Kahran Ramsus

Wrestlemania III to Wrestlemania VI. Between those two benchmarks the following stars were on the roster at some point: Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ted Dibiase, Rick Rude, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, Curt Hennig, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Dynamite Kid, Greg Valentine, Paul Orndorf, Roddy Piper, Ultimate Warrior, Andre the Giant, Honky Tonk Man, Arn Anderson, Bam Bam Bigelow, Tully Blanchard, Davey Boy Smith, Barry Windham & Dusty Rhodes. Basically every big superstar of the time, except for Ric Flair, Lex Luger & the Road Warriors were in the WWF at some point during that time frame. It was the most stacked roster in the history of WWF, and possibly the best in North American wrestling history with the possible exception of 1995-1998 WCW. It was also the Golden Age of tag team wrestling. Any time you have the British Bulldogs, Hart Foundation, Rockers & Brainbusters all in the same match like at Survivor Series 88, you know you have a good tag division. In addition, famous managers like Bobby Heenan & Jimmy Hart were at their peak in this era. You don't even get the burden of having to do a weekly show like RAW. Just jobber matches and house shows with a SNME about once a month and a PPV four times a year.

I like Undertaker, but this isn't exactly a list of his best work aside from those already available on other DVDs (like the Badd Blood match which was on a previous Taker DVD). I'll avoid it since I have pretty much all of these matches already.

Cena/Shawn is the match that people want to see so of course they put him up against Angle which we have already seen twice on PPV. At least it is better than Cena/HHH.

Not interested at all. Neither world title challenger has a hope in hell (JBL is just a last minute replacement for Hassan and Jericho is Jericho), and all of the other decent wrestlers are crippled with a bad opponent (HBK with Hogan, Taker with Orton, Angle with Eugene). Unless you care about Edge/Matt, and I don't, there is nothing much here.

I actually don't mind those type of matches. Why does every match need to have a story behind it other than two guys who want to move up in the rankings? Only a few matches on each card actually sell a show, so aside from those 4-5 big matches why not just stick a couple of good workers together for the hell of it? WCW used to do it all the time with guys like Rey Misterio & Ultimo Dragon and often those matches were the most memorable on the program. Do we really need an excuse to see Benoit/Regal if it isn't going to be a top level feud? I'd rather have two guys just thrown in there together because its their job, rather than some half-assed feud over coffee or shampoo. Nobody. But it doesn't need to be a selling point. For example with Summerslam, we have Orton/Taker, JBL/Batista, HBK/Shawn & Jericho/Cena as the big matches. If someone is going to order the show, it is very likely going to be based off of those four matches. If a fan is interested in those matches, he will buy the show and if he's not, he won't. The rest of the card should be based around making the paid customer happy so that he enjoys himself and is hyped up for those matches, or for putting over certain wrestlers for an upcoming push.

Orlando was using the Flatliner (I believed he called it the Blackout or something like that), but seemed to stop when Hassan came over to Smackdown and had the same move. You got me on the other two.

I still think 2002 was worse, right after the draft. Who did RAW get that could work in the initial draft? They got Undertaker, the NWO, Big Show, an injured Austin, a green Brock Lesnar, RVD, Bubba Ray Dudley, pre-JBL Bradshaw, etc. It is pretty sad when the the best wrestler out of all your big names is Booker T.

Velocity is the best show in the company and it got cancelled. Too bad because I make more of an effort to watch it than I do the other shows anymore.

Cena. Why? Because he has to deal with HHH on his show, where as Batista managed to escape. Fresh off being crushed by Batista there is no way that HHH will get by the Cena feud without winning the title. Place? I'll say Unforgiven.

At least he was a wrestler. He might have been the worst wrestler in history to main event a WWE PPV, but it was still better than crap like the Diva Search which serve no purpose whatsoever. On Smackdown this past week we had an opening match and a Taker/JBL main event, and absolutely nothing in between. That is the problem with the show these days, and it was shockingly reminiscent of WCW Thunder from 1999 onward. There are so many dead spots in their programs now that weren't even there two months ago, let alone in 2000. The only way they are ever going to turn this around is by focusing on the in-ring product again. At this point I'm not ever sure whether I care who they push, as long as we get actual wrestling. It is as bad as RAW 2002 now.

I'd watch Lions/Bears over RAW at this point.

That and there was more merchandising. Back in the 80s there were shirts and toys and not much else, whereas during the Attitude era the WWF logo was on everything. Also, many industries had grown considerably in the 10 years, especially the video game and home video markets. There were more areas that Austin could make money in than there was for Hogan. I think it is probably the greatest.

Yeah, No Mercy definitely had a lot more polish, but Revenge was simply more fun to pick up and play.

It won't stop any 18+ year old brother/sister, or any parent from buying the game, and handing it right to little Billy even if it is in that very store, though. It just saves clerks from having to make a debate of it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's what I mean. It makes it easier on the clerks.

I don't like the idea of a Round Robin tournament by itself, but I do like it as the qualifiers for a bigger single-elimination tournament, like the World Cup. Have a bunch of different brackets with 4 or 5 wrestlers in each and the winner of each one advances to the final tournament on PPV. It would work well for KOTR, but it would require too much planning for this creative team. One thing that I hated from the Starrcade tournament was the point system. It should be 3 pts for a win (by any means), 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. Nothing more complicated than that.

That way is actually better for clerks in gaming stores, because now if a parent complains that you won't sell a game to their kid, you can now simply say that it is illegal, like with cigarettes.

