MikeCampbell

I never understood exactly why Dave had such a tizzy when Monsoon would comment that so and so wasn't going to give up to such and such resthold. It's a chinlock for the love of god. It's not like he was burying actual finishers.

Yes. Ironically, its the same thing Austin used on Chono that screwed his neck up in '92. Which is why Austin didn't want Owen to do it that way.

I hate that they're putting Laurinaitis on TV, but at least he's not being used in any real capacity. I got a kick out of him introducing himself and explaining his job, and then HHH just butts in with "What is this, career day?"

Agreed on all counts. I wouldn't minded seeing Rey and Miz's decision match saved until the end of RAW and then Punk making his return to cause a non-finish. Then cut a promo declaring himself the only WWE Champion. Did anyone else notice tonight that the tag champions had their own music and didn't have any arm bands on? It looks like Nexus is officially dead.

From what I'm recalling hearing about it. Benoit invited Regal to come over to the house to watch some All Japan. But when Regal arrived, Benoit wouldn't let him in. There may be more to it than that, but that's all I'm remembering.

Yes, that was his original point. My original point was that it finally looked like Omori was actually making some headway and moving up the ladder in 2000, but the NOAH split seemed to stall it and he never really recovered. Then it got sidetracked to jdw handing me my ass when it came to selfish Misawa perceptions. Does anyone know why exactly Takayama was the next TC challenger? I'm not saying it should have been Omori, since he'd just lost to Kenta. But it just seems so random for that time period. Also, John, when you mentioned the triple crown change history, spefically this series of exchanges from '98: To your (or anyone's knowledge) is there any truth the notion that 6/98 was originally slated to be Kawada/Akiyama? It's something I remember reading years ago when I first started watching All Japan.

Well shit, my candy ass just got pwnd Agreed. Which goes back to what I said before about NOAH's inability to elevate and cement new names. The only other name coming to mind is Omori, especially after Nagata's stock plummeted. Former partners during their formative years, generation rivals, etc. etc. Of course, that requires NOAH to give Omori a sustained push to get him closer to Jun's level. Not NOAH's strong suit.

Not that I agree with Misawa being a selfish booker, it's been documented many times that he was always trying to pass the torch, but looking at NOAH's GHC history, it's easy to see how one could get that impression: Akiyama/Omori seems like a more obvious route for the finals in terms of passing the torch. Misawa and Jun met in the semi finals, Jun beats Misawa, and then moves on to beat Omori to avenge the carnival loss from the year before. Of course, it's supposedly the 12/00 Hashimoto match that put Omori in the Misawsa doghouse, so maybe that was the original idea. Instead, Misawa wins the title, and puts over Akiyama the following July for the strap. Unfortunately, there wasn't much for Jun to do beyond that. Kobashi was hurt and NOAH would become notoriously shitty for making new top guys. Honda gets a short push before losing to Jun in September. Jun puts over Vader in October and beats him in December. The cro cop loss killed Nagata. Then he loses to Ogawa on a fluke. Misawa over Takayama in 2002 was the right decision in end, based on the fact that Takayama got hurt. Misawa wins in September, has a token defense against Ogawa in December, before putting over Kobashi in March. Assuming Takayama stays healthy, Kobashi wins the title from Takayama, and then they build to Misawa/Kobashi (6/6/03 Budokan seems most likely) where Kobashi retains to cement him as NOAH's new top dog. Both of the above cases feature Misawa obviously trying to make Jun and Kobashi into the NOAH ace, but on the surface it does seem like Misawa was interested in making himself champion. The third reign is easily explainable. Marufuji bombed with the strap, Kobashi was out with the cancer, and there was literally nobody else. Which goes back to NOAH being notoriously shitty at creating new top guys.

Didn't want to clog up the yearbook thread with this (where John intially started talking about how Omori was wasted during the '90's.) John (or anyone else, Ditch?) was Misawa doing the booking at the end AJPW as we knew it, or was it Baba's widow? It sure seemed like No Fear were on the verge of a big push: - Omori pins Kawada in semi final tag match on 1/23/00 - Omori and Takayama lose contendership match to Vader/Hansen on 2/12 (the tag title match itself was buildup for Vader/Kobashi later in the month) - Omori and Takayama beat former All Asia Tag Champs Honda and Izumida on 2/23 - Omori pins Akiyama and Doc in the Carnival, and loses to Kobashi in the finals. - During non-Carny matches, Omori and Takayama get wins over Kobashi/Shiga, Akiyama/Mossman, Doc/Scorpio, and Barton/Hawkfield. They do wind up on the losing side of some six mans, but neither of them drop the fall. - The following series saw Takayama challenge Kobashi for the TC. Although there was no real build beyond another No Fear win over Kobashi/Shiga, along with a win over Hansen/Watts. - The tour (and AJPW as we knew it) ends with the tag titles touranment in May, where they beat Misawa/Ogawa, but lose to Kawada/Taue (Kawada over Omori). - In NOAH, No Fear doesn't really do much of note as a team. Takayama KO's Taue on the Big 12/00 show, where Omori gets squashed in short order by Hashimoto. Omori loses in the first round of the GHC Tourny to Jun, while Takayama goes to the finals. They become the 3rd GHC Tag Champions in 12/01 and lose them in 2/02. No Fear breaks up a few months later and Omori buggers off the US and never comes back.

