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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews Wrestlemania XI

WrestleManiaXI

WWF Wrestlemania XI
April 2, 1995
Hartford, CT
Reviewed on July 10, 2014

Things were going wrong in the WWF, even if Vince didn’t want to accept it yet.

It seemed that the WWF was going into a really interesting direction with Bret Hart’s banner 1994 year. But ultimately Vince still didn’t believe a smaller guy could be THE guy, at least the real super over guy and Diesel was given the rocket babyface push. Diesel, who was actually pretty decent with the right opponent in 1994 and a pretty entertaining heel became a bland babyface. He also made a great point in a recent shoot interview that they gave him the rocket push…but wouldn’t let him go over Bret at the Rumble, which hurt his credibility somewhat. Of course, his buddy Shawn Michaels was basically 1b in terms of getting guys over with his selling, so Diesel had a chance here.

The WWF’s booking overall in 1995 is puzzling. It’s not really seen yet, but eventually Vince puts arguable his top 5 guys on the same alignment (Bret, Diesel, Shawn, Undertaker and Razor Ramon. Even stranger, Bam Bam Bigelow would join that face side as well as Vince tried to push him.

The Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor spectacle was interesting to say the least. Vince still had all the celebrities he could afford (note, in 1996 Mania had none) but it turned out to be more of a parody of previous Manias. Taylor vs. Bam Bam wasn’t Mr. T vs. Piper. Pam Anderson with Diesel didn’t have a good effect as Diesel just wasn’t Hulk Hogan. Hogan was mega over at the time, it seemed like he belonged with Cyndi Lauper or whomever. Just like The Rock would now. Not Big Daddy Cool Diesel…

Also, interestingly, Wrestlemania XI was held in Hartford. With all due respect to Hartford, this was a MAJOR step down from everywhere else Mania had been (NY, NY/LA/Chi, DET, AC, AC, TOR, LA, INDY, Vegas, NY). It smells to me like Vince knew money was gonna be tight, and to him it didn’t matter where the event was.

The Card

Here are some celebrities: Pam Anderson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nick Turturro, Salt-N-Peppa. Of course LT is in the main event.

The Allied Powers (Lex Luger and The British Bulldog) vs. The Blu Bros.

The Blu brothers are Ron and Don Harris.

The Blus also have Uncle Zebekiah, the future Zeb Culter. Zeb is against all American Luger here!

Bulldog and Luger should have had a better tag run, but Vince was still gonna push the Bulldog in singles (hence a later heel turn), and to be honest, they just didn’t have any chemistry together.

Evidence of this is Luger powerslamming a Blu Twin right onto the Bulldog.

The Bulldog’s hanging vertical suplex was one of my favorite moves as a kid.

Eli (I’m guessing here) with a terrible backbreaker on the Bulldog.

The flying forearm just had no steam as a top move. The Torture Rack was better.

TWIN MAGIC! Luger is shocked that the forearm didn’t get the job down. Crowd doesn’t care.

The Allied Powers win when the Bulldog pinned…Jacob? in 6:34. So Luger is upset his forearm not finishing the match, then the Bulldog hits a sunset flip on Jacob for the win. So much for tagging or anything as clearly Luger was legal, but Bulldog. In fact, there was ONE tag on the Allied Powers side. Jacob also kicks out. Awful opener, especially for Wrestlemania.

STORY OF BACKSTAGE…no one can find Pamela Anderson. Nick Turturro is a detective looking for her and finds Jenny McCarthy instead. Of course, there are technical problems, so we don’t hear a thing said.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Jeff Jarrett© vs. Razor Ramon

This was probably Jarrett’s peak depending on how you feel about 1999.

This is a rematch from the Rumble where Jarrett beat Ramon for the title. The Roadie got involved.

Ramon has The 1-2-3 Kid with him.

Ramon’s pyro goes off after he attacks Jarrett. Weird.

Cool Jarrett fake out off the 2nd rope…turns into a mistimed something as Razor wasn’t in position?

Jarrett tries to leave but the Kid blocks him. Why Jarrett just didn’t shove the Kid out of the way I don’t know.

Not sure why I should be okay with face Kid getting involved. Lawler points out correctly that the Kid deserved to get kicked into the steel railing.

Jarrett works on the knee 10 minutes in, the same one Ramon hurt at the Rumble. Wonder why that wasn’t the game plan from the start.

