Big Pete

He didn't really phrase it like the reddit poster said, he just said they should be reserved for the top tag teams because they belong in that company. Cornette isn't a fan of the Dark Order. He ran through the same story he's been telling for several years about when he was in charge of ROH, the Super Smash Bros was this cult favourite tag team that were horrible everytime he booked them. He thinks the gimmick is a 'popcorn fart' but he was quite complimentary of Stu Grayson. He thinks he's somebody worth persevering with because he knows how to work. Cornette had nothing nice to say about Dionne, hates the physique and his style. He also isn't a big fan of Angelico and Evans. He believes they're both painfully thin, the fluro green attire is silly and the only thing they understand is how to flip. He didn't bring them up, but he's been critical of the Best Friends in the past. He hates the hugging gimmick and has nothing nice to say about Chucky T. Like Grayson, he actually has a high opinion of Trent but he just doesn't like them as a pairing. Jim is actually a big fan of SCU and has a lot of time for Daniels and Kazarian. He hasn't seen a lot of Sky, but enjoyed his work on Double Or Nothing. He actually seemed to enjoy Fight For The Fallen than most fans and was genuinely happy that AEW were improving with each show. He did skip the pre-show though, which was his big grievance with Double Or Nothing. I don't mind Cornette's reviews. Jim may not be in the target demographic for these shows, but he's somebody who's been around the business when it was popular and he can pick up on details that would pass others by. I'm sure many on here will find that the stuff he complains about isn't that bad or merely a sign of the times but every now and then he'll phrase something beautifully that I find myself adopting it. There's definitely limitations to his perspective, but as long as you take it for what it is and don't treat it like gospel I think it just adds to the conversation surrounding the company.

Bischoff's forte was pushing forward the live nature of a telecast. The show was usually built around hard lefts and shocking moments to get viewers to see what they would do next. With Nitro, particularly early on, it was all about bringing in new talent. It seemed like every show would feature somebody new whether it was Eddie, Chris, Sabu, The Public Enemy, Konnan etc. or a big time return like the Road Warriors, Madusa, Miss Elizabeth, The Steiner Bros. etc. That's what brought Nitro to the dance and made the Savage/Flair angle so successful because Randy played a fantastic loose cannon (as did of course Pillman...but basically to his own dentriment). Then the vision was eventually realised in May of 96, 8 months after the launch of Nitro when Hall came on and Bischoff really started to push forward the live television narrative of the promotion. That and his eye for production values is the two things he's got going for him. The TNA run as bad as it was still produced some positives, including that TNA reactions show which was shot well and gave everybody screen-time and a platform to put over their rivalries and gimmicks without all the gaga and nonsense. I'm actually looking forward to the next few months of WWE. I don't think it's going to be entirely smooth sailing, but I expect there to be changes which I think the show desperately needs. If the show can understand how to build up stakes, we're going to be in for a treat. Or realistically, Hogan will become the new authority figure and it's going to be TNA 2010 all over again with Jarrett and Sting getting more screen-time than any other active guy on the roster. Also, while I can see why others didn't enjoy Raw, I actually enjoyed the pacing of the show. None of the segments seemed to drag, a lot of guys are getting rehabbed (Lashley, Cesaro) and pushed (Ricochet) and a lot of the stale storylines were basically rushed through. The Seth-Becky/Baron-Lacey stuff was all thrown out at the beginning of the show, and the main event went all of five minutes. They basically sold the angles like 'don't worry, we're as sick as this as you guys are, but we're just getting our ducks in a row for SummerSlam' which is right up my alley.

