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| RDT PPV Reviews | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 25 2014, 01:46 AM (5,513 Views) | |
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May 20 2014, 01:33 AM Post #76 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WWE Unforgiven 2005 September 18, 2005 Oklahoma City, OK The Batista-John Cena era was well underway in WWE. For the past two years John Cena was slated to be the future, but something happened once he got there. After disposing of JBL, Cena went up against several internet favorites and the cheers went away. Cena was soon booed in arenas all over the world…and he NEVER got passed that. It began with Christian and Chris Jericho. Today it’s Daniel Bryan. The point is, John Cena became the machine’s champion. And the fans forever resented him for it. Unforgiven is the start of a serious push for some guys that to be fair probably didn’t deserve it. Most notably in this case is Chris Masters. While Masters became a solid hand later, he was clearly not ready for this spot. Another point of interest of this card is the Matt Hardy-Edge cage match that spawned from the real life Hardy-Edge-Lita feud. One of the first instances of what was later called the Reality Era was shown here. The Card Intercontinental Championship Carlito© vs. Ric Flair This was the period where HHH was gone after Batista destroyed him, and Flair was on his own. Flair became a face as a result. Pretty slow start with a lot of strutting and wooing. Ha, awesome spot where Flair actually hits a move off the top rope instead of being slammed off. Ric Flair wins the title by submission in 11:46. Carlito goes to spit the apple in Flair’s face, but Flair punches him causing Carlito to choke. Figure Four and Carlito taps. I thought it started pretty boringly, but the finish was pretty good and the crowd was very into it. Postmatch promo with Flair setting up the future Flair-HHH feud. Lita and Edge were such awesome heels. Torrie Wilson and Victoria vs. Trish Stratus and Ashley The hell if I know what this feud is about. Apparently Trish was injured since April and is just coming back now. I remember her being a bitch heel before that, so I guess it’s one of those babyface comebacks. Victoria and Trish start. Those two always had good chemistry. Trish and Ashley win when Trish pinned Victoria in 7:07. Chick Kick for the win. This wasn’t too bad actually! Mostly Trish vs. Victoria which is what was needed…since Torrie can’t wrestle and Ashley kinda can’t either. Flair taking a bunch of lady fans to his limo. Flair is hilarious. Big Show vs. Snitsky Oh man this might be awful. Sick back suplex by Snitsky on the Show! Big Show pins Snitsky in 6:11. Chokeslam for the win. Actually…not bad! I’m shocked. It was short and to the point, and there was some good power wrestling there. That back suplex was awesome. Haha, more Flair stuff. There’s a lot of HBK vs. Chris Masters hype…even though the match isn’t coming up yet. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kerwin White Oh man Kerwin White. Shelton Benjamin pinned Kerwin White in 8:06. White tries to hit Benjamin with the golf club…but Benjamin counters with the T-Bone for the win. Match was surprisingly dull. Not sure what was missing. I guess it wasn’t bad though. Steel Cage Match Matt Hardy vs. Edge Story here: Where do I start? In real life Adam Copeland slept with Amy Dumas, who was Matt Hardy’s girlfriend. This led to Matt Hardy legit getting fired, but the crowd wanted him back. Crowd chanted “We Want Matt” everywhere. They brought him back and it was a huge deal all around. Edge and Matt had a lame Summerslam match though that ended via ref stoppage. Oddly, there was a shoehorned Kane storyline in this too, since Kane storyline wise was married to Lita. That got forgotten here. Action packed start. Edge tries to escape quickly, but Matt lets him know this is gonna be a long one. Powerbomb from the top leading to a ten count with both men down. Come on, it’s a Cage match, let’s not have that crap in here. Crowd really gets behind Matt as he traps Edge in the ropes (as Edge trapped him at Summerslam) and punches away. Side Effect off the top! Lita brings a chair into the ring…and then breaks up the pin! Twist of Fate to Lita! Spear by Edge! Matt Hardy won’t die though. Matt Hardy pins Edge in 21:05. Yodel Legdrop from the top of the cage ends Edge! Great match here. You really felt Matt Hardy hated both Edge and Lita here. Surprisingly, this didn’t launch Matt to the main event. Instead, this was perhaps his career peak. Still, a great match is a great match. Bischoff-Cena confrontation. This came off as a poor man’s Austin-McMahon. World Tag Team Championship The Hurricane and Rosey© vs. Cade and Murdoch Hurricane and Rosey were one of the least cared about Tag Champs ever. WHATSUPWITTHAT? Sick DDT from Murdoch on Hurricane where Hurricane was laying on the apron and Murdoch standing on the outside. Hurricane is dead. Basically a handicap match now. Murdoch and Cade win the title when Murdoch pinned Hurricane in 7:40. Hurricane staggers back and makes the tag, but he is still woozy and Cade and Murdoch hit a double team clothesline move for the win. Interesting story of the match with Hurricane, but match overall was pretty bad. The tag division overall at the time was really weak. A girl comes out of Flair’s limo with only Flair’s robe on. Flair is hilarious. Maria interviews Chris Masters. Maria asks him why he is called the Masterbate. No idea we had dumb Maria at this time. What an awesome character that was. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Masters Story here: Masters says HBK is a fossil and it’s time for new blood. HBK said that “Greenhorn”, people need to know their spot in the pecking order and Masters isn’t at the top yet. Masters gets an early Masterlock but HBK manages to escape. Torture Rack from Masters! Michaels counters a Masterlock by jumping over the top rope, which was awesome. Shawn Michaels pins Chris Masters in 17:27. HBK gets caught come off the top. Masters catches him and turns it into a near Masterlock, but HBK counters and hits Sweet Chin for the win. Wow, Chris Masters looked great here. It had to be HBK, since Masters didn’t remotely do anything before or after this match quality wise. HBK just knows how to wrestle bigger opponents. Very good match. WWE World Championship John Cena© vs. Kurt Angle This match seems structured as Cena being the underdog and Angle being the big match experienced favorite. This has been a good back and forth match. Ref bump, and Cena gets the FU for zero! Angle comes back with the Ankle Lock and Bischoff taunts him. Kurt Angle wins by DQ in 17:17. Cena takes the WWE title belt and nails Angle…and the ref sees it! Seriously? That’s the PPV finish? A good match ruined by its ending. It’s endings like this that led to people not purchasing the B-tier PPVs anymore. Angle and Cena brawl some more afterwards. Unforgiven 05 is a weird show as nothing was really bad on this show and there was some greatness…but none of it really mattered at all. Chris Masters? Midcarder a year later and unemployed the year after that. Matt Hardy? Ranged from upper midcard to midcard hell for a while until his brother overshadowed him again. He never got over the break-up with Lita. The finish to Angle-Cena just extended the storyline. I barely remember the rest of the show and I just watched it. A good effort for all involved. For the great match and no bad matches this was in B territory…but you can’t have your main event end like that. Final Grade: C+ |
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| Baldwin | May 20 2014, 01:56 AM Post #77 |
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6x EBL Champion
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ECW Living Dangerously 1999 |
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May 20 2014, 02:14 AM Post #78 |
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Tyler
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No classic ECW requests, I'm doing those in order. |
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| JerryArr | May 22 2014, 07:26 PM Post #79 |
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Vancouver Suns GM
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King of the Ring 1998 |
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May 26 2014, 01:13 AM Post #80 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WCW Wrestlewar ‘92 May 17, 1992 Jacksonville, FL We are now in a post Ric Flair, post Lex Luger and I believe a post Jim Herd WCW. With losing Luger and Flair, WCW was down to one main eventer (Sting), but a lot of potential.Rick Rude had come in and the Dangerous Alliance storyline was a big deal. As all big stable angles end up going, Wrestlewar would feature the War Games. 1992 was an interesting year for WCW as a lot of the pieces seen on this show would end up never truly making it and getting ousted in one way or another by 1995. Also, perhaps with the exceptions of Rick Rude, Ricky Steamboat and Arn Anderson, it’s clear that Sting was in a different class than everyone else in WCW at the time. WCW was still ways away from challenging the WWF to anything resembling a rivalry, but at least they had gotten past the worst of the Jim Herd era. The Card WCW US Tag Team Championship The Taylor Made Man and Greg Valentine© vs. The Freebirds Terry Taylor as the Taylor Made Man just looks awful. I don’t think these titles had any real value at this point. I often wonder how Greg Valentine ended up with such gimmicky teammates. Honky Tonk Man and Taylor are two examples. The Freebirds as faces here is also a bit strange to me. The crowd is very into the Freebirds though. The Freebirds win the title when Jimmy Garvin pins Taylor in 16:02. Garvin sets Taylor up for the DDT and backdrops Valentine while keeping the head locked. Hayes holds Valentine back and Garvin gets the DDT and the win. Good finish to an otherwise boring tag match. Fans popped big. Johnny B. Badd vs. Tracy Smothers The story revolves around Johnny B. Badd’s boxing history and the use of a closed fist. Nice twisting bodyblock from the top from Smothers, but the Badd rollover counters is botched a bit, but it’s passable. I never pictures Smothers as a high flying guy. Nice top rope sunset flip by Badd! Johnny B. Badd pins Tracy Smothers in 7:03. Left hook gets the win, which was predictable due to the commentary. A lot better than I expected, considering I expected nothing. Wasn’t too bad at all. Missy Hyatt interviews the Freebirds! Obviously they are happy. Scotty Flamingo vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell Raven vs. Buff Bagwell here. How strange. Quite the bitchslapping contest here. Pretty bad back suplex from Flamingo, although I think Bagwell didn’t go up for the move. There’s a double over the top sequence that the commentators wonder on whose fault it was. I guess we were in the Bill Watts era? Seems too early though. Scotty Flamingo pins Marcus Bagwell in 7:11. Bagwell rolls Flamingo over, but Flamingo counters and holds the tights for three. Nothing to say here really. Both guys were still young…and Flamingo would get better. Pretty subpar first fifth minutes to the PPV though. Junkyard Dog and Ron Simmons vs. Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack Story here: Abdullah the Butcher and Cactus Jack beat up Simmons, and JYD made the save. No idea why Hughes is Jack’s partner. Jack attacks JYD on the outside…and Jack drops the big elbow off the ramp on JYD! Simmons takes out Jack on the ramp. Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack has to be up there with oddest tag teams ever. Simmons helps JYD to the back, but then comes out and cleans house. This is now Hughes vs. Simmons. Ron Simmons pinned Mr. Hughes in 5:22. Big Spinebuster, then Simmons attacks the interfering Jack. Simmons hits a chop block for the win. You know what…not bad! This should have been horrible, but Hughes’ offense was okay and Simmons showed off some damn good power slamming around the 400 pound Hughes. Cactus Jack being around is a good bonus too. Probably the best Mr. Hughes match I’ve ever seen (not really saying much there). No surprise this launched a Simmons push. Todd Champion vs. Super Invader Super Invader is Hercules I believe. Hercules sucks, so I think that’s a bad sign for this match. This match has sucked, but Champion does take a surprisingly good bump to the outside into the guardrail. Champion’s offense is terrible. Invader pins Champion in 5:26. Powerbomb wins it. Pretty bad. Champion can’t really hit clotheslines correctly. Invader’s offense is a bunch of punches and headlocks with the occasional move like a backbreaker (just like Hercules). Squash here. Funny enough, I felt like this match would have been on a 1993 RAW with Champion being the babyface Vince would push. Whatever. This didn’t belong on PPV. Big Josh vs. Richard Morton For some reason Ricky Morton goes by Richard here. Of course, Big Josh is the future Doink the Clown. The story is Josh’s power vs. Morton’s er…flying ability? Also, how disgusting Josh is. Like he’s a Godwinn before the Godwinns were a thing. Big Josh pinned Morton in 7:33. Josh hits a flying butt drop (I like how he used the Whoopie Cushion before he was Doink) for the win. Really boring match. Sorry, but no one has ever cared about the Rock’N’Roll Express when they were in singles matches. A very basic back and forth match. WCW Lightheavyweight Championship Flyin Brian Pillman© vs. The Z-Man Tom Zenk Story here: Former partners. Pillman thinks Zenk didn’t have any gratitude for Pillman helping him out recently. Zenk says Pillman is arrogant, sticking his nose into things that don’t involve him. Zenk gets scared by his own pyro. Great start there. This is an example of a really good back and forth match. First match with any type of psychology as well, with Pillman working the leg, and Zenk working the back. I’ve already see two figure fours now in this match. I wonder how many were done when Flair was around. Pretty awesome counter to the over the top rope dive by Pillman when Zenk seamlessly slammed him out of it. Awesome selling of the crossbody from Pillman there. Pancake from Zenk and Pillman goes sky high for it! Brian Pillman retains by pin in 15:30. Pillman goes to the top but eats a superkick on the way down! Zenk gets two on the cover, as Pillman got his foot on the ropes. Zenk comes off the top with a dropkick but Pillman sidesteps then folds Zenk up in a jackknife pin for the win. Pretty good match here. It built up to the frantic climax and had a good ending. #1 Contender to the IWGP Tag Team Championship The Steiner Bros. vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka Steiners are the WCW World Tag Team Champions…I wish this was just for those belts. I wonder if people back in 1992 really cared about the Japanese titles. It bothers me that the Steiners would go for other tag belts. They are the World champions! Who cares about the other belts! Fujinami has some WCW cred though, as he had that WCW Title/NWA Title deal with Flair in 91. Nice elbow off the top from Rick in Iizuka when Scott had him in the rack. Rick just dropped Fujinami on his head with a German suplex. Ouch. Fujinami has Rick in the Doomsday Device setup, but Rick actually catches Iizuka and slams him when he comes off the top. Never seen anything like that. I do think Rick’s knee landed on Iizuka’s face though. Man Scott Steiner just no sells a legdrop when he was on his knees. Steiners have dominated and it seems obvious to me that they aren’t being professional with Fujinami and Iizuka. Really awesome counters by Scott Steiner of a double wristlock. I really can’t explain what he did though. The Steiners win when Rick pins Iizuki in 18:05. Belly to belly off the top for the win. Someone is going to have to convince me that the Steiners didn’t purposely bury Fujinami and Iizuki here. The Steiners had 75% of the match, won in convincing fashion and there was some no selling from both Rick and Scott, and there was definitely some stiff takedowns from both Steiners. NOTE: I did some research, and apparently the PWTorch had an article written about his match. Spoilered for length. PWTorch Article About Steiners vs. Fujinami and Iizuka Fuck the Steiners. The more old stuff I watch of them the more I hate them. War Games Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham and Ricky Steamboat) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko) Sometimes it’s easy to forget Paul Heyman did stuff before ECW. Austin and Windham start. I believe Windham won the TV title from Austin recently, so there is history here. Nice DDT from Windham to Austin. Austin’s busted open 4 minutes in. Good opening period from Windham and Austin. Heels win the coin toss, and they waste no time. In comes Rick Rude! Ricky Steamboat is the Squadron’s choice! There is history between Steamboat and Rude too! Steamboat is owning everyone. Alliance sends in Arn Anderson. A lot of great workers in that ring right now. Massive spinebuster to Steamboat. Wow. Steamboat gets thrown over BOTH top ropes into the other ring. What a bump. Dustin Rhodes is in! Larry Z is in, and Dustin beats the hell out of him! Madusa climbs to the top of the cage and drops the cell phone (huge at the time) into the ring for Anderson, who uses it as a weapon. Sting goes up there to chase her away! Huge pop! Here comes Sting! Sting kicks all kinds of ass of course. Sting just backdrops Austin into the cage! Austin hit hard! Austin with a great clothesline that Windham sells like a million bucks. Wow! Bobby Eaton is the last member of the Alliance in. Larry Z messes with the turnbuckle. Koloff is in! Match beyond begins! Koloff and Sting had their issues in the past, but Koloff shows his allegiance by saving Sting from an attack and then they hug! We have a rope torn down! Sting’s Squadron wins when Sting makes Eaton submit in 23:27. Larry Z gets a metal hook from the broken ring rope. Eaton holds Sting, but Sting moves and Larry smacks Eaton on the arm with the hook. Sting takes out Larry, then puts Eaton in an arm bar for the submission. Post match the Alliance bitches out Larry Z for the screw-up. So, wow. What a match. Nonstop action for 24 minutes. Literally. It doesn’t stop starting from Austin vs. Windham all the way until the submission. Just wow. I am blown away here. Also, I think it’s something that Paul E. sucks chants were the biggest for any heel in 1992. Heyman owns. I was wondering what the big deal was all the way until the main event, and I got it. This is basically a two match show, unless you think the Steiners match was good (which I don’t). War Games was awesome and Pillman vs. Zenk was solid. The rest? I mean nothing was mindblowningly bad, but it all ranged from boring to average at best (except Invader vs. Champion, that sucked). It makes sense though, all the workrate was in the Lightheavyweight title match and the main. Funny enough, this card reminds me of Great American Bash 2004. One big bloody brawl. One good lightheavyweight/cruiserweight match. And a lot of disappointing crap. I’d say this is the much better version of that though. Maybe if there was some historic stuff here I’d give it a higher grade, but the only man who really did anything of note regarding their match here was Sting. Austin would be gone in three years. Rhodes in and out. Rude retired soon. Steamboat hung around but also retired soon. Windham probably peaked here. Etc. etc. Final Grade: B- |
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May 27 2014, 12:17 AM Post #81 |
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POON SQUAD
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Since I just watched it on my chronological viewing of WCW history....Starrcade 88 |
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| Mofoticon | May 27 2014, 12:27 AM Post #82 |
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EBL Commissioner
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Summerslam 2010 |
