cabbageboy

You know, I tried watching some of Epic Movie and obviously it sucked, but I have to wonder why they didn't poke fun at LOTR any in it? It was mostly POTC and Narnia.

I don't recall much that Luger did after he turned heel though, so it was kind of a wash until he got involved with Flair more and also the Hummer angle later in the year. I don't recall Hogan getting cheered at all in early 1999. The guy just did a friggin Fingerpoke angle with Nash, had screwed Flair numerous times, had David turn on his dad, etc. Where was this booking that led to him turning face? He seemed like a pretty big douche if you ask me. They were going for Austin/Bret but didn't consider a few things: 1. Austin and Bret were a lot younger and had a vastly better match. 2. The previous booking of Austin/Bret planted the seeds of Bret veering to the heel side while Austin was started to get cheers. Hogan was simply a flat out heel asshole, while Flair was fighting the NWO odds. There was no real reason to turn those guys aside from their egos wanting it.

Raven/Rhino from Backlash 2001 is a forgotten classic. Just a great hardcore brawl with some innovative spots. RVD's run with it was undoubtedly the high point of the title. He's the main guy who really seemed to care about having the belt.

I gotta say after that 1985 show I already miss the goofy 1990 stuff. That stuff is at least consistently hilarious. The 1985 show was just boring as hell, with Jannetty getting worked over for about 10+ mins. by Kiniski, then a tedious and overlong midget match. Hansen/Martel could have made up for it but it was a weak DQ finish.

I'm pretty sure he was released as a trainer in developmental, but that was back when Deep South Wrestling was dropped by WWE. Anyone know more than this?

Oh man I gotta chime in on this one given my previous threads about WCW in 1999 in the past. Richard already gave a good answer but I'll elaborate on some of it further. Hogan/Sting: Hogan pseudo turned face at Uncensored 1999, though in storyline it made zero sense. Unlike Bret/Austin there was no shades of gray that led to Flair going heel and Hogan turning face. Hogan got hurt at the next PPV so this was put on hold until he got back in July 1999, where he went back to the red and yellow look. Sting's "heel" turn was something no one bought at all because even in storyline terms his motives made total sense. Luger was messing with him and Hogan, trying to say Hogan was the Hummer driver, so Sting eventually kicked Hogan's ass. It didn't work since no one bought Hogan in that act in 1999 and Sting was too ingrained as a face in the minds of fans. Bret Hart didn't do much in the first part of 1999. He had a forgettable heel US title run, then eventually Owen's death put him on the sidelines for quite a while. He also did the Goldberg angle. Eventually he came back as a face, had the Benoit match on Nitro as a tribute to Owen, won the world title during the Russo era, then turned heel AGAIN at the end of the year. Sid was a heel doing a win streak angle and debuted during the Hummer angle fiasco. Eventually he started getting pops or something and once he feuded again with Nash he just ended up as a face. DDP had a horrible heel turn. He had been off TV after Steiner injured him, then came back with no heat left and turned heel. He didn't really cheat to win the title exactly. I personally think this dead end angle led to fans tuning out in droves. As far as Goldberg goes....you got me there. After May I don't recall what he was doing until he came back to face DDP in September. Was he filming Universal Soldier 2?

Actually the belt was retired in Aug./Sept. 2002 when RVD unified it with the IC and Euro titles. That match with Dreamer was really good stuff too, probably Dreamer's high point in WWE. The 24/7 stuff was really fun for a while but it eventually became a comedy belt.

Yeah enough of the spinner belt. It's the WWE title and now is away from Cena....so let's have a real belt, please. Of the guys defending at the PPV I think Punk has to get the win most. HHH can lose without really jobbing and MVP with the belt opens up feuds with HHH and UT, not to mention Jeff. It's a solid idea. Henry can afford to lose the ECW belt in such a match and then get ultra pissed and destroy everyone on TV following it. But Punk? He needs to figure out a way to win this match.

I actually found some aspects of Bloodrayne hilarious. Michael Madsen so clearly didn't give a shit that I couldn't decide if it was hilarious or just sad. I will say this about Boll though: I always end up seeing his awful movies.

I don't know how Nash could be a heel in this now, even if he attacked Joe. Joe has spent the past few months being such an asshole to Nash that it makes total sense for Nash to finally have enough. But then I've been perplexed as to how Angle is the flat out heel in this Styles feud. Styles is the dude who is banging his wife (or maybe not, or maybe just wants to, hell I dunno) and Styles is the guy who also just stole his gold medal. Angle is the heel here why exactly?

Thing is, Nikita veered in and out of wrestling due to his wife being sick, right? I doubt Crockett really wanted the big belt on him in that case, nor would Nikita especially want that insane travel schedule. As far as the Dusty Finish goes, I think that style of booking is the sort of thing that worked okay on a regional level with the travelling NWA champion schtick. As in the champ comes in once or twice a year, the local guy looks good, gets a reversal of decision type win but no belt. Thing is, when you do it on a national level and keep doing it with numerous top challengers it just kills everyone's heat and pisses fans off. That's a major reason why I think long term heel champs are a bad idea for a major promotion. Put the heel over clean and it dampens the crowd's spirits and kills off the top faces. Or do the goofy screwjob finishes and it outrages fans who stop coming to shows.

