Ask 411 Wrestling 02.26.14: Spears, Tears, Fears, More!

Well this should be interesting.

Hi, I’m Mathew Sforcina, this is Ask 411 Wrestling, and I am not feeling at all well. Just a flu thingy, obviously I can’t complain too much compared to Randle having a kid and all that, but still, I’m having to do this in stop start bursts. So this is so Total Opinion Week and will almost certainly be shorter than usual. Sorry bout that.

(If it’s any consolation AG, you’ve been replaced for ‘Hardest Question I Got’…)

Got a question for me when I’m feeling better? [email protected] is where you send it.

Banner always makes me feel better. Not by much but still.

Zeldas!

Check out my Drabble blog, 1/10 of a Picture! I’m kinda burning some of my pre-written ones, but that just means they are better, right…

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YOU ED UP! YOU ED UP! 1: So yeah, that first question from last week I totally misread and F’ed up. I’ll be giving it another go below. Sorry bout that. I was… I got no excuse, that was bad, even for me. I may not be able to answer a question but I normally at least read it correctly.

YOU ED UP! YOU ED UP! 2: I totally forgot Mean Gene Summerslam 89 swear. That should have been a gimme. Pillman also counts, sorta, although he wasn’t really on mic on mic at the time…

LOD/Demolition: What I meant is that Demolition, as good as they were, were just LOD knockoffs. They were Vince’s answer to them, and so objectively I would feel that the LOD should get in before the team that ripped them off. But then, since this is the WWE HOF, it would also be logical for Demo to get in first…

Cena turning heel: The Authority/Cena angle would be treated with the most attention and respect any angle has ever gotten. I gave the barest bones treatment, but if you were to do that (which they won’t) it would have to be done properly, I just gave cliff notes. Sorry that didn’t come across, I should have made that point.

Fox News/Western Culture: As I said in the thing, I wrote it like that simply because I wanted to make that ‘News’ joke, a joke that everyone who doesn’t agree with Fox News makes. I’m sorry if that offends you, if JBL was a regular on MSNBC I’d probably have made the exact same joke. I’m not looking to get into social debates here (hell, I spent weeks dealing with Sadly-gate) and if it makes you feel better, remember, I’m Australian, and thus I don’t fit into American Social Labels. I live in a country with universal health care, a much more fearful/respectful/most-people-don’t-own gun culture, we treat same-sex couples as equal to de-factos and our pot laws are “it’s illegal but not too bad”. Thus you can, if you wish, disregard everything I believe about anything outside wrestling on the basis that I don’t get it since I’m not American. Or English, or Canadian, or Christian, or whatever.

What I say about wrestling you can disregard at your own leisure.

The Trivia Crown

Who am I? I’m a former World Champion in at least 2 companies that could, arguably, crown World Champions. Plus all the guys I became tag champs with in the three biggest companies I’ve worked for were also all World Champions, of one sort or another. Despite all this, my biggest achievement is to do with a belt that isn’t really a World Title, despite what Dusty Rhodes might say about it. My finisher is somewhat egotistical, I trained a Warrior and I hate Wednesdays. Who am I?

It was a combined effort, with Chris getting most of it…

I’m a former World Champion in at least 2 companies that could, arguably, crown World Champions. >>> WWECW, TNA

Plus all the guys I became tag champs with in the three biggest companies I’ve worked for were also all World Champions, of one sort or another. >>> Sabu, Kane, Booker T, Rey Mysterio

Despite all this, my biggest achievement is to do with a belt that isn’t really a World Title >>> 2 years as ECW TV Champ

My finisher is somewhat egotistical >>> 5-Star Frog Splash

I trained a Warrior >>> trained The Ultimate Warrior for his 2008 comeback match

and I hate Wednesdays >>> ?

Daniel getting the last bit…

He’s been Mr. Monday (Raw)/Tuesday (ECW)/Thursday (TNA)/Friday (Smackdown) night, but never Mr. Wednesday Night.

And mr tothepoint getting the answer.

u r rvd

Maravilloso has this week’s question.

I am a second generation wrestler. My names (staged and real) are very much like the name of a well known cartoon character and a former world champion. There’s something I did no one did it before me. On of the wrestling strikes I’ve done is named in honor of a former tag team champion. I usually don’t like dancers that much and my biggest victories have been against people who like to dance. CM Punk would probably be proud of me, but he wouldn’t say it in front of someone who loves him. Oh, one of my wrestling names revealed where I come from. Who am I?