Razor Ramon wins by DQ in 13:26. Seriously, all that for a DQ finish? Ramon has Jarrett in the Razor’s Edge and the Roadie attacks the knee for the DQ. This is Wrestlemania. Shrug. On the flip side…it’s not a bad match. Nothing special, but a lot better than the opener. Still, ugh at the finish. Just ugh.

Ha, they just redo the McCarthy segment. Then Shawn Michaels is in the house!

The Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy

Some random MLB umpire is the referee. No idea why.

This storyline goes back to the Taker vs. Taker Summerslam feud where Ted Dibiase’s Undertaker lost. Then Dibiase send IRS Bundy and Bigelow to attack Taker during the Survivor Series Casket Match. Taker vs. IRS followed at The Rumble, where the Million Dollar Corp got the urn. And here we are.

What a waste of the Undertaker. In terms of look and appearance, Undertaker’s gimmick was at his peak here. Best entrance in all of wrestling. While Taker vs. Bundy name wise seems like a big deal…Bundy really couldn’t work and was an 80s guy.

Taker’s 1995 is really something: IRS, Bundy, Kama, Mabel. What a waste.

Taker gets back the urn, but Kama comes down to take it back from Paul Bearer.

Bundy’s clotheslines look awful.

The Undertaker pins King Kong Bundy in 6:36. In a cool moment, Bundy gives Taker the avalanche and Taker no-sells it, which is pretty bad ass and gets a rise from the crowd. Taker wins with the flying clothesline, I guess Bundy wasn’t going for the Chokeslam. Anyway, awful. Taker hits Bundy with some stuff that Bundy “sells”, Bundy hits horrible offense on Taker, the urn deal, and the finish. That’s the match. Somehow though…it was better than Taker’s last Mania match at Mania IX.

MONGO. Somehow he messes up his one line. He’s on the NFL team that will second LT. The NFLers challenge the Million Dollar Corp. That’s actually a great idea, they should have had a 10 man tag.

Turturro runs into Taylor Thomas and Bob Backlund playing chess. Backlund doesn’t know who Pamela Anderson is…and then Taylor Thomas checkmates him. Backlund goes crazy over JTT’s smarts. Funny segment, really because Backlund owns.

WWF World Tag Team Championship
The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Owen Hart and a secret partner

Owen says he picked his partner because he beat his brother Bret at Mania…Yokozuna! Might as well hand the belts over now Gunns.

Lawler and McMahon sell it like its death for the Gunns. Which is awesome.

The Gunns were not good promo men. At least not in ’95.

Only Shawn and Sid have had a good promo tonight. And Backlund…technically…

Lawler brings up that Owen debuted as the Blue Blazer at Mania six years prior. I thought that was interesting.

Owen’s partner was supposed to be Jim Neidhart, be he was fired previously, at least according to Bret’s book.

This is a very well booked match. Focus is the Gunns keeping Yoko on the outside and doing all they can to double team Owen. It is interesting to see what is basically the inverse of the hot tag setup.

Huge legdrop on Billy, and Billy sells it like a million dollars by rolling to the outside and crashing to the floor.

Billy Gunn hairpulling Yokozuna down was a little ridiculous.

Owen Hart and Yokozuna win the Tag Titles when Owen pinned Billy in 9:42. Yoko squashes Billy, then dumps Bart. Owen gets tagged in just to make the pin, which is also genius booking. It looks like Owen Hart took the shortest shortcut ever to win a title…which fit perfectly with the character. A good Mania moment for Owen, and a solid match overall. Finally.

Solid promo for Bam Bam Bigelow. Amazing he didn’t draw more money.

I Quit Match
Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart

Roddy Piper is the ref.

This spawned from the Bret vs. Backlund WWF Title match at Survivor Series where Helen Hart threw in the towel. Of course, Bret never submitted, but since the towel was thrown in the title changed hands.

So here’s a huge problem with this match. Piper sticks the mic in Backlund and Bret’s face asking “whadda say”. Backlund sounds hilarious saying no. Fans audibly laugh. Bret was not happy about this.

Lawler asks Vince who Bret beat at Mania VIII and Vince says the British Bulldog. Seriously?

This match is basically Stone Cold vs. Bret at Mania 13…only the exact opposite. It’s all submission holds and it’s not good.

