Superstar Sleeze

The BWO was wicked over by all accounts that I have seen from the shirts in the crowd. It makes sense to keep his heat by still associating with the gimmick. I have seen Wrestlepalooza at least once and even if the match falters...this promo is the promo I needed for closure. He nails when he says the difference between him and Raven is that Stevie wants to heal, put that pain in the past, lead a fulfilling life where he wins the World Championship and accomplishes his dream. Raven is trapped in limbo and cant get past his pain because he does not want to. Raven's identity and his pain are so intertwined that he cannot get past it. Whereas Stevie has an identity outside being nerd in high school & being told he would never amount to anything in pro wrestling, he has the BWO and he learned from the BWO that a smile is just as powerful as pain in the world. Nailed it. It got me really excited to see Stevie vs Funk. Stevie should have never, ever left ECW to rehash the same gimmick with Raven in WCW. I get it the money was there and you gotta make hay while the sun shines, but I think 6-12 months on his own maybe even winning the ECW title would have been beneficial to his confidence and acumen to really perform well on the big stage. My heartbreaks that ended up injuring his neck. You can tell how much he loved pro wrestling and his trajectory was really high up on the card if it was not for the injury. A real shame.

Raven & Stevie Richards vs Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk - ECW Buffalo 5/20/97 I am a Big fan of Raven & Stevie but this emasculated Stevie too much. I would have liked to see Richards get a nice shine rather than get his ass kicked and validate Raven’s abuse. Raven’s abuse should ring hollow because Richards ripped it up. The actual action is pretty meh. Funk had good matches left in him but he just looked old in this. His best spot was he takes the table with him on a bump so the table is covering him so he starts kicking out on instinct. That was fun. Funk is in dire straits so Richards slaps on a leg lace!?! Again Raven is correct that would never work. Imagine the heat if Raven told Richards the Spinning Toehold would never work only to tag in and put the Spinning Toehold on! So many misfires. Dreamer whips Raven and looks like he is going to get that pin but the ref is bumped and here’s Louie Spicolli (Madonna’s Boyfriend and Rad Radford) who was getting a huge push against Dreamer breaking Beulah’s neck. Spicolli eats A StevieKick and Stevie puns Funk. Does Stevie pinning Funk make up for 15 minutes of emasculating booking? For a lot of people the finish matters more but for me nope there’s so much they could do. A Dud

You all don’t understand Raven’s pain but I sure do. This is fucking wonderful. At this point Raven knows he is going to WCW, he drops the title to Funk at the first PPV as the first chapter in his last hurrah. Now this is the last chapter to go out in a blaze of glory. They have taken everything from him, even his flunkies/worshippers. His worst fear is realized he is alone. When you’re alone and isolated you become desperate. Desperate people make no sense. They vacillate between extremes. He lashes out and threatens to take ECW down with him in an inferno of violence with the anger focused on Funk and Dreamer. Another part of him just want it all to end to just fade away and die. Blaze of Glory or Fade Away? Then there’s the role Stevie plays in all this... The Raven/Stevie relationship is fraught with abuse. Raven keeps Stevie dependent on him through his abuse. With Stevie threatening to assert his independence, Raven for the first time tries to cajole Richards and be sweet to him. The old I have learned my lesson and I’ve changed. Only once they come face to face Raven starts in with the abuse again and screaming for Richards to put him out of his misery. Because Raven can’t help himself. Hurt people hurt. If you don’t heal your own wounds, you bleed on those that never hurt you and that’s what happening with Raven and his violent mood swings. As for Richards you don’t just get over this type of relationships in the matter of weeks or months, it takes years. His love for Raven is fucked up but in his heart it is love. Raven has his hooks in him. Raven can still work his voodoo magic. Richards logically has admitted Raven’s love is toxic and unhealthy but that’s just step 1. The next step is overcome the years of emotional abuse and not fall off the wagon when Raven comes knocking. People can bitch and moan about the waffling with Stevie all they want but that’s seeing the world in black and white. Stevie is a strong, independent man or a clueless putz. What if the truth was that Stevie was a young man who didn’t who he was and just wanted to fit in. He fell under the spell of a charismatic asshole. Now he is dealing with years of abuse, he wants to stand on his own but he is beaten into submission. This is NOT a babyface turn, not a flick of a switch but a process! Yes because of the WCW thing we never got a climax but the process is what is interesting. One Stevie Kick and voila Stevie is a Man who has faced & conquered his demons would be a slap in the face of two great years of storytelling and a slap in the face of anyone who was faced abuse in their lives.

2 Cold Scorpio vs Chris Jericho - ECW Doctor Is In 1996 Theres an excellent sequence where Scorpio misses a moonsault and Jericho immediately gets to the middle rope on a splash before Scorpio can roll over. We need that type of urgency in wrestling more often! An underrated ECW departure was 2 Cold Scorpio, he was their workrate workhorse once they lost him there was a huge vacuum. What happened to him after Flsh Funk? I remember him being apart of the Job Squad but what after that? Wasn’t he in NOAH for a bit? As far as ECW workrate this is pretty damn good and pretty cutting-edge. Jericho before WWF is pretty hit and miss in the ring but he was a hit here! They do the fast nearfalls then bust out some wicked cool Lucha submissions and then Scorpio busts out his favorite knucklelock sequence. The heat segment was strong too. I don’t remember Scorpio being soo good at kicks and knees. Lots of great pump kicks and knee lifts. Good missed hope spots by Jericho so when he did hit that Springboard Dropkick he does it looked great. I really enjoyed the bomb throwing down the stretch. There was some waiting to hit the move but for the most part they were urgent and the offense looked good. There were missed moves! I love that. So the transitions to each guy made sense. The finish was set up by Jericho missing a twisting splash. Scorpio nails a tombstone and a strong Shooting Star Press to win. Very fun 90s workrate Match. ***3/4

