Loss

WCW had a lot of really high quality wrestling in 1992. But they were still making some pretty big blunders. They didn't exactly make their TV easy to follow, as each show existed in its own universe, and there were too many of them anyway. The syndication wasn't really synched with the TBS show, and they didn't run nearly enough angles. They didn't invest in better television production - so often, the lighting and sound made WCW look bush league and even a little depressing. They ran three pay-per-views and a Clash in less than two months, which was crazy oversaturation at that point. We got a lot of good - and some great - wrestling, but it wasn't a particularly well-booked promotion. They also had no marketing vision. The WCW Magazine article discussing Barry Windham's heel turn late in the year hit the stands *before* the actual turn happened. They even ran a commercial for it earlier in the Clash show too. As well remembered as the Dangerous Alliance is by hardcores now, it wasn't really much from a booking point of view. The matches were largely disposable in the big picture, and never mentioned again. After the initial formation, the Dangerous Alliance never really did an interview as a full group. Even after a show like War Games, they were right back into running a long, canned six-man on the weekend show with no one selling any damage from a MOTD contender with everyone bleeding that was brilliantly booked just a few days earlier, and it's not like they were hyping how incredible War Games was after the fact in an attempt to sell videotapes. Hell, they were releasing two hour videos of three hour shows because Turner brass was convinced that three hour videos would hurt them in the rental market. Ron Simmons was not a good choice to be anchoring the company. Steve Williams and Terry Gordy were not a good choice to be anchoring the tag team division. They changed direction on top quite a few times - Luger was the top heel early on, then Rude, then Vader, then some combo of Barbarian and Cactus Jack. Sting was the top babyface for the first half of the year, and Simmons for the second half of the year. There were too many turns back and forth, especially near the end of the year. Watts seemed on a kick that I understood and enjoyed - he was taking a few steps back to take a few steps forward. He was trying to re-educate the audience on the in-ring, feeling that he could get people to believe in the matches themselves again, which would make it easier to sell just about everything. But it really was a terrible miscalculation. In short, they were only drawing a hardcore audience because they were only catering to a hardcore audience. It doesn't mean they were doing everything wrong, as I think they should have run with some of the good ideas they did luck into a few times. It definitely doesn't mean that the in-ring was a detriment. But they sure weren't doing enough right.

The bad message being sent is that if you are the biggest draw in the company, you aren't going to be drug tested like everyone else. It's nothing new, but Dave's apathy on these types of issues *is* new, because he's a personal friend of the Rock.

The difference is that Dave likes The Rock and didn't like Luger.

2013 YES. I highly doubt that this time around, we'll get Dave editorializing about the message that pushing a guy on top with Rock's physique sends to the locker room, although it's no less true now than it was then.

I have noticed in many six-mans that Fuchi liked to single out Kobashi and create an intra-match rivalry.

This is interesting, because for whatever reason, I'm dreading watching this match and it's making me stall on proceeding with the yearbook. It's not that I have an aversion to Jumbo/Misawa matches. It's that I'm not sure I am in the mood for a 30 minute match at the moment. Your review gave me a little hope.

No, but if anyone is skilled at this sort of thing a Muta mist infographic would be OUTSTANDING.

I've been listening, and this is an excellent show. I like the way with flowed with no play by play. So glad you mentioned Cornette's commentary in Luger vs Rich, which is tremendous.

The summer coming up is ... just ... wow bad. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it in wrestling. Please stick with it. Kevin Nash vs Randy Savage may be the single worst main event program of all time. Sting/DDP was a match I liked, and yes, the Hall cameo was very funny. But Nash took a company that was behind the WWF, but was very much still in the game and capable of turning things around and completely threw it off the rails. Amazingly, I still think WCW was salvageable when Russo started too. It was a company people wanted to give a chance and that people wanted to do well. That's the frustrating part.

As far as I know, no one did anything to your avatar. It still looks like Sean Mooney to me.

For Dirty White Boy, I would pick the match from '94 where he dropped the SMW title to Jake with his bad eye.

Another great match between these two. The hate isn't quite as over the top as it was in January, but it's not far behind. 15+ minutes is really the perfect length match for where the feud was at this point in time. Lousy finish, but everything up until then was so great that I'm not really bothered by it. Kawada is always Kawada, but Taue really put on a strong performance in this one.

I really liked this match as a midcard workrate match, but it felt like a popcorn match after Flair/Pillman. Both guys worked really hard and had lots of really nice looking offense, but it didn't seem like anything was really at stake.

