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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Survivor Series ’98

SS_98

WWF Survivor Series 98: The Deadly Game
November 15, 1998
St. Louis, MO
March 15, 2014

Background: The WWF has started to regularly win the Monday Night War. Yes, WCW would still win once in a while, but the WWF had control. Vince Russo’s Crash TV was in full effect as you will see here. There are 14 matches on this card, which is a ludicrous amount.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, the #1 man in the WWF, had been screwed out of the WWF Title at Breakdown and hadn’t even gotten a chance to regain the title. This tournament was supposed to be his rematch. The Undertaker and Kane were feuding throughout 1998. The Rock, Mankind and Triple H were coming into their own and at least one of them looked to be a star main eventer in 1999 (all three of them would make it). Mr. McMahon was the biggest heel in wrestling. He recently had demoted Shane McMahon to referee status.

WWF Attitude was in full swing here. I think there is some good and bad on this show, and I’ll get to each.

The Card

The main focus of the show is a 14 Man Tournament to decide the new WWF Champion. Smart money storyline wise was on Mankind as he seemed to be who Mr. McMahon wanted to be champion.

It’s 14 man because Taker and Kane got byes and start in the 2nd round.

I love the Deadly Game theme.

Here comes Vince. He’s still in a wheelchair after Taker and Kane dropped the stairs on his leg.

Great intro by Vince. “An individual who is looking to take one small leap for man, one giant leap for Mankind”.

Mankind is slated to face a mystery opponent. A lot of people thought this would be the return of Shawn Michaels. Not quite.

Mankind is in a tux. And he hugs McMahon. Just awesome.

When Vince says “WCW” he gets massive heat.

It’s DUANE GILL!

Deadly Game Round 1: Mankind vs. Duane Gill

Mankind pins Duane Gill in 0:30. Double Arm DDT, cradle for the win. Obviously a non-match, but the story is that Vince is making this as easy as possible for Mankind.

On Heat Jacqueline attacked Sable. She cuts an angry promo on her. Sable couldn’t really talk either.

Deadly Game Round 1: Jeff Jarrett vs. Al Snow

Winner faces Mankind in round 2.

Debra’sPPV debut here.

Al Snow was pretty over here. Or really Head was over.

Apparently Mankind’s Socko is a headband for Head. I guess that spoils the winner.

Al Snow does a weird corner flip.

Top rope guillotine legdrop misses.

Nice spinebuster counter into the DDT from Snow.

Al Snow takes way too big of a bump when he bangs his head on Jarrett’s back.

Al Snow pins Jeff Jarrett in 3:31. Jarrett grabs Head and Snow grabs the Guitar, but Jarrett misses the Head shot. Snow gets Head back and nails Jarrett for the win. Ok for three minutes, even if the finish was whatever. Snow vs. Mankind in Round 2.

Deadly Game Round 1: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Big Bossman

Stone Cold wins by DQ in 3:20. Bossman slides out and when Austin slides out to follow, Bossman gets him with the nightstick. Bossman proceeds to beat the crap out of Stone Cold with the nightstick, story being he is weakening Austin for later, which I guess makes sense. Vince looks happy about what happened. Nothing notable in the match itself.

Deadly Game Round 1: X-Pac vs. Steven Regal

Winners takes on Stone Cold.

This is a Real Man’s Man William Regal.

Regal’s pushing muscle taunt is great.

Weirdly placed catapult by Regal. Wonder if that was intentional or not.

Match is all submission wrestling from Regal.

Regal’s selling is fantastic.

Double underhook suplex on X-Pac from the top. X-Pac survives.

Double Countout at 8:10. X-Pac and Regal go at it on the outside and are counted out. Vince sends Sgt. Slaughter to start a 5 minute overtime. It doesn’t start though as X-Pac (I think is legit hurt) and Regal runs after him for some reason. I think it’s botched as Regal is all in the ring at first and his running after X-Pac was unnatural. Anyway, Vince is angry that Austin gets a bye. Why not make it a triple-threat? You’re the boss. Anyway, finish sucked. Weird it got the most time of all the first round matches.

Deadly Game Round 1: Ken Shamrock vs. Goldust

Heel Shamrock is the best Shamrock.

Goldust had just returned (he was Dustin Runnels for most of 98) and was pretty over.

Shamrock with a great counter to the Shattered Dreams! He pulls the ref in front of him!

Ken Shamrock makes Goldust submit in 5:56. Shamrock gets a leaping off the top rope into a frankensteiner combination. Belly to belly then ankle lock for the submission win. Match was 70-30 Shamrock, which makes sense since he was the Jobber to the Stars at that point, and Goldust was closer to the midcard. Okay match.

Deadly Game Round 1: The Rock vs. Triple H

Winner of this faces Shamrock.

Rock is megaover.

Instead of Triple H…here come The Stooges! Brisco specifically does some big crotch crops coming in, which is hilarious. Amazing how Vince made Patterson and Brisco into stars in 1998.

Patterson announces that…The Bossman will replace HHH!

The Rock pins the Big Bossman in 0:03. Roll-up and it’s over. This actually makes sense later. This got the biggest pop of the night up to this point.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: The Undertaker vs. Kane

I’ll preface this by saying this may be my least favorite Undertaker match ever, and I’ll explain why shortly.

This Darker Side theme is the best Taker’s ever had in my opinion.

Undertaker does this awkward sidekick I’ve never seen him do.

Undertaker was trying a spinning toe hold or a Figure Four. Kane kicked out, but weird.

It’s weird to see Taker do the work on the leg story.

Kane with a bad looking top rope clothesline. He also awkwardly jumped over the top rope.

Horrible chokeslam from Kane…but I think that was on Taker.

Undertaker pins Kane in 7:16. Paul Bearer distracts Kane, and then Kane walks into a Tombstone. Taker actually hooks the leg and Bearer holds down Kane’s other leg for the three, which is a nice touch. But still. Match sucked. Undertaker, while I guess being all evil was going back to the no selling route. But he’s not supposed to do that against Kane. Kane peaked from his debut until this event. Kane had been protected from his debut as a very very tough to beat monster. And this match killed that aura as Taker disposes of him in 7 minutes in a horrible match. And you know what? Kane never truly recovered. This was the end of unstoppable monster Kane, as in a few months he was going to the insane asylum and feuding with Chyna. What a shame. Terrible overall.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: Mankind vs. Al Snow

Winner faces Stone Cold, who got a bye.

Mankind is still in the tux.

Al Snow just uses a chair and the ref doesn’t call for the DQ. How WCW 2000 like (at least the PPVs I reviewed so far). Dammit Russo.

Mankind finds Socko on Head…and beats up Head. Ok.

Match has oddly been all Al Snow.

Socko is over.

Mankind makes Al Snow submit in 3:55. Socko for the win. The Socko-Head stuff was bizarre, but I mean, it’s another 4 minute whatever match. Al Snow got in a lot of offense though, which was odd.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock

Winner faces The Undertaker.

Like Taker and Kane, this is the fourth PPV match of the year between these two, with another involving Mankind. First time with Shamrock as the heel and Rock as the face though.

Nice suplex by Shamrock that led to a pin where he hooked the head. You don’t see that often.

JR points out that Rock made his debut two years earlier at Survivor Series. The changes he made in two years was incredible.

Bossman is here. I’m a little sick of him to be honest.

The Rock hilariously sells the frankensteiner.

Ankle Lock is in. Fans are alive here, as they might believe this is the finish.

Rock also comes off the ropes very awkwardly in the next sequence leading to a double clothesline.

The Rock pins Ken Shamrock in 8:20. Rock Bottom attempt…but Shamrock counters with a belly to belly that Rock doesn’t go up for (was Rock really this bad as a worker then?). Bossman tosses the nightstick in the ring…but Rock catches it instead of Shamrock and he knocks out Shamrock for the win. This would make sense later as well. We have Rock vs. Taker and Austin vs. Mankind as the semifinals. Match was definitely the 2nd weakest of the Rock-Shamrock series…Mania was worse, but Mania was barely a match.

Paul Bearer says Taker will walk out champ. What else would he say really?

Women’s Championship
Jacqueline© vs. Sable

No idea why the Women’s title returned at this stage. Jackie beat Sable with Marc Mero’s interference a couple months ago for the new title.

Shane McMahon is the referee here, which is genius. Subtly plants a seed for later.

Horrible TKO by Sable. Sable is not really a wrestler.

Sable Bomb on the floor to Marc Mero. Yes this killed Mero, but who cares about Mero anyway?

Talking a lot about how Shane McMahon was demoted to ref by Vince. Again, this works well for later.

Sable pins Jackie to win the title in 3:14. Sable Bomb for the win. Sable can’t wrestle, but really no one cares. Nor should they.

Deadly Game Semifinal: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mankind

The card just took a serious turn here. Probably because this is the first match that’s really in doubt in terms of who would win.

Here comes Vince! Huge boos.

