Matt D

Mr. Niebla vs Mr. Niebla IWRG - Mascara y Nombre vs Mascara y Nombre - 8/20/99 I love that Mark sent me a match where I have no idea which guy is which because they're both the same gimmick. Ok i have the code: the one that's more built is the IWRG one. The one that comes out to the James Bond tune is the CMLL one. The fans are chanting Niebla. Somehow that feels like saying that they want the guy with the mask to win. This is a one fall to the finish with no time limit. I have no idea about the backstory or anything here. They start going at it and I'm immeditaely lost again. We have someone coming to ringside, and mask ripping, and biting. I'm just going to go with the fact that the guy with more white in the mask is the IWRG one. We have a cut in here which confuses the hell out of me for a minute but I've got it worked out. Niebla came back and went for a big early dive. It's missed looks really organic actually. He went for a tope suicida and Niebla IWRG moved and he landed in a logical but nasty way. Great way to ratchet up the heat, blow off a monumental hope spot and transition things to the next bit which is Niebla IWRG in charge but almost getting rolled up twice, dramatically. He finishes this off with a huge power bomb (and I was totally expecting a rana reversal) and two nasty secodn rope sentons with a last second kick out. He goes for an over the shoulder rocket launcher facebuster thing that I've seen MS-1 do. Niebla lands on his feet and locks in a crucifix roll up on an unsuspecting Niebla IWRG for another near fall and the act break into the finishing stretch Niebla hits one moonsault and then misses the second and almost gets pinned on a roll up himself. I love the awy they're working the pinfalls here. Everything feels important since this is just one fall with very high stakes. They do a blocked top rope 'rana into a sort of power bomb drop for a great near fall. Both guys are selling now, but Niebla IWRG gets up first, goes for a few punches. The suddenness of Niebla's block is great. One second the punch comes, the next second he's powerbombing his opponent. And that finishing submission is great as it's a mix of complicated and smooth and the excitement after he wins is visceral.The bubbles floating through the air during the unmasking is a nice touch. Tell me that the Niebcla IWRG had a career after this since he has a great rudo look. This was definitely fun.

The way I read it was that the botch was nasty enough that they really should have "gone home" afterwards to get over what just happened and make all the action that the fans see on a given night seem consistent and Hunter told them to through the ref. Despite that, the Wolves continued on to get their comeback in, etc.

I think far more likely would be video game tournaments with Kofi Kingston and apparently Titus.. I'd skip to 1:37 or so.

They are saying yes. At the very least he has the Misty Knight hand.

People should really check out this note: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=19237

I know NOTHING about Mr. Niebla. Someone suggest me a match worth watching, because all I can picture is this guy:

Bill Paxton. At least four episodes. John Garrett. No Mustache. Still, not a bad thing.

I still think we're probably looking at a while before we get the WCW C shows as well as things like Jakked/Metal/Mania/Action Zone. It's just low salience stuff. Anyone who would really be into it are people who are probably already buying the network regardless.

Memphis is problematic because of rights issues.

At that point especially comic professionals (editors and publishers mainly) were huge marks for hollywood people or people with "legitimate" writing credentials.

Caribbean barbed wire - barbed wire looped around the ropes. "Regular" barbed wire - barbed wire in place of ropes. That's the worst punchline I've ever heard.

This has to be the best Lo Down match, right? (skip the opening stuff)

"Del Rio with a back leg front kick!" The Sidewalk Slam Kick!

-I really hope they sell hairbands to little girls when Bailey hits the main roster. She also needs a Dr. of Hugganmomics shirt. -I was wildly disappointed by Aiden English's repeat of his initial song. He's run out of material. It's a tragedy. I do think this was a bit shifted from the initial appearance in the gimmick though. -Breeze is great but he's so much better when he has a straight man to react to him. I wish we had more of he and Renee before she got upped to the main roster. -It was strangely surreal to hear Kofi call the accolade the Camel Clutch. it actually made things feel more organic though. -Why did I always get so excited for Tornado Tags as a kid? I see it as a sign of lack of maturity.

I would listen to serious arguments that this is Triple H's best match ever.

I haven't revisited 1998/1999 for a long time, but due to the weirdness of the WWF in 98, D-Lo was almost always a de facto top wrestler on the roster. He was also one of the easiest guys to root for. Val Venis was a good wrestler, yes, but he was also sort of a porn star. X-Pac was a great wrestler but there was that underlying scumminess to him. D-Lo was just a guy and he always came close to that brass ring and never quite made it. You wished that he and Henry could have won the tag belts, because there was such a Hart Foundation big guy/little guy thing to to them. I think ten people probably rushed to post Val vs D-Lo from Summerslam 98 the second this note went up because in some ways, it felt like one of the the only matches that really belonged to us from that entire year. Weird match including Gangrel getting a hot tag but D-Lo's acting at the end is fun. I don't love the chinlock base by Snow here, but it's briskly done and leads to a clever transition. Ultimately, this is about as good as this sort of thing as you could have gotten at the time:

I think people aged 22-27 care about PG?

Someone needs to get the AWA set.

I have no idea if you meant that gif of lesnar to eat his name and the post but it's so much more hilarious that way. Like it assaulted your post out of nowhere.

I had to match the gore in the other matches.

WHO would be a slow zombie.

Has anyone ever seen Mae Young matches from before the Attitude era? Moolah stuff isn't so hard to find but I've never seen Young from the 50s etc.

We do not speak ill of the walking dead.