El-P

I think this deserves its own thread.

This. Dropping an extremely fake looking legdrop for years has hurt Hogan's body way more than Sting taking a thousand of Flair's stiff chops. Benoit wasn't about chopping people until they bleed either in WCW. The whole issue was Sid being an unprofessionnal bitch.

The whole "stiffness sucks" is so 2008.

It was not the case back then. It became that way in the 2000's when wrestling totally turned post-modern. I guess it was beginning to emerge by 1999 or so, but it was not the pavlovian chant-along spot it became later. I understand your point, although I never minded good stiffness. I'm a Tenryu fan, so... Now, did it became a short cut to get some heat in the 00's when even guys like Shawn Michaels were doing it ? Totally agree. But when a few workers do it, like Flair, Hennig and Benoit, it's a trademark that is as valid as any other stiff spot. But anyway, that's beyond the point. Even if you think it's a useless spot, the fact is *everyone* was taking Benoit's chops, no one asked not to be choped except Sid. Nash took it. Sullivan took it. David Flair took it. That's just unprofesionnal and it shows what a complete bitch Sid was. It makes Benoit look stupid as all of a sudden he just doesn't use one of his primary weapon when it's something he can do to anyone no matter their weight or height. It doesn't make any sense at all.

It could. Or it could drive us insane.

double post

Nope, this is not what happened. Just checked it, the referee never gets into the ring and makes the bell ring (a number of times, not the requisite three times to start a match) from the outside as a way to stop the action. He's also clearly signaling with his hands gesture that this is not a match. Luger didn't screw Goldberg. Liz screwed Goldberg.

Nah, it wasn't gonna be an actual match. Who do you think Hogan is ? Yokozuna ? That's a pretty great way to describe each character.

I'll play devil's advocate here. First, Luger has always played first and foremost for his own interests and agenda. He himself is not the most sincere guy around, and he manipulated Sting before. Then, he didn't exactly joined Hogan per say. He was already a member of the Wölpack which he joined when they opposed the nWo Hollywood, and stayed mostly around Nash when both factions got together. Business is business and Luger is that kind of guy. But I thought it was a nice touch to have Luger coming back and trying to stir shit up like it's 1995 again. I wonder how it will play out since both Sting and Luger will eventually turn heel in the upcoming two months, although I don't think both turn will coincide. And Sting will turn back face in no time afterward to feud with Luger under Russo. Oh boy. Luger never cost Goldie the title. But anyway, Goldie is now Hogan's little pal along with Sting. I'm telling you, it's 1995 again, Goldie is playing Savage here. I said half-consistency from the Luger character only. Of course Sting and Goldie aligning themselves with good ol' Hulk makes no sense whatsoever, although a few weeks before he went back to his shiny colors, Hollywood asked Sting to tag with him and Sting said okay but he would get him back if anything fishy happened. The whole Hogan face turn earlier in the year was pretty awkward anyway, the whole heel/face structure was unbalanced under Nash, so Hulk going back to the yellow/red was just a natural progression into nostalgia mode, and the audience was ready for it. Managing to stay consistent with Goldie/Sting and all the other characters was just downright impossible at this point unless you get Cornette around the booking commitee.

