If I remember the reviews correctly, the summary is: Cesaro is too good for this company.

Watched it and it was pretty cool. Ambrose eats like he's in prison. Cesaro brings up a good point about FCW, there's so much great stuff but the only way to find it is on youtube and dailymotion. Anyone know why isn't FCW on the network?

Random complaint forthcoming, but announcer Vince from the early to mid 1990s was the WOAT. I recently rematched WM X, and Vince had this had this really jarring habit of doing this exaggerated "HA HA" laugh when either a face or a minor guest celebrity did anything even marginally funny/amusing (Men on a Mission are dancing...HA HA). I get that he's just trying to put over what's happening on-screen, but his commentary has decidedly not aged well (unlike Gorilla and Bobby the Brain which I can still watch and love all day).

Some people seem to think Vince was this amazing announcer, though I imagine those same people love seeing stuff such as Men on A Mission dancing. Vince had a good voice and obviously knew where the product was heading as well as anyone and worked really hard, but the content was no good; I can see the similarities between him and what Cole tries to be. Ventura arguing with Vince was good though. When Ventura was the one talking.

Simply by having enthusiasm and putting the stuff in the ring over, I would still take him over today's crew in terms of the performance he actually produced.

Cole is more talented than Vince was, but the thing where he's usually putting over something that isn't the match just makes his work the worst. Which, I realize, is Vince's fault.

I agree. Today's announcers are capable of great work--see Cena/Punk at MITB or Cole's call when the Streak ended. The Vince-micromanagement of commentary ensures the in-ring action takes a back-seat to (for example) whoever the D-list celebrity is visiting Raw or what happened in the show's opening segment. This is why, despite the work of NXT's announcers not being "excellent" by any objective measure, it greatly shines when compared to the severely constrained efforts of the main show's announcers.

Vince is more believable when it comes to enthusiasm than current WWE announcers by far, which I suppose comes naturally when you are the one deciding what is happening.

Found myself watching Hogan/Andre WMIII again for some reason yesterday. Never realized how close Hogan comes to not kicking out when Andre falls on him at the start of the match when he tries the body slam. I know refs are instructed to count someone out if they fail to kick out as planned. Question is, what the hell happens there if Hogan doesn't make it out and how big of a disaster is it?

Pretty sure the ref would never let a 3 count happen in a million years there

They did use that close count as an angle for weeks afterwards saying it shouldve been 3 and that Andre actually won the title right there

Sounds like it was a planned event. The Megapowers angle reportedly is the longest planned angle Vince ever did and they formed 6 or so months after Mania 3.

Go watch the Tokyo special with Lesnar that aired live at 4:00 AM or whenever. Cole and Saxton both did a very good job calling the action up until the main event where it felt like Vince finally showed up at the studio and was producing them

I watched this because I could have sworn it didn't happen until after WM IV, but I was wrong. As much disdain I have for Hulk Hogan, or more accurately Terry Bollea, his facials were always fantastic and even more so here

This show was a real eye opener for me. It really does feel like a completely different set of announcers once the main event starts.

Duke "The Dumpster" Droese smh at his vignettes

The last one I just watched on Raw ep 63 showed him sleeping in his garbage truck, amongst the trash lol

Man these Raws are awesome, like mini time capsules, Vince and Macho Man liked to incorporate pop culture injokes into their commentary

Lots of references to Roseanne and Tom Arnolds divorce on the last 2 eps lol

Sumo match between Yokozuna and Earthquake just starting omg

That episode of Raw 63 also had Owen Hart vs some jobber

This was at the peak of his "hate" for Bret and at the end of the match he spin kicked the jobber who he had just sharpshootered the **** out of

Then he mouthed off to the camera about how he was going to get Bret and pay back all the **** he went through growing up

He then proceeded to get his Hitman gimmick sunglasses out and put them on the koed jobber then squeezed his face at the camera going " this looks just like you Bret, just like you!" ( Very ugly guy this jobber Tony Roy lol)

He then pulled the elastic back on the glasses so they flicked back on the jobbers face who sold it awesomely

The heat he got for that display was amazing

I lolled hard

<3 Owen

They scared me moving the attitude era raws into the Raw Replay category. Was getting ready to cancel. Looks like they have at least the year 2000 now, maybe more. Maybe they always had those in Raw Replay?

I was very much looking forward to RAW and SD! from 2000 being uploaded because I stopped watching right around here having a job, school, and life. They're missing a bunch of episodes. I watched the 1/3 RAW and I have to say it's probably one of the best RAWs ever. It makes me wonder if it was the time period or if it was because it was the first show of the new year. The next two RAWs are skipped.

I noticed the RAW after the TMPT vs. Benoit/Jericho isn't there either which is a fantastic episode with a match I almost nominated for the best match draft just so others would watch it, Benoit vs. Austin for the strap in Canada. Simply amazing match. The rematch from 3 days later is also not on the SD! list (but only a handful of SDs are uploaded from 2001)

Those episodes were from the era Chris Kreski was the head writer (late 99 to late 2000), and he seems to be pretty highly regarded. I'd certainly like to watch that whole era from start to finish at some point.

Interesting seeing Terry Funk vs Tully Blanchard in a legends match at Slamboree 94

All the previous ECW Hardcore TV episodes around this time portrayed Funk as the grisled baby face veteran

In this WCW PPV match he really heeled it up

He tried to start a feud with the Rhodes family in his post match interview, didnt come out when they called his name as a legend at the start of the show and generally snarled his way heelishly through the surprisingly hardcore match

Funny seeing him the previous week being so babyfaceish, he really could switch seemlessly between each persona

It was also pretty awesome to see sections of the crowd chanting "ECW, ECW!!!" on Terry's entrance and he went into the crowd to hi five them, the commentators pretended to not know what they were chanting

Caught Hogan/Rock from 2002 (WM16?) again on the network last night. I've always wondered about the ending. Crowd clearly turned Hogan in the middle of the match and it seemed like he went from working heel to face near the end. Was the plan always to turn Hogan at the end with the handshake and then Hall and Nash coming out to attack him or did they call that on the fly after seeing the incredible crowd reaction for Hogan?

On the one hand, I've never seen/heard anyone ask Hogan about this. On the other, I probably wouldn't believe a word he said anyway.

Meltzer said Hogan turning face was planned.

They must have expected that reaction then. I don't remember if he was getting overwhelmingly cheered previously. Although, JR said the Rock (and both he and Lawler) were shocked.

I always thought it had something to do with the Toronto crowd. Also, didn't Hogan attempt to kill rock with a truck or something that week on Raw, or during the lead up?

Yeah, that happened. But what's a little vehicular manslaughter between friends?