Marty

Yeah, it's going to be tough to follow up this one. They were thinking of doing Austin-Rock, but I don't know if it could be nearly as interesting. I think it's very possible they could do Rock-HHH. There's a lot of stuff behind the scenes that we've heard that they could bring up. It's not likely as deep as Bret-Shawn, but there's some similar stuff they could cover. Hogan-Savage would've been a good one if Savage was still around.

Yup, that's the one! Thanks!

At least that was hilariously bad. I found HHH's opening promo was painfully bad (in fact, I'm surprised I haven't seen that point mentioned elsewhere). I think it was John who said how limiting HHH's acting ability is. Spot on.

Like you, I enjoyed Austin-Vince in the '99 Rumble, but the rest of it was pretty unwatchable, sometimes painful to sit through. I agree that the Royal Rumble is generally overrated (although not nearly as much as most WWE ladder matches). Really, the Rumble match itself is often only as good as how well they can incorporate stories/storylines into it. The Austin-Vince one is actually a good example of this. Flair's early entry with Heenan freaking out made the '92 one entertaining. Most cases of these, though, are few and far between, and due to the sheer numbers (often at the same time as you mentioned), they don't always stand out. Even Punk lucking out with the Nexus early in last year's wasn't bad, although it goes to show you the state of the Rumble when the biggest reactions (aside from Santino's would-be upset) were the surprise entrants (Booker and Nash).

Wait, what? The only Bret-related stuff I remember in the buildup was Shawn trolling the fans in Montreal with Bret's Titantron. Hogan named-dropped Bret once or twice in the build-up as well, if memory serves.

Certainly when he took a Stunner at MSG he likely thought that. Perhaps even earlier than that when he had the occasional physical confrontation with Bret.

I didn't see enough Speedy back in the day to judge. But Tweety was 2002 HHH bad as far as a babyface goes.

Everything I've heard about Nash's politics indicates the opposite is true. Yeah a born conservative won't sell you on silver, believe in a 9/11 conspiracy, believe in a JFK conspiracy, and be fully supportive of the legalization of marijuana. Minor tidbit aside, excellent article, Jonathan.

Yeah, colour me skeptical on the whole "JR didn't know this was going to happen" stuff. Maybe he got to know before showtime upon the thousandth rewriting of RAW, but as it happened? Also, Ross is a carny himself, look at how much he's flip-flopped on a number of stories over the years, such as Montreal or Austin walking out. Part of me honestly thinks this is JR's way of getting his version of the "Aww shucks" face heat that we all felt Mick Foley has attained for himself over the years.

Well, it was an accident. The whole "Taker's Crew" thing is talked about in detail in the Godwinns' shoot interview, now that I think of it, as they were part of it. The Godwinns too!?!?! They could've made the Cliq their bitches. I don't understand this. What kept that from happening? Probably because they seemed to get along fine. I need to dig up my old Photobucket account, but I have a pic of the Clique and the BSK hanging out together (Steve Austin is in the group shot as well). It wouldn't shock me at all if the BSK weren't put together to get Taker pushed more, but rather as locker room police officers, for lack of a better term.

He does and it's amazing what a difference a few years makes with respect to HHH/Hart.

Well, at least they're more in touch with things than when they did the Roddy Piper-Goldust OJ car chase long after that sort of thing still had humour.

I hope it serves up to the hype, but since 30 for 30 is mentioned, for rivalry docs, I really gotta wonder if it'll be as good as Unmatched.

John (or anyone else): Does the NBA Network in the U.S. fall under the same category (general basic package)? (I ask because I'm in Canada.) It's moreless like that here in Canada, too, wrt the NFL Network: If you have digital cable (with the carrier I have at least, I haven't researched the others specifically, though I imagine it's no different), then you have the NFL Network. You need a specific package (not a tier, a package) then you have the NBA Network as well, mind you it's the most popular package of the carrier. At the same time, the NHL Network is on a sports tier.

I don't know if I'd vote him the greatest due to a lack of longevity (unlike a guy like Rude) but I figure in this thread 1993 Doink deserves a mention.

In fairness to the match, Punk kicked out of at least one Pedigree and it took like four finishers (at least) to beat him. From the sounds of it (I didn't see the show), it wasn't a burial, although I'm still not exactly overly excited about the angle. On a more hilarious note, supposedly Nash might've injured himself doing the run-in.

Loved the Henry title win and like you guys, I'm hoping for a long reign too. I fear, though, that it'll end at HIAC, because apparently the company feels that title changes at a PPV means higher ratings the following RAW (possibly a reason why Cena won yet again last night). Then again, it's Smackdown, so maybe they'll play it out with Henry a little longer.

Only if the following happens at the end of RAW: - Punk calls out HHH, says that due to all the shenigans, there wasn't a real decisive winner and that HHH didn't actually "kick his ass". HHH comes out, says the hell with an actual match, let's just fight now. - They come face-to-face, about to fight... ...only to both get destroyed by Mark Henry. (Kidding! I don't want HHH anywhere near Henry right now or ever.)

I can't remember seeing Worldwide during the Crockett days, but PWP absolutely did show JCP matches, usually they were the last thing on the show.

Disagree. NXT Season 3 was more perversely entertaining. Goldust/Aksana getting married with Dusty and Cody there + Dusty's big kiss on Aksana + Aksana walking out > Phil and Paul's yammering. Plus NXT Season 3 gave us odd stuff like Naomi wrestling in a Hamburger Helper Hand. Stuff like that at least drives a "WTF?!" out of you, as opposed to a "End this, please" like last night's segment did. And then there was Michael Cole's gong. Plus Punk's commentary that one episode (an excellent source of comparison right there).

I was at RAW last night in Ottawa. That final segment just went on and on and on and on. Haven't seen what it looked on TV but even before reading the comments here, I don't have much hope. Another note: Loss pointed out, I think in the other thread where we talked about this, that this angle's become too "insidey". That was even more validated last night. When Punk did his bit of "This isn't CM Punk talking to Triple H, this is Phil Brooks talking to Paul Levesque" you could hear a number of different people (and they were all adults) in the crowd asking each other "Who is Phil Brooks?" and "Who's this Paul Levesque?"

Yup. Be interesting to see if they have an HD version or if they'll stick with only an SD version.

I'm suspecting you'll see both, even though it'll be mainly the former compared to the latter just because of the size of their wrestling library. At the same time, there's no way they wouldn't take advantage of their own channel to show some WWE Films productions. I look forward to seeing the WWE Network launch with a running of The Marine.

Finlay always comes to mind with topics like these.

FWIW, Nash did an interview with some radio station in Scotland (parts of it are very easy to search for on YouTube; I'd link it if I had access right now but I don't) and there was a certain point where he claimed he and Hall signed for five years right off the bat. His stories are, to put it nicely, often very inconsistent. (Hey, he fully admits to partying his ass off in WCW, perhaps it's one of many factors.) One thing I wondered, though: When did his final contract in WCW actually end? I'm thinking of the one Vince didn't want to bring in when he made the purchase.