Superstar Sleeze

"Ricky Morton is like a waterbug" -JR. I know he was referring to how quick Morton is, but waterbug!?!?!? Missing that second gear to make this a truly great, all-time classic tag match. This was still a very good, traditional Rock N Rolls match. I liked the Rock N Rolls double teams early on and then Reed's power clotheslines to transition into the FIP segments. I thought the Doom control segments were missing a little something, but there was some good stuff. The finish was good and surprised that Doom went over as clean as they did with the top rope shoulderblock. I really did Reed's top rope shoulderblock.

NWA World Tag Team Champions Doom vs Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Barry Windham) - NWA Starrcade 1990 This had that intense Southern fight feel that has been lost in many ways due to the "arena-touring, multiple items of plundah" brawling that replaced it. The belt shot that busted Windham open looked particularly gruesome to me. The belt shot onto Simmons was also vicious. Reed's shouldertackle off the top was great as was the superplex. I thought the chair shots were all well-done especially for the time period. Reed barking out "Son of a bitch" was awesome. I am a huge mark for the piledriver and Butch Reed delivered a great one. I hated the finish. The double pin was lame and the only thing lamer was that friggin inside cradle that Windham used. Jesus, he could have use his leaping DDT. Incredibly violent and hate-filled, seemed to lose a bit of steam at the end and the finish was garbage. Also, my years of watching wrestling and heavy metal has totally brainwashed me into thinking that leather, assless chaps is the most badass and macho look any man can have. ****

Damn, babyface Ric Flair likes to go to WAR~! Bobby Eaton takes some massive bumps in this one: whip into the steel post, rocket launcher onto the railing, the back body drop on the concrete. I marked out at the beginning when Flair hiptossed Eaton. Years and years of watching him get blocked and then hiptossed, I was so happy he hiptossed someone. Eaton's rights are Truth and cannot be denied. The neck work was a nice touch. Flair getting popped in the head with the racquet scrambling to tear Corny to shreds only to falter in a heap coughing is the greatest thing ever. It was the perfect touch of anger and pain in a great moment. Flair's babyface comeback is scorching hot. This time the Flair Flip connects and Flair is FEELING IT. Strut finishing with the fists up is just so badass. He catches Eaton's foot on Alabama Jam and is going to slap the Figure-4 on the correct leg. Only to outcheat he heels by wailing on Corny and Eaton with the racquet all the while Sweet Stan is distracting the ref. Flair wins. Flair is BITCHIN'. (See what I did there, I read the other threads ).

I love how they played up Pillman's righteous indignation against Flair for his heel turn as the reason for his violence. This match was an incredible sprint and reminds you what happens when Flair has a worker opposite of him. Pillman is on fire early looking for revenge for his buddy, but Flair gets him to follow him outside so he can thumb in the eye. He throws Pillman into the railings and then just unloads some of the best Flair offense I have seen in a long time. This is the type of the match where Flair never felt like he was "bringing the bitch", but he was pissed off as the audacity of Pillman and was going to show this punk a lesson. I loved when Flair was pushing Pillman's back down and then popping him and Pillman coming back with chops, fantastic exchange. Pillman's babyface comeback was killer and climaxed so well with Air Pillman. The finish was oddly clean with Flair rolling through a cross-body and sort of grabbing some tights. For people that think Flair bitches out too much, this match is a great way to point how Flair can work toe-to-toe with a pissed off babyface and be just as pissed too.

For a while I thought this was going to make a run at the Flair match for the best Zenk singles match I have seen. I thought the beginning was better executed than the Flair match, but this had the advantage of AA firmly in the heel position. I liked Zenk going after Arn's left hand for a bit. The knee fake-out was really milked and I think that is how it should be done. The Irish Whip into the guardrail made me wish that they would bring back the old steel guardrails. Through the back work, I was thinking that AA exceeded Flair, but then he decided to sit in the chinlock. Logical and entertaining are not mutually inclusive for me. Zenk's karate kick sucked, but hey his missile dropkick looked fine. I would have had to watch the buildup, but this seems kinda out of nowhere. Very good TV match, but the Flair match is still better. What was the point of the short Zenk TV Title reign? Booking committee shake-up, Ole out the door and Dusty coming in?

Not much to add. Great broomstick match. I am going to watch AA vs Z-Man from later in the year and the Pillman matches eventually, but in this match I didn't think Z-Man offered much to the overall Flair package. Hell, I didnt even know the sleeper was his payoff as that is a pretty standard Flair spot so thanks for JR for that. God, Flair is so good. Things like the his facial expressions after the two slap exchanges and those sweet Mother of Mercy chops. Flair's hair is so magnificent at this point such a shame they made him cut it. Though Woman's hair is nothing to sneeze at either. Big hair is what is missing from rock n roll, wrestling and society in general at this point.