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Jun 7 2014, 02:15 AM Post #83 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WWF King of the Ring ‘98 June 28, 1998 Pittsburgh, PA We are in the Attitude Era! The WWF had just taken over the Monday Night ratings War…but it was still a dogfight. The WWF was pushing new guys, and that fresh edge was helping over the same old on Nitro. Only The Undertaker was held over from the top of the card. Stone Cold, Kane, The Rock, Triple H, Ken Shamrock and Mick Foley were all guys getting their chance at the top or near the top. The thing about the Attitude Era is that it was riveting television. Anything could happen at any time on any given Monday. As long as the card was headlined by Stone Cold in some way, it didn’t really matter what the rest looked like (as this card will show). Honestly, how many people can even name a match that wasn’t one of the three big matches on this show? (Some even forget about Shamrock vs. Rock). Let’s watch some classic WWF Attitude! The Card There’s an awesome opening video hyping up the Austin vs. Kane and Taker vs. Mankind matches. The Headbangers and TAKA Michinoku vs. Ka ent ai I was always surprise that the Headbangers somehow got lost in the shuffle in the Attitude Era…since they seemed tailor made for it. This was part of the long running Taka and random vs. Ka ent ai. Most notably teaming with Taka later was Bradshaw. Ka ent ai is Togo, Funaki and Teioh. I think it’s interesting that of the six men in this match, it was Funaki who had the longest WWF/E career. While I think Taka is a good wrestler, all of his pre-1999 WWF matches followed the SAME exact formula. Togo and Funaki with a great facebuster-bulldog sequence. Taka and the Headbangers win when Taka pins Funaki in 6:44. Michinoku Driver for the win. Short fun opener here. Good thing to get the crowd going. Sable time! She introduces Vince! This was part of the Vince re-hired Sable angle after Marc Mero beat her. Pat Patterson slaps Sable’s ass, which JR of course makes a subtle gay joke. It’s also pretty funny now that I know Patterson’s orientation. Vince runs down Austin on the mic of course. Time waster here. King of the Ring Semi-Final Ken Shamrock vs. Jeff Jarrett This easily could have been an early NWA-TNA World Title feud. I’m a Jeff Jarrett fan, but the mid 90s Double J persona was waaaaaay dated here. He’d change gimmicks by Summerslam. “Ain’t I Great?” Not really at this point Jeff. Ken Shamrock advances via submission in 5:29. Shamrock hits his bad ass frankensteiner, then the Ankle Lock wins it. No surprise. Match was what it was: Jarrett putting Shamrock over. King of the Ring Semi-Final Dan Severn vs. The Rock It was smart to have Shamrock winning 1st, as at least it’s somewhat believable Severn can win here. Severn’s WWF legacy would be causing D’Lo Brown to wear a chest protector. Severn doesn’t throw punches. Pretty much the opposite of the Attitude Era style. The Rock advances via pin in 4:25. D’Lo with the Lo-Down…new chest protector and all! Rock gets the pin. Match sucked. Severn was about 15 years too late as a top bad guy. He might have been a real life bad ass, but he was an awful sports entertainer. Rock cuts a solid promo and was well on his way to being a top guy. If Al Snow wins, he gets a meeting with Vince McMahon Al Snow and Head vs. Too Much Head is a mannequin head, in case anyone doesn’t know. Al Snow had just returned with the Head gimmick after developing it in ECW. If you were to tell me Too Much would be WWF World Tag Team Champions as a kid watching in 1998, and that they’d win the titles two years later, I’d laugh my ass off. There is a story here. Al Snow was trying to get a job, and somehow that led to stealing Jerry Lawler’s crown. Apparently Lawler can get Snow a meeting with Vince. Snow: “Boys, get ready, you’re about to get a little head like you’ve never gotten it before”. WWE Attitude folks! Lawler is revealed as ref! Al Snow alternates beating up Scott Taylor and talking to Head. Good stuff. Of course Lawler blatantly cheats. Al Snow with a ridiculous long running clothesline on the outside…then Scott Taylor “hits” a springboard chop? Ugly. JR can’t even take the match seriously. Tag to the Head! JR even justifies Lawler not counting a Snow pinfall because Head was legal. Too Much wins when Brian Christopher pins Head in 8:26. Oh man. Snow hits the Snowplow on Taylor, but Christopher attaches a bottle of Head and Shoulders to Head and pins it for the win. Ok the match was awful as you’d expect, but let me say something about this. This match is a great example of why WWF ’98 worked and WCW 2000 didn’t. This match furthered Al Snow’s character. As silly as this all was, storywise this actually made sense. Now, that’s not saying this should have been on PPV, because this is a RAW match if I ever saw one, but there is something positive to gain from it. Owen Hart vs. X-Pac Rematch of the ’94 KOTR here. Sad storyline decent for Owen here. We went from shoving HBK through a table, to jobbing to HHH a lot, to fighting X-Pac. Clearly Owen wasn’t getting the main event push. What a 12 months before this for Owen. He was feuding with Austin at one point. I didn’t watch a lot of Syxx in WCW, but this I believe is the debut of the mat wrestling X-Pac. This was because of his broken neck he suffered at the end of his WCW run. Owen’s gimmick was that of a guy who was done being taken advantaged of and was done being a nice guy. This just didn’t work for Owen. He was a lot better as the whiny heel. Terrible Bronco Buster there. I wonder if Own purposely didn’t want X-Pac’s nuts in his face. Owen with a terrible fall off the top, clearly messed that up. X-Pac pins Owen Hart in 8:30. Mark Henry comes out and splashes X-Pac…to which Vader (talk about someone who’s really fallen from 12 months prior) attacks him. Owen locks X-Pac in the sharpshooter, but Chyna takes him out with a DDT (and busts Owen’s nose, wonder if that was a botch). X-Pac wins it there. Okay match, surprising small screw-ups near the end with the Bronco Buster and Owen’s top rope fall. Paul Bearer comes out. He cuts an awesome promo about how proud he will be of his son Kane when he wins the World Title, and how Kane always wanted to be The Undertaker when he was young. WWF World Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws © vs. The New Midnight Express Dirty little secret: the WWF Tag Team division absolutely blew in the early Attitude Era. Outside of the Outlaws, the division as made up of the Express, the underused Headbangers, the Godwinns/Southern Justice, the DOA and a washed-up LOD. That’s why the following makes up the list of non Outlaw champs: Kane and Mankind, Taker and Kane and Bossman and Shamrock. The division wouldn’t really pick up to mid-99, then of course in 2000. One interesting storyline here: The Smokin’ Gunns are on opposite sides. This was Bob Holly’s first repackaging. Could have been worse I guess. Pretty awesome landing on the feet from Bart on a Billy hip toss. Road Dogg is your Outlaw in peril. Cornette gets involved with the NWA Tag Title, but Billy survives a pin attempt. Cornette famously ranted about this. Cornette threatened to hit Billy with the title belt again, but Billy cornered him. Chyna was on the wrong side of the ring and was supposed to low blow Cornette…and she takes forever doing it, leaving Billy Gunn standing there. New Age Outalws retain when Gunn pinned Holly in 9:34. A double stun gun gets the pin (what an awful finish). Not a bad match, but I mean, there’s a huge difference in statue for the Outlaws and the New Express, even at this stage. Match was solid. King of the Ring Finals The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock HHH, last year’s winner, comes out for commentary. There is a story here. Shamrock had chased Rock’s IC title for the first half of the year, but kept coming up short. Rock-HHH get into a shoving match on the outside, as they were feuding. Good touch there. The commentary is pretty distracting with HHH making dick jokes every 20 seconds. Shamrock clearly leaps into a powerslam, but impressive enough I guess… Nice reversal of the Floatover DDT into a Northern Lights suplex from Shamrock! Ken Shamrock becomes King of the Ring via submission in 14:09. Rock argues with the ref and gets rolled into the Ankle Lock for the win. Very good match, probably the best of the Rock’s career at that point. Of course, hindsight being 20/20…I’m sure Vince wishes Rock won this tournament now. By the way, HHH’s commentary was horrible and annoying. I get that was the character, but it was just unnecessary. Hell in a Cell The Undertaker vs. Mankind Story here: Where do I begin? Probably the first real Attitude feud that really began in 1996. Undertaker vs. Mankind was an amazing feud and that only added to the intrigue here. For recent storyline, Mankind cost Taker a title shot against Austin. On the real life advice of Terry Funk, the match begins on top of the cage. Mankind’s climb to the top of the cage does have some comedic value. Foley himself mentions how he wasn’t even sure if he’d make it to the top, and he lost feeling in his hand to get up there. You can see Taker limp down to the ring when he goes down the rampway…he had a broken foot here (and still climbs the cell better than Foley). Taker’s gimmick was getting a lot darker at this point. He had also shown some signs of the 2000 American Bad Ass as well. Three minutes in…and Taker throws Foley off the cell through the table! It’s still one of the damnest spots I’d ever seen, especially since it was so sudden. There was absolutely no build-up. One second Foley was punching Taker. The next he’s flying off the cell. Kayfabe is broken everywhere by Funk and Vince. The crowd reaction is pretty nuts too. He literally hear people screaming in horror as Foley flies off. Undertaker looks pretty damn bad ass standing on top of the cell. Foley gets up and comes back…also one of the damnest things ever in wrestling. 30 seconds later Taker chokeslams Foley and the ceiling caves in…and Foley slams hard, and I mean hard on the canvas. I still cringe when I see that. Somehow the match continues. Taker chokeslams Funk, buying Foley time. The match somehow continues. Foley causes Taker to crotch the top rope when Taker tries Old School, which in reality was Taker trying to buy Foley more time. Ha, Taker clearly blades on camera after missing a dive and crashing headfirst into the cage. Piledriver on a chair by Foley! Somehow Mankind might win this thing! Thumbtack time! Unfortunately Foley’s the one who goes back first into them after a Mandible Claw attempt. Undertaker pins Mankind in 17:00. Foley gets sent into the tacks again with a chokeslam! Tombstone wins it for Undertaker. Ok, there are two trains of thoughts with this match generally: it’s one of the greatest matches in WWE history, or it’s the most overrated match in WWE history. I’m in one of the greatest ever camp (2nd best HIAC match behind the original). This is because the brutality of the match matched the rivalry. If Undertaker had done this to HHH or something, I’d be like wtf? But Mankind and Undertaker had already done everything to one another over the past two years. Even though it wasn’t completely intentional, it made sense that something like this had to happen. This match is also one of the most influential matches in WWE history. Every huge table bump in the future really started here. And Of course, this was the major league thumbtack debut. This match also helped solidify Mankind as a main event player (although, Mr. Socko was needed to finish that process). It also was the match that made Undertaker’s heel turn a lot more effective, as a real mean streak was established. Lastly, anytime fans talk about a match for years and years after it takes place, then the match didn’t suck. Not all matches have to be artistically perfect. Amazing match. Probably in my top 10 all time. WWF World Championship: First Blood. If Kane Does Not Win the Title He Will Set Himself On Fire Stone Cold Steve Austin© vs. Kane I wish the whole Kane setting himself on fire deal wasn’t a part of this…as it made it clear Kane was winning (then again…after the Cell match it wouldn’t shock me to see Kane light himself on fire). Austin had a bad staph infection here, if you are wondering about the white elbow brace. The cage actually comes down when Kane is dominating, and raises when Austin is winning. Not sure why that was done. I don’t know if it’s because of Austin’s injury, but this brawl really isn’t that good. Ref bump in a First Blood match? Sure why not. Mankind comes down to the ring with a chair. I hate this for the record. Stunner on Foley! Stunner on Kane! Here comes the Undertaker! Kane wins the WWF Title by blood draw in 15:58. Taker aims for Mankind…but nails Austin with the chair on accident? Maybe? Austin blades on camera, and is busted wide open! Taker revives the ref (good way to do shades of grey here). Austin cleans house, but the ref finally sees the blood and awards the title to the KOed Kane. I do hate this finish, but I get why it happened this way. Match was not good though. It seemed like Austin was in slow motion here, and with his injuries he probably was. I also hate Mankind coming out here. Kinda demeans the Cell match a little…real as it was. As for Kane…well, he’d have a long title reign. 