El-P

His reactions to the Wrestlerock Rumble are classic. The Dairy Queen Incident is pretty damn funny too. Those Cornette shoots are gold.

Damn, I had a dream last night where I actually talked with Jim Ross about his retirement, the most stressful period in his life (WCW ? WWF ? Mid-South ?), his collection of hats (WTF ?) and my favourite JR call ever, which was something to the effect of "Damn you Austin ! Dam you to hell !", which I'm pretty sure never actually happened. And JR was grumpy but pretty cool after we broke the ice.

Very cool pics FLIK.

PPV 20 : New Blood Rising "What are they gonna do now ? Improvise ?" match of the night : Goldberg vs Kevin Nash vs Scott Steiner. I'll make it short. At one point, Goldie is set up for the jacknife, he just pushes Nash away and leaves the ring, while Russo is screaming to get his ass back in the ring. Because your see, he's *not following the script*. Hence the Tony Schiavone comment I quoted. I fast forwarded through the rest of this abortion. Fuck you Russo, fuck you very much. Would-be match of the night ruined by stupid gimmick : Lance Storm vs Mike Awesome. This could have been really good to excellent, really. These two cliqued right away. The work here is the crispest of the whole show, Lance makes Awesome's offense look killer and Awesome works smoothly, including saving a botched spot where he stumbled from the top rope yet managed to fall on his feet and run to lariat the hell out of Storm. But still, we have to have a stupid gimmick so we get Jacques Rougeau (to the vast disapointment of the fans who were chanting "We want Bret" all night long) making rules on the fly to save Lance's ass. They work the best they can around it and actually do the best job possible with such an awkward heel gimmick, but it still kills the pace of the match and turns it into some kind of joke. Bret Hart showed up afterward. Biggest pop of the night. They couldn't have Bret Hart do the ridiculous heel stuff, but he still embraced with Rougeau and Storm afterward. It's amazing that the Hart vs US angle from 1997 was basically still resonnating with Canadian audience in 2000, as they were totally cheering the heel bullshit. Match of the night by default : Shane Douglas vs Kidman. So there it is, since Awesome vs Storm was ruined by a stupid gimmick, this is the most solid match of the night, entirely thanks to Shane Douglas who works maybe his best stuff since his Justin Credible PPV match in ECW in 1999. Too bad Kidman is a sloppy-ass babyface, otherwise it could have been really good. It's interesting also to see that Kidman rushes his comeback so badly that the heat the match had until that point totally dies down until the finish, which is kinda sad for Douglas who was getting good reactions. It's a strap match BTW, but not a "touch 4 corners" strap match, just a "strap the shit out of your opponent" match. Mark Madden, who's torturous to listen too, thinks he's probably pretty damn smart saying "She's turning heel" when Torrie Wilson grabs her shoe to hit Kidman. Yawn. Post match sees a pretty nice beatdown and hanging (although the announcers are just ridiculous implying Douglas was actively trying to kill Kidman) then a short Reno vs Vito exchange. Spotfest of the night : Jung Dragons vs 3-Count. I find this combination much more fun than the vastly overrated "classics" that the Hardys/E&C/Dudleys were having in the WWF at the same time. It's totally goofy and full of huge spots, but it is paced like a lucharesu match. Tank Abbott goofying at ringside is always enjoyable. The only bad thing about this match is that two items were suspended above the ring, the golden record and the recording contract, and it isn't clear what the goal is. Apparently only the recording contract mattered since 3-Count finally won the match. Fun opener. Really ? This is the main event ? match of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Booker T. Micheal Buffer introducing Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair or Randy Savage had a big feel to it. Micheal Buffer introducing Jeff Jarrett and Booker T just seems like a WTF moment. This is a very mediocre TV title level match blown up to main event status by virtue of using usual Attitude era bullshit like a ton of ref bumps and garbage spots. Doesn't work either. Earlier in the show Jeff Jarrett embushed Booker in his car and slapped the door on his already injured knee, Larry Z. on Barry Windham style. You'd think Booker T would figure out milking the hell out of his injury would be the only way to go, especially when Jarrett actually works on his knee (in a very boring, not crisp and dull way, but still). Nope. Booker will basically never sell his knee after the beatdown it took during the match. Man, Booker sucks. Jarrett doesn't look that good either. They fuck up a neckbreaker spot pretty horridly at the end. Blah. Clusterfuck of the night : Kronik vs Jindrak & O'Hare vs Perfect Event vs M.I.A. With special referee Disco Inferno and Rey, Tygress & Juvy getting involved freely as they also are enforcement referees. Yep, four actual referees in a match. Heel referees. So, there's an alliance of sorts between the Perfect Event and the two other greenhorns. Whatever. The highlight is Konnan making fun of them on commentary. The lowlight is Mark Madden being just unbearable. He's also calling Konnan "Carlos", because he's shooting I guess. Just whatever. Vamp & Muta get involved, because we don't have enough outside people apparently, and they get a title shot later against Kronik. This match sucked too BTW. Really embarrassing match of the night : Miss Hancock vs Major Guns. In the mud. Hancok has pain in her tummy. Goes to the hospital. You'll guess the rest. Ok, this is enough. There was also the Judy Bagwell on a forklift match, which was as "good" as a Bagwell match could be. David Arquette showed up. For a second or two I thought he was gonna swerve everyone again and turn on Kanyon, but no such luck. A useless Cat vs Muta four minutes match to kill time, a useless two minutes Sting vs Demon match to go to the bathroom. Basically, this PPV was shit after the opener. Douglas vs Kidman was decent thanks to Douglas, and the promise of Reno vs Vito looks good enough, and Lance vs Awesome was as "good" as it could in the circumstances, but it was still a ruined opportunity to have a real strong match. Two more months of Russo, I have no desire to watch WCW anymore at this point, it's 90% complete shit. It's very obvious why nobody was buying the PPV's anymore. Still waiting for the "good stuff". I don't see it coming yet.