Sabu vs Taz - Barely Legal 1997 You gotta love the WWE for remastering the footage. The video quality on this is Bitchin! ECW got new floors! Imagine if they went on PPV with those grimy nasty floors. The double turn was the fucking shits. It was the ultimate 90s T-Shirt turn. If Fonzie had so much money riding on the match why didn’t he interfere? He doesn’t even have to coat the match at least try to stop Taz winning from happening. There was the whole “Get up Sabu” that foreshadows the turn but another than that nothing. Why is it RVD instigating the shouldnt Fonzie popped a gasket at that point? Also this is the opposite of Bret/Austin. In Bret/Austin they told the double turn story by the action in the match. Sabu should have worked on top throughout with the chairs and made Taz win from underneath. Decoupling this from the insipid booking, the match itself is pretty good. Unfortunately given the two year build, the insane amount of hype, pretty good ain’t gonna cut it. The ECW mutants were quieter than usual but ultimately respectful. Taz is one of my least favorite wrestlers but I gotta admit he outworked my beloved Sabu. The blown spots are part of Sabu’s charm but here they looked lame. Sabu didn’t have that raw, unpredictable feel in this match. Taz looked great working the shooter the best he has ever looked. Great takedowns and holds. Sabu can wrestle. The played off Sabu’s leg dives. Sabu used dropkicks and enziguiris to set up his chair-based aerial offense. Pretty much that was the rhythm of the match. Sabu bit off more than he could chew and ended going through a table alone. From there it was Head Drop City, three big time head drop duplexes. That’s the one thing I didn’t see get imported too much from All Japan it was on display here. Sabu in the middle does the copy cat gimmick hits a Tazplex and then Taz pose. Taz pops up and Taz pose...good pop. They needed more character spots. More Taz Head Drop duplexes and then choke out. Good shit. Would have liked to seen more energy from Sabu but this was a great Taz performance. Sabu would have a much better match with The Sandman of all people about a year later. ***1/4

Raven & Cactus Jack vs Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk - ECW November 2 Remember 1995 It is the climatic finale of the hottest ECW feud of 1995 as Raven would move into Sandman and Dreamer to Brian Lee, who I think was loosely aligned with Raven. Cactus turned on Dreamer in August shifting some of the heat to Cactus. Terry Funk was the perfect addition to the feud given his shared history with Dreamer and Cactus. Even though, this is the climax to such a red hot feud , it is a pretty pedestrian brawl with not much heat. There are couple misfires that I think the expected more heat but I feel that Dreamer especially was not bringing the energy and intensity. The first was Cactus goads the babyfaces to the floor only to take the high ground. They play King of the Mountain and then the babyfaces storm the ring to really kick the match off but nothing. The beginning he better than end. I’ve seen this match numerous times because it made Cactus’ WWE DVD SET in the mid-00s. I remember the VCR shot, Stevie in the shopping cart and Funk swinging a golf club seemingly millimeters from Raven’s balls. After that the match kind of peters out which so strange given how hot the feud and the characters are. Another misfire was the Cactus shirt thing. So Cactus has a homemade airbrush shirt of the Dungeon of Doom which is initially the best part of the match only to be outdone by his airbrushed shirt of Eric Bischoff and in the back it says “Forgive Me Uncle Eric”. Now Dreamer wants to pull the shirt up so That he is symbolically punching Uncle Eric is a great idea but it doesn’t get a reaction because Dreamer is not broad enough. He should have been parading Cactus around the ring with Bischoff’s face and fist clenched then unloaded to a massive pop. Even the chairshot to “Bischoff” gets nothing. Not much else happens. The finish is Dreamer hits Raven with 2 DDTS and a piledriver but it is Funk that pins Raven. Feel good ending without giving Dreamer that elusive gratifying pin. What I don’t remember or maybe the WWE version cuts off is Raven/Cactus make a comeback and beat up the babyfaces. The last image is a bloody Raven with barbed wire in his hair doing the Crucifix pose. Dumb. Let the fans go home happy. Why are the heels standing tall in the blowoff? The pin is NOT enough they should be standing tall too. Very disappointing.

