El-P

Well, thanks, that is heart-warming. I need love, Kevin Nash is doing bad things to my brain... WEEK 18 (May 03 to 08, 1999) Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Kanyon (Thunder). Kanyon is back ! And he's working a really good match with Rey Mysterio, maybe his best single match thus far. Sadly there is no finish since Rey is under the Horsemen radar, but it's nice to see him work with a heavyweight who can take his cruiser offense like a king. World title match of the week : Ric Flair vs DDP (Nitro). They throw big match around on live TV like crazy. This is in Charlotte, so Flair works like a fiery babyface, which means he'll connect at least one coming off the tope rope. He'll also get thrown, don't worry. 95% of his offense consists of chops. Despite what he says in his (not so good) promos, DDP is not in his prime anymore, and it shows at points, but he's still way ahead of Flair as a worker at this point. I enjoyed this match probably more than I should considering Flair's limitations. He also take bumps like an old guy at points. Savage once again helps DDP to win. Stiffest match of the week : Bam Bam Bigelow vs Hak (Nitro). Nope, Bam Bam isn't shining in those matches, and they basically kill each other with plunders without much creativity. The really bad part is when Brian Knobbs shows up at the end and attacks both guys with ridiculous stiff shots. If there's a guy I dind't need to see on my TV again, that was Knobbs. And he's getting a push. Way to go Nash. C-show feud match of the week : Barbarian vs Jerry Flynn (Saturday Night). Why are these two on Saturday Night having cool little matches while Knobbs and Stevie Ray get PPV spots ? Funniest match of the week : Meng vs David Flair (Nitro) Flair booked his son with Meng, to punish him for betraying him and sending him into a mental hospital. Meng kills David Flair. This is fun. Hey ! Torrie Wilson is still around David ! Wait, wasn't she with him only to get him against his father in an elaborate nWo ploy ? Why is she still with David ? What happened with that whole angle ? Remember Ms Robinson ? No one knows, including Nash apparently. Line of the week : "Arn, book him with Meng ! Book him with Meng !" Yeah, that was legit funny. Random match of the week : The Cat vs Buff Bagwell (Nitro) This is the best match Bagwell had since his comeback. The Cat is ridiculously entertaining to me, and he knows how to get heat for himself while stalling. This is psychology people. Bagwell is mediocre at best now but he sure is over, although his character as a babyface is grating to me. The heat helped, but the work was decent enough and they kept things moving. I enjoyed this more than any Bagwell match in a long while. Flair cut an insane promo on Nitro, building the Gorgeous George vs Charles Robinson feud, with George being choked by the muscular nurse. That sucked, it feels like a rehash of the Chyna character, which would only get more obvious when she'll get a name. They also "built" the Goldberg vs Sting match with them going at it other, why, we don't really know. The crowd is super hot for this, and it's a shame this match is wasted on a secondary spot. This could have been a Starrcade main event with a few months worth of build. Nash vs DDP hasn't been built very well, as all the intrigue and heat is on Macho Man & George vs Robinson and Flair vs Piper. The undercard looks so-so, with Buff vs Scott Steiner and Rick vs Booker T, to downright bad with Bam Bam vs Knobbs (ugh). Most promising match on paper is the tag team championship match, once again.

