El-P

I think Barry Windham is a good guy to compare him too. Barry Windham at his peak smokes DiBiase seven ways to sunday. That said, to me peak Windham smokes the vast majority of the workers I've seen.

I've seen a whole lot of DiBiase in Mid-South and some in AJ, and despite being even better than during his WWF stint, I can't think of a single *great* wrestling match. This is not a knock on DiBiase, I like him a lot, I just don't see him as a great match worker. I agree the perception of him being a "technical worker" hurt him because he was better as a vicious brawling heel. Is there a lot of DiBiase in the AJ set ?

Crammed into 10-15 minutes, it would have been tolerable. As it was, it's a failed self-conscious WWE "epic"/HHH "long match equals great match" borefest. Really, they weren't selling, they were sleeping.

Heh, out of all the comps i've made over the years my Hirota one was by far the biggest seller. People love the heck out of that girl I never *ever* understood the love for Sakura Hirota. Ever.

Do you think when Vince dies this nonsense will stop and HHH will go back to "wrestling" ? It's hilarious the amount of effort put into not using the word "pro-wrestling" when it's all that WWE has ever and will ever be.

Holy shit then.

I dunno who Bruce is, but he's smoking something illegal.

Which defines one of the reason WWE is so dull and stale, and has been for a decade now.

DiBiase was really good, really solid, but he never had any great performance, any great match that really stands out. Greatest wrestler who never had a great match or simply a damn solid and consistant worker that barely had any bad match ? I tend to think it's the later. DiBiase would deliver something at least good, at best very good, but I've never seen any great match involving DiBiase. I've seen way worst workers than DIBiase (even some shitty workers like Warrior) having great matches, and I don't mean being carried like a broom. So, there it is. DiBiase is kinda like Tito Santana to me, a damn good worker, and that's a positive.

Cena ending the streak would be godawful. Cena would actually be the worst candidate to end the streak. Even HHH would be less offensive at this point.

I'm glad some boards disappeared too, because I had my days as an unbelievable asshole. I would be embarrassed to read some of the stuff I was writing at the time probably.

I agee with DFA, at this point, I don't see the point of ending the streak. Really, Taker winning was the only real WM great feel good moment this year. And they really have no-one at this point to break the streak, especially after HHH nearly killed Taker and still failed. No-one has the credibility anymore, only The Rock, Austin or Hogan in their prime could do it without seeming forced. And it's not like Taker will work many matches at this point, he could realistically retire after the 20-0 next year. Quite frankly, you wnat a big match, make it Taker's last match and HHH retires if he can't break the streak. And have both retire at the same time. Add to that Rock vs Cena and you get a huge WM.

A wrestling fan, plain and simple. An old one at that, who would rather watch old WCW Nitros from 98 than WrestleMania 27. Still, after 20 years of spending way to much time watching some much pro-wrestling bullshit, and enjoying the hell out of Misawa vs Kawada classics, Onita getting blown up in electric barbwire, Mick Foley dancing with hot girls & Mr. McMahon on the Love Shack set, enjoying the hell out of watching Sandman drunk brawling in ECW and Scott Steiner's insane promos, I don't see how how I could put it other than just saying "wrestling fan".

Rock's sharpshooter was pathetic. Scott Steiner's Steiner Recliner looked like he wouldn't hurt a little puppy, the worst camel clutch ever.

I haven't watched any WWE programs regularly since I stopped watching RAW in 1999, but I feel like Tough Enough will be the first WWE show I'll actually follow. I could watch Austin cut promos on these goofballs all day long. Austin's reaction to Ariane retarded choice of a favourite match was priceless. And I love the fact that Michelle girl thinks she's a 11 year veteran. Fantastic. This si so much better than WrestleMania. Plus I heard "wrestling" and "belts" and a WWE TV show.

What's *really* silly is that they basically built toward a Rock vs Cena confrontation at this year's WM, which didn't really happen. Then after a month of cutting promos on each others and The Rock basically murdering Cena, they shake hands, show mutual respect and say "we'll have a match in one year". WTF.

