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Embry's greatness was expected, and I loved him turning his back to the camera and running down the list of all the guys the Dogs have driven out of town so far. What I didn't expect was Lee's best promo ever. He's not only easily understood, which has been a problem for him in recent weeks, but his arrogance and obnoxiousness comes across a million times better when he keeps calm. It's hard to compare this one promo to the best years of Jimmy Hart in Memphis, but this is the kind of promo that made the Mouth a legend long before he ever picked up a megaphone. Let's see what it does for Lee. Nice mention by Richard of Lawler winning back the Unified title, the better to set up the next round of Gilbert/Lawler, which is right around the corner if the match listings are right I wish we had footage of the boxing match between Richard and Charlie Trapper so we can see for ourselves if it's as bad as it sounds like it should be. Was Trapper already so pitiful as a wrestler that they decided to put him in boxing matches in order to get something out of him?

I wish the angle where Marlin was suspended had made the set. Wasn't Coffey the equivalent of a stage manager for the TV shows? Why was he chosen as Eddie's temporary replacement? Brian looks great here; whatever training he got from his dad or whomever else has sure paid off. He'd be the number one heel in Memphis right now if it wasn't for the Moondogs. Dr. Tom is wonderful as the aggrieved babyface too; maybe he should go back to Knoxville and complain to Bullet Bob so we can get some justice around Memphis! Did Coffey mean that Eddie had no business involving himself in the match (which is true) or no business at ringside even with a ticket (which isn't true). If there was an explanation given, it got cut off. Either way, I can't wait to see how this is resolved.

To paraphrase an old joke, "I went to a wrestling match and The Jerry Springer Show broke out." It's amazing that the first half of this was about as close to a shoot promo as you'll ever get in the Big Two at this time, while the second half is a poor attempt at a cross between TNT and a daytime talk show. I thought it was brilliant that Owen, the guest host, got to ask Rude about why he left the WWF; this way, it came across as an honest fan question, not just an excuse for WCW to take a shot at Vince. Even though Rude's answer wasn't strictly true, it allowed him to maintain his persona while putting over the promotion at the same time. But with brilliance comes dreck. It was obvious from the time Rude asked to take questions from the audience that those women were his plants, and while parts of it were somewhat funny (particularly the same woman who'd asked Rude for a date claiming to have slept with Steamboat as well), I can't blame JR for not wanting much to do with it. As I've said in earlier threads, we didn't need this much of the extracurricular storyline once it was established that these two could get it done in the ring. A little bit of this stuff sprinkled into the SuperBrawl hype would have added spice; now, it's just giving viewers heartburn. (As an aside, being so obvious with Rude's plants makes the segment the next week with DDP superfluous, as does JR's out-of-hand dismissal of the whole business.) Missy's gaffe almost had to be intentional, although people sometimes make mistakes like that out of the blue in normal conversation. Her being in the middle of all those women seemed so right that I almost expected her to yell, "I've had an affair with Steamboat too!" Considering her reputation both on-camera and off, it's not the most impossible thing to believe.

I disagree that Lee was supposed to come out of this as top babyface. The problem with SMW isn't that the top faces (Horner and Lee) need someone to do their talking for them, it's that its real top face (Bullet Bob) needs two or three guys to do his full-time wrestling for him. Seriously, Bullet Bob was a known commodity in Knoxville, someone who didn't need to be packaged or built. He just needed not to wrestle all the time, so Corny put him in as commissioner while making sure he got enough face time and physical action that everyone knew who the real star was. He was also a much better foil for Corny than either Horner or Lee would have been, particularly on the mic. If you look at this match through the prism I just laid out, it all fits perfectly. Bob has to be seen as the law-and-order commissioner in order to stay over, so Mark Curtis has to be eliminated, and there has to be a finish that everyone knows as cheap so Bob can come off as the hero for awarding the belt to Lee. Then comes the time for the physical stuff; Pete's theory may be right, but instead of not wanting to job clean to Lee, Paul may not have wanted to be knocked out by the Bullet. That's why he and Lee stayed in the corner while Bob cleaned up on Landell, Horowitz, and Anthony. It also keeps Paul as a viable threat to guys like Lee and Horner (and eventually, just maybe, the commish himself). Bottom line: From start to finish, no matter what other mini-feuds may be going on at the time, SMW can be boiled down to Bullet Bob vs. Corny. Right now, both men are getting themselves ready, but they'll be at it soon, and literally everything else will take a back seat. Orndorff vs. Lee is merely an appetizer for the main course to come; tasty in itself, but nothing that's supposed to mean much in the end. Line of the segment: "HE'S GOT IT ON HIS HAND!"

