Tag Archives: bret hart

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF In Your House 3: The Triple Header

WWF In Your House 3: The Triple Header
September 24, 1995
Saginaw, MI

This is the first WWF PPV event after WCW Nitro had debuted. While the WWF finally had some competition, it wasn’t as if WCW was destroying them right off the bat. WCW began the war at about even ground with the WWF but Vince McMahon hadn’t gotten desperate yet.

Still, the WWF had to be reeling when Lex Luger showed up on Nitro. With a couple of In Your House PPVs left before Survivor Series, the WWF had to make sure to put on an interesting product in order to not allow WCW to take an early lead. To be fair the main event here is intriguing with the three big WWF belts on the line in one match (an idea copied at Backlash 2001). Is there any chance in hell Yokozuna or Owen Hart would walk out of Saginaw the WWF Champion? Well no…but let’s see what happens anyway.

The Card

Savio Vega vs. Waylon Mercy

Vega had started to get a push as Razor Ramon’s friend while Mercy was a nearly finished Dan Spivey.

Mercy gets the early advantage and slams Savio on the floor. Vince says he’s undefeated so far.

It looks like Spivey can’t really move. He hits Savio with a stun gun but it looked like his knee gave out.

Doc Hendrix tells us Owen Hart isn’t here for the main event.

Vega with one of the stranger pinfall attempts I’ve ever seen. It was like a slow reverse Russian Legsweep.

Brainbuster from Mercy that looked a bit dangerous. Again, you can tell Mercy physically was near his end.

Savio Vega pins Waylon Mercy in 7:06. Vega hits the flying spin kick for the upset victory. This was probably done because Mercy was close to retiring. It’s a shame that Dan Spivey was near retirement here as the Mercy character was pretty cool and is a really early prototype of what you see with Bray Wyatt. Match wasn’t good though.

Jim Cornette and Gorilla Monsoon argue backstage over whether the Triple Header is still on because Owen isn’t here. Monsoon says it’s on.

Henry Godwinn vs. Sycho Sid

The build-up seems to be that Sid went crazy after Godwinn slopped him. Godwinn also slopped Ted Dibiase but Sid powerbombed him on the floor as a result.

Godwinn’s dominating Sid early on. He suplexes Sid into the ring but hurts his own back. At least there’s some psychology here since he’s selling the back injury from being powerbombed on the floor.

Godwinn eventually makes a comeback and Slop Drops Sid. How low did Sid fall down the totem pole to nearly be beaten by Henry Godwinn?

Sid pins Henry Godwinn in 7:23. Dibiase trips Godwinn and Sid legdrops him. Powerbomb and its over. It had a good first minute and a boring last six minutes. Bam Bam Bigelow runs in on Sid (didn’t realize that was still a feud) and Kama comes in to take out Bigelow. Dibiase gets slopped anyway. Rough start to the PPV here.

Still talking about Owen not being here and if the match will still go down. Monsoon allows Cornette to pick a different partner if Owen doesn’t make it.

British Bulldog vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Amazing what happened to Bam Bam’s career after Wrestlemania XI. He turned face, teamed with Diesel, got frustrated with the Kliq backstage and was looking to get out by the summer.

The commentary completely focuses on the Bulldog, a surefire sign that the Bulldog was on his way up and Bam Bam’s just foddler here.

Gotta like the Bulldog obviously rolling into place for Bam Bam. Bulldog kicks out of Bigelow’s flying headbutt as well.

Nice enzugiri from Bigelow. Bulldog sells it with a full flip too.

The British Bulldog pins Bigelow in 12:00. Powerslam (not the standard running one though) finishes off Bigelow. This was a solid back and forth match that had some slow parts. Still, good enough and an improvement over the first two matches. Of course the Bulldog was going over here to prepare him for the Undertaker on RAW the next night.

Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas

Bob Backlund introduces Douglas. That could have been a great combo.

Douglas introduces Ramon, weird as that is.

Douglas finally gets control after slamming Razor into the steps. All the school puns do get annoying at some point.

Razor looks absolutely bored in a camel clutch. Jeez.

Douglas throws Razor into the referee, surprisingly this isn’t a DQ.

Dean Douglas pins Razor Ramon in 14:53. Ramon nails a Razor’s Edge and pins Douglas. 1-2-3 Kid runs in and counts three. Ramon thinks he’s won but then sees the Kid and shoves him out. Douglas rolls Razor up (botched as well) and gets the win. I actually like the idea of the finish and it kind of worked. The match was pretty boring though. Douglas has a boring moveset overall and just doesn’t do anything interesting. Kid and Ramon nearly come to blows afterwards.

Bret Hart vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte

The angle here was Lafitte stole Bret Hart’s ring jacket. Rough year storyline wise for Bret Hart.

I don’t even know when this happened as I watched the RAWs between Summerslam and this PPV and I don’t recall this happening.

Lafitte is dominating and this is pretty good so far. Bret Hart really knows how to make his opponent with his selling.

Bret backdrops Lafitte over the top rope but he lands on his feet, drags Bret out and slams him into the steps! Great spot.

Top rope legdrop from Lafitte but Bret kicks out. Lafitte with a pretty good taunt too.

Bret moves out of the way of the Cannonball. Crowd is really into this. They should be, this is a very good match.

Lafitte with a somersault plancha to the outside…but he MISSES as Bret moves out of the way. Wow!

Surprisingly, Lafitte blocks the elbow in Bret’s Five Moves of Doom.

Bret tries a crucifix pin, but Lafitte counters by putting Bret on his shoulders and hits a rolling Samoan Drop like move (I don’t know what it’s called). Really cool nonetheless.

So many great reversals. Bret goes for the bulldog…but Laffite shoves him right into the turnbuckles!

Bret crotches himself into the ropes after a missed tackle. Laffite then misses a top rope splash!

Bret Hart wins by submission in 16:37.. Bret sneakily locks in the Sharpshooter for the win. Great match and this becomes the 2nd In Your House out of three that Bret saves. To be far Laffite was good here too. Too bad his attitude didn’t allow him to last much longer. It looked like Bret was trying to make a point about being the best wrestler in the WWF at the time. Point taken.

Cornette picks the Bulldog. What a surprise…

WWF, IC and Tag Team Championship
Diesel (WC) and Shawn Michaels (IC) vs. The British Bulldog and Yokozuna (TTC)

This obviously has screwjob written all over it with the Bulldog/Owen switch. If I were watching at the time I could have easily told you what the finish would be.

Shawn mocks Yokozuna by doing the whole sumo routine and Yoko gets him with an elbow to the face. I thought that was hilarious.

Bulldog fails to get Diesel up for the big vertical suplex…but he impressively gets him up on a 2nd try.

Decent Bulldog-HBK match breaks out until Yokozuna comes in and just nerve holds HBK down. We were getting close to Yokozuna not being able to do much in the ring due to his size.

Diesel and Shawn Michaels win the Tag Title when Diesel pinned Owen Hart in 15:42. HBK superkicks Yokozuna to the outside. Bulldog slams Diesel, but HBK goes flying off the top rope with an elbow drop to take him out. Owen Hart runs down but Diesel dodges the flying dropkick. Jackknife Powerbomb gets the win. This was a bullshit finish as on RAW the titles were returned to Owen and Yokozuna because Owen wasn’t legally in the match. The WWF promoted this big Triple Header and then came up with a way for none of the title change. Pinning a guy not in the match? Come on now. At least the match was decent thanks to the Bulldog and HBK.

Really only one good (very good) match here which was Bret-Lafitte. While Bulldog-Bigelow wasn’t bad and the main event was decent despite a terrible finish everything else is pretty forgettable. I maybe could bump this a little if the main event had a good finish. Things would only get worse for the WWF I’m afraid.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 7 – 10/16/95

Week 7

Posted Image

RAW: 10/16/95
Grand Rapids, MI

I’m just going to point out that this is Week 4 of the tapings at Grand Rapids. This is also the go home show for the In Your House PPV.

Isaac Yankem, Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart all cut promos with dental puns about tonight’s Steel Cage match.

We now have the “new” RAW theme. Unfortunately it’s bland and it sucks.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Doink the Clown

I had no idea Doink made it this long into 1995.

Apparently Mabel was fined $7,500 for what he did to The Undertaker last week. Gorilla Monsoon is announcing a replacement for Undertaker at In Your House later tonight.

Doink grabbing HHH’s nose is a bit funny.

Doink somehow makes himself dizzy and HHH takes him down.

HHH pins Doink. Pedigree wins. Match was decent I suppose, but not exactly the hot opener to keep people from switching to Nitro.

Barry Horowitz tries to teach Hakushi American concepts like baseball. What a waste of Hakushi.

Monsoon selects Yokozuna to face Mabel. Oh boy.

WWF Tag Team Championship
The Smokin’ Gunns© vs. PG-13

I don’t know if PG-13 was supposed to be taken seriously, but JC Ice pretty much makes an ass out of himself here.

Lawler actually adds some psychology into this match, saying PG-13 are purposely acting stupid to take advantage of the Gunns being overconfident…and then that’s what happens!

Billy Gunn pins Wolfie D to retain the titles. PG-13 got some offense in, but ultimately this was a squash. You know considering the Tag Team Division consisted of the Gunns, the Godwinns, The New Rockers and the Bodydonnas for the next year PG-13 getting a shot might have been a good idea. Ah well.

Bertha Faye vs. Alundra Blayze next week for the Women’s title.

Random British Bulldog interview that happened at a house show. The Bulldog doesn’t feel respected. And he’s gonna beat Diesel for the title.

Ahmed Johnson interview. He takes about how his mom made minimum wage to let him go to school and such. Hard to understand.

Dean Douglas vs. Joe Morgan

We’re still doing the jobber thing eh? Clearly Vince didn’t have anything left on this taping.

Notably, the Shawn Michaels getting beat up by 10 men in Syracuse deal took place the weekend before this RAW. Surprisingly Lawler says it was because HBK mouthed off at a nightclub (closer to the truth). HBK guarantees he’ll be at In Your House…although we all know how that went.

Dean Douglas wins by pin. Fisherman’s Suplex wins it.

Vince and Lawler run down the upcoming In Your House card.

Goldust promo on Marty Jannetty. It’s short, yet somehow a lot better than the Ahmed one we got earlier.

Now a Paul Bearer promo. He’s worried Taker will never look the same again and never be the same again, but he’s coming back soon and he’s going to crush Mabel and Yokozuna’s soul.

Steel Cage Match
Bret Hart vs. Isaac Yankem

There’s also a smaller cage at ringside that Jerry Lawler must enter if he interferes in the match.

Yankem takes some big bumps off the top rope when tryng to climb the cage. This has been pretty slow, but at least Yankem’s trying.

Apparently Lawler switched the locks on the cage door, and when Bret tries to escape the ref can’t unlock the door.

Bret locks Yankem in the Sharpshoter then tries to climb out, but Lawler knocks him back in. Lawler gets locked in the small cage as a result. The cage also rises and Lawler’s apparently afraid of heights.

Bret Hart seems to be going at half speed here. A few times now he’s fallen and messed up straddling himself on the top rope.

Lawler gets a nosebleed and starts crying. He’s stealing the show here.

Bret Hart wins in 19:50. Bret gets a bulldog and a top rope forearm before escaping. This went way too long and was pretty boring. Yankem tried for sure, but he just wasn’t any good yet. Bret seemed to be going at half speed. And there’s a reason for that.

So apparently this show was just a leftover of whatever unused bits that was filmed for the tapings. Despite this being the go home show for the PPV we got a pretty horrible show. HHH vs. Doink? Dean Douglas vs. a jobber? It was written that Bret vs. DDS wasn’t even going to air on RAW, but it had to after the WWF realized it needed to fill the 4th taping.

Last week the WWF gave us a really hot match and post-match beatdown that at least helped sell the PPV. But this week? Nothing. At least for Bret he would be reinserted into the title picture after finishing off Yankem here.

The WWF had given us some solid shows since this Monday Night War began, but this was easily the worst one so far. And to no one’s surprise no one bought the PPV either.

The rating held though, so at least the WWF had that going for them.

TV Rating: 2.6 (0.0)
Grade: C

Posted Image

Nitro: 10/16/95
Albany, GA

WCW clearly wins the opening video package war now.

Bobby Heenan makes fun of Steve McMichael’s dog and even that’s funny. The Brian is truly a genius.

On WCW Pro Sting agreed to be Ric Flair’s partner for Nitro and Halloween Havoc. Sting warns Flair that if he crosses him Flair is dead.