Getting Down To Business/One Man’s (Important) Opinion

So, let’s try this again.

Memphis B-rad starts us off with a Doozy, moreso when you get it right!

They say the cream always rises to the top. If you’re good in-ring you will eventually make it to the main event. We’ve seen it with Benoit, Punk, Bryan & others who didn’t necessarily fit the mold of a Vince champion, but they still got there. Can you think of any wrestlers who were truly gifted in ring but never made it to main event status?

See, the reason I misread this, or rather the reason I went to World Title holders, is that ‘main event status’ is somewhat fuzzy. Sure, we can tell the extremes (Cena is Main Event, Brooklyn Brawler is not) but is Christian main event? Lita main evented Raw more than once, that make her Main Event? Ziggler been main event?

Again, these questions always end up being less about who’s main event and what constitutes being a main event guy. Some would argue Daniel Bryan is not a main event guy right now, some would argue he is. It’s complicated.

So then, let’s see… I’m gonna try again and list 10 guys I consider the most talented who didn’t get to what I consider the main event (which includes AWA, ECW and Japan, because if I didn’t then this would be ten Japanese wrestlers). Your mileage on either count may vary. In alphabetical order…

Arn Anderson
Brad Armstrong
Chavo Guerrero
Greg Valentine
Mike Rotundo
Nick Dinsmore
Ray Traylor
Tito Santana
Tully Blanchard
William Regal

Again, who I consider the best and who I consider made the main event (Owen Hart, Scott Hall, Jake Roberts, they had main event runs. Short in some cases, but they made it…)

Mark wants me to play Devil’s Advocate.

So the 2014 Elimination Chamber has finished.

I have thought about the main even of the PPV i just watched 17 minutes ago. There are so many questions swirling around my head and to come up with any possible reason, based on the current projected main even of Mania, for me to fork out the $$ again (WWE Network or not), I can only ask you this….

Why?

I would love to hear your response to the very deep and thorough question i presented to you.

Also, if you can, convince me to buy the PPV (or Network going forward)

Cheers

Well, I’d sell WM via buying the Network because seriously, the Network IS a bloody good deal. Sure, it’s not quite as insanely awesome as they originally promised, but for $10 a month, you get access to (almost) every major PPV under the WWE’s huge umbrella, all with original commentary and good quality, as well as NXT, the best wrestling program in the world today (that isn’t in Japanese) every week, plus old classics. Instead of hunting down a WM box set, you can watch every WM ever at will. If you’re a wrestling fan, the network is a good sell, the fact that you get WM is a bonus.

But if you want me to sell you WM…

*takes a few stiff drinks*

Well now. Brock/Taker will be very interesting, and to be honest, might be Taker’s last match if Brock isn’t careful. So you want to be watching to say you saw Brock break Taker, if it happens.

Orton/Batista is going to be a fascinating social experiment, in that you’re going to take the same level of audience interest you had with Brock/Goldberg, except a whole lot bigger and with a lead in of months teaching everyone that if you don’t like something you chant for Daniel Bryan.

And of course, now we are heading towards Bryan/HHH, which I want to see just out of curiosity in that I know Hunter’s going to dominate the match and look like a god during, but does he tap out or does he get a screwjob victory, and thus how big a riot is there afterwards?

Plus given that WWE clearly knows how to build a guy and Roman Reigns is being built almost perfectly, WM is the point where he Superman Punches Dean Ambrose into the cheap seats and literally sends Seth Rollins into orbit.

And hey, Cena’s going to overcome the odds. That’s always popular, right?

Speaking of break ups, Andron wants to talk about that very subject.

Good day, I’m a long term fan of your columns of course. My question tonight is about Stable Separation. Over the years we’ve seen it, when a stable or a tag team breaks up and from the stars one of them usual find themself in the title picture, and the others usual just fall by the waste side. I think you can name a couple of teams who falls into this category better than me. the one team i can think of that’s an exception to this is Evolution where each of the members find themself in the title picture, i don’t think there’s any other teams that fell into this category but correct me if i am wrong. With in the shield the obvious break out star in this team is Reigns, but who do you think is likely to fall by the waste side like so many others did? and als do you feel that the other two members has a successful future in the wwe?

OK, so teams/stables where both/all members are in title hunts, the problem is that if you want to get technical, there’s a bunch of teams where the people involved were already main event/title hunt guys prior, and continued to be so after. Rock n Sock, Two Man Power Trip, Brothers of Destruction, so on. And same with stables to a lesser extent. Evolution already had two main eventers and gave us two more. And do you include the independent scene? And what about tag teams that were teams but weren’t really?

