Tag Archives: WWF

Let Us All Find Out Who Drew…#1 (and #2)

January 27, 2019 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

I didn’t want to just do some Royal Rumble preview (if you are curious, I am picking Asuka, Lesnar (although I have this weird feeling about Balor, wish I had the guts to go with it), Rollins and Charlotte). So let’s do something different. Let’s take a look back at #1 and #2 of all the main Royal Rumbles.

royal rumble bret hart — Bret Hart kicked off the ’88 Rumble, and it wouldn’t be the last time.

1988
#1 – Bret Hart
#2 – Tito Santana

The 1988 Royal Rumble is quite different than what we are used to today. It was the first televised one (there had been Rumbles before, notably one at a house show in 1987 won by the One Man Gang). Bret would have a long run (about 25 minutes), starting a theme of a smaller worker having a long run from #1. Santana lasted about 10 minutes himself, before Bret (and The Anvil) got him out. It’s also worth noting that #1 and #2 didn’t even get an entrance.

royal rumble ax smash demolition — The formula was already being tinkered with

1989
#1 – Ax
#2 – Smash

It’s interesting that Vince was already playing with the Rumble formula by having Demolition be #1 and #2. Neither Ax or Smash had a notable run, lasting 5 and 14 minutes respectively. Jesse Ventura on commentary insinuated that Ted Dibiase paid money to make sure some of the tougher guys got an early number. While it was the first thirty-man Rumble, we still didn’t know what the Rumble was going to be. But at least we had an interesting start with the Demos.

royal rumble dibiase — Dibiase’s riches didn’t get him a good number this time.

1990
#1 – Ted Dibiase
#2 – Koko B. Ware

Interestingly, Howard Finkel announces that this year’s #1 had #30 the year prior. Dibiase would have a long run, over 44 minutes. Dibiase would dump Koko before #3 ever made it out. The 1990 Rumble is probably the first to really have a certain prestige attached to it, as Hulk Hogan would win it (as WWF Champion). Still, through three Rumbles, #1 and #2 were not particularly notable.

royal rumble bret hart dino bravo — Bret was probably more annoyed about having to wrestle Bravo than being #1 again.

1991
#1 – Bret Hart
#2 – Dino Bravo

Poor Bret Hart. Four Rumbles in total he already has two #1s. I’m sure he was thrilled to be in there with Bravo as well. It’s amazing to see how different Bret looks from 1988. While he was still in the Hart Foundation tag team, it’s obvious that he was primed for bigger things. He got 20 minutes here, while Bravo lasted three.

royal rumble British bulldog — No one talks about anyone but Flair, but the Bulldog was a strong early face in the ’92 Rumble

1992
#1 – The British Bulldog
#2 – Ted Dibiase

Surprisingly, Dibiase gets a second top two spot. The Bulldog is a solid face to be #1. Bulldog made quick work of Dibiase while lasting 20 minutes himself. Of course, no one really cares, because this is the infamous Rumble where Ric Flair won from #3 (winning the WWF Title with it). It was nice to see a time where drawing an early number was considered a death knell in regards to winning the match.

royal rumble Ric Flair — No one talks about Flair’s 2nd Rumble, Heenan was great here too.

1993
#1 – Ric Flair
#2 – Bob Backlund

Definitely the highest level of prestige for #1 and #2 so far. Flair of course won from #3 the year prior, so he wasn’t counted out at all. Backlund is a former WWF Champion who would last over an hour and basically finished 3rd in the match. The idea that #1 or #2 could win was firmly entrenched here. Notably, this was the first Rumble where the winner was guaranteed a World Title shot at Wrestlemania.

royal rumble steiners samu — The only “highlight” early on in the ’94 Rumble

1994
#1 – Scott Steiner
#2 – Samu

A bit of a throwback to the first two Rumbles (Rick Steiner would be #3). Instead of having top guys start out, the 1994 Rumble started out quietly and that’s a good thing. Samu didn’t even make it to when Rick got in, and Scott lasted until Diesel went on a rampage and became a star.

royal rumble michaels bulldog — A memorable moment wasted by the short Rumble.

1995
#1 – Shawn Michaels
#2 – The British Bulldog

It’s kind of a shame this Rumble exists. Michaels and the Bulldog of course were known for both being able to go coast to coast, which on paper is a great story. The problem is with how it was done. The timer between each competitor was lowered to one minute, and the Rumble itself was only 38:41. Michaels and the Bulldog’s time wasn’t even top 5 all time at that point, despite going from 1 and 2 to the end (Backlund, Flair, Valentine, Martel and Dibiase all lasted 40+ minutes in a Rumble at this point). At the time it was cool, but what a waste of the concept.

Royal Rumble HHH — HHH got himself DQed…and had to enter #1.

1996
#1 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley
#2 – Henry O. Godwinn

HHH got his first #1 by getting a decision reversed in the Free-For-All against Duke “The Dumpster” Droese. Godwinn was feuding with him, which is another Rumble theme that would repeat itself. HHH has one of my favorite performances in the ’96 Rumble, as he lasted 48 minutes and didn’t eliminate anyone. Godwinn got 16 minutes himself, which unfortunately shows how thin the roster was at that point.

royal rumble 1997 — Contender for worst #1 and #2.

1997
#1 – Crush
#2 – Ahmed Johnson

Like last year, #1 and #2 were in a feud (as Crush was a member of the Nation of Domination). Ahmed took himself out 3 minutes in chasing after Faarooq, and Crush only lasted a few minutes past that. Good argument for the weakest #1 and #2 here.

royal rumble cactus jack — Foley and Funk added a lot of fun that had been missing from the Rumble.

1998
#1 – Cactus Jack
#2 – Chainsaw Charlie

This was different. Mick Foley and Terry Funk had a friendly “who can hit the other with a chair harder” contest and then took out Tom Brandi as well. Very entertaining #1 and #2. Funk’s 1998 performance is quite entertaining overall. He lasts 25 minutes and is very animated throughout. Interestingly Funk was eliminated by Foley…but Foley was Mankind. So far, this is probably my favorite #1 and #2 and it really set the stage for what the WWF was becoming.

royal rumble 1999 mcmahon austin — Austin vs. McMahon would recreate 1995, although in a strange way.

1999
#1 – Stone Cold Steve Austin
#2 – Mr. McMahon

Oof. #1 and #2 were determined through storylines on RAW. This was a super hot feud and of course a really smart way for Austin to legally get his hands on McMahon. Of course, the rest of the Rumble is treated as a joke as after a trip to the women’s bathroom and a hospital, Austin and McMahon ended up as the last two competitors in the match. And McMahon won it. That’s WWF Attitude for you.

royal rumble 2000 — D’Lo and Grandmaster Sexay were lower profile than years prior.

2000
#1 – D’Lo Brown
#2 – Grandmaster Sexay

Holy midcarders Batman! What a change from 1999. D’Lo’s peak had passed and Grandmaster was about to get there, but neither were above the midcard even then. Neither would last particularly long, but Grandmaster was part of a famous elimination when dancing with Rikishi.

Royal Rumble 2001 Hardy — A variant of 88, 89 and 94.

2001
#1 – Jeff Hardy
#2 – Bull Buchanan

Another callback to 1988 and 1994, as Matt Hardy was #3 and Buchanan was part of the Right to Censor faction and teaming with the Goodfather. Once again neither lasted long, as the ring has to be cleared for the Drew Carey-Kane angle.

royal rumble goldust — Goldust got a great reaction in his WWF return.

2002
#1 – Rikishi
#2 – Goldust

The most interesting combination for #1 and #2 since 1999 for several reasons. One, Rikishi (who was #30 the year prior, the first since Dibiase in 89/90 to accomplish this) went from near top guy to midcarder in a year, and he’s treated as such (he eliminated The Undertaker the year prior, and was tossed out as part of the deadwood clearing portion of the Rumble by Taker this year). Goldust had a lot of hype as he was one of the returning four wrestlers advertised for that year. He got a big pop and looked good as well (he also was taken out by Undertaker).

royal rumble 2003 jericho michaels — Jericho and HBK was one of the all-time great starts, with a shocking ending.

2003
#1 – Shawn Michaels
#2 – Chris Jericho

A contender for my favorite #1-#2. Jericho said he could do whatever HBK could, which led them being #1 and #2 here. Jericho though would cheapshot and brutalize HBK in the opening two minutes, taking him out. Brilliant. HBK would come back later and attack Jericho, allowing Test (???) to eliminate him. Excellent storyline build for what turned to be a great match at Wrestlemania XIX.

royal rumble 2004 orton — Randy Orton had a great showing from #2 in 2004.

2004
#1 – Chris Benoit
#2 – Randy Orton

It’s a shame I can’t appreciate Benoit’s run in the 2004 Rumble today, because it’s excellent and the 2004 is still the greatest Rumble of all time (yes, better than 1992). Benoit of course would go coast to coast and win the whole thing. Orton was fantastic here as well, and he got a good run in until Mick Foley made his return and took him out. Two years in a row we’ve gotten excellent #1 and #2s.

royal rumble guerrero — One of Eddie Guerrero’s last fun moments before he turned heel in 2005.

2005
#1 – Eddie Guerrero
#2 – Chris Benoit

Another enjoyable #1 and #2. While Guerrero was hurting at this point in his career, he still put in a solid and entertaining 28 minutes. Benoit would go 47 this year and made it past #30. I’m not sure if I should, but I still enjoy what Guerrero, Benoit and Hardcore Holly did to Daniel Puder early on.

royal rumble mysterio — Rey Mysterio put on one of the all-time great Rumble performances.

2006
#1 – Triple H
#2 – Rey Mysterio

A very interesting #1 and #2 as Mysterio wasn’t quite at the top guy level yet, which made for a great underdog story. Both HHH and Mysterio would last to the end, and Mysterio would complete the coast to coast eliminating Randy Orton. For years now, WWE were definitely did right with #1 and #2.

royapl rumble 2007 — Flair and Finlay was an awesome old school start.

2007
#1 – Ric Flair
#2 – Finlay

While lower profile that previous years, this is still a strong top two. Unfortunately, Flair (his second #1) would only last a few minutes, but Finlay got in a strong 30.

royal rumble undertaker hbk — Michaels vs. Undertaker was another chapter in their amazing feud of the late 2000s.

2008
#1 – The Undertaker
#2 – Shawn Michaels

Another contender for best #1 and #2. There were so many great things about this that we need to make a list. First off, they were the last two remaining the year prior and had a great match. Second, each of their performances were excellent and should be included in the HBK-Taker that followed in 2009 and 2010. Third, Michael Buffer was brought in for the introductions. Undertaker also joined Dibiase and Rikishias someone who got #30 one year and #1 the next. Anyway, Undertaker and Shawn both lasted a little more than a half hour, and HBK would finally avenge his 2007 defeat by superkicking Taker out of this one.

royal rumble rey morrison — Rey vs. Morrison was a fun start.

