Storm Comments

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

We, the show is up. I'll be back with more comments ater

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Some thoughts from me as an observer:

 

--Craven continues to impress. He's quietly maturing and doing well, and really should try to get past the US title now. Not necessarily even going for an ICTV or World title shot--I think right now the absolute best thing for him would be a midcard/upper mid-card story-based feud. It could go a long way towards really jump-starting the character off of recent successes.

 

--Holy shit was Danny's finish awesome. I actually said "holy shit!" while reading it. We officially have one of our fightin'est ICTV champs.

 

--W&D's handicap versus the resident prodigal son was really fun, and had a great feel of excitement about it. I think the match ending does a lot of WC and Johnny's characters, and their defeat of Neilsen the handicap master really solidifies their storyline prowess as a well-honed tag team. I hope you guys don't hold off too much longer on full-on feuding with Justice and Rule or trying to get the tag belts or both, because I am itching to see Wild and Dangerous really step out and tear up.

 

--The lack of promos is too bad, because even 4 or 5 backstage vignettes can really liven up the show. The one that we did have was Tod challenging TNT to a career match. Which, personally, I don't like, because it means it either ends screwy, is pre-determined, or TNT's leavin' again. But you guys have been pretty solid on the back-and-forth antagonism in this one, and I have faith you'll be able to nail a goodie at the PPV.

 

--Did I mention the tags were really frickin' close? It was almost scary how parallel they ran; everyone likes to work over the legs, and everyone thinks Strangler's an idiot who can never tell who's legal, what match he's in, and why he didn't put on underwear today. Bwa ha ha.

[Guest The Superstar]

Goddamn, that 6 man was fucking RULE. Props to Mag7. I mean, really. Damn.

[Guest Ace309]

everyone thinks Strangler's an idiot who can never tell who's legal

 

I have to take issue with this, in combination with your statement that there was little headway made toward the pay-per-view.

 

Granted, the commentary wasn't there to explain the spot (I assume you're referring to Strangler going after Tom after breaking the Overruled), but I thought it stood on its own as Strangler not caring as much about the pin per se as cracking Tom's skull for one, and secondarily, protecting his teammate.

 

Further, the purpose of the spot was to show that Strangler's more than capable of knocking Tom out, as opposed to just frustrating him and making him walk. The wins get more credible as the weeks go by.

 

Granted, he didn't win as such, but the finish was designed to have a distinct element of winning-the-battle-and-losing-the-war. Tom takes Strangler's finisher - once! - and is practically dead. Helped back to the locker room. Strangler nearly no-sells the Gavel Bang. Sure, he lost the match, but he's got a moral victory over Flesher. Two, in fact.

 

And he's the number-one contender.

 

Dag, yo.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

I saw the events, Tom, and I did pick up on the "Strangler's attacks on Tom are getting more decisive" bit, but I felt like you guys didn't really give them much impact. Like, they were there, but with the exception of Strangler hitting the Boston Massacre, very little of the stuff--especially at the ending--had the feel of "AW, THE PPV IS GONNA BE OFF THE HIZZLE DIZZLE, NIZZLE!"

 

...Which, you know, considering the incoherence of that statement is probably a good thing. But I digress.

 

I think my greatest concern was that you guys had the words left--almost 1000 of them, I think--and didn't really play those things up as much as you could have in just a bit of astute commentary. Actually, now that I think about it, the Strangler/Tom stuff was pretty good for the most part, with the exception of a slight lack of hype--most of my comment was directed towards a lack of tag build for LDP/Frost, or really many hints at the potential for that. But in the end it didn't really matter, because those things aside, the match was still utterly strong and had a frickin' YAKUZA KICK TO THE KNEE. Who came up with that one? I want to shake his hand and give him a gumdrop.

[Guest The Superstar]

But in the end it didn't really matter, because those things aside, the match was still utterly strong and had a frickin' YAKUZA KICK TO THE KNEE. Who came up with that one? I want to shake his hand and give him a gumdrop.

Amen.

[Guest Longdogger_Pete]

<<most of my comment was directed towards a lack of tag build for LDP/Frost, or really many hints at the potential for that>>

 

Just to clear something up here. We didn't have tag build for the PPV because we were writing with the knowledge that Justice & Rule were already booked for the PPV (and at the time, they were). We had no PPV plans and were actually considering taking the show off, waiting for our turn to start things up with J&R.

 

As of last night, plans have changed, and we are now building for the PPV... it appears the feud with J&R will be stepped up after all.

 

Hope that clarifies things.

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

*looks at Pete's signature*

 

SWF SUPERSTAR OF THE MONTH!!! (Y)

[Guest Goodear]

But in the end it didn't really matter, because those things aside, the match was still utterly strong and had a frickin' YAKUZA KICK TO THE KNEE.  Who came up with that one?  I want to shake his hand and give him a gumdrop.

