RavishingRickRudo

Vince usually pushes the guys he wants to push. There is the odd occasion where Vince hears the pop of the crowd at a certain time and place and will be motivated by it - especially if it catches him off guard. How you tell the difference between the regular pop and the money pop? Well, there is the intensity of the pop, the context of the pop, and the guy himself, not to mention the secondary things like Merch sales, Autograph turnout, signs, etc. Hulk Hogan was near 50 when he was the most over guy on the show, the fans loved to see him, but it was clear that the fans didn't necessarily pay to see his PPV's as champ or tune into the television shows with him as champ. So, in that case, the fans wanted to see him but they didn't want to see him as the top guy. Jericho may be in the "top 5" of over guys, but the intensity of the pop he gets isn't really there. Watching the 10 man tag from Texas in 2000, you really notice how there's a big difference between the crowd heat then and now. You just don't get people jumping up and down for him any more. You don't get that for most, if not all, of the guys now. I think Cena had something when he went into the crowd, his chain gang, and got them all going, but for some reason he stopped that. If the crowd goes bonkers for a guy, there is a good chance they'll pay to see him. But they went bonkers for Eugene and I don't think anyone would really pay to see him. So the guy in question does matter. You can't just look at one thing and make the call, you actually *gasp* have to think. Which is why what Rrrsh was saying was funny to me, because he's just going by "top 5 over" when the realities of the situation aren't being factored in. And you know what? Vince has a marketing team. They can easily to market research and find out which guy is the right guy. I, personally, don't think the WWE does enough Market Research (that goes for most, if not all, wrestling companies out there, actually) especially with the resources they have. After every show they should be gathering fans together to get a clear picture of what is working and what isn't. They should be looking at patterns, they should be finding correleations, they should have crowd reaction down to a science and they clearly aren't doing that because they rely on cheap heat so much. But, in the end, Vince pushes the guys he wants and thinks will get over most based on his past experiences. "Big guy with muscles" = "Hulk Hogan", and he just throws guys out there hoping something will stick.

Hey come on now. Hogan got huge pops in 2002 and his title run was great for business.

Benoit hasn't been rendered sterile like Jericho when it comes to believability, but I'm someone who believed the guy could have actually carried the company and been the #1 star, and any potential of that was killed in 2004 when he went to RAW. I think, if they continue on doing what they have been doing since Summerslam 04 with Benoit (having him put over all the "newer" guys, something that Taker, Austin, Rock, and HHH should have done 5 years ago) he'd be Jericho'd by fall or winter. Benoit needs a lil more "protection", IMO. He hasn't really had a good feud since... um... ??? If they don't give him anything interesting (and being on Smackdown certainly limits that, at least on RAW he had Sheldon Benjamin) and if his ring work continues to suffer, then I see the crowd interest diminishing for him.

No, of course I don't think he will win. He got a hot-shot build and he is obviously their to add star power to the match. And yet 3 weeks with HHH would??? Jericho is there simply because they have nothing else for him. As for your points. A: With two brands, your dreaming. See Benoit, Chris. 2004. HHH, HBK, Kane, BENOIT. B: With a proper build, that can easily be washed away You'd have to get rid of every "name" on the roster for that to happen, to the point to where Robert Conway is the next in line for a title shot. Not easy at all. We're talking about 5 years of history to "wash away". C: Your dead wrong Why does Chris Jericho wrestle? What's his motivation? Why would he even want to carry the title anymore? D: That is not a Jericho-Only thing, that can be said for anyone. So thats not a valid reason to push Wrestler A over him, if Wrestler A can fall to that fate. It doesn't happen to Hunter. It didn't happen to Rock, Austin, Brock. Hell, even HBK and Angle to a point. The mark of a true star isn't that they hold the title, it's if they manage to stay in the spotlight _after_ they lose the title. Jericho, on SO many occasions (rising up in 2000 until Fullyloaded, then shot back down the card, rising up after WM 17 w. Benoit and against Austin at KOTR, then shot back down the card, rising up to win the undisputed title at Vengeance, shot back down the card after WM 18 (wasn't even on the next PPV!), HHH needed to fill the void for a HIAC and tossed Jericho around, shot back down, then against Michaels at WM 19, shot back down afterwards... and that's been about it in terms of high profile feuds) went up and back down the card. Actually, I think more than ANYONE, Jericho has done this (maybe Benoit and Angle...hmm). Going into a title match, who is more likely to be shot back down the card - Jericho, who has done it numerous times, or say Chris Masters, who hasn't done it once. Or Hassan. You can say it with anybody, but with most guys there's a chance -even if it's 1%- that they could stay up the card. With Jericho, it's a guarantee. The reason to not push him is because the fans would have their guard up moreso with Jericho than anyone else. As far as the Top 5 thing, Jericho is just plain entertaning. He dosn't always have hsi A game, but always has that potential. And when you switch from face to heel as much as Jericho has, the 2000 thing is weak. So you admit that Jerichos pop isn't that strong?

