Stiva

There's always been an undercurrent of it. I was at a house show in 2009 during Dustin's ECW run and there was a group of people in the front row giving it the "you're a legend!" *clap-clap-clapclapclap* nonsense. Now, it seems like that has grown to obscene levels, fueled by Facebook groups, memes and trying to ape the post-Mania crowds. Oddly enough, it fits right in with WWE's "meta-booking". Someone more intelligent than me can come along and expand on how it's become a self-aware, post-modern product in more depth than I could ever attempt.

More importantly, are they actually capable of that anymore?

Shit, I completely forgot about him. What's the story there?

I really hope this involves a brief Regal run on TV.

I'd love to see Christian and a partner work some matches with The Dust Brothers but I have no idea who his partner should be.

Yeah, I had a few people on Facebook angry about that but I had assumed they just hadn't read the news update from a couple of months ago. Is it more difficulties with Sky?

JR used to make the Michaels comparison on commentary a lot too. Along with Jeff Hardy, John Morrison and any other thin guy with long hair who liked to jump off things.

Yeah, they're so focused on the "Hey, you could get this show for so much cheaper on the network!" but they run a PPV once a month. What is there to watch in the meantime? When they put the old SNMEs and Nitros on, there should have been a concerted effort to promote those on Raw, showing old clips as a teaser for what you could on the Network. Instead, they half-assed like they do everything else. Even if they just ran some teasers saying "you can see the formation of the nWo!" or "Want more Hulk Hogan? Get the Network and queue up our brand new Saturday Night Main Events!" would have sufficed but they seem to think that this ingrained fanbase that they do have will follow them through anything, no matter how they promote it.

I wonder how many international subscribers they would have had if the launch date in the UK wasn't pushed back. and I wonder how many "domestic" subscribers are actually people in the UK using false dns'

Yep, also it was frustrating me last year but a year has past since then. Frustration builds up, as Michael Cole always likes to tell us.

Oh man, having just finished watching HIAC and finding myself more frustrated than ever with the direction and feel of WWE, I am really excited to listen to this.

How was this year's BOLA? Got a day or two before I can sit down and watch it but were they as good as the cards suggest?

Just reading Alan's blog post now and I got into puro the same way! Can you remember, a few weeks before The Wrestling Channel actually launched, you could dial in a certain frequency through a certain menu in Sky and you'd be able to see them testing the signal and their programming? I remember vividly because it showed two things on a loop: Al Snow's RFVideo Shoot Interview and a NOAH show that had a tag main event with, I think, Kobashi and Marufuji in it. I remember watching that and really enjoying it in my 14 year old smark way of "hating" WWE. As a side note, TWC was such a disappointment for how cool it could have been.

Thanks, this is great. The Mysterio match will be my first port of call since I'm on a real Rey kick atm. RVD vs. Rey Mysterio - WWE VS. ECW Head to Head I now remember how weird a year 2006 was for WWE between the ECW revival, the Rey title run and the period where Ric Flair was working crazy hardcore matches. Anyway, this is the RVD that I do enjoy, which is, him being a gigantic prick, showboating and posing as a heel which I think he does really well. The press slam into a moonsault looks really nasty since his knee comes right down across Rey's face. There's a slight fuck-up where RVD slips on the barricade before a leg-drop and re-does it again, only to quickly get in his little pose which I would normally hate but Rey moves so it's cool. Like I say, this is the RVD that I find entertaining since he fully leans into being an asshole. RVD is now in the crowd but Rey follows up with a springboard dive into the first row which looks so great. We come back from the break with the match still moving fast as they continue the running theme of RVD having the power advantage over Rey when RVD reverses a bulldog attempt and crotches Rey on the ropes. He follows it up by hitting a kick from the top rope that sends Rey crashing to the outside in a nice bump. There's a guillotine leg-drop from RVD that looks really nasty as Rey's selling and bumping remains great, especially when he takes a drop-toe hold straight into the turnbuckle at real speed. RVD grabs a chair and dropkicks it right into Rey's face in a spot that I wish the camera had picked up slightly better but Rey sells it incredibly and RVD follows it up by bowing to the audience. Rey is now in the corner and RVD tries a strange Rolling Thunder attempt whilst holding a steel chair but Rey moves and this time, hits a bulldog from the top straight onto the discarded chair. I'm not sure what RVD was going for there but the bulldog spot was a nice callback. Rey lays RVD onto the chair and goes for the West Coast Pop whilst groggily walking to the ropes in a great little bit but RVD moves and plants the chair into Rey's chest before heading to the top and hitting the Five Star. Strangely, right before impact, Rey throws the chair off of his chest. Maybe that wasn't the planned finish? Well anyway, RVD wins going into the PPV and yeah, that's a really good match. I think Rey is the better of the two in it because it lets Rey sell a lot which is what he's great at but RVD is good here, acting the dick, even selling the knee immediately after the tumble into the crowd. This is well worth a watch for both guys, not just Rey, even though there's that one spot where RVD derails it slightly.

