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I absolutely hate this match. Shawn is coming in what is supposed to be an ultra serious match, putting his childhood dream on the line, yet he spends all of his time on offense doing goofy comedy spots and generally not taking it seriously at all. Even when Owen has the pressure on him, as soon as Shawn goes on offense, he's not taking it seriously. What could have been a great match that set up Owen for another main event challenge later in the year ended up as half a comedy match, Owen being cemented as a mid carder, and Shawn being the most grating top face WWE has ever had. The heat that Roman gets from internet fans would be laughably small if those same fans were old enough to remember HBK's face run between WM 11 and DX.

The tag team of Lemmy and whiskey

Ultimately, the Stephanie stuff doesn't matter at all. No one has turned on a guy they liked because Steph talked down to him and they didn't hit her. She's just the annoying regional manager who acts tough when the real boss isn't around. WWE hasn't really operated on the principle of "assault your boss and expect to keep your job" since the mid 00s Stephanie is the personification of bureaucracy that everyone has to deal with, but ultimately isn't important. That people are still getting so angry when she doesn't get beaten up is so weird. You've been watching this show for years. You know how this is going to go and it isn't going to change. It is pointless, but it doesn't hurt any of the talent because no one gives a shit.

Jesus Christ it was a joke

Can a woman emasculate women?

I didn't even notice that the monitor actually hits Vince in the face lol

Speaking of Fozzy, I can't believe how bad that band is. I mean, I can, because Jericho is the definition of dadboner, but holy shit they're really terrible. The lyrics all sound like bootleg Bray Wyatt promos.

Wonderful match. Imagine a world where this is the HBK on top all year instead of the dude constantly doing comedy spots while Vince verbally fellates him more than he has any talent ever. And imagine a world where Nash got to be like this for more than a couple of months in the WWF. Both guys were absolutely on fire the whole match, HBK actually living up to his hype for one of the few times that year, Nash putting on an all time career performance as a ruthless bad ass while also talking shit to Vince every few minutes. Vince's nervousness of another talent taking one of his titles to WCW is understated, but definitely there, and it adds a lot to this match and gives some interesting color to Montreal and the Mr. McMahon character. Nash has a tendency to over hype himself at every stage of his career, but his November 95-April 96 run really is pretty integral to the NWO and Attitude Era. As for HBK, consider that at the previous IYH, he was doing comedy spots with Owen Hart, then dancing with kids. Here's he's being hanged, powerbombed through a table, and using a prosthetic leg as a weapon. This was about as good as a leaving the territory match as you can get. People are always quick to shit on Nash, but he has three of the best WWF matches of the 90s in a year and a half. His matches with Bret in 1995 were amazing. Nash has better matches against HBK and Bret than they do against each other.

They're a niche band in the metal scene with a cult following. More of a UK deal too. They are not a household name in the States. The Celebrity Wing so far is pretty much all mainstream household names, they wouldn't fit. Refrigerator Perry is the most obscure, but even he was a big deal in the mid 80s. Yeah, why not put JBL in, who probably got bumped off last year due to wanting to change the leaked list a bit. Gives SD a bragging point for having a HoFer on their announcer crew. Lol Motorhead is not a niche band with a cult following, but okay. The band/Lemmy still deserve to be in the HOF more than just about any other celeb in the HOF. They put Inoki and Fujinami in the real wing, and had a section devoted to Gotch and Hackenschmidt last year. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say Motorhead is more known to current WWE fans than George Hackenschmidt, Lou Thesz, Frank Gotch, and Antonio Inoki. I think you might be a little too much in the wrestling and/or metal bubble on this one. I never said only wrestling fans knew who Motorhead was, but they aren't a household name by any stretch. I'm not in either bubble. Motorhead was still headlining festivals and playing thousands per show up until Lemmy couldn't do shows. I didn't say they were a house hold name that even non metal fans know. But they're a lot bigger than niche band with a cult following.