They gave him a title reign, it sucked. It sucked for the same reasons it would suck today: 1) Jericho would be the #4 guy even with the title. 2) Everyone would expect Jericho to drop it to someone bigger and be a transition champion. 3) Jerichos character isn't strong enough to hold the title for long periods of time. 4) After the title reign, Jericho will drop down the card immediately as he always does when put in a high spot on the card. Being in the "top 5" of the most over guys isn't a plus for Jericho, it's just a minus for everyone else. The WWE is in rough condition and hasn't created stars to get the crowd excited. So the crowd attaches itself to the guys who were once exciting back when wrestling was popular. Scotty 2 Hotty got huge pops when he returned and still gets people on their feet despite not doing anything for 5 years. Why? Because he was over in 2000. Besides Canada, Jericho's pops aren't at the level a top guys should be. Not even close. It's only because we have been accustomed to a lower-level of popularity over the past 3 or 4 years that he is in the top 5 of most over guys. Put his response in 2000, and he wouldn't be in the top 10 or even the top 15. Wow, he outpops Rosie, GIVE HIM THE TITLE AND WATCH HIM SOAR! Even Once Red-Hot Batista couldn't get much from beating HHH because everyone knows HHH will get it back, so I doubt Jericho would get much from a 3 week build and a win from Trips. Oh, and does ANYONE think Jericho will take the title from Cena?? Anyone? Anyone? Rrrsher? Hmm, I wonder why that is???

"Fans were leaving in droves" for Credibles title reign? They got their biggest crowd during Credibles title reign, and I don't really recall seeing any empty seats during any of their TV. I enjoyed the Corino/Lynn/Credible "feud", whether Corino was a "credible" champion in ECW was kinda irrelevant, since ECW wasn't really "credible" to begin with. Having WWE's and WCW's scraps tend to do that. So the question isn't about credibility, it's about believability. At that time in ECW, it was believable to me that Corino could contend with Lynn and Credible. Beat them? Not really, but he could hang. Getting the title IMO was a bit of a mistake, but it was near ECW's death so it doesn't really bother me. They were grooming Rhyno for the top spot anyways.

Jericho has been established as a fluffer for bigger stars, he can't be a main event guy any more. That's why the HBK WM 19 match is significant - it was his last 'big' feud that could have raised him to bigger and better things, but he lost it and went back down the card and back to being meaningless. He's been jerked around the card too much for too long; if he were to win the big title fans would expect him to lose it and go right back down to the midcard fighting for the IC title. If the fans expect him to lose it, then they can't be invested in his reign. They will have their guard up, and rightly so.

Maybe Jericho can't play anything else?

Jericho probably could have rebounded if he beat Michaels at WM. It was unlikely, but there was still a chance of it. The loss made it absolutely sure he'd never make it as a main player. It was the same sorta story that Booker was doing, one that he _had to_ win. People just focus on Bookers because of the race deal and because of HHH. People are a lot more forgiving of Michaels for some reason. Jerichos loss solidified him as second-rate, so no one would buy him with top gold around his waist. Personally, if I were looking to get "older" matches, I wouldn't look to WWE DVD's. They tend to throw in some silly choices and there are lots of dealers on the net that could give you a comp tape for about the same price. From what I do know, the HOF DVD, Hogans DVD, Flairs DVD, The Roadwarriors DVD, Foleys DVD, 80's Superstars DVD, and the bloodbath DVD all have "old school" matches on them.

