Lee

Noticed my Network sub had expired on Sunday and I was really looking forward to Takeover and the next Cena-Lesnar match, plus enjoying old Raws. Currently in two minds about whether to go all in on another six month commitment or wait to see what the UK version is like (price and content wise). I've heard the UK version might have less content (at least, not the PPVs given the deal with Sky) but I don't know if that was sourced from someone in the know or just presumption. For me, I watch a lot on my laptop anyway so having a U.S. sub would likely be cheaper, but if I want to get the app through my PS3, I have to also sub to Unblock_US, and the total is closer to £10 anyway and I could drop all the VPN things I've got installed. Still, Unblock_US would mean I could try U.S. Netflix... Hmm.

That is so depressing. It just makes the Network sound like one of those things where it may only live up to its potential once Vince loses interest in it, turning it into a self-fulfilling failure just as it starts to really get good.

You know, it probably wouldn't be the worst thing in the world from a monetary point of view if his plan was to just air matches from other promotions on a show under the GWF umbrella, before slowing starting to run his own tapings or house shows. In theory it's an OK idea. In practice, you're going to get sub standard footage which may or may not meet broadcast standards, you're relying on independent promotions to deliver such footage on time to the above dubious standards, you're going to have a dubious commentary (unless yo go for studio announces, which is a horrible idea). And if you're just showcasing random matches from over the world, it's hard to build a brand around that. Many practicalities to consider. I definitely get that but I was figuring more along the lines of New Japan and AAA footage which is being pro-shot, rather than dimly-lit indies shot by trainees with off-the-shelf handicams. Studio announcers would need to be used (agreed not the best idea but the most cost-effective one), and I figure they'd mostly just air Jeff Jarrett and AJ Styles matches, plus anyone they plan to bring in for their own tapings. Maybe they could get by with a mix, like an AJ match from New Japan, a Jarrett match from AAA and a whoever match from a GFW taping, presented in a magazine format. On the other hand, it'd probably be tough to sell a new audience on such an outmoded format for a pro wrestling TV show, but then starting up a national promotion in 2014 is hardly the brightest idea either.

Undertaker vs. Undertaker, Kane vs. Kane, Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara... not one of them was any good.

I think complaint is too literal, as I'd always heard that Turner planned to give them two hours once the slot opened up (or if the one-hour show even proved to be successful, more likely). I don't recall him saying that running against Raw wasn't the plan (not sure if I missed that in the show), and with the Luger thing, his contract was up some time before Nitro (not the night before) and he had been trying to come to terms on a new deal with Vince. He had one of those rolling contracts that had another year on it (taking him through '96) unless he gave his notice to open up the window for negotiations on a new deal. To expect Bischoff to recall the specific terms of someone else's contract like that years later I think is a touch unfair.

You know, it probably wouldn't be the worst thing in the world from a monetary point of view if his plan was to just air matches from other promotions on a show under the GWF umbrella, before slowing starting to run his own tapings or house shows.

This is exactly where I've been since whatever the post-WrestleMania PPV was. Raw after Mania and that Shield-Evolution six-man kept me going for an extra month but otherwise I've just stopped watching current stuff aside from PPVs (thanks, Network!) I dip in here and there but don't pay too much attention. On the downside, it's caused me to miss the Rollins heel turn and the Ambrose-Rollins match from Raw, but whenever I HAVE caught the show it's either been completely tedious, or has made me want to cancel my Network subscription out spite (that fucking Raw where they ran "$9.99!" into the ground and turned the entire Network into the world's biggest heel.)