Mankind practically runs away from the Stunner and the Stooges have to coax him back. Austin breaks up the Stooge meeting.

This is a great back and forth match. Best of the night easily.

Double Arm DDT on the chair! Austin with a really close kickout…and Vince stands up!

Stunner! 1…2…McMahon is up! He takes out the referee! He’s healed!

Mankind pins Stone Cold in 10:23. He is a botched ending (according to Stone Cold himself). To be fair I knew something was wrong the first time I saw this. Austin gets another stunner. Shane slides in, 1…2…where’s 3? 3? Where’s 3? Double bird to Austin from Shane. That’s an amazing turn there. But here is where it goes to hell, as Austin goes after Shane and the Bossman is supposed to attack Austin here…but there’s no Bossman. Austin even turns around and is shocked at no Bossman. The actual finish is awful (Foley said so himself on his book), as Gerald Brisco hits the worst chair shot in PPV history. Literally. Worse than anything Lance Storm ever did. And Austin jobs to that. Austin should have kicked out on principle and let Mick hit him. Vince and the Stooges hightail it. Austin in pursuit in a car. Could have been one of the all time great finishes. Thanks Bossman.

Deadly Game Semifinal: The Undertaker vs. The Rock

Winner takes on Mankind in the final! Crowd is a bit deflated because Austin is gone…but they still have The Rock!

This PPV officially will be the first since the Royal Rumble to not have Austin in the final match.

This is mostly Undertaker here, which makes sense as this is Rock’s first real dash with a main eventer I believe. It would make perfect sense if Taker puts over Rock here.

Bossman is still here. Again.

Rock mocks Taker with a sit-up, too bad crowd didn’t react to it.

Bossman messes up a People’s Elbow…which doesn’t make sense for later.

Taker nails the Bossman!

The Rock defeats Undertaker by DQ in 8:23. Taker tosses Rock to Kane…Chokeslam to Kane to get Taker DQed. Kane then goes at it with Taker. That finish absolutely blows, and here is why. It actually makes perfect sense for Kane to do that…but then it opens the can of worms of why doesn’t EVERYONE do that. Like, every champ, just get yourself DQed. It’s fine to threaten that once in a while, but don’t actually do it. Anyway, Mankind vs. Rock finals.

Mankind promo. He has one more hill…no, one more rock to climb, if ya smell what the sock is cookin!

World Tag Team Championship
The New Age Outalws© vs. The Headbangers vs. D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry

Road Dogg’s intro will always be awesome.

Mosh with this great springboard bodypress to the outside. Don’t remember him ever doing that.

Match is an absolute mess by the way. Tags that don’t make sense for example. Jerry Lawler points this out as soon as I write it about how many guys are supposed to be in the ring.

I don’t remember D’Lo having a top rope hurricanrana in his repertoire.

It looks like Road Dogg legitimately hurt his hand on an earlier double flapjack from the Bangers.

The Future Lo Down with the double team!

Mosh with one of the more awesome low blows to D’Lo.

Road Dogg absolutely blows a spot. Billy Gunn gets the hot tag and immediately gets hit with D’Lo’s Sky High, which is a pinning combination. Road Dogg goes flying at Mark Henry instead of making the save. Referee Tim White doesn’t count…as it’s clear he expected Dogg to break up the pin. He makes the count and a Headbanger just makes the save. Yikes.

The New Age Outlaws retain when Billy Gunn pins Mosh in 10:08. Awful match. JR diplomatically says so with the classic “this was a unique match”. Gunn won with a piledriver which didn’t even look fluid. Awful match. Terrible.

Deadly Game Final: WWF Championship
Mankind vs. The Rock

OMG, Vince and Shane are still here!

Match is very slow and the crowd is dead. Just a lot of back and forth punching.

Interesting note. A few moments in Mankind locks in a chinlock. According to Foley’s book, they had no idea what to do in this match and basically call it in the ring during that chinlock.

Vince and Shane get some life out of the crowd.

Rock nails Mankind with a plastic garbage can…but not before a fan knocks it out of Rock’s hand first.

We get some chair action. At least JR has an explanation for it (Vince would never DQ Foley in this scenario).

Rock nails Foley with a chair while he has the steps, then beats the crap out of the stairs with Foley under them. Crowd really got into that…then went back to silent.

Rock sells a low blow in a hilarious manner. 2nd bad sell job from The Rock tonight.

Cactus Flying Elbow even gets no reaction.

Mankind with a legdrop on the desk that kinda misses the desk.

Mankind leaps from the second rope at the Rock on the floor…but misses and smashes through the table. Interesting note here, this was the move that served as the catalyst to Foley’s retirement in 2000, as he tears his meniscus here.

The Rock wins the WWF Title by submission in 17:10. Socko Claw into a Rock Bottom…but Rock only gets two! Rock shoots the Eyebrow at the McMahons. Sharpshooter…and Foley gets Montreal’d. McMahons and Rock hug in the ring to win the title. Match was pretty bad as you can tell they didn’t know what to do, but the finish was what mattered.

Vince and Shane cut a promo about what happened. The Rock cuts one as well, pointing out that the fans should kiss his ass.

Mankind says he’s confused as he didn’t submit, and the McMahons and The Rock beat him up.

Austin’s back!

Stunner to The Rock!

Stunner to Mankind!

Okay, this show is tough to grade.

There are two trains of thought here. One, wrestling wise, this show was absolutely awful. In fact, for in ring action, it would be a F. We had two non-matches (Mankind-Gill, Rock-Bossman), a downright horrible match (Tag title), and multiple horrible finishes (X-Pac-Regal, Austin-Mankind, Taker-Rock and even Taker-Kane if you don’t like how buried Kane was here). There’s not a good match on this show, although Mankind and Austin would have gotten there without the weak ending.

But storyline wise, this was an A. When you have a cast of characters that people care about, all this swerving and screwing and crazy stuff actually works. Hell, it is how the Attitude Era worked. There are very good stories here. Rock-Bossman made sense…because the McMahon’s were backing Rock. Bossman tossing the nightstick, maybe it was intentional to Rock, again now makes sense. Vince using Mankind to eliminate Austin…makes sense. Sure there are hiccups (Bossman trying to screw Rock against Taker), but it mostly works. They even tie up some other ends on RAW the next night.

Historically, this PPV is huge too. The Rock and Mankind come out as top tier players, and in fact would be the WWF Title match for every PPV until Wrestlemania (and their matches would get a lot better too). Also this established Shane as a top authority figure as well.

I can’t get past a couple of things though to put this in B range. The Mankind-Austin finish was so weak. I mean, this was the first time Austin was pinned by one guy on TV since July of 97! And the first time it happened in a 1 on 1 match since May of 97! That’s a long damn time! And I can’t get past the killing of Kane and really, the greenness of The Rock. I assume internet forums for 1998 thought Rocky still sucked, and well, it seemed like he still did.

What a mixed bag of everything. But it was perfectly fine for what the WWF needed at that point. And that does give it a little extra credit. Better to be good at one thing (story telling) than average at everything. That’s how Hogan-Andre got by, didn’t it? And really, the 1999 PPVs mostly suck in the ring, and that was the biggest year for the business.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF King of the Ring ’98

Kotr98

WWF King of the Ring ‘98
June 28, 1998
Pittsburgh, PA
Reviewed on June 7, 2014

We are in the Attitude Era! The WWF had just taken over the Monday Night ratings War…but it was still a dogfight. The WWF was pushing new guys, and that fresh edge was helping over the same old on Nitro. Only The Undertaker was held over from the top of the card. Stone Cold, Kane, The Rock, Triple H, Ken Shamrock and Mick Foley were all guys getting their chance at the top or near the top.

The thing about the Attitude Era is that it was riveting television. Anything could happen at any time on any given Monday. As long as the card was headlined by Stone Cold in some way, it didn’t really matter what the rest looked like (as this card will show). Honestly, how many people can even name a match that wasn’t one of the three big matches on this show? (Some even forget about Shamrock vs. Rock).

Let’s watch some classic WWF Attitude!

The Card

There’s an awesome opening video hyping up the Austin vs. Kane and Taker vs. Mankind matches.

The Headbangers and TAKA Michinoku vs. Ka ent ai

I was always surprise that the Headbangers somehow got lost in the shuffle in the Attitude Era…since they seemed tailor made for it.

This was part of the long running Taka and random vs. Ka ent ai. Most notably teaming with Taka later was Bradshaw.

Ka ent ai is Togo, Funaki and Teioh. I think it’s interesting that of the six men in this match, it was Funaki who had the longest WWF/E career.

While I think Taka is a good wrestler, all of his pre-1999 WWF matches followed the SAME exact formula.

Togo and Funaki with a great facebuster-bulldog sequence.

Taka and the Headbangers win when Taka pins Funaki in 6:44. Michinoku Driver for the win. Short fun opener here. Good thing to get the crowd going.

Sable time!

