El-P

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.

He had potential as a worker I think, but was axed way before he could developp into something. Listen to his shoot interview if you can, he's a really interesting guy to listen to.

Apparently it did. Kai also tells the story of Moolah trying to get her dirty hands of the whole Glamour Girl deal that Jimmy Hart had proposed to Leilani & Martin, wanting to be their manager instead of Jimmy to maintain the control over the girls.

Leilani Kai, who had worked with them in Japan before, suggested them as opponents for her and Judy Martin.

WEEK 74 (May 29 to June 3, 2000) Match of the week : Terry Funk vs Chris Candido (Thunder). Candido is dressed like Terry Funk. This is the most ridiculous and greatest hardcore match ever, as Candido ends up in teh back of a pick-up truck that Terry drives to some horses stable near the arena. So they fight in teh stables, paying hommage t that infamous Cactus Jack match back in the days, the only thing missing is Tammy getting dropped in the water. In the most absurd occurence ever, there's a WCW table set up near the stables. In the most dangerous setting ever, Funk piledrives Candido in the stable right next to a horse who freaks out and actually hits some mule kicks ! Tony Schiavone has this great line "The horse did the best highspot of the night so far !". Losing streak of the week : Shane Douglas (Nitro / Thunder). The story is that Shane screwed up when he was given power in Thunder the previous week, so he gets put in situations where he can win championship but ahs the odds against him. So we get Douglas doing teh job in less than three minutes in the Asylum to Scott Steiner, and in three minutes or so to Jarrett when The Cat hits him with a chair. This doesn't make much sense, but I guess everyone had to be driven away from the New Blood. Douglas does look weak in the process, especially in the Asylum. Last appearance of the week : Miss Elisabeth (Nitro). Involved in another angle with Kimberly, Mike Awsome and DDP & Luger to her rescue, I believe this his her very last TV appearance ever. Color me disapointed, I loved Liz, especially as a heel. Return of the week : Goldberg (Nitro). To the help of Kevin Nash. Well, the build with Tank Abbott and Ricj Steiner has been so stupid that I can't really care. Goldie gets a huge reaction. He should have been the champ again a long time ago. 2 stupid title changes of the week : Kevin Nash giving back the title to Ric Flair / Jeff Jarrett winning back the title (Nitro). Yes, another TWO WCW title changes, including one where the belt is handed to a guy. The Flair vs Jarrett match was decent enough thanks to Flair working stiff, as Jarrett is really showing me less and less these days. Maybe he tries to emulate Jerry Lawler by punching and punching and punching, but he's not exactly on the same level. Flair bleeds which adds to the drama. Of course this is all screwy since David was the heel referee (what did you expect), and Russo shows up with Beth and Reid who he had "kidnapped" (yes, it's an obsession at this point). This whole Russo vs Flair storyline is complete garbage. The WCW title is a complete joke at this point, having changed hand like 8 times in five weeks or so. And Jarrett is a terrible champion too, just terrible. Solid at best but unimpressive (less and less so as the weeks go by) in the ring, annoying and boring on promos. Promo of the week : DDP (Thunder). A good sit down interview with a very subdued and serious DDP adressing his issues with Bischoff and Kimberly, whom he "still loves". Good old school stuff. Tenay looks creepy though. They are planting the seeds of the David Flair in love with Miss Hancock storyline already, which will only make things worse. The product is pretty unbearable. Terry Funk still is the saving grace of the terrible promotion. Scott Steiner and Goldberg should be on top, mega-heel vs mega babyface. Shane Douglas should be above Jarrett on the upper mid-card. Russo should be fired and never be showed on camera again. I went quickly through this week, as it's mostly not fun at all. I am going on vacations now. Hey, I have done two third of this project ! Only one left to go !

I was curious about this whole Wyatt's deal, so I watched the vignettes. I can see why people would enjoy them, but for me it is way overedited with a thousand frames and effects which doesn't fit the mood they were trying to instill. Then I watched the infamous debut. Well, I enjoy the music, the whole lantern and rocking-chair deal, but really, those two guys look like the Godwinns and the beatdown on Kane complete with the awkward steel step spot where it's obvious they don't even touch Kane's head was rather tepid to me. Finally, Wyatt's long ass pose looked as inorganic as any other WWE robot pose. Frankly, in the end I thought this guy was as uncreepy as Vampiro in 2000 (gasp). Much ado about nothing as far as I'm concerned. Nice intro though.