Indeed.

Dustin wins easily to me, on the strenght of his WCW run alone. Taker's big time main events have been ridiculously overrated over the years. My two favourite WWF gimmicks too, I *loved* them back in 1996. I got tired of Taker eventually, and Goldust sadly got toned down way too quickly, but they have been the best productions of the WWF machine in term of pure comics character. Best music themes, best light shows etc...

Totally agree with Jerry and Matt's points on Okerlund.

The French announcing scene was pretty bad during the Monday Night Wars. Bondin & Letourneur were terrible, and on the WWF side, Rougeau and Brassard really weren't much better at this point. I all but gave up on French broadcast in 1997, as I switched to satellite English channels that year. I'm really a product of the Guy Hauray / Eddie Carpentier announcing team, they were probably half of why I became a wrestling fan to begin with. Blondin has been doing TNA since the beginning ? Holy shit ! He must have gone insane by now...

Really ? Who were the announcers then ? I remember Marc Blondin and his acolyte during the Nitro glory days, and they weren't good. WEEK 84 (August 7 to 12, 2000) Match of the week : Lance Storm vs Booker T (Nitro). Not very good, but at least pretty dynamic thanks to Storm. It highlights the fact Booker T works like a robot and really hasn't showed zilch in the ring since his feud with Benoit in 1998. The whole story about Booker these days is that he's got a week knee, complete with a brace. Add the fact Lance Storm wins every match with a half-crab, and you've got a super simple story to tell, even in a rushed Russo-era Nitro style match. So we get Lance putting his hold on Booker's week knee, we get Booker being the very first not to submit and get to the ropes, and then Booker doesn't sell his knee, not for half a second. And he does the longest delayed ax kick ever to boot, in a classic RVD waste your time and telegraph your spot moment. I fail to see what anybody saw in Booker as a worker at one point. Hardcore match of the week : Mike Sanders vs Norman Smiley (Thunder). Fun match with some good spots involving Sanders, whose already much better on the mic and in the ring than any of the "young lions" that have been pushed in the previoous month. The new rules states you have to win inside teh ring, which makes the whole idea of brawling backstage stupid. We get an idiotic spot with Jarrett breaking a guitar for no reason on Norman Smiley, but apart from that spot, this was pretty fun. Beatdown of the week : Reno beats up Kidman (Thunder). I already enjoy that Reno guy. Good bumper it seems, some impressive and crisp looking offense (which is refreshing). Kidman I couldn't care less at this point, and he has regressed as a worker since his overrated cruiserweight days, but hey, he can take a beating. We get the involvment of yet *another* girl, a new Nitro Girl who's suppsed to be Reno's girlfriend but who has been flirting with Kidman. This is insane, there's a woman involved in about every angle at this point, and they are all bimbos/whores/cunts/fat-girl-you-can-make-fun-of. Reno and Douglas beats up Kidman after the match, and Big Vito runs in to save his ass, because apparently he's got an issue with Reno. Ok, I like Vito too, so that could lead to something good. Probably won't though. Shoot interview of the week : Vince Russo (Nitro). If you're heard any interview of Russo in the past 13 years, this is exactly the same stuff. Made WWF successful, got screwed by politics in the back in WCW, cares about all the young talent here, doesn't want to be on TV because he's not "one of the boys" and only did it because it was needed. And he's playing the shoot card, so he's out of character and comes off as a babyface. Crap On-a-pole match of the week : Scott Steiner vs Sting. (Nitro). Lead pipe on-a-pole match, because Steiner is using a lead pipe now (which also happens to be Crowbar's gimmick). Same finish as last week's match : ref gets bumped, the heels gets help and when the ref gets up the heel got the object in hands so he wins the match. How creative. Swerve of the week : Fat girl Heidi is Canadian (Thunder). So she screws Mike Awesome in a flag vs flag match against Lance Storm. Man, that is more creative and interesting booking. Russo finally did it, he also turned this feud into complete bullshit. Well done. And we also got Miss Hancock and Major Guns in a mud pit, Kanyon & Mark Madden vs Bagwell & Gene Okerlund, more and more Vampiro crap, more multi team matches with Kronik, more bad Jeff Jarrett promos with multiple use of the word slapnutz. The build to this PPV has been godawful, I swear these few weeks following the US tournament show were some of the most boring and horrid I've ever scene. Just eye gouging stuff.

I agree 100% with this list. And yeah, Dan Kroffat (Furnas I wouldn't consider him a great worker), Buzz Sawyer. First name that comes to my mind was Yumi Fukawa, for whatever reason. Tremendous worker in ARSION, who never got past the lower half of the undercard. Hiromi Yagi has to be there too.

Luke was 42 and Butch 45 when they jumped to WWF. Their careers was behind them already. They made a great move by jumping to WWF and becoming the Bushwhackers.

I thought the Dragon outfit and the fire breathing was a lot cooler than Steamboat the karate kid. That being said, the jump back to WWF in 91 was totally ill-advised.

True, Luger in 89 was excellent, but the comedic/chicken shit aspect of the character in 99/00 made him even more fun, and that would have been perfect for the WWF.

The Narcissist gimmick was over the top (that outfit...), but it was the best role for Luger. Turning him face and having him failed at SummerSlam killed him dead. Basically the Total Package gimmick he did with Liz in 99/00 was exactly what the Narcissist should have been.

Luger, Windham, Arn & Tully, The Steiners never really fit in WWF. That guy Terry Taylor would probably have been better off staying with Crockett too...

Well, in all honesty at one point (some time ago, but still) I *was* commenting too much on things I didn't care for too much. That's why at one point I decided I was gonna shut the hell up about it and try to mostly talk about something that was actually fun for me (well, not that WCW 99-01 is exactly *fun* all the time, but you get the point).

I haven't talked regularly about WWE in eons, and the last few times I did was after I did watch the stuff I was commenting on (last one being the debut of the Wyatt family, and the time before that was probably WM). Why I have no interest in watching is because the few time I do I end up thinking it's mostly unwatchable, not because I have decided that I have no interest in it anyway.