I'm making my way through the 5/19/84 Cap Center card, and I'm surprised you guys missed something: What is Tiger Chung Lee, who's supposed to be Korean, doing wearing tights with the Japanese flag on them? I know he was teaming with Fuji, but Korean flag patches couldn't have been that hard to find, could they? Also, most of the rundown on the YouTube description comes from the 6/9/84 card. I think the only match you list from this card is Blair/Goulet.

An interesting look at early Harlem Heat. They definitely had the mic skills to go far, particularly Booker. I just now went to Wikipedia and looked up what a Super Soaker is. You're telling me that a tag team actually made their living with those toys as part of their gimmick? Dallas has truly scraped the bottom of the barrel. To think that this territory was once the home of the Von Erichs, the original Freebirds, and Bruiser Brody, not to mention Abdullah the Butcher.

First of all, Buddy's promo is the highlight of this segment. I liked every promo of his that Will put on the SMW set, and now I remember why. He may have copied his name, hair, and finisher from Flair, but he's got a mic style all his own. Horner can't compete, and neither can Bullet Bob, really. As far as the match goes, I understand the part about referee's decisions being final, but to use the "instant replay doesn't work" argument in this case is dumb. Buddy was clearly and uncontroversially eliminated, and the replay would show that. Smaller promotions are falling into the bad habit of trying to use multiple justifications for their decisions when one would do just fine. What's the matter with, "Sorry, Tim. You eliminated Landell, I saw it, the fans saw it, but Curtis didn't, and he's the ref"? Horner's beginning to whine a little too much for his own good, which is why Bullet Bob's doing a lot of the money promo stuff for him. Quite frankly, I'm surprised Corny didn't use the Bullet as an "advisor" (read: mouthpiece) for guys like Horner and Lee instead of as commissioner. He could have used Sandy Scott for that role instead. Seven eliminations in eighty seconds? Who controls when guys go out? If it's someone other than the wrestlers themselves, they need to watch a few more battle royals and get a feel for how eliminations are supposed to be paced. If it's the wrestlers, I guess there's not a whole lot to be done. Maybe a bonus for keeping eliminations within a certain interval?

Who else was supposed to do this, Dave Brown? Kim's all that's available, unless they'd wanted to involve Ron Wright somehow. How big a name was he in Memphis, anyway? For being the only one who could have done this promo, Kim wasn't bad. I have to agree with those who said that Tony got what he asked for and has to live with it, though, Besides, he's got a much brighter future on the other side of Tennessee. Kim never said who Tony lost to, and I've never heard of Nurse Cratchit before. Anyone care to provide details?

I haven't watched the Rude segment before this yet, but it couldn't possibly get much weirder than this one. Heyman being in essence set up for an attack by a fellow heel? That alone blows my tiny mind, as does Heyman paying off random women to say they had affairs with Steamboat. Then Ricky's able to leap over three waiting DA members to get at Heyman and tear off his pants? No wonder JR just sat there looking uncomfortable with the whole thing. The "Steamboat as stalker" thing needed to be debunked somehow, but I'm not sure this was the way. God, was DDP ever smarmy. I was waiting for Heyman to take a swing at him with his phone. Casper was a riot asking DDP for some of the money that he'd supposedly made him over the years. DDP, of course, no-sold the question, as you'd expect. Did we ever see another edition of Down with DDP, and does anyone know what got DDP suspended by Frey in the first place?

Tremendous straightforward promo from Arn here, which is a relief after all the weird stuff from Steamboat and Rude, among others. I know I would have paid to see Sting/Arn after watching that. I especially like the fact that Arn doesn't yell, scream, or threaten, which makes the whole segment more effective in my view. Two things strike me as particularly interesting. First, Arn's out there without Heyman or any other backup, almost as if this was all against the DA's wishes. I know we don't see a whole lot of Paul after WrestleWar, and I'm wondering just what the DA's status is as a group at this point. Second, unlike the WWF, WCW continues to acknowledge that its heels have their fans. There aren't many clapping for Arn here, but those who are stand out, including the guest host. WCW seems like a more liberal (in the non-political sense) place to work than almost any other promotion in America from what we can see on camera; it's just a shame that Vince had such a head start on them, at least until he squandered it later in the decade.

