Superstar Sleeze

Up to 2000 in this podcast and wanted to note something that Dylan said that HHH was the last heel standing thus he had to get the title and thus he backed into good fortune. Dylan makes the argument that all the bells and whistles for HHH was to get him over because the company was so insecure about his standing, but I disagree. The WWF was a babyface promotion with a red hot babyface that could have easily transitioned from Austin in the form of The Rock. We all know the history outside of Billy Graham and Yokozuna to that point the WWF was dominated by babyface champions. Vince had no problem in recent history from going from one face to the next in rapid succession (Bret->Diesel->Bret->Shawn). There had to be a reason why they pushed HHH harder when The Rock was right there. I would agree with Dylan if HHH was really they only player left standing, but he wasnt The Rock was right there. I think WWF had tremendous faith in HHH to pull this off and put him in opportunities to succeed because they wanted to try something different. They could leverage the McMahon status, Foley jobbing and Rocky high profile to cement Rocky and HHH at the same time and actually to leads instead of the usual Hogan vs. World or Austin vs. World they usually run. Dylan's point of creating stars together is so fuckin spot on. I do want to go back and watch 2000 WWF because it does get raved about and I have a spotty memory (I was only 10 after all) of it all. HHH post-2001 quad injury is pretty insufferable, but I actually think he was pretty deserving of his spot up until that point.

I was underrating the senton it was a very good senton. The pedigree is all on the receiver of the move to look good and Tiger Mask was being a bitch. I will say the top rope one was awful and that was really on both of them.

I absolutely loved that Kobashi/Takayama 2000 thought it built and built to a hot finish with one-armed Kobashi mounting his comeback only to fight through the pain and hit a burning lariat. Lost my notes for these two matches so need to do them while they are fresh in my head. I was going to wait to do non-bold ones at the end, but I will have to make an exception for Hashimoto/Iizuka vs. Ogawa/Murakami. Dick Togo vs Tiger Mask IV - 08/25/02 Inaugural Tokugun Jr. Heavyweight Champion I didn't really care for this one at all I thought this was a badly executed 2002 US Indy match that focused way more spots (that didn't even look good) than trying to tell a compelling story. They piqued my interest from the outset when Togo started the mask ripping, chair throwing and dragging Tiger Mask around by the neck with a cord, but once Tiger Mask was able to crack Togo in the skull with the chair things went downhill fast. Tiger Mask's offense looked awful, his sweep the leg was shit and he just looked like he could beat himself out of a wet paper bag. I know Togo is revered and I have not seen much so I will keep an open mind, but those Pedigrees have got to go. He makes me long for Kojima's Ace Crusher. The top rope Pedigree was particularly bad. At least the senton he used decent. So I lost my notes for this match and only the negatives stick out, but I do remember thinking it was at least entertaining in regards to the early brawling and Togo's heel work. **3/4 Jushin Liger & Wataru Inoue vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - NOAH 2/17/02 It is one thing to lose your notes in a match you dont like (Togo vs Tiger Mask), but it annoys me that I don't have my notes for this match because I thought this was pretty good, not MOTDC, but solid resume padding for greatest Junior of all time, Liger and a HUGE performance from Wataru Inoue. Inoue knows how to light up a muthafucka with an elbow. NJPW bullrushes early and isolate Kikuchi. At one point the Budokan is rocking like it is 1992 and chanting for Kikuchi. I always think of Liger as one of the best babyfaces of all time, but he has not trouble heeling it up here as he shoves his boot in Kikuchi's face before dropkicking him in the face and then doing a one foot pin cover. Kanemaru tags in and he does not have much in the way in offense. At first, he is content with letting the heels run into each other and stuff of that nature, but occasionally he will slip into indy-riffic spots, but he is not horrible. Liger gives him an absolute shit kicking I remember at least three Ligerbombs and a fisherman buster. Liger was on point in this match. Kanemaru to escape the wrath of Liger floats over on a suplex attempt and back kicks him in the balls. Kikuchi is pretty good at selling, but has almost nothing in the way of offense. The New Japan heels are really carrying this by delivering an ass kicking. Inoue and Kanemaru are the final two with Inoue initially gaining the advantage because he is ALL MAN~! However, the number games catches up to him and Kanemaru is able to hit a frogsplash, moonsault and a brianbuster to win. Melee ensues. New Japan and NOAH brawls to the back, which was awesome and pumped me for the rematch. It is not a super classic tag match, but the effective, powerful offense of the New Japan contingent and a pretty good finish. ***1/2

