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1(sub-box)The week of August 24 was the stuff of legend. The two shows set a new combined ratings record: 9.72 in 7,169,000 homes. Meanwhile, on ABC, the debut of Monday Night Football, featuring a Green Bay Packers versus Denver Broncos preseason Superbowl rematch, did a 9.5. Realistically, because network TV is in more homes than cable, football actually beat wrestling 9.3 million homes to 7.2 million. However, it soon became “common knowledge” (read: “urban legend”) that pro wrestling was so hot that it was regularly beating Monday Night Football in the ratings. Even at its peak, this was never really the case. 
2
3But wrestling was legitimately hotter than a lot of other sporting acts and concerts, as evidenced by folks who tried to sell tickets to these events in classified ads over the summer. In the San Antonio market, for example, 75 percent of fans used Nitro or Raw in their bold headlines. “WCW NITRO,” the ads would begin, and then underneath it would read: “Yes, Elton John.”
4
5The TV trend continued for the umpteenth week: Raw was great and Nitro was horrible. On August 24, for example, the main event saw Goldberg and Nash beat Hogan and Giant when Goldberg speared and pinned Curt Hennig, who wasn’t even in the match. Also on the show, Chris Jericho went to a “ten-minute draw” with Hennig in six minutes, and then three nights later on Thunder, he beat Alex Wright in twelve minutes of a match with a ten-minute time limit. Sadly, nobody complaining about Nitro’s quality could even fathom at the time that the following year it would get significantly worse.
6
7Short-term, Warrior was generating numbers. And it was beginning to look like another major ratings draw was coming back too, as Ric Flair, after being gone nearly six months, would likely return at the Nitro show in Greenville, South Carolina, on September 14. The WWF hadn’t made him a serious offer due to their legal battles with WCW, plus some within the company had been very vocal in expressing their belief that Flair was too old to come in and headline against Austin.
8
9(sub-box)Among those who argued against bringing Ric Flair back to the WWF was a young man by the name of Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who said outright in a radio interview that Flair should just retire. This was the same Triple H who, five years later, would end up best buddies with the still-active Flair on WWE television, and would, in fact, write the foreword to Flair’s autobiography. 
10
11With Raw preempted for the annual U.S. Open tennis tournament, WCW’s good fortune continued: Nitro drew a 6.03 in 4,485,333 homes, setting a new record for cable. Never mind that nearly seven million people witnessed yet another installment in a seemingly endless series of hideous programs, this one headlined by Sting and Luger beating Hogan and Hart via countout. Afterwards, Warrior appeared in his cloud of smoke, a cloud now capable of making horrible wrestlers like Ed Leslie and Brian Adams faint, and good wrestlers like Bret Hart vanish into thin air. Let us reiterate that this was designed to be compelling, not comical. Goldberg, the World Heavyweight champion, again worked the semi-main, successfully defending his title against Kevin Nash’s original tag team partner, a man named Al Greene who hadn’t wrestled in what seemed like decades. Exactly how Al Greene became the number-one contender to the World championship remains to be ascertained.
12
13September 14 saw a battle of the ages, as both sides put on pay-per-view-caliber television shows with marquee matches and major character turns. From a wrestling standpoint, WCW presented one of its best TV matches of the year with Billy Kidman winning the Cruiserweight title from Juventud Guerrera. From a marquee standpoint, Goldberg’s first-ever bout with Sting was a hugely anticipated matchup. On the other channel, the WWF turned both Rock and Mankind babyface, Undertaker made a strong heel turn, and Steve Austin faced Ken Shamrock for the first time ever in a WWF title defense. All of it, though, paled in comparison to the highlight moment of the year: the return of Ric Flair.
14
15His segment, which did a strong 5.4 rating going up against Mark Henry versus Chyna and X-Pac (now that’s some competition), opened with Arn Anderson coming out and cutting a great promo detailing the history of his career and that of the Horsemen. He called out Steve McMichael and Chris Benoit, then introduced Dean Malenko as the newest member of the group. At that point, he teased that the segment was over, and boy, were the fans ever unhappy about that. Truth be told, the whole thing almost fell through over the weekend, but Flair and WCW came to a new agreement on Sunday and everything went forward as planned.
16
17“Oh, what a goof,” Arn suddenly blurted. “What a goof. You know, I get accused of getting racked in the head a few times and have a little touch of Alzheimer’s. My God, I almost forgot the fourth Horseman. RIC FLAIR, GET DOWN HERE!” It was the perfect setup. When Flair came out, he got an ovation that rivaled, and probably exceeded, any other ovation in the history of wrestling—an ovation that nobody watching will ever forget. After finally composing himself, Flair cut a promo talking about his appreciation for the fans, his life in the past few months, and finally, Eric Bischoff. Eric showed up just in time to hear the following emotional outburst:
18You’re an overbearing asshole! You’re obnoxious, overbearing—abuse of power! You … abuse of power! Cut me off! Abuse of power! You suck! I hate your guts! You are a liar, you’re a cheat, you’re a scam! You are a no-good son-of-a-bitch! Fire me! I’m already fired! Fire me! I’m already fired! 
19
20And then they cut to a commercial, right in the middle of the speech that the majority of wrestling fans wish they could have personally cut on Eric.
21
22Thankfully, Flair’s promo was so great that it took the minds of many fans off the previous night’s Fall Brawl pay-per-view, yet another horrible show that the company actually charged fans money to view. There was one good match on the show, Saturn over Raven, and the main event was so atrocious that if you made a list of the very worst major main events in the entire history of this business, it would probably rank in the top five or ten. Dallas Page beat Hogan, Bret, Stevie Ray, Warrior, Piper, Sting, Luger, and Kevin Nash in a double-cage War Games match. It seems unlikely that with so much impressive talent in the ring a match could be this bad, but it was. Technically, there were two teams working against each other, but you wouldn’t have known this to see it. Hogan came out with a device known as a slapjack (which looked for all the world like an old dirty sock) and knocked out everyone except Stevie. Neither man bothered to pin anyone, however—they just stood there looking at all the corpses. Warrior then appeared in his magical cloud of smoke. Hogan tore his jacket off, but then the smoke rose again, and when it cleared Warrior was gone, and Hogan was left just holding the jacket. Warrior then ran out from the dressing room. Yes, they went to the trouble of hiring a fake Warrior (the artist formerly known as Renegade) just to do this cartoonish spot. Hogan, with help from Ed Leslie, escaped from the cage and locked Warrior in. Despite magically appearing and disappearing just moments earlier in his magical cloud of smoke, Warrior was now unable to get out of the cage. So he got angry, growled, and finally kicked his way out of the cage. They began to brawl in the aisle, and during this short melee, Warrior, despite having displayed no athletic ability whatsoever in this brawl, somehow managed to both twist his ankle and tear his biceps. Once everyone in the ring emerged from the smoke-induced coma, Page pinned Stevie with the diamond cutter. The crowd’s reaction to this whole match took the form of intense and deep-seated hatred.
23
24“WHAT AN EVENT!” Tony Schiavone screamed as the show concluded.
25
26~~~~~~~
27
28If Sid “shaking all over” wasn’t enough to entice viewers to continue watching, Barbarian on this same program threatened Harlem Heat by loudly proclaiming in an interview with Gene Okerlund: “How you say … WE WILL EAT YOU LUNCH!” Nobody ever figured out what that meant. Some theorized that Barbarian wanted it known that when Harlem Heat showed up at the building the following week, he was going to eat their lunch.
29
30Shockingly, the Sid winning streak didn’t stop the downward spiral. The following week, Raw was moved to 11:00 p.m. due to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which meant Nitro had all three hours unopposed. They responded by putting on a horrendous show that actually seemed designed to fail. Final tally: Nitro, unopposed, did a 4.0 rating, If Sid “shaking all over” wasn’t enough to entice viewers to continue watching, Barbarian on this same program threatened Harlem Heat by loudly proclaiming in an interview with Gene Okerlund: “How you say … WE WILL EAT YOU LUNCH!” Nobody ever figured out what that meant. Some theorized that Barbarian wanted it known that when Harlem Heat showed up at the building the following week, he was going to eat their lunch.
31
32Shockingly, the Sid winning streak didn’t stop the downward spiral. The following week, Raw was moved to 11:00 p.m. due to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which meant Nitro had all three hours unopposed. They responded by putting on a horrendous show that actually seemed designed to fail. Final tally: Nitro, unopposed, did a 4.0 rating, losing (italics) to the 11:00 p.m. Raw, which did a 4.16. It got even worse, as that Thursday, the WWF debuted their SmackDown show opposite Thunder and destroyed WCW once again in the ratings, 4.16 to 1.94.
33
34And the hits just kept on coming. September 6 was the special fourth anniversary Nitro show from the 16,000-seat Miami Arena. They drew 3,818 paid. Not only that, Raw had been preempted for tennis again, and sure enough, they still won 4.38 to 4.12. The Nitro show, for the second straight unopposed week, was hideous. There was one good thing on the show: they began auditions to find a new Nitro girl, and after eight weeks, they settled upon a young Ravens cheerleader named Stacy Keibler. Not only would she go one to become one of the biggest female wrestling stars in history, she would also spend a few years dating George Clooney. 
35Finally … finally … it was too much for Turner brass to take.
36
37And so Eric Bischoff, the man who led WCW to its most profitable two-year period ever, was “reassigned” on September 9. (Bischoff would later claim that this basically meant he was sent home to Colorado, where he hunted and fished for many months while still collecting huge paychecks.) There really was no other decision the Turner brass could have made, as under Bischoff’s watch, WCW had not only grown to never-before-seen heights, but was also now tanking at mind-boggling speed. Turner was so upset with Bischoff that he was banned from all WCW events as well as from the office. On top of this, Turner demanded that no references to Bischoff be made and that no footage of him be used in any future video packages. To the company, the man who once turned it all around had just suddenly ceased to exist.
38
39A strange little man by the name of Bill Busch, who’d started at Turner almost a decade earlier as an accountant, was put in charge as executive vice president. Because he knew virtually nothing about wrestling, TV producer Craig Leathers was put in charge of creative. And who was working under him, doing all the real grunt work in putting the shows together? None other than the three men who had helped get WCW into this mess in the first place: Dusty Rhodes, Kevin Nash, and Kevin Sullivan.
40
41Busch, along with Dr. Harvey Schiller, the Turner representative in charge of overseeing WCW, met with the wrestlers and announced that some things were going to change. The New Year’s Eve pay-per-view idea with KISS was canned; a ridiculous contest to give away $1 million (to a lucky fan rather than, say, an inebriated Dennis Rodman) was canceled; the annual Road Wild PPV from Sturgis, now an annual money-loser at a time when money could not afford to be lost, was canceled; and a proposed Nitro cartoon (seriously, and by a “cartoon” we mean an animated children’s program, not just another episode of the show) was scrapped.
42
43(sub-box) Further tragedy struck on September 8, when referee Brian Curtis Hildebrand passed away following a long battle with stomach cancer. Only thirty-seven, he was such a courageous and loveable person that condolences were sent out on Monday night not only on Nitro, but on Raw as well (where he’d never worked). Like Owen Hart’s death, this was particularly tragic as he left his friends and family behind through no fault of his own. 
44
45The first post-Bischoff PPV was Fall Brawl. If anyone needs evidence of how screwed up WCW was at this point, consider the fact that they’d done such a poor job of planning that there wasn’t any card at all a week before the show aired. Even the cable companies finally lost it, and the following ad appeared in newspapers nationwide: “We’re the advertising agency and they won’t even tell us who’s going to be there! For God’s sake don’t miss it!” Below that, it read: “Sunday, September 12. Insert time here.” When the buy rate numbers came out, WCW’s incompetence was illustrated quite painfully: the show did a 0.30, lower than any number the WWF or WCW had ever done.
46
47The show, in the 11,000-seat Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem North Carolina, drew 3,347 paid, the result of years of killing Ric Flair and the Horsemen over and over and over and over again in the Carolinas. There was no Flair on the card, and in fact there had been no Flair on TV in months, since he’d had yet another falling out with Bischoff and neither side could agree on terms to return. Perhaps you’re thinking that with Eric gone, Flair could come back. Well, you’re right, and he returned on Nitro the next evening. However, he was actually in Winston-Salem for the PPV, and WCW, per their usual stupidity, didn’t use him on the show at all. The main event saw Sting beat Hulk Hogan to win the WCW title. For weeks, the idea had been batted back and forth to turn either Hogan or Sting heel. Hogan didn’t want to do it, feeling it was too early since he’d just turned babyface months earlier. So Sting got the gig, and it was his first run as a heel in over a decade. The bad news was that the fans hated Hogan, so when Sting hit him with a baseball bat and got the win, they all cheered.
48
49The biggest event on Nitro the following night was arguably Kidman beating Psicosis in a very good mask versus hair match. Bischoff had been wanting to take Psicosis’ mask for a long time (you know, because masked guys aren’t marketable), and even though he was done with the company, they went through with the angle anyway. 
50
51Sid, by the way, was magically at 86-0 this evening, and somehow, over the next three days, he won thirteen matches, going into Thunder at 99-0. The next week, he was at 120-0, and since he never won at the house shows (not that there were twenty-one during the week anyway), all that could be theorized was that one loss was now counting as five to ten wins.
52
53And then, on October 3, it happened: the beginning of the end.
54
55Well, the latest beginning of the end.
56
57That was the day Vince Russo, after a lengthy meeting with Bill Busch, signed his WCW contract.
58
59Russo was a longtime wrestling fan and video-store owner who broke into the business in the early ’90s by sponsoring a wrestling radio show in New York. Eventually, the WWF hired him, more to shut him up than anything else. He was put to work as an editor for the WWF Magazine, and after he wrote a few fantasy storylines that the company liked, they put him in charge of the division. Eventually, he worked his way up to being a television writer, and he had significant input into the late ’90s product that laid waste to Nitro week after week.
60
61Russo was good. Not at writing wrestling TV, mind you, but at spinning folks into believing that he and his buddy Ed Ferrara, who’d also jumped with him, were the sole reason behind the WWF’s success.
62
63~~~~~
64
65B&V&C: RETRO RAW AND NITRO FROM 19 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK!
66BY BRYAN ALVAREZ | @BRYANALVAREZ | AUG 7, 2018 9:28 PM
67TWITTERFACEBOOKGOOGLE+
68
69The Bryan & Vinny & Craig Show is back today with a very special edition of the Retro Raw and Nitro show -- an actual week where Raw and Nitro were hot shows with hot crowds and it felt like the Monday Night Wars were absolutely awesome. These shows took place on August 9, 1999.
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71Raw had the Hardys joining Gangrel, Jesse Ventura laying down the law, Steve Austin being assaulted, people arriving hideously late, the debut of the Millenium Man, Test and Steve Blackman speak, a non-title hardcore match and a triple threat match featuring Triple H defending his number one contendership against The Undertaker and Chyna.
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73On Nitro, we have the Insane Clown Posse, the latest update on WCW authority figures, Little Jeannie vs. Mona, David Flair vs. Chris Benoit, Dennis Rodman and Randy Savage without a script and a main event featuring Kevin Nash, Rick Steiner and Sid vs. Sting, Goldberg and the return of red and yellow Hulk Hogan.
74
75A fun show as always so check it out~!
76
77Timestamps:
78
79Start - 34:04: Raw
8034:04 - end: Nitro
81
82Right click save
83
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86
87
88email address
89  
90Send us a news tip: newstips@wrestlingobserver.com
91
92Related Articles
93B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
94B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
95B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
96B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
97B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
98
99~~~~~~~~
100B&V&C: RETRO RAW AND NITRO FROM 19 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK!
101BY BRYAN ALVAREZ | @BRYANALVAREZ | AUG 14, 2018 9:33 PM
102TWITTERFACEBOOKGOOGLE+
103
104The Bryan & Vinny & Craig Show is back today with tons to talk about in our look back at Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week: August 16, 1999! 
105
106Raw was a badly booked show but it was a badly booked wrestling show, featuring Undertaker’s desert promo, the return of the British Bulldog, Crash Holly debuts, the ongoing fight over the number one contendership match, Mr. Ass and the failed herbal treatment on his behind and a main event featuring Mankind vs. Triple H for the number one contendership.
107
108Nitro was so hilariously awful that probably nothing in sports or entertainment can compare. Fake win streaks, fake math, fake times, fake finishes where guys not in the match get pinned, and more. This show featured the likes of Berlyn, Insane Clown Posse, The breakup of the nWo Black and White, Billy Kidman’s great interview, Brian Knobs vs. Rick Steiner and a main event featuring Hulk Hogan vs. Sid for the WCW title.  A fun show as always so check it out~!
109
110Timestamps:
1112:27 - 31:39: Raw
11231:39 - end: Nitro
113
114\~~~~~
115
116The Bryan & Vinny Show is back today with our look back at Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week: August 23, 1999!
117
118Triple H is the new WWF Champion and boy did his reign get off to a lame start thanks to GEEKS ON THE INTERNET already starting to ruin wrestling two decades ago. It also had Big Boss Man kidnapping Pepper, Test’s proposal to Stephanie McMahon, the debut of Miss Kitty, the turmoil of Billy Gunn and the missing pen, Howard Finkel channels his inner warrior and more.
119
120Nitro featured the most fun segment in the 140-year history of pro-wrestling, a KISS concert that was not on the WWE Network, the return of Lex Luger out of nowhere, Sid coming in and ruining matches (but otherwise being awesome), West Texas Rednecks: The Concert, DDP learning what you should never call Goldberg and a main event featuring Hulk Hogan defending the WCW title against Sting. A fun show as always so check it out~!
121
122Be sure to check out tonight's episode on video.f4wonline.com!
123
124Timestamps:
125
1263:13 - 38:07: Raw
12738:07 - end: WCW Nitro
128
129~~
130
131The Bryan & Vinny & Craig Show is back today with a look back at WCW and WWF 19 years ago this week: August 30, 1999!
132
133May as well just play Nitro on the Death of WCW panel at Starrcast, an awful and completely indefensible show. It had the debut of the KISS Demon (at least on the WWE Network), Lex Luger’s big hummer reveal, the Revolution, a bunch of matches that legitimately happened as Nitro ran unopposed, Lodi vs. Kaz Hayashi, Vampiro and the Dead Pool everywhere and a main event featuring Goldberg and Hulk Hogan taking on the Jersey Triad. 
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135Raw was barely any better outside the Rock and Sock Connection bantering back and forth. It had the start of the demise of Pepper, the beginnings of the Rock and Sock Connection, who would be the best Best Man in a wedding, the story of every tag team ever fighting each other for a tag team title shot no one ended up getting and a main event with The Undertaker and Big Show taking on The Rock and Mankind. Depressing programs but hopefully this is a fun show as always so check it out~!
136
137Timestamps:
138Raw: 3:25 - 32:16
139Nitro: 32:16 - end
140
141~~~~
142
143🦖 ryan lambert 🦕 @twolinepass
1441m
145the ilitch family really oughta return the money they got to build that arena. pathetic.