Great description. If that's what passes as a modern-day wrestling "Classic", I don't feel like I'm missing much at all. Because it's not wrestling. It's "entertainment".

They better not screw that up then. I have no faith, of course. It was an entirely different era too, with 4 PPV a year, angles taking months to unfolds. I don't see how it can be done nowadays to be honest. They don't remember what they did the previous month, and Vince is alwyas changing is mind about everything. They couldn't do the blow-off of Lawler vs Cole right. And Rocky won't be around all the time. They have a better chance of doing this if Rocky shows up once at SummerSlam to fuck with Cena, then from Royal Rumble on to WM next year. Anyway, this also screams "we can't make new stars" to me, they rely on The Rock two years in a row, and their other workhorse and big attraction is Taker.

Now that I actually listen to the shows, I find some of the remarks in this thread as goofy as some of Meltzer's remarks. Really, he said he thought there would be tons of "wrestling" signs because the Wrestlemania audience is hardcore (also that statement makes me raise en eyebrow...), but then admitted that really, the pourcentage of fans getting on the Internet to get all the insider news is zilch. I get the feeling 10 years ago, there would have been tons of "wrestling" signs indeed. Today's audience is just not the smart mark one like during the Monday Night Wars, when people on WWF shows would have signs for Flair during the Bischoff lawsuit deal etc... I got a big kick of the fact the world "wrestling" doesn't exist in the WWE Universe, but the word "Wrestle" was on camera all the freaking time for 4 hours... Not at all schyzophrenic.

This South Park episode was extremely pertinent.

So, they are planning Rock vs Cena for next year ? So much can happen to derail this, it's pretty much risky. And it really makes this WM looks like another RAW episode in retrospect.

Well, smaller breasts or not, that picture confirm my impression of her looking a bit anorexic. She looked a lot healthier during her WWF days. She needs a sandwich.

She had her implants removed right after she retired last time, so that's one big reason why she looks thinner. Amazing. That's an odd world we live in. I would never have guessed. I admit fast forwarding through the match after Trish's entrance, but yeah, she didn't seem like much of a big deal. Also, I was very underwhelmed by The Rock's use in general. I thought he would be all over the show, not just doing two or three stupid vignettes backstage. I understand he did pretty much the same things he did here on RAW the previous week ?

Two more things about this show : they managed to kill off the Royal Rumble once and for all with this one. Winning the Rumble allows you to be in the opening match for a title that is named "World Title" but realistically seems like the old IC title to me. The other thing which struck me :everything looks like it was back in 2001, only cleaner and with more money thrown around. But really, the product looks exactly the same in term of presentation. Including the same shitty backstage vignettes (oh, that Snoop Dog stuff was awful), and unfunny jokes involving Mae Young. Think how much things evolved between WM 7 and WM 17. And how few things changed really in the mast 10 years. When the big match of the show was HHH vs Taker (because let's be honest, Cena vs Miz didn't had the aura of a WM main event at all), and the biggest stars objectively were The Rock and Steve Austin, all of it feels a bit odd to me. Someone who wouldn't have watched WWE since WM17 would probably got the impression that the stars of yesterday are still the only stars, and that really, the product became totally stale and didn't evolved much if at all. And really, I followed things enough to know that Rey, Jack Swagger, Randy Orton an CM Punk are all former World or WWE champion. But do you really get that feeling when you see them that they are any kind of big stars ? I certainly I don't. Whic also means title don't mean jackshit, the stars are still the same old same old from 10 years ago. And the only big star they produced since then, Cena, as already been around on top longer than Austin and Rock. Really, no wonder why I get that feeling of total boredom and dullness. If you add the overproducing and the mediocre work, well, I guess I'll never get back to watch US wrestling, which is sad. I used to have so much fun doing so, despite the silliness, despite the crap. Well, the utter crap is still out there with TNA of course but I'm not masochistic.

I understand, although to me it's not really a matter of protecting finishers. It's more that really, that match was finisher, kick out, "sell" (which in that case looked more like "rest"), finisher, kick out, "sell", rince, repeat ad nauseam,, which is not what I call good work at all. Then again, Meltzer did like the match.