Matt Taven-Jeff Cobb made Seth Rollins-Baron Corbin look like Over the Edge 1998 by comparison. The match didn't make it past ten minutes and the biggest spot of the night was Taven catching Cobb on the apron with an arm-breaker. Cobb sold it like a wounded animal, slamming Taven around, but slowly losing power allowing Taven to hit 3 penalty kicks and 2 climaxes (EC3's one-percenters, or just think a head-lock variation of Jarrett's stroke) for the win. The crowd was extremely quiet through out and the only chants of the match were split chants for Taven. I've been following ROH since 2011 and that was easily the most underwhelming ROH Championship match I've seen. Cobb replicated his effort at the Athens Olympics and Taven looked bored.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed that Raw. It goes to show what can happen when you build the show around simple storylines like Rollins hunting down anyone who dares to screw him out of the championship and the Shane McMahon VIP segment. Nothing ground-breaking, but it got guys on television doing something other than standing in a crowd or having lame duck matches. I even enjoyed the Good Brothers/Usos and Iiconics/Cross & Bliss matches for what they were. Just by adding some sort of storyline to the matches, they took what would have just been a time waster and made something of it. If the WWE can approach the post-Stomping Grounds show with the same gusto, they could put together some good television in the lead up to SummerSlam. They just need to course correct on a few things. I'll never say no to a Seth Rollins-Daniel Bryan match. I would have liked to have seen more Bryan on top, but they're hell-bent on making Rollins look strong and I thought he came across well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Cruiserweights have barely appeared on Raw since Enzo Amore was fired in early 2018? Before then, they were closing Raws and actually retaining decent numbers given where they are on the totem pole. It's a shame because having guys like Tozawa, Metallik, Kendrick, Gallagher, Alexander etc. work the undercard would be a massive benefit to the show. If the first hour became the testing ground for all these new ideas and acts, not only would it help the flow of the show, but it would make it that much more rewarding to be a fan. To see an act fine tune their gimmick and work their way up the card is what Pro Wrestling should be about. And if they flop, it's back to the drawing board. I thought the way they started last week with Lars Sullivan winning a 3-1 against an established team was straight out of the WCW Playbook. An awful piece of business that didn't do anybody any favours. Unless the fans enjoyed watching the Lucha House Party take some hellacious bumps, there were no winners.

Is that the same match where Dustin busted out a Code Red and a Spanish Fly?

They should have hired Chuckie T to play 'Dean Ambrose'. If the WWE had to blame anything, they can start off with the superstar shake-up. Ever since that show, the entire television show is in disarray and it's difficult to get invested when you hardly know who is on the show. I've never been a fan of those manufactured 'surprise' shows to begin with, but this year may have been the worst of all. Consider that before all of that started the WWE introduced five new characters in Lacey Evans, Lars Sullivan, EC3, Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight. Of those five, Evans was by far the best utilised and all she did was her entrance for three months. What an incredibly low bar that is, especially when you consider that she was supposed to be heated up for the biggest program on the show with the hottest act in Pro Wrestling Becky Lynch. They're playing catch-up now and all it's done is taken the gloss off of Becky. The WWE flubbed that up, so they called up four more superstars in Ricochet, Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. I'm surprised they didn't just have them appear at ring-side and have Apollo Crews acknowledge their presence or something. Their call-up was completely hamfisted and ultimately the only major development is that one of those guys is out for a long time and had to abort the pay-off to this long term storyline that's been years in the making. And now we've got this 'wild card' rule which is just a crutch for the writers because they have very little idea on what to do with all these underneath guys. Their best idea was to steal an idea they had 19 years ago and while I don't think it's bad in of itself, the last thing they needed to do was introduced another championship belt to care about. There's just nothing of substance happening and the show is well and truly in limbo as the WWE steadies itself for the Jeddah show. Doing that show in the first place is already alienating in of itself, but having to build it up makes it worse. I just don't understand why they can't treat those shows like the old UK PPVs where it's a treat for those fans and hardcore fans will tune in, but rarely acknowledged on TV. I think it would actually be better that way, especially since the marquee matches like Goldberg/Undertaker and HHH/Orton aren't being built up at all on TV. It's almost like they're ashamed to announce those matches and they're doing the bare minimum required to promote them. The show last night typified the WWE's struggles to put together a compelling television show. The first hour was a complete drag and the only news to come out of it is that Brock has literally transformed the MitB briefcase into a boom box. That was it for the entire first hour of television. Even Kevin Nash would be pushing for more action. The show just never recovered from there. Ricochet and Cesaro had a fun television match worth checking out, but the rest of the show was so blasse you just wonder why they even bothered. Even the main event of Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn had little momentum going into it and the main story coming out of that was teasing a potential cash-in from Brock. It was just a messy show and outside of Brock, I don't think anyone came out of it looking better.

