dawho5

Back in the day I blamed Bischoff almost entirely. Now I think there was a lot going on. First, Starrcade 1997 started all the dominos falling. And for all of Bischoff's whitewashing, you don't throw away a year and a half angle because Sting comes in not looking excited. Not saying he wanted to or didn't object to Hogan's decision. He probably did, but unlike Russo understood the legal ramifications of "creative control". And since Hulk is is friend he doesn't necessarily hold it over his head. Nash over Goldberg, Bischoff actually won me over on that. Goldberg was most certainly not going to keep squashing the main event guys. How do you make that work? His admission that the booking after and surrounding it might have been better went a ways towards my acceptance there. Maybe make the guy an attraction at PPVs and the Nitro before the PPV. Might pop some ratings when you need them too. Nash defending the FPoD as a "surprise" is all well and good. Not all surprises are good and I would bet even Bischoff (who seems to have engendered that idea of surprises in the first place) would agree. And the whole "Nash as booker because Eric was tired" thing is iffy at best. Not as reality, but as a good idea. There needed to be more of a process in determining that succession. It also speaks to certain wrestlers having Eric's ear a little more. As to all of the other wrestlers complaining about that, I don't buy it. You put Konnan or Booker in Hogan or Nash's shoes they would have had their own biases that ran towards selfish. They are not at fault for WCW going down, but that's a matter of circumstance. Most wrestlers defended their top positions well past the point of sanity. I'll go on record as saying that maybe a guy like Bret is different. But not many would be. Sting maybe as well. The Bret/Goldberg thing is silly. Bret had to know he was getting in with a guy who was not up to the normal standards he was used to. And he had to have heard how stiff Goldberg worked. Protect yourself. Goldberg should have known better than to throw the kick, which is probably not where the real issue came from anyway. You do what you know how to do, don't start throwing out new stuff randomly. Especially when it was a surprise to the other guy! And Bret continuing to wrestle after didn't do him any favors either. He's not 100% wrong about how things were handled in WCW. He's just not accepting his part of the problems he is still experiencing. Russo came long too late to kill WCW. It was on it's deathbed already. He still sucks, but it's not his fault. The whole David Arquette thing was just a horrible idea, but it's clear that Nash and Bischoff never really respected the NWA World Heavyweight Title and that's their prerogative. I disagree, but there's no way to make somebody understand that if they don't. I believe Nash when he says he didn't care after a certain point. My guess is he saw the writing on the wall and started doing stuff to amuse himself. I don't love him for that, but he's not wrong about Goldberg and the need to end the streak. Honestly here's the timeline for me. 1. Hogan gets a creative control -laced contract to come in and revitalize business. 2. WWF stars come in and the NWO deal starts, shooting the business up to the moon. 3. Slowly Bischoff learns how to manage it, with the help of some pro wrestlers who may or may not have an agenda. 4. Hogan decides not to go down clean. He did it before this, hard to believe it didn't happen again. 5. The WWF has started to take some of the ideas used to beat them and adapt them to their own purposes. As WCWs momentum slows, WWF is surging forward. 6. WCW starts trying old tricks and new tricks (Bischoff freely admits he went to the well too often on the NWO) to no avail. 7. WCW gets desperate and hires Russo, who now has no filter. This was never going to work, but it accelerates things. 8. Corporate finally gets their way and there is some shady stuff involving the sale.

I hate hardcore matches, but love violent brawls. Violent brawls between Abby and Carlitos are up there on that list too. Abby works really great for a guy his size, and I loved the ear work by Carlitos. After going through all the PR matches once I cringe anytime a heel wrestler is left alone near those tables with the crowd right there. This crowd was great, with a few different brawls breaking out during the one in the wrestling ring. Abby's elbow drops are amazing. I really hope that ref left after things settled down. I was a little worried for his safety after the decision he had just been a part of. The crowd was scared of Abby and gave him room to leave, but that ref....

Great match for many reasons listed above. The one thing I had thought was a fault (but later realized was in fact a huge strength) was Finlay's increasing use of slowdown tactics as the match went on. For an opener it seemed to be not really bringing the crowd up when you would want it to, but it made the pop for any Benoit offense at all so much bigger. The cutoffs near the end serve increase that effect like cutting off a hot tag. If this hadn't been a match to put over the Benoit/Booker feud (read here, Benoit gets a big babyface win after the comeback) this would be better remembered for sure. That crowd would have eaten up a Benoit win.

Match was fine, but with too much brawling from Dean. I'll agree that it's not his forte (nor Jericho's really). I feel like the booking was off in forcing that kind of match when it was not a big strength for either guy. The end was interesting, but ultimately not great because Dean simply is not a "chairshots & dragging a guy around the arena" wrestler. He just didn't do well at all put in that spot, and knowing how he liked to wrestle it's not surprising.