2009
#1 – Rey Mysterio
#2 – John Morrison

Not particularly notable this year, but Rey would get a long 49 minute run and Morrison had a good showing himself at 20 minutes. Still, you could do worse with Mysterio and Morrison as your #1 and #2.

royal rumble 2010 — Two good workers, but we all remember CM Punk at #3

2010
#1 – Dolph Ziggler
#2 – Evan Bourne

For the first time since 2002 we get a couple midcarders to start. CM Punk would wipe them both out as soon as he came in at three and proceed to be awesome. As great as the 2010 Rumble is, it’s #1 and #2 were rather bland. Ziggler would come a long way though, as we will get to.

royal rumble 2011 bryan punk — I mean…it’s Bryan vs. Punk

2011
#1 – CM Punk
#2 – Daniel Bryan

I mean, just read those two names. Unfortunately, the booking and structure of the 2011 Rumble somewhat deflated these two at #1 and #2. For one, there was a confusing Corre vs. Nexus brawl right before Bryan came out. Second, this was the first ever 40 man Rumble, while really put into question whether #1 or #2 could win. Lastly, Bryan wasn’t established yet as a guy that mattered. Still, Punk vs. Bryan is a pretty cool way to start. Punk would take out Bryan about 20 minutes in, and John Cena would wipe out Punk.

Royal Rumble miz — Miz had a solid showing in 2012.

2012
#1 – The Miz
#2 – Alex Riley

Unfortunately, the Miz was on the way down after a successful 2011, mostly because he and R-Truth were blamed for the low 2011 Survivor Series buyrate. Alex Riley got cheers for turning on the Miz in 2011, but then people realized he was Alex Riley. WWE realized it too, and he was gone in a minute. Miz got a long run though.

royal rumble 2013 jericho ziggler — Jericho’s surprise return in 2013 was nothing short of amazing.

2013
#1 – Dolph Ziggler
#2 – Chris Jericho

One of the all-time great Rumble surprises. “And I don’t even care who #2 is, so just send him out already!” Ziggler had sent Jericho packing at Summerslam 2012, so this was perfect. Both were brilliant in the match as well, 45 minutes later Ziggler would eliminate Jericho. Ziggler was out a couple minutes later. I would have bet serious money on Ziggler being a big star in 2013, but by Summerslam he was just another guy.

royal rumble 2014 — This turned out to be CM Punk’s last match.

2014
#1 – CM Punk
#2 – Seth Rollins

Poor CM Punk. His last three Rumble entry numbers were 3, 1 and 1. I also rolled by eyes at #2. As soon as Punk came out, I said #2 would be Rollins. Anyway this would prove to be CM Punk’s last match. Despite getting concussed by Kofi Kingston he lasted 49 minutes before Kane came in and tossed him out. Rollins got in 48 minutes himself, a performance that’s very overlooked, before fellow SHIELD member Roman Reigns tossed him.

2015
#1 – The Miz
#2 – R-Truth

We just did this in 2012, as Truth was #3 there. Both were complete midcarders at this point, and Miz was just fodder for the returning Bubba Ray Dudley and R-Truth Dudley’s signature moves. It’s amazing how long it took for the Miz to rebuild himself.

Royal Rumble AJ Styles, Roman — Roman had to defend the title, but this is another where we only cared about #3.

2016
#1 – Roman Reigns
#2 – Rusev

Roman being #1 was a storyline, as he was defending the WWE Title here (not the worst concept in the world actually). Rusev and Roman were the last two in 2015 (officially, the whole finish was a mess). Unfortunately, Rusev didn’t make it to #3. Of course, this is overshadowed by A.J. Styles making his debut at #3.

royal rumble 2017 jericho — Jericho looked like he had a lot of fun in 2017.

2017
#1 – Big Cass
#2 – Chris Jericho

Rather forgettable, but somewhat saved by Jericho having one of my favorite runs. Jericho lasted an hour basically being a troll. Big Cass lasted 10 minutes and there’s not much else to say there.

royal rumble balor rusev — Balor vs. Rusev was a fun start in 2018.

2018 (Men’s)
#1 – Rusev
#2 – Finn Balor

Because of his entrance, I would have put money on Shinsuke Nakamura being #1 or #2. Nonetheless, we have a very entertaining #1 and #2. Rusev got in a good 30 minutes amid “Rusev Day” chants. Balor lasted almost an hour, making the Final Four and putting on a great performance.

royal rumble sasha banks becky lynch — Could the first Women’s Rumble start with anyone but Sasha and Becky?

2018 (Women’s)
#1 – Sasha Banks
#2 – Becky Lynch

It was a safe bet that we’d get these two for #1 and #2. I expected them both to get to the end, but Becky was surprisingly eliminated midway in. Sasha would make it to the end and got played by the Bella Twins. Both were great though.

Uncategorized

RDT Reviews Wrestlemania

February 29, 2016 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

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

RAW vs. Nitro Week 4 – 9/25/95

January 21, 2016 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

Week 4

RAW: 9/25/95
Grand Rapids, MI

RAW won last week with the go home show for In Your House. This week, we’ll get the RAW that followed that show. It should be noted there was a controversial decision at the PPV that probably ticked off a lot of fans, but we’ll get there, we’ll get there.

Well, Vince is going over it anyway, so let’s explain.

The match was Diesel and Shawn Michaels against Yokozuna and Owen Hart. Diesel was the World Champ, Shawn the IC Champ, and Owen and Yoko the tag champs. All titles were on the line and the show was sold on the fact that there was a guaranteed title change.

Well, Owen didn’t show and The British Bulldog took his place. Owen though interfered in the match and Diesel ended up pinning him to win the tag belts. Now we get a segment of Jim Cornette and his lawyer (the debut of Clarence Mason!) arguing with President Gorilla Monsoon that Owen wasn’t legally in the tag match. Monsoon agreed, and Yoko and Owen kept their belts. So basically, the WWF said screw you to the fans with their “guaranteed title change” proclamation. Perhaps it was a way to drum up interest for RAW…but I mean, then you need a better segment than Vince explaining it to us. Bad start there.

Skip vs. Marty Jannetty

Vince tells us that Jannetty is returning to the WWF here. Really had no idea he was even gone at this point. I do remember a 1995 ECW run from him though.

Sadly when I think Jannetty and Candido I think of two guys who should have achieved a lot more in professional wrestling. Same goes for Sunny. This REALLY rings true for Jannetty though.

Ha, Sunny and Skip hug, but when Sunny yells at the crowd Jannetty attacks Skip. Sunny then turns to hug “Skip”, but hugs Jannetty then panics realizing what happened. THAT’S where Shawn Michaels learned that spot…he did that to Melina at Survivor Series 2006.

Dean Douglas comes out to take notes on the match. Seems like a step down.

Marty Jannetty pins Skip in 9:41. Jannetty nails the Rocker Dropper and then a top rope first drop for the win. This was a very good back and forth opener. It would be nice to say Jannetty finally cleaned up his act (he could have been a really good IC title foil for Goldust in 1996), but he got stuck in the New Rocker Tag Team and didn’t make it through 1996.

We get more information about why Owen and Yoko kept the belts…but Monsoon adds that the champs will defend the titles on RAW vs. The Gunns.

WWF World Tag Team Championship
Owen Hart and Yokozuna© vs. The Smokin’ Gunns

There’s history here. Owen and Yoko debuted as a team at Mania XI when they beat the Gunns for the tag title.

Billy Gunn takes Yoko down with a bulldog. I always thought Yoko sold a little too much later in this WWF run. It’s how you knew he was never getting back to the very top.

Owen’s neckbreaker gets semi-botched as Gunn drops too early.

Does Yoko EVER hit that elbow drop?

The Smokin’ Gunns wins the Tag Titles when Bart Gunn pinned Owen Hart in 12:13. Owen and Yoko collide, and Yoko falls in the corner. The Gunns hit the Sidewinder, and Yoko accidentally squashes Owen. Billy dropkicks Yoko out, and Bart pins Owen. Another good match! Crowd popped HUGE for the title change. If Yoko and Owen were in line for pushes, this makes a lot of sense. Problem is, that didn’t happen. Shawn and Diesel come in to celebrate with the Gunns.

Next week we have Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte II and a Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid rematch as well.

Gorilla then runs down the next In Your House card. Goldust vs. Marty Jannetty. Undertaker vs. Mabel (which would change to something a lot worse), and for the WWF Title: Diesel vs. the Bulldog. Bret also gets the winner at Survivor Series. By the way, that card listing is awful.

The British Bulldog vs. The Undertaker

Interesting spot here now. The super protected Undertaker vs. the #1 Contender to the WWF Title that needs to look strong: the British Bulldog.

Great heel manager spot: Undertaker goes for the Rope Walk (feels weird calling it Old School in 1995), but Cornette shakes the ropes allowing Bulldog to armdrag Undertaker off the top.

Taker gets clotheslines over the top, but lands on his feet and choke grabs Cornette. More awesomeness here. Bulldog gets the advantage here with an attack from behind.

King Mabel is looking on! Oh boy!

Now Waylon Mercy is looking on. I actually don’t know where that one is going. Taker-Mercy feud was potentially in the works perhaps?

Taker is selling the leg injury big time. I didn’t know Taker sold stuff in 1995.

Great piledriver from the Bulldog!

The Undertaker wins by DQ in 9:20. Mabel comes in, but Taker confronts him. Bulldog nails Taker into Mabel, who plants Taker with a belly to belly suplex. Bulldog and Mabel attack, but Shawn and Diesel make the save. Owen, Yoko and the Gunns all come down. Eventually Taker makes it to his feet and shakes all the faces’ hands, which is a little weird. Anyway, Taker had this won with a chokeslam before Mabel came in, so I don’t know how strong the Bulldog really looked…but I think it’s doable overall. Match was also really good. Taker did an awesome sell job, even afterwards (which is strong enough for the Bulldog I think) and Bulldog looked really motivated here. Probably because he had a bunch of PPV main events lined up. 3/3 for RAW tonight!

Shawn dances to bring us home for some reason.

If this show had any remote historical significance, it would get a super high rating. But did anything here matter at all long term? The only major thing that comes out of this is that it does lead to Owen vs. Shawn eventually, which is the concussion angle of course.

It should be noted that despite the good show, the rating for RAW pretty much blew. I think one thing hurt this that wasn’t Nitro related: the PPV the night before. I just don’t think a bait and switch like that is going to work. Then again, maybe Nitro did something that was just blow away.

TV Rating: 1.9 (-0.8)
Grade: B+

Nitro: 9/25/95
Florence, South Carolina

Alex Wright vs. Disco Inferno

We first saw Wright on Nitro a couple of weeks ago against Sabu.

I like how Disco Inferno had no character development for three years. He’s the same guy until he tries to join the Wolfpac.

Alex Wright almost messed up that springboard dropkick bad. It was passable though.

McMichael kills Monday Night Football on the broadcast. He says the Niners have it won. I like that RAW wasn’t the only show they took shots at.

Alex Wright pins Disco Inferno in 4:00. Wright gets a backslide out of nowhere for the win. It was a pretty good match with Disco controlling it, then it just ended abruptly. Not bad, but it could have used a proper Wright comeback if they are going with him.

WCW World Champion Hulk Hogan has a neck brace, but he’s letting us know he hasn’t missed a workout since Fall Brawl. Hogan makes the challenge for a Monster Truck Match at Halloween Havoc against The Giant. And then he challenges him to a WCW Title match as well. Hogan actually says he’s gonna bury Giant right next to his father, which seems distasteful although I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way.

SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!

We go over what happened last week with Lex Luger and Randy Savage.