Exactly. The Bar reveal was like all those times they had The Big Show turn heel or make a surprise return. It wasn't a knock on Show, just that he had been written to be so inconsequential for so long it's difficult to care. The same can be said for every tag team on the roster. This was a really tag team heavy show which I wouldn't have minded if the tag team division was booked well. The problem is that everybody in the tag team division is a geek and if somebody like Bobby Lashley or Drew McIntyre decided they wanted the tag team titles they would win it instantenously. It hurts the show becuase guys like Ricochet, Aleister Black, Chad Gable, Bobby Roode, The Revival etc. should absolutely be given time in the middle, but when it's such low stakes it's difficult to get invested. This definitely wasn't a post-Mania 14 edition of Raw. It was more of a Wrestlemania night-cap than anything else, just something to help calm the audience down before the superstar shake-up.

Misawa - He was the biggest star in Japan when business was booming and then parlayed that into forming one of the best promotions of the 00s. Savage was an amazing act in his own right, but he was essentially Hogan's bridesmaid. Jericho - This NJPW excurion sealed the deal. Angle - At least he showed up to work, Roberts constantly shot himself in the foot. The only legacy Roberts has is as a mentor to others. Taue - Hardy had similar issues as Jake, he was his own worst enemy. Taue was a more prominent figure with bigger cache with the audience. Edge - No contest, the Rated R Superstar.

The Iiconics aren't sex symbols, they're a comedy duo who flout the rules. That isn't to say they're not presentable, they're obviously very fit but compared to say the WWE's portrayal of Mandy Rose or even Lacey Evans, they clearly have a different utility. The Iiconics are in this strange position where I feel they're not utilised to their potential, but I couldn't see them possibly being champions or in a championship program. I see them in that Edgeheads type of role where they can be good ancillary characters but not quite stars. I would have thought debuting them as Carmella's insurance policy and giving them a couple of protected double team moves would have been a way to get them over, but they were cast into the background pretty quickly. As far as Meltzer, it was pretty classic Dave where he made a fair point but phrased it so poorly it backfired tremendously. Dave has a tendancy to be really cute and make all these references and innuendo when he should either just come out and say what he means, or just leave it.

That was a golden period for TNA, and even though they would have shot themselves in the foot eventually, it's amazing how quickly it goes downhill. Obviously guys like AJ, Daniels, Joe, Wolfe and Angle were highlights but I remember fans being excited for The Pope D'Angelo Dinero, Hernandez, The World's Elite, The British Invasion, The Knockout's Tag Team division etc. had a ton of excitement. Then the show was replaced by the Hogan and Bischoff variety hour featuring TNA wrestlers. It's such a strange show where Hogan plays this reformed corrupt booker while his best friend appears to be doing a lot of sketchy stuff and that's basically the show. A ton of Hogan's friends and adversaries try to sabotage the show, they have to deal with talent and in the background they have wrestling matches. From what I remember, it gets worse when they bring in Rob Van Dam and start introducing all these different stables. At one point you've got generic store-brand nWo, generic store-brand IV Horseman and generic store brand ECW when they already did a decent ECW storyline with Dr. Stevie, Raven, Foley and Abyss the year prior. I know you're bit of an ECW fan El-P, did you ever see Hardcore Justice 2010? I don't remember it being an especially good show, but it was certainly one of the more memorable shows of the period and maybe of some interest to you.

Yeah, I was caught off by guard by how solid he was during the Castle/Lethal match from Honor Reigns Supreme. It was odd, because his promo justfying his presence was extremely wooden, but as soon as he got to call the match he eased up and did a good job of putting both guys over.