Heenan really hypes up Sting teaming with Flair, telling us that it hasn’t happened since 1990.

Television Championship
Diamond Dallas Page© vs. Johnny B. Badd

Page beats Badd down with the title belt and gets DQed. No match here. Page is hilarious though, pinning Badd and then using the Badd Blaster when he counts his own three.

Chris Benoit vs. Eddy Guerrero

This is Benoit’s WCW debut (after he appeared last week).

Great headscissors sequence from Benoit. Fast paced action so far.

Eddy goes flying and takes out Benoit on the floor!

Guerrero sends Benoit into the post…then Guerrero runs and slams into the post himself. That looked so real…

Springboard Tornado DDT from Guerrero!

Crazy hurricanrana sequence from Guerrero! Great stuff here all around.

Benoit with a stiff as hell powerbomb! Wow! Fans gasped after that one.

Chris Benoit pins Eddy Guerrero in 8:45. Dragon suplex wins it. Awesome match that not only show cased Benoit, but also made Guerrero look great too. Great action.

Apparently WCW is creating a Cruiserweight Division. That would be awesome for the next couple of years for sure.

Mean Gene tries to sell the hotline. Someone from the WWF was fired! It was Bill Watts. He also teases information about a wrestler getting beat up by a fan. He’s referring to HBK there.

Taskmaster and The Giant are on their way down.

Promo is all about Sullivan being evil and Hogan having an evil side too. Sullivan has to say the word evil about 20 times. It’s still hard to take the whole Monster Truck deal seriously.

Disco Inferno is out dancing again.

Meng vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Duggan falls down for no reason to move out of the way of an elbow drop.

Meng wins in 2:00. The spike makes Duggan give up. Only two minutes, but it was pretty bad anyway. Just a win to give Meng as he prepares to face Lex Luger in a couple weeks at Halloween Havoc.

A black clad Hulk Hogan cuts a promo on the Giant and how he’s evil too. He mentions too that Hulkamania makes promotors cry because it’s bigger than the whole promotion. Another shot at Vince I guess? He actually says he’s going to bury the Giant next toAndre as well. Ugh.

Sting and Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson and Flyin’ Brian

Sting doesn’t come out and Flair goes at it alone.

Flair does pretty well nonetheless as he chops everything that moves.

Pillman and Anderson finally get the upperhand…and here comes Sting!

Sting gets tagged in and goes crazy on Pillman and Anderson. Crowd is going wild for the Stinger too.

Sting and Flair win by countout. Sting tosses Anderson and he doesn’t make it back. Of course, this was a really good set up for Halloween Havoc which I won’t spoil here. Really fun main event even if it had a bad finish. Sting looked like the biggest star in the business here. Sting tells Flair he has a lot of guts fighting his former brother in Anderson and Flair calls Sting the best. Man this angle is awesome.

It had some dull spots, but this was a really fun show just for the main event and Benoit vs. Guerrero.

TV Rating: 2.2 (-0.4)
Grade: B+

Weekly Review

It’s easy this week. RAW was a poor show at a bad time. Jobber matches and poorly taped shows aren’t going to cut it in the Monday Night War era. Nitro gave us a hot Benoit vs. Guerrero match and a fun main event with Sting and Flair teaming up. It’s a testament to how deep WCW’s roster was here that we got a great show despite no Randy Savage or Lex Luger.

The ratings told a different story as RAW won the week. I assume this was because we did get a really good show last week and people cared about Bret Hart. Curious to see what we get next week rating wise from RAW. WCW still needs time to establish their brand, and it’s not like they’re getting killed on the ratings front or anything. But show quality wise, WCW won the week easily.

TV Ratings Score: 3-1-2 RAW

Grade Score: 2-2-2

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 6 – 10/9/95

Week 6

Posted Image

RAW: 10/9/95
Grand Rapids, MI

I won’t lie, I really prefer the classic RAW theme (that gets brought back at some point in ’96).

Yokozuna, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels, Diesel and The Undertaker

A huge main event kicks off RAW and honestly I can’t think of a better start!

Really cool segment where Shawn Michaels talks about doing a charity with kids. Honestly, 1996 HBK could have used a lot more of that. It seemed genuine and really cool overall.

Shawn and Owen kick the match off and we get a cool double arm drag.

Everyone’s in there early. Double big boot from Taker and Diesel take out Yokozuna!

Undertaker’s DDT on Yokozuna is always awesome.

Waylon Mercy is watching for some reason. Jerry Lawler mentions on Superstars that Diesel will face Mercy in what would turn out to be Mercy (Dan Spivey’s) last match.

Camp Cornette finally takes control on HBK.

Dean Douglas is out here now as he was feuding with Shawn at the time.

Vince McMahon hypes AOL chats with HBK and Lawler. Feels weird that AOL chats were 20 years ago now.

Owen Hart comes off the top rope right as we get a commercial break. On one hand it’s frustrating to see a commercial break right in the middle of a big spot like that. On the other hand it might have been a good idea because you want to see if Owen landed or not (which we are shown he missed). I’m against commercial breaks in any matches though.

HBK tags Diesel in and he cleans out until Owen gets a cheap shot in. Running powerslam from the Bulldog doesn’t get it down as Undertaker makes the save!

Camp Cornette wins when the British Bulldog pinned Diesel. When the referee tries to get Undertaker out, Yokozuna comes in and drops a big legdrop on Diesel and the Bulldog gets the pin. Good finish that at least gives the fans some hope that the Bulldog could beat Diesel for the title (not much hope though). Great match as 1995 RAW continues to impress.

Undertaker tries to fight Camp Cornette off, but Mabel comes down and the numbers are too much for Undertaker to handle. Yokozuna and Mabel continually drop legdrops and splashes on the Undertaker. This is where Mabel infamously broke Undertaker’s face which led to the Phantom of the Opera Undertaker. Douglas comes down to stop HBK from helping and hits a front suplex on the steel steps. The Bulldog continues his beatdown on Diesel. You even see Undertaker’s eye all purple from the injury. Awesome stuff absolutely everywhere here. A great first half of RAW.

We get a replay of the Bret Hart-Jean Lafitte match from last week and DDS attacking Bret. Next week on RAW: Bret vs. Yankeem in a cage.

For some reason we get a replay of the entire Yankeem vs. Bret match at Summerslam. A cheap way to get a Bret match on RAW without him wrestling perhaps? This was already the third RAW of the taping, and Bret wrestled on taping two and will on four.

Jerry Lawler is telling us Mabel is trying to get into Undertaker’s dressing room.

Fatu vs. Skip

I’m guessing this was an excuse to get Sunny on RAW?

In a pretty funny spot, Skip comes off the top rope with a flying headbutt, but Fatu’s samoan so you know how that went for Skip…

Fatu pins Skip. Flying splash off the top finishes Skip. Match was fine…although I don’t really like Vince trying to sell Skip as someone who is in good shape but is stupid. Also, the placement of the match seems strange. Unless people really like Sunny I assume they were switching to Nitro here.

We get a replay of the destruction of the Taker-Diesel-HBK team…especially the Mabel-Taker stuff.

Hilarious Cornette interview as he calls out Jim Ross for just barging into the Camp Cornette locker room and as a bonus the Bulldog is wearing a stupid hat. Turns out the hat is a gift from Princess Diana herself! Mabel comes in and says Undertaker will get buried at In Your House! Of course we wouldn’t get that match since Mabel broke Taker’s face here.

Even though it’s based off of one match what a great show this was. The big match delivered and pushed several storylines in one. Even though it was a replay we got some good hype for Bret vs. DDS. Fatu vs. Skip was fine and we had a good promo at the end by Cornette. I have to take a little off as a PPV match replay is a bit cheap…and the second half of the show didn’t live up to the first half. Still, RAW felt like a big deal.

TV Rating: 2.6 (+0.1)
Grade: B+

Posted Image

Nitro: 10/9/95
Chicago, IL

We see what happened to Hulk Hogan last week at the hands of The Taskmaster and The Giant. IS HOGAN’S CAREER OVER?!

Nitro opening is so freakin’ cool.

Bobby Heenan says Hogan’s in the building but there’s a restraining order in place. Sting shows up though. He says he’s going to fix the Luger-Savage issue we’ve had in the past few weeks.

US Title: Sting© vs. The Shark

Sting retains by pin. Match takes about a minute. Shark gets some offense in, but Sting hits a couple of Stinger Splashes and a top rope cross bodyblock for the win. While it was short, Sting got a good reaction and it got Nitro off and running on a positive note. This was pretty much the end for John Tenta though.

We get a replay of what happened last week with Hogan and being attacked by Grandma Sullivan. Sounds like I’m making fun of it sure…but this was pretty awesome.

Sabu vs. Mr. JL

That’s right, Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn four years before it would be a big ECW match.

WCW fans give us a “Sabu” chant. It’s still quite bizarre that Sabu had a WCW run.

Sabu starts quickly with a somersault legdrop over the top rope. He follows up with a leg lariat.

“Hogan sucks” chant now. Smark crowd in ’95!

Suicide dive from JL!

More flying from Sabu! Over the top rope somersault to the outside!

Air Sabu into the railing!

German suplex then a running dropkick by JL! Really fun match here!

JL drops Sabu with a DDT where Sabu was propped on the top rope. That was the Randy Orton-RVD finish at Armaggedon ’03 I think.

Sabu makes Mr. JL submit. JL comes off the top rope but Sabu counters and locks in the Camel Clutch for the win. Maybe it was a bit of a spot fest, but this still gets the 1995 curve of being awesome stuff that just wasn’t on TV yet. And it was fun. For the heck of it Sabu hits JL with a bit of a botched sunset flip over the top rope onto the floor. But it still worked.

For some reason Eric Bischoff has to talk about Hogan as the camera cuts to him…even though Sabu is still attacking JL. Come on!

Sting is in the ring with Luger and he calls out Savage. Savage actually gets some boos. Really smarky crowd. Savage questions Sting right off the bat and wants to know why the Giant has chokeslammed Hogan, Luger and himself…but not Sting. Sting thinks Luger and Savage should go at it if they beat Meng and Kamala in their respective matches. Luger is hesitant and Sting basically calls him a whiny coward.

Seems weird that Sting came up with this solution. Segment was fine.

Chris Benoit comes to Nitro in a limo. “WCW, where the big boys play”. Bischoff really puts Benoit over as well. WCW made a big deal out of everything and that really worked early on.

Disco Inferno is dancing for some reason.

Big Bubba vs. Road Warrior Hawk

Both Hawk and Bubba walk past a dancing Disco. For some reason Disco put a WCW hat on Hawk’s spiked shoulder pads. Not sure what the point of Disco doing this was.

Hawk gets a huge chant. Obviously this is because this is his hometown.

Big Bubba wins by countout. Disco jumps onto the apron at about the 2 minute mark and Hawk goes after him and beats him up down the aisleway. What the heck was that?

Here comes Hogan and he gets some boos. This was the beginning of Hogan’s short term dark side period where he wore black all the time. Even the neckbrace is black.

The Giant is Andre’s son angle felt tasteless even though it technically wasn’t. Hogan seemingly takes a shot at Vince here as he says in New York City the promotor got jealous over Hulkamania’s success. He gets back to wanting to fight the Giant. What a random shot that was though.

Here comes a monster truck with the Dungeon of Doom in it! Police are in pursuit! Hogan goes out to face the Giant. Not Hogan’s best promo to be honest.

Does Monster Truck vs. Monster Truck really sound like a great idea for a gimmick match?

Bischoff is told by police that Hogan and the Giant are being kept apart.

Cage Match
Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson

Bischoff brings up that normally you have to buy a PPV to see a match of this caliber. That’s a good point you know. Exciting as it is, hotshotting is dangerous in the long run.

Flair is pretty much dominating this match, slamming Double A into the cage multiple times.

“We Want Blood” chant. Jeez.

Flyin’ Brian tries to get into cage…and Flair knocks him off the side of the cage onto the floor!

Arn Anderson pins Ric Flair. Anderson hits Flair with brass knuckles or some object and gets the pin. Too short for what Flair vs. Anderson in a cage should be. It wasn’t bad or anything but I’m left disappointed.

Flair challenges Anderson and Pillman to a handicap match on Nitro.

Heenan: “I’ve had enough of Hulk Hogan shoved down my throat all these years.” I know Heenan respects Hogan, but man what a comment that is considering it’s not a shoot comment.

Next week we get DDP vs. Johnny B. Badd and Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero!

