cabbageboy

I never totally got the booking of WM 2. I can see not wanting to do Hogan/Savage on the show, since Savage was still fairly new and nobody would have bought him winning or having a chance. But they couldn't have kept the IC belt on Santana and had him drop it to Savage on that major show? I'm not sure about Bret/Steamboat as early as 86 though. Bret jobbing to Steamboat probably wouldn't have meant a whole lot at that point.

At this point I could tolerate the usual HHH snoozer of a title run over Cena. I almost wish they would put it on HBK when he gets back, since he was in the mix anyway. Orton can't feasibly be a long term champ for a variety of reasons. 1. As noted he is a time bomb waiting to explode. 2. He's been jobbed out so much that nobody would buy it. 3. His matches are like watching Cactus Jack's ECW heel antics with all the headlocks, except Orton isn't in on the ironic joke.

WM XIX is a flat out misfire of a show with some lousy booking. Jericho/Michaels is a pretty good match, but I didn't feel it was overly special (just what these guys would do any other night). And the wrong guy went over of course. Austin/Rock was played out and reheated, mostly a squash as well. Lesnar/Angle had Brock fucking up the biggest spot and finish to the main event of WM. It's not a bad PPV but it's one of those "coulda been way better" WMs. Oh, and Booker/HHH has always left a sour taste after the tastleless angle setting it up.

Actually Nash and Sullivan were both booking the Fall Brawl 99 era, it was a makeshift booking team until Russo got there. To be honest it's been so long since I saw Fall Brawl 99 that I barely recall it besides the main. Yeah maybe it wasn't quite as awful as stuff like BATB 99 (still the only PPV my friend Ian literally walked out on) or GAB 99, but it still sucks ass. And that brief era did yield stuff like Bret vs. Benoit, but it was just overall so completely aimless that they had to do something else. I still say the Hummer Angle is the worst angle in the history of wrestling. It flat out wrecked WCW in 1999. Sure Katie Vick was more offensive and embarrassing, but it didn't really wreck WWE since they at least dropped it quick.

The whole Roode/Young feud is one of those potentially great angles that hasn't been done quite right. First off, Young needed to be with Roode at first of his own accord, but over time he starts feeling abused. Then after about a year of the build it finally hits the powderkeg and Eric turns face and beats Roode to gain his freedom. At this point though I don't get what Roode is trying to do or why he's bothering with Eric Young. It would be like Ted DiBiase messing with Virgil well into 1992, rather than just saying "Fuck him, he can go solo if he wants....I'm going to team with IRS." As far as the tag team summit last night, I detected a disturbing undercurrent in it. Basically the Road Dog was saying "Yeah we used to be great when wrestling was really popular." In other words he was saying that the VKM suck and wrestling isn't good anymore. And the truly bizarre aspect of this is that the Dudleys' various accomplishments are being downplayed. Hell, it was the Duds who finally kicked the shit out of the NAO in early 2000 to win the WWF tag titles. Personally, I don't see how the hell either the Steiners or VKM have a claim on "best team ever." The Steiners had a solid run from 1989-93, but after that it's a whole lotta nothing. Their 1996-98 WCW stuff was mainly just them screwing around with The Outsiders and getting nowhere. And the Outlaws? The epitome of the empty aspect of the Attitude Era, they were for the most part shitty in the ring and were hardly dominant even against a really watered down tag division. Let's face it, the WWF tag scene of 1998-99 was an LOD on their last legs, Too Cool (who were nowhere near being legit contenders), the New Midnight Express, a makeshift Cactus and Funk, and a makeshift Kane and Mankind. And the NAO got their asses kicked by K & M. Hell, at least the Dudleys have faced serious competition at all turns. Eliminators, Sabu/RVD, and the like in ECW. Hardys, E & C in the WWF. And now teams like LAX and AMW in TNA.

Is this perhaps the first act of Noble as a backstage producer? I am interested in this idea, but I have to wonder if it means WWE will just let these guys go all out and fly around and excite people. Cause let's face it, the WWE cruiser style has always blown big time....it's just smaller guys doing a typical mat based match. Unless cruisers (or whatever they are now) are going to bust out insane highspots then nobody will care.

SD right now is a dead end show, at least until some guys like UT and Edge get back. Of course by then other guys might get hurt so it'll be trading one for another. Let's take a look at the champs on this brand: World champ: Great Khali Tag champs: Deuce and Domino US champ: MVP Cruiserweight: Hornswaggle I can't think of a more pathetic array of champions in the history of a company. Aside from MVP does anyone there have the slightest credibility with a belt? Watching that Hardy/Flair tag match tonight inspired a thought for the future. Can anyone else see some big time WM moment where Matt and Jeff are standing in the ring at the end of the PPV (a la Eddie and Benoit), Matt with one world title and Jeff with the other? Book it for WM 25.

The part of this that Congress needs to look into more is the aspect of pro wrestlers being called "independent contractors" rather than employees. This to me is and has been utter bullshit. When I think of someone being an independent contractor I think of someone who is free to do what they want if they aren't happy with the current situation, which is certainly not the case with WWE. Once guys start signing exclusive contracts the notion of being independent is gone. The idea of wrestlers being independent contractors is an outdated relic of the territory system, where guys moved around all the time and weren't exactly under contracts to any one federation. Here's a question: Were WCW's wrestlers considered independent contractors or employees of Turner (and later Time Warner)?

