Question: Has there ever been a single WCW wrestler that didn't suck after being hyped up in promos? Seems that guys like Glacier and the Shockmaster were DOA, but the guys that just appeared out of nowhere: Goldberg, Hall, Nash, Luger usually made the most impact.
I could see that happening, but taking away the union jack wouldn't have helped. I was generally a fan, but he was a charismatic blackhole. Maybe turn luger and replay the horsemen thing might have been a better idea than giant. . .
I'm not surprised that the Benoit feud was the end of the road for Sullivan, but I'm more amazed that it dragged on for that long. Chris F-B's recaps are already making that seem like the Feud That Never Ended. (That and the equally-neverending Jarrett/Mongo feud.)
Nah, off a barrier. They had the usual guys there dressed as Angle, Austin etc doing bad Ankle locks, so me and a pal (I was drunk) decided to have a full on match.
It ended with me doing a moonsault on to him and about 3 other random people infront of about 200-300 people.
There's a few badly lit clips on YouTube. Won't forget that show in a hurry.
We then went back to a pal's with Neville, and watched Raw with him. That was unusual.
I think the point was to put over Kevin in a big and legit way and he certainly did that. And he can put over a few more guys and move back to commentary if that's his path.
NXT is effectively an indy fed. And you can always use a few veterans to help the newer guys. Rhyno is actually going to be good in this role as well. Squash some jobbers, move up the card, fight and get beat by the champ and then move down the card and put people over. It worked wonders during the Territory days. I think Alex and Rhyno can serve the same purpose here.
Noting that the payoff to the DDP benefactor apparently was revealed in June 1996 - the big storyline to setup DDP as the next babyface must have been a fluke. And Bischoff being the money man killed Dibase dead. He tried to do a face turn - because WCW - but as much as I like babyface Dibase - it isn't a compelling character. Not even his indy promotion with Uncle Fred main eventing did anything of note.
I miss the the territory days for that exact reason. A monster doesn't seem so monstrous when you see him in one company for the better part of 15 years (Big Show, Kane, etc).
Well until the wierd Russo version of the Varsity club with Sullivan wearing the green jacket. Sullivan was always a satanic worshipper gimmick in the Varsity club and then all of a sudden he is just the Captain. Yikes.
I felt it was less of a swerve than it looked like- Duggan's mystery partners are all notorious career heels and he's surprised when they turn on him? I thought it was obvious! I was just waiting for them to snap on him!
Was that when DiBiase was at ringside and to the camera holds up three fingers, then the fourth . . . then the fifth . . . and doesn't say anyting, but the announcers are freaking out as to what he means and say everything under the sun except more members in the NWO?
I suppose if you give tickets away that technically counts as negative,since you're giving something to them rather than them paying you for the privilege.
That's hindsight though. The NWO seemed really dangerous and unpredictable at that point and that kind of conspiracy theory tension from the announcers just kept it going.
Awesome opening promo. They did a great job making sure Owens doesn't get cheered by making him chicken out of putting the title on the line but not booking him like the usual chicken shit heel.
Well, I mean, it was going well until I dropped that microphone, and then I was so embarrassed about it that I just walked off the stage, so I don't think I'll continue.
Some eyewitness reports said the cops had Gray with his legs up in the air and bent back, with a knee on his neck. They basically had him in a Liontamer.
Why do people still get confused about the Giant storyline? It was actually perfectly logical and pretty cool angle. Giant turns to the darkside because Hogan promises him money and movie roles. Giant wins WW3 and becomes number one contender, Hogan backstabs him, Giant freaks out and declares war on nWo.
The interesting thing about the opening promo/Takeover match set-up was...they were saying each other's lines.
"What? Do you think that you can just come out here and sneak attack somebody and THAT makes you deserving of a title shot?" is what Owens said to Zayn...which of course, ironic in that it's exactly how Owens got his shot.
"I fight for a prize!" is what Zayn says to Owens...which of course made more sense when it came from a debuting Owens who needed to get the belt because it meant more money for his family.
--Dana Brooke does the exact same pose routine (with the weird spinning arms thing) on the top of the ramp as she does in the ring...and again when she won the match. (I'm still caught between not liking her because she's a heel and not liking her because she's inevitably the one Vince/Dunn/Triple H will put their backing behind.)
--Are they trying to get Carmella over as a face? (Or is NXT also going to do the "there are no faces/heels in the women's/diva division--they're all just crazy catty women" thing? LEAVE BAYLEY ALONE, DUNN!)