24 hours is more than most can say. Really tough show to grade. It’s known today for one match and one match only. To be fair, that match owns. Too bad the main event was all over the place. Shamrock-Rock was pretty forgotten (because in hindsight, the wrong man won) and the rest of the card, while by no means bad (except for that Too Much-Snow thing), I wouldn’t call it good. Or memorable. The New Midnight Express? Headbangers teaming with Taka? But when your PPV has one of the most talked about matches in wrestling history, the other stuff doesn’t really matter THAT much, right? Final Grade: B+ |
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Jun 7 2014, 09:06 PM Post #84 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WCW Spring Stampede ‘94 April 17, 1994 Chicago, IL An interesting era for WCW here. This is the last remnants of the old school NWA/WCW…as Hulkamania was only three months away. Ric Flair had come back to WCW last year and won the World Title at Starrcade, so Hogan vs. Flair was on the horizon. But first, a real throwback. Flair vs. Steamboat captivated audiences in the late 80s, with some hailing their matches as the greatest of all time. What could go wrong with a rematch? We seem some of the last great days of some wrestlers here (Rick Rude) as the near end of some great WCW runs (Cactus Jack, Steve Austin). But for now, this is the last of the pre-Hogan era, and it is critically acclaimed. Let’s see how it looks 20 years later. The Card This show is apparently important enough to get an on-air National Anthem. Not sure if that means anything. Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page Page was still a midcarder here. I think I’ve written enough about my dislike for Badd. DDP looks a bit heavy here. Kimberly! Woo! DDP looks like the indy version of Diesel. This actually hasn’t been that bad. It’s not particularly exciting, but it’s not horrid like I expected. Johnny B. Badd pins Page in 5:55. Top rope sunset flip for the win. Not terrible, but pretty forgettable. Matched seemed like it was 3/4ths the speed it should have been. WCW Television Championship Steven Regal© vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman and Regal have some nice exchanges early. Pillman works on the arm. A little weird as Regal has his leg bandaged and it seems like that should be the target. There actually is some history here. Last year the Hollywood Blondes were the tag champs, but Pillman got hurt and Regal subbed in for him. Austin and Regal lost the belts. This match has turned into Regal stretching Pillman for 10 minutes. Not sure why they went that route. It’s being announced that 10 minutes have expired and 5 minutes are left. I feel like the finish is obvious. Regal retains via time limit draw in 15:00. Ugh, a time limit draw. Pillman makes his last minute comeback but it doesn’t work as they go over the top rope. Regal for some reason when time was expiring went back into the ring. Horrible logic. Disappointing match considering who is involved. Regal just stretched Pillman for 12 of the 15 minutes, and it killed all the momentum. End was good until the very end. And the finish sucks. Col. Robert Parker with Bunkhouse Bunk interview. Nothing really to note here. Chicago Street Fight Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne Part of a huge de-push for Cactus…he was feuding with World Champ Vader last year. Fun brawl here reminds me of some ECW ’95 stuff. Holy shit that was a shovel shot right to Foley’s head. Foley just gets shoved off the stage and he takes a back bump. God damn. The Nasty Boys win when Sags pins Cactus in 8:58. Another sick shovel shot to Foley’s head while he lies on the concrete. Then the pin. Wow. This is 1994? This match is years ahead of its time and Foley takes a really sick bump on the floor at the end. Great brawl even if it seemed rather messy at times. Badd wants a US Title Match. Woo? WCW US Championship Stunning Steve Austin© vs. The Great Muta Er…I believe this is heel vs. heel. Sounds like a disaster. There are big Muta chants, so I’m wrong about heel vs. heel. Pretty slow to start, with Muta wearing down Austin. They are announcing the time again. Does this have a time limit? Austin with a creative jump off the middle of the middle rope. No typo there. Muta uses Austin’s own move, the stun gun. Nice. Top rope hurricanrana! Muta kicks Parker off the apron! Crowd is hot. Stunning Steve wins by DQ in 16:30. Ugh, Muta backdrops Austin over the top and gets DQed. That finish will never be any good. Crowd was just getting into this and it was picking up. Finish ruined it. Slow match that did build up. Just ugh. WCW International Championship Rick Rude© vs. Sting The International Championship was a weird title that was a spinoff of the NWA World Title I believe. It used the Big Gold Belt though, which was smartly changed to the WCW World Title when Flair unified it by beating Sting (omg spoiler). Harley Race comes out and says Vader wants the winner of this. Race attacks Sting and Sting blasts him. Here we go! Sting starts off on fire! Rude works on the back, which is ironic considering what would happen two weeks later. No idea Rude had a victory roll in his arsenal, even if it was botched a bit. Whoa Rude sells a backdrop by rotating all around. I’ve probably seen him do that before, but still. He doesn’t land on his feet though. Scorpion! It’s VADER! Sting fights them off, but Rude retakes control. Harley Race screws up the finish by forgetting his role, leaving Rude to just wait there! Sting pins Rude to win the title in 12:50. Rude goes for Rude Awakening, but Race swings a chair and Sting escapes, and Rude gets nailed. Sting gets rid of Race and wins. Decent match, although it felt a little off. I’d even say it was good. Rude would injure his back in the rematch 2 weeks later, ending his active wrestling career. Bunkhouse Match Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes Dustin Rhodes bleeds pretty early here after a piece of wood gets broken over his head. Brutal belt whipping from Bunk. Ouch. This has been a good old school brawl. Bulldog! But Dustin chases Parker away. Bunk pins Dustin in 14:11. Brass knuckles shot for the win. I think the Bulldog would have been a fine finish, but this works too. Pretty solid brawl. Vader and Rude go at it in the back. The Boss vs. Vader I must say, it took some big stones to name the Bossman the Boss and dress him up as cop. No wonder they got sued. Man Boss is over. (CLEVER!) Vader accidentally takes out Race. Boss just drops Vader on the railing. Serious strength there. Vader just backdrops Boss over the top rope. I never knew the Bossman did stuff like this. Boss one arm slams Vader off the ropes when Vader went for the Vader Bomb. Wow! DDT off the top from Boss? What?! Bossman comes off the top and Vader catches in midair and slams! What?! Vader pins The Boss in 9:58. Vadersault! Wow, this was a really good match. I had no idea that the Boss could do any of this. Postmatch shows Boss beat up Vader with a nightstick, and Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel stops him…and actually takes his gimmick away. This is because they were getting sued, of course. WCW World Championship Ric Flair© vs. Ricky Steamboat The joke here is that there’s no story here: they just looked for an excuse to have these two have a great match. Mat wrestling to start, but a vicious slap wakes the crowd up by Steamboat. A lot of the match focuses on how well each man knows the other. Good stuff. Steamboat gets a figure four on Flair! Nice! Steamboat with the most obvious counter to the figure four that I’d never seen, just using his hands to block Ric dropping the leg. Flair and Steamboat wrestle to a no-contest via double pin in 32:19. Steamboat gets several near falls, then locks in a double chickenwing, the move that won him the title in 1989. Flair counters by dropping back, so he ends up on top of Steamboat still in the hold. Both men’s shoulders are down for the count. Steamboat thinks he’s won and the crowd does too, but the commish rewards the title to Flair. Look, it’s a great match, but I’m never going to buy a draw as a finish to the main event. Maybe that worked in the 80s, but this is 1994. The Saturday Night rematch should have happened 1st, then this should have been the rematch. For the record while I do think this match is great…it does feel a little forced in terms of the rematch. It feels more like a tribute to their 1989 series and doesn’t stand on its own. What a tough PPV to judge. Positives: Several good to great matches. Innovative stuff with the Street Fight. Negatives: Every title match had a bullshit finish (Time Limit draw, over the top DQ, Race nails Rude with a chair, double pin), some matches that could have absolutely owned didn’t (Regal-Pillman). I also don’t think Flair vs. Steamboat is revolutionary or anything that would put this PPV over the top. Just a great match. This PPV had A+ potential, but way too much eh stuff brought it down big. If the main had a finish I’d be happier, but it didn’t so I’m not. It’s still pretty good overall though. Final Grade: B+ |
