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SirSmUgly

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Everything posted by SirSmUgly

  1. Nah, I'm still logging in every day. I am trying to complete every fish and bug sculpture. Waiting for the golden trout to come back in the spring, and then I'll look at everything else I still need to catch.
  2. I was waiting for someone to suggest Yamaguchi of Kai-en-tai showing up in this angle as the only officially-trained Japanese mohel.
  3. Maxx Payne is a fun garbage brawler, but you're not getting anything more out of him than you'd get out of post-prime Rocco Rock, IMO. Good guy to have on the roster, though.
  4. Show #155 – 24 August 1998 "The one where Stevie Ray finally joins nWo Hollywood as the final piece of the B-Team puzzle" It’s Nitro in Chicago! This means that there’s a limo in the back. There’s always a limo in the back when we’re in Chicago, it seems like. This limo transported some of the worst personalities on this show to the arena and also Ms. Elizabeth. “Rockhouse” plays while Hogan poses, Bischoff waves to the crowd, and Disciple wastes space and too much of WCW’s salary budget. I blank out for a bit until Bischoff claims that he used his executive power to run Vader and Johnny B. Badd out of WCW and might just do the same to Eddy Guerrero and the Ultimate Warrior. I thought Schiller fired Bischoff from WCW leadership a few months back, or am I forgetting an angle where Bisch got that power back? Anyway, I perked up at the Vader and Badd mentions, but then Hogan started talking and I blank back out, pretty much. The short of it is that Hogan threatens Page and Goldberg and dismisses Warrior as a threat. Mike Enos comes out to, hey, face Wrath! I’m glad to see Wrath back on TV. Enos tries to win with strikes. It doesn’t work and ends with Enos getting launched into the guardrail outside the ring. Wrath brings himself back in the ring with a slingshot back elbow, then hits a knee, a butterfly suplex, and a senton splash all in a row for a two count. Enos is slung into the ropes but manages a floatover powerslam for two. They do a few dodges on running strike attempts that ends when Enos misses badly on a splash attempt and Wrath uses a pumphandle into a powerslam that earns a victory. That was a fun little opener, and I guess Wrath is, from a certain perspective, 1-0, huh? Larry Z. takes bows, and we get Nash/Goldberg recap while I wonder about that whole Dusty Rhodes “gag order” thing that Larry Z. has mentioned a couple times since then (including briefly tonight), but which has had zero traction on TV otherwise. Were they working toward a Larry Z./Dusty feud in 1998 based around retired wrestlers competing for control of Larry's commentary position? That sounds like hell. I don’t remember anything like this happening, and I’m hoping that’s because it didn’t happen and not because I’m getting old. Hey, another Kaz Hayashi sighting! It’s been a minute. He’s wrestling Dean Malenko, which seems like it should be a fun matchup. Malenko immediately trips Kaz and tries to ground him. He leans back on a chinlock, then releases it to hit a knee drop before going into a side headlock. Kaz gets back to his feet and hits a flurry of offense, but with zero transition, he walks into a backdrop for two and then gets head scissored. This is all cursory work because we’re getting a commercial break, so I’m fine with it filling time and not much else. During the break, Captain Picard throws Arnold (of Hey Arnold! fame) into a rock cliff while Knuckles and a Carolina Panthers player observe. Those Paramount+ commercials are something. Anyway, we’re back, and finally this match picks up as Malenko tries to use his power advantage and Kaz tries to use his speed. They just go as fast as possible, move after move, until Kaz gets a La Magistral for two, but misses a follow-up dropkick. That’s it for Kaz: We get a Malenko leg lariat, double-underhook powerbomb, and Texas Cloverleaf all in short order for the win. Because of how it was worked, with a break in the middle of a short match, there was nothing to it but MOVEZ~ in the second half of the match that ended abruptly after two minutes. Maybe have this match without a break taking up a huge chunk of it next time. The Wolfpac (minus Sting and, obviously, Randy Savage) come to the ring after a video package that hypes them. Man, I love the Wolfpac’s theme. The Wolfpac speaks on a bunch of stuff in the most boilerplate fashion they can. Konnan does his shtick and Nash declares war on nWo Hollywood. He’s also not pleased with Goldberg spearing him again. They did not have another beer summit, so I guess they’re not cool anymore. Nash says beer isn’t enough to make this right; Goldberg’s got to be his tag partner tonight against Hogan and the Giant. Goldberg’s music hits and Goldberg (w/security mooks) comes out to respond. So, Goldberg spends a full two minutes walking to the ring, doesn’t grab a mic, just yells YOU GOT IT while pointing at Nash, and then walks out while the crowd confusedly boos. What the fuck?! Who planned this response? Jim Neidhart is here, heeling it up. When he’s a face, he’s like YEAH BABY, but he’s a heel, so instead, he's like SHUT UP. Konnan comes right back out here to score what should be a routine victory. Neidhart gets knocked outside. He yells SHUT UP at the crowd. Back in the ring, Konnan works an armbar while I just want to see a facebuster and a cradle piledriver or something. Neidhart gets some bad offense in. Luckily, that doesn’t last long. Neidhart misses a second-rope elbow, and Konnan quickly hits a sitout facebuster and wraps on the Tequila Sunrise for what is, in fact, a routine victory. Stevie Ray comes out here to talk to Tony S. Stevie promises to deal with nWo Hollywood at a later date (Ed. note: He does), then promises to get the TV title back from Chris Jericho. While he’s doing that, Booker T. (!!!) comes down. He’s been on vacation healing up from his TV title run, and now he’s back and pretty irritated that Stevie just took his shit and defended the belt as if he won it. Stevie’s like YOU ARE LETTING THE WHITE FOLKS RUNNING THIS COMPANY PIMP YOU OUT (he doesn’t say the words “white folks,” but that’s the clear implication – he just uses J.J. Dillon as his stand-in for that term). Booker is like Um, I just like winning titles, and you were injured, so I won a title by myself, and why are you so mad about that? Tony S. ups the tension when he notes that THE WHITE FOLKS PIMPING BOOKER T. OUT J.J. Dillon has made Booker the number one contender to the United States Championship that’s held by the Hitman. Stevie Ray has a total freakout at this because he’s desperately trying to cling to his meal ticket brother’s love and respect. Wow, there’s a lot of subtext in this segment, huh? Tony S. is now in the ring to interview Diamond Dallas Page. There is just too much talking in this show, except from Goldberg, who spent more time walking than talking. Page cuts a terrible babyface promo, as is typical. Roddy Piper comes out and cuts a worse promo than that. Roddy Piper Knows Pop Culture: Eddy Munster, Mick Jagger, Sammy Sosa (cheap pop, but at least it’s someone relevant in 1998), Bill and Hillary Clinton (obligatory). Piper is on the WCW team for War Games. DDP/Warrior/Piper is truly a dumpster fire of a trios team in 1998. Poor Page. His last three PPVs, he’ll have had these tag partners: Karl Malone, Jay Leno, Roddy Piper, and Ultimate Warrior. Malone is the second-best worker on that list (and possibly the first, depending on how you feel about 1998 Piper)! I’ve totally checked out of this show at this point. Mongo McMichael faces Scotty Riggs, but I’m just waiting for the Bret Hart/Booker T. match later tonight. That’s all this show has for me (Ed. note: This is why I shouldn't get hyped for a match that isn't on PPV). The big tag match might be okay, too, even with late ’98 Hogan involved. Riggs gets a few kicks in, but Mongo roars back with a big lariat and a pretty nice bulldog, actually. This match isn’t great, but it’s entertaining enough. Riggs catches Mongo with a dropkick on a rope run. Riggs does have a really nice dropkick. It’s not quite Bob Holly-level where Holly could have legitimately used his dropkick as a finisher, and I wouldn’t have batted an eye about it. It’s nice, though. Riggs follows up with some offense that mostly stinks, but he gets all cocky and eventually eats a big boot on a corner charge. Mongo hits the three-point tackle twice, and these only make slightly more contact than Hacksaw Duggan’s awful looking football spear in the Mid-South era. Mongo tries a Mongo Spike and Riggs blocks it, but Mongo catches Riggs coming off an Irish Whip and Spikes him for the win. Post-match, Horace Hogan and Sick Boy run out and Hogan waffles Mongo in the dome with the sign, woof. That sign was gimmicked, I hope. Malenko runs in for the save. Malenko destroys both guys, but then Saturn runs out to pull Malenko off Sick Boy. Then, randomly, Saturn dives at Horace outside, so I’m not sure what the heck Saturn’s motivation is. At the least, Mongo and Malenko stand tall; Mongo throws up the four fingers and tries to get Malenko to do it, but in a nice touch, Malenko remembers that dressing down Arn gave him a few weeks back about not being a Horseman and opts for a simple handshake. The crowd really wants to see the Horseman re-form, let me tell you! Scott Norton faces Rick Fuller in a match where they just chop the crap out of each other for most of this in between Norton hitting suplexes and then a powerbomb for three. That was a fun little minute-long match. Well, the post-match stuff in Mongo/Riggs and then Norton/Fuller was a nice pair of segments, so let’s see where this show goes. It goes to Scott Steiner (w/Doc – that’s what the chyron names Scotty’s fake doctor) coming out and challenging Rick Steiner to a match tonight instead of at Fall Brawl. I don’t remember Scott Steiner being somewhat awful at heeling for so long after his heel turn, though tonight, he’s very prescient. He notes that the Bulls were a joke franchise before MJ got there (true) and that they’d be a joke franchise going forward now that he'd retired (also true). He also notes that since these fans need another athlete to put on a pedestal now that MJ’s gone, it might as well be him. Huh, Scotty hit with a few decent heel lines for once. Anyway, the “doctor” chimes in, but this whole thing with him is dumb. The point is that Rick Steiner’s not here and Buff is dressed as Ricky again. Because it was so funny the first time he did it, you see. Alright, I’m blanking back out. There’s a whole bad segment here where Buff acts like a dog, like the last time this happened, and whereas some people can repeat a bad joke multiple times until it’s funny – David Letterman, as an example – some people can’t. Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell can’t. Now it’s Crush (w/Vincent). Aw man. These shows are too long to be this mediocre-to-bad. Lex Luger comes out to yell AUGWRHGWUH and take a bunch of bad clubbering offense (and maybe a nice tilt-a-whirl slam if he feels like it) before making a comeback, forearms, Rack, etc. I didn’t want to see this match in 1994 WWF, so you know I have zero interest in it here in 1998 WCW. Ew, there’s a relatively long headscissors spot in this. That’s all you need to know other than the finish, which is Vincent ineffectually trying to interfere before Luger racks Crush anyway and wins the match. The Ultimate Warrior’s entrance music is pretty good, actually. It’s slow while he walks out in the darkness and raises his arms, then speeds up so that Warrior can run to the ring. Warrior is waring a jacket with OWN on the back, and I’m assuming that he’s going to kidnap (and possibly sexually assault) his first convert to the One Warrior Nation soon. Warrior is totally blown up and huffing heavily while on the mic. Holy shit, this guy is a mess. Is it any shock that his heart blew up a decade and change from now? Warrior cuts a bad promo, as if you couldn’t guess, but he is really out of breath while he does it, which is funny to me. How is this guy going to get through a 25-minute match at Havoc? Warrior talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and I think gets around to intimating that he’s going to fuck with Hogan’s life during the main event tag match tonight and maybe also next week on Nitro. Man, Warrior cutting 1988 promos in 1998 is a mess. I love that he’s trying to get over a catchphrase (“Same Warrior time, same Warrior place, same Warrior channel”), though. It’s not MOST ELECTRIFYING or GIMME A HELL YEAH or DO YOU SMELL or even OH YOU DIDN’T KNOW or HELLO LADIES, but you know. It’s an attempt. Curt Hennig walks out alone to face, um, Chris Jericho? OK, sure. This is both a Nitro-ass Nitro matchup and almost assuredly something not very good because of the style clash. Jericho takes a pro-Jericho sign from a fan, rips it up, and elbowdrops the pieces in the aisle. Hennig kayfabe, and probably also shoot, gets a kick out of Jericho’s ostentatious entrance. Hennig steps out of a grapple attempt and Jericho shadowboxes. Jericho gets pushed up against the ropes and screams about hair pulls. Hennig hits a single-leg takedown and awards himself two points. This is good so far, actually. It's because they're two cocky heels who have a natural disdain for one another's cockiness. They trade disrespectful slaps in the corner, then go nose to nose, and Hennig is so pissed off that he headbutts the guy and chops him. They trade chops before Hennig kicks Jericho in the balls. Huh, this is way better than I thought it’d be. Hennig hits a neck snap, but Jericho fights back with a jumping back kick when he’s standing again. Hennig hits a garbage-looking dragon screw after catching a Jericho kick. They end up chopping each other outside before Jericho takes out Hennig’s leg so that Hennig can flip bump onto his head. Jericho lands the corner springboard dropkick, then a second-rope missile dropkick and a vertical suplex. A wimpy pin gets a whole two count, wow. They run the ropes, but Jericho sidesteps a dropkick attempt and attempts the Walls of Jericho; Hennig gets to the ropes. Jericho thinks he’s won and is blindsided by Hennig, who tries a PerfectPlex; Jericho rolls through it to get two on a small package, and that’s about it for the match as the bell rings. Wow, I didn’t know we were still allowed to have ten-minute time limit draws for this belt. Jericho and Hennig continue to brawl after the match, but the Giant comes out and goozles Hennig, then shoves him away from Jericho. Hennig is heated, so whatever the Giant’s reason for protecting Jericho is, the B-Teamers aren’t in on it. I was entirely wrong about the quality of this match; give these two credit for having a match where both guys were cocky heels who didn’t feel like they received enough respect from one another. It came through in the work. Stevie and Booker are not pleased with one another backstage before the first of the two big matches for the night. Bret Hart comes to the ring to defend the U.S. Championship against Booker. He grabs a mic before the match and reminds the fans that he thinks they suck. His whole “you people love bad guys now” deal worked way better in the WWF than WCW. I know that there are nWo fans out there, but most of them love the tweener-leaning-face Wolfpac, not the solidly heelish Hollywood. He tries to pitch Sting again – hey, Sting hasn’t been on TV for a few shows, and they continue to drop the ball on a guy who is way over. The Hitman says the word “ass” twice because he’s a bad guy now, and he drops the mic. Book’s music plays, but Booker is nowhere to be found. Maybe we’ll find out what happened to him after the break. Hey, it’s after the break, and it’s strongly implied that Stevie busted up Booker’s knee backstage so that Stevie could take his Booker’s title shot for himself. Does this move the angle along? Yes. Does it make me irritated that we got bait-and-switched out of a Bret/Booker matchup? Very much yes. I feel somewhat deflated about it. Stevie tries to pretend that someone else beat up Booker and questions Bret about it; Giant and Hennig have made up in the back, I guess, and they come down along with Scott Steiner, a few B-Teamers and a black-and-white t-shirt. Bret recruits Stevie by offering the alternative of an ass whooping if he doesn’t put the shirt on. Stevie takes the deal. Man, the hell with y’all for getting my hopes up about this match, WCW. Hogan and the Giant (w/Disciple) come to the ring as I contemplate how bummed I am that the one match I was looking forward to ended up being simply a weeks-long telegraphed Stevie Ray heel turn. A young child vibes to the Wolfpac theme while Nash comes to the ring, which is my favorite thing I’ve seen on this whole show, actually. Goldberg does another long walk to the ring. This guy needs to cut more short promos. He only shows up like once a Nitro; give him two minutes to threaten to murder a dude on top of that appearance. Goldberg and Nash do give each other daps though, so they seem on the same page again. Giant and Nash start. This feud is still simmering in the background along with Nash feuding with Hall and Hogan, and I do think that (spike powerbomb) aside, Nash and Giant have good chemistry. They beat each other up and then stalemate on a double clothesline and then a double big boot. Nash tags Goldberg to a huge pop, and Hogan tags in as well. Goldberg handily wins a collar-and-elbow to a huge pop. Nobody wants to see Goldberg selling for Hogan’s shitty offense, which does happen. Goldberg/Hogan should have been worked like Lesnar/Hogan in 2004 every time. Goldberg no-sells some noggin knockers, and then he hits three shoulder blocks until the Disciple grabs the big gold, swings, and hits Goldberg in the back. This allows Hogan to do some more chokes Nash chases Disciple, but Giant and Hennig jump Nash. Why isn’t the Wolfpac out here? Why have a Wolfpac if they’re never around to counter Hollywood? This is so stupid. Anyway, it ends up four-on-two before Lex Luger finally decides to run down. Konnan also gets down there about a year later. Boy, did this last couple of matches fizzle out into a bunch of crap. Goldberg gives everyone what they want by spearing and Jackhammering Hennig. Wait, so Goldberg pins Hennig and Mickey Jay counts it for a pinfall? What THEE fuck? Fuck off once more, WCW. Nash accidentally hits Goldberg in the post-match melee, but Goldberg shrugs it off to face the Giant, who lariats Goldberg to the floor. Finally, Warrior, Page, and Piper run down and clear out Hollywood to a huge pop. Now, I will say that WCW getting some shine and fucking up nWo Hollywood is a good thing! The downside is that Warrior and Piper are two of the guys getting that shine instead of two actual long-term WCW guys. This show sucked. Hennig/Jericho was a surprising bright spot. Wrath’s return was fun. But between the bait-and-switches, the nonsensical main event ending, and all the bad talking, this was a pretty unenjoyable three hours! 1.5 out of 5 Stinger Splashes.
