Double Cage Event

[bigraj]

"Wrestling fans, we're all set to kick off this special double cage match edition of Raw!"
"That's right, JR! And it's time for the World Tag Team Title match. Oh my!"


"Here come the challengers, the dominant Demolition!"


"Referee William Batson going over the rules, which I'm sure he'll have a hard time enforcing."


"What an ovation for the mighty Road Warriors!"




"And we've got a slobberknocker before the opening bell, King!"

[Captain Charisma]

Demolition vs. Roadies as it should have been! Blood, guts, carnage, and destruction!

[bigraj]

"This match can only be decided by pinfall or submission, and is not a Texas Tornado match." "I don't think Batson will have any sort of control of these animals, JR!"




"Hawk with the reversal into the cage!"





"Goodness, this is brutal already."

[bigraj]

"And finally we have a little order in this match. Animal and Smash are the legal men."



"The Demos double-team Animal."



"Big body slam.'


"More double-teaming from the challengers!"

[bigraj]

"Smash pounds away . . ."


" . . . Hawk's had enough!"


"The referee is putting his life at risk trying to separate these monsters."


"Hawk with a clothesline on his way back to the champs' corner."



"And now Animal's building momentum."


"Huge powerslam!"

[darthfoley]

Let's go Demo, let's go! <clap clap clap>

[bigraj]

"Hawk to the top for a double-team."

"Ax comes in and attacks Hawk!"


"Huge shoulder block by Animal!"


"Ax and Hawk all over the place." "I wouldn't want to be the ref, JR."



"What a brawl this is turning into!"

[bigraj]

"Front facelock by Smash. He might be trying to choke out Animal."


"Oh my, JR! Hawk just used Ax's head to open the cage door!"


"Inverted atomic drop!"


"What's Hawk up to with the stairs?"



"He slams the cage door right into Ax's knee!"

[bigraj]

"He's propping the steel ring steps against the cage door to keep Ax's leg trapped." "That's pretty brilliant, JR!"

"He's climbing the cage! Oh dear, Animal's got Smash set up!"




"Doomsday Device from the top of the cage!"



"There's the pin."


"The Road Warriors retain their championship!"

[darthfoley]

Rematch, dangit!

[Captain Charisma]

Awesome match! Great finish. I know it must be a tedious work of love for you Raj, I seriously enjoy the hell out of these. Great work.

DAMNIT! When do I get my Vader vs. Dusty match up? Muta vs. Taker?

[bigraj]

"And here comes Shawn Michaels for our main event. The winner gets a World Heavyweight Title match!"

"Did he just insult me, JR?" "If you have to ask . . ."



"Oh my . . . is that . . ."


"He's purple again, JR! What does that mean?" "It can't mean anything good for HBK!"


"Michaels looks petrified out there." "It's a good thing he's wearing dark pants!"

[Captain Charisma]

Gotta love mid-90's Purp Taker! This one should be outstanding! Either man vs. Muta would make a dream match, but I'm hoping for Taker vs Muta!

[bigraj]

"Taker moves in for the kill, but Michaels ducks out of the way."


"That was not smart, Ross."


"Into the cage!"


"And again! HBK is in serious trouble."


"He tries to get the ref to shield him . . ."

" . . . but Batson is having none of it."

[bigraj]

"Both men are looking to regain the World Heavyweight Championship. Michaels lost the title to The Great Muta in an all-time classic match, and Muta has had a stranglehold on it ever since. Taker hasn't had a title match since losing the championship to Edge in a ladder match many months before that Muta-HBK match."


"Huge gorilla press slam!"

"Clothesline in the corner!"

"Chokeslam!"

"No, HBK goes low and sets up a . . ."

" . . . piledriver!"

"Neckbreaker by Michaels."


"Michaels choking away."

[Captain Charisma]

Uhm, HBK trying to hide behind the ref didn't look all that Christianly I really like the little tidbits of history you are working in Raj, the HBK-Muta, Edge-Taker stuff, good work bud.

[bigraj]

They're actually matches I "filmed" and posted a while back, so I figured I'd at least throw back to some of that stuff now that I have a commentary team.  The Muta-HBK match starts here:  thundergeek.50.forumer.com/miscellaneous-action-photo-thread-t473942-150.html#p6471117

[Captain Charisma]

Love your Muta gif. Did you see my Muta avi from the Mess? I can't remember if I posted anywhere except the wrestling board when I was using it. I'm a huge Muta mark, have you seen his New Japan produced 4 disc career retrospective? Had the werewolves and shit? Great collection. That match and the Muta/Hogan vs. Roadies matches were so much better than I ever expected.

[bigraj]

4-disc set? I'll have to track that down. Love both of those matches, too. Hogan's a much better worker than most people give him credit for, mainly because they haven't seen his Japan work. Muta's one of my all-time favorites. Sadly, I never made it to one of the big shows when I was stationed in Japan from mid-96 to mid-98, but I did see a few great matches of his on TV out there. Great wrestler, and maybe an even better showman.

[bigraj]

"Back suplex by HBK!"

"Michaels setting up that flying elbow drop . . ."

" . . . Taker goozles him!"


"Taker's back on his feet . . . "


" . . . Chokeslam! Chokeslam! Chokeslam!"