Bret Hart makes Backlund submit in 9:34. Backlund gets the Chicken Wing, but Bret counters and locks Backlund in his own hold. Backlund never says I quit, instead we just hear some groans and Piper calls it. Terrible. Bret called this his worst PPV match ever and I don’t blame him. Bret even looked pissed when it was over. Backlund says he saw the light afterwards. Weird thing too…these two had a great match (I think) at Survivor Series only five months earlier.

Pam Anderson can’t be found! Oh no!

Classic awful Diesel promo. It was fine until he screws up at the end.

WWF Championship
Diesel© vs. Shawn Michaels

Celebrity time keeper and announcers and whatever.

Shawn comes out with Jenny McCarthy. And Diesel is with Pam Anderson! Well no kidding.

Shawn does look like a superstar here.

Shawn has Sid in his corner. Vince still wasn’t sure HBK could look like a threat with a big man.

For the second match, we get some action…then the face’s in ring pyro. Weird.

Pam Anderson looks embarrassed to be there.

Shawn Michaels has already stolen the show and we are 3 minutes in.

Michaels’ actually clotheslines Diesel over and skins the cat. That would have been GREAT as the Rumble ’96 finish.

Michaels off the top to the outside on Diesel! Michaels is literally saving Wrestlemania here.

Michaels off the apron and splashes Diesel on the floor. You didn’t see this stuff in WWF ’95 for sure.

HBK bulldogs Diesel by leaping off the top!

The match does slow down and something seems off about Diesel’s comeback. It’s just hard to have sympathy for Diesel’s character.

We miss the ref bumping off the apron.

So HBK superkicks Diesel, but the ref is out. Sid throws the ref back in. Diesel gets a strong kickout at 2. There are boos. This is a very important moment in the WWF, and I will write why after the match is over.

Backsuplex not enough either for HBK, and the crowd seems upset, it does look like the crowd turned against Diesel here, and they have.

Diesel catches HBK off the top in the sidewalk slam position, which is ridiculous (in a good way).

There is no heat on the Diesel Hulk Up.

Diesel pins Michaels to retain in 20:35. Horrible powerbomb (which Nash blamed HBK in a shoot) to win. Match was great early on, but kinda went south, especially at the end. So let’s talk about the kickout.

There are two accounts here, Shawn’s and Bret Hart’s. According to Shawn, he and Diesel were laying out the match and Vince wanted Diesel to look strong on a kickout. Shawn felt Diesel needed all the sympathy he could get (he is correct…and for the record HE did a great job getting it for him until the kickout) and this needed to be a one…two…barely up. HBK compared it to Lex Luger’s 93-94 push interestingly. He thought it would look like shoving Diesel shown the fans throats. HBK and Diesel insisted on the slow kickout, and Vince said no.

Bret’s account of it was that as soon as the kickout happened, he thought Shawn had played Diesel and selfishly did all he could to make himself look good at Diesel’s expense (I think Shawn did do this, but not at Diesel’s expense. He got them BOTH over until the end). Bret thought Diesel’s reign was as good as dead when this happened, and he wasn’t completely wrong, although there are other reasons.

Also in Shawn’s book, Shawn say the reaction is what led to his face turn the night after, which I’ll get to at the end of the review. Let’s just say that was a huge mistake in hindsight, especially since HBK was probably the best heel in the business at the time.

Anyway, very good match, but I think the end (and the messed up finish) hold it back from being great. Somehow this was the overall Match of the Year for 1995. Crazy to me, since Bret Hart vs. Diesel at Survivor Series ’95 was a much better match.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor

Media has been all over ringside for this show, it reminds me of Bash at the Beach ’98.

We get some NFL vs. Million Dollar Corporation stuff. Heavy chant for LT.

Bam Bam threatens Salt-n-Pepa. Again, Bigelow would have drawn money as a monster heel.

After listening to how Pat Patterson would insert himself into Mania somehow to get a Mania paycheck, I think it’s funny seeing him as the ref here.

Huge start for LT gets the fans into it.

Bulldog from Taylor!

Taylor actually looks pretty damn good in the ring early on.

Bigelow gets the advantage (which he should). Still good considering LT is involved.