  5. Loved seeing that guy on TV. Totally because I dug the Steiner Bros. music and got to hear it again when he'd come out, but still, that's a point in his favor.
  6. You know the famous cartoon showing a New Yorker's view of the world from Ninth Ave.? That cartoon explains Pettengil. Loud NYer who thinks everything outside of NYC is New Jersey, Florida, Texas, or California. The idea that white folks from the Appalachians and white folks from rural Arkansas have any differences are too much for a guy like him.
  7. TL Hopper! Freddie Joe Floyd! Salvatore Sincere! The Stalker! And in two weeks after their debuts, they're jobbing to Owen or Razor on Action Zone. Was Goldust the only '94-'95 WWF debut guy who hit with the original gimmick they came in with? Kane hit after three gimmicks. After that, I don't know.
  8. I've been listening to 83 Weeks to hear some of what Bischoff has to say about '97-'98 WCW shows, and when Bischoff doesn't feel the need to protect someone politically, he really does have a great feel for what makes a match good, at least after the fact. Meltzer's reviews of the matches juxtaposed against Bischoff's assessment only makes Bisch seem more reasonable, almost like politicking Bisch somehow pushes me to see Vince Russo's point of view on 2000 WCW.
  9. I've known people who have tried to build a PC and fucked it up with expensive consequences, so the idea that you can practice via a video game before doing it IRL is pretty great. All the cleaning simulators are comforting podcast games for people (like me), who enjoy scraping gunk off of things and making them cleaner, but not to the point that we want to actually get up and do it. (I get satisfaction to the point of endorphin release after I floss and water pick every night.)
  10. Thunder Interlude – show number twenty-eight – 20 August 1998 "The WCW Gang finally gives me a hot cruiserweight opener and then takes the rest of the night off” Let’s Thunder… In what is a hilarious-to-me coincidence that I didn’t expect after my last Nitro review, Psicosis faces Juventud Guerrera in the opener…No, really, I’m not striking their names through…This time it actually opens a WCW wrestling show!...I generally have preferred Thunder to Nitro in 1998…Thunder actually getting a pacey cruiserweight opener is a perfect example of why…After a handshake, Psicosis gets two on a roll-up, but runs himself into drop toehold and a loose crossface…Psicosis works to his feet, but he gets dropkicked and tumbles to the mats outside…Psicosis gets in the ring and leverages strikes to control…He puts Juvi in a full nelson in the corner and then uses that trapped position to bash Juvi’s head into the buckles…That was a neat spot!...Juvi ends up turning things around with a nice-looking crossbody from the top that gets two….He tries to up the pace, but gets caught in a sit-out wheelbarrow facebuster…Psicosis decides to keep running with Juvi and eats double boots on a corner splash attempt, then gets mowed down by a lariat…Juvi hits a Frankensteiner from the top to a standing Psicosis in the ring that gets another two count..The desk won’t shut the fuck up about Warrior and Hogan…It’s too bad because this match is very good and deserves some love…It’s also a title match, so it’d be nice to indicate how important this title is by commentating on the action…Juvi goes up for the 450, but gets caught and crotched…Psicosis hits what I guess is a victory roll bomb from the top that gets two…Psicosis is busting out some neat offense tonight…That two count leads into a commercial break… Back from the break, Psicosis is still in control…OK, now he hits a, uh, what is this move?...I have no idea…It’s a move where he’s got Juvi seated on his shoulders, he grabs Juvi’s arms, and he falls backwards and bridges while Juvi’s shoulders are on the mat…It’s a neat idea, but it seems easy to kick out of since Juvi’s shoulders aren’t being pressed…But I guess the idea is that you KO the guy for three seconds because he’s slammed backwards with no way to cushion the blow to the head…This is a neat move that I think barely falls on the side of “not immersion breaking” even though it takes a lot of help from the taker of the move to set up…Juvi goes up for the guillotine legdrop and lands it, but instead of covering, he gets up and celebrates for a bit…He makes an extremely casual cover after a few seconds and only gets two…Psicosis goes for a release German, but Juvi lands on his feet, runs up and Juvi Drivers Psicosis, and makes an extremely secure cover for three…This is the type of match that makes me ready for some more hot pro wrestling action…Is it the greatest match these two could have?...No…However, it was good, fun, and had some very neat spots… This is the first backstage interview I can remember on Thunder…Gene Okerlund interviews Stevie Ray…Stevie thinks Jericho is a sissy and the Giant is an “overgrown sucka,” his words exactly…Stevie is pretty fun on the mic… Warrior/Hogan on Nitro recap…It was a better segment than you’d expect… Hacksaw Duggan faces Barry Darsow in a 1992 WWF Coliseum Video special that I’d go ahead and watch because I spent my hard-earned allowance on the tape and refused to fast forward…Or a 1984 Mid-South Wrestling match that I actually might want to see…There’s a bunch of mediocre clubbering…Duggan has little problem dispatching of Darsow…He lands Old Glory for the win… Video package hyping up War Games by giving an explanation and history of the match in WCW…They play Sid dropping Pillman on his head like eight times…That shit was wild…These look great until we get to the first one Hogan is a part of…Then it gets spotty…Wait, pinfalls count in this year’s War Games?!...What the fuck?!...No, no, no, NO…I already hate this War Games match… Bret Hart interviews with Mean Gene in the back…Hogan and the Hitman are on team Hollywood for War Games…Bret hypes the mystery of who the third man on their team will be…He says Bill Goldberg’s full name like three hundred times, too… Dean Malenko versus Crush sounds like the opposite of a fun time…First, Gene Okerlund interviews Mongo McMichael about last year’s War Games…Mongo is facing Curt Hennig later, at some point…He calls Rick Rude a “Men’s Wearhouse charge card user,” too…Damn, Mongo, you gonna go after this guy’s hairline next?...Maybe hate on his wife and kids?...Now we get Malenko/Crush…Crush shoves Malenko away from a Malenko takedown attempt…Malenko uses his array of moves and misdirection against Crush’s power…He catches Crush on the move and hits an arm drag…Back to standing, Crush hits a weak lariat and locks on the heart claw…After a minute of that, he hits two legdrops and gets two…I’m just going to skip to the finish because this stinks, as expected…Part of the finish is amazing…Malenko jumps off the top into a bearhug, but he counters that bearhug into a WICKED tornado DDT…That was absolutely a believable finish…Instead of going for the pinfall, Malenko locks on the Texas Cloverleaf, gets hit in the head by Curt Hennig as Vincent distracts the ref, and loses to a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker from Crush…This was almost worth sitting through for that DDT, though… Recap of this ice cold (to me, at least) Steiner Brothers feud…I’m good, no thanks… Recap of this rapidly freezing (to me, at least) Flock internal politics storyline…It’s actually something I didn’t see because it’s on WCWSN, but it’s mostly stuff Raven has said to his Flock before about them being unappreciative of him…Saturn comes down and is like NO GUYS, RAVEN SUCKS, RIGGS YOU IDIOT, HE DESTROYED YOUR EYE, WHY DO YOU FOLLOW HIM?