sek69

LOD-Arn/Tully and Hogan-Sting are what leaps to my mind immediately, since they pretty much killed years of booking. I also vote for Angle-Austin from Unforgiven 2001. Not that Kurt didn't deserve to win, but the whole thing seemed forced having the All-American win the belt a few weeks after 9/11. It was actually kinda sad to see Kurt celebrating in the ring with his family in front of an apathetic crowd. (it was funny to see Taker join the celebration late then leave early, still pissed over the Taker/Kane - Kronik match)

Could they pick a worst name for the LOD DVD? Oh well, not like Vince is known for his tact. As long as it has AWA, NWA, and Georgia footage this should rock all sorts of ass. The Greatest of the 80s set sounds odd, the title sounds like an old Coliseum best of tape but a 3 DVD set is bound to have some gems on it. I'm not really bummed out over no HOF DVD, considering who was inducted. I mean most of the good matches amongst the people involved were on the Hulk Rules DVD anyway.

HHH did the right thing after all. I wonder if by WM 22 he'll be the champ again while Dave is in the second match from the bottom.

Cena beat JBL, which means either they are switching both belts or HHH decided Batista isn't worthy after all.

Well Meltz is raving about the Ladder match and HBK/Angle, so it's definately going to go on my DVD buying list. Speaking of, since HBK accidentally busted Angle's mouth during their match, I wonder if Kurt's wife is going to go around calling Shawn a sloppy worker now.

I figured Taker was going to win the moment Orton announced on RAW he was going to challenge him and pretty much got booed out of the building. They've done a pretty good job getting the fans to boo people from the opposite brand regardless of their heel/face status so that sealed the deal for Randy. As far as HHH goes, a long match can expose him too but if they go 25 minutes and the match sucks he can just go to Vince and do the old "he can't work WWE style" and get his precious back. WWE used to know how to book monster faces, you never saw the Warrior going 25 minutes during his time on top. Now everyone has to have a half hour chinlock match with Hunter to prove their worthiness.

Judging by how they seem to be blowing through the undercard, I guess HHH got his wish for a 25 minute match. That should do nicely to completely expose Batista.

From WO.com: Sources in the cable industry confirmed a few days ago that WWE has finalized its deal with the USA Network for Raw and the rest of WWE's cable package. WWE sources say the deal may be announced tomorrow. Thank God, they never should have left in the first damn place.

HHH/Batista: I think Batista's getting the win, but they've squashed the heat on this feud enough to give HHH the justification for winning it back in a month or two. HBK/Angle: This match kind of exemplifies the WWE right now. These two can bring the house down if they both have their working boots on, but so what? No one's being elevated here, no new stars are going to be made here. Just two guys who both are wrestling on borrowed time. I'm going to go with HBK just because he's got the worst of the beatdowns during the buildup and that usually signals who's getting the win. Cena/JBL: Cena really should get a win here since he's the most over guy on SmackDown by far. My spider sense is tingling however, between Vince being a mark for JBL and HHH probably dropping the RAW belt (and him convincing Vince that two title changes on one card would dilute the value of him jobbing) I think Cena might get screwed here. Christy/Trish: Christy's gonna win here since they're going to try to get something for their $250,000. Christy seems to try pretty hard and Trish can make this look better than a complete clusterfuck. TBS/Akebono: This will end up being a Russoific schmozz I'm sure. Seems like they're trying too hard to have a "Wrestlemania Moment" to air for the buildup for next year's WM. Eddie/Rey: Didn't I hear they want to move Rey up to face more heavyweights? If so, I think Rey's winning here to get some main event cred. Orton/Taker: I think they had Taker convinced to job until Orton fizzled as a face. They pulled the last minute heel turn, but I don't think Orton is the future WWE wishes he was unless there's a single McMahon female he can marry. Money in the Bank 6-man: I'd like to see Shelton win so that the IC champ can actually be the #1 contender like it used to be.

