10. I was honored to be included in Scott Christ's "Hating the Game" column. Retaliating against Scott is pointless on my part. Scott has been pretty successful in what he's done, and I've always enjoyed his writing. I think he's an extremely funny guy. I'm pleased he was able to read my column. I won't engage in talking about other wrestling writers, and that's not because I'm on some moral high ground. I obviously don't make any money off writing on the internet, and don't see the point of badmouthing others who are just putting out a product, as I am. I remember when Scott used to do that as part of Rant Crew. If that's what Scott wants to do, so be it. I'm learning on the job here.

9. Watching WCW, I'm having flashbacks to the very first Bischoff era. You may remember this as the time when the main event angles featured the question "Will [insert name here] join the nWo?" I tuned in for the cruiserweight whatever, and then tuned out most of the time. The undercard was a little more stacked during that time period as well. Come Thunder this week, I read about the Kidman v. Shane Helms match, watched it, and turned the television off.

8. After the Rock blew his title shot on SmackDown, I almost lost my lunch. How many times can the WWF put over Angle? It's not working. Come WrestleMania, Angle is going to be fighting either HHH or Jericho, most likely, and he's going to have to put over one of them. Anyway you cut it, Angle has a world of jobs to do (a la Honky Tonk Man) for all the people that put him over during his title reign because he had no credibility as World Champion. Simply beating Austin at ANY PPV would have done the same thing for him. Hell, Steve Austin didn't even BEAT Bret Hart at WrestleMania, and the match still made his career. I just hope the Federation can mount an exciting angle with whoever comes out of WrestleMania X-Seven with the title, because otherwise it'll be a cold winter.

7. The Federation house cleaning: I've been waiting for the WWF to clear at the dead weight on the roster to maximize potential, and it's good to see they are finally doing it. Mideon, Road Dogg, and hopefully any middle nineties jobbers should go. I'd not as exciting about Tajiri, Credible, or Rhino's signing as anybody else seems to be. Three WWF jobbers is nothing to make a big deal about. You think either of those three deserve a push over Tazz? Raven? These fellas will be paying their dues for a long time. And Tajiri's best plan is to try to find a role as a Muta character. Of course, the Fed brought in Haku and pushed him like nobody's business, but I have to think that was only because he was Samoan.

6.75. And why is it that whenever a wrestler comes from ECW, everyone thinks he deserves a monster push, and if said wrestler doesn't get it, it's such a tremendous waste. Tazz is being WASTED. Raven is being WASTED. Saturn is being WASTED. Jericho is being WASTED. These guys are bigger stars right now in the World Wrestling Federation than they ever were in ECW or WCW.

6.50. The recent talent defections in the form of Tajiri, Lynn, Credible, and Rhino almost guarantee an ECW invasion to rid the RTC. They can match up Venis, Richards, Bull, and Goodfather v. the ECW guys, and give the angle some direction and then some finality.

6. I really hate those Nasty Boys v. Jack/Payne and Nasty Boys v. Jack/Sullivan matches. They are just horrible to watch today. The only redeeming value that the matches have is the ugly bumps Mick Foley is willing to take. If that makes a match good, then HIAC II was the greatest match in history. I don't understand how that match is just a spotfest and those tag team bouts are classics. They seem like boring RAW brawls. Maybe I just don't "get" those either. Everyone was Raven about Crash v. Raven, which I thought was basically Al Snow v. Bossman from two years ago. It's not creative. It's just boring.

5. Kurt Angle gets a video. Chris Jericho gets a video. Chris Benoit gets fucked. He wrestled The Rock for the World Title on PPV, he should get his own video. Has Chris Jericho wrestled a PPV match for the World Title? Ever? It should be part of Benoit's contract. Sample conversation between Chris and Vince upon Benoit's WWF arrival:

Vince: Um, Chris, we'd like to job you to the talent that's been with us for awhile. Your Austins, your Rocks, and your HHHs. You might also have to put Stephanie over, but that's not for sure yet.

Benoit: Nothing I haven't done before. Sounds great.

Vince: Actually Chris, that's just the beginning. We'd also like to insert you into the main event picture.

Benoit: That's fantastic, Vince, I'm really looking forwards to that opportunity.

Vince: I'm sure you are. Unfortunately, J.R. will be saving his "HIS SOUL WILL BURN IN HELL" for HHH, but we've got something else for you.

Benoit: Sounds great. What is it?

Vince: I don't really know how to put this but...The Rock will be stealing the Crippler Crossface.

Benoit (with gleam in his eye): Great, that'll make the hold even more devasting. It'll be like Owen-Bret with dueling Sharpshooters.

Vince: Um, Chris, actually - he'll be no selling it when you get it on him.

Benoit: Oh geez.

Vince: I know.

