Papacita

They actually did have a PPV match. It was at the February '96 In Your House PPV. Owen was ducking Shawn until Shawn offered to put up his WWF Title shot at WM12, so Owen finally agreed to have a match at that PPV which Shawn won and that was the blowoff. I think he may have been referring to the Shawn/Owen feud from late 1997/early 1998. I can only guess they wanted to shoot Austin to the top ASAP since they didn't know how long his neck would hold up, so Owen was moved to a feud with Shawn's DX compatriot Triple H over the European Title. I remember a great Shawn-Owen title match on Raw where Owen had the title won before HHH blatantly busted up the match to save the championship. Then why did they have Taker/Shawn at RR 98? Why not make it Owen/Shawn? I guess they needed a place for Kane to kill Undertaker to set up their Wrestlemania match? I asked this a few years back, and it was explained to me that neither Shawn or Austin really wanted to work with Owen at the time, so the focus was simply shifted to Hunter.

Did I miss something and MNM suddenly become disliked by the IWC? Aside from being a good team, I always thought their paparazzi thing was pretty cool.

Wrestler A has his opponent in his submission finisher when Wrestler B hops up on the ring apron. Wrestler A breaks the hold and attacks Wrestler B, usually leading to his losing the match. I HATE this finish. Except for in title matches where Wrestler A is challenging, it makes no sense to me.

Don't know about having Benoit win at that time, but I've always thought that a SummerSlam rematch was the way to go for those two. Also, as far as Vader goes, wasn't there an issue where he was injured somehow leading into Survivor Series 96, making them a little reluctant to put the belt on him at that time? I've always felt RVD should've won the original Elimination Chamber match. Not only had they been teasing a title push with him for a while (with Austin, Taker, HHH, etc), but the story going into the match was that HBK didn't care about the belt and just wanted to see HHH lose. Maybe have Shawn and HHH eliminate each other, leaving RVD and Jericho as the final two, with RVD going over in the end. I also think HHH should've gone over Austin at SummerSlam 99 rather than getting the win over Foley the next night. Booker T should've somehow retained the WCW Title against the Rock at SummerSlam 01 (that loss really hurt his credibility and the credibility of the Alliance) and Austin really should have retained against Angle at Unforgiven 01, although I understand why they felt Kurt had to go over.

You are central in your beliefs about wrestling. You accept the idea of both old-school and sports entertainment but you are not extreme in either way. You believe that angles and matches are equally important to create a good wrestling product. Most similar booker: Paul Heyman Most similar promotion: ECW 1996 Got any feedback on the poll? We would love to hear it so we can improve the Wrestlescale project. Click here

Yeah, I didn't see it live, but Cena beating HHH was pretty big. There was an RVD/Angle title match on ECW last summer RVD went over 100% clean. That was surprising.

My interest in WWE pretty much died off around the time of the USA homecoming, although I tuned in for the ECW relaunch last year, I really haven't watched since then. I agree with those who say the shows got too formulaic, which was a big reason I lost interest. Also, just a lack of interesting (not necessarily new) matches and their borderline mind control booking (i.e. having Angle become anti-American because people were cheering him over Cena, as if anyone with an IQ over 2 couldn't see right through that). I dunno if anything can really pull me back in but as far as things I'd liked to have seen: Shorter Shows: Probably just me, but one thing I really dug about the ECW relaunch was that the shows were only an hour long, which was just refreshing. The 2 hour shows (mainly Raw) could be a chore to sit through a lot of the time, especially with the rosters being as shallow as they were getting. To me, the shorter TV shows give things a little more immediacy, cutting down some of the crap and (hopefully) making writers focus on the more important aspects of the show. Less predictability in matches/more realistic competition: I hate being able to look at a card before hand and being able to tell who wins what match and how they win it. This may have changed some since I've stopped watching, but if they could create an atmosphere where anybody could CLEANLY beat anybody at a given time, I'd be more interested. Less reliance on face/heel lines: This probably irks me more than anything about WWE. I hated having to watch a Cena match and listen to the announcers give a 10 minute speech on why fans were booing him. Who gives a shit?! People are gonna support whoever that want to regardless, so is that really worth wasting time on? Again, this is something that could've changed since I last watched judging from the HBK/Cena and now Cena/Lashley programs, but while you're probably always gonna have faces and heels, it doesn't have to be the be all end all. It'd also be cool if they went the more old-school route of spreading focus to different characters a week rather just focusing on the same characters and issues every week. Edit: I kinda feel like a grumpy old man after re-reading this.

Charlie Haas brother died while under a Develop deal working down in Ohio somewhere.......I don't think they ever once mentioned it on tv. I remember that. He'd never appreared on WWE TV though, so I wouldn't really imagine Russ to get a mention. Russ actually got a mention on Raw right after it happened.

^The hockey gear match was definitely Shamrock's last on-screen appearance. And IIRC, it was Howard Finkel that got locked in the trunk, not Shamrock. Could be wrong though.

Ok, I don't follow like I used to, but I've gotta say that releasing Ariel seems to be a real dummy move to me since she's one of the only divas who--and just from an eye candy standpoint, I dunno how she is in the ring--I could really see getting over. And IIRC aren't they trying to push Thorn after the New Breed split? She was pretty much the only appeal he had.

I seem to remember reading something about Aries' contract with TNA expiring in July, but don't quote me on that.

I'd mark for that.

