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Mad Heat

Scott,

Hope you are having a splendid weekend. I wanted to ask you which matches come to mind where you were legitimately angry at the result of the match? I mean like fuming mad.  A result that made you want to throw the remote at the television set, or take a step back and fire a Bobby Hull slapshot at the screen. 

For me, I'd say I was the angriest after WrestleMania 9. I was only 6 at the time, but I was a die hard Bret Hart fan. Seeing Yokozuna win and then Hogan beat Yoko left me sad. Another was when Michaels won the belt at WrestleMania 12. 

Geez, do we have all day?  

- Daniel Bryan's famous 18 second loss.
- Undertaker over Kurt Angle at Fully Loaded 2000 is of course one I was notoriously mad about.
- HHH beating Booker T at Wrestlemania 18 was ridiculous.
- Nash ending the Streak.
- the Hart Foundation cheating to beat the Bulldogs in 87 was a defining one for me.  I was SO pissed at Danny Davis.
- Saturn tapping out Benoit at Starrcade 97 .
- Sid power bombing Benoit out of the US title at Fall Brawl 99 for literally no reason.  Soooooooo angry about that one. Still makes me kinda mad.
- Hogan over Yoko, of course.  what a crock of shit that one was.
- Demolition losing their second tag title to Andre and Haku.  That one hurt because I knew that the Demos were basically done.
- Warrior losing to Slaughter.  I wanted Warrior to DESTROY Savage for that one.  Which he proceeded to do.

I'm sure I can think of another 20 or so.

Comments

  1. Hindsight being 20/20, you can kinda argue that Fully Loaded 2000 was the first big mistake the WWF made that led to the eventual end of the boom. Rock vs. Benoit, HHH vs. Jericho and Undertaker vs. Angle. Three established guys vs. the three rising stars, and the established guys all went over and more importantly, the guys on the rise never really definitively beat the establishment (I'm not really gonna count Jericho and Benoit over Austin and HHH because I think it was too late by then).


    Even though Benoit, Jericho and Angle all went on to have championship runs and in the case of Jericho and Angle, long and (largely) fulfilling careers, I don't think the common fan ever bought into those three as being at the same level as Austin, Rock, HHH and Undertaker. Not even a year later, Rock was getting ready to head off to Hollywood, HHH tore his quad (and was never the same) and Undertaker... was just kinda there until reinventing himself a couple of years later. Maybe things are different if the WWF did a better job at establishing Benoit, Jericho and Angle as top guys during that time, but I guess they figured that with Undertaker just returning, Austin eventually coming back, and Rock and HHH in the prime of their careers, there was no need or even room to build up Benoit, Jericho and Angle as top of the card guys.

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  2. Rock defeating Punk at RR (cheap way for Punk have the reign ended)

    Jericho losing at WM18 (build made Jericho look horrible, I was a big Jericholic and I hated HHH)



    Jericho having his world title win taken away by HHH


    Ziggler losing to del Rio

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  3. I'm okay with a couple of those (Saturn over Benoit, Demos to Colossal Connection).

    I was, however FURIOUS over:

    Every American Males win

    The Destruction Crew losing to DJ Peterson and the Trooper, even more so after seeing the Beverly Brothers



    Lex Luger beating Barry Windham after Flair left in '91


    Montreal


    Diesel beating Backlund like he did

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  4. Rock beating Punk they way he did at the Rumble.


    HHH beating Rock for the title in their iron man match had me pretty angry.


    I remember the Nasty Boys beating Paul Roma and Arn Anderson in a tag title match on Saturday Night that had me really mad back in the day.

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  5. Warrior over Hogan at mania VI and Goldberg over Hogan on Nitro.

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  6. Bryan losing to Sheamus at Mania in 18 seconds also sucked. A lot.

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  7. Triple H beating Randy Orton at WrestleMania 25.

    Undertaker beating Angle at Fully Loaded.

    Shawn's title win over Triple H on Raw in 12/03 is probably the angriest I have ever been at the result of a match. I went from "fuck yes!" to speechlessness.

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  8. On the plus side, that led to the underrated Pretty Wonderful

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  9. Rock over Punk at RR...absolutely needless way to end what was becoming a very historic title reign, something rare nowadays. Ridiculous.

    HHH over RVD/Booker/Kane...take your pick.

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  10. Del Rio cashing in his MITB on Punk at Summerslam 2011 after Nash had attacked Punk. It killed Punks momentum, gave us a boring ADR reign, and led to the awful feud between Punk, Nash and HHH.

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  11. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 7, 2013 at 2:58 PM

    But Angle, Jericho and Benoit had to be willing to put over the established guys to prove they respected the business and wouldn't let their egos get out of control.


    Like in 1997 when everyone I knew was hesitant to follow the Austin crave because we didn't know for sure he was showing respect to the established main eventers behind the scenes.

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  12. Raven losing the US title to Goldberg.

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  13. Yeah....I got a bunch of those.....

    #1 being David Arquette winning the World title on Thunder....you know its bad when the match is TAPED and yet you still get sick to your stomach!

    #2 (tie) Vince Russo beating Ric Flair in a Hair vs. Hair Steel Cage match on NITRO and winning the World title

    Best of the rest:

    - Triple H beating Booker T at Wrestlemania

    - Chris Benoit losing the WWE title to Randy Orton

    - Goldberg NOT winning the title at SummerSlam 2002 in the Elimination Chamber (it made SO much sense to have Goldberg blow the roof off and win the Gold....and we get....that?!?!?!)

    - Of course the 18 second squash (not so much that he lost, but 18 seconds????)

    - Hulk Hogan stealing the spotlight at Wrestlemania 9

    - Jeff Hardy regaining the TNA world title last year

    - (From a mark-ish kid standpoint) Andre beating Hogan on "The Main Event"

    - Triple H basically SQUASHING ECW Champion Taz (I hated it for political reasons....the fact that Trips singlehandedly annihilated Taz and Dreamer with little problem)

    - Hulk Hogan beating Vader in a strap match....by pinning Ric Flair - WTF????

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  14. I forgot to mention the David Arquette shit...don't know if I've ever been as infuriated watching wrestling as I was watching that.

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  15. Fingerpoke of doom. Savage losing to Hogan at WM5. Flair beating Sting for the title in 1991, only because a snowstorm prevented me from going.

