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RDT Reviews the 1992 WWF Royal Rumble

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

1992 WWF Royal Rumble
January 19, 1992
Albany, NY
Reviewed on January 23, 2015

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

1991 was an interesting year for the WWF. They lost a major top star in The Ultimate Warrior, but created two others in Sid Justice and The Undertaker. They also signed the biggest non-WWF name in professional wrestling: Ric Flair.

That’s what makes this Royal Rumble so interesting. The WWF could have went in a number of directions here. Recapping This Tuesday In Texas, Hulk Hogan regained the WWF Title from The Undertaker…only there were murky circumstances regarding the finish. Jack Tunney held the WWF Title up…and made it the prize of the 1992 Royal Rumble match. There are five conceivable winners, three that were likely and two that were less likely. They each represented a different direction for the WWF. They were:

Hogan: It would be the “status quo”. Hogan winning here would have gotten a big pop, but Hulk’s star had been fading ever so slightly at this point. It would only get worse with all the steroid issues surrounding him.

Sid: Considered to be the next Hogan and had clearly been on Hogan’s side back at Summerslam where he was a ref.

Flair: Other than Savage, Flair would be the first “wrestling” WWF Champion in the Vince Jr. era. A showdown with Hogan would be assured for Mania though (of course, that’s not what happened). It would also give a huge sense of legitimacy to WCW.

And the two who had a chance, but not a great one.

Undertaker: Basically the transitional champion to lead to this situation. His gimmick was crazy over though, and he could have been the top heel at Mania. He’s already established as a main eventer (and would be forever) because of his win over Hogan for the title at Survivor Series. I’m sure there was a scenario out there that could have had Taker vs. Sid for the title five years earlier than it actually happened.

Randy Savage: The face route that isn’t Sid or Hogan, but he should be facing Jake at Mania (which he didn’t, but that would be the logic).

Let’s see which way the WWF went.

The Card

Vince’s announcement of who is in the Rumble is hilarious.

The Orient Express vs. The New Foundation

The New Foundation is Owen and Neidhart. I have no idea what the point of making them look ridiculous was. When they teamed up in 1994 they were a lot more badass since they dressed just like the original Foundation.

The Express is Pat Tanaka and Kaito…who is really Paul Diamond.

Owen was always really good. Frankensteiner was nice.

Owen becomes the face in peril. He was great at that too.

Pat Tanaka screws up an Owen bulldog by falling too quickly.

Awesome suicide dive from Owen!

The New Foundation win when Owen pinned Tanaka in 17:18. Rocket Launcher for the win. Good match that seemed a bit long, but it’s Owen, so no problem there. Anvil and Owen played the opening match babyface role well, I just don’t get why they had to wear Doink’s pajama paints.

Story about Bret Hart defending the IC title against The Mountie despite a 104 degree fever. This would be the Mania VIII set-up for Bret and Piper. Piper is Bret’s replacement here.

Amazing Piper promo. He points out that he’s here to win two titles. How crazy would have that been?

Intercontinental Championship: The Mountie© vs. Roddy Piper

There’s not much to say here, it’s a bad match but Piper as the crowd in the palm of his hand.

Roddy Piper wins the title when the Mountie passes out in 5:22. Crowd reaction here is nuts. Piper puts the Mountie to sleep and that does it. Except for a bulldog, all of Piper’s offense was punches and the sleeper. But who cares really?

The Bushwackers vs. The Beverly Brothers

I don’t know who the Bushwacker manager, Jameson is, but he sounds ridiculous and he’s eating his tie. I hear this is an infamous match, so I’m curious to see what happens here.

The Genius recites a poem about Jameson. I have a bad feeling about all of this.

A lot of wasted time early on. A lot of the Bushwackers swinging their arms and licking each other and stuff.

The Genius slapping Jameson is the highlight of the match. Jameson is insufferable as he complains to Butch.

The Beverly Brothers win when Blake pinned Butch in 14:56. Illegal double axehandle off the top for the win. It wasn’t even entertainingly horrible, it was just horrible. The match had no heat whatsoever and nothing of significance takes place at all. The finish was out of nowhere too. Jameson gets his revenge on the Genius by kicking him in the shin at the end. Just horrible everywhere.

World Tag Team Championship
The Legion of Doom© vs. The Natural Disasters

I can’t help but feel like this should have been a Wrestlemania match or something. Earthquake, Hawk and Animal were all huge names, and Typhoon was a big deal cause of Quake.

Match is mostly Hawk as the face in peril. Seems weird seeing LOD be dominated in 1992.

The Natural Disasters win by countout in 9:24. All four men end up on the outside, but Typhoon gets back into the ring. LOD just didn’t care at this point did they? Or at least Hawk didn’t. Second terrible match in a row here. Unsurprisingly, LOD dropped the belts on a house show shortly afterwards.

We get a ton of interviews. Shawn Michaels seemed surprisingly good on the mic pretty quickly. He had JUST turned on Jannetty at this point.

The 1992 Royal Rumble

The British Bulldog draws #1 and Ted Dibiase didn’t bribe anyone at this point as he draws #2. The Bulldog gets rid of Dibiase really quickly.

Bobby Heenan basically goes ballistic on the air as Ric Flair draws #3. Bulldog whips him too.

Jerry Sags is #4. Bulldog wastes to time getting rid of him too.

#5 is Haku. He sides with Flair at first, but then he turns on Flair.

“It’s not fair to Flair!”

Bulldog dumps Haku as HBK comes out as #6. Huge boos for HBK.

Flair and HBK go at it 17 years before Flair’s last WWF match.

Flair, HBK and the Bulldog is an interesting trio in there considering all the interactions HBK would have with both over the years.

El Matador is #7. He too goes after Flair.

The Barbarian is #8.

HBK was already doing the near eliminations all over the place thing.

The Texas Tornado: Kerry Von Erich is #9. Of course he goes after Flair. There is good history there.

Repo Man is #10.

Greg Valentine is #11. He was in the Rumble for 44 minutes in 1991.

#12 is Nikolai Volkoff. Crowd is growing restless…but it’ll pick up soon.

Big pop as Valentine locks Flair in the Figure Four. Repo Man takes out Volkoff.

#13 is the Bossman. Nice pop and he of course attacks Flair.

Valentine is gone thanks to the Repo Man.

Repo Man is gone due to Flair.

Flair gets rid of the British Bulldog. Von Erich also goes out due to Flair.

#14 is Hercules but the Bossman takes him out in a minute.

Hercules takes out Barbarian, and Bossman takes out Hercules. Bossman hilariously eliminates himself with a missed flying body block.

#15 is Piper, and the crowd goes nuts. Flair tries to beg off. Piper kicks Flair’s ass for the whole two minutes before #16, Jake The Snake comes in.

Jake tells Piper to continue what he’s doing, then immediately attacks him from behind. Jake was awesome.

I can’t get over Heenan’s commentary. Amazing.

Jim Duggan is #17. Huge reaction for him as he goes for Flair.

IRS is #18.

Superfly Jimmy Snuka is #19. This was near the end of the Superfly.

#20 is The Undertaker. This was actually bad luck for Taker. Tunney allowed Taker and Hogan to have a number between 20 and 30, and he drew 20.

Heenan: “Death takes a holiday!”

Snuka jobs to Taker again!

#21 is Randy Savage and he wants Jake. Undertaker cuts Savage off. Taker getting involved in Jake-Savage was weird as it seemed Jake had a hold on Taker…until Taker turned face.

Savage throws Jake, then jumps over the top rope to continue attacking. Savage gets to stay though…for some reason. He must be winning!!!

#22 is The Beserker. I feel like he never gets enough Wrestlecrap credit.

#23 is Virgil. He goes right after IRS. I miss those long standing rivalries that would surface in the Rumble.

#24 is Col. Mustafa. Always thought it was weird that the Iron Sheik would change names and all.

Monsoon randomly uses Rick Martel’s name when talking about Flair. Odd.

#25 is Martel. I assume Monsoon just got confused.

Here comes Hogan at #26! He surprisingly takes out Undertaker early. Beserker goes next.

Duggan and Virgil take one another out.

#27 is Skinner. I guess #27 wasn’t lucky yet.

Flair sets the longevity record. It would stand I believe until Benoit.

#28 is Sgt. Slaughter. All the heat died with Slaughter after the heel turn. No one would care about Slaughter again until he become commissioner in 1997.

Piper and Martel take out Skinner.

#29 is Sid. He doesn’t really do anything though, which I find odd.

#30 is the Warlord. Ah, the days where #30 wasn’t guaranteed to be a big star.

Sid sends Slaughter out. About time Sid did something.

Piper eliminates IRS by his tie. That was awesome.

Sid and Hogan dump the Warlord.

Piper, Hogan, Savage, Flair, Sid and Martel.

Sid gets rid of Piper and Martel. Lame ending for Piper.

Flair nails Sid in the back, which causes Sid to shove Savage out. Down to three.

Ric Flair wins the WWF Championship in 1:02:02. Sid dumps Hogan to HUGE cheers. Hogan grabs Sid’s arm, and Flair dumps Sid to win the title. Heenan goes nuts. This was one of the first signs of the fans turning on Hogan here. Flair leaves while Sid and Hogan argue. We get some Sid chants too…although some feint Hogan ones are audible.

Flair cuts an awesome interview as the new WWF Champion. He also takes a big shot at WCW by saying this is the only world title that matters.

Anyway this Rumble is basically an hour long Flair match. It’s the 2nd greatest Rumble of all time in my opinion. All the big stars were in there. A lot of the stories played out as well. There were great moments with Piper and Flair, and Hogan and Sid.

The opener was solid and Piper winning the IC title was a cool moment. The show went downhill fast after that. But the amazing 1992 Royal Rumble made up for it. There was a lot of history here as well. Nevermind it being Flair’s 1st WWF Title win, but also this was a big match that showed the WWF needed to get past Hulkamania. Vince wouldn’t learn for another 18 months though.

It’s the Rumble that matters, right? I just wish those tag matches weren’t so bad.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF This Tuesday In Texas

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF This Tuesday in Texas
December 3, 1991
San Antonio, TX
Reviewed on January 22, 2015

And you thought Taboo Tuesday was the first experiment for weekday WWF PPVs?