It doesn’t take long for Luger and Savage to verbally go at it again. Savage is brilliant here. Luger challenges Savage to a match on Nitro next week. Luger says he’ll leave WCW if he can’t beat Savage. Well, that’s a headliner for sure. I wonder if this segment was key in the ratings war this week.

Bischoff hypes “MACHINE VS. MACHINE”. I wonder if he really thought that was a big draw.

Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Kurasawa

Kurasawa is hyped as the man who broke Road Warrior Hawk’s arm.

A lot of kicks from Kurasawa.

Crazy back and forth here. Each guys turn armbars into suplexes.

Kurasawa pins Pittman in 4:26. Kurasawa gets a German Suplex, but Pittman flails around and it looks pretty bad for the three count. Still a pretty good match for 4 minutes. It seems like they both just threw whatever moves they could out there and just hoped it worked out, which it did.

Arn Anderson and Flyin’ Brian Pillman interview.

Pillman with a great promo, running down Ric Flair. Double A points out that Flair’s been asking help from guys he’s turned on over the years (Savage, Sting, etc.). It’s a pretty brilliant promo.

We get a replay of the Savage-Kevin Sullivan beach fight we saw last week.

Kevin Sullivan vs. Randy Savage

The Zodiac makes his way out and posts Savage quickly.

Kevin Sullivans wins by DQ in 2:58. Savage throws Sullivan to the outside, brings the Zodiac in, beats him up, then throws the ref for the DQ[/b]. Fun little brawl for three minutes I guess, but not much to say here.

The Giant lays out Savage! Some WCW jobbers I never heard of come down and Giant kills them. Alex Wright runs down, also killed by the Giant. Lex Luger comes in…but stands over Savage. Giant attacks him and hits a chokeslam, and Sullivan takes him away angrily. GREAT segment to get the Giant over there. Giant’s falling chokeslam is awesome.

Meng runs down for his match with Luger, since Luger is still down.

Lex Luger vs. Meng

We get told Hogan will be on Nitro next week.

Nice piledriver from Meng on Luger.

Sadly after that piledriver it slows down as we get a bunch of chokes. Ah well.

Gutwrench hip breaker with the foot by Meng? Okay then.

Meng pins Lex Luger in 6:46. Meng gets the spike and knocked Luger out in his comeback for the pin. WHAT? How was that a finish that made any sense? Meng beats Luger without any help or anything. And I’m supposed to buy Luger against the Savages and Giants of the world? Huh? Match was decent if not a bit boring. A downer of a main event.

I think Nitro won this rating battle because of its segments and not its matches. Double A and Pillman were gold. Savage and Luger were good. Hogan’s promo was ridiculous but probably was “must see” since he didn’t get a “live” interview of him the week before. The wrestling wasn’t bad either, although the main event left something to be desired. Still, most of the character development hit here, especially with The Giant.

TV Rating: 2.7 (+0.8)
Grade: B+

Weekly Review

Oddly enough, RAW had the wrestling this week while Nitro had the interviews and segments. While RAW’s matches were very good, the build-up to the next In Your House was really disappointing. I mean, all we get is Gorilla Monsoon announcing the matches for the next PPV? What kind of build is that? At least we got some Taker-Mabel interaction for build, but soon we’ll see that won’t mean a thing. But good wrestling is good wrestling, and we got a title change no less.

Nitro continued its great build for Halloween Havoc. We are still missing some of the excitement we got from the first two shows, but when you have strong segments like the Double A and Pillman interview, the Luger-Savage challenge and the Giant killing everyone, I’m going to buy that.

A tie for this week seems appropriate. Nitro’s first win in the ratings column had to be very exciting for them as well. I assume again it was because of the strong promos and the Giant.

TV Ratings Score: 2-1 RAW

Grade Score: 1-1-1 Tie

September 1995 Monthly Review

Stats

9/4/95 (Nitro 2.5, RAW: N/A)
9/11/95 (RAW 2.5, Nitro 2.4)
9/18/95 (RAW 2.7, Nitro 1.9)
9/25/95 (Nitro 2.7, RAW 1.9)
Rating Average: Nitro 2.48, RAW 2.37
TV Ratings Score: 2-1 RAW

9/4/95 (Nitro A+, RAW: N/A)
9/11/95 (Nitro B+, Raw B )
9/18/95 (RAW B, Nitro C+)
9/25/95 (RAW B+, Nitro B+)
Grade Average: Nitro B+, RAW B
Grade Score: 1-1-1 Tie

The first month of the Monday Night Wars was a full on assault from WCW and I think they delivered. First they attacked when RAW wasn’t on and put on a can’t miss show. They had a major surprise with Lex Luger. They put Hogan and Luger on in the main against RAW right away. They gave away HBK vs. Sid. Attack, attack, attack from Nitro. For WCW to just debut on Monday Night and be on par and at times better than the WWF was pretty incredible. WCW only had one show early on that I thought was a miss.

It’s not like the WWF had a bad month. It was a pretty strong run of shows considering most of them were taped and still had squash matches. Vince definitely picked it up on the 9-25 show though. He was in the fight of his life.

Overall, Nitro was just better this month.

September 1995 Grade
Nitro: A
RAW: B+

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 3 – 9/18/95

January 21, 2016 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

Week 3

Nitro: 9/18/95
Jefferson City, TN

It’s the night after Fall Brawl! Nitro had the better show last week so they’ll go first!

An ambulance starts the show…and inside is Kevin Sullivan and The Giant. Mean Gene tells him that this father would be disappointed. Remember, he’s the son of Andre! Kinda funny promo from the Giant. He had a solid three months in pro wrestling at the time, so we’ll have to cut him some slack.

The American Males vs. The Bluebloods

This would be Regal and Bobby Eaton. Jean-Paul was gone at this point.

Well, it wouldn’t really be them either, since Harlem Heat attacks. They offer the American Males a World Tag Team Title shot. The American Males get a free shot at the tag title just like that!

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Harlem Heat© vs. The American Males

Riggs sells the Axe Kick in seemingly slow motion. At least it wasn’t Booker’s finisher yet.

Booker’s flying side kick was always awesome. Watching Booker knowing what I know now I can’t say it’s surprising he became a big star.

Nice “WE WANT IT RAW” sign in the crowd there.

The American Males win the title in 4:40 when Marcus Bagwell pinned Booker T. Sherri Martel is about to hit Bagwell, but Col. Robert Parker comes down and Sherri falls into his arms (I totally forgot the slave owner angle of Harlem Heat. Yikes). Sherri and Parker are apparently in love. Whatever. Anyway Bagwell reverses a pump handle slam into a bodypress pin and gets the win. It’s a weak victory, but once again, something notable happens on Nitro.

SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!

Ric Flair interview. He’s angry that Arn Anderson got a non-Horseman to help him in their feud (referring to Brian Pillman). He also calls it Johnson City, Tennessee. Based on what Mene Gene says I think that was a sexual reference.

Mr. Wonderful vs. Johnny B. Badd

I really love that music for Orndorff.
Badd was on his way out here. He’d be Marc Mero in the WWF in five months.

Mr. Wonderful pins Johnny B. Badd in 6:40. Orndorff blocks a sunset flip. The finish is botched though, as Badd’s shoulders were clearly up and the ref didn’t seem to actually count the three.

Randy Savage gets attacked by Sullivan on a beach, so Savage responds in an interview. Flair is one of those who help him. Savage says he thinks Luger is joining the Dungeon of Doom. Luger comes out to respond. He wants a match right now but Mean Gene says this isn’t the time of the place (the middle of the ring on Nitro?!).

We go back to the day of Fall Brawl for a Hulk Hogan interview. The Giant comes in on a monster truck and smashes the motorcycle Hogan was on. This would lead to the Monster Truck Match at Halloween Havoc of course. There’s a funny scene here where Hogan is slamming on the truck and Giant is just laughing.

Then a Fall Brawl recap of Giant at Fall Brawl interfering in the War Games, where he attacked Hogan.

Ric Flair vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman

Flair actually comes off the top rope and hits Pillman with an axhandle smash on the floor. Didn’t expect that from Flair.

This match has been ALL Flair.

Flair goes for the Figure Four, but Pillman reverses into a small package, but doesn’t get the hook of the leg.

Ric Flair wins by submission in 5:24. Figure Four gets it done. Total burial of Pillman there? I mean I think he got two moves in. Flair taunts Arn afterwards.

Overall, I think this was a step back for Nitro. The first show felt like can’t miss TV. Same with the second show (with Sabu and the Hogan vs. Luger title match). Here? Nothing special really. American Males winning the tag titles is cool I guess and a moment for sure, but it doesn’t compare to watching international talents like Sabu and Jushin Liger. And Flair vs. Pillman wasn’t that good either.

Every show can’t be blow away, but there isn’t anything to take me away from RAW this week. Unless of course the RAW show blows. The rating here also indicated that this was a step back.

Oddly, they didn’t give away any RAW Results this week.

TV Rating: 1.9 (-0.5)
Grade: C+

RAW: 9/18/95
Canton, Ohio

We get a recap of the 1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon issue from last week.

It should be pointed out that Vince keeps saying this is a special Thursday edition of RAW…but nothing else seems to indicate that. The research I did. The Network. Etc.

This is still taped from August, so no responding to Nitro yet.

1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon

Kid starts off fast. All of this would lead to the eventual Kid heel turn.

Nice flying over the top rope dropkick from the Kid!

The Kid has dominated the match-up. We also get a sleeper, which is also when they go to commercial. I’m okay with commercials during matches during a hold though.

We got a ref bump!

The 1-2-3 Kid pins Razor Ramon in 7:08. After a collision where the ref got hurt, Dean Douglas comes flying off the top onto Ramon. Kid rolls in to get the pin. The wheels of the turn were starting.

Dean Douglas interview now. Kid gets a D for dumb. Ramon gets an E. Elevate. He’s doing that in order to face Dean Douglas. A for Douglas! The PPV this weekend gets a N. No-Brainer on who will be victorious. That spells Dead. To be honest, that was a good promo.

Tatanka and Kama Mustafa vs. Savio Vega and Bob Holly

Crowd is pretty dead for this, although Vega got a solid reaction for his entrance.

Vega is your face in peril.

We don’t even see the hot tag to Holly on camera.

Kama and Tatanka win when Kama pins Holly in 5:47. Holly comes off the top with a bodypress, but Kama “rolls” through and gets the pin. Ugly finish. Match wasn’t too bad though.

Ramon interview. He’s of course responding to Douglas.

Jean Pierre LaFitte vs. Brian Walsh

Squash match for the pirate ahoy! We go over LaFitte stealing the Hitman sunglasses from fans. Yeah, that wasn’t Bret’s best feud.

We get Bret on the phone. He’s upset that Bret has gotten his jacket and stuff stolen. He’s also confused as he didn’t know pirates still existed. Poor Bret.

LaFitte pins Walsh in 3:18. Cannonball (Swanton?) for the win. I hope this is the last squash we get on RAW ever.

We get some hype about the In Your House main event of HBK and Diesel vs. Owen and Yoko. All titles on the line!

Owen Hart and Yokozuna vs. Men on a Mission

Non-title match here. This is your main event! It’s also heel vs. heel, which is strange.

Owen is playing the face in peril. Interesting. Well it can’t be anyone else in this match for sure.

Here comes Yokozuna! We get Yoko and Mabel going at it as Owen now plays the heel. I actually like both teams cheating. It’s an interesting dynamic.

Mo and Owen both go for spinning wheel kicks at the same time. Never seen that before.

Weird, now Mabel is playing the face making the big comeback.

Owen Hart and Yokozuna win when Owen pinned Mo in 9:30. Yoko kills Mo with the big legdrop, and then holds Mabel’s foot so he can’t break up the pin. Pretty good match amazingly. Owen carried the whole thing, and the heel vs. heel dynamic oddly worked.

Diesel and HBK interview about Owen and Yoko. Something about John Madden.

Cornette interview. Runs down HBK and Diesel of course. He brings up a good point that the last time Diesel and HBK were a team, they broke up.

Lawler predicts Yokozuna walks out of In Your House with the WWF Title. Vince then tells us that we are getting Undertaker vs. British Bulldog on RAW next week. Not bad.

Anyway…solid showing here. A good opener and a surprisingly good main event bookends a lot of boring stuff. The wrestling itself was also better than this week’s Nitro. Sure, nothing between Summerslam and Survivor Series really mattered, but they still had to get to Survivor Series…right?

TV Rating: 2.7
Grade: B

Weekly Review

All the talent in the world and that’s the Nitro we get? Shoulda just scrapped Badd vs. Orndorff and let Pillman and Flair go another five minutes in that case. Nitro for the first time felt like it could be a miss, unless you like monster trucks or something.

That doesn’t mean RAW was can’t miss either. But there were better matches on RAW, and solid build for a PPV no one was really talking about at all.

TV Ratings Score: 2-0 RAW

Grade Score: 1-1 Tie

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the 1997 WWF Royal Rumble

January 15, 2016 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Card

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

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

Intercontinental Championship
Goldust vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley©

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ahmed Johnson vs. Faarooq

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

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

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

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

The Undertaker vs. Vader

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paul Bearer shows up as Undertaker chokeslams Vader.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Royal Rumble

I think the smart money was on Bret Hart here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jake “The Snake” is next at #7!

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

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

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

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

#12 is HHH. Bulldog takes out the Sultan.

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

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

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

#15 is Cibernetico, another AAA star.

#16 is Marc Mero.

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

Goldust takes out HHH, revenge for earlier.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Funk with an awful piledriver on Bret.

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

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

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

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

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

Henry Godwinn is #29.

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

Taker levels Vader and again the crowd gets into it.

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

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

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

Mankind Mandible Claws Rocky out.

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

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

WWF Championship
Sycho Sid© vs. Shawn Michaels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now only if the undercard was any good.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Survivor Series 1987

November 27, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Survivor Series 1987
November 26, 1987
Richfield, OH

The inaugural Survivor Series was a big middle finger to Jim Crockett and the NWA. When Crockett announced Starrcade on PPV on Thanksgiving, Vince McMahon countered with Survivor Series and didn’t allow cable companies to air both shows (you can read more in my Starrcade ‘87 review).

The Survivor Series was the first non-Wrestlemania PPV (other than the Wrestling Classic) and set in motion the idea that the WWF would be offering multiple PPVs over the course of a calendar year.

The WWF was still hot at this point and while near the end, we were still in the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant feud that made Mania III a huge success. So did Crockett stand a chance? Not really. Let’s see how the first Survivor Series plays out.

The Card

Survivor Series Match
The Honky Tonk Man, Hercules, Danny Davis, Ron Bass and Harley Race vs. Randy Savage, Jim Duggan, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat and Brutus Beefcake

Honky Tonk Man in a prematch promo says this is the greatest Survivor Series ever assembled. It’s the first afterall, so I mean, he’s right!

I wonder if Harley was ever embarrassed to be a King in the WWF.

It’s worth writing that wow is Elizabeth beautiful.

Savage has turned face and got a huge reaction. No surprise he’d be champ by Mania.

You know, say what you want about Beefcake (and I usually say a lot)…but he was over.

We lose both Duggan and Race to a double countout.

Beefcake nails Bass with the high knee and Bass is gone. This has been fun so far.

Shake Rattle and Roll takes out the Barber. Good storytelling with Ventura and Gorilla explaining how Beefcake needed to make the tag but didn’t.

Jake spikes Davis with a DDT and he’s gone. Danny Davis shouldn’t be going toe to toe with Jake anyway.

Savage is so active outside the ring, running all over the place, going to the top rope. It really adds to the match and his character.

Steamboat mocking Honky’s dance was quite a sight.

Savage drops the big elbow and Hercules is gone.

Team Savage wins, Sole Survivors: Savage, Roberts and Steamboat. Honky Tonk Man fights Savage for a bit before he gets beat down, and then decides to leave realizing he’s down 3-1. Fun opener that showed the Survivor Series format works for sure. Smart booking to have Honky left with all the IC Title contenders.

Survivor Series Match
Judy Martin, Leilani Kai, Dawn Marie (no, not that Dawn Marie), Donna Christanello and Sensational Sherri vs. The Jumping Bomb Angels, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin’ Robin and The Fabulous Moolah

Sherri had recently won the Women’s title from Moolah, which is the main story here.

I won’t lie, I don’t know most of these people. Marie, Christanello and the Angels are new to me.

McIntyre gets Christanello out with a nice victory roll.

McIntyre is pretty good, nice hurricanrana!

Robin takes out Marie with a crossbody.

I don’t know the names of the Angels, but one of them is awesome.

The other just did a flying armdrag off the top rope! Where were these two in WWF history?

Robin’s clearly not the best worker in the match. She’s botched almost anything and just botched a monkey flip.

Sherri takes Robin out with a vertical suplex.

McIntyre is good too. Spinning crossbody? That’s pretty cool.

The Galmour Girls take out Moolah with a double clothesline. Bit of a surprise, but her chain wrestling was pretty boring anyway.

McIntyre and the Jumping Bomb Angels left on one side? That’s awesome. This has been really fun so far.

Small screw up with the timekeeper as he rings the bell when one of the Angels bridge to get their shoulder up.

Velvet gets Sherri with a giant swing!

She gets Sherri with a victory roll! I assume that was the next Women’s title feud.

Crazy sunset flip. I feel bad I don’t know the Bomb Angels from each other. But they’re awesome.

Electric chair drop by Kai takes out McIntyre. Once again, a great story was told as the announcers focus on how McIntyre’s back was injured. It was also great psychology as McIntyre had been getting eliminations with all of these victory rolls. Down to the Bomb Angels and the Glamour Girls.

Kai is eiliminated by a crossbody.

Jimmy Hart even takes a bump to the outside!

Team Moolah wins, Sole Survivors: The Jumping Bomb Angels. Great clothesline for the win. Wow. I need to research more about the Jumping Bomb Angels because they are awesome. Apparently this set up a Women’s Tag Team title feud between these two teams. Anyway, great match! Maybe the best Women’s match I’ve ever seen in the US.

Survivor Series Match – 10 vs. 10
Strike Force, The Young Stallions, The Fabulous Rougeaus, the Killer Bees and the British Bulldogs vs. The Dream Team, The Bolsheviks, Demolition, The Islanders and the Hart Foundation

Let’s just throw all the tag teams in at once! This could be nuts.

Interesting rules: if one member of the tag team gets eliminated, the other is gone too. This is a cool concept that would be cool to see today, although there isn’t enough teams for that.

Zhukov gets eliminated by Santana, so the Bolsheviks are gone.

I don’t really like the pacing for this one. Too many quick tags and way too many guys involved.

Ax takes out Jacques when he missed a crossbody. We are at 4 teams vs. 4 teams.

The Demos get DQed when Smash shoves the referee away.

Strike Force get eliminated when Bret breaks up a pinfall by Santana on Anvil, then Anvil pins Santana? How weak was that?

No falls for a while, and we keep getting move after move. On one hand it’s awesome, non-stop action. On the other, there’s no real story being told, it’s just move after move.

Dynamite goes for a flying headbutt on Haku and hits it…but knocks himself out and Haku takes him out with a kick to take out the Bulldogs.

Roma gets Greg Valentine with a top rope sunset flip to take him out. That was nice. Best move I ever saw Roma do.

Down to the Harts and Islanders vs. the Bees and Young Stallions. This match really seemed like it was designed to get the Stallions over.

Bret gets eliminated when Tama knocked Jumping Jim over when he holding Hart…but he rolled through and got the pin. Down to the Islanders against Bees and Stallions.

Team Strike Force wins, Sole Survivors: The Killer Bees and the Young Stallions. B. Brian Blair puts on a bee mask and gets a sunset flip on Tama even though he’s the illegal man, and Jumping Jim puts on a mask as well. Sure, why not. I thought this went way too long and while it was mostly nonstop action, I could never really get into this. Still, I wouldn’t say it was bad.

We get to see how ”The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase celebrates Thanksgiving. He tells us money is the key to survival. He’s not wrong. We do get the hilarious moment where Dibiase tells a kid to dribble a basketball 15 times for $500, then kicks the basketball after the 14th dribble. Great stuff.

Ventura mentions that he’s never seen female wrestlers do the movies the Jumping Bomb Angels did. He’s right! They were awesome.

We get a Honky Tonk Man promo. For some reason we’re killing a lot of time before the main event.

Survivor Series Match
Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera and Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Andre the Giant, Rick Rude, One Man Gang, Butch Reed and King Kong Bundy

Crazy team Hogan promo. Hogan looked like he was in a trance at the end.

Huge cheers for Bigelow. Too bad he didn’t work out in his first stint.

Orndorff also gets huge cheers. Him and Hogan were feuding earlier in the year.

Hogan makes quick work of Reed and drop the leg for the elimination.

Hogan vs. Andre time…no, Hogan tags out to Ken Patera. Way to go Hogan.

Andre, great heel that he is, motions that Patera isn’t worth it and tags in Bundy.

OMG lands on Patera and gets rid of him.

Man Bam Bam is over. Huge cheers when Hogan tagged him in.

Surprisingly Orndorff is gone after Rude rolls him up and holds the tights.

Powerslam from Muraco takes out Rude. That’s a shame, Rude was the best worker here by far.

Big splash from OMG takes out Muraco. Hogan and Bigelow vs. Bundy, Andre and OMG.

Bigelow escapes Andre and we have Hogan vs. Andre!

OMG pulls Hogan out of the ring as h was beating on Andre, but Hogan takes out both OMG and Bundy. Hogan gets counted out!

This leaves Bigelow vs. Bundy, OMG and Andre.

Bigelow keeps fighting and hits a slingshot press to take out Bundy!

OMG misses a top rope splash (looked awful) and Bigelow gets the pin, leaving Bigelow vs. Andre.

Team Andre wins, Sole Survivor: Andre the Giant. Andre hits a butterfly suplex for the win. Everything from Hogan vs. Andre to the end was pretty bad to be honest, but crowd was definitely in it which is what matters. Match also seemed designed to get Bigelow over, and while it kinda worked Bigelow (backstage) wasn’t ready for that kind of push. Hogan comes back and takes out Andre to let the crowd go home happy.