I watched the highlights of the Cody vs. A.J. match and KNEW that wrestling had passed me by. They managed to take an I Quit match and kill the concept. It was everything bad about ECW plus everything bad about modern WWE. Every Kenny Omega/Bucks match I have ever seen looks like what would have been called a "spotfest" or "your turn/my turn" back when I was watching consistently in the 90s through late 2010s. I put down 10 bucks for Dragon Gate to watch what they were doing and it seems like they are less lucharesu and more NJPW juniors lite, with the standard elbow exchange that 99% of the workers using it besides the 5 Pillars get wrong. The whole idea was not that you should stand there and elbow each other to fill time. It was that Misawa had a killer elbow and would try to lure his rivals into giving him some extra damage while he was on the wrong side of things. If you're not Misawa or you aren't known for throwing killer elbows, you shouldn't be doing it. Especially if you are the small guy in a match.

There is a modern homage to the Spidey/Torch relationship that recreates a lot of the funny/awesome moments and takes off on the way the whole relationship works. I am not overly a fan of Spidey or Johnny Storm, but when you put them together they are amazing beyond belief.

Fun tag for sure. I liked the way that Hase and Kensuke actually worked the chinlocks instead of just sitting in them. The lariat/DDT transition basically guaranteed a Hash/Hoshu win, especially after Hash had DDTed Hase.

So one of Watts' big moves when he comes on is to kill the heel group that is as hot as the Horsemen ever was (DA) because he didn't like Heyman's contract? Given the lack of credible heels he is facing it might have been wiser just to eat that and continue to push the DA.

Great stunt from Barby with the bricks. I have no issue with him as a monster contending for the title. He would have made a good Hogan opponent with the right build.

Probably should have waited until Watts had some better wrestling clips to show honestly.

Horner looked really good here. Obviously he doesn't have the charisma to carry things himself, but with guys like DWB and Wright around all he has to do is hold up his end, which he does.

Corny and the Bodies make this. Not sure I like the idea of insulting Corny's mom even if he's got a lot coming his way.

So between this, the Bret interview and the time machine Backlund segment I am confused. Did this all air on the same show??? Every part of it seemed so different. And I know that you are supposed to have some variety on the show. It just seems like this segment is the more of-the-time WWF segment, Bret's interview was almost like a WCW babyface promo and the Backlund deal was trying to bring back the WWWF of the late 70s.

Great interview from Bret. He plays the humble champ so well. And puts Flair over!

Definitely out of place, but it fits Backlund.

Didn't love it, didn't hate it. The timing on some of those spots with the Cowboys and Misionerios in the third caida was something to see. Very fluid and well-done!

I enjoyed the opening a lot with Kikuchi showing some good offense beyond just the elbows. Sadly he is almost to the point to completely out of the main event picture. As is Ogawa, who has started to look better. Taue continues to shine and I love it. Kobashi is great and getting better, which is no surprise as 1993 is almost upon us. Misawa is good here, especially in that opening exchange with Jumbo. I thought it was a good sendoff for Jumbo. He wasn't a huge part of the match but got in all of the signature Jumbo stuff without anything feeling shoehorned in. Admittedly you might want something more spectacular, but I'm not sure he was up to a big singles match in the condition he was in.

I really loved this match. Great meat-and-potatoes work with some great limb selling by Flair. Easily one of my top 10 WWF matches I've ever seen. Since when does a guy get a title win in his dad's hometown? That's crazy talk.

I am not a fan of the whole "promoter pushing his son" deal as a general idea, unless the son is someone as talented as Dustin seems right away. That being said, it is hard to put any blame on Erik Watts for trying to play the role he has been put into. If he had seemed big-headed about it I would probably think differently.

Loved Watts here, good stuff. Didn't know that Boris Malenko was the originator of the Russian chain match or that the coal miner's glove initially was done in Memphis. Very cool.

I was wondering what a Prince of Darkness match was! Thank you sir. For as goofy as the kickoff to spin the wheel was I like the job they have done with it since. Of course having two pros like Sting and Jake involved helps.

Foley conducting this interview was an awesome choice. I liked how the cobra played along to make the promo even better.

Barby is really impressive here. And I have enjoyed Foley as the manager/coach so far.

By Memphis standards doesn't Lawler piledriving the ref and Lee damn near killed them?

I see your point garetta, but it seems like Wright is the kind of character who would outright make stuff up. I thought both promos were really good and I am waiting with baited breath for Morton's surprise next week.