Get out of the hole? The whole Fall Brawl 99 period was horrendous for WCW. It was in that bizarre makeshift period when Bischoff had been canned, Russo hadn't come in, and they were just trying to get by. They also were burying the various Revolution guys to the First Family (which made zero sense). Oh and the last vestige of the Hummer Angle was involved in the Sting/Hogan match at FB 99.

Al hinted at something that I truly dread. Let's say that they crack down on steroids and stop pushing the juiced monsters. Know who they will push then? The ultra fat 450 lb. guys. People seem to forget that they pushed Yokozuna during that era, Earthquake got a renewed push, Bastion Booger was on the roster, etc.

As noted by the hilarious La Parka/Madusa exchange and also the Eddie bit with the wallet, the Russo Era in WCW had its moments. Hell, I'll take the Powers That Be angle over the dreck that preceded it in 1999 under the Nash regime. WCW was seriously at its worst from roughly May-Oct. 1999. Once Russo took over they did get at least silly and fast paced.

The Fingerpoke of Doom was actually something I remember reading about nearly a month ahead of time on the old Scoops Wrestling site (a few weeks before Starrcade 98). At the time I simply dismissed it, feeling that no one could possibly be stupid enough to do something like that.

Cool, my local CW network is in HD so it will be nice to see SD in HD next year. Bear in mind that WWE will still consider Smackdown to be the B grade show, even though the A show (Raw) won't be in HD at all.

I think Hammer is about 50% right and 50% wrong. She's wrong in wanting the same old washed up people on the show. I mean friggin Sable? For all of this alleged money Sable was drawing can anyone tell me what she ever did that had a lasting impact? She left the company in mid 1999 and I don't think I ever noticed or cared. Not like she meant anything to the actual bottom line. That said, they do need something different from right now. Hell, at least a crazed Russo style show would be interesting. It might be crappy, but at least it would be fast paced crap that wasn't dull. What I think is needed is some major new concept (NWO, Rock N Wrestling, Attitude Era), something to draw people in besides various guys fighting for titles and such.

What I don't understand about this is why doesn't she have the slight vestige of common sense enough to hire a driver? Or maybe just go to a party and snort coke, get drunk, and crash there for the night? Lohan sounds like the sort of white trash who move to Florida (or CA in this case). As in those from other states who move to FL and become drug addicts and alcoholics.

First off, if Brody did jump out and attack Mr. T he would have had Hogan, Piper, Orndorff and everyone else kicking the shit out of him immediately. Brody may have been tough but I doubt he could beat down all those guys. If anything Vince might have used it to his own advantage and signed Brody right after this, since it would have drawn wild heat (if people knew who Brody was). Feud Brody with Hogan, make more money with that feud, and fuck over the other rival promoters even more.

Bah, I hope they change that. I might check it out later to see what is up. That 1976 FL show is hilarious, since you can see Terry Funk with one of the wildest 70s shirts you'll ever see. Looks like Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces.

I agree, they seriously need to send Lashley back to SD at this point. Either that or have Batista actually WIN the title if he is going to get all these shots. The problem with Matt is that nobody could really buy him beating a dude the size of Khali.

I didn't care either way since that was one of the worst ECW shows I've seen since getting 24/7. The whole extended fan cam thing was incoherent. And yes, the version I got of GAB 1990 off 24/7 is in fact the full PPV. I much prefer the full show to the clipped VHS tapes. There's some interesting bits like Doug Furnas doing a strongman gimmick.

See the thing is this isn't exactly like the old days when a brute heel like Masters could dominate people and be perceived as a big deal for squashing jobbers. If he's not a serious world title threat, not even a US contender, then no one will care. He can beat up some cruisers and undercard guys, but would anyone remember it the next day?

Even ignoring the obvious roid possibilities with Masters, how exactly can he get a push on SD anyway? The World title is held by a huge heel in Khali, so it's not like Masters can believably contend there. The US title is held by a heel as well, MVP. Even if Matt Hardy beats MVP are they really so hell bent on pushing Masters that they would depush MVP? So unless he's just going to trot out the Masterlock Challenge bullshit again I fail to see what Masters can do on SD that doesn't involve being a jobber.

I was kinda looking forward to this since I figured Umaga squashing a group of daredevil types would be a guilty pleasure. But after hearing they seriously were going to job Umaga out to the Jackass guys I can't believe WWE was going to do this whole storyline. Do they not realize anymore that you shouldn't have these non wrestling celebs going over the actual talent on the roster? If these C grade celebs aren't willing to get their asses kicked, WWE shouldn't have anything to do with them.

Yeah but is there really a bad scene that Brick Top is involved in? I sorta wish we could have seen his pigs in action a bit, like we did get in Hannibal.

There's no way Orton will last until WM with the title. Just give him until Survivor Series and job him to The Game. Allow me to address that RVD/Austin point. I am a huge Van Dam fan, maybe the biggest RVD fan on the board. But no, I'd never claim he would be as big as Austin since his act is a bit too subversive to be truly mainstream. A guy making pot references and doing eccentric aerial moves may not necessarily appeal to everyone, whereas Austin seemed more like a drunken redneck brawler and is easier to identify with. That said, even watered down he was still the most popular guy in WWE in the 2001-02 period. So while RVD might not have caused a massive upswing in business (and at that time no one could) he definitely could have been a top draw had WWE not buried him.

I don't think WCW would have ever been flat out the #1 promotion, but they would very likely still be around. I can't imagine them losing 60 million dollars in a year or anything. They would have basically just kept cranking out semi decent Saturday Night shows and an occasional PPV.