What Are You Watching / Last Match, Event or Documentary You Saw

where do you get WWF Superstars VR i am looking for stuff late 1994, early 1995.

flahavaj wrote: »

NOAH:27/10/07 Samoa Joe vs Mitsuharu Misawa

I watched this yesterday during dinner, pretty much as I expected except no major Misawa ****-up like in the Marufuji match recently. I did start getting very worried whenever Misawa went near the turnbuckles though. It's sad the way he's deteriorated in the ring

Still, not a crap match. Misawa and the crowd obviously weren't completely familiar with Joe, but Joe did a decent job. Kinda made me want to see what Danielson could do with Misawa

As for the issue of Joe vs Kobashi, I feel that that match is overrated, but only by Meltzer and some other fans. I can forgive Meltzer though, it was a dream match for him. It pales in comparison to so many Kobashi matches from All Japan though, and a large handful from NOAH that have been really great. Crowd were awesome though, and that would have helped Joe vs Misawa

Ted Petty Invitational Tournament Night 1 Spoiler free!!

The first thing to remark on is the ring, IWA-MS have spent some money! Gone is the dodgy looking ring with the limp ropes from last year and in comes a quality looking ring. And guardrails!!

Josh Abercrombie is the man, anyone with moves such as the Tom Sellick Driver and the Taliban Backpack Lungblower in their arsenal is cool by me! Him vs Ricochet is a solid opener. Joker vs CJ Otis is short and not very sweet. Otis had a great match with Nigel McGuinness in ROH a while back but he looked far from impressive here. Billing himself as the god of strongstyle, or whatever he called himself does nothing for him either.

Kingston vs Human Tornado is fun, but suffers big time from the indie lack of psychology and ends about 10 minutes after it should have. Hero on commentary makes up for it, however. Davey Richards vs BJ Whitmer is butt ugly as would be expected. The state of Whitmer's hair too, like a lean Steve Corino.

Devon Moore vs Dysfunction. Says enough really. Kingston is on commentary at this stage and is pretty overbearing at times but comes out with a few gems. Quack and Billy Roc is decent. Quack got a nasty kick square on the chin, that must have been what Gimmick referred to in the ROH thread, but he carried on fine. Albright vs Tank is ugly too, but short. Brandon Thomaselli vs Joey Ryan (a god amongst men) is a very good technical battle. Drake Younger vs Nate Webb is great, for Webb's "Teenage Dirtbag" intro alone, not as good as his 2004 TPI entrance but quality none the less!

Claudio vs McGuinness is grand apart from the seemingly 5 minute long European uppercut trade off. These kind of things are ok if its chops exchanged between Joe and Kobashi, but here it just annoyed me. The rest of the match is good though. Hero vs 2 Old Scorpio, (as Hero christened him) is probably the match of the night. Scorpio can still go and Hero is awesome. Very good match. The main event is Jimmy Jacobs vs Chuck Taylor for the IWA-MS Heavyweight title. Quackenbush is on commentary for this and points out the stupidity of Taylor being the heavyweight champ, while Quack himself is the light heavyweight champ despite Quack having at least 20 pounds on Taylor. I don't see the appeal in Taylor tbh. Jacobs sickly enough, is wearing the same gear from the birth of the Age of the Fall, i.e. a white number completely stained in Jay Briscoe's blood. It's an ok brawl in the early going but didn't live up to the great matches before.

All in all a solid show and it throws up a few very interesting matches for Night 2.

flahavaj wrote: »

AAA Mini Trios. Mini Absimo Negro/Mini Charly Manson/Jerrito Estrada Vs Mascarita Sagrada/Mascarito Divina/Octagoncito 20.10.06

Finally I've found a genre of lucha i genuinely enjoy. These mini-lucha guys are INCREDIBLE. When they really hit full steam ahead its faster than anything you've ever seen in your life. Think Dragon Gate but on speed. Soem of the armdrag variations and dives to the outside really have to be seen to believed. YOU ALL NEED TO SEE SOME LUCHA MINIS ASAP!!!!!!!!

