Parties

Rollins isn't a great promo, but he's getting better and I buy his character more than whatever Ziggler, Reigns, and Bryan are supposed to be. I enjoy a heel not liking the Daily Show, even if it sounds ridiculous stated aloud. Winced at points during Ziggler's promo, and it's crazy that they're doing this match here (or do they do it again on the PPV?) Interesting to see Ziggler and Ryback each campaigning to be the leader of their weird triad.

Feels like one of the first times where you have a good 4-6 guys who all have a case to make for why they should be the ace of the company. Lesnar, Wyatt, Reigns, Cena, Bryan, and Rollins are all kind of hashing out who the real #1 is going forward. Orton will be on their level when he returns. In another era guys like Rusev, Barrett, Cesaro, and Ziggler would be - if not main eventers - battling for #2 or 3. And then you have Ambrose get a win over Harper that makes you realize he's still really over with crowds. So that's like 12 guys who if this was 1995 could be believable as champ. Even with all the bad booking, there's still that elite 5-7 who are trading that top rank. At some point you'd think they'd acknowledge how stacked the roster is.

Except Rusev is a much better worker and promo. Fair point, and agreed. "Acts like" above = "sounded like him on this promo." He's also more enthusiastic than Reigns. I was mostly noting that Rusev's a really distinct character who they're starting to have deliver the same overscripted Thomas Friedman promos as everyone else, so as to hype WWE Fastlane.

Did Lesnar talk during this appearance? Surely they'll have him come back out later, or this was a hugely wasted appearance. But then, why have him on before Fastlane at all? And if Seth wasn’t a babyface after the Rumble, he’s sure as hell one now.

Re: Big Show on bullying - After the HHH podcast with Austin last week, this seems like a new animal: a fully blown post-kayfabe era in which heels and faces readily break character whenever it suits the corporate MO. It’ll be interesting to see who gets cheered in Memphis for the Reigns-Bryan main at Fastlane. Memphis is kind of a great market to gauge what’s really working here, even if they’re going with a non-finish into a three-way at Mania. Lana and Rusev aren’t even trying with their accents anymore. I don’t blame them, when having to do five minutes of promos about the Grammys and sentences beginning with “At WWE Fastlane…” At this point Rusev just looks and acts like a heel version of Reigns. That was a really good Cena promo, and he deserves a ton of credit for making me want to see a match that prob. shouldn’t be happening until Mania.

They’re laying the Sting tease on pretty thick - “Who will save us from these terrible distraction finishes?” Mr. McMagma’s hair was really something. Brie is the best in-ring performer of the show’s first hour. Nikki deserves a raise for running the ropes in stiletto heels.

The beard has become a detriment for Bryan. I don’t know if they think it’s got Game of Thrones cache, or if it’s the company’s way of trolling him, but it makes him look second-rate and I will eagerly cheer any heel who cuts it off of his face. This is a guy who’s attractive enough to marry Brie Bella. At least trim it into the kind of thing that Reigns, Batista, Barrett, Cesaro, Orton, and Rollins have all recently had, instead of this Gandalf-LARPing King of the Nerds gimmick. Decent match, bad finish. The two guys main eventing your next PPV can’t beat 47-year old Kane and 43-year old Big Show. You could do the same stupid “dissention” tease between Reigns and Bryan and still have them win. It would even give them a better reason for this dumb 5-on-2 main event.

Opening chat was bad. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but on the upside, at least the weekly promo war only went 10-12 minutes? Bryan’s mic work (minus the terrible marketing script) was decent, and I like that Reigns was at least behaving like a face. HHH wasn’t bad against Sting. I’ve said this before, but Steph being talented on the mic doesn’t change that she’s reciting terrible material. Superfluous verbiage dressed up as “corporate” rhetoric, and I really think the people who were calling her a better promo than even someone like Lesnar are conflating “said lots of words” with “drawing money”. Have Kane and Show ever been used worse than they have been in the last 3 months? Ever been less effective?

I think we're saying nearly the same thing, and even if we aren't, I totally agree with you. There's "trashy" that you can laugh about in the boardroom, and there's "trashy" that causes people to roll their eyes. The Bachelor is an affluent, lilywhite, all-expenses paid version of Tindr in the tropics. Wrestling is sweaty performance art coming to you live from Colorado Springs. Regardless of whether media millionaires compare WWE to cosplay or to Honey Boo Boo, these are still petty, image-obsessed people with a stigma against something they consider unhip. That lack of hipness is as big a factor as demographics or ratings. There are shows on NBC, FOX and cable that get terrible ratings in comparison to their CBS and ABC competition. Yet they still command superior ad rates, because the agencies think that old people are boring/thrifty, and have convinced themselves that people in their 20s will buy luxury cars. Recent trends suggest the opposite: boomers still have all the money and spend it faster than anyone. These are trends which would actually be a positive for WWE and its aging fan base, were Vince not a legendary sociopath and were everyone in the entertainment industry not irrationally obsessed with youth in denial of their own mortality.