Eddie Guerrero & The Steiners vs Dean Makenko, 2 Cold Scorpio & Cactus Jack -ECW Wrestlepalooza 1995 Taz had befriended the Steiners in an effort to train after his neck injury to get revenge on Scorpio. Eddie/Dean/Scorpio were all kind of feuding over the TV Title. Benoit was the original tag partner as he was Malenko’s regular tag partner. There’s a Steiners vs Benoit/Scorpio is it any good? I don’t see anyone talk about it. it is funny listen Joey Styles swing from the Steiners’ nuts when they typically represent what he loves to mock. Once the Luchadors come in doesn’t he start mocking Scotty’s Frankenstein’s compared to the Hurricanarana? Am I remembering that right? Given this lineup there’s going to be some great offense! Scotty/Malenko have a way better exchange than I guessed. It was my favorite of the match and maybe the best Malenko have ever looked. Great amateur stuff at the beginning and they threw up some good bombs. Scotty took a wicked duplex over the top to the floor but returned the favor with a nice belly to belly throw. Scotty took a backseat the rest of the Match. Rick/Scorpio didn’t have the best chemistry. Clunky on the Rana and not as much snap as usual on Rick’s powerslam. They did pull off a great top rope bulldog. Rick vs Cactus was solid but yeah this is not Cactus’ forte. Lots of big bombs and highspots. He did a take a overhead belly to belly by Rick on the floor that was wicked. Cactus hit an electric chair on Eddie and then Eddie missed a Frogsplash. Here comes the heat segment. Great stuff lots of ring cutting off, hope spots, I really like how hard Eddie was working to get the tag but kept getting cut off. Scorpio shines the most here. The Drop Da Bomb Legdrop is most impressive for crushing his opponents face with his ass and not tearing his quad. The powerbomb was great. Eddie using the Frankensteiner was very fitting to create the space for the hot tag. Steiners hit their big fun spots. It’s a Doomsday Device for Scorp, Doomsday Device Dropkick for Cactus and they go for a Doomsday Device Frankensteiner ok Malenko but he chumps our and doesn’t do the flip. In 2020 there are plenty of wrestlers that could pull off this spot but in 1995 they weren’t ready yet. Hell I couldn’t do it. After that Eddie looks brainbustee but Malenko gets a rollup/cradle for the win. As someone put a very Japanese match heavy on the action and highspots and less on character work. Not surprising as the Steiners were very Japanese oriented as were Eddie & Malenko. A fun slugfest with some cool unique pairings. ***3/4

Appreciate it, MOS and KawadaSmile, I was kinda annoyed at myself for staying up late to write that post but I am glad it was well-received. I cant take credit for "Length is strength" I was apart of the first generation of kids to undergo standardizing testing in Massachusetts and every year English teachers would argue whether "length is strength" was the right test strategy and the turn of phrase has always stuck with me. MOS one thing I would dispute is that Sasha has been neutered. Jimmy Redman and I have talked about this. She is in the camp that she has been neutered, but I think at least 50% blame needs to fall on Sasha's shoulders. I think she has lost her Boss swagger/mojo she had in NXT. She is very much a person that wears her emotions on her sleeve and lets her mood affect her work. I dont think that's necessarily a bad thing. She needs to figure out to channel that. Emotion is the basis of great pro wrestling so the fact she experiences emotions very vividly could be an asset. Charlotte may just like wearing high-heels shoes. There's a Taylor Swift song (yes Im a Swiftie 4 Life) where she is complaining about how her ex would bitch that she would wear high heels. Taylor is 5' 10'' and I think Charlotte is about the same height. They are already taller than the average man so they do NOT NEED to wear High Heels but maybe they want to. Charlotte/Rousey based on their Survivor Series match would definitely have at least another killer match in them. I would not hold my breathe about them having a great feud based on angles or promos. The WWE could have the second coming of Austin and Rock right now and I would not trust them to have a great feud. It is not indictment on Charlotte and Rousey thats a WWE promotional machine malfunction. As for the babyface/heel dynamics of this feud, I disagree that Rousey would have to murder puppies. The cracks with Rousey began to be exposed around November/December 2018 where the fans started to turn on her. Once she turned on the fans, I thought she was a red hot heel. I am a huge Rousey the pro wrestler fan and thought the fans' reaction to her did not match her work ethic and workrate. Even a couple months ago, she demonstrated the ability to still get under fans' skin. Charlotte is both a lukewarm babyface and a lukewarm heel. I do NOT hear a vocal contingent that "Hails the Queen" or "Boos The Woo". She just exists. Charlotte needs a opponent with heat. Rousey would have heat and