Random stuff #3
We're rolling now! Though it occurs to me that I should have posted these in reverse, since they'd make way more sense that way. Meh.
-Took me ages to get through, but I've finally watched the IWA 500th show from TLC through King/Scorp. There's some truly godawful wrestling to be found here. The TLC match is just 45 minutes of absolute hell. No one sells a thing, it's just random flip after random flip after random flip after random flip (broken up only by blown spots or people landing on their heads in an awkward manner) and it just drags on forever. I can't stress enough just how brutally bad this is. Don't watch it. Ever. Seriously, if you buy the DVD...skip this match. Trust me. The Conflict of Interest match was nearly as bad, actually. Just a total nonsensical cluster of a match. When the announcers have to put over that none of the participants know the rules to cover the absolute stupidity happening in the ring, you know you're in for a mind scorching good time...
(I can't stress to you enough how bad these matches are. You rarely see me shit on pro wrestling, as I can find a redeeming moment in pretty much anything, but this? This was just flat out insulting.)
On the other hand, Kingston/Scorpio was really good. Really slow build, with lots of early matwork that you wouldn't expect from King. They ramp it up pretty quickly, though, and when they go into the striking sequence it's pretty much just a sprint to the end. Scorpio has been criminally overlooked. One of the best talents of the last 15 years or so, though you'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people outside of the business who'd agree.
-Watched the first disc and a half of the new Rock set. I had forgotten how genuinely enjoyable he is in the ring. People go on and on about the shtick, but the only conversation you really see about his work is about his crappy Sharpshooter. The guy was a really smart worker and timed his comebacks perfectly. And since his matches actually generated heat, every big match he had came across as being epic. Been great fun to watch some of this stuff over again.
(I miss the Rock like crazy. I imagine the stuff that could have happened with him still in the picture and it just blows my mind. That we'll likely never get to see Rock/HBK and Rock/Cena is tragic.)
-I don't throw around snowflakes very much, but I think ****3/4 is a tad high. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the match at 'Mania 13, but I'm a sucker for a high level brawl. This was much more mat based, though the brawling segments are friggin' great. Bret looks great after being off for months and Austin hangs with him the entire way. I'd seen the finish 1000 times, but when you watch the entire match, you see how well it plays into everything else they'd done to that point. Extra points for some phenomenal commentary by Ross and Vince. People forget that Vince was great in that role. He didn't know the names of the moves or anything but he was so underrated in his ability to drive home the point of the match and where things would spin off to in the future.
(This is referring to the Bret/Austin match from Survivor Series, by the way...)
-Started watching IWC's "Super Indy VII" show. Pretty fun so far.
-Michael Facade versus CJ Sensation never had a chance to build to anything, as John McChesney comes out and just annihilates both guys. Really sick chairshot to Facade here.
-Shiima Xion vs. Luke Hawx was pretty good. I was kinda distracted by Xion's new bald look, though. He's just not the same without the hair. At any rate, this has the problem that all one night tournaments have, as the early round matches are too short to really mean anything.
-Jason Gory versus Jerry Lynn was, err...a Jerry Lynn match. If you like the things that scenario entails, you'll probably dig this. I'm not as big a fan of nearfall-laden exhibition wrestling, though, so yeah. This was just sorta there for me.
-MCMG vs. Sexual Harassment could have been *great* with an extra 10 minutes or so. Lots of really nifty stuff. It ended up being compressed as they raced from spot to spot, though. Seriously, there's no better team (in terms of tandem offense) than the Machine Guns right now. And there hasn't been since the Midnight Express, actually.
-Finished Super Indy VII. Fun show, but nothing overwhelming. I kinda think that knowing Lynn was going all the way took me out of it. The match versus Davey Richards in the finals was way too short but, amazingly enough, came off pretty well. I imagine that to someone who likes either guy, it would be even better.
I will say that the Sandman/Dennis Gregory bootcamp match is probably the worst match I've seen in several years. Just brutally, brutally bad, as Sandman was so bombed that he could barely stand up. Totally embarrassing.
I also watched the TNA: Year One doc. Not much that someone who follows the business doesn't already know, but it's a fairly interesting watch. Even if you do have to look at Bob Ryder's giant pumpkin head.