…Saturn tries to deprogram these guys…This is actually a pretty modern segment, this cult deprogramming attempt by the babyface…Plus, Saturn promises that their match at Fall Brawl is their last fight… Following that is a Raven vs. Horace vs. Kanyon vs. Saturn Four Corners match as we wring every last match out of every combination of these dudes that we can…Horace knocks Saturn into Kanyon so that we can continue to have intrigue between those two…Is this elimination or what? Why isn’t anyone breaking up pinfall attempts?...It’s one-on-one with tags…But I think the need to permutate these matchups as much as possible has just killed this whole feud…I’d prefer that Raven and Saturn don’t touch each other until the blowoff at Fall Brawl…Eventually, Horace hits Raven accidentally with the STOP sign, but he’s fine with it, pretty much…We get a standing ten-count before Kanyon covers for 2.9…Raven and Kanyon both try to tag Saturn, but Saturn dodges Raven’s tag and tags Kanyon…This Four Corners match makes more sense as a traditional 2v2 tag than a Four Corners match…The layout is nonsense…It’s too bad because everyone in this match tries hard…But the match isn’t worked in a way that makes sense for the match type…The desk does not help clarify why anyone is doing what they’re doing, of course…They can’t get their own sense of the story straight…Saturn and Kanyon end up brawling outside the ring while Raven drops Horace with an Evenflow inside the ring for three…This did nothing to advance the Raven/Saturn feud and just took up space… Gene Okerlund interviews the Giant in the newly-established backstage position for interviews on Thunder…Giant kinda appreciates that Stevie would steal a belt from his own brother, but he otherwise is not pleased with Stevie's yapping…You’d think Gene would ask Giant why the heck he’s out here caring enough to alter the fortunes of Stevie and the TV title, but it never occurs to this ace veteran interviewer to inquire… Hennig/Mongo is next…Woof…This show started out hot and then fell right off a cliff…Hennig gets pushed around and decides to stall a bit…Mongo uses power and leverage to control, so Hennig goes to the technical wrestling with a drop toehold and hair-pulling assisted bow hold…I sort of zone out on this dull-fest and have to rewind this thing to see Mongo hit a reverse neckbreaker and a couple of weak three-point chop blocks…Rude grabs a chair and swings for the fences…He hits Mongo behind the ref’s back, and Hennig follows up with a PerfectPlex…Malenko runs in and attacks Hennig to draw a DQ…Rude and Hennig double DDT Malenko, then do the same to Mongo… Stevie Ray faces the Giant (w/Scott Hall) in what is a strange main event for Thunder…Giant didn’t even put on tights for this one…He just shows up in jeans and a tank…There are a couple arm wringers and some clubbering before Stevie big boots Giant…Hall immediately runs in and gets dropped, but Giant jumps Stevie from behind and chokeslams him…Why the ref doesn’t call for the bell, I have no idea…OK, it took him about fifteen minutes to figure out that what happened was worth a disqualification…A bunch of B-Teamers come down to surround Stevie and slap him around a bit…That’s it…What a weird ending… I really liked the opener, but the rest of the show was pretty dire, to the point that I didn’t enjoy it at all after the first match ended…At least it was short…But unfortunately, it couldn’t be saved by the cruisers…my score for this is OW…
  11. I wouldn't say "appreciate," at least right now. More like "felt pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a dumpster fire and was moderately amused at some of it." Yes, Eddy threw coffee on himself, but they forgot to add the coffee grounds to the pot beforehand, so it was just water.
  12. Show #154 – 17 August 1998 "The one THAT WAS FATED TO BE BY THE STARS AS THE HEAVENS HAVE FORETOLD BECAUSE EVERYTHING DIES AND NO MAN CAN LIVE FOREVER BUT THE WARRIORS KNOW THAT A TRUE WARRIOR WILL EXIST IN THE HEARTS AND MEMORY OF ALL WARRIORS ACROSS ERAS UNTIL THE DAY THAT TIME ENDS AND A NEW TIME THAT IS IMBUED WITH THE SPIRITS OF THOSE WARRIORS FROM THE PAST SHALL BEGIN *snarl*" Tony S. notes that tonight’s show is the only live wrestling show on this Monday. However, that wouldn’t have stopped me from switching to a taped RAW right from the jump because “Rockhouse” is playing and Bisch is out here pretending to be an airplane while Hogan strums an air guitar. The Giant and the Disciple are out here, too. Hogan does his typical delusional heel drivel. He calls out Goldberg for a title match tonight. Then he notes this: “There’s not one man I haven’t beat.” I see where this is headed. Hey, did Hogan ever beat Goldberg, actually? I’m surprised he didn’t try to politic his way into beating Goldberg in 2004 WWE or whatever. Anyway, what Hogan actually says is that the Giant will face Goldberg for the title tonight and that Giant will hand over the belt when he wins it. I am steadfast in my belief that giving the Goldberg/Hogan title switch away on TV was fine, but failing to follow up by giving Goldberg all these marquee matchups he has on PPV is a dreadful mistake. You give away the hook of a Goldberg title reign for free and then get people to pay for all the never-before-seen Goldberg main event title defenses on subsequent PPVs. Goldberg/Giant should have been on either Road Wild or on Fall Brawl, not on Nitro. Break. Title Card. Fireworks. More yammering about how Nitro is live and not taped. Psicosis/Juvi is our next match. Oops, no, that match doesn't happen. Specifically, no match happens next. We just get Gene Okerlund talking to J.J. Dillon. Dillon teases that Hogan hasn’t beaten everybody (coughWarriorcough), then talks about the War Games match at Fall Brawl for awhile. This War Games is a 3x3x3 matchup. Hulk Hogan (Hollywood), Kevin Nash (Wolfpac), and Diamond Dallas Page (WCW) are the captains. I remember nothing about a triple threat War Games match, but I know who wins already because – accidental spoilers from the past! – Dillon says that the winner will get a shot at the World Champ at Havoc. Nitro Girls routine. Nitro party footage. Thirteen minutes in (not counting commercials), and still no match until… …Psicosis/Juvi, oops, wrong again, I mean Mongo McMichael/Sick Boy finally gets the action going. The most interesting thing about this match is Tony S. and Mike Tenay spoiling the taped RAW and its big title match between Steve Austin and the Undertaker and noting that it’s going very short and ending very unsatisfactorily (Kane shows up; yep, that’s usually an unsatisfactory thing to happen). Then they claim that they’ll actually deliver on a legit World title match tonight. On an old 83 Weeks I was listening to yesterday, I heard Eric Bischoff claim that he didn’t keep an eye on RAW to see what they were programming against him. Here’s where I’d insert the supercut of Jonathan Frakes saying variations of “That’s a lie” if the board was agreeable to me adding YouTube videos. The match itself is a thing that exists. Sick Boy misses a dropkick by a good six inches, but Mongo bumps for it anyway. Mongo wins with a Mongo Spike to end a match that was longer than it needed to be. DDP has an interview with Mean Gene. Who are Page’s War Games partners? Welp, Page teases Warrior as a partner. Page goes on to talk about that whole beatdown he caught before his U.S. Championship match against Bret Hart a few weeks back, and on cue, Bret Hart shows up. Bret Hart significantly outworks Page on the mic, which, uh, I enjoy heel Bret a lot, but that shouldn’t be happening. Page challenges Bret to a title match and Bret’s response is pretty amazing. He lists off all the guys he put out of WCW and then says that the only reason Luger’s not dead in the back is that he's Sting’s friend, which got a chuckle out of me. Bret accepts the match and I’m gonna be honest, I’m rooting for the guy against this cornball Page. One of the most surprising elements of this rewatch has been how strongly I dislike babyface DDP. As much as I love heel Page, I really cannot stand babyface Page. We come back from break and Okerlund is still out here so that he can interview Raven. Fuck me, all this mediocre talking when WCW specializes in good matches. Horace Hogan, AKA the entertaining Hogan (somehow?!), comes out to verbally shit on Raven while Raven stands there and coolly takes it. Horace cuts a reasonable enough promo in which he wants to beat Raven up for a third show in a row or whatever, and Raven agrees to a tag match: Raven and Saturn against Horace and Kanyon. I should note here that Saturn and Raven are having a match at Fall Brawl in which the winner determines the future of the Flock. Saturn and Kanyon eventually agree to participate in this match, and J.J. Dillon slouches toward Bethlehem waddles back out here to make the match. He adds the stips that if either tag partner attacks the other or refuses a tag during the match, they’ll eat a three-month suspension and that the match must end by pinfall or submission. Hey, it’s High Voltage! Robbie Rage! The other one who’s way less interesting! They’re facing the Boogie Knights, and I am intrigued. There’s sadly no Tokyo Magnum tonight, though. Rage and Wright have an opening in which they trade wristlocks before Wright intricately escapes and hits a dropkick. Wright tries to run and gets powerslammed and press slammed instead. Wright regains control and tags Disco, who either hits a piledriver, or dances a lot and allows Rage to hit him with a lariat, you guess