Shane O' Mac Version 2

1. Stone Cold vs. Dude Love- Over the Edge 1998

It wasn't the first match I saw, but it's the first one I remember in its entirety. Pure Attitude Era madness, brawling around the arena, Vince as the ref, the Stooges as timekeepers, Taker getting involved. Pure chaos. Pure brilliant chaos. As I started watching wrestling in 1998, a child of Attitude, this was the perfect representation of why I loved it.

2. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker- WrestleMania 25

One of 3 go-to matches I have if I want to show someone wrestling for the first time. Might be a cliche' choice but both HBK and Taker were my introductions to pro wrestling. When I was in the 2nd grade, my best mate lent me a Shawn VHS and a Undertaker VHS. This was the best of both men, on the biggest stage possible, one of the best dramatic, action packed matches ever. Shame about the rest of the card.

3. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.- Halloween Havoc 1997

The second go-to match. I didn't watch WCW growing up, I think I first saw this match on a Rey Mysterio DVD collection once he was in WWE. But it was such a mindblowing match athletically, with the clear good guy/bad guy divide just like HBK vs. Taker was. Always gravitated towards the smaller high flier types even as a kid, before AEW, even before the Smackdown 6 and the Cruiserweight division there. Was all about the Jeff Hardys, Eddie Guerreros and Rob Van Dams back then, then when Rey made his WWE debut- I remember that whole episode of Smackdown from start to finish. Even now in 2024, he might be old, but Rey is still one of my favourites, and a massive part of my wrestling fandom.

4. TLC II- WrestleMania X-Seven

The third go-to match. Take the drama of HBK vs. Taker, the high flying and athletics of Eddie vs. Rey, add in a shitload of weapons, and you have possibly THE highlight of the greatest WrestleMania of all time. 6 guys, 3 teams, all wanting to prove themselves- as well as the run ins/cameos from Lita, Rhyno and Spike. Absolute balls to the wall carnage, and one of my favourite wrestling visuals ever with Edge's Spear on Jeff Hardy off the ladder. A car crash of epic proportions, and the standard I compare all similar match types to.

5. Matty Wahlberg vs. Caveman Ugg- PWA Black Label 2019

Some eight or so years ago, I became a fan of Australian pro wrestling. One of the early talents to catch my eye was Matty Wahlberg, known today as Grayson Waller on Smackdown. Character-wise, Wahlberg and Waller are basically the same. Cocky, brash, willing to do whatever it takes, Wahlberg filmed a 3 parts docu-series called "The 21st Century Success Story" to hype this showdown. The Wahlberg vs. Ugg main event was something that helped propel Wahlberg towards future stardom, and being scouted by WWE later in the year. Brilliant clash of styles where the perennial heel became a babyface underdog for the night against the monster Ugg.

Just now, LaGoosh said:

As should be the case with any annoying little bastard heel. If you're a little guy and you're a heel no one should believe you are genuinely tough, it's all about them being sneaky, cheating, being cowardly, hiding behind bigger mates and using every corner cutting dastardly trick in the book to get the advantage on their opponents.

Fair point. If that's what they're going for, I'm on board. I thought he was genuinely trying to be a hard bastard, which sent me, considering... well, everything I've ever seen from Perry or thought about him. Even if we never saw the footage. Just look at the fucker.

19 hours ago, Supremo said:

Him telling the fans to fuck off at the end, daring them to jump the rail? Top stuff. I’d love to go back and watch some of his heel work with HOOK last Summer because this feels night and day. Felt like he was badly playing a character back then, whereas now it’s way more authentic. Probably because it’s grounded in reality where - based on the All In footage - he did get fucked over. Legitimately. Eight months suspended because he gave CM Punk an opening to throw a cheap sucker punch whilst he brushed his beautiful hair out of his own face. What an injustice.

Sucker punch or not, that footage showed a pro wrestler that absolutely could not handle themselves in the slightest in an actual fight. Like the anti-Haku.

Him daring fans to jump the rail is laughable, because any one of them could hand him his arse easily. Except maybe children under the age of 10. Then it's a coin flip.

This angle might actually be one of the smartest things AEW have done in a long, long time.

Think what you want about Tony Khan, the Elite, Jack Perry, backstage footage... I've seen constant coverage from the NFL, on Draft Week, about AEW and Tony taking a piledriver. When was the last time outlets of that magnitude paid attention to AEW? Perfect timing for some fun mainstream attention that AEW has been sorely lacking through its existence.

15 hours ago, Browser Brady said:

Val Venis. Is surely now more of an example of why weed shouldn’t be legal. I don’t think he is the better for how much he smokes, he is gone filly raving looney isnt he ?

Yeah, but is it the weed that makes him say dumb shit, or was he always like that?

