iamthedoctor

As an addendum to this, I've just seen Armstrong beat Liger clean with the Russian leg sweep on the 5.27.96 episode of WCW Prime. Was Prime just a highlight show or did it have exclusive matches? Primarily it was just a repeat of matches that aired on either Pro or Worldwide, although there were one or two exclusives each week (like with Main Event). Yup, it's the same match Butch. Was watching a episode of main Event and noticed it cut off half way through and according to someones list it was missing Alex Wright vs Jean Paul Levesque. Didnt think much of it till I wanted to watch their Starrcade match on youtube and noticed the main Event match was on there so wondered if this match aired on another show that used to show matches from other shows of the week.

I used to love watching Beefcake wrestle when I was a kid. Not so much keen on his run in WCW when he was a heel in the DOD but never found the guy boring. Suprised he never went higher up than he did.

A good actual wrestling match ie Valentine vs Santana from the Garden.

He did a 1996 one? I thought he only did 1997 (which was really good, btw). No I just meant he discussed the problems with Vader & Shawn & Summerslam. Are there any future KC stuff in the pipeline? All ive heard of is RVD.

Not exactly. HHH was going to be Austin's post-Mania challenger, but an Austin heel turn wasn't the original plan. Austin heard some boos at No Way Out, so he decided that the Stone Cold character had run its course and it was time to turn. But then HHH decided he didn't want to turn face, which is how we ended up with the Two-Man Power Trip. pretty sure that was No Way Out 2002 where Austin was freaked out that his match with Jericho had a dead crowd and he basically took over the whole match and afterwards told Vince that it was a sign he needed to be pushed even harder as a babyface. That's at least part of the reason why he squashed the NWO at every turn in the build to Mania and was basically not letting any heel get any heat on him. He was squashing the Flair/Arn/Benoit/Eddy faction every week that Spring before he walked out. This paranoia doesn't really get talked about much when talking about his departure. never heard anything about that 01 run except he was reluctant to turn and briefly thought about ad libbing a stunner to Vince at the end of WM 17 What was ratings like for the Jericho run? I remember feeling so unimpressed with his run and that his World title match with Hunter at mania just bombed big time. I wasent keen on Jericho going over Rock & Austin on the same PPV as would have liked Austin to win one WCW World title. For me I would have preferred Austin vs Rock at the Dec PPV in 2001 as thats what the fans wanted. Austin pretty much destroyed Jericho on Raw and the build up was great but the match just plain sucked. I know they had to make the NWO strong but id have liked to be not in Austin's match. 2 big names in Rock & Austin doing 2 jobs back to back on PPVs twice in a row to try and solidify Jericho as the real deal in the Main Event. For me the NWO didnt get the push they deserved though they should have wiped everyone out how the original ones did in WCW and Austin complaining didnt help. I think the original plan was for Hall to go over at Mania with interference by Vince but they probably would have been better off having Hall/Nash go for the tag belts instead. Not sure who Austin should have wrestled at mania but id probably have chosen Taker.

One thing I'm always curious about when the HHH = bloated matches narrative comes up - how do people feel about his work in 2000? Specifically the Foley, Jericho, Rock and Benoit matches. Very rarely come across criticism of his performances therein. Had he yet to consolidate power, in order to lay out matches the way he later preferred? Over at DVDVR we looked at a few of his matches at least. I wrote up some reviews that wouldn't make a ton of sense out of the context of the thread but I found that the big Jericho match and the 3 Stages of Hell match with Austin, at least, were considerably bloated and could have been good matches with some restraint. Why did Austin put over Hunter in that match for? If I recall right Austin was one month away from turning heel and winning the title at mania. If anything he should have been kept strong in that match and gone over. Considering they had built this up from Hunter being the one who had Austin run down by Rikishi at Survivor Series so Hunter could stay the champ didnt really make sense. The match was a no contest at Survivor Series and the face should have been the one to finally get his revenge against the dastidly heel who gets his come uppance. Apart from that there wasent really too many matches that didnt make sense but Kevin Nash had to be up there as well. Makes the big return to save Shawn on Raw which leads to a DQ at a PPV and a guy 7 foot fall should have wiped the mat with Helmsley in the Cell. I was suprised months earlier they had Nash lose in the 6 man tag when they could have easily chosen Shawn to do the job.