Bigelow hits a huge moonsault, but then tends to the knee. Seems like a way to get Bigelow’s moonsault in without LT just kicking out of it…but it really doesn’t look great for Bam Bam when LT kicks out anyway.

Bigelow’s spinkick owns.

LT survives a top rope Bigelow headbutt. I never realized it, but these are pretty big problems for Bigelow’s future.

Lawrence Taylor pins Bam Bam Bigelow in 11:42. Taylor makes a comeback, then comes off the 2nd rope with a flying forearm for the win. Forearm did look good. This is a decent match, even good, especially considering that Taylor isn’t a pro wrestler. There is a problem here though. Bigelow wasn’t established as a main eventer and this loss did hurt him. Someone like Big Show could have done this, simply because Show is established, if that makes sense. LT survived a top rope Bigelow moonsault and flying headbutt. Still, for what it was, it was very good. I don’t think it should have mained though.

Let’s talk about the two main events, because without them (and Owen!) this show is a flat out F.

This becoming the catalyst to turning Shawn face was an unfortunate…near fatal WWF error. Shawn as a heel could have rematched Diesel (since he did beat him in this match really, ref bump screwed him), and if he won the title even faced off against Bret, Undertaker, and even had his match vs. Razor be the World Title match at Summerslam. INSTEAD…we got Shawn turning face…and Diesel vs. Sid for a few months before transitioning into Diesel vs. Mabel. They could have even done Shawn turning on Sid and did heel Shawn vs. Sid, as Shawn proved in ’96 he (and only he) could get great matches out of Sid. Keeping Shawn heel, and probably even winning the title, was the way to go.

So we need top heels. Somehow we LOSE a top heel here in Shawn. What about Bigelow? Nope. Somehow Bigelow gets turned face because he lost to LT. The remaining top heels were Yoko and Owen (which would have been fine to be honest, although Yoko had lost a step due to being huge…or bigger than he was) Jarrett and Sid. Faces were Bret, Diesel, Taker, Shawn etc. Talk about unbalanced.

Awful matches. A DQ in the IC title match. A decent tag. A very good World Title match that was hurt by its last 5 minutes. A main event that wasn’t bad, but I mean, it’s supposed to be the Wrestlemania Main Event. Pointless celebs.

Normally something like this is a C, but like I said, this is Wrestlemania, and really should have been better than it was.

Final Grade: D

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-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Beash Blast ’92

Beachblast92

WCW Beach Blast 92
June 20, 1992
Mobile, AL
Reviewed on March 26, 2014

Background: To be honest, I don’t know my WCW 1992 very well, but I do know of some things that were going on and how the company was struggling as a result.

WCW had lost their top two main eventers in the past year. The Jim Herd era had the NWA/WCW’s top draw leave without dropping the belt, as Ric Flair left in the middle of 1991. This led to the end of the new Lex Luger run as well…as Luger never beating Flair ended up ruining Luger’s reign, and he bolted shortly thereafter. This left Sting as the only top guy. WCW did have talent though, and we’ll see it on this show.

Herd was fired after the Flair fiasco and I believe Kip Frye took over for a while…but eventually Bill Watts was the head guy in WCW for this point. Watts was an extreme mixed bag…extremely old school…but at least his booking provided good stories and solid action. So let’s see how Beach Blast 92 shakes out.

The Card

Main event tonight is a World Tag Team Title bout: Steiners vs. Dr. Death and Terry Gordy. I guess that passes in 1992.

Bill Watts is on screen talking about tonight’s matches. He talks about hard hitting action and rules and stuff. I do think there is a way to do the old school stuff, and Watts was the way to do it. They weren’t going to beat the WWF like that though.

WCW Lightheavyweight Championship
Flyin’ Brian Pillman vs. Scotty Flamingo

I wonder how much it killed Raven to be Scotty Flamingo.

Crowd is very into Pillman. I think this is right after a series of matches with Jushin Liger.

Well wrestles match so far. Watts’ rules had no over the top rope moves…so unsurprisingly we’re getting a technical contest.

Not the best selling of the wristlock by Raven (unless you purposely flip to the canvas in a wristlock).

Most of my Brian Pillman viewing was post accident in 1997, watching him do cruiser stuff is a bit jarring (although I’ve seen it before). Pillman was really good.

Jim Ross points out that if Pillman jumped off the top rope it would have been a DQ. See, that was a bit too much for the old school stuff.

