Jab's WrestleMania Reviews! (WM XXI, aka "Shawn/Angle, plus some stuff")

[Jabroniville]

DDP's match with Goldberg WAS an awesome one, but it was again, a hyper-booked-out match. I wouldn't be surprised if every single move was plotted out in advance. Which IS a level of talent, I will admit, and keeps him from the "horrible shitty worker" group in a ways. But everything else about DDP screams "B-Leaguer" (like all his offense that he stole from Foley, as Mick mocked him for in his book), and his entire personality rubs me the wrong way. And him having sex with Kimberly isn't 'pointless bitching', it's a summation for my disgust that an ugly, screaming, "Scum"-saying piece of white trash like Page could actually have sex with women THAT HOT because people fall for his act and think he's charismatic.

And DDP still stands amongst guys like Sheamus, Greg Gagne and a few others as living embodiments of "it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know".

So Propeus "SCUM" Fallen and Sick "SCUM" Nick can just stop defending him .

[HalloweenJack]

Foley also put DDP over in his book, talking about how he didn't believe his claims of just how popular DDP was in some cities, and it turns out he was and more. that and i believe Foley was talking about how hard DDP worked in the ring

and yeah, that's pointless bitching about his marriage to Kimberly, man. you're basically screaming "THAT guy has sex with THAT woman?!! i hate him! hate him hate him hate him!"


edited.

[Propeus The Fallen]

Those who can only nab a Betty or two envy those who get the Veronicas.

 

[HalloweenJack]

Those who can only nab a Betty or two envy those who get the Veronicas.

 

and that's not a bad thing, that's a good thing!!!!



somehow.


.....HOLLYWOOD SCUM HOGAN!

[Jabroniville]

Foley also put DDP over in his book, talking about how he didn't believe his claims of just how popular DDP was in some cities, and it turns out he was and more.

and yeah, that's pointless bitching about his marriage to Kimberly, man. you're basically screaming "THAT guy has sex with THAT woman?!! i hate him! hate him hate him hate him!"

That is a perfectly acceptable, mature response to seeing SCUM like Page hooking up with Kimberly. TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE. To quote Chris Rock, it's like finding out that they was a sale to buy a Lexus for $3.00.... after the sale was already over. You're like "God Damn!"

Though to be fair, I give DDP a fairly decent Bret Hart Rating:
"Diamond" Dallas Page:
Look: 4 (scrawny and terrible body. As Tom Zenk pointed out, he covered himself in tattoos just to hide his flab and lack of muscle. He was tall, and looked like a wrestler, but...)
Skill: 5 (just a brawler. He has some great matches, but it was all careful planning, and unlike Savage- who also planned meticulously- none of his stuff looked pretty. The Diamond Cutter was a great gimmick, though, being hit from everywhere)
Charisma: 7 (well, the white trash fans saw themselves in him and loved him. Me, all I remember is him putting the word "SCUM!" as a nickname for everyone and doing lame catchphrases)
Overall: 16/30 (I could see him as a main eventer in WCW at times, but I fucking HATED HIM like I've never hated another wrestler)

It's not like he's the worst worker/talker combo ever or anything... far from it. He's just that one guy I hate more than any other wrestler in the entire world.

[HalloweenJack]

because he's got a hot piece of ass.


dude....if you're gonna hate him, hate him for something worth hating. i give him props for getting Kimberly

[HalloweenJack]

and overcoming dyslexia

[Sick Nick]

And that's not a bad thing...

[MagnetoWasRight]

still sounds like pointless bitching.

Arguing about predetermined matches with anal lecturings was proven pointless a very long time ago.

[HalloweenJack]

Arguing about predetermined matches with anal lecturings was proven pointless a very long time ago.

actually i was talking about one of his complaints of DDP being "OMGZ! His wife is hot! that fucker" being pointless bitching, but thanks for playing.

[Propeus The Fallen]

I always hated the "but we have a personality" garbage. Yeah. I'm sure everyone wants to be with a whiny loser. That's a great disposition.

[HalloweenJack]

another thing.....this flab Jab speaks of.....now, I know that when DDP first began to wrestle he carried around some extra weight, but he slimmed down fairly well over time and got pretty trim. He was decently built around 2000 or so. guy even wrote a book about Yoga.

[Propeus The Fallen]

...

You are teetering on the brink of this spam going from "Jab hates DDP" to "HJ has a man crush for DDP", you do know this, right?

[Not BAMF]

DDP is pretty heavily into his yoga. But that's been since he retired that he became a guru in that regard. He never had a great physique during his days that I recall.

[HalloweenJack]

...

You are teetering on the brink of this spam going from "Jab hates DDP" to "HJ has a man crush for DDP", you do know this, right?

.......

*gives Prop the Diamond Cutter*


BANG!


*runs off to harrass more passersby*

[Propeus The Fallen]

Well, he couldn't really stretch because of his broken ribs.

[Propeus The Fallen]

And ow!

Just for that, I'll have Mr. Hughes go to your house and eat your food. It'd be nice getting him away from my mini-fridge...

(Looks over to see Mr. Hughes shaking his head.)

My Mountain Dews and Vaults are in there...

[HalloweenJack]

getting back to his fighting weight eh?


i gotta admit, when he came back to the WWF in 99.....damn....second worst bodyguard ever. we know who's no. 1.

[Propeus The Fallen]

I know, but does everyone else?

[HalloweenJack]

say it prop. SING IT!

[Propeus The Fallen]

Ba-ba-ba-ba

HIS NAME IS BAM!!!

BAM NEELY!!!

PUFFY SHIRTS!! CHAVO GOT HURT!!!

BAM NEELY!!

Yeah.

[Jabroniville]

WWF WRESTLEMANIA XIX (2003)

The Story so far: So yeah, the Brand Split's first WrestleMania. I was pretty much casually watching RAW by this point (not even caring if I missed one), and I couldn't get SmackDown on my shitty University Cable Station set-up, so my fandom levels had been rapidly dropping. This was the absolute 100% nadir of Triple-H as a dominant force in wrestling, as he went from "guy who gets a main event push" to "guy who gets the only main event push, raping every single star who might threaten him", resulting in the absolute career destruction of Rob Van Dam, Kane and Booker T over the course of a half-year of booking with him as the God-King of RAW. Christ, he even dropped Bubba-Ray Dudley clean for no reason other than he was getting over as a mid-card Dusty Rhodes re-tread! Meanwhile, the SmackDown Six had revolutionized that aspect of the show, but the booking was basically "hey, let's throw the best workers in the company out there every week!" with not as much in the way of angles. Still, THAT had some long-lasting effects, getting several people the most over they'd ever be, and creating far more stars than HHH's reign of terror did.

