NintendoLogic

That's the thing, though. Why not have squash matches? Why do David Otunga and Heath Slater need control segments when they're up against Sheamus? And for that matter, why does everybody need to have a match every week? I don't see the point of paying to see Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes on PPV when they've already had three matches on Smackdown beforehand and will have three more afterward.

I don't know that Nash has shown competence at anything other than defrauding money marks. Again, the biggest problem I have with HHH is that his reach so frequently exceeds his grasp. He's a good promo, but not when he's droning on for 20 minutes. He's a good worker, but not in the masturbatory epics he's so fond of. As strange as it may seem, I think the closest analogue is Vince Russo. There's good stuff there, but he needs an editor.

All the other stuff is at least arguable, but come on. HHH may have no grasp of his limitations, but he's a fundamentally competent worker. About the nicest thing you can say about Nash from an in-ring standpoint is that he was carryable.

Bill Alfonso as the ref in the Bret vs. Doink/Lawler Summerslam match. Didn't he also ref the Flair/Windham Battle of the Belts match? That reminds me, is there any particular reason they changed Kane's nickname from The Big Red Machine to The Big Red Monster?

Doug Furnas died. Maybe.

What? Say what you want about 2000s HHH, but 90s HHH was working the same garbagey brawls as everyone else.

So the WWE released its 10-K for 2011, which includes their booking agreement with Paul Levesque. While looking it over, I found the following tidbit: Even the son-in-law's contract has the death clause. That's pretty cold.

The best matwork I've seen in a lucha match is probably El Dandy vs. Javier Llanes from 3/11/94. It struck me as more like something out of World of Sport than a typical lucha match. But even then, WoS style is something I find easier to appreciate than enjoy.

This must be one of those "read between the lines" deals.

I'm in the same boat as Jerry when it comes to lucha matwork. I'm not really a fan of matwork for its own sake, but I can get into old-school NWA-style matwork. Lucha matwork, on the other hand, strikes me as too choreographed. The submissions in particular are so goofy and convoluted as to eradicate my suspension of disbelief. I generally enjoy brawling lucha (or more broadly, apuesta match-style lucha), but title match-style lucha does nothing for me.

My understanding is that he went off the deep end after his daughter was murdered. Anyway, Dave has said that the WWE wants the Legends House to be a "feel good train wreck," which would seem to preclude Sheik's participation. EDIT: It's a moot point, though, since Sheik has been disconfirmed.

The 93,173 figure came about because the WWF wanted to set an indoor attendance record and no indoor stadiums at the time had anything close to that kind of capacity. The current record is 108,713 for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. There's no way the WWE could credibly claim a significantly larger figure than that.

That was a reference to the rain at WM24. The forecasts called for thunderstorms, so it could have been a lot worse.

So is it generally accepted that when Cena complains about Rock in the media, he's just being a Vince mouthpiece and isn't really expressing his own views?

What was this in relation to? Someone broached the idea of having WM at Yankee Stadium.

