MikeCampbell

Not that I can recall. Does anyone know when he left ECW? I think the Three Way Dance show in April '95 is the last ECW home video release he was on.

Yeah, he most likely would have. Benoit, Malenko, and Guerrero were brought into WCW through their deal with New Japan. Bischoff had wanted to start the Cruiserweight Division since at least '94 (there were mentions of it in PWI), and he needed smaller wrestlers who could work a faster more exciting style than guys like Flair, Sting, and Luger. They were the perfect fit. They also brought in Sabu around the same time they brought Benoit in, and he was long gone from ECW. Scott Norton was also hired by WCW due to their deal with New Japan, and he never worked ECW.

If by paving the way, you're saying that Benoit first got noticed in the U.S. working for ECW, then you're right. But Benoit had been working that style for years. Benoit, Pillman, and Lyger were taking bumps on exposed concrete during a nationally televised Clash of Champions Special in 1992. Have you read Pure Dynamite? At one point Billington talks about diving off the top of a cage and not even thinking about it until afterwards and then realizing how big a risk he'd taken. If that's the mentality that Benoit's idol in the business had, how can you credit/blame Heyman with him doing that? It's not just Benoit or DK either. Look at Foley in Have A Nice Day, during the IWA KOTDM touny. He was thinking that his wounds, and everyone else's would go away, but the video of the tournament wouldn't

In Beniot's case, I don't think that working that style has anything to do with Heyman. Benoit's idol was Dynamite Kid, who basically made (and ended) his career by taking every risk put in front of him.

I usually just watch the match and then write about it. Sometimes if I don't think I've got enough to say, I'll watch it a second time to see if I notice anything else.

I'm actually a bit relieved that you can't find it. My reviewing style and my analysis has changed a lot since I wrote that in, I think, May of 2002.

I haven't seen the match myself is years, so I can't speak for Gordi's analysis of it (although I'll be watching it soon for my Misawa comp). But I also have to ask the question of why not?

That's every bit as awesome as it sounds.

Umm based on what? The fact that aside from a couple of naughty words and snide remarks, that Bix, SLL, and OJ are all making valid points?

Agreed. But in that same respect, look at The JBL/Blue Meanie incident from the first One Night Stand. The fans' general opinion may have been "screw JBL" but most people in the business looked at it as Meanie being a whiner. Also, the Bob Holly/Matt Capotelli Tough Enough incident. The fellow TE trainess felt bad for him, but both the TE trainers and the workers said that he just needed to suck it up.

Bix, why are you so hung up on the punching thing? I'll agree that punching someone in the ear until they bleed is excessive, but I don't think that punching itself is such a bad thing. It's one of the most common strikes in the business. If you don't know how to take a punch, you're really in trouble. Not to mention that punches very in force depending on who's throwing them. If Matt Bently, who punches like he's knocking on a door trains you for his punches, and you've gotta work against Bradshaw, you're really screwed.

After RAW last night, it's a pretty safe bet. Ashley hasn't been on TV in weeks, and Vince made a comment about the divas and "some kind of escort service."

Johnny Nitro winning the ECW Title that night was one of the most "ECW" things that had taken place since the WWE's resurrection of the name. How many times did the ECW PPVs wind up being nothing close to resembling the card they'd announced. Someone that wasn't even supposed to wrestle that night won the ECW Title. I'm fully aware of the tragic circumstances surrounding it, but it's still a cute bit of irony.

Looks like I'm headed to BN over the weekend, I'll be all over this one.

I remember a lot of people panning Edge/Batista from this show, but it was my favorite match of the night. I thought it was eons better than their match from Judgment Day.

SLL's story about the Headhunters and Jingus talking about what he does on pbp reminds me of that great thread on DVDVR about intent vs. interpretation. I also seem to recall Chris Coey writing an excellent article defining psychology on TSM way back in the day.

RE, If you're talking about casual fans then yes, moves do make the man and the match. But most casual fans won't pick up on many, if any storytelling elements. Look at the early days of UFC. Most MMA or grappling enthusiasts loved Royce Gracie, but the popular fighters were guys like Tank Abbot and Don Frye, who just went there and fucked people up with their hands. It's the same reason they booed the hell out of the Shamrock/Gracie superfight, because it was 30 minutes of them having a chess match and circling each other with very little action. I think the IWGP Title match between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Hirooki Goto is a great display of storytelling. Goto had been mowing down everyone in his path, but then he gave this interview about how much the title meant to him, and they showed a bunch of photos with a young Goto with Shinya Hashimoto and Antonio Inoki, and the crowd was totally behind him. Tanahashi added to that by doing a bunch of arrogant heel stuff and working over Goto's leg a bunch and really getting the crowd riled up. It had zero to do with big moves or anything like that. They reacted because the arrogant champion was being an asshole. Goto started busting out big moves toward the end and the crowd reacted, but not because of his bombs, but because he was finally handing it back to Tanahashi.

I second the love on Piper's face turn. Great stuff. Would Sting at WCW UnCensored '97 count as a face turn? It wasn't so much that he'd turned heel, just that nobody was exactly sure where he stood.

Same here.

Is it true that Stevie Richard faked his neck injury in '97 to jump to WCW with Raven? Wikipedia states that he was fired from for not passing a physical, which makes me think it was at least partially legit.

I hear Dave Meltzer isn't very fond of him.

Eh, I guess it depends on what everyone considers to be the traits of a good booker. Not screwing things up is a plus, but a big one for me is keeping all the storylines, angles, feuds, whatever happening in a logical manner. Which is where I think ROH is a bit faulty, but not always. I loved how they had Davey Richards cut a small, seemingly meaningless, promo saying he's getting people to watch his back, and then a couple of months later the NRC forms. But by the same token, would Strong have helped start the NRC if him and Aries won the ROH Tag Titles? Also the "decison match" between Jay/Aries and ATOF was just a waste seeing as they were vacating them in the first place. Why not just vacate them on the heels of Mark's injury and not make the match a waste?

I've got my own theory on Gabe's short fuse dealing with criticisim, not just in this case, but from his past appearances on shows like WOL, and my own few dealings with him. He thinks he's some sort of modern day Paul Heyman, and you'd never see any ECW fans daring to question the booking decisions of Heyman. So therfore Gabe thinks he should be as equally infallable. Of course I don't think there was an official ECW message board with ECWPaul as the moderator either. I also think Ben's assesment was pretty much spot on. ROH has always tried to be known for all it's great workrate matches with all their MOTYCs and snowflakes galore. Gabe himself has even said that he doesn't beleive in road agents and just let's the wrestlers call things in the ring. So really, what's that leave him to do? Just to tell The Briscoes and Jacobs/Necro that they've got 20 mintues and that Briscoes are going over? EDIT: Not even that much. The Joe/Punk shoot interview states that they called Gabe and told him they were doing a draw in their first title match. And that they decided how long their 3rd title match was going to go. So Gabe did even less.

All I've ever gotten are whiny/snotty e-mails from him and banned from the board for not orgasming at the thought of Misawa in ROH.