SirSmUgly
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Posts posted by SirSmUgly
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I don't know how I would order everything after it, but my favorite WWE match of the year is the Cena/Henry title match. I'm going to do a little writeup to explore why I feel that way just off the top of my head. To be honest, I also need to watch it again because when I first saw it, I was far too busy rooting for Mark Henry and reacting like it was an actual fight: "Watch out for the trip into the STF! WATCH THE TRIP!" I have problems, I guess is what I'm admitting.
John Cena © vs. Mark Henry, WWE Championship Match, Money in the Bank 2013
First of all, it feels weird that a former whipping boy like Mark Henry got such a pop coming out first. I know that it is in large part because Henry has improved into being one of the best superheavyweight workers ever and in large part because of the anti-Cena part of the crowd, but it's still weird. Anyway, Henry comes down looking utterly pissed off and focused, which is only second to Henry coming down smiling because he is going to ruin someone's life in a few seconds. Cena coming out with his arms spread and sarcastically remarking "The City of Brotherly Love!" to the camera was genuinely funny too. Then, Cena gets in the ring and Mark Henry talks shit before being backed off by the ref while Cena stares with what could be described as moderate uncertainty, high motivation. So, I already love this match before the bell because everyone looks like they're ready to kill to be champion.
Cena wants to keep the pace up, stick and move, and Henry wants to slow it down, something emphasized by Cena trying to start the match running and getting planted with a knee and a headbutt. Cole helpfully points out this idea on commentary. Cena is bumping and selling like a pro as Henry does basic, cool superheavyweight offense with big headbutts and a running splash in the corner. They go outside kinda early, but Henry front suplexes Cena across the stairs, which was a great spot, so it's okay. Cole trying to sell Henry wanting to destroy Cena early and put this thing away helped put the move outside in context. It also helps that Henry is going for pins off of the more hard-hitting spots.
Anyway, I could watch Henry in control against a good bumper and seller all day. Running splash against the ropes got another audible gasp from the crowd, and Henry again goes for a pin off of it. Cole again emphasizes that Henry knows that Cena will come back on you if you let him in response to Henry cursing once Cena kicks out. I guess they are moving through some of this stuff pretty quickly, but it all fits together on commentary and in what Henry is doing during his control period here to start the match.
Henry fends off the first Cena flurry of the night and hits a giant swing, and the crowd stops with the "Cena Sucks!" chant to chant for Mark Henry because Mark Henry is basically awesomeness personified. Giant swing against the barricade is a sweet spot, though Cesaro has done it better. Cena tries another flurry but gets reversed on a slam where Henry just falls on him. Cena finally gets through by using his speed and agility rather than just relying on strength, and he nicely gets rewarded for doing so by knocking Henry off his feet, but when he goes back to trying pure strength, Henry reverses the AA. I like that the story of this match is "Cena always overpowers other people, but he cannot play the strength game he normally does here, or he will lose." Cena tries brute strength and gets clubbed down. Cena uses speed to counter and then attack (such as off the shoulderblock after ducking a clothesline and turning Henry around or off a tornado DDT counter) and gets rewarded.
Cena finally gets Henry down long enough for an AA which is rightfully treated as amazing, but pure strength is not beating Henry, as has been established, and Henry kicks out at two. Cena overacts a smidge as he looks confused, then hopeful that maybe the ref fucked up and it was actually a three count, but it's awesome because here is where Cena really gets it, story-wise, that strength won't get him through this match and he has to use speed, agility, and brains to tie Henry up somehow. Right after this, he goes up top for a crossbody and gets countered into a WSS, but he's still John Cena, dammit! and he has the resiliency to kick out at two. Even if his strength game isn't working tonight, Cena still has heart; you can't club that out of him.
