Bruiser Chong

With Wrestlemania in sight and last week's discussion about Wrestlemania IV, it seems fitting to tackle another bloated Mania: Wrestlemania V. Wrestlemania IV catches a lot of grief for its run time and rightfully so. However, the second of the Trump Plaza Wrestlemanias is just as long and packed with as many throwaway matches. The Good - Trump Plaza: even though the audience for both of these shows were awful, the shows are in the group of Manias with a distinct look. We've heard the horror stories of how the arena's configuration didn't make for a good show, but that seemingly endless stairway is one of those little things I've forever linked with vintage Wrestlemania. - Savage/Hogan: Hogan's best Wrestlemania match features Savage going out like a champ. I don't think it was any mystery as to who was going over here, but Macho nevertheless came out with his working boots on. It's one of the few Hogan matches I can actually sit through without searching for the fast-forward button. - Strike Force/Brainbusters: Probably one of the early Manias' most overlooked matches. You don't hear many talk about this, even though it's notable for the split of Strike Force if absolutely nothing else. I kind of take a twisted joy in watching Tito get obliterated once Martel takes a hike. And with the way this went down, you would've figured a Martel/Santana singles match at a show such as Summerslam would be a given. - Rockers/Twin Towers: Really nothing more than a glorified squash for the Towers, but it's a fun squash. - Blue Blazer/Mr. Perfect: Another overlooked match. There isn't much to say about this without sounding cliche, so we'll just all agree it's a terrific little match. The Bad - Pointless undercard matches: This is the show that started a brief trend of Wrestlemania matches that didn't seem to have any point other than to get as many guys on the show as possible. Dino Bravo and Ron Garvin? Hart Foundation against the HTM and Greg Valentine? Brutus Beefcake taking on Ted DiBiase? Duggan and his snotty nose against Bad News Brown? I know there are shreds of reason behind these matches being included, but they're just filler. And not very good filler at that. - Run-DMC: I'm a hip-hop fan, so it's not the genre of music I've got a problem with. It's the group ceasing to be relevant years before this. And a venue filled with wealthy gamblers doesn't seem like the time to bring in a rap act. - Piper/Downey/Brother Love: My god. It's one thing to have a show run long because of the actual matches, but crap like this is what pushed the show to a near-four-hour run time. And it just went on and on. - Warrior/Rude: Their Summerslam match a few months later is one of my favorite Warrior matches, but this one is nothing like it. The Ugly - Jake/Andre: Andre was understandably awful at this point, but unless memory fails me, this match got damn near 10 minutes plus all the extracurricular activities with Virgil and DiBiase briefly stealing Damien. - Demolition/Powers of Pain: The logic was there on paper for these two teams to be at odds, but did they ever have anything closely resembling a decent match? - The celebrities: I've never been one to judge a Mania's quality by the celebrities involved, but this was the first year where it became clear they weren't necessary at all. At least, not this caliber of celebrity. There's Morton Downey Jr., Donald Trump, Run-DMC, and uh, no one else. And let's not forget that we go from Gladys Knight singing "America the Beautiful" to Rockin' god damn Robin doing it on this show. Final Thoughts: I actually like this show, since it's one of the select events I saw dozens of times as a child thanks to home video. There are many moments here that I would dare call "warm and fuzzy" for me. But there's a ton of trash padding the few true bright spots. And yet, it's always Wrestlemania IV we hear about when people bemoan about boring Wrestlemania shows.

Lecroy will always be remembered by me as the dude who made Frank Robinson cry.

This looks like the kid who made my steak tacos last night. Maybe it was him. Did he want to fite you?

I've dealt with technical difficulties the last couple weeks. From little things like not being able to fast forward to programs suddenly freezing, stopping and then having the counter reset when I go back to said program. Quite irritating when you're watching a lengthy program. I guess my cable provider (Charter) has been dealing with a lot of issues as they attempt to make the full transition to digital programming.

Yes. I'd like to call dibs on next week's "Let's Talk About..."

Jeremy Brown, the fat catcher from Moneyball, is hanging up the cleats.

Agreed. I appreciate the news, but it's difficult at times to decipher who's saying what.

I could go on for days about this show. I've probably seen it more times than any other wrestling show with the possible exception of Survivor Series '89. Certain matches, interviews, introductions and lines from the show are synonymous with my childhood. One of the simple pleasures I had as a child was renting the cool as two-VHS set of this and having a couple slices of pizza. If I ever wind up getting it on DVD, I'll surely attempt to recreate that. And the show should get love if for no other reason than the badass intro I believe was exclusive to Coliseum Video.