--Enzo uncolored his side beard.
--GM of NXT William Regal is the best authority figure any WWE show has EVER had.
1) They are now booking Takeovers so they play AFTER WWE main roster PPVs so the fans can't be disappointed when the main roster can't live up to the standard that NXT set.
2) If they move Owens, Zayn, Itami, Breeze...and Enzo & Cass to the main roster (and maybe the Dubstep Cowboys and Baron Corbin)...would NXT work just as well as WWE's all-women wrestling show? Bring Paige back down from the main roster and add Blue Pants, Sarah Dawson... (You could let the Vaudevillains stay...as they'd be great at putting damsels in distress and equally as good at putting the women over when those damsels turn the tables.)
If the matches were great and the storylines more coherent than anything on Raw...would it matter to us if NXT was an all-woman show? Might that even give reason for women to subscribe to the Network?
Is it crazy to anyone else that when they let Justin Gabriel go they simply killed the Bunny off rather than...I don't know...stick ANY OTHER PERSON in the costume?
I'd say that they had no clear direction for Sting up untill Uncensored 97 when he attacked the nWo, as before that his behaviour was erradic like hell. And even after that the booking kind of didn't make sense, Sting was seen as the saviour of WCW but Luger gets 3 straight wins over Hogan and the belt, and then Piper beats Hogan in a main-event PPV match 2 months before Sting's big match with Hogan at Starrcade.
They never really committed to it though. Maybe they did on the lesser shows, but I don’t recall any goofy Dungeon Of Doom style segments where all the strange backstory was shown. The commentators were just all “Oh they have a past” and Mitchell would allude to some nonsense. I’m not really sure what the full story actually was.
'' Yes, I'm aware that's higher than all of the matches and you should be aware by now that there's a lot more to a wrestling show than just the wrestling.''
Because the idiot announcers, week-in and week-out, were constantly wondering, "Why is Sting attacking these people?!?!?!?" and not seeming to get that he was attacking the people who were shit-talking him. The commentary on the early nWo era Nitros tend to annoy the piss out of me, because the announce team seems to be purposefully dense.
Aye. I think WCW purposely didn’t clue the announcers in on certain things, with the idea it would give a more spontaneous reaction to things, but that didn’t take into account that Tony and Bobby barely gave a fuck and didn’t pay much attention.
Yep, they both called out Sting in promos for standing in the rafters without doing anything. So Sting attacked them. Part of the storyline was about not knowing which side he was on.
As much as any wresting retirement. He wasn't seen on screen again until the Varsity Club reunion a few years later. And he never showed up anywhere afterwards.
Oh no I know that. I just meant that it's crazy TNA and seemingly WWE doesn't have these clauses to prevent them from doing stuff like this in their contracts. Again though, independant contractors and what-not.
in hindsight Hogan seemed out of place with Hall and Nash, but it worked. Bulldog had developed a decent shit-heel attitude working with Shawn in 1996 so I could see it.
Both Jarrett and Sting questioned Stings alligence and said he was in the nWo, or they didn't need him in WCW the week before he attacked them, so while the announcers saw it as proof he was in the nWo, it mostly because they were talking smack about the Stinger and he beat 'em up for it.
And it made a bit of sense for the Giant in that he was new on the scene and had been managed by Hart and Sullivan, so he never really had a huge "WCW" franchise tag on him as much as Sting/Flair/Steiners etc, so he didn't have a ton of pro WCW reasons to stay on their side. He joined the nWo to for the $, quit because they wouldn't give him his title shot and re-joined because Hogan promised him to help him take out Nash, who he hated because he dropped him on his head.
Baltimore did a good job making the White Sox feel at home...violence in the streets and no one in the stadium...it was like the White Sox were playing a home game!
I liked that Sting came down and kicked ass on whoever talked about him. WCW turned on him when that obviously fake Sting fucked up Luger and they didn't believe him. But he trusted Luger when he was running around with Jimmy Hart and playing the heel. He was right to say fuck them all.
My assumption, as Jeremy stated, would be that the Orioles will receive all "home team" revenue. Afterall, these are games that Tampa wouldn't have had anyway, so it's not like they are losing out on anything.
It's why I get confused when some Raw reviewers moan that there was only three star match. If they had four star matches every week, what would the point of PPV be?
Call me crazy, but I think the Dana Brooke thing is meta. She's a heel because she's the type of person most NXT fans are afraid that Vince will put his backing behind. So they want to see her lose so she doesn't get promoted. So they boo her. Making her a heel that gets boos, which is what is supposed to happen all along.
