Matt D

Kamala couldn't figure out how to pin someone? There are some guys who can be riled/made angry enough to make mistakes/get themselves DQed? Mark Henry's confidence? Robert Gibson got so angry that he'd try to storm the ring and poor Ricky would get beaten to a pulp?

Michaels' back later on. Austin had the braces. Poor Ace Orton's arm.

The Slaughter heel turn is interesting since at the time, people LOATHED it. the sense I get from what sources we have is that it was basically thought to be THE WORST THING EVER. Looking back, it's feels pretty harmless comparatively.

Nothing makes me discount someone's statement (and really, someone in general) than coming into a note and saying "Some pretty funny stuff here" or "this is ridiculous" without backing things up. Dylan's been backing up everything he's said. We've all made our points, pro and con towards HHH.And yeah, if someone can make the argument for Rosey over Michaels, I'll listen to it and give that person way more attention and respect for making a cohesive argument than someone just dismissing it for being ridiculous or against some obvious objective truth. That said, I think Levy vs Hunter is a kind of interesting argument since both guys are obviously big fans of wrestling and tried to emulate what came before.

Barbarian is a no-brainer guy to me, when it comes to being better than HHH. He ate offense better. His offense looked way better. He was willing to bump huge and make guys look really good. The problem with Hunter having all these opportunities is that they allow for a sort of excess. He'd probably have been a better wrestler with a better body of work if he HADN'T had the opportunities.

There's so much stuff I haven't seen. years of the big two and whole decades of certain territories. So long as I watch the current stuff on my terms when I want to and how I want to, and very often in a split screen with something else on until something interesting comes around, I'm okay with it. I get to appreciate the good and dodge most of the bad,

Breaking Point #1 Spring 1992. Papa Shango and the black ooze scaring the crap out of me (I remember being 10 and seeing it at my grandparents' house distinctly). End of the Dangerous Alliance. KOing of the Light Heavyweight Title in WCW. I came back with the local hype for Mania XIV in Boston and then really watching Nitro, with Jericho and the internet both big factors. I got into indy wrestling, watching pimped matches, workrate, etc. Breaking Point #2. I moved to England for a year for school in Sept 03- Sept 04. Granted, I only watched two things on TV for that entire year and one was WM XX. But when I came back I barely went to shows anymore and I didn't follow it nearly as closely. I was still casual though. Breaking Point #2.1. When I moved in with my wife-to-be in June, 2007, that was basically it. I was pretty much closeted with her to begin with, and far, far away from 95% of the people I'd watch wrestling with when I was younger. I'm sure there's some alternate reality where I started to go to shows with Mr. Odessasteps or actually made the trek down to VA to see the Playaz, but it was not to be. 24 days after I moved in, Benoit happened and that was it for me. when I got the exercise bike, pre-wedding in 2009, I started to watch, while riding, pre-headdrop-y low-impact stuff. Late 80s WWF. I also started to go with whole shows instead of going for specific matches. I started watching morebroadly. Then with Justin.tv I got into old territories more and more... and now with that down I'm just watching 08 ECW and waiting for the AWA discs i suppose.

Everybody has their own personal line for stuff like that. Mine was the Papa Shango-Ultimate Warrior Voodoo angle, which put me off of watching pretty much any wrestling for two or three years at least. That put me off wrestling too, really until 98 when the boom hit again and it became more socially acceptable, but that's because I was an easily scared kid and it was way too much for me.

For WWF, to me, it's tricky, because why yes, you get the IYHs in the mid 90s, you also lose the Boston Garden/MSG/Copps/etc. spot shows getting taped and THAT is where so many of the guys really get a chance to shine. On the other hand now we get so many fancam house shows.

Dylan, watch that HHH/Henry match I posted. I'd be really curious what 08 HHH would have done with 2011-pushed/protected Henry.

HHH vs Mark Henry - 6/23/08: Well this is a great little Henry performance and an okay Hunter one. There's one groanworthy sell job of a stomach punch by hunter, but past that he eats Henry's stuff well. I think, and this is just me, the very best thing about Henry is his expressions/reactions. He knows when to yell at the ref, when to be happy, when to be upset, when and how to show frustration. The best thing Hunter does in this match is look at his fist in exasperation when it's not having much of an effect on Henry. The next best thing is a just brutal flying knee, dead-on instead of the usual side job, and super intensity in his shots to Henry's back. The best thing in the match, though, is Henry's expression first after hitting a vader splash off the second rope and next after Hunter gets his foot on the rope. It's like 6 minutes and worth watching. Hunter can't screw around with his usual plodding-without-a-point or else Henry would get up and destroy him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ejMeXpf_c

For some ungodly reason I feel the need to redeem Zenk as a worker. Also, I get that there are 40 Dustin Rhodes matches better than HHH's best, but how HAVE the 2000 stuff vs Taka and Rikishi aged? That's pretty much considered Hunter's peak, no? EDIT: I just watched a Tajiri/Hunter fancam from Japan that I thought was going to be the miracle hhh match but nope, not very good at all.

