NEWM

They were both alright, but the Khali/Batista one was particularly great. Khali had some belters around that time actually, the Batista and Cena feuds were pretty ripe for quality (okay, to most people...watchable) content, and inarguably one of HHH's finest ever one-man shows came at Summerslam in 08. Fuck all the belts he won, that was the real moment he was Flair-like.

Is Raw chat still a thing? Might be able to watch live tonight.

I watched The Beach last night. Not horrific by any means but already really dated and not DiCaprio's finest hour. Nor at Thilda Swinton's either, actually. The acting was generally quite ropey. It was hard not to compare it to Lost at times, albeit with substantially less waiting around for a fucking payoff once in a while. The French love interest was gorgeous too, don't think I've seen her in much else. Overall, not a total shit fest, but it was no Repo Man. But then what is?

I love it anyway, but Boss Man's face turn just doesn't work for me, brother. The segment where it happens very quickly gets ace because Dibiase's such a great heel and Boss Man spitting all over him calling him a fat faced puke is more than enough to get the fans on board. But what's his problem with Slick taking a few quid for it in the first place? There's no way Boss Man wasn't wrapped up in all sorts of corruption for title shots and other chicanery in his first two years knocking about with Slick and Akeem. And to start the segment, he fucking leathers Jake with the nightstick. Just seconds earlier, he is a BAD bastard.

The segment's still superb, but as a mechanism for the turn, I don't love it.

I've often thought before if we were supposed to put the two characters together or not too. They were crystal clear about it when he was ex-con Crush in 96, it was a "he's out the nick and he's got triangles on his face, it's a new and more dangerous Crush than ever!", but not so much when he came back from his holiday in Kona in 92. Seems more of a rare occasion where they were looking for a complete gimmick transformation and new backstory, but just decided to keep the name.

I dunno what the fuck I've been doing the last 28 years that's got in the way of me watching Repo Man, but I didn't have my priorities in check. Bastard BRILLIANT.

I'm pissed n that, but if you think something other than mid-1997 WWF is the best wrestling ever, you're wrong like. Nowt personal, but that's the best wrestling/sports entertainment ever.

Reigns vs Rollins vs Ambrose from FCW in 2012, apologies if it's already been posted. Not bad, sloppy in places, and Ambrose should never wear this gear in WWE. Superb couple of spots at the end.

Gladders, as a man that knows his films, and his grot, what's your thoughts on 9 Songs?

I probably put too much stock in how much any of it makes a difference business-wise, but as a fan, the aesthetics make up an enormous part of my enjoyment, from the sets to the logos to the gear. Still some of the biggest moments of anticipation for Mania for me come from looking forward to seeing how long the ramp is and all the lads wearing their new clothes. I still hate that the HD era brought identical sets to all the TV shows, especially as it predominantly aped the Raw set, which has tweaked itself so subtly year by year from 1997 that it honestly feels like it's never changed since the Titantron was first launched.

It's not just me that gets a semi for all this shite though. I recall a TNA show ages ago teasing a layout with a long bending aisle akin to old WWF ones. It didn't materialise IIRC, but it generated some pretty exciting discussion just with the prospect of it.

He looks like Sensational Sherri at Summerslam 90, and she went undefeated in that fucking mental gear, he's on to a winner.

Somebody mentioned Elijah Burke a page back, so I just wanted to reminisce about him and Beer Money as (in my opionion) the three hottest babyfaces TNA has ever, ever had in late 2009/early 2010. By about April, Pope was jobbing to AJ Styles via getting attacked with a biro seemingly just to get his push done and dusted, and Beer Money were turned heel to shove them out of the way so Abyss could have red and yellow on his gear and be the top babyface. Barring the spectacular spell in mid-2012 when Austin Aries got on that magic tear, I never really made friends with TNA when they so horribly abused those characters. Zero repayments on emotional investments is basically the story of the whole company, over and over again, but never worse than those three.

Kofi Kingston's been in WWE for about twice as long as Yokozuna ever was.

Kofi has been in WWE longer than Kurt Angle or Chris Benoit or Eddie Guerrero ever was. That to me is fucking mind blowing.

