The tag match went longer than I thought it would. That's about all I can say about that....Tatanka?! Are you kidding me? Okay, he was out of shape, but I still marked out. Eugene was pretty funny on the mic with Angle....I thought the way he was going, Vince was gonna introduce Lesnar. Matt was alright on the mic. I thought maybe WWE were giving Hardy just enough rope to hang himself during this interview segment, but he came off okay....
The Conway/Venis match was just dead. And it's no real surprise- Venis hasn't meant anything in years and Conway is debuting an average gimmick (on RAW). What was the crowd chanting toward the end?....Strange Michaels as Hogan segment. Pretty funny at parts, but isn't he supposed to be the heel?....Strike me down if you must, but I found Rob Schneider pretty amusing tonight....What a letdown- another ref coming in to make the count. You knew Cena wasn't going to lose, so the thought was, how could Jericho ring the bell and render a decision for Cena? Guess he didn't have to.
Kristal earned a vote from me by doing the Robot-Guy-on-Chappelle's Show dance while exiting the locker room. And, frankly, the four ones left are the four hottest, so now I don't care who gets hired. And, just to end this week's edition of Big Bad is a randy bastard, that Summerslam promo might be the greatest thing ever produced.
Anyway, onto the wrestling. Call me crazy, but I'm digging Chris Masters. He's clearly improved a lot since his debut, and while he'll never be another Benoit, his power moves have a nice crispness to them. He and Snitsky can be a fun beauty and the beast tag team, or better yet, Snitsky can come out angry that Masters 'cost him the match' next week and answer the Masterlock Challenge.
Conway and Venis were having a good match, despite the crowd's nonchalance. If they give Conway some more original promo time and motivation (i.e. going around backstage and trying to stir up crap between other wrestlers), he could get over, because he can talk and wrestle pretty well.
It's weird saying that Hulk Hogan still have to step it up in the promo department, but unless he brings it next week, the crowd might turn pro-HBK for Summerslam. Michaels has been total gold the last few weeks, and the Hulkster will have to bust out some old Hollywood-era walking the edge material in order to keep himself the babyface.
Is there any other notable wrestler from Pittsburgh that Eugene can wrestle next week instead of Angle? This could be a fun storyline for the next few Raws to bring in a few old-timers.
The main event was classic Austin-era screw-the-face-over booking, but Carlito falling after only a few moves doesn't make him look very strong. Cena did receive a helluva beatdown, however, and he sold it well.
Matt Hardy's promo was pretty nuts. His match at Summerslam will be the most interesting match on the card by far.
(edited by Big Bad on 2.8.05 0149) Matt Tracker: Great comix this week. But why not use the Trojan corner to feature the adventures Al Wilson? DEAN: Al Wilson rides it bareback, my brother. Matt Tracker: Waitress, I won't need this omelette after all, thanks. DEAN: He's too much of gentleman to assume that the lady he is with would have a disease and he's man enough to raise any offspring that should arise. HE IS AL WILSON.
God bless the men of 2nd Bn, 127th Inf, 32d "Red Arrow" Brigade, WI Army Nat'l Guard...good luck, and come home soon.
Originally posted by Fuzzy LogicWas that always Tatanka's theme? I just thought that was the honest a jesus theme thing from the old WWF Royal Rumble game on the SNES (I honestly don't remember always using Tatanka, usually Bret or Razor... or The Million Dollar Man.)
At a marathon WWF Superstars taping here (Brown Co. Arena) in 1991, Tatanka came out to Jimmy Hart's "Crank it Up." Sadly, no one feuded w/ him for "stealing" the song. :-)
That was the most entertained I've been by RAW in a long while. Thoughts:
1) Y2J, my hero, why do you hate us cameramen so? First, you push one out of your face a'la Kenny Rogers at the top of the ramp after Bischoff makes the main...then you grab a production cam off one of my colleague's shoulders and bust Cena open w/ it? No, King, that wasn't a piece of Cena's head that went flying...looked to me like an Anton Bauer battery brick. Big, heavy...and provides more power than you'll hardly ever use in 1 shoot. God, I wish I had 'em. *sniff*
2) That 3-part Michaels promo was the best piece of biz I've seen in awhile. Start with the usual awesome job by Kevin Dunn & Co. w/ the video pkg (did they have the plate-glass window spot?), then bust out a old-school PARODY SKIT~! w/ the master, HBK, and finish up with an intense promo...superkicking the camera (I'm sensing a pattern of abuse towards my people here) for bonus heel points.