John D. Williams 20 Favorite All Japan Pro Wrestling Matches of the 70s and 80s 1. 07/25/74 - The Destroyer vs. Mil Mascaras (US Title) One of the three best matches from the 70s that I've seen on tape. The Destroyer is a master here in working towards the positives that Mil could bring to the ring, which at this time were fairly large. Nifty matwork combining the best of old school matwork (which Beyers is just about the best I've ever seen at), and nifty lucha matwork (which Mil is more than willing to bust out). The typical solid comedy from Beyers, along with state of the art flying for the time. A very athletic match, with Beyers being one of the most graceful athletic wrestlers of the era. Their meeting the prior October is a bit more heated, but was sloppy and disjointed in spots as they weren't use to working with each other at the time. Here they clicked, and Beyer knew exactly what to do. Even the non-finish is cool. 28 wonderful minutes. 2. 12/09/75 - Giant Baba vs. Harley Race (75 Open League) A nice slow build as they have thirty minutes to fill. They spend a bit too much time laying around at times, as Harley isn't Beyers when it comes to great matwork - solid, but not great. At times they cross up just a bit. But the match is also full of lots of great stuff and a very good extant example of Harley as a worker a year before winning the world title to begin his long run with it. And what they hey... Baba's god in it as well. 3. 03/28/76 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Rusher Kimura Promotion vs. Promotion five and a half years before Kimura vs. Inoki and NJPW vs. IWE would start the change in puroresu. You get a preview of the future here, as this is SUPER HEATED~! to the degree that I can't recall being matches in AJPW in the decade. This isn't an elegant wrestling match. It feels more like an intense fight, which is what you want out of an interpromotional match more than trying to work a subtle match. This won the 1976 Tokyo Sports Match of the Year and you can see why. While it's not as good as the Funk vs. Jumbo later in the year, this has more of a "big match" feel to it and that intensity goes a long way. Sure, we all know that it's going to go to the non-finish finish at the end. But they give us 25 nifty minutes of work before that. 4. 06/11/76 - Terry Funk vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (NWA Title) The second of the Terrific Trio of the Seventies. This is Terry's only title defense in Japan, and its against his and Dory's protege. For fans raised on Crazy Terry putting on The Terry Show, this is the single best match I've seen that shows the other side of Terry - Terry The Wrestler. Just a terrific wrestling match. Terry takes it to the match like a king... in fact, he's more entertaining on the mat in this match than Dory and Brisco are in their entire January 1974 60:00 draw in AJPW that you'll find noticable absent from this list. In addition to the matwork by both, they bring the suplexes that are starting to become state-of-the-art, and Terry's not afraid to bust out just a bit of his wacky selling. Terry plays NWA Champ well, making Jumbo looks strong while keeping himself strong and going over. Jumbo plays rising star perfectly. The finish has the Jumbo Killer busted out, and Jumbo sells it in a way that it would be his achilles heel in many a defeat throughout his career. Awesome match that makes you smile at the same time it's melting your mind. 5. 03/05/77 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson (UN Title) Billy does so many nifty things in the ring that you forgive him of his jarring transitions and less than cooperative nature. And Jumbo's brilliance is his ability to work with just about anyone, and learn what they like to do, and fit his stuff in and around it. There are a lot of Jumbo vs. Billy matches available. You really can't go wrong with one of them. 6. 06/11/77 - Harley Race vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (NWA Title) The third of the Terrific Trio of the Seventies. Harley showing why, among hardcore fans in the 80s, he was an underrated NWA Champ, and Jumbo showing why in the same circles he was underrated period. The perfect touring NWA Champ match where the Champ comes in, faces the rising star, both look great, Champ wins in the end. At 22 minutes over three falls, it's not the longest title match... but that works as Harley is a wrestling machine here, and Jumbo is well on his way into developing into a wrestling machine as well. Just a great match. 7. 10/31/79 - Harley Race vs. Giant Baba (NWA Title) Harley's first title loss to Baba. Baba's getting up there and clearly starting to slow down. The spry young athletic wrestler of the great 1969 draw with The Destroyer is long since gone. But he's smart in the ring, willing to go, has continually added new moves to his arsenal over the years, and is terrificly over with *his* fans. Harley is Harley, as always knowing exactly what he can do with an opponent, what they bring to the table, and able to think of a few bits of offense he can "add" to the opponent like the old "I try to gutwrench you... oh no... you gutwrench me!" These two have wrestled a hundred times by this point (I exagerate slightly), are in synch here even if methodical, and build a nice 18:30 one fall match. The crowd at the finish reacts exactly as the crowd in Budokan a decade later does when Misawa beats Jumbo - pops like mad at seeing something they didn't think they were going to see. I love Harley, and I love coming across good Baba matches... so this was two-for-two in finding it's way into my favorites list. 8. 