You really want me to be driven insane. Agreed. And it has gotten noticeably worse since the Flair turn I would say. The storyline arc of Flair getting control of WCW was nice, but Hogan turning tweener then face for absolutely no reason while Flair tunred heel just fucked things up big time on top, and it's been a gigantic mess since then. The way the nWo pretty much pettered out is pretty amazing when you think it was the biggest angle ever in the company and the second biggest of the decade in the US or anywhere for that matter. Kayfabe-wise, it's like the nWo crumbling from within let WCW without an enemy to fight, so Flair just got back to his old ways and got insane with power, and then everyone was in only for themselves, thus a big time mess and total lack of direction and heel/face dynamics. I'm rationalizing the best I can here ! Totally agree. They had no idea how to use him after the initial Goldberg debacle. I think his finest hour in WCW will come with the New Jersey Triad days. Well, I can only hope so at this point. I'm not so sure they were ignored. They got the Horsemen vs Raven/Saturn vs Kidman feud going pretty well, with simple angles every week (basically, the Horsemen fucking up the other two teams, which is exactly what the Horsemen should do). Nothing elaborate, but it was simple and efficient booking and led to good matches. Really, the tag team division has been the only running saving grace of the product thus far. Really took the role of the cruiserweight division from 96 to 98 it seems like. Of course it won't last very long. We still got the Jersey Triads period which was cool from memory, and then... That was Psych. Poor guy, he never went beyond highest JTTS level luchador. It's funny, I seem to remember that Blitzkrieg actually got the belt at one point, but I doubt it will happen now. His stint really seems like it was ridiculously overblown back then (by us I mean), although he had lot of potential. Probably a capoeira practicionner judging from the way he moved. I forgot to mention this was the week Rick Rude died. He got a still picture and a three count before Nitro...

WEEK 17 (April 26 to May 01, 1999) I'm not gonna lie, this is getting tougher... I'm kinda get angry behind my screen watching 14 year old pro-wrestling... Match of the week : Sting vs DDP (Nitro) They throw around this main event caliber match at the top of the second hour, facing RAW. They clearly are getting desperate here. And it's gonna get worse. For now though, this is pretty great. Not a great match per say, but clearly one of Sting's best in ages. What makes this so fun is two things : first, the heat is seriously amazing, WCW audience were so into Sting winning the title that they made this match so much better than it probably is. Second, they worked some terrific nearfalls at the end, and it seemed like DDP would lose and Sting would indeed win the title. Until he did. And they it exploded, litteraly. Great Nitro moment, and it showed that Sting still was worthy of a run at the top as the babyface of the company. Yes but.... Retarded match of the week : Sting vs DDP vs Goldberg vs Kevin Nash (Nitro) Yeah. For the title too. Because we need two fucking world title matches on the same show. Before making this match from "the loony bin", Flair also changed the Slamboree main event into Sting vs Goldberg. With two weeks of build. Nice. Anyway, so they throw these four together and it's a bit messy and doesn't attain near the same level of intensity as DDP vs Sting earlier on. And then. Randy Savage, who's a babyface feuding with Flair mind you, attacks Sting, saves DDP and basically gives him the victory, and the title. Yep. Yet another nonsensical heel/face dynamic on top, and Sting was the champ for a whole 90 minutes. Rating jerk-off booking. Retarded title switch of the week 2 : Rey Mysterio Jr. pins Psychosis in 4 minutes to win his title back (Nitro). Yep. After winning an epic 20 minutes 4-way the previous and scoring the upset win, Psych jobs hard in a match that is nothing but a backdrop for another Horsemen attack on Rey. This is so stupid. Godawful vignettes & angle of the week : Flair at the mental hospital gives instructions to Charles Robinson who is the active vice president of the company (Nitro) Yep. Charles Robinson apaprently was the vice-president and as such can overule Piper. The Flair vignettes are embarrassing to watch. Scott Hall making a cameo is the only "funny" moment. That muscular nurse only brings more bad memories. Complete shit. Again, this is as bad as anything Russo was doing in WWF at the time, and it's obvious Nash was copying the hotshotting and stupid vignette style of Russo. Stupid job of the week : Raven doing the job to Steve and Scott Armstrong (Nitro). Why ? Supposedly Saturn had been attacked by the Horsemen earlier on. Still, this has no point and the announcers make it worse by calling it a huge upset, which really doesn't make Raven look like a big deal but rather make the Armstrong look like complete jabroni. They beat up a guy 2 on 1 and it's still a huge upset ? Shit. Get some relief match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Kaz Hayashi (Saturday Night). Apart from Hayashi doing his own version ofthe People's Elbow (seriously, WTF ?!!), this was a nice little cruiserweight match which ended the week on a better note. This was hard to get through. So much shit going on. Booker T is now getting some unwanted help from his big brother, thrilling. He's also showing me each and every time that he was pretty much a poor worker at this point. Really got into a total routine with sloppy spots, awkward set-ups and shitty looking shots, always doing the exact same spots with the exact same transitions at the exact same point of the match. I never thought much of Booker, but his stock has dropped a lot thus far in 1999. Ditto Bam Bam who thus far has been way more disapointing than he already was in ECW. The same garbage matches every week with Hak are getting old, and that's coming from a Sandman fan. He's not working with terribly exciting opposition either, Hugh Morrus and now Brian Knobbs... Of course we'll get that thrilling feud between Konnan and nWo Black & White. And Rick Steiner is getting a single push. Meanwhile, Kaz Hayashi, The Cat, Norman Smiley, Fit Finlay among others do nothing of note. And I know it's not gonna get better with the horrible Summer on the horizon... I need some support people....

