anarchistxx

Finally got round to watching the show. I'll just start by wondering what was with the retarded indy/TNA chants all night? 'This Is Awesonme', 'You Got Served', 'Angle's Gonna Kill You'. It was crap. Anyway... Lawler/Tazz was a waste. Even if Tazz can't go Lawler could have carried him using just his punches and weapon shots. 1/4* Angle/Orton was decent enough, the wrestling at the start was rather pointless, liked the crowd reaction to Orton who was a great heel. Pretty much standard stuff though, nothing special. ** FBI v Crazy/Tajiri did nothing for me. Span a lot of it on, so shouldn't really rate it, but if I did I'd give it *1/4 JBL's promo was brilliant. Mysterio/Sabu was entertaining and worked well. Ending wasn't good, they could have just had Rey win with a quick roll up in the ring to at least get a clean finish, but the match could have been a lot worse, and was in actual fact pretty good and fun. **1/2 Foley, Edge and Lita's promos were once again excellent. Funk/Dreamer/Beulah v Edge/Foley/Lita was better than can be expected. Completely sick, some great spots, but at the same time messy, disjointed and mundane and some points. Still, it entertained me, and was probab;ly MOTN if only for the sick spots. **3/4 Didn't bother watching almost all of Balls/Tanaka. What I did catch was awful. Cena/RVD had a great atmosphere, but the match wasn't all that good, and it certainly didn't feel like RVD's big win. **1/4

I'd call Austin/Benoit and Austin/Angle and Austin/Trips **** matches at least. Austin/Rock and the May Tag I'd say were **** last time I watched them but I haven't seen them for a bit.

HHH? The KOTR match was terrible, but did they have a hidden gem on Raw or somehting? Jeff Hardy? I don't like the match as much as others, though I enjoyed it. Flair? Yes, he took Flair to his best match since the comeback. Cena? Yes, he had some decent matches with Cena, but nothing special. They did a good job though. Angle? Yes, the 2003 SD match is my MOTY for that year and the 3-Way with Rock is all kinds of fun. I agree he was good in this period, although apart from the Angle Smackdown match, none of his matches were great. I enjoyed Dust, be he doesn't have nearly the amojnt of stuff they had in that year. Yes, admittedly they wrestled the same match a lot, and it showed by the end of the year, especially on TV, but in my Top 50 matches of 2002 in the WWF, only 2 Goldust matches made my list whereas loads of matches from other guys did. Goldust didn't have any matches as good as Rey/Angle or Rey/Benoit, or even Eddie/Edge or Eddie/Rey or the Benoit/Angle v Rey/Edge tags and the Angle/Rey series. I toot hink Bret's carrying was overrated, but he took so many guys to decent matches it's hard to argue he wasn't at least a good carrier. Foley is a good carrier as well though, his match with Orton in 2004 was amazing, and a lot of it down to him. Bret took Davey to a great match, Diesel to some good matches, and loads of midcard guys to passable matches. Foley does have some ECW stuff that holds up, but he's really awful in some of it. I hated most ECW though, and his matches with Sabu and Sandman I thought were awful for the most part. But Austin has so much high level stuff it's incredible. He may have the best body of work in the entire WWF. v Angle, v Benoit, v Hart, v Foley, v Taker, v Rock, v HHH plus Wargames 92. Austin 2001 beats just about anyone. Foley has a whole lot though, and him and Austin are very similar in the way that they were great at emotion and character and getting the crowd into a match. I'd still take Austin though.

On the subject of star ratings... I don't really rate anything as a DUD, well, not since I've started rating anyway. It would suggest they've done nothing of merit. Something at * means it isn't at all good, but it doesn't really make you cringe a whole lot either. Something around ** is pretty average but I usually won't want to watch it again. Around *** would suggest the match is good, I enjoyed it a lot, and would be happy to sit through it again. **** would mean the match is really great, and is a favourite of mine which I may be likely to watch multiple times, depending on the time I have. I haven't rated anything *****, but if I did it would be something everyone needed to see, it would tick every box and I would think it was incredible from start to finish. I think star ratings are good because they give a great indication of the level of a matchs quality. I try and get a mix of factors into my star ratings. I don't just look for story, or psychology, or how the crowd reacts, or how many counters they toss in, I look for all these things, that together, make up a good match. Goldust top 5 worker in WWF in 02? He had some good tags but apart from that I can't see what good stuff he had, esepcially with some of the stuff going on on Smackdown. I don't know how you could put Goldust ahead of Mysterio, Guerrero or Benoit that year. What is 'peak' Undertaker? To me, Taker can pull a great match out, but he's never had a real run of great matches. But that could be put down to him wrestling decent workers, and then going and wrestling largely untelented big men in his next feud. I'll take the Bulldogs over the Rockers. More intensity, could work great as face or heel, great chemistry. The Rockers had those qualities as well, though I haven't seen as much of their heel work as I'd like, but personally I'd take the Bulldogs, especially since I've seen more of them in Japan. I think you could argue that Foley has the same body of work as some of those guys, but I'm not sure you could call him a better worker. I can't see him having better matches then Austin's top matches, I can't see him carrying guys the way Bret did. I would maybe say he's better than Owen.

