SirSmUgly

As long as they upload 1997 RAW and Nitro soon, I'll be okay. I'm early in 1996 on Nitro/Clash/WCW PPV and in mid 1995 on RAW/WWF PPV. My goal is to get to 1997 and then watch both shows together, alternating between the two. I also really want them to start uploading early '80s AWA, but I know that's not happening for awhile. To me, the ease of being able to find a decent, but not great chunk of '80s NWA/'90s WCW and '80/'90s WWF is worth ten bucks a month. I watch while working out, so for getting me into the gym more often alone, the Network is probably more than paying for itself. Do I wish they would upload more territories? Yeah. Do I wish there were more secondary shows available for WWF and WCW? Yeah, especially those early-to-mid '90s Worldwides and Saturday Nights. But right now, there's still a lot of older stuff that I haven't seen in a long time and am aching to revisit or don't remember seeing at all. I do feel like I should probably just buy a Portland set and a Continental set from the CD burners that hang out here and sell that stuff, though. I really would kill to be able to stream that stuff through my phone, but that's happening pretty much never.

Maybe Bad News Barrett should live up to his nicknamesake and start doing the Ghetto Blaster when he comes back from injury.

Savage selling cage shots at SuperBrawl '96 is pretty amazing. He hits the cage and then hangs over the middle rope like he's totally knocked out. It makes your typical cage-ramming look way more brutal than normal. Also: Dusty Rhodes: (talking about Ric Flair's gameplan against Savage): "But, you know, that's his mode o' referendi." Bobby Heenan: "His what?" Rhodes: "His mode o' referendi." Tony Schiavone: "You'll have to look that up in the Texas dictionary, Brain." Heenan: "It only has one page!"

Bret Hart in 1997 alone refutes the idea that he couldn't cut a promo. He was amazing that year. As a face, he came off to me like a regular guy that was working as hard as he could to survive in a land of giants. Promo- and persona-wise, he actually reminds me a lot of Sami Zayn. Bret was one of my favorite wrestlers as a kid, though, so I know I cut him a ton of slack for the things he wasn't as good at.

I really love that Henry match. I was really shocked by how good it was when I saw it again. I didn't think much of it the first time I saw it. I think that's my favorite 'Taker WM match. My top five would probably be: 1. vs. Henry, casket match, WM 22 2. vs. HHH, WM X-7 3. vs. Flair, WM X-8 4. vs. Batista, WM 23 5. vs. Roberts, VIII (yeah, I know, but I love it as an extended squash meant to get 'Taker over as a face force) I need to watch the Diesel match again, though, as it seems like it might be right down my alley on re-watch and would fit into my top five.

I think Nash in WWF was a hard worker, but he was sabotaged by not having anyone that great to work against for most of his reign. I love Sid and I enjoy Mabel in certain situations, but those were not the best guys to run against Nash. Nash's best opponent is actually Bret Hart, who had two very good and very different matches with him at the Rumble of 1995 and Survivor Series of 1995. It also doesn't help that Shawn pretty much stole his shine in that WM XI match by wrestling like a face trying to survive against a monster heel and even got a visual pinfall on him before losing. As a kid, that match just made me want to see HBK be champ - just what Michaels was shooting for at cross-purposes to the point of the match, actually. People shit on Nash for being the worst drawing WWF Champ ever, but I think that he was victimized by circumstance, HBK undermining him, and utterly shitty booking.

I remember really liking Diesel/Michaels the month afterward, even on re-watch a handful of years ago. That's what I usually think of as the best Diesel/Kevin Nash match ever. I know most of what seemed really hardcore at the time is tame now, and I know Michaels pretty much no-sells that Jackknife through the table because he enters his comeback so soon afterward, but it was still really fun despite its flaws. Plus, Diesel takes Mad Dog Vachon's fake leg from him just to beat HBK with it. That's some pretty awesome heeling.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing WM XII again when I get there in my WWE viewing. I'm about ten months out, but I remember that show as a really weird bridge show between the post-'80s malaise and what would become the Attitude Era. I'm wondering how Goldust/Piper and Taker/Diesel look almost twenty years into the future in particular. Why did you like Taker/Diesel, Ebbie?