Precious as the "keeper" of the Birds was nice to see. The rest of this was a cheesier ripoff of the already cheesy Hart Foundation skit with Mean Gene, as stated earlier. It says something about what a joke the Birds were considered by this time that Precious' return at WrestleWar didn't make the set and this stuff did. How far down had the U.S. tag titles slipped by now? No wonder Watts killed them off as soon as he got there. The idea of these particular Birds chasing the DA for the World belts is far-fetched to say the least. Hell, Michael's so dumb these days that he has to be reminded to sign contracts in pen! (Seriously, the money must have been really good in order for Michael to willingly make himself look that stupid.)

You can certainly tell from the way this was sold on commentary that Vince had big plans for Kelly. The very fact that beating Bossman half to death was his first official act was a big deal; the last guy to debut this way (that is, other than in a scheduled match) that I can remember was Earthquake back in '89. Kudos to Bossman for selling this the way he did; most guys in his position would at least want to go down fighting. Bossman got absolutely no offense in whatsoever. Curt's right; the crack of the nightstick on Bossman's leg sounded horrible, even if that was mostly due to how it was mic'd. That might be the loudest weapon shot I've heard in quite some time. Nice job by Vince explaining why none of the officials tried to stop the beatdown. If you were in your late forties/early fifties and your body was battered from years of punishment in the ring, would you risk further injury by trying to subdue this wildman? What I don't understand is why someone with some beef, like Duggan or even Warrior, didn't get involved. Then again, maybe I do; this is the WWF we're talking about, where faces don't make saves for other faces unless either a feud is ready to transition from the savee to the saver or a tag match is being set up. Does Vince pay attention to his own vignettes? Nailz clearly stated in the one we saw that he was in jail for a crime he didn't commit and wanted revenge against Bossman when he got out. So how is it that Curt only offhandedly mentions that as a possibility at the very end of the segment? That should have been the first thing out of Vince's mouth once he recognized who it was, instead of a bunch of bleating about what a disgrace this is to Bossman, the WWF, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. Sloppiness and inattention to detail didn't just start happening in the WWF/E last month, boys and girls. Curt's getting the hang of commentary. He was excellent here, and he seemed especially pleased that Bossman (whom the Heenan Family feuded with while he was a member, and whom he'd faced at Mania VII) was finally getting what he deserved. I hust wish we could hear some match analysis from him; I want to see how he's progressed in that respect.

It just hit me; this angle would have made more sense if it had been a rehash of the Cheryl Roberts angle from 1988. Have Rude as the stalker and Steamer as the one looking to humble him and avenge Bonnie by taking the U.S. title. Yes, it's a note-for-note copy of Savage/Flair/Liz, but sometimes you can't improve on the "original" (note the quotation marks). Rude does well for what he's given here, but this angle's already so strange and uncomfortable that it really doesn't matter. Knowing that WarGames, WCW's ultimate proving ground, is being largely ignored and that the blowoff to this feud will be non-title kind of makes the whole thing a wash no matter how good the performances are at a given time. Even if Steamer beats Rude in the end, he gets nothing whatsoever for his trouble. They'd have been better off stashing Vader in the bullpen for a while, having Rude go title vs. title with Sting, and either sending Steamer after Austin and the TV belt or keeping him with Dustin to feud with Arn/Eaton over the tag belts. (What do you do with Windham? Who knows?)

Actually, we got a WrestleWar mention at the very start, as Tony welcomed Ricky in for an interview "on this WrestleWar weekend". This was pretty good, as Steamer says that he had to explain to Richie about the nature of his injury, but now Bonnie's mad at him over the stalker stuff. I thought the first part was a nice touch, but as I've said before, either Bonnie has to come on camera or not be mentioned at all, and it doesn't look like she's coming on camera. Maybe if she wasn't such a big part of his family man image, I'd be okay with this, but we saw her at ringside all over the place during his '89 run, so why not use her now if she's willing? I don't think being a stalker was supposed to be a new gimmick for Steamer, Shoe. Sometimes people get their insider terms a bit confused. If it was (meaning that Dusty actually wanted the audience to think that Ricky was after Medusa in a threatening way, and would stalk other women similarly in the future), he missed the mark by a million miles; there are approximately a million wrestlers who would be more believable in such a creepy role. The thing is, I can't totally dismiss the idea out of hand, given some of his other ideas. I don't think the "nemesis" thing was a stumble. I think Steamer wanted to call Rude "my friend", as he has with some other people he's feuded with in the past, but decided that the occasion needed something a bit stronger. We just happened to catch him thinking on his feet a little longer than he should have been. Glad to see that I was right about the fire breathing being a message to Rude. Of course, scaring the hell out of Jesse and Paul was a nice little side benefit!

