DCW

1. Cactus Jack vs Triple H- Royal Rumble 2000

I'd been watching off and on since mid 99, when WWF seemed to take a stronghold in popularity in primary school. The tragic death of poor Owen Hart seemed to help drive interest in it, strangely enough. I'd noticed Foley via his promos and a completely different look/style compared to the majority of the WWF roster (me being a weird, chubby 12 year old helped on that front!) and the build-up to Royal Rumble 2000 made me a fully-fledged fan. I stayed up and watched semi-live (thanks Channel 4!) and was basically hooked completely from there until 04 or 05 when my interest waned as the show got terrible & I discovered alcohol & women.

2. The Rock vs Triple H- Backlash 2000.

Should have been the main event of Mania 2000, but nevertheless it was still a cracking buildup, match and finish. A beer-gutted, neck still healing Steve Austin making his big return, blowing up the DX Express and waddling out to clatter everyone with awkward-looking chair shots to help Rocky be crowned as THE top new babyface was brilliant. Again, another Channel 4 showing which helped, as our Sky was regularly cut off in those days. I got a 'Layeth the Smacketh Down' t-shirt in Forbidden Planet soon after.

3. Rob Van Dam vs Jeff Hardy- Invasion 2001

I was all for the invasion angle at the time. A slighly older crowd in school had a VHS of Heat Wave 2000 where RVD wrestled Scotty Anton that I'd been given a lend of and RVD became my new teenage, smarky Power Slam reading favourite. This match was like nothing I'd seen on WWF TV before. RVD was charismatic, cool and could do amazing things like the rolling thunder, van daminator and the epic frog splash. Really great, and violent match with no real build, but it didn't matter cos RVD was cool as fuck & won the hardcore title, while the rest of the invasion crew were being jobbed out. Another Channel 4 special, as we were still poor!

4. Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar- Wrestlemania 19

I loved Angle at the time and was so looking forward to this match. I thought we'd get a screwy finish or a really quick squash because of all the rumours about how bad Kurt's neck was. But the mad bastard went and had a great match with a rookie who didn't know his own strength or limitations, as evidenced by the botched finish. Really enjoyed this match and it was the final Mania where I can still remember the entire card from top to bottom. We had a dodgy box by this stage, so could watch live on Sky.

5. CM Punk vs John Cena- MITB 2011

The 'pipebomb' promo & the forgotten contract signing the week after with Vince & general intrigue about what Punk would do hooked me back in & I was glad it did. Excellent match, the right outcome & made a proper star out of Punk, even if he never quite reached these heights again in my opinion. I'd always check back on whatever Punk was up to after this and dip in and out of it piqued my interest.

Bryan/Osperay was excellent, even with the slightly duff finish. Enjoyed Pac/Okada and the main event did what needed to be done to keep Strickland moving forward.

As not a regular watcher of AEW, why was Jericho in his auld ECW getup? he's AEW's version of Xpac in 2001 in any event anyway. Really should head off on an extended world Fozzy tour for a while at this stage.

Or wrestlers could stop hitting each other in the head with chairs altogether. It is already rare enough on TV these days, thankfully. Wrestlers doing it on the indies or small part-time shows are utter idiots for still agreeing to do so.

What a pointless thing to hype. It confirmed Punk's story pretty much & made AEW look incredibly small time. Imagine WWE hyping & then airing 'controversial'  footage of Danielson or Edge to no real end, after they both had left the company. TK shot himself in the foot for no payoff whatsoever. He really needs someone to give him a reality check and nudge him back to what his initial vision of AEW was at this stage.

If they are releasing the actual footage then this just makes TK look incredibly petty and thin-skinned. Also, couldn't choose a worse time to do it, considering WWE have just come off an incredible Mania weekend both commercially and artistically.  If it's a swerve, its loltna levels of embarrassing shite. So goosed either way. Should focus on filling his arenas and making use of all the stars he's paid handsomely to take off WWE's hands instead.

Well, I fecking loved all that. WWE giving fans exactly what they want still feels so alien after the last decade or so of mean-spirited misery. Delighted for Cody & Roman. Fair play to Rock as well, he's really put in a shift these last few months when he absolutely didn't have to. Great stuff. Love the ring announcer too.