Overall, this PPV was solid. I liked the first two matches a lot. The tag survivor match was quite long, but it wasn’t bad, and the main event did what it was supposed to. While the PPV meant nothing in the long run, it crushed Crockett’s NWA PPV. Somehow, the NWA show was worse quality wise than the WWF show, which was rare for that time and happened at the absolute worst time possible for the NWA.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF InVasion

October 31, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF InVasion
July 22, 2001
Cleveland, OH

When Vince McMahon bought WCW it was obvious wrestling was going to change forever. Fans hoped that it would be in a good way. Afterall, the WWF had been doing amazing business for years behind Vince’s booking and the year 2000 alone received critical acclaim in the ring (compared to ’98 and ’99, where despite the great business there was some horrible wrestling out there).

Now it’s not Vince’s fault that he couldn’t get all of the big players in WCW. Because of the outlandish deals with Ted Turner, there was no Sting, no Goldberg, etc. The biggest names the WWF received were Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page. To be honest, with the WWF hype machine behind each of them both could have been major players and the disappointment of no top WCW guys could have been at least lessened. And while the WWF completely missed with Page with the whole stalker of Undertaker’s wife angle, the WWF actually did a really good job with Booker T for the most part. Booker came in at King of the Ring 2001, dropped Stone Cold on his head through a table (which probably was a big reason he didn’t get the super push, as he legitimately hurt Austin here) and actually looked like a big deal. He was clearly the wrestling leader of this pack. The only thing that went wrong really was that match against Buff Bagwell that was pretty awful. Why they couldn’t just put Booker against someone like Chris Jericho orKurt Angle early on is a mystery to me. We really needed to have “authentic” WCW guys? The failure of the Booker-Bagwell match changed the angle big time, but it should be pointed out that Booker T was the leader of this Alliance team heading into the PPV.

When ECW entered the picture, it seemed really cool for one night until we realized these were all WWF guys sans Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer. For the record, as underrated as Rhyno was at the time, it should have come as no surprise that Rob Van Dam would be crazy over. RVD in the main could have helped. Nonetheless, when Stephanie McMahon was introduced as owner of ECW…well, it should have been obvious that this angle just wasn’t going to be what we were all hoping for.

Still, InVasion posted one of the biggest buyrates in WWF history, so despite the mess of booking, WWF vs. WCW and ECW was the main draw here. So let’s see how it goes.

The Card

Lance Storm and Mike Awesome vs. Edge and Christian

One of the issues with the InVasion: some guys turning when their role was working out so well. Not sure, it looked like an Edge face turn was in the works, but we loved Edge and Christian as a heel team.

Christian nearly kills himself early on by not getting enough height jumping over the top rope onto Storm and Awesome.

One reason J.R. is amazing on commentary: he sees the botch and after explaining how important InVasion is, explains that Edge and Christian have pre-match jitters. Just really smart.

If there was ever someone who had all the physical tools but who’s mic skills held him back, it was Mike Awesome. His frog splash was just incredible.

Christian really works as a face-in-peril.

Edge and Christian win when Edge pinned Awesome in 10:10. Awesome went for an Awesome Bomb on Edge, but Christian speared him and Edge landed on top for the win. Good opener for sure. During the match, Michael Cole and J.R. really put over this match as one of the most important ever due to it being the opener for the InVasion. The effort is great. Problem is, as we’ll see later, those words were very overblown and made Cole and J.R. look stupid.

Pretty funny promo with Vince and William Regal as Vince wants Regal to be like the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Not only is it funny on the surface because Regal is British, but it’s also funny because the idea that the WWF is the underdog here is ridiculous.

Nick Patrick vs. Earl Hebner
Mick Foley is the Special Guest Referee

Vince had access to so much talent now that we needed referees to wrestle. Great.

In all those wrestling magazines, how many “dream WWF vs. WCW card” articles had Patrick vs. Hebner on there?

We get an referee brawl on the outside! Foley throws the WCW referees out.

Earl Hebner pins Nick Patrick in 2:50. Patrick argues with Foley, allowing Hebner to tackle him for the three. This was awful but at least short. What was Vince thinking here?! 2-0 WWF. Foley blasts Patrick afterward and gets Mr. Socko on him.

Tough Enough commercial! Weird that the first one was 14 years ago.

Ugh, stalker DDP was so awful.

Sara (Taker’s wife) calls Taker Mark when talking to Debra. That was pretty unexpected.

The APA vs. Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo

WWF vs. WCW Tag Champs here. I do like how the APA were like the midcard leaders on-screen. O’Haire and Palumbo were only the tag champs in WCW as WCW was finally trying to use their younger talent. They definitely had potential though.

Fun fact: Faarooq is a former WCW World Champion. I thought that could have been a fun little turn during the InVasion storyline.

The APA win when Bradshaw pins Chuck Palumbo in 7:17. Clothesline From Hell takes out Palumbo after Palumbo “hit” Faarooq with a superkick. This was okay I guess. I do think the wrong team won, but then again the WWF never went with Palumbo and O’Haire. 3-0 WWF, which seems ridiculous at this point.

Billy Kidman vs. X-Pac

Kidman was the WCW Cruiserweight Champion and X-Pac was the WWF Lightheavyweight Champion.

X-Pac is booed out of the building. And you know, that’s a good example of the WWF NOT changing someone’s alignment just because they’re team WWF. Not that they could at this point anyway.

It should be pointed out that it was a really good idea for the WWF to put the WCW Cruiserweight Title on Kidman. I considered Kidman to be in the top tier of WCW Cruiserweights, and in fact he was the last guy to get to that point in 1998.

Weird dynamic here as I think the fans want to cheer for Kidman…but can’t quite bring themselves to do it because he’s a WCW guy.

Another weird dynamic: X-Pac’s trying to wrestle a riskier, high flying style but can’t quite do it (he had stopped after his neck injury in the mid 90s). It really makes for a mess of a match unfortunately.

Billy Kidman pins X-Pac in 7:12. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press and the fans pop. And rightfully so, that move is awesome. So much for not cheering Kidman. Give X-Pac credit too, he let Kidman kickout of an X-Factor and jobbed to Kidman’s best move. Still not a good match though.

3-1 WWF! The Alliance is on board!

DDP quote: “Debra is sweet but she’s no Sara.” Yeah, like we don’t know DDP is married to Kimberly. Come on now.

Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler feel disappointed for the fans that they’ll have to settle for seeing Trish and Lita in their panties. I mean, it’s win-win either way, but I do agree Torrie and Stacy are hotter.

William Regal vs. Raven

Before watching this I could predict that this would be a huge clash of styles.

And that’s exactly what we get. Face Regal wasn’t really working either.

The timing for everything is just off. A clothesline from Raven is timed incorrectly. A bulldog from Raven, same thing. It’s not actively bad, but it is noticeable. Crowd is completely quiet as well.

Raven pins Regal in 6:34. Tazz runs in and hits a T-Bone Suplex to Regal…and Raven hits a sloppy Evenflow DDT for the win. 3-2 WCW.

Big Show, Billy Gunn and Albert vs. Sean Stasiak, Kanyon and Hugh Morrus

I know the WWF was quite low on Big Show at this point, but Show on the WCW team would have made a lot of sense and helped the star power issue.

Nice Meat chants for Stasiak.

Morrus, Stasiak and Kanyon win when Morrus pins Gunn in 4:23. Match can be described this way: WWF guys destroy WCW guys, WCW gets a cheap win. What a joke. Also, the Big Show destroys the WCW guys after the match too. Real waste of Kanyon here too. But we’re tied!

Oh, sorry, WCW/ECW is up 4-3 now. Apparently Chavo Guerrero Jr’s victory over Scotty 2 Hotty counts. Way to ignore than when the WWF was up 3-0.

Tazz vs. Tajiri

Tazz is ECW, Tajiri is WWF. Isn’t it crazy how just two years prior this was an ECW PPV World Title Match?

By the way, I would have put Tajiri in X-Pac’s spot here.

Tajiri pins Tazz in 5:44. Tajiri gets the Green Mist and kicks Tazz in the face for the win. Fun little match here where Tajiri took a lot of Tazz’s offense. Too bad it wasn’t longer. 4-4.

RVD takes Matt Hardy out with a chair right in Jeff Hardy’s face. Pretty awesome segment.

Hardcore Holly berates a WCW fan at WWF New York. Also a funny segment.

WWF Hardcore Championship
Jeff Hardy© vs. Rob Van Dam

Really…the first match on this card that really makes of sense. RVD vs. Jeff Hardy in a battle of the daredevils.

I wish after RVD just took Matt Hardy out that Jeff ran down to take out RVD.

HUGE RVD chants.

A really creative start, including Jeff legdropping RVD in a way where RVD ends up crunched like an accordion.

With all the hotdogging he’s doing, I can’t help but think RVD would have made for an awesome WWF heel. Of course, he’d be cheered, but who cares!

Seeing RVD in the WWF for the “first” time was crazy. All these crazy moves that worked in ECW…worked in the WWF too! For example…a moonsault off the barricade in the crowd. This was true for Tajiri as well, but it really got RVD over big time.

Spinning heel kick off the apron onto a hanging Jeff Hardy on the barricade. Years later people would complain it was the same old shit with RVD, but in 2001 on a global stage: holy shit.

Jeff Hardy with a sunset flip powerbomb from the ring onto the floor! RVD just gets slammed on the floor. Sick spot.

In one of my favorite spots ever, Jeff beats RVD down with a chair, leading RVD to beg from his knees for Jeff to stop. In a split second, RVD hops to his feet and hits the Van Daminator and sends off flying off the stage. Just wow.

RVD takes a DDT and a German Suplex and sells it the only way RVD can. Great stuff here.

RVD pins Jeff Hardy to win the title in 12:24. Jeff misses the Swanton…and RVD hits the Five Star Frog Splash for the win. A really fun spotfest that seemed revolutionary at the time. Great match. The first (and ultimately, only) match on this supercard that really felt it belonged.

5-4 WCW/ECW!

Bra and Panties Match
Trish Stratus and Lita vs. Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler

In the funniest moment of the entire event Mick Foley comes out to referee. That was pretty good.

There’s a pretty good story surrounding this: Torrie and Stacy tried to seduce the Hardyz.

Lita and Trish win in 5:03. There’s actually some decent fighting in this, although clearly that’s not the purpose. Fun of course. Oh and we’re tied!

The Inaugural Brawl
Team Alliance (Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno and the Dudley Boyz) vs. Team WWF (Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kane, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho)

One of the big selling points of this match was that the old Stone Cold was coming to InVasion. After being a cowardly heel for four months, Austin’s return to being a bad ass was nothing short of amazing. Just listen to that crowd reaction on RAW. It’s crazy. Honestly, if you told me that really sold the show instead of the actual InVasion I actually might agree.

Obviously Austin’s pop is amazing, but Angle gets a big one too. One positive of the InVasion: Kurt Angle getting to that next level.

I can’t help but think that this InVasion could have worked with DDP as the top heel. He’s getting great reactions and he’s a huge name of course.

The match is about 20 minutes of back and forth and while it isn’t bad it is pretty boring overall. Crowd is really into it though.

The match takes a strange turn to get to the finish. Kurt Angle is your Team WWF member in peril, but oddly he’d never make the hot tag as Undertaker just runs in to attack Page. A huge ten man brawl breaks out from that.

