PhilTLL

Brian Pillman vs Bam Bam Bigelow, Power Hour 5/25/90: Certainly watchable, but it's telling that I don't think I enjoyed this as much as any Pillman/Norman match I've seen. Maybe this belongs in the Most Disappointing Wrestlers thread, ha. There are some neat moments, Pillman gets in plenty of stuff, and for once I really liked a DQ finish: Bam Bam tosses Pillman, but he skins the cat...so they tussle until Bam Bam backdrops him over for the real DQ.

Okay, just so we're clear, ha. I see that line applied to very un-fun concepts sometimes. To be 100% annoyingly accurate, Johnny's statement was very specifically about wrestling. He used no analogies. I've never listened to him on a podcast.

I could _maybe_ see why TLC might rank above Cena/Punk. And we're getting to the point that Flair/Steamboat maybe should be special-ranked as a trilogy to free up room, at least on time- and promotion-spanning lists, though not so low as Chitown and WW are here. But yeah the Iron Man match? Then again, look at #1, the lately ordained GOAT, and see how seriously to take the exact rankings.

Nope. Maybe on fun stuff like pro wrestling, but this is absolutely false equivalence for real-world concerns. (As long as we're using the word intolerance and not simply "dislike.")

The only times I've ever literally sat down with a notepad were while watching sets I needed to vote on, and that was usually just a few observations and an initial rating so I could organize my thoughts and figure out what was worth a second watch. Haven't voted on a set in awhile, though. Recently if I'm watching a match I want to write a post about, I might dictate a bit into a text box with my phone so I can expand on it later. I try to avoid looking up details on matches I don't already know about before I watch them, because knowing when the finish is makes me impatient for it and I can't get into the flow. There's one megaplex where I live that insists on putting clocks in the theaters for some absurd reason, and I hardly ever go there because it drives me crazy, especially if the movie isn't grabbing me.

I stumbled upon the first show in these WCW sets I've been watching with a really good Hifi VHS audio track intact, and it really hit me that poor-quality or glitchy audio messes with my attention for a match way worse than bad video. I can watch anything that isn't disintegrated, but bad muffled crowd or tape hum are like rain while I'm driving.

This is a funny example, because while I haven't seen Interstellar yet, plenty of the reviews make it seem like the sort of half-baked sci-fi that falls apart if you think too hard, kind of like Prometheus (and that's been a problem for Nolan himself previously). That's the risk you run when you aim high, and when the souffle falls, it can take the emotional/awe-inspiring moments with it. Movies that give me a lot to think about make me think a lot, and they have to be sewn up pretty tight for me to "fall" for them. I fall for more character dramas and comedies than high-concept, high-plot action and sci-fi (at least the serious kind--I'm a sucker for the MarvelCU), because they have less of a framework to undermine. But I'm more impressed when a complex construction doesn't fall apart. Oddly, I'm more forgiving of wrestling, much more interested in the feel of a match than the checkboxes it hits--checkbox hitting without any conviction or feeling is my issue with so much of modern WWE. In analytical terms I'm usually more prone to just being all "That was great!" when the people here have paragraphs to deliver that awe me into thinking harder, ha. But part of that is not having the same expectations for wrestling and movies--maybe that's not fair to one or the other. Is it okay (for message board purposes) to like a match or a wrestler "just because?" If enjoyment is just enjoyment and is all valid without defense, how can we compare and contrast for all of the neat projects that happen here? There are several names I could put here of guys who are loved by thousands without much critical rigor, but much more fully assessed on PWO. (And yes, I lurk more than I post, the count may have tipped you off.) Absolutely true--but if one guy cuts off the other's heat too early, it might just make the match less enjoyable in the practical sense, not the abstract "That's not what the formula dictates" sense. I edited this like 25 times but I'm done now!

I go back and forth with this, trying to find a happy medium between nitpicking things into boredom and not being able to articulate why I liked a match when it's over because I wasn't thinking about it. That's what rewatching is for, I guess.

I recently checked this out for the first time as well, and holy cow, I don't know if there are many classics more lost, at least on major shows. If you actively dislike this match, maybe you don't like "small" work. This was up there with Reed/Murdoch for me in terms of terrific back-and-forth flow, leading the crowd through the pace and making minutes fly by just doing regular old wrestling, though it's quite a bit more restrained than that. If there was something on this show that deserved to be cut to pad the main event, how about the entire useless Badd/Garvin/Hayes segment and match.

