Death From Above

I do think they made a mistake having the three 20 minute matches right in a row with nothing in between them, and that there is something to that. I process it just fine because I am used to watching like 40 minute All Japan matches, but I'm not exactly your stereotypical wrestling fan. I don't think Brock/HHH was any good and Cena/Rock wasn't really that much either, at the end of the day. But the crowd might have been better with a goofy segment that lets them recharge a bit. It's funny but this seems like at *least* the third Wrestlemania in the last 5 where the talking point of "I would have liked this show better if I re-arranged the match order" has come up.

Perhaps bad phrasing on my part, but my point being I think they need to widen their in-house options going forward. Scanning the indies for the next big thing is proving pretty hard to do these days. Which isn't so say there's nothing to be found out there, of course not, but why limit yourself more than necessary. They might as well take an approach of "if you want it done right do it yourself", even if it hurts the bottom line slightly. Not even Austin walked in and went straight to the main event (I actually thought The Ringmaster was kind of a nothing program in the big picture, really), so I shouldn't imply it's as simple as (1) Train wrestler (2) ??? (3) Profit. Merely that the company needs to do what it can to not be put into the same box 10 years from now that they are in currently: where Wrestlemania has been built around nostalgia acts repeatedly. It's done big business, hell they just drew one of the largest live gates ever for a wrestling card, but once The Rock burns out where do you go from there? You're out of nostalgia acts that mean anything, so they'll have to start shifting probably post Wrestlemania XXX one way or another. And all I'm saying is you might as well give yourself the best possible options going forward when that time comes.

They are signing who is available but I still think the WWE has to do more long-term to try and produce more new talent through expanding in-house training and recruiting. Yes it will cut into your bottom line in general to operate a larger range on the b-promotion developmental side but if you find the next Steve Austin who becomes the new license to print money it pays off big time. More maybe to the point of this thread, I don't get how Brock loses at Mania again and the plan was to then turn around next night and build to Brock/Rock. Is there anyone in the world that thinks Brock wins that match? There couldn't be less drama around that. That's nothing against either guy, but that's just how it seems. Announcing Mania's main event essentially a year in advance is really dumb too, but that's a separate issue.

In fairness, Chono was great before his body went to totally to shit. The last time I went through the early 90's TV I was struck by what a good TV match worker he really was, back in the day.

Wrestlemania is sort of a reverse Superbowl this year. Usually it's the first half of the Superbowl that sucks thanks to the extra week off of idiots in the media asking running backs what their favourite colour is, then the game builds to an ok finish. This was alright until the last two matches, then fell apart. Also I echo that lack of a big "Mania moment". This is never really a great wrestling show except 2, maybe 3 times? If that. No one really expects Mania to be one of the best wrestling shows of the year because it's really never built in a way where that's going to happen. But you can let it slide if you get "the moment" out of the main event. Didn't happen this year.

One of my all-time, could not happen without a Star Trek time machine matches would be Vader/Hansen vs. Lesnar/Goldberg. Just for the Godzilla vs. King Kong effect of the whole thing. Anyway, HHH really isn't anywhere near as good as he thinks he is. People can knock Dory Funk Jr. for being a pretty boring long-match worker but I think I'd watch 100 long Dory matches before I'd watch 100 long HHH matches. I was making fun of this HHH/Lesnar thing last night with a friend saying I fully expected it to be 20 minutes of headlocks followed by no-selling a sledgehammer to the nuts. That might have been preferable just for the internet reaction and all the shit it would have stirred.

That suit looks great on Harley.

I don't remember this at all but it appeals to my sense of humor. If I'm going down, it's not going to be pretty. Giddy up.

The most frustrating thing about this period for me: old and/or big dudes dragging down parts of WCW we were all used to, but there was a long stretch where you could hold out for the cruiserweight title match at least. Nash seemed to forget the belt existed. He seemed to like Mysterio, but the rest of the division... where are they? A few of them stuck in that silly battle royal. Frustrating. That hardcore battle royal cost them a bunch to produce, looked just awful because it was hard to shoot, and got a couple guys hurt. Really bad. Honestly, if you made it through this and if you make it through the Road Wild follow up... I'm not sure you can be killed. I may have to dig up some actually good Randy Savage, because this is not how anyone should remember the guy.