-The Flair/Race match (8/31/83) on the new Flair set is amazing. Far better than the match at Starrcade. Tons of back and forth action with Flair avoiding all of Harley's big spots like they were death. Really basic offense, but both guys are so believable (Harley as the legit badass, Flair as the wrestling machine) and they both sold so well that it worked really well. Bob Orton/Dick Slater also try to fracture Flair's skull with a sick spike piledriver at the end, so I guess there's at least one nasty spot, for those of you who require such things to enjoy a match.
-Just watched the Mecha/Kiku Lyger vs. Lyger/MMA Lyger (don't know the name offhand) match from the Minoru Suzuki show. First puro I've watched this year aside from the New Japan Dome show and a random Hero/Briscoes 6-man tag from NOAH. Missy Hyatt, of all people, linked it and since it was so short, I thought I'd check it out. This is a short (sub 10 minute) comedy match with some funny Lyger-centric spots. I *loved* MechaLyger's palm strike flurry and the MMA dude trying to pull guard every time he got into the ring, only to be pummeled was hilarious as well.
ROH - The Battle Of St Paul
Really fun show. They totally lost me with the 4-way and the mind numbingly boring Strong/Daniels match, but the main (Aries/Morishima) more than made up for it. Really, really hot match and the brainbuster/450 nearfall sequence was incredible.
-Women's tag (Death Rey/Danger vs MN Homewrecking Crew) was world's better than the average SHIMMER showcase match, but really, nothing special overall. Del Rey certainly likes laying in the stiff kicks, though.
-Jimmy Rave makes his return...to a huge face reaction? That doesn't compute. He's friggin' awesome in destroying Michael Elgin, but people cheering for Jimmy Rave makes Jesus cry.
-Shingo/Whitmer is exactly what you'd expect from these two. Lots of hard strikes and guys being randomly dumped on their head . You'll love this if that's your thing.
-I hate the Ultimate Endurance gimmick, but this was the debut of the CHIKARA crew in ROH, so I find it difficult to hate on this. Actually, this was pretty great. Not quite as much overkill from the Briscoes as usual. I don't know if they needed to take all three falls, but yeah...whatever.
-Pearce/Albright vs. 'Cide/Cabana was a really fun arena spanning brawl. 'Cide is wearing a goofy smiley face bandana here, which is the only positive to come of the ridiculous team with Cabana.
(I still can't believe that, after Homicide had *literally* tried to MURDER Cabana on multiple occasions, they did the stupid repect thing and had them hug at the end of the feud. Totally retarded in every way. To me, this is the single dumbest thing Gabe has ever booked, actually.)
-4 way (Delirious/Romero/Evans/Stevens) was trash, but it furthered an angle, I guess. A waste of all four of these guys.
-Speaking of a waste, Strong/Daniels feels like it's 5 hours long and then they give us a lame cop out finish? Thanks for stealing my life, ROH! Allison Danger's tiny little cheerleader skirt almost saves this, though, as she manages to wiggle her sweet little ass through frame like 10 different times during the course of this. One takes what one can get.
-The main was incredible. Can't stand Aries, but he absolutely made this match. Morishima is a top notch killing machine, of course, but without a guy who can take the bumps and sell it, it doesn't mean much. Aries makes all of this look believable. This is easily the best of the Morishima defenses that I've seen so far.
-Started Good Times, Great Memories. The opening scramble is really fun. I like the CHIKARA guys working a more ROH-styled spotfest than the CHIKARA style spotty match. It's kind of a shame at how much Quack is dumbing himself down in his first two matches here. Partially a result of the gimmicks of the matches, but yeah...spotty Quack isn't necessarily something I want to see with any regularity. The Doomsday tope he hits on Akuma and, uh...Jiggy, I think (?) was absolutely bad ass, though.
Good Times, Great Memories (cont.)
