Mando

Mabel > Mo Rocco Rock > Johnny Grunge Paul London Chase Stevens Player Uno > Player Dos Tyler Black > Jimmy Jacobs BLK Jeez > Ruckus Nick Bockwinkel Yuji Okabayashi > Daisuke Sekimoto

CM Punk vs. Kane - ECW on SyFy 6/3/08 Punk was in a four-way earlier in the same show. Probably of all the former WWE champions these are the two with the most tepid offense. Kane did like a reverse neckhang spot that looked kind of cool and barbaric. Big boot landed square in the face knocking Punk through the ropes to the floor -- he'll probably think his nightly Pepsi tastes like a Crystal Clear after eating that shot. Kane's dropkick to a seated opponent is about a 4.7 on the Konnan scale. Body-scissors hold actually looks visually painful due to Kane's size and not a resthold. I miss this chunkier Punk. Easily to buy him hanging with the big guys than today with his Teen Wolf sideburns and zip-up hoodies borrowed from his nephew's closet. Okay, maybe I was rough on Kane, he's got better looking offense than other champs Foley, RVD, Sid, and Swagger, but he's still behind Lashley, no dice for CM as I saw better kicks in kids karate class at the YMCA in '90 than Punk's. Punk slides out of a chokeslam, tries the G2S but plays up being too banged up, then Kane retained the ECW title with a chokeslam. Better than I expected but as ECW world title reigns go Kane's was no Ezekiel Jackson's.

You've got to add John Cena vs. JBL - "I Quit" Match from Judgment Day 2005. A great, video game style brawl with blood, some great shots and bumps, and story. One of my favorites.

I read today Batista is announced on some Feb. dates so will probably be returning at Rumble for a Mania run. Thoughts? Anybody you'd be interested/curious to see him work with? EDIT: I see Kris got to this topic ahead of me on the last page. I'm for it. Dave was really rough early in his first run. We got a chance here locally to see him for Les Thatcher's HWA while he was training under WWE contract and he was dangerously bad. But he improved a ton and seemed adept to learn. His matches with Undertaker are among my favorite UT stuff and that has to be Dave's best opponent. I'd like to see him get some in-ring time with a mixture of guys inc. Punk, Bryan, Del Rio, Goldust, etc. but he'll probably be kept with either Orton or Cena.

Funaki and Petey Williams vs. D.O.C. and Knux - TNA One Night Only: World Cup Did you know PWI awarded Aces & Eights vs. TNA as Feud of the Year in 2012? Let's not pause on that. I bet D.O.C.'s jeans smell worse than a truck driver after a cross-country trek. Funaki dressed in his SmackDown! #1 Announcer gear with not one but two mock SD! logos on it. Funaki's punches look like he's skipping stones in a pond. I've never been more hot and cold on a tag team before. I'm game for Funaki but Petey is the drizzling shits. Williams' ROH run is the cure for insomnia. D.O.C. has a pretty decent jumping leg drop but he's no Ernie Ladd. Wonder if Knux could get into BoLA next year? I'd love to see him go out in the first round to Candice LeRae or Johnny Yuma. This World Cup has been about as international as an IHOP. Petey did some slingshot move that was indecipherable. Funaki nearfall off of a crossbody. Haven't seen one of those finish someone off since Adam Cole beat Davey Richards at ROH's 10th Ann. show. Lousy finish with a hammer shot so fraudulent I made a citizen's arrest on my cable box.

Did a little live write-up of the pre-show... WWE TLC 2013 Kickoff Our co-hosts (or cohorts?) were Mick Foley in Santa hat, Booker (is he permanently banned from Wendy's in the greater Houston area?), and Miz looking like a candy cane with pinstriped shirt. I hear he and Maryse set a date for their wedding. Too bad the "Kliq" is dead -- would have been great for Hall and the boys to send them a wedding gift of a box full of fecal casserole. Good luck finding a wedding dress that'll cover those silver dollar nipples. Ahem, let's get back on topic and watch some 720p res pro wres in the 'ol web browser Netscape '97. Kofi comes out and interrupts the broadcast slapping Miz across his face and making his dandy boy haircut undulate. I'm guessing this leads to a match on the PPV proper for them. I'm sure the guy in Sec 207 Row J Seat 12 is thrilled. 1. Dolph Ziggler vs. Fandango I wonder if JBL still has any of that shitty MamaJuana Energy left? I could use one to power through this night. Fandango's wrists are limper than Lawler faced with the prospect of sleeping with a woman his own age. 15 sec. into the bout we go to a commercial? On a free webcast which is basically a big infomercial for the PPV anyway? Back with a Fanny chinlock, Back suplex to escape by Dolph leaves Fanda bouncing across the mat like a little league grounder. Dolph flying clothesline looked like Evan Bourne aping. Fando doing a "Falcon Arrow" made Hayabusa roll his wheelchair down a fire escape (which strangely was located a few ft. away from his computer). Top rope legdrop for the win by Dango Unchained not Alabama Jam maybe Alabama Apple Butter.

