SirSmUgly

Not sure how changing his name would help when everyone knows who he is anyway. And he is pretty much the spitting image of Chris too. I don't see why it matters. It's his life. Maybe he really likes wrestling. Maybe he's trying to work through some unresolved feelings about his father. Maybe it's one of a thousand other things. It just seems inappropriate to single him out for doing something that, while weird to some of us, isn't some sort of criminal profession or something.

I guess I just don't care about the story, then, and it's really on me that I'm not enjoying this. I have no desire to see more Bryan vs. The Authority. No offense to HHH or anything, but I'm not particularly interested in him wrestling Bryan, or, for that matter, HBK wrestling Bryan. People will love it, though, so I can't say that it's a bad move for everyone. I'd rather that Bryan just kept the belt back at the last PPV he won it at, defended over Orton despite all the machinations, and then had HHH send guys at him to take him down. I like Show, but Show/Orton just seems like a match they probably ran ten thousand times before on random Smackdowns three years ago or something. I don't need to see Bryan win all the time, but I do like to see the belt used as a prop to signify the top wrestler and for HHH to treat it as something he has to get back. Maybe it's just my preference. Plus, when Titus O'Neil eventually beats Bryan in a tournament for the vacated belt after raising the Titus eyebrow and putting Bryan in the sharpshooter so HHH can screw Bryan, we'll have TWO new awesome stars!

I'm rooting for WWE, but they just have a tendency at this point, for whatever reason, to start angles hot and then have them peter out into convoluted terribleness. It's what they do with big angles almost every year. I blame the 50/50 booking and need to keep everyone strong. When everyone is strong, no one is. Sometimes, angles just need to end with a clear winner standing tall.

My guess is that tomorrow, ADR destroys Cena's arm in anger, Sandow cashes in and wins the WHC, and then he doesn't win another match for about five months.

A returning Ken Kennedy who HHH introduces as Mr. McMahon's bastard son and rightful heir to the company and then is installed as HHH's right-hand-man and CEO-in-waiting?

Well, that's oversimplified. I think that there is an effective way to put over what we're watching as an amazing spectacle, and that way does not involve the announcers continually stating "Wow, what an amazing spectacle that only we can give you on this show that is also an amazing spectacle every year! Spectacle!" I could be watching with more of a jaded eye, but I feel like current-gen WWE matches really try to underscore how dramatic and amazing these matches are a bit too much. I'm also not against overacting necessarily. Pro wrestling is a stage play and wrestlers have to overact for the crowd in attendance. But come on, Michaels' "I have a hard decision to make" or his "Oh no, I pissed off the wrong guy!" faces are SO BAD. On the "effective cartoonish overacting scale," they are less "Matt Bourne laughing maniacally and then grimacing evilly into the camera as Doink the Clown" and more "Cheatum rubbing his hands together and MUAHAHA-ing."

I would not say that, but I would say that he was a less effective TV wrestler than he ever had been overall. That Cena match is a definite outlier. I can't think of many great TV matches he had once he came back beyond that. One hour match versus Cena aside, does post-2002 Michaels have anything on par with that hot match with Marty Jannetty where Jannetty wins the IC belt off of him? Just as one example.Heck, I remember Michaels having solid TV matches pinballing around for dudes like Jim Duggan back in the early RAW days that, at least for me, were more memorable than most of his TV stuff. His PPV stuff is hit or miss. I actually am not a big fan of those HBK/Taker matches at WM. Too much melodrama and almost contrived "This is epic, see how epic we are being" stuff that honestly might have been better without the announcers talking about how amazing what we are seeing is so constantly. Geez, I would say that my favorite post-comeback Michaels PPV performance is...geez, maybe his performance in the '07(?) Rumble in the finishing run that set up his feud with 'Taker down the road? That or his work in the '02 Elimination Chamber. I have to be honest, a lot of his big matches (vs. HHH @ Summerslam '02, the Taker WM matches, vs. Hogan, series with Kurt Angle) just don't really do anything for me, unlike most of his big matches pre-first-retirement. I can't put my finger quite on why, though. Maybe it's because those matches depend on finisher-mania and Michaels' goofy-looking facials over stuff that would make a match dramatic in JCP or early '90s WCW (blood, weapon shots, dudes selling limbs and fatigue more consistently). The thing that I liked the most about Michaels' comeback was actually his storyline involvement, which I would wager he had a huge say in. In an era where storylines tended to be unmemorable, he had that great set of transitions from feuding with Flair to feuding with Batista over retiring Flair to feuding with Jericho that I thought really told a strong narrative and gave me a sense of what sort of year HBK the character had dealing with a ton of drama all springing out of the Flair challenge. I went back and watched all that stuff a few months ago, and while the matches in isolation didn't age well for me, the matches and segments all together told a really fun, seamless story.

