The Stinger

The day was: January 30th 1991 (Clash of champions XVI: Dixie Dynamite)

Why I chose this moment in history: Everyone is all but creaming their pants over Sting's presence in the WWE and how monuments and awesome this is.

I never watched WCW the only Sting I watched first hand was during the short period of time I watched TNA so I decided to watch some original Sting to get some perspective on how truly awesome he was / is.

Hipster side fact: This Clash of champions was the first to air after WCW left the NWA

Match of the day: Sting and Lex Luger vs. DOOM

First match

Winner: (24 year spoiler alert) Sting and Lex Luger

Quote of the match: This quote was actually more the quote of the whole night, each time I heard it I chuckled a little bit. Dusty Rhodes let us know through out the entire program that you could call a number and talk to Ric Flair . . . 2 dollars for the first minute and 45 cents for every additional minutes, what a steal.

Opinion / Observations:

- The cheesy opening and confederate flag gave me little hope as to how the following hours would go.

- Following that was the national anthem played by three band kids with some fierce 90's hair cuts and no ability to hold a tune.

- The ramp in the arena was . . . like 3 feet long, at that point honestly why have a ramp?

- Remember how I said it was weird seeing Teddy Long as a ref. well it's doubly weird to see him as the manager of DOOM

- Like I said the only sting I knew was the 'Crow' like version seeing him with the bleach blonde high top and tucan looking face paint it's like night and day . . . he sure looked a lot happier then. I understand it was a character change but I wonder if he ever misses being happy

- Lot of traditional Greco Roman moves, don't see that as much now a days . . . except for suplexes see a lot of those.

- This match made it clear why tag teams normally have one big guy and one smaller or faster or flashier guy because in this match it was three big bulky guys and sting. It was a lot of move for move shove for shove seeing which wall of muscle would move first to me it was quite boring I lost interest quickly.

- The anouncers kept pushing how awesome it was that Luger, Reed and Simmons used to play football, I'm fifty fifty on how AWESOME that is, for some wrestlers it makes them powerhouses for others it just makes them linebackers in a ring.

- Dusty letting the audience at home that Luger is "All man." was . . . odd.

- Finally Sting came out and sped up this painfully slow match doing double clotheslines, dropkicks and such what do they do?  Pan away from the action and focus back in on Luger.

- Dan Spivey who had an intresting mullet chaps combo came out to beat the tar out of Lex and peace out.

- The match ended due to a DQ because being tossed over the top rope is illegal I guess.

-  The only redeeming quality of this match was the small amount of time Sting was in the ring so maybe he is worth all this hype.


Other show observations:

- I got to find out who won the sexiest wrestler award and the winner was . . . Z-man

Agree to disagree

- I might not think he's good looking but his match against Beautiful Bobby was. It was better than the opening match.

- Neckbreakers are one of my favorite standard wrestling move.

- The York foundation made an acquisition  but all I could see was the ridiculously huge computer calculator thing.

- The free birds had the coolest theme so cool they sang and danced to it while entering the ring.

- The ref for the tag match was literally the worst . . . he missed . . . . everything.

- I found out Sid Vicious was from wherever he damn well pleases which I found quite funny.

- Also found out Paul E. Dangerously has a thing for chicks in jazzercise outfits as simply seeing one caused him to lose the inter gender arm wrestling competition.

- I wanted to watch to a Brian Pillman match to see if he really was as similar to Dean Ambrose as everyone says he was.

 

- What I didn't know was back at this time he wasn't exactly the Pilman he was remembered as.

- The only similarity at this point was that they are both billed from Cincinnati Ohio

- Someone else who doesn't look like remember? Scott Steiner, other than an obscene wedgie he looked fairly . . . normal, not all veining and bleached blonde and scary.

-Something I need to remember? The post button, bye guys.