Sid tried. He really did. But nothing was stopping Wrath from sucking out loud. There was actually a semblance of psychology and Sid did sell his arm off the ring rope snap-thingy wrestlers do. The problem was that Wrath got any offense at all. Sid should have squashed that chump. Sid, who I have always thought had really shitty punches, nailed Hughes with a sweet one and if you pay close attention Sid actually hit a nice belly-to-back suplex. So given that, this is not the worst match of all-time, but still really bad. Was that a fuckin battle axe that Wrath carried with him? Where is Dusty when you need him? I cant get over that. A friggin' Battle-Axe. Wrestling is just awesome.

Gotta disagree with Loss, here. This match is not as good as the Eaton one in my opinion. The shine segment is the best of three matches as Anderson plays to Steiner's strengths during that better than anyone else did in this gauntlet. However, he was not able to construct as interesting of a heat segment as Eaton was. Though in fairness part of the problem was Steiner no-selling Anderson's King of the Mountain work. The finish was stupid and the booking was atrocious. This may have been salvageable if you swapped the position and finishes of the Flair and AA matches. Pete, I am interested in why you think Eaton has more "elite physical skills" than "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson. AA is stockier and always seemed to me presented as the more rough and tumble customer than the high flying member of the Midnight Express. I grant you that Bobby has the big right hand that comes all the way from Sweet Home Alabama, but I think that Anderson is considered the more physical of the two. Both are tough and both love to show ass and stooge. So I am nitpicking a little, but it was an interesting comment.

Gotta disagree with Loss, here. This match is not as good as the Eaton one in my opinion. The shine segment is the best of three matches as Anderson plays to Steiner's strengths during that better than anyone else did in this gauntlet. However, he was not able to construct as interesting of a heat segment as Eaton was. Though in fairness part of the problem was Steiner no-selling Anderson's King of the Mountain work. The finish was stupid and the booking was atrocious. This may have been salvageable if you swapped the position and finishes of the Flair and AA matches. Pete, I am interested in why you think Eaton has more "elite physical skills" than "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson. AA is stockier and always seemed to me presented as the more rough and tumble customer than the high flying member of the Midnight Express. I grant you that Bobby has the big right hand that comes all the way from Sweet Home Alabama, but I think that Anderson is considered the more physical of the two. Both are tough and both love to show ass and stooge. So I am nitpicking a little, but it was an interesting comment.

Great TV match, much better than the Flair one. Before I thought that Eaton was second to Flair in terms of best worker in America in 1990, but matches like this make think he may have superseded Flair. Nice bump from Eaton off the Steinerline to the floor, the early going establishes Steiner as a powerhouse. I like how Eaton when for an ab stretch early; it was contested; Steiner came out on top versus Flair just cutting off Steiner with chops and punches and Steiner throwing out a random spot. The tennis racket is a very, very smart transition. Eaton rules on offense. The clothesline and the backbreaker come to mind immediately. The Frankensteiner was definitely the right finish. This is why I love the yearbooks. I did not even know this match existed making my 2:30 am just that much more pleasurable. Lance Russell mentioned that the Steiners beat the MX for the US Tag belts. I know that the Steiners vs MX have had a couple matches over the years. Can anybody give me the dates of their best matches? That would be much appreciated.

Worst Flair match, pre-1991, I have ever seen and actually it has very little to do with booking. I actually think Flair took too much of this match. Now there is a sentence I never thought I'd write. That should have been my tip that he was jobbing. Steiner is pretty awful at selling so I don't think a match with this much Flair offense was playing to his strengths. While I get Loss' point that Scotty should work underneath, but Loss you have watched 20x the amount of Flair footage I have, but isnt it pretty rare for him to have anybody work underneath against him especially when he is a heel? It is not that Flair dominated it is the exact 50-50 nature of the match that irked me. What was literally like Steiner would do a spot and Flair would cut him off. Flair would do a spot and Steiner would cut him off. I think they were trying to sell it nip and tuck, but it just felt jarring and disjointed. Plus as bad as Steiner's selling was, Flair's selling was not much better. He got rammed into the ringpost and goes back on offense almost immediately. Flair being de-pushed seems a little strong. You needed Sting to try to go it on his own without Flair to be a crutch so that necessitated Flair being cycled down, but Flair got 50% of the offense in this match and was heavily protected in the finish. Finally Scott Steiner vs Ric Flair with Rick Steiner has to be an announcer's nightmare. EVen Lance Russell was having trouble. I can only imagine how JR would have butchered this... "Steiner with a Steinerline on Ric. Steiner. I mean Rick Steiner. *pause* He did the Steinerline. *pause* The Steiners were All-Americans out of the University of Michigan..."

