Vader!Heavy Metal!Misterio!Juventud!Tony Arce!Too Cold!Jericho! Ganstas! (Gee, a North American Edition!) and other stuff I saw and heard this week!
Howdy!
Welcome to DEATH VALLEY DRIVER VIDEO REVIEW #7. It was a wacky week of
wrestling veiwing as I once again put off watching the ten hours of All
Japan Women that I have on tape, for some reason, (Stupidity I suppose.)
-I watched a AAA tape from November 1994 that Tim (lover of all things
Shockmaster/Typhoon based!:)) traded to me and it was pretty choice.
Dave Fields always said that Los Destructores whipped ass and after
watching the Heavy Metal/Tony Arce hair-vs-hair match, I'm coming around
to his way of thinking. Arce is a classic luchadore Rudo that makes a
good wrestler like Heavy Metal look great. This was a freaking bumpfest
with Arce taking every opportunity to land on his head after flying over
the top rope. It collapsed into a beautiful brawl into the stands, with
Latin Lover and Rocco Whatshisname flying into the stands and beating the
crap out of each other in one of the better "seconds take over" type
brawl. I was upset that the AAA barber didn't have an Ass Stomping coat
like his EMLL counterpart sports. I watched a HeavyMetal/Super
Calo/Psicosis/Konan/Cibernetico sent from St. Phil and Heavy Metal steals
the show by the end, and made a good match out something involving the RW
Hawk of Mexico, the wretched Cibernetico. I'm guessing that Heavy Metal
will be the next highflyer to head to WCW (personal problems
notwithstanding.) He's very Super Calo-esque, in that he isn't as flashy
as Rey, Juventud or Psicosis, but is very solid in other areas and can
work traditional lucha libre at higher level than their older
predecessors, though maybe not transcend it like Rey, Juventud and
Psicosis. I think he could make the transition with little trouble and
the experience would do him good. Latin Lover would be another great
choice though I have no idea how they would get him over to the Gringos.
-St. Phil sent me the Vader/Micheals match and it was pretty spectacular,
if not pretty flawed. The stopping of the match twice, I'm guessing so
Cornette could berate Micheals and get into the act, really sucked, and
took away from the great momentum the match had reached by then. The
infamous blown spot was pretty bad (Hell! I'd be pissed!) but the plancha
and the tease of the Misterio toprope-to-the-floor hurricanrana into a
powerbomb by Micheals made up for it. I'm glad he won by moonsault
because the Super Kick is so incredibly lame, and it would have been
awful to end such a good match by that method.. Vader wasn't afraid to
take a bump and worked well making his oversized opponent look credible
in the fray, but it made me think of how great a Micheals/Guerrero match
would be, and how interesting Vader could make a Giant/Vader match
become. Maybe its time for that much vaunted dreamcard. The
Undertaker/Mankind boiler Room match was pretty long and HEY! let's face
it, if you've seen Cactus/Funk in a barbed wire match, this family
entertainment level violence just doesn't cut it. I guess you could also
say, if you saw the Cactus barbed wire period, that its a good thing he
is being paid a lot more to be in fights this less strenuous. He's done
his time, I would want him to take it easy for the rest of his career.
-St.Phil sent me the four way TV title match from ECW and it was pretty
great. Scorpio outworked everybody and did the most spectacular move of
the match with the tope into the rail and they utilized the four man
concept to a pretty high degree with the building planchas. Shane
Douglas supplied most of he psychology and didn't hinder the progress of
the three better workers that were in the ring with him, so I give him
his props. Jericho was a lame duck so he didn't outshine anyone, which
is to his credit, because I think he could smoke Douglas and Pitbull 2
pretty bad if he really wanted to. The Scorpio drop kick of Lionsault
was a new twist and it looked pretty dangerous. Scorpio right now has to
be the most improved wrestler of the year. In this match, considered by
some the best in ECW this year (I'd go with Sabu/Van Damme no 1), Scorpio
was the driving force behind it and made it what it was, until he was
knocked out of it, allowing the angles and superfluous underwear-clad
valet powerbombing took over and finished it up. This makes four great
matches in a row that I've seen Scorpio in and that has put him as the
best full-time wrestler ECW has.
-Phil also sent me the Gangstas/Eliminators feud and golly was that fun!
The Gangstas are very Bruise Bros.-esque in that there brawling isn't
very fascinating but those interveiws are the difference and they are a
freakin riot. The Eliminators are so custom made for any kind of fray
that the Gangstas could be utilized to there fullest potential- much more
than Ganstas/TPE stuff I've seen. I LOVE the interview where New Jack
talks about getting good advice from his "old lady."
-The best match on free TV this was, of course, the WCWSN main event of
Juventud vs Rey Misterio Jr. There were two or three things I'd never
seen these two do, including the great gourdbuster on the apron and the
spinning hurricarana into the ring. It was ironic that Dusty wonders
about their mat wrestling ability as Juventud hits a Murdock-class
brainbuster on Rey. Juventud has definately mastered the Asai Moonsault
and hit it about as beautifully as I've ever seen and he also hit a
beautiful German Suplex. Another interesting thing about the match was
that even when they blow spots, these two look cool!:) The missed
dropkick of the Hilo Con Plancha was pretty beautiful eventhough it was
botched completely. These two guys RULE THE EARTH and I think I could
watch them compete against each other in synchronized swimming. I await
the other two matches they have on tape. And the first top rope
hurricanrana looked NASTY!
NEXT WEEK: Ten hours of AJW! I PROMISE!
NANIWA~!
Dean Rasmussen, Tanakaholic!
