cabbageboy

The Van Daminator is a curious spot, since it can be bad ass if done as a shock (Bill Alfonso tosses it to a guy, RVD nails him with a blindside kick....or the Jeff Hardy spot at Invasion with RVD begging). It can also look a bit too staged if it's just RVD tossing a guy the chair and kicking him. Speaking of ECW, they had some tag matches that were mainly just crazy brawls. Anything with the Dudleys and Rotten/Mahoney, quite a few RVD/Sabu tag matches were just mayhem.

It is somehow ironic to me that some of the WWF's most timeless TV was when they were getting their asses kicked by WCW. As Foley said on the Legends show "We were better than WCW for about 50 of those 83 weeks, but it just didn't translate into ratings." I remember very little of WCW's product from 1997. I don't recall it being awful, it was just bland and utterly stale. The NWO was already getting tired to me and I was hoping they would do a big loser leaves town match at some point and get rid of the NWO, then repackage the guys. It's just hard to leave that money on the table.

The hilarious thing about Orton is that he's been doing his sissy kicks and giving people concussions, and yet he gives Cena an RKO on a chair and the dude basically no sells it. It would also help if Orton actually had beaten some top stars to get to this point. He's beaten Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter of late. He didn't really beat either HBK or RVD in those matches. I'm so impressed, Randy.

Oh yeah that was Luther all right. You know it's funny with WCW, but even at their hottest peak I never took them all that seriously. When Schiavone would blather about "This is the #1 wrestling show every week!" I would get a feeling of cognitive dissonance. Yeah I knew the WWF was crappy in 1996 or so, but it's still the WWF....and WCW was still just WCW.

Well maybe in 2001 Norman could have meant something. In fact I still don't get why the WWF didn't sign him back then. The guy had an entertaining gimmick and could have easily breathed some life into the tired Too Cool act.

I don't get this notion that Lawler and Ross are some sort of ultra redneck southern announce team. Sure Ross I can get but Lawler has never struck me as much of a redneck even though he was the top star of the biggest redneck promotion ever seen by mankind in Memphis. But he himself doesn't scream out hick or anything.

The Frye/Watts aspect is something I hadn't considered. For that brief period of time WCW had a very modern wrestling product featuring lots of physical in ring action and an emphasis on cruiserweights. In fact I have to wonder if a lot of the guys that left WCW in the subsequent years might have been appeased and stayed. On the 24/7 Legends show Bischoff mentions how he felt he was a success in WCW because he wasn't a crusty old ring veteran like Anderson or Watts and was someone with a bit more of a corporate mentality. I think Frye was probably similar to Bischoff in that regard, and from what I've read his policies sounded terrific (pay raises, bonuses for guys who had the best matches, etc.).

To show you how unjust the world can be I checked out the ratings for 3-3-97. Get this: That crappy Nitro did a 3.4 rating while the Raw with Bulldog vs. Owen did a 1.9. I have no idea what was up with that whole Piper segment from Nitro. He auditions various jobbers from the Power Plant or wherever along with John Tenta to form his "3rd Family." Hogan rightly comes out later and says "You saw Piper's team of glorified wrestling fans.....now look at MY team!" Hogan's team was himself, Savage, Hall, Nash, etc. Gee, I just don't know who would win that one! Once we get to the post WM stuff in 1997 Raw starts cooking.

Thank god Rodimer got released. Having been subjected to his horrendous OVW work I can tell you the guy is all "the look" with zero talent. Couldn't work a lick, no charisma, even less mic skills. He scared me quite honestly because he's the exact muscular bum that WWE would sign and push on Raw regardless of his lack of talent.

Austin has been doing his heel persona the past 5 years....as a face. I wouldn't mind seeing an RVD vs. Goldberg match. It's one of those matches that sounds like a bizarre car wreck on paper, but I bet it would be cool. Goldberg could hit all sorts of hard power stuff on RVD, who would bump like a madman. Make it no DQ and RVD could hit Goldberg with everything on earth (Van Daminator, Van Terminator, everything else) and GB just keeps getting up from it like an invincible monster.

I didn't really find Seth being a prick at times to be a detriment to the film. The biggest leap of faith with the movie is trying to buy into any semblance of a hot chick being interested in him. Let's face it, the dude is fat, foul mouthed, and as noted, at times a total prick.

Yay! I finally got a DVD recording tonight of that 3-3-97 Raw with Bulldog vs. Owen! That was one of the few notable Raws that I had not seen since I got flooded out over that weekend back in 1997 and ended up staying for a while at my grandma's who had no cable. I saw bits of the Euro match on Saturday morning's show, but it was great to finally get that classic match on DVD. Bulldog's 2nd best match ever I think.

Red Dragon is pretty good but Manhunter is better. I would imagine RD's climax is more like the book, but it's hard to beat Dolarhyde cranking up Iron Butterfly during the finale.

Oh god, having just watching SS 94 on 24/7 I know what you mean by those shirts. Like the Razor Ramon shirt that is his face, or UT. Or a number of guys. Cheese. One of my favorite shirts ever was the old RVD shirt from ECW. White shirt with teal letters and on the back it said "I'm the F'N show! 4:20." It was a bit more appealing to the eye than the usual drab black ECW shirts.

Am I the only one disgusted at the Lynn release with such little fanfare? The guy carried the company in its infancy in 2002, busting his ass in awesome matches that truly defined that early TNA product and the X Division.

