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On 6/14/2017 at 4:54 PM, clintthecrippler said:

Kal Rudman trying to continue his human interest interview and asking The Moondogs "Do you like girls?" while they are grabbing him by his tie and growling legit made me do a spittake the first time I saw it.

I'd not seen this one. Your post made me look it up. Thank you for that!

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  • 1 month later...

The Rockers vs Demolition (WWF 10/24/88, Madison Square Garden)

Some years back, I saw Demolition on a Chikara King of Trios tape. They were old, fat, and frankly ridiculous in their ring gear. And they put the Chikara guys to shame. While the indy guys were trying to get their flippy spots in, Demolition put on a clinic about how to pace a match and build drama so the crowd got involved. 

I see a lot of that here, too. They control a great deal of the match, dictating the pace and allowing some breathing room between spots so that heat can develop. When Shawn and Marty come in for their high-flying antics, it's a lot of fun. (If sloppy - I swear Marty didn't hit a target once, apart from the final pinfall. His punches, dropkicks, and even a flying shoulder tackle all seemed to miss by a mile.) The Rockers' antics are crowd-pleasing, for sure. I like the bit where they do a revolving arm twist. Twist-Twist Tag! Twist Twist Tag! But even that spot gets ruined by their need to do it again on the other guy. (I always forget which Demo is which.)They're like the Chikara guys in that match I saw: They're just biding time until they get to throw their cool moovez. 

At this point in their career, the Rockers seem best when in the ring with controlled, thoughtful opponents like Demolition or the Brainbusters. A few years later, they'll be ready to produce sprintfest classics with The Orient Express. But in 1988, they're not there yet. 

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Working through some things I have bookmarked on the Network. 

Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty - Royal Rumble 1993

Dul, dull, dull. The crowd isn't very into it, and the guys seem tentative. The crowd likes Marty, but he has to ask them to cheer for him. And even though he's the heel, they can't help themselves cheering for HBK. If there was ever an example of the existence of the "x-factor" in someone getting over, it's this match. 

Sherri stands around looking stoned for most of the match. Then she tried to attack Shawn, hits Marty instead, and runs away from angry Shawn. 

Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty - RAW May 17,1993

This rematch is more like it. They've ironed out the kinks, and both guys are moving at the kind of high-flying pace we expect from the Rockers. Marty looks great here, and the crowd responds to his energy by chanting his name.

Shawn's superkick looks lazy AF here, and I am glad he loses the IC title after being distracted by Perfect. That kick is just embarrassing. 


Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty - RAW July 19,1993

Shawn has the belt again (how did Marty lose it?) -- and he has Diesel now, who I assume will play a part in the match. Nash has his jeans tucked into his cowboy boots, which dorkifies his otherwise 90's Awesome Look. 

This match has more intensity compared to May. Marty wins the pinfall, but it's reversed when instant replay shows Shawn's foot was on the ropes. (when did Instant Replay Reviews start in football and baseball? Around 1993 perhaps?) So they restart the match. 

Marty really wants to win, and he shows a lot of heart in an extended sleeper hold sequence in which HBK keeps cheating with the ropes. Heel that he is, Shawn ends up cheating for the win. 

Good stuff.  


Razor Ramon vs "The Kid" - RAW May 17,1993

Savage asks, "What's the kid's name this week?" 

Fun quick match that looks like a squash, with Razor stretching and throwing and generally manhandling Kid. But a move off the top rope and a roll-up gives Kid the victory. 

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1 hour ago, Kronos said:


Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jennetty - RAW July 19,1993

Shawn has the belt again (how did Marty lose it?) 

Marty lost the belt back to Shawn about three weeks after he won it.  Diesel made his first appearance as Shane's bodyguard and helped him win.  Marty thinks Shawn has sons heat with Vince so they took the title off Shawn as punishment.

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14 minutes ago, Kronos said:

So Shawn was causing trouble as early as 1993, eh? Figures. 

Marty has claimed - and keep in mind, this is Marty Janetty, so take with a pound of salt - that Shawn told the front office Marty was pilled up at the Royal Rumble match.  Marty denies this and claims Shawn was probably high on something at the time.  Supposedly, Vince believed Shawn but was later convinced by Mr. Perfect that Shawn was lying.  Vince took the belt off Shawn as punishment, they made up a few weeks later, and Marty was told to drop the belt back to Shawn.

 

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1 hour ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

Marty has claimed - and keep in mind, this is Marty Janetty, so take with a pound of salt - that Shawn told the front office Marty was pilled up at the Royal Rumble match.  Marty denies this and claims Shawn was probably high on something at the time.  Supposedly, Vince believed Shawn but was later convinced by Mr. Perfect that Shawn was lying.  Vince took the belt off Shawn as punishment, they made up a few weeks later, and Marty was told to drop the belt back to Shawn.

 

Well, if one or both of them were on something, then it could certainly explain why the Royal Rumble Match was performed at about half-speed.

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Wasn't Jannetty busted for a DUI and/or fighting a cop like, the day after or something? 

