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| Return of Scrooge's Random Recaps | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 10 2015, 09:37 PM (1,346 Views) | |
| Scrooge McSuck | Jun 10 2015, 09:37 PM Post #1 |
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I'll get you next time, toilet!
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I'm in the middle of a "writers block" rut. Nothing is really enticing me to string together a bunch of reviews, and the current WWE product is a bit lacking to me, so I'm going to go through the countless data files I have saved and recap whatever random crap I have. I'll try to pick stuff that has an actual interest rather than "Papa Shango vs. Repo Man", and see if I can create any interesting discussion at the same time. - Hulk Hogan (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. The Great Muta: From the “Wrestling Dontaku” card held on May 3rd, 1993 from the newly opened Fukuoka Dome in Fukuoka, Japan. Hogan couldn’t bother to make a live TV appearance for the WWF (despite being the WWF Champion) between WrestleMania IX and King of the Ring, but took a hefty payday to work a handful of dates in Japan. No Real American, and I don’t recognize the tune, either. I’ve read he used the theme from Battlestar Galactica at times, but I can’t hear it too well. As mentioned earlier, Hogan is the reigning WWF Champion and Muta is the IWGP World Champion, but this is Non-Title. Muta gives a blast of his green mist and makes a rude gesture. Lockup, and Hogan quickly takes Muta over with a cross arm-scissors. Muta makes it to the ropes, and takes a breather on the entrance ramp. Back inside, Hogan with a chain wrestling sequence including a drop toe hold into a front face-lock. Muta forces a break in the corner, and gives a surprisingly clean separation. Hogan easily over-powers Muta in a knuckle-lock, and takes him down with an arm-bar. Muta takes him into the corner, and this time unloads with a series of shoulders to the midsection. Hogan with knees to the midsection, followed by a charging clothesline to the corner. Muta ducks under an elbow and follows up with a pair of dropkicks, sending Hogan into retreat now. Back in, Muta with a rake of the eyes, followed by a snap-mare and twisting elbow drop for two. Hogan escapes a wrist-lock, takes Muta down with a drop-toe-hold, and goes back to working on the left arm. He tries turning Muta over with a half-nelson, but he’s in the ropes, and slips back out of the floor to disrupt the pace. He teases an under-handed tactic by crawling under the ring, but returns without incident. He unloads with chops, sending Hogan through the ropes. Hogan drags him out, and it’s a slugfest. Hogan with a rake of the eyes, followed by a suplex. He throws Muta over the security rail and continues to pound away with rights. He drags Muta back over the rail and takes him down with a back suplex. Muta rolls back in to avoid the count-out, but rolls back out to continue catching a breather. Hogan follows and pays for it, being sent into the ring post. Muta tucks the time-keeper’s hammer into his tights and smashes it into Hogan’s face… and the referee somehow didn’t see it? Muta uses it again and this time the referee disarms him. That’s my kind of referee, let them fight to the finish. He takes Hogan over with a snap-mare and hooks a chinlock. Muta willingly releases the hold, tosses Hogan through the ropes, and takes him down with a snap suplex on the ramp. He runs down the length of the ramp, then comes charging back, knocking Hogan over the top rope with a clothesline. Hogan gets dirty in the corner, going for the eyes, raking the back, and pounding with rights. He tosses the referee aside for trying to break it up, and goes back to clawing at the eyes. Hogan feeds him his foot and follows through with an enziguri for two. Muta reverses a whip to the corner and follows Hogan in with his signature hand-spring elbow. Muta with a back breaker and moonsault for two! He sends Hogan out of the ring with a dropkick and returns the favor from earlier, sending Hogan into the rail. He grabs hold of some sort of ladder and swing into Hogan feet-first. Muta with a chair across the back, inadvertently sending Hogan back in the ring. The referee tries to disarm Muta of the chair, allowing Hogan to lay him out with the Axe Bomber! Hogan wrestles the chair away from the referee, but Muta blows mist in his eyes to counter! He takes Hogan over with another snap-mare, but a missile dropkick misses! Hogan with the big leg drop… for two! Whip to the ropes, Hogan with a big boot, and the Axe Bomber gets three at 15:56. ***1/2 Believable, well executed wrestling, a gradual intensification of action, building up to the high spots and match ending sequences, and a well done