Kronos

I am definitely pleased for Jericho to get the belt. No problem there. I don't like the way they did it. But I have been thinking about it since I watched. This method sets up a nice long feud with Orton and Punk, which could be entertaining and might lead to something in a few months. I agree that they ought to leave the belt on Jericho for awhile. Just glad they didn't put it onto Batista this time around. I don't hate him, but he gets old to me. BTW, I thought the HBK match was pretty good, well played except for that weird dragged out ending, like they didn't know when they should stop after Y2J was knocked out.

These comments are all true about Lex's ring ability. I was really wondering about what the truth might be for the talk about him having a terrible attitude. That Steamboat story is telling, because I would think an experienced guy like Steam would not be willing to let him call matches is he was such a loser. But I could be wrong. Lex describes that story as Ricky wanting to help him develop his skills.

Truthfully, I have decided I have never really like Sting all that much. His character is fun, and he was certainly over with the kiddies. But I would choose Luger almost every time, given the choice of who to watch.

Last night, I was watching the HEATSEEKERS roundtable, and they really buried Luger. It was seriously harsh, with none of them having anything nice to say besides that he could sometimes have a good match if he had the right opponent. They even say that his USFL teammates didn't like him, either (despite their only reference being his coach in the USFL whose comment had to do with Lex's on-field play and not his attitude). One of them -- possibly Bischoff -- even said that even though he drew in the late 80's against Flair, really anyone who had been in the Horsemen would have probably drawn in the same circumstances. Bischoff also called him a cancer. (Funny, EB thinking someone was unhealthy for the locker room, especially since they then went on to bad mouth Hall.) I just thought it was interesting when compared to Luger's shoots recorded since his career ended. Lex makes a real effort to try to salvage his reputation as a jerk. He comes across as very humble. He might have changed -- many people do -- but one has to wonder what's the real truth? All of these guys on the roundtable seemed to have an axe to grind, and I wonder if at least some of them (maybe Hayes and Lawler, if not Foley) remember resenting the fame and push Luger got in the day? They do make a big issue of his not being respectful of the business since he wasn't "one of them" who had come up the usual ways. I am not the biggest fan of Lex, really, though I like him at times (especially since I have gotten to listen to some of his interviews). But this squash was pretty brutal.

Tony: "Folks, don't worry, it doesn't hurt the ball that much when it gets hit by the bat. It looks much worse than it is."

I agree. It looks pretty fascinating. I like him falling asleep at the dance class! What dad, husband, or boyfriend hasn't experienced the equivalent no matter how hard they want to care about something She is doing?

Do you think that having him battle back from a beating like a scrappy underdog is the way to go? You may be right, the more I reflect on it - despite my initial feeling. So many of his matches have made him look non-champion-esque, either beating a beaten foe (like his title win) or through interference. I have been kind of focused on that aspect. But as I think again about this match -- and will probably go home at lunch and rewatch it in a few minutes -- then I see how he does come out looking pretty strong. Punk can never dominate the way he could in the indies because of his size. Put him in the ring with guys like Ares and Gibson and he's as big or bigger. But JBL and Dave and Regal and friends are much bigger, so maybe he has no choice but to be the smaller guy clawing his way to respect. I like it. I am going to rethink the situation. PS - Regal rules. More stiff matches. More anything with Regal, please. . .

I have to confess that I was expecting the Adamle result when I saw that he had Cole beaten up (that was an amusing segment if a bit too lengthy, btw, and daring of Vince to go without commentary for so long -- points to Cole for playing the coward and for getting one good punch in). I hoped it wasn't Adamle, but whatever. I don't hate him as much as everyone else does -- he kind of amuses me. We'll see where this goes. Regal's back! Regal's back! He looked awful, but he wrestled a nice strong match and really kicked the crap out of Punk. I am still not convinced that Punk is being booked very strong; he definitely looked like the underdog in this match. I gotta show some lobe for Beth picking up D-Lo when Santino couldn't. Their playing with gender roles -- especially when Santino always pretends to be such an alpha male -- has been amusing. She also threw a great sexy look at him as she walked away from the ring. Keep this one up, Guys! The match was okay, but it was important for the building of the romance. And I loved S's celebrating after pinning Kelly. Mickie and Jillian? Short match but a strong one. Once again, we get to see glimpses of J's abilities. She looked really big and really strong, and I would love to see her and Mickie get a good 10-12 min (heck, I'd love 20, but I don't want to be greedy Very Happy). J threw Mickie's face hard into the mat several times, and I was surprised she didn't have a bloody nose. It would have been cool if Papa James had tried to get involved when his daughter got her ass suckerpunched by Katie; even if Mickie or a ref or someone held him back before anything happened. The crowd would have been all over that one. I figure Mickie is due for a title loss soon. Sad she's already held for almost 4 months, and in Diva terms that's positively Backlund-esque. So when she does eventually lose, hopefully to Katie, then it would be cool if she turned crazy again. She's really over with the fans -- as well she should be LOL -- but a heel Mickie would rock, and she's so damned good at it. Besides the Trish angle, you need only look at some of her later Alexis promos to see what I mean. Jericho's promo was great, the way he built the heat. I thought the whispering to HBK as the crowd began to chant against him was a bit of brilliance. Calling the fans idiots is a time-honored way of getting heat, but it's so hard to do well. Good on you, Jericho! Keep it up. Noble keeps jobbing. But I liked him calling Kingston "Coffee", and I have said before that anything that gets him on screen is good to me. The only real misstep was the Cena/Dave discussion at the beginning of the show. Boring and went nowhere, despite their best attempts to build some kind of heat. Turn Batista heel already - he'll be a lot more fun.