-I was all set to jump on the Erick Stevens train (no pun intended) because he was selling his ass off in the match with Daniels. He wasn't doing anything that required him to lift Daniels at all after the rib work begins. But then he flips that selling switch off and just ignores the previous 5 minutes or so. Anyway, this was wrestled like a draw from the start, so the finish was no surprise. Eh. Daniels postmatch promos was great. Nice to see him show a bit of emotion, since that's usually the thing about him that I can't stand. Also, have I mentioned that Alison Danger has a great ass?
-4CS was...better than expected. I hesitate to call it good, though. I wish Jimmy Rave got 100x more recognition for being awesome. Great heel, and a far better than average worker. As I've said before, he's actually good enough to convince the 'bots that he sucks, so that's saying something.
-You know, I can't stand Aries for the most part, but the Morishima match from the last show made me realize that if he actually sold with any consistency at all, he might be someone worth paying more attention to. He's still all flash, no substance as far as I'm concerned.
(I should have edited out some of these "I hate Aries" comments. Keep in mind that these posts span the better part of a year. I really don't go around saying that I dislike Austin Aries every time I touch a keyboard. Heh.)
-So this is the show that birthed the Toland/Dempsey stuff? Who knew I'd ever look forward to seeing Tank Toland? He's friggin' great here. I hope I don't have to watch him in matches longer than 5 minutes in upcoming shows, because I think he'll prove to be great only in small doses.
-Title match was a bunch of Fighting Spirit junk tossed out seemingly at random. Both guys are better than this.
(If memory serves, this was a Morishima/Shingo match that I'm referring to. I like how I just talk about crap without mentioning anyone who was involved. Vagueness!)
-Machine Guns/Briscoes was just flat out great and I'm totally sold on the Briscoes all over again. Nothing much I can say about this that hasn't already been stated. I know it'll change with the upcoming feud with Steen/Generico, but it's nice to see the Briscoes work against an actual *team*. I think their stuff gets a little too "Briscoe-y" at times just because they seem to work makeshift teams so often. You only get good versus good opposition and the Guns brought the best out of them here.
-Cabana's final match was nothing special, but it was everything you'd want from his farewell, so it hit on every level. Gotta love Pearce spitting in his face after the match before storming to the back. I appreciate Pearce being a heel and not stooping to the stupid lovey dovey act you usually get in farewell shows.
-Took me ages to get through, but I've finally watched the IWA 500th show from TLC through King/Scorp. There's some truly godawful wrestling to be found here. The TLC match is just 45 minutes of absolute hell. No one sells a thing, it's just random flip after random flip after random flip after random flip (broken up only by blown spots or people landing on their heads in an awkward manner) and it just drags on forever. I can't stress enough just how brutally bad this is. Don't watch it. Ever. Seriously, if you buy the DVD...skip this match. Trust me. The Conflict of Interest match was nearly as bad, actually. Just a total nonsensical cluster of a match. When the announcers have to put over that none of the participants know the rules to cover the absolute stupidity happening in the ring, you know you're in for a mind scorching good time...
(I can't stress to you enough how bad these matches are. You rarely see me shit on pro wrestling, as I can find a redeeming moment in pretty much anything, but this? This was just flat out insulting.)
On the other hand, Kingston/Scorpio was really good. Really slow build, with lots of early matwork that you wouldn't expect from King. They ramp it up pretty quickly, though, and when they go into the striking sequence it's pretty much just a sprint to the end. Scorpio has been criminally overlooked. One of the best talents of the last 15 years or so, though you'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people outside of the business who'd agree.
-Watched the first disc and a half of the new Rock set. I had forgotten how genuinely enjoyable he is in the ring. People go on and on about the shtick, but the only conversation you really see about his work is about his crappy Sharpshooter. The guy was a really smart worker and timed his comebacks perfectly. And since his matches actually generated heat, every big match he had came across as being epic. Been great fun to watch some of this stuff over again.
(I miss the Rock like crazy. I imagine the stuff that could have happened with him still in the picture and it just blows my mind. That we'll likely never get to see Rock/HBK and Rock/Cena is tragic.)