I don't think this was cool at all. They made a seemingly insignifcant mistake that wrecked the whole thing. Go back and watch the segment and focus on Warrior's face. What color is his paint outlined in? That's right, black. What color is the supposed ooze? You got it, black. Also, if you look in his hairline, you can tell he has extra paint up there. Something had to be used as the ooze, of course, but it wouldn't have stood out quite so much if they hadn't already outlined Warrior's facepaint in black. If his paint for this segment had been done in green and yellow, or red and blue, or any other color except blue with black trim, the ooze would have been scary and inexplicable. As it is, no matter how Vince and Curt spin things, anyone with two eyes and a working brain could say, "Oh, for God's sake, it's just his cheap paint melting under the lights. What a bunch of crap." The only thing that would have made it worse was if the ooze had been blue. Also, for all the trouble they went to putting him in a white jacket, they didn't use it visually. The ooze would have looked just as gross if he hadn't worn it. They didn't even show the ooze dripping onto it, which I thought was the whole point. Warrior didn't seem frightened as he walked off, just perplexed. Strangely enough, it works. It's been established that he doesn't believe in Shango's curse, so what else could be making these things happen? (The vomiting could be explained by a bad burrito, but what on earth can make a man's head rain black ooze?) Nice touch that he calls on his Warriors, most of whom are likely scared out of their wits by this point, to help him.

A bad joke about pancakes, Mike. You know, the things that Crush is going to crush both Jacques and Martel flatter than? Gove Adams credit; at least he delivers the lines as well as he can. It's not enough to make the segments even halfway decent, though. I just hope his work in the ring was better than these.

Yes, we almost forgot that the whole concept of the Dangerous Alliance started as a way to get back at WCW and Turner Broadcasting for costing Heyman his color commentary job, and that's a shame. I realize that Frey isn't meant to be an on-screen character, but you'd think that they'd let Paul mention him a little more often to keep the purpose of the group in mind. Jesse and Paul have great chemistry, and I don't mind the off-topic stuff as long as it doesn't run too long each time. Remember, this is The Bod, not super-serious Gene Okerlund or Sean Mooney. You'd never know there was a pay-per-view just a week away by hearing this interview, and especially not one featuring War Games. I have no earthly idea why that is, but it's a pretty big shock. I wonder if they lost a lot of potential buys because of this lack of promotion; they certainly should have, I didn't know Jesse was doing Worldwide at this time; you'd think they'd have put him on one of the TBS shows, preferably Saturday Night. One thing's for damn sure; even if he and JR couldn't get along, he'd still be better than the likes of Jason Hervey. "Back up to you, Gary Michael Kapinski". I hope Jesse got Gary's permission to call him that!

I think Hervey had it right for once in his life; we're supposed to see this as wishful thinking on Medusa's part, and a penny-ante psychological ploy on Heyman's as he tries in vain to stop Rude's day of reckoning with the Dragon. Where the fire breathing comes in, I don't know. If Steamer isn't stalking Medusa, why is he trying to scare her to death? Or was the fire meant for Heyman and Rude, with Medusa an innocent bystander? All I know is that Jesse and Paul acted like true gentlemen, playing feet-do-your-stuff and leaving a terrified Medusa all alone. I would have liked this better if Rude had been involved somehow. Am I the only one who'd love to be at lunch with Paui and Jesse, regardless of who's paying? I didn't like Rude's promo at all. Unless Bonnie's going to get involved on-camera, why bring her and Richie into this the way he is? For that matter, why have Steamer accuse Rude of disturbing him at home? This isn't a copycat of Savage/Flair/Liz; that's mostly innuendo and speculation. We're getting into supposed criminal territory here, and as I said, either Bonnie should be getting involved or that part of the feud should be scrapped. Steamboat and Rude proved at SuperBrawl that they can get the job done in the ring, and that should be good enough. Thank heaven Medusa dropped the "European" accent; even if she isn't exactly good on promos, at least you can understand her better.

