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Their screams and kid behind the camera with the Butthead voice saying “you guys okay?” live in my head and it’s been like 20 years!

Yay, now people on Steam will experience the most bewildering games ever made that make Metal Gear Solid games look sane.

Be interesting to see the line-up for the 2024 Blood & Guts and Stadium Stampede.

Not to be pedantic but that's more of the circus deathmatch net than a trampoline. Needs the springs for the real trampoline effect.

Just a heads-up: Vinegar Syndrome has its Halfway to Black Friday sale this week. Prob starts at 12:01am.

Kingdom Hearts is coming to Steam. You have been warned.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kWhFYaPF6zo Gunther promo.

There are some dates filled in the calendar for October (the NOAH show is in Germany though): https://puwota.com/index.cgi?202410

I really should have remembered to factor in this new “movies hit digital 2 weeks after release” into my box office totals

"Jordan Henderson is a fantastic role model on and off the pitch, he is a leader and part of that group that Southgate turned to. Even if he is not starting I think he would be good around the squad." Fuck right off, Henry Winter.

Thankfully my area wasn't hit too hard, but I've got friends that are going to be without power for another week and half at least.

I miss Dark and Dark Elevation. It was good to see Chun again!

Any of those four might do it, but half are caught up in the tag division while the other half are likely too big to lose right now to him.

They did. Omega vs Moxley, Full Gear 2019.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NebqFm0PoVw

It's possible there's some kind of deal between Missy and Eric, but given some of the things he has said about her on his pod, maybe not.

how does an NDA with a company that merged into another company work in the scheme of things? like if Missy's NDA is with Turner Broadcasting, does that mean that WBD is certainly the heir to all the Turner legal leftovers? or is it an NDA with specific people or what?

Jey?

Wonder who Bron could destroy on RAW to actually get heel heat? Truth? Kofi? Sami?

Opening segment with Sami and Alpha Academy was solid. The Sami/Gable match it led into was even better with Gable getting some good heel heat and further setting up the eventual Otis breakaway that will molten. Dug Maxxine and Tozawa's parts in this and how Gable sent them away after failing to cheat for him. Bron murdering a a PC/NXT rookie was great. As was his later murder of Ricochet. It is a bit amusing to me though as I'm not sure this will have the heel turn effect they are hoping for with the crowd clearly being into Bron and wanting to cheer him generally speaking. Io/Lyra was good though not as good as Io/Shayna or Bianca/Tiffany from last week. Not big on Lyra getting the victory though I suppose she is need of this to further establish her as something worthwhile. I just feel like Lyra is another Zoey Stark where the in ring talent may be there, but the lack of character or charisma hurts her. Awesome Truth vs. Finn/JD was surprisingly good fun with decent action and everyone working well together. Curious to see if this Braun stuff actually leads to him vs. Priest for the belt. The Liv/Becky segment was fine. 4-way no. 1 contenders' match for the women's tag belts was decent chaos with some fun moments. Never been big on the Shayna/Zoey team, but they should make for a solid match with Bianca and Jade. I'm also curious to see where the relationships with Sonya heads. Gunther/Jey was Gunther's weakest match in the tournament and it was still pretty good. Dug the arm work from Gunther. Dug the big hope spots for Jey, and the finish was pretty nice with Gunther choking Jey out with another unique submission compared to the norm we see. Solid show though no great matches like the last couple of weeks. Crowd was pretty weak tonight though they were alive for the tag titles match and Jey/Gunther which are both worth catching alongside Io/Lyra.

