JJZ: Threw this match on and didn't really know what to expect. Technically I always thought Raven was a little underrated and wanted to see if he'd be able to have a nice back and forth with Dean. That didn't happen at all! This was right in that ECW vein and both guys did a really nice job with a smash mouth match. I always enjoyed Raven's run in WCW. It was a good change of pace on the shows. I wouldn't call anything Malenko ever does sloppy so I will say that the execution of the moves were a little wild and more aggressive than normal. Even with the short run time the ending had me bitting a couple times. Just good TV overall. Enjoy homie.
CJD: Very fitting to watch this match right after the Raven documentary came out. I wouldn't be surprised if both of us watched this live with how dialed in we were in this era. And man this takes me back to how frustrating WCW was in this time period. Commentary a total trainwreck with Tenay trying desperately to keep it on the tracks. Enormously bloated roster shoehorned into every angle to try to justify having them all on the payroll. And buried beneath all of it, somehow still shining if you look hard enough, some shockingly good wrestling! These two worked so well together. And every time they pushed Malenko I was surprised how much he'd run with it, with consistently great crowd reactions. I do remember hating the "Raven loves pain" angle they were working at the time, although I could easily see that being his own invention. I'm curious if he ever mentioned it in any shoots. This match was not at all what I expected from you this week but it's such a fun detour. A perfect time capsule of the undercard of 1998 American TV pro wrestling, with all the highs and lows that came with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment