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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW Living Dangerously ’98

Living_Dangerously_1998

ECW Living Dangerously ‘98
March 1, 1998
Asbury Park, NJ
Reviewed on August 28, 2014

“ECW!”

“ECW!”

So, are we too late?

No one doubts that ECW revolutionized the business, but four PPVs in ECW was slowly growing but not nearly at the level of the big two. Unfortunately for ECW, that show on USA called RAW began to look quite similar. As most who experienced ECW would tell you, ECW peaked in 1995. It’s not to say that it wasn’t a solid show in in 1997 and 1998, but nothing was really something that blew you away anymore. Sure Sabu was nuts and Taz was a bad ass…but I mean Stone Cold was a bigger bad ass and Mick Foley just as insane.

Still, as wrestling was in the rise, it could only be a good thing for ECW (hindsight note: probably not true). Sure the show didn’t stick out as much…but it still was different overall.

The Card

ECW always would start like an Attitude RAW or Smackdown, with someone coming to the arena. In this case, it’s our pissed off TV Champ, Taz!

I believe this is the debut of the old school WCW ramp being in ECW.

The FBI vs. Jerry Lynn and Chris Chetti

The FBI’s Network dubbed music is pretty something. It’s originally the N-Trance remix of “Stayin’ Alive”.

This is when Chris Chetti was being pushed as the first Graduate of the House of Hardcore. He was pretty bland but had a solid heel turn in 1999 (he always had an awesome finish, the double springboard moonsault). Jerry Lynn was still a lower card guy here, he wouldn’t get made by RVD until a year later.

Guido with some good chicken-shit dancing there. It looked ridiculous.

Guido actually gives Chetti the Italian “FU” taunt while in an armbar. Good stuff early on.

Jerry Lynn goes airborne to the floor! Chetti follows up with a springboard double clothesline. Real fun stuff so far.

I never get why the whole distract the ref so the manager can attack thing happened in ECW. It’s no DQ in ECW!

Tracy Smothers clearly calls out a spot for Tommy Rich to get on the apron. I mean, Guido was the star of the team anyway.

Tracy Smothers kinda killed this match. Offense was pretty boring.

Jerry Lynn in to save it!

Well, maybe not, the FBI and Lynn botch some flapjack to I think what was supposed to be a double DDT.

Jerry Lynn and Chris Chetti win in 8:19 when Lynn pinned Smothers. Clusterfuck, then Rich runs in and accidentally nails Smothers with the flag. Lynn gets the pin after taking out Rich. Smothers shoves Rich afterwards. I forgot the payoff here, but it seems like the wrong team one unless the FBI was breaking up here. Still, a decent match overall with a fun beginning.

We see videos of W*ING Kanmura and Masato Tanaka, as they are to go at it. It makes the next deal confusing…even though Joey Styles asks if anyone has seen Kanmura.

Masato Tanaka vs. Doug Furnas

Lance Wright comes out with Doug Furnas…STILL pushing the WWF vs. ECW angle that should have ended for good at November to Remember with RVD vs. Dreamer. Also, Doug Furnas? Seriously? That’s who the WWF is bringing in?

Furnas was always a solid hand, even if he was one of the most boring wrestlers ever. I liked his long term partner Phil Lafon though.

Tanaka comes out with a FMW flag. ECW and FMW were kinda working together at this point.

Good powerslam from Furnas!

They work a really boring figure four spot.

Tornado DDT off the top is botched. Not sure what happened but Tanaka didn’t land right for it.

Tanaka runs into Furnas and falls. Horrible botches here. Furnas tries to save it by dropping Tanaka on his head a couple of times.

Furnas goes for some pins and Wright tells him not go for some pins to punish Tanaka.

They screw up again! Tanaka off the ropes and both men come to a standstill!

Masato Tanaka pinned Doug Furnas in 5:46. Tanaka finishes with a weak Roaring Elbow and the crowd seems surprised that’s the finish. Wright gets angry that Furnas lost and berates him because he was “nearly a WWF Legend” as Wright namedrops every WWF suit out there. Furnas doesn’t seem to care and he lays out Wright. Furnas puts an ECW shirt on and tells Wright to tell Vince to kiss his ass. Yeah like Doug Furnas has leverage there. Anyway, match was horrible. I didn’t know Masato Tanaka has a side to him that’s pretty terrible. Or Furnas. Not sure who’s fault it was.

Joey Styles tells us that Sandman vs. Sabu was taped earlier but PPV censors refuse to air it. Jason and Nicole Bass make Joey Styles play a tape of Tommy Dreamer showing up. Ok? Jason says Beulah left Dreamer.

Rob Van Dam vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

Scorpio was on the WWF payroll here, in-between his Flash Funk and JOB Squad days. Not sure if this was the return or if he came back to hype this at all.

RVD wears an awesome Louie Spicolli tribute shirt.

In a lot of ways RVD took Scorpio’s position on the card as dominating TV Champ. So in ECW history this is like a weird type of dream match. Joey is trying to hype it that way.

Mat wrestling is pretty slow to start. I think the problem isn’t the match, but that the fans were pretty bored from the last match.

I think there was a botch by RVD, but Scorpio made it look cool with a knee to the face. By the way, how did Vince screw up Scorpio the way he did? Guy had natural charisma.

Bridging sequence seems slow…only it ends in a really cool way with Scorpio flipping to his feet.

Match picks up on the outside. RVD misses a stage moonsault but lands on his feet.

Match isn’t really jelling and we get a “This match sucks” chant. Not sure why it’s all technical wrestling because that’s the wrong way to go with these two by far.

Scorpio Bomb! Time for this to pick up!

Nice moonsault from Scorpio!

Four Star Frog Splash! Hey, it wasn’t his finish yet.

Somersault legdrop! Nice moves, but this is just spot after spot now.

Split Legged Moonsault is the rich man’s version of Starship Pain.

Pretty crappy looking Van Daminator on the stage. I’m so disappointed in this match.

Scorpio with a piledriver on the stage/ramp whatever. Some randomly good stuff in this horribly disjointed match. Scorpio does a reverse Tombstone on the stage next.

In one of the stranger ref bumps, ref holds RVD back and Scorpio dropkicks him, leading to RVD landing on top of Scorpio. Top rope splash then misses…but hits the ref.

Wow! RVD mocks Scorpio then does a PERFECT 450 Splash…only Scorpio moves. What a shame! Would have been a great finish.

Scorpio barely makes his 450…but it’s Sabu!

Arabian Skullcrusher to Scorpio! Scorpio kicks out. Here comes The Sandman! He’s chasing Sabu!

I see where Kofi Kingston stole the Thunder in Paradise From.

Rob Van Dam pins Scorpio in 27:10. RVD rolls Scorpio up in a tight package off a hiptoss for the win. How underwhelming! Crazy as I’ve seen this match before and liked it, and it was known as the beginning of RVD’s “great worker” run. But uh…the match pretty much sucked. I’ll give it some credit though as there were some cool spots, like RVD’s 450 and awesome Split Legged Moonsault. There was a nice spin kick off the top in there as well. It was a long 27 minutes.

Scorpio attacks RVD after a handshake after RVD was being an arrogant jerk. Sabu comes back in to attack Scorpio. They are about to table Scorpio but Sandman makes the save. We get the worse looking “Frankensander” in the history of the business, and Sabu’s feet break the end of the table. That gets an “ECW!” chant. Yikes. Fans give Scorpio a nice ovation at the end though. Scorpio and Sandman share some beers.

We get a promo vid about Lance Storm and Chris Candido…and their issues which has a World Tag Team Title run in there…but also a Triple Threat storyline.

Hardcore Chair Swingin’ Freaks vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Spike Dudley and New Jack

Joel Gertner time!

Gertner is awesome. Here’s a gimmick you’ll never see on WWE TV.

I really wonder where he came up with these limericks.

Yeah I’m sure D-Von is 169 pounds. The ECW Super Cruiserweight Champion of the World! (His words, not mine!)

Balls Mahoney looks like a homeless Bam Bam Bigelow with hair.

Why are we getting armdrags by Axl Rotten. Joey Styles calls him the most underrated wrestler in ECW. Really now?

Spike and New Jack are no where to be seen. It’s 3 on 2 with the Dudleyz and Big Dick Dudley against Rotten and Mahoney. HERE COMES NEW JACK!

By the way, here is someone who might be the most underrated worker in ECW. New Jack. Seriously. Guy is one of the best garbage wrestlers ever and always had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

I have no idea but I’ve always been entertained by New Jack killing the Dudleyz. You know he did this for like 2 years straight and people loved it. Wait till we get to Heatwave 99!

Spike Dudley has shown up!

One of the craziest moments in ECW history here. The Dudleyz lie on tables and New Jack and Spike jump off a balcony that had to be at least 15 feet high! While of course things have topped that now, there was NOTHING like that on a wrestling PPV at that point. Even now it just looks deadly. I remember reading about it in Pro Wrestling Illustrated and it just seemed like the damnest thing.

We get a terrible Tornado DDT by Spike. Better than Tanaka’s earlier though.

New Jack and Spike Dudley win in 13:25. Spike and Jack double guitar shot the Dudleyz, then Spike drops Bubba with the Acid Drop. 187 Chair Splash later wins it. If you don’t like garbage wrestling this isn’t for you, but like the four way at N2R, this was just fun garbage with a ridiculous balcony dive. I enjoyed it. What can I say.

So many hype videos. This one of Justin Credible…getting beat up by Mikey Whipwreck? Really showcasing Credible injuring him, but it started odd. We then see the mean streak in Justin Credible leading up to the feud with Dreamer.

We got a porn star! Jenna Jameson in the house. We get her first interview with Justin Credible!

Credible tells her off because he says he has Beulah! That’s actually great build of a confident character right there.

Justin Credible vs. Tommy Dreamer

Now Jenna wants to interview Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer just outright kisses her. Sure Beulah loved that…

Actually storyline wise she probably wanted a piece of that.

Dreamer looks ready tonight. Great Tree of Woe chair dropkick.

Drop toe hold into a chair…but it was the back part of the seat. Never saw it done that way. Looked like it hurt.

Here comes Beulah! She fakes being with Credible then low blows Credible and spikes Jason with a DDT!

Nicole Bass ragdolls Beulah…AND WE GET A WARDROBE MALFUNCTION FROM BASS. FOR FUCKS SAKE.

Mikey Whipwreck is in. Whippersnapper to Bass.

Tommy Dreamer pins Justin Credible in 8:58. Dreamer finishes Credible with a Dreamer DDT. I actually enjoyed this one. It was nothing great, but it was putting Credible over by showing he could hang with Dreamer. Told a solid story. Then again Nicole Bass’s shirt dropping almost killed me right then and there.

We get history of how Bam Bam Bigelow went from losing the ECW World Title to Shane Douglas to turning on Taz and joining the Triple Threat.

ECW World Television Championship
Taz© vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Story here: Bam Bam looked to Taz to get revenge on Douglas…only to turn on him.

Sidenote: Bigelow’s hometown is Asbury Park, NJ. And the fans love him.

Taz just armdrags Bigelow over his head. Great display of power. Doing a good job of not making Taz the underdog, something that killed him in the WWF.

Taz LEVELS Bigelow with a clothesline. Didn’t expect that.

Taz suplexes Bigelow on his head into the crowd and a row of chairs! Pretty sick.

Bigelow kind of misses his big moonsault, but gets an arm and it seemed just passable. Joey Styles kinda saves it on commentary by being honest about it.

Taz drops Bigelow face first through a table, which was an odd spot to say the least.

We get a choke him out chant. So much for the Bigelow getting cheers deal. Weird.

Now Bam Bam chants. So confusing.

Match has slowed to a crawl with some weak brawling on the outside.

Taz gets them back into it by taking shots and demanding Bigelow bring it…when Bigelow falls down on a kick attempt.

Crazy ECW moment #2! Taz locks in the Tazmission! Bigelow taps but the ref didn’t see it…then Bigelow drops back…and they go flying through the ring!

Bam Bam Bigelow wins the TV title in 13:37 by pin. Bigelow pulls Taz from the hole and pins him for the title win! Admittedly a genius finish! Taz was on such a hot streak that he couldn’t lose and they let him lose in way where he would lose no credibility whatsoever! The fans absolutely popped when they saw the ring break as well. Match slowed a bit at the end, but it was pretty solid and SHOULD have main evented this show.

Paul E. yells at Joey Styles to buy him time, then demands he play the Sandman-Sabu Cane match that was taped earlier that censors said not to air on PPV! Styles argues, then calls for it.

Dueling Canes Match
Sabu vs. The Sandman

I covered this feud mostly for the November to Remember review. They were still going at it at this point.
One of the weirdest openings to a match, Sabu attacks Sandman…only somehow Sabu is so well disguised…that’s it’s actually Rob Van Dam? Then the real Sabu attacks Sandman. Somehow that was well done. Especially since Sabu and RVD look nothing alike other than body build.

Nice guardrail corner table splash from Sabu on Sandman.

Triple Jump Moonsault on the ramp! Nice, even if Sandman was trying to roll away.

Creative ref bump. Ref standing behind a propped table and Sabu hit it, nailing the ref.

RVD comes flying in and takes out Sandman as he was propping Sabu on a table, leading to the table breaking. RVD is still in Sabu costume. It’s so good that if I were just watching and not paying attention I’d think it was the real Sabu.

The Sabus take Sandman out with a double legdrop through the table on the ramp!

Sabu pins The Sandman in 9:21. Sabu rolls Sandman in for the pin. I liked this match! So much better than that crap at N2R ’97. The RVD as Sabu thing was pretty creative. The spots hit and seemed to be in a rhythm. And when Sabu and Sandman’s stuff hit, its good stuff. There are two issues with this though. One: why did the censors not want this aired? It wasn’t that crazy and the New Jack stuff was FAR worse. Two: after the opening minute there wasn’t a cane to be seen in a dueling canes match. Still, liked the match. Pretty good overall with a solid finish too.

Styles complains about not following the format and that we were supposed to have Al Snow vs. John Kronus. Oh no!

Dream Partner Tag Team Match
Chris Candido and ? vs. Lance Storm and ?

Funny note, the corner of the ring with the hole has caution tape around it. Sounds perfect for a five star classic! The hole is still clearly there.

Francine looks incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Shane Douglas is Candido’s partner of course.

There are tons of styrofoam heads in the crowd if anyone is wondering who Storm’s partner is going to be.

There’s a funny convo in the ring with Douglas and the ref…where it seems like Douglas is disgusted that there’s a hole in the ring. I don’t blame him!

Lance Storm’s partner is…Sunny!

Yeah, this is a horrid idea. Styles thinks its genius because Candido and Douglas won’t hit Sunny. So I guess Storm is okay with the handicap match then?

Sunny turns on Storm about 2 minutes in by hitting him with a cookie sheet. You know if you wonder why Lance Storm never got over as a top face it was probably because of this stupidity. Sunny hilariously falls into the hole at one point.

Lance Storm yells that he’s gonna give Candido head. Here comes Al Snow!

The rave party thing does look cool.

We have heads being thrown into the ring and the camera spinning around. I’m gonna be sick.

Al Snow throws Douglas into the hole.

Al Snow and Lance Storm win in 4:49 when Snow pinned Douglas. Snowplow for the win. Crowd pops huge for that horrific main event. The Al Snow stuff is cool though, so I will give them that. Not sure why this couldn’t be the semi-main though, as Bam Bam winning the TV title would have left the crowd happy. But I mean that was a farce of a match for a main event.

Strange show. Gotta give credit for ECW giving it everything it’s got though. It was definitely a big effort from everyone. And there was good stuff here! Credible vs. Dreamer was decent sans Nicole Bass. Bigelow vs. Taz had a great holy shit moment and a good story too. New Jack and Spike Dudley also provided a holy shit moment. Even Sabu vs. Sandman was fun. Hell if the opening matches were better and RVD vs. Scorpio wasn’t so disappointing and long (20% of the show!), this could have gotten the best grade for any ECW PPV so far. But it was so that’s that.

But then there’s the main event. How do you close the show on a match like that? I mean it was really a glorified angle, no? The whole thing was ludicrous. Lance Storm picking Sunny as a fake to just pick Al Snow even makes no sense. It’s a surprise partner. Just pick Al Snow! It didn’t help that Joey Styles was making him out to be a nobody though hyping up the match with Kronus though.

Good effort ECW, but too much disappointment, no really great matches and a shit main event doesn’t let me boost it into that B range.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW Hardcore Heaven ’97

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ECW Hardcore Heaven ‘97
August 17, 1997
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Reviewed on April 1, 2014

Background: I coved a lot of this in the Barely Legal review, so I’ll go from there.

Now that ECW has gained some national recognition, spirits in the ECW seemed high…for a little while. Unfortunately because of that high profile WCW would continue to pillage stars (ok, WCW was fighting a wrestling war too). ECW had put the finish of the two year long Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer feud on one of their big non PPV shows, as Raven bolted to WCW. But the ending angle for that match is what leads us to a very important part of ECW’s 1997.

Remember back in February of 97, there was the ECW invasion of RAW. Well, this time it was the WWF’s turn. Jerry Lawler invaded the ECW arena on the night Dreamer beat Raven. This tied in with Rob Van Dam’s Barely Legal angle…about how he was worth more money elsewhere. RVD even wrestled on an edition of RAW. So, RVD, Sabu and Lawler beat the crap out ECW. Jim Cornette showed up one night too. And while I think the angle itself is pretty awesome…you have to admit that Jerry Lawler wasn’t exactlyShawn Michaels in terms of statue. Nonetheless, it was an interesting angle (and, I should point out, I am surprised that ECW fans forgave RVD for this angle the next year).

Some storyline notes: Taz choked out Shane Douglas to win the TV title…and Sabu actually won the ECW Title from Terry Funk a week before this event in a crazy barbed wire match (one of the sickest matches I’ve ever seen. I believe Sabu only won the title because in the way Funk and Sabu got tangled and Sabu was on top of Funk. Not sure if true though).

The Card

Arena looks really small here.

Big heat for Jerry Lawler’s name.

Here comes Rick Rude! How, ECW-like?

Heavy You Sold Out chants….people must have known already he was returning to the WWF in a few weeks after this.

Joey Styles actually says that Rude sold out to a boytoy from another organization. So there you have it.

Rude intros Chris Candido. Tod Gordon tells Rude he has to leave or Candido forfeits the upcoming TV title match. I’m guessing this was Rude’s last appearance.

ECW TV Title
Taz© vs. Chris Candido

You know, the ECW TV title belt always looked better than the ECW World title belt.

Cool start with Candido pushing and spitting at Taz, and Taz no selling all of it. Taz eventually counters a leapfrog and drops Candido on his head.

Nice powerbomb from Candido!

Candido is getting a lot of offense, a lot more than I expected.

Damn Freestyle Bow and Arrow from Taz. You don’t see that everyday.

Taz retains the title when he choked out Candido in 10:52. Tazmission gets the win. Pretty solid opener. Not sure if the Triple Threat existed yet, but if it did it does make sense for Taz to start with Candido here on the loooong path to Douglas.

We get some Insane Clown Posse? Ok?

RVD beats them up! Nice!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Spike Dudley

The match on ECW Hardcore TV they had right before this is the match that got me into ECW. Spike upset Bigelow and the way Joey Styles calls it is amazing (“Spike can tell his grandkids he got a 2 count on Bam Bam Bigelow!”) Spike being bodypressed into the crowd was another thing.

Always liked the grey color on Bam Bam. Felt more badass.

Bam Bam is in the Triple Threat…which answers my earlier question.

Bam Bam is just murdering poor Spike here.

Bam Bam just tosses Spike from the ring into the crowd!

Ridiculous inverted Greetings From Asbury Park.

Bam Bam Bigelow pinned Spike Dudley in 5:05. Moonsault for the win. Hand it to Paul Heyman to book a squash match I cared about. All because of one upset. Poor Spike.

Apparently, RVD and Sabu took out The Sandman too.

Rob Van Dam vs. Al Snow

This will be contested under Monday Night Rules!

Snow is still in the Rocker gear. This was still pre-head.

Snow looks annoyed with Bill Alfonso’s whistleblowing.

Amazing how Snow looks so much better than when he was jobbing to Flash Funk.

Always liked RVD’s railing moonsault.

RVD’s Five Star Frog Splash wasn’t his finisher yet!

Rob Van Dam pins Al Snow in 13:43. Van Daminator for the win. Good match. Showed both that RVD was really getting there as a performer, and Al Snow showed that he wasn’t just some joke wrestler.

The Sandman has taken over the ambulance he was in! But he’s lost!

Jerry Lawler promo!

We’ve got Dudleys in the ring. And adult actress Jenna Jameson. But more importantly, Dudleys!

Apparently this was supposed to be Tag Champs the Gangstas vs. The Dudleys, but Gangstas were taken out. Dudleys new champs? Leading us to…

ECW World Tag Team Championship
The Dudley Boys© vs. PG-13

This is basically heel vs. heel. Since PG-13 is from the Jerry Lawler based USWA.

JC Ice runs out and kisses Jameson. She reacts like he’s the most disgusting thing ever in her mouth. That’s pretty bad JC.

Dudley arguing! Leads to an awesome heel spot as Big Dick Dudley attacks the distracted PG-13.

Jameson gets a bounce chant…and she obliges. This match sucks by the way.

The Dudley Boys retain when Bubba pins Wolfie D in 10:58. 3D for the win. Confusing match as PG-13 acted as faces? Also, very hard to take PG-13 seriously as a threat here. Points for Jenna Jameson involvement though! In all seriousness, not a good match. JC Ice says Bubba’s mother is a ho. Storyline wise…that’s true, no?

Still following the Sandman here. Weird.

Jerry Lawler in the house!

Another promo…and an In Your House: Ground Zero plug!

Tommy Dreamer vs. Jerry Lawler

Lawler always took one of the best over the top rope bumps in the business.

Fighting in the crowd! I’m surprised fans don’t kill Lawler.

Lawler’s a solid brawler. I wonder why the WWF didn’t use him more as a midcard heel in the Attitude era. Lawler could still go.

Lawler with some great heel stuff. He wipes his ass with Dreamer’s ECW shirt.

Dreamer is EXTREMING UP!

Lawler DDT’s the ref!

Lights go out…RICK RUDE is back! Smashes Dreamer with a garbage can!

Dreamer gets control…lights out again!

Jake The Snake Roberts! Drops Dreamer with a vicious DDT!

Jake shortarm clotheslines Lawler. Good history there with their 96 feud.

ANOTHER LIGHTS OUT.

It’s Sunny! Hairspray to the eyes of Dreamer!

Tommy Dreamer pins Jerry Lawler in 18:57. DDT! Pretty solid brawl to be fair, but tons of overbooking. Rude, Jake and Sunny? A little too much. But this isn’t bad or anything.

Styles hypes the famous Sabu-Douglas-Funk match in 1994.

More Sandman stuff. He’s near the arena!

Sandman canes some people outside the arena. I don’t even know what to make of this.

ECW World Title: Three Way Dance
Sabu© vs. Shane Douglas vs. Terry Funk

Three Way Dance is an elimination match.

Strange start with Funk standing on the outside and Douglas and Sabu going at it. Soon though, Douglas and Sabu double team Funk.

Loved Douglas’ selling of a German Suplex there.

Sabu’s Asai Moonsault seemed twisted…which was great.

Some really weak chairshots in this one.

Double sleeper!

Sabu hits both men with the triple jump moonsault. Double kicksout. Not gonna lie, this match is pretty damn boring.

Weak chairshots all around.

Tod Gordon just saved Terry Funk from a table. OK?

Sabu drives Gordon and Alfonso through a table. I’m confused on what’s going on now.

We have a ladder in the ring now. Ladders for everyone!

Sandman’s here! He attacks Sabu!

Douglas and Funk double pin Sabu. That means we will have a new ECW Champion!

Funk is bashing his own head with a garbage can now. Weird.

I just can’t take Douglas’ Belly to Belly as a serious finisher.

Dory Funk Jr.? Seriously?

Some weird table bump. This match has fallen apart.

Funk kicks out of another Belly to Belly. Then he kicks out of a 3rd one!

Shane Douglas pins Terry Funk to win the title in 26:37. Douglas hits another belly to belly for the win. Bad finish. Sorry but the belly to belly is a horrid finisher. I don’t know what the fuck was going on at the end. Dory Funk Jr. was in the ring. And the Sandman. Whatever. Douglas tried, I’ll give him that, and I actually like him as a World Champ at this point. Still, anti-climactic finish.

Douglas now whips Funk with a belt. Dudleys out here now to keep being up on Funk. Gertner wants Douglas to join the Dudleys! Now Candido and Bigelow are out here. Triple-Threat vs. Dudleys brawl!

ECW locker room is out here. Once again no idea what is going on.

Chair Swingin Freaks out here now attacking the Dudleys. Why are we doing this?

Oh man, the debut of the Gangstanators, New Jack and Kronus! This happened because Mustafa was awful and left, and Saturn went to WCW.

Actually, Saturn on one leg is here? How about that. I am confused. So this show ends with a Dudley beat down?

What a weird ending.

Not sure what to say about this show. Started off fun enough but tailed off with the PG-13 vs. Dudleys match. But Candido vs. Taz was fine. I enjoyed Spike vs. Bigelow for what it was (an ass kicking). Snow vs. RVD was solid. PG-13 vs. Dudleys was meh. Dreamer vs. Lawler was fun until the 8 billion run-ins…although that wasn’t really bad either. The main event was a mess with a poor finish. Douglas winning was fine. What the hell was the New Jack ending? Why didn’t this happen earlier in the show? Did Heyman know that fans would shit on the Douglas finish?

Historically, this show seems irrelevant. Taz was hardly featured. RVD didn’t do that much. Douglas is Douglas.

But there is some good stuff in it, so there is that.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Summerslam ’97

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WWF Summerslam ‘97
August 3, 1997
East Rutherford, NJ
Reviewed on July 27, 2014

Even before all the raunchy Attitude stuff, the WWF was putting on a solid product in 1997. It wasn’t the best in all cases (Gang Warz, for example) but the main event and the upper midcard titles had some good stuff in it. The roster was also bolstered from 1996, with LOD, The Headbangers, Ken Shamrock and Brian Pillman all debuting or making their returns.

Of course, the return of Bret Hart in late ’96 was a big reason for it too. Bret coming back helped a main event scene that was basically all Shawn Michaels (to be fair, Goldust, Vader and Mankind were good to great, it’s just, in Goldust’s and Mankind’s case, didn’t have that mainstream view as a main eventer yet, and in Vader’s, he wasn’t the man he was in 1993 unfortunately). Undertaker was also there, usually in the semi-main. He finally got his 2nd reign as WWF Champion in 1997, which kinda went off the rails a little in June but came back strong with the Hart Foundation angle.

The WWF was clearly in a period of transition here. We were getting some better characters up top: Stone Cold Steve Austin was coming into his own and was arguably the biggest draw in the WWF even at this time. It was pretty clear that he was gonna be the man by Wrestlemania XIV. Mankind and Hunter Hearst Helmsley were in a feud that helped give Hunter the edge he needed to be taken more seriously. Foley himself had just debuted Dude Love and was getting over with the dual (and soon, triple) personality.

The Hart Foundation were the hottest heel group not named the NWO, and this was unfortunately their peak as the WWF changes course and old school heels weren’t the way to go anymore. Still, a WWF Title Match with Undertaker and Bret Hart, with special referee Shawn Michaels was the biggest match the WWF could have at the moment that wasn’t Bret vs. Shawn.

The Card

Of course with the hot USA vs. Canada angle, we start with the National Anthem.

The opening promo here is one of my favorites. It’s a “if life were fair montage”, mentioning Bret’s turn, HBK’s injury and Undertaker’s secret (which led to Kane).

Steel Cage Match
Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley

Story here began at King of the Ring where HHH beat Mankind to win it. Mankind didn’t like the interference from Chyna and wanted a rematch, which led to a double countout (one of the best done double countouts ever, if that makes sense). Here are are. The story is the natural rich blueblood vs. deranged, er…, presumably not rich weirdo.

HHH goes for the door right away. Brilliant start.

Foley’s stump piledriver was always pretty awesome.

Chyna finds some early ways to get involved, first closing the door when Foley was going for it, and grabbing Mankind’s hair when HHH was in the Mandible. Clever.

Foley then tries to escaple, but Chyna climbs up and hits a low blow…and HHH superplexes him off the top of the cage, which looks pretty damn awesome.

It looks like HHH could have left, but he decides he wants to punish Mankind and does so by throwing him into the cage, which looks great with the old school blue cage. I’m torn on this, as it makes sense,, but it did make Mankind look a little too easily beaten.

Chyna again keeps finding ways to get involved, and she punches Foley through the cage holes here. Good heel stuff.

Really cool spot where HHH gets put in the tree of woe, but he’s hanging from the cage and not the corner.

Mankind gets backdropped into the cage, which seems pretty dangerous. Cool stuff though.

HHH’s let gets caught in the rope (intentionally), and Chyna slams the steel cage door right on ankind’s head. Cool as it looked, this hurt Foley big time and I believe he said it hurt worse than his toss off the Hell in a Cell a year later.

Chyna takes out the ref and throws a chair in the ring, but Mankind gets the advantage and slingshots HHH into Chyna, who was hanging on the outside of the cage.

Double Arm DDT on the steel chair!

Chyna actually fucks up here, as Mankind is leaving the cage and Chyna gets in to drag HHH out (the finish)…BUT there’s one more spot left!

Mankind wins in 16:13. Mankind takes off the leather mask and tears a bit of his shirt…Superfly Dive off the top of the cage! Also looked incredible. Chyna now does the correct finish and tries to drag HHH out, but Mankind gets to the floor first…and eventually turns into Dude Love! Anyway, great opener. Back and both hard hitting cage match with some innovative stuff and a great finish. Nevermind the awesome character development with Dude Love and all, and it continued to show that HHH had a bit of a mean streak. What a start!

Gov. Whitman comes out with The Headbangers and Gorilla Monsoon. Apparently she helped get wrestling back to NJ.

Tiger Ali Singh sighting. Woo?

If Pillman Loses, He Must Wear a Dress
Brian Pillman vs. Goldust

The Hart Foundation all made stipulations against themselves (except Owen, which we will get to) to put pressure on themselves to win. Pillman said he’s wear Marlena’s dress on RAW if he couldn’t beat Goldust.

Face Goldust was an interesting character. They did a similar thing with Mankind and it worked, but Goldust never gained too much traction as a face.

According to Goldust’s book, there was already some issues with Goldust and Marlena behind the scenes, and he was also a bit intimidated by Pillman as, in real life, Pillman and Terri had a history.

It’s worth noting that Pillman changed his entire ring style after his car accident. It’s pretty jarring after watching a lot of early 90s Pillman matches.

Goldust misses the throw that is supposed to crotch Pillman and Pillman falls to the floor, but it still looked good.

Pillman does a great job acting crazy and as a heel. Using Marlena as a shield, taunting her, etc.

I should point out wow on Marlena’s dress.

JR puts Pillman over by just pointing out his eyes. This is why JR is the best in the business.

Awesome throw counter of the bulldog by Pillman.

Goldust pins Brian Pillman in 7:17. Goldust goes for a sunset flip, but Pillman fights it. Pillman gets to the ropes…and Marlena smacks him in the face with his purse (JR thinks there is a brick in there). It completes the sunset flip and gets the three! Decent match, still jarring how much Pillman had to change his style.

The Legion of Doom vs. The Godwinns

Story here: LOD vs. Godwinns on Shotgun a couple months earlier, LOD broke Henry’s neck with the Doomsday Device and Godwinns wanted revenge and had been attacking LOD, biggest part being hitting them over the head with buckets. Godwinns had turned heel and were pretty disgusting overall.

All LOD early on. Vince and Lawler tell the story on how LOD breaking Henry’s neck first was on accident…but this time they said it would be intentional.

Impressive hangman’s neckbreaker submission from Phineas on Hawk. Godwinns looking to break Hawk’s neck. Surprisingly great psychology here.

Hawk’s hot tag sequence is pretty good. Then a neckbreaker on Henry!

They keep working on the neck with two big clotheslines in the corner.

LOD wins when Hawk pins Henry in 9:15. Phineas breaks up the Doomsday Device…but Hawk takes him out. LOD then hit Henry with a spike piledriver! Pin gets it done. Probably the best possible match LOD and the Godwinns could have. Good psychology and hard hitting all around.

We waste time with a Million Dollar Challenge that no one wins…but damn does Sunny look hot during the segment.

Is the Discovery Zone still a thing?

This might be Todd Pettengill’s last show, come to think of it.

One of the guys they call says he’s not watching Summerslam. Nice.

Vince sounds disgusted on commentary watching this. Like he knows this is a waste of good PPV time.

At least it wasn’t rigged. Key #3 does open the casket with money in it. This for some reason was more entertaining that I thought it would be. Which doesn’t say much but still.

European Championship: If the Bulldog loses the title, he will eat a can of dog food
The British Bulldog© vs. Ken Shamrock

The Bulldog has humiliated Shamrock after an arm-wrestling match by putting dog food all over him.

Shamrock had debuted as a ref in the Mania I Quit Match, and then got put over huge when he beat Vader at In Your House (where was that feud? That would have made money).

Match early on is dominated by Shamrock, and seems designed to get him over.

Bulldog is now kicking all kinds of ass.

They mess up a suplex on the floor, and collapse.

The British Bulldog wins by DQ in 7:29. Bulldog puts dog food on Shamrock, and Shamrock snaps! Shamrock smashes the can on the Bulldog’s head, causing the DQ. He keeps going on the Bulldog, then shoves a ref. He then locks the Bulldog in a chokehold and no one can break it up. Bulldog is out. Shamrock finally lets go and takes out every official in sight, screaming “GET OUT OF MY WAY!” Crowd was hugely into this. This of course, made Shamrock a star (even though he storyline wise nearly killed someone). Kinda weird he’d only last two more years, but at this point it looked like him and Austin were the future of the company.

Interview with HBK. Can he be impartial?!

Los Boricas vs. The DOA

Vince calls it a 10 man tag, but this is an 8 man tag.

This all spawned from when Faarooq fired Savio Vega and Crush from the Nation of Domination. Crush and Vega formed their own factions. The Gang Warz!

I actually never got why DOA and the Boricas hated one another, other than the implied racial tension. Wouldn’t Crush and Vega want revenge on the Nation?

This match has mid 90s WWF legends the Underfaker, the Jacob and Eli Blu and Kwang. No idea why I think that’s relevant, but I do.

Skull already blew the correct selling of a top rope bulldog.

I like how Vince can’t tell the difference between Chainz and Crush, but Skull and 8-Ball (near identical twins) no problem.

Savio Vega with a cool spin kick that sends him over the top rope, landing on his feet. I always thought Vega was a little underrated.

Here comes the new Nation through the crowd. The Nation did help the careers of The Godfather, D’Lo Brown and later The Rock, but it killed Ahmed Johnson off.

The Boricas win when Miguel Perez pins Chainz in 9:08. Chainz gets thrown to the outside, where he takes a shot at Ahmed Johnson. Ahmed hits a bad looking Pearl River Plunge and Chainz gets tossed in by Vega. Perez hits an elbow for the win. NOD and DOA go at it. I mean, not all matches can be good on a show, right? It could have been a lot worse, and at least the characters are developed here, for what its worth.

Intercontinental Championship: If Austin doesn’t win the title, he’ll kiss Owen’s ass
Owen Hart© vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Owen got a pin on Austin in the 10 man tag at the Canadian Stampede. Of course, he reminded everyone of that fact. Austin made the challenge and the stipulation.

Notably (or not), Austin gets interviewed by a rookie Michael Cole, who gets shoved away, and verbally chewed out.

Owen attacks Austin during his corner taunts. More heels needed to do that.

Owen works on the knee right away!

Action packed start. Austin’s got the advantage now and begins to kick Owen’s ass.

Austin is mega over here.

This is the last technical wrestling match Austin would really wrestle barring some 2000 stuff with Benoit and Angle. There are two reasons for this. One: the WWF style changes with the Attitude Era. The second reason comes up later in this match sadly.

Owen now works on the hand, and moves bodypart to bodypart.

Austin with the old school stun gun, and powerbombs Owen out of a hurricanrana!

Now Owen goes for the neck with a neck breaker.

Austin tries to use a sharpshooter, but Owen gets out.

Owen keeps wearing Austin down. This has been a great match, with Austin’s comebacks coming at awesome times.

The moment that changed everything: Owen tombstones Austin in a sitting position…and paralyzes him.

Stone Cold Steve Austin wins the title in 16:16 by pin. After the tombstone, Owen plays to the crowd to buy Austin time, and somehow, Austin, with a legitimate broken neck here, gets a weak rollup and the pin. Austin was legit angry that Owen kicked out right after three as well. The match was great other than the tombstone at the end, obviously. This changed everything as well. Austin’s style moved to a brawler when he came back. He also needed more surgery in 1999 (the who ran over Steve Austin angle) that stemmed from the piledriver, and was a huge factor that caused him to retire in 2003.

This got Austin over even more though, as when he actually got to his feet with a legit broke neck it fueled the toughest SOB in the world environment. The piledriver just looks scary. Austin’s head is a good eight inches under Owen’s ass. Of course, with Austin in the main event, there was 0% chance Owen would ever become a main eventer in the WWF. Austin even said in his book that he didn’t want to work with Owen, and past Survivor Series ’97, he didn’t really have to.

WWF Championship: Shawn Michaels is the guest referee. If Shawn favors Bret, he can never wrestle in the USA again. If Bret doesn’t win the title, he can never wrestle in the USA again.
The Undertaker© vs. Bret Hart

Huge heat for Bret.

Bret calls for the Canadian National Anthem. More huge heat.

Huge cheers for referee HBK, although that would change soon…

Undertaker’s character in the ring has gotten more realistic at this point. He wasn’t sitting up from everything anymore, but still showed that he could take immense punishment, while we’ll see later.

Bret actually hits Taker with the title belt before the bell. Common theme with the Harts tonight.

Taker quickly gets into indestructible mode and beats the hell out of Bret.

Nice backbreaker submission by Undertaker. It’s Taker who’s actually working on a body part early, the spine.

Bret gets a chance and begins his going for the knee strategy that was obvious before this match began.

Figure Four from the Hitman!

Here comes Paul Bearer! He and Taker were not on the same page here…

Taker gets out…then goes right outside and takes out Paul Bearer, which allows Bret to take out the knee again. Bearer does a great sell job on the punch.

Bret with one of my favorite moves, the Figure Four around the post! This causes a Bret-Shawn argument.

Here come Owen and Pillman now.

Tremendous psychology here. Bret Hart and Taker are building a great match.

Taker uses the damaged leg to stagger over the top rope…and surprises Owen and Pillman by taking then out.

HBK gets Pillman and Owen out of here, and Taker chokeslams Bret and pins Bret, RIP pin and all, but HBK doesn’t see it! Taker grabs HBK here, the first seed planted. Bret then almost steals a win before Taker knocks him down again. Taker confronts Shawn one more time.

Bret now goes for the spine, we should be getting into Five Moves of Doom territory.

Backbreaker! Two count, but Taker gets out with authority.

Vertical Suplex, then Bret with some sign language for the crowd before dropping the forearm. Taker sits up after a kick out.

Russian Legsweep. It’s almost time…

Sharpshoot….no, Taker grabs the throat!

Taker makes his comeback…but Bret fights it off.

Taker hits the flying clothesline!

Taker chokeslams Bret from the apron to the inside of the ring! Fans react there, as JR points out no one has kicked out of two of Taker’s chokeslams.

Bret with the logical counter to Taker’s rope walk…kicking the top turnbuckle.

Sick top rope superplex!

Sharpshooter! Crowd is stunned, but they light up when Taker tries to fight out…no one gets out of this one…

EXCEPT The Undertaker! First break of the sharpshooter ever.

Taker gets a clothesline and suddenly he’s calling for the end!

Tombstone?! No, Bret gets out and pulls Taker toward the post…and locks in a Sharpshooter around the ringpost! It doesn’t look great though. Taker escapes and Bret lands on Shawn, incapacitating him at the moment.

Bret gets a chair and wallops Taker. Bret doesn’t toss the chair out far enough (intentionally).

Taker actually kicks out of the chairshot, which leads to a huge pop!

Shawn sees the chair and grabs it, then confronts Bret about it. Bret denies it. Shawn keeps pressing and Bret denies it again…then spits in HBK’s face!

Bret Hart wins the WWF Title in 28:19 by pin. Bret denies the chair usage…then spits in Shawn’s face! Shawn goes for a chair shot…and Bret moves and Shawn LEVELS Undertaker! It’s a hell of a chairshot. Bret gets the pin and Shawn is forced to count it, and Bret wins title #5. Amazingly built match with a super hot finish here. Bret’s reaction right after the pin is perfect too. An almost I told you so like taunt. Great match, and Bret Hart’s last great moment in the WWF, at least for 12 years.

Anyway, everything pretty much hit for Summerslam 1997. The only low points quality wise were the Million Dollar Challenge and the 8 Man tag. Even LOD vs. The Godwinns was solid. The WWF needed a strong show as WCW was still ahead in the ratings, and a strong show they got that allowed them to hang on until Steve Austin put them over the top. Of course, Steve Austin barely survived this show.

Historically, you have the creation of the great Undertaker vs. HBK rivalry. A piece of the Montreal set-up. Austin somehow looking more badass than he already was, although it was an unfortunate way to get there. Even the development of Ken Shamrock was shown here, as he would be a solid upper midcarder for the next two years. Mankind and HHH also furthered their storyline, with Mankind breaking into Dude Love for the next few weeks before Cactus Jack would show up.

A great show all around with a lot of historical significance.

Final Grade: A

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews In Your House XVI: The Canadian Stampede

IYH16

WWF In Your House: Canadian Stampede
July 6, 1997
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Reviewed on September 19, 2014

WCW was still winning…but suddenly, the WWF had something hot on their hands.

Say what you want about Bret Hart, his 1997 heel run is one of the great heel runs in pro wrestling. This heel run made Stone Cold Steve Austin and established him as THE face of pro wrestling.

At this point Vince was still in trouble financially (practically because of Bret’s deal), but in reality he just had to hang on. Austin was on his way. The WWF in 1997 was an exciting show once again.

Now in Canada, Austin would have a chance to further his legacy. He might have been a face…but in Canada because of the Harts he was still the biggest heel in the world. And…he would.

Careful WCW, the WWF is coming.

The Card

One of my favorite intro promos here. A black and white montage…explaining that the world is black and white. One of the fantastic things about Bret’s heel turn was that he felt he hadn’t changed…he felt the fans changed. He actually wasn’t wrong.

Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley

Story: HHH won the King of the Ring over Mankind last month (Pedigree on the table for the first time). Chyna interfered immensely. Mankind wanted a rematch.

Pretty hot start, including the elbow off the apron.

One of the brilliant aspects of this feud was that before it, Mankind was higher up the card than HHH. Yet Foley and HHH told a great story that brought HHH up.

Mandible Claw! Chyna though breaks it up.

Awesome spot here: Mankind looks to whip HHH into the steps…but HHH reverses and Chyna slams Mankind into the steps! It’s interesting that so many wrestlers didn’t want to sell for Chyna, and Mankind had no problem getting his ass kicked by her. (SeeJohnson, Ahmed).

Loving Mankind’s selling of the knee. Even the small grasp of the knee after piledriving HHH matters so much.

Chyna is playing the role of equalizer perfectly.

Double Countout in 13:14. HHH and Mankind brawl on the outside and are counted out. They keep going at it though, fighting in the penalty box. HHH shows great aggression here. Anyway, great opener. Normally I’d hate the double countout, but it made sense in this context. HHH owes Foley pretty much everything in his in ring career.

We get a Hart Foundation interview…until Stone Cold looks to fight he Foundation 1 on 5. Bret points out that he wants 5 on 5, not 5 on 1.

The Great Sasuke vs. Taka Michinoku

The WWF Light Heavyweight Division had pretty much been a joke before this point. I guess Brian Christopher vs. Steve Rogers or whomever wasn’t getting it done.

JR says that Taka is making his American PPV debut…in singles competition. It’s like he remembered Barely Legal midway through the sentence and added the single thing.

Mankind and HHH are going at it again! Brilliant!

Anyway, here we go. Lawler explains this Japanese style using Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali as an example.

Nice kick from Sasuke! Crowd isn’t into it yet. Slow build so far.

Knockout spin kick from Sasuke! Crowd reacted to that!

Nice slap by Taka and Sasuke does a great sell.

Taka with some nice dropkick spots. Shame no one would care about them later.

Sasuke with a karate kick off the top to the outside!

More crazy kicks from Sasuke! Taka is getting killed.

Taka goes airbourne, springboard plancha! Another move people stopped caring about over time sadly.

Taka perfectly lands on his feet out of a German. Hurricanrana gets two.

Awesome backspring elbow from Sasauke…and a perfect Asai Moonsault to follow up!

Michinoku Driver gets a huge reaction…and Sasuke kicks out! JR talks about it being his finisher…which should tell you who they were gonna build the division around.

The Great Sasuke pins Taka Michinoku in 10:00. Thunder Fire Bomb then Tiger Suplex for the win. What a match! This may be the greatest match in the history of the entire division…which sadly tells you how much they screwed that up (Malenko vs. Scottyis the other contender). Incredible though. Lawler screaming everywhere is also awesome.

HHH and Mankind are STILL going at it outside! Shovels, garbage cans! Everything! Great stuff.

We are told Ahmed Johnson was injured and can’t wrestle The Undertaker for the WWF Title. Bullet dodged there…because Vader is taking his place for what should be a good match (although their Rumble 97 match was a mess).

Paul Bearer interview. Wonders how Taker can live with himself for killing his family. Of course, this all led to Kane.

WWF World Championship
The Undertaker© vs. Vader

Undertaker in 1997 looked like a freaking bad ass World Champion.

Paul Bearer hides behind the apron. What a great heel.

Taker just levels Vader with a clothesline. Somehow this is already better than the Rumble.

I wonder when Taker added that Stinger Splash to his arsenal.

This was a couple months after the Vader Kuwait thing. I wonder if Vader knew he was only going downhill from this point forward in the WWF (unless you think him getting his ass handed to him by Shamrock in May was good for him)…and looked to make the best out of this opportunity.

Vader hot some height on that 2nd rope body tackle.

You know what’s weird? Bearer and Vader here remind me of Heyman and Lesnar in 2014.

Low blow from Vader! Ref letting it go…

Vader Bomb time? No, Taker sits up and low blows Vader! Good symmetry with the letting it go from the ref! Then Taker Chokeslams Vader off the second rope! Wow! I woulda bought that as a finish.

Taker had to be in top form physically here. He’s throwing the 450 pound Vader around like he’s Taka.

The Undertaker retains by pin in 12:39. Vader kicks out of another chokeslam…but Taker puts him away for good with a Tombstone! We are THREE for THREE with great matches here. Vader’s last great match (in the USA at least) ever. I mean, imagine if this was Ahmed?

The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Owen Hart, The British Bulldog, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart and Brian Pillman) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and L.O.D.

We get interviews from team Austin side. Austin doesn’t say a work though. I also don’t think Hawk knew where the camera was.

We get the Canadian National Anthem from Farmer’s Daughter. Weird group name.

Stu and Helen Hart get huge ovations.

Huge boos for Austin. Amazingly though, he’d actually get cheered beating Owen at Survivor Series four months later.

Brian Pillman gets the biggest pop of his career. Pops get bigger and bigger with each guy. You can barely hear Owen’s music. Unless you listen closely…it’s difficult to hear when Bret’s theme begins. I argue this is the biggest pop in wrestling history, although I know it has competition.

We get an awesome face off between both teams…and then Hart and Austin go at it!

Hart beats the hell out of Austin and the crowd is has come unglued!

Austin takes over…and HUGE boos.

They randomly bust out the Survivor Series 96 finish!

Neidhart mocking Shamrock was great.

This is one of the all time great crowds.

Huge Austin sucks chants…he’s not even in the ring…

We get our first out of control brawl when Goldust gets trapped in the tree of woe.

Owen with a perfect missile dropkick and a nip up! Animal stuns the crowd by powerbombing Owen though.

Anvil breaks up a pin and it’s a melee everywhere!

Austin slams Owen’s knee across the ring post, then beats it with a chair! Bruce Hart attacks Austin from the crowd, but Austin takes him out.

Owen gets carried to the back as crowd gets on Austin again.

Stunner to Pillman!

Bret grabs Austin though and slams Austin’s knee into the ringpost! Then he hits Austin’s knee with a fire extinguisher! Of course…he follows it with a Figure Four around the ringpost! Now Austin is being helped to the back.

Some old school Hart Foundation!

Brian Pillman was absolutely brilliant in this thing…just being a pesky jerk.

Another brawl!

Shamrock gets the FIVE MOVES OF DOOM!

JR with an awesome Dusty impression here.

PILLMAN AGAIN!

Austin’s back! Austin’s back!

We get Bret vs. Austin again! This time Austin stomps a mudhole in Bret though!

Sick DDT on Austin by Bret!

FIVE MOVES OF DOOM! He didn’t finish against Shamrock.

Bret gets the Sharpshooter…but Animal saves Austin to huge boos.

Austin locks Bret in the Sharpshooter…but here comes OWEN!

Austin clotheslines Owen out, and Austin goes after him.

The Hart Foundation win when Owen pinned Austin in 24:31. Bruce Hart throws his drink at Austin, and Austin goes after Stu! The Harts get involved and it’s chaotic everywhere (and Bruce begins to kick ass and gets a Bruce chant, which apparently pissed Vince off). Austin gets rolled back in by Bret…and Owen rolls him up, 1…2…3! HUGE pop. Security breaks up the fight and the Harts remain tall in the ring….Bret’s music plays and everything, they wave the flags, etc. etc…

Until Austin comes back with a chair! Austin comes in by himself and everyone beats him up! “THAT RATTLESNAKE IS NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING!”

Austin gets handcuffed…but makes sure to give the Canadian crowd the middle finger on hos way out. As Austin would say, “you might have tied my hands behind my back…but you didn’t shut up the fingers!”

Anyway, with all due respect to all the War Games matches I’ve seen, this is the best ten man tag team match ever. Ever. 24 minutes of nonstop action. Incredible.

An incredible PPV. Four great matches out of four. Bret Hart’s last great moment in the WWF as a babyface. Further established Austin as a not caring rebel. Helped establish HHH as well. Random awesome light heavyweight match. There’s just so much greatness on this show. There’s not ONE bad moment.

It’s a shame it all went downhill for Bret after this. Maybe it wouldn’t have been as good as the Attitude Era…but Bret Hart showed he could be a draw and a top guy. It would have probably always been in 2nd place…but the WWF would have survived surely.

Anyway, this whole show was incredible.

Final Grade: A+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW Barely Legal

Barelylegal97

ECW Barely Legal
April 13, 1997
Philadelphia, PA
Reviewed on March 11, 2014

Background: This was it. ECW for years had tried their damnest to get on Pay-Per-View. Companies thought they were too violent. Companies thought they were real. ECW actually got on the PPV schedule for 1997, but the Lesbian Kiss angle, SandmanCrucifixion and most importantly, the Mass Transit incident got them kicked off. ECW found a way back on though. Amazingly if not sadly, things wouldn’t be that great for ECW much longer. Their talent rosters had already been raided (mostly by WCW) and the more notable they got, the more that would happen. Nonetheless, this is a big moment for ECW, so let’s dive into it.

The Card

Joey Styles runs down the card…but The Dudley Boyz show up.

Dudleyz cut a promo. They weren’t ridiculously offensive yet, but still riot inducing heels.

We get the ECW Opening Video. Weird order of things.

Joel Gertner with his limericks!

ECW World Tag Team Championship
The Dudley Boyz© vs. The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn)

Sign Guy Dudley “attacks” the Eliminators…and gets hit with Total Elimination!

This is more of a Texas Tornado match early on.

Springboard backflip from Saturn into a double dropkick. Nice.

Saturn would be in WCW in September of 97.

Double Feliner (that’s all I know it as, damn Cat) from the Eliminators!

Double twisting top rope splashes. This is all Eliminators.

Kronus catapults Saturn in a backflip/moonsault from the ring to both Dudleyz on the outside.

Space Flying Kronus Drop!

Totally forgot that Saturn once had one of the best top rope elbow drops in the business.

Double jump springboard moonsault from Saturn. Really a shame he tore his ACL a couple months from this.

Kronus with a nice 450 splash!

The Eliminators win the title when Kronus pinned Buh Buh Ray Dudley in 6:11. They double kick Buh Buh, then hit Total Elimination for the win. Match was 95% Eliminators. It works because ECW was trying to be different, and this was. How many total six minute ass kickings did you see on the WWF and WCW at the time? Also, great idea to start the show with a title change, makes the show feel important right out of the gate. As for the wrestling, it is a bit sloppy, but some of the spots you just didn’t see on a national stage in the US at the time. Perfectly good way to start the show. I’d even bet this match is how Saturn got signed away to WCW.

Joel Gertner states that in his scoring system, the Dudleyz win 86-83 and they are still the champs. He also gets Total Elimination…which led to the broken neck cast for his career (he even uses it at One Night Stand!)

Sandman hype video. He was the #2 guy behind Raven over the past year.

Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam

This match has some historical significance. Chris Candido, fresh off being Skip, got injured and was supposed to face Storm. RVD replaced him. RVD was legitimately upset over this as he felt he was overlooked. Smartly, Paul Heyman took advantage of this, first convincing RVD to stay, then running with the Mr. Monday Night gimmick and how everyone wants RVD. Of course, RVD is the biggest star to ever come out of ECW.

Surprisingly, neither of these guys would get a WWF or WCW deal until 2000 (Storm).

Some okay chain wrestling early.

RVD always had a great leaping somersault plancha.

Storm jumps to the top rope cleanly and hits a back elbow.

Storm goes SPLAT.

RVD with a moonsault off the railing!

RVD has the arrogance thing going on.

Sell-out chants for RVD. You know, Paul Heyman knew how to do the REALITY thing.

Frog Splash from RVD. Kick out from Storm. It wasn’t his finisher yet.

Storm with a nice last second splash off a cartwheel.

Storm gets the floatover Crab, but it wasn’t clean.

Storm with the weakest chair shot of all time…but when a very nice powerbomb on a chair. How confusing.

Storm tries to hit a top rope guillotine legdrop on RVD and an open chair, but it doesn’t quite work.

RVD botches one of my favorite moves. He crotches Storm on the top rope (not a corner) then goes for the springboard flying back kick…but he falls and only hits an elbow.

Rob Van Dam pins Lance Storm in 10:10. WEAK chair shots. But…RVD punishes Storm with a Van Daminator (the coolest move in the industry in my opinion at the time). Match was designed to get all of RVD and Storm’s spots in to show them off on a national stage. But, the match was pretty damn sloppy and some stuff was just botched. You don’t hear this match as one of those where RVD stole the show. Nonetheless, RVD does a “No Respect” promo which launched Mr. Monday Night.

Gran Hamada, The Great Sasuke and Masato Yakushiji vs. Taka Michinoku, Terry Boy and Dick Togo

When Jim Ross said Sasuke vs. Taka was each of those two’s first North American PPV match at Canadian Stampede…he missed this.

Michinoku Pro are honorary members of the BWO.

Streamers! Must be a Japanese thing according to Styles.

Sasuke would have some more ECW matches, most notably putting over Justin Credible.

Taka would be WWF Lightheavyweight Champ by December.

Dick Togo is like a great power cruiserweight.

The crispness of these moves is awesome.

Hamada with a lightning fast armbar. Nice.

AMAZING sequences of moves between Terry and Sasuke. I can’t even explain it, but it had about 10 reversals and some cartwheels. Wow.

Ouch, they stand Sasuke on his head and Taka dropkicks him right in the gut.

Michinoku Pro with an awesome group taunt and they included Sasuke!

Terry Boy is named that as a tribute to Terry Funk. He busts out the Spinning Toe Hold.

Wow Terry Boy props up Masato with a weak slingshot…so Togo can clothesline him down and Taka can come off the top with a flying knee drop!

Michinoku Pro gets a triple powerbomb on Masato, but they botch it on Sasuke. The only mistake this whole match.

Bad Sasuke hurricanrana counter as well.

Sasuke with a Asai Moonsault and he lands in the crowd!

Hamada with a really nice leaping swinging DDT.

Sasuke, Hamada and Yakushiji win when Sasuke pinned Taka in 16:55. Sasuke hits a Tiger Suplex on Taka for the win. Very good match, although I recall this being heralded as one of the best matches of the year (it wouldn’t even crack my top 3 matches on PPV that year). But nonetheless very fun and very good.

Big Stevie Cool backstage skit. BWO! He didn’t think he was a man being Raven’s flunky. He was in WCW in three months as well.

ECW TV Championship
Shane Douglas© vs. Pitbull #2

Story here: Douglas broke the neck of Pitbull #1. Revenge for Pitbull #2, maybe. Francine was also the former manager of the Pitbulls.

Francine is pretty damn hot.

Pitbull #1 is in the front row.

Douglas interview, talks about breaking Pitbull #1’s neck. Also about the masked stalker he has.

By the way, the Triple H Game gimmick was done first by Douglas. Although Douglas never evolved.

Headlock start really killed the crowd. Bad start.

It’s early, but this match is missing on all accounts right now. Very boring.

Blown spot where Douglas does a twisting crossbody and the Pitbull catches him…but then has to drop him.

Pitbull does a weak Fall Away slam for Douglas to go over the top rope and though a table, but even that looks weak.

Pit Bull #1 gets involved, and crowd didn’t even pop for it. This is not a good match.

Pitbull #2 throws a steel guardrail in the ring.

They botch crotching Pitbull #2 on the guardrail. Jeez.

Even the brass knuckles spot is boring and unexciting.

Shane Douglas retains by pin at 20:43. Overhead belly to belly out of nowhere for the win. Match was awful. While Douglas seemed off, Pitbull #2 had to put in the laziest performance of any wrestler I can remember, Vampiro included. Horrible punches. He wouldn’t even kick out right at the end. No surprise that he was gone in a few months and never caught on with WWF or WCW. Terrible match that went 12-13 minutes too long. Paul Heyman apparently apologized for it as well.

Here comes the masked man! He’ll take off the mask if he gets the girl!

Everyone seems to know it’s Ruck Rude, including Joey Styles.

Shocker…it’s not Rude…as Rude comes out from being disguised as one of Douglas’ bodyguards! It was Brian Lee who’s turned on Douglas. No idea why this all happened, but it was better than the 20 minute snorefest we just got. Crowd agrees. By the way, both Lee and Rude were in the WWF in 4 months. I feel bad for ECW sometimes.

Raven interview! He kinda gives away the fact that Terry Funk is going to win the three way to face him later. You know, since he’s cutting a promo on him.

Taz promo. Last hype job for the grudge match of the century!

Sabu vs. Taz

This match had been built up since 1995 I believe, when Sabu left Taz while they were World Tag Champs. It turned into a lot of moments where both men were close to coming to blows, but never would. Each claimed to be scared of the other. To be honest, the build was absolutely fantastic.

Taz is the heel and Sabu is the face.

This just has a big match feel.

Taz with the early Taz-Mission attempt…although Sabu escapes and Styles calls it as a huge deal.

Focus is mostly on Taz outwrestling Sabu, which I don’t really think is the way to go to be honest.

I always thought Sabu’s springboard leg lariat was a real creative move.

Sabu with the plancha into the crowd! Landing was a bit off…but it incites a serious ECW chant nonetheless.

Nice submission holds from Taz (Bow and Arrow), but this isn’t what the crowd wants.

Some nice chair spots.

Sabu misses Taz on an chair springboard dive, then Taz overhead belly to belly suplexes him over the top (which makes Douglas’ finish look awful anyway). Unfortunately, while I’m sure it hurt, it didn’t look great.

Sabu goes for a swinging DDT though a table off the apron, but Taz counters and sends Sabu through the table. Bill Alfonso, who is Taz’s manager here, starts begging Sabu to get up. Styles calls it mocking, but this makes sense in a few minutes.

Sky high legdrop from Sabu! Very nice.

Taz wins when Sabu passes out in 17:49. Sabu escapes a Taz-Mission with a suplex…but Taz suplexes Sabu in return on his head. Sabu though then busts out his own T-Bone Tazplex! Sabu locks in the Taz-Mission on Taz! Taz counters and drops Sabu on his head twice with two suplexes…then the Taz-Mission ends it. Watching Alfonso here is also quite telling as he looks disappointed, too bad it isn’t referenced. Sabu and Taz shake and hug to boos…but here comes Rob Van Dam! They double team Taz! Sabu botches driving Taz through the table, then dangerously does it a 2nd time (where we easily could have broken his neck). Sabu chokes out Taz with his own hold. Alfonso then reveals a Sabu shirt! How often does the manager end up siding with the loser of the team (he bet money on Sabu to win)! Anyway, this began the awesome RVD-Sabu team. RVD says he “loves to work Mondays”. Awesome.

Let’s talk about this match for a bit. It’s a good match, but this is the problem. This was supposed to be the greatest grudge match in history. Taz said it best in the ECW Rise and Fall documentary that there was no way the match was going to live up to expectations and unfortunately he was correct. I do think they should have done a different type of match though. Maybe because it wasn’t late enough yet or something, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of violence on this show. This match (and Douglas-Pitbull #2) needed hardcore matches, not wrestling matches.

Here comes Tommy Dreamer for some commentary for the main events. I wonder why he didn’t wrestle on this show.

#1 Contender to the ECW World Championship
The Sandman vs. Terry Funk vs. Big Stevie Cool

BWO!
BWO!

Here comes the Sandman. Dubbed entrance, but I do like Megadeth’s Trust anyway. This may be a while.

Sandman starts the match off by drinking and spitting the beer in Stevie’s face.

Tommy says he won’t interfere in this match or the one with Raven for Funk. Again, just giving it away are we?

The crowd is hot for this, which is good, because this has been some sloppy wrestling so far.

Four neckbreakers on Stevie Cool. Sandman just throws a ladder in the ring and nails Funk, what a throw.

Funk with a moonsault off the top of the ladder (nutcase) which totally misses Stevie…except for a boot. Still, crazy old man with a crazy spot.

Sandman takes the ladder and comes off the top and smashes Richards. You don’t even see that in Ladder matches today!

Funk with the spinning ladder! Styles with the accurate assessment: Funk’s nuts.

Catapult move seem to get botched somehow, as the ladder doesn’t come up.

Crowd clearly wants Stevie to win this thing by the way. Stevie Kick gets 2 on the Sandman…crowd chants bullshit.

Some crazy Sandman over the top rope dive to catapult the ladder into Stevie’s face. Ouch.

Sandman with a PERFECT toss of a trash can into the ring…as it lands with a crash on Terry Funk’s head!

Another ladder catapult! The ladder goes flying and almost ends up in the crowd. Sandman must be drunk.

Double powerbomb eliminates Stevie. Fans are not happy. I never realized Stevie was so over here.

Sandman finds barbed wire in the streamers that were thrown earlier! Funk though, gets it and whips the hell out of the Sandman with it. Ouch.

Terry Funk wins when he pins Sandman in 19:07. Sandman legdrop from the top only gets two. Richards on the apron, but Sandman (who wrapped himself in barbed wire) body splashes him off. Funk gets control by getting the can on Sandman’s head. Stevie Kick, then a Funk Moonsault for the pin. Very sloppy…but I guess it could still be classified as a fun brawl. Raven’s out right away, as there is only ten minutes of show time left.

ECW World Championship
Raven© vs. Terry Funk

This is booked smartly early, as Raven beats the crap out of Funk. Funk just wrestled a 20 minute violent brawl. So it makes sense.

Funk is bleeding everywhere. There’s a doctor in the ring, but Funk continues on.

Commentary from Dreamer is awesome, as he’s near tears as he promised he wouldn’t help his mentor.

Doctor’s in there again. The Funker fights on.

Raven drives Funk through a table with a flying dive over the top rope. That looked very cool!

Raven takes out the doc!

Reggie Bennett is out here. No Idea who she is, but she attacks Funk (Raven’s Nest did own).

Raven gets on the mic. He says he’s going to end Funk’s career right here.

Big Dick Dudley attacks Dreamer with a hard trash can shot! Dreamer turns the tide though and chokeslams (kinda) Dudley off the stage through a stack of tables! OH MY GOD from Styles!

Dreamer’s coming for Raven!

Dreamer throws a trash can at Raven…who catches it and throws it back at Dreamer. It gets Dreamer good…and he awesomely no-sells!

Terry Funk wins the ECW Title when he pinned Raven in 7:20. Dreamer DDT. 1…2…no…? Fans thought it was over. THE BELL EVEN RANG….but Raven kicked out. Small package…and that gets the three! Big pop for the title win. Match wasn’t even a match really, in fact the small package was the only move Funk got in. But it was a fun mess of interference and Raven kicking Funk’s ass…with a great moment at the end.

This is a tough one to grade. If I grade it purely on its quality of matches, it is a disappointing show overall, somewhere in the C+ range. One great match quality wise, a couple of good ones (even if one of those didn’t live up to the hype) and some crazy brawling.

If you grade it on the historical aspect, this PPV launched RVD’s career. It launched Taz’s top run as a face. It put ECW on PPV, and it lasted four more years in a very competitive era for wrestling. It had great moments. This was an ECW fan’s dream.

Sometimes you have to go with history. It’s almost a B+ and would be if not for the disappointing hype around Taz vs. Sabu (still a good match)….and the disaster that was Douglas vs. Pitbull #2.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Starrcade ’96

Starrcade1996

WCW Starrcade ‘96
December 29, 1996
Nashville, TN

Background: The Wrestlemania of WCW: Starrcade.

WCW was absolutely rolling. The nWo angle was perhaps the hottest thing in wrestling ever. WCW was kicking the WWF’s ass in pretty much every way. And WCW looked to continue that trend with Starrcade, putting in the main event slot a huge main event of WCW World Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper. The WCW style was always awesome in-ring action at the top of the show, star power later. And it worked for a while.

You really see all the pieces come together for this one. Temporary international stars such as Jushin Lyger. The international WCW Cruiserweights such as Ultimo Dragon and Rey Mysterio Jr. The workhorses from ECW in Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. Midcard WWF guys like Jeff Jarrett. And of course, the top guys. The Hogan, Nash, Hall, Luger, Giant tier. Amazingly WCW was missing a lot of guys for this one too (No Steiners, no Harlem Heat, no Jericho).

So let’s see how the granddaddy of them all came together in 1996.

The Card

A lot of the hype for the main event (“the match of the decade”) is that Hogan never beat Piper (why did no one care here about that build-up but everyone shit on when the Warrior used that logic 2 years later). They must be just counting pinfalls, since Hogan beat Piper by DQ at the Wrestling Classic.

J-Crown Championship vs. Cruiserweight Championship
Ultimo Dragon (J-Crown) vs. Dean Malenko (Cruiser)

Japan vs. America I

The J-Crown is like 8 belts. Ultimo Dragon looked bad ass with them.

Great hold for hold wrestling early on….makes sense since these two were both top 10 in the world as technical wrestlers at this point.

Crowd solidly behind Malenko. Dragon was still a heel here.

Funny announcer quarrel about a half-crab. I love it when Dusty and The Brian get on Schiavone.

Nice STF/Crossface. It’s practically the opposite of John Cena’s STF in terms of how bad ass it looks.

Dragon with the backflip fakeout to Suicide Dive. I love that spot. Shame no one understood it in Dragon’s WWE 2003 run. I blame the 619.
Really enjoying this one. Match is slowly building the pace.

Admittedly a little too much with the leg grapevine here. Kinda killed the crowd.

Great series of reversals lead to a Malenko powerslam! Crowd popped for that.

Tombstone from Malenko! Nice false finish!

Ultimo Dragon pinned Dean Malenko to unify the titles in 18:30. Match gets really hot with big moves and reversals. A great sequence ends with Dragon hitting a trap Dragon suplex for the win. Gave this 18 minutes and other than the slow part in the middle, this was really good. Great way to start Starrcade. Also it is worth noting that Malenko was really over.

WCW Women’s Championship
Akira Hokuto vs. Madusa

Hokuto is wearing a gas mask?

Vacant title. Is this a tournament final? I have no idea. I don’t even remember a WCW Women’s Title.

Lee Marshall is brought in as an expert on Women’s wrestling. Sure…

USA vs. Japan II

Hokuto busts out a Scorpion Deathlock. Odd finish steal there.

Horrific floatover DDT from Madusa.

Weird Tornado DDT from Madusa where Madusa landed on her feet first. No idea if that was intentional.

Botched counter to a powerbomb…if it even was supposed to be countered. This match sucks.

Akira Hokuto wins the title by pin in 7:06. Sonny Oono attacks Madusa with the American Flag…then Hokuto hits a sloppy brainbuster for the win. A lot of blown spots. Bad match. The title wouldn’t last either. And the Brian points out Japan 2, USA 0. Tough way to start with two heels winning.

Piper with an insane promo. Sky Low Low and Jurassic Park made this promo. He goes on about Icons. Then we get into instruments. This is nuts. Roseanne Barr makes the promo too.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Jushin Liger

Japan vs. USA III.

This is a dream match I believe.

Handshake. Liger really isn’t a heel like Dragon and Hokuto.

This is a weird match that Liger just dominates.

Jushin Liger pins Rey Mysterio in 14:16. Liger Bomb kills Mysterio’s comeback. Apparently this is a Japanese style, but it kinda killed the crowd. Rey basically got squashed. Dragon vs. Malenko was a lot better. This was okay I suppose, I mean it was wrestled well at least.

No DQ
Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit

This spawned from Jarrett kinda being in the Horsemen but not really.

I think Jarrett is supposed to be the face and Benoit the heel…but it surely isn’t working out that way crowd wise.

Not really a lot happening. A lot of punching and kicking. I wonder if Benoit isn’t doing tech stuff because it’s a no DQ match.

Schiavone makes it a point that Benoit doesn’t get DQed for throwing Jarrett over the top rope. That stupid rule was still in place?

Arn Anderson walked by Benoit. Does that mean he’s pro Jarrett in the Horsemen?

Big pop for Double A though.

Dungeon of Doom out here. No idea what’s going on.

Jeff Jarrett pinned Chris Benoit in 13:48. Anderson DDTs Jarrett…and Kevin Sullivan smashes a wooden chair over Benoit’s head! When Double A tosses Jarrett back into the ring, Jarrett’s hand ends up on Benoit for the pin. I actually that finish is a little creative, but the booking and people involved was all over the place. Match was pretty lame as well. Nothing happened. Strange.

Mongo is out here to talk Horsemen or something. The Horsemen are unstable. Flair’s not even around anyway. Debra talks too. I don’t care.

We get some insight into Sting, who just turned crow. No idea who’s side he’s actually on at this point.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Outsiders© vs. The Faces of Fear

The Faces of Fear? Seriously?

Nick Patrick is the referee. I’m sure that note will have no effect on this match whatsoever.

So who do we cheer for here? The Outsiders?

Meng and Hall with a solid start. Good physicality.

Nash seems motivated here. Weird match to be motivated for though.

Now we’re getting some slow Nick Patrick stuff.

Weird legal man stuff. Meng was on the apron despite being the legal man. I’m sure that’s been broken tons of times.

Syxx is out here. Takes Jimmy Hart’s megaphone then leaves chasing Hart.

The Outsiders win when Nash pins Barbarian in 11:52. Jackknife for the win. Match made no booking sense. Outsiders were the faces for some reason…but had a crooked referee in their pocket. WCW announcers were rooting for the Faces of Fear. I would say wrestling wise this was a lot better than it had any right to be. Probably because it had a lot of Scott Hall, who was still trying at that point.

Dibiase and Hogan promo. Just running down Piper here. Hogan doesn’t understand time zones though. Hogan mentions that the belt stays with the nWo. That’s important here.

WCW US Championship Title Tournament Final
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddy Guerrero

Some story here…the nWo had been interfering and helping DDP win matches to get him to join. Nothing to do with Guerrero.

It’s a bit weird to see DDP has a cocky heel and Guerrero as an underdog face in WCW.

It’s also weird to see Eddy Guerrero dominating DDP in a WCW match. They were at two totally different levels 12 months later.

Pretty solid back and forth match here.

I do think DDP and Eddy’s styles don’t really click though. I assume solid back and forth is the best you’d get here.

nWo is out here. Hall though hits Page with the Outsider’s Edge!

Eddie Guerrero wins the title and pins DDP in 15:20. Eddie hits the Frog Splash after the Outsider’s Edge for the win. nWo beats up Eddy too, although he put up a good fight. Guerrero wrote in his book that he hated this finish as it looked like the nWo beat Page and not Guerrero…and he was 100% right about it. Match was fine.

The Giant vs. Lex Luger

Giant is nWo here…which I didn’t think made too much sense. Luger is now the face of WCW as Sting is off brooding and Piper is really Piper and not WCW.

Really long lock-up to start, then punches and kicks everywhere.

Luger brought his selling ability with him tonight. Which against the Giant, he should.

I think it’s crazy how the Giant used to just throw dropkicks like it was nothing.

Funniest ref bump I ever saw with Giant powering out of a pin and Luger landing on the ref.

Nick Patrick interferes and kicks Luger’s leg when he had the rack! He’s nWo!

Sting is here. But who’s side is he on?

Syxx ruins another rack attempt.

Sting drops a bat in the ring and tells both Luger and the Giant something, presumably that there is a bat in the ring.

Lex Luger pins the Giant in 13:23. Luger gains control of the bat and beats the crap out of the Giant. Pin afterwards. Huge pop. This was WCW’s first win over the nWo…which storyline wise is fine…but it’s interesting of all people the Giant was the first nWo member to lose. Match could have been A LOT worse. Pretty solid considering who was involved. Giant looks angered as the announcer’s say the nWo left Giant high and dry.

Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper

Story matters here, because it’s a huge problem with the match. Piper showed up when Hogan beat Savage at Halloween Havoc. This led to the Eric Bischoff in the nWo reveal. In the match build, remember that Roddy Piper got to choose the terms of the match. Because he for some reason chose a NON-TITLE match. And WCW is hiding that by the way. Hogna mentioned the title earlier. The crowd thinks this is for the title.

Crowd is really hot for this. As they should be.

Hogan sells a lot for Piper. Match is very punchy-kicky of course. Not much else these two can do at this point.

Really punch-kick-punch-kick. I mean, I guess this match wasn’t done for workrate reasons.

Piper comeback…and the Giant is here!

Ref clearly sees the Giant there, come on.

Random fan in the ring!

Piper somehow kicks Hogan while up for the chokeslam, then knocks Giant over the top.

Roddy Piper beats Hollywood Hogan via sleeper in 15:27. Crowd erupts. And Piper doesn’t win the title. Because it’s non-title. Bizarre. Match sucked as well. Post match has Hogan and Giant arguing, and Hogan blames Giant for dropping the ball. Hogan the celebrates with the title. Um..he lost the match?

Pretty disappointing Starrcade all things considered. It gets some extra credit for DDP and Sting developments, but loses a little for the non-title main event and general horribleness of the main event. Dragon vs. Malenko was great and Eddy vs. Page was solid, but everything ranged from disappointing to meh. Benoit vs. Jarrett and Faces of Fear vs. Outsiders were just flat out confusing.

I’d say Dragon vs. Malenko alone had it in C+ territory, but the overbooked nWo stuff hurts the second half of the show. nWo interfered in the last three matches…is one clean finish too much to ask? I mean, this is supposed to be the big show of the year, right?

