Dark Age

I meant in regards to 'making a star'. Regardless of if Lance is any good or not, the fact is, he in place of Shawn would have given him a lot of credibility, something Shawn already has.

Nope, it isn't a joke. Your statement is incorrect. Who's claiming it would? No one, not even Storm himself, is claiming he in HBK's place would make a damn bit of difference to the buyrates, ratings, etc. What he is saying is..... .... that it would have meant A LOT more to use him than Shawn. Be honest with me, what did Shawn gain from that match? "Oh my God, Shawn Michaels, he's so heroic, look at him fight on. WOW what a trooper". Er, yeah, but it's been hammered over our heads for YEARS that Shawn Michaels is an underdog, always fighting adversity, yada yada yada. What did he REALLY gain from that match? Any more heat than he already had? No. Did it make him a star? Nope. Did it make any money? Nope. NOW.... use Storm in the same position. Would it have affected the buyrate for SurSer? No. No less, no worse. Would it have made Storm a future draw? Who knows. HOWEVER, it would have made Storm look like a million bucks, give him a huge rub, get him over big time and give him a permanent stay in the upper mid card. Don't even try and TELL me that Shawn was a better option than Lance. Besides, Storm was actually a part of the feud. Shawn was just added at the last minute for no reason at all.

Hilarious. I can't believe the whole 'they need competition' argument. The company sucks right now because they're all idiots. End of story.

Funny how you don't want to a ROH/WWE debate, yet make sure to get your little dig in IMMEDIATLEY after saying that. And again, no, people aren't neccesserily missing out. Like I said, some folks might not want to watch much wrestling right now. They might have tried ROH, but decided they don't like it. They may think it's overrated. I know plenty of people who don't care for Ring Of Honour. Just saying it's the best doesn't make it so. And, before you reply with the obvious, I haven't ONCE stated I'm anti-ROH. Back on topic..... Steamboat and London together = teh goodness~! Plus it'll get London on SmackDown, which works for me.

They won't bring her up, I'm pretty sure of it. How long has Alexis been employed? They've had Nikita, Kim Nielson (Desire), Bobcat, Caryn Mawr, the diva contest winner, and a few others who have escaped my memory, all employed in recent year, only to eventually cut them without giving them a chance. The only ones who've broke through have been Gail Kim and Victoria - one took a long time to be called up, the other has been fired.

She'll be in OVW. I'd be surprised if she ever even debuts.

Borders? Of course it's illegal. Oh, I believe we can, and will.

That was announed last week, actually. Also, anyone know why us UK folks don't get to see this? The one SD I'd be interested in seeing and they don't show it! They didn't last year either. What's the deal?

Storm's other commentary was better, in which he booked himself to be the next big star of Raw. It was basically him taking Shawn's place in the SS elimination match last year. It would have done a MUCH better job long term than having Shawn in the match did.

How the Hell are you an idiot if you don't watch ROH? What if you can't afford it? What if you don't like the style(s) of wrestling? What if you're not 'feeling' wrestling too much right now?

And the motives for the turn would be......?

And this just goes with the above. Maybe some don't like Tough Enough?> (even though it was usally one the higher segments) Maybe people hate the commentary..etc, it can be a number of things, so I don't think saying it's all JBL is justifyable, because it's clear he's doing a good job...even if he is 'Crapshaw'. Who I'm not/wasn't a fan of, but I've liked him in this particular role. And he gets heat from the fans...and not that X-pac heat, so he must be doing something right. But how do you know he's not getting X-Pac heat? HOW DO YOU KNOW?!? Hurry up and reply, I can't wait for it.

This place has been a little dead lately, so I don't expect many replies. But still.... I'm looking for WCW TV from 95-99. Anything - Nitro, Thunder, Worldwide, Saturday Night, etc. I'm looking mainly for 'best ofs' rather than specific shows, so if someone could put anything together it'd be great. I'm in the UK so, obviously, I'm looking for UK traders/sellers. HOWEVER, if anyone from America could convert some stuff to DVD, I'd accept that too. Thanks in advance.

I really need to get up to date. After Christmas I'm gonna get a shitload of stuff in.

