Not much of an update today. Last night's episodes of Main Event and Wrestlemania Rewind are there for viewing. In the RAW Replays section, we have another Attitude Era episode, from 5/4/98. This is the episode with Mick Foley facing Terry Funk in a Falls Count Anywhere match, and at the conclusion, Vince appears to name Dude Love #1 contender to Steve Austin for Over the Edge '98. Also featured is new Nation member Owen Hart teaming with The Rock, and LOD 2000 and The DOA teaming against D-X.
Wow, I really hated that Mick Foley vs Terry Funk match, because all you saw was Steve Austin, who talked trash. You missed almost every spot of that (great?) match.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what qualifies this episode as "The best of RAW". I guess maybe because they think people are grateful when they upload Attitude Era stuff?
ReplyDeleteThey also added a 'Hell in the Cell' episode of Countdown, despite the fact that they ran a re-run last night. They do some weird shit on here sometimes.
ReplyDeleteNot so much on 28. But on 29, we had the end of CM Punk's reign being treated like an afterthought. The foregone conclusion time between Rumble and WM. A poorly received final match with a horrible ending (Rock saluting Cena). The awkward "oh shit, what do we do with Ryback?" phase once Rock came back. There's probably more I can't remember.
ReplyDeleteVince really need to take a step back from the product I think. You hear all the time how he kills angles and forces rewrites of Raw several times before the show, and it kills the continuity of the mid-card.
ReplyDeleteOther than Rusev and Swagger, is there a good midcard angle going right now?
The WWE on YouTube is weird. They pull some things and not others. There are complete episodes of Nitro and the Main Event shows on YouTube that have been there for more than a year.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking at the segments after Andre was reinstated and the WWF did a brilliant job in setting up his heel turn by providing some mystery as to why he was reinstated in the first place.
ReplyDeleteBo Dallas?
ReplyDeleteDepends what you consider midcard, Reigns/Orton, Bray/Jericho, Ziggler/Miz, Paige/AJ are all midcard angles right now.
ReplyDeleteHow did that one end? Assuming Tito lost (as was his job at that point), but was it clean? Maybe a DQ win?
ReplyDeleteThe best angle ever was *insert angle that was popular when you were 12 years old.*
ReplyDeleteBryan did a jobs to Wyatt to warm him up for Cena.
ReplyDeleteThe payoff was great, but you couldn't enjoy the build because at one point Bryan's big moment was going to be against Kane.
*8
ReplyDeleteI said good.
ReplyDeleteLet's count the feuds!
ReplyDeleteCena vs. Lesnar
Reigns vs. Orton
Ambrose vs. Rollins
Swagger vs. Rusev
AJ vs. Paige
Ziggler vs. Miz
Jericho vs. Wyatt(s)
The Dusts vs. anybody
Sheamus vs. nobody
Naomi vs. Cameron
Layla + Summer Rae + random vs. Fandango
Usos vs. nobody
nobody vs. Rybaxel
Paige-AJ, Ambrose-Rollins & Stephanie-Brie are killing it right now.
ReplyDeleteAmbrose/Rollins is pretty hot, although I'm not at all sold on Rollins as a singles guy past this feud yet.
ReplyDeleteThe Randy Savage-Rick Steamboat angle building to WrestleMania III was fantastic, and gave us one of the five best North American matches in history to boot.
ReplyDeleteI've said this before...
ReplyDeleteIWC wants certain things. WWE wants certain things. Their wants vs. ICW wants are not the same, hence all the conflict. That being said, it seems like WWE angles are all complicated and confusing and illogical.
It should not be that hard to do good vs. evil stories.
"The awkward "oh shit, what do we do with Ryback?""
ReplyDeleteI know, lets have him lose to Mark Henry by falling over and Mark landing on him. BRILLIANT!
That's nine. Usos just wrapped up their feud with the Wyatts, and with the new character developments with Kofi & Big E, that feud could be up next.
ReplyDeleteHow far into 95 are they? Don't wanna burn through those Raws too fast
ReplyDeleteEarly July
ReplyDeleteI loved the Cena-Batista feud for WM 26. Some of the best mic work from the Cena era + really fun power matches to pay them off.
ReplyDeleteDon't see a lot in your logic. And what does Ryback have to do with the Rock? Ryback got pushed back down the card like happens to most first time main venters.
ReplyDeleteFor my money, the Vince promo to open the show is one of his best ever. Not sure if that's why they put it up there, but that would be my reason.
ReplyDeleteby that logic it is the Dangerous Alliance and Flair vs Savage "She was mine first". Not the two worst things ever.
ReplyDeleteThat brings up a good question, b/c I don't think that's a fair criticism, but I'm open for debate: Shoukd the fall out which follows an angle's payoff be lumped in when considering the merits of an angle?
