Matt D

Work isn't letting me look at them, but ... Ask DEAN

Yeah, Terry Funk had to come out to work part of the match and.. Sorry 2008. I've been doing that all day. I sent out an e-mail with 2011 when I meant 2012. I'm just temporally challenged today. But it's a really terrible match. Not as bad as the Punk vs Benjamin match from ECW earlier in the year, but still bad. Seriously, one thing that always amazes me about Jericho looking back is just how protected he was early 98. He was one of the only guys in WCW who was going around kicking out of guys finishers as near falls in his matches. I remember this happening a lot.

1) Is this accurate description of the majority of Hogan's high end matches? 2)If it was accurate would it be commendable? Why would this be commendable? Noone says that Inoki letting opponent take 90% of match and then brushing it off is commendable. It is Inoki at his laziest and worst. Hogan at his laziest does it, but don't see why we should applaud him for it. I respond to 2) with what I feel are more fitting questions: 1) Is he effective in this role? Does he sell well? Does he sell actively? 2) In selling and giving the heel so much of the match, does he get the heel over? Does he get the match over? 3) Does his comeback matter all the more because of his performance/selling? Was this an integral part of his formula that would not have worked if he did not execute it well?

I've been a little low on Jericho since I saw the KOTR 98 Match with Punk a couple of months ago and hated it. I'm almost afraid to go back and watch the 98 stuff I liked so much at the time.

Anyone mention mordecai?

There's a reason for this but really, you, of all people, should just listen to the shoot.

How much of the 1977 Lawler/Dundee series do we have? Especially the TV promos and the big payoff matches? I just saw the end of the Aug. 22: Poole's hair vs. Dundee's hair: 7,143 match and Lawler's intensity was awesome.

Gilbert always projected this "Hey, I'm one of you!" vibe as a babyface.

As a kid, it was really disappointing though. I think that was up there with Reign of the Supermen as one of my more disappointing childhood moments from 92-93 for me.

WHAT SIDE IS MR. PERFECT ON! during Summerslam 1992.

But what good is a show that no one is going to and no one is making money from? Also, now that their tv is gone, how are people going to know about it? Deep South tried something like this when WWE stopped bothering with them and it was over before it got started. I could see WWE putting FCW on their youtube channel. I could also see maybe 100 people total watching. I pretty much hate the FCW crowd. I'd be okay with them gone. I watch it on youtube anyway. It does ME good?

If they run 3 shows a week, then it's still something. Granted, all I care about in this is the TV show.

it's not about money at all anymore.

1.) Eat German Suplex Cleanly 2.) Roll Back to Your Feet as if Nothing Happened. 3.) Hit Superkick. 4.) Have Matt Hate You Forever. No way has HHH ever done something that stupid

He probably doesn't know either. His former line of defense was "Oh, I wasn't even the booker when it happened." Which is of course, total bullshit too. I swear I read him say, years ago, that he did it because it was the only way he was ever going to get the belt and it mattered so much to be both WWF and WCW champs. Which is somewhere between possibly true and hilariously not even vaguely possible.

I thought the story was that Austin had INSISTED to Owen that they do a normal pile driver and not the reverse sit out one.

He main evented in Florida though, for a while too, right? at least a half a year? You think that'd be good comparison fodder. Even if he feuded with Jesse Barr most of that time.

Surprised you left out Butch Reed.... Racist. And I think the whole "replace JYD "thing is true, but Watts wasn't going to just put the belt on his "newest" black star. He probably wanted to get a guy over first and it just wasn't happening with Wells, Jack, etc. They pushed Master G huge. That much I can tell you from having watched the TV. And in some ways they pushed Snowman even higher.

Goulet vs Bret from 1/85: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jleneY2D64Y No idea why I'm linking it.

He was a guy who loved to be there and it showed. Flair loved Mongo.

I can't access the last page at work for some reason. There has to be some dubious content there. I knew I wanted to talk about Volkoff a little but there was someone else I wanted to as well when I read it before I left this morning. Wait, it was Warrior! Volkoff, first. I like him quite a bit in mid-south. There was an air of athletic legitimacy to him that the WWF never played up but that fit right in in Watts' country. I think he and Darsow had good feuds with Magnum and Wrestling II and the RnRs. I loathe 1985 NWA Russians squashes. They're the most long and tedious things ever, which made no sense with the gimmick. I much prefer Volkoff and Darsow mid south squashes. (Long-form matches are probably another story). The press slam into the back breaker was actually a pretty huge move for 1984. The spin-kick was awesome and I think we just haven't seen enough stuff of his from the 70s. Also, it always amazes me how over he was in 1990 WWF as a face after the turn. I swear he was the #3 or #4 face during that summer. Ok Warrior. I think there's an argument here. I think HHH GETS IT better than Warrior does. He instinctively understands wrestling on a higher level, even if I think his ego drives him to ignore a lot of what he probably knows. He probably does little things better. Warrior, however, is so underrated at taking direction. A lot of his big matches were either super scripted or he was led by the nose in them, but they stand out as being pretty good. It comes back to one of those more fundamental issues we deal with all the time: Do you judge the match or do you judge the wrestler? By being so well-managed Warrior ends up having a number of good matches. By not managing himself well, HHH has a ton of stinkers. In this situation, having less talent almost works in Warrior's favor.

Would I undo any possible good being done in this note by suggesting people were cheering the Kat as Gabrielle to Chyna's Xena?

Hennig really had a great 92 as Superstars co-host. I don't think he was a great color commentator in getting over the matches but they were simply squashes, so he didn't have to be. He made a really good foil to Vince and the fact that he was in the central role at Summerslam meant that they could play it up all the time. Amusingly, the one time he got annoyed by it was when Scott Hall was wrestling. "Watch the match, Vince!"

http://youtu.be/dHkrySwZrAc This is the start to the feud, a week or so before Summerslam. I found it by accident. Shango is demolishing a jobber post match and Hart makes the save.

I kind of want to make an argument for Mike Shaw based on his Makhan Singh run. I won't, but I kind of want to. And I think Ron Bass is fairly underrated too. That might be a better argument.