146
147Kim Doyle Wille @KimDoyleWille
148WOW - all Detroit public schools' water being shut down for lead, etc. is pretty big news and makes me wonder what's going on in every school system in America! bit.ly/2wnqFxW
149
150~~~
151
152Gary Butterfield Memorial Library @GaryBuh
1531m
154Gary, whats the best chocolate bar? — I’m a fan of the milk chocolate with cornflakes from ritter. curiouscat.me/GaryBuh/post/6…
155
156Men of a Certain Age is an American comedy-drama television series created by Ray Romano and Mike Royce, that ran on TNT from December 7, 2009 to July 6, 2011. The hour-long program stars Romano, Andre Braugher, and Scott Bakula as three best friends in their late forties dealing with the realities of being middle aged. It won a Peabody Award in 2010.[1]
157
158On July 15, 2011, TNT cancelled the series after two seasons spanning 22 episodes.
159
160
161Genre	Comedy-drama
162Created by	Ray Romano
163Mike Royce
164Starring	Ray Romano
165Scott Bakula
166Andre Braugher
167Lisa Gay Hamilton
168Richard Gant
169Brian J. White
170Lil' JJ
171Kwesi Boakye
172Brittany Curran
173Braeden Lemasters
174Isaiah Montgomery
175Melinda McGraw
176Opening theme	"When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" by The Beach Boys
177Country of origin	United States
178Original language(s)	English
179No. of seasons	2
180No. of episodes	22
181
182Contents
1831	Plot
1842	Cast and characters
1852.1	Main cast
1862.2	Recurring cast
1873	Development
1884	Episodes
1894.1	Season 1 (2009–10)
1904.2	Season 2 (2010–11)
1915	Critical reception
1926	DVD Release
1937	Awards and nominations
1948	International broadcasts
1959	References
19610	External links
197
198Development
199In March 2008, TNT announced that it had ordered a pilot based on a script written by Ray Romano and Mike Royce.[2][3] Both men had previously worked together on Everybody Loves Raymond. Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula were announced in June and July, respectively, to also star in the series with Romano.[4][5][6] In January 2009, TNT ordered 10 episodes of Men of a Certain Age.[7][8] It is Bakula's first series as a regular cast member since Star Trek: Enterprise, Braugher's first regular role since Thief ended in 2006, and Romano's first series since Everybody Loves Raymond wrapped in May 2005. Men of a Certain Age premiered on TNT on December 7, 2009.[9] It was given a TV-MA-L rating because of strong language. On January 14, 2010 TNT renewed the show for a second season, which premiered on December 6, 2010. The second season was aired in two batches of six episodes each.
200
201On July 15, 2011, TNT announced that they would not be renewing Men of a Certain Age for a third season.[10]
202
203Critical reception
204
205Scott Bakula, Rory Rosegarten, Ray Romano, Mike Royce, Andre Braugher, and Cary Hoffman of Men of a Certain Age at the 70th Annual Peabody Awards
206
207Season one was met with positive reviews. According to aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an 89% approval rating based on 18 reviews. The sites consensus reads: "Witty, insightful, and poignant, Men of a Certain Age is a second-act triumph for stars Scott Bakula, Andre Braugher, and Ray Romano."[11] It holds a Metacritic score of 78 out of 100, based on 24 collected reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12]
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209Season two was met with equally positive reviews. It holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 14 reviews. The sites consensus reads: "Sharply written and deftly acted, Men of a Certain Age continues to be an observational sitcom of rare insight and depth."[13] It holds a Metacritic score of 86 out of 100, based on 15 collected reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."[14]
210
211~~~~~~~~
212
213Scott Bakula
214From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
215Jump to navigationJump to search
216Scott Bakula
217Scott Bakula by Gage Skidmore.jpg
218Bakula at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International
219Born	Scott Stewart Bakula
220October 9, 1954 (age 63)
221St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
222Occupation	Actor, singer, director
223Years active	1981–present
224Spouse(s)	
225Krista Neumann
226(m. 1981; div. 1995)
227Chelsea Field
228(m. 2009)
229Children	4
230Parent(s)	
231J. Stewart Bakula (father)
232Sally Bakula (née Zumwinkel) (mother)
233
234Scott Stewart Bakula (/ˈbækjʊlə/; born October 9, 1954)[1] is an American actor, singer and director best known for his lead roles in two science-fiction television series: as Sam Beckett on Quantum Leap (for which he received four Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award), and as Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise.
235
236Bakula starred on the comedy-drama series Men of a Certain Age, and guest-starred in seasons two and three of NBC's Chuck as the title character's father Stephen J. Bartowski. From 2014 to 2015, he played entrepreneur Lynn in the only two seasons of the HBO show Looking. In 2014, he began playing Special Agent Dwayne Cassius "King" Pride on NCIS: New Orleans.
237
238Contents [hide]
2391	Early life
2402	Career
2413	Personal life
2424	Filmography
2434.1	Film
2444.2	Television
2455	Awards and nominations
2466	References
2477	External links
248
249~~
250
25108-29-2012, 11:19 AM
252Re: August 28 Figure Four Weekly now online~!
253
254Originally posted by Rovingaye
255Good read.
256
257Very much enjoyed Vinny's reviews especially.
258
259yeah. When's vinny gonna fire that Bryan guy?
260 charleston
261charleston 
262Member
263Join Date: Jul 2005
264Posts: 2282
265#7
26608-29-2012, 07:14 PM
267Re: August 28 Figure Four Weekly now online~!
268
269So WWE can't do anything with Scorpio Sky due to appearing in TNA recently. Then how was he able to attend the tryout camp and appear in the anger management skits if the TNA lawsuit is still a factor?
270
271~~~~~
272
273Bryan's Friend Vince's DVD Review and Karaoke Showcase
274
275Stuff on Fire Pro
276I’ve been getting more feedback on the video game match reviews I’ve been doing lately than anything else I’ve ever written about here. I don’t know what that says about my writing, my readers, or the state of pro wrestling, but I’m going to keep doing it until I get requests to knock it off. So I’m just going to start simulating matches on Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on PlayStation 2, and if it goes long enough maybe I’ll just start booking it as a fantasy fed and listing the results here. I suspect it would make more sense than TNA. Actually, I’m certain it would make more sense than TNA.
277
278Abdullah the Butcher vs. Spanky. One fall, 20-minute time limit. Abdullah’s F4W shoot interview championship was on the line. OK, not really. Abdullah was more aggressive early, stalking Spanky down and sending him out of the ring with a bodyslam. They brawled on the floor and Abdullah attempted to use pieces of a table, chairs, and a baseball bat, but Spanky avoided it all and rolled back into the ring. He hit a series of kicks, including one spot where they both attempted a superkick. Seriously. Spanky then went for the win with a STUMP PULLER, but Abdullah got the ropes. Spanky followed with a dropkick in the corner. Abdullah had now seen enough of this shit and went to work with the fork. Spanky countered with a series – a SERIES, I say – of backslides. There’s a new one. He actually hit a suplex, but Abdullah fought back with a nutshot and a camel clutch. Spanky missed a dropkick, and Abdullah hit a series of elbowsmashes. He bit Spanky’s forehead, and Spanky gigged. Spanky made a brief comeback, but Abdullah cut him off with a Samoan drop and they brawled on the floor again. Abdullah was working him over with a table, but Spanky cut him off and threw him back in the ring. They traded turnbuckle shots. Abby was starting to get tired. We were almost 12 minutes in. Spanky hit a DDT and went to a camel clutch of his own. Abdullah threw Spanky outside and brought out another arsenal of weapons. He hit a jumping piledriver on the pretty blue mats and rolled inside, and Spanky was counted out at 13:35. I’m actually relieved, I thought we were headed for a double countout for sure. As it is, match was just starting to get interesting when it ended with a cheap finish. *3/4.
279
280june 25, 2010
281
282AAA/RAW 2009
283
284~~~~~~~~
285
286Bryan's Friend Vince's DVD Review and Karaoke Showcase (June 8, 2010) 
287
288Video Game matches
289By request.
290
291Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle. From No Mercy. Eddie came out with Chyna. He immediately threw Kurt outside and then, well, nothing happened. Kurt has had probably 100 different singlets in his career, and his first one was still the best. They traded punches in the ring. Kurt was getting the better of this stand-up battle. Eddie threw him out of the ring again, and this time he followed with a pescado. Back inside, Kurt blocked a bunch of strikes before cutting Eddie off with a backbreaker and hitting some ground-and-pound. Eddie came back with a side suplex and the spinning face stomp. Kurt dropped Eddie with an elbow, then with Eddie on his hands and knees, rolled him over in a rear naked choke, with the hooks in. That was cool. Eddie started going for the win with single-leg crabs and la majistral, but Kurt kept getting the ropes. They went back and forth for a while. Eddie went for a superplex, but Kurt knocked him down, taunted, and hit a top rope elbowsmash. Eddie set Kurt up again and hit a top rope rana, then scurried up to another corner, but missed a top rope dropkick. Angle went for a German suplex, but Eddie slipped behind and dropkicked him in the back. Eddie climbed onto the apron and dared Kurt to come fight him. Kurt taunted him from the middle of the ring, then hit the ropes, launching Eddie into the barricade. He went outside to finish him off, but Eddie cut him off and went back inside. He went for a tope, but Kurt dodged and Eddie splatted to the floor. That sequence right there was the fucking shit. Back inside, Kurt started countering everything Eddie did and finally got his special, the first of the match for either guy. Fans booed. After a brief struggle, Angle hit the Angle Slam for the win. That was fun. **3/4.
292
293Bret Hart vs. Goldust. From Warzone on the N64. Vince McMahon and Jim Ross were on commentary. Wrestlers looked ridiculously stiff making their entrances. Oh, hey, it’s a steel cage match. Bret laid Goldust out with a lariat and followed with a top wristlock. Goldust screamed in pain. Sometimes it was his own voice and sometimes, well, it wasn’t. Bret tried to climb out, but when he got to the top Goldust shook the cage and Bret fell to the mat. OW. He tried again, but Goldust got to his feet, so Bret just jumped down. Crowd was chanting “BRET HART!” Then one guy cried “Let’s go Dustin!” So some hardcore fans made this game, obviously. So anyway, this match was pretty much entirely Bret kicking Goldust’s ass. I just realized there are no ropes or turnbuckles in this ring, just a mat and a cage. It’s like UFC. Bret was laying Goldust out with punches. Then he just turned and sprinted into the cage. Dumbass. Bret went back to the wristlock and Goldust sold with the goofiest squealing ever. Bret hit a missile dropkick from the top of the cage. Then he climbed to the top again, but rather than go outside he waited and hit another one. He tried a THIRD, but this time he finally missed. That’ll learn him. Well, I was wrong, he did another one. Then he went with his other move, the top wristlock. If the real Bret Hart saw this match he’d throw up. Bret threw a series of standing headbutts, then hit his eighth or ninth missile dropkick off the cage. He was beating Goldust so badly and not winning that the fans started booing, then chanting Goldust’s name. That adds a star to the match right there. Bret finally climbed over the top of the cage and won. “BRET HART WINS BY TOTAL BLOWOUT,” the graphic said. Bret just stood there shimmying back and forth, his 2D face plastered on his spherical head. *, entirely for the crowd reactions.
294
295Jeff Jarrett vs. Goldust. From Smackdown 2. Jarrett’s entrance video was pretty much entirely Debra frolicking in her bikini. Then Goldust’s video was Viscera. The match began and the guys started running all over the place and hitting each other with a weapon. Is that a laptop? They were moving way too fast to follow. Goldust took a backdrop, flipping all the way over onto his feet, but his momentum carried him over the ropes to the floor. That’s a cool spot that the real Goldust couldn’t do in a million years. Then Jarrett landed on his feet after a backdrop. Did the people who made this game ever SEE a wrestling match? Jarrett backed two feet up the aisle, and the screen went blank, except for a graphic reading “NOW LOADING.” Now they were on the stage. Jarrett hit the stroke up there. Then they moved into, I don’t know, Grand Central Station or something. Goldust hit a German suplex, flipping Jarrett over onto his belly. They were still moving way too fast to follow. Jarrett hooked a figure-four, and then they were in a kitchen. Suplexes and dropkicks off tables followed. Goldust finally landed on his back after a backdrop. They started doing spots and the camera cut behind a table so we couldn’t see them. Jarrett hit a piledriver on the kitchen floor. Goldust no-sold it. So Jarrett powerbombed him through a table. Goldust responded with spinning roundhouse kicks. WHO THE FUCK MADE THIS GAME? It appears to be a wrestling game for people who hate wrestling, at least the selling part of it. Seriously, it’s like they decided it would be no fun if your character was hurt and couldn’t move, so they just removed selling entirely. They went back into Grand Central Station, then a hallway, then a locker room. All locker rooms have bench press racks, of course. Goldust hit a series of jackhammers to win. Then we got a shot of him doing X-Pac’s taunt in the ring. COMPLETE SHIT. -**.
296
297Goldberg vs. Undertaker. From Smackdown vs. Raw 2008. Another steel cage match, although at least they had ropes. Wait, it was a cell match. I think these guys were moving even faster than Jarrett and Goldust. Can’t take it anymore. Although before I could click away, Taker took a flat back bump off the top of the cell to the ringside floor. Sucks to be him.
298
299Sting vs. Shawn Michaels. From No Mercy. Sadly, this is the only time I’ll ever get to see this match. Clearly this was done on an emulator with some pretty good graphics hacking, because both guys looked really good. Sting’s scorpion design was very detailed, and you could make out individual studs on HBK’s chaps. They went back and forth at first, then Shawn started taking flip bumps for Sting’s clotheslines. Sting went for a tombstone, but Shawn reversed it into one of his own. The crowd also went completely silent – literally, in this case – between all the big moves. Sting hit a piledriver, but then missed a dropkick to follow that. Well, that makes no sense. Shawn hot a special and hit a top rope elbow, then the superkick for the win. What a letdown. DUD.
300
301Sting vs. Shawn Michaels. From Fire Prowrestling R. THIS WILL BE BETTER. Although, graphically, neither guy was that convincing. Some lazy edits, here. Also, they were fighting in the PRIDE knockoff ring. They struggled for the advantage early. Shawn grabbed a board at ringside, but didn’t use it. Sting teased a Stinger splash, but Shawn avoided it. He hit the flying forearm and some ground-and-pound. They started trading punches until Sting hit a Samoan drop. He was working Shawn over when Shawn hit the superkick out of nowhere. They went back and forth, then Shawn hit another superkick, then pulled Sting to his feet. What? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this won’t be better. He finally hit the superkick out of the corner, with foot stomping and everything, for a 2.9-count. Sting fired up and hit a series of DDTs and dropkicks. Did I miss the entire middle portion of this match? Sting hit a DDT for a 2.9 and the fans started stomping their feet. He hit the death drop and the scorpion, but Shawn almost immediately escaped. He went for a rana, but Sting blocked it and hit a Boston crab. That ruled. He kept looking to put Shawn away with DDTs and the scorpion. Shawn hit a bodypress and a backslide, but Sting kept getting the ropes. He also hit like a half-dozen superkicks. They went back and forth for a bit as the match started drifting off course. There was a great point where both guys hit turnbuckles simultaneously for a double-down. Sting finally got a bit of prolonged offense and hooked another sharpshooter. He was at least trying to win. He also started busting out press slams. He missed a clothesline and they bonked heads for another double-down. Shawn suddenly hit a series of punches, then his modified figure-four for the submission win. Well, that came out of nowhere. It was better than the No Mercy match, but not by much. I could make better edits in my sleep. *1/2.
302
303Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko. Also from Fire Prowrestling R, by the same guy who did the last match, so don’t get your hopes up. For starters, Brock was wearing knee-length spandex, his hair looked bleached blond, and Fedor was about nearly bald. Brock opened with a bodyslam. Yes. He did some ground-and-pound, but Fedor quickly escaped. They traded shots on the feet. Brock was taking him down at will but things didn’t always go well for him down there – Fedor kept nearly getting triangles. Brock was really hurting him with strikes, though. Fedor dropped him with a knee to the gut and hit some PRIDE knees to the head, then went for a heel hook. In a great moment, Brock dropped Fedor with a punch, then pulled him up to deal more damage. Round ended with Fedor laying in hockey punches, but still Brock’s round, 10-9. He looked fresher as Round Two started. Fedor nearly got an Americana, but Brock reversed it and ground-and-pounded him into submission, 31 seconds into the round. Not much of a fight, honestly.
304
305~~~~~~
306June 15, 2010
307
308Bryan's Friend Vince's DVD Review and Karaoke Showcase
309
310Stuff on Fire Pro
311I’ve been getting more feedback on the video game match reviews I’ve been doing lately than anything else I’ve ever written about here. I don’t know what that says about my writing, my readers, or the state of pro wrestling, but I’m going to keep doing it until I get requests to knock it off. So I’m just going to start simulating matches on Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on PlayStation 2, and if it goes long enough maybe I’ll just start booking it as a fantasy fed and listing the results here. I suspect it would make more sense than TNA. Actually, I’m certain it would make more sense than TNA.
312
313Abdullah the Butcher vs. Spanky. One fall, 20-minute time limit. Abdullah’s F4W shoot interview championship was on the line. OK, not really. Abdullah was more aggressive early, stalking Spanky down and sending him out of the ring with a bodyslam. They brawled on the floor and Abdullah attempted to use pieces of a table, chairs, and a baseball bat, but Spanky avoided it all and rolled back into the ring. He hit a series of kicks, including one spot where they both attempted a superkick. Seriously. Spanky then went for the win with a STUMP PULLER, but Abdullah got the ropes. Spanky followed with a dropkick in the corner. Abdullah had now seen enough of this shit and went to work with the fork. Spanky countered with a series – a SERIES, I say – of backslides. There’s a new one. He actually hit a suplex, but Abdullah fought back with a nutshot and a camel clutch. Spanky missed a dropkick, and Abdullah hit a series of elbowsmashes. He bit Spanky’s forehead, and Spanky gigged. Spanky made a brief comeback, but Abdullah cut him off with a Samoan drop and they brawled on the floor again. Abdullah was working him over with a table, but Spanky cut him off and threw him back in the ring. They traded turnbuckle shots. Abby was starting to get tired. We were almost 12 minutes in. Spanky hit a DDT and went to a camel clutch of his own. Abdullah threw Spanky outside and brought out another arsenal of weapons. He hit a jumping piledriver on the pretty blue mats and rolled inside, and Spanky was counted out at 13:35. I’m actually relieved, I thought we were headed for a double countout for sure. As it is, match was just starting to get interesting when it ended with a cheap finish. *3/4.
