HHH taking over from Vince on RAW

[El-P]

Steph's amazingly gotten worse on the stick.

Only HHH would know about that.

[Log]

The McMahon's seem to float between face and heel depending on what's convenient for that night.

[Marty]

I'm baffled as to why Stephanie and Vince were playing heel. It made no sense to me.

This is the same company that turned a grieving widow heel. "Discouraging a wrestler from having a match for health reasons" = heel act is right up their alley.

[Marty]

Steph's amazingly gotten worse on the stick.

Only HHH would know about that.

 

[Matt D]

So Hunter's new gimmick is hilarious. He goes around on television and passive aggressively tells everyone that the product is meh.

[Log]

So Hunter's new gimmick is hilarious. He goes around on television and passive aggressively tells everyone that the product is meh.

And then (weirdly) takes credit for that product.

[goc]

So Hunter's new gimmick is hilarious. He goes around on television and passive aggressively tells everyone that the product is meh.

And then (weirdly) takes credit for that product.

 

I like the snide shot about Christian being cleared to come back for a while. Like it was so hard for the creative team to come up with a way to bring him back. "Uh let's just have Vickie bring him out as a surprise opponent."

[JNLister]

I was amazed by the "So what was the main event going to be if the Punk-Del Rio confrontation hadn't happened" line. It's a perfectly valid question in reality, but makes no sense in storyline when, I'd estimate, the majority of RAW episodes have main events set up during the show.

[Jimmy Redman]

Hunter's compulsive need to be the smartest man in the room any time he's on TV is hilarious.

[artDDP]

I was amazed by the "So what was the main event going to be if the Punk-Del Rio confrontation hadn't happened" line. It's a perfectly valid question in reality, but makes no sense in storyline when, I'd estimate, the majority of RAW episodes have main events set up during the show.

If I were booking Raw I'd have at least one night where the main event was Zack Ryder vs. Tensai or something and the reason being no one called anyone out earlier.

 

I thought it would make more sense to have at least one match advertised for next week that you could promote with commercials during the week or something.

 

Why do they still do contract signing angles when it seems anyone can call out anyone and it's pretty much binding?

[shawmic]

If anyone wants to torture themselves I highly recommend the new HHH DVD. Some of my favorite parts:

 

- The narrator saying "Paul worked independents all over Massachusetts for over a year" like we're supposed to be in awe of him paying his dues by working independents for one year in one state before getting signed by WCW.

 

- He claims Eric Bischoff offered him a 2-year deal for $52k a year and he told Bischoff he would only accept one year for $52k and after that year he'll either not be worth it or be worth more and Bischoff agreed.

 

- He claims in his first meeting with Vince he told him he wanted to leave WCW because their wasn't enough house shows and he wanted to be on the road 365 days a year.

 

- The somber music as he is "punished" for the Kliq incident at MSG. We knew he was supposed to win King of the Ring but he claims he was then supposed to feud with Shawn which I'm not sure if that's true since Shawn beat him clean in a nothing match on Raw in May a few weeks before the Kliq deal.

 

- We've heard this one before but DX invading WCW was the turning point in the Monday Night War.

 

- He talks about how he was promised the title at SummerSlam 99 months in advance, not even realizing how bad that comes across. They also say that Austin wanted to lose to Foley by the time the show came around and he got to win it the next day but they don't actually go into why Austin didn't want to lose to him and the drama it caused at the time.

 

- Nothing at all on his feud with Foley in 2000 that took him from a heatless heel to a main eventer.

 

- There's a part where they talk about his humanitarianism for resurrecting Ric Flair's career.

 

- A whole thing on dating Stephanie and how Vince gave his blessing and then took it away. Big Show says before anyone knew about them dating him and his wife caught them making out at a mall and he was scared they'd get noticed and told his wife lets get out of here which I thought was pretty funny. Hunter said he was torn about how it would affect his career and he asked Undertaker's advice and Undertaker said your career will always have an asterisk next to it because of it but you know how hard you worked to make it and who cares what anyone thinks. Undertaker does speak about this and confirms it.

 

- In 2008 he was drafted to SmackDown to cultivate less experienced talents and they specifically show him wrestling Jeff Hardy as they say this.

 

- Perhaps my favorite part is him complaining that the stipulation for the WM25 main event vs Orton (if HHH is disqualified he loses the title) handcuffed them from delivering a great match particularly because they had to follow Shawn/Undertaker and the match should have been a brawl based on the feud. That's all great but YOU RUN THE COMPANY. It's not like he couldn't have vetoed whoever pitched the stipulation. Orton on the other hand thinks Hunter's too hard on himself and it was a great match.