Antonio Cesaro vs Sami Zayn - NXT 08/21/13 2 out of 3 Falls For my money, Cesaro has his masterpiece of his 2013 campaign against Sami Zayn (if you are like me and have trouble keeping straight all the WWE rebranding, Zayn is El Generico) on NXT in a blowoff to a series of four matches. I went in totally cold to this match and was only aware of it because places like the Wrestling Culture podcast pimped it so heavily. I believe that all matches are helped when placed in context, but in a testament to this match's greatness it is bitchin' even in a vacuum. Part of that is due to the announcers doing their job (fancy that!) and explaining that Cesaro is a pompous prick and had called anyone out of the locker room and Zayn responded and got a fluke win. In order to negate this flash pin scenario, they are having 2 out Of 3 Falls match to prove who is the better wrestler (fancy that a feud over who is the better wrestler!). Zayn's strategy from the outset is very similar to Ziggler's. It is full court press suffocation of Cesaro. He immediately dives onto Cesaro when he is making his entrance and then whips him in hits a Yakuza Kick in the corner and wins the first fall. This plays off perfectly the first match and demonstrates why Cesaro has requested 2 out of 3 falls because he falls prey to flash pins. Also, it establishes Zayn's strategy of suffocating Cesaro. Cesaro tries coming at Zayn and rolling away, but neither strategy gets anything going for Cesaro However, it only takes a couple of minutes before Cesaro is finally able to hotshot Zayn and just lay in some wicked shots. Cesaro has one of the best chinlocks since the 80s because of they way he grips and sells it, but it is Zayn who really makes it by how hard he is fighting the chinlock by trying to break up Cesaro's grip. It is how many moves you have or what moves you do. It is how you do your moves that is what these two proved by making the chinlock an interesting point of the match. It makes sense that Cesaro wants to sap the energy of the dynamo, Zayn and contain him while he is rejuvenates. In some of his main show WWE matches, Cesaro is a bit too neutral. He wrestles sort of like a puro wrestler where face and heel lines blur, but here he really embraces his heelishness and just treats Zayn like a punk. Of course, Zayn shows him up on some of his strongman's spots like countering the gutwrench into a sunset flip. I have to say two of my favorite Cesaro spots (maybe someone has done it before) was the bridging fall away slam and the superplex with the opponent on the apron, just very impressive visuals. Zayn seems like he is going to mount a comeback with a dropkick, but Cesaro wrangles him in a chinlock swings him around and Zayn has no choice, but to tap. The third fall is the perfect climax to the story of Cesaro's strength versus Zayn's elusiveness. If Cesaro can catch Zayn, Zayn is dead in the water, but if Zayn can wriggle free he has a shot. Cesaro follows up his second fall win with a huge European upper cut in the corner and he trash talks Zayn. It becomes a war of chinlocks versus rollups and it is high drama throughout. Zayn mounts his big comeback hitting this crazy powerbomb that needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. Cesaro powders, but Zayn does not let up and dives through the turnbuckles to hit a tornado DDT on the floor. Holy shit, the kid might just pull this one off! They tease the countout victory. Back in the ring, Zayn goes for the tornado DDT again, then there is a finish to end all finishes with Cesaro running around and tossing Zayn up into an European Uppercut to win. This is a truly incredible match that embodies everything that makes wrestling great: Bully vs underdog, Strength vs. speed, struggle, playing off early matches, great build, bitchin' spots, awesome layout and a tremendous finish. ****1/2

They were over huge in Boston too this past year with the BoSox beard craze. Facial hair does to be en vogue right now when I go out to clubs. It is not impossible to get them sold, but I don't think they actually sell them. I could be wrong. My brother and I actually thought his "Goat mascot" shirt was one of the better wrestling shirts. I still wouldn't buy the thing, but as far as wrestling shirts go it was pretty good.

It feels like when WWF bought WCW in 2001, it purchased all their ability to make inane booking decisions but without any of the zaniness that made WCW charming. It is amazing that WWE has gotten pretty much got nothing right since 2001. It is just the way people have been talking about WWE for so long reminds me how people used to talk about WCW. I am already dreading the Roman Reigns' face promos where he tries to be funny. Unless, Reigns has some hidden talents on the mic it is going to be Sheamus (huge Sheamus in-ring mark) ugly on the mic. This comes from a guy who was really looking forward to Reigns' face turn and then realized how they could easily fuck this up.

I thought it was a pretty boring go home show from RAW. I am not a big Batista fan. I will say for the second consecutive RAW Roman Reigns made me and my brother mark the fuck out. We were going batshit for the Superman Punch to Cody in midair. Holy Shit! Push this man to the moon!

