Rock_Of_Jericho

It was really, really good. Is it 5 stars? I don't think so, but at least 4, maybe more. As previously mentioned, they had a great with Arn and Tully, too, which I liked just as much, if not more. Hard to compare, though, because they're different types of matches. I love the Fantastics during the 80's. I actually feel they were maybe the best team out there at that point, but never get the credit they deserve.

Seeing the full version of the match finally, I liked the intensity between the two teams. They seemed to have some good chemistry in there. The Fantastics are in my top 5 favorite teams to watch and seeing Arn and Tully go down for the upset had to have been a surprise at that time. Tommy Rogers was so underrated. As for the match itself, I felt it was going extremely well, but ended too soon after the hot tag to Rogers. Would've liked to have seen more of these two teams together. Still, a really fun match.

I'm only into the second round right, but I dug the Fantastics/Fabulous Ones match. I'm not sure I'll get through this all in one sitting, but I am so glad to see it (mostly) uncut after all these years. I'm sad the first 5 matches are missing, but glad we got what we got.

I've been watching Memphis lately from 1980 on and I'm at the end of 1985 right now. I have not watched some of this stuff since my childhood, so guys like Austin Idol, Dutch Mantel, etc. remained a distant memory until I rediscovered them recently. But, I didn't remember much about Phil Hickerson at all, to be honest, but he has been a huge revelation for me and I feel like he was probably one of the most unappreciated talents of that era. So entertaining.

That was the first one that came to mind for me, too. In fact, I prefer Papa Shango over The Godfather. On another note, I feel like Doink the Clown often gets painted in a negative light. I loved the heel version when Matt Bourne was Doink, but he's often discarded as typical Wrestlecrap. I loved that guy.

I guess I was saying that, in terms of his career, where he won so many titles and had longevity, his accomplishments are greater than his talent. Still a talented and solid wrestler, but 6 world titles and winning almost every title in two different companies, I feel was surprising for a man who's just "good".

1991 was one of their best years. There's not a whole lot I would change, to be honest, especially towards the end of the year. I probably wouldn't have done the Gulf War thing with Slaughter, but can't really think of a better alternative as opponents to feed to Hogan weren't all the abundant...at least with guys he hadn't already beat. I might've just had Hogan beat Mr. Perfect at Wrestlemania 7. The one thing I would definitely change is their misuse of Ricky Steamboat during this time period. I would've had at least one Steamboat-Flair match at some point and would've pushed him higher on the card to keep him on the roster. A short feud with Ted DiBiase or Mr. Perfect might've been a good warmup until the Piper-Flair feud was done. I probably would've had Sid come in as a heel from the beginning, maybe with Flair as a nod to their Horsemen days. Savage and Roberts feud was excellent and wouldn't change a thing, except maybe to have a longer and more brutal blowoff at Wrestlemania 8, but that goes into '92, so basically just build to that as I thought the feud still had legs when it ended abruptly. Hogan-Flair would've headlined Wrestlemania 8, so their feud would've continued into the next year with Sid as Flair's backup. Maybe a Steamboat-Sid feud. If anyone could get a decent match out of Sid, it would be Steamboat. But then, I would've loved to have seen Steamboat-Michaels at least once, too. Warrior-Undertaker would've feuded into the next year. So, basically, 1991 would've been leading into Wrestlemania 8 for the next year. As it is, they had a great roster at that time, but I feel like they dropped the ball in '92 after a great 91 setup.

Booker T comes to mind for me. He's good at pretty much everything, but great at nothing, really.

The Oddities in 1998 WWF...mostly just because they didn't do anything that impacted...anything. King Kong Bundy in '94 WWF Bob Backlund in the 90's never seemed right to me Bret Hart in WCW Barry Windham anywhere after 1993...

I am a huge Jericho fan, and for the most part, he seemed like a decent guy throughout his first two books. But, when I read the third, it just came off as a guy who name-dropped every celebrity he ever met, thought more of his musical success than he should, and just started to sound a bit like a self-absorbed asshole. Still love the character, but I've seen him slowly come off as more and more douchey the older he gets.

El Gigante was pretty bad, but David Flair is worse. Actually, there was a guy in the dying days of the AWA called The Russian Brute who was probably the worst wrestler I've ever seen...

