The History of WWE SummerSlam (1994)

Taker vs. Taker - what a shitshow.....

SummerSlam '94 - United Center - 8/29/94

This here is about half of a good PPV.  The summer of '94 in the WWF was largely centered around the Bret vs. Owen feud, which was fantastic.  It would come to a head at SummerSlam, as the two brothers dueled in a steel cage.  Unfortunately the match didn't quite live up to my expectations, nor was it even the main event of the show.

Bizarrely they decided to have the returning Undertaker (absent since January after losing a Casket Match to Yokozuna) fight his doppelganger in the main event of SummerSlam, without really establishing first that the doppelganger was a fake.  Ted Dibiase showed up on WWF TV and announced Taker's return, then brought him out to wrestle.  And it was fairly obvious this was not Mark Callaway, but not obvious enough that we the audience could see where they were going with it.  It was as though Callaway had been fired and they tried in earnest to pass off impostor Brian Lee as the same man.  Then suddenly there were house show cards being booked with two separate Undertakers, but none of this was mentioned in the actual storylines.  And then the announcement came that at SummerSlam the main event would be Undertaker vs. Undertaker.  Just a very sloppily thrown-together angle.

Wait, why is Taker in the ring with that cosplayer?

The History of WWE SummerSlam (1993)

Welcome to the most mediocre PPV ever, SummerSlam 1993!

SummerSlam '93 - Palace of Auburn Hills - 8/30/93

Here's a show steeped in mediocrity.  SummerSlam '93 is an odd case of a PPV event providing neither highs nor lows.  Every match except one (Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzales) is watchable, but almost none of them are memorable.

The big story going into this show was the rise of Lex Luger as the All-American hero who bodyslammed Yokozuna on the 4th of July.  Luger had been using the goofy Narcissist heel persona that understandably didn't light the world afire, and with the departure of Hulk Hogan the company felt it needed another musclebound superhero to build the company around.  Luger toured the country in a bus to promote the event, and all signs pointed to him becoming the next WWF Champion and posterboy.

The match itself was underwhelming.  It wasn't a bad match per se, but also not terribly exciting.  Luger winning the Championship would've at least provided the big moment the bout (and PPV) needed but strangely the company didn't pull the trigger, instead booking a countout win for Luger, complete with a post-match victory celebration generally reserved for an actual Title win.  This moment was just baffling; Luger and other babyfaces basking in the glory of his All-American win......by countout.  Just bizarre.

YAAAAYYYY!!  Congratulations Lex, on winning........nothing.

NJPW G1 Climax 35 Preview & Predictions

Well this snuck up on me fast.  It's already that time again - the most grueling four weeks in pro wrestling, the NJPW G1 Climax tournament!  The company is still scrambling to find the next It Guy to build the company around, and while there are numerous promising contenders to the throne, the new Ace has yet to fully emerge....

It's been a very challenging time in NJPW.  With a host of really strong talent JUST BELOW the very top, there hasn't been an obvious choice yet to truly succeed the retiring Hiroshi Tanahashi or the departed Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito.  Nor have Zack Sabre Jr., David Finlay or Gabe Kidd quite filled the void left by their gaijin predecessors Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay and Jay White.  The G1 can help the cream rise to the top, but the fans need to connect with and plunk down their money for the Ace before he can be considered as such.  This tournament has a ton of young talent but is missing the usual star power, with Naito gone and Tanahashi nowhere near his peak.  Even perennial G1 MVP Tomohiro Ishii is absent this year.

Still there is plenty of in-ring ability on display in these two blocks, and hopefully our next top star will cement himself in this tournament.

Let's look at the blocks below:

Block A: Boltin Oleg, Evil, David Finlay, Callum Newman, Ryohei Oiwa, Sanada, Taichi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura

Block B: El Phantasmo, Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney, Ren Narita, Great-O-Khan, Zack Sabre Jr., Shingo Takagi, Konosuke Takeshita, Shota Umino, Yoshi-Hashi

 

As always I'll only go through the individual names who have a snowball's chance in hell of winning this thing (or at least their respective blocks), rather than the entire field.  

Block A: Evil, David Finlay, Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura

Block B: Gabe Kidd, Zack Sabre Jr., Shingo Takagi, Konosuke Takeshita, Shota Umino

The History of WWE SummerSlam (1992)

This right here is a helluva SummerSlam - emanating from Wembley Stadium, this show turned the WWF formula on its head.....

SummerSlam '92 - Wembley Stadium - 8/29/92

Now this is a fuckin' SummerSlam.  The 1992 edition was not only the best PPV of the year, but would remain the best SummerSlam PPV until at least 1997.  This show featured two very good to excellent main event matches, some decent midcard bouts, and very little filler.

The World Title match between Randy Savage and Warrior probably wasn't quite up to their WM7 match, but this was still good stuff.  The face vs. face dynamic added a new wrinkle and these two both worked hard to pull off an epic.  Inserting Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect into this angle was pretty stupid, as the feud became a bickering contest about which babyface sold out by hiring Mr. Perfect.  As it turned out the answer was "neither."  Flair and Perfect showed up and more or less ruined the ending of the match.  I'm actually not sure why Flair wasn't given his own match for this show.  Still a fine WWF Title match, even if it would be massively upstaged later in the evening.

These two were really fighting over who
had the more obnoxious outfit.

The History of WWE SummerSlam (1991)

We've reached the early 90s, when the WWF presented a pretty bad SummerSlam that everyone for some reason remembers very fondly.......