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  16. Cena beating HHH and HBK at Survivor Series 09. That was my last hope of Michaels ever having the title

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  17. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 7, 2013 at 3:10 PM

    I used to really get worked up with John Cena kept winning. I was sure they'd eventually acknowledge the boos and stop pushing the fool in the over-sized t-shirt, but nope. Month to month, same thing. It was similar to Triple H's reign of terror.


    But when Cena went over Michaels at Wrestlemania I made my peace with it. My favorite wrestler jobbing to some grinning moron in jean shorts. That was the last time I got emotionally invested. But I was furious at the time.

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  18. Dirty_Dave_DelaneyJuly 7, 2013 at 3:12 PM

    Back in my mark days when I first really got into wrestling in 2000 I remember being royally pissed off at Edge and Christian regaining the tag titles from Too Cool in a fatal four way tag team match featuring the Hardys and T and A at King of the Ring that year. I absolutely despised Edge and Christian at first but they did gradually win me over with their backstage skits with Angle and Foley, and especially their legendary kazoo-based antics.

    Also another one that stands out to me is the Rikishi/Stone Cold match from No Mercy 2000. I expected a heated emotionally-charged brawl but was very disappointed especially with the ending where Austin gets arrested for trying to brutally murder Rikishi. It just left a sour taste in my mouth as a fan because this was the first ever Steve Austin match I had watched and was expecting so much more, plus I didn't like the supposed good guy in the feud basically trying to commit murder even given Austin's tweener disposition.

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  19. OK on a more recent tilt...Samoa Joe losing to Jeff Jarrett by SUBMISSION in an MMA rules match. I'm saying this because they were doing the whole MMA Jarrett character (which was hilarious) and built it up so that Joe could demolish him, re-establishing the character...and what happened? Jarrett won the match. On a related note, Dixie Carter banned me from posting on her twitter.

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  20. This could of been good if Triple H turned heel.

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  21. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY-PprI3yWo



    That you?

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  22. Not so much a match but I really started giving up on WCW after Jericho wasn't allowed to have a title shot at Goldberg after the amazing promo work he was doing. That feud and match, even if a squash, would have been red hot. Jericho could have been WCW's Shawn Michaels.

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  23. TheRealCitizenSnipsJuly 7, 2013 at 3:19 PM

    Kevin Nash squashing a dozen allegedly pushed mid-carders in a 2 minute long gauntlet match on Nitro. He wasn't even pinning guys but the ref was counting pinfalls on them anyway. Easily one of the biggest crocks of shit I've ever seen in wrestling.

    Still the smartest guy in the history of this business though.

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  24. Funny how that one turned out though as Bryan got more over and Sheamus, the person who was supposed to get over, is cold right now.

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  25. Not a match result but I remember looking forward to the mystery person that ran over Austin for months. Who was it gonna be? A returning superstar? A new recruit form WCW? Someone from ECW? No... fucking Rikishi. What a joke that was...

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  26. HHH over Booker T was just terrible.

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  27. Dirty_Dave_DelaneyJuly 7, 2013 at 3:23 PM

    Didn't Rey Mysterio job to a big boot and cocky foot on the chest pin in that one?

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  28. I had to see how mad the Fully Loaded 2000 review was:

    "Retire now, you
    crippled, has been, slow-moving, fried-food eating, motorcyle-riding,
    no-selling, tobacco-chewing, no-money-drawing, talentless piece of
    selfish SHIT. Kurt Angle is the future, you are NOTHING. Deal with it.
    And take Kane with you when you go. I’m sure the idiot rubes will cry
    and Ask the Rick where you went again for six months the next time you
    leave, but I’ll be happy to see you gone for good, where you can’t drag
    down any more PPVs"

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  29. Christian winning his first world title, off the emotional energy from Edge's heartfelt retirement...only to drop it days later to Orton was FUCKING INFURIATING!!! And the fact that Christian basically turned into a joke and a jobber afterwards has done nothing to soften this anger.

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  30. Bryan's 18-second loss was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was just another dude who got a world title a little too early via MITB cash-in until that. That was the jump-off point of fans becoming emotionally invested in him and becoming an actual thing.

    That said, I agree at the time that it was very aggravating. Everyone seemed pretty certain that him and Sheamus could have a classic, which they proved the next month. If they'd had that match at WM28, it's a top five all-time WM.

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  31. HHH pinning Punk at Night of Champions '11 is up there for me.

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  32. AFAIK Michaels did not want it....

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  33. That entire angle wound up leading to a whole lot of nothing! Hey, remember when the entire roster went on strike for a night, because they were all afraid of THE MIZ AND R-TRUTH???

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  34. Arquette winning may be the biggest one, just because you can point to that very moment as the one that officially killed WCW. But I can also grant you Russo beating Flair, just because that was such a blatant ego-stroke.

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  35. Hey now...The Miz and R-Truth were actually pretty cool together.

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  36. I can't believe they had the balls to try and poke fun at MMA with Jeff Jarrett's ridiculous "MMA SHOOT LOL" character, considering that Spike was riding high on UFC at that time.

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  37. Oh man, you got this one right. I was VERY pissed at this one.

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  38. "it's a top five all-time WM."


    No, no, no, no....


    There's at LEAST 15-20 matches in WM history ahead of anything they could ever do together.

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  39. Agreed. Booker T's title win could have been a Ron Simmons moment...but instead, HHH turned it into a Koko B. Ware one.

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  40. Jericho not being pushed as the new babyface hero after Austin and Rock left bothered me. Chris could have filled the void but instead, we got HHH ruling RAW and Undertaker presiding over Smackdown.

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  41. Well in fairness, the character was built well and was engineered to get his ASS kicked by Joe. How they fucked that up is beyond me.

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  42. Every other wrestler ever says hi.

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  43. Jarrett had a bunch of aggravating moments when he ruled TNA as champion. Monty Brown should have gone over in their big PPV match.

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  44. I still think that's a missed opportunity and another one I get pissed off about. Miz and R-Truth get some heat, they get that great visual of then in hoodies taking out Cena, etc. in the cage and outsmarting HHH by giving themselves up for arrest.


    So HHH books himself OVER the police and is allowed to beat the crap out of Awesome Truth -- in handcuffs -- before Rock and Cena can even tag to defeat the usurpers.