I like that Vickie Guerrero has been a regular on screen character 8 years, compared to Eddie's 5. If their daughter had ever made it, there'd be a piss funny argument to be had to call her a second generation performer as the ex-GM's kid, rather than the ex-alive WWE Champion's kid.

Years go quicker when you're older don't they. It's just occurred to me that assuming Hogan comes back this year, he's been away from WWE 7 years, almost as long as his original 9 year one in the 90s, it hasn't seemed half as long this time round. Not that I'm not excited to see him, but it doesn't seem ten minutes since he was pushing Shawn Michaels about and titting around with Randy Orton.

Kama wore long tights too didn't he, more of Shango effort than his proper Kama singlet, he didn't suit that at all. I loved the Nation variants of wrestler gear, Ahmed looked like the baddest man in the universe in his Nation gear when he returned at Summerslam, and Rock and Kama were the business in their Nation outfits.

I'm feeling quite late to these, but I heard Postmodern Jukebox for the first time today and they're fucking marvellous. The lead singer has a gorgeous voice and she's canny pretty as well. Anyway, they do swing, country and motown covers of new songs, so it's a bit like hearing The Baseballs for the first time where you gobble up everything they've got out there then get bored pretty quick, but I'm in the excited stage still.

Some of the best, but it's all great.

- Beauty and a Beat

- Call Me Maybe -

- Blurred Lines -

- Roar -

Anyway, there's loads more on Youtube and probably not a duffer amongst them.

Opinions and all that, but you're dead fucking wrong about Khali. Everybody is. Giant Gonzalez, now there was a piece of shit. Man's Man Steven Regal fucked off his nut on pills and ale fighting Goldust on Raw in 1998? Legitimately horrific.

Khali's got no legs, fair enough, but he waddles out there looking like a giant, and does giant spots. When he hits his chop or big punch, people go flying, the crowd believe it, and it's good stuff. When somebody pins him, it counts for something, and when people get to do their finisher on him, it gets everybody talking and we all go to Youtube to catch the clip from Main Event or Superstars just for that very moment. Unlike over half the roster, what happens to, around and with Khali tends to actually count, even if it's not for much or a title or owt. If Khali/Brock was promoted and Khali was kept strong in the build up, that would draw and people would then go out of their way to catch the F5 after they read about it.

And, once, he squeezed Ric Flair and Batista's heads at the same time like he was a DJ and they were the decks. And he arm wrestles with broken glass if his (excellent) feud with HHH is anything to go by. He's hard as fuck. Khali should never get sacked and is an extremely underrated member of the roster, and the fact he gets so many disparaging end-of-year-awards represents a loud-mouthed small minded majority of fans who pile on blokes that can't do a particularly tight headlock or wear trunks and pads. Great Khali's so topper he never even needs a monster push. If they just decide he is one for Smackdown, that's how he'll behave, no bother.

You could spend a long time talking about the stupidest fucking things TNA have ever done (and probably a thread or two that I've forgotten about, so apologies this isn't in there), but Kurt Angle joining Immortal was fucking STUPID. What I love (as in, hate) about wrestling is when you thread things together yourself in the place of the company's failure to do it, but TNA is extra-specially brilliant at stopping you. The amount of times they impossibly contradict their own continuity to the MASSIVE detriment of the wrestlers is staggering. Don't get me wrong, everybody knows Mr Anderson is the most useless tosser that ever lived, but I'd argue the majority of wrestlers would struggle to stay over after his dalliances with the World Title and Immortal.

TNA's like that mate you have that is actually a fucking dickhead but there might be a quality you see in him that ties you to him from time to time, even if others keep telling you they're a dickhead, or he ruins a night out where you introduce him to people who've never met him, or your missus doesn't like you going for a pint with him.

Piper's a massive worker. Look at him on Louis Theroux. He's pretty much always "on" if it's anything to do with wrestling.

Quite right, and he's a fucking annoying cunt with it. His book's a mess for it.