Jushin Thunder Liger and Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru NJPW August 29, 2002 I couldn't pick Tanaka or Kanemaru out of a police lineup, but I recognize Kikuchi by his Rising Sun tights. Liger, of course, is easily recognizable. The story going in is that Kikuchi and Kanemaru are invaders from NOAH going after the IWGP junior tag belts. Strangely, Liger and Tanaka are the heels in this match. Team NOAH jumps Team NJPW before the bell, and the brawling spills outside. Back in the ring, Kikuchi and Tanaka exchange strikes. Some grappling leads to Kikuchi applying a keylock, and Kanemaru runs interference to prevent Liger from breaking it up. Liger eventually breaks through and starts stomping, but Kikuchi keeps the hold on, and Kanemaru soon comes to occupy Liger's attention. Kikuchi then releases the hold of his own accord and goes to a figure-four headscissors, which Liger breaks by bodyslamming Kanemaru onto Kikuchi repeatedly. That was awesome. Kanemaru tags in, puts Tanaka in the tree of woe, and baseball slides into his head. He then takes him outside to slam him into the apron and choke him against the guardrail. After rolling Tanaka back into the ring, he goes for the pin with his feet on the ropes, but it only gets two. Kikuchi tags in and does two rolling vertical suplexes (Two Amigos?) and a side slam, pausing in the middle of the latter to jaw-jack with Liger. Team NOAH with a double clothesline. Kikuchi knocks Liger off the apron, and Kanemaru hits a frog splash, which gets two. He applies a camel clutch for a while and then tags in Kikuchi, who gets into it with Liger some more. Tanaka comes back to life with a snap suplex and goes for a jujigatame, which Kikuchi reverses for a pin attempt by using the ref as leverage. That was pretty cool. Team NJPW tries to go for a double-team, but Kanemaru comes in and cleans house. Kikuchi then goes for a rollup, but Tanaka reverses into another jujigatame. Kikuchi makes the ropes, but Tanaka takes his sweet time to release the hold. Liger tags in, and he's plenty eager to get his hands on Kikuchi. He starts by taking him outside, pulling back the protective mat, and powerbombing him on the exposed concrete. Tanaka joins in on the fun by slamming Kikuchi's head into the ring post. Liger puts Kikuchi in a camel clutch while Tanaka whips Kanemaru into the guardrail. Tanaka then tags in and puts Kikuchi in a half crab. Some more double-teaming from Team NJPW, and Tanaka goes for a Jericho-style cocky pin. Liger tags back in and hits a piledriver. Kikuchi kicks out, so Liger starts stomping the hell out of him. Tanaka comes in and goes back to the jujigatame. Kikuchi tries to roll out, but Liger rolls him back onto his back. Nice. Kikuchi does make the ropes, but Tanaka refuses to break, so the ref has to pull him off. Liger tags back in and whips Kikuchi into the corner. He then goes for a palm strike, but Kikuchi blocks it and fights back with some elbows. He finally makes the tag to Kanemaru, who hits a lionsault for two. He then misses a moonsault, and Liger tags in Tanaka, who puts on an ankle lock. Kikuchi breaks it up, so Tanaka just bitch-slaps him. Kanemaru and Tanaka do some flippy-doo exchanges, and Liger breaks up a pin attempt after Kanemaru hits an elevated DDT. Liger and Kikuchi brawl outside as Kanemaru hits a moonsault for two. Kikuchi holds Liger back as Kanemaru goes for a brainbuster. Tanaka reverses into a jujigatame, and now it's Liger that's holding Kikuchi back. Kanemaru makes the ropes and goes for a German, but Tanaka hits a low blow. He then tries a backslide, but Kanemaru does a low blow of his own. Simultaneous tag, and Kikuchi blasts Liger with elbows. Liger fights back with palm strikes, and a Liger bomb gets two. Kanemaru breaks it up and fights out of a double-team, which leads to one of those silly sequences where one guy takes out another guy only to be taken out by a third guy, who is in turn taken out by a fourth guy. Liger misses a corner charge, and Kikuchi rolls him up for two. Liger than hits a fisherman buster, which gets two. Regular brainbuster also gets two. OK, this is getting kind of ridiculous. Liger tries for a lariat, but Kikuchi reverses with a German. It gets two, but Kikuchi keeps the waistlock applied and does two rolling Germans, the second of which gets two. Kanemaru hits Tanaka with a brainbuster and rolls him out of the ring, and Kikuchi hits the fireball bomb and gets the pin. This had the potential for disaster going in, as NOAH and the New Japan juniors are both pretty much unwatchable at their worst. Fortunately, they manage to avoid the worst excesses of their respective styles. It pretty much degenerates into a spotfest from the hot tag on, but on the whole, it's a very solid tag match with all the hate you'd want and expect in an interpromotional battle. As far as matches centered around Kikuchi taking an ungodly beating go, though, it's not quite in the same league as Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Ams. Final Verdict: Fun