The anecdote also makes the tenuous assumption that anyone in television marketing has any idea of what they're talking about. You'd be hard pressed to name an industry more steadily managed by creepy people distorting hard data to their own whims and biases. Except of course, for professional wrestling. I have no idea which companies (if any) throughout wrestling history have ever gotten good ad rates. I would think 70s/80s Memphis could have charged a lot (locally) given their ratings. Maybe New Japan in the early 80s, in that narrow pocket that Ohtani's Jacket referred to recently, or in Choshu's best 90s run as booker? But WWE/WCW seem to have always been dismissed as viewing for low-income people, even when endorsed by massive celebrities at the height of their popularity and revenue. WWE and MTV teamed up in the mid-80s largely because MTV was at the time also considered low-rent, and their powers that be wanted to be associated with Mr. T. If you explained to the average U.S. citizen that the person who wrestling has to thank for its peak cultural cache is Mr. T - that Mr. T is the man who we must thank for bringing class to wrestling - you'd be laughed out of the room, and you'd know everything you need to know about WWE's status in American life. http://deadline.com/2014/06/tv-series-most-watched-rich-educated-viewers-787403/ If this Deadline study is to be believed, the most-watched shows among the wealthy are a mix of terrible network dramas, the overrated network comedies that metropolitan people watch because they think they're too smart for the terrible network dramas, and reality shows that are sleazier than anything WWE in years. Sleaze is somewhat subjective, and The Bachelor fulfills a more common indulgence fantasy than that of wrestling, esp. modern wrestling in which the scumbag corporate exec antagonists are depicted as triumphant geniuses, while the would-be heroes are written to be impotent morons. It isn't quite that wrestling is viewed as trashy (though no doubt a lot of executives remember the Attitude era exclusively, if they know anything about wrestling at all). It's more that wrestling is viewed as childish, fake, and bizarre. TV ad executives are the last people to run from trashiness. But they're the first people to run from anything they perceive to be uncool. Katie Vick probably did less harm than Hunter boring people to sleep with inane 20 minute promos. Also: the WWE writing staff is comprised of incompetent people who've been fired from low-rated sitcoms and dramedies. The show comes off as low-rent because it's produced by the people who have been deemed the lowest dregs of the television industry. Which is really saying something, given that TV writers are some of the most overpaid people in the universe, and that you can become a powerful millionaire even when writing bad stuff for quickly cancelled shows. It's often said within Hollywood that there are about 10 to 20 really good TV writers who everyone wants to hire, and that those rare few are in obscenely high demand. Almost everyone else outside of those 10-20 people are paid ridiculous salaries to produce fair-to-middling stuff that costs their studio money and wastes everyone's time. To be the writer who is so bad that you can't even fake it in an industry of shameless goons speaks volumes about who is currently scripting WWE TV.

1) Reigns cheats to beat both Bryan and Brock, turning heel in Rock-as-Corporate Champ fashion. Bryan chases through the summer (with shenanigans along the way as Reigns gets cheap heat shaving off Bryan's beard, dodging the title defense, etc.) until Bryan wins the title at Summerslam, bookending the last two years and kicking off a long run with the belt. Reigns elevates someone by entering a feud with whoever looks brightest in August. Somewhere in this beautiful delusion, Kane steps in wet cement or a large pit. 2) Reigns gets more time with the title. Bryan could win it in the winter by making something like TLC a Starrcade-level show, but the bookers have no clue what they're doing and won't be able to keep the audience on the hook for a 6-9 month chase. 4 months between Mania and Summerslam is plenty of time to make people want to see Bryan beat Reigns. 3) Mind you, I'd rather see Bryan-Lesnar than any of this. You could still have turn Reigns heel at Fast Lane with a loss to Bryan, then have him beat Cena (they've already squandered the Rusev match) at Mania. Suddenly Reigns is a credible, badass heel who's got some of his cred back after beating Cena, then seeking revenge on Bryan. You could even have him cost Bryan the title in a Rollins MITB cash-in if you chose to go that way, given that Rollins has to go for it sometime before June 29 (though I don't think Bryan should lose the title three months after winning it).

