[Mikey]

It’s the first sighting of the top seed in the Hollywood bracket, The Rock. The People’s Champ takes on, well, WCW’s People’s Champ, DDP. Page slipped past Texas legend Kerry Von Erich to advance to here. It’s said you’ll never see it coming… will DDP make Rocky feel the bang with a RKO Diamond Cutter Out Of Nowhere, or will The Great One lay the smack down on his roody poo candy ass?

[Mikey]

After Flair steamrolled Dusty, nothing less than a shutout will be acceptable here.

[Jack Quinn]

too late, I took DDP

[Tommy]

Page was clearly the better People's Champ.

[williamssl]

....at being a jew

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Wouldn't that be IRS?

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Heel Rock's sideburns crack me up.

[Moreofabreadguyanyway]

My favorite WCW guy vs. my favorite WWF guy. A tough one, but hey, there's a reason Vince's fed is the one still around.

[Lucky]

He never sold his company off to a group that not only didn't want to own a wrestling promotion but was unwilling to have wrestling on their channels when WCW's most important players tried to put together a group to buy it?

WCW basically closed for the exact same reason ECW did. They lost their TV and without TV it was impossible to support.

[Moreofabreadguyanyway]

Eh, I just wanted to say I voted for Rock over DDP in a dramatic way.

Edit: But actually, TNA survived for a few years without a TV deal.

[Riot Act]

I don't care too much for either, but I'll go with Rock simply because he was infinitely more entertaining than DDP and his perpetually-healing ribs.

[creepy]

I think I'm gonna agree with Riot.

[Lucky]

governmentcheese61 said:

Edit: But actually, TNA survived for a few years without a TV deal.

Hemorrhaging money and being carried by another company. And in a different world where they could share their show on the web easily in a way that WCW and ECW never could. WCW and ECW were both locked into plans. They made money by PPVs, advertising, and merchandise. And when they lost TV they lost these things. Both Heyman and Bischoff are VERY vocal about this fact and that both companies could have survived if only they could have had a TV slot. But with no TV slot there was no opportunity to have a show and promotion. And you couldn't build to PPVs that people would buy if there was no program for them to watch. It was pointless to even try to run shows and PPVs without a TV program to support them. And just a waste of more money.

TNA had an internet. Which is less than ideal but considering that TNA existed (a) in weekly PPV and (b) on FSN in a horrific Friday afternoon timeslot prior to this the difference between their existing audience and exposure and the one they had on the web wasn't that big. The difference for ECW and WCW would have been huge, if the internet was even capable of supporting that at the time. And even if it was there's the simple matter of advertising which completely fell out and put them in remarkable holes. TNA wasn't nearly as far as ECW was when it fell off TV and wasn't close to WCW with nearly any of the same commitments. And they frantically worked to get back on TV within 3 months.

And Heyman and Bischoff were arguably pioneers in wrestling on the web. Heyman used the smarks and the internet news and created Cyberslam. Bischoff tried to get a web supported company off the ground in Mat Rats. But the web wasn't ready to handle this stuff then. There was no Youtube, no bit torrents. People didn't commonly have high speed processors with great monitors and speakers. No iPods and iTunes to watch stuff on the way to work.


I think I voted for DDP. I don't know. It won't matter.

[Tommy]

luckylopez said:

I think I voted for DDP. I don't know. It won't matter.

It matters to DDP. It's the right vote. 14 of you are markity-marks.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

And you aren't a mark for DDP?

[Jack Quinn]

I voted DDP, Rock was another one of those late 90's WWE characters that wore on my nerves pretty quickly (see also: Austin, "Stone Cold" Steve)

[Tommy]

metallikid said:

And you aren't a mark for DDP?

I fail to see how that's relevant.

[Mikey]

How the fuck did Page get FIVE votes in this thing? I could maybe understand a sympathy vote or two. But FIVE?

[Jack Quinn]

I hate Rocky, so that is one vote

[Lucky]

DDP was People's Champ first. Rock ripped him off.

Also, DDP occasionally said something during a promo.

[Mikey]

luckylopez said:

Also, DDP occasionally said something during a promo.

You may've put me down, but you didn't KEEP ME DOWN! You'll never see it coming. That's not a bad thing... it's a good thing. Anomaly. Self high five! BAAAAAAAAAAANG!

Or something.

[Lucky]

I said occasionally.

I do appreciate you not insulting me by trying to pretend Rock ever said anything.

[Mikey]

I wouldn't say the Rock NEVER said anything. His "Tonight is the Night" backstage promo at WrestleMania 2000 is one of my favorite promos ever, and it was fairly free of catchphrases and announcer-mocking. But yeah, 97% of the time, The Rock said nothing.

But he was DAMN entertaining at saying nothing.

[Lucky]

It just annoys me that Rock is held up as one of the great promo men of all time when he just repeated catchphrases over and over again. It still amazes me that you can go back to Jericho's WWF debut and see what many people feel is one of the best promos off all time and see Rock respond with what looks like Theo Huxtable set up a damn tape recorder of popular phrases. When you have guys like Foley, Raven, Douglas, Flair, Nash, HBK, Edge, Jericho, Austin, and others it seems comical that Rock is as respected as a talker as he is. He's basically Konnan with better phrases. Hell, I'd call Arn Anderson 10x the promo man than Rock ever was. He wasn't flamboyant and the fans didn't cheer for him but every time he opened his mouth he cut an intense and direct promo without a miss that told a complete story and added to a match or feud.

DDP's not a great mic man or anything and he certainly had as many catchphrases as many wrestlers did. But its hard to find someone who was as repetitive and shallow as Rock and spoke as much as him. Except for Konnan.

Its never really been Rock's catchphrases that annoyed me. It always been the pretense that people would treat it like he had done something when he'd come out and say. "Finally the Rock has come back to ______. The Rock says shut your piehole. Know your role and shut your mouth! Who in the blue hell are you? It doesn't matter what your name is! You wanna go one on one with the Great One? The Rock is 'The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment! The Rock's gonna take your monkey ass down to the corner of Know Your Role Boulevard and Jabroni Drive and check you in to the Smackdown Hotel! If you SMELLLLLL...what The Rock...is...cooking!"

[creepy]

You forgot "Rudy-Poo Candy-Ass".