I understand what you're saying, but they've never gone out of their way to make him a star. Until last year's G-1, Ibushi was always treated as a level below Okada, Tanahashi, Omega, Naito etc. and while Gedo would give him favourable booking, it's taken him a long time to make him a main event level talent. Because of the way the story played out and NJPW's interest to expand into global markets. From a story-telling perspective as well, it made more sense for Omega to be the one to beat him. Through out their series, Omega had been gaining on Okada to the point where Omega had beaten Okada, albeit in the context of a gruelling G-1. He went loss, draw, win and considering Okada's reign was beginning to feel like a sword in the stone, from a form perspective, it made sense for Omega, a guy who had yet to be champion, to be the guy to dethrone him. With Naito, I feel if they were going to make him champion, they should have either held off that 2016 reign, or had him beat Okada at WKXI when the feud had momentum. You could be right, I was really just piggybacking what Dave had said on his podcast. I get the sense that they were hesitant to push Ibushi as hard as they could, even though Nakamura did a wonderful job of making Ibushi come across like a star at WKIX, but that could be Gedo's well known stubborn streak.

In the past year they definitely have, but that one year sabbatical really set him back. I've read that the Tiger Mask W deal was supposed to be a strong endorsment, but watching it he came across as a mid-card geek and didn't really begin figuring into anything important until the WrestleKingdom match with Cody. Even so, he's one of the few guys on the roster who hasn't received a G-1 win or an IWGP reign who would actually seem worthy. As far as Naito, the timing has just never worked out. When LIJ was one of the hottest acts in 2015-16, they decided to put all their eggs into the Kenny Omega basket because they wanted to continue their global expansion. Naito and Okada appeared to be in the midst of a bitter rivalry, but when they interrupted it with Omega, and Omega had the audacity to have such a famous match with Okada, it made Naito an after-thought. By the time they around to doing Okada-Naito at the Dome, the fanbase was eagerly anticipating Okada-Omega IV which seemed to be the appropriate climax to the storyline they were telling. In a sense, they did pull the trigger on Naito in 2016, but it was such a weak attempt, it hurt Naito more than it helped. I may also be alone on this, but between Tanahashi, Omega and Naito, it seemed like he had the least amount of chemistry with Tetsuya and couldn't quite achieve the same quality with him as he did with others.

It's a tough position for White to be in. As Meltzer has been reporting, he's essentially been booked as Kenny's replacement and so the plan for him is to face Okada at the MSG show where he'll likely drop the title to Okada and from there Okada will likely come up against Tanahashi, Naito & Ibushi as potential challengers, with Ibushi being the next guy in line for them to pull the trigger on. As Dave mentioned on the Observer yesterday, Ibushi is one of those guys who would have had a run by now, if he had committed to the company. Ibushi was notoriously non-committal to NJPW, so they never felt comfortable making him a star despite his undeniable talent. I actually have a lot of time for White and think he's shown himself to be a quick learner. When he was in ROH and they were hellbent on doing nothing with him, I was impressed with just his basics like his forearm strikes and just how crisp and cleaned they looked. He still couldn't get over because he didn't 'crash and burn' enough or try and act goofy but he was one of those talents who in 2-3 years time could make something of himself. Of course Gedo said to hell with that, and we've ended up with what appears to be the worst IWGP run since the renaissance. This shouldn't be a long reign, and I think in the grand scheme of things makes the most amount of sense of Okada beating White and it actually meaning something. The problem is that when this is all said and done, White is going to have that perception of being a Kenny Omega stand-in and I think fans will have a tough time getting invested in his programs with Naito, Ibushi, Ospreay etc. when they come along. Onto the NJPW/ROH cross-over shows I guess. Cobb/Goto and Ospreay/Castle should be OK...I'm not sure what to make of Lethal/Tanahashi/Okada vs. The Kingdom or Lethal vs. O'Ryan for the ROH Title.

I missed Ibushi's promo. I'm happy to see he's staying with the company, he's the only guy left on the roster they haven't pulled the trigger on who could make a big difference. I'd love to see Ibushi/Okada at WrestleKingdom XIV. There's enough opponents for Ibushi to face in the interim like Ospreay, Tonga, White etc. to remain busy, but he'd be my pick to go one better and take the G-1. I'm also curious to see where Naito fits into the equation. The Jericho feud was a nice distraction, but since he's surfaced there isn't a lot in terms of viable opponents. It appears NJPW have recognised this and have got him cutting promos about becoming a dual champion. A Naito/White match would be a decent distraction and could solve NJPW problem of having too many belts. Certainly an interesting time ahead. It reminds me of 2016 where NJPW were scrambling to recover after losing Nakamura, Styles & Ibushi. It brought out the best in them then, 3 years on, does the promotion still have the magic touch?