The sheer amount of good Podcasts out there has allowed me to get picky now - with Austin, Cabana & Jericho, I only listen if the guest is of interest. I've heard the same shit from them all time and time again; Austin's a one-note joke, Cabana's the thickest human that ever lived and Jericho was always a pube anyway. I'm not taking up space on my iPhone to get round to listening to Jericho interview his fucking Dad or Steve Austin talk about washing the hard-to-reach bits with a rag on a stick.

On today's Review-A-Raw, John Pollock mentioned one called Go Bayside, which has some comedy folk reviewing each episode of Saved By The Bell. That just leapt in front of all three of these in my weekly podcast priorities.

I'm entering the Rumble (chat). Might even get a nap up in this shit today to be fully prepped. Big bag of salt and vinegar sticks representin'. Unless I fall asleep. The first ones my aim though.

Just idly re-reading old Observers and here's a little bit of good Meltzer craic from October 1995 with the WWF on its arse. There are lots of off-air moments I'd love to have seen over the years, but Vince's tantrum here would be near the top of my list.

Just as the cameras faded to black signifying the end of the In Your House PPV show on 10/22 in Winnipeg, a disgusted Vince McMahon threw down his glasses and his headset and said the words, "horrible" as he started to walk to the back with Jim Ross while a pull-apart brawl with Bret Hart and Diesel was still going on in the ring. Seconds later, as the brawl ended, Diesel, the person McMahon had planned to build his company around one year earlier, was being booed out of the building, yet another in the long line of failed experiments in his quest to find a new Hulk Hogan. The virtually unanimous crowd reaction to Diesel after yet another unimpressive main event match seems to make it only logical that Bret Hart is destined to have a career similar to the man who his being compared with results in outbursts--Ric Flair. Like Flair, Hart is the man picked to pick up the pieces time-after-time when experiments of creating new world champions that will be the next big thing in wrestling end up with declining box office figures.

 

For McMahon, the crowd reaction was the crowning jewel of a two week period that he'd most likely love to take back. It was a two-week period that saw injuries to two of his key performers, the quitting of his top assistant, his babyface singles and tag champions being heavily booed after post-matches that weren't designed to elicit such responses, poor house show business at every stop, the debut of a character being groomed for the top echelon falling flat, and among the worst matches and worst overall PPV shows in company history.

There will have been a few personal and professional low ebb's Vince in the 94-97 spell, but this has to be a pretty dark time indeed.

A little harsh on Disney, Gladders. Heavyweights was piss funny.

My memory of all that time is when Hogan started doing all the kids shows over here in his WCW bandana. At school on Monday, because I was the wrestling kid, everybody was asking where to watch WCW or 'if WWF had stopped now' etc as a result. Especially when that lot got wind the Nasties, Boss Man, Duggan etc were down there. To be honest, as a WWF guy I was really glad to be shot of a lot of those types, but it showed the legitimate sense in Bischoffs hiring policy at the time for the company, even if the booking ranged between iffy and shite.

Shawn Michaels and Diesel were the ones to fool me into thinking happy days were here again in 94/95. I was extremely loyal to Bret as a hardworking champion who shouldn't have to put up with all the shit he was getting off Owen and others, but Diesel was fucking really tall and dead hard so he was going to have them all buying the sticker albums at school again. And Shawn was clearly the most brilliant wrestler since sliced bread, as good at the moves as he was at the flying and he wins Rumbles from the start! Wasn't to be though. It wasn't even Steve Austin round my neck of the woods either. Definitely Rock and Foley, then Austin. I got my Austin 3:16 shirt out the merchandise catalogue in 97 and nobody knew what it was or that it was wrestling until years after it wasn't being worn on telly. And Austin didn't have a pocketful of cheese or a garden full of trees, or his face on owt in Waterstones, or a prominent spot on those first few episodes of Heat on T4 that people suddenly were asking me about.

To be fair to Orton though, Cenas father has the kind of look that would make someone want to give him a good leathering.

It feels as though everybody bar Jinder Mahal HAS done at this point. I'm sick of the silly old twat.

The mere mention of their name should be banned from discussion.

This is a brilliant idea. Sig/Avatar one day punishment/forfeit for anybody that mentions them.

This is a fucking scandal.