Scotty Flamingo looks like Carlito.

Getting close to the 20 minute time limit here.

Scotty Flamingo wins the title by pin in 17:29. Pillman clotheslines Raven over the top rope onto the ramp, but misses an over the top rope dive and lands on the ramp hard (both of which I thought would be DQs here. I guess I don’t understand the WCW rules at the time). Raven brings him back in and hits a knee from the 2nd rope (looked terrible though). Gets the three. Good match. Not great, but filled the 17 minutes pretty well and put over Flamingo.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god Johnny B. Badd is hosting this. I actually prefer Marc Mero.

I guess it’s actually an evening gown contest first. Doesn’t really fit the Beach theme.

We’ll get back to this later apparently.

Ron Simmons vs. Taylor Made Man

Here’s another wrestling joke: Terry Taylor. At least this is better than the Red Rooster.

Horrible three point stance shoulder blocks…as Taylor practically jumps over Simmons.

Simmons presses Taylor over this head and tosses him into the ring from the ramp. Jesse Ventura says I guess that’s not a DQ because Taylor was thrown into the ring. Even the announcers were confused.

Angry Man Spinebuster wasn’t that angry yet.

Ron Simmons pinned Taylor in 7:10. Powerslam for the win. Honestly, I could see why Watts went with Simmons later. Simmons would have been a great guy for a territory to build around, and if Watts was going old school, it makes sense.

Marcus Bagwell vs. Greg Valentine

A really young Buff Bagwell here.

I can’t really tell, but I feel like Valentine is stiffing Bagwell here.

Good old school match with Valentine destroying the leg.

Greg Valentine makes Bagwell submit in 7:17. Figure four for the win. Interesting ending as Bagwell never makes a comeback, almost as if this was a “real” match. It was what it was, but good psychology with the leg I guess.

Falls Count Anywhere
Sting vs. Cactus Jack

Some story here, although I know more about the backstage stuff: Sting was beginning to be fed monsters to help put him over (I think preparing for a Sting vs. Rick Rude World Title match). As Mick Foley wrote in his first book, Cactus Jack came in to put over Sting…but Foley wanted to try some crazy stuff to put himself AND Sting over, which worried Sting at first. Mick Foley calls this his favorite match in his book. While Sting is the WCW World Champ here, it is a non-title match and it kinda makes sense as that’s not what Cactus Jack was about at this point.

In the storylines, Cactus Jack was kinda known as the king of the Falls Count Anywhere match at this point. That’s really the standard Hardcore Match. He beat Van Hammer in one where Abdullah the Butcher interfered.

Awesome backdrop sequence on the ramp! Awesome start so far.

Jack with the flying elbow off the apron. A killer move for the time.

Sunset Flip off the apron on the floor. I’d love to see someone Foley’s size do that today!

I can’t believe this match is taking place on USA national PPV in 1992. Crowd fighting. Rail bumps!

That was what was great about the Cactus Jack character. Yes he was a violent brawler…but he could wrestle too…and that only added to the danger (body scissors here).

Nice Stinger Splash on the floor where Cactus ends up dumping Sting on the railing.

Not sure if that was a botched piledriver or part of the story with Cactus’ knee. I’m actually gonna go with story here.

Sting bashes Jack in the knee with the chair. So yeah, I think the earlier spot was story. Cactus escapes the Scorpion!

Sting pins Cactus Jack in 11:24. Flying clothesline from the top to the ramp from Sting for the win. Great match! Nice brawl. Wish this was longer…and I am wondering why this didn’t main event? No wonder Sting wanted to work with Foley so much afterwards.

30 Minute Iron Man Match
Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat

Oddly, another non-title match as Rude was the US Champ here.

I like how Rude’s gimmick hadn’t changed one bit since 1988, yet he was still over as hell anyway.

Before I even watch, same question about Sting vs. Jack. Why isn’t this the main event?

Steamboat brings his kid and wife Bonnie (Flair’s brings some insight there about here). He attacks Rude’s ribs and Ventura has a point about Steamboat using his kid as a way for Rude not to attack first.

Steamboat trying to win it with some submissions quickly. Interesting story they are trying to tell.

Rude gets a surprise pin after a knee to the face. Steamboat was absolutely owning before that. Pin seems a bit quick for me, but if we are going for realism a knee to the face I could see being a good finish (ain’t that right D-Bry).

