Migs

My wrestling podcast debuted today! It's called The Best There Ever Was, and the goal is to use wrestling's greatest matches to discuss our relationship as fans to the sport. What creates those emotional connections that keep us coming back? The first season is all about Hall of Famers and their greatest matches, with future seasons planned covering a range of other topics (the next season is Greatest Rivalries). The episodes run about an hour each - so it's a deep dive, but not always a complete one, on the wrestler's career and the focus match. Again, the focus is on the experience - how a match makes you feel and why you love it. Most of our guests in the first season are my friends from the NY comedy community, which has an amazing amount of wrestling fans, but we're looking for a range of guests. If anyone here enjoys the show and has an interest in being a guest, let me know - we tape live in a studio in NYC on weekends. Looking forward to hearing thoughts - the show is of course still a work in progress, although I'm pretty pleased with how the first batch turned out. Episodes here (or search The Best There Ever Was on Stitcher, iTunes, etc.) http://theatlantictransmission.com/podcast/the-best-there-ever-was-2/

Watching a bunch of the Tito-Valentine matches recently, and I love how Tito mounts a guy and throws punches. If it was a movie, Tito looks like the guy who'd come up for air and realize he'd killed a guy. Just fantastic fire and energy.

The match on the Unreleased set between the two is okay but not great. I do think the screw job finishes hurt the WWF matches a lot - Hogan matches are always better when they build to a finish. It feels a little like Flair was trying to plug Hogan into his formula, but Hogan's moveset isn't like Luger or a Road Warrior, because so much of his act was selling to set up the comeback. Flair eventually figured out how to work with him in '94, so I think it's fair to assume he'd have gotten there in '92 if he needed to, but he wasn't there in the matches we have.

When I was a huge Northeast indy mark in the early-00s,I LOVED the Boogie Knights. I think the fact that they were really mediocre made me love them more, because it made the swagger and the use of "You're the Best" as a theme song even funnier. All the angles around them were usually dumb, too (I believe at one point they had feuding valets), but the way they sold them made them work. Also, I was a HUGE Steve Corino fan in 2000.Just my absolute favorite guy from his face turn through the end of the year.

Yeah, they really get into some minutia of working that was fascinating.

It appears Shawn Michaels and Randy Savage Unreleased sets are on tap for next year.

I thought Cena-Reigns was on the low end for both guys in recent years. Just super cookie cutter finish spamming. Didn't move me, and I don't think it will move the needle for Reigns.

Terrible camera work here as they focus on both of the blade jobs. This felt really sloppy and just didn't work for me as a blood cage match. Dragon didn't establish himself well as the heel (why is Spanky the one cockily asking for the count early if he's the babyface)? Felt like they knew conceptually what they wanted out of this match but couldn't get it across completely. The big spots looked good, though. I did think the finish was really smart and unique - can't believe I haven't seen that used before.

Daniels really got caught in the middle here - he got cracks at WCW and ECW, but at times when they were starting to collapse, and the only real national exposure he ever got in his prime was TNA (which wasn't really national until about 5 years after this). But his work was really of this moment - the fluidity and the high spots combined with the so-so character work. Feels like if he'd gotten into WCW even a year before this, he might have a very different place in wrestling history.

The angle here is standard 2000 ECW lame. The match, though, is another terrific war between these two. Love the handspring kick leading to Corino's blade job, as well as Corino using the chair to counter the handspring elbow. It's interesting how Corino really elevated himself in this year by willing to bleed way more than anyone else at the time. I wonder if there's a space left for someone to do that in 2017 given the various standards of the even semi-major promotions. Not as good as Hardcore Heaven, but a very good TV match.

Interesting to see Punk cut a fairly awkward promo before the match. Even the greats start somewhere. Really like Colt's selling here, and the way he bails out during Punk's shine. "That internet is taking over professional wrestling. Some love it, some hate it." Colt's attempt at a standing moonsault is hilariously bad, Although otherwise, this is a pretty solid match, a bit better than their January outing. Good energy, and we're starting to see a little more creativity in their exchanges (although they really love monkey flips). Curious to see this specific matchup improve, as I imagine we'll see a lot of it.

Lance Russell calling an American Dragon match is such a weird cognitive dissonance. Really good little TV match, as they cut a nice pace.

I watched a lot of Low Ki back in the day but don't think I've ever seen this one before. These two together is one of my favorite matchups. Love the collar and elbow into pin attempts to start. They keep it simple in the beginning, but they stand out with the intensity with which they do these moves. The side headlock isn't a rest hold - you feel it. The brutality of the strikes is really eye popping. And that's part of what would set this group apart, and you can see the contrast between this match and Da Hit Squad having to slow things down to work a couple of old school indy guys. Loved every bit of this. Much better example of where the style was going at the high end than Ki v. Mayhem. Other than some of the dives that Ki would excise from his moves later and the finisher kickouts, this was close to on par to their matches over the next few years. The double countout finish is a real bummer, though.

Sort of a clash of the old school northeast indy guys against the new wave. Interesting that Da Hit Squad are totally willing to stooge and do the Memphis style heel thing, even here. I feel like I've seen them show a willingness to do this in other matches, too, which is interesting given their size and style. Thunder and Maniac do hilariously slow babyface tag team work. The heat segment is mostly great, though, with Da Hit Squad playing like an updated Demolition. Love that the announcer literally calls it a hot tag when it gets no reaction. Like the finish, though.

I've mostly been skipping the ECW PPV stuff because 2000 is pretty dire, but I've really been enjoying reliving Corino's rise up the ranks, and this was a big part of it. Love the way Corino's promo sets up Tapir's anger and thus the violence level. Then Corino takes an absolute beating... the tree of woe kick where his blood is pooling beneath him is absolutely sick (and iconic). The dropkick of the table spot as well is also eye popping. That Corino keeps going is amazing and really puts him in a different light than he'd been seen before - ye I also love the way he sells the weakness that comes from the blood loss. Killer finish, too.

I had to check this out just to see Savage's last WCW appearance. Hated the weird coverup (why on earth wouldn't the camera just pan up?) He kind of looks and works like an inflated version of himself. No idea why he heads off to go after Candido. The Bret Hart thing is equally pointless - why is all this being burned off as surprises on an unannounced Thunder battle royal? So WCW.

Given how ready for prime time all these guys look here, and the WWF focus on tag teams at the time, interesting that neither team got a shot with the WWF after this. Maybe the feeling was the existing tag team depth was more than necessary. Pretty entertaining little match.

So, is it possible they broke up at just the right time? Thinking of it, I'm not sure what else they'd have done over the next year or two. Rockers v. Money Inc. would have been fun, but the tag division as a whole was dying fast. (This is also making me think of other teams that stayed together the right length of time v. ones that maybe held on too long. It feels like the Midnight Express got out at the right time, while the Rock'n'Roll Express went on way too long from a legacy perspective.)

The two channels were complementary - combined they had basically all the WWF house shows.

Really terrific match, before the tables match and these teams' offense became a cliche. It's really interesting to recall the power that was in those ideas in their initial presentation, and the match holds up shockingly well given what followed it.

Did anyone else in wrestling history peak so clearly in their debut for the company? I'm struggling to remember any other moments for Tazz in WWE.