This.

WEEK 83 (July 31 to August 5, 2000) On-a-pole match of the week : Shane Douglas vs Kidman Viagra on-a-pole match (Nitro). How sad is it that it's actually the best match this week ? How stupid is it that these two are building to a regular PPV match by having a gimmick on free TV ? Credit to Shane Douglas for holding this together, but really, I have zero interest in this feud anymore, not that Kidman is a guy I want to see much of to begin with. Title change of the week : Lance Storm wins the Cruiserweight title (Nitro). Not much of a match, but finally Storm gets his third title. He has renaimed the Hardocre title S.H.I.T., because we know how much of an acronym mark Russo is, which is too goofy for the character. Angle of the week : Lance Storm defends his three titles in one night (Thunder). This was the only watchable thing on Thunder. Defeated Juventud Guerrera, then Norman Smiley (in a Canadian rules match so it wasn't hardcore, although Storm did use a flag pole to get his win) and finally The Cat. Sad promo of the week : Mike Awesome (Thunder). Man, now he's saddled with an awful gimmick, has an ugly fat woman at his side and is forced to cut stupid promos before his matches talking about fat love and such. You can see the guy is dying before our eyes, he gets less and less reaction every time, he obviously hates this nonsense and delivers his awful lines in a very awkward way (not to mention he's not a good promo to begin with). Poor, poor guy. With this shit, the sextape deal and Judy Bagwell, Russo managed to kill my interest in Shane Douglas, Mike Awesome and Kanyon, who are on paper three of my favourites. Stupid Kane shit of the week : Vampiro setting the Demon's casket on fire with Sting inside (Nitro). I have no more word about Vampiro, his godawful angles, promos and matches. Russo probably was a mark of the most stupid, grand guignol aspects of the Taker/Kane angle because he's recreating each and every one of them. Another rotten week of TV. The PPV build is awful, one of the worst ever. Sextape and Viagra angles, Judy Bagwell-on-a-pole match, shoot interviews talking about booking, finishes and turning heel, more Vampiro bullshit. Lance Storm is the only thing watchable on TV at this point. Just awful stuff. It's obvious Russo is back in full control now, and he's again testing my patience BADLY. I am also totally sick of Jeff Jarrett at this point. I can't stand his shitty promos and his matches have been amazingly uninspired. He had two good months when he returned, but maybe I overstated how good he looked then. Get him off the main event scene yesterday, for fuck's sake.

Sprint = short go-go style match. I'd say under 10 minutes you can consider it a sprint if they work a go-go style.

Ric Flair.

