Zakk_Sabbath

Every time I see Michael Berryman in anything, all I can think is:

Ugh this is probably going to come true. Brock should honestly just get the absurdly long Sammartino run with the belt. If this finish does occur, he pretty much has to murder Cena in the ring after, leaving Heyman to come out every week and be like "HA now you have NO champion"

I think they reprinted the Hogan/Tyson dream match story in the '90s. I vividly remember It started with Hogan getting off an elevator somewhere, and being greeted by Vince saying "Monster!"

I get that argument, but at the same time, I don't. We're gonna worry about pushing those prone to injury, but two pages ago, we're clamoring for Dolph (who's one overly stiff kick to the head away from entering the Welker-zone) to work with Brock?

I KNOW the "just turn Cena!" thing has been absolutely DONE to DEATH, and to be honest, I'm sick of talking about it. But in the spirit of ODing on Nitro reruns (because Raw is gonna be worse than the damn Giants...) let me just say this: When Hulk was heading the NWO, he worked, what, 1-2 matches a month if that? They could still use Cena's name to draw even if he just came out and talked for 10 minutes every week about where the power lies, brother.

What I do in the privacy of my own bedroom is no one's business but my own, thank you very much "You are pushing Tank Abbott too high up the card"

I'm not a big college football guy, but whoever it is doing the announcing on this USC-Stanford game sounds a lot like Michael PS Hayes in the Dok Hendrix era

I know I'm definitely in the minority on this one, but a lot of times when I watch Raw today, the thing I miss most about those days is the "crash TV" pacing of the show. There are some weeks where I feel like I'm in a time vortex and that three hours is somehow six months long.

According to Wikipedia, it was "mid-2002" and Russo pitched bringing in Eric Bischoff as GM, so it had to have been before July I'm gonna roll the dice and say Mr. JL?

2002 was actually probably the last time I watched WWE and expected any sort of surprise or left turn in the storytelling. Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho, the tail end of Austin's run, arrival of the NWO leading into Rock/Hogan, brand split, rise of Brock, HBK returns, Scott Steiner debuts. Once the show started being HHH doing those long promos at the top of the show, I started mentally checking out, but most of 2002 was pretty cool.

I thought he was re-hired around that time, and was sent packing after pitching an NWO reboot with Bret Hart and Goldberg or something wacky like that

February 96: Belfast Bruiser vs. Brad Armstrong, fuck it why not? Both men have glorious mullets and Finlay is laying his shit in

Crowds these days are more interested in getting themselves over than they are getting behind a babyface to triumph over the heels.Well, besides the Daniel Bryan run to Mania. That was the pinnacle of fans trying to get themselves over. It may have started out that way with that post WM crowd, but I believe that over time, it's become a good ol' fashioned babyface reaction. Like, I couldn't see Michigan State Basketball or fans at MLB games chanting "This is/we are awesome" or something like that. Sure, maybe mainstream appeal or pop culture sightings are a weird way to quantify the genuineness of a babyface reaction in this day and age, but I think it's fun, it's "genuine," and I'm already surprised at how long of a shelf life it's had so far. 2011 was, for all intents and purposes, forever ago. If Bryan, God willing, is healthy enough to come back at some point, then he might even give it new life upon his return. RandomAct: about the Sting/taking heat post, I believe tromataker said Ambrose on another page, and I have to agree there. His stuff with the Shield was right out of that Sting-school of really drawing that part of a match out (and I mean that in a good way), I feel like. This might be an oddball pick, especially given the up and down nature of his pushes, but I think Ziggler could be really good at it if he chilled out on the selling like HBK during the Hogan match.

Dude you wanna talk about fucking random? February '96, I'm watching Konnan vs. DANGEROUS DEVON STORM.

