El-P

I thought WWF in 99 was shit as it happened.

Don't remember any. Not even close.

I'm curious to see how the whole Hennig feud has aged, because thus far Flair really showed me nothing I would call really good in 97. And in the ring he wouldn't give anything great at this point even on his best day. Hogan was a better worker than Flair in 97. Should he have worked a program on top against Hogan during the year ? Well, when you consider they gave Piper two other PPV main event slots, yeah, probably, although that already had been done to death in the previous years. But as a performer, Flair wouldn't crack my top ten in the company in 97 (from the top of my head : Hogan, Savage, Rey, Benoit, Eddie, Regal, Jericho, Wright, Dragon, Syxx, Outsiders, DDP, Jarrett were all all around more entertaining than Flair at this point)

Match went a bit long, but Hogan really carried the whole thing with his maneurisms and badmouthing. Fake Sting ? Well, that was really lazy booking here, and the announcers really look dumb, again. Too bad because like Loss said, Tony is actually really good here selling the moment. So yeah, here we have the booking showing signs of complacency and lazyness. And putting the belt back on Hogan immediately was probably a mistake, they could have gained a month or two before Starrcade without having to ressort to, well, Piper again. Maybe that was Hogan using his creative control. Would love to see another WCW Timeline with Sullivan for 97 to hear what was the idea here, but you can see the first few cracks on the major feuds booking at this point (earlier on, the Steiners won by DQ which means the Outsiders are still the champs, which in itself is good since the Steiner kinda suck, but really made WCW look bad).

Totally forgot about that Syxx vs Flair match at Road Wild 97. Man, Flair looks like he couldn't give a fuck. The more I'm going back through this year, the more the idea that poor Flair was fucked over by WCW and should have been working on main events seems absurd. He looked old, dated, didn't care about putting younger talent over and was a walking parody on promos. Meanwhile, Hogan, as much as a destructive asshole as he would soon become, was still drawing shitloads of money and was an effective in-ring worker and a terrific promo.

And sometimes you can see him (and tons of others too, including workers I enjoy) litteraly pushing the guy he's trying to pin away just before the three count so they can get into the next position. It's absurd and ruins whatever illusion of them even trying to pin each others during those sequences.

What are you refering to ?

Malenko is guilty of one of my biggest pet peeves, guys kicking out of their own pinning attempts during quick nearfalls sequences. It drives me crazy.

The turning point toward Russo-iffic booking to me is SummerSlam 98. Up until then, the product is still holding together pretty decently. The fall is when it really began to crumble into shit. I said it a million time, my breaking point was the Royal Rumble 99. Totally broke my spirit of being a WWF fan, which I had been for ten years.

I tend to agree, although he certainly was a wooden and dry promo. I think it's kinda the same case as Brad Armstrong who apparently had a great personnality backstage. It's not like they were looking like Tim Horner in the ring either (but who knows, maybe Horner was hilarious backstage too). Ironically enough, I thought he was at his best when he was working as a fiery babyface (against Syxx or Jericho for instance) instead of the emotionless technical "shooter" which catered to his worst tendencies in the ring.

Basically, it was a "swerve". It was HIM all along. Only this time, the TV executives really didn't like the unveiling, apparently.

The peak of Nitro. Anyone wanting to argue that Hogan wasn't still WCW's MVP at this point ? Amazing moment, with Luger not only beating Hogan clean for the belt, but punking out the OUtsiders and Savage in the process too. You can feel the heat building to the final release from the crowd. Great pro-wrestling moment. I still wonder why the fuck Glacier was one of the first guys jumping the ring. Anyway, great post-match celebration, exactly what the Starrcade match should have been. Gotta love the fact Hogan (and his bitch Savage) almost gets nervous in the face of Hall & Nash who are looking down like they are thinking about doing something about it… In the grand scheme of things, yeah, maybe they should have let Luger keep the belt for awhile and not drop it back immediately and have the focus go back to Sting when he was losing some momentum with the idiotic contract signing segments. But as a pure moment, it was the peak of the Nitro era.

JJ Dillon keeps looking like a dumb fuck. I really never enjoyed his role in WCW, he always looked stupid and clueless. Plus the whole "Sting doesn't accept the contract" looks redondant after they ran the same kind of angle with Raven in the previous weeks. Yeah, this is were WCW began to struggle with how to fill time on top until Starrcade, which was still a long way to go.

DiBiase's promo was pretty decent until the fuck up, which was quite funny. But he was done the day Uncle Eric took his role in the nWo. DiBiase had been pretty good at first, better than during his ill-fated WWF run as a manager, but really never accomplished much. And turning face and joinning the Steiner came from nowhere and really felt like a nothing news. Plus the Steiners/Outsiders feud had overstayed its welcome.

Yeah, the Scott Hall mention was odd. Good Hogan promo otherwise, and the best way to begin this 100th Nitro.

Corrected. And that was one hell of a chokeslam, after Zbyszko dragged Bischoff's ass to the ring. Before that, Savage got a decent little match out of Scotty, who's heel turn is a long time overdue, as the Steiners were dull as fuck by this point, especially with Rick already being really bad. Liz looks great playing human shield like only she can. Good beatdown. I always liked the Outsiders/Savage connection in the nWo.

Agreed about everything that has been said. Flair looks like a complete dumb fuck going for Hennig who is obviously a guy who can't be trusted at all. Flair deserved nothing better but put guys like Syxx over at this point, really. Hennig is fat. Yeah. Thrilling stuff.

That first Jericho title reign was quite the waste. Won on an internet show, lost on Nitro to a guy he had no issue with. Nice match though, and I can't get enough of Wright's dance. It's so obnoxious and ridiculous.

Roger Couderc was mostly a sports broadcaster (although he did a few sports oriented TV games too), who was most famous for being a rugby announcer. He indeed didn't know shit about wrestling, but he was so great on the mic, with that distinctive southern accent and colorful expressions (and tongue-in-cheek humour) that he's awesome to listen to. I know Eddie Carpentier really respected him.

Ross could be absolutely grating at times as early as in WCW (damn, those football references), and became a total parody of himself past the Attitude Era. Could be great at times. Could also be fucking annoying. I think the fact the announcing has been rotten in WWE for so long now kinda makes people romanticize how "great" he was in the early 00's. Anyway. From what I've seen of Memphis (quite a bit), Lance Russel just was the best ever.

Lows : Abyss.

Too bad "the WCW" didn't had "The SummerSlam". Oh, Bret...

So I'm going away for a while and in the meantime Vince Russo has finally killed another promotion ? Fuck me, that's glorious.

Good TV match, with the Outsiders again showing good tag team wrestling work. They really weren't very fancy but their matches always built well to the hot tag, and Hall was especially solid (compared to awful teams like Harlem Heat or over-the-hill Steiners which no-sold everything). Flair did as well as he could at this point and Benoit looked awesome. Really, the designated feud had to be Flair vs Syxx, everything was building toward this. It shoudl have happened, and Flair should have put Syxx over like Savage put DDP over. Anywway...

Konnan was more effective as a spokesman and an angle-only worker than he was in the ring. Yeah, too bad it didn't lead to the luchadors not getting better used. I didn't remember Rey had been hurt in 97 too. He was out every year in WCW with a knee injury, no wonder he's in the shape he is now.