Matt D

I do think there's a lot to say about the 2/3 fall structure in Portland because it's this crazy combo of them using it and them having to pull it out almost weekly in front of the same crowds, so they had to switch up structures and stories and finishes and format. This is true in both tags and singles.

At some point Cena has to get his win back from Bryan, right? I'm just saying.

Of course, 92. I am all over this place this week.

So, there was a ton of talk about Bret Hart jumping to WCW, MAYBE with the IC Title at the January 1991 Clash, with the only reason he didn't (per Meltz) because his contract rolled over and he didn't realize. What the heck would have they done with him in 91?

I feel like she got humiliated a lot between 00 and 02. Did it happen much after that?

I think for the longest time it was because she was in charge of the writing team, and one thing I've gotten from hearing interviews from former writers over the years it was that they weren't trying to make a solid product but instead please Vince and/or Steph at every turn.

The stories that people never got out of that guy.

Weren't you paying attention? The NWO sabotaged his personal bus.

I think the idea is that the WWE Universe is already tuned in regardless and pushing Batista might draw in some lapsed fans or people who aren't Cornette's hardcore fans or whatever he called them. http://pwchronicle.blogspot.com/2006/01/an...our-groups.html

What's MVP doing these days? He'd be a good guy to use as a surprise.

We should really do a "debunked accepted stories" note.

I would like some clarification on youtube embedding once we move forward. I know that DVDVR is a bit more lax in what they let people post and traditionally for both reasons of caution and principle, it's been a bit stricter.

I know I saw at least one of them elsewhere which inspired me to mention them in the first place. Warrior's full one is another story though.

Any reason why? On a separate note, I've been thinking a lot about hashtags and I do think there are some very cool things we can do there. There's a juvenile subconscious thing where you might post differently in order to garner likes. I think it has led to some of the trolling over on DVDVR and less genuine posting. It's not a huge thing but I don't see that as necessary here. I'm not saying there's necessarily something more academic and adult and mature about this place, but the level of discourse is pretty high and I don't think inviting that level of sophomoric popularity pushes is necessarily a good thing.

i'll be honest. I've learned from what happened at DVDVR and I've been backing up some of my ridiculous write ups elsewhere. I think, maybe, if you do upgrade, it might be best to disable the "like" functionality. We just don't need that here.

Ah sorry. I thought it was the Mania match. Yeah, I can see the arguments against the cage match.

Generally, when you get to the level of people in the GOAT argument, I find that the major differences of opinion are in what people value most.

What's the general argument against Bret vs Owen? Or is this just a case where everyone admits that it's very, very good but not necessarily five star? People are pretty effusive in the yearbook note I think.

This is again one of those times where we have to remember that the majority of customers are not us.

I'm with loss on the Gayda mixed tag.

I wonder if those Monsoon columns were archived somehow.