---

1) Cruiserweight Title:
Matt Hardy (w/ Shannon Moore) (vs) Rey Mysterio-
A great era for Matt Hardy, in a perfect zone as a midcard dickish heel with a cute gimmick ("Matt Facts"), a lickspittle lackey, and an attitude (or Mattitude, I guess). Rey was HUGE all year long, and this actually feels like slumming it for him. They go out and have a standard TV match that doesn't blow any minds (which makes me wonder- did Matt ever end up cracking **** in a singles match all by himself, or was this his peak as a worker?), but is still well-wrestled and stuff. Shannon interjects himself a couple times, they reverse off each other's finishers to avoid a standard fall, and Rey pulls out the Splash Mountain Frankensteiner reversal from his Eddie & Psychosis ***** classics just to be a throwback in a nice touch, but ultimately Matt just sits down and holds the ropes for the pin. Totally disappointing finish, considering it's the opener at WM and all.
---

2) Handicap Match:
The Underatker (vs) The Big Show & A-Train-
Hahah, oh my. Gotta love the whole story here. A-Train had just received a BIG solo push after being the guy to injure Rey Mysterio (at least I'm pretty sure it was this year), trumping the plan for Matt Hardy to get that big heel push, which pissed off the IWC something FIERCE, considering one was a good worker and the other wasn't. So he kinda just ended up allied with Big Show. Then Taker got involved, and brought Nathan Jones, a giant Roidmonster from Australia who was a seven-foot bodybuilder (I wonder how Vince kept hydrated after jerking all his semen out daily just looking at the guy) with some "MMA cred", along with him. Problem was, Jones was a bad worker. Not just A-Train bad, either. He was so bad that guys in their first month as wrestlers would've been embarassed to be seen with him, as became rapidly apparent on TV, as they had to re-edit and even RE-SHOOT SPOTS (one of the hugest no-nos in wrestling history, if I recall) that he fucked up on-camera.

He was SO BAD they actually ran a "the heels beat him down on Heat" angle ON THE DAY OF THE SHOW, leaving Taker alone. He gets sung down by Limp Bizkit, which is one of those hilarious fucking things that just feels embarassing in retrospect. I mean, I guess the company couldn't have KNOWN that Fred Durst would soon become the living icon of this shitty fucking era in Nu-Rock RapMetal music, false, made-up angst, and acting like a toughie when you're just a fat record executive, but MAN it's funny to look at now. The match is as abysmal as three shitty workers lumbering around could be expected to be (Taker wasn't QUITE in his modern-day resurgence as a worker, you see), and goes on FOREVER considering. Never before has ten minutes felt like a half an hour, especially with all these Abdominal Stretch spots. Taker's classic "I watch UFC now so I wanna try all this stuff, even though I'm too slow to make it look realistic" junk is fun for a laugh. Finally, Nathan Jones makes a big return (looking fresh as a daisy, I might point out), spinkicks Big Show (thankfully not falling on his ass in the process this time), then kicks A-Train into a Taker Tombstone for the win. Total junk that serves as nothing but epic snark-bait for a company that'd just lost it's mind.

-The Miller Lite Girls arrive for some stuff, and interact with Torrie & Stacey. Oh dear, this is some BAAAAAD acting, even by wrestling standards. Tanya Ballinger (how do I even still remember that name?) barely seems to speak proper English. And Kitana Baker provides evidence that you CAN have implants twice the size of Torrie's. I was actually rather in to both of these girls around this time, but the years have been less kind to what was essentially two fit women with Biggie-Size melons stuck in.

---

3) Women's Title:
Victoria (w/ Steven Richards) (vs) Jazz (vs) Trish Stratus-
The Women's division was actually the highlight of this abysmal RAW period, with Trish adding new moves to her repetoire every show it seemed like, and hard work all-around from a legion of entertaining characters. It was virtually like old-school 80s WWF, which holds to my theory of Women's wrestling always being 10 years behind. In this case, it paid off. Odd to see two Monster Heels and one Face in a three-way match, as they both do power moves while Trish sells, and occasionally brawl with each other. Well-wrestled stuff, but not mind-blowing. Jazz gets dumped awkwardly, allowing Trish to beat up Steven (doing his sadomasochistic thing with Vickie, who looks rather butch with her bare muscular back showing, and black tights obscuring her breasts), then hit the Chick Kick (not called by the announcers) for the win and the Title. Nothing better or worse than you normally saw from the women.

---

4) SmackDown Tag Team Titles:
The World's Greatest Tag Team (vs) Los Guerreros (vs) Chris Benoit & Rhyno-
Weird set-up, as we get the typical "this is so EVERYONE can work WrestleMania" approach. I recall at this time it felt as if this was just randomly thrown-together, and kind of a low spot for Eddie & Chris on the card. No idea why Benoit & Rhyno were a team either. Sadly, this is WELL below what the SmackDown Six Era was capable of, though Eddie & Chris are good to go with each other, and the WGTT put in some of their own stuff (though neither had peaked yet). It's all good TV stuff, but again falls short of what they're all REALLY capable of. Rhyno (pretty much out of the match until this point) hits his trademark GORES on everybody, but Shelton Benjamin dives it to steal the pin on Chavo, leading to the World's Greatest Tag Team keeping the belts for Team Angle. Total disappointment considering who was involved, as this kind of thing as a standard tag match could hit **** easily with everyone firing on all cylinders, but they were just in a mid-show pay-day mode, going through the motions.

---

5) Shawn Michaels (vs) Chris Jericho-
These guys have feuded in a big way at least twice, but this was more of a standard lesser feud than their later, REALLY heated one. Shawn fires off some confetti guns, but one embarassingly fails to go off. No stipulations or nothing to this match, just good old-fashioned wrestling. Not even a lot of flash either, just roll-ups, their usual offense and the like, which is odd, but kind of appreciated. They do some REALLY nice counter-wrestling, Shawn keeps reversing Jericho until he gets caught with the Walls outside, and lots of back-work from Jericho. Shawn basically stops selling the back and some point, though. Jericho gets his own Superkick, but Shawn kicks out. Walls never quite gets activated entirely, and a Shawn Superkick barely tags Y2J and it fails as well. They go for a bit more and Shawn just rolls him up for a quick victory, which REALLY surprised the IWC at the time (Shawn was still relatively newly back and nobody thought he'd be a regular fixture again- just being used to put guys over), and was kind of a let-down ending all things considered. Still, it was a very good, old-school wrestling match, based entirely off of counter-wrestling, reversing stuff (and not the Main Event Kick to the Gut-style reversing we'd see all OVER this era), one-upping each other's moves, and finally ending scientifically, like the Bret Hart classics of old. I'd go ***3/4 with it if you held a gun to my head and made me rate it.

