Loss

Undertaker v John Bradshaw Layfield - WWE Smackdown 06/16/05 This match deserves all the credit in the world for truly portraying JBL as the Undertaker's equal. A constant advantage Taker being so protected in the booking will always have is that when someone kicks out of one of his big moves or goes toe-to-toe with him, it'll do wonders to get them over as a threat. In that sense, this match was a huge success, even if I don't like how they got the point across at times. There seemed to a miscue on what the story was the match was trying to tell when they spilled outside, as Taker went knee first into the steps, but sold his stomach while the announcers pretended he was selling his knee. It doesn't really matter anyway, as JBL started wearing down his neck once they got in the ring with a couple of swinging neckbreakers and Taker made his comeback so quickly that it wasn't allowed to go anywhere anyway. There are some really cool revenge spots in this match, though, when Taker counters one big boot with another big boot early on, and later when he gets in his own sleeper after JBL was the first to apply the move. They have trouble sustaining any of the momentum they keep creating though, which is why this match suffers. It's a shame, because there are some awesome moments -- particularly down the final stretch, but they keep breaking up their own flow. Taker gets in a really good superplex, but he keeps repeating big boot spots. The chokeslam and powerbomb kickouts by JBL are nicely done and do a great job making for an "anything can happen" aura, and Taker following up with a tombstone attempt is the perfect follow up after JBL kicks out of both of those moves, but Orton's run-in sort of negates the point of going to such lengths to put Bradshaw over anyway. This match has some great stuff in it which both guys do deserve credit for, but they keep taking one step forward and two steps back. ***

Rey Misterio Jr v John Bradshaw Layfield - WWE Smackdown 04/07/05 No way in Hell was I expecting this match to be anywhere near this good. This is a really fun big man, little man encounter, and JBL is great in this, as it's his first match after losing the title and he's incredibly grumpy, which shows both in his facial expressions and aggressive style. I think what I like most about this is that they eliminate a lot of the typical clowning spots JBL does to get over the storyline of him being pissed, but they still find a way to work them in credibly. Wrestling -- presentation, NOT content! Bradshaw looks like he hasn't slept since Wrestlemania and bumps and sells his ass off early on. Rey knows that JBL is disoriented and does what he can to take advantage of that fact, using an awesome hit and run strategy, but when he tries to block an Irish whip, he eats several consecutive knees. Have I mentioned that JBL isn't exactly in the best mood? Anyway, he gets in a great fallaway slam from the middle rope, works a bearhug to build sympathy and continues wearing down Rey's back by trying a middle rope belly-to-back suplex, but Rey blocks it and gets in a beautiful moonsault. The pace in this is steady all the way through, and Rey countering the fallaway slam into a DDT is a fantastic spot. The match ends in a DQ, but I still think it's a good finish all things considered, as Rey was the moral victory while JBL was the one who advanced in the tournament. This is how you do a big guy/little guy match, get over surrounding storylines and protect both guys. Really great TV match. ***1/4

I can't imagine ANYTHING being funnier than #30, but I may be surprised.

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.p...opic=41480&st=0 Link above for those who are interested, but I'm going to completely ape this by providing some of the best quotes and sharing them here. This is hilarious stuff.

While he does look older, Bret has aged far better than Shawn Michaels. Anyway, outside of a one-shot deal, I'm not sure what they can do with him, but that one shot has plenty of potential. Keeping Bret around to book would be too awesome for words, but at this point, Bret has said he's more interested in devoting his time to his family and pursuing interests outside of wrestling, which is honestly probably the best thing for him.

Because they don't want people coming in that know a different way to do things than the WWE way. They'd rather deal with people who know nothing that they can create from the ground up than deal with people that do have working knowledge of the business. That seems to be their preference for hiring people, both in and out of the ring. Plus, if they're a success, Vince can take sole credit for "making" them what they are.

Story #4 ... A wrestler was backstage talking about ideas to get heat in his promo and was told his promo was for RAW, not Heat. Story #5 ... The new writers have repeatedly been calling Edge "Christian". I see after the first incident, they *still* haven't been clued in as to what "get heat" means.

Part of Watts' divorce settlement was that his wife would maintain rights to the video library. Therefore, Crockett absorbed all the rest of the assets except the tape library.

From PWInsider: This! Rocks! You know they're acquiring so much footage that I don't know that they'll ever be able to properly use it all to its full potential. I mean, they're putting together - what - 5-6 DVD sets a year? They should be doing more like 20-25 and releasing complete seasons of RAW, WCW Saturday Night, etc. on the cheap too. Oversaturate the hell out of the wrestling market.

Again, I don't think you can underestimate how much handing out sunglasses to kids in the crowd did to get him over. He was always moderately over, and the company soon got behind him. What got him over as champ was defending the belt so often. Losing the belt the way he lost it wasn't the right decision, but losing the belt didn't hurt him at the time, considering he went on to feud with Jerry Lawler in what was a hot feud at the time and won the first King of the Ring tournament.

Rude @ Summerslam '89 really should be included. One of his better matches, and a title victory to boot.

Dusty is one guy who I think would have value in critiquing the product, but not in fixing it. I think he could point out the problems with WWE all day long, but I don't think he could provide any solutions. Few could.

I hope it's not a re-release. WWE 2005 production values and NWA 1988 production values are in different universes.

According to PWInsider, there's a Best of Starrcade double disc set coming out the first week of December. Woohoo. Anyway, assuming you have about five hours to work with, what matches would you include on the set? Hopefully they'll shy away from putting Flair/Race on a *third* WWE DVD release, but we'll see, and I could understand how it could have a place on this set.

If you have to ask, he obviously wasn't very successful, now was he?

Bret was over because he was a cool guy and was put over strongly by the announcers. He always gave kids sunglasses in the crowd. Never underestimate how much having audience participation as part of the normal schtick can help a wrestler get over. They seem to have forgotten that.

The mole looks far more like a pecan sandy than a mole. I really hate this company.

God, hopefully with Dusty, it's just HOF. I don't want him booking.