Going to an MSG house show last July was a revelatory experience that showed how entertaining the company can be when not overwritten. Two Rusev squashes. Really good women's tag in Charlotte/Sasha Banks vs. Nikki Bella/Nattie. A Bo Dallas-Zack Ryder comedy match that was actually funny. Shockingly good Jericho-Orton match. Cena-Wyatt main event that was better than any match they ever had on TV and ended with entertaining cameos from Flair and HHH. This was a card without Bryan, Cesaro, Ziggler, Harper or the Shield and it's still the best WWE show I've seen in years. It's amazing how good their shows could be if they relaxed, had some fun, and let workers play to the crowd.

When I first looked at I thought the undercard seemed lousy, but the only lock for a bad match on paper is NAO-Ascension. Everything else could at least have moments, or has someone I like in it. New Day-Cesaro/Kidd/Rose could surprise people, and I expect both title matches to entertain. It does seem odd not to have any singles matches on the show, but they're using lots of people and mixing things up.

Only 22 entrants have been announced (23 if you count Alex Riley). Even if Rock and Orton are two of the missing 7, that's still room for some surprises. Could definitely see Noble and Mercury making it in there, along with Neville and/or Zayn. My wishful thinking prediction: Goldust gets the Hennig-style veteran workhorse outing, going 35+ mins in the Rumble. For the final four, I'll say Bryan, Reigns, Orton, and Ziggler, with Reigns winning after eliminating Orton after some Punt vs. Superman Punch exchange. Orton goes for the RKO but Reigns counters by catching and throwing him over the top.

Looking this not as “I really like Alan Sarjeant and Clay Thomson, wish they'd done more”, but as an answer in the spirit of the question for people who really looked and worked like stars: Kengo Kimura Gilbert Cesca “Mr. Condor” Romano Garcia Kantaro Hoshino Alexander Otsuka Terry Rudge Naoki Sano Jerry Stubbs Tibor Szakacs Tatsuo Nakano

Great points all from Dylan. I'd actually forgotten that they did Nakamura-Okada as the G1 final, and holy hell does that poke a huge hole in the idea of Gedo being the world's best booker. In terms of bad booking, that's like if they'd waited to announce that Bryan was in the WM30 main event on the Smackdown before Mania, or booked Cena-Lesnar two days before Summerslam. Busca de Un Idolo is a great concept that should be adapted in the States. I guess it's actually sort of what they were doing with the original reality show version of NXT, except with real talents genuinely going for broke. CMLL's future is surprisingly bright after what their current crop of young guys has shown, which is amazing given that you had doomsayers writing editorials at the start of 2014 suggesting that the company was at death's door. CMLL may never be as embraced as NJPW by the wider demo of online fans. The bias against lucha from Meltzer and his fans is pretty ridiculous: I can't recall a year in which lucha was discussed less by his followers, even though Dave has praised Cachorro, Dragon Lee, Rush, Dorada, Atlantis-Ultimo, and a lot of other CMLL this year. But nothing close to the praise heaped onto NJ.

Re: Steph, there's a weird true-in-fiction issue where she would be better off as a top of the card manager rather than being treated as the actual head of the company. I would love her as Seth Rollins' manager right now. I would love her as the figurehead trying to make the Divas division worthwhile. I would love her as a soap opera freak. Yet they would never do any of that, given that she's universally acknowledged as the true life VP and thus don't want to degrade her as Heyman +1. Steph is a talented performer who understands how to succeed as a heel, but that doesn't change the increasingly prevailing wisdom among fans that Heel Authority Figure is the most stale gimmick in wrestling. I do not love her constantly making everyone else on the show look inferior and lame. I would absolutely agree that Zeb Colter was more effective at his task than Heyman, and that Heyman is extremely overrated at this point, despite being a great promo at times. The issue is that he's very misused and has been coasting since Brock won the title. The hypothetical Cesaro-Brock match that never happened would have been the best use of Heyman, as there were many ways to go with him, but all was lost. I would actually say that Heyman fell victim to Lesnar's schedule: he was constantly having to justify his own existence while Lesnar was off TV, stuck in a non-feud with Taker, never being built toward anything after winning the title, and stuck in a tired feud with Cena that had some good promos and the one-day reaction to Summerslam, but which ultimately tanked under more bad booking. The Authority/Rollins muddling has made it that much worse. The best use of Heyman would actually be replacing Michael Cole, as a WWE version of Mike Goldberg. Play-by-Play guy who's credible enough to call the action, know his stuff, and compliment a color commentator, while still being a bit of a character in his own right. On “Most Overrated”: Alvarez and Martin said on their show today that 1) they thought that Kane was a bad choice to win, and 2) that Meltzer hasn't described the criteria for the award properly. I think they're wrong on both counts, as I've heard the award described in what sounded like Meltzer's own words as the worker whose push is least warranted and/or the most disproportionate to their talent. While I understand that Kane isn't winning the world title anytime soon, he is a perennial main eventer and staple of the upper midcard, despite being the shittiest worker on Earth. On wrestling's biggest platform, no less. It's neither surprising nor unfair for Kane to win. He may or may not be who I'd have chosen (I didn't watch enough 2014 wrestling to fairly vote), but Kane was selected as Bryan's post-Mania opponent. He was the de facto guy who worked main events that were beneath HHH and Rollins. He demonstrably made several important matches worse by being in them. Picking Reigns (a pretty good worker hindered by lack of experience and horrible promos) as Most Overrated seems like smark trolling at its worst. Reigns was a valued asset in some of the best matches of the year. Forgetting how good he was in his role from December through the Shield breakup is lame.