They're a niche band in the metal scene with a cult following. More of a UK deal too. They are not a household name in the States. The Celebrity Wing so far is pretty much all mainstream household names, they wouldn't fit. Refrigerator Perry is the most obscure, but even he was a big deal in the mid 80s. Yeah, why not put JBL in, who probably got bumped off last year due to wanting to change the leaked list a bit. Gives SD a bragging point for having a HoFer on their announcer crew. Lol Motorhead is not a niche band with a cult following, but okay. The band/Lemmy still deserve to be in the HOF more than just about any other celeb in the HOF. They put Inoki and Fujinami in the real wing, and had a section devoted to Gotch and Hackenschmidt last year. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say Motorhead is more known to current WWE fans than George Hackenschmidt, Lou Thesz, Frank Gotch, and Antonio Inoki.

Motorhead is a pretty huge band, man. It's not like only wrestling fans know about it. They're not obscure or niche in the least.

Lemmy actually has a reason to be in the HOF, at least. Considering he was close enough to HHH that HHH spoke at his funeral, he seems like a pretty good candidate to go in.

I don't think anyone is saying SD is like TNA on any level. Just that the line between real life things interjected into angles being Russo-like and good is very, very thin.

It's a negative term for obvious reasons. The handful of storylines that worked are overshadowed by another decade of some of the worst shit wrestling has ever seen. There is a 10 year running TNA thread that should clear up why it is a negative term.

I think squashes would reintroduce a valuable element to the shows and may even allow them to work around some of the 50/50 booking issues people often complain about. There's a lot to be said for the value of them both as matches and as a booking device. This is pretty much how NXT got so hot online even before it became a super indie. Squash matches, only the main event had matches between two "stars", every few months would get a big card with big matches to blow off or start new angles. The most basic of 80s booking.

I don't think there is any way to read storylines that tie in with Total Divas as anything but Russoesque. One show is explicitly out of kayfabe. Bringing storylines from that into the kayfabe show and having storylines intersect with the show that follows wrestlers outside of wrestling and show them working on putting matches together and being friends with people they're feuding with on the other show seems like Russo's wet dream.

The most logical answer would be that the main event was twice as long as Tanahashi/Naito and as long as Goto/Shibata and Takahashi/Kushida combined, so it took twice as long to get outside of the opening stages. It's not like fans were losing their minds 5 minutes into Goto/Shibata or anything.

Yikes, I hope not. I can't help but laugh at him trying to have those bad ass vibes like Shibata, but coming off like a little kid. Always looks like he's going to cry, and can't help but let his Davey Richard roots and Three Stooges selling shine through. Even in a match based on arm work, he managed to work in his cartoony wobbly legged selling at WK. Jay White was pretty impressive from what I saw of him. I like El Hijo de Finlay as well, but man that dude has such a horrible look. Those new tights make it even worse.

This is the first generation of wrestlers that grew up smarks reading the WO and wrestling like what Dave raved/raves about. He's been THE tastemaker for a lot if not most of the top stars from North America right now. It's probably going to be like that for at least a few more years, so expect the trend of guys thinking spots = stars = great = money to continue for a while.

He hasn't been on contract for the past 4 years?

Sanada is dope. Forgot about him. I don't think Shibata is ever getting to the main events, though. He's been back for 4 years and is still being punished for leaving in 2004.

Oh Val Venis will for sure be in it at some point. Probably not as a headliner though, but I get what you're saying. They could have stretched them out by not doing years with 2-3 headliners going in. Rude isn't a headliner, and he definitely should have been in before guys like Koko B. Ware, Jim Duggan, Fuji, etc.

Are there any heavyweights on excursion right now? With Tanahashi officially out of the top of the cards, Shibata and Goto never getting there, the square of Omega/Naito/Okada/Suzuki can only last for so long, especially with Gedo's love of rematches (particularly for Okada). Seems like a good time for someone to return and make a big statement.

I think they've been waiting for Rock until he's for sure never coming back for any matches. Which I would say in the next couple of years that's off the table for good.

I wish I liked this more than I did. It's neat seeing Bret in this setting, and it was nice to see Funk go back to pre-crazy old man 70s style wrestling, but it showed why Funk switched to the hardcore stuff in the first place. I think the ECW presentation and Joey Styles probably knocked off a lot for me, since I'm not a fan of either things.