cabbageboy

I don't disagree with any of these Nash bashing assessments, but once you stop caring about the eventual fate of WCW his silly spiel has some entertainment in it. Nash would have made a good used car salesman. The Fall Brawl 2000 era Nitro would indeed be the better choice. The early 2001 show is a bit sad with Sid's leg and all, not to mention it probably isn't even that bad of a show. There was a Thunder from Sept. 2000 that had a goofy segment with Bret and Goldberg, where Bret just trashes him over ending his career. This would have been a great segment if Bret could have actually wrestled him, but it was mostly to promote Steiner/Goldberg at the PPV. Being Russo there had to be some dumbass moment in it though, where Goldberg says he knows how Bret feels because "I've seen the shoot interviews!" This of course begs the question: If Bret was shooting in those other interviews, what exactly was he doing on Thunder? Following a script?

I have to admit that while I am anticipating this a great deal (certainly more than Batman Begins, which comparatively had much less hype), some aspects of the marketing worry me a little. The trailers and ads focus almost entirely on The Joker, which makes me wonder if Nolan is going to end up falling into the Burton trap of giving The Joker all the interesting stuff to do and mostly ignores Batman. My brother did note that at least there was a previous Batman origin film this time, unlike in 1989 where Batman simply shows up.

Since I was familiar with the 1992 version I watched the ones I hadn't seen. I wish they would have put the original 87 one on here instead since it was at the Omni and was a much better match, or at least better filmed. The 1993 match was fairly weak I thought aside from Dustin Rhodes taking his boot off and using it as a weapon and also bleeding big time. He was the only guy in it that seemed to know what the hell he was doing in a Wargames, but that should be expected. 1995 was actually quite fun considering the dubious talents of the heels involved. But man was it me or did Zodiac carry that match big time? I mean he sold for Hogan like there was no tomorrow, which is also to be expected. The 1989 match is one I had mostly forgotten and watching it again made me realize why. It really isn't all that notable. No one bleeds, which is inexcusable for a 1987-92 era Wargames. Come on Bobby Eaton, you were the first man in there....tap an artery! It's the only midcard Wargames match.

I did in fact sorta watch this show on my own time, though not when this was supposed to be happening. Maybe it's about 8 years of mediocre wrestling since 2008, but time has dimmed my disdain for this Nitro. The Varsity Club match was of course hideous and boring, but nearly everything else was at least sorta passable. Maybe I'm the only one who was amused by Nash on this show. I mean he worked in references to Oz and Vinnie Vegas, what more could you want?

You know I couldn't resist and have actually watched some of this show. Oddly enough this show is nowhere near as bad as I remembered. Kidman/Psychosis wasn't too bad, and with Crowbar doing most of the work the match with him and David vs. 3 Count was decent.

I refused to pay to see that 2000 SuperBrawl PPV. I saw it at a sports bar instead and at least managed to have some sort of decent time. I tried it again with Uncensored 2000, but by that point the sports bar refused to carry WCW PPVs and was just showing March Madness instead, even though the games would have been over by the time the PPV started. I had a friend of mine with me, so we agreed to leave and get the PPV. So yes, I was one of that .10 or whatever that got Uncensored 2000.

Al, you mention the 1993 Wargames as being a letdown. You were expecting greatness out of a match involving The Shockmaster?

I don't have a problem with McCool winning the Diva title....I have a problem with the title existing at all. Lushus, as far as MVP goes, isn't he buried enough already? I haven't seen anything quite like what they did with MVP, where the guy seemingly got buried while having a year long run with a major title. Matt Hardy's illness/injury really hurt MVP I think, it took him out of a fun storyline and put him in with guys like Batista that he couldn't beat. So he ended up doing a lot of non title clean jobs. I know some will blame HHH for holding people down, but SD has had a problem with elevating people for a while now. While Raw at least finally said "Fuck it, let's put the belt on Punk and see what happens" SD seems incapable of taking chances like this, or when they do the guy either sucks and isn't over (Khali) or they book him horribly (Rey).

The disturbing thing about Atlas is that there are a variety of talented guys dicking around in devlopmental right now (Cabana, Killings, Harris, even guys like Lewington). Of all the guys to call up, they call him up? The one thing I will say in his defense is that in an OVW of cookie cutter guys he did at least stand out and was memorable.

Yeah but they could have set up HHH vs. MVP instead and let Edge face whoever at the Bash. Maybe Jeff in a #1 contender match for SS? Or do we want Jeff jobbing constantly in these contender matches? Hopefully the wedding stays cancelled.

I checked on Wikipedia and found Atlas' name is actually Richard Young....why the change of name to Ortiz? I mean at least Atlas Dabone is a bizarre and memorable name. Believe me, having seen him in OVW for a long time I can tell you that the dude sucks something fierce. That scary thing though is that OVW at least knew how to book him. He would come out, have a short match (less than 5 mins.), get in his crappy 1980s offense, hit a lame Warrior-esque splash, and that was it. For the love of god don't put him in a nearly 10 minute long match where he has to sell for his opponent, especially in his debut. I mean why not just send him out there and let him crush Armando? The sad thing is Atlas only got a call up because he got shockingly over with the OVW crowd a while back. As in the most over guy on the roster. So while fans in my area prevented the world from the suck that would have been Daniel Rodimer, OVW fans unleashed Atlas Ortiz on an unsuspecting world.

