Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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The seeds of change are slowly (very slowly) being planted. Shawn is no longer the champ. The Undertaker/Mankind feud is wrapped up. Austin and Bret have had their match but their feud is clearly not over. Rocky is in. Austin and Mankind are given plenty of time to have a strong TV match. It's the type of thing that is only noticeable in retrospect, but it's definitely noticeable. Really good, hard-hitting match. -
This is honestly a little sad. For any faults you want to throw at him, Shawn did work really hard in 1996, and this match has a crowd that hates him to a point where it's throwing him off for most of the match. This is a guy who seemed destined for big things earlier in the year whose stock had fallen pretty far by this point. I'm not sure what caused that except for maybe him being overpushed as champion, to a point where it was a turn-off. But Sid gets an epic crowd reaction here. I get the irony of liking Sid, but this match is pretty bad because Sid can't do anything at all.
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This is wrestling. A lot has been said about this match, and I'm not sure what else to say, except that it's a fabulous match that from a psychology point of view is probably as good as almost anything from the year. Austin's back to basics approach when everyone else was upping the flash really made him stand out oddly enough. Still as great as it ever was.
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Um, I don't know what to say about these poll results. It wasn't like Steve Austin wasn't fired based on a stip and never missed a show - was that the worst event of 1998? It was just as stupid in '98, with the difference being that WCW was around doing stuff that was even worse, so it stood out less. Plus, the promotion was hot, and stuff like that is easier to get away with in that case. That said, TNA making Jeff Hardy their champion is way way way worse than anything else listed here.
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Was "RAW rating was a" a Dave brainchild?
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Small price to pay if it's the end of his wrestling career. If it's true, I think it's interesting that both Shawn and HHH would both stop wrestling without putting over someone on the way up. Then again, Steve Austin did the same thing by losing to Rock instead of someone on the way up, so I guess there's no difference between the two.
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Did I read correctly that Undertaker vs HHH, streak vs career, is currently planned for Mania, with Shawn Michaels as guest referee? That's a pretty big deal to be mentioned in passing by Dave on Observer radio, although it may be a new development. Does this mean HHH wants to stop wrestling? I didn't figure he'd go much longer since he's being transitioned into a different role, but that's still a little surprising in some ways. Also, what's the latest on Sting? And I guess Rock is rumored to be the guest host? This can be the catch-all thread for WM rumors, discussion of the build and talk of the show itself.
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Which is exactly like Kevin Nash and Sting being on to Immortal's plans all along.
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Joe Barton did a great heel promo demanding that Congress apologize for going after them so hard.
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What can I say, I loved this, it was nuts! Might as well have been tornado rules, so not really much of a tag match, but there is plenty of great brawling and stunts, and most of it is hit cleanly and well-timed. Saturn looked like a future star at this point. They go to a 20-minute draw, and Todd Gordon authorizes five more minutes. They go to another draw at the 25-minute mark, and once again, Todd Gordon allows 5 more minutes. Finally, at the 30-minute mark, Todd Gordon makes a 3-way dance with these two teams and the Gangstas later in the show, which has waaaay less appeal to me. WCW would do this gimmick semi-frequently (Sting/Vader at Fall Brawl '94, Pillman/Badd at Fall Brawl '95 and Benoit/Malenko at Hog Wild '96) and more often than not, it got over and the match was really good. This isn't as good as any of those matches, but in the ECW environment, it's just as good relative to standard fare in the promotion, if that makes sense, and they did a great job building anticipation for more matches between these two teams. I have nothing bad to say about this, great match or not.
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Now this is a great wrestling match. It does drag a little at times, and truth be told, it's probably a little longer than it needs to be. But it hits so many positives from a wrestling and booking standpoint that it's hard to fault it too much. Misawa repeatedly saves Akiyama -- over and over and over again, as Williams and Ace are obliterating him. So Doc & Ace figure out that the best game plan is for Doc to voluntarily take out Misawa on the outside so Akiyama has no one to rescue him when they have him beat. It works to a degree, but Misawa finally mounts a comeback of his own, then comes in and tries to bring victory home for his team. But it's too late in the match to make a difference, as Doc and Ace still have too much in the tank. This is a war that goes to a 30-minute draw. Misawa has the upper hand on Ace when the bell sounds, but I think the booking point was that Doc & Ace were "supposed" to win, as they looked like the better team. If you've only seen the regular TV version of this match, it was clipped to shreds. Here you see the full match from Samurai TV. Of the three matches between these on this set (6/7 & 9/5), they do run neck and neck. Overall, 6/7 is probably the best match, and this one is really close in quality to the title change in September. It's little more basic in style, which I actually appreciate, as the Misawa/Williams matwork in the beginning is really enjoyable, and the pacing is a little bit slower than your usual big All Japan tag. But it works in getting over the big picture really well.
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In every business, business decisions are made for business reasons that make business sense. For some reason, that is slowly morphing into "Every single business is pro wrestling".
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Yes. But the question is, does Dave?
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That was exactly what I thought. But Kevin Sullivan's biggest weakness as a booker was always that he had trouble just spelling things out clearly. He sometimes liked to be vague and mysterious for no reason except to be vague and mysterious. He did it with the Hogan/Savage build, the Hogan/Piper build, not spelling out that Woman was his wife in the Benoit feud and probably a few other times that are escaping me too.
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