Hey caley ! WCW still draws to this day I see. Bischoff as an announcer then was unbearably obnoxious. The whole cigarette incident was not on that show but several weeks later. Made himslef look like a big shot. the funniest part was Bischoff basically attacked Hak then when Hak tried to reply he was hooked by 5 security guys and Bischoff acted all though and shit. Way to work a bayface turn Uncle Eric... WEEK 34 (August 23 to 28, 1999) Match of the week : Barry & Kendall Windham & Bobby Duncum Jr. vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Eddie Guerrero & Kidman (Thunder). I love to watch the Windham brothers against Rey. Barry is still so smooth despite age and weight, it's crazy. Tons of cool shit in this match, and it's also notable that Duncum made a lot of progress. Tagging along with those guys and Hennig surely paid off. This is pretty hot action without any wasted time, both Windhams are just dynamos in there. I love the Rednecks. Nostalgia match of the week : Hulk Hogan vs Sting (Nitro). Well, that's what it is. It's pretty decent although Hogan as Hollywood is a much better worker to me. But there's a sense of just old and been-there done-that to these kind of Hogan match at this point, it really doesn't feel like anything but revisiting the past, unlike during the nWo years which had a new and fresh twist to it. They work a rather nice counter sequence at the end, then of course Sid and Steiner show up to spoil the fun. Giant pussy of the week : Sid Vicious (Thunder). Match on Thunder against Benoit & Saturn, tagging along Steiner. The match sucks anyway, as Sid is not only shitty, but he's lazy as fuck, 90% of his "offense" consist of horrible restholds. Rick Rude circa 93 would be proud. Well, no he wouldn't because the last 10% consists of horrible punches. Anyway, the interesting thing in this match is that Benoit doesn't throw any chops *at all*. Weird uh ? It's not like Rick Steiner would care, but Sid would not take Benoit's chops and he requested that Benoit would not use them when he would work against him. What a giant fucking pussy. David Flair took Benoit's chops ! Sid's stock found a way to drop even lower than he was before with this project. Amazing. Promo of the week : Lex Luger (Nitro). Hey, Luger shows up to support his friend Sting and warns him about Hogan. He tells Sting he shouldn't trust Hogan, who all of a sudden is wearing the yellow and red like nothing ever happens. Sting, as the lovable doofus that he is, syas Hogan is his friend. Luger would still show up with Goldie at the end of Hogan vs Sting, but I thought it was an interesting show of actual half-consistency from Luger's character, not buying into the sudden change of attitude from Hogan. Stiffest match of the week : Vampiro vs Eddie Guerrero (Nitro). I enjoy Vampiro way more than I thought I would. He's working hard and shows personnality. I guess he was totally washed up in MLW (he was godawful there). Some really stiff stuff here, from both part. The whole Vamp & ICP vs Rey/Eddie/Kidman stuff has been enjoyable, as there was a nice little ICP vs Rey/Kidman on the same show. Competitive squash of the week : DDP vs Chavo Guerrero Jr. (Thunder). DDP cuts a decent promo shooting himself back into the main event picture which is really a good thing as he's their best guy to work on top, and the heel side is depleted with Sid/Rick Steiner. Then the match with Chavo (where has he been anyway) is pretty awesome for what is it. Crisp, brutal, energetic. DDP has added a spinebuster that is the best ever this side of Arn Anderson, seriously. Really, DDP's work in 1999 has been nothing short of excellent, so I forgive him for his so-so promo catchphrase and lame jokes. He's still working as hard as ever and probably is as good as he ever was. Title change of the week : Barry & Kendall Windham wins the tag titles over Harlem Heat (Nitro). Well, that was a short comeback for the Heat. Fuck yes, the Windhams get the belts !!!!! Embarrassing moment of the week : Crowd chanting "Faggot !" at Lenny. (Nitro). The gimmick sure works getting homophobic reactions. Nice... Funniest moment of the week : Sonny Oono singing Purple Rain. (Thunder). Said to The Cat that Prince was here, then sung the chorus. Pretty damn funny. Of course the Prince in question was Iaukea. So that's where Russo got his idea for his new gimmick I guess... Debut of the week : The KISS Demon !!! (Nitro). It was supposed to be Brian Adams, I have no idea why Dave Torborg got the deal. I think they had a clause in the contract that the KISS Demon was supposed to work a certain number of main events or something. Made it look like a huge deal, after a KISS performance that looked right out of 1982. Cultural relevance at its best. Pretty busy week. Ironically, they were talking all week about some new president for WCW, the rumour being Eric Bischoff would get the job. It would be only two weeks or so before he would be actually demoted, for real. One of his last great idea was to say in a meeting that anyone disgruntled could get up and leave the room and the company. Raven got up and left. Nice. First Jericho, now Raven, two of the most over guys in the mid-card, upper midcard just getting the fuck out of this place in like 3 months. Nice job.