With the way things transpired with AEW, Gedo must have felt like he needed to make a star and quick. They've poured a lot of time and energy into White and his storyline with Okada has been the major focus of NJPW since the 2018 New Year's Dash!! I presume they'll go with Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White either at Madison Square Garden or Dominion. Where they go from there is a mystery.

Nash, as well as the rest of the company, was in a weird place around this era. Nash particularly felt like a captain of a ship without a crew. They had just formed a new version of the nWo after months of suspense (starting with The Outsiders helping Bret beat Goldberg in the first round of the Mayhem tournament) and within weeks it went tits up. Bret would sustain a concussion that would end his career, Hall was sent home and even the workhorse Double J wound up getting injured. To make matters worse, they even brought Big Poppa Pump into the group even though he was still nursing a serious injury, so the stable felt completely under-manned at a time where WCW was down on troops. No Goldberg, no Hogan, no Sting, no Flair, it felt like any potential viewers they could have got with Austin, Taker and Foley being out were gone. So the point being, this Nash/Funk match felt reflective of that period. Two square pegs facing off in a match where neither guy could afford a loss. Nash had just restarted the nWo, and Funk was colder than the South Pole. I can't stress enough how disappointed fans were to see Terry instead of Ric Flair in that period of time, as somebody who warmed to Terry right away it was startling to see how many fans felt let down by the reveal. I'm still at odds on which era was worse. The initial Russo run of Halloween Havoc '99 - Souled Out '00, Sullivan's Souled Out 00 - the Nitro reboot or the Russo/Bischoff era. I feel the latter by virtue of the car crash style, but Sullivan going back to the well for the 1000th time was such a huge turn off.

I had a completely different take on ZSJ's strikes, where they were pitiful, but deliberately so to make it easier for ZSJ to lock in his submissions. It was kind of smart, in that ZSJ would bait Ishii into playing his own game, only to turn it into a submission and eliminate Ishii's biggest weapon. There were a couple of moments that hurt this match for me. Boss Rock brought up one with the Superplex move, that was straight out of the Final Battle 2011 Playbook and there were a few moments where they were jockeying and it just looked like terrible choreography. Outside of that, I thought the finish was weak as well and left me with a 'that's it?' feeling as opposed to 'wow what an excellent counter'. I'd probably go *** stars for the hot opening and the way they set up the contrast between one another. I was expecting more from them, but the class of both guys was evident.

Austin has told the Bossman story a few times on his podcast. I haven't listened to STW so Bruce may share the same version of events, but basically Austin kaboshed the angle after Bossman blew his cue at Survivor Series. Instead of Bossman running in and setting up their match for Rock Bottom, Gerry Briscoe did the favour and hit Austin with the weakest Lance Storm chair-shot you'll ever see. Of course Austin had to sell it like it was a home-run and the whole spot just looks awful. Austin vs. the world is certainly a fun thought and would be a good exercise. However, I'm the total opposite to you SS where my inner child has zero interest in seeing Austin face off against Big Bossman, Steve Williams, Jeff Jarrett on PPV. The Monday Night Wars was all about excess and as ridiculous and sloppy as it got they were right to milk the Austin/McMahon/Taker feud for all that it was worth.

That does sound awful. The rest of the card sounds on par with Bagwell/Hennig, Berlyn/Vampiro and Meng/Luger sounding awful from the reviews I read. The problem with that ladder match is that WCW rendered it meaningless 24 hours later by booking a rematch and reversing the result. Before the match even had time to garner a legacy, it was rendered moot by terrible booking. What really gives Starrcade '99 the edge is Bret's premature retirement. Not only was it a shame to lose one of the greatest of all-time, but it was catastrophic for the company. It set off a chain of events where Russo was fired for suggesting Tank Abbott as WCW Champion, which led to Sullivan assuming power, which saw Benoit, Malenko, Saturn & Eddie all walk out at the same time. Whatever appeal WCW had left over the WWF, was gone.