She introduces Vince! This was part of the Vince re-hired Sable angle after Marc Mero beat her. Pat Patterson slaps Sable’s ass, which JR of course makes a subtle gay joke. It’s also pretty funny now that I know Patterson’s orientation.

Vince runs down Austin on the mic of course. Time waster here.

King of the Ring Semi-Final
Ken Shamrock vs. Jeff Jarrett

This easily could have been an early NWA-TNA World Title feud.

I’m a Jeff Jarrett fan, but the mid 90s Double J persona was waaaaaay dated here. He’d change gimmicks by Summerslam.

“Ain’t I Great?” Not really at this point Jeff.

Ken Shamrock advances via submission in 5:29. Shamrock hits his bad ass frankensteiner, then the Ankle Lock wins it. No surprise. Match was what it was: Jarrett putting Shamrock over.

King of the Ring Semi-Final
Dan Severn vs. The Rock

It was smart to have Shamrock winning 1st, as at least it’s somewhat believable Severn can win here.

Severn’s WWF legacy would be causing D’Lo Brown to wear a chest protector.

Severn doesn’t throw punches. Pretty much the opposite of the Attitude Era style.

The Rock advances via pin in 4:25. D’Lo with the Lo-Down…new chest protector and all! Rock gets the pin. Match sucked. Severn was about 15 years too late as a top bad guy. He might have been a real life bad ass, but he was an awful sports entertainer. Rock cuts a solid promo and was well on his way to being a top guy.

If Al Snow wins, he gets a meeting with Vince McMahon
Al Snow and Head vs. Too Much

Head is a mannequin head, in case anyone doesn’t know.

Al Snow had just returned with the Head gimmick after developing it in ECW.

If you were to tell me Too Much would be WWF World Tag Team Champions as a kid watching in 1998, and that they’d win the titles two years later, I’d laugh my ass off.

There is a story here. Al Snow was trying to get a job, and somehow that led to stealing Jerry Lawler’s crown. Apparently Lawler can get Snow a meeting with Vince.

Snow: “Boys, get ready, you’re about to get a little head like you’ve never gotten it before”. WWE Attitude folks!

Lawler is revealed as ref!

Al Snow alternates beating up Scott Taylor and talking to Head. Good stuff.

Of course Lawler blatantly cheats.

Al Snow with a ridiculous long running clothesline on the outside…then Scott Taylor “hits” a springboard chop? Ugly.

JR can’t even take the match seriously.

Tag to the Head! JR even justifies Lawler not counting a Snow pinfall because Head was legal.

Too Much wins when Brian Christopher pins Head in 8:26. Oh man. Snow hits the Snowplow on Taylor, but Christopher attaches a bottle of Head and Shoulders to Head and pins it for the win. Ok the match was awful as you’d expect, but let me say something about this. This match is a great example of why WWF ’98 worked and WCW 2000 didn’t. This match furthered Al Snow’s character. As silly as this all was, storywise this actually made sense. Now, that’s not saying this should have been on PPV, because this is a RAW match if I ever saw one, but there is something positive to gain from it.

Owen Hart vs. X-Pac

Rematch of the ’94 KOTR here.

Sad storyline decent for Owen here. We went from shoving HBK through a table, to jobbing to HHH a lot, to fighting X-Pac. Clearly Owen wasn’t getting the main event push.

What a 12 months before this for Owen. He was feuding with Austin at one point.

I didn’t watch a lot of Syxx in WCW, but this I believe is the debut of the mat wrestling X-Pac. This was because of his broken neck he suffered at the end of his WCW run.

Owen’s gimmick was that of a guy who was done being taken advantaged of and was done being a nice guy. This just didn’t work for Owen. He was a lot better as the whiny heel.

Terrible Bronco Buster there. I wonder if Own purposely didn’t want X-Pac’s nuts in his face.

Owen with a terrible fall off the top, clearly messed that up.

X-Pac pins Owen Hart in 8:30. Mark Henry comes out and splashes X-Pac…to which Vader (talk about someone who’s really fallen from 12 months prior) attacks him. Owen locks X-Pac in the sharpshooter, but Chyna takes him out with a DDT (and busts Owen’s nose, wonder if that was a botch). X-Pac wins it there. Okay match, surprising small screw-ups near the end with the Bronco Buster and Owen’s top rope fall.

Paul Bearer comes out. He cuts an awesome promo about how proud he will be of his son Kane when he wins the World Title, and how Kane always wanted to be The Undertaker when he was young.

WWF World Tag Team Champions
The New Age Outlaws © vs. The New Midnight Express

Dirty little secret: the WWF Tag Team division absolutely blew in the early Attitude Era. Outside of the Outlaws, the division as made up of the Express, the underused Headbangers, the Godwinns/Southern Justice, the DOA and a washed-up LOD. That’s why the following makes up the list of non Outlaw champs: Kane and Mankind, Taker and Kane and Bossman and Shamrock. The division wouldn’t really pick up to mid-99, then of course in 2000.

One interesting storyline here: The Smokin’ Gunns are on opposite sides.

This was Bob Holly’s first repackaging. Could have been worse I guess.

Pretty awesome landing on the feet from Bart on a Billy hip toss.

Road Dogg is your Outlaw in peril.

Cornette gets involved with the NWA Tag Title, but Billy survives a pin attempt.

Cornette famously ranted about this. Cornette threatened to hit Billy with the title belt again, but Billy cornered him. Chyna was on the wrong side of the ring and was supposed to low blow Cornette…and she takes forever doing it, leaving Billy Gunn standing there.

New Age Outalws retain when Gunn pinned Holly in 9:34. A double stun gun gets the pin (what an awful finish). Not a bad match, but I mean, there’s a huge difference in statue for the Outlaws and the New Express, even at this stage. Match was solid.

King of the Ring Finals
The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock

HHH, last year’s winner, comes out for commentary.

There is a story here. Shamrock had chased Rock’s IC title for the first half of the year, but kept coming up short.

Rock-HHH get into a shoving match on the outside, as they were feuding. Good touch there.

The commentary is pretty distracting with HHH making dick jokes every 20 seconds.

Shamrock clearly leaps into a powerslam, but impressive enough I guess…

Nice reversal of the Floatover DDT into a Northern Lights suplex from Shamrock!

Ken Shamrock becomes King of the Ring via submission in 14:09. Rock argues with the ref and gets rolled into the Ankle Lock for the win. Very good match, probably the best of the Rock’s career at that point. Of course, hindsight being 20/20…I’m sure Vince wishes Rock won this tournament now. By the way, HHH’s commentary was horrible and annoying. I get that was the character, but it was just unnecessary.

Hell in a Cell
The Undertaker vs. Mankind

Story here: Where do I begin? Probably the first real Attitude feud that really began in 1996. Undertaker vs. Mankind was an amazing feud and that only added to the intrigue here. For recent storyline, Mankind cost Taker a title shot against Austin.

On the real life advice of Terry Funk, the match begins on top of the cage.

Mankind’s climb to the top of the cage does have some comedic value. Foley himself mentions how he wasn’t even sure if he’d make it to the top, and he lost feeling in his hand to get up there.

You can see Taker limp down to the ring when he goes down the rampway…he had a broken foot here (and still climbs the cell better than Foley).

Taker’s gimmick was getting a lot darker at this point. He had also shown some signs of the 2000 American Bad Ass as well.

Three minutes in…and Taker throws Foley off the cell through the table! It’s still one of the damnest spots I’d ever seen, especially since it was so sudden. There was absolutely no build-up. One second Foley was punching Taker. The next he’s flying off the cell.

Kayfabe is broken everywhere by Funk and Vince.

The crowd reaction is pretty nuts too. He literally hear people screaming in horror as Foley flies off.

Undertaker looks pretty damn bad ass standing on top of the cell.

Foley gets up and comes back…also one of the damnest things ever in wrestling.

30 seconds later Taker chokeslams Foley and the ceiling caves in…and Foley slams hard, and I mean hard on the canvas. I still cringe when I see that. Somehow the match continues. Taker chokeslams Funk, buying Foley time.

The match somehow continues. Foley causes Taker to crotch the top rope when Taker tries Old School, which in reality was Taker trying to buy Foley more time.

Ha, Taker clearly blades on camera after missing a dive and crashing headfirst into the cage.

Piledriver on a chair by Foley! Somehow Mankind might win this thing!

Thumbtack time! Unfortunately Foley’s the one who goes back first into them after a Mandible Claw attempt.

Undertaker pins Mankind in 17:00. Foley gets sent into the tacks again with a chokeslam! Tombstone wins it for Undertaker. Ok, there are two trains of thoughts with this match generally: it’s one of the greatest matches in WWE history, or it’s the most overrated match in WWE history. I’m in one of the greatest ever camp (2nd best HIAC match behind the original). This is because the brutality of the match matched the rivalry. If Undertaker had done this to HHH or something, I’d be like wtf? But Mankind and Undertaker had already done everything to one another over the past two years. Even though it wasn’t completely intentional, it made sense that something like this had to happen. This match is also one of the most influential matches in WWE history. Every huge table bump in the future really started here. And Of course, this was the major league thumbtack debut. This match also helped solidify Mankind as a main event player (although, Mr. Socko was needed to finish that process). It also was the match that made Undertaker’s heel turn a lot more effective, as a real mean streak was established. Lastly, anytime fans talk about a match for years and years after it takes place, then the match didn’t suck. Not all matches have to be artistically perfect. Amazing match. Probably in my top 10 all time.

