Captain Lou Albano (1933-2009) memorial wrestling topic

Met him in a bar in tn once. He really never looked all that big on tv but in person, he was a freakin monster. R.I.P
 
This is my first WWE PPV in a long time, and I'm greeted by Batista and live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their shoddy game. FML
 
ah, thanks for the stream guys. i didn't bother looking at ustream because it was pointless...but i'm bummed I missed Morrison/Ziggler :/
 
Closing with DX vs. Legacy? Odd choice.

Really not a fan of the Taker/Punk outcome. It's actually something that's bugged me for the past few WM, which is that Taker is a guy that doesn't need the title to be over. Yet, they've recently be shoving him into the title picture again and again... and each time, he comes out on top at least once, which does nothing but make the other guy look weak. It's not even that he doesn't need to hold the title... he doesn't even need to be NEAR it. My one wish is that they put him into the HBK rotation, where he's usually doing stuff other than going after the title.

I'm afraid they're doing to Punk what they did to Orton, which is take the title back and forth too often. It's like they're afraid that people won't watch if a heel wins more than twice in a row. This is exactly why there was that fucking deflated feeling when I heard Punk's next feud after Hardy was Taker. Total momentum stop.
 
that and the fact that Undertaker isn't physically at his best right now. Putting the belt on him isn't a good idea but that hasn't stopped WWE in the past. Interesting to see where the world title scene goes from here.
 
[quote name='Demolition Man']Yes!!!! ORTON WINS!!! ORTON WINS!!! ORTON WINS!!![/QUOTE]

well, so much for trying to catch a replay or finding it online.

Yay for Taker winning.
 
[quote name='Scorch']well, so much for trying to catch a replay or finding it online.[/QUOTE]

12dbff067effe28cde51fd6a78d8602c.jpg


;)
 
why the hell is WWE pushing this Drew Mcintire guy, he wasnt that good in the ring.. and he looks like some local indy jobber guy they'd bring in.
 
So.....no point in trying to download this tomorrow morning?
 
Kinda weird on how the WHC and WWE title matches were the first and middle events respectively and the DX-Legacy match as the final match.
 
[quote name='pimpster4183']sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/59716

put that in sopcast and youll have a stream that wont shut down[/QUOTE]


thanks man. that rocked. Wish i had it as the show opened. God damn them for opening with taker/punk
 
This PPV was all over the place. Way to shit all over Punk. Put him in the first match and then pretty much get squashed by Taker. How old is Taker? 62? Why in the world is he even a threat to Punk?

Cena/Orton was basically 15 minutes of Orton staring at Cena like he was going to suck his dick.

Legacy/DX should not have been the main event. I have no idea why the hell they chose to put that last because it didn't deserve to be. I'm pretty much sick of the same fucking guys going over all the time. Taker, HBK, HHH, etc are in their 40s. They should not be beating the shit out of guys in their 20s. They already fucked up Orton, now they're doing the same to Legacy. The company complains about not having stars. No shit. You have the same guys on top not giving up their spot.

Jericho/Show tag match was pretty good. Best match of the night IMO. Jericho should really be in the main event scene. The US title match was alright. It was building up a bit at the end.

3 Hell in a Cell matches and not one drop of blood. Fail.
 
[quote name='Blackout']3 Hell in a Cell matches and not one drop of blood. Fail.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. Blame the TV-PG rating for that. WWE is now applying those same standards to PPV's as well. Regardless, 3 HiaC matches is a perfect way to kill a gimmick that still had a special mystique about it. HiaC should only be used once every couple of years but only a fool would expect WWE to show restraint. This is what happens when decisions are made based on stock prices.
 
[quote name='neocisco']Agreed. Blame the TV-PG rating for that. WWE is now applying those same standards to PPV's as well. Regardless, 3 HiaC matches is a perfect way to kill a gimmick that still had a special mystique about it. HiaC should only be used once every couple of years but only a fool would expect WWE to show restraint. This is what happens when decisions are made based on stock prices.[/QUOTE]

What does TNA base their decisions on? Sexy dice?
 
[quote name='pitfallharry219']What does TNA base their decisions on? Sexy dice?[/QUOTE]

Magic 8-ball.