314
315Road Warriors vs. Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow. Sadly, all the outfits for Vader in the game are unmasked. Hawk and Vader started. There sure was a lot of black and red in this match. Hawk took one clothesline and tagged out. Heels worked Animal over and hit a double-powerbomb. Animal fought back and press slammed Bigelow. Well then. Not much of note happened for a while. Bam Bam, who was legal, brawled on the floor with Animal, who was not, as their partners just stood and watched. Soon all four guys were brawling on the floor. Bam Bam took a piledriver out there and ended up bleeding. Back in, he press slammed Hawk and tagged out. Hawk and Vader then basically had a long one-on-one match. Hawk got Vader up in a Rick Rude-style backbreaker. Hawk hit a piledriver and made a cover, and all four dudes brawled in the ring. Press slams and chokeslams followed. Animal tagged in, but ended up getting reverse powerbombed. There was a great bit where Animal and Hawk were brawling on the floor, so Bigelow got in the ring and started doing cartwheels. There was a lot of chaos here as guys started coming in and out of the ring without tags. It ended up with Bigelow and Animal legal. Bigelow hit a superplex and made a cover, but Hawk saved. Crowd was really starting to get into this, but there were only a few minutes left. Animal made a desperation hot tag, but Hawk’s first move upon entering the ring was to take a powerbomb. Bigelow followed with a crossbody for a 2.9. Hawk made a big comeback and hit a piledriver, but then the 20-minute time limit expired. Tag matches in this game pretty much need to be 30 minutes, or they’ll always go to a draw. Still, the last three or four minutes of this, with big moves and nearfalls, were pretty great. ***1/4.
316
317Mirko Cro Cop vs. Don Fry vs. Royce Gracie. YES. I also turned time limits off. Don Fry, who is all man, opened up a house of fire, punching everyone and taking Mirko down with a fireman’s carry. He got a rear naked choke on Mirko, but Mirko escaped. Actually, it was almost all Mirko vs. Fry with Royce hiding in the corner. He must have heard me, because he immediately took Fry down and they traded submissions. At one point it appeared Royce Gracie was attempting a VICTORY ROLL, but Fry countered. Every time one guy tried to submit another, the third man would break it up. Fry cornered Royce at one point and laid in shoulders into the turnbuckles, which is awesome. Later he got Royce’s back and started laying in punches, but this was pro wrestling rules, and closed fist punches were illegal, so the ref started counting to five. That is both awesome and terrible at the same time. Mirko ended up in Royce’s guard and scored a critical at 9:34, knocking him out. So Mirko and Fry continued to battle as Royce’s broken body lay there in the corner. At 11:07 Mirko was in Fry’s guard, laying in punches, and the ref stopped it. So Mirko knocked out both dudes with ground-and-pound. I enjoyed this way too much. ***3/4.
318
319Great Muta vs. Umaga in a barbed wire exploding ring death match. Why not? They both tried repeatedly to whip each other into the wire. When they did just wrestle, it usually went Muta’s way, and he went for a variety of submissions. Four minutes in, Umaga was the first guy to hit the wire. He came out of it OK. He went on an all-out assault a minute later, hitting a press slam and Samoan drop, then sending Muta into the wire. Muta ended up bloody. Umaga went into the wire a minute later, but still wasn’t bleeding. Muta, desperate, broke out a fork. It did him no good, as Umaga hit a gutbuster and a roll of the dice. He followed with an over the shoulder piledriver that got a 2.9. A powerbomb got him another 2.9. Muta broke out the fork again, but at ten minutes the bombs went off. Umaga recovered first and hit another powerbomb, but the ref was down. So Umaga just waited for the ref to come to again, then hit another powerbomb for the decisive win. A DOMINANT victory for Umaga, who overcame barbed wire, a fork, explosions, and incapacitated officials to decimate his foe. ***.
320
321
322ROH with Bryan's Friend Vince
323
324Christopher Daniels vs. Bobby Shields. Daniels got the full entrance with Marilyn Manson knockoff music and lights and everything. They shook hands to open. Announcers talked about Daniels returning to ROH and said a world championship was the only thing in wrestling he had not accomplished. Shields got some offense and the crowd booed, and it wasn’t “you’re the heel” heat, it was “there is no way Bobby Shields is going to beat Chris Daniels” heat. Daniels cut him off and got the win quickly with the BME. A quick squash designed to let Daniels show off his stuff and look good. Mission accomplished. He cut a promo saying that when he came back to ROH, he called out Davey Richards because he took exception to Richards calling himself the best in the world. He said that was not a challenge to an individual wrestler, it was a wake-up call to the entire roster. He said if you were a professional wrestler, and you wanted to prove you were the best, you came to ROH. He said he had nothing to prove, but he had something to teach. He said he would teach everyone in the locker room that when you talked about the best in the world, you were talking about Christopher Daniels. This whole segment was a perfect demonstration of what good pro wrestling is like.
325
326~~~
327
328Vinny's TV Reviews
329
330 
331
332by Vincent Verhei (@FO_VVerhei)
333
334WCCW Star Wars (2/22/81)
335
336The Network claims that was the date, but we can't find any record of that actually happening. So who knows.
337
338Great Kabuki vs. Fritz Von Erich. They did just about nothing early on, but they did it with great intensity. Both guys carried themselves as if they were in combat against a very dangerous opponent and one mistake could be fatal. Announcer claimed they had been forced to turn the crowd noise down so we could hear him speak. I think he was just doing the commentary in post production. Finally Kabuki got Fritz down and unloaded with punches and stomps and biting, but Fritz hooked a claw to the belly and turned it over. Fritz hooked a claw to the head but Kabuki was able to roll outside to escape. Gary Hart grabbed Fritz's foot and Kabuki took over for a while. Kabuki hit the ARMPIT PINCH but Fritz fought it off and went back to the claw. He's spamming that move. Hart started punching Fritz in the leg and a fan went after Hart before he got taken away. But Fritz was distracted and Kabuki hit what may have ben a KARATE CHOP. David Von Erich could not take any more and hit the ring, but Kabuki laid him out too. This was a no-DQ match. David hit a backdrop and Fritz got the three-count. A weird finish, but it's a way make the fans happy tonight while also building heat for Kabuki and David. Match was a whole lot of claws and pinches and very little else.
339
340Kerry Von Erich vs. Harley Race for the NWA World Champion. Harley was clearly the heavier man, but that did not stop Kerry from slamming him all over the place. Lots of headlocks. Kerry hit another press slam but then missed a hysterical elbow. Actually, all of Kerry's bumps were funny here. He'd jump super high in the air, kick his legs around, then come down on one foot, then fall to his ass. Every time. Never not funny. He hooked a stomach claw and pressed Race overhead. Race fell outside and they teased a DQ, but Bronko Lubich accepted that this had been an accident. They brawled on the floor and Race got posted and gigged. Kerry clawed his bloody forehead and they both fell outside again. There were sandbags out there to hold the crowd barricade in place, and they used those as weapons. This went on for a while and Lubich got bumped. They got him up the stairs and then he got knocked down again, and looked so goofy that all the fans laughed even though this was the ref who could award their hometown hero the world championship. On that note, Kerry hit a kneedrop and had like a ten-count, but Race kicked out when a second ref hit the ring. Harley tried a headbutt onto a table, but Kerry dodged and Race bounced off the table. Well that looked painful. Kerry tried to crawl in, but Race held him down, and it was a double countout. Well, there you go. In a lot of ways this was similar to the Ric Flair-Sting match at the first Clash of Champions, with the young hotshot nearly winning the world title before the champion somehow found a way to survive. That match was much better though.
341
342Kevin & David Von Erich vs. Hercules Ayala & Ali Mustafa. Ayala looked like Scott Norton with an afro. Just a big fucking wall of a human being. Kevin was in boots. Nothing happened for a while, then they did a headlock. OK, there was a novelty to this show for a while, but I am so over it now. Kevin's elbow was much better than Kerry's. He jumped eight feet in the air and then threw his elbow down like AJ Styles doing a forearm. Heat on Kevin, though David was in there fighting a lot anyway. At some point there was a hot tag and then a four-way. Kevin got cut off again. I'm so fucking bored. David got another hot tag. I'm supposed to believe this skinny geek could manhandle Ayala? Now there's heat on David. Jesus. Hot tag to Kevin and apparently this was the real hot tag because the place went crazier than ever. Then he got cut off. FUCK OFF. END THIS MATCH. I'm done. No more details. Two minutes later Kevin hit a top rope sunset flip to win the match and the titles. All the brothers hit the ring to party.
343
344OH GOD THERE'S MORE.
345
346A fucking battle royal. There was Bruiser Brody, Jesse Barr, Jose Lothario, Brian Blair, Tim Brooks, and some other guys. Winner got FIVE-THOUSAND DOLLARS. There was a masked man named Chan Chun. Gona go ahead and guess he wasn't really Asian. THERE ARE PINS. Three men pinned Barr. I think the tall balding fucker in blue jeans was THE LAWMAN. Final Four: Brody, Tim Brooks, Lothario, and Ali Mustafa. Brody and Brooks brawled on the floor. The heels quickly dumped Lothario, then double-teamed Brody. Brody dodged a charge and both heels went out and Brody won. That was the best part of this whole show.
347
348NWA World Championship Wrestling (3/12/88)
349
350The FAAAAAN-TASTICS! (Tics! Tics! Tics!) promo opened the show.
351
352Jim Crockett Jr. was there to announce that hopefully, no matches on the Clash would be interrupted by commercials. Hopefully. He also plugged the Crockett Cup. Schiavonie threw it to David Crockett and Jim Ross, who were standing ten feet away. They said Shane Douglas was scheduled to challenge Mike Rotunda for the TV title, but had not shown up to the building yet. Lex Luger stepped in and promptly removed his shirt. He ran down the Varsity Club and "the tactics that you revolve to." He moved on to the Horsemen and how rudely they they treated the fans who paid their salary. He kept mumbling over his lines and said maybe he and Barry would be the next tag team champions. This was not very good.
353
354Sting vs. Jon Savage. This was shown from an arena, with Ross and Crockett doing commentary in the studio. Sting won with the scorpion in like 20 seconds.
355
356Ric Flair and JJ Dillon arrived for a promo. Flair ran down Sting, saying he would need to go into the locker room, look at all the other babyfaces, and ask if he was man enough to do what he said he could do. He said he was due a big payday whenever he faced Sting, and plugged a bunch of matches they had all over the country. Then he talked about sex for a while and how good he was at it.
357
358Road Warriors vs. Gary Phelps & Keith Steinborn. Animal clotheslined some geek's head off and pinned him. We have yet to hit 60 seconds of actual wrestling on this show. They did a promo. Animal was trying to growl through his hockey mask and I could barely understand him. Hawk ran down the Bum-Barian and the Waffle Lord and said they should jump to their death rather than face the Warriors in a barbed wire match. He promised it would take years to get even. They left and Paul Ellering remained to say that Paul Jones' dreams had turned into a nightmare, and gruesome, ugly things would happen on March 27.
359
360Jive Tones vs. Rocky King & Gene Ligon. This was not a squash. King and Ligon got the heat and were doing double-teams. Fucking ROCKY KING ran wild and was beating up both Tones by himself. Tiger Conway did some of the slowest amateur grappling you'll ever see. Announcers, as they do every year, pushed the Crockett Cup as an OFFENSIVE TOURNAMENT. I'm still waiting to see a defensive tournament in wrestling. Here is a spot they actually did: The Jive Tones went for a double clothesline, but Ligon ducked and kept running. Then he hit the ropes and they just clotheslined him anyway. They hit the double legsweep and won. This was what it was.
361
362Dusty Rhodes promo pushing the Crockett Cup and the $1 million prize, then the barbed wire match. He said Baby Doll's envelope was in the hands of his attorneys. He said there was EEEEEEE-VIL in that envelope and a fan shouted "HOW EVIL!" He said that was him in the photo, but he didn't know what else was in the photo, because he didn't do that kind of thing. He said Larry Zbyszko still had to beat his ass, and if he couldn't, then Baby Doll should cross the ring and join a real man. His story on this fucking envelope changes every sentence.
363
364Midnight Express vs. Curtis Thompson & Trent Knight. Audio for Midnights' entrance was reduced to their Network music and four dudes gleefully applauding. Cornette did an amazing job running down all the babyface teams, but they pointed out he was avoiding the Fantastics. Midnights must have been in a good move because they sold forever for these goofs before cutting them off on the floor. Cornette said Stan Lane was "beating some meat" and cracked himself up. He promised they would be the top seeds in the tournament and Eaton pinned Knight with the gravedigger. Then they cut a promo and Cornette talked MORE. He said the only other teams worth a flip were the Powers of Pain and the Horsemen. He said the top 10 seeds would be announced at the Clash. He ws ranting and raving and sweating up a storm and Bobby and Stand were just leaning on the ropes behind him laughing and giggling. He was a vocal fucking juggernaut, this Cornette fella.
365
366Ricky Santana vs. Bob Riddle. Four minutes of armbars and then a top rope splash for the win.
367
368Jive Tones returned for a promo to plug THE SENIOR CUP. Sweet Jesus look at the skinny geek in the ring behind them. They promised they would make a million dollars look GOOOOOOD! Conway was sitting there waiting for his turn to talk and then said "We're going to invite -- what's her name?" He forgot who they were going to invite to their party and then forgot who was in the tournament. He finally remembered some names like the Road Warriors and said they would KILL someone for a million dollars. Shaska didn't look happy to hear that. This was a one-of-a-kind terrible promo and I DEMAND you all go watch this. Tiger Conway Jr. is this week's Worst Wrestler of All Time of the Week.
369
370Lex Luger vs. Dale Lapeyrouse. I may have jumped the gun with that WWOATOTW. Fucking Dale looked like a different species from Luger, and a vastly inferior one. Ross said he needed to eat more gumbo. Lex tried an armbar and fucking DALE LAPEYROUSE was legit trying to fight out. Lex threw him around a while and won with the torture rack. "It didn't take much effort to get this man up." Lapeyrouse was still better than Conway.
371
372Jimmy Garvin came out for a promo. Shane Douglas had not shown up, so Garvin was getting the TV title shot tonight. He was ranting about wanting the TV title, the WORLD TV title, the PRESTIGIOUS world TV title, and then stopped in the middle to tell Precious he loved her. This was awesome.
373
374Powers of Pain vs. Randy Hogan & Rick Orasie. POP had at least a 200-pound weight advantage here, maybe more. Powers beat them up for a while, through a commercial break. I like when Barbarian dropped Orasie across Warlord's knee, then picked him up and dropped him across his own knee. They hit a Rockerplex and a Hart attack and won. Warlord's cardio has improved dramatically and he got all the way through a long squash with no problems.
375
376Paul Jones and the Powers cut a promo after the break. Jones promised they would eliminate the Warriors in 1988. Jones wasn't terrible here but he just kept rambling on and Barbarian was getting bored and frustrated and tired holding up this heavy belt under these hot lights. Finally Jones ended a sentence and nobody was sure he was finished and they all looked at each other and left.
377
378Mike Rotunda vs. Gorgeous Jimmy. They wrestled back and forth for several minutes. Lots of headlocks and headscissors with the occasional hairpull by Rotunda. Garvin took over after the break and started working the leg. Rotunda, the alleged grappler, took over with punches and elbows and uppercuts. He dropped Garvin with a middle-rope elbow and did some jumping jacks. Garvin made a mini-comeback but Rotunda took him down with a double-leg. WRESTLING~! He hit a chinlock as they went to another break. Setup for the comeback was the most simple thing ever. Rotunda hit a kick to the ribs early, then he tried it again several minutes later and Garvin played Lucy to Rotunda's Charlie Brown. Garvin hit a running elbow for a three-count, but Sullivan put Rotunda's foot on the ropes after the fact. The ref was fooled and the match continued. Then Garvin made a cover and Sullivan tried to hit the ring. Precious grabbed him and Sullivan turned to level her, but Garvin stopped that. Ref got bumped and Rick Steiner passed the coat hangar to Rotunda, who hooked a hangar-assisted chinlock, and the ref recovered and dropped Garvin's arm three times for the decision. Well that was the most newsworthy thing to happen on this show in some time.
379
380Dillon returned for a promo as everyone in the building needed a chance to catch their breath. He plugged all the matches at the Clash and said we would find out if the scorpion was better than the figure-four. He teased they had a counter to the scorpion.
381
382Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson vs. Steve Atkinson & Dave Spearman. JJ was mic'd so we could hear him giving advice and inspiration to his men. This would be a lor more innovative if we hadn't already heard Cornette talk for the entire match when his men were out there. There were lots of hammerlocks here as Dillon argued that the ref should stop the match. This went on for several minutes and then they let Spearman tag out and they immediately DDT'd Atkinson. That would have been an awesome finish, but they beat him up for a while too. Tully eventually hit the slingshot suplex for the win.
383
384They cut a promo after the break saying they had dragged that match out so they could hone their skills and master their craft, which teams like Luger & Windham didn't do. Arn bragged about doing plain wrestling in plain gear. This wasn't show biz and they weren't stars, but fans kept coming back to watch them beat people up. He pointed out the fans didn't pay their salary, the Crocketts did, and they paid a lot. He promised they could take out Luger's giant arms as easily as they had this goof's, and they would win the Crockett Cup. This was good.
385
386Rick Steiner vs. Gary Royal. Rick did some amateur stuff and embarrassed him then threw him outside so his buddies could get thir shots in. Steiner did a shoot headlock takeover and spiked this goof on his head, then tore at his lips and tongue. This went on for a bit and Steiner suplexed Royal onto his head and blacked him out with a sugar hold. This was cruel destruction and it made me smile. Crockett then started his interview like so: "You're repulsive, you and your guys." He subtweeted the Horsemen, the Midnight Express, the Road Warriors, and Rocky, saying his men would beat them all. He claimed to have paid for a lot of good times for Jimmy Garvin in Singapore. Steiner and Rotunda started shoving and bickering and Sulivan just watched them, then said they were fired up. Of course, Sullivan called out Dusty, saying the American Dream was dead, and everyone at home hated their wife and was broke, and the show abruptly ended. Second half was fun, that's for sure.
387
388WWF Retro Raw 326 (8/23/99)
389
390Pics of Mankind winning the world championship at SummerSlam the night before.
391
392Ross was in the middle of introducing Mankind when Triple H and Chyna interrupted. A fan held up a sign with an Asian racial slur on it. I hope people beat the shit out of him. Hunter ranted about how he kept getting screwed, and then he had the belt won last night and the ref refused to count just because he had used a chair. Crowd chanted for Austin. He said he had pedigreed Austin and Foley had stolen the pin, and this was "bullshit," which was not bleeped. He bragged about laying Austin out after the match and taking him out of wrestling forever. He talked about Ross enjoying this, then put him in an armbar, and demanded Foley come out or he'd break Ross' arm. Foley appeared and granted Hunter his title shot, but then Hunter broke Ross' arm anyway. In the funniest moment of the entire summer, they put in a broken bone sound effect, but it was at least a full second late, like Ross' arm broke when he hit the mat. Foley revoked Hunter's title shot, but Shane McMahon appeared and remade the match. He could do this, he explained, because Shawn Michaels wasn't there. Well where the fuck is he? Why does he only show up once in a while?.
393
394Ross was loaded into an ambulance and taken away. Lawler guessed it was a compound fracture. Um, you shouldn't have to guess about that. Either you can see the bone or you can't. Michael Cole came out to take his place. Oh, lord.