Wasn't Giant also the first guy to lose a match as an nWo member? I remember that was why they kicked him out, for "dropping the ball" (plus not giving up his title shot)
I have a good friend who does sound for clubs and small arenas and so on. He can't tell you how many fucking moronsperform "mic drops" not realizing that microphones are expensive and weren't meant to be dropped on the floor from five or six feet up in the air.
I agree that they needed the conspiracy theory, but I watched the episode live and to me it was obvious that DiBiase was implying the NWO. Granted, it's been almost 20 years since I've seen that episode, but I recall the announcers not even being able to make the connection. I think Zbysko started asking if he was talking about the four horsemen, which to 15-year-old me made him seem like a huge idiot, or that all the announce team was told to not mention the NWO..
At least the 2015 Indians don't have to play in the old Municipal Stadium, aka. The Mistake by the Lake. Playing in a sports version of the Grand Canyon at night turned it into a surreal experience. Kind of like yesterday's game.
Indeed. It's nice to see some good wrestling, but the point of the TV show used to be to get you to buy the pay per view. Also, it's pretty clear that the talking segments draw in more than the wrestling.
No, he got to 4, then he said "next week..." before holding up the fifth. I seem to remember the announcers wondering if he was talking about the NWO or the Horsemen.
Growing up watching the AWA (before the PPV era), week after week you'd watch 0-star jobber squashes...all building to a big house show somewhere (that we'd never get to see any highlights from) and then the next week, all the storylines would be scrambled around.
"Wait! Why are THOSE guys friends now?" was a common thought from those of us watching at home.
So, I've always had it in my head that the PPV is what the storylines are building towards...where the feuds blow-off, where everything that happens for a month gets a pay off or a big twist.
It seems so cynical for the WWE to say "oh, we'd better not have any matches that are too good on tv, save it for the PPV" but I guess that makes some sense (the people you need to have good matches on tv are those that you need to get over as "good wrestlers" or "high flyers", instead of their specific character motivations)--and I don't think you can ever underestimate the cynicism inherent in WWE Management/Creative. (And good on ya, Maffew, for recognizing this and stating it so bluntly.)
On tv...for storyline purposes...I think it's ok to hamstring matches with storyline-based interference and distraction finishes...both to frustrate the audience into "needing" to buy the PPV to see what happens when the storyline pays off, but also to keep anticipation high for seeing what happens when they have a "for real" match on PPV. HOWEVER, there is an implicit agreement with the audience that PPVs SHOULD NOT HAVE THE SAME KIND OF INTERFERENCE AND/OR DISTRACTION FINISHES THAT YOU HAMSTRING YOUR TV PRODUCT WITH!
(AND...PPVs should provide a turning point in the story. Either the feud gets blown off OR, if there's a reason to continue the feud, things have to change...a new motivation, a complication, someone else getting involved...something.)
Now that PPVs (except for WrestleMania) use the same set dressings as the tv shows (just the lighting on the LED boards changes)...it is imperative that WWE Creative give the fans something different than Raw as far as the in-ring product goes.
Otherwise, it's just "an extra Raw this month on a Sunday that we watch on the Network"...and that's simply not good enough.
Oh absolutely, WWE's non-endings to stories rivals Stephen King.
You nailed the issue with PPVs though. It annoyed me that ''Let's wait and see where it goes'' became a mocking line on here because I thought ''hang on a minute, this IS a weekly episodic show we're talking about so yeah, you should see where it goes!''
And then shit like Ambrose and Rollins didn't get blown off and then Wyatt and Ambrose immediately did the same (to name but two).
This has had a negative impact on reviewing (along with social media dictating that EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE REVIEWED AND ANALYSED NOW NOW NOW) because reviewers rarely say ''well maybe this'll make sense in a few weeks'' but are happy to type ''this made no fucking sense, Raw is crap'' every week.
And then people look back and go ''oh, this got a lot of criticism at the time but it's better than remembered'' because they're looking at the whole story.
Yeah, wasn't the whole angle built around Rey not wanting to join, therefore Eddie called him a sellout who was ashamed of being Latino? It was funny but did nothing for anyone involved...except build up Eddie's persona that he would go on to perfect in the WWE.
Speaking of DiBiase, why did he suddenly leave WCW during that hot angle? Him in the NWO was a good idea, in my opinion, and would've made Vincent less of a dead weight.
As I said, I was there in person and it wasn't as much a boo as it was a roar of excitement. People seemed pretty jacked because it involved two major heel turns and the beginning of a big angle, people usually get amped up over that sort of thing.
