JerryvonKramer

Y'know I wouldn't underestimate what Hogan Knows Best did for him. My wife, for example, seems to know Hogan first from that, then as the wrestler. He's managed to stay in the minds of pretty much every demographic, so when he turned up at the newsroom where she works, it was a big deal for EVERYONE. Not just the males in the 26-35 bracket, but the women, the younger guys, everyone. I don't think Flair's ever had that kind of universal-level man-on-the-street fame. But Hogan's savviness is in keeping it going. Some of the 19-year-olds now might not know Mr. T. Some will, but some won't. But I think he has faded more than Hogan has. I have students who blank me on Ghostbusters references, Ghostbusters for god's sake. Pretty sure they all know Hogan. There's an art to staying fresh in people's minds like that.

Apropos of nothing, it's time to continue the Cheesy Journey, it's only been 10 months. My 84 collection is kinda spotty so we're skipping ahead to ... July 3rd, 1984 Vince: "Approximately one year ago, there was a man who broke into her majesty's palace ... Well now, I'm with the man who allegedly hatched those plans and broke into Buckingham Palace ... Lord Alfred Hayes" Ha ha ha. At least they've dropped the Idi Amin stuff. Alfred is delightfully vague here. Vince: "And we've got some fantastic action coming up ..." Alfred: "Yes ... fantastic action" Vince: "And what are you looking forward to?" Alfred: "I'm looking forward to the segment that is coming up next" He he. They are about to show a video of Hogan. And they talk about him as Thunderlips in Rocky 3. Alfred: "He has so many facets. No wonder his parents are so proud of such a young man. And, referencing the name of our programme, he's such a TITAN in the world of entertainment and of sport." Alfred is cracking me up tonight, he has NOTHING to say at all. Amazing to see him travelling without moving like this. He keeps talking but says so little of substance. Alfred thinks Iron Sheik was confused by the strength and speed of Hogan. Really awful opening segment. We get the tape footage of Hogan's title win now. Gutwrench suplex by Iron Sheik. Camel clutch applied. But no, Hogan is able to power out of it. He's Daniel Bryan over here! Big boot, legdrop, 1, 2, 3. And NEEWWWWW World Wrestling Federation Champion ... We go back to the locker room at MSG to get an interview with Mean Gene. "Well d'ya know somethin' Mean Gene. D'ya know something MEAN GENE. The mountain top! It turns me on" Andre comes in pouring the bubbly. Ivan Putski comes in with the bubbly. Note: this is not the eagle belt but the old gold one. Hogan's PARENTS come in now. "Pete" Hogan is proud. Aww. Hogan butts in: "well y'know somethin' Mean Gene Pete and Ruth are the people who trained me since the day I could toddle man! They fed me and helped me grow these 24-inch pythons, brother!" Vince is smarmily talking about how Hogan recently had a match where he returned to Minneapolis where *pause for self-satisified smirk* he has so many fans. They are going to be showing us this match soon. Hogan's with Minnesota with Mean Gene who is pumped to be back in the twin cities. Okerlund: Do you know who else has made it from the twin cities, he's finally made it to the big leagues? Jesse Ventura. If Verne Gagne ever watched this stuff it must have killed him, the digs are flying in from left, right and centre. Hogan talks about how he had an "instant love affair" with the twin cities and how the REAL WORLD'S TITLE is coming home. Hulk Hogan vs. Dr. D David Schultz from Minnesotta There is a massive blue box covering Hogan's face "EDITED & CENSORED FOR TELEVISION". He's obviously bloody under there. Monsoon and Okerlund on commentary. Schultz is doing the AWAish "King of the Mountain" spot. He bites on the cut. Did you know 1984 was a marquee year for AIDS. Schultz goes for a two count, but Hogan POWERS out. Still don't think Hogan had perfected this routine by 84, it's all a bit sudden and he seems ridiculously strong. Hogan hits an elbow but then pulls Schultz up at 2. Bodyslam, legdrop. That's the 3. NO. He pulls him up again to bite on Schulz again. Throws him outside the ring. You total heel Hogan! Total heel. Rams Schultz into the steel post like a javelin. Hogan jaws the ref like the massive heel he is. Dr D. is busted open. Hogan goes to get a chair. Hogan bites him again. Big elbow. He's really playing up his obvious superiority here. Posing and mugging for the crowd as Schultz is on the floor. I'd love to know what Schultz did in the early portion of this match to deserve all this. He misses an elbow from the top, and Hogan clotheslines him for the 3. Think Hogan made Schultz look like a total chump here. Virtual burial. Back to the studio now. Alfred: "Well you have to understand some of the context of this. In his time, Dr. Schultz, or Dr. David should I say has waged a brutal campaign against Hulk Hogan. You might think that he was perhaps too violent in that match, but he wasn't really. He