I managed to watch ahead over the weekend and am midway through WM III. I won't talk ahead of where the thread is except to say to everyone who doesn't already know this: don't despair and give up on this project just because the first two suck. It gets drastically better at WM III.
The Good- I can't say enough how much I loved Ventura on commentary. He just adds so much to each match, and as I said earlier, makes unwatchable matches watchable. The King Kong Bundy match was perfect at accomplishing what it set out to accomplish. They wanted to continue to get him over as a huge monster and they did just that. I really enjoyed Borne/Steamboat but wish it would have gotten more time. Just when I felt it was starting to get really good it ended. I'm not sure why Bruno didn't just work a match. The crowd was only into him, and even if he couldn't work that well at this point, it's hard to imagine it would have been much worse than some of the other matches. The promo by the Iron Sheik before the match was very solid as was the match. Easily the match of the night. As for the main event, it wasn't the best match in the world but I was able to enjoy it for what it was. Piper who I usually dislike, worked well as a heel here, and the celebrities did a good job of making the match feel important.
The Bad- Letting the Executioner cut a promo. Whatever that finish to the JYD match was. I also didn't care much for the women's title match.
The Ugly- Body Slam Challenge...
Overall I found the whole show to be pretty boring. It took me several days to get through it all, and I think if I would have watched it all at once I would have liked it even less. I know it's probably just a victim of the times but for the most part all the matches and promos were either very bad or very boring. I'm going to give it a 3.5/10.
Wrestlemania one is like the mullet, disco, and the Macarena. It was somehow popular once, but it isn't exactly a classic that will be enjoyed throughout time. Yet announcing in wrestling was so much better then, which is quite mysterious. At this time at least half a dozen active announcers were way better than any announcer today.
Wrestlemania one is like the mullet, disco, and the Macarena. It was somehow popular once, but it isn't exactly a classic that will be enjoyed throughout time. Yet announcing in wrestling was so much better then, which is quite mysterious. At this time at least half a dozen active announcers were way better than any announcer today.
Howard Finkel is the GOAT. Nothing better than when he does the "AND NEW..."
I really think that Finkel's "AND NEW..." that followed Sgt. Slaughter's Royal Rumble 1991 title win, which immediately set Piper and Monsoon off with wails of agony, was the best Finkel championship announcement moment. Classic.
Lord Alfred really was horrendous. Wait until you get to the Los Angeles portion of WrestleMania 2, when poor Jesse is stuck working with Lord Alfred Hayes and Elvira as his broadcast team.
Lord Alfred really was horrendous. Wait until you get to the Los Angeles portion of WrestleMania 2, when poor Jesse is stuck working with Lord Alfred Hayes and Elvira as his broadcast team.
Oh man. If Jesse can still be great with those two around him I'll be ready to say he's the best announcer ever.
It's a tricky thing to compare Jesse with Bobby Heenan. Heenan was far funnier, but Jesse far surpassed him in terms of building up big matches and moments. One was an elite comedian and the other was an elite hype man, with both being extremely quick on their feet. Since both were at the top of their game when working with Gorilla Monsoon, and since it was part of both of their jobs to jab back and forth with him, Monsoon also deserves a lot of credit for keeping up with them to a certain extent. They tended to overpower other play-by-play guys.
Jesse's work at WM 2 was brought down by his surroundings, but thankfully WM 3, 4, 5, and 6 are he and Monsoon back together.
Jesse is the unquestioned GOAT. Heenan is beloved for good reason, but Jesse was a way better all-around announcer. I thought Heenan could actually detract from big matches when seriousness was called for.
Yeah, I suppose that's fair. Jesse was your five-tool superstar, Heenan was more of a specialist, although that probably diminishes Heenan too much considering that he feels like he's completely untouchable for funniest announcer ever and will probably never be matched in that regard.
Bobby and Gorilla easily for a weekly show. For a 4 star match plus or for a main event match, Jesse was better usually. But for the usual garbage WWF match at the time, no.
Bruno was the worst regular announcer ever that I can remember in any federation.
Superstar Billy Graham was shockingly awful in the announce booth and I think would give Bruno a run for his money in that regard. Crazy, since Graham was a great talker during his in-ring career.