ReplyDeleteThey have to be lining up to start Nitro as well when Raw hits 9/95... will time it with the renewal cycle I think.
ReplyDelete"at one point Bryan's big moment was going to be against Kane"
ReplyDeleteAllegedly.
I agree. Not hating, b/c I'm an IWC guy, but think, based on that feud, you could argue that most iwc fans like for angles to be predictable. It played out perfectly over 9 months, but not knowing how it would end from the very beginning prevented some from enjoying the ride. More of an observation than a criticism, b/c I would argue that such a view is in fact perfectly valid. I just think most viewers of any show want a good idea of how the ride is going to end and it turns out that fans are no exception.
ReplyDeleteHate to say it but YouTube was 100x better than wwe network for weekly TV shows.
ReplyDelete1. Are you sure? Are dirt sheets fact sheets which are never fed misleading information to swerve fans? And more importantly, 2. Who cares? Dirt sheet rumors are not a part of on-screen storylines. Dirt sheets had Flair jumping to the E in 1989 & facing Savage at Wrestlemania 5. So, by this argument, the Mega-Powers angle also gets points deducted because, according to dirt sheet rumors, it wasn't always the plan.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure that's the case. I think we got worked. Continually, in fact.
ReplyDeleteI think they knew. They do exit surveys, monitor fan activity online, listen to the live crowds, etc. They knew what fans wanted for sure. At worst, they just didn't think it would grow the audience or net more ppv buys, so they pushed something else hoping fans would buy that instead. When that didn't work, they went with the safe bet, which in this case, was Bryan.
ReplyDeleteSo for me that's WarGames, Savage-Steamboat and Hogan-Andre.
ReplyDeleteNot bad.
Randy V Warrior at WM VII. I had been 12 for less then a month.
ReplyDeleteI've got to go with the Bret/Austin angle. Creating an angle where each wrestler had a "home field advantage", Bret the hated heel in the U.S but the beloved babyface in the rest of the world, and Austin in the reverse scenario, was brilliant and unprecedented.
ReplyDeleteSteve Austin v. DX, or Dude Love, or the Undertaker. Or Goldberg's run...
ReplyDeleteMeh, I'll stick to '85-92.
Not only that, but it will probably coincide with the Monday Night War series. So you'll probably get that show, plus a fresh Raw/Nitro regularly to go with it.
ReplyDeleteHell, COD was better in terms of weekly TV. At least they aired weekly World Class, AWA, NWA, and Mid-Atlantic episodes.
ReplyDeleteMy vote goes to Moppy.
ReplyDeleteI DON'T KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! (couldn't resist)
ReplyDeleteJesse Ventura thinks Windham's turn was an inside job.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Jesse didn't make a comment about "inside jobs" when Bossman vs. Akeem took place at WM6.
ReplyDeleteIt can't be worse than the "Send for the man" moment from WCW (and that is only funny now because of the Botchamania meme)
ReplyDeleteYeah, like I said, Cena is tame compared to main eventers that came before. At least he loses more often than not.
ReplyDeleteI think to me and my friend, That Rumor about Hogan and Beefcake helped moving him to main events be more acceptable. (No not THAT That Rumor, the one Linda started...)
ReplyDeleteThat looked pretty scary at first--you can even see Hogan going over to make sure Akeem isn't injured. Luckily he didn't land wrong or people would have remembered this match for a different reason.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until the Network starts airing iMPACT.
ReplyDeleteI pointed this out before, but if they had the first three years of Raw up and started uploaded 2-3 Raw/Nitros from 9/95 when the Network started, we'd be hitting Scott Hall invading Nitro for the first time RIGHT FUCKING NOW.
ReplyDeleteThe first few months of the 'Monday Night War" were not that exciting.
Does Wade Keller or Dave Meltzer get royalties every time someone says "Monday Night War/"
Yeah it was almost an immediate switch.
ReplyDeleteBut they were actually promoting Warrior/Savage for the IC Title at the Hershey taping I went to a few weeks after this BEFORE Savage had turned heel... so I was thinking I'd get to see a huge FACE V. FACE, CHAMPION V. CHAMPION MATCH. I couldn't understand why THIS MATCH didn't make SNME when it finally aired a month later.
After she left the room, Harley Race grabbed her autograph book and TORE IT UP.
ReplyDeleteThe Devil's greatest trick is convincing us he doesn't exist!
ReplyDeleteThat means absolutely nothing to me.
ReplyDeleteYou're named after an apostle, so it's fitting that you deny His Greatness.
ReplyDeleteRemember, he gave His only Son to save you, even though He's omnipotent, and could have as many sons as He wants.
Think about that.
Again, this means nothing to me.
ReplyDeleteDid it have the entrances? YouTube has filters that will automatically pull videos with copyrighted music.
ReplyDelete