Show #174 – 11 January 1999 “The one with the last of the Giant” I wish that someone would pay me to write self-indulgent write reviews of decades-old wrestling shows so that I could do this more often. Just more proof that life isn’t fair. Aw hell, let’s Nitro. Gene Okerlund’s in the ring to talk to Ric Flair. Flair reinforces his political mandate by saying MEAN BY GOD GENE a ton (it makes sense in context), then shouts out Tennessee football and women’s basketball since he’s in Knoxville. He calls his son “Big Dave.” Somewhere in the distance, Batista hears it and has a well-timed facial response that is a credit to his willingness to train hard as an actor. Flair says that Hogan’s deal runs to 2001, so that means he’s going to be on all the shows to earn his contract. Then, he hires back J.J. Dillon. What the hell, I thought Flair was supposed to be a babyface?! Let’s get Vince Russo in here to fire Dillon again and then point out Hogan’s bald spot. J.J. Dillon lets Hogan out of defending the World title until SuperBrawl, but he does force Scott Hall into a ladder match against Goldberg at Souled Out. There’s no title suspended above the ladder, though; instead, there’ll be a taser hanging up there. Flair closes his remarks by calling out the lWo, led by Juvi Guerrera since Eddy Guerrero is unavailable for television. Flair blames Eddy’s broken leg on the Wolfpac and then says that if the lWo takes off the shirts and rejoins WCW, Flair will give them raises and also lady limo drivers like he did J.J. Dillon, I guess. Flair manages to creep me out with all of his somewhat strangely suggestive promises, but whatever, the lWo is dead and that’s good. Flair caps all this off by booking himself against Curt Hennig for later in the show. That’s how life goes, huh? I get shed of the lWo, but J.J. Dillon is back on television. Well, you can’t have everything. Oops, on replay, we see that Rey Misterio Jr. is also creeped out by Flair and leaves rather than take off the lWo shirt that he is wearing tonight, but that he hasn’t been wearing the last couple of weeks that he’s been tagging with Kidman. To say that Misterio’s booking during this angle has been inconsistent would be understating things. Flair talks about tradition in this video package of old NWA wrestler images set to his promo from a week ago, but for a modern WCW fan, “tradition” is all “nWo beatdowns” and “main events that start at four minutes until the end of the show.” Tony S. lets us know that Eric Bischoff was reassigned within the company since he wasn’t much of an announcer last week. We’re going to get video of Flair meeting with Bisch in his office and also probably video of Bischoff pushing a broom and complaining or something. Saturn’s transitioning from a feud with Ernest Miller to a feud with Chris Jericho. That seems interesting from an in-ring standpoint, but poor Saturn is going to get mauled on the mic during this feud. Okerlund interviews Saturn in the ring; Saturn calls Jericho out. Jericho and Ralphus respond from the ramp and, uh-oh, Jericho says that Saturn’s crying over his losses like a girl, which means that he should appropriately be wearing a dress. From somewhere in the foggy recesses of my mind, I recall Saturn wrestling in a dress around this time. Saturn says that he’s not into drag, but Jericho says that he has to risk wearing a dress to get his rematch. Saturn agrees, and I think, here’s a chance to actually get RuPaul into the company. Saturn loses and then we get sketches of an annoyed RuPaul fending off the awkward advances of Roddy Piper as he tries to help Saturn find his inner fabulous queen. Oh, now there's another Ernest Miller/Saturn match that Scott Dickinson refs because Randy Anderson, who was supposed to ref this match, is suddenly summoned to the back by J.J. Dillon for no discernible reason. After some scrapping, Saturn hits a Frog Splash, but Scott Dickinson chooses to go have a discussion with Sonny Onoo. Saturn gets up from his pinfall attempt and is hit with a shovel by an onrushing Jericho. The shovel shot knocks Saturn backward into Dickinson, who disqualifies Saturn for touching him. Jericho tries to put a knocked-out Saturn in a dress in a hilarious spot where they can’t do it even though the supposedly knocked out Saturn tries his hardest to help. It was exactly like Elaine May not being able to get the toga over her head while Walter Matthau did his best to help her in A New Leaf. Well, not exactly like that, but both this and that scene made me laugh. If you weren’t aware that the program you were watching was WCW Monday Nitro, the opening to the show that plays next should have clued you in. Wanna watch video of Eric Bischoff getting kayfabe embarrassed by his bosses? Let’s watch video of Eric Bischoff getting kayfabe embarrassed by his bosses. I hope they have video of Bisch getting shoot embarrassed by Schiler to show us when we get to September. I do note that the office in Smyrna has a TV with an N64 set up on it, two controllers, and Revenge on screen. Flair makes Bisch wait for hours, but dude, you have a working N64 right there! Any one of us reading this would love to kill a few hours playing some N64. Bisch insults Jim Ross’s ability to book a wrestling company, craps on Janie Engle when she comes to