I couldn't find myself caring about them back then.

Between about 2000 and 2005, the WWF failed to give a lot of its women personalities. Only the WWF could have made beautiful women boring with those interminable Diva Search contests. And not only were they interminable, but pointless too. After all, it didn't matter who won those contests, a lot of the other women were hired too.

Now, some women did develop skills on the WWF's watch. Trish Stratus seemed to go from being eye candy to a talented superstar. Mickie James was talented, I had seen some of her work as Alexis Laree. There were some talented women (Victoria was a favourite of mine), but some of them weren't any good at all, including the backstage interviewers. Thank goodness the WWF progressed beyond the "eye candy" years.

I have zero issue with beautiful women - in a certain context. But interminable segments on Raw back in the day made me lose the will to live.

I just wanted to let you know that I just don't like the term "Divas" that WWE used for the Championship Belt during that time frame.





I think this belt is one of the most idiotical belt ever created ...

NWA Powerrr Ep 11....

New episode came early, due to the holidays.

Replay of Marty Scurll and the ambush on Tim Storm.

Trevor Murdoch and Zicky Dice at the podium, with Dave Marquez. trevor announces he has been awarded an NWA contract and proceeds to make fun of Dice's wardrobe. He cuts a pretty good promo. They are both interrupted by the former Elijah Burke, now known as Pope (formerly D'Angelo Dinero, in TNA), who talks about creating his own group, Dice asks what about him and Pope smiles and leaves to join the commentators for the first TV Title qualifying match, between Ricky Starks and Eddie Kingston.

They put up a 6:05 timeclock on the screen, with a box around it and the clock counts down to zero as the match progresses, while the border of the box decreases, like a status bar, in reverse. Lots of back and forth with the smaller Starks and Kingston. Kingston comes off the ropes and actually drops into a headlock on Starks and I don't think I have seen one of those in over a decade. Starks uses ipact maneuvers off the ropes and corners, while Kingston shugs uff punches and slaps. Starks gets a modified Tiger Driver 91 into a face buster (called it a Buster Keaton) for the win and advances in thr tournament.

Another replay of the attack on Tim Storm and Royce Isaacs comes out with a hooker....I mean, May Valentine, his "girlfriend"/valet or whatever. She actually is a wrestler, Lizzie Valentine, who was trained by Homicide and worked on MTV's Wrestle society X and for a short time in TNA. he acts like an idiot around her and challenges anyone to a singles match and out comes James Storm, which has Isaacs backing down. he keeps stalling about entering the ring, gets comfort from Valentine, then Storm grabs him from behind and puts a hurtin' on him. Isaacs eventually bails with his "lady of negotiable affection" and gets counted out of the ring.

Eli Drake comes out to cut a promo, with an empty champagne bottle. Here's a tip, if you want to look like you are drunk, it helps to actually have liquid in the bottle that you are drinking from. Jocephus and some female are out to sing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" (Jocephus has a pretty good singing voice) and they are both in Santa outfits. Drake joins in to mess it up and act the buffoon. No real point to this but entertain the crowd, I guess. This was all taped with the PPV; so, I assume they were filling time with this stuff.

Aldis and his band of stooges come out. he gives them gifts of warm up jackets with their names. Marquez asks him again about Ricky Morton's remarks last week and calls out Morton and Gibson. Morton clarifies that Aldis has built things over the last two years; but, the Rock N Roll Express, Dusty, magnum, Flair and Harley Race built the Alliance over their lifetime. he apologizes to Aldis for any offense and Aldis accepts, then gives a warning to Morton which he blows off. They are actually building for a singles match between Morton and Aldis. Morton had several exciting title matches against Flair and they actually considered putting the belt on him, at one point. Flair loved his work and would sell for him.