Wow. This was a fantastic match. The February '90 match is the more known one for many reasons -- a high television rating, a better time period for Flair coming off of a heel turn, the last weekend of Ric as booker -- but I think this is the way better match. Flair looks better than he has at any point in 1991, and Good Lord are they ever working stiff here. Some of those shots are incredibly violent, especially when Pillman chops Flair so hard that he actually lacerates his chest. It's not just the chops that are stiff -- they seem to have turned everything up a notch and are really laying in all of their shots. Everything just *looks* really, really good. Pillman puts on the type of performance that could have been potentially star-making if it wasn't happening in an inept promotion, against a champion the company was actively trying to bury, in a time period where matches on television shows weren't so throwaway in nature. I think they were trying to protect Pillman with the DQ win, but I really think he would have gotten more out of losing -- with maybe one really key surprise kickout before losing. Flair/Pillman was a feud that had great potential to be a series over a few years where Flair wins each time, but Pillman puts forth a stronger showing every time. Until the shit finish, the body of the match was like that. Pillman showed a lot more aggression than he had, and they were playing into him getting revenge against the Horsemen for Wrestle War. I'm not sure what happened with Pillman at this point, but I think even more than the 1989 push that just sort of ended, this was their big chance to make him a player. And as we'll see, that's not quite the route they took. I think because of Pillman's size, they didn't realize what they had. He probably wasn't going to carry the promotion, but there's no reason he couldn't have been at the level of a 1985-1986 Ron Garvin, or a 1987 Barry Windham -- a worthy, capable challenger to the world title.

It's definitely a big part of Lawler's candidacy. Dave always mentions Clash I and the early 80s ratings for Georgia Championship Wrestling when recapping Flair's career too.

Where did this poll question come from, meaning what's the issue? And how does everyone here feel about this?

When did Bubba Ray get so jacked?

This reminds me of how much I HATED Survivor Series pre-match promos where everyone kept unnaturally moving/laughing/whatever the entire time the principal was talking. When more than one person was in the shot, this was common on SNME too. I can almost hear Vince in the background screaming at the guys not talking to "Show some life, damnit!" But it always looked so acted. I guess the balance is somewhere between that and the NWO members having little side conversations standing in the ring while Hogan was cutting his promo.

Arn talks about how he's grateful for his time in the Horsemen, but he has missed out on as many opportunities as he has gained by being in the group. How do I not remember this? The Windham interview with Dusty felt like they may be setting up a feud. Here, it's more like they are just burying the group.

Owen in WCW! They have a cut-in promo with Pillman putting over Owen. Owen is teaming with Ricky Morton, and he's in with really good lower rung guys, but instead of showing what he can do, he works an armbar and his high-flying stuff is no more special than anything Pillman does. He doesn't look as good here as you would think he might.

Wow, a promo that provides a date, arena, town and everything!

Tojo distracts the ref so Embry can use a quick piledriver to secure the win in seconds. He heads to the booth and has a good laugh at the blood stains of Eddie Gilbert on the floor. A fan and supposed friend of Gilbert confronts Embry, but acts like a total doofus and gets beat up. Tom Pritchard runs in for fun, and Embry gives the guy a piledriver from the second rope. Whoa! Why is that move not used more? Gilbert and Dundee run the heels off, Gilbert with his head bandaged. Gilbert does a fired up promo vowing revenge. Unsurprising but still disappointing that WCW had this guy so long and didn't really capitalize on his talent.

Gilbert finally turns babyface for good in this run. He still wants title shots against Jarrett and Lawler, but there's a level of respect there that wasn't there before. And the people had his back when they had no reason to trust him, so now he'll have theirs. They show clips of angles involving Gilbert and Embry over the last few months. Embry interrupts and Gilbert throws some awesome punches at him before Austin and Pritchard attack Gilbert. They hit him with the belt to bust him open and hit him with Tojo's briefcase. Eddie Marlin comes out to stop this by saying all three would be suspended if they hit him one more time. Good stuff, and I'm looking forward to a Gilbert/Embry feud.

Comparing the action level of this to the Sportatorium cage match tells me that we need to have the Mid South Coliseum footage available in full to really see these guys go all out. They bleed here, and the heat is much stronger too. I'm guessing that the issue was that they needed to keep Sportatorium wrestling very ESPN-friendly, so when a feud called for violence, they were a little limited. I didn't like the full length cage match, but this one is awesome!

Tom Pritchard cuts a nice promo explaining his philosophy on mentoring talent while pointing to Steve Austin as one of the most promising young prospects out there. This leads to footage of a Jarrett/Pritchard cage match from MSC. As great as it is to have the Sportatorium match coming up, I don't expect the blood and heat to be the same there. Great action before the Texas Hangmen and Steve Austin enter the cage and do a number on Jarrett.