BigBadMick

We wrestling fans really are cultural archeologists at heart.

'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 ' RIP Rik

Really enjoyed this and looking forward to digging into more World Class when I've completed 50 million other bits of viewing... These shows are great, keep 'em coming.

Lads, the Katie Vick stuff - Jesus! In a good way.

Really liked the Georgia to Crockett transition stuff in the middle of this, Parv. It's stuff I thought I knew but hadn't had it explained so plainly. You should be a teacher

Sorry, I'm a bit slow this morning, but what's the implied joke?

Tough break, goc. It's a pity they're so bulky huh?

Just wondering about this the other day. I haven't converted tapes to DVD, but still find myself reluctant to hook up the old videorecorder to play them. It's a shame, I've contented myself with dvds I've acquired since 2001/2002 instead. I'm not talking about bootlegging here, just wondering if anyone still watches wrestling videos?

Ok, I'm back. I think NO Mercy is really solid. Matt Hardy and Henry work a nice, basic ECW title match to open, Kane and Mysterio are great (they follow up with another great one at Cyber Sunday), and Undertaker-Show is a shockingly good big man scrap (also followed up with a better match at Cyber Sunday. After HBK-Jericho concludes, the commentators note that the final two matches were one of the best semi- and main combinations in a long time and I'm inclined to agree with them. HHH and Jeff was very good - I got the impression HHH loved this feud, and worked hard with Hardy. Also, Hardy showed a massive improvement over the course of the year. Again, I thought their Cyber Sunday rematch was better. I've already covered most of Cyber Sunday, just to add that Bourne-Matt Hardy was well-received (both Hardy's worked hard this year) and Jericho-Batista was very good. The guest referee nonsense towards the end actually worked ok, I thought. Usually I hate that. Survivor Series was weaker than Unforgiven, thinking about it now. HBK's survivor match was good, Batista's less so. Don't know how Taker-Show had such a underwhelming casket match after the previous two PPVs. Punk v Mysterio was sensational at Armageddon. You could just imagine people saying 'yeah, we'll pair these two up again, and again, and again....'. Don't know how or why but Batista-Orton just didn't gel at all. Main event was a lovely close to the Hardy-HHH feud, and with Edge thrown in for good measure. They really worked the 'will he,won't he' aspect for Hardy. It's official, I'm going with 2008 as WWE's best PPV year of the decade.

Finished up 2008 this week - wow! Hardy v Orton from Rumble was very good and the two Elimination Chambers were really strong (particularly the Raw one). WrestleMania was solid. Liked it a lot better when it happened, but I think Taker-Edge, Flair-Michaels and Orton-Cena-HHH still look good. To save repeating myself, I'll say here that all the Edge-Taker matches were very good, except Hell in the Cell. More on that later. MVP-Hardy, Batista-HBK delivered at Backlash, but I think HHH fell back on old 'epic' tendencies with the main event going far too long. It's a shame, because for the most part his PPV work was really good all year, and he seemed reinvigorated. The much loved Jericho-Michaels matches were interesting. The crowd was white hot even the first one at Judgment Day (actually, that's something that's worthy of a mention - fans seemed really into the product all year, I don't know if I'd seen such consistently hot crowds and massive audience goodwill since 2000), the Bash match was high drama at it's highest and most dramatic (not everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it), the Unforgiven one was a bit of a step backward - too long and overly milked/similar to the Bash one, I thought. The Ladder match at No Mercy was a return to form - brutal, dramatic and, crucially, tighter. Back to Judgment Day - really liked Punk's work with Kane v Miz and Morrison, and the cage main event was solid enough - HHH curbed the excesses from Backlash. Hardy-Umaga opened One Night Stand very nicely, and Batista-Michaels had blistering heat. There's a two match series that deserves more attention in Batista's career. Matt Hardy v Benjamin (it's been Jeff matches I've written about so far) was great for undercard of Bash, and Punk-Batista had massive heat and was a really good showing from both guys. I know Punk's not fond of his 08 title run, but this and his JBL match at SummerSlam both hold up well (to a lesser extent the SS one though). Edge-HHH was ok, I was waiting for Vickie and some shenanigans towards the end, but yeah - solid main event. The last three matches at SummerSlam were interesting - HHH decides to walk on water and drag something decent out of Khali . He does succeed, to be fair. Cena-Batista is carried by GYNORMOUS heat, and is pretty decent. HiaC is a stunt show, and for me the only wrong footing in the taker-Edge feud. It's interesting that the made a TLC work at One Night Stand but HiaC just seemed too..... much? I dunno, I didn't like it anyway. Scramble matches at Unforgiven - ECW's was fine, HHH and Jeff Hardy had to sacrifice Kendrick and MVP to work the SD one (I can see why this gimmick wasn't reused) and the Raw one was ok. One of the weaker PPVs of the year (which in itself bellows of the high quality year going on). More later........