395
396Road Dogg vs. Al Snow in a hardcore title match. They had Pepper the dog out there in a pet carrier at ringside. Poor thing had to be terrified. Thirty seconds in Al fucked up a spot with a ladder in a table and fell on his ass like a goof. Road Dogg used the only powerbomb of his career to put Al through the table as Chris Jericho attacked. They brawled to the back. Road Dogg ran out and kidnapped Pepper. Al was smiling in the wreckage of the table. Dogg and Jericho brawled backstage. Al ran after his dog. Bossman got into a car and drove away with Pepper Al ran up the ramp after him. Thus ends what had to be the very worst hardcore championship match of all time.
397
398Al was backstage, distraught that his dog was missing.
399
400Undertaker & Big Show vs. Acolytes. Kane & X-Pac came out to do commentary. Yes, Kane. Lillian Garcia was doing ring intros in her Raw debut and GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY she was terrible. I have thought for a long time that Nigel McGuinness was the most improved person in wrestling I ever saw, but I might have to change my mind now. Taker & Show had beaten Kane & X-Pac for the titles the night before. Faarooq got thrown into the announce desk. "Oh, Jesus Christ," Pac calmly said. So anyway, all three teams brawled for the DQ in a minute. X-Pac and Kane were left laying.
401
402Test told Stephanie to sit tight, he had a surprise for her.
403
404In something I have zero memory of, Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards aired Part I of a Blair Witch parody called the Blonde Bytch project. I can only assume this is a long, long rib on Tammy Sytch. They said it would continue on Smackdown.
405
406Test came out and said he had gone through hell for a few months, but if he had to do it again, he would. He had beaten Shane in the Love Her or Leave Her match at SummerSlam. He said he was there to pop a question and caled out Steph. Steph appeared but Shane ran out and said this would only happen over his dead body. Test, who has been a psycho this whole storyline, threatened to murder him. Steph interrupted and cut THE WORST PROMO OF HER LIFE. "I'M YOUR SISTER! WHY CAN'T YOU LOVE ME FOR WHO I AM?" Test decided this would be a good time to take a knee. "Will you marry me?" That's it, no speech about how he made her happy or what she meant to him. Steph said she loved him but she needed time and they hugged. THIS WAS SO FUCKING BRUTALLY BAD.
407
408Jericho was backstage with Howard Finkel, his new Ralphus. Fink seemed to understand something by the end of this.
409
410Jeff Jarrett and Mark Henry came out for a promo. Jarrett was now IC and European champion. Well, he was, then he handed the Euro belt to Mark. Yeah, great. Jeff said Debra needed an assistant and introduced Miss Kitty. Lawler was excited to see her, as you can imagine. Jarrett then announced he had signed an open contract and would be defending the IC belt later. At this point Henry was supposed to wrestle Meat, but D-Lo Brown in the best shape of his life was beating the hell out of Meat backstage. This one-sided backstage ass-kicking seriously went longer than most of the matches on this show. And somehow this turned into D-Lo vs. Henry.
411
412D-Lo Brown vs. Mark Henry. Match went a minute. D-Lo hit the Lo Down but Jarrett attacked for the DQ. Yes.
413
414Mr. Ass wanted to sign Jarrett's contract but couldn't find a pen. He told Chyna not to let anyone sign it and left to find one. Chyna laughed at this moron and pulled a pen out of her bra and signed. Mr. Ass really was one of the biggest goofs in wrestling history.
415
416After the break, Ass was searching for Chyna.
417
418I am exhausted and this show isn't even half over.
419
420Rock vs. Gangrel. Hardys were vampires now. I forgot. I was not alone, Lawler flat-out said the same thing. Jeff climbed INTO THE RING to distract the ref so Matt could hit Rock on the floor for the heat. They kept attacking until Edge and Christian ran out and chased them to the back. Rock made his comeback, they went back and forth a bit, and Rock hit the Rock bottom and people's elbow for the win. Just a match, but far and away the best thing on the show and the fans cheered for Rock like he was Jesus. This segment was a total win.
421
422Rock cut a promo burying Hunter and Mankind and saying "cowshit" and not getting bleeped. He promised to take matters into his own hand.
423
424Howard Finkel was in a weight room trying to psych himself up.
425
426Kevin Kelly interviewed a wooden mannequin dressed as Tori backstage. The wooden mannequin said Ivory was obsessed with tearing her clothes off and challenged her to an evening gown match on Smackdown.
427
428The Ultimate Warrior's music hit and Finkel came running down to the ring. He had better cardio than Warrior if I'm being honest. He cut a promo hyping up Jericho. WHY IS THIS VOICE DOING GOOFY COMEDY STUFF WHILE NOT-READY-FOR-TV LILLIAN GARCIA IS DOING RING INTROS? Fink said he agreed with everything Jericho was doing and called Road Dogg down to the ring to tell him what Jericho was all about. Dogg said Finkel was joking, but Fink said Dogg was a joke and shoved him. Dogg said Fink was high, but Fink shoved him again. Dogg grabbed Finkel, but Y2J's music played, and then Jericho jumped him from behind. He hit a fucking double powerbomb, and Dogg is not a small man. I totally forgot he used that move.
429
430Al was still sad backstage.
431
432Ass was looking for Chyna. Hunter told him she wasn't there. Ass said he was looking for her.
433
434Hardcore Holly did a promo backstage hyping a battle of the super heavyweights, and hoping Crash Holly would answer his challenge.
435
436Crash Holly vs. Hardcore Holly. Thank goodness Crash had his gear on and ready to go two seconds after his cousin called him out. They immediately brawled into the crowd and disappeared backstage. This was mostly Bob stiffing the fuck out of this little guy. They brawled out of the building and vanished.
437
438Kevin Kelly said Austin had suffered ligament and tendon damage in both knees. Very specific info there Kev. He interviewed Mankind, who was very upset that Ross wouldn't be calling his matches anymore.
439
440Al Snow was crying backstage. Must have been watching his own matches.
441
442Kane & X-Pac vs. Midian & Viscera. Taker and Show came out to do commentary. The Corporate Ministry is dead, but Taker was Vis and Mid were still his disciples. He said they didn't have Big Show's talent, but they had desire, and if Show could match their desire he'd be unstoppable. Acolytes came out in a minute. "What the hell are they doing here?" Bearer asked. No heat for the match as everyone waited for the inevitable run-in. Crowd finally popped when Pac made a comeback, but then the Acolytes jumped Kane and Viscera pinned Pac with a splash.
443
444Mr. Ass walked around for a while. Seriously.
445
446Jericho told Finkel he needed a lot of work but he might get a job on Smackdown.
447
448Mr. Ass came out for a promo. Oh, hearing Lillian say "Mr. Ass." He called out Chyna and told her to bring her "sweet little ass" to the ring. So, she did. He asked what kind of game she was playing. She said he was thinking out his ass. He demanded she give him the title shot and she accepted the challenge, but then Jarrett appeared and broke the guitar over Chyna's head. Ass then took a guitar from Miss Kitty and broke it over Jarrett's head. Chyna didn't move for the next minute. Well this was unpleasant.
449
450Michael Cole was stunned that Rock was walking backstage and then stunned again three minutes later when Rock came out to do commentary. Rock asked who was booking this crap. On that note, Shane came out in a ref's shirt and Cole screamed "WHAT NOW?" Don't these dipshits realize that the more surprises you do, the less impressive each one becomes? So anyway.
451
452Triple H vs. Mankind. Michael Cole just said the following about Triple H: "He snapped King, but he snapped with a focus, cold, calculated plan." Rock said Cole didn't realize how stupid he sounded. Rock noted he was fighting goofs like Mr. Ass and Gangrel when he should be fighting for the title. At this point, dude, Gangrel is a big step up from Mr. Ass. A minute in, Foley put Shane in the Socko claw and threw him out of the ring. Chyna came out, still holding her head, but Foley Socko'd her too and very gently led her out of the ring. Double-arm DDT, no ref. Second ref in, Hunter kicks out. And then, at this point, on this show, a professional wrestling match broke out. They brawled on the floor and Hunter leveled Rock with a chair right to the head. Shane took out the second ref and Hunter hit a pedigree and Shane counted three and Hunter won his first world title.
453
454EXTRA ATTITUDE. Foley laid out Hunter. Rock laid out Shane and hit a people's elbow on both of them. I know this is just a goofy little bit to send the fans home happy, but Foley was out there two minutes after losing the world title and partying with the Rock like he didn't have a care in the world. When you look at what happened over all this of his reigns, he really was the worst-booked world champion the company ever had. At least Rey Mysterio had wins over Randy Orton and JBL. I don't think there was one time ever where Foley entered a show as world champion and then left triumphant. So Foley hit a people's elbow, which made everyone happy except Rock. Foley went to seek Rock's approval, and finally Rock offered a reluctant handshake. Foley was so happy to have shaken the Rock's hand, and everyone was happy for him. This got such a huge ovation that they came out and did it again, and Rock even added a little bro hug. They left and Hunter posed with his belt a bit and that was that. The very rare occasion where Extra Attitude was the best thing on the show, but that mostly tells you what a shitshow this episode was.
455
456The finishes on this show were: no finish in a hardcore championship match that went 30 seconds and ended in a dognapping; DQ in a minute when a team that wasn't in the match got laid out; DQ in a minute due to run-in; CLEAN PIN; no finish when dudes brawled out of the building and went home; pin after interference; pin after a second ref and copious interference and an assault on an announcer and all sorts of other horseshit and cowshit.
457
458WCW Monday Nitro 205 (8/23/99)
459
460Show opened with clips of Sid running wild last week.
461
462Nothing happened for a while.
463
464Mikey Whipwreck vs. Chase Tatum. They said Sting had stepped down as WCW president. This on the day we learn Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort are going to prison. Tatum was the white guy from the No Limit Soldiers. He was big and jacked up and looked OK except for one sloppy dropkick. Announcers went silent for a full minute, then Sid came out and attacked everyone. He had somehow won 11 matches since last week, and then he pinned both of these dudes to reach 68-0. Sid then had the temerity to tell us that WE did not know how to count. This streak is fucking horrendous. Let me tell you something. In the pre-World War I era, the Washington Huskies had a 64-game unbeaten streak, a record that still stands. Sounds great, until you look at their record and see some of those wins came against high school teams, goofs from local gyms, and sailors in port looking for something to do. But you know what? It blows Sid's winning streak out of the water.
465
466Kidman apologized to Kimberly for saying she was hot. She accepted and said Page was crazy.
467
468Goldberg arrived and found Page had laid Kidman out. They had multiple cameras to film this pullapart. Motherfucker, this is worse than Raw.
469
470Jersey Triad came out for a promo. Page claimed Kidman had been trained by Kanyon and brought into the company by Page, and had no business talking about his wife. He challenged Goldberg for tonight. They were back in Vegas, and he noted the last team he and Goldberg had been in Vegas, for Halloween Havoc, they had blown the roof off the place. That was a hell of a match.
471
472Sting came out for a promo, saying Hogan had promised to kick his ass, only he couldn't bring himself to say "ass." He did say "butt" though. Lex Luger interrupted. He said Sting had always stood by him and he was the one guy who was the true backbone of WCW. He warned Sting, though, that Hulk Hogan couldn't be trusted. Sting took a long time to say he was still going to wrestle Hogan for the world title tonight, and Lex wished him the best. Wait, was Lex's argument that Sting should turn down a title shot because Hulk might cheat? What the hell was his point?.
473
474Mike Tenay was outside, where Eric Bischoff stepped out of the dopest Uber ever. He denied that he would be the new WCW president and made fun of Tenay for listening to rumors on the Internet.
475
476Cat vs. Buff Bagwell. Onoo went after Buff on the floor when Luger, of all people, came down to put a stop to it. The camera focused on this and totally missed Buff hitting Cat with the blockbuster for the win. Fucking Nitro.
477
478"KNOW VICTORY. NO DEFEAT. BERLYN." I like that this is all interspersed with shots of the Berlin Wall coming down. Like he was hiding behind it and now he's released.
479
480DDP vs. Goldberg. Goldberg had lost the Megadeth music, but had a remixed version of his old theme. Might have been his WWE theme, I guess. Bigelow hit Goldberg with a keg or something in the aisle, but Goldberg totally no-sold this and leveled Kanyon and Bigelow with spears in the ring. Page fled through the crowd. Goldberg warned Page "I'm gonna kill ya" and "I'm gonna rip your throat out" next week in New York.
481
482WEST TEXAS REDNECKS MUSIC VIDEO. They went fishing, pissed off the side of a bridge, cruised in a convertible, set a picnic table on fire, damn near killed themselves riding ATVs, and walked the strip for a while, and finally their car died and they got into a limo and left. Well this was awesome.
483
484Lodi's fans threw a Nitro party and talked about how much they loved Lodi. A masked man attacked and a food fight broke out. What in the fucking fuck was that? "I don't know where that was from" Schiavonie noted.
485
486Juventud Guerrera vs. Lenny. Yes, just "Lenny." Announcers went silent again. What's going on? Part of me thinks they were saying nice things about Chris Benoit and had to be cut out. Low blow right in front of the ref. Interference right in front of the ref. Juvy hit a big dive but went after Lodi, and Lenny hit his own big dive for the heat. Wait a minute. do Juvy's tights say "BABY JUICE?" They do! They do say BABY JUICE! Some fans figured out Lenny and Lodi's gimmick and chanted "YOU ARE GAY!" Then they chanted something much more rude. Juvy was making his comeback when Sid returned. He powerbombed all three dudes and pinned two of them to go 70-0. Sid cut a promo in the dark about how nobody could stop him. I think at one point he was singing. He ran down Goldberg and Sting and everyone else and said people would be chanting his name.
487
488West Texas Rednecks came out to play their song. THIS WAS AWESOME. These goofs were out there having the time of their lives blatantly lip-syncing and not knowing how to play their instruments. The best part was the dueling guitar solo as the song was playing keyboards and fiddles. THIS RULED.
489
490Hugh Morrus & Barbarian & Brian Knobbs vs. Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Shane Douglas. Your basic trios match. Heat on Dean, hot tag Saturn, who made a great comeback. Six-way broke out, and then Rick Steiner ran out and hit Saturn with the diving bulldog behind the ref's back. The ref turned, SAW RICK STEINER IN THE RING, and counted the pin for Knobbs. Benoit hit the ring and challenged Steiner to a US title match. "OUT WITH EVOLUTION," Douglas said, "IN WITH REVOLUTION!" He's challenging Triple H and his pals from the future! Actually, when you think about it, that probably would have been a hell of a match.
491
492Berlyn promo.
493
494Insane Clown Posse vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. & Billy Kidman. The Clowns were fucking GOOD here. Especially J, who even hit a dope brainbuster. He totally failed to catch Rey on a dive, but it was kind of Rey's fault for coming up short. Vampiro tried to interfere, but Kidman whipped Shaggy into him and pinned Shaggy. The Dead Pool continued the attack until Eddie Guerrero made the save. Well this was fun.
495
496Mean Gene called Hulk Hogan out for a promo. He said he was true to his family and true to the Stinger, but he was still going to kick Sting's ass. Well OK then.
497
498Rick Steiner vs. Chris Benoit. I could have watched this match 20 times in a row. They went out there with barely anything planned and had a FIGHT. Benoit made his comeback and tried the headbutt, but Steiner pulled the ref in the way. He went to use the belt as a weapon, but Saturn hit the ring and attacked him, but Sid appeared and attacked HIM. Benoit recovered and chased them away with the belt. This was so fun I don't even care there wasn't a finish. Benoit cut a promo about cliques and politics and challenged them to a tag match on Thunder. So Sid cut a promo into the camera about how small they were. Benoit tried to get a "REVOLUTION" chant started, which didn't work out too well.
499
500Harlem Heat vs. Barry & Kendall Windham. Why can't it just be Barry vs. Booker T? Hell, even Booker in a handicap match? Book got a hot tag and it turned into a mess, with everyone out of position. The Rednecks tried to interfere but it backfired and they all got laid out. Booker hit the missile dropkick but the ref was distracted. Hennig clonked him with a cowbell and put Kendall on top. Fucking Nick Patrick took another ten seconds to turn around and count the pin. Well that sure was a bad match. Curt sang his song as the Windhams raised their tag belts, the happiest cowboys you ever saw. This was so good if you ignore the actual wrestling.
501
502Jesus, another Berlyn video. It's been maybe three weeks but they play it so often it feels like three years.
503
504Vampiro vs. Eddie Guerrero. THIS RULED. Suplexes and chops and flying kicks everywhere! Eddie hit a superplex and went for the frog splash when the clowns returned. So Eddie tried a dive onto them. He slipped and came up short. They still broke his fall, but it looked like Shaggy hurt his leg in the process. He was able to get to the apron and Vampiro threw Eddie into him and pinned him. Well that fell apart at the end. Kidman and Rey ran out to chase the Dead Pool away again.
505
506Hulk Hogan vs. Sting. Michael Buffer acknowledged Lorenzo Fertitta and Marc Ratner, among others. They shook hands to start, but were soon shoving and barking at each other. They did lots of fun basic stuff early. Both guys got two-counts off cradles. Sting gave Hogan a clean break in the corner, but then when Hogan had a chance to return the favor he hit some knees and went to work. They went back and forth a while, brawling on the floor and into the announce desk. They went at it in the ring and these dudes were working HARD. Sting finally did a long chinlock, because Hogan needs a chinlock so he can Hulk Up. It was a little funny because Sting had no idea how to feed it and was out of position a lot, but they made it work. He dodged the legdrop and hit a Stinger splash, but then Hogan got a boot up, and Sting tried again and hit the corners. And then Sid and Steiner attacked for the DQ and thunderous boos. I don't know how many times Sting and Hogan went one-on-one, but I can't imagine too many were better than this, even without a finish. Plus, you know, like Sting and Hogan were going to do a clean finish on a random Nitro. Goldberg and Luger ran out to put an end to the brawl. Hogan shook Goldberg's and Sting's hands, but wasn't happy with Lex. He did have them witness as he promised to give Sting another title shot. Then they all celebrated and posed together. I enjoyed this program.
507
508The finishes on this show were: some shitty-ass bullshit to add to the fucking dirt-worst winning streak in the history of sports; pin after shenanigans; match canceled when one guy saw his friends get slaughtered and ran for his life; more bullshit to add to the fucking dirt-worst winning streak in the history of sports; pin after interference; no finish because the ref got laid out; pin after interference; pin after interference; double-DQ in the main event. No, there was not one clean pin or submission on this entire program.
509
510NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV (8/18/18)
511
512Roderick Strong & Kyle O'Reilly vs. Tyler Bate & Trent Seven. I was happy to see both teams wearing matching gear -- Undisputed Era in black with yellow and white trim, Mountain in green and grey. Hot start with a wild four-way brawl. Brief heat on Seven, then Bate made a great comeback, including a combo fireman's carry/giant swing spot, then a German suplex with one guy on his back. My god what a freak. And then Roddy cut him off with one of the greatest clotheslines I've ever seen. Looked like Bate got hit by a train. They worked him over with some fiendish submission holds for a while. Seven made a hot tag where he was taking like eight steps to run corner-to-corner, but his power spots were way more impressive. O'Reilly used a brainbuster, which I thought was banned in WWE. Undisputed Era hooked simultaneous submissions, but Bate did the easiest one-armed Gotch lift ever and launched O'Reilly into Strong. He followed with a giant dive that wiped out both heels. This man turned 21 in March. He hit the Tyler Driver 97 but Strong kicked out. The pace of this match was ridiculous. Perpetual motion. O'Reilly did an awesome roll into a heel hook. Seven grabbed the towel and teased throwing it in, but was conflicted, and he threw it into the crowd instead. In something I've never seen before, Strong charged across the ring, and Seven backdropped him from the apron. Insanity. Bate dragged himself to the corner and tagged seven, who hit a big lariat for a nearfall. He tagged Bate back and they hit the burning hammer/kneedrop combo, but O'Reilly kicked out. People were just losing their shit over all this. Undisputed then hit total elimination (or something close to it) for the win. Well, not quite as good as their last match, but good luck to everyone else on the show trying to follow that. (****).