I'm wary of deeming recent stuff "classic" or among "the best", but I'd agree that Bryan-Cena and Bryan-HHH deserve to be in the conversation. Nuclear heat for the title win and angle, and the spectacle of Hunter hitting his career peak in the opening match of Mania 30 while he was more or less retired is really something. Kind of a similar deal to Austin at Mania 19 where a big star goes out on a high note (and yes I know he worked those Shield-Evolution matches, but those were good too).

Dave was also talking this week about someone in WWE sending him footage of a 2002-ish dark match where Lesnar successfully did his Shooting Star Press. There are a few frequently-discussed instances of people sending him something in order to confirm it happened, but I don't think it's as if he has some huge stockpile of unseen matches laying around.

Largely compiled from my Smarkschoice “Best WWF/E” ballot from 2008, with new stuff added. Ten favorites in bold: Pre-Expansion: Backlund-Valentine (MSG '79) Backlund-Patera (MSG '80) Backlund-Patera (Texas Death '80) Backlund-Hogan (Philadelphia '80) Backlund-Muraco (Texas Death '81) Backlund-Slaughter (Cage Match, Philadelphia Spectrum '81) The Hogan match is underrated despite doing well on the DVDVR set. Titan Sports: North-South Connection vs. Briscos (MSG '84) Santana-Valentine (MSG '84) Santana-Valentine (Cage Match '85) Slaughter-Sheik (MSG '84) Slaughter-Sheik (Boot Camp) Hogan-Schultz (Tuesday Night Titans '84) Windham-Murdoch (Philadelphia '85) Savage-Santana (MSG '86) Savage-Hogan (MSG '86) Savage-Steamboat (Boston '86) Savage-Steamboat (Toronto '86) Savage/Race/Adonis vs. Steamboat/Piper/Junkyard Dog (MSG '87) Garvin-Valentine (MSG '89) I've gained an appreciation for this era and all the good workers that came in via the departed territories. I like the multi-man opportunities for them to bounce off each other and wish there had been better trios during the MSG era. There's a six man with Mr. Fuji working a match in the mid-eighties with Muraco and someone against Steamboat and I think JYD from I think Toronto that is really fun. New Generation/Attitude: Bret vs. Doink/Lawler (Summerslam '93) Shawn Michaels/Diesel vs. Razor Ramon/123 Kid (Action Zone '94) Austin-Bret (SS '96) Austin-Bret (Submission Match) Austin-Rock '03 For Austin-Hart I prefer the Mania match. Probably the best WWE example of something that's more legendary in hindsight. Against all odds I love the '03 Austin-Rock match, far moreso than '01. It's shorter, more intense, and historically major. Post-Austin: Benoit-Regal (Velocity '05) Eddie-Mysterio (Smackdown '05) MNM vs. Mysterio/Batista (Cage Match, Smackdown '05) Benoit-Finlay (Judgment Day '06) Benoit-Finlay (SD '06) Post-Benoit: Cena-Umaga '07 Big Show-Mayweather '08 Cena-Lesnar (Extreme Rules) Bray-Bryan (Rumble '14) Wyatts-Shield (EC '14) I also really loved the whole presentation of Cesaro-Kofi on Main Event: it's not good enough to be among the best, but a miracle match for Kingston and the whole promo at the end made for a cool, totally unexpected showing. I like Big Show vs. Mayweather more than most and it's a total spectacle, but it had a unique energy and is highly underrated among recent memory.