I used to lurk here before I could sign up, and I remember all the issues that people have with Michaels' work, and honestly, I totally see those arguments. I wonder if it's because I have bias toward him as a former five-year-old Rockers fan, or if I subconsciously buy into the WWE's hype machine, but man, it doesn't matter so much to me. I mean, his post-2002-comeback work typically doesn't do much for me, and the super-melodramatic stuff he likes to do is definitely awful (as is the nu-DX stuff). At the same time, he was the best thing about WWE TV matches for two or three years to me back in the '92-'94 WWF era, and his 1997 is still one of my favorite wrestler years ever taking into account promos, skits, and matches. I'm not saying it's objectively one of the best, but it definitely is one of my favorites. I don't want to rehash too much, but I guess Michaels is one of those guys with clear flaws that I am fully able to overlook for whatever reason. Probably in large part to nostalgia, to be honest.

You know, hire Dee Bradley Baker to reprise Olmec and hire Kirk Fogg too. Have them replace Tenay and Taz at the booth. And hell, throw in a "pendant of life" that the holder can use to re-start a title match immediately after they have lost. Boom, I just made TNA something that I would actually seek out to watch.

Swagger was really good on ECW, but come to think of it, he got to wrestle Matt Hardy a whole lot, and Hardy is pretty fucking awesome as a wrestler. My favorite Swagger match is actually that really competitive one he had with Cena on some RAW a year or two ago. He looked like a champ, but then again, he was wrestling Cena, also pretty fucking awesome as a wrestler. I'm trying to think of a really good match Swagger had against someone that is good, but not awesome like those Hardy or Cena are. Nothing is coming to mind, but I'm sure that I'm missing something.

I'm voting for The Mountie's shock stick. Not because the shock stick itself is a necessarily ridiculous prop, but because of the absolutely ridiculous BRRR-ZAPPPP sound effect that would play every time he used it. That never fails to get a laugh out of me.

Didn't he beat Hogan twice? I felt like he beat Hogan by DQ one week and then the women's shoe to the face the next week. Or maybe I'm thinking that Hogan took the women's shoe to the eye in consecutive weeks and lost to Arn and Flair. This is exactly what happened.

Disco was actually really awesome as a worker, I thought. Could work comedy, could go with most of the other guys on the roster, was a really good tag guy with Alex Wright.

Let the speculation begin Uh, since it's spoiler-tagged...that guy Jim Ross is with in the picture going gray makes me feel so, so old. I'm going to die one day. Bleakness. Depression.

It's been one week since the Usos were on, and were called the number one contenders to Shield. And Titus did show up - it was only for the Komen segment, but he was there. And the biggest problem with Del Rio is that nobody cares - it doesn't matter how good his matches are if he bores everyone to tears. Nobody gets over strictly on ring work anymore, if they ever did. It doesn't matter who he's facing - he feuded with Cena for months and still didn't look credible because his character is one dimensional and boring, no matter how many cool cars he drives or how many people he puts the Cross Arm Breaker on. I feel like ADR would be a great heel in something like JCP or WCW up to like 1996/97. You could get over strictly on ring work there. But you are right about the WWE. It's character-driven to the point that fans just won't care about you if you aren't interesting outside of the ring, too.

I don't know how to embed, but it was Sunny over Jerry Lawler by DQ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIUeW-nqJvk

The hidden upside to this commercial is that, had you asked me just out of hand to rate out of ten how awful it would be to see 60-year-old Hulk Hogan's ass in a thong, I would have given it a 9.5 for near-maximum horribleness. But hey, after seeing that, it was only about an 8 on the scale. I'm confused by this one, but probably wouldn't enjoy the explanation. I'll do it anyway. Nash was champ and commish. He gave Sid a shot at the belt, but only if he could beat one of the Harris Bros in a match beforehand. Sid won, but pinned the wrong brother after some shenanigans. Then Sid won the belt off Nash. The next show, Nash used his commish powers to negate the switch and vacate the belt since Sid had not beaten the right brother to get the shot in the first place, all if I recall correctly.

Look, I'll accept him using the Ghetto Blaster as a finisher. Also, it has to be called the Ghetto Blaster.

He paid him to fast count so he had a viable reason to take the belt off of Bryan. We are supposed to assume that it was only to be used in case of an emergency when Orton is clearly beat. I think the logical next step is Bryan wins on Sunday. Monday they try and take the belt from him again and this time Vince intercedes. I was thinking Bryan wins, then Orton attacks Brie on Raw to give the HIAC match a personal touch, but I don't know what the man-on-woman violence policies are these days. I guess I can see them putting focus back on Vince where he tells HHH that he has 3 more weeks for his master plan to work or he's indefinitely suspended as COO. Either way, I'm pretty sure HIAC ends with Orton soundly beaten and HHH locked inside the cell with Bryan, Show, or The Shield. Maybe they could just cut to the back with Brie Bella already laid out, wrestlers nearby calling frantically for medics. Then, when Bryan confronts Orton about it later in the show, he theatrically denies doing it in a way that everyone knows it was him.

See, I would have rather had TNA try to copy JCP or Memphis and do some form of old-school "southern rasslin'." Hell, even 1992-1993 SMW rip-off/tribute would have been awesome.

I am somewhat surprised they haven't done a modified WarGames in the Elimination Chamber yet, kinda like the 6-man EC tags are done on the video games. That might be the best compromise if Vince is dead-set on not losing any seats to putting two rings in the arena. If, at some point, we get some segments where the Rhodes family is sitting around a campfire in the wilderness wearing masks and threatening vengeance, I may have to watch RAW all the way through instead of cherry-picking segments just to be sure to see them live.

