BigBadMick

Foley, 6th April 1998, Raw. Step 1 in a heel turn completed the following week.

Rock's promo before his tripe threat cage match with Mankind and Shamrock, Breakdown 1998. Was that the first time the chant morphed from 'Rocky sucks' to 'rocky'?

The Jake Roberts/Randy Savage series of promos at Survivors and Tuesday in Texas 1991.

Perhaps try to get more talk going in the 'podcasts and publications' thread with a more detailed breakdown of each podcast (with 'spoiler alerts' warning that they are better read after listening). Would this encourage more discussion?

'sucking on the teet of New Japan/ROH' Ok, Parv - what's your objections to RoH? I'm genuinely curious.

Good stuff guys - gotta love the Carolinas. Watched the Cornette and Dillon Back to the Territories lately and this complemented it nicely.

To say nothing about his unwillingness to learn or grow as a "character." Perfect example, the reason Heyman is back despite a severly burnt bridge between Paul and the company, as well as Paul being DONE with the business, moved on and was in a healthier place to the point that he was never going back to ANY promotion. BUT Brock hated talking SO much, and didn't want to start fresh with a brand new mouthpiece, he demamded they bring back Heyman. It worked out of course, with Heyman adding more credentials to a HOF career, but it was only because Lesnar wanted nothing to do with talking and needed Heyman specifically. I'm curious but do you think that a talking version of Brock would be a better character? I understand the promotion's goal is to churn out TV to sell to all the different markets but my problem with characters like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins or Dean Ambrose is that they get too much talking time. Even Heyman is very repetitive and he is one of the best talkers out there. The comment was about Brock as a human being. My response was that he didn't give a shit about the icy relations between his good friend and IRL buisness partner and his new place of employment. Nor did it seem that he had much consideration for his friend's state of mind of putting his time in the buisness behind him and feelings of "I'M FREE!" and had him brought back Godfather III style, because it made Lesnar comfortable, and Lesnar knew the company would do whatever he demanded. I don't think Heyman would be there if he didn't want to be.

I go hot and cold on Keller and Mitchell lately. They reach to complain and theorise about things that aren't there sometimes, and go on and on about the same tired points weekly. But when they have something relevant, intelligent and interesting to say, they're 50 times more articulate than Meltzer.

Wrestling does seem to bring out the worst in people.

Is ECW the best example ever of a zeitgeist-catching, had-to-be-there promotion? I was listening to a podcast listing Top 10 ECW matches and it struck me just how little interest I have in rewatching much of it. And I'm not bashing ECW - loved it at the time, ordering tapes from 1994 through to 2000 or so.

I'm with Smack on all that. Really good show and the perfect antidote for lazy generalisations about the 'Monday Night Wars'. Three months chunks is fine too.

Struck me as odd as hell too.

Also, Brock doesn't seem to have kicked up a fuss since April '12, after Cena's little postmatch speech at Extreme Rules. I always get the impression he's happy enough to do anything booking-wise as long as the money keeps coming.

How many matches is that now? Getting conflicting info...

There was actually a lot of audible spot calling on this show, it wasn't just Cena. Maybe it was the dead crowd, maybe it was the way they mic'd things, maybe the acoustics of the arena.....but it was happening in every match Fair enough. But it always happens with Cena.

That's ok Chad - I'm not demanding it tomorrow! Just soon. Sooner the better, actually.... Actually, how about tomorrow...?

It was mentioned on the thread earlier and it's really irritated me for a long time, but IF Cena continues to call moves loudly and without covering his mouth and IF no-one in WWE has the balls to confront him about it could they please shoot his matches differently? Just keep the hell away from him!

Wow! Hell of a way to finish boys! A few thoughts.... I actually think the Clash 9 match is the highlight of Funk-Flair. Bash comes very close, but Solie and Ross together calling it, and the microphone punches, and the goofy suplex over the top rope all add to the fun. I'm with Chad on Michaels-Angle. Loved it. Great intensity on the finishing stretch. Bulldog-Hart at SummerSlam disappointed me on last watch. Much prefer the in your house December 95 one. Bret-Perfect at SummerSlam is probably similar to Chad's attitude to Warrior-Savage. First ppv I watched and really got behind Bret, and Piper and Heenan sniping at each other on commentary was great too. So, big emotional attachment and nostalgia - I'm almost afraid to go and re-appraise it. Leave the memories alone, damnit! Rewatched Cena-Lesnar and Cena-Punk late last year. Lesnar's match holds up really well - just jawdropping opening 5 minutes or so. On first viewing I was pissed at the finish, but this time round it worked ok. Like you said, it was a fluke loss and Cena had been decimated. You didn't get into the postmatch speech controversy, but I understand you needed to keep the show moving. Still love Cena-Punk also, white hot crowd, with massive introductions and the fact that it was in July immediately made me think of Canadian Stampede. I feared the crowd might have carried it when rewatching, but no it's still a blast all the way through and great, GREAT ending. You won't hear me complain about Rock-Austin at 17 either. Short of someone throwing Goldberg in there, it was the most massive match that was possible at the time. I really liked the way they had gone their separate ways after Backlash 99, and weren't interacting at all throughout the rest of the year. Of course, having Austin disappear in November delayed this match by a year, and it was easy enough to keep tension rising with teases (at Armageddon and Rumble) after his return in Sep '00. Really, at the time I thought this was every bit as epic as Hogan-Warrior had been. And a much, much better match. I was glad to hear the Toronto Feb 87 Savage-Steamboat match get some love . Is it sacrilege to prefer it to Mania?!! The Flair-Steamboat trilogy give diminishing returns (technically, and oh-so-slightly) for me. Order of preference is Chicago, then New Orleans, then Nashville. And the difference in the first two is miniscule. Third's still great, but a bigger drop off from the other pair. I'm on the Mania 26 over 25 bandwagon for HBK-Taker. Tighter match, bigger consequences, respectful crowd post match and the absolute best sendoff possible. Again, really great final show and please keep these coming. One thing I was thinking - if you do DVDVR sets, just for the sake of variety and a sense of promotional changes in the decade maybe talk about the top voted match from each year represented in the set?

My girlfriend will wonder about the hysterical laughter ever time our boy decides to watch the movie!!

Hi guys, bit behind on these, but 'Vince' singing Let It Go was near-car-crash-inducingly funny.

Shoe should've kidnapped him and taped hours of interview (at gunpoint, if necessary) until found by police.....

At last! Looking forward to this.

All this talk reminds me just how much good wrestling there was in WWE, TNA and RoH in 2005-06. It reinvigorated my interest in once again extending beyond WWE in my viewing. Good memories!

I'm not as surprised by Vince's appearance (which was likely airbrushed a good deal - I mean, I'm not saying the dude isn't in great shape, but from what I know about magazine/commercial photography, if the public is seeing it, it's been touched up), as I am about the ridiculous word choice. "Better than ever at 69"? If I read the article, is that fact confirmed by Linda? If yes, I think I taste my lunch coming back up. Meltzer absolutely BURIED this magazine cover the other day. Said Vince needs to grow up, reassess his priorities and called it sad and pathetic. Funny hearing him get so worked up about it. It's that crazy bastard Vince - what can you do?

Yeah, I understand that Goc. Still, I thought JR had stood out more in 97. My mind was playing tricks on me.