bring him back to Flair’s office, and then endures a humiliating meeting with Ric Flair in what used to be Bisch’s office. This actually is a decent segment. It’s not making me want to see the next step in the storyline, but it’s a longer segment full of talking that doesn’t drag. For WCW in general and WCW in 1999 specifically, that’s a huge win. Flair puts Bischoff on ring duty and sends him up to Knoxville in a truck so that he can help build the set. I appreciate that Bisch acknowledges the camera that is recording this whole ordeal, and in fact did so immediately to establish that Flair has the cameras there to capture his humiliation. Gene Okerlund brings Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Pepe out to the ramp for Pepe’s birthday celebration. There’s a cake. You can probably guess where this is going. Chavo wishes Eddy well and then gets the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to Pepe. Did they have to pay royalties for that? Norman Smiley cuts in before they can finish the song, maybe to dodge paying royalties, and then complains about not being invited to the party. Can I give some love to the cake design, which says HAPPY BIRTHDAY and then has an image of a stick horse on it instead of Pepe’s name? That made me laugh. Norman says he wants to make good with Chavo and Pepe, but of course, he ends up clocking Chavo and beating him up before destroying Pepe’s birthday cake with Chavo’s face. He hits Chavo with his stalling body slam onto the table. Finally, Smiley kidnaps (rustles?) Pepe and leaves. We follow him backstage, actually, as Smiley rides Pepe through the arena and to a woodchipper set up in the parking lot. In a moment reminiscent of William H. Macy’s memorable scene in Fargo, let’s just say that Pepe died as he lived: A stupid stick horse. Pepe (1998-1999): HE WAS A STICK HORSE This wrestling show has been low on action, but at least the long promos and sketches have been decent. Speaking of, Raven and Hak play parcheesi while Hak tries to convince Raven to ditch Kanyon just like he ditched Saturn. Raven complains about not being able to find his yearbook to his mom, and when Hak suggests that he be more respectful to his mom. Raven responds with a dismissive, “Shut up, Jim.” I laughed. Raven roots around in the garage for his yearbook, but he finds a series of Rowdy Roddy Piper promotional pictures and contemplates them as the sketch ends. The Wolfpac shows up to the arena surrounded by…*sigh*…a bunch of doofuses on Harleys. Completely uncool. I was thinking of buying a Wolfpac shirt because I actually liked them a whole lot on this rewatch, as imperfect as the group was, but boy did they ruin any ounce of coolness the group had. Chuck Zito looks like a doofus on his bike with the rest of the cornball Hell’s Angels. Also, no one had written or thought about Chuck Zito since the airing of this show right until he reminded us all that he was still alive earlier today. I guess Knoxville is at least somewhat excited for the bikes, which is fine, but that’s a look for the black-and-white, not the black-and-red, dammit! As you might guess, the run of decent promos and sketches comes to an end here. Hogan cuts another terrible promo. I honestly can’t remember the last time he’s cut even a decent promo, much less a legitimately good one. Nash talks, Steiner talks, and we get promo time for Nash/Giant and Steiner/DDP later tonight. Steiner promises to have sweet sexual relations with Kimberly after beating Page. So you know, par for the course. Hogan is still dressed like a complete asshole. So, the bookers have a chance to get everyone out of this lWo gimmick cleanly, and they didn’t take it; Rey Misterio Jr. has now decided to come to the ring with Eddy Guerrero’s music and in an lWo t-shirt. *sigh*, so Rey is wrestling Kaz Hayashi. This is only the second TV match of the night even though we’re just about at the hour-mark of the show, but at least it’s pacey and generally entertaining. Kaz takes a Hamrick bump and then eats a somersault plancha. See, this is just a bunch of moves, but sometimes, that’s okay, especially when the guys doing the moves are so goo—oh, look, here comes Lex Luger to take out Kaz and cause a no contest so that he can confront Rey for keeping the lWo t-shirt on. *sigh*, this fucking show, man. Rey refuses to take the shirt off, so Luger beats him up and rips it off, though Rey uses his speed to make a comeback. Rey’s got Luger reeling, but Luger reverses his rana attempt into a backbreaker and beats Rey down, then racks him. So, Konnan comes down to the ring. Knowing Konnan, he’s going to attack Rey. He’s done it before, for one. For two, Konnan is the king of heel swerves. But no! Konnan actually defends Rey and questions what Luger is doing. Nash brings Hogan, Steiner, and Buff down to the ring and we get a *sigh* nWo beatdown. Man, it sucks. There was potential in this Konnan schism with the rest of the former Wolfpac, but we just got the ol’ nWo beatdown instead. The crowd chants WE WANT STING as Nash signals that Sting isn’t here. I’m pretty certain that Konnan does end up back in the Wolfpac, though. I guess they felt that they couldn’t really turn him heel right at this moment since he’s so over as a babyface, and I understand that. The criminally underused