL 16/9/90)
--Brazo de Plata (I think t was him) was awesome in this here. If he wasn't jumping on Santo with his fat glutes he was doing dive presses to try to kill El Satanico. Everyone else was great, too, but he was on fire. Loved it when all three Brazos grabbed Santo in a mocking manner to pose for the video camera and then tried to take his mask off. Santo's like Liger, man he'll kick the crap out of you for trying to his mask off, then he'll dive out onto you because he fucking can. Eddy was already good in 1990 and he was doing a really good job at playing the young guy trying to make a name and stay competitive with everyone else. Felt like every wrestler had some role to play for the match and it couldn't have been much better.
El Hijo del Santo v Brazo de Oro (UWA 13/1/91)
--Yay this holds up. The first and second falls aren't anything "classic" or anything but watching Santo beat Oro bloody with the ring post after losing the first fall is an awesome way to spent a few minutes. In the first fall Oro was great at making Santo look vulnerable and almost pathetic, and in the second it was pretty much swapped around with Santito bursting into a different gear and kncoking Oro senseless. Third fall is probably what you'd expect from mask vs. hair match, switching it to "classic" levels of awesome, full with all the near falls, planchas and dives you could hope for in a match like this. Oro's no 180-pounder like Santo, either, when he dives he takes his whole gut with him and really lays into you. No fancy mat work in this one, just two pro wrestlers beating each other bad and making you forgot they're only 5'7" apiece. One of the best matches of 1991 imo.
Negro Casas v El Hijo del Santo (UWA 3/1/91)
--"Perfectly in sync" is an understatement for how good these two are together, they make everything they do look so effortless without any screw-ups or botches, they're bordering on Flair/Steamboat levels. Some the things Santo would do looks impossible for a human being to pull off, and doing it with such flow and connectivity with his other moves, it blows your freaking mind. Pretty different match from some of their others, this was almost all submission-based work with near-fall stuff near the end. No Negro being a cheat and trying to mock Santo, no Santo trying to rip out Negro's hair. They just wanted to be the better man and wrestler and beat the other cleanly. Negro getting the clean win was unexpected for me, too.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Whole lotta WCW
Lex Luger v Ricky Steamboat (NWA 23/7/89)
--Luger around this time is generally good to great, but here he was ....well, not that *bad*, just, kind of sloppy I guess. A little. Steamboat around this time is pretty much no short of Flair around this time so this had to be good either way, and it was. Always love when Steamboat starts off a match on fire, with high dropkicks, atomic drops, chops, the whole deal, maybe getting everyone thinking that the match might end early. Love it an equal amount when he gets cut off in his tracks by something like a Lex Luger knee to the face. The segment where Luger's control is where he gets a little sloppy but it isn't a Raja Lion deal or anything. Steamboat has those "I'm coming back" moments where he slips a chop in after Luger hits something, again, maybe getting the crowd to believe he's coming back, then Luger stops him. Lexy himself was a pretty great complimentary dominate-your-ass heel to Steamboat's fight-for-what's-right babyface, and Steamboat's drunken-punching here was nothing short of Arn Anderson or Terry Funk level drunken punching. Steamboat's comeback was how you'd expect. CHOP FROM THE TOP. Luger refused to stick the belt up if the match was no DQ so the rules were swapped around to a regular match and that was a bit of a head-scratcher since he decided to try to make it a no DQ by brining the chair in and stuff. Steamboat getting disqualified for using the chair justifies that, I guess.
Arn Anderson/Larry Zbyszko v Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat (WCW 19/11/91)
--Steamboat's return from WWF and it's a huge favourite of mine.Anderson boston Rhodes explodes everywhere eventually. Dustin being the guy to get the hot tag was a little "eh?" considering it was Steamboat's return, but Dustin's just SO good at being a face you just don't care. JR mentions he's 21 and I found that ridiculous, I can't think of too many 21 year olds I've seen in wrestling that were this good. In fact bar Rey Mysterio I can't think of any. Pop for the finishing Crossbody and stuff was insane.
Chris Benoit v 2 Cold Scropio (WCW 21/2/93)
--Thought this might not hold but I love the fact I was very wrong. Scorpio's a guy who's appreciated well for being a high-flying flippy guy but underappreciated for being an actual good worker. This is probably his best match, and the best Benoit match in theUS
Chris Benoit v Eddy Guerrero (WCW 16/10/95)
--Awesome for eight or something minutes, but I won't say it's a four star match or anything. Not complaining at all though, pre-ten minute matches almost don't get better. They fit the arm work with Eddy in there shockingly well with only five or something minutes remaining and Eddy sold it perfectly while they still managed to keep up the hurricanranas and dives they were doing before.
