goodhelmet

Tim Horner's Feature was AWESOME... with the unintentionally bad recording of "Shameless" to cap it off.

I'll make sure some of those get on the set.

As a kid in the 1980s, I always thought Gorilla was the authority on wrestling. He spoke about these bones and muscles I had not learned about in a biology class, he would call it a bad match if he thought it was a bad match, he was a former wrestler who was willing to go toe to toe with Jesse Ventura so it felt like there was real friction, and he was an old man so there was a sense of vulnerability. If you were an adult in the 1980s, I can see why Gorilla would get on your nerves but for a kid, Gorilla was the man.

The idea was not to do an in depth career run but a way to 1. get our thoughts on the promo and 2. run down the times we thought they flubbed a potential Punk run. The focus was on why Punk feels the way he does, not the typical 'Let's start from point zero and go through the entire career'. As for the swearing, as Eazy-E once said, 'It's in my nature, I got a curse".

a. No b. Yes c. yes

THe insanity of the promo combined with the fact that it is one half of the Road Warriors with one half of the Hart Foundation as a unit.

1980s - Dusty Rhodes - Hard Times; He also had one from Mid South after Dick Murdoch was attacked that Bix found on the old Mid South reels. Amazing stuff. 1990s - Bret Hart had tons when he was in the midst of his heel run in 1997. One of the reasons my Hart Foundation 1997 set remains one of my favorites. 2000s - Eddie's Cage Promo The difference is I expected them to fuck that up. With the Punk thing, the worst thing they could do was take him off the PPV... but then it's a shoot and he got over. As a work, we get the PPV payoff we expect.

Eddie's steel cage promo is probably the best promo of the modern era by far.

Fuck it, lets dissect this motherfucker. 1. The Austin T-Shirt - The Twitter War, the All Stars game promotional tie-in, the lifestyle clash, the mutual admiration society, the program that writes itself... one subtle message as a fuck you for another program they could have had but probably didn't even entertain. Add the fact that Austin was one of the first guys to leave McMahon post-WCW death coincidentally because he believed creative was fucking up. 2. Nod to ROH - Maybe it was just a shout-out to Cabana or maybe the entire Best In the World thing grated on Punk's nerves. In his mind, I am sure he thinks he is the best in the world and it could have easily been construed as a knock on ROH calling a show Best in the World, when in his mind, he is Best in the World. Plus, he gave a shout-out to his buddy who was never given a fair shake because of a couple of anti-semitic assholes in the back. Shout out or criticism? A shout-out to the hardcores. 3. Call-outs to Hogan and Rock. Cena is this decade's "mega-icon" in WWE's mind. What better way to address the current icon by referencing the past mega-icons? He didn't mention Savage, Hart, HBK, Taker, Austin and call them out. He called out the mega-icons. One who he feuded with in the past and the other who gets the Cena spot next year. That is some subtle yet effective shit. 4. Knocks on Vince the Millionaire, Johnny Ace, the doofus and stupid daughter - Exhibits A, B, C and D of incompetence and denial. Only thing missing is a Kevin Dunn drop. 5. Paul Heyman - Punk's not stupid. This promo was a throwback to Heyman shoots including the promo after ECW ended up as part of the Alliance. The huge difference with this one and the Heyman shoot is that they did kill the Alliance. The worst that could happen is Punk is neutered for 2 weeks off TV and you have to PAY YOUR MONEY to see him on the PPV in his last possible match for the company. Life may go back to normal after the promo but Punk did what yo uare supposed to do... produce intrigue for a main event program. The Alliance never let us do that. With Russo, he was correct in his shoot on Hogan at the time. The difference is that Punk has proven that people actually become emotionally invested in the TV Punk is part of. Russo never created TV that we could become emotionally invested in. Punk cut a wrestling promo to hype an upcoming main event. Russo cut a sports entertainment promo. 6. Heel Promo - He kept the crowd enthralled through the entire thing... and he did the thing a heel is supposed to do according to Michael Hayes... he may be wrong but he believed he was right. That is some classic shit.

Yeah, look at the title of the youtube link.... CM Punk - Best Promo Ever.

The execution of the promo was what people are referring to. Bix summed up its effectiveness at cageside seats. You talked about Rock and Taker but you left out Austin which is a realistic scenario since Austin has hinted at a return to the ring. That could be a pretty big fucking deal. If nothing happens after MITB, Punk goes away, comes back, goes back to midcard purgatory, so what? For one night, he gave a voice, if just for a few minutes, for those of us who have been ignored or scoffed at. For one night, hardcores like me and Alvarez, casuals like you, and performers past and present were buzzing. We are having fun trying to connect the dots. When was current wrestling so much fun?

Maybe. Maybe not. I think that is why this is getting so much play because he executed it so well that we don't know. We just sit here and eagerly await the end result. As for the Charlie Brown skit, that applied when Punk was Straight Edge Jesus or when he originally cracked Cena with the chair. It will only apply now if Punk doesn't get his title shot at the MITB PPV.

Right, don't kayfabe the race.

I actually found it easier to watch this match than other Davey matches. My frustration was with Eddie Edwards, not Davey. Still, having said that, I think Meltzer had it right in that the match could have been five minutes less. I just wanted some limb selling... I am a mark for that shit.

It was discussed at DVDVR. He was wearing a Nexus shirt so the thought is this was during the commercial prior to the Kane match.

Got the call from Lars that he wanted to do a show on tonight and we were off and running. Hell, Rob and I have two shows in the bag right now so we released this first to remain "current".

We mark out, get pissed, laugh, cry... feels good to be a wrestling fan every 6 months.