That last one covers Sting and Lex Luger, as they teamed up on and off for years, but were they a stable worthy tag team? They certainly both ended up in the main event.

The original Four Horsemen, you can argue, were main event all by themselves as is. Yes, I said above that Tully and Arn never got main event, but others will argue that the Horsemen WERE the main event scene in the NWA for years.

The Hardy Boyz might qualify, if you grant Matt Hardy main event status.

But Edge and Christian, as well as Team E.C.K of Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle? Oh yeah, that counts. That counts big time.

As for the Shield break up, I think the problem is going to be Seth Rollins, but only if WWE half-heartedly tries to push him. See, it’s obvious that they are building to the Reigns Spears Ambrose moment, Ambrose is going to be the guy who stays heel and goes full skeezy bastard. Which is good, he’s damn good at that. And Reigns will be protected and pushed and will go well, also good.

Seth, there’s three options.

One, they push him strongly, and he becomes the wild card in a three way feud. Ambrose is the slimy dick, Reigns is the Golden Superman, Rollins is the guy in the middle who knows both of them, neither of them really hate him but he’s playing both sides against each other and gets wins over both.

Heck, even if they don’t go that way, I strongly suspect Rollins ends up with the US title when Reigns costs Ambrose the belt, since Reigns will probably go straight to main eventing Summerslam.

Or he could side with one or the other and move a step down which is slightly dangerous but should be ok short to mid term.

But on the other hand, Rollins might get dropped completely and go crashing to the midcard. Which would be ok, in that he’ll have awesome matches and probably make a great tag team with someone big who can take the hot tag, and/or get to have awesome matches with all the midcard talent WWE has, and he’ll remain over with the crowd until WWE comes around to repushing him.

It’s the wishy-washy sort of push that will be a problem. If they have him as a semi-main eventer, that’s death. If he spends weeks losing to Randy Orton or trading wins with Miz with no forward progression or basically gets the “We push you, but don’t push push you” treatment from the booking, then he’s in major trouble.

I don’t think he’ll have to worry, I am quietly confident, but either way, Rollins is the one in most danger of getting lost in the shuffle.

Here’s… Something.

NEWLEGACYINC… has a great… SOUNDBOARD!

And finally, more me.

Twister wants to discuss WWF in 2001.

Hi Matthew,

I’m a big fan of the column; the highlight of this site. Thanks for replying to some of my previous questions. Anyhow, now that I’ve sufficiently stroked your ego (albeit sincerely) you’ll indulge me with a spot of fantasy booking.

Reputedly, in Spring 2001, even before the catastrophe of the Invasion, WWF ratings began to collapse after the heady days of the Attitude Era. Whenever I’ve come across explanations for this decline they tend to be frustratingly glib – ‘Austin’s heel turn didn’t work, the Invasion was the knee-jerk solution.’ At the time, I was 13, had been watching wrestling since late 98 and loving every minute of it. But I knew something was amiss with the state of the WWF when I could predict every match of KOTR ’01. I was very much a mark in my sensibilities, so I couldn’t really articulate or analyse what exactly had brought the product down hill since (approximately) WM X7. However, Austin’s heel run was actually one of the aspects I really liked at the time (particularly the feud with Benoit and Jericho), maybe it was because I didn’t like him as a face when I was young, but even years later, when I consider myself a pretty savvy wrestling fan and have come to love Austin’s face work, I still enjoy that heel run. I think that the problems with the product ran deeper than the top of the card, but I find it hard to approach it now with anything close to an objective eye.

I’d be delighted if you could elaborate on the problems/bad decisions which caused WWF to decline from, arguably, its zenith. Fantasy booking-wise, I know that you’re a fan of Austin’s heel run too, so I wanted to ask you how you would improve WWF from WM – KOTR ’01. The provisos in your hypothetical attempts to stop the rot is that Austin must still be a heel and the Invasion can’t start any earlier than it really did. Up for it? Much obliged, if so.

Stephanie McMahon became head writer of WWF TV in November 2000. She replaced Chris Kreski, who is widely remembered for his extensive use of storyboarding WWF’s continuality. Once the storylines he set in motion came to a head up to WMX7, and Steph was in command (He stuck around to 2002 as a writer, he just wasn’t head writer) suddenly everything went to hell.