513
514As Strong and O'Reilly were celebrating, the War Raiders appeared in the ring and destroyed them. Well, I am ready to pay for that match now.
515
516Velveteen Dream vs. EC3. I love that this whole feud is set up to determine who is the bigger douchebag. EC3, theoretically the babyface, was doing heel spots like the Rick Rude hip swivel and getting his trunks pulled down. They brawled on the ramp and Dream hit his weird twisting DDT on the steel. There was a beach ball or something in the crowd that got a huge reaction. They brawled on the floor and Dream dumped a bottle of water on him. EC3 then grabbed him for a DDT but legsweeped him the other way. That's even weirder than Dream's DDT, and I didn't think that was possible. He followed with a headlock DDT for two. Lots of dumb-looking moves in this match. At least they're not finishes, I guess. EC3 with a pair of powerbombs for two. This had been OK but was starting to drag now. Dream hit the cartwheel DVD for two, then really woke the crowd up by hitting one on the apron and then the purple rainmaker out there, rolling EC3 inside for the win. I'm a little surprised, but I'd say the right man won. Certainly not a bad match, but I have higher expectations than this for TakeOvers. (**1/2).
517
518The wrestling world's worst-kept secret was revealed as Matt Riddle was shown in the crowd.
519
520Adam Cole vs. Ricochet for the North American title. Cole spent the first five minutes or so repeatedly dodging Ricochet's offense and telling him he was not special. Finally Ricochet hit a flurry of high-flying offense that, well, nobody else can do. They did the Shelton Benjamin-Shawn Michaels spot, but Ricochet blocked the superkick. Seconds later Ricochet tried this massive quebrada but Cole caught him with a superkick in midair that blew the damn roof off the place. Timing on a level I can't comprehend. He followed with the brainbuster onto the knee for a nearfall. That one fucking spot elevated the heat by many degrees, and it stayed that hot. They had a big strike exchange for a nearfall. Ricochet dodged the shining wizard to the back of the head, a strike he could not see coming, and hit a reverse rana of doom. He went up top, but Cole rolled out of the ring. So with Cole standing on the apron, Ricochet hit a running rana over the ropes sending Cole to the floor, then hit the 630 senton for the win. Like, really, you can skip everything but the last three minutes of this, but those last thre minutes were like something out of a superhero movie. (****1/2).
521
522Mark Henry and Kevin Owens were shown hanging out in the crowd and having a great old time.
523
524Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler. I loaded up Kairi's old theme to play during her entrance. IT IS SO MUCH BETTER. The other three Horsewomen were shown in the crowd. Ronda was marking out. Shayna overwhelmed her, took her down, and starting doing all sorts of cruel things to her foot and ankle. She mocked Kairi's pirate walk. Kairi started daring Shayna to hit her and they exchanged strikes. Kairi got the better of that and took over. She did a ONE-LEGGED PIRATE WALK to set up the sliding D, which needs a new name immediately. Kairi hit a spear out of nowhere and the insane elbow to the back, then a diving cross body from the top rope to the floow, and finally the insane elbow in the ring, but Shayna kicked out. She tried the anchor, but Shayna reversed it to the rear naked choke. Kairi got the ropes and the crowd started chanting her name. They traded submission attempts for a while. Kairi hooked the anchor in the ropes. Percy Watson, by the way, is getting better. He hadn't said anything stupid this whole show, and a few times actually added to the show. Kairi tried the insane elbow again but Shayna got the boots up into the arm, but when Shayna went for the choke Sane rolled backwards for the pin, Bret Hart-Steve Austin style. Great finish, but not as great as the Ricochet-Cole finish, and not as consistently good as the opener. (***3/4).
525
526Kairi then threw a ***** celebration, clutching the belt, saluting Shayna, and posing on the turnbuckles, all with tears streaming down her face. Just when you think she can't get any more lovable, she does this.
527
528Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa in a last man standing match for the NXT championship. Kayla Braxton had to memorize a LONG speech over-explaining the very simple rules to this thing. Johnny came out in a jacket that turned his usual logo into a Venom-ized, toothy grin. Oh, please tell me Ciampa is going to come out in black-and-blood like Carnage. Instead he was in red-and-gold like Iron Man. Thunderous boos as soon as Gargano's music stopped, then even more as he came out in silence and held up the belt and smiled. Nearly 40 minutes left in the show when the bell rang. They brawled from the get-go. Ciampa went for the eye and an "ECW" chant broke out. Ciampa took a scary out-of-control bump flying over the announce desk, then hit an air raid crash off one desk through another. Johnny made a comeback with a chair back in the ring. Ciampa hooked a sleeper, which guys should use in last man standing matches more often. They worked that for several minutes, and finally Johnny ran forward and lawn-darted Ciampa into a chair in the corner. They had exposed some cement in the opening minutes, by the way, but not done anything with it. Johnny stacked one table over the cement, than another on top of it, upside-down. Ciampa cut him off with rolling Germans. A trio of project Ciampa's put Johnny down, and Ciampa then sat in a chair to watch Johnny try to beat the count. This was a bad idea, as Johnny popped up at 8 and superkicked him in the mouth. Johnny literally had the snot knocked out of him here. They put each other down in a strike exchange, then both shot up at 1. Johnny had hit a somersault dive off the apron earlier, but he missed it here, and Ciampa hit the angel's wings on the stairs. That's actually an easier bump to take than in the ring because it's easier to land on your feet, but if something goes wrong, you're dead. Ciampa started tearing the ring apart. Johnny blinded him with a fire extinguisher and began to destroy him with the dreaded crutch. They teased the DDT onto wood that ended their last match, and then Johnny hit one of his own. They brawled on the floor and Johnny accidentally superkicked some production goof. He was distracted and Ciampa laid him out with running knee to the head through the barricade. He buried Johnny under a pile of furniture, including the dead production guy, and told the ref to count, but Johnny dug his way out. So Ciampa pulled out handcuffs, as they were doing callbacks to every match they had ever had. They started teasing spots through the tables, and finally Ciampa just ate a superkick and fell through them. Well that was easy. Ciampa used the crutch to get to his feet. Ciampa slowly made his way up the ramp, still leaning on the crutch, but Johnny followed him up there and threw him into the video screen, the spot that started all this. Gargano escape and Ciampa tapped, but of course that doesn't matter. Johnny realized Ciampa had one had cuffed, and cuffed the other hand to part of the stage. Ciampa begged for mercy, but Johnny rammed his head into the crate and superkicked his head into it. Ciampa kept begging and said he was sorry. Johnny responded by kicking him in the head over and over. Finally Johnny was conflicted and very unsure of what to do. Finally he pulled down the kneepad and hit Ciampa's running kneestrike, but in the process he went flying off the stage and went tumbling through more equipment. The ref counted them both up to 9. Ciampa then rolled off the stage and was dangling by the handcuff, but his feet were on the arena floor. So technically he was standing, so technically he won. This is, no joke, one of the best finishes I've ever, ever, ever seen. Johnny was in fact done in by his own hate. His fall to the dark side cost him in the end. And Ciampa won SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE HE FAILED TO STAND, but he benefitted from unique circumstances. And of course he will brag about how this was his triumph. Within minutes Mauro somehow magically knew that Johnny had dislocated his knee. I don't think you can diagnose that so quickly, and you sure as hell can't get word to Mauro that fast. They've had better matches, but this is the best feud of 2018 by miles and miles, and one of the best I've ever seen. The last shot of the show was Johnny sitting on the ramp, unable to stand, and Ciampa coming out one more time to taunt him with the belt. Awesome. (****1/2)
529
530WWE NXT (8/22/18)
531
532They recapped all the results of TakeOver.
533
534(demon debut in the next F4W)
535
536
537~~~~~~~
538
539WWF Retro Raw 324 (8/9/99)
540
541The Millennium arrives in 1 hour, 25 minutes.
542
543Rock came out for a promo. Big Show was shown backstage going to confront him, but Taker held him back and said they should hear what he had to say and let him entertain them. Rock said Big Show had laid him out on Heat and ran him down for a while, saying all the fans went to the bathroom whenever Big Slow came out. He made fun of Show's grunting and roaring and finally Show and Taker came out to kill him. Rock said he wasn't running from anyone. Well, he should have. X-Pac ran out to attack Taker, but he fared no better than Rock did. Road Dogg was next to come and die. Kane hit the ring and fared far better than anyone else had, and finally Taker and Kane fled after taking a 4-on-2 beating. Well, it's Show and Taker.
544
545A limo arrived backstage. Man, they've done a lot of angles at the entrance ramp at this building in Chicago. They said it would be Jesse Ventura in the limo, but Shawn Michaels stepped out instead.
546
547They plugged StoneCold.com. It actually does redirect you to Austin's page on WWE.com.
548
549Cole interviewed X-Pac and Kane backstage. X-Pac said he was back from his concussion, he had just taken care of some unfinished business, and the Acolytes and the tag team titles were next on deck.
550
551Christian vs. Gangrel. Fans chanted that Gangrel sucked. Well, yeah. He's a vampire. Hardy Boyz ran out and Christian attacked them. Gangrel spat blood in Christian's eyes and pinned him. I sure enjoyed the wrestling we got on last week's show, and I'll miss it. So Christian got triple-teamed, then Edge ran out and got triple-teamed too. Michael Hayes ran out and tried to boss the Hardys around, but they laid him out with Twists of Fate and the senton. More action after the bell than in the match.
552
553Acolytes agreed to defend the belts against Kane & X-Pac. They called out Taker & Show too.
554
555Jesse was walking backstage.
556
557Lawler called Jesse down to the ring for an interview. Chicago crowd loved the Body. Jesse said he was a former wrestling champion who knew his way around the ring, he was the guest referee at the very first SummerSlam, and he was a Navy SEAL. He buried people who claimed to be SEALs on other movies and TV shows. He rattled off some famous SEALs bragged about climbing a rope on a boat and made other references I didn't get. The WWF knew he was in the only one who could guarantee law and order and that the best WRESTLER would be the champion at SummerSlam. He mentioned Triple H, and Hunter and Chyna came out to interrupt. Jesse warned them to work on their WRESTLING MOVES, because the best WRESTLER was going to win. Hunter said this was his ring, but Jesse said this was his country, and he bragged about hanging out with the president. Hunter threatened to kick his ass when HBK interrupted. He said he was the one who brought Hunter into this ring and threatened to knock him out. Hunter shoved him, but Jesse got between them. He whispered something in Shawn's ear, and Shawn booked a Triple H-Taker-Steve Austin three-way for tonight. This was a very good segment and Jesse was awesome.
558
559Steve Austin showed up for work.
560
561Earlier Today, D-Lo Brown took Mark Henry out for a run. Mark had to pee and disappeared into the woods. A car pulled up and Jeff Jarrett jumped out and attacked D-Lo, then drove away.
562
563Jeff Jarrett vs. Val Venis. Jeff jumped him at the bell as the announcers said something had happened in the locker room, but he didn't know what. Then it was in the stairwell. Debra tried to distract Val, but he hit a blue thunder bomb for the win anyway. Jeff was scolding Debra after the match when Val returned and beat him out of the ring. Val and Debra then left together and Ross called Val a gentleman. Even Lawler was appalled.
564
565Austin was unconscious at the bottom of a stairwell.
566
567After the break, Austin was loaded into an ambulance. Cole said Austin hadn't fallen, he was hit by a cinder block. Hunter and Chyna arrived and pled ignorance.
568
569Michaels returned to the ring and called out Hunter. Hunter failed to show, so Shawn said the triple-threat tonight was still on. Hunter finally arrived and repeated that he had no idea what was going on. Shawn said the three-way would be falls count anywhere, no-DQ, with the SummerSlam title match on the line. Hunter protested, but Shawn wasn't budging, and said he'd be the special ref too. Hunter said OK, fine, but Austin's not here. Shawn said they'd just have to find another opponent and asked who had been living in somebody else's shadow for so long they would jump at the chance to main event SummerSlam, then announced it would be Hunter vs. Taker vs. Chyna. Hunter laughed this off and said Chyna was just a girl and she could get hurt, this was no place for a woman. Chyna yanked the mic and said she'd take the shot, and told Hunter to try her.
570
571Hunter and Chyna were still bickering after the break.
572
573Kane & X-Pac vs. Acolytes. Faarooq hit Pac with a VERY violent spinebuster for the heat. Hot tag Kane to a huge pop. Broke down into a four-way. Kane yanked Bradshaw out of the ring and X-Pac hit Faarooq with an X-Factor to win the match and the titles. Your basic three-minute tag match, but huge pop for the finish. Pac told the crowd Kane had two words for them, but pulled away the voicebox and said Kane didn't need it. So the future mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, growled SUCK IT and everyone cheered. Road Dogg was out there partying too when Taker and Show laid everyone out again.
574
575GTV showed Mr. Ass getting a massage. He wanted some special herbs put on his ass.
576
577Joey Abs & Steve Blackman vs. Ken Shamrock & Test. They claimed Test had broken Pete Gas' neck and Rodney's arm. Shane McMahon attacked Test, which led to nothing. Shane grabbed a chair but Shamrock caned it back into his face and chased Blackman away, and Test pinned Abs with a doctor bomb. Test repeatedly Pillmanized Abs' ankle afterwards. Test is such a psycho in this story. I wouldn't want him dating my sister either.
578
579Mr. Ass chased the women out of the makeup area and showed a rash on his ass, then said he wasn't a pervert.
580
581Cole interviewed Test. Test called the Posse "butt-sniffers" and made fun of them for whining about their broken bones. He warned Shane he was next. HE'S SUCH A DICK.
582
583Red Rooster interviewed Blackman, who wanted Shamrock in a Lion's Den match with weapons all over the cage. Because, he said, this had to end one way OR ANOTHER!!! He was so wooden and then randomly screamed those last two words at the top of his lungs. I laughed so hard.
584
585Rock came out for a promo. He challenged Show to a singles match tonight. The Millennium clock appeared and the last few seconds counted down. There were more fans who knew where this was going and chanting his hame than I remembered. So yeah, Raw is Jericho now. He introduced himself and claimed to be their new hero and the most charismatic figure ever to grace their screen. He said Raw had become a boring snooze-fest, and he had come to save the WWF. TV ratings, PPV buyrates, mainstream press, and crowd reactions were all hitting rock bottom. He buried literally the entire roster and said nobody cared about them, including Rock. He dubbed himself Y2J and said the company would never be the same again. Well, he's right about that. The crowd absolutely loved him, but they absolutely loved the Rock even more, and cheered along as he buried Jericho and threatened to beat his ass. His music played and a flustered Jericho stared him down. Well, this was historic, one of the best debuts in company history, and it absolutely holds up two decades later.
586
587And from there we go to Bob Holly looking for Big Show. Yeah, fuck you and fuck this shit.
588
589The hunt continued after the break.
590
591Chyna was sitting on a hideous couch and lacing up her boots.
592
593Big Bossman vs. Road Dogg. Bossman is still hardcore champion, but this was a non-title hardcore rules match. No, really. Headshot after headshot, and Bossman powerbombed Dogg through a table. Al Snow appeared and broke a dog carrier over Bossman's head and Dogg pinned him. Well this sucked.
594
595Rock vs. Big Show. Either Show is getting bigger or his trunks are getting smaller. Either way, bad news. They wrestled for two minutes and then Holly came out and got in Show's face, and Rock hit a low blow and DDT to set up the People's Elbow. Jericho attacked for the DQ, and then Mr. Ass followed, laying Rock out with a jackhammer. Then he rubbed his itchy butt. Was this like a rib on the Rock, to have him feud with the biggest geek they could possibly create to see if he could make it work?.
596
597Triple H vs. Chyna vs. Undertaker with Jesse Ventura on commentary and Shawn Michaels in those shorts as special ref. Jesse was great on commentary. GREAT. Perfect voice, perfect cadence, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, funny, invested. They tried to keep Chyna's involvement limited, but that just meant every time she raised her head Taker was manhandling her and taking her out of the match like a geek. Taker went to chokeslam Hunter, but Chyna cut him off with a low blow, and they double-teamed Taker for a while. Hunter offered a handshake, but Chyna dropped him with an elbow and a low blow. Taker lifted Chyna with one arm, but then set her down with a chokeslam as gently as he could. Hunter checked on her, then made a cover, but Taker broke it up. Jesse and Lawler were having a ball, laughing at old times in Memphis. They showed Austin storming through backstage and grabbing a chair. Chyna and Hunter got knocked off the apron, and Taker started menacing Shawn for a while. Austin appeared and leveled Hunter with a chair, then put Chyna on top and Shawn counted three. Taker was fuming as it was announced that Chyna was now the top contender for Austin's title. Show was historic, that's for sure.
598
599The finishes on this show were: pin after distraction and blood in the eyes; pin after failed distraction; clean pin for the tag titles; I guess clean pin in a very chaotic tag match; pin after interference in a hardcore match; DQ after distraction, interference, and a postmatch attack; pin after interference in a hardcore match.
600
601WCW Monday Nitro 203 (8/9/99)
602
603
604~~~~~
605
606Figure Four Weekly (2) Apply Figure Four Weekly filter
607 
608Wrestling Observer Newsletter (4) Apply Wrestling Observer Newsletter filter
609(-) Remove 2018 filter
6102018
611(-) Remove August 2018 filter
612August 2018
613August 27, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Summerslam and NXT Takeover Brooklyn reviews, more
6142018-08-23
615WWE Summerslam and NXT Takeover Brooklyn reviewed, plus tons of news.
616
617August 20, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Death of Jim Neidhart, ROH/NJPW sell out MSG
6182018-08-16
619A look at the career of Jim Neidhart, details on ROH/NJPW selling out MSG, plus tons of news.
620
621Figure Four Weekly: ROH and NJPW sell out Madison Square Garden
6222018-08-14
623Joseph Currier examines the sellout of MSG and what it could mean for the future.
624
625August 13, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov to set records
6262018-08-09
627Conor McGregor returns to UFC to face Khabib Nurmagomedov, plus tons of news.
628
629~~~~~
630
631FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: BECKY LYNCH'S CONTRIVED HEEL TURN
632BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
633TWITTERFACEBOOKGOOGLE+
634For the PDF click here.
635
636For the Epub click here.
637
638 
639
640 
641
642Becky Lynch's Contrived Heel Turn
643
644 
645
646by Joseph Currier (@josephcurrier)
647
648
649~~~~~~~~
650
651
652Keyword search
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689B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
690Aug 28, 2018 9:27pm
691Two terrible programs to review, but you can watch this excellent program in beautiful HD at video.f4wonline.com!