The Flair/Rhodes Rivalry episode is amusing enough. Nothing revelatory, but at least it seems fairly free of "oh come on!"-level revisionism, assuming you have a strong definition for that. Obviously there is the usual flattery of Dusty. Good talking head lineup. Favorite moment: Discussing Flair having to go 100% around the country, they show a quick clip of him cutting a local promo for Watts. "Oklahoma, you're a nothin' happenin' state! But I'm fixin' to put you on the map!"

I don't know exactly which Valentine/Santana matches are most talked-about, but 10/22/84 is on the Network, and it is a fantastic, desperately-hateful brawl that I could have watched for 30 minutes but ends much sooner than that. Right after the blade job, actually--a pet peeve of mine just because it seems such a waste, but not a huge deal because it fits the goal and the match's place in the feud here. Valentine gives Santana almost everything, including eating a really wicked thrown chair to the face, and Santana runs with it like hell, leaving Valentine and Hart scurrying for cover and the crowd absolutely starving. A browse through historyofwwe around that time shows one and only one match of Santana/Slaughter vs Valentine/Sheik, 10/29/84 in Etobicoke, Ontario, that might have been a lot of fun if everyone was feeling motivated. It also shows that the 10/22 match was only 6 minutes long. Holy cow. I have the last few exhausted minutes only of the 11/26 curfew draw on the Coliseum History of the IC Title, and it is likewise great. I'll have to poke around for the full cut.

College-age white dudes are racist as hell sometimes, usually of the smug haha-just-joking variety. Shouldn't be a surprise.

Well, I knew Capital Combat had a dicey reputation, and it lived up to it. - The six-man opener was inoffensively short and had a nice set of personalities. Cactus takes plenty of Cactus bumps. But this is emblematic of the running in place the Road Warriors were doing. There was literally nothing left for them as a result of being feuded with every heel team within the last 12 months and giving no one any reason to want more. - Mean Mark vs. Johnny Ace was okay. I wonder what would have become of ol' Mark if the Undertaker never happened. He's a decent low-rent Windham type here, speed + impact + a little top-rope stuff. - SST vs. Rotunda/Rich was an absolute wasteland. Rotunda does the FIP segment, which is a huge mistake, and it is eternal and somnolent (to be fair no help from the mega lazy SST tonight). However it does mean we get to see Rotunda get kicked in the face several times. SST's craven heeling and trash-talking is mildly entertaining--they do the brother-hits-brother spot but hug it out, and the crowd loudly responds "AWWWW!" Ha! But only mildly entertaining for a minute. - I believe here is where they stuck the Horsemen for a crowd-rousing promo, and it worked beautifully. Sorry, I watched this over two days, but I remember the promo being really terrific. - Teddy vs. Ellering was whatever. Fun: The "world-famous haircutter" Jay...something wears a tuxedo that has as many sequins as Missy's dress. - MX vs. Pillman/Zenk is probably MOTN, and Steiners/Doom is very fun too. They've both been fairly well-covered in the Yearbook sections. Eaton in particular is just super-sharp--the side-pickup slingshot back breaker is absurd. It's weird to see so many face finisher kickouts (legdrop, elbowdrop, rocket launcher) with no saves. But the Cornette-less story in general is great. - Steiners/Doom has a hot start and finish, but loses a bit in the middle. Top-notch heeling from Doom and Teddy, oddly well-miked for the occasion. Great high-end stuff and brawling. - Flair/Luger is really cooking for awhile IMO, but the finish is just so off-the-rails it stops the proceedings dead. Gigante and the earlier Robocop come off as complete nonsense. And they add such a weird, bad taste that I think this is the worst PPV in my 89-90 WCW rewatch to date, and so far as I recall the worst since Bunkhouse Stampede.

My WCW rewatch has reached Capital Combat, and I have never seen any of it except for Steiners-Doom. Expect this post to be edited.

Right, yes, absolutely... Oh for chrissakes.

Since a lot of guys seem to have spotty late-career runs, I will say I've been enjoying his JTTS run in WCW so far. He doesn't get a lot to do but improves most of what he gets to do. Just full of veteran...naturalness? The Luger stuff was adequate. The Gilbert pairing works fine even if it is a bit awkward to see both guys just filling time. He has that fun match with Race at GAB 90. The only knock I have is that he's not in very good shape. He gets a go with Flair that should be on the level of Flair's better TV work from 89-90 but just isn't because Rich is a bit blown up. (As you can see I have a ways to go on it. We'll see if my WCW rewatch even makes it to the York Foundation.)