WEEK 33 (August 16 to 19, 1999) Get off my TV character of the week : Sid Vicious. Interrupted no less than 6 matches during Nitro and Thunder. It's just unbearable. Can't work worth a lick, cuts horrible promos. This is ugly I don't understand why the booking comitee went this route after Sid was brought up by Nash. I guess they thought they had no one else. Wait, Goldberg is still doing nothing of note. This Sid superpush is the worst and most boring thing thus far this year (yeah, worse than tons of shitty stuff that at least was so ridiculous it was entertaining). Title switch of the week : Lenny Lane wins the Cruiserweight title from Rey Mysterio Jr. (Thunder). It's really a "slip on a banana peel" win, not the right way to put back some focus on the cruiserweight title. And Lenny & Lodi doing homophobic baiting gimmick doesn't work for me. It's dated, stupid and rather offensive. Match of the week : Chris Benoit vs Disco Inferno (Nitro). Yeah, Benoit the US champ defends against the Disco Inferno. Best exemplifies the glass ceiling. Really good match though, I always enjoy Disco working hard. Benoit and the Revolution get involved with Sid & Rick Steiner on Thunder which may sound like they are actually gonna work with some higher ranked talent, but... 1996 match of the week : ICP vs Public Enemy (Nitro). Seriously, why even hire back PE ? They worked so well the first time around in 1996 I guess, when putting people through tables seemed fresh, hardcore and original. This is 1999, PE still can't work but they are taking space on TV again. This is visually interesting, as both PE and ICP wear the exact same kind of clothing. ICP goes through a table. Ladi ladi ladi, we like to party... Raven is fat and bored. Leaving very soon. Horrible main event of the week : Hulk Hogan vs Sid Vicious (Nitro). It bombed at Mania in 92, it should be a big match in 99. Sid is fast forward material to me at this point, he's unbearable. He managed to surpass Stevie Ray in term of pure suckiness. Really nothing happens anymore. Really seems like a transitionnal era, which it effectively was. They are going toward a Hogan vs Sting babyface match as their big main event feud. The heel side is totally dead.

After watching the build to Road Wild, I will take a wild guess and say the commitee was already in place right after the Bash at the Beach debacle. There was a notable difference in how the TV done at that point.