I have been meaning to watch this match ever since this match took a hit in popularity. When I first watched it in like 2006ish, I remember liking it a good deal and specifically remember thinking the Sting dive was wicked cool and Luger ruled in this match. Fast forward to 2013, shocker of all shockers, Rick Steiner is the best wrestler of the four by a country mile and Scott Steiner is the worst of the four by equally large country mile. The bump Rick took off the Luger shoulderblock was awesome. It is amazing that without reading these comments I felt the same way about the beginning of the match. I was all like, "Jeez who pissed in everyone's corn flakes". The answer was Scott Steiner. I am a pretty big Scotty Steiner mark (one of my guilty pleasures in wrestling), but he was a no-selling, premature celebrating loon out there. The Russian Legsweep spot with Luger was one of the weirdest I have ever seen and almost on cue here comes Ricky with a pretty decent flying bulldog on Luger. I will say Luger still looks pretty good here before the Flair debacle. Finally outside of the tombstone reversal spot (which always rules) after the bulldog it seemed like they were filling time until Nikita came out. The finish made sense as it was a face vs face matchup and it set up the "big" Sting/Koloff for the next PPV. This is still a pretty good match with some shining spots it is just disjointed due to Scotty Steiner's worse tendencies shining through. Luger looked like he was ready to be World Champ and it is so sad what ended up happening. Sting looked like his overpepped, chipper self. Rick Steiner gave one of his best performances in my eyes. There is enough in this match for them to stay clearly on the right side of good. So I know Rick Steiner/Lex Luger had a title match later in the year, this match makes me want to see it, but the more rational part of me says that match will suck out loud. Only one way to find out...

Clearly not as as good as the excellent RnRs match earlier, but still a killer match. I might have to watch more Midnight matches to really affirm this assertion, but I think MX is like the Ric Flair version of a tag team with their ability to be totally outclassed in the first ten minutes only to look totally boss in the next ten minutes. I liked the shine just fine as there were plenty of good spots to establish that the MX were lost without James E. Also, noticed JR was using "scintillating" and "vintage" in 1990, but I guess Zenk's rights werent carcinogenic (the worst JR modifier) as they were pathetic. Pillman over the top -> neckbreaker on floor -> Pillman's standard bump to railing was such a good transition to a FIP segment. That Pillman bumps ranks as my favorite stock bump from anyone. Slingshot. Backbreaker. Bobby Eaton is my hero and heroes are forever. I thought it was weird they let the faces kick out of Alabama Jamma and the Rocket Launcher, but the explanation give above suffices in clearing that up for me. I missed the loaded boot too due to the shitty dailymotion quality (I know, I know, eventually I will buy this ) and couldnt really hear the crowd. This match will definitely has some rewatchability for me as I thought it was a very good match that just missed that second gear to really put it over the top. Lastly, I know Stan Lane takes some flack for his kicks and understandably so, but is there anything else he does that gets on people's nerves because I actually think he is a really effective heel and brings a lot of personality to the team. I need to watch more Condrey, but I don't think the gap is as sizeable as people make it out to be.

What I think is so amazing about this match is its ability to seamlessly transition from comedy to dramatic wrestling. So many matches would have felt disjointed or directionless given this format, but that is why the Midnights and RnRs are the best of the all-time because of their deft execution of this format. This has to be one of the best face shine segments in the history of wrestling. It establishes the RnRs as clearly the best tag team, the Midnights bump & stooge in a way that keeps that million-watt smile on your face and it never feels like heel in peril. It is so good nobody has mentioned that cool spot where Morton climbs up on Eaton and delivers a fist drop onto Lane. That was a holy shit moment for me. They just jammed so many damn good spots in that opening segment. Next thing you know Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton slug it out and end up tumbling outside and Lane delivers a wicked slam and we enter Ricky Morton's bread and butter. The Midnights have so many MOVEZ~! but they never get lost in just tossing them out and everything is filled with great heelish behavior: the tennis racket shots, the eye-rakes and cutoffs. Morton is in his element. Is this considered the best RnR/Midnights match? I have not seen them all, but I don't think I have seen a better one as even before the finish it feels amazing. The face in peril segment I believe is in excess of 10+ minutes, but it never once drags. The finish is great and I am happy the Rock N Rolls go over because in such a feel-good match it was the perfect touch to have the Rock N Rolls pick up the duke. Right now, my two favorite matches to watch are this one and Ricky Morton vs Flair Steel Cage GAB '86. Ricky Morton is a Godsend to wrestling.

Who are you to doubt Keiji Muto? :D In fairness to your prognostication, Muto didn't work that match and I agree with you he couldn't have pulled off this match, but to his credit we both agree for that one night on August 11, 1991 he did produce something better with Chono. I had seen the finals once about six months ago and last nigh due to me scanning through this section. I just finished watching this match. I don't know how wildly this claim may come off, but I think if Chono didnt get injured he could have been the greatest Japanese babyface heavyweight of the 90s. Kobashi and Misawa are very good in their own ways, but I feel like Chono reigns in the histrionics of a Kobashi, while being more expressive and having better matwork than Misawa. Now of course, the injury derailed this and Chono turned into one of the greatest heels in the history of puroresu, but am I crazy for seeing how friggin good Chono is as a babyface in these matches against two very different opponents. 1990-1991 NJPW heavyweight action was so very good it is disappointed it became hit and miss as time progressed before it really went to hell.

Damnit, I'm from Boston, but couldnt go due to a combination of my new job and my brother being burnt out. I will have read/check it out when I get a chance.