WWF World Championship: First Blood. If Kane Does Not Win the Title He Will Set Himself On Fire
Stone Cold Steve Austin© vs. Kane

I wish the whole Kane setting himself on fire deal wasn’t a part of this…as it made it clear Kane was winning (then again…after the Cell match it wouldn’t shock me to see Kane light himself on fire).

Austin had a bad staph infection here, if you are wondering about the white elbow brace.

The cage actually comes down when Kane is dominating, and raises when Austin is winning. Not sure why that was done.

I don’t know if it’s because of Austin’s injury, but this brawl really isn’t that good.

Ref bump in a First Blood match? Sure why not.

Mankind comes down to the ring with a chair. I hate this for the record.

Stunner on Foley!

Stunner on Kane!

Here comes the Undertaker!

Kane wins the WWF Title by blood draw in 15:58. Taker aims for Mankind…but nails Austin with the chair on accident? Maybe? Austin blades on camera, and is busted wide open! Taker revives the ref (good way to do shades of grey here). Austin cleans house, but the ref finally sees the blood and awards the title to the KOed Kane. I do hate this finish, but I get why it happened this way. Match was not good though. It seemed like Austin was in slow motion here, and with his injuries he probably was. I also hate Mankind coming out here. Kinda demeans the Cell match a little…real as it was. As for Kane…well, he’d have a long title reign. 24 hours is more than most can say.

Really tough show to grade. It’s known today for one match and one match only. To be fair, that match owns. Too bad the main event was all over the place. Shamrock-Rock was pretty forgotten (because in hindsight, the wrong man won) and the rest of the card, while by no means bad (except for that Too Much-Snow thing), I wouldn’t call it good. Or memorable. The New Midnight Express? Headbangers teaming with Taka?

But when your PPV has one of the most talked about matches in wrestling history, the other stuff doesn’t really matter THAT much, right?
Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Survivor Series ’95

Sur95poster

WWF Survivor Series 1995
November 19, 1995
Landover, MD
Reviewed on March 1, 2014

Background: 1995 was perhaps the worst year in the history of the WWF. Diesel had not been the major drawing champion the WWF needed, although I don’t believe that is really all on him (fighting Sid and Mabel and The British Bulldog on PPV after PPV didn’t help). The overall booking style of the WWF has suddenly become dated, especially with the edgier and at times much better WCW Nitro now on the air. The WWF had a lot of very good to great top talent in 1995: Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart,Undertaker, Razor Ramon to name a few, but often times they were wrestling guys not in their league rather than each other (like Razor vs. Dean Douglas, Diesel and Taker vs. Mabel, Bret vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte). For some reason, WWF tried to create new stars despite having current stars to draw money with. It’s great to create new stars if your current guys are stale, but these guys weren’t. Often times, when these top guys were paired with one another, good results happen, and the evidence is in the main event of this PPV.

The Card

Here comes Mr. Perfect! I assume he’s doing commentary with Vince. I like Perfect’s commentary, so that’s a plus.

Promor video for Bret vs. Diesel. It’s the two time triple crown winner against the man who won the triple crown in one year. Cool facts there.

We’ve got a USA theme going, I guess that’s because Landover is right there with Washington DC.

The Bodydonnas (Skip, Rad Radford, Tom Pritchard and the 1-2-3 Kid) vs. The Underdogs (Marty Jannetty, Hakushi, Barry Horowitz, and Bob Holly)

Wooo Sunny!

I like that Tom Pritchard is on this Bodydonna team…since he would be Zip a few months later.

I believe the Kid just turned heel by costing Razor Ramon and match with Sid. Kid gets his own entrance with Ted Dibiase.

Here comes Razor! Refs send him to the back though.

Jannetty and Pritchard start us off. Jannetty owns the entire Bodydonna team to a good response. I am of the opinion that Jannetty could have been a big star had he not been a mess.

I didn’t realize Bob Holly had a frankensteiner in his arsenal.

I still hate the Modern Day Kamikaze nickname for Hakushi. It also makes me sad that Hakushi is in this match. He was feuding with Bret Hart 5 months ago.

The Kid is the biggest heel in this match.

Barry Horowitz chant! He hasn’t been tagged in.

Bob Holly hits Pritchard with a top rope bodypress and Pritchard is gone. Skip rolls up Holly to even the odds right away.

There have been a lot of fun moves in this one. It’s weird that Horowitz is being built up as the big star in this match…

I feel like Kid vs. Hakushi would have been a fun match.

Kid spin kicks Hakushi in the back of the head, and Rad Radford eliminates him.

Barry Horowitz is in!

Rad Radford does some pushups, and Horowitz rolls him up in ugly looking fashion for the pin, eliminating him.

The Kid nails Horowitz from behind and gets the pin after a legdrop. Down to Skip and Kid vs. Marty Jannetty.

Jannetty and Skip are having a nice match here.

Top rope powerbomb from Marty to Skip! Down to Jannetty and the Kid.

Perfect dropkick to the face of Jannetty.

Kid misses a somersault from the top.

Here comes Sid!

The Bodydonnas win when The Kid last pins Marty Jannetty in 18:45. Jannetty gets the Rocker Dropper, but the Kid gets his foot on the rope. Dibiase distracts the ref, and Sid hangs Marty on the top rope for the Kid to get the pin. Fun match. Great way to showcase a lot of the lower card guys. Too bad only a few would even be employed in six months.

Razor Ramon is pretty angry about the end of that match.

The wildcard match is later tonight. Faces and heels are mixed in their respective teams. Jim Cornette has Owen Hart and Yokozuna on one side with Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon. Cornette’s Bulldog is on the other side with Sid, HBK and Ahmed Johnson.

Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka vs. Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa, and Chaparita Asari

Interesting that WCW got all the international male wrestlers, but the WWF got all the women. At least at this point. The women’s division was gone about a month later when Blayze showed up on Nitro with the women’s title.

I don’t know who is who to be honest, except for Kong, Blayze and Faye.

There’s a giant swing. Eat your heart out Cesaro!

Wow skytwister press by Asari. What the fuck that was awesome.

Blaze eliminates Asuka with a german suplex. Nice.

Wow a chained double underhook suplex by Hasegawa.

T-bone suplex on Kong from Hasegawa!

Kong eliminates Hasegawa with a suplex.

Kong hits a top rope splash takes out Asari.

Kong eliminates Inoue with a sitdown splash!

We have 3 vs. 1 against Blayze right now.

Mike Chioda accidentally counts out Watanabe, but Blayze piledrives her and gets a legit 3 count right after.

Bertha Faye was a stupid idea.

Blayze hits a german suplex and eliminates Faye!

Great action between Kong and Blayze. Standing moonsault from Blazye!

Team Faye wins when Kong pins Blayze in 10:01. Brutal swinging backhand from Kong for the win. Great match. Some things got botched, but overall, it was full of action and good spots.

Random fact: Roman Reigns was the 2nd person ever to eliminate an entire Survivor Series team this last year. Aja Kong was the first.

Fake Bill Clinton!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldust

When Bigelow’s pyro goes off the fake Clinton dives for cover. I guess it’s supposed to be funny.

I believe this is Bigelow’s last WWF match. Shame that Bigelow didn’t have a bigger 1995.

I love these Goldust movie interviews. Goldust was such a tremendous character.

You can see Dustin Rhodes’ toughness when he wrestlers, which is a great contrast to what WWE was promoting with Goldust.

Goldust’s outfit is not rated PG for sure…

Goldust pinned Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:18. Goldust hits a bulldog for the win. Match was 80% Goldust and it was clear why. Bigelow was on his way out and was putting over Goldust. And it did the job.

Mr. Bob Backlund confronts the fake Clinton! This actually is funny.

The Royals (Jerry Lawler, King Mabel, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Isaac Yankem) vs. The Darkside (The Undertaker, Savio Vega, Henry Godwinn and Fatu)

The main feud here is Mabel vs. Undertaker. At King of the Ring Mabel pinned Undertaker in one of the worst PPV finishes ever. Mabel and Yokozuna would injure Taker later in 95, breaking his face. Taker’s coming for revenge.

Godwinn had been feuding with HHH at the time as well. Hogpen matches or something.

Taker is more over than the other 7 men combined.

The Phantom of the Opera Undertaker is probably the best look Undertaker has ever had.

We have Undertaker, Rikishi, Triple H and Kane in this thing!

Fatu and HHH start. I think this is where they figured out how to run down Stone Cold in 4 years.