3) Matt Hardy: What was the deal with the "Matt Hardy Movement" phrase? Shouldn't you have thrown a "Mattitude" in there? Intense promo, though. Hoping for a car crash = righteously pissed off. I dug it.
4) God bless Rob Schneider for making a Diva Search segment actually watchable, and for a Waterboy reference. The right one went over, though...mmm, Elizabeth. Simple outfit, but bera bera nice. See, ladies...less is more.
5) Val Venis is the new Tito Santana or Brooklyn Brawler. When you've got a guy w/ a good look who's about to embark on a singles push, but you ain't sure about him...put him in the ring w/ Val, see how he works, and get Val's input afterwards. Venis is the standard.
Speaking of look...
6) Rob Conway: 1 part Buff Bagwell, 2 parts Mr. Slave. "Jesus Christ!" Paging Mr. Garrison...
- Rob Conway's new gimmick is wierd. I don't know how looking like someone who used to hang out at The Blue Oyster Bar is cool, but maybe it'll work.
- Best thing about the Diva Search was that Goku FINALLY showed up to save Gohan during the big fight for the fate of the world.
- The Matt Hardy promo was freaky. He was intense. He was scary. He was dangerous. He was crazy. Damn! Lita must have the ill na-na.
- I thought the HBK promo was funny. The highlights were awesome. But came off a little hypocritical. To say that Hogan has to go do some 'serious politicking backstage' with Vince to beat HBK at SummerSlam is asking us to forget about the meetings Shawn had with Vince too. But it was still funny.
- Getting bored with this 'gang up on the babyface' stuff.
- Nice tag match to open, even though it dragged when Shelton was isolated. But, it was still entertaining.
(edited by Ticamo on 2.8.05 0627) Once upon a time, a woman was picking up firewood. She came upon a poisonous snake frozen in the snow. She took the snake home and nursed it back to health. One day the snake bit her on the cheek. As she lay dying, she asked the snake, "Why have you done this to me?" And the snake answered, "Look, bitch, you knew I was a snake."
Originally posted by Mild Mannered MadmanTo the best of my knowledge, Chris Chavis is a Legit Lumbee Indian.
Ah, but the Lumbee themselves are somewhat controversial. They're a mix of native, white and black heritage, and while they identify themselves as a Native American tribe, the U.S. government doesn't. I remember when I learned all of this years ago -- I was crushed. How could the WWF and Buffalo mislead me like that?
Heather Locklear is Lumbee, too, by the way. Locklear is a common Lumbee name.
Originally posted by Big Bad Is there any other notable wrestler from Pittsburgh that Eugene can wrestle next week instead of Angle?
Maybe we might see another rare appearance of Kurt's brother Eric ?
Zbyszko could be a choice. Hell, he could stall for the full 3 minutes without any problem. Hell could really freeze over and they could bring in Bruno. The Benjamin/Wight tag team actually might have potential. And, Wight actually understood how to work the crowd from the outside while Benjamin was getting beaten down. Crowd seemed to be really into Matt Hardy, right up until he decided to go into Russo mode. There was enough kayfabe reasoning for him to get involved in a feud with Edge over Lita without having to tell the crowd that the Kane/Edge feud that never ended really had no purpose. The people who knew the "shoot" story already knew, the people who didn't had the kayfabe explanation to go by, thus, they could do the best of both worlds. Instead, the crowd just seemed to lose interest.
Originally posted by Big Bad Is there any other notable wrestler from Pittsburgh that Eugene can wrestle next week instead of Angle?
Maybe we might see another rare appearance of Kurt's brother Eric ?
I suspect Ahmed Johnson.
Anyone bitching about Chris Masters' ringwork needs only to look at Snitsky. Masters is far beyond that guy's skill already. I can't figure out why a guy like Snitsky -- a big ugly brute-- would slap on a Cobra Clutch variant. He should use simple moves.
Jericho's gimmick evolution moves further away from clubbin' rock star to aggro-rock with a camo trucker hat. This isn't the Jericho we've known for years, and maybe that's good. I woiuld hoever like to see him wrestle to promote the title bout at the big PPV. There's no good reason to give us rthe exact same match two weeks in a row. It doesn't help Carlito get over (why Jericho would rely on HIM to clobber Cena is a mystery), and it buries the IC belt.
