The WWE™ (2 Viewers)

[Ryan_M_M]

I would say because the Rock has a film out this year (Scorpian King), in which Vince McMahon is the Executive producer, I can't see him turn heel anytime soon. I am of the agreement, he badly needs a heel turn. His character is going nowhere. How many times has he jobbed for Jericho of late? It was to Rock's advantage, that McMahon signed the nWo. At least they were someone to feud with him. Rock is losing popularity. Did you hear Hogan outchant him at Raw and this is a guy 20 years older than him.

 

[Jason P]

I got a question for everybody, who do you think will win the Hogan/Rock match? First of all, it will probably stink. Hogan is far too old, far too slow, and has a worse moveset then Nash. Although, he may have been able to actually wrestle a decent match in Japan around 84, that was 18 years ago. Rock will do his best to carry him to a watchable one, but don't expect a five star classic.

Anywho, I can't see Hogan losing, basically because he was pricey to get and well... freakin' Hulk Hogan. But on the other hand, Rocky is definitely going to get a loser stigma if he doesn't win this year. Three Wrestlemania main events, three loses. Can't imagine a fourth for the guy. You can say whatever you want about the Rock. Love him or hate him, he has absolutely no problem jobbing to anyone and everyone. He's the consumate company man, which I guess, would be the exact antithesis to a Hogan or a Nash.

 

[Marvin Richardson]

Rock will do his best to carry him to a watchable one, but don't expect a five star classic.

Uh, Rock has never been able to carry anyone to a good match. The most he can do is not drag a match down. Of course, that's more than some wrestlers can do. I wouldn't expect much out of the Rock/Hogan match, but that's because neither of their styles at any age were conducive to making the opponent look better than they are.

 

[Jason P]

Marvin,
After thinking about it for a while, you're right. For the life of me, I can't think of a match he actually carried to make it an all-time classic. But that being said, the sheer volume of good to great matches that he has been involved in lead me to believe that, although he's no Flair, he is quite a competent, and at times, great worker in the ring.
He has had amazing matches with Angle, Austin, Jericho, HHH, Foley, etc. Now, I know, anybody could have a great match with those guys, but the thing is, since Rocky has been in the main event for the past 3 years, he hasn't had the opportunities to wrestle the likes of lesser quality workers for a half hour on ppvs. Well, Undertaker, but I don't think Benoit could get a good one out of him.
His skills have evolved a lot from when he was wrestling the likes of a Sultan or Shamrock, and would like to see how he could fair in a 20 minute match against a Kane or Rhyno. At any rate, I hope Rock proves us wrong at Wrestlemania and makes Hogan/Warrior look like Big Show/Bossman.
I'm not holding my breath though.

 

[Marvin Richardson]

Well, I give Rock credit for trying some things, like the Sharpshooter, and he used to throw in a dragonscrew legwhip (I think that's the name). But some of the stuff he does is just so bad. Everytime he takes a chairshot his hand comes up about a minute before the chair hits. And that belly-to-belly suplex thing he does...yikes.

But, on the other hand, he does know how to get a crowd into the match, and he can have good matches with good wrestlers. That Ironman match he had with Triple H a year or so ago really impressed the hell out of me, because it wasn't a stallathon.

And don't even get me started on the flop he does for the Stunner!

But, I'll take Rock anyday over Big Boss Man, Rikishi, Undertaker, Big Slow, Billy Gunn, Kevin Nash or Scotty 2 Hotty. And that's just people who are still on the roster that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[teapot2001]

Name me all these mysterious heel/face turns. He began the WWF at Survivor Series 96 as a face, turned into a heel in 97 because the fans hated him. He stayed a heel until mid to late 98 where he toyed around being a face, until he turned full heel again at Survivor Series 98. He stayed that way until shortly after WM 15 in 99, and he's been a face ever since then.

So that would be 4 turns in about a 2 year period. And what I said about Rock holding the record was just an exaggeration, but it looks like it could be true.

I think Hogan and Rock will surprise a lot of people and could end up being the best match at Wrestlemania. I've never seen Hogan wrestle in Japan, but he has had some great matches in WWF and WCW. I rewatched Slamboree 2000 last night (boy do I miss WCW), and Hogan had a good match with Kidman. He did things such as taking a Frankensteiner from Kidman and powerbombing Bischoff through a table, things you guys probably have never seen him do unless you saw that match. During the match, Scott Hudson mentioned the criticism Hogan has received from wrestling fans and how Hogan really turned up his intensity for the match. As long as Hogan is wrestling good oppponents, I think you can expect more than a decent match. I really don't know who will win in this match, it could go to either man.