PPV 8 : Road Wild 1999 Match of the night : DDP vs Chris Benoit. For the US title no DQ. Strong effort by DDP, although I noticed at one time they worked pretty much the same sequence twice. Two things that are noticable here : they work a whole sequence with DDP using the referee's belt to choke and hang Benoit, and it is pretty awkward to watch now; the other thing is that this match was obviously a way to put Benoit over big time, as the Triad interferes while the Revolution guys stay backstage (the idea is that they trust Benoit to win by himself), and Benoit indeed takes care of both Kanyon and Bam Bam and gets a clean pinfall win on DDP. Really good stuff. Honorable mention of the night : Perry Saturn & Shane Douglas & Dean Malenko vs Curt Hennig & Barry Windham & Bobby Duncum Jr. Good six man tag with especially solid work from Windham and Douglas, who are the two fat veterans. Hennig seems to have a knee injury again but he still works around it. This is everything this kind of match should be , nothing special but kept things moving and the right guys were put over. Oh, and the Rednecks are using Rap is Crap during their intros, so it was fun. Decent opener of the night : Vampiro & ICP vs Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman. Although I shouldn't expect too much out of ICP and Vamp, I was still a bit disapointed with this. I think they worked too much heat segments without having the offense to do it, the ICP are better as bumping goofs. It was still pretty good though, and the crowd got into it. Again, clean pinfall, which basically happened in every match, and the right guys go over. Car crash of the night : Randy Savage vs Dennis Rodman : "Where is my bitch ?" Rodman. "Tonight you are my bitch" Savage. Really ? Anyway, this isn't good, as Savage can't do anything anymore, and Rodman is only good for a few minutes or so, but it has its moment, especially when they go backstage, including a now infamous spot. I understand what they were aiming at, doing a crzay brawl, but they didn't really succeeded, using smokes and mirrors like abusing referees. Savage really had nothing left, sadly. Nostalgia match of the night : Hulk Hogan vs Kevin Nash. Hogan is much more interesting as Hollywood to me. As a 1999 Hulk match against a monster, this is pretty decent, although it's a hell of a basic match. Nothing bad per say, but really nothing above the least requisite to make it work. The career vs career stipulation was useless, it dodn't work at all and the two guys didn't bother work like it was a huge deal. Really Hogan getting the belt back as a nostalgia act was fine, as Nash was a failure, but it really showed that the company was dry on top. Even with Goldberg winning the belt, nothing was hot anymore, and especially not Sid. Shitty performance of the night : Sid Vicious vs Sting : God Sid sucks. And he not only sucks, but he's really lazy as all hell. The way he feeds Sting is amazingly goofy. Sid was not a guy to put on top anymore in 1999, he was a proven failure at every level, it's mind blowing WCW still tried with him. Bad match, although Sting was energetic. Sid gets a clean pinfall, but he didn't even bother use the powerbomb on Sting. One chokeslam and that was it. Ugh... Useless match of the night : Goldberg vs Rick Steiner. As much as Scott figured it out, Rick just didn't. Slow, plodding, boring offense from Rick until Goldie spears him. Jackhammer, end. No business on PPV. Harlem Heat won the title in a decent match for a Harlem Heat match in 99, but it is not a good thing to anchor the tag team division around an act from the past which involves Stevie Ray. Bagwell vs The Cat wasn't good, both these guys needs a good worker to work with, they just didn't click. The most striking thing about that PPV is the lack of bullshit finish and screwjobs. All clean finish, mostly with the right guys going over (only Sid pinning Sting is very questionnable at best). It was obvious Nash wasn't booking alone anymore. The best parts were delivered by the Triad, the Revolution and Eddie & Co. The main event scene looks dull, dry and totally without appeal, with terribles heels in Rick Steiner and Sid. And Hogan is a nostalgia act at this point. Not looking good at all...

I thought Jesse came off really well in this interview, but RF was as bad as ever. The HoF stuff was embarrassing.

I think that was during the Summer of 98 when Sullivan was obviously totally burned out.

