Jun 5, 2024 3:17:09 GMT jTjohncenaGOAT said:

Jun 5, 2024 1:41:03 GMT UT said:

Seriously their whole schtick is being young degenerates and over the top immaturity - but their weird uncle is there for some reason. This is why the post WM14 DX will always be my DX.

Shawn just delivered one of the most wicked chair shots ever on Taker on Raw. Insane how common place this used to be.

The chair shots you need to see are the ones that Shamrock took from the Rock. They'll show them at the beginning of their WrestleMania match. Heck. I think he does another in their match at Mania. 100% unprotected. They look nasty.

I’ve seen those as I’ve went back and watched Manias, just like the Foley ones from Rock.

This one was just as gnarly and completely unprotected as well. And the chair was mangled.

Man they should have done a deep dive into Japan Wayne Shamrock and did that in the WWF, totally different animal. I still don’t understand how Shamrock vs Vader sucked so bad with both of them having the shoot style experience they had, maybe it was a WWF thing trying to force a style and then being oblivious to Pancrase or UWF or UWFI or PWFG. Watch Shamrock walk out in Pancrase to For Those About To Rock and tell me they didn’t botch him from the get go.

Baker

Do have the categories and winners from the old mags or Dirt Sheets? Like Meltzer?

I’m curios to where my opinions will line up - I don’t want the results yet but don’t know all the cats either..

Truncated from what it once was, but Observer: indeedwrestling.blogspot.com/2013/07/wrestling-observer-awards-1980-2012.html

Links to the RSPW Awards (the premier internet wrestling awards in the 90s-early 2000s) no longer work, but I could probably cobble most of the big ones together if you really wanted me to.

EDIT: Shootist I still have most my mags but lost all the Almanacs save a really late one from the early 2000s that I got because somebody didn't know what else to get me for Christmas one year. 

EDIT #2: Shawn not even cracking the Top 5 for WON Most Outstanding Wrestling in 1996 is wild.

EDIT #3: Found Top 5 finishers for the 96 & 97 RSPW Awards at the most unlikely of places- Sporcle. Had no idea Sporcle was still around.
www.sporcle.com/games/randyorko3589/rspwtheszie-awards-1996
www.sporcle.com/games/randyorko3589/rspwtheszie-awards-1997

EDIT #4: Several years back I came up with my own 1996 Year End Awards and will post them if UT does something similar.

Incredible they keep Sunny around to just do like one match intro a week. I mean I get why and ain’t complaining but it’s crazy.

Sables Lazer Tag commercial might be the worst in history.

Baker did you have the Owen 3:16 shirt? You had to have.

Also the Pillman death is crazy. Forgot that it was announced at Badd Blood and not on Raw. Also having his wife on might be the worst thing I’ve seen on Raw so far.

Jun 11, 2024 18:07:00 GMT UT said:

Baker did you have the Owen 3:16 shirt? You had to have.

Also the Pillman death is crazy. Forgot that it was announced at Badd Blood and not on Raw. Also having his wife on might be the worst thing I’ve seen on Raw so far.

That was really terrible, really stuck out to me when I watched through years ago how sorry that was.

Jun 11, 2024 19:25:04 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Jun 11, 2024 18:07:00 GMT UT said:

Baker did you have the Owen 3:16 shirt? You had to have.

Also the Pillman death is crazy. Forgot that it was announced at Badd Blood and not on Raw. Also having his wife on might be the worst thing I’ve seen on Raw so far.

That was really terrible, really stuck out to me when I watched through years ago how sorry that was.

It’s one of the most classless things from a company that has a ton of them. I’m generally a WWF apologist but what in the blue fuck do they gain by exploiting her 24 hours later?

Jun 11, 2024 18:07:00 GMT UT said:

Baker did you have the Owen 3:16 shirt? You had to have.