Who knows how we'd view some of the Attitude/Ruthless Aggression bunch if Twitter was a thing back then.

22 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

My main issue with John Cena's style is that despite being a freakishly strong muscle man is that all his offence is weak as piss. Running bull dogs, second rope leg drops, flipping neck breakers....absolute crap. You're a beast John, do some goddamn power moves. Press Slam someone for the love of God!

I feel like this comes down to the FU/AA being his established finisher. You can't have him doing all these crazy suplexes and powerbombs, then finish the match with a relatively weak fireman's carry slam. Maybe if he kept the move closer to the Death Valley Driver it was originally, he could sprinkle in more power stuff.

As it is, he kinda needed the AA to be his one big display of power in a match- especially if wrestling a Big Show/Khali type. It's like, the impact of the actual move isn't that impressive, but your closing impression is "wow, look how he lifted them up! So strong!"

I hope they do a better job balancing the two nights this year. Just finished watching WM38. You've got an elite Night 1, and Night 2 is a drastic comedown from that. I'll probably chuck on WM39 next, but it's fresh enough in my head anyway- epic Night 1, and Night 2 is very lucky to have the IC triple threat on it, otherwise it'd be another big comedown. 

Would be nice for the highlight to be Night 2 for a change.

I'll hold my hands up and say it was a misunderstanding from me, when you talked about WWE jerking Reigns around, I thought you meant his career as a whole, not specifically the title reigns. And I was for sure cloudy on some details.

But I think we need to agree to disagree because yeah I don't really think he was jerked around. Given suspensions, illnesses and his perpetual status as a top star, I don't think the fact that he wasn't carrying a belt around really harmed him. Finn Balor got hurt once and they never trusted him in a top spot again, Reigns had chance after chance and was always close to the title picture.

You think him pissing around with Strowman negated his wins over Undertaker and Cena, whereas I view it the complete opposite- those big wins are what stands out to me more. Appreciate all the details and the discussion but, I think we just view Reigns' career and the importances of titles to it under very different lenses.

Anyway, it's all a moot point as he's now the greatest champion to ever live as the Tribal Chief.

17 hours ago, air_raid said:

This reads like you weren’t really watching between Mania 31 and SummerSlam 2020. If you need a potted history of how often they Lugered him between Mania 31 and 32 and made him look stupid or a loser, then made him twiddle his thumbs for nearly 2 years between losing the title to Rollins and winning it at SummerSlam 18 (including multiple defeats to Lesnar and spending near a year wasting time with Strowman which also involved multiple losses), then after he came back from cancer making him scratch his arse for ANOTHER year mostly fucking around with losers like Corbin before he was supposed to win the U belt from Goldberg…. well, I’ve summarised it, but don’t feel like I should have had to.

They decided he was going to be the man mid 2014 then spent 6 years mostly holding off or beating him.

No, I was watching the whole time. My memory was a little hazy on all the wins and losses, I'm guessing my brain tuned out anything I didn't consider particularly high quality. I know a lot of 2017-2019 I was kinda watching along out of habit, hoping for it to get better. I definitely felt like we were turning a corner coming into 2020 before COVID happened.

But there was never a point, whether he had the title or not, that I didn't consider Roman Reigns the face of the company. In 2017 he was the main event of WrestleMania, simply because he was Roman Reigns. In 2018, they did a similar thing at Backlash, where Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe was the main event because... reasons. Can barely remember who the actual WWE/Universal Champions were around that period. AJ and Shinsuke were kicking each other in the balls over the WWE title, right? Never considered Roman to be twiddling his thumbs, or looking stupid or being a loser. He was often the main event guy while Brock took one of the titles hostage.

I looked back at his actual title history, and it goes with winning at Survivor Series, then they had the Sheamus cash-in and a faux-Authority storyline to try and get Roman cheered. Beats HHH at Mania, then has to drop the title because he violated the Wellness Policy. Not WWE's fault.

Then after he returned from the Wellness Policy suspension, obviously they're not going to be quick to put a big title back on him. But he was still main event/title picture the whole time between. Then he wins the Universal Title in 2018. Lost it due to his leukemia. Not WWE's fault.

I guess his 2019 wasn't too great looking back at it. He still seemed like the top guy though. It sure as shit wasn't Kofi Kingston.

2 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Wrestlemania 34 was the big one.

That was a huge mess with him losing to Brock again, and then beating him in a Summerslam match nobody really remembers a few months after.

Ah yeah, all I really remember about that was Reigns pissing out a lot of blood at Mania. But I completely forgot who won- I'm guessing my thought process at the time was, "well, he's obviously getting it back at some point", and well, he did.

