El-P

What were the reasons Kong left in the first place ? Stupid TNA....

Chyna ? There's something admirable about Russo, because when you think you can't possibly sink lower, he still manages to find a way.

Ok, I thought you meant he was also involved in the Summer of 98 for a short time too. To be perfectly honest, I felt it was hard to feel for Flair in a kayfaybe sense when Bischoff kissed his wife. Really, Flair is the guy who fucked a thousand women, kissed Liz and tried to take her away from Savage, then eventually did and spent Savage's money. And he was always talking about fucking his opponent woman in his promos. So really, Bischoff kissing his wife wasn't that much of a big deal to me. The heart-attack angle was brutal, but a few weeks later just before Bischoff did the job on Nitro it was revealed that Flair had actually been poisonned and never had a heart-attack. Yeah, it was kinda stupid but Bischoff did get his ass totally whipped at the end. So really, 1998 ended with a clear Flair victory and celebration, the kind of stuff they should have done with Sting in 1997. Well, of course, then it was followed by : So yeah, pretty bad.

After watching the entire 1998 WCW seasons (well, Nitro, Thunders and PPV), I can attest that there were a lot of good suff. Everything involving Raven, everything involving Jericho, a 6 months stretch of good TV title feuds with Martel, Booker T, Finlay, Saturn, Benoit, lot of good stuff from DDP including the Goldberg and Giant match, good cruiserweight stuff at the end of the year with Kidman, Juvy, Rey, some really good Bret Hart matches after his heel turn (and some great promos, man, Bret was such a dickhead, this was one of the best surprise for me), Eddie & Chavo, some fun tag team titles matches with nWo Hollywood vs nWo Wolfpack, lots of random undercard goodness from Disco Inferno, Alex Wright, Ultimo Dragon, Psychosis, Marty Jannetty... Things were a little dull at the beginning of the year, got on faster tracks with the Spring. Most of the Summer was pretty poor though, and it felt like Sullivan was on his last leg. Loss said Dusty came on board at this point which explained the short Meng push (and I guess, Hacksaw Duggan on PPV). Then despite the horrific Warrior feud, without a doubt the worst thing in wrestling that year in any company, the Fall was pretty good with a few great Nitros. Then Nash took over and yes, it got worse quite fast, with some poor booking decisions from the get-go, more backstage vignettes showing up, and all of his friends getting titles and TV time (which in the case of Disco was allright with me, but Konnan getting the TV title was cringeworthy). Jumped off a cliff is a bit strong, it's not like when Russo took over, but things certainly headed in the wrong directions, but it really went nowhere fast in 99 quicker and deeped than by late 98. 1999 is on my hard-drive but I need a break from WCW.

In the crowd? As awesome as that would have been, no. As Meltzer would say, really good face promo....

Goldy just didn't need to lose to run Goldy vs nWo and Goldy vs Hogan II. The fact Goldberg was invincible was a whole part of his act, and as long as people weren't sick of seeing him always win, he needed to be kept unbeaten. The crowd popped at Starrcade, but more because they were thrilled to see something shocking rather than because they wanted Nash to be the champ. Nash got a terrible reaction on Nitro the next day. And Goldberg wasn't the same because he wasn't "unbeaten" anymore. He's been damaged, for good, and for nothing. Of course the Fingerpoke of Doom, an abortion in iself as it basically reset the cloc back to before Starrcade 97, was rendered even worse by the fact Mick Foley won the WWF title on RAW on a prerecorded show that got a huge rating boost thanks to the infamous Schiavone line "That will put asses in the seat...". In a matter of two weeks, WCW shot themselves in the mouth, twice. I think Hogan vs Flair did some good business after all this mess, but the Uncensored idiocy kinda killed the idea of purchasing a WCW PPV forever. But really, the Nash beats Goldy/Fingerpoke of Doom was a thing of beauty that killed the last golden goose of the company.

That's one kind of a project. It's pretty much what you described. Well, finally ended my 1998 WCW watch, I got totally burned out by the end, and really, Nash's booking was bad from the get-go. And although I never cared for Goldberg myself, his loss to Nash, watched in context, is even worse and nonsensical than I remembered. People didn't want to see Nash beat Goldberg. And delivering the ultimate pay-off of Bischoff vs Flair on Notro following Starrcade was retarded. Of course the nadir would be reached on the first show on 1999, but really, Nash didn't bring anything interesting to the table as far as booking went. The product didn't feel fresher at all, and the PPV's were built as badly as they were during the last months of Sullivan's stint. But Sullivan still delivered some excellent Nitros during that time (despite having to deal with some godawful Warrior sequences). The one good new thing on the undercard during that time was Norman Smiley's small push, as he heeled up his game a bit. I love Norman Smiley. But man, they did ruin their only hope at making it big again by fucking up Goldy's streak, as hot as he was, you get the feeling he could have gone unbeaten until Starrcade 1999. And I doubt I'll do 1999 anytime soon. Gotta watch something different.