SummerSlam '91 - Madison Square Garden - 8/26/91

Time for some more mediocrity with SummerSlam '91, which many fans strangely hail as a classic.  I'll grant that it was a somewhat stacked show where multiple feuds were blown off, but there's very little good wrestling here.  The Savage-Elizabeth wedding angle also took up way too much time and probably should've happened on free TV to set up Savage's return to the ring.

The main event was the continuation of one of the least fun feuds in wrestling history, Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter.  I cannot believe the WWF was still trying to exploit the Persian Gulf War six months after it ended.  Just pitiful.  This time it was Hogan teaming with Warrior against Slaughter, Col. Mustafa (a repackaged Iron Sheik, as though we wouldn't recognize him), and Slaughter's manager Gen. Adnan.  Here's a question, if Slaughter was the lowest ranked of the trio, why was he the leader?  Anyway the match stunk and was notable only for the inclusion of Sid Justice as the guest referee, and for being Warrior's last match for a while after backstage contractual shenanigans led to his firing.

The match this show is most remembered for was Mr. Perfect vs. Bret Hart for the I-C Title.  This would be Perfect's final match for over a year as nagging injuries forced him to the sidelines.  This match was quite good (though I don't rate it as highly as most do), and Bret's singles career took off from this point.  Given how much pain he was in, Perfect did a helluva job elevating "The Hitman."

Perfect submitted the second the hold was applied.
Given his real-life back issues this is not surprising.

The History of WWE SummerSlam (1990)

The 1990 edition was a major step down from the first two, which were flawed shows to begin with.  This one's pretty terrible....

SummerSlam '90 - Philadelphia Spectrum - 8/27/90

What a mess this show was.  They tried to cram 10 matches in, only 9 of which happened due to a forfeit, the WWF Champion was given an opponent who was never built up to be a World Title contender, thus stripping the main event of any suspense, and Hulk Hogan was once again paired with an obese monster heel.

First we'll highlight the good parts: The Rockers fought the new tag team of Hercules and Paul Roma, dubbed Power & Glory in more of an angle than a match.  Shawn Michaels was "injured" at the outset, leaving Marty Janetty in a handicap situation.  But it was a nice introduction of the new heel team, who unfortunately never got much traction after this.

The Hart Foundation once again challenged Demolition for the Tag belts, this time in a 2 out of 3 falls match.  And once again the Harts stole the show at SummerSlam, supplying 15 minutes of solid tag team action.  The Harts finally won the Titles and the recently-debuted Legion of Doom were set up to feud with their WWF imitators.

The main event cage match between The Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude was a pretty good ten-minute bout.  Nowhere near as good as their 'Slam '89 match, but not bad at all.  Unfortunately Rude hadn't ever been positioned as a serious WWF Championship challenger and since Warrior defeated him the previous year (and a month before this PPV on Saturday Night's Main Event) there wasn't much heat for this match.  Rude would leave the WWF shortly after this.  Sadly for Warrior he was never really pushed as the #1 guy in the company after winning the Title from Hogan.

The History of WWE SummerSlam (1989)

Welcome back to our History of SummerSlam series!  We're picking up where we left off, with the second edition, for me a considerable improvement on the first....

SummerSlam '89 - Meadowlands Arena - 8/28/89

The sophomore 'Slam holds a special place for me.  It was far from a perfect show but at the time it just felt like a big deal, and from a star power perspective it was a pretty stacked PPV.  I was at the Saturday Night's Main Event taping a month prior when the company started building in earnest toward SummerSlam, so I really got into the hype for this show.

Following the tag team main event template from the previous year's show, the WWF continued the huge MegaPowers feud by teaming Hulk Hogan up with Brutus Beefcake against Randy Savage and Hogan's onscreen nemesis in the film No Holds Barred, Zeus.  The fact that WWF Champion Hogan's main feud for the summer of 1989 was against costar "Tiny" Lister who, according to the storyline "became lost in the character," was truly moronic.  But they built Zeus up as an invincible killing machine who was impervious to chair shots.  Sadly they didn't bother teaching him how to wrestle, as his moveset consisted of choking, punching his opponents' trapezius muscles, and more choking.  The match itself was very similar to the 'Slam '88 main event, but not as good.  Savage worked hard to make the match exciting though, and despite one of the stupidest endings ever (Hogan completely no-sold Savage's elbowsmash and then knocked Zeus out with Sensational Sherri's tiny purse - what was in there, a roll of uranium quarters??) it was still a fun, dumb 80s main event.

Watch your junk goin' over those ropes, Zeusy-boy.

The undercard however had a triumvirate of awesome bouts.

The History of WWE SummerSlam (1988)

From the wrestling-obsessed maniac who brought you the History of WrestleMania series (me, obviously), welcome to The History of SummerSlam!!

Since 1988 WWE's SummerSlam has been the flagship PPV of the summer season.  More often than not it's the secondary tentpole of WWE's calendar, almost like WrestleMania's little brother.  Storylines are built throughout the season, and when done properly, culminate with the summer spectacular.

As a fan I've found over the years that SummerSlam is almost an underrated series - WrestleMania gets so much hype and attention (and I tend to rewatch those matches so frequently), I often overlook how many great matches and moments have taken place at the #2 show of the year.  Many times the little brother has overshadowed his attention-grabbing counterpart.  Don't believe me?  Let's take a trip down WrestleMemory Lane!

SummerSlam '88 - Madison Square Garden - 8/29/88

The inaugural 'Slam followed fairly closely the formula created by the original WrestleMania.  Madison Square Garden?  Check.  Huge tag team main event?  Check.  Special guest referee?  Check.  Odd assortment of house show matches between guys who weren't really feuding?  Check.  Pretty strange really. 

