El-P

You don't think Sammartino's and Morales ethinicty mattered in the North-East market in the 60's ? Not to say it works the same way today, but not to have a latino superstar on your roster seems amazingly tone-deaf in 2014.

They were still on fire at this point. Vast difference with the embarrassing stripers segment in 99.

Like Bruno Sammartino ? Or Pedro Morales ?

Oh yeah, I forgot about this one. That was pretty bad. Like Corny said in one of his podcasts pimping his new sponsor KC : "It may be bullshit, but at least it's the bullshit from the guy who was there. You know wrestling…"

"We know what that is !" Oh, sorry… this ain't happening anymore. Always thought Del Rio was an entrance. He was dull as hell in the ring.

Except the fact he worked a 45 minutes match with Davey Boy at Wembley and that his popularity in Europe was akin to Beatlemania, it was an interesting interview. One of the most striking thing to me is that he said he doesn't like to call it in the ring and that he plans his matches beforehand (said the only time he had to talk during a match was against Davey because he forgot everything so he had to lead him though everything on the spot).

I think that's the whole difference. Arn Anderson & Ted DiBiase taking the whole summersault bump was a terrific way to give back to the babyface.

Ah ah ah ! Me of all people being called church-y. That's a good one. I can tell you're not familiar with the way I write. By "pervert" I meant that have to be some kind of pervert to find any enjoyement out of listening to Vince Russo spill his bullshit.

You might want to check to see if Russo accepts the Euro before signing up. If he's trying to make money of off *that* rumour in 2014, damn, that's even sadder.

Whoever is willing to pay a cent to hear or watch whatever Vince Russo says or produces in 2014 is a complete idiot (or a pervert). There, I said it.

I never made that connection before ! Eerie indeed.

I thought WWF in 99 was shit as it happened.

Don't remember any. Not even close.

I'm curious to see how the whole Hennig feud has aged, because thus far Flair really showed me nothing I would call really good in 97. And in the ring he wouldn't give anything great at this point even on his best day. Hogan was a better worker than Flair in 97. Should he have worked a program on top against Hogan during the year ? Well, when you consider they gave Piper two other PPV main event slots, yeah, probably, although that already had been done to death in the previous years. But as a performer, Flair wouldn't crack my top ten in the company in 97 (from the top of my head : Hogan, Savage, Rey, Benoit, Eddie, Regal, Jericho, Wright, Dragon, Syxx, Outsiders, DDP, Jarrett were all all around more entertaining than Flair at this point)

Match went a bit long, but Hogan really carried the whole thing with his maneurisms and badmouthing. Fake Sting ? Well, that was really lazy booking here, and the announcers really look dumb, again. Too bad because like Loss said, Tony is actually really good here selling the moment. So yeah, here we have the booking showing signs of complacency and lazyness. And putting the belt back on Hogan immediately was probably a mistake, they could have gained a month or two before Starrcade without having to ressort to, well, Piper again. Maybe that was Hogan using his creative control. Would love to see another WCW Timeline with Sullivan for 97 to hear what was the idea here, but you can see the first few cracks on the major feuds booking at this point (earlier on, the Steiners won by DQ which means the Outsiders are still the champs, which in itself is good since the Steiner kinda suck, but really made WCW look bad).

Totally forgot about that Syxx vs Flair match at Road Wild 97. Man, Flair looks like he couldn't give a fuck. The more I'm going back through this year, the more the idea that poor Flair was fucked over by WCW and should have been working on main events seems absurd. He looked old, dated, didn't care about putting younger talent over and was a walking parody on promos. Meanwhile, Hogan, as much as a destructive asshole as he would soon become, was still drawing shitloads of money and was an effective in-ring worker and a terrific promo.

And sometimes you can see him (and tons of others too, including workers I enjoy) litteraly pushing the guy he's trying to pin away just before the three count so they can get into the next position. It's absurd and ruins whatever illusion of them even trying to pin each others during those sequences.

What are you refering to ?

Malenko is guilty of one of my biggest pet peeves, guys kicking out of their own pinning attempts during quick nearfalls sequences. It drives me crazy.

The turning point toward Russo-iffic booking to me is SummerSlam 98. Up until then, the product is still holding together pretty decently. The fall is when it really began to crumble into shit. I said it a million time, my breaking point was the Royal Rumble 99. Totally broke my spirit of being a WWF fan, which I had been for ten years.

I tend to agree, although he certainly was a wooden and dry promo. I think it's kinda the same case as Brad Armstrong who apparently had a great personnality backstage. It's not like they were looking like Tim Horner in the ring either (but who knows, maybe Horner was hilarious backstage too). Ironically enough, I thought he was at his best when he was working as a fiery babyface (against Syxx or Jericho for instance) instead of the emotionless technical "shooter" which catered to his worst tendencies in the ring.

Basically, it was a "swerve". It was HIM all along. Only this time, the TV executives really didn't like the unveiling, apparently.

The peak of Nitro. Anyone wanting to argue that Hogan wasn't still WCW's MVP at this point ? Amazing moment, with Luger not only beating Hogan clean for the belt, but punking out the OUtsiders and Savage in the process too. You can feel the heat building to the final release from the crowd. Great pro-wrestling moment. I still wonder why the fuck Glacier was one of the first guys jumping the ring. Anyway, great post-match celebration, exactly what the Starrcade match should have been. Gotta love the fact Hogan (and his bitch Savage) almost gets nervous in the face of Hall & Nash who are looking down like they are thinking about doing something about it… In the grand scheme of things, yeah, maybe they should have let Luger keep the belt for awhile and not drop it back immediately and have the focus go back to Sting when he was losing some momentum with the idiotic contract signing segments. But as a pure moment, it was the peak of the Nitro era.

JJ Dillon keeps looking like a dumb fuck. I really never enjoyed his role in WCW, he always looked stupid and clueless. Plus the whole "Sting doesn't accept the contract" looks redondant after they ran the same kind of angle with Raven in the previous weeks. Yeah, this is were WCW began to struggle with how to fill time on top until Starrcade, which was still a long way to go.

DiBiase's promo was pretty decent until the fuck up, which was quite funny. But he was done the day Uncle Eric took his role in the nWo. DiBiase had been pretty good at first, better than during his ill-fated WWF run as a manager, but really never accomplished much. And turning face and joinning the Steiner came from nowhere and really felt like a nothing news. Plus the Steiners/Outsiders feud had overstayed its welcome.