El-P

The issue with 2/3 is that if it goes under 30 minutes, it feels rushed. And the reality is that not many workers, as good as they are, can go 30 minutes and stay interesting. Arn sure couldn't do it with Bourne. Dustin, Pillman, Austin, Rude aren't guys I want to watch for 30 minutes. Around 20 minutes, yes, but you can't work a satisfying 2/3 falls in 20 minutes. Really, the only ones that could go 30 minutes for sure at this point would be Steamboat and Windham, and probably Arn/Eaton in a tag. The more I see it unfold in context, the more I think it was a pretty bad idea. Especially when you put guys like Nikita Koloff and the Freebirds in those matches. The new format of Saturday Night has clearly taken the product down to me, and I know there will still be overlong matches under Watts. On the positive side, The Steamboat vs Rude feud takes an interesting twist with the heels accusing Steamboat of stalking Madusa. And Vader vs Sting profiling is nothing but good news.

Jason Hervey calling a boring 35 minutes match between Arn and Big Josh. I'm dying again. I'm sure Triple H loved those 2/3 falls matches on WCW Saturday Nights, because putting workers who had no business working that long seems to be the whole point.

Rather funny segment with Paul E. disguised as a heckler in the crowd. Missy is ridiculously hot.

So far these 2/3 falls matches have been totally dreadfull. Somewhere in those 35 minutes there's a really good 10 minutes match, but really, neither have the offense to sustain interest for 35 minutes. Arn working the arm is fine but after a while it just put me to sleep, because it goes nowhere.. No story told, just a bunch of stuff to fill time. Long doesn't equal good, and this is not a good match, this is a boring overlong match. Way to waste two good workers (although Matt Borne really was much better as Doink, as showed by his matches with Jannetty and Hennig the following year). And yeah, Jason Hervey is fucking unbearable.

No way. Raven went straight from ECW to WCW in 97, and was locked up for several years. Plus Kane was always supposed to be a Taker clone. I think Jacobs was always supposed to get the part.

Gary Hart called him Virgil a few times in early 88. Gary Hart always called Flair "Ricky", which amuses me quite a bit.

Totally agree. That's was my exact feeling about his ridiculous promo on Raw the other week when he basically buried Brock and put over his match with Taker at Mania as "realistic".

I enjoyed that it made sense out of his past heel turn and didn't came back as a face from nowhere, also burying Luger was funny, but Nikita is a total tool is the ring, I have no interest in watching him, he did nothing but suck since he came back the previous year.

This was nowhere as good as the one with Steamboat the previous week. It was fine though, Sting finally looks like The Man in WCW.

WCW Saturday Night with guest host Bill Fralic. Do you think Ross is gonna talk about wrestling ? I'm dying.

Awesome.

Frankly, Ross was at times totally unbearable with the college sports/football references. And in 1992 when he was announcing alone, he could be a total shill putting over his hotline time and time again during the broadcast.

Two things from the Timeline ECW 1995 with Sandman : _his adorable little kid giving him a hug, and you really wish Sandman would get things together and not fuck things up _hat's off to the editor

Can you picture a tag-team called Control Segment ?s Masked guys. One is called Heat and the other one Shine. Shine can never get any offense on the babyface and only sells, while Heat always dominates the babyface. I swear Russo could have done it, with the announcers going all winky-winky.

Holy shit. Larry Zbyszko and Nikita Koloff going 20 minutes in a 2/3 falls. Just terrible. 3/4 of the match consisting of restholds. Horrible match, just a retarded booking idea. Koloff is just brutal. Brutal promos, brutal work. Totally worthless. Why was he even brought back after being such a flop in 91 ?

"Where the big boys play" was the official tag line of WCW at this point. "This is the greatest Nitro in the history of our sport" is the vintage Schiavone line. Anyway, to me Schiavone was still really good at least until 96. His call on Hogan at Bash at the Beach is one of the best ever (in the history of our sport). No way he was *that* bad in 98. He could be really bad on occasion, yes, but E/D grade are good for scrubs like Cole or Madden. By 99, the announcing in WCW went to hell, but so did the entire promotion. No one cared. Schiavone/Ventura is still my favourite WCW announcing team, and I'd take it over pretty much anything.

Sounds pretty awful. Micheal Cole is clearly one of the worst wrestling announcer of all time by this point. I would never has guessed it way back in the late 90's, as he was not good but pretty inoffensive then.