I’ll be honest, I didn’t like most of this show. The beginning with Sting was fine as was the Mr. JL vs. Sabu match. Sting helping make Savage vs. Luger was weird but okay. Hawk vs. Rogers? Yuck. Hogan’s promo? Not good and the Monster Truck silliness didn’t work for me. Flair vs. Double A could have been a lot better.

Still, Nitro got a solid rating this week. I guess that’s what counts.

TV Rating: 2.6 (+0.1)
Grade: C+

Weekly Review

I wrote for last week that RAW only had a chance if the Hogan-Giant angle got too hokey…and well that’s what happened. Hogan taking shots at Vince for no reason was also unnecessary. While Nitro had some enjoyable parts I didn’t really enjoy the show overall. RAW on the other hand came out like a house of fire with the big six man tag team match and only didn’t score a higher grade because the rest of the show was merely okay.

Another tie in the ratings, but RAW definitely had the stronger show this week. WCW still has tons of cards to play though as the Flair vs. Anderson feud can easily be great next week just because of who’s involved. Plus Eddie vs. Benoit? We don’t know what’s going to happen next with Hogan either. If they can just get a little more serious about the feud, perhaps it’ll come off better on TV. I can only see the Giant screaming and riding a monster truck so many times.

TV Ratings Score: 2-1-2 RAW

Grade Score: 2-1-2 RAW

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 5 – 10/2/95

October 1995 Background

WCW Nitro had come out and shockingly given Vince McMahon a run for his money. Still, it had to be a promising sign that the current WWF stars: Diesel, Bret, Undertaker, Shawn seemed to be drawing as well as Flair, Hogan, Luger, Savage, Sting on TV. Maybe Vince is right about all those guys (sans Sting) being washed up. Or maybe the WWF brand is really what matters.

Still, WCW had a really strong start. Vince still needed some time to build to one of his big events: Survivor Series. Could WCW put on the pressure with the Hogan vs. Giant feud? Could Vince make the October In Your House mean something?

Week 5

Posted Image

RAW: 10/2/95
Grand Rapids, MI

We get a recap of last week’s RAW, where the Smokin’ Gunns regained the Tag Titles.

Now we recap the history between Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid. It’s cool to see an angle referenced back to 1993. Kid beat Ramon twice now, once in 1993 and two weeks ago thanks to Dean Douglas. I don’t understand what Vince means by “will the third time be the charm for the Kid?” Um…he’s won both times!

Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid

Hot start. Kid and Ramon waste no time and go back and forth until Ramon catches him for a fall away slam.

Dean Douglas is out here taking notes once again. Dean Douglas was not a bad character to be honest.

Razor Ramon pins the 1-2-3 Kid. Clothesline ends it. Surprising ending. But wait, the Kid wants to keep going…and the match continues?

During the break, the Kid gets driven hard by a Ramon powerbomb after Kid came off the top. Ramond got ANOTHER pin…but the Kid wanted a SECOND rematch.

Razor Ramon pins 1-2-3 Kid. Ramon teases the Razor’s Edge, but then beats the Kid with a small package. Ramon beats the Kid three times…but he didn’t go out to injure him. Ramon and Kid shake hands…then Kid tries a small package which Razor kicks out of. Razor actually smiles, showing admiration for the Kid. This is pretty great storytelling. The Kid was the youngster who felt like he needed to earn Razor’s respect and did so without having to win. Great start to RAW.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Barry Horowitz

Horowitz was actually pretty over after his upset of Skip at Summerslam.

Pretty cool armbar takedown leading to a shot to the face with the leg by HHH.

Last week was the most watched RAW ever. The Monday Night Wars really ejected an adrenaline shot into pro wrestling that WCW would take advantage of a lot better than the WWF would.

It’s amazing how over Horowitz was. He gets several creative near falls and the fans are with him at every turn.

HHH pins Horowitz. Horowitz makes one mistake though, as an attempted backdrop becomes the Pedigree and it’s over. Good match. HHH continues his undefeated streak and Horowitz keeps doing the underdog thing.

PG-13 vs. Al Brown and Sonny Rogers

PG-13 are the USWA World Tag Team Champions. They can be described as a cross between ECW and Too Cool.

Really don’t care about a jobber match. This is the stuff the WWF needed to get rid of when facing Nitro.

Gotta give credit where it is due though. Some great double team moves from PG-13. Dropkick + Russian Legsweep combo for example.

PG-13 wins by pin. Cool twisting slam by Wolfie D on JC Ice onto Green. I wonder why the WWF didn’t keep going with PG-13. They challenged the Gunns and everything!

Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre-Lafitte

A rematch from In Your House a couple of weeks ago.

Early on Bret slams Lafitte into the ring steps. Seems pretty extreme for WWF 1995!

Lafitte eventually takes over and Bret makes him look like a million bucks.

Jerry Lawler’s anti-Bret commentary is pretty great here as well.

Bret Hart wins by submission. Superplex and Sharpshooter. Great main event, although I believe this was the end of Lafitte. Bret confronts Lawler and beats him up afterwards before Isaac Yankem shows up and attacks Bret. That’s the last midcard feud Bret would deal with before setting sight on the WWF Title again.

Vince hypes up next week’s RAW Main Event: Diesel, Shawn Michaels and Undertaker vs. Yokozuna, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. To say that’s a huge main event is an understatement and it shows Vince was giving it a real shot against Nitro here.

Anyway, I enjoyed this show from top to bottom, even the PG-13 stuff. These 1995 RAWs are pretty good!

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B+

Posted Image

Nitro: 10/2/95
Denver, CO

Ric Flair with a crazy promo to kick things off. Nice. He’s coming for you Double A!

We kick it off with a match that feels like it should be on PPV, Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage with Luger’s WCW career on the line. While it feels like this is something that happened too fast, I guess this was definitely something you couldn’t miss.

Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage: If Luger loses he leaves WCW

Randy Savage wears the most ridiculous colors for his attire and it doesn’t matter one bit. Savage is so good.

The promo for the Monster Truck Match for Halloween Havoc is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious.

The match has had two spots where neither man got the advantage. It’s pretty well done. Luger eventually gets a neckbreaker on the floor and the advantage.

Ref is out and Savage hits the big elbow…and here comes The Giant!

Lex Luger wins when Randy Savage doesn’t respond to the referee in 12:30. Luger gets Savage up in the Rack and Savage is out from a Giant chokeslam, and Luger keeps his career. It’s oddly not treated as a huge deal that Luger just saved his career, but whatever. Pretty good match, a lot better than I was expecting. It went back and forth and it continues telling a great story about Luger (is he a good guy or bad?)

Disco Inferno! Eddy Guerrero interrupts Disco’s dancing (with Juvi‘s future music).

Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero

Basically ECW’s TV Title feud of 1995 here.

Malenko kips up from being pushed down, which was freakin’ awesome.

Just awesome sequences early on.

We get a side by side camera shot with the match…as Hulk Hogan shows up. Ah, the WCW tradition of ignoring the match in the ring for Hogan.

We don’t even see the match anymore. It’s all Hogan!

Back to the match, and Malenko and Guerrero are putting on a technical exhibition.

AWESOME top rope plancha from Guerrero to Malenko on the floor! He hit the aisleway!

Eddie Guerrero pins Dean Malenko in 5:41. Ending came out of nowhere where Eddie trapped Malenko on the mat, similar to Bret-Bulldog at Summerslam ’92. Shame it was so short as it was owning. Malenko says Guerrero got lucky and wants a rematch. Guerrero said any place any time.

Here comes Hogan in a neck brace. I am annoyed his stuff cut into the last match.

Generic promo where Hogan says he is going to get the Giant since he’s not out yet. Hogan decides to slap all the fans hands and is attacked by a random old woman (which Mean Gene hilariously calls). Of course, it’s Kevin Sullivan. Giant makes his way out and “breaks” Hogan’s neck. American Males and Nasty Boys run in but Giant and Zodiac Man take them out. The Dungeon of Doom shave Hogan’s mustache off. While Hogan’s promo was nothing to write home about, the attack was pretty brilliant and the Giant looks like a bad ass heel taking out everyone.

We get the Halloween Havoc promo again. Just hilarious.

Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson

They just go at it right from the outset, knocking each other down with chops and hard shots.

A good back and forth that really showed Arn was at an elite level.

Ric Flair wins by DQ in 8:30. Flair has the Figure Four when Brian Pillman comes flying off the top to cause the DQ. Anderson and Pillman beat up Flair. Shame about the DQ. Solid match.

Apparently, we’re getting Flair vs. Arn Anderson in a cage on Nitro next week! Screw waiting for PPV!

WCW brought it this week, but I thought shortchanged two of their matches. Luger defeating Savage seemed like something that just happened, and Luger’s career hanging in the balance was an afterthought. Guerrero vs. Malenko was good but short, and overshadowed by Hogan. BUT, those matches and the main event were all solid, and the Hogan beat down was well done too. Another good Nitro. Best of all for Nitro, their rating has stabilized in the mid 2s.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B+

Weekly Review

Both shows brought it this week once again. I think the WWF’s only real shot here is if the Hogan-Giant angle gets too hokey. I mean, a Monster Truck Match is pretty out there. Then again, we just had a pirate in the main event of RAW. The big victory for WCW is that Nitro is hanging tough with the WWF and even outshining them at some points (like Malenko vs. Guerrero).

A pure tie this week. Both shows brought it this week and it showed in TV Ratings. Hopefully both can keep the momentum. Hotshotting is becoming a bit of an issue, especially with career ending matches on Nitro (and a potential feud ending cage match next week).

TV Ratings Score: 2-1-1 RAW

Grade Score: 1-1-2

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the 1997 WWF Royal Rumble

1997 WWF Royal Rumble
January 19, 1997
San Antonio, TX

Let’s be clear, the WWF was in trouble.

While things seemed bad in the latter half of 1996 ratings wise, it only got worse when Bret Hart returned to the WWF. It wasn’t Bret’s fault as he instantly became an entertaining top guy on the show once again. The issue was ratings didn’t jump the way Vince McMahon expected them to with Bret’s return. WCW was still kicking the WWF’s ass in the ratings. Vince began changing things up at Survivor Series. Stone Cold Steve Austin looked like he had some potential after a great match with Bret at Survivor Series and was seemingly in line for a push. Also, Sycho Sid had won the WWF Title from Shawn Michaels at the same show.

Sycho Sid will always have an interesting place in pro wrestling history. On one hand he was a big star who main evented two Wrestlemanias (with Hulk Hogan and Undertaker no less) and a Starrcade. He had a monster look and sometimes had really good promo skills (and sometimes not). But the fact of the matter is he often never drew big money as a top guy. His run in the WWF in ’92 didn’t help the company. Same for his run in ’95. We just talked about how WWF was in trouble with him on top in ’96-’97. His WCW runs didn’t help either as he didn’t draw in ’93 and did nothing to help WCW in 1999 and 2000. The truth is Sid was probably a little too late for his time. Had he became a big star in the late 80s, he could have drawn huge money with Hogan. 1992 was too late.

Shawn Michaels had also been a questionable draw, although I blame how he was booked in 1996. Fans wanted the cocky, arrogant Shawn of ’94-’95. Not the good guy who had his old trainer in his corner. Shawn helped turn the company around big time in 1997 when he turned heel. It’s a shame his back went out before he could really enjoy it.

Nonetheless, this Rumble on paper could have been huge. Vince had apparently decided that the WWF could still sell out a huge stadium (which they didn’t, they had to paper it big time) with a Royal Rumble match and hometown Shawn’s return title match against Sid. Would this spark the turn around the WWF needed in 1997?

The Card

One thing I’ll always remember in 1997 are the black and white promos. A lot of those were awesome, especially Summerslam ‘97’s.

I don’t necessarily care for the “Shawn Michaels” has grown up story either. Aren’t you saying he wasn’t a man before Survivor Series then?

Intercontinental Championship
Goldust vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley©

Storyline here is that HHH made a pass at Marlena, which led to a face turn that honestly ended the peak of Goldust. Such an awesome heel became a lukewarm babyface. (Interestingly, the opposite happened with Mankind).

I totally forgot about Mr. Hughes coming back here as HHH’s butler. That didn’t last long.

Goldust just slams the steps on HHH’s back. I know the steel steps is usually a questionable object in regards to DQs…but that should be a DQ.

The psychology of the match seems to revolve around using the steel steps, which is odd.

Also what’s not working in this match is the contrast in styles. As a face Goldust is just wrestling a too slow paced of a style and it’s leading to a boring match.

We get a mid-match interview with some country singer. The heck?