The main event of this show was enormous - for the first time ever WWF Champion Randy Savage would team with Hulk Hogan as The MegaPowers against common enemies Andre the Giant and Ted Dibiase.  The announcement of this match blew my 12-year-old mind, as did the addition of guest ref Jesse "The Body" Ventura.  The match itself falls into the same category as Hogan-Andre '87.  Not great from a workrate standpoint but a whole helluvalotta fun.  The angle with Elizabeth stripping down to her skivvies as a distraction was pretty stupid, particularly since they failed to deliver on the promise of a bikini.  But otherwise a fun match.

AEW All In Texas Review: Hangman Adam Page Saves AEW

AEW All In Texas was a truly epic wrestling show, pushing the boundaries of how much hot graps an audience can endure.  The main show was an astonishing SIX hours, and yet somehow aside from a few lulls during the less important matches, the Arlington crowd was up for all of it, especially the main event.  That the fans were so nuclear for Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Page so far into the show says a lot about how compelling this story has been.  Compare that with WrestleMania 35 for example, where the WWE audience was super excited for Becky Lynch to headline the show, until she actually did, five and a half hours later in front of an exhausted crowd.  The level of heat for a match so deep into a show is in itself a remarkable achievement.  This was one of those shows where you want to say "That was amazing, Tony.  Now let's never do that again." 

The Texas Death Match was as expected a veritable bloodbath with a bunch of interference at the end.  But the rest of the show was wisely booked without blood and without much outside the ring shenanigans, to set the main event apart.  Mox and Page used lots of weapons (the most visceral moment came early when Page took out a fork and in real time poked holes in Mox's forehead), built to lots of false finishes, and incorporated run-ins by not only the Death Riders but Will Ospreay, the Young Bucks, and a returning Bryan Danielson and Darby Allin; the latter repelled from the stadium's ceiling.  But it was the involvement of Swerve Strickland that proved the most memorable, as after Prince Nana handcuffed Marina Shafir to a table, Swerve knocked out the Bucks with the chain Hangman had given him on Collision and slid it into the ring.  As Swerve looked on smiling, Hangman used the chain to once again choke Moxley out (after hitting a Buckshot Lariat that deposited Mox on a bed of nails), shades of their previous Texas Death Match.  Moxley sold this brilliantly, flailing for his life for several seconds, before tapping out.  And Globe Life Field EXPLODED in cheers.  This was one of the all-time great match-ending pops, the culmination of literal years of the emotional roller coaster that has been Hangman's arc.  Another incredible pop followed soon after, as Page finally freed the AEW Title from its briefcase prison and held it up, tears in his eyes.  An absolute masterpiece of a Texas Death match, followed by chill-inducing catharsis.  ******

Top Ten Things: Weird Al Yankovic Albums, RANKED

Welcome to another Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!

Today I'll be talking about a musical legend.  And a comedy legend.  And a certified genius (Seriously, he skipped second grade and was senior year valedictorian at sixteen).

Weird Al Yankovic burst into the American lexicon in 1984 with an off-beat parody of a Michael Jackson hit, and has somehow managed to build a hugely successful thirty-plus-year career lampooning our most cherished pop music stars.  As an eight-year-old Michael Jackson fanatic I was initially offended that anyone would parody one of his songs, but Al won me over when I first saw the video for "Eat It."  Here was a dorky, bespectacled nerd mimicking all of Jackson's dance moves (badly I might add) and conjuring comedy from already-tired rock video imagery.  By age twelve I'd bought all of Al's records, and I've been a huge fan ever since.  In 2000 I got to see Al from the front row, and he even yelled at me for not singing along to "Dare to Be Stupid."  It was indeed a privilege.  Twenty-two years later I took my son to see his Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, a proud inter-generational moment. 

Despite originating as a zany novelty act on comedy radio, Weird Al's career has endured a staggering four decades.  For many artists, being parodied by Al is a badge of honor, a sign that they've truly "made it."  Al is like a pop culture mirror, making light of our society's latest fads and popular music heroes.  While he seems to be all done putting out full albums, he still pops up every so often with a new video to remind us he's still out there, ready to either lampoon or pay homage to whatever's grabbing headlines.

Here now Weird Al Yankovic's albums, ranked....

14. Polka Party!

It should come as no surprise that the album which nearly derailed Al's career ranks last.  Without the benefit of a strong single to help move sales ("Livin' With a Hernia" is a fun James Brown parody but didn't exactly light up the charts the way "Eat It" or "Like a Surgeon" did), Polka Party! would need to overachieve as a cohesive album.  Sadly it did not; the album's parodies tackled mostly less-than-memorable material, while its originals were largely pretty pedestrian.  The Talking Heads-inspired "Dog Eat Dog" and the Phil Spector-style "Christmas at Ground Zero" serve as a pair of standouts, but beyond those, Polka Party! lacks a strong catalogue of original tunes to make up for the rather uninspired slate of parodies.  Thankfully Al's career would resurge in a big way two years later with the release of Even Worse.

Key Tracks: Livin' With a Hernia, Dog Eat Dog, Christmas at Ground Zero

13. Alapalooza

Cashing in on both the mammoth success of Jurassic Park and the alternative music tour Lollapalooza, Al's 8th album dropped in 1993 and didn't quite make the splash its predecessor Off the Deep End did.  It probably didn't help that the lead single was a parody of an old 1960s tune rather than a hot 1993 alternative chart-topper (though Al's "Jurassic Park" song is pretty great).  Al did send up the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge," with mixed results (RHCP bassist Flea expressed disappointment in Al's choice of The Flintstones as the song's inspiration), and Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge," returning to the subject of food, in this case the kind that's been in the fridge too long.  The original songs on this album were a letdown for me, aside from the excellent REM-esque "Frank's 2000" TV."  To my mind "Traffic Jam," "Waffle King" and "She Never Told Me She Was a Mine" sounded like outtakes from previous albums.  But Alapalooza does finish strong with "Bohemian Polka," a sped-up, accordion-driven version of Queen's megahit "Bohemian Rhapsody."  Overall though, Alapalooza is one of his weakest efforts, and the worst of his 1990s output.