Haha, sorry FSW. I just really wanted to post about that match because I remember liking it so much. I didn't read far enough to see that you were going to write about it. My apologies. I think the only place we disagree is on the DQ finish, which I actually think worked super-well and is something they should have recycled for the HHH/Tazz WWF Champ vs. ECW Champ match down the road, and that this is too short to be considered part of the great year. I think it's challenging to work an effective sub-ten minute match where both guys look like a trillion bucks and a rematch would me more than welcome, and HHH did his part in pulling it off. I think versatility is important in judging the output of a wrestler, and HHH shows his versatility here. It's a keeper if you want to bolster your point about HHH's '00 being great.

OK, I thought that this was interesting, and I'm going to try a review. I don't think I quite know what I like and don't like about matches completely, so hopefully it doesn't turn into too much of a discovery thing and it isn't totally uninteresting. Triple H [c] vs. Rikishi - Smackdown 1/4/00 I'm not a HHH fan or a hater, really. I find his Flair/Race hybrid tribute act to be crappy compared to just watching Flair or Race, and he never held my interest as the ace heel of the promotion, but there are times when he really has a much better performance than his average. I remember this match as one of those performances, and I remember LOVING it when it first aired. I haven't seen it in a handful of years, however, so looking it again should be interesting. HHH sells Rikishi's name being drawn as his opponent fantastically before the match starts. The dumbfounded, pissed-off look on his face as he glares at Howard Finkel for screwing up the rigged drawing is wonderful. HHH jumps Rikishi at the bell and beats him down in the corner, showing pretty good urgency and cementing the idea that Rikishi needs to be taken out quickly or HHH might be in for a world of hurt. They go outside and Kish ragdolls HHH, who sells pretty nicely. Loved the legdrop on the floor from Kish. It just looks brutal for some reason. This part of the match early where they are outside the ring is pretty good, actually, as it just turns into a fight-for-your life brawl and they use the ring steps effectively. They go back inside and a couple reversals lead to a HHH knee to the face and a brief control section of the match which is highlighted by that signature spinning clothesline bump Rikishi always does. Kish gets control right back, however, and does a nice fat man splash in the corner and a Samoan drop that the crowd pops for. Rikishi has such awesome offense. Love his belly-to-belly and of course the Rikishi Driver. The crowd (and I) are going wild for Rikishi's offense. Banzai Drop gets two, and the crowd goes nuts. This is where 2.9s work, where a challenger with awesome offense that can credibly beat anyone gets soooo close to winning off of his big moves. They follow with a Rikishi Driver -----> Pedigree ----> back bodydrop sequence that gets a big pop. Nothing special, but man, the crowd really loves Big Kish. HHH, by the way, is awesome at selling offense when he wants to be. He is bouncing around nicely for Rikishi's offense. He also does a good job of juuuuuust barely getting the shoulder up after Kish connects with a superkick. Now here's what I like. Stephanie interferes by sliding a chair into the ring and then running interference. HHH's chair shot to the head only gets two, though. I almost forgot myself a bit and popped like the crowd did when Kish kicked out. I remember thinking the chair shot was the end when I first watched this match in '00 too, so it was a pretty effective spot. HHH just gives up and blasts Kish in the face with a belt shot, getting DQed; then, he lays out Kish with chair shots, but Rikishi gets up almost immediately and chases HHH out of the ring. OK, so some of my big criticisms about HHH in general are these things: He typically doesn't give enough to faces on offense when he wrestles them. He often doesn't act like his opponent is a legit threat. He often has interminably long and boring control segments that are just painful to watch and that kill otherwise good matches (HHH/Goldberg at Unforgiven '03 comes to mind). I think this list helps to explain why I enjoyed this particular HHH match. This match was a sub-ten minute match, so it didn't have the overlong HHH control segment. Honestly, HHH selling every move from Kish like it just knocked him out dead was perfect. His facial expressions were also great at conveying that Kish was a serious threat, both before and during the match. The mixture of fear and hatred on his face as Kish kept coming after him post-DQ worked for me. Basically, HHH taking Rikishi's offense and just hanging onto his belt through chicken-shittery was perfect. Rikishi looked like a world-beater and HHH got to play up being the Cerebral Assassin by realizing when it was time to just get out of dodge with the title. I don't love it as much as I did in context back in 2000, but it is a really smartly-worked match to me. There are very few 1-on-1 HHH matches that I would ever watch more than once, but I wonder if the ones that I would watch just cut out the long HHH control segments and feature good facial selling from Trips. I'll have to check that theory out sometime.

As I recall, Bret indicated that Goldberg not easing him down on the ringpost figure-four spot gave him an initial concussion, and the superkick finished him off and made that concussion a career-ender.

Haha, this was fantastic! I just watched it three times in a row. I think he legit knocked that jobber out with the clothesline. The poor dude is totally sandbagging Koko for the Ghostbuster at the end, probably because he was in dreamland. On the stiff squash scale, I give it a full five out of five Kevin Sullivans. Well played.