692
693B&V: NWA World Championship Wrestling from 1988 plus TripleMania hardcore insanity!
694Aug 27, 2018 12:11am
695Check out this and most Bryan & Vinny Shows in beautiful HD at video.f4wonline.com!
696
697B&V&G: Granny, NXT, THURSDAY NIGHT POTPOURRI!
698Aug 23, 2018 11:44pm
699Check out this show plus Bryan & Disco vs. Peachmachine & Mikey G with your subscription to video.f4wonline.com!
700
701B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
702Aug 21, 2018 9:31pm
703Check out this and most Bryan & Vinny Shows at video.f4wonline.com!
704
705B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
706Aug 14, 2018 9:33pm
707Check out this and most every Bryan & Vinny Show in beautiful HD at video.f4wonline.com!
708
709B&V: NXT from Full Sail plus NWA World Championship Wrestling from 1988!
710Aug 12, 2018 11:52pm
711NXT and NWA!
712
713B&V&G: Granny segment, plus Bryan and Vinny go to PROGRESS!
714Aug 10, 2018 1:12am
715Check out this and EVERY Bryan & Vinny Show in beautiful HD at video.f4wonline.com!
716
717B&V&C: Retro Raw and Nitro from 19 years ago this week!
718Aug 07, 2018 9:28pm
719Wait for it -- TWO GREAT SHOWS!
720
721B&V: NWA World Championship Wrestling from 1988!
722Aug 05, 2018 11:44pm
723Including an all-time great squash!
724
725B&V&G: Granny, NXT, THURSDAY NIGHT POTPOURRI!
726Aug 02, 2018 10:55pm
727The mighty Bryan & Vinny & Granny Show is back and what a show we have for you today! Granny returns with her usual Q&A and Weekly Wrestling Report, she cracks Bryan and Vinny again. 
728
729Then it's full reviews of a great NXT from Full Sail, featuring a bout between Shayna Baszler and Candice LeRae in a non-title match, as well as a confrontation between new NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano and Aleister Black.
730
731still need to paste stink is wronk 
732
733fire pro no mercy 
734
735The Nerd: Alright, this is Silver Surfer. SILVER SHIT! (inserts game into NES and turns it on) He looks so stupid! I mean, what the Hell's wrong with him? He's just like... like... (The Nerd tries to imitate Silver Surfer's pose.)
736
737(Stage select screen appears)
738
739The Nerd: Alright, so you get this stage select thing, kinda like in Mega Man, which is good for the sake of this review, so I don't really have to beat anything to show you all the stages in the game.
740
741(Game starts)
742
743The Nerd: So it's just like one of those fly-and-shoot games, kind of like Defender or LifeForce, you know. Nothing too special, but not bad, actually. Your weapon's kind of lame, but there's power-ups which let you shoot double. (Silver Surfer dies from touching the wall) What the FUCK?! I can't touch the walls?! That's right. You can't touch ANYTHING in this game, so don't fuck around.
744
745The Nerd: Anyway, what was I saying about the weapons? Oh yeah, there-there's not much else I think you can get, I mean, you can shoot backwards, like if somebody's coming behind you, and that's always a real shit-sucker 'cause you wanna concentrate on what's ahead. It's kinda clumsy to switch back, because you press the B button to change direction, and you use A to shoot. (Silver Surfer falls) Ah, fuck! I guess that wasn't a good time to demonstrate.
746
747The Nerd: So there you go, shoot the rubber ducky which doesn't die. (Silver Surfer dies) OH, FUCK! If you play this game, one thing I can guarantee is that your thumb is going to get pretty damn sore from tapping that button. There's not one instant where you can take a break. You're constantly firing away, even when there's nothing in sight, because you don't know what's coming up. I mean, there's no reason not to be shooting. And this wouldn't bother me so fucking much if you could just hold down the button and let it keep shooting, but no. Of course not. So what you need is a turbo button. Whether it's an NES Advantage or an NES Max, put that other fucking controller away, press that turbo button, and never let go.
748
749The Nerd: So I beat the stage, though each stage consists of two or more sections. Now, we're in the second section, and we got an overhead view, which is equally as difficult as any of the rest. Actually, I think they're worse, because you don't know what's supposed to be underneath you or blocking you. I'm assuming I can't touch these wooden parts. Uh-oh, now I'm probably fucked... (Silver Surfer goes through) Oh, never mind, I guess I could go through those. You see, the graphics are so unclear as to what you're allowed to touch and what you're not. You don't know what the hazards are. (Silver Surfer gets killed by an almost-invisible bullet) Look at that. That's not fair. I couldn't see that tiny bullet coming through the trees. It's like camouflaged. And the way those waves move, it's just like a bunch of flickering blue lines. It plays with your eyes and fucks you all up. What a cruel game.
750
751The Nerd: I give up. I'm trying another stage: Fire Lord. Alright, another overhead. (Silver Surfer dies from touching the ground) Ah, FUCK! I can't believe this. You can't touch the ground. That means that you have to stay in the brown area, which pretty much limits you to about 20% of the screen. This is ridiculous, just staying within this narrow range. It's like playing the game Operation, but with a bunch of shit flying around trying to kill you. You have such a tight space to maneuver if you want to kill these things. Come on, come on! (exclaims and shakes head) Let's try again. Come on, COME ON, OH, FUCK! (Silver Surfer crashes into the side, killing him) If only his board wasn't so goddamn long! Or if you can go diagonally, like if you can go at an angle, but you're always pointing straight, which makes it impossible to squeeze through narrow spots like this.
752
753The Nerd: You know, it's so easy to die in this game, and every time you die, you have to see this. (Game over screen with Silver Surfer bent over and crying in sad surrender) This sad, pathetic image of Silver Surfer just trembling in defeat. If you play this game, this image will be burned into your retina. And how appropriate, because this picture expresses better than words my feelings on this game. Just look at it. That sums up the whole thing.
754
755The Nerd: What'd I say before? This game's not bad? Well, no, it isn't bad... IT'S FUCKING HORRIBLE! And I dare you to play it. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's bad, but this game just went way, way too far. The difficulty is legendary. This is the grand champion of hard motherfucking games. It doesn't fuck around. Why couldn't there be a health bar, like three hits? Would that be okay? NO. ONE fucking hit, and you're dead. Well, then couldn't you have extra lives? Which you do, but they don't matter because when you die, you start back from the beginning of the stage. There's some checkpoints along the way, yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that when you die, you go back. Compare that to Contra: Super C. You get hit once and you're dead, but you get to continue where you left off. You don't have to start at the beginning of the stage unless you've lost all your lives. If that happened, even your 30-life code wouldn't help much. Silver Surfer, on the other hand, just says "Fuck all that! If you're gonna play, you've gotta be hardcore!"
756
757The Nerd: So now we're in Fire Lord, section 2, whoa, watch the fire, OH, SHIT! (Silver Surfer gets killed by a pumpkin) Fucking... jack-o'lanterns? Alright, let's try again. Dodge the fire, stay up and watch the jack-o'lanterns, oh, better watch that thing, oh, God, I gotta go down! OH, FUCK! Your mother.
758
759The Nerd: Fire's coming down. Got that part under control. Watch the jack-o'lanterns. (Silver Surfer crashes into the ceiling) Fuck! Touched the damn ceiling. Fire's coming down, jack-o'lanterns, oh, oh, ugh! ASS! Alright, this time, I'm trying to shoot those fucking jack-o'lanterns. Stay back, back, back, ugh! Oh! God! Alright, getting into place, watching the walls, (Silver Surfer gets killed by another pumpkin) oh, you FUCKING PUMPKIN PIECE OF SHIT! OK, this time, staying up on the top, don't get hit, don't get hit, get under that thing, oh, here we go, don't get hit, yes! Yes! YES! (Yells) NO!
760
761The Nerd: I can't take it anymore. (Drinks some Yuengling) You know... there's really no point in going on. It's not like there's a reward, like there's a pot of gold sitting on top of the TV. You know, if you beat the game, it probably just says "The End," and that's it. So to keep playing it, ya gotta be a fucking nerd. (Continues to play game)
762
763The Nerd: Okay, we gotta watch out for these statues puking lava. (Silver Surfer gets killed by a pumpkin) God! ANOTHER motherfucking pumpkin. There's so many obstacles, it's unbeliev- (touches red pot and dies) I CAN'T TOUCH THAT RED POT?! (it appears that he got hit by lava right at the moment he touched the pot) Alright, that's where I give up.
764
765The Nerd: Let's try another stage. I figure I gotta be able to defeat at least one of them. Now, this is really a bitch. I mean, all these ghouls coming at me. They got bats, jack-o'lanterns, and now ghosts? It's like another Kindergarten Halloween game. They should have just called it: whatever. (BOO! HAUNTED HOUSE!) This is just insane, I mean, look at all this! Oh, my God! So much shit, so much shit! Here we go! Oh, yeah! (Silver Surfer crashes into a wooden log) Oh, God! I touched the... log?
766
767The Nerd: You fucking ghosts! You fucking motherfucking pieces of shit! UGH! God, I hate those gargoyles! They just... shit all over the place! I hate it. I just fucking hate it. Look at this. This pattern is just insane, it's basically just a bunch of lines waving across the screen, and if you go anywhere near those paths, you're dead.
768
769The Nerd: Once again, let's try another stage: Possessor. Well, it's not any easier, especially when I'm losing my patience. And look at this. There's so much stuff coming at you. Bullets are flying everywhere. Ugh! Let's pause it. Ju-just look. (Red waves appear on the screen) Look, any of these areas are dead zones. You have stuff coming at you every which way, which means there's not one safe spot because you need to keep moving forward. So, you're in danger's way all the time. You just have to play the shit out of it until you know in advance exactly what's going to happen.
770
771The Nerd: Unless you've played this game, you have no idea how hard it is. Let me try to explain, okay? Imagine if I were to draw a maze on a sheet of paper. I'm asking you to draw a line from the beginning of this maze to the end. You can't run into any dead ends, and you can't touch any of the lines. Now, while you're trying to do this, I'm moving the maze to the left. It would drive you fucking nuts. And if that's a bit too theoretical to accept, let me explain it this way: imagine playing Mega Man 2.
772
773(Shows game footage from "Mega Man 2")
774
775The Nerd: Imagine you had no health bar. Imagine if you get hit one single fucking time, you're dead. And is that fair? It's challenging, yes. But it's not to say that unless you're a hardcore expert, you're going to take a few hits sooner or later. Now I'm not done. Imagine, on top of that, multiply the number of enemies on the screen and give them more hit points. (Shows game footage from "The Legend of Zelda" on NES) Imagine if you were playing Zelda and you weren't allowed to get hit once or touch any of the walls or blocks.
776
777The Nerd: I mean, this game just pukes snot up my ass. (Silver Surfer dies repeatedly) It's like you touch the top of the building, you die, you touch the ceiling, you die, you touch the floor, you die, too far to the right, you die, too far to the left, you die, you die, you die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, DIE! (lies on the floor, holds his eyes in anger, and mimics the game over screen) (upset voice) Oh, God, I can't fucking stand it.
778
779The Nerd: (Sighs) One last stage, and I'm sure it's no exception to the difficulty. You're just trying to avoid this stuff that's coming sideways, and then this gun appears at the top of the screen with no warning and shoots in three directions. Instant death. If you try to blast it away as soon as it appears, you just end up getting yourself killed too because you need to be in the line of fire in order to shoot at it. Sometimes, you come to like a blockade of enemies, just a flood of bullets coming down the whole screen. It's just one big dead zone. If you're in that area, YOU'RE SIMPLY DEAD! So fuck it, I can't complete a single stage!
780
781The Nerd: This game is so hard, it would actually be easier to go outside in a thunderstorm and try to dodge rain. It would be easier to walk barefoot without your toes or heels touching the floor. It would be easier to pick fly shit out of pepper while wearing boxing gloves! The fact you can get hit only once pretty much means that you're weaker than every other enemy in the game. HOW DO YOU DIE FROM JUST TOUCHING A WALL?!
782
783The Nerd: I can understand if he's flying at like 200 miles per hour and he crashes into the wall, but the fact that he just touches the wall and dies is just ridiculous. I never read any of the comics, so I don't know what Silver Surfer's powers are, but isn't he supposed to be pretty strong? So why'd they make him into a wimp? Why's he fucking up rubber ducks and weeping like a crybaby? It's like some sort of fucking joke! Like, what if they had Bruce Lee tripping over his own shoelaces? It's a fucking insult! This game should have been classic! But instead, it's worthless! It's as worthless as this fucking LJN poster I have back here! MAN, I WOULD JUST PISS AND SHIT ALL OVER THIS FUCKING GAME! IN FACT, JUST THINKING ABOUT IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE HAVING AN ANAL EVACUATION! (Swigs some Yuengling) Fuck! (Gets up, takes game out, and then throws it to the wall in rage.)
784
785(Credits roll, after which the GameTrailers logo appears)
786
787The Nerd: ASSSS!
788
789Trivia
790Sometime after the Nerd uses the NES Max, it is revealed that he is using the normal NES controller again.
791Categories:
792Transcripts Transcripts of 2007 Angry Video Game Nerd episodes
793Showing 2 most recent
7942 comments
795Please log in to post a comment on this wiki.
796
797~~~~~~
798
79900:00
800you could let's take this call someone
80100:03
802saying they are this Sam Hyde guy let's
80300:05
804see if it's him Sam hey what's up are
80500:12
806you doing good how are you good what
80700:19
808happened dad
80900:25
810hello not so good oh yeah what do you
81100:35
812think about that I'm sorry to hear it
81300:38
814are you I'm sorry to hear no anyone's
81500:42
816doing not good what's that
81700:53
818there I'm here if you want to go I
81900:56
820didn't really have a strong feeling
82100:58
822about it either
82300:59
824either way the only shows I don't want
82501:01
826canceled on my own didn't you campaign
82701:06
828against our show didn't you talk people
82901:08
830to tell them you didn't like Joe nope
83101:11
832I'm in it I Sam I've talked to I've
83301:14
834talked about this for the past three
83501:17
836weeks in the show I've been very honest
83701:19
838and forthright about my experience with
83901:21
840the show and with your audience
84101:23
842and you know that's really all I have to
84301:26
844say about it I've been pretty
84501:28
846straightforward about it I'm sorry that
84701:30
848impression exists online from a bunch of
84901:33
850you know reddit posts and you've been
85101:38
852pretty supportive of the effort to get
85301:40
854the show closed down if there's why
85501:42
856there's no strings is because I because
85701:44
858I wore black bass which Sarah Silverman
85901:46
860does and I'm here how did it but there's
86101:50
862no there's no evidence of me doing
86301:51
864anything that you're there's no what
86501:54
866have I been doing it's all he it's all
86701:55
868innuendo and you're something people
86901:57
870I've hurt reliable people say that you
87102:00
872were instrumental Judd Apatow went to
87302:04
874talk to us also an aspirin people down
87502:07
876you've been ordered in the last time I
87702:09
878taught you know the last time I talked
87902:11
880to Judd Apatow was at the bra
88102:12
882maids release party the you've been
88302:18
884supportive of your buddy Brett Gelman
88502:20
886yeah the word buddy the word buddy is is
88702:24
888key here I'm supportive of whatever he
88902:26
890wants to do he said he doesn't want to
89102:28
892work on the he doesn't want to make
89302:29
894shows for Adult Swim anymore not just
89502:31
896because of your show but because of
89702:33
898their issues with women and and I've got
89902:35
900my own thoughts about that people were
90102:37
902asking that what I thought hold on let
90302:38
904me finish my thought
90502:39
906when people were asking me what I
90702:40
908thought about Gelman making his
90902:42
910statement I said I support my friend
91102:44
912because I support whatever he wants to
91302:46
914do and then I said I'm not gonna because
91502:48
916they're saying why don't you quit too
91702:50
918so I'm not gonna fucking quit that's
91902:51
920stupid that's all I said
92102:57
922shit load a woman we employ a shitload
92303:00
924of women half the people on the Decker
92503:01
926show right now are women and we work
92703:04
928every day to put to bit to get more
92903:06
930women shows on the air we pitch shows
93103:09
932with women we bring women in so we do
93303:11
934what we can do is he didn't leave
93503:20
936anything he didn't leave anything he
93703:21
938didn't have any shows there they weren't
93903:24
940buying they were in America is sounds
94103:36
942good
94303:36
944very well very well said all right very
94503:42
946interesting perspective there I can say
94703:47
948hung up Sammy back hey so dude were you
94903:53
950calling from anyway you and Boston or
95103:55
952something like that
95303:56
954no I'm in Fall River where's that in
95504:01
956it's an hour south of Boston all right
95704:04
958cold it's a little chilly so we were
95904:11
960yelling at each other and then I guess
96104:13
962you got cut off or hung up I don't know
96304:14
964what happened yeah no I didn't hang up I
96504:17
966don't want to get the emotion I don't
96704:18
968wanna get the impression here that I
96904:19
970hung up on you oh you didn't hang up on
97104:23
972me I did not okay
97304:26
974you suggest that so let's listen to deal
97504:33
976with Brett Gelman is nobody liked his
97704:35
978shit like that's why he left it's not
97904:37
980because he was taking a stand it's
98104:39
982because no one was paying for his bad
98304:41
984ideas okay so on the way out he decided
98504:43
986to really burn to burn them as good as
98704:46
988he could and make it some sort of social
98904:48
990justice hero hero stand but he's not
99104:51
992yeah he would do anything for money that
99304:54
994guy Brett Gelman would do anything for a
99504:55
996$40,000 check man literally anything you
99704:59
998do anything that's the news coming in
99905:01
1000from Falls Creek Falls River Sam
100105:04
1002reporting in that get sorry I'm not I'm
100305:07
1004not in Glendale I'm not in Echo Park I'm
100505:10
1006not in the posh
100705:11
1008la neighborhood I don't have that kind
100905:13
1010of money Glendale is not what you think
101105:16
1012it is my friend it is working class
101305:19
1014working class man yeah you live in a
101505:23
1016work you have a working class
101705:24
1018environment around you I get it we'll
101905:27
1020work hard every day I work hard every
102105:29
1022day yeah you work hard at getting people
102305:32
1024shows taken off the air that's no listen
102505:35
1026Sam what are you telling your audience
102705:36
1028work why don't you tell your audience
102905:38
1030that it's a fiction it's a fantasy
103105:40
1032that's made it's completely delusional
103305:42
1034thinking to think that I have that kind
103505:44
1036of power that I have that kind of
103705:45
1038interest no no you you do have that kind
103905:48
1040of power because you make your main