Well, Guest Booker with Robert Fuller booking Shawn Michaels in the nWo was a random (and stupid) idea enough, but goddamn if the first 30 minutes or so are watchable because Fuller tells a few stories, I quit after the first 10 minutes of complete meandering nonsense of "fantasy booking" (which is something I don't care about to begin with to be honest, but at least hearing guys like Cornette or Gary Hart explain their ideas was interesting on some level). Really useless stuff.

Like Dylan, I'll always have a soft spot for DVDVR, although I haven't posted there in a very long time. But I have memories on this board dating back to their very beginnings, including that infamous giant thread in 2000 or so... I think I had been banned from there at some point also before coming back. This and the old TOA board are just part of my wrestling fandom history. And yeah, Smarckschoice was awesome at one point before the first crash. (damn, is this the the cauliflower alley club of pro-wrestling boards old members all of a sudden ?)

Scrapped because of/thanks to Bret Hart, who was in negociation to re-sign with WWF at this time. I also remember Mankind acting like Marlena was his mommy or something. Never went anywhere, sadly, could have been awesome, I guess.

WEEK 73 (May 22 to 27, 2000) 2 stupid title changes of the week : Jeff Jarrett gets the WCW title back after Ric Flair's aneurysm/Kevin Nash beats Jeff Jarrett in a total culsterfuck (Nitro / Thunder). Yep. Two more WCW title changes in one week, including one that involves a guy being stripped because he did an aneurysm. Anyone wants to still defend Vince Russo ? Jarrett and Nash have a complete clusterfuck of a match on Nitro, with Russo as a heel referee, guitar shots and red goo drop, but like it wasn't enough, they have another one on Thunder, a three way with Scott Steiner. Nash wins the title. Makes about six title changes in six weeks. Brillant. Stupid new gimmick match of the week : The Asylum (Nitro). A small UFC like closed cage in which Scott Steiner challenges people in I quit matches. And in the very first match, against his brother no less, we get the way to actually interfere in the match : simply beat up the timekeeper and push the button to lift up the cage from the ring. Brillant. Channel-changing feud of the week : David Flair vs Reid Flair (Nitro). Kinda odd to watch young Reid, knowing that he had only 13 more years to live. So yeah, now this gets more and more silly, and even sillier on Thunder with Reid's "sixth grade teacher", an old woman, being involved. Oh, there was also a stupid "burial of Ric Flair's career" segment on Nitro, with Kevin Nash hiding in the casket. Brillant. New woman cruiserweight champion : Daffney (Nitro) So yeah, we get Daffney vs Crowbar to decide the cw champ. Candido gets involved, Crowbar ends up being KOed, so Daffney wins the title. On Thunder we get Candido vs Artist vs Daffney, with the involvement of Miss Hancock, selling her clipboard to Tammy Fytch who then fucks up by hitting Candido with it. Highlight is Candido's bump and the way he ends up pinning himself. Funny angle of the week :Terry Funk's "retirement" (Nitro). Terry Funk in a suit with his bandana is always a cool look. So he teases that his big announcement is that he's retiring, but infact it's just that he's a granddad now. Then he announces his retirement for June 1.... 2001, to the anger of Shane Douglas and the New Blood. That whole promo was pretty funny. The New Blood jumps on him and beats him down in front of his daughter, taking his hardcore belt in the process (apparently you don't need a referre to count three anymore, as Kronik also just took off with the tag belts a few weeks ago and they are considered the champions now). Good stuff. Idiotic rebranding of the week : GI Bro (Thunder). I don't care much about Booker, but sadling him with a JTTS group and a godawful name surely was another brillant move to screw around with one of the most over young babyface in the company. I already feel the hilarity coming with Russo's shoot at Bash at the Beach when he'll pretend that Hogan is the guy who kept the "Booker's back in the locker room" down. Yeah, you sure did wonders for this guy... Comical "swerve" of the week : Terry Funk as Ralphus (Thunder). Shane Douglas gave Norman & Raphus a shot at "his" hardcore title, and Ralphus shows up in a complete mascot dress-up. Of course for trained eyes it's pretty easy to see it's Terry Funk under the hood, making the reaction of the announcers a bit ridiculous, but Terry did a good job looking incompetent for most of the match though. So again, Funk delivers the goodness, and we could get a cool Douglas vs Funk feud. But we won't, as Douglas is feuding with the Wall (don't even ask). Building toward the PPV with Sting vs Vamp in a human torch match (yeah, it *is* a Kane feud...), Hulk vs Kidman again for a shot at the weekly-changing WCW title, DDP vs Awesome in an ambulance match. The main event scene is a complete clusterfuck at this point. Terry Funk has been the sole saving grace of this company for the last few weeks.

