Tag Archives: wrestlemania

Pro Wrestling

Wrestlemania XXXIII Preview

It is the biggest show of the year. Unfortunately, WWE treats it that way. Now you may say “isn’t that a good thing” but in this case it’s not. WWE manufactured every single “moment” at Wrestlemania XXXII, somehow failing to realize that the best part about Wrestlemania moments are when they are organically created. I mean The Rock basically came out with a neon sign that said “Wrestlemania moment coming now”.  It was a terrible show.

Has WWE learned from that? Wrestlemania XXXI was basically the opposite, with fans not entirely being excited about the card and instead getting an amazing show filled with great moments (The DX and NWO run-ins and Seth Rollins’ shocking title win, for two examples). What Wrestlemania will we get tonight? Let’s go through each match, pre-show and all, and throw in some potential appearances that could turn into real, organic moments.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Neville© vs. Austin Aries

Should be a really fun match on the pre-show and definitely the highest profile match for the division possible without Brian Kendrick. I expect Neville to retain the title though, he hasn’t held it long enough for the credible reign he needs. Potential moment? Some crazy high flying move from Neville probably.

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

It’s kind of a shame that this is on the pre-show. Last year it was moved to the main card and rumors ran rampant that John Cena was going to win it…only for that move to mean Shaq was in it. Baron Corbin winning was pretty good though and WWE did capitalize it. Braun Strowman seems like the obvious winner, but I kinda think they are going to give it to Big Show again as a token of appreciation, especially with the Shaq match falling apart. Moment potential is Show’s win if it turns out to be his last match, or perhaps someone slamming him out like Cesaro back at Mania XXX.

Smackdown’s Women’s Title: Alexa Bliss © vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natayla vs. Naomi vs. Mickie James vs. Carmella

I was a bit surprised to find that Naomi made her return on Smackdown and was announced for the match. That could have been a cool Wrestlemania moment unless WWE thought she would be a disappointing surprise entrant. Also, I’m not sure if other Women can still be in this match or if it’s an official six-pack challenge. I’m not sure who’s winning here, but I am guessing the title will go back to Naomi here.

Raw World Tag Team Title: Gallows and Anderson © vs. Enzo and Cass vs. Cesaro and Sheamus

Throwing a ladder into the mix seemingly made this match feel more important. It should be a bit of a real old school ladder match though, as there isn’t a high flyer in this thing and that’ll be interesting. Seems about the right time for Enzo and Cass to win the titles, which would be a moment in itself.

Intercontinental Title: Dean Ambrose © vs. Baron Corbin

It’s been a rough year for Ambrose. He finally got a crack at the top and was completely exposed at that level. Now he’s in the IC title picture and should be dropping the title to Corbin. And I think he will. Not sure what moments can come from this really other than Corbin’s win. Making Corbin a clutch Wrestlemania type guy (he won the Andre Battle Royal last year) would be a great thing for him.

WWE Hall Of Fame

 

I don’t really know when this is going to happen on the card. But seeing Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania would be something. Maybe Angle will get involved in something?

John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse

Kudos to The Miz to getting himself into a high profile match at Wrestlemania. It’s a shame he’s not winning but really it’s what WWE does with Miz over the next year that really matters. The potential moment here is obvious, John Cena proposing to Nikki Bella. Get ready for that wedding at Summerslam.

United States Title: Chris Jericho © vs. Kevin Owens

JERIKO EXPLODES. It’s a bit of a shame this isn’t for the Universal title, but it should be a good one nonetheless. I also have a sneaky suspicion Chris Jericho is going over here, only for him to lose to Owens at Extreme Rules or whatever the next PPV is. Moment here could be something involving Jericho emotionally being upset about their Friendship being destroyed.

RAW Women’s Title: Bayley © vs. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax

I really don’t buy Nia Jax in this match. She’s just not ready. I expect her to get Big Show at Wrestlemania 2000’d and be out quickly after a triple team. From there, it could be anyone and I think it’ll be Charlotte. It’s not like WWE suddenly pulled the plug on making Charlotte important. Potential moment: Sasha gets eliminated 2nd and turns on Bayley, leading to the Charlotte title win.

Shane McMahon vs. A.J. Styles

While I was hoping for a different match for Styles, putting him with a McMahon is still the highest profile match he’s ever had. And if anyone can get an amazing match out of Shane, it’s Styles. I’m pulling expecting some crazy jump from Shane that he’ll miss and AJ will win as a result. That’ll be your moment obviously.

Legends Segment

The Rock? Stone Cold? HBK? Mick Foley? I kinda expect Foley since it would be a shame he’d miss Mania after being around most of the year. As long as it isn’t the mess the Rock did last year it could be entertaining. Maybe Ronda will show up?!

Seth Rollins vs. Triple H

Can’t fault HHH for putting over Reigns then Rollins back to back. This match should be quite good, and frankly I am surprised it isn’t main eventing. It’s the only match other than Styles vs. Shane that guaranteed to be good and has big match appeal. Rollins will then sink or swim as a top guy afterwards. I expect Samoa Joe to be involved…and if somehow HHH wins a Summerslam rematch will take place too. Then again Finn Balor could show up to fight off Joe.

WWE World Title: Bray Wyatt © vs. Randy Orton

I really wanted this story to continue. Orton’s turn came too early for me, and a triple threat with Luke Harper is much more interesting. I really hope we just aren’t going to see Orton pin Wyatt and that’s that, but Vince has reportedly been impressed with Orton, and he kinda owes him one for what Brock did to him at Summerslam. I see the title switch here, unfortunately.

WWE Universal Title: Goldberg © vs. Brock Lesnar

Either there will be tons of smoke and mirrors, or Lesnar is going over in three minutes max. I really hope it’s the latter. The Goldberg thing was interesting for a bit, but the ending needs to be Lesnar squashing him and moving on.

The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns

This is the rumored main event, which makes me think it’s Undertaker’s last match. Sad to say, but Taker looked pretty bad at the Rumble and Roman’s getting booed out the building. Undertaker deserves better than this if this is the end. I’m sure A.J. could have gotten a great match with him. The right decision is for Roman to go over, sadly.

And that’s Mania. I don’t like how it sounds, but WWE has surpassed the hype before and I hope this is one of those times. Enjoy.

Pro Wrestling

2016 RDTWorldofSport Wrestling Awards

RDTWorldofSport 2016 Wrestling Awards

I don’t have a real basis for this to be perfectly honest. It’s mostly my opinion with some searching around to see what some respected wrestling forums and writers think. Some categories get a Top 5 and some get a Top 3. Why? Because I said so. Also this will mostly be WWE, basically because that’s what I watched 99% of the time. But if something else catches my eye, it could make the awards. With that being said, here goes.