Honestly I don't even remember now what kind of worker The Maestro even was. But since I don't remember it's probably a sign that he sucked. I just remember his gimmick really sucking considering it was 2000. He DID have Ryan Shamrock as his valet though, which counts for something.

Oh lord. I was all for GAB 99, but I don't think I can take that particular Nitro. I remember Arn being sent out there to announce Benoit had been stripped of the title. Awful, awful show and not even in a so bad it's good way. Count me out on this one. I'm going to watch something cheeful and uplifting like Requiem For a Dream.

Well, it's tough to root for Bob Holly because he seems much more of a natural heel. The sort that enjoys beating up on the rookies. Another aspect that makes it tough to get Dibiase/Rhodes over is that Miz/Morrison are already doing a similar young scumbag heel act on ECW that is better. Neither team has real good competition, which is a result of years of burying the tag division. Oh, and I've often found it funny when people say so and so "isn't ready." Virtually anyone with some amount of talent can be ready, it's just whether the promotion straps the rocket to him and pushes him.

Patrick, this begs the question: Why exactly would Edge show up on Raw? Was making fun of JR really such a high priority that he would risk somehow losing the world title? Cause when he first showed up on Raw the first thing I said to my brother was "There is no way Edge is leaving with the belt tonight."

We'll know more about the ratings for what happened in next week's rating. I think this rating will be fairly strong due to the post draft and post PPV intrigue. By the way, for those badmouthing the Jericho/Kofi DQ finish, I do recall a precedent for such a "pulling the tights" finish. Remember a brief time in late 1992 when Slaughter was the commish of the WWF and was cracking down on anything heelish? There was a match on Prime Time Wrestling with Rick Martel vs. Max Moon and Slaughter had Martel DQed for pulling Moon's tights. So it has happened before.

I think we'll get a Kofi/Cade IC title feud. It only makes sense with Jericho/HBK as a feud and that doesn't need the IC belt involved. Use it to elevate some newer guys. Batista definitely should be the first challenger for Punk. I think that he'll come up short or something bizarre will happen (DQ or whatever), but Punk will somehow retain there. If they want to be ballsy as hell, have Punk win it clean.

It's funny but I think the RVD cashing in is still the best, since he is the only MITB winner who actually cashed in and it was an actual PPV main event that drew money, rather than a Pearl Harbor job on someone. Really it's the only time the MITB has been used the way it was intended.

Truthiness, do you know something about Joe that I don't? Did he job the TNA belt at a house show or something? Or is it that you aren't considering the TNA belt an actual world title?

In a bizarre way all the jobbing makes Punk more exciting, as though you don't know if he can keep winning so you watch. Even a seemingly routine defense against someone like The Miz would have heat now, since he jobbed to The Miz recently. You know what's funny? Year after year Raw would pillage SD's roster in the draft and bury all of the guys they get. Or even last year they got Lashley from ECW and he did nothing. This year they got Punk and Kofi from ECW and within a week those guys have the top titles on Raw.

This was seriously the best Raw in forever. I can't think of one segment hardly that didn't serve a purpose, didn't attempt to get someone over, didn't set up a new storyline, etc. The first 25 mins. of this show rank among the best stuff WWE has done in a long time. At first I was groaning at Edge interrupting JR, figuring it was going to end up some lame way to job him to Cena or Batista in order to get a belt on Raw. I did note that Edge didn't mention Punk's name in his list of guys he would never face. And for those who have actually watched ECW and SD, this was especially sweet. Bear in mind Edge screwed Punk out of the ECW title against Chavo, and also ripped Punk off a few times in matches on SD with La Familia doing run ins. This was a beautiful payoff for a pseudo feud that has been on and off for months, not to mention the wonderful irony of the man who lives by MITB dying by MITB tonight. And then once I thought they might do something truly awful like put the belt on JBL, they did the exact right thing. Cena coming back was a foregone conclusion, but Cole and Lawler actually played this quite well on commentary. Cole has had a bad habit of making things too obvious at times, but tonight he and Lawler voiced concern for Punk putting the title at stake, while stopping short of saying "OMG King, JBL is going to win this thing easy!" Further, when Cena did come back he didn't just run through JBL's goons by himself, but instead Cryme Tyme helped (and got a big rub). I also liked that JBL's goons didn't actually attack Punk, but instead came off like actual security guards so Punk wasn't sure whether they would run in. Somehow I think JBL will end up as GM. If his back is still hurt it's the best solution. Put him in a talking role and all that. I hope this Raw does a good rating tomorrow so that they don't give up on this new direction. Even if the rating isn't that great, they need to give these younger guys like Punk and Kofi a chance.

You know, I was really pumped after the first 30 mins. of this show. But then they did this JBL crap and I have real bad feeling about this. Are they so against Punk that they think putting a belt on Bradshaw could possibly be a good idea?

Yeah but consider that the other idea is to have friggin JBL somehow get the MITB and win a title. I mean that is just hideously terrible. JBL has nothing left to offer anyone at this point and there is no good that can come from him getting a title run of any kind. I don't know if Punk could get over as world champ or not, but at least an attempt would be trying to get someone new over.

The fucked up aspect of that Funk/Nash angle is that Funk was the commish for a while but they introduced him in North Carolina??? Everyone there simply assumed Flair would be the guy, but it was Funk and it didn't get over. Bear in mind they were in TEXAS the previous week and could have brought Funk out then to a big pop.

Kamala, you act like Sid wrestling three times is a bad thing. At least with that next week there was Kidman vs. Crowbar, which could potentially be decent pro wrestling but I can't remember it.