WrestleMania 21 WWE Heavyweight Championship Kurt Angle © vs Eddie Guerrero World Heavyweight Championship Edge © vs Chris Benoit Triple H vs Randy Orton (maybe in some sort of gimmick match) Undertaker vs John Cena (Cena ends the streak) Rock vs Booker T (Rock returns to SD as a heel; jobs to Book here) Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels (can be face vs face, Jericho gets his Mania win back) Big Show vs Brock Lesnar (Brock returns as a heel; kills Show) WWE Intercontinental Championship Batista © vs Shelton Benjamin WWE United States Championship - Ladder Match Rob Van Dam © vs Rey Mysterio WWE Cruiserweight Championship Billy Kidman © vs Paul London vs Chavo Guerrero And there'd be more, but it'd run over the time limit. That will do.... for now.

After learning that you have the Lynn/Daniels match, I'd interested in if you have any of the following - and would review them, of course October 28 2000 - Crash Holly vs Low-Ki March 3 2001 - Essa Rios vs Samoa Joe March 17 2001 - TAKA and Funaki vs Frankie Kazarian and Sakoda March 24 2001 - Essa Rios vs Low-Ki May 12 2001 - Essa Rios vs Low-Ki June 30 2001 - Raven vs Low-Ki Jan 12 2002 - Christian vs Low-Ki Jan 26 2002 - Hurricane vs AJ Styles I think that's all of them.

I'm a fair bit behind on OVW, but I've watched their TV up until around April of this year. One of the most underrated matches all year in 2002 was a Kanyon v Damaja TV match in the summer. This match was ****1/2 easy, and blew away almost everything in WWE that year. It was excellent stuff, with great near falls, the crowd going crazy, top-notch commentary; it had the whole ball of wax. For 2003, the best episodes were the ones with the Dinsmore v Machine 2/3 falls match, that is one of the best matches of the year, and the episode built around the Damaja v Doug Basham Loser Leaves Town match. If you watch those matches, or any of their matches or mic work in OVW, you'll see just how neutered the WWE versions of both guys are. The same can be said of Nick Dinsmore. His talents are being wasted with the Eugene gimmick, and while not as good on the mic as Damaja or Basham, he's better wrestler. Damn right. I watched the Kanyon/Damaja match just recently, and while I wouldn't go as high as ****1/2, it was still a very, very good ***1/2-***3/4 match for me. If you liked that match, I'd expect you also like the very first Kanyon/Jeter match? Really good match, IMO, with a great underdog story. The 2/3 Falls match is fantastic and one of my favourite OVW matches ever. No doubt you've seen the Iron Man tag match, which is possibly the quickest 30 minutes you can experience. Fantastic stuff, which I'd recommend to anyone. Recently watched the Christmas Chaos 2001 show which is OUTSTANDING, and is a great show to start on for O-V-Dubya. It's before the entire 'Revolution' angle starts so it's pretty much perfect timing (Conway is still a heel, Damaja a face, Dinsmore is champ). There's a great **** Benoit/Dinsmore match, a ***1/2 Hardys and Lita/DOS match (think T and A/Hardys and Lita at FL00), as well as a lot of other fun, solid matches with Orton/Robbie D, MSC/Spade and Scraper, Flash and Trash/Rico and Mr Black. Another good place to start is with the 'Run For The Rumble' which features a lot of very good matches (Dinsmore vs Conway (***1/2) Damaja vs Machine (***) Dinsmore vs Damaja (***1/2)). It also spawned two other very good matches (Eddie/Nova and Angle/Damaja, both at about ***1/2 - ***3/4). It's a great place to start as it's when the splits of Conway/Dinsmore and Damaja/Machine really begin to shape up. A few other enjoyable matches round the time of the 2/3 Falls: Dinsmore vs Basham at the start of March (the DQ finish) is very good. The Dinsmore/Damaja/Machine match is good (though slightly disappointing) and features on the same show as a match with Sevin and Travis Bane vs Rob Conway and Johnny Jeter which is WAY better than it has any right to be at about ***-***1/4. For those wondering, Seven and Bane are Mordecai and Tomko. Also a good viewing is the Damaja/Dinsmore match in February (another DQ finish) which looked to be heading towards MOTY level stuff before the ending. For those who know Conway, Dinsmore and the Bashams simply from their WWE personas, trust me, you need to check out OVW. It's shocking just how different these guys are to their WWE states, particularly the Bashams.