Stone Cold hurt his knee! Oh no! Also, everyone else gets taken out somehow. Angle suddenly begins to kick serious ass and the crowd is electric for him.

Team Alliance wins when Booker T pinned Kurt Angle in 29:30. Angle has Booker T locked in the Ankle Lock and tapping, but Stone Cold comes in and hits Angle with a Stunner and turns on the WWF. Booker gets the pin, but it’s Austin who celebrates with Shane, Stephanie and Heyman. Man what a stupid decision that turned out to be for the storyline and Austin’s career (although it helped make Kurt Angle). Match was good I suppose, but it seemed a bit boring at times and the finish sucked.

The angle really could have worked if they went with Booker vs. Rock and Page vs. Austin, but Page apparently pissed too many people off, including Undertaker and it never worked out for him. Booker did go on to fight Rock but after getting beat twice he dropped to the midcard. As for Austin, this was his last chance to regain that babyface level only he and Hogan (and I guess Rock) ever reached, only it was thrown away with this re-turn. When Austin turns face again in December the crowd reaction for him isn’t the same as it once was.

As for this show, I feel like only one match really delivered and that was RVD vs. Jeff Hardy. Yes the opener was good and the Bra and Panties Match was fun, but everything else really left you disappointed. What a shame.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews The 1993 WWF King of the Ring

June 13, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

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

The New Generation was hit with Hulkamania brother!

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

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

The Card

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

King of the Ring Qualifier: Tatanka vs. Lex Luger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WWF Championship
Hulk Hogan© vs. Yokozuna

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

This is the rematch from Wrestlemania IX.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yokozuna victory celebration!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Grade: B-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews: WWF Wrestlemania X7

April 12, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Wrestlemania X7
April 1, 2001
Houston, TX

It’s over.

Good bye WCW. It was a good run and you put on a great effort, but the WWF has won. When the last Monday Nitro basically became a commercial for Wrestlemania X7 it was over for good.

The WWF set one of the truly great stacked PPV cards of all time for Wrestlemania X7. They were fortunate as unlike last year, no top guys were injured. Last year the WWF was missing The Undertaker and Stone Cold. For Mania X7, they have both. The WWF also did an effective job making new stars, evident by Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit’s run in the latter half of 2000. The WWF owns the wrestling world now. Things can only get better from now on, right? (Hindsight says…ha!)

Let’s talk a little bit about Stone Cold.

Is he as popular as he once was? Is he on the way down? Is he stale? Why are ratings not as strong? Why didn’t his comeback lead to another big ratings streak?

All great questions. At the end of Wrestlemania we’ll see how Vince answered them.

The Card

Houston Astrodome is packed. This is also the first Wrestlemania promo where I really felt the epicness of the event.

Limp Bizkit’s “My Way” was a perfect fit for this event.

Paul Heyman, replacing the temporarily departed Jerry Lawler here, says ECW about three minutes into the broadcast. I chuckled.

It was an interesting time for Jericho. After spending last summer as nearly a top guy, Jericho found himself back in the midcard…at least for now.

Regal was still a relative newcomer, debuting in September. But, we are also at the beginning of perhaps Regal’s best work, as he was clean at this point and a great heel as the Commissioner.

This was the feud that had Jericho peeing in Regal’s tea. A legendary moment if there ever was one. This also had Jericho running in on Regal when he was dressed as Doink.

Fast start, probably because they know they only have about 8 minutes for this.
Jericho almost overshoots Regal on a flying bodypress to the outside. Would have been a bad start to Mania there.

Double underhook suplex on Jericho from the top. Nice move from our Commissioner!

Regal’s STF makes me wonder how WWE ever thought John Cena could pull it off.

Chris Jericho retains by pin in 7:08. Lionsault out of nowhere gets the win. Crowd even seemed surprised. They tried to jam a 15 minute match into an 8 minute match, and while it wasn’t a bad match, it was nothing special and a bit disappointing.

Shane McMahon arrives in a WCW limo!

Bradshaw explains just how important this match in Texas is by going over historical events that took place in the Astrodome. Six man tag is next.

The APA and Tazz vs. The Right to Censor

I don’t recall how Tazz got involved, but the APA and RTC didn’t get along for obvious reasons.

Weird botch when Tazz gets whipped into the ropes and just falls into them and rockets back. Quite strange there.

The APA and Tazz when Bradshaw pinned the Goodfather in 3:52. Clothesline From Hell wins it. Just a way to get the guys on the card and to pop the crowd early on. This would be the end of the RTC (well, Undertaker would end them for good a week later) and virtually the end of Val Venis, Goodfather, Steven Richards and Bull Buchanan. None of these four would ever regain the popularity they had before.

Trish Stratus rolls Linda McMahon into the Astrodome, and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley says she’s late. I kinda forgot about the whole Linda in a catatonic state thing.

While a step down for both Kane and Big Show, Kane it seemed to work for while it just seemed like something for Big Show to do. Show would be stuck in mid and even lower card hell until Survivor Series 2002.

Big Show never even gets to the ring as we’re fighting in the crowd now.

Raven pops up out of nowhere to attack Kane. The story of this match will be Show and Kane going at it, and Raven attacking out of nowhere.

Kane tries to throw Raven through a wall. Ouch.

Smartest move of the match: Big Show locks himself, Raven and the ref in a cage with Kane out. Kane rips the door off its hinges anyway.

Raven gets thrown through a window by Kane. Crowd responded to that for sure.

Show and Kane actually go through a wall this time. Raven attacks. One thing I didn’t like about this match: Raven basically no sells being thrown through a window.

Raven nearly gets run over by a golf cart. I hope he got a good paycheck for this match.

Kane wins the title by pinning Big Show in 9:17. Big Show presses Raven over his head to throw him off the stage, but Kane boots him and they both go flying off. Kane follows with a flying legdrop and wins the title. Garbage wrestling, but it was well done garbage wrestling. This is one of my favorite Hardcore title matches in the history of WWE. Shame they went back to 24/7 soon afterwards. Paul Heyman also somehow makes Raven look like a million bucks on commentary, which is a bonus.

Kurt Angle angrily watches over his tapping out to Benoit. Edge and Christian joke around, but Angle’s serious. Alliances like Angle, Edge and Christian are just things you don’t see in wrestling anymore. They aren’t a team, but they work together and are friends.

No one cared about Test at this point. He had just come off the T and A run, which got Trish over more than anyone else.

Unfortunately, Guerrero was on his way down too. Personal problems had been catching up with Guerrero and he wouldn’t last much longer.

Perry Saturn seconds Guerrero and has a ridiculous hat on. It would only get more ridiculous for Saturn as 2001 went on.

Test actually gets a decent pop. Maybe he was cared about here and I didn’t remember.

Test gets his foot caught in the ropes. I don’t think it was intentional. Guerrero gets him out.

Ref definitely saw Saturn interfere there.

Eddie Guerrero wins the title by pin in 8:30. Test has it won with a big boot, but Dean Malenko pulls him off. Guerrero hits Test with the European title for the win. Match wasn’t bad, it really looked like Eddie Guerrero was doing just about everything to make it good. Test would get a strong push in 2001, but by 2002 it was pretty much over for him as a top guy. Guerrero would fall apart…but then get his life together in 2002 and go on a great three year run. Still, in the long term this match meant nothing.

Mick Foley is the king of the cheap pop.

Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle

There wasn’t much of a story here, it basically spawned from Angle being shut out of the world title picture and Benoit and Jericho’s feud running its course. Most recent storyline between them: Benoit made Angle tap out on RAW.

Angle runs down Texas. Brilliant mic work.

We get a straight wrestling match to start. It’s an interesting way to start as 2001 didn’t have a lot of that.

Predictably, Angle takes the first liberty. Amazing how the can make a punch a heel move, but here it is.

This whole match is the prototype from their amazing Royal Rumble 2003 match. The biggest difference? The fans didn’t truly trust Benoit as a good guy yet.

Angle taps to the Crossface! But there’s no referee. That guarantees this program would continue (and it would be great).

Kurt Angle pins Chris Benoit in 14:04. Angle gets a crucifix pin after a sequence, and holds the tights for the win. Finish makes sense to continue the feud, but it was a pretty cheap win for Wrestlemania (next year would be worse). This is a very good match, but they would have better.

Kamala has invaded Regal’s office! Great stuff.

Great line from Heyman. JR: “Why aren’t you in the gimmick battle royal?” Heyman: “What, you want me to bring my telephone in the ring?”

Benoit attacks Angle post-match, and Angle taps out again!

This is the ending of the Chyna broke her neck angle. Considering Chyna is considered equal to the men, there’s not a chance in hell Ivory wins.

Chyna wins the title by pin in 2:38. Chyna begins the burial of the division here. Shame she went crazy, as she was still mega over. Chyna finished with a Gorilla Press Slam, which I wonder was a reference to Warrior going over HHH at Mania XII (or a shot at HHH).

Street Fight: Mick Foley is the Referee
Mr. McMahon vs. Shane McMahon

Vince foreshadows his alliance with Stone Cold in a quick interview with Cole.

I always wondered how Shane got away with being a momma’s boy without being booed for it.

This was also the famous feud where Shane showed up on Nitro and stole WCW.

Shane absolutely destroys Vince…until Stephanie pulls Vince off a table than Shane was flying towards.

That’s all it takes for Trish Stratus to wheel down the comatose Linda McMahon!

Trish turns on Vince! Trish beats up on Stephanie afterwards.

Trish chases Stephanie away, and Vince takes Foley out with a chair (including a chair shot to the back of the head, which Foley wasn’t expecting). Vince rolls the comatose Linda into the ring.

Of course Linda awakens and kicks Vince right in the jewels.

Shane McMahon pinned Mr. McMahon in 14:12. Shane-Terminator (ECW’s gone a month and already we’re stealing moves) puts an explanation mark on a very entertaining street fight. Sure, it’s not really the best “match”, but it was fun all the way. Also, if you’re into the McMahon storylines, you would have loved all of this, as I did.

This is already a pretty great show…and we’re only half way through!

World Tag Team Championship: Tables, Ladders and Chairs
The Dudley Boyz© vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz

At No Mercy ’99, Edge and Christian along with the Hardyz changed the Ladder Match game with their tag team ladder match. At Wrestlemania 2000, the Dudleyz were added. Summerslam was the first official TLC match. All these matches were amazing and stole the show. There had also been lesser known matches in-between, such as a Tables match with the Dudleyz and Hardyz at the 2000 Royal Rumble, for example.

It doesn’t take long for E and C to introduce the ladder and take out the Hardyz!

Something you don’t see in a lot of multi-man ladder matches anymore: build up. We get some minor knockdowns off the ladder early on here.

The Hardyz bring it to the next level by doing their legdrop/splash combo onto Christian off a pair of ladders.

The Dudleyz build a table fort on the outside…back when we may have not realized they would be involved in the finish.

Spike Dudley runs in and hits a Dudley Dawg on Edge off a ladder, then hits Christian with one from the ring to the floor.

Here comes Rhyno!

GORE GORE GORE!

Now Lita’s here! She stops Edge from getting the belts.

Lita breaks a chair over Spike’s head…but then gets the 3D!

Jeff Hardy relives his moment from last year with another 20 Foot Swanton Bomb through a table on the floor!