I'll be generous here, and guess it was Marty who was off kilter for this match and not Shawn. Michaels, from how he comes off, is pretty serious when it comes to business (that benefits him, but in general). After a year of being put on hold, he finally gets to close the Rockers chapter, and was probably geared up to have a good blow off match. Instead, he gets this version of Marty. 

Having said that, I wonder how HBK's '92 would've been had Marty not ruined it right after he threw himself through the window. 

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1 hour ago, PetrolCB said:

Having said that, I wonder how HBK's '92 would've been had Marty not ruined it right after he threw himself through the window. 

What was his 92 like? He was paired with Sherri. I know he had a decent match with Sherri's exposed buttocks and Rick Martel at SummerSlam. 

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He didn't really do much, until he won the IC from Bulldog. But if he had a proper blow off to that angle, instead of waiting a year later for the match, only for it to be dropped again, is a good "what if" for his early singles career. 

At least he had that great match with Marty on Raw in mid '93. Only bright spot of that feud. 

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18 hours ago, PetrolCB said:

He didn't really do much, until he won the IC from Bulldog. But if he had a proper blow off to that angle, instead of waiting a year later for the match, only for it to be dropped again, is a good "what if" for his early singles career. 

At least he had that great match with Marty on Raw in mid '93. Only bright spot of that feud. 

I liked both of their RAW matches, though the May one when Marty wins the belt is probably better  pure entertainment. 

1 minute ago, cwoy2j said:

In his book, Bret said that Marty showed up super hungover and looking like shit for their match at the Rumble and that Vince was furious. 

Interesting. 

This discussion has me thinking about tag teams that started that way and got famous as a team, only to break up later. One goes on to fame and one fades away, even when both have skills. 

  • Hart Foundation - Bret/Anvil
  • MNM - Nitro/Mercury
  • Steiners - Scott/Rick

I am sure I am missing lots of them. 

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Watching ECW on TNN 9/1/2000, inspired by earlier discussion re Whipwreck/Taijiri. I really like the look of the TNN show. 

But every time I see him, I have to wonder who thought Lou E Dangerously was a good gimmick. The crowd seems to hate him in all the worst ways, and so do I. 

Conversely, Amish Roadkill is one of my favorite wrestler names ever. 

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  • 6 months later...

Cruiserweight Battle Royal - WCW Slamboree 1998 (5/17/98)

I managed to watch this match without being spoiled as to Ciclope's identity, and I am thrilled about it. Jericho's introductions of the participants bordered on cruel burial, but some of it was funny. ("Silver King! If he wins 12 more matches, he'll be upgraded to Gold King!") The match was what it was, though I thought the guys took some unnecessarily risky bumps to the floor. 

The crowd goes mega-wild when Ciclope is unveiled, and they stay hot for the solid follow-up match with Jericho. 

Good times. 

WCW Souled Out 1997 (1/25/97)

Truthfully, I am only about 45 minutes into the show, and it's going to be a slog to finish it. The biggest problem is not the Miss NWO bits, though those are deeply awkward and cringeworthy. It's not Bischoff's impression of immature Lawler on commentary.

No, the problem is that this show is boring. Boring. Boring. That's how I ended up browsing reddit about worst WCW PPVs -- and someone was talking about the Ciclope battle royal.

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Midnight Rockers vs Buddy Rose & Doug Sommers (AWA All Star Wrestling 8/30/86)

The only thing I recall seeing from this famous matchup is the cage match, which happens a few months later I think - maybe I saw it on the Legacy of the AWA set that I had about 10 years ago. 

Shawn and Marty are 20 and 22? Wow. I am always happy to see Sherri - in this case, managing Rose/Summers, who get a lot of boos from the crowd. Terrific energy from this Showboat crowd before the match begins. Buddy plays it to the hilt, acting like the crowd are really pissing him off. 

Early on, Shawn throws a superkick out of nowhere. It's pretty great. Sommers slams Shawn's face into the ring post, knocking him to the floor and drawing the first blood of the match. This is getting vicious. Shawn's FIP segment goes on for quite awhile - I like the way he stumbles and flails about.  His crawling across the ring to try and reach Marty is great, and the crowd is fired up. Marty's hot tag, when it finally comes after nearly 10 minutes, is true House of Fire stuff; the crowd are eating it up. 

Everyone is bleeding! In the end, Rose/Sommers get DQ'd and have to be chased from the ring by a locker room run-in. Greg Gagne gives a post-match interview about how he's never seen anything this like this in all his years in the business. 

Aside from a few small rolls early on, there's none of the WWF Rockers' famous MOOVEZ. This is just old fashioned Heels vs Faces carnage. I think Michaels may be throwing the best-looking punches of his career right here.  

Fantastic stuff. I have said before that I really enjoy the Midnight Rockers against an experienced heel team who can keep them in check and control the pacing when needed. We have that here. Sometimes the kids overdo things a bit - witness Marty's turn at being a flailing punchdrunk, which is just this side of "silly". But the whole thing comes together beautifully.

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It's a day off so I'm finally diving back into the five-disc Wrestling Gold set (still on sale for ten bucks on Cornette's site).  I love the Cornette commentary on Lawler vs. Bob Sweetan, dissecting how Lawler is masterfully getting heat and outworking Sweetan on the strength of his body language without breaking a sweat. 

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