Question: Are there certain matches that Meltzer simply doesn't rate? Maybe he misses matches, or doesn't mention them, or just comments without adding a rating? I ask this because there seem to be some omissions from that site. No Mercy 01 has SIX ***+ rated matches, yet not one is the triple threat main event. Surely Meltzer wouldn't give matches like Kane/Test and Taker/Booker ***+ ahead of the far superior Austin/Angle/RVD? JD02 has matches like HHH/Jericho and Austin/Flair and Big Show, yet no love for RVD/Eddie? Maybe the guy making the site didn't have the ratings for some matches, or maybe Meltzer didn't think they were good, but it does seem strange. In WCW in 98, he skips the Booker/Saturn/Martel series. I know it's all a matter of opinion, but using the Meltzer system, those matches are easily ***+ The further it goes back, it seems the less Meltzer rates TV matches. Is this because Mike Stamcoff doesn't have much info on back issues of the observer, or that Meltzer has only recently started rating as many TV matches? And finally, looking at the other Observer site (http://home.att.net/~backrake/) Edge & Christian vs. Chris Benoit & Shelton Benjamin WWE Raw 11/15 was described as far better than anything on Survivor Series (11/14). The highest rated match from that night (Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin) was rated ***1/2. Does Meltzer do this a lot? Maybe that is why certain matches are missing? Anyway, it's still a great site of course.

This is annoying. On, I think, the John Cena DVD, it has 'Eddie Guerrero vs John Cena' listed, as well as something to the extent of 'Eddy Guerrero and John Cena doing......'. How the HELL do you give the man's name two different spellings on the very SAME DVD?!?

No what I mean is - if they're going to switch brands, they won't be taking the titles with them, will they? If Orton and Cena are in the title matches at Mania, they're going over. Simple as that. So if they're gonna switch rosters, one would believe it will be to go after their new brand's title. So neither would be champion.

Wouldn't that mean they WON'T be in the title matches?

Heh. Thanks a lot Loss!

Because they lack anything resembling a compelling character, and people the size and build of yourself or people whom you pass by on the street aren't as interesting to watch, no matter how much they leap around. I guess I just imagined the heat for their Velocity match. Or the heat for Kidman vs London at NoMercy. Or the pop when London and Kidman won the tag titles. Or the fact that London and Kidman were getting over without any characters. Boy, we got to go here again, don't we? The whole 'no one cares about cruiserweights' argument. If that is the case, why do people care about Hurricane, Rey, Tajiri? I'll answer for you. They have characters, right? Not really. Tajiri and Helms are two in the crowd. Yet they are (or in Helms' case, can be) over. Rey doesn't exactly have the most develoed character in the world either. So why are they over? They don't have great characters, yet people actually care about them. Could it be, especially in the case of Rey, that people are won over by his ability? No doubt, the mask helps. But, send him out there (on his debut) without, have him wrestle the same match, and he'll be over. How about the fact that Spanky was really over despite being a jobber? So, JBL is more interesting than these guys? If that's the case, why would I tune in to SmackDown if Paul London vs Akio was on, you don't give one shit about JBL? Maybe I'm a typical smark who cares only about anyone under 220lbs and does a million flips, or maybe, just maybe, it's the fact that London + Akio = entertainment, while Bradshaw vs Undertaker = complete and utter crap. But hey, I'm just a typical smark. Bring on more JBL! He's good and stuff now, you know?

Nice to see a mention of O-V-Dub. I'm quite a bit behind on it right now, at the end of 2003. Maybe we could turn this thread into an OVW discussion thread, talking about past matches, best matches, etc. So, anyone who watches OVW fairly regularly?

I guess so. OK, better question: WHY ISN'T PAUL LONDON VS AKIO ON SMACKDOWN?