Empty ball park? So it was a Tampa Bay Rays home game?
ReplyDeleteSomehow Bryan will get blamed, because wcw
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Has there ever been a single WCW wrestler that didn't suck after being hyped up in promos? Seems that guys like Glacier and the Shockmaster were DOA, but the guys that just appeared out of nowhere: Goldberg, Hall, Nash, Luger usually made the most impact.
ReplyDeleteAt least Kidman drew flies.
ReplyDeleteSamardjzrdjadzrjrdzjdrja pitched from a forklift that had a camera mounted on the forks. Explains why he got blasted.
ReplyDeleteHiding him in the nWo might have helped, kinda like the Hart foundation.
ReplyDeleteWell if you are using the Impact Zone then they had an equal amount of paying fans.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Davey himself, him joining the NWO would have been "bizzzzzare!"
ReplyDeleteI could see that happening, but taking away the union jack wouldn't have helped. I was generally a fan, but he was a charismatic blackhole. Maybe turn luger and replay the horsemen thing might have been a better idea than giant. . .
ReplyDeleteThe Orioles had fans at the gates and on the roofs wanting to pay to watch.
ReplyDeleteTNA pays people to show up and they want to get out.
Reminded me of a Cleveland Indians home game from the 80s...or a WCW house show from the early 90s.
ReplyDeleteThere were a handful of things WCW just could not avoid getting wrong. Building up debuts and gimmick matches were the top two.
ReplyDeleteHah! Canadian humor!
ReplyDeleteThank you sir!
ReplyDeleteKofi Kingston
I'm not surprised that the Benoit feud was the end of the road for Sullivan, but I'm more amazed that it dragged on for that long. Chris F-B's recaps are already making that seem like the Feud That Never Ended. (That and the equally-neverending Jarrett/Mongo feud.)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait till "mic drop" isn't a thing anymore, tbh.
ReplyDeleteNo, but the Orioles will experience that this weekend. They'll probably out-draw the Rays in Tampa anyway.
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note, will this weekend's attendance in Tampa be credited to the Orioles or the Rays?
Baltimore will be the "home" team so I would assume so
ReplyDeleteOr an Indians game in 2015.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "can't wait until ___ isn't a thing" anymore.
ReplyDelete*pics mic up, dusts it off, puts it back on the stand*
ReplyDeleteDamn kids these days. Mics are not cheap.
Jarrett and Steiner questioned Sting's loyalty and his manhood, so they were dealt with. "You talk shit about me, I drop you on your head."
ReplyDeleteIt's the one part of the Sting angle post Fall Brawl 1996 that made sense to me.,
That's what I like about him. He's an average looking dude, but he will fuck you up.
ReplyDeleteThere was that time the Rock faced Mankind in an empty arena.
ReplyDeleteI'd disagree, as the entire point of this show was to get the fans ready for the next Takeover. Based on that, it was a success.
ReplyDeleteFiF*
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the comedy routine! Break a leg!
ReplyDeleteWhat's Chris Tillman doing in the Impact Zone!?
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until "a thing" isn't a thing any more.
ReplyDeleteEh, I kinda dug the Blood Runs Cold ripoff Mortal Kombat storyline. And Wrath and Mortis were a pretty cool team.
ReplyDeleteNah, off a barrier. They had the usual guys there dressed as Angle, Austin etc doing bad Ankle locks, so me and a pal (I was drunk) decided to have a full on match.
ReplyDeleteIt ended with me doing a moonsault on to him and about 3 other random people infront of about 200-300 people.
There's a few badly lit clips on YouTube. Won't forget that show in a hurry.
We then went back to a pal's with Neville, and watched Raw with him. That was unusual.
I didn't know if it was an experiment per se.
ReplyDeleteI think the point was to put over Kevin in a big and legit way and he certainly did that. And he can put over a few more guys and move back to commentary if that's his path.
NXT is effectively an indy fed. And you can always use a few veterans to help the newer guys. Rhyno is actually going to be good in this role as well. Squash some jobbers, move up the card, fight and get beat by the champ and then move down the card and put people over. It worked wonders during the Territory days. I think Alex and Rhyno can serve the same purpose here.
Noting that the payoff to the DDP benefactor apparently was revealed in June 1996 - the big storyline to setup DDP as the next babyface must have been a fluke. And Bischoff being the money man killed Dibase dead. He tried to do a face turn - because WCW - but as much as I like babyface Dibase - it isn't a compelling character. Not even his indy promotion with Uncle Fred main eventing did anything of note.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved a payoff to the earlier heel Luger stuff by seeing him in black and white anerican trunks.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Jew humor.
