The Tino Standard

Anybody know how long it will be until Cartoon Network replays Sunday night's season premiere? The disk space on my DVR was apparently full, and the FG episode last night didn't record.

I call bullshit on this whole announcement. Vince McMahon is stubborn enough to do a lot of things, but pissing away MSG is not one of them. If we don't see another show, either on free TV or PPV by the end of '06, then I will be genuinely stunned.

CM Punk was also the guy who had a match so bad at a Heat taping 6 weeks ago that it was cut from the broadcast all together. Sorry, gang, but your indy hero is human too.

IIRC, wasn't it a little before WM 19 when Austin had to be taken to the hospital after collapsing from dehydration or something? I saw something about that a year or two ago on TV on a WWE special (could have been on UPN), which could have explained why Austin/Rock at WM 19 wasn't too great. I also think it was Austin's last year of being an active wrestler for a while, too, since his neck injury had taken its toll on him that year. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, according to Austin's book, he had to be hospitalized the day before the match. By all accounts, he was a mess. How he even got into the ring and worked a coherent match is a minor miracle.

I'm thinking they might have had a tag title change in mind, but when they found out that virtually nobody is going to watch the first hour of this show, they needed to hold off on some things, so changing the tag titles apparently drew the short straw. With the way the booking went (Animal cheating for his team to retain), it would seem pretty easy for MNM (or esp. their 'problem fixer' Jillian Hall) to complain to the network exec for a rematch. Boom, there's your title change.

I knwop I want that dvd but since its a WWF one its kinda hard to find. I proabbly could get it online though. Peoples Champ dvd is on deepdiscountdvd.com as part of a 3 pack with Austins Oh Hell Yea and Micky Foley: Hard Knocks and Cheap pops. I have to roder taht one of these days. rock and austin singing together at the last raw before survivor sereis 2001 is great. Luckily I have it on tape. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That last Raw before SurSer '01 is also where "What?" really took off. Austin had been doing it for weeks, but about halfway through that promo, the fans started catching on, and that's when he just started pausing and letting them fill in the blanks. That first time, it was great crowd interaction. To put it mildly, the bit got a little more played out as time went by.

I'm not really up on my ROH or indies, but I think Punk was the guy I saw who came out with Alexis Laree for a dark match at Raw about a month ago. For all the great things I heard about him, his match was awful. So bad, in fact, that it was scrapped from Heat (it was taped to be on the broadcast). Having never seen him wrestle before, I sincerely hope this was just a case of a guy either having a bad night or being limited by the WWE style, because if that's how he normally wrestles, then I have to start questioning the judgment of my fellow smarks.

Looks like the Million Dollar Man has had a few million-dollar cheeseburgers.

VMAs are the only awards show I go out of my way every year to watch, and I'm generally not the high-brow, "I'm too cool for this" type of guy, but this show was a trainwreck in every way imaginable. Puff Daddy, MC Hammer, Mariah Carey, Beavis and BUTT-head, Green Day and a Biggie tribute? What year is this again?

That movie is FANTASTIC.

That video from "The Fallout" was freaking awesome. "NOOOOOOOOOOO! Not this way!"

The best part with the ring announcing bit was that he even stopped his post-match celebration to announce himself again. And he even did the old-school 'repeat the last name' bit again too. GOLD

His promo in Toronto when he turned heel after NWO '03. "He said TORONTO! That's where WE live! YAAAAAAAAY!"

I have to seriously question if you even saw the match? Convincingly selling an opponents offense is one thing, but HBK was acting like an ass, and making the entire match look unbelievable which actually hurts the match. Bouncing all over the place like a mexican jumping bean from a mere punch or kick is not good selling, it is childish antics, trying to sabatoge a match or just make it a comedy match. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes, I did watch the match, and I have no real rooting interest for either guy, so it's not like any sort of personal bias is coming into the equation. Watching the match, I definitely thought Michaels was hamming it up a bit, but the thought that he was doing it to sabotage Hogan never crossed my mind. I mean, seriously, that's asinine logic. If he REALLY wanted to make Hogan look bad, he'd have popped right up after the 3 count and no sold Hogan's offense throughout the match. When Michaels carries people, one of his trademarks is to look like he's absolutely getting the shit beat out of him, so when he loses, you can believe that the opponent's offense took its toll. Did he over-do it a bit here? Maybe. But to insinuate that he did it purposely to sabotage things is ridiculous. And as someone who's followed wrestling for more than 20 years, I was a little insulted by your "I have to seriously question if you even saw the match?" comment.

I stopped watching around fall '93 until SummerSlam '96, but before that in the late '80s and early '90s, it seemed like Superstars got more stuff than Wrestling Challenge (although Challenge had some angle developments too). All the big moments I remember from that time period were from Superstars. Still, I loved Challenge because that show had Gorilla and Heenan. Awesome stuff every week from those two.

A lot of people are roasting Michaels for his overselling against Hogan. Consider this: You are in a big-time, money match with a guy WAY past his prime. Even IN his prime, the opponent (Hogan) was a marginal worker (AT BEST). What do YOU do to make his offense look convincing? Michaels knew he was in the ring with a very limited opponent. For as much of an asshole as Shawn Michaels might have been (or still could be, I don't know the man personally, so who knows), it seems pretty clear the guy prides himself on being able to make ANYBODY look good. He knew he was booked to lose (not to mention lose in a way that made him look terrible: a chair shot, a low blow, two ref bumps and a superkick weren't enough to win, but one leg drop finished him). He was working with a limited opponent. The only hope he had of saving some face and trying to put on a watchable main event was to make Hogan's offense look like a million bucks.