1990: After Vince runs down the card over V/O, the first voice you hear? Tony Schiavone. 1990: a weird year in wrestling. Crowd looks huge in the Orlando Arena, and the Bushwhackers are really over in the opening comedy Rougeaus tag. Genius-Beefcake has awesome Lanny poetry, but even at his peak fame here through this '88-'90 stuff, Beefcake was horrible and deserves continued attention in that All-Time Worst Worker thread. Lanny works like himself and no one else: unique if nothing else, and I like his bumping and selling. In a Heenan Family promo, Rude's roided up and looking completely different from two years ago. Valentine-Garvin's awesome and really one of the company's best matches from this era. Not as good as their MSG match but they chop the hell out of each other and take crazy bumps. Rare that you actually see the Submission Match with two stips from guys who know a variety of submissions. Best thing on the show by far and Jimmy Hart is great here too. Coolest thing about watching these back to back is you see the same checkpoint a year later for workers whose stocks were going up or down. Hennig a year later is gassed to the gills but has gone from new guy to established main eventer with Hogan. I have seen the eye of the firestorm that will engulf this earth, and it's a 1990 Jimmy Snuka promo. But let's hear it for Akeem the African Dream doing the same “Jive Soul Bro” dance move with his right arm exactly as he did it in his Rumble promo a year earlier. Bossman-Duggan dragged at times: disappointing given the pairing, but Duggan bumped well. In the Rumble, Dibiase dominates early but right at the pummeling arrival of Jake the Snake I was listening to Kendrick Lamar, which made it seem more righteous for sure. Dibiase is an enormous play-it-to-the-cheap-seats performer when he bumps for Jake, and Savage is awesome here: '89-'90 is his rendezvous between peak agility and wily vet wisdom. The Savage/Jake/Dibiase stuff with Sherri on the outside is excellent. At Piper's arrival, it's amazing how over he was. Huge reaction: hot crowd all night. Dusty, Barbarian, and Bad News aren't bad either: Dusty in particular working like a guy who knows this is his last dance, and there's an amazing Savage bump to the floor. Fuji and Heenan getting into was really great too, I always like it more when managers are out there. Andre vs. Bill Eadie in 1990 is a battle of the two oldest dudes on Earth: two mastodons colliding. Danny Davis is back to being an actual ref on the outside sending dudes back to the back, which feels like a comfortable end to least one of the thirty-nine different Robert Altman trajectories being told in these last three Rumbles. Unbelievably stacked roster: Haku vs. Dusty is a great matchup, with Dusty bumping surprisingly well in 1990. I would have watched Haku-Bret or Haku-Dusty as seen here for a full year in 1990. Hogan once again looked bad in his onslaught on eliminations: sends Haku over the ropes with the worst Big Boot ever, while Michaels gets dumped on arrival by Warrior to set up the Warrior-Hogan showdown with Hogan double-crossing Warrior. The parallels to Cena are apparent here. A bit anticlimactic as it comes down to Hercules, Rude, Barbarian, Perfect and Hogan, with the crowd knowing who's going over, though you can see Hennig and Rude being established as the new heels for the 90s.

1989: Not the best, but lots of good backstage number-drawing segments. Duggan/Hart Foundation vs. Bravo/Rougeaus is a fun 2/3 falls. Bret's FIP and Duggan had become a cartoon after winning the Rumble a year earlier, but Rougeaus were good heels. Rockin' Robin-Judy Martin: saved by Sherri Martel on commentary. Martin's second outing on back-to-back Rumbles, with Gorilla calling her “lethargic” on commentary. Robin was worse. Whole match was as bad as current Diva stuff. This also has the Rude-Warrior posedown/beatdown segment that I saw a hundred times as a kid, but it's aged badly. Then King Haku comes out on a throne being hoisted by four jobbers and all is right in the world. Haku-Harley Race is effective in its clubbering if not that thrilling. Race has the huge scar on his stomach from the Hogan table dive injury that makes him look that much scarier, and Haku's flying and kicks make him seem like the biggest badass in the company for the second year in a row. Rumble match isn't as good as the 20-man version from the prior year. Less action, fewer interesting team ups. It was sad to see how broken Andre was by this point, and it clarified something I always found extra intense watching him as a kid at this age: he always had a really pained look on his face, which made him seem more monstrous. Hennig's bumping was great. One does get the sense that as good as the roster was, it was an aging one of territory guys making their last stop before retirement. Hennig and Michaels were the only guys who seemed new on the scene. Plus Tully and Arn in their only Rumble. Hogan so obliterates everyone that I was delighted when Luke Williams hobbles over, grins, and starts punching him in the gut. Tully, who Hogan's just catapulted throat first onto the ropes, drops a double axe handle and commences gut punching too. Boss Man is great as the brick wall Hogan runs into after dumping Savage. Amazing how heelish Hulk was here as top face: always the sore loser, and his act is stale by this point even with the Mega-Powers stuff. Studd is too weird a winner, but the first time anyone winning it actually led to a title was '92, so these first four are all just pride and prestige. But Studd looks bad here: why did he win? From directorial/editing perspective this looked better than their current TV.