Charlotte would be fine as the nominal babyface. I'll give Naomi a shoutout now. Part of it was that it was getting late and I was going long like a bad HHH promo and sent myself home. Naomi is athletically gifted, but it is a bit overstated. Those rhythmic kicks to the sides of her opponent were Kofi-light and I was not a fan. Incredible entrance and the most modern of its kind by actually incorporating "hip" EMD aesthetic. I love her vibrant colorful outfits when everyone else is in fucking black. Michael Cole saying "she calls that the Rear View" always pops me. She is great in the babyface role and winning the championship a couple times here and there is a perfect role for her. I think it was a dumb decision that she didnt get a one-on-one title shot against Bayley at Mania based on her return. I think in the thing tag ranks that she would do well to form a tag team. So I thought about what it meant to be Overpused. I think it comes down to three different types of overpushing. Overpushed relative to talent: Edge, 100%. I didnt want to bring up Edge in my original post because I think Edge is abjectly the worst main eventer they had in the 21st century based on wrestling because I know he is "over" with certain fans, I think it comes from the fact that he was a part of the TLC matches. Then I realized Edge should be precisely mentioned because he was an atrocious wrestler. When it comes to actually have good or great matches and contributing to them is their anyone who contributes less. He is offensively inept. Is he good at strikes? No. Matwork/grappling? No. Takedowns/Throws? No. Aerial offense? No. Does he feed well? No. Stooge? No. Contribute to movement/tempo/energy? No. Bump well? No. Sell well? No. He is useless. Overpushed relative to Charisma: Randy Orton, Seth Rollins and Charlotte. I have covered that Charlotte is not very entertaining but does have great matches. Rollins has anti-charisma. He is weird combination of an overconfident, unnatural, "tries way too hard to make you like him" dweeb/tool with a nasal delivery that is just toxic as an ace face. Rollins is totally fine in-ring and actually fits the 21st century workrate style perfectly. In the 80s, he would have been hidden in tag teams and in workrate-focused midcard feuds, but because pro wrestling has been become more workrate-focused he has gotten pushed. Orton should have been at the level of his father. He is perfectly fine mechanic just like his dad, athletic and coordinated. Unlike his Dad, he got a main event push and way too soon. Orton did eventually get over but I think it took him about 6-8 years to really click and some of that was attrition. The RKO Outta Nowhere is legitimately over. His promos were very weak for a long time and only recently has he gotten more comfortable delivering them. Orton and Charlotte both seem like emotionally dull people. Whereas Rollins is a try hard. Toxic Overpush That Hurts The Company: HHH and Rollins. HHH I think is a talented wrestler whose reach sometimes exceeds his grasp (ok a lot of the time this happens). I do think he has good ideas and I would say he is about equal hit to miss. I do think he is very charismatic, personable and funny when he wants to be. Ultra *breathes heavy* Serious *breathes heavy* Triple *breathes heavy* Haitch *breathes heavy* The *breathes heavy* Game is intolerable because he is humorless world-beating prick that never shows ass. D-X HHH in both incarnations and during Daniel Bryan showed a lighter side to himself is a great main eventer. That 2003 run killed the WWE's popularity and it has never come back. HHH has to shoulder a lot of the burden. Cena got back to a healthy level and Roman kept maintained. I think you can trace the most recent dip to when Roman got cancer. There are three things in play here. One they badly underpushed Rousey. She should have main evented everything right through Mania. I think that would have stopped the bleeding. Second they went directionless in the male division until Mania. Its fine they reverted to Brock but no one knew what the plan was until Rumble so they hemorrhaged viewers. I think using AJ or Bryan as a workrate stopgap champion (Bryan was the champ on Smackdown and AJ was on Smackdown but fucking Roman got cancer it was an emergency and if you need to move someone do it) would have helped rather doing a start-stop push with younger talent. Even with the Rousey underpush and losing 4-5 critical months due to aimless male booking, they could have remedied the situation by choosing the right heir to Roman and they went all in on Rollins and it blew up in their face. I think this is getting to be like 2003 and it could be a permanent loss of viewers just like what was experienced in 2003. The scary thing is I dont see a "Cena" on the roster. I always plug Big E at this point and would love to see him get a shot. Drew McIntyre is showing a personality and seems likeable but with the pandemic and the WWE Promotional Machine broken, he has a lot stacked against him.