This is Make a Difference Fatu.

We are getting a lot of Godwinn-HHH here.

This all feels like unnecessary build-up to Taker-Mabel.

Vega kicks out of Lawler’s piledriver. A little later we get a Rock Bottom on HHH from Vega!

Another piledriver from Lawler to Vega…only Vega no sells and tags in Taker!

No one wants to tag in for Lawler. Tombstone to Lawler and he’s gone.

Tombstone to DDS, he’s gone.

HHH tries to escape, but Godwinn threatens to slop him. Leads to an over the top rope chokeslam! Taker pins HHH.

Team Darkside wins when Mabel gets counted out at 14:21). Mabel gets some shots in, but Taker sits-up from a belly to belly and a legdrop (which makes the KOTR finish even dumber), then hightails it after that. It’s not bad, but a bit too long for what the result was. If you thought Undertaker was levels above all these guys before the match, well, it was certainly booked that way. I don’t think that’s a bad thing though.

Vince announced Bulldog vs. Bret/Diesel winner at the December In Your House for the title.

Bret interview. Compares himself to Wayne Gretzky. Wonders if he is still the best. The truck stops here! Ok interview, but Bret is bland here.

Diesel interview. Says that he has to go through Bret to get the Bulldog. Weird way to look at it.

Owen Hart, Yokozuna, Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon vs. The British Bulldog, Ahmed Johnson, Shawn Michaels and Sid

Cornette tells the Bulldog he is on his side. Of course, he told Owen and Yoko that earlier.

This match is weird. Ramon, HBK and Ahmed are faces. The rest are heels. I assume WWE did it because that’s just how alignments work out at the time.

This match does have a lot of storylines intermingled. The Douglas-HBK-Ramon stuff. Cornette being on both sides. Ahmed Johnson slamming Yokozuna on RAW. Also Razor-Sid/Dibiase stuff. Even Sid and Shawn had history in 95.

Owen and Shawn start us off. Michaels beats up Cornette for no reason!

Mr. Perfect says on commentary that Michaels probably wasn’t hurt and just forfeited the IC title to Douglas last month because he didn’t want to get pinned. I wonder why Perfect said that and how Vince felt about it. Perfect probably said it as a heel commentator and not a shoot comment, but still.

Ahmed goes for the slam on Yoko, but no dice.

I think it’s a big weird to see Ahmed be the face that gets beat down, but he gets out of it himself with a powerslam to Douglas.

Shawn actually did the loading of the boot for Sweet Chin. Thought he didn’t do that till 96.

Razor hits his teammate Douglas, and HBK rolls him up for the pin.

Bulldog and Owen in there now. They shake hands but then both go for the punch. Nice spot considering they are both sneaky heels.

Shawn and Razor now. I feel like this would have been the WWF’s top feud of 1996 if Ramon stayed.

Razor’s Edge! Ahmed Johnson saves Razor.

Perfect keeps making comments that if you think about them you’d think they were shoot comments on HBK. (“HBK always makes friends with the big guys”)

Vince asks who woulda thought that Michaels and Razor would be going at it at the Survivor Series. Um..everyone? They are on opposite teams here.

Sid holds Ramon for HBK to hit SCM, but Razor ducks and HBK nails Sid. HBK didn’t seem to care. Ramon pins Sid.

Sid powerbombs HBK out of anger. Actually seems justified.

Yokozuna looks huge here. Like huge huge.

Pearl River Plunge on Owen and he’s gone. It is a cool looking move to be honest. Someone should bring it back.

Razor hits the Razor’s Edge on Ahmed, but the Bulldog makes the save. Here comes the Kid, Sid and Dibiase! Their distraction leads to a Bulldog powerslam on Razor for the pin.

Ahmed, Bulldog and Shawn vs. Yoko.

Team HBK wins when Ahmed Johnson pins Yokozuna in 27:24. Ahmed comes in and slams Yokozuna. The Bulldog actually saves Yoko, but HBK and Ahmed double clothesline him over the top rope. Sweet Chin Music…then a splash from Ahmed for the win. Pretty good match despite the weird team mechanics. Puts Ahmed over for sure.

More Fake Clinton. This time he has Sunny on his lap, and he offers her a cabinet position. Lol?

WWF Championship-No DQ
Diesel© vs. Bret Hart

Bret and Diesel each take a turnbuckle off the corners of the ring.

The match was built up as the powerful Diesel vs. the wrestler Hart. Diesel starts with all power moves.

At Rumble 95, Bret was the aggressor to keep Diesel as a face. It’s clear that this match is the exact opposite. Diesel absolutely destroys Bret early on and Bret gets the sympathy. It made the Diesel heel turn a lot easier to do.

Chair shot from Diesel to Bret. This has been all Diesel.

Bret bites Diesel and rakes him in the face a few times. Normally heel moves…but Bret makes use of them as ‘a survive at all costs’ kinda sequence, and it works.

Bret vs. Diesel was basically made for Bret Hart’s attack the legs offense.

Figure Four! Wooo!

Bret ties Diesel’s leg to the ringpost. This is the only part of the match that feels a bit out of place, although the spot itself is creative.

See, now Bret using the chair feels justified, since Diesel used it earlier.

Bret uses the back of the chair instead of the seating part. I wonder if that was a mistake.

People used to joke that Diesel only had 2 moves and one was the Sidewalk Slam. Yeah…but it was one of the best Sidewalk Slams in wrestling.

Diesel is really selling the knee, which is great storytelling.

In one of the best spots of pre-attitude WWF, Bret gets on the ring apron and Diesel shoves him off…sending Bret through the announcer’s desk! It’s the first time we see that happen in WWF history I believe, and the way Bret hits just looks like it killed him.

Bret Hart pins Diesel in 24:54 to win the title. Diesel is about to finish off the lifeless Hart. Even his jackknife attempt doesn’t happen as Bret collapses. Diesel picks him up…and Bret surprises with a small package, 1…2…3! An enraged Diesel jackknifes Bret twice and nails some referees, basically making him a heel (although, not completely until Feburary). Great match, best of Diesel’s career. Bret and Diesel had such great chemistry.

They put over Diesel snapping after the event video package.

Survivor Series 95 is an interesting event. All of the matches accomplish something and range from average to good.

The opener had some good wrestling, even if the Barry Horowitz story is a little misplaced. Kid stuff though was good.

Women’s Survivor Series match was very good. Too bad the division died about 6 weeks later.

Bam Bam putting over Goldust is well done.

If you are an Undertaker fan, the Darkside vs. Royals match is great. If not, it’s okay, I guess. It further establishes Undertaker, whether he needed it or not.

Wildcard match was a little confusing, but still good and helped make Ahmed a star. I would think it was strange that the Bulldog was getting a World title shot after seeing it.

Bret vs. Diesel is a great match, and a great culmination of Bret’s story in 1994 where he lost the title and never got a fair shake to regain it. The reason why Bret vs. Diesel works and nothing else in 1995 does is because you actually believe these two are the top guys in the WWF.

Random note: I don’t know how people feel about Mr. Perfect’s commentary. He puts himself over constantly…but I think he’s supposed to as that was his character. I personally don’t mind it.

Anyway, you see some traces of the Attitude Era at Survivor Series 95 with Goldust and how Bret vs. Diesel was worked. This is a damn good show and I’m pretty sure the best show the WWF had in 1995.

Final Grade: A-

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 the WWF 1994 Royal Rumble

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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 the WWE 2003 Royal Rumble

Royal_Rumble_2003

WWE Royal Rumble 2003
January 19, 2003
Boston, MA

The Brand Extension is in full force.

The WWE has established their monopoly of pro wrestling in the United States at this point (TNA was still pretty new…although they’d never be a real threat anyway). Vince McMahon decided he needed to instill competition into the product and the Brand Extension was born. The Brand Extension allowed WWE to push new talent, although it would be shown a lot of them weren’t ready for the challenge.

One of them that looked more than ready was Brock Lesnar. Lesnar, who just dropped the WWE Title at Survivor Series was on his way to the massive face push that would make him the WWE’s top guy (Lesnar would be the Hogan on Smackdown, where HHH would be the Flair on RAW). In a post Austin and full time Rock world, WWE needed to create some megastars on top in the babyface mold. HHH showed he was a lot better off as a heel. Undertaker would never fit that mold. Austin was gone, Rock was basically gone. Goldberg wasn’t here yet. Angle was a heel at the time (although he got a shot at the face run later) and Benoit would never have the charisma to be that guy, although he got a shot later.

Still, the early days of Brand Extension provided interesting content on both sides for sure. Returning legends (HBK, Hogan, Flair), guys way too talented not to be in the main event but somehow not in it (Jericho, Benoit, Booker T), top guys who weren’t ready to leave the top (Taker, HHH) and top newcomers (Lesnar) were just some of the elements out there. I mean in that group I didn’t even mention Angle or Big Show.

Let’s see how the first Brand Extension Royal Rumble plays out.

