anarchistxx

I'm really in the minority but I find Lawler pretty boring. His punches are nice, but fuck, I'd like to see him do something else once in a while. I'm not really a sucker for those heated brawls in packed Memphis arenas. But I think 90's AJ is overrated, and Jimmy Jacobs is the most entertaing wrestler in the world, so there you go.

Homicide/Samoa Joe v Briscoe Brothers (ROH Glory By Honor V Night 2) I really wanted to love this, as I'm digging the Briscoes character and interviews at the moment, but unfortunately, there was so much wrong with this. The fact it started off as a great, heated brawl with a manic crowd, and turned into a standard wrestling tag, killing the crowd dead. Homicide's lame Eddie Guerrero tributes. The fact that Cide + Joe wrestled as heels for a lot of the match. The fact that Joe looked lacklustre and unmotivated. It was just boring and the wrong match for the occassion. It's lack of decent structure didn't help either; it's a problem that constantly comes up in Briscoes matches, as no team maintains any offence for a substantial period. There's a moment where Joe gets the hot tag, and then starts circling the ring for a grapple. Everything feels wrong. It's kind of saved by an excellent last few minutes, but it's the epitome of a nothing match. There isn't even anything humorous I can say about it. *3/4 Watching all of the Glory By Honor V weekend, and it's all been very dull so far. The exception is the fantastic Jimmy/Colt/Lacey storyline, which really is the best thing in wrestling at this point. It's must see stuff, and the reason I picked up the DVD's.

You need motivation? I'm sure you just watched 100 Barry Windham matches in the last couple of weeks or something. Anyway, I haven't watched anything for about a month, apart from Joe/Necro I which was completely awesome. So I reccomend some Necro.

I believe the uncut version is on the WWE 80's DVD? If so I've seen it. Either way, it's a fantastic match, though the 2/3 Falls match is just a bit better in my eyes. Never liked the Wrestlewar match as much, I'd put it n the same foting as their Japan match from 82 that's on one of the ld AJ Classics discs, really good matches, just not on the level of Chi-Town and Clash.

No, they actually have 4 matches if you count in the JD Laddert match, which was surprisingly the weakest of the bunch. They had 3 matches on Smackdown... May 22, 2003 May 29, 2003 July 3, 2003 All great matches, though the 07/03 match is the best, and might be my top WWE match of that year.

Yeah, the Kidman/Rey v WGTT match at Vengeance 03 is fantastic, and definately on the same level if not better than the Eddie/Takiri v WGTT matches. I wasn't too keen on the SD rematch though, so the feud on a whole isn't really as good as the Eddie/Tajiri one, which had 3 really great matches. I actually have the NWO main event on my PC, I might have to check it out. The Rumble seems to have split opinion, so I don't think therte's many points to argue on it, just comes down to personal choice.

Yeah, I believe Flik uploaded it. You should see it, it's great, VQ is excellent as well so that won't effect your enjoyment, unlike with other things I've downloaded.

Stranglehold Wrestling 10/29/2006 (Light Tubes & Barbed Wire) Necro Butcher vs LuFisto Yeah, this is utterly fantastic. Necro bleeds a ton, and doesn't hesitate to kick the living shit out of Lu Fisto. Awesome violence and gore with the light tubes, I never thought I'd have so much fun watching a woman get beat up and give it right back. Tiny crowd, yet they don't hold back with anything and if anything ramp up the aggression. It's not just blood and guts though, it's a really tight brawl with great punched and the like. Yeah, check this out if you get chance.

Watched RVD/Holly from the ECW show, and was more than a little bored. Outside the cut, it was very average stuff, and RVD continues to suck. Holly was pretty rubbish as well.

I think Turning Point 2005 is better than NOS2 at least.

DVDVR did a 100 Best Matches Of The 80's set for WWF. The idea was that loads of people would send blank DVD's in and get the sets, and then at the end a huge vote would be taken. They are currently doing the same thing for 80's Other Japan. Some people sell the sets, yes.

I'm not sure. I don't actually see the show, but from the looks of the results, it seems an absolutely abysmal show. They have the talent, but the booking is beyond horrible. At the same time, I have about five PPV's from them in 2005, and all of them are really solid, certainly nothing too awful, and some really good stuff, like a couple of fantastic Joe/Styles matches. Joe was being booked great back then, and had maintained his aura. They really should have had him steamroller through the heavyweight division and taken the belt of Jarrett. Instead, he was pushed aside in favour of new 'stars' from WWE, and lost his unbeaten streak to Angle, a guy who totally didn't need it at all.