[Captain Charisma]

Oct 25, 2013 15:13:35 GMT bigraj said:

4-disc set? I'll have to track that down. Love both of those matches, too. Hogan's a much better worker than most people give him credit for, mainly because they haven't seen his Japan work. Muta's one of my all-time favorites. Sadly, I never made it to one of the big shows when I was stationed in Japan from mid-96 to mid-98, but I did see a few great matches of his on TV out there. Great wrestler, and maybe an even better showman.

Agree with this entirely. Even guys like us who have seen Hogan's work in Japan, it bothers me so bad because it makes it obvious that working hard was a choice Hogan made, and clearly American fans didn't deserve his best efforts. I know I know, Japan would've shit all over his American style, and he got away with as little as possible, but it irritates me.

Yea it is a 4 disc set of Muta produced by New Japan. It's from post WCW to late 90's. And it has all kind of crazy Halloween scenes of Muta like a werewolf. It has him as Keiji Mutoh being bitchified by Tenryu and returning mid-match as Muta, what a great angle, and the Japanese fans reacted like American fans for that one. Last disc covers NWO Muta, I usually stick with the first 3 discs while watching it.

But yes, Muta was a transcendent worker, IMO, I wish he'd stayed in WCW full time a couple more years, but it was that time in WCW that finished his "education" on being a showman, and separating Muta and Mutoh is one of the brightest ideas I can remember anyone having. I even loved his work as Kikushi (sp?) where he was the Black Angel to Jinsei Shinzaki's Hakushi, White Angel. Classic stuff.

In the grand scheme of greatest workers to ever live, I think Mutoh rarely gets his due. He's on the Mt. Rushmore of Japan with Kobashi, Misawa, and Jumbo, but he was more than a supreme athlete, that's for sure.

Those 2 years were a pinnacle for Japan. New Japan was still good-to great (could've done without Kensuke Sasaki's mega-push) and All-Japan was still great, finally allowing Kawada to beat Misawa, and moving Kobashi past them. Great time in Puro history, sorry you missed the big shows bud.

[bigraj]

Oct 25, 2013 18:39:20 GMT Captain Charisma said:

Oct 25, 2013 15:13:35 GMT bigraj said:

4-disc set? I'll have to track that down. Love both of those matches, too. Hogan's a much better worker than most people give him credit for, mainly because they haven't seen his Japan work. Muta's one of my all-time favorites. Sadly, I never made it to one of the big shows when I was stationed in Japan from mid-96 to mid-98, but I did see a few great matches of his on TV out there. Great wrestler, and maybe an even better showman.

Agree with this entirely. Even guys like us who have seen Hogan's work in Japan, it bothers me so bad because it makes it obvious that working hard was a choice Hogan made, and clearly American fans didn't deserve his best efforts. I know I know, Japan would've shit all over his American style, and he got away with as little as possible, but it irritates me.

Not sure it was entirely Hogan's choice, even though I'm sure he had a say on his American work.  It just seemed that a lot of guys "slowed down" when they got to the WWF.  Mainly just the big brawlers, like Hogan, Herc, Duggan, JYD (even Jake's babyface stuff was slower than when was in Mid-South), etc.  DiBiase was a heel during his whole WWF run, so he's supposed to work a little slower.  Maybe it's because they were generally playing in front of larger crowds so they had to slow down and use more exaggerated movements for the cheap seats, much like the overblown facial expressions.  Whether it was more Hogan or a Vince thing, it definitely worked financially.

[Captain Charisma]

True that, but I don't mean pacing as much as I mean moveset. I mean Hulk never did the Axe Bomber in the US. Well he used it in the movie, but not in the ring, and besides he wrestled in front of bigger crowds, with fans further away from the ring in Japan than he did anywhere except Mania III, right? Egg Dome would be 40, 50k at times. Not to say that it wasn't a Vince thing to want big guys working slower styles and fewer moves, because it does help the smaller guys get over by having more moves and being faster. If Dibiase, Duggan, and Herc worked the way they did in Wattsland, then Bret, Blue Blazer, Killer Bees, Tonga Kid, they're all less impressive right? So we definitely agree there.

And it's hard to blame Hogan, I mean he was selling out every building and blowing the roof off of each and every one of them doing his 6 moves, punching, and looking at the fans before every move. It shows how smart the guy really was, he knew the differences in the fan bases. He could get away with heelish moves as a babyface in the WWF, he had to work more holds in Japan, etc. I just feel like his matches with Harley, Funk, and Herc could have been better if he'd done more. He had great matches with Savage, Orndorff, and Dibiase, there is only so much he could do with Bundy, Khan, and Andre, and I get that, so maybe I just enjoy beating dead horses, I dunno.

BTW, I know you were referring to the Mid South guys having to slow down in New York because of the differences in crowd size, I was just using it to back up my pacing vs moveset point. Really enjoy these talks Raj.

Can't wait for Taker to Tombstone HBK through the ring and get a shot at Muta in an all-time dream match for me! It's so awesome to see your Muta figure. As a kid I had to use makeshift figures for Muta. What were the mini Rock em Sock em Robot figures, they had a button on their chest that would pop them off the spinner? There were 4 different figures? There was a Red Ninja one that was the closest to Muta I ever got

[bigraj]

Guess I did discount the size of the some of the Japanese arenas. You definitely have some good points, and it would have been nice to see a more technical side of Hogan in his US work.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Tombstone time!"


"Michaels escapes . . ."



" . . . Sweet Chin Music!"



"Taker barely kicks out."

[bigraj]

"Taker into the corner."


"Huge boot to the face!"


"Taker crashes down onto the HBK!"


"Taker sends him into the cage!"