Royal Rumble Drinking game

I know this blog is for reviewing older matches from different eras but I'm just so pumped for the royal rumble I have every intention of sitting down eating pizza (maybe even stuffed crust Seth Rollins) and drinking beer while watching the PPV. But drinking all regular like is not very hip and cool of me so I've decided to challenge myself and possible others to a Royal rumble drinking game I've compiled some rules from various game templets (Surprisingly I'm not the first person to think of this) and added some of my own.I'm going to give it a whirl and invite you to do the same, let me know if there are any rules to be added or removed so I can improve on it for next year's night of drinking.

And for continuities sake Hipster side fact:

 SO HERE ARE THE RULES:

One sip

1) Every time a commentator reminds us that "it's every man for himself."
2) Every time Kane eliminates someone
3) Every time Roman reigns eliminates someone
4) Every time the WWE network is mentioned
5) Every time "twitter" or "trending" is mentioned

Two sips
1) if the ring gets cleared of all but one or if you really need a drink that bad 2 participants
2) whenever 4 or more wrestlers band together to eliminate a fat guy.
3) Someone is almost eliminated but jumps or lifts himself back in
4) Drink every time someone hits their finisher in the Rumble match.
5) When a champion of any sort comes out (Tag IC US hell diva for all I care)

Three sips

1) When a surprise entrant comes out
2) When your least favorite wrestler is eliminated
3) When your favorite wrestler comes to the ring
4 ) Every time the "lucky" number 27 is mentioned
5) When a eliminated wrestler takes revenge

Finish your drink or do a shot

1) When your favorite wrestler gets eliminated
2) If the person you predicted would win the rumble gets eliminated
3) whenever anyone gets eliminated in less than 10 seconds.
4) whenever the fans cheer a heel or boo a face
5) If someone starts bleeding
6) When participant 30 comes out

Have fun!

Armageddon 2000

The day was: December 10th 2000 (WWF Armageddon)

Why I chose this moment in history: An attitude era PPV I have to think this Armageddon is a perfect example, with the all the key players of the time on display. Multiple matches featuring the "attitude" of the time.

Hipster side fact: Armageddon was the only WWF PPV to be held in the state of Alabama


Match of the day: 6 man hell in a cell match for the WWF championship. Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker vs. the rock vs. HHH vs. Rikishi vs. Stone cold Steve Austin

Winner (15 year spoiler alert): Kurt Angle

Quote of the match: There were actually a lot to chose from here but first come first serve, the one that first stuck out to me was "Well this man doesn't have a limp bizkit I can guarantee ya' he's got more testicular fortitude than maybe anyone in this match up!" From JR in reference to the Undertaker and his theme music by questionably named band limp bizkit.

Opinion / Observations:

- First thing I noticed was how much Jay and Jimmy Uso look like their father Rikishi

- Second thing I noticed . . . how weird it is to see Teddy Long as a referee, he probably just showed up because he thought this was a tag team match

- And the free for all begins

- The undertaker goes about choking Kurt . . . with his bandana they were both selling it hardcore but dudes , , , it's a bandana.

- Poor HHH and Rikishi just getting the tar beaten out of them the first quarter of the match the other quarters weren't so good on them either.

- Austin was the first to draw blood, busting HHH's head open with a melee of punches.

- Adding insult and injury Austin then resumes raking HHH's face across the cage.

- Ref kind of useless for majority of the beat downs, just trying to convince anyone to get back in the ring. It finally pays off though, when the wrestlers realize that you have to be IN the ring to win.

- HHH and Rikishi hug it out momentarily, a heart warming moment destroyed by a pedigree

- Trying to toss the Undertaker over the ropes is all but pointless, he's freaky tall and his feet hit the floor before your attempt is 3/4 way done.

-Vince McMahon pimp cane in hand rides in on the back of a truck filled with what I thought was hay but was apparently kennel bedding . . . obviously. Hooked the truck to the door to rip it off. You would think the CEO would be able to get his hands on some keys.

- Drivers star hooking up chains to the rest of the cage but Mick Foley will be having none of that, getting security to escort Vince out of his own company's event and then flat out beating up Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco

- The wrestlers that the ref had worked so hard to get in the ring start to neander out and away from said ring.