was only giving kind for kind" It's as if Alfred is talking directly to me. I don't agree Alfred, I thought Hogan was an asshole in that match! Alfred: "But, always bear in mind, that Hogan is a fantastically scientific wrestler also" Hmmm. Vince talks about the "rather butal, roughhouse tactics" of that match being very unscientific. And he explains why they had to censor it. A guest now ... "The Butcher" Paul Vachon. He's wearing a nice suit. Vince seems pleased to have him on and introduces him from "one of the most famous families in professional wrestling" Vachon: They said to me, errr, "Butcher you're going to go on TNT". I said, "Go on TNT? What am I going to do on TNT?" They said, "Well, you're going to meet Vince McMahon and you're going to meet The Lord" and I said, "hold on a minute, I don't think I'm ready!" It is so awesome that this was a national TV show. Vince gleefully brings up the fact that Vachon can sing. Oh ... my god. Vince: "Well Butcher, if you don't mind, could you please strike up the band ..." We're going to get a number from The Butcher now? lol He gets on the mic and starts singing in French. Nice voice. But ... surely this is not necessary. I take everything back about the Summerslam atmosphere being surreal, THIS is surreal. Fairplay, Vachon is not a bad singer at all. It's "Shiree, too dangerous for me". Vince is so pleased. He can't hide is pleasure from his face. We get a match from The Butcher now. It's the old dude ring announcer with the distinctive slow voice (still looking for a name for him for the Titans show). Butcher Vachon vs. Jimmy Snuka Vachon is fat, Snuka is stacked. Vachon rakes the back is agressive. I'm confused here. Vachon is obviously the heel in this match, so why did we have that nicey nicey 10 minutes of him crooning and Vince fawning over it? Bizarre stuff. Okerlund and McMahon are on commentary. Terrible headbutt from the top by Snuka gets the 3 count. So not only was Vachon a heel after being presented as a nice guy in that segment, he got pinned too! Oh. My. God ... Vachon: Well, Mr. McMahon, I ... errr .. I never heard of an Irish Man that didn't like to sing ... *Massive MASSIVE smile on Vince's face, he can't get enough of this* Vachon: In fact, when your father was around, he and I had a couple of nice parties, especially around St. Patrick's day, and there's a very nice Irish song that we used to sing together. Vince is like a kid in a sweet shop here. Vachon goes into the "simply little ditty in the good old Irish way". Vince comes in now. Oh fucking hell. I might have to take some screen shots of it. Vince's face. Ha ha ha ha ha That was absolutely hilarious. He pulled all the classic McMahon faces there. Back to the sofa and someone throws a sack at Alfred. Yes! It's the mailbag!! Alan Bostick writes "Isn't it about time that Superfly Jimmy Snuka got a world title shot?" Vince: Hmmm, I would say he's about due a shot yes. And what a match that would be. Superfly Snuka, one of the greats. From Minneapolis: "I have made many enquiries as to the whereabouts of Red Bastien, my mother said he was very handsome. Could you show some old matches of him on TNT, Betty Powers [aka khawk]" Vince: Well, in the future we are going to be showing some footage of Red Bastien. He's currently residing in California and looks fabulous might I add. He had some good experience in the WWF as a special guest referee, and might I add, a great one. Alfred: He is still as good looking as Betty's mother thinks? Vince: I'll let her mother be the judge when we play the tape. This stuff is all quite interesting for me. From Los Angeles: "My friend and I have a $10 Dollar bet ..." Vince cracks up. Vince: ... A. Ten. Dollar. Bet? Letter: Who is the oldest, John Studd or Sgt. Slaughter? Also, is it true that John Studd was born in Los Angeles? Lisa Barton [aka DocSarpolis] Vince has no idea. "Regardless of their age, they are two of the great competitors here in the WWF". So they didn't settle the bet. Life before the internet eh. Vince introduces our next guest now. GOOOOOO-rilla Monsoon. Gorilla: It's great to be part of the greatest wrestling programme since the Greeks started it. Vince smiles. Gorilla: It's great to be associated with a company that can put out this sort of quality programming and that's an asset to you personally. Slurp. Slurp. Vince turns things to Monsoon's career in the ring. They talk about how athletic Monsoon was at 341lbs. Alfred: I saw a wrestler once called Chris Taylor at about 400lbs, but he was nothing in comparison to our present guest. Chris Taylor anyone? Vince: You mention Chris Taylor there, I want to take you back Gorilla, since you were one of the first people to tour the country of Russia as an amatuer wrestler. Tell us about that. Wow. Moonsoon went there in 1959 as part of the promotion for the 1960 Olympic team. He says they never drew less than 100,000 people for any of their matches, but were paid about $4 a day. Interesting. They talk now about how Monsoon