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews AAA When Worlds Collide ’94

AAA When Worlds Collide 1994
November 6, 1994
Los Angeles, CA
Reviewed on May 18, 2014

I’m not going to pretend I really know anything about AAA in 1994 (or now, really), but this show did have some significance in regards to the future of American professional wrestling. I figure this could be a fun special project.

There are two things of significance that drew me to doing this show. The first is the WCW connection. AAA and WCW had some type of working relationship here (Mike Tenay’s commenating debut!) and WCW helped AAA in regards to securing the deal for an American PPV. WCW handled the American broadcast. A lot of the guys on this show (Rey Mysterio Jr., Eddy Guerrero, Psicosis, Chris Benoit) would eventually get to WCW when Eric Bischoff moved forward in acquiring talent…although they all would go through ECW first. Guerrero specifically wrote in his book about how this PPV was key in getting noticed by ECW and hoped he and tag team partner Art Barr would get picked up. This was because the peso had crashed, and Mexican wrestlers were not making as much as they were before.

This leads to my second point of significance: Los Gringos Locos, Eddy Guerrero and Art Barr. One of the true pioneers in tag team wrestling. They were actually called La Pareja del Terror as there was a bigger stable called Los Gringos Locos, but Eddy make it clear in his book that the stable version was watered down…that Eddy and Art were the real deal. It was rumored Paul Heyman was already planning on bringing in Los Gringos Locos to ECW to feud with Public Enemy, but Art Barr passed away two weeks after this show. Of course, Heyman still brought Guerrero in, and the rest is history. This show has a well-regarded two out of three falls Mask vs. Hair match between Los Gringos Locos and El Hijo del Santo and Octogon.

The Card

The opening hype package talks a lot about the IWC (International Wrestling Council). I think it is one big heel group that had its own titles, but I’m not sure.

Mini-Match
Espectrito and Jerrito Estrada vs. Mascarita Sagrada and Octagoncito

There’s history between these four, but Sagrada had made Espectrito unmask, which is one of the biggest things in Mexico.

A lot of cool armdrag sequences to start…but some of them do look pretty damn fake to be honest.

This match (and probably the whole card, since this is a Lucha Libra promotion) is Lucha Libre rules. That means tags aren’t necessarily required, if someone gets thrown out, their partner can just come in. This usually is a lot of fun.

Some really fun high flying moves, including a perfect suicide dive from Oct.

Mascarita Sagrada and Octagoncito defeated Jerrito Estrada and Espectrito when Sagrada pinned Espectrito in 8:30. Cool double team that led to a top rope moonsault for the win. Referee was out of place though and the count was awkward. Shame it ended as it was just picking up. To be fair though, this was just a string of spots with a billion armdrags. I would call it decent, leaning towards good.

Whoever the announcer is with Tenay is awful. He just got all the names confused.

Fuezra Guerrera, Psicosis and Madonna’s Boyfiend vs. Heavy Metal, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Latin Lover

Guerrera is Juvi’s father. We know Psicosis. Madonna’s Boyfield is Louie Spicolli. Heavy Metal and Latin Lover each made Royal Rumble 97 appearances. We all know Rey.

In Lucha Libra there are “captains”. Guerrera and Metal are the captains.

Team Guerrera are the rudos, or heels. They are part of Los Gringos Locos I believe.

Rey is 19 years old here.

Nice Rey vs. Psicosis early on.

Spicolli feels like such a weird member of this match.

We get some Spicolli and Latin Lover dancing. I bet Spicolli was pretty over in AAA.

Awesome sequence between Psicosis and Heavy Metal.

Man Rey was awesome even at 19.

Spicolli just tosses Rey from over his head into the crowd. That owned.

Heavy Metal no sells a trip kick from Psicosis by springboard backflipping. That was pretty awesome. Left the announcer that’s not Tenay speechless.

Damn to the outside Swanton from Rey to Spicolli.

Team Guerrera wins when Guerrera makes Metal submit in 12:46. Lame neck hold/armbar finishes. Match had some good stuff and some bad stuff. The good stuff was really good. Rey and Psicosis are in their own tier, but Metal and Lover were pretty good too. Spicolli is clearly the odd man out, but he wasn’t bad. My question is, is it generally accepted that Fuerza Guerrera sucks Mil Mascaras style? Or did he just have an off night? Guerrera no sold things, and generally looked awkward in the ring. The finish was also pretty bad. Overall though, this is a fun match.

Tito Santana, Pegasus Kid and 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Blue Panther, La Parka and Jerry Estrada

Interesting combination of guys here. Only one without an extended USA run is Panther. Santana is a famous WWE wrestler. Kid is Benoit of course. Scorpio was good in ECW, a WCW World Tag Team Champion and Flash Funk in WWE. La Parka was the chairman of WCW. Estrada was part of Savio Vega’s Los Boricas.

Captains are Pegasus Kid and I think Parka.

Team Benoit is IWC, so they are the rudos here.

The technico team (faces) are having problems.

2 Cold Scorpio was really good at one time.

I think I found one of the errors this show did. The whole conversation is about how Tito Santana is the weak link of his team because he hasn’t wrestled Mexican style a lot. If you are trying to appeal to an American audience, Santana was WAY the most accomplished of his team at this point.

La Parka and Scorpio with a funny meeting in the middle of the ring. La Parka is awesome.

Estrada and La Parka clearly not getting along.

Estrada and La Parka argue about who pins Scorpio. It will probably cost them the match.

Benoit, Scorpio and Santana win when Benoit pinned Panther in 14:58. Benoit counters a powerbomb with an ugly hurricanrana to get the pin. Crowd didn’t see that as the finish, and this is the third underwhelming finish out of three matches. Match was unfortunately hurt by the La Parka-Estrada storyline. There was some good stuff from Scorpio and Benoit though. Okay match.

Hey a Starrcade advert! Chris Cruise, the other announcer, actually says “I would guess Hulk Hogan would be at Starrcade” right after a video that promoted Hogan. Perceptive.

Two Out of Three Falls – Hair vs. Mask Match
La Pareja del Terror vs. El Hijo del Santo and Octagon

There is a lot of history here, as these two had feuded for a year. Back in July, Guerrero and Barr won the tag title from Santo and Octagon.

Weird thing here too. A fall only counts when both guys are defeated.

Chris Cruise tells us there is a 30 minute time limit, but that can be changed later. Why have it then?

Guerrero and Santo with some basic wrestling early.

First fall comes very quickly. Awesome doomsday device type move, with Eddy doing a hurricanrana instead of a clothesline to Santo. Art Barr frog splashes (Eddy took it from him as a tribute) Octagon shortly afterwards. 1-0 Gringos.

At first I thought the quick fall was stupid, but it works out great. HUGE heat for Gringos.

Eddy with a floatover fall away slam. Never saw that before.

This is the first match I’ve ever seen of Art Barr. But he seems awesome.

Top rope hurricanrana by Eddy, and he pins Santo! We are one pin of Octagon away here.

Barr backdrops Octagon into Guerrero…and Octagon hurricanranas him for the pin when Barr was playing toward the crowd! Octagon then traps Barr in some crazy octopus hold and Barr taps, and we are tied! Crowd is super hot now!

The logic kinda sucks for the beginning of the third fall. Each team separately breaks up submission holds at their leisure…without the opposing illegal man trying to help. Whatever.

Ok, quick history lesson here. Earlier in the card Cruise and Tenay talked about how the only move banned in Mexico is the piledriver because it severly injured someone. This matters because…

Behind the referee’s back Barr spikes Octagon with a Tombstone Piledriver and gets the easy pin. You heard the crowd gasp. AND Octagon gets stretchered out. Talk about great heel heat here. We have a handicap match left.

Santo survives the Barr frog splash. Santo chant breaks out.

Heel miscomminucation….and Santo goes crazy!

Blue Panther, who was in Santo and Octagon’s corner, attacks Barr from behind without the ref seeing…and spikes him with a piledriver! Crowd is going crazy. Santo gets the pin on Barr.

Santo and Octagon win when Santo pins Guerrero in 22:29. Guerrero hits some suplexes and hurricanranas, but Santo counters one and gets the roll up for the win! Huge pop! I think technically the match wasn’t perfect…but Los Gringos Locos were just awesome heels here. The whole pin both guys idea worked out great, as it allowed two big comebacks for Octagon and Santo. Great match overall. Barr and Eddy could have made big money in the future had Barr not passed away. Guerrero and Barr get a haircut, of course.

Steel Cage Match
Perro Aguayo vs. Konnan

Konnan was the biggest thing in Mexico. Aguayo is a legend. They were friends at one time, but Konnan turned. I believe this is the Mexican equivalent of the of Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, only if Hogan was the one who turned instead of Andre. Aguayo defeated Konnan to make Konnan lose his mask. Konnan beat Aguayo in a Hair match. Three years later after an alliance, this is the rubber match.

Aguayo gets a side slide pin, and the ref actually counts on the outside…even though it’s been said the only way to win is via escape.

A lot of sloppiness early on. The pin. Konna selling a dropkick that missed him by a mile. An ugly electric chair drop.

Aguayo’s is busted due to getting sent face first into the cage.

Aguayo goes for another pin for some reason. Cruise says the ref will count it, but it won’t count for anything. Pretty damn stupid if you ask me.

ANOTHER pin for Aguayo. What the hell? The ref isn’t even counting anymore.

We see a bald Eddy Guerrero backstage watching this match. Konnan is part of Los Gringos Locos I believe.

Guerrero and Spicolli come out and Guerrero throws some liquid in Aguayo’s eyes when he was climbing the cage. They throw brass knuckes to Konnan as well. Konnan beats the crap out of Aguayo and he’s bleeding everywhere.

Los Dynamite Brothers (I don’t know who they are, except for Cein Caras) come out to chase away Guerrero and Spicolli. Cein Caras knocks Konnan off the top of the cage!

Perro Aguayo escapes in 17:50. One more double foot stop, and Aguayo wins it. Long celebration afterwards. I would say this is a good match wrestling wise (even though it was the best Konnan match I’ve ever seen), but the crowd was super into it and it did its job. The celebration with the legend is a nice touch and reminds me of the end of ECW Barely Legal.

An interesting Pay-Per-View. Only had one killer match, which was Octagon and Santo vs. Los Gringos Locos. The main event was fine for what it was. Everything else ranges from decent to good, although I would actually say that’s disappointing as I sense all three undercard matches could have been better.

In regards to American pro wrestling, a lot of guys on this show would get jobs indirectly because of this show. Mysterio, Psicosis, Guerrero, Benoit and Spicolli would all show up in ECW shortly after this, and Spicolli specifically said this show was the reason he got a job in the USA.

Not a bad show. Some great stuff. A cool look at some future superstars. Admittedly some disappointing stuff too though.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Summerslam ’94

SummerSlam_1994

WWF Summerslam ‘94
August 29, 1994
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on July 25, 2014

We are clearly past the Hulkamania era and in the Bret Hart era. 1993 had tons of questionable things in a period of transition, but the WWF clearly realized it needed to create newer stars and move on. There’s a lot of New Generation references for sure.

We are in the midst of the Bret Hart WWF Championship run, and in the middle of the Hart Brothers’ feud. While maybe it wasn’t the biggest draw, it was critically an awesome feud that made Owen Hart.

The hokey stuff was still there though. The Undertaker was arguably the 2nd biggest babyface in the company when he left at the Royal Rumble 1994 (yeah, sorry Lex Luger, but Survivor Series 93 proved this), but took an extended break. The storyline here sucks though, as it is the infamous Undertaker vs. Underfaker feud.

Diesel vs. Razor Ramon is a notable match here, as it includes three guys (Shawn Michaels at ringside) who the WWF would be built upon for the next 18 months.

LET’S FIGURE OUT THE MYSTERY OF THE UNDERTAKERS SHALL WE?!

The Card

Randy Savage is our host and introduces us to Summerslam. You know, Vince wasting Savage here was a big reason he left at the end of the year.

We are told that Diesel and HBK won the tag belts at a house show last night. I don’t remember the storyline reason on why that was done.

The Headshrinkers vs. Bam Bam Bigelow and IRS

This was for the tag belts before the Headshrinkers lost them the night before.

The odd Headshrinker face run. Bigelow and IRS are part of the Million Dollar Corporation.

It’s sometimes jarring to see Fatu so skinny considering Rikishi later.

Really good hart hitting action here. Workrate overall really went up in 1994. Makes 1995 even more perplexing.

Samu backdrops Bigelow with ease, which was pretty cool.

Pretty terrible double reverse Russian legsweep there Shrinkers…

Bigelow and IRS win by DQ in 7:20. A billion managers (Albano, Afa, Dibiase all got involved and it leads to a DQ (Afa hit a headbutt first). Shame, this was a pretty fun match and I thought woulda been a good way to put Bigelow and IRS over, as the Headshrinkers were on their way out (which is also a shame).

The Leslie Nielson stuff is pretty horrible. He’s trying to find the Undertaker. This is like the WWF version of those terrible WCW minimovies.

Women’s Championship
Alundra Blayze© vs. Bull Nakano

Nakano has Luna Vachon with her, the story is Luna brought her because she couldn’t beat Blayze.

Crowd is into Blayze.

What a sick hair pull whip. Wow.

Hurricanrana from Blayze!

Standing sharpshooter from Nakano. Crowd popped huge. Probably because it was pretty bad ass.

Blayze goes for a piledriver, and while Nakano is countering she actually finger waves to the crowd “no”. That’s pretty awesome.

Blayze retains by pin in 8:10. German suplex gets the three and a HUGE pop. Great match. Blayze was the babyface in peril and Nakano was a bad ass. Why wasn’t this at Mania XI?

HBK and Diesel interview with their new tag belts.

Diesel wasn’t a promo guy at this point…although he looks like a bad ass here.

HBK calling Walter Payton a munchkin was something.

Intercontinental Championship
Diesel© vs. Razor Ramon

Ramon has Walter Payton in his corner.

Let’s be clear, Shawn Michaels was already one of the best heels in wrestling at this point.

This was Nash’s peak as a wrestler. Of course, he always did well against Kliq members.

Diesel is moving fast. Watching him here makes it obvious he phoned it in later in his career.

The dynamic of Shawn Michaels’ using Walter Payton’s inexperience to distract the referee…and attack Ramon…is fantastic.

One thing to say about Kevin Nash: He had the best sidewalk slam in the business.

Ramon is bumping everywhere.

Diesel with the abdominal stretch counter I always want to happen: the hip toss.

Shawn takes a punch from Ramon and goes flying off the apron into the guardrail. Wow!

Razor Ramon wins the title in 15:05. Michaels looks to hit Ramon with the IC belt, but Payton gets involved. Ref goes to Payton though, so HBK tries to superkick Ramon…and gets Diesel instead! Payton stops HBK from interfering, and Ramon wins his 2nd IC title. Another great match. No wonder Vince thought to put the title on Diesel after this. This of course was the start of the Diesel-HBK split and Diesel face turn.

Luger and Tatanka backstage with Todd. Tatanka has been claiming Luger sold out to Dibiase. Of course, how else will this end up?

Lex Luger vs. Tatanka

Fans are pretty dead, cheering Lex but not really.

Tatanka is acting all heel though. Fans respond in kind.

Here comes Dibiase! Just as Luger takes advantage.

Tatanka pins Lex Luger in 6:09. Luger yells at Dibiase and gets rolled up by Tatanka. Luger continues to yell at Dibiase, and Tatanka turns. Was a big deal at the time, even if Tatanka absolutely sucked from this point forward. Match wasn’t much, but it wasn’t horrible or anything.