WEEK 32 (August 09 to 14, 1999) Main event match of the week : Kevin Nash & Rick Steiner & Sid Vicious vs Hulk Hogan & Goldberg & Sting (Nitro). Earlier in the show, Nash & co jumped on Hogan, then saved by Goldie & Sting. From that came the stipulation for Road Wild that this would be a career vs career match. Then this match is notable because it's the comeback of the Red & Yellow Hulk Hogan, to a huge pop. Good idea, Hogan was already working as Hulk anyway, and this makes him fresh again, to some extent. And it gets over the idea that he's concerned Road Wild could be his last match, so he has to become the old Hulk again for this occasion. The match itself is fun too, mainly because it's all action and very heated, and Sid doesn't have the opportunity to suck the life out of it. Goldberg gets a great spear on Steiner. Title change of the week : Chris Benoit vs David Flair (Nitro). Finally, Benoit gets his title shot, set up by Dusty Rhodes who's the new matchmaker for WCW (Sting brought the power back to WCW). Ric not being in power anymore, Charles Robinson can't referee, so David is pretty much fucked. This is satisfiying, Benoit wins the title despite DDP's interruption, setting up a title match at Road Wild. Bad new music theme of the week : "Good Old Boys" (Nitro). Because Rap is Crap was so over, I guess they had to be stripped of it. This is basically Jeff Jarrett's old country theme with some lyrics. Blah. Just like Goldberg's Megadeath theme, this hurts their intros. Woman's match of the week : Little Jeannie vs Mona (Nitro). No idea who Jeannie is, but it is pretty decent. I wasn't aware Mona was that solid for a US woman worker. Line of the week : "We're not getting any younger" Dean Malenko to Dusty Rhodes, asking for more opportunities. Hey ! Great way to put over the fact that they are the "young" talent of the company. Well, Malenko was actually 39, Douglas was 35 and Saturn was 33. Talk about some frisky youngins !! Line of the week 2 : "I'll make Gorgeous George my bitch". Dennis Rodman on Nitro, not even getting blipped. Ugh... The build to Road Wild has been suprisingly decent, really. I refuse to believe Nash booked this on his own. Way too logical and simple. The Hogan "turn" was a pretty cool moment actually. The heat on Nitro was great during the whole show, they should get to Boise, Idaho more often... Shane Douglas, Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn are programmed with the West Texas Redneck after they jumped to protect some country singer who did yet another boring music performance on the show. Not exactly the best way to push them as the Revolution against the eveil older guys, but now that Flair isn't in power, the whole idea behind this group really doesn't work that well. At least Benoit is feuding with DDP over the US belt now. Vamp & ICP vs Eddie, Rey & Kidman developps pretty well, with a tease that Disco might joign (no idea what happened with Konnan). Madusa hasn't been on TV, which is odd, she was all over Savage's angles the first few weeks. Berlyn is coming. Road Wild shapes up to be much better than the previous year.

WEEK 31 (August 02 to 07, 1999) Match of the week : DDP vs Chris Benoit (Nitro). For a minute or two it seems like they were actually gonna build guys like Benoit. I'm getting back on what I said about DDP earlier in the year, that he was past his prime. I think he was better working with Benoit here than he was the year before. Maybe working heel helped, but DDP has really been on fire since his latest comeback. Strong Nitro TV match, which ends up with Benoit actually getting the pin. David Flair the bogus US champ gets involved and Benoit gets beat up by DDP after the match. Horrible angle of the week : Sid Vicious begins his millenium man gimmick. (Nitro). So there it is, we'll get Sid Vicious interrupting cruiserweight and non-pushed guys matches to chokeslam or powerbomb them and cut boring promos, to build himself a "records streak". I HATE this angle, much like I hate evevry angle of this kind, be it 911, Kane or whoever does it. Sid was especially infuriating. Sid squashes were fresh in 1989 or 1992 when Sid was still young and brand new. Sid doing this shit in 1999 is just FF inducing. Especially since he's been at his all time worse in the ring thus far. Old grudge match of the week : Buff Bagwell vs Scotty Riggs (Thunder). The American Males clash of the titans. Odd how those two careers strayed away after a few months of clapping their hands together. Riggs was the most talented, and Bagwell got the push. Same old wrestling story. This is a good Bagwell match and I'm surprised that it was work on an equal footing basically, Bagwell giving a lot to Riggs who was nothing but a JTTS sadly at this point, so it was a nice surprise. Honorable mention of the week : Jerry Fynn & Hugh Morrus vs Shane Douglas & Dean Malenko (Nitro). Nice little match. Douglas is fat but looks pretty good thus far actually. He really shows that he's an old-school veteran in his way of working, especially in this kind of tag matches. He knows how to act inside and out. Morrus still fails to impress me much even in a slight "he's underrated" way, but he's okay. Brawl of the week : Curt Hennig vs Perry Saturn (Nitro). They get into it for whatever reason with Hennig still dressed up as a cowboy. Hennig bumps like a maniac so it's pretty damn fun, and Saturn isn't afraid to throw him around. I'm loving Hennig in 99. Slow week building to Road Wild. They've done a decent job with the undercard and Hogan vs Nash. Nothing fancy nor outrageous, which really leads me to think Nash was already phased down quite a bit as far as booking goes. The TV doesn't look like what's Nash had been doing for months. We get more Eddie vs Vamp & ICP, we get more Triad vs Harlem Heat, DDP gets his win back over Benoit on Thunder thanks to Bam Bam, which makes them 1-1 before the PPV, The Cat vs Bagwell is a decent low card match up (damn, that big Bagwell push sure vanished quickly). Really, the only shitty stuff is on the higher part of the card with Rick Steiner and Sid being pushed hard, Steiner going against Goldberg (what a gigantic waste) and Sid vs Sting (great, it's 1990 again). The product is not exciting, the US/TV/cruiser titles are dead, but nothing gives you the urge to pull your eyes out like the previous months thanks to a decent undercard. Oh, Savage vs Rodman is a total afterthought, complete lazy stuff. I guess they really had no idea what to do with Rodman at this point.