I got Cesaro/Sheamus as my number two Cesaro match of the year with only the Cesaro/Zayn match higher. WWE World Tag Team Champions Goldust & Cody Rhodes vs Big Show & Rey Mysterio vs Real Americans vs Ryback & Curtis Axel - WWE TLC Fatal 4-Way Much like Gaul, this match was divided into three neat parts: Rybaxel Phase, Real American Phase, Show&Mysterio Phase. The middle segment starring Goldust is really what carried the drama of the match with the other segments being serviceable, but not nearly as entertaining. As much as I love Ryback, his work in this was pretty blase and by the numbers. The only real highlight of the first segment was how over Big Show was. The crowd was going bonkers for his Shhhhh! Chop!. I think he was genuinely surprised and happy at how over he was. Goldust pins Ryback after floating over on a suplex attempt and rolling up The Big Guy. The Big Guy aint happy and blasts Goldust with a clothesline as a parting gift. Swagger is right on Goldust to start. As much as I love Cesaro (and I like Swagger too actually), this segment was not about him. It was all about Goldust and his tremendous face in peril performance. He totally focused on making the hot tag to Cody. Every move he made was with the intention of getting to Cody. Honestly, the heel offense was pretty mundane, but Goldust's commitment to the tag made it one of the more compelling face in peril peril segments in recent history. It was just great high drama. Credit where credit is due, Cesaro did have some cool spots like when Goldust tried to dive between his legs to get to Cody he wrangled him into the gutwrench suplex. I also loved the Giant Swing cutoff which turned into a catapult into a Swagger slam. Also, I have always dug the Swaggerbomb -> Double Stomp combo. Goldust was timing his hope spots beautifully with moves like his sunset flip powerbomb and a hurricanrana. Also of note is how much better cheerleader Big Show is than Cody. C'mon Cody you are still working when on the apron. Endgame sees Swagger pull Cody off the apron, but Show tosses Swagger into barricade. Cesaro hits a Yakuza Kick on Rey Rey, but walks into a snap powerslam. Finally, Goldust makes the tag into extremely over Big Show, who levels Swagger and knocks Cesaro out in mid-air to eliminate the Real Americans. If the match ended right there, I would say it is a definite MOTYC with a great build to the hot tag and Show just cleaning house. The next segment is not bad. It is good and fun, but it is not as satisfying once we get down to the two babyface teams. Goldust is clearly sapped of strength, but Big Show helps him up. Cole claims sportsmanship. JBL claims it is so Cody does not start the fall. JBL can be pretty good. Big Show shoulderblocks Goldust who tumbles to the outside and Cody checks on Goldust. Show palms Goldust's head and pulls him up to apron. Rey is friggin's amazed. His face made that spot. Goldust downs the Giant with a DDT and tags Cody. They double suplex Show for two. Show swats Cody out of the air and tags Rey. Rey runs through his standard offense and they tease hitting their finishes. Goldust takes 619. Cody is able to ram Show into the steel post to take him out. Cody looking for a springboard dropkick, but takes a powerbomb from little Rey. Cody catches Rey in 619 and goes for the Alabama Slamma, but nothing doing. Finally he wrangles Rey and hits the Cross-Rhodes. There is a lot of moves from Cody and Rey, but all the drama was with Goldust and Show so it just felt there. The middle portion of the match is a perfect showcase for why Goldust is a top 5 WWE worker right now. It is a tremendous face in peril performance that is dramatic because of his selling and his determination to get to Cody. The Big Show hot tag is such a satisfying payoff. The rest of the match is middling RAW level stuff. ***1/2

Taue is the greatest apron wrestler of all time. I think he should be in all three and the one you mention in 6/9/95 would be my number one. In the inevitable Cesaro/Rey match, how fuckin bitchin is it going to be when Cesaro catches Rey doing the 619 and does the Giant Swing. BOOK IT VINCE!

Fuck the Wyatts, Sheamus should be in The Shield. Sheamus as a badass, leather-clad "IRA" solider was the role he was born to play. Plus I think I would lose my mind for a Sheamus/Roman Reigns feud. Sheamus as the new leader of The Shield would be beneficial for all four parties involved too. Personally I would have Champ Daniel Bryan successfully defending over HHH Brock vs Taker (Heyman's second guy to go after streak) Cena/Punk vs Orton/Batista (I think Batista is more useful on the heel side. Reunited Evolution against Megapowers 2k14) Sheamus vs Reigns (SHIELD EXPLODES~!) Daniel Bryan did knock HHH out with his knee to end one RAW and Show also knocked HHH out. They are giving face heat back to faces it is just they either dont follow up on it (Bryan) or it bombs (Big Show). I have greatly enjoyed Stephanie as a promo, but yeah it is hard to see what her comeuppance would be as of today.

O shit, from the commentary I thought there was just that one where Zayn beat Cesaro on a fluke and thats what the first fall played off of. I didnt realize this was a whole series.

Cesaro/Zayn is fuckin mind blowing awesome. Cesaro/Regal is great, but do have some quibbles. Can I just say how much the commentary was a boon to both those matches because I was going in cold and in both instances the commentary helped justify the work in the ring. Plus I loved the fact Tensai sounds just like my cousins from Dorchester.

I agree he was never positioned as the Ace because Misawa and then Kobashi still had enough drawing power to warrant staying on top. Part of the loss to Kobashi was that he was positioned as the heel thus necessitating the loss to Kobashi in the blowoff. Regardless, he still choked him out in the lead-up and they were presented on an "equal" footing except in wrestling the number one face and number one heel there is a slight uneveness in their relationship. I don't think the loss to Misawa in the semis hurt because he won the next encounter. I thought it was weird that he headlined two Dome shows for NJPW, but did not have any high profile defenses in NOAH. I agree his lack of peers his age really fucked him. By the time they decided to go with Kobashi and thus having him drop the title to Ogawa it hurt him, but I don't think it was over per se. The Rikio switch, which I have not gotten to yet seems to death knell. Misawa versus Jumbo felt like a changing of the guard and even though Akiyama got huge wins (two over Misawa in the Budokan in 2000 & 2001) it just was not enough. Reevaluating I agree he was a victim of circumstance of having a lack of challengers.