was a teacher who had little interest in pro wrestling until he received a phonecall from Frank Tunney one day. He said he transitioned quite well into the pro ranks. Vince says that one individual who took particular exception to Moonsoon was Muhammad Ali. He takes us to some special footage now of Monsoon and an uninivted guest. Baron Scicluna is in the ring. Muhammad Ali gets introduced by the old ring announer who looks like he's dressed for golf. He's in a nice suite. Gorilla Monsoon vs. Baron Scicluna Muhammad Ali Dates are not given, but this looks mid-late 70s to me and Vince is on commentary solo. Baron jumps Gorilla from behind. Gorila comes back and chops him over the top rope. Ali is upset at something and starts pointing at Monsoon. Baron has had enough and walks off. Ali takes off his shirt and his shoes and gets into the ring. He wants to take on Monsoon. "Big mistake" says Vince. Ali does some fancy footwork and puts his dukes up. Monsoon takes some jabs. Ali points and him and OH SHIT, Moonsoon gets him up for an airplane spin! Round and round and round. Ali is dazed and shaken. "Muhammad Ali has learned a lesson here the hard way" So cool to see this. Vince in a blood red jacket talks to Gorilla now. Gorilla [still on the footage]: Vince, this guy may be a great boxer, but he don't belong in that squared circle with a wrestler. That was proven and that's for sure! This guy is nothing, this guy doesn't know a wristlock from a wristwatch, how can he get in there with a wrestler! All he knows is how to throw a few lazy jabs, that's not going to stop a wrestler. A boxer can't fight when you tie him up. No question about it, he was at my mercy." Great promo. Great angle. Vince: The year by the way was 1977, and Muhammad Ali was World Boxing Champion. They talk about wrestling as "the greatest martial art". Monsoon talks about "the fundamentals of wrestling". The basic premise here is that if a wrestler can get in a lock you up, it's over. Great way to get wrestling over as legit. Really enjoyed this Monsoon stuff. Next guest is (yet again) Capt. Lou Albano. He's wearing an open Hawaiin shirt showing his fat stomach, has the rubber bands round his beard and is carrying a can of beer into which he spits. What a big fat sloppy pig. He is booed. He doesn't live by cheers or boos but by "the green brother". He's the maker of 14 tag team champions don't you know and the maker of rock and roll stars. He doesn't want handshakes but wants the green and to project his name. He burps and throws the can on the floor. Vince asks him why he's spending so much time in the world of music lately. Alfred: How disgusting. Albano: Well move down to the end of the chair then. What are you? A tea-totaler? Albano slaps his stomach. Vince accuses him of knowing nothing about music. Albano claims that he wrote the lyrics of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper and plays 9 different instruments like a pro. Albano: My mother was a concert pianist, as you know played for Padlowski [??] back in 1927. I'm one of the best. Ha ha ha Vince doubts him, but Albano walks over to the piano to show him a thing or two. He tells the old pianist to get out of the way. Vince: Are you serious? He can't even sit down. Look at him. That's 300lbs. A bench like that will not support that weight. Albano sits down and checks the piano for tuning. This is pretty awesome stalling from him. "Boy is this thing out of tune" He takes forever to start. But sure enough he starts to play. And in tune. He's pretty good. Vince: I can't believe it. Ha ha ha. Albano: How'd you like that JUNIOR. I always call him "junior". How'd you like that junior?! That was awesome. Albano: Well let me tell you Vinnie Junior. When I met Lauper she was nothing but a bar room ... I don't like to say broad but that's what she was. Bar-room lady. I took her out. Projected her career. I taught her politeness, ettiquette and grooming. And she stayed out on tv land. Y'know when you go out to dinner most of ya contracts are done over the table. So you need ettiquette. In other words, when you're eating you need to know where the butter dish is located or you'll be grabbing the wrong guy's butter. I showed her how to do this. This is the best Albano stuff I've seen to date. Clip to Albano on Piper's Pit now. He says he'd have loved to have been Piper's manager. They big each other up now, in a big heel love in. Piper says that Albano is probably the greatest rock and roll manager ever. They have a bunch of newspapers and Life magazine here featuring Lauper. Albano takes the credit for all of it. Lauper is "the greatest entertainer pound-for-pound in entertainment today" Piper wants Lauper to come on Piper's Pit. Piper is excited. Weeks later, after weeks of no-showing, Lauper finally appears on Piper's Pit. She comes out wearing several curtains and maybe some duvet covers too. Johnny Sorrow still dresses like this. She's been in Europe. And in London. And in England. "London and England