Random mini-reviews
It's been ages since someone bothered to update our fair blog. Because we're all far too busy lazy to be bothered with such things. It just occurred to me that I still post about stuff on various boards, though, so I might as well co-opt that junk and put it up hear since I'm sure it'll be new to some of you. If, uhh...anyone still remembers that we exist, anyway. This will have a bunch of out of context comments that you won't get and sometimes I'm just slicing bits of separate posts together to (hopefully) make sense, but when has my writing ever made sense, really? I did clean these up a bit and added some new comments. DIRECTOR'S CUT!
-I watched the rest of the King/Hero feud comp, including the Loser Leaves CZW match. God, what a match. It's been 24 hours and I don't know that I can put my feelings about the match into words. I routinely complain that I wouldn't put any match from the last 10 years in a list of my all time favorites, but this...this match is just different from everything else out there right now. It's as perfect a brawl as I've ever seen. Kingston is so far ahead of pretty much every other worker out there that it boggles the mind. From the half staggered selling to the timing of the fighting spirit spots to the way he shit talks his way through matches...just amazing. The dude just has a ton of heart and works emotion into wrestling in a way that I don't think I've ever seen. In this feud especially, Hero knows exactly when to be "Hero-y" and when to just sit back and throw strikes. He's such a smarmy, condescending ass in the ring and when he reigns himself in it comes across even more because of the cocky little stomps and whatnot. And then when he does one of his goofy tumbling routines it just makes you want to kill him.
This match (and much of the feud) is more a battle of wills than it is wrestling. I actually feel bad for the people who would look at this and just dismiss it as two guys trading strikes, since that's like 85% of this match. The art of simplicity has been lost for the most part, but damn, this match has it in spades. Can't stress enough how great this is. Actually, I'll probably watch it again tonight if I have time, back to back with the TPI match. Perhaps at that point, I'll be better able to articulate why it's the best match I've seen in years.
-Just re-watched the big Duggan/DiBiase stips (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town, Coal Miner's Glove on a Pole, Tuxedo Cage match ) from 3/22/85 for probably the fifth time. I own this match already, but this is a HUGE step up in VQ.
At any rate, if you've never seen this match, you have no idea what you're missing. The booking is completely logical and a great example of the multi-layered booking that Watts was capable of (oh wait...that's another one of those concepts that Heyman invented, right?). Every stipulation is there for a very specific reason and actually has history behind it. It 's not just a case of throwing crap at a wall and hoping it sticks. Beyond that, it's also a *fantastic* brawl. Both guys pound the crap out of one another. Great punches. Tons o'blood. You just can't ask for more out of a pro wrestling match than this. Seeing it in this quality makes me wonder if it might not actually outpace my holy grail of the Tully/Magnum I-Quit cage match.
Note: This got the #1 slot on my Mid-South ballot, which is exactly where it finished in the final tally, I believe. I'll post my entire ballot here so we can all laugh at how retarded I am!
-It's not often that I feel the need to stop watching something so I can post about it, but I'm watching CHIKARA's YLC V, N2 right now and just got through the Shayne Hawke/Tim Donst match, which is *fantastic*. I hadn't been sold on Hawke, but he rules it here, absolutely brutalizing Donst and being the biggest dick in the world in the process. Which, considering the fact that he's a fairly tiny albino dude is actually pretty odd. Heh. I was feeling bad for Donst after a while, because Hawke was just kicking the crap out of him and talking crap the entire time. Some great heel shtick here.
Donst got in very little offense, but his hope spots looked great as well. There was an amateur style facefirst legsweep in particular that looked 27 kinds of hurty. He looks like he'll be pretty decent with a bit more experience (Quack points out that, at this point, he's only worked a half dozen matches total). Not a high end match by any means, but damn, this is the sort of thing that reminds me why I love wrestling in the first place.
-For years, I'd been reading about the DiBiase/Flair match from Mid South. 11/6/85 is the date, I believe. Heard it was a great match attached to one of the best angles ever televised. I'd never seen it, until today. Been saying it a lot recently, but words fail to describe how great the entire setup of this is. I'll give you the basic rundown, but yeah...you need to see this for yourself. DiBiase (Maybe *the* heel in Mid South) gets a shot at Flair because Flair/Dick Slater killified Butch Reed the prior week and he's unable to wrestle.