-I don't throw around snowflakes very much, but I think ****3/4 is a tad high. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the match at 'Mania 13, but I'm a sucker for a high level brawl. This was much more mat based, though the brawling segments are friggin' great. Bret looks great after being off for months and Austin hangs with him the entire way. I'd seen the finish 1000 times, but when you watch the entire match, you see how well it plays into everything else they'd done to that point. Extra points for some phenomenal commentary by Ross and Vince. People forget that Vince was great in that role. He didn't know the names of the moves or anything but he was so underrated in his ability to drive home the point of the match and where things would spin off to in the future.
(This is referring to the Bret/Austin match from Survivor Series, by the way...)
-Started watching IWC's "Super Indy VII" show. Pretty fun so far.
-Michael Facade versus CJ Sensation never had a chance to build to anything, as John McChesney comes out and just annihilates both guys. Really sick chairshot to Facade here.
-Shiima Xion vs. Luke Hawx was pretty good. I was kinda distracted by Xion's new bald look, though. He's just not the same without the hair. At any rate, this has the problem that all one night tournaments have, as the early round matches are too short to really mean anything.
-Jason Gory versus Jerry Lynn was, err...a Jerry Lynn match. If you like the things that scenario entails, you'll probably dig this. I'm not as big a fan of nearfall-laden exhibition wrestling, though, so yeah. This was just sorta there for me.
-MCMG vs. Sexual Harassment could have been *great* with an extra 10 minutes or so. Lots of really nifty stuff. It ended up being compressed as they raced from spot to spot, though. Seriously, there's no better team (in terms of tandem offense) than the Machine Guns right now. And there hasn't been since the Midnight Express, actually.
-Finished Super Indy VII. Fun show, but nothing overwhelming. I kinda think that knowing Lynn was going all the way took me out of it. The match versus Davey Richards in the finals was way too short but, amazingly enough, came off pretty well. I imagine that to someone who likes either guy, it would be even better.
I will say that the Sandman/Dennis Gregory bootcamp match is probably the worst match I've seen in several years. Just brutally, brutally bad, as Sandman was so bombed that he could barely stand up. Totally embarrassing.
I also watched the TNA: Year One doc. Not much that someone who follows the business doesn't already know, but it's a fairly interesting watch. Even if you do have to look at Bob Ryder's giant pumpkin head.
-The Flair/Race match (8/31/83) on the new Flair set is amazing. Far better than the match at Starrcade. Tons of back and forth action with Flair avoiding all of Harley's big spots like they were death. Really basic offense, but both guys are so believable (Harley as the legit badass, Flair as the wrestling machine) and they both sold so well that it worked really well. Bob Orton/Dick Slater also try to fracture Flair's skull with a sick spike piledriver at the end, so I guess there's at least one nasty spot, for those of you who require such things to enjoy a match.
-Just watched the Mecha/Kiku Lyger vs. Lyger/MMA Lyger (don't know the name offhand) match from the Minoru Suzuki show. First puro I've watched this year aside from the New Japan Dome show and a random Hero/Briscoes 6-man tag from NOAH. Missy Hyatt, of all people, linked it and since it was so short, I thought I'd check it out. This is a short (sub 10 minute) comedy match with some funny Lyger-centric spots. I *loved* MechaLyger's palm strike flurry and the MMA dude trying to pull guard every time he got into the ring, only to be pummeled was hilarious as well.
ROH - The Battle Of St Paul
Really fun show. They totally lost me with the 4-way and the mind numbingly boring Strong/Daniels match, but the main (Aries/Morishima) more than made up for it. Really, really hot match and the brainbuster/450 nearfall sequence was incredible.
-Women's tag (Death Rey/Danger vs MN Homewrecking Crew) was world's better than the average SHIMMER showcase match, but really, nothing special overall. Del Rey certainly likes laying in the stiff kicks, though.
-Jimmy Rave makes his return...to a huge face reaction? That doesn't compute. He's friggin' awesome in destroying Michael Elgin, but people cheering for Jimmy Rave makes Jesus cry.
-Shingo/Whitmer is exactly what you'd expect from these two. Lots of hard strikes and guys being randomly dumped on their head . You'll love this if that's your thing.
-I hate the Ultimate Endurance gimmick, but this was the debut of the CHIKARA crew in ROH, so I find it difficult to hate on this. Actually, this was pretty great. Not quite as much overkill from the Briscoes as usual. I don't know if they needed to take all three falls, but yeah...whatever.