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Jun 21 2014, 01:15 AM Post #85 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image NWA/WCW Starrcade 1988 December 26, 1988 Norfolk, VA A high point for the NWA. The NWA had tons of talent and while not drawing as well as the WWF, they were arguably putting on a better quality of shows. Earlier in 1988 WCW put on a Clash of the Champions PPV that hurt the WWF’s Wrestlemania IV, headlined by a Sting vs. Ric Flair classic. Ric Flair was truly the man at this point. Flair and the Horsemen were the main event, and Flair was doing all he could to get Lex Luger over as a top face. At the time, Luger was a pretty solid wrestler and it worked out well, leading to the main event here. Unlike the main for Starrcade 1987 (Flair vs. Ronnie Garvin) this felt like one of the biggest matches the NWA could throw out there at the time. The NWA would continue the roll they were on through 1989 with the Flair-Steamboat series. The Card US Tag Team Championship The Fantastics © vs. Steve Williams and Kevin Sullivan The Fantastics are Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton. Williamd and Sullivan had a brighter future, even then. Apparently the Bushwackers were supposed to be in this, but Vince signed them away. Not sure if it’s supposed to be booked this way, but the champs are getting no offense in whatsoever. JR is putting over Dr. Death like a million bucks…of course. Williams and Sullivan win the title when Williams pins Fulton in 15:50. Hotshot for the win. Pretty solid hard hitting opener. Match was clear designed for Williamd and Sullivan to get over. The Midnight Express vs. The Original Midnight Express Jim Cornette’s Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton (the most popular version) against Paul E’s Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose. Kinda amazing not only how long Paul Heyman has been around, but how many different things he’s done in wrestling. The story is really a battle of managers. To be fair, this seems like the older teams comes back to take back their glory angle, but it seems quite well done here. Referee asking the crowd if the Old Express cheated was interesting. New Midnight Express wins when Lane pins Condrey in 17:46. After referee Teddy Long (playa!) determines the Originals used Paul E’s telephone as a weapon, the Express get the Goozie for the win. They get beat down afterwards. Pretty solid back and forth match, crowd was into it. The Russian Assassins vs. Junkyard Dog and Ivan Koloff If the Assassins lose their manager Paul Jones has to retire. Pretty big downgrade from earlier. The Assassins win when #1 pins Koloff in 6:47. Koloff has it won, but the #2 Assassin puts something in his mask and headbutts Koloff, leading to the win. A lot of whatever here. I don’t think the fans caught onto what happened in the finish. NWA Television Championship Mike Rotonda© vs. Rick Steiner Sullivan is locked in a cage here. This is the big blowoff to all the Varsity Club stuff. Rick Steiner could really go at this point. Dr. Death comes down and rings the bell, confusing everyone… Rick Steiner wins the title by pin in 17:59. The ref, Steiner and Rotunda are confused about the bell. Even the cage comes down and Sullivan gets on the apron. Steiner shoves Rotunda into Sullivan and gets the pin. Really fun finish and a good match here too. Rick Steiner was pretty good at one time for sure. Crowd pops huge for Steiner’s win. NWA US Championship Barry Windham © vs. Bam Bam Bigelow Bam Bam looks like a star ahead of his time here…but interestingly by 1998 he would look behind the times. Bam Bam was just coming off his first WWF stint, which had mixed results. Windham is a Horseman here. What’s weird about Bam Bam is that he doesn’t look like he ages. Always thought it was crazy how aerial Bigelow was. Seriously Barry Windham used a clawhold? Barry Windham retains by countout in 16:17. Both men end up on the outside, and Bigelow misses a charge and slams into the post, allowing Windham to get back in. Pretty good back and forth match, Windham seemed like a good workhorse back in the day. Disappointing ending though. Rick Steiner interview. Very happy about winning the TV title. Of course he is. NWA World Tag Team Championship The Road Warriors © vs. Sting and Dusty Rhodes Fans are mega into Sting here. Sting gets a dropkick to stop the Warriors from attacking early, which is smart booking. Pretty crazy dive from Sting off the top to the outside onto Animal! Dusty’s no selling comeback is pretty entertaining to watch. Dusty is the face in peril. Sting is getting a huge reaction destroying The Warriors. Sting and Dusty win by DQ in 11:20. Sting has it won, but Paul Ellering breaks up the count for the DQ. Pretty basic match and the crowd was hot. Sting stole the show and no wonder he was the future of the company. Of course, another non-finish is pretty lame. NWA World Championship – If Ric Flair is DQed he loses the title Ric Flair© vs. Lex Luger Flair gets a huge reaction. Flair knew how to make strong babyfaces look great, and this match is no exception. It’s absolutely jarring seeing Luger as this good wrestler. Leapfrogs, great agility, just a lot of stuff from Luger you didn’t remotely see seven years later. Luger amazingly no sells the Figure Four with some flexing. The story has been working on the leg, and there’s some great psychology here as Luger keeps going for slams and such, but always tending to, or even further hurting, the leg. Ric Flair retains by pin at 30:59. Luger gets on fire and totally no sells a big forearm from Flair. Big powerslam and then the Torture Rack…but the leg gives way! Flair gets the pin AND the feet on the ropes, and Flair gets the three! Great match, Luger looked like a million bucks and Flair showed he was the best in the world at the time. How the NWA didn’t ride the Luger gravy train is surprising to me, but some of that sounds like it’s on Flair since he wanted to work with Steamboat. To be fair, those are some of the best matches of all time. A very good Starrcade with a great main event. So what’s wrong with this show? Absolutely no historical significance here. This wasn’t a really important card in the development of Sting, and Luger’s career ended up with a choker label that could actually be traced to this match. I’m not sure Flair winning was a good idea…even though he was the man. Everything else? I mean Rick Steiner got development here, but nothing else really mattered in the long run. Even early on, I thought Starrcade should make of solidify stars. Despite Luger looking like a million bucks, that didn’t happen here. The first few Starrcades made Ric Flair, but Flair was already made here. Maybe I am being too hard on this aspect of the show, but does anyone really remember Starrcade 1988? Great card match quality wise though. Can’t deny that. Final Grade: B+ |
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Jun 22 2014, 03:14 AM Post #86 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WWE Summerslam 2010 August 15, 2010 Los Angeles, CA 2010 was an interesting time for WWE as they had shockingly tried something new: The Nexus. The Nexus were a string of rookies from the newly formed NXT that came in and just began destroying everything NWO style, and it was very fresh and interesting. And after some Triple H, John Cena, Batista and Randy Orton title reigns, WWE needed interesting. Also of note was that one of those rookies, Daniel Bryan, was released new the beginning of the angle when he choked out Justin Roberts with his tie. We were still too close to the Chris Benoit tragedy for anything like that to happen…although maybe it was a worked shoot the whole time? (I mean, HHH and HBK had used Crossfaces in the past). In theory, Summerslam should have made some stars within the Nexus. Did it do that? Let’s find out. The Card Intercontinental Championship Dolph Ziggler© vs. Kofi Kingston I’m not sure about the story here, but I know Dolph and Kofi wrestled each other a billion times (not an estimate) from 2009 through 2012, so I doubt this has a serious story attached to it. Kofi misses a pretty awesome looking suicide dive. What a start. I haven’t noticed since Kofi has been stale for years, but there is a difference between 2010 Kofi and 2014 Kofi. 2010 Kofi was better. Draw in 7:05. Nexus comes in and beats the crap out of both. I guess I’d rather them not do that in a title match, but it serves a good purpose I guess. We do get a Barrett promo out of it, and Barrett owned on the mic then too. Good match for 7 minutes. Team WWE needs a 7th teammate. Jericho and Edge try to convince The Miz to join the team. Miz isn’t sure Nexus should be his priority though. Diva’s Championship Alicia Fox© vs. Melina Is this the famous Fox vs. Melina match?! Yikes, Melina comes out dressed like a cross of Pocohahantas and a Las Vegas showgirl. I never got Melina as a face. And until very recently I didn’t understand how Alicia Fox had a job. Michael Cole calls Melina one of the all time greats. Yeah I’m sure. There’s some leg psychology here. That’s always fun. Melina wins the title in 5:22. Melina hits that cutter facebuster for the win. You know, it really wasn’t that bad. It was a Melina squash basically. Alicia Fox’s offense looked horrible but she was barely on offense so it didn’t matter. Melina’s scream is the worst though. Melina cries because she won the title in her hometown or something. Here come the Co-WWE Women Champs Laycool! Laycool owned has heels here. This led to the unification match at some PPV in the future. They take out Melina. The Big Show vs. CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joseph Mercury Ugh. No wonder Punk wanted to leave in a year. Punk was the main event of Summerslam 2009 and is now regulated to the joke handicap match. The story here began when Punk lost his hair to Rey. Then he got involved with Big Show, who unmasked Punk and revealed his bald head. Ha, Punk comes out with a “I broke Big Show’s hand” t-shirt (which the S.E.S. did in an angle). Punk is always great. Big Show owns Mercury and Gallows. On the Show-Punk face off, there are huge CM Punk chants. Way to be a top face Show. Big Show wins when he pins Mercury and Gallows in 6:45. Show chokeslams Mercury on Gallows for the win. Punk was pretty good and you can tell Mercury was wrestling to keep his job, but I mean, this is pretty much a waste on a Summerslam card. I forgot if this actually led to a Big Show vs. Punk match. Kane cuts a promo with a casket. He runs into WWE Champ Sheamus. A little bit about Kane here. The whole Undertaker in a vegetative state angle was pretty fucking stupid. And then it got worse when Kane blamed Rey Mysterio of all people of going it. Like I’m supposed to remotely believe that Rey Mysterio took out the Undertaker. We all knew it was gonna be Kane. Sheamus tells Kane to stay out of his way. Was Kane in his way in the first place? Miz joins the team after pointing how they begged him. WWE Championship Sheamus© vs. Randy Orton We actually did this match at the Royal Rumble in the whole Legacy implosion. In this case, Sheamus won the title at Fatal Four Way on a kinda fluke. There’s definitely improvement from the Sheamus who was in the World Title match at the Rumble and this Sheamus…but this match is still pretty boring. Sheamus