12/12/81 - The Funk Brothers vs. Brusier Brody & Jimmy Snuka "Oh? Hansen? STAN HANSEN!?!?!?!" -All Japan play-by-play announcer "Baba? Where's Baba?!?!" -a bleeding Stan Hansen backstage afterward Oh... and the match was pretty nifty too. 9. 02/04/82 - Giant Baba vs. Stan Hansen (PWF Title) The first Hansen vs. Baba match, and a great example of just how good Hansen was at the time. Very similar to his amazingly fun outdoor match with Andre back in New Japan. How do you have a good match with these slowing Giants? Brawl intensely from the start to take the crowd's breath away and never let up. Baba's another two years slower and even for this Baba Fan is getting really painful to watch. Hansen doesn't let it get in his way as he puts on a one man show dragging and pulling Baba along for the ride. Heck, Baba even does what he can here. 10. 05/22/84 - Harley Race vs. Ric Flair 11. 05/22/84 - Kerry Von Erich vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (NWA Title) This is one of the best TV shows in history. The Race vs. Flair is a well paced match that has the crowding going far more than you would think. Much better than their Starcade '83 match. Kerry vs. Jumbo is a masterpiece by Jumbo. 12. 02/16/85 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Masa Saitoh & Riki Choshu Just a taste of what could have been. This has a typical for the era non-finish, and very much a compressed match as if they were saving more for later matches. But there are enough flashes here that make you want to weep over Saitoh going nutty and getting sent to the slammer as it deprived us of this feud developing over 1985 before we went off on the more famous tag feud of the Choshu's Army Invades All Japan era... 13. 01/28/86 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (Intl Tag Title) Awesome match. Enough has been said about it over the years, so I'll just add one - Jumbo's role in this feud was completely missed at the time. 14. 03/13/86 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Animal Hamaguchi A perfect Big Man vs. Little Man match, laid out and executed by *Tsuruta*. Another one of those things that was missed at the time. This one is so obvious that you scratch your head how it was. I like Animal quite a bit, but if you truly analyze how the match is worked, it's Jumbo's 100%. 15. 10/28/88 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiro Tenryu This tends to get forgotten in the (deserved) praise of the 6/89 match between the two. It's a great match on its own right, and Jumbo is exceptional in carrying it. Jumbo... exceptional... I'm a broken record. I think we all overrated Tenryu back in the day, and underrated Tsuruta. Rewatching 80s All Japan in the mid-to-late 90s, along with new people seeing them and offering up consensus-contrary opinions, helped open up people eyes. 16. 12/16/88 - Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada (88 RWTL) This was the puroresu match I watched back in January 1989, so I have a soft spot in my heart for it. Some elements of it don't hold up. But it still does make me smile when it hits my VCR. 17. 01/28/89 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu & Masa Fuchi vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Footloose The first of many great All Japan six-man tags I watched. Again, a special place in my heart. 18. 05/24/89 - Genichiro Tenryu & Footloose vs. Dan Spivey & Can-Am Express Another great AJPW six-man tag. Tenryu and Spivey as the big guys with the underdog partners... but boy could those partners go. Spivey here, and at the coming Budokan against Sting, was an eye opener as he was good. Those two matches seemed to set for a Tenryu vs. Spivey TC match that never happened. The other four were setting up something special. 19. 06/05/89 - Footloose vs. Can-Am Express (All Asia Tag Title) The native Footloose were the underdog faces in the Revolution vs. Olympians feud. Here they were getting booed out of the building against the *gaijin* Can-Ams. I would have been scratching my head more if the action on the screen wasn't popping me left and right. Think MX vs. Fans, just a bit more state of the art in moves though lacking that great element of Corny at ringside. Terrific match that at the time was the best tag match I'd ever seen. (at the time having not seen the 1/86 match listed above) 20. 06/05/89 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiro Tenryu (Triple Crown) I think the double play of the prior match and this one on that Budokan show opened my eyes to just how great puroresu was. I'd really enjoyed my six months of watching up to that point, but at the same time Flair vs. Steamboat were having the best matches I'd ever seen. Seeing Jumbo and Tenryu put on a match that I thought was as good if not better than Flair vs. Steamboat, and then on the following week's TV the Footloose and Can-Am Express put on a Fans vs. MX high end caliber match to reality - there are guys over here that are as good as the best I've seen in the US. Epiphany. So while a lot of this list may change over time as I see more of the 70s and 80s AJPW, these two will almost certainly hold down a slot. John www.otherarena.com