Moment of the Year

Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura Wins the NXT Championship

 

Nakamura was on fire in WWE this year and didn’t even need to be on the main roster to do so. Nakamura was pretty much a phenom the moment he set foot in NXT. Winning the NXT Championship showed that NXT could get past the Sami Zayn, Finn Balor era, which honestly wasn’t a guarantee. The entire spectacle of the match is fantastic. Nakamura’s entrance with Lee England Jr. was incredible. The crowd was incredible. And when Nakamura hit Samoa Joe with the Kinshasa and won the title, the crowd erupted.

Second Place: Goldberg beats Brock Lesnar in 84 seconds

Third Place: Shane McMahon returns to RAW

Fourth Place: A.J. Styles debuts in the Royal Rumble

Fifth Place: Finn Balor wins the new WWE Universal Championship

Debut of the Year

Winner: A.J. Styles in WWE

There aren’t many ways the Royal Rumble can surprise us anymore, and even those on the inside knew that A.J. showing up in the Rumble was a possibility (since he has just signed with WWE), but WWE surprised us for sure here. A.J. Styles is pretty much the last major star that WWE had never truly had and for him to show up in the Rumble while the current “face” of WWE, Roman Reigns, awaited him in the ring, was truly epic and it’ll be hard for WWE to top that moment in a Royal Rumble ever again.

Second Place: Shinsuke Nakamura in NXT

Third Place: Bobby Roode in NXT

Fourth Place: Bayley on RAW

Fifth Place: Baron Corbin at Wrestlemania

Return of the Year

Winner: Shane McMahon on RAW

With WWE in need of a marquee match at Wrestlemania, the return of Shane McMahon and a match between him and The Undertaker in Hell in a Cell delivered. The crowd erupted for Shane, who hadn’t been seen in WWE for seven years. To my surprise, Shane stuck around after Wrestlemania and is still working for WWE today (as I thought he was just going for the Mania program and leaving). Watch the crowd reaction, it’s insane.

Second Place: Goldberg returns to RAW

Third Place: Seth Rollins returns at Extreme Rules

Fourth Place: Bayley returns to NXT to challenge Asuka

Fifth Place: Randy Orton returns on the Highlight Reel at Battleground

Match of the Year

Winner: A.J. Styles vs. John Cena – WWE Summerslam 2016

It’s amazing to me that Styles vs. Cena somehow served as a midcard feud. This was theoretically a dream match, the face of TNA for the last decade against the face of WWE. Of course, Styles vs. Cena pretty much put the rest of the main roster to shame with several five star performances. Notably, the one at Summerslam, which was at the end of the first hour, absolutely stole the show and made Styles into a superstar. John Cena put Styles over clean in 23 minutes of amazing back and forth action with great false finishes.

Second Place: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn – NXT Takeover: Dallas

Third Place: NXT World Tag Team Championship – Two out of Three Falls: The Revival © vs. DIY – NXT Takeover: Toronto

Fourth Place: NXT World Tag Team Championship: The Revival © vs. DIY – NXT Takeover: Brooklyn

Fifth Place: WWE Intercontinental Championship – Last Man Standing: Dean Ambrose © vs. Kevin Owens

Feud of the Year

Winner: Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks

 

This feud was red hot to me all year. Understandable some became sick of the feud as they wrestled about six or seven different times on different events and some had also turned on Charlotte as a performer. The only issue I had with the feud was that WWE seemed to be going out of their way to create an undefeated on PPV streak for Charlotte. But otherwise I liked all of their matches and thought Hell in a Cell and the Iron Woman Match were strong. Starting with their triple threat at Wrestlemania with Becky Lynch, it really did feel like Women’s wrestling was becoming an important part of the show. The matches delivered, Women’s wrestling was elevated, and best yet we have a big heel for Bayley to dethrone…then a story if Sasha Banks turns heel on her. And that all spawns from this feud.

Second Place: A.J. Styles vs. John Cena

Third Place: Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens

Fourth Place: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Samoa Joe

Fifth Place: Shane McMahon vs. Stephanie McMahon

Biggest Disappointment of the Year

Winner: Brock Lesnar’s 2016

 

Lesnar had dominated and was without a doubt the biggest name in WWE pretty much since he returned, and especially since he beat the Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXX. He had a huge 2014 after that, beating John Cena for the title in dominating fashion and despite barely being there still being the biggest star. In 2015 he was a part of two match of the year candidates (triple threat at the Rumble and vs. Reigns at Mania), a feud of the year candidate (vs. Undertaker) and again seemed like his dominate self. What the heck happened in 2016? He kicked off the year with a disappointing Royal Rumble appearance where a feud with the Wyatts seemed imminent. A feud with Ambrose spawned from a triple threat match at Fastlane and the Wyatt’s deal was quickly dropped after Lesnar beat Luke Harper at Roadblock. Match with Ambrose was one of those that hurt both guys instead of elevating or establishing anyone. Came back to fight and bloody Randy Orton in a match that really didn’t seem like a big deal and there wasn’t any follow up. Survivor Series was the last match for Lesnar where he lost to Goldberg in 84 seconds, although that was probably the most interesting thing he did all year. Nonetheless, the aura took a huge hit this year and I’m not sure the product would be any different if he wasn’t here, which is a vastly different statement than you could make in 2014 or 2015.

Second Place: Roman Reigns’ rise to the top

Third Place: Roman Reigns vs. Triple H – Wrestlemania 32

Fourth Place: Wrestlemania 32

Fifth Place: Bayley’s RAW booking

Best Show of the Year

Winner: NXT Takeover: Dallas

Nakamura’s debut vs. Zayn. Balor vs. Joe. Bayley dropping the title to Asuka. Revival vs. American Alpha. Really kinda hard to beat any way you look at it. This totally beat out the following night’s Wrestlemania, that’s for sure.

Second Place: NXT Takeover: Toronto

Third Place: WWE Royal Rumble

Fourth Place: WWE Money in the Bank

Fifth Place: NXT Takeover: Brooklyn

Non-Wrestler of the Year

Winner: Daniel Bryan, Smackdown GM

Bryan as Smackdown’s General Manager has been a fun role for him. He’s helped elevate the Miz back to a level we haven’t seen Miz since 2011. He’s charismatic and a genuine fun part of the show (unlike Mick Foley on RAW somehow, which is baffling considering how great Mick was in this role 16 years ago). Yes, it’s sad that we’ll never see Daniel Bryan wrestle again. But it’s great to see him as authoritative good guy on Smackdown and a big reason that it’s beating RAW out in the ratings.

Second Place: William Regal, NXT GM

Third Place: Paul Heyman, Manager

Fourth Place: Shane McMahon, Smackdown Commissioner

Fifth Place: Stephanie McMahon, RAW Comissioner

Best Surprisingly Good Angle

Winner: Heath Slater gets a Smackdown Contract

Somehow Smackdown put together Heath Slater and Rhyno…RHYNO?!…and that’s become one of the hottest acts in the company. Heath Slater has probably the most underrated guy in the company to be fair as he’s been entertaining in pretty much everything he’s done since getting beat up by the legends in 2013. The entire angle with Slater not getting drafted, to begging for a job on RAW and Smackdown (the Slater-Lesnar segment may have been Lesnar’s best all year, interestingly enough) to finding Rhyno as a partner and winning the Tag titles with him was nothing short of brilliant.

