El-P

Flair looked like Flair up to 96 to me, with Woman & Liz on his arms. He looked older and his work was already way down from his peak, but he was still the Nature Boy. I thought when he came back in 97, that's when age set in. From 97 to 99, Flair had some good and fun stuff on occasions despite looking *old*. Like you said, from 00 and on, it's freaking horrible. I can't understand the Flair fans parroting the WWE gospel that "WWE gave Flair his dignity back" when Flair looked just awful during his entire WWE stint, terrible work, aged 15 years, got booked like HHH's bitch. Flair should have quit when WCW went under, this last decade is just a huge, long, painfull disgrace for a guy that was so good in the 80's...

The thing with Funk is that he made age a whole part of his act after he passed 50. The whole ECW angle in 97 was that he was an old man trying to recapture the gold one last time. Flair is just doing Flair at 60, which is pretty pathetic to watch, and absolutely painfull when you're a fan of the 80's Flair. I can watch Terry Funk in 79 and Terry Funk in 97 back to back and find tons of good thing to say about 53 year old Funk.

Flair chewing tobacco was so wrong on so many level. First it's disgusting. Then Flair is supposed to be a champaign drinking man, not a tobacco spitting dirty old redneck. What struck me the most in Flair's interview, was the part where he said he would be Ric Flair until he died because he didn't know who Richard Fliehr was and couldn't be that Richard Fliehr. Also, Flair admitting that a lot of his spots didn't make sense was nice to hear.

Dawn steroid abuser ? Why would she take steroids ? Lose some fat ? She supposedly never cared for traning hard, so that could be it. Dawn did aged terribly and way quickly during her WWE stint. Compare her face when she entered ECW and when she left WWF, it's not a pretty thing.

And she's a fan of the Hitman.

Jeez. And I actually thought her being fired while being pregnant was pretty low. Turns out she's as scummy as the people who fired her pregnant ass. What a cunt. Wrestling truly is a depressing environment. The Steve Williams part is particulary terrible.

What a mark Tommy is...

Agreed. 99 WCW was so full of entertaining bullshit like that. Stuff that wasn't supposed to get over but did (West Texas Redneck). Stuff that was thrown against the wall without any thought but worked (Hak's hardcore matches).

Greatest line about old Trippy in a long long time.

That's simply called becoming an old geezer. With all due respect to Nick.

Damn. You're almost giving me the urge to watch some TNA. Almost.

Rude was Heyman in WCW for the better part of his run. Maybe I'm reading this wrong. Are you saying he was better in WCW after he split with Heyman? Yeah, I always thought Rude really didn't need a manager. I don't remember exactly how long he actually worked alone in WCW, but he was perfectly fine without Bobby or Heyman. Not to say I think these pairings didn't work, because they did, but Rude never struck me as a guy who really needed a manager at all (not talking about his early days here).

FTR Bobby said many times in interviews that Rude wasn't a big fan of working with him as he thought Bobby was detrimental to his character and taking too much heat on himself. Although I don't agree 100% and I did like the Heenan/Rude combo, I do agree Rude didn't need anyone to get over big. He was at his best in WCW when he was alone.

Broke up with Jimmy Hart Really ? Aww come on Jimmy.... she was young enough to be your daughter...

*The* best is a bit of a stretch, but one of the best, agreed. Savage didn't carry Warrior alone, she was the second best worker in the match. She was awesome against Tenryu at the Egg Dome too.

Hum... Probably. Can't remember the specific timeline though. Face Tommy piledriving his former girlfriend from summer camp just because she interfered with his matches with Raven didn't made much sense to me either, although I wouldn't blame ECW for face violence against women in wrestling. Wasn't Hogan doing nasty stuff on Sherri in WCW back in 94 ? Not as bad as a piledriver, but still...

Rewatching the whole thing for the SC ECW poll, I agree it didn't made any sense. Shane Douglas unveiling his big surprise to confuse Raven, that Beulah was cheating on him with Kimona as well as with Dreamer. Then in an interview a few weeks later, I beleive Raven says that he knew about Kimona sleeping with Beulah, that's why he brought her to ECW to begin with... Yeah, poor storytelling here. Especially since Kimona just vanished without any angle or explanation. To be honest, I thought Tommy Dreamer was really a poor babyface, and that the whole feud was fun only because of Raven and Stevie's antics, and the fact that Tommy never could pin Raven. But I thought Raven vs Sandman was a much better feud. And Sandman vs Dreamer, complete with the caning angle, really made Tommy more than anything that happened during the Raven feud. Dreamer was only a good face for ECW fans because he was one of them, a mark for "E-C-W" and showing he was "hardcore", while Sandman and Raven were pretty strong characters. That said, I can understand the logic of Tommy consoling himself of not being a father and being cheated on by fucking both girls... Well...

The fact that a woman's tit could divert the media attention from a war is what baffles me. Plus if I remember correctly, she had a patch covering her tit anyway, didn't she ? The fact that a boob could become a "scandal" just is beyond my comprehension. I remember Jim Harrisson saying this about America "You can show a woman can killed by getting shot in the breasts, but you can't show her tits." And it has got worse in Europe too. It is turning ugly now in France like it id in the US with Bush in the early 00's.

Yes, of course. I guess I'm too European too. I admit I was totally baffled by the Janet Jackson nipple scandal at the Superbowl a few years ago.

Doesn't it seem surreal that two girls kissing each other actually got them kicked out of TV ? I mean.... It is to me at least. Blood, people smashing themselves with chairs and canes, ultra-violence is ok as a TV shows, but two girls kissing each other got them kicked out of TV ?

Totally agree with everything said here. I became very appreciative of the Sandman's work. His entrance in 1995 with Woman is my favourite wrestling entrance ever. Just perfect in term of visual, music, pace, contrast between his look and Nancy's...

Thanks for posting these here Ray. I didn't vote but did watch everything I could from 92 to 96. Glad the Four Way and Douglas vs Scorpio made it very high. I love Scorpio and Douglas in 96, just two fantastic guys. I'm really not that high on any of the Eddie vs Dean matches, which seemed quite boring to me, kinda like the Benoit vs Dean match from Bash at the Beach 96. Technical clinic but devoid of emotion mostly devoid of any psychology. I was much more interested in Sandman's matches from the same timeframe than any of theses "classics". The Rey matches did age quite well to me though, especially the Juvy ones. I'm amazed RVD vs Doug Furnas made the top 10. I'm amazed Benoit vs Al Snow is still ranked at 20. I thought this would be exposed by now. Too much "extreme lucha" stuff ranked too high for my tastes. Anyway, looking back at ECW was mostly quite fun (although I did stop just at the peak years) and surprisingly refreshing to me.

Well, good for them I guess.

When he says his wife his pregnant, does he mean Rena ex-Mero ? How old is she ? Anyway, Heyman sounds as carny as ever here. A thing of beauty.

Brain aneurysm just freak me out. Hopefully Steamboat recovers well and quickly.