Triple-H certainly had the 'it' factor as a heel before the quad injury, and cut some awesome promos. American Dragon is really overrated and most of the time looks like he's playing at being a wrestler. Jack Evans is in the Top 5 most entertaining wrestlers today, although almost exclusively in tags or multi-man matches. James Gibson's ROH run was superb, and he was the best wrestler apart from Joe while he was there. Jun Akiyama is the best worker in Japan outside of Dragon Gate. I watched 2 full episodes of Smackdown recently. They bored me to tears.

The problem with 'smart' fans is you give them what they want, and then they want something else. Happened with loads of people wanting Rey to win the title, and when he won it, the same people wanting the title to be on JBL. I'm sure if JBL won it, they'd want the title on Batsista.

My bad, they had 2 matches on the same day in 2 different consecutive years. What are the chances of that? In any case, I need to see the 83' one pretty badly.

Loss, I'm pretty sure that Flair/Jumbo match you list as 06/08/83 actually took place on that date in 1982.

What's missing from WWE is things to care about. That's why I'd rather watch HH/Cena than Mysterio/Finlay. I care about HHH and Cena, and I bring up Mysterio/Finlay not because it was a bad match, far from it, but because it's being pimped as great and it didn't interest me at all. Same with Benoit/Finlay, despite my love for Benoit. Same with the entire Backlash card. Had, say, the Shelton/RVD match been performed 6 years ago between Guerrero and Jericho, and they'd done the exact same match, I would have been much more bothered. What's missing from wrestling as a whole is that I'm not excited to watch it. Maybe the odd match, but Wrestlemania didn't excite me, none of Akiyama's title defences excite me, despite me loving the guy to bits, most things on ROH cards don't excite me. I turn a match on, I enjoy it, it might pass the time if I don't have anything better to do, but I'm never really excited to put a match on and see it.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue vs. Jado & Gedo (NJPW 3.14.05) This was going along really well until the last 6 or 7. Jado and Gado started off targeting Kanemoto with some arm work at the beginning and did a good job. They weren't particularly inventive or exciting going about it, but it served its purpose and more importantly became a factor later down the road. Kanemoto did a brilliant job of selling it as well, not overselling, but once he got on offence just shaking his arm out and holding it at the right time. From what I've seen, for my money he's one of the best sellers anywhere. The best part of the match is suprisingly the middle sectoir, which can drag in tags like this. Basically it's the ultimate sympathy face routine. The heels (Jado + Gedo) use chairs to get the advantage, targeting the arm of Kanemoto and giving Inoue some sick shots to the face busting him up. Now one of the faces has a fukced up arm and one is bleeding all over the place. The face in peril segment on Inoue is just great. The heels are such dikcxs to him, taunting at him, laughing at him, tearing and punching at the cut, using chairs and if he ever tries to mount a comeback poking him in the eyes or pulling his hair. Inoue is also fantastic here, as he sells the blood and the shots really well, but knows when to mount his fiery comebacks. They do some really good teases for the tag as well, and they succeed in getting the faces really over, with the crowd popping big for every kick out and willing the hot tag. When it finally comes it doesn't disspoint, and it leads into 5 minutes of great action. Plenty of near falls, lots of suspense and some great moments. Inoue sacrificing himself and taking a super-powerbomb and a backdrop on the floor to buy Kanemoto some time, Kanemoto bringing him in to do the damage so he can rest. Plenty of high impact, move teases, especially for the moonsault, so when it does get hit, it's big. Unfortunately, instead of ending it there, they keep it going for another 5 or 6 minutes. It becomes boring, and strategies and psychology go out of the window on the heels side as they try and get their spots in. Jado seems to want to be Chris Benoit, hitting multiple germans, multiple applications of the crossface and super powerbombs. Unfortunately for him, he lacks the intensity or execution of Benoit, and it just looks like somebody doing an impression. The last 5 minutes also looks something like an Angle/Benoit match, with Ankle-Lock-Crossface reversal sequences and just the general direction they take it in. It feels so out of place and leaves a sour taste in your mouth after what had been a really good match. They pick it up for the last couplr of minutes, and we get a great payoff with thr faces winning the belts, but unfortunately the match had lost the it factor. There were problems in the early part as well, with the first few minutes being a bit too pedestrian, and the heels not looking entirely comfortable on offence, but they looked like they were on their way to a really good tag match until that 6 minute section. Nonetheless, it's still a good match. ***

Well I assume to footage will still exist, only WWE will own it. Can't see why they'd want it though, except to complete their monopoly of the wrestling DVD and Video footage.