I think people overcomplicate why someone like Reigns isn’t over. Bad promos written by a woozy, seventy-year old gargoyle. Unwillingness to book winning streaks. The company seems adamantly opposed to them now, to the extent that when a top babyface like Ziggler gets a pin on back-to-back weeks, Cole will remark that he’s on a “streak” of two consecutive wins. I really think there’s internal paranoia that if they book anyone strong, they’ll have a new CM Punk or Del Rio on their hands. Everyone's on the same low flame as a means of keeping the roster compliant, and to get over this ridiculous meme that “It’s no longer about stars, it’s about the brand” idea that gets parrotted online as if it makes any sense. Everything about the current WWE climate is opposed to a Goldberg-type beating mid-carders every week for a year straight. Which is amazing when you consider how buried the midcarders all are and how Reigns is their #1 priority. And I actually would not be at all surprised if we get Reigns and Bryan doing a Luger-Bret ’94 rehash. It would suck, but it’s very in step with the current booking: indecisive, resentful of Bryan, wanting Reigns to get over while rendering him impotent, etc.

Watched the '88 show for the first time. Steamboat-Rude is surprisingly mediocre. Steamboat is asleep while working formulaic “athlete” spots, Rude looks like he's waiting for someone to tell him what to do, and the restholds go too long. Then comes a Dino Bravo benchpress segment as bad as anything on RAW in recent weeks. Angels-Glamour Girls was on my top 50 WWE matches for Smarkschoice six years ago and might still be there now. Angels make me wish there was a tag team as fun as they were here. For the same reason WWE could use a Ronda Rousey, they could use Bomb Angels. And while Judy Martin's the one getting all the love of late from Naylor and whatnot, Leilani Kei impressed me here by biting hands and throwing a lot of Finlay-style knees and stomps, in addition to the batshit crazy look in her eye throughout: I forgot how scary she was in this and Mania I. Whoever booked this show did a lot of controversial finishes, esp. since this on the verge of Hogan-Andre II. As if between them and Dusty, everyone had decided to start booking non-stop “controversy”. Hogan-Andre contract signing is cheesy and slow. Jack Tunney doing his bi-monthly appearance as chief authority figure is so badly bureaucratic that it works. Dibiase is great at getting over a promo that's threadbare on ideas. Rumble match is methodical, well-timed, well-booked. Moves in waves of momentum with not many actual eliminations early on. Bret, Neidhart and Butch Reed looked good early. Not sure what this lead to for Duggan, or how he fit into the Savage/Hogan/Dibiase plans for '88. Vince's call of “Oh no, not this guy” at the arrival of Dangerous Danny Davis is a highlight. In ominous foreshadowing, Bret is dumped out the moment Warrior enters (albeit not by Warrior). Muraco and Warrior taking turns punching One Man Gang is awesome, as is JYD as the last entrant. As a Jan '88 show, the whole roster feels like a raid of Watts guys. For the first Rumble, it actually serves as a textbook example of what the Rumble formula would become: young technical guys at the front with one of them nearly going the distance, winner enters midway, giants and aging stars at the end. Islanders-Stallions is a badass match too. Haku and Tama are so fast here. Haku takes this crazy bump where Powers charges at him and Haku hits this violent almost armdrag-suplex hybrid where it seems like he's dropping Powers on his head while simultaneously dropping a knee on said head. Also an amazing moment in the middle in which Vince comments on the length of Tama's toenails and Jesse repeatedly calls him a racist. Show ends with Craig DeGeorge's second interview on the show (Hogan + Dibiase/Andre). Probably far from the best Rumble, but for a TV special never intended for PPV, the whole show was really good.

Sorry, wrong thread.