Matt D Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 There's also a difference between the undercard and a lot of what was on top during the Attitude era, and there's also a difference between Mania 98-Mania 99 year and the 99-00 year. To me Mania 98-99 was a pretty good build. Vince tried to get the belt off of Austin. Vince finally manages it by stacking the deck so far against him with Taker and Kane. Foley gets screwed after being unable to do the job with Austin. Vince ends up with his corporate champion in Rock. Austin has to go through more hoops than you can imagine to get his title shot (including Taker, the Rumble, and Vince). He does. Rock and Foley trade the belt around. Austin finally faces Rock for the title with Foley in the mix as the ref. It might have been shuffled around when various things happened (like Steve Williams' injury) but it all FELT long-form and epic. And it's not like there were a ton of surprises along the way. Survivor Series (albeit the biggest plot-driven PPV ever but it's self-contained) and Big Show's debut. That's about it. I don't feel like there's any real build to Cena/Miz. That's my problem. I look back and I don't see the path. Del Rio/Edge isn't any better, though them adding Christian to the mix helps a lot there, if he's not just a mini feud for Del Rio over the next few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 To me WMXV/1999 switcharoo of putting Billy Gunn in the Hardcore title match and Road Dogg in the IC title is the epitome of the shit end of unpredictability in Wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 That made no sense and shat on months of build. Absolutely. But the Main event stuff with Austin at that point was all hands on by Vince and can't be judged against the undercard. Maybe more so as 99 goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Booking can be both logical and unpredictable. They aren't mutually exclusive. Terry Funk beating up Ric Flair at the conclusion of Wrestle War '89 wasn't necessarily something that everyone saw coming a mile away (at least not when his only role was that of judge), but the motivations still made sense, and it was still logical and set up a future challenger for Flair. I feel like pointing out that they went out of their way to have a logical reason for Funk to be there and not stick out like a sore thumb among the older former champions judging at ringside. He did commentary on their previous big match at Clash 6, which fellow judge Thesz and...someone...(it wasn't O'Connor, was it? Who was it, Harley?) had analyzed on the TBS special a couple days before the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondocks Kernoodle Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Also a logical reason for there to be a table at ringside! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHawk Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 I was on record saying they should have just found some way for Lawler to take on Miz at WrestleMania since they gave it a WrestleMania-type build to begin with. Lots of people said "But Lawler can't main event Mania" but I'll be damned if I wasn't more interested in their match last night than I am for anything they've been building up toward with this Mania so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Guy gets his ass kicked most of a match then wins via banana peel. That's Honky Tonk Man. Except Miz doesn't work that way. We'd have to stretch the definition of ass kicked most of match and win via banana peel a ton to come to that conclusion. Was scroll era Savage really Honky Tonk Man? Was cast era Bob Orton really Honky Tonk Man? Was the first year of Orton as heel really Honky Tonk Man? Was Cena as heel with chain wrapped around fist finisher, Honky Tonk Man? No the difference there is they would win via their own cheating. Honky would get himself counted out. Or sometimes depend on Jimmy hart or very very regularly hold the ropes pinning Hillbilly Jim. Miz won the title after cashing in MITB after Orton was exhausted and beaten down. Which is not a point since everybody but RVD cashed in like that. But since being champion he has won every ppv title match (blanking on TLC) defense thru some banana peel type finish. He only beat Lawler in December because of Cole. He beat Orton at the Rumble because o Nexus. If you were going to compare Miz to the four guys you listed or Honky Tonk Man he looks a lot more like Honky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 To me WMXV/1999 switcharoo of putting Billy Gunn in the Hardcore title match and Road Dogg in the IC title is the epitome of the shit end of unpredictability in Wrestling. Add to that the Chyna/HHH double turn on the show that was so complicated I don't remember it. But it made no sense either. WM15 was a godawful show with a godawful build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 The build for the Hardcore and IC title matches was good til the switcharoo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 To me WMXV/1999 switcharoo of putting Billy Gunn in the Hardcore title match and Road Dogg in the IC title is the epitome of the shit end of unpredictability in Wrestling. Add to that the Chyna/HHH double turn on the show that was so complicated I don't remember it. But it made no sense either. WM15 was a godawful show with a godawful build. The build to the main event was better than good, and that was the only thing I was personally referencing since we were talking about the main event matches at Mania this year. (Keep in mind, I'm also not in the camp that thinks that Lawler should have won so I'm probably having different arguments than anyone else here). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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