John, Yeah reading it back, I see your point. I think watching wrestling live is a very similar experiencing to watching music live for me where I just enjoy it for the atmosphere, presentation and being there with my brother and/or friends. If I watched that show on a TV, I probably would have found myself agreeing with all of you wholeheartedly. When I was writing that I was trying to reconcile the amount of fun I had with what I truly felt. For instance, I think Cena/Rocky bit the big one besides a couple spots, but it was tremendous fun rooting on Cena in the pro-Rocky environment. The audible groans from Rocky fans when he went for the Five Knuckle Shuffle -> FU -> Kick out -> Huge Pop was an awesome moment. I didn't explain that clearly, which was due to the fact the Michigan game was starting to get away from us at that point. I truly do think the card was better than the past two Manias from a "watch on TV" perspective, but it was such a fun atmosphere that is why I am giving this card a pass. I was a little harsh on the crowd. I softened my stance on the crowd as it became more good-natured in their chants. It would get tiresome if a smark crowd showed up every RAW, but once a year, it is a nice twist. The continual singing of Fandango's entrance was tremendous. Did anyone catch the real highlight of the night? When Orton came out to cut his promo, he said a line and then stopped walked over to Sheamus and from his mouth you could read "What's my line?" My brother and I were rolling especially when all he had to do was ask the crowd if they wanted to see him kick Show's ass.

I have only seen the opening segment, but fuck this crowd. My brother said it sounds like all the assholes from the Hall of Fame (the most disrespectful and embarassing crowd I have been a part of) showed up for this. The smarky Miami crowd was fun and playful with all their "Yes!" fun. These are just a bunch of jaded pricks. Though watching Cena worked them was excellent. I don't want to see a face vs face match for a long time. This news comes to great disappointment to me as Mark Henry was fresh and interesting fodder for John Cena. I am higher on Ryback than most, but this is not an effective use of him. Ryback mowing down the Shield is what would be the best.

