The Wrestling Framework 09.30.11: Stunt Man Foley & More Tag Action

Psychology: Besides the fact that this was supposed to be the completely brutal brawl that it was. There really wasn’t a whole lot of room for true in ring psychology. I mean, if you want to count Mick’s getting up after every time he was possibly killed, then by all means, I can respect that. But for me, there was barely anything I could say contributed to the story. I don’t feel at all like a lot of what happened was necessary. Like I said, I’m giving it like a half a point just because it was supposed to be an all out fight. And boy did it look like an all out, one sided fight. I really would like to see if anyone can change my mind on this. Because quite frankly, if there was a reason why Mick was damn near killed like three times, I would have been much happier watching him be stunt man of the year. I really have no more to say about this. I stretched it out as much as possible.

Work Rate: Here is another thing that was horrifically lacking. Unless, again, if you count Mick doing his thing work rate. I sure as hell don’t. And I don’t think anyone out there with a brain does either. I just don’t understand how anyone can say that watching a guy being thrown off a cage or through the cage or on to thumb tacks or whatever is good. It truly baffles the fuck out of me. And Take really had his work cut out for him as he didn’t really have to do a whole lot. Would it be weird to say that Mick mad Taker look good by trying to kill himself? Yeah, maybe so. But still, Taker looked like a stone cold killer. And Mick looked like a psychopath. Well, in hindsight, he looks like a spot monkey nearly killing himself for…fan adoration? A paycheck? To make Vince like him more? Hell, just looking at Takers face throughout the match was interesting. His face made him out to be thinking something along the lines of “what the fuck is this crazy son of a bitch doing?” To be fair, I’ll give work rate a half a point because…I don’t know. For the fun of it.

Crowd: Dude, the crowd was in shock as well as everyone else. I will have to say that the crowd did help the mood of the match. It made it a lot more dramatic and stuff like that. Wait, no they didn’t… Most of them were up on their feet cheering like blood thirsty animals. They wanted more, more, more! Except when people came out to check on Mick, then they were silent. But it was most likely out of boredom. I’m not trying to knock on the people in attendance that day, but come on. We all know they were going nuts for blood. They wanted more carnage. More body wreckage. And Mick was willing to give it to them! So, if anything, it’s more a knock on Mick because he was feeding the crowd’s blood lust. Something he’s said he doesn’t much like. Or, was that him? Er, right, the crowd portion will get a 2 because the crowd was definitely in to this match. And it made the atmosphere of the match.

Spots: Alright, alright, I know. I harp on too many spots most times. But this match was nothing but spots. And the spots were crazy and sick and original and…well, I just have to revert back to when I was a kid watching this for the first time and going bat shit nuts over what Foley was doing. I mean, I really hadn’t seen anything like that yet. I didn’t watch much of ECW because I don’t think I got it on TV. Even when they had their deal with TNN I maybe watched one or two episodes. But, regardless, this match was a defining match for spots in general. How many other people are willing to go off the top of the cell through the announce table? Didn’t Rikishi land in a hay cart or something? Who else has been thrown off the cage? Anyone else besides those two? Help me out, here. I give this a perfect 2 just because it got me all excited when I was a kid watching this.

Finish: I don’t know what to say. After that match there really couldn’t have been a finish that could have topped it all. Sure, Taker get’s the tombstone win in the center of the ring. But it just felt kind of…dull compared to the rest, you know? I don’t WANT to give it a 1, really I don’t. But I feel it’s right to give that finish a 1. I’m trying to think of something crazy they could have done to give it a good finish, but after all that I can’t imagine anything. Or maybe I’m looking at it all wrong and that after a crazy adrenaline rush of a match like this, the smooth and easy victory is just what was needed. I can see how that would work, but not so much for me. I’m picky like that. I have to have a finish that could be that icing on top of the cake. Heh, that makes me sound kind of like a spoiled brat, but it’s not true. This is just my preference in a wrestling match.

Overall: The ending result is a 6. Meaning it’s not bad. And I have to say, it’s not bad. For what it was. I remember as a kid watching this and just thinking to myself how Mick Foley is insane. I swore he had to be a robot. Or on some extreme medication. I’m not a fan of “hardcore” or “spot fest” wrestling. It’s just not my cup o’ tea anymore. I used to like that stuff when I was younger. It was something different than the regular wrestling match. But then I started to understand wrestling a little better and I just fell in love with a solid technical showing and out of love with the spotty, hardcore showing. Every once in a while I’ll go back and watch something totally brutal and get a kick out of it. But I can’t stand a lot of it because, as I’m sure you’ve seen me say, it’s excessive. But this one is a good classic of a spot fest. I can’t really hate on it TOO badly. It wasn’t good by any means as a match. But as a show, it was pretty fun to watch. Albeit, sickening to a degree to watch a man do something like that. Kind of like Rock vs. Mankind in the I Quit match. I can’t even watch that match anymore because of all the chair shots to Micks head. It’s one of the few times I’ve felt uncomfortable while watching a match. And considering some of the ECW shit I had seen, that’s a bit odd isn’t it?

