anarchistxx

Why didn't he just go and work for them ten years ago then? He would have made more money and been in a much better position to have interesting feuds and matches. Him staying in a horror show promotion like TNA for years added to this aura of a guy who was staying out of WWE because of some sort of principle or misguided loyalty to the company he loved that they had put out of business. He had an aura of the one person who hadn't sold his soul to WWE for the paycheck. Whether that was a stupid or romanticized or entirely fictitious viewpoint is besides the point. It is like the musicians and bands who are way past their best but carry on trotting out on reunion tours to play the old hits and milk the cow for all it is worth. That is Ric Flair. There is more dignity in those who want to leave it all in the past and not tarnish the memories by selling out and touring just for the money. Sting was like Morrissey, offered huge money several times to reform The Smiths but kept turning it down out of principle. The Clash could reform and make mountains of money but they don't want to ruin the legacy. Sting was Mick Jones, plugging away playing small gigs at shit venues but still with an aura of respect because he could have sold out and made more money but for whatever reason chose not to, and chose to do his own thing on his own terms and lose out on all the money and exposure. What has Sting for to gain as a performer by going to WWE when he is clearly broken down, and looks old and can't really work anymore.

This. Don't think he has had a singles match that I've ever got into. His mic work is corny and mostly makes me cringe, and his in ring work isn't spectacular either. For all his feted promos the character never seems to have a motivation or a raison d'être that goes beyond the tired WWE booking trope of 'heel beats down on a face and/or costs him a match for no reason, feud begins'. They tried with the Cena feud but it never really worked. The scary thing is that it would. We live in a culture where people can be endlessly monetized for their rose tinted nostalgia. Look at all the mediocre boy bands and cheesy 90s pop acts who return for sellout reunion tours as promoters cash in on the childhood memories of a generation who seem stuck in a perpetual adolescence. You could bring Gangrel and Mideon out and they would get a massive pop.

Surprised by the love for the main event. Thought it really dragged myself, except for a few exciting moments. The last five minutes with Dolph fighting the odds got me into it and was suitably dramatic. The Sting thing made no sense and he looked washed up, although it sort of worked. Other than that, Ryback went far too early, Kane stayed far too long, Big Show continues to be pointless as a character and stale as a wrestler. Rusev still does nothing for me and his exit was ridiculously predictable, and made hardly any sense because the referee didn't bother utilizing any count outs before or after, just the usual convenient yet nonsensical booking. Harper/Rowan are going to have a job being successful as singles wrestlers, it is pretty crowded out there with guys at that level trying to push on. Cena felt like an irrelevance which was strange. Ziggler was MVP although he was put in the position to me and they worked to his strengths e.g. big bumps, face in peril, desperate offence. The jury is still very much out on Rollins, don't think he is anywhere near as good as WWE thinks he is and he is in danger of becoming a bit stale. Did enjoy him being portrayed as the sneaky strategist of the team, always getting in there with a kerb stomp from nowhere or sneaking up on behind on someone to score an elimination. It was like the Edge 'ultimate opportunist' stchick, which is appropriate as that is the ultimate level someone like Rollins could get to. The rest of the card was awful, was hoping AJ/Nicki would go a bit longer. The shoddiness of WWE booking never ceases to amaze me either, they have this massive roster and they still end up having to fill time on a PPV with embarrassing shit like Adam Rose. Don't get the point of him at all, I fast forward every one of his segments on Raw but from what it looks like he has been doing exactly the same thing on every single episode for eight or nine months? Don't think the booking has ever been so short sighted and repetitive, it is the same with a guy like Bo Dallas, they debut him and every single segment is the same week after week and nobody ends up giving a shit. The divas division is strong at the minute but the tag was too long because it had no story behind it, nobody had any motivation and you need that for these long elimination matches. In the past it would generally be people who had been feuding as part of the bouts, whereas this honestly felt like eight random people wrestling for no good reason. Most matches on Raw feel like that as well, there is no rhyme or reason they just throw a match out there to fill time. Zero creativity or direction. As a Network showcase that was pretty mediocre, luckily the crowd was decent or it could have been even worse.

Don’t really see how this benefits anyone, except maybe financially. WWE gets Sting when he is washed up and broken down - he looked what he was last night i.e. an old man in face paint. His hair was lank and the lycra does him no favours at this stage. And Sting himself loses the aura of being about the only major US star of the last three decades not to end up in WWE. Sure, the pop was huge but after a few weeks he won’t be getting much of a reaction. Sting v Undertaker would have to be one smartly laid out match. The visual would be cool and it might add a few buys onto Wrestlemania, but as an actual match it could be an abomination, especially as you couldn’t really paper over the cracks with a lot of run ins and creative booking. Making it a retirement match for Undertaker would give the fans enough good will to let the poor quality slide, and he could go out on a high. No way he should be jobbing to Sting.

Shows you how bad those matches were because they all felt about an hour long.

