El-P

The thing that cracks me up is that *every* wrestler ever interviewed in a shoot said something to the effect of "those young guys don't know what they are doing, they just do spots, they have no psychology.", even people like Maria Kanellis or Billy Gunn.

Yeah, those damn wrestlers lie their ass off all the time, especially when talking about the good ol'days when they were selling out everywhere and going sixty every night. So there it goes.

Often it's even better, it's "Were were going sixty every night, and twice on Sunday." Indeed.

We have a winner.

Exactly my thoughts. I watched the thing. 2 hours and a half of the most glorious bullshit imaginable, to the point it was actually somewhat fun to watch. Basically, Russo is the guy who saved the WWF, Russo is a guy who cared when no one did in WCW, butv everybody was out to get him since day one. He paints himself as the ultimate good guy, contradicts himself a thousand times, lies his ass off in a way thay Paul Heyman would be jealous off. Funniest part to me all the brutal talk about how wrestling is fake, then at one point hear him talk like some grizzled old WCCW veteran about how young wrestlers don't work hard (and stiff, apparently) enough to make it look real. The most interesting part is the whole Hulk Hogan debacle, which is rather fascinating no matter what percentage of it is true (in dealings with other world class bullshitters like Hogan and Flair, I would give anyone the benefit of the doubt on those matters). So, this was his "last wrestling interview", and he would tell the whole truth here (as opposed to other interviews in which he had to lie because he didn't want to bury anyone, the good guy he is, or maybe it's the Tammy syndrome), and he does shoot on some people like Chris Daniels (basically an idiot who doesn't understand that having ***** matches is less important than showing character, a point I totally will concede to Russo), Hacksaw Duggan (an ungrateful guy who bashes Russo when he was the one who put him back on TV in a meaningfull feud, which, well, is actually true), Lance Storm (again, a guy who doesn't appreciate the fact that Russo pushed him more than anyone else in any major company and who bashes him regularly on his "little blog or something"), Meltzer and a few others. Oh, and *us* of course, the marks with the "biggest keyboards", the micro-minority who aren't entertained by Oklahoma or Judy Bagwell-on a pole matches, which are, by all acounts, hilarious. So anyway, yeah this was pretty glorious and Russo is a rather likeable guy as a bullshiter, and the fact he actually goes off with a bit of venom (pun intended) at times makes the whole thing totally watchable. He's truly a pro-wrestling carny at heart when you thing about it.

Yeah, to me Triple H is the answer. His biggest accomplishments were featurings on other big stars major hits. He's like one of those decent second rate MC's on The Chronic and Doggy Style. Never did shit by himself that would have him being called a "big star". Not to mention wouldn't have sustained the push without the wedding ring. So yeah.

So was this the project KC did with Vince Russo that pissed off Jim Cornette to the point of not wanting anything to do with them? Or was that something else? Nope, it was the Youshoot with Vince Russo a few years ago that set Cornette off (rightly so, it was godawful and 100% bullshit). But they apparently patched things up now.

I used to be a "joshi expert"... Well, a huge joshi fan at the very least. So. There it goes, in no order : Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Mayumi Ozaki, Megumi Kudo, Bull Nakano, Chiggy, Devil Masami, Jaguar Yokota and my all-time favourite pro-wrestler ever, Mariko Yoshida.

I need to watch this. Well, I don't *need* to, but I need to. And I will. Vacations are over. Back to business of watching terrible pro-wrestling so you don't have to do it youselves. Soon.

Ok, so this will be put on hold until late August/early September at best, as I won't be able to watch much wrestling at all during the upcoming month. But I intend to finish this before the end of the year.

I never got why Mustafa was basically doing the Bushwhackers walk...

Flair should have done the job to Luger in 90, it was the right time.

Bossman was put in awful angles one after another, but what bothered me even more was his outfit. This stuff was supposed to stop bullets, so those damn punches had to hurt the guy... Most interesting thing I heard about Bossman during those years is the close friendship with Terri Runnels.

Great article.