104105:50
1042what's the audience half of your
104305:51
1044audience me that I'm irrelevant and that
104505:53
1046I know that I'm that I'm know there's
104705:57
1048you know I'm finished and I'm I'm
104905:58
1050worthless and then that in the next
105106:00
1052breath they tell me that I'm pulling
105306:02
1054strings and running the show that I'm
105506:04
1056mr. Hollywood right so it's can't be it
105706:07
1058can't be mr. Hollywood half of my
105906:10
1060audience tells me I'm irrelevant and so
106106:15
1062you don't believe it so trying to tell
106306:16
1064you the honest all I tell you the truth
106506:18
1066all I do is tell the truth I am NOT
106706:21
1068making any decisions on what shows get
106906:24
1070picked up or what shows get cancelled
107106:25
1072Adult Swim yeah okay all right how many
107306:29
1074shows did you make for Adult Swim how
107506:31
1076many shows are you making for them
107706:32
1078yourself personally and through
107906:34
1080absolutely what is it ten what are you
108106:36
1082making 15 shows right now I think we're
108306:38
1084gonna
108506:39
1086we have made four okay so you're you are
108706:43
1088a big deal at that network you're not
108906:45
1090you're not an irrelevant like
109106:46
1092non-players I'm amazed
109306:48
1094I agree has it people listen to you I
109506:51
1096agree so I don't I have heard that you
109706:55
1098campaigned to get our show taken off the
109906:57
1100air I'm not that is wrong Sam and listen
110107:00
1102to me it is wrong now I have expressed
110307:03
1104alright like I've said on this show many
110507:05
1106times I've expressed to people there and
110707:08
1108to people around me that that I've been
110907:10
1110as you know attacked online by people in
111107:14
1112your name I don't know if it's you or
111307:15
1114whoever it is but it's people saying
111507:17
1116done right okay fine it's not you but
111707:20
1118it's people over and over again a
111907:21
1120coordinated consistent nasty violent no
112107:26
1122I listen violent yeah death threats all
112307:29
1124this all that shit coming at me and all
112507:31
1126I said all I've ever said to anybody
112707:33
1128about the subject was well that audience
112907:35
1130you know has because it's like you know
113107:39
1132an issue that has an issue that doesn't
113307:42
1134seem to be dealing with so not the
113507:45
1136coordinated the coordinated attacks
113707:47
1138against you are a result of you
113907:50
1140expressing anti-trump sentiments and
114107:53
1142expressing these egalitarian
114307:55
1144all-inclusive open borders and that has
114507:57
1146nothing to do with our show that's not
114707:59
1148related so instead in the main hell that
114908:02
1150you have brought the hell that you have
115108:03
1152brought screaming down upon your head is
115308:05
1154it has to do with your song I'm a cup
115508:08
1156that's nothing to do was near my bring
115708:11
1158him that song has been the song was
115908:13
1160written after months and months of
116108:15
1162people saying calling me every name that
116308:17
1164I said in that song that didn't come out
116508:19
1166of Delaware that's just one option oh I
116708:22
1168know I'm not saying it's your fault and
116908:24
1170I said I've never said anything about
117108:27
1172I've never said to any of the people
117308:28
1174that you that we both know what they
117508:30
1176should do or what I'm going to do if
117708:33
1178they don't do something do you
117908:34
1180understand
118108:35
1182right well you stood by me stand by I
118308:39
1184stand by my work and the work that we
118508:42
1186produce have you ever heard me talk
118708:43
1188about Robot Chicken have you ever heard
118908:45
1190me talk about anything else so you know
119108:47
1192one of my friends was actively
119308:49
1194campaigning to like get some
119508:52
1196younger guys show taking off the air I
119708:55
1198would tell him to chill out I would say
119908:56
1200what do you what that's not the way to
120108:58
1202do it why are you why imagine if the war
120309:01
1204of idea is getting it's like being a
120509:03
1206tattle-tale and not go may not know
120709:06
1208English music I thought to get your
120909:08
1210point across it's kind of fucked up it's
121109:10
1212fucked up that my show was taken off
121309:12
1214there our show was taken off because of
121509:14
1216because it was it's politically
121709:16
1218incorrect and it's something that would
121909:17
1220have flown you know ten years ago it
122109:19
1222would have been fine it's fucked up I've
122309:23
1224have my I've had shows cancelled
122509:24
1226everyone gets show's canceled you can
122709:27
1228feel bad about it pick yourself up Mako
122909:29
1230I'm shit I'm blacklisted
123109:31
1232I'm not cancelled I'm blacklisted you
123309:33
1234know what that means right well this is
123509:38
1236not my fault Sam okay all right what you
123709:40
1238do with it this is allows you I hope you
123909:43
1240enjoy like okay they try to lose I try
124109:48
1242to interpret you know my back is killing
124309:49
1244me
124509:50
1246I've like I said I've gained a lot of
124709:51
1248weight they you know I've got I've got
124909:54
1250my daughter as a cold right now so you
125109:57
1252know I'm not walking on clouds every day
125309:59
1254dude I can't afford health insurance
125510:01
1256what the fuck are you talking about your
125710:03
1258back hurts get my show back okay I'm
125910:07
1260gonna get your show back Sam all right
126110:11
1262be careful better for you try not to
126310:19
1264wait a minute no I mean I'm sorry that
126510:26
1266you're I'm sorry that you're having a
126710:27
1268bad time and I know what I know back
126910:29
1270pain is pretty bad so I hope you're not
127110:31
1272getting too fucked up about it well
127310:33
1274thank you and listen let me just say
127510:34
1276this Sam all right I think that if you
127710:38
1278you guys seem to have a very voracious
127910:41
1280audience that cares very much about what
128110:44
1282you do dude man you pissed off pissed
128310:46
1284off pole you pissed off 4chan and a
128510:48
1286chain with your clucking that's not us
128710:50
1288that has nothing to do with us okay our
128910:52
1290audience is not fucking with you okay
129110:55
1292well they say they are you so I don't
129310:57
1294know how to differentiate what am I
129510:58
1296supposed to do I'm laying the shooter
129711:00
1298that's why all right listen I think I
129911:04
1300think you should
130111:05
1302and you and the audience can can make
130311:08
1304you that you guys can make your own shit
130511:11
1306this is the this is the time where you
130711:13
1308guys can you know why do you need Adult
130911:16
1310Swim why do you need anybody
131111:17
1312you all are not ready your audience is
131311:19
1314ready to you've an army dude all right
131511:23
1316I'm gonna get and I'm gonna hire
131711:24
1318absolutely to produce my show well it
131911:26
1320doesn't work that way unfortunately you
132111:28
1322should you should put it don't swim to
132311:30
1324him well this is what I said this is
132511:33
1326what I said what I woman aren't they but
132711:36
1328don't you understand they're not hiring
132911:39
1330women you gotta take time Sam see the
133111:42
1332problem with me is that I am a nuanced
133311:47
1334moderate guy so I know I don't fall into
133511:51
1336I'm not I'm you know I'm not partisan in
133711:55
1338the way that I'm not an extreme guy so
133911:58
1340if Gail must say he's so you know to me
134112:01
1342and that's fine you clearly are Gelman
134312:03
1344clearly is that's not who I hope extreme
134512:06
1346money-grabber an attention whore he
134712:08
1348would do fucking anything for forty
134912:10
1350thousand I guarantee it that's the
135112:12
1352guarantee folks we have the guarantee
135312:13
1354the guarantee has been established bread
135512:17
1356almond will do anything for forty-one
135712:19
1358bet I bet I bet you that you won't do
135912:23
1360anything for forty grand all right all
136112:31
1362right take care okay bye all right a
136312:35
1364fairly civil conversation with Sam hide
136512:39
1366there
1367
1368~~~~~~~~
1369
1370Sam Hyde Interview - Tim Heidecker Office Hours
13715,388 views
1372
137357
1374
137510
1376
1377SHARE
1378
1379
1380
1381AdultSwimExtreme
1382Published on Dec 8, 2016
1383Category
1384Comedy
1385
138629 subscribers
1387
1388can't afford health insurance okay i'm going to get your show back ambulance 
1389voracious /pol/ 4chan 8chan our audience is not fucking you differenative school famous 
1390nuanced moderate not partistian not an extreme guy
1391gellman's an extreme money grabber and an attention whore
1392
1393
1394Tim Heidecker on Infowars
13954,281 views
1396
139734
1398
13997
1400
1401SHARE
1402
1403
1404
1405Old Cold
1406Published on Sep 16, 2016
1407Tim Heidecker shares his insight on Alex Jones and Infowars.
1408
1409laughing
1410\
1411
1412~~~~~
1413
1414this anyway I've got an app on my iPhone
141500:56
1416for that
141700:56
1418yo that's totally a rat factor for old
141900:59
1420people here's a laser beams you I'll
142101:02
1422give this one to Brock he doesn't have
142301:05
1424eyes come on Brock let's go to some rule
142501:08
1426doduo ever the fuck I said last time
1427
1428
1429
1430
1431Pokemon But With Animals Instead 2
14323,609,076 views
1433
143422K
1435
14361.2K
1437
1438SHARE
1439
1440
1441
1442TheHamWalletDotCom
1443Published on May 29, 2011
1444Nominated for 17 academy awards including best animation, biggest tallywacker and nicest haircut. F
1445
1446the oatmeat
1447the ham wallet dot comn
1448
1449RUN DMC RICK ROLL REWIND (TIME) PLAY (presses) STOP - POKEMON BUT WITH ANMALS INSTEAD 2* www dot THEHAMWALLET dot COM *NOW WITH 50% MORE EFFORT!
1450
1451oatmeal tier animation but somehow worse?
1452
1453~~~~
1454
1455
1456POKEMON BUT WITH ANIMALS INSTEAD
14573,699,018 views
1458
145926K
1460
14611.1K
1462
1463SHARE
1464
1465
1466
1467TheHamWalletDotCom
1468Published on Jan 4, 2011
1469//// *EDIT*  The HamWallet was co-created by the creator of this video!! Newgrounds user RyanHatesMilk is The Lion who writes at www.thehamwallet.com /////
1470
1471A triumph in modern animation, this true look at the absolute substance of Argentinean soap-opera Pokemon earned the Lion several Golden Probes for animation, scripting, direction and lack of facial scruff.
1472
1473THIS IS SEIROUSLY EVERY POKEMN EPISODE STARTED I MIGHT HAVE BEEN 12 BUT I WASN'T STUPID, JPAN SORT YOUR SHIT OUT (it was localized you dummy) - THE ENDS
1474
1475~~~~~
1476
1477Pokemon But With Animals Instead 3
14781,711,262 views
1479
148014K
1481
1482404
1483
1484SHARE
1485
1486
1487
1488TheHamWalletDotCom
1489Published on Mar 25, 2012
1490About 9 months ago I had unprotected sex with the internet. Now look what's happened. Let this be a lesson
1491
1492
1493~~~~~~
1494
1495zero puncuation
1496
1497~~
1498
1499THIS IS SEIROUSLY EVERY POKEMN EPISODE STARTED I MIGHT HAVE BEEN 12 BUT I WASN'T STUPID, JPAN SORT YOUR SHIT OUT (it was localized you dummy)
1500
1501
1502~~~~~
1503
1504WANT MORE? GET YOUR CHOPS DOWN TO.... www dot thehamwallet dot com - punching bears - RED/BLUE BATTLE MUSIC METAL COVER * POKEMON BWAI THEME TUNE BY BURN7  - TITLE ART (IE. The stuf fthat actually looks like it wasn't drawn by a small child) BY HENRY ''THE BIEARD FINNEGAN - punching seals etc - POKEMON BUT WITH ANIMALS 3 COMING SUMMER 2015 (possibly) - Hey, Steve Jobs, I'm giving you some proper product placemtn here. I epext some free gizmo's (sic) in the post, on account of all the face time I'm your littl;e phone here - WHO'S THAT POKEMON iPhone version - duck For when you're just like, seriously, what the fuck is that? It meant ot be a shak or something?
1505
1506~
1507
1508
1509phil_donahue (generic avy, silhouette)
1510phil_donahue
1511Junior Member
1512Join Date: Aug 2012
1513Posts: 388
1514#2929
151508-22-2018, 04:09 AM
1516Looking for two specific drops, and can not locate them within the tindeck list. They're both eYada centric:
1517
1518-Bryan attempting to tell a joke (''Holls Hoyce'') that Dave doesn't understand
1519-Dave describing how Debra Marshall bakes cookies and how they apparently can be skipped across a lake
1520Last edited by phil_donahue; 08-22-2018, 07:12 PM.
1521
1522YouveGotMailBomb (quag thought bubble)
1523YouveGotMailBomb
1524Senior Member
1525Join Date: May 2006
1526Posts: 33547
1527#2930
152808-22-2018, 04:36 AM
1529Originally posted by zwarrior2 View Post
1530
1531I didn't have to go back, I saved all the episodes with the best drops years ago and have an old Word file with time codes for them all. Quite a few are funnier with B&V commentary, like Bryan going off on the word Ruff is better than just the song.
1532
1533Who let the Dogs out - August 12 2009
1534http://tindeck.com/listen/zdjcv
1535
1536I checked the big list and didn't see these two there. Might just have weird names but all the others were easy to search.
1537
1538F4W Imperial March - March 10 2007
1539https://sendeyo.com/en/555c6db499
1540
1541Remember Vince - July 14 2008
1542https://sendeyo.com/en/e6a73caad5
1543What's the password for the last two?
1544
1545 zwarrior2 (PWG logo)
1546zwarrior2 
1547Senior Member
1548Join Date: Mar 2008
1549Posts: 13291
1550#2931
155108-22-2018, 05:20 AM
1552Originally posted by YouveGotMailBomb View Post
1553What's the password for the last two?
1554TheBoard for both.
1555
1556~~~~~~~
1557
1558
1559
1560New Topics
1561Calendar
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1563User Profile
1564YouveGotMailBomb
1565YouveGotMailBomb 
1566Senior Member
1567Last Activity: 08-30-2018, 07:20 AM
1568Joined: 05-06-2006
1569Location: American DoucheTown
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1572Hide User Customizations
1573
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1577User Profile
1578zwarrior2
1579zwarrior2 
1580Senior Member
1581Last Activity: 08-30-2018, 08:21 AM
1582Joined: 03-23-2008
1583Location: SoCal
1584Subscriptions0
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1586
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1592phil_donahue 
1593Junior Member
1594Last Activity: 08-30-2018, 08:40 AM
1595Joined: 08-12-2012
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1601
1602~~
1603
1604
1605~~~
1606
1607Wrestling Observer Newsletter
1608
1609PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 September 3, 2018
1610
1611 
1612
1613AAA TRIPLEMANIA POLL RESULTS
1614
1615Thumbs up 104 (73.8%)
1616
1617Thumbs down 26 (18.4%)
1618
1619In the middle 11 (07.8%)
1620
1621 
1622
1623BEST MATCH POLL
1624
1625Mascara & Escorpion & Texano vs. Lider & Murder Clown & Pagano
1626
162746
1628
1629Park vs. Fantasma vs. Pentagon vs. Psycho Clown 31
1630
1631Four team ladder match 16
1632
1633Mixed tag title 13
1634
1635Fenix vs. Jarrett vs. Cage vs. Swann 10
1636
1637 
1638
1639WORST MATCH POLL
1640
1641Averno & Chessman & Super Fly vs. Evans & Guerrera & Hart
1642
164333
1644
1645Lady Shani vs. Faby Apache 14
1646
1647Mascara & Escorpion & Texano vs. Lider & Murder Clown & Pagano
1648
164912
1650
1651Park vs. Fantasma vs. Pentagon vs. Psycho Clown 10
1652
1653Based on e-mails and phone calls to the Observer as of Tuesday, 8/28.
1654
1655 
1656
1657All In, the most uniquely successful independent pro wrestling event in modern U.S. history, will either be the beginning of a new era for wrestling in the U.S., or will be looked back on as the end and climax of a unique run.
1658
1659Cody Runnels and The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Massie, had decided in 2017, actually before the tweet exchange that became the public part of the story to promote a major event of their own. The tweet did make actually going through with it an idea that they at that point had more impetus to follow up on rather than just talk about. Runnels’ sister came up with the name “All In,” and plans were put in place.
1660
1661There were three ideas for venues, one being the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, CA, which is near where the Young Bucks live; the other was the Cow Palace in San Francisco, ironically for a July date that New Japan ended up taking, because it was inexpensive to rent for a building of that size and was a legendary arena that Cody had drawn one of the bigger independent crowds in recent years at as the headliner for a cage match with Joey Ryan promoted by All Pro Wrestling. The decision was made for Labor Day weekend, and the Cow Palace had costs associated with streaming that didn’t make it viable. So they went for the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates, IL, which had the advantage of being the same city as Pro Wrestling Tees, one of the events sponsors, meaning shipping tons of T-shirts could be done the most conveniently and the most economically.
1662
1663Even if the show failed to sell out or draw 10,000 people, it would likely have been a success figuring in the merchandise sales. Eventually, due to the work of podcaster Conrad Thompson, a convention was put together, which ended up getting almost out of hand since so many different people and things were put together that there wasn’t a focus on any of them. Still, the initial ticket sales for the wrestling show and the convention sold out quickly, with the 10,541 tickets for $450,000 selling out in about 29 minutes with no pre-sale.
1664
1665Most notably, with the exception of WrestleManias, which also does about 75 percent of ticket sales outside the area of the show, this would be the most widely traveled to U.S. event in history.
1666
1667Because there is no precedent historically for this show, promoted with no local television and off some out-of-market ROH syndicated television but mostly through their own YouTube show, there is no real way to read what this means.
1668
1669About the only thing for sure is they ran a building too small for the ticket demand, and priced the show far too low. While the average ticket price was in the range of $43, on the secondary market, the average ticket price sold has been hovering at around $204, one of the most expensive in pro wrestling history, a number higher than just about anything except the biggest WWE shows. But going in, there was no track record and their idea was to keep the price affordable to make it so price was not a barricade in hitting the number 10,000. The reality is, with most of the people coming flying in, an additional $20 or $50 per ticket wasn’t going to keep them from coming. But either way, one would suspect merchandise sales for the weekend to be huge and make up for at least some of the lower pricing.
1670
1671The major goal, selling 10,000 tickets, something that no promotion without strong local and/or national television has done in the U.S. in probably 60 years or more, was achieved. With the exception of WWE, the last U.S. show to do a number this high was a WCW show in 1999. Aside from WWE and WCW, you’d have to go back to a 1994 AAA show, but that was at the time when AAA was one of the hottest promotions in the world and was doing big local television ratings in Los Angeles.
1672
1673The keys now are uncharted waters, the television rating that the first hour, from 6-7 p.m. Eastern time (5-6 p.m. local time) does on WGN America.
1674
1675The belief has always been that The Young Bucks and the rest of the crew were underground sensations, who have made a good living selling T-shirts to a small but very enthusiastic fan base. The knock was always that it was a small fan base, minuscule to that of WWE, as noted by the Young Bucks vs. Hardys ladder match in 2017, the biggest match in ROH history, doing just under 3,500 fans over WrestleMania weekend. After basically self-booking a Cody vs. Kenny Omega feud, with seeds planted on New Japan Pro Wrestling major shows, a little in ROH and a lot of Being the Elite, that singles match was able to get the ROH attendance record up to 6,000 on the day before WrestleMania in New Orleans, and 7,000 for a rematch in July on the New Japan show at the Cow Palace.