I always thought Hogan not putting over Sting after one of the best buildups in wrestling history was the moment where WCW went down the toilet. Everyone points to the Fingerpoke of Doom, but that was just two guys using the Ego Dildo on each other where the Hogan/Sting thing pretty much killed Sting's character by having him job after being built up as an Undertaker-style unstoppable force. Nash makes a good punching bag because he used to take snarky shots at smark favorites (vanilla midgets) and was friends with people who booked themselves to the top. I certainly don't think he's innocent but as soon as Hogan jumped to WCW you could see the entire promotion bend to catering to his every whim no matter if it hurt the company.

Harry Smith and Nattie Neidhart are both doing a tour of Japan now I think. She is, at least, and I think she said Harry was going too. It'd be awesome if WWE gave the slightest shit about their women, since a Trish-Nattie feud would be a show stealer.

If Taker refused, he probably didn't need to. No one from WCW was getting put over anyone in 2001.

Not to mention the whole reason they had him become everyone's bitch is because he embarrassed Kurt Angle, who's become quite the cocky bastard lately.

I always thought of Goldberg as a Nikita Koloff clone. A goatee'd bald guy mowing down opponents and using basic moves as a finisher? All that was missing was the promos in a fake Russian accent.

Throwing a few more out there.... 1. I know Piper's had at least one legit motorcycle accident, but weren't they also used as covers for his hip replacement surgeries? I know I heard that was the reason he was retiring at WM 3. 2. Did Sgt Slaughter really get death threats during the Iraqi angle, or was that just Vince trying to retroactively add heat to a gimmick that they thought would sell out the LA Coliseum for WM but didn't?

I'm guessing this is going to be right up HTQ's alley, but I was watching some DVDs and it reminded me of a few things that always bugged me: 1. I was watching Bloodbath and saw Backlund vs Patterson from 1979, then on the Hogan disc there was the match where Hogan made his WWF return in 1983. One thing that really stood out is that in 1983 Backlund looked practically anorexic. Was it just an optical illusion since Backlund had shorter hair and switched to wearing a college wrestling style singlet? It definately looks like he had the steroid bloat in 1979, but I can't imagine a guy so goody-two-shoes he freaked out about turning heel shooting up. 2. Speaking of Backlund, why did he disappear off the face of the earth for 10 years after Hogan came back? I always thought that given Jimmy Snuka's problems Bob could have been a solid #2 face in the WWF. 3. The WWF worked so hard to erase Stan Hansen's time in the company from history, so what was the deal with his completely random appearance in No Holds Barred?

I'd be greatly appriciative if you could do that. I never was into those old Coliseum videos and it turns out they're the only place you can find moments in WWF history like this. I have my DVD list in my sig, if there's anything in there you'd want in return let me know. While I'm on the subject, I was thinking we should have a FTP server set up to allow us to share clips amongst each other. I mentioned to Cam on AIM that I have like 9-10 cds of stuff that would really get the thing going.

I know OVW doesn't update their website too often but I hadn't heard anything about him since the Rumble and I was wondering if maybe they quietly were dumping him because he embarrassed Kurt Angle.

I got the Rumble 2005 DVD from Netflix yesterday, and watching the gangraping he got from Benoit, Eddy, and Bob Holly made me realize I haven't heard from Puder for a while. A quick scan of OVW's website doesn't mention him, so what happened with the guy Vince sank $1,000,000 into?

I have a pretty large collection of wrestling matches, and I started doing a sub-collection of famous shoots/screwjobs like SS97 and Maeda kicking the shit out of people in Japan. One thing I haven't come across yet is the Spider Lady/Wendi Richter shoot, does anyone know of a place I can download it or even a old WWF tape that has it?

It sounds like RVD has become the guy from Office Space who just doesn't care about his job anymore.