Chris Benoit v Kevin Sullivan (WCW 16/6/96)
--"Good", but I didn't think it was better than that. Sullivan was being a dick when pretty much refusing to sell borderline all of Benoit's offence while Benoit was doing bumps like the stair-throw and taking shit like toilet doors to the head. Suplex off of the table was a great finishing spot. Favourite part of the match might have been Dusty Rhodes' commentary
THERE'S A LAYDEH--THERE'S A LAYDEH IN THE MEYEN'S BAT'ROOM. WE GOTTA A WOMAN IN THE MEYEN'S JOHN HERE INBALTIMORE
Hulk Hogan v The Giant (WCW 10/8/96)
--Good enough, I guess. About as good as heel Hulk Hogan at 600 years old and Paul Wight in the first year of his career would get. Pretty slow, but I didn't want it any other way, they actually tried to outpower each other almost the whole thing (when Hogan wasn't doing some of the best stalling ever). There wasn't of this Hogan superman stuff either, he had to yank the gigiantic hair from the gigantic head of The Giant to even be in contention to win the Greco-Roman tie-ups. I loved when he pointed the refereee toward his head to show Wight was pulling his hair (when he wasn't), so the ref couldn't see HE was pulling Wight's hair. Nash and Hall's interference was done better than most mid-late 90s WCW run-ins as well. The Giant hulking up was something else.
--Luger around this time is generally good to great, but here he was ....well, not that *bad*, just, kind of sloppy I guess. A little. Steamboat around this time is pretty much no short of Flair around this time so this had to be good either way, and it was. Always love when Steamboat starts off a match on fire, with high dropkicks, atomic drops, chops, the whole deal, maybe getting everyone thinking that the match might end early. Love it an equal amount when he gets cut off in his tracks by something like a Lex Luger knee to the face. The segment where Luger's control is where he gets a little sloppy but it isn't a Raja Lion deal or anything. Steamboat has those "I'm coming back" moments where he slips a chop in after Luger hits something, again, maybe getting the crowd to believe he's coming back, then Luger stops him. Lexy himself was a pretty great complimentary dominate-your-ass heel to Steamboat's fight-for-what's-right babyface, and Steamboat's drunken-punching here was nothing short of Arn Anderson or Terry Funk level drunken punching. Steamboat's comeback was how you'd expect. CHOP FROM THE TOP. Luger refused to stick the belt up if the match was no DQ so the rules were swapped around to a regular match and that was a bit of a head-scratcher since he decided to try to make it a no DQ by brining the chair in and stuff. Steamboat getting disqualified for using the chair justifies that, I guess.
Arn Anderson/Larry Zbyszko v Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat (WCW 19/11/91)
--Steamboat's return from WWF and it's a huge favourite of mine.
Chris Benoit v 2 Cold Scropio (WCW 21/2/93)
--Thought this might not hold but I love the fact I was very wrong. Scorpio's a guy who's appreciated well for being a high-flying flippy guy but underappreciated for being an actual good worker. This is probably his best match, and the best Benoit match in the
Chris Benoit v Eddy Guerrero (WCW 16/10/95)
--Awesome for eight or something minutes, but I won't say it's a four star match or anything. Not complaining at all though, pre-ten minute matches almost don't get better. They fit the arm work with Eddy in there shockingly well with only five or something minutes remaining and Eddy sold it perfectly while they still managed to keep up the hurricanranas and dives they were doing before.
Chris Benoit v Kevin Sullivan (WCW 16/6/96)
--"Good", but I didn't think it was better than that. Sullivan was being a dick when pretty much refusing to sell borderline all of Benoit's offence while Benoit was doing bumps like the stair-throw and taking shit like toilet doors to the head. Suplex off of the table was a great finishing spot. Favourite part of the match might have been Dusty Rhodes' commentary
THERE'S A LAYDEH--THERE'S A LAYDEH IN THE MEYEN'S BAT'ROOM. WE GOTTA A WOMAN IN THE MEYEN'S JOHN HERE IN
Hulk Hogan v The Giant (WCW 10/8/96)
--Good enough, I guess. About as good as heel Hulk Hogan at 600 years old and Paul Wight in the first year of his career would get. Pretty slow, but I didn't want it any other way, they actually tried to outpower each other almost the whole thing (when Hogan wasn't doing some of the best stalling ever). There wasn't of this Hogan superman stuff either, he had to yank the gigiantic hair from the gigantic head of The Giant to even be in contention to win the Greco-Roman tie-ups. I loved when he pointed the refereee toward his head to show Wight was pulling his hair (when he wasn't), so the ref couldn't see HE was pulling Wight's hair. Nash and Hall's interference was done better than most mid-late 90s WCW run-ins as well. The Giant hulking up was something else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)