soup23

Watching Nitro sets in 1997 and 1998 alluded to what you are discussing here about match structure with the cruiser weights. I think some people have romanticized that Nitro every week had a 15-20 great junior match and that just simply is not the case. They had a few shining moments, but also had many weeks with 2-3 matches at around 5 minutes each and not much to work with. In many weighs I would say Smackdown this year had as many "showcase" matches as Nitro from say 1997.

I was just about to say that about Tatanka and Bam Bam. Their match from Royal Rumble 1994 is a great match in the same vein as Vader vs. Sting. It is weird in that Tatanka seems to be one of the few workers that I underrated as a child.

Even though it is odd that Alvarez has not seen much stuff pre 1990, it is even worse to me that on most weeks Dave doesn't watch Smackdown. The show is usually around an hour and fifteen minutes on DVR and for the most recognized wrestling journalist, its incredible to me that more times that not he doesn't watch the second highest rated show. This would be like Peter King skipping out on Monday Night Football.

Yeah, I have made that comment before that while I don't expect Bryan or Vinny to lay around and watch old tapes all day, it is still alarming and surprising that they have not watched some of the most "classic" matches. I honestly would be intrigued to know if Bryan has even seen something like Jumbo vs. Misawa 6/8/90. His memory is notoriously bad so maybe he watched some of these matches 15 years ago and has just erased it, but who knows.

I am going to ask this here, does anyone know if Bryan Alvarez has heat with Wade Keller for some reason? Every time he mentions him or his name comes up he looks down at him like he is inferior? I am judging this partially on the latest podcast with Derek Burgan. I know Dave is his business partner, but I think Wade is an established himself enough in the wrestling journalism business to be above "I don't give a Fuck about Wade Keller" comments.

I watched the American Males/ Sting Luger tag you were talking about Loss and it was awesome as you stated. The thing that stuck out the most to me was how the commentary was so much better at putting the product and the wrestlers over. You generally don't think of Bischoff and MOngo being great commentators but both did an excellent job emphasizing the teacher/student aspect and also Bischoff reeling off how deep the tag division was at the time with naming 5 solid teams that were a threat to the titles. I guess I had just become complacent with excepting Striker talking out of his ass, Lawler not caring one bit, and Cole changing from heel to face every match that I didn't realize how bad the current commentary is at times.

Steve Sims is doing the HOF bio on Konnan and has been periodically given updates, I would expect that to show up in the Observer in a week or two.

Even worse is the preview for second issue that looks like it will include the Ultimate Fighter cast rundown. I mean is there one person that would honestly rather have that in the Observer than the Dr. Death obit. How many times do we need to hear: Scott Rax: He is 2-1 and has great submissions, etc.

I would say if the Doc obit doesn't come out this week then its looking DOA as I can't find much in the way of news this week and it seems like the perfect week to fit the obit in.

That was a great article Bix, it is easy to call IWA sleazy and to look at their shows from 2006 onward and look at the negatives, but during especially late 2002-2003, they were a great promotion that mixed comedy, southern brawling, strong upper card booking, and deathmatches together well. Chris Hero vs. Mark Wolf form the 6/7/03 shows is still one of the most underated indy matches of this decade and is as good as anything ROH did in 2003 minus Corino/Homicide.

I agree about the Flair/Steamboat Clash match. A few weeks ago I was burned out on wrestling and was like I just want to watch something good and came across that match. I probably hadn't watched it in 3 years but it was still an amazing great match that is a welcome suprise to come back to if you are burned out on current wrestling or want to just watch something awesome.

The only thing I kind of get aggravated with Alvarez is how limited his knowledge of wrestling history is. I know he doesn't have all day to sit back and watch old tapes but I wouldn't be suprised if he has never seen matches like Dibiase/Duggan All stips match or Dundee/Lawler 12/30/85.

Dr. Astin client list of goodies he was giving away went well beyond pro wrestling. Just about every drug junkie in the Carroll, Coweta, Haralson, and Douglas areas used Dr. Astin as their own personal go to guy.

I love Buddy Rose's face turn in Portland when everyone in the building rushed the ring and filled it completely up. In a jaded wrestling world where everyone is in on the biz, it was nice to see such a legit reaction from a crowd.

Hey Loss, I just want to tell you these are my favority articles to read every week. There is a lot of information in them I was unaware of and it is fun to look back to when I was 3 years old and starting to become a fan, and see what was going on behind the scenes. Keep up the good work!

I would like access to the download and shilling folder please?