Is that us you're talking about around the 30 minute mark, Justin? Uh oh, here comes Chad!

I watched this again a couple of years ago. I think Guerrero-Edge and Angle-Benoit carry it. Undertaker-Lesnar is respectable, once you get past the crappy finish....which I just COULDN'T in 2002

Yeah, all those reasons why I started reading it and getting into tape trading in 94 - 95. I was a big Rob Butcher fan too. It was never a gateway for me though - there were some things I found objectionable in the early noughties but not to the extent of ruining the mag.

Funny you should mention that, I've taken out a subscription to FSM. Let battle commence....

Yeesh, that Rocky Raymond guy - what a loser! It's not as if I used to record my own commentary on audio tapes in 1994-5 for Japanese matches....ahem.

Actually, 2004 is probably just slightly stronger, PPV-wise, than 2003. Losing Lesnar and gaining JBL was a MASSIVE kick in the balls for Smackdown, and while HHH improved his output drastically over the previous year, there was still than horrendously overblown Hell in a Cell with HBK to answer for.

Interested in this because there's loads of gaps in my 2010 and 2011 viewing.

Another great recap lads. And a hell of a show. Second half of 02 seemed much more stable, looking forward to the next few reviews.

Definitely solid TV, but I was going by the thread being about PPVs. I thought that was their worst top to bottom PPV year. Definitely solid TV, but I was going by the thread being about PPVs. I thought that was their worst top to bottom PPV year. I thought several PPVs in 06 were solid to strong - Royal Rumble, No Way Out, WrestleMania, Judgment Day, One Night Stand, Unforgiven and No Mercy. 2003 was probably the worst year imo. And it wasn't completely atrocious - Lesnar, Angle, Guerrero, Tajiri, Benoit, Jericho and Michaels were all delivering, and that's just off the top of my head. Look forward to Scott's apologies for HHH's debacle after debacle after debacle on P2B....

I've been skipping the first 20 minutes on any Ross Report I've listened to. He's a spectacularly delusional, out of touch, bitter man.

Listened to the second hour this morning. It picks up a great deal, to be fair. Ted covers his early career, a few Mid-South stories, Dr Death and Hansen.

Ted's very dull, no question. But isn't it up to the interviewer to direct the conversation? All Ross has to do is bring up the classic Mid-South angles/matches that we all want to hear about. And by all I mean anyone that wants to listen to JR interview Ted DiBiase.

Halfway through Ross Report with DiBiase. This one had sooooooo much potential, but these two old sticks in the mud are putting me to sleep. Never mind rambling about it not being as good as the good old days - just tell the stories from the good old days. How hard is that!

I always get the impression there are a lot of very intelligent people on this board. Just look at what's going on in the 'is drawing a good metric?' discussion, for example. Part of what I'm asking is - do you feel your time could be better spent with more highbrow pastimes? Again, maybe it's just me with my lowly job and delusions of grandeur. Again, don't shoot!

Thanks, Johnny - needed that! It's a great thread but it's heavy going....