are the same thing", she giggles. Piper talks about Albano's part in her sucess. Lauper: Hold on a minute, I love Lou, but he's not my manager, a lot of people think that. Ha ha ha. Fans cheer. Albano comes out now. He wants her to tell all these people what he did for her. Albano: Tell em Cyndi! Tell em how you came off my reputation! Captain Lou Albano! How ALL WOMEN are nothing Cyndi! They are nothing but slime! It takes a man to make a woman!" Lauper: That one second in the video? Are you crazy? Albano: It was a big segment Cyndi! Piper is angry now. He wants Lauper to explain whether Albano is a liar. Handbags now, Lauper attacks Albano. A dude in a pair of shades and a tash runs in. Crowd is nuts for this. Awesome. Back to the studio. Albano is pissed. Albano: nothing but a broad and a barroom maid! She had a tin cup around her neck with a little sign saying 'help make me a star'. You're a disgrace, to your family, to yourself, to your mother, to everyone you stand for! I wrote the music, I wrote the lyrics, I took you from a broad to a lady. Got it Lauper. Got it Lauper. GOT IT LAUPER. GOT IT LAUPER Albano is having a full-on fit here. Clip now back to Vince and Alfred now. Vince notes that you'll see no credits for Albano on her records. Vince brings out now Lauper's real manager "David Wolf". It's the dude with the shades from earlier. David Wolf explains how it would be funny for Alabano to play her father in some of the early videos. Vince: Did he produce? Wolf: Absolutely not Vince. He had nothing to do with the video in any shape or form ... everything else he's said has been a publicity stunt to ride on our shoulders. David Wolf is a groovy cool cat indeed. He should have come out to the tunes of Squeeze. Ha ha ha. Albano is still somewhere in the back grumbling and ranting. "Took her from a nothing. Bar-room broad." etc. etc. Wolf: He has totally violated every principle that Cyndi stands for. So rather than get involved in a complex procedure in the courts, we want to challenge him in his own arena. She has found herself a wrestler to go up against, Moolah -- or whatever her name is that Mr. Albano has gotten -- and we're going to have a little show down. We're going to show him that a woman's place is not just getting pregnant in the kitchen or whatever other nonsense that slob said. Vince is impressed by this fighting talk. Albano storms back on. "You're gonna what? You are that little wimp? That lousy liar? That snake Cyndi Lauper" He attacks David Wolf. A security guard restrains him as he wails and screams. Wolf: That man is going ... in Madison Square Garden, that ridiculous wrestler that he's bringing with him ... we're going to make a mockery out of everything he's said! That's it man. This is just totally outrageous. One of the all-time great angles this. Yet another guest now. Terry Daniels, the first inductee into Sgt. Slaughter's Cobra corps. Quite the charisma void. Alfred: ... I'm fascinated by the strange way he speaks. Quite. We have a clip now of Slaughter coming out with Daniels as his flagbearer. Bit of a pointless one. Vince mentions that Daniels is also a cadette. He's struggling with Daniels who is visibly nervous to be on TV. The stiffness of the military gimmick is doing a decent job of masking it. They talk boringly about teamwork. Vince talks about the prospect of taking on Adonis and Murdoch for the tag belts. Recently, Slaughter visited the statue of liberty. Vince thinks Daniels was with him, but he wasn't. Guessing this Daniels chap didn't last long ... Video of Slaughter visiting the Statue of Liberty now. He walks around shaking hands with people and posing with the flag. He signs autographs for kids. The statue has a load of scaffholding around it -- probably putting in the mechanical work needed for Ghostbusters 2, eh. A group of school kids do a USA chant. We can see the twin towers in the background. The kids do the pledge of allegiance. All a bit pointless. Back to the studio and Vince says that the mentioned Butcher Vachon's brother earlier, a legend in Minneapolis, Mad Dog Vachon. Footage now of his return. He gets a big ovation from the crowd. Waiting in the ring is ... Buddy Colt who "pearl harbours him" coming in. Yes Gorilla on commentary with Okerlund. Colt has a playboy bunny on his trunks. Seemingly, we only got that clip to see the cheers Maddog got. Vince says that next week they are going to the Capitol Centre, so TNT is back in two weeks when they'll have Greg Valentine on as a guest. Vince: Well to join Mr. Valentine ... his wife, and a very attractive lady so I'm told ... Alfred [smirking, dying to laugh]: A very beautiful woman, she really is but eh ... let's face it Greg is a very good looking fellow. They deserve each other. The both of them can barely contain laughter here. Other guests will include: Tony Garea and Roddy Piper. Join us next time for TNT. This is without doubt one of the greatest hour-and-20-minute shows in wrestling history. And I'm not even kidding.