Second Place: Braun Strowman runs through RAW and Sami Zayn

Third Place: Jericho’s List

Fourth Place: Randy Orton joins the Wyatts

Fifth Place: James Ellsworth beats A.J. Styles three times

Woman of the Year

Winner: Sasha Banks (WWE)

Charlotte may be the woman WWE is looking to push as the face to establish the division, and that’s not a bad choice, but the fans have been 100% behind “the Boss” all year and each of her title wins have been met with HUGE reactions. If Sasha Banks can stay healthy, there’s no reason that her and Bayley can’t have a great feud in 2017 (like they did for NXT in 2015) and push the division to even greater heights. With all due respect to Charlotte, that’s where the money is.

Second Place: Charlotte (WWE)

Third Place: Bayley (NXT/WWE)

Fourth Place: Asuka (NXT)

Fifth Place: Alexa Bliss (NXT/WWE)

Tag Team of the Year

Winner: The New Day (WWE)

How could it not be them? While yes, it seems that their star is finally fading, the truth is the New Day is still one of the most over and entertaining acts in WWE. It’s amazing considering just how awful they seemed when they started out in early 2015. They beat Demolition’s title reign record and I hope they can somehow regain some freshness for 2017.

Second Place: The Revival (NXT)

Third Place: DIY (NXT)

Fourth Place: American Alpha (NXT/WWE)

Fifth Place: Health Slater and Rhyno (WWE)

Wrestler of the Year

Winner: A.J. Styles (WWE)

 

How can it not be Styles? The Face that Runs the Place stepped into WWE and immediately became a top star…then eventually THE top star. He was so good WWE basically had no choice but to put the WWE World Championship on him nine months into his run. He had great matches with Roman Reigns, John Cena and Dean Ambrose on Pay-Per-View. No one is better than A.J. Styles right now.

Second Place: Shinsuke Nakamura (NXT)

Third Place: Samoa Joe (NXT)

Fourth Place: Kevin Owens (WWE)

Fifth Place: Broken Matt Hardy (TNA)

 

Pro Wrestling

Wrestlemania XXXII Predictions

Wrestlemania 32! This year’s Wrestlemania card seemed lacking at first glance, but hopefully the natural progression of Dean Ambrose and the nostalgic excitement around Shane McMahon vs. The Undertaker can save the show. Anyway, let’s get some Wrestlemania predictions going!

wm32kalistoryback

The Kalisto-Ryback rivalry goes back to Survivor Series when Kalisto upset Ryback in the WWE Championship tournament. While WWE clearly hasn’t given up on Ryback  yet and he’s now sporting a new look I think WWE really likes Kalisto and are going to give him a Mania win.

Winner: Kalisto

wm32divas10

Brie Bella’s last match! Truthfully I really dislike how these teams are set up as Lana and Summer Rae were enemies last year and I don’t think anyone on the Total Divas team likes Eva Marie. My suspicion is that WWE wants to get Eva Marie over and a Mania kickoff win will be the way to do it. Plus the Total Divas TV show is probably going to go over.

Winners: Team Total Divas

wm32usosdudleyz

No reason for the Dudleyz to win here unless they are going to challenge the New Day in the upcoming months. I assume they are going to put the Usos over here.

Winners: The Usos

wm32newdayleague

The New Day have to fight 3 to 4 odds, but the fans will be behind him and with Wade Barrett on his way out he’ll probably be the one to take the fall. There’s a backstory here too that I’m sure has been forgotten…that the New Day walked out on Sheamus at Survivor Series.

Winners: The New Day

wm32andre

I think Braun Strowman is the popular choice here but I think WWE’s quickly losing faith in him. Another popular theory is that Cesaro will return and win his 2nd Memorial Battle Royal. I’m going to go one greater than that. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the Battle Royal was moved to the main card. And with recent reports that perhaps John Cena is healthy I’m going to call him as a surprise return pick to win the Battle Royal and give it the prestige that it lost when it was moved to the kickoff last year.

Winner: John Cena

wm32ajjericho

While this is a dream feud, we saw these two fight last month. It really only makes sense for Jericho to put over AJ Styles here. Perhaps Jericho wins and AJ wins the rubber PPV match next month, but I hope that’s not the direction that its going.

Winner: AJ Styles

wm32ictitle

It’s too bad we’re not getting Owens vs. Zayn straight up. Anyone I’d be shocked if anyone other than one of these two won this match and I think the belt is staying with Owens.

Winner: Kevin Owens

wm32divastitle

I guess this is proof of the Divas revolution? While Sasha Banks is probably the crowd’s favorite to win I think WWE is going to build to Bayley vs. Charlotte for the title. Charlotte will cheat to win again.

Winner: Charlotte

wm32takershane

I am stunned at how many people think Shane McMahon’s winning this match. While I understand that people want to move past the Authority, Shane was clearly brought in as a short term part timer and isn’t going to be sticking around. There just simply wasn’t anyone else to put against Undertaker. Undertaker might not have the Streak anymore, but losing to Shane at Mania will devalue what Brock did two years ago and put a damper on the history of those other 22 victories. And I think WWE realizes that. And Goldberg’s not showing up either.

Winner: The Undertaker

wm32ambrosebrock

This is the big chance for WWE to make a huge star out of Dean Ambrose. Is Ambrose wins here he immediately becomes a bonafide Main Event guy. Too bad that I don’t think WWE is going to take that chance. Not that they really have to either, since Brock is still amazing.

Winner: Brock Lesnar

wm32hhhroman

The Rock is going to show up and help Roman beat HHH to win the title. I’d be shocked if this went any other way. If I thought Rock would wrestle another match in the future I’d go Rock heel turn and Roman vs. Rock next year, but that’s not happening.

Winner: Roman Reigns

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews Wrestlemania III

WWF Wrestlemania III
March 29, 1987
Detroit, MI

While the first Wrestlemania was a huge success, the second one was a bit of a disappointment. Vince McMahon looked to expand the Wrestlemania idea by having it split between three venues didn’t completely work, and the main events were a bit lackluster. Vince McMahon had a solution to this though…the biggest main event you could put together in 1987: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. Oh, and instead of three venues Mania III will be in the 94,000 seat Pontiac Silverdome.

An insane idea for sure. But why couldn’t the WWF pack the Silverdome to the rafters? This is perhaps the golden era of professional wrestling. Vince McMahon had been riding this wrestling boom super high and there looked to be no end in sight. Hulkamania was running wild…and going against the “undefeated” Andre the Giant just seemed like printing money. Could Mania III fix the issues of Mania II?