Dick Murdoch (a face, in as much a redneck asskicker can be) comes out and cites the history between he and DiBiase, letting us know that he helped break Teddy into the business. He wants DiBiase to step down and give Murdoch the title shot. DiBiase refuses, so Murdoch attacks and just brutalizes him. DiBiase is just *gushing* blood. Flair gives himself the night off and we go to break assuming that the title match is off. Back from break and Bill Watts tells us that DiBiase is demanding to wrestle. Watts goes into full bore "walking tall" mode, telling us how much DiBiase is risking by wrestling and letting us know that children and anyone with a weak stomach should skip the match.
Flair and DiBiase proceed to work a short, but great match based around DiBiase's cut. Lots of little hope spots by Teddy and the crowd has gotten behind him 100%, which would have been a ridiculous notion just a half hour earlier. Flair ends up sending him over the top and DiBiase takes a nasty bump to the floor and into the barricade at ringside, getting counted out. Murdoch is back out to attack DiBiase once again and ends up just murdering him with a sick brainbuster on the floor. Watts cancels all of the standby matches and we stick with DiBiase as he's tended to. Steve Williams brings out a table that they use for a makeshift stretcher to load him into an ambulance. In the course of the show, you have DiBiase becoming the biggest face in the company and Murdoch (re)embracing the dark side and it's all absolutely spot on perfect.
Thank god for the 80's Watts set, as it's totally reminded me why I love pro wrestling. It's not even like I was souring on the business, but when you're watching stuff this great, it completely reinvigorates you. At the moment, I'm digging wrestling even more than usual, if that's even possible.
-For years, I'd been reading about the DiBiase/Flair match from Mid South. 11/6/85 is the date, I believe. Heard it was a great match attached to one of the best angles ever televised. I'd never seen it, until today. Been saying it a lot recently, but words fail to describe how great the entire setup of this is. I'll give you the basic rundown, but yeah...you need to see this for yourself. DiBiase (Maybe *the* heel in Mid South) gets a shot at Flair because Flair/Dick Slater killified Butch Reed the prior week and he's unable to wrestle.
Dick Murdoch (a face, in as much a redneck asskicker can be) comes out and cites the history between he and DiBiase, letting us know that he helped break Teddy into the business. He wants DiBiase to step down and give Murdoch the title shot. DiBiase refuses, so Murdoch attacks and just brutalizes him. DiBiase is just *gushing* blood. Flair gives himself the night off and we go to break assuming that the title match is off. Back from break and Bill Watts tells us that DiBiase is demanding to wrestle. Watts goes into full bore "walking tall" mode, telling us how much DiBiase is risking by wrestling and letting us know that children and anyone with a weak stomach should skip the match.
Flair and DiBiase proceed to work a short, but great match based around DiBiase's cut. Lots of little hope spots by Teddy and the crowd has gotten behind him 100%, which would have been a ridiculous notion just a half hour earlier. Flair ends up sending him over the top and DiBiase takes a nasty bump to the floor and into the barricade at ringside, getting counted out. Murdoch is back out to attack DiBiase once again and ends up just murdering him with a sick brainbuster on the floor. Watts cancels all of the standby matches and we stick with DiBiase as he's tended to. Steve Williams brings out a table that they use for a makeshift stretcher to load him into an ambulance. In the course of the show, you have DiBiase becoming the biggest face in the company and Murdoch (re)embracing the dark side and it's all absolutely spot on perfect.
Thank god for the 80's Watts set, as it's totally reminded me why I love pro wrestling. It's not even like I was souring on the business, but when you're watching stuff this great, it completely reinvigorates you. At the moment, I'm digging wrestling even more than usual, if that's even possible.
Note: This was #3 on my ballot. Could have easily been #1.
CHIKARA - Maximum Overdraft
-Mantis teams with the Southern Saints? In the pre-show? Okay then! His continued refusal to work with Moscow is as humorous as ever.
-King beats the snot out of Ricochet, then puts a 'Wicked mask on him and beats the snot out of him some more. Dig it. (Note: How can you possibly not like Eddie Kingston? It just seems like a virtual impossibility. Everything the man touches, or punches in the face, turns to gold.)
-I'm officially 100% on the Shayne Hawke bandwagon. He does my name proud...even if he spells it wrong. Anyway, he's goofy in that way that most Canadian indy guys tend to be, but he can also buckle down and dick it up with the best of them. I'm starting to dig Billy Roc a bit as well. He's sort of "face Hero"-lite, but yeah...if there's not at least one masturbatory matwork guy in the indies, the entire scene would implode.