I hate those 'Taker/HHH matches. They are so overproduced. It's like they're trying so hard to be epic. The fans ate them up live, though, so I get that I'm in the minority. I watched the Undertaker WM Streak DVD on Netflix maybe a year or two ago, and really, 'Taker had maybe four good WM matches: the casket match against Mark Henry, that wild match against Ric Flair, the very first HHH match, and the 'Taker/Batista match which was surprisingly solid to me as someone who doesn't typically enjoy Batista. I get the love for all of the Michaels or HHH matches, but what people love about them is what I hate about them. I thought the Punk match outright sucked, too.

I'd rather watch a Kane match than a Punk match. Speaking of Kane, is he the guy with the most longevity in at least a fairly high-profile role in a major company - if we're counting his earlier incarnations as Isaac Yankem and Fake Diesel, it's been nineteen years - with the least number of memorable matches? Like, if someone were putting together a Kane compilation, what would you even put on it? I don't even think he's terrible as a wrestler; he's just really, really, REALLY mediocre. Is his best work as the hot-tag component of a tag team with a good FIP, like Kane/X-Pac (which I remember enjoying as a tag team).

I've never seen Jim Londos, but I read about him in one of Meltzer's bios, and so I wanted to see him. I just looked him up on Youtube to see him in a match against...NFL legend Bronko Nagurski? I didn't know that Nagurski had a wrestling career! I really enjoyed this match, by the way. Loved Londos with that heel hold where he steps on Nagurski's other foot to hold him down. Also loved Nagurski kicking the crap out of the back of Londos's head to get out of an earlier heel hold.

As a totally irrational hater of the Freebirds in all incarnations, I typically avoid talking about them because I don't have any perspective to be even remotely fair. That said, Matt D's article was fantastic and brings up another reason I hate the Freebirds, Hayes in particular; they always got a lot of face cheers even as heels when they were working WCW in the early '90s, and it wasn't because they were cutting-edge heels or anything. They actively worked to undermine their babyface opponents whenever they thought they could. Who even let them go out there with Braves stuff on? Terrible. I just saw that show a couple months ago and had some of the same thoughts as Matt D did except with far less eloquence or critical development,.

For El Patron Tristof (and others):

Well, I had every slot filled with CAWs on the last WWE game that I bought, which was '13. Twenty-five slots just isn't enough. It really put a damper on my excitement for this game.

I actually kind of enjoyed the crowd counting during the Baron Corbin match, but they "WHAT"-ed Tyler Breeze, which undid any goodwill they might have built up with me. The show was not that great, but Titus O'Neal's shit-talking and he and Zayn beating the crap out of each other was really fun. I totally missed that the Vaudevillains hid outside the ring until they randomly (at least to me) rolled back into the ring. Glad they're finally bringing Balor in to team with Itami.

I also think this Network stuff proves that WWE's idea that the brand is the real draw isn't true. If Dean Ambrose heats up and becomes a Brian Pillman/Stone Cold 2.0 hybrid, that would probably drive subscribers more than any of the ideas that I had about using the booking and creative Network-only specials to draw subscribers. Individual wrestlers are still the real draws and always will be.

I think something along the lines of Matt D; they should make KotR worth a title shot and do it as a one-night-only tournament special on the Network. Title changes on Main Event and Superstars with still shots on RAW would work. Bringing back the Clash would work. I'm all for special-attraction World Champs that work limited dates and that ONLY defend on PPV or Network specials. Lesnar should defend against Cena on a Network-only Clash and not be seen again until the Rumble. Actually, I am a big fan of ALL champs just never defending their titles except for PPVs and Network-only specials. I also think, though my ideas here may be off, that the people who will really drive the Network's sub numbers are the hardcores. They have to book part of their shows around driving hardcores with disposable income to the Network. By "hardcores," I mean simply the long-time fans that are sort of like long-time fans of other slightly nerdy pastimes like comics, etc. Those guys pop big for Dolph Ziggler at RAW and on PPV? Give him a title shot on a Network-only show. Those guys love Bryan and want to see how he's progressing? Do Network-only updates where Bryan talks about his recovery and gives his thoughts on what's going on in WWE every month. That also means putting up AND promoting some of the earlier pre-Attitude era stuff that older hardcores may be interested in. They have the Network, but they sort of have to book toward driving people to the Network, and for whatever reason, they haven't changed their strategy to do so. EDIT: By the way, I know that Cristobal was being facetious, but if they can convince CM Punk to take on a non-wrestlingrole that is based around him on the Network - maybe color commentating Network-only shows/PPVs or something like that - that might help drive more of the hardcores get the Network just to see him.