Benoit: I won the WCW Title, you know.

Vince: That doesn't really mean anything to me.

[Chris sulks off]

I think the point in all of this is: Chris Benoit should get his own video. And perhaps they could digitally alter some of the Rock's more flagrant no-selling. And I think the Federation has done a good job with Chris Benoit.

4. Austin v. HHH, No Way Out. When Vince said on RAW that the type of match has not been determined - god knows that set me a thinkin'. We can eliminate the Hell in a Cell from the get go, because they just pulled it out at Armageddon. In hindsight, the Cell didn't pop a huge buyrate, and they would have been better off saving it for the monster HHH v. Austin blowoff. I expect Foley's return to set up an "I Quit" Match at this point, but maybe I'm overthinking it.

3. This week the column features a new, uh...feature. Every number three for awhile will feature the match of the week, in which I discuss this week's best TV match. I'm a little starved for material this week. This week she is Shane Helms v. Kidman. It was pretty nice of Kidman to put over the kid and all. I was pleased. It's funny, all the stuff everyone has been raving about - the cruiserweight gauntlet match, for example - would be just a weekly occurrence a few years ago. The Mexican talent and the Japanese talent was so ridiculously strong at that time that we were used to having great matches. When Eddy came back from his car accident, he immediately had spectacular matches with Juvy and Psicosis.

2. When I think back on the festival of whatever that was Russo in WCW, I try to dwell on the positive. Here now is the top ten list of things Russo did right in WCW.

10. Turfed Hogan - it took him awhile, but he finally did it.
9. Tried to put the title on Tank Abbott, causing Benoit to win the strap and then split for WWF where he "unified" the title with Triple H all because of Kevin Sullivan. This resulted into Benoit's greatest year yet. Russo was instrumental in this chain of events.
8. Sting v. Vampiro. Of all the feuds that the New Blood angle created, this was the most WWF-like. The angle wasn't great, and Vampiro never won, but if Vampiro had stayed with the company, Sting gave him the rub of his career. Sting is a good guy that way.
7. Chris Benoit v. Bret Hart at Mayhem. Say what you want about Russo, and god knows he deserves it, but the guy knew who to put on top of the rest of the card. He knew who the fans wanted, and his first order of business was to put the strap on Bret Hart, who he knew could work a good match and would run with the opportunity. If it weren't for Bret's injury, I think he would have.
6. This isn't one of the good things Russo did, but he tried to make WCW into a hackneyed version of the WWF, and god knows that's not what the company needs right now.
5. Probably the worst idea anyone has ever had was reinventing Prince Iau-fuck as The Artist. Jesus that was horrible. The Maestro sucked too.
4. I caught some of Worldwide this past Saturday, which was better than expected. Tenay's flashback match was from a Russo Nitro. The match was Terry Funk v. Johnny the Bull. It was a really, really good hardcore match that I didn't remember. It reminded me of some ECW stuff, because Funk was totally dictating the pace. The original footage from Worldwide, a week after Meng appeared on WWF PPV, was Kronik v. Meng/Kwee-Wee. It's kind of sloppy that WCW would show that, but I guess it didn't matter in the end. The other thing was that the show was hosted by Hudson and Tenay, who were having a "Super Bowl" party. The Cat came by and constantly insinuated that Tenay and Hudson were having a homosexual relationship. I laughed.
3. Oh geez, I'm only at three. Um...everyone is aware that NO ONE would buy a a cruiserweight only PPV. I wouldn't even buy it. They could do a J-Cup tournament, but they could do it on television, like the Clash. In fact, I think it would be a good idea to resurrect the Clashes as big shows in general. That seemed to be sort of what the WWF was doing with Extreme Smackdown.

I can't think of any more good things that Russo did. Reforming the nWo wasn't a bad idea, even if it only lasted a month. Actually, without a payoff to the angle, it's kind of hard to even say anything about it.

1. The worst moment in the history of wrestling: Nash jobs the title to Hogan on Nitro, reforming the nWo. I remember sitting and watching WCW blow its own title off. The promotion wouldn't be far behind. It negated three things at once -

(1) Kevin Nash's marketability and legitimacy as WCW Title holder not long after winning the belt from the monster Goldberg.

(2) It blew to pieces Goldberg's entire streak and set him on the road to land of no storyline, turfed by politics.

(3) Hogan's legitimacy, as in one moment he turned from a wrestler to a joke. Not that he wasn't a joke before, but he was more of a joke.

That moment was true horror. Because Starrcade brought it toppling down. WCW might have had a shot in the ratings war after Starrcade, but they blew it. Halloween Havoc '98 was very decent.

I haven't gotten around to looking at the Flair v. Michaels and the Flair v. Hart matches on the WWF Invasion '92 tape, so for now this week's match is the second greatest match from 2000, the three-way ladder match from WM. It stole the show and made everything afterwards look bad.