- HHH delivers an awkward choppy looking pedigree to the Rock on a car

- Made up for that sloppy move by taking one for the team and getting catapulted into a car. It made me smile the over the top extra elevation he got.

- Everyone starts to congregate back to that thing called a ring

- Kurt using a chair on the Undertaker does momentarily remind people that he's a part of this match.

- HHH starts climbing the cage . . . for what reason I don't understand, all I know that he was precariously close to getting pantsed

- Undertaker calls out for and gets thrown a chair, now that's service, but be careful what you wish for cause Rikishi made far better use of that chair, at Undertaker's expense.

- Time for the use of that convenient kennel bedding truck still sitting right outside of the ring

- It wasn't a chokeslam so much as a push

- Everyone paused to see Rikishi's "fall from grace." It was an impressive fall, he really sold it lip quiver and all.

- "Undertaker still can't get down from the top of the ring." King notes that Undertaker is out of the running because he's the last man standing up on the roof, all that effort for nothing.

- After all the blood sweat and stunners Kurt crawls over for an underwhelming pin and win. Regardless a win is a win good for you Kurt!

- Mostly

- "This is the after birth of hell in a cell." Gross yet hilarious comment from King

- All in all I liked the match I get why it's a classic but some of it seemed too much too over the top. blood for just bloods sake but that's not a new problem and it's not one that's gone away it's just something you either grow to love or bear . . . I'm somewhere in between on that one.

Other show observations:


The hardyz and Lita's intergenender match aganst the radicalz was . . . stupid, mostly because it was beyond predictable and sure a lot of WWF / WWE matches are predictable but for some reason knowing how this match was going to go down made me even less intrested than I already was.It wasn't a total wash there were some great moves Jeff did a nice corkscrew and Lita's moonsaults always look pretty.

I just think they don't do intergender matches that often for a reason. Because it ends one of two ways the chick tries her very hardest but ends up losing and getting manhandled or she wins but only due to some sort of outside interference, there are exceptions to the rule but not many.

- My favorite quote of the whole night, actually made me give a mild laugh out loud, not sure why I found it so funny but I did. Lillian was interviewing Kurt and he had a question of his own to ask her.
Kurt: Are you Bulgarian?
Lillian: No
Kurt Do you know any Bulgarians?
Lillian I can't say that I do Kurt.
Kurt" Well I do!
 And he goes on and on about his Olympic prowess and all the nationalities he had to beat to get the gold, just the intensity of which he let everyone know that HE knew Bulgarians was funny to me.

- Next was a match for the European title. Remember the European title? I don't really, I was aware of it but had never really watched it in action that i recall, I could be wrong.

- William Regal started a soliloquy on how red neck Alabamans were only for Alabama's own hardcore Holly to come out and set his straight.

- King was more intrested in harkerchiefs than the match not a good sign.

- The Bow and arrow submission hold put on Holly was something I'm not used to seeing but I should see that move more often it's awesome.

- Poor Holly nothing goes his way as out of nowhere and for reasons I don't understand Raven comes out and DDT's Holly.

- Remember when I said there were exceptions to Intergender matches being entertaining? Chyna vs. Test as well as I'm sure many Chyna's matches meet the criteria for the exception.

- Side note Chyna's entrance kinda cool.

- Between Clothslines and Swinging neckbreakers and Ivory's face oh my! Match of the year? No. A worthwile filler yes.

- Next was a match I had already watched before: Kane vs. Chris Jericho in a last man standing match. I love any match with Kane in it, even ones he loses so I watched it again . . . and loved it again. Kane and Jericho are both great wrestlers and they both put on a great match.

 - The four way match for the tag titles also fun to watch. Of which I learned three things:

1. R-Truth or K-Kwik as he was known at the time looks exactly as he did then as he does now . . . time has not effected this man at all.

2. Right to censor was a waste of space and ill-fitting white dress shirts.

3. The Dudley's doing the whole wasssup thing didn't get old, I thought it would but it was fun every time.

After this match the network cut out on me and I figured it was god's way of saying stop watching, which after already seeing the main event I did just that stopped watching hoping I didn't miss something.