I've never actually seen the show, but being a fan around that time, I remember being pleasantly surprised. The Mayhem tournament had been something of a disaster with little to no action or storylines to make it engaging. It coming down to Bret/Benoit felt a little out of left-field but also felt like a huge breath of fresh air. The match from what I understand pales in comparison to the Owen Tribute match, but I'm sure is still worth the watch. For me, I'd easily scrub Starrcade '99 from existense. Outside of the Jarrett/Benoit match, nothing good came out of the show and the stupid Montreal finish maybe the worst finish to a major show in history. The rest of the show was hardly better, they had this dumb powerbomb match between Sid/Nash where they had a ref bump so Nash was able to claim he executed a powerbomb without doing so. I'd seen plenty of bad episodes of Nitro up to this point, but as the big season finale, this was the show that convinced me WCW wasn't worth my emotional investment. Royal Rumble '14 is another candidate. Not only did you have that disaster of a Rumble, but because the Cena/Orton match which the WWE had been teasing for years utterly bombed. I've never seen a crowd reject a match like that before, not even Goldberg/Brock was that bad. On top of that, of all the teams, you had the Outlaws beating the Rhodes brothers for the belts on the Kickoff show. The Rhodes brothers had something special and they were never the same after that match. The only redeeming thing on the entire show was Bryan/Wyatt which is easily Bray's best ever singles match, but even then, the timing couldn't have been worse.

It goes to show that when it comes to Pro Wrestling, the sum of it's parts are usually greater than the whole. That 1/4 show Sorrow mentioned has that fantastic moment of Mankind winning the title, but the rest of the show is something of a blur. HBK is written off TV, Terri Runnels has a 'miscarriage' and the only other highlight was a hardcore match between Road Dogg and Al Snow. One thing that stands out about that episode is just how good a job the WWF did of convincing the fans the title wasn't going to change hands. The main event very much felt like a run of the mill match that would inevitably end in a DQ finish. It wasn't until Austin's music hit that the possibility of a title change occurring actually became a reality and it ended up being this perfect reign. Of those '99 shows, I felt that highest rated episode was genuinely a cut above the rest. A fun opening segment with HBK turning the tables on the Corporate Ministry. The card was made up of the heels getting their just desserts and there was even a perfectly solid Pro Wrestling bout between Val Venis & Jeff Jarrett thrown in for good measure. It's the 10th of May 1999 edition and I feel it really does capture the essence of the era quite well.

My theory is that the WWE needed to create momentum heading into the show, especially after Becky Lynch was ruled out. Charlotte Flair-Ronda Rousey is a fantastic stop-gap motion, but they needed a hot angle heading into the show. So turning Daniel Bryan heel and winning the WWE Championship was easily going to draw the most attention. It's going to be strange seeing Brock-Bryan work a heel-heel match at Survivor Series, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to it.

Shane McMahon is the second worst written character in Pro Wrestling (possibly the first now that Roman has much bigger things to worry about) but I don't have any issue with how the past couple of weeks have played out. Survivor Series is now the Raw vs. SmackDown super-show and since they only had two weeks to promote it, they needed something hot to kick it off. Shane McMahon winning Crown Jewel got more people talking than The Miz or Bobby Lashley winning it and made the Raw vs. SmackDown rivalry much more personal. Besides, Shane wasn't the focal point of the main event segment - it was Daniel Bryan and The Miz, the biggest angle on the show that's basically existed since day one. That's the problem with spoilers sometimes, you get somebody's projection instead of how it was truly presented on TV. And as JR...err...Jimmy Redman pointed out, there was a lot to like about this week's episode. The Champ/Nikki Cross, Mysterio/Almas, Usos/New Day and the segments were all put together really well. Everybody should check out the stellar promo from the champ. She's taken her game to the next level and there's very few who can sell their fights like the champ. Ronda Rousey/Becky Lynch - pump it into my veins.