Message-ID: 

Finally...  "Ed Murphy"  has come back to
rec.sport.pro-wrestling.moderated...

>On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 09:40:01 +0000, Hack-Man wrote:
>

>What was the deal with Russo attacking this guy, then attacking that
>guy, then attacking *that* guy?  They sold it like Russo and Styles
>were in cahoots from the beginning, but it came off more like (a) Russo
>was delivering random beatings just to mess with our heads, or (b) the
>writers were telling Russo to deliver random beatings because they
>didn't know where they wanted the angle to end up.
>

They showed about a month's worth of attacks compressed into 3
minutes, but still, Russo has the McMahon disease, where he, as a
writer, *MUST* be on TV and MUST "swerve" the fans every week.  :-(

>Why did they talk about the S.E.X. shirts without showing (a) the
>shirts or (b) any wrestlers wearing the shirts?  I'm not sure if
>they even showed any of the wrestlers who *used* to wear the shirts
>before Russo decided to sit on his exclusive rights to 'em.
>

That was the original commentary of the match (all of the matches had
the original calls IIRC).  The S.E.X. group had been disbanded the
week before (or at the beginning of that show, I can't remember
which), and XXX was one of the powers within SEX, so it made perfect
sense (in the original airing, at least).

>
>What the hell is a "Clockwork Orange House of Fun" (other than an
>invitation for Kubrick's estate to sue)?  Seems like Yet Another
>Hardcore Match, just with Raven's choice of international objects.
>

The original concept was the chain around the ring with objects
hanging, and instead of a ref, the person that counted the 3-count was
the "facilitator of violence," pushing the participants to be more
violent (like the ref in sumo shouts constant encouragement to the
sumotori).  Kevin Sullivan was hilarious in the first COHoP match as
the facilitator, handing Raven and Sandman a cookie sheet or trashcan
any time the action lagged in ANY way, and begging them to stomp the
other while they were down.

>From the 3rd match on, though I agree...  a harcore rose by another
name.  This was the 5th such match, I think.

>> Before the first match, they showed rapid clips of all the highspots
>> from the past year.  That was probably better than anything else
>> shown in the two hours.
>
>Until they showed part of it again.  I liked the move that looks like
>a senton bomb with a sideways twist-- what's it called, and who's that
>guy doing it?
>

If it's the move I'm thinking of, that's the Infrared, done by Amazing
Red (aka Spriggan aka Mysterio Red aka about 3 other names in various
feds around the world).  He hurt his knee again during the last
All-Japan tour, and will be out for months.  

>> 1.  Ultimate X (Michael Shane vs Chris Sabin vs Frankie Kazarian)
>
>The announcers telegraphed the ending by saying that Shane couldn't
>possibly recover enough to have a chance.
>
>What the hell is the X Division?  Seems like Yet Another Hardcore
>Division, minus Crash Holly's 24/7 concept.
>

WCW Cruiserweight division by another name (called X instead of
Cruiserweight so that larger wresters who work that style can
compete).

If you get the chance, go out of your way to see the various AJ
Styles/Jerry Lynn/Lo Ki X Division matches when they wrestle each
other in any combination, as well as the martches from last week's
"Super-X" tournament (with 2 match of the year candidates out of the 7
matches).

In other words, while if your entire exposure was the 1 X match, you
wouldn't know better, but in reality, the X division couldn't be
farther away from hardcore wrestling.

>> 2.  Triple X vs America's Most Wanted (Steel Cage Match)
>
>And they telegraphed *this* ending by saying that XXX was 4-0 against
>AMW.  Yet Another XXX Win wouldn't have made a best-of show (unless
>it was setting up context for XXX Finally Loses).
>

Again, in the original context, it worked, because XXX was a 3-man
tean, not just the 2 in the match (Lo Ki was third, injured member and
any 2 of them could defend the belts via the old Freebird/Russians
"rule").  The 4 matches that were mentioned happened over a month and
a half or 2 months, IIRC because all 3 Triple X members wrestled for
different Japanese groups and they had problems getting 2 of the 3
together at the same time.

>> 5.  Raven vs Jeff Jarrett 
>> 
>> Ugh.
>
>Preceded by a few rounds of the Raven/Douglas feud.  Raven beats
>Douglas in a #1 contender match.  "You think I'd come all this
>way and then lose?  Of course not!"  So, of course, he loses to
>Styles.  This was the worst idea since Mick Foley losing his
>last WWE match.
>

That was the last night of Raven's TNA contract, and they couldn't
give him the title without a signed contract.  The lack of title
change was dicussed in length at the time.

>> Roddy Piper will be back next week, so there's no chance I'll be
>> ordering that (as it means less time for X Division matches).
>
>And Raven/Douglas raise the stakes as never before, in... a hair
>vs. hair match.  Who do you think you're kidding?  Save this for
>(a) guys with *long* hair (Jim Mitchell would be perfect!) or (b)
>guys who really excel at playing goofy losers (i.e. Kurt Angle).

I still think that Russo didn't get the "idea" for this match until he
heard that Raven was booked in a hair match in ROH.  :-/

Bill
-- 
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually 
get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.

Robert Frost


--- Internet Rex 2.29