zappafrank

I thought Impact was a great show. For the 1st time since I can remember (and I actually stopped watching for 3 or 4 months earlier this year), I actually was looking forward to each segment as they came along (I was watching my tape in the wee hours of the morning, but kept saying, "OK, just one more segment." I ended up watching start to finish). Even the involvement of the Prince Justice Brotherhood and the Rock n' Rave Infection (contstant blackmarks, except for Curry Man, IMO) didn't bother me. There were 2 things I actively had a problem with, though. The 1st was Angle using the word "shoot" in his promo. The "respect" angle so far has been believeable, Sting's been doing some of the greatest work of his career on the mic, there's actually a common theme throughout the show and it's not just black and white...and then Angle has to go and send the message that "everything else is scripted, but THIS is real!" The other thing I had a problem with - and it's only b/c I know the history of TNA - was Jarrett talking about creating TNA to give the young guys a chance. While I don't doubt it's true, and while I think Jarrett has a much worse reputation that he deserves, it's hard to listen to him talking about the veterans not standing aside when Jarrett has been the HHH of the promotion ("Drop the title!" and "Please retire!" chants, anyone?).

Actually, Jeff Hardy did just last week. He talked about how he had to work his way up b/c he doesn't have the "family connections" that HHH has (he also mentioned not having The Clique, but that's no longer really smarky insider-stuff that's kept out of storylines). Has HHH actually mentioned "Dr. Black?" Unless it's from this week, I don't recall the name ever coming up.

Wasn't there one recently was that split b/w Flair and Slaughter? Apparently it's a repeat, but for the life of me I can't recall if I've seen it. Is the Factions one a repeat? My gut tells me it is for some reason. I know I've seen Badasses, Territories, Worst Characters, I think Heatseekers, and I skipped Wrestlemania b/c I heard it was pretty pointless. Edited to add: There was a Monday Night Wars one and a Greatest Rivalries one.

OK, I just saw this is being discussed in the general comments thread. Sorry.

The WCW I've seen from early 96 comes from the PPV's, with some Nitro clips here and there, but it seems to me that before the nWo angle came along, WCW had *no* direction whatsoever. The period from 94 to 95 was focused on Hogan coming in and dealing with Flair, and then with Vader, and then with Giant, and as 95 turned into 96 you had some focus on Savage and Flair. But during that Spring and early Summer period, WCW seemed to treading water like nobody's business. Even WWF was able to transition from the Diesel era to the buildup and arrival of the HBK era during that period. I mean, when you think about periods of time in wrestling, usually you can identify some kind of driving force for a company. Hell, even during HHH's reign of terror in 03, you still could break it down into indentifiable segments. But with WCW in early 96, man, they were the very definition of just "being there."

A friend and I were talking about this the other night. They simply had Liz stay completely still while Macho and Flair switched places.

OK, seriously, what's up with these Flair shorties being listed at 3 or 5 min and lasting only 1 or 2?!

Has anyone noticed that the times (lengths) listed for the Flair promos in the Shorties section are really off? I watched a bunch of them last night, and while the majority of them are listed as lasting 4 min, most of them end at around 2 or 2.5 min. The one from 81 is listed at 6 min and ends after 2 or 3 min! [insert Hurricane catchphrase here]

I haven't watched TNA since the Spring and decided to give it another chance this evening. When did Booker T start talking with an accent, and why? Is he trying to recapture the "King Booker" deal? It's almost like he's channeling Blank Panther (comic book character) or something.

I remember there was a tag match on RAW where Taker was having Big Show do all the work, while he (Taker) was at the announce booth on commentary. Towards the end of the match, Taker gets up to get involved, but before he does so, he turns to the announcers and says, "Excuse me." I just thought it was funny that "devil Taker" was so polite.

I was at the SD/ECW taping and I didn't even notice the switch with the twins. Given that the match wasn't very captivating and no one knew who Brie Cheese Bella was, I'm betting a lot of us weren't really paying attention. Now that I think about it, Pittsburgh is the place for switcheroos. We had the awesome Angle switch from SD in 2003 (I marked hard when I realized what had happened), the debut of Edge's...Edge guys (TM HBK) at Armageddon this past Dec (again, I didn't notice but it's b/c I was focusing on the ring, and then one of my friends pointed it out), and then the sisters (which I didn't catch b/c I wasn't paying attention in general). Miz and Morrison mocking Chavo's theme was awesome. It brings to mind the glory of Edge and Christian mouthing Edge's theme back in the day. FWIW, the biggest face pops were Taker, HHH, and both Hardys. I didn't notice any one heel getting a lot of heat over another, though. Tony Chimmel dancing was scary. The THE Brian Kendrick segment aired on the 'tron; they didn't come out to the arena. Another funny moment that I caught was when Matt Striker came out before ECW, and as he was about to sit down, he looked around nervously - as if checking that no one was watching - and then quickly slapped the hands of some fans as ringside. As usual lots of dumbass "LET'S GO, STEELERS!!!" chants. Hey, the Steelers are awesome, but some yinzers think that it's a requirement to do that chant no matter the situation. Apparently a lot of wrestlers hate wrestling in Pgh since the fans often sit on their hands (although I do recall Armageddon being really energetic), and when they do come to life it's the jackass chant.

