Re: RETRO POST: GPW Review 06/18/2000 -- Maritime Pro Wrestling Forum

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Date Posted: 00:08:39 06/25/01 Mon
Author: brec7
Subject: Re: RETRO POST: GPW Review 06/18/2000
In reply to: BMN 's message, "RETRO POST: GPW Review 06/18/2000" on 21:33:51 06/21/01 Thu

>1. Bobby Rude vs Stan Neilson (*** 1/2)
>Neilson seemed to carry the affair, but Rude didn't slow it >down any and did a good job portraying the man who is >dominated for most of the match only to pull the win out of >his back pocket.
Keeping this in mind, Rude is now good enough to portray.
Heels generally dominate most of the match. For wrestlers, the career pattern should be as follows:
Start as a face, learn the basics of working
Once this is learned, turn heel and develop a personna
Rude seems to be following this formula so far, and it`s working to a tee!
Again, I`d love to see these two go at it again, with Rude as the heel. **** matches for sure.

>2. Big Al vs Todd Douglas (* 3/4)
>
>Poor Douglas: stuck with Al again. Al is not in good
>shape, and can not work a good match.
This match was proof. UGH. Poor Todd.

>3. Cuban Assassin vs Rene E Dupre (** 1/4)

>Perhaps the most talked about event of the evening was
>that Cuban actually worked tonight!
This was one of my highlights of the year in GPW. It was a feel-good story; Cuban proved he had some value if you pried him away from the other old guys.

>Cuban was trying so hard. He seemed to really be feeding
>off of the crowd.
It`s great to see effort rewarded, and the people in North Sydney gave Cuban his props on that evening.

>Cuban still did rely on the played-out "foreign object
>in the pocket" bit and actually looked terrible in
>parts.
That match could have been higher ranked if Cuban had dropped the bit! Why didn`t Frank check the pockets?

>Rene made Cuban look more credible in jobbing than he has >in going over in the last year.
Rene is an underrated worker. It`s a shame we`ll never see him jump to RAW (unless there`s an invasion angle!)

>4. Kurrgan vs Hans Schultz (* 3/4)

>Could anyone possibly believe this guy was German?
Someone should have told Emile it wasn`t World War II anymore. Talk about being stuck in the past!

>I've been a little easier on Kurrgan since he departed
>New York. This is a good thing because he did almost
>all of the work in this match.
I think that fans should be easier on big guys sometimes- it`s harder for a big man to sell than a small guy. Kurrgan isn`t a bad big man, he`s probably better than Kingman.

>I thought Kurrgan would be a major draw but he had to fight >to keep the crowd in this one as Schultz just didn't seem
>interested.
Kurrgan seems to always get some sort of pop, and probably helps numbers, but doesn`t get as much heat as one would expect.

>Schultz does seem like a good athlete
I wonder what happened to the guy. I would have liked to have seen GPW this year.

>5. "Wildman" Austin vs Chi Chi Cruz (***)

>They did march around quite a bit and
I hate march around brawls!

>The match ended cleanly: giving Emile & co. a clean sweep >for the night.
Incredible, when you think about it. And the amazing thing is that with a night of all clean finishes, they still gave the fans more to look forward to for the next show.
Of course, they didn`t follow up.

>Firstly, Austin's clean pin of Chi Chi actually brings
>the feud to a sensible and decisive conclusion.
>Secondly, Dupre comes out to save Chi Chi from an
>Austin beating. Chi Chi takes exception to the help
>and turns on Rene. Austin and Chi Chi perform a
>wicked spiked powerbomb to a thunderous face pop.
>Rude and Douglas then make the save. Then, Austin
>cuts a great promo on the three in the ring. This is
>followed by a GREAT Chi Chi promo, possibly the best
>I've heard in the Forum, in which he denounces Rene as
>a pretty boy and explains his motivations to Austin
>and the crowd. Finally, Rene rises up superpissed and
>attacks Austin, leading to a brief but hellacious
>brawl in which Rene takes a super-stiff lamp shot from
>Austin.
That brawl was awesome. We can criticize GPW, but I don`t think I`ve seen RAW pull out an angle that hot yet.
The great thing about that is that the wrestlers actually worked some of the smarts into thinking the whole thing was a shoot. And it was fairly believable, given how stiff they worked the brawl.
However, RAW is still in business because they follow up on such angles!

>This was booking at its finest: something simple and
>performed convincingly. It was reminiscent of ECW
>circa '95-97 in which one feud springs immediately
>from another with great results. The Chi Chi turn
>itself was great not because it was shocking (which is
>all Vince Russo tries to do) but because it sets up a
>war with great potential: the wrestlers preferred by
>the "hardcore" audience versus the so-called pretty
>boys. Insert a suddenly revitalized Cuban and Stan
>Neilson into the mix over time and this could actually
>provide a story that will give heel/face heat to just
>about every wrestler on the roster. Most will side
>with the Austin/Chi Chi faction while some will take
>up with the standard 80s face side, and much heat will
>be garnered by all.
The ball was really dropped here. The angle that should have happened would have been the perfect mix of old school and new school booking.
On one hand, you would have the simple storytelling that works best in the indys (and frankly should be used much more in the WWF).
But you throw in a modern twist, with different groups of fans taking different sides.
I`ve always found that it`s more exciting to root for something, be it real sport or wrestling, when there are people there who feel the opposite of you. I always loved the atmosphere of WCW/nWo shows in that sense too.
I don`t know if Emile was ready to embrace that smart mentality- but he did allow the Joe E angle at the end of the 1999 run, so I don`t know what to think!
I guess promoters don`t like it when people don`t react in the way that they are supposed to- but as long as they are reacting, who cares? That situation was money in the bank for GPW!

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