Tragedy I know, Will. I've got Barnett's Santo/Casas comp, but Bob himself tells me it's some of the shittiest VQ that he has, so I haven't brought myself to put it in yet. My best friend is an even bigger tragedy, as he's a wrestler who's gimmick is a Mexican Luchadore. And he only first saw Santito this past April, when hanging out at my house when I decided to pop in the two Santo rudo trios matches. His response was "Hey, he's pretty good!"

I wasn't thinking carbon monoxide specifically, but it was something along those lines. Before the murder/suicide thing really came out. It was just listed as the family was dead and Benoit said he wasn't making the show due to "family issues." I figured some kind of food poisoning or virus or something along those lines. Thinking about it, four years later, it sounds really silly and naive of me.

Billy Gunn just recently gave an interview where he apologized for all the HHH-shit talking. Claiming that he (Billy) wasn't ready to accept responsibility for his own shit and that he just turned around and blamed Hunter.

I know for a while they'd been using a bastardized block logo for legends material, but the old school RAW had the original block logo intact.

I haven't seen any singles matches between Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo.

I expected Punk to be on RAW tonight, but I expected him to do something more. I was thinking they'd end the show with the Miz/Rey tournament final and Punk would somehow interfere and cause a non-finish and declare that he's the WWE Champion.

It wasn't a one-shot deal. Sabu had joined WCW in September of '95. He wrestled Alex Wright on an early episode of Nitro.

Loss, I'm really not that high on Misawa/Kobashi single matches either, but you definitely need to check out their 1/20/97 tc match yesterday! It's been a few years since I've watched it, but it's always been amongst the best single matches I've ever seen.

I don't entirely disagree with you here, Bix, but I'm curious as to what you think the right reason would have been. Both of the Outlaws' WM matches had some decent backstory to them. Gunn chasing the IC Title, as well as the overall issue with Shamrock. Dogg trying to win back the title that he hadn't actually lost. The RVD/Bigelow ECW angle you talked about is actually a good example of doing something like that right. I believe the PPV was scheduled for May, and the did the switch in early April. Even with ECW's TV in '98, there was still plenty of time to build up to the title match, and it did lead somewhere (at temporarily) with RVD being a total douche to Sabu about it and them not getting along for a spell (there is clearly dissension between them by Heatwave '98 in August). Come to think of it, Gunn's heel turn could have been based on him being jealous that Dogg bogarted the IC Title from him and kept it, while he got a cup of coffee as Hardcore Champion.

I'll go one better, Keith. Some of the biggest marks are the ones who are in the ring

NWA-TNA: Continuing the tradition of scummy wrestling promoters in the state of TN.

I'd say the title switch from Road Dogg to Val Venis is where things started getting ridiculous with constant title changes for little to no reason. - Shamrock was IC Champion and feuding with Billy Gunn as a holdover from the DX/Corporation feud of '98-'99. - Bill Gunn screws Shamrock out of the title at St Valentines Day Massacre as the ref, giving Venis the title. - Road Dogg is feuding with Bob Holly for the Hardcore Title, while Billy Gunn still wants the IC Title. - On an episode of Sunday Night Heat Venis pins Dogg in a tag match (Dogg/Gunn vs. Venis/Holly). - This leads to Dogg winning the title from Venis, and then Gunn winning the Hardcore Title from Holly, switching their matches at 'Mania, and throwing storyline sense out the window.

I only remember Albert's reign for the decent sized pop that Lance Storm got for winning the title from him. Scott Keith swears up and down that Albert/Kane when Albert won the strap is some really impressive ***3/4 match. Not that I'm putting any stock into what he says, just putting it out there. HHH as IC Champion in '01 was to help get over his "Two Man Power Trip" team with Austin, by virtue of them being tag champs as well as holding the top two singles titles. I would guess the point of Jeff Hardy's short first run would be for the Hardys to get one over on Austin/HHH (who they'd been feuding with), since the IC Title didn't really mean squat at that point. Not sure about Rikishi's cups of coffee with the title, but I'd wager it was a short term reward for him being so over at the time. Regarding the Road Dogg - Goldust - Godfather runs. It's Russo. Nuff said. Although, like Storm, Dogg retaining at 'Mania got a really nice pop.

I was just thinking about it in the vein of HHH seemingly latching himself onto something that's popular with the fans, more or less because of a throwaway comment. Eugene saying HHH was his favorite wrestler was just supposed to be for Rocky to give him that shocked look. The fact that we have a 12 page thread about the Punk promo, and the fact that Punk's two segments on RAW two weeks later were the big ratings spikes for the show, clearly mean people are interested in Punk after that promo. But the 'doofus son in law" was just a quick shot and the bigger picture was Punk more or less trashing the company he's leaving.

I'm probably reading too much into it, but I just thought of something. Does anyone remember that promo between Eugene and Rock from Summer 2004 when Eugene said HHH was his favorite wrestler and suddenly he's part of Evolution and working a program with HHH? I'm wondering if Punk's "doofus son in law" comment is going to bite him in the ass in that regard, leading to HHH burying Punk if/when he comes back.

I don't think it's any more ridiculous and silly than having Tony Schivone and Jim Ross refer to the WCW Executive VP as "Cowboy" Bill Watts.