This might be a good chance to bring him back as a heel. The storyline would make sense: he busted his ass for the fans, giving them everything he got. And look what it did for him. And he got busted up in what should have been a WM main event, which instead was a throwaway match in a sense at SummerSlam. Plus, assuming Punk continues to sky rocket, they could have Cena come back complaining about how he is a ground and pound wrestler, and got hurt *wrestling*, while guys like CM Punk fly all over the place with nary a scratch (I just wanted to use "nary").

You always hear announcers talk about how Flair won so many of this 16 World Titles with the Figure Four, but has he even used it to win more than a handful, if that? When I think of Flair winning, it's usually via some kind of rollup, often using the tights or the ropes. I haven't seen footage of all of his title wins, but for the life of me I can't remember a single time he used the Figure Four to win (except maybe one of the times he won it in 2000).

Upon seeing the Summerslam stage setup, did anyone else think, "It says marquee on the wrestling"?

Awesome, so I'm not the only one who reads old recaps to see what 24/7 has edited out (I use the recaps at otherarena.com). I noticed the same thing about the mannequin angle, and yeah, it's pretty obvious why it was edited. Also, at the beginning with Mean Gene and the Horsemen, if you pay careful enough attention you can see how they skipped over any comments Benoit made and transitioned from Mongo to Flair.

I wonder if they'll leave the Bookerman comment in for Superbrawl VI. WCW edited it out on the home video version. And re: WCW editing (not the clipping that all the 80's/early 90's stuff suffered): on the BatB 96 home video, they edited out the kid running into the ring at the very end and Hall stomping him. I didn't even know that existed till I read about it somewhere and was able to see it on the WWE Back in Black DVD.

"Re-sign"

"Salmon of sexy" is the new "Voodoo chili." It seriously needs to be marketed. If Foley was still active he'd create a whole "Salmon of sexy" gimmick. Too bad Shark Boy isn't in WWE; I'm sure it could be worked in somehow.

It looks like they're skipping two weeks worth of RAW (the last one in Aug 97 and the 1st one of Sept 97). Apparently, RAW didn't air those weeks, but why can't 24/7 just air the Friday Night's Main Events that aired in their place? Two weeks of continuity is a lot to skip, esp. considering that the groundwork for the Attitude Era is being laid down.

The more I think about it, the more I have to ask: why exactly was Edge on RAW again? He really had no business being there, and his reasons were pretty lame. It was a "deus ex machina" moment if ever there was one. I agree that the wedding would have been the perfect time to cash it in, b/c at least there would be acceptable reasons for Batista and Punk to show up.

I picked the wrong week to quite sniffin' glue. The one thing that really irked me about RAW was how they telegraphed Punk retaining the title, specfically Lawler's commentary. He kept talking about how he had a good feeling, how Punk got himself into it, etc. Plus, there was a commercial break b/w ring intro's, and that feels a bit "throw away" to me, and not something they'd do with a big time, "meant to be taken seriously" title match. I was taping RAW and came home at 10:15 and sat down to start watching thinking, "Oh, nothing important could have happened." And then Cole starts talking about "new World Champion CM Punk," so the moment was spoiled for me. I should pay attention to those nagging doubts. I feel so regarded.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/7254616 WWE.com has learned that former Intercontinental and European Champion D-Lo Brown has signed a Superstar contract with WWE.

Stampede was interesting. To be honest, for me it came across as a little 2nd rate - almost public access - given the very same graphics you like. Granted, it was a different time, but it really didn't grab me at 1st. Also, Ed Whalen seemed kind of lost at times, esp how he would just wander around the ring while the show cut to a commercial. Again, it was a different time, but it was a lot looser than I expected. It's a good thing Stu could stretch people a zillion ways, b/c he was a worse interview than early Shelton Benjamin. Was that Skandar Akbar (can't recall the name)? Wiki says he retired in 77 (this ep was 79), and doesn't list Stampede as a place he worked. But damn, that guy looked and sounded just like him.

I don't know why WWE is surpised that the give-away didn't result in more viewers. As I posted over on Scott Keith's site, the problem is that it actually doesn't encourage viewership at all. A) They have the same code throughout the night, and it's revealed at the start of the show, and B) You don't even need to be watchng RAW to know it; you can just go to wwe.com. If they really wanted to ensure people were watching, they'd have a different code for each drawing (available only on TV), revealed only as the phone call is being made.

"It doesn't matter..." was a throwaway line in Rock's promo when he was ridiculing Billy Gunn for winning KotR. HHH coined "I am the game" in a quasi-shoot interview on (I believe) Heat prior to Fully Loaded 99, then really hammered home come that SummerSlam.