So that's all there is, huh? I'm actually surprised Liz agreed to provide the voice for the message; it had to be one of her last acts as a WWF employee. This would have worked better prior to Mania, when Flair had the title and the psychological advantage and the "mine before yours" stuff was fresh. Now, the whole thing just sounds desperate, though not quite to the level of the Precious debacle. The woman with Flair and Curt even looks a bit like Liz. Maybe stuff like this is why they stopped mentioning her; having your top heel portrayed as a lovesick psycho isn't a great thing for your preteen fanbase if you're Vince. A promo like this would definitely not have been out of place on TBS a few years before. I loved Curt swatting the tape out of the recorder like it was his gum. I just hope someone rescued it! Between Randy calling Flair "Nature Boy" in his promo after Mania and Curt and Bobby increasingly referring to Flair as "Slick Ric", it seems like Vince is starting to let more of the "old" Flair into his WWF character. So far that's been a good thing on the whole; we'll see if that trend continues as the year moves along.

Interesting that they continued to push Liz as the centerpiece of the angle when she'd already left the road. Maybe they thought she'd be back at some point even if her real-life marriage to Randy ended. That would change in the next few weeks; I guess they got the final word that she was gone for good. Honestly, I don't know what other allegations Flair and Curt could possibly make at this point. I guess we'll see soon, because they have a segment coming up. I love Gene trying to sell that there just might be something to all of this in spite of Randy's denials. Way to keep pitching, chrome dome! Gino had a good idea about Randy suing Flair for alienation of affections. Too bad we didn't get a response from Heenan, as we were coming up on a break. I agree with Pete about "The title was mine before it was yours". It doesn't make a lot of sense here, although it's still really clever. But it wasn't Randy winning the title that cut this angle off at the knees; the title was an afterthought from the start. It was Liz leaving the road and ceasing to be a character in the storyline. Once the love triangle portion was over, there was no need for Flair to challenge for the belt anymore, especially since Vince never really saw him as WWF champion material, at least for any length of time. Thus, the way was clear for someone Vince thought more highly of (Warrior) to challenge Savage at SummerSlam.