6-person tag match: Allysin Kay, ODB & Ashley Vox vs Melina, Thunder Rosa & Marti Belle. Thunder carries the match on her side, as Melina is pretty damn rusty and unimpressive and Bell still does to much running from the corner and doesn't know how to work holds. ODB and Kay do power moves, while Vox hits aerial stuff. Stipulation that whoever gets the pinfall gets to name a singles opponent for a future match. Thunder gets Vox in a shoulder breaker (she is working an injury angle from the PPV) and a tombstone pile drive for the win. She is about to name her opponent when Melina interrupts and says it is ODB. Rosa is surprised but goes along with it. Looks like they are setting her up for her face turn a the crowd loves her. Still don't see the big deal about Melina, aside from being a valet and wrestler in the WWE. She hasn't cut memorable promos or shown much in the ring.

Some woman draws next two names for the TV Title qualifying matches and it is Tim Storm and Nick Aldis and Storm cuts a great babyface promo, paraphrases a bit of Dusty and lights a fire under the crowd. The old NWA wasted this guy and I think he just took a long time to find his voice.

Question Mark vs Colt Cabana in a TV Title qualifying match. Good back and forth with Colt coming off the top rope and getting a Mongrovian Spike to the throat. Backstage promo from Aron Stevens, saying QM will win the TV Title, he has the National Title, they want the tag belts and then he will go for the World title.

Decent show with more promos than matches. QM and Tim Storm are the most over with the crowd, plus Thunder Rosa. They guys who do the This Is THe NWA and the Post-Show recaps were in the crowd, as is the Tennessee Santa (in the orange). Still not sure if Jocephus is going to continue his old gimmick, apart from spots with the crowd or is going full time as Question Mark. he is also a producer and has backstage duties. he goes back to Bill Corgan's revolution Pro Wrestling promotion, before he bought the NWA trademarks and properties.

Eli Drake continues to do his Rock imitation, without saying anything or producing high quality matches. I still don't get the attraction to this guy; but, he is positioned as one of the top stars, along with Aldis, Tim Storm, and James Storm. Opening titles feature Aldis, James Storm, Drake, Thunder Rosa,Kamille, Colt Cabana, Melina and Question Mark.

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat is one of my favourite wrestlers (of all time).

I remember enjoying seeing him return to the WWF in 1991. He was on such a roll. I enjoyed the six-man tag match that he, Texas Tornado and Davey Boy Smith had against the Warlord and Power & Glory at SummerSlam 1991. The Dragon was supposed to be at Survivor Series 1991, teaming with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Texas Tornado vs Col. Mustafa, Big Bully Busick, Berzerker and Skinner. Dragon was feuding with Skinner at the time. Anyway, Dragon left WWF before this event and Jim Neidhart didn't appear on the card for whatever reason (they were replaced by El Matador and Sgt. Slaughter; meanwhile, Hercules replaced Big Bully Busick).

Although I was gutted to see Steamboat leave the WWF, he did soar high (like all good dragons should!) in WCW, having many great matches, including a 30-minute iron man match against Rick Rude (Beach Blast 1992) and a TV bout against Scott Steiner.

My point? Back when wrestling had real competition, if a wrestler was at a loose end, or not doing much, he could become fresh just by jumping ship. The Dragon probably wasn't being utilised that well by the WWF, but he went stratospheric in WCW. Same with Lex Luger. At SummerSlam 1993, he's challenging for the WWF Championship; at SummerSlam 1994, he's wrestling against Tatanka for lame bragging rights pertaining to who has sold out to Ted DiBiase; and at SummerSlam 1995, he didn't even wrestle on the card, instead performing a run in during the main event between Diesel and King Mabel. So when he jumped ship to WCW, it freshened him up, leading to main event bouts and a world title reign.

So let's hope that NWA Powerrr and AEW can become competition to the WWF because jumping ship is good for wrestlers and it's good for fans.

I think i remember reading that Jim Neidhart was fired that year from the WWF .

Also Hulk Hogan said his match on the first Wrestlemania  almost didn't happen, Mister T had second thoughts about it .

To be honest, Wicked Mountain, I take a lot of wrestling autobiographies with a pinch of salt.