Does anyone get excited for Jericho anymore? If they do, I don't see it. It's more of a "You were once really over back when wrestling was cool" kinda pop. And I never said that losing to Michaels was the absolute cause for his death as a main eventer, I said it was the final nail in the coffin. He was dying well before that, the WM loss was just the fatal blow.

I heard reports that, oddly enough, a fan gave HHH and Steph a DVD of 90210 and they enjoyed it so much they got Vince to hire one of the writers for the show.

It came off as "Jericho can't beat HBK" (the theme of the feud was "I used to mimic HBK, now I must exceed him to go to another level", fuck the "at leasts", that match ended Jerichos career as a possible main eventer. I can't believe people to this day try to argue this when history has clearly shown that he has never recovered from that loss. To me, the best match on that card was Taker vs. Albert/Big Show. So there ya go. Oh, and the Hogan DVD is missing most of his best matches. I wouldn't call it essential WWE viewing material, cept if you want to see the very homoerotic Hogan/Mene Gene training videos. Hogan/Andre is the only thing on the DVD that I watch repeatedly.

To cap it all off, I don't think this is a bad promotion so much as it is just poorly booked. That many singles matches, all going well over 10 minutes... it's too much. There needs to be variety. They could have EASILY put Beef Wellington in a tag with Osiris and Hazuki against Nick Watts, Black Jabroni and Asylum. That match could have been an elimination style match where they could have gotten all their spots and storylines in and didn't have to be so damn repetitive. Start off the show with Darkstone vs. Mack, then do the 3 vs. 3, then do Steen vs. Knight, then do a quick squash, then do the scramble, then do the Prohibition match, and then the main event (actually, the ME shouldn't have been the last match, as it was mainly comedy though CC was the "big" star on the show. The other title match had a title change, so it probably should have went on last.) This didn't need so many singles matches.

