Matt D

Hunter vs Rikishi - Smackdown 1/4/2000 Alright hopefully I have the right match here. I know they had a couple. I guess I will look for downward punches to... wait, defending against Big Show in April? That's not right. Let me try again. Ok fake Mick Foley. This sounds more right. Fink sounded so earnestly excited announcing Rikishi out of the rigged lottery and all the faces are chanting his name. It's not just Rikishi at this point but Rikishi Phatu. He has Too Cool leave from the start and it makes it all seem a little more special for some reason. Hunter's entrance has become so much of a parody of itself, culminating in the peeing-himself moment from a few months ago, that it's easy to forget how primal and potent it was in 2000. Hunter is Bockwinkelish in his gameplan attacking in the corner and i agree it was a good start. It makes him seem potent and dangerous and in doing so, it make Rikishi seem all the more of a force in coming back immediately. I don't know about a legdrop on the outside in the first minute of the match. Despite what FSW says about Rikishi moving better than Show and Henry I think both of them might have taken that stairs shot more spectacularly. He really does throw himself into the announce table, etc, though. Hunter has to keep shifting his offense as Rikishi is just too much for him. He goes for a pin after the knee-counter on the back body drop which I've never seen before, but I think he just wants to get out of there despite his aggression. He's wrestling this as desperate but not chickenshit. This is the opposite of Jericho match which was very focused for the most part. This is a vulnerable heel champion match and Trips is no Tully. Nothing Hunter does through most of this is particularly smart, but that can be played up with him not being prepared (And in fact being actively surprised) and also his exhaustion post Big Show. The end result is that Kish ends up looking like a million bucks. I didn't love the banzai drop kick out but only because it didn't look particularly believable. It might have been a camera angle thing. Steph actually does a great job as a distraction, giving the chair to Hunter and then running around the ring to distract the ref. The kick out afterwards is what makes the match as the fans explode. I've never seen a heel get an asshole chant after getting himself disqualified like that before and that's an lement of the crowds from the era but it's also proof positive of how the match was effective. I've seen this match better a bunch of times, but I would put a check mark on the "Good Year" category for Hunter here. The match did exactly what it was supposed to do; Rikishi came out looking better and it elevated him a ton and the Hunter-Steph pairing came out looking almost as strong as before for surviving it under the circumstances.

He kind of worked an Apollo Creed gimmick.

Question. i see Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (11/22/84 on the ballot but I'm not sure I have it on MY list and it wasn't a match reviewed on the Wrestling Party and I don't see it listed in general. Is there a question about this date?

my middle 60 or so are going to be fairly dubious but I'm just about done barring me giving things a week for the old board to come back up so I can tweak.

That would be great but, legitimately, the WWE could face insider trading issues from that. She could wear a mask.

I want them to do a parody of the Goldust angle where Road Dogg has to "fight for Scott's job."

Did Vince hire the road warriors just to get discounts on zubaz?

I wish Scott Armstrong came out to Brad's old music. Also it was kind of neat how bad the crowd was at chanting Daniel Bryan. it ended up being layered.

What's the payoff? Having Cody turn heel and winning it? It would be kind of hilarious if Orton was just Corporate Mankind all the time.

Congrats on your more swear-y Greggulator post.

My new theory is that he almost killed Lawler.

According to wiki Rowan's been wrestling since 2003 and definitely since 2007. That does not bode well.

How have I never seen that belt before? It's amazing.

Surprisingly!? The surprise is that I didn't think of it myself.

That is a surprisingly good point. A small package would have been better.

24/7 WWE Title!

To be completely honest, I was rocking the split windows, Johnny. I did have the WWE one muted so I could heard Andre's beautiful grunts and king kong bellows though. There may have been some bitching commentary I missed. I probably could have been paying more attention to Kofi too. Sorry Kofi. Then I was watching this fun Shark vs Giant match instead of the RVD vs ADR match, though it was on in the background and I was half watching it, but namely, a bunch of people whose opinion I trust a heck said that the first half of the PPV wasn't good, including the Divas match which I thought at least had good effort from how little I was watching. So yeah, I'm happy with my comment after all now that I think about it and don't see you actually disputing it, just sniping at the edges instead. If you want me to amend my comment, how about I go with "it's rare in this day and age for WWE to put together so shitty a card that I'd rather watch Andre on youtube, which I could watch anytime."

Need to have steak with your candy.

Where's Ben. We need to have him write up an Armstrong/Rhodes alliance, Stud Stable thing.

Remember. Heyman's the guy who dumped Brock for Big Show when Brock was champion and then dumped Big Show for Angle when Big Show was champion.

A. Problems with Execution. B. Problems with Theory. I know it's a lot of fun to be ironic and point out how people have been complaining and are still complaining but it's completely missing the point. Problemz! I'm not really being ironic. I think I'm just tired of borderline psychotic over analysis getting in the way of loving our great sport. Nothing can possibly hold up under these levels of scrutiny. If it was playing out exactly the way everyone thinks that it should everyone would be dismissively wanking it as a Stone Cold/Vince rehash. On the positive, we get Dusty Rhodes tomorrow. Dusty Rhodes. I think most of us would be okay with a Stone Cold/Vince rehash with Daniel Bryan as Stone Cold.

A. Problems with Execution. B. Problems with Theory. I know it's a lot of fun to be ironic and point out how people have been complaining and are still complaining but it's completely missing the point.

It's almost weird to see WWE do a bad PPV in this day and age. If the angle is anything other than using Dusty personally to enact the Dusty finish, I will be disappointed. That has to be the "Business" to get Cody his job back.

I found my disc rankings that I had e-mailed to myself during the times of great instability. Obviously my opinions are the best for this stuff so if anyone just wants to cheat off my list, I would be okay with that.

After I pay my quarterly taxes on Monday, I'll start to work out the rest of my AWA ballot. The middle will be murky but i had the beginning of the end mostly worked out, and that's what matters most. Some things will move (Hennig vs Hansen) but not much. The one match i need to actively rewatch is the six man with the women.