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Post by Grimmas on Jan 5, 2018 21:36:18 GMT -5
The Rockers vs The Orient Express (WWF Royal Rumble - 01/19/1991)
This is the best of those tag matches and one of the greatest opening matches in WWF history. If you want the show to start off hot, why not have double suicide dives? Why not have an awesome face-in-peril sequence followed with a ridiculously hot hot tag? The Rockers were known as tag team specialists and it showed in this match coming up with a ton of creative double teams.
The finish is insane with a slingshot and sunset flip combo which I have never seen before or since. A real fantastic tag match!
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Post by stunninggrover on Jan 5, 2018 23:09:31 GMT -5
Great tag team match. The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty) had so much energy. The Orient Express (Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond) also were a very good tag team. I think this was one of the earliest PPVs where Michaels showed that he could be the "Showstopper" by giving an excellent performance like this one.
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Post by El Mckell on Jan 25, 2018 14:46:19 GMT -5
Really good match and stands out very strongly among WWF PPV and TV matches of its era. There's cool counter move stuff with Jannetty and Kato in the early going, there's double suicide dives in 1991. Shawn is a really good face in peril here.
Thirded
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Post by superstarsleeze on Dec 26, 2018 22:37:55 GMT -5
Great Rockets spotfest. There's actually not many of those. Most are rooted deeply in psychology brawls against Rose & Somers; David vs Goliath with Demolition & Powers of Pain; face vs heel dynamics with Brainbusters & Rougeaus and a great face vs face match with Hart Foundation. Point is Rockers are very psychologically this match is about showing off all their nifty tricks and dives. There is a plenty of face vs heel tactics so it is better than your average spotfest. There's nothing wrong with a spotfest. I like them a lot and this is a very easy watch.
The Rockers vs Orient Express - Royal Rumble 1991
I believe this is the most famous Rockers match because it happens on a PPV and it is actually given a serious amount of time. PPVs were much easier to get a hold of then a random MSG card so this has gone down in lore as THE ROCKERS match. I respectfully disagree, but I do think this is a wicked fun match and it was great that they were given this much time on a PPV especially to open. The crowd was right there with them. What this match does so well is make the Rockers look like world-beaters. The OX definitely were working this in the vein of the Midnight Express, not quite as good, but they were very selfless. Many of their spots to gain control were double teams. Why? Because they simply as good as the Rockers so they have to cheat gain the upper hand. However, the Rockers are so good they outfox them and it backfires on the OX. There are two good examples of the OX using the apron member to interfere, but then on the resulting criss cross the OX ends up running into each other in very entertaining fashion. Another example is at the outset of the match, they jumpstart the match by pushing Marty Jannetty off the top rope while he is posing for his entrance. He ends up dropkicking Tanaka and superkicking Paul Diamond. Then they do the stereo dives to the outside that wipe out both of the OX that is such an iconic spot. Another great sequence sees Michaels overcome both OX members with a moonsault and then was punctuated with stereo dives from each corner to the floor. Here is where I am going to deviate from those who truly love this match. Note what am I loving about the match: the spots. I thought the connective tissue was pretty boring. Lots of chinlocks and the such that did not lead anywhere. To me this is one of the first spotfests. I love a good spotfest and this is a damn good spotfest. To me this match was not about getting over the story as much as it was to get to the next spot. Now I think they did this better than most spotfests because the babyfaces were the ones doing the awesome highspots and the heels were being thwarted at every pass. So I will say for a spotfest they kept true to babyface/heel dynamics which makes this better than the average 21st century spotfest. Spotfest does not have to be a dirty word. If I was booking, I'd almost always have a big, dumb spotfest open my show that required almost no thinking. They are fun. They use the old Brainbuster heel transition spot of the assisted hotshot on the top rope. Tanaka gets an AMAZING LEGSWEEP! Oh shit I marked out for that. There is a long nerve hold at some point. Another great spot is Shawn does a Flair Flip as he is on the apron Tanaka hits a superkick to send him back in the ring. The transition to the hot tag is another great sequence as OX looks to clothesline Shawn with their ribbon belt but Shawn dives on it to make them collide. Hot tag to Marty! Goddamn he reminds me so much of Ricky Martel the way he is fired. Marty Jannetty is a lot sloppier than I remember in rewatching these matches. The hot tag is full of piss and vinegar. The actual finish is great as the OX goes for another catapult, but Shawn doubles over Tanaka with a punch so that when Marty is catapulted he sunset flips Tanaka for the win. It is a great spotfest that sees the Rockers overcoming one after another OX double team and allows them to show off a ton of really cool, innovative offense. ****
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Post by KB8 on Feb 29, 2020 5:43:16 GMT -5
Yeah, this still rules. It maybe took a little to get rolling and they probably overreached a bit on a couple of the double teams, but they're minor complaints. Structure is a little different as they sort of tease a couple FIP spells without going all in on them, which makes it it looks like it might end up being mostly heel in peril and that's not the best scenario even if it'd still work, but then the Express take over with the awesome double hot shot on Michaels and we get our proper heat segment. They work Shawn's throat which is always going to score some bonus points. Fuji jabs him in the throat with the cane and I love Tanaka's little karate thrusts right under the chin, which are almost as good as his Kabuki style leaping forearm. Man I love that move. He's also able to make a nerve hold somewhat decent because he'd slyly choke Michaels at the same time. A treasure of a wrestler, Pat Tanaka. Awesome spot where Michaels takes his upside down corner bump, ends up on the apron and Takana comes sprinting across to thrust kick him back into the ring. I also love the spot leading to the hot tag with Michaels jumping into the belt that causes the Orients to bump heads. They actually do a few really fun bits around the heels running into each other, one early on where Jannetty leapfrogs over both of them and they collide, then one later where they stop short of bumping heads again, take a bow because they've avoided making the same mistake twice, and as they're doing that Michaels runs over and gives them a double noggin-knocker. First few minutes were interesting because they work pretty clean and equal, and we even got Jannetty and Kato doing the Ric Flair headscissors into bridge into backslide spot. Midway in they kind of work a reset that leads to stereo dives and you can tell that they worked hard to come up with ideas for cool double teams and the like. Not all of them were perfectly smooth, but it's easy to appreciate the effort. Finish is pretty great as well. Ten years ago I'd have pointed to this as the best Rockers match ever, and even if I'd probably lean Rockers/Powers of Pain now it'll always be a personal favourite. The Rockers were great.
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Post by elliott on Sept 9, 2023 9:53:12 GMT -5
This is one of the best examples of WWF tag team wrestling in the 80s & 90s being both overrated & underrated. It's a good match but I legit think there are at least 20 Rockers matches in the WWF better than this one. And that's just the Rockers. It is possible (i don't want to count) that there are over 100 WWF tag matches from the 80s & early 90s better than this one.
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