Was genuinely racking my brains at air_raid's post, so I looked up Reigns' history with the big belts. Late 2015/2016 saw him win and lose the title in a little attempt at a Daniel Bryan thing, having him face The Authority- and he won at Mania against Triple H. Then he dropped the title due to violating the Wellness Policy- his fault, not WWE's. Then after he won the Universal Championship, he got diagnosed with leukemia- no one's fault, that, and certainly not WWE's. Then he was set to take the Universal Title back at WM36- and COVID happened. That brings us back to his mega reign that he's currently in.

I don't know, one Mania loss that was avenged at Summerslam doesn't sound like a guy who's been hard done by by WWE.

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

Forgive me if I’m repeating myself but I wonder how much longer Roman really wants to go on. The length of his title(s) run has been very much “Well, we said we’d make you top dog. We know we made you wait too long and jerked you around on the way first time round… and second time…. and third time. Well - here it is, you’re the guy.” 

Wait, what? How on Earth did WWE jerk him around? He's been earmarked as THE GUY from day dot. He's always been main event/top of the card, usually with some title in tow. Only times he hasn't been the top champ really is when Brock had the belt, and really Roman was still The Guy back then because he was actually the one on TV every week.

All I can think of is Seth cashing in at Mania 31. And that only happened because the fans were rejecting Roman, I wouldn't call that WWE jerking him around.

It was Grayson Waller's birthday yesterday. He turned 34. The Twitter comments were a little outrageous, carrying on like he's ancient. I sometimes wonder about Twitter- even though it came out and started to get popular in my late teens/early 20s, whenever the topic of age comes up, the consensus seems to be that anyone over 30 is a dinosaur- not just limited to wrestlers either.

In the case of Grayson, people were saying, "well, he's too old, he's not going to make it, just let him go". Which is wild when he's just getting started and just about all the current top stars are 5-10 years older than him. He also started relatively late, with his wrestling debut coming at 27, so he doesn't have the miles on his body that a typical 34 year old wrestler might have, say if they started on the indies at 18.

Maybe I'm a little sensitive on this one because Grayson and I are exactly 3 months apart- I'll be 34 myself in June. But seriously, that's not old! 

If he starts doing shots of vodka and giving middle fingers after hitting everyone in sight with Cody Cutters, maybe I'll start to like him.

The wildest thing about this Will Ospreay AEW run is that the awesomeness of it currently has little to do with his kick-ass, 5 star + matches. In two interviews with Tony Schiavone, he's come across as this likeable but tough and endearing character, full of confidence and a little humour and self-deprecation too. He speaks well and has the crowd in the palm of his hand. And he's got a banging theme song and the cues to hit his chants- the "Ospreay, Ospreay" was infinitely louder than the "CEO" chants that Mercedes seems to almost beg for.

And after Ospreay getting himself to this new level of stardom just by speaking on the mic, he's bound to STILL go and have a bonkers match with Bryan at the PPV.

Currently watching some old Manias to prep for WMXL. Sticking with the milestones every ten years. With the first one and Mania X accounted for, I went to WrestleMania XX tonight. Got to Evolution vs. Rock & Sock Connection. I remember Foley being disappointed in that match, but I love it and consider it an underrated gem, mostly because of The Rock and Ric Flair mucking around being awesome.

The Rock, who by 2004 had wrapped up his full-time wrestling career, gone Hollywood, and was in this spot at WMXX as a returning legend. He was 31 years old.

Logan had a bloody amazing first year or so in WWE, but I didn't think his actual first match at Mania was all that great. He was very good, don't get me wrong, but generally serviceable in his tag with Miz against the Mysterios. The main thing I remember from it off the top of my head was his little cocky smirk after the Three Amigos and thinking, "Okay, he gets this shit beyond just the moves". But it wasn't until Summerslam vs. Miz and Crown Jewel vs. Roman that I really went, "Okay, Logan Paul is awesome at this wrestling thing."

Comparing debut matches though, I thought Bad Bunny was far bettter in his WrestleMania tag than Logan was in his. Of course, Logan now laps him as a celeb wrestler purely off strength of schedule. Plus the crazy shit.

I'd like to see Gunther vs. Sami vs. Gable. Last year he had the classic triple threat with the hosses, could he do it this year with the smaller workrate guys instead? 

2 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Cody 'The Alien' Rhodes is many things but bland is absolutely not one of them.

Everything he is and does is a bit 'extra', as the kids say. If anything, I'd say the most compelling criticism of Rhodes might be that he's a bit much.

Yeah, fair, he's certainly over the top in a number of ways. Maybe the descriptor I should have used instead of "bland" is "squeaky-clean".

I guess the drawback of getting into wrestling during Attitude is that I've always preferred my good guys to have a bit of attitude with them. Austin, Rock, HBK, Taker... never saints but I loved them. Never had time for red and yellow Hogan but Hollywood Hogan was kinda cool. Liked Cena as the Dr of Thuganomics and went right off him when he wore the brightly coloured shirts and did segments like "JBL is poopy".