The biggest problem I have with the UWF is that it's just 30 mins. long and I have no time to settle in as a viewer, particularly when they make little attempt to get stuff over. Early Cactus stuff is pretty good on it though...he actually had a fun match with David Sammartino. And call me crazy, but I did like Jimmy Valiant's ranting promo on some jobber manager named Col. Red. I have no idea who that guy even is but once Valiant got through I wanted him to kick Red's ass.

I thought it would be Big Show that would beat down Kendrick and take the spot since he's going around attacking everyone.

Agreed. At the end of the day Kendrick is simply way too small to ever main event. As in smaller than guys like Punk by a substantial margin. Just because the guy had the Big Show toss a bunch of jobbers out of a battle royale some think he is now a bonafide main eventer? I'd like to see Kendrick keep his array of highspots as a heel, much like Morrison has done in ECW. As much crap as I've given Morrison in the past I can at least say the guy does a lot of enjoyable moves in the ring without it detracting from his heel douchebag persona.

I have to wonder....did Dusty book these goofy finishes of his own volition or did he actually want to put the belts on other guys only to have various Horsemen members veto it or complain to Crockett? Dusty gets a lot of crap for the Dusty Finish hurting the NWA.

Yeah I don't see HHH retaining if that UT stip actually happens. Since Shelton has the US title I don't see him remotely getting the world title too, so I'd go with MVP. Though a part of me would find it hysterical if Kendrick lucked into the title (someone hits a finisher on him, he falls on a guy and gets a pin) and UT waxed him in the same night.

I have heard that Kennedy's contract is up at some point during this layoff. I wonder if WWE will bother to renew his deal given how injury prone he is?

Truth be told Jarrett's return already pseudo happened at the last PPV. It wasn't exactly him onscreen exactly but it was obviously him. So there's really no huge deal to his return on PPV at this point. TNA is so hard to follow in terms of the heel/face dynamic at this point that I can't figure any of it out. I'm fairly sure Booker is a heel, I'm sorta sure Nash is a face (?), but guys like Joe, Sting, etc. I have no idea about.

I have much more vivid recollection of Global stuff since by that point I was in middle school and thus got home by that 4:00 time. I have zero recollection at all of the UWF on ESPN 2 but then we didn't get that channel around here until Aug. 1995.

It's an interesting idea. Thing is, should MVP's first run with the belt be a lame hour long reign before jobbing out to UT? It might almost make more sense for MVP to get the title and somehow sneak past UT via DQ or whatever, then you have UT and HHH both going after MVP for the title.

They booked themselves into a corner with that one. Hennig probably should have kept the belt due to the Bret feud and the silly Bossman/Mountie feud didn't need a title. Yet Bossman had been built up too well to simply job him there.

The big question we all have to ponder is this: What will ESPN show after those last few episodes? Will they go back in time to 1989 and exhaust the entire AWA library? Or will they start showing old WCCW, USWA, Global? There's usually something on each of these AWA shows that is deliriously entertaining. I would have watched them more at the time if they had been on in a better time slot. A weekend slot at 4:00 on ESPN would have been better than Monday at 4:00 (that was it, right?). At that point I was in elementary school and then went to after school daycare, so I didn't even get home until after 5.

I didn't think Windham debuted until about a year after Goldust had already been in the WWF. But yeah I was also baffled at Goldust initially until he got in the ring and took off the wig, then I saw the obvious short blond hair and knew it was Dustin. The sad thing about Dustin Rhodes' career is that his actual work was quite good in his early 90s WCW run, but he had little charisma on the mic. Once he became Goldust he certainly improved light years as a character and on the mic, but his physical peak had passed and his ring work was largely crappy.

Gagne is truly bizarre on commentary. Half the time he doesn't even know the rules of his own promotion, like these various bizarre top rope rules. Or he ranted about Trooper going into tag wrestling when he would have preferred to see him focus on the AWA world title. I was like "Man, you're the promoter...if you want the guy in the singles title scene, book him in it!" That was a fairly fun tag match though. Even when the AWA was at its lamest in 1990 they did usually have something resembling comepetent pro wrestling on it. That and countless WT Jones jobs.

I recall Lawler using the Raw before the 2000 election to do nothing but slam Al Gore. So if a few people in FL or NH actually listened to him, Lawler has a lot to answer for. This was a really good show tonight. Hardy/Morrison was a really excellent match and Bourne/Miz was solid as well. I've given Morrison some crap on here in the past, mainly because I thought he was a bad choice to be ECW champion during that post Benoit fiasco. While I still stand by that from last year, I think he's showing that he should be considered for another run with that belt or maybe even a trade to Raw to renew his rivalry with Punk.