Henry, meanwhile, is losing composure here. With each two count earlier in the match, he got visibly and audibly frustrated, and after only getting two on a WSS, he loses it and rips the cover off of a turnbuckle. Then he decides that this won't be enough and he needs a couple of chairs as well. This distracts the ref, who tosses the chairs out. Meanwhile, Henry rips off another cover in the corner, but Cena drives his head into the corner, having had time to regroup since Henry lost focus, and follows up with a quick STF attempt. Again, this is an awesome sequence to me precisely because Henry's inability to put Cena away takes Henry off his game. He was focused before, stalking Cena and stuffing Cena's attempts to get any offense going for the most part by staying on top of him. At this point, however, his patience has eroded, giving Cena an opening. Cena, for his part, moves with speed and purpose whenever he gets an opening, really driving home that he needs to be purposeful and stay on top of Mark Henry to win this thing. Also, as a nice note, good guy Cena won't break and takes most of the five count to let go of the STF - even Cena isn't above bending the rules to beat a monster like this.
The ending run, I remember not being as big on, but it makes more sense watching it again. At this point, Henry has abandoned his "kill him with power" gameplan and has decided that cheating is the best method. A low blow doesn't work, but it gives Henry a chance to try for another WSS, and Cena uses speed and agility, not power, to counter and get the winning STF.
Cena came into this match and wrestled it like a dude that had to find something to rely on other than his typical power game, eventually figuring out what he needed to do over the course of the match to survive. Henry came into this match as a guy with a plan to use his awesome power to win, but he simply did not account for Cena's heart, and that caused him to deviate from a gameplan that was working and give Cena enough openings to finally beat him. Awesome story here where you could see the strategy for both guys and how it evolved over the match just like a real fight.
Plus this match was mostly Henry in control on offense, which meant a) Henry with his awesome strong man offense, shit talking, and stalking of Cena like a lion stalking an antelope and B) Cena selling and bumping quite awesomely.
I would not call it perfect, and I'm sure people might pick nits about Cena not fully hitting the DDT counter or his STF or what-have-you, but as a story and a match with a bunch of awesome spots, this thing works so well. Definitely, I would say it is the best WWE match this year in my view. It also makes me want to see a Cesaro/Henry feud where they do crazy strongman spots to one another all the time.
EDIT: This was ridiculously long. Sorry about that. I need an editor.
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I don't know how people feel about Johnny B. Badd, but I really enjoyed the hell out of his WCW stuff. He did lots of fun stuff with Austin, with DDP, etc. I am not saying he's amazing, but he is a whole lot of fun.
Anyway, here's a ridiculous tuxedo match between Badd and Austin on Worldwide just because.
(And thanks to the person that showed me how to embed!)
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I would like to see how Okada and Tanahashi do in this tournament, so definitely reserve at least a few spots for non-U.S. workers.
Maybe you could just take the top two or three guys from some of the major international promotions like NJPW and AAA?
Also:
Do an NIT bracket for the rest of the world. I watch NJPW but I don't see a lot of Lucha. I doubt most here have watched enough of EVERYTHING..
Respectfully, I would like to say that I disagree with this because, when I was lurking here, I personally used March Madness to see everything that I did not otherwise see. People would bring up guys from CHIKARA and CMLL that I had not seen and post some videos, and it really expanded my viewpoint of modern wrestling. My favorite thing about this exercise is really that I get to learn about wrestlers that I don't know from you guys. For example, the MM tourney is responsible for my enjoyment of Vordell Walker somehow, even though I don't remember him actually being in the tournament. Someone brought him up and posted videos, however, and it was fantastic. It is really fun to get to evaluate guys that you have not seen up against the guys that you are familiar with, which splitting up the tournament into multiple brackets would take away.That is why I was so happy to get a chance to post here and maybe contribute in my own small way; you all have given me quite a lot to watch and consider and think about when I watch wrestling, and MM is a big part of that. -
A gun has not been held to my loved ones, so I have not willingly visited Grantland.
There are some smart writers there, but too many guys try too hard. Wesley Morris won a Pulitzer and it absolutely ruined his writing. Andy Greenwald is a guy with some bright ideas clouded in some truly awful metaphor and essay structure. These writers remind me of when I went to grad school and started writing impenetrably and in the language of convoluted bullshit to match my setting.