ReplyDeleteI miss the the territory days for that exact reason. A monster doesn't seem so monstrous when you see him in one company for the better part of 15 years (Big Show, Kane, etc).
ReplyDeleteI could have picked it up and sang Hava Nagila.
ReplyDeleteHere you go Mr Anderson. 5000 Free AOL connection CDs.
ReplyDeleteEVERYTHING IS FINE
ReplyDeleteThey would have still called him Syxx. 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 kid.
ReplyDeleteShut it down.
ReplyDeleteWell until the wierd Russo version of the Varsity club with Sullivan wearing the green jacket. Sullivan was always a satanic worshipper gimmick in the Varsity club and then all of a sudden he is just the Captain. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteMade in the nWo - Lex Luger would have been fun. Too bad I don't think Luger wanted to relive his salad days in the WWF.
ReplyDeleteThe guy was so dominating - but then he joins the nWo and has to have Hogan's help in beating Savage.
ReplyDeleteI hear tell that if fans don't settle down over tickets, they may have to play their next home series in a big pink room.
ReplyDelete"Can I still sell crack?"
ReplyDelete"No!" (points to tape recorder and nods)
I felt it was less of a swerve than it looked like- Duggan's mystery partners are all notorious career heels and he's surprised when they turn on him? I thought it was obvious! I was just waiting for them to snap on him!
ReplyDeleteSo how do you have negative attendance - just dead bodies in the seats? Or are there actually seats removed from the arena?
ReplyDeleteYeah Glacier was the lame one of the bunch but I liked those guys. That Glacier/Miller vs Wrath/Mortis match at BATB 1997 was a ton of fun.
ReplyDeleteWas that when DiBiase was at ringside and to the camera holds up three fingers, then the fourth . . . then the fifth . . . and doesn't say anyting, but the announcers are freaking out as to what he means and say everything under the sun except more members in the NWO?
ReplyDelete*tastes salsa*
ReplyDeleteITS MILD!!!
I suppose if you give tickets away that technically counts as negative,since you're giving something to them rather than them paying you for the privilege.
ReplyDeleteThat's hindsight though. The NWO seemed really dangerous and unpredictable at that point and that kind of conspiracy theory tension from the announcers just kept it going.
ReplyDeleteWho knew Roman Reigns was the starting pitcher. Everyone told the Orioles manager that he wasn't ready but he wouldn't listen.
ReplyDeleteAwesome opening promo. They did a great job making sure Owens doesn't get cheered by making him chicken out of putting the title on the line but not booking him like the usual chicken shit heel.
ReplyDeleteWell, I mean, it was going well until I dropped that microphone, and then I was so embarrassed about it that I just walked off the stage, so I don't think I'll continue.
ReplyDeleteSome eyewitness reports said the cops had Gray with his legs up in the air and bent back, with a knee on his neck. They basically had him in a Liontamer.
ReplyDeleteZero is also total paid attendance of the Scott Keith: Cheap Pops tour.
ReplyDeleteCOME ON BABAY!
ReplyDeleteWhy do people still get confused about the Giant storyline? It was actually perfectly logical and pretty cool angle. Giant turns to the darkside because Hogan promises him money and movie roles. Giant wins WW3 and becomes number one contender, Hogan backstabs him, Giant freaks out and declares war on nWo.
ReplyDeleteHey. it's been working for Ken Anderson for his whole career.
ReplyDeleteOh, Tag!
ReplyDeleteMore important question: Who gets the gate? And the concessions $$$?
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing about the opening promo/Takeover match set-up was...they were saying each other's lines.
ReplyDelete"What? Do you think that you can just come out here and sneak attack somebody and THAT makes you deserving of a title shot?" is what Owens said to Zayn...which of course, ironic in that it's exactly how Owens got his shot.
"I fight for a prize!" is what Zayn says to Owens...which of course made more sense when it came from a debuting Owens who needed to get the belt because it meant more money for his family.
Other thoughts...
ReplyDelete--Dana Brooke does the exact same pose routine (with the weird spinning arms thing) on the top of the ramp as she does in the ring...and again when she won the match. (I'm still caught between not liking her because she's a heel and not liking her because she's inevitably the one Vince/Dunn/Triple H will put their backing behind.)