I've been hearing a bit about Buddy Rogers recently, not only from Matysik but also from reading around and from Flair himself on the Austin interviews .... There are quite a lot of parallels. Rogers seemed like he believed his own hype and even when he came back in the late 70s (which is when Flair must have wrestled him) still believed he was The Man. I think probably the thing that made Flair so great was that he also believed his own hype absolutely. What makes for a greater performer, doesn't make for a great human being in life. There's that and Flair just not being able to let go. This is why I think if they gave him his own "memories" show on 24/7 and if Flair felt like he was paid the respect you know he craves, he might calm down a bit.

If this is true, WWE is in a really really good place right now. That SS crowd rivals any Crockett crowd I've seen to date, which would be the benchmark "hot" crowds for me. Although I guess WWE do probably do a better job on acoustics now than JCP did back in the 80s.

I found the Watts ones very entertaining too. I can't remember where I said it, but I found them hypnotic. And I laughed a lot, but to be sure plenty of references were lost on me. It is also quite ironic how hard he pushes the personal responsibility ethic again and again and again but then points to oil as the reason for Mid-South's decline. A pretty Marxist argument if ever I heard one ("it was economic forces beyond my control"). With DiBiase it's just boring because well, come on now who cares about his son? And I've heard it all a million times ("with me it was the women" blah blah). You can tell how much Watts has influenced his thinking though, on a personal level.

No, I didn't despite people telling me to watch the London show. I actually have Sky Sports again now so I could in theory watch Raw again if I wanted to. My impression of shows in the past 5 years or so -- and this could be skewed by the fact it's mostly Mania cards -- is that WWE crowds are more apathetic in general than crowds from the period I typically watch (80s / early 90s). That's why I was a bit shocked by the reaction for Bryan at SS. Bryan on that show was probably more over than Sting in 89, not an exaggeration.

One small problem I have with him is that he's useless at keeping things on topic. That can lead to interesting places (see Matysik talking about 88-9 stuff), but it can also lead to some pretty boring stuff (see Dibiase talking about God for 2 hours, even the Watts rants get tiresome after 4 hours). He seems as happy to talk about politics or social ills as he is about wrestling, which is bad for overall focus. Matysik is generally focused so those shows are focused. But the DiBiase ones are rubbish. (I'd heard them before naturally, just wanted to doublecheck something about his early Mid-South run).

I think that the reaction in and of itself is notable, regardless of following the product or not. Who was the last guy that over with a crowd in your estimation?

Well a lot of things were strange with the match. You've got the crowd dynamics with Cena, but Cena's response to them is very difficult to guage. What is exactly is being conveyed there? It seems to have shifted even since WM. Then you've Bryan being cheered more wildly that I can recall a crowd cheering since god's knows when, made slightly more surreal by ... well, it's IWC-poster-boy Bryan, it's WWE, it's Summerslam, and the roof is coming off. And then he works the match in this insanely fired up, crazy almost superhero way at times that is closer to 83-4 Hogan than to any babyfaces in recent memory. Then Cena is beaten clean out of nowhere in a flash finish. I guess "strange" in the sense of "wake me up, did this actually happen". And then you get the post-match with Orton coming out and putting a dampener on the whole thing, which strikes a discordant note. Maybe it's just me, but the whole thing feels like a odd dream I had from eating too much cheese before bed or something.