My new years resolution is to try and watch all WWF related TV shows & special events just MSG & PPVs from 84 - 95. I want to try and mix in some NWA/WCW stuff as well but I might start watching that from 88 onwards when the big names were in it. I know last year I managed to cram in 1995 - end of 1999 when you think about 3 hr Nitros and 2 hr Raw/SD/Thunder so hoping I can get as far as possible. Thats my rewatch project for 2015!

I think so. They should have spaced it out a bit better so it wasent so close to the Rumble. Either that or have those two battle the Harts for the titles. If there was a nerd choosing the matches you would think they'd choose something that hadent been shown on TV so every match is a exclusive ie the MSG matches or matches from Superstars. Theres a ton of stuff they taped during the TV tapings they should have released. Im sure I read somewhere Sammartino & Hogan had a tag match together in the late 80s.

This is one thing that really irritated me about anything WWE has done in a long time. Cena put Bryan over cleanly in that match which im suprised why they didnt save this for a Wrestlemania match but they ruined the whole thing with Orton winning the belt straight away. Every match seemed a screw job ie HBK turning on Bryan which shouldnt have happened.

Ive not seen that one yet. Ive seen all the Kayefabe Commentaries ones he did and 1996 was very interesting about the Vader/Shawn feud. He doesnt hold back either, I forget the amount of profanities he used towards Michaels and Shawn finding God.

I think Triple H had his single best big match ever in 2014. Maybe even his top two. I meant that 1999 Triple is still clearly not very good re-watching 1999 WWF 15 years after the fact. He was considered poor in the ring and heat-less (despite getting a MONSTER push and constantly being put over Rock & Austin) at the time and that holds up looking back. The point was that that some memorable or unmemorable stuff looks better with distance and perspective, but some opinions held at the time don't necessarily change even with the benefit of hindsight. That's all. I was saying 1999 Triple H is "still bad" not that Triple H in 2014 is "still bad". For the record, I fully agree that Triple H's match with Bryan was likely his best match ever and the first Shield trios is way up there for me, too. Triple H wasent any good when I watched him from this era never mind when I rewatched his 99 run last year. Sure he was decent on the mic but I always felt he had a horrible run that was seemingly forced onto the fans. There were other guys who knew how to draw heat from the fans as a heel but for me his heat was more that fans did not want him in the main event slot period. I didnt mind him in DX as a mid carder alough it was clear he didnt want to put Owen over in their feud over the title and had Hunter and Shawn not been pals around early 96 if he would have gotten the success he did. I didnt enjoy his run in 2000 either as he was too much hogging the limelight and had Vince change Wrestlemania because always a face went over in the main event but he wanted to be the one I believe who told Vince that he shouldnt always give the fans what they want all the time and a heel should go over in the last match. I would have liked to seen Cactus win the big belt but that obviously wasent happening. The insane long promos either didnt help and everyone knows about the careers he wouldnt put over in the big matches ie Booker, RVD for example. Compiling a top 30 greatest matches of all time for WWE I think I would struggle to find a Hunter match worth putting in. I know alot of fans like to put the blame on his relationship with Steph being the reason he got a push but Hunter just plain sucked in the ring and never found anything interesting about his character except in 2006 when him and Shawn did those skits on the McMahons.

