Matt D

I'm actually not super familiar with either of these guys, because I am certainly a novice to lucha. It feels like a title match right from the get go, though, and it's a testament to Virus that if I hadn't read what Phil wrote first and knew what to look out for, I might have missed completely how thoroughly he was leading Titan through the paces. There were one or two sort of odd moments with Titan zigging where he should have zagged but for the most point it was a very solid first fall. I think when I watch title matches that start with matwork it's not necessarily elaborate stuff I'm looking for but either competitive or interesting and I think this hit both marks. The lightning quick way Virus put on the fall-ender was striking. Then Virus just puts on this clinic on how a leg is not supposed to bend, to the point that I'm kind of sad when he goes away from it. I like that we get a definitive cut off hope spot (and one that calls back to the leg work a bit) before Titan comes back with the handspring, and that even that was almost cut off until Titan cements it with the leg whip. That Titan takes the second fall with a crazing handstand backflip roll up thing is just proof positive that Virus should have kept on with the legwork. Or something. 48 year old Titan is fairly explosive. I liked how the flying back elbow in the corner came out of nowhere. Virus, for his age and body type, is deceptively quick and agile. He also does a great job catching Titan's dive. After the rolling figure four variation fight, we get a nice nearfall callback with Titan going for his flipping roll up again. Then the second big dive. Titan sure is flippy. Virus' response to said flippiness is kind of great. After the big springboard sunset flip, he just grabs the legs and pulls (did they call this a Ringo Mendoza lock or did I hear that wrong?). Titan's bridging out of the subsequent pin is nice, with the power bomb as the exclamation point. We get more of that dickish response of the flying stuff, as Virus eats a springboard splash from Titan and then latches on to an arm and tries to dislocate half of Titan's body. He's too tired to finish him off, though, and Titan's soon back up and trying to fly again. A well timed high dropkick knocks Titan off the top rope and then 45 year old Virus does that insane senton to the floor. They probably show stuff like this all the time, but the image of the elated girl holding up her Virus mask after he kicks out of the two post-senton clotheslines is pure gold. I really like how Virus is able to just kick out a positional reversal to almost any spot he's in. I'm not entirely sure I've ever seen anyone do that quite as well as I Do it here (Which I'm sure says more about me than about him). Maybe a Billy Robinson. Anyway, the finish is surprisingly smooth. You almost hear that last submission hold click into place once the arm comes around. I didn't come out of this all that impressed with Titan but I do want to go back and see younger Virus now.

Casas consistently amazes me. Even just the bump he takes off of a clothesline at his age or how high he can get his kick to someone's face. The submission to end the first caida was pretty cool and I'd love for someone to do it with a giant swing. Segunda caida was brisk but super focused with the leg work and the STF to end was nasty. I think only shorter people should use them. Having to reach makes for way more visual tension. I liked Panther trying to lock on one of his own later too. The momentum shift is funny but believable. Stubborn old man Casas really wanted to dropkick Panther. I love how Casas basically toeholds the leg during a pincover after the missed second rope somersault senton. Casas does so many things well but I think it's his mannerisms/body language that I like the best, whether it be the exasperation after Panther gets one up on him by countering the diviving headbutt or the way he revs himself up before launching an attack on an unsuspecting Panther after the ref breaks a hold. I swear I saw him adjusting the camera guy at one point with a little wave to get a better spot at the stuff they were about to do on the apron. They made the shot to the pole look suitably huge since it was supposed to start the armwork but it all ends far too soon with the run-ins. This was obviously very good and I thought Casas especially looked great but I could have used a bit more in the momentum shifts and probably another couple of minutes before the run in.

I am kind of in a similar place. I have a few minutes this morning and while I want to watch countdown/wrestlemania rewind (or whatever) that i can do at work since I'll mainly be listening to it. I can't think of anything I'd rather watch than that Casas vs Panther match from January that got posted here a couple of days ago.

I don't know a ton about the nuts and bolts of this but it's interesting to me that a deal was apparently made relatively shortly after the negotiating period began. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing either.

I think it's very telling that the complaints and questions are from new people. I'm not saying we shouldn't foster and welcome new voices on the site, but we do have sort of a tenor and tone to our discussions.

It's kind of a shame that Rey had so many injuries/contract issues, etc during the PG era, because really, he was made to be the centerpiece of it. It's also a far lesser shame that Hurricane was so broken down in 08-09 to the point where his matches were like watching a guy stumble through molasses since he's another guy who should have been custom made for WWEPG.

That's pretty great. I want a live stream of them streaming live just to see what Slaughter has to say about everything.

I can find beauty in any wrestling match. As for the set time, Charles, I think it's a bit like a watching club. It lets everyone focus on one match at one time. Like a book of the week club. Everyone has access to libraries and can post reviews on amazon or whatever, but this just lets anyone who wants to participate focus in. I do like the notes for "everything" but a lot of times, you'll get a reply in once every few months when people see the match and it's not fresh on people's minds so there's not immediate responses. It's a great historical resource and great to watch something and then see what people have thought about it over the last few years but this is a bit more immediate, if that makes sense.