--Are they trying to get Carmella over as a face? (Or is NXT also going to do the "there are no faces/heels in the women's/diva division--they're all just crazy catty women" thing? LEAVE BAYLEY ALONE, DUNN!)
--Enzo uncolored his side beard.
--GM of NXT William Regal is the best authority figure any WWE show has EVER had.
--I miss the Bunny.
Two absolutely crazy theories.
ReplyDelete1) They are now booking Takeovers so they play AFTER WWE main roster PPVs so the fans can't be disappointed when the main roster can't live up to the standard that NXT set.
2) If they move Owens, Zayn, Itami, Breeze...and Enzo & Cass to the main roster (and maybe the Dubstep Cowboys and Baron Corbin)...would NXT work just as well as WWE's all-women wrestling show? Bring Paige back down from the main roster and add Blue Pants, Sarah Dawson... (You could let the Vaudevillains stay...as they'd be great at putting damsels in distress and equally as good at putting the women over when those damsels turn the tables.)
If the matches were great and the storylines more coherent than anything on Raw...would it matter to us if NXT was an all-woman show? Might that even give reason for women to subscribe to the Network?
Weird, I heard Basil Devito say it exceeded 93K
ReplyDeleteStill outdrew Southern States Wrestling.
ReplyDeleteBut then we would be expecting Barry Horowitz to appear.
ReplyDeleteActually I laughed, so count that as One.
ReplyDeleteIs it crazy to anyone else that when they let Justin Gabriel go they simply killed the Bunny off rather than...I don't know...stick ANY OTHER PERSON in the costume?
ReplyDeleteHow much did you pay?
ReplyDeleteI'd say that they had no clear direction for Sting up untill Uncensored 97 when he attacked the nWo, as before that his behaviour was erradic like hell. And even after that the booking kind of didn't make sense, Sting was seen as the saviour of WCW but Luger gets 3 straight wins over Hogan and the belt, and then Piper beats Hogan in a main-event PPV match 2 months before Sting's big match with Hogan at Starrcade.
ReplyDeletefg7Syxx
ReplyDelete$3.00. The same price I paid for a used copy of that Chris Benoit book that Scott Keith wrote.
ReplyDeleteI thought the idea of a nasty, stinky, wart-infested Giant
ReplyDeletehaving dreams of being a Hollywood movie star was rather cute.
This is what he negotiated up to. Their original offer was 1000 NetZero connection CDs.
ReplyDeleteThey never really committed to it though. Maybe they did on
ReplyDeletethe lesser shows, but I don’t recall any goofy Dungeon Of Doom style segments
where all the strange backstory was shown. The commentators were just all “Oh
they have a past” and Mitchell would allude to some nonsense. I’m not really
sure what the full story actually was.
So...you mean:
ReplyDeleteIT'S NOT HOT!
I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. Pal says I count those tickets as 3 people.
ReplyDelete~Some poor WWE Accountant
I guess because he ended up back with them a bit later on and it's not like he changed his appearance or whatever.
ReplyDeleteVader.
ReplyDelete'' Yes, I'm aware that's higher than all of the matches and you should be aware by now that there's a lot more to a wrestling show than just the wrestling.''
ReplyDeletePREACH
Its pretty obvious sting attacked jarrett and rick because they were talking shit about him in their promos.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered why ppl didnt get that
ReplyDeleteBecause the idiot announcers, week-in and week-out, were constantly wondering, "Why is Sting attacking these people?!?!?!?" and not seeming to get that he was attacking the people who were shit-talking him. The commentary on the early nWo era Nitros tend to annoy the piss out of me, because the announce team seems to be purposefully dense.
ReplyDeleteAye. I think WCW purposely didn’t clue the announcers in on certain
ReplyDeletethings, with the idea it would give a more spontaneous reaction to things, but
that didn’t take into account that Tony and Bobby barely gave a fuck and didn’t
pay much attention.
I know. What a terribly annoying thing in my life to have to read two words as a joke every once in awhile.
ReplyDeleteFirst world problems.
Those card are really good for cutting blow.
ReplyDeleteOr so I hear.
Yep, they both called out Sting in promos for standing in the rafters without doing anything. So Sting attacked them. Part of the storyline was about not knowing which side he was on.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU.
ReplyDeleteDana Brooke is hideous.
ReplyDeleteThe British Bulldog was going to get a new WWF contract whether he wanted to or not.
ReplyDeleteAs much as any wresting retirement. He wasn't seen on screen again until the Varsity Club reunion a few years later. And he never showed up anywhere afterwards.
ReplyDeleteI really like Fork and Knife, too. It's a lot different for them.
