NEWM

This week's NXT was probably one of the most fantastically booked hours of WWE TV I've seen in years.

Sensational (though totally straightforward - in a good way) storytelling in the main event, and a really good opening segment. Really terrific booking throughout the whole show. Loved it.

What a fucking absolute piece of shit the Austin podcast with Paige was. I almost want to recommend it for how crap it was, but it wasn't so morbidly awful that I can.

Austin was disinterested, Paige is clearly a bit of an irritating twat in real life (well, she's young basically, so, comes across full of herself and naive) and the whole thing has a cloud of 'this could have been Austin/Hogan' hanging over it.

An unmitigated disaster. And they must have only picked her because of the Tough Enough connection, but why not Daniel Bryan or The Miz? Fucking hell, even Jey Uso probably would have made for a better hour. A total mess.

The Fallen Angel Helen Daniels would certainly shake up the Divas Revolution.

Going to New York for a week in January. Can anybody recommend or suggest any wrestling-based things to do/see while walking about?

Gonna have a nosey round MSG and whatnot but are the any shops/attractions etc hidden away that are worth a look? It's not high on the list of things to do, but it just struck me that with a history with wrestling the city has, there might be the odd thing to visit. Cheers.

Met three Canadians ever and none of them knew Bret, and not coincidentally, none of them really know me either as a result. That gambit destroyed any potential long lasting relationship, for sure. National hero, my arse.

Mind, I told that story to Savio Vega and he was in tears.

Are new contract downsides going to get inflated as a result of the Network? Have they ever made it known how people get paid (or don't) as a result of Network subs? And if they don't, are they just gonna start getting flat (but bigger) salaries with things like house show extras, merch etc as bonuses on top. That ADR wage is fucking nutso otherwise.

The Scramble concept was underrated and deserved another run out by the WWE. Just skimming through Unforgiven 08 on the Network and all of them are great. The ECW one is possibly the best of the lot as well. Hardy flapping about desperately chucking blokes out of the ring and breaking up pins is tremendous. Fans go apeshit at the end.

I unexpectedly enjoyed Jim Duggan on Cabana's podcast. I remember years ago seeing a shoot where he came across as a right miserable cunt (he steadfastly refused to acknowledge that Steve Austin was really any good, IIRC, amongst other stuff) but he was just a good, understated interview subject. Decent little stories and a decent memory of some of his big moments. Colt's thick-as-fuckness is on the low scale in this one too, which always helps.

Is the Bret/Sid pre-Mania 13 cage match the best bit of in-match storyline the WWF have ever ever done? We've all waxed lyrical on it I'm sure, but as far as brilliance in simplicity, I can't think of much finer. Everybody has such a key role, and the ramifications are enormous and Mania rivals helping each other out smashes the drama levels through the roof AND further builds their stories for the PPV.

Hundreds of watches later and I just fucking love every minute of it, from Bret's delayed entrance to Vince getting shoved on his arse and Shawn coming out to grin at the chaos at the end. Theatre.

 

That Billy Gunn comeback was a heartbreaker for me. I totally bought into the weekly JR hype of how he was the next big thing, so spent his entire recovery time anticipating him to be either the hit and run driver, or the next babyface worldbeater. The sharks at the top of the card back then had gobbled him up before his gammy arm had even healed.

IIRC, that stunner was basically a big 'it's not Billy Gunn, fuck that, mate!' segment, wasn't it? Austin well and truly ruined WWF in 2000, for sure.

I think it's more to do with Kreski leaving and Stephanie taking over creative than Austin coming back.

Oh aye, I'm not putting ALL of it on his lap, but the return of his character was certainly representative of the shift away from the fun and varied roster to 18 segments of Steve Austin being hacked off with something or another and somehow managing to gobble up the heat of both babyfaces and heels.

As a heel in 01, at least that made broadly entertaining telly, as a babyface in 2000 with substantially more dynamic characters already bedded in, it was dire beyond one stunner a week.

That Billy Gunn comeback was a heartbreaker for me. I totally bought into the weekly JR hype of how he was the next big thing, so spent his entire recovery time anticipating him to be either the hit and run driver, or the next babyface worldbeater. The sharks at the top of the card back then had gobbled him up before his gammy arm had even healed.

IIRC, that stunner was basically a big 'it's not Billy Gunn, fuck that, mate!' segment, wasn't it? Austin well and truly ruined WWF in 2000, for sure.

She looks a bit like a weathered Taylor Swift, actually.

I noticed today that the more colour coordinated DX got, the worse they were.

