zappafrank

How effective do people think this campaign has been? The most discussion that the ads garnered ocurred around the 1st one (I personally never could see the reference to "WWE the Music Vol 4"...where in the ad did it occur?), and people came up with lots of possible clue explananations. But it seems as if ever since Cena got injured, the discussion of clues has tapered significantly. Do you think that they had to alter the plans to account for Cena's injury (and therefore let a new storyline play out some)? It's almost as if they put all their eggs into the basket of the 1st ad, and then Cena got injured, and oops, they don't have as much for the new ads that they have to come up with. Also, do you think the form of the ads themselves are effective? Yes, they got people talking, but will the casual fan go and disect the ad on-line and read possible theories? Given the strong "Y2J" chants that have accompanied the ads, I think the percentage of net-savvy fans has been grossly underestimated, but is that who WWE is targeting? Once the pay-off has occurred (and I'm still rooting for Jericho), I would love it if someone in WWE actually addressed the ads and explained the kinds of clues they were leaving. And unless I missed it, I haven't seen any discussion of what the "229" (vs the old "222") is supposed to mean.

I don't remember this.

The constant apperance of the "WWE 24/7 FF" bumper gets really tiresome in Havoc '89. Whatever is happening on screen comes to a dead stop, completely disrupting the flow of the show. Speaking of that "FF" bumper, did anyone ever figure out why the When Worlds Collide PPV had the "FF" bumper in the middle of the hair vs mask match (Eddie/Art Barr vs I forget who)?

In one of the the other threads there is disussion of whether Hogan, HHH, or Austin truly put people over. What would you say are some good examples of someone truly being put over by another wrestler? And remember, "putting over" doesn't necessarily mean "lost to." Here are some to start: - Flair putting Sting over at Clash I - Rock putting Brock over at SumSlam 02 - HHH putting Benjamin over on Benjamin's 1st RAW appearance (I contend that later booking is what killed Shelton's heat, not anything HHH did or didn't do in that and other matches) - Foley putting over Orton at Backlash 04 - Hart putting Austin over at WM 13

Remember when he was doing a promo (I think it was while his leg was healing or something) outside, and at the end the camera panned back to reveal he was standing in the middle of a burning pentagram? That was badass.

I've never, ever have been able to take Booker 100% seriously since that whole "Weakest Link/Booker isn't too bright" worked shoot stuff. I remember he was once on a radio show and said something like "That's obsolete" when he probably meant to say "That's irrelevant." I think this was around the same time as the above. I don't think he's Kerry Von Erich dim, though.

Psst...Booker...you only came into WWE in 2001...

I've brought it up before, but I feel it's worth mentioning that as far as ECW this last week goes (haven' watched SD), the latest version of the promo did not air, which I think is backing up the claim that whoever is coming back is going to return to RAW (as if there was any doubt).

I don't agree with this. Sting truly put Cactus Jack over at Beach Blast '92 but their positions on the card didn't necessarily change. But I don't think it can be denied that after that point, Jack was taken more seriously as a part of the WCW roster (well, barring the stupidity of the amnesia angle). And Flair put Sting over at the 1st Clash, and it's talked about to this day as the match that made Sting. And yet Flair stayed as champ while Sting worked his way up the mid-card.

That's the only time I actually ever cared for him. He had kick-ass theme music, and I remember in one match he did this cool "stomping around the ring" bit that just clicked. The main reason I don't like his wrestling is that he sucks his teeth or something too much. You always this sucking in sound, kinda like a wrestling equivalent of Monica Seles. And the shaved head look just doesn't work for him, IMO. I know he had hair plugs a while back, but I dunno, he's gotta do something different, image and gimmick wise.

Anarchy Rulz 99 didn't have pop-ups like Pop-up Video, but they did have a few moments where an insert appeared with people talking about the PPV (Tazz in particular, IIRC).

I haven't watched my tape of SD yet, but did it show this week's "save_us.22" promo? I'm pretty sure I didn't see it on ECW, and if it wasn't on SD, that leads me to believe they pulled the promo so that there wasn't any more of a reason to believe something was happening on 10/07. Then they used the week to make the new promo that aired tonight. So maybe Jericho *was* supposed to return tonight but they decided to hold off to establish Orton/HHH and re-think how they wanted Jericho to come back (presumably he would have returned to be involved with Cena, which no longer is a possibility)...?