Key Tracks: Jurassic Park, Frank's 2000" TV, Bohemian Polka

12. Straight Outta Lynwood

Notable for boasting Al's highest-charting single "White & Nerdy" (a parody of "Ridin" by Chamillionaire), Al's 12th album was from a commercial standpoint another career highlight.  Other parodies include "Canadian Idiot," based of course on Green Day's "American Idiot," "Confessions Part III," a sendup of Usher's "Confessions Part II," and the epic "Trapped in the Drive Thru" based on R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet."  The originals on this album are quite varied, with "Pancreas" parodying the style of The Beach Boys, "I'll Sue Ya" capturing the sound of Rage Against the Machine, and probably the strongest original "Don't Download This Song" going after 1980s all-star charity tunes like "We Are the World."  Overall SOL is ambitious and sonically diverse, but not all of it landed for me.  Still it was satisfying to see Al achieve such mainstream success once again.

Key Tracks: White & Nerdy, Pancreas, Don't Download This Song

11. Bad Hair Day

Falling just shy of the top ten is Al's 1996 return to prominence after the critical and commercial disappointment of Alapalooza.  The ninth album in Al's catalog surged to double-platinum status largely on the back of "Amish Paradise," a parody of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."  Coolio infamously disapproved of Al using his song as comedy fodder and publicly objected, though Al did get written permission from Coolio's management to use the song.  This was ironic considering the Coolio tune is itself a reworking of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise."  Aside from the hit single, Bad Hair Day boasts an excellent parody of Presidents of the USA's "Lump," about Forrest Gump, some standout originals such as "Everything You Know is Wrong" the a cappella "Since You've Been Gone," and "The Night Santa Went Crazy," and maybe his best-ever polka medley, "The Alternative Polka," which makes use of numerous mid-90s grunge and alternative hits.  Bad Hair Day is a bit uneven but contains enough standout tunes to almost make the vaunted top ten.

Key Tracks: Amish Paradise, The Alternative Polka, Gump

10. UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff

The soundtrack to Al's 1989 summer flop sadly didn't fare much better than its film counterpart, but it did contain some fun parodies and solid originals, plus a few snippets of the film itself.  Al's spoof of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," which is essentially the Beverly Hillbillies theme set to different music, was accompanied by an excellent sendup of the Straits video.  Other highlights were "Spam," based on REM's "Stand," and two hilarious originals, "Generic Blues," which literally just recycles all the woe-is-me blues lyrical tropes, and folk-rock epic "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota," which recounts in great detail a trip to go see the World's Largest Twine Ball (Yes, such a thing actually exists).  Released at a time when a) the summer movie season was quite cluttered (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Star Trek V, and Lethal Weapon 2), and b) Weird Al's record sales were somewhat contingent on including a Michael Jackson parody, this album and film kinda got lost in the shuffle (though UHF has since become a cult classic).  But it's not too shabby at all and shows evidence of Al's growth as a musician.

Key Tracks: Generic Blues, Spam, The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota

9. Dare to Be Stupid

Al's third album, and the first musical comedy album to see a CD release, showed that Al was growing beyond his reputation as "that funny guy who does the Michael Jackson parody."  With songs like "Like a Surgeon," "I Want a New Duck," and the superb "Yoda" (based on The Kinks' "Lola"), Al was attempting to last beyond the fifteen-minute lifespan most gave him.  But it's in the original songs where this album really achieves.  Style parodies like the hilariously descriptive doo-wop ballad "One More Minute" and the Devo-inspired title track demonstrated Al's gift for recreating different genres (Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh once said that "Dare to Be Stupid" captured the exact sound he himself had been trying to create).

Key Tracks: Dare to Be Stupid, One More Minute, Yoda

Movie Review: Superman (2025)

In the words with which New York Times critic Janet Maslin kicked off her 1982 review of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, "Well that's more like it."

James Gunn's new Superman film is just the cinematic rebirth this character and his mythos needed after decades of failed reboots and reinventions, tacked-on latent sequels, and joyless, unpleasant "realistic" takes.  I've said for a long time that Superman is a simple character, but simultaneously a very easy one to screw up.  He needs to be a paragon of virtue and a symbol of hope, but also needs real human frailty and uncertainty to make him relatable to us screwed up mortals.  He needs to be nigh invincible but still vulnerable, both physically and especially emotionally.  Gunn and his collaborators have threaded this needle so deftly I found myself choking up at numerous points during this film.  Turns out there was a very simple but vital ingredient missing from Zack Snyder's dour Superman films: pathos.

AEW All In Texas Preview & Predictions

It's finally here, the biggest AEW show of 2025, All In Texas!  

At a time when AEW finally feels like it has real momentum and is becoming the hot wrestling promotion again (partly thanks to an incredibly dull, I mean more than usual, WWE product), what this company needs is another defining PPV event, like they had four years ago at All Out.  And this All In lineup fits that bill nicely.  The product has felt very focused in 2025 and the build for this show has been among the best for any PPV in company history.  The 25,000 or so in attendance this Saturday will no doubt be a very enthusiastic mob, comprising AEW's biggest North American crowd to date.  This is an historic show already, as the largest non-WWE wrestling gate ever on this continent.  And if the results are booked as expected there will be plenty of history to go around.