Repeat outfit on Mongos' chihuahua with the sombrero EDIT: Sgt Craig just got himself more over with me in 30 seconds asking Heenan to be his manager than 45-50% of dudes on WWF TV today. Why they are not doing the little things anymore, I just do not know... EDIT 2: EARL ROBERT EATON!!~~!!!!!1111!!! EDIT 3: Man, Savage has been so unbelievable in his role. I wish his title run was longer. Hell, I wish he got a longer one in the later years when things were hot. Suffice to say, I can't help but wonder what would've happened if he stayed in the WWF and got to work with Michaels, Diesel, Razor, Bret etc. more. EDIT 4: STEVE MICHAELS, REFRIGERATOR PERRY

I have to say, I know the landscape was changing by that point, but for a long time after that ECW on SciFi match against Show, I often wondered what things would have been like if Flair became what Terry Funk was in the '90s in ECW. Can you imagine if the original ECW had lived, and Flair showed up there? Flair vs. Shane, Flair vs. Dreamer, Flair vs. Funk (with a different stylistic spin, naturally)... hell, even as late as 99/00, Flair vs. Steve Corino would have been loads of fun, especially once Dusty got involved.

My bad but I looked it up and you're right. I'm into December 1995, and I have to say, I don't think it's purely nostalgia talking here: the set is still pretty modern looking by today's standards. The current WWE presentation just looks so gaudy with 30,000 big screens and LEDs and all that shit. I was so pissed when they changed the set/logo in 1999. Everything about it to me was just perfect, and it remains that way to this day. EDIT: BADASS Flair vs. Eddy match in December 1995. Not as good as their Road Wild match, but definitely on par with their KOTR 2002, albeit a bit shorter.

Deano Machino's music was also the WCW Saturday Night theme for many years, until the bird shit logo, was it not?

It seems to me that WCW is doing a much better job of recapping Saturday Night etc. on Nitro than the WWF did with recapping Superstars, Action Zone, etc. on Raw. It's also nice to finally be seeing matches of consequence from this era. I could only take so much of Rip Rogers and 16 year old Matt & Jeff Hardy getting tossed around like ragdolls by dudes who mattered. Plus it's cool because 90% of pre-Outsiders Nitro is brand new to me, so I'm having a blast

I was 9 years olf when that happened, and I was a huge NWO fan, but I remember when they showed the pictures of Flair in surgery the next night on Nitro (which years later I read were real pictures-- of Flair getting a facelift) I had wondered if perhaps they went too far (It didn't look that bad during the PPV, so I was just thrilled that Hennig was on our team). But Hennig with the sleeveless Nature Boy robe was just way too awesome for me to start rooting for the babyfaces

Tried to Google it and got only this from Lance Storm's website: Q: In Bret Hart's autobiography, he claims that Doug Dillinger would sleep on the job while fans stole Bret's jackets. Do you have any funny stories about Dillinger being derelict in his duties? A: I don’t recall dealing with him much, so no. So it's probably in his book. I only got part of the way through it about 4 years ago, but my ex brought it back to the library before I could finish it, so I didn't even get close to the WCW portion of his career.

I'll watch the PPV to see if Bork beats Cena, but honestly, it's probably nothing but football and Nitro reruns for me until the Rumble

I'll be 100% honest: I ONLY subscribed to the network for Nitro. I thought it was going to be on there from launch! JL vs. Eddy was awesome. Not yet up to the Arn/NWO promos, but I just watched him and Flair spike piledrive Orndorff on the concrete after a pretty badass promo- looked brutal

Aw man, I was all psyched picturing this dude doing a ragtime piano version of the La Parka theme. The Internet has disappointed me today. Sorry man. As a consolation, here's the same guy doing American Males on Mario Paint:

I was always fascinated with their nasal strips too! My dad wore them to help with his snoring, so I had absolutely clue why anyone would need them in the ring (I was 8 or 9 and had no deductive reasoning skills). Just caught Road Warrior Hawk vs. Big Bubba. I knew from their DVD that Hawk had gone to Japan without Animal, but I didn't know he spent time in WCW without him too. I know they had some WCW matches in '96 so it couldn't have been that long. EDIT: Finally got to Hogan/Sting-- I've never seen this match, but I remember seeing ringside pictures in the Apter mags leading up to the Starrcade '97 match. They confused the absolute shit out of me, since Hogan is in black, and Sting is in Red/Yellow-- really threw off my timeline since I had never seen the TVs, only the PPVs which we rented from Blockbuster (I was pretty much exclusively WWF at that time of my youth). Actually not a horrible match. Hogan vertical suplexes Sting on the mats on the floor, which would probably turn both dudes to dust if they did it today. Hulk also rolls into an armbar, which was pretty damn cool. Best sell of World War 3, by Mongo: "That was just a TASTE of what you're gonna get this Sunday! I mean, that was only ONE ring, with just a FEW guys in it!"