Matt D

Did MITB in Chicago have BS? I don't remember.

I still think the best thing to do is have Bryan screwed out of his rematch by some other heel, let Bryan fight him, let Punk chase Orton into Survivor Series and switch the belt back a few times, have Bryan beat HHH in December to get into the Rumble, win the Rumble and win at Mania. Basically, repeat 98 and Austin. I didn't see the promo Monday (I did see the go home smackdown) so that might be it.

It kind of lost me when they were kicking each other and slapping each other, I will admit. But yeah, I seriously don't get people bitching about this. It was iconic. It was a moment. It'll also be pretty hard for them to screw it up, or let me put it this way. It'll be a lot harder for them to screw it up than a lot of other scenarios. We could have easily just gotten another shitty Rey Mysterio type reign.

I'm kind of relieved they did the logical thing.Now they can have Bryan chase. I'd have him chase all the way to Mania and get the belt there but there's no way they can do something that longform in 2013-14.

That off the top ropes spot with Cena landing with Bryan was the scariest fucking thing.

Dylan, at least, will find this amusing. I tend to watch wrestling on the bike downstairs and stay out of everyone's way. At some point during Punk vs Brock, I apparently said "Come on!" loud enough, without realizing it that the 14 month old thought I wanted her to come to me downstairs, so she got her "little people" and were banging them upon the gate long enough for my 11 year old to come out of his room, where he was trying to sleep, and toss them across them across the room. Thus I caused discord throughout my household because I was into the match. This should once and for all destroy the myth that I am an emotionless wretch.

Not sure if it was MOTY but I sure as hell liked it. I loved the aerial strategy. I loved the Chair as the great equalizer. I thought they did more to get the steel chair over as a meaningful entity than any WWE match in years. I watched Sabu vs Show from Summerslam 06 yesterday and this was actually sort of tame in the actual BIG SPOTS that they did compared to that but everything meant so much more between a) the selling and b> the fact that styles have been toned down so that things can actually breathe more. I think, weirdly, my favorite part might have been the downtime as Brock was getting the chair on the outside. And the tie-bit. I loved the tie bit. Oh, I loved the headbutt to the groin too. That was sort of a man vs god moment, where the man has an edge because he is mortal and thus knows he will someday die. The moving away from the rib selling didn't bug me too much since Punk was really selling in that Bockwinkel Total Exhaustion sort of way.

Is it to jaded too respond with "Didn't cost him anything personally?" Because I'm kind of tempted to. Don't get me wrong. It's a terribly nice gesture in and of itself.

I would contribute to a kickstarter to support such a project.

I did as soon as Darren Young came out. LOLOLOLOL Damn it Bix.

They're both excellent matches. The Hart match is probably more interesting as it's really a merging of the two teams' styles (and a great showcase of Eadie's versatility since he's so good at knowing when and where to stooge given the stage and the team he's in against after years of not stooging at all). The Rockers match is probably better in a vacuum though. I'm too close to this stuff to really say.