Yeah Hogan as Terry is still weird. Triple H actually did look like a Hunter when he had the long blond hair, but Paul is not too weird to me.

I think also the way he died asking for his son to be saved from the riptide and him ultimately drowning makes this a story much bigger than wrestling. He could have been just a random Dad showcased on the local news and I would have been moved by the story. An inspiration to all fathers and a real hero.

I popped for the Maryland State Athletic Commission fining them for juice. Some things never change. Also Kenny Omega's real name is Tyson Smith...I mean I dunno...he just doesnt seem like a Tyson. I guess I always thought Ken/Kenny was his real first name.

I have learned for years of experience front-load and bold key conclusions: Charlotte is deceptively entertaining. On the surface with her droning, monotone promo delivery and poor one-dimensional character, it is easy to believe that Charlotte is not entertaining and therefore overpushed. I have never gone into a Charlotte match thinking "this is going to rock" but 90% of the time I am at least satisfied. I really enjoy when she brawls and works stiff & hard-hitting like against Rousey & Ripley, they really wailed on each other. Some of her work with Logan I think early this year was wicked, it was like sub-5 minute FUTEN-style stiff brawls. She usually produces at least one WWE Women's match of the year candidate a year (vs Rousey, vs Ripley, vs Becky @Evolution 2018, vs Sasha in 2016, vs Asuka in 2017, I am just missing 2019). Therefore, I would argue her in-ring exploits are commensurate with her push and it is in large part because she is at the very least in the top 5 female workers of the main roster at any given time. While I cant point to a single non-wrestling segment Charlotte has ever entertained me in, I do enjoy her matches. So is Charlotte overpushed? No especially in comparison to her peers. Bayley's heel run has been dreadful and has only been propped up by Sasha Banks' fierce, keen fashion sense during COVID Lockdown. They screwed the pooch with Bayley's babyface run which seemed unfuckable but this is WWE after all. Bayley is not a good promo. She trips over her words and also has a flat delivery. Again, a lot of it has to do with the total lack of angles or storylines ever. I do like Bayley in the ring probably more than most even if she is a little clunky. The Smackdown women's roster is pretty thin but Bayley has led Lacey Evans and Ember Moon through above average matches through solid pacing and escalation. Sasha Banks when she is on is every bit Charlotte's and Becky's equal if not their superior but man when she is off, she is off. The Boss was The Man before The Man was The Man. They seemed hell-bent on making Sasha a babyface. She could never cut loose since 2016. The Boss vs The Man produced the WWE MOTY at Hell In A Cell again because they wailed on each other and it was just a great fucking firefight. The build was brutally boring. It was clear the Boss had lost her swagger and mojo and lets be honest it has been gone for a while. Banks is a great bumper, she can really sell, and the Becky match proved she can go toe-to-toe and wail, her and Becky also had the best double-limb psychology match of the 2010s. She is very versatile, but when she loses her confidence everything goes South. My girl Becky! I was a huge Becky Lynch since I saw her Sasha match in 2015. There was something about her that I immediately latched onto and I picked her to be my favorite Four Horsewoman back in May 2015. I think it was the passion, drive and effort. Since Smackdown plays the B-towns and I live in New England, I usually go to 4 Smackdowns a year and all to see Becky Lynch because there is one performer that always gave 110%. Her promos always felt more authentic than the rest and most importantly they were fun! No Becky is not the smoothest in the ring but she makes up for it with sheer willpower and determination. To her credit has a three legitimate classics under her belt and probably the most iconic scene of the late 2010s (thanks Nia!) even if it was an accident. If you watched her Steve Austin Show appearance, you will see this is a person that it doesnt come naturally to. She stresses and really puts thought into every word and action. That can go either way. Randy Savage and The Rock have proved you can be a meticulous planner or have every word spelled out but if you can make it organic then it is fucking organic and I am none wiser more power to you. That's the key to Becky she was putting a lot of effort in and still coming across natural and organic. Mad respect for The Man! The non-Four Horsewomen: Shockingly it looks like Asuka is making a comeback. I would have never guessed that in a million years. The rising tide raises all ships looks to be helping Kairi Sane. Besides Becky, Asuka & Sane are my favorite WWE women's wrestlers. I thought the Pirate Princess gimmick was gold and loved her work with Shayna in 2017 and went to an NXT House Show in Lowell just to see her live. I have always enjoyed Asuka but I always figured she would never be more than a workrate queen because I just didnt think Vince/WWE would know how to market her and WWE fans at large wouldnt know what to think of her (similar to Nakamura). The Kabuki Warriors was something designed to pop me but I was disappointed time and time again first by not winning the tag titles and second by lack of air time. Then they turned heel. It took Sane a little longer than Asuka to find her sea legs as a heel but once they did they have been the best act on WWE TV by a country mile and especially during COVID Lockdown. They have amped up the zaniness and it is fun! Perish the thought, pro wrestling is fun! I am nervous they will do the WWE standard of Sane pulling a disappearing act now that Asuka is champion but it looks like based on her terrific recorder (who else played the recorder in 3rd grade!) performance that she is safe for now. If you are asking most underpushed in the women's division it is Kairi Sane without a doubt. How we didnt get a lengthy Becky vs Sane singles match back in the beginning of the year is insane! It has been covered but Alexa Bliss' concussion issues has shunted her down to the tag ranks. I think Alexa is amazing promo and the best at reciting the WWE drivel. She makes it seem like something a normal human would say and thats a real, rare talent. I like her ode to Nikki Bella right punch and she has great chemistry with Nikki Cross. She was overpushed for a spell there as a heel and I do think there was a market to turn her babyface earlier because she was over. She is the closest a woman has gotten to breaking the Four Horsewomen glass ceiling. I like Nia Jax more than most. I get it. She is dangerous. Some of those throws on Kairi were brutal recently. She does really need to tone it down, but I just love hosses and she is a hoss. That girl has power. The Rousey match was bonkers! Fucking terrific! Her power is so addictive to watch. When she goes on her sassy rant of being a 6', 300lbs Samoan woman I always pop. A safer Nia Jax that does awesome splashes and safely tosses her opponents around would be a wonder. Shayna is by far the most athletically gifted and coordinated wrestler they have. Her matches with Nattie have been terrific. She moves so well in the ring and is so fluid. She is beautiful to watch. Booking fucked her up but they can still recover. A thin division will make it tough on her but I enjoy her a lot. Shoutout to Sonya Deville. I change my pick the most underpushed wrestler in WWE is Sonya Deville, excellent offense. I would drool at the prospect of Sonya vs Shayna. I was fortunate enough to see an Asuka vs Sonya random house show match which is probably the best house show match I have ever seen, Beautiful mat work and strikes, built to a hot finish. That's my rundown of the women's division. I dont think you can call Charlotte overpushed based on her workrate talent and her peers.