Regal is still injured and is giving up the belt and going home to heal. It means they won't get the blowoff match with Borne over his quizzical heel turn. No sign of Stasiak this week. Rose wants a 6 man army match with anyone (Rocky/King/Hack). It was a really good army promo. The previous Tuesday Johnson had beat Rose and Buddy had to get taken back by Masters. Johnson is lined up against Masters. There's talk of LLT. Buddy Rose/Matt Borne vs Rocky Johnson/King Parsons © - 2/3 Falls - 12/5/81 - Non-Title Johnson and Borne to start. This will be the first heel Borne I've seen from this period. Some sloppy heel miscommunication comedy to start. Obviously, when Borne hits Rose by accident there's that underlying real life stuff that the crowd knows. They're gracious after the fact. Johnson really did have a pretty good act. Some good rope running by Borne/Johnson and then hammy cowardly heel powder-taking by Buddy who tried to sneak in for the cheapshot. Borne moves Johnson into the corner and they double team and take over. Buddy starts some legwork. Fans chant "Rocky." Heels make a wish and Borne starts to work over the leg, giving Johnson some mild hope stuff. Rocky finally kicks out but Borne makes a quick tag and then does a great job of cutting him off. Buddy keeps on the leg. Parsons tries to break it up but this just lets the heel make an illegal switch. Borne's leg stuff looks a bit "huggy." Buddy's is pretty nasty, grapevining the leg in a toehold and leaning in with the tights to help him. Johnson tries to fight back but he's stuck too close for the corner. Parsons gets frustrated, gets chased out by Barr, and Buddy slams the leg into the post multiple times. Borne pulls him to the center of the ring, locks in the spinning toehold, and gets the fall. Textbook tag wrestling. I know there were some questions about the narrative of the 2/3 falls. Here, Borne goes for Johnson's leg but Johnson scrambles to the corner and tags Parsons in. It's not really a hot tag. It's more of a reset with the heels getting beat up a bit and hitting the floor. Borne tries for a full nelson. Parsons reversed it. Buddy stopped his punch. Borne reversed it. Buddy went for a punch and Parsons ducked. We're back to the comedy shine stuff with that underlying tension that they're trying to shrug aside. Buddy in and they trade some kneelifts off the rope. We're definitely in a reset shine here, with Parsons looking good. Borne eats an awkward kneelift and a headbutt, then a really high back body drop. Buddy tags in reluctantly. They're doing a lot of reversals to make Parsons look great. He tosses Buddy into the corner and the ring falls apart! Johnson is IMMEDIATELY in to slam the loose turnbuckle into Buddy's head, but Borne breaks up a pin as everything breaks down. Johnson comes back in. Borne grabs his leg and tries to slam his leg into the pole on the outside again but Johnson powers him into it and does his little back sommersault up. As he does so, the leg magically becomes okay. He dropkicks Buddy, then hits a sunset flip for the second fall. If you buy the adrenaline/magic recuperative powers of the heated comeback move, this was pretty good with a nice callback. If not, I'd understand.I missed the tag to Johnson, at the least. Johnson and a hesitant Buddy to start. Buddy draws a line on the mat. Johnson crosses it. Johnson draws one. Buddy does not. They do a THIRD heel miscommunication spot with Borne not paying attention and Buddy getting whipped into him off the apron. I have no idea what they're going for but Bonnema sells it as Borne's fault. Buddy ends up tied in the ropes. Faces use Borne's head as a battering ram. Buddy eats a butt butt but Borne makes the save and Buddy's able to tag him in. Borne is portraying pissed off and hot pretty well. Parsons tosses Borne (who takes a big bump) over the top, then Buddy. Johnson gets his hands on Buddy and tosses him into the post. Buddy walks around ringside hurt and Borne's on his own and immediately into a grinding (and counting) headlock by Parsons. Borne uses the tights to get him off and Buddy, from the outside tries to slam Buddy's head into the turnbuckle but it's reversed. Borne uses the distraction to get him from behind and they start to doubleteam. Ref takes out Johnson and heels have control. Buddy his his big back elbow and a dropkick. Parsons hits a kick and gets the now very hot tag to Johnson, who clears house. Johnson locks on a sleeper. Borne is controlled by Parsons and Masters comes out for the DQ. Hack Sawyer comes out to equalize things and immediately goes after Borne, since he's pretty much taking the Regal spot. This sets up the six man nicely. I don't necessarily think that the 2/3 fall format has to be shine fall/heat fall/comeback fall. Here, the first fall had Shine+Heat leading to the pin. The second started with a small comeback and then a face domination shine for Parsons with a brief heat tease that led to the finish. We rolled back into the face domination to start the third fall until Parsons took some heat leading to the hot tag and comeback/finish. It wasn't as streamlined or beautiful as the last tag but it did accomplish some things, had callbacks and an overarching story (the Johnson legwork fueled by the heel tactics and Parsons' hot headedness, Johnson preventing it at the end of the second fall, the ongoing heel miscommunication, and Parsons really getting to shine). Pretty good stuff.

The WWE marketing machine is different. The goal here is in part nostalgia.it's in part why I'm frankly shocked they didn't rush through a deal with Hogan.

He potentially drew eyeballs if not asses during the one year of the boom, which is the issue here. There's nostalgia for the Monday Night Wars era and it's obvious they're trying to tap into as much of that as possible.

So the internet tells me that negotiations with Sting are happening again. Do people think that would potentially benefit the Network more than Wrestlemania to get him on board? He seems like a guy who could, with the right publicity, draw back some of those WCW fans who turned off and never turned back on, no?