SUWA vs Dragon Kid - Toryumon 08/24/00 Hair Vs Mask This was different thats for sure. It was like someone took ECW/Lucha/Japanese Juniors put in a blender and out came this oddly fun match. There was a lot leaving me scratching my head. Was it 2 out of 3 Falls or did Ultimo Dragon just restart the match? Maybe if I spoke Japanese that confusion could have been avoided but that was 2000 WCW at its worst there. Still maybe it is because I grew up in the late 90s, but there is something about gratuitous interference that does not bother me as much as other wrestling fans. It is entertaining its own way. Actually most of my problem with this match was with Dragon Kid. His offense was so Indy-riffic and pointless. I thought Kojima was bad with Ace Crusher variations, Dragon Kid was killing me with all these setup spots for his stunners. Then add that he will get his ass kicked and just pop up. You are the tiniest dude on the roster you can butter your bread selling. Like for instance SUWA makes a big deal that he is going to elbow Dragon Kid in the balls and he does. Immediately Dragon Kid avoids his next move and does a somersault off the top rope onto the floor. It was a ball shot, dude. Given the two other reviews I read for this match I agree that SUWA was very good and could have been something more if he ended up in a different promotion. Though my disagreement with the previous reviewers is I liked the first/fake fall (?) more. Dragon Kid leaping out onto SUWA during his entrance. Then SUWA as his only defense chucked a chair at Dragon Kid when he tried coming off the apron. I loved SUWA throwing him into the chair and punching young boys. Even though he is bigger than Dragon Kid he still rakes the eyes as a cut off and then goes and rips the mask. At that point, I was just thinking this maybe a fun lucha brawl. I was not buying Dragon Kid's hope spots at all. I was glad SUWA pinned him with a powerbomb, but I think Ultimo Dragon restarted the match because his feet were on the ropes. Dragon Kid tries the only strategy he seems to know and that is bullrushing, but SUWA just uses his momentum against him. I actually dug the dropkick spot where SUWA dropkicked him and Dragon Kid went halfway across the ring. It is worth checking out. Kid hits a rana off a splash mountain attempt. Ref bump. Melee ensues with what seems like the entire roster in the ring. I was digging the chaotic feel of this. I thought the ending was the weakest part, but others seemed to like it. Dragon Kid should stick with hurricanranas because he hits those a lot more wickedly than those awful Stunner variations in his comeback. They hit this convoluted powerbomb that looked like it should be an gymnastics routine where basically does a 360 front flip. I will say the Dragonrana was pretty fuckin bitchin'. Evil Dragon Kid beats up Dragon Kid, but Dragon kid still has the wherewithal to shave SUWA's head. SUWA extends the hand in respect. The audience applauds and then SUWA kicks a field goal right through the uprights. He fuckin destroys a chair around this young boy's head. SUWA is pretty awesome. I didn't hate this. I actually found it a breezy, entertaining 25 minutes. I would not want all wrestling like this but SUWA gave a pretty good heel performance and Dragon Kid was not too cumbersome a piece of luggage. ***1/4

So I thought I would posit another reason why Akiyama did not "make" it so to speak that is to say he never felt like The Man the same way Jumbo, Misawa or Kobashi did at times. I think among other things that were noted was that he was portrayed as a heel during his first major push of his career. It was one thing to make a statement by suplexing your partner after winning a match. It is whole another thing to choke him out the next night and beat up those trying to administer aid to him. Akiyama was clearly positioned as a heel, but I believe Japanese fans were conditioned to see the native Aces as a babyfaces. Thus Akiyama would always play second fiddle to Kobashi & Misawa because they are an Ace Faces. I don't think that could be underestimated in how that inhibited Akiyama's rise to absolute tippy-top of the card. I have not seen the rest of his work from the decade yet (I have seen '04 Kobashi match but it has been forever) and I would imagine there are more booking botches, but I thought it was interesting they positioned him as a heel when usually the next big thing is positioned as a babyface. Anybody agree with me or think I am way off base?

Jun Akiyama had some of the worst birth timing ever. Ten years in either direction, maybe just five years and he would have been golden. Instead, he is in-between generations of superstar unfairly compared against his more popular predecessors and too gold to be effectively used as an ace against his successors. During what I would argue as his drawing peak between 2000-2002 where he was positioned with wins over Misawa and Kobashi, given the first headlining feud in NOAH history, the second GHC champion, two NJPW Dome main events and then the ace of the tag division, he still did not feel like the ace. When Kobashi beat Misawa in 2003 and went on his epic run it finally felt like Kobashi had superseded Misawa as the Man. If you think about it that took about 9 years because Misawa still had something to give. In a lot of ways the fact that Misawa and Kobashi could still draw hampered Akiyama's ability to be the Ace. In the aftermath of 2002, which I have not familiarized myself with yet, there may have been some booking botches as others have pointed out to me. I will say that the fact he was positioned as a heel during this big push hurt him. Misawa was a face squaring off against Jumbo and people were cheering him. Japanese fans are conditioned to see their Aces as a babyfaces so it hurt Akiyama in his build to being an Ace to be portrayed as a heel in my opinion. I highly recommend both the 02/00 Misawa bout and the 12/00 Kobashi blowoff both are spectacular matches with great visual fireworks, but substantiated by great stories (I would say that Misawa match is a bit more story driven which is why I prefer it). Akiyama has excellent performances in both as a cold, relentless force looking to exploit any weakness to grab the torch from the two All Japan standard bearers. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...-heaven-or.html The rankings for the Best of Puroresu from 2000-2009 thus far: 1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00 2. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00 3. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01 4. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00 5. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 12/23/00 6. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokyo Dome Non-Title 7. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01 8. Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - AJPW 6/30/01 9. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00 10. GHC Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 07/27/01 11. GHC Tag Champions Jun Akiyama & Atikoshi Saito vs Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga - 10/19/02 12. Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 07/23/00 13. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00 14. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00 15. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - NOAH #2 08/06/00 16. GHC Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 09/23/02 17. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Vacant GHC Title 04/15/01 18. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 07/07/02 19. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayma - Tokyo Dome 05/02 20. Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata - Sumo Hall 08/12/01 G-1 Climax Final 21. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Budokan 02/17/02 22. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama - NOAH #1 08/05/00 23. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 02/24/02 24. Yoshihiro Takayma vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax Semifinals 25. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kensuke Sasaki - G-1 Climax Round Robin 26. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01 27. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama - Zero-One 3/2/01 28. Toshiaki Kawada vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 06/06/01 29. GHC Tag Team Champions Wild II vs Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito - Budokan 9/23/02