Feel free to let me know if I will regret that decision for the rest of my life, but right now I'm making the decision to end this painfully long post.
 

Japanese Tag match

The day was: Friday December 6th 1996 ( AJPW Budokan hall show.)

Why I chose this moment in history: Much like ECW, WCW and TNA I've been told how super special awesome Japanese wrestling is, how far superior it is than American wrestling so I felt I needed to give that a go. I chose this match for one simple reason, it's really fucking hard for me to find Japanese wrestling matches, especially older matches. It had to be a tag match because boy do the Japanese wrestling fans love tag matches. Each show I've looked up it's tag match after tag match maybe a singles match followed by . . . more tag matches.

Hipster side fact: Puroresu is the main style used by the AJPW roster. For those people who don't speak Japanese Puroresu is another word for strong style.

Match of the day: Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada Vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa

Winner (18 year spoiler alert) : Akira & Toshiaki

Quote of the match: Seeing as I don't know more than a handful of irrelevant Japanese words there are no quotes per se but it was very interesting to hear what moves they would say in English such as frog splash and occasionally high kick. It's equivalent to our use of enzuigiri, Enzui means lower brain and one meaning of giri is chop / cut. It's a high kick to the back of the head but sounds so much cooler in Japanese right?

Opinion / Observations:

- Previously I've stated that I'm not the hugest fan of the smaller arenas lack of pyros and flashy videos, this was half between what I'm acustomed to and what I'm being introduced to. Bigger arena, big fan base no pyros buuuut . . . . streamers! You'd think it would be stupid but it was kind of awesome. It made me crack up just stremers flying up and falling on these super serious wrestlers. So I'm glad it's a practice that is holding on through the years.

- One thing I am ok going the way of the dodo is the wrestling tights of that era, couldn't get past the fact that every last one of the wrestlers looked like power rangers.

- The wrestlers may have looked like super heros but suprisingly their managers / trainers looked like . . . managers and trainers which when it comes to professional wrestling is odd.

- High kicks and arm bars for DAYS just over and over and over.

- Misawa's finisher was really cool looking, in a long very technical match it was the most unique move I saw. What looked like a petigre changed into a power bomb it was really impressive.

- What did the fans love more than high kicks and arms bars and finishers? Suplexs  they loved them some suplexs. The fans went banans for pretty much anything and everything but suplexs the roof almost poped off.

- If someone missed an awesome suplex don't worry there was about forty photographers against the ring at all times snapping photos

- Wrestling is staged I get that and moves dont hurt as much as they appear also get that but being thrown chest first into the top rope no matter how you flip it has to hurt like a bitch.

- It was almost a forty minute match and it seemed as though Akiyama was in the ring for like thirty of them

- I was surprised about the outcome of the match, the heroes didn't win, after so many near falls I thought they would overcome but they didn't. Fans still cheered like crazy, as I found out later Japanese pro wrestling is less about storyline good vs. evil it's more athleticism driven, a match by match basis so that made sense that cheering was always abundant.

- All and all I did really enjoy this match, too long for my attention span but I was really entertained.

- Could only find this one match from the event so I can't review the rest of the show so I suppose . . . I'm done

A Flair for the gold

The Day was: November 24th, 1983 (NWA starrcade.)

Why I chose this moment in history: Starrcade was supposed to be the NWA then WCW's answer to Wrestlmania and 1983's Starrcade was the first of it's kind. I figured if Wrestlmania is / was the creme de la creme of WWE / WWF it's important to watch the competitor's equivalent.I chose this match because . . . well I didn't want to chose this match I had another in mind but this was the main event to the first starrcade so I felt obligated to.

Hipster side fact: Starrcade was the brain child of Dusty Rhodes

Match of the day: Harley Race vs Ric Flair

(Could only find small clip) watched the rest on WWE Network which if no one has told you was only 9.99

Winner (31 year spoiler alert): Ric Flair

Quote of the match: "If Race can go the hour and Flair cannot get the pinfall then Race retains the title." A state the obvious statement about a title match with a 60 minute time limit and Race as the reigning champion. There were a lot of quotes like that such as "Whoever has the most intensity will win." The announcers sounded more like baseball comentators than wrestling annoncers not sure if that was the norm for the time but boy was it dry.