Two monsters against each other mostly never work anyway. The issue I have with this WM card, is that from where I stand, all three big matches are predictable as hell, with two of them consisting of one guy "getting his win back". And I never cared for Taker's Streak, which makes every damn WM Taker match the epithome of obligatory self-conscious epic with garanteed result anyway. I don't believe for a second that CM Punk can be any threat to Taker anyway. I really have no desire to watch anything involving Triple H, I was bored to tears by him by 2001, so using Lesnar this way really doesn't excite me one bit. And as much as I had fun watching Cena vs Rock last year, this year just doesn't seem that special to me. Any kind of upset in one of these three matches would make my day, but I very highly doubt it.

Plus Colon always had TV, hasn't he ? Onita was promoting without the support of TV for most of his first stint, which makes it even more impressive to me.

Blame Matt. If not for his own little joke, I would have gone straight to the snake picture.

The most embarrasing too. Although we never quite got a guy like Berlusconi at the helm, thank God ! "Italians do it better".

Hey, I almost posted *that* very picture as a way to apologize for subjcting you to the horror of the French MLP. I would have made a tired remark about "I want to be that snake" too. You know how much I love Mary-Louise too...

That's also the recollection I have from this match. I wonder though, as Piper has been rotten in the ring the few times I've seen him in 98 and 99 thus far. We'll see, I have one more week of TV to go (and what a Nitro it was... oh man... you better enjoy the "bizarre turn of the week" stuff... and the "stupid title switches of the week" stuff too...)

Good for her. This whole "independant contractor" is a complete travesty anyway.

Nope. He was working full time in World Class at the time.