Ospreay is already too big a star for AEW, unless he enjoys performing in front of 12 lads and TK. Cheques are being signed I suppose.

Mone is showing why WWE weren't arsed about keeping her/she'd already peaked. Dull on 2nd week in.

Lazy babyface Rock, and motivated heel Rock are night & day. You can tell he's actually enjoying himself & not just going through the motions. The trash-talking was fantastic too, simple but so effective.What Drew said was very good, but I just can't get past his weird accent. Auld reliable Rollins continues to embarrass himself, what an insignificant clown. Champ for 303 days and nobody gives two shites.  Punk's 'No' when Rollins asked 'you wanna know what I think?' was great. Great show overall.

In my old job for probation service, I'd have to go to court every month or so to apply for summonses for folk not complying with probation or community service orders. Was usually really busy with police looking for search warrants too, so I'd try to get there an hour before the Judge started dealing with them to be first in the queue. One morning I wasn't feeling great stomach-wise, but I was number one in the line so didn't want to leave for the bathroom as I'd lose my place and be there for ages.

Most judges hear these in open court, without the public and you sit in the witness box and give your reason for the applications. This morning though, the Judge was doing them in the tiny anteroom behind the court. I was halfway through giving my evidence, battling stomach cramps, desperately trying to hold in farts and feeling like I was going to crap myself while trying to focus and answer the Judge's questions. Finally, it was done and I'd gotten them signed off. As I was going to leave, the next lad was coming in & dropped his pen so I instinctively bent down to pick it up. You can see where this is going. I, unfortunately, let loose a gaseous emission that sounded like an elephant had drank 12 pints of Guinness the night before. I could feel my face turn as red as a fire engine, the lad whose pen I foolishly picked up started pissing himself laughing & I made my apologies and ran out of there as fast as I   possibly could. Whenever I went back to court after that, I made sure not to go to that Judge, even if it meant me coming in on my day off to get them signed!

Becky Lynch's book any use? didn't realise WWE were still releasing books, but saw hers in a bookshop this morning.

Good to hear the sorta return of Hollywood Rock's theme. Just missing that helicopter intro. Helicopter beats lightning!

Remember discovering TWC flicking around on Sky Digital when I was laid up after dislocating my knee when I was 15 or 16. The shoot interviews were a revelation and mana to my smarky, Power Slam reading self. The (rough-looking) Shawn Michaels and Raven shoots were my favourites.

RVD was a big missed opportunity in 2001. He was the only alliance lad who got properly over and was mixing it with Rock, Austin, Angle and Taker on TV and PPV and rivaling them for crowd reactions. He was the sole breath of fresh air in a room filled with the pungent fart that was the invasion angle. The wheels fell off completely when HHH returned in 2002 and RVD ended up caught in mid-card nothingness for years til his ill-fated ECW/WWE title run in 2006, with a brief reprieve to job to HHH in 2002 in a plodding WHC match at Unforgiven that was all headlocks til RVD was made to look like a fool when Flair screwed him for the finish.

Really should have done a whole hell of a lot more with him.

6 hours ago, Supremo said:

You wonder at what point the TKO executives are going to start asking questions though. The optics are starting to look terrible for Hunter and Shawn. Tony Khan’s bringing in Ospreay, Okada and Mercedes, compared to Triple H bringing in Shawn Spears, Brian Pillman Junior and Tama Tonga. Fucking hell, Paul. Cheapskate. You’re happy to talk about the Netflix money when you need to distract from all the Sex Trafficking. How about you actually spend some of that money and sign some big stars.

The reality is none of them are big stars & WWE already had the best of Mercedes before she got a strop on.  Osperay/Okada/Mercedes aren't going to jump-start AEW ratings/attendances if bringing in the likes of Bryan & Edge didn't in the past, but Tony is presumably still throwing his Da's big money at them anyway. Fair play to him I suppose.

The lads WWE have brought in aren't going to do much for business either, but I'd wager they aren't on huge money anyway & its not if WWE is struggling business wise at the moment.