Right when I was thinking what an annoying scumbag Jason Hervey sounded like, Jim Ross point blank asks him, "Do your fellow cast mates like you...you know, as a person?", which made me lol. Hervey was too distracting for me to even enjoy the match all that much. I'm not even sure Hervey was acting like a heel as much as much as he was being himself. What a tool. Decent match, but not good enough to sit through and be tortured by Hervey.

I've been watching some of this WWC stuff the past few days and I've enjoyed a lot of the Carlos Colon stuff myself. The guy doesn't have a massive moveset, but he knows how to keep the audience into the match. His matches with Hansen and the fire match with Ayala were some of my favorite things ever...

I loved that tag match on RAW and for the first time in years, during a live broadcast, I found myself openly cheering for the Rhodes boys. As for The Shield, I seriously hope they don't mess up a good thing and break them up just yet. Eventually, that's unavoidable, but they're hot right now and I hope they don't ruin it. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed WWE programming and they still work to do with the undercard, but I'm loving the Corporation 2.0. While I think Rollins is probably the best wrestler of the group, I think Reigns will be a bigger star in the long run because he has that "it" factor and is not a bad wrestler himself, not to mention his family roots. He's got a bright future in the company as long as he doesn't mess things up.

Throw me into the underwhelmed viewers of this match as well. Maybe knowing something about these guys might have helped, but I think it's more the lucha style that I don't care for...having only viewed the 90/91 yearbooks, I've been unenthusiastic about a lot of the lucha after viewing. I have to admit that I enjoyed the Octagon-Fuerza match the most, to be honest. To me, this was a bunch of sloppy brawling with a bunch of guys I could have cared less about...a shame, because I really wanted to like this, but couldn't.

This was one of my favorite periods in WWF history because it seemed like all of the main event storylines were intertwined. Here, Flair goes off on both Piper and Hogan. Hogan, Flair, Piper, Savage, Undertaker, Sid, Jake the Snake, and up until recently the Warrior weaved in and out so perfectly during this point, it was unreal. This was a favorite Flair promo of mine, and outside of the Black Scorpion bit, Flair's been on fire IMO since his '89 Steamboat series in terms of angles and storylines. Looking forward to the rest of 1991 for the WWF stuff.

This was pretty interesting. I gotta give those guys props for wrestling in that Ninja Turtles costume. There were some nice exchanges, but like a poster above, I wasn't very impressed with the heel side of the match. It was fun and memorable, but felt like an overly long exhibition match and showcase for the Ninja Turtles.

I thought this whole Jake Roberts turn was interesting. Sure, it's cheesy, but I loved every second if this. I only wish they had waited to show this until after SummerSlam and the Warrior could have had a legit reason for his disappearance... I also seem to remember a lot of rumors about the Warrior having died in real life and how the guy at WM8 was a different guy. I wonder if some people (i.e. kids) took this vignette too literally, because I don't remember ever seeing this before. Truthfully, I found this to be some of the best stuff they did with the Warrior and would love to see how this had played out had he not left the company.

Wow, I remember watching this match when it aired and being impressed with Zakowski because of all the flip-floppy stuff he did. It never dawned on me that he and Rob Van Dam were the same person until now...

wtf

This was a nice little gem to find since I wasn't expecting much here. I don't remember Davis ever being so jacked before. He looks like the result of Sting and Ronnie Garvin having a baby. Can't believe how much I used to hate Embry as a kid, but he's been pretty fun to watch in 1991 so far...

Love this match. Always have, always will...

