El-P

Holy shit. WWF "New Generation" was the cheesiest era ever. Man, a nascar pilot, how cool. Well, not really.

It's also pretty *not very good*.

Yeah, bad finish for a good Rumble match. Backlund going the distance (before it became a total yearly gimmick which I hate) was great (and again, French announcer Guy Hauray gave probably his best performance ever making fun of him during the whole match, my father and I can still drop his favourite line from this match 18 years later), you got Flair and Perfect going at it, Lawler debuting, a rather great debut for Giant Gonzalez (well, ok, he sucked, but 15 year old me thought this was cool as hell), you got oddball guys like Tenryu and Carlos Colon. Really good Rumble match I thought.

Great debut, just amazing production to launch a guy in the promotion. The Narcissist, as goofy as he sounded, was the perfect gimmick for Luger because that's what he basically was. I was so disapointed when they turned him patriotic face later in the year, I thought Luger was destined to be a heel WWF champ. Ironically, WCW did a much better job with the Narcissist gimmick in late 99 and 2000, which made Luger fun again after years.

Really good match, but like Loss said, not their best. It is the sort of match that would have got over much better in the Ryogoku Kokugikan.

At the time Rougeau was also the announcer for French TV. Heel announcer Guy Hauray (who since then became some sort of coaching guru, I'm serious) was laughing his ass off at Raymond here. Good stuff.

Great angle. Of course it would have been better if that was not Crush we're talking of, because Brain Adams is seriously one of the worst worker I've ever seen, but it made Doink.

As I remember it, Hotta came close to ruining that one. The other three are so great she can't even do that, but still. Hotta sucked.

Choshu not only was a way bigger star than Bret as an active performer in the 80's both in NJ and AJ, but was also a great booker for NJ in the first half of the 90's and drew shitloads of money booking the rise of the 3 Musketeers and Tenryu vs NJ. He lost his touch with the UWF-i feud, and the Sasaki push, but Choshu really was magic for a good 10-15 years.

Am I the only one seeing the irony ? So do you think that ECW match were Benoit had the tantrum in was scripted or called in the ring? I have no idea what you're refering to, I never watched WWECW. I'm saying how ironic is this that Chris Benoit of all people was supposed to pre-planned his matches beforehand in WWE because WWE produced guys can't work a lick, and that his memory slipping means he actually had to work like he always did, on the fly. Benoit supposedly trashed the notes DDP brought him for their PPV match in WCW, and at this point of his career, he's working on the fly because *his memory slipped*... Man.

He got fired roughly at the same time Cornette and Mantell were. I think it was just after Bischoff and Hogan came in.

Am I the only one seeing the irony ?

I won't get dragged into an LCO debate in 2011, but back then, LCO were mostly *loved* and pimped as a great team. Then there was a backlash (although some people on the DVDVR side always hated them), and these days I think pimping LCO is a "dated opinion". I guess. LCO in ARSION weren't used to their best ability (plus they had already peaked), but they still had that awesome bloody match with AyaKINO in late 1999. I loved LCO more than most wrestlers, and I take some credit for popularizing the acronym (although I didn't used it first).

LCO.

Brian looks *old* these days. I mean, he's 41, and he looks a good 10 years older. Still, I would crack a smile for one last "Oh you didn't know ?".

I know. I was talking about "John Cena tm WWE Universe character", not John Cena the human being. That's how he comes off to me with promos like these. Either self-hating gay, either retarded. So far Rock just murdered him seven ways to Sunday. Of course, WWE writers suck.

John Cena *must be* an insecure self-hating gay. Or he's just retarded.

Of course. I doubt Woman will ever go in although she would deserve it on her career only, but that would open a can of worms the WWE won't touch with a ten foot pole. Chyna will never go in for obvious reasons although she was a hot act for a while. Sable, well, unless they work something out with brock at some point, I doubt it, but she could eventually. Liz and Luna, I doubt they ever will. Madusa has no shot. Trish really was more important than Sunny to the WWE I think. But hey, like Loss said, it's all about marketing. I wonder who can induct Sunny though...

Well, thanks for nothing then Tammy.

Possibly.

In a kayfaybe sense, Sunny is one hell of a weak inductee. She managed some weak tag team champs (Body Donnas - Godwinn - Smoking Gunns being arguably the "strongest" of the three") in an era where tag team belts meant pretty much zilch, and.... that's pretty much it. Sure, she was the "most downloaded personnality" on AOL for a cup of tea or two, but she really didn't draw anything for WWF, as Sable was really the first female who became a big star during the Attitude Era (although she did suck and was one of the thing I hated the most at that time). Really, what Sunny did in a kayfabe or even in a real sense to warrant that ? Well, you can answer me "Koko B. Ware", I know this HoF means jack shit, but still, when you think about it, Sunny was part of WWF for what, 3 years, was the manager of a JTTS for the first 6 months, then managed a few tag teams when nobody cared, and then was doing the Hotline and some non descript stuff on TV like referring lucha midget matches. And that über short and useless stint with LOD 2000. That's not exactly Sensationnal Sherri level here. When I think of Sunny, the first thing that comes to my mind is "wasted potential".