He got into decent nick for his run as Raw GM in 16/17. Dropped a good bit of weight doing DDP yoga & swimming. He should just do that and try to kick the junk food habit into touch a bit. Maybe WWE could reward him with his own Netflix show or something if he does well. The whole idea of stepping back into the ring in his state is ludicrous. One one of his pods he mentioned that he has scoliosis for feck sake like. Plus, his joints must be in bits too from the stupid bumps and from carrying so much heft around. Not to mention his brain can't be in a good condition, you can clearly hear it when he forgets the question he's just been asked on the pod. He also mentioned having to get Steph to use a code word to jog his memory when doing promos during that last GM run nearly a decade ago.

Not a good idea Mick. So he'll definitely be doing it!

That was fantastic all round. 2024 Rock is fantastic and Roman came out of it looking like an even bigger star. Such a pity Rollins has to be involved in it, he doesn't deserve screen time with Rock/Roman and Cody and looks so out of place when alongside them. But, he can do the job at least I suppose.

Fully on board with Solo singing the anthem if its bloodline rules on night 2 as well!

Last time I publicly divulged that I watch wrestling was in 2001 in Ms.Lyon's 2nd-year English class. We had to write an essay about our favorite superhero and seeing as I wasn't into that craic at all I substituted Kane for one of those Marvel lads. I wrote a pretty decent essay about the past history of the character of Kane and what he was up to on telly at the time (feuding with HHH for the IC title I think, thankfully this was pre-Katie Vick!)

The first words from Ms.Lyon's after me reading it aloud in front of the entire class was 'you understand it's all fixed don't you? which was very irritating to teenage me. I knew well it was fixed as I was an avid smarky Power Slam reader back then. What annoyed me more was that Ms.Lyon's was obsessed with Harry Potter, with her class filled with posters, figures and lots of other merch as well as her dragging everyone to see the first film instead of LOTR like the class voted for. If she could suspend her disbelief for witches and goblins or whatever, then I should be able to do the same for wrestling without condescension from her.

Rhea isn't an out-and-out heel either, which makes it tougher. She's a cool heel & main evented a PPV as an underdog hometown babyface face 2 days previously.

But yeah, I blame any decline in Becks squarely on that dullard Rollins anyway!

For a man who claimed to love the NWA & WCW, Triple H fair butchered the careers of some big WCW names who came across back then. Scotty, Booker & Goldberg did not emerge from feuds with Haitch with much credit or momentum. Steiner was pretty much finished after his run with him, wasn't even on Mania that year just 3 odd months after his debut and (presumably) on a decent contract. Was farting around with the likes of Test & poxy La Resistance by the end of the year.

Triple H vs King Booker at SS 2007. Triple H had been off after tearing another quad & Bookah had been hamming it up as royalty for most of the previous year. The match was sold as who was 'the real king' which is just hilariously naff, but I loved it all the same.

Also, the whole December to Dismember was horifically bad but I also loved it. Balls Mahoney vs Matt Striker and Tommy Dreamer vs Khali (including a pointlessly dangerous bump from that gobshite Dreamer) on live PPV? Great, shite work WWECW! Probably helped that we'd a chipped ntl box at the time, so weren't paying for Sky Sports or Box Office to watch it!

Well, I fucking loved that press conference. Note perfect chaos and a distinctly more interesting version of Rock than the re-heated juvenile shite he's been spewing the last few returns. Rollins being treated as the berk and complete afterthought he is was the icing on the cake. Bravo!

Jaysus, Heyman looks dog rough in that video. Even if he's just woken up after a snooze during the flight or whatever, he does not look a healthy man.

When I was 11 or 12, me and a group of little shitheads I hung around with would go to the (packed) supermarket across from the school & throw whatever we wanted on the floor and casually kick it along the shop floor towards the exit til we got outside.  Was usually bottles of tooth-rotting off-brand cola or multipacks of chocolate. In our minds it wasn't stealing, the products were just accidentally moved from the shop and ended up outside. We were idiots.

Of that group, one is dead from jumping in the canal while off his tits on ecstasy and freezing to death in the dead of night in the middle of January. Another did a good few years stretch after being caught red handed moving a truck full of heroin. Me and the remaining lad turned out relatively alright.

I'd say this is Endeavour's way of getting rid of Vince for good to be honest. Sign the big Netflix deal, leak this horrible story & bury Vince's involvement with the brand for good.

Whats Rollins injury prognosis? delighted the dullard is out.