Men's Casino Gauntlet

This show will have not one but two Casino Gauntlet matches, which I'm not crazy about, but both should be entertaining and they've done a good job of building stories to be contained within them, as opposed to just throwing a bunch of people in the ring.  We know for sure Mark Briscoe and MJF will kick things off, and the build for just their exchanges has been pretty sharply drawn.  Mistico will also appear as well as Ricochet, Bandido, and Brody King.  Lotta good star power and athleticism already.  I assume we'll see Takeshita, Samoa Joe, Claudio, Hobbs, Gabe Kidd and Wheeler as well (unless they add a Trios Title match to the card, which I wouldn't be sad about).  Anyway the story seems to be building toward MJF getting another crack at the AEW Title at long last, so I'm picking him to win this.

Pick: MJF

Oscar Film Journal: Patton (1970)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

One of several calendar years where I have serious holes in my game is the year 1970.  Of the five nominees I'd only ever seen Five Easy Pieces, and that was decades ago (I'll need to give that a rewatch at some point).  So I decided to start at the top of the list and watch the Best Picture winner, Patton, starring George C. Scott as the titular controversial World War II General.

Patton is both a character study and a war film (some might even call it anti-war), which focuses specifically on George S. Patton's exploits and views the war mostly through his eyes.  We begin with the famous speech to his men, in the iconic opening scene depicting the General standing in front of a giant US flag that fills the entire frame, Patton himself lined up perfectly with the bottom edge, as though he's on a stage speaking directly to the audience.  This speech conveys a ton of information about the man, just through his attitude toward war.  "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country," he tells his troops, "He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country."  To call George Patton a war hawk would be an understatement.  War was his entire raison d'être.  "I love it more than my own life," he tells a colleague.  His passion for battle was so well-known even the German Captain Steiger, who had studied Patton's career, pitied his imminent obsolescence as the Allies took Berlin.  

Movie Review: Sinners (2025)

Hollywood is still battling to bring people back to the cinemas in a marketplace soaked to the skin with at-home streaming content, and one of its early 2025 success stories is Ryan Coogler's latest film Sinners.  Shot on a combination of 65mm and IMAX film stock, Sinners is a period vampire film set in the Jim Crow South of the early 1930s.  Twin entrepreneurs of sorts Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore (a charismatic double performance by Michael B. Jordan) return home to Mississippi after a stint in Chicago gangland, with the intention of opening up a "juke joint," a house of live music, drinking and dancing, catered primarily to black clientele.  They recruit their cousin Sammie (a very natural Miles Caton), a prodigious blues guitarist, as one of the club's featured talents, as well as a host of friends and acquaintances to work on their staff.  The Juke Club's grand opening seems to be a rousing success, but things begin to go very awry when those damn vampires show up.....

***Some spoilers ahead***

Awesomely Shitty Movies: The Patriot

Hello and welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies at Enuffa.com, where I analyze and interpret a piece of cinematic art/product and try to decide whether it's awesome or shitty.

This week I thought I'd revisit the 2000 Mel Gibson historical epic The Patriot, directed by Roland Emmerich (of Independence Day fame) and co-starring the late Heath Ledger.

The Patriot tells the story of Benjamin Martin, a widower and veteran of the French-Indian War who has retired to his home in Charleston, SC with his seven children.  As tensions mount between the American colonies and Great Britain, Martin is called upon to vote on the formation of a Continental Army.  He refuses to support such a measure, fearing no good will come of a war with England, but the Army is approved regardless, and his eldest son Gabriel enlists.  From there the Revolutionary War escalates, and after the ruthless English Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs) kills Martin's son Thomas, Martin finds himself fully embroiled in the War and becomes one of the Americans' most skillful military leaders.  What follows is a dramatic, action-oriented historical piece covering Martin's exploits as a guerrilla fighter who vexes General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) at every turn, while Colonel Tavington counters with particularly cruel tactics.

So what worked and what didn't?  Well let's take a look....


The Awesome

Mel Gibson

As always, Gibson turns in a compelling, dynamic performance, blending his proficiency as an action-hero with his more nuanced dramatic chops to create a convincingly human protagonist.  Despite being praised as a war hero, Martin has a much more realistic view of himself as a man who has done things for which he is ashamed, and who, as a single father, can no longer afford to be the idealist he once was.  This establishes a captivating friction, both between Martin and his superiors, and between Martin and Gabriel, who wants to contribute to the war effort despite his father's objections.  During the later parts of the film the evils of battle take their toll on Martin and he feels the loss of his own humanity.  Gibson conveys all this superbly and is completely believable in the role (Again, the man's a sick asshole in real life but I'll be damned if he wasn't one of the best actors out there for a while).

Oddly this is his mugshot from that 2004 DUI.

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Independence Day

Welcome to another Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com, where I overanalyze some big dumb slab of escapist entertainment to the point that you unfriend me on social media*.

*Please don't unfriend me, I'm so lonely....

Today's victim-- er, subject is the 1996 blockbuster event picture Independence Day, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman.

Independence Day's release twenty-nine years ago was preceded by mucho fanfare, with moviegoers anticipating that generation's defining summer movie, a la Star Wars.  Its interest bolstered by promotional images of landmark buildings being decimated by giant alien saucers, ID4 made an absolute KILLING at the box office, garnering over $800 million worldwide on a $75 mil budget.  It was assumed this would be the first of a trilogy since it was supposed to sorta be the next Star Wars and it grossed a fuckton.  But oddly a sequel was never made until two decades later.  Maybe the filmmakers didn't have another story to tell.  