counters a RKO late and Michael Cole blows the call. Nice. To be fair this match has picked up towards the end. I think Orton just turned face a few months prior…and the crowd is super hot for him. Orton wins by DQ in 18:55. Sheamus brings a chair in. When the ref tries to take the chair from him, Sheamus sends the ref out for the DQ. Awful finish. Sheamus doesn’t even get a chair shot in as Orton RKOs him on the table. So not only did Sheamus not beat Orton, he got beaten down by him. No wonder no one cared about him until he won the Rumble 16 months later. Horrible horrible ending. This is Summerslam? World Heavyweight Championship Kane© vs. Rey Mysterio Somewhere smack in the middle of this strange Kane-Undertaker vegetative state angle was Kane winning MITB and the World Title from Rey, and blaming Rey for taking out Undertaker. Did anyone buy Rey being the man to take out Undertaker? Anyone? Kane and Rey had some mask feud not that long ago either. These two have never had good chemistry in the ring. A lot of early bearhugs. Rey’s in the casket! He fights out though. Kane retains by pin in 13:32. Chokeslam for the win. Match was pretty bad. Kane just isn’t the guy for Rey to have good matches with. There was a good spot at the end where Kane put his feet up too early to counter the West Coast Pop Splash…but Rey seemed to improvise and counter that instead of looking like an idiot. Kane is gonna stuff Rey in the casket now…and when Kane opens it it’s empty, leading to an audible groan from the crowd. Rey tries to fight it, but Kane chokeslams him again. Rey even gets Tombstoned this time. Kane opens the casket again…and it’s THE UNDERTAKER! Huge reaction! He looks pretty damn old here though (he somehow aged like 10 years from the Mania match with Shawn). Taker turns to Rey and asks him why he did it before beating the crap out of the obvious culprit, Kane. Shockingly, Kane gets the upper hand and lays out Taker (and Taker put him over on three straight PPVs). Good pop, even for the obvious here. This would lead to Taker’s last long non-Mania program. Elimination Match Nexus vs. Team WWE Miz shows up, but Cena says they already have a partner…Daniel Bryan! Big pop for Bryan. So it’s Otunga, Sheffield, Tarver, Barrett, Gabriel, Young and Slater vs. Cena, Edge, Jericho, Morrison, Bryan, Bret Hart and R-Truth. Note: this is Bret Hart’s last PPV match, and interestingly wrestled his last WWE PPV main event after HBK did. Even as late as December 2009, what were the odds of that? 10,000 to 1? Bret Hart actually looks pretty good here. It’s a shame he couldn’t get hit in the head, he probably could have had a solid run otherwise. Bryan makes Darren Young submit in a minute. I guess that continues the tradition of a submission wrestler taking out the exotic haired black guy in 45 seconds at Summerslam with a Crossface (reference to Benoit vs. Orlando Jordan…and that reference could have went further). Lawler calls Bryan Bryan Danielson on air. Ha. Morrison eliminates Tarver with Sharship Pain at the 4 minute mark. 7-5 WWE advantage. Sheffield is the first Nexus guy in this match to look like a threat as he kicks the crap out of Morrison. Gabriel cheap shots Morrison and Sheffield takes him out with a clothesline to take him out. Sheffield then takes out R-Truth with another clothesline and suddenly it’s tied. I’ll complain about Truth being in this later. Michael Cole says that if Bret could lead team WWE to victory it would be his greatest Summerslam moment of his career. Screw that winning the WWF title from Undertaker in 1997 or having one of the greatest matches ever at Summerslam ’92. Bret locks Slater in the Sharpshooter, and Barrett tosses a chair in. Bret smacks Sheffield with the chair for the DQ…then blames Barrett for bringing it in. I can’t think of a time that didn’t work. Anyway, Bret’s gone in the only way he could be. Edge spears Sheffield and we are down to 4 vs. 4. Cena, Bryan, Jericho and Edge vs. Gabriel, Otunga, Barrett and Slater. Otunga taps to a botched Walls. Jericho accidentally runs into Cena, and then gets hit with a rear naked choke drop by Slater and Slater eliminates him. Edge and Cena argue, then Slater shoved Edge into Cena and rolls him up to take him out! Nexus with the 3-2 lead! Bryan owns everyone and makes Slater tap (amazingly, Bryan’s moveset is exactly the same three years later). Miz comes back and takes Bryan out with the briefcase. Barrett pins Bryan. Cena vs. Barrett and Gabriel. DDT on the concrete! Cena’s out cold! CAN HE COME BACK?! Even Lawler and Cole thinks its hopeless. Team WWE wins when Cena makes Barrett submit in 35:18. Gabriel misses the 450, and Cena pins him. Barrett then just runs into the STF and that’s that. Very disappointing and a lot worse than I remember it. This match buried Nexus as any kind of threat. The only people they beat legit were Morrison and Truth. Bret got DQed. Jericho ran into Cena and got fluke pinned. Edge argued with Cena and got fluke pinned. Miz attacked Bryan. Cena of course OVERCAME the odds. Ugh. No idea how Barrett dragged this to December. The debate of how significant this match was is Daniel Bryan’s comeback. I think it’s a good moment and it gave Bryan a good push out of the gate…but once he won the US title WWE did nothing with him for a good 10 months. He did wrestle a bunch of pre-PPV matches (Wrestlemania, Over the Limit, surely there is more) so there is that. So this all turned out to be meaningless. Here’s my problem with the idea of the match as well. The commentators were selling it as the most important match in WWE history and all of that. So why then is R-Truth on the team? Shouldn’t Randy Orton or I don’t know, the WWE Champion Sheamus be on it instead. To an extent that thinking applies to Morrison and even Bret Hart. This PPV is full of bullshit finishes and is pretty forgettable. All Summerslam 2010 got was the further development of The Miz as a main event star. Most of Nexus became nothing significant from their run in Nexus. Even Barrett…practically a sure thing, got lost in the shuffle with the Corre later. For a match with a lot of young guys the lack of historical significance is surprising. I guess you can also say its Bret Hart’s last WWE PPV match, but no one remembers it for that. Nexus should have been so much better. There was so much potential here. Forgettable and overall too many weak finishes. Could have been worse but there was decent wrestling scattered around this show. Final Grade: C |
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Jul 4 2014, 02:29 AM Post #87 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WCW/NWA Halloween Havoc 1989 October 28, 1989 Philadelphia, PA We are just past the Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat classics and into the Flair vs. Terry Funk feud. Flair and Funk had a title match at the Great American match which ended with a Flair victory…and an attack from The Great Muta. It had been about five years since the birth of Hulkamania, and it seemed that the NWA was just fine being #2 with their “real wrasslin” as opposed to the mainstream kiddie WWF. I think looking at the men in the main event of this PPV: Flair, Muta, Funk (Sting too, but he doesn’t really fit what I am saying) showed that this was still an old school promotion. Really, until Jim Herd showed up that would be the case. This was also the rare time that not only was Ric Flair a face, but he was on Sting’s side. A little odd considering they would be rivals shortly again. This is the first Halloween Havoc. The Card Captain Mike Rotunda vs. Tom Zenk No entrances for the first match. I do feel like I’ve missed something not seeing a lot of Z-Man matches. He’s also undefeated apparently. Rotunda is the TV Champ. Don’t think this is for the title. Near the end of the match there is a pretty nice clothesline by Rotunda. Looked crisp. Tom Zenk pins Mike Rotunda in 13:23. Zenk rolls through a flying bodypress. Pretty boring overall to be fair. I mean, I guess it would technically be classified as good, but I just didn’t get into it. Also looks like Rotunda kicked out in time. Bruno Sammartino is being interviews. He is the referee in the main event…a Thunderdome Cage Match. Sammartino talks about the type of match and how dangerous it is. I’m sure they had Thundercage matches in the 60s and 70s. The Samoan Swat Team (Samu, The Samoan Savage and Fatu) vs. The Midnight Express and Dr. Death I had no idea there were Samoans in WCW. That’s a really young Rikishi in there as well. This match feels designed to put Dr. Death over. The Samoans mess up crotching Eaton on the railing. Samu and Fatu especially seem green here. Commentary is really making it seem like the Samoans are idiots. Shrug. Crowd is HOT for Dr. Death. Horrible botch with a neckbreaker attempt by Lane on the Savage. The Samoans win when the Savage pins Lane in 18:23. Jim Cornette ends up getting knocked off the apron after he knocked Oliver Humperdink off the apron, and the Samoan Savage pinned Lane. Pretty sloppy from the Samoans…all of them. Fatu and Samu weren’t ready yet. Gary Hart and Terry Funk interview. Funk looks in monster shape. How come there are no entrances at all? I coulda swore Starrace ’88 had them (maybe I am misremembering). The Cuban Assassin vs. Tommy Rich Of course Rich has an entrance to make me seem stupid. Rich is a former NWA World Champion, crazy as that sounds. I think that’s a Tommy Rich sucks chant. Even in 1989, Philly fans were smart. Opening sequence was horrid. Looked like a WWF 1989 preliminary match! The Cuban just busted out the ugliest high knee I’ve ever seen. Timmy Rich pins The Cuban Assassin in 8:29. Thesz Press for the win. Awful match. Fans booed it and Rich right out of the building. Just a bunch of armbars and ugly looking armdrags. Terrible all around. NWA World Tag Team Championship The Freebirds © vs. The Dynamic Dudes The Dudes: Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace, are up there for worst major tag team of all time. Philly boos the Dudes out of the building too. No surprise. At least Douglas would become Philly famous later. Huge boos for the Dudes, including a You Suck chant for big Johnny. They are the faces. This is 1989 no less! I didn’t know this happened in 1989! The Freebirds win when Garvin pins Douglas in 11:28. Wow. Weird slingshot double team leads to Garvin countering and landing on Douglas for the pin. Pop is MASSIVE. One of the biggest I’ve ever heard. Quite the spectacle there just for the crowd reaction. Another bad match though. Douglas wasn’t there yet and Ace never would be. Freebirds were never the best wrestlers either. Steiners interview. Rick sounds different. The Steiner Bros. vs. Doom Doom is Ron Simmons and Butch Reed. The story here is that a fan wanted to be with Rick