WEEK 76 (June 12 to 17, 2000) Promo of the week : DDP is leaving WCW (Nitro) Good jadded interview from DDP, who tells his story and says it isn't worth it anymore, not in a depressed kinda way but in a way to flip off Bischoff, Kim and Kanyon who thought he was going to be pissed about everything he went through. DDP and Kim worked really well together during this whole angle, and this was no exception. Eye gouging angle of the week : Vince Russo retires Ric Flair and shaves his head (Nitro). Not that I really care about Flair at this point, but this is so much utter garbage on every level, as Russo is such a terrible performer on top of everything. New gimmick of the week : "Positively" Kanyon (Nitro). Now this is good. I feel bad for Kanyon, this guy was very underrated. He could work, he could cut decent funny promos, and he was excellent at goofy stuff like this. ON Thunder he would debut the wig and the overdone Page maneurisms, which were hilarious. Turns of the week : Kidman and Buff Bagwell turn face again(Nitro). Kidman helping Hulk Hogan while being the special referee during his match with Jarrett (all because of the whole Horace debacle which ended up with Torri turning on Kidman, which means both are babyfaces now despite having turned on each other the previous week), and Buff after being jumped from behind by his former partner Shane Douglas who blames him for having letting him down. Soap-opera angle of the week : David Flair is an item with Miss Hancock. (Thunder) So yeah, Miss Hancock who had been a popular face "feuding" with Kimberly is now aligned with David Flair for no good reason, essentially turning Daffney who was a heel (well, kinda, I guess, by association) babyface. C-show debut of the week : Chris Daniels (WorldWide). Looking like the Fallen Angel, and by that I mean showing no character at all and not knowing if he's a heel or a face. Already mechanically very good though, and having a fun match with Candido. Funniest match of the week : Scott Steiner vs The Cat (Thunder). Two favourite of mine, and probably the two best characters on the show. The Cat is the Commissionner now. How many authority figures can you have on the same show ? Fun little beatdown, with some good comedy spots from The Cat. Steiner is so good in his character that he can already be a babyface, and he knows how to work the right way so to not compromise his bad-ass heelish character. Midajah is now doing spots from the top rope, a la Mona. Shakira is not, which is why she would get fired (or quit) I believe (she didn't want to take any bump), which is too bad, Kim Kanner was the hottest girl on the show. What can I say, this show is unbearable save for a few spots here and there. They are building toward Hogan vs Jarrett at the Bash, we know how well that will play out. They are reforming the Triple Threat, as Bam Bam and Candido came to Douglas's aid on Thunder. Sadly they are settled with Bagwell and the no-selling bozos Kronik, so I don't expect anything good. Apparently Tammy has been fired already at this point, she's not been around for a few weeks (blame Kimberly Page, or so said the very reliable Tammy Sytch in the past...). Also, I forgot to mention we are graced with the august talent of Pamela Paulshock backstage. Sure got there thanks to her broadcasting and interviewing ability, as well as her great charisma. Big Vito is the hardcore champ and betrayed Johnny the Bull on Thunder. I enjoy Vito, so his hardcore reign should be decent depending on his opponents. Vampiro is engaged in a new shitty feud with the KISS Demon, now referred as Dale Torborg in real life, along with her fiancée Asya. Damn, that girl was still getting a payday from WCW that late in 00 ? They are also teasing a Steiner reunion of sort. Again. After Scott was getting ganged up by Rick and Tank for weeks. Whatever. Year, whatever, this sums up the best that can be said about this product.

Interesting stuff here Jerry. Well, Hassan was played by an... italian-american. Well, deeply kayfabe-wise, we can say that Mustafa was also a turn-coat on in own country, just like Slaughter did. So the whole thing would somewhat make sense. I don't think Sheiky baby would have been open to such an idea. Now that you ask about it, I wonder if they didn't mention he was the Iron Sheik the first time he showed up. Maybe I'm mixing up with the French announcers who indeed said he was a former WWF champion, which baffled me at the time (I had a very vague notion to say the least of anything pre-1990).

Well, at least Adnan had been the manager of Slaughter for a while, so that at least made sense. But to have the Iron Sheik, from Teheran, Iran, come back pretending he was an Iraki military was just like, WTF ?