Yeah, I actually liked the ending, but the commentary for it was terrible. It was nice and dramatic though.

Finally got round to watching the Rumble... WWE Royal Rumble 2007 Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy v Joey Mercury/Jonny Nitro MNM may have the best look of any tag team, ever. They really look the part here, and whatever anyone says, that's half the battle. The Hardyz look considerably bigger than seven years ago, or maybe it's just because they've ditched the lycra. Either way, they're as over as a pizza at a weight-watchers convention, and with two great heels like Mercury and Nitro to work against, you knew this would be good. MNM are a team that, while they aren't ever going to have a classic, can probably work a good match with just about anyone. They prove that here; though offensively limited at times, they make up for it with awesome team work, and they have a good feel for how to work a tag match. The thing that sets this match apart, is that it’s two teams battling it out, not a couple of thrown together wrestlers who creative has ‘nothing for’. They work as a unit, they have a ton of double team moves, and in true southern style, do some fantastic work towards the hot tag. Jeff Hardy puts in an excellent performance here, and looks every bit like the future world champion he was predicted to be a few years back. MNM bring the solid heel work, Matt is good at keeping the crowd involved and uses his considerable experience to hold it all together. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t anything amazing, but it’s a step above most WWE tag matches, and shows how you can work a very good match with two established teams. ***1/4 ECW World Heavyweight Championship: Bobby Lashley© v Test As a WWE mid-card match, this was poor. As an ECW title match, it was terrible. Problem is, you have two crap WWE style wrestlers fighting over a supposed 'extreme' championship. Nobody buys into any of it. It doesn't help that Lashley has the charisma of a fucking librarian, and the only time Test has ever been over was eight years ago. I tried to look for something decent in this match; but to be honest, you’d have an easier time trying to find a shag in a nunnery. And unlike a nun, it fucking sucked. * World Heavyweight Championship: Batista© v Ken Kennedy I get the feeling that is the crowd was into this more, it would have got a lot more love. For me personally, it was a real pleasant surprise. I still don't buy Kennedy as a future world champion, but here, he knows what Batista can do and works around it really well. The leg work now gives Batista an excuse for his immobility, and since it's pretty simple stuff, there's a lot less chance of sick not picking up yet another injury. To Batista's credit, he does a nice job of selling the leg injury, and indeed it's one of the better WWE matches I've seen with a lot of body part work. Kennedy proves he can carry the offence for a match, bringing more than enough to the table, and Batista holds his end up as well. Very nice, but could have done with another few minutes. *** WWE Championship: Last Man Standing: John Cena© v Umanga Can Cena overcome the odds? Why have all Samoans got amazingly hard heads? What has Umanga done to deserve his push, aside from being fat and Samoan? For the first ten minutes, I started to wonder what the hype was about, since it merely looked like your usual, pedestrian action to me. Once Cena wore the crimson mask though, it was pretty swank. They kept a nice intensity about the match, and while they did use a load of shortcuts, they never lost sight of the real point, which was the underdog Cena against the monster Umanga. I don’t know why people seem to be crediting the quality to Umanga though, as I thought Cena was clearly the better worker here, with his fiery comebacks and sympathy selling really making the match. Quite amusing people still think it’s ‘cool’ to chant their Cena Sucks and the like. Yeah, you’re hard. It isn’t as good as people say, but once again I was pleasantly surprised.. ***1/4 30 Man Royal Rumble Match What a dull way to end the card. This was seriously boring as fuck; usually the incorporate a few side stories to maintain interest. Here, the solitary side story was the beginning of a Booker-T/Kane feud. That'll put a lot of butts in seats...Undertaker and Michaels did their best to dramatise it up towards the end, and it worked to a degree, but the commentary made you cringe. Apparently, Taker and Michaels are now two guys in their 'prime', and are also 'probably the two biggest stars in the history of WWE'. If you say so lads. Very average rumble, wouldn't want to sit through it again. *3/4 Overall this was a good show. Three matches above *** would usually qualify something as a must see, but since the Rumble took up the bulk of the time and was so dire, this wasn't quite the case here. Still, I'd recommend it.