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  45. Sting over Hulk Hogan at Starrcade. Not the fact that Sting won but how he won.
    Steiners vs Hall/Nash where the Steiners won by DQ
    The nWo over the Horseman.
    Nash clean over Wrath that stopped Wrath's momentum.

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  46. I know this will sound silly in retrospect, but no two matches have infuriated me more for long periods of time than HBK-Jericho from WM19 and Taker-Orton from WM21.


    At the time of WM19 we did not know HBK's health or future long term plans. There was no way anyone could have predicted that Shawn would give us 8 great years. Plus Jericho was in a weird spot at the time. He had become a main eventer, but was relegated back to the upper mid card because of the fact that Hogan, Rock, Austin, HHH and Angle were all around. Yet he had been the consistent backbone of the company because the above big names were either unreliable, had health issues and/or were part time. So Jericho was picking up a lot of the slack on TV. He had been treated like a joke through much of his title reign and this seemed like a perfect torch passing moment. Granted Jericho did alright anyway and HBK was around for 8 years, so it seems like the correct finish is retrospect(roll up victory, cheap attack after), but man I was upset for years because of that.


    Taker-Orton is similar. I thought they really dropped the ball with Orton in 2004 and that he may not recover. He was the legend killer going after a legend and his streak. Taker wasn't quite part time, nut no one could predict he had as much left in him as he did. So again it seemed like a perfect torch passing opportunity. Looking back it is fine since Orton did well anyway and now the streak is truly legendary, but at the time I was extremely infuriated.

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  47. But he did it for the rock

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  48. Nash killed two of late-era WCW's hottest acts without so much as an angle: Lance Storm and Wrath.

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  49. HHH 02-03 (kane ("katie vick" storyline), steiner, booker, flair on raw, nash with foley as ref, goldberg/chamber match, etc).

    hhh beating punk in 2011 didn't and never will make any sense. i'm still mad about that one and i didn't even see the match.

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  50. Pretty much anything the nWo did after, oh, the first three months.

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  51. Nash ending Wrath's streak. That insincere 'whew that was a tough match' look on Nash's face afterward was just insulting. It's the only time I've been legit pissed while watching a show.

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  52. The usual HHH ones (Goldberg, Booker T, Jericho), but here's one that personally ticked me off -- HHH/Rock IC ladder match at Summerslam -- because it was obvious that Rock was going to be the bigger star and it played out that way.


    Daniel Bryan 18 seconds, Cena-Nexus Survivor Series, Taker-Angle, Fingerpoke are all tried and true



    Two randoms: Edge-ADR at Mania, because nobody knew Edge had to retire and not pulling the trigger on ADR killed him forever. The Austin-Angle-RVD tilt, only because it was obvious that RVD was this red-hot act they didn't know what to do with and was never going over.

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  53. That look was "See how I just cut this guy's legs off?"

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  54. -Billy Gunn winning KOTR 99. It felt like the point of no return in the WWF Russo Era.

    -HHH going over Booker T at WM19. The racist wins, Booker T's amazing ascent to main event status is shut down, and all it thrown in our face with the pedigree/wait for an hour before pinning combo.

    -Sheamus going over Bryan in 18 seconds. It truly pissed off adult-me, which rarely happens. It was the match I was most looking forward to, the crowd was hot for Bryan, and everything seemed to be in place for a crowd-pleasing opener. Then... yeah.

    The two moments that didn't make me mad but killed off a big part of the fan in me: 1. HHH over Punk in Night of Champions because that was the end of the slow death of the Summer of Punk. 2. Cena's Rumble victory this year because our doomed fate was sealed whether we liked it or not

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  55. Thank God for CRZ's old recaps.

    http://slashwrestling.com/nitro/000605.html

    "KEVIN NASH runs the Gauntlet - Quick prediction: Nash squashes everybody, ostensibly burying everybody that people SWEAR are getting pushes. Hey, let's hope I'm wrong... Russo's music plays one more time - out come the NEW BLOOD ORDER. Russo, still covered in red, has THE STICK: "Nash...I'm here to reiterate the rules, ya big .... you get pinned by any one of the New Blood, and you lose your shot at the Great American Bash. And if any of the Millionaires attempt to help you, you lose your shot at the Great American Bash."

    DISCO INFERNO is first - hey, remember when these guys were friends? Inferno climbs on Nash's back, but Nash falls backward and sideways into a sidewalk slam for the pinfall (:08).

    Here comes CHRIS CANDIDO. Big boot. Truckstop powerbomb. As JOHNNY THE BULL comes in, referee "Blind" Mark Johnson drops and counts to three - despite the fact that NO part of Kevin Nash is touch ANY part of Chris Candido. What the HELL kinda rules are THESE? He doesn't even have to COVER them to get the fall? Why isn't HE getting pinned? THEY'RE not touching HIM either! Ugh. (:25) Johnny gets a powerbomb following the knee. (:30) BIG VITO is in - knee, knee, powerbomb. Nash at least tries to put a foot on his chest while Johnson counts to three (:47) He doesn't have to cover him! RAYMOND STEREO is in - well SURELY the Giant Killer will take care of Nash...big boot stops the charge. Nash steps on his chest - 1, 2, 3. (1:02) DE JUICE runs off. I guess Johnson will someone work a quick ten count to take care of him, right? PERFECTSHAWN is in - THE EVENT, JOBBIN' VAMPIRO, SHANE DOUGLAS, AWESOME MULLET, KONNAN....now COLD BEER's music hits and HE comes lumbering out...double spear for the tag team champs. Douglas and Vampiro kick Goldberg, but Nash and Goldberg manage to work over both of them - and clear the ring. Play Goldberg's music! It's over. (2:13) Yeah, Nash went through a dozen New Blood members in just over two minutes. Now, keep in mind that this is only MY opinion - it may not necessarily be yours. THIS WAS A FUCKING JOKE."

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  56. I think he's talking about the event itself, which was pretty strong but would've been legendary with another 3.5-4 star match on it.

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  57. Vince himself admits that the Taz thing was probably not the best thing to do for business.

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  58. Nash had that look on his face a lot over the course of his career.

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  59. Not just the Rock. He did it for all the Samoans.

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  60. Or if they had paid off the Punk/Nash thing. I really did think Nash was finally going to do the right thing and put Punk over in one great last match. (Or as great a match as you can get from Nash.) I thought that this was the "apology" for the summer of Punk nonsense...I don't know.