Opinion / Observations:

- I've made plently of comments on how arenas and other aesthetic points but I had no illusions that the 1983 show would have the same look as a modern day wrestlemania or any wrestling show for that matter. Flairs weird laser light show and fog machine bonanza proved me right.

- Even though the venue seemed small and underwhelming the fans . . . still more jazzed than the TNA fans at Genesis. Flair recieved a huge pop as his music played.

- Race got a lot less love . . . and fog. No fog, no lasers no theme music but plenty of boos. 

- There was no need to put a sixty minute time limit on this match they would have taken sixty minutes regardless from beginning to end it was glacially slow.

- Was informative letting me know how much the belt weighed like eleven times, 10 lbs of gold if you're curious.

- There was a nice looking flying headbutt, which made me wonder has that move more or less gone the way of the dodo because of Chris Benoit a move that at least I associate with him.

- Ric Flair's chops were loud and profound as always so much so he slapped the spit and quite possibly the taste out of Race's mouth.

- His Wooos were equally loud and the ladies were really loving it.

- Race tried to put Flair into a pile driver position, it failed but it didn't stop Flair from flopping around on the floor like a fish out of water.

- There was a lot of bleeding, all over the place even on one of the cameras. I'm assuming they cut themselves or had enough blood packets to film the next saw movie. Ric Flair bleeds every time he sneezes as far as I've noticed.

- One move I did think looked really pretty was a swinging neck breaker.

- Less impressive move a second rope diving headbutt

- At one moment the special referee Gene Kiniski legit was pulling people by their hair to get them off their opponent, not used to a special referee not having their own agenda, this guy was just enforcing the rules at whatever cost.

- Flair used a cross body from the top rope for the win, just shy of the sixty minute mark.

Other show observations:

- You can definetly tell Bob Orton is Randy Ortons father even with the weird perm thing he was rocking at the time.

- And you can also tell while as Dusty Rhodes challenged the winner of the cage match, that he loves him some poppin yellow aviators, and talkin mad jive.

- The match I had truthfully wanted to review was the dog collar match between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine.

- In the pre match weird glamour shot video thing Piper had a huge cocky grin while Valentine stared vapidly at the camera.

- The match started with a tug of war between the chain.

- This match was much faster than the main even though ironically no time limit.

- Also sold their moves much better in my opinion, guess it's easier when you're beating someone with a metal chain using it as a whip and choking people with it.

- I've heard of people working an injured leg, shoulder, back but never an ear. Throughout the match Valentine was working on Piper's previously injured ear aparently throwing off his equilibrium and whatnot.

- And the gratuitous bleeding again (or first took place if you look at the order of matches) maybe Flair and Race thought they had to top the blood spree.

- Piper ended up with the win

- See those friends there? Horrible horrible friends after the match is over Valentine goes back for Piper and those friends just peaced out doing absolutely nothing to help.

- But Piper was not to be deterred he won the battle and the war because he was the one left standing in the middle of the ring whipping the chain back and forth . . . it was kind of badass.

- My point being I thought this match was leaps and bounds better than the main event. Not sure if when the middle is better than the finale it's a good sign but I suppose it doesn't really matter the placement as long as there's something interesting to watch. Everything needs a beginning middle and end including this post so I bid you adieu.

X Division

The day was: November 13th 2005 ( TNA's Genesis)

Why I chose this moment in history: Because much like ECW and WCW people will let you know time and time again how TNA is better than WWE. The reason TNA is better apparently is the six sided ring, the superior athleticism their roster holds and less over the top story lines. The reason I chose this match is because it was for the X-division title, the x-division being unique to TNA.