I may have to rewatch his 2006 run since I tend to fall on the side of not liking RVD at all. I will say that I like RVD/Orton from One Night Stand 2007 and think he does a great sell job in that one if anyone hasn't seen it. When I get started on viewing for this (should be soon), I'm going to explore the tag runs of a lot of workers and I'm interested to see how the team with Sabu holds up and even the run with Kane which I remember spawning some fun matches. As far as people who have jumped off high things in the past, I'd definitely put Matt Hardy on the list ahead of him but I'll rewatch his matches, for completion sake.

Weren't they hyping it that someone from Team WWF would turn rather than any surprise new faces showing up? That was Survivor Series later in the year when Angle defected to The Alliance.

I'm not sure it would have ever worked, knowing how WWF, and wrestling in general, tends to struggle with these kind of things but the timing of it has always interested me. I know Taker didn't do great opposite Austin at Backlash/Judgment Day but the build, to Backlash in particular, was terrible and right around May/June was the time they started giving away matches on TV like Austin/HHH vs. Benoit/Jericho and Angle/Benoit in the cage so, yeah, people aren't going to pay for PPVs with underwhelming cards. Would the impact of it be lessened the longer they waited? Did they need to strike when the iron was hot? I always wonder what it would have been like if they had given Austin that heel run through the summer opposite HHH, Angle, Taker, Jericho, even DDP (not as an invader, just a new top guy) and then kicked into the Invasion angle around Survivor Series, with Austin back face, Rocky back, Flair around, maybe even Bischoff in earlier instead of running right off with who they had. Not even a case of Goldberg, nWo, Sting but just a reshuffling of the deck on their own side. To answer some of the questions in the first post, the high-point for me is Austin driving into the arena and cleaning house ahead of Invasion. In fact, I really like that big 10 man at Invasion; it has a massive feel, even with The Dudleys and Rhyno and is front of a hot crowd. Amazingly, the moment it died for me was in the same match when Austin turned on Team WWF. That was it for me, even as an 11 year old and it absolutely started me down the path of not watching wrestling for a year or so when Smackdown pulled me back in with Rey and Eddie doing cool shit.

The Shield's stuff with Bryan and a whole host of others in 6-man tags around summer of last year is tremendous. I'd suggest you just wait for the end of year lists to come out and go through it since 2014 has still been a good in-ring year for them, albeit a poorer one than 2013 due to no Bryan, less time for Cesaro, the Shield break-up etc. The Usos have had a great year though so maybe dip into their title defenses. I honestly think the booking, the presentation etc. is so bad right now, that you'll never get into it watching week to week but it remains a good in-ring company. Maybe watch NXT week to week, that's a world better than the main roster as an actual show.

The problem with Cena/Orton is what the hell do they actually do to make this fresh? They've had a HIAC before, along with just about every gimmick match going and in their match at the Rumble, they finally resorted to the old "hitting your opponents finisher" tactic to try and make the finishing stretch interesting. I can't possibly imagine what they're going to do for this one.

God damn, Vince. I'd love a compendium of Vince stories.

The fact that WWE didn't do Cena/Taker at Mania is a masterclass in leaving money on the table.

so, is Dean Ambrose's transformation into Dennis the Menace complete?

"I don't mind you making fun of me but don't make fun of The Simpsons" "Oh, is that for the guys or the girls?" "You got the jam or not?" I'm rewatching The Hart Foundation stuff atm and god damn does Bret Hart ever save this segment.

I'm interested in looking back on his brief WWE run. It's a real shame he never got to work a main event match opposite Austin (other than their interactions at Invasion) but there could definitely be some fun TV matches on Raw, Smackdown or even the C-shows. I'm not sure he'll make my 100 but I'd like to see some of his matches as he was winding down, just to get a more complete look at him. If we were talking Greatest Finishers of all time...

Yeah, that was a good post from Marvin and I will say that one aspect of this GOAT list that I really like is the potential re-evaluation of guys who you've perhaps never really liked or haven't watched for a while. I would have never even considered Warrior for that kind of re-evaluation, especially with so much other wrestling to watch but fuck it if that post hasn't almost convinced me.