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  61. Billy Gunn beat his 4 opponents in the King Of The Ring Tournament including the qualifier in 16 minutes flat! 16 minutes for 4 matches!!! Should have been The Big Show's tournament to win obviously but you know Russo and his swerves!

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  62. It usually came after the hair flip but before the powerbomb.

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  63. How many times did Flair put over Hogan in WCW? I was mad literally every time.

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  64. Summerslam 2002. Triple H taking a superkick, laying in his pod for the rest of the match until he hits Goldberg with the sledgehammer (that Goldberg somehow didnt notice flair handing to him through the cage) for the win. All while wearing those horrific bike shorts to protect the groin injury that made dropping the title an even bigger no-brainer

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  65. The inexplicable double-turn at Uncensored '99 was, by far, the most baffling of the Flair/Hogan matches.

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  66. The only two that really angered me in my 18 years of following wrestling are Triple H beating the Rock at WrestleMania 2000, since I thought it was time for the Rock to get his "moment." And then Triple H beating Booker T in a completely racist angle. Making Booker lay there for a minute before he covered him didn't help the situation either. That match actually caused me to stop watching for 2 years (I came back when Batista-Triple H fought two years later).

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  67. And they solidified it at the first show I ever attended, a '99 Thunder taping. The Rupp Arena crowd cheered for Hogan like it was 1984.

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  68. Don't see why really, ECW was still an "independent" promotion at the time despite Vince's subsidys, and the financial writing was already on the wall for Paul E. Time was running out and the vultures were circling, might as well have a pretty cool one week angle.

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  69. Geez, I forgot about the match length. Russo swerved Big Show out of any heat that year with heel/face/tweener turns in record succession, too. Show's character never recovered until (I'd say) his comeback in 2008. I also think they swerved Bob Holly out of some major heat, too, by 86'ing his Big Shot angle that was hot around that time. That was a dreadful ppv.

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  70. I don't know why people say it was a "swerve" to have Billy win that tournament. I thought he was the obvious favorite to win, which might've been because WOW magazine said he was in line for a push. Either way, I thought the tournament was clearly setting up for a Gunn-X-Pac final and am always kind of baffled when people say "Gunn winning was a big upset."


    It's also amazing how many times the WWF tried anything to get Billy over. He was in the Smoking Gunns, then cowboy Billy, then Rockabilly, then in the New Age Outlaws, then Mr. Ass, then he was "The One", and then I guess they finally figured out that he just wasn't going to catch on. I liked Billy as a tag wrestler, but just never bought him as a strong singles threat.

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  71. I just watched the History of Wrestlemania on Netflix last night and was surprised to see how far the Hogan vs Flair Mania VIII match actually went along before they pulled the plug. I can't imagine Flair not agreeing to do the job considering he went and put Savage over and seemed almost gleeful to do the same to Hogan on his home turf a few years later. What's the real story behind that fustercluck?

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  72. It's funny you mention the ladder match because that was probably the ONLY time I wanted Triple H to really win something. The Rock was such a great heel and I was so angry that Ken Shamrock never won the strap from him that I wanted him to get knocked down a notch.

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  73. Collectively as a fanbase, we have to give Booker a shit ton of credit for putting up with that. He was on the hottest run of his career (even moreso than his WCW days) coming off the heels of the BookDust team that was comedy gold. He then withstood being insulted in and out of the ring with that WM19 performance. Then, he stayed strong long enough for the King Bookah run (of course, the final chapter on that is a HHH squash in Summerslam 2007).

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  74. Maybe not a swerve but Big Show was the hot new free agent so i had him pencilled in to win to really cement himself in the top tier at the time. Instead he jobs to Kane in the first round and they just throw the world title on him in the fall anyway before HHH really found his footing as a heel.

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  75. What Vince was talking about ("not being the best for business") was Taz getting completely squashed by HHH on Smackdown. Taz was part of WWE at the time and could have been built up more had HHH not killed his heat there. The angle was cool, a WCW guy vs a WWE guy for the ECW Title and having Taz show up a couple of times on tv with the ECW belt. But having HHH beat him in such a squash match was unnecessary.

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  76. So glad someone else mentioned Orton beating Benoit... I was so happy to have Benoit FINALLY be champion that I never wanted it to end, even if he did it the right way... which made me mad again a few later when old ass Hogan got to beat Orton at Summerslam... why the fuck does the oragne goblin get to beat Orton but Benoit can't?


    Getting pissed about it right now for fucks sake.

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  77. IIRC, the consensus at the time was that Gunn was expected to win.

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  78. I was always a big Booker T fan since he started his singles run in WCW in 1998. I really thought he was going to get his crowning moment and was going to be really happy for him. Seeing him insulted and beaten like that went all over me. I sometimes forget about the King Booker run, but that was some great comedy. I remember him calling Batista "a rogue" and how he was going to beat him at "The SummerSlam games."

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  79. Big Show getting the belt was REALLY weird in late '99. I'd have preferred they have gone with Test, since it at least would've made sense in the storylines.

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  80. I didn't think it was necessarily a swerve. It still pissed me off though.

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  81. No. He did it for The People.

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  82. Taker-Orton is the ONLY time that I've ever felt the streak was in jeopardy. I wanted Undertaker to win because I really couldn't stand Orton, but if there was a time for ending the streak, it was that match. I thought that RKO out of the chokeslam killed the streak.

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  83. AND THEN the company wondered why Survivor Series that year drew such a terrible buyrate and then blamed...THE MIZ!

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  84. To this day I don't know why Vince thought that was a good idea. I know Triple H sold it as he didn't want to drop and regain the belt prior to Goldberg coming in, but then Triple H dicked around with Goldberg and killed him off in the same political way. Just awful all around.

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  85. Oh wow, I'd forgotten about that.

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  86. Never seen that before. So very stupid.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Xw-m4VW50

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  87. This. I have always tried to play Devil's Advocate for HHH because I saw a guy who worked hard and wanted it. That match could have made Goldberg in WWE. The crowd was nuts for him. Was it at SS 2003?

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  88. I felt the same way. I was really surprised Cena made Triple H tap at WrestleMania and knew he'd probably beat Shawn, but I was hoping beyond hope that Michaels would somehow win the belt. It's really funny too because I think that was the first time since IYH 2, when Michaels beat Jeff Jarrett, that I actually wanted to see Michaels win a big match.

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  89. It's a shameful thing.

