Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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Just the finish. Kane and X-Pac win the tag titles. Road Dogg comes out to celebrate with them. X-Pac wants Kane to speak without the voice box for the first time ever, and he gets him to say "Suck It". Only in the WWF could that be treated as a touching moment. Undertaker and Big Show attack them immediately after this. -
The mysterious cinderblock falls on Austin's head, which was never explained. Michael Cole is awfully cheerful considering the situation. HHH showed up and played dumb as Austin was being carted off, but some people thought the idea here was to set up a feud between Austin and Jericho down the line.
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Clips of Henry and D-Lo jogging. The WWF wanted Henry to lose weight, so they made his storyline that he needed to lose weight. Thrilling. Jeff Jarrett attacks D-Lo (how does he know where they are?) and leaves him laying.
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Lawler introduces Jesse Ventura as his guest. I like Jesse reminding everyone that he refereed at the first Summerslam. Jesse takes a lot of ROUGH digs at Hogan. I'm sure Vince and Russo were freaking out about Jesse's use of the word "wrestler" so frequently. Jesse talks during HHH's entrance music, not understanding the new WWE etiquette at all. HHH comes out and getting in Jesse's face, threatening to kick his ass tonight. Shawn Michaels quickly interrupts him, and reminds HHH that he's the one who brought him into this world. They tease that Shawn and HHH are about to fight, but Jesse separates them. Why does the WWF Commissioner not come to every show?
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Looks like the countdown will hit zero tonight!
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Hulk Hogan dons the red and yellow once again. Tony Schiavone does an admirable job selling this as a classic moment, but it rings hollow, and Nitro suddenly feels like it did in 1995 again. It does get the big one-time pop though, and the match is incredibly heated. I don't think Hogan had enough of a redemption storyline to make this stick the way it should have, as they could have built this into something really huge under the right circumstances. This booking amuses me because Hogan went back to the gimmick that necessitated his heel turn in the first place while Nash has become a pretty generic heel - it's like the NWO never happened. Hindsight is 20/20 on this, but you kinda wish they didn't waste Goldberg and Sid squaring off for the first time in this match. This match is laid out pretty well, but it's also wrestled at a snail's pace, which makes everyone involved look really old. And that was the biggest problem they had competing with the WWF.
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Last few minutes. Chris Benoit wins the U.S. title and is immediately attacked by DDP. DDP should really be in Rick Steiner's spot at the top right now, but putting over Benoit at the next PPV isn't a bad use of him either. WCW continuing the very basic booking that makes sense but isn't all that memorable.
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Hogan is coming out for an interview when he gets laid out by Sid, Nash and Rick Steiner behind the curtain. More annoying and unexplained camera presence. The heels drag Hogan to the ring. Hogan is already clean-shaven, which should have been a giveaway to what was coming later. Nash is about to lay Hogan out with a powerbomb when Sting and Goldberg make the save, setting up a six-man tag main event for the night. Hogan agrees to put his career on the line if he can't beat Nash at Road Wild. Sting wants Nash to follow Hogan's lead and also put his own career on the line, which Nash agrees to do. I'm going to say this one more time: WCW was taking a back-to-basics approach to stop the bleeding, which was a great idea, but they were also running the same tired faces on top that they always had, so they still didn't get it.
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This is an interesting point, but in a way there was an entire industry built around him. It wasn't professional wrestling at large, it was smark ideology of what good professional wrestling is. That's not the best descriptor, but Benoit was a posterboy for that in the sense that he was a great worker, wrestled all over the world and was at times kept from being the number one guy by evil bookers, lumbering big men and casual fans too stupid to appreciate a great, no-frills wrestler.
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Jim Ross was actually really good on that show. Grouchy, but everything he said was pretty spot on.
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Since Survivor Series is free, it seems like a great opportunity to take a big booking risk and make someone like Sheamus, Ziggler or Ryback the focal point of the show. What's to lose? Maybe even headline with an IC title match.
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New Japan TV in 1990 had a Choshu/Saito vs Hase/Sasaki match from Baghdad just before the Gulf War. Only three minutes of it aired, but it was a unique atmosphere.
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Abandoning the six-month commitment is the biggest surprise of all to me, because I don't see it making a significant difference in subs. So they've basically cut the price of their shows by 80% and created a lot of confusion in the marketplace in the process. It's lose-lose. Hey, if they want to give me something that is clearly worth more than they are charging, that's fantastic for me as a consumer, but if they didn't have television rights fees, WWE would be in serious danger right now.
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I'll check with our server host and see if there's simply a built-in feature we can just turn on.
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Are big matches now just Royal Rumble/Wrestlemania/Summerslam main events, or maybe those plus special feuds outside of that where there's something unusually hot?
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I think Shawn married work and character in a way by 1997 - just as he was breaking down - that he had become an incredible heel and a great worker. Consistent is a hard word to use about a guy who was so gone he couldn't even work TV or house shows very often, but when he needed to rise to the occasion, he generally did. It's a shame we didn't get 2-3 years out of it. The potential was certainly there. So that's my answer. I don't think he had found himself yet as a heel from 1992-1995 though.