The Card

Winner Gets in the Royal Rumble
Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show

Story here: Lesnar dropped the WWE Title (and was pinned for the first time) to Big Show at Survivor Series when Paul Heyman turned on him. In actuality two things caused that change: Lesnar had injured ribs that WWE wasn’t sure of the extent of, and WWE was planning Lesnar vs. Angle at Mania and decided to switch the face/heel alignments, so had to make Lesnar a face. Of course, face Angle had to beat heel Big Show for the belt, which led to a weird Angle heel turn, but I guess that was the best way to make this happen. Angle would JOIN Heyman afterwards, and for some reason this didn’t turn Big Show face.

Back to the story, Lesnar then cost Big Show the title at Armageddon against Angle. So we got this match. I’m usually not a big fan of these type matches, as for a storyline like this it’s obvious Lesnar is winning this match AND the Rumble. There was one other option for the Rumble winner, which I’ll get into when we get there.

The way Lesnar would just suplex Big Show all over the place was ridiculous.

The way Show would throw Lesnar around was also ridiculous. While he obviously could, no one else did anything like that to Brock up to this point.

Big Show does a great, if not hilarious shocked face when Lesnar kicks out of the chokeslam.

Brock Lesnar pins Big Show in 6:29. Lesnar escapes a 2nd chokeslam attempt, and gets the F5! That’s so damn impressive and the crowd pops huge. Lesnar gets the pin and is in the Rumble. Good match, if only for how smooth Lesnar is in throwing around Big Show. These two had a strange chemistry.

Terri interviews Chris Jericho. She asks him about Jericho choosing #2 when he had the choice to pick any number. Jericho says because HBK was #1 Jericho HAD to be #2. This was setting up the Jericho-HBK feud.

Jericho sure got A LOT of mileage out of beating Austin and Rock the same night to become Undisputed Champion (as he should have).

RAW World Tag Team Championship
William Regal and Lance Storm vs. The Dudley Boyz

This would be the third Rumble in a row that the Dudleyz were in the World Tag Title slot. They are already 15 Time World Tag Team Champions at this point.

Regal and Storm were what was left of the UnAmericans. Test started being advertised by male genitalia. Christian became Jericho’s sidekick.

Regal still had the brass knuckles gimmick going at this point as well.

The Dudleyz actually weren’t stale here, as they were split up throughout most of 2002 due to the Brand Extension (that led to Reverend D-Von!). D-Von was part of the Big Show to Smackdown trade and immediately rejoined Bubba at Survivor Series.

One of the problems with the Dudley reunion was they didn’t change anything up at all. They literally acted like the same team they always did, moves and all.

Chief Morley comes out to argue about something, and Regal has Brass Knucks!

The Dudley Boyz wins the title when D-Von pinned Storm in 7:24. Regal has the Knucks…but gets the 3D anyway. D-Von picks up the knucks and nails Storm for the win. A good pop for the Dudley title win. This is a waste of Storm and Regal though. Match wasn’t anything special and pretty boring.

Nathan Jones promo! He escaped from prison in Tasmania! It’s like Nailz all over again.

Stepmother vs. Stepdaughter
Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie

Oh god. This storyline was Wrestlecrap from the get go. Dawn Marie fell in love with Torrie Wilson’s father, Al Wilson. This at first seemed like an attempt to have a fling with Torrie, which was “shown” at Armageddon. Dawn and Al continued their relationship and got married, but Al died on the honeymoon because of a heart attack as a result of too much sex or something. Then Torrie and Dawn fought at the wake. It was actually worse than it sounds.

I mean who the hell thought any of that was a good idea?

Torrie doesn’t fall on the Dawn Marie armbar. That could have been a broken arm right there.

Dawn Marie with a springboard clothesline! How about that. It didn’t look great though.

Torrie Wilson pins Dawn Marie in 3:36. Swinging neckbreaker for the win. Torrie and Dawn are not really wrestlers, so to expect anything more than a bad match would be unrealistic. We got that springboard clothesline so there’s that at least? At least this was short. Storyline is still horrid.

Stephanie McMahon and Eric Bischoff meet backstage (where Bischoff was speaking to a still rookie Randy Orton). Steph tells Bischoff good bye, as Vince had given Bischoff 30 days to turn RAW around. Bischoff said he had a bombshell to save his job (which turned out to be Austin). Stephanie said she had a bombshell of her own (which turned out to be Hogan).

Sean O’Haire vignette! I still think he would have worked out if not for Roddy Piper’s involvement in the angle.

World Heavyweight Championship
Triple H© vs. Scott Steiner

Story: Steiner debuted at Survivor Series (as a face no less. Pretty sure that was the opposite of what the Big Poppa Pump character was about) and decided on RAW as his home. A part of the agreement was he gets a World Title shot.

The match actually has a solid start. Hard hitting from Steiner followed by a gorilla press slam. It would get worse though…

I hate Boston Crabs where the guy doesn’t sit on the back. That’s the point Steiner!

Steiner with a belly to belly suplex! He goes for the Recliner but Flair pulls HHH out.

Steiner is breathing HEAVY. He’s already exhausted.

Another belly to belly (kinda) from Steiner.

We get a weird Tombstone reversal sequence which ends with a botched HHH neckbreaker.

Steiner catches HHH coming off the top…for another belly to belly suplex.

Fans begin turning on Steiner….there’s ANOTHER belly to belly.

Another belly to belly. It’s clear Steiner has nothing else. Fans booing.

A sixth belly to belly.

Steiner goes for a double underhook suplex, and Steiner FALLS before the move is finished. Yikes.

HHH gets busted open by the leather part of the World Title.

ANOTHER BELLY TO BELLY.

Steiner doing his push-up taunt is like a NFL defensive lineman celebrating a sack when his team is down 30 points.

HHH tries to get counted out and DQed, but Earl Hebner won’t allow it. Steiner throws in yet another belly to belly while he’s at it.

Scott Steiner wins by DQ in 18:14. HHH finally uses the sledgehammer, forcing the DQ. Post match, Steiner destroys HHH and locks him in the Recliner. Crowd is dead for it. Match was historically bad, and has an argument for being the worst PPV World Title match ever. Scott Steiner was dreadful. There’s a reason he was a midcarder after this (although he did get a HHH rematch at No Way Out).

WWE World Championship
Kurt Angle© vs. Chris Benoit

We covered Angle’s story earlier. We’ll add here that this feud also involved the debut of Team Angle, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, which owned.

Benoit actually turned amidst all this as well, and became the #1 contender after being Big Show on Smackdown. Angle and Benoit were reluctant Smackdown Tag Team Champions back in October, and even had a match at Unforgiven as well. This was the end of Benoit the heel, as this face run would go through the rest of his career.

So, as all Benoit vs. Angle feuds go, it comes down to who’s the better wrestler?

Team Angle gets ejected quickly for trying to hold Benoit back.

Watching this match makes me feel that Steiner and HHH was in slow motion.

Benoit DDTs Angle on the apron! Nice.

Angle’s belly to belly suplexes are about 100 times better than Steiner’s.

This has been a non-stop action packed match from the get go.

Rolling Germans from Benoit…but Angle counters into his own!

Benoit re-counters!

I never got why Benoit did that snot thing.

Angle tosses Benoit off the top rope with a belly to belly!

Angle Slam attempt turns into the Crossface! Crowd is very into it. Angle survives though.

Benoit locks Angle into the Ankle Lock…but Angle reverses into his own Ankle Lock! THAT gets turned into the Crossface!

Angle counters a Crossface with an Angle Slam! Wow!

Another great false finish with Benoit countering a German with a victory roll.

Benoit gets a German…only it turns into an overhead release German where Angle lands face first!

Flying Headbutt 3/4th of the ring away!

Angle drops Benoit face first on the turnbuckles leading to another Angle Slam…but Benoit survives THAT too.

Kurt Angle retains by submission in 19:50. Angle counters another Crossface into the Ankle Lock. Benoit tries to escape, but Angle hangs on. Benoit does an amazing sell job here, screaming in pain. Angle grapevines the leg and Benoit is trapped, and taps out (makes you wonder why Angle didn’t always do that). I was blown away the first time I saw this 12 years ago, but it holds up today as well. Incredible match. This match was the match that showed Benoit could play an incredible underdog babyface, and he rode that all the way to winning the title at Mania XX (well, there was a haphazard team with Rhino in there). Just an amazing match. Benoit gets a standing ovation afterwards.

Kane and Rob Van Dam talk about how it’s every man for himself. This leads to a good spot later.

The Royal Rumble

#1 is Shawn Michaels. Jericho is supposed to be #2, but for some reason Christian shows up in the entrance way. Jericho attacks HBK from behind and beats the holy hell out of him. Jericho lays HBK out with a chair and HBK sells it like a million bucks. Chris Nowinski is #3, but he waits on the outside. Jericho beats on HBK a bit more then dumps him, to the horror of the crowd.