Giant comes to the ring to cut one final WCW interview with Gene Okerlund. That dolt Eric Bischoff swears that no one can name a single great Big Show match, I guess because he somehow missed Show carrying Floyd Mayweather Jr. to the greatest pro wrestler-versus-athlete match in the history of the business at WrestleMania. Anyway, this promo is dogshit. Lenny Lane comes to the ring, and I wonder if he’s ever played a fake Sting before. I bet he does it when Jeff Jarrett deploys a bunch of fake Stings at some point in the not-too-distant future here in WCW. Booker T. is Lane’s opponent, but as the match starts, I’m too busy thinking, Wow, Jeff Jarrett’s on his way back into WCW not too long from now for a much more kayfabe successful, but much less shoot artistically successful run in the company. Lane gets steamrolled. There’s a nice spot where Lane gets knocked outside, turns to jaw with some front-row fans, and then Booker comes out, grabs him, and slams his head against the railing in front of the fans, who cheer wildly. Lane actually scores a bulldog in this thing, but mostly he gets clobbered. Booker wins it with a Houston Side Kick. Creative tries to go back to the well with black-and-white nWo promos. In this one, Hogan and Nash facetiously talk about the Fingerpoke of Doom as a great match. There’s way too much Hogan on this show already. I still don’t get what would motivate Nash to hand the belt over to Hogan. Scott Steiner (w/Buff Bagwell) faces Diamond Dallas Page next. Both guys, and Page especially, bring some heatedness to this match early on. Page rightfully gets a huge pop for firing up when Steiner slaps him, slapping Steiner back and dominating him in a sequence that ends with Steiner scurrying for safety outside the ring. Buff tries to help out, but Page takes care of them both – Charles Robinson is correct not to call for the bell – and goes up for a superplex that Buff helps Steiner block. Steiner takes over from there. Buff grabs the mic and mocks the fans. If I was listing the top five things that I’ve changed perception on after watching them again during this series of reviews, it’d be Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell as an entertaining heel duo. They’re putrid together. They should work as an annoying duo with Buff as a loudmouth peacocking dickhead, but I think their run of awful segments and the feud with Rick Steiner pretty much killed off any chance that I’d be able to enjoy them. Their act tonight is fine, I think, but subjectively, I just cannot find any feeling for it beyond mild annoyance of the “I’d rather scroll the internet than pay attention to this Steiner control segment” type. Page eventually makes a comeback, but there’s a whole series of run-ins and a ref bump, and there’s also a powder toss besides. Eventually, Page fights off Vincent with a Diamond Cutter, but Steiner whacks a blinded Page with a chair and wraps Page in the Steiner Recliner for the win. Once Steiner got control of the match, it stunk, and I am over all the nWo run-in nonsense. Meh. Goldberg cuts an okay promo about the Nash incident on a pre-tape. If you wanted to see video of Eric Bischoff doing manual labor, then I have quite the treat for you! Actually, though this segment runs on too long, the guy supervising the job is funny and Bischoff’s irritated snark also makes me chuckle a couple of times [Editor’s note: As a bonus, we even get a well-executed Chekhov’s Gun when Bisch uses a wrench that he’s brought with him to tighten the ring ropes; this was actually the epitome of a useful segment, which is rare for WCW!]. I hate the Wolfpac theme now! It’s rapidly become the new “Rockhouse.” Scott Hall faces Bam Bam Bigelow in a match straight out of 1994 WWF. I’ve never seen a WCW crowd this dead for Scott Hall coming to the ring. They’re not even booing. They’re just kind of silent. They do at least pop for the HEY YO. Hall hassles Goldberg on the mic a bit. Then Bammer comes out and these fellas work an okay television match…straight out of 1994 WWF, in fact. Just with a few more crotch chops. Bigelow hits a stalling vertical for two, but the crowd is distracted by Disco coming to the ring. Disco is able to slide a taser to Hall while Wrath runs down and attacks Bigelow on the other side of the ring; Hall uses the Taser when Bigelow picks him up for a Greetings from Asbury Park. Bigelow falls backward, Hall landing on top of him for three. I have zero interest in Bigelow/Wrath as a feud and am just waiting for KroniK to become a thing. Come to think of it, though, that team might be a Russo initiative. Also come to think of it, they're based on the Acolytes, and the Acolytes don't even exist until later in 1999. I suspect that I might have some time to wait. Goldberg runs down Hall, Nash, and Luger in another pre-taped promo. It’s less okay than the previous promo. Tony S. lets us know that we’re getting Bigelow/Wrath at Souled out in a few days. Hooray. I think the Ric Flair/Mr. Perfect Loser Leaves the WWF match from 1993 is a minor miracle match. When you have two guys whose best qualities are bumping and stooging have a legitimately hateful grudge match that looks grueling, I think that counts as a miracle. They should never have worked against each other again after that. Alas, they