Loss

I'd imagine this played off of their '91 match, and they seem to have quite a few G-1 matches, but while I really liked the '96 match, this one was tough for me to get into. Good moments of offense, but a lot of laying on the mat. It wasn't bad, but I expected it to be better.

This is a much better match, mainly because Sasaki wasn't as good as Hashimoto, so he completely followed Rude's lead and wrestled Rude's style. Better as a comp match to the Pillman and Dustin matches than the Hashimoto match, as they're all Rude vs young guy, and this match is more like those, but honestly, probably better than both. Rude gets the win after two top rope kneedrops, which seems to be the great finisher in the G-1 for Rude.

Chono's style was far more similar to the American heavyweight style at the time than Hashimoto's, so he made a much better match for Rude. This is a bit of a styles clash and I couldn't get into it. Both are really good at their styles, but they don't mesh like they should. Rude doesn't work stiff enough for his stuff to look good with Hash. I also wish Rude had modified his style just a little to remove stuff like Madusa's interference, which is just weird in New Japan. He also comes off the top rope way too many times, although the top rope DDT and kneedrop from the top to finish both looked great.

Of course it was a logical decision, that was the problem with it. Vince should have been so freaked out over Punk leaving with the title that he was unable to think logically, even if it was only for one week. I should make you all read my Montreal Manifesto post again. Perhaps time has proven you right.

Of course it was a logical decision, that was the problem with it. Vince should have been so freaked out over Punk leaving with the title that he was unable to think logically, even if it was only for one week. Maybe HHH comes in the next week and says he's in, everyone has a clean slate and there will be a tournament with the finals at Summerslam -- which ends up being Cena vs Rey. Punk continues angling this from the outside, and says WWE will NEVER crown another champion and he will see to it ... even if he has to go Summerslam himself to stop it. HHH says if he steps in the building, he will be arrested. Boom, there's your selling point. Rey vs Cena with Rey trying to win the title in his hometown and Punk buying a front row ticket and trying to muck up the match. Angle continues, Punk comes back but not really, the Vince removal is more founded, HHH gets over as the guy with the cooler head, Rey gets the hometown heat that Punk had a month earlier. You could have a wild scene with Rey going over, cops restraining Punk, Punk swinging at HHH as he's taken out of the building ... there are quite a few directions you could go from there.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Nobody on Earth, including his mom, calls him Phil Brooks. Okay, I will refrain from calling him Phil Brooks. I made a long post about the overall angle, and THAT is what you choose to respond to?

This is exactly the switch in goal posts I was talking about. This has gone from Punk can be a megastar to Punk is headlining PPVs (which I would like to remind everyone, he has been doing for a few years anyway -- he has even headlined Summerslam before). His stock has definitely risen from all of this and he has a higher profile, but let's see where he is a year from now. Hopefully, he's still in a main event spot, but he was already in a main event spot, having wrestled Cena many times. Will they try to build around him? We'll see. And I'd rather blame the promotion for putting out disappointing stuff than blame fans who point it out.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Yeah, no one has suggested anything you may want to do in the meantime or anything.

To be fair, jdw's comment is little about Punk and more about fans of Punk who have shifted the goal posts multiple times and continued to defend the angle even as it has clearly fallen off the rails. To me, Punk returning one week after leaving -- and coming out with entrance music blaring over the loud speakers through the official WWE entrance ramp no less -- succeeded in: * Turning this into just another angle * Breaking continuity * Making Punk seem indecisive and whiny, and incapable of keeping his word * Making Cena seem fake for being willing to call himself a new champion after losing the belt cleanly * Cutting Punk's legs off while weakening Cena even more with the same audience that they supposedly want him to be stronger with Really, maybe you could say the angle fell off the rails when it became about HHH assuming the Vince role. From there on, the Punk storyline has been used to get over HHH's new role more than HHH's new role has been used to get over the Punk storyline. Yes, Punk gets good one-liners on him in promos, but that's small beans. HHH taking over the company is a far bigger angle than Punk whining, quitting, coming back and whining some more. Backing up even more, reeeaallly, maybe you could say the angle fell off the rails when they had a tournament to crown a new champion. They essentially no sold Punk walking out with the gold. Vince gave a speech about no one guy being bigger than the company, which is fine as a business philosophy, but not as a storyline. Punk left with the title. Raw should have been a show in chaos and disarray, with people scrambling around and no one knowing what to do. Having a champion is what keeps the promotion going. I know they don't even want to refer themselves as a worked sport, but why even wrestle if there's nothing to strive for? The champ is NOT here. They could have put over the title big time. Wrestlers doing interviews asking why to even bother if there is no championship to compete for, leading to more walkouts, or even jumps to Smackdown. "Raw is falling apart at the seams" would have made for good TV at least. Instead, they just tried to move on. It shows how intrinsic they are to their own inability to get new people over in a significant way -- so much so that they can't pretend to sell that someone leaving hurts the promotion. Instead, we got an HHH continuing every single Vince policy, acknowledging his bogus tournament, not changing anything about the show -- in doing this, they also shot themselves in the foot in getting HHH's new role over as anything that has consequences. It's like they forget this is a work and have worked themselves. This angle has also gotten waaaay too inside-y and it's hard for me to dispute that. I don't mean the fourth wall reference or that Punk is allowed to say things others aren't. I also don't mean that Punk's contract is part of the story. Contracts are a staple of even old school wrestling. I remember in 1986 when the Freebirds held the UWF up for multi-million dollar contracts as part of their debuting angle, to get them over as heels. So it's not a new concept and not one I have a problem with. The angle being more about who runs the company, who hires and fires people and locker room unhappiness is what makes it too inside-y. Then you get into the Punk character's philosophy which also annoys me. It's more important to him that he has a microphone than it is that he has a championship, yet Cena is the guy who never wanted to be a professional wrestler. That's what annoys me -- that for all of his talk about wrestling, he acts like a guy that would rather talk about being a wrestler than actually be a wrestler. He thinks he gets his power through talking instead of through winning matches. I'm sure Phil Brooks the guy was a fan of great talkers growing up, but in the context of a wrestling show, the talking should facilitate the wrestling instead of the wrestling facilitating the talking. In a kayfabe sense, you don't gain power by having "great" matches or getting more mic time, you gain power by WINNING. Why is no one talking about this? Why is the fact that Punk beat Cena not the focus of this buildup instead of a sidebar to it? This is a flawed, flawed angle. And I'm someone who really wanted to like it, defended it at first and still thinks it's one of the best things WWE has done in a long time. But that alone says it all -- that something with this many problems is the best thing they've done in a long time is more a poor reflection on WWE than a positive reflection on this angle.