There's no way Megadeth were less relevant to WCW's audience than Master P. Having said that I was as shocked as anyone that when Endgame came out in 2009, it was great. Like, possibly best Megadeth album great. What the hell? It's about as out of the blue as a return to form gets. Maybe the funniest thing about WCW if you really understand how 97/98 went until now, is that suddenly the only belts that mean anything are the World and the Tag titles, while the US, TV, and Cruiserweight belts barely even have prop value now.

From some of what I've read I'm inclined to believe that Psycho Sid is a toned down version of Sid's real life persona.

That's horrible. No one should have to outlive their kids, let alone find them dead at 24.

They should have just brought in PG-13 as their rappers to feed to Hennig. It would have cost a hell of a lot less, had the same effect on the ratings (none), and the matches and promos would have been better. I have no idea what shape Jamie Dundee was in at this point, but considering Scott Hall still had a fucking job it's not like anyone can wave that card around. Besides PG-13 did show up before WCW died anyway. WCW's obsession with outside celebrities (even if they were D-list celebs) really bit them in the ass almost every time, when you could have spent less getting actual wrestlers to fill the same roles.

The James Brown showing up on PPV thing was funny because about three quarters of the crowd (being a fucking wrestling event) didn't know who he was while the announcers are selling it as the greatest moment in the history of our sport. The other thing I remember from that PPV is, of all things, an astoundingly bad interview segment with The Maestro which I thought was one of the worst things I saw that whole year.

Busted out laughing at that one. :-)

That night of the skywalkers match is so scary. I mean, there's a wrestling match scaffold and then there's that thing. It just seems absurdly high (at least compared to other scaffolds I've seen in wrestling, though it is hard to judge) and Eaton seems like the only guy sort of half willing to even try anything because everyone is legit scared they're going to die. There isn't enough money in wrestling that could ever get me to do one of those things.

I like how Meltzer said the rap vs. country feud apparently caused a ton of friction in WCW Corporate because it split the office workers down racial lines. It's no wonder they cut it off at the knees later I guess, but it still ruined a pretty decent gimmick.

This is sort of a bad point since "classic" WWF is pretty routinely roasted for being bland, predictable, and mostly fucking horrible. There's a reason the first thing most of us did when the internet became a thing was start watching other things.

The double bear hug was probably the best punchline in wrestling history. Just incredible.

They definitely crossed paths a fair bit in All Japan during the 70's and into the 80's, but I didn't realize Baba was ever in PR.

I thought the rest of that Nitro was alright, aside from the Piper interview and the contortionist/Hummer stuff. The "old WWF guys are the ones killing WCW" point is really on display by this point. I like that "Mexican hardcore" match (but I do have a strange sense of humor), as long as you ignore Tony being a douche on commentary. Boy, was that getting to be a common trend. At least there were matches this week, and most in and of themselves filled a role. Arn threatening to get in the ring was awesome. Like most things WCW they tease you with something that would be good, but no. I probably shouldn't use "contortionist" and "hummer" in the same sentence ever again. Piper's such a horrible promo by this point. Possibly the worst promo in the big two. I mean Nash's references are all dated, but he's funny enough to make you forget he said "Eddie Money" on purpose during this run. Piper's references are from the school that burnt down before they built the old school. And he's just a rambling, incoherent mess. Savage really isn't much better. This run for him was kind of painful, which I wish wasn't true but it is hard to miss.

One detail you missed that is too hilarious to pass commenting on: When Savage comes out on Nitro with his entourage of ladies Gorgeous George is on crutches. But still wearing high heels. Oh wrestling, never change. I do remember that Mysterio/Leroux Saturday Night match, oddly enough. It's amazing looking over these old Nitros how many of them have like 20 minute+ stretches with no matches whatsoever. Such an infuriating company, but I did enjoy it so. I don't know why.

This thread is a treasure. I can't remember seeing Puerto Rico dug into that much in the past beyond "hey Famous Wrestler went there". Very cool to see so much in one place.

Me too. I thought this was the most "serious" thing I'd ever seen in wrestling when I was 9. Oh, children. Never change.

From what I know about how forum hosting works, likely it's an issue where DVDVR is eating more of the host's resources than allowed. I assume it's that and not something like not paying the bills, as they haven't been with the new hosts that long so that seems unlikely. Also seems doubtful it's content (AKA the download section) as that would have been an issue almost right away.