Wanted one soooo bad. Never had one though. A victim of circumstances. I had no way to acquire one. Wasn't online yet. WWF didn't come back to my state until May 1998. WWF shirts weren't sold at the mall yet. Didn't have a checking account and only had a vague idea of what a money order was. Sad fact of the matter is the beautiful Owen 3:16 shirt came out around 6 months too early. But that was the 2nd wrestling shirt I REALLY wanted (first being a Four Horsemen shirt in the Summer of '96).

Jun 11, 2024 23:30:34 GMT Baker said:

WWF shirts weren't sold at the mall yet.

This unlocked a dormant memory. Wrestling shirts absolutely could not be found anywhere other than a wrestling show or a wrestling catalogue until the late '90s.* My memory has 1998 as the breakthrough year. I remember vividly visiting my grandma in North Carolina in the summer of 1998, and finding myself at a regional Walmart type store called ROSES, and seeing wrestling shirts in the wild for the first time ever (Austin, DX, nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpack shirts for sure). Very exciting! It's kind of crazy it took wrestling that long to go mainstream with merchandise, but it also makes sense, wrestling being a dirty, little carny thing that was dying for the first half of the decade.

*You could find bootleg wrestling shirts on corner carts or tables in big cities, probably always, but don't really recall seeing them until 1996/1997ish as wrestling started to get hot. The cart guys figured out before the department stores that there was a huge market waiting for this.

It’s crazy how much heel vs heel went on in 97. So much of the programming is NOD vs Hart Foundation vs DX - all heels.

And then there’s Austin as the only real baby face to oppose them all in a meaningful way. It was such a perfect storm for him.

Not too mention The Truth Comission , DOA and the Flying Savios. All heels too. Always fighting each other. Crazy.

I remember the first Wrestling Merch seeing in person was local fairs and bootlegged stuff. It looked real enough.

Jun 11, 2024 23:58:51 GMT Kilgore said:

Jun 11, 2024 23:30:34 GMT Baker said:

WWF shirts weren't sold at the mall yet.

This unlocked a dormant memory. Wrestling shirts absolutely could not be found anywhere other than a wrestling show or a wrestling catalogue until the late '90s.* My memory has 1998 as the breakthrough year. I remember vividly visiting my grandma in North Carolina in the summer of 1998, and finding myself at a regional Walmart type store called ROSES, and seeing wrestling shirts in the wild for the first time ever (Austin, DX, nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpack shirts for sure). Very exciting! It's kind of crazy it took wrestling that long to go mainstream with merchandise, but it also makes sense, wrestling being a dirty, little carny thing that was dying for the first half of the decade.

*You could find bootleg wrestling shirts on corner carts or tables in big cities, probably always, but don't really recall seeing them until 1996/1997ish as wrestling started to get hot. The cart guys figured out before the department stores that there was a huge market waiting for this.

This checks out. There may have been a mini wrestling shirt boom in the mid-late 80s. I feel like if nothing else Hogan shirts were popular among young American males. I think this mainly because either my brother or I had a Hogan shirt before we were even wrestling fans. Guessing this was 1986. My parents sure weren't going to wrestling shows or ordering out of a WWF catalogue. They must have got it at a store or from a vendor. I honestly don't remember much about what people wore back then, but I reckon one saw the occasional Hogan shirt in public. Maybe even Macho Man or Hot Rod once in a blue moon.

Then the wrestling shirt well dried up for a long, long time. Once saw a special ed girl in my school wear an awful Jeff Jarrett(!) shirt. Think it was the 95-96 school year, but it may have been 94-95. That's it as best I can remember.

Until 96-97 when NWO shirts started popping up. This was big. BUT I still don't recall seeing NWO shirts sold in stores until the wrestling shirt business exploded in 1998 with the rise of Austin 3:16 surpassing even the NWO. Hot Topic in the mall was the first store I saw carry wrestling shirts. Popped big for this. Twas a sign my thing had finally gone mainstream. Before long wrestling shirts could be found in many more stores, including Walmart. Can't get any more mainstream than Walmart.

The Jarrett shoot is cringe , sorry Baker.

Jun 12, 2024 1:31:40 GMT UT said:

The Jarrett shoot is cringe , sorry Baker .