I think 3 Minute Warning were meant to get back together, but they obviously changed their minds, because Rosey is now fired and Jamal is wrestling under this ridiculous gimmick. Completely silly really, as 3 Minute Warning were the perfect guys to take the straps off Kane and Show.

It's Jamal, and he has some sort of jungle gimmick. I gathered as much from last night.

Yes, the event was pretty terrible. My review of it is on Page 5 of the DVDVR thread, and in the What You Are Watching thread in the General Wrestling folder of Smarkschoice for those who want to read it. RVD/Shelton has been getting some love actually, but it was painfully average in my view. Shelton must have set a new record for the amount of restholds in one match.

A little off tooic, but does anybody see this problem with the DVDVR 80's project? It will be going on for 5-8 Years. It took over a year to do the WWF one, and with so many categories left, do people ever think this will get finished? Plus, the voters in 5 years, are obviously going to be very different, and have very different mindsets to the ones now? Will this be a problem? Thoughts.

The HITC with Trips is probably his best match, then I'd go with the tags with Rey against MNM, and tied for third would be his matches with Triple-H at Backlash and Eddie at No Mercy which are around the same level I'd say. Having said that, I don't watch WWE TV (Though I caught the MNM tags after much pimping) so he may have some hidden gems out there.

After the HBK match at Wrestlemania I was sure he was going to interupt the HHH/Cena main event, even more so when HH did the DX sign. I was disapointed. Having said that, I don't think they should reform, as they certainly won't be able to be as edgy as they were back then: HBK is known to be a devout christian, HHH's character is now too serious, they are both a lot older. I just don't think it would work.

Right, here is my fairly brief thoughts on Wrestlemania. The Tag Title match up first wasn't bad, and did a decent job. Carlito and Masters looked pumped, but Kane and Show looked like they couldn't give a damn. ** The MITB Ladder was disapointing, but still a reasonable match with some cool spots. **1/2 JBL/Benoit was really dispointing, and I didn't really enjoy it at all. I don't think it was the time constraints either, as I've see both men have good matches in under 10 minutes. Maybe it's the fact that JBL isn't all that good after all. The Guerrero stuff was awful, Benoit should lay the three verticals spot to rest. ** Foley/Edge was MOTN, but lacked the charm of the Foley/Orton match. Still good, though things like tghe thumbtack bump didn't get me excited as they should have. Styles was awful on commentary, not hyping any of the weapons up at all. Ross should have called the match. ***1/4 Booker/Boogeyman was abysmal, and one of the worst matches in Wrestlemania history. It was shockingly bad. 1/4* Trish/Mickie was very flat for the most part, and I couldn't get into it. The botch at the end didn't help matters. *1/2 Undertaker/Henry was pretty dire. Infact, it was awful. Slow, lacking in energy, just a total borefest. *1/4 Michaels/HBK could have been a lot better. The first half was pretty bad, up until Shane came in, and we got about a brilliant 5 minutes up to the chair shot. HBK should have just ended it with the chin music there, but instead they go overkill. The ladder spot was nice, but after over 5 minutes of setting up wasn't worth it. ** The Triple-Threat wasn't hyped up at all. Total go-go-go spotfest, I didn't like it that much. Entertaining stuff, but the fans turned on Rey and Angle really should ahve won it, as Rey's title win certainly wasn't a special moment at all. I enjoyed it, but certainly wasn't blown away by it. **1/2 The main event I was really hyped for with the backstage stuff, until they announce a fucking pillow fight. Totally sucked it out of me. The fight got 1/4* by the way. The main event was decent in parts, average in others. The crowd reaction certainly helped my entartainment, and the first 5 minutes of HHH embarrasing Cena were great. I'm still so pissed off Cena won. I was so sure HBK was going to come down and reform DX as well. The match was decent, but the finish was a poor end to Wrestlemania. **3/4 Poor Wrestlemania without a doubt. The MOTN wasn't anything special, and I was highly disapointed by many matches.

Double Post.

