El-P

Solid little TV match, I don't see how it's any special. The Wild Bunch vs Fantastic match from the previous weeks blows this out of the water (shitty finish aside). To me it's more about the angle than anything else, and the angle is excellent. Even past his prime, Orndorff could still deliver.

The segments with Cornette were pretty funny. DWB is an excellent promo. Brian Lee isn't good at anything thus far. Love Wright's reaction when Lee shows up.

Nope. He talks about the tournament and that's it. I don't even know why anyone would want to save that honestly. I won't.

Total nondescript promo by Holly.

Dated and cheesy doesn't even begin to describe how bad this segment is. Great terrible segment. Tim Horner can sing though.

At first, yes. Then she invented the moonsault footstomp and became the coolest wrestler ever. Inoki > Fujinami > Nishimura > Yuki Ishikawa Genichiru Tenryu > Toshiaki Kawada Dynamite Kid > Jushin Liger > Chris Benoit > Davey Richards Superstar Graham > Jesse Ventura > Hulk Hogan Barry Windham > Dustin Rhodes Jerry Lawler > Eddie Gilbert

Maybe at 9 it seemed great. But at 22 it seemed like complete shit. And I give Russo all the credit for it indeed.

Going through the 1999 Timeline, not exactly a great episode. Political bullshit aside, Morley seems like a nice guy, but nothing very interesting nor fun is being said, and 99 was such a terrible year for WWF (product wise I mean) that there's nothing but bad memories coming back. Vince winning the Rumble, beating Shamrock, Sable women champ, the awful WM 15 with the IC/hardcore titles switches, the godawful KotR match with Austin, you name it... Vince WWF champ, Kennel from Hell...

Billy Black was crazy over at Korakuen Hall back then. Just insane for a mid-card gaijin. And he could work.

Ridiculous but funny. This is so 80's.

I think that's something that Russo actually did well. Maybe he didn't always get them involved in meaningful storylines, but he actually did give a crap about the presentation of undercard guys and helped get their personalities over. Agreed, that's one of the only thing I'm willing to give Russo. He always tried to give everyone top to bottom something to do, a small program or a distinct identity. The problem was of course than most of it sucked.

RAW was the TV draw, with Austin/Rock/McMahon on top. Of course I understand the reasonning, but it's a stupid way to say it, and Crash Holly is a terrible exemple. Now you tell me Sable was a bigger star than Goldie in 1999, I'll totally think twice about it.

Lance said that his interest in the whole Brock deal had "dropped considerably", but didn't bother to explain why outside of the fact he's beyond bored with everything orbiting around the crooked authority figure (which is something I agree with, as I've said many times). I guess he didn't want to say anything that would make his rant from the other day look like crap.

If that's his point, it makes no sense whatsoever either.

Fun TV match. Horner is as solid a worker as he's uncharismatic and wooden. I love Mantel on color.

Apparently Lance Storm is not as vocal anymore on how the finish at the last PPV was not a bad idea. I guess watching the last few weeks of booking swop shut the idea that maybe they had a good reason to do so.

"At one point, Crash Holly was a bigger star than Bill Goldberg, and that was because of Russo's writing."

I'm at the Rip Rogers does squat episodes, and you're right, I'm a bit unfair with Caudle, but I have bad recollections of him in WCW with Ross. But Dutch Mantell is a perfect foil for him, and Caudle is pretty good in an old-school territorial way. I'm loving Ron Wright, and the angle with Bob Armstrong wheeling him out was hilarious. Too bad Bob Holly doesn't stick around, he's much more promising as a heel that he ended up being for years saddled with a shit gimmick in WWF. The Hollywood monicker is a but goofy though, as Holly sounds southern as hell. Nitro Danny Davis... Well, Davis was a good worker but does he look like a complete jobber in this attire. And he looks really small there. This is not Memphis, you have some pretty big guys. Glad to see Horowitz get some more offense, but he's still basically a jobber, which is too bad, you get the feeling SMW would be a place for him to get a push. I don't know who Carl Styles is, but he sure sucks, and Brian Lee on top just doesn't work with me. He was good only for kicking the shit out of Tommy Dreamer in my books thus far. Nice way to developp the Orndorff turn organically. I'm beginnning to get into the groove after the first few very underwhelming weeks.

The shots of fans are indeed hilarious. WWF should have signed Rip Rogers for the Body Donnas gimmick.

I finally found a place to enjoy Rip Rogers.

This is glorious.

Hilarious I dunno, but it's a good segment. A few weeks in and you already want to slap Wright out of his wheelchair, he's so disingenious in trying to reach out for pity.

Nobody is except Tamura and Volk Han.

Who cares ? Seriously, who cares ? I know I might sound very "European" or even "French" (as a cliché), but who gives a shit if John Cena divorces and fucks around ? Who didn't in pro-wrestling ? Taker ? Did it. Rock ? Did it. Bret ? Did it. The only issue that might get interesting is that if steroids and/or abuse issue pops up. If not, really, we're in 2012.

Good to know I wont have to go through much more Koloff (I can tolerate a really old Ivan so much). Too bad Dutch doesn't work much more. I think I'll hate Bob Caudle before too long.