Anywho, you might ask yourself "Why does ID4 qualify as an Awesomely Shitty Movie?"  Well my reasons this time are slightly different than usual.  For me, this film was unabashedly awesome the first time I watched it, and agonizingly shitty on every repeat viewing.  This is a prime example of a film you should only watch one time.  Then throw it away and never speak of it again.  Don't even think about it.  You'll only break your brain and end up in a home.

So let's pick apart this ham-fisted clod of a summer movie, shall we?



The Awesome

Effects

The special effects in this movie looked amazing at the time and for the most part still look at least pretty good a few decades later.  Some of the compositing is a little messy, particularly when they show the Earth from space, but the alien craft are still convincing, the model work (which I almost always prefer over excessive CG) looks tangible and believable, and there are multiple shots in the first hour or so that still hold up.

This part still works

Alien Ships Appear

For example the moments when the giant saucers appear over the various major cities.  We see several shots of the massive ships emerging from behind the clouds and it looks great.  The filmmakers expertly conveyed the scope of the spacecraft, showing us just how insanely huge and intimidating they are.  Few things are as immediately threatening as an alien ship blocking out the sun and spanning the width of an entire city.  Super cool-looking stuff.

So does this

Iconic Imagery

This film also provided several lasting images, such as the saucer blowing up the White House, the Empire State Building, etc.  These moments would have a huge influence on Hollywood blockbusters even to this day (More on that later).  Even the poster looked boss, depicting one of the ships hovering over New York City.  The marketing team certainly earned their keep with this movie.

And this

Oscar Film Journal: Bridge of Spies (2015)

Welcome to yet another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

I'm swingin' back around to recent years, specifically a decade ago to those carefree days of 2015.  For some reason there were three recent Steven Spielberg Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen, so I've taken care of one of them here, and that's Bridge of Spies, the political drama chronicling a Cold War-era prisoner exchange between the US and the Soviet Union.

The story covers events from 1957 to 1961, kicking things off with the arrest and trial of suspected Soviet operative Rudolf Abel.  Assigned to his defense (mostly for optics) is New York insurance attorney James B. Donovan, who takes the case seriously despite the US government's intention to railroad Abel to the electric chair while putting on the charade of a fair trial.  The presiding judge makes it clear to Donovan he believes Abel to be guilty and refuses the lawyer's request to disqualify illegally obtained evidence, or even to grant a continuance so Donovan can better prepare Abel's defense.  Donovan's neighbors and even his wife also resent him for taking the case at all.  Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge not to give him the death penalty, lest any US spies be captured in the USSR and the government should be interested in a trade.  This hypothetical comes true when American spy Francis Gary Powers' U-2 surveillance plane is shot down in Soviet airspace and he is imprisoned, and the CIA enlists Donovan to facilitate an exchange (The Agency is of course too cowardly to send him as an official government representative).  Donovan is sent to Berlin to meet with a KGB agent and an East German lawyer, about Powers and another American who's been detained.  

Oscar Film Journal: The French Connection (1971)

Welcome to yet another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Still chipping away at the 1970s, today I'm talking about a film I watched years ago but didn't remember all that well, so I've given it another look.  It's the 1971 Best Picture winner, The French Connection, directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider.  The film loosely chronicles the exploits of NYC detective Eddie Egan (renamed Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the movie), who famously uncovered and helped dismantle a French heroin smuggling ring in the early 60s, as described in the 1969 non-fiction book of the same name.  Set a decade later and somewhat fictionalized, the film version plays as more of a character study of this unscrupulous, rather dirty cop whose prodigious instincts and street smarts help him sniff out this conspiracy.  Doyle's police captain Simonson (played by Eddie Egan himself) disapproves of his methods and gives him the latitude to pursue the case against his own better judgment.  The film cuts back and forth between Doyle's investigation and dingy lifestyle, and the smuggling racket.  A narrative tension is established between Doyle's correct conclusions and his ability or lack thereof to prove he's right.  Doyle and his partner "Cloudy" Russo tail the suspected principles for weeks without much success, until one of them decides to try and murder Doyle, finally creating a break in the case.

Oscar Film Journal: Jaws (1975)

Welcome to a special Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic film about a giant fish that eats people, the movie that defined the cinematic blockbuster as we know it, the project that put Steven Spielberg on the map as arguably the greatest popcorn film director of all time, Jaws!

Few things can be said about this masterpiece that others haven't already said more eloquently, but I'll say them anyway, so humor me for a bit....

Jaws was of course originally a novel conceived by former news editor Peter Benchley, after reading stories of shark attacks off Long Island.  As he put it, "I wondered what would happen if one of these things showed up and wouldn't go away."  Three years later the novel was published and became an instant sensation, and film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown snapped up the movie rights, ultimately hiring then 27-year-old Spielberg to helm the project.  The youthful, adventurous Spielberg was just the right age and experience level for this massive undertaking; he didn't yet know how backbreaking it would be to film on the water - an infamously cruel and unpredictable setting - and to deal with an even more infamously unpredictable mechanical prop as the film's centerpiece.  

Oscar Film Journal: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!  It may be summertime but there's still time for a Best Picture nominee of years past.

This one is a doozy.  It's the 1962 Best Pic winner (one of seven trophies this film took home that year), the David Lean-helmed epic Lawrence of Arabia, starring Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, Omar Sharif, and shockingly billed last with an "Introducing" credit, Peter O'Toole in his breakout role.  The film tells the somewhat true story of T.E. Lawrence, a British officer stationed in the Middle East during World War I, who led a successful Arab campaign against Turkish forces and found himself torn between British and Arabian loyalty.  Shot on 70mm film, Lawrence was a massive cinematic roadshow event, playing out over a sprawling 216 minutes plus overtures and intermission.  It proved highly influential, inspiring in many ways Frank Herbert's Dune series, the original Star Wars, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so on (Steven Spielberg cites this film as his all-time favorite and credits it as the movie that made him want to make movies).  