Amen.

That was mine, GIVE ME CANDY!

[Guest Longdogger_Pete]

You only just found that out?

[Guest Ace309]

I love how people can post multiple times without actually commenting when we have a community board RIGHT THERE. (Y)

 

Wild and Dangerous over Nielsen of the Jungle

- I liked the story you guys told here, particularly the way Nielsen kept coming back for more and the way W&D just kept innovating. The postmatch plot twist struck me as kind of meh, but you work with what you're given.

 

Michael Craven over Mike Van Siclen

- The legend thing is a bit much as of right now.

Good match, and I liked the way you used Atlas throughout. I would have liked to see more of him, but then there wasn't much to do with him anyways. The using-each-other's-submissions was pretty cool, although as someone who's been IN one, I'd have liked to have seen a more realistic counter to a front headlock. Anyways, fine job. You've come a long way in the time I've been reading your work.

 

Tod deKindes Vignette

- Oooh, plot twists.

 

Nathaniel Kibagami over Beezel

- I'm aware of the back of this one, and let's just say it's a shame that Beezel's having such difficulty getting his story to go off.

 

Danny Williams over Janus

- Pretty by-the-books, not that that's a bad thing. The match development and interaction between the hoss and the All Japan heavy were quite entertaining. Solid defense from Danny, with Janus still looking strong. He's been quite impressive regardless, of course. The finish to this match was particularly good, imho.

 

Team M7 over Team Godzilla

- I try not to comment on my own stuff, so I'll just say that Judge and Ejiro did a great job with their sections, particularly with finding new ways for the characters to be condescending. I wish, as noted above, that I'd done more commentary to explain the scenario, since mine was the shortest section. In any event, I'm relatively pleased with how it turned out and I've got some mental notes for further improvement.

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

You only just found that out?

It's the first time I checked down to see your sig since the end of last month, Pete.

[Guest Ace309]

I love how people can post multiple times without actually commenting when we have a community board RIGHT THERE. (Y)

[Guest Coffin Surfer]

Kibagami vs. Beezel match review:

 

The quasi Kung Fu to start was decent, but some of the stuff felt a little akward(pushing off a Running Elbow) or way to over kill on the flash (drop to the mat and kip up to avoid the Rolling Chop, couldn't he have just ducked it? Besides isn't that how you are suppose to avoid a leg sweep in Hong Kong cinema?)

 

The bomb avoiding that followed felt very shallow, more like RVD/Lynn than Misawa/Kawada. It seemed more like a way to pop the crowd with some flash, rather than show how well they knew each other. I also don't understand why the strike sequence couldn't have ended up with someone in control, instead we end up right back where we started with a test of strength and for some reason they actually trust each other after the early cheap shot. It just went on way too long for it to not lead anywhere which supports the RVD/Lynn analogy in that it is flash for the sake of flash rather than tell a story or at least further the match.

 

Sure you can say it established that they were equal strikers and had to result to a grapple, but there was still no need to stretch it out for so long and have the pointless bomb throwing.

 

The tranitiion from the Exploder to a waistlock really needed some elbows to allow the reversal(I mean he had his freaking head hooked, how the hell did he escape?). Other than that, the chain wrestling was solid, but felt more like an exhibition than meaningful moves.

 

Once more we start over with them trading shots, making all those reversals, counters, and attempts nothing but a big waste of time. After some more solid but ulitmately hollow ring work, the real story finally comes into play with Kib going after Beezel's ribs, but by this time the match is already over. The Powerbomb ending was a sweet touch, playing off my previous match with him.

 

Overall, it was very solid wrestling, but way too many counters for the sake of counters. Good stuff, but ulitmately uninvolving, kind of like the hand held Beniot/Owen match from when they were basically rookies. Beautiful wrestling, but no meaning or purpose to it.

[Guest Kibagami]

The major reason there's such a lack of depth to the match is that it was going to be about 2,000 words longer than it is. Long story, but we'll probably be able to get another singles match down the road, so it's not a big loss and now we've got more history to build on. Thanks for the feedback.

 

K.

[Guest Coffin Surfer]

"Holy shit was Danny's finish awesome. I actually said "holy shit!" while reading it. We officially have one of our fightin'est ICTV champs."

 

-Thanks alot, Edwin. I'm glad the sudden ending got the desired reaction I was looking for. Glad to see you commenting on the shows again, I hope it continues as you were always one of the best at that.

 

"Pretty by-the-books, not that that's a bad thing. The match development and interaction between the hoss and the All Japan heavy were quite entertaining. Solid defense from Danny, with Janus still looking strong. He's been quite impressive regardless, of course. The finish to this match was particularly good, imho."