I just got through a pretty rough patch at work. So yes, in the next week I Will watch that terrible WWWF match people want me to watch and I think we'll just charge forth with goc's suggestion probably on Monday. why the hell not? It's considered one of Hunter's more high-end matches and we've talked a decent amount about him in the last few months. I'll look at how Loss is setting up the individual topics for matches and try to keep his formatting, and we'll just do it there. In the meantime, people can suggest away and if we have another suggestion by next Monday I'll just run with that.

It's not the craziest thought in the world to think he's over because people REALLY like chanting.

I have a great suggestion for you: don't watch TNA.

I think the most important question to ask here is this: what matches would make a Warlord DVD?

Dan Spivey is one creepy looking dude.

Regardless, it ended when HHH beat Angle.

And hurt Sheamus.

No time to pretty this up. hope it helps. From May 18, 1992 The Beach Blast looks to be the toughest sell, since while Sting vs. Cactus Jack may be, the way it's set up, really entertaining, there's is no logical build-up for a guy who has been pretty much forgotten of late to be facing the company's biggest star. They're almost going to have to shoot a major angle at the Clash to heat up the Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs. Steiner Brothers match, but that may be too late. So the brunt of the build-up and focus will be on the 30 minute whomever wins the most falls match with Rick Rude vs. Rick Steamboat. It's the strongest program the company has right now and on paper sounds like a very good match, but doesn't have much in the way of drawing power. Nor does anything else in the company right now, but this is the time period Kip Frey said he was expecting to see an improvement in interest during, and there's no signs of a turnaround evident nor even signs of momentum to begin a turnaround anywhere in sight. There are signs of some potentially good action, but it needs to be backed up by the ability to sell that good action. From June 8, 1992: Complete Beach Blast show on 6/20 on PPV has Steamboat vs. Rude in a 30 minute challenge, Steiners defending against Gordy & Williams, Eaton & Anderson & Austin vs. Rhodes & Windham & Koloff, Sting vs. Cactus Jack in falls count anywhere, Madusa vs. Missy Hyatt in a bikini posedown, Pillman vs. Flamingo for the lightheavyweight title, Simmons vs. Taylor and Bagwell vs. Valentine. From June 15, 1992: Advance for the 6/20 Beach Blast in Mobile, AL is pretty weak with approximately 900 tickets sold less than two weeks before showtime. Only early-line predictions are that the company will be happy with the buy rate if it stays steady with the last one and that Steamboat and Rude may tear the house down in the main event. From June 22, 1992 For those in the area, Beach Blast starts at 4 p.m. and we'll be having a get together for the show. From June 29, 1992 World Championship Wrestling's Beach Blast, its second show in an attempt to do PPV shows three consecutive months, took place 6/20 in Mobile, AL. The reaction to the show was generally positive. There was very little bad about the card, in fact, aside from the bikini contest, nothing was bad. There was nothing that blew ones socks off either aside from the performances of both Cactus Jack and Sting in their match. The rest of the show ranged from solid, average matches to solid, good matches with little else memorable. The live crowd was approximately 4,000, or about a half-filled building with the paid about 3,200 and the gate around $28,000 (all of these are estimates). While it's too early to get anything but a rough estimate, based on reports we had heard before the event and sketchy reports since the event, the show apparently did worse on PPV than the Wrestle War show on 5/17. That wasn't unexpected as I'd been told before the event that WCW officials realized there was no way to pull off so many PPVs in such a short time period and would be happy with an 0.5 buy rate (Wrestle War's 0.6 was the record low). Based on very preliminary information received thus far, the buy rate doesn't look to have approached 0.5, which doesn't bode well for attempting yet another PPV show in three weeks. Considering this show was bolstered by nice plugs in both USA Today and on Entertainment Tonight (both of whom interviewed Jesse Ventura who seems to be the only WCW performer who can get that kind of attention) in the days preceding the event, it again shows that this is one uphill battle.

There's a crazy range from "protecting the boys due to the payoffs" to "didn't want to job to Cesaro so he lost his smile" with a dozen things in the middle.

There are different ways to need something.

I think it's not that he thinks he's worse off, it's just that he needs it the least.

You should catch the tag team turmoil that starts Backlash 05. It's not a big thing or anything but it's a good way to briefly see Regal+Tajiri and I actually think two minutes of Dean + Maven is worth seeing just because it's two guys really working their gimmick.

Whether you like it or not, some of this will also depend on how Punk parlays his opportunities now. He's got a foot in so many of his other hobbies, be it writing comics or MMA commentary or music or who knows what else. If he pushes towards the mainstream in even the same way Jericho did, that's going to potentially add to that mystique I think. He could end up feeling "bigger than wrestling."

I know there were at least a few Regal vs Badd matches. How are they?

Ok, so I have the network for at least the first period. Let's start suggesting matches, people. Otherwise you guys are going to get Natural Disasters vs Beverly Brothers from Summerslam 92 or Harley vs Haku from Royal Rumble 89 or a random tag team turmoil from Backlash 05 because I want to talk about Tajiri and Regal as a team.

In general I love going through the old Observers since there are things that didn't really mean much then, just throw away lines or what not, but that touch upon things we've talked about over the last few years.

You give me a list of matches to watch an an easy way to watch them and I'll watch whatever you want. I do look at lucha somewhat differently, but the stuff in lucha I like the very best is all based on the selling.