That picture makes me depressed. Sunny was responsible for an awful lot of kittens being killed back in the day.

Best gimmick match depends on the participants involved. Some styles just don't work in some match types. I have to give an honorable mention to Three Stages of Hell. It gives a little something for everybody, and I'm a huge mark for the Austin-HHH match from NWO '01.

Okay, we'll see! Just like people said HBK was never coming back and countless other things. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Check this site out and then you might get into your head what a stroke is. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I guess my eyes were lying to me when Bret was on TSN sportscenter doing physical moves in a ring on a stage. You guys are acting like the man is a vegetable in a wheelchair. He did a documentary on national television here in Canada on the sports network trying to get into people's head he is not that badly off. Get that into your head!!!!! BTW, I AM NOT SAYING BRET IS COMING BACK FOR A MATCH FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME!!!! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Then what ARE you saying? You are coming up with some far-fetching fantasy booking scenario that culminates in a match involving Bret Hart and won't let it go, all the while everybody on here is hammering you over the head telling you why it's absolutely impossible. Look, just because you can walk and do some low-impact physical activity after a stroke doesn't mean you're ready to work a WrestleMania match that is 8 years in the making. It's not happening. Bret Hart can't wrestle in a WWE ring. Bret Hart doesn't WANT to wrestle in a WWE ring. Bret Hart WON'T wrestle in a WWE ring. End of story.

That's only half-right. The roof WAS on Safeco, but that's not a lid that seals the top of the stadium, like the SkyDome. Safeco's roof is like a canopy. It's like standing under a giant pavilion.

As long as they continue to make money (even a relatively little bit) on every single PPV they are not going to stop doing 14-16 a year like they are now.

Reading the MNM thread got me to thinking: Has there ever been a worse period for tag team wrestling in WWE than what we've got going now? I've been following wrestling for almost 20 years now, and I can't remember a lower point. Tag team wrestling - once a great launching pad for future main eventers - has become a wasteland for wayward, mismatched midcarders with nothing to do. There was a time when teams were TEAMS. They had TEAM names and had matching apparel. They had a series of double-TEAM moves. Today, we have MNM and a big pile of nothing. Truth be told, MNM is only average at best (well, Melina is phenomenal on several levels, but that's for another thread), but considering the rest of the tag team scene on both shows, actually having all the characteristics of a real tag team suddenly vaults you into the stratosphere by comparison. It's depressing. How the hell did we get to this point? There was a time in the late 80s when you had teams like the Rockers, Hart Foundation, Demolition and Powers of Pain. Ten years later, we had another golden era led by the Hardys, Edge and Christian and the Dudleys. Now we've got ... nothing. At what point did the tag team scene just completely fizzle? I mean, can anybody tell me who even held the Raw tag titles before Hurricane and Rosey? I have no idea and I watch Raw every week. Have they even been involved in a program this year? In the era of the SD-6, they at least got it half-right, putting on lots of good tag matches, although other than The World's Greatest Tag Team, there weren't really a ton of true teams, just a collection of good workers in the division. There was a time when tag team wrestlers could be viable teammates, yet still maintain an semblence of individuality that would lead to singles careers down the road. Plenty of world champions (see: Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels) got their start in tag teams. Why the aversion to it now? I know I'm rambling a bit here and probably telling you nothing you haven't already realized on your own, but damn it, this pisses me off. Good tag team wrestling can really lift up a midcard and make stars out of guys who might not be able to hit it big initially on their own. It's just really sad to see what the division has become in recent years.

The thing with Jericho winning the undisputed title was that people should've suspected somethign was up as soon as they booked the card. Austin was the WWF champ and Rock was the World champ. If they were planning to unify the titles, why not just have a champion vs. champion match. Considering it would be Austin-Rock, title-for-title, they could've hyped the shit out of that and drawn a huge buyrate off those two. The only reason they didn't do that because there was no plan to actually have that match (i.e.- the title was going to somebody else- Jericho).

I'm cheering for a good match more than anything else. Would love to see a finishing sequence of Michaels springing up, tuning up the band, nailing the superkick on Hogan, only to have Hogan go into his Hulk-up routine, with chaos then ensuing. GOLD

I really don't understand what they're thinking in releasing these posters when they spoil results of a major PPV that is happening in the meantime. Same thing with when they start advertising on local TV and radio in a city where a future PPV will be held. They've spoiled plenty of PPV main events too. Invariably, somebody will always come on here and say "It could be FAKE~!" but invariably, it's not. No, instead, it's just their own short-sightedness trying to sell an extra 200 tickets to a PPV. With the Internet and global communication as strong as it is in this day and age, I cannot understand how they think this is a good idea. And then, WWE gets pissed at "smarks" when, in fact, they're shooting themselves in the foot. I'd love nothing more than for somebody to smuggle one of these Unforgiven posters into SummerSlam and hold it up right on camera during one of the main event matches.