The Card

I know it really isn’t 93,000 people, but those long viewed shots are incredible.

Aretha Frankin with the iconic “America the Beautiful”. Even in the opening moments you had a sense that this may have been the biggest professional wrestling card ever.

The Can-Am Connection vs. Bob Orton and Don Muraco

The Connection is Rick Martel and Tom Zenk.

The Connection win when Martel pinned Muraco in 5:37. Crossbody for the win. Fun opener that got the crowd into it as Zenk and Martel were popular.

Billy Jack Haynes vs. Hercules

Build-up involves Haynes offering Hercules to lock him in the Full Nelson, but Hercules taking him out instead. It’s Chris Masters 18 years early.

Haynes survives the Full Nelson and locks Hercules in one of his own!

Double Countout in 7:44. Haynes has the Full Nelson locked in, but Hercules is able to roll to the outside and takes Haynes with him. Haynes locks in the hold again and both men are counted out. Hated the finish, match told a good story though. Hercules levels Haynes with a steel chain afterwards, busting him open.

Hillbilly Jim, Haiti Kid and Little Beaver vs. King Kong Bundy, Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo

Littlebrook, Tokyo, Beaver and Kid are all midget wrestlers. The real issue was with Jim and Bundy.

Quite a drop off from Mania II for Bundy.

Rules state big guys fight big guys and little guys fight little guys.

Beaver actually elbows Bundy. This leads to a funny sequence where Beaver drops kicks Bundy before running to tag in Jim.

Beaver keeps attacking Bundy, who’s had enough.

Jim, Beaver and Kid win by DQ in 3:25. Bundy slams Beaver and drops an elbow on him for the DQ. Jesse Ventura makes a good point that Beaver kept attacking Bundy and shouldn’t have been DQed. The midgets all turn on Bundy too. This was more of a comedy match.

Junkyard Dog vs. Harley Race

If JYD loses, he has to bow to Race, if he wins he gets the wear the crown.

I don’t really know the details backstage I guess, but Harley Race seemed absolutely wasted in the WWF.

Harley Race pinned Junkyard Dog in 4:22. Belly to belly wins it. JYD bows to Race…then attacks him with a chair and wears the robe himself. Some good guy. Of course the crowd cheers him too. Ventura again makes a great point that JYD was wrong to do that to Race. Also, in the internet era JYD would have been booed out of the building for that.

The Rougeau Brothers vs. Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake

Really great double team move midway in when Beefcake holds Jacques over his head and Valentine comes down with a forearm. Beefcake ends it with a backbreaker.

We get some Bobby Heenan on commentary which is great. He’s 2-0 because the double countout was a win in his book!

Beefcake accidentally nails Valentine, leading too…

Valentine and Beefcake win in 4:03. Raymond has Valentine beat, but Dino Bravo breaks up the pin when coming off the top rope for Valentine to steal the win.

Afterwards Bravo celebrates with Valentine and leave Beefcake in the ring, which turns Beefcake. Odd choice to have the Rougeaus lose here if they were gonna break up Valentine and Beefcake.

Hair vs. Hair
Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis

The build-up to this seems incredible. Piper was retiring, but he had been attacked by Adonis and took a flower pot to the face. Piper destroying the Flower Shop set is incredible as well.

It took an hour, but we finally have a big match to make this feel like Wrestlemania.

Piper starts off by whipping Adonis with a belt. Adonis gets revenge though. Already the intensity of this match sets it apart from the rest of the card.

Piper throws Jimmy Hart at Adonis and that sets him over the top rope. Entertaining stuff so far.

I like how Adonis’ sleeper is called “Good Night Irene”.

Roddy Piper wins when Adonis passed out in 6:33. Adonis has Piper beat it seems, but releases Good Night Irene too early. While celebrating, Brutus Beefcake comes down and helps revive Piper. Piper gets the sleeper for the win. Beefcake cuts Adonis’ hair as revenge for an earlier situation where Adonis cut Beefcake’s hair. This led to Beefcake being called “the Barber”. Maybe not the best match, but it was fun and told a good story. When the character are over, matches become better automatically. Piper’s retirement wouldn’t last of course. Adonis left the WWF shortly after this.

It is beginning to get dark in the Silverdome which really helps the atmosphere.

Danny Davis and the Hart Foundation vs. The British Bulldogs and Tito Santana

Big heat for Davis as he’s was a heel ref that got “banned”. He gets in a few kicks everytime he’s tagged in and immediately tags out. Good stuff.

Davis tries a slingshot and the Dynamite Kid gets his knees up, allowing Tito to come in and attack Davis.

Davey Boy Smith gets an awesome Tombstone on Davis. Wow!

The Harts and Davis win when Davis pinned Davey Boy in 8:54. Big brawl erupts, but Davis gets the megaphone and takes out Davey for the win. Good, fun match. Davis gets huge heat. This was kind of a last hurrah for the Bulldogs, as Dynamite Kid had hurt his back a few months prior and was never the same worker again.

Butch Reed vs. Koko B. Ware

This is Reed’s PPV debut.

Reed pins Ware in 3:40. Reed reverses a crossbody and holds the tights for the win. Slick attacks Ware, but Tito Santana evens the odds and helps Ware fend off Reed and Slick. Not much to say about this one really. All these short matches are hurting the card for sure.

Intercontinental Championship
Randy Savage© vs. Ricky Steamboat

George “The Animal” Steele is in Steamboat’s corner, and of course Miss Elizabeth is in Savage’s.

Hot start with two perfect armdrags from Steamboat and a tree slam.

So far everything Steamboat and Savage have done has been intense and crisp. In North American Steamboat was arguably the best worker in the world at this point, and Savage had to be top 10 at worst.

Savage knees Steamboat in the back and sends him into the crowd. In 1987!

Savage comes off the top with an axhandle smash to Steamboat on the floor.

Steamboat backdrops Savage over the top rope and onto the floor. Savage goes over the top rope amazingly as well!

Steamboat jumps over the ref and takes Savage out with a flying karate chop! Two count only as Savage gets the ropes…but the crowd popped huge there!

Tons of near falls on Savage…and again they fool the crowd!

Great irish whip reversal takes out the referee.

Big elbow from Savage! But still no referee.

Ricky Steamboat wins the title by pin in 14:35. Savage grabs the ring bell, but Steele grabs it from him. Savage attacks Steele then grabs the ring bell again, but Steele pushes Savage off the top rope. A dazed Savage tries to slam Steamboat, but he rolls through and gets the pin and the title. The first great Wrestlemania match, and for a while it was the best Wrestlemania match of all time (some would say it still is, and some would say it’s the greatest match of all time). The story is tremendous, the in-ring action is tremendous and the match itself serves as the prototype to great matches of the future (up until about 1998). This match also showed that Savage could both be main event level guys, although Steamboat wouldn’t reach that level in the WWF. Both men were World Champions a couple years from this match as Savage was World Champion at the next Wrestlemania and Steamboat would win the NWA World Title from Ric Flair in 1989.