Mabel vs. Jeff Jarrett

This would be cooler if Jarrett came out to “Rap is Crap”. I mean, that’s not possible, but still.

I have NO idea what Oscar is rapping.

Mabel was fine as a fun midcard babyface. Of course, he was main eventing Summerslam next year.

There’s a lot of Memphis style wrestling here (taunting, and wasting time).

Jarrett shoving Oscar into the stairs is a highlight.

Jarrett screws up a top rope fist drop. Looked terrible.

Match is structured poorly. Jarrett already survived a Mabel elbowdrop and corner avalanche. What?

Mabel’s spinkick was always cool.

ABE “KNUCKLEBALL” SCHWARTZ in the crowd. He’s on strike!

Way not to DQ Mabel for the Oscar punch ref. Lawler asks why that was allowed. GREAT QUESTION!

Jeff Jarrett pins Mabel in 5:50. Mabel misses a sit down splash, and Jarrett pins him off that. Well, everything was solid or at least okay before this. Throw away midcard match being horrible won’t hurt the show too badly. Yes, this was horrible. At least Jarrett won.

Ugh, more Mystery of the Undertaker crap. Behind them was a shadow of the Undertaker. It’s a shame this isn’t next, which I’ll explain later.

History of the Bret vs. Owen feud. How much did this get Owen over? He was a practically a jobber or wrestled for lower level teams before this feud and Bret helped him so much some thought he should have been the World Champion.

WWF Championship: Steel Cage Match
Bret Hart© vs. Owen Hart

Timeline here: Owen and Bret argue at Survivor Series ’93 after Owen was the only Hart Brother eliminated. They patch things up, but another miscommunication in their Tag Title match vs. the Quebecers led to Owen kicking “Bret’s leg out of his leg”. Owen Hart then upset Bret at Wrestlemania, but Bret won the World Title later, giving some credibility to Owen that he could be champ. At KOTR, Jim Neidhart helped Bret retain his title…but then helped Owen win KOTR. Now we are here.

Note: The British Bulldog is in the crowd, which is his return.

Lawler blames Stu and Helen Hart for this whole match. Lawler says that he’s happy to see the Bulldog because he beat Bret two years ago at Summerslam. They interview Neidhart too.

Owen goes RIGHT for Bret as soon as he walks in. Amazing. No waiting around bs here.

In any cage match, early escapes usually don’t make sense, but it’s an awesome dynamic here as Owen wants to win at any cost and Bret just wants this to end.

Suplex off the top rope cageside by Bret.

Owen nearly falls out of the cage, but I think it was intentional to get a reaction.

Just great non-stop action from the start here.

Sick crotch spot off the top rope by Owen.

Bret actually keeps Owen in at one point by merely his hair. Awesome.

Amazingly, the structure of this match is simple. Escape attempt, big move off the top rope. Bret and Owen make each attempt look like the match can be over. And it’s amazing.

Perfect piledriver from Owen Hart!

Bret with the most convincing door escape false finish I’d ever seen there. Owen stops him!

They’ve got the crowd in their hands with these door finishes.

Lawler’s commentary by the way, brilliant. Just adds to Owen’s legitimacy.

Match has been fought at a 50:50 split exactly. I can’t state how much this made Owen Hart.

Superplex from the (near) top of the cage by the Hitman! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Amazingly that’s not the finish! Owen stops Bret from escaping out the door, somehow.

Sharpshooter by Owen!

Bret counters into his own Sharpshooter!

Owen actually calls for Neidhart while in the Sharpshooter, which is genius in itself.

It’s still not over! Owen stops Bret again! A punch, and both go flying off the side of the cage!

Bret Hart retains in 32:22. Owen tries to escape again and Bret grabs him. Bret then leaves as well, and both men are a three foot drop from winning! Owen gets his leg caught and gets stuck in an inverted position on the cage, and Bret leaps down for the win! Yeah so that was incredible. It actually has a legit claim to Match of the Year over the Razor-Shawn ladder match at Mania, that’s how amazing this is. Non-stop back and forth action with Bret JUST coming out on top. No surprise this got five stars from Meltzer. One of my favorite matches of all time. Probably still the greatest cage match in WWE history, some may say of all time period.

Owen and Neidhart then lock Bret in the cage, fend off the family, and beat the hell out of Bret. Also amazing. Bulldog eventually finds his way in to chase them off.

You know what else that was amazing? That wasn’t the main event of the show. Kinda a shame to be honest.

The Undertaker vs. The Undertaker

We get a review of what happened at the Royal Rumble (which I also covered in my Rumble review). Taker died, rose, etc. Also a soliloquy. Can’t forget that. Yokozuna beat him. (So um…why not the Undertaker vs. Yokozuna revenge match here?). So apparently random people have seen the Undertaker, and Dibiase (which did make sense since Dibiase brought him in) claimed to buy him off.

Then Dibiase brought in…the Undertaker! I like that in that segment, Taker was so over no one cared Dibiase was the one bringing him back and cheered him huge.

Brian Lee played a good Undertaker on Halloween, but it didn’t really work. WWF kept with the story about Brian Lee being the Undertaker though. There’s a crazy Paul Bearer in this though.

Todd Pettengill takes a great random shot at Lawler in all this build up.

I’m gonna use the Underfaker term from now on, it’s just easier to write.

Let me give you a (the only) positive in this whole debacle. Underfaker uses the same entrance Undertaker was using his whole career. Lights off, but nothing too crazy. Lee looks pretty stiff coming down though, like he hadn’t mastered the walk. This is the first half of this point.

After Paul Bearer’s theatrics with a coffin and the urn and all, the real Undertaker shows up and admittedly, it’s pretty awesome. When he appears in all that blue/purple smoke Vince calls it perfectly (“NOW THAT’S THE UNDERTAKER”). Lawler also sells it brilliantly (from all there’s no Undertaker to “oh my gosh” in shock). That’s the second half of this point. The Undertaker had evolved.

All of it does take WAY too long though.

The purple gloved Undertaker is probably the most awesome version in terms of look. Of course, it led to perhaps a horrible run of opponents, so it was wasted. Unless you were a Mabel fan.

Ok another positive. Undertaker I believe debuted the corner light turning on thing here. Also awesome.

Onto the match. Sigh.

The Takers mirror the hat and tie taking off deal. Taker is a few inches taller than Lee (way not to lead Lee’s boot).

You really see the Undertaker vs. guy in an Undertaker costume on Halloween comparison once they meet in the middle of the ring.

It’s worth noting that Undertaker’s style had clearly changed already. Leapfrog by the Undertaker, for example.

The story becomes which Undertaker can no-sell the most. Seriously.

Some kind of Undertaker into the ropes move by Lee.

Vince says that the crowd is in awe. No, the crowd is silent because this sucks.

Faker gets a chokeslam, and Taker sits up. Fans cheer as that probably means the end is near.

Faker with a Tombstone! Sit up!

Faker goes for another one, but Taker counters! Tombstone…and Faker isn’t getting up.

Undertaker pins Underfaker in 8:57. Three tombstones. And it’s over. Pretty bad. Crowd was dead silent the whole time. I will say I think this a good attempt at an awful idea. (Unlike Kane vs. Kane, a bad attempt at an awful idea). Can’t go farther in the good column than that. Boring, terrible match, but it brought back the Undertaker and all and the fans are happy about that at the end. Probably didn’t help that Bret vs. Owen was incredible and right before this. Still, a big downer. Just put this between Tatanka-Luger and Jarrett-Mabel and you’re fine.

Some last second George Kennedy and Leslie Neilson stuff, with a closed case pun. Whatever.

This PPV was an A and even could have been pushed to an A+ with a great main event. Matches were mostly good, even Luger vs. Tatanka was decent. Jarrett vs. Mabel is inoffensive filler. There’s some big history too, as Diesel vs. Razor was a big sign of where the WWF was going, as well as the establishment of Owen Hart. Bret and the Undertaker held their places at the main event.

But man, you know we complain about CM Punk not being in main events as champion…yet somehow Bret didn’t end one PPV in his 1994 World Title reign. The other times, I can kinda see it, but this time, what the hell? Maybe it was because they wanted to run the Owen thing and not finish on that, but the match absolutely ruled.

Undertaker vs. Undertaker was that bad too. Cool entrance, even good finish, but it really messed up the flow this show had going.

But the rest of the card was very good to great mostly, and Bret vs. Owen is just incredible. And since we never saw the Underfaker again, I can accept this conclusion to an awful storyline. Still drops it a little from A though.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Spring Stampede 1994

Spring_Stampede_94

WCW Spring Stampede ‘94
April 17, 1994
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on June 7, 2014

An interesting era for WCW here. This is the last remnants of the old school NWA/WCW…as Hulkamania was only three months away. Ric Flair had come back to WCW last year and won the World Title at Starrcade, so Hogan vs. Flair was on the horizon. But first, a real throwback. Flair vs. Steamboat captivated audiences in the late 80s, with some hailing their matches as the greatest of all time. What could go wrong with a rematch?

We seem some of the last great days of some wrestlers here (Rick Rude) as the near end of some great WCW runs (Cactus Jack, Steve Austin). But for now, this is the last of the pre-Hogan era, and it is critically acclaimed. Let’s see how it looks 20 years later.

The Card

This show is apparently important enough to get an on-air National Anthem. Not sure if that means anything.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page was still a midcarder here. I think I’ve written enough about my dislike for Badd.

DDP looks a bit heavy here.

Kimberly! Woo!

DDP looks like the indy version of Diesel.

This actually hasn’t been that bad. It’s not particularly exciting, but it’s not horrid like I expected.

Johnny B. Badd pins Page in 5:55. Top rope sunset flip for the win. Not terrible, but pretty forgettable. Matched seemed like it was 3/4ths the speed it should have been.

WCW Television Championship
Steven Regal© vs. Flyin’ Brian

Pillman and Regal have some nice exchanges early.

Pillman works on the arm. A little weird as Regal has his leg bandaged and it seems like that should be the target.

There actually is some history here. Last year the Hollywood Blondes were the tag champs, but Pillman got hurt and Regal subbed in for him. Austin and Regal lost the belts.

This match has turned into Regal stretching Pillman for 10 minutes. Not sure why they went that route.

It’s being announced that 10 minutes have expired and 5 minutes are left. I feel like the finish is obvious.

Regal retains via time limit draw in 15:00. Ugh, a time limit draw. Pillman makes his last minute comeback but it doesn’t work as they go over the top rope. Regal for some reason when time was expiring went back into the ring. Horrible logic. Disappointing match considering who is involved. Regal just stretched Pillman for 12 of the 15 minutes, and it killed all the momentum. End was good until the very end. And the finish sucks.

Col. Robert Parker with Bunkhouse Bunk interview. Nothing really to note here.

Chicago Street Fight
Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne

Part of a huge de-push for Cactus…he was feuding with World Champ Vader last year.

Fun brawl here reminds me of some ECW ’95 stuff.

Holy shit that was a shovel shot right to Foley’s head.

Foley just gets shoved off the stage and he takes a back bump. God damn.

The Nasty Boys win when Sags pins Cactus in 8:58. Another sick shovel shot to Foley’s head while he lies on the concrete. Then the pin. Wow. This is 1994? This match is years ahead of its time and Foley takes a really sick bump on the floor at the end. Great brawl even if it seemed rather messy at times.

Badd wants a US Title Match. Woo?

WCW US Championship
Stunning Steve Austin© vs. The Great Muta

Er…I believe this is heel vs. heel. Sounds like a disaster.

There are big Muta chants, so I’m wrong about heel vs. heel.

Pretty slow to start, with Muta wearing down Austin.

They are announcing the time again. Does this have a time limit?

Austin with a creative jump off the middle of the middle rope. No typo there.

Muta uses Austin’s own move, the stun gun. Nice.

Top rope hurricanrana!

Muta kicks Parker off the apron! Crowd is hot.

Stunning Steve wins by DQ in 16:30. Ugh, Muta backdrops Austin over the top and gets DQed. That finish will never be any good. Crowd was just getting into this and it was picking up. Finish ruined it. Slow match that did build up. Just ugh.

WCW International Championship
Rick Rude© vs. Sting

The International Championship was a weird title that was a spinoff of the NWA World Title I believe. It used the Big Gold Belt though, which was smartly changed to the WCW World Title when Flair unified it by beating Sting (omg spoiler).

Harley Race comes out and says Vader wants the winner of this. Race attacks Sting and Sting blasts him.

Here we go! Sting starts off on fire!

Rude works on the back, which is ironic considering what would happen two weeks later.

No idea Rude had a victory roll in his arsenal, even if it was botched a bit.

Whoa Rude sells a backdrop by rotating all around. I’ve probably seen him do that before, but still. He doesn’t land on his feet though.

Scorpion!

It’s VADER!

Sting fights them off, but Rude retakes control.

Harley Race screws up the finish by forgetting his role, leaving Rude to just wait there!

Sting pins Rude to win the title in 12:50. Rude goes for Rude Awakening, but Race swings a chair and Sting escapes, and Rude gets nailed. Sting gets rid of Race and wins. Decent match, although it felt a little off. I’d even say it was good. Rude would injure his back in the rematch 2 weeks later, ending his active wrestling career.

Bunkhouse Match
Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes

Dustin Rhodes bleeds pretty early here after a piece of wood gets broken over his head.

Brutal belt whipping from Bunk. Ouch.

This has been a good old school brawl.

Bulldog! But Dustin chases Parker away.

Bunk pins Dustin in 14:11. Brass knuckles shot for the win. I think the Bulldog would have been a fine finish, but this works too. Pretty solid brawl.

Vader and Rude go at it in the back.

The Boss vs. Vader

I must say, it took some big stones to name the Bossman the Boss and dress him up as cop. No wonder they got sued.

Man Boss is over. (CLEVER!) Vader accidentally takes out Race.

Boss just drops Vader on the railing. Serious strength there.

Vader just backdrops Boss over the top rope. I never knew the Bossman did stuff like this.

Boss one arm slams Vader off the ropes when Vader went for the Vader Bomb. Wow!

DDT off the top from Boss? What?!

Bossman comes off the top and Vader catches in midair and slams! What?!

Vader pins The Boss in 9:58. Vadersault! Wow, this was a really good match. I had no idea that the Boss could do any of this. Postmatch shows Boss beat up Vader with a nightstick, and Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel stops him…and actually takes his gimmick away. This is because they were getting sued, of course.

WCW World Championship
Ric Flair© vs. Ricky Steamboat

The joke here is that there’s no story here: they just looked for an excuse to have these two have a great match.

Mat wrestling to start, but a vicious slap wakes the crowd up by Steamboat.

A lot of the match focuses on how well each man knows the other. Good stuff.

Steamboat gets a figure four on Flair! Nice!

Steamboat with the most obvious counter to the figure four that I’d never seen, just using his hands to block Ric dropping the leg.

Flair and Steamboat wrestle to a no-contest via double pin in 32:19. Steamboat gets several near falls, then locks in a double chickenwing, the move that won him the title in 1989. Flair counters by dropping back, so he ends up on top of Steamboat still in the hold. Both men’s shoulders are down for the count. Steamboat thinks he’s won and the crowd does too, but the commish rewards the title to Flair. Look, it’s a great match, but I’m never going to buy a draw as a finish to the main event. Maybe that worked in the 80s, but this is 1994. The Saturday Night rematch should have happened 1st, then this should have been the rematch. For the record while I do think this match is great…it does feel a little forced in terms of the rematch. It feels more like a tribute to their 1989 series and doesn’t stand on its own.