Just six nights after Survivor Series (held on a Thursday back then), the WWF tried a new form of revenue stream in the form of a Tuesday night PPV. It had a pretty hot main event as well, with new WWF Champion The Undertaker going up again the man he took it from, Hulk Hogan. The WWF had been on the bit of a slide business wise, although the true reason for that was that fans were tiring of the Hulkster and Vince had no one hot enough to replace him. Sid was a popular choice at the time. Vince had also acquired Ric Flair, but he was never one to really build his promotion around a heel like Flair.

Also on this card is a match regarding the big Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage feud. So while this PPV seems pretty random and is forgotten now, you can tell the WWF tried hard with it to see if it would work. Does it? Let’s see.

The Card

We kick off with a post Survivor Series promo with Paul Bearer and The Undertaker. They are already hyping up This Tuesday in Texas. Bearer says nothing is immortal, not even Hogan. He says Hulkamania at Survivor Series…all that’s left is the funeral services. Bearer and Taker were pretty awesome characters in 1991.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Bret Hart© vs. Skinner

Skinner actually gets the jobber entrance here. Not sure why he’s getting an IC title shot on a PPV but we’re told he’s undefeated so far, so there’s that.

Starting with Bret is a good idea though.

There’s not much to say about this match other than Bret is mega over.

Bret Hart retains when he makes Skinner submit in 13:46. Bret tosses Skinner off the top rope and makes him submit to the Sharpshooter. Went about 6 minutes too long. Match was as bare bones as you can think of. The only move I can remember Skinner doing that seemed remotely unique was his reverse DDT. Boring overall. Crowd was into it though, as Bret was as I wrote earlier, mega over.

Jake “The Snake” Roberts promo. Roberts was terrifying at this point. You really thought he’d beat the crap out of Miss Elizabeth if given the chance.

Randy Savage with a crazy nutty promo himself. Both are pretty awesome.

Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage

This really should have happened at Wrestlemania VIII, but I get putting it here to sell the PPV. Story here: Jake turned heel earlier in 1991, and had put a snake in Elizabeth’s wedding gifts. There was an angle later that actually used a real cobra to bite Randy Savage. Savage eventually got re-instated as he lost a retirement match to The Ultimate Warrior back at Mania VII, and got his match with Jake.

Savage attacks Jake during his entrance. I think this is his first match since Mania, but I could be wrong.

Jake quickly takes control, ramming Savage’s arm into the ring post.

Randy Savage pins Roberts in 6:25. Savage drops the big elbow on Jake for the win. It surprisingly just ends like that. While it was fun, it was too short for a feud of this caliber. I would be okay with it if it led to a Wrestlemania match…but it didn’t. Savage tries the post-match chair shot, but the ref stops him, leading to Savage getting the DDT. Jake drops Savage with a 2nd DDT for good measure.

Jake then brings out a snake, and Miss Elizabeth runs in and begs Jake to leave Savage alone. Jake drops a third DDT on Savage right in front of Elizabeth. Jake forces Liz to beg in order to save Savage. Jake then SLAPS Elizabeth, which is one of the most despicable things a heel could have done in 1991. It takes President Tunney to get Jake out of there. Nuclear heat for Jake.

Another great Jake promo. He’s sick.

The British Bulldog vs. The Warlord

A pretty good power match here. Warlord has more moves than I ever realized.

Warlord actually locks his full nelson in by using the Bulldog’s hair. Creative heel stuff.

This long full nelson is kinda killing it though. It just went too long.

The British Bulldog pins the Warlord in 12:45. Bulldog gets a crucifix to win. It was the best Warlord match I’ve ever seen and a decent match overall. The full nelson really took me out of the match though. The Bulldog and Warlord didn’t get through 1992 I don’t believe with the steroid issues the WWF would have.

Randy Savage interview. He’s furious about what happened with Jake and Elizabeth. It’s an awesome promo. How didn’t they blow this off at Mania?!

Repo Man and Ted Dibiase vs. El Madator and Virgil

Part of the Virgil-Dibiase feud…Dibiase hired Repo Man to re-obtain the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil.

Dibiase and the Repo Man dominate Virgil. Makes sense as the storyline is with him, not Tito.

Man, crowd is hot for Virgil, especially when he gets his hands on Dibiase. You just don’t see that for midcarders these days.

Ted Dibiase and Repo Man win when Dibiase pinned Virgil in 11:28. Strange finish here. Dibiase holds Virgil for Sherri to hit with her shoe, but Virgil moves and she clocks Dibiase. Virgil grabs Sherri, but gets kneed in the back by the Repo Man. Dibiase then makes the pin. What was the point of Sherri hitting Dibiase there? Anyway, this was a good match, best on the card. Virgil was over…but sadly no one really cared about him without Dibiase.

Hulk Hogan interview. Hogan really was one of the best promo men of all time.

WWF World Championship
The Undertaker© vs. Hulk Hogan

Bobby Heenan with an awesome line. Monsoon is busy praising Hogan, and Heenan responds with “quiet Monsoon, here comes the WWF…Champion.

Taker and Paul Bearer attack right away. President Jack Tunney is at ringside to prevent any shenanigans.

We get our first botch. Taker goes for his top rope hangman from the apron, but Hogan keeps punching. Well this wasn’t going to be a technical classic.

It’s pretty amazing what Undertaker was in the ring in 1991 and what he was some 16 years later. The only submission Taker knew here was the choke.

Huge botch, although it may have been the ring. Taker was going for his flying clothesline…but he gets caught in the ropes and falls.

Flair is here! Hogan smacks him with a chair and Tunney goes down as well!

Hulk Hogan regains the WWF Title by pin in 13:09. Paul Bearer tries to hit Hogan with the urn…but gets Taker! Hogan grabs the urn, pours out ashes and throws them in Taker’s face before rolling him up for the three. Flair propped Tunney up though so he saw the finish…which led to the title being vacated and being up for grabs in the ’92 Rumble. Uh…this match was terrible. All Undertaker choking with some botches in-between. Historically though this led to the ’92 Rumble, and Hogan failing to obtain a clean victory over Undertaker really helped establish him as a top guy for basically forever.

Interesting attempt at a Tuesday PPV. It was entertaining, but they had to give Bret a better opponent in the opener. I mean what was Rick Martel doing at the time. Taker vs. Hogan was what it was. Everything else wasn’t too bad. Jake slapping Elizabeth is a crazy moment.

Main event is just too bad to put this in B range though.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc ’89

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW/NWA Halloween Havoc 1989
October 28, 1989
Philadelphia, PA

We are just past the Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat classics and into the Flair vs. Terry Funk feud. Flair and Funk had a title match at the Great American match which ended with a Flair victory…and an attack from The Great Muta.

It had been about five years since the birth of Hulkamania, and it seemed that the NWA was just fine being #2 with their “real wrasslin” as opposed to the mainstream kiddie WWF. I think looking at the men in the main event of this PPV: Flair, Muta, Funk (Stingtoo, but he doesn’t really fit what I am saying) showed that this was still an old school promotion. Really, until Jim Herd showed up that would be the case.

This was also the rare time that not only was Ric Flair a face, but he was on Sting’s side. A little odd considering they would be rivals shortly again.

This is the first Halloween Havoc.

The Card

Captain Mike Rotunda vs. Tom Zenk

No entrances for the first match.

I do feel like I’ve missed something not seeing a lot of Z-Man matches.

He’s also undefeated apparently. Rotunda is the TV Champ. Don’t think this is for the title.

Near the end of the match there is a pretty nice clothesline by Rotunda. Looked crisp.

Tom Zenk pins Mike Rotunda in 13:23. Zenk rolls through a flying bodypress. Pretty boring overall to be fair. I mean, I guess it would technically be classified as good, but I just didn’t get into it. Also looks like Rotunda kicked out in time.

Bruno Sammartino is being interviews. He is the referee in the main event…a Thunderdome Cage Match. Sammartino talks about the type of match and how dangerous it is. I’m sure they had Thundercage matches in the 60s and 70s.

The Samoan Swat Team (Samu, The Samoan Savage and Fatu) vs. The Midnight Express and Dr. Death

I had no idea there were Samoans in WCW.

That’s a really young Rikishi in there as well.

This match feels designed to put Dr. Death over.

The Samoans mess up crotching Eaton on the railing. Samu and Fatu especially seem green here.

Commentary is really making it seem like the Samoans are idiots. Shrug.

Crowd is HOT for Dr. Death.

Horrible botch with a neckbreaker attempt by Lane on the Savage.

The Samoans win when the Savage pins Lane in 18:23. Jim Cornette ends up getting knocked off the apron after he knocked Oliver Humperdink off the apron, and the Samoan Savage pinned Lane. Pretty sloppy from the Samoans…all of them. Fatu and Samu weren’t ready yet.

Gary Hart and Terry Funk interview. Funk looks in monster shape.

How come there are no entrances at all? I coulda swore Starrace ’88 had them (maybe I am misremembering).

The Cuban Assassin vs. Tommy Rich

Of course Rich has an entrance to make me seem stupid.

Rich is a former NWA World Champion, crazy as that sounds.

I think that’s a Tommy Rich sucks chant. Even in 1989, Philly fans were smart.

Opening sequence was horrid. Looked like a WWF 1989 preliminary match!

The Cuban just busted out the ugliest high knee I’ve ever seen.

Timmy Rich pins The Cuban Assassin in 8:29. Thesz Press for the win. Awful match. Fans booed it and Rich right out of the building. Just a bunch of armbars and ugly looking armdrags. Terrible all around.

NWA World Tag Team Championship
The Freebirds © vs. The Dynamic Dudes

The Dudes: Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace, are up there for worst major tag team of all time.

Philly boos the Dudes out of the building too. No surprise. At least Douglas would become Philly famous later.

Huge boos for the Dudes, including a You Suck chant for big Johnny. They are the faces. This is 1989 no less! I didn’t know this happened in 1989!

The Freebirds win when Garvin pins Douglas in 11:28. Wow. Weird slingshot double team leads to Garvin countering and landing on Douglas for the pin. Pop is MASSIVE. One of the biggest I’ve ever heard. Quite the spectacle there just for the crowd reaction. Another bad match though. Douglas wasn’t there yet and Ace never would be. Freebirds were never the best wrestlers either.

Steiners interview. Rick sounds different.

The Steiner Bros. vs. Doom

Doom is Ron Simmons and Butch Reed.

The story here is that a fan wanted to be with Rick Steiner, but he said no, and she got him back somehow by turning into Woman. Woman manages Doom. This is Doom’s debut.