I believe the hanging off the belts spot was invented here. Jeff Hardy almost hopsteps ladder to ladder to ladder, but the ladder gives. Still ridiculous.

Jeff Hardy in another famous spot, he ends up hanging off the belts…and Edge spears him off a ladder! Crazy. Just crazy.

Rhyno comes in and sends Matt and Bubba through the table fort create earlier off a ladder.

Edge and Christian win the title in 15:47. After that, Rhyno helped Christian up the ladder to get the belts. In my opinion, this is still the greatest multi-man ladder match in history. Innovative spots, crazy bumps, excellent use of Rhyno, Lita and Spike. Just crazy. 2001 is where WWE would oversaturate the ladder match though. Hell, they gave away a TLC on Smackdown two months later (that was also insane).

It’s a shame this match meant nothing in regards to the titles though. The Hardyz were supposed to win, but it was switched when it was decided Undertaker and Kane were getting the belts for Backlash, so heels needed to win.

Still. Amazing.

Gimmick Battle Royal

I won’t get into all the gimmicks, but Doink gets a huge pop. And of course the Gobbledy Gooker. Hillbilly Jim did as well.

The Iron Sheik wins in 3:07. Sheik last gets rid of Sgt. Slaughter. Slaughter with a post-match attack. It was horrible, but that’s the point. It was just a fun battle royal with all the old timers. Bobby Heenan seemed like he had more fun on commentary than he had in years.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H

The story was simple. HHH beat Austin at No Way Out and pointed out how he beat everyone that there is to beat. Undertaker told HHH he “ain’t ever beat me”.

HHH Motorhead Live entrance is pretty awesome.

JR brings up that Taker is 8-0 at Mania at this point. Probably the earliest mention of the Streak, other than a 4-0 mention at Mania XI.

This match had no waiting out period. Taker and HHH are just beating the hell out of each other right away. Well, Taker is at least.

It only takes about five minutes, but we have a sledgehammer!

The referee is bumped and Taker gets a chokeslam…but the ref only makes a 2 count. Taker then beats up the ref…and the brawl all over the arena is on!

They end up fighting in the tech/computer area, which is something you don’t see every day. It leads to some awesome visuals, especially when HHH hits Taker with the chair. It feels like a real fight with spectators surrounding them.

Speaking of cool visuals, Taker chokeslams HHH off the tech area, which is like a 10 foot drop (although a replay shows the soft landing for HHH). It looked like Taker dropped HHH off the face of the earth. The moment HHH is up in Taker’s grasp is awesome. Taker comes flying off with an elbow drop for good measure!

We get a Tombstone, which had just become special…but the ref is still gone (way for there to be no 2nd ref!)

In perhaps the forgotten great near Streak-stopper, Taker lifts HHH for the Last Ride, but HHH brings the sledgehammer with him and just whacks Taker in the head with it. I was amazed when I was younger that didn’t finish it.

Undertaker pins HHH in 18:57. HHH makes the mistake of corner punching Taker, as that leads to the Last Ride and 9-0. Just a great knock down drag out brawl. Easily the best Undertaker match of the early American Bad Ass era, at least until Mania X8.

We still have the main event left!

Of course, the promo video for this may be the best over. (Limp Bizkit’s “My Way”).

Austin gets a huge pop and The Rock gets booed for the 1st time as a top babyface…although it wouldn’t be the last time.

Again, no wait period! Austin and Rock tear right into one another!

Kind of a funny moment, but Rock is on the announce table trying to get back to his feet, and the table just falls apart.

In all seriousness, this is an amazing brawl.

Rock explodes out of the corner and nails Austin with a clothesline and the crowd boos the shit out of him. It’s Austin’s crowd in his home state!

There’s something brilliant about having a bloodied Austin trapped in a Sharpshooter at Wrestlemania.

Another amazing idea: Austin busting out the Million Dollar Dream! And JR explains why it’s a big deal!

Here comes Vince!

Rock gets the People’s Elbow, but Vince pulls the Rock off. Some fans boo, realizing what’s about to happen.

It becomes official once Austin asks McMahon for a chair.

Stone Cold wins the title by pin in 28:07. In another genius finish, The Rock, who was getting booed out of the building earlier, gets some big cheers as he survives Austin’s onslaught. Austin pounds The Rock with a chair some 16 or 17 times and gets the pin. Austin and Vince shake hands, which basically marked the end of the Attitude Era and the last boom period in professional wrestling. Great great match. Arguably Austin’s last great match, although I like the Mania XIX match too.

This was the perfect match: two of the biggest wrestling stars of all time at the top of their games. It wasn’t like Hogan-Andre because Andre wasn’t in his prime. It wasn’t like Hogan-Warrior because Warrior wasn’t a sure thing and it was treated like Hogan was passing the torch. It was two guys at the very top of wrestling going toe to toe at the height of wrestling’s popularity at the WWF’s biggest event of the year.

And yet, that’s what makes the ending such a disappointment. Wrestlemania X7 is perfect with the hometown hero completing his comeback and winning the WWF Title. Instead, we got a shocking heel turn that no one wanted. No doubt, Austin was a great heel, but he was a once in a lifetime babyface. The WWF hasn’t reached the level they were at here since. The real Stone Cold was gone, as Austin devolved into a (still entertaining) comedy heel with a serious side to him. Austin wrote in his book about how he thought about just calling an audible when he saw the crowd reaction, realizing that Stone Cold still had the potential to be an elite top face. The finish also showed stubbornness, as Vince had to know he had to change plans after acquiring WCW.

Look, if you have any issues with this show, pro wrestling is not for you. I once thought Wrestlemania XX was the superior show, but really, it’s not. This is perfection, sans the ending. It’ll have to go with 99.9% then.

Hands down, the greatest professional wrestling PPV ever.

Final Grade: A+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Summerslam 2000

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Summerslam ‘00
August 27, 2000
Raleigh, NC
Reviewed on August 1, 2014

Could the WWF survive without Stone Cold Steve Austin?

The answer was clearly yes. The Rock and Triple H carried the main events while newcomers like Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit were all on their way to becoming stars. Add in a fresh Undertaker and you were still very strong up top. Ratings had survived Austin’s departure just fine with consistent low 6s and high 5s each week. It may have not been quite the Attitude Era, but people were still watching.

Interestingly though, the WWF Attitude product was different by this time. There were still your Attitude gimmicks…but it wasn’t AS much as 1999. Instead, you got top notch wrestling from Jericho, Benoit, Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Edge and Christian, The Hardyz and Dudleyz. Even guys like Tazz, while not a big a draw as he hoped to be, was an improvement in opening matches than the Blue Meanie.

Of course, there is a small debate that this style led to ratings falling off at the end of 2000 (I think the real reason is “I did it for da Rock” and that disappointment), but for now, it was full steam ahead. As a bonus, WCW was practically dead at this point quality rise. I had reviewed New Blood Rising and it would only get worse with Halloween Havoc a couple of months later.

So, Summerslam 2000!

The Card

Interesting intro promo for Summerslam, going with the love triangle of Angle-HHH and Stephanie, playing Ode to Joy, which coincidentally was HHH’s old theme.

I also think a lot of the visuals were in Christian’s future titantron (white masks in opera).

Right to Censor vs. Rikishi and Too Cool

Right to Censor is one of the greatest midcard acts in wrestling history. Perfect heel group for this era.

The Rikishi heel turn sadly killed Too Cool…although Christopher would have done that in 2001 anyway.

Victoria actually debuted as a Godfather ho at this time, then joined Rikishi and Too Cool when he turned into the Goodfather.

Goodfather actually shoves Victoria and ho #2 down. “Save the hos” chant. Good heat.

For those who think the RTC killed the Godfather and later Val Venis, I think the WWF going public killed that.

Right to Censor defeats Too Cool and Rikishi in 5:12 when Richards pinned Scotty. Scotty goes for a WORM that will obviously be countered somehow as Buchanan is in the middle of the ring and Scotty doesn’t have room to do it. Richards Steven Kicks him and that’s that. Match wasn’t much, but the crowd was hot for the whole thing as Too Cool and Rikishi were over as hell, and so was RTC.

We get a history of the Kurt-Steph-HHH triangle…and Kurt kissed Steph on Smackdown, which added a whole new element.

Hardcore Champ Shane McMahon! Steve Blackman finds him. Although I am not a big Shane fan, this is my favorite feud of his.

Road Dogg vs. X-Pac

People stopped caring about the rest of DX after King of the Ring 2000. Road Dogg and X-Pac kept going, but eventually had problems and this led to a “friendly rivalry”. Considering Road Dogg was rapping with K-Kwik a few months later and X-Pac was nowhere to be seen (due to injury to be fair) that should tell you how this went.

Road Dogg kicks X-Pac in the ass and he sells it as way stronger than it was and goes flying out of the ring. Looked funny I guess.

To me since I just watched Mania XI, this feels like a culmination of a five year storyline (the Kid vs. Roadie stuff after the IC title match).

To be clear, no one cares about this. DX died with the McMahon-Helmsley Era. I think it always hurt, especially Road Dogg, that Billy Gunn got injured as the Outlaws were still a big deal earlier in the year.

X-Pac pins Road Dogg in 4:42. Low blow from X-Pac and X Factor for the win. Pretty bad. And still no one cares. X-Pac declares it’s over, Road Dogg fakes a handshake and gets revenge. X-Pac would get to fight Jericho before he got hurt at least.

The catch here is Val can lose the title if Trish is pinned or made to submit.

The Eddie Guerrero and Chyna team seemed so random after years of HHH and Chyna. Of course, it was entertaining, probably because everything Guerrero did was. Trish laments Chyna being centerfold material and asks Val Venis who’s prettier, and Val snaps at her. I always liked this dynamic, as Test and Albert were always clearly Trish’s henchmen, while Val actually stood up to her. Not that it mattered soon.

Weird double team mistiming early on where the ref just lets Eddie do it after stopping him.

At this point if you told me Trish would be arguably the greatest WWE Women’s wrestler of all time and Chyna would be unemployed in 8 months I wouldn’t have believed you.
Chyna wins the title when she pins Trish in 7:13. Chyna gets Trish alone and press slams her for the win. Match was a surprising mess, as Guerrero seemed off with several timing issues. The booking is weird too. I’d get protecting Val if he was gonna be in the hunt, but Val joined RTC right after this. So why the tag? Why not a triple threat. I do understand Chyna needing to win as it set up Guerrero’s heel turn. Match quality wise, this card is off to a tough start, but the characters not Road Dogg and X-Pac are over and it doesn’t really matter.

It’s amazing how much better Stephanie McMahon is now than she was in 2000.

Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz

Yeah, the Tazz run didn’t last. The feud here is Tazz came back as a thug after a middle of the year injury and attacked guys like Al Snow and Rikishi. Then he attacked JR for some reason and this led to a feud with Lawler. Tazz did have one of the all time great heel lines to JR: “I’d slap you in the face, but it looks like God already did it”, a reference to his balls palsy. Tazz looked pretty bad ass in this build up, too bad it’s being wasted on Lawler. On Smackdown Tazz smashed in the window on Lawler’s rental car, with JR in it (blinding him).

Tazz comes out with a cowboy hat acting blind, which is pretty funny.

Lawler dominates the first part of the match. Well then.