The contenders in my mind are HHH 2002-2004, Randy Orton 2004-2009, they backed their way into JBL and lucked out, Great Khali was fucking brutal (I stopped watching Smackdown for years because of him), Kane is a decent candidate, Baron Corbin is definitely overpushed, Seth Rollins but only recently I would say 2019. I am surprised a certain someone has not come up but I am such a huge mark for him I won't bring it up. HHH (2002-2004) - It was a truly brutal time listening to those 30 minute windbag promos as he went over every single WCW star (Steiner, Booker, Nash, Goldberg and I am probably missing others). He considers himself such a student of the game and idolized Flair so much but when he got a chance to play Flair he totally missed the point of what made Flair work...sub-5 minute promos and shining babyfaces. He is a fool. He is probably my pick. Randy Orton (2004-2009) - Cena & Batista needed a heel to wrestle ultimately and I guess Orton was good as any. He grew on me in the 2010s. I like his grinding style now. He has a great European Uppercut. I really enjoy when he makes some really weird faces. After 20 years, he has become a halfway-decent promo. He was the shits as a kid. He was the victim of the first start-stop push winning the World Title before Cena/Batista only for HHH to shit on him. I am glad they went with Cena & Batista over him. He was their go-to heel but he was pretty blah. The WrestleMania 25 build and match with HHH was pretty terrible. Once they laid off the push in the 2010s, he became more palatable. He was the PERFECT choice for the Authority's Candidate to go against Bryan in 2013. That was marvelous and the best he ever was. Bryan and Orton had freaky chemistry. The stuff with Edge right now is brutally bad. To hype it as the Greatest WRESTLING Match ever is so insulting. Orton is a classic case of getting pushed before he was ready. If it was like Bret and he was in a tag team 5, 6 years and then I-C level 2-3 years, dude would have been golden. Too much, too fast. It is too bad they rush things. JBL was so short and he turned out to be a tremendous promo that even though it started out as an overpush, it became a deserved push. Great Khali the absolute shits. I dont remember how long he was around but it was too fucking long. People can say well he became a comedy character but I think he had at least three years as a monster and it was three years too long. While overpushed, perhaps not the most overpushed but he needs to be mentioned for how atrocious he was. Kane - In late 90s, Kane was so fucking cool. Then they took off the mask and oh boy. I dont know if others remember this but Kane had a resthold my brother and I would affectionately call the "Kane snuggle". In the mid-00s, the reverse chinlock was running rampant as the preeminent resthold during a heat segment. Ever the rebel, Kane decided his resthold of choice was going to be a reverse waistlock while lying on the mat of his opponent. Kane was going to spoon his opponent into submission. There it was every year the Kane push. It almost felt like a rib. I did like Corporate Kane though. Baron Corbin - The heir to Kane. He is totally in the Kane role and I have been pushing this narrative for a while. He is tall and moves similarly to Kane. He occupies the same spot on the card that upper midcard heel they love to go to fill in those dead zones of their calendar right after Mania and right after Survivor Series. I have said this time and time again, Baron Corbin is not a bad wrestler. He is very serviceable. I have always liked his tribute to Big Bossman. I have always liked his right hand. I think he has two strong signature moves. He is actually pretty good at reciting their alphabet soup of a script. I get why he is pushed as he is universally hated. There is no pocket of fans that will cheer for him, hardcores, traditionalists, kids, casuals will hate him. He is too bland to sustain a run on top. Rotating him in and out of tag team/IC title hunt like Greg Valentine would be perfect. Seth Freakin' Rollins - If Corbin is the heir to Kane, then Rollins is the heir to HHH. I liked Rollins in the Shield. I liked 2015 chickenshit Rollins as the Authority's new heir to the throne. The Kingslayer stuff is when the wheels fell off the wagon and it got really bad last year against Brock Lesnar. The problem is that he has gone to the HHH school of promos and feels that length is strength and that if the promo is not 20 minutes he has failed. It is brutal. I have said this before the saving grace of HHH is that he has a sense of humor. The problem with Evolution HHH is that he was a humorless twat. There have been a couple times during DX revival HHH where I chuckled and I was like ok this fucker is pretty funny. HHH did rule so hard during the build to Bryan match at Mania XXX. Rollins does not have a funny bone in his body. The Messiah gimmick reeks of Heyman, who loves his religious references and is beyond bad. I would say Rollins is on track to exceed HHH. I wanted to talk about Charlotte and the women's division but this post got long. I am just going to split into two as it will be easier to read.

ECW World Tag Team Champions Raven & Stevie Richards vs The Pitbulls - ECW Arena 8/26/95 The ECW Arena rematch after the match in Middletown and the 8-Man tag where Cactus turns on Tommy, we get this match. This match starts with Raven getting his shit kicked in. Richards is being a chump and refuses to tag in. This goes on longer than I expected but the result is what I expected, Raven gives him a thwack and throws him to the Dogs of War. Pitbulls feast on Richards. Crazy standing Doomsday Device to Richards. Pitbull #1 jumped pretty high to connect. Insane spot. You know the spot that injured Villano on Nitro (weird fact: I was there live, only Nitro I attended) well the Pitbulls do that spot on Richards only it is from the top rope. Looked gnarly as fuck basically a Ganso Bomb. Raven saves. Raven eats a Superbomb at one point. I think this is when Beulah saves and they are going to Superbomb Beulah. Then there are three nearfalls for Stevie, first when Dudley Dudley interferes then a Raven DDT and finally a Big Dick hotshot on the railing. It sets up Raven Masterpiece Theatre at Gangstas Paradise perfectly as all these moving pieces will fit together in grand fashion. Also I take back anything bad I said about the Pitbulls they are a good power wrestling team, really good offense. Pitbulls vs Steiners would have been good fun. ***1/2

ECW World Tag Team Champions Raven & Stevie Richards vs The Pitbulls - ECW Middletown, NY 7/28/95 (Aired 8/8/95) Outdoor venue, it is raining but not too hard it looks like, a lot of people. ECW was pretty over. I believe this is the first televised match in the feud. The Pitbulls were former minions and got fed up and refused to Superbomb Luna and now are aligned with Dreamer & Luna. They got the tag belts on Raven & Richards to up the ante for this feud. Pitbulls are better power wrestlers than I had previously given them credit for. They did a great job throwing Richards around in the shine. Pitbull #2 hits a spinwheel kick that Hashimoto would have been proud of, squashing Richards in the corner and Pitbull #1 hit a nice slingshot shouldertackle. They put over Raven as a game changer after Richards takes a ton of punishment they were going to Superbomb him until Raven attacks. Raven eats knees on Vaderbomb. They regain control by attacking the testicles of Pitbull #1. Hot tag and Pitbulls are in control. #1 is throwing Raven into chairs and #2 has isolated Stevie, but Beulah sprays #2 in the eyes with hairspray and a StevieKick and it is over. They steal a win but Dreamer and Luna beat up Raven & Richards. They trap Beulah and Dreamer piledrivers her to a massive reaction and triggers an EC-DUB chant. Great place-setting match. Shows the Pitbulls can kickass but they arent ready to overcome Raven's trickery just yet. Short & sweet. ***

