WCW Saturday Night - 11/14/1998
A brief announcement before I get to an edition of WCWSN that was loaded
for bear. There is no standing archive for these reports; however, I'm
begun making a practice of posting them to RSPW.M, and they can then be
accessed via DejaNews. Failing that, I would be happy to email specific
editions to whomever upon request.
WHAT WORKED
-- Fit Finlay shows yet again why he represents the best WCWSN has to
offer by meeting Scott Armstrong in 1981 and having a solid technical
match with the most forgettable of the venerable Armstrong clan. Later
on, he gives an interview with Gene Mean that managed to be witty,
subtle, and unlike the stick work of almost everyone else in the
organization.
-- Raven comes out and does his shtick and is interrupted by Eddy 'The
Latino Jesus' Guerrero and his apostles, the LWO. Eddy correctly points
out the complete excess of time spent establishing the characters of DDP
and Raven with vignettes, long-winded interviews, and the like; Raven
counters by impugning Eddy's "diction" (WTF?), questioning his command
of Amerikkkan English, and calling the LWO jabronies. Eddy's recalling
what made territorial 'rasslin great, as he puts real fire in his voice
and mannerisms here, and builds up to the main event match really well.
-- I've got two words for you Workrate hatin' suckas on the sidelines,
drinking McDonald's special sauce and stealing change from your mothers'
old purses: Norman Smiley. He and Iaukea take it to a level the Prince
rarely goes, and this is mostly thanks to the baddest black man from the
Caribbean ever to lace up a pair of peach Reebok hightops from 1987 and
call them 'rasslin boots. Smiley sells for Iaukea like he's getting
commission here, and shows stiffer offense than we're used to from Black
Magic -- though he's not Chris Benoit by any stretch. Smiley pulls out a
Mark Gastineau sack dance after slapping Nakkimaki upside the head for
wearing a sarong in the ring. Nevertheless, Iaukea goes over, proving
that Sullivan hasn't cleaned out his desk just yet.
-- A thought just occurred to me. If they pushed Norman Smiley, they
could bring Tyree Pride in as an NWO member to feud with him. Where is
Tyree anyway?
-- Chris Jericho gives the deserving and underused Disco Inferno 9:58 to
show his skills before going over with a buzzer beating Liontamer.
**3/4, and a nice twist on the Heel TV Champ = Time Limit Draws
equation. Later on we got yet another great interview from Our Champ
(I'm eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew in tribute) in which he
reveals that he's going to have a special on TNT about his football
career early next year! Rumor has it that Jericho is to pro football
what Norv Turner is to coaching it.
-- Nash, Hogan, Hall, Falkenburg, Borden, Luger should all fear Jericho.
They SHOULD all tell Goldberg not to sell for him, not to even appear in
the same ring with them. Because Jericho -- as I say every week -- is
the future. More so than the aforementioned stiffs, even more so than
the NJ3.
-- Achtung! Achtung! Alex VS Chavito had its moments. Chavo went over
and Alex puts the beatdown on Eddy's blood, decapitating Pepe and using
~THE STICK! to inflict a mild hurtin'. Now let's see where WCW goes with
it.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK
-- Eddy works under Raven's rules and the match lacked the aesthetic
beauty and purity of Guerrero's best work. This was halfassed much like
Eddy's match with Jericho the other week, going about three minutes
until the requisite interference. Yet another subpar WCWSN main event,
and not necessarily the fault of the workers.
-- Van Hammer VS Emory Hale. Emory is very IPWA heel, with crowd taunts
and sundry other low-level nefarities. Hammer is Hammer, though he's got
a mean vertical suplex. A lot of blatant spot calling and sloppy
transitions, though the match was most successful when Hale was on
offense, because Hale's offense was crisp if basic and Hammer sold more
often than not. Still, this was really corny, and paled in comparison to
some of the intricate work elsewhere in this edition.
-- Vincent squashes Johnny Swinger (you know, the WCW Shawn Michaels) in
twenty seconds. Wrestling IS vulgar and stupid.
-- Meng dared Scott Putski to throw those punches, but they just had no
effect! The Polish Hammer! No effect on Meng whatsoever!
-- Stevie Ray and Horace "Shooter" Hogan are in the hizzouse, pissing on
the furniture and arguing whether Turbo B of Snap or Freedom Williams of
C&C Music Factory was the better MC. Mean Mike and Tough Tom showed up
and hopefully picked up their paychecks, because they did the job. What
happened to that inevitable Horsemen/NWO C Team feud anyway?