El-P

Yes, but very few workers are able to fill 60 minutes without either going into long useless resthold and/or "dramatic" selling segments or equally useless endless series of spots and "dramatic" nearfalls. Sometimes smokes and mirrors and overbooking can work around that, like HHH vs Rock in 2000, but matches going really long is usually a sign of complacency in the modern days.

I dunno, I thought Credible came off like he usually does, as a nice, humble and down to earth guy. Probably too laid-back to get too much dirt, but it wasn't boring nor dry like some recent ones have been (Vader and Windham's for instance, both huge disapointments). Or course KC should have tried to get Corino who's hilarious and a great storyteller, but it was fine I thought. Nothing earth-shattering of course. What amazes me the most is that Justin is still only 39. I mean, that guy was a kid back then, which I truly never realized.

Agreed. Although I enjoy the early Nitro era quite a bit, I usually get more of out the big angles than out of most matches, as I find frustrating to have short competitive matches between two guys that should get at least 10 minutes together. Had the same issue with joshi in the late 90's in GAEA (and ARSION at times).

I couldn't agree more. A match has to be awfully special for me to want more than 25-30 minutes. I know I said this in another thread recently, but "could've used more time" is an overused criticism. Ten or 15 minutes is fine for most matches, even good ones. Put me in the 25 minutes club too.

Is anyone still able to watch a Buck Zumhofe match anyway ? Yeah, every HHH main event match ever. Most one hour matches are too long.

Shoichi Arai and his very distinct way of announcing and counting to ten during deathmatches was part of what made FMW so different and enjoyable to me. He was part of the unique atmosphere.

Two words : Lanny Poffo. Avoid Jannetty's and Sunny's at all cost though.

Fantastic spectacle. Rodman was a terrific heel here. Too bad they had to do that stupid Nash-as-Sting heel spot at the end, and the announcer selling it like it was Sting was idiotic. But yeah, great lay-out, great psychology. Way to get the most out of a bunch of simple armdrags.

Hennan drops the classic "He's in the best shape of his life" that you drop when a guy comes back looking fat. Hey, even Scott Hall made fun of his gut during the match. Hennig is not over, and coming out during DDP's music wearing an old Mr. Perfect singlet with the straps down (always hated that) really doesn't help. Bischoff wrongfully assumed any former WWF guy would be percieved as a huge star. Plus he was miscast as a babyface, and the turn was predictable as hell as every time Perfect appeared on TV for an angle in the last 4 years, he turned on the guy he was supposed to help (Luger at WM X as a loyal referee and Mero in 96 as some sort of mentor). Add tp this the botch spot which Savage kinda saved by immediately jumping on Hennig as he saw he didn't went over the top rope, you got a reciepe for a super underwhelming match, which it also was as far as the work went, with Hall looking sloppy. And yeah, why in the hell would you trust Hennig after that and try to recruit him in the Horsemen, especially considering the kayfabe history between him & Flair.

Edit : nevermind, I thought this was his match with Hayabusa. I love FMW from this era (well, from any era mind you except Fuyuki's, which has its moment too).

Kinda pointless to have this on PPV, really.

This feud used to be a favourite of mine, and creepiness aside, still is. Tremendous match and a fitting way to end this great feud. They found ways to not repeat their match from one year ago yet not lose one bit of intensity. Them destroying the beach set-up never gets old, and it doesn't get cartoony either. Sullivan almost gets himself a last fiery babyface segment that the crowds eats up before putting Benoit over clean and put an end to his in-ring career. Jacky bashing Sullivan with teh chair didn't came from nowhere, as there had been issues between the two, and earlier in the match Sullivan used Jacky as a projectile to throw on Benoit, which she didn't enjoy. Her leopard outfit was something else too. On a side note, I have to reiterate the paranoia that was rampant in early 00 when Sullivan was put back into power, as he did nothing but push Eddie, Dean & Chris during his stint as a booker, and went to great lenghts himself to put over Benoit as a major ass-kicker in the most heated undercard feud of the year despite their personnal issues. So yeah, maybe everything would have turn out different (and maybe not) had they not leave WCW at this time.

Really good action which worked the best as the spots accumulated, but there were a few rough set ups, particulary with Garza, Lizmark & Psychosis. The crowds doesn't get into it as much as the previous Nitro crowds, and I also felt it wasn't as good as those ones. But yeah, lucha trios matches should have became a staple of WCW cards.

Yeah, Gene could be great still. "Alan Poe gibberish" indeed. Raven backslaps poor Stevie. Raven was the greatest passive-agressive character ever.

Can't add much to what has been said already. Hot opener with nice double team wrestling, which is refreshing considering the division was dead at this point. I also like the Blood Runs Cold division once it got off the ground. Also, WCW's production also gets trashed for good reasons, but they came out with really good themes and entrance for Mortis & Wrath, I wonder why they didn't always put that kind of effort, it would have changed a lot for perceptions of a number of guys. Too bad Wrath didn't keep that look, it was much better than reverting back to Adam Bomb-like singlet and colors in 1999.

Now, that's better. And now pro-wrestling lost all credibility it previously gained from the "What did you learn watching wrestling" thread.

Yeah. Bombay, Michigan should be on the map.

It reminded me of this, dating from 1991 (no need to understand French to understand the joke) : http://youtu.be/ydHUjIB9ETk?t=21s

Uganda as the only identifiable African country kinda cracks me up. As does the oversized Japan. I guess France deserves its spot thanks to Carpentier & Andre. You forgot Iran though. Jabronie.

Damn, they are showered in drinks here, and it's getting ridiculous to the point it's not about heat anymore but about being douche since Luger and Giant got doused too. The promo wasn't much and it's obvious it was going nowhere, but Giant chokeslamming jabronies while Bischoff was getting broke in half in the rack was a cool visual.

Classic angle. Hall trolling Larry Z. was priceless, it's amazing they were already teasing a feud between the two. (Heenan looked legit pissed when Tony told him to stand up for a while).

Raven looks totally wasted, which he probably was (he said it himself, the Nitro years were a pretty big blur). Stevie Richards in WCW for a few years was something I would have loved to watch. He already got bitchslapped here. Poor thing.

I'm actually kinda shocked they didn't play on the old Flair vs Hennig feud from WWF right away. Hennig looks kinda fat. He doesn't get a superstar reaction but it's still better than Jarrett's debut. I'm mentionning Jarrett because it's kinda like the same angle in reverse, with Hennig denying the place Flair offers him in the Horsemen.

You're not alone. She was quite good at WM doing her best Woman impersonation at ringside with HHH, but since then her promos and acting have been pretty cringeworthy to me. Well, the awful angles sure didn't help.

Agreed. I guess they were teasing either two could be DDP's partner, but still. Hennig coming out was a pretty big surprise, but coming just after Sting cleaned up the ring, he didn't get much reaction. And really, Hennig's star power had been overrated. Plus his entire character, story and demeanor screams nWo from the start. The fake Sting stuff was useless. Yeah, signs of tiredness in the booking. Good thing is, one of my favourite workers finally debuts.