---

6) Pillow Fight:
Kitana Baker & Tanya Ballinger (vs) Torrie Wilson & Stacy Keibler-
Yeah, pretty much a throwaway. Five seconds of pillowfighting, then they tear the bras off and pin Coachman (who was commentating) to end it. Not even really a match, or even that hot- bras & skirts aren't exactly full lingerie, y'know. The Miller Lite Girls' last hurrah with fame, as this & their Maxim spread was all they ever got outside of that commercial. Kitana went back to nude modelling, and Tanya vanished off the face of the fucking Earth.

---

7) World Heavyweight Title:
Triple-H (w/ Ric Flair) (vs) Booker T-
Hee. Triple-H was at his worst here, and this whole era for him is completely indefensible, and any apologists for him can straight up go fuck themselves after all he did. Guy pretty much single-handedly ended three major singles' pushes for no apparent reason other than he was threatened and wanted to build a "legacy" as the unstoppable ruler of RAW, was awarded a brand-new World Title cut from whole cloth (not even winning it in a quickie TOURNAMENT or anything, like you're supposed to!), and only jobbed out to newbies like Cena & Batista later, because of whatever reason (passing the torch- but why couldn't he have passed it earlier?). My guess is he realized his legacy would be ruined if he jobbed out EVERYONE. So in this feud, Booker was over as HELL after doing a comedy duo with Goldust (having some of wrestlings' funniest promos in the meantime), and so got pushed against HHH. The entire time, Trips did an old Flair trick of denigrating Booker's race and past ("your people" do not deserve to be champions), giving us a 'hook' and some heat. But instead of Booker triumphing over impossible odds, he just wrestles a standard Main Event Style match-up, with HHH barely even bothering to really try or do anything new, and loses. It ends up being generic as all hell, and totally uninteresting (if competent). The famous finish sees Booker whip out the Houston Hangover for a major spot, but Flair puts HHH's leg on the ropes, and the infamous "Pedigree leading to a shit-load of lying down to sell before the pinfall" spot occurs, making sure everyone knows that Booker T's race apparently doesn't deserve to win after all. Yes, they actually booked a racist-themed feud and had the racist win in the end.

---

8.) Street Fight:
"Hollywood" Hulk Hogan (vs) Vince McMahon-
After a horribly failed run as WWF Champion, Hogan was unceremoniously stripped of the belt, raped by Brock Lesnar, then did some stuff, eventually getting into a standard "Once a Year Vince Feud" with the boss, and they had some semi-interesting stuff going around, demanding that THEY were the ones that made "Hulkamania". The match is what you'd expect of two OLD men, as they brawl around, brawl some more, then brawl outside. Both bleed to make it seem "Epic", Vince does a silly Legdrop through the announce table off a Ladder just to keep things interesting. Both lie down, then "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, looking 300 lbs., runs in, yells a bunch, and decides to turn heel by clubbing Hogan with a pipe. Huh? This was supposed to lead to his Evil Heel persona coming out, but never actually led anywhere, and he was quietly fired after admitting he went fucking insane while wrestling to Bob Costas- bringing down Sean O'Haire's awesome new gimmick with him. Hogan kicks out of a Vince Legdrop anyways, Hulks Up, and kills Vince with three Legdrops. Complete junk, but the crowd was into parts of it- the thing is, with this booking, you could've taken any two fans or SHC posters or something and had an identical match. Not even really wrestling.

---

9) "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (vs) The Rock-
This is the final match between the two & Austin's last ever, as Austin realized that his career was DONE, and just couldn't go on anymore. So he did what a good veteran does, and offered to put his old 'rival' over in payment for doing the same twice before. Major pops for both guys, and Rock's CLASSIC deliberately-pretentious shithead intro (with the full helicopter sweep of a cityscape) is always awesome. The match is the same old shit from both, but less so than it usually is, given the limitations imposed on them now. Basically just punching until Rock clips the knee and works on the leg in very slow fashion for a while, milking everything. Sharpshooter, etc., but then they just ignore all that leg stuff and commence to a TEN MINUTE SEQUENCE of trading finishers. Yes, that spot had officially gotten WAY overdone by this point, as Rock does Stunners, Austin does Rock Bottoms, they both do their own finishers, People's Elbow misses, etc., before Rock is finally able to hit THREE Rock Bottoms to finally put Austin down. Almost a good match, but my hatred of this style, and especially the generic homogenized nature of the finishes in this era, work against it in my mind. Still, it's nice to see Austin put someone over on the way out- not at all like his later Sheriff Austin era where he made every heel in the company look like shit who was unable to stop him.

---

10) Main Event, WWF World Title:
Kurt Angle (vs) Brock Lesnar-
Pretty much the mega-feud the company wanted, and the obvious Main Event, as Lesnar had torn up the house last year as a heel champion, lost the belt because of injury, turned face quickly, and then had to do the "plucky rookie fights off a whole stable" feud for a while, leading to this after a Royal Rumble victory. Angle had EVERY IWC fan worried, because not two months before, it was believed his career was in jeopardy. His neck was so fucked he was gonna be out for a YEAR, but found some magical quack doctor who healed him up great in like SIX WEEKS, which is fucking INSANE. So a potentially shitty year without the God of SmackDown was averted completely, at the expense of his long-term health (which everyone predicted at the time, though he actually avoided severe injury for a long while- just going insane from painkillers).

The match is kind of weird, as Lesnar-types are normally the heels in Power vs. Skill situations, but quite good. Angle is clearly and obviously leading him through every sequence, carrying him to a very good match. Lots of rib work with some slow submissions (showing good transitions by Angle) and a Flip-Over German Suplex, then Angle starts doing Ankle-Locks (though he didn't work the leg first, which is annoying). I kinda see some of Sick Nick & Kforcer's arguments around Angle's applications of the hold, but he has the FOOT in tight- he's just standing or leaning when he does it. After a bunch of relatively scientific stuff (including a NICE pinning reversal by Lesnar from the Angle Slam), they immediately segue into the Homogenized Main Event Style Finisher Reversals, doing Angle Slams, F-5s, Reversals, and lots of Kicking to the Gut. Lesnar hits an F-5, and then decides to cap off the match with his EPIC Shooting Star Press, which had been showcased in OVW and RAW dark matches. Of course, in the famous finish, he blows it by trying it WAY too far away (though I HAVE seen him do it from that distance before), Angle rolls over to pin him as the announcers cover for it, and then they just do a regular F-5 for the win. Pretty good match marred by a famous blown finish that would forever haunt this show. Lesnar gets the title and the crowd likes it, and they show a hilarious shot of him while his head is just FUCKED UP, and he looks like he's gonna puke or his head's gonna explode.