Rose vs Martel - Non-Title - 2/3 Falls - April 26, 1980 Rose obviously lost the hair match vs Piper as he has a mask with a wig on it. It's amazingly awesome. Buddy takes a powder to begin and they start doing their stuff. Martel out-athleticisms Rose in a wrestling exchange. Buddy jumps outside again and tries to calm the hot crowd down. I love watching these two run the ropes. Buddy gets the advantage with a drop toe hold. He looks ridiculous with the mask and does a really killer elevated leglock before slapping on a nasty cross-legged toehold. He puts his weight down upon it and loads up his forearm for the crowd before nailing him. Martel's really selling this. Buddy's stuff is so good here and the payoff is amazing as Martel goes for the wig to get out only to get punched in the leg. Buddy follows up with a bunch of brutal kicks and leg dives and then an Indian Deathlock. Great stuff. I love that they went almost right to the heat in this first fall. After really working it, Martel rolls over to reverse it and it's a much cooler looking visual than a normal figure four reversal. Buddy flips it back over and locks it in again though he has a harder time keeping his shoulders up this time. Again, great stuff. Martel jams his palm against Buddy's chin to force him down and it's actually a pretty dynamic hope spot, especially once it starts to let him unload and escape. He's selling the leg huge though and it lets Buddy keep right on him. Bonnema goes on about the people Buddy has crippled and it's very effective announcing. Buddy goes for another leglock but Martel rolls him up for a hope cradle. Buddy has ton of varied and solid looking leg offense and this is all quite compelling. Buddy wrenches the leg and Martel desperately goes to anything to get out but can't. Buddy goes for another butt drop on the leg in the ropes but Martel moves in a good callback spot into what looked like it'd be a transition but Martel goes for an atomic drop and jams his own bad leg in the process selling it like death. Buddy pulls him out and slams his leg twice into the ringpost then hits a beauty of a shin breaker and slaps on an immediate half crab for the fall. This was a great promise for the rest of the match. It wasn't as dynamic as a lot of other first falls I've seen in Portland because there wasn't much of a shine and no real comeback to speak of but it was super focused and created a mood and feel for the next falls. Second fall starts with an announcement that despite the damage to his leg, Martel will continue the match. He limps down to the ring. Buddy shoots for the leg from the get go and Martel dances back. After a minute or so Buddy scores a great takedown and scissors up the leg. Buddy puts on another half crab but Martel is under the ropes. Buddy's relentless with a damaging blows until he drags Martel out again to slam the leg into the pole but Martel, on the second attempt, grabs Buddy's head and slams it into the pole. Martel, pissed off, rolls out after Buddy instead of taking the sure thing count out and picks him up, slamming his back into the pole. He's selling the leg really well throughout, between every single blow he lays in on Buddy's back. Great performance. He slams his back into the post again and the crowd is unglued here. Martel keeps limping in to break the count so he can do more damage. He finally rolls him back in and hits some great elbow drops, selling after each one. Crowd is still nuts as Martel does axehandle after axehandle into the spine. He's just demolishing him but he's doing one of the best sell-jobs-on-offense I've ever seen. He finally puts on the Boston Crab on and Buddy gives it up. Awesome, awesome comeback. Third fall has Martel taking the fight right to Buddy. He whips him into the corner and stumbles around clubbering the back. He hits a big backbreaker but uses his right leg so he doesn't hurt himself like last time. He's still selling after almost every shot though and it slow him down enough that Buddy can try to fight back but Martel hits a belly to back to reverse an attempt at a stalling headlock. Martel is dogged on the back until Buddy rakes the eyes but can't hit a slam due to his back hurting. The crowd goes nuts and even more so as Martel locks on an Abdominal stretch, but Rose grabs the hair and gets out quickly. Martel comes back quickly and wears him down a bit more before going for the mask. They end up with Buddy on the floor and Martel in the ring and he gets it off but the camera cuts to the Sheepherders coming in to cover him up. The live fans get to see it but the TV crowd doesn't. Buddy runs to the back and gets counted out and you know, I like it even if it's not exactly "Sports-driven" and is a little wonky. It was a great story driven finish that played perfectly into Buddy's character and was a very, very clear victory for Martel that sent the fans home wildly happy. This was tremendous and I'm glad it lived up to the hype. It's really up there with Martel's best AWA stuff. His selling was brilliant and his offense was so fiery and spirited. I think the fact that he wasn't quite as experienced helped in some ways because it meant the match took less tangents. It was extremely focused and that made everything all the more logical and meaningful. That Buddy wrestled this match and really had this performance while wearing the goofy match which is not something he was used to at all can't be overlooked. Ultimately, it used the 2/3 falls structure as well as any match I've seen out of Portland as of yet.

I make a habit to rarely go outside of our bubble here.

I would take ten minutes of Rip Rogers over a lot of things.

Sid could have been a draw as a face in early 92. I feel pretty strongly about that. It's hypothetical though. He did main event a number of house shows in 91 vs Undertaker so I guess people could look at those figures.

As a draw?

Justin Credible might be a better choice then.

Honestly, I think the issue is that they gave Goldberg the belt in 98 at all. He had only gotten the US title a little while before and he could have held that for a year as sort of a special attraction. Wait a sec, this isn't in the fantasy booking section. EDIT: Or I guess it is.

Reading Bix' Divas recap makes me frustrated that the Bellas didn't have Jimmy Hart as their manager at the fake movie meeting.

Real life struck, but I'm back watching Buddy matches. Unfortunately I don't have time for the April Martel vs Buddy match tonight. I do have time for Rose vs Steve Pardee - 2/3 Falls - March 22, 1980 They're really building to the Piper vs Rose blow off match. Piper's gone through the Sheepherders and taken Luke Williams' hair. Etc. This might be JIP as Pardee starts with a headlock and already looks blown up. Rose does a big suplex out of it and starts to really pick apart Pardee. Knee. Stomp. Choke on the top rope. A really nice open hand strike or two and a crazy back body drop where Pardee got twisted in midair. Robinson backbreaker and that's the fall. Buddy does a Rockers' flip over the rope between falls. Not much to this but all well executed and certainly builds him up for the big match. Second fall is just Buddy grinding down. Eventually he grinds enough that Pardee gets really opened up. He bites the wound and Pardee bleeds all over the place. He's really brutal on the wound-working here. Will would approve. Sandy Barr, however, does not and he awards the fall to Pardee. When Buddy pulls back, pissed off, he has blood over his face from biting the wound. Ghastly. Pardee is just a bloody mess. This was all pretty sudden. They were trying to decide whether to award just the fall to Pardee or the match and Buddy rushes back out to destroy Pardee even more. The crowd is livid. Barr throws out the match and Buddy is beyond pleased. Eventually Piper comes out for a go home interview for the big match. This was pretty effective stuff and it's sort of amazing how much damage Buddy was able to do in such a small amount of time.

Ok, Piper doing a dropkick vandaminator in 1980 in a hair match with Luke Williams is one of the most surreal things I've seen in forever.

It's really interesting to me how Portland tried to get Martel over as lead babyface in early 80. Instant series of matches with Race for the big belt. Trading the Portland belt almost immediately with Buddy over a week. But they also did little things like making an announcement that kids would get in free to the next show because he went to Don Owen and insisted or having a match where the Sheepherders are afraid of Martel but not of Piper.

I really like Harts vs Demos at Summerslam but yeah, that's me. I really don't like that Brainbusters vs Stallions match.