Rude nails the Rude Awakening for a quick 2-0 lead now. I do like that booking a lot. Steamboat is dazed…so take advantage. Well done.

Rude comes off the top rope with a flying knee drop! That’s a DQ here! 2-1. But wait, that took out Steamboat…so Rude gets ANOTHER pin for the 3-1 lead. Awesome heel spot. HHH vs. Rock stole this idea at Judgment Day 2000.

Steamboat gets beat on for about six minutes, but nicely reverses a Tombstone and drills Rude to cut it to 3-2. I wanna see someone climb Undertaker like that.

Steamboat with an awesome bridge into a backslide for another three. 3-3! Still 10 minutes left.

Steamboat trying to take the lead with tons of pinning attempts. No dice though, Rude stops him.

Man even Rick Rude’s sleeper looks awesome.

This seriously is the best sleeper I’ve ever seen. And somehow Steamboat even sells it like a million bucks…which is crazy, again, because it’s a sleeper. Two minutes left.

Ricky Steamboat wins 4-3. Wow! Steamboat looks dead in the sleeper…but gets back to his feet and does the Bret Hart-Roddy Piper/Steve Austin Rude pins himself sequence…only the Rude’s injured ribs story makes it more effective…and he gets the pin! Rude goes batshit insane here and gets SEVEN two counts in 30 seconds to try to tie it…but no dice. Incredible finish. Match was great. I did think the first fall came too sudden but everything else worked really well. Really wondering why this wasn’t the main event especially since there was a great finish here. This was PWI’s Third Runner up for Match of the Year.

Swimsuit Competition
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god more Johnny B. Badd.

Um…I think Missy Hyatt wins. There’s a round three later though.

Six Man Tag Team Match: Ole Anderson is the special referee
The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson and Beautiful Bobby Eaton) vs. Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes

A young Stone Cold and Goldust in this one. Young Heyman at ringside too.

Windham and Austin start. Not sure if this is really a good comparison, but I actually see some Austin in Windham at this point.

They tease Arn Anderson coming off the top. Really pushing the new rules of WCW here.

Koloff clotheslines Arn over the rope…and Paul E. wants a DQ. He doesn’t get the call though…which it least is consistent from the Lightheavy title match.

During the match Ross and Ventura say that Madusa is beating Hyatt 51% to 49%. A lot of blind people voting I guess.

I like Ole Anderson as a referee.

Rhodes, Windham and Koloff win in 15:32 by DQ. Arn Anderson is caught coming off the top rope for the DQ. Ugh. Look, that’s fine if you want to get the new rules over, but don’t waste a PPV finish on it. This is a well wrestled match but utterly pointless due to the finish.

Paul E. tells Steamboat no more US Title shots. Then Steamboat is attacked by Cactus Jack. Good stuff.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Hyatt uses Ventura’s scarves as a bikini. Johnny B. Badd says she wins. Madusa gets mad. For the record, Hyatt’s swimsuit was more of a bikini. Whatever. How did Missy Hyatt get so unhot though? She was practically Sunny before Sunny.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Steiner Bros.(c) vs. The Miracle Violence Connection (Dr. Death Steve Williams and Bam Bam Terry Gordy)

I think the story here is the Steiners have destroyed everyone…but these two from Japan can match amateur wrestling and power with the Steiners.

A lot of amateur wrestling early.

Jesse Ventura with the line of the night. JR: “Rick Steiner has a degree in Education for Michigan.” Ventura: “Oh yeah right. From Kindergarten?”

Crowd is really into the Steiners, for what it’s worth about this being the main event.

All this technical wrestling leads to a Bow and Arrow lock from Scott. I like the rarer unique submissions as you can see.

Working on Scotty Steiner’s knee. Always good psychology.

Dr. Death with the Walls of Jericho!

I always wondered how people killed JBL for his Clothesline From Hell when the Steiners used Steinerlines as a finisher at times.

Time Limit Draw in 30:00. Scott Steiner gets a Frankensteiner, but it’s too late. Of course, in any era, this is a shit finish for the last match on the show. Match itself was pretty boring. Maybe it was a big deal in 1992, and it was wrestled well I guess, but I just wasn’t feeling it. This match also has another bigger issue. Throughout the show a NWA World Tag Team Title tournament was being promoted. So, why should I care about the WCW World Tag Team title?