Kasdan also wanted Solo killed off. There are two main reasons for this. First, in that they wanted to kill someone early in the final fight so that it could seem that anybody could die. Second, there was nothing for the character to do once the Jabba stuff ended. Ford was doing the movie either way and this was going to be the last one, but he felt that it was best for the story if he died saving Leia's life or something like that. Ford makes different creative suggestions in most of his movies, which is largely why he doesn't get along with Lucas that well, because Lucas wants absolute control over what is going on. Look at how reluctant Lucas was to even change Solo's final line in ESB. Kirshner had to prove it to Lucas that an audience would like it better before he even accepted it. Spielberg usually allows more input from his actors, especially someone with as much experience as Ford.

The only recent examples of guys who got pushed based on getting over with the crowd were Eddy Guerrero last year and Batista this year. Neither guy seemed to be getting much of a push at first, especially Batista who was stuck down the card putting over Orton on his way to HHH.

It is. WCW in 1998 (especially once you add in the Japanese guys) had a more varied roster than 2000 WWF and it makes for a more exciting game. In particular, the lack of CWs in No Mercy is a big hit. Everybody wrestles the same in No Mercy for the most part. You can't have those great Psychosis/Misterio matches unless you create them and then it isn't the same.

Did Shelton run over Shane's kid or something?

Should be New Year's Revolution. That PPV was just a disaster.

No, you also need credibility and RVD doesn't have it. In 2001, he had it, but the novelty has worn off for those who only heard about him in ECW and were watching him for the first time then, and because he's been jobbed out. Jericho is a better wrestler and more consistantly over performer than RVD, and I don't buy him as a legit threat anymore either. They had their shot in 2001 with RVD, and although I don't think it would have lasted, they could have gotten something out of a main event run. At this point in time he's nothing, and I really don't think it is worth building him up again. I would say he is average to a little above-average. When booked properly and with good workers he can have good matches. He is bad enough though to have some real stinkers sometimes, and most of his matches are in the decent range. Bad workers tend to have bad matches most of the time, like Carlito. JBL doesn't. He's also not Chris Benoit or Shawn Michaels. They were going to before the Hassan thing blew up their faces. He was scheduled to feud with Benoit over the US Title according to most reports. The Hassan thing affected more than just his match at GAB. It is probably why the PPV was such a mess from a booking standpoint. Taker won, which means that if they want to continue Orton/Taker or just don't want face/face at Summerslam that they need JBL to be involved with the World Title. Since JBL was now out of the Benoit feud, there was no reason to burden him with the US Title, so Orlando retained. Because Orlando retained and Batista didn't win clean, they needed a big face title match win which means MNM jobs. The Hassan thing screwed up a lot.

Since 2000, he's missed close to two years of ring time. I'd consider that injury-prone, especially since he spends half the time in tag teams. As far as his wrestling ability goes, he has his 3 or 4 trademark moves and that's it. He can't matwrestle, but I'm not even asking that. My main problem is that his longterm selling is atrocious and he can't tell a story in the ring, at all. About the only match RVD has had since I've been paying attention to him (1997) that shows any sort of storytelling and psychology is his match with Eddy Guerrero at Judgment Day 2002. One match in nine years, and it was over three years ago. We've seen it over and over again where guys like Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Steve Austin & HHH try to lead him through an actual match and he just can't/isn't willing to do it. Outside of his few moves, he's got nothing. In 2001 he was over enough that they could push him and the crowd wouldn't notice his shortcomings (at least for awhile), but it is too late for that. He would be completely exposed if they try pushing him now. I shudder to think of how bad RVD/Carlito will be. Masters/Big Show will probably be better. At least Show knows what he's doing somewhat.

Because Bradshaw is better than RVD is. Seriously. If you are going to complain that JBL doesn't belong in the main events, use someone like Chris Benoit or Shelton Benjamin as an example, two of the best wrestlers on the roster. I'm not about to pretend that JBL is a better wrestler than those guys, although I happen to find him entertaining. But you picked RVD, who isn't much better than the likes of Carlito & Chris Masters. In many ways, he's even worse, because at least those two can talk (especially Carlito). There is no upside to an RVD push other than that he is over. He can't wrestle, he can't talk, he's injury-prone, and he causes problems backstage. If it wasn't for his devoted fanbase he would have been bounced long ago. As for wrestling, or brawling since neither guy is a good wrestler, JBL's I Quit match with Cena is better than any match RVD's ever had and he was able to keep up with Kurt Angle and Eddy Guerrero a lot better than RVD ever did. JBL isn't a fantastic wrestler by any stretch, but like I said, compared to RVD he's the second coming of Stan Hansen. The only good match RVD had in 2001 was his match with Jericho at Unforgiven. Everything else is extremely overrated. The Summerslam match with Jeff Hardy in particular is awful. As far as ladder matches go, even Jeff/Taker was better. JBL's initial push is a little dodgy I agree, but he got it by impressing GM Kurt Angle enough that he was able to 'win' the Great American Award, which came with a shot at the title. He won the first match by DQ, so he got a rematch where he won the title. Since then he's beaten practically everybody that was on Smackdown except for Cena, and his latest title shots were won in multi-man elimination matches. Except for the first, his title shots are completely legit, unlike HHH's or Jericho's current one.

Sid. He was one of my favourite wrestlers in early 90s WCW. There was just something that set him apart from basically every other heel on the roster until the rise of Vader. He just appeared to obliterate his opponents, which really stood out at the time. I've liked him throughout his career. In addition to the above there was also the feeling that what you were seeing was a lot more genuine with regards to his persona. Barry Darsow. Yes, he sucks, but he just seemed to be enjoying himself so much that I just couldn't boo the guy. Repo Man was hilarious, and I even enjoyed his golfer character. Of course, Demolition was hugely successful, but I'm talking about his post-Smash career. Those are the two that really stand out. I liked guys like Earthquake & Big Bossman too, but they never were really what I considered bad until they got old.