DailyMotion is choosing not to work today. Sorry, Tim Livingston. I wanted to review the MVC vs. Windham and Dustin, too. On top of that, my internet connection in general decided to throw a hissy fit, setting this back quite a bit. Still, just because they didn't show up to work doesn't mean I won't. It does mean I only have three reviews ready to print right now, but the other two shouldn't be too far behind. So, the wrestling....
SLL: Listening to the latest edition of Segunda Caida Radio, I found myself wondering why Rey would've vouched for Damian 666 but not Halloween. I mean, it's probably nothing. I just tend to associate Damian and Halloween pretty strongly with each other. Like the Gildenstern and Rosencrantz of Tijuana wrestling. I kinda figure if you're tight with one, you're tight with the other. If you're forced to choose one, I don't know how Damian is the easy choice, but then, I don't know the ins and outs of their relationship, and I'm just projecting my own views as a fan onto the situation.
Anyway, this is Halloween's first appearance with the Ciclope gimmick, and man, I did not remember his mask being that trippy. I want one. The color scheme matches my homemade "Eddie Guerrero is My Favorite Wrestler; Cheat to Win" t-shirt perfectly. I could wear both at the same time and be completely rejected by polite society. For his own part, Rey is wearing his Spider-Man gear that he wore in "WCW vs. nWo: World Tour", but that I could never remember him actually wearing in real life until now. Match is a really fun sprint with some ridiculously big moves thrown out for a nine-minute Nitro match.
I kinda feel like I should look back at more '96 Rey stuff, because one thing that struck me about this match is that the pacing is not really all that different than that of current Rey matches. The big moves are bigger (though it's really Ciclope who's throwing the biggest bombs here, and I don't get the sense that Rey is doing anything he can't do now, though he'd probably be wise not to do them on a throwaway TV match), but there isn't the rush from big spot to big spot to big spot that I kinda remembered. Both guys allow enough downtime between stuff to let you feel the weight of it. A big tope from Mysterio is what kicks things into high gear. Ciclope is thrown back into the ring, and Rey calls for the not-yet-West Coast Pop, but instead springboards into a clothesline, which looked a little contrived, but at least it was a nice clothesline. Ciclope works well as a de facto big man taking charge of the match. He breaks out a great sunset flip powerbomb to the floor, and later a super DDT, but Rey crotches him on the top rope and drops the biggest bomb of them all with basically a release victory roll from the top rope to the floor. It's probably not gonna get bigger than that, so grabs the West Coast Pop soon afterwords for the pin.
The other story of this match is that a lot of people were watching it, to the point that I found it a little amusing. Even before Rey and Ciclope come out, Ultimo Dragon is seated at ringside with Sonny Onoo and his eight belts, watching. Then, once the match starts, Cruiserweight Champ Dean Malenko comes out to watch from the aisleway, scouting potential competition. Then, while Ciclope has Rey grounded with a chinlock, we see Psicosis - Dean's opponent at the upcoming World War III PPV - come out to watch Dean watching the match from the entrance. And then when it's over, Dean turns around and sees Psicosis has been standing there the whole time watching him watching the the match, and Psicosis is all "I'm watching you watching them" and walks away, and the mind games are underway.
SLL: This is hot from the get-go, as Guido is jawjacking Tajiri from the apron, and Tajiri throws a big kick to push him back, but Guido comes back in to slap Tajiri in the face and is totally in his showbiz mode, shadowboxing and taunting Tajiri with the crane pose while occasionally stepping behind Big Sal. Sal tries to intimidate Tajiri when he gets in the ring while Guido keeps goading him, but Tajiri ain't taking shit from nobody. EARTH TO WRESTLING PROMOTERS: THIS HOW YOU GET OVER SOMEONE WHO CAN'T WORK THE MIC. Match proper starts, and it is awesome, as the first half of this is like EXTREEEEEEEEEEEME BattlArts. Tajiri throws a hard kick to Guido's ribs, but Guido grabs a single-leg and starts throwing open hands from the guard while Tajiri tries to cover up. Tajiri turns it over, though, and manages to slap Guido around from the mount. Soon, he starts laying in the kicks, but Guido gets him in the corner and stomps the hell out of him. Tajiri ends up on the outside after escaping a Fujiwara armbar, and Guido tries to drop a pescado on him, but Tajiri narrowly dodges and Guido gets faceplanted on the floor. ECW crowd chants "You fucked up", because they were weird and random like that.