Psychology: Great chemistry here. This was before Bret and Shawn knew they would be headlining PPVs. This was before they were champions. This was also before they hated each other. And look how awesome they worked together. Oh, forgot to add that this was also before they got lazier in the ring. I’ll explain that below. Anyhow, the match was great in terms of psychology. Except that there were times when I think that there was kind of a stutter in the action like no one knew what was going on for a second. Well, that’s not explaining it too well. I can’t really form the right words to put together in a sentence to describe what I saw. I kind of want to say that they had to slow down to let their minds catch up or something like that. Does anybody get what I’m trying to say, or am I just finally losing my mind? Anyhow, like I said, great chemistry between both teams. And I’m actually surprised at how well The Anvil fit in with it all, too. He didn’t drag the match down at all.

Work Rate: Hell, you got two of the greatest in the ring at the same time. As much as I enjoyed watching Jennetty or Neidhart, they can stay on the apron. I was excited watching Michaels and Hart going at it in their prime. Before they got lazier in the ring. That meaning that they still had a large and open repertoire of moves to use instead of the usual move set that you will see them use every match. It was fun and exciting and fast paced. Fast paced even with Neidhart in the ring! I may not be giving him enough credit, but his singles career was unimpressive to say the least. I could go on and on praising the work rate in this match, but I’ll save you the time reading me verbally blow these gents. Er, not that I would do that anyhow. That’s nasty. But seriously, I enjoyed the work rate in this match. This is what tag team wrestling needs to be these days. BUT! There was some early sloppy work that just didn’t sit well with me, so I had to dock .2 points. That’s just how it goes.

Crowd: Surprisingly, the crowd was hot for this match. I wouldn’t think that they would be. That very well may be because tag team wrestling is a dead art form. Then again, you had two guys who would become house hold names. Staples in the WWF. Guys who would hold the gold. Two gents who would go down in history as WWE legends. The crowd was right to go bananas for these teams. Not only that, but both teams were on pretty hot streaks at the time. The Rockers were the young, cool and hip tag team that the rebellious kids could relate with while the Hart Foundation were….Canadian. I don’t really know how else to describe them at the time. Clean cut? No. Straight shooters? Well, not really. Getting off topic, reset. So, like I said, I didn’t think the crowd would have been so in to the match, but they were loud and wild and it surprised the hell out of me. Perfect 2 for that crowd.

Spots: They had a lot of the usual tag team spots in the match. Which made it kind of boring. But at the same time, there’s a reason why there are cookie cutter spots. They work. So I can’t hate on that too much. I mean, it isn’t a lot to ask for something original every once in a while, is it? Especially if you are gonna be wrestling the same people multiple times. You need to change things up a bit or it’s going to turn out like Kofi vs. Dolph VI on TV or some shit like that. Those are good examples of doing the same damn thing with no change. It’s boring and you get tired of seeing it no matter how good the two wrestlers work with each other. Or in this case, four wrestlers. Docked half a point for some lack of originality.

Finish: I actually liked this finish. Which is odd. Well, maybe not odd, but different for me. I liked it because it was just the kind of chaos and pandemonium that was cool back then. But at the same time, I wanted to see a clean victory through it all. I wanted there to be a clear winner THEN have Demolition come in for the all out brawl. But I’ll give leeway to this as it was good for the tag division story and it made people pay attention to all three teams and pay attention to what the hell was going on. Only .2 points taken off for all this, so, it’s not so bad.

Overall: This match is here to make up for last weeks match. This one was WAY better. But, alas, I couldn’t keep Demolition off of your computer screens. Sorry. Still, was a good match and I’m actually looking for more between the two. I think they had some other matches years earlier, but I’m trying to find them. If anyone can link to some, that’d be awesome. Just put them in the comments, or email them to me. And if you have a match you want to review, please do so and email it to me so I can put it in the column.

FINAL THOUGHTS
That does it for me this week. I’m trying to find the time to do a huge column, but with school and just life in general it’s hard to dedicate a lot of time to this. I get maybe an hour a day to put work in to it. And most of it is watching video and writing. I barely have enough time to review and edit it. So, come party with me next week and thanks for reading. But until next weeks party continue to….