What are you watching?

[FLIK]

04-24-1993 Volk Han vs Mitsuya Nagai - Nagai gets in just enough offense to keep the match from being a 100% squash but it's largely the Volk Han Show

 

12-24-1994 Volk Han vs Mitsuya Nagai - Nagai puts up a good fight but is never able to get Han in serious trouble

 

06-29-1996 Volk Han vs Mitsuya Nagai - Nagai's much more agressive & takes it to Han, looking like an equal skill wise. He comes within an inch of winning on sevral occasions and is in controll during the final stretch of the match only to have crafty Han reach up from out of no whear and snatch a quick submission victory to escape.

 

Han was Han in all 3 matches, doing really cool mpressive shit but Nagai brought the little things (story, psychology, passion, something) that seperates a pretty good match (93) from a great one (96), fun times.

[Guest Slickster]

Watched the Cena-Khali PPV matches from 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed them. They were effective matches that the fans bought into completely, due largely to John Cena's selling and facial expressions. I forgot how fast Khali could move back then.

[Exposer]

So I've now completed February 2003 Raw. It's been....well....here's my review:

 

 

February

The King of Kings is still champ and hes still feuding with the Big Booty Daddy. Hes the only diamond in the rough he says. Hes evolution. Steiner shows off his muscles and tremendous technical prowess at No Way Out. But The Game withstands Big Poppa Pump. That's because of evolution you see. The Cerebral Assassin continues to play mind games with his luxurious suits, cool sun glasses, and evolving associates.

Speaking of Evolution, the group has officially been named and what not. Its a mystery. An animal, a viper, a nature boy and The Game make up the group. They're cool too. They walk around and sit in sky boxes, bully other wrestlers like Tommy Dreamer and Goldust. They're the greatest faction since the Horsemen. They're Evolution and its a mysterious change no one sees.

The Rock is back. THANK GOD. Hes already tremendous. Hes so much better than everyone else on the program its embarrassing. His return promo was awesome and he shits all over Canada and its fans. His interactions with Shane Helms are hilarious. In the number one contender battle royal he left the match and was on commentary and ruled. Hollywood Rock is fucking GREAT.

Booker T is the number one contender sucka and is getting a massive push and has gotten a pinfall victory over Trips in a tag and eliminated the returning Rock to face HHH at Mania. I like this push so far but it shits the bed soon so there's that.

STONE COLD! STONE COLD! STONE COLD! STONE COLD! Jim Ross having a heart attack over Austin kicking Bischoff's ass was hilarious and absurd. Bischoff is all mean and stuff. By the way, hes terrible at this role. His acting is abysmal. They did the whole thing where Bischoff searched for Austin and Austin was eluding him or something. Then Bischoff blamed JR and fired him until he could get Austin to come to No Way Out. Vince fired Eric but JR got Stone Cold to make the deal and Vince re-hired Eric. Bischoff then gave JR a concussion and poured beer on him and stuff. Now Austins back and beat up Eric and JR's happy.

Those damn Dudleys are getting screwed and its a "bureaucratic travesty." They've been suspended and stuff. Chief Morley has helped Storm and Regal like every week. That's great television.

Kane and RVD are having some sort of pseudo-gay relationship or something. They have these little backstage arguments about being independent but still wanting to be together. Rob is unhappy with Kane hiding his personality too I guess. Hes all "dude, come on lets get high and be cool about everything." Also, Kane as an actively functioning human being with social skills while still wearing that mask doesn't fit at all.

Teddy Long is no longer "Down with the Brown." Hes with the "Mack Militant" Rodney Mack. I still like these segments though. Mack killed Al Snow in a match by dropping him on his head.

I now know why Christopher Nowinski left wrestling. He couldn't take a bump. The dumbass wasn't trained properly. Hes taken numerous bumps on his head already this year.

Jazz, Victoria, and Trish are having a three way feud. I like this alright. Jazz keeps saying "The bitch is back" and that's cool I guess. Victoria should never do color commentary ever again though.

I'm tired of these ridiculous feuds where the announcers are having two or three month long feuds with wrestlers or rather authority figures. Its horrible. To be fair, Lawler and Morley had a decent match on the last show of the month.

Apparently Jericho is in three rivalries. One is with Michaels over what number they chose in the Rumble, Jeff Hardy because Jeff's "conflicted," and Test because Jericho is a woman beater and specifically dislikes women with long legs.

Jeff Hardy is a "confused individual" so they say. Until, the Sexy Boy gives him some advice. Now Shawn and Jeff are friends. Of all the pairings those two have decided to be acquaintances. Jeff also wants to help women which I guess is good. He and Jericho did have a couple of solid matches.