Growing up in Cincinnati and being named Brian and loving wrestling pretty much made Pillman a lock for me. I graduated from the same college as him (and The Miz) too. Wish they still ran the Pillman Memorial shows. Those were pretty surreal -- lots of varied talent coming together for good cause. Some of my Pillman write-ups from my WCW Main Event '91 project: Brian Pillman vs. Arn Anderson - 4/14 Pillman comes out like he was shot out of a canon and the crowd's rallying behind him. I liked a part where Brian was like a pit bull refusing to let go of the arm like it was a chew toy. Brian had the look, athleticism, crowd support, etc. I think they should have pushed him up the card further but that's just wishful thinking. Some nice small details like Pillman, while in a sleeper hold, using his fingers to dig in and try to create some space/relief. Time-limit rapidly expiring; I for one am on the edge of my seat! Pillman's late missile dropkick and the pop it got made my heart skip a beat. Brian relentlessly going for pinfalls. Time-limit ends with Pillman mounting Arn and raining down punches. Post-match Windham and Arn lay a beating on the Cincinnati native. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson vs. Bobby Eaton and Flyin' Brian - 6/9 Eaton and Pillman start off on fire making Flair pinball all over the place. Arn misses a clothesline on the floor and hits the ringpost so Pillman targets the arm. You can tell Flair loves his work -- he just relishes flopping and stooging. Pillman's missile dropkick is gorgeous. Arn takes a backdrop bump on the floor for the hell of it. So good. The heels start tearing apart Pillman's leg and Brian plays a superb wounded animal. The non-finish stinks but there's still enough here definitely worth seeing. Brian Pillman vs. Barry Windham - 4/7 Pillman is all bandaged up like a mummy. Botch where Pillman whiffed on a clothesline that Windham dodged but sold anyway. Brian goes back to his Hart Dungeon roots with all sorts of malicious arm work on Barry. Barry works a measured style here that provides a nice contrast to Pillman's quick armdrags, headscissors, etc. Roles reverse and Windham starts trying to break Brian's arm off which Pillman sells wonderfully. Windham pulling the trunks for the cheap win was a relief as I'd assumed there'd be interference; puts over Barry's craftiness, but doesn't hurt Pillman. Post-match while Barry is being interviewed at ringside Pillman comes off of the top onto him! Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Barry Windham vs. El Gigante, Brian Pillman, and Sting - 4/28 Didn't recall Gigante having a mullet. Pillman and Flair exchanging chops was one of the most scintillating moments on the set. This didn't get much time (sandwiched in the middle of an nine bout episode) but the crowd was eating it up, the Sting run early, Pillman's flurry (including a tasty dive off of the top onto Arn/Barry) and the rare clean finish are enough to get it some recognition. Arn Anderson and Barry Windham vs. Brian Pillman and El Gigante - 4/21 Gigante was mostly kept on the apron which was fine. Arn was doing some of the finest stooging on the whole set, his perplexed look after grappling with Pillman, and his dumbfounded fear of Gigante's size were both terrific. Right when Pillman started rallying and I thought he might finally get his vengeance on the Horsemen Flair interfered. Terrence Taylor vs. Brian Pillman - 10/20 This came out of nowhere and just completely melted my optical units. The selling and mannerisms were just phenomenal -- felt like Oscar nominee-level acting. So impressed. The cons were a few clunky-looking lock-ups and it was far too short but they were putting emphasis on everything and this was the best h'orderves at the party.

I think the real question we should be asking here is: El Dandy or Mando Guerrero?

Dylan, my local indy HWA just announced for their Jan. 17th show Ricky Morton vs. Tarek the Great and The Soul Shooters vs. "Hardcore Icons" 2 Tuff Tony and Necro Butcher. Looks like they're partnering w/ SmartMark now so it'll be available shortly after. Sounds like something interesting enough to be worthy of a show review down the road.

Some friends and I did a countdown (w/ video discussions) of the Top 200 Matches in Nitro history and I'd recommend checking out the some of the higher-ranked stuff from that: - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #200-151 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #150-101 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #100-51 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #50-11 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #10-1

I work at IKEA -- we definetly have plenty of options! I have my own makeshift methods. It'd look like chaos to a stranger. I basically have two different closets where I have bins and boxes and bags full of DVDs. It's not the most organized system but I can generally find whatever I'm looking for. My bigger problem is the ratio of wrestling/MMA:movies to watch in what little free time I do have.

Took a guy two years to make this insane history of the WWF using Minecraft. There's 1021 illustrated figures total in there.. everyone from Invader #2 to Alex "The Pug" Porteau to Takao Omori and Doug Gilbert..

Shane Helms' Vertebreaker (AKA Homicide's Cop Killa).

Hey ! What should *I* say ?!! You were a wresting anthropologist doing an ethnography on WCW -- or something similarly academic, so you get a free pass!