Another boring match here…and it’s not a good boring either.

Rick Steiner almost breaks Reed’s neck with a powerslam. Wow on that one.

Doom wins when Reed (or Doom #2) pins Rick in 15:28. Woman loads Reed’s mask with something and a headbutt gets the upset win. Slow and not good.

NWA US Championship
Lex Luger© vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman

Lex Luger and Brian Pillman sadly show the sad sides of pro wrestling.

Luger seems like an amazing heel here. And he can work.

Pretty fast paced so far.

Pillman has cheerleaders in the crowd. Seems distracting.

Man Luger is killing Pillman with these clotheslines! One to the back of the head was vicious!

I thought Luger screwed up…but it was actually a brilliant dodge of the top rope dropkick!

Lex Luger pinned Brian Pillman to retain in 16:49. Hotshot for the win after the missed dropkick. Well, this match saved what was a lackluster show so far. Luger sells for Pillman like a million bucks and still looks like a bad ass. What a great big man vs. little man match where both men just go at it full blast. What happened to this Lex Luger? Jeez. Great match. Philly loved Luger.

The Road Warriors vs. The Skyscrapers

Selling won’t be a major theme here.

Interestingly the Road Warriors are announced as the Legion of Doom…I thought that was only a WWE thing.

The Skyscrapers are Dan Spivey and Sid. Two WWF ’95 staples!

Man Spivey just takes an Animal clothesline and no sells. You heard that one.

Sid with a pretty awesome spinning helicopter bomb to Hawk. Why didn’t he keep that move?

The Road Warriors win by DQ in 11:39. LOD has it won, but Teddy Long gets involved and throws the golden key to Spivey to cause the DQ. Weak ending, but this was a bad ass power match. Technically I guess it wasn’t wrestled well, Sid especially misses some stuff, but it’s really a good power match overall.

Thunderdome Cage Match: Bruno Sammartino is the Special Referee
Ric Flair and Sting vs. The Great Muta and Terry Funk

The only way this ends is if Ole Anderson or Gary Hart throws in the towel for their teams. Eh.

There is something amazing about Terry Funk and The Great Muta as a tag team.

The cage is apparently electrified.

The top of the cage actually catches fire. Well damn. I don’t think that was supposed to happen.

Wow Muta Misted the fire! That alone owned.

For some reason this is being wrestled as a regular tag. Why? I have no idea, it’s supposed to be no DQ.

Why in WCW 2000 didn’t Russo just run Sting vs. Muta again instead of that talentless bum Vampiro?

Bruno being the ref just seems so out of place.

Muta gets shocked climbing high on the cage. Why climb at all? I don’t understand this logic. Commentary actually brings this up.

There’s a rope hanging for some Tarzan action…but it really doesn’t work.

Sting takes out Funk my leaping off the cage, which was cool.

Sting and Ric Flair win in 23:46. Flair locks Funk in the Figure Four and Sting splashes him off the top rope twice! (Ouch). Gary Hart still refuses to throw in the towel. Muta attacks Bruno, and Bruno decks him. Ole Anderson attacks Hart and the towel goes flying into the ring. The stipulations pretty much guaranteed a shit finish, so we got it. The cage gimmick is pretty disappointing overall. It was mostly used for some Tarzan stuff, and honestly the logic of anyone climbing the cage was stupid. The match was well wrestled…an old school no DQ Texas Tornado woulda been awesome between these four. If anything the cage probably hurt the match.

Pretty subpar PPV overall. Most of the card sucked. Pillman vs. Luger ruled. LOD vs. Skyscrapers served its purpose. Main event had a gimmick that didn’t fit the match. Could have been a lot better of a show, but here we are.

Historically…I guess we keep building Sting up as a main event guy…and I think this was the start of the Sid to the top run? I do think the non-finish of the main led to the I Quit match between Flair and Funk, so there is that.

Luger vs. Pillman the rest of the second half of the show helped it, but I still wouldn’t say this was good overall.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Starrcade ’88

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

NWA/WCW Starrcade 1988
December 26, 1988
Norfolk, VA
Reviewed on June 21, 2014

A high point for the NWA. The NWA had tons of talent and while not drawing as well as the WWF, they were arguably putting on a better quality of shows. Earlier in 1988 WCW put on a Clash of the Champions PPV that hurt the WWF’s Wrestlemania IV, headlined by a Sting vs. Ric Flair classic.

Ric Flair was truly the man at this point. Flair and the Horsemen were the main event, and Flair was doing all he could to get Lex Luger over as a top face. At the time, Luger was a pretty solid wrestler and it worked out well, leading to the main event here. Unlike the main for Starrcade 1987 (Flair vs. Ronnie Garvin) this felt like one of the biggest matches the NWA could throw out there at the time. The NWA would continue the roll they were on through 1989 with the Flair-Steamboat series.

The Card

US Tag Team Championship
The Fantastics © vs. Steve Williams and Kevin Sullivan

The Fantastics are Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton. Williamd and Sullivan had a brighter future, even then.

Apparently the Bushwackers were supposed to be in this, but Vince signed them away.

Not sure if it’s supposed to be booked this way, but the champs are getting no offense in whatsoever.

JR is putting over Dr. Death like a million bucks…of course.

Williams and Sullivan win the title when Williams pins Fulton in 15:50. Hotshot for the win. Pretty solid hard hitting opener. Match was clear designed for Williamd and Sullivan to get over.

The Midnight Express vs. The Original Midnight Express

Jim Cornette’s Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton (the most popular version) against Paul E’s Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose.

Kinda amazing not only how long Paul Heyman has been around, but how many different things he’s done in wrestling.

The story is really a battle of managers. To be fair, this seems like the older teams comes back to take back their glory angle, but it seems quite well done here.

Referee asking the crowd if the Old Express cheated was interesting.

New Midnight Express wins when Lane pins Condrey in 17:46. After referee Teddy Long (playa!) determines the Originals used Paul E’s telephone as a weapon, the Express get the Goozie for the win. They get beat down afterwards. Pretty solid back and forth match, crowd was into it.

The Russian Assassins vs. Junkyard Dog and Ivan Koloff

If the Assassins lose their manager Paul Jones has to retire.

Pretty big downgrade from earlier.

The Assassins win when #1 pins Koloff in 6:47. Koloff has it won, but the #2 Assassin puts something in his mask and headbutts Koloff, leading to the win. A lot of whatever here. I don’t think the fans caught onto what happened in the finish.

NWA Television Championship
Mike Rotonda© vs. Rick Steiner

Sullivan is locked in a cage here. This is the big blowoff to all the Varsity Club stuff.

Rick Steiner could really go at this point.

Dr. Death comes down and rings the bell, confusing everyone…

Rick Steiner wins the title by pin in 17:59. The ref, Steiner and Rotunda are confused about the bell. Even the cage comes down and Sullivan gets on the apron. Steiner shoves Rotunda into Sullivan and gets the pin. Really fun finish and a good match here too. Rick Steiner was pretty good at one time for sure. Crowd pops huge for Steiner’s win.

NWA US Championship
Barry Windham © vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Bam Bam looks like a star ahead of his time here…but interestingly by 1998 he would look behind the times.

Bam Bam was just coming off his first WWF stint, which had mixed results.

Windham is a Horseman here.

What’s weird about Bam Bam is that he doesn’t look like he ages.

Always thought it was crazy how aerial Bigelow was.

Seriously Barry Windham used a clawhold?

Barry Windham retains by countout in 16:17. Both men end up on the outside, and Bigelow misses a charge and slams into the post, allowing Windham to get back in. Pretty good back and forth match, Windham seemed like a good workhorse back in the day. Disappointing ending though.

Rick Steiner interview. Very happy about winning the TV title. Of course he is.

NWA World Tag Team Championship
The Road Warriors © vs. Sting and Dusty Rhodes

Fans are mega into Sting here. Sting gets a dropkick to stop the Warriors from attacking early, which is smart booking.

Pretty crazy dive from Sting off the top to the outside onto Animal!

Dusty’s no selling comeback is pretty entertaining to watch.

Dusty is the face in peril.

Sting is getting a huge reaction destroying The Warriors.

Sting and Dusty win by DQ in 11:20. Sting has it won, but Paul Ellering breaks up the count for the DQ. Pretty basic match and the crowd was hot. Sting stole the show and no wonder he was the future of the company. Of course, another non-finish is pretty lame.

NWA World Championship – If Ric Flair is DQed he loses the title
Ric Flair© vs. Lex Luger

Flair gets a huge reaction.

Flair knew how to make strong babyfaces look great, and this match is no exception.

It’s absolutely jarring seeing Luger as this good wrestler. Leapfrogs, great agility, just a lot of stuff from Luger you didn’t remotely see seven years later.

Luger amazingly no sells the Figure Four with some flexing.

The story has been working on the leg, and there’s some great psychology here as Luger keeps going for slams and such, but always tending to, or even further hurting, the leg.

Ric Flair retains by pin at 30:59. Luger gets on fire and totally no sells a big forearm from Flair. Big powerslam and then the Torture Rack…but the leg gives way! Flair gets the pin AND the feet on the ropes, and Flair gets the three! Great match, Luger looked like a million bucks and Flair showed he was the best in the world at the time. How the NWA didn’t ride the Luger gravy train is surprising to me, but some of that sounds like it’s on Flair since he wanted to work with Steamboat. To be fair, those are some of the best matches of all time.

A very good Starrcade with a great main event. So what’s wrong with this show? Absolutely no historical significance here. This wasn’t a really important card in the development of Sting, and Luger’s career ended up with a choker label that could actually be traced to this match. I’m not sure Flair winning was a good idea…even though he was the man. Everything else? I mean Rick Steiner got development here, but nothing else really mattered in the long run. Even early on, I thought Starrcade should make of solidify stars. Despite Luger looking like a million bucks, that didn’t happen here. The first few Starrcades made Ric Flair, but Flair was already made here. Maybe I am being too hard on this aspect of the show, but does anyone really remember Starrcade 1988?

Great card match quality wise though. Can’t deny that.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Wrestlemania II

March 11, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Wrestlemania 2
April 7, 1986
Uniondale, NY
Rosemont, IL
Los Angeles, CA
Reviewed on March 15, 2014

Background: HULKAMANIA was running wild brother! In an attempt to make the 2nd Wrestlemania bigger than the 1st, Vince McMahon decided this would be the first one on PPV. Also, for attendance, this would be held in three different venues, which I’m curious to see what the thinking would be there. This had tons of celebrities as well. Weird fact as well: this was held on a Monday.

