JerryvonKramer

I have the Briscos too

If this had a poll I'd expect a 50+ to less than 10 curb stomp victory for cage matches in the votes.

Likewise, if Terry Funk is available, I want him for these dates: 10/4 10/11 10/18 10/25

If Terry Funk is available I'd like him for these dates: 9/6 9/13 9/20 9/27

I have Dory on 8/23, would kick as if I could have Terry too.

He would have been a very good Hogan opponent.

Haystacks was an absolutely massive guy, 600lbs+, 6'10+

I just figured there's no way it could be him and thought it was probably a low rent character from one of the smaller promotions.

That's a pretty huge steal right there. That dude was a special attraction and a draw.

Didn't know he worked as Loch Ness before the WCW run in 96.

Who is this?

John Cena vs. Chris Jericho (11/23/08) Ha ha, the very first thing Cena tries to do in this match is an FU, start as you mean to go on? Jericho's character work, in marked contrast to that of Kevin Owens, is very good. He carries himself well, good heel, natrual charisma. The big story of this match is that Cena is coming back from neck surgery. We get a strange transition where Cena goes to the top rope, then thinks twice about it and then comes down and steps back into the ring which allows Jericho to attack him. Not the transition I'd have booked as an agent. Just strange. I want to pause here: Cena, it seems to me, does more "pregnant pauses", more "I'm looking around pensively at the crowd", more "I'm going to stop here so the camera can get a good close up of my determined looking face", than just about any wrestler that I've ever seen. And this is one of the things that bugs me, all of that shit really slows down the pace of these matches. Every single pregnant pause is a moment where TIME PASSES. A lot of time passes in Cena matches. There is an awful moment in this match where Cena pauses for what seems like a full 30 seconds before doing his "you can't see me" thing, while Jericho just has to lay there the whole time. That sort of thing breaks my suspension of disbelief. All wrestling is fake but some wrestling is more fake. Jericho "saves" the spot because he was playing possum but it's still awful. Blame the agent, blame Cena, it's a bad spot. Anyway, Jericho capitalises on this neck injury and works an uber-focused gameplan. Levelling him with clotheslines. Chinlocks. FULL NELSON!! Modified Walls of Jericho. A lot of moves focused on the neck. Decent psychology, but the work is not that interesting. I want to pause here again. Because this is something I haven't seen much of before in Cena matches (due to finisher spam): an actual extended heat sequence with a technically-minded heel working holds and controlling the action. His selling is strange. His "determination" is strange. He doesn't really generate sympathy with his selling. We're a million miles away from guys like Jack Brisco, Ricky Steamboat and Rick Martel here. All of those guys, for example, when in a full nelson like that would wave their arms quite a bit either to signify struggle or to show how much pain they were in. Cena when in the full nelson just lets his arms hang down limp as if he's dead. Later on, when he's in the walls of Jericho we don't get pain either, we get "I am determined to make it to the ropes, I may be in pain but I am the will of the American people and I will make it to those ropes. I am a marine!" It's partly a character thing, but it's interesting. Hogan didn't sell like that, Hogan made it seem like he was dying during heat sequences and then you'd get a comeback. The closest thing I can compare it to is Backlund, but Cena shows more "vulnerability" than Backlund, even though that vulnerability manifests itself in a weird way. I think the main issue I have with all of this is that he makes EVERYTHING seems as if it is an internal struggle for inner strength RATHER than a battle against an opponent and his moves. So when Jericho has him in the Walls, he's not really getting over the pain of the move but the narrative of him overcoming his inner fears and regaining his confidence. It sort of buries Jericho rather than putting his offense over. Anyway, it's downhill from here because shortly after that Jericho starts doing some retarded spots which involve him hitting a clothesline and then waiting an AGE for Cena to get back up to clothesline him again. Why doesn't he just follow up? Again, blame the agent, blame Jericho, but there is a lot of TIME PASSING in between these clotheslines and Cena's counter was telegraphed a million miles off. The finish lacked any sort of excitement too because it was framed completely by the commentary team in terms of Cena getting over his injury and regaining his confidence. I mean fuck Chris Jericho and the match we just watched, he was only keeping the belt warm, the important thing to push it Cena's back from his injury! Terrible presentation on top of a not-very-good match. Didn't like this much at all. Jericho worked a smart match as an old-school heel champion, but Cena's odd "internalness" as well as the commentary team destroyed his heat segment from actually meaning anything, and then it was like the match was forgotten about almost the second it was over. Reminded me of Hogan vs. Flair at Halloween Havoc when they transitioned immediately into the Butcher feud. It was like "yeah, Flair doesn't matter". That was Jericho here. He did his best, but he couldn't save this. **1/2

