Papacita

Non-fans haven't heard of Rock? The man has just as much if not more mainstream recognition than Austin had. If we were strictly talking wrestling fans, I'd definitely give Austin the nod, but in terms of the mainstream, those two are definitely on par.

I first saw their TV show around April or May 94 back when they were just NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling. I was talking on the phone to my best friend at the time (a non-fan, but he knew how big a fan I was) and he stumbled onto the show while channel surfing and told me to turn to it. I had read about it before in PWI, so I sat down and watched it. I was really intrigued by the hardcore style, but it was kinda hard for me to get into at the time since as somebody mentioned, all they showed were match clips, commercials and ads for upcoming shows. After going to Slamboree that year and seeing the reaction for Terry Funk, and then talking to a friend who used to attend the shows, I decided to keep watching, and the most notable thing I can remember from that period was Cactus throwing down the tag belt, which was kinda cool since you could see the controversy from that spill over to WCW TV. I tuned in periodically over the next year or so (actually missed the whole NWA Title controversy, and was confused as hell when I first tuned in to the new Extreme Championship Wrestling) before really becoming hooked around the time Sandman beat Shane for the title. Never been to an ECW show though, which considering I'm from Philly irks the HELL out of me.

LMAO!

Am I the only one who cracked up for him bringing the briefcase with him?

Uh...he does realize that platinum>gold, right?

I just wanted to take the time to point out how tired I am of the whole "heel gets the pin by using the ropes" thing that they run damn near every other match. The Carlito/Maria apple thing was pretty funny.

This one always cracked me up. From (I think) November to Remember 95: Steve Austin (to Mikey Whipwreck): Because I'm Steve Austin, and from now until the end of this match, your name is Eric Bischoff. Joey Styles: Well in that case, whip his ass then...I didn't mean that.

Hands down Tommy and Beulah's reunion, mainly because Beulah was the absolute LAST person I expected to show up. Honest to God, if before the show you had come to me with Shane Douglas and Beulah and said one of these two would be appearing on the show, I'd have said Shane. In fact, when Dawn came out with Lance Storm for his match I was thinking to myself how much of a shame it was that they couldn't do the same to Tommy and Beulah, so when she actually came down I marked out BIG! Hell, that's my markout moment for the year so far. Second would be the Styles/Bischoff commentary bit that HTQ brought up. That was Shane McMahon on Nitro-type surreal to me...and funny as hell on top of that. Third would be probably the Awesome Bomb from the ring apron through the table. That was nasty.

But WCW drew more money, had much larger crowds, had cable TV and had decent PPV buys. Which is the point of having a wrestling promotion. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> WCW also had the backing of a huge corporation, which meant they had the resources to reach more people and thus draw more money and a bigger audience than ECW could.

I doubt the line was scripted because Hassan went on to call Austin a fair man later on in the promo, which I really can't see the writers having him do.

Edge just said this shit last week.

Same here. Why doesn't every wrestler do that? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not to start the whole 'All smarks just hate on HHH' arguement... But how come it's not considered a creative idea when HHH does it? (referring to him attacking Batista, and people going WTF, that doesn't mean he deserves a shot) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It's more the way they spun it with Jericho that seems cool to me. Rather than giving us "DAMN THAT JERICHO, BAH GAWD!!! HE'S JUST JEALOUS OF JOHN CENA," he goes and gives us a logical explanation for the attack. Also, with HHH and Batista, the issue was already personal, so the situations aren't really all that relative.

Was I the only one expecting Lillian to be hiding under his cape?

I actually like Jericho's logic on attacking Cena. That's pretty creative.

Do they really expect ANYONE to actually believe Slaughter will win these matches anymore? They've been running this same angle with him for like the last decade and he loses everytime.

No.

*steals cable*

Just wondering what everybody thought of the Gertner stuff with him begging Bischoff for a job. I didn't really like it at first, but it really cracked me up watching it the second time around. Just the fact that he actually came to Eric with a tape and everything seemed pretty funny to me.

Awesome had his old theme. Tanaka didn't.

I've gotta say that I haven't enjoyed a PPV this much in YEARS. The main event was hot as hell, and I'll be damned if I didn't *MARK THE FUCK OUT* for Beulah's return. I also loved Styles ripping Bischoff *to his face* during the Crusaders/ECW brawl at the end. That was some great shit...almost surreal watching it live.

*kills time* <===HARDCORE~!

Not on air, but I remember WWE.com doing an article back in 02 where he pretty much said that he was done. He basically said he lost passion for wrestling, as when he and Spike won the tag belts in MSG he didn't have butterflies in his stomach.

A while back I was thinking of making something like the old control center booths WCW used to have back in the day for their graphics, but just never got around to doing it. I'll see if I can put one together for GAB.

I picked it up from Highspots about a year or so ago. It couldn't have been more than $20.

@ the ME. I got Ray Charles'd on that one (because I didn't see it coming, you see). Lazy feedback: Enjoyed the big matches...A lot of cool spots in the Women's Match, and the Superplex spot in Crystal/Gunner/Zack/SG was nice too. The ME was nicely done, and again the title change REALLY caught me off guard. I liked the Rock-esque promo from Hoff, and KC's stuff just cracks me up. And someone actually remembers the Illuminators. Cool. Good show.