Now we've got Cody, who is as by the book a good guy as they come. Not for me. He showed he could be a great prick initially during his post WWE run, joining Bullet Club and all that, if he brought 5% of that edge to his personality, maybe I could warm to him a bit.

23 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Absolutely, there's nothing more insincere than hugging blind fans and making a young fan's dream come true.

I'm talking about his promos and character that he does on TV, not the actual person he is.

I'm sure there's a bunch of performers who, regardless if you think they're good or bad, are actually great people. I'm sure Cody is one of them. Look, in the same vein, John Cena. Does incredible work for Make A Wish. Doesn't stop him sounding like a soulless, corporate puppet most times he speaks.

Love seeing this version of The Rock. I was thrilled when he showed up at Day 1 and teased Rock vs. Reigns. It's not even that I want to see THAT MATCH specifically, but I do want to see The Rock have one last fitting retirement match (and to see him wrestle live for the first and last time ever at WMXL). Also, the whole Bloodline/Head of the Table thing seems like a major step towards getting rid of Roman and his never-ending reign.

The problem is- Cody Rhodes. Never liked him. He's the face of the company, and I was tolerating him purely because he seemed like "the chosen one" to dethrone Roman. His matches (apart from HIAC) peak at "good" for me. His promos and character are insufferable. He feels like an insincere, robot politician trying to play the generally accepted, white meat version of a hero. That type of character has always rubbed me the wrong way. Probably the same reason I couldn't get on board with Bret until he shoved Vince on his ass and declared that it was all "bullshit!"

Not only did the whole "We Want Cody" thing kill Rock vs. Roman, but it appears the current direction is pointing towards Rock being a "double agent" of sorts and betraying the Bloodline, helping Cody to claim the big one at WM40. So I didn't get my Rock vs. Roman match, with him hanging out in a weird little tag match instead, and I've got to put up with bland Cody as champ still.

I'm fully aware that Rock vs. Roman wouldn't be a good match as far as workrate, star ratings, whatever. But they are stars with personalities, and could use whatever bells and whistles necessary for a big Mania match to work. Would have quite happily seen Rock barge in, replace Cody at Mania, and have Cody slink back to the upper midcard at best.

Sigh. It feels so weird to be entirely in the corner of the heels, and I'm gonna be sad again when the big Rock turn happens at Mania. Fuck your story, Cody.

10 hours ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

Lesnar was speared out of his boots by Goldberg during his match with Eddie G...

Honestly though I don't need it to be super clean. I'd greatly enjoy a main event where every member of the Bloodline and every mother who Reigns ever pissed off some how gets involved LEADING to The Rock be the final factor (again not directly... maybe pull a chair away from Reigns he was hoping to use as a weapon). 

It will be the most fun clusterfuck of a match of all time in a good way.

Yeah, but the actual finish was Eddie reversing the F5 into a DDT on the belt, followed by the Frog Splash. Eddie didn't immediately win because of the Goldberg Spear, that's what I meant.

I'm hoping the match starts, then The Rock's music hits, Cody looks up at the stage like the distractable Muppet that he is, allowing Roman to hit the Spear. 1-2-3 in under 30 seconds. Then Triple H comes out, Pedigrees Cody on the stage, says, "that's for the throne, bitch" and throws him in a big box marked "AEW", never to be seen again. Then Rock heads to the ring and we get the proper WrestleaMania 40 main event of Rock vs. Reigns.

Of course, none of that is happening. Cody wins, with The Rock turning back babyface and somehow helping, but not directly influencing the finish- like Goldberg interfering in Eddie vs. Brock. Then Cody's the man, everyone's happy... until 3 months later when everyone's sick of him and posting "LOL Super Cody".

Gutted about the result. Was it a sign of Volk declining? I don't know. He was quick to shut down any excuse making in the post-fight presser, but taking the two knockouts back to back isn't good after a career of being solid as a rock. Hoping for the comeback, but at 35 in a lighter weight class, maybe it's nearing time to grab the slippers and the black liqourice.

Pleased as punch about Whittaker looking like his old self after a less than stellar outing last time against the fake DDP.

Mackenzie Dern's Bum belongs in the Hall of Fame right alongside Wanderlei Silva. Congrats, Axe Murderer.

Bloody Cejudo ruined my multi after a great first round. 37 years old at 135, the cardio wasn't there for Merab's pace. He did well early but was breathing HEAVY in that second round.

I think both Cody and Rollins knew that the last week or so has been incredibly messy, and it was really important to hit a home run here. Both of them had a sense of motivation and urgency, particularly Rollins, to make this good and make this matter. Put all the online controversy (around this angle, at least) to rest and channel everything into what they're actually working towards at WrestleMania.

Was fantastic stuff.

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