With WWE being publicly traded, some of the motivation behind their decisions is pretty obvious. We have something fairly unique that's popular with the fans WWE Universe? Let's kill what makes it so popular and run it right into the ground. It's all about the quarterly earnings report and not much else it seems.
 
I liked the show for the most part - the crowd was dead, but the matches were at least all decent, and some were great. The opening being Punk vs. Taker was a bit surprising, although it kinda fit there since it had a brisk pace to it and the most heat of anything, but it hurt the show because they started the show off with a WORLD TITLE CHANGE - despite having lesser title matches afterwards. How can you expect a crowd to care about the secondary belts on a PPV when you start with a top title changing hands? This also had the most heat of anything on the card, so aside from 'Taker being unable to go very long anymore, there's really no good reason this shouldn't have closed the show. The babyface won, and won a title, so they would've had that big visual to end the show on. The crowd seemed to be more excited about this match than any other going in, because they were largely dead after this and that hurt the show a lot.

Morrison vs. Ziggler was pretty good technically, but lacked heat and was not on par with Dolph's matches against Rey, or Morrison's one against Rey, and Dolph lost again making him a huge choke artist at a time when he really can't afford to have that label AND they're trying to get the crowd to see him as a goof with the whole Mr. Ziggles deal. Poor guy - in three months, he meant from one of the company's hottest prospects to coming dangerously close to a joke. He'd better win this title soon or else any credibility he's built up will be completely gone. And they're sacrificing him for the sake of Morrison, who STILL isn't getting over with the fans as much as he needs to if they want him to be a main eventer.

The divas match was fine - short, but nothing looked botched beyond belief, which puts it above most Raw women's matches. The Unified tag title match was fantastic - probably the best match on the show from a technical perspective as these guys all clicked and had a great match as a result. Batista looked better here than he has at any point since his return, Rey had his working shoes on, as did Show, and Jericho as always, was great as well. Show and Rey's stuff worked way better in a tag match situation than it does in singles, and the finish was perfect with Rey jumping off for the seated senton, but getting THWACK punched by Show. The right team won here - Jericho is way too valuable on Raw to justify Batista and Rey winning, although I could have seen that happening just to give Batista a big win after returning.

Orton vs Cena was fine - I didn't like this as much as their Bragging Rights match because that one made better use of the stip, while this all could have been pretty much done with a no DQ stip since the chair was an integral part of it with Orton attacking the neck. They also shot themselves in the foot with the Raw stuff on top of the cell which was more memorable than anything that happened here AND it stood out more because guys haven't actually been on top of the cell in years. Stupid move there, although they made a good one putting the belt back on Orton. I also liked that he used the punt as a rare desperation move to win a match - the RKO failed, and rather than punt the guy after the match, he did it during it with a bad leg, and while it didn't hit at full strength (which would keep a guy out for weeks), it at least hit well enough for him to win.

McIntyre vs. Truth was good - Truth's best match in WWE easily. Drew's selling was sport on - I especially loved how he took the dropkick from Truth, whose sweep>punches spot looked great and was in keeping with their TV brawls. That's something I like - this match felt like an extension of the TV buildup, as opposed to them doing TV and then doing something on PPV that seems to contradict it in some way. They blended well together and the right man won. The lack of heat, again, killed the match. Well, it got heat, but it was in the form of "boring" chants caused by this happening after two Cell matches. I hope that doesn't affect Drew's push, although if they push him up to the IC title level, he'll benefit from new gear. His current look is kind of indy-ish with the generic lined trunks, and he's a tall guy, so the trunks don't quite make him seem as tall as long tights would.

The U.S. title match was another technically fine match between this combination of guys who are just going absolutely nowhere. Kofi won I guess to show that he once again beat the odds. Great. He's done that so much that he's no longer defying the odds, and the Miz did back to back jobs to him so the main challenger they've pushed for this title is basically completely out of the title hunt and they haven't build up the other guy (Swagger) well enough to have him fill that role. Miz should have won here, but that's been the case for a lot of his matches since going to Raw and it hasn't happened yet.