I've pretty much been watching consistently since I was 5 (I recently wrote a piece on one of my earliest overall memories being wrestling-related). As far as mainstream (WWE, WCW, TNA) weekly TV and PPVs go I've probably only missed a small handful total. I've never given serious thought to stopping. I remember in '99 I was a junior in high school and was watching WCW Thunder one night and there was an MVP (ridiculous baseball gimmick) match followed by a Maestro (ludicrous orchestra gimmick) match and I stopped and asked myself: "What am I doing with my life?" Actually in the past year a lifelong friend and the only person I've known personally as passionate as wrestling as me stopped watching almost cold turkey. I was accustomed to swapping e-mails almost daily discussing DVDs or TV we'd watched and I kind of reassessed like: should I keep watching? But I came to the conclusion that the passion was still there. Real life gets in the way, it's hard to stay on top of current stuff, let alone find time to watch DVDs, but I squeeze in as much as I can. I was a proficient reader at an early age thanks in part to Apter mags! I don't think it's uncommon too to suffer burnout. You've just got to find your enjoyment in it again. Years ago I was much more critical and picked stuff apart but now I try to focus on the positive and just enjoy it all.

I was at the tapings last night. The second show they recorded for next week was a bit of a rough sit. I won't spoil any finishes or anything. I will say the opener of Anderson working in street clothes vs. Knox felt like it went 40 and killed the crowd. They never recovered. The Angle vs. Aries - Submission Match though was likely the best match of the entire 4+ hr evening.

I haven't seen enough of Larry Zbyszko's prime stuff to have much of a stake in it but I will say in his defense that a few years ago when I still had ESPN Classics I caught a match on AWA against a jobber (don't recall his name) that went like 12+ min. and Larry made the schlep look like a million bucks.

Kane does feel like the copy and paste wrestler. But kudos to him, stayed healthy, allegedly saved all his money, and is still doing well -- but he's had some of the blandest TV bouts and rubbish programs (less said about the Edge feud the better) and I find myself mentally tuning out during his stuff more than anyone else.

I was glad to see Tyson back in the ring. He had one of my favorite WWE Superstars matches vs. Rey Mysterio a couple years back. Although I wouldn't put it past them to run a match with him and the "Jared" guy that trained Nattie and almost broke up their wedding over on the Totally Divas show.

Maybe former HWA World champion Shark Boy (while I am being facetious the tapings are in Cincinnati where Shark Boy started and spent most of his career). I'd love to see him give Dixie a "Chummer".

There's an MCMG gem that I've tried to pimp for a few years that everybody slept on (can't necessarily blame them since it aired on the short-lived and slipshod ReACTION show). Here's my original write-up: Generation ME vs. Motor City Machineguns - Empty Arena Match - TNA ReACTION 11/18 This was pretty insane. The fast-paced, high flying style of these guys is often most criticized for its lack of stiffness. But here, with no crowd, etc. you could really hear the shots landing, air getting knocked out, and so on, and both teams kept ratcheting up the intensity and its easily the most physical match I can remember either team in. At first, seeing how it was shot, the usual ReACTION method of random close-ups, racking the focus, etc. made me unsure, but as it progressed and got more and more violent and hate-filled it totally won me over and really wowed me.

El-P, was that the same Keibler pregnancy angle where they unveiled her baby to be a bunch of 8x10 publicity shots (either of Stasiak or one of the Flair's)? If so it birthed one of the more quoted lines amongst my friends and I: Tony on commentary losing his mind (as always): "Those are 8x10 glossy prints!" Some of my other favorite commentary moments was Schiavone flipping out when the Harris twins were doing their corporate gimmick: "Look, look.. at those suits and cases!" and also when Scott Hudson I believe flipped out when Tank Abbot approached Tony's young son Jon Michael in the crowd on a Thunder in 2000: "That's Jon Michael Schiavone! That's Jon Michael Schiavone!" Then the kid tossed a soda in Tank's face. Couple that with Stevie Ray and Juvie's stints as color commentators and I laughed harder watching WCW during that era than any comedy show.

It was no Lita spear either, he committed to it! Yeah I must admit I actually popped for that spot while watching that clip yesterday and got a good chuckle out of it. Not to mention Tony is going absolutely insane on commentary.

Continuing the WCW trend today's (Nov. 1st) new update over there is WCW's 15 Greatest Losers. Ouch.

Looking at that Dungeon article spotted a link to this WWE.com piece: 20 ridiculous WCW moments you may have missed Only one offhand that I didn't remember was Brian Knobbs' exit from the company. A hardcore match on Thunder and he and Meng brawl out by the arena concession stands, Knobbs scores a bite of pizza pie, Meng tackles a randomly placed Goldberg standee, then Meng tosses Knobbs headfirst over the side of the building plummeting presumably to his death never to be seen or mentioned again on WCW programming.