El-P

Never cared for Duggan that much. Terrible matches in WWF and the flag wearing gimmick is probably on top of gimmick I despise. His early Mid-South stuff is much better, mostly because of the stiff style which suited him, but "Duggan was really good in Mid South" is a urban legend to me, kinda like "Hogan was really good in Japan". Seems like a nice enough guy though, and probably one of the most down to earth guy in this business, which is probably why he's still alive today. Also one of the legit though guy you wouldn't fuck around. And major props for winning against cancer, that's always great to see. Who else is going in ? Was I daydreaming or did I heard Dave talk about Abdullah and Sunny ? Abby would a be a big shock to me, first time ever this guy would step foot in a WWE program.

That shit always cracked me up in gangsta rap lyrics. Yo Easy-E mothafuckin faggot, suck my dick. "No Cartman, if you put your penis in Butters' mouth, it means you are gay."

Dragon Gate seems fascinating. Wrestling marketed with gay overtones isn't anything new in Japan. AJW in the 80's was deep into lesbianism. Hell, LLPW has always been a total lesbian wrestling promotion.

It was just after he came out/it was known he was actually gay I didn't know that one. Ugh...

You really think a bunch a third grade gay jokes kept Cena's head out of the water ? Rocky killed him dead last week, and this makes him look as lame as he's been depicted to be. This brings my question for today : is John Cena the lamest big babyface of all time ? My answer would be yes in a heartbeat, as he just looks like a dork compare to Hogan, Rocky, Austin, Sammartino, Lawler. Some may argue Backlund was a lot dorkier, but it was during another era, and Backlund was a lot more goofy and bizarre than lame. Cena's character is just appalling if you're past 10. No shit ? Yay, more money wasting.

Yes, but it was in the 80's in southern USA. WWE is a worldwide public company. In 2011. Their Ace making fun out of his opponents by calling them "gay" is just wrong and retarded. And Log made great points about all of this being more harmfull than anything happening during the Attitude Era. They tell little kids that the bad guys are "gay" and that a girl who doesn't look anorexic is "fat" ? Really, fuck PC, it's just stupid. I dream about some progressive wrestling where the heel calls the babyface gay, only for the babyface to respond that yeah, maybe he is, and that he would gladly do him after beating him into the dirt. And you'd get the crowd chanting "fuck his ass" during the match. I know, I'm being crass, but still. Why "gay" jokes would be acceptable when "jew" ou "negro" jokes certainly wouldn't be ?

April 98 _finally two good main-event on Nitro, and as shocking as it seems, these are two Sting vs Kevin Nash matches for the WCW title. Sting finally shook up the rust, and Nash was more motivated than he basically ever was since coming into WCW. The fans were ready for a Nash face turn at this point, also he's clearly a tweener at this point, getting huge face reaction when he's confronting Hogan and heel heat when he's challenging Sting. But the writing was on the wall, and at least him showing motivation in the ring plus being really over made me look forward to the face turn. _Spring Stampede was the best PPV since Souled Out. Really solid undercard. Booker T is getting better, and they did an excellent job building him as a credible single champion. Amazing to think that in 1998, titles in WCW meant something, and the way you built a champion was easy and logical, give him the belt and have him defend it often in good matches and keep the title for a good amount of time. Sounds crazy... Same things goes for Jericho, who's little feud with "Prince Nakamaki" was good as a pug into the Jericho vs Malenko big feud. Piper & Giant vs Hogan & Nash, the bat match, sounded terrible on paper but actually was watchable and forwarded the Hogan/Nash split in a logical way, making Hogan look like a real scumbag. Raven stealing the US title from DDP and Savage getting the world title thanks to Nash kept things fresh. _and of course, the week after Spring Stampede was the worst booked since Starrcade 97. First they job Raven out of the US title to Goldberg, which was stupid. Raven was over and the belt was good to solidify him as a upper mid-card act. Goldberg didn't need the belt at all, plus it was obvious that he would go on to win the WCW belt soon enough at this point, so you fuck up Raven's push for nothing and you lock up a worthwhile belt around the waist of someone who obviously isn't going to lose it before he gets the world title. The you have the Hogan vs Savage match, which made no sense whatsoever. Piper wants to fuck with Hogan, so what does he do ? He makes a match with no DQ (which is good for Hogan since Savage can't protect his title by being DQed, plus Savage was injured, way to give Hogan another advantage), with "no run-ins allowed" (because run-ins are allowed usually ? What is Piper gonna do if a run-in occurs, dq someone in a no dq match ?And why is the Brutus with Hogan and interfering at will ? Where's Kevin Nash during the match ? Why is Bret Hart running-in to cost Savage the title ?). As bad as anything Russo booked to be honest, and Hogan getting the title back was just awful, setting the clock back nearly two years. The only good thing that came out of this was Bret heel turn, which at this point was a blessing since Bret as a face did nothing for 5 months, and Bret was much better as a heel anyway now. _They did a good job planting the seeds of Kanyon's storyline with Raven. As Raven makes a run in on DDP, "a fan" (Kanyon himself) just blast Raven from behind and gets taken down by security, and the announcers don't sell it at all since it's not supposed to be part of the show. Same things happens a few weeks later, Kanyon jumps on Kidman, and this time Schiavone ackwnoledge that a fan has jumped the ring but kinda laughs it off as he's arrested by the security. _Eddie Guerrero slapping Chavo around and Chris Jericho dedicating matches to the retired Dean malenko was gold. _Amazing how Hollywood Hogan went from the freshest and most exciting heel in wrestling into yet another tired Hogan cliché with Brutus Beefcake at his side in one year and a half. Nash is breaking up with nWo to form the Wolfpack with all the "cool" guys (first being Savage and Konnan) while Hogan kept the Brian Adams of the world, and you feel this is representative of the politics in the back. As Nash is getting way over as a cool face, Hogan is insecure as hell and keeps the title on himself but doesn't find a way to keep him fresh, resorting to his old ways (Beefcake, celebrity and soon enough, Warrior....). _Buff Bagwell's injury made me cringe. I didn't remember it looking so bad. _Horace Boulder has been signed and is a member of the flock. Joy. At least he's better than Brian Adams. _Man, Curt Hennig sucks and he's totally banged up. Why is he on my TV ? Mr. Perfect is a long gone memory at this point.