-Death Rey vs. Haze 2/3 was a bit...sloppy. Wasn't a bad match or anything, but I was surprised at how off some of this looked since these two tend to work pretty well together.
-Deliriousos vs Colony was your standard, goofy CHIKARA fun. After going through the old Watts stuff, though, it was quite the mindfuck.
-The Minis match sucked. A lot. The commentary was far more entertaining than the match could have ever hoped to be.
-Chucky T/Drake Younger was pretty good. I'm starting to genuinely enjoy Chuck Taylor's work instead of having it be a bridge between segments of him doing his shtick. (Note: Not that the grenade elbowdrop isn't funny EVERY SINGLE TIME or anything)
-Ahhh...Lince Dorado. How far down my throat will you be pushed? (Note: This is as true today as it was when originally written. Of course, King is doing his best to murder him now, so soon my life will be Lince free.)
-Quack drags a watchable match out of Rocky Romero. Who knew? (Note: I hate Rocky Romero, if you weren't aware. How does this guy get so much hype?)
-I don't really remember how it was taken at the time, but damn, was that F.I.S.T./Briscoes match ever a good Briscoes match. I don't know if they toned it down because it wasn't an ROH/NOAH show or if Icarus is just way better than anyone gives him credit for (he is, actually, but I digress), but this match actually had a bit of structure and wasn't just the Briscoes flying through a zillion spots a minute. I wish they always worked like this.
(Note: This still stands. I hated the Briscoes for ages, then fell in love with them for a bit. Now I'm pretty much ambivalent. Every single match is exactly the same. Just mindless spot fu with no rhyme or reason. Which is sad, because they *can* work a different style when the mood strikes them)
-F.I.S.T. teases dissension postmatch. I don't remember them splitting at all, so color me confused... (Note: I was pretty far behind on CHIKARA at this point, so I was confused by things I half remembered from reading results, as compared to what I was seeing on the shows themselves. The moral? Spoilers suck.)
Also watched International Invaders Night 1. Came across to me as a weak show, but I was pretty exhausted when I watched it, so who knows? It *was* the birth of Brodie Lee: KILLING MACHINE, though, so huzzah to that. Ricochet/Pac was just as bad as I thought it would be when it was announced, even though people were trying to convince me that Ricochet was awesome now. Didn't buy it then...not buying it now. The F.I.S.T/Ice Creams match was pretty good, but that was the only match here I can see warranting a second viewing.
More to come!
-I watched the rest of the King/Hero feud comp, including the Loser Leaves CZW match. God, what a match. It's been 24 hours and I don't know that I can put my feelings about the match into words. I routinely complain that I wouldn't put any match from the last 10 years in a list of my all time favorites, but this...this match is just different from everything else out there right now. It's as perfect a brawl as I've ever seen. Kingston is so far ahead of pretty much every other worker out there that it boggles the mind. From the half staggered selling to the timing of the fighting spirit spots to the way he shit talks his way through matches...just amazing. The dude just has a ton of heart and works emotion into wrestling in a way that I don't think I've ever seen. In this feud especially, Hero knows exactly when to be "Hero-y" and when to just sit back and throw strikes. He's such a smarmy, condescending ass in the ring and when he reigns himself in it comes across even more because of the cocky little stomps and whatnot. And then when he does one of his goofy tumbling routines it just makes you want to kill him.
This match (and much of the feud) is more a battle of wills than it is wrestling. I actually feel bad for the people who would look at this and just dismiss it as two guys trading strikes, since that's like 85% of this match. The art of simplicity has been lost for the most part, but damn, this match has it in spades. Can't stress enough how great this is. Actually, I'll probably watch it again tonight if I have time, back to back with the TPI match. Perhaps at that point, I'll be better able to articulate why it's the best match I've seen in years.
-Just re-watched the big Duggan/DiBiase stips (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town, Coal Miner's Glove on a Pole, Tuxedo Cage match ) from 3/22/85 for probably the fifth time. I own this match already, but this is a HUGE step up in VQ.
At any rate, if you've never seen this match, you have no idea what you're missing. The booking is completely logical and a great example of the multi-layered booking that Watts was capable of (oh wait...that's another one of those concepts that Heyman invented, right?). Every stipulation is there for a very specific reason and actually has history behind it. It 's not just a case of throwing crap at a wall and hoping it sticks. Beyond that, it's also a *fantastic* brawl. Both guys pound the crap out of one another. Great punches. Tons o'blood. You just can't ask for more out of a pro wrestling match than this. Seeing it in this quality makes me wonder if it might not actually outpace my holy grail of the Tully/Magnum I-Quit cage match.
