PhilTLL

Jesse and Tony, WCW Worldwide 11/20/93: JESSE: He almost reminded me of Dan Gable. You know who Dan Gable is, right? TONY: Of course I do, he was a great amateur wrestler. JESSE: Okay, where was he from? Do you know that? TONY: He was from, hold on...Bagwell up and over Orndorff now...he was from Ohio. JESSE: OHIO? Well it's a good thing I'm here to correct everything you say. He was from Iowa, not Ohio. Iowa. TONY: Iowa, Ohio, they're all the same to me. ... TONY: You know, in spite of what you think Jess, you don't need a strong amateur background to succeed in this business--and you're a prime example of that!

It's listed as 12/27/85 on the set. 12:00 segment, opens on Murdoch whaling on Ted in the corner, with the "five minutes elapsed" call coming at about 2:00 aired. Finished #19, four spots behind the 12/31 match.

Point stands, ha.

Dead on all this. The first part is emblematic of the change from wrestlers as rivals to coworkers, the rest is just bad booking. On a related note, Nia Jax has nowhere near the athleticism and charisma needed to play Vader.

It neutralizes the in-character unlikability(?) of heels. Outside of the people directly linked to them, it's not really relevant or effective for a heel to show a lot of goodwill and fondness, excepting Fake Nice heels like Kurt Angle. If anything, some of them should be drawing heat off the corporate sunshine stuff. "Stephanie McMahon made me wear this crap, I'm just here to beat people up," etc. I mean, if you want heels that generate actual antipathy instead of that "pretending to be a bad guy but really Doing It All For The WWE Universe because we're all in this together" feeling. I don't mind that they all do autograph sessions and other real-world stuff together, this isn't 1985, but there's no good wrestling reason to have heels do Good Person Things on screen. We all know it's a work and heels are not devious and despicable in real life. (Except when they are, but that's another story.)

I'm not sure what being PC has to do with any of that, but sure. I took this as a reference to WWE-PC: putting smiles on faces because it's all for the fans!, keeping it family friendly and smooth around the edges, lots of loud charity work and confused advocacy, etc. Heels who wear pink ribbons and Connor's Cure badges.

I think the choices here should really be Athleticism (movez~, bumping, etc) and Acting (selling, structure, character, motivation, etc). The former is kind of empty without the latter.

For '89, the Busters match is fine, but personally I'd put any of the Hennig matches (especially the one with a finish) or the March DiBiase match over it.

Continue Watching stops working for days/weeks at a time and has since the beginning, as far as I recall.

It never has, to my recollection.

His grizzled, world-weary look is fantastic too. He looks like the lost 4th member of Mountain.

Night before an existing special. Could they be making another weekend out of it?

Oh man, her blurting out "That's not what this show is about!" is what sealed it as a total work for me. A good one, but still.

It also has a really bad "legit danger/apparent danger" ratio. So it's a lose/lose. Maybe a lose/lose/lose.

Generally agree, except the Splash Mtn/rana spot is so famous (amusingly, Sasha played Rey this time) and high-degree-of-diff that it sticks out instantly when it isn't perfect. Which it wasn't quite.

Friends: Has anything been good on WWE lately? Me: Sure, (B-show) was good last month, (match) and (angle) were worth watching. Friends: Cool, let's get together for (marquee show). Me, later: I'm sorry.

Mauro Ranallo and his constant pursuit of goofy metaphors are a delight. On the other hand I pretty much hate Pro Wrestling MMA angles. Just do a pinfall if he's hurt so bad. It's not like doing the bit really means anything anymore. Oh yes, I forgot, that's all for Lesnar's scheduled "suspension".

"Magnus opus". Oooof.

HEA-VY-WEIGHTS! HEA-VY-WEIGHTS! Zooming those 10 punches in a row was actually a little nauseating.

Hey Renee Young, if I had been at that desk for that long, I'd be drinking too.

Also, maybe the Demon King should focus on resurrecting this hellish crowd. A ha...ha...

Not that it matters, but the "operatic" wrestling entrance (okay, Nak and Balor) is deeply confusing and unimpressive thing to the casuals I hang out with.

I also think it really exposes the self-conscious epic when it goes from being used once a year to once a month to multiple times a week. More chances for them to suck, more burnout on the style. I'm sure this has been said a million times.

Jesus, Gallows looks like a road sign.

Is there anyone at all who prefers the bloated formatting and runtime? Live crowd, home crowd, anyone? I just don't get it.