Heart Punch

Well, the first week of the sublime UWF show on ESPN Classic has come and gone (and by gone, I mean that this week’s shows start in less than an hour and a half as I type this. Procrastination!). I was originally planning to recap individual episodes, but that seems like it would lead to some sort of head explodey, so we’ll just cover an entire week at a time with whatever notes I bother to take while watching the show live. Should allow me to hold onto what little sanity I have left. -First thing I have to point out is Bruno Sammartino on commentary. He could care less about any of this and goes out of his way to disagree with Herb Abrams any time he can. Abrams, of course, was insane. His commentary fully bears that out. -The wrestling is…okay. Or okay-ish, anyway. Mostly squash matches where the job guys get in more offense than you’d really want to see. The main events tend to be decent, if not poorly booked. -Apparently, Gary Keyes nailed Billy Jack Haynes’ wife, because one doesn...

AGAINST: Vickie with a mic. FOR: Beat The Clock! FOR: Coach climbing up on the announce table to salute the fans. That's a JBL move. FOR: Is Finlay a face now or something? FOR: Coach pointing out that Finlay's style isn't designed for speed. FOR: Was that a real-time edit? AGAINST: Eight minutes already? This is a bad time. AGAINST: The double shillelagh swerve does get old. AGAINST: Vince? AGAINST: The hell was the point of that? FOR: HBK in the Rumble commercial. FOR: Michelle's pants. AGAINST: Has Kenny missed two spots for interference already? AGAINST: Coach doesn't think Victoria's utterly insane? FOR: Was that an attempt at a Rocket Launcher? Ambitious if nothing else. FOR: Nice kick by Michelle. AGAINST: And Chavo weighs in but doesn't really. AGAINST: Funaki? FOR: Chavo's getting pissed. FOR: Coach isn't doing a bad job. FOR: Chavo countering Funaki's rollup attempt from the corner. FOR: Whoa! 6:02. FOR: Figu...

More bite-sized recappery follows! SNME #27 (7/90) We've started getting into the heavily "themed" SNME episodes, which are hilarious for all the wrong reasons. I love how all of the promos through the night tie into the theme, which leads to some really awkward moments. This one is the "Wild Kingdom" episode, where Alfred Hayes and Gene Okerlund go on an "African Safari" and bump into various wrestlers being goofy. Gotta love the announcers randomly stumbling across the Bushwackers, for example, strutting down a set of train tracks as if it's the most natural place in the world for them to pop up. This is far funnier (mostly unintentionally) than it sounds, if you've never seen it. -Warrior vs. Rude is the opening match. This feud goes to show how great Rude was, because this was a really enjoyable match, even though Warrior did next to nothing, except run around like a lunatic. There's a stretch! Heenan took more bumps than he did, actual...

And since I actually vote in the Observer awards, and did this last year, and still having posting privileges... I'll expound upon views where they're significantly different from Shane's or common sense, and I'll go deeper on the ballot when I feel like it. I do watch MMA, so I vote on those too. I watch WWE, TNA, and ROH at least somewhat regularly, and CHIKARA, PWG, puro, and lucha when recommended. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD 1.) John Cena 2.) Shawn Michaels 3.) Hiroshi Tanahashi Man, this was tough to vote for this year. Had the MMA and wrestling not been split, I almost certainly would've had Rampage and Couture in this mix. As it is, Cena was tremendous and on top of the WWE A-brand almost the entire voting period. Michaels was phenomenal but missed a lot of time. Tanahashi was the Japan ace this year, although that's not saying much. Morishima had some fine work in the NOAH upper-mid and some fine work as ROH champion, but he really didn't draw a whole...

It's a new year. Hooray, I guess! Allow me to offer up the ballot that I'd send to one Dave Meltzer if I were still an Observer subscriber. Because dwelling in the past is so much cooler than looking on to 2008... As always, my personal biases are heavy, but I'll at least try to justify why my opinion is pretty much the only opinion worth having. Heh. P.S. I watched a *lot* more stuff from Japan this year, which will actually be reflected in my picks. P.P.S. I abstain from all shoot related questions. I only see what they air on television, so my voting would be really skewed and I'd look, perhaps, dumber than usual! P.P.P.S. I use the Wrestling Observer categories, obviously, but I don't necessarily use Meltzer's criteria for the awards. I can name an indy as the promotion of the year because, essentially, I want to. Drawing power doesn't tie into my twisted little world view at all. Now then, on to the show... Section A: Pick your TOP 3 1. Lou Thesz/Ric Fl...