job in blurring the lines between face and heel with both men using under-handed tactics out of frustration, before setting up for a clean finish. It could be an easy topic to attack, but I’m going to look at it from Hogan’s point-of-view. Why, if he was capable of wrestling like this, did he not work this style in America? The answer lies in the question. American audiences didn’t want, nor need, Hogan to wrestle to this extent. Was Hogan chain-wrestling Zeus going to make those matches better? Or trying to exchange arm-locks and body scissors with Warrior? No, it wouldn’t fit the character, and the casual audience wouldn’t expect it. Now, in the Japanese-Style and the culture of the sport, it’s not technically a necessity to be a “great” wrestler, but there is higher expectations of a more believable style of work. Is Hogan a great wrestler? No. He’s a very competent wrestler, but he’s a smart entertainer. He knew the audience and adjusted accordingly. This isn’t me over-rating a match because Hogan threw an enziguri, it was a standard rating for what I felt the match was trying to tell. Taking away the quality of the match itself, the story coming out of the tour was a post-match promo that Hulk Hogan cut, where in an attempt to draw interest in a possible encounter with Antonio Inoki, buried the WWF Championship. Courtesy of the May 10th, 1993 Wrestling Observer Newsletter… “The biggest news after the show was the interview Hogan did with the press after the show, in which, well, you be the judge. These are not direct quotes because what he said was translated into Japanese, then translated back, which means a lot can be lost in double translation. The gist of his interview was he was very happy to be back with New Japan. He said he started wrestling in the United States when he was trained by Hiro Matsuda, but he considers his wrestling home to be New Japan. Now he's back after eight years of being a big success in the U.S. as a wrestling star, movie star and television star. Everyone has something in the back of their mind that they always want to do. For me it was to come back to New Japan (the six-figures per match deal had nothing to do with it, it was just something he had in his heart). The Japanese have always accepted me so well and I felt I needed to return. I'm still the best wrestler and best showman. While I was gone for eight years (forgetting he's worked several shows in Japan since 1990, including three Tokyo Domes against Tenryu, Hansen and the Road Warriors), a whole new generation of wrestling fans has grown up in this country. I want every one of them to think of Hulk Hogan when they go to bed thinking about who the best wrestler is. I'm a five-time WWF champ (shows the belt). To me, this (WWF belt) is a toy, like a Christmas tree ornament. The WWF belt is like a Honda. The IWGP belt is like a Rolls Royce. It's the real world championship belt. Winning this (WWF belt) was very easy. The IWGP belt is very hard to win (Hogan was the first IWGP champ winning the initial tournament in 1983 before losing it in 1984 to Inoki). No bullshit. I can wrestle. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I'm the old dog, but I know all the tricks. I never quit wrestling. I'm not one of those guys coming back disgracing my former reputation. I'm still the best wrestler. The match (with Muta) today was fun, but it was easy. He is a star, but I beat him 1-2-3 in the middle. I should be wearing the IWGP belt. I want to wrestle every top name in Japan and hopefully wrestle Mr. Inoki again. At that point Hogan went on and on about Inoki. However, when Inoki did his post-match interview, he only talked about wanting singles matches against Tenryu and Fujinami and never mentioned Hogan's name. While Hogan vs. Inoki would certainly be a big draw at next year's Tokyo Dome, how can you put together the finish? Which of the two will be willing to sacrifice himself?” Later speculation from Dave Meltzer was that Hogan had already known at this point that he was dropping the Championship to Yokozuna at the upcoming King of the Ring PPV, and since Yokozuna was only previously known as an under-card act “Kokina”, the Japanese audience would see that as a huge downgrade from Hulk Hogan as Champion. The only surprise from that title change is how much Hogan gave Yokozuna, even in a loss where there was an incredibly dumb interference spot. Typical Hogan matches from this particular era involved complete domination before doing a cheap loss, so maybe Hogan did intend to hang around until at least SummerSlam before having his typical change of heart. |
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| Scrooge McSuck | Jun 11 2015, 09:42 AM Post #2 |
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I'll get you next time, toilet!