Robert Mays is the tits, though. I love the NFL Podcast he does with Bill Barnwell, even if Barnwell is somehow kind of grating.
Anyway, Shoemaker is fucking terrible. Getting the Grantland job was the worst thing for him. Dead Wrestler of the Week was awesome, but now he incorrectly uses the label of "postmodernism" on everything and writes the worst kind of wrestling-opinion wankery. He's like Geno Mrosko with a dictionary, and I know that deep down inside, he is better than that, dammit.
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I'm too stupid to know how to embed video, so I'll link to the first of my favorite series of Worldwide matches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlQFDw5vA2k
When I was a kid in the '90s, I got to stay up late on Saturday nights and watch American Gladiators and WCW Worldwide (which showed back to back on the channel that syndicated them) since I got good grades. In a house with lots of people, I would be the only one up. It was kind of my time to be awake and enjoy myself. Anyway, I saw a ton of stuff that I vividly remember and love.
However, to start, I would have to say that my absolute favorite is Regal/Flair in the Marquis of Queensbury Rules matches. This was the first time that I had ever seen a version of the British rounds system. I still probably irrationally love these matches for more than they are because they were my first foray into that style of wrestling, and I loved it so much.
I ended up tracking these matches down again in 2006 or 2007 on YouTube, and while I knew of World of Sport and UK wrestling, I had never even scratched the surface on them. Anyway, these videos led me to videos of Marty Jones and Jim Breaks and all those guys who are totally awesome. So WCW Worldwide was an intro to WoS for me, which I think at least partially explains why Worldwide was so awesome.
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I'm watching Dean Malenko and Rey Misterio kill one another on the Nitro from 12/31/96 right now. I would like to make the case that Malenko was one of WCW's MVPs for 1996-1997. Someone else here mentioned that he was sort of the bridge between the typical U.S. wrestling viewer and cruisers from Mexico/juniors from Japan, and not only do I love and agree with that argument, but the clash of styles always makes for an interesting match. I like the current WWE style, but I miss two guys with totally different styles mixing it up, and Malenko might be the last great example of a guy who excelled at that sort of "clash of styles" wrestling in the Big Two companies.
What do you all think is the best Malenko match of that '96-97 period? What about the best cruiserweight match overall during that time period? I'm pretty partial to the Malenko/Misterio Havoc '96 match, and of course Eddie/Rey from Havoc '97 is up there too.
Also, I find that people over-exaggerate DDP getting a push because he was close to Eric Bischoff. DDP got himself over through that whole "lost everything to Johnny B. Badd" storyline and the fans already gave a shit about him before he got into it with Hall/Nash/the nWo. He was never overpushed relative to how the crowd received him.
One final note: Is it a guilty pleasure to really enjoy '95 - '97 Lex Luger? His whole thing where it was OBVIOUS that he was a dick, but Sting couldn't see it was great, and he had solid matches on PPV with The Giant and some good tag matches as part of that team with Sting. Plus he has so many randomly awesome moments like winning the title on Nitro in '97 and racking Roadblock after three tries on a random Nitro in '96 (I think). I like Lex Luger more than probably 95% of the internet population anyway, though, so it could just be me on that one.
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It was awesome in that match that Warrior kicked out, and I say that as a massive Savage fan. Five elbows can't go against the Warrior's gods, you silly mortal!
That whole match/angle is my favorite WM match/angle ever. I am a sucker for any match/angle that gets people in the crowd to show genuine emotion. This is why I would categorize that MVP/Matt Hardy feud from like eight or nine years ago as one of the most underrated feuds in WWE history.
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Wonder what kinda missile dropkick that Jesus feller has, in his moveset?
to the disappointment of DVDVR board posters lobbying for Mark Henry to be in a History Channel miniseries
Five or six guest star spots for Big Show in that Bible miniseries?they should try seeing what the History Channel could offer them
Don't know, but the crooked moneylenders of the time say he throws a sweet right hand.