ReplyDeleteOh no I know that. I just meant that it's crazy TNA and seemingly WWE doesn't have these clauses to prevent them from doing stuff like this in their contracts. Again though, independant contractors and what-not.
ReplyDeletein hindsight Hogan seemed out of place with Hall and Nash, but it worked. Bulldog had developed a decent shit-heel attitude working with Shawn in 1996 so I could see it.
ReplyDeleteASK HIM... ASK HIM!
ReplyDeleteBoth Jarrett and Sting questioned Stings alligence and said he was in the nWo, or they didn't need him in WCW the week before he attacked them, so while the announcers saw it as proof he was in the nWo, it mostly because they were talking smack about the Stinger and he beat 'em up for it.
ReplyDeleteYou would be amazed how many times I've been told this is completely false and that there's no logic to me rating a show like this.
ReplyDeleteAnd it made a bit of sense for the Giant in that he was new on the scene and had been managed by Hart and Sullivan, so he never really had a huge "WCW" franchise tag on him as much as Sting/Flair/Steiners etc, so he didn't have a ton of pro WCW reasons to stay on their side. He joined the nWo to for the $, quit because they wouldn't give him his title shot and re-joined because Hogan promised him to help him take out Nash, who he hated because he dropped him on his head.
ReplyDeleteBaltimore did a good job making the White Sox feel at home...violence in the streets and no one in the stadium...it was like the White Sox were playing a home game!
ReplyDeleteI liked that Sting came down and kicked ass on whoever talked about him. WCW turned on him when that obviously fake Sting fucked up Luger and they didn't believe him. But he trusted Luger when he was running around with Jimmy Hart and playing the heel. He was right to say fuck them all.
ReplyDeleteMy assumption, as Jeremy stated, would be that the Orioles will receive all "home team" revenue. Afterall, these are games that Tampa wouldn't have had anyway, so it's not like they are losing out on anything.
ReplyDeleteIt's why I get confused when some Raw reviewers moan that there was only three star match. If they had four star matches every week, what would the point of PPV be?
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy, but I think the Dana Brooke thing is meta. She's a heel because she's the type of person most NXT fans are afraid that Vince will put his backing behind. So they want to see her lose so she doesn't get promoted. So they boo her. Making her a heel that gets boos, which is what is supposed to happen all along.
ReplyDeleteThis made way more sense in my head.
Jushin Liger had some hype videos showcasing his Japanese matches before he wrestled Pillman the first time. I'd say he succeeded.
ReplyDelete"If
ReplyDeleteyou weren't joining the nWo, opposing the nWo, or or forming your own
faction of the nWo, there were no long term plans for you."
Which is why Eddie formed the LWO, which basically did nothing but feud with each other.
Wasn't Giant also the first guy to lose a match as an nWo member? I remember that was why they kicked him out, for "dropping the ball" (plus not giving up his title shot)
ReplyDeleteI have a good friend who does sound for clubs and small arenas and so on. He can't tell you how many fucking moronsperform "mic drops" not realizing that microphones are expensive and weren't meant to be dropped on the floor from five or six feet up in the air.
ReplyDeleteDropping the mic is just stupid. If you feel like you have to do it in your act, then bring your own to the gig.
ReplyDeleteIf a mic drops in an arena and no one's there to hear it...
ReplyDeleteWell, the main issue is that most of the people who do it haven't said/done anything that deserves the "mic dropping" effect.
ReplyDeleteYou're not Eminem who just won the rap battle in 8 Mile. You're a guy who just finished singing a karaoke version of Ice Ice Baby pretty badly.
At least she was better than her last match.. Given time, she might get better.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I feel like he's aged about 15 years in the last 5.
ReplyDeleteI agree that they needed the conspiracy theory, but I watched the episode live and to me it was obvious that DiBiase was implying the NWO. Granted, it's been almost 20 years since I've seen that episode, but I recall the announcers not even being able to make the connection. I think Zbysko started asking if he was talking about the four horsemen, which to 15-year-old me made him seem like a huge idiot, or that all the announce team was told to not mention the NWO..
ReplyDeleteAt least the 2015 Indians don't have to play in the old Municipal Stadium, aka. The Mistake by the Lake. Playing in a sports version of the Grand Canyon at night turned it into a surreal experience. Kind of like yesterday's game.
ReplyDeleteAnd WCW because, well, WCW.
"That was a $5,000 microphone!!"