WEEK 82 (July 24 to 29, 2000) Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Juventud Guerrera vs 3-Count (Thunder). Finally Rey & Juvy against guys that will bump for them. Not exactly a cruiserweight classic, but it was a nice change of pace from the horrible Filthy Animals matches that have been booked lately against Jindrak/O'Hare and Kronik. Title change of the week : Lance Storm, hardcore champion (Nitro). How has Lance Storm found himself a character that totally suits him and makes him one of the best heel in the company and actually gives him some presence and promo skills, I don't know. So he works a fine little mtach with Vito and grabs a second belt. I'm all for it. Love the look he gives during the Canadian national anthem too. Funniest part of the whole match is the announcers talking about American role model out there and dropping the names of Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong. Holy shit, times shows no pity. Idiotic angle of the week : Goldberg beats Booker T but doesn't get the title / Booker T pins Goldberg clean (Nitro). Yep. They work two short match, the first of which ends up when The Cat stops the match because Booker can't defend himself, but since Booker didn't quit he doesn't give the belt to Goldie. Wait, WTF ??? Then later in the evening, Booker actually pins Goldberg clean on free TV in a throwaway short main event. Nice job. Retarded shoot interview of the week : Goldberg "shoot" interview (Thunder). It's even worse than Nash's. They talk about turning heel. Goldberg says he didn't like turning fucking heel ! I guess it's the only case in wrestling history of a face turn by effect of saying in an interview that you don't like to play the heel. And then talks about how Nash beat him at Starrcade after getting in the fucking booking commitee ! And more shitty nonsense about booking and finishes at the next PPV. Russo is a fucking retard, seriously. Sorry, there's no other word. Embarrassing angle of the week : Torrie Wilson's sextape (Nitro). Yep, what could have been a nice little feud already turned into complete crap, with Kidman using his sextape with Torrie to embarrass her and the Franchise. Then on Thunder it would get even more stupid, and I won't go into it. Crap crap crap. Douglas was a trooper, but what can you do when fed with stupid material ? Really stupid angle of the week : Kanyon vs Judy Bagwell (Nitro / Thunder). Talk about ruining a character and turning everything into a joke. Judy kidnapped on Nitro (hey, what would a Nitro be without a wrestler kidnapping a woman ?), then a "match" between the two on Thunder. More Diamond Cutter. Hey, at this point, Judy Bagwell should be at least paralysed after all the neck shots. This is godawful. Useless catfight angle of the week : Miss Hancock vs Major Gunns (Nitro /Thunder). Well, Stacy Keibler has soon become unbearable to me in her role. Major Gunns has zero value, she looks like a third rate porn actress. So we get an actual feud between those two. Great. Annoying and nonsensical turn of the week : Great Muta is "brother in paint" with Vampiro (Nitro). I hate this wrestling show. Ok, this week was rotten. ROTTEN. Jarrett and Booker T had an excessively uninspired and dull "bunkhouse brawl". Ok, Booker on top seems fresh, but he's not showing me shit in the ring thus far, really, and the short match he had with Goldberg on Nitro only underlined the fact Goldie should have the belt and feud with Steiner until Starrcade. Skip Over debuted on Thunder, getting a win over The Artist. Who the fuck thought it was a good name ? Mike Awesome vs Lance Storm is the only promising thing running now, and it's kinda hurt by Awesome sad and embarrassing Fat Chick Thriller gimmick. The "good" stuff can't come soon enough...