Steiner, but he said no, and she got him back somehow by turning into Woman. Woman manages Doom. This is Doom’s debut. Another boring match here…and it’s not a good boring either. Rick Steiner almost breaks Reed’s neck with a powerslam. Wow on that one. Doom wins when Reed (or Doom #2) pins Rick in 15:28. Woman loads Reed’s mask with something and a headbutt gets the upset win. Slow and not good. NWA US Championship Lex Luger© vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman Lex Luger and Brian Pillman sadly show the sad sides of pro wrestling. Luger seems like an amazing heel here. And he can work. Pretty fast paced so far. Pillman has cheerleaders in the crowd. Seems distracting. Man Luger is killing Pillman with these clotheslines! One to the back of the head was vicious! I thought Luger screwed up…but it was actually a brilliant dodge of the top rope dropkick! Lex Luger pinned Brian Pillman to retain in 16:49. Hotshot for the win after the missed dropkick. Well, this match saved what was a lackluster show so far. Luger sells for Pillman like a million bucks and still looks like a bad ass. What a great big man vs. little man match where both men just go at it full blast. What happened to this Lex Luger? Jeez. Great match. Philly loved Luger. The Road Warriors vs. The Skyscrapers Selling won’t be a major theme here. Interestingly the Road Warriors are announced as the Legion of Doom…I thought that was only a WWE thing. The Skyscrapers are Dan Spivey and Sid. Two WWF ’95 staples! Man Spivey just takes an Animal clothesline and no sells. You heard that one. Sid with a pretty awesome spinning helicopter bomb to Hawk. Why didn’t he keep that move? The Road Warriors win by DQ in 11:39. LOD has it won, but Teddy Long gets involved and throws the golden key to Spivey to cause the DQ. Weak ending, but this was a bad ass power match. Technically I guess it wasn’t wrestled well, Sid especially misses some stuff, but it’s really a good power match overall. Thunderdome Cage Match: Bruno Sammartino is the Special Referee Ric Flair and Sting vs. The Great Muta and Terry Funk The only way this ends is if Ole Anderson or Gary Hart throws in the towel for their teams. Eh. There is something amazing about Terry Funk and The Great Muta as a tag team. The cage is apparently electrified. The top of the cage actually catches fire. Well damn. I don’t think that was supposed to happen. Wow Muta Misted the fire! That alone owned. For some reason this is being wrestled as a regular tag. Why? I have no idea, it’s supposed to be no DQ. Why in WCW 2000 didn’t Russo just run Sting vs. Muta again instead of that talentless bum Vampiro? Bruno being the ref just seems so out of place. Muta gets shocked climbing high on the cage. Why climb at all? I don’t understand this logic. Commentary actually brings this up. There’s a rope hanging for some Tarzan action…but it really doesn’t work. Sting takes out Funk my leaping off the cage, which was cool. Sting and Ric Flair win in 23:46. Flair locks Funk in the Figure Four and Sting splashes him off the top rope twice! (Ouch). Gary Hart still refuses to throw in the towel. Muta attacks Bruno, and Bruno decks him. Ole Anderson attacks Hart and the towel goes flying into the ring. The stipulations pretty much guaranteed a shit finish, so we got it. The cage gimmick is pretty disappointing overall. It was mostly used for some Tarzan stuff, and honestly the logic of anyone climbing the cage was stupid. The match was well wrestled…an old school no DQ Texas Tornado woulda been awesome between these four. If anything the cage probably hurt the match. Pretty subpar PPV overall. Most of the card sucked. Pillman vs. Luger ruled. LOD vs. Skyscrapers served its purpose. Main event had a gimmick that didn’t fit the match. Could have been a lot better of a show, but here we are. Historically…I guess we keep building Sting up as a main event guy…and I think this was the start of the Sid to the top run? I do think the non-finish of the main led to the I Quit match between Flair and Funk, so there is that. Luger vs. Pillman the rest of the second half of the show helped it, but I still wouldn’t say this was good overall. Final Grade: C+ |
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Jul 4 2014, 06:21 PM Post #88 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WCW Spring Stampede ‘99 April 11, 1999 Tacoma, WA WCW Spring Stampede interests me for one reason. It’s generally regarded that anything past late ’98 for WCW pretty much sucks. Yet, this card actually has very positive reviews. I’m really just curious to see what this show did as opposed to what WCW was doing in early ’99 (where it was pretty much awful). WCW at this point was getting their ass kicked bad by the WWF in the ratings. While there were many reasons on why this was happening, the most recent was the Goldberg-Hall-Nash-Hogan Starrcade and Finger Poke of Doom debacle. WCW never recovered from that. Ric Flair also returned to the main event…and as great as Flair is, this is a perfect time to show that no new guys were getting pushed to the main event, sans for one (and he isn’t really even new). How did Spring Stampede ’99 break through and actually be a good show for WCW? Is it actually good, or just good smelling shit? Let’s see. The Card This might be the first PPV with the new logo. #1 Contender to the Cruiserweight Championship Blitzkrieg vs. Juventud Guerrera I like how if you watch Juvi here and back at Bash at the Beach ’98, you would have never known he had a heel turn with the LWO inbetween. Commentary is making fun of Thunder? What? Ha and they take a shot at Larry Z! Some great sequences that Blitzkrieg impressively lands on his feet…but he does mess up a tilt a whirl backbreaker. Juvi busts out the surfboard! They do the flying off the top rope getting caught with a dropkick spot…but on the floor, which was cool. Blitzkrieg with a crazy springboard moonsault onto Juvi on the floor. Wow. They botch something off the top rope, it looked like a Blitzkrieg falls back on Juvi off the top spot. Blitz misses one of the sicker top rope moves...the Sky Twister Press! Crazy sunset flip off the top from Blitz. Juvi hits a Juvi Driver off the top! Wow! Juventud pins Blitzkrieg in 11:11. After the top rope Juvi Driver the pin was academic. I’m torn here. One on hand, they tried a lot of cool stuff and some of it was downright awesome. On the other, I hate high flying matches with messed up spots, as it looks like a performance as opposed to a wrestling match. In the end I’ll go with good, not great. Interestingly, some think this is one of the best matches of all of WCW. Let’s not go crazy here. Hardcore Match Hardcore Hak vs. Bam Bam Bigelow I did think WCW trying to create a Hardcore Division with former WCW wrestlers was a great idea. Too bad it didn’t stick. It is a bit of a waste for Bigelow though. It is also interesting to note that Sandman got in good shape for WCW…he did the same for ECW 2K6. Hak-ton Bomb off the stage wagon through Bigelow and a table! Eat your heart out Jeff Hardy. For some reason Tony is explaining that the garbage can doesn’t really hurt but makes a great sound? What the fuck? Ha, Tenay and Heenan make fun of him after a great garbage can shot. Hak and Bigelow screw up a DDT I think? Maybe a suplex. I think Hak went for a suplex and Bigelow dropped for a DDT. Another Hak-ton Bomb, this time on a ladder on Bigelow. Sandman is a sicko. Hak goes flying off the ladder and throw the table! Bam Bam Bigelow pins Hardcore Hak in 11:33. Bigelow is about to slam Hak with a safety rail, but Chasity causes a distraction but can’t get the fire extinguisher going. Bigelow gets it working and takes out Chasity. Hak hits the White Russian Legsweep on the safety rail, but eventually Bigelow hits a weird brainbuster through the table (which got a great reaction) on Hak for the win. Pretty entertaining Hardcore Match. Let’s quickly talk about why WCW blew it here and how frustrating it is to listen to the commentary here. Tony Schiavone already buried the idea of garbage can shots (why?), but after the match all three are laughing about what they saw, with Tony giving a condescending “fans, don’t try this at home”. Not for safety reasons, it is more from a “this is stupid” standpoint. Why the commentary team wants to bury their own product just speaks volumes about WCW sometimes. Hak and Bigelow put on a good brawl and it’s basically laughed about. I hate this company sometimes. Scotty Riggs vs. Mikey Whipwreck I have no recollection of this Rick Marterl rip off gimmick Scotty Riggs is doing in WCW. A lot of hip gyrations from Riggs. Well, two good matches was a good start to the PPV. Mikey was pretty underrated as a wrestler. Ouch, Mikey takes a bump off the apron and crashes back/head first into the railing. Oddly Riggs looks like Randy “The Ram”. “Boring” chant for Scotty’s offense. You know it’s bad when you are better off as a pirate. Scotty Riggs pins Mikey Whipwreck in 7:03. Flying forearm for the win (is he just copying Luger from 92?). Out of nowhere win. Match sucked, although Whipwreck tried. Riggs didn’t last much longer. At least they tried to get someone new over though. Not sure why Riggs was the guy. Disco Inferno makes fun of Konnan’s music video. Konnan vs. Disco Inferno Odd history here: Konnan was part of the Wolfpac…and Disco had some weird association with them. Konnan calls Disco a straight up strawberry. Well then. Konnan pins Disco Inferno in 9:17. Konnan hits Disco with his own move, the Chartbuster/Last Dance/STONE COLD STUNNER for the win. Interestingly, this match was to put Disco over and Disco dominated the match. Big difference from the Bash at the Beach ’98 “bonus match”. While the choices are odd, WCW does seem to be trying to push some guys higher up, Riggs and Disco are two examples so far. WCW Cruiserweight Championship Rey Mysterio Jr.