Thinking back on this show, the way that Bryan was over with that crowd was surreal. I imagine Mid-South crowds going wild for JYD fans like that. He was almost 83-4 Hogan over. The way he worked the match when he was on top also mental thinking about it. Might be the strangest match I've seen in some time.

The most surprsing thing for me given what we know about him is how Cubeta comes across as being reasonably knowledgable and together on these interviews. Was he just an ace bullshitter? I got stuck in traffic so have just listened to most of the 1963 episodes. At the start of part 2 Matysik goes off on an interesting tangent: - Jim Herd's attempts to recruit him in late 1988 / early 89, while Matysik was working for WWF - Phone conversations between Matysik and Herd - Impact of Brody's death on Matysik's confidence and passion for the business - Conversations between Matysik and Meltzer around this time - Herd bringing in Blackjack Mulligan as booker before George Scott (lasted 2 days) That was an interesting 20 mins or so. You get the impression that Matysik was just crushed to be working for Vince. Also: - Rogers reputedly got $25,000 for dropping the belt to Thesz and another $25,000 for the 48-second match against Bruno, he was in hospital at the time of the latter - Sam Muchnik would usually lay the blame for disagreements with WWWF at Toot Mondt's feet, and made excuses for Vince Sr. (his buddy) - Claims Karl Gotch was "never a draw in any circumstances in major cities" because of his "strict" style, he compares him to Billy Robinson - Also says Robinson was not any sort of draw outside of his run with the AWA - For listeners of our new Titans of Wrestling show: MORE Gentleman Jerry Valiant detail, in 63 he's getting a sizable push in St. Louis (as Guy Mitchell). I've just discovered he worked for a time as "Jerry Heenan", brother of Bobby Heenan. There may be a Jerry Valiant special at this rate.

Just in case there's any doubt in these sensitive times, my post wasn't intended as an attack either -- quite the opposite.

Only listened to the 1962 Matysik shows so far but they are really excellent. - Political machinations of Buddy Rogers - Killer Kolowski not being a great draw - Carl Sarpolis as NWA President - Plenty of Johnny Valentine Interesting stuff. Some general notes on Matysik though: - Weirdly down on tag wrestling, which is interesting coming from that St. Louis perspective. - Does think St. Louis is the centre of the known universe. - Couldn't love Sam Muchnik more if he tried. So obviously his hero and idol. I quite like Cupetta as the interviewer, he's better than 90% of other interviewers out there.

1. Lucha is a common noun not a proper one, so strictly speaking shouldn't be capitalised. Christ (being a name) is a proper noun and so gets capitalised. 2. From a purely selfish point of view, the prospect of reading Matt D's comments after my own watching through AWA added at least 25% fun to the whole process. 3. He has got me a bit worried. I've often said that I'm not a "sophisticated" fan. My mental image of Matt D on his bike, whether rightly or wrongly, is being the wrestling equivalent of this chap. That's that Wahoo vs Manny match right there. What worries me is if there's something he's not getting in these "Impressionist" lucha matches, what hope is there for me? I'll almost certaintly be getting the set though and will try to keep pace for once.