There are some things that bother me about The Rock. His sharpshooter and dragon screw legwhips are the ugliest I've ever seen anyone perform. I hate how he seems invincible sometimes, like being able to sustain a finishing submission move much, much longer than any other wrestler. However, I like the drama and entertainment that he brings to his matches.

~T

 

[Mike Miskulin]

Just a reminder: Smackdown is live tonight!

 

[Terrell]

Ugh! I think I'm going to vomit! Rock is cutting another one of his ridiculous, over the top promos. I've gotten to the point where I can't even stand to hear his voice. Other than that, he's okay. Now Flair, I could listen to him all night. He can talk with the best of them.

As for Rock teasing a match tonight, that's all it is, a tease. I used to hate it when WCW did this and didn't deliver. Now the WWF is doing it. They better pay off.

 

[Mike Miskulin]

After the last couple of weeks, I was expecting tonight to be another let-down. But, I really enjoyed Smackdown this week! Great promos. Great mic work. And some decent (but not great) matches.
Highlights:

• Tajiri kickin' ass! (too bad it was loused up by the WWF trying to build another match for X8 (Edge/Booker T)
• Flair on a rampage! (great mic work as always and the intensity was fantastic)
• The Rock's return. Yep, I'm still a big fan of The Rock (unlike others here) and get a kick out his promos every time he's on the mic. He did some good injury selling, while still managing to whoop ass. I can't wait for the Hulk/Rock match!
• Triple H 'splitting' up the vette.
• Al Snow in a match - nice, but short.
• The Undertaker was somewhat entertaining this ep.

Lowlights:

• Angle's weak Angle slam on Kane
• Booker T
• As usual, relatively pointless women's match (though nice to look at )
• Stephanie's grating voice
• Booker T

A good two hours overall. Still the same ol', but X8 should be good.
Speaking of X8...
Where's all the special matches? I'm dyin' to see a cage match, street fight, two out of three falls, ladder match, not to mention a TLC III match! So far, everything's just straight-forward wrastlin' ('cept for whatever the Hardcore match'll be). C'mon, let's mix it up a little here!
mike.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

How about

The Big Lazy flipping back over the ropes while Rock was still 3 feet away from him, and selling (badly) like it actually connected

Scott Hall's pathetic attempt at a match. I've seen backyard wrestlers with more style and charisma than he showed tonight

Hogan, well, at least he did SOMETHING.

When they brought the WCW guys into the WWF, I saw once again why I never watched their show. 90% of them really, really were awful. Vince has kept the cream, dumped the excess baggage, and hopefully whenever he forms WWF^2 or whatever, he'll bring in some guys from ECW like Kid Kash, or maybe even Mike Modest. I'm hoping he sees the value in a cruiserweight SHOW, where skill and athletisism is right up there with mic time. There's a bunch of them that COUlD talk if given the chance

 

[teapot2001]

Smackdown was a good show.

Flair had another great promo. I just noticed tonight that he does too much finger pointing.

Scott Hall looked thin but that's expected. He needs new tights and knee pads.

I heard Stephanie is a big fan of I Love Lucy, so I wonder if that's why the dog was named Lucy.

Kevin Nash's flip over the top rope wasn't bad. I've seen many wrestlers do that, especially when they were unsuccessful on the first try.

I'm not looking towards the NWO vs. Austin and Rock match on Raw. There are better ways to build the PPV matches in the last minute and without spoiling them.

When they brought the WCW guys into the WWF, I saw once again why I never watched their show. 90% of them really, really were awful. Vince has kept the cream, dumped the excess baggage, and hopefully whenever he forms WWF^2 or whatever, he'll bring in some guys from ECW like Kid Kash, or maybe even Mike Modest. I'm hoping he sees the value in a cruiserweight SHOW, where skill and athletisism is right up there with mic time. There's a bunch of them that COUlD talk if given the chance

I have to disagree with you about 90% of the WCW wrestlers being awful. The only WCW wrestler who appeared on TV that would come closest to being awful was Hugh Morris, though I view him as being average. Heavyweights like Booker T, DDP, Storm, Awesome, and Kanyon are very good. If you like cruiserweights then that is where WCW really delivered, unfortunately you missed out on it. WWF signed many great WCW cruiserweights but only three have appeared on TV: Shane Helms, Kidman and Chavo. Right before WWF bought WCW, Kid Kash was in WCW and I believe so was Modest. I wish WCW were still around because the cruiserweight tag team division got off to a hot start.