Oh yeah, that was terrific in an atrocious way.

WEEK 81 (July 18 to 22, 2000) PPV main event on free TV match of the week : Scott Steiner vs Goldberg (Nitro). It was short tease of a match, but still, pretty stupid to waste your very first Goldie vs Big Poppa match on free TV when this is obviously the biggest match you have on your roster. If anything it's promising. Post-match sees the comeback of Kevin Nash who powerbomb both Steiner and Goldie. Match of the week : Mike Awesome vs Lance Storm (Nitro). Final of the US title tournament. Nice Nitro match, finally Awesome works with someone who can bump hard for him and work the athletic style he's accustomed to. Lance Storm is already one of the best character on TV, I'm amazed at how efficient this whole Canada deal is. If Russo had one good idea during his whole WCW stint, that's it, Storm never looked better as a character. On Thunder he would renamed the title the Canadian Heavyweight title. Nice touch. The bad part is that the post-match was all about Mike Awesome being helped on his feet by two fat ladies. So sad, Awesome was getting over by himself, he now he's settled with an atrocious comedy gimmick which is distracting and prevents things for being too serious. Shoot interview of the week : Kevin Nash sit-down interview (Thunder). Holy shit. I never knew of that one before. My jaw litteraly dropped. Talk about Hall & Nash "popping the territory", talks about "Goldberg hasn't paid his dues, he hates the business", talks about "no matter what the booking is for the three-way at the PPV, I'm going over" and other backstage insider shit like this. More business exposing than any other interview of the same kind they did in the past. What a disgrace. B-show debut of the week : Mike Sanders vs Crowbar (Thunder). Hey, Sanders looks like a cross between a mini-John Cena and a mini-Mike Enos, and he works quite well already. Decent little match ending with Sanders using Jarrett's guitar (he was at the announcing booth boring me with his usual bad promo skills) to upset Crowbar. Finally a new guy I can care about maybe. Japanese interpromotionnal match of the week : Mike Awesome vs Great Muta (Nitro). FMW vs NJPW. Yeah, I'm a 90's puro mark. The US tournament on Nitro was decent enough, well at least it made sense and didn't had any stupid names in it. Shane Douglas and Lance Storm looked the best of the bunch, while Vampiro looked awful as always. The ICP are back with him too. The Cat is bordering on tweener these days, as he's "friend" with the Jung Dragons who still embush him at every turn backstage (always a fun spot) and makes the lives of the heels difficult at times. The Wall, who hasn't been seen forever, has been fired because he helped Lenny Lane to get his job back. Don't ask, it's stupid. This will lead to him getting with the MIA, like this stable wasn't bad enough. The Filthy Animals are feuding with Kronik. Poor Rey. Poor Juvy. Douglas vs Kidman could be a decent little feud, but the material they have to work with thus far has been pretty bad, as showed by a really lame angle on Thunder involving an obviously fake dumbell. On the lower undercard, we'll probably get a feud between The Artist and Kee Wee, an effeminate model designer or something, over Paisley. Way too many valet around, and not much of them show any talent.