Jake “the Snake” Roberts: Hell, what hasn't been said about Jake? One of the best evil heels in wrestling history, to think what he could have done if he didn't fuck himself up makes you want to cry. Which reminds me, his segment of Beyond the Mat makes you want to stick your head in an oven. I have yet to see a sadder sight than watching Jake try to mend fences with his daughter, only to end up on crack that night. Brutus Beefcake: As bad as he was in the mid-80s, he was actually on the way to becoming a fairly decent wrestler before he got his face smashed in. I give the guy credit, what he came back from made Hunter look like a pussy with his quad tear. Sadly it seems like a matter of time before he's the next tragic drug related wrestling death. Brian Pillman: Loved how he was able to morph from pretty boy babyface Flyin' Brian to the infamous Loose Cannon that almost made Bobby Heenan shit his pants on live TV. Probably shouldn't have came back after the accident that destroyed his ankle, but then guys like Brian aren't known for having long lifespans. Kevin Nash: I can't help it, I know people hate him but I have a soft spot for the big lug. When he finally comes to the realization that people with 75 knee operations shouldn't wrestle, he should be hired by someone to be an announcer. “Superstar” Billy Graham: Hulk Hogan and especially Scott Steiner should be paying this man royalties. He's also the prototype of what's known now as a "hoss", with the slight difference that Superstar had the charisma to make up for his lack of wrestling ability. No doubt he'd be a mega star in today's WWE. Terry Gordy: As a old time World Class fan, that made me by default a Freebirds fan. I got that DVD Kevin Von Erich put out of matches mainly from 83-85 and it made me realize that Terry was not only a good brawler he was a pretty decent worker, albeit the big man style.

People have this romaticized view of Foley because he cut great promos and seems to be a real-life nice guy (a rarity in wrestling, it would appear). Just because Flair is an asshole about it doesn't change the fact that he got over by being a great bumper with promo skills. Hell, HBK did the same thing. There's nothing wrong with that, it made the guy a lot of money. What bothers me is that there was a period of time (especially when he was in Japan) where it seemed all he could do was just keep raising the bar with the deathmatches and crazy spots. I don't see how getting barbed wire and thumbtacks stuck in your flesh advances the business. The fact that he's come out against backyard wrestlers when the WWF couldn't stop showing that footage of him jumping off the roof kinda irked me too. Not that I have any admiration for the yardtards, but to act all sanctimonious when most of them got their inspiration from you is the kind of chutzpah seldom seen outside of Congress.

Mick Foley: Even though he was an asshole about it, I always thought Flair was basically right about Foley: he does some of the best promo work ever but he got over because he took violent bumps. Yes Foley was more than a fat guy falling off stuff, but people who act like he would have been a superstar without the crazy bumps are just fooling themselves. Roddy Piper: His importance to the WWF is criminally underrated. Would Hulkamania have blown up without someone capable like Piper as the foil? Yeah, he probably would, but feuding with Piper gave Hogan the avenue to rocket to the top. He also managed to be the only heel working for the WWF in the 80s who never jobbed clean to Hogan, and if you watched the Hulk Still Rules DVD you know that pissed him off. Gotta love that. Randy Savage: Judging by the stories of his paranoia, he might have had a looser grip on reality than even the Warrior had. One of the all time greats who spent pretty much all of his career in Hogan's shadow. Even when the dinosaurs invaded WCW, Savage was the only 40+ guy who could still go. His angles with Steamboat, Flair, and even Hogan really, were miles above the cartoony stuff that was the norm for the WWF at the time. The Midnight Express: To be honest, I thought the Eaton/Condrey team was kinda blah. Eaton/Lane is my favorite tag team of all time. My goal when I was little was to win the NWA US Tag titles because that was the belts the Midnight Express had. Their matches with the Rock n' Rolls defined the art of tag team wrestling as we know it.

How ironic is it that the only one of those that really sucked was the one where Taker was doing Dirty Harry. You'd think that Taker has sufficent badassery to pull it off, but he just looked like a tard in a bad wig.