Bischoff really enjoys hot lesbian action and three minute warning for some reason. I mean I guess I like hot lesbian action but Id rather not view it on my weekly cable program. Three Minute Warning is a solid tag team but its just a terrible gimmick.

Goldust was electrocuted after being assaulting by The Games boys. Now he has a "neurological" problem and is stuttering and twitching. They did a sit-down interview with Jim Ross where he was trying to sell it and was stuttering and shit. Not to mention he was wearing his ring attire, face paint, and wig during the interview. What the fuck? How is anyone supposed to take that seriously? Horrible.

The Rock has been awesome and the occasional segment will deliver but this is just embarrassingly bad at times.

[Tim Evans]

Goldust was electrocuted after being assaulting by The Games boys. Now he has a "neurological" problem and is stuttering and twitching. They did a sit-down interview with Jim Ross where he was trying to sell it and was stuttering and shit. Not to mention he was wearing his ring attire, face paint, and wig during the interview. What the fuck? How is anyone supposed to take that seriously? Horrible.

It got Goldust on Howard Stern. That was a great appearance. Not as good as the Booker T one though.

[Exposer]

That is tremendous. Is it online anywhere?

[Jingus]

The Rock is back. THANK GOD. Hes already tremendous. Hes so much better than everyone else on the program its embarrassing. His return promo was awesome and he shits all over Canada and its fans. His interactions with Shane Helms are hilarious.

Rock's bug-eyed reaction of shock and outrage when Shane claimed that the Hurricane could kick the Scorpion King's ass remains a favorite moment of mine.

[FLIK]

My memory is fuzzy on this, was it later on in 2003 or not until 2004 when Evolution vs The World started and we got various combinations of Evolution vs Benoit/Foley/Tajiri/HBK/Shelton Benjamin & others in really long 6 & 8 man tags every week?

 

That's actually one of my favorite periods in WWE history but damn was RAW shit until that whole feud kicked off as the post above have reminded me.

[Matt D]

That is tremendous. Is it online anywhere?

Try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf66Zlt3P7s

 

and here's the first half of the stern interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVrluiMq_bs

[Exposer]

My memory is fuzzy on this, was it later on in 2003 or not until 2004 when Evolution vs The World started and we got various combinations of Evolution vs Benoit/Foley/Tajiri/HBK/Shelton Benjamin & others in really long 6 & 8 man tags every week?

 

That's actually one of my favorite periods in WWE history but damn was RAW shit until that whole feud kicked off as the post above have reminded me.

That was 04. And I liked that period too. I recall one tag going till almost 11:30 one night. All of those matches were fun as hell and had tremendous heat.

[Exposer]

The Rock is back. THANK GOD. Hes already tremendous. Hes so much better than everyone else on the program its embarrassing. His return promo was awesome and he shits all over Canada and its fans. His interactions with Shane Helms are hilarious.

Rock's bug-eyed reaction of shock and outrage when Shane claimed that the Hurricane could kick the Scorpion King's ass remains a favorite moment of mine.

 

Yes, that whole segment ruled. I laughed pretty extensively during it.

[Exposer]

That is tremendous. Is it online anywhere?

Try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf66Zlt3P7s

 

and here's the first half of the stern interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVrluiMq_bs

 

Oh my God. This is so absurd.

[Kronos]

Jerry Lynn vs RVD -- ECW, Hardcore Heaven 1999

 

 

About 15 minutes into this match, and I started fast fowarding. It's the template for everything that was wrong in all the indy wrestling that followed. You have the ridiculous YourTurn/MyTurn spots, some of them laboriously set up. The worst was the Van Damminator over the guardrail. In the early minutes, you have a helluva lot of downtime. RVD will stop and listen to the chants for awhile, and Lynn just stands there and lets it happen.

 

This is masturbation disguised as wrestling, no different than what Davey R does or what Dragon Gate do. That doesn't mean there aren't aspects that were fun. The crowd is insane, which makes everything more exciting. Some of the spots can be cool, I guess. And Jerry Lynn is better than this crap.

[Tim Evans]

Finished USWA 1997 a couple days ago. The final months (July-September) featured I think 3 different authority figures and numerous different wrestlers. PJ Walker as PG187 the third member of PG13 was funny. It was basically the Justin Credible gimmick if he was Konnan. Fake Diesel became Doomsday and held the USWA Heavyweight title for most of the time till he lost it to Steven Dunn. That match should make the 97 set just for Doomsday running through a wall. Doug Gilbert came in for a short time in August and feuded with Doomsday and Dutch Mantell who was the main heel of the group. Dutch won the Unified title from Lawler and I think was the final champ. He had a match with Dreamer after Lawler lost at Hatrdcore Heaven. I didn't know the ECW/USWA feud continued after that? They seemed to be heading towards a Lawler vs Dundee vs Mantell vs Dreamer feud but the company folded before then. Also Tommy Rich had one match on the second to last live show before they moved to Midnight and that was the end of USWA.