Before I go into the next review, I want to flesh out the rating system in greater detail. Epic: A desert island match Great: A MOTYC Fun: A MOTNC on a typical PPV Skippable: Everything else Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko vs. Dustin Rhodes and Ricky Steamboat WCW Clash of the Champions XVII November 19, 1991 The story going in is that Dustin had been tagging with Barry Windham, but the Enforcers broke Windham's hand. So Dustin goes into this match with a mystery partner, who ends up being Steamboat making his surprise return to WCW. Lockup to start. Arn gains the advantage with an eye rake, but Steamboat fights his way out of a double-team, and soon all four men are brawling in the ring. The faces quickly gain the upper hand, so the heels take a breather outside (Arn: "He's just a man!"). Steamboat and Dustin start to go to work on Larry's arm, including a diving chop to the shoulder from Steamboat that JR calls a "karate thrust." At least he didn't call it a judo chop. Larry manages to make a blind tag, and Arn slugs Dustin down in the corner. Dustin comes back with a series of bionic elbows to Arn and Larry as JR likens him to Steve Avery. Holy shit, what a clumsy attempt to shoehorn a reference to another Turner property into the broadcast. Arn tags in Larry, who calls for Dustin to tag in Steamboat. Dustin obliges. Steamboat takes the advantage, so Larry slaps him and runs away. Steamboat gives chase, and Larry takes the opportunity to make the blind tag. Arn blindsides Steamboat, and we're officially into the FIP segment. Steamboat tries to fight back, but Arn cuts him off with a low blow. He then tries for a sunset flip, but Arn makes the blind tag. Abdominal stretch from Larry, which is of course illegally assisted by Arn. Dustin tries to break it up, but the ref cuts him off, allowing for more double-teaming. Steamboat counters a back body drop attempt with a facebuster and tries to make a tag, but Arn tags first and Larry cuts him off. After working Steamboat some more, Larry tags in Arn, who applies a bearhug. Steamboat tries to counter with a bodyscissors, but Arn reverses into a Boston crab. Dustin complains to the ref some more, allowing the heels to make an illegal switch. I have a soft spot in my heart for heels who don't have to cheat but do it anyway just to be dicks. Steamboat inches his way to his corner, but Arn distracts the ref, leading to one of my least favorite spots: the hot tag that the ref disallows because he didn't see it. I hate spots like that that put the heat on the ref rather than the heels. Plus, when the real hot tag comes, the pop is significantly smaller than for the initial one. Then there's the whole issue of the ref having no problem with the heels tagging sight unseen. Back to the action, as Arn goes for an axehandle off the top, and three guesses as to how that works out for him. Steamboat finally makes the tag, and Dustin is a house of fire. Steamboat makes a blind tag right before Dustin hits the bulldog, allowing him to hit Arn with a crossbody off the top. Dustin runs interference to prevent Larry from breaking up the tag, and Steamboat gets the three count. This was a classic Southern tag match executed as well as any other. Technically, there was nothing wrong with it, but it was missing that little something extra to take it to the next level. Of course, my annoyance with several of the conventions of the genre might be contributing to that conclusion. You could also take issue with the early arm work that went nowhere. Granted, Steamboat liked to fill out the opening portions of his matches with armbars and such. But when someone slams a guy's arm into the post, you kind of expect it to lead to something. In all, though, it was a fine way to spend 15 minutes. Final Verdict: Fun

Dave from about a year ago: I guess upstaging the NFL has rendered that moot. Well, you know what they say about hubris.

I mentioned this in my post in the omnibus thread that split off into Rumble discussion, but Bret's Five Moves of Doom is indeed a myth. It wasn't five moves, he didn't do them in every match, and he didn't always do them in the same order.

Now he has stockholders he has to explain the WWE's first money-losing quarter in years to. Even if you take the film division and network startup costs out of the equation, they didn't make enough profit to cover dividend payments. Because business has been in steady decline for the past few years and he's desperate to turn things around?

Dolph's about a decade late.

Don't worry, most of them won't be nearly as long, I promise. My plan right now is to start with PBP with insights sprinkled throughout followed by a paragraph of analysis that ties everything together. Hopefully, I'll incorporate more analysis into the body of the review as I become more adept at organizing and articulating my thoughts. The PBP is largely for my benefit, as it enhances my attention to detail and forces me to consider how much of the action is really important. It is significantly more time-consuming, though, so I may switch things up at some point.