HHH retains by pin in 16:50. Hughes slides in the IC Title and distracts the ref, but Marlena gets onto the apron. HHH kisses Marlena, but Goldust gets the IC belt and nails HHH. Hughes pulls HHH out of potential pin, then distracts the ref again. Goldust shoves a cigar in his eye…but then gets Pedigreed for the HHH win. Really boring 17 minutes here. Hughes wouldn’t last much longer either as Chyna would debut soon.

Ahmed Johnson vs. Faarooq

In another situation that killed the overness of someone who was hot in 1996, Ahmed Johnson got his kidney attacked by Faarooq. This was Ahmed’s comeback. Faarooq already went through a gimmick change while Ahmed was out (from Spartacus to leader of the Nation of Domination).

We get a brawl for a few minutes with Faarooq taking control and focusing on the kidney.

Faarooq flying off the top into an Ahmed Johnson powerslam was an unexpectedly good spot.

Ahmed Johnson wins by DQ in 8:48.. Ahmed gets the upper hand and the Nation runs in for the DQ. Other than the powerslam, this was pretty bad. The aftermath is pretty cool though as Ahmed Pearl River Plunges a random Nation member through a table. Still, this feud pretty much ruined Ahmed Johnson’s career. He would never get out of it, battling them all throughout 1997 (and joining once), then leaving the WWF in February ’98.

The Undertaker vs. Vader

The story here mostly revolves around Jim Cornette as he was on the verge of losing Vader as a client. Undertaker had also Tombstoned Cornette.

This is one of those matches that doesn’t make a lot of logical sense. Why would Taker and Vader go at it right before the Royal Rumble? It’s not like there’s a title on the line or anything, and they’re both in.

JR mentions Undertaker hasn’t done well at the Royal Rumble since his first one in 1993. Pretty sure he was in the 1991 and 1992 ones. He’s also only 1-2 at the Rumble in singles matches and one of those losses was by DQ.

Vader being surprised that Undertaker sat up from a few early knock downs is stupid.

Undertaker throws a Rocker Dropper out there which is pretty awesome.

Match really slows down when Vader takes control. We get some restholds.

Vader off the turnbuckles and Undertaker powerslams him mid jump! Wow! Tops the spot from the Ahmed-Faarooq match.

Undertaker sits-up from a Vader Powerbomb. Thing’s never been the same since Hogan got up from it.

Paul Bearer shows up as Undertaker chokeslams Vader.

Undertaker tries some crazy jump off the stairs onto Vader and the railing, but Bearer moves Vader.

Vader pins Undertaker in 13:19. Bearer nails Taker in the head with the urn and Vader drops the Vader Bomb for the win. Finish really seemed messy once Bearer showed up and the crowd surprisingly wasn’t really into it. Vader needed to win too after the problem with Shawn at Summerslam and never getting a big win after that. Match overall was okay, but they’d have a much better match at the Canadian Stampede six months later. Bearer leaves with Vader, and Undertaker chokeslams a referee.

The British Bulldog is going to win the Rumble because “HE’S BIZARRE!” Always makes me laugh.

Hector Garza, Perro Aguayo and Canek vs. Jerry Estrada, Heavy Metal and Fuerza Guerrera

This was done to draw tickets in San Antonio since it was so close to Mexico. I get Vince is trying to keep up with WCW here, but this wasn’t even close.

Aguayo pins Metal in 10:56. Double foot stomp and an elbow wins. Aguayo barely even hits the stomp. This was awful and the crowd didn’t care one bit (and I think pop at the end because they’re glad it’s over). Just a bunch of moves for 10 minutes and not exciting ones at that. Even Vince sounded bored.

Royal Rumble

I think the smart money was on Bret Hart here.

Finkel tell s us 60K people are in the house. Only about 40K paid though.

Crush is #1 and Ahmed Johnson is #2 to continue the Nation-Ahmed rivalry.

So the clock and music isn’t working, so the Fake Razor Ramon is #3. Ahmed gets rid of him quickly. What a horrible gimmick that was.

Faarooq comes down and Ahmed jumps over the top rope and eliminated himself. #4 is Phineas Godwinn.

Stone Cold is #5 and gets a bit of a pop. While he was getting higher up the card, he wasn’t anything resembling a favorite.

PIG gets rid of Crush…but he also gets a Stunner and Austin’s alone.

#6 is Bart Gunn. Bart botches a rocker dropper…and Austin gets rid of him quickly. Austin does some push-ups to get some heat.

Jake “The Snake” is next at #7!

Jake dominates Austin, but when he goes for the DDT Austin dumps him. Great start for Stone Cold as The British Bulldog makes his way down at #8. Bulldog kicks Austin’s ass and ends his dominance.

#9 is Pierroth from AAA. There are a few Mexican stars in this one.

The Sultan is #10. He’d run Stone Cold down nearly three years later!

#11 is Mil Mascaras. He gets a bit of a pop. He already blows a belly to belly from the Sultan. For the record I hate Mascaras after reading about him in Mick Foley’s book. You see a lot of Mascaras’ selfish tendencies in this Rumble alone.

#12 is HHH. Bulldog takes out the Sultan.

#13 is Owen Hart. He eliminates his teammate Bulldog which was the start of an angle that never really went off when the Hart Foundation came together.

#14 is Goldust and he tries to go for HHH…but Austin cuts him off.

Mascaras pulls Austin’s ears from his head…which is unique I guess.

#15 is Cibernetico, another AAA star.

#16 is Marc Mero.

Cibernetico gets eliminated off-screen by Mascaras I think. Mascaras then takes out Pierroth too. Mascaras, showing he doesn’t even need to job in the Rumble, goes to the top rope and dives onto Pierroth on the floor, eliminating himself. Can’t say I’m surprised. Fans boo too, as Mascaras was a legend somehow.

Goldust takes out HHH, revenge for earlier.

Latin Lover is #17. With one superkick he is already the best Mexican in this thing.

Owen takes out Goldust. Not surprised HHH and Goldust got short runs considering they wrestled earlier.

Faarooq is #18 and he takes out the Latin Lover. Ahmed Johnson runs in and chases Faarooq off over the top rope. Huge pop for that too!

Owen tries to get Mero out…and Austin dumps them both! Austin’s alone again as Savio Vega comes in.

Austin gets beat up…but again gets an elimination anyway as he takes out Vega! Austin is all alone again.

Double J Jesse James is #20. Austin makes quick work of him and he’s gone.

One of the greatest moments in Rumble history here: #21 is Bret Hart and the look on Austin’s face is an absolute classic. Fans have finally gotten into it and Bret and Austin go at it!

Another great moment. Jerry Lawler is #22…and he starts a sentence, gets knocked over the top rope by Bret…then finishes the sentence! Great stuff.

Fake Diesel is #23. JR still tries to put him over, although as not as badly as he tried at Survivor Series.

Terry Funk is #24 and he jumps the gun. It’s interesting to see where these four men would be by the end of the year. Funk spent most of ’97 as ECW World Champion, Bret was in WCW, Austin was just about to become the biggest star in the WWF and Diesel would be Kane.

Funk with an awful piledriver on Bret.

To add to the interesting people in the Rumble…#25 is Rocky Maivia. Of course, he would become 1b. to Austin in biggest WWF star within a couple years.

Mankind comes in at #26. Just loads of potential here with two legends Hart and Funk.

I like how Funk and Mankind go at it. This seemed like a nod to smarks looking back at it.

#27 is Flash Funk. Here’s another gimmick that just didn’t make it.

#28 is Vader. No surprise with the late number. Taker hasn’t even come out yet.

Henry Godwinn is #29.

Undertaker is #30 and the lights even go out for his entrance.

Taker levels Vader and again the crowd gets into it.

Vader fall away slams Flash over the top for a pretty great elimination.

Lawler on commentary is great. He’s nearly euphoric as Rocky nearly gets Bret Hart out.

Undertaker takes out Godwinn. That leaves Mankind, Taker, Bret, Austin, Rocky, Vader, Diesel and Terry Funk. Quite the mix of legends and future stars here.

Mankind Mandible Claws Rocky out.

Stone Cold Steve Austin wins in 50:29. Mankind gets rid of Funk and Taker boots Mankind off the apron. Funk and Mankind go at it on the outside and Bret eliminates Austin to a huge pop. Refs don’t see it…and Austin comes back in and takes out Vader and Taker. Bret takes out Diesel and Austin dumps Bret to win in what may be one of the best Royal Rumble finishes ever. Bret is irate (2nd time a top babyface attacks a referee tonight) and asks Vince what he’s going to do about it, which is a bit of a worked-shoot as Vince was still seen as the commentator here. This would fit perfectly with Bret’s rivalry with Austin and upcoming heel turn. Bret Hart was on fire in 1997 all the way through Summerslam and this was no exception.

The match itself was good but not great. The beginning was pretty slow, but Austin’s presence really made for a good Rumble. His story of not only being the guy who came in at #5 to win at the end but also the guy who’ll do anything to win was a great one. Sometimes the action around Austin was pretty slow, especially in the middle. But everything from Austin taking out Owen and Mero to the end was pretty good. I thought King of the Ring ’96 was a star making performance from Austin. This was a star confirming performance. Crowd popped too when Austin won.

WWF Championship
Sycho Sid© vs. Shawn Michaels

Sid beat Shawn for the title at Survivor Series. Of course, this is where Shawn “grew up” by tending to Jose Lothario as opposed to trying to win the title. Still don’t like that storyline.

Shawn was allegedly sick as a dog for this as well.

We start off pretty fast but it doesn’t take long for Sid to take over and slow things down with a barehug and a chinlock.

Shawn’s comeback is pretty great. Awesome bodyslam on Sid.

Sid powerbombs HBK on the outside. While it didn’t look great, it still did the job.

Jose and Pete Lothario try to attack Sid and Sid grabs both by the throat. For some reason Shawn has gotten up quickly from the powerbomb so Sid has to let go.

Ref bump and Sid gets a chokeslam. HBK is out…but there’s no count of course. Interesting spot to do there.

In a great piece of symmetry from their Survivor Series match, HBK nails Sid with a TV camera twice.

Shawn Michaels regains the title at 13:49. Superkick finishes Sid off. Decent main event that was pretty slow, but picked up at the end. The finish was brilliant. I did like their Survivor Series match better though. Randomly, Bret Hart gave Shawn a lot of credit for this match, saying he did such an awesome job against Sid and a better job than he ever could. This is the only time I really buy the Jose Lothario deal too, since this is HBK’s hometown.

The 1997 Royal Rumble PPV is a show that’s greater than the sum of its parts. None of the short-term plans went off at all. Bret was supposed to get the title shot back at the February PPV and face Shawn at Wrestlemania. Of course, Shawn would vacate the title instead with the infamous “Lost My Smile” promo. Bret would win the title for a night, then Sid would win it so he could face Undertaker at Mania and Bret could continue his feud with Austin. Shawn would come back in May and his problems with Bret led to the Montreal Screwjob.

Yet, Shawn’s victory, Austin’s rise and Bret’s hint at a heel turn (even if it wasn’t even decided yet) all were major storylines that went off well. Austin’s star confirming performance was absolutely fantastic. Also, interestingly the 1997 Royal Rumble provides a snapshot of current stars and future stars, as well as guys who really couldn’t get to the next level. It saw established guys like Bret and Undertaker. It saw future stars like Austin, Rock, HHH and Kane. It saw guys who unfortunately never could get over the hump in one way or another with Vader, Ahmed Johnson and Marc Mero. It saw legends like Terry Funk and Jake The Snake. Yeah, it’s not a great Rumble…but it definitely worked.

Now only if the undercard was any good.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

World Championship Injuries: A History of Injures and a Vacant World Title

With the unfortunate news that Seth Rollins tore his ACL and MCL last night, we have a vacated WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It isn’t the first time that the World Champion was forced to vacate a championship due to injury, and it certainly won’t be the last. Let’s look back at some unfortunate times where the Champ went down. I’m only considering WWE and WCW World Champions for this list.

Shawn Michaels – February 13, 1997

hbkinjury

                Shawn Michaels was in his 2nd reign as WWF Champion after holding onto the title for most of 1996. Michaels had pinned Sid in his hometown of San Antonio at the Royal Rumble. There was tons of controversy surrounding Michaels’ at the time. According to HBK in his book, a doctor told him his knee was damaged beyond repair and he’d need to retire immediately. No one in the locker room, especially Bret Hart, believed Michaels and thought it was HBK’s way of getting out of doing a job, presumably to Bret. To tentative plan was for Bret to extract revenge on Shawn at Wrestlemania XIII for the previous Mania’s loss. When Michaels forfeited the title on Thursday RAW Thursday, the Fatal Four Way Match at the upcoming In Your House PPV turned into a title match. Bret would win that, but drop the title to Sid the next night. HBK would be back in the ring by June.