Hipster side fact: This PPV was dedicated to Eddie Guerrero who died the same day

Match of the day: Aj Styles vs. Petey Williams for the X-division title

Winner (9 year spoiler) : AJ Styles

Quote of the match: "How did he get the kick up that high?!" Don West who sounded as if he would have an aneurism due to his shock and awe. . . -_- calm down dude there were 30 kicks just like that in the match 20 of which were just as unbelievably high.

(Not from the match just trying to prove a point AJ does do some awesome kicks the one Don freaked about was not nearly impressive.)

Opinion Observations:

- This crowd was the quietest crowd I've ever heard "Lets go AJ!" followed by "Lets go Petey!" Chants were about the rowdiest they got no overwhelming pop anywhere to be heard and honestly I thought the match deserved a more enthused crowd. There was some kid dressed as Jeff Hardy who looked as if he was going to fall asleep standing up though overzealous out Don West tried to sell him as having a concerned looked on his face.

- AJ always looks confused to me, everytime the camera hits his face he looks bambuzled constant puppy faced look of dumbfoundment. Perhaps after walking to the ring with an oversized unnecessary (But makes up for it in the cool looking department) hood, you need a few minutes to asses your souroundings.

-The Tag line of the X-division is "It's not about weight limits it's about no limits." Sounds intense sounds bold and bad ass . . . it's a cruiser weight division. I love cruiser weights, move wise I am always impressed by cruiser weights. There's no need to jazz up the title there's no need to give it a different name like you're fooling anyone. Call a spade a spade . . . don't try to sell it to me as if it's something new . . .  In summation it's a cruiser weight division.

- This match had all the things that I expected and was left wanting from the WCW match. It was fast it had dozens of roll ups, leg scissors and over the top flips and jumps.

- Don was right the kicks super high and super impressive especially AJ's Pele kick, we've all seen I missed a kick I'm gonna kick you again and pow . . . in your face kick. Pele kicks are just . . . cooler.

- Why does it seem like I have a figurative hard on for AJ Style's/ Because I did at some point in time watch and legitimately got into TNA and during that time the X-Division had two main stars Samoa Joe and the phenomenal AJ Styles. So maybe I still have a soft spot for the wrestler I remember. Or just was not impressed by Petey.

- Petey Williams just wants to be Bret Hart, which is fine . . . but you're not. Maybe being captain of Team Canada got to his head. Waving the Canadian flag, fine national pride. Singing oh Canada while standing on someone's junk, adding insult to injury kinda cool, and single most entertaining thing he did. Sharpshooter? I saw that and just went dude . . . trying too hard we get it Bret Hart the sequel. Sure the sharpshooter is a fairly popular move not only Bret Hart's but all the Canada all up in my grill stops me from thinking of anyone else.

- The only non Bret related moment that was notable from Petey was when he suplexed AJ onto the barrier, I actually rewound and watched it twice because one I wasn't expecting it and two it looked like it'd really fucking hurt. I should have known it was coming after the foreshadowing comment that came minutes before when Aj launched himself on Petey and the barrier. "If he had hit his back striaght on he'd be out of there." And low and behold straight on his back.

- Perhaps Petey used the sharpshooter not to emulate Bret Hart (doubtful) but because his finisher as well as AJ's finisher were just too hard to . . . finish. Petey tried his Canadian Destroyer I think once and it ended in a epic fail just crashed and burned. On the flip side AJ tried to set up his Styles Clash pretty much anytime he was standing and not kicking people, only actually performing it once granted it helped him win the match but after hearing "He's going for the styles clash!" Like 30 times If I didn't see it I wouldn't be disappointed I'd be pissed.

Other show observations:

- One thing TNA has over WWE in leaps and bounds (In my opinion) ? Better music

Though after listening to this compilation of older and more recent songs I do realize a lot of them are fairly similar . . . but still like them than most WWE themes.

- I got to see my two other favorite TNA stars from the short period I watched it:
 Samoa Joe who was probably my number one whom at Genesis broke the unspoken rules of the x-division according to a slightly over dramatic AJ Styles, but then again Samoa Joe was a little over dramatic when he came out during AJ's match with his blood covered towel and a intense scowl. 