 

-That is exactly what I was looking for. This was our first match, so I purposely held back and kept it simple to keep the possibilites more open in a future match.

 

The whole match was pretty much designed to protect the cred of most of Janus' moves. The arm work leading to a delayed pin on the Chokeslam, the rope break on the Dragon Suplex, and the Gore, Bear Hug, and Screwdriver are only teased. The Spine Buster is the only clean kick out I think.

 

The ending was also to keep his cred with a flash pin, while still hugely putting over the elbows. Two very similar spots in the 6 man foreshadow it actually, Mental running into the Elbow Smash, and Janus tring to Spear Kib only to run into a Gamengiri, pretty much taking him out of the match for good.

[Guest Goodear]

I can make comments because I don't have a match to write! HUZZAH!

 

Wild and Wangerous beat Neilson OJ

 

You know reading the first couple of paragraphs, I've come to the realization that most of us don't really have cool entrances. It's like some pyro and a announcement and thats it. We need more cool stuff to happen like the camera glitching to black and white or freaking something.

 

WD continue to prove that they are the kings of doubl team spot foo as they just continue to use double teaming like the old time Rockers on crack (in other words, just like The Rockers). The nifty double teaming really flows exceptionally nicely as you can almost see Johnny and Wildchild floating around an opponent and sticking and moving. The Superplex spot was really fun, but I would have liked to see it set up just a tad bit more.

 

They do have a little trouble with transitions though as it seems as though a couple of times that NOTJ just decides to punch back at random times in order to get control.

 

The middle rope Tiger suplex is another hot move but it doesn't add up with the descriptions you guys wrote as far as getting in it into position. Like Neilson is making a cover after the McTwist, then Johnny bashes him with a chair, and then he's sitting on the top rope? Plus ... fullnelson suplex = dragon suplex, double chickenwing = tiger suplex.

 

Craven Morehead beats the guy that Craven always wrestles

 

Using Atlas here seems a little "meh" since ... well what is he supposed to be doing? You could have probably set the tone for his purpose a little better with some commentary either to get over the heel alliance or a Atlas doesn't care about either guy thing.

 

“THUD!” Craven cries out after impact = Beyond funny as the idea of him hitting the floor and actually saying that makes me have the chuckles. But in general the action is good if a bit hard to follow a bit as all the named moves start to pile up on each other for some on. But your commentary got a little puzzling when you say, "Stevens: What a cheap win for Michael Craven! Van Siclen put up his best fight yet, but Craven cheats to win!" when Craven didn't really seem to do anything all that evil this time out.

 

Mr. B vs. Mr. S

 

Starts off all Low Ki vs Amazing Red and that seems like a pretty good parallel even though Beezel doesn't pull out the high spots as much as Red does. But Danny is right that you seemed to be transitioning a lot without telling the reader how exactly it happened, other than getting over that both wrestlers are being very agressive here (which you did get over very well in my opinion). The ending didn't really do a whole lot for me as I've gotten too used to back and forth pinning predicaments anymore for a single attempt win to really get the juices flowing properly, but I can understand what Nathan was going for since he certainly played off being a lot more agressive and angry in this contest.

 

Danny ELBOWS YOU

 

Damn, this shit is sweet. Good gravey.

[Secret Agent 0]

They do have a little trouble with transitions though as it seems as though a couple of times that NOTJ just decides to punch back at random times in order to get control.

That match was rather bleh from my end. I'm surprised people liked it as much as they did just because of my not quite up to par finish. The transistions thing is mine. Knowing a head of time this was going to be a default win, I didn't really put much effort into it. So thats why the Dragon Suplex spot came off rather stupidly.

 

Thanks for the comments though.

 

As for the rest of the show I read every match, and afterwards I was able to sit back and actually feel satisfied from reading a well rounded show. I don't really feel like I have any right to comment match by match as I really haven't been all that sucessful.

 

Great job by everyone though.

[Guest Ace309]

-That is exactly what I was looking for. This was our first match, so I purposely held back and kept it simple to keep the possibilites more open in a future match.

 

The whole match was pretty much designed to protect the cred of most of Janus' moves. The arm work leading to a delayed pin on the Chokeslam, the rope break on the Dragon Suplex, and the Gore, Bear Hug, and Screwdriver are only teased. The Spine Buster is the only clean kick out I think.

 

The ending was also to keep his cred with a flash pin, while still hugely putting over the elbows. Two very similar spots in the 6 man foreshadow it actually, Mental running into the Elbow Smash, and Janus tring to Spear Kib only to run into a Gamengiri, pretty much taking him out of the match for good.

 

Yet another reason why Danny's matches are easily the most cohesive and intelligent in the fed today.