Honky Tonk Man vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts

Jake has Alice Cooper in his corner.

Cool spot on the outside where Jake gets slammed into the post and sells it so well he ends up crashing into the railing.

Honky Tonk Man pins Jake in 7:04. Jake goes for the DDT, but Jimmy Hart holds onto Jake’s leg which stops him. Honky then rolls Jake up and holds the ropes for the pin. Not a bad match by any means. Alice Cooper and Jake get Jimmy Hart at the end and allow Damien, Jake’s snake, to get him.

The Killer Bees vs. Nikolai Volkoff and the Iron Sheik

Jim Duggan prevents Volkoff from singing the Russian National Anthem.

Sheik and Volkoff win by DQ in 5:48. Duggan whacks Sheik with the 2×4 for the DQ. Ventura complained about Duggan being on the outside the entire time and it turned out he was right. Match was fine. Duggan starts a USA chant which somehow offsets the fact that he ruined the match. Ah well.

WWF Championship
Hulk Hogan© vs. Andre the Giant

Arguably the biggest match in professional wrestling history at this point. Hogan, the invincible superman against Andre, the undefeated 8th Wonder of the World. Andre turned heel when he was given a smaller trophy than Hogan for being undefeated for 20 years. This was the Dream Match at the time.

There’s some perfect about Bob Uecker’s introduction of Andre the Giant.

To this day nothing for me matches Hogan and Andre’s initial staredown in terms of intensity and big match feel.

Hogan goes for the slam..but Andre falls on him! He gets a two count only.

For as bad match quality wise this match is, the beginning isn’t too bad. Andre just tosses Hogan around like he’s nothing, which was a perfect way to book this match considering Hogan never went through anything like that before.

Other than a small offensive from Hogan, this has been all Andre. Once again, its smart booking because you have no idea if Hogan could come back from this.

I couldn’t help but laugh that Hogan goes for a piledriver on the floor to Andre. Like that was going to happen.

Hogan slams Andre!

Hogan retains the title in 12:02. Legdrop wins. Easily the greatest smoke and mirrors match ever as the match itself was pretty bad (although it definitely could have been worse), but it doesn’t matter one bit. Historically this match was the perfect example of hype and being able to deliver despite obvious limitations. The feud would remain hot and continue through 1988, where Andre would win the title on the first Saturday Night’s Main Event. Hogan slamming Andre is still arguably the biggest moment in Wrestlemania history.

We had one of the most historic matches in wrestling history with Andre vs. Hogan, one of the greatest matches in wrestling history with Steamboat vs. Savage, and a few good matches (Harts/Davis-Bulldogs/Santana, Piper-Adonis). I can’t give it the perfect A+ because there was a lot of short stuff that wasn’t good, but this definitely was a great Wrestlemania.

This was the peak of the golden age of professional wrestling. While 1987 and even 1988 would remain strong for the WWF, things would go downhill after that.

But as of Mania III, Hulkamania was still running as wild as ever.

Final Grade: A

Uncategorized

RDT Reviews Wrestlemania

WWF Wrestlemania
March 31, 1985
New York, NY

Wrestlemania is the most important wrestling card in North American wrestling history. Shown on closed-circuit, Wrestlemania was Vince McMahon’s big chance. As the legend goes, if Wrestlemania was a success, the WWF could skyrocket financially and change wrestling forever. If it had failed Vince could be nearly wiped out financially and wrestling would never be the same again. Those were the stakes (exaggerated or not, I do think pro wrestling wouldn’t be remotely the same had Mania failed).

But Vince’s plan was pretty good. He had the most popular wrestler in the world in the main event in Hulk Hogan. Probably the #2 heel in the world was also in that match (Roddy Piper). The show also was full of celebrities. Mr. T, Cyndy Lauper, Libarace, they all came to Wrestlemania.

Anyway, a successful show makes the WWF, a poor one ruins them. Let’s see how it turned out.

The Card

Mean Gene sings the National Anthem. Strange that there wasn’t a celebrity for this.

Lord Alfred Hayes sounds quite nervous. Mene Gene then interviews Tito Santana and The Executioner. Executioner’s mask looks ridiculous.

Tito Santana vs. The Executioner

Not much to say here, but crowd is into Tito for sure.

Santana makes the Executioner submit in 4:50. Figure Four wins it, the story being Santana’s calling out Greg Valentine. Executioner was undefeated before Santana won here…the first streak that ended at Wrestlemania!

Lord Alfred Hayes must have just had a bad night.

King Kong Bundy vs. SD Jones

Well, this is a record WWE continually looks to break at many Manias. I think they did it at 24.

Bundy pins Jones in 0:24. Avalanche and splash for the win. No five count though. The Fink says the match was nine seconds long…which it wasn’t.

Matt Borne vs. Ricky Steamboat

“Maniac” Matt Borne? Could have been cool to actually say he went under that name when he became Doink years later.

Some nice suplexes from Borne, but this has mostly been all Steamboat.

Steamboat pins Borne in 4:38. Steamboat pits a flying body press for the win. Alright match, seemed to be a showcase for Steamboat.

David Sammartino vs. Brutus Beefcake

Crowd ERUPTS when Bruno Sammartino is announced as he seconds David.

Speaking of which, wouldn’t Bruno vs. Hogan have been a legendary match? I wonder why that never happened. Bruno definitely wrestled later in the 80s.

Longest match of the night so far, but also quite boring.

Double DQ in 11:44. Johnny Valiant slams David on the outside, and Bruno kicks his ass. The crowd once again erupts when Bruno kicks ass. Double DQ. Not sure why that went 11 minutes if that was the finish, but the image of Bruno owning is a Wrestlemania moment that definitely doesn’t get enough credit. That was awesome.

Intercontinental Championship
Greg Valentine© vs. Junkyard Dog

JYD has entrance music and that also wakes the crowd up.

Valentine nails his manager, Jimmy Hart, the crowd goes bananas once again. Despite the quality of the matches there is great heat here. That’s 1985 for you.

Valentine pins JYD with the feet on the ropes…but Santana comes down to explain what happened to the referee. This leads to…

JYD wins by countout in 6:55. Weird finish for sure, but at least it furthered the Santana vs. JYD feud.

World Tag Team Championship
U.S. Express© vs. Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik

The Express is Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham.

Like Borne, it’s crazy how Rotundo and Windham would appear at future Wrestlemanias. Rotundo would become IRS, Windham would be at Mania 13 as Blackjack Windham.

The Iron Sheik and Volkoff win the titles at 6:55. Sheik uses Freddy Blasse’s cane to hit Windham and Volkoff gets the pin. Heels win in the first title change at Wrestlemania, who woulda thunk it?

$15,000 Bodyslam Challenge
Big John Studd vs. Andre the Giant

Also, if Andre were to lose here, he would retire.