---

The Review: Basically, the "WrestleMania" event itself had totally overwhelmed the stars themselves this time around (and that wouldn't change), as it was all about the EVENT, not the guys or the feuds alot of the time, and the show reflects that. For some bizarre reason, not a single guy was out to set a star-making performance from the looks of things, as the best match (Shawn/Jericho) was merely a really good exhibition of counter-wrestling and not even fast-paced. Triple-H had his standard Boring-Ass Main Event Style match, ruining Booker T's push in the process (HHH's second half-assed performance in a row at 'Mania), The Undertaker's match was an embarassment to the sport with all the shitty workrate involved, Hogan/Vince was just a pointless brawl, the Main Event's finish was blown, and everything else was just filler- and when a match with Benoit, Eddie & the World's Greatest Tag Team involved is just filler, you know something's wrong. Pretty much an OK, average, non-shitty show, though Jericho/Shawn is great.

[Jabroniville]

WrestleMania Tally:
1) WrestleMania X
2) WrestleMania X-7 (XVII)
3) WrestleMania III
4) WrestleMania XII
5) WrestleMania 2
6) WrestleMania VIII
7) WrestleMania IV
8.) WrestleMania V
9) WrestleMania VII
10) WrestleMania VI
11) WrestleMania XIX
12) WrestleMania XIV
13) WrestleMania X-8 (XVIII)
14) WrestleMania
15) WrestleMania XI
16) WrestleMania 13
17) WrestleMania 2000 (XVI)
18.) WrestleMania IX
19) WrestleMania XV

WrestleMania Records:
(Wins-Losses-Ties)
All Wins:
The Undertaker (11-0)
Earthquake (4-0)
Ax (3-0)
Legion of Doom (3-0)
Edge (3-0)
Hardcore Holly (2-0)
Sable (2-0)
Mr. T (2-0)
The Iron Sheik (3-0)
Virgil (2-0)
Tatanka (2-0)
Chyna (2-0)
Shane McMahon (2-0)
Rob Van Dam (1-0)
The World's Greatest Tag Team (1-0)
Brock Lesnar (1-0)
One-Shot Guys (1-0): Danny Davis, Wendi Richter, Fabulous Moolah, Corporal Kirchner, Hoss Funk, Tom Zenk, Hillbilly Jim, Harley Race, Tama, Sapphire, Sato & Tenryu, Kitao, Alundra Blayze, Pat Tanaka, Texas Tornado, Dusty Rhodes, Red Rooster, The Brain Busters, The Bushwhackers, Typhoon, Lawrence Taylor, Mo, The Steiner Brothers, Butterbean, Terri Runnels, Marc Mero, Too Cool, "Diamond" Dallas Page, Chuck Palumbo

More Wins:
Hulk Hogan (8-3-1)
The Big Bossman (5-1)
Vader (1-0-1)
Owen Hart (5-2-1)
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin (5-2)
Randy Savage (7-4)
Bret Hart (7-4)
Triple-H (5-3)
Razor Ramon/Scott Hall (3-1)
Ultimate Warrior (3-1)
Jim Neidhart (3-1)
Ricky Steamboat (3-1)
Davey Boy Smith (4-2-1)
Ted DiBiase (4-3-1)
The Rock (4-3)
Brutus Beefcake (3-2-2)
Smash/Repo Man (3-2)
Kane (3-2)
"Ravishing" Rick Rude (2-0-1)
Mankind/Mick Foley (2-1-1)
"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (2-1-1)
Lex Luger (2-1)
Christian (2-1)

Tie Records:
Yokozuna (3-3)
Nikolai Volkoff (2-2)
One Man Gang/Akeem (2-2)
Tazz (1-1)
Mabel/Viscera (1-1)
Trish Stratus (1-1)
Albert/A-Train (1-1)
Jeff Jarrett (1-1)
Adrian Adonis (1-1)
Butch Reed (1-1)
Bobby Heenan (1-1)
Sgt. Slaughter (1-1)
Nasty Boys (1-1)
Ahmed Johnson (1-1)
Terry Funk (1-1)
Matt Borne/Doink (1-1)
Diesel (1-1)
Bull Buchanan (1-1)
Taka Michinoku (1-1)
The Headbangers (1-1)
Bad News Brown (1-0-2)
One-Shot Guys (0-0-1): Billy Jack Haynes, David Sammartino, Maven

More Losses:
Shawn Michaels (4-6)
Andre the Giant (2-3-1)
Roddy Piper (2-3-1)
Chris Jericho (2-3)
Kurt Angle (2-3)
Jake Roberts (3-4-1)
Don Muraco (1-2-1)
Road Dogg (1-2)
Fatu/The Sultan/Rikishi (1-2)
Test (1-2)
Eddie Guerrero (1-2)
Junkyard Dog (1-2)
Dynamite Kid (1-2)
Honky Tonk Man (1-2)
Marty Jannetty (1-2)
Bam Bam Bigelow (1-2)
Haku (1-2)
Barbarian (1-2)
Mike Rotundo/I.R.S. (1-2)
Rick Martel (2-4)
Chris Benoit (1-3)
Billy Gunn (1-3)
Faarooq (1-3)
Bradshaw (1-3)
Matt Hardy (1-3)
Jacques Rougeau/Mountie (1-3)
King Kong Bundy (1-3)
Mr. Perfect (1-3)
Greg Valentine (2-5)
Dino Bravo (1-3)
Hercules Hernandez (1-4-1)
Paul Ordnorff (0-1-1)
Tito Santana (1-7)

Only Losses:
Crash Holly (0-1)
Henry Godwinn (0-1)
Phineas Godwinn (0-1)
Funaki (0-1)
Steve Blackman (0-1)
The Mean Street Posse (0-1)
Jazz (0-1)
Victoria (0-1)
Lita (0-1)
Rey Mysterio (0-1)
Rhyno (0-1)
Chavo Guerrero (0-1)
The Warlord (0-2)
Bob Backlund (0-2)
Barry Windham (0-2)
Savio Vega (0-2)
Jimmy Snuka (0-2)
Sid Justice/Psycho Sid (0-2)
Booker T (0-2)
Al Snow (0-2)
X-Pac (0-2)
Val Venis (0-2)
Ric Flair (0-2)
The Godfather (0-2)
Vince McMahon (0-2)
Ken Shamrock (0-2)
D'Lo Brown (0-2)
William Regal (0-2)
Leilani Kai (0-2)
Luna Vachon (0-2)
Bart Gunn (0-2)
The Dudley Boyz (0-3)
Jeff Hardy (0-3)
Koko B. Ware (0-3)
Raymond Rougeau (0-3)
The Big Show (0-4)
Crush (0-4)
Goldust (0-5)
One-Shot Guys (0-1): George Wells, Velvet McIntyre, Uncle Elmer, The Executioner/Buddy Rose, S.D. Jones, Bob Orton, George Steele, Killer Bees, Big John Studd, Sherri Martel, Mr. Fuji, Ronny Garvin, Boris Zhukov, Paul Roma, The Giant Gonzalez, Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon, Skinner, Pierre Oulette, Samu, Doink (non-Borne), Aguila, Tori, Adam Bomb, The Blus/Harrisses/D.O.A., The Kat, Ivory, Raven, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko

WM X-7 Trends: Taker moves up, Rock moves down, the Hardys/Dudleys actually go (0-2), and Big Show's among the lowest-scoring guys ever with (0-3). Weird.
WM X-8 Trends: Ric Flair, The Hardys and the Dudleys all go WAY down the "All Losses" list. Funny, those guys just can't catch a break on this show. Kane falls further down as well. Goldust officially has the worst WM track record of all time (0-5). Billy Gunn finally breaks his losses with that shitty win, going (1-3).
WM XIX Trends: The Big Show attains one of the wost win-loss records ever (0-4), a few guys debut (Brock, Chavo, Rhyno, Rey), and Rock now has a winning record.

[Crab Master]

I remember hearing that Angle had some kind of mental episode after his match with Lesnar.

[Jabroniville]

I should point out that the months after this show basically killed my regular watching of RAW forever- a series featuring TRIPLE-H facing KEVIN NASH for the World Title. Having an embarassment of a worker like Big Sucky in there, slowly brawling around with Cripple-H, pulling hair, and having some of the worst main events in wrestling history, was just humiliating for everyone involved, and made the company look like idiots for depushing Kane, RVD & Booker T in the months before, if THIS was their back-up plan.

[Sick Nick]

I remember hearing that Angle had some kind of mental episode after his match with Lesnar.

He was in pretty bad shape physically and mentally before the match too. The DVD had a really good little documentary on it, maybe 20 minutes long, looking at guys like Austin, Angle and Lesnar in the run up to the event.

Lesnar nearly killing himself probably freaked Kurt out.

[Crab Master]

He was in pretty bad shape physically and mentally before the match too. The DVD had a really good little documentary on it, maybe 20 minutes long, looking at guys like Austin, Angle and Lesnar in the run up to the event.

Lesnar nearly killing himself probably freaked Kurt out.

I remember hearing that he was wondering around backstage naked, and looked like a wild animal at points. I think his wife had to come in, and try to talk Kurt back into the lockeroom.

[Spiderman]

One thing I wanted to say about WM18. Is it bad that when I got the DVD for my birthday that year, Rock and Hogan was pretty much the only match I watched. Hell, the freaking cover of the DVD was Rock vs Hogan...why the hell did they think Jericho vs HHH (Or HHH vs Stephanie and some other guy, as my friends called it) would top it?

Now. WM 19. It was an okay show for that era. But Trips vs Booker pissed me the fuck off. Booker was insanely over and Trips just killed him dead in the worst way possible. Trips got even worse by Summer Slam. But that's another rant.

Vince vs Hogan was what everyone thought it would be. A joke. It did give us the most evil image of Vince ever, with his eyes rising slowly above the ring apron.

I don't think even the blown finish hurt the main event. I'm sure Brock's ego was as bruised as his head though.

[AverageSquid]

Vince Hogan was tits. It was the pinnacle of balls out WWE epic brawls. Even the fucking Spanish announcer got hit with a weapon!

[Crab Master]

So, when can we expect the WM 20 review?

[Jabroniville]

Hm, I get burned out on these quickly, but I guess it's been long enough. Maybe sometime this week. Lots of work stuff going on that I have to be away for. And I do only have two left (since these are from the collections, and I don't have access to more recent stuff).

[Jabroniville]

WWF WRESTLEMANIA XX (2004)

The Story so far: The company was following a few years of being in tatters now, as the Brand Split was in full effect, we had two World Champions, and nearly the exact same crew of guys was in the company as there was a few years back. Most of the old guard were now pretty tired, and the new guard had yet to be utilized, as they were green as grass. But still, we had Cena, Orton & Batista as rookies, so you could see the building of the future right there. A whole ton of other stuff just failed to take off, though. Triple-H had ruled RAW for over TWO YEARS now, with Evolution backing him up, and before it had gotten out of control, Shawn Michaels got involved, and suddenly had a few great matches against the faltering, out-of-shape Game. On a different matter, workrate had finally started to get pushed as a major factor in the company (with Angle & Lesnar on top, it couldn't be helped), as Vince & co. apparently decided "what the hell" and threw the workrate-marks online a bone. Actually, a lot of this show kind of looks like a "hey, let's just throw some stuff out there and see what hits"- they push workrate-based guys as World Champs, throw some rookies in there, and generally mess around to cap off twenty years of WrestleMania. Curiously, this show is heavily lacking the "Supershow Aura" of many others, especially the last few, or WrestleMania III & X.

---

1) United States Title:
The Big Show (vs) John Cena-
How sad is it that I actually miss the old "World Life!" theme song? So this is obviously Cena's "Coming Out Match", even though he'd been around for a while (starting as a generic plucky face, then turning heel and gaining surprise popularity with his Vanilla Ice Hallowe'en Costume, which led to a "Wigger" gimmick, which led to "Cool Heel" pops, which led to a face turn. So yes, Cena has been a face for six years straight. Basic Big Show match, which features lots of stepping on the other guy, choking, leaning, breathing heavily, and the announcers talking about how BIG he is. Cena actually pulls off an F-U on the big fuck, but it doesn't put him away. He goes for the chains, but tosses them as a decoy for the ref, and nails Show with some Brass Knuckles, followed by ANOTHER F-U for the win. Basic come-from-behind brawl-y stuff, nothing too good, but it succeeded in making Cena look like he was a bigger deal, and super-strong as well (only Lesnar-types tossed Show around like THAT). Obviously, that sort of thing paid off for them.