DX vs. Legacy told a fine story of the young guys getting the better of the veterans for a while, then being undone by their arrogance as they focused on one man, tired themselves out, and made themselves into easy victims of the fresh HHH. Him struggling seemingly forever with the lock didn't bother me too much - he was desperate and was looking for any possible solution to his problem, it wasn't until he'd had some time to think that a cool head prevailed and he thought "HEY, BOLT CUTTERS WOULD WORK!" and then went to get them, leaving Legacy even more arrogant as they had a complete two on one advantage and used it to do stuff like the Dream Street on the chair (which looked like it sucked as HBK's head hit it) and the ringpost figure 4/Million Dollar Dream spot from last month...and then HHH made the save and they destroyed Legacy, but didn't do so in such a way that buried them six feet under, which was a pleasant surprise. The superkick/THOR HAMMER shot on Cody were great, and I liked them having Ted locked out just as HHH had been locked out - only HHH was able to do something, and Ted was largely out of it by that point due to the Pedigree ON THE FLOOR.
 
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- Word going around the WWE locker room is that the reason CM Punk lost the World Heavyweight Title last night is because of heat on him stemming from an incident on the recent European tour.

The story goes that there was in issue with how Punk was dressed and The Undertaker said tried to nicely tell Punk that he was the World Champion and was representing WWE overseas so he should dress better. Punk said something to the effect of “what about John Cena?”

This got back to WWE management and they took it as Punk thinking he was a bigger star than John Cena. Then the decision was made to take the belt off Punk at Hell in a Cell and put the match as the opener. It is noted by Dave Meltzer that this may not be exactly how the story went down but it’s how it was told.

The problems with Punk and losing the title has been the talk of the SmackDown locker room for the past two days. As noted last night before the show, several on the SmackDown brand were under the impression that Undertaker was winning and he did. There are some who are wondering why Undertaker was given the title considering his limited schedule and health problems with the feeling that it was too soon to take the title off Punk.

Word is that WWE is planning on going with a Batista vs. Undertaker feud for the World Heavyweight Title.
Click to expand...

Yup, that sounds like where the WWE's priorities should be.
 
That's what was said on the Observer Radio show, but it also may change because 'Taker can't do a full schedule and some feel it's incredibly stupid that they're burying Punk when they have no other top heels built up.
 
You're saying it may change because it doesn't make any sense to do so.

How naive must one be to think the WWE would change the way it does things because it doesn't make sense?
 
....So....they took it off the biggest heel and gave it to someone who is working a limited schedule AND will have that person face another person who is injury prone....
 
This thing with Punk sounds like bullshit. It was already clear the company was contemplating taking the belt off Punk as of the last PPV. I thought it was clear that this is why they moved Batista off RAW.
 
i thought they moved him to smackdown because everyone's expecting him to get injured again and be gone for another six months...that, or they needed a new top face to replace Jeff Hardy.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Yup, that sounds like where the WWE's priorities should be.[/QUOTE]


Hulk Hogan rolling around back in the day with Tank Tops, Shorts, Flip Flops and a Fanny pack.

Steve Austin going around wearing cutoff jean shorts, t shirt.

I would love to see what the 50 year old Undertaker goes around wearing.
 
Undertaker shops at Brooks Brothers.

As for CM Punk and his dressing habits, we'll see just how 'punk rock' he is when he capitulates to the conformist demands of the megacorporation. I can't be bothered to look, but I'm sure there are some relevant punk lyrics out there - probably something from Dead Kennedy's "Chickenshit Conformist."
 
That PPV was pretty appalling, although I missed the Jerich match which which sounds like about the best match.

Ending with that DX match was a terrible idea, on a night of terrible ideas.

I think it's come to the point where I won't even bother watching PPV's for free, as well as not watching Raw or Smackdown.

Maybe it's just cos I'm older but I can still remember how good it was when we started getting full episodes of Raw on Sky, I never missed an Ep back in those days. Ah well.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc2JbRkwfTA

Cornette singing his own theme with his eyes closed and his arms outstretched is hilarious. Either way he looks genuinely excited to be there.

Chris Hero is emerging as one of the better promos in the industry. I can clearly see why WWE is interested in him.

Eddie Edwards wrestling with that broken arm is astounding, dangerous, and even a little bit heroic. The tape on that is INSANE.

Sonjay Dutt's new gimmick is a sexual predator. Hahaha.

Austin Aries douchey, game show host-esque lottery draws is actually quite humorous. Watch out Poland. Here comes Austin Aries!
 
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