I’m not saying that Stephanie McMahon taking control of creative was the main reason for the decline of WWF, but oh wait I am.

The reason 2001 is viewed with such disdain is not so much because it sucked (it didn’t suck suck, but it certainly sucked) but because it should have been superb, based on the fact that 2000 was spectacular and we had the single biggest angle of all time coming in, with WCW and ECW both getting chewed up by WWF. The InVasion, coupled with the writing of 2000 should have led to Vince McMahon ending up with a money bin Scrooge McDuck would drown in. Instead, we got a crappy year and a horrible InVasion storyline, coupled with a major angle prior to that in Heel Austin that, as awesome as the work was, didn’t draw.

After all, the logic was that now that WWF won, ECW and WCW fans would start watching WWF since that’s where WCW and ECW guys now were, so the WWF ratings should have shot up. Instead they dropped. Instead of WCW fans jumping, they just vanished, and TNA spent most of it’s life chasing them.

So 2001 sucked because the two major angles were poorly received and/or executed, coupled with heightened expectations of ratings due to merging audiences that didn’t happen and a higher level of quality expected in booking due to the work of a guy who stepped away from the reigns just when he should have handcuffed himself to the wheel.

As for stopping the rot without turning Austin back or bringing forth the InVasion… I’m not sure that’s possible. They are the main reasons the show sucked, so without changing them, you’re not going to improve the show, and without the InVasion moving up there’s no chance in hell of drawing in the WCW/ECW fanbase earlier…

But all right, let’s see…

Go through with the teased HHH fact turn right after WM. Austin and McMahon injure Rock, HHH makes the save. OK, that was meant to be a long term plan, but the fact is, part of the problem with Austin’s turn was that him vs Taker didn’t work. Austin/HHH probably wouldn’t be THAT much better but it’s fresher. Steph sides with her Husband.

Kane and Taker can still win the tag titles, but they now work with all the tag teams as the big dogs in the yard, BOD works with E&C, Hardys, Dudleys, BOD go more tweener as they destroy and maim anyone who steps up.

The IC title picture moves into a more complicated picture as in the lead up to Benoit/Angle and Jericho/Regal at Backlash, Angle gets an IC title shot (to soften Jericho up for Regal to take the belt) but wins, leading Angle/Benoit’s Ultimate Submission match to become a IC title match and Regal/Jericho to be instead a London Street Fight as Regal is pissed off at Jericho.

At Backlash, Benoit wins the IC title, Regal beats Jericho with help from The Radicalz, BOD beat down E&C rather severely, and HHH wins by DQ when Steph turns on him to go back to Daddy.

Regal, Angle and the Radicals are now openly working with Vince/Steph/Austin, as Vince talks about “Building the Walls to repel the invaders as of now preparing to invade”, forming officially as Shane and Big Show have a rematch from Backlash and Shane is injured by mass beat down (with Shane’s WCW friends barred from the arena by Security). Although they aren’t working with them, Vince approves of BOD’s attitude, they couldn’t care less and just keep destroying teams, forcing E&C face due to the gruesome way BOD bloody them, E&C, Hardys and Dudleys now all faces and pseudo aligned as they all don’t like how Vince & Co is running the show, while Benoit, Jericho and HHH are unwilling partners against Austin and Co. Benoit loses IC title to Regal via screwjob/mass beatdown.

Insurrextion sees Austin V Jericho while Regal defends against Benoit, BOD take on Hardys, E&C/HHH/Jericho V Angle/Radicals in 8 man tag war.

The WWF continues to become Us V Them, as Vince continues to go more and more vicious as he keeps exerting control, forcing people to pledge allegiance to him The WWF as he sees it, BOD officially join him, Big Show turns against them, every belt becomes a pawn (Chyna signs on with Vince but loses title to Lita, European Title goes Eddie to Jericho to Angle to Big Show to Eddie across a few shows).

Judgment Day, HHH V Austin one last time for World Title in a steel cage, Regal defends the IC title against Benoit, Jericho and Eddie in a 60 minute Iron Man match, Angle takes on Big Show, BOD lose the tag straps to the Dudleyz, but show ends with Austin, while winning the match, getting the tar kicked out of him inside the cage by HHH, Jericho and Benoit while the rest of the Rebellious Youth hold The Federation at bay.

You then lead into Austin V Benoit V Jericho for World, Regal V HHH for IC, and Jeff Hardy V Undertaker and Edge V Kane in the final 4 for KOTR.