Big reaction for Andre of course. Pretty sure even at the time there was no way Studd was winning this.

Really slow match here. This was past Andre’s prime obviously.

Andre wins in 5:54. Slam comes out of nowhere but the crowd goes crazy for it. Heenan steals the money.

Women’s Championship
Leilani Kai© vs. Wendi Richter

We obviously don’t get “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” on the Network.

Like everything else on the show, this really isn’t anything to write home about.

Richter wins the title by pin in 6:12. Botched finish where Richter’s supposed to roll through a flying bodypress but fails. Eventually she gets over and gets the pin. It’s the moment that counts though, and the crowd popped huge for Richter. Interestingly, Richter would get legit double crossed by Vince and the Fabulous Moolah soon afterwards. There’s various rumors about why this happened. The most accepted story is that Vince didn’t want to pay her as much as she wanted (she was arguably the #2 face in the promotion at one point), and possibly even Hogan felt threatened about her.

Time for Celebritymania! Billy Martin! Libarace!

Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff

Muhammad Ali is your special referee, which is pretty bad ass in itself. Funny story here: Pat Patterson suggested he be a second referee to make sure Ali was okay out there. Patterson would admit he would just find excuses to get on the Mania card for the payday.

Piper gets a live bagpipe entrance. Makes you wonder what Ric Flair could have gotten as an entrance had he been a part of this.

Oddly, this feels like the rich man’s version of the Dennis Rodman matches in WCW.

Mr. T does a good job early on slamming Piper.

Craziness ensues with Jimmy Snuka nearly coming off the top rope.

While it’s mostly been a standard tag match, Mr. T definitely did a great job.

Hogan and Mr. T win when Hogan pinned Orndorff in 13:24. Bob Orton comes off the top and misses Hogan, nailing Orndorff with the cast. Hogan pins him for the win. Good match, best of the night for sure. This definitely was what the WWF needed, the biggest match doing well. This would continue the Piper-Mr. T feud and start Orndorff’s turn.

Hogan, T and Snuka celebrate to end the first Wrestlemania.

Technically this show sucks. There’s not a good match until the main event, and even that wouldn’t be on most people’s top 50 Mania matches. But it worked in 1985. Actually, that’s an understatement. Over a million people went to closed circuit locations to watch it. And the WWF was off and running as a result. The WWF wouldn’t quite get the Mania formula right at Mania II (which I already reviewed and it didn’t do well), but they’d get it figured out soon enough.

Again, the show sucks…but that’s not what mattered here.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII

WrestleMania_XXVIII_poster

WWF Wrestlemania XXVIII
April 1, 2012
Miami, FL
Reviewed on July 13, 2014

Once in a Lifetime…(Of course, this was only true if you died with the next year or if you were born after this match)

The Rock vs. John Cena was one of those dream matches you always hear about. What would happen if Sting fought Shawn Michaels? The Undertaker vs. Andre the Giant. Kurt Angle vs. Bret Hart…CM Punk vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin.

So what would happen if The Rock took on John Cena?

In theory there was nothing wrong with this main event. The Rock was the top guy in the late 90s early 00s, Cena is the top guy now. Wrestlemania 28 made a ton of money to the surprise of no one.

But even so, even this was a little bit missing for the hardcore fans. Hardcore fans would have preferred Punk vs. Austin as a top guy vs. top guy dream match for sure. The Rock coming back was exciting, but without the Attitude Era he was a bit watered down, regulating his gimmick to saying Cena liked Frutty Pebbles and Froot Loops and that Vickie Guerrero was fat. Cena…was just Cena. Booed and all. It was a bit underwhelming. To be fair, it didn’t really need buildup anyway.

This show was designed to get the Attitude watchers back. In conjunction with WWE ’13 later, which was Attitude themed, WWE really was pushing to grabs those fans back and hope that they’d connect with the current roster, specifically CM Punk.

So as a result, we have HHH vs. Undertaker III. Inside Hell in a Cell. Basically the HIAC Dream Match.

How did Once in a Lifetime fare?

The Card

Lillian Garcia’s voice is amazing.

World Heavyweight Championship
Daniel Bryan© vs. Sheamus

Sheamus won the Royal Rumble and was rewarded by being in the Mania opener.

Interestingly, these two were slated for a US Title match at Mania 27, but was cut to make sure The Rock could talk for 20 minutes.

Bryan won the World Title in a MITB-cash in scenario at TLC 2011, and became an entertaining annoying heel champion. He also began to get “YES!” over here.

Sheamus pins Daniel Bryan to win the title in 0:15. Bryan kisses AJ and gets his head kicked off by Sheamus. One of the most awful ideas in WWE history here. I purposely reviewed Mania 11 before this because there is a connection here.

I wrote about in the Mania 11 review that the Diesel strong kickout really hurt his run and caused fans to feel sympathy for HBK, leading to an ill fated face turn. Well, this is that times 1000. It killed Sheamus dead as a top face so badly he still hasn’t recovered in 2014. It ironically MADE Bryan. Fans were already chanting YES!, but now it was deafening. WWE smartly didn’t turn Bryan face either, they let it build up. Sheamus winning a solid 12-15 minute match would have been solid for him.

Also, while this should never really be done, it can be done just fine sometimes even for the World Title (see Diesel vs. Backlund). But the opener of WRESTLEMANIA and a WORLD TITLE match shouldn’t be 15 seconds.

It was also reported later people were filing in and didn’t even realize they missed the match until later. Incredible.

Team Johnny in the house. The Miz received a huge demotion, since he was in the main last year.

Randy Orton vs. Kane

Kane was still wearing the steel mask here in his 2011 monster comeback. Apparently this feud is over Kane losing to Orton in some forgettable match in the summer of 2011, and he was disappointed in himself for shaking Orton’s hand.

This was after Kane’s “Embrace The Hate” campaign with Cena and Zack Ryder. For the record, this should have been Ryder and not Orton.

Daniel Bryan chants start the match. Way to go WWE. Way to go.

Interestingly this is the third straight Mania with Orton far away from the main event. Streak would end at 4.

Michael Cole calls Orton’s DDT a bulldog. Good to see Cole is on tonight.

Pretty boring match overall.

Kane pinned Randy Orton in 11:00. Chokeslam from the top rope wins it. Didn’t look nearly as good as when Matt Hardy took it at Summerslam ’04, but it got the job done. Interestingly, this match was apparently decided this way to screw up betting lines.

Santino and Mick Foley advertising Deadliest Catch. Good thing Mick never had a pirate gimmick…

DAMN!

Intercontinental Championship
Cody Rhodes© vs. Big Show

Ludicrous idea of Big Show wanting a Wrestlemania moment after being a joke in so many Wrestlemanias. Sorry if I don’t buy a multi-time World Champion (including as recently as a few months prior) as thinking winning the IC title is his big Mania moment.

The intro video for this is gold though.