Matt seemed oddly thinner in the face. Less puffy than in recent weeks. I still wonder if he can go with the increased muscle. I also suspect the involvement in kane in this angle and Matt's shoot comments might portend a shift to a more realistic character for Kane. Then again, that didn't happen when Vince called Undertaker "Mark" and bitched about into his character the latter had become.
Missed Kerwin, dammit.
My biggest complaint is the continuation of the GM vs. rebel-face champ. It's 2005. We've seen it and seen it.
Shawn is winning me over each week. And the more I see his kick to Hogan, the more I think that's the best superkick of his career. It was spot-on.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Originally posted by Big BadIs there any other notable wrestler from Pittsburgh that Eugene can wrestle next week instead of Angle?
The way the Invitational's been going, they don't need one. Bushwhacker Butch could come to the ring in a Steelers jersey and nobody would bat an eye except Lawler and Coach.
Originally posted by Mild Mannered MadmanTo the best of my knowledge, Chris Chavis is a Legit Lumbee Indian.
Ah, but the Lumbee themselves are somewhat controversial. They're a mix of native, white and black heritage, and while they identify themselves as a Native American tribe, the U.S. government doesn't. I remember when I learned all of this years ago -- I was crushed. How could the WWF and Buffalo mislead me like that?
Heather Locklear is Lumbee, too, by the way. Locklear is a common Lumbee name.
WrestleMania VIII Bobby Heenan: Where did those 10 Lumpy Indians go? Gorilla: It's LUMBEE, NOT Lumpy!
Originally posted by Matt Tracker I suspect Ahmed Johnson.
Wasn't that Pearl River, MS?
The explanation for the Matt Hardy/Edge/Lita angle was horrible. Whenever WCW tried to pull the "everything is normally fake, but this is real!" card it was business exposing and made them look stupid. Ne exception with WWE or with this angle. The sad part is that they could have easily just said that Edge and Lita were screwing around behind Matt's back before Kane came along. But no, they give us the laziest, most flaccid booking ever.
That Vince McMahon segment was unintentionally funny. At least when he strokes his own ego he'll admit that he's an egomaniac. But man, it's like the great businessman forgot about the multitude of failed ventures that he's had.
John Cena is becoming my least favorite WWE Champion ever. He just has no appeal to me at all. He's a poor wrestler with a gimmick that I don't relate with at all.
Shawn Michaels doing Hulk Hogan was classic. That's the type of heel HBK that I want to see. Very well done.
Anyway, I could probably go on about this show in more detail, but there wasn't much on it that was intriguing at all.
Originally posted by Fuzzy LogicWas that always Tatanka's theme? I just thought that was the honest a jesus theme thing from the old WWF Royal Rumble game on the SNES (I honestly don't remember always using Tatanka, usually Bret or Razor... or The Million Dollar Man).
I pulled out my old copy of Royal Rumble for my SNES...and yes, that's his theme. Old memories there. I almost didn't recognize him when he came out, though.
Originally posted by Big Steve
Originally posted by Matt TrackerI suspect Ahmed Johnson.
Wasn't that Pearl River, MS?
He could have moved since then....I mean, didn't he live in Harlem for a bit? ;-)
(edited by SOK on 2.8.05 0952) I've seen the following movies this year:
Coach Carter; Star Wars III; Batman Begins; Fantastic Four
Originally posted by Big BadIs there any other notable wrestler from Pittsburgh that Eugene can wrestle next week instead of Angle?
Shane Douglas could always hop the rail and demand a match.
There is ONE other guy, but he's north of 70 and isn't exactly on the best of terms with the WWE. :-P
"He's too much of gentleman to assume that the lady he is with would have a disease and he's man enough to raise any offspring that should arise. HE IS AL WILSON."[-DEAN~, 7/22/05]
Originally posted by Blanket JacksonThere is ONE other guy, but he's north of 70 and isn't exactly on the best of terms with the WWE. :-P
Years from now, people could say "I remember the night when Eugene fought Bruno in the Garden..."
Which of course would lead to a special tag match at SummerSlam: Kurt Angle and Tatanka vs. Bruno Sammartino and Eugene: the most inappropriate match ever.
Brakkus is out of the business now I think. According to Diana Hart's book, the guy's name was Achtem Albrecht. Stu Hart was impressed by his physique, so the Hart's trained him, but he didn't have much talent.