My picks: Cena vs. Orton: This is very tough to call. I picked Cena on the poll elsewhere so I'll stick with that pick because I'm at least just apathetic towards Cena's title run. An Orton title run would make me outright hostile. Batista vs. Khali: Gotta have some sort of title change on this show and the less of Khali as champ, the better. I wish it was a Punjabi Prison match though, at least that would be amusing. Punk vs. Morrison: Hard to figure this since both guys have jobbed to the other leading to the PPV. I think this will be a bullshit finish, double DQ or whatever. They can't just job Punk on a 3rd PPV in a row, yet will they job out Morrison? I think gimmick match in Sept. HHH vs. Booker: It's so obvious HHH is going to squash Booker that they might do shock booking and have Booker win here only to have HHH crush him later. With that said, HHH is going to win here. Rey vs. Chavo: Rey needs this one more than HHH actually, since he got maimed by Chavo last year and needs the win back. Rey wins. Kennedy vs. Carlito vs. Umaga. Umaga has zero point holding the IC belt and Carlito is a jobber extroidinare. Kennedy is in line for the push, so he's winning by pinning Carly. Diva battle royale: Beth Phoenix will win and steamroll Candice for the title soon after if they are smart. Gotta be a heel chick that wins here.

Who exactly is going to have the WWE title going into WM? Is it going to be Kennedy or will HHH beat down Orton soon after SS? It would work better if Kennedy got the title due to the fringe benefits of being Vince's "son" but who knows. You know what it sounds like to me though? Ric Flair handing his son David the US title back in WCW. Yeah, Kennedy is of course a better worker than David (anyone is) but I've seen very little from Kennedy in the ring that screams out main eventer. And no, Edge isn't beating UT. Edge is little more than a job boy for the WM streak. At least they are getting the belt off Khali at SS most likely. But what does Khali do at that point? Maybe more feuding with UT?

Well, I didn't say that OVW had the greatest in ring work in the world, far from it. And obviously the production is 3rd rate and dingy, since it's taped at a glorified warehouse. I mostly refer to the actual booking of OVW as compared to TNA and how OVW makes use of its 1 hour much better and gets over what they need to get over without it ever seeming rushed or chaotic.

All I've heard about that Raven angle was that Angle got pissed. Who knows. Can we now say that putting Nitro on Monday was a big mistake? It upset me at the time since I would have much rather WCW done a show on Thursday or whenever rather than at the same time as Raw. I think a lot of people enjoyed watching both companies. While I don't think Bischoff was a devil and that WWE is melodramatic to some degree, Bischoff WAS a huge dick. The demented thing is that Bischoff had a winning formula going in WCW in the first half of 1994 and that signing the old WWF stars basically ended up costing them the younger guys that people actually saw as "WCW guys." TNA is making the same mistake on a smaller level right now, with washed up WWE guys that weren't even as popular as the Hogan and Savage types.

I think Simmons should start cutting some actual promos. He can keep the DAMN phrase as well but the guy hasn't exactly been this monosyllabic in the past. Or maybe do a tease of DAMN from time to time to keep people off guard. I thought when he saw Haas and Benjamin hugging in the back he should have looked at them, thought about saying it, but then just walk away shaking his head.

I dunno, it sounds vaguely similar to More American Graffiti to me. Do we really need something similar to Charles Martin Smith being MIA in Nam in regards to McLovin being a cop? Kept trying to think of why exactly I found the ending so perfect in Superbad. I think it's because there was a fair amount of closure to the Seth/Evan conflict, which was bittersweet and quite true. And the resolution to things with the girls is dead on, in that for our purposes as the viewer it is resolved but if you think about what becomes of them later it's not likely any of them end up together long term. I love that ending.

I wonder how much of Brisco's comments were worked and how much he really meant. Personally I've never blamed Bischoff for signing the ECW guys. To him it would just be like signing some guys off the indy scene and nothing more. In fact some like Eddie and Malenko ended up in WCW due to New Japan's relationship with WCW. Most of the guys WCW took were simply in ECW to get some exposure in US wrestling, either the luchadores or the guys who made a bigger name in Japan (Benoit, Jericho).

I've always had a deep fear that WWE still somehow thought fucking Mabel was a potential main event guy. I guess since there was enough kinda decent stuff on SS 95 for it not to have the lowest buyrate ever that Vince thinks Big Daddy V might actually draw. Nevermind Mark Henry. He's at least been entertaining at times with his humiliating gimmicks. But can anyone possibly explain how MABEL of all people could still be employed in mainstream wrestling in the year 2007?

Aside from the predicted hilarity of the Simmons/Maria/Santino date bit, this was pretty tedious tonight. As noted, Carlito vs. Kennedy sucked to high heaven. It's a very tough thing to pull off a heel vs. heel match and neither guy is good enough to do it. To have this work you have to do one of two things: --The two heels both cheat outrageously and try to outcheat the other. --One of the two drifts into a more face like character for that match. They need to watch Michaels vs. Martel from SummerSlam 1992. An ideal heel/heel match.

I do get sick of hearing this stuff like "Waaaah, WCW tried to put us out of business! They tried to take food off my family's table!" Personally I don't think the WWF was ever in THAT severe of a hole and they are being drama queens by suggesting it. Even if WCW put the WWF out of business they likely would have hired damn near everyone and paid them more than what they were making in the WWF anyway. Also, the WWF complains about how WCW stole all their guys. Oh really? Hogan had left a year before he showed up in WCW. Savage was an announcer during the last 2 years of his WWF run. Guys like Hall and Nash were jobbed out and considered troublemakers, so did it really hurt the WWF to lose them? Nash was the worst drawing champion they ever had. Besides if the WWF was in trouble in that 1995-96 period it was due to their own suckage, which had nothing to do with WCW. They were the ones who taped 4 hours of TV at a time and let Bischoff rag on taped shows. It's the same thing with WCW. The WWF didn't put them out of business. They put themselves out of business with 2-3 years of awful TV, bad PPVs, lousy wrestling, releasing talented stars, and overspending on various losing ventures.