Certainly makes sense from a financial perspective - use the free PPV to hook the fans enough to want to see the conclusion at TLC, and thus subscribe to the network so as not to miss out on a proper finale. The major problem in practise is that the feud isn't hot in the least, and that literally nobody has faith that the WWE will ever produce a conclusive finish that has any kind of repercussions that last longer than a couple of weeks.

Samoa Joe vs CM Punk. Certainly not the best feud of all time or even close, especially considering it was barely even an actual feud given the dearth of angles and segments. Still, it was the first time I had felt actively involved as a fan in something which seemed massive, they were billing it as a Flair/Steamboat type thing. I loved the way it initially evolved naturally through circumstance and then built over the year into something massive. The hype for it was almost like a boxing match, with tons of promotion and a few good interviews and the 'real sports' type build where they focused on Punk's strategy. The first time I can remember people referring to a modern match by the date. ROH at an absolute peak in terms of both hype and match quality. Something like Kawada vs Misawa smokes it of course in terms of narrative, history, match quality and longevity, but I only ever watched that back on tapes and never felt connected to it in the same way. I wasn't desperately waiting for the DVD to see the conclusion.

Goldberg had a really enjoyable match with Chris Jericho at Badd Blood 2003, it was brilliantly paced and laid out in an era where those aspects were rarely deserving of praise - most notably because HHH insisted on going half an hour every PPV, usually with out of shape, unsuitable opponents like Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash. The Streak wasn't such a big deal back then - he was teaming with Nathan Jones to take on A-Train at the previous Wrestlemania. Also, there is no way they could have got mileage out of Goldberg facing jobbers for a year, his heat was getting dead after only a few weeks.

The film analogy is better. Project X and American Pie are fun films - that doesn't make them great films. Similarly, Requiem For A Dream is a great film which isn't fun in the slightest. Fun and great aren't mutually exclusive adjectives, but they don't equate to the same thing either. 'Fun' in this context isn't referring to a recreational activity that is enjoyable: watching films can be described as a 'fun' thing to do but that doesn't make Requiem For A Dream fun as a work of art by default. Similarly, I don't have to think of TLC II as a great match just because I enjoy it - it is a 'fun' match that is prevented from being great because of issues of selling, structure and various other criteria that we use to judge the wrestling match as a work of art. Similarly, watching Flair & Jumbo go an hour can be enjoyable, but that doesn't make it great and fun. Fun refers to a specific type of match, one with possible issues in terms of selling, pacing, execution but that makes up for it in sheer watchability.

Fun is something enjoyable that perhaps isn't objectively amazing. It maybe has less substance and gravitas than a truly 'great match', but could be a great little sprint, or a garbage brawl with some innovative spots or just a match with comedy that makes you smile. An analogy would be a song like 'Octopuses Garden' - nobody is going to provide it with the same acclaim and analysis of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' or Allegri's 'Miserere', but it is still a fun listen. Paul London vs Akio on Velocity is a fun match whereas Eddie vs Rey at Halloween Havoc is a great match in the same sort of style. Jack Evans might not be in a lot of great matches, but he has certainly had a lot of fun matches with his innovative spots, insane bumping style, breathneck pace and arrogant skinny white boy personality.

The Divas division is pretty strong at the minute, and I say that as a long time critic. They are one of the only things I don't fast forward if I Sky+ Raw. There are a decent amount of strong, easily identifiable characters who all bring something different to the table. The ring work is competent if unspectacular, but then they aren't exactly given the opportunity to have MOTYC. They continue to be hamstrung by dreadful, unfocused booking. They get very little shine, or any consistency. They missed a major step not going all in on the Bella vs Bella feud and they could have also done much more with Paige vs AJ. The success of Total Divas give them a lot of experience in backstage scenes and the half reality/half scripted thing that they should be taking onto the main shows. Have more backstage angles, more motivation for the characters, more time to talk and longer matches. They could have easily built from Summerslam up to a Nicki vs Brie Hell In The Cell Match - has an instantly unique selling point as the first Divas to go inside the cell, has a blood feud that should have been so easy to book as heated, hateful, expanding on the bitterness from the past thing they tried to put on it. Has to be better than that completely pointless Cena vs Orton match? Less short term, fly booking that seems almost ad libbed, and better focus towards longer feuds.

There aren't really any side effects to drinking alcohol whilst taking amoxicillin. Even with antibiotics that react negatively to alcohol, it would take more than a tot of whiskey, and boozing in larger quanties would generally just nullify the positive affects of the antibiotics rather than cause hallucinations.