The more I see of Mascarita Sagrada, the more I consider him to be one of the very best wrestlers in the world. He's never going to be taken seriously though because of his size

Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio, Summerslam 2002, a cracking opener,a white hot crowd and a quick paced match made this one of the best opening ppv matches in years, love how a new york crowd ****s all over babyfaces at times

To be fair, it wasn't WWE who screwed up Rey's title shot. Rey had deteriorated a lot since 2002, he'd also bulked up a hell of a lot and whereas he had the moves, he didn't have the same moveset he once had say, between 1996-1998. It's like when HHH came back from his quad tear in 2002, he'd bulked up by about another 50-60lbs and just didn't move as well as he did beforehand.

Anyway, seeing as i hadn't posted on this thread in about six months, as i'd taken a break from wrestling to focus on gaming and my work, i went back to it about 2 months ago and have been watching:

WWE RAW January-November 1994:

A truly horrible year for WWE, as WCW were making their first steps to become a contender to WWE on the PPV market. By the time November had come around, WCW had Ray Traylor, Hogan, Beefcake, Shark and Shockmaster, the Nasty Boys and The Road Warriors. That's a lot of ex WWE alumni for WCW who before now, wouldn't have even been considered in WWE's league. There was also a big buildup in WCW for Hogan vs Flair that year, a match that tanked on WWE house shows in 91-92 that it was scrapped for PPV.

I suppose the first feud to note really this year has to be Bret V Owen after Owen had turned at the 1994 Royal Rumble. The weekly promos are hard to watch during this feud, as Bret always was a whiny maggot as far as his promos were concerned, and Owen, as he'd later become the King of Harts this year, the King o' Promos he never was. It was still quite a fun feud to watch, you could tell both guys were really into it and enjoying themselves, and yet the feud still seemed very real at the time. Something that seems to be missing a lot today in my view.

Undertaker took half the year off this year, i'll try to be nice about this guy but it's gonna be hard given the horrible matches he was in. He "died" at the Royal Rumble that year and then after King Of The Ring that year, there are promos week after week from schoolteachers, fire marshalls, subway workers that they all claimed to have seen The Undertaker, which lead to DiBiase claiming that he was the first to bring him to the WWE, and he'll find him and bring him again. Which he does, only Paul Bearer begs to differ, saying that's not *his* undertaker. Well we know what happens at Summerslam that year, being one of the worst matches on the card. Undertaker would spend the rest of the year feuding with Yokozuna and then IRS.

Speaking of King Of The Ring, a couple more Harts came back that year! Bret put his belt up against Diesel in a title for title match at the 1994 King of The Ring. And promises to bring a family member with him to ringside after Shawn and Diesel beat him down on an episode of the Kings Court, Jerry Lawlers talk show. Bret's family member, is none other than his former tag team champion partner, Jim Neidhart. After nearly 25 minutes, Neidhart interferes and causes a DQ, with Bret coming out with his belt. Neidhart bolts and Bret is less than impressed. Meanwhile Owen has made it to the finals against Razor Ramon, and Neidhart comes out to interfere, only he jumps Razor to give Owen his KOTR victory and title. It turned out Neidhart was saving Bret's title for Owen. A few weeks later Davey Boy Smith would also make his return to side with Bret.

Other minor fun parts were the infamous Sumo match on RAW between Yokozuna and Earthquake. The match is somewhat interesting, but it's not one of those easy on the eye jobs. Crowd still manages to go totally bat-sh*t for it. Something that would be snoozed at today (Big Slow vs Akebono anyone?)

The Headshrinkers turn face as Lou Albano gets them a title shot against then champions, The Quebecers. The Quebecers and Johnny Polo (Raven) spend weeks mocking and making fun of the legendary Lou Albano, who has made more tag team champions in the history of the WWE. Lou challenges to bring a team out next week if they put the belts on the line, so they accept and the week after, out come the Headshrinkers! Bye bye title reign! It wouldn't last long as Samu is forced into retirement. They get in a third headshrinker in the form of Sionne (The Barbarian) and the crowd sh*t all over him. He finds his way to WCW months later and Fatu turns into about 20 different characters before settling on Rikishi in 1999.

