I usually skip past the Stu and Helen skits. I find the voices grating and the skits with them are usually way too long. But! Helen grabbing the headset at Survivor Series 94 and talking to Vince is an all time classic to me. Mostly because of Patterson though.
I admittedly don't recall that one. Might be because I do some skipping of her too.
One thing that is consistently hilarious to me is anytime they pick up and read from Bob Holly's book. Holly is a complete tool, but **** if I'm not transfixed every time they read his flaming of every other person in the industry. It's like Diana Hart, except better, because Diana sort of makes me sad.
If the next TLF doesn't open with at least 10 minutes of Lapsed Vince, I will be so sad.
Also hoping this Okada/Omega thing is only one week. I believe there's still an hour match to come and then the very last one is ~one hour and fifteen minutes. Huge fan of that 1st match but didn't really enjoy the cast that much.
I decided to do the watch along with the cast. Some thoughts:
When matches 2-4 happened in 2017/18, I didn't like them. Thoughts after watching: Match two is the worst of the bunch to me. It's a fantastic match but has noticeable flaws. It's better watching now than when it happened because when it happened, everyone knew it'd be a draw and that made it kind of a chore to watch.
Match three is amazing. The third best of the quadrilogy but still, amazing.
Match four. This is the same as match two. It's better now than in the time. The first fall is just epic. Loved everything about it. Rest of the match is great too and I'm going to put this neck and neck with the first match.
General wrestling thoughts: Their match in January 2017 was the first match I'd seen go over 40 minutes in NJPW and I'd been watching since 2011. After that I noticed all matches started to be longer. So I did some research to see how bad it got:
The 7 title matches that happened in 2016 totaled 3h22m43s. Avg time: ~29m
The 8 title matches that happened in 2017 totaled 5h3m10s. Avg time: ~38m
2017 included the 60m draw but it also included a 21m match between Okada and Fale so the draw doesn't inflate it that much.
I found this interesting because the first match in January of 2017 started a bad trend which killed NJPW for me. And Take vs. HBK kind of killed part of the greatness of wrestling too...everyone started doing the shocked face after kickouts. Have these legendary matches hurt wrestling as others try to mimic the things that made them great to illicit the same reactions? Would wrestling be better if they never happened? My own answers are yes and yes.
I fully agree about the damage that HBK vs Taker match did. It’s a tremendous match, and the aftermath is not the fault of those wrestlers in the slightest, but the legacy is absolutely terrible and is still being felt today.