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  90. Did the American Males win that much, though? I mean, they got that fluke tag title win over Harlem Heat but aside from that they didn't do too much. And now I have their theme song in my head....

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  91. Or just stick with HHH from Summerslam '99 until The Rock dethroned him at Mania. That's how it should have gone anyway. It's funny how they insisted upon a happy ending for SS with Jesse Ventura there but then flipped Mania on it's year.

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  92. That's a lot of people on here.

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  93. You're telling me that the guy who got WWE mainstream press simply from a promo shouldn't have lost at Night of Champions (and Summerslam, and Hell in a Cell and Vengeance)?

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  94. It was Summerslam 2003. Summerslam 2002 was HHH v. HBK

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  95. Ah shut your mouth you thong wearing fatty!

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  96. Also, his 18 second loss made complete sense storyline wise. It fit in perfectly with the attitude Bryan had been cultivating for months. Obviously, Warrior squashing HTM will always be the definitive quick victory, but this one also made story sense.

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  97. [s]Scott was talking about Hogan, right?[/s]

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  98. I could see the Rock/Punk think coming from a mile away, but I was PRAYING they would flip it and surprise me. Especially when so many faces won earlier in the evening.

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  99. Ric Flair over Lex Luger at GAB and Starrcade'88 seemed less like a proper booking decision than a dick waving contest between Ric and Dusty backstage. Lex should have gone over at the Bash before Flair regained it at Starrcade to set up his upcoming classics with Steamboat when Naitch won the backstage war and sent Dusty running to New York.


    It was clear everyone was building to Sting winning the strap and beginning a new decade with a new "man". Why they didn't do it at Starrcade '89 is a mystery.

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  100. I am SHOCKED that HBK hasn't been listed here several more times. Specifically, going over Vader in 96 and over Bulldog for the Euro. title in '97. Both were shameful and make me fume to this day.

    Also, HHH over Taz was a pretty bad one. I'm fairly certain HHH is even on record admitting that he would book that differently if he could redo that it.

    HHH over Rock only one month after Rock FINALLY won at Backlash also seriously pissed me off. I wish they would have let face Rock run with the title a bit longer. At least we got that awesome iron man match out of it.

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  101. The Vader one doesn't bug me all that much since at the time i was convinced that Shawn was always going to hold the title from Mania until Survivor Series where he'd lose it to...The Ultimate Warrior before regaining it at the Rumble in San Antonio. The Warrior of course quickly flaked out and was quite literally replaced by Psycho Sid who had the best run of his career (All 8 or so months of it)

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  102. Hulk was too busy getting reamed out by Vince Russo live on PPV at the time.

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  103. I don't think Angle should be in this conversation. He beat the Rock for the title a few months later and pretty much went over everyone. His push stalled for a little bit after dropping the title, but they booked him like a star.

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  104. Yes, meant 2003. I always blackout when I think about HHH 2002-2004

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  105. I remember Billy Gunn being the rumor back in 99, Lawler even hinted that during the Survivor Series 99 ppv.

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  106. You're not the only one. Thanks to Trips, 2002-2005 is a complete blur for me even though I likely watched half the shows from that time

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  107. fingerpoke of doom. I loathed Hogan at that point.


    Konan over Jericho. yeah he was leaving probably but Konnan was awful. Hated the guy. Just catchphrases and a NWO affiliation.


    Almost any UT victory during his Underbiker phase.

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  108. Shawn winning the Euro title ruled. Strongly disagree.

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  109. K-Dawg was over like Rover, you must be a straight up strawberry.

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  110. No one really saw One Night Only live because it was broadcast in the UK, so emotions weren't really invested in it in the western hemisphere. And I dug the Vader match because Shawn got to hold onto the title (it was almost customary at that point that whoever was champ after Mania got to hold it until Survivor Series...because belts meant something back then) but still had Vader "win" twice.

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  111. May.25,1979 - Dothan,Albama Terry "The Hulk" Boulder pinned NWA World Champion Harley Race to win the NWA World Championship, but the decision was voided when Terry was discovered to have thrown Race over the top rope during the match. Normally this would simply be looked at as a "Dusty finish" and ignored but video footage from the following night has surfaced in which Boulder's win is recognized - albeit briefly. This title change is not currently recognized by the NWA.

    WAT??? I knew all about Hulk's numerous fuck finishes with Nick Bockwinkle in the AWA but this one is news to me.

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  112. Power_of_Hogans_HOF_RingJuly 7, 2013 at 5:19 PM

    One was the "political quagmire," as I believe Gene Okerlund coined it. The other story is that the match, somewhat surprisingly, wasn't drawing all that well at house shows. Back in the day (and at least as recently as 2000), Vince really trusts MSG crowds, and sort of uses them as the pulse of the wrestling audience. Hogan & Flair headlined MSG - the dream match of the last 10 years - and it didn't sell out.



    The big question that always gets overlooked (it seems) is "At what point did Hogan decide he wanted time off?" If it was before the Rumble, it makes perfect sense that they would change the main event, without even having to take a single other factor into consideration. In the WWE from 1985-1996, bad guy wins did not close out ppv's. Since this was WrestleMania, Hogan's match would have had to go on last. I suppose they could have done a dq finish in the Flair match, but anyone that kept up with the NWA (and who wasn't a Flair fan, like I wasn't a Flair fan), would have hated that. After 5 years of watching cheap finishes, I would have hated that Flair brought that crap with him to my fav. company, blamed him, and watched significantly less until he wasn't on top anymore. At 12, cool matches were awesome, but I didn't think Flair really had them. Bret was fun to watch, but Flair - to a 12 year old, he was kind of like a puffed up, more charasmatic Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. (From the blonde hair to the robe to the figure four...) Talented like Greg for sure, but it didn't feel very much like anything I hadn't seen before.

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  113. Cena beating Edge for the title at Royal Rumble 06'. Edge was a super interesting heel champion and it was ridiculous he lost it that fast. The TLC match with Flair cemented Edge as a legit champ to me. Cena should have been turned heel back then. total bullshit, still pissed.

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  114. HHH going over Booker T, RVD, and Jericho.

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  115. Ooh, that's a good one. Less of the blame falls on Cena for that one. They had to keep the HHH Wrestlemania main event intact, you see. No one is allowed to fuck with HHH's Wrestlemania payday plans.

