today

27 Years Ago Today…

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…the most watched wrestling match in North American history took place when Hulk Hogan faced Andre The Giant on NBC. In this day and age, a 5.0 rating seems unfathomable; this show scored a 15.2! Over 33 million people watched live to witness the end of the over four year nightmare that was Hulkamania.

Another Killer Match From the G1 Earlier Today

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“The last two nights were not just two of the best shows of the year, but
they’re probably two of the five best shows I’ve ever seen.  This is
the greatest tournament in pro wrestling history and it’s not even a
close call.  Last years’ was the best I’d ever seen and this year blows
away last year.”

— Dave Meltzer (8/3/14)

“The Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomoaki Honma

 

WWE Releasing Multiple Performers Today

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Those Released Today are:

JTG
Marc Harris (referee)
Drew McIntyre
Jinder Mahal
Aksana
Curt Hawkins
Theodore Long
Brodus Clay
Camacho
Evan Bourne
Yoshi Tatsu

http://www.wwe.com/inside/wwe-releases-superstars

The releases do not seem to be done, either. I will update this list as soon as anyone else is added. You can see updates by refreshing the page as I will add them as soon as they are officially announced.

Austin vs Today

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Hi Scott,

Just read about you naming Austin #1 worker out of Austin, Brock, Rock, Cena.

I've been thinking a lot about what I used to like about Austin during the Attitude era, and what's missing from a lot of today's wrestlers, and I think a lot of it is attention to detail. Austin did all of the little things really well – things like rolling onto his stomach to avoid a pinfall after a big move, or after kicking out; the way he'd sell moves convincingly without going over the top, making guys look like a threat even though he was billed for a long time as the top guy; the fact that he could throw a punch.

There's lots of other things of course, but it's these little things I pay attention to now when I watch his (and others) old matches on YouTube compared to some of the stale, lazy crap being thrown out on WWE TV nowadays.

Wondered what you thought about the lazy style of some of today's workers.

I

don't think it's lazy, it's just the style that they're taught in and it doesn't lend itself well to details like that.  I honestly don't blame the guys for it, because they're working stadium-style (big cartoonish selling and exchanging finishers) and the previous generation learned arena-style (details in selling and psychology).  It's just different, not necessarily worse or better.  

Fifteen years ago today…

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WCW Monday Nitro
July 6, 1998
Live from Atlanta, GA (41,412 in attendance)
The biggest star WCW ever created was “passed the torch” on
this day back in 1998. Yes, I’m referring to the one and only GOLDBERG.

Back on September 22, 1997 in Salt Lake City, UT an unknown
wrestler by the name of Bill Goldberg faced Hugh Morrus on Monday Nitro. He
won. “Mean” Gene Okerlund tried to interview him but the victor remained
silent. Not only did the trend of our new hero being silent continue but also
his winning ways.
Week after week his winning streak continued on Nitro,
Thunder, and WCW Saturday Night. His patented moves were the spear and the
jackhammer. On April 20, 1998 Goldberg won his first title as he defeated Raven
on Nitro for his 75th victory and the US Heavyweight title. However,
the phenomenon did not stop there.
With the US title in his possession and his winning streak
growing Goldberg’s popularity soared, so WCW and, most notably, Hulk Hogan took
notice and gave Goldberg a barely-advertised World Heavyweight title match on
Nitro scheduled for July 6. I refer to the match as barely advertised because
WCW didn’t even announce it until the previous Thunder. Even Goldberg
supposedly found out while watching the program.
On WCW Monday Nitro that night Hogan put Scott Hall in
Goldberg’s path in order to earn his World title match. With little difficulty
Goldberg beat Hall and was ready for the main event. 
Instead of advertising this match for the upcoming Bash At
The Beach PPV WCW threw away potentially millions of dollars of PPV revenue by
offering this gem on free TV! If there was ever an example of a ratings grab,
this is it! Enjoy!

ECW today

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So I fully expect to have my arse handed to me for even DARING to suggest this, but…

I was a big ECW fan back in the day. That was pretty hard work here in the UK. Basically, in late ’98, we started getting half hour Hardcore TV shows from ’96. I was 13 years old and had read about ECW in PWI (again, we rarely got PWI and when we did, it was often 3-4 months old) and was really intrigued (as you can imagine).

Anyway, i’m not ashamed to say I still am a fan.

I checked out some ECW again a year or two back and was surprised how little enjoyment I got out of it compared to what I used to get. Then, I watched the fantastic Barbed Wire City independent documentary on ECW. I decided to give ECW another go, because the wrestling world has hardly been on fire recently.

I was surprised to find that it nearly had that same feel again. The spots seemed innovative again. The bumps were shocking again. The characters felt pretty refreshing, some even cutting edge. The promos and segments didn’t follow a rigid formula that we’re so used to seeing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night (that in itself tells you a lot, doesn’t it?).

So, the question I put to you is this:

How do you feel about watching ECW now, considering the stale product we have today?

I know many of you weren’t even fans of the original product, but for anyone that didn’t mind it or God forbid was a fan, I suggest giving something like Hardcore Heaven ’99 a watch again (you can find it on the torre… yeh.), where Don ‘Cyrus’ Callis teams with Joey Styles on the commentary booth for the first time and set a prime example of what smark wrestling commentary should be (because that’s what we are, whether we like to admit it or not!). A fine duo. You also have a young Tajiri tearing it up with Super Crazy, and the Dudleys and Taz in some of their final ECW appearances.

It just feels like it’s 1995-6 all over again. Everything’s stale. All we mainly do is moan now, and we don’t WANT to do that. We want to have a cutting edge product which accentuates what we love about this sport.

For me, watching some ECW again felt like a breath of fresh air.

Over to you!

Cheers.

Has DC Done Something Stupid Today?

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http://hasdcdonesomethingstupidtoday.com/

Read more about DC’s PR disasters at The Outhouse.

 
They’ve really been on a roll of bad decision-making since the New 52 started.  I was reading GLC #20, which is an “epilogue” to the First Lantern story, and I was like “Wait a minute, did I miss Green Lantern #20 where all these important plot points were supposed to be revealed first?” but no, they’re just shipping it TWO WEEKS after the Epilogue to the big crossover they’ve been doing for the past two months. 
 
Every month makes me more of a fan of Marvel, and the Marvel Unlimited app finally coming to Android helps with that even moreso.