Papacita

^ Didn't one or both come back though? And LPYC's been around in OAOAST.

Haven't been through the whole thread, but I agree with what I've seen posted about HBK/Hogan. That ending was terrible. As far as the other matches: I really liked Orton/Taker. I think Orton should've gone over clean there, but the match was really enjoyable I thought. I didn't like Eddie/Rey the first time watching it, but after seeing the replay, it really wasn't all that bad. Overbooked, but not that terrible. Mixed feelings on Matt/Edge. I liked the fact that they tried to play the match as a shoot, but I hate how they had Matt go out like a chump in the end. Having Edge win by stoppage wasn't necessarily bad in itself, but considering the hatred that's supposed to exist between these two, I'd have at least liked to see Matt keep coming after Edge. They should've had to drag him away from the ring--at least that way both guys come off looking somewhat strong in the end. As is, I think Matt looked weak as hell. After the crowd's reaction to Jericho, I hope WWE gets the message and keeps him in the World Title picture in the near future. As poorly as he's been handled over the last year, for him to be getting that kinda reaction vs Cena says something (whether that's good for Jericho or bad for Cena, I dunno). Eugene/Kurt was fine for what it was. Batista/JBL was aight too. No problems with Benoit/OJ.

I'll be contributing absolutely nothing. I just thought it'd be cool if this show was held in Parts Unknown. You could have shots of people like Papa Shango and other wrestlers from Parts Unknown in the crowd or something like that. If not this show, then some show in the future.

Really a minor issue, but next game I really wish they'd fix the problem with title belts and CAWs. It irks the hell outta me to be playing as the World Champ with a CAW and having this wide ass belt just floating around his waist. I wish they'd give you specific entrance animations to choose from for when your wrestler has a belt, so you could choose to carry it over your shoulder, in your hand or whatever. And if you choose to wear it around your waist, they should at least have a better dectection system so that the belts fit to your waist a lot better. As is, it looks goofy as hell.

Do you really think that Vince would've chosen Shawn over Austin as hot as he was at that point? I think another HBK title run is a given, and the HHH feud is a possibility as well, but with as much money as Austin was bringing in at the time, there's no way he'd knock him out of the top spot in favor of Shawn. I really think he'd let Shawn walk and go to WCW before he allowed that to happen.

You know, I'm sitting here watching HHH/Orton from this year's Rumble and I'm wondering why they chose to go with the Batista/Bradshaw ME instead of Batista/Orton, which--while not my ideal PPV match--would make a lot more sense since Batista was the one who took Orton's shoulder out after Mania. I was thinking that rather than going the DQ route with JBL at GAB, they could have Batista go over clean, let Taker do his thing with Hassan, then that week on SD, Orton could make his return and "injure" Taker then go on to SummerSlam to take his title shot. Then from there, they could maybe have Taker make his return at the PPV to cost Orton the match, setting up the Mania rematch between those two on a future PPV while at the same time leaving either of them open as potential title contenders for Batista sometime down the line. Again, not my ideal scenario, but I think they'd have been better off going this route.

How's this for a Women's Belt?

^ Not necessarily. The main reason HHH's long reign was problematic was because for the most part, he never really allowed his competition to be perceived as being on the same level as him, and it's more the way that his challengers were portrayed that made their losses damaging, not so much the loss itself. And while I admittedly didn't see much of Bradshaw's reign, from what I can recall, he didn't have the strongest batch of challengers in the first place, so there's your problem right there. If you look at a reign like RVD's TV Title run in ECW, he always went over in the end, but you never got the sense that that his opponent couldn't get the better of him in a rematch. Same with Samoa Joe in ROH, and while I'm not calling for a return to 2 year title reigns, I feel that with a solid undercard and a champion that actually works to brings others up to his level, there's really no reason that a long reign couldn't work in the modern era.

Definitely long reigns, partially for the reasons you've mentioned. I always find that the most believable champions are those with the most number of successful, high profile title defenses (or in other words, champions who always win in big matches), and the longer the reign, the better the easier it is for you to build up bigger, more believable challengers.

This thing with Eddie and Rey is one of if not the worst wrestling segment I've ever seen.

Jannetty beating Michaels for the I-C belt back in 93. Likewise, he and the Kid beating the Quebeccers for the Tag belts before Rumble 94. Now that I think about it, I didn't see the Quebeccers' tag title win over the Steiners coming. Sid beating Bret the day after Final Four. D'Lo beating HHH for the Euro Title. X-Pac going over D'Lo for the belt a few months later was a bit surprising as well. Chyna beating Trish to win the I-C Title came out of left field too.

I love how they spend months trying to sell us on Cena's blue collar background then turn right around and show that he grew up in the suburbs.

This is a damn good promo by Edge.