ReplyDeleteIndeed. It's nice to see some good wrestling, but the point of the TV show used to be to get you to buy the pay per view. Also, it's pretty clear that the talking segments draw in more than the wrestling.
ReplyDeleteI was too young to remember it but that stadium was always huge and empty.
ReplyDeleteA bit of a weird reaction. You never get tired of overused phrases?
ReplyDeleteBulldog just wouldn't have fit the vibe of the nWo at all.
ReplyDeleteI guess I just don't let stuff like that bother me.
ReplyDeleteThat mic has a family, dammit!
ReplyDeleteI think you can be tired of something without being "bothered" by it, but we're probably just arguing semantics at this point. All good.
ReplyDeleteNo, he got to 4, then he said "next week..." before holding up the fifth. I seem to remember the announcers wondering if he was talking about the NWO or the Horsemen.
ReplyDeleteThey're overpaying talent. Mr. Anderson is barely worth floppy disks.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up watching the AWA (before the PPV era), week after week you'd watch 0-star jobber squashes...all building to a big house show somewhere (that we'd never get to see any highlights from) and then the next week, all the storylines would be scrambled around.
ReplyDelete"Wait! Why are THOSE guys friends now?" was a common thought from those of us watching at home.
So, I've always had it in my head that the PPV is what the storylines are building towards...where the feuds blow-off, where everything that happens for a month gets a pay off or a big twist.
It seems so cynical for the WWE to say "oh, we'd better not have any matches that are too good on tv, save it for the PPV" but I guess that makes some sense (the people you need to have good matches on tv are those that you need to get over as "good wrestlers" or "high flyers", instead of their specific character motivations)--and I don't think you can ever underestimate the cynicism inherent in WWE Management/Creative. (And good on ya, Maffew, for recognizing this and stating it so bluntly.)
On tv...for storyline purposes...I think it's ok to hamstring matches with storyline-based interference and distraction finishes...both to frustrate the audience into "needing" to buy the PPV to see what happens when the storyline pays off, but also to keep anticipation high for seeing what happens when they have a "for real" match on PPV. HOWEVER, there is an implicit agreement with the audience that PPVs SHOULD NOT HAVE THE SAME KIND OF INTERFERENCE AND/OR DISTRACTION FINISHES THAT YOU HAMSTRING YOUR TV PRODUCT WITH!
(AND...PPVs should provide a turning point in the story. Either the feud gets blown off OR, if there's a reason to continue the feud, things have to change...a new motivation, a complication, someone else getting involved...something.)
Now that PPVs (except for WrestleMania) use the same set dressings as the tv shows (just the lighting on the LED boards changes)...it is imperative that WWE Creative give the fans something different than Raw as far as the in-ring product goes.
Otherwise, it's just "an extra Raw this month on a Sunday that we watch on the Network"...and that's simply not good enough.
Yeah, that pretty much described it most game nights.
ReplyDeleteOh absolutely, WWE's non-endings to stories rivals Stephen King.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed the issue with PPVs though. It annoyed me that ''Let's wait and see where it goes'' became a mocking line on here because I thought ''hang on a minute, this IS a weekly episodic show we're talking about so yeah, you should see where it goes!''
And then shit like Ambrose and Rollins didn't get blown off and then Wyatt and Ambrose immediately did the same (to name but two).
This has had a negative impact on reviewing (along with social media dictating that EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE REVIEWED AND ANALYSED NOW NOW NOW) because reviewers rarely say ''well maybe this'll make sense in a few weeks'' but are happy to type ''this made no fucking sense, Raw is crap'' every week.
And then people look back and go ''oh, this got a lot of criticism at the time but it's better than remembered'' because they're looking at the whole story.
TL;DR I fucking hate everybody.
Yeah, wasn't the whole angle built around Rey not wanting to join, therefore Eddie called him a sellout who was ashamed of being Latino? It was funny but did nothing for anyone involved...except build up Eddie's persona that he would go on to perfect in the WWE.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they decided to kill the Bunny gimmick and that left them with no use for Gabriel?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of DiBiase, why did he suddenly leave WCW during that hot angle? Him in the NWO was a good idea, in my opinion, and would've made Vincent less of a dead weight.
ReplyDeleteOrton cashing on Bryan?
ReplyDeleteWasnt sheamus the last king? And didnt they put him in a storyline where he was on a losing streak immediately afterwards?
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I was there in person and it wasn't as much a boo as it was a roar of excitement. People seemed pretty jacked because it involved two major heel turns and the beginning of a big angle, people usually get amped up over that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteYes. Yes we can
ReplyDelete