WWE Armageddon 2006 Inferno Match: Kane v Monty Vivacious Porter Inferno matches are meant to be huge events, but since this one contains a man whose been in the company about two months, and a man nobody has cared for in about seven years, I wasn't exactly stoked. Throw in the fact that MVP is wearing perhaps the worst ring gear I've ever seen, and it looks like this could be wrestle-crap. Luckily for them, they don't have to do much, as it's the fire the fans have come to see. The match itself isn't up to much cop, but it's more of a spectacle than anything, and at being a spectacle, it's pretty successful. We got to see a man get burned by '500 degree' flames; you can't say fairer than that. ** WWE Tag Team Championship: Ladder Match: Paul London/Brian Kendrick© v Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy v William Regal/Dave Taylor v Joey Mercury/Jonny Nitro I was told this was the best ladder match in history; it wasn't, but it was a ton of fun. The action is thick and fast, as you might expect, and I give them credit, they actually came up with some new stuff, instead of trailing through all the old ladder match spots. I kind of question the logic of going all out on a match nobody has actually paid to see, but who am I to complain. I'm sure Mercury is more than a little pissed though; it isn't even as if the move causing his injuries was that spectacular. Regal and Taylor are the best and worst wrestlers in the match at the same time. On offence it's fantastic, especially when facing London or Kendrick, who just get tossed around like they're cabers at the highland games. One particularly painful looking moment is when London gets a sleeper suplex...on top of a ladder. They also bring a nice storyline to the table, to break up the chaotic action. Unfortunately, Regal and Taylor are terrible at eating offence, and proceed to take awful ladder shots and the like. And who had the bright idea that William Regal should be taking a Sliced Bread off a ladder? Yes, it sucked. This match didn't though, and was thoroughly entertaining, if failing to live up to expectations. ***1/4 I feel my rating was rather harsh there, but in comparison to some matches that got ***1/2, it isn't as good. I'm beginning to hate the star rating system... Mike Mizanin v The Boogeyman JBL seems to hate Miz, and once he starts walking to the ring, I can see why. I hate him already; not because he's a good heel, but because I legitimately don't want to see him wrestle, and his character sucks ass. He still manages not to be the worst wrestler in the match, as his opponent is Boogeyman , whose gimmick is not only revolting to watch, but who is useless in the ring and isn’t even over. The crowd didn’t care, and neither did I. And they charge $50 for this crap. 1/4* WWE United States Championship: Chris Benoit© v Chavo Guerrero Vicki Guerrero does an interview before the match, and after waking up next to that every day, I’m only surprised Eddie lasted that long. Still, at least she’s showing proper respect for his memory. Oh wait... The storyline is horrible, the match is solid. Chavo has always been painfully average, but he’s at least serviceable, and Benoit, while having lost a step, is still rather awesome. They work it around some decent body part work - Chavo hardly picks it apart, but at least he doesn’t resort to dull holds, and then they work towards a typically bad finish. It was alright, but it wasn’t going to set the world alight, and the crowd couldn’t of cared less, until the dreaded multiple-multiple Germans were dusted off and brought out for the mandatory pop. **1/4 WWE Cruiserweight Championship Gregory Helms© v Jimmy ‘Wang’ Yang Nice to see the WWE gimmick writers earning their large salaries - you’re really getting your moneys worth here, Vince, Jimmy ‘Wang’ Yang is an ingenious creation. Yeah, who am I kidding. Yang had a dismal run in ROH, but gimmick aside, he isn’t too bad here, and Helms is perfectly fine as well. The crowd are still bored though, I’ve never seen such an apathetic reaction to a top rope neck-breaker. I agree with JBL, don’t hate, appreciate. They work a nice little match, though firmly in the WWE cruiserweight style, but once again do little to excite me. **1/4 Last Ride Match: The Undertaker v Ken Kennedy After preventing myself from dropping off during Undertaker’s entrance, I saw your usual Taker brawl. WWE forgets history once again, by claiming Undertaker won the first Last Ride match, but still, if it makes a hardcore match seem life threatening, then why not. It’s hard to take this seriously as a violent brawl at times, with stuff like Taker sitting up after about 10 chair shots, and getting thrown onto what is clearly a protective mat. On the plus side, the strikes look rather snug, and they seem to have decent chemistry together. But it’s hard to love a match with a crowd so completely heatless, and at the end of the day, this fails to set itself apart from the general Taker match, when Kennedy could have took it to the next level. **1/4 Naughty Or Nice Lingerie Match: Krystal v Ashley v Jillian v ??? I rather enjoyed this, despite the fact that these ladies’ combined ring skills are nearly as bad a Nathan Jones’. Difference is, I never got a hard-on in a Nathan Jones match. Even better, they don’t even wrestle here. It soon goes downhill though, as the girls are forced to smile while some fat oaf I’ve never heard of prances round the ring. N/A John Cena/Batista v Fit Finlay/Booker-T While not exactly main event quality, this isn’t particularly a bad match. It’s pretty indicative of the card actually; solid, but unspectacular. There is an interesting dynamic, but the main problem is, Booker, as we have seen in the past, really doesn’t work that well with either Cena or Batista. Knowing this, it was probably best to keep this one short, and Finlay brings some goodness to the contest. Cena (Surprisingly?) is actually the best worker here, excelling in all aspects of his performance, and generally outperforming Batista, who was meant to come across as the star. Pretty inoffensive stuff for the most part. ** This was a just above average card. Every match after the ladder match was hurt by the complete lack of heat, but the ladder match itself will be a reason for some people to buy the show. While the event didn’t exactly set the pulses racing, it didn’t bore me to tears either, and I kind of enjoyed a lot of it, when I got past the crap gimmicks and the fact is was WWE. Changed my review style a bit, my old ones are kind of boring...

