C.S.

Was that a fair assessment, in everyone's opinion? I don't remember him being anything special. But the "worst"? I don't know about that. ESPN wouldn't hire crap, would they? Considering how bad WWE announcing is, I wonder if Grisham was held back by the "talk about everything except the match" style, being yelled at from the headset, etc.

Is Renee a lifelong wrestling fan? That may determine her decision to stay or go.

I tried watching it last night. Kept kicking me off (Roku). Hope that's fixed by now.

adds more fuel to the fire that the whole thing wasn't the plan from the start. Don't know why he would schedule the wedding for the Friday after Mania if he knew he was getting such a huge title push On the Bryan Network special, Brie (I think) mentioned it was because post-Mania is the only period they have "time off."

My bad. I thought you meant a LoW show about Andre. My confusion came from hearing that a couple of episodes were put up and taken down very quickly. Hopefully Old School will eventually be fully searchable. LoW wasn't until recently.

But if he did that, people would rake him over hot coals for "burying" young talent. Major Catch-22 with a side of BBQ.

Because Andre was taken down for some reason.

I almost feel like this needs two separate topics in a way, because Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce in WCW were so different from The Godwinns in the WWF (and later Southern Justice, but they weren't really around long enough in that role). I realize this team pre-dates their debut in WCW, but I'm going to start with their time there because that's where I first saw them. Nostalgia may be fueling my opinions, but I remember Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce being a really fun midcard heel team during the era of WCW Saturday Night. Particularly memorable, for me, was their "crazy" (at the time) match against The Vegas Connection - DDP and Vinnie Vegas (Kevin Nash). Shanghai Pierce was masked at first, then lost the mask in an angle, but I can't recall the particulars. I always found it strange that one of the members of the team had a mask and the other didn't, but it was cool too. As a kid, Tex Slazenger seemed like the "leader" of the team to me. This is a point I'm bringing up for a reason and will come back to again in a minute. For whatever reason, Tex and Shanghai never won gold in WCW despite being one of the more "over" teams on the roster. I wasn't nearly as enamored with The Godwinns in the WWF, even though they were the same wrestlers. Chalk it up to the gimmick, I guess. Of course, Henry O. Godwinn (Shanghai Pierce) was a WWF singles wrestler at first. His most (in)famous feud was with Triple H in a "Hog Pen Match" at one of the In Your House PPVs. At some point, Tex Slazenger appeared as a jobber for at least one match on Superstars or one of those shows (maybe under his real name Dennis Knight, but I can't remember). Eventually, Tex debuted as the dim-witted Phineas I. Godwinn and reformed his team with the former Shanghai, Henry O. Godwinn. With Tex and Shanghai, Tex was the clear "leader" IMO. The opposite was true with the Godwinns. By virtue of having more WWF experience, Henry (Shanghai) seemed to "take the lead" this time around. Maybe because of that, or the gimmick itself, this incarnation of the team never really worked for me the way Tex and Shanghai did. Later on, they became Southern Justice under their real names, Mark Canterbury and Dennis Knight. That version of the team seemed cool as hell, but it didn't last long enough for anyone to really be able to judge it. If I recall correctly, Knight suffered a career-ending injury after taking a botched Doomsday Device from the LOD. Not sure if that is how the injury really happened or if that was just the storyline explanation. Either way, that spelled the end for Mark Canterbury's career. (Or did Canterbury come back for at least a short spelll to feud with LOD? I seem to recall that, but I may be confusing it with some other angle.) Knight continued for a few more years as a lower card singles wrestler - Mideon, Naked Mideon, etc. Overall, I'd call this team a mixed bag, but I blame it more on the silliness of their WWF gimmick than anything the wrestlers themselves did. Dennis Knight and Mark Canterbury were pretty solid and effective together in the ring, I thought. What did everyone else here think of their various teams and gimmicks?

For Roku users, a tip I found on Facebook: As you know, several of the Legends of Wrestling shows are missing from that section on Roku. But if you type "Legends of Wrestling" into the search section, ALL of the shows will come up. I've tried it and it really works. (This did not always work. I tried it before, early on, and nothing came up. But it does work now.)

I didn't know that. Either way, I can't hold that against Styles, because WWE commentary is the same way now and it's terrible compared to Styles's *ahem* style.

I watched the "infamous" ECW episode with the Sandman/Dreamer cane angle and Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA Title. I believe it was the first episode of ECW I ever saw. I was completely blown away at the time. Revisiting it 20 years later (holy shit!), it's still fun, but the production values were much worse than I remembered (not that they were ever great, even then) and the main event - while enjoyable enough - is certainly no classic (it wasn't one then either though). The highlights of the show - the Dreamer/Sandman angle and Shane's speech - still hold up. The Doink/911 stuff was and is fun, but gimmicky names like "Paul E. Dangerously" and "The Tazmaniac" really stuck out like a sore thumb. Of course, both of those would be changed going forward. This show marked the birth of "Extreme." Dennis Corralluzo and Tod Gordon both came across looking like shady carny promoters after the Douglas title throwdown. Heyman, oddly enough, always seemed much more "sincere" (ha!) and was a much better fit for the on-camera figurehead role. Also, maybe it's just over a decade and a half of hearing commentators talk about everything BUT the match, but Joey Styles seems amazing to me now. He actually focused on what was happening in the ring, called the moves, explained their effects, etc. It was probably Jim Ross Lite at the time, but it's a breath of fresh air compared to today's commentating style. Even more impressive is that he did it all by himself. Styles was and is a really underrated commentator. The only flaw I could really pick out for this particular show is that he seemed to SCREAM through everything. That might have been a byproduct of ECW's lousy acoustics though.