Yeah, the football thing is a bad example. If it's actually acknowledged that they're wearing cameras or that it's just some kinda camera/promotional trick that's one thing, but in a genre that relies so much on fan participation, to just act like we can't see it while at the same time letting the live crowd in on the secret is just stupid.

To kinda piggyback on this--and I hardly ever see this mentioned, so if I'm beating a dead horse excuse me--one of the reasons I think Cena got over like he did back in 03 wasn't so much the fact that people liked the hip hop gimmick, but that he was actually (for the most part) writing his own stuff. In addition to the edginess, this also made his promos stand out from the cookie cutter, pre-written stuff that most people were getting, and also allowed a lot of his true personality to shine through. Now I don't really pay enough attention to know whether or not he plays as big a role in his writing as he did a couple of years ago (judging from the HHH program leading into Mania last year, I'd say no), but it's true that it wasn't until he started moving away from his "freestyles" and started being fed the same cliched b.s. we've been seeing since the Attitude days that people started to turn on him. If that's the case then I don't think he necessarily has to go back to rapping, but if they'd just cut back on some of the scripting and let him cut loose a little more it could probably do a lot for him.

About the only opinion that really changed since becoming a smark was my opinion of Warrior, who in my eyes could do no wrong up until about 98 or so. Of course, his rants had a lot to do with that too, but still...

On the job, we're getting ready to do a photo project that'll require either a scanner or a digital camera. Looking around, the only thing they have available is a Polaroid Digital 320 camera, which I'm not familiar with at all (this is actually the first digital I've used that doesn't have a USB hook-up). Now my computer is a fairly new model and I'm not even sure if the camera's capable of being connected to it, so basically I wanna know if anybody's familiar with this camera can tell me something about it and let me know whether or not it's even worth trying to use.

Wasn't it Test that made a bunch of postings following Eddie's death about how WWE would doesn't care about their wrestlers and how they'd never commit to a Wellness policy? I vaguely remember this, but I could be wrong.

How about Bob Backlund's program with Bret in 94? Despite being a former World Champion, Bob was barely remembered by the time he made his return in the 90's. In one match he went from almost a nobody to being for a time seemingly the most dangerous man in the company and by the fall a man capable of headlining a PPV. Of course, they went and fucked it up shortly afterwards by jobbing him to Diesel. I dunno if it made him, but Michaels winning the 95 Rumble was pretty big. Before that I think he was over and was always one of my favorite characters, but I NEVER could've pictured him as a World Champion or even anything close to a real title threat. That match changed my whole view of him.

I think the main reason for the backlash was that the push came at the expense of Matt Hardy, who was really starting to get over at the time. Also, a lot of that had to do with the way A-Train was presented. Like he'd spend all this time doing nothing on Heat and Velocity and about every six months or so WWE'd get this sudden urge to try to shoot him to the top of the card with the thought that the fans would take to him just because he's big. His pushes usually came off as half-assed and forced on TV and were usually forgotten about 3 or 4 months down the line, and then they wonder why people could never get excited about him. I've been fan of Albert's since the T&A days and I'm pleased that he's doing well in Japan.

I just happened to turn on the TV a couple minutes ago and saw D-Von involved in some Speed Dating thing on IVillage live. Interesting...

Am I the only one who's confused by this? Is it saying they're trying to make RVD look unreasonable/unprofessional or what?

I was watching my Unforgiven 99 tape over the weekend, focusing mainly on Chris Jericho's matches with X-Pac at the PPV and one with the Rock a few weeks later (first time actually watching the latter in full). It just made me think back to all the "Jericho can't work" comments from around that time and wonder whether or not they were somewhat justified, because Chris seemed REALLY off in both matches. I know he was coming off an injury at the time and was probably a little rusty, but damn...

I was also a huge mark for Ahmed Johnson (who incidentally I saw in the MC Hammer story a few weeks back...he was playing Suge Knight. Crazy), and I liked Diesel too even though he got a little corny once they put the belt on him. Others I liked: Tatanka: You'd have thought somebody shot my dog the day Ludwig Borga ended his streak. I loved Tatanka back in the day. Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly: I was the only one of my friends to call his Tag Title win at Rumble 95, so I pretty much liked him from there. THE ROADIE: I'm one of the few who actually liked Jeff Jarrett as Double J, but the Roadie (Road Dogg, B.G James, whatever) seemed 10 times cooler. I really can't ever recall him talking or anything, but just the way he carried himself and everything he just made him seem cool as shit. Plus he did a piledriver from the middle rope! Can't fuck with that! Dean Douglas: Most underrated gimmick ever. The Berserker: Mostly for that "HUSS!!" thing he used to do (I should note that I marked hard when I found out that Jimmy Jacobs was doing this gimmick) The Renegade: Yeah...shut up! Johnny B. Badd/Marc Mero: Always wondered how he'd have turned out had he not gotten injured. Bunkhouse Buck: I have no clue about this one, but I liked him for some reason. Probably because he was managed by Col. Rob Parker. Savio Vega: He cut this crazy half English/half Spanish promo on Double J right after he came in and I was pretty much a mark for him ever since. Wasn't that bad a worker either from what I can remember.

Anybody know whether or not Steamboat's still with WWE? If so, you'd think he'd have Punk's back from their ROH days.

I was scared to death of old school Taker. That gong especially used to bother my so much it's not funny.