Tazz takes over, but it’s nothing exciting at all.

Tazz with a missed senton bomb, which is odd considering I’d never seen Tazz do that and his neck was always an injury concern.

Tazz no sells the piledriver! How ECW of him!

Jerry Lawler pins Tazz in 4:24. Tazz chokes Lawler out with the Tazmission, but the ref was knocked down. Tazz calls out JR while choking out Lawler…so JR gets a glass jar of candy and smashes it over Tazz’s head. Lawler gets the pin to a big pop. Good moment, but if Tazz wasn’t dead before he was as good as dead losing to Lawler. Also, another subpar match.

Shane gets interviewed…but Blackman finds him again. We head to the ring!

For those who liked the 24/7 Crash run, I always thought Blackman’s run was more entertaining.

Shane runs for his life!

Shane takes an entertaining ass kicking in a garbage can.

Lawler is disappointed that he doesn’t think Shane can tap out in a Hardcore match. Er…why not?

Jeez, a half crab, but Blackman also wraps a strap around Shane’s throat and pulls. Sick hold.

Here comes T and A to “even” the odds! This is how Shane matches should be booked.

Good midcard note you don’t see anymore. JR explaining why Test, who was left at the altar by Stephanie last year, is helping Shane (Test last saw Stephanie and was counting his blessings). You just don’t see that anymore.

They go for a drop the amp spot on Blackman, same move they took out Big Show with at Judgment Day. Blackman moves.

Blackman beats the crap out of T and A with a kendo stick, then Shane runs by climbing the titantron!

Steve Blackman wins the Hardcore Title in 10:08. Blackman chases Shane up the titantron and catches his legs with the kendo stick (also underrated, as Shane didn’t just stop to wait for Blackman). Blackman gets some shots to the back…and Shane goes flying 50 feet! Blackman climbs down a little, then drops a elbow drop from about 20 feet up! Wow. Obvious pin here. Really fun Hardcore match that could have helped rebuild the Hardcore division after 24/7. You know what amazes me? Even though fans were really into Blackman and all…he never got over from this at all. Once he stopped fighting Shane, no one cared about Blackman again. Very odd. Really fun match though.

Stephanie is distraught about Shane, and Kurt comes in with the line of the show (“I think he just got the wind knocked out of him”). They hug, but Mick Foley comes in and says that Shane might have hurt his kisser. Funny stuff.

Best Two of Three Falls
Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

Interesting feud here. So, the Judgment Day match seemed to be the blow off between these two as Jericho moved to HHH and Benoit had feuds with Rock and Rikishi. But, once those feuds ended it seemed like there was nowhere else to put these guys, so they just continued their feud. Of course, this feud was incredible and they’d have one more PPV match at Royal Rumble 2001. Then they’d be tag champs.

Jericho and Benoit take the referee out of the ring with their roll around punch sequence. Creative and unique.

STF from Benoit. Regal would be here soon so that would be the end of that.

Benoit gets the crossface 5 minutes in and Jericho taps. Normally I’d be against that, but I’ll explain at the end why I am okay with it and I think it’s actually genius.

Benoit let’s go…and goes for it again! Jericho can’t tap out this time obviously and fights it. Great psychology there all around.

Another unique submission. Benoit locks Jericho in the Tree of Woe, then goes to the outside and puts him in a Full Nelson. Jeez.

Jericho fights back and counters a German into the Liontamer, and Jericho gets the tap out, tying the match at 1-1.

Perfect powerbomb reversal from Jericho, but Benoit reverses one to pin, which Jericho bridges out of it. Perfect.

Benoit then busts out a full nelson (Dragon) suplex!

Top rope frankensteiner…but Jericho actually leaped up there! Jericho lands on the shoulder Benoit’s been working on, so he can’t make the pin right away. Still, some amazing stuff here.

Lionsault, but more Jericho shoulder stuff.

Chris Benoit defeated Chris Jericho 2-1 in 15:33. Jericho gets a roll-up, but Benoit with an awesome reversal in which he also grabs the bottom rope to win! Awesome match with awesome psychology. The commentary really put over that Jericho chose to tap in the first fall to survive, which is why I am okay with it. These last two matches have really kicked Summerslam into gear.

HHH has arrived! They replay Angle and Steph from earlier, and Lawler even thought Angle’s “wind knocked out of him” line was ridiculous.

We already know this is awesome.

Small dynamic change from Wrestlemania 2000’s Triangle Ladder Match. Edge and Christian are now cocky chicken-shit heels. The Dudleyz are faces due to powerbombing women through tables. Hardyz are exciting faces.

TLC was such a cool concept, even if the only difference is that chairs and tables are readily available (because you could use them in regular ladder matches) around the ring. WWE has a PPV named after the match now, which should say how marketable it was…it also should get credit for Money in the Bank as well.

The Hardyz are the hometown team!

Matt Hardy busts out some Sabu chair throwing.

Bubba gets his leg caught in the ladder as he’s thrown off. That coulda been a lot worse.

Bubba Bomb from the top of a ladder!

Matt Hardy gets tossed into a ladder…I don’t know how to describe it, but it also seesaws and takes out Jeff. You don’t see creative spots like that in today’s MITBs.

WASSSSSSUPPPPP!

D-VON! GET THE TABLES!

Jeff Hardy looks dead from the seesaw.

Christian gets 3Ded through the table!

Bubba begins to build his own resting place with the table structure on the outside.

Jeff’s leap over the ladder legdrop always owned.

Jeff goes for another crazy Swanton on the outside, but unlike Wrestlemania 2000…Bubba moves! Jeff’s broken on the outside.

Bubba goes flying through the 8 billion tables on the outside! Serves you right Bubba!

Lita saves the titles for the Hardyz as Edge and Christian were guaranteed to win it!

Matt Hardy gets tosses through ANOTHER table structure I didn’t notice…then Edge takes out Lita with a spear!

First ever hanging from the titles spot from D-Von and Jeff, and crowd pops huge when D-Von actually crashes to the mat.

Edge and Christian retain the title in 19:33. Once Jeff and D-Von crash, Edge and Christian are all that’s left. Somehow still the 2nd best mutli-man ladder match ever (Mania X7). All the MITB’s are great, but there’s so much creativity here and it never looks like they are just setting up spots. Also, big credit for this being the first match at this level of its kind. Absolutely incredible.

It took three days, but HHH finally confronts Steph about the kiss. Steph sells Angle down the river of course.

Stinkface Match
The Kat vs. Terri

For some reason Al Snow is with the Kat.

These two actually fought at Mania.

Oh, Snow was feuding with Perry Saturn here, who was with Terri.

I mean, the crowd loved it, so I get why it’s here. I’ll leave it at that.

The Kat wins in 3:06 Here’s a Al Snow Head shot in this, for what it’s worth. Something to bring down the crowd I guess.

APA is at the bar!

The Undertaker vs. Kane

I sense this was to be Big Show vs. Undertaker, as there is a much forgotten Big Show return and heel turn, but I guess WWE wasn’t happy with him since Taker got revenge and tossed Big Show off the stage and he was gone till the Rumble. Kane then turned heel because Taker returned “as one of them” and Kane is a MONSTER. Really the same logic that he used to bury Taker alive three years later.

This was the start of the new Kane look, the “Bret Hart look”.

Randomly this is a No DQ brawl. We never got a bell here.

Taker rips part of Kane’s mask off, which is the only thing making this match worthwhile.

Taker goes for the mask again!

Taker gets it off, and he kinda see Kane’s face! A lot bigger of a deal then. Then Kane runs for it. The bell never rang, so this isn’t an official match? Not sure why it was done this way but whatever. Not really good either, just a random brawl when we’ve seen two better ones earlier in this show. A very forced storyline.

Angle’s shot at the main event. The HHH-Steph-Angle love triangle was the main part of the feud, with the Rock kinda on the side. They got this title shot by double pinning Chris Jericho.

The love triangle was also smartly hinted at as early as December 99, when HHH and Steph would watch in the locker room and she would call Kurt cute. You don’t see things like that anymore either.

Angle on the mic tells HHH he gave his wife more passion that he ever could. I loved how Angle’s character got more confident after his feud with Undertaker in July. Of course, HHH comes down to beat the crap out of Angle.

The infamous table breaking spot happens here. HHH goes to Pedigree Angle through the table, but the table gives way too early, and Angle gets a concussion. It’s CLEAR what happens to Angle here as well, he looks totally out of it. Really scary moment in retrospect (and then too).

HHH gets the sledgehammer, but here comes the Rock!

For the record, this entire match was improvised from Rock and HHH as Angle had to be carried to the back, and while he played a part in the finish, it’s all HHH vs. Rock.

HHH actually comes down and stops the stretcher and hits Kurt with two punches. Of course they are worked, but it’s interesting they did that (although it made sense storyline wise).

Stephanie comes out to tend to Angle. Even the backstage improvising was smart.

You see Hebner say something to HHH with the camera goes away from while HHH yells at Steph to get the belt for a spot. According to some research, Hebner told HHH that he (I assume Vince) wanted Stephanie to go to the back, to film the upcoming angle.

Sledgehammer to The Rock. I guess it’s a given it’s no DQ for this too.

Backstage Stephanie begs Angle to help HHH as Rock took control. Angle says he’ll do it for her.

Here comes Angle with Steph. Angle is dazed, and I assume he’s acting now.

Angle pulls Rock’s leg as he hits the ropes, leading to a Pedigree. HHH clearly checks on Angle to see if he’s in position, then goes for the pin as Angle breaks it up.

Angle nearly stealing the title got a huge reaction as he pinned Rock after that pedigree.

Angle seems to be on point. While wrestling with a concussion is seriously dangerous, Bret Hart sadly showed it could be done at the end of 1999.

HHH accidentally punches Stephanie, then Angle takes HHH out with the hammer!

The Rock retains the title in 24:33 when he pinned HHH. Rock dumps Angle, then the People’s Elbow to the KOed HHH wins it. Considering the match was already screwed up from the start, Rock and HHH saved it and the ending was very good. In fact, they pulled it all off so well people had no idea if Kurt was really hurt until later. Angle then carries Stephanie to the back, continuing that. I will say though, especially as I’m older and I’ve learned more about concussions, that sending Angle back out there kinda scares me. That doesn’t seem like a safe decision. Also, HHH vs. Rock, while good, didn’t have the normal heat it had earlier in year as Angle vs. HHH was the main story here (and a hot one at that) and Rock was just a part of this one. This is especially apparent as the crowd doesn’t buy too much until Angle returns.

The WWF PPVs of 2000 are…pretty awesome it seems. Summerslam was another excellent show with Beniot vs. Jericho, TLC, the main event and Blackman vs. Shane. Historically it put Kurt Angle in his first PPV main event and he somehow shined despite getting legit hurt and not being in 90% of it. TLC also debuted here and is part of WWE today. Once Austin came back booking did get a bit jumbled (as this whole Angle-HHH thing was leading to a HHH face turn which died when he became Rikishi’s accomplice), although that jumbling seemed apparent with Benoit, Kane, Taker and Jericho anyway.

Can’t give it a solid A as there was some stuff here that was meh (Lawler-Tazz, Kat-Terri, Road Dogg-X-Pac) and the main did have some small issues. But it’s still a great show.

Final Grade: A-

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