 

Best thing about the final days was the Billy Travis vs Brian Christopher feud. Hopefully that gets some recognition on the 97 Yearbook. You had Billy getting legit arrested, lost his title to Spellbinder and then got fired for no showing dates. A couple weeks later, he starts picketing outside the studio about how unfair James Beard(the matchmaker). This leads to a big parking lot brawl outside and Billy gets arrested again. The next week, Brian goes too fast and almost runs over Billy legit. Billy and Brian had a cage match outside the big one but sadly no video was shown on TV. Billy got rehired thanks to Dutch Mantell but then USWA folded and that was the end of it. Billy was the star of USWA 97 along with Spellbinder, Flash Flanagan and Brian Christopher. Lawler did close to nothing and was almost a non factor all year.

 

Oh and Bradshaw shows up as Blackjack Bradshaw and joins Team Icon( Dutch, Rod Price and Doomsday).

[Kronos]

Some quick comments re Davey Richards June and July 2012 matches:

 

Callihan match: SLOW THE FECK DOWN! You can't build to anything if you start the match at 100 mph with nothing but power spots and finishers. And making stressed faces while holding a submission is not drama. Although I watched the whole match, I found myself rolling my eyes and not caring about either guy through most of it.

 

Finlay match: Gotta agree with those folks who are saying this is one of Davey's best ever matches. Finlay forces him to start slow, work some on the mat, and take some genuine punishment. This is the veteran teaching a younger guy about respect. In the end, Davey gets the pinfall after some crappy offense. I do like the final sequence that led to the pin, though. God bless Finlay.

[Chess Knight]

Watching random WCW b-shows. I don't have an EricR-esque love for them, but the more I see, the more I like the idea of wrestling shows going forty minutes w/out commercials. I probably liked the seven minute Dean Malenko v Norman Smiley that just finished more than all but five WWE matches I've seen this year. Three hour Raws. Get the fuck outta here.

[NintendoLogic]

I recently rewatched Benoit-Finlay from Judgment Day. I've been pretty critical of the match in the past, but it's starting to grow on me. The most striking thing to me is how Finlay-centric it is. Calling it a carry job may be going to far, but Finlay provides basically all the structure. All Benoit really does is throw some chops and hit his signature spots. Looking back, it kind of makes me wonder if Benoit was already starting to show signs of mental decline at that point.

[FLIK]

NJPW 5/3/1995 Hiromichi Fuyuki & Masahiro Chono vs Shiro Koshinaka & Terry Funk

 

Really fun match with everyone running through their usual routine and their styles meshing well together. Fuyuki actually manages to steal the show as he amps up his screaming dirty heel act and the crowd eats it up. Cool little segment early on with Chono & Funk tossing chairs around too.

[Big Rob]

I recently rewatched Benoit-Finlay from Judgment Day. I've been pretty critical of the match in the past, but it's starting to grow on me. The most striking thing to me is how Finlay-centric it is. Calling it a carry job may be going to far, but Finlay provides basically all the structure. All Benoit really does is throw some chops and hit his signature spots. Looking back, it kind of makes me wonder if Benoit was already starting to show signs of mental decline at that point.

Out of interest, what is your criticism of the match, as I remember thinking that it, along with the TV match a couple of weeks prior were two of the best WWE matches of the 00s, maybe ever.

[tekcop]

Just got around to watching the Lawler/Dundee/doctors match on YouTube. It was pretty spectacular, bit I just kills me that it happened about 10 miles from my house I didn't even know about it. It also made me think of all the great Memphis matches that'll never be recorded. I watched a Derrick King/Lawler match in Scotts Hill a couple of years ago that would have been a MOTYC for a a lot of people.

[NintendoLogic]

I recently rewatched Benoit-Finlay from Judgment Day. I've been pretty critical of the match in the past, but it's starting to grow on me. The most striking thing to me is how Finlay-centric it is. Calling it a carry job may be going to far, but Finlay provides basically all the structure. All Benoit really does is throw some chops and hit his signature spots. Looking back, it kind of makes me wonder if Benoit was already starting to show signs of mental decline at that point.