Referee Bill Alfonso is the best gimmick ever. His shoot tirade in the middle going off on how hard it is stand to and shout into microphone, getting onto a plane at 5am with his ticket not paid for and then saying he is blowed up, ready to relinquish the mic only to start shoving and screaming at Heyman is great. Fonzie rules!

Woman was the MVP of this segment and maybe her best segment ever. She was in total control of Sandman. She was the alpha and that was cool to see. Both times, Sandman was on the verge of being stripped of the title, Woman was the one who made Sandman comply. It was very empowering to see her in charge. She stops Mikey from getting to ten but Mikey gets his first kiss with Woman! Sandman attacks and it is Woman who makes him stop once the title is threatened but not before we get another of her "orgasmic wails". Sandman vs Mikey is a fucking great feud that I have not explored before. I like it! I really like it!

a) Matter of style & taste. I love all forms of wrestling. Heat is heat. I dont really care how one gets it as long as they get it. I enjoy interference and foreign objects and bells & whistles. Give me the powder and the fireballs. I love that Raven works a loaded boot or an ether rag gimmick. I like the zillion of run-ins for the most part. This shit can easily go sideways but him because he does put thought into it, it usually a hit rather than a miss. Guys like RVD that has not heat because nothing has any consequence OR it is stilted & contrived. Raven's dog & pony show does have consequences in Raven's world and it feels natural tome. b) I like his promos for the most part. He does have duds here and there, but the whole demented, twisted evil empath that feeds on pain and exploits those most vulnerable like Stevie Richards who didnt know who he was or Cactus who felt abandoned by his peers, fans and the system is a great gimmick. The whole point is that he is delusional and is not self-aware that his poetry is mumbo-jumbo. The duds are when he actually does make sense or he is not very threatening. The abusive relationship with Stevie is gold. c) As EL-P point that kind of is the gimmick. I like I said above he feasts on the pain, anger and anguish of others. Likewise he feeds off their heat. Dont tell me you think that wooden hack Tommy Dreamer is a better promo. Tommy Dreamer is fucking wretched promo. His John McClane wannabe act is so poorly executed by him. He is lucky that Raven got his ass over. d) Raven didnt get hot immediately. He had Douglas, Sandman, Public Enemy all ahead of him but he worked a great angle and got himself as over as the others and they couldnt deny him. I like Stevie I do, but he wasnt ready yet. He was still finding himself which made him perfect as the innocent wayward soul that got in over his head with Raven. Stevie could ramble with the best of them he was not perfect on the mic either. As El-P pointed out it was a symbiotic relationship both men got over. e) The Dreamer piledriver on Beluah and leaving Raven laying in May of 1995, breaking Raven's fingers in retribution Hardcore Heaven 95, Chair Shot Heard Round The World, Gangsta's Paradise with the epic Pitbulls win. Funk's pinfall at November 2 Remember. I dont know enough about his 96 run but he definitely let Dreamer gets his licks in. f) The aesthetic is 90s grunge but the evil cult leader that preys on the hurt and abandoned is not. Tiger King demonstrated a Tiger Sex Cult where that evil fucker clearly preys on lost women. General Hospital ran a great storyline called Dawn of Day which was basically the Raven's flock but again a sex cult where the evil leader Shiloh isolated women and made them believe the only man that could understand them and their pain was Shiloh. I am blanking on the real-life inspiration for Dawn of Day but I know there is one and it involved some semi-famous people. Raven character is timeless. g) I only come on PWO and everyone besides EL-P and me seem to hate him so I don't know. h) It is ok, Charles, I feel your pain. My childhood was filled with anguish & torture and so I understand your pain, Charles.The more frustrated you become the stronger the Raven grows! Quote the Raven, Nevermore!

Yeah definitely worthy to go back and watch. Also watch the promos leading up to this. Raven foresees this in his promo in a dumpster. It is not that it was premeditated like Raven and Cactus were in cahoots. It is like Raven knew how to work his demented empathetic magic to exploit the vulnerabilities of Cactus, who really had not been a focal point of ECW for last month. Sandman was moving on to Mikey, Douglas left the promotion and Funk was nowhere to be found. Cactus was aimless. This was a great move for him and it really unlocked his promo potential. Before the match, he makes standard pro wrestling remarks about beating up Raven's flunkies, but when he gets to Raven he says he digs his vibe. Before the match gets started, Raven starts to work his voodoo talking about how he understands Cactus and can create a safe place for Cactus.Just when Dreamer is about to pin Raven for the first time BANG! Cactus turns! It makes sense because it was not a plan hatched before. It was Cactus wrestling with the the thought and deciding mid-match what to do. Cactus gives a very Mankind-esque promo huddled in a warehouse behind some framing. He talks about abandonment and how he feels pain and that people dont realize how much pain he is in but Raven does. Now he will serve Raven and ensure that Raven's world comes into being even if that means laying waste to his ex-friends Dreamer and Mikey. Awesome angle!