---

2) RAW Tag Team Title, Fatal Four-Way
Booker T & Rob Van Dam (vs) Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak (vs) La Resistance (vs) The Dudley Boyz-
An era where they have FOUR Tag Teams on each show? Insane. So Booker & RVD were part of the "We got jobbed out by HHH so this is all we had to do" club, so were given a tag title run to keep them happy. I can't even remember the Cade/Jindrak team, but they're two large, roided, ripped rookies from that "WWE Cookie-Cutter Wrestler Template" that produced Cena, Orton, etc. Cade was a Shawn Michaels student who never took off (and got fired for having drugs on a plane or something dumb), and Jindrak was Sean O'Haire's initial partner in WCW, and stuck around WWE as an undercarder until he was turfed out following JBL's cabinet disintegrating. La Resistance is made up here of Rene Dupree & Rob Conway, who was added to the group to switch out shitty wrestler Sylvain Grenier with a Cookie-Cutter Wrestler who could actually work. Everyone trades some stuff, the Dudleys are WAY past stale (as in "not even over anymore"), and RVD hits the Five-Star Frog Splash on Conway to win. Yeah, they didn't even bother with this one- it was just throwing everyone at a 'Mania pay-day. I don't think the Dudleys lasted MUCH longer than this (I could be wrong, though- they had like three years of being stale before they were finally cut loose), and Dupree & Conway stuck around for a bit before being pushed into shitty derivative singles gimmicks that got them both Future Endeavored as well.

---

3) Christian (vs) Chris Jericho-
This was easily Christian's biggest push to date, as he & Jericho started a bet over who could first bang Lita & Trish, respectively. Y2J did the classic Teen Comedy "At first it was a game, but then I really fell for you" thing, Christian disapproved, and there was some terrific work done on all parts. This is more the match that REALLY starts the feud, though, so they don't really leave it all hanging out. It's just your standard Christian match- where it's all decent, it all works, nothing's screwed-up, but nothing really blows your mind either. Trish finally turns heel after years of being a Hogan-esque Women's Division face, 'accidentally' getting in Jericho's way so he gets Rolled-Up and pinned, but then just slaps him down and makes out with Christian. Oddly, I think the Trish/Christian duo was split up early (amidst some rumours that Christian's wife disapproved... and really, who could blame her?), and both just moved their separate ways, while Trish was still slutty and evil. Evil Trish, I should point out, is WAY hotter than Good Trish, who I always found kind of a standard bland implanted Diva.

---

4) Handicap Match:
The Rock 'n' Sock Connection (vs) Evolution (Randy Orton, Ric Flair & Batista)-
This sounds totally lopsided now, but remember that Randy & DAVE were mere up-and-comers at this point. Orton had been feuding with Foley off-and-on for MONTHS, as Mick had virtually hand-picked Orton to be the Next Big Thing, and tried to get him over by any means necessary. They did all sorts of shit- tossing Mick down stairwells, spitting on him, making him look like a coward, until THE ROCK made a big mini-return from Hollywood, and we had our 'Mania match! Again, we're still kind of in mid-feud, so nothing much gets resolved here. The crowd just isn't that INTO this for whatever reason, as everyone kinda goes through the motions. I guess the Evolution team is pretty inexperienced on one hand and old on the other, and are fighting two guys who haven't wrestled in a LONG time. Highlight of the match sees Flair try the Nature Boy Elbow, but Rock breaks it up. DAVEBOMB on The Rock gets two. Out-of-NOWHERE finish sees Randy hit the RKO on Foley for a quickie pin, leaving everyone completely unsatisfied. Very weird booking for the returning legends, but it led to Orton's official "Coming Out Match", where Foley goddamned made his ass for YEARS with an epic Hardcore bout.

---

5) Evening Gown Match For Playboy Cover Girl Rights:
Torrie Wilson & Sable (vs) Miss Jackie & Stacey Keibler-
I think Jackie was managing Rico at this point. She's hot, but so far below the other three girls here that it's not even funny. Goddamn MILF Sable was hot. The bloated, hyper-inflated bottle-blonde we had in the Attitude Era was never my thing, but the tight, ripped, cut MILFish bottle blonde is amazing. All four decide that the Evening Gowns are too constricting, so strip to underwear immediately. Well, it's a Fanservice match, so who cares? They 'wrestle' for a few bits, do the "Roll over the Ref" spot, show off asses and legs (funny how short and squat Torrie's look when Stacey's standing next to her, since Torrie usually seems to have long legs), and end with Torrie sitting on Jackie for the pin. It's not like there was any doubt who was going to win the Playboy Cover Girl spot. Jackie regrets turning down a shoot nowadays, as she admitted in a post-firing 'net post.

---

6) Gauntlet, Cruiserweight Title:
Chavo Guerrero, Jr. (w/ Chavo Sr.) (vs) Rey Mysterio (vs) Ultimo Dragon (vs) Jamie Noble (vs) Tajiri (vs) Akio (vs) Shannon Moore (vs) Nunzio (vs) Funaki (vs) Billy Kidman-
SmackDown was only KIND OF pushing the Cruiserweights at times, but this is one of the stronger rosters the show had going for it. Nothing has ever rivaled WCW's Cruiser division since that point, but really, that was like the best workers ANYWHERE all in one place, which you never see these days. It was the equivalent of AJ Styles, Daniels, KENTA, Rey, etc. all being in one company. Ultimo starts off with Moore, and about one minute later, ends it with his Backflip Inverted DDT thing. Yeah, this is the problem with this kind of match, especially on PPV. When everything's spammed out so quickly, everyone just looks like jobbers. Jamie Noble's in next, ending it with a Dragon Sleeper. Funaki come flying in, but Noble gets that "Rolls Backwards for a Pin" spot that I love eight seconds in (which is apparently a record). Noble & Nunzio go for a bit, but Nunzio gets counted out after some stuff. Kidman hits a Shooting Star Press to the outside (which means he won't go much further, if he hits his high-spot immediately), and finishes Noble with a BK Bomb (Super Sit-out Powerbomb from a front-grab). Rey is in next, and uses a Powerbomb to beat Billy. Billy just never really got used that much by WWE. Tajiri is in, but his green mist hits his flunky Akio (who is thus unable to wrestle in the match), and eats a West Coast Pop and is gone. Chavo runs in and wins quickly thanks to Chavo Sr. reversing a Sunset Flip for the win.

Seriously, that was just a waste of all these guys. Everyone went out in less than a minute on average (ten minutes for TEN GUYS to wrestle?), to only one single big move, and then Chavo just wins by cheating anyways? Total holding-pattern stuff, again based around getting everyone a paycheck.

---

7) Steve Austin as Guest Referee:
Brock Lesnar (vs) Goldberg-
Hah. Hahahahhahaah. THIS match. What a clusterfuck this turned out to be. OK, so Lesnar was a SUPER-hated Giant Monster Heel for most of the last year, but the workload was getting to him, and he hated the travel, so he told Vince he wanted to quit. Goldberg on the other hand had debuted as a new Triple-H opponent (since he murdered the pushes of all the other ones), won the World Title on RAW, lost it again (Elimination Chamber or something- I think that was the disgusting one where HHH won after being in for five minutes). Then his short-term contract ran out, and it was clear he wasn't going to re-sign. Right when the company had pushed them against each other at the Royal Rumble (Lesnar F-5'd him and cost him the match).

