Robert S

If you want to show a clear picture of New Japan booking behavior of the early 2000ies you would probably also have to include stuff like Ka Shin vs. Ryan Gracie, Yasuda vs. LeBanner, Nakamura vs. Ignashov or some Fujita stuff, all which lead to huge pushes. Some Lesnar in UFC stuff (the first Mir fight and the Couture fight) would probably also make sense considering how he was portrayed back then (both from MMA and pro wrestling side) and how this effected his later pro wrestling career.

Just watched this again (for the first time in 17 years). I am really not sure what to say. I am torn between "there is some special place in hell for Vince" and "how was nobody able to talk Vince out this". People were talking boycot after the Montreal screwjob, but they should have definitely gone home after this interview, at least the people who had any connection to Pillman. Somehow Fritz von Erich does not look that bad anymore earning money using the deaths of his kids, at least it was his own family.

There were three close-ups here, the first featured Owen (who ended up dying in this very building), the second Rick Rude and the third Hawk.

fixed

The Judean's People Front?

Couldn't Nash have asked Hennig as well? I understand that the whole point here was the beatdown and not the win, but it would have been a nice moment if Nash had asked Hennig with Hennig responding with something like "I don't want to surrender, I want to see Flair beat up even more".

Actually the ring announcer sells this as the last time that Funk will wrestle in Amarillo, which may or may not (I am too lazy to check out if he did any indyshows in Amarillo) be true. Bruce Hart is really obnoxious here. The physical interaction spots were obviously not planned (e.g. Bret kicked out even though Bruce put his leg on the bottom rope) and I assume neither was the microphone stuff.

Piper actually says that Hogan vs. Sting will happen "before 1997" with Okerlund clearing up that he means before the end of 97.

Obviously not as tasteless but still pretty bad. Though there was a funny crowdshot of a guy who looked really concerned at first and you can see this face changing to a smile when he realizes what's going on.

Yeah, that makes sense. It sounds really desperate, but realistic.

Is there a specific reason why some WWF PPV events in 1997 took place 1-2 weeks earlier than usual? For example Summerslam took place on August, 3rd when it usually takes place somewhere between August, 15th and August, 25th or Survivor Series on November, 9th compared to November, 14th to November, 27th.

This chant is pretty funny in hindsight considering that Joey laid out JBL.

Strange that Arn talked about the other Horsemen as "these two guys" while pointing at Flair and Mongo several times, I guess he did not accept Benoit as a Horseman.

What about publically building the expectations of how the Network is going to do on a study that said there are 100 Mio. (or whatever it was) wrestling fans in the US?

As there is no such thing as soccer, I don't care. There is only football.

I know since these countdowns are voted through WWE website but still I just have a hard time with him being second. Like over HHH who has been pushed down everyone's throat as a big bad guy over the years? DiBiase completely blows away this guy as a heel. He was so good in his role that he never had a face run in WWF. Considering The Freebirds made the tag list, I'm surprised Flair didn't make this list, and he still had his heel shoes on for a little while during his second WWF/WWE run. Obviously they filmed some of this with newer footage, but how long ago was the voting? I wonder if the time in between the actual vote and the airing including his leaving, and hence finagling the positioning is almost an olive branch of sorts? Did they really have a voting? Some results indicate that these are just made-up lists.

Fun fact: Wikipedia has this match as part of Naruse's MMA record.

nice typo

Disagree with this completely. A 'best of' is really pretty worthless, gives you no context to the matches and you don't see the buildup. You could get a two disc 'Best Of All Japan' with 06/09/95 on it, but is it going to be anywhere near as impactful and special if you haven't seen anything from the previous five years? Unless the sets also include angles, promos, previous matches/confrontations in a feud and other stuff outside simply a collection of great matches, they aren't any good for someone wanting to get into the product. In principle I agree but regarding 2002 and 2003 stuff it is better to get the best of compilation ("Year One" and "Year Two") as the full shows especially now are probably pretty unwatchable as ROH undercards often were amateur hour until 2004 (and by amateur hour I mean wrestlers you had sometimes less than 10 matches under their belts) and there is not much storylines/angles you will be missing.

This week's countdown show (best WWE tag teams) had a couple of fun moments, most notably DB telling a story of a friend having nightmares about a tag team and Jericho singing the theme song of said team, though the list was fairly predictable. If I would have had to guess who is in it I would have gotten 8/10. The remaining two are one no-WWE team and a bullshit pick.

What was up with the ring here? There was no ring apron, no bottom rope and the middle rope was lose as hell.

If you are watching a game where you are routing for one of the two teams then I agree. But if not then entertainment (or lack of) is an import factor if you switch channels / do something else or continue watching.

In what physical shape is Sting nowadays? The last time I saw Sting a couple of years back in TNA he was still moving quite okay. I don't remember him having many injuries when he was younger, he was never freakishly huge and he was not working for quite some time of the last 18 years, so I would expect him to be in better shape than other guys of his generation.