May - June 98 _ I don't know if the felt pressure from the big rise of the WWF post WM 14, but they sure shook things up on top to try to refresh the product. Scott Hall turning on Kevin Nash. Giant turning on Sting. Luger joigning the Wolfpack. Then Sting joigning the Wolfpack. And DDP finally getting to a well deserved main-event spot. The nWo Hollywood vs Wolfpack feud seemed nice at first especially in a Hogan vs Nash dynamic, as Nash was getting crazy over, but it quickly turns into dullsville, as Nash gets back into the tag team ranks with Sting of all people (after Sting defeats the Giant in a single match to win the titles they had won together before, yeah, the booking is getting really bad there). _Luger was still crazy over while not doing anything of note, so putting him in the Wolfpack gave the fans a reason to pop for him. And did they pop when he joined the afction, amazing reaction. The problem is that Luger doing gang signs and trying to act cool next to Kevin Nash and Konnan is just bad. Then there's Sting, who loses the mystique he buit for the last two years by basically reverting back to his surfer days character, with a little "nWo" edge to it. The crowds are going crazy for him, so it's no big deal. But damn he looked silly in that red facepaint, like a giant radioactive sunburn of his face. This guy should have remained his finisher the Lobster Deathlock. _Eric Bischoff's ego is out of control at this point. Challenging MacMahon to a match on PPV was jaw-dropping. SUre, it was a great heel promo, amazing actually, but it made Vince look like the babyface since Eric is such an obnoxious bitch, which was, well, retarded. Then there's Bischoff "breaking Savage's leg" and getting Liz. Ugly. And the killer is the debut of one of the greatest bad segment on Nitro, the Eric Bischoff Show, the godawful Late Show parody. Liz looking hot on the couch was the only redeeming quality this awful segments had. Bischoff just lost it completely at that point. _the undercard still got three great heels : Jericho, Eddie and Raven. As the first two still have some comedic reliefs, Raven is such a whiny asshole you just want to slap him, he was great at being a straight, truly detestable heel in a company with too much "cool" or "comedic" heels. The Kanyon program just isn't very good thus far, the worst Raven feud I can think of at this point. Mortis had so much potential, it was stupid on their part to kill that character, and Kanyon isn't getting over very well at this point. The Eddie vs Chavo feuds was so good for so long, but then Chavo goes into straight comic relief with Pepe, and that is clearly not as good. Eddie is still gold. Jericho is just amazing week end and week out. _Ugh, Stevie Ray is back, and he's screwing with his brother. Makes sense, but the guy sucks in the ring to an unbelievable degree. Public Enemy are back too, more bad matches. _The Goldberg phenomenon is getting crazy, but I don't find it very interesting unless he's fighting someone with some value, as most of his wins he got over straight jobbers in an era were jobbers match don't exist anymore. Plus he's been exposed working longer, more competitive match with Saturn as a guy who, well, can't really work outside of hitting a few big spots. _Bret Hart as a heel is about a thousand times better. Good interviews, believable, plays a manipulative frustred guy, it works really good. Too bad the booking don't make in any favors. He goes from teaming with Hogan against Savage and Piper (a very forgetable match built by really good promos) to screwing with Benoit to screwing with Booker T, the TV champ. Poor Bret. _DDP clearly had already hit is peak in 97, and it shows as he's getting closer and closer to the "cheesy" factor here, with bad promos and bad catchphrases (who can forget Hollywood "Scum" Hogan). The DDP & Karl Malone vs Hogan and Rodzilla (what a stupid nickname) build is just corny. _The Wolfpack music theme becomes absolutely annoying after just a few weeks. _Alex Wright returning, good stuff as the guy could wok his ass off, was a really good douchebag and his team with Disco Inferno was undercard randomness gold. Especially when Magnum Tokyo gets involved. And yeah, it's that period of the year when Tokyo, Shiima Nobunaga, Little Dragon and the other Ultio Dragon student get some time on TV. Fun times. _El Vampiro debuts, and doesn't get over at all. _The begin to tease the return of Flair by having Benoit do the 4 Horsemen sign, and McMicheal coming back. I have no idea if by this time they had already settle things with Ric, where on the way too, or if that was just careless on their part, taking the risk Flair wouldn't come back.

Glad to know he's still a black hole. Wait, I said open mind. Well, but unless Orton dramatically improved over the last few years, my opinion of this guy is already pretty much established. An act that look fake as hell, and a rather terrible and boring worker. DDP should get royaties...

GREAT point. There was definitely a certain 'gritty' quality to the show circa '97-'01. Now it's all so bloodless, and I don't just mean the 'no blood' policy! I've been saying this for a few years now. This is a big part of why I haven't been able to watch WWE product each time I tried my hand at it. I'll watch WM with an open mind though, it will be the first WWE card I watch since WM two years ago. I admit the reason that pushes me to give it another try is The Rock.

Two words : sumo wrestler. Sumo wrestlers usually have an odd way to move in contrast to what we're used to in pro-wrestling. Taue was the same way.