Matt D

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.

Has Heyman lost a meal ticket with Brock's retirement?

Hulu starts with the first show in January 08. It's a solid starting point.

WWECW ages great though! WWECW title is the best WWF TV Title ever.

I'm too lazy to make a Glacier joke

Not many people are capable to work an exciting 30 minute main event period. And I don't think he ever claimed he could (nor anyone else for that matter). I found Raven matches more enjoyable than most stuff on ECW, certainly more enjoyable 15 years later than overrated "technical" demonstrations of Eddie vs Dean, or nonsensical wankery a la RVD, or horrible boring brawls a la Duds. Way more fresh and more fun to watch. Yes there was ton of bullshit, but it was fun bullshit that worked. Just me (litteraly, since I'm probably alone to still enjoy Raven as much as I do). I bet I could name three thousand wrestlers better than Raven. If I was restricting myself to wrestlers just based on 90's work I could hit a thousand. Even if I were to give him extra points for his career - much of which was carried by Stevie and the other underlings - I don't see how he's a top three hundred U.S. talent for the 90's. I feel like his mic work in memphis in 93 and super fun announcing in GWF would... wait, what's the question?

I was watching a King Kong Bundy vs Tony Garea match from July 85 on All American Wrestling. Monsoon and Mean Gene are announcing. and Gene says that he just spotted Doctor Harold Duffelmeyer in the crowd, from Columbia University, and that his nickname is the Professor. And Gorilla says he's spotted at a lot of WWF shows. Was this some sort of inside joke?

And then The Big.

Levy is a guy who always put a lot of thought into his stuff and who generally loves wrestling. Really, the only thing I'd ever want to go back and watch in ECW, past Tracy Smothers and Tommy Rich and weird cameo appearances by guys like Jannetty, is all the non-match Raven stuff.

It was "WE ALL HATE YOU!" On paper everything about the Kane/ Cena angle works for me. Evil Bad guy does evil things to get good guy to snap, including fucking up his protege to the point where the protege eventually hates the good guy, add in a chick..etc..etc. But the execution has just been bad, besides Kane who's so good at making shitty stuff work. I actually haven't SEEN any of it. I've had a hard time catching Raw lately for some reason and I've just missed all of it, and let me tell you, on PAPER, reading about it, it's not so bad. Especially if we're under the assumption Eve is in cahoots with Kane now.

I just realized I used Meng twice. Not only am I screwing up the point of the note but I'm overusing Meng. I kind of want to do something else. I was looking at 85 NWA but it's almost too easy and other stuff, like Mid South just doesn't have the roster depth, while later WCW has TOO much. I could probably put together a great Pro Wrestling USA card though.

Everyone needs to go out of their way and listen to Regal announce this Ambrose match. I know it's mainly to further a story but it's great, great stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSDVBMPUzsA

Fishing.

I feel like it was a year and a half in wwf for a lot of the guys. Arn's shoot is interesting when it comes to talking about Vince and salary.

That's mainly just the beginning of dusty getting there in 84, though.

You're both right! But seriously, anyone ever see a better Roma match than that?

Neither here nor there, but Savage is the one guy that I have a hard time grasping that he's dead. Maybe it's because he faded out of the spotlight so thoroughly that my last memories of him are really that one mysterious nitro appearance towards the end when he came out jacked, the voice-over he did for WWE Toys this past year, and, weirdly enough, a whole bunch of ICW including the cage match with Ron Garvin since I saw a lot over the span of a few days a few months before he died.

I feel like we've talked about Paul Roma SOMEWHERE here lately and also Tom Zenk's interviews. I came across this which feels a lot like Roma trying to do a Zenk interview. http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1277909223 And then he said this: "I ran with Steamboat for a while. You know, his ego gets him into trouble, I think. I had a match with him at Madison Square Garden and we talked it over in the locker room. He said, 'OK. I'd like to do this.' I said, 'OK. I want to do this.' Then, after I let him do his thing, he turned around and tried to stiff me and not let me do what I needed to do so I took it over. I just physically did what I had to do to him. Because I was like, you want me to make you look good and you're not let me do my thing? So I'm gonna do my thing anyway because physically he can't handle me. If you want to get down, we'll get down." So, because it's a 91 MSG match, we have it on tape. I went to watch it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVRvH_fN-Ac is their only MSG match). The transition to Roma being on offense is an inverted atomic drop reversal on a 10-count punch followed by a clothesline with a big set up and then a shit ton of posing. And then Steamboat is obviously selling like crazy for him, with big facial expressions. Just a weird claim. Anyway, the match is pretty good and Roma's offense actually looks great. I do think we have to come up with a Monsoon rule: The better the match in the ring, the worse Monsoon is on commentary, and vice versa. All of this made me wonder. What is Paul Roma's best match? The Young Stallions had shitty matches with both Demolition and the Brainbusters which is MADDENING. Power and Glory has tags against the Rockers (and no matter what Naylor says, I don't think Summerslam 90 works for that) and there are singles matches at house shows that we have where he goes up against Jannetty, which I'd have to rewatch. Then there's the WCW run but I've seen very little Pretty Wonderful. On paper they should be pretty good though, right? Has anyone seen a Roma match better than the one above?