This should have been a game-changing signing for WCW considering how hot Jake was at the time. Great promo, not that that's a surprise.

Really fun, short match sees Simmons win the WCW World title in an impromptu match and a classic moment. This was one of the few times Bill Watts really worked his magic in WCW in creating emotion. Goodhelmet, how did the Jake laying out Sting stuff get chopped out?

Cornette's pre-match promo is GLORIOUS. He is adamant that there will be no barbed wire cage match tonight and he will tie this up in court for years if he has to. The Fultons take exception to that and we have ourselves a match. Pretty decent brawl with Pritchard especially looking fantastic. Lane's head gear falls off, and he seems to be wrestling pretty cautiously so the toupee doesn't go flying off. Fantastics win the match and SMW tag titles, which makes Cornette livid. The fans end up pelting him with trash when it's over. The Bodies do a promo afterwards, and Lane's bloody wig is pretty funny.

Nice long feud recap, featuring the entire semi-famous all over the building/parking lot brawl. I love the camerawork and swearing because of the chaotic feel it gives everything. Cornette grabs a car and takes off with the Bodies, and for some reason, I find it hilarious that it's a Ford Taurus.

Last few minutes, which is perfect, because I really wasn't looking forward to watching the match. DWB wins the title after someone (not sure who, which is the whole point) runs in to help him.

Rock & Rolls by the numbers, but that's hardly a bad thing, and it's good to see them in this context of everything else happening around the world. Nice, solid tag match about on the same level as most of the Mid South house show stuff. This crowd is HOT for the Rock & Rolls return after a long absence. Morton is worked over as FIP and even juices. These guys are fired up to give a good match with Morton coming back. The finish went like two sequences too long -- I would have liked to have seen the double dropkick get the pin, but this is still worth checking out.

In general, the major cities Crockett ran in the 80s like Philly and Baltimore loved the heels, especially in 1987-1988. Also, Honky Tonk Man early in his WWF run is the first babyface I ever saw get booed soundly. I know it happened before that at times, but it really happened with HTM in a big way. Not sure how much of that was smarkish, though.

Surprisingly, the match improves tenfold when the Bodies and Fultons are gone and we're left with a Stud Stable vs Danny Davis & Dixie Dynamite tag. At 20+ minutes, this is way longer than your usual TV match in SMW and there is some good stuff, but I'm not really a fan of Four Corners matches.

Dutch Mantel is the best thing about SMW, maybe even more than Cornette, at least in 1992-1993. Dutch as the journalist that is trying to ask Bob Armstrong tough questions is the perfect balance of humor and logic. He gets it. Bob Armstrong also takes the opportunity to take shots at WCW for employing a Little Richard impersonator. I liked this a lot.

Tommy Rich is back! He's in as a babyface and will be wrestling Doug Gilbert on an upcoming show. He does a promo on a pig farm excited about coming in. Then, we find out that Eddie has a surprise opponent too -- Bill Dundee! The Gilberts out and takes off and Dundee takes over and does a fun interview. Then we cut to a music video of Tommy Rich that looks like it's from 1984 or so. I don't think there's much footage -- if any -- newer than that.

Jarrett and Lawler start off by congratulating Dave Brown on 25 years on Memphis TV and they show an old clip of Lawler and Plowboy Frazier being interviewed many years before. They transition to another clip at MSC, this time of another Jarrett/Lawler vs Moondogs match with Moondog Fifi's hair at stake. We get more of the match than usual, and the action is great!

Ultimate Warrior is being interviewed by Gene but is interrupted by Ric Flair. Gene can't believe someone would interrupt someone's interview time. In wrestling, I know! He tells him Mr. Perfect is in negotiations to manage Randy Savage against him at Summerslam. But Flair has good news -- it's not etched in stone! Flair's involvement in the main event is generally well-remembered, but him also talking about being the WWF champ by Summerslam muddied up this angle a little. Stu and Helen talk about the Bret/Davey Boy match at Summerslam. Helen does all the talking saying the tension is affecting the family. I really liked the build to Bret/Davey Boy.

Manuel Villalobos, who I've never seen or heard of before, gets his first ever victory over Gary Young. He hears someone calling his name, and Manny Fernandez is tearing up his new Ford with an axe. Rod Price makes a cameo.

I'm curious what FLIK thinks of this. Definitely a crazy match, memorable enough spots to be on a set like this.

Fulton responds to Cornette's claim of them being tomatoes by bringing out newspaper and slicing THAT on the barbed wire, to make the point that that's what happens to paper champions in barbed wire cage matches. Fulton may have won that round.