Bret Hart – January 16, 2000

bretinjury

                At Starrcade ’99 Goldberg had kicked Bret Hart in the head, leading to a severe concussion. Bret continued to wrestle for a couple of weeks thinking it wasn’t too bad and he’d be fine. When Bret got himself checked out, the chairman of the NHL injury committee told him his career was over. Bret’s last match (at the time) was on Nitro against Kevin Nash. The WCW World Title wouldn’t gain any stability for a while. Chris Benoit would win the vacant title from Sid in a tournament, but he’d give the title up one day later and jump to the WWF.

Batista – January 13, 2006

batistainjury1

                While he battled through injuries throughout the latter half of his title reign, Batista suffered a torn triceps that forced him to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship that he held since Wrestlemania XXI. This led to a battle royal on Smackdown, where Kurt Angle would begin his last World Title reign, which would in turn lead to the Rey Mysterio World Title run. Batista would be back in mid ’06, and feuded with Mark Henry and Mr. Kennedy.

Edge – July 20, 2007

edgeinjury1

                Earlier in 2007, then-World Champion The Undertaker had a partially torn pectoral which led to the decision to have Edge win Mr. Kennedy’s Money in the Bank contract and cash in. At the time, Vince McMahon did not want Batista to hold the title. During an Edge-Kane program, Kane injured Edge with a chokeslam, leading to a torn pectoral. The decision was made to put the World Title on The Great Khali as he won a 20 Man Battle Royal on Smackdown. Khali would eventually drop the title to Batista. Batista and Undertaker would continue their war when Taker came back, and then Edge would get in the mix again.

John Cena – October 2, 2007

cenainjury

                Cena was in month thirteen of his WWE Championship reign when he tore his pectoral muscle in a match with Mr. Kennedy on the October 1st edition of RAW. The seemingly superhuman Cena’s injury was a shock to many…but he once again became superhuman when he returned quickly at the 2008 Royal Rumble. Unfortunately for Randy Orton, this cut short a feud that finally had Orton reaching that elite level of success he’d failed to achieve since his first World Title reign in 2004. While he didn’t get the clean victory of Cena, he did get a lot of help at No Mercy. The new plan had Orton be handed the title, only for HHH to beat him for it. HHH returned the favor cleanly in a Last Man Standing Match and gave Orton that big win.

Batista – June 9, 2009

batistainjury2

                Just two days after Batista beat Randy Orton for the title he was forced to forfeit the title due to a torn pectoral muscle. Orton would regain the title in a Fatal Four Way Match on RAW against Big Show, John Cena and Triple H. This would lead to Orton and Cena’s biggest rivalry in late 2009. Batista would return later in 2009 and turn on Rey Mysterio, leading to perhaps the most entertaining version of Batista we’d ever get.

Edge – April 12, 2011

edgeinjury2

                While the actual moment his injury occurred is unclear, Edge was forced to retire due to a neck injury. While he does grab his neck on the April 9th edition of Smackdown after he takes out Brodius Clay, Edge has stated that it was probably years of wear and tear on the neck and that was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Christian would take Edge’s place in a Ladder Match at Backlash against Alberto Del Rio and win his first World Title…only to drop it to Randy Orton two days later (that went over real well with the IWC).

Daniel Bryan – June 9, 2014

bryaninjury

                Looking back, it’s still incredible just how over Daniel Bryan was in the beginning of 2014. While the fans forced WWE management’s hand (in the ring AND backstage) and Bryan got his Wrestlemania moment, it seemed that management (storyline wise AND backstage) wasn’t completely behind him as champion. At Extreme Rules Bryan’s first World Title defense was against a way past his prime Kane. Didn’t matter, Bryan was so good he tore the house down. Bryan would suffer a neck injury shortly afterwards that still plagues him to this day (it forced him to vacate the Intercontinental Championship this year). What a shame. John Cena would win the title in a special Money in the Bank Ladder Match…and then Brock Lesnar destroyed him for it afterwards.

Seth Rollins – November 15, 2015

rollinsinjury

                This leads us to Rollins, who had a hell of a year as World Champion since Wrestlemania. He injured his knee in a match against Kane in Ireland, leading to a tournament at Survivor Series 2015. He was scheduled to face Roman Reigns for the title at that event.

 

 

 

 

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews The 1993 WWF King of the Ring

WWF King of the Ring ‘93
June 13, 1993
Dayton, OH

The New Generation was hit with Hulkamania brother!

Hulk Hogan had “retired” at the conclusion of Wrestlemania VIII. After a top feud of Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage, Vince McMahon had Flair drop the World Title to Bret Hart. While Bret was a new face on top of the card, he had been an excellent IC and Tag Champion over the years. There weren’t any heels built for Bret to face off with, but Bret still carried the top title with pride and his match quality night in and night out proved he was worthy of being the Champion.

Who knows why the decision at Wrestlemania IX was made to have Bret drop the title to Yokozuna who then immediately dropped it to a returning Hogan. The crowd was hot for the finish, sure, but long term that was one of the worst the WWF had ever made. Unless of course, we were getting Hogan vs. Bret at Summerslam ’93. But first we’re getting Hogan vs. Yoko II. Bret will have to carry the PPV match quality wise…while Hogan has to “draw the money”, brother.

The Card

This is being billed as the first King of the Ring, but there were previous non-televised KOTRs before.

King of the Ring Qualifier: Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon

This is a rematch from the ’93 Royal Rumble. Ramon had just began his program with The 1-2-3 Kid, which would lead to a face turn.

Razor was such a cool character. Really could have been a top guy in pretty much any era.

Razor definitely has heat…huge “1-2-3” chants.

Pretty awesome false finish where Bret tries for a backslide out of a Razor’s Edge, but then flips over Razor by using the turnbuckles and rolls Razor into a small package.

Bret Hart wins via pin in 10:25. Razor goes for a belly to back suplex off the top, but Bret turns in midair and lands on Razor for the 1-2-3. Good match that made Razor look really strong as he went toe to toe with Bret. Interesting to see a Bret match where he doesn’t go for the legs at all.

Man, I can’t believe they were building toward a Mr. Hughes vs. Undertaker program. I mean how dreadful does that sound?

King of the Ring Qualifier: Mr. Perfect vs. Mr. Hughes

This was Mr. Perfect’s short WWF comeback, but it wouldn’t last and he’d retire again shortly. He would be back in 1997 of course.

The role of selling for the monster is something Perfect was a master of…but this isn’t pretty to watch.

Ha. Bret gets asked who he would wrestle between these two. I mean, you think he laughed like hell before or after he answered Mr. Perfect?

Hughes crotches the 2nd rope and he sells it like he’s taking a shit. I think I’ve had enough.

Mr. Perfect wins in 6:02 by DQ. Hughes takes the urn and whacks Perfect for the DQ. I mean whatever really. This match can be best described as Mr. Perfect wrestling himself. But even then, it was better than it had any right to be. And we get Perfect vs. Bret II.

Mr. Fuji and Yokozuna interview. Trying to save face about Wrestlemania IX here. I don’t remember Yoko ever cutting English speaking promos though, so that was something.

King of the Ring Qualifier: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

One of the last WWF matches of Duggan’s early WWF run. He’d show up in WCW when Hogan did.

Match is built around whether or not Duggan can slam Bigelow or not. A small story is better than none I guess.

Duggan gets the slam…but the end would be near for him.

Bigelow wins via pin in 4:59. Duggan misses the 3 Point Stance clothesline, and Bigelow comes off the top with the headbutt to advance. Interestingly, if I were watching this without knowing the results I would have assumed Luger was coming from the other side of the bracket against Bret, but Luger vs Bigelow would be heel vs. heel, so either Tatanka was going over or something screwy was happening.

King of the Ring Qualifier: Tatanka vs. Lex Luger

Luger was still the Narcissist here (with awesome music). I assume if Bret were still champion and Hogan wasn’t around, Luger would be winning this tournament to face Bret at Summerslam.

Interestingly, both Luger and Tatanka were undefeated, so something had to give here.

Refs make Luger cover the metal plate in his arm with an elbow pad…which doesn’t make any sense, but it works.

This hasn’t been too bad. Luger still gave a shit at this point it seemed.

Only real complaint here: announcer’s pretty much give away the finish bringing up the time limit constantly.

Draw: Time Limit: Other complaint: Luger and Tatanka don’t really gain a sense of urgency as time ticks away. Luger gets big cheers asking for five more minutes. I wonder if Vince had the idea of turning him face at this point. Luger then whacks Tatanka without the elbowpad!

Match was a solid back and forth affair. They would have much worse matches later for sure. Anyway, this draw puts Bam Bam in the finals.

King of the Ring Semi-Finals: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect

First, Bret and Perfect have a hilarious promo, which includes Bret saying Stu Hart beat Larry Hennig, and Perfect responding with “your dad never beat my dad”.

The commentators tell the story about Razor stomping on Bret’s hand in their earlier match. According to Bret’s book, this was to allow Bret to use three different finishes and give him an excuse not to use the Sharpshooter.

So far this match has been ahead of its time. Hard, crisp moves that remind me a bit of the Angle vs. Benoit series.

Ridiculously stiff European uppercut from Bret late in the match. What a match this has been.

Great psychology! Bret goes for the Sharpshooter and Perfect grabs Bret’s damaged hand!

Vertical suplex sends both men to the outside, which was a unique spot for sure.

Bret Hart wins via pin in 18:56. Perfect puts Bret in a Small Package…but Bret reverses into his own and wins! Amazing match, possibly the 1993 Match of the Year. Very similar to technical matches a decade later.

Hogan interview. The last in his WWF career for some nine years.

WWF Championship
Hulk Hogan© vs. Yokozuna

Whatever you think of Hogan’s drawing power at this point, the live crowd was still pretty hot for him.

This is the rematch from Wrestlemania IX.

Match starts off really slowly, with Yokozuna just beating on Hogan.

Hogan goes for the slam! But doesn’t get there.

Hogan no-selling a belly to belly isn’t exactly putting Yokozuna over here…

Yoko surviving the big legdrop though…that definitely is putting Yokozuna over.

Yokozuna wins the WWF Title by pin in 13:08. Hogan calls for a slam after Yoko kicks out of the legdrop…but is distracted by a camera man. The camera blows up in Hogan’s face, and Yoko hits a big legdrop of his own to finish off Hulkamania in the WWF until Hogan returned at No Way Out 2002.

Match is awful. Maybe it flew for 1986, but in 1993 Bret had shown the main event style was headed in another direction. He also didn’t put over Yokozuna clean either. I mean an exploding camera? Interestinly, Undertaker would do the whole surviving Yokozuna’s splashes and such better in 1994, although those matches had other problems. Crowd was very pro-Hogan for what it’s worth, which isn’t much at this point.

Yoko lands a Banzai Drop on Hogan to finish him for good.

We get an interview with the IC Champ Shawn Michaels. He names his new bodyguard Diesel here.

Money Inc. and The Headshrinkers vs. The Smokin’ Gunns and The Steiner Bros.

Seems like a thrown together match just to include the tag division.

The Gunns and Steiners win when Billy Gunn pinned Ted Dibiase in 6:49. Dibiase takes out Billy with the Million Dollar Dream, then cockily let’s go. Billy rolls him up for the win, which is a pretty lame finish. Probably done to get the Gunns over as Dibiase’s career was coming to a close anyway.

Yokozuna victory celebration!

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Shawn Michaels© vs. Crush

This was near the end of Crush’s good guy run. I never saw Crush as a money drawing top face, but some thought he should have gotten the run instead of Luger. I would disagree though.

Match started off okay with Crush hitting HBK with power moves and HBK selling them to death.

Match terrible slows down though when Diesel rams Crush into the post and HBK then locked in a headlock. Killed the match.

Shawn Michaels retains by pin in 11:14. Two Doinks show up and distract Crush, and HBK gets a superkick to the back of the head for the pin. A contender for HBK’s worst PPV match post-Rockers to be honest.

King of the Ring Finals: Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

The beginning of the match can be described as Bam Bam viciously kicks Bret Hart’s ass.

The middle of this match can be described as Bam Bam viciously kicks Bret Hart’s ass.