~T

 

[Terrell]

When they brought the WCW guys into the WWF, I saw once again why I never watched their show. 90% of them really, really were awful. Vince has kept the cream, dumped the excess baggage, and hopefully whenever he forms WWF^2 or whatever, he'll bring in some guys from ECW like Kid Kash, or maybe even Mike Modest. I'm hoping he sees the value in a cruiserweight SHOW, where skill and athletisism is right up there with mic time. There's a bunch of them that COUlD talk if given the chance

Obviously you didn't watch a lot of WCW then Jeff. Because the wrestling in WCW for the most part, especially the cruiserweights and luchadores were far better than anything seen in the WWF. And Kevin Nash started in the WWF before he started in WCW. He became a big time main eventer in the WWF as Big Diesel before he ever stepped foot in WCW. So you can't lay him on WCW. Same with Scott Hall and Hogan.

As for bringing in the cream of the crop, Vince hasn't even come close to bringing in WCW's cream of the crop. Steiner, Goldberg, Sting, the Luchadores are WCW's cream. They've got DDP and Booker, and they're pretty good, but they aren't the cream either. They've got Flair, and he was definitely in WCW's cream of the crop. The problem is he over 50. But he can still be fun to watch. You also have to remember the ring is bigger in the WWF. Also, these guys were inactive for quite a while after WCW's last show. You see after they got used to the ring size and got the rust out, they could easily hold their own.

The problem in WCW wasn't the wrestling, at least not until everyone got lazy. The problem was the writing, the booking, politics, and having no leader.

 

[Marvin Richardson]

So you can't lay him on WCW. Same with Scott Hall and Hogan.

Sure you can. In the WWF all three of them were getting just a little too big in the ego department, and thought that they were bigger than the company. That's why Vince wasn't so sorry to see them go. In WCW that attitude was just cultivated to a ridiculous degree by the people in charge in WCW, and helped bring about the death of WCW. They were responsible for helping to partially bury all those luchadores and cruiserweights you're so fond of (and so am I, at least to some extent, although some of the spotfests they engaged in at times got a little much). I won't agree with you about Steiner and Goldberg being the cream of anything, but Sting sure as hell was, and Steiner and Goldberg are proven money-makers despite my personal opinions of them. But the whole infatuation with Hogan, Nash and Hall's perceived starpower is what buried that company in the first place, and WCW should have been smart enough to see it coming. They mortgaged their future for the present.
Speaking of WCW guys, where's Vampiro? I really liked that guy and thought he would have been good in the WWF. And is Kidman still part of the WWF? Hopefully the rumors I've been hearing about the split will be true. I've heard that one part of the company will be more focused on wrestling, and the other will be focused on the entertainment. Then maybe we can have our cake and eat it too.
I feel sorry for Sid Vicious now. I never could stand the guy, but did any of you hear the interview he did at www.betweentheropes.com? I didn't, but I did read some excerpts about it on www.1wrestling.com. Poor guy sounds really down on his chances in wrestling, but a bit wiser in regards to mistakes he may have made in the past. I hope he can somehow come back in some capacity.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Sure did, saw them all in the WWF originally, and then later sucking worse in WCW.

And Kevin Nash started in the WWF before he started in WCW. He became a big time main eventer in the WWF as Big Diesel before he ever stepped foot in WCW. So you can't lay him on WCW. Same with Scott Hall and Hogan.

As for bringing in the cream of the crop, Vince hasn't even come close to bringing in WCW's cream of the crop.

Steiner

About to explode from steroid abuse

Goldberg

One trick pony

Sting

retired

 

[Jason P]

"And Kevin Nash started in the WWF before he started in WCW."
F.Y.I. you guys, Hall and Nash wrestled in WCW/NWA long before WWF. OZ... Diamond Studd... ring a bell? Early 90's, maybe?
Kids nowadays, no respect for history.