which one of those actually happened. Not-Rage enters the ring, but it’s decent and Rage and not-Rage hit a double-team flying bulldog. This is a pretty fun and competitive match, so of course, here’s Meng to kill these guys off with TDGs. I love Meng, but couldn’t we have sent him in on the Mongo/Sick Boy match instead? I wanted to see where this tag match was going. The crowd loves it, though. They egg Meng on as Meng considers TDG’ing Billy Silverman (he lands on a strong "I think I will" and does it), then pop huge when Meng TDG’s one security member. They pop even more hugely when Meng walks through a mace attack from another security member and TDG’s that guy, too. OK, that ruled, but still, maybe do it in the middle of a different match. Eddy Guerrero is totally directionless right now for some reason. He’s one of the most over heels on the roster. Why isn’t he deep into an angle? The Chavo thing just sort of halted. Wait, maybe they’re giving him something to do; he comes out in street clothes and rolls a wheelie luggage. Eddy’s SHOOTIN’ and actually says what I just said about him being totally directionless now. To paraphrase, Eddy says this: I'm totally directionless right now what the fuck, Bisch, maybe I'll go to WWF instead. Sure, eventually that's an option, but we're still a bit early. We’re entering the worked shoot era that would influence guys like CM Punk to cut some of the corniest promos I’ve had the displeasure of seeing on television. I ultimately blame Brian Pillman. Anyway, Eddy’s like I’M BEING HELD BACK, YO. He cuts a subpar promo because frankly, as great a promo guy as he is, this worked shoot stuff fucking SUCKS and is the WORST. He drones on and on, and I don’t blame him for being boring and shitty. I blame Bischoff for trying to book a non-OG nWo angle that’s edgy, that Harley-riding doofus. I guess this is where the whole lWo thing starts, huh? Anyway, this promo borders on monumentally bad, with Eddy losing his train of thought multiple times and quietly blowing off the Chavo Jr. feud by saying that he actually likes the guy and doesn’t want to get him fired for ranting. This stunk. I think I was okay with Jericho/Malenko basically ending with Malenko inadvertently helping Juvi beat Jericho for the Cruiserweight Championship and then Jericho just being cool with that and winning the TV title a day later instead. It’s weak, especially with Jericho not complaining about direct interference from ref Dean Malenko of all people when that’s exactly what he’d do normally, but whatever. They could have just blown that feud off with the Rey Misterio Jr. return match and it would have been a stronger ending. Or, you know, ending it with Malenko-as-Ciclope winning the belt months earlier. Anyway, any of those endings to that feud are at least decent. On the other hand, Eddy/Chavo Jr. petering out like this is pretty bad. Bisch and his booking team not being able to effectively and definitively end an angle is a real problem. Kanyon/Horace versus Raven/Saturn kicks off hour number two. Raven’s shirt says “Dinosaur Jr.” I don’t know what’s going on with that shirt, but I like it. Saturn and Raven struggle to get along far more than Horace and Kanyon do. Saturn still launches both of them in between jawing at Raven, but Horace scores with a big boot to take control. Saturn is a guy in peril for a minute, but he kicks out of a backbreaker at two and then is saved by Raven crotching Kanyon and tagging himself in to boot. Raven and Saturn function as a team for a bit to control Kanyon; Raven then decides that it’s time to bring a trusty chair into the ring. He sets it up and tries to hit a top rope cutter on Kanyon into the chair seat, but Kanyon blocks it and Raven with a facecrusher into the chair instead. Horace gets a hot tag and goes right at Raven. Horace gets two off a floatover powerslam, then two off a top-rope splash. The match breaks down here and all four men go at it. Raven gets crunched into Saturn in the corner and Saturn topples over and headbutts Raven in the jewels. The crowd pops. People love that spot. Kanyon and Horace get 2.9 on a nice neckbreaker/sit-out powerbomb combo. The crowd was into that spot, too. Kanyon hits an elevated facebuster while Horace gets the STOP sign. Kanyon holds Saturn up for a sign shot, yada yada yada, Saturn hits Horace with a DVD for three. Sorry, I’ve been bingeing Seinfeld lately. What happened in that yada was that Horace whiffed and hit Kanyon instead. Post-match, Raven Evenflows Saturn, then Evenflows Kidman when Kidman tries to call the dogs off. Horace attacks Saturn in solidarity with Raven, and Raven Evenflows Horace. The match was decent, but this whole Flock thing is played out, and I’m looking forward to Saturn disintegrating the whole group after winning at Fall Brawl. The Flock had so much potential, and while there were bright spots for this group throughout its eighteen-ish months of existence, it got mired in the same boring internal politics angles that ruined the nWo. The Wolfpac comes to the ring to announce which three of them will be in War Games. Well, let’s see: There’s Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger, and Konnan. One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong. It’s just a group promo so they can get some TV time as the WILDLY over stable that they are. People don't generally say this about 1998 WCW (at least I don't think they do), but Bischoff and his booking committee completely whiffed on the Wolfpac’s popularity almost as much as they did Goldberg’s. Scott Norton faces off with ARRRRRRRR, Pirate Scott Putski! Putski can’t even get his ostentatious Jesus piece off before Norton attacks him. I wonder if Putski won that Jesus piece off a Spanish galleon during a firefight in the Caribbean Sea. He might need to sell it to pay his medical bills because Norton powerbombs him for three in about a minute. The very popular Wolfpac gets a four-minute segment. The very corny and unpopular nWo Hollywood gets another segment longer than four minutes in the same show. Here comes Bisch, Hogan, and Disciple again. I do know that at some point soon, Ric Flair comes back and yells YOU SUCK, ABUSE OF POWER at Bisch while everyone in the crowd goes nuts. That is maybe the only acceptable point at which Bischoff should be down here in the ring wasting my time. Hogan natters on and says the same fucking shit he always says. Something had better happen in this segment other than just these morons cutting shitty promos. Hogan keeps teasing that he’s beaten everyone and says, get this – THERE’S NOT A WARRIOR IN THE WORLD I CAN’T BEAT – before the lights go out and Ultimate Warrior’s voice comes over the PA and says something garbled. Then, aw yeah, why not go straight to wrestling hell, here comes the Ultimate Warrior! Hogan sells shock in the cartooniest way possible, fuck that guy and his shitty wrestling acting. And his shitty movie acting, for that matter. Last we saw Warrior, he was about to be replaced by the much, much, MUCH more fun Sycho Sid at IYH: International Incident. Hogan decides to be cute – “I thought you were dead,” he says to Warrior – and no one who remembers the rumors that the original Warrior died and was replaced thinks you’re funny, you big, bald son of a bitch. This does get a pop since we’re in WWF territory (Hartford, CT), and I am here for a train wreck of a feud, why not? Warrior always takes things too fucking far, and I sort of love that about his work. Hogan tries to get Warrior to join the now by fearfully holding out his nWo t-shirt to Warrior, so Warrior does the “d-d-d-dookie” spot from No Holds Barred. See, I stand by Warrior being so bad that he can be sort of fun. He stinks, but if you’re going to pair him with Hogan in 1998, that’s an acceptable short-term use of him. Warrior says some total nonsense, loses the crowd for a second, but basically is like: See, all these fans remember me! It’s because I rule. You’re scared of me because I’m the best and you know it. You conveniently forgot that I whipped your ass at WrestleMania VI, you big, bald son of a bitch. What happened, man? You used to be cool, but now you’re a Harley riding cornball who, might I remind you, has never beaten me. He also gets a reasonable zinger in by saying, “Let’s talk about something that he doesn’t know” as the crowd chants HOGAN SUCKS. It gets a pop and some laughter. This Warrior promo goes on way the fuck too long and he winks at everyone by calling the Disciple Hogan’s barber (TBF, the crowd does chant BRUTUS for a few seconds, and this Hartford crowd is just glad