WEEK 16 (April 19 to 24, 1999) Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Juventud Guerrera vs Blitzkrieg vs Psychosis (Nitro). Not a big fan of 4-ways or 3-ways, especially when it's not an elimination match, but this got so ridiculous in term of high flying and big spots that it was actually quite fun. They worked a semi-storyline of Psychosis and Juvy kinda working together at times against technicos Rey and Blitzkrieg, and the psychology or having to get rid of two opponents before being able to pin the third was well established. Obviously a way to get the belt off Rey without having him do the job, but having Blitz take the pin kinda made Psychosis's win a bit minor key. Honorable mention of the week : Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko & Kidman vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Raven & Perry Saturn (Thunder). Rey and Kidman still are the tag champs, and the two other teams are gunning for them. Fun dynamics with Kidman and Rey not wanting to hurt each others, while the Horsemen are especially vicious. Arn gets physical at the end, which is always fun. Tag team wrestling has been the best thing on WCW TV in 1999 thus far in term of feuds and matches. Funniest match of the week : Goldberg vs The Cat (Thunder). The Cat does his five count deal with Goldie, but actually gets a cheap shot in. Not as dumb as one could think ! Very fun squash. Stupid angle of the week : Roddy Piper sends Ric Flair into a mental hospital (Nitro). He's Ric Flair's friend and wants to protect him from himself. Flair is batshit insane, fires Piper but wants a match with him at Slamboree for the control of the company. Piper accepts. Nothing makes any sense, it's all pretty damn terrible. Flair gets carried away after his match with Nash. Yes, Flair had a match with Nash, which saw Nash do backbody drops on Flair, a spot than Nash never ever does. There you go again Flair, forcing spots on people who never usually do them. Nash was quite good at selling for Flair though, very nice way to register the punches. Tweener turns heel/tweener turns face match of the week : Goldberg vs DDP (Nitro). So, DDP is a full fledge heel now, as he does a clear turn for the bad side during his match with Goldie, getting a foreign object and trying to bust his knee out. Goldi is only saved by Nash, who definitly turns clear cut face. What a mess of a main event scene, but at least now it seems like things are getting a little bit more clear, although Steiner and the rest of the nWo are still heels (except Hogan, who's out injured and who's a face). The match itself was actually quite exciting, no one gets more out of Goldberg than DDP. He let him kick out of his Diamond Cutter, which makes Goldie look like The Man. Good job by DDP. Line of the week : "It looks like you're looking for a job !" Tony Schiavone to Dusty Rhodes, who guest announced the Nitro main event and made a great pre-match hype job for it. Nitro was actually quite solid all around with quite a bit of fun matches and two big time matches/angles at the end. Odd fact, I totally remembered the hot girl behind Scott Steiner when he cut his weekly promo (the one on the right who seemed way into it). The Flair and Roddy angle is stupid, but outside of that, everything else pretty much made sense. They build toward Nash & DDP at the PPV, the three team tag match, now they can have a cruiserweight match too since Rey isn't the champ anymore, Buff challenged Steiner (although I don't expect anything from that match, Buff just isn't the worker he was before the injury). Oh, and Berlyn was sitting in the crowd. And Macho Man brought Madusa back to train Gorgeous George.

What a shock when watching Spring Breakers, from Harmony Korine. 2 minutes into the movie, after the opening credits, who shows up but Jeff Jarrett playing some sort of college preacher ! I got a big kick out of it. (The movie itself isn't very interesting though, full of meaningless depth)

I would have never pegged you as a Brony, John. Nor would have I thought John was a follower of the French right-wing extremist party the Front National. MLP, still hot in her 40's...

You can say that. But to me this is also why I hate the current format so much.

1994's booking wasn't very good. Flair pushed all his old buddies on top. Of course since it means Steamboat and Arn getting pushes, "workrate" fans enjoy it, but seen in context and in retrospect, Flair's booking in 1994 really looks egotistical and doesn't build at all toward the future. Austin, Pillman and Dustin all took major setbacks during Flair's run as a booker in 1994 (not to mention the unbearable Bunkhouse Buck push, which he only got because his cousin Robert Fuller was on the booking comitee with Flair), and Flair was all about getting a big program with Hogan, not work with the younger guys. Shane Douglas is 100% right about Flair during that time. To say I was very underwhelmed with the first half of 1994 is an understatement. The last real cool booking of the company before the good Nitro years was during Watts last months, in very late 92 and especially early 93.

Most certainly. But has there been a good wrestling *writer* thus far we can talk about ? They've all been pretty shitty.

This is the very exact quote I was thinking about. This synthetizes pretty much why Russo doesn't understand shit about wrestling and why he did so much harm. Of course it matters you fucking idiot.

Short answer : no. Wrestling needs bookers. The era of the wrestling "writers" has been worst ever in term of angles and characters.