With X-Pac in red, HHH and Gunn picking any colours they liked, and Road Dogg wearing whatever he found in a bin back in 98, they were on top of the world. Whereas by the time they all sported consistent neon green and black by late 99 as heels, they were right set of boring cunts. Even Tori got in on the act. And she was just the worst. The pitiful remains by mid-2000 were rotten.

A rare case where matching gear actually represented a group/team getting worse.

Fucking HELL the guy doing the Clash review on Review A Wai with Pollock this week is absolutely infuriating. A motormouthed 2003 internet guy just fast-talking over everything without a breath and hardly any funny lines. Wai's tremendous anyway, but Christ was he missed in this one.

Summerslam 90 is an absolute belter, arguably the most underrated WWE PPV ever. I stuck it on for the millionth time to watch Dusty's heartbreak so wonderfully played, but I ended up watching the entire bastard thing. Well paced, no real duds, and a shitload to grab onto from a not-particularly-fertile time for the company. And Roddy Piper is a bigoted mouthy cunt on commentary and still can't ruin it. Is it just my nostalgia or does everybody else think it's the bees knees?

Brock has to invade the set when Austin interviews Taker. Deck them both at the end and tip the set over, Paul Heyman dragging him off, realising he's stirred up some shit but quietly confident Brock's man enough for them to get away with it.

I love it when he tips stuff over.

It's now on the PS3! Sorry if somebody already mentioned that.

I'm not really arsed until it appears on PS3, has the app appeared for anybody yet? I can't find it. Ta.

What offices did Vince run things from before Titan Tower? Did he just work out of his big house, or did they rent in NY or work on entirely on the road or what? And are there any pics out there of the first WWE home base before then? Cheers.

I thought the alternate ending was as shit as the proper one. Which is to say, quite shit. The show had long gone beyond a point where a relatively satisfying conclusion was possible for all of the characters, especially Ted. And all the characters were arseholes by the end, a common trait with the longstanding US shows that forcibly outstay their welcome. I stuck with it week after week like a mug because I do that with programmes I start, but it reached a point where in hindsight, the actual majority of it was fucking shite, rather than one duff season or something. 

I've enjoyed some of the recent Jericho podcasts (ENTIRELY based on his guests), but he comes across like SUCH a twat when he's listing legends for whatever reason and just can't help but egotistically include himself. He basically tailors his list so that it will definitely include him. In the HHH one, he was a "top guy at the top of his game" in 2000, as well as "one of the big name WCW guys winning the war for them" in the mid-90s and "veterans carrying the load" in 2003 or whenever they fuck they were intending to reference.

He also often considers himself "one of the key workers that made 00 so great" if he has an Edge/Angle type guy on, "an old school drinker", "the last to come up the old fashioned way", and so on. I don't think he's just trying to skeeve on to his guest either, I honestly just think he believes he's every kind of awesome thing a pro wrestler can be, and just blurs the timelines a bit to make his example work. It's always the same, he starts a list to highlight something by going "There was (GUEST) and wrestler, and wrestler, and me, and other wrestler, you know, we were the only guys who really...". Prick.

Half way through historyofwrestling's new book Titan Sinking. Chronicling the WWE's 'shitty' 1995, I personally really enjoyed 95/96 because it was a time I really got into wrestling. Probably the best new wrestling book Ive read in a while, reckon itll be an easy re-read too.

 

Not too much new information especially if you have access to the Observer archives but some interesting stuff I hadn't heard or read before such as Macho Man's relationship with Vince breaking down when his Dad couldnt get on a house show in 1987. Fair play to James Dixon, he's definitely done his research and put a lot of time into this. Cornette pops up too, which is always fun, he also provides foreword although he still can't resist a dig at Russo.

 

If you like Death of WCW and Turning The Tables then its definitely worth buying.

I had no idea this even existed and am also a massive fan of the period so will definitely check it out, cheers for the heads up.

That said, comparing Turning the Tables to Death of WCW is like comparing ice cream and horse manure. Lister wrote something that belongs on the top row of all wrestling books and I wouldn't wipe my arse with that agenda-ridden extended 411 column.

Ohhhhh, CLOUDY, like the opposite of Sunny. I just got that. What a fucking idiot.

What's so wrong with Stephanie and Brie being at the end anyway? They're over characters and the segment delivered. And the crowd responded accordingly. Says nothing about the roster at all, just rewards two strong performers currently in a hot angle.

On womens matches, it might not count from a purists standpoint, but the Stephanie/Trish brawl from No Way Out would easily pass quality testing for me. Heated as fuck and physically extremely competitive and believable. They really fucking went for it, which far surpasses some of the noble, but ultimately hamstrung and sloppy attempts from Natalya, Lita and the like.