DamonD

Amongst lots of things worth talking about, I would just like to give a note of praise to Rev Theory's performance of Voices. Having heard at WrestleMania so many poor live music performances - forgotten lyrics, bad sound mixes, mumbling singers, microphone volume issues, etc etc - they really nailed it exactly right and made Randy's entrance feel like a big deal. The big deal he needed, as the overlooked champ going into this.

Same deal with the Mike Awesome - Vampiro bout at Halloween Havoc 2000 for me. It's terrible and filled wall-to-wall with botches, but so much so that it achieves a certain awful beauty. Show was worth it just for the ring announcer. Him, and Eddie's face when the announcer refers to him as a Mexican jumping bean.

I love the new added stipulation in HHH-Bryan. Now you're going to have people going nuts paranoid Hunter will book himself to be in the Triple Threat so he can win the title instead. Doesn't matter that if they wouldn't send Orton-Batista out there to die, they sure as hell won't do Orton-Batista-HHH but people will be focusing and worrying on the Bryan match even more now. They're playing the meta game so well now. Love that.

I was impressed on this one, because Hogan put Kamala over so strongly. Yeah, he rallies as usual by the end but he sold the wildman gimmick, bled a load and was reduced to crawling away in pain at a couple points. Made Kamala look like a scary beast. The rematch they had in early 87 was a lot more bland and cookie cutter Hogan in comparison. This one, I liked and that's pretty rare for me with Kamala matches. He even did a leapfrog at one point, didn't get all of it and nearly took a massive header out the ring, but still, 90% of a Kamala leapfrog is notable. I've quietly championed his Havoc '91 bout with Simmons for many years. It's not a five-star classic or anything but Luger does a hell of a job playing "This maniac is KILLING me in there, oh my God."

I love how the commentators say that you'll get sliced to ribbons if you try to climb over the top because it has sharp spikes around it, which sounds like ridiculous carny nonsense and a silly thing to put in a match when you may well need to climb out. And then the cameraman obliges with a nice close up to show that, thanks to the wire being cut higher than the top of the cage, it is indeed ringed with these evil little barbs up there. Not that Andre or Kamala would've done anything except utterly obliterate the thing if they'd tried climbing up on top there.

Had to register here just to give props to Piranesi for his review alone of Andre-Kamala. I'd give you a medal for that if I could. It's been years since I've seen it but I remember it having some good psychology but being pretty dull. Don't know if I'd think differently now.