to be watching wrestling and seeing some WWF legends). The lights go out and Warrior goes POOF, Undertaker style, while the desk and Hogan and Bischoff act like wondrous assholes about it. If they just looked down, they’d see the obvious trap door cut out of the mat. Maybe they could point it out to Davey Boy Smith while they're at it. This was about as self-indulgent as anything Roddy Piper’s done, but it was watchable, so that’s a start. Don’t get me wrong, though, I am aware that this will end up being a very, very, very bad feud. But it actually started out reasonably well considering the participants. On WCWSN, Curt Hennig told Dean Malenko that Malenko was not Horsemen material. I guess Hennig would know something about being Horsemen material since Ric Flair basically dumped Jeff Jarrett in the bushes to chase Hennig as a Horsemen member. Anyway, that little exchange led to a wrestling challenge between the two on Nitro. We get a break thirty seconds in as Hennig stalls on the outside. Back from that break, we get a perfectly cromulent TV match. Someone in the crowd holds up a WHAT’S ON RAW? sign. Well, Hennig has a neck vice on Malenko, so let me look it up. Well, if it was a match, probably a D-X/Nation multiman tag. But let’s be honest, it was probably a promo. Malenko makes an acceptable comeback on Hennig. Malenko floats over on a side Russian and gets two. Hennig tries a PerfectPlex not long after that, but Malenko blocks it with knees to the gut and ends up hitting a back suplex and trying for a Texas Cloverleaf. It fails because Hennig gets to the ropes, and Rick Rude jumps on the apron to run a distraction. It works, and Rude puts a knee in Malenko’s back and hits a double-axe from the apron to the floor besides. That little bit of offense is enough to soften Malenko up for an immediate PerfectPlex back in the ring that gets a pinfall. Hopefully, this feeds into the “reuniting the Horsemen” angle in a show or two because otherwise, I just saw Malenko get chumped out by Hennig and prove Hennig’s point. I assume, however, that this match will convince Arn that maybe Malenko needs his own running buddies to counter the nWo. “Rockhouse” plays for the 27th time tonight. Scott Steiner comes out with half his body taped, followed by Buff Bagwell and someone pretending to be a doctor. Scotty dodging Rick is tired as fuck. Scotty needs to get away from Rick so that he can fly free already. Rick eventually shows up to respond and, paraphrasing, basically yells that BUFF IS A GIRL AND SO ARE YOU SCOTTY, WOMEN ARE WEAK AND ONLY A FEMALE WOULD FAKE AN INJURY and please, I implore you WCW, end this stupid fucking feud at Fall Brawl already. Chris Jericho defends his TV Championship against Chavo Jr. and Stevie Ray in a triangle match. The desk tries to explain how and why Stevie Ray could just defend Booker’s belt or how Chris Jericho could hit a guy in the head and take his title shot without drawing the ire of the WCW Championship Committee, and I can confirm that they would have been better off not trying to explain the logic to any of this at all. To start, Jericho pretends to ally with Chavo against Stevie. Chavo runs in and gets shoulderblocked while Jericho stands back and watches; when Chavo complains to Jericho, Jericho yells YOUR TIMING IS OFF. That is some true scumbag shit, and I laughed in spite of myself. Stevie is just tossing these dudes around like he’s the Giant. Other than Jericho’s antics and Chavo finally getting wise to Jericho’s antics and dropkicking him instead of teaming up for another attack on Stevie, this match isn’t particularly good. They try to work this in an interesting way with lots of shifting alliances and competing pinfall attempts, at least. There’s even a double missile dropkick on Stevie that is an alright spot. Stevie runs the ref over on a rope run and takes the opportunity to load his fist and hit Jericho. The Giant comes out again for reasons that I cannot grasp and chokeslams Stevie after Stevie has laid out both his opponents with that loaded fist. This leads into a bad finish where Jericho distracts the ref so he doesn’t see Chavo get to his feet and break the ten-count; Jericho stands up after Chavo falls back over, and the champ retains by double-countout. Yuck. Bret Hart is back out to defend the United States Championship against DDP. These fellas are going to have a good match almost certainly, and they start off hot with Page winning a suplex for two and almost catching the Hitman in an early Diamond Cutter. Hart bails and Page follows and just destroys the guy outside the ring. Bret gets killed when he’s back in the ring, too, but the Hitman kicks out of a pinfall attempt after a vertical suplex and manages to hit Page in the junk and drop him with a Hot Shot. Tony S. continues to remind everyone that RAW is bait-and-switching their main event, which I guess must have worked because Nitro is in week two of a three-week streak of ratings wins. That’s the good news for Nitro. The bad news for Nitro is that after tonight, the show will score only four more ratings wins in direct head-to-head against RAW until Nitro is cancelled. Whoopsie! So, Bret starts to pour on the offense, mixing in his 5MoD along the way. This is a good control segment because Bret escalates it steadily, and with each kickout that Page scores, Bret gets more frustrated and more vicious. Eventually, he whips Page as hard as he can into the corner and Page crashes out of it face-first; then, Bret crushes Page with a piledriver and throws a fit when that only gets two. Page fires up almost out of nowhere with fists and then goes up top and hits a diving clothesline for two. Page chases a pinfall with more offense, getting two off a pancake. I’m waiting for the ref bump that I know is coming, and of course, a reversed Irish whip smashes Page into Nick Patrick in the corner. Bret loads his fist and then combines two great moves. First, he pulls a Rock (vs. Ken Shamrock) and hides the knucks in Page’s tights just in case, and second, he fakes a competitive match by pulling an Ernie Ladd (vs. Magnum T.A.) and pulling a dazed Page on top of him so that he can kick out at two. The combination of these things probably sets up Page to lose on a technicality. Let’s see if that’s what happens. Bret locks on a Sharpshooter, but Page gets to the ropes; Page hits a Diamond Cutter, but can’t capitalize. Page looks for another Diamond Cutter, but Bret declares that Page clocked him with knucks. Patrick checks Page’s tights, in fact finds the knucks, and calls for a DQ. I would normally bitch about this, but as I love both the finish to Rock/Shamrock at the ’98 Rumble and Ladd/T.A. on whatever episode of Mid-South TV that Ladd won the North American title on, I’ll admit that I enjoyed this finish. We’ve made it to the end of another show, almost. Michael Buffer is out here to introduce the Giant (w/Dizzy “The Barber” Zodiac) as he comes to the ring to face Goldberg. These fellas start out by trading meaty soupbones. Giant body slams Goldberg, who is like RAAARGH FUCK YOU and does it right back. This match is already great. Giant is irritated about being slammed and decides to serve Goldberg an extra helping of soupbones. Giant hits the best-looking side Russian on this show, sorry Bret, and then instead of covering, lets Goldberg get back to standing. Goldberg tries to fight through a couple of headbutts, so Giant dumps him outside for the Barber. Goldberg easily fights off Barber, but is jumped by Giant. The ref just lets these dudes double up on Goldberg, but Goldberg slips out of the back of a Giant posting attempt and posts Giant himself. Giant gets in the ring and meets Goldberg on the apron, then suplexes Goldberg back into the ring. That move barely fazes Goldberg, who is up first and then hits a spear. The Disciple/Zodiac/Barber/etc. jumps in to draw a DQ and is immediately speared and Jackhammered. Scott Hall runs in to attack Goldberg, but Kevin Nash runs down for the save. Nash clears out Giant and grabs Hall from behind, but Goldberg lines Hall up for a spear at the same time, and yada yada yada, Nash gets up from eating a spear and gets right in Goldberg’s face as the show ends. I just wanted a clean finish between Goldberg and Giant, but that match was pretty fun, as I knew it would be if it involved these two. There was way too much Disciple interference, though. This show was poorly paced, but there were spots of fun, Goldberg/Giant was good until the end, and I didn’t hate the Warrior promo, so that’s something? Yeah, it’s something. 2.75 out of 5 Stinger Splashes.