But does it live up to the iconic status it's achieved in the last sixty-plus years?  For me that answer is "Well, yes and no."

NJPW Dominion 2025 Preview & Predictions

This Sunday is Father's Day but it's also NJPW Dominion 2025, New Japan's second-biggest show of the year behind WrestleKingdom.  I guess technically third-biggest now that Forbidden Door exists, but that's a co-promoted show.  Anyway, this lineup looks quite solid, so let's get to it!

Bullet Club War Dogs vs. House of Torture

This is the BCWD B-team vs. three of Evil's lieutenants plus a TBA.  No idea who that'll be.  But since the War Dogs won the big match to determine who gets the Bullet Club name, I'll go with HoT to get some payback.

Pick: House of Torture

Shota Umino & El Phantasmo vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa

Very odd that Shota and ZSJ are this low on the card in some rando tag match.  Should be a good one though if it gets time.

Pick: My gut says Team Zack

WWE Money in the Bank 2025 Preview & Predictions

Time for another half-assed "premium live event" from WWE.  Ya know, I used to think PLEs and PPVs were the same thing, but WWE keeps proving that theory wrong, don't they?  AEW's Double or Nothing was an absolute banger, one of the best shows they've ever produced, easily the best show of 2025 thus far, but hold up, here comes a near-throwaway PLE from the bastion of mediocrity!

Four matches, two of them Money in the Bank ladder matches, and if you've read my stuff at all over the past several years I've been saying for a long time it's time to retire this concept.  It's a lazy, undisciplined way to elevate new stars and usually doesn't do much to elevate anyone long-term (not to mention the multi-person ladder match is so beyond played out at this point).  Surely the "Booker of the Year" can figure out an effective way to get someone over without resorting to a cheap cash-in after the champion's already wrestled.

Anyway, let's look at the lineup (For the record, only one black wrestler on the card, Naomi.  Never Beating Those Allegations.  N.B.T.A.).....

Women's Intercontinental Championship: Lyra Valkyria vs. Becky Lynch

I expect this to steal the show like it did at Backlash, and it's Becky's "last chance" so I imagine she'll win the title here.  I guess Becky/WWE wanted to give Lyra a big win before taking the belt off her.  It does however follow WWE's tired pattern of "Babyface champion beats heel challenger clean but gives heel challenger another shot anyway."  

Pick: Becky

Oscar Film Journal: Tootsie (1982)

It's been a little while, but welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

We're heading back to the early 1980s and the Sydney Pollack-directed romantic comedy Tootsie, starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr and Bill Murray.  Hoffman stars as struggling New York actor Michael Dorsey who is such an opinionated perfectionist he's burned all his bridges in town, and his agent (played by Pollack himself) has essentially given up on him.  Dorsey's roommate Jeff (Murray in an understated but still very funny performance) has written a quite promising play but the pair have no money to get it off the ground.  Dorsey's other close friend and acting student Sandy (Garr) has an audition for a soap opera but is quickly dismissed by the show's misogynistic director (Dabney Coleman) for not looking the part.  Dorsey then has the idea to audition for the role himself, in drag, and blows away the show's producers with snappy improvisation and a strong-willed presentation.  The character played by "Dorothy Michaels" becomes a sensation with the soap's audience, and Michael finds himself in a conundrum when he not only begins to fall for his co-star Julie (Lange) but the network wants to sign Dorothy to a long-term contract.

Awesomely Shitty Movies: The Rock

Welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com!  For those just joining us in progress, ASM is a regular feature where I pick apart a film that neither qualifies as a particularly good film nor as a piece of junk.  Every movie spotlighted in this column is something I either enjoy despite itself, or a movie that could be really good if the filmmakers just got out of their own way.

Today's ASM is the 1996 Michael Bay action vehicle, The Rock, starring Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris.  The Rock tells the story of a former US General who hijacks Alcatraz Island, taking 80 civilians hostage, and threatens to launch a poison gas missile into San Francisco if his demands aren't met.  The US Government, not wanting to negotiate, sends in a team of Navy Seals, plus a former Alcatraz inmate who knows how to enter the prison undetected, and a chemical weapons expert to disarm the missiles.  As expected, things don't quite go according to plan and all hell breaks loose in the prison.

So why was The Rock both good and bad?  Let's find out....


The Awesome

Lead Actors/Characters

The Rock really begins and ends with its three lead actors. 

Nicolas Cage is spot-on as Stanley Goodspeed, the everyman type who's been thrust into an extraordinary situation and repeatedly survives by the skin of his teeth.  He is our eyes and ears throughout the story, keeping his head down during the intense action and letting the more experienced military characters do the heavy lifting while he concentrates on disarming missiles.  The fact that he has a pregnant girlfriend waiting for him at home adds consequence and sympathy to his plight; we reaaaallly hope he gets out of this alive.

Sean Connery as John Mason essentially plays an older James Bond type - a grizzled SAS veteran brought in to show the Navy Seals how to get in and out of the prison.  When we first meet him, Mason has been imprisoned by the US Government for 30 years without being charged, for refusing to divulge classified information.  During the ensuing combat, Mason is always in control of the situation and never gets rattled.  He forms an unlikely bond with Goodspeed and more or less guides/protects him (and us) through the action.  Mason initially wants to run once the shit hits the fan, but Goodspeed reminds him that his daughter would be within the blast radius if the bad guys launch their missiles.  So he has to juggle helping Goodspeed while also planning his escape at the end.