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  116. Sid was way over when he made his return, which was amazing to me. Madison Square Garden treated him like a god when he beat Shawn for the belt at Survivor Series.

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  117. Yeah, that was the reason provided since Cena-Triple H had been penciled in. It was really unfortunate too because Edge's title win and reign actually spiked RAW's ratings.

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  118. Another no brainer would be Triple H vs. The Rock, Stone Cold vs. The Undertaker, and and other match from Over the Edge 1999 that took place after the lowest point in the history of the business (at that time at least)....still mind-boggling that they just went on.

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  119. Which Chris Jericho victory? Because to be honest HHH was white hot on his return from injury and beating Y2J at Mania X8 seemed like the right move at the time. That the angle and match were substandard and completely overshadowed by the WWE Debut of the nwo and the subsequent Hogan vs Rock match is another thread in itself.

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  120. I think RVD and Jericho each beat HHH on Raw for the strap, but on both occasions the decisions were overturned and i proceeded to destroy my living room.

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  121. You know, I think in recent years, the "mysteries" have all been huuuuge letdowns (The "Higher Power", The guy that ran over Stone Cold, The Hummer Driver in WCW, Leader of Aces and Eights)....about the only surprise that delivered was DDP as The Undertaker's wife-stalker.....though that made absolutely NO sense

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  122. Didn't Michael Hayes try to convince Vince after the reaction the crowd had to Jericho winning the belt from HHH on RAW that they should just keep it on him for a short while?

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  123. Don't know but that sounds about right because the crowd went ape shit

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  124. Then Rock cut that promo in him and it was over

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  125. How about the time Benoit and Edge simultaneously beat HHH for the World Title on Raw. The obvious thing to do coming out of this would be a Benoit vs Edge match for the title, instead it was just an excuse for an elimination chamber match where HHH got to win the belt back.

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  126. Seriously? What argument does anyone have against Nash ending the streak other than it was Nash who ended the streak?

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  127. That angle pissed me off!


    HHH - "Reverse the decision or else!"
    Earl Hebner - "Okay."



    Vince should have called an audible and let Chris run with the title for a month or 2 and see what happens. Protip - Nothing happens and HHH regains the title on a summer ppv.


    Still would have been fun.

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  128. Mine pretty much all involve Triple H.


    Triple H ending Goldbergs WWE streak at Summerslam 03' piss me off, Bill proceeded to squash the rest of the Raw roster in pretty satisfying fashion and (for me) Paul destroyed all his momentum in one full swoop so he could pin Goldberg first.... okay he'd lose the title the next PPV but would eventually end up winning the feud at Armageddon that year.. this was purely ego driven.


    Triple H squashing the Hurricane pissed me off royally after he gained huge momentum after his interactions with the Rock and making Helms look like he was on a level playing field when he beat him with a roll up (Rock gave him a ton of offence).


    Triple H squashing Eugene at SS04' after he had huge momentum and was getting legitimately over.


    Triple H beating RVD at Unforgiven in 2002 to all but end RVD's potential as a Main Eventer.


    Triple H pedigreeing Booker T having a cup of coffee then pinning him and killing his popularity at WM19.... so we could get KEVIN NASH in the fold.


    Triple H beating CM Punk during his run in 2011, how did that benefit anyone?... from the coolest angle in years to KEVIN NASH/HHH.


    Triple H beating Brock Lesnar at WM29 all but killing his unique aura (almost), that he brought with him after his MMA run, effectively killing Lesnar as a significant major draw.


    John Cena beating the Rock clean at WM29 because he just never really needed it unless it was to set off a major heel turn, I never saw the point of headlining Mania AGAIN to give us the SAME crap we've been fed for years, rather than say having a Summerslam rematch. The Champ is here! R Time is now... NO one is buying it an eighth time around.

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  129. Not only that, but weren't Edge and Benoit like, the first two eliminated and didn't even play into the ending?

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  130. RVD beat Undertaker for the belt.

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  131. Monty Brown should have been the next Rock. Biggest wasted opportunity of the 00's.

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  132. when was this match? never seen it, and would like to.

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  133. Greatest surprise ever, of course, is Hogan being unveiled as the third man at Bash at the Beach '96

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  134. For me it's War Games 98(?) where Hennig turned on the Horsemen and joined the NWO. Perfect is one of my top 3 all time faovrites and one of my idiot friends thought I was mad because he was a "bad guy" now when in reality I was just pissed because he was going from what would have been a PERFECT role for him with the Horsemen to being just another guy in the overcrowded NWO. I was furious.

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  135. I remember seeing that for the first time on one of the Botchamanias. I had never been so befuddled before in my entire life.

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  136. I do believe that apeshit is actually the preferred nomenclature

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  137. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 7, 2013 at 6:09 PM

    I guess the alternative would be nobody ending the streak yet? Who else? Sting? Hogan? Flair? DDP? Even if Nash ended the streak, turned heel and held the title, so what? He played second fiddle to Hogan during the nWo, why can't he have a run?

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  138. Any Chris Jericho loss to Triple H post-fake title switch, with WrestleMania X-8 and Judgment Day later that year being the most infuriating.

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  139. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 7, 2013 at 6:13 PM

    Agreed. It's only the Bulldog and its only the European Championship, and the heat was off the charts. The whole spectacle of HBK winning the title and being such a dick about it is more memorable than any Bulldog victory would have been.

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  140. Glad to see that time and perspective have led people to realize what I claimed all along, that the fake title switch did exactly jack and shit for Jericho.

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  141. My 14 year old mark self was pissed that Hogan didn't get tossed off from the top of the cage at Uncensored '96.

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  142. Angle beating Roode...that whole business caused me to stop watching TNA.


    Punk and the SES losing to Big Show 3v1.


    Punk losing to the Rock (more disappointed in the flatness of the match, but it left me with a bad feeling in my mouth).


    Christian losing the belt to Orton at his FIRST Smackdown.


    ADR losing the WWE title to Cena in '11, completely killed the ADR/Punk feud (I'd almost put that over Nash for killing Punk's momentum).

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  143. April 17, 2000 RAW.

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  144. I think that ADR scenario could've worked if they played up ADR as the most weaselly dickish cheater over. Taking Punk's dream away from him after he had finally gotten to the top of the heap.


    But then...ADR started feuding with Cena...and lost the belt to him.