What does WWE need more to get those Network numbers up: more fresh content that is Network-only or more compelling television on the creative end?

I wonder how they'll count subscribers for Canada since you can only access it through Rogers Communications. Maybe Rogers will just give them the straight sub numbers to pass on, but I wouldn't be shocked if they instead just use the number of Rogers subscribers overall that have the potential to access the network or something that fudges the sub numbers.

OK, but my point is that there are things that aren't intended for me as the target audience that I can still enjoy. Take John Cena, who I still enjoy in the ring. I think the complaints about him and his overcoming the odds are not that they happen in and of themselves. Most complaints are about the execution of these stories. Cena overcoming Wade Barrett and Nexus, for example, was criticized because they cut short the Midnight Rider aspect of the storyline, which made things fresh for how Cena would try to overcome Barrett. Cena overcoming the Wyatts was criticized because Cena never really felt threatened; he never even strongly hinted that he might go to new depths to beat Bray. There was no sense that he had to really struggle personally to overcome anything. He didn't even seem all that conflicted by kids turning on his values to follow Bray.

I can appreciate characters or storylines that aren't necessarily intended for me: My enjoyment of the Bayley character (along with her work) comes to mind. That's a character for young girls. The trick is that the character/storyline needs to be well-executed.

Again, I'm sure that someone actually doing a Camel Clutch would hurt. I think the actual look of Rusev's worked Camel Clutch is dissonant from the pain that it would theoretically cause. I'm not saying that there's no way a Camel Clutch would hurt. Let's just agree to disagree about that and agree to agree about Rusev being awesome.

Thinking about commentary: One of the reasons that I really enjoy Attitude Era Jim Ross on PBP is that he really seems like the One Sane Man in a total madhouse full of pervs and sociopaths. His calls really reflected that role. I think my favorite call of his is actually when he gives this really sad evaluation of Mankind being used as a puppet for Vince McMahon at Survivor Series '98. Watching Nitro, I realized that even considering Bobby Heenan not caring for most of his time in WCW, he really would not have fit into the Attitude Era as a color commentator anyway. I also thought that Vince McMahon calling Nitro would have been incredibly fun in a somewhat ridiculous way; his voice could get that tinge of disgust with a heel's actions that Bischoff just could not possibly match, and I would have loved to hear him call Woman and then Elizabeth turning on Macho and Hogan in his boisterous way. My question is what commentators or PBP men do you think would have been fun to listen to in another era or company? I feel like Lance Russell could have done a really good understated version of what Jim Ross did in Attitude Era WWF where he is the One Sane Man who is just disgusted at the ridiculous behavior that wrestlers engaged in. I also secretly enjoy David Crockett on commentary, and I think his enthusiasm and seemingly-genuine shows of disbelief or humor would be really fun and refreshing in current-era WWE where all the laughter or shock seems quite fake. I know people will hate that idea, but he's one of the most surprisingly pleasurable things about watching all of the Worldwides from '88 and '89 that I did a year-plus ago.

Depending on how they're applied, almost any submission looks good. I know that's a cop-out, but the number of submissions I balk at is pretty low. I like Rusev, and I like the idea of his making guys pass out, but that finisher just doesn't work for me.

It looks like he sits down and lightly clasps his arms around the chin of the dude. Sorry, agree to disagree, but it really doesn't look like he wrenches the back that badly.