HATED Jigsaw, particularly during the ROH days, especially so when he went maskless. Then started watching CHIKARA a lot more regularly and he became one of my favourites. I thought it might have just been to do with the setting he was in, but I really enjoyed him whenever he showed up as Rubix in TNA too. I've been going the opposite way on Chris Jericho as I was huge fan of his in the mid-90s, ECW, WCW. Was one of the few wrestlers I bothered to follow on my personal Twitter account too, I loved his first book (second was good but I was more interested in the era covered in the first), think his podcast is excellent... And yet, something really irks me the wrong way about him these days. Every once in a while he just comes across as whiny, arrogant and not all that he likes to think he is. Plus, he looks old now but still has a child's haircut. I think my current overall feelings on the guy have been summed up by his most recent return. His surprise return: "Yay, Jericho's back!"; The setting up of his program with Bray Wyatt: "Holy SHIT! This is so awesome!"; The TV matches with Harper and Rowan: "Zzzzzz"; The matches with Bray: "Okay, go away again now please."; The threat of this next program with Randy Orton: "NO. NO. Oh God, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Don't know why. It doesn't help that I see his WCW stuff on the Network and instantly remember why I loved him so much in the first place. Probably could use a serious character reboot/makeover.

It's only a myth in the sense that no, it wasn't the same five moves, it wasn't the same order, and that it wasn't always even five. Colloquially, it's just a term to describe what really a fairly routine run through of moves he liked to do. Ask a bunch of people what the five moves of doom are and they'll know what it is and come up with very similar answers. It's really just being pedantically literal about things, which I guess some people can be, but complaining about the "five" part is like complaining about the "doom" part not being literal enough.

I'm sure I've heard a follow-up story where Hayes is challenged on his authenticity by a radio show host who decides to call the British embassy or something like that to confirm it, and the phone just so happens to be picked up by a wrestling fan who realises immediately what's going on and decides to play along, insisting that "Lord Alfred" is a widely-revered nobleman in his homeland.

Matt Groening was at WrestleMania 2000 and sat near Billy Corgan, but Groening didn't recognise him until someone later told him who he was, on account of the fact that Corgan still had hair when Smashing Pumpkins were on the Simpsons. He recounts the story on a Simpsons DVD commentary but I don't think he's a fan so much, just took his kids. Amy Winehouse was a big late 90s/early 2000s fan of WCW, WWF and possibly ECW. If you dig deep enough, there's evidence online linking her old teenage email address and I.P. address/hometown with some kind of fan site or newsgroup or something along those lines. It's pretty much a given that it's her since the email and location match up, and it was several years before she got famous so it wouldn't be like some crazed fan set it up to "roleplay" or anything, and the Sun reported in 2007 that she was excited to meet Chris Jericho, and was a big RVD fan. I've read on a forum that Craig Charles was/is a fan but I don't know what the evidence is for that, though Danny John-Jules makes reference on a DVD commentary to Norman Lovett having a hair-cut like Mick McManus. Bobby Ball trained as a wrestler with William Regal, and him and Tommy Cannon went to WCW TV tapings in the US in the early/mid 90s. I've got reason to believe Noel Gallagher is a fan as I remember a piece in the Sun years before he had kids (late 90s) saying he spent £1,500 on wrestling videos at an HMV or a Virgin or some place, and more recently I saw pictures of him backstage with someone from WWE. The tapes could have been gifts for relatives and the pictures could have just been some kind of photo op but there you go. Phil Collins obviously did that music video with Ultimate Warrior, but there are also pictures of him backstage with Randy Orton, so I figure he might be a fan. He would have grown up during the golden years of World of Sport so I wouldn't put it past him. A few others are a bit more obvious, your Andy Warhols and Andy Kaufmans, etc.

I wouldn't even read it for free if someone DID pay $3 to repeat Russo's wisdom here. Yeah, I know he's doing a grandstand challenge, but I'm not sure he could possibly come across more annoying and obnoxious. If only he was charging $9.99 a month!

