El-P

Liz is there and is still unhappy. Solid Hogan promo, who kinda makes up for the awful Piper one. Sting and Savage showing up, this time Savage prevents Sting from taking actions. I wonder why...

Damn, this is the first bad Nitro in terms of angles. The Steiners car accident. Prince Iaukea winning the IC title. And now this. Piper in Alcatraz was idiotic, the promo was awful and had no point. There you go, Piper has officially overstayed his welcome and for the first time in a long time really, signs of bad booking.

Brainfart booking here. Hey, the WWF is pushing a young samoan guy and is giving him the IC title from nowhere, let's do the same. Why ? Prince Iauea was mediocre at his very best, had no charisma and was a jobber until then. First time during this hot Nitro era that WCW did something totally defensive and looked up at the WWF. Just a bad, stupid idea, and the "celebration" looked lame as hell.

I thought it was really well done and produced. Found footage segment ! But yeah, it goes a little bit too far off wrestling for me too. "You drove us off the road and nearly killed us, we're going to beat you in a wrestling match." Ok, it was an accident, but it was still the Outsiders fault.

I guess Anderson worked backstage for a while as he was brought back as a referee by Ric Flair during the first Nitro of 1999. I dunno, it was a fun little segment, but it didn't struck me as *great*. Maybe because it felt to much like comedy after the seriously heated segment of the previous week.

Because Russo is a cretin. And he's not creative, contrary to the "popular" belief. He already recycled the nWo once in WCW, with the amazingly horrible results we know (http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19237-wcws-highway-to-hell/). He had no other idea for the WWF invasion than to recycle the nWo again. Even worse, recycling the original angle. Just like he tried to recreate the Montreal screwjob, that dumbfuck.

Gotta love the fact that they announced a new promotion without having any talent basically. And now this. This is glorious already.

Precisely what I go through.

Porn.

Hum :

Good segment with a lot of intensiy on Piper's part. But like I said before, Hogan vs Piper felt fresh the first time around, not so much at this point. It's already a rehash, and the result can't be as satisfying and fun as the Starrcade match.

Of course it matters. You have to establish a clear cut line. Otherwise it becomes a clusterfuck. If Flair comes on a WWF shows and bashes the entire roster and talks shit about babyface Austin, babyface Rock and babyface Taker, he won't get cheered. Now, having the WCW guys get babyface reactions by running southern cities like they were running Canada during the Bret heel stint, that's another thing. Russo is a complete dumbass anyway.

Last week Piper, now Rander Anderson. These babyfaces have no dignity in bringing their kids around to get sympathy. But seriously, this is great. "Can you please tell your daddy, that he's STILL fired !" is one of the all-time great dick heel punchlin ever to me. Just classic stuff. Bischoff was great, just despicable and sleazy, as were the Outsiders laughing in the face of poor Randy Anderson.

Terrific angle for putting DDP at the same level with Savage and Sting.

Russo's idea for rebooking the Invasion could seem "logic" up until that point : Sean asks "But are they heels or faces ?". Russo answers "It doesn't matter". There you go. Russo doesn't understand shit.

Yeah, another tremendous angle and amazing Hogan promo. Bischoff is pretty great as a sidekick too. I find it argue not to agree with Hogan when he says Piper knew what he was doing by bringing the kid out there. But whatever, Piper finally cracking up and beating the shit out of both of them really made the segment pretty much perfect, although a redux of Starrcade already begins to point out the flaws of the booking on top, with too much reliance on old stars. I don't remember how was the Superbrawl match, but one big Hogan vs Piper match was enough for me, especially when it worked so well.

Nothing happens. Status quo. Just a way to put some pressure on DDP.

Ok thanks. So they were playing off homophobic overractions by having a guy kissing a girl. Okayyyy. Not sure if I see the relevance in all of this. Oh, anyway, Fandango is irrelavant anyway, as it seems this plants the seed for a feud between his two girls.

Michael Sam. Which explains why JBL was going nuts on commentary during it. I have no idea what you are referring to.

Gotta love Hacksaw Duggan. He's such a neanderthal man. Confronted by Lana's arguments that China had now conquered the world economy, poor Hacksaw could only reply as he always did, by spelling his country's name, and thankfully it is only three letters. And poor Rusev, now he's lost his first name too. Hum.. Big E Langston. After Kofi and R-Truth… Do I see a pattern here ? Anyway, Lana is obviously the star of this outfit (pun intended). Adam Rose's act already looks like a novelty entrance. Reminds me of Al Snow's head gimmick, which "worked" in the small ECW environment but totally failed in the WWF. WTF was that Fandango angle about ? Now thet Bryan is out (poor guy, he can't get a break), The Shield are totally carrying this promotion.

Well, Rey and Ultimo worked the same non-wrestling-fan/non-paying customers/"racist" crowd at the same Hogg Wild 96 and they got their match over. Granted, it was much shorter and flashy spots oriented than the Malenko/Benoit "technical clinic" but they were still two japanese and mexican short guys in bright colorful attires. Not the stuff the biker crowd would easily eat up. Oh God I rewatched this a few weeks ago. They just killed the audience dead. Typical Malenko at his worst. Like I said, he's probably the greatest most tone deaf worker ever.

Since one of them is dating John Cena ?

Ok, third match in a row = overkill.

Funny bits with Hogan talking about olympic wrestling move. Savage & Sting showing up kept the interest up, as those Hogan promos, as fun as they were at this point, had a tendency to go nowhere if nothing happened otherwise.

Really good for what is was, but kinda rushed to amount to anything. I agree Psychosis looked more interesting against Regal than against most of the luchadors. With his frame he should have worked more with the guys like Regal, Finlay and Benoit for the TV title instead of playing perenial JTTS oversized cruiserweight. (ditto La Parka).