The Sullivan Timeline is good.

The vignettes had Windham cut promos on the heels : Rewatching these, and stumbling onto Waylon Mercy's and Goldust's vignettes, it reminds me how much I loved to watch these and how excited I was to see new creepy or funny characters being introduced. Of course the T.L. Hopper, Duke Droese or Henry Godwinn vignettes weren't nearly as fun... But to me it was all a part of what I loved about wrestling, because vignettes were unique and simply an introduction to, well, pro-wrestlers who were gonna work pro-wrestling matches.

She wants babies and a family and that's why she dumped Clooney seemingly. Doubt she would go back to the circus. I can't believe she's only 33. Means she was 20 when she was doing Miss Hancock.

From memory Owen vs Vader is pretty much one of Owen's best match in the WWF. Ken vs Vader was cool as a spectacle to get Ken over as something special. Would last a whole one match, but hey, it was rather cool, not to mention brutal. Shawn vs Austin from KOTR never struck me as a very good match. Plus it really didn't mean shit in the grand scheme of things when you think about it. Maybe that's why no one talks about it. (and I feel old talking about WWF 1997, the high point of my pro-wrestling fandom... 16 years ago ? Damn, where all that time has gone ? I was 21 and in a blink of an eye I'm almost middle-aged and crazy...)

You weren't the only one. I remember the hype on Byte This (yeah, I listened to Byte This in 1999... I know I know...) before he debuted. Andrew Martin was supposed to have the charisma and size of Sid with the work ethic of Shawn Micheals. Ah ah, those were the days...