That was the one that aired on Prime Time if I recall right both Jannetty & Virgil got involved near the end of the match I think. The Stars & Stripes forever special for more build towards Bossman/Perfect for the IC belt. Something tells me they could have come up with a better challenger who seemed like they had a chance as Bossman winning the title at mania didnt seem likely. Bret-Owen vs Steiners is my favorite Coliseum match. Perfect-Piper from Battle of the WWF Superstars is really good too. WrestleFest '94, home of said Harts/Steiners match, is a pretty solid watch front to back. Good Martel/Savage match, HBK/Razor in decent action. Invasion '92 has an exclusive of the good first Bret/Flair match from November 1991. And SuperTape 1 is probably easier to hunt down for the 1/90 Rockers/Powers match than the MSG show itself. I could probably come up with a bunch of these if I looked at the match listings. Wrestlefest 94 was a pretty decent tape. Loved that Kings Court exclusive where Lawler ran his mouth about Bret, had a clause that said he can say what he want but Bret cant touch him or Bret pays a ton of money then Bret says screw it and just does it anyway. Loved that segment. Pretty sure Taker & Crush battled on that one unless im thinking of hits from the crypt. One thing I was curious on. I cant remember who said it but one of the guys said one of Shawn's best ever matches was when him & Marty battled the Brain Busters. Any ideas what match the person was referring to? I dont think they were on about the SNME match but I think it may have been Gene Okerlund who mentioned it unless he was referring to a Boston match or some house show.

What was that match like? I didnt mind the one they had at the Clash where Catus returned but figured a shame Davey never beat Vader for the title as he was strong enough to. Not many guys could do a standing suplex on vader.

Is his Doctumentary series any good? Ive seen the trailer when he toured the UK and sounds a right laugh how hes will to take the piss out of them home guards who have to guard the palace and cant move. He had a few stand up shows filmed didnt he? Has anyone watched any of these to know what they are like or if each one is different.

As an addendum to this, I've just seen Armstrong beat Liger clean with the Russian leg sweep on the 5.27.96 episode of WCW Prime. Was Prime just a highlight show or did it have exclusive matches?

Regarding a rewatch project are there any coliseum home videos that have any matches that are essential to watching? Obviously the Smack em Whack em tape for the Bret/Shawn Ladder match and the Bret/Flair title change and I guess the HBK dvd for the tag title change that never aired but any others?

I agree, it's absolutely the best Flair/Vader match you were ever going to get. Ill put a thumbs up to this match. Saw it on DSF in 94 and loved the match watched it so many times was my fav match on the card. They never showed the match from the Clash so no idea how that match was.

Cornette is a amazing shoot guy. When I first heard how many he did I thought why thats gotta be boring but every Cornette shoot ive seen I have loved every minute of them and hes probably my most fav Shoot guest.

Not sure how you work that out. Smith was there around Feb time so not really a newcomer by Beach Blast. Has Dave ever been on WWE's payrole as over the years he seemed like he knows alot in WWE or used to.

I dont think so no. The Rock/John Cena matches should be memorable but they dont because fans will remember stuff like Steamboat/Savage or Rock/Austin or Andre/Hogan which in a way is a shame. It will be worse in 30 years time because guys like Seth Rollins or a Dean Ambrose will look like a flash in the pan and be a after thought long after they ve retired and all fans will remember from the past will be Cena, Hogan, Savage, Taker, Austin, Flair or a Sammartino. In the past 6 years I havent seen one match that is up there with one of the all time greats of all time unless it featured someone whos regarded as a Legend. Whos at fault I dunno whether its WWE or the fans because WWE has had a habit of over pushing guys who didnt deserve the push. La Resistance springs to mind.

When I eventually get round to rewatching WCW does anyone have any idea when the shows from 88 - 96 aired on what days and times? Some regions I believe aired Worldwide first but others aired Pro first so just curious. Saturday Night WorldWide Pro Main Event Power Hour Think there was a saturday morning or sunday morning show but unsure.

Quick question. Had Hogan not gone heel and Hall & Nash had stayed in WWF how would Bash have been signifficant or would they not have tried for two other names?