Decent review, but I don't think play-by-plays are that good. This is the results of the match, not your thoughts on it.

I really liked the No Mercy match, I think No Mercy must be the PPV we disagree on Benoit. It was something differet at the time, had an interesting dynamic with HHH as the face, and they used stuff like the Dragon Suplex and Death Valley Driver that weren't common place. It has its flaws, but I liked it. Then again, it was surrounded by crap. And the WCW guys certainly did improve the match quality in WWF when they came in. I still haven't seen that HHH/Rikishi match, I might seek it out, although there's an awesome IC Title Benoit/Rikishi match on heat that goes about 5 minutes.

Yeah, but you have to remember, most WWF matches back then had hundreds of run ins and the rest. A technical match was one where they stayed in the ring and used wrestling moves, rather than trash can lids, not one where they busted out state of the art matwork. What I'm saying is, they got him over as a great wrestler. Look at Benoit/HHH, Benoit was clearly portrayed as the best wrestler of the two, and HHH needed help from Steph to get the wib.

I tried to watch it on YT but the quality is awful. Think I'll just get my guy to copy it for me, I want to see Umanga/Cena as well.

Yeah, true, but I think he blew snot before the headbutt in the NM tag? Though my memory could be suspect. I actually love WWE heel Benoit. Would be better if he could dip into his huge offensive range, but he's had some great, great matches as a heel, with guys like Rock, HHH and Jericho. Maybe not a killer, but they did do a good job of getting him over as the 'best technical wrestler in the world'. Pathetic seems a bit strong; he was one of the most over guys on the roster! I think his in ring stuff was a little bland but his character as a whole was very entertaining. A good point, but don't forget Benoit isn't a tag team specialist, and Angle certainly isn't, so you can't expect them to have a brilliant grasp of tag dynamics. I agree totally. Rock v Rikishi doesn't contain a whole lot, but it's a fantastic match. On the other hand, the big DG 6-Man had loads of 'cool shit', but I was left underwhelmed. As for the No Mercy tag, I thought they got the basics at first and then went onto all the cool stuff. The earlier tag got the basics but didn't have much cool stuff. I thought the selling and pacing was a major plus in the NM tag. I don't see that NM tag as a dream match at all though. I see it as 4 good workers in their primes, all with a grudge coming in, putting on a great match and making the belts look important. I haven't actually seen the afromentioned Steiners v Luger/Sting tag. I agree, and if you've seen my reviews you'd see that I don't automatically rate memorable matches higher. I just felt this was memorable because it really was great, and the Raw tag was unmemorable because it really was merely 'decent'. Agrees. But they don't beat NM, not by a long way. The thing was though, if they were 'memorable', they would have been pimped by Meltzer, and not necessarily filled with 'cool shit', but definately filled with something that sets them apart from the everyday tag match.

Probably true as well. We'll have to agree to disagree