AEW Double or Nothing 2025: Hangman Adam Page Wins the Owen

Welp, the seventh edition of AEW Double or Nothing turned out to be the best one to date.  Six years exactly from the company's first-ever show, they knocked another one out of the park.  Also after three years the streak of AEW Revolution being the best show of the year has come to an end.  This show was fucking fantastic, albeit long.

Double or Nothing has set the stage for AEW's biggest-ever show on US soil, All In 2025, with two epic Owen Cup finals, the best Anarchy in the Arena match to date, and a slew of good-to-excellent undercard matches.  But the biggest story of the night was Hangman Adam Page finally getting himself on the path to redemption after three years of frustrating losses and soul-destroying evil deeds.

Page and Will Ospreay had an absolute epic of a main event, a 37-minute war of attrition boasting insane false finishes, both men kicking out of each other's finishes, and a really dangerous Styles Clash spot off the ring apron (plus a prematurely broken announce table spot a la Triple H-Kurt Angle in 2000).  Thankfully both guys are okay after that one.  Ospreay got cocky at one point as each man stood on opposite sides of the ring, Will inside with his Hidden Blade arm exposed, Page on the apron ready to deliver a Buckshot Lariat.  Will thought he could beat Page to the punch but came up short and Page leveled him for a nearfall.  Ospreay countered another Buckshot attempt with the Hidden Blade and hit a Stormbreaker for another nearfall.  Then each man went for former rivals' finishers - Ospreay tried a One-Winged Angel but Page escaped and hit Swerve's Big Pressure driver for a nearfall.  After evading another Stormbreaker, Page hit a lariat and a final Buckshot to win.  What a goddamn match.  I said going into this I was fine with either result, and I was, but Page winning felt like THE right choice; his journey back to the title is the more compelling story of these two men.  Ospreay will live to fight another day and we'll definitely be seeing this matchup again, likely for the championship.  One of the best PPV main events in AEW history.  *****

Top Ten Things: Owen Hart Matches

Welcome to a special Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  Today is the anniversary of what was for me the most tragic death in wrestling history, that of Owen Hart.

For those of you not familiar (by this point that's probably no one), on May 23, 1999 Owen was the victim of a horrific stunt gone wrong, when the harness in which he was supposed to descend from the ceiling released prematurely, causing Owen to fall 70 feet to his death.  Owen was 34 years old.  Unlike so many untimely pro wrestling deaths, Owen's wasn't the result of drugs or steroids or neglect of his health.  Owen was a happily married family man who had planned to retire early from wrestling to enjoy a quiet life as a father and husband.  I've said for years that if I could go back and save one person in the wrestling business from dying young, it would be Owen.  He deserved to live a long, content life and enjoy the fruits of his success.

In the ring Owen was possibly the most athletically gifted of all the Harts, possessing a natural grace and agility surpassing even Bret's.  Bret may have been more technically sound, but Owen seemed innately suited for pro wrestling, employing a mix of grappling and aerial techniques that made him one of the most well-rounded performers of his generation.

Owen toiled in the WWF undercard for a few years before finally getting a big heel push as Bret's disgruntled little brother.  The two had a legendary feud, tearing the house down every time they met, and as a result Owen became one of the most dependable top names in the company, eventually winning every available heavyweight title except the big one (Whenever I'm asked who was the best wrestler never to win a world title, my two answers are always Owen and Davey Boy).  Then in 1997 Bret and Owen, now both heels, reunited to form the new Hart Foundation stable, prompting the best feud of that year which pitted the American wrestlers (and fans) against the Harts (and basically all non-American fans).  On the back of this unprecedented feud, the WWF churned out must-see television nearly every week, and Owen was a huge part of it all.

After Bret's messy WWF departure (along with Davey Boy and Jim Neidhart), Owen was the only Hart Foundation member left, and as an old-school character he struggled to fit into the new WWF Attitude era.  Owen enjoyed modest success for his remaining time in the company, but was repeatedly asked to take part in sexualized angles with which he wasn't comfortable.  The compromise was repackaging him as a dorkier version of the Blue Blazer (his 1989 persona), hence the fateful ceiling descent on May 23rd.

It's a shame the company wasn't able to find something more dignified for him to do, or wasn't willing to release him from his contract when Bret left.  In either scenario he'd undoubtedly still be with us today.

Owen was a one-of-a-kind talent who left the wrestling industry better than he found it, who was beloved by all who worked with him, and who stayed true to himself and his family in a business where such a thing was increasingly rare.  Two decades later, the wrestling business still feels incomplete without him.

Now let's take a look at his best matches.....

Honorable Mention: Owen Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid - King of the Ring - 6.19.94

Yeah I know, this match only went 3-1/2 minutes, but holy lord what a match considering.  These two packed about as much action into 217 seconds as you possibly could, delivering one of only two good matches on this PPV.  Owen made the Kid submit with a Sharpshooter in this semi-final match, on his way to becoming the second PPV King of the Ring.  It's a great illustration of what Owen (and X-Pac) were capable of even with severe time constraints.

10. Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs. Vader & Mankind - WrestleMania 13 - 3.23.97

One of the forgotten WrestleMania gems was this rare heels vs. heels Tag Title match, where Owen and Davey had teased splitting up for weeks.  Owen had become jealous of all the attention Davey was getting, particularly after Davey bested him to become the inaugural European Champion.  Between the champs not being on the same page and the physical dominance of Vader and Mankind, it looked like we might see a title change here, but this wild brawl ended unceremoniously with a double countout, as Mankind subdued Davey with a Mandible Claw on the outside.  A better finish would've undoubtedly elevated this match, but as it was I still consider this one very underrated.