goodhelmet

Kris, I think that is overreacting. Henry won his Wrestlemania match against this month's PPV headliner. Sheamus lost his tag with Orton and Show. At worst, it is 50/50 booking which also sucks.

Mark Henry vs. Sheamus - Both guys had great strategy early on with Henry tying up Sheamus's feet and then Sheamus trying to hit the turnbuckles from the apron. Loved the tease early on where I thought they were going to end it early when Sheamus was on Henry's shoulders. Wanted to see Henry go over but the ending was pretty well done so no complaints. Great stuff for the short amount of time they were in there.

That strap looks like bandage wrap.

Kofi vs. Dean - One thing nobody mentioned is that they didn't do the fake finisher reversal spots that annoyed me in the Miz match. Don't know if I like Ambrose's finisher but it was the right finish.

Fandango vs. Jericho - I don't care about either of these guys so it was hard for me to maintain interest.

I listen to those guys too but I think Austin is pretty great. Hell, I would love to have Austin on Mohr's show.

Will the new cage give HHH a personality? Also, caught the ending of the Miz-Cody match right after Miz seemed to trip over his own two feet. Miz wins with the figure-four.

Post your thoughts here during the show. Chris Jericho vs. Fandango Kofi Kingston vs. Dean Ambrose Team Hell NO vs. Reigns & Rollins (Tornado Tag) Sheamus vs. Mark Henry (Strap Match) Randy Orton vs. Big Show (Extreme Rules Match) Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger (I Quit) HHH vs. Brock Lesnar (Cage Match) John Cena vs. Ryback (Last Man Standing)

I don't think Jerry is saying American crowds are unable to laugh at comedy matches or comedy spots in a wrestling match. The point is how a crowd responds and how it comes across on TV. I think you can hear laughing more when somebody fucks up than an actual comedy spot. In Japan, during the JCup, I think it was Sasuke who fell off the ropes and the crowd didn't groan or pop, they laughed. It was all you heard. In an MX comedy spot, the crowd doesn't laugh, they pop and yell and cheer and scream... completely different reaction even if the people sitting next to Tom are hooting and hollering. I watched the Fargo clip and that's a pretty good example of the overall audience actually laughing, not cheering and yelling during the comedy spots.

Phil wasn't able to join us but EricR shook off the podcast cobwebs and starts off immediately with Prince songs about AIDS as appropriate theme music for the set. Great stuff. Anyway, my rankings for this little batch of matches... Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (7/16/88) - Eric said this was his favorite Hennig performance maybe ever. I thought it was his 2nd best performance on the set currently sitting in at my #11 spot. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Manny Fernandez (10/15/88) - Really great match between these two that will fall in the top third. I remember liking the strap match more but this wasn't far behind. Manny Fernandez, Teijho Khan & Soldat Ustinov vs. Robert Gibson & The Top Guns (6/12/88) - Manny was awesome in this and the post-match brawl was one of the best on the sets. Sgt. Slaughter vs. Col. DeBeers (Boot Camp Match) (12/13/88) - I liked this way more than Eric. I have this in the middle of the pack but enjoyed all of it until the dogshit ending. Curt Hennig vs. Greg Gagne (6/12/88) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Manny Fernandez (7/6/88) Mando Guerrero vs. Pat Tanaka (6/12/88) Cactus Jack Manson & The Rock n Roll RPM's vs. Chavo, Hector, & Mando Guerrero (12/13/88) - I thought all of these were fun but none were stand-out great for me. Glad I watched them, enjoyed all of them but they are all middle of the pack bottom half picks for me.

OK, I have been trying to get Eric R out of his civil servant cocoon for awhile now and he is going to join me and Kris Z for one of the last AWA excursions. We are almost at the finish line and we may even get a visit from Phil for a Segunda Caida reunion. When the show is posted, I'll let you know if Phil pops in or not. As always, everyone is invited. http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkC...6382&cmd=tc Here are the matches on the list today... Mando Guerrero vs. Pat Tanaka (6/12/88) Manny Fernandez, Teijho Khan & Soldat Ustinov vs. Robert Gibson & The Top Guns (6/12/88) Curt Hennig vs. Greg Gagne (6/12/88) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Manny Fernandez (7/6/88) Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (7/16/88) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Manny Fernandez (10/15/88) Cactus Jack Manson & The Rock n Roll RPM's vs. Chavo, Hector, & Mando Guerrero (12/13/88) Sgt. Slaughter vs. Col. DeBeers (Boot Camp Match) (12/13/88)

Fun fact I haven't seen mentioned anywhere yet but the zombie hands were the NXT guys so there you go... Chris Hero and PAC make their Mania debut.

Highspots is trying to say that when they sell a download, it is just like streaming so they don't have to give the filmmakers a cut. Get the download from the actual site.

I think I missed that part of the podcast. Anyway, can anyone give proof of Bryan Alvarez actually being funny? I keep reading "at least Bryan is funny" but I never read or hear anything funny from him. What am i missing?

I agree with Johnny. Once I get to my home comp, I'll post my rankings but with the exception of the Orton/Adonis tag, all of them were very good but those finishes got old real quick. Keep in mind, when we watch and nominate matches, we don't watch them by year. We watch a ton of bad matches with good matches sprinkled in so it is easy to nominate matches without seeing a pattern like a bunch of bad finishes in a row.

Maybe... Depends on who wants to actually go back and revisit it.