What a tough PPV to judge. Positives: Several good to great matches. Innovative stuff with the Street Fight. Negatives: Every title match had a bullshit finish (Time Limit draw, over the top DQ, Race nails Rude with a chair, double pin), some matches that could have absolutely owned didn’t (Regal-Pillman).

I also don’t think Flair vs. Steamboat is revolutionary or anything that would put this PPV over the top. Just a great match.

This PPV had A+ potential, but way too much eh stuff brought it down big. If the main had a finish I’d be happier, but it didn’t so I’m not. It’s still pretty good overall though.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the WWF 1994 Royal Rumble

Ad-rr94

1994 Royal Rumble
January 22, 1994
Providence, RI
Reviewed on May 29, 2014

Background: Hulkamania had burnt out, brother.

Vince McMahon made a mistake in 1993. Thinking that Hulk Hogan still had some juice at the time, McMahon prematurely ended the first Bret Hart World Title run and had Hogan win the title at Wrestlemania IX via Yokozuna. The Hogan reign was a shell of the previous eight years. It set the WWE back a year. If you believe Vince was trying to build Hogan vs. Hart at Summerslam 93, fine, but it sure as well didn’t seem to work out that way post Hogan.

It’s interesting in 2014 that we talk about the whole forced push (Batista) vs. the naturally over star (Daniel Bryan). We got the same thing in 1993/1994. The difference is, being the TOP guy mattered a hell of a lot more then than it does not. The top guy needed the title in 1993. Now, it depends. While Lex Luger got some good reactions in his feud with Yoko, he was the poor man’s Hogan…and was not in the popularity discussion with Hart. Worse, Luger was actually the #3 babyface popularity wise as Survivor Series 93 showed (The Undertaker).

The 1994 Royal Rumble was perhaps the most organic way a world title program for a year had ever been decided. It’s interesting how 20 years later WWE dared not to try the same thing. Interestingly enough, they tease Bret not being in the 94 Rumble.

The Card

Ted Dibiase is Vince’s commentary partner!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tatanka

Tatanka still had that undefeated streak going here. (Actually, Dibiase says Tatanka has one loss, so I’m wrong there).

Match was originally Tatanka vs. Ludvig Borga. Borga left the WWF right before this.

Interestingly these two would be the members of the Million Dollar Corporation going for the Tag belts the next year.

Dibiase and McMahon mention that Tatanka and Bigelow may be running on empty in regards to stamina for the Rumble. Makes you wonder why someone would take a match before the Rumble, no?

Never would have expected a double crossbody spot between Bigelow and Tatanka.

Awesome heel spot here. Bigelow pounds on Tatanka..but Tatanka is…er…Nativing Up? Tatanka keeps no selling the forearms…so Bigelow just does a standing dropkick to the back of the head…then he mocks the Tatanka hopping or whatever he is doing. Bigelow can be awesome sometimes.

Tatanka pins Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:12. Bigelow misses the top rope moonsault…and Tatanka hits a flying crossbody off the top for the win. Decent match. I don’t really think much of Tatanka (who did really?) and I think this may be the best match I’ve ever seen of his. Not a bad opener.

Bret says 1-2-3 Keep somehow in an interview. Whatever, tag title match time.

WWF World Tag Team Title
The Quebecers© vs. The Hart Brothers

Story here: Owen and Bret collided at Survivor Series 93 in their match which resulted in Owen being the only Hart eliminated. Owen pushed Bret around a bit, blaming him. Owen challenged Bret, Bret said he’d never fight his own brother, but then they reconciled over Christmas for this tag team title match.

Gotta like Jacques trying to stir trouble between Owen and Bret early on. Quebecers were a great heel team.

Random botch from Owen early on when he puts on the brakes on a Jacques backdrop attempt.

Classic Hart Foundation Backbreaker Forearm combo from the Harts.

The Harts are doing a lot of lack of chemistry spots…which I can’t tell if it’s intentional or not, but I think it is. (Example, Bret trying to tag Owen when Owen had his boot on the top rope for Bret to slam Pierre into). Match is doing a good job of making this match seem like teamwork vs. individuals.

Double stun gun to Owen!

I do think this match made Owen someone that money could be made from.

Johnny Polo (Quote the Polo, never more) pulls down the rope and Bret goes flying to the outside (which didn’t look good to be honest). Bret injures the knee, and the Quebecers pounce!

Owen puts Bret back into the ring, which I never caught as a selfish move until a lot later. I’ll get into that afterwards.

The Quebecers retain via ref stoppage in 16:48. Bret moves out of the way as Pieree crashes to the mat. Instead of tagging Owen though, Bret goes for the Sharpshooter…but his knee collapses. Ref calls it there. One of the greatest heel turns ever follow, as Owen kicks Bret’s knee down…and when Bret gets carried out we get the famous “kicked your leg out of your leg” promo.

I think the match is rather disjointed. I do think the finish itself kinda sucks, even if it works storyline wise (and to protect Bret as the blame can be placed on the referee). It doesn’t really flow…but I think that’s because of the storyline of building up tension between Bret and Owen, and how they really weren’t on the same page. And the storyline is great. The best part about it is that the fans can choose how they feel about it. Was Bret selfish about trying to win the match on his own? Was Owen right to feel this way (surely real life little brothers can relate). Or was Owen selfish in putting Bret in the ring with the blown knee (the way the WWF went about it…as Owen’s whole thing for a year was about him trying to win his first title, which he does at Mania XI 14 months later). Interestingly, you can also see a lot of parallels between this feud and Taker vs. Kane in 97-98. Right down to the temporary reunion.

Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon© vs. IRS

Story here doesn’t really involve IRS. Former IC Champ Shawn Michaels was suspended (legit) and was stripped of the IC title. Then they ran the former IC Champ who was never beaten (HBK) vs. current champ (Ramon). Really leaves this one in doubt, eh?

For some reason, Jim Ross and Gorilla are commenating on this match.

IRS cuts a promo. All the tax cheats showed up tonight. I do think the IRS character was great.

Creative spot with IRS coming off the top then blocking Razor’s boot.

Ref bump. Briefcase shot to IRS!

It’s HBK! Fake IC belt shot to Razor!

IRS wins the title! Wait, second ref!

Razor Ramon retains by pin in 11:30. IRS gets screwed. Second ref comes out and tells the original ref that HBK interfered. Razor’s Edge to IRS and the pin. Here’s why this finish sucks: First off, always hate the referee correcting the call finish. Just have two refs then. And also…RAZOR HIT HIM WITH THE BRIEFCASE FIRST! Jeez. Anyway, match was uneventful, and this was just HBK-Razor Mania X build.

WWF Championship: Casket Match
Yokozuna© vs. The Undertaker

Story: Undertaker was added as a member of the All-American team at Survivor Series 93. Taker survived a Banzai Drop. Set up this match…where Cornette got in the stip that this was Taker’s only title match…but Paul Bearer got in that it would be a Casket match.

This is the last of the Western Mortician Undertaker. The promo video for this is Taker building the casket and Yokozuna looking scared shitless. The only problem here is that it makes Yoko look kinda weak…but this was how mid 90s Taker was booked. It also kinda explains the shit finish we’re going to get here.

In defense of the booking, Yokozuna is afraid of the casket and NOT the Undertaker.

Yoko hilariously runs into the ringpost on his own.

Taker whacks Yokozuna with a chair! To be honest, this is a fun start.

Salt to the eyes!

Chokeslam on Yokozuna! Big DDT from the Taker!

Yoko’s in the box! Here is where it goes off the rails.

It’s Crush!

Taker takes him out.

It’s the Great Kabuki and Tenryu!

Taker takes them out!

Bam Bam Bigelow!

Mr. Fuji stole the urn. But Bearer steals it back! And here’s the Taker comeback!

Jeff Jarrett, Adam Bomb, the Headshrinkers, Diesel! It’s a 10 on 1!

POWER OF THE URN. Taker still fights back.

Yoko steals the urn…urn shot to Taker! Then we get some green smoke or something. I’m the biggest Undertaker fan of them all, but lol what the hell? Hey um…why didn’t these 10 guys just attack Paul Bearer?

Yokozuna retains the title in 14:18. They all beat up on Taker a bit more, then dump him in the casket. Bigelow jumps on it to close it. Taker does some crazy resurrection stuff with a big speech. Really, horrible stuff even for mid 90s Undertaker standards. Look, I get and even embrace the idea of the indestructible Terminator Undertaker of the mid 90s. I was a big fan. I’m all for Taker kicking out of a finish or two. But this is a bit much. If it takes 10 guys to beat the Undertaker…one of those guys being the dominant World Champ that ended Hulkamania, we’ve went a little too far here. If they wanted to run this finish, should have had maybe just Crush, Kabuki and Tenryu come in, and have Yoko drop five or six Banzai Drops. Of course, this whole idea made the King of the Ring 95 finish between Taker and Mabel look really ridiculous…and while Taker vs. Yoko was a good match later in 94 (probably because Taker practically killed him), this Taker character got wasted until Mankind showed up in 1996.

And really, the levitation and resurrection and all that stuff. Really too much. Green smoke and all. Match was pretty good until the clusterfuck. Some say it’s the worst match ever. I wouldn’t go that far, as there has been a lot of crap out there (I think Sting vs. Jarrett and six fake Stings is worse, for example), but it was pretty bad.

The Royal Rumble

Nice 20 second Royal Rumble interviews!

I think this was the first year to do 90 second intervals.

#1 is Scotty Steiner! Pre-Big Poppa Pump of course.

#2 is a Headshrinker, Samu.

#3 is Rick Steiner. Well so much for Samu.

Scott Steiner oddly shoves Samu off the apron to take him out. Weird elimination.

#4 is Kwang. Green Mist takes incapacitates Rick and evens the odds.

Scott practically kicks Kwang’s ass.

Huge heat for #5 Owen Hart. That’s how you know the angle earlier worked.

Owen dumps Rick Steiner.

#6 is Bart Gunn.

We are told there was an altercation backstage!

#7 is Diesel.

Diesel goes on an ass kicking spree. Bart Gunn is gone. Scott Steiner is gone! Owen Hart is gone to huge cheers! Kwang tries to hang on, but he’s gone too. Diesel Power has arrived!

#8 is Bob Backlund! Funny enough, these two were a WWF World Title match by November…where Diesel won the title.

Backlund almost gets rid of Diesel, but Diesel holds on…then just takes out Backlund. This is the match that got Diesel over, for the record.

#9 is Billy Gunn. And there he goes! Great reaction for Diesel. This was the first time something like this (one man owning the Rumble) had ever happened.

Kabuki and Tenryu have beat up Lex Luger in the back. They are hired to make sure Luger doesn’t win.

#10 is Virgil. Dibiase is of course going to enjoy this. Of course, Diesel takes him out. Apparently this could have been Kamala. Commentary like that is gold (Dibiase’s).

#11 is Randy Savage. This will be the end of Diesel Power for now. Diesel’s face sells it well though. Of course Dibiase doesn’t like him either.

#12 is Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett thinks he got rid of Savage..but he doesn’t…and Savage dumps him as…

#13 comes…and it’s Crush. Savage and Crush were feuding here.

Crush and Diesel prove to be too much for Savage, and as #14 comes, they get rid of him (what a waste of Randy Savage).

#14 is Doink. Comedy spots coming. Doink laughs at both Crush and Diesel. Flower water squirter to the eyes of both men. Steps on the foot! Poke in the eye. Going for the bodyslam on Diesel is Doink’s downfall.

#15 is Doink’s enemy, Bam Bam Bigelow. Bam Bam sends Doink flying out, and I believe this injured Doink legit.

#16 is Mabel. A lot of big men in there.

#17 is Thurmann Sparky Plugg. In other words, Bob Holly. This is his debut.

#18 is Shawn Michaels…and it looks like Diesel wants a piece of him! Shawn convinces him otherwise, but everyone attacks Diesel. Michaels actually does the final push, and Diesel is gone and gets a huge ovation. Also planted a really early seed in the Diesel-HBK storyline over the next year.

#19. Mo. Woo?

Greg Valentine is #20. Tatanka is #21. Time killing portion of the match now. Shawn is doing a lot of near eliminations.

#22 is Kabuki. Means we are getting Luger soon…of course…if LUGER CAN MAKE IT.

Everybody (but Mo) dumps Mabel.

#23 is Lex Luger! Good pop for him. Of course, we’ll see how that ends up.

Goodbye Kabuki. But Fuji’s other hired gun is #24…here comes Tenryu.

Vince says we’ll see Crush, Kabuki and Tenryu triple team Luger. Um…Kabuki is gone.

Tenryu with some awful looking chops. Probably why before I knew who he was I didn’t take him seriously as a threat.

#25 is no-one! Sadly, that must be Bret. What a shame.

Tenryu ups the chops on the next exchange.

#26 is Rick Martel.

Crazy Luger-Tatanka exchange.

#27 is…Bret Hart! Great fake with #25 (who Vince says was Bastion Booger, who got sick. Thank god). Huge reaction for Bret. Bret is heavily limping and everyone goes for the knee.

#28 is Fatu.

There goes Crush by Luger.

#29 is Marty Jannetty. Him and HBK just go at it! I love this stuff and you just don’t see it today. Two men who have always been enemies just going at it.

#30 is Adam Bomb. Your winner is in the ring! Despite Vince saying Bomb is going to win…I don’t see it.

There’s a 5 minute period where nothing happens.

People finally start to get dumped. Valentine was first. Adam Bomb probably has the worst #30 performance ever. Dibiase kills him for it.

Bret, Fatu, Luger and HBK are the final four. You know, one of these guys ran over the biggest star in the business six years from this point.

Luger and Bret simultaneously dump HBK and Fatu out.

Bret Hart and Lex Luger co-win the Rumble in 55:08. Luger and Bret go over at the same time (later proven that Bret hit last, but whatever). Jack Tunney comes down to make a decision. For the record, when they announce Luger as the winner, crowd cheers at first…but when Bret gets announced he gets a HUGE pop. When they keep going, the fans turn on Luger. This was the end of the Lex Luger as World Champion idea. Bret was the right choice here and for all of 1994. I think this was a pretty good Rumble, although the time after #30 was a bit slow. The finish though, sucks. Absolutely sucks. Just restart it right after the crowd reactions and let Bret win at least! I mean a draw? A draw? Come on. Hell at least run Yoko down there to lay both men out or something. What a lame ending.

What hurts this card a ton is that only one match had a clean finish: Tatanka vs. Bam Bam. Tag title match had a crap finish. IC title match had a Dusty Finish. No idea what Taker vs. Yoko was as a finish. And of course, the 2nd worst Rumble finish over (1999!).

But this card is significant historically. The rise of the Hitman. HBK and Diesel becoming stars in the Rumble. Owen Hart’s development into Summerslam main eventer. Undertaker going full terminator. A lot of these pieces would carry the WWF through 1995. And that means something.

That…and it is a well wrestled show overall. Only Taker vs. Yoko was bad, but it was pretty decent right up until the 10 on 1 green smoking urn or whatever.

Could have been high Bs with some good finishes.

Final Grade: B-