Papacita

And I'll pretend to say "you're welcome." Pretending is so fun! Seriously though, they were Saturday-morning wrestling shows (at least they ran Saturdays here) that were pretty much what PFL described--jobber matches, control centers featuring studio promos hyping either PPVs or local live events, the occasional in-ring interview, and a feature match between two non-jobbers.

WCW's equivalent to WWF Superstars.

IIRC, they tried to re-sign Taka when his contract was up in late-01 or early-02, but he refused. I haven't been keeping tabs on him, but I reckon he's wrestling back in Japan.

Well, if both guys are down, the ref can't just let them lay there because you don't know when they'll be getting back up, and the fans don't wanna watch a match where the guys are lying around for 10-15 minutes, and even if they come to, you don't want the match continuing, because there's a chance that one or both guys is seriously injured. I guess you can say that they do the count just to give the guys time to clear their heads and get themselves together before seeing if they're fit to finish the match. As to whether or not a person has won this way...I do remember one ECW match between Sandman and...someone (Shane?) where both guys were KO'd, the ref put the count down, Sandman made it up (actually, I believe Woman held him up) but his opponent didn't, so the match was stopped and given to Sandman.

I remember HBK saying a while back that it prevents you from twisting your wrist when you punch/chop/whatever.

Usually, after the tag is made, the face is still being controlled in the ring when the partner runs in. When heels tag out behind the ref's back, usually, the switch is already made when the ref turns around, so there's not much the ref can do in that situation. At least that's how I see it. One thing I've never really understood, though, is why heels fake tags behind the ref's back, despite the fact that his partner is standing RIGHT NEXT TO HIM and can be easily tagged at any time. And it's not like it gives them an unfair advantage or anything--they just do it for the hell of it.

If Jericho starts strutting around in the background screaming "Go 'head girlfriend!", this'll be the best segment ever.

Yeah, but he was bad, so it didn't matter. You could say that his near-career-ending concussion he suffered a few months prior brought his dream back into focus.

How about the Mountie's jail segments from SummerSlam 91? "Doncha just love the way that leather feels against your body?"

What's with all the hate for roll-ups I've been seeing around here lately? I don't see why they're a bad thing.

This was my one real complaint about the show, and I'm totally with NYU on this one. It made no sense at all to take the title off Orton right now. It's kinda frustrating. They seem to be trying to make the I-C title into a prestigious championship again, but just when Orton starts to really get going, they cut him off. And Edge really had nothing to gain by winning the belt. He's already established, and while he may not be all that over, he still comes across as being slightly above I-C level. If they were gonna take the belt off him, at least have him drop it to someone who can benefit from the win. The match itself was my favorite of the night, though. Got a little boring with all the headlocks and everything in the middle (seemed like they had more time then they knew what to do with), but the beginning was tight and I was completely drawn into the end. Overall, I liked the PPV.

While I didn't care for the ending, Benoit still came out looking fairly strong, and you got the sense that he didn't need Eugene to win. He even made HHH tap after the ref bump. I agree that Benoit comes off looking like an afterthought, but it seemed more like HHH was the one who *needed* the retard to win, not Benoit.

I cheered.

Did they ever follow up on his appearance in drag a few weeks back when he saved Vicky? Like, did she know it was him, or whatever?

I was just watching that match yesterday, coincidentally. I think there may have been one more show prior to Final Four featuring (I think) Vader vs Stone Cold in the feature match. Bret was doing commentary, all of a sudden, the lights went out, and when they came back on, Taker was standing behind him. He attacked Bret, and it turned into a 4-way brawl between all the participants of the Final Four match.

Was it a good hush or a bad hush?

Of that list, the Musical Chairs and the Nation imitation were the only ones I found funny (although, Rock cracking on Snuka in TIYL2 had me dying). I'll choose the Nation segment out of the two, since it was a part of one of my favorite feuds. Of all time, though...probably the segment between Austin and Tajiri in 01. I forget all the details, but it was at the height of Austin's psychotic stage. He's sitting back talking to Tajiri about this conspiracy against him, Tajiri gives him some advice in Japanese, and Austin like "Thank you. You're a wise man, Tajiri." And as much as smarks hated it, the "Ass Cream" segment with Vitamin C and the Dudleys from Raw in 02 made me laugh harder than I've ever laughed at anything wrestling-related. Just the fact that they actually took the time to make the actual jar, label it and everything. Jericho's reaction was pretty funny too. "You wanna steal our clothes. You wanna steal my...uh...Christian's Ass Cream..." Stupid segment, but it was funny as hell to me.

Ahmed was much worse than both.