WEEK 30 (July 26 to 31, 1999) Match of the week : Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko vs Ric Flair & DDP & Kanyon (Thunder). By default more than anything else, but it was a decent all action match, with always good performances from Benoit, DDP & Kanyon. Flair looks the worse of the 6, by far. Douglas shows up at the end and cuts basically the same promo that he did on Nitro, to a lukewarm reaction. The problem is that he seems to be pandering to the three other guys too much, and the Franchise is a de facto heel character, as showed by his first match on Nitro which was worked like he was a heel. Lazy angle of the week : Dennis Rodman kidnaps Gorgeous George. (Nitro). This girl really had a thing for being captured. The whole Savage vs Rodman stuff has been very poorly build, Rodman basically shows up and fucks around with Savage for no reason whatsoever. Savage cuts rambling promos about running for the US presidency (mimicking Hogan's promos from last year). The best parts (pun intended) are Madusa and Mona arguing with Savage and trying to put teh blame for their split on George. Tragic injury of the week : Fit Finlay got his leg injury that would put him off the ring for years. Fuck you Knobbs. Finlay was getting a push again and this is ruined. Squash of the week : Goldberg vs Curt Hennig (Nitro). Not really a squash as the match ends when Curt flies off the ring. The cool part is Goldie spearing all three other West Texas Rednecks in succession. Hennig runs in with a chair, looks at Goldie and then runs off. Pretty cool stuff and made Golderg look like the monster he should always have been. Stiff match of the week : Vampiro vs Rey Mysterio Jr. (Nitro). This is short, but it's the best match I've seen Vampiro involved in. Rey made him look like a million bucks. We'll get Vamp & ICP vs Rey, Eddie and I would guess Konnan now. I could enjoy that. Redux of the week : Harlem Heat are getting back together (Thunder). Finally, Stevie Ray drops the nWo colors and will support his brother against the Triad. I haven't been kind with Booker's single matches all year long, so I have no issue with this. At least next to Stevie he'll look really good again. Random match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Brad Armstrong vs Kendall Windham & Bobby Duncum Jr. (Saturday Night). Since it's been taped earlier, Rey is still tagging with B.A. as a No Limit Soldier, although he's not doing the silly shout anymore. I like watching Rey work against these two big guys, especially Kendall who's one of the mots underrated guy on the roster at this point. Video package of the week : A really good video recap of the whole Hogan/Nash storyline dating back from the very early days. (Nitro). Very well done, and actually made sense out of the entire nWo story arc, with the dissensions, split and gatherings. Funny fact, Hogan losing the belt to Goldberg was cut out when the video was showed again on Thunder (although it wasn't even showed in the first video, rather simply alluded to). So, Kevin Nash has now turned full fledge heel against Hogan, aligning himself with Sid as his mystery partner for a tag match on Nitro. People wanted Hall, they shit all over Sid, who sucks more than ever it seems like. The build to Road Wild is decent compared to the horrors that were the previous builds. Only the Savage vs Dennis Rodman feud is really shitty. Oh, Scott Hudson has been doing the play by play on Nitro for the last two weeks, and it's been extremely refreshing. Heenan couldn't give a fuck and I just want him to shut up, he's annoying as hell only using ultra tired clichés. Jason Hervey guest colored on Nitro.