The Daniel Bryan 7/22/13 Gauntlet Daniel Bryan vs Jack Swagger I enjoyed Zeb's little rant about how Daniel Bryan had to take a handout from Cena. Nice little dick statement. All of Swagger's matches should be held in Texas and Oklahoma only surefire way to get him heat. I feel like I am one of the few Swagger fans left after his nice initial ECW run. I love his size, agility and moveset, but he is missing the intangibles. He establishes the power game early and Bryan takes heat. He mocks the Austin fans sticking his tongue out and with horns down. He cuts Bryan off for the diving elbow and hits Swaggerbomb, but gets nonchalant and gets caught in the Yeslock. It puts over Bryan ability to strike anywhere and his need for a quick victory. Daniel Bryan vs Antonio Cesaro When I first watched this live, I thought this was a bit underwhelming and did not consider it a MOTYC. I thought Bryan's encounters with Ryback and the Orton street fight at this point were better than this section of the gauntlet. Watching it again, I don't know what my major malfunction was because this match rocks. Now, I will have to watch the above matches to see how this compared. I did prefer Cesaro/Sheamus to this match, but not my much as that was just that much more physical. I like how Cesaro works a back and forth style that does not devolve into an exhibition. His matches feel like real struggles. The beginning of the match felt like the lesser version of the Pegasus/Black Tiger '96 Super J match where Cesaro is trying to contain the dynamo, Bryan, with chinlocks. I liked Bryan's hope spots: dragon leg screws, standing on Cesaro's hammies and pulling his nose, his criss cross sequences. Cesaro for his part uses a mixture of his strength practically deadlifting Bryan into a suplex and some help from Swagger as cutoffs. Cesaro double stomp after a quick rollup by Bryan was a thing of beauty and God Love Cesaro for his gutwrench suplex. This is one of the best firework spectacles the WWE has put on in years as both wrestlers are so explosive. Bryan's release German and Cesaro wicked European uppercut while Bryan is on the top rope are awesome visuals. Then they just go to town on each other with European Uppercuts until Cesaro fuckin pours it on and gives Bryan a shellacking with a ton of Euro Uppercuts. Still can only get 2. Bryan grabs a dragon leg screw and goes into that Liger inverted figure-4 and drops the fuckin hammer on Cesaro. Those are some nasty elbows. When Cesaro disrupts the Bryan diving headbutt, Bryan is able to counter Cesaro lifting Euro Uppercut seamlessly into a small package. From the european uppercut exchange one that was one of the best finish stretches they have put in on in years. I thought the match was a bit disjointed since they never really paid off what happened before the commercial break it came off as a bit boring, but once they decided what they wanted to do and just rock it, this became something special. The Cesaro vs Sheamus match was more violent and felt like a ruthless fight that worked Cesaro's nasty tendencies and Sheamus' fighting spirit. I thought this match lacked drama it felt more focused on entertaining through offense Still a very good match. ***1/2 Daniel Bryan vs Ryback I am an unabashed Ryback mark, but much like Heenan I have a moral obligation to be objective. Seriously how boss is Ryback in this match? The difference between Ryback and Cesaro in these back-to-back performances is Ryback ratchets up heeling. Cesaro is violent and explosive, but he does not do anything that heelish. Ryback is a cocky bully. You just want to see Bryan punch him in the mouth. Ryback is just as good as Cesaro at cutoffs and I think they do a better job building heat to the finish by having more prolonged heat section. I loved that Bryan went flying at the outset with his knockout flying knee. Ryback just keeps shrugging him off. He digs his thumb in Bryan's eye, throws him by his beard, yanks at his nose and trash talks him "Little man in a big man's world". "You cant wrestle" chants. Go fuck yourself, smart marks! RYBACK RULEZ~! Ryback hits a sweet vertical suplex and floats over. Drink your tall glass of shut the fuck up juice audience. Ryback hits a Thesz Press but Bryan rolls into a wicked half crab. Ryback throws Bryan down, but Bryan wont stay down and a knockout knee staggers Ryback. Bryan keeps dropkicking him, but Ryback throws him down again. Ryback goes for a table, but while he is setting it up he gets hit with a suicide dive. Really nice camerawork on that one. Back in the ring after some tussling, Bryan goes for the Yeslock, but Ryback grabs by the hair and just flings him halfway across the ring. RYBACK RULEZ~! Bryan finally rattles off some offense: drop toehold into the middle turnbuckle, missile dropkick, YESLock, but Ryback gets too the ropes. Ryback bails. Bryan goes for the knee off the apron, but Ryback catches and throws him down in a powerbomb onto floor. Nasty. Ryback picks him back up and powerbombs him through the table. Great finish. It preserves Bryan's appeal as the ultimate underdog without him having to job. Ryback is awesome as a monster in this match. Bryan uses his speed to try to best the beast with a half-crab, dropkicks and suicide dives, but nothing seems to phase the monster. Ryback just keeps swatting him away and badmouthing him, but he seems to grow arrogant everytime he gets on offense. Bryan has a never say die attitude and just when you think he is going to knock Ryback the fuck out, he gets caught and slammed onto the floor. I liked this match slightly better than the Cesaro match because of more defined face/heel dynamics and oh yeah because RYBACK RULEZ~! ***1/2

Wild shot in the dark: Cena wins the title, HHH is ripshit (who knows why, but he is. See I can book for the WWE too. ). He takes out #30 in the back. Wins the Rumble. Bryan wins the title at Elimination Chamber. We hopefully get Bryan going over HHH at Mania. Also in an ideal world, #30 is Roman Reigns and HHH also does jobs to Reigns in the aftermath. The least the guy could do after years of being invincible is give back to these two. My booking maybe off, but I think HHH winning the Rumble is not outlandish. I would not call him a favorite, but I can see it happening.