This is a case of a beautiful package holding a case full of cheap goods. The promo work both before and after the bout was classic. Each man was the essence of what he claimed to be; Flair hasn't been this consistently good since the early days of the Horsemen, and he was 98% JCP Flair here. Even the phrases that had grown tired there had new life since they'd been used so sparingly in the WWF: "Bright lights, big cities", "Space Mountain", "Walk that aisle". They were all tired clichés at this time last year, but using them in new surroundings made them sound vital and fresh. I loved the postmatch promo too, with Heenan and Curt ranting and raving about what a no-good cheater Savage was and Flair calmly (at least for him) stating that they won't cry about what happened; they'll simply regroup and get Savage next time. After hearing him, you believe they will, too. By the way, nice reference by Flair to the whole "Real World Champion" gimmick; it's a nice callback to what made Flair so fresh when he first came to the WWF. Savage was equally good after the match, outright stating that he'll do whatever it takes to win and promising to beat Flair up properly next time they meet. Maybe a true babyface champ wouldn't say things like that, but if the fans don't know that Savage is a psychopath whether he's being cheered or booed at a given time, they should have been paying closer attention since the summer of 1985. I loved him tearing his shirt off and claiming that Flair can have all of him next time (I wonder if Vince got mad at him for showing his body), and sending Liz away with the belt before she can answer Okerlund's question was vintage old-school jealous Macho Man, which fit the occasion. I doubt she could have given an answer on the fly without being tongue-tied anyway. That was the package. As for what was inside, I think I'd want at least a partial refund. The first twelve minutes or so were above average, as Flair worked on Savage's back and dominated the action like I haven't seen in quite a while. Savage then made his comeback, and that's where things started to go south. First of all, Earl Hebner trying to stop Randy from going up top was ludicrous. Since when is dropping an elbow from the top illegal? But it gets worse, as Curt blatantly interferes to save the title for Flair.......only for the match to go on. I would have been fine with a JCP-style DQ finish here, but Vince wanted his storybook ending, with Randy winning the title and he and Liz celebrating their vindication. Great plan.......only he messed it up himself. The last five or ten minutes of this match are so hopelessly confusing that I can't believe the WWF, so known for wanting things squeaky clean production-wise, allowed it to happen. Flair's working on Savage's leg, setting up the figure-four and eventually applying it, only for no one in the building or watching on TV to give a damn because a bunch of old farts in suits no one who hasn't been a fan since 1970 can recognize are fussing over Liz for no earthly reason. What were they trying to save her from, anyway? Gino and Bobby never said on TV, and it was never stipulated before the match that Liz was barred from ringside or that her manager's license was no longer valid. She was in no danger whatsoever, since Flair was in the ring getting his brains beaten out and Curt had no interest in her, and the suits in question just sort of milled around and waved their hands while Liz did her level best to ignore them. They gave up altogether just in time for Randy to roll Flair up by the tights and win the title. The question is: Why? Why go through all that and distract at least part of the audience for no reason? If Liz had gone back to the locker room, or if Flair had reached outside the ring and grabbed her hair, or if Curt had advanced on her with a chair, the suits trying to stop Liz would have served some sort of purpose. As it was, all it did was take almost all of the attention in the building away from the finish. And where were those same suits when Flair and Curt were going wild on Randy after the bout and Liz, who was in the ring by now, was actually in physical danger? I guess they didn't want to get in the way of Flair's kiss and Liz's attack, but again, why use the suits when Liz wasn't in danger and have them bail on her when she was? The worst part was, by the time all the mayhem had cleared out, the time for celebration, at least the kind the moment deserved, had come and gone. I would have loved to see one last celebration with Liz and Randy before she left, and we didn't get it. What a shame. Useless Spot of the Match: Flair knocking Savage for a loop with a foreign object, only for Savage to kick out at two even though Flair covered right away. What did Curt have, a ball of lint? A crushed soda cup? A stick from a WWF ice cream bar? Heenan was great on commentary, though not as good as at the Rumble. I liked him actually trying to coach Flair even though he knew Flair couldn't hear him. Once a manager, always a manager, I guess. The only thing I didn't like was the "fair to Flair" bit, which was never funny and didn't seem to have a point except to make Heenan tongue-tied and give Gino an excuse for a "WILL YOU STOP?" Speaking of whom, his constant top-of-the-lungs shouting got annoying real fast, although it was obvious he was being produced by Vince in his headset, since Vince screamed at the top of his lungs during all big matches too in an effort to convince the viewers that they were really having fun, whether they felt like they were or not. I'm surprised that Gino let him get away with it. (Maybe he didn't; Vince took over as lead pay-per-view announcer at SummerSlam, and I think the only cards Gino did play-by-play on after this were the '93 Rumble and '94 King of the Ring, when he subbed for Vince during the steroid trial). I'm not sure I liked the idea of so much attention being focused on Liz and not enough on the title, especially given her and Randy's real-life circumstances. It's almost as if Vince believed that Savage/Flair wasn't a good in-ring matchup and needed something to juice it up. It's interesting to see that WCW made the same mistake three years later. I disagree with Pete that Flair should have pinned Savage here, though. A DQ win for Randy would have been okay under the circumstances, but having Flair pin him even illegally gives no reason for Savage to chase the title even if Flair kisses Liz like he did in real life. Why should Flair soil his hands on a man he got a three-count on at Mania, regardless of how he did it? Also, whether we liked it or not, this angle wasn't about the title; if it was just about getting the belt off of Flair, Hogan could have squashed him in five minutes flat and the media naysayers crying about steroids could have gone straight to hell. This was about Vince sensing big money from another angle where Liz's honor was besmirched, as it was with Jake and the cobra. In an ideal world, Liz never leaves the road and this angle does land-office business for the next year. As it was, once Liz quit, Vince scrapped Flair/Savage as soon as he could and went to Warrior/Savage for SummerSlam. Liz made the angle go, not the belt. In order for Randy and Liz to have the moral high ground and for Liz to remain pure, Randy had to be champion. Line of the Match: Heenan exhorting Gino for a "WHOOOOOO!" by saying, "Spit the banana outta your mouth and give me one!" What a shame that most of their chemistry was gone by now. By the way, this is definitely the DVD edit of Mania VIII, with Flair's theme music at the time of the release (which sounds better than that awful version he came to the ring with in '92) and Howard's voice overdubbed in. The crazy thing is, Howard sounds better on the redub than he did at any time during the live event.