1676
1677Still, the group’s T-shirt sales at Hot Topic, selling 414,701 Bullet Club shirts from mid-June through early December, showed far more of an overall audience than expected. Some scoffed at the number, others felt the shirts were cool and people buying them probably didn’t even know they were of wrestlers or who the wrestlers were. Still, there were plenty of WWE events, and even more NXT events, where Bullet Club shirts in the crowd far outdistanced those of the home promotion.
1678
1679That said, this is a show in an unfamiliar time slot for fans, on a station in 76 million homes but that doesn’t draw ratings, and not in prime time. Really, even a number like 100,000 in that time slot would be impressive. But the key is whether they can do a number impressive enough that the television world, whether it be WGN America or someone else, takes notice and feels that non-WWE pro wrestling would be a business worth investing in.
1680
1681The PPV show from 7-11 p.m. is the real number of what this all means. The television show is only airing prelim matches. The PPV is a live show, with Cody, The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Rey Mysterio Jr., and Kenny Omega as headliners. Unlike the arena, where we don’t know the drawing power, whether they could have filled Madison Square Garden (surely yes), the United Center in Chicago (who knows) or even the Stubhub Center in Southern California is unknown. But PPV, there is no limit. Whether the number is 20,000, 50,000, or 100,000, it tells the real story of where this stands.
1682
1683TNA did 50,000 buys a few times on PPV, but that was also a wrestling fan base more used to PPV. This is likely to be more of a streaming viewership than those of the past, airing live on ROH’s Honor Club, and on delay on New Japan World, as well as live on Fite TV.
1684
1685The question also becomes what is next. Until a second show does well (and some will argue the MSG show immediate sellout was that second show) you don’t know sustainability. The show, for wrestling matches, will almost surely be great in some form because there is simply too much talent on the show to where it could be anything but. Still, some will complain when it’s not all five-star matches, which it can’t be, or if it’s not BOLA quality or Dominion quality, which it probably won’t be. But you can look at the lineup and see it’s going to be very good even at worst. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything because there is evidence after evidence of new companies promoting in new markets, doing a blow away show, and then for whatever reason, not being able to draw a second time. Usually it’s because they aren’t the home promotion.
1686
1687The closest precedent in probably the last 25 years, actually 25 years this week, was AAA coming to the Los Angeles Sports Arena, and the first show did 17,500 fans, far more than WWF did a few years earlier for WrestleMania in the same building, and turned 8,000 away. It was among the most heated and exciting shows I ever saw. The return show did 12,500 fans, which was still good, but it was nothing like the first show, and no matter what, they never did that again. Similarly, when Strikeforce debuted in San Jose in 2006, the first show was the talk of the city, drawing 18,265 fans and turning away thousands, with it being the biggest walk-up sale in the history of the arena. It was an amazing night, but the next show still did 10,374 fans, still a good number, but no matter what they did, or UFC did, including a Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le fight and the Gina Carano vs. Cris Cyborg fight, they never came close to what they did as far as public interest the first night. Sometimes events are magic and like lighting, and that magic and lightning never completely happens again. When WCW was hot in the late 90s, they’d sell out first day in major arenas that they had never been to, and then usually struggle on return visits, although that was a very different animal. The same was true for UFC as a first-time event in many buildings.
1688
1689But in all cases, they did come back. Nobody has success like this and doesn’t. If there is 50,000 buys on PPV, with all the splits, the promotion should take in $1 million. If there are 100,000 buys, that’s $2 million. At that point, this is now an extremely lucrative success. If there are 10,000 or 20,000 buys, it tells another story.
1690
1691This being a traveling fan show does say you probably can’t do it more than once a year at this level, unless the PPV buys are so big that you have to follow up sooner. But wrestling in modern times is about establishing big events. WWE and New Japan’s biggest shows are like that. They are traditional big shows and draw based on that, as much as the card itself. Perhaps the key to all this is the popularity of Being the Elite, and to a lesser extent, New Japan and ROH.
1692
1693The more successful, the harder it will be. A huge success will have WWE looking to shut it down as much as possible, and that’s not even mentioning the MSG success.
1694
1695With the exception of Marty Scurll, who is under contract to ROH for about another year, and Mysterio Jr., who is all but gone to WWE already, almost every key player will have contracts due before February.
1696
1697The Zero Hour pre-show has a 15 person Battle Royal for an ROH title shot on the main show, with Moose, Rocky Romero, Colt Cabana, Ethan Page, Brian Cage, Billy Gunn, Jimmy Jacobs, Marko Stunt, Brandon Cutler, Punishment Martinez and woman wrestler Jordynne Grace announced, with four spots open. It also has Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky.
1698
1699They have an eight-match main show and four hours to get it in. With entrances and everything else, you would still have to limit some of these matches if you want a “special” 30 minute match, because you really need to give one match that kind of time because a show like this needs a standout match.
1700
1701The main event on last was at last word said to be Mysterio Jr. & Rey Fenix & Bandido vs Young Bucks & Kota Ibushi. On paper this looks like something that could be that extra special match. Mysterio Jr. is a legit legend to this fan base, Fenix is incredible, Bandido has superstar potential, Ibushi just finished the greatest G-1 tournament that any wrestler in history has ever had, and this is the type of match the Young Bucks shine in putting together. Nick Jackson had a bad virus during the early part of the week, to the point he was hospitalized and really sick flying back Sunday, but was feeling a little better by Tuesday.
1702
1703Listed as No. 2 would be the first-ever singles meeting of Kenny Omega vs. Penta 0M, and the actual most pushed match, because of the NWA’s documentary series is Nick Aldis vs. Cody for the NWA title. There is a story, from the attempt to revitalize the NWA title, which for decades was the most prestigious and “real” world championship of a not so real profession, and Cody going for the title that his father spent a career chasing (and on a few brief occasions catching).
1704
1705Other matches are Lethal against the Battle Royal winner, and really the idea of a surprise winner would make sense here; Kazuchika Okada vs. Scurll (where Scurll has vowed to do a serious match), Joey Janela vs. Hangman Page in a street fight (which, given the setting, could be a career-maker for Janela and on paper could steal the show), Christopher Daniels vs. actor Stephen Amell and a four-way with Madison Rayne vs. Britt Baker vs. Chelsea Green vs. Tessa Blanchard.
1706
1707The WWE officially moved a scheduled 10/31 show in Stockholm to 5/11 and an 11/1 show in Oslo to 5/12, which confirms last week’s report of the 11/2 return to Saudi Arabia.
1708
1709The government of Saudi Arabia had planned the date, and it was confirmed that WWE had it as a probable, but still, they had booked other shows that week.
1710
1711But it looks more definite if they are officially moving dates away right before that date.
1712
1713Saudi Arabia had announced a November date months ago but WWE had said as recently as the last investment conference that they were only going once a year.
1714
1715With Evolution on 10/28, while the idea of a first all-women’s PPV is viable and will be a success, it’s pretty clear now that the timing of it was designed to keep people on social media from complaining about WWE going to Saudi Arabia and not bringing the women.
1716
1717I’m all for causes, but the issues with doing that show should be a lot deeper that not allowing women to perform. Not that this shouldn’t be an issue, but that is so minor and even doing the show itself is so minor as compared to being a paid propaganda piece for a government whose track record since that last show has been abhorrent.
1718
1719The last time it was one thing about going with the track record, but it is so much worse now. But if they do the show on that date, much of the wrestling fan outrage will be quelled by the timing of the women’s show, since last time it was far less about human rights, Yemen, treatment of women in society and mostly just that they did a show in a place that didn’t let women participate.
1720
1721In the interim, the Russian circus came to Saudi Arabia and women circus performers were part of the show, and that led to complaints. A commercial aired on the screen during the WWE’s Greatest Royal Rumble event that showed the women in costumes for a brief second which caused them to yank the show briefly off television and WWE was buried on that. But it’s a hold-you-nose cash grab and it is a ton of money involved for a company that is always going to choose money over their avowed public ideals, particularly their pro-women’s stance that they toss out when cash tells them to.
1722
1723WWE has announced the top six matches for its next PPV, the 9/16 Hell in a Cell show from the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
1724
1725While Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman, Universal title vs. briefcase, was expected to be the main event, the surprise this week was turning Strowman heel.
1726
1727Strowman and Seth Rollins were the two most popular wrestlers on the brand as far as crowd reactions in most cities, although Roman Reigns remained the top merchandise seller. Strowman was put over like a monster for months, but with the return of The Shield as a group expected to fuel greater merchandise sales, before the inevitable split (and Dean Ambrose going heel was in the plans had he not torn his triceps when he did) they needed opponents. They could have gone with Strowman & Finn Balor (who have had a small association) & Bobby Lashley (who has been pushed hard but hasn’t had a real purpose). But instead the idea was Strowman & Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre.
1728
1729The company was in desperate need of a new top heel, whether that would be Reigns or one of the top faces. Kevin Owens had been downgraded, and the company has never been behind Ziggler in that type of position. So from a numbers game, Strowman makes sense. Fans probably will continue to cheer him one-on-one against Reigns at television. But with The Shield reuniting, that was the decision.
1730
1731Reigns vs. Strowman will be one of at least two Hell in a Cell matches. As a heel, Strowman can fail to cash in, which doesn’t mean he will, but he can without it hurting him as much. As a face, especially how he’s been portrayed, he would have had to have won. If the idea is Reigns with a long run, they had to find a way out of the briefcase win.
1732
1733What’s notable is that this is a Hell in a Cell match as the first meeting of a new program, while A.J. Styles vs. Samoa Joe for the WWE title, a feud coming off a wild DQ and that would fit into a Hell in a Cell match based on natural progression, is not. Instead, the Smackdown brand will have Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton with no title at stake in the Cell. That sounds like a recipe for some crazy Hardy moves, even though he’s been hurt of late.
1734
1735The other three official matches are Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss for the Raw women’s title, Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch for the Smackdown women’s title, and Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse.
1736
1737While the build for Flair vs. Lynch has been criticized since the plan was for Lynch to be the heel, and that has totally backfired, WWE still comes out smelling like a rose because it’s created more interest in Lynch, who is the hottest she’s been to at least the television ticket buying audience. With the exception of the Flair vs. Asuka WrestleMania match, there would be more interest in this than any women’s Smackdown match in a long time. Locally, Ziggler & McIntyre vs. Rollins & Ambrose has also been announced.
1738
1739With that lineup, it looks stronger than most B PPV shows of late. The show has plenty of tickets left remaining.
1740
1741~~~~~~~~
1742
1743Nots from the 8/28 tapings in San Antonio. Lynch remained the big story and there were two very good matches, Bryan vs. Almas on Smackdown and Murphy vs. Kalisto on 205 Live. The show drew 9,500 fans. The dark opener saw R-Truth & Dillinger beat Eric Young & Wolfe when Dillinger pinned Wolfe after the Tye-breaker. Fun match and R-Truth got really over. Smackdown opened with New Day out. They brought out a Stanley Cup replica (cue jokes about the Maple Leafs never winning the Cup) filled with pancakes. They talked about being five-time champions when Booker T made a surprise appearance in his old King Booka role. The crowd went crazy for the surprise. He did the gimmick with his British accent and the New Day bowed to him and they ended with Big E trying to do a spinaroonie. Actually he laid on his back while the other guys spun him. The idea is they had won the tag title for the fifth time and Booker’s catch phrase for years was being five time, five time, five time WCW champion. In a three-way as part of the tournament for the next title shot at New Day, Sheamus & Cesaro won over the Colons and Anderson & Gallows in 10:30. Gallows took a double back stabber from the Colons. Sheamus gave Primo a Brogue kick on the floor and Cesaro in the ring pinned Gallows. Sheamus & Cesaro faced off with New Day, who were still out there at their own commentary table. They actually only cut to them on commentary briefly during the match. Sheamus & Cesaro got heat by throwing the pancakes on the table all over. Paige was backstage with Rusev & Lana & English. They are all friends again. Rusev thanked Lana for getting them into the tag title tournament but Lana said she didn’t do it and it came out it was English. They were all smiles and trying to get over their catch phrases. Jeff Hardy did an interview with his face paint on with RKO on the face paint. Hardy said that when he put Orton through he table he felt reborn and rebroken. So he’s either Matt Sydal or his brother. He called out Orton. Orton came out but wouldn’t get in the ring with him. Hardy noted they’d be in Hell in a Cell together. Fans were chanting “delete” which Hardy was leading. Carmella claimed the reason there was an all-women’s PPV is because of her. She noted that Charlotte didn’t pin her to win the title and she pinned Charlotte twice. After she left, R-Truth and Dillinger showed up. R-Truth still was trying to beat Carmella to get a title shot. The joke would be well past its expiration point except R-Truth’s naive facials somehow made it work. The Iconics did a promo and Kay got easy heat talking about how the Toronto Raptors were going to have a dismal season. Kay pinned Naomi in 1:50 after Royce kicked Naomi in the head and Kay used a schoolboy. Even kept short, this was pretty bad. They didn’t work well together at all. Bryan & Brie Bella were out. Bryan said that Miz was a very poor actor and they were going to shut Miz & Maryse up. Almas & Vega came out. Vega said it was an honor to stand next to two legends, Brie Bella and Almas. She claimed Almas had just destroyed Rusev, which is weird given that Rusev submitted him last week and was fine. She said that Almas could outwrestle Bryan. Bryan did a promo and called on Paige to make the match. This ended up being for pure comedy. Paige didn’t come out when Bryan asked, and then Bryan said that was awkward. Bryan admitted that wasn’t what he expected. Then Paige came out and acted winded claiming that her office was on the other side of the building and it took time to walk to the entrance in her high heels. So the whole thing was done for a comedy pop that only made the segment less serious. She asked the fans if they wanted the match and got the easy “Yes” chants and it was on. Bryan beat Almas via DQ in 9:33. The wrestling in this match was very good. The finish was pretty much as expected with Miz and Maryse involved. Bryan hit a tope on Miz when he came out. Almas hit a twisting plancha on Bryan. Almas went for a moonsault but Bryan got his feet up and put Almas in the yes lock. Vega tried to distract the ref but Brie pulled her off the apron and attacked her. Maryse threw Brie into the post. Miz attacked Bryan for the DQ. Almas hit the hammerlock DDT on Bryan, which is good because it means we’ll be getting a rematch at some point. Miz then put the yes lock on Bryan and Vega gave Brie the double knees into the corner. Maryse laid out Brie with a DDT and Miz laid out Bryan with the skull crushing finale. Charlotte did an interview and said that Lynch wants to blame her but she’d have done the same thing to her in the same situation. She said Lynch wants to blame her because Lynch can’t win the big one. Styles came out and said Joe wasn’t enough to take the title from him. He called out Joe. Joe was backstage and called up Styles’ wife Wendy and said he was coming over. Styles was furious and left the ring to chase Joe. This story is hokey but Joe is making it work. Styles was backstage but couldn’t find Joe. Charlotte beat Carmella in 13:00 to retain the title with the figure eight. Fans from the start were chanting “We Want Becky.” Carmella did both a tope and a Frankensteiner off the top. Carmella did a lot more than usual but it wasn’t smooth. Lynch then attacked Charlotte from behind to the biggest face reaction of the show. Everyone had to know this reaction was coming. Lynch called her a bitch, grabbed the belt and held it up. For all the talk about how they misread the audience, and they did, in this angle, the reality is they can come back, revise history, and say it was all planned to be like this because this angle is making her a big star. 205 Live opened with Gallagher & Kendrick out. Neither Gulak nor Alexander were there since they were booked on the overseas Raw tour and had already left. This was acknowledged on the show. Gallagher got heat calling Toronto a second rate dump of a commonwealth city. Tozawa pinned Kendrick in 6:14. Tozawa decked Kendrick and Gallagher right away. Tozawa went up for the senton and Kendrick did the roll out of the ring spot but Tozawa then hit him with a tope. Actually Tozawa looked great in this match and won with a senton. Itami beat Michael Blaise via DQ in 3:40. Michael Blaise had long blond hair like Michael Hayes in the 70s. Michael Blaise, Michael Hayes, get it. Itami did an interview saying he feels bad about hurting Ali, and laughed and said he feels bad that he didn’t hurt him worse. It’s interesting because the announcers were giving Itami the storyline that he’s a guy who was once great but has slipped. They noted what a big deal he was in Japan, how Hulk Hogan was at the press conference where he signed, and that the word backstage is that he’s a shell of his former self. McGuinness said he was once an all-time great, trained under Kenta Kobashi, main evented Budokan Hall many times but said his problem is he cares about the fans. Itami kept picking Blaise up at two rather than pin him. They should have used this for a ref stoppage finish but for whatever reason decided against it. Especially since that’s far better than the non-finish. He used a falcon arrow, stunner and two Shibata low dropkicks, picking Blaise up at two. Ali then hit the ring and Itami bailed out. Ali called him a coward. Alexander did a taped promo saying that Gulak was a spineless hypocrite and next week he’s going to call him out. Murphy pinned Kalisto in 16:44. This was a ****1/4 match. About halfway through you could sense that a portion of the crowd was into it, but not all the crowd. By the end, they pretty much had the crowd. At first there were a few fans into Murphy. Kalisto did a Fenix springboard huracanrana spot. He did a flip dive over the ref onto Murphy and Nese. Kalisto went for a flip off the apron but Murphy caught him and suplexed him on the floor. Dorado and Murphy were shoving each other and the ref kicked Dorado and Metalik out. Nese tripped Kalisto and Nese got thrown out. Kalisto did all kinds of cool moves. Murphy threw Kalisto off the apron all the way to the announcers’ table. Fans were chanting “We Want Tables” which was so out of place in the kind of match they were working. Kalisto did a springboard off the barricade into a kick by Murphy. That got a lot of the crowd into it. Kalisto monkey flipped Murphy over the barricade and into the timekeepers’ area. In the end, fans were chanting “205.” Murphy won clean with Murphy’s law. The dark main event saw Styles & Jeff Hardy over Joe & Orton in 4:00 when Styles pinned Joe after the phenomenal forearm
1744
1745
1746~~~~~
1747
1748Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back today with tons to talk about including All In, all the matches, thoughts on PPV buys and such, Smackdown, 205 Live, ratings for the shows, Toni Storm, Liddell vs. Ortiz signed, Conor McGregor, mailbag and tons more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
1749
1750~
1751
1752All In, the most uniquely successful independent pro wrestling event in modern U.S. history, will either be the beginning of a new era for wrestling in the U.S., or will be looked back on as the end and climax of a unique run.
1753
1754Cody Runnels and The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Massie, had decided in 2017, actually before the tweet exchange that became the public part of the story to promote a major event of their own. The tweet did make actually going through with it an idea that they at that point had more impetus to follow up on rather than just talk about. Runnels’ sister came up with the name “All In,” and plans were put in place.
1755
1756There were three ideas for venues, one being the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, CA, which is near where the Young Bucks live; the other was the Cow Palace in San Francisco, ironically for a July date that New Japan ended up taking, because it was inexpensive to rent for a building of that size and was a legendary arena that Cody had drawn one of the bigger independent crowds in recent years at as the headliner for a cage match with Joey Ryan promoted by All Pro Wrestling.
1757
1758Current subscribers click here to continue reading.