While the basketball game is at halftime (Lets Go Blue!), might as well write up my thoughts on last night show, which I was at live and in vivid technicolor. I was also at Wrestlemania XXVIIII last year and I thought this one blew it out of the water. I had way better seats this year though as I was in the lower bowl as opposed to on the floor by the ramp. Raked stadium seating is so much better unless you in the first couple rows on the floor. I never felt cold, but I was layered up. I am a sucker for pomp & circumstance as much as any wrestling fan, but I think this was fine as there were a ton of fireworks and cool entrances from Taker & CM Punk. It could have been better, most definitely, but it was better than Miami. I think it is a valid criticism that they were a little no-nonsense when I like a little bit of nonsense, myself. I agree with Childs' breakdown on the top three matches. Each was very distinctives and there is plenty of room to judge the matches very differently. Now where I am shocked is how lukewarm you all were towards the undercard. I thought that was something where this Wrestlemania kicked the past several Wrestlemanias in the ass. I really dug the Shield/Babyfaces matches. I was irked that the fans booed Sheamus while they cheered Orton. I would hear arguments for other, but I think Sheamus is the best worker in the WWE since last September. He is the best offensive wrestler they have. The ring was not mic'd well, but you could still hear his shots. I love his physicality. I agree that Show playing Ricky Morton was so strange when Sheamus is also so good on the defensive side of wrestling. What I think this match did so well was play up all the babyfaces spots. It was just an incredibly fun babyface shine segment. The Shield did not play up their gimmick with their chaotic pack mentality as much, but in the situation they still worked fine. This worked as a great opener because of the hot babyface action and great work by the Shield. you could tell the Big Show was just shoehorned into the match did fill out the sides by the ending, which only pissed off more than Ryback wasnt in this match. Mark Henry vs Ryback was so disappointing. Ryback is so much better than a Goldberg/Warrior because he can actually work a normal wrestling match due to his willingness to sell/bump. This match was plodding and just was an underwhelming. I liked the finish a lot because 1. It was great psychology 2. Sets up the rematch with the question, Can he Shellshock him? Then of course the post-match was retarded for reasons already explored. The crowd (very stereotypically smarky) was red hot for Daniel Bryan. The callback to last year was a great false finish as everyone around me popped up. I thought the match was a fun collection of spots, but that was it. The Shield match outstriped this one for me, but that isnt really a slight against this match, which was a fun popcorn affair. I was very happy to see Bryan get the duke with a diving headbutt. Big E has the fuckin worst-looking finish in the WWE right now. So fuckin awful. Jericho vs Fandango was a bit better than I think you guys are giving it credit for. Besides the obvious Lionsault fuck up, I didn't see any sloppiness from Jericho, but watching it live you can miss these guys. I thought Jericho was wicked phsyical and really brought out some nice violence lighting up Fandango while in pissed off babyface mode. Then he was taking some nice bumps to make Fandango make him look like a million bucks. Fandango was there and I think he needs some more seasoning. I had this right in there with the Shield match and was a really nice undercard match. Del Rio vs Swagger was overall pretty forgetful. I am a Swagger mark. This gimmick sucks for him, but I am always impressed by his stature and overall athleticism. I love watching him on offense especially the Swaggerbomb. The spot of the match was Del Rio gouging Swagger's eyes while he had him in the cross-armbreaker. Of course, they got a little intricate in their ode to Shawn Michaels with the reversals. The finish was out of nowhere and just felt anti-climatic, which was the theme of the night. CM Punk vs Undertaker was a match totally elevated by the crowd. Holy fuck, besides the Raw before Money In The Bank 2011, I have never heard a crowd so fuckin hot. The smarks were reveling into their douchebaggery by cheering for CM Punk and that got the rest of us really vocal for Taker. The angle for this set this match up to be so much better than the Lovefests with the Kliq the past four years. Undertaker came out hot because he wanted to fuck Punk up and thus they worked a much tighter style. Even though the finish was never doubt, the ride getting there was most definitely great. That slimy, scuzzy, summy CM Punk got his comeuppance at the hands of the Ultimate Authority of the WWE and other finish seems silly. My one quibble was the GTS -> Tombstone (only with even more No-Sell) should have been finish instead of the false finish because the finish was just a little cooler than that. The spot of the match for me was the Undertaker powering up out of the Anaconda Vice. Out of the big three matches, Undertaker was the one most going for revenge that is why I think some babyface no-selling is in order because it is his emotion that renders him impervious to pain. HHH vs Brock - this was nowhere near the incredible bout they had at Summerslam (yes, I truly believe that bout last year was a legitimate MOTYC and will defend that match until I am blue in the face). This match has zero heat. Dont let anyone fool you. You could hear a pin drop in that arena until the finish. I love Brock to death, but HHH is not very good as a babyface at all (not that you didnt really already know that). This match went way too long and had some of the normal HHH deadspots, but it was not a fucking awful match. It was a decent match that didnt deliver. I think with one simple booking change they could have made this into a great match. You just do the Valentine/Tito storyline from '85. Tito learned the figure-4 in retaliation just so he could break Valentine's leg. If you run 4 weeks of vignettes of HHH learning the Kimura to break Brock's arm, how fuckin badass would that have been. Then all of sudden those Kimura attempts by HHH would have meant extra. What was nice about this match was the finish was actually hot and the climax because they didn't bust a zillion finish and it was actually built up logically. I think on rewatch with some piped heat by the WWE sound engineers I will like this match a lot more on rewatch. This match did not deliver, but it was not awful Rock vs Cena II fuckin sucked. It was the worst display of WWE main event/Kliq epic I have ever seen. The callbacks were the only thing fun about this, but learning of The Rock's injury maybe that can excuse this. There was a small boring chant during the Rock's sleeper and the heat was nowhere near the heat level in Miami. The right guy went over. I have been a Cena fan since Money In The Bank 2011. I know, I know I am a Johnny-Come-Lately, but better late than never. Well this was the worst Cena match in forever. I know someone brought this up that this was similar to Punk/Cena and he thought it was hypocritical to like one and not the other. I couldn't disagree more. I am no Punk fanboy and that TV match was incredible. It wad laid out perfectly as a way to Cena earn his victory by unlocking his level of his offense (yes there was a little bit of that in this match) before each had to bust moves that the other wouldnt expect (piledriver vs 'rana) to pick up the win. I am willing to elaborate more on this but we under halfway to go before the game ends. In sum, I thought this was way better than the past two Wrestlemanias (and I was at the Miami one) and was a really fun live experience. Even though, the main event sucked, my brother and I still had fun ragging on it. Oh yeah, as a huge 80s metal fan, seeing Living Color live was wicked bitchin' I don't feel like this was at all deserving of all the jeers it has been getting. I thought it was a good show with a fun undercard, an incredible match with Punk/Taker, a well-structured albeit underwhelming Brock/Trips and a shitty main event hey they can't all be winners.

I liked that match a lot and I actually reviewed in the Nick Bockwinkel thread (the one drawback of these styles of threads). I really loved the pace they cut and how continuous the action was throughout the match. So I got the impression from the match that Bock was actually presented as a babyface in this match. I definitely remember th ecommentator remarking how weird it was that Bock was getting cheered in Memphis. So it may have been heel vs heel, but the fans choose the outsider Bock to root for, which demonstrates how bitchin Savage is as a heel. Savage is such a greta heel because he has no redeemable qualities. He is such a low-down, paramoid, jelaous, cowardly prick that you can even turn Bock babyface in Memphia against him. Savage is my favorite wrestler ever and he is so good at character work in matches. I loved the finish. There is just something epic about a ballshot-piledriver combo. It just seems so final. Lastly, as always I want to mention how awesome Bock's knee lift and drop toehold are.

Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs Triple H Summerslam 2012 Los Angeles, CA My brother and I were on the fence about ordering Summerslam for the third time in four years. Given Lesnar’s unique performance earlier in the year against Cena, we decided in favor of ordering plus there was a match between family favorites Dolph Ziggler and Chris Jericho we wanted to see. Unfortunately, that match for a myriad of reasons did not live up to expectation. However for the main event, my family was left very satisfied with the performances of both men. The internet was not so kind to the match deemed “slow, disjointed”, “an uneven effort”, “booked too even”, “too formulaic, Brock dominated then hit the finish” and “that Brock looked too much like an ordiniary wrestler and HHH did not bump well for him”. Was this bout the Match of the Year? No, but I think it was in the top handful of matches from WWE this year. As you can see from some of the purported criticisms, the critics are even fighting amongst themselves with what’s wrong with the match. The story going into this match was that Brock Lesnar had broken HHH’s arm and quit the WWE over not meeting his contractual obligations. Paul Heyman acted as Brock’s agent and did a serviceable job (at times, very good, his post-Summerslam promo was his best yet in this role) as his mouthpiece. After some goading and lackluster booking, the match between the WWE, legendary, rugged stalwart (HHH) and the bully invader (Brock) was booked. For extra heat, Brock broke Shawn Michaels’ arm sending HHH into a tizzy. Helmsley stressed to the official that under no circumstances was he to stop match for anything other than a pinfall or submission because he wanted a true finish to this match. Thus making the match a de facto no disqualification match. Brock Lesnar hits the ring in his MMA gear (read: Jimmy John’s advertisements adorn his MMA shorts and mouth-guard) with Paul Heyman. Triple H enters with his normal ring entrance. Upon the completion of the super special ring introductions, Brock charges at Triple H and double-legs him into the corner. Brock maintains control in the corner with strikes. HHH briefly displays a flash of wrestling acumen by executing a back heel trip, but Brock escapes that easily. Brock targets the arm with his dreaded Kimura (this is the hold that broke HHH’s and Shawn Michael’s arm) and there is the impressive visual display of Brock applying the Kimura and a standing body-scissors on Triple H while Triple H holds onto the ropes. Normally this would necessitate a rope break, but without the power of disqualifying Lesnar, the referee is powerless to force Brock to break the hold. What follows is the short babyface shine segment with Triple H being able to knock Brock out of the ring twice. All this serves to do is piss Brock off, this is visually symbolized by Brock taking his gloves off. After another double-leg takedown, Brock lands vicious shot to the back of Hunter’s head. The announcers do a good job putting over that would be illegal in the UFC, making it seem extra dastardly. This serves as the transition to the heat segment. Brock dominates Triple H with a hammerlock slam on the announce table, which continues the arm psychology. Brock heads back into the ring for some taunting (as any good bully would) meanwhile this illustrates the no-countout stipulation. The verbal selling of HHH during this portion is well-done with Brock working over the arm. There is a smattering of desperation spots. Normally, I would term them hope spots, but the viewer has very little hope that HHH is going to overcome the Beast. Rather these spots seem like a man lashing out in pure self-preservation rather than attempting to win a competitive bout. Brock sends HHH into the steps and Triple H does not bump as hard as he could have. In another impressive visual display, Brock tips the announce table on its side; mounts it; delivers a superman punch. Then weirdly Lesnar goes for an inside cradle pin, which Triple H kicks out before 1. This leads to the first and only rope-running spot of the match, which sees Lesnar deliver one helluva lariat to HHH. However, Triple H is able to block a vertical suplex attempt into his own. He attempts a Pedigree, but his arm is too injured and Brock is able to send him crashing to the floor as HHH takes his normal corner bump, without the usual vigor. This is the hook of the entire match: in an act of utter self-preservation and total fortune, Triple H uses a leverage move to send Brock crashing abdomen first into the edge of the announce table. Immediately, Brock is double over in pain and selling so well that he snookered my dad into thinking he was legit hurt. The selling was truly fantastic with Heyman putting it over with his concern “Are you hurt?”. His tone was perfect. Brock spits up and there goes the mouthguard. HHH capitalizes on this stroke of good luck by attacking the abdomen with unrelenting fury, punches first then the vaunted HHH knee. For those that do not know, Brock Lesnar legitimately had a disease known as diverticulitis that caused huge portions of his intestines to be removed. This is the driving force for his retirement from UFC. It was a great bit of storytelling that hooked my entire family into the match. While Triple H was ravaging Brock with knees to his gut, Heyman was screaming “Stop doing that” and again his tone was so spot-on. We head to the finish after HHH hits the spinebuster. A couple of finish reversals before Brock kicks out of the first Pedigree. Brock then hits a wicked low-blow and follows that up with the F-5, which only gets two. So Brock goes back to his bread and butter: the Kimura and HHH makes the ropes, but there are no rope breaks. However, Triple H is able to escape due to punches to the mid-section (abdomen psychology). HHH hits another Pedigree, but when Triple H was trying to turn him over for the pin, Brock in a flash caught him in the Kimura. Then proceeded to break his arm and HHH was forced HHH to tap out. Almost no wasted motion throughout the fight and a well-thought story made this seemingly an easy thumbs up from me. I am a sucker for Monster Heel takes on Franchise Babyface (see Vader/Sting). I think Brock did a good job emulating Vader especially in the corner. He was just absolutely relentless on the arm and going for the Kimura. I did not care one iota about the lack of variety in his offense. It was logical for him to keep vicious and arm-focused. He broke it once before, why deviate from that. The pacing was a bit on the methodical side, but it was never intended to be a sprint. It always had my attention and never felt like it dragged. I do not see the disjointed argument at all. The match layout was very typical: Heel domination -> Babyface Shine -> Heat segment with hope spots -> Hope Spot finally connects -> Babyface comeback -> Finish. The blow to the head transitioned to heat segment and the leverage move that “discovers” Brock’s weakness transitioned to the comeback. The transitions were accomplished and logical thus negating the "disjointed" arguement. Cena was able to defeat Lesnar because of a fluke chain shot. The idea was to put over that Cena was able to survive the onslaught. This match was built on that premise of HHH discovering a weakness to the monster he could exploit, but it was too little too late for our hero. This type of inter-match storytelling almost never happens in the WWE and I was eating it up. The dueling arm/abdomen psychology was bordering on brilliant for WWE’s typical ring work. Did I mention how incredible Lesnar’s selling was? He is not known for his selling, but he put over the abdomen injury so well. I thought Triple H started off selling very well for Lesnar, but then almost seemed to get a bit lazy. Sure he did the bare minimum and not move his left arm, but where were the grimaces and the verbal selling. Also, this may be due to HHH's old age, but he was not throwing himself into bumps as well as he normally does. I think the Cena/Lesnar match is way better, but this match is still very good. I have no idea how Lesnar came off as ordinary. He used a bunch of amateur/MMA moves and worked over a body part that almost never happens in WWE. In addition, they ran the ropes exactly once and used Irish Whips threes times. This match along with Cena match is the closest WWE has gotten to shoot-style ever. This felt like nothing else I get to see on a regular basis. In conclusion, I felt like I got my money’s worth for being able to see this on HD TV live. It was a tremendous match that I enjoyed greatly with my family. I think you can improve HHH’s bumping and selling, but he is limited by age on one of those fronts. Also, while I loved the flash submission victory. I thought the finishing sequence was a bit tame with the usual finisher reversals. A grander false finish could have been employed to get the crowd more involved, which admittedly seemed dead during the majority of the match. The high points were definitely Brock’s offense, his selling and the match layout. On the very same card, Jericho had taped ribs and Ziggler did nothing but a token attack of the ribs. I would love to see more body part psychology in WWE, but for now I will just take Brock being an utter beast and having two MOTYC’s to his name having wrestled only two matches on the year.