The three main events? Piper vs. Mr. T in a Boxing Match, a 20 Man Battle Royal and Hogan vs. Bundy in a Cage. That’s Piper, Andre and Hogan, so it makes sense.

The Card

Opening has a sax solo. I believe the sax was the instrument of the 80s, but I don’t really know.

Vince’s co-host is Susan St. James. No idea who that is. Ray Charles for America the Beautiful works though.

Piper interview! Pretty racist promo.

We start off in New York.

”Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff vs. “Magnificent” Muraco

Old wrestling makes me miss entrance themes.

Don’t know the whole story, but Orndorff turned face and sided with Hogan, and Muraco was on Bundy’s side. I think.

Orndorff with some good wrestling to start.

Double countout in 4:10. Muraco and Orndorff fight to a double countout. Fans chant bullshit! No idea fans had that in them in 1986! I don’t blame them, that was stupid, especially since Orndorff would have a Hogan feud later.

Mr. T promo. Speaks really quickly.

Intercontinental Championship
Randy Savage© vs. George “The Animal” Steele

Story is simple: The Animal liked Elizabeth, Savage was jealous. Worked out well.

Animal bites Savage! St. James says “Yeah Animal, eat his leg!”

A lot of biting in this match.

Macho Man slams the Animal with a bouquet of flowers. Where’s the DQ?!

The Animal has eaten the turnbuckle! Did people really think this was real?

The Animal kicks out of the flying elbow!

Randy Savage retains by pin in 5:10. Savage takes down the Animal and gets his feet on the ropes for the pin. Match was horrible, but this was the George The Animal Steele character afterall. 2nd turnbuckle gets eaten.

Off in Chicago, NFL star Bill Fralic and Big John Studd argue.

George Wells vs. Jake Roberts

This feels like a jobber match.

Vince says Wells is Jake’s biggest challenge so far. So, easy road for Jake so far.

Jake was one of the great workers in wrestling right up until Honky Tonk Man almost crippled him.

Jake Roberts pins George Wells in 3:15. DDT out of nowhere. DAMIEN! Match was nothing.

Hogan promo! He’s with his “buddy” Jesse Ventura.

Ring announcer is Joan Rivers.

Darryl Dawkins is a judge. Bunch of other celebs I don’t care about.

Boxing Match
Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper

Oh god this can possibly go 10 rounds.

They got Joe Frazier for this.

If Mr. T is from Chicago, why didn’t they run this one for the Chicago main event?

Round 1 ends with a lot of punching. You know this is WRESTLEmania. Jeez.

I feel like the amount punches landing in round 2 doesn’t actually happen in real boxing.

Piper knocks down T and the crowd erupts.

Crowd heavily behind Piper now. He’s the heel, so that should show how well this match is doing.

Cowboy Bob Orton throws water at T.

Round 3 is all T. T even hits a shot where Piper goes flying out of the ring.

Round 4 starts with a wrestling-style slugfest. No blocking whatsoever.

Mr. T wins by DQ in 13:15. Piper slugs the ref then bodyslams T for the DQ. While it’s kinda entertaining, I still would have preferred a wrestling match at Wrestlemania, you know? I know it’s 1986, but that’s still a pretty lame show for the Uniondale crowd.

Off to the Chicago portion of the show. We have Gorilla Monsoon and Cathy Lee Crosby as your announcers!

Women’s Championship
The Fabulous Moolah © vs. Velvet McIntyre

Moolah is the Hogan of women’s wrestling, and that stretches to the backstage politic part of wrestling too.

McIntyre is owning in a fast paced match early on!

The Fabulous Moolah retains the title when she pinned McIntyre in 1:25. McIntyre misses a crossbody…and Moolah with the pin. Well that sucked. Especially since McIntyre looked like she could really go.

Flag Match
Corporal Kirchner vs. Nikolai Volkoff

Russian National Anthem! Gotta love the xenophobic fears of the WWF.

I believe the rules here is that the winner gets to wave his flag.

Kirchner is busted wide open…but that was obvious when they CLEARLY showed Volkoff cut him.

Corporal Kirchner pinned Nikolai Volkoff in 2:05. Freddie Blassie throws his cane in the ring…but Kirchner catches it and nails Volkoff for the win. It was so badly done that Monsoon thought it was a double cross. A lot of wasteful matches here.

20 Man Battle Royal: NFL vs. WWF

Some notable names: Andre, Bruno, Iron Sheik, Morales, very young Bret Hart. On the NFL side the only notable one is The Fridge. Seems like an Andre vs. Fridge finish makes the most sense, but that isn’t what happens here.

King Tonga, aka Meng is one of the first guys out.

Seeing Bruno in this makes me wonder why they didn’t ever run a Hogan vs. Bruno program.

Studd gets the last laugh eliminating Fralic.

Studd dumps Bruno too.

Bret and The Anvil oversell near eliminations from the Fridge, but then Studd takes him out.

Fridge calls for a handshake…and pulls Studd out!

Andre, NFLer Russ Francis, Bret and Neidhart.

Harts take out Francis. Harts vs. Andre.

Andre the Giant wins in 9:09, last eliminating Bret Hart. Andre kicks the Anvil and he oversells and goes flying over. Andre presses Bret over his head and tosses him onto the Anvil. According to Bret, he suggested this finish to Andre after Andre had a different idea, to the shock of the locker room (no one ever suggested changes to Andre). But, Andre went for it. Pretty bad match overall though, but again, this match really isn’t about the wrestling.

Piper interview with Vince. Piper said he was ready for a fight and that T cheated.

World Tag Team Championship
The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) © vs. The British Bulldogs

Ozzy Osbourne is out here as well.

Easily the best match of the night so far and we are only 3 minutes in.

Davey’s hanging vertical suplex is always impressive, but moreso back then.

Great teamwork from the Bulldogs. Unsurprisingly.

That piledriver from Valentine to Dynamite looks like it clearly hit Dynamite’s head.

The British Bulldogs win the title when Dynamite pins Valentine in 13:03. Finish comes out of nowhere. Dynamite whips Valentine into the corner but Davey was on the ropes. Davey takes a plunge to the floor, but Valentine knocked heads with Davey so goes down for the pin. Interesting thing about this match. It’s clear that the purpose was to showcase the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs dominated Valentine the whole time (because you can’t trust Beefcake to make anyone look good). It’s a good match, but nothing special or anything.

Time to head to LA.

Ventura, Lord Alfred Hayes and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. What a cast of characters.

Hercules Hernandez vs. Ricky Steamboat

There’s a huge difference of talent here.

A lot of armdrags here.

Ricky Steamboat pins Hercules Hernandez in 7:19. Steamboat wins with a top rope bodypress. Nothing really to say about the match. Hercules controlled most and slipped on a banana peel when Steamboat got his legs up on a top rope move.

Adorable Adrian Adonis vs. Uncle Elmer

Crowd actually chants faggot at Adonis. How far we’ve come. I think.

Elmer somehow falls after throwing a punch.

Adonis is overselling everywhere.

Adrian Adonis pinned Uncle Elmer in 3:00. Elmer misses a legdrop. Adonis comes off the top with a splash for the win. Terrible, but you can tell Adonis tried with his selling.

I feel like the Adorable Adrian Adonis character is a shot at the original Gorgeous George.

Hogan promo brother!

Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana vs. Terry and Hoss Funk

For some reason Dory Funk Jr. is named Hoss Funk.

Terry Funk always does weird things in the ring…but intentionally. Like things that would happen naturally in the ring that would add legitimacy to it (like tripping on Santana’s feet and almost going over the top rope here).

Terry’s great here. Awesome save from Funk.

Really great hot tag sequence to JYD. Santana tries to get by Funk and eventually does so.

Funk takes an over the top rope backdrop. Wow.

Terry gets slammed on a table. What? This is 1986!

Terry and Hoss Funk when Terry pins JYD in 11:33. Jimmy Hart throws in the megaphone! Terry nails JYD and gets the win. Pretty fun brawl! Terry Funk was great. Another bullshit chant. Although I guess its LA’s first.

Here comes the cage.

We get 5 minutes of Hogan working out. Great.

Now we have a Bobby Heenan and King Kong Bundy interview.

WWF Championship: Steel Cage Match
Hulk Hogan© vs. King Kong Bundy

Story is simple. Bundy avalanched Hogan three times, injuring his ribs. This is Hogan’s revenge.

Hogan’s ribs are taped here.

Bundy works the ribs and he rips the tape off (which Elvira calls as “he’s taking off more clothes! Oh it’s his belt”).

Another on camera blade. Not trying are we cameramen? Anyway Bundy is busted open.

Hogan survives an Avalanche!

Hulk Hogan wins in 10:11. Hogan outright no sells a second avalanche. Big slam. Legdrop. Escape for the win. Well, that’s classic Hogan for you I guess. It was pretty much a main event squash of Bundy. Hogan beats the crap out of Heenan afterwards. Seems underwhelming for a Wrestlemania main event…but that’s of course hindsight as this was only the 2nd Wrestlemania. Commentary was pretty bad there too, although hilariously so.

You know Vince didn’t like this show. That’s why he threw everything at Andre vs. Hogan for Mania III. The idea of expanding to three venues was weird. I don’t think Bundy was nearly a big enough name to headline Mania. Some finishes were lame (opening match double countout? Come on). Hogan vs. Bundy was underwhelming. Kudos to Vince for trying new things, but Wrestlemania 2 is largely forgettable. Heck I don’t remember half the show and I just watched it. No surprise that 70K less people bought this show.

The plus side: The Bulldogs match was nice, and the Funks weren’t that bad either…and I guess Hogan doing his thing was still a big deal in 1986.

Final Grade: C

Basketball

The NBA Minimum Age Limit Is Terrible.

March 9, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

This is more of an opinion piece if anything. I think the NBA age limit cheats the young players who look to play professional basketball. Recently the NBA has been looking to raise their age limit to 20 years old (or two years removed from high school). Currently the age limit is set to 19, or one year removed from high school. I was very against that decision at the time, and I’ll make those arguments why here. It should be noted the NFL has an age limit in place as well, but I am more on board with that as professional football takes a very different physical toll and there’s no track record of anyone succeeding at a younger age. This article is not intended to talk about the NFL though.