PART ONE OF THE MATCH: Christian and Matt run a sequence in the ring. A lot going on as we start. Spinning heel kick by Edge on D-Von. Bubba Ray on Biff in the ring. Biff hits a corkscrew moonsault on Bubba Ray. Backdrop by Bubba is followed by a full nelson bomb. Christian sets up the ladder in the ring and Matt and him do a sequence. Both teams attack the Dudleyz. Bubba eats ladder. Hardyz corner spot on the ladder. Ladder clothesline by E/C. Slam on the ladder by Matt on D-Von. Matt hits an elbow off the top rope as Biff holds him. DDT by Biff on Bubba. Jeff put Bubba Ray on a ladder, and then goes for the 450, but misses it and hits his leg. Inverted DDT by Christian on Matt, as Bubba slams Biff and hits a senton on the ladder which is *on* Biff. Edge rides a ladder down on Matt Hardy's leg HBK style. D-Von hits a slam on Edge and puts him under the ladder. D-Von hits a legdrop on the ladder, which the camera misses. Bubba gets up and does the Terry Funk spinning ladder spot, which knocks out everyone. He raises the ladder and gets a mix of cheers and boos. Blondes hit a stungun on a ladder propped in the corner after hitting a VanLaddinator on Bubba. Christian hits a vicious plancha from the ladder to the floor. HOLY SHIT chant. He hit Matt and Bubba Ray, for those of you counting. Biff climbs the ladder, but Edge SPEARS him off. Another HOLY SHIT chant for that one. Edge sets up the ladder, and climbs. Matt CRUCIFIX POWERBOMBS HIM OFF THE LADDER. Matt climbs, but D-Von gorilla presses him to the mat. D-Von climbs, but Christian throws a ladder at him. Christian and Bubba Ray set up ladders. Bubba Ray hits a BUBBA CUTTER OFF OF THE TOP OF A LADDER. HOLY SHIT CHANT, and twice as vicious as the Dream Cutter Dreamer hit Justin Credible with. Great spot. Matt and Biff hit rolling thunder on Bubba Ray from the ladders. Jeff gets thrown to the floor. An odd turn of events let the Blondes double suplex D-Von Dudley off of the top rope, over two ladders to the mat. Bubba gets thrown to the steps by Biff. The double ladder climb begins. Christian hits a facebuster on Biff, and Edge hits a legsweep: both off the ladder. The triple ladder climb starts. Everyone falls off, but in THE spot of the year, Christian and Biff fall off the ladder in the ring to the floor. Wow. Everyone else goes down except the Dudleys.

PART TWO OF THE MATCH: Dudleyz sandwich Christian in between ladders to some cheers. Edge gets 3D to a big pop. This becomes important later. Dudleyz go for the tables, to enormous crowd reaction. Ross says something like: "The WWF: truly unbelievable!" I can rationalize the psychology of the tables being set up. They put a table between the two ladders set up in the middle of the ring, and they climb. Hardyz come back, and they fight the Duds. Heel heat for that. Tables are scattered everywhere. Matt slingshots Bubba Ray outside. In the ring, D-Von sets up a ladder and tries to go off it through Biff (failing) just as Bubba Ray tries to powerbomb Matt OFF the Spanish Announcer Table through a table (succeeding). Both vicious spots. Good work by D-Von in this match. Biff tries a rail run but Bubba Ray hits him IN THE FACE with the ladder. Interestingly enough, Bubba Ray sets up a twenty foot ladder in the entrance way. He sets up a table. Biff fights back, removes his shirt, and causually, with little to no effort, swanton bombs Bubba Ray Dudley though the table. Offhand, I'd say that both of them are dead. Ocean cyclone suplex by D-Von on Christian back in the ring. D-Von tries to climb the ladder, but Matt Hardy administers the Twist of Fate. Matt and the Blondes climb. Matt is on the table between the ladders, but Edge pushes him off through a table below and the Blondes grab the belts. *****

Just an amazing exhibition. Perfect timing and ladder match psychology (as I believe it's called) by all six guys. The right booking decision as well. But in the booking, I think most of the smarks reviewing this match has missed what is perhaps its most brilliant consequence.

Think about the status of all three teams then and now.

Pre-Mania: Hardyz were faces, Blondes were tweeners, Dudleyz were heels.
Post-Mania: Dudleyz are face, Hardyz are tweeners, and Blondes are heels.

A triple switch. A triple switch. Perhaps it wasn't Austin-Hart WM13, but amazing nonetheless. Great storyline here and the best ladder match ever.

I'm back later with a review of a tape, and a new column come Monday. Hit me with feedback at gould41@aol.com.