Luna Vachon gets a chair shot in, and Bigelow finishes Bret with the flying headbutt! A second referee comes in to say the match continues because of Luna’s interference. Weird moment there, as I mean, should Hogan have gotten a 2nd chance earlier then?

Bigelow STILL kicks Bret’s ass, and to be honest it’s pretty awesome.

Bret makes his comeback and we get a great back and forth.

Bret Hart wins King of the Ring via pin in 18:11. Bret gets the victory roll for the win. A tremendous big man vs. little man match. Shockingly, there was no Bigelow vs. Hart program afterwards (makes sense with the screwjob finish in the middle), but Bigelow went nowhere after this. Don’t you think Taker vs. Bigelow makes more sense than Hughes vs. Taker? Come on now.

Jerry Lawler attacks Bret during Bret’s coronation, legit injuring Bret’s ribs. Lawler even throws the throne chair at him. Great heel stuff from Lawler as the PPV ends.

There’s a some great (Bret-Perfect) and a bunch of good (Bret everywhere else). There’s some historical significance here too with Hogan’s last WWF PPV for nine years and Diesel’s PPV debut. There’s a lot of bad too, showing that the WWF just didn’t have a deep talent roster at this point (Mr. Hughes?!) or didn’t know what to do with such talent (The Steiners or even Doink here). Luger vs. Tatanka was okay, but the rest of the non-Bret matches just weren’t good.

But Bret Hart showed that World title belt or not, he was the MVP of the WWF at this time. Soon Vince would have no choice than to put the strap on him.

Final Grade: B-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE Summerslam ’10

SummerSlam_(2010)

WWE Summerslam 2010
August 15, 2010
Los Angeles, CA
Reviewed on June 22, 2014

2010 was an interesting time for WWE as they had shockingly tried something new: The Nexus. The Nexus were a string of rookies from the newly formed NXT that came in and just began destroying everything NWO style, and it was very fresh and interesting. And after some Triple H, John Cena, Batista and Randy Orton title reigns, WWE needed interesting.

Also of note was that one of those rookies, Daniel Bryan, was released new the beginning of the angle when he choked out Justin Roberts with his tie. We were still too close to the Chris Benoit tragedy for anything like that to happen…although maybe it was a worked shoot the whole time? (I mean, HHH and HBK had used Crossfaces in the past).

In theory, Summerslam should have made some stars within the Nexus. Did it do that? Let’s find out.

The Card

Intercontinental Championship
Dolph Ziggler© vs. Kofi Kingston

I’m not sure about the story here, but I know Dolph and Kofi wrestled each other a billion times (not an estimate) from 2009 through 2012, so I doubt this has a serious story attached to it.

Kofi misses a pretty awesome looking suicide dive. What a start.

I haven’t noticed since Kofi has been stale for years, but there is a difference between 2010 Kofi and 2014 Kofi. 2010 Kofi was better.

Draw in 7:05. Nexus comes in and beats the crap out of both. I guess I’d rather them not do that in a title match, but it serves a good purpose I guess. We do get a Barrett promo out of it, and Barrett owned on the mic then too. Good match for 7 minutes.

Team WWE needs a 7th teammate. Jericho and Edge try to convince The Miz to join the team. Miz isn’t sure Nexus should be his priority though.

Diva’s Championship
Alicia Fox© vs. Melina

Is this the famous Fox vs. Melina match?!

Yikes, Melina comes out dressed like a cross of Pocohahantas and a Las Vegas showgirl.

I never got Melina as a face. And until very recently I didn’t understand how Alicia Fox had a job.

Michael Cole calls Melina one of the all time greats. Yeah I’m sure.

There’s some leg psychology here. That’s always fun.

Melina wins the title in 5:22. Melina hits that cutter facebuster for the win. You know, it really wasn’t that bad. It was a Melina squash basically. Alicia Fox’s offense looked horrible but she was barely on offense so it didn’t matter. Melina’s scream is the worst though. Melina cries because she won the title in her hometown or something. Here come the Co-WWE Women Champs Laycool! Laycool owned has heels here. This led to the unification match at some PPV in the future. They take out Melina.

The Big Show vs. CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joseph Mercury

Ugh. No wonder Punk wanted to leave in a year.

Punk was the main event of Summerslam 2009 and is now regulated to the joke handicap match.

The story here began when Punk lost his hair to Rey. Then he got involved with Big Show, who unmasked Punk and revealed his bald head.

Ha, Punk comes out with a “I broke Big Show’s hand” t-shirt (which the S.E.S. did in an angle). Punk is always great.

Big Show owns Mercury and Gallows. On the Show-Punk face off, there are huge CM Punk chants. Way to be a top face Show.

Big Show wins when he pins Mercury and Gallows in 6:45. Show chokeslams Mercury on Gallows for the win. Punk was pretty good and you can tell Mercury was wrestling to keep his job, but I mean, this is pretty much a waste on a Summerslam card. I forgot if this actually led to a Big Show vs. Punk match.

Kane cuts a promo with a casket. He runs into WWE Champ Sheamus. A little bit about Kane here. The whole Undertaker in a vegetative state angle was pretty fucking stupid. And then it got worse when Kane blamed Rey Mysterio of all people of going it. Like I’m supposed to remotely believe that Rey Mysterio took out the Undertaker. We all knew it was gonna be Kane.

Sheamus tells Kane to stay out of his way. Was Kane in his way in the first place?

Miz joins the team after pointing how they begged him.

WWE Championship
Sheamus© vs. Randy Orton

We actually did this match at the Royal Rumble in the whole Legacy implosion. In this case, Sheamus won the title at Fatal Four Way on a kinda fluke.

There’s definitely improvement from the Sheamus who was in the World Title match at the Rumble and this Sheamus…but this match is still pretty boring.

Sheamus counters a RKO late and Michael Cole blows the call. Nice.

To be fair this match has picked up towards the end. I think Orton just turned face a few months prior…and the crowd is super hot for him.

Orton wins by DQ in 18:55. Sheamus brings a chair in. When the ref tries to take the chair from him, Sheamus sends the ref out for the DQ. Awful finish. Sheamus doesn’t even get a chair shot in as Orton RKOs him on the table. So not only did Sheamus not beat Orton, he got beaten down by him. No wonder no one cared about him until he won the Rumble 16 months later. Horrible horrible ending. This is Summerslam?

World Heavyweight Championship
Kane© vs. Rey Mysterio

Somewhere smack in the middle of this strange Kane-Undertaker vegetative state angle was Kane winning MITB and the World Title from Rey, and blaming Rey for taking out Undertaker. Did anyone buy Rey being the man to take out Undertaker? Anyone?

Kane and Rey had some mask feud not that long ago either. These two have never had good chemistry in the ring.

A lot of early bearhugs.

Rey’s in the casket! He fights out though.

Kane retains by pin in 13:32. Chokeslam for the win. Match was pretty bad. Kane just isn’t the guy for Rey to have good matches with. There was a good spot at the end where Kane put his feet up too early to counter the West Coast Pop Splash…but Rey seemed to improvise and counter that instead of looking like an idiot.

Kane is gonna stuff Rey in the casket now…and when Kane opens it it’s empty, leading to an audible groan from the crowd. Rey tries to fight it, but Kane chokeslams him again. Rey even gets Tombstoned this time. Kane opens the casket again…and it’s THE UNDERTAKER! Huge reaction! He looks pretty damn old here though (he somehow aged like 10 years from the Mania match with Shawn). Taker turns to Rey and asks him why he did it before beating the crap out of the obvious culprit, Kane. Shockingly, Kane gets the upper hand and lays out Taker (and Taker put him over on three straight PPVs). Good pop, even for the obvious here. This would lead to Taker’s last long non-Mania program.

Elimination Match
Nexus vs. Team WWE

Miz shows up, but Cena says they already have a partner…Daniel Bryan! Big pop for Bryan.

So it’s Otunga, Sheffield, Tarver, Barrett, Gabriel, Young and Slater vs. Cena, Edge, Jericho, Morrison, Bryan, Bret Hart and R-Truth.

Note: this is Bret Hart’s last PPV match, and interestingly wrestled his last WWE PPV main event after HBK did. Even as late as December 2009, what were the odds of that? 10,000 to 1?
Bret Hart actually looks pretty good here. It’s a shame he couldn’t get hit in the head, he probably could have had a solid run otherwise.

Bryan makes Darren Young submit in a minute. I guess that continues the tradition of a submission wrestler taking out the exotic haired black guy in 45 seconds at Summerslam with a Crossface (reference to Benoit vs. Orlando Jordan…and that reference could have went further).

Lawler calls Bryan Bryan Danielson on air. Ha.

Morrison eliminates Tarver with Sharship Pain at the 4 minute mark. 7-5 WWE advantage.

Sheffield is the first Nexus guy in this match to look like a threat as he kicks the crap out of Morrison.

Gabriel cheap shots Morrison and Sheffield takes him out with a clothesline to take him out. Sheffield then takes out R-Truth with another clothesline and suddenly it’s tied. I’ll complain about Truth being in this later.

Michael Cole says that if Bret could lead team WWE to victory it would be his greatest Summerslam moment of his career. Screw that winning the WWF title from Undertaker in 1997 or having one of the greatest matches ever at Summerslam ’92.

Bret locks Slater in the Sharpshooter, and Barrett tosses a chair in. Bret smacks Sheffield with the chair for the DQ…then blames Barrett for bringing it in. I can’t think of a time that didn’t work. Anyway, Bret’s gone in the only way he could be.

Edge spears Sheffield and we are down to 4 vs. 4. Cena, Bryan, Jericho and Edge vs. Gabriel, Otunga, Barrett and Slater.

Otunga taps to a botched Walls.

Jericho accidentally runs into Cena, and then gets hit with a rear naked choke drop by Slater and Slater eliminates him.

Edge and Cena argue, then Slater shoved Edge into Cena and rolls him up to take him out! Nexus with the 3-2 lead!

Bryan owns everyone and makes Slater tap (amazingly, Bryan’s moveset is exactly the same three years later). Miz comes back and takes Bryan out with the briefcase. Barrett pins Bryan.

Cena vs. Barrett and Gabriel.

DDT on the concrete! Cena’s out cold! CAN HE COME BACK?! Even Lawler and Cole thinks its hopeless.

Team WWE wins when Cena makes Barrett submit in 35:18. Gabriel misses the 450, and Cena pins him. Barrett then just runs into the STF and that’s that. Very disappointing and a lot worse than I remember it. This match buried Nexus as any kind of threat. The only people they beat legit were Morrison and Truth. Bret got DQed. Jericho ran into Cena and got fluke pinned. Edge argued with Cena and got fluke pinned. Miz attacked Bryan. Cena of course OVERCAME the odds. Ugh. No idea how Barrett dragged this to December.

The debate of how significant this match was is Daniel Bryan’s comeback. I think it’s a good moment and it gave Bryan a good push out of the gate…but once he won the US title WWE did nothing with him for a good 10 months. He did wrestle a bunch of pre-PPV matches (Wrestlemania, Over the Limit, surely there is more) so there is that. So this all turned out to be meaningless.

Here’s my problem with the idea of the match as well. The commentators were selling it as the most important match in WWE history and all of that. So why then is R-Truth on the team? Shouldn’t Randy Orton or I don’t know, the WWE Champion Sheamus be on it instead. To an extent that thinking applies to Morrison and even Bret Hart.

This PPV is full of bullshit finishes and is pretty forgettable. All Summerslam 2010 got was the further development of The Miz as a main event star. Most of Nexus became nothing significant from their run in Nexus. Even Barrett…practically a sure thing, got lost in the shuffle with the Corre later. For a match with a lot of young guys the lack of historical significance is surprising.

I guess you can also say its Bret Hart’s last WWE PPV match, but no one remembers it for that.

Nexus should have been so much better. There was so much potential here.

Forgettable and overall too many weak finishes. Could have been worse but there was decent wrestling scattered around this show.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Mayhem ’99

Wcw_mayhem_1999

WCW Mayhem 99
November 21, 1999
Toronto, Ontario, CA
Reviewed on March 20, 2014

Background: Twelve months before this Vince Russo was the primary booker for the Survivor Series 98 Deadly Game tournament…which was average at best. I’m sure he one of the first things he wanted to do was re-create that idea in WCW…considering that is one of the first things he did. I don’t think the idea is terrible…but the tournament itself was a bit of a mess. Still, the Russo era had begun.