  13. And not only that, but it was easily the best match on the card!
  14. Why did you do this to yourself, bud? The most memorable thing about this show was Bret/Lawler. The second most memorable thing was the RAW after the show with Lawler crushing mouthwash straight out of the bottle, which got my mom to laugh.
  15. I don't know how I forgot Bisch bringing Warrior in so that Hogan could get his win back eight years later. I did remember WCW showing Goldberg/Page on Nitro because the card ran over and the PPV cut off exactly at ten past the hour or whatever, and I vaguely had a sense that Hogan was involved, but it wasn't until I saw the Warrior fans that I realized that we're getting six-ish weeks of Hogan/Warrior build in 1998. At least Warrior is so bad that he swings back around and can be kinda fun, which is more than I can say for either Hogan or Piper.
  16. Power Wash Simluator feels really good to play, but I didn't need that much game. Once I cleaned a van and then a muddy backyard, I got most of what I wanted out of the game at that point. Re: Designing a house, my wife swears that I should design our home when we finally purchase one based on my house design in Animal Crossing. I thought she was kidding at first, but she seems serious. In that case, I hope she likes rattan furniture.
  17. I actually didn't like Know Your Role, but I know people who swear by that game. It moved too fast for my tastes. The series got great for me once Just Bring It came out. I get your point, though; if they take this base, clean up all the jank and AI issues, and iterate on the gameplay, they've got something going. As far as I can see, it sold 500K copies-ish, which is not bad in a vacuum for a new IP. However, the costs of putting this game together might be a bit much. I assume, since AEW published this and since Tony Khan seems to have money to burn, they'll take another swing at a console wrestling game.
  18. Be Cool stinks. Terrible adaptation, and I'm not saying that films that are adapted from books need to be direct adaptations every time. They turned Rock's character from a badass dude who just happened to be gay to a camp gay character. I'm not a huge Elmore Leonard guy (at least as a novel writer), but come the hell on with that adaptation. Regarding the Rock's likability, I think he was way more likeable as a pro wrestler than as a movie star. He hit the A-list and immediately got vaguely creepy like Tom Cruise has seemingly been his whole life.
  19. Southland Tales is a fascinating failure. Richard Kelly was a one-hit wonder, but ST is worth seeing at least once. The Rundown is a fun action flick. Moana rules. Rocky's no Big Dave as an actor, but he's typically in solid crowd pleasers...and also Black Adam.
  20. Thunder Interlude – show number twenty-seven – 13 August 1998 "The WCW Gang has a show full of wrestling(!!!), but the catch comes at the very end of this Thunder” It’s time for some Thunder…I wonder where we’re going with this whole Fall Brawl thing…War Games could be interesting considering the three-way feud between WCW and the two nWo factions… Scott Hall comes to the ring…Hall scores a date with an ardent fan for after the show, points to his crotch a lot, and then does a survey…Everyone confirms that they came to see the nWo, which is good for Hall…But they came to see the Wolfpac, which is bad for Hall…Hall promises to beat down his opponent Konnan tonight…Konnan responds to Hall’s chatter with some mic work of its own…He and Hall go to a stalemate in the dueling catchphrase contest…The wrestling contest stinks…I like both these fellas, but this match isn’t any good…Konnan goes into his 5MoD after a few minutes…Hall kicks Konnan in the junk out of desperation and looks to set up for a Razor’s Edge…Konnan avoids it with a small package for two, but Hall kicks out, hits a lariat, and sets up for his finisher again…Hall hits it for three…Wow, a clean finish!... Raven is doused with a beer about halfway down the aisle…Wrestling fans continually overstepped their bounds with WCW-era Raven…Raven grabs a mic and sits down…He’s still irritated at Horace Hogan fucking up while trying to interfere in his Road Wild match…We’re getting a return match in which Raven is doubly angry because Horace Hogan won their Monday match due to Saturn’s interference…Raven destroys Horace and goes to get the STOP sign, but Lodi stops Raven from using it…Horace is able to big boot the STOP sign into Raven’s face as a result…That gets a 2.9…Horace gets 2.9 off a top-rope splash…Horace uses the STOP sign to effect on Raven’s back…Horace gets another 2.9 off another top-rope splash, except Raven is sandwiched between Horace and the sign… Horace goes for a back splash into Raven in the corner…Raven moves and then tosses Horace to the floor, where Raven goes to work…Back in the ring, Raven demands that Lodi attack Horace…Lodi hesitates and gets slapped…Raven demands that everyone else in the Flock attack Horace…They do until Saturn comes down and gets them to back off…Saturn faces off with Raven, and Horace gets up and hits Saturn with a lariat from behind…Saturn eats a beatdown until Kanyon runs down for the save…There’s an interesting story here about the Flock members getting deprogrammed that doesn’t need Kanyon involved at all…But I’m not sure they’re going to tell that story with any effectiveness… Stevie Ray cuts an interview with Tony S….Get Stevie on color already…He challenges the Giant to a match for next week…He’s also working Eddy Guerrero tonight…That’s definitely a WCW-ass WCW matchup right there… Chris Jericho is now the WCW Television Champion, but unfortunately for him, it’s a lot harder to dodge title defenses every week when you’ve got a television title…Jericho defends against Chavo Guerrero Jr…Pepe has a bandage on his snout…Poor guy…Chavo uses his quickness and agility to avoid Jericho’s ability to leverage his size…He goes nuts with strikes on Jericho in the corner while Jericho screeches in fear…Jericho prefers holds and power attacks early…Jericho hops over Chavo on a rope run, but Chavo just stops, turns around, and takes a chunk out of Jericho’s cheeks…Chavo biting dudes on the ass always makes the kids laugh…Chavo gets a huge pop after Jericho bails post butt-biting and Chavo rides Pepe around the ring…Chavo rules… There’s a commercial break at this point…That’s a good place for a break in this match…We get a close-up of Pepe’s injuries before panning over to see Chavo miss a dropkick…Jericho follows up with an Asai moonsault for two…Jericho hits a nice stalling suplex and gets two off that move and a wimpy pin…Jericho starts to grind Chavo down again with holds and chokes…when he runs, that’s when Chavo can get a boot up or dodge a move…Jericho regains control immediately after Chavo sticks a boot up on a corner charge…But he loses it again when Chavo runs the ropes and scores a counter lariat…Chavo hits a dope Superman Punch (!!!) that looks awesome…Chavo follows up with a springboard bulldog for two…That obviously wasn’t going to be the finish, but it feels like it should have been…What a move combo…I am rooting for Chavo to win this thing so much…Jericho destroys Pepe and rolls an infuriated Chavo up for 2.9 when Chavo charges him…Chavo’s got another Pepe hidden under the ring….This Pepe has his head on a baseball bat…Chavo loads up, swings, and connects…Unfortunately, Charles Robinson is standing there watching the whole thing…Aw, I wanted TV champ Chavo…Great match, though… Recap of Lex Luger winning the United States Championship off Bret Hart on Nitro…Bret Hart comes out and is upset that Lex Luger won the United States Championship off him on Nitro…He blames the fans and promises that they will not get joy from his downfall…The Hitman says the word SOAR-RY…That’s one of my favorite regional pronunciations of a word…I’m not SOAR-RY he said that… The Boogie Knights (w/Tokyo Magnum) come out here and wrestle Public FUCKING Enemy again…Bisch and his booking team pioneered the “endless rematch” approach that WWE television would take to new heights in the aughts and New Tens…I am fine with PE, but I don’t need to see them having this same matchup…And maybe I shouldn’t complain because Wright and Rocco have a really nice exchange to begin…Wright backdrops Rocco to the floor, beats him down out there, and gets caught going up top, but hits a front suplex from the seated position…Wright and Rocco keep going with some effective counter-wrestling…Rocco hits an inverted atomic drop before he and Grunge continue