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  145. You could be right, although I feel like his first title run was one of those where he was made to look like a paper champion. I feel like he didn't start to be put on the same level as the other guys until his feud with Austin during the Invasion angle but by then business was already going down.

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  146. You are thinking of War Games '97. The Nitro the night after was one of the most depressing episodes of TV I ever watched. Tony walked off the set in the beginning because he was 'distraught' over what happened to Flair in the cage, Mongo lost the US Title in the main event and the whole show was a textbook example of the worst of the nWo.

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  147. They botched Christian badly, he had a lot of momentum on the heels of Edge's retirement.

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  148. This War Games you're referring to was the 1997 version. Leading up to this, I kept telling one of my cousins that Hennig was going to turn on the Horsemen, and that's exactly what happened.

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  149. Replace Finger Poke of Doom with a slow burn heel turn and maybe it works. Goldberg easily could have been an 18 month - 2 years champion, the streak was very special.

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  150. Jarrett talking about how he was going to tap out your kids made me a fan for life. Guy might be the world's best wrestler (though I think he's underrated by many) but he seems to have so much fun wrestling I can't really hate on him.

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  151. In interviews post-WCW, Bobby Heenan has always (somewhat jokingly) said that he feels the streak should never have ended.


    I still don't have a real good answer as to any clearly and distinctly better alternatives than Nash to end the streak. Nash was a big star and was really over. The problem was Goldberg getting tasered, the finger poke of doom and Goldberg never getting his revenge on Nash/nWo.

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  152. I definitely cosign on HHH winning the 2003 Elimination Chamber. I've always been a fan of HHH, but Goldberg should've went over in that match.

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  153. This guy gets it.

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  154. Could it? I feel like the bloom was coming off the rose by the time Goldberg lost the title and even the streak was starting to lose a little bit of its luster once people began to realize WCW was kinda fabricating the numbers.

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  155. Yeah but it also deprives us of Rock beating Trips at Backlash in one of the great moments in the history of our sport (/Schiavone) and also the really good iron man match at Judgment Day.

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  156. Couldn't they at least had him drop it at the fucking PPV?

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  157. Good call on the Orton match. There was no reason for that to happen

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  158. I honestly think that Edge knew his neck was fucked before WrestleMania. But he wanted to go out at the biggest show of the year and the company decided that having him go out on top was the way to go.

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  159. In hindsight, does it really matter that HHH beat Taz cleanly? I loved Taz but he was already pretty banged up by that point and I think it was clear that he wasn't gonna be a mega star.

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  160. Good stuff. They could have done Face vs. Face with Flair putting Sting over at Starrcade, still did the whole Sting joins the Horseman since Flair thinks he's Horseman worthy by Sting beating him, and then do the heel turn and all that and Flair is Sting's first challenger for the title where Sting beats him once and for all.

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  161. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 7, 2013 at 6:40 PM

    That's what I thought to. I was following online at the time and there was a lot of "Goldberg's getting old" sentiment, and apparently he was starting to get boos in some places. I don't know if that's because a guy on a winning streak will inevitably get old, or if it was because Goldberg really didn't do much of anything as champion but from what I remember when the streak ended it felt like it was time to end it.

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  162. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 7, 2013 at 6:45 PM

    It was messy, but they ended up setting up a reformed, stronger nWo, with Hogan as champion, the Outsiders reunited, and Goldberg looking for revenge. I don't know if the nWo would have worked again, but that's the direction they were going in and on paper Goldberg rolling through the nWo until he get to Hogan is appealing.But immediately Hogan moves onto a feud with Flair, which results in Hogan turning face, and Flair turning heel, running the company as the top heel, 2 months into what's supposed to be a long-term storyline. This all gets dumped on Nash but Hogan's the one who decided he wanted to turn face, and Flair benefited more than Nash did.

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  163. The "One More Match" schtick was cute, but Orton using him as a punching bag all of 2011's summer killed Christian dead. I guess Vince really isn't fond of him.

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  164. Luckily that seemed to be the end of Orton's run as a main-eventer.

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  165. I think Goldberg not getting his revenge on the nWo and regaining the title put a bad taste in people's mouths.

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  166. Summer slam was the elimination chamber. Yep.

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  167. Everything that happened at Invasion. My interest pretty much waned after that.

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  168. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJuly 7, 2013 at 7:06 PM

    Booker T losing at WMXIX made me want to kick my cat. They make HHH into this vile, fucking racist-as-shit heel, then goes over at WrestleMania. FUCK THAT SHIT IN ITS ASS.

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  169. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJuly 7, 2013 at 7:09 PM

    While we all hate the Reign of Terror...there's no way he should've dropped the belt to Steiner, who was so out-of-shape he collapsed from fatigue less than six minutes into his Rumble match with Hunter.

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  170. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJuly 7, 2013 at 7:13 PM

    Same here, I was there live and lost my shit when Taker kicked out of the RKO because everyone in the arena thought it was over. That's why I don't think you can ever snap the streak, because no one was in a better position to snap it than on-the-cusp-of-stardom Randy Orton. That's a much underappreciated match.

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  171. Yeah, but they almost always book their heel champions weak. I just mean I think Vince and whoever believed in Angle alot more than Benoit or Jericho. Benoit got a gold watch and I think Vince thought Jericho was a flop until the heel turn the second time around. Then he pushed the hell out of him, when he could have pushed the hell out of him years earlier and made money off of it.

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  172. When Stephanie McMahon walked out as the "brains" behind the ECW insurrection. How the hell did I live through that night again?

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  173. Granted, except for the title win, I wasn't paying close attention to WCW as I was pretty locked into the WWF by that point, but that's also what I've heard.

    The problem is that much like Hogan by 1990/1991, you kinda knew Goldberg was going to win and there was no where left to go with him but down. The one money match that they could have had was Goldberg vs. The Giant to see if Goldberg could actually hit the Jackhammer on The Giant. Instead they booked that with a run in finish on an episode of Nitro. The Giant could have been Goldberg's Andre... but they blew it.

    I mean think about it, Goldberg vs. Curt Hennig, the battle royal, the thing at Fall Brawl with Jericho, nothing at World War 3... in the five months he was champion, he only had a real feud/rivalry for like two months. It's no wonder the crowd was growing tired of him.