I need to watch more of him, as my WWE watching basically fell off a cliff when he started, but Sheamus always struck me as "competition barbecue." Hits the marks on the score sheet in technically impeccable fashion, but totally non-distinct, and thus forgotten ten minutes after eating. Speaking of food, I think "has good matches every week" is no longer what it used to be, just like you expect every meal out to be better than 10-20-30 years ago, because the floor is a lot higher.

Heh. There's something almost old-school about being that full of shit.

Yes, it's easier. Yes, it's a problem. Just to expand on this a bit, to pirate PPVs one needed specialized equipment, either to capture component video in HD or to crack HDCP, and then a small amount of skill at editing and transcoding. To pirate from the Network, you need...a computer, basically. Don't even have to transcode, as the Network programming is already in H.264. It's shockingly easy. (Yeah, I did it to take GAB '89 out to a friend's house in the boonie-burbs where there's no broadband. Sue me?) The numbers you quote for private trackers don't sound like much in the scheme of things, but I wonder what the total number of pirate views is after accounting for public trackers, other share methods, pirates sharing with non-pirate friends, group viewing, etc.

The demographic issues are catching up with them too, I think. It's hard to sell a new subscription service when a big part of your fan base is too young to have credit cards and another big part is always maxed out on theirs. People will keep cable TV for more than WWE, and most casual fans probably got live tickets or one PPV as a yearly treat. "$10 every month just for WWE" seems like an easy thing to cut from a family budget when posed that way.

It has to be pretty disenchanting to realize you found enough new customers to hit your breakeven, but can't stop bleeding almost the same amount of existing ones.

I just don't know how we all didn't call this from day one (maybe a lot of us did, but I was foolishly optimistic). It's a WWE project with huge, nigh-unlimited potential. Of course it's going to be mismanaged and underfunded as all hell. I would seriously contemplate paying the double-dip if they hadn't cancelled COD. I know it wasn't a very big selection, had the limitations of cable VOD, and didn't show much that was rare in the scheme of things, but it was done with way more TLC than the archives on WWEN.

Butch Reed vs. Dick Murdoch, Pro 4/15/89 Butch Reed vs. Ricky Steamboat, Pro 6/3/89 & 6/10/89 So apparently Pro is where all the good matches from Reed's little pre-Doom singles run are hiding out. These are three good solid TV main events. The Murdoch match is immediately familiar if you saw their '85 ones, though it has an awful random schmozz finish. The first Steamboat match is probably the best of the three, but the rematch is quite a bit too short. The 6/3 and 6/10 episodes also feature a pair of electric Sting/Funk confrontations, the first verbal and the second physical. The 6/10 one also has Missy getting misted by Muta and is just a really fun hour of TV overall.

I thought it was pretty good. For the record, it aired on PTW 10/16/89. It starts with the typical "one-up->brag(repeat x...) one-up->too much bragging->eat a clothesline" routine, then Bret does some entertaining arm work that goes nowhere. Rick does some nice back work that does go somewhere, especially elbow drops and Bret's usual back buckle bump. They get some good heat with repeated struggles over Rick's Boston crab before Bret sits in it for awhile. But he nonchalantly shrugs off the damage with that little spring-up thing of his after an outside-inside double transition. Rick takes a really nice over-the-buckle bump during Bret's comeback and they start rattling off pretty hot nearfalls, but it seems like the draw finish is a misfire, as the bell rings randomly during a dropkick instead of 30 seconds earlier during the small package. Alas. The piledriver Bret was using as a semi-finisher during this time would have been welcome. Earlier, I watched a Martel/Tim Horner match (5/16/89, PTW 5/29/89) that was okay, except Rick finished with a rather weak gutwrench and a top-rope kneedrop that, bless his opponent-protecting heart, was a long way from Killer Kowalski. Scratch that one off the finisher list, ha. ETA: Now I have watched a Martel/Koko match (7/19/89, PTW 8/7/89) that is a really solid 8:00, except that Koko totally weak-lands a splash after his missile dropkick, and Martel wins with that kneedrop again (it's a little bit better). Otherwise a lot to like as Martel amps up the fury with good choking and the tree of woe, and Koko mocks Rick's stooging better than most and sprinkles in really hot hope spots. Martel/Valentine, WrestleFest 91 (3/12/91): Some good work here, mostly Martel getting his legs destroyed, but it ends too soon with a boring DCO. Valentine seemed energized by his face push and was pretty over--the crowd fairly explodes for his hitting the figure four after the match.

You know what, I'm really bored and don't have a work project today. I shall endeavor to watch as many of the Model matches as I have available to me and let you know if I find anything worthy.