to punish Wright’s pelvis…I think I’ve seen enough PE to say that Rocco Rock is the clearly better worker in that team…Another note: Alex Wright is legitimately good at this point in his development…Johnny Grunge tries to sandwich Alex Wright between himself and a table standing in the corner…Wright pulls Tokyo Magnum, who is trying to help him, in the way…Wright quickly uses the diversion to hit Grunge with a neckbreaker for three…Post-match, Meng runs out and destroys everyone with TDGs…Barbarian and Jimmy Hart run out to attack Meng…They are ineffective…Meng TDGs Grunge and Rocco at the same time and uses his free legs to kick the security guys who come to break it up…Meng is pretty great!... Kevin Nash comes out to chat with the Wolfpac faithful in the crowd…He’s got some thoughts about Goldberg spearing him out of his boots a few days ago…Nash is like, Dude bought me a beer after the fact, he’s cool, in fact, he can totally join the Wolfpac if he wants…That’s pretty diplomatic for a professional wrestler’s promo after someone mistakenly attacked him, actually…They shouldn’t put Goldberg in the Wolfpac because it’s not a fit, but if they did do it, the initial pop for it happening would have created enough energy to power a thousand homes for a full year’s time… Oh, I see…Hall got a win over a Wolfpac member who is lower on the pole earlier…Now Nash is getting that win back by doing the same to a Hollywood member who isn’t at the top of the card…Curt Hennig (w/Rick Rude) comes to the ring after Nash is done talking…Hennig tries a go-behind, which just gets him backed into a corner and beaten with elbows and knees…Hennig overelaborates his bump on a beal and it just looks stupid more than it make it seem that Nash really launched him…Hennig decides that he’s had enough of Nash using his knee and boot to attack him and works the leg after Nash whiffs on a running big boot…Hennig’s leg work is somewhat effective as Nash sells it while hitting a Snake Eyes, a running sitout splash, and a big boot…Rick Rude sees the end coming and jumps in the ring, knocks out the ref, and squares up to Nash…This allows Hall to come to the ring and jump Nash from behind…Luger eventually makes the save and disperses the three-on-one beatdown…The Wolfpac barely ever wins…I think the Hitman losing the U.S. Championship to Luger is one of maybe two or three times that the Wolfpac has beaten Hollywood…This match was solid until the non-finish… I expected the main event now, but Stevie Ray heads back to the ring instead…I forgot that he’s wrestling Eddy Guerrero…Well, that means Hart/Luger is going under fifteen minutes for sure and maybe (probably?) under ten minutes…Eddy looks ornery tonight…He tries strikes, but that doesn’t work…He tries running the ropes, but eats a shoulderblock…Eddy goes to the unorthodox moves…He hits an armdrag out of a strange position and goes to the corner punches, but gets tossed when Stevie misses a kick, but grabs him anyway…Scott Hall and the Giant come out to watch Stevie lock on a bearhug…They need to imbibe whatever’s in those red Solo cups they’re carrying to make watching Stevie apply a bearhug seem even remotely entertaining…Stevie does some plodding offense, then hits a press slam that is less plodding than the stuff that came before it…Stevie is just killing Eddy here, which I frankly think sucks, and I like Stevie well enough…Eddy makes a brief comeback while Giant and Hall whisper to one another…These dolts in Fargo start a weak EDDY SUCKS SHIT chant…Run all those idiot fans through a woodchipper…There’s an ugly counter that leads to a big boot and a Slapjack…Stevie gets a three-count…That match stunk…I’ve never seen Eddy Guerrero have less in-ring chemistry with someone than I just saw him have with Stevie… The bell rings on Bret Hart/Lex Luger at just under eleven minutes before the video feed is over…I didn’t think they had a great match on Nitro, but I still think this should get fifteen-plus…At worst, they have another okay match and at best, they improve on their Nitro bout…This match is like the Nitro match in that Luger just takes a lot of offense and yells AUGH while Bret hits him with offense, and at either end of the match are Luger’s bursts of offense…Bret uses a Billy Silverman rope break to hit Luger with a Hot Shot…I like Bret’s offense quite a lot, so this is fine, but I feel that even though 1998 Lex Luger is past his peak as a worker by a few years, they still have something better in them… Bret runs through his 5MoD…Well, not quite, as he misses on the second-rope elbow…But Hart stays in control anyway after that whiff…Luger makes his comeback shortly after, though…He hits two Irish whips, a lariat, a metal forearm, and another lariat that sends the Hitman to the floor…Bret grabs a chair and brings it back in the ring…Luger hits another clothesline…Luger grabs the chair, but the ref pulls it away…Bret takes the chance to shove Luger into the ref, who gets smashed in the corner…Hart quickly attacks Luger and hits him with a DDT on the chair, then revives the ref…Silverman crawls over for the count, but Luger (surprisingly, to me) kicks out at 2.9…Bret is irritated at the ref, but he just goes back to Luger and locks him in the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring…Luger passes out rather than submit…Man, Luger stays winning title belts off the nWo and then losing them right back a few days later…The second Goldberg gave up the United States Championship, I guess the company decided to book it into oblivion… There are two young idiots fans dressed up as the Ultimate Warrior in the front row…They snort and raise their hands to the heavens as the camera lingers on them before the show ends…OH FUCK, WARRIOR IS COMING IN…Shit, I remember now…There’s that dumb “I can’t see him in the mirror” spot with Hogan and Bischoff even though Bisch is the only one who can't see him in the mirror…The fire paper spot that fails miserably…NOOOOOOOOOOOO… This Thunder was perfectly acceptable…I didn’t need the reminder that Warrior’s on his way, though…Oh no, doesn’t Warrior kidnap Ed Leslie and also maybe fuck him into submission and make Leslie his lackey instead of Hogan’s through the power of fucking a la how Warrior fucks Santa Claus in WARRIOR, the comic book series?...Or something similar to that?...I have a vague memory of Hogan/Warrior in WCW, and all of the angle around it was dumb and creepy in equal measures…Welp, this show gets a WOOOO for being wrestling-centric, even if the wrestling wasn’t always that great or even that good…But the end with the Warrior fans really has me unhyped for Nitro…
  21. OK, I've played enough to have some better-formed thoughts: Like I said, it's very reminiscent of Smackdown. I like it, though I wish they'd taken it even farther and ended up somewhere near WWE All-Stars. There are a lot of systems in this thing - the match rating system from FirePro, the momentum system from the AKI games, etc. I sort of like the systems upon systems. What I don't like is the jank, which really shows itself in multi-man matches. Tag matches are awful between the AI and the consistent janky behavior of the system. In one tag match, I was controlling Sting on the ground and trying to trip an opponent in the ring. The opponent's tag partner, who was standing on the apron but wasn't anywhere near me, ended up teleporting me from the floor to the apron in a grapple position and then hitting a move on the apron that catapulted me back into the ring. That's the most egregious example of dumb tag jank, which combined with very dumb tag partner AI makes tag matches terrible. This is a game that has some value and has some potential, but it needed another year in development before being released. I can live with a lack of options for the first wrestling game in a series - I even got a good thirty or forty hours of fun out of WWF RAW on OG Xbox, for goodness sake - but the lack of options AND the lack of engine polish sucks. I'm glad I waited until the 15 USD digital/30 USD physical price point to buy this.
  22. It's basically a modern version of Smackdown on PSOne. It's no AKI/Syn Sophia rasslin' game, but there are things I like about it. Definitely worth the dough.
  23. Fight Forever was thirty bucks on PS5 at Best Buy. That's my price range, so I bought it. I haven't played a new sim wrestling game in years, so I am looking forward to it. And if it's more on the arcadey side of sims because Yuke's made it, that's fine, too.
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