Yes, very interesting on a number of levels. And Waltman sounds so candid and actually likeable.

That's a pretty great point. That's how low in the totem poll of pop culture pro-wrestling really is.

I almost said Russo, for being employed as a wrestling writer on the dubious merits of a 2 years stint in WWF 13 years ago, despite having an atrocious track record for everything he did since then. But then I thought, it's not really that he's a great self-promoter, it's more like TNA are a bunch or retards, and that he's a long time friend of Jarrett.

Atsushi Onita ?

Awesome.

Damn, he said "wrestler" a whole lot here.

The continuing adventures and travails of these men and women competing in the ring for championships and personal grudges. And like most Soaps, it never ends. South Park was right then. Seriously, this is completely retarded, and quite frankly, if I were a pro-wrestler taking pride in what I do and the passion I have in life, I would be both pissed and embarrassed that the ony worthwhile company to work for in the US is at this point of denial. It's even more retarded because there's no chance of them being referred as anything but wrestling, ever, so why even bother.

*"Retardation" should not be used. Instead, use "WWE"

I'm not *trying* to hold on to positive memories of Takada, Tom. I have positive memories of Takada. I've said it a thousand times already, I haven't watched a Takada match in like maybe 8 or 9 years. Probably 10. Now, if tomorrow I watch a ton of Takada matches and have a different perspective on his work than before, and for some reason I think he was not as good as I thought I'll have exactly zero problem admitting it. I'm not working on nostalgia, I just haven't seen the matches in a long time, and my memories are so positive that I'm pretty shocked that people despise him that much. Especially when the same people pimp Jerry Lawler as an all-time great worker, because I actually saw a lot of big Lawler matches, and although I do think Jerry was excellent, I don't think he was nearly as great as he's pimped to be. That's not from memories, that's from watching matches not so long ago. So, I figure : those people who pimp Lawler as one the greatest wrestler ever are overpushing it, maybe they are also overpushing the fact Takada sucks. That's all. But, like I said, if I rewatch Takada's matches tomorrow and think they suck and don't hold up, I'll have zero problem admitting it. I don't care. I'l be shocked and amazed, but that's it. Just another thing, on the "looking at the past through standards which have evolved", I'm sorry but it's exactly the opposite of using a historical perspective. If there's *one* thing you absolutely don't do in History, that's it. You never ever look at a period with your own modern standarts, it makes no sense and just leads to nonsense and poor interpretations. I should now, I've graduated as a History Master. I understand what you say about this very particular topic, but you're not talking about a "history" here. Call it whatever you want, "objective analysis", "criticism" or something, but not "history". History would on the contrary be looking at who was considered as the greatest then, and for what reasons. Which is something different. Historically, Tiger Mask was considered one of the greatest wrestler of all-time. It's neither right nor wrong, it's just the fact. Now, today, we have the right to look at this fact and analyse why this was the case then, and why in retrospect Tiger's match don't hold up.

I believe that the first plan was definitely Bret vs Shawn for the title at WM13, with Shawn refusing to do the job. Then they wanted to transition the title to Sid, but yet again, Shawn refused to job and "lost his smile". So they put the title on Bret to pass it on to Sid the following night on Raw, and they went into Sid vs Taker for the title and they got back to Bret vs Austin since Shawn didn't want to do business anyway and was "injured". I think it is what happened, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, these guys were basically competitive jobbers. Jim Powers was on Nitro every week in 1996. Along with Renegade, Joe Gomez, then Horowitz himself, Lenny Lane, Nick Densmore, Scott Putski... There were a bunch of jobbers, but WCW had so many hours of programms that these guys could win match on Pro and SN like Phil said. But they were essentially jobbers.

It's amazing how some people look way older than they are. The build, the baldness, the beard, Arn didn't look 38 at all, he looked *old*, but at the same time, he looked like he could kick the entire rooster's ass. On the same topic, Trish Stratus looks older than she is too, I think she aged a lot. She's only 35, but looks not a day under 40. A very beautiful 40 years old, but still.

Pat Patterson ins't there anymore I believe. And yes, he was a great mind to put together finishes and big matches together. He was also the guy putting together the Rumbles before they all looked overproduced and bland. The most infamous Patterson match was probably Hogan vs Warrior from WM 6.

Right, I forgot about the Sid job as well. Right, I think WM 13 was the first PPV he worked with the big knee brace on.

It was all bullshit because he didn't want to to a job to Bret at WM13 I believe.

It's so stupid it could be from Kurt Angle.

Wasn't most of the damage done by around 2001? I guess, Edge's reputation was made by working incredibly dangerous and stupid matches in which the whole purpose was falling from high places onto tables. Then he worked his whole career on a banged up body with neck issues. Way to go.

God I loved Pierre Carl Oulette as a pirate. It was so right. I mean, the guy really has only one eye, so the eyepatch was not even a gimmick, and the deep quebecer accent worked so well with the whole pirate deal. One of the lost worker and lost goofy gimmick of the 90's.