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- Brutus Beefcake (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Masa Saito: This is also from the Fukuoka show held on May 3rd, 1993. Beefcake is wearing the goofy protective mask because reasons. He also gets practically zero reaction during introductions. Saito goes to lockup, but Beefcake avoids him by strutting. He does it again, so Saito attacks with chops, followed by a hard clothesline, sending Beefcake out of the ring for a strategy session. Back inside, they lock knuckles until Beefcake grabs a side headlock. Saito climbs out of the ring to force a break, but Beefcake drags him back in and keeps it applied? Saito tries ramming Beefcake face-first to the corner, but it’s no sold, and we go back to the headlock. Beefcake with a headbutt, then back to the headlock. Unless he’s making gestures to his mask, nothing Beefcake does is getting any kind of reaction. If he wasn’t already working lazy, he settles in with a chinlock. Saito rams him into the corner to escape. Saito with chops and a snap-mare. He goes for the mask, but Beefcake fights him off with a soft elbow to the midsection. He chops Saito down to the canvas with some pathetic shots and chokes. Saito starts no-selling Beefcake’s offense, waking the crowd up. Whip to the ropes and he connects with a clothesline, followed by a drifting back suplex. He takes him down with a second suplex, then goes after Jimmy Hart. Beefcake grabs the mega-phone and KO’s Saito with it behind the back of the referee, then drops a pair of shitty headbutts for the three count at 8:35. -* By American standards, this would be an awful match, but Beefcake clearly had no intentions of working anything more than his standard lazy formula. His offense was poor, the finish sucked, and the crowd couldn’t give a shit about anything he did. Being the masochist I am, I’ve discovered this available from two different broadcasts, with the second option being from a station called EuroSport, kind of like the FSN of overseas networks. On this version, there’s a short instance of English commentary, handled by Craig DeGeorge and Sir Oliver Humperdink. The first nitpicking moment is them refusing to call him Brutus Beefcake, and instead call him “Eddie Boulder”, because, and I quote “we go by real names here.” Except that isn’t his real name (Edward Leslie). The next inaccuracy is a bit more unforgiving, incorrectly identifying the location of this show as the Tokyo Dome. Shortly after, the commentary switches out to German. Had the English track remained, it could’ve made an awful match even worse. My reasoning for subjecting myself to this match is simple: the fact that Brutus Beefcake was piggybacked into working a show he had no business appearing at, and going over because he's Hogan's buddy. To the smart fans, I don’t think it was much of a secret about the relationship between Hulk and Beefcake dating back to the Mid-Late 80’s, but it didn’t really become an issue until both made their returns in 1993. Hulk Hogan was going to move numbers and attract casual viewers, but why Brutus Beefcake? His only sample size was a volatile smart crowd in the Manhattan Center and playing second fiddle at WrestleMania IX. Even to a child, it became even more obvious when the duo showed up in WCW side-by-side, and Hogan somehow convinced everyone to let him headline Starrcade. Leslie’s career would continue through Hogan’s creative control and stranglehold over Eric Bischoff and WCW, with failed push after failed push with newer, dumber gimmicks. It didn’t matter that nobody gave a crap about him as the Butcher, or the Man With No Name (what the FUCK does that even mean?!), or the Zodiac, or the Booty Man. Ed Leslie set the standard for finding employment despite showing zero ability in the ring, getting a character over, or cutting a sensible promo. After all, why bother trying to improve yourself when you’re best friends with Hulk Hogan? |
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| Scrooge McSuck | Jun 25 2015, 09:58 PM Post #3 |
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I'll get you next time, toilet!