..Continued. After the intermission (the announcer said 10 minutes, but it felt like 20 to me), out came the only guy who actually looked like a pro wrestler. I have no idea who the guy was, and he looked like a generic wrestler who came from the WCW power plant, but he should have been used better than beating some fat guy. Take him, have him squash one of the skinny guys, and build a monster. It's what Paul Heyman would have done... it's what Paul Heyman did do. It was Awesome. Then came Lionel Knight vs. Kevin Steen. Steen was one of only 3 guys who looked "polished". He wasn't great or anything, but he didn't do anything overly stupid in the ring either. Another longish bout where they traded offense (8 singles matches, all had the same fucking structure), he won with a very nicely done moonsault. Josh Prohibition vs. Chris Bishop. Best thing I can say is that the end of the match had JP winning the belt and cutting the stereotypical babyface acceptance speech and then saying "if you believe any of what I just said you're dumber than I thought!" and then said he'd put the belt on Ebay and everyone can suck his cock. He then made jerk off motions on the belt. Did I mention there were 20 or so children in the audience? Not a particularly bad match, it just didn't do anything for me. Last match of the night was THE match of the night. One of the funniest matches I've seen, Colt Cabana vs. MDogg20. Lots of comedy spots, most I haven't seen before. Very impressed with CC's live charisma. Some guy yelled out "bor-ing" and Cabana quickly said "Fuck-You", thus prompting a "Fuck you!" chant from the crowd. The worst thing I can say about this match was that the crowd did the dueling chants thing... like, for most of the match. God that's bad. So fucking bad. Especially when there are people who say both names. The best spot of the night IMO was when Cabana and MDogg did a cradle pin spot all around the ring and the ref was following them trying to count it - when it was eventually broken up (maybe a dozen rotations around the ring?) they all stood up and all fell back down dizzy (including the ref). So much good stuff in this. Hell, it may be my MOTY, certainly my live MOTY. I really, really enjoyed it. It was the only thing that got a good pop out of me the whole night.

