Papacita

A World Title match where the champion plays second fiddle to a dog, feuds centered around t-shirts and shampoo, the whole Katie Vick storyline and some of the flat out stupidest booking I've ever seen. Even the stuff you mentioned really wasn't all that great IMO. HBK is my all-time favorite wrestler, and while I too enjoyed the hell outta the street fight, I thought the build-up and feud that followed was bland, predictable and at times intelligence insulting (I'm mainly referring to the whole "who took out HBK" angle that led to the signing of the SummerSlam match). NWO's running down the Rock would've been cool had the attack not been largely no sold a couple of weeks down the line...not to mention Rock going on to forgive and team with Hogan despite him trying to kill him a month earlier. Brock getting the belt wasn't that bad in retrospect, but the man had one sucessful title defense before dropping the belt to the Big Show, who a month prior had been jobbing to Jeff Hardy (though I'll admit they did a fairly good job of rebuilding him for the match). For the sake of not being too negative, I will say that the Smackdown six era was pretty good, and 02's SummerSlam and Survivor Series shows were among my all-time favorite PPVs, but aside from that I *HATED* 2002 with a passion. Anyway, my rankings: 2001: The biggest knock against this year is probably the Invasion, but even during this period the TV was still fairly enjoyable with psycho Austin as Champion and feuds like Rock/Jericho. There were even a handful of cool "holy shit" moments thrown in there with the WCW buyout, DDP's debut as the stalker and the ECW reunion (although all were botched in the long run). And whether it made sense or not, I'll admit marking like a madman for the 2 man Power Trip (Austin and HHH). Austin's beatdown on Lita was a great moment. 2003: I thought 03 was fun overall, as things really seemed to fall into place after the brand split. One thing I really dug about this period (mainly on the Smackdown side, though) was the emergence of a lot of "new" stars (not necessarily new faces, but more in terms of how they were being presented). For example, Brock really started coming into his own (especially after the heel turn), you had Cena getting hot with the rap gimmick, Los Guerreros, Mysterio, WGTT, Mattitude, Christian, and even guys like Spanky and Tajiri seemed to be getting over for a time. There was some great stuff from the Rock on the Raw side, and we also had some great matches such as Benoit/Angle, HBK/Jericho (I know...), Brock/Benoit, and I personally enjoyed the Mysterio/Tajiri series towards the end of the year. And while Raw has been almost consistently bad since the split, I think they had probably their best run with Goldberg as champion. The booking really began to shape up during this time, as they made the best use of their full roster that I can remember (anyone remember Jindrak and Cade beating up Evolution and stealing their money during the Goldberg bounty angle?). 2004: I didn't really like 04 at all, for a lot of the reasons others have pointed out. I pretty much tuned out on Smackdown after that Angle with Big Show trying to kill Kurt Angle and Torrie Wilson, not to mention the JBL push and the gimmicky stuff with Kenzo and the like. Raw had some pretty good matches with Benoit as champ, but not much else. Just a really bland year overall. Favorite moment for me (excluding the obvious Mania ending) would be the Smackdown where psycho Kurt shows up to beat down Eddie, who had one arm tied behind his back. 2002: Already covered. Not last mainly because of the Smackdown 6 stuff. 2005: Had probably the best single match build I can remember with the Elimination Chamber stuff, and some great stuff from the HBK/Hogan program, but aside from that 05 sucked.

While I don't know the exact reason, they definitely had the hyphen by the by the time 1998 rolled around. Earliest I can remember seeing it was in the WWF Magazine write-up for the "Degeneration X" PPV (March 1998 issue IIRC), which I found weird since they used both spellings.

I broke down and ordered the show last night...first PPV I've gotten since maybe SummerSlam, and with that in mind I was a little bit disappointed even if the show wasn't necessarily bad. I enjoyed RVD/Cena aside from the finish. They really could have done without the Edge run-in though, as it made RVD look pretty weak IMO. I actually liked Angle/Orton a lot, but mainly for the crowd reaction. I liked how at one point, Orton went for the chinlock and the fans started chanting "you can't wrestle" at him. He had the hold applied for maybe a second or so before Kurt immediately counters out of it, almost as if he was proving the crowd's point. Doesn't read all that well from my description, but I got a laugh outta that spot. And Orton's post-match selling was pretty funny as well. Rey and Sabu was going ok until the stoppage, although to be honest I didn't care for the match too much. Same for the Extreme tag match, although I did like the spot where Terry got injured, only to come back later in the match. Yeah it's been done about a million times, but the fact that the World Title match had just ended with an injury gave the storyline a little more impact. The rest of the show was just disappointing for me to be honest. Balls and Tanaka could've been a lot better considering what they've done together in the past, the Tajiri match had a couple of nice spots, but I could never really get into it, the Eugene/Sandman thing seemed nice on paper, but really fell flat with me for some reason (I thought Sandman came off like a dick...and I don't even like Eugene), and if anything else happened on the show, I can't remember it off hand. And I know it's been said, but they really could've benefitted from using the old ECW songs for the wrestlers. They could've at least busted out "Walk" or whatever RVD's old song was called, even if it was just a one night thing.