#4 is Rey Mysterio, and he owns Jericho for a bit. Nowinski finally gets in there to attack Rey from behind.

Edge is #5. Edge and Rey had been a team, so they natural work together. They eventually go at it though and there’s a false elimination that I think gets screwed up. I think Edge’s feet do hit the floor. No biggie though.

Christian is #6, for real this time. He tries to get on Edge’s good side to double team Mysterio. Edge spears him though.

Rey and Edge hit a double dropkick off the top to Nowinski, but the timing is off and I think Nowinski got hurt here as Edge’s leg lands on his face.

#7 is Chavo Guerrero. Good workrate early on for sure. Rey gets Nowinski out. Jericho gets out Rey. Great heat for Jericho eliminating HBK and Rey so far.

#8 is Tajiri. Crazy airplane spin on Chavo.

#9 is Bill DeMott. What a random push this was.

#10 is Tommy Dreamer. It’s Hardcore Rumble II! Dreamer accidentally legit cracks Jericho in the eye with a kendo stick, busting him open bad.

Con-garbage can lid-to on Dreamer! He’s gone by Jericho and Christian.

#11 is B2. Too lazy to super script here. He’s injured as John Cena turned on him on Smackdown. He lasts about 30 seconds. Jericho gets rid of Tajiri. Edge gets rid of Chavo. Jericho gets rid of Edge and Christian. Jericho is alone in the ring.

#12 is Rob Van Dam! A great near-elimination is in there, where Jericho barely hangs on.

Matt Strongly Dislikes Mustard. #13 is Matt Hardy! Hardy and Jericho double team RVD. Jericho takes a Five Star Frog Splash!

#14 is Eddie Guerrero. No reaction for Eddie…but boy would that change over the next year.

Eddie with a kinda botched Frog Splash there. Matt turns right on him and hits a Twist of Fate. Just in time for…

Jeff Hardy at #15! The Hardys did not get along at this point.

Shannon Moore tries to push Matt back into the ring with his feet. He then takes a Swanton for Matt! Shannon Moore was a great sidekick.

#16 is Rosey. Out goes the workrate.

#17 is Test. The Testicle marketing was just weird.

#18 is John Cena, and we get a whole rap on his way to the ring. He rhymes explain to ya and Wrestlemania. So there’s that. We get Latrell Sprewell and Mike Tyson references as well.

#19 is Team Angle’s Charlie Haas

RVD gets rid of Jeff when Jeff went to the top rope and RVD shoved him off.

#20 is Rikishi. Apparently he’s been in more Royal Rumbles than anyone else in history at this point. RIkishi’s spinning sell of the clothesline was already pretty good.

#21 is Jamal. Both members of Three Minute Warning are in there.

#22 is Kane. JR mentions no one has come close to Kane’s 11 man elimination record…even though the previous record was 10. He gets rid of Rosey on cue.

#23 is Shelton Benjamin. Both members of Team Angle in there now.

#24 is Booker T. This is the other possible winner I mentioned earlier. There were rumors he would win (which made sense since he eventually got the World Title slot at Mania against HHH), but Lesnar was the “safe choice”. In retrospect you had to do Lesnar for the story. But Booker was the dark horse.

Booker dumps Eddie!

#25 is A-Train. He immediately derails Cena, a precursor to the Tensai-Cena feud nine years later surely.

Shawn Michaels runs in and attacks Jericho, and it’s enough of a distraction for Test to eliminate Jericho. While this set up Jericho vs. HBK…what the hell was Test eliminating Jericho for? Weird choice there.

#26 is Maven. Not much to say here.

#27 is Goldust. It was pretty crazy Goldust actually got a full time run in 2002, but he wouldn’t last that much longer. He’d come back a lot later though. Charlie Haas eliminates him after about 40 seconds.

Team Angle surprisingly eliminates Booker T. Odd choice there too.

#28 is Batista with awesome music. He gets rid of Test and Rikishi.

#29 is Brock Lesnar! Team Angle double teams, but Lesnar sends them both out. Matt Hardy is F5ed onto them as well.

A-Train kills both Batista and Lesnar in one sequence. How weird does that seem now.

#30 is Undertaker. While the crowd pops, this was a pretty big disappointment. There were several promo videos about Taker coming back at the Rumble, but the first one hinted he could be the Deadman, and the second mentioned the Ministry. So there was hope he would be back in the Deadman character here.

Taker is the only man to have three #30 Rumble appearances I believe, ’97, ’03 and ’07.

Taker gets rid of Cena and Jamal. A great spot follows though, as Maven dropkicks Taker and immediately celebrates. Maven shocking eliminated Taker in this manner in 2002. Taker sends Maven out.

RVD, A-Train, Kane, Lesnar, Batista and Taker left. All the workrate didn’t make it.

RVD and Kane work together to get rid of A-Train. Then another great moment: Kane goes to slam RVD on Batista…only to toss RVD out instead! They foreshadowed this in their promo earlier.

Batista, Lesnar, Taker and Kane are your final four. Crazy final four considering what Batista would become later.

Lesnar and Taker almost mess up a hangman, and Taker almost goes over the top rope. Lesnar noticeably saves him.

Interestingly, Taker tombstones Lesnar here, but Lesnar’s head is obviously too high up. It’s interesting because the same thing happens at Wrestlemania XXX.

Taker clotheslines Batista out, then tries to convince Kane to double team Lesnar. Taker turns on Kane immediately (not a big fan of that either) and tosses him. Batista runs in with a chair but Taker takes him out and whacks him with the chair.

Brock Lesnar wins the Royal Rumble in 53:41, last eliminating the Undertaker. Taker says something to Batista, and Lesnar sneaks up behind him and dumps him. Taker shakes his head in disbelief and gives Lesnar props. I am not a big fan of this ending though and this only fueled the idea that HHH and Taker were holding people down (I’ve come to think Taker wasn’t really doing this though). Taker took out Batista twice, outsmarted his brother, and Lesnar could only beat him by a sneak attack? While there are certainly some good moments, the outcome was never in doubt and the Rumble itself, while fine, is mostly forgettable.

It’s rare that a Royal Rumble PPV is known more for the title matches than the Rumble match itself, but that is what happened here. HHH vs. Steiner is remembered for all the wrong reasons. Benoit vs. Angle for all the right ones. Having one of the worst World Title matches and best World Title matches back to back is quite the oddity. Steiner didn’t last too long as a main eventer and was a midcarder by Mania (and wasn’t on the Mania card!). Benoit eventually got to the top. So at least something went right there. The Lesnar win was expected obviously, but the finish was pretty weak. I love Undertaker, but that whole return was pretty weak as well, and there was no need to make everyone look bad there.

I’ll give this show a historical bonus though. Cena Royal Rumble debut. Randy Orton on PPV (his first time maybe? His first PPV match wasn’t until Summerslam I know that). Batista with his first top 4 Rumble finish (in fact, in every Rumble Batista has been in he ended up in the top 4). The Lesnar victory. These were small building blocks to the future.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the 2001 WWF Royal Rumble

Royal_Rumble_2001

WWF Royal Rumble 2001
January 21, 2001
New Orleans, LA

It’s over.

WCW didn’t really believe it to be so, but at this point it really was. The WWF vs. WCW war hadn’t really mattered to the WWF in over a year. WCW then proceeded to put on one of the worst years, if not the worst year, that a major wrestling promotion had ever put together. While WCW would have some strong moments in 2001 before its demise, it was way too little and way too late.

Meanwhile, the WWF was riding high. New stars such as Kurt Angle had really hit their stride. The WWF was also pushing the hell out of former WCW stars Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, and even taking chances with guys like Rikishi. The WWF had all of that talent while also having their mainstays be at the very top. Stone Cold, HHH, Undertaker, Kane and The Rock were still at the top of their games. While that wouldn’t actually remain viable forever (not enough top spots), at this point the WWF was simply rolling.

Then again, there was some small concerns. Ratings in December were low comparing to past years, and that’s with the ultra-hot Austin comeback. Shouldn’t be a problem on the Road to Wrestlemania though…right?

The Card

WWF World Tag Team Championship: Edge and Christian © vs. The Dudley Boyz

From 2000 on, it’s just safe to assume the Hardyz, E and C and Dudleyz were feuding with one another. The con-chair-to was an awesome move. Shame we won’t ever see it again, although it’s for the best.

I always thought the chemistry between the three teams was awesome…especially since the Dudleyz adapted to the WWF style practically instantly.

This whole match revolves around the Dudleyz having concussions. My how times have changed.

Edge and Christian miss the con-chair-to and D-Von hot tags Bubba! The crowd is very into all of this.

“D-VON! GET THE TABLES!”

The Dudley Boyz win when D-Von Dudley pins Edge in 9:59. Edge and Christian go for the Dudleyz’ WASSUP! Headbutt, but it’s reversed. Edge eats the 3D, and the Dudleyz win the title! Crowd pops huge for a very good opening match. Chemistry was just perfect with these teams.