John Cena vs. CM Punk WWE Money in the Bank July 17, 2011 Some tentativeness to start. Punk puts on a headlock from the collar-and-elbow tie-up and transitions to a hammerlock. Cena reverses and does a snapmare into a chinlock. Punk makes the ropes and then goes for a roundhouse kick. Naturally, this sequence prompts "you can't wrestle" chants, which Punk has fun with by asking the audience who the chants are for. Cena gets a double-leg takedown. Punk puts him in the guard, but Cena reverses into an armbar and then works a wristlock as Punk stands up. Cena running the ropes leads to a shoulderblock and a headlock of his own. More rope running, and Punk takes control with a hiptoss and dropkick and goes back to the headlock. They run the ropes some more, which ends in Cena teasing an AA and Punk teasing a GTS. Punk takes Cena down with some kicks and stomps on him in the corner. He then tries to whip Cena in to the corner (1), but Cena reverses into a whip of his own and lands a one-handed bulldog. Punk kicks out of a pinfall attempt, so Cena applies a front chancery. Punk slugs his way out but gets levelled by a clothesline. Another kick out, so Cena goes back to the chinlock and actually does a pretty good job of working it. Punk reverses with a back suplex and whips Cena into the corner (2), with Cena doing a Bret Hart-style sternum-first bump. Cena fights out of a standing headscissors and whips Punk into the corner (3) and hits a fisherman suplex. He goes for the AA again, but Punk hits a DDT. Cena kicks out of a pinfall attempt, so Punk applies a figure-four headscissors. Cena tries to counter with an electric chair drop, but Punk elbows out and throws Cena out of the ring. He then hangs Cena on the apron and hits a diving knee drop. Pinfall attempt gets two, so Punk whips Cena into the corner (4) and goes for a shoulder tackle, but Cena dodges and Punk runs into the ringpost. Snapmare into a chinlock from Punk. Cena slugs his way out and whips Punk into the corner (6). He charges after but runs into a boot. Punk blows a top rope crossbody, landing on Cena's knee, and gets two on a pinfall attempt. Cena rolls to the apron. Punk tries to suplex him back in, but Cena does a suplex of his own and Punk does a flat back bump onto the floor. Yikes. Cena rolls Punk back into the ring and goes for a pin, which gets two. Another fisherman suplex from Cena followed by an elbow drop. Emerald Frosion (!) gets two. Punk wins a slugfest, but Cena applies an abdominal stretch, which pleased me because it's a move I mark out for. Punk counters with an eye rake and hiptoss, and both men take a breather after a double clothesline. When Cena recovers, he busts out some Vintage Cena shoulderblocks. Punk swings and Cena goes for the Protobomb, but Punk flips out and schoolboys him for two. Personally, I would have preferred it Punk hadn't swung in the first place. Cena tries to whip Punk into corner, but Punk reverses (7) and goes for the high knee, but Cena dodges and hits the Protobomb. He goes for you can't see me, but Punk kicks him in the head. I find it rather distressing that you can count the examples of people doing logical counters to Cena's goofy signature spots on one hand. Running knee knocks Cena out of the ring, and Punk follows with a tope. He rolls Cena back into the ring and goes for another top rope crossbody, but Cena rolls out of the way. After you can't see me and five knuckle shuffle, Cena goes for the AA. Punk tries to counter by landing on his feet, but he lands on his ass instead. He gets some kicks and goes for the GTS, but Cena counters with a gutwrench suplex. AA attempt, but Punk gets two jumping high knees and a bulldog. Slightly botched springboard clothesline gets two. Some kicks from Punk, but Cena ducks a roundhouse kick and locks in the STF. Punk makes the ropes and hits a roundhouse kick for two. Another top rope crossbody, but Cena rolls through and sets Punk up for the AA. Punk counters with a GTS attempt, but Cena reverses into another STF. He drags Punk to the center of the ring so he can't make the ropes, but Punk reverses into an Anaconda Vice. Cena gets to his feet and finally hits the AA, but it only gets two. Cena goes for a top rope leg drop, but Punk does a powerbomb-ish counter and signals for the GTS. Cena makes the ropes and hits a hangman and then gets the top rope leg drop for two. Another AA, but Punk kicks out again. Cena goes for a super AA, but Punk elbows out and hits a top rope frankensteiner. GTS finally connects, but Cena rolls out of the ring. One interesting thing about Cena is that in big matches, he generally does a better job of protecting his opponent's finisher than his own. Punk rolls Cena back into the ring, and Vince McMahon makes his way out with John Laurinaitis. Cena pops up and locks in the STF yet again, and Vince sends Laurinaitis to tell the timekeeper to ring the damn bell. Cena releases the hold and clocks Laurinaitis, telling Vince that he doesn't want to win that way. Punk then hits the GTS and gets three. There's some post-match shenanigans with Vince trying to get Del Rio to cash in, but let's forget about all that. God damn, did they get a bonus every time they whipped each other into the corner or something? My theory is that they had everything from roughly the double clothesline on pretty well mapped out and figured they'd build up to it by working old-school NWA title match style. But they didn't have the technical chops to keep it going on the mat, so it kind of meandered a bit in the middle portion. Beyond that, I think the match would've worked better if Cena had worked subtle heel like he did against RVD at ONS. Granted, his goody-two-shoes act was part of the bigger storyline, but that storyline ended up being fucking stupid. In all, though, this is about as good as modern WWE Main Event Style gets. There was more emphasis on working out of holds as opposed to simply powering out. The transitions were mostly solid. And the big spots were effectively built up to. More importantly, it felt like a Very Big Deal, which very few matches do these days. Overall, it's the best match of Punk's career by a wide margin. It's probably Cena's as well, but I could see somebody preferring the LMS match with Umaga. Final Verdict: Great

So is the FMW match confirmed for *****? Maybe so, but it's still useful because it has matches from the 70s and non-AAA lucha, which none of the other lists do.

It was on there as 5/18/92, which was the air date. I'll get to Jingus' requests, but I plan on doing Punk/Cena first because I want to make sure to get to it before it gets taken off Youtube. Also, I can't find the Kobashi/Homicide vs. Joe/Ki tag anywhere online.