Abyss who was probably my number two (AJ being number three) who wrestled Sabu slamming the Houdini of hardcore into a barbed wire (Which Abyss was terrified of for some reason I was not privy to) wrapped steel chair for the victory.


Watching all this almost makes me want to get into TNA again . . . almost not willing to dedicate that kind of time yet. Also dedicated too much time to this post probably should wrap it up then.

Lucha libre

The day was: Monday November 11th 1996 (WCW's Monday night Nitro)

Why I chose this moment in history: Everyone speaks so highly of the prolific Monday night wars, I've seen episode after episode of raw I need to experience the flip side of the coin and watch an episode or two of NITRO. The reason I chose this match is one because I know Rey, two I thought Ciclope's ring attire was cool.

Match of the day: Rey Mysterio Jr. Vs. Ciclope

Winner (18 Year spoiler): Rey Mysterio Jr.

I remember when: The Mondays night wars heightened the entertainment level of professional wrestling 

Lucha Libre

 Hipster side fact: Both Rey Mysterio Jr. and Ciclope (better known currently as Halloween) were trained by Rey Mysterio Sr. (Not Juniors father but uncle.)

Quote of the match:"Are you sure it isn't cyclops . . . e?" Larry Zbyszko. In his defense he was basically right kinda . . . Ciclope is Spanish for cyclops hence one eyed ring gear. Just sounded kinda funny . . . tad bit racist but tad bit funny.

Lucha Libre

Opinion / Observations:
- In contrast to the ECW show I watched this was something I was more used to aesthetically.

- The match itself I didn't find all that interesting, I was expecting a super fast pace, tons of spins and flipping, sure there was some of all that but not enough I preferred the ECW match.

- Remember how I had said I chose this match due to Ciclope's ring gear? Well the allure wore off quickly it got more and more stupid as the match went on. The whole eye above the eyes thing did kind of mess with you though. And what messes with you more is his tongue, the mask illusion he was rocking accentuated the weirdness of Ciclope licking Rey's head while keeping the small man in a submission hold.

- The moves that were impressive during the match were the sunset flip / power bomb Ciclope exceuted with both men out of the ring. Rey performing a diving crossbody again . . . outside the ring. As well as the leg scissors Rey used to you guessed it pull Ciclope out of the ring.

- What was more interesting than the amount of people watching the match. Not just me not just the fans but the amount of wrestlers that came to watch the match. First there was the Ultimo Dragon (who had 8 belts at the time . . . just impressive) and his manager. Than there was Dean Malenko walked out standing at the end of the ramp. THEN Psicosis came out to watch Dean Malenko watch the match. In the most intense 90's jeans and the copatively way cooler Luchador mask.

- All in all look wise, what I used to, spectator wise intense, match wise sub par.

Other show notes:

- Unlike the previous shows ( two shows ) I watched and reviewed I didn't quickly check out after the selected match, I watched the rest of Nitro and I did find genuinely the show.

- I found it hilarious as the announcer explained that Wrestling had been brought to the internet via WCW's websiite. "On the World wide web." The screenshot of the website in today's eyes looked . . . anchient and sad but at the time this was innovative and awe inspiring, as was this whole new internet sensation.

- The NWO was supposed to be bad ass and bully's and what not, but X-Pac is . . . just a tool. I was taken out the whole NWO storyline just staring at X-Pac sticking his tongue out and being obnoxious. All I could think was . . . "This dude is a tool."

- Virgil or Vincent as he was in WCW Ted Diabiase's man servent of whatever on the other hand looked less like a tool in his NWO outfit maybe sleveaves helped.

- And there was a man with full sleves of hair . . . one of the furriest wrestlers I've ever seen Miguel Perez

-  Another look and all together impressive wrestler that I want to watch more of? Zero ( Chigusa Nagayo) A big brute of a woman who predated Awesome Kong and even Chyna  . . . I honestly did think she was a dude at first but in a weird way it made her even cooler.

And will end with one last photo of someone who I think trancends all comapanys all decades all tads and decor Jimmy Hart