Hey, his first project Sin Cara was a tremendous succes. Wait...

You're so not playing along. Damn. I'm going back to Nitro 1999.

I didn't mean as a Greatest of All Time. I meant as a goat.

Bingo.

I think after his great performance with Lesnar this year, HHH should get some consideration.

Oh man, I fell bad for you. Seriously. Seems like the HHH match really killed the crowd and that Rock vs Cena had a hard time getting the back, at least that's what it appeared like to me on TV.

So, this is my yearly WWE watch post. Loved the set. I thought the opener was all fine, although I couldn't care less about Orton, but I enjoyed the match. Some of these Shield guys are fun (no idea who is who). Henry vs Ryback : Ryback is a worthless Goldie clone. I don't care about Goldie 14 years ago so that should tell you all about what I think about this guy. But hey, the match was actually fun for a while and I give full credit to Mark Henry for making this watchable. I really enjoyed the tag-match despite Kane being involved and despite this Ziggler guy basically being an overbumping Billy Gunn. Yes, I thought it was really good all around. AJ still looks hot as hell, but wasn't she supposed to become a major star last year ? Anyway, probably the best match of the show to me. Fandango vs Jericho was nice as a good Thunder match, complete with Jericho totally overshootng his Lionsault. Fandango is a dumbshit gimmick, and the guy who does it apparently can't dance worth a shit, which doesn't help. Totally brings me back to Prince Iaukea doing the Prince gimmick. And he seems to be as good as a worker too. Worthless debut, the guy will be dead in no time. Jericho's jacket is glorious, his hairstyle isn't. Del Rio vs Swagger put me to complete sleep. CM Punk vs Taker I thought was really quite good for the 3/4 of the match, with Punk being just great at times. But when it went time for the self-conscious epic WWE formula of "countering your finish / countering my finish / kicking out of you finish / kicking out of mine / more counters" until the final pin which is always dramatically obvious to me, the match felt apart for me. I just can't stand this fake epic style that is so tedious and predictable to me. I guessed *every* spot and counters they did. The annoucing was rotten as always and made it even more obvious, if need be, that all the nar falls would be just that. Nut as a whole, and stylistic distate aside, this was a very good match and much better than anything Taker did in years (and probably even better than the first Shawn match that I dond't think was great either, but I'd have to watch it back to be sure, which I won't do). Seeing Bruno here was surreal. HHH vs Lesnar : OH MY GOOD ! HHH KILLED THIS SHOW DEAD ! Hilarious failed epic (or epic fail) by HHH, and major ego stroking. The best part was the lack of heat and Lesnar's grin at times. The worst part was the match. Godawful stuff. Felt like 2002 again. HHH is a horrid big match worker and a putrid babyface. Go away. Rock vs Cena : now now now, why didn't John Cena get the fancy ass entrance this year ? Color me disapointed. It seems like HHH vs Lesnar did kill the show because this match felt flat to me, not like a big deal at all. Really felt like rehased stuff. Too long, awkwardly worked and with audible calls all over the place. But I loved every time Cena was heeling it up. Man, turn this baby yesterday !!! Way too many counters/kick outs at the end, despite some fun ideas like Cena faking the people's elbow, but they (meaning, the WWE) just don't know how to plan a big match without doing a billion stupid übercounters, which is too bad. Felt kinda flat overall, and really Taker vs CM Punk needed to go on last. P.Diddy or whatever his name is still sucks like it's the mid 90's. And Living Colour still rule like it's the late 80's. Well, I thought it was a pretty damn flat show, nothing really felt like it was that big of a deal to be honest. So there. Until next year WWE.