WEEK 72 (May 15 to 20, 2000) Title change of the week : Ric Flair wins the World Title for the 15th time (Nitro). Fourth WCW title change in five weeks. Match lasts about five minutes, but at least is pretty good while it does, as Flair seems to have some fire under his ass again. Russo is at the booth so we have to suffer through his commentary, as if Madden wasn't enough. After the match, Jarrett breaks a guitar (the second on the show, it's to the point of being comical) on the ref and David breaks a mini Statue of Liberty on Flair's head (because Vince is from NYC, get it ?......). Vince, wearing a Flair robe he stole at Flair's home (in a long and painfull video with David and Russo visiting the home and spewing bullshit) tries to leave with the belt but Nash prevents him and powerbomb Jarrett through the ring. Yes, they gimmicked the ring so they get a cool visual effect. Of course it makes no sense to have a guy like Jarrett go through the ring, but who gives a fuck about making sense at this point ? Clusterfuck of the week : Chris Candido & Tammy Fytch vs Crowbar & Daffney (Nitro). It's a cruiserweight title match. Yep. Here we go again with the bullshit. What's with Vince's obsession with putting the cruiserweight title around women in mixed matches ? Just a clusterfuck of a match with girls-on-guys spots and Daffney winning the title by pinning Tammy. I like everyone involved here but... *sight* And I forgot the "best" part of it, during the match, Miss Hancock showed up on the ramp and danced. Because a mixed-match is *not* enough TNA I guess. Debut of the week : Major Gunns (Nitro). So yeah, we got the whole Misfits in Action going, with stupid names like Private Stash (get it ? Ah ah ah, it's hilarious) or Lieutenant Loco (Chavo has to be loco, because he's Spanish, ya know). The killer of course is ex nWo girl Tylene Buck being repackaged as Major Gunns, so she rip her shirt after every match to show her huge fake boobs and do a first aid reviving gimmick on a prone wrestler after the match. She really looks like a porn actress too, no wonder she ended up doing it. Also, Booker T is jumping in everytime to help the MIA, so you know what's coming eventually. And finally they also wear a FUBAR shirt, like in "Fuck You Bischoff and Russo". Smells like money. Mark Madden really is a really crass announcer and sounds like a fat pig whenever a hot girl is on screen. At least he doesn't say "puppies". Stupid new gimmick match : Ambulance match (Nitro / Thunder). So, every Mike Awesome match is an ambulance match now, a stupid concept which makes the old stretcher match look like a good idea. That way we can be assured every Awesome match will be worst than it should. New tweeners of the week : Filthy Animals (Thunder) So, after just two weeks of coming back as heels, the Animals, who now consists of Konnan, Kidman, Rey, Juvy and .... Disco Inferno (wait, what ? And they don't bother explaining this either, at one point Disco just shows up in Bischoff's office, clamining he wants to be with his friends, and that's it. Since when Disco was friend with the Animals ?) already have some issue with the New Blood, so they are just splitting from the team. As for now they still are rather heelish (since they feud with the faces MIA it seems like), but it's just a big structural blur again. Promo of the week : Ric Flair (Thunder). He already had cut a solid, emotionnal promo on David on Nitro, but this promo making fun of Russo is really pretty funny, basically saying Russo was a little Italian boy and his parents wanted him to grow up like Bruno Sammartino, but one day he flipped the channel on TBS and saw the Nature Boy, and all of a sudden he wanted to become like him, to the great despair of his very catholic parents. But Russo couldn't be like the Nature Boy because he had no muscle, no girl, no long limousine etc... Of course Jarrett had to run in and cut a tepid promo to ruin the moment, then it got all mixed up with Arn Anderson (and really, I like Arn a lot, but I don't care about a promo from a guy who I know won't actually wrestle, it's just false advertisement) and later another Flair beatdown, with Flair showing odd signs of weakness. But hey, the promo on Russo was fun at least. Swerve of the week : Sid Vicous coming back to help DDP, then turning on him (Nitro). Come on, you know you gotta have one. I saw that one coming from a thousand miles ago (and I wasn't aware of it beforehand). Feud that won't die of the week : Vampiro vs Sting (Nitro / Thunder). Gawwwwwwd. This will last forever ! On Nitro Sting beats Vamp in a House of Fun (or whatever name it gets, the big cage with handcuffs on the side) in like 5 minutes. We fucking get it, Vamp is a total jobber, why this has to go on again and again ? So yeah, it refuses to end, with Vamp playing the worst Mankind/Raven "I enjoy pain" routine ever before pulling off a Houdini, and then another terrible promo on Thunder "Yes, I'm psycho.", and more stupid gimmick, this time the ropes getting set on fire. Seriously, I can't take anymore of this shit, this is like a Kane feud. Hoe of the week : Torrie Wilson (Nitro). Yeah, because she's the reason Horace finally turns on his uncle. Yes, they are doing the same thing they did with David Flair one year before. I think it should be noted that not only the booking is eyegoungingly godawful, but these guys aren't especially creative either, everything is incredibly repetitive, predictable and deja-vu for the most part. I think that hasn't been said enough about Russo, his ideas suck dick, but they aren't very original either. So yeah, we get Horace leaving with Torrie, who undoubtedly will perform sexual favors on the big bald guy, at least that's what we are supposed to believe. Ah, women... Of course Kidman is not happy with this and will jump on Horace on Thunder. More Goldberg giant truck nonsense too. Terry Funk kept his hardcore title by defeating the Cat on Thunder, which was decently funny and absurd. Norman & Ralphus have no jobs now, so they are selling popcorn and T-shirts. Aww, whatever. Kanyon did an interview from his hospital bed, and it looked fake and unsincere as shit, you can already smell the next ultimate swerve from here.

Mea culpa, I really thought the French word "complotiste" was directly derived from an English word in a lazy "Frenglish" fashion, as we call it. I'll put it en Français dans le texte then. But well, you understood what I meant anyway I guess.