John Cena vs. Kevin Owens (5/31/15) First of all, credit where it is due: the WWE seem to have made a concerted effort to make the belts mean something and Cena's bit of business kissing the belt before the match helped to get the IC title over as something that was important. This is my first time seeing Kevin Owens and I was very very unimpressed with his character work, which was actively bad. He has virtually no star presence, like the total opposite of a Riki Choshu. He might have been in front of 20,000 people or in a high school gym, he doesn't come off as a star in either context I don't think. Might be just me, but the guy had no aura at all. When he did the "you can't see me" to virtually no reaction it exposed that brutally. As for the match, it sucked. After the first five minutes they quickly moved into the false finish spam routine. It reminded me of the Wrestlemania match with The Rock. Part of my issue with this style is in the pacing. Goes something like this. - Guy hits finisher or other high impact move. - Time passes - Cover - OH NO, HE KICKED OUT - Fucking TIME PASSES - More time passes - Guy hits another finisher or other high impact move. - Rinse repeat It's fucking painful. And if you note down what actualy happened in the body of this match, that's all there was to it. I really didn't think Kevin Owens looked very good here. I understand some of the context that it was his first match in the big time, but he had all the ring presence of an early 90s WCW jobber as his name was being half-announced half-mocked by Gary Michael Cappetta. His punches and things were nothing special. I'd like to see him do something outside of the context of this god-awful match structure. As for Cena, nothing I haven't seen before. He seemed to be more over with the crowd than I've seen in the past though. **

Tony Colon

Jobber Tony Colon

Is it me?

I like the simplicity and elegance of "1983 Project", reminiscent of the stark lines of brutalist architecture.

Dylan, was Burrhead Jones ever billed as Rufus's or SD's brother?

Can't we just enjoy pro wrestling for what it is? One part (violent) sporting contest, one part theatre/pantomime, one part circus side show? The trouble we have here is that while most would call the theatre / pantomime "performance art", few people would call a sporting contest art or a freak show art. I'd rather just say "It's pro wrestling". I'm a gamer too -- these days much more board games than video games, but all the same I would rather call games "games" than art as well, but that's just me.

I wonder if that gate broke 500.

Ha ha, don't even think about Ohio goc!

One last thing I'll say about Swede Hanson is that as much as he sucked from 79 onwards in WWF, that one match we watched on Titans from 1973 when it was him and Hawk vs. Weaver and Art Neilsen ruled with an iron fist.

I wasn't sure if it was a mistake or not. If it was discussed I missed it. I can still not use him till August.

Here you go: 6 30.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Sgt. Slaughter defeats Swede Hanson (9:44) WWF on MSG Network @ Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, USA TV-Show 7 23.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Tony Colon WWF on USA Network @ Capital Center in Landover, Maryland, USA TV-Show 8 17.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Pete Doherty WWF @ JFK Coliseum in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA Event 9 16.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Jeff Craney (7:21) WWF on PRISM Network @ Philadelphia Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA TV-Show 10 12.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Rocco Verona (2:37) WWF Championship Wrestling @ Agricultural Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA TV-Show 11 12.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Bill Dixon (3:23) WWF Championship Wrestling @ Agricultural Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA TV-Show 12 11.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Pete Doherty WWF @ Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA Event 13 09.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Frank Williams WWF @ Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, USA Event 14 08.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Samula defeats Swede Hanson WWF @ Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA Event 15 03.07.1983 World Wrestling Entertainment Swede Hanson defeats Samula WWF @ Ocean City, Maryland, USA

^ yeah, cross post. I have to say that I've never seen Dory look like he was phoning it in and picking up a pay check more than in his Southwest appearances.