After Cena's tremendous performance against Punk this past February, they had me transformed into a huge Cena fan. I was already to cheer Cena onto victory against The Rock and they dissipated all the goodwill they built up with me with these atrocious promos. I kept waiting for these promos to turn the corner and they never did. When The Rock absolutely decimated Cena in the debate when he said The Rock has never failed. I cringed because I knew The Rock was going to crush that meatball. I don't understand the booking for these past couple weeks because everything post-Punk match has failed to impress. Cena wins, but this is the toughest of the three to predict. I acknowledge that Punk/Taker angle is incredibly tasteless, but it is at least refreshing that the Undertaker feud of the year actually has some hatred in it as opposed to the Lovefests against the Kliq we have been treated to the past 4 years. I have also like they have gone with a more physical build. Undertaker wins in the easiest of the three to predict. I may be alone on this board, but I am looking forward to the HHH/Brock. I wish it was an "I Quit" match instead of No Holds Barred, which we basically got last Summerslam. I thought the HHH/Brock match from Summerslam was one of the best of last year and am still perplexed at the amount of hatred it received on the internet. I am going to post my review of the match in the subsequent post. Personally, I think Sheamus is the best worker in the WWE right now and The Shield is one of my favorite acts (though they have cooled down since February) so I am really hoping this gets a decent chunk of time on Sunday. What irks me is that Ryback is not in this match. Ryback has been The Shield's number one target and the guy most fucked over by The Shield. So now at the big blowoff he won't even be present is such fuckin dumb booking. 80s Vince would have never let that happen. The silver lining is that we get Ryback/Mark Henry. My brother is a bigger mark for Ryback, but I like the big lug. He sells more than a Goldberg or a Warrior would. His match against the 3MB this past week was my Match of the Night and one of the better squashes recently. I dont think I need to explain that Mark Henry is all kind of awesome and that he splits wigs for a living. I dont get who thought the Fandango character was a good idea. It seems like the WWE is once again cashing in too late on a pop culture fad. I like how Jericho has upped his physicality in his matches. Those are some vicious chops he is laying in. I am looking forward to this match. Del Rio is a guy I want to like so bad, but bores me to tears. Swagger is an athletic beast and I know he can be so good in the ring, but he cant buy a good angle.