Antonio Cesaro vs Sheamus - Main Event 06/05/13 "Think shoot, but work" - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin These two had to work for every inch of this match. From the outset, Cesaro worked so hard to overcome Sheamus' resistance to have a headscissors applied to him out of his headlock. That is pro wrestling. Once Cesaro was in a control, he bit Sheamus' hand. That is pro wrestling. Sheamus has a Cesaro in a tight wristlock so he covers Sheamus' mouth to back him in the corner and hit a monster European Uppercut. That is pro wrestling. Everything was so gritty from Cesaro and Sheamus is no slouch himself. In fact, I would argue until recently Sheamus was the best offensive wrestler in North America (Daniel Bryan may have earned that mantle now). He throws a great punch, a mean elbow and hits a great flying shoulderblock. Cesaro is able to run Sheamus' shoulder into the post and then running kick his head into post and followed that up with a double stomp from the apron. He would pull Sheamus up by the ear. Sometime they throw around physical in WWE, but this match was physical. Sheamus begins to run through his offense beginning with the Irish Curse backbreaker and getting his receipt on the outside by running Cesaro's arm into the post. Cesaro is still able to grab the crossface chickenwing on Sheamus' bad arm, which is just such a painful looking move. Sheamus elbows out, but these aren't WWE elbows that is a MANS ELBOW that rocks Cesaro's head. Sheamus again looks to go high with a flying shoulderblock, but eats a European Uppercut. It does not look pretty, but nothing looks pretty in this match. Cesaro hits a Bombs Away knee drop, but still get a pin in this fight Cesaro locks in the crossface chickenwing again and man Cesaro needs to bring it back full-time. There is an urgency to every action because each knows the other can hit a knockout shot at anytime. Sheamus goes for White Noise, but Cesaro is still struggling and rams him into the corner and this creates the opportunity to hit the Brogue Kick for the win. My current two favorite wrestlers did not disappoint in delivering one of the best physical contests in the WWE. There was not a lot of typical Southern selling. I am hurt, but if I don't power through this I am going to fucking hurt and that may cost me time down the line. The selling in this resembled something akin to a real fight. Even though, they were a lot of momentum swings, it never felt like an exhibition quite the contrary it felt very much like a war. These guys were really fighting like their careers were on the line. ****

I always love this show because during the year I pretty much only watch RAW and this show only had great recommendations for the rest of 2013. I can already thank Tim for a badass Cesaro/Ziggler match. The one omission I thought was the Cena/Punk Free TV match, I thought that was a great blowoff match for one of the longest running feuds in recent history. It would make my top ten, but I have barely watched the amount of wrestling from 2013 you all have, Just wondered what your thoughts were on that one.

I have really grown to love Cesaro this year as a weekly presence on RAW, but I don't make it a regular habit to watch anything besides RAW so using the Wrestling Culture Year In Review I decided to go back and watch some Cesaro I missed. Antonio Cesaro w/Zeb Colter & Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler - Superstars 8/30/13 If Antonio Cesaro was the NWA traveling champion, I believe this is how the match would look. Ever since Ziggler turned babyface, he seemed content to wrestle the mid-90s Savage formula take heat for most of the match and then hit the finish. Beside the fact Mr. Livingston recommended this match, I knew something was up because the commentators were saying Ziggler was boasting that he was about to deliver a Mania Main Event level performance. Ziggler all of sudden remembered he had a shit ton of offense that Cesaro gladly bumped and sold for in this match. Cesaro establishes he has the strength advantage early, but Ziggler has the speed when he snaps off a quick dropkick (Ziggler's usual one early offensive move). Thanks to some Swagger distraction, Cesaro throws Ziggler with a gutwrench and when Ziggler tries catch him with a roll-up he double stomps him in a great spot. This is when the match departs from the Savage formula as Ziggler starts rattling off moves like cross-body, roll-up, a facebuster and climaxing with a tornado DDT out of a back body drop attempt. Ziggler's speeds seems to be overwhelming Cesaro. However, Ziggler cant seem to find a way to neutralize Swagger as another distraction allows Cesaro to shake the ropes. Then in the spot of match and maybe spot of the year. Cesaro hits a delayed superplex after grabbing Ziggler from the apron. WOW! Cesaro nonchalantly covers and Ziggler reverses. Ziggler goes around the world to grab a sleeper. Swagger looks to interfere and Ziggler dropkicks him off the apron. Great Payoff! Ziggler gets a fameasser for two. (Why has that not been renamed?) Cesaro shrugs off Zig Zag attempt and true to form Ziggler rushed right back in, but this time ate "throw him up, catch him with a Euro uppercut" and the nastiest Neutralizer I have seen to lose to Cesaro. I don't think is a Match of the Year Candidate, but definitely one of the best free TV matches of the year. I loved the use of Swagger as he was key in both Cesaro's transitions and finally he was knocked out. This was Ziggler's best match of the year as he was just relentless. He knew speed and willpower was all he had. He just kept coming and coming. He pressed every advantage. It felt like a full court press in basketball, but that ultimately cost him because he ran into a huge European Uppercut to set up the Neutralizer. ***1/2

GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 1st Anniversary 07/27 The crowning achievement of Jun Akiyama's career as it finally seems like he is going to be the man. All of 2000 was leading to this climax where he defeats Misawa to become the GHC Champion. The aftermath would turn out differently as NOAH would reset and go with Kobashi as their big drawing ace. However, for this one night Akiyama looked like he fulfilled his potential and had become puroresu's new big star. In their last big match at the Budokan, Misawa lost to Akiyama and he comes out elbows blazing. He will not be deterred and elbows through everything. Akiyama tries to powder. Misawa keeps elbowing. Akiyama ties to take it to the mat. Misawa elbows out. Akiyama tries to go elbow for elbow well that is just preposterous. Akiyama finally kills this onslaught by dropkicking Misawa off the top rope onto the floor in a sweet bump. Akiyama drives his knee into Misawa back sending him crashing into the railing. Misawa is not the only who remembers their previous match as Akiyama goes for Misawa's neck with a tombstone piledriver and some neck submissions. All of sudden we are transported to the Greensboro Coliseum where the "Total Package" Mitsuharu Misawa no-sells "Nature Boy" Jun Akiyama's strikes in the corner and cleans his clock with some more elbows and Akiyama has some great webble-wobble, ropes holding me up sells of it. The one of the biggest stylistic differences in this match from the 02/00 match is that Misawa gets way more of his offense in this match. I don't if it is due to his age, but Misawa almost looks demonic when he slaps on the front facelock the way his eye-brows are arched. Misawa gets his trademark diving elbow to the floor after doing a rana out of a powerbomb and a butterfly suplex after he cant get his Tiger Driver. Then out of nowhere Akiyama applies a crossface. Here come the fireworks! Akiyama DDTs Misawa on the ramp and teases an Exploder and a German off the ramp onto the floor, but Misawa elbows him off. Similar to Misawa's fatal mistake in 2000, Akiyama dodges an elbow from the ramp and drives him to floor. He capitalizes on this mistake with an Exploder on the floor and in the ring. Then in a perplexing move, Akiyama goes to the top? They tease a superplex until you realize that they are actually going to do a SUPER TIGER DRIVER~! It did not look as great as it possibly could have, but the audience and announcers all collectively lost their shit. Misawa sells his own damage thus it takes him too long to cover. Misawa follows up with the Roaring Elbow and a Tiger Driver both getting two. Hence he looks to finish off Akiyama and hit the Emerald Flowsion, but Akiyama wriggles free to hit two Exploders to level the playing field. They are both in their respective corners and charge at each other, but it is Akiyama's high knee that finds the mark. The end is nigh for Misawa. The brainbuster and choke fail to polish off Misawa, but the combination of an Exploder and a Wrist-Clutch Exploder ultimately finish Misawa and Akiyama wins his first major singles title. Unlike the first match, Akiyama feels like he is overcoming Misawa's onslaught of elbows and bombs. In the first match, he builds a huge lead and needs to weather the inevitable comeback. In this performance, he proved he does not have to be a front runner and he has big time comeback ability. I loved Misawa's presence in this. He was not going to lose to Akiyama again and just elbowed through everything. He would not be denied. The problem was that when he tried something high-risk it paid off with him crashing and burning (yes he pulled off the SUPER TIGER DRIVER~!, but more often than not he ate concrete). Eventually, it came down who was quicker at pulling the trigger Akiyama's knee or Misawa's elbow and the younger Akiyama won that battle and ultimately the match. My major issue with this match was the transitions were pretty lame and did not weave a complete story. The Akiyama crossface and the SUPER TIGER DRIVER~! were poorly set up from an in-ring action perspective. I don't think they made the most of their big spots. Nothing seemed to have any consequence until about 2 minutes to go. I liked the story, but I thought the plot devices could have been better combined to deliver a more complete match. **** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi - Budokan 2/17/02 The two combatants in New Japan's 01/04/02 Dome show team together to face Misawa & Kobashi in Kobashi's return match from knee injuries to draw a sell out at the Budokan. Not only is it Kobashi's return match, but was this the first time he had teamed with Misawa since 1995. NOAH played two pretty big drawing cards there to ensure a sell-out. There are big Kobashi chants to start and you know Akiyama's days as champion are numbered with such a big time reaction. Misawa and Nagata start with some decent chain wrestling. Nagata seems to get the best of Misawa on the mat and fights through Misawa's trademark elbows. They both tag out and there is a big pop for the Kobashi vs. Akiyama showdown. Kobashi looks pissed and is ready to light up some muthafuckas. That is the theme of the beginning of the match, the people want to see Kobashi kick some ass so he delivers. He chops the shit out of Akiyama and hits a delayed vertical suplex then brutalizes Nagata with high chops and then does his short knee lifts/ab stretch combo on him. Nagata kicks Kobashi knee during a struggle over a suplex to buy his team some time and Akiyama capitalizes with a jumping high knee. That is the risk Misawa and Kobashi took with having Kobashi take a bulk of the offense early. Akiyama applies a Boston Crab, but Kobashi makes it to the ropes. Kobashi starts to hulk-up and throws down Akiyama in the corner, but a drop toehold stymies him and Nagata applies the crossface. Nagata get back to the legs and drops down for his version of the figure-4 and Akiyama cuts off Misawa this time. Kobashi's selling including verbal selling has made this heat segment one of the better ones so far in my 00s puroresu watching. Kobashi is able to fire off a suplex to finally tag Misawa. Misawa will not be denied and his elbow find its mark on Akiyama and Nagata. However after repeated attempts for the Tiger Driver, Akiyama nails him with an Exploder. Akiyama wisely tags out to Nagata who hits a Northern Lights Suplex and applies a crossface, but now Kobashi saves. Here comes the Misawa comeback with the Roaring Elbow and Tiger Driver, but only gets 2. Kobashi comes in to the joy of the crowd and delivers his string of crowd-pleasers: Spinning Back Chop, Half-Nelson Suplex, but powerbomb gets countered into a triangle choke by Nagata. Nagata aint holding down Kobashi, who gives him a sleeper suplex for his troubles. Nagata is able to kick Kobashi's leg one last time to give his team the advantage. Akiyama and Nagata are able to do a double submission spot with Nagata applying the STF and Akiyama his choke. Huge Kobashi Chants. Kobashi is still struggling, but to my surprise a wrist-clutch exploder does him in while Misawa is detained by Nagata. I am so used to American psychology, I often forget it is customary for wrestlers to lose their return match to put over ring rust and build their comeback to a more satisfactory climax. This is a fun popcorn match. The beginning is just giving the fan what they want Kobashi killing bitches dead. Then they add the drama with Akiyama and Nagata targeting the injured knee. After that it just becomes a bomb fest with everyone hitting their best hits before Nagata gets one last ditch kick to knee and you see Kobashi putting over the new champion Akiyama. While this is yet another big win for Akiyama, soon after he would be shunted to the tag division and the process was begun to get the strap to Kobashi by getting it to Misawa first to set up a big money gate at the Budokan. ***1/2