As long as they keep him off of TV until Chicago regardless of the outcome.

http://www.flairchop.com/archives/985 Very rare “Breaking Audio” from Good Will Wrestling, as Will and Rob Naylor are joined by a good friend of the show (and good friend of CM Punk’s) Lars Frederiksen of Rancid, Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards and currently the Old Firm Casuals (who’s tour kicks off in Philly on August 6th, you should totally go). CM Punk’s monumental promo from last night’s Raw is discussed in detail. We run through Punk’s career in WWE and how they keep dropping the ball. Also, Hulk Hogan sucks discussion, why Lars isn’t a fan of Dwayne Johnson, Naylor shares a Punk/Benoit tag match story among other topics such as “Republicans”, “The Eye of the Tiger” and CM Punk’s commentary gems. Over an hour of audio… on all things PUNK.

I saw the Punk Twitter thread going nuts so I thought we could create a new thread for the "Greatest Promo Ever" and the fallout and leave the Twitter thread to his back and forth banter with Austin as well as Colt Cabana's updates.

Did you mean to post in the heel vs. heel thread?

Best post so far... except for "You are what your daddy is"

Colt Cabana vs. Tomaso - Really fun comedy spots from Colt. I eat that shit up with a spoon. Tamaso does nothing for me and I thought the ending was lame. Should have had Colt go over and no one cared about Chamaso. Jay Lethal vs. Mike Bennett - The little Savage tribute from Lethal was way cool. I haven’t seen Lethal since he went to TNA so the Scorpio pony-tail was in full-effect. I thought this was a perfectly fine little match and Lethal got some spunk on that elbow drop. Rhino vs. Homicide - These guys came out with energy and Homicide’s suicide dive was sweet. Damn, when they brought the ladder in, I sorta rolled my eyes but then Rhino dropped him stomach first on the ladder and I felt queasy. Biggest problem so far… Homicide no-selling or recovering too quick from some sweet spots from Rhino. They need to reunite Rhino with Corino as old ECW guys because Rhino can still go. I heard some bitching about the finish but I liked the finish with a clever way to counter the Gore. Not a great match but a fun one. Corino vs. Elgin - At first, I wasn’t into this because Elgin is like a poor man’s Rhino and I just saw Rhino. Then Corino tried a suicide dive, got caught and dropped with a powerslam on the outside and that looked nice. Unfortunately, they got back in the ring and Elgin looked lost. Eh, Elgin continued to look lost and they should have done a Corino-Rhino match and been done with it. The post-match Kevin Steen angle was pretty great and Corino took a nasty package piledriver. El Generico vs. Christopher Daniels - You can say what you want about Daniels but he does flippy shit with the best of them and I like Genrico in flippy shit mode. Damn, I was really digging Daniels’ work on Generico’s neck. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all so when he hooks on a chinlock, I have no problem with it whatsoever. So later on, when he hits the Last Rites or another move that is long past its prime, it makes sense and that’s what I need in my wrestling... logic. Really fun stretch run with a particular nasty looking spot where Generico is thrown off the apron and a cameraman is wiped out. When Daniels put the belt on, I lost my shit. The finish looked botched but the outcome was the right one. Four Way Tag Title Match - Crowd didn’t dig the headlock stuff early on but I like that shit so no complaints. King and SB were doing fine until King rushed in and SB botched a cross body. When the Kings get in, some miscommunication problems and King & Titus look off. The match takes off with everyone diving outside with Jay’s moonsault and Hero’s dive looking the best. I liked how each team had a turn at hooking on a hold on SB. King early in the match, Brisco after the dives and Claudio soon after. Fuck, Titus and the Briscoes were having a sweet sequence but he had to no-sell a sweet exploder. Godammit. Shit, a sweet double team neck breaker and Titus is right up. Sell a move. I will say that the Briscoes elimination was pretty damn sweet though but I didn’t like that they were gone first. Naylor and I are going to disagree huge here but Iappreciated Claudio slowing things down and I like that he hooked the camel clutch on Shelton since they established Shelton as the guy being abused all match. Man, after some nice cutting off the ring work by the Kings, Kenny comes in and he and Hero are not on the same page. However, Titus and the Kings had a nice sequence topped off by a SICK loaded elbow from Hero. Once the Kings and WGTT go at it, both teams look in synch and it is capped off by a Sweet UFO by Claudio. The ending was anti-climactic but a fun tag match. I watched this match earlier when I bought the PPV and enjoyed more the first time. The 2nd time around, you start to notice the flaws and mistimed spots (especially from the ANX). Davey vs. Eddie - If you like Davey Richards, you will like this match. If you don’t you won’t. After a few nondescript early moments, Davey does some chain arm work which I enjoyed going from the arm bar to the Fujiwara to the hammerlock. Now, does Eddie sell the arm after? Oooh, headbutt exchange but that isn’t the focus of the match. Hey more armwork from Davey… good enough for me. If Edwards sells the arm just a quarter of what Liger sold against Sano, I’ll give this a thumbs up. Nice spot where Eddie escapes another armbar, holds on to Davey’s feet and just stomps on his head repeatedly. Well, he isn’t selling the arm but he is selling the leg even though he continues to do moves that require impact on his leg including a stupid double stomp through a table. Cool visual though but made absolutely no sense. So the headbutts do come into play as Davey delivers a flurry of headbutts into a sweet corner German only for Eddie to stand up? Christ, that shit bothers me. As does Eddie countering an ankle lock with an ankle lock just popping up after 50 headbutts, a corner German. Ugh. Anyway, the ending was what you would expect and I can see why people like and hate Davey Richards but I was more disappointed by Eddie Edwards in this match. If he would have just dragged the arm across the apron or the crumpled on his bad leg ala Orton at Mania. It is interesting that Davey showed so much emotion after the match in a great moment. Not something you expect.

Not true. The cardio response to Austin awhile back was classic.