1. Crockett: IMO, this promotion had a little bit of something for everyone. The Four Horsemen carried this territory, but if you wanted a tag match, you had the RNR's Vs. MX. If you wanted brawlers, you had the Road Warriors. Dusty Rhodes, Magnum T.A., Nikita Koloff, Lex Luger, Sting all in their primes. When I was a kid, I liked the WWF more, but as an adult, Crockett may be my favorite promotion ever. 2. WWF: Basing this just on nostalgia mostly, but Hulk Hogan became an icon via this company. Some of the undercard stuff in the early 80's was pretty bad, but I liked the roster from top to bottom by the end of the decade. I'll never join the smark ranks who bash WWF/E, even today when they don't even appear to be trying very hard. I like all wrestling and the WWF is the gateway that brought me to the table, so it stays near the top. 3. WCCW: I loved watching the Von Erichs and Freebirds go to war over the decade. I try not to put too much stock in people's personal lives, because I'd be hard-pressed to find any wrestlers I like, so I can overlook the Von Erich family's issues enough to enjoy this promotion I caught every Saturday as a kid. 4. Memphis: The first wrestling match/angle I ever saw was from Memphis. It was the day Bill Dundee went bezerk in the studio on Jerry Lawler and the Fabulous Ones, resulting in a match in which Jerry Lawler was sent out of town. It was the next day that my neighbor brought over a copy of the original Wrestlemania and really got me started on watching wrestling. I was always enthralled in Jerry Lawler's world, because you never really knew what was gonna happen on the show. The only complaint was that it seemed cheaply thrown together, but I guess it was... 5. AJPW: I've always been in awe of this promotion, which IMO, has put on more epic matches than most others. I am a little biased, however, because I have mostly seen just the good stuff and, thanks to the DVDVR folks, have rarely sat through all of the crap that I'm sure every promotion has. But, they can really put on a show when they want to... 6. NJPW: Same story here, pretty much. Until the digital age, I was pretty limited on what I was able to see. Loved the juniors stuff in the 90's and much of the 80's Choshu Army stuff, but again, I've been spoiled and haven't sat through entire undercards and endured the rough terrain. 7. Mid-South: The wrestling is fine, if not outstanding at times. But, I don't know, it just seemed like it was missing something. I still have yet to make it all the way through the DVDVR set, but I just can't get invested in any of their top stars. 8. Portland (PNW): Most of what I've seen is based on the Roddy Piper set I bought a few years ago. I have to echo the praise that Buddy Rose receives around here. He really kept this place going and was a great heel, but he did have help from the likes of Piper, Martel, Hennig, Haynes, etc. I haven't seen much of the late 80's stuff, however, and this promotion is more watchable than most smaller ones. 9. AWA: I was never a huge fan of this promotion, but recall catching some stuff on ESPN back in the day. Larry Nelson annoyed the crap outta me, but having watched the DVDVR set, a lot of it wasn't that bad. However, without the Rockers-Rose/Somers stuff, it would have been one shitty company. I'm one of the few that Nick Bockwinkel bores to tears, apparently. 10. Joshi: I've seen limited stuff, mostly Crush Gals and Jumping Bomb Angels, but I don't think I have viewed enough from the 80's to form a solid opinion on it as a whole. 11. Lucha: I've been less impressed with most lucha than I thought I would be...I don't care for a lot of the mat wrestling and am admittedly turned off a little by every match being 2/3 falls. Plus, I liked hearing crowd reactions and a lot of the footage has the announcers talking so loud and I can't even really hear the arena. I've seen a lot of these matches get praise when I just sat there mostly waiting for it to be over. Probably gonna order the 80's Lucha set eventually, but I just bought 2 more yearbooks, so it may be a little while. 12. World of Sport/Europe: Have seen very little of this, mostly on youtube. I particularly liked a match I watched yesterday between Jim Breaks and Adrian Street, but I can tell watching this stuff on a continuous basis would get old really quickly. It's not bad and it's performed really well, but in a movie comparison, Schindler's List was a well-done movie, but I wouldn't want to watch it on a loop. 13. Puerto Rico: I want to like this, but I have yet to find an outstanding match from Puerto Rico. I'm open to suggestions, but every PR match I watch just hasn't done it for me. 14. GLOW: Silly fun, but cheesy and too over-the-top for me. I kind of wish WWF had made mention of Ivory's past with GLOW, however. 15. UWF/Shoot-style: Ugh, hate this stuff. Stuff I haven't seen enough of to comment: Continental, Florida, St. Louis, Mid-Atlantic, but I plan to get all of the 80s sets and maybe even get some extra footage elsewhere on these.

I haven't watched much new stuff this year myself, but the Punk-Cena match from Raw back in February was outstanding...

Right now, I'm probably averaging about 4 hours per day...but at any moment, I will get burned out and not touch my wrestling DVDs for months...then I'll restart a mass amount of things again...and continue the cycle. Baseball season is distracting me, plus new tv season coming in the fall that I want to watch...a few video games I want to play...women I want to spend time with...there's just enough hours in the day...