Let’s talk a little WCW 99. At this point the WWF had run away with the Monday Night Wars, and WCW hiring Russo was their answer. The issue with WCW was that the whole creating new stars thing wasn’t happening. Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Sting, Randy Savage and the “addition” of Sid Vicious were WCW’s main storyline throughout the summer. Well, Hogan, Sting, Nash and Savage had been on top for years now. It was time to change. Sid wasn’t (and never is) the answer. Thing is WCW had the new guys! Bill Goldberg was being wasted. Goldberg should have been at the very top, but somehow was fighting Rick Steiner or The Jersey Triad. Speaking of the Triad, Diamond Dallas Page got about a month on top (turning heel no less) before being shunted right back to the midcard. Bret Hart too was absolutely wasted in the first half of 1999. Hart may have not been a fresh face…but he would have been fresh in WCW’s main event.

To quickly explain why there’s a World Title tournament in the first place: Sting beat Hulk Hogan for the title when Hogan just laid down (UGH!). Somehow a Goldberg-Sting match happened at Havoc and Goldberg won the title. Sting attacked a ref and said he never agreed to defend the title but JJ Dillion stripped Sting of the belt because of that attack. Don’t know the story of why Goldberg lost a first round match to Bret Hart. Anyway, that’s how we are here. We are down to the semi-finals. Benoit vs. Jarrett andBret vs. Sting. This group of four is actually exciting!

The Card

We get a recap of the tournament. I missed the Hart-Goldberg explanation. 2/3rd of the matches seemed to have some crazy stip or interference, but that’s how we got to Jarrett, Benoit, Bret and Sting.

WCW World Title Tournament: Semi-Final
Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit

Jarrett had just turned up in WCW after leaving the WWF in October. Benoit is someone fans everywhere wanted to see get a chance at the top. Great having these two in this position.

We’re in Canada, so obviously fans are really hot for Benoit.

We’re getting Tornado DDTs and Superplexes early on here.

This is a pretty fun opener. I don’t get the high impact moves earlier.

Oh god Creative Control is here. That’s Ron and Don Harris of course.

Nice false finish with the sunset flip counter from Benoit.

Chris Benoit advances when he pins Jeff Jarrett in 9:27. Benoit has it won after a Swandive Heabutt, but one of the Creative Control members breaks it up. Jarrett gets control as a result and his the Stroke…but Dustin Rhodes shows up and breaks that up. Creative Control tries to nail Benoit with a guitar, but Benoit gets it and smashes Jarrett with it for the win. Pretty solid opener (even if the finish is overbooked nonsense), and crowd was very into it because of Benoit and Canada. I’d say Jarrett is a step or two behind Benoit in the ring…but who wasn’t really?

Creative Control beat down Benoit afterwards.

Jarrett and Creative Control beat down Disco Inferno for no reason. I guess they are frustrated!

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Disco Inferno© vs. Evan Karagias

$25,000 grand apparently on the line too.

Yikes. Not exactly Malenko vs. Mysterio here. Or even Chavo vs. Helms.

Madusa is with Karagias. Talk about plastic.

Disco comes out selling the beatdown from earlier.

That’s Tony Marinara, or Tony Mamaluke with Disco.

Marinara’s commentary is awful. Worst fake Italian accent ever. I also don’t remember any of this.

Match is boring. Fans start chanting boring. They got it right!

A lot of the commentary is about the $25,000 being worth a lot to Disco, as if it is his life. I guess being Cruiserweight Champ doesn’t pay?

Evan Karagias wins the title in 8:28. Madusa slaps Disco. Marinara tries to hit on Madusa, but Karagias confronts. Disco accidentally nails Marinara with a chair. Karagias gets a crossbody for the win. To think the Cruiserweight Division would be worse off two months later. This sucked all around. By the way, why not just steal Little Guido from ECW for the Marinara role? Would have been a lot better.

Bret Hart is here!

The off screen Powers that Be. Of course it’s Russo. He admonishes Jarrett for not winning the WCW title tonight.

Norman Smiley interview…and of course he screams when a sound is made!

WCW Hardcore Title Match
Norman Smiley vs. Brian Knobbs

This is to crown the first ever Hardcore Champ. No idea about the story.

Smiley has a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey on (actually he has the whole hockey gear on EXCEPT a helmet. Smart). I guess he’s the face!

A lot of Knobbs in a garbage can. Feels about right.

Some really bad shots with garbage can lids here.

Norman Smiley wins the title by pin in 7:27. Creative ending spot! Knobbs whips Norman into an elevator but misses an avalanche. Jimmy Hart, Knobbs’ manager tries to hit Smiley with a garbage can but the elevator closes. He reopens it…but accidentally hits Knobbs! Smiley gets the win. Match was a poor version of what the WWF was doing at the time. Just a lot of you hit me I hit you…but Jimmy Hart does steal the show a bit with the food throwing and ending. I would say that this is the way to use Knobbs.

Knobbs throws Jimmy Hart into some food afterwards.

Revolution promo. Gonna make the Filthy Animals extinct like the dinosaurs!

Animals respond. A lot lamer than the Revolution promo.

Tony Mariana tells Disco that on Nitro he’s bringing the boys…and Disco thinks he’s a dead man.

The Revolution (Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko and Asya) vs. The Filthy Animals (Eddy Guerrero, Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson)

When the Radicalz collide!

This is an elimination match.

Saturn takes out his fellow future Radicalz with an Asai Moonsault to the outside!

Asya just takes out Kidman with a clothesline.

Somehow this match has lost all flow.

Eddy accidentally elbows Kidman, and Saturn eliminates him with a roll up. In three minutes. Huge Eddy chants though.

For some reason Malenko isn’t finishing his moves well. Like he doesn’t want to hurt Guerrero in real life or something.

Huge vertical suplex by Asya to Guerrero.

Guerrero pins Malenko with a hurricanrana.

Saturn accidentally kicks Asya, and Guerrero eliminates her with the frog splash. Funny enough, the Filthy Animal theme accidentally plays for a second.

Saturn makes Eddy submit to the Rings of Saturn. Shane Douglas, idiot he is, claims that Eddy tapped. If you saw the Rings of Saturn, you’see why that made no sense.

Saturn vs. Torrie!

The Revolution wins when Saturn pins Torrie at 10:55. Saturn hits a low blow and Torrie sells it (commentators wonder if that hurts a woman) and gets the pin. No wonder he left in two months. Somehow (considering the participants) the match was a mess. Only Eddy Guerrero seemed to want to be there. Also, obligatory Asya is a Chyna ripoff statement. It’s even in the name.

Creative Control and Jeff Jarrett attacks Buff Bagwell!

Retirement Match
Curt Hennig vs. Buff Bagwell

It’s really only Hennig’s career on the line I believe. Same as Flair’s 2008 retirement deal. Of course Hennig was a heel here, so I’m not sure how it was supposed to work.

We get Creative Control and Jarrett instead of Bagwell and they attack Hennig. But then Bagwell comes in to chase them off. Not sure about what sense that made.

Another boring match. I assume Hennig wasn’t into anything at this point either. Crowd with some boring chants.

Buff Bagwell ends Curt Hennig’s career by pin in 7:47. Buff Blockbuster for the win. Fans do give Hennig a standing ovation. Of course, there’s no reason to really buy this…heck Schiovane and Heenan give it a half-assed effort to. Hennig was back with a few weeks I think. Match was boring. Nothing happened.

Heel Sting promo! He brings up a good point that he shouldn’t have lost the title in the first place.

WCW World Title Tournament: Semi-Final
Bret Hart vs. Sting

Bret comes out with a Wayne Gretzky jersey.

Personal gut feeling here: I always wondered if Bret told WCW he wasn’t coming back unless he got the belt put on him after Owen died.

This is really Shades of Grey Sting…as he did get screwed by the Powers that Be.

This is the only crowd to probably hate Sting…and it took Bret Hart and Canada to get it done.

Bret gets the referee on a top rope ax smash.

Luger’s out here.

Bret then attacks Luger! Sharpshooter!

Ref calls for the bell! DQs Sting because Luger and Hart were going at it.

Bret wants it to keep going. And he succeeds. Match restarted.

Bret Hart advances by making Sting submit in 9:27. Scorpion reversed into the Sharpshooter. Didn’t need the Luger run-in, but it helped make Bret look like a solid face. He get a handshake afterwards, which I think makes Sting a face? Match wasn’t much unfortunately, but Bret got a strong win at least. Bret vs. Benoit in Canada!

Luger says Bret hurt his neck. Says he can’t go tonight.

Dog Collar Match
Vampiro vs. Berlyn

Vampiro is announced from Toronto. No reaction.

Here comes OKLAHOMA!

Berlyn nails the ref with the collar. Somehow Jerry Only and The Wall are involved.

Jerry Only can’t even do a suplex. Maybe because he’s not a wrestler.

Vampiro makes Berlyn submit in 4:57. Camel clutch with the chain for the win. Horrible. Berlyn never even wore the Collar. It was more of a tornado tag than anything. Wall walked out of Berlyn. Terrible match that made no sense. Dr. Death attacks Jerry Only and Vampiro afterwards.

About the Oklahoma thing. Honestly, it wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the mocking Bell’s Palsy thing. But of course, they had to do that, which was pretty damn tasteless.

Scott Hall interview. He has both the TV and US Titles.

Curt Hennig is leaving. Shaking people’s hands.

Kimberly Page is here! She will face David Flair later. Yay?

”The Total Package” Lex Luger vs. Meng

Luger still has the neck brace.

A lot of no-selling from both sides here.

Tony Schiavone basically tells the story of the match before it happens, that the neck brace is to block the Tongan Death Grip.

Meng pins Lex Luger in 5:23. Miss Elizabeth accidentally sprays mace in Luger’s face (not well done at all). Meng rips off the brace and Tongan Death Grip for three. Horrible.

Hitman interview. Luger randomly walks by looking for Elizabeth.

US and TV Title Match
Scott Hall© vs. ???

So the story here is that Hall was supposed to originally face TV Champ Rick Steiner but Steiner got hurt, awarding Hall the TV title. The new opponent is…..Booker T. No pop for Booker though.

Booker gets a “Rocky” chant. This crowd seems very WWF strong, for the record (Hall and Hennig pops, nevermind Bret). I wonder if they’ll boo Goldberg later.

God Jarrett and Creative Control again.

Scott Hall retains both titles when he pins Booker T in 6:04. Booker takes out both of Creative Control, but Jarrett’s distraction leads to the Outsider’s Edge for the pin. Boring match. Put Scott Hall on the list of people who don’t want to be there.

Creative Control attacks Booker T.

BONG!

It’s…Midnight, who takes out Creative Control. Another female bodybuilder. At least it wasn’t Seven.

Luger is still looking for Elizabeth.

Kimberly vs. David Flair

Alright, let’s get to this story. Kimberly invited David Flair into her room when DDP wasn’t around. For some reason Ric Flair came instead. Started a fight between David and Kimberly. David Flair then went all The Shining on Kimberly with a crowbar. Weird all around.

Ah Kimberly Page…the main reason why the Undertaker vs. DDP stalker angle was real shit.

Flair with a weird non-sell of a low blow.

Kimberly gets out of being hit with a crowbar by practically teasing a blowjob…then she pulls out the cup and low bridges Flair.

No Contest in 4:55. Kanyon and DDP take out Flair…but then Arn Anderson comes out to save him. Flair then beats the crap out of Anderson with the crowbar. Utter garbage. Arn Anderson does do a great sell job though.

I Quit Match
Goldberg vs. Sid

Boos for Goldberg! Although light.

Goldberg sucks chant!

Huge Sid chants!

Armbreaker and Sid’s arm is hurt!

Goldberg wins when Sid passes out in 5:30. Cobra clutch and Sid passes out in 5 minutes. I think Jerry Flynn put up a bigger fight. Not a good match.

Luger interview. Still didn’t find Elzabeth. He gets even.

WCW World Title Tournament Final
Chris Benoit vs. Bret Hart

You know what’s interesting? I think this match is clearly the right way to go…but the Canadian crowd doesn’t know who to go with. I mean they are cheering for Bret…but they don’t want Benoit to lose.

There was this Canadian fan who attacked Benoit earlier that I didn’t mention as I didn’t think it was important…but he does show up here too and attacks Benoit. Turns out it was Malenko! No DQ called or anything though.

Tombstone from Benoit! Swandive Headbutt!

Scott Hall takes out the referee. Kevin Nash is here too.

Goldberg is here and he takes out Nash with a spear! Bret takes out Hall.

Heenan points out that the referee is going to let this all go without a DQ as the match is too important. I’m okay with that actually.