Drew Carey is here! I think he’s promoting a PPV or something. He talks to HHH and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and promotes his PPV.

Crash Holly then threatens The APA about the Rumble. Good for a laugh.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chris Benoit © vs. Chris Jericho

Their entire promo video is just them beating the hell out of one another throughout 2000. Sounds good to me.

Benoit and Jericho just go at it right away. No time to waste here.

One of the most cringeworthy moments I’ve ever seen: Benoit goes for a tope…and Jericho whacks him right in the head with a chair. Worse when you think about what ultimately happened with Benoit. What a sick spot.

This is just hard hitting stuff back and forth, not a lot of flying. It’s an old school ladder match and it’s awesome.

Ridiculous ladder teeter-totter spot that got Benoit in the face. Jeez.

Walls of Jericho on top of the ladder!

Benoit misses a top of the ladder diving headbutt. Sick.

Chris Jericho wins the title in 18:48. Jericho nails Benoit with a chair, then shoves him off the ladder and over the top. It’s enough time for Jericho to grab the IC Title. Great great match. One of the best ladder matches of all time. It’s forgotten because of the Benoit deal. Hard hitting, great spots and a great crowd. 2/2 so far tonight!

Drew Carey hits on Trish Stratus…but here comes Vince! Vince isn’t happy…so he has Drew enter the Royal Rumble! When Trish says it would impress her…Drew goes for it!

WWF Women’s Championship: Ivory© vs. Chyna

Storyline here: The Right to Censor injured Chyna’s neck…and Chyna wants revenge.

It may have been fun to see Chyna destroy Ivory at the time, but in retrospect this killed the Women’s title until Trish revived it at the end of the year.

Ivory retains the title via pin in 3:32. Chyna goes for her cartwheel elbow, but goes down and holds her neck. Ivory pins her. Chyna is stretchered out. Really a glorified angle. Chyna would crush Ivory two months later anyway.

Drew Carey meets Kane. Kane should be afraid.

WWF Championship: Kurt Angle© vs. Triple H

Weird match here. HHH and Angle had feuded in 2000 in the love triangle storyline, but we got past that randomly in the last couple of months…and HHH had turned heel on Stone Cold. Suddenly HHH is the #1 contender causing Angle to think he’s against the McMahon family…but he’s still a heel and enlists Trish to help him, which infuriates Stephanie (well that and Vince’s flirtations with Vince). Still, both are heels, and the match actually feels like a backdrop of the Steph-Trish feud sadly.

As a result, except for some early “Angle Sucks” chants, the crowd really isn’t into it.

HHH works on the knee, even using a chair against Angle’s knee against the post. This makes Angle the face of the match then?

HHH with a strange Indian Deathlock. He had been using the Indian Deathlock in late 2000, notably against Benoit at No Mercy 2000.

Trish breaks up a Figure Four, leading to a Steph-Trish catfight…and the crowd goes nuts.

Razor’s Edge! Angle kicks out.

Moonsault from Angle! HHH survives though.

The crowd is on HHH’s side now.

Ref gets taken out…twice! HHH has it won…

Kurt Angle retains by pin in 24:16. Stone Cold comes out and beats the hell out of HHH…and hits him with a Stunner. Angle gets the pin. While this is a very good match, the Trish-Steph angle was distracting, and we didn’t even get remotely a good finish. I mean, I know Angle is a chicken-shit heel, but he really struggled to beat anyone during this reign…this match included.

The Royal Rumble

#1 is Jeff Hardy. #2 is Bull Buchanan.

#3 is Matt Hardy, pretty much ending the Bull Buchanan run.

The Hardyz oddly don’t wait for the next guy and go at it after dumping Bull.

#4 is Faarooq, who fends for himself pretty well for a minute before getting eliminated.

#5 is Drew Carey! Carey watches on the outside…and the Hardyz eliminate each other at the same time! Drew wins!

#6 is Kane. Kane slowly walks around the ring and Drew begs him not to hurt him. Drew hilariously offers money, but Kane says no. Kane is about to chokeslam drew, but #7, Raven saves him with a kendo stick shot. Drew eliminates himself.

It’s a Hardcore Rumble!

Al Snow runs in early and attacks Raven he confirms himself to be #8 shortly.

Raven takes a bowling ball to the nuts. Ouch.

#9 is Saturn. Interestingly, Saturn’s titantron has the same style that would be used for Chris Jericho’s Save.Us campaign later.

#10 is Steve Blackman as the Hardcore Division keeps coming out.

#11 is Grandmaster Sexay. It would be his last appearance until 2004.

Kane literally has a “fuck this moment”. Trash can shot knocks out Grandmaster. Blackman is next. Then Al Snow. Raven goes afterwards….then Saturn as well. Kane has cleaned house!

#12 is The Honky Tonk Man! He wants to sing his song. He does so, before Kane whacks him with a guitar and throws him out.

#13 is The Rock. Business has picked up!

#14 is The Goodfather! Goodfather never recovered from his RTC heel turn sadly.

And Rock takes out the Goodfather. That was fast.

#15 is Tazz, and he lasts less time than the Goodfather does. Kane knocks him out in about 5 seconds.

#16 is Bradshaw. He actually kicks some ass and takes Rock out with a clothesline.

#17 is Albert.

#18 is Hardcore Holly. Five guys in there now.

GETTING ROWDY! #19 is K-Kwik. Amazing that Killings never really got higher than this spot other than his heel run in 2011.

#20 is a Right to Censored Val Venis. It seems like we are just waiting for someone to clean house here.

#21 is William Regal. Test follows at #22, and dumps Regal.

Business picks up now as The Big Show returns and is #23. Show was last seen in July after being sent to OVW to lose weight (which he didn’t do, for the record). He chokeslams everyone in sight and gets rid of K-Kwik and Test. The Rock counters the chokeslam and out goes Show.

Big Show drags Rock under the ropes as #24, Crash Holly gets in. Big Show chokeslams The Rock through the Announcer’s table before leaving.

Undertaker is #25, and he and Kane clean out the ring…and DON’T attack one another (see Hardyz, it works!). Scotty 2 Hotty comes out in total fear, and is promptly chokeslammed and eliminated.

#27 is Stone Cold Steve Austin, leading to one of my all time favorite Rumble moments. Taker and Kane in the ring where Stone Cold comes down with no fear. HHH ruins the moment though by attacking Austin. Austin doesn’t make it to the ring. Rock gets back in and fight Taker and Kane.

#28 is Billy Gunn. Gunn gets some good offense in, probably the last good offense he’d get in until 2013.

#29 is Haku. Haku is the current WCW Hardcore Champion! You knew it was a death knell for WCW when the WWF didn’t even acknowledge that they stole Haku.

#30 is Rikishi. Rikishi sees Austin trying to get back to the ring and tries to take advantage, but Austin springs into action and attacks! Anyway, Rikishi, Gunn, Austin, Rock, Kane, Haku and Undertaker are the final seven.

Austin dumps Haku.

You can see there is a little Austin fatigue at this point. It’s not that Austin couldn’t be a top draw, but his out of nowhere attack of Rikishi would have gotten a huge reaction before. Now, it’s just something Austin did.

Rikishi superkicks Undertaker out!

Rikishi goes for a Banzaii Drop, but Rock knocks him over the top rope. Really bad showing from Rikishi here kayfabe wise. All that hype for #30 and he ended up lasting 5 minutes?

Austin, Gunn, Kane, Rock is the final four. One of these is not like the other.

Gunn hits Austin with the Fameasser…then Austin throws Gunn out just like that. Down to three.

Austin and Rock have locked eyes. These two went at one another at Armageddon the month prior as well.

Austin and Rock going at each other here was a huge deal. It was funny when WWE tried to replicate it with Orton and Cena in 2011.

Austin and Rock keep going at it and Austin even gets a Stunner. Austin tries to dump Rock, but Rock counters and tries to dump Austin. Kane comes from behind and tries to dump both, but only succeeds in dumping Rock (the record setting 11th elimination).

Stone Cold wins the Royal Rumble at 61:55, last eliminating Kane. Austin and Kane go at it, and Kane grabs a chair. Austin gets the chair though and whacks Kane a few times, before clotheslining him over the top for the win. Very good Royal Rumble. Had some slow moments…but clearly had its moments as well.

A really good PPV here. Only one match was lacking, and it only lasted three minutes. Everything else ranged from awesome (the IC Ladder Match) to very good (the WWF Title match). Historically this was Austin’s last great babyface moment of the Attitude Era, and Kane got a historical accolade that took 13 years to beat. Kane did kinda get wasted though after this.

Royal Rumble really had some good stuff. Comedy with Carey, Honky Tonk and Scotty 2 Hotty. Kane’s reign of terror. The hardcore part of the Rumble. The Austin-Rock staredown. The Big Show comeback (it got a good pop and he was a main guy always before this).

The entire show did provide good build-up for Wrestlemania as well. Can’t go wrong there.

Final Grade: A