Add to that the Chyna/HHH double turn on the show that was so complicated I don't remember it. But it made no sense either. WM15 was a godawful show with a godawful build.

I guess "Not too much Benoit on the set" was an unwritten rule, especially if Woman was at his side, which for some people might be hard to watch. Oddly I have no trouble with it but I understand some people might have. I loved this match, which was one of Jarrett's all time best to me along with one match he had with Malenko. His first WCW stint was probably the best in term of matches. Starrcade 96 was pretty much the best PPV anyone could put out at this time. Great undercard, big drawing matches that worked, crowd going home happy.

Dustin Rhodes in a golden bodysuit portraying a glamourous manipulative sex-freak with a tiny female with huge boobs smoking a cigar at his side. I would add to this that he was also a movie buff who quoted films in the context of his feuds and even dressed like an Academy award. I didn't mention the Academy Award stuff because I never realized it before someone mentionned it a few weeks ago in some thread. But yeah, awesome promos. But I'd add the amazing intro, probably one of the best ever produced by WWF.

I didn't get the yearbook for several reasons (one being I'm broke.), but I really enjoy reading your thoughts about all of this (except your thoughts about anything about Raven of course...).

Dustin Rhodes in a golden bodysuit portraying a glamourous manipulative sex-freak with a tiny female with huge boobs smoking a cigar at his side.

Shawn was way more homoerotic than Goldust ever was really when you think about it. Me too, but it's too bad it was booked by Russo, because the Val Venis angle made no sense at all. They had no notion of who was the face and the heel. The crowd wanted to cheer for the cool Val Venis character yet Ross was outraged at Terri's attitude, forgetting that Dustin dumped her and treated her like shit on TV a few months earlier. What a mess this was. With good booking it would have been a really interesting feud, as both worked well with each others. What did Goldust do after the Venis feud anyway ? A feud with Jarrett over striping Debra which made no sense whatsoever either. Then he got saddled with the Blue Meanie and Ryan Shamrock. God, the Attitude Era was terrible... I guess Goldust really only got rebuilt when he came back several years later and teamed with Booker.

This match had no right being as fun as it was. I have no problem saying it was a good match, and a more than satisfiying spectacle. I don't remember this match being retroactively declared non-title, I was it was already clearly stated during the build, but maybe my memory is fuzzy.

