artDDP

You'll see it when you get to the fall of 2000: My personal favorite memory of the ICP in WCW was Mike Awesome power bombing one of them on his "That 70s Guy" bus and the clown falls off and Awesome can't grab him in time.

I was enjoying this card up until the Triple H-Lesnar match damn near put me to sleep. Cena-Rock was similarly dull and the finish was terribly anti-climatic. I agree with those saying that there is no compelling reason to tune in tomorrow night. The Punk-Undertaker match was my MOTN. It was nice to see Taker give Punk as much as he did and the match was a lot of fun to watch. I'm not terribly enamored with Punk but I will say that I like his heel character a lot because it is so different from the usual, cookie-cutter, chickenshit heel WWE usually gives us. All I could think between last night's HOF and seeing him tonight was that Bob Backlund seems REALLY THRILLED to be a part of all this. I really enjoyed the Sheild match. I like that they seem to have a bit of energy to their matches. Most of the rest of the roster seems to work the same plodding spot-rest-rest-spot style that bores me to tears.

I just watched this match on the new "Best of 'Nitro'" set and I forgot that this was probably one of the first times I'd seen Kevin Nash's pencil legs. As something of a bodybuilder myself I always get a laugh out of guys with well-built chests and arms and skinny legs.

Are you sure about that? It was Shawn "losing his smile" that necessitated the Final Four match being for the title in the first place. It was originally going to be for the Mania title shot coming off the disputed Rumble finish. My understanding is that Shawn was to hold the belt into Mania, Bret would win the 4 way, and Shawn would drop the belt to Bret. When Shawn walked out or faked a knee injury or was legit injured depending what you want to believe, that's when they went in the direction they did. I was always curious what they would have done with Austin at WM if he wasn't working Bret. My guess is he would have done something with Pillman who was due to return around that time, though it probably would have been a backstage brawl rather than a proper match. Sorry, I think I meant to say "Bret was supposed to win the match". Shawn was supposed to hold onto the title.

Road Wild was at least a little fun. Randy Savage beats the shit out of Dennis Rodman.

Master P wasn't popular at all by the time WCW utilized him. From what I remember he had a very brief run of popularity in 1998 and then him and his record label were thought of as jokes in the hip-hop community.

I think you're at the exact point where I completely gave up on WCW and ECW together and my interest in the WWF was fading fast. I think if it wasn't for the WWF's awesome first six months in 2000 I doubt I'd have stayed a wrestling fan.

This is also my most eagerly anticipated thread on these boards. I salute you, El-P. You're right at the point where I slowly began tuning out on WCW programming due to the combination of shitty product and very adventurous girlfriend. I think the Great American Bash PPV was where I finally just gave up altogether.

This reminded me of them mentioning the Dave Schultz-John Stossel incident and saying that Schultz responded to Stossel's question about wrestling being fake. This in a kayfabe mag where the entire fifteen minute segment on 20/20 was exposing the business.

And books himself in angles where he makes out with every young woman on the roster and tried to book an angle where he fathered his daughter's child, books people he doesn't like to kiss his butt on live TV, and fired Jeff Jarrett on the air. Kurt Angle said in his book that he's pretty sure Vince booked a TV match with him just so he could crow about taking down an Olympic gold medalist.

I am still not used to Triple H with that buzz cut.

I had forgotten all about the Nash-Goldberg rematch until you mentioned the leapfrog. Now I remember it well. What I remember most about this PPV was my friends and I laughing hysterically for days for some reason at Savage illustrating Hogan's knee injury with his hands. Savage motioned to the crowd like he was breaking a pencil in two.

Reading this thread has left me wishing I'd done a lot more drinking in high school.

I've often thought the same thing. My guess is that the people associated with promoting tennis don't want anything to do with professional wrestling.

So why did Hogan and Flair get to bleed all over two PPV main events if it wasn't going to be mentioned again on TV afterward and they even went to the trouble of editing out any visible blood on their VHS biography releases? I think it was the first time ever Hogan and Flair bled for each other and rather than use it to sell the angle it was swept under the rug. "Because it's WCW" is an appropriate answer here.

I'm trying to think of any way I can use this as a signature somewhere on the internet that won't make me look like a lunatic. You and I both.

I can almost swear I read somewhere that Nash booked that first hour with nothing but vignettes because he was convinced WCW could put anything in that first hour and it wouldn't make a difference to the ratings. God, I hope I'm not quoting Scott Keith. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have paid to attend that telecast.

Got this already but haven't watch it yet. I enjoyed the first volume a lot and there is a lot of matches on new set I haven't seen. They pretty much avoid 2000-01 for the most part though. I got the Blu-Ray this afternoon and watched most of the first disc. They do a really good job picking some of this stuff. Sometimes there's just random stuff there, like off-hand comments, that only the smart marks would appreciate. It's nice that DDP doesn't seem scripted here, either. A very well-produced series.

I'll probably be picking up the Best of Nitro volume 2 set this weekend.

My recollection of the WWF at the time was that booking was in absolute chaos because of injuries. Wasn't the Sid-Taker match decided just a few weeks before WrestleMania? It's possible they just didn't know what to do until the Raw after the Final Four PPV so Bret won the title. I'm surprised Bret was willing to be a one-day transitional champion since he had such a hard time being one between Survivor Series 2005 and WrestleMania XII.

I hadn't watched a full telecast in almost eight years so when I watched a few Raw shows the last month this really surprised me. It's nice to see WWE has moved away from the idea that the only time someone should job clean is when they're being buried.

I'll second the nomination of the Harris brothers. I could watch almost anything wrestling-related for most of my life but they were one act I would dread appearing on TV or a live card. Has anyone mentioned Billy Gunn?

For posterity: http://www.rspwfaq.net/2013/02/bret-questions-for-blog.html I never understood what was so hard for Scott to understand. Bret was supposed to win the title and go to Mania to face Shawn. When Shawn couldn't work Mania they still had Bret win and then lose to Sid to set up the last-minute 'Taker-Sid main event.

For posterity: http://www.rspwfaq.net/2013/02/bret-questions-for-blog.html I never understood what was so hard for Scott to understand. Bret was supposed to win the title and go to Mania to face Shawn. When Shawn couldn't work Mania they still had Bret win and then lose to Sid to set up the last-minute 'Taker-Sid main event.

I thought this was a good question from the other day. Can anyone shed a little light on how Battle Royales are booked? My guess is that there's a few key elimination spots that get planned in advance, but for the most part the guys are told to wing it. The impression I've always had is that some key points are laid out in advance and the rest is left to the wrestlers themselves. Pat Patterson was instrumental in booking many of the Royal Rumbles themselves. I have little doubt that the current Rumbles are scripted down to the last second by the writing team.