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From the August 7th, 1995 WON…
From the June 29th, 2015 WON, from the Landel biography:
- WWF Intercontinental Championship Match: Shawn Michaels © vs. “Nature Boy” Buddy Landel (w/ Jim Cornette): The Main Event from SMW’s “Super Bowl of Wrestling”, held on August 4th, 1995 from Knoxville, TN, with about 5,000 in attendance. Cornette is wearing camouflage, as part of his “Militia” stable headed by the likes of Landel, Al Snow, and the Unabom (Glenn Jacobs). I’m assuming the entirety of SMW’s existence included Cornette vs. Bob Armstrong, based on my limited SMW knowledge. Michaels offers an insincere handshake before pulling it back. Lockup into the corner, Landel with a light tap of the cheek, and Michaels responds with a hard slap. Landel with rights. Whip is reversed, but Landel slides out of the ring to avoid Sweet Chin Music. Back inside, Michaels quickly grabs a headlock. Landel counters, then comes off the ropes with a shoulder tackle. Criss-cross sequence ends with Michaels taking him over with a hurricanrana, followed by a flurry of rights. Michaels avoids a cheap shot in the corner, shoots Landel across the ring, and takes him over with a back drop. Michaels lays across the top rope, taunting the challenger. Landel with a knee to the midsection, followed by a chop and pair of rights. Michaels turns things around, slamming him face-first to the buckle and mounts him with more rights. Michaels continues to taunt Landel into doing something about it. He goes to work on the left-arm and controls with an arm-bar (and gratuitous amounts of hair pulling). Michaels forces a break in the corner. Whip across the ring, and Michaels misses a charge, ramming himself into the post in the process. Landel targets the left shoulder, wrapping it around the top rope. He pounds away with rights and lefts in the corner and uses the rope for added leverage on an arm-bar. They trade blows until Landel drives a knee to the midsection. Whip to the corner, turning Michaels upside down, and dropping to the arena floor. Landel follows and accidentally punches the post. Michaels tries to capitalize, but gets sent face-first into the post. Back inside, Landel drops an elbow for two. Michaels wins a slug-fest and drops Landel with a headbutt for a near fall. Michaels with jabs in the corner, followed by a diving forearm. He plants a jumping boot to the side of the face, sets Landel with a slam, and comes off the top with his signature flying elbow for a two count. He sets up for Sweet Chin Music, but Landel ducks under. Michaels ducks a clothesline and rolls him up, but Landel rolls through and hooks the tights for a 2.99999 count. Whip to the corner, Michaels meets the buckle chest-first. Landel sends him into the corner with an atomic drop, but Michaels bounces back, knocking Landel into the referee. Cornette comes in for a racket shot, but Michaels nips up and knocks him silly. Whip to the ropes, Michaels sets up for a back drop, but Landel counters with a DDT! He comes off the ropes with the corkscrew elbow drop, but referee Mark Curtis stops the count at two, noticing the racket. Landel denies using the racket, and during the confusion, Michaels comes out of nowhere with Sweet Chin Music for three at 13:45. ***1/4 Not an all-time classic, but a hard worked match that told a nice story of redemption against an arrogant headliner. Landel, teetering on face and heel, tried every trick in the book to win, but Cornette’s attempted interference, despite Landel’s insistence not to, is what lead to his defeat. The post-match isn’t available on the video I’m viewing, but Landel ended up in a heated exchange with Cornette and his Army. A few weeks later, the turn would be complete, courtesy of a monster beat-down on Landel courtesy of all 20 (OK, about 7) men Cornette managed. The angle wouldn’t have a true blowoff, as SMW folded by the end of November when financial concerns worsened and Cornette felt, even with new backers, it would only mean losing more money. As I mentioned elsewhere, I didn’t grow up with much exposure to Buddy Landel, with only a few months of a WCW stay in the early 90’s and a handful of appearances in the WWF in December of 1995 as my only knowledge of his work. He’s one of those guys who I’ve almost become entirely exposed to as an adult and through “smart” eyes. He was a definite case of “what if” potential, but through all the mistakes he made, at least he didn’t blame anyone but himself for his substance abuse. Who knows if he would’ve made it big had he kept clean. With his southern heritage and accent, WCW would’ve been his only chance, and his physique wasn’t something that would’ve made him much more than a JTTS in WWF, either. He wasn’t a great worker, but was capable of having good matches, and was charismatic enough to cover up the lack of work-rate in later years. |
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