El-P

I would have never thought of that. They did made a grunge character... in 1995... Rad Radford. That was a pretty big fail. At least Raven, despite also showing up only in 1995, had the right look and psych of the GenXer depressed slacker. The HeadBangers were a bit more in synch with pop culture though I admit. Antichrist Superstars was released in 96, they showed up in 97 wearing Manson's T-shirts, that was neat. Of course they got created by Cornette earlier on in SMW, but I never saw them here, so I don't know what they looked like back then. It would be hilarious to think Corny in freaking SMW was more in tune with pop culture.

WTF was that about ? Funny how Tatanka was pretty hot for most of 93 until he got squashed by Yokozuna. Then he pretty much did nothing of note until his heel turn in the Summer of 94, then gained weight and turn into crap quickly in 95. Yet another occurence of interrupting an unbeaten streak not being a good idea.

Watching the Van Hammer character and video in 1991, it's yet another sign of how much wrestling is usually totally outdated with pop culture. The Van Hammer character was a good 5-6 year out of date, surfing on Van Halen's popularity which peaked with the 1984 album. It's one of those occurence when you see that having rasslin' guys only in the office is pretty bad, because they have usually no idea of what's popular. It's not surprising that things click when they do catch up with the current pop culture. ECW did it to an extent (although Raven's grungy character came right as grunge was dying). WWF did it to an extent when you had Road Dog wearing South Park T-shirts and such. But overall, it's striking how far behind the wrestling world is.

Does she ever get out ?

I don't know if there was any big angle on TV, but I remember the turn happening on an MSG match against Saba Simba. Search. Yep. I love the Internet era of wrestling sometimes : The Hammer turns on Jimmy Hart Valentine had great facials. I loved this guy.

As you see, give us Greg Valentine in 91 and we get all excited.

He did work the Royal Rumble 92, then left for WCW.

Nah. Starrcade 96 was a great card, tons of really good wrestling up and down the card, and Hogan showing ass for Piper and losing clean was the great feel-good moment that was supposed to happen after months of him bullying everybody. The fact that Piper was a part-timer excuse the fact it was non-title. Starrcade 96 is the apex of the nWo era.

Can we test him too ?

Yes but as a fan, I can't help but feel like it would be so much more special if it was not given away on free TV multiple times already. I haven't seen any of these. The priviledge of not following WWE TV in more than a decade.

Jaw drops. So, that picture Brian Alvarez posted yesterday wasn't so dumb after all. 5 millions in the drain.

I never thought Booker belong as a main eventer anyway, not as a worker nor as a character, it's not like Booker would have been a big draw. But yeah, effective HHH bury job, with the bonus of being really offensive.

Gotta love the line "People wants you, they want to see you face CM Punk, Randy Orton and... John Cena so you try to erase your defeat. But instead, they get you against, THE GAME.". Ok, that's not what he said, but I fear a Brock vs HHH match at Summerslam now instead of a cool match. Yes, I agree the babyface front is very slim, and really, the big dream match for Mania next year is Brock vs Rock. I'd love to see Brock vs CM Punk in the meantime.

Cena not being in is logical since he's supposed to be hurt. Lawler being in makes no sense whatsoever, but at this point, who cares ?

At least the perspective of CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan is pretty cool to say the least.

It's sad. On one hand they are trying to present themselves as pure entertainment, on the other hand they are crossing the lines old carnies wouldn't cross because it didn't make sense and never worked in the end. Yes, it worked as to create interest for a week or two, then they were incapable of booking the angle of which they planted the seeds for. Seems like we're getting the same thing here. It's sad. Brock coming back and the match with Cena is the closest thing to me being somewhat excited about watching some WWE again. But the booking just makes me want to bash my computer if I'm thinking about it.

Ok. if it's "all a big work", I'm asking the question : what is the point ? Working the Internet ? Working the hardcore fans ? Working the dirt sheets ? Seriously, we're still there in 2012 ?

You forgot Hash-Ogawa. John No, it was awesome. Ask around. Booker vs HHH really had no big effect other than killing Booker for a while, but "Racist heel kills off black babyface" is indeed mind-blowing.

No shit. If it's a "Pillman work", even part of it, then I was right to bring on Russo after all (sadly). The infamous Bookerman promo was Russo's big inspiration for shooty shooty stuff and swerving people. I didn't like the pseudo shooty aspect of Cena's promo yesterday, but it's getting worse. I sure hope Lesnar doesn't get written off. If that's a case, I think we can agree all of this is a complete debacle and deserves to get into "Worst booking decisions ever" thread. I'm even more baffled today.

Jake vs Lawler was embarrasing on every level. Terrible matches, bad promos, Lawler being a dick pouring actual alchohol into Jake's throat. Just bad stuff coming from guys who should do much better.

Some people argue Cena looked like he lost the war despite winning the match, and that the post match was comparable to HHH vs Taker from last year. I disagree and that is why. That is not the point. I don't think it will kill Lesnar of course, but I don't buy the argument that Cena looked like he lost the war just because he was standing bloodied after the match. We've seen that in the past with other Cena opponents who weren't special. Point is, if Cena wins the match, at least have him slaughter him afterward.

I'm glad he was selling his arm still, it would have been infuriating if he didn't, but it's not like he looked destroyed. As far as being covered in blood, he was covered in blood after his last man standing match against Umaga from RR07 too. Look at the post match of this one, it's not much different at all.

The last image on the PPV wasn't Cena carried out because he was destroyed despite winning the match (like Taker was at Mania last year), the last image of the PPV was Cena cutting a half-shooty promo thanking the fans and telling them they can drive home safely. I mean, I understand the reasonning, but it doesn't appear at all that in the end Cena was busted up by Brock. Cena was standing on his own like he always does after winning a hard fought match.

All that is all well and good, but don't you think the story would be a tad more compelling and exciting if Cena didn't already beat Brock once ? And the question would be : "Can John Cena be the man who will finally defeat the monster and save the WWE Universe ?" as opposed to "Cena is back, we know he beat Lesnar on his first try, game over."

Why would Lesnar have issues to do business anyway ? He's getting millions, and he doesn't care much about pro-wrestling to begin with. Lesnar doesn't have a history of refusing to do jobs, does he ?