There's 36 SNMEs, so it must in their cataloguing method that TMEs are 37-41, but I agree it looks very odd. Presumably they put it like that to avoid "The Main Event" clashing with "Main Event" in their records or whatever. I do like TME being listed with SNME since they're essentially part of the same 'series' but I also don't see why it should be so hard not to call them TME #1 etc. The Jake Roberts' theme on Hulk Hogan's workout was in the original video, but it wasn't Jake's theme yet. Also interested to see how they'll treat Friday Night's Main Event, two episodes from 1997 that aired in a similar SNME slot and ran 'backwards' (main events first, squashes at the end) but were actually USA Network concessions for the annual bumping of Prime Time/RAW for the US Open. Technically they'd fit in with the 97 Raws but you never know with WWE, so I guess we'll find out in a few months or whatever their uploading schedule is.

On the promo during Battleground to hype Saturday Night's Main Event on the Network, they used Obsession by Animotion as the theme, but that song has been edited off all Network airings of the show. Weirdly, despite all pop and rock music of the day being dubbed off (Eye of the Tiger, Born in the USA, Another One Bites the Dust etc.), We Are the Champions remains intact for Valentine and Beefcake on episode 5. Might just be an oversight on someone's part, but if not it seems odd they'd pay for that but not for any of Cyndi Lauper's stuff, which was much more integral to the promotion at the time.

Anyone know what the McMahon/Sandow impersonator joke Bryan stopped Dave from telling was?

Haha, I loved it when you'd get a Best of Liger or Best of Les Kellett comp, and for some inexplicable reason it would be followed by two minutes of some Joshi tag match that looked absolutely phenomenal but you had no idea what it was, then that cuts off early to some exploding barbed wire death match that was not in the slightest bit stylistically in keeping with the rest of the tape.

Last tape I watched on VHS was either The Year in Review 1993 or Best of RAW 3, two UK-exclusive tapes I had to cover for The Complete WWF Video Guide, neither of which I could find online and nobody seemed to have converted to DVD. Writing those books I've mainly looked for anything I needed to cover online or on my DVDs as it's just more convenient. I remember when I first got a DVD player and thinking it wasn't anything special like it was cracked up to be, then a couple of years later, watching something on VHS and THEN being blown away by DVD. You tend sometimes not to notice how bad some things are until something comes along that improves it, and I never noticed just how bad VHS looked after multiple plays with tracking lines and fading colour/audio until I'd watched a bunch of the same DVDs over and over. It's kind of like how some video games look amazing when there's been nothing to better them (I'm thinking certain PS1/N64 era-titles) but when you go back to them they look awful comparative to modern textures. I do have a certain nostalgia for VHS, though I guess it's more of an era thing, being young and it being the first format to come along. I used to get blank VHS tapes as birthday and Christmas presents, which seems bizarre now. My family never understood why I was into it (or music for the matter, me being the black sheep and all) but when I look back I was clearly drawn to production. The good old mix-tape days. Yeah, I'm glad we've got Spotify to make playlists with and a Network to pull our favourite matches up on, but there's a charm to watching three episodes of Nitro back to back with Craftmatic 2 auto-adjustable bed adverts, seeing a promo for a crunch football game with two teams no longer in the Premier Leauge, then discovering an episode of Bottom tacked on to the end along with a Crystal Maze you don't recall taping, a Top of the Pops from six years earlier and the first 15 minutes of Panorama, a program which absolutely nobody in your family would ever watch, let alone have cause to record. As someone who also finds amusement in doing things the hard way, I've been known to once in a while put together comps on cassette, or dig out long play VHS with unrelated sci-fi movies on them that we have hidden away in the house (Godzilla vs. Mothra/The Swarm/Sometimes They Come Back... Again!), and though I don't really watch or listen to them, it tickles me just to have them on the shelf. I do miss the rental place we had, although given the choice I'd choose the modern world over the 80s/90s one, if not for the culture then certainly for the convenience. I do actually have a couple of wrestling comps I made lying around somewhere. One is Benoit's entire World Title run from 2004 which after I made it, I never actually got round to watching and now have no stomach for. The other came about partially out of a conversation about the good old days of trading, coupled with my insomnia and desire to sit up all night and sleep all day. Being an indecisive guy who frequently wasted more hours trying to find something to watch than actually watching anything, I figured if I made a comp of all my favourite matches, I could just throw the tape in, hit play, and see something I was into. Plus, I made it eight hours long and always figured I'd have that one glorious night of hitting play at midnight and watching shit till the sun came up. I put a ton of work into it, timing everything, making sure no wrestler appeared twice in a row, no promotion appeared twice in a row, different matches types back to back and mixing up the years (usually I'm devoutly chronological but I figured what's the point of a mix if I didn't mix anything?) Proud as punch I was when I finally finished it. Never watched. Not even once. And in true videotape fashion, I didn't bother to label it either, so I've absolutely no idea where it is, and could probably lose days fast forwarding through tapes of old sitcoms, football and cartoons before I found it. VIVA VHS!

