Enigma

I always wondered what happened to Mr. Perfect's push when he came back in 2002. They advertised his return at the Royal Rumble to much fanfare and had all new vignettes for him and everything. As mentioned, he was one of the last three remaining in the Rumble in 2002 and even helped eliminate Steve Austin. All the sheets at the time said he was due for a feud and a match with Austin at WM18. And in a scary sort of continuity for the WWF, they were supposed to be playing off their interaction with each other that was going on when Hennig suddenly jumped to WCW in 1996. But then all of a sudden, him and Austin have a nothing match on Raw the night after No Way Out where he loses, but the nWo interferes and they don't play off Hennig's past history with the nWo at all. And then he's jobbing in 5 minutes squashes to people like Test and Tajiri and ended up in the WM18 dark match with people like Justin Credible, Albert, and Scotty 2 Hotty. This just kept going until the Plane Ride From Hell(©, 2002) in May got him shitcanned. By that point, he was only doing Heat anyways. I think his last WWF match was getting killed in 3 minutes by Matt Hardy. I'm guessing the nWo coming in fucked up those plans and Stephanie's creative genius suddenly didn't know what to do with him, but weren't they negotiating with Hall, Nash, and Hogan way before he came back? It just never made sense to me.

Does anyone know if WWE still has Droz under any sort of deal?

Add Stephanie McMahon's assistant. From F4W:

Yes. A.J. Styles said when he was offered one (and turned it down) back in 2001, it was $500 a month. It's probably a little more than that now.

Jim Ross reported in his blog that both Mickie James and Gerald Brisco were involved in separate car accidents on the way to Omaha after Raw.

Wow, Vader was massively over as a face. They went nuts when his music hit.

So, to recap: -- Mike Posey -- D-Lo Brown -- Bam Neely -- Kevin Keenan -- Jimmy Korderas -- Val Venis -- Tim White -- Kevin Thorn -- Gavin Spears -- Mike Kruel -- Sgt. Slaughter -- Ron Simmons -- Mickey Henson -- Matt Cappotelli

The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (w/ Luna) vs. Vader Batallion, El Torito, & Tarantula vs. Max Mini, Mosaic, & Nova *Sunny is the Special Guest Referee WWF Intercontinental Championship Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock WWF World Tag Team Championship The Legion of Doom vs. The New Age Outlaws The 1998 Royal Rumble, featuring: 8-Ball Ahmed Johnson The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust Bradshaw Cactus Jack Chainsaw Charlie Chainz D'Lo Brown Dude Love Faarooq Jeff Jarrett The Honky Tonk Man Kama Mustafa Ken Shamrock Kurrgan Henry Godwinn Mankind Marc Mero Mark Henry Mosh Owen Hart Phineas Godwinn The Rock Savio Vega Skull Steve Austin Steve Blackman Thrasher Tom Brandi Vader WWF Championship Casket Match The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

No, that was Great American Bash. Booker faced Kanyon earlier on in this show. Here's the entire card: Juventud Guerrera vs. Lt. Loco (Chavo Guerrero) for the Cruiserweight Title Norman Smiley & Ralphus vs. Big Vito in a Handicap Match for the Hardcore Title Daffney vs. Miss Hancock in a Wedding Gown Match Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak vs. Kronic for the Tag Team Title Kanyon vs. Booker T. Mike Awesome vs. Scott Steiner for the U.S. Title Vampiro vs. The Demon in a Graveyard Match Shane Douglas vs. Buff Bagwell Hulk Hogan vs. Jeff Jarrett for the WCW Title Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash Booker T. vs. Jeff Jarrett for the WCW Title

Well, maybe not a true "legend" at that point, but Mr. Perfect came pretty close a few years back as a surprise entrant. Yep, 2002. He was one of the last three in the match with Kurt Angle and Triple H. I think he actually eliminated Steve Austin.

Slaughter will probably be re-hired once the recession wears off. Simmons doesn't make sense to have under contract when he's just showing up once every one or two months to say "DAMN!" He'd be better off in a pay-per-appearance deal. He's having hip replacement surgery later this month, so it's not like he can wrestle for TNA.

So Shelton jobs to Undertaker again in a non-title match. So when do we get the eventual title match where Shelton wins thanks to help from whoever is facing UT at WM25? This shit is so predictable.

It's only a fantasy scenario. It's not an accidental reveal. And Bischoff has admitted he got the idea for the nWo angle when he was watching a UWFI invasion angle in NJPW when he was scouting talent for Starrcade 1995.

The "World Title" status of the ECW Championship was informally withdrawn when Chavo Guerrero appeared in the Royal Rumble last year. Seriously, are we going to have this argument again? I apologize for for discussing, not arguing, shit on a message board that was obviously designed for anything but discussion... It's not that, it's just we have this same "discussion" if you will every two to three months that get us no where. Must be difficult to ignore. Hulk Hogan was a World Champion and was in the Royal Rumble. The fact is that you can't say the ECW Title isn't a World Title simply because the champ is in a Royal Rumble match. Stop acting like you're above criticizing. That's an idiotic argument. Hulk Hogan was in those Rumbles when they didn't decide who got the title shots at WrestleMania. The WWE/World Champion has never been in a Rumble after 1991. I figured you were smarter than that. It's very obvious WWE doesn't view the ECW Title these days on the same level as the other two. And when they tried to, nobody in their right mind thought The Undertaker was going to choose to face Bobby Lashley for the ECW Title in the main event of WM23.

Chris Harris is full of fucking shit. There were pictures of him wearing that singlet in dark matches months before he was put on TV.

It was typical Russo booking. They debuted attacking Taka and told Taka to go get a partner. So he got Bradshaw and they did some wacky vignettes of Bradshaw westernizing him. Of course, once it came time for the match, Taka turned on Bradshaw and joined them with no explanation.

I wouldn't count on seeing that on 24/7 nowadays. I do believe that was the point he was making.

I like how in a Rumble with so many jobbers, Rick Martel, Owen Hart, and Bob Backlund were all eliminated within 30 seconds of arriving.

Goldberg demanded to renegotiate his contract shortly after the fingerpoke of death and didn't show up again until the Bret Hart angle in Toronto. That's why he disappeared. They gave him a 5-year deal that originally wasn't supposed to expire until May 2004, but he took a buyout in early-2003 to sign a 1-year deal with WWE.

Go watch her on the Saturday Night's Main Event that's up in TV Classics. She is smoking hot there.

Whatever happened to that movie HHH went off to film in 2003? That Jornada del Muerte or whatever?

They didn't do a graphic when Crash died but they did mention him on the 2003 Year in Review shows when they talked about people who had died that year.

I like how Stephanie doesn't know what the word "redacted" meant.

And he doesn't mention Triple H's Chris Masters comment. The best part of that is the end when McMahon & McDevitt go nuts when they try to ask Vince if he's used steroids after 1996.

If I recall, WWF.Com put the Foley title win on the fucking front page of the website a full 5 days before the show aired. But given how much the ratings jumped when Schiavone announced it, it shows you how little the Internet had to do with things back then.