This match really stands as an example of just how prevalent the internet really is in wrestling. WWE suits try to deny this sometimes, but the ENTIRE CROWD immediately knows that both these guys are gone right after this match is over, and let them both have it. Now, I don't really defend the fans' bitching "You sold out!" since, y'know, neither sold out. And it's perfectly acceptable to just not re-sign a contract, or want out if you hate your job. But that doesn't excuse what happens next. The two just stand across from each other. For two minutes. Then they lock up. And shuffle around in it. As opposed to really looking like they're two bulls struggling against each other, then just kind of do that for a bit. Yeah, someone gave them TEN MINUTES to fill, and this is the shit they did with it. Tons of bumping into each other and generally half-assing the worst kind of half-assery I've ever seen. Some stupid shit happens, the crowd shits ALL OVER IT while JR makes comments about both guys 'possibly' leaving, and I fast-forward. Goldberg hits a Spear & Jackhammer to win. Lesnar flips off the fans & Austin, who Stunners him. Then Goldberg comes in for some beer, but also gets a Stunner to send the crowd home happy.

Jesus. Lance Storm said on his super-awesome website after this: "Don't even get me started. I've worked harder in front of fifty people for twenty bucks". This match should've never gone this long (as it helps nobody). Both guys should've at least put in an EFFORT if it was gonna be long, rather than basically say "fuck you" to the fans (not that this crowd gave them much of a choice with their own reaction). The crowd deserved to shit all over the concept of the match at first (since this was entirely pointless with BOTH guys leaving), but was out of line in taunting both guys just for leaving. Then they deserved to shit all over the Shit Salad they were offered while the match was going on. Just a giant waste of time, and an infamous black eye to the company.

-The Hall of Fame Class of 2004 is brought out. Harley Race, Sgt. Slaughter, Tito Santana, Pete Rose, Don Muraco, Greg Valentine, Bobby Heenan, Junkyard Dog & Big John Studd. Okay, no wonder they're considered to be running out of guys to nominate nowadays. This is like seven super-awesome 80s picks right here.

---

8.) SmackDown Tag Team Titles, Fatal Four-Way:
Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty (vs) The APA (vs) Doug & Danny Basham (vs) The World's Greatest Tag Team-
I didn't get SD! at this time, so I have zero recollection whatsoever of 2Kishi as a tag team, much less champions. The WGTT were in their prime here, the APA were soon to be gone (via Faarooq's firing and Bradshaw's singles push from hell). Bradshaw looks bizarre with Acolyte tights on his JBL look and hair. The Bashams are a classic case of stupid booking, as the company takes two guys who were supposedly REALLY good workers in OVW (Damaja & Basham, no idea which was which)- or at least that's what I heard, and then putting them in a Clone Tag Team, using the fact that they were totally generic looking white guys and shaving their heads to make them 'twins'. The problem is, a) Twin teams NEVER get over, no matter how much wrestling loves them, b) both guys were already pretty vanilla, so making them clones makes them more dime-a-dozen, and c) they never even got a concrete push.

Everyone trades some stuff, it's not any better than the RAW match really. And again, the Champs retain, as this is all just a waste of time. Rikishi pins Doug with a Banzaii Drop to win.

---

9) Hair (vs) Title Match, WWE Women's Title:
Victoria (vs) Molly Holly-
It's odd to see My Beloved Molly in the WrestleMania Title match- that's usually reserved for top heels & faces, and this is after her puritan gimmick ran it's course. The backstory is that Molly, tired of bleaching her hair and still having really burnt-out brown hair left, requested this angle to shave her head and start 'anew' with fresh hair. This is during Victoria's ill-advised face turn, when they dropped her AWESOME, psycho-lesbian stalker character and replaced it with a happy, whacky dancing face. I always go back to that Diesel "shoot" remark where he bitches Vince out for "asking me to SMILE MORE!"- you saw in on Diesel, Lesnar, Cena, Victoria, Mark Henry, etc. It always ruins tough faces' images.

Despite my unwavering lust for Molly and her sweet-ass, ultra-curvy body, this match isn't anything special. They do some standard women's stuff (adequately-done moves with a bunch of arm-flail before every move), Molly does her wicked necklock move where her cleavage is on display, etc. Molly actually hits a Sunset Flip Powerbomb, but with an odd stop in the middle where she just stands there. JR doesn't know how to call that, so makes it look like a fuck-up when I think they just did that to not KILL Victoria IRL with the move. Molly goes for the Widow's Peak as a bitch move, but Victoria does a backslide to win and keep her Title. The crowd was dead, match was OK, but only four and a half minutes long.

Molly has a great moment where she stalls, considering what's coming... and then just bails. Hilarious, just like that scene in "The Princess Bride" where the Six-Fingered Man does the same thing to Inigo. They brawl for a bit on the entranceway before Victoria KOs Molly and straps her to the chair in big restraints (oh damn do I ever have a stiffy), then shaves her head. I didn't like the look at first, but I kind of 'get it' now- she's pretty enough to pull off "Bald Chick" as hot as it can reasonably be expected to get.

---

10) Co-Main Event:
SmackDown World Title:
Eddie Guerrero (vs) Kurt Angle-
The first half of our Double Main Event is here. Eddie was a surprise World Champ, beating Brock Lesnar at No Way Out thanks to Goldberg, and Angle was pushed into an immediate feud with him over Eddie's past drug use. Standard chain wrestling at first, which allows me to illustrate how reversals are SUPPOSED to be done. When Angle goes for the Angle Slam, Eddie uses the momentum to leap up past Angle and armdrag him away. Another time he hits a DDT from spinning out of it. This is how EVERYONE should do reversals. Instead, the lazy-ass WWE Main Event Style led to HHH/Rocky-style "Kick to the gut to block, stall, then do your move" crap, which I hate. The match isn't quite a classic, but is very, very good and always well-wrestled. Some great psychology occurs when Eddie "releases some pressure" by untying his boot after a full minute of Ankle-Lockage, and when Angle snaps it on again, Eddie kicks him off easily (as the boot comes off in angle's hand) then rolls him up for a quick fall, leaving Angle all glassy-eyed and furious. Good match with a smart, well-booked ending, but the problem with that is the lack of big-match pay-off from a big move or something.

---

11) The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) (vs) Kane-
Taker was on a half-year leave at this point (injury or personal, I have no clue), and Kane had buried his brother alive to explain the absense. This is the comeback, after months of "OOOOHHHH I'm returning!" snippets that cost Kane a Rumble and many matches. Another "Big Taker WrestleMania Entrance" thing happens, with PAUL BEARER making a return appearance, and then they get right down to sucking at wrestling. God these two are awful when they're on an 'off-day', which is all the time for Kane in this era. I fast-forward this whole thing, and yup, it's long-term choking, holding, stalking, brawling outside, etc. Taker hits a Tombstone for the win, and gets another Mania victory.