NXT seems to be good at making stars for the NXT audience, while WWE seem to be good at calling up said stars and being completely confused when Emma's wacky dance or Adam Rose's entrance doesn't get over in a 10,000 seat building with very few Network subscribers in it.

I always liked him well enough in that he was fairly professional and easy on the ears, but then I grew up on Gorilla Monsoon and it took me a while once I started to get "smart" to get my head around the fact that he wasn't particularly well regarded. I imagine Mercer is like Ed Whelan for those who grew up on Stampede; When he's "your" guy, he's untouchable, and to everyone else he's antiquated.

Our 1997 edition of the Raw Files has just recently become available from Lulu (paperback) and Amazon (Kindle) so here's the spiel: 168 pages! • The formation of the Hart Foundation! • The rise of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin! • The emergence of The Rock! • The ECW invasion! • The fallout from the Montreal Screwjob! • Classic promos fully transcribed! • Exclusive 'Shotgun Files' mini-book included! Click to order in paperback from Lulu.com! Click to order on Kindle from Amazon! ------ We've also got the 1994 edition available through to Sunday night (March 9th) for just 99c on Kindle, so for anyone who's on the fence or has fallen behind on collecting them, here's your chance to grab one on the cheap and see what all the fuss is about! 102 pages! • The New Generation takes hold! • The madness of Randy Savage! • Tatanka's ill-advised heel turn! • Vince McMahon's obsession with Roseanne Barr! • Kanyon and the Hardy Boyz as jobber talent! • The rise of the 123 Kid! • Bob Backlund crossfacing chickenwinging everyone in sight! Click to order in paperback from Lulu.com! Click to order on Kindle from Amazon!

I don't think that's strictly true because of the turnaround time on those things. Case in point, the Halloween Havoc '95 VHS release lists Savage vs. Kamala on the back, even though the match was Savage vs. Luger. Unless there was a severe lack of communication (which I don't doubt), that cover must have been mocked up prior to Luger signing in September, in order to get the tape produced and released as efficiently as possible.

Aside from the year of dream matches - a headliner for the Hall of Fame next year, the inevitable Blu-ray/DVD release, the licensing rights on current and 'classic era' action figures and video game appearances, the t-shirts and masks they could market, the Monday Night War Network tie-in, the chance to wheel out somebody different the next time they decide to have a parade of legends, the potential for WWE-branded autobiography on his career, the chance to have him act as a WWE ambassador without fear of Ric Flair-style embarrassments at public promotional functions, the meet and greet opportunities at Fan Axxess and the like, the ego boosting novelty of FINALLY getting the last of the great holdouts...

To paraphrase what I told Allan on Twitter, this show was basically like two hours of listening to other people recall every single one of my own personal memories of growing up as a US wrestling fan in the UK in the early 90s. Great stuff.

Does anyone else remember a theory/rumour/plan etc. that had an un-injured Sid stepping in for Hogan at This Tuesday in Texas and winning the belt from Undertaker, then going on to defend it against Flair at the Royal Rumble, where the winner of that would carry it to WrestleMania to defend against Rumble winner Hogan? Or is my mind playing tricks?

I honestly think it'll be one of Punk, Cena or Phil Collins. Collins is genuinely a wrestling fan and worked with him, so why not? Just waiting now for Ted DiBiase to rescind his membership...