Ha ha, I knew you had a beard, Dylan, I could sense it. Polish Power was over too. Everyone's a nerd and a hardcore comicbook fan these days aren't they. Interesting how that's happened. I'm a DC guy through and through so the reference is lost on me, I think I saw Fantastic Four when the film came out though (one of them is a fire guy?). I still think it's a shitty catchphrase. I also make no bones about being completely out of touch with the modern product, last show I watched was WM, show before that? WM last year, and I felt it was two shows too many. That Punk vs. Brock could get me into a match through all the animosity and blind hatred I have for the way wrestling his presented by WWE now is pretty remarkable. And Death - it's a good thing. Schiavone was the solid company guy who did a solid job. ----- Big E Langston vs. Dolph Ziggler Oh, hold on, the women are part of this. This is being worked under Wrestlemania VI rules. Langston's partner is making some interesting faces. I applaud the booking of this match here. It's a trough after a peak. That was one of my big problems with WM. 10 elbow drops from Ziggler! Interesting backbreaker from Langston. This was perfectly acceptable for the job it was doing on the card. Shame about Ziggler's music. D ------- What are the bits with The Miz meant to be doing here? They established him as "the host", but we also get thrown to Matthews with HBK, Booker and Vicki G. Beard SIX spotted: Triple H. Video package now. This stuff with Vince looks like it was very entertaining. Brad Maddox looks like the love child of Cary Elwes and Eric Bischoff. "The Beard is here!" ha ha "I don't want to be a parody" - great line. This looks like an interesting angle -- interesting enough to make me wonder if I'm missing something. Bryan seems extremely over here. ---------- Bryan vs. Cena Interesting, Cena has a word with the doctor early doors. The "you still suck" chants feel quite harsh. Cena looks disappointed in them. Every kick from Bryan is being cheered massively. Much less invested in this match so far than I was in Punk vs. Brock. Two reasons: 1. I think I'm lacking some of the context. I just don't understand the crowd dynamics to be honest. 2. We're back to this finish. two count. counter. reversal. rinse. repeat. trope already. I don't like that trope for all the reasons I've mentioned in the past. Maybe I spoke too early ... Interesting superplex here as Bryan hangs on to the turnbuckle so takes no impact on his back. That's innovative. WOW, massive move from the top by Cena, that's a legdrop from the top. Huge move. That should have been it right there. Ouch, kinda of a reverse tombstone from the top on Bryan's head into the STF. Nasty. Reversed ... Big clothesline by Cena. Great clothesline. Got to give it to this crowd, they've been hot all night. Seems like they aren't bothering to give Cena grief anymore at this point. Slugfest now. Hot sequence. Wow!! Holy shit. 3-count. Bryan was crazy, crazy over during this match. Big moment, but this wasn't really my scene this match. Some great sequences, but didn't build towards the big moment, seemed to hit the big false finishes early and then, despite that, sort of recovered. The 3-count was pretty surprising, seemed like a "flash finish". I suspect people have gone big on this match or at any rate much bigger than I have. Reckon this might have gained a grade if I'd had more emotional investment. B+ Hmmmm, I did think it was odd that Orton wasn't on the card. Oh ... OHHH ... Well there we are.