You know, I've never even seen Abrams UWF and don't know a ton about it, but from what I've been reading, I know how bad it's supposed to be considered. But then again I also know a lot of stuff that is supposed to be terrible and hasn't aged so bad. I'm kind of temped to track it down just to see.

Powers of Pain back in WCW as the Super Assassins in 96. - vs Sting and Luger on Nitro. They had a match with the Nasties too apparently.

I think Meltzer or someone said that WWE was going to pay a lot for limited return in order to hype Mania around the launch of the WWE Network and when that was "delayed" it no longer was worth it to them. But don't quote me on any of that.

I'm disappointed for totally different reasons.. Show vs Shaq would have been way more high profile, would have gotten more attention and time, and it would have been one of those meticulously thought out matches that would have just turned out brilliant. Show vs Cody will be fun, but it doesn't have the same oomph. It won't be a Show miracle performance.

I sort of watch a LOT of wrestling, and also a lot of wrestling en masse, whole shows, whole years, etc. One of the biggest joys of it for me is when I'm honestly surprised by something I was weren't expecting. When someone shows up in a place I didn't expect. When I get to hear an announcer talk about a wrestler that you never thought he talked about, or two wrestlers interacting that you never thought interacted, that sort of thing. Stuff like Bockwinkle announcing in WWF, or Lance Russell announcing the memphis Lawler vs Regal match from 2000 that I hadn't realized existed until yesterday, or even Jim Neidhart in 1993 WCW using a Cobra Clutch they called the "ANVILIZER!" Here's something I came across yesterday. Rip Rogers in WWF: For a weird two week span in 1995, Rip Rogers worked a couple of TV matches. One was vs Adam Bomb on Raw (with Cornette and Vince announcing) and the other as a tag with freaking Chic Donovan vs the Smoking Gunns. Very weird. As far as I can tell, it's the only WWF we have of his. Though if I'm wrong, please correct me. www.dailymotion.com/video/x76but_adam-bomb-vs-rip-rogers_sport www.youtube.com/watch?v=eizSMmo0UQc

I don't care about the current product. But I still hate Trip, and Trip ending The Streak while I'm sitting there watching it would piss me off to no end. John Somehow, deep down, you'd know that it was your fault!

I never mean to do PBP when I'm reviewing stuff but I feel the need to mention every cool thing.

Maybe they're just THAT concerned about their audience and didn't want anyone to get their hopes up only to have their spirits dashed when.. I can't even finish that sentence.

Should have Jericho been working with Hogan, Nash and Goldberg in late 98? Even Goldberg would have been mostly a comedy angle where he got fed to him brutally and probably ended up looking the worse for it. Look at how Raven's push got obliterated because he happened to have the US title at the time that Goldberg needed it. Just a month or two before he was attacking DDP on talk shows. Jericho should have had a 6-8 month run with the TV title and then moved into US Title stuff. Stayed there for a while and then MAYBE ended up in the main event 6-8 months after that. Mid 00 Sounds about right, actually. You can't be protected while working with Hogan/Nash/Goldberg.

And who the hell put together a card with FOUR tag matches in a row? To me this is an interesting thing to examine. Yes, putting Jericho into NWO Hollywood would have PROBABLY been a mistake, but considering that a lot of the booking of Jericho at the end was to bully him into signing a contract, I'm not sure that should be examined. Certainly in 98, he was booked strongly, and very well protected. He was kicking out of guys' finishers left and right as Cruiserweight champ. Part of his trophy collection was that he kept taking guys out, one way or another. The Malenko feud was super hot. It was only what, two months after he lost the Cruiserweight title at Road Wild that they gave him the TV belt which seemed like a good logical progression. The Goldberg thing was a bit of a mess but I think Jericho actually came out of that stronger and more over in some ways. I have no idea why they put him with Bobby Duncam Jr. though. And yes, he lost the belt to Konnan shortly thereafter, but they let him go over during the start of the feud with Saturn, even during the midst of the contract negotiations, and that really wasn't a bad pairing for him at the time. It's not like WWE used him well in 99. Don't get me wrong. I was 17 in 1998 and Jericho was one of the things that really re-hooked me into wrestling after a lapse of a few years and I thought he should be god champion of the world. But I'm a bit more mellow now and more detatched, and I'm not sure that what they DID do with him was all that bad anymore.

The Mayweather match is such a work of art, this amazing performance by Show where he did every tiny thing almost perfect. I'm way more interested in Shaq vs Show than any other potential Wight match, just to see how they'd put it together and if he could possibly match that.

I wish they'd bring back the Ultimate Survival Match at Survivor Series and then have the winners there get automatically good Royal Rumble draws.

I blame myself for the bedbug assault while we were trying to move and we found out the wife was pregnant hitting RIGHT when my MP3 player broke. I could never find the exact quote. It's all my fault.