Out of interest, what is your criticism of the match, as I remember thinking that it, along with the TV match a couple of weeks prior were two of the best WWE matches of the 00s, maybe ever.

 

I thought that Finlay faking an eye injury and begging off at the knees like a chickenshit Memphis heel didn't really fit the tone of the match as a whole. And the transition from Finlay eating a German on the floor to being on top a minute later seemed a bit abrupt. But on further reflection, they're fairly minor quibbles.

 

Anyway, I watched Randy Savage vs. Genichiro Tenryu from the WWF/All Japan Summit. Why isn't this match talked about more? It's fucking awesome. It's like Savage/Warrior from WM7 times ten. And I found uber-badass Tenryu having to sell Sherri hitting him with her shoe to be perversely entertaining.

[cm funk]

I recently rewatched Benoit-Finlay from Judgment Day. I've been pretty critical of the match in the past, but it's starting to grow on me. The most striking thing to me is how Finlay-centric it is. Calling it a carry job may be going to far, but Finlay provides basically all the structure. All Benoit really does is throw some chops and hit his signature spots. Looking back, it kind of makes me wonder if Benoit was already starting to show signs of mental decline at that point.

I haven't gone back to watch the last few years of Benoit's career, but he definitely was struggling in some way, and you could see it in his ring work. At the time I thought he was just breaking down physically, wasn't as quick and athletic as he had been, relying on the routine etc. etc.......but looking back it was obviously much more than that, a mental decline like you say....

[Dylan Waco]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E_3whRHzVM

 

Really fun Jumbo v. Bob Orton match from 75 that I'd never seen before. I'm not the biggest Jumbo fan but he was really good in this and Orton - who I am becoming a very big fan of - was really awesome too.

[Mando]

Just started a few random shows including ROH Testing the Limit. Just finished Heatwave 2000 too:

 

The Sandman vs. Rhino - ECW Heatwave 2000

 

I liken the rabid ECW fan base trying to convince the rest of us Rhino was the messiah as pure agitprop garbage. He's still doing the same thing 13 years later on the independent circuit and it still packs as much depth and dimension as a street corner busker's four-minute set break to eat falafel. Sandman is such an odd bird it's as if he's a roughly sketched Lena Dunham character. The drunken Sous-Chef that emerges from the basement pantry with a lit cigarette and worn paperback copy of Lowry's The Giver. There's a thread of longing running through this match that'd call to mind the films of Wong Kar-wai were it not for the ineffectual acting of Terry Gerin. He's like the high school talent show approximation of pro wrestler complete with monosyllabic speech pattern ("Gore!") so an unintentional satirization. The Spike Dudley segment at first seemed tacked on but strangely somehow necessary in a Grindhouse-like marrying of violent spectacle. The match-ending jumping piledriver on twisted metal guardrail seemed like a piece of neo-conceptual Blažej Baláž performance art. There was something perversely appealing about this like throwing caution to the wind one night and slumming it with your girlfriends downtown at a seedy boner factory with cheap drinks and a Filipino bartender working toward a Bachelor of Music in Theory upstate named "Condition Seth".

[FLIK]

Just started a few random shows including ROH Testing the Limit. Just finished Heatwave 2000 too:

 

The Sandman vs. Rhino - ECW Heatwave 2000

 

I liken the rabid ECW fan base trying to convince the rest of us Rhino was the messiah as pure agitprop garbage. He's still doing the same thing 13 years later on the independent circuit and it still packs as much depth and dimension as a street corner busker's four-minute set break to eat falafel. Sandman is such an odd bird it's as if he's a roughly sketched Lena Dunham character. The drunken Sous-Chef that emerges from the basement pantry with a lit cigarette and worn paperback copy of Lowry's The Giver. There's a thread of longing running through this match that'd call to mind the films of Wong Kar-wai were it not for the ineffectual acting of Terry Gerin. He's like the high school talent show approximation of pro wrestler complete with monosyllabic speech pattern ("Gore!") so an unintentional satirization. The Spike Dudley segment at first seemed tacked on but strangely somehow necessary in a Grindhouse-like marrying of violent spectacle. The match-ending jumping piledriver on twisted metal guardrail seemed like a piece of neo-conceptual Blažej Baláž performance art. There was something perversely appealing about this like throwing caution to the wind one night and slumming it with your girlfriends downtown at a seedy boner factory with cheap drinks and a Filipino bartender working toward a Bachelor of Music in Theory upstate named "Condition Seth".

No offense but uhhhhh WTF?

I think I got that you don't like Rhino from reading that. The other 99% of it I have no clue what you're trying to say.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Never thought I'd see a Sandman match compared to a Wong Kar-Wai film.