Tajiri comes back with a leap off of the top rope onto Guido and Sal, as we mourn the passing of the BattlArtsian phase of the match. Fortunately, this phase still has Tajiri and Guido in it, so I can't really complain. Tajiri posts Guido. The ECW crowd shouts "Whoooooo!" What in the blue fuck is wrong with these people? Great spot as Tajiri tries to sunset flip his way back into the ring, but Guido holds onto the ropes to block it, so Tajiri pulls himself up and turns it into the Tarantula. We then get the second horrifying Guido faceplant of the night, as he gets whipped into the ropes but catches himself and headscissors Tajiri when he charges in, only for Tajiri to just push him over the top rope and splat him on the entrance ramp. Guido starts to get desperate as he retakes the advantage, distracting the ref so Sal can powerslam Tajiri, but that only gets him two. Sal further gets involved on the outside as he makes the saddest attempt at dropping someone throatfirst on the guardrail ever. Seriously, I don't think he even got Tajiri's feet off of the ground on that one. Tajiri hangs in there, and we get the whole finishing sequence leading up to the awesome tree of woe dropkick, including Tajiri waving bye-bye to Guido and giving him a ceremonial bow as he rears up to deliver the blow and Guido frantically begging off before getting his face caved in. Sal gets up on the apron, but Tajiri kicks him off before throwing a big heel kick upside what's left of Guido's head and dropping him with a brainbuster for the win. Million billion stars. Watch it now.
SLL: God, even the ring announcer seems sad to be in the AWA in 1990. Aside from being for Larry's World Title, this was part of the infamous Team Challenge Series, though sadly, there is no funny gimmick attached to it. Lee Marshall talks about D.J. Peterson as "a guy who can hold a belt" and I laugh and laugh and laugh and then the match actually starts and HOLY FUCK WHERE DID THIS COME FROM? Peterson apparently owes Zbyszko money because Larry just beats the shit out of him, lacing into him with hard forearms, punches, and knees, and dropping him with these vicious slams and suplexes...Jesus, this is violent. And then Peterson kicks him away and starts tossing him around with some slams and suplexes of his own, plus a mean atomic drop on the outside. Larry gets thrown hard into the corner, but Peterson charges just as hard into a kneelift. Larry reconvenes the mauling with a big back suplex. He sinks in a tight chinlock, which gives us the closest thing to Larry's usual shtick in this match as he yells at the ref to ring the bell.
Peterson rallies the sparse 1990 AWA crowd and guts out, leading to some great strike exchanges before Peterson drops Larry with a gutwrench suplex and comes off of the second rope with a nifty spinning back elbowdrop for two. Larry manages to shove Peterson into the referee, and unfortunately, the brutality is marred with a screwy finishing sequence. Peterson rolls up Larry for six, but by the time the ref comes back, he only gets two. Peterson keeps wailing on Larry in the corner, but the ref backs him off, and that gives Larry room to take him down and grab the Flair pin for the three. But Larry doesn't have the presence of mind to grab his title belt before he flees from the scene of the crime, and by the time he realizes his mistake, Peterson has already got the belt, daring Larry to take it from him. I like Larry a bunch, and I had never seen Peterson before to the best of my knowledge, so I didn't quite know what to expect from them here. But I certainly wasn't expecting this. This was a fucking war, and off-hand, and I think it's the best match I've reviewed in the short history of All-Request Friday Night. If you think Larry Zbyszko was nothing but stalling and shtick, watch this NOW.
To be continued....
Labels: Rey, SLL's All-Request Friday Night, WCW
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