WWF/E: -Mind Games: HBK/Mankind. -Basically, the formation of DX (HBK and HHH teaming for the first time to face Taker and Mankind). -Taker and Kane forming the first of their 376 alliances prior to SummerSlam 98...we also got a Kane/Mankind cell match out of that show. -Don't know how historic it was, but I was at the show when then-ECW Champion Tazz challenged then-WWF Champ HHH, and then-clumsy bastard Tommy Dreamer came from the crowd and caused Tazz to lose(DAMN YOU TOMMY!). -Unforgiven 2000, with Austin's return and the Hardyz/E&C cage match. -Jeff Hardy beating HHH for the I-C Title in 01. -Rock's return to Raw in 01. Also on the show, Booker beat Angle to become the 5-TIME, 5-TIME, 5-TIME, 5-TIME, 5-TIME WCW CHAMPION! -Rumble 04. BEN-WAAAAAAAH! -I also attended what is regarded by many as the worst PPV ever in KOTR 95. WCW: -Slamboree 94. -The single WORST show I've ever been to in a house show in 97. -A Thunder in 98 that was a close runner-up to ^.

They built to it quite well, actually. IIRC, Faarooq beat Ahmed for the #1 contendership due to some kinda botched interference from the Undertaker (Taker irish whipped one of the Nation members into Ahmed, knocking him into the steel stairs and causing him to lose). Then, to build to the KOTR match against Taker, Faarooq "played the race card" asking why there had never been a black World Champ. They then did an interview with Ahmed, and he said he hated Faarooq, but he was right about black wrestlers never receiving opportunities in WWF. They had also been alluding to it in WWF Magazine, so when it went down, it wasn't really all that surprising. Edit: I forgot about Ahmed giving Taker the Pearl River Plunge at KOTR because Taker kept on chokeslamming Faarooq. If you put all the pieces together, it all made sense in the end. Also, I don't think it was so much the turn that hurt him, because for the first couple of shows afterwards, he got MAD heel heat. What happened was the first Raw after the turn, he blew his knee out in a brawl with DOA and had to sit out for a couple of months. His first match back, the Nation turned on him, basically killing his heat. To make things worse, he had to sit out another month to heel his knee, and made his return in September against the Rock in MSG...where he ended up slicing a nerve in his hand on one of the new commentary tables. I swear, I've never seen a man that injury prone.

The Hand's in action again. Plus other stuff.

I know a bunch of people who didn't have TNN at the time, and therefore couldn't watch the show. Also, the first TNN show was the night after Unforgiven which got one of the best buyrates of the year. Now coming off of the climax (disappointing or not) of arguably the hottest storyline of the year in HHH/Angle AND Austin's return, the show ends up doing worse than the final USA show. Even if the PPV was disappointing (and it was still fairly enjoyable, although I'm probably a little biased on that), realistically what fan wouldn't tune in to at least see Austin's return to Raw? Also, just look at the Smackdown ratings, which, while not as high as they were in January and April, were still fairly consistent with what they'd been doing throughout the year. While I've got absolutely no love for the product they were putting out at the time, it's fairly obvious that the TNN switch hurt their ratings. And again, you really can't put the blame on Rock, because he'd been doing next to nothing since Fully Loaded. HHH and Rock ME'd both those PPVs. They were the two biggest stars in the company, they had a fairly hot and longstanding feud, and people were interested in the outcome. Fully Loaded had a pretty solid build all around, but with 3 lesser known stars headlining the show, it's not very likely that they'd draw as much. And for what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that the post-SummerSlam would've cracked 7 (or at least a high 6) off of HHH/Angle alone if not for the Open. Smackdown had just debuted, so it was easier to maintain interest that year than in others because the product was a little fresher. You could argue that once Smackdown settled into its groove, the excitement died down, and by the time 2000 rolled around, it just didn't have the impact that it did a year earlier. Of course when you consider that those were the three biggest guys in the company at the time. Well, just going by PPVs, an eventual rematch with HHH should've been a given. He easily could've gone back-to-back PPVs against Benoit, who, while not on HHH's level, was coming up pretty strong at the time. Angle or even Taker could've been sufficient challengers for Unforgiven. And then, of course, JERICHO would beat him at No Mercy (WHY DIDN'T THEY TURN THAT MAN?!). With the reign that he got, there were plenty of people he could've worked with. Nothing's as special as the first win, but people don't suddenly lose interest once they get the title. If your team wins the Super Bowl, you don't suddenly turn on them and stop caring by the next season, you watch to see them defend their title. People like to see their favorites win, and when there's opposition strong enough to put the win in doubt, it makes it that much sweeter when the favorite pulls the win out. It's just a matter of keeping the heels strong and not making the face champion look invincible. And they really don't have to limit the challengers to heels all the time. If face Jericho is over enough, I don't see why he couldn't challenge Rock for the title. Same thing with having the heel challenger retain. That's how title reigns go. HHH had beaten Rock damn near everytime they'd faced since Fully Loaded 99. Clean or not, you can only lose so many times before you start to look weak, and with the mainstream exposure Rock was getting, it'd be stupid to keep having him lose all the time. Rock was the main star in the company, so it made the most sense to put the title on him and give him a nice run.

Most underrated feud ever. I dunno how anyone who saw this feud can say that Dean Douglas was a bad character.

So Boose is still good for commentary this week, right? I mean, considering no one's seen or heard from him since last week?

The evil authority thing is played, but if they have to choose someone, I'd rather they had Heyman for the job. His promos can get me interested in even the dumbest angles, and I feel he added a lot to the show during his run as GM.