did, and alas, I am being subjected to this very same matchup in 1999, roughly six years after the Loser Leaves the WWF match. Though actually, they did have a decent grudge match in ’97 at Havoc. There’s some cursory opening wrestling before Barry Windham and David Flair both come to ringside to observe the proceedings right before a break. We come back to a tepid bout. Hennig tries to beat Flair with Flair’s own signature move; alas, Flair knows how to break the move because he has perfected it. Did he turn it over? No. Did he get to the ropes? No. He just poked Hennig in the eye. Okay, that was pretty good. They chop each other for awhile, and Flair does some more of his signature spots. They do some ringside brawling. Since Flair’s best style as a wrestler is brawling (and his second-best style as a wrestler is straight-up garbage wrestling), that’s the part of the match that I enjoy the most, as short as it is. Flair tosses Hennig to the floor at David’s feet; Windham clobbers David for no reason. This enrages Ric, who beats down Hennig and locks a Figure Four on back in the ring. Windham jumps in and draws a DQ while that dope David stands there and watches his dad get beat up. At least he trips both Windham and Hennig as they run the ropes. David and Ric stand tall. Ric tells David to take his shirt off and get fired up. David does. He looks like a doofus. Goldberg cuts one more pre-taped promo that is too short for me to have much of an opinion about. Kevin Nash (w/Scott Hall) puts the Giant out of WCW for good in the main event. Eric Bischoff is adamant that letting Paul Wight go to the WWF made sense. He doesn’t think Wight was able to be the next Andre for many reasons. I mean, he’s right, but it’s not really a knock on Paul Wight that he doesn’t have Andre’s insane charisma, is it? But this idea that Bisch has that you can’t get heat on a large babyface and that a heel must cheat to be a proper heel is so limited. First of all, he had the whole fucking nWo running around and doing gang beatdowns every week. You telling me that fifteen guys torturing the Giant with mass run-ins and violent muggings every week can’t draw babyface heat? But the idea that the Giant needs to cheat to be a proper heel is the biggest issue. Did Brock Lesnar get to a new level of heat as a heel main eventer by cheating to beat Cena or cheating to beat the Undertaker at WrestleMania? No. He got to a new level of heel heat by beating the dog shit out of a couple of fan favorites who almost never got the dog shit beaten out of them. There is more than one way to be a heat magnet of a heel, but Bisch does not seem to understand this. He's also nuts for acting like no one can name a great Big Show match, but I already went over how wrong he is about that. Basically, Bischoff blames the Giant’s size for his lack of creativity and then hides behind Vince McMahon Jr.’s failure to properly push the guy as a way to justify his own inadequate creative capacity. And let's be clear about this: He blew it when the Giant turned face in 1997 and was mega-over. He had a legit star on his hands and blew it with the booking. The Giant is about to be off WCW television and Mongo McMichael is soon to follow. Aw, that first Nitro is finally starting to lose some of the key players that were there at the beginning. Other than Mongo, WCW is steadily going to bleed talent from 1995 and 1996 that got their reps in on Nitro and were mostly- or fully-finished products for the WWF to come along, scoop up, and exploit in higher-profile positions. And all I'm going to be left with is Shawn Stasiak. Fucking Bischoff. What I’m going to miss, besides the Giant being an excellent talent who fits right into the WCW lineup, is Scott Hall doing the Frankenstein taunt. I hope he finds a way to keep doing that even though the Giant is gone. This match is just here as a way to write the Giant off of WCW television. It’s not to the quality of their Souled Out match (before the botched Jackknife, of course), but it’s not meant to be. Nash body slams the Giant and sells a back injury so cartoonishly that, you know folks, maybe this whole pro wrestling thing isn’t entirely on the up-and-up. Nash signals for a Jackknife, but the Giant’s not having that shit again because he can’t afford to be on the shelf for the next few weeks. He reverses; Hall jumps in, but the Giant beats up both Hall and Nash and gives ‘em both the ass butt in the corner. Giant then Chokeslams Hall, but Nash takes that time to grab that wrench that Bisch used to tighten the ropes from the spot they agreed he’d leave it, and he swings it backward and into the Giant’s head when the Giant comes over. Not bad, Bischoff, I give you credit for that one. Bisch celebrates his plan getting pulled off on commentary. Hall tases Giant and the Wolfpac spray paints him. Glad you’re off the sinking ship, Giant! This show had too little wrestling (two matches in the first hour-plus!), but just for successfully and logically using the time-honored trope of showing a gun wrench in the first act and having it go off using it to hit the Giant in the noggin in the last act, I’ll be charitable. Even if Hogan needs to stop dressing like he’s a twenty-something Mexican American dude from Los Angeles already. 2.5 out of 5 Stinger Splashes.