Noble was ROH champion and, at least from a fan standpoint, a very respected worker. I wonder why he would neglect to mention his tenure there? Could the writer have left it out? Or could Noble have felt that it would be bad politics to discuss it?

This is mostly correct I think but I take exception to the bolded part. Stationary moves aren't "rest holds" unless they're poorly worked. Just sitting in a headlock is an example of a headlock sequence being done wrong, not a case for headlocks never being used in matches. I don't know that that's what you meant though. You are absolutely correct. The issue is not using a headlock. It's using it badly. If you are trying not to lose, then you should be struggling. You should all the time be fighting to get on top of the guy to pin him, and you certainly don't want yourself to be pinned or submitted. Snow was clear on that point -- I just described it poorly!

I was just this week watching AL SNOW: SECRETS OF THE RING. His contention was that there's really only one story to be told: You are either trying to win (or else not lose). He argued that the fans know it's all worked these days, of course, the same way they know Tobey McGuire can't walk up walls, but they want to be given a reason to suspend their disbelief. So you have to make them believe that you really care to win. That means no "rest holds", where both guys are just sitting on the mat in a headlock or the like. It means that if you are down on the mat, you must be trying to get up because you don't want to lose. It means that the heel shouldn't do something right in front of the ref because it could get him disqualified -- and he doesn't want to lose. One other thing he said that was interesting is that you don't want to give all your heat to the ref. If you do something in front of the ref that should have gotten you in trouble but doesn't, then the ref now has your heat. And no one is there to watch the ref's story! So it comes back to the original story of winning or at least not losing.

Allison Danger was back after not-quite 3 months from a broken clavicle. She wrestled twice on 7/5, including one very stiff match with a lot of chops and hard bumps.

Funny, I was just reading a fairly heated thread on this very topic over at that crazy site. . .

I just realized what I said there. Anyone want to call me out on that crazy comment? Can I get a Hell Yeah?

What about the Freebirds? I know Gordy did some decent stuff in japan and was in SMW, IIRC. But did they really survive far into the 90's as a team? I am thinking that Hayes became Doc Hendrix or something, which was actually all about a guy being stuck in the 80's. . . The other night, I was watching RAW 2.24.97 (the ECW ep). I just don't think that those guys would have made it on that show. I know we had some comedy hick characters (Godwinns), but it seems unlikely that a group of cool rednecks would have been welcomed in the Attitude era.

I have never seen a blindfold match I liked. But putting a dog collar on it would make it interesting. At least they would be able to find each other. . .

"We're all glad that Sunny stopped working 42nd St long enough to come up here!" -- Marlena, RAW 2.24.97 BTW, I totally dug the Rick Rude entrance that Sunny made during this segment. The more rasslin I watch, the more I realize the greatness of Rude.

Didn't Austin once drop an occupied car off a crane or a forklift?

Nevermind. That was stupid. It was someone called Dusty Wolfe. silly noob question

I was just going through some old posts on WC, and I was wondering who "dw" was. Surely, it's not Dusty Himself? http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimate...t=000550#000005 Did a lot of the boys post there? Currently, I only recognize Meanie, but there could be others. Sorry, kinda marking out for a second. I still get starstruck. . .

I would love to see this storyline. . . I know Mickie/Trish 2005-06 is my favorite angle ever, and part of that is due to Trish (though mostly Mickie).

I remember that for the longest time, I thought the name was "Hoobatoo" Guerrera. . . I just figured I didn't understand Mexican names.