MikeCampbell

Apparently Heyman and Crockett were planning on doing something, but, Tod wasn't involved and didn't want to be. Eddie got paranoid and quit, and then came his senses a few days later. Tod also says that Heyman didn't get the book right away. Tod went back to booking, and Heyman was helping him out, and then later on, he decided to let Paul do it, but, everything had to be approved by Tod.

I think part of the problem with the Austin heel turn was that the first full fledged program for the new Austin/HHH alliance was with Undertaker and Kane. They just took an already stale program and flipped it so that it would seem fresh again, it failed miserably and the matches were awful. There was really no reason that they couldn't have kept on going with them against the Hardys, even if only for a month. Based on the heat Austin got for going apeshit with the chair on Lita, and Jeff's IC Title win over HHH, there seemed to be genuine interest in it.

I wonder if it's just a coincidence that the one Raw from 1/09 that they didn't upload was the one from Chicago with the Regal/Punk IC Title change?

Well you'd have to actually watch the footage to know that and I think it's pretty safe to say he's probably not watched anything outside of the Superclashes. Plus you don't really expect Scott Keith of all people to give any kind of credit to Jerry Blackwell do you? He's fat and fat wrestler = terrible without exception to Scott Keith. He once claimed that he used to watch a lot of AWA.

I see what you're saying, but I have to disagree. Yes, Steph took the majority of the match, but, the heel is supposed to do that. Steph vs. Brie isn't exactly Ronnie Garvin vs. Jim Cornette in terms of a mismatch. And, Steph's win was due to Nikki turning heel on her sister, which should have theoretically transferred the heat from Brie/Steph to Brie/Nikki. But, it never really went anywhere, and, the Bellas just sort of kissed and made up without any explanation.

One could argue that Bryan isn't exactly impartial when it comes to Miz, given their history together when Bryan was a rookie in the original NXT.

So, did they actually specify what the names of the new Tag Team and Women's Titles are? It seems stupid to call them the "Smackdown Tag Team Titles" since part of the excitement of the draft is that titles can potentially switch brands.

With Jose losing, and Aries already being moved into a new program, and the bloom already looking like it's off the rose as far as Almas goes, I'm wondering if either of them is going to be around much longer.

Well, the tons of main events part is right... I'm intrigued by the team bullshitting, but oddly enough, they both did work MSG early in their careers. Vince Sr. brought in guys from all over the place in the WWWF days, especially young guys for one-shots. Flair's one and only MSG match before his WWF run is on his first DVD set. It's from just after the plane crash comeback. (This is obviously me regurgitating from Cawthon's exhaustive MSG history.) I believe that Flair actually wrestled the pride of Columbus, OH, Frankie Williams!

He hasn't struck me as a "heel" commentator in a long time. A few years ago, he did that angle where he tried standing up for Lawler against the Wyatt Family.

I'm wanting more episodes of World Championship Wrestling from 88-89.

It always seemed odd to me that he always yaps on and on about Miz and his "A-List" gimmick, considering he used to outright BURY him in 2006. And then, when Miz won the title in 2010, he actually specifically mentioned JBL (who wasn't even in the company at that time) as someone who held him back.

This is easily my favorite UWF match, and probably Yamazaki's best one. Their mat exchanges are great, and Fujiwara has no problem going 50/50 on the mat, and selling big to make it seems like Yamazaki would be able to knock him off. The finish is Fujiwara blocking a German suplex, and countering into the Fujiwara armbar, which is a hell of a lot better than what others had been doing, which was taking the suplex and then going to the hold.

I gave it a whirl, because I like Brian, but you said it. I'll probably check out the next couple of ones for the same reason, just to see if it gets any better.

They can more or less skate under the radar on that subject. Benoit had been drafted to ECW by this time, so it's not like there's going to be much talk about him on any upcoming Raw episodes. The actual event was cancelled that night, so they can get away with skipping it in the 2007 uploads and not considering it part of the official Raw series. They've somewhat done it before, by not counting those special Raw episodes that aired on Saturdays in 1998 and 99.

All I can really recall from that time frame is the DX reunion (and 'putrid' is being awfully kind to it, Stiva) and Foley's heel promos. The one thing I'm recalling that's making me laugh is one of the first of the unfunny DX messing with Vince skits, where they've apparently hired male strippers. Dusty Rhodes walks up to Vince to plug his new DVD, and then yells "Maybe them strippers wanna buy one!"

Yeah, this seems almost like a no-win situation for Mick. His return gets hugely overshadowed by the return of Daniel Bryan. I don't think there's any way that he can be a babyface in this role. The GM has to, ostensibly, follow her orders and directives. So, either he turns heel as her henchman or he tries to play babyface, but gets her residual heat because he's following her orders, or he plays babyface as the poor sap working for this evil shrew of a boss, and he gets heat for not having the sack to stand up to her.

Being a longtime Tenzan fan, I'm excited at the possibility of him being booked strongly for a change, since they went to the trouble of the whole angle where he was pissed that he wasn't included and then went on a rampage, leading to Kojima giving up his spot. The only league matches that I don't see him winning are the ones with Tanahashi and Okada. I figure he loses one and the other goes to a draw.

This seems to be famous for Maeda's groin shot, more than anything else. The stiffness is off the charts, and that says something when it comes to Sayama. But, the actual groin shot doesn't look like it's anything too out of the ordinary, they face off after getting stood up, and Maeda's knee catches Sayama low. I'm not trying to say it wasn't intentional or anything, Maeda's loose cannon reputation is well deserved and UWF turfed him over this. But, I've seen similar looking shots, completely accidental in MMA.

Gangrel was totally unlike anyone else they had at the time. The Brood spent most of 1999 getting beaten like drums, but remained fairly over because of the entrance and cool shit like the bloodbath. I think Russo does deserve some credit for D'Lo's longevity. From the time that Faarooq overhauled the Nation in mid 1997 until the Droz accident in late 1999, he seemed to be pretty constantly used. Whether or not he was used all that well is a matter for debate.

There is one missing episode from the year 2000, #366. I believe it's the Kid Rock episode.

More like he'll be holding up a sign in front an armory or rec center where some fly by night indy fed is running that says "Will Book Pole Matches For Food" All kidding, and cheap shots, aside. I think you're exactly right, TTK. It's probably why he goes on and on about how much he hates the wrestling business, while still trying to get hired by wrestling companies. It's like the washed up Randy the Ram wrestler, who made huge money and doesn't have jack to show for it now. I know that's not a perfect analogy, and I have no idea what his financial situation is like.

Meltzer thinks it's partially because major market house shows, headlined by Roman, have gone down a lot. The B-show markets, headlined by Ambrose, have been doing about the same business. I like the timing of the title change, and the way it was done makes a three-way feud between all of them totally believable.

Super Sunday still isn't listed for Roku users. The AWA section of The Vault only lists 1986, 87, and 88 for categories. I had to log onto the website and add the show to my watchlist in order to watch it on the actual TV.

Never heard it speculated that Ricky Morton was the guy who was supposed to take the World Title from Flair but refused and that's how Ronnie Garvin wound up with it instead. Does that timeline match up? Did Garvin win the title around the time that Morton had his thing with Flair? Timeline isn't even close. Garvin won the strap from Flair in September of '87. The Flair/Morton stuff was mid 1986, and it led to several Flair/Morton matches for the title during the 1986 Great American Bash tour. In fact, Garvin beat Flair for the title a few days before the Rock and Rolls lost the tag titles to Arn and Tully.