It seems the majority of the roster were standing up for WOW against the Tongas now. The Tonga Twins say they will be making a statement soon. Last week, my DVR decided not to record so I had to wait for the youtube upload and watch the 'just matches' version. I was surprised to see Animal Instinct get another tag title shot but they continue to look good as a team. Penelope/Americana was good stuff. Coach pretty must destroyed Sasha Sparks. And the main event delivered with Aussie & Tormenta making a nice team. Onto this week, Abilene/Santana felt rather out of nowhere but I liked the promo setup for it a lot. Once I saw Jessie Jones was coming out with Abilene, I knew Santana had no chance, but a good match regardless. Opening tag between Heavy Metal Sisters & Spring Break 247 was a solid somewhat longer match for two more undercard teams. the Exile 3 way was short but fun and the finish was sudden. I love Genesis but all 3 are great. Miami Sweet Heat continue to be the best, their promos are always highly entertaining and their heel work/double teams is always excellent. Another good match with Chantilly & Holidead.

I don't know why I thought about Spun again just now but I went back to watch the scene at the porn shop. It epitomizes everything about that movie: Mickey Rourke, both guys flying on meth (with Rourke only showing it with some eye-bulges while paying) and one literally hallucinating from lack of sleep, hilariously raunchy dialogue, a celebrity cameo. If you'll notice, the Cook only calls Jason Schwartzman "Volvo Boy" and "Volvo" because... that's what his car is. He never even bothers to find out his name. Needless to say, this is totally profane and totally NSFW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSi9PTCL5wM