Ok, I'll share my thoughts on some of the matches, even though I don't have the set. Shawn Michaels v Kurt Angle (Wrestlemania XXI) - I loved this match. A match that I thought lived up to the hype, the spots were well placed and worked well, it was really exciting to watch live, I've only seen it once since though, and I'm going to watch it in the next week to see ifit holds up. 7/18/05 Kobashi vs. Sasaki (NOAH) - Too much no selling, too many lariats, too much goofyness. It was still a good match, and had a great, epic feel, as well as being packed with great moments. However, I don't think it holds a candle to some of Kobashi's 90's matches, or even his 2004 MOTY against Akiyama. 2/16/05 Kawada vs. Kojima (All Japan) - Didn't like this much at all. Far too many strike battles, and just bored me at times. It's a while since I saw it, so I can't take the match apart and tell you what was wrong with it, but it really didn't appeal to me. I enjoyed the last 5 minutes a lot, and it's still a reasonable effort. 9/18/05 Suwa vs. KENTA (NOAH) - Prett damn sweet. Probably my second to top Puro match from last year. SUWA is such an awesome heel, and KENTA was really over with the crowd, so it made for a good combination. Some of the early stalling annoyed me, but still a great match. 1/8/05 Kobashi vs. Suzuki (NOAH) - A little too methodical for my liking. Good, but I don't rate it as high as Loss, but that's no suprise as it's pretty obvious we loom for different things in wrestling. Very smart match, and the first transition where Susuki fell backwards off the top and wrenched Kobashi's arm out his socket was awesome. hated the finish, with Suzuki still being able to stand after about 3 Backdrop Drivers and god knows what else. 12/11/05 Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TNA Turning Point) - The best Styles match I've seen, though I still haven't got round to watching his Street Fight with Rave. Joe was awesome throughout, but Styles was suprisingly good here as well. Not one of the top matches of the year, but it deserves to be up there and talked about. 8/21/05 Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. (WWE Summerslam) - Good match, I lved the story behind it and thought the video package built up to it really well. A couple of botches, I thought they could have filled thir time a bit better sometimes, and pulled some different stuff out. A good match, not a great one. 3/17/05 Kurt Angle v. Marty Jannetty (WWE SD! ) - Solid match, doesn't deserve to be anywhere near this set though, pending a rewatch. I think it's the wrong side of ***. 9/11/05 Samoa Joe Vs. Christopher Daniels Vs. AJ Styles (TNA Unbreakable) (My Review From My Review Of The Event) This was a really fun match, but not a lot more. It had little substance to it, but they made it entertaining enough, especially to the target audience. They filled up the time with so much stuff, all dipping deeply into their offence ranges, and so it never really got boring. It was really exciting stuff, with plenty of near falls and great moments to remember. Execution was nigh on perfect as well, and it all built to a enjoyable experience, if not as much so as the first time I watched it. Samoa Joe is clearly the best thing about this match. He looks aggressive and angry. His delivery is done with a great vicious panache, and it helps that he has two men willing to bump so much for him. He knows just when to put his stuff in, and does some amazing moves for a man his size. He is also the best of all three at selling and psychology. Styles isn't bad in the match, but Joe shines much brighter than his opponents. Now to the bad. The psychology in this match was awful at times. This is most notable when Joe has Daniels in his deadly choke, but instead of breaking it up straight away, Styles goes to the top rope to do it. It happens as well with some of the high flying stuff that doesn't need to be there. The selling can be just as abysmal, with Daniels and Styles doing backflips and landing on their feet a minute after high impace manouvres. At least Joe manages to work his selling around the match style somewhat, the other two seem to make no effort. In fact, the Daniles- Styles segments are the worst. They lack the x-factor, and they just seem planned and lacking in urgency. Daniels is obviously the worst wrestler in the match, he is painful to watch at times. His complete lack of emotion or character, his ballet like execution, at least he's a good bumber, but that seems about the only thing he's got going for him. The match also looks a bit too contrived at times, with numerous planned sequences, which are planned, and look planned. This is a very fun match, which will provide you with great entertainment the first time you watch it, providing you don't go in looking for faults. When watched again, it loses some of its goodness, but is still a good bout. ***1/4

I actually like the Wrestlemania card, and feel it will suprise a lot of people. Nothing that is 'must see', but there is plenty that has potential to be good, moreso in fact that last years or so I think anyway. Finlay has been good from what limited stuff I've seen since he came back. I still don't subscribe to the theory he's the best wrestler in the world. Not just yet anyway. I couldn't care less about the CZW v ROH feud, mostly because it's invloving rubbish like Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer. Plus, I hate Hero, don't love Butcher that much, don't think as highly of ROH as some, I have no inclination to watch this feud.