Interesting PPV. It’s wrestled well from top to bottom, but it has some major problems. One is the match order. Having two non-finishes as the last two matches on a PPV is very unsatisfying. Especially when Steamboat-Rude was an excellent Iron Man Match and quite main event worthy…and the WCW Champ Sting could have also main evented in a great brawl with Cactus Jack. But a DQ by coming off the top and a time limit draw? Bad way to end the show in any era. I’m guessing the tag match main evented because Watts liked tough guys, and Dr. Death, Gordy and the Steiners were all as tough as they come. It’s still the wrong choice though and really messes up the card.

The bikini stuff didn’t need three different segments.

There could have been some emphasis on the stories. While Cactus Jack got some story, I had no idea about why Steamboat-Rude wasn’t for the title and why he still can’t have a title shot. Also no idea why, as alluded to in the commentary, Vader was happy that Cactus was beating up Sting.

Those may be the only bad things, but they are major.

A lot of good stuff though. Great wrestling. A couple great matches. Some of the bikini stuff was great. Very good opener. A clear showing that they were going to go with Ron Simmons at some point. The storytelling is there…they just need to tell us.

Good outweighs the bad for sure.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF This Tuesday In Texas

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

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

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

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

The Card

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

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Bret Hart© vs. Skinner

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

Starting with Bret is a good idea though.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another great Jake promo. He’s sick.

The British Bulldog vs. The Warlord

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

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

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

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

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

Repo Man and Ted Dibiase vs. El Madator and Virgil

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

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

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

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

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

WWF World Championship
The Undertaker© vs. Hulk Hogan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc ’89

Halloween_Havoc_1989

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

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

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

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

This is the first Halloween Havoc.

The Card

Captain Mike Rotunda vs. Tom Zenk

No entrances for the first match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had no idea there were Samoans in WCW.

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

This match feels designed to put Dr. Death over.

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

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

Crowd is HOT for Dr. Death.

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

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

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

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

The Cuban Assassin vs. Tommy Rich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steiners interview. Rick sounds different.

The Steiner Bros. vs. Doom

Doom is Ron Simmons and Butch Reed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pretty fast paced so far.

Pillman has cheerleaders in the crowd. Seems distracting.

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

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

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

The Road Warriors vs. The Skyscrapers

Selling won’t be a major theme here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The cage is apparently electrified.

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

Wow Muta Misted the fire! That alone owned.

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

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

Bruno being the ref just seems so out of place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews NWA/WCW Starrcade ’88

Starrcade88

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

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

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

The Card

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Midnight Express vs. The Original Midnight Express

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

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

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

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

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

The Russian Assassins vs. Junkyard Dog and Ivan Koloff

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

Pretty big downgrade from earlier.

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

NWA Television Championship
Mike Rotonda© vs. Rick Steiner

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

Rick Steiner could really go at this point.

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

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

NWA US Championship
Barry Windham © vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

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

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

Windham is a Horseman here.

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

Always thought it was crazy how aerial Bigelow was.

Seriously Barry Windham used a clawhold?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dusty is the face in peril.

Sting is getting a huge reaction destroying The Warriors.

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

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

Flair gets a huge reaction.

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

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

Luger amazingly no sells the Figure Four with some flexing.

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

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

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

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

Final Grade: B+

Basketball

Reviewing the Rajon Rondo Trade

rondo

Rajon Rondo is one of the most polarizing figures in the NBA. Public expectation of Rondo has zig zagged throughout this entire career. In 2006 when he was drafted by Boston (or sold by Phoenix, however you want to look at these things), he was the point guard who couldn’t shoot. In 2007 he was expected to be competent enough to not screw-up the new big three and hopeful NBA Champion Boston Celtics. From 2009 through 2012 he was supposed to be the best player AND future of the Celtics. In 2014 he was supposed to lead the Celtics after a terrible ACL injury…but no one knew despite his statistics how good he really was or if he could be good without a Hall of Fame cast. Now, he’s supposed to be the missing piece to get Dallas over the hump and deliver Dirk Nowitzki a second ring.