I fucking hate Iphones. (just wanted to get that out, for not specific reason)

Hey Gordi ! Cool picture. I'm totally behind on the last basho as I was away in vacation, just getting into it now.

Was listening to Outkast's Stankonia the other day, and that line in Snappin & Trappin caught my attention : "Show y'all soldier ass niggaz, I'm Murder City's Sergeant Slaughter".

PPV 18 : Great American Bash 2000 Death of WCW Swerve of the night : Goldberg turns heel. The ONE thing the reminder of loyal WCW fans didn't want to see. Yep, that was their big idea. Goldie turned on Nash at the end of a totally overbooked match against Jarrett (which would become the actual model for Jeff Jarrett main event, a sorta fourth rate Raven dog & pony show filtered through WWF's Attitude era bullshit). Good job boy, you couldn't fuck this up much more, but you actually managed to. Match of the night with a swerve : DDP vs Mike Awesome. So, this is a ambulance match, but infact there's a stretcher in the alley, so let's call it a stretcher match, which this basically is. Like I thought it would be, this is the sole good match of the night. At one point Mike Awesome puts DDP through a table, which prompts the announcer to remind us that we'll get an actual table match later. Ok, way to diminish the impact of your following gimmicks to come. Anyway, this flows pretty well, Awesome does his usual agile killer bit, DDP steals a spot from his matches with Tanaka (the elbow on the chair), all is well and good until Kim shows up followed by Miss Hancock, because we need some T&A. Forgot to tell that Kanyon in a halo and a wheelchair was sitting on the stage, leading to the first swerve of the night, as he would diamond cut DDP through the stage by surprise. Man, everyone is turning on DDP. Good little match otherwise. Stupid stunt match of the night : Sting vs Vampiro. Garbage. Vamp sucks. Sting doesn't care. All leads to Vamp putting Sting on fire on top of the giant screen, with "Sting" falling from the screen through the ramp. The fascination with people falling from high places was incredibly annoying and stupid, and Mick Foley has to be blamed for this trend. Of course it was obvious that it was a stuntman doing the whole deal, which make the entire match extremely worthless (I mean, more than it already was in itself). Family feud match of the night : Ric Flair vs David Flair. Flair looks old, David looks green. There you go. I only mention this match because it involves seriously one of the most RETARDED spot I've ever seen. At some point Russo hits Flair with a baseball bat and cuffs his hands. All basically in front of the referee, but it doesn't matter because now everything is "relaxed rules". Then, in a pretty mind-blowing moment, while David had his father in the figure four, Russo helps him putting more pression and tries to HIDE FROM THE REFEREE despite the fact Ric Flair has already been put in HANDCUFFS !!! And the idiot referee plays along. Man, somethimes it gets way too stupid. The killer is the referee kicking David's hands from the ropes, because you see, that's cheating I guess. But handcuffs are OK. Anyway, this is garbage, Flair wins (the old one I mean), Russo challenges him for Nitro, because PPV are building to TV shows. Overkill match of the night : Shane Douglas vs The Wall. So, Douglas decides he wants a 5 tables match now. I guess Mike Awesome using their gimmick pissed him off. The announcers don't get it and talk about a best of 9 tables match during the whole bout. Anyway, this ends when the Wall and Douglas climb a giant ladder very conveniently placed next to a three table construction. None of this makes sense (the fact that the Wall would climb a ladder opposed to Douglas' side to reach him instead of simply following him and get him down especially), but there you go, more people falling from high places. Yawn. At least Douglas won, and at least he said he had a plan in a solid pre-match promo, so that would somewhat explain why these three tables were set up next to a giant ladder. Even more conveniently, an isolated table was set up next to the site so the Wall could get up (yes, after getting put through three tables from a giant ladder) and chokeslam the referee through it. We never get enough table break. There was also some really boring and bad stuff with GI Bro vs Stasiak, Kronik vs Mamalukes, Hogan vs Kidman (which had overstayed its welcome one month ago), Steiner vs Tank & Rick in the Asylum, a throwaway Disco vs Chavo match. Basically, the PPV was complete trash save for DDP vs Awesome. And the conclusion with Goldberg turning heel was yet another nail in the coffin. Brillant work by Russo and Bischoff.