WEEK 15 (April 12 to 17, 1999) Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Juventud Guerrera (Thunder). They already had a match on Nitro which was stopped after the Horsemen jumped on Rey. Juvy is in full rudo mode. it's sad they didn't get a real built in feud in WCW, seems like they only really got paired in random matches (they had a short deal while in the lWo but that was it). They fumbled on one spot, but the rest of the match is poetry in motion as usual with these two. Rey gets Juvy with a brutal top rope frankensteiner, Rey's execution of the move is explosive, and the way Juvy takes it makes it look even better. One bad thing though, was Juvy using the People's elbow. Made them look totally second rate. I'm amazed no one told him he had to stop doing this immediately. Nostalgia match of the week : Ric Flair vs Sting (Nitro). "For old times sake", as said by a hysterical Sting earlier on the show. Whoever wants to argue was still a great wrestler in 1999 oughta watch this match. He's in total routine mode, doing the same match he was doing 9 years before, looking old and tired doing it. And it's one of these match where Sting no-sells 90% of Flair offense, making him look like an old bitch. He also wears awful looking white shoes. Eventually, since these two knows each other so well, it turn into something enjoyable if you're into that sort of stuff, mostly because Sting works kinda hard at it, but Flair was clearly not even what I'd call a *good worker* at this point. He could be fun to watch at points, and could also be sad to watch. Sad promo of the week : Stevie Ray (Thunder). This to me signs the official death certificate of the nWo. This is Stevie Ray "taking over", burying Hogan who's injured, burying Lex, Nash and Steiner for various nonsensical reasons. The nWo as a main event faction was essentially dead for a few weeks now, but this is what ends it all to me. From now on, the nWo is a mid-card JTTS small group, and while Nash and Steiner still use the Wölfpack music, there is no nWo per say anymore. It's barely an afterthought. It's bizarre to think the biggest angle in the history of the company, and the second biggest one of the decade, eventually just petered out. Stevie Ray wants DDP's belt, he'll do the job later on the show. Bad promo too, as Stevie Ray was not just a bad worker in the ring. Stiff fest of the week : Barbarian vs Jerry Flynn (Saturday Night). My favourite C show feud. Thank you Jimmy Hart for booking this. You know the drill, Barbie and Jerry Flynn exchange stiff offens. Fun stuff. Payback match of the week : DDP vs Scott Steiner (Nitro). DDP was such in a bizarre tweener spot. Here he's full on babyface, coming out with Kimberly and taking revanche on Big Poppa Pump. Fairly heated and dynamic, with enough time to actually build to a very satisfying finish. Kim swings a mean chair. I didn't think we'd have an actual conclusion to this feud that made sense. Good stuff. Stupid angle of the week : Ric Flair signs some paper but doesn't even read it. (Thunder) Arn is going crazy because Flair is not even looking what he's signing. You know what this will lead to... WTF angle of the week : Savage makes a challenge to Flair, his girl vs Flair's "girl" (Nitro) If Gorgeous George wins, Savage is "reinstated". Except he was never suspended of anything, but whatever. George slaps the hell out of Robinson. This is goofy but quite fun actually. Debut of the week : DJ Ran (Nitro). He's all up in ya area. (seriously, he wasn't bad or anything, plus I heard he hated Master P. and thought it was crap) nWo dead. Buff Bagwell and Vampiro had a pretty bad match on Thunder. Bam Bam Bigelow keeps on not showing me much. Mickey Whipreck is a competitive jobber. Hogan gone for some time. Nash seemingly turning face again, or something, not really sure. The heel/face structure at the top is a big mess.

Ah ah ah ! How are you going to refrain yourself from strutting around the desk when the song pops up ?

So Stevie Ray is the ugly girl that the pretty popular girl hangs out with to make herself look even prettier? Exactly ! That's really well put actually.

Yeah, this is one that I would have loved to see. NJ vs AJ. Furnas had an even better Frankensteiner than Scott. With the Steiners it would have been probbaly not much more than bomb throwing, but Furnas and Kroffat more than could hang on with them on that respect.

LCO (circa 97) vs Crush Gals (in their prime). Mita and Shimoda making Chiggy BLEED like a pig and having fun doing it, the sick bitches they were. Make a return match in a cage, I'm sure Lioness can come up with some stupid spot Mita would be more than willing to take. Greatest matches ever.

I was a huge Undertaker fan when I was a teen, so Paul Bearer was a big part of my early fandom years. I was totally shocked when he turned on Taker at SummerSlam 96, and I enjoyed his heel run with Mankind a lot. Sad to hear. Way too young to die.