I became a big Cody Rhodes fan around this time.

Spear off the Disaster Kick was cool I guess.

Big Show wins the title in 5:18. Knock out punch for the win. Big Show cries afterwards. Again, pretty ridiculous. Match was a whole lot of nothing. It was a shame Rhodes’ long reign ended here.

Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos vs. Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres

I do think it is pretty awesome that Menounos is a huge WWE fan.

I always thought it was interesting that the Stinkface became a Diva move even thought it was originated by Rikishi.

Nice somersault senton from Kelly.

I miss Beth Phoenix.

Maria and Kelly win when Maria pinned Beth in 6:49. Roll-up for the win. Not bad considering one team is Kelly and a celebrity.

End of an Era Hell in a Cell Match
Triple H vs. The Undertaker

Shawn Michaels is your special guest referee.

This is a long storyline that really began at Royal Rumble 2007 with HBK vs. Taker’s Rumble finish.

Last year, Taker beat HHH at Mania 27, but didn’t walk out. That was his justification for the match, he didn’t want that to be his last memory. This is HHH’s chance again to Break the Streak.

Jim Ross will be calling this!

Somehow a bald Undertaker still looked bad ass.

Surprisingly we get the Metallica theme on the Network for the Cell.

No wasting time here. Both men go right at one another.

A good knock out brawl so far. Each throwing the other into the cell. Steel steps. How HIAC’s in the PG era need to be done.

HHH goes for a pedigree on the steel steps…and Taker backdrops him off. Nice!

Spinebuster on the steps! Taker shocks HHH right afterwards with Hell’s Gate! HHH powerbombs Taker out of it! Good play on the Mania 27 ending.

Out comes the chair! Also a good play on last year’s match.

HHH goes nuts with the chair. HBK tries to stop him, but that’s not gonna fly in HIAC of course.

This establishes HBK’s conflict. HHH tells HBK if he wants it to be over, then to end it himself. HHH then shoves HBK away. Taker tells him not to stop it. It is really pretty awesome and the crowd gets into it.

HHH takes it to a level he didn’t last year and brings in the sledgehammer!

Sldegehammer to the face. Kinda believable as a finish, and fans get into the false fall.

HBK stops HHH from squashing Taker’s head with the sledgehammer, which woulda been something.

At the time it was pretty believable that HBK could end it at some point to end the streak, which is what makes this so effective.

Taker locks HBK in the Hell’s Gate to stop him from ending the match…and HHH comes down on Taker’s head with the sledgehammer! Wow!

Taker gets Hell’s Gate on HHH…there’s no tap out or referee though. It leaves all three men lying.

Charles Robinson in the house!

Chokeslam, HHH kicks out. Taker responds by chokeslamming Robinson of course.

Taker goes for the Tombstone, but HHH pushes Taker into Sweet Chin Music from HBK! I swear, that was the streak right there. Pedigree…and Taker kicks out! I was shocked when I first saw that. That was perhaps the greatest false finish I’d ever seen.

HHH throws HBK out of the ring…and then Taker shocks HHH with a sit-up! Amazing.

Tombstone…but HHH survives.

Pedigree…but Undertaker survives. Crowd is eating all of this up.

Taker’s turn to beat the shit out of HHH with the chair. HHH’s professional receipt.

Taker stops HHH’s sldeghammer attack. One last DX crotch chop and Taker whacks him with the sledgehammer as HBK’s back is symbolically turned.

The Undertaker pins Triple H in 30:45. Tombstone for the end. Taker, HHH, HBK walk out together in what SHOULD have been Taker and HHH’s last match. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Anyway, right here is a sure top 10 Wrestlemania match, and arguably top 5. It had everything and booked two guys perfectly. A perfect match of history, carnage and false finishes. This is why Brock Lesnar vs. HHH DIDN’T work next year, and arguably why Lesnar vs. Taker didn’t two years later. Incredible. My co-Match of the Year in 2012, only because TLC 2012’s Kane/Bryan/Ryback vs. Shield match was insane. I have trouble deciding between the two. But incredible. Absolutely incredible. It really should have been the End of an Era. It was perfect.

Hall of Fame time. Flair in the Horsemen, Edge are the main events. Weird that Edge retiring was three years ago.

Heath Slater gets beat up by Flo Rida. Slater is pretty hilarious.

Team Teddy (Santino, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder, The Great Khali, Booker T) vs. Team Johnny (The Miz, David Otunga, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre)

Winning Team’s GM becomes sole GM or something like that.

I always hate the color shirts thing for big teams. It totally takes away from the individuality of the wrestlers. Same for them not having their own music.

Why the hell was Otunga the team captain?!

Same goes for Santino.

Eve came out with Ryder as well. Never guess how that goes wrong.

Booker T gets a majority of the time. I like Booker T, but that seems counterproductive at this point in terms of giving younger guys a chance.

Somehow throwing Hornwoggle at Mark Henry was a good idea? Seriously?

Ziggler has to save Miz from a Cobra. Long way from fighting Cena I see.

Awesome Rough Rider where Miz counters…but Ryder lands on Ziggler anyway.

Team Johnny wins in 10:38 when Miz pins Zack Ryder in 10:38. Eve does the WOO WOO WOO taunt with Ryder in the ring, but the ref tries to get Eve out and this distracts Ryder. Miz gets the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. This would build up to Miz vs. Ryder right? Of course not…

Eve then kicks Ryder low. Just kill off a popular young guy why don’t we? People who hate Ryder now just ignore how over he really was. Worst part was Ryder was actually showing some character here of actually getting pissed at Eve instead of just being the happy-go-lucky face he was.

Anyway, good way to get everyone involved. Sure as hell better than the other crappy multi-man tag matches we saw in the past (like at Mania 27, for example).

WWE Championship
CM Punk© vs. Chris Jericho

Big Johnny runs into Punk and waives the DQ rule, so if Punk is DQed he loses the title. Not Punk’s best acting job there…

Story here: Jericho came back to challenge for the Best in the World title. For some reason, this turned into a Punk is sober/family isn’t sober angle, which missed what this feud could have been. It did lead to some Punk anger stuff which fits the Big Johnny waiving the DQ rule.

They try to tease some DQ stuff early on with Punk, Jericho slapping him in the face and Punk going nuts, etc.

Jericho asks Punk how his sister is…and Punk gets a chair.

He’s about to nail Jericho in the head with the chair, with Jericho giving Punk his head yelling “your father’s a drunk!” It actually looks pretty awesome.

Jericho suplexes Punk from the apron to the floor, which looked great.

Match surprisingly slows to a crawl. It’s not a bad wrestling match, but it is surprisingly how the crowd really isn’t into it. Unfortunately, I think they were burned out emotionally from Taker vs. HHH, and it’s hard to buy Punk’s anger here.

Excellent Lionsault into the Walls of Jericho, even if bother were countered.

Codebreaker is an awesome move.