Let’s outline some of the reasons I’ve read here and there about why the NBA is considering changing the age limit…and some of the reasons I think they are changing the rules.

Reason #1: Players on average will be more mature entering the NBA at an older age.

On the surface this seems like a legitimate reason. People mature with age, right? Of course, there’s no data to really back this up which is the big problem with this argument. For all the troubled athletes that entered the NBA straight from high school I could find just as many who spent years in college and had the same issues. Would Kobe Bryant (accused of rape), J.R. Smith (vehicular manslaughter, multiple traffic citations), Leon Smith (psychological problems), Andrew Bynum (overall maturity issues), and Eddy Curry (many different issues) not have these issues if they went to college? I don’t know, I mean Gilbert Arenas (brought guns into the locker room), Allen Iverson (various), Metta World Peace (jumped into the stands and punched a fan), Zach Randolph (various) all went to college and have their issues as well. Heck, Len Bias went to college for four years and dropped dead due to a cocaine overdose 48 hours after he was drafted. There are plenty of NBA players who came straight from high school and they have their heads on straight (Tyson Chandler, Al Harrington, Kevin Garnett (mostly), LeBron James (mostly). So I don’t buy this.

Reason #2: Without a college education, a player coming out of high school who doesn’t make it would have no future.

If that’s the case, make all NBA players get a degree before joining. While there is definitely merit to this, the solution should not be “don’t let the high schoolers join”. It should be the NBA setting up a program that helps players get their degrees as well as help with financial planning. Shaquille O’Neal wrote in his book about how he signed his first contract with the Magic and immediately spent more money than he had available to him. He ended up getting a financial advisor. I get that dealing with agents and such is all tricky, but the NBA should really work on having their players educated on these issues so if they do have a career ending injury, there is back-up plan. Also, some of this is on the institutions as well. Not all academic institutions support their student athletes after the season is over. There’s no reason a NBA player still can’t get their college degree during their NBA career (like Vince Carter, for example).

Reason #3: Game quality will improve in the NBA.

This is absolute bs. Of the top 15 NBA players of all time, four of them came straight out of high school (Garnett, LeBron, Kobe and Moses Malone). They’ve won a combined nine MVP awards and have all been the focal point of NBA Championship teams. Nevermind that Jermaine O’Neal was an MVP candidate in the mid 2000s, Tyson Chandler is a former Defensive Player of the Year, Tracy McGrady, Dwight Howard and Shawn Kemp are top 100 players of all time and Amar’e Stoudemire is close. Considering the small amount of players that actually came out of high school in NBA history, this is pretty impressive and kills the whole game quality argument.

So yeah, all those reasons are pretty bad and do not offset the idea of a college player risking injury for no money because he doesn’t have the opportunity to play in the NBA. Especially for the NCAA…which is one of the worst sporting regulatory bodies period. The real reasons I believe the age limit is discussed is about money of course. The NBA owners are sneakily trying to shorten players’ careers…and as a result, the contracts they’d earn. That’s it. That’s the only reason I think the NBA wants to do this (okay, not completely true, they want to use the NCAA as a development league as well).

Just let me know when it’s okay to prevent a someone from potentially making millions while risking injury that could take all of that earning power away. Until then, let’s agree the current NBA age limit and proposed new NBA age limit are both terrible and bad for the NBA overall.

Basketball

The NBA Injury What-If All Stars

February 27, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

On the heels of the unfortunate news about Derrick Rose, it seems appropriate to revisit some of the greatest NBA players to have injuries derail what was potentially a Hall of Fame (or better) career. Truthfully, a couple of these guys on this What-If All Star team may make the Hall of Fame anyway. The point of this team is strictly injuries that plagued the prime years or more of a player’s career. Other reasons such as attitude or bad personal habits count against a player making this team, as that’s on the player. Also, for the purposes of this article, I am focusing on players from the 90s on. So no Bill Walton or Sidney Moncrief.

First, a list of “cuts”.

Tim Hardaway: He put up three straight years of about 23-10 for the RUN TMC Warriors before a knee injury took out his age 27 season. He lost tons of quickness, but was still quite effective with a 20-9 in his comeback year. Hardaway later was an effective 2^nd option for the Miami Heat in the late 90s as well. Why did he miss this list? I have questions about just how good Hardaway really was (Warriors were 34-48 the year before he got hurt, went 50-32 when he was gone when they got Chris Webber, then dropped back to 26-56 the year he came back). I also don’t think his downfall was as big as others. So he was 85% as good as he was.

Chris Webber: Speaking of Webber, injuries seemed to limit Webber’s overall career. It’s debatable what you thought Webber’s ceiling was but I don’t need to get into that. Webber was mostly healthy in his prime years for the Kings. And the truth was he wasn’t as good as Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki or Kevin Garnett at that time either. Nevermind the fact that the Kings often wondered if they were just as good without him.

Alonzo Mourning: Kidney ailments practically ruined Alonzo Mourning’s twilight years starting from age 30. But as good as he was, he wasn’t good enough to carry the Heat to the finals (or usually past the Knicks). He was who he was and had reached his potential as a good offensive player and destructive defensive player. He still made the Hall of Fame.

Amar’e Stoudemire and Tracy McGrady: Both guys started very young in the NBA and were successful right away and both flourished offensively. T-Mac’s issue is this. Comparing them in 2003, Tracy McGrady was a more talented basketball player than Kobe Bryant. But overall Kobe just wanted it more. That’s why Kobe was still an elite guy as late as 2011 and McGrady was a role player in 2008. Sure injuries played a part of it. But so did passion and hard work. Stoudemire’s case is a bit different, as he basically got the most out of someone who focused on just offense. He should have been a better rebounder and should have at least tried on defense. But he didn’t. Also, both guys had pretty much full careers before injuries really took their tolls (Amar’e came back strong from his 2005-2006 injuries as well). If Chris Bosh’s career ends up being over, you could make the same case about having a full career here. You can make it for Alonzo as well.

Vin Baker: Alcoholism is a sad deal for sure. But it won’t count as an injury here.

Gilbert Arenas: Knee injuries hurt his career sure. But bringing guns into the locker room was a lot worse.

Vince Carter: Notably one of the softest players of his generation (knock him down once and no more dunking), but let’s not forget he also outright gave up on Toronto.

Jay Williams and Shaun Livingston: Two lottery picks. Williams ruined his career in a motorcycle accident and while he had some bright spots his rookie year, that’s wasn’t enough for me to think he was a Hall of Famer in waiting (his advanced metrics were quite bad for a rookie too). Livingston blew his knee out in about 10 different places at once, but again, nothing really indicated just how good he would be.

Steve Francis: With Francis, it’s more bad attitude than anything else. Notes about Francis: practically finished off basketball in Vancouver when he didn’t want to go there. Got Jeff Van Gundy tons of praise for inspiring Francis to play any defense. Got suspended in Orlando for conduct detrimental to the team. And there’s a video out there (I’ll post it if I can find it) that shows Francis walking away from an opponent taking a three pointer. It wasn’t just the knee.

Now, your What-If All Stars.

The Bench

Andrew Bynum, C, Lakers, Sixers, Cavs, Pacers

Resume: Peak Year: 19-12-2, 56% FG, .183 WS/48, All Star, NBA All 2^nd Team (11-12, 24 Yrs.). Two Time NBA Champion.

Bynum hasn’t played effective basketball since that 2012 season. The Lakers, with amazing timing, traded Bynum for Dwight Howard. Bynum didn’t play the next year at all, then played 26 rough games for the Pacers and Cavs (averaging a 9-6 on 41% shooting) due to deteriorating knees. He hasn’t played since. Sure he was (and is) a hot head, but Bynum was a force for the Lakers through their two title teams and a couple years beyond, and he was only 24 for that 2012 season. Now he’s out of the league at 27.

Greg Oden, C, Portland Trail Blazers, Miami Heat

Resume: Peak Year: 11-9-2 in 24 MPG 21 G, 23.1 PER, .214 WS/48 (09-10, 22 Yrs.)

Seems odd to put Oden here when not including Jay Williams or Shaun Livingston? Well Oden’s advanced metrics were off the charts in his first two seasons…at least for the 82 games he played. He showed significant improvement in his second season (including a 24-12-2 in 27 minutes). But he couldn’t stay on the court. Any reason not to include him on this team would be more of what happened later (domestic violence, sending sexual explicit images to women, alcohol issues, lack of desire to play), but it’s clear that what derailed his career first was the injuries. In fact, a lot of those may have even been caused by the expectation and pressure he was under.

Terrell Brandon, PG, Cavs, Bucks, T-Wolves

Resume: Peak Year: 19-6-2, 46-38-88%s, 25.2 PER, .237 WS/48, 27.6% Usage, All-Star (95-96, 25 Yrs.)

Let’s put it this way: if you agree that Chauncey Billups is a top 50 player of all time (he is), then this is an easy sell. If not, well you probably won’t buy this. His 25.2 PER was 6^th that season, behind David Robinson, Michael Jordan, Shaq, Karl Malone and Hakeem, and right ahead of Charles Barkley. Here’s the list of players who had a season of at least 27.6% usage and a 121 offensive rating for one season in the 3 point era: Barkley, Bird, Stephen Curry (so far in 14-15 at least), Adrian Dantley, Durant, LeBron, Jordan, Nowitzki, Amar’e and Kiki Vandeweghe. And Terrell Brandon. Just look at that list! Brandon’s stats for 1996 look a lot like Billups later during the Pistons run in the mid 00s. Not surprisingly Billups’ teams “overachieved”. Brandon dragged a Cavs team that featured Chris Mills, Bobby Phills, Danny Ferry and Michael Cage to 47-35. It’s worth noting that this was Brandon’s first year as a starter and he was very good in 1997 as well. He was the main piece of the haul that the Bucks received for parting with Vin Baker where Cleveland got Shawn Kemp (so Brandon was traded with a 1^st that had middling potential for an in his prime Shawn Kemp. Not bad). Knee injuries screwed up Brandon in Milwaukee. Look, he was really damn good and even remained effective after those injuries. Don’t scoff at the 19-6.