The Headshrinkers drop the titles to Shawn and Diesel the week before Summerslam that year, for political reasons (they didn't want to drop them to a makeshift team like Bam Bam and IRS at Summerslam, and felt Shawn and Diesel had more continuity and made more sense), however Shawn causes Diesel to lose his IC title at Summerslam by accidentally kicking him in the face. Shawn is still out injured at this point but is hanging around Diesel to interfere in his matches, Shawn had worked very few matches after the ladder match in 1994. Which takes us to Survivor Series 94.

Lawler and Doink vs their midgets. I'm not gonna spend all year on this one folks, each week both get on each others nerves so Lawler gets a new midget one week, then Doink gets a new midget. Lather rinse and repeat for a few weeks. This is exactly why i can't watch WWE now. I said it before and i'll say it again, I want to see Hornswaggle wished the best in his future endeavors!

Tatanka sold out to Ted DiBiase at Summerslam and turned on friend, Lex Luger. Luger, who choked earlier in the year while he was being groomed for Wrestlemania main event finds himself in midcard hell. So the two end up captaining their respective teams for Survivor Series and Luger gets buried again.

Shawn ends up kicking Big D again at Survivor Series and the results were pretty disasterous, as Diesel chases Shawn out of the building, as the team split up and the tag titles are vacated. And finally an interesting turn of events took place in 1994.

One year earlier, Bob Backlund returned to the WWE to return in the Royal Rumble at 43 years old. He lasted a fair amount of time in there as well but just faded into obscurity after his Wrestlemania match against Razor Ramon. But he challenges Bret Hart to a match and Bret accepts. Now the plan was to Backlund to turn heel after being put under a spell by Papa Shango as WWE hadn't tested Backlunds heel mic skills in decades. However he was able to get over by himself. So the match takes place, Backlund loses. Bret offers the handshakes and Backlund snaps and acts like a man possessed. Enter Mr Backlund, the crazy old man, a character Backlund still portrays up til recently in TNA.

So it set up for Backlund v Bret at Survivor Series, towel submission match. Davey Boy in Bret's corner, Owen in Backlund's corner. Most of you know the deal here, after over 35 minutes, and Davey posting himself, Helen Hart grabs the towel and throws it in on Bret's behalf. Days later, Big D wins the title from Backlund in 8 seconds to start the most financially disasterous title reign in WWE history.

1995 will certainly be interesting to write about!
VR!

gimmick wrote: »

^ You never gave us your 1995 write up.

Yeah, back in April when i watched all that, i was on a six week hiatus from work due to a delay in contract, so it meant i got to sit at home and watch this stuff all day and night.

Around the time i had posted that, the contract had arrived, i'd watched about the first two months of RAW 1995. Not exactly a lot to write home about. Now, that said, i'm gonna need something to remind me that no matter how bad things are in wrestling today, that they can (and probably never will) not get as bad as they did in WWE in 1995. So i might get through some of it over the weekend. But to wet your appetites, here's some of the farces to remind you, straight from my own memory.

- Diesel as WWE champion, a testament that hard work pays off later. However he topped it by letting everyone know that laziness pays off now. A horribly booked champion with about three good matches to his entire reign that year, being with Michaels and 2 with Bret. God awful promos, and the wretched "Dudes with Attitudes" era.

- Horrible gimmick wrestlers like Iasaac Yankem DDS, Jean Pierre LaFeite, Kama, Mantaur, and Sparky f*cking Plugg appearing on TV every week to little or no fanfare.

- PPV's drawing something in between jack and sh*t that year (see Nash, Kevin)

Are you sure you still want me to do this write up, folks?
VR!