He must have liked it well enough, because he more or less kept it going with The Quebecers when neither of them really needed to be "mounties" at all. But they weren't mounties. Their theme music explicitly said so! LOL!!! I can't believe I forgot about that epic theme music. Thinking back on it, I really loved The Quebecers. They were smooth in the ring and entertaining out of it. Also, they beat The Steiners at a time where a win like that actually still meant something.

Well, Mountie did eventually spend a night in jail.

He must have liked it well enough, because he more or less kept it going with The Quebecers when neither of them really needed to be "mounties" at all. On WWF shows.

Agreed. DeMott - of all people - has no room to talk. Hugh Morrus as a name/gimmick was the drizzling shits. Maybe with a different name, it would have worked. He seemed cool enough in his WCW debut (on WCW Saturday Night) against Macho Man as "The Man of Questions" (a dumb name too, but miles ahead of Hugh Morrus or Hugh G. Rection). Maybe I'm guilty of taking these stupid Countdown shows too seriously, but every one of them (that I've seen) has been plagued by unnecessarily nasty potshots. It's one thing to lightheartedly poke fun at wrestling's silliness, but some of the talking heads are downright mean-spirited. Daniel Bryan, sadly enough, comes across as one of the smuggest assholes of the lot (I love him otherwise) - but he's far from alone in that. Edit: My stance on Bryan isn't because of this episode alone. He has come across badly in other episodes too.

It's ironic because everyone would have been singing Disco's praises if that had been a WWE gimmick. Years ago, when Honky Tonk Man was hyping a mystery man, the big internet rumor was that it'd be Disco. No idea how much merit that ever had, but it was out there. It ended up being Rockabilly (Billy Gunn with a new, atrocious gimmick). So are any number of successful gimmicks on paper (Undertaker, etc.). Jacques made it work. You can't deny that.

I watched the Countdown episode, Infamous Gimmicks, last night. I'm assuming these were filmed a year or more ago, because CM Punk was a talking head, Bryan's beard wasn't as bushy, and people like Matt Stryker also added their two cents. Vince Russo was there too. Daniel Bryan once again came across badly, calling The Mountie a stupid gimmick. These sorts of talking head appearances do him no favors whatsoever. I hope someone behind-the-scenes has worked with him on improving that aspect of his performance since these were filmed. The Mountie and Disco Inferno were both on this list, which I found a bit unfair. Say what you want about those gimmicks, but both Jacques Rougeau and Glenn Gilbertti embraced those characters and made them work. In contrast, it's obvious that Terry Taylor's heart was never completely into the Red Rooster (I can't blame him, but still). He did try though. A.J. was cute, the way she sweetly liked some of the more horrible gimmicks. Miz recalling JBL comparing him to Rooster was interesting. JBL was a selfish prick who went into business for himself back then instead of doing his job as a color commentator of getting the characters over (my opinion, not Miz's, LOL - and I generally like JBL). Even Piper on commentary did his darndest to make the Gobledy Gooker sound special. at #1 was a strange choice. I don't think he'd even make the list at all if the poll happened today or a year from now. I was expecting Bastion Booger to be #1 (after seeing some of the people who #3, #2, etc.), but he wasn't on the list at all.

Sure, but you could say that about any match, really. Look at all of the countless WCW matches that were great (lucha, cruiserweight, etc.), but had either no build-up, no follow-up, or both. That stuff matters. It's what makes a good match great and a great match legendary and remembered for years to come.

I fully expected Doink to beat Crush, to be honest. Back then, the WWF seemed to have an unwritten rule that the "new wrestler" always won his first big PPV match/feud.

He admitted it on one of the Legends of Wrestling roundtables. When they were all going around naming their picks for worst wrestling celebrity ever, J.R. chose Lauper. I was surprised. It made him look really out of touch, and he usually isn't.

Well, don't forget, The Miz beat Cena at WrestleMania a few years back. Mine: Undertaker beating Triple H at WM17. This was before "the streak" was really a thing, and H was on fire at that point. Certainly not a shock on the level of Taker/Brock this year, but I was surprised. Christian beating Jericho and turning heel with Trish was another unexpected moment for me.

One Man Gang died?!?! NO! When???

Great piece! Thanks for sharing. I am still in shock.

Watched this last night. Fun mix of kayfabe and reality. I kept wishing they would do this for other people who participated in WrestleMania weekend. Oddly enough, Ultimate Warrior was one of the first people who came to my mind. Brie Bella is such a contrast to Bryan. So smooth and composed. I hate to make this comparison because it doesn't quite fit, but she reminded me of Robin Givens. Not necessarily in a bad way, but she came across as really slick and manufactured. Maybe it's just because Bryan is the opposite: so awkward and easygoing. But I'm not implying that Brie is using Bryan like Givens used Tyson - after all, they were together even when Bryan had nothing going on - a point I found interesting. Another thing that struck me was how well-liked and respected Bryan is. Even in such a political atmosphere, everyone seemed to be rooting for him to succeed. I don't know if Cena was being sincere or just "saying all the right things," but I want to believe he was giving us his honest thoughts. The problem with Cena is - no matter what, even without trying - he always carries this vibe of being the head quarterback/prom king, and that makes him hard to relate to. Bryan is the opposite, which is another thing that makes him so special.

Punk bitch move by Aries. Probably why he'll forever be an indy guy.