-Pearce/Albright vs. 'Cide/Cabana was a really fun arena spanning brawl. 'Cide is wearing a goofy smiley face bandana here, which is the only positive to come of the ridiculous team with Cabana.
(I still can't believe that, after Homicide had *literally* tried to MURDER Cabana on multiple occasions, they did the stupid repect thing and had them hug at the end of the feud. Totally retarded in every way. To me, this is the single dumbest thing Gabe has ever booked, actually.)
-4 way (Delirious/Romero/Evans/Stevens) was trash, but it furthered an angle, I guess. A waste of all four of these guys.
-Speaking of a waste, Strong/Daniels feels like it's 5 hours long and then they give us a lame cop out finish? Thanks for stealing my life, ROH! Allison Danger's tiny little cheerleader skirt almost saves this, though, as she manages to wiggle her sweet little ass through frame like 10 different times during the course of this. One takes what one can get.
-The main was incredible. Can't stand Aries, but he absolutely made this match. Morishima is a top notch killing machine, of course, but without a guy who can take the bumps and sell it, it doesn't mean much. Aries makes all of this look believable. This is easily the best of the Morishima defenses that I've seen so far.
-Started Good Times, Great Memories. The opening scramble is really fun. I like the CHIKARA guys working a more ROH-styled spotfest than the CHIKARA style spotty match. It's kind of a shame at how much Quack is dumbing himself down in his first two matches here. Partially a result of the gimmicks of the matches, but yeah...spotty Quack isn't necessarily something I want to see with any regularity. The Doomsday tope he hits on Akuma and, uh...Jiggy, I think (?) was absolutely bad ass, though.
Good Times, Great Memories (cont.)
-I was all set to jump on the Erick Stevens train (no pun intended) because he was selling his ass off in the match with Daniels. He wasn't doing anything that required him to lift Daniels at all after the rib work begins. But then he flips that selling switch off and just ignores the previous 5 minutes or so. Anyway, this was wrestled like a draw from the start, so the finish was no surprise. Eh. Daniels postmatch promos was great. Nice to see him show a bit of emotion, since that's usually the thing about him that I can't stand. Also, have I mentioned that Alison Danger has a great ass?
-4CS was...better than expected. I hesitate to call it good, though. I wish Jimmy Rave got 100x more recognition for being awesome. Great heel, and a far better than average worker. As I've said before, he's actually good enough to convince the 'bots that he sucks, so that's saying something.
-You know, I can't stand Aries for the most part, but the Morishima match from the last show made me realize that if he actually sold with any consistency at all, he might be someone worth paying more attention to. He's still all flash, no substance as far as I'm concerned.
(I should have edited out some of these "I hate Aries" comments. Keep in mind that these posts span the better part of a year. I really don't go around saying that I dislike Austin Aries every time I touch a keyboard. Heh.)
-So this is the show that birthed the Toland/Dempsey stuff? Who knew I'd ever look forward to seeing Tank Toland? He's friggin' great here. I hope I don't have to watch him in matches longer than 5 minutes in upcoming shows, because I think he'll prove to be great only in small doses.
-Title match was a bunch of Fighting Spirit junk tossed out seemingly at random. Both guys are better than this.
(If memory serves, this was a Morishima/Shingo match that I'm referring to. I like how I just talk about crap without mentioning anyone who was involved. Vagueness!)
-Machine Guns/Briscoes was just flat out great and I'm totally sold on the Briscoes all over again. Nothing much I can say about this that hasn't already been stated. I know it'll change with the upcoming feud with Steen/Generico, but it's nice to see the Briscoes work against an actual *team*. I think their stuff gets a little too "Briscoe-y" at times just because they seem to work makeshift teams so often. You only get good versus good opposition and the Guns brought the best out of them here.
-Cabana's final match was nothing special, but it was everything you'd want from his farewell, so it hit on every level. Gotta love Pearce spitting in his face after the match before storming to the back. I appreciate Pearce being a heel and not stooping to the stupid lovey dovey act you usually get in farewell shows.
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