When Francine bit Funk's ear. That was pretty corny.

I'm not sure how much control Edge had over the spot, but I fail to see how he came out looking like a pussy in the end. I mean, yeah he missed the table, but the bump he took looked sicker.

Agreed on Bam Bam. I don't care how hard he was pushed, I could never take him seriously after his run in 95 WWF. I remember the Heavenly Bodies being there for a time, and being aligned with Raven on top of that, which was a little weird. Also, the Samoan Gangsta Party.

This is a helluva promo from Orton.

Coincidentally, about an hour or so ago, I was talking to somebody here at work about our favorite tag teams growing up, and I happened to mention the Natural Disasters and Money Inc. and how I wished I could get a copy of their Superstars match from 92 where Money Inc. regained the belts. I know it was a loss for 'Quake, but that match always stands out when I think of him, because at the time I just thought he and Typhoon were unbeatable. Sad to hear that he's passed.

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. You could probably do a system restore and go back to your previous version (assuming you've got Windows XP).

Not too sure how unpopular this is, but I really wish they'd just drop the brand rivalry between Raw and Smackdown. It was ok at first when Steph and Bischoff were going at it, but now it's completely unbelievable and flat out annoying.

K, I haven't really been watching, but I've got a couple... Cena should not drop the hip hop gimmick. He could stand to tone it down a bit so that it doesn't come off as fake, but he shouldn't drop it altogether--that's what makes him stand out. Also, he should not be turned heel. Along that line, I think the face/heel dynamic in wrestling should be done away with. Companies (WWE specifically) should be concentrating more on creating compelling characters that people can connect to caring so much about who the fans cheer or boo. And just for the hell of it, Chyna=best I-C Champ EVER!

I always liked KOTR 99. Hearing JR call HHH a "no good, lousy, sonuvabitch" during his run-in on Taker/Rock was worth the money alone. AND there was a Chyna match! Case closed. Anyway, for worst shows, Bad Blood 03 deserves a mention (anyone remember the Redneck Triathlon?). Save my beloved Chyna/Jericho match, Survivor Series 99 absolutely bored me to tears. And I nearly quit watching ECW after seeing Wrestlepalooza 98. That show was just horrible.

I remember a match in ECW circa 95 with 2 Cold Scorpio, the TV Champ, defending against Rocco Rock, the Tag Champ. If Scorpio won, he and a partner of his choice would be the new tag champs.

I'm surprised it took that long.

I really don't think the problem with Cena has anything to do with women and children--at least not to the level that people are suggesting. I think the backlash against him has had more to do with WWE's blatant attempts to force fans to root for him. People mention the programs with Jericho and Angle as a source of the problem, but remember how those feuds were booked, with Jericho and Bischoff constantly stacking the odds against Cena (more so than usual), and also by having Angle take the anti-American stance. Stuff like this has made it painfully obvious that cheering Cena isn't the thing to do, it's the thing WWE wants you to do, and whenever you start dictating to the fans, there's gonna be a backlash. That's one of the main reasons I feel that the face/heel dynamic should just be scrapped in WWE. People are gonna cheer for whomever they wanna cheer for--there's no need to try to force them to react one way or the other.

All I know is that if it ever goes down, I'm stealing that poster.

I love Warrior. I've said before that his antics are just about the only wrestling-related things I look forward to anymore.

Damn...they really made Cena look like a chump there.

That's just sad. Anyway, I agree with the decision to put Cena over HHH at WM. To me, at this point HHH is really above the title anyway, so any title win for him these days is meaningless anyway. By having him retain cleanly at Mania, it'll mean much more when someone (hopefully not HHH) beats him for it down the line. I actually like Cena, but I'd mark the fuck out if someone completely unexpected came out and squashed him for the title tonight. That'd be great.

How much time did Trish/Mickie get?

Also, Thunderkid vs Reject if I'm not mistaken...and I hope I'm not, since I'm working on that graphic right now...

Delete

LMAO at Ric thumbing RVD in the eyes.

Has anybody broken the Masterlock yet?

Never saw that one before, but the idea of Kareem slapping little Gary Coleman seems funny as hell.