I mentioned this before, but in lieu of watching the current product which has almost completely turned me off, I have decided I was going to watch RAW from the beginning and also the PPVs as they come up chronologically. I just watched WM X yesterday, Bret-Owen was better than I remember, and now I’m watching the RAW after.

The first talents to come to the ring after Vince’s introduction are the Bushwackers. I laughed when they came out because it made me think about how much WWF has changed in 25 years. Can you imagine if on the RAW after this Mania, the first people in the ring were The Colons or Lucia House Party? The crowd might burn Barclay’s down if that happened.

I wonder what would happen if WWE completely dialled back their booking to old school slow burn levels with proper enhancement matches and all? Any chance they would do this or at least try it?

Anyways heres a nice sign I saw in the crowd when Shawn Michaels came back from losibg his smile

They occasionally throw in enhancement matches against local jobbers, but only to build up monsters. Never more than one in an episode, and I think it's been a while.

Don't think it's realistic that they'll revert to the old model in any significant way. There are ways that they could at least dial back the ridiculous speed at which things get burned off, but unfortunately I don't think that's a goal of theirs either.

If they have to go 100 mph all the time, they would at least be wise to have wrestlers be feuding with multiple people at a time, and have continuity in the kayfabe hate and rivalries, but again there's really no indication that they see their current booking model as a problem.

Wow Randy Savage 1987 - 90 years NO ONE better in history what a ****ing allround amazing performer

His subtle differences in body language between being a heel or a face were masterful

"JAKE’S THE BEST, JAKE’S THE BEST, JAKE’S THE BEST!”.

Mark out moment

Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko crash Raw 349 and ambush the New Age Outlaws!

Wcw let all 4 of those guys go at once wtf they deserved to go bankrupt

The next Smackdown should be fun for you. Eddie in particular

Not sure they let them go as much as they just walked out. And now, in hindsight, Eddie would be the only loss they would really regret.

Looks like WWF was indecisive about what to call Konnan. They only knew they wanted to go with something from outer space.

On the TLF episode of WrestleMania V, they talk about how WWF officials were so paranoid about the possibility that Savage would lose his **** and ruin the main event of WrestleMania if a fan reached out and touched Miss Elizabeth. Seemed like probably an overstatement, but look at this:



Positively surrounded by security, and then even within that coverage she's all but wearing a gay man as an additional blanket on the way to the ring to ensure that there's no incidental contact between Liz and any of the security detail. The story of them accounting for Savage's paranoia basically has to be real.

wow I do remember the story from the TLF episode but I thought they only mentioned Patterson going down with her. That's quite a sight.

Yeah, as a big Savage fan it sucks, but the accounts of him having been horribly controlling and possessive are just way too credible to disbelieve.

Me too and I totally didn't remember this, but Wrestling with Wregret did a video on his WCW days and there was a segment where he smacked Tori Wilson. Maybe it was scripted, but totally uncool and disturbing.

Wasnt that Gorgeous George?

I remember being disturbed by the dom violence angle ( obv work though) then it was ignored and discontinued pretty quick

GG may have been the second woman and he physically assaulted her too. Neither was good, but the smack to Tori's head was the more disturbing part for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGICqClIIxo

I don't really see why that was so bad (having no other context than that clip)... she was grinning both before and after and that was a pretty playful slap compared to what she got regularly from others in the ring.

Clearly a man hitting a woman is never a good look, but I imagine that was the point?

Agree with Minus. Granted that it's a bit more complicated with wrestling than with other forms of fictional entertainment, but it does seem like it should be fair game to portray awful acts if done properly. Jake the Snake slapping Elizabeth at This Tuesday in Texas in 1991 was among the heights of the art form, because it was a breathtaking act of evil that shocked the audience and was carried out with the villain being set up for his comeuppance.

On the other hand, Vince McMahon leveraging his power to force Trish Stratus to strip down and bark like a dog is ****ing gross, considering that WWF did it with full knowledge that most of the fans would love it and pop for it rather than seeing it as a heel act.

It never gets mentioned among the really crappy finishers, but the British Bulldog's running powerslam was one of the most underwhelming finishers that an upper midcarder ever used.

Just random stuff but to do w/wife husband stuff: I mentioned weeks ago I was listening to Retro RAWs/Nitros from Bryan Alveraz. I got to late-99 where HHH/Steph got married. I had no idea that eventually they got divorced in storyline (no idea when either) but they never got remarried in storyline. It's just accepted that it's real. More shooting for today's shoot environment.

edit: Happy 3:16 Day!

Huge respect and lols to Mae Young

Lol at being pregnant to Sexual Chocolate Mark Henry at 82 then getting Angle slammed

Wow 3:16 day is a thing, awesome

Damn I just realized I gave spoilers. Totally forgot. oops. Sorry about that ABD.

I thought that when Undertaker turned face, he stopped using the bodybag. October 3, 1992 Superstars features a jobber squash where babyface Taker not only puts the jobber in a bodybag, but stomps on it afterward as he often did as a heel. Odd.

These Rock promos are consistently mindblowingly entertaining

https://youtu.be/XklcpTdoCWM

Not being a fan of his in singles at the time, the moment when Superstars opened with an announcement of "welcome the new WWF Champion...Bret 'Hitman' Hart" was one of the biggest WTF moments ever for me as a young fan. I absolutely could not accept him as world champion. I wasn't exactly mad; I was just really, really confused as to how that's the direction they went.

The only other thing that came remotely close in terms of me not wanting to accept it was Kerry Von Erich beating Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam '90 for the IC Title, but that wasn't close to being as impactful because: (1) it was the IC Title and not the WWF Title; and (2) when the Von Erich-Perfect match was made, they really telegraphed the **** out of Von Erich winning, so I at least accepted it in advance even though I didn't like it.

A distant third to the Nasty Boys getting to beat Hart Foundation for the Tag Team Titles at WM VII. Like with Von Erich, I saw that that's the result that was coming even though I really didn't get it. It still rates behind Von Erich because Von Erich's push was a ridiculous hotshot whereas the Nasty Boys at least weren't a new team or anything.

Same. It really came out of nowhere. My best friend's favorite was Bret Hart but I could just never get on board with Bret as champion esp over Ric Flair. Fightingest WWF champion of all time though!!