The Wrestling Culture Podcast has done a great job explaining why Dustin Rhodes rules the school by a career retrospective and saying he has about 3 MOTYCs this year (two against The Shield and the TLC 4-Way). Thus Riding Space Mountain also gets timely by looking at an overlooked point of Dustin's career his 1993 US Title feud with Rick Rude. I argue that he is a victim of circumstances that WCW's woefully 1993 inept booking and Rude's injuries are too much for him to overcome. Still, they managed to put together a couple good matches on Saturday Night. Of course, the vast majority of fans have only seen the rather boring Iron Man Match. In the second Saturday Night match, Rude pulled a classic 1992 performance out his ass and in the tag match with Flair and against Rude & Sid Rhodes pulled out one of the better face in peril performances. These are the recommended match not because they are great matches per se, but displayed the positive attributes of teh combatants. Dustin Rhodes , Sting & Davey Boy Smith vs Rick Rude, Vader & Sid Vicious - Clash XXIII Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude WCW Saturday Night 08/28/93 Best of 3 Series VACANT US Champion Match #1 Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude WCW Saturday Night 09/4/93 Best of 3 Series VACANT US Champion Match #2 Dustin Rhodes & Ric Flair vs. Rick Rude & Sid Vicious - WCW Saturday Night 09/18/93

O Hell Yeah! Depeche Mode is pretty bitchin' also to be fair to Bix. What I thought was one of the more genius things of this is the subscription contract length. There is no permutation that will be get to get the Royal Rumble, Mania and Summerslam in one subscription thus forcing the 3 PPV watchers to pay the full $120. As a person that usually purchases 2-3 PPVs a year (Rumble, Mania, and SSlam) the fact I can get all 12 PPVs for the cost of 2 means in my mind as a fan I am getting 10 for free. So as long as they build 3-4 PPVs strong than I think the purchase is justified. Since each PPV is not being sold on its merits, this will introduce the risk of creative laziness (though I think their lazy anyways) as Charles points out. I don't think its the length of the contract that mitigates the risk of creative laziness, but the fact they will continually want to generate new revenue from new fans. This will continue to keep the TV and "PPVs/Supercards" strong. Now on the "Nitro " Model (great name, Will) vs. "Supercard" Model, it can go either way, but I think if you assume the vast majority of fans will have PPV results at their fingers and they see a trend of non-finishes and building to the TV they will not subscribe. Since they are seeing the finishes on TV. I don't think anything has changed since day one of pro wrestling, if you want to see the big matches you have to pay. However, the counterpoint is well they have your money already so in reality they can shit the bed on about 8 PPVs and as along as they have about 4 strong ones I could see them being fine. In a lot of ways, I see WWE actually going back to the early to mid 90s model of 4 big shows with other 8 shows being more Clash or SNME style shows. The incentive of strong creative on TV will always be necessary for new fans and at least 3-4 PPVs will still need to be strong in my opinion. That being said I dont think WWE knows what "strong" or "lazy" creative is so I don't think we actually see a change in styles Why do people think that WWE won't end up putting up as much content as they did on their 24/7 channel. Is it because they are hosting it rather than a cable company? Would they have not had to pay the cable company for the server space? I really don't understand because to me if you did for one on demand service why would you not eventually do it for this one. I agree with Charles that re-releases make business sense so yes they will not be add stuff at lightning speed.

Post of the year. I grew up in Boston, but no way could I do a podcast on it. I will say i was there live for breakup of the APA that led to push for the "Wrestling God" John Bradshaw Layfield. I will be pumped for the Boston episode.