Since when Al Snow knows shit about booking BTW ? Maybe I missed something... And really, Snow was a very overrated performer whose peak lasted a few months in SMW (where he was indeed excellent for a while), and whose career mostly consisted of having mindless spotfest and horrible matches revolving around a styrofoam head. Funny how the business turned Snow from a seemingly cool guy to a grounchy old-ass veteran with an abrassive attitude.

Hum... Really ? You'd qualify Flair's personnal life as something that has "worked well" ? Seriously ? I'd rather be Barry Horowitz, Mike Rotundo or Lance Storm today rather than Ric Flair.

WEEK 75 (June 5 to 10, 2000) Stupid title changes of the week : Eric Bischoff wins the hardcore title from Terry Funk and pass the belt to the Mamalukes (Nitro / Thunder) : The only fun thing they had going was Terry Funk hanging on to the hardcore title so of course they had to ruin this with yet another non-wrestler winning a title. Then another "give the title to another guy" title switch. There's nothing left to watch on this godawful show. Eye gouging match of the week : Vince Russo vs Ric Flair in a cage (Nitro) Yeah, because that's what we want. More non-wrestlers beating wrestlers. So David Flair coming from under the ring of course, since a cage is totally irrelevant anyway, and the all powerful red goo falling from the sky KOing Flair apparently (I guess since Flair had Russo in the figure four but released it after being hit by the allmighty red goo). This is garbage. More stupid title change of the week : Lieutenant Loco winning the cruiserweight title in a Three-way mixed match (Thunder). A thousand interferences, Miss Hancock showing up to confront Daffney, Kim showing up to confront Miss Hancock, pushing her onto Daffney who gets KOed in the process, so meanwhile Loco can win the title from the other non-champ in the match despite being himself unconscious after having been beat up by the other Filthy Animals who then have been beat up by the other Misfits in Action. Ok ? Garbage. Retarded spot of the week : Vampiro threatening to set Midajah on fire (Nitro). Vamp really *is* Kane. And he sucks even more in the ring *and* as a character. And he's a fucking jobber too, this time doing the honour to Scott Steiner after getting bitchslapped by Sting again. Match (?) of the week : DDP & Miss Hancock vs Mike Awesome & Kimberly (Nitro). Yeah, this is the "best" stuff that could be seen on TV this week. Some stupid catfights. Some decent action from DDP & Awesome, which actually makes me rather positive about their upcoming match, at least. Squash of the week : Shane Douglas vs Chris Harris (Worldwide) Douglas looks really excellent is this very old-school competitive squash, delivering a ton of super solid offense and giving some to Harris like he's Barry Horowitz. Douglas looks much better than Jarrett on every level at this point, yet he's buried in the undercard doing nothing and having an afterthought feud with The Wall. This product is downright unwatchable, seriously. They had Goldie beat Tank Abbott on Monday and playing friends with Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner. Feel the swerve... Vampiro vs Sting and Russo vs Flair are probably two of the most godawful and stupid feud I've ever seen. Hogan vs Kidman has sunk to the pits of nothingness, with Hogan facing Horace in a cage as Hollywood, and Kidman having problems with Torrie now. Whoever wrote this shit (uh...) was just the most inept wrestling TV writer ever. I really have a hard time going through this, hopefully the PPV will give me something to hang onto like the last one did...

HHH is not very charismatic, is not a very good promo, is not a very good worker, doesn't have the X-factor. And yet has been pushed down people's throat since... hum... 1997. Big difference. Austin not wanting to work with Jarrett on top was understandable, as showed by Jarrett's inability to get over (and I'm talking on a upper mid-card level) and his disastrous run as a "main event" player in WCW. He just wasn't on that level. As far as not wanting to drop the belt to HHH at SummerSlam 99, same thing to me, HHH just wasn't on that level (although got over much more than Jarrett by this point, despite not being a better worker on any level, thanks to a relentless push). Could the people have turned again Austin at some point ? Probably. It happens all the time. But be looked at like HHH ? Nah. Just two different beasts to me.