WCW Nitro - January - February 1997

"It wasn't so much day to day business, it was more like day to day chaos"
Escaping the borefest that is RAW from 1995, i decided to skip ahead a few years and have a look at what the opposition had to offer. Now i hadn't watched a lot of Nitro prior to this, The entire of 95 and the first four months of 96 and to be honest, it was da sh*t back then to watch, primarily because you didn't know what was going to happen. One of the many reasons why Ted Turner was handing Vince McMahon his ass to him on a plate on a weekly basis. That and the fact that Vince was so flustered that none of his boneheaded ideas were working that he could no longer tell his arse from his elbow.

But Jesus Christ, did WCW drop the ball by the time 1997 rolled around or what? Every week was the same old garbage in a different arena. Some of the matches were still pretty decent to watch but the format was exactly the same. DiBiase, Nash, Hall and Bischoff coming out every week invading the commentary desk, boring us to death with NWO progaganda and hype, especially for it's abortion of a PPV Souled Out in January, with the only bright spot on the card being Syxx v Eddie Guerrero in a ladder match, with both guys stating in seperate interviews that they ended up hating the match years later.

WCW was just coming off the Starrcade PPV, which had Hogan v Piper in it's main event. WCW's boneheaded format for their main events at the time on PPV was to take a main event from nearly ten years earlier and have a rematch with the loser of the original going over, and that's exactly what happened here. They had Piper go over Hogan, despite Hogan having DiBiase in his corner. However this wasn't 1985, and after a couple of hip surgeries later, Piper was now a shell of who he was. The aftermath of this pretty much had Piper's win overturned by the NWO (don't ask!), and Piper was written out of the script and terminated from his contract, which Piper later took WCW to court for, but not before an embarrassing match at Superbrawl VII. Hogan would then go on to feud with Giant for Souled Out. Of course, this had already been done before too and as a result, nobody cared.

Meanwhile the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Ultimo Dragon, Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio were winning the crowd over left right and centre in their matches. With Ultimo Dragon fresh off a win from Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero over DDP, who was also teasing a turn to the NWO. Unfortunately by the time Souled Out came along, it had been teased too many times to the point where nobody even cared anymore.

The Four Horsemen are around at the time with the lineup of Flair, Arn, Benoit, & Mongo, with Jeff Jarrett coming in and out trying to either steal Benoit's or Mongo's spot. Jarrett is probably the only one who went from WWE to WCW and somehow ended up worse off! Benoit is in and out of his feud with Kevin Sullivan also, as Sullivan ends up bringing Jacqueline into WCW. When Benoit isn't feuding with him, he's having decent enough matches with Jarrett. Nothing too earth shattering or anything, but watchable TV.

Steiners are still around as a team here, but that's on the verge of cracking. They defeat Hall & Nash at Souled Out for the WCW tag team titles but referee Randy Anderson is fired by Bischoff for stupid reasons (he wasn't assigned the referee for the match, Nick Patrick was but Patrick was out and Anderson was in the front row), and changed the titles. After Patrick is discovered that he got the tickets for free by the office, he's fired for accepting a gift which is against company policy. And this was BEFORE Russo was booking folks, if you can imagine this. The icing on the cake here is for Bischoff then to order the Steiners to hand back the belts to Hall and Nash

My head is already hurting trying to comprehend all of this really! And i haven't even gotten to the Jay Leno and Dennis Rodman years yet!

Syxx and Dean Malenko end up providing entertaining TV leading up to their match at Superbrawl though which is probably just as well because the crowd is snoring through Hogan and Piper at this stage. Buff Bagwell is still trying so hard to get over as a heel, but splitting up the American Males only served to have the crowd not give a crap about either of them. WCW once again, showcase the hell out of the likes of La Parka, Villano IV, Juventud Guerrera amongst others to build up to a six man at Superbrawl, Jarrett moves back to feuding with Mongo, and Benoit is back to feuding with Kevin Sullivan while the rest of the horsemen are left to rot.

This was about as far as i've gotten so far. I'm actually not really sure if i should stick with it or go back to RAW 95 though.

To be fair, he didn't say he was a spot monkey, he said "before anyone jumps on him and calls Necro a spot monkey", which would imply that it's been doing the rounds for years.

No more 5am finishes for you Alan, it's affecting your train of thought.