But that’s just off the top of my head.

Nighwolf continues fantasy booking.

1. Since everyone is talking about their dream Wrestlemania 30 card, I’d like to share my own. Tell me what you think. Now one of these matches will have one wrestler wrestling twice.

1. Student vs. Master: Daniel Bryan vs. Shawn Michaels
2. Beast vs. the Animal: Brock Lesnar vs. Batista
3. Anti Establishment vs. Anti Authority: CM Punk vs. Stone Cold
4. Good vs. Evil: Sting vs. the Undertaker
5. Clash of the Titans: Andre the Giant vs. Big Show
6. World’s Greatest Tag Team: L.O.D. vs. Dudley Boyz
7. Darkness vs. Darkness: Wyatt Family vs. Viscera, Gangrel, and Mideon
8. Diva Strong: Trish Stratus and Lita vs. AJ Lee and Tamina
9. Stable vs. Stable: The Shield W/ Mystery Partner vs. The 4 Horsemen
10. 4 Generations of Excellence: Bruno Sammartino vs. Hulk Hogan Vs. Stone Cold vs. John Cena

… Viscera, Gangrel and Mideon get bookings? Seriously? Tamina Snuka? OK, she’s Jimmy Snuka’s daughter, if you didn’t know, but still…

I mean, OK, it’s probably better than what we’re getting, but hey, if we’re going full bore unrealistic, with the proviso they gotta be WWE (with one outside name as my Sting)…

Kurt Angle V Bob Backlund, All American Showdown
Andre The Giant V Rey Mysterio, Giant V Giant Killer
Edge & Christian V The Brain Busters V The Hardy Boys V The Dudley Boyz, TLC Whatever.
John Cena V The Undertaker, The Streak’s Ultimate Challenge
Trish Stratus V Manami Toyota, Best of The Best
The Shield V Roddy Piper/Jake Roberts/Randy Savage, Just Let Them Talk For 30 Minutes First
Shawn Michaels V Daniel Bryan, X Minute Iron Man
CM Punk/Brock Lesnar V RVD/Sabu, Battle of the Paul Heyman guys.
Hulk Hogan V Steve Austin
Pre Show: Every other major name in history, over the top battle royal.

How about you guys?

2. Why wasn’t Stan Hansen reprimanded for breaking Bruno Sammartino’s neck?

Well here’s a heck of a thing, here’s Bill Apter talking to Bruno Sammartino a week after the injury.

But Stan was reprimanded for breaking Bruno’s neck. Vince Sr. was PISSED at him for nearly taking out his meal ticket. And certainly after that Bruno was never the same wrestler, he didn’t take any moves that required him to bump onto his neck if he could help it, and he moved slower.

But sure, Vince Sr chewed Stan out. But the thing is, it was an accident, and if he had fired Stan, then Stan could go around saying he broke Sammartino’s neck and Vince Sr. couldn’t book the rematch.

Obviously injuries in wrestling are to be avoided, but if they happen through no fault of anyone, then you normally build a match around it. “You broke my neck you bastard” is a very simple story to tell, and one that made them a fair stack of cash. Not enough to be worth it, but lemonade from lemons and all that…

3. Name your top 3 Masters of the Spear and name the top 3 who are worse at using the spear.

Best: Goldberg. OK, they looked awesome because they were pretty much legit, but he was the best and most logical guy to do it.
Runner up: Rhyno. The Gore always looked good, and Heyman really put it over big time.
Second runner up: Anyone who spears me because I sell it so well Scott Lost. I will never not love the Superman Spear.

Worst: Batista. It sucks.
Tied Runners Up: Big Show and Christian, both of whom are somewhat forgiveable as Big Show is a huge ass guy so it doesn’t need to be good, but he shouldn’t be using it and Christian only uses it as a tribute so it doesn’t really matter that it sucks.

Keith brings us back to the HOF.

Hi Mathew,

Now that the Hall of Fame time is upon us, I want to raise this question to an expert, but also, I would like to see the user comments for their opinion as well. Seeing as we have heard in the past that the WWE only wants to induct one posthumous inductee every year, what are your thoughts of the WWE doing a mid-year, small, and personal ceremony for the past superstars that should be in the hall of fame. Someone like Owen Hart or Davey Boy Smith, who, while they should have their own spotlight, does shine a light that yet another superstar has died. They can now broadcast it on the WWE Network, but still use the night before Wrestlemania for the big (and mostly alive) guns.