Last week's Warrior/Shango angle, with puke and moralistic commentary added. They shouldn't have shown the backstage stuff unless Warrior was going to throw up something abnormal, like the black ooze. Otherwise, this was just sickness for the sake of being sick. Why would Vince thing that anyone would want to see something like that? Just because he seemingly has a vomit fetish, does he assume that everyone else watching does too? No wonder this angle lost them business. If I'd had a kid under ten, this would have been the last WWF show they ever watched, period.

I didn't know they were still doing local promos at this point either. They certainly added spice to the cards, though, especially when the guys would mention the local sports teams. It made us fans feel like they actually knew and cared about our city. For whatever reason, Flair has the mumbles, and Savage is a bit more subdued then usual, as was noted above. The interesting part of these for me was how the whole segment was framed around Liz, who'd been off the road for two months and wasn't coming back, and Heenan, who wasn't traveling either and was part of Flair's entourage in name only by now. And yet, you still wanted to see Randy save Liz's honor and get his hands on that no-good weasel. What powerful personalities, each in their own way, Liz and Bobby were. Wrestling will never see their like again, that's for sure.

This was so, so much better when Jake was the victim that it isn't funny. I get wanting to do something with a character like Martel's, and I know that most of the more established faces are either gone or busy in other feuds, but I don't care enough about Tatanka yet to give a crap about his eagle feather (which looked really good next to Martel's ear, by the way). Couldn't he have done this with someone like Duggan, who wasn't doing anything of note and hadn't for what seemed like years by now? (And while I'm thinking of it, how does stealing a feather, even a ceremonial one with deep meaning, become a bigger crime than trying to blind a man? Even for wrestling, that's extremely hard to swallow.) Vince not milking the blindness like he did with Jake was a mistake as well. That's how you build sympathy, especially for someone who isn't established yet. In fact, it would probably have made more sense for the longer angle to come in this case rather than in Jake's; we already knew what Jake was about and had for years. Of course, it's hard to complain since Jake's performance was so masterful and Tatanka hadn't even been thought of yet. Nothing says hatred like two guys cutting scripted promos at each other where even the ringsiders can't hear them. Does anyone in a real-life situation, or even a decent movie, yell at a guy he's arguing with "How dare you disrespect the great Indian nations!" Just call the guy a no-good jerk and have done with it, Tatanka. I won't even get into Martel and Curt both insinuating that Tatanka stinks just because he's a Native American, which was bad when Albano or Ernie Roth said it about Strongbow in 1972 and is even worse in 1992. Gaffe of the segment: Vince saying that Tatanka's chop came from the top rope when it was obvious to everyone watching that it only came from the second rope. Making a mistake like that completely live is one thing; making it when you're calling the match off of a studio monitor in Connecticut and can see what you're calling ahead of time and can go back and do it again if you screw up is something completely different. Why did nobody even try to correct this man? Were they that afraid for their jobs?

I'm not sure what can ve said about this that hasn't been said already. If two men wrestled this kind of a match, it would be known as a classic to wrestling fans everywhere instead of just a relatively few devoted fans. These two take turns beating each other out of whatever term you want to use for excrement, but neither can put the other away (nor do they really want to, at least until the final few minutes). You can tell that they're having the time of their lives trying to beat each other to death, and the end only comes when Aja's squashed like a bug by Bull's moonsault and has to be carried from the ring horseback. Talk about an amazing visual! I love the way Bull sells the cut over her eye even during the postmatch trophy ceremony. That's dedication and attention to detail if I've ever seen it from a wrestler. Bull's facial expression after Aja kicked out of the top rope legdrop is indeed a classic, but how many wrestlers in her situation actually come up with not only something else to do, but the move that wins the match to boot? Not many, I don't think. Bull's not just another pretty head of hair! When Aja dives to the outside, she takes out Bull and somebody else as well. Is it someone we should know? Talk about a doubleheader to end my evening/early morning of wrestling: Misawa/Jumbo followed by Aja/Bull. If you're into puroresu at all, it doesn't get much better than that!