Couldn't get through a single scene on that Raw. Who is writing this shit? Orton is awkward as fuck, Cena's 'comedy' is unberably cringe worthy every time. Don't even get me started on Dean Ambrose - they have this loose cannon, chaotic, lunatic character and now every week he is doing all this over-manufactured, badly scripted rubbish where he plays pranks and brings out props and has a joke, which is the complete opposite of why people liked him and what he was originally presented as. Whoever writes the comedy stuff for WWE needs to go. And that is before you get to the heel weighted 'Handicap' main event, because god forbid creative come up with something original on the go home show for a PPV instead of something they have done a million times already. The roster is too thin for the time slot, the same workers are in scene after scene, and yet they can only spare the Divas a few minutes each when in Brie vs Nicki and AJ vs Paige they have two feuds that could become molten if some thought was put into the writing and presentation. They should have built from Summerslam to Brie vs Nicki inside the cell, would have been intriguing at least. Seeing Big E Langston reminds you how bad the writing is, how often they push a guy to the moon for a few months and then go totally cold on him and use him as a jobber until he gets future endeavored. Mick Foley and Paul Heyman were the only promos worth a damn on the entire three hour running time. Shambolic.

They really ought to put some work into making a top class video package for Cena vs Orton, chronicling the feud and putting some importance on the match. Otherwise it will just be surreal and underwhelming.

It is the same thing in that you claim to be caught up in this amazing moment, yet you are still detached enough to post on Facebook or chant about the quality of a match. Popping for a near fall means you have suspended reality, you have bought in to the story of the match and are vested in the outcome, the art has drawn you in and made you believe. It is not equatable to chanting "This is awesome" in the least, which suggests that actually you aren't buying into the match at all and are treating it like a performance spectacle. Nobody chants "This is awesome" during a boxing match, they shout for the competitors and roar at big punches and gasp at the equivalent of near falls when someone gets rocked.

Punk/Rock at Wrestlemania would have been a bad decision. The Rock was in awful shape and the two PPV matches at Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber were long and mediocre. At least with the John Cena matches you had the atmosphere and star power to carry them.

They aren't chanting for anything in particular though, not like at a soccer match. The chant is basically "I'm really enjoying this match", which is dumb as fuck. If you are enjoying it then pop for near falls, cheer and boo and gasp and be involved in it, rather than chanting about what a good time you are having. If you watch a really good film at the cinema you should get lost in the plot and characters, rather than sitting there thinking about the lovely cinematography on a particular shot or the structure of a particular scene.

Mark Henry is definitely turning at Hell In The Cell. Another tedious example of a native joining the evil foreign heel. Don't they have any fresh ideas? The whole Rusev character and feud is so backwards.

Anyone got any of the hilarious Green Lantern fan images that were doing the rounds at that time? Specifically the series of pictures where he is looking at his watch and cheering, and the awesome mock up "Green Lantern Fan Shoot DVD" someone put together. Someone must have saved them.

2003-2005. 2006 was really fun but I was burned out on too much wrestling back then and starting to get into other things, so my interest in the product waned. Plus they overreached a bit and the promotions decline coincided with my rapidly decreasing interest. There was a time when ROH was the most exciting promotion on the planet, with everyone rushing to check the results and reports of matches from each show.

Think I was the highest voter on Hase last time. I had a fair bit of his stuff on a comp, his consistency struck me more than anything else and his versatility. Was great at those fiery exchanges as well, really made them look authentic rather than a lot of the strike trading you see now. Will try and dig out the match list from an old hard drive because there were some gems on there. He usually kept up a fast pace which I like in a worker. The 1998 All Japan match with Akiyama is superb and on YouTube, there were some fun tags with Sasaki and a good early singles match against Liger which is sloppy but interesting. Seem to remember him wrestling Terry Funk at some point.

Don't think he has enough real personality for me to consider him. He is competent in the ring and a good all round worker, but I have felt no emotional involvement in anything he has done and the smiley, happy character he plays is unwatchable at times. This. Even though he works stiff I don't buy into anything he does, which is a damning indictment.

Just noticed it is exactly ten years since 10/16/2004. I remember Rob Edwards saying in 2004 "Samoa Joe may have a better match than this one day, but CM Punk will never come close". In retrospect, he has surpassed all expectations, especially with his WWE run - he went to the promotion around the time the ROH crowd would chant "Heat" or "Velocity" to departing wrestlers, because that is where they would usually end up. So for him to get so over, so far up the card and have so many good matches is a minor miracle, especially since he doesn't play politics and his personality if anything worked to his detriment. His look was completely opposite to what they usually go for, he looked skinny and weak and his offence was poor. Think his ego took over when he suggested he should be headlining Wrestlemania multiple times. The 2005 CM Punk would have counted his blessings he did as well as he did. Especially when we consider what happened to the other component in 10/16 - Samoa Joe would probably give the world for the type of career CM Punk has had.

The 'This is awesome' chant to me is the equivalent to someone posting on Facebook from a nightclub. "Having such an amazing and crazy night!" If you're in a club and you really are having a rollicking great time, you aren't going to be stood around on your phone talking about it on social media. Similarly, if the match is awesome than why aren't you really involved and engrossed in it, rather than chanting about how good it is.

Imagine claiming in 2005 that Chris Masters vs Chris Hero would one day be referred to as a 'dream match'! Just shows how much perceptions can change.