Very nice impact on the Lionsault. That’s one of the downfalls of the move as it often looks okay at best, but it looked great here.

Punk goes for the hurricanrana…and Jericho stops it and locks in the Walls of Jericho! Great counter that woke up the crowd!

Punk’s flying clothesline is countered into a Codebreaker! Nice spots!

Punk gets ready for the GTS, and Jericho counters into the Old School Walls of Jericho (which I would consider the Lion Tamer). Coulda bought it as a finish for sure.

Really cool Anaconda Vise sequence where Jericho kept getting pin attempts.

CM Punk retains the title in 22:38. Punk gets Jericho in the center of the ring with the Vise this time. No way out for Jericho and he taps. Despite some odd points towards the beginning, the match owned otherwise. They should have just the straight wrestling match without all the silly anger stuff. Main events are coming through for sure.

We get Brodus Clay. He tells the fans to call their mama’s on their phone. Then Brodus’s “mama and her bridge club” come out and dance to the Funkasauras music. An absolute waste of time. If I were Sheamus or Daniel Bryan I would have quit the company on the spot.

The Rock vs. John Cena

We get some musical performance from MG Kelly and Flo Rida and a whole lot of other people that should have also had Sheamus and Bryan thinking about quitting.

In all seriousness, obviously they’d not quit over this, but they should have been offended over this. Some world title. What a shame since Sheamus and Bryan tore it up next month.

They get booed. And then the real boos come out, here comes John Cena! You would think if WWE wanted him to get at least a 50-50 reaction they wouldn’t dress him up in Boston Celtic green in Miami but what do I know.

Nice strategy from The Rock, making Cena listen to Flo Rida first. No wonder he won.

Here it is. A year of build-up.

All this “both legends in their prime” thing is a little off. No way The Rock in in his prime.

This definitely has a huge match feel for sure.

Cena does get some “Let’s Go Cena” chants.

This is a pretty good back and forth match, with both guys trying to see who’s got what.

Fans are really in this the whole way. First AA Rock kicks out of, of course.

Rock Bottom! Kick out!

This is the kinda thing that bothered me about this match. Cena hits his top rope legdrop when Rock was coming up, a standard move, and he’s shocked it didn’t beat Rock. That doesn’t fit the context of the match.

Rock’s sharpshooter was always a thing of beauty…lol.

Cena’s STF is so terrible.

The People’s Elbow was a good false finish.

Rock actually hits the crossbody off the top, something he hadn’t done since 1997, and Cena rolls though with an AA. Great false finish as Rock kicks out!

The Rock pins John Cena in 33:34. Cena mocks Rock and goes for a People’s Elbow…but Rock gets up and hits the Rock Bottom for three! A lot better of a match than I remember it, pretty good back and forth contest of two wrestlers of their level. The image of Cena sitting on the ramp a loser is pretty strong. This of course set up Cena-Rock II.

Well, this is an interesting show as the main events all delivered and everything else was there. All three main events delivered big time too, especially Taker vs. HHH.

Historically, it didn’t do too much it was meant to do. CM Punk’s reign kept going, Cena got his revenge next year (although was nearly killed by Lesnar on the way), Taker and HHH unended an era? No one really got over any more than they were coming into Wrestlemania.

Except Daniel Bryan.

It’s a huge blunder on this show, the whole Sheamus-Bryan incident. Forget about Bryan for a second, he was getting over at some point no matter what. Sheamus has been ruined for years now. They ran with him through 2012 and he was booed throughout. Fast forward to 2013 when Cena is about to choose his Summerslam opponent and he asks the crowd about Sheamus while fans wanted Bryan. People still haven’t forgotten.

This could have been an A, but it drops to An A- with the Bryan stuff, and down to a B+ as the first hour wasn’t good AND the Brodus Clay and musical acts were just a slap in the face to the World Title.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews Wrestlemania XI

WrestleManiaXI

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Card

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

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

The Blu brothers are Ron and Don Harris.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Jeff Jarrett© vs. Razor Ramon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy

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

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

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

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

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

Bundy’s clotheslines look awful.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billy Gunn hairpulling Yokozuna down was a little ridiculous.

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

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

I Quit Match
Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart

Roddy Piper is the ref.

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

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

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

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

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

Pam Anderson can’t be found! Oh no!

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

WWF Championship
Diesel© vs. Shawn Michaels

Celebrity time keeper and announcers and whatever.

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

Shawn does look like a superstar here.

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

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

Pam Anderson looks embarrassed to be there.

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

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

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

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

HBK bulldogs Diesel by leaping off the top!

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

We miss the ref bumping off the apron.

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

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

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

There is no heat on the Diesel Hulk Up.

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

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

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

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

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

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor

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

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

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

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

Huge start for LT gets the fans into it.

Bulldog from Taylor!

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

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

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

Bigelow’s spinkick owns.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Grade: D

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Wrestlemania II

WrestleMania2

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

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

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

The Card

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

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

Piper interview! Pretty racist promo.

We start off in New York.

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

Old wrestling makes me miss entrance themes.

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

Orndorff with some good wrestling to start.

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

Mr. T promo. Speaks really quickly.

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

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

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

A lot of biting in this match.

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

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

The Animal kicks out of the flying elbow!

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

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

George Wells vs. Jake Roberts

This feels like a jobber match.

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

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

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

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

Ring announcer is Joan Rivers.

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

Boxing Match
Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper

Oh god this can possibly go 10 rounds.

They got Joe Frazier for this.

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

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

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

Piper knocks down T and the crowd erupts.

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

Cowboy Bob Orton throws water at T.

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

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

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

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

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

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

McIntyre is owning in a fast paced match early on!

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

Flag Match
Corporal Kirchner vs. Nikolai Volkoff

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

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

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

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

20 Man Battle Royal: NFL vs. WWF

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

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

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

Studd gets the last laugh eliminating Fralic.

Studd dumps Bruno too.

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

Fridge calls for a handshake…and pulls Studd out!

Andre, NFLer Russ Francis, Bret and Neidhart.

Harts take out Francis. Harts vs. Andre.

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

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

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

Ozzy Osbourne is out here as well.

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

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

Great teamwork from the Bulldogs. Unsurprisingly.

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

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

Time to head to LA.

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

Hercules Hernandez vs. Ricky Steamboat

There’s a huge difference of talent here.

A lot of armdrags here.

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

Adorable Adrian Adonis vs. Uncle Elmer

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

Elmer somehow falls after throwing a punch.

Adonis is overselling everywhere.

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

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

Hogan promo brother!

Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana vs. Terry and Hoss Funk

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

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

Terry’s great here. Awesome save from Funk.

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

Funk takes an over the top rope backdrop. Wow.

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

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

Here comes the cage.

We get 5 minutes of Hogan working out. Great.

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

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

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

Hogan’s ribs are taped here.

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

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

Hogan survives an Avalanche!

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

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

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

Final Grade: C