I popped for Mikey trying to smoke too. Good shit.

Didnt watch the match but saw the post match angle. Chairshot heard round the World was brutal. They are doing a great job giving Dreamer victories like this in the feud or when he piledrove Beulah at Enter Sandman went into the crowd and had everyone chant E-C-DUB around him. He might not be winning the matches but he is winning the war. Raven cuts a great promo in Florida about how this all will backfire because Raven feasts on pain so the more anger Dreamer has and the more violent he becomes the stronger Raven becomes. Raven as a demented, evil empath is amazing.

Everyone in ECW from Fonzie to Joey to Paul E kept misusing the word "defy". He had banned the fans from the building for Heat Wave 95. He kept saying I defy the fans to show up. He wanted to say I dare the fans to defy me and show up. They kept using "defy" to mean "dare". It was wicked weird. Gordon decks him and loses his promoter's license in Pennsylvania. It is leading to Fonzie vs Gordon I imagine.

Because it is not about titles, Pete, it is about hurting the Public Enemy. Ok, yeah I cant explain that booking decision. I made the case for why Public Enemy going over in the first match made sense, but this doesnt. They needed to get the tag titles on Raven & Richards for the impending Pitbulls feud and they went this route. Meh. The important thing is my man Raven and Stevie Richards are champions of the world! They put heat on Fonzie for doing a double reversal to get the titles on Raven & Richards. I think this is the first and only double Dusty Finish and I liked it. Since it doesnt look like any of the Raven/Richards promos or segments made the yearbook from July I will just capture my thoughts here. -The first title defense at Heat Wave 95 was against jabronis Don E. Allen & Broad Street Bully. Most important thing is Raven/Richards lose by countout because Richards is making out with Francine and Beulah takes exception. Catfight and I gotta say it is a good one. Those floors are gross and those women are hardcore for rolling around on that floor. Beulah explains to Stevie that Francine is a bimbo and Stevie needs to stop hanging out with her. Stevie explains he cant help that "she is hot for my trot and warm of my form!" I remember watching this segment back in 2006 when Youtube really broke and man I popped huge. I thought this was the most genius thing I ever heard. It is still wicked funny to me. Long story short, Beulah is being catty because she wants to be the only woman in the nest. Another funny Stevie/Beulah moment is Stevie is drooling over the thought of Woman back when she was apart of Sullivan's Army of Darkness and Beulah gives him a good whack. -This leads to me to my other favorite Raven/Richards promo in Florida in the ocean where they are standing shin high. Stevie is going on and on about how he had this great childhood and at the center piece was Florida Championship Wrestling. He makes fun of Kevin Sullivan's height but thought the Army of Darkness was really cool until Luna fucked up the stable, fucked up Florida Championship Wrestling and fucked up his childhood until New Wave came along! LOL! That was great and then Raven cuts in and cuts some of his best demented, evil empath bullshit, feasting on pain especially the Chairshot around the World. As Dreamer gets angrier, Raven gets stronger. Good stuff all around! The Chairshot Heard Round The World happens at Heat Wave 95 after the Raven/Richards tag title defense in a Stevie vs Luna aftermath. Dreamer really smoked him. Iconic moment. -Down in Florida, I thought the TV focused mostly on Sandman/Mikey/Woman. I dont remember too much. -Overall they are definitely building to Raven & Richards vs Pitbulls. They say they have vanquished Dreamer & Luna. They have been bringing up the Steiners. Oh and Raven says the Public Enemy and Gangstas are destroying each other in the turf war. Raven's act definitely feels like the most over act in ECW at this point.

At least Douglas shows ass on his way out and goes out on his back. Douglas thinks he can make Gordon grovel to make him stay and Douglas probably would have laughed in his face if he did. Instead Gordon proves he has a backbone and fired Douglas! Awesome. Douglas decks Gordon because he is a prick. 9-1-1 baby! Douglas eats the chokeslam. 911 was such a genius gimmick. I really, really love it. Such a good name for the character! If I ever get a chance to book, I would have to have a 911 type character on my roster. Douglas is gone but his gift of Fonzie to the Mutants is the gift that just keeps on giving!

I will defend the booking here. The Gangstas are the hot new, ultra-violent team. Public Enemy are the poseurs. If you have Gangstas win, you prove the Gangstas right and whats the fucking point of more matches. Have Public Enemy win but close. Well now the Gangstas are pissed because they got shown up by poseurs. The Gangstas end up jumping Public Enemy outside the building because they are sore losers and pricks. This puts heat on the feud. It is like gang attack or a drive by, ya know. Now The Gangstas have shown their true nature: they are proud thugs and when their pride is wounded they lash out in an unsportsmanlike way. The Gangstas are definitely the heels. Now you can build the story from there. Yeah I saw the ring fill in and thought it was pretty cool. I am definitely a Public Enemy defender. I think it is loveable hoodie gimmick is funny. I like the high pitched voices and the comedy. They can bring the gravity in their promos too. They are definitely a promo gimmick. I have seen one good Public Enemy match it was on a random Nitro where Knobbs and Saggs just stiffed the hell out of them but a wicked good brawl. There is two guys I wish got a run in ECW, the Nasty Boys would have been great!