"Pack Up" remix by Lyrics Born ft. KRS-One and Evidence

The One Night Only match had no real bearings on the main storylines going on at the time. Shawn doing the job wouldn't have hurt him any. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I dont buy that for a second. If you book that match, it has signifigance. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> To whom? What impact did it have on the overall product? Hell, outside of the attack on Raw the week before the PPV, I can't even recall the match being built up on main shows. Plus when you consider that the PPV wasn't even shown US and that the event took place in the UK (where the hometown win for Bulldog is pretty much a given), and what you have is a meaningless job. And besides, HIAC would've made up for any heat that Shawn could've lost from the job.

I think it had more to do with the fact that the groups were mostly comprised of character-less midcarders who the fans couldn't give a shit about either way. Face and heel alignments had absolutely nothing to do with it. I've always hated that "fans don't know who to cheer" argument in relation to face/face or heel/heel programs. As long as the characters involved are ones who the audience can connect with, it really shouldn't be a problem. The One Night Only match had no real bearings on the main storylines going on at the time. Shawn doing the job wouldn't have hurt him any. As for the Taker issue...I've always been a little skeptical about it. I don't doubt that the confrontation happened (since it's been confirmed by a few people), but I think it's probably been exaggerated by the net. Perhaps my Shawn bias is blinding me somewhat, but I have a very hard time believing that he'd outright refuse to job given his circumstances.

WWF 2000 from Fully Loaded onward.

Having him say he was hit in the "family jewels" was worse. Does ANYONE even say that anymore?

Figured I might as well give some feedback. Opening segment served its purpose. The addition of Gunner to the ME seemed kinda odd on paper, but this was a good explanation. I like the idea of Axel wanting to outdo Hoff with his PPV match, though I think it could've been played up a bit more. And any segment that includes an OMGPANTHER~!!! mention gets a thumbs up from me. I want my job back, btw! TOE DRAWMUH~! Cool. You and Hoff have gotta team up to form H2O. That's money right there! The match was pretty solid. History package to start off the Widow/SJ match well written and as stated, the use of pictures was nice. Not much to say on the match, but it seemed to convey Widow's character ok with the hair tossing and what not. BAD ASS stuff with NNMX and the Heavenly Rockers. I always love reading the Cornette promos too, because they always seem to be spot on for him. Like I can read it and just hear Cornette saying every word. I actually laughed at that. Quality promo by KC, with MORE PANTHER NAME-DROPPING BAH GAWD! I forgot all about Tim White. Whatever happened to him? Anyway, I liked the ME. Promo-heavy show, but good overall. About 3 Panther references shy of being great, though. I mean, Brock was RIGHT THERE!!! Panther NEVER beat him.

Well of course he delivers one of their best promos. When you spend year after year delivering the exact same interview almost verbatim, odds are, you'll eventually get it right. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Really, then what happened to Cena and JBL? They repeat themselves way more than HHH does and they're nowhere near as entertaining. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well for one, their acts are a lot fresher than HHH's. I've always liked him on the mic, but he's been running almost the exact same shit now for years.

I was thinking about this last week in relation to the Matt Hardy angle: If they REALLY wanna maintain the shoot vibe of the angle, why not have Hardy do his attacks on Edge off camera? Kinda like that whole worked shoot thing they ran with Orton and Jindrak (I think) a couple of years ago. What got me thinking about this was the fact that Raw was in Philly last week, and I know usually after the shows, they have this area set up outside the Wachovia Center so that the fans can watch the wrestlers drive off as they leave, and this area is usually pretty crowded. So what I was thinking was rather than having Hardy run out on TV and do the same old run-in every week, they could (on this one occasion anyway) give him a hoody or some kinda disguise (something fairly inconspicuous) and stick him in this crowd, work everything out with security so they know what's going down and when Edge is on his way out of the arena, Matt bursts through the crowd and attacks him right there in front of everybody. It'd be cool as hell for people who decided to wait around, and plus you could have a couple people with digital cameras take pictures of the incident (maybe even get a handheld video cam to film it) and circulate them throughout the net (to Meltzer, Torch, all the fan sites, etc.) to create a buzz. I think something like that would be a lot better than what they're doing right now...a lot easier to buy too.

I'd be mildly interested in this if they ended up putting Kane on trial and doing OJ-style coverage of it every week on Raw.

It's only 10:40. And LIta's still hurt. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It'd be pointless to do it now, as the first attack would take away the impact. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not really...Matt attacks Edge, and then security jumps on him and takes him out of the building. That happened. Then, they could have waited until like I guess 11:00 and have Lita being put into the ambulance, they close the doors, as the driver walks up to the door only to have it opened (or window rolled down whatever) and Matt sticking his head out of the window and just fucking going crazy before driving away. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Again, it wouldn't have the same impact. The less Hardy on TV right now, the better. I liked them sticking that whole "I'm gonna sit down when I'm old and gray" line into the Hogan video.

It's only 10:40. And LIta's still hurt. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It'd be pointless to do it now, as the first attack would take away the impact.

They missed the boat by not having Matt in the ambulance. Would've ruined the whole "shoot" vibe they're going for, but by now nobody thinks it's real anyway.