I will be at Wrestlemania for the second year in a row, just cant get enough of Rock/Cena. Actually, I am from New England, so logistically this will probably be the easiest one for me to make for quite some time. Last year's was a graduation present and I figured with it New York City. I couldnt pass up the opportunity again as I really enjoyed going with my brother. I will be also at the Hall of Fame to see Bob Backlund inducted. jdw, are you doing the induction? I may be alone in this, but I am actually looking forward to this one moreso than last year. I think HHH/Brock was one of the most under-rated matches of the last year. Punk/Taker is a real wild card, but looking beyond the distasteful build; I appreciate this feud for the level of heat compared to the last 4 years of lovesfests between the Kliq and Taker. If they give the Mark Henry and Shield matches time, this could be the best Wrestlemania undercard in a long time. I have no hopes for Rock/Cena.

Just watched this again, I just feel it has always been overhyped to me. I watched this back to back with the Slaughter match and I think the Slaughter match is much better, but does not get the same level of praise. It is a good tit for tat match where both guys shows they could do the same things to each other, which gets across the point how evenly matched they are. Even though in the fans' eyes, Hogan is clearly superior. I have always wondered what the point that knee injury was to serve because at first I always thought it was a dickish move by Hogan to increase his babyface heat at the expense of the new babyface, which is at least logical. If it is a shot at Sting that just strikes me as a stupid way to cut out Warrior's knees from under him (that was fully intended). The chinlocks and bearhugs were a little too much for me. The best part of this match was the finish. I thought that was really well executed and you really had the feeling that you had no idea who was going to win. Betting against Hogan, just never seems like a smart move. The Warrior Splash not getting the pinfall followed by the Hulk-Up was just perfect bait for the eventual missed leg drop followed by the Warrior Splash victory. I feel like Loss nailed it by saying that the parting scene is the best part of the match and it really feels like the start of a new era. I feel that is what Vince is better than anyone else at achieving is iconic, timeless moments. The matches he produces/book don't always produce the greatest bell-to-bell results, but he always delivers on a powerful image that will resonate you forever. I think it is this ability to distill wrestling down to static, iconic images is the reason he is one of the greatest promoters of all time. Hogan/Warrior is more about the image after than it is about the match.

This one is a tough one for me to rate definitively. There are some really bad botches from Adnan that have already been noted. In addition, I didn't like the transition of Hogan getting press slammed off the top. It just doesn't make sense. He hadn't run through his arsenal yet so there was no reason to bust out a "big bomb" only to be caught. Then there was the whole Hogan being next to the ropes during the Boston Crab and only to grab the ropes when they were there the whole time (I thought he was going to power out). My other big problem is my general problem with 80s WWF (much like the fact 80s Metal didn't really die until 91/92, I think the same can be said for 80s WWF): neatly defined control segments with no sense of struggle within them. For that ordained amount of time, this wrestler will be a ragdoll for the other. It is not that matches can't transcend this handicap for me. It is that they are handicapped by it. At one point Gorilla says "We are seeing the Hogan of the 90s", I couldnt disagree more. I felt like we are seeing the brief return of 80s Hogan in this feud that had left us in late '87. It was not just the return of the Bleeding Hulkster, but a Hulkster, who himself was out for blood. He seemed more violent and grittier than he had been since Harley feud in '87. I absolutely loved the Hogan no-sell of the chair. It just sent that message of "Not today, scumbag. Your ass is grass and I am about to smoke it." One of my favorite stretches is when Hogan whips Slaughter into doing the Slaughter bump, high knees him and then catapults back into the turnbuckles. It was that type of urgency I felt was missing from most of Hogan's matches. There was two stretches of punches that kind of took me out of the match before Slaughter got on offense as they just felt weak. Though of course what made it was Slaughter bumping like a madman for Hogan. Hogan is always at his best when someone is there ready to bump like crazy for him. From the get-go, Slaughter is ready to bump off the collar-elbow tie-up and a shoulderblock, you just know this is going to be good. Slaughter was actually really good on offense too. They blended "I will get DQ to retain the belt" and back psychology really well. The Boston Crab wrecked Hogan's back and the chair busted him wide open. This all culminated in the Bloody Camel Clutch, which I feel like would be a more iconic scene if Savage/Liz didn't precede it and Hart/Austin did not supersede it. The hope spot out of the Camel Clutch rather than a full-fledged comeback was a nice wrinkle. It allowed to get that extra bit of heat when he covered him with the Iraqi Flag to get that extra bit of heat to really drive the finish home. I was actually a little disappointed by the lack of Hogan cheating in this. I only remember a solitary eye-rake and one back scratch. If there was ever a time for Hogan to "heel" it up, I feel like this was the time. I remember seeing the last 10 minutes of the Desert Storm rematch these guys had in MSG that seems like wild, chaotic brawl between the two you wanted and they delivered in spades in that one. So I know they can get more violent, but this was a very good Wrestlemania-type match with great visual imagery. I thought this was a really good 80s style match by two of the biggest 80s workers in the context of early 90s WWF. I would say this match is definitively (not that I am opposed to arguments for the other matches) Hogan's best match at Wrestlemania.