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I wonder how much closer. Certainly not the billion/multi-billion dollar range of the NFL/NBA/MLB contracts. I know NBC paid 250M for Premier League rights in the U.S. If WWE got that much from someone, I would be impressed. That would also be a significant increase.
If I had to guess, I think they will max out around 150M for TV rights. The stigma about the intelligence and income level of wrestling fans still probably exists to advertisers no matter how much WWE pushes that they are marketing to middle-income families.
They made $168.4M in 2013 (source:http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2013/12/10/can-we-predict-wwe-tv-rights-fees-for-2015/), so $250M is more likely considering they get better ratings than Premier League does.
Great link, man. Thanks for the info.
I guess 250M is a nice target for WWE, then. I would love to be in the room when Vince McMahon starts out by asking NBC/Universal or Viacom for a billion dollars in TV rights, though.
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WWE Aims to Pin Down Rich New TV Rights Deals
The goal is to significantly increase the $139.5 million in TV licensing fees WWE earns each year for its shows, and attempt to get closer to the rich network deals that sports organizations like the NBA, NHL NASCAR, as well as soccer command.
To make its show more attractive, WWE is considering a live version of its two-hour “SmackDown,” which currently is taped on Tuesday before its Friday airing. To do that, costs to produce the series would increase, due to scheduling, and the show would likely need to move to a new night. But WWE would be willing to make the switch in return for a better fee for the series.
Negotiations and bids can’t take place until Feb. 15, when NBCU accepts or rejects WWE’s final offer; other bids are due Feb. 28, with WWE set to select its media partners by March 4. Should a new deal with another conglom happen, WWE’s shows wouldn’t move to a new network until October.
WWE’s pay-per-views, including annual juggernauts “WrestleMania” and “SummerSlam” won’t be part of the negotiations, since those will air on the company’s new subscription-based WWE Network, which will also include original series and access to the company’s VOD library. Launch plans for the channel, which WWE sees as its own NFL Network, have yet to be revealed. However, WWE maintains that it could break even on the venture if it can sign up 800,000 to 1 million subscribers willing to pay around $10 to $14 per month.
I wonder how much closer. Certainly not the billion/multi-billion dollar range of the NFL/NBA/MLB contracts. I know NBC paid 250M for Premier League rights in the U.S. If WWE got that much from someone, I would be impressed. That would also be a significant increase.
If I had to guess, I think they will max out around 150M for TV rights. The stigma about the intelligence and income level of wrestling fans still probably exists to advertisers no matter how much WWE pushes that they are marketing to middle-income families.
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Shawn Michaels is pretty awesome. He saved that Punk segment from being tiresome.
I think the Mark Henry/Big E tag team should have the backstory of Big E being Mizzark's long-lost son. I want vignettes where they play catch together and have contests to see how far they can throw Smart Cars and break the bells on the strength games at various county fairs to make up for lost time.
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Who cares what these awful people are doing in their terrible lives?
Not about the city of Seattle.
Fuckers.
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Tag match was awesome and Cena was awesome. The show was typical of WWE; if you can block out the uninspiring storylines and booking, the wrestling was very good.
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Miz vs. Stubborn Five Year Old is WAY better than Miz/Kofi.
Whenever people wonder why Kofi Kingston is still employed because he's awful, midcard fodder, etc., I think we can point to this video as Exhibit A for why he's got a job with WWE.
Actually, the kids that I know love Kofi. I think WWE kinda missed the ball not pushing him to be more than what he is.
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Hayashi splattering onto the outside of the ring was just nasty.
I miss WCW B-Shows. No one cared what the wrestlers did, so you would get gems like this on random Saturday Nights or Worldwides on a surprisingly decent basis.
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Goldberg had... what, three or four good matches? And once his streak died, he was pretty much worthless. We don't really need that.
I don't know if I have anything constructive to say about Ryback's push, but I see people say Goldberg wasn't a good wrestler and was worthless after his streak died, and that is just wrong, damn it.
First of all, Goldberg got really good at one point and was having good matches. Everyone points to the Havoc match against DDP, but he had good matches against Scott Steiner too, and he was a legitimately awesome big match worker on a consistent basis by the time he got to WWE. He got better pretty quickly.