 

- There's a clip of Vince literally covered in tears crying as HHH, Undertaker and Shawn walk back through the curtain after the match at WM28.

 

- And perhaps the most fitting ending of all, the last line as the documentary ends is from Vince: "Paul is one of the best things that ever happened to me and to this company." It's still so strange to hear Vince and Linda talking about how they are grooming him to run the company some day and no mention of Shane when talking about the family.

[El-P]

Sounds like the greatest revisionnist shit put out by the WWE Universe yet. Wonderful.

[shawmic]

Forgot to mention Terry Taylor is all over this documentary as a talking head. He was all over the Mid-South one recently but I guess he's the new Steve Lombardi.

[Loss]

I guess that rings better than the inspirational story of how HHH wisely manipulated a series of vulnerable drug addicts and alcoholics -- The Clique, Shawn on his own, Vince, Chyna, etc. -- until he became the heir apparent.

[Gregor]

They also say that Austin wanted to lose to Foley by the time the show came around and he got to win it the next day but they don't actually go into why Austin didn't want to lose to him and the drama it caused at the time.

Okay, I know pretty much nothing about the situation other than Foley being added so that Austin didn't have to lose to HHH. Why didn't Austin want to lose to him, and what drama did it cause?

[Loss]

I think they didn't want Jesse Ventura having to raise a heel's hand at the end of the match. I've also heard that Austin refused to put HHH over, so I don't know.

[shawmic]

They also say that Austin wanted to lose to Foley by the time the show came around and he got to win it the next day but they don't actually go into why Austin didn't want to lose to him and the drama it caused at the time.

Okay, I know pretty much nothing about the situation other than Foley being added so that Austin didn't have to lose to HHH. Why didn't Austin want to lose to him, and what drama did it cause?

 

During that time Austin was causing a lot of drama for not wanting to do programs with Jeff Jarrett and Billy Gunn because they weren't over. He also didn't want to lose to HHH for the same reason. So they added Foley to the match to pin Austin and then HHH would beat Foley the next night.

 

This was all well documented by Dave at the time but it's worth noting that recently he was asked about it on Observer Radio and said they added Foley because they needed a babyface to win because Ventura was the referee.

 

It was a pretty huge topic of conversation in August/September 99. Dave was doing guest columns in August 99 for Wrestleline (to build up to the launch of his first site & the Eyada show I think) and wrote a column about it at a time when news from the Observer wasn't that easy to find online yet.

[Gregor]

Thanks, guys.

[Log]

- There's a clip of Vince literally covered in tears crying as HHH, Undertaker and Shawn walk back through the curtain after the match at WM28

To be fair, I was crying pretty hard by the time that match ended. I kept thinking about how those were minutes I could have spent doing something, anything else besides watching that match. I was thinking about how I could've spent the money for that ppv on something useful like anything else besides that ppv. It was an emotional moment for me, too.

[El-P]

- There's a clip of Vince literally covered in tears crying as HHH, Undertaker and Shawn walk back through the curtain after the match at WM28

To be fair, I was crying pretty hard by the time that match ended. I kept thinking about how those were minutes I could have spent doing something, anything else besides watching that match. I was thinking about how I could've spent the money for that ppv on something useful like anything else besides that ppv. It was an emotional moment for me, too.

 

Ah ah ah. I feel your pain.

[Jimmy Redman]

- Nothing at all on his feud with Foley in 2000 that took him from a heatless heel to a main eventer.

It's an aspect of Hunter that has been run into the ground already, but this is still the most WOW part of the whole thing to me. I mean, give Foley credit for it or not, but how do you not even mention what would be the best work of your own career just to avoid even the possibility of saying something halfway decent about him? Hunter was great in it too, they could have easily heaped praise on him alone for it, rather than bypass it entirely.

 

It's just so weird that even Hunter could be THAT petty.

[Mad Dog]

It happened a long time ago though. Barely anyone remembers how painfully unover he was until those Foley matches happened.

[Jimmy Redman]

I suppose it depends on the doco itself too, it may come off as less weird watching it as they want to cover other stuff instead and it just gets skipped over instead of glossed over. But still, knowing the history there, it's pretty something.

[Stiva]

How much time is dedicated to his heel run on Raw from 02-04? And if time is dedicated, how is it spun?

[Bix]

He claims in his first meeting with Vince he told him he wanted to leave WCW because their wasn't enough house shows and he wanted to be on the road 365 days a year

This one is actually true, more or less. When he was getting interest from Vince, he asked Regal for advice. Regal said that being inexperienced, going to the WWF was a no brainier because he's be working so much more and improving faster.