Antonio McDyess, PF, Nuggets, Suns, Knicks, Pistons, Spurs

Resume: Peak Year: 21-11-2, All NBA Third Team (1999, 24 Yrs.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZLXkRGH_0

You can argue McDyess’ 2000-2001 year is better (21-12). Anyway, McDyess was a high flying power forward known to try to touch the top of the backboard. He had 21-11, 19-9 and 21-12 coming up to his age 28 season. He would rupture his patella tendon, resulting him only playing 10 games in 01-02. Got dealt to the Knicks and while it’s only the pre-season, put up the following lines: 17-17, 13-7 in 17 minutes and a 23-15 before getting injured again with a fractured kneecap. He wouldn’t be the same. It’s one of the forgotten what-ifs for the mid-2000 Knicks.

McDyess was an explosive power forward who was just hitting his prime. It would have only benefitted him playing in the Eastern Conference at that time…the best power forward in the East was Kenyon Martin at that point…and injuries took away his shot at being a top player. He would re-invent himself in Detroit and San Antonio, but would narrowly miss winning a title.

Reggie Lewis, SF, Celtics

Resume: Peak Year: 21-5, 50% FG, 85% FT, All-Star (91-92, 26 Yrs.)

A tough call, but ultimately decided Lewis makes the team for the following reasons.

His cause of death: If it was ruled to be cocaine, I wouldn’t have him here (why I didn’t consider Len Bias). But his heart scarring showed to be inconsistent with cocaine.

While Lewis’ advanced metrics as a whole showed to be rather average, he scored well on a good percentage on a good team and had some good offensive metrics.

He was a crucial part of the post-Bird Celtics. Bird retired…and the Celtics under Lewis in 1992-1993 won 48 games and made the playoffs. He had been handed the keys and all indications pointed to him leading Boston to some more winning seasons. He was just about to hit his prime. But sadly we’ll never know.

Drazen Petrovic, SG, Blazers, Nets

Resume: Peak Year: 22.3 PPG, 52-45-87%s, All NBA Third Team (92-93, 28 Yrs.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLlPtBsGbYo

Drazen’s death potentially set back the immersion of international players in the NBA…but his success ultimately aided that same immersion. Drazen was a dead eye scorer who feared no one. Just watch the highlight reel against the ’93 Rockets (featuring the best defensive player in the world at that point, Hakeem).

He wasn’t happy being benched behind Clyde Drexler in Portland, got a trade to New Jersey and flourished, showing international players CAN succeed in the NBA. For all the talk about Toni Kukoc for Croatia in the 1992 Olympics…Drazen was the true best player on that team. Of the first 14 years that the NBA had a three point line, Drazen had three of the top 17 shooting seasons (2 of those with high enough volume in NJ). He shot 43.7% for his career from the 3 point line (255/583). I mean what?

Maybe it’s a bit of cheating to add someone who was trending upward in his age 28 season, but we had no idea how much better Petrovic was going to get. And when he died in a car crash, we never would know. He also set the stage for Manu, Dragic and all the other international guards that come through the NBA. If anything Drazen was 20 years ahead of his time. He would be a more devastating version of Klay Thompson if he were in the league today.

Brandon Roy, SG, Blazers, T-Wolves

Resume: Peak Year: 23-5-5, 48-38-82%s, .223 WS/48, All NBA Second Team (08-09, 24 Yrs.). All NBA Third Team in 2010.

One of the biggest disappointments in recent NBA history in terms of injuries, because there was nothing Roy could do about it. His knees didn’t have any cartilage and it zapped all of his explosiveness and quickness. Roy was the #2 SG in the league behind Kobe and his injuries turned him into a fraction of that player. He injured the knee late in 2010 and he never recovered. He started slowly in 2010-2011, scoring the same but shooting a much lower percentage. He took a month off and came back worse. Other than one throwback game (how sad is it that at 26 he has a throwback game) in the 2011 playoffs against Dallas, Brandon Roy was done. He would attempt one more season a couple of years later, got paid somehow, got everyone excited…and played five pitiful games. One of the most promising careers a half-decade earlier was over.

The ramifications are huge. When LaMarcus Aldridge eventually became a much better player he did it after Roy. Roy and the Aldridge of today teaming up would have made Portland a legit championship contender (and if they made the same Gerald Wallace trade, impossible to say, that could be Aldridge, Roy AND Lillard). We get to miss out on Brandon Roy vs. James Harden battles. It’s a shame all around.

Your Starting Lineup

Danny Manning, PF, Clippers, Hawks, Suns, Bucks, Jazz, Mavericks, Pistons

Resume: Peak Year: 23-6, 51% FG, All-Star (91-92, 25 Yrs.), Two Time All-Star

Manning’s peak year looks pretty disappointing. But he’s here for a totally different reason. Here was one of the great college players of all time coming into his rookie year, averaging 17-6 the first 26 games of the season. And at age 21…he tore his ACL. Manning never regained any of the elite skills he showed at Kansas but to his credit, he still became a very good player. He dragged the Clippers from pretty much hell and took them to the playoffs for the first time in 16 seasons. Got traded for an aging but still All-Star Dominique during his 2^nd All Star year…although the Hawks sent a 1^st as well. That’s still good company. He left Atlanta but tore up his other knee the next year…and despite being the first player to play in the NBA with both knees surgically reconstructed, he STILL managed to be an effective player. Who knows what happens if he never tears his ACL in his rookie year.

Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, SG, Magic, Suns, Knicks, Heat

Resume: Peak Year: 22-7-4-2, 51% FG, .229 WS/48, All NBA First Team (95-96, 24 Yrs.). Also made All NBA First Team in 94-95, and Third Team in 96-97. 2^nd Best Player on Eastern Conference Champ (’95 Magic)

Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal were supposed to own the East and the NBA forever. But Penny and Shaq didn’t get along, and Shaq bolted to LA. Penny still looked very good post-Shaq…until knee injuries destroyed his career. Penny made two All NBA First Teams pretty much right away and was Shaq’s original #2 man in the path to the NBA Finals in 1995. They would get close in 1996 as well…but MJ and the ’96 Bulls were too much to handle.

Many said Penny was Magic Johnson 2.0, and there were similarities for sure…but Penny earlier in his career was a better scorer than Magic. Penny wanted that superstar glory for himself. The only thing that could have held him back was his attitude. Otherwise, the Penny vs. Hill battles throughout the early 2000s would have been fascinating. An example of just how devastating Penny could be? Down 0-2 to the Heat in the 1997 playoffs he put together back to back 40 point games and kept Orlando alive (31-6 in the series against a great defensive team). As long as he kept his head on straight and kept his brand in check (lil’ Penny!) and stayed healthy Penny would go down as one of the all time greats.

Penny injured his ACL in a way that was unidentifiable at the time. Penny eventually came back in late ’97, early ’98, clearly not himself. There was controversy in regards to him playing the 1998 All-Star Game…which was made worse when he didn’t play during the rest of the season afterwards (reminds me of Carmelo actually). He was good, but not nearly the same in 1999 and got wrecked by Allen Iverson in the playoffs. He got sent to the Suns…and did okay for a while but then ended up with microfracture surgery and became a shell of his former self. Just read these last two paragraphs again. Penny and Hill’s injuries were major reasons the Eastern Conference was horrible in the early 2000s.

Grant Hill, SF, Pistons, Magic, Suns, Clippers

Resume: Peak Year: 21-9-7-2, 50% FG, .223 WS/48, All NBA First Team (96-97, 24 Yrs.) Other seasons: 20-6-5 (22 Yrs, Rookie), 20-10-7, 21-7-8, 26-5-7. Seven Time All Star. Made four other All NBA Second Teams.

Basically LeBron before LeBron. With the exception of two of those All Star appearances, he accomplished all on his resume before his 28^th birthday.

How crazy is that? Grant Hill came into the league and was great right away. He had a killer crossover…yet could play power forward. He was literally the LeBron prototype. After the first six seasons of his career, he had 9,393 points, 3,417 rebounds and 2,720 assists. Only three players in NBA history surpassed those numbers in their first three seasons: Larry Bird, LeBron and Oscar Robertson. Grant Hill was the future. He was traded to Orlando since he planned to sign with them, which netted Detroit Ben Wallace. Some called the deal the most lopsided in NBA history. But it turned out Detroit got the better end when Wallace helped bring a championship to Detriot.

He sprained his ankle late in 2000, but continued to gut it out knowing what he meant to the Pistons organization. He fought hard against the Heat but made the ankle significantly worse (Hill deserves a lot of credit for this considering his impending free agency…although he got max money anyway). He would never fully recover from his ankle injury. Over the next few seasons he barely played for Orlando, his new team, and the following procedure were done: a re-fracturing of his ankle to line it up with his leg…and he also contracted MRSA from that. While he would finally play a near full season and even make one more All-Star team in ’05, he was still a shell of his former self. Hill remained a solid role player throughout the rest of his career.

Remember those Jason Kidd led Nets teams that went to the finals in the early 2000s? Something tells me those don’t happen with a healthy Grant Hill in the league. For his 28, 29, 30 and 31 year old seasons…Hill played 47 games total.

Derrick Rose, PG, Bulls

Resume: Peak Year: 25-8-4, .208 WS/48, NBA MVP, All NBA First Team (10-11, 22 Yrs.) Three Time NBA All-Star. .211 WS/48 in 11-12.

How crazy is it that this may be the end of Derrick Rose’s resume? That MVP is his ONLY All NBA Team and probably will be for the rest of his career (whether or not he deserved the MVP is a different question).

It all began with a serious torn ACL in his left knee in the 2012 playoffs against the Sixers. While in the 90s ACL injuries were huge, these days it should be as bad. But Rose failed to return in 12-13, then managed only 10 games in 13-14 after tearing his meniscus and missing the rest of the season. Rose came back in 14-15…and another tear in the meniscus has put his season in jeopardy. While the meniscus tear is bad…the 18 month recovery time needed from the first ACL injury is a bigger red flag considering he struggled when he came back. Something happened from that first ACL injury that Derrick Rose never got past. Of course, there’s the stats as well: 21-7, 46% FG before the ACL tear in his career…18-5, 40% since.

The good thing for Rose? He’s the only person who can actually play off this team. Good luck Derrick Rose! He’s only 26!

Yao Ming, C, Rockets

Resume: Peak Year: 20-10-2, 54% FG, All NBA Second Team (08-09, 28 Yrs.) .200 CAREER WS/48. Lowest Orating for a season: 110. .220 WS/48, 25-9 in 48 G in 06-07. 8 Time All Star. One other All NBA 2^nd Team and three All NBA Third Teams.