WEEK 80 (July 10 to 15, 2000) Match of the week : Booker T vs Mike Awesome (Nitro). Not that it is really good, but because it really highlights the fact Johnny Ace is backstage putting finishes together. We get several big moves in a row getting near falls before the final clean pin, in a way that is a reminder of a more Japanese-like way of working. Booker is clearly not the best guy for Awesome to work with, as with most of big guys on the roster, but it's okay. Also, Awesome is doing a babyface turn, refusing to get the US belt that has been lifted from Scott Steiner (for illegal use of the Recliner), showing respect to Booker T and eventually helping him after a Steiner attack (and again on Thunder when this time Rick would jump on Booker). I can live with this since Awesome can get over as a babyface too thanks to his flashy big man offense. What I don't like though, he's that he's beginning to hit on large women backstage... Heel turn of the week : Lance Storm, canadian athlete (Nitro). Hey, Lance Storm is already better than he was during his entire ECW run as far as a character goes. This was the perfect idea for him, the über stern, broomstick up his ass, self-absorbed canadian *wrestler*. Fits him a million times better than the Impact Player bullshit which he wasn't credible (pun intended) in. I gotta give him credit for his rolling half-crab which is a thing of beauty when done right. Comeback of the week : Great Muta (Nitro). And he's aligned with the Jung Dragons, which is another perfect fit. Which is why, of course, it won't last and Muta will be sent into the pits of WCW hell soon. New announcer of the week : Stevie Ray (Thunder). After Mike Tenay was brutally attacked by Scott Steiner after a good interview, a place was vacant on Thunder and we get Stevie Ray, who reconcilied with his brother on Nitro and paid him hommage for his World title win. That's good. Sad new feud of the week : Kanyon vs Buff Bagwell (Thunder). Yeah, "Positively" Kanyon does his finisher on anybody, including.... Judy Bagwell. Gawd.... this is horrendous. Bagwell dragged Douglas down, and now he'll do the same with Kanyon, who deserve much better. Sadly, the fact that DDP's future wasn't clear at this point and the departure of Kimberly (a big loss as she was the best female performer they had, not to mention the hottest one) left him with a great gimmick but no real hot feud to work. It's too bad. Fun new feud of the week : Shane Douglas vs Kidman (Nitro). Natural fit, although Kidman already had split with Torrie when he was feuding with Hogan as a heel. Doesn't matter, we get Douglas making fun of Kidman and Torrie acting like a bitch (aka Francine 2.0), so it's all ok with me. This week of TV was much better than anything we had in a long long time, although there are still some really terrible stuff all around (Vamp vs Sting, Judy Bagwell) and boring stuff like the tag team scene (Perfect Event, Kronik, MIA, Jindrak/O'Hare), and sadly Jeff Jarrett is still hanging on to the main event scene, but thus far Booker as champ at least gives a fresh look to the whole thing, and the promise of Steiner vs Goldberg (already teasing a babyface turn of sorts) is nice.