I agree! I have bashed that interview many times right here on PW. Worked shoots were the easiest way to pop assholes like me during the late 90s. Drop an insider reference or two, bitch about being "held back," and it's all "Ooh! He isn't supposed to say that! How edgy and kewl!" But the JJ shoot bombed even in real time. With me! JJ fan #1! THAT's how bad it was! 

Jun 12, 2024 1:39:03 GMT Baker said:

Jun 12, 2024 1:31:40 GMT UT said:

The Jarrett shoot is cringe , sorry Baker .

I agree! I have bashed that interview many times right here on PW. Worked shoots were the easiest way to pop assholes like me during the late 90s. Drop an insider reference or two, bitch about being "held back," and it's all "Ooh! He isn't supposed to say that! How edgy and kewl!" But the JJ shoot bombed even in real time. With me! JJ fan #1! THAT's how bad it was! 

It could have been okay had he not went to Austin and made just dumb shit up. Not good but not as bad.

Also Farooq is low key awful on the mic.

Jarrett sucks everywhere he goes until the Summer of '99. Has a fun couple month run as a jolly misogynist (an insane thing to type that is somehow true), then he jumps to WCW where he becomes the most annoying man who has ever lived. Possibly the definitive change the channel wrestler of the Monday Night Wars.

He should have just kept the country singer gimmick. Even post New Gen era. He could have went meta as a wrestler who doesn’t recognize that he’s got an outdated gimmick.

Did Vince bring Slaughter in to just be humiliated every week? Between Austin and DX he just gets clowned or assaulted.

I’ve never seen an authority figure treated with this much disregard. Lordy.

Just finished the infamous Montreal Screwjob Survivor Series. Yikes they are lucky that everyone was distracted afterwards because that was one of the worst PPVs I’ve watched.

Austin and Owen had so little chemistry and I’m sure some of it was lingering from the botched piledriver but that’s one of the worst matches I’ve seen from either.


Also the promo afterwards from everyone in DX and especially Shamrock was the things botchamania is made of. No one could talk.

Shamrock was such a fearless wildman here. I love it.

I don’t care what anyone says : Early Kane was awesome.

Jun 16, 2024 21:45:22 GMT Ed said:

Shamrock was such a fearless wildman here. I love it.

Shamrock could have really been something but he needed a mouthpiece or to not say more than a few words at a time. They pushed him hard and even had him tap out Bret and Shawn but they also made the mistake of having him try and cut longer promos and it wasn’t good.

Jarrett is dressed like a Power Ranger villain. This whole run.

Marvelous Marc Mero is actually a damn good heel. Who knew?

This Artist Formerly known as Goldust stuff is brutally bad. Like who the fuck would think this is a good idea and then who would Greenlight it?

Jun 11, 2024 23:30:34 GMT Baker said:

Jun 11, 2024 18:07:00 GMT UT said:

Baker did you have the Owen 3:16 shirt? You had to have.

that was the 2nd wrestling shirt I REALLY wanted (first being a Four Horsemen shirt in the Summer of '96).

Made a whoopsie here. Turns out Owen 3:16 was the third wrestling shirt I really wanted. BWO was second. Best World Order. But I did want Owen 3:16 most of all. 

Jun 17, 2024 20:21:01 GMT UT said:

I don’t care what anyone says : Early Kane was awesome.

Jun 17, 2024 23:57:05 GMT UT said:

This Artist Formerly known as Goldust stuff is brutally bad. 

Strong agree with both of these.

Jun 17, 2024 23:03:33 GMT UT said:

Jarrett is dressed like a Power Ranger villain. This whole run.

Aztec Warrior Double J is the preferred nomenclature. It certainly was a look.

That era Jeff Jarrett worth it for one of the most righteous stunners in wrestling history. 

Thoughts on Mero Baker - I’m actually quite surprised. The “match” against Butterbean at IYHDX was terrible but he was really good in his role both leading up to and during that initial match. Mero is someone I rarely give a second thought to.