In order to prepare myself for the Warrior1 show coming in a week and change I decided on a whim (I was in the area) to check out the UWA show that was running Friday night. I had always intended on going to their shows as they are hosted in Mississauga monthly, it's just up to a few weeks ago I never knew where. I got there late, they said the doors opened at 7:00 and there were still people outside lined up by 7:15. I hate talking wrestling to anyone besides Curry in "real life" so I just kept to myself in line and for the whole night; that, and wrestling fans are fucking annoying and tonight was no different. The demographic breakdown is as such: 90% white 95% male 40% wore hats 35-40% wore wrestling tshirts 85% were between 16-26 5-10% were under 16 5-10% were over 35 By about 7:20 or 7:30 I got inside St. Johns Hall, picked the first seat I saw (3 or 4 rows behind the turnbuckle) and there was a match between two stereotypical indy workers was going on. No idea who they were, one guy was wearing a cut-off t-shirt and the other guy was dressed like the Ultimo Dragon. The only good spot was when the UD clone (cough) did a handspring against the ropes and the other guy did a low drop kick to his face in the process. I can't really remember who won. Then came a Joey Styles rip off, Joe E Slick (I thought it was Joey Schtick at first, which impressed me. Then I realized it was Slick and reality set in.) UWA fans, apparently, are the best in the world. What makes them different from any other fanbase on the planet? Oh, they paid to see UWA. The first match was a 6 man scramble match between Rip Impact, Matt Bison, Jeff Flury, Devon Parkside, Blade, and of course, Snapdragon. Rip Impact dared to deviate from the mold as he had long hair, as opposed to the shorter coif everyone else sported. Other than that he was made from the lanky, black hair, pathetic attempt at facial hair, shitty tights, no idea how to wrestle template. Two guys in this match looked exactly alike, I dunno if that was intentional or not. The match itself was a crazy spotfest that the crowd enjoyed and I just shook my head at. I don't want to say that I know more about wrestling than the fine folks at UWA, so please read between the lines and assume that I am saying exactly that. This was the ONLY non-singles match on the show and they have it as the designated opener (I guess the first match was a "dark" match...) And not only that, but it goes on for 15-20 minutes AND they TOOOTALLY blow their wad in it. They did some crazy-ass shit that -if put into a better context and had actually been built- would have impressed me. Nothing (NOTHING) the rest of the night could top the spots done in this match - AND THEY HAD 8 MORE MATCHES TO GO AND MOST OF THEM HAD CRAZY SPOTS IN THEM! But since the spots were much more crazy and constant in the first match the spots done later on in the show were tame in comparison! - so here's a fucking lesson to aspiring and current bookers - DON'T BLOW YOUR WAD IN THE FIRST MATCH!! At the very least, this should have been put before the intermission so fans could recover from it. Who ever booked this show needs to either stop or think for once. You didn't see the TLC's opening the Summerslam or WM cards now did you? Pacing of a show is crucial and something like this should never start off a show. And if you do, DON'T LET THEM UPSTAGE THE OTHER WRESTLERS!! Restraint is a GOOD THING sometimes. And then there are the wrestlers. What the fuck are you thinking?! How much are you getting paid?? WHO TAUGHT YOU HOW TO WORK?! Jesus fucking christ! Here's a lesson to aspiring wrestlers - when you are in the back before a match, or in the match itself, and are planning big spots, think to yourself "am I maximizing the potential impact/crowd response for the move? There were so many throwaway spots in that match. I can't remember most of them. When you do 100 crazy moves in a match, and only 2 or 3 stick out, what was the point of doing those other 97? It's just wasteful to the match, to the other wrestlers, and to your (and their) body. And they didn't even build from a lesser crazy move to a more crazy move. If you are going to do a spotfest (yeah, like it was a choice with these goobers) then at the very least, save the craziest spot for last. In this match, it was all random. Plus they blatently caught each other. They did the *everyone out on the floor while guys take turns jumping from in the ring on to each other* spot, and they didn't even bother making it look natural. Instead they all just looked up like idiots and waited for the other guy to fall on them. BRILLIANT! Oh, and I could kick the shit out of any of these guys. Whether I actually could or not is irrelevant, the very fact that I think it takes away their credibility. I'm not advocating steroid use, but these guys looked like they could be serving me at a McDonalds counter. Stan Hansen could kick my ass, and he didn't have an amazing body. And most of these guys looked like they bought their tights from the same online retailer. Shiny pants, with shitty prints on em. To complete the outfit - a t-shirt. This may sound trivial to some, but wrestling is a visual medium, so it's important. The next match was Beef Wellington vs. Asylum (though the program said it was match #3. For a guy who never been to a show, something like an accurate program is important). To show that this is not all bitching, I enjoyed Beef Wellington a lot. He is from the IWS (International Wrestling Syndicate) and his big move is the Ass Punch. His music is "Hangin Tough" by NKOTB and it starts off with a cow mooing. His gear is green and black cow print pants and a cow on his shirt. He cut a promo before the match saying that he knows why Asylum is so angry, but not to worry, he can buy a shirt for $15 at the souvenir stands after he loses. Asylum is a Rhyno clone. The match itself was nothing really to write home about, but Beef was fun as he was kinda mock-wrestling/kayfabe breakin by saying "I'm gonna tap him out with a headlock!" and whatnot. They built the ass punch up with an enzigiri to the ass and then he went to the top and landed it (pretty self-explanitory). Beef sold the impact like he landed a fatal blow, while Asylum was all "what the fuck was that?!". Good shit. Then came The Amazing Blackstone vs. Tony Mack. Blackstones gimmick is that he is a magician, and Tony Mack is "The Club Stud" who had his family in the crowd. Match was awful. Third match in a row with a headlock (i think only one match DIDN'T). The highlight was TAB bringing in a magic wand and the ref taking it away only for it to extend into a string-like thingie which he used to choke Mack with. TAB looks like Eddie Guerrero, kinda, but his gimmick is that he has gay pants... Mack closed out with a shitty Rock-esque promo, which had me wonderin why this overly tanned Italian was the face in the match. Then came Nick Watts vs. Osiris. Osiris is one of the "founding fathers" of UWA and is one of the most over guys there. He, to me, really fucking sucks in the ring. When I say "sucks", I don't mean "botches moves", I just mean his moves have no real purpose. It all seems so video-gamie too me. And I really fucking hate that. And he wears a tshirt... and so does Nick Watts. The match was boring. They did some "lucha" submissions, there was no real pacing or flow to it. It seemed like they were trying to build a "intense" match, but they didn't do a very good job at it. I kinda get a headache just thinkin about it. Went long. Black Jabroni vs. Hazuki was next. BJ was cornering Nick Watts in the previous match, and he got his ass kicked by Osiris. Which has me questioning why on earth would THIS match go second. It was already established that BJ sucks because he couldn't do anything to Osiris, so all this does is make Hazuki look bad. The best thing about this match was BJ's entrance, which was a technofied Darth Vader theme and he came out with a hood and cloak on. I should note that this guy is like 12. I actually enjoyed him too, cept for his actual wrestling. This went WAY too long. It should have been a 5 minute sprint and instead it was a 15 minute marathon. Most of the shit they did was no sold, blah blah blah. TBC...