I don't expect Czech to like anything related to, created or influenced by Lil Jon, but I'm afraid he's wrong on this front. The song snatches the best part of Crazy Train. Everything after the opener in Ozzy's song is lethargic. To get a little off-topic, hearing the song for the first time in maybe three years reminded me how excited I was for Trick's at the time, not-yet-released album. Then he peppered that thing with a bunch of soft and flimsy beats. And seeing that video again makes me wish Trina actually had a verse in the song. She's a living, breathing counterargument to anyone who takes rap to task over the objectification of women.

His production has failed to evolve a lick since he stepped into the limelight, but that doesn't take away from the (perhaps uncomfortable) truth that Let's Go > Crazy Train.

That's the thing about Steele. I don't think I've ever seen a good singles match with him involved, but people adored the guy. I can't bring myself to sit through many of his matches, but it's a nice change to see him get such crazy positive reactions from the crowds when so many faces of his time were bland as shit.

It's also not a very good song. I know some people dismiss sampling in music, but Lil Jon took the most interesting part of Crazy Train and made it into a better song.

I've got a mixture of songs that are downright shitty and ones that were decent, but overplayed. Many people will say you can avoid the latter by simply not listening to the radio, but there are quite a few instances in which that's not possible. Of the top of my head: - Crazy: sorta dug it when it first dropped and then every single non-country station started playing it all the time. The overexposure revealed how the song's minimalistic structure prevented it from having true staying power. - Hotel California: I really don't know The Eagles' back catalog very well. This is one of those songs I used to like, but just got sick of from hearing it so many times. - Shawty Got Low: or whatever it's called. If you hit up a club, listen to a Top 40 station in any capacity or have just one dumb friend, you've probably heard it. I can't stand it because its hook is the kind that just grates on my nerves and it features T-Pain. T-Pain is awful. - Stronger: I dig Graduation, but I never got on this track. You've got the folks all ecstatic because of the Daft Punk connection and then those people who jump on whatever the radio's playing. I give Kanye credit for trying something different, but I just can't get into the techno sound. And I'm probably jaded that the lead single from Graduation got almost no attention while this, "Good Life," and "Flashing Lights" got mad play.

Makes sense. Gorilla and Slick really get into it during that main event on the Boston Garden show. Gorilla picking apart Slick's allegedly cheap wardrobe was the norm, but those two really hit below the beltway during their exchange. Gorilla sounded legitimately upset, even after the Slickster left.

I think so. I'm almost positive it happened right before the King of the Ring.

Odd. I just got on a bit of a Jaws kick after TCM showed it last weekend. I had been reading about the movie's production, some old reviews and had even considered finally watching my copy of the 30th Anniversary DVD.

The Machines had some badass entrance music.

At least she elaborated, right?

I never noticed it much as a kid, but Christ, Gorilla Monsoon sure rakes a lot of referees over the coals. I remember being confused by Meltz's accusations against Gorilla for burying too many people. He didn't really do that for the wrestlers, but he just trashes the referees on a regular basis. He almost sounds like a heel any time he's referring to a ref. The build to Wrestlemania 2 makes the last couple of TNT shows watchable, but I still can't wait until it's over. I know the show folded in 1986, so when we get Gene as the new host, we know the end is near. Hopefully they don't restart the show and instead opt to air something like Superstars. That'd make a lot more sense, since that was the show where everything happened in the pre-RAW days.

Time to bump this. She went through a phase where she was either using lyrics from an Incubus song as an away message or talking about being at work/moving into a new place. I guess now that those have passed, she's back to her old ways. Her current message is a frank "FUCK IT." She's been lamenting how no one calls her to hang out and the like in recent away messages. I almost feel like telling her, "Hey, maybe nobody wants to chill with you because you're the biggest fucking downer they've ever met." More to come, no doubt.

That Savage program is fantastic. Its only dud is the Steele match and that's brief. I tend to forgot how Santana could go during this time; I think it's easy for a lot of people who got into wrestling in the late '80s or early '90s to strictly remember Tito as the guy who never seemed to beat anyone of importance. But he put together some great matches with Valentine and Savage during his IC title days. Seeing the string of Savage/Santana matches makes me think we'd be remembering Wrestlemania II a lot more fondly had they faced off on the show. I've resided myself to the fact that the Steele/Savage storyline was well done and remains a prominent angle of its time. But it's disappointing to think Wrestlemania that year could've housed the series' first single's classic with Savage and Santana.

The Dillinger Escape Plan is about to perform on Conan. Odd.

That's something of a treat, since it's one of the hardest Coliseum Videos of the era to find now. Unfortunate to see them dub over the original opening music, though. The original opener was one of the most distinct things about Coliseum Video in the 1980s.

Haha, what?