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  174. The nWo was done at that point, I think. What made the nWo so successful in the first place was that it seemed real and not like a wrestling storyline. By 1999, it was just another wrestling storyline and one that the fans were done seeing. I'm a huge fan of big stables but the nWo had run its course. Maybe if people really wanted to see Goldberg get the title back it could have temporarily salvaged the nWo but I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

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  175. And that still remains to this day the smartest thing Hayes has ever said.

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  176. The ECW Invasion was interesting for all of 20 minutes until Stephanie walked out. They had to make sure McMahon's were front and center...again.

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  177. In hindsight, I'm glad they did, Miz is insufferable as a face.

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  178. Edge mentions this on his DVD too. That was a tough one too because I hated Edge so much(in the good heel type way) and legitimately wanted to see Cena kick his ass but I also was entertained by Edge as champ and wanted to see him run with it for a while and let Cena chase him.

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  179. To add to that, chauvinist pig Jeff Jarrett in 1999 during the Chyna feud was gold as well. The scenes of him randomly grabbing women and putting them in the figure four in comedy gold, especially when it's the makeup lady.

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  180. Agree on the Undertaker thing. I'm a huge Taker fan but as I've been watching Old WWF shows from 2000-2001 I just have to skip past Takers segments because he's so damn terrible. I'm at SS 01 and the only great match he's had is with Triple H.

    Taker and Kane absolutely buried Polumbo and Ohaire just before SS. Seriously, squash city. It was pointless. Taker and Kane then went on to squash DDP. DDP was bit he'd out by SARA.

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  181. I've never minded Shawn beating Bulldog in 97. First, people job in their hometowns all the time. It was. Great match and Shawn was headed to the top while Bulldog was not.

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  182. Since Nash ended up wrestling anyway at TLC, and no one bought Del Rio or Miz (especially Miz) winning the title from Punk... why didn't they just do Punk/Nash for the title?

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  183. I had many complaints about Rock/Punk, but the result wasn't one of them:


    1) The "my mom has cancer" sympathy promo was so out of character for the Rock.


    2) They basically Starcadded the Rock by having him get pinned by Punk. I understand Rock was probably trying to throw Punk a bone, but for a match like this, Rock should have straight up won the damn thing without the need of a restart by VINCE MCMAHON of all people.


    3) "You don't strip him of the title... I AM!"


    4) Rock's conditioning, as he was sucking wind within five minutes, which lead to him saying the line above rather than saying "I DO".

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  184. December 2 Dismember. Every time I have stopped watching wrestling, it's mostly been a gradual loss of interest. Punk being eliminated FIRST and then RVD, that was annoying enough for me to stop watching all at once for quite a while.

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  185. What John said. It was already a Mania worth my money for the matches I was paying to see: Punk/Jericho, Cena/Rock and HHH/Taker all delivered. Even with everything else being nothing, if you throw in the 4-star match Sheamus and Bryan had at Extreme Rules, you're talking about a quartet of matches that stands up to any Wrestlemania and yeah, I think we're talking about one of the five best Wrestlemanias ever. (I'd probably put it behind 17, 20, and 10 in this hypothetical scenario, just ahead of 19, 3 and 26. But I'm the type who doesn't mind half of the show being a big nothing if you're giving me multiple classics.)

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  186. It did. And while I think DB's popularity shooting through the roof was more happy accident than by design, I get what they were going for: the shocking moment, the "holy shit" jolt to open the show, "anything can happen at Wrestlemania," etc. Like it or not, it worked.


    So the idea is fine. The problem was, it's a four-hour show and it doesn't require hindsight in looking at that card to see that there was nothing else in the middle that was gonna really shine, unless you had a bizarre amount of faith in Kane/Orton. (And even they went on to have a really good match at Extreme Rules the next month, but I digress.) The first half of this show badly needed the 4+ star, 20-minute match everyone knew they could have even before they actually did it a month later.

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  187. Starrcade 97 and 98. Who booked that crap?

    Wrestlemania XXV- Orton vs Triple H. Should have been a bloody brawl.


    Summer of Punk.

    The Invasion.

    Wrestlemania-should have been Hogan vs Stone Cold. So much money......

    The Nexus

    Hmmmm.....thats about it.

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  188. I really think DDP should've ended the streak at Halloween Havoc. Look at the crowd reaction when he hit the Diamond Cutter. When DDP got the belt in the spring of 1999 he wasn't hot anymore.

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  189. The NWO should've died at Starrcade '97. I would've had the Horsemen win the War Games that year, which would begin the dissension in the NWO, build that up further in the WW3 battle royal, and then have WCW dominate them through the entire card at Starrcade, culminating in Sting winning the title.

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  190. When Iron Mike Sharpe beat Tim Horner. I was in a uncontrollable rage for minutes.

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  191. Scream09_HartKillerJuly 7, 2013 at 8:26 PM

    I just accepted it at the time, and Stephanie was nice to look at that summer, but in retrospect, you have WCW and ECW invading and they use it as a backdrop to McMahon family drama because no wrestling fan cares about WCW or ECW as much as they do who's getting along with who in the McMahon family.

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  192. There. I downvoted me too.

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  193. In that case those are all fair points and I agree.

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  194. What lowest point are you talking about?

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  195. I like this scenario. Seems logical and would have made the fall of 97 for WCW far more interesting than it wound up being (not counting the Sting/Hogan feud).

    I think there would have been big money in a Nash/Hogan feud after Starrcade. They always seemed to be loosely teasing that Nash was the one not happy with Hogan leading the nWo but after the Wolfpac split, they never really built to a big Hogan/Nash match and focused more on Hogan/Savage.

    Hall, Nash and Syxx should have split after Starrcade and formed the Wolfpac without the involvement of Luger, Sting, Konnan, etc. Hogan could have blamed them for not having his back and being too focused on getting their Wolfpac 'Kliq' over and not caring about the nWo family and that's why Hogan was no longer champion.

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  196. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJuly 7, 2013 at 9:25 PM

    Good one. That was fucking stupid.

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  197. Pretty ironic that Undertaker was 'broken down' in 2000 and yet is probably as in as good shape or better than Angle today.

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  198. Pretty much everyone figured Bryan would job at WM28 and were prepared for it, plus Bryan had been such a dick in storylines that it would've been good comeuppance. What we all wanted, however, was a tremendous match and THAT was what WWE screwed us out of, not Bryan winning.

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  199. This is the most logical argument against the 18 second match that I've seen mentioned. Makes total sense, and gives me pause when I defend their decision.

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