Note: This got the #1 slot on my Mid-South ballot, which is exactly where it finished in the final tally, I believe. I'll post my entire ballot here so we can all laugh at how retarded I am!
-It's not often that I feel the need to stop watching something so I can post about it, but I'm watching CHIKARA's YLC V, N2 right now and just got through the Shayne Hawke/Tim Donst match, which is *fantastic*. I hadn't been sold on Hawke, but he rules it here, absolutely brutalizing Donst and being the biggest dick in the world in the process. Which, considering the fact that he's a fairly tiny albino dude is actually pretty odd. Heh. I was feeling bad for Donst after a while, because Hawke was just kicking the crap out of him and talking crap the entire time. Some great heel shtick here.
Donst got in very little offense, but his hope spots looked great as well. There was an amateur style facefirst legsweep in particular that looked 27 kinds of hurty. He looks like he'll be pretty decent with a bit more experience (Quack points out that, at this point, he's only worked a half dozen matches total). Not a high end match by any means, but damn, this is the sort of thing that reminds me why I love wrestling in the first place.
-For years, I'd been reading about the DiBiase/Flair match from Mid South. 11/6/85 is the date, I believe. Heard it was a great match attached to one of the best angles ever televised. I'd never seen it, until today. Been saying it a lot recently, but words fail to describe how great the entire setup of this is. I'll give you the basic rundown, but yeah...you need to see this for yourself. DiBiase (Maybe *the* heel in Mid South) gets a shot at Flair because Flair/Dick Slater killified Butch Reed the prior week and he's unable to wrestle.
Dick Murdoch (a face, in as much a redneck asskicker can be) comes out and cites the history between he and DiBiase, letting us know that he helped break Teddy into the business. He wants DiBiase to step down and give Murdoch the title shot. DiBiase refuses, so Murdoch attacks and just brutalizes him. DiBiase is just *gushing* blood. Flair gives himself the night off and we go to break assuming that the title match is off. Back from break and Bill Watts tells us that DiBiase is demanding to wrestle. Watts goes into full bore "walking tall" mode, telling us how much DiBiase is risking by wrestling and letting us know that children and anyone with a weak stomach should skip the match.
Flair and DiBiase proceed to work a short, but great match based around DiBiase's cut. Lots of little hope spots by Teddy and the crowd has gotten behind him 100%, which would have been a ridiculous notion just a half hour earlier. Flair ends up sending him over the top and DiBiase takes a nasty bump to the floor and into the barricade at ringside, getting counted out. Murdoch is back out to attack DiBiase once again and ends up just murdering him with a sick brainbuster on the floor. Watts cancels all of the standby matches and we stick with DiBiase as he's tended to. Steve Williams brings out a table that they use for a makeshift stretcher to load him into an ambulance. In the course of the show, you have DiBiase becoming the biggest face in the company and Murdoch (re)embracing the dark side and it's all absolutely spot on perfect.
Thank god for the 80's Watts set, as it's totally reminded me why I love pro wrestling. It's not even like I was souring on the business, but when you're watching stuff this great, it completely reinvigorates you. At the moment, I'm digging wrestling even more than usual, if that's even possible.
-For years, I'd been reading about the DiBiase/Flair match from Mid South. 11/6/85 is the date, I believe. Heard it was a great match attached to one of the best angles ever televised. I'd never seen it, until today. Been saying it a lot recently, but words fail to describe how great the entire setup of this is. I'll give you the basic rundown, but yeah...you need to see this for yourself. DiBiase (Maybe *the* heel in Mid South) gets a shot at Flair because Flair/Dick Slater killified Butch Reed the prior week and he's unable to wrestle.
Dick Murdoch (a face, in as much a redneck asskicker can be) comes out and cites the history between he and DiBiase, letting us know that he helped break Teddy into the business. He wants DiBiase to step down and give Murdoch the title shot. DiBiase refuses, so Murdoch attacks and just brutalizes him. DiBiase is just *gushing* blood. Flair gives himself the night off and we go to break assuming that the title match is off. Back from break and Bill Watts tells us that DiBiase is demanding to wrestle. Watts goes into full bore "walking tall" mode, telling us how much DiBiase is risking by wrestling and letting us know that children and anyone with a weak stomach should skip the match.
