The Chief

I decided to throw on a random Thunder and I get Ernest Miller vs. Barry Darsow. THIS IS THE THUNDER I REMEMBER!!!

2018 is crazy.

So what was the deal with Piper's brief 79 run? Was it just a case of the locker room not liking an upstart punk kid? I vaguely remember Piper said something about pissing off one of the managers...

I never said they suck not once i said based on what i have seen of them there as good as people say read my system all my system is based on observable things ie not Something Intangible Like Realism and execution of the offence and technique and technical skill visibly tangible things i also Judge matches based upon this system hence why i have nuclear heat in some other places based on my view of some famous matches in other places iv done topics on comparing and ratings famous workers using my system Russohiiles[ people who think like russo] hate me yes but why you mention nuclear heat and Russoholes it kils u gimmick and because they dont exhibit these types here? not proper lexicon and b-sides goldlust and jerry blsckwell, lawler, or vahn Erik are all the sum of hour fan. Favorites.

Same here. I always wondered if Vince's hatred of accents in his announcers stems from this run. It's like Ellis Island in the commentary booth with Sammartino, Rocca, then Patterson... Is this one of those strange Vince-isms? Does he put himself with broken English speakers to make himself sound smarter? Who knows. It's also funny to watch Vince get caught off guard and try to hold back his laugh when Blassie or Albano say something funny. You can tell Vince LOVED those guys.

I wish he still used the reverse chokeslam because that thing looked devastating. I get why he doesn't though because that's not a bump everyone can take...

Mania is tied up right now, but if they don't figure out what to do with him after the draft, then it's safe to say we've seen Rusev's ceiling. Which is crazy because when you think about, everything he touches becomes better. Aiden English was one of a dozen guys who shows up on Smackdown once every six weeks. Now he's on TV every week and his segments are usually the best part of the show. Jinder Mahal went from losing to Curt f'ing Hawkins on Main Event to World Champion. Who was he associated with in between? Summer Rae's best work on the main roster was with Rusev. Look at the difference between Lana with Rusev and Lana without Rusev. And probably others I'm forgetting... He's the Midas of WWE.

Show was decent. Nakamura vs. Rusev was worked well but this was the worst possible match you could book. Nakamura's not as over as you need him to be going into a world title match at WrestleMania. He needs to go over people the fans hate, somebody like a Corbin. You should not be booking him against a "heel" who's getting greater babyface reactions! It makes Nakamura appear less over. It "buries" Rusev more to that segment of the audience. Outside of match quality, this was a lose-lose situation. Both guys came out of this worse but I'm not sure how either one of these guys could have overcome the circumstances.

Agreed. Who sets the bar the lowest? Can't speak on James Dudley because I don't know enough about him outside the established narratives. Jacqueline? I can't recall a single time WWF Jacqueline was over outside of the Sable feud.

Yeah, I hate when acts who are over win matches. One of my biggest pet peeves in wrestling....

They announce the "main event" first to get the most out of ticket sales. I wouldn't expect any names bigger than Goldberg at this stage.

Pretty cool seeing stuff that isn't even listed on Graham's site. I completely forgot Bugsy McGraw worked NY. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise since they used a lot of Florida guys, but it's still fun to find stuff like this.

Is there a reason why Nakamura has been off tv so much since the Rumble? Even by current Smackdown standards that's unusual.

Is it me or did Cena feel like just another guy in that match? He's been off in general as of late.

I don't get it. Is Dolph supposed to be a babyface now? It makes sense if they're doing the "one last run" angle but that's not how they've portrayed him at all. He's done nothing but whine.

Dear lord, Sami and Owens interrupt the Ziggler vs Corbin match. That takes up a segment. Now we're getting these four split into singles matches and as I'm typing this, Owens and Corbin went through a commercial break. So this is potentially FIVE SEGMENTS devoted to the same shit on a two hour show. I think I'm throwing in the towel.

Making Cena a free agent while he's almost exclusively on Raw is another telltale sign. Smackdown has been fucking DIRE these past few months but I still liked this version of the brand split as a whole. They did a lot to develop new acts and make the shows stand out at first. I don't think you get Braun, Elias, or Main Event Star AJ (as opposed to great wrestler AJ) without the split. And for what it's worth, they made me into a regular Smackdown viewer for the first time in a decade. If Smackdown's current state is because they're biding time until something official happens, I guess I get it, but I'd much rather they focus on making it watchable again instead of pulling the plug on the experiment as a whole.

I like what they've been doing with Apollo Crews the past few weeks. This is not a view on Crews specifically but more of a commentary on the macro-level booking aspects of Raw. Sometimes you just need to put guys in there with stars above their level and let them sink or swim. Was Crews going to win that match? Probably not, but they're not selling the Elimination Chamber on him so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that he could sneak an upset win and qualify. That type of booking really freshens things up and I dig it. Whereas on Smackdown it's the complete opposite. AJ only interacts with Owens and Styles. The US title guys only interact with the US title guys, etc.

Editing Rick Rude's music makes no sense when it's intact everywhere else. And it's a TERRIBLE dub job.

Not everything has to be about "the bottom line." Sometimes people just do shit to entertain themselves. If anybody seriously stopped listening to Booker's show because of this... wow.

Love the Coliseum Video stuff so far. It's surreal hearing Jim Ross retroactively calling 1992 WWF matches. There's a Battle Royal on one of these, Bashed in the USA I think, where Kerry Von Erich is a participant. They recorded it in Spring/Summer 1992 but the tape didn't come out until after Kerry's suicide. After Kerry gets eliminated, they make mention of him being a great competitor and Randy Savage sounds a little emotional when he adds "and a really, really good guy." That's as close as you'll get to 1993 WWF acknowledging something like that, but it was a nice touch.

205 Live has had a lot of really good to great TV matches since it started, even during the Enzo regime. Let's not forget the tear that Neville was on for months. Mustafa Ali is always good. Kendrick and Tozawa had some really intense brawls. Ditto Gallagher. Guys like Daivari and Nese are just warm bodies, but thats only two guys on a roster where everything else usually delivers. The show hasn't changed THAT much. We'll see how much interest wanes when the tournament is over. A successful cruiserweight division is one of those things that fans always ask for but when it's given to them, they don't support it. These guys aren't out there getting squashed by Braun Strowman in handicap matches every week. They're not restricted to 90 second Raw matches. Any criticisms to how they previously treated cruiserweights hasn't really applied since they launched 205. They put up with a year of great matches in front of dead crowds before hitting the panic button with the Enzo experiment. The same quality from the CWC is there, but nobody watches or cares. Does performing in front of a burnt out crowd that just sat through a Smackdown taping help? Of course not. But let's not forget that Raw crowds are dead for most of these matches too. They always have a 205 match on Main Event and it's no different there. The easy solution would be to move it to Full Sail, but they already have NXT... I've watched 205 every week since the beginning and I hope they can turn this project into a success. I just wonder exactly what fans want when they're asking for change.

They've already had New Day joking about this on TV so I doubt it's as serious as some people are making it out to be. Count me in on the Booker T love. He truly was his brother's brother.

It will be interesting to see how Smackdown works this top ten thing when they barely have ten acts that regularly appear on television.

I haven't watched TNA in ages, but do they even have a roster anymore?