OK, our countdown to the finish line continues. Only a couple of more shows but they will be action packed. I need to see how long the match portion of Disc 11 is. It may have to be split into two shows. Anyway, going to start off tonight with my old reliables... Kris and Johnny Sorrow. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (12/27/87) Original Midnight Express vs. Midnight Rockers (12/27/87) Adrian Adonis & Bob Orton Jr. vs. Midnight Rockers (January 1988) Badd Company vs. Midnight Rockers (2/19/88) Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (2/19/88) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (3/19/88) The Nasty Boys vs. Rock n Roll Express (4/16/88) Jerry Lawler & Greg Gagne vs. Riki Choshu & Mr. Saito (5/14/88)

I have enjoyed every episode so far and listen to the show to get from work and back. The audio is loud enough that I don't have to fight with traffic in order to hear the show on the iPad. Austin reminds me of my older ex brother in law... probably not someone you wanted your sister to marry but is fun as shit to be around.

Just got off the phone with my buddy Johnny P. Overall, as a two man documentary (Johnny and Kevin did nearly EVERYTHING on the film), an amazing job in putting the film together. Even though I had a DVD on the way, I watched the premiere with my nephew and his wife. My nephew is a wrestling fan but has no clue what ECW was about. His wife is anti-wrestling, period. The character that got over in this setting was New Jack... funny, witty, a little psychotic. Neither had any sympathy for Mass Transit. My nephew's wife was unsettled by the violence but Johnny did a great job of actually explaining why the company was unique when describing the fans, the buildings, the violence and the weird cast of characters. As a wrestling fan, my first instinct was why didn't he go through greater depths in explaining that ECW also had a bunch of foreign guys and world class workers. Johnny explained it would be difficult without making another entire documentary on explaining what a great worker was in the world of wrestling to a non-wrestling fan. With that goal in mind, it makes perfect sense.I am on the opposite side of the fence when it comes to the Extreme Reunion show as Dylan and told Johnny as much. I agree that it did give us a great now and then look at Balls and Axl. Besides that, I never got the sense the documentary went into depths into who Shane Douglas was or who Jerry Lynn was to really give a shit about them holding this show 11 years later. They could have just focused on Balls and Axl at the reunion show and been just as effective. On the other hand, I thought the way they covered Tommy Dreamer and the Dudleys without having them appear in interviews was really great. The business side was covered and I think it was a very fair portrayal of the collapse the company and the battered lives it left behind. I am going to watch the DVD again before I call it the greatest wrestling documentary I have seen. I think since I was a Texas fan (and not an ECW fan during its peak), Heroes of World Class tugged at my heart strings in a way that an ECW documentary never could. As far as editing, music, use of the interviews to tell the story and overall production, this was about 1000 times better than I could have ever hoped for. The photos and wrestling clips were used to great effect and that fancam grittiness really helps bring out how you really felt you were peaking into an underground world you knew nothing about. I haven't seen Nigel's documentary yet (although I have it sitting here) but I can easily compare it to Colt Cabana's documentary. Cabana's film was great for a fan of indy wrestling but there is no way it would be accessible to a non-wrestling fan. With a couple of minor exceptions, I watched the film with a novice wrestling fan and a non-wrestling fan and both were able to stay intrigued and interested throughout the duration. Cabana's editing and production also felt like it was a guy filming a road trip with his buddies on his camcorder. I never felt like I was watching a genuine documentary. This felt like a real, genuine movie without the corporate sheen of a WWE production.

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Nick Bockwinkel vs. Larry Zbyszko (7/11/87) Bill Dundee & Jerry Lawler vs. Original Midnight Express (10/30/87) - 2 super great matches. I may like the Bock-Larry match better than the 4 minute match because it had a great ending and the Larry sections were pretty great in themselves. Dundee-Lawler tag was just classic formula wrestling executed to perfection. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (9/12/87) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (Indian Strap Match) (11/28/87) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Boris Zuhkov (Russian Chain Match) (8/29/87) - I liked the Hennig match leading to the strap match better than the strap match. The ending with Wahoo being carted off puts it over the top. Bad endings in the Strap and Chain match hurt both matches. Midnight Rockers vs. Kevin Kelly & Nick Kiniski (12/27/87) - Eh, the heels were perfectly fine but you really notice the absence of Rose-Somers. Curt Hennig vs. Mitch Snow (10/30/87) Curt Hennig vs. DJ Petersen (8/29/87) -Perfectly fine wrestling with Curt fighting two guys I don't give a shit about. I could switch the order but they would probably be back to back on the lower half of the ballot no matter where I put them.

In ten minutes ( I know, lots of time to prep). Me, Johnny Sorrow and Sarp are going to knock this baby out... Nick Bockwinkel vs. Larry Zbyszko (7/11/87) Curt Hennig vs. DJ Petersen (8/29/87) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Boris Zuhkov (Russian Chain Match) (8/29/87) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (9/12/87) Curt Hennig vs. Mitch Snow (10/30/87) Bill Dundee & Jerry Lawler vs. Original Midnight Express (10/30/87) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (Indian Strap Match) (11/28/87) Midnight Rockers vs. Kevin Kelly & Nick Kiniski (12/27/87) http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkC...6382&cmd=tc

Overkill was one of the greatest song of the 1980s.

I agree that 175 may be overload but there were two reasons we made it 175. First, there was enough disagreement in match opinions that we each wanted our fair share of personal picks. Second, New Japan had a ton of juniors matches with nostalgia cred that we felt had to be included for the voters even if none of the crew watching the set actually liked the matches.

This really feels like jdw's passive aggressive way of demeaning Flair. I have watched tons of 80s Flair. In his matches, he may have "bitch"spots but rarely does he play the bitch the entire match.