Some people called Yao soft. Somewhere in that soft tag was a dominant defensive player, a great offensive player, a legit 20-10 guy who blocked 2 shots a game. Yet in 8 seasons he didn’t even manage to play 500 games. He got through his first three seasons injury free but couldn’t get out of Round 1. Got hurt in April of his 4^th season and wouldn’t play another full season until 08-09, where he was great. Without T-Mac, he led the Rockets past Roy and the Blazers and led a shocking upset in Game 1 against the Lakers. While the Rockets would go down 2-1, they would have to press further without Yao as he suffered a hairline fracture. And just like that, it was over. Great secret what-if? Do the Rockets win the series if Yao stays healthy. I mean…they took it to seven anyway.

Yao was a physical freak. Despite all the injuries, his game never wavered. He was pretty much a 20-10 guy since year two. If he stayed healthy, do the Rockets make a Finals? Impossible to say, but I think Yao did have that in him. His stats were good. The advanced metrics were great. He just threw in a “yeah, I’m a great player” performance against the Lakers in Game 1. I think he’s a Hall of Famer anyway.

There they are…your What-If All Stars. Try not to be too sad like me right now. And best of luck to Derrick Rose. And while we are at it…I really hope we don’t see Paul George on this team soon.

NASCAR

2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Preview: 10 Questions

February 22, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

On the eve of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship opener: the Daytona 500, fans still wonder about the direction the sport is headed. Last year’s Chase for the Cup Championship, while exiting, took a lot of the authenticy and even legitimacy of the Sprint Cup Championship. We are now far removed from the days where a driver had to be good for 36 straight weeks in order to win a title. We’re even now past the idea of a driver putting together a hot ten weeks, similar to most major league playoff systems, and winning a championship. Now you just have to make it to the end by any means necessary and you can be champion if you outlast three other drivers in one race. I may sound pretty negative on this, but I don’t think the most recent way to decide the Sprint Cup Champion is a bad thing. In fact, the only issue I really have with it is the fact that the title is decided by one race at the end. Three would suffice for me. I understand why it’s like that though, ever since 2011 NASCAR looked to replicate the Tony Stewart vs. Carl Edwards battle for the title. That was the year Stewart barely made the Chase, won five of the ten Chase races and won a points tie with Edwards because of his five wins against Edwards one. Despite Stewart’s lackluster regular season, I was perfectly fine with this. Stewart was good when it mattered over a decent sample size. I would also change the non-winners getting in. I wouldn’t allow any non-winners unless they were the regular season points champion. Win a race if you want to be the champion.

I don’t know if NASCAR liked the Kevin Harvick vs. Ryan Newman battle from last year…but I bet they are happy Harvick won. Newman of course had merely four top 5s and 0 wins but snuck into the final based off of not making any mistakes and rarely finishing worse than 20^th. He finished 2^nd at Homestead and could have won the title if Harvick had any issue. It would have the worst champion in the history of the Sprint Cup title as well. Would have been rectified with my win or you’re not in rule.

Anyway, let’s ask 10 pressing questions about the 2015 NASCAR season.

Who’s winning the title?

Could be anyone under this format really. I think Jeff Gordon is a sentimental favorite due to his retirement announcement. But he’s a legit title contender as well and might have gotten there if he didn’t screw up after Brad Keselowski messed up his tire at Texas making a “crazy move”. It’s forgotten that Gordon actually ruined his own chances at winning the title last year by not getting out of pit road in time after the incident with Keselowski which cost him a lap. Gordon ultimately lost to Ryan Newman by one point…a point he surely could have made up at the end of Texas.

RDT predicts these two will be in the hunt for the title

Anyway, I like keeping Harvick in the final four. I remember laughing when I saw Harvick being listed as the favorite by numerous betting sites before the Chase. Harvick responded with three wins (including the last two races to win the title), six top 5s and nine top 15s. I would not rule out Harvick. I also will include Jimmie Johnson. Johnson had the first “bad” season for him (11^th in the standings despite 4 wins, and 20 top 10s…which amazingly tied a career low for him). Yeah, JJ has dominated the Chase races for practically a decade now. It’s still smart money to think he’ll be in the end. I’m not going to pick Gordon. He didn’t get in despite a great season last year. For the other two spots I’ll go with Brad Keselowski, who’s aggressiveness can lead to wins late, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. You may scoff at my adding Junior, but he’s at the top of his game and even won the Martinsville race after he was eliminated. A four win season last year proves he’s ready to go. He might just win the Daytona 500 this year. Also consider when calculating the 2013 Championship with 2014 rules, Dale Jr. actually wins the title in that format (with no wins at that).

I would ultimately pick Johnson to bring home title #7.

What about Tony Stewart?

Tony Stewart is a very interesting dark horse for the Championship considering he’s been known for his hot streaks at the end of the season (see 2011). Stewart didn’t race a full 2013 due to injury, and then the Kevin Ward tragedy ruined any chance Stewart was going to make a late season surge. Has he put that behind him? His he 100% healthy? Can he still handle being a car owner and an elite level NASCAR driver? I don’t know, but if you can get really good odds, I wouldn’t count Tony Stewart out.

What will happen with Kurt and Kyle Busch?

I think we may finally be at the point of Kurt Busch’s top level NASCAR career being over. He’s only been employed due to his talent (which won a title in 2004). But I mean it was questionable that he was going to be picked up by anyone during his previous incidents…and now we are throwing domestic violence on top of that. Domestic violence is unfortunately a hot topic as top tier athletes in other sports (Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice) have had notably incidents and didn’t play their respective seasons. I think at minimum we’ll see Kurt Busch at that level.

Kyle’s situation is a shame but we still need more information. He was injured in the Xfinity series opener at Daytona today and will miss the 500. But if he can get back on track and win one race he can still get in the Chase, which isn’t far-fetched at all (Denny Hamlin did this last year and made the final four). I think it’s a good sign that Kyle is scaling back his non-Sprint Cup obligations. He’s one of the most talented drivers in the sport and just needs to focus. He’s only 29 and can still be the future of Sprint Cup if he sets his mind to it.

Who is someone not named Kyle Larson or Tony Stewart who makes the Chase this year that didn’t last year?

Stewart isn’t a fair answer and Larson would be the obvious answer, so let’s ignore those two. I think Jamie McMurray has the best chance. Both Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. both haven’t gotten past the 2013 Richmond incident, in Bowyer’s case losing support and in Truex’s case losing his whole ride and I don’t like either here. Austin Dillon has a chance so we’ll see. I pick McMurray because he is one of the best superspeedway guys and could easily win a Daytona or Talladega to get in.

Which driver takes a big step back this season?

For sure it’s Ryan Newman. Before last season Newman never even finished in the top 5 in the standings. Zero wins, five top 5s and 16 top 10s is fringe top 10 in the standings stats…and most of the time even worse. I don’t know if he’ll drop out completely though if he keeps up the avoidance of bad finishes.

Is this the year of Danica?

No…but don’t be surprise if she finally strings something decent together. I say she contends for a top 20 standings spot. Unless she keeps getting into arguments with guys like Hamlin.

Danica needs to get into thew news by winning and not arguing — Danica needs to get into the news by winning and not arguing

Will NASCAR keep qualifying like this?

Probably. Old qualifying was an absolute bore to watch and at least this provides excitement. They had to change some of the rules at Daytona though and I assume they’ll apply at Talladega too after the embarrassing situation that cost Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a starting spot last year.

Will Roush Racing make a comeback?

Roush Racing is no longer one of the elite teams in NASCAR and a big reason why Carl Edwards bolted for the crazily stacked Gibbs (I might want to re-do my top 4). Greg Biffle will always be a threat to win a race or two. Hopefully Stenhouse improves from a massively disappointing 2014 season. Trevor Bayne shoots for Rookie of the Year honors this season and of course won the Daytona 500 in one of the biggest upsets in NASCAR history in 2011. Does that mean he’ll win another one? Well…probably not. Best bet is on Biffle having a good season for Roush to be relevant here.

Gibbs is stacked…so why don’t you have any of them in your final four?

One of the big things about NASCAR is that roster wise, this is the probably the most competitive the Sprint Cup Series has ever been. It’s been like this for quite a while now (a big reason why Jimmie Johnson’s six titles in eight years is probably way more impressive than anything Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty has done). Gibbs has 03 champ Matt Kenseth, Edwards (runner up in ’08 and ’11), Hamlin (runner up in ’10) and Kyle Busch (29 career wins, 4^th in 2013). I haven’t even mentioned some top guys from other teams like Joey Logano (made the final four last year). Any of these guys could win the championship in addition to Stewart, Gordon and the four I mentioned in question #1. That’s 11 guys right there. It’s crazy.

Defining story of the season?

I think we’ll see Jeff Gordon put together one hell of a season for his swan song. It’s amazing that Gordon won four Cups in his first nine years then was never that good again. Sure he could have won in 2004, 2007 and last year, but he didn’t. It’s easy to forget just how dominant Gordon was in the 90s. From the 1995 season (his first title season) through the 2001 season (his last) he won 56 races. That’s more than legends such as Rusty Wallace throughout their whole career. He won 33 times in 1996, 1997 and 1998, a three season span. His dominance was insane. He won the first Brickyard, multiple Daytona 500s and was always a very good driver at his worst. He’s a big reason NASCAR reached the popularity levels it did in the 90s and early 2000s. I don’t think he’ll get to 100 (although I wouldn’t completely rule out an 8 win season from him), but three wins, and ending up in the 5^th-8^th spot of the championship wouldn’t be out of the question. And if Kasey Kahne falls apart this season…don’t be surprised to see Hendrick begging Gordon for one last run in 2016.

Pro Wrestling

The Fastlane to Wrestlemania

February 22, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWE Fastlane replaces the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View (rumored to be done later in the year) as the penultimate PPV stop on the Road to Wrestlemania. After a lackluster Royal Rumble, WWE has created one of the least exciting atmospheres on the Road to Wrestlemania in recent memory. While a lot of this has to do with the Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns, it moreso is the issue of new talent not being pushed properly, popular talent being made fools of (see Ambrose, Dean) and a thin roster overall. The most interesting rivalries are HHH vs. Sting, Bray Wyatt against whomever he is talking about, presumably The Undertaker and Daniel Bryan vs. Reigns, which seemingly has a forced narrative after Reigns was booed out of Philadelphia at the Royal Rumble. Three of the six of those matches have legendary guys that don’t (or rarely) wrestle on any of the other PPVs, one is Wyatt, who while interesting, is interesting despite of the booking crew. Bryan of course should be the top guy in the company right now no question, and Reigns is the guy WWE wants to be the top guy.