---

12) Co-Main Event:
RAW World Title:
Triple-H (vs) Shawn Michaels (vs) Chris Benoit-
Benoit's Rumble victory was amazing, easily one of the best Rumbles ever, and a huge shocker for Net Smarks, who were used to him being a standard "challenge, but lose" kind of guy who never main evented HUGE shows. But the thing was, HHH was feuding with Shawn for months before this, and they had yet to fully end that one (a Double-KO ending to their last match exacerbated matters), so a Triple-Threat was signed. The e-fans screamed. Even fucking HYATTE (himself legendary for being a HHH apologist) was basically calling out HHH for using this as an excuse to drop the Title without getting beaten himself. So would WWE finally put the belt on a guy who had no mic skills, but was instead a pure workrate God?

Hells yes they did. And they had a *****-ish match at the same time while doing it. Amazing, since almost every Triple-Threat match in history sucks balls and follows the exact same formula. But in this one, they play the formula, giving it props, but doing it realistically, and with tons of double-teaming along the way to break up what would normally be monotonous. So you get a Double-Suplex that puts Benoit through a table outside for a long while. Shawn gets chucked into the post, doing one of his legendary and brilliant mid-jump blade-jobs that proves he's the best blader ever, bar none. Some GREAT last-minute saves protect Benoit from losing to the Pedigree, HHH from submitting to the Sharpshooter via a Superkick, etc. Finally, Shawn is tossed, the Crossface is put in, and Benoit rolls HHH all the way to the other side of the ring to prevent a rope grab, and he taps. TAAAAAAAAAAPS! Benoit finally wins the Title, and Eddie comes down for the now-super-tragic-in-retrospect would-be "iconic" moment of the two hugging over all the years, de-pushes, "too small" comments, "bad mic-workers" jibes, experience, blood, sweat & tears, FINALLY culminating in this one heroic moment.

Of course, it wouldn't last. Both were merely transitional champions to new eras, as the trigger was pulled on NEW kinds of champions after THESE "new" kinds of Champions. Eddie was first, dropping the title to JBL for his YEAR-LONG reign of shitty-workrate terror (he didn't become a great character until after he dropped the belt, actually), and never even getting it back, because Vince didn't trust him or something. Benoit would last longer, dropping it to Randy Orton in his initial failed Babyface push at SummerSlam. So both guys lost their belts, though at least Benoit lasted five months.

---

The Review: The "Mania is bigger than the guys in it" thing seemed a bit reigned back this time, as there's few Supercard matches in general. This show's kind of hard to rate, as almost everything BUT the Double Main Event sucks, or is merely okay. Eddie/Angle was smart and psychological, and the Triple-Threat is one of the best matches you could see. But Taker/Kane, the Evening Gown Match, the Cruiser Match, the Women's Title match, BOTH Tag Team Fatal Four-Ways and ESPECIALLY Brock/Goldberg were wastes of time at best, and awful, horrible shit that embarasses me at worst. I mean, the GOOD matches earn the show an instant thumbs-up, but this is a HELL of a long show, which makes the Manias harder and harder to sit through. Thumbs in the middle, I guess, especially since that last final moment of the show is so bittersweet these days.

[MagnetoWasRight]

The crowd went wild for Rock and Flair during that match but were dead for Orton and Batista

[Sick Nick]

I remember going round a mate's, getting really stoned and watching WM 20. Just an incredible event, particularly the main. Couldn't believe Trips tapped out after becoming such an IWC pariah. Smart move on his part and he was really picking up again as a worker around this time.

[HalloweenJack]

The crowd went wild for Rock and Flair during that match but were dead for Orton and Batista

yeah, Flair and Rock were solid gold in that match

[Crab Master]

Lesnar/Goldberg should have been clash of the Titans. Instead, we got clash of the faggots.

[Jabroniville]

I remember going round a mate's, getting really stoned and watching WM 20. Just an incredible event, particularly the main. Couldn't believe Trips tapped out after becoming such an IWC pariah. Smart move on his part and he was really picking up again as a worker around this time.

Yeah, this almost made the entire IWC forgive him immediately, and it'll likely help to prevent an asterisk being permanently placed on his career for all time. People won't ENTIRELY forgive his years of bullshit and holding guys down, but they'll always go "well, he jobbed when it counted", and he did job to the 'next generation' of guys like Cena & Batista as a torch-passing moment as well. I would still say he's doing a lot of it to protect his ass politically and his legacy (which he obviously DOES care a lot about), but he's still doing it, which is more than guys like Dusty Rhodes did.

[Sick Nick]

Yeah, this almost made the entire IWC forgive him immediately, and it'll likely help to prevent an asterisk being permanently placed on his career for all time. People won't ENTIRELY forgive his years of bullshit and holding guys down, but they'll always go "well, he jobbed when it counted", and he did job to the 'next generation' of guys like Cena & Batista as a torch-passing moment as well. I would still say he's doing a lot of it to protect his ass politically and his legacy (which he obviously DOES care a lot about), but he's still doing it, which is more than guys like Dusty Rhodes did.

I totally agree that it might have been a cynical move by Hunter but like you say, at the end of the day he tapped out cleanly to a 'vanilla midget' in the middle of the ring at the biggest wrestling event of the year.

[Sick Nick]

Lesnar/Goldberg should have been clash of the Titans. Instead, we got clash of the faggots.

If nothing else, it had that SWEET gorilla-press/sidewalk slam to BRAWK! by Goldberg.

OK, it had nothing else as a match. Goes to show that they should've trusted Lesnar's talent as a worker, rather than planning it out a la Warrior/Hogan at Wrestlemania 6. BRAWK! just didn't work like BRAWK! in that match, hitting maybe one suplex, alongside all the bullshit Jurassic restholds and tests of strength.

[Crab Master]

If nothing else, it had that SWEET gorilla-press/sidewalk slam to BRAWK! by Goldberg.

OK, it had nothing else as a match. Goes to show that they should've trusted Lesnar's talent as a worker, rather than planning it out a la Warrior/Hogan at Wrestlemania 6. BRAWK! just didn't work like BRAWK! in that match, hitting maybe one suplex, alongside all the bullshit Jurassic restholds and tests of strength.

They should have let them throw each other around, pummel the crap out of each other. Slam, throw, and even put the Brock Lock in that match at some point. Even if they just had a endless brawlfest with a couple of moves thrown in, it would have been passable. But, alas, we did not get any of that.