Flair and DiBiase proceed to work a short, but great match based around DiBiase's cut. Lots of little hope spots by Teddy and the crowd has gotten behind him 100%, which would have been a ridiculous notion just a half hour earlier. Flair ends up sending him over the top and DiBiase takes a nasty bump to the floor and into the barricade at ringside, getting counted out. Murdoch is back out to attack DiBiase once again and ends up just murdering him with a sick brainbuster on the floor. Watts cancels all of the standby matches and we stick with DiBiase as he's tended to. Steve Williams brings out a table that they use for a makeshift stretcher to load him into an ambulance. In the course of the show, you have DiBiase becoming the biggest face in the company and Murdoch (re)embracing the dark side and it's all absolutely spot on perfect.
Thank god for the 80's Watts set, as it's totally reminded me why I love pro wrestling. It's not even like I was souring on the business, but when you're watching stuff this great, it completely reinvigorates you. At the moment, I'm digging wrestling even more than usual, if that's even possible.
Note: This was #3 on my ballot. Could have easily been #1.
CHIKARA - Maximum Overdraft
-Mantis teams with the Southern Saints? In the pre-show? Okay then! His continued refusal to work with Moscow is as humorous as ever.
-King beats the snot out of Ricochet, then puts a 'Wicked mask on him and beats the snot out of him some more. Dig it. (Note: How can you possibly not like Eddie Kingston? It just seems like a virtual impossibility. Everything the man touches, or punches in the face, turns to gold.)
-I'm officially 100% on the Shayne Hawke bandwagon. He does my name proud...even if he spells it wrong. Anyway, he's goofy in that way that most Canadian indy guys tend to be, but he can also buckle down and dick it up with the best of them. I'm starting to dig Billy Roc a bit as well. He's sort of "face Hero"-lite, but yeah...if there's not at least one masturbatory matwork guy in the indies, the entire scene would implode.
-Death Rey vs. Haze 2/3 was a bit...sloppy. Wasn't a bad match or anything, but I was surprised at how off some of this looked since these two tend to work pretty well together.
-Deliriousos vs Colony was your standard, goofy CHIKARA fun. After going through the old Watts stuff, though, it was quite the mindfuck.
-The Minis match sucked. A lot. The commentary was far more entertaining than the match could have ever hoped to be.
-Chucky T/Drake Younger was pretty good. I'm starting to genuinely enjoy Chuck Taylor's work instead of having it be a bridge between segments of him doing his shtick. (Note: Not that the grenade elbowdrop isn't funny EVERY SINGLE TIME or anything)
-Ahhh...Lince Dorado. How far down my throat will you be pushed? (Note: This is as true today as it was when originally written. Of course, King is doing his best to murder him now, so soon my life will be Lince free.)
-Quack drags a watchable match out of Rocky Romero. Who knew? (Note: I hate Rocky Romero, if you weren't aware. How does this guy get so much hype?)
-I don't really remember how it was taken at the time, but damn, was that F.I.S.T./Briscoes match ever a good Briscoes match. I don't know if they toned it down because it wasn't an ROH/NOAH show or if Icarus is just way better than anyone gives him credit for (he is, actually, but I digress), but this match actually had a bit of structure and wasn't just the Briscoes flying through a zillion spots a minute. I wish they always worked like this.
(Note: This still stands. I hated the Briscoes for ages, then fell in love with them for a bit. Now I'm pretty much ambivalent. Every single match is exactly the same. Just mindless spot fu with no rhyme or reason. Which is sad, because they *can* work a different style when the mood strikes them)
-F.I.S.T. teases dissension postmatch. I don't remember them splitting at all, so color me confused... (Note: I was pretty far behind on CHIKARA at this point, so I was confused by things I half remembered from reading results, as compared to what I was seeing on the shows themselves. The moral? Spoilers suck.)
Also watched International Invaders Night 1. Came across to me as a weak show, but I was pretty exhausted when I watched it, so who knows? It *was* the birth of Brodie Lee: KILLING MACHINE, though, so huzzah to that. Ricochet/Pac was just as bad as I thought it would be when it was announced, even though people were trying to convince me that Ricochet was awesome now. Didn't buy it then...not buying it now. The F.I.S.T/Ice Creams match was pretty good, but that was the only match here I can see warranting a second viewing.
More to come!
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