Your thoughts?

Well, what do you think, dear readers? Personally, as cynical and dismissive of the WWE HOF as I am, I think this sort of dilutes the brand a little, as the whole point is that it’s a yearly deal at WM, now, and although I do see the argument here, I don’t really like the idea. Just keep the HOF for WM and be done with it. But hey, I’m just one man, what do you guys think?

Scott wants to go down the rabbit hole.

Question for the column:

Are you (as a wrestler and wrestling fan) aware of any unwritten rules in regards to in ring conduct? I vaguely remember reading that Buff Bagwell got some grief (I know a shock right?) because he posed over a pinned Ric Flair after a victory/beatdown. If you get a victory over a veteran or are a heel, is it ‘proper’ to roll out of the ring or something like that?

Thanks, keep up the good work.

Well yes, there are plenty of unwritten rules about in ring conduct (although I was given a written list…) but that falls more under preference and stuff. Everyone has a different viewpoint as to what is appropriate and not.

For instance, I have been criticized a couple of times by my opponents/other wrestlers because I often will do very lazy covers. I nail a fall away, then scoot back and just lean my shoulders on the guy and hold my hand up and count with what I assume is a 3 count but never is. I’ve do foot on chest pins, one finger pins, and also I do pin chains, lazy then solid then gay. So I’m a bit all over the shop. But the thing is, my defence is always that I’m playing a lazy bully character. Of course I’m going to be lazy and egotistical in covers. But that doesn’t satisfy some guys, they feel I should be more of a monster, and I get that.

Likewise during beatdowns and the like, some people do feel you should still show some respect your opponent, you should never make the opponent look bad, and that includes if you’re going over them. The old “if your garbage why is my victory matter or if your garbage and I lose I must be crap” adage. So certainly there’s rules and guidelines about how you should make every effort to not disrespect your opponent… Unless the situation calls for it. The issues come when people have different opinions about what is and isn’t called for. If you’re playing a disrespectful character, how disrespectful do you go?

It’s very much a grey area. What pisses off someone, another guy is cool with. There is no hard and fast rule, beyond the “protect everyone” rule, the fact that when you go into a ring you should make the safety of all concerned your main priority. Everything beyond that is negotiable.

Connor has a few questions.

Whatever happened to Sweet Sapphire? after Summerslam 1990 when she turned heel, she was in a red hot angle with Dibiase and Rhodes and i really enjoyed the skits of her ironing his money, but then she just vanished?

The Kayfabe reason given in the WWF Magazine a few months afterwards from Virgil was that Ted DiBiase took all the gifts back and she left because of that.

She pretty much left the business after WWF, and according to Sherri Martel in a shoot interview, the reason was that she genuinely admired/liked Dusty, and when they split it broke her heart, and she just didn’t want to stick around the business any more after that. She supposedly cried upon being told of the heel turn, so yeah. She just didn’t want to wrestle any more if she had to split with Dusty.

also Harlem Heat never get the recognition they deserve, 7 (i think) time tag team champions and they pretty much dominated the WCW tag team division from 1994 to 1996. where would they rank on your top tag teams of all time list?

10 time tag champs.

And 411mania did put them #13 in the top 25 tag teams of the last 25 years…

But the thing is, they never really had a superb match that people remember, they never had a really awesome feud. They were just there, having OK matches, unless it was that LONG feud with Nasty Boys where the matches just got worse and worse…

They did dominate the WCW tag division, but they just didn’t have the memorable moments that you need to turn a solid career into an awesome one.

Is the Bret Hart/British Bulldog match from SummerSlam 1992 overrated? people used to talk about it being one of the best matches of all time, and even Bret has said it’s his favourite match, but the modern view towards the match is that it’s basic and wouldn’t make either guy’s top 10 list.

It’s gotten overshadowed I think, through repetition (how many DVDs has it been on now?) and because it doesn’t have any major spots, nothing huge, there isn’t a holy shit moment. Plus as you go along and the fan base gets younger, as more older fans leave, you start to find that matches that get by on nostalgia and that have reps because of the atmosphere and what it meant at the time lose that, and begin to be judged more and more objectively on a workrate basis.

Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad match, it is a good match, but without remembering being a kid at that time, without seeing that huge crowd at the time, it’s just a decent carry job by Bret. No more, no less, sadly.

And on that note, I have to draw this one to a close, and go take some pills and hopefully get some sleep. Until next week where hopefully I am better…