DR Ackermann

It breaks down all the feuds and behind the scenes stuff for every month along with comments from the wrestlers about what happened. There are also programs and schedules for each show.

I'm pretty sure they were struggling during this time, actually. It was far from a boom.

What a coincidence. I just saw this match for the first time last week, and the episode with Loss talking about Wrestlewar '90 came out just as I was getting to that match while going through 1990. I look forward to checking this out tomorrow.

Michaels sucked here. I watched the full match and he wouldn't sell. Shamrock looked like he was trying harder. This match dragged but the first few minutes were really good before Michaels took control and then it just got really generic and Michaels refused to give Shamrock's offense its due.

Can Michael Hayes really say why he feels the way that he does?

How is pro wrestling not art? Your post has done nothing to dissuade me from the idea that it is.

Do you personally know what is going through every wrestler's mind and why they do what they do? I guess Michaelangelo wouldn't have been an artist because he was just doing his job really well when he was doing commissions in the Sistine Chappel. That couldn't be art, it was just a job.

This is complete trash. They can't decide if they are wrestling this as David/Goliath or Hogan as an ass kicker. "He's too strong!" Hogan says a few moments before he goes back to throwing Vader all over the ring. This started off really promising, and then like so many of his matches, Vader blew his load in the first few minutes and let the face dominate him. They never let the narrative play itself out, they rush into each sequence, Hogan can't be stopped, Vader and Flair are chumps. Horrible booking. The legdrop 1 count means nothing. They never built to it. This is everything that is wrong with Hogan, Vader, WCW & Ric Flair's willingness to be Hogan's chump, all in one segment.

Another reason fans care about who is and isn't drawing is because some wrestlers are given certain opportunities more often than others. If they draw better than the wrestler who is more artistically appealing to those fans then it can be justified. If they don't draw better than or as well as the wrestler that the fans find more appealing then there is possibly a big disconnect within the company. Drawing is also a matter of booking and the same logic applies. There's frustration when fans see a company putting out crap that doesn't have the numbers to justify it as opposed to a more quality product that could do the same or better business. Wrestling is entertaining for us, but its also a business and putting out garbage with no redeeming qualities that doesn't sell is pointless.

Plus, Vader and Bret were both big draws outside of the U.S.

Also, was anyone a good draw in the US in 92? Wrestling was sliding deeper and deeper into the toilet, business-wise at the time. What opportunity did Vader really have to reach fans?

I agree mostly with thebrainfollower from what I've seen, but in-ring, WCW blows WWF away in '92.

I don't think it gives them an advantage. A thinking man's wrestler and a wildman can both be played in a variety of ways and if a wrestler chooses not to incorporate that into their style that's their own fault. I think it is often because of laziness or a lack of creativity. Bruiser Brody didn't wrestle like a wild man. Triple H never really wrestled like the 'cerebral assassin' he was supposed to be. He pulled out a lot of stuff at this year's wrestlemania that really fit the gimmick, so you know it was possible. Squeaky-clean babyfaces are bland by definition, but there are ways around it. A big reason Steamboat suffers is because he had shitty offense.

When they had the brand split they were able to use that as an excuse to break teams up amicably.

This post show is great. Heyman is awesome. I really like the press conference style interviews.

Its weird how Triple H's career has operated in extremes. In the past he was completely dominant, burying people in feuds and now he puts everyone over without ever really getting one up on them in matches. Its all so black and white.

After the great match last month, we're now getting a VINTAGE Triple H style main event.

Its weird how the feud is being played like the Shield are trying to get their win back. Why is Triple H granting them a rematch like they lost?

Well she's much more mature and experienced now. Aging 13 years will do that.

I really wish Rusev/Big E. was given a few more minutes. I really enjoyed what we got and then it just ended.

Does anyone know how old Blue Panther's son, Cachorro is?

I was at the DGUSA iPPV from Wrestlemania weekend and while I didn't really like the show, I completely hated the crowd. They were just waiting for any excuse to chant "THIS IS AWESOME!" They were sitting there waiting for big spots to happen. I don't know if that obnoxious 'smart' crowd thing started in ECW, but ECW's crowds certainly influenced a lot of people. I watched the Sandman/Austin/Whipwreck triple threat from 12/95 a few days ago and the audience chanted "boring" the second Austin and Mikey started exchanging holds (actually wrestling). They never gave the wrestlers a chance to build anything in a traditional way in ECW. They wanted action, highspots and violence and were impatient when it came to anything else. The show was about them as much as anything. But they wanted what they wanted and they got it. I think it was Axl Rotten who said that in ECW the fans cheated themselves out of a lot of good matches because they wouldn't allow the wrestlers to work rest holds, communicate and build heat without shitting all over them.

The art is in making things matter, making people care. If you just played every single note on a guitar in one insane 35 second guitar solo then who cares? Its the how, when and why that matter.

I think that what matters the most in wrestling, at least to me, is meaning. Things need to have meaning. Selling makes things mean something. If Davey Richards suplexes someone and himself over the top rope and to the floor and then gets right back up then it didn't meany anything. It had no impact. Some arbitrary move later on causes the finish. Why was that move a bigger deal? You can't suddenly assign things meaning in a vacuum. The Attitude Adjustment means something because we've seen that it means something. I don't like it as a finisher but if someone kicks out of it, that means something because they way it has been portrayed. The audience believes in it. If you do a suplex over the top rope and get right back up then who cares? It can be an effective spot if you make it one. If not, then whats the point? You're showing no restraint. If a song had no music, just lyrics that just said "life sucks!" over and over for 5 minutes then who cares? If every song just summed up its message like that, then what's the point? Athleticism is good, insane spots are good. But on their own that's all they are. Things have changed so that a piledriver isn't a finish anymore, but if you saw someone get hit with 10 piledrivers and then kick out like its nothing and then run through a bunch of spots 30 years ago like you would with its equivalent today then it would suck just as much as matches like that suck today.

This matched turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Its sloppy but I think its tremendously fun and you've got some really interesting, somewhat inadvertent themes going on. You've got Austin wrestling two different types of matches here which mirrors Austin's style change over the years. The technical 'mechanic' as he calls himself going against Whipwreck early on and then the later brawling Austin going against Sandman. Its funny that people used to always compare Austin and the Sandman's gimmicks because the mirror theme continues as Austin and Sandman keep hitting each other with the same move at the same time and get hit simultaneously over and over by Mikey. Then Austin mocks Sandman by drinking beer and then the finish is Sandman and Austin mirroring each other once again using brass knuckles and ropebreaks but with separate results. Mirror madness!