               The trade is constructed as follows: Boston sends Rajon Rondo for Brandan Wright, Jameer Nelson, Jae Crowder, a 2015 1st rounder from Dallas if it falls between #4 and #14 (it won’t) or a top 7 protected 2016 1st (very likely). I’m not sure, but I believe a second pick is in there somewhere as well.

               Let’s first look at both of these teams. First, Boston. The Celtics have built towards the future obviously and have built quite well. They absolutely shackled the Nets with the Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett trade (the Nets have to swap their 2017 1st with Boston, as well as give up their 2016 and 2018 1st rounders…I think. They also got their 2014 1st rounder too. They selected James Young.) If you’ve seen the Nets and what their future looks like, you probably are expecting another Boston dynasty in about five years. Boston also has a late 1st round pick in 2015 from the Clippers in the Doc Rivers deal and a 2016 1st from Cleveland in the Keith Bogans deal. Garnett’s a shell of a shell of his former self…and Pierce currently plays for the Wizards. While Boston didn’t get enough for Rondo here, it’s not as bad as many have made it out to be.

               The Mavericks are in contention mode right now and are absolutely doing the right thing in trying to upgrade their roster short term. You don’t waste players like Dirk Nowitzki. Nowitzki’s entered that Reggie Miller part of his career where his raw stats may not look like anything special, but he’s still a ridiculous player who can hit any shot and wins games…playoff games included…at any time. You can definitely win a championship in 2014 with this Dirk Nowitzki. Monta Ellis, traditionally a volume shooter than hurts his team more than he helps, does well enough alongside Nowitzki on the offensive end. He gets opportunities he didn’t get in Golden State and Milwakuee playing with Nowitzki. He and Nowitzki’s defensive shortcomings are all covered up by a rejuvenated Tyson Chandler, who also doubles as one of the most efficient offensive players in the league (currently shooting 68% from the floor, which is basically all put backs and dunks. Some would use that as an argument to say Chandler isn’t a good offensive player…which doesn’t make any sense at all.) Chandler Parsons of course is a solid offensive player himself. Considering their starting point guards have been a washed up Nelson and a washed up Devin Harris and they STILL have an incredible offense that leads the league in both PPG and Offensive Rating, well, Rondo has to be considered a huge upgrade, right? And defensively, Nelson and Harris are average at best. Again, Rondo can only improve that, correct?

               Well, yes and no. Rajon Rondo is polarizing as his resume reintroduces the question of whether good stats means a good player. Rondo’s stats are pretty great for a point guard. He’s led the league in assists per game three of the last four seasons (counting this season so far). His last six season APG averages? 9.8, 11.2, 11.7, 11.1, 9.8 and 10.8 this season. I mean, those aren’t just good…those are incredible. He’s usually close to averaging two steals a game. He doesn’t shoot a lot and always looks to set up teammates. He sounds like a perfect player for this Mavericks team. But the downside is after 8 seasons Rajon Rondo still can’t hit an outside shot. He can barely hit a 15 footer. While Nelson and Harris aren’t exactly Stephen Curry out there, and Nelson is even shooting 37%, they are still players that should be guarded from the outside. That’s part of some past reputation. But Rondo? Why guard him at all if you can just double Nowitzki? Clog up the middle and make Rondo shoot. That’s what the Lakers did in the 2010 Finals afterall. This glaring weakness is huge and has prevented Rondo from becoming a truly elite point guard along the lines of Chris Paul. He’s a new age Jason Kidd…although Kidd was always able to get the best out of subpar teammates. Rondo hasn’t been able to do that. All of this coupled with his ACL history creates something that kind of make sense of why he was traded for 50 cents on the dollar.

               Do I think Boston could have and should have gotten more? Yes. But it was still okay. Dallas won this trade though not just because they traded very little of value to upgrade from Nelson and Harris to Rondo…but because of who Rondo can be when he’s motivated. His 2009 playoff box scores when carrying the Kevin Garnett-less Celtics were incredible. (29-9-7, 19-12-16, 20-11-6-5, 25-11-11 and 28-11 against Chicago in the first round, 14-10-8, 15-11-18, 21-12-14 vs. Orlando in round 2). He was the best player in the Boston-Cleveland series in 2010, and put up a gem of a game (29-18-13) in a crucial game 4. You really think Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Tony Parker and Stephen Curry want to deal with Rajon Rondo in the playoffs?

Great move for Dallas, good but could have been better move for Boston.