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Are you referring to Summerslam here? I'm thinking about getting the replay. Was it a good show?

I can't answer that, but it reminded me that I had a buddy run into Tony at a Louisville minor league game recently. His team was in town playing. My friend was walking through the press box and heard a familiar voice. It took him a minute to realize who it was because apparently, Schiovane has changed quite a bit in appearance. I guess he put on a lot of weight and had a beard. I would love to hear him call a minor league baseball game, "the most important game in the history of our sport."

I'm usually someone who ff's through a lot of promos (especially when HHH is involved), but I was glued to that last segment. I do agree that they're laying it on pretty thick with the hinting of HHH/Cena screwing Punk over to get the title off of him. It's the most interesting way to continue this, to me, though. I hope they don't pull one of those swerve for the sake of a swerve things.

Booger Red was an actual WWE thing?!?!? I thought someone online joked about it and it stuck or something. Why the hell would JR call him that?

Shit, I bet Terry Funk has had more matches than Taker in the last three years or so

It makes sense to me. I do feel a little dumber after watching his promos. This post should not be slept on. Nice work. I laughed.

Those are valid points, but JESUS CHRIST!! That would be a disaster if they called it off. You just can't promise people something that big and go back on it. That's not even a swerve, it's just dishonest. That would be a shit-ton of bad will for them if they don't go through with the match.

Cena was uncharacteristically whiney in that final segment. That struck me as a little strange.

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much HHH gave Punk last night. He tip-toed the line of not burying Punk and still showing his authority pretty well. I mean, HHH has been presented as this ultra-tough "cerebral assassin" for quite a few years now. Whether you like the character or not, it's been his character. He never stooged at all when he was a heel. It wouldn't quite make sense for him to start doing it now. Do I like him in the authority role more than Vince? No. But I don't think it would make sense within their "universe" to have him suddenly act just like Vince. This storyline has gone from "holy shit!" to "well, I'm still watching" since it started. I'm not totally ready to write it off, though. It is nice that they've made the match seem like the most important thing in the world. That, and the fact that they're treating the championship like a big deal again, are steps in a good direction. I guess you could say I'm still cautiously optimistic for this whole thing.

I could really use a new computer, too. You guys wanna chip in?

Ok now ppl are just bitching for the sake of bitching. Seriously, the time of day they post content is all wrong? SERIOUSLY?? WTF??? That's actually a really important aspect of running a news site of any kind.

I finally saw the match today. It occurred to me that this was Punk's "Austin at WM 13" moment. He came in as the de facto face due to the match being in Chicago. But then they really worked the match with Punk as the face. He never did anything outright heelish. It just looked like this will be the match that could make him a top-level face.

I can't agree with that. The announcing has been absolutely terrible and distracting lately. They need to find a middle ground between the sterile, boring announcing they had for the last few years and the random, unfocused stuff of the last year or so.

To be fair, Dinsmore still wrestles and trains guys here in Louisville. Also, he left WWE due to a pretty hardcore pill addiction.

Oh, no doubt! Punk was dead-on with that observation.

Wish I lived in Memphis Any word on if that doc will be available on dvd any time soon? If it's like a Heroes of World Class, but with Memphis, that would be awesome. I dont know but I remember hearing that they want to exhaust theaters before a DVD release. Cool. Memphis wrestling is pretty well-known here in Louisville. Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll hit a theater here.

I'm always amazed by WWE. You have this really great promo going between Vince and Punk, and they bring Cena out. Fine. He's Punk's opponent. He needs to be involved. Then he goes off about poopy shoes and dogs peeing. Really? That was in any way, shape, or form appropriate for the type of build you're doing for this match? They need a better editor for Cena's stuff. I don't know how things work well enough to know if that was a writer's fault or Cena's or what. Someone should've stepped in, though, and been like, "Uh, maybe we leave out the dog poop part?" This stuff with Punk has got me intrigued. But, at the same time, I'm not getting too excited. The Nexus started out fascinating, and we saw where that went. I just have no faith in anyone in WWE to make this go to a logical and exciting conclusion. I do have to say, though, that Cena immediately punching Punk after the Yankees comment was nice. Very appropriate response from a Bostonian.

Wish I lived in Memphis Any word on if that doc will be available on dvd any time soon? If it's like a Heroes of World Class, but with Memphis, that would be awesome.

There's an all-time "what if". Gotta think things would have been a little different for WCW in the 90's.

So, as far as televised angles go, Jake had not turned before the Savage match. So, technically, it was heel vs. heel, though Jake does work it totally face. It had to be confusing to be a WWF house show attendee in the 80's.

It's not really a heel-heel match. Jake was the face. It's not that the match made Jake a face: they worked the match for Jake to be the face, even before the bell rang: http://www.otherarena.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=2901#2901 This is far from say the Barry vs Doc match at Starcade 1987 where Doc kinda-sorta is the "heel" because he takes advantage of Barry's mishap. In this one, Savage is the Bitch Heel Champ, and Jake works pretty much exactly like he does as a face once he fully turns. One could contrast it with Jake's just finished feud with Steamer, where he didn't work face. Whether fans thought he was cool or not, he was the heel in the Steamer feud... which just happened to end prior to this match, at the prior SNME if I'm not mistaken. John Everything you said is true, but Jake was technically still a heel for that match, right? I know he clearly wrestled as a face here, but he hadn't "officially" turned yet had he? What was Jake's face turn? Wasn't it when Honkey clocked him with the guitar on the Snake Pit? Was that before or after the Savage SNME match? Edit: So, after a quick wiki search:

I've always thought Hansen is the perfect "gaijin". He's big, loud, kind of an asshole, and a cowboy to boot (no pun). It makes sense that he'd be Baba and Inoki's best American opponent. He's a living embodiment of America in pro-wrestler form.

Sometimes fans are almost dying to cheer for a certain heel and loves it when they finally get the chance. The Roberts/Macho Man SNME match you mentioned was one time. Fans were really into Jake by that point and putting him up against Savage gave them a chance to finally cheer for him. It's pretty clear from that match that Vince was aware of that as Jake pretty much works it as a clear babyface. I think Austin was kind of an example of this too. People were into his heel act, but finally pulling the trigger on his double-turn with Hart let them all-out root for him. There have always been fans of heels. The Horsemen had their guys in suits at the tv studio. In Mexico, there are large sections of Rudo fans. I mean, in sports, plenty of people root for "heels". To most of America, the Yankees are "heels", the Cowboys and Lakers are for many, too. Yet they still have their ardent supporters.

Did Hansen work the same in the AWA? As in, stiff as all hell? I don't think I've ever seen any of his stuff from there.

I was surprised by how much I have liked his stuff with Baba on the AJ set. It seems like every time they're facing off, Baba really steps up his game, and Hansen lays it in on the old man.