Split screen now. The World Title match…and the Outsiders/Goldberg confrontation.

Bret Hart wins the World Title when Benoit submits in 17:44. Great sequence at the end where Benoit is playing dead…only for him to come alive and hit the triple Germans. Benoit goes for the Crossface…but Bret gets the Sharpshooter and the win. Good match tarnished by the silly interference midway. I guess disappointing based on what Benoit and Hart could do (the Owen tribute match was WAY better), but still good. Bret’s family celebrates with him. Crowd pops big for the Sharpshooter.

So that’s Mayhem.

It’s a shame that there’s so much crap here because you can see some potential trying to break out with this card. Even though there is way too much interference, at least there were some stories in there that kinda sorta made sense. The Nash, Hall, Goldberg run-ins would lead to Hall/Nash vs. Goldberg and Hart and then NWO 2000, so there is that. The workrate overall was okay, even good in some case (Benoit). And Bret vs. Benoit was pretty new for a WCW main event. Probably the best main event match WCW had in a long time. Even the stuff with Kimberly and Flair and Arn Anderson. If it leads somewhere, okay, maybe something can work (no idea what it led to, I think a DDP vs. David Flair match somewhere). The Marinara-Disco stuff lead to the debut of a new team (Big Vito and Johnny the Bull), which is good. There’s potential!

I’m all for giving this PPV a C+ for effort. Here’s why I can’t:

Still a lot of crap. While the Kimberly-Flair stuff could have worked…the match itself was garbage. Luger vs. Meng? Bad. Hennig’s retirement? Waste of time. Even Revolution vs. Animals was disappointing and lame. Vampiro vs. Berlyn didn’t make sense. All that alone drops it to a C. And then you have Oklahoma. Fuck off Ed Ferrara.

By the way WCW went directly downhill after this. It was once said that Vince Russo can write one hell of a first chapter. For the record, here is a list of the next few WCW World Champions.

Bret Hart (Mayhem)
Vacant
Bret Hart
Vacant
Chris Benoit
Vacant
Sid
Vacant
Kevin Nash
Sid
Vacant

The only question is…how much was Vacant making?

Anyway, this would be the last time WCW would have even potentially good storylines going. It was a mess from this point forward.

Final Grade: C-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Fall Brawl ’98

fallbrawl98

WCW Fall Brawl ‘98
September 13, 1998
Winston-Salem, MA
Reviewed on November 13, 2014

What the hell is going on?

Ten months ago it was supposed to be over. WCW had gotten Bret Hart. WCW had the super hot Sting vs. Hogan feud. WCW had the NWO. Even the raw rookie Goldberg somehow became one of the biggest stars in pro wrestling.

And WCW…is losing?

This is the equivalent of an all-star team in sports without thought of making a “team”. It’s hard to find a top guy in WCW booked correctly except for Diamond Dallas Page at this point. Hogan? Stale. Nash? Acting half his age trying to be the “cool” heel or face or whatever (although he’d get mega over by the end of the year). Sting? Buried in Washington D.C. last December and replaced by some guy in red face paint. Don’t even get me started on Goldberg. All the momentum in the world and somehow Goldberg still plays second fiddle to Hogan. In fact, Goldberg hadn’t even wrestled a last match main event since his title win in July.

Of course there’s Bret Hart too. One of the biggest wastes in wrestling history was Bret Hart in WCW.

Most recently WCW signed The Warrior as well. He went right after Hogan and…

And well let’s get right to it. Fall Brawl means WAR GAMES! The Warrior in War Games! Who knows what will happen?!

The Card

Opening video reminds us that Team Hollywood in War Games is Hollywood Hogan, Stevie Ray and Bret Hart. One of those is not like the other.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” Well, wait a night.

Tony Schiavone talks about the new rules for War Games. Three teams! It can end before all nine men get into the ring (um…what? Why would that happen from an entertainment standpoint?). Also winner gets a World Title shot at Halloween Havoc. So much for the team aspect eh?

Ernest Miller being held by security. Fuck if I know the storyline there.

Gene Okerlund talks about the rest of the card. Why? We already sold the PPV, no?

It’s Chris Jericho! Jericho is one of the best parts of WCW 1998. He’s calling out Goldberg and says Goldberg accepted a match against Jericho tonight! Title vs. title!

Alex Wight and Disco Inferno vs. The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart

I like how we get separate entrances for Wright and Inferno. Double the dancing!

USA chant to Alex Wright. The British Bulldog was in the ring opposing him.

A whole lot of nothing to start this thing…other than Anvil dancing.

Bulldog can still land on his feet after being monkey flipped from the corner. Impressive.

Bulldog screws up a stun gun. It’s amazing how different the Bulldog and Neidhart are in terms of giving a shit here. In WWF 1997, the Bulldog and Neidhart showed great intensity. Here? Meh.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” Yeah no one cares about this boring match.

Neidhart misses a slingshot shoulder block. I don’t think he was supposed to miss.

Bulldog actually screws up picking Disco up for the Running Powerslam. Sad.

Bulldog and Neidhart win when Bulldog pinned Disco in 11:03. Bulldog eventually gets the Running Powerslam for the win. Bad boring match. This match is also infamous for the Bulldog injuring his back on the Warrior’s trap door.

Not the typical WCW opening match goodness sadly.

Scott Steiner has a doctor’s note! No Steiner vs. Steiner tonight.

No wait! JJ Dillion calls him on his bs! The match is on!

Title vs. Title
Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg

JPS! Ralphus and the Jerichoholic NINJA!

Jericho is just absolutely brilliant here.

And it’s a midget Goldberg!

Chris Jericho vs. Mini-Goldberg

Mini-Goldberg gets a spear in! You know HHH stole this idea a year later on Smackdownm using Gillberg.

Chris Jericho wins by submission in 1:15. Liontamer! Jericho is brilliant.

Norman Smiley vs. Ernest Miller

Angle here? Smiley asked Miller what his problem was after Miller attacked The Armstrong Brothers. That’s it.

Miller pins Smiley in 5:07. Top rope feliner I think was the finish…but Smiley didn’t go all the way down. Smiley hits a 2nd for the win. A whole lot of nothing for five minutes. Not a good sign when the best part of the first 45 minutes of the show is a Jericho joke match.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Angle began when Scott turned on Rick back in February at Superbrawl. Buff Bagwell’s serious injury was used as an angle between them as well, where Bagwell faked being friends. Scott did all he can to avoid fighting Rick, but Dillion said it has to happen at Fall Brawl. So here we are.

Crowd is very into this.

Really good brawl to start! Crowd is really into Rick Steiner. I’m starting to think they should have pushed Rick big as a face here. Too bad though as…

No Contest in 5:30. Bagwell tried to attack, but Rick Steiner slams him into the 2nd turnbuckle. Bagwell goes limp. The announcers treat it as a shoot. It takes about 10 minutes to get Bagwell into the ambulance…and then Scott and Bagwell attack Rick! It was a ruse! A great brawl turned into a bullshit angle. Ah well.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud Guerrera© vs. Silver King

Silver King? Really?

Sunset flip botch! Woo!

Inverted top rope frankensteiner is pretty cool. Shocked it only got 2.

Juventud Guerrera retains in 8:36 by pin. Weak Juvi Driver, then the 450 for the win. Decent. Pretty low on the standard WCW Cruiserweight Title match quality tier. I don’t think anyone saw Silver King winning either. Best match of the night by default.

Drunk Scott Hall and Konnan have a confronation.

Raven’s Rules: If Raven wins, the Flock disbands, if Saturn wins, he becomes Raven’s slave. Kanyon is handcuffed to the ringpost.
Raven vs. Saturn

I enjoyed this match two months ago, so I am all for it again.

Back at Bash at the Beach, Saturn had broken free from the Flock. Now Saturn is trying to save the others from Raven. I don’t remember how Kanyon ended up officially in the Flock to be fair.

This one has more wrestling than the last…but Saturn picks it up with a tope!

One of the big shocks: The Flock comes to help Raven finish off Saturn…but Kidman takes out Raven with a missile dropkick!

That’s followed by a great false finish with the DVD!

Kanyon breaks free, Flatlines Saturn, the locks himself back up. I laughed.

Saturn kills Lodi with a DVD through the table on the floor!

A lot of great false finishes. Saturn survivies an Evenflow!

Saturn frees the Flock at 14:04. DVD wins it! Great second half of the match. I still prefer their July encounter though. Kidman would become a star instantly, winning the Cruiserweight Title the next night. Somehow, despite the big reactions for Saturn here…he would be getting pinned by Sonny Oono two months later. Whatever. Still a solid match.

Curt Hennig vs. Dean Malenko

For some reason these two had a cage match on Nitro. Doing things backwards…aren’t we.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” At least it makes sense, since Hennig turned on the Horsemen at this event in the same building last year.

This is a fun little match where Malenko beats the crap out of Hennig’s leg. I like it in terms of building up Malenko’s aggressiveness.

Malenko wins by DQ in 7:38. Malenko nails Hennig with the Hennig-Plex…but Rick Rude runs in to cause the DQ. Arn Anderson looks to make the save, but gets taken out. No Flair. He would come tomorrow. Still, not bad. The last three matches have at least taken this show past F potential.

Konnan vs. Scott Hall

The drunk Scott Hall angle. Horrible.

He actually gets a drink while applying an abdominal stretch.

Hall has it won, but wants another drink. Konnan kicks the drink out of Hall’s hand (and it hits a fan, nice) and hits a facebuster.

Konnan makes Scott Hall submit in 12:03. Tequila Sunrise for the win. Horrible. It’s still hard to believe something like that was on TV, much less Pay-Per-View.

#1 Contender War Games
Team Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart, Stevie Ray) vs. Team Wolfpac (Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Sting) vs. Team WCW (Roddy Piper, Diamond Dallas Page and The Warrior)

DDP is #1. Bret Hart #2. The team psychology is already non-existant.

Stevie Ray is next! Well…it was a good five minutes between Bret and Page I guess.

So 0 Wolfpac, 2 Hollywood and 1 WCW. Yeah that makes sense.

Here comes Sting! Crowd comes alive!

Sting kicks Stevie Ray’s ass, and leaps from one ring to the other with a flying clothesline!

Piper’s in, looking like a nut. It’s all punches and kicks though.

Here comes Lex Luger! There really isn’t a whole lot happening between each segment.

Kevin Nash next! Big reaction. Hogan and Warrior left.

Hogan’s out early! So much for rules!

Hogan slapjacks everyone but Stevie Ray.

For some reason, Hogan doesn’t go to pin anyone.

We’re just waiting for the Warrior here.

As soon as the pin attempt happens there’s SMOKE EVERYWHERE!

WARRIOR’S IN THE RING! Hogan nails him from behind!

More smoke….it’s a fake Warrior? Whatever, here comes THE WARRIOR!

A few punches and Hogan goes through the door of the cage to escape. Hogan locks himself out of the cage (well, Warrior goes for the door and it slightly opens…and Warrior avoids the door. Nice). Warrior gets all angry, kicks the top part of the cage to get out, blows his quad and then gets some more punches in. Even though it’s a match and both are participants, security breaks them up. Imagine if that happen at Bad Blood ’97.

Now that the angle is over, Stevie Ray accidentally hits (I think it missed and Bret knew it) Bret Hart with a slapjack, and a Diamond Cutter to Stevie Ray!

Diamond Dallas Page wins in 20:06 when he pinned Steve Ray. Bret tries to make the save but fails as Page pins Stevie Ray for the Title shot. Absolutely horrible. The worst War Games in the history of the match. It’s not even close really. One of…if not THE worst major PPV main event in professional wrestling history. Your match was a 5 minute solid Bret-Page match, entrances and punches (except for Sting, who did some good stuff). Kevin Nash’s entire night was a few forearms before getting hit with the slapjack and taking two legdrops. The Hogan-Warrior angle was an embarrassment. Page getting the win at the end was pure afterthought.

Here’s another thing about this PPV.

No Rey Mysterio Jr. or Eddie Guerrero (but Silver King!)
No Chris Benoit.
No….Goldberg. No fucking Goldberg.

At the end of Hennig-Malenko we were in D range. The show overall was a whole lot of nothing. The only real positive I saw storyline wise was Saturn vs. Raven.

Well drunk Scott Hall didn’t help. The show basically rested on the main event. Considering it’s possibly the worst main event in professional wrestling history, that should tell you all you need to know.

WCW somehow still hung in there ratings wise…although not for long.

Final Grade: F