...And if HBK lost and hadn't put the final nail in Jerichos coffin. I'd say the Hardy Boyz' Leap of Faith DVD is Essential, considering they (negatively, if could be argued) influenced wrestling so much in 1999 and 2000. It has 3 big spotfests in the No Mercy 99 Ladder match, the Summerslam 2000 TLC, and the WM X-7 TLC.

I, for one, enjoy SJ's insane theories. hmm, that was a tad backhanded

The second episode was an improvement in many areas. The better: - The video quality was much better. Clearer. They didn't do nearly as many "tricks" with it - just the 'scream'. - A lil more comedy than the last episode, though I'd like a lil more. - Baldwin's hair was much better! So was his performance. The moustache thing was great. They also took away the gray from the other dudes hair, which was good. The Good: - The guest this week was great. I don't know his name, but he's the dude who was in Die Hard. Fuckin great at playing Smarmy. Strong performance, IMO. - Though it was obvious that the cop was the one doing it, I liked him doing the rape thing and then shooting himself in the head. The theme of "control" was nicely done there. It wasn't a "nice and tidy" finish. - The preacher with the cookies. Nice. - I liked how they took us step-by-step through her cuffing. I prefer the systematic method of detective work (like they do in CSI) than the "something is not right here" style. The bad: - It seems really quick. I dunno why. I guess I'm so used to serial killers on CSI getting 2 or more episodes to develop. While they took us through the process of her cuffing, they didn't really take us through anything else. I like the more technical aspects of solving crimes, rather than the "let's use Locke as bait" method. - Two episodes. Two "it's not who you think" twists. Two times Coyote set up Locke. Two times Locke got in trouble and managed to solve the crime. The shock for the next episode would be not having any shocks at all. - I still can't buy her in the role. She's too pretty, or something. She's not a particularly bad actress, I just... they haven't really done anything to give her credibility. I'd rather her spout off technobabble than her just look at shit and come up with shit. This whole silence of the lambs thing just ain't workin for me. - I still don't like the other chick. She just doesn't fit. Though I like that they put two Minear-vets together. - The black guy. Could he BE any more "the black guy"? Overall: I liked this episode enough to watch it next week.

Half??! The only thing that separated the other half was their hair colour.

Was she the one with the big tits and no interesting personality?

I think with race angles (like this), you either go for the fences or don't go at all. If you aren't trying to get people to rush the ring and riot, then why even bother? I'm all for evoking passion in the fans, it's what wrestling is all about. It's when the WWE half-asses it and the fans only respond with "USA" chants that it bothers me ("bother" is the closest word to describe my feeling, I don't really care that much about it to be upset). Have some goddamn balls, Vince.

My only problem is that Austin tried to be "open-minded" and "unbiased", which was total bullshit on every level. I don't want to see an open-minded Stone Cold, I don't want to see him fighting for justice and the american way. I don't think anyone does. I hate it when the WWE tries to be overtly PC (and then, of course, do something very much not PC). I think an interesting way to go about this is to have the WWE go waaaaaay overboard on the racism to the point to where the fans get uncomfortable and start CHEERING for Hassan. Like, have him get beat down so excessively bad that the once cheering fans go silent, have the wrestlers giving the beat down yell out slurs and do things that would make soliders at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo blush. Put a few plants in the crowd to start a "Hassan" chant, have JR yell "THIS IS NOT WHAT AMERICA IS ABOUT!!", and I think you could build a face from that. It's risky though, reeeeeally fucking risky. You'd have to build it for a few weeks, where every week they step over the line a lil more than the week previous, until the final beat down. You'd have to mix it up with heels and faces too, and some unlikely suspects.

http://www.tv.com/sex-ed/episode/32751/summary.html Just cause I wanted to revisit the show.

Dames: One Night Stand... review! TSMub TSMub TSMub! The Table EN FUEGO~!