Yeah, in fact I noticed that as Sid left the ring after the cage match, in addition to doing his "beat on his chest/respect knuckles" bit with fans, he actually walked over and hugged some kid in the audience. If that's not face behavior, I don't know what is.

I've always been intrigued by Meltzer saying that he has the true inside story of Montreal but can't reveal it until a certain unnamed person passes away.

I got around to watching the pre-WM 13 ep of RAW (had it on tape for a few weeks), and having never seen Bret's post-match promo, I was excited to get a chance only to be disappointed b/c WWE felt the need to bleep out Bret's swearing. I don't understand why they feel the need to do that, esp since the rating probably covers swearing and it's on a pay service, anyway. I've heard the exact same language on F/X just last week, for God's sake! Also, would it be fair to say that Taker/Sid was a face/face match-up, even though Taker was the "facier" of the two? I never realized that Sid was basically booked as a face (or more like a tweener) for his run b/w SurSer and WM. I knew he was a face before he won the title, and I knew he was a face after WM, but I thought the whole "attacking Jose Lothario and his kid" stuff was designed to get him heel heat, and it didn't really work.

When you say "it was fake," are you referring to wrestling or the screwjob? B/c whether or not Montreal was a work in and of itself is a whole other discussion (and we should have it if it hasn't been done before on here).

Cena/Kennedy, 10/1/07 RAW Savage/Steamboat, WM III Austin/Owen, SumSlam 97 Hardyz/E and C, No Mercy 99

Did anyone notice that the latest video didn't air on ECW? I don't know if that means anything, but last week the save_us.222 vid aired on all three shows.

Right now in TNA, they're acting like Kaz's association with Tracey Brooks is out of left field, when in fact she was his valet when he tagged with Matt Bentley. Over on SD, they're acting like Palumbo has never been on SD before. Furthermore, JBL talks about Palumbo winning gold someday as if Palumbo hadn't already held WWE gold. Kane acting like Vince could be his dad is something I brought up elsewhere.

I think the most recent blow with Cena is validating this claim.

I saw that, too, and my 1st reaction was to note that although it lexically reads as "savior self," phonetically it could be "save yourself."

- The main event of WM XX holds a special place in my heart (though diminished now). When HBK went for Sweet Chin Music and then Benoit back body-dropped him over the top rope, I *knew* he was going to win, even though he walked into KICK WHAM PEDIGREE from HHH. And while the "reversal into the Crossface-HHH rolls through-Benoit holds on to the CF" sequence lasted only a few moments, at the time it felt like for-freakin'-ever. - Austin/HBK from WM XIV is a pretty cool visual. IIRC, HBK goes for SWM, Austin catches the boot and kicks HBK in the gut and turns for the Stunner, HBK pushed Austin away and kicks for SCM, Austin ducks and hits the KICK WHAM STUNNER for the pin. - Golberg spearing and Jackhammering Brock followed by a seamless Frog Splash from Eddie at NWO '04, giving Eddie his WWE Championship was one of those moments where the anticipation of "holy shit, is he really gonna pull off the win???" paid off.

I was reading an old review of Nitro to see what Benoit-related stuff was removed from the 3/17/97 ep, and the main event was intro'd by Michael Buffer. I'm not surprised that WWE cut out that footage since Buffer owns the TM on his spiel, and in and of itself it's not much, but it just seems to fit in with WWE's "let's change things to save money instead of presenting an accurate depiction of history" mentality. And watching the old Nitro's, one thing that stands out as decidedly "WCW" is the replay of the entrances in slow motion after the match. Also "only in WCW" was the practice of wrestlers cutting out-of-breath promos right into the camera after the end of a match, where more often than not they say stuff that tends to make them sound slow on the mic and not very creative.

On Impact this last week, Karen Angle mentioned that Kurt is an 11 time world champion. Did I mishear her? Does anyone know where this # comes from? WWF/E champ (4: 2000-2001, 2001, 2002-2003, 2003) World champ (1: 2006) WCW champ (1: 2001) TNA champ: (1: 2007) AFAIK, Angle is not recognized as a former NWA champ since the relationship was severed during Christian's reign, and I am not sure how the IWGP title fits in.

- Eugene - Boogeyman - Hornswaggle - The Hurricane