This forced push of Roman Reigns has led to WWE spinning their wheels. Roman Reigns has an amazing look and a ton of charisma, and is even a bit underrated as a worker (not different than Kevin Nash in 1995 really) but his monster push has turned fans against him. WWE might be turning him heel here…in the long run him fighting Bryan is only going to lead to a heel turn where WWE intended it or not. This is the best route though. If Reigns beats Bryan at Fastlane and gets his WWE Title shot against Brock Lesnar, Lesnar would be just fine as a face. The strength of Lesnar’s character is that for all intents and purposes what you see is what you get. Lesnar is a prize fighter who doesn’t really care about the business and is out to make his money. He doesn’t pretend to like anyone. He is true to himself. And honestly, while the reasoning is quite heelish, as a fan I can cheer that. I want to see Lesnar destroy the “WWE’s golden boy” Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns would be better off doing the same in being true to himself, and aligning himself with the Authority.

Rollins made himself a star at the Rumble

My favorite scenario for Wrestlemania? Lesnar vs. Reigns vs. Bryan vs. Money in the Bank Winner Seth Rollins. Lesnar is the champ. Having both Reigns and Bryan there make sense given their storyline at the moment. Rollins would be a great guy to say “hey, I almost beat Lesnar and Cena at the Rumble. I deserve to be in the main event at Wrestlemania and I’ll force my way in”. Also make this an elimination match. If Lesnar is leaving, you can still have Reigns Superman punch him to take him out of the match and give him that rub. Let Bryan and Rollins steal the show. Put the belt on Bryan and have Rollins and Reigns chase him, then Wyatt and Rusev afterwards. And don’t tell me there isn’t money in another Bryan vs. Cena match.

The other matches at Fastlane don’t quite excite me. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro hopefully will get a nice run with the tag titles. They remind me a little bit of Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid. I really don’t care about The Bella Twins anymore and I’m one of the few who isn’t a huge Paige fan, although her appearance on Total Divas is making me one. Rusev vs. Cena is interesting in the sense that Wrestlemania won’t be the beginning of their feud, and hopefully will end it. I’m fine with Cena ending Rusev’s undefeated streak for sure, but I want Rusev to come out on top at the end. Bad Bews Barrett I think is a little past the point of where I really care about him. It’s a shame as I wanted Barrett to be the World Champ every year through 2013. Ambrose, good as he is, just hasn’t been the same since the Shield broke up. That’s another booking disaster. I can’t say I care about the Dust Brother feud. I like them both and as a face team I enjoyed them. This is the closest they’ll get to that dream feud Goldust wanted between him and his brother years ago at Wrestlemania. I assume Sting shows up and I hope they fix that music. At the end of the night, we’ll know where we are at for Wrestlemania. I just hope it’s a good place.

Basketball

NBA “Midseason” Award Winners

February 16, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

It’s the main event of NBA’s unofficial midseason: the All-Star Game. All-Star Weekend itself often has tons of storylines. For example, who were the biggest snubs? At first it looked like it would be Damian Lillard and DeMarcus Cousins, but both for in due to injuries from other players. After Dirk Nowitzki (who is still having a good season, but has slipped a bit) got in, my thought now is that DeAndre Jordan is actually the biggest snub left. He’s been having a Tyson Chandler like season, only he’s a much better rebounder than Chandler ever was. His presence in the middle really might make a difference in April…unless these first 54 games from him was just a fluke. Other storylines involved a stacked three point contest (won by Stephen Curry) and Zach LaVine leaving Dr. J’s jaw on the ground after one of his dunks. It’s been a fun All-Star Weekend for sure.

Now that we’re at the “midseason”, it’s time to see who our front runners are for the regular season awards.

Most Improved Player

Butler has led the Bulls without an elite Derrick Rose

Jimmy Butler, SF Bulls

Normally I’d be all “of course it’s Jimmy Butler, who else could it be?!”, but Klay Thompson could easily win this award as well. I have to give the edge to Butler though, because this season he’s shown to be someone we didn’t know he could be. We knew Thompson was a very good shooter at least. I mean the Warriors wouldn’t part ways with him for Kevin Love (a genius move, I was sure wrong about that one) and he and Curry already had the “Splash Bros.” nickname going. But we already knew Thompson was good. Yes he’s even a better shooter than we thought, and yes he’s improved on defense quite a bit. And yes, he did score 37 points in one quarter.

But what did we really think of Butler before this season? He was an okay to good (depending on the night) wing that wasn’t a difference maker of any kind. The Bulls spent all summer trying to land Carmelo Anthony. Butler shot under 40% last season with 13 PPG and 5 RPG. Not really inspiring stuff. He had a PER of 13.5 (below average), a WS48 of .131 (solid rotation guy) and an offensive rating of 108 on 17% usage (good roleplayer). This year? 46% shooting, 20.4 PPG, 6 RPG, PER of 21.3, 123 ORtg on 21.5% usage. Those are some crazy jumps. He’s doing all this without an effective Derrick Rose no less. And Bulls fans don’t really seem to be talking about Carmelo anymore.

Sixth Man of the Year

Lou has helped the Raptors stay near the top of the East

Lou Williams, SG, Raptors

This comes down to three players for me so far. Williams, Jamal Crawford and Isaiah Thomas. I should probably rule out Crawford as this has been his worst LA Clipper year so far. He’s not quite the offensive sparkplug he was even last year, and if he’s not going to be a very good offensive guy then his horrid defense becomes a bigger problem. I’m in on Williams as he’s been part of a team that hasn’t had any chemistry problems since adding him and Toronto’s been near the top of the East for the entire year. Thomas and Williams are pretty close to the same player statwise (Thomas has a small edge), but trade rumors have been abundant in Phoenix ever since the idea of playing three guards came about. Sure, Goran Dragic’s contract is up soon, but you don’t see the Suns actively trying to keep him either.

Rookie of the Year

Andrew Wiggins, SG, Timberwolves

He started slow…played Cleveland in December and caught fire ever since. Since that game against Cleveland on 12/23, he’s averaged 18.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.5 APG and only 1.9 TPG on nearly 47% shooting. And he didn’t have Ricky Rubio for most of it. That’s….pretty good. Once Jabari Parker went down all Wiggins had to do was play well to win the award…and he has.

Defensive Player of the Year

Green has led the best defense in the NBA

Draymond Green, SF, Warriors

It’s not every day that a swingman has the lowest defensive rating in the league, but when one does it would be pretty hard for him not to win the Defensive Player of the Year award. The Warriors boast the best defensive team in basketball despite playing in the loaded West with an offensive first point guard in a point guard heavy league. Green manages to guard three different spots on the court effectively. Paul Millsap would be my 2^nd choice here, followed by Anthony Davis.

Coach of the Year

Mike Budenholzer, Hawks

Yeah, I don’t even think the city of Atlanta had the Hawks winning 43 games by the All-Star break. In fact, 43 games total was a realistic total. Another Gregg Popovich assistant of course. Budenholzer has some competition though. Steve Kerr of course deserves credit for taking the Warriors to the next level, and Jason Kidd went from the ousted laughing stock rookie head coach of the Nets to somehow having the Bucks…without Jabari Parker…in the midst of the playoffs.

Still though, the Hawks are 43-11. What?

Most Valuable Player

Harden is doing as well as Curry without a lot less to work with

James Harden, SG, Rockets

There are four cases to make for the MVP this season so far: Harden, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Let’s start with Curry, as to be him and Harden are 1a and 1b here. Curry has obviously been stupid good this seas. He’s shooting lights out (48-40-90%), he’s distributing the ball (7.9 APG), he’s leading the league in steals (2.2). He has a great MVP level WS/48 this season (.283, tied for the 18^th highest in the 3 point shooting era with Shaq’s 2000 season). He’s on the best team in the toughest conference. So why didn’t I pick him? Harden’s close to him in most of these #s, better in some advanced metrics and is clearly working with a hell of a lot less. Curry has Thompson, Green, even Kerr as a coach. Harden has a banged up Dwight Howard who isn’t Dwight Howard anymore, Josh Smith who even when he is Josh Smith it’s not guaranteed it’s a good thing.

LeBron’s case seems dubious as this is arguably his worst season since his rookie year. But then you see the following:

Cavs With LeBron: 31-14

Cavs Without LeBron: 2-8

That’s a big difference. I won’t count him out as if he has a monster last 27 games where the Cavs win 22 or 23 of them, voters will notice and forget about November and December.

Anthony Davis’s case is insane. Despite what we mentioned about Curry’s WS/48…Davis actually has a higher one of .291 right now. That would be good for 12^th in the 3 Point era. Only players above him? Lebron (’13, ’09, ’10, ’12), Jordan (’91, ’96, ’88, ’89), David Robinson (’94), Durant (’14), and Chris Paul (’09). That’s the list. It’s interesting to look at Robinson when thinking about Davis here. He too put up a lot of “holy shit” stats. But he only brought home one MVP as his teams were never really the best. In this case, the 27-26 Pelicans have to be better for Davis to win the MVP. Even if he has a record breaking PER. Yeah, it’s amazing that a team with Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday and Eric Gordon (three black hole All-Stars for sure) as their 2, 3 and 4 scorers is even remotely in the Western Conference playoff hunt. But that’s not enough.

So James Harden. He too has a ridiculous WS/48 (.275). He actually has the highest offensive win shares of anyone in the league. He’s carrying this Rockets team. Dwight Howard isn’t a great player anymore. He’s on a team where only two guys have higher than a 16 PER (him and Howard). Yet this team is 36-17. He’s leading the league in scoring. He’s averaging a 27-6-7 with 2 steals a game. He is your MVP.

RDT World of Sport

All posts by rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

RDT Reviews the 1992 WWF Royal Rumble

RDT Reviews WWF This Tuesday In Texas

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc ’89

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Starrcade ’88

RDT Reviews WWF Wrestlemania II

The NBA Minimum Age Limit Is Terrible.

The NBA Injury What-If All Stars

2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Preview: 10 Questions

The Fastlane to Wrestlemania

NBA “Midseason” Award Winners

And Games….And All Fun Stuff!