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Tajiri's face is still bandaged from Heat Wave. Guido is the aggressor here in the early going and looks great doing it, since his usual role is as an enhancement guy. Tajiri makes a comeback. This is a unique match with more of a wrestling theme than usual ECW action, where Guido's ankle gets injured and he can't support any weight on it. Tajiri won't let up in spite of it, and this is all about showing his aggressive side. Guido ends up tapping to a Texas cloverleaf. This was pretty great. The post-match angle is fun too, with Tony Devito turning on the FBI to side with Corino and Jack Victory. Corino does the mother of all promos, decrying hardcore wrestling and calling Tommy Dreamer a mark and goading him into the ring. Dreamer is injured and can't come in the ring so Corino is having lots of fun. Dreamer finally takes him up on the offer and unloads on all of Corino's group. Dreamer puts the injured Victory in a figure four and won't let go, and Francine does the same to Corino. Tajiri breaks up the party by SPRAYING THE MIST for the first time, getting Francine right in the face. Then, he goes after Dreamer and now Taz is out. Corino's group bails, but Dreamer holds Tony Devito and he can't leave the ring. Taz ends up throwing him through a table. Corino spoofs on Taz's catchphrase. I even liked the post-match angle quite a bit.
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Last few minutes. This match is in a bar just like every KAW, but this time you do hear music in the background. Brickhouse wins the match and Danny has to go buh-bye. He also beats him up post-match. This feud has awfully been one-sided. Danny B gets on the mic after the match and says he's not going to leave like that. Danny refuses to honor the stip since Brickhouse cheated to win. Brickhouse does more race baiting post-match and says if he doesn't leave, that's fine because he'll just take Danny's girlfriend home for a week and show her what a real man is like. She enters the ring and Brickhouse tells her he'll turn her ass "up, out and every which way is true" and she says she'll agree to that if he doesn't have to leave town. Danny seems fine with that but wants Brickhouse to sign the contract that he doesn't have to leave KAW first. So Brickhouse obliges him and Danny B swerves him by leaving without signing. He's still in the company and his girlfriend is not on the line. Pretty bad stuff.
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Kevin Christian coming out saying he's not going to get as upset as Cornette and Hales made me laugh because of the delivery. He has words for Doug Gilbert and says he has someone to face Doug tonight who's even wilder and crazier than him. Kevin won't say the guy right away. This brings Doug out. Their personalities are so different and Kevin Christian is so weasel-y that I'm a huge fan of him right away. Doug puts his hands on Kevin before TRACY SMOTHERS attacks Doug from behind. Wolfie D tries a save and Kid Wikkid attacks him from behind. The announcers put over how crazy Tracy is. The talent jumping back and forth is really interesting.
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First, Cornette is pissed off and has words for Brandon Baxter. He can't believe no one has been able to collect the $5,000 bounty he put on Baxter's head. But since no one has been able to do it, he's going to do it himself. Second, he suggested joining forces with Randy Hales and offered Cornette 50% of Power Pro if he'd come help him run the company. Dave Brown is skeptical that this is true. Corny follows this with a long list of insults directed toward Hales and is tired of Hales ignoring him. We learn that Cornette is the guy Hales was talking to on the air before where he said "no deal". So Cornette wants to confront Hales on the air, Hales finally comes out and they end up in a shoving match. Hales cites Cornette not being successful as a WCW booker, conning someone into funding Smoky Mountain and then bombing and not staying professional when interacting with WWF execs. So Hales doesn't want his help - he'd rather sink or swim on his own. Cornette says his anger was because people wouldn't listen to him in the past even though he's a genius, just like Hales isn't listening to him. Cornette is red-faced and screaming before finally calming down and saying if he doesn't get his promised 50%, he'll take 100% of the company and sign up every single piece of talent in the company that means anything. Hales says before Cornette gets any part of this company, Hales will be a dead man. Great stuff, and I love the self parody Cornette is doing as part of this.
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Undertaker is aligned with Big Show by this point, who accompanies him to the ring. HHH comes out during Austin's intro and says this match is not happening - he's the number one contender and *he* is the one who gets Austin, not Undertaker. While HHH is running his mouth, Austin comes in the ring and they end up brawling. We end up with an Austin-Undertaker brawl and a HHH-Big Show brawl. The Acolytes and Kane come in to attack Undertaker and Big Show. Road Dogg, Bob Holly, Billy Gunn and The Rock also come in and everyone is fighting everyone. I like how there is a logical reason for every single run-in. Austin and HHH clear the ring at the same time as the show goes off the air.
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More hype for something or other.
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Joey Abs helps Rodney neutralize Test before the match. Test makes a big comeback and destroys poor Rodney as part of his pledge to go through everyone in the Mean Street Posse to get his hands on Shane McMahon. Test works on Rodney's arm, but some of that is lost with the announcers hyping the main event instead of calling the match. They eventually catch on, and Test's goal here seems to be to take him out to clear the way for Shane. It looks like Joey Abs is next. Good booking. Test was still green and it was a slow-building thing, but this storyline did get over.
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Clips of Rock throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game. There are fans crying when they get to meet him, which is pretty amazing to see.