If only... The first Hogan vs Piper feud in WCW was awesome. Then, they rinsed and rehashed it until it was just downright pathetic. While the Austin vs Mr. McMahon feud was kicking off in WWF, arguably the second biggest angle of the decade and the WWF equivalent of the nWo, while RAW was finally winning the ratings war after nearly two years of being kicked down the curve, WCW was still running endless promos of Piper and Hogan on Nitro every week. It's so sad that WCW booking wasn't looking ahead because they really did an awesome job in 1996, even with stuff that really should not work on paper (really, who wanted to see Hogan vs Piper in 96 ?). Piper did had a few spots in which he was worthwhile again, with Flair for instance, but this was his last truly great and meaningful feud.

That's actually exactly what I thought when I was talking about Goldust coming up during the Attitude Era being different. Of course Goldust would have never been the Man nor carry the company, but a transitionnal heel champ, why the hell not.

Goldust was the biggest wasted gimmick of the late 90's, mostly because it was too complicated to handle for WWF. Hall didn't want to work with him. The Piper program would have been great if Goldust hadn't been squashed by an old homophobic Piper in one match without Dust ever getting some heat back. And the supposed lesbian angle between Marlena and Sable was squashed because Bret was unconfortable with this if I remember right. It was just too hard to play with this stuff, although it could have been fascinating. By the fall of 96 the Goldust character was already way tamer than he was supposed to be, and although he was still very over as a face, the Ross interview exposing Goldust as a "good father happy husband with a wonderful little girl he loves so much" just killed it dead. God I hated that. Goldust sure didn't need to be a multi-personnality gimmick, the character was complex enough on its own, no need to throw Dustin into the mix, at least not until the character would have been overused. Could Goldust have gotten a title reign ? Probbaly not in this setting, but man it would have been great to see major programs with the original Goldust character. In a way they ruined Goldust kinda like they ruined Doink earlier in the decade, although Goldust had main event potential. I dreamed of a Goldust vs Ric Flair match back then. I guess Goldust came too early. If he had debuted 2 years later during the Attitude era, it might have been a different story, as he would have been way more easier to get away with "controversial" stuff.

I never realized WCW actually made the effort to transform Eaton into Lod Robert. That was awesome.

I think I already mentionned how Wolrd War II was really well booked and how it made the General de Gaulles the biggest babyface in France for decades, people are still stealing from his promos today. Even his short-lived heel turn during May 68 was a huge success and people throwing thrash and fighting in the streets really foreshadowed the nWo angle, at least during its first few months. Hogan stole a lot from him, and him jobbing to Jacques Rougeau in Montreal in 97 was really a tribute to the famous "Vive le Québec libre !" promo by De Gaulle to get a pop from this particular audience.

Who the fuck is Bruce Hart anyway except one of the biggest and most infamous bullshiter on the scene ? Man, this sounds as godawful as Diana's book.

This is the greatest article in the history of our sport.

Yeah, they did a few things afterward, like Michaels beating Cena on RAW in an epic match everyone remembers because it was one of those Shawn Michaels "classic".

I agree on what you say about Bret's promos. But Bret coming from WWF after getting screwed was the easiest guy to book in the world at this point, he was red hot, he had been fucked by "the other company". WCW needed some fresh blood on top and Bret was perfect. A feud with Hogan could write itself. Really, WCW was just totally incompetent with Bret, not to mention people who just didn't want to do business with him (how ironic that Flair was the one to put him over in his first match).

Wasn't this the year of the awful Flair interview segment A Flair for the Gold or something ? Agree, Flair wouldn't be a good color man. I would disagree, since what I've seen of his WWE work looks like shit. The infamous WM Taker match is just an embarrassment to watch for a Flair fan like me. As far as WCW goes, I don't know, I don't remember if he was much better in 99 and 2000 than he was in 97. Agree, although Bret didn't help as he was dull as hell during this feud. But Bret's booking in the first months of 1998 is jaw dropping bad, the poor guy had no chance in hell to be anything relevant, it's fascinating how they did nothing with him and how he was settled with albatros like his in-laws (who didn't mean shit in WCW and weren't over at all) and Curt Hennig (not over, washed up, lazy, midcarder). I'm at mid April 98, and it's the first time Bret is featured as a player on Nitro, coming to Sting's aid and kicking the nWo ass by himself, then tagging with Sting against Savage & Nash on Thunder. I don't remember much about what's coming next, but I think it'll fall apart quite quickly with a heel turn or something... Yeah, Waltman was obviously thrilled to work with Flair, it should have been more fun than it was. I remember Flair having a suprisingly good match with Piper in 97.

Come on John, you know Shawn had the "flu" at Royal Rumble... Revisiting this era of Shawn's career is really amazing when you think how many times this guy didn't drop a belt in the ring.