 

[teapot2001]

Sure you can. In the WWF all three of them were getting just a little too big in the ego department, and thought that they were bigger than the company. That's why Vince wasn't so sorry to see them go. In WCW that attitude was just cultivated to a ridiculous degree by the people in charge in WCW, and helped bring about the death of WCW. They were responsible for helping to partially bury all those luchadores and cruiserweights you're so fond of (and so am I, at least to some extent, although some of the spotfests they engaged in at times got a little much). I won't agree with you about Steiner and Goldberg being the cream of anything, but Sting sure as hell was, and Steiner and Goldberg are proven money-makers despite my personal opinions of them. But the whole infatuation with Hogan, Nash and Hall's perceived starpower is what buried that company in the first place, and WCW should have been smart enough to see it coming. They mortgaged their future for the present.

I don't agree with the theory that guys like Nash, Hall and Hogan caused the death of WCW. In my opinion, the 2 main catalysts for WCW's failure were: 1) It got oversaturated with the addition of Thunder to the weekly programming (what happened to WWF with Smackdown) 2) WWF was putting on revolutionary programming for the mass audience. Simply, things got stale in WCW and viewers tuned into Raw. Afterwards, that is when things began to collapse behind the scenes with Bischoff leaving, Russo coming in, etc. Under Bischoff the cruiserweights were treated very well, it was when Russo took over that they started to disappear or get poorly used.

Vampiro received a concussion from Awesome at a Thunder that put him out of wrestling for a long time. I don't know if he has fully recovered yet. I think he has everything that the WWF is looking for in a wrestler.

Kidman is still with the WWF. He's been off of TV since the Alliance became extinct. The only wrestler I know who has been let go in WWF is Jerry Lynn. If they really have plans for a cruiserweight division, I can't understand that decision.

I feel sorry for Sid too. I saw the PPV in which his injury occurred. Although they didn't show his leg breaking, he was clearly in so much pain. I've always liked the guy.

~T

 

[Jason P]

Vampiro, I believe, has been healed for quite some time and wrestles regularly in Japan. If I remember correctly, according to the wrestling "dirt sheets", Vampiro was a major a**hole behind the scenes in WCW (A jerk?!?. In WCW?!?! Go on!). His wrestling ability was nothing special, and besides his unique look, has nothing impressive to bring to the WWF. It takes more than a unique look to be an interesting character. Ask Goldust.

As for the reason for WCW's demise, it was a number of factors, the major ones being greed and stupidity. Greed by the wrestlers, and stupidity by the promoters. A lot of fans look back at WCW and have fond memories. I do myself, but the fact is, the VAST majority of the time, it sucked. If I remember correctly, the company really only turned a profit for those few years during the most recent wrestling boom. People seem to forget the embarrassingly pathetic stuff like Robocop, Beach Blast 93, the Shockmaster, and the INCREDIBLY stupid move of giving Hogan Vs. Goldberg away... ON FREE TV!!! They got no one to blame but themselves.

 

[Terrell]

Sting, retired

True! Again, had no use for the WWF to want to go there. Has said so in interviews. That's why he never left WCW. Again, money in the bank in the WWF. A big time main eventer and huge draw.

Just my opinions.

Vince could have had an absolutely epic angle with the WCW invasion, and he stunnk up the joint and blew the biggest moneymaking angle in wrestling history. He'll never get that chance. So,cream of the crop? Hardly. What he got was some leftovers on the cheap, and a couple of midcarders at best.None of the luchadores, and only a few of the great cruiserwieghts.

I'll say this jeff. If the current incarnation of the WWF that we've seen the last year is what is considered to be good, I'll pass. I watched the beginnings of WCW, as well as the NWA year, and the wrestling in it was vastly superior to the stuff I've seen from the WWF lately. One Raw they had a total of 18 minutes of wrestling in a 2 hour show. The WWF has become nothing more than a soap opera.

As for cream of the crop, I guess that depends on what you like. So no point in arguing over certain wrestlers. But I'll say this much. He sure as hell didn't get the people that his fans wanted him to get. He sure didn't get the guys that could have made millions for him. He sure didn't get the guys that could have had incredible matchups with any number of his WWF main eventers. He screwed the pooch on that. Buying WCW will turn out to be the worst thing he's ever done.

 

[Sean Oneil]

I don't think I have ever laughed at an Undertaker promo until last Monday night when he was kickin' the shit out of David Flair...
David Flair says "What are you doing" in a weak, out of breath gasp...
The Undertaker replys "What am I doing!?!? I'm KICKIN' YER ASS, That's what I'm Doin'!!!" -throwing a nice punch to the face of David as he emphasized the word KICKIN'

Am I the only one who enjoyed watching DF get his ass abused by the Taker?

 

[Chuck C]

What?