Let's see what all the fuss is about then. Not read any comments, don't know results. Good start as various non-descript Nu-Metal songs play and The Miz walks out looking like a Pixar character. I'm going to have to try to block out my ongoing problems with basic WWE presentation for this. This has to be better than WM. "Glitz-and-glam to has-been" video is pretty good. This version of Paul Heyman looks like he's been fun. Random thought: I've just realised that my mental image of Dylan Waco is Daniel Bryan. Does Dylan even have a beard? I dunno, but I picture him just like that. Sorry, Chad, going to fastforward the Star-Spangled Banner. ------------ Who's out first then ... Kane vs. whoa what the fuck is this?! Hotline Miami! This is cool, instantly like this Wyatt chap. This might be the most ahead of the fasion curve a wrestler has ever been. So ring of fire, eh. Should be interesting. Kane looks like he's slimmed down. These flames are rating about a 9.0 on the JvK cheese-o-meter. I have no idea who is heel or face here. I'm guessing Kane, but it's hard to tell. Wyatt seems happy to "mug" to for the crowd. This is quite a lackluster match. Kane is definitely the face though, getting big pops now. Heels pile in now. What is all this? Couldn't it have happened on TV? Shades of Giant Gonzalez here with the aspestos blanket. This was rubbish. The fire didn't come into play either. Cool gimmick and music though. 25% Hotline Miami, 25% Texas Chainsaw, 25% Deliverance, 25% Studd's Stable E Post-match was strange. Shit come now, 24 minutes already. ----------- Shawn Michaels has a beard! A lot of people in WWE right now have beards. Paul Heyman now. OKish promo. Who's this? Damien Sandow. I've ALWAYS wanted someone to update Bockwinkel and do an "intellectual saviour" gimmick. This would be my gimmick. ANOTHER Beard. Beard count so far ... 5 (Wyatts, Bryan on clip, Michaels, this dude) I thought Sandow's promo was decent. ------- Damien Sandow vs. Cody Rhodes I hear on the grapevine this Money in the Bank thing is a big deal these days. This has started out all-action. Sandow's punches aren't the best. Nice snap suplex. Nice Russian legsweep. LOL "THE ELBOW OF DISDAIN" ha ha ha ha ha This has been good. Can't help but feel that things seem like they lack impact a bit though. This is "pretty" wrestling. Rhodes gets a lot of height on his dropkick. No charisma though. What? Man, I wanted Sandow to win this. I don't get it either, send this guy OVER surely. C+ ------------- Michael Cole has done a good job of making himself the modern Tony Schiavone. Christian hype package now. Who said he has a weird face? He looks alright man. I know I said I'd try to ignore it, but I do wish WWE could move past the sort of music Christian is using here. So non-descript. It's like a world imagined by Nickelback. Del Rio has the right sort of music. Says everything you need to know about him. Ariba! ----------- Christian vs. Del Rio Del Rio is a TWO time world champ already? lol This is basically the IC title now right? Watching these matches so far it's interesting to see how the body shape for WWE has changed, everyone is slimmed down and kinda small. No real monster physiques. Finding it hard to get into this one. Wondering what those Jacked Doritos taste like. Really really tremendous finish though. B- Think Del Rio's gimmick / push is quite interesting. ------- Divas match Little confused that heel diva is in the same black and white gear as one of her juniors and another one of her juniors is wearing red gear, Guessing she's part of a tag team? Who am I kidding, I just don't care. Fast forwarding this. I'm not commenting on or rating Divas matches. Gotta draw the line somewhere. -------- Dark segment with Ryback there. Another hype segment for Punk vs. Brock now. That looks like a pretty good turn. Beard watch: just as everyone else is growing a beard, Punk gets rid of his. "The Best vs. The Beast" is about a 6.5 on the cheese-o-meter. Pretty good video package. Lesnar looks hard as fuck. I do like how Heyman is a proper old-school-style manager. He does look like a cartoon now though. Brock's legs look really skinny. "It's clobbertime" is up there with "Polish power" as a really shit catchphrase. ---------- CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar I'm expecting Punk to pinball like a motherfucka here, Flair vs. Vader effort. Sure enough, he comes out the gates and kills him. This is a pretty brutal beatdown. Jumps on the top of the announce table! Belly-to-back suplex out on the floor! Brock saying "this is your boy huh?" is a nice little touch. I like the occassional hope spots they are building in for Punk here. Vicious knee! This is one of the better heat segments I can remember seeing, if you can call it a "segment". Backbreaker! They build to the point where Lesnar falls to the mat for the first time really well. Big roundhouse by Punk! Randy Savage elbow! NO. Shit. Claw on by Brock. Great counter. POWERBOMB. Hold is still on. FUCK POWERBOMB!! That was awesome. Suplex. Suplex. Suplex. There's no way Punk can beat Lesnar here. He's a machine. Gets a chair now. Punk off the top. This chair should be an equalizer now. Punk slams a chair off the top. 2-count. Big chairshot. Heyman on the apron. Punk has Heyman's tie. ("He's got his tongue!") Punk goes after Heyman after he breaks the count. Brock gets Punk up, counter into DDT. The vice now. No way does Brock tap, no way. Heyman again. He had it coming! Brock with the chairshot now. Has he broken Punk's arm? And again. And again. F5 on the chair. That's it. Pretty great stuff. The Heyman interference is all part of the story being told, so made sense. Built great. Had me marking properly Misses out on the very top rating because I'm not sure Brock was ever quite vulnerable enough to believe that Punk could ever actually get the win, but this is a nitpick. A I need a time out after that. Last hour coming soon ...

Maybe there are two different people accessing the jdw account.

I swear that I've been blown away by every Orton and Slater match I've seen. But then ... I am a mark for bomb throwing.

This was tremendous. I was really interested by him picking out Orton and Slater as the second best tag team ever, they have been absolutely phenomenal whenever I've seen them. His stuff about Orton being a a great offensive wrestler is spot on. You listen to Flair on a show like this and it's hard not to feel that there isn't a place for him somewhere in the business. He could have a show just telling stories on 24/7 or something. So much passion for it still -- although you know that it's pretty much the only thing he has in his life. But, y'know, he's a total one-off: there are no other guys who bridge the 70s to the 00s like he has. Just don't put him in the ring or even as part of the main product. Gene Okerlund has found a nice niche. Anyone seen the Brody and Hansen vs. Tenryu and Slater match he mentions?

Love it when Matt D goes out and explores the wild. It's a jungle out there.

Thought Keith was surprisingly relaxed and laid back, considering what I associate him with. For all his shortcomings, I think he probably deserves his dues for being one of the lightning rods who brought a lot of people into the IWC in the first place. I liked your questions boys.