People always say things like "But, but, but the Lesnar match" when the crowd was the reason that it sucked and "But, but, but Regal made him look terrible in a random Nitro match" when that isn't the case at all and it was a legitimately awesome competitive six-minute match before Spear, Jackhammer, Splat. It's like people are desperate to paint Goldberg as sucky in the ring when he was absolutely not. He was green at one point, but he never flat out sucked.
Second of all, Goldberg was rendered worthless by WCW's (mostly Russo and Nash's) stupid booking. He was still amazingly over, but he was made to look like an ass by the nWo numerous times (see: Fingerpoke of Doom, where how Goldberg is treated ended up as the very worst thing about that angle), ended up turning heel for some bizarre reason when the fans still wanted to see him destroy the nWo for good, and then ended up stuck in a feud with Totally Buff which he lost and was then taken off TV and pretty much killed dead at a time when the fans obviously wanted Goldberg/Booker T for the title and would have been open to Goldberg/Steiner for another round of matches, too.
WCW tried to kill his heat about a billion times and then finally, when they couldn't do that, they simply took him off TV. He was absolutely not worthless inherently; he was just made so by every booker that he came across from the time that Nash started booking the shows.
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True. That lack of patriotism got me choosing Muggsy Bogues instead in NBA Jam.
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And didn't Yoko straight maul someone to stop them from slamming him in that?
Yeah, it was Tatanka(Altough he did attempt to slam him, and fail).
Here's the longer version cut of that video.
My God, not only was "America's pride at stake", but also a Chevy Silverado.
After Luger's blatant racism, I was kinda rooting for Yokozuna there.
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It was an interesting show, but being in a live audience for three hours of RAW is tiring. I can do that for a PPV if it's well-booked, but a regular RAW? Not so much.
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Bryan's character is that he's weird and small and the jock bully assholes in corporate hate on him for that reason, except that he can kick dudes in the face and make them feel it unlike most weird nerds. He's a granola-eating geeky Austin. I think he can pull it off being a slightly-unhinged nerd if asked to do so.
Heyman and Axel poking at Bryan the nerd until he snaps and starts kneeing people in the face sounds like a whole lot of fun for four straight months, but then again, so does Mark Henry throwing Axel off of and into various things for four months, so my threshold for being entertained might just be really low.
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As a kid I thought that Kona Crush was going to be world champ so hard. That guy was the best.
And the guitar riff on that entrance music! The. Best.
I ended up actually not being a fan because of how he was booked. Doink straight up made an ass out of him for about a whole year, it seemed like. Did Crush EVER get one over on Doink? I was one of those kids in school that did homework before it was due on a regular basis and who really valued intelligence and craftiness in my wrestlers (big Bret Hart fan as a kid, in other words), so as soon as Crush got exposed as a "big dummy," as Bobby Heenan put it, I lost my support for him.
On the other hand, I really appreciated Doink for being smart as hell, even with the yellow teeth and the painted face and the general douchebaggery.
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I don't like Richards or Eddie Edwards at all in terms of their wrestling matches, but I guess those convoluted spots are what the ROH fans enjoy, right? It's not for me, but maybe those spots make sense in terms of popping the crowds they were working in front of. Of course a fan of JCP, WCW, or AWA in the foremost won't like them, but current ROH fans probably loved that stuff.
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I also have to mention that if they really are planning to bring back Goldberg, I might be the only person that wants to see Goldberg/Undertaker. Instead of a thirty-minute WWE-epic-style match, I want like an eight minute match with powerbombs and Jackhammers and tombstones all over the place.
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I have less than zero interest in Austin-Punk. To be honest, I don't really have a desire to see Austin wrestle anyone currently on the roster other than John Cena, which they would never do since Cena would get booed out of the building for sure.
Smackdown Spoilers for 12/20/13
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
As I recall, he worked a Ludvig Borga-like "foreign heel disgusted with American poverty and neglect of the environment" sort of deal on the indies.