Ok, I'm not watching the show anymore, so can one enlighten me on what happened involving Wendy Richter ?

The Saturday Night show with the talk-show format is interesting. It's different. I enjoyed interviews with Simmons and broken-face Steamboat, it comes off more legit than the "backstage skits" that have overstayed their welcome by a long long time now. To think there basically hasn't been any change to wrestling TV format in the last 12-14 years is pretty depressing. The 2/3 falls match every week is a bad idea though. Very bad idea. This stipulation only works when you do really long match anyway, on a short TV format it forces the workers to get stupid quick pin à la Survivor Series, and it's lame. Plus I don't want to suffer through Nikita Koloff doing 2/3 falls match. I don't want to see the Freebirds do 2/3 falls matches. God, the Freebirds were unbearable at this point. They had their up and downs since they formed the Hayes/Garvin team in late 89, but they are solidly back into my shitlist. They made Taylor/Valentine boring to watch, and I like Taylor/Valentine a lot. They are just no fun at all, on any level. Hell, I've seen a Vinnie Vegas/DDP vs Simmons/JYD match that was more fun than this. Can't wait until they finally go away. Michael Hayes is embarrassing, fat, balding, doing a shitty moonwalk and horrible pseudo-glam rock gimmick in 1992. Even PN News seems relevant compared to Hayes at this point. He's already Dok Hendrix.

Argumenting by Alvy : "Listen :" + talk very loud to underline his point

Z-Man & Pillman vs MX was a really good little feud. Southern Boys vs MX had amazing matches. Yes, when it came down to the Patriots, that sucked, but they didn't get the belts very long, and at that time I agree the titles were beginning to not mean that much. Quicky title switch from the Young Pistols (who were an excellent team as the Southern Boys, only got killed by the gimmick change and heel turn) to Ron Simmons & Big Josh, which is pretty random, but hey, stupid gimmick aside, any title on Matt Borne I'm fine with. Then onto Greg Valentine & Terry Taylor which is pretty neat. Like I said there wasn't that many tag teams anymore, so the titles had to go away, and they did. But back in 89/90, the number of tag teams was huge, so it had a justification then.

At one time there were so many teams around that they could really bring something to the undercards. Kinda like the All Asia Tag Team Titles in AJ. The US tag team titles matches were mostly quite fun until the end, which is coming very soon.

He was. Changed his name after he left the York Foundation (which ended the gimmick, damn, no more Terri Runnels badly dressed as a secretary). There was really not gimmick to it to be fair. Terry Taylor was always an arrogant asshole to begin with, so naming himself the Taylor Made Man was a cute name without any repercussion on his work or character. Hell, at least he got pushed a bit and got a belt as opposed to the York Foundation days (which I enjoyed a lot because it garanteed a good match on every TV show, unless Tommy Rich was working single of course). I love Valentine, and he's one of those guys who can age and deliver the same offense than 15 years prior really. Just an old grumpy stiff fuck. I wish he had more of a role during the decade infact. I was glad to see him work a few matches during the Nitro era too.

The first few months of 1992 are pretty great as far as TV matches go. The Dangerous Alliance really was the über workrate heel group. Madusa had the oddest fashion sense ever however. I know it fot her character as being a bit of a loon, but some of those outfit just hurt the eyes. I'm loving Greg Valentine teaming with Terry Taylor. Taylor has been one of the most consistent worker on TV since he turned heel, and Valentine just doesn't age. Good stuff with the US belts, although I'm fearing the matches with the Freebirds, who just reached a new point of unwatchability with their new theme song and look. Fun to witness the humble beginnings of Marcus Bagwell. Strange to think they waited so long before turning him heel, because you already wants to slap the fuck out of his pretty boy mouth. JYD and Nikita Koloff coming back isn't good. The Light heavyweight division is sad, but it's pretty funny to hear JR blabber the same crap he used to do in WWF in 97/98 about a light heavyweight division that should get more and more exciting names and should grow in the very near future. Yeah, when you get Johnny B. Badd and Brad Armstrong as "light heavyweight", you feel the difference with a usual match. It's pretty shocking to see Scott Levy so young and healthy looking. He was already a fun promo though.

Agreed. Does nothing for me. Beyond forced facials. Mechanically fine > see also / Orton, Randy