(c) vs. Billy Kidman They are the co-holders of the Tag Team Title. Winner faces Juvi on Nitro. This is all post LWO (thankfully). Unfortunately this is the beginning of the maskless Rey era. Commentary goes silent! Some good sequences so far…but it does feel like they are going through the motions a bit. Ref is fast counting everything for some reason. Kidman actually does a running Shooting Star Press off the apron. No crowd reaction. Really odd match dynamics here. Tenay with a funny slip: “Both men look like they’ve lost a step from the opening match…I mean opening part of the bout”. That’s probably true, Juvi vs. Blitzkrieg was better. I am amazed that the crowd just does not give a shit about this match. Really nice counter to a top rope bulldog from Rey. The ref counts are really distracting. Rey pins Kidman in 15:32 to retain. Top rope hurricanrana. This is like one of those EWR matches that got “bad show syndrome”. Everything looked nice, but crowd just didn’t care and it felt a little like they were going through the motions. My theory? They didn’t build up anything as they busted out hurricanranas right away in the opening sequence. Also, I think people may have been against maskless Rey. Kidman got some face reactions, and while he is, Rey didn’t get the same. Seeing the replay on how they won the tag belts kinda killed my maskless Rey theory. Raven and Saturn vs. Benoit and Malenko I should say I loved the idea of Rey and Kidman (flyers) vs. Saturn and Raven (hardcore) vs. Benoit and Malenko (technical). Benoit and Malenko are part of the Horsemen of course. So Double A is out here. Raven and Saturn reconciling was pretty cool too. I forgot the story with that though. Crowd is really hot here…like they know this is going to own. Shame it isn’t being referenced, but there was history between Benoit and the Flock at one time too. The Charles Robinson as the ref is an interesting part of this match as well. Saturn kicks all kinds of ass at one point and takes out Double A at one point…but Malenko stops him. Malenko dropkicks Saturn into a German Suplex by Benoit! DVD from Saturn, cover is broken up by a Benoit diving Headbutt! Raven droptoeholds Benoit on a chair…no DQs? Ah this is great, who cares. Benoit and Malenko win when Malenko pins Raven in 14:11. Evenflow takes out Malenko and Raven covers. Double A puts a chair on Raven’s head and Benoit hits the Flying Headbutt on the chair (for fuck sakes Benoit) and blades no less. Malenko pins. Great back and forth tag match. Shoulda re-built the division around these two and Mysterio and Kidman. WCW US Title Tournament Final Booker T vs. Scott Steiner In Jericho’s last great WCW moment, he actually got to be in this tournament twice via loophole, and he lost to both of these guys. To be fair, these are the two (and Jericho, probably) that WCW should built towards the future with. This is a rematch also, as Booker beat Steiner at Uncensored for the TV title. “Steroids” chant midway through. Match has been pretty damn slow. Time to bump some refs! Steiner busts out the top rope frankensteiner! Scott Steiner wins the title in 15:37. Steiner hits Booker with a hidden object for the win. Pretty meh match, although the frankensteiner was a nice touch. 13 minutes of nothing before that with unnecessary ref bumps. Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg Story here is obvious: Kevin Nash is the only man to beat Goldberg as he did at Starrcade. REMATCH TIME. Match is ALL Kevin Nash early on. Spear attempt…but Kevin Nash leapfrogs it and Goldberg takes out the ref! Lex Luger attacks! Goldberg pins Kevin Nash in 7:41. Goldberg hits the spear and jackhammer on Nash after getting rid of Luger. Goldberg evens the score. Nash jobs clean! Of course the match isn’t much to write home about, but it was well booked. Made Nash look strong (even if he didn’t need it) and made Goldberg look strong too. That must mean Goldberg is slated for the title right? Lol. WCW World Championship: Four Corners Match, Randy Savage is the Special Referee Ric Flair© vs. Hollywood Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting One fall here. Ah, the Savage comeback, roided up and all. My god Gorgeous George… Flair was a heel here, although it was the result of a weird double turn with Hogan. Hogan was kinda a face? Came back with the red and yellow later in the year. DDP also had turned heel. Sting was the only one with a clear alignment, which was face. Pretty action packed start! Hogan is doing the Hulkamania stuff. No selling Flair’s chops, etc. Page busts out the Bret Hart Figure Four around the ring post! They carry Hogan out…which is a little hokey as it was just one move (although a devastating one). I guess it’s believable. Eric Bischoff, who has no kayfabe power at this point, shows up here to add legitimacy. See, they did this before Russo. Tombstone from Page to Sting! Flair with the save! Double sleeper….double jawbreaker. Never seen that before (well, the jawbreaker). Sting has….Hulked Up! Flair locks Sting in the Figure Four, but Sting gets to the ropes. Ref Savage kicks Sting’s hand off then drags Flair and Sting to the center…and drops the BIG ELBOW on Flair?! Diamond Dallas Page wins the WCW World Title in 17:27 when he pinned Flair. All three get to their feet and Page drops Flair with the Diamond Cutter and wins his first World Title. Overall this was…pretty good! All four men gave it a great effort (even Hogan, for half a match). Action never really stopped. I don’t remember what the explanation for what Savage did was though. Still, a very good main event with the top guys in their giving it their all. Let’s talk about the DDP decision for a second. I do think DDP could have won the WCW World title so I have no issues with that…but WCW absolutely wasted it here. Page was a big time face in 1998 and his building to the WCW World Title could have been a great story in 1999 (or even he could have been the man to beat Goldberg at Starrcade ‘98). But it was wasted here…and I think he only held it for a couple weeks before he traded it with Sting, then lost it to Nash (who lost it to a returning Hogan). A pretty good show with little historical significance as Russo was only five months away. Somehow in a couple months we had Sid in the main event despite a roster with Flair, Sting, Savage, Hogan, Goldberg, Nash etc. Still, Scott Steiner moved up the chain a bit I guess. Some really good matches here: Juvi vs. Blitz had its faults but had some great moments (and a bad ass finish). Hak vs. Bigelow was probably the last time either gave a shit, and it resulted in a good hardcore match. Kidman vs. Rey tried, just missed for some reason. Malenko and Benoit vs. Saturn and Raven owned. Nash vs. Goldberg was fine for what it was, and the main event was actually good for what it was. Only real miss was Riggs vs. Whipwreck. Even Konnan vs. Disco had a solid story to it. Very good show, perhaps the last of the WCW era. Final Grade: B+ |
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Jul 10 2014, 09:59 PM Post #89 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WWF Wrestlemania XI April 2, 1995 Hartford, CT Things were going wrong in the WWF, even if Vince didn’t want to accept it yet. It seemed that the WWF was going into a really interesting direction with Bret Hart’s banner 1994 year. But ultimately Vince still didn’t believe a smaller guy could be THE guy, at least the real super over guy and Diesel was given the rocket babyface push. Diesel, who was actually pretty decent with the right opponent in 1994 and a pretty entertaining heel became a bland babyface. He also made a great point in a recent shoot interview that they gave him the rocket push…but wouldn’t let him go over Bret at the Rumble, which hurt his credibility somewhat. Of course, his buddy Shawn Michaels was basically 1b in terms of getting guys over with his selling, so Diesel had a chance here. The WWF’s booking overall in 1995 is puzzling. It’s not really seen yet, but eventually Vince puts arguable his top 5 guys on the same alignment (Bret, Diesel, Shawn, Undertaker and Razor Ramon. Even stranger, Bam Bam Bigelow would join that face side as well as Vince tried to push him. The Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor spectacle was interesting to say the least. Vince still had all the celebrities he could afford (note, in 1996 Mania had none) but it turned out to be more of a parody of previous Manias. Taylor vs. Bam Bam wasn’t Mr. T vs. Piper. Pam Anderson with Diesel didn’t have a good effect as Diesel just wasn’t Hulk Hogan. Hogan was mega over at the time, it seemed like he belonged with Cyndi Lauper or whomever. Just like The Rock would now. Not Big Daddy Cool Diesel… Also, interestingly, Wrestlemania XI was held in Hartford. With all due respect to Hartford, this was a MAJOR step down from everywhere else Mania had been (NY, NY/LA/Chi, DET, AC, AC, TOR, LA, INDY, Vegas, NY). It smells to me like Vince knew money was gonna be tight, and to him it didn’t matter where the event was. The Card Here are some celebrities: Pam Anderson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nick Turturro, Salt-N-Peppa. Of course LT is in the main event. The Allied Powers (Lex Luger and The British Bulldog) vs. The Blu Bros. The Blu brothers are Ron and Don Harris. The Blus also have Uncle Zebekiah, the future Zeb Culter. Zeb is against all American Luger here! Bulldog and Luger should have had a better tag run, but Vince was still gonna push the Bulldog in singles (hence a later heel turn), and to be honest, they just didn’t have any chemistry together. Evidence of this is Luger powerslamming a Blu Twin right onto the Bulldog. The Bulldog’s hanging vertical suplex was one of my favorite moves as a kid. Eli (I’m guessing here) with a terrible backbreaker on the Bulldog. The flying forearm just had no steam as a top move. The Torture Rack was better. TWIN MAGIC! Luger is shocked that the forearm didn’t get the job down. Crowd doesn’t care. The Allied Powers win when the Bulldog pinned…Jacob? in 6:34. So Luger is upset his forearm not finishing the match, then the Bulldog hits a sunset flip on Jacob for the win. So much for tagging or anything as clearly Luger was legal, but Bulldog. In fact, there was ONE tag on the Allied Powers side. Jacob also kicks out. Awful opener, especially for Wrestlemania. STORY OF BACKSTAGE…no one can find Pamela Anderson. Nick Turturro is a detective looking for her and finds Jenny McCarthy instead. Of course, there are technical problems, so we don’t hear a thing said. WWF Intercontinental Championship Jeff Jarrett© vs. Razor Ramon This was probably Jarrett’s peak depending on how you feel about 1999. This is a rematch from the Rumble where Jarrett beat Ramon for the title. The Roadie got involved. Ramon has The 1-2-3 Kid with him. Ramon’s pyro goes off after he attacks Jarrett. Weird. Cool Jarrett fake out off the 2nd rope…turns into a mistimed something as Razor wasn’t in position? Jarrett tries to leave but the Kid blocks him. Why Jarrett just didn’t shove the Kid out of the way I don’t know. Not sure why I should be okay with face Kid getting involved. Lawler points out correctly that the Kid deserved to get kicked into the steel railing. Jarrett works on the knee 10 minutes in, the same one Ramon hurt at the Rumble. Wonder why that wasn’t the game plan from the start. Razor Ramon wins by DQ in 13:26. Seriously, all that for a DQ finish? Ramon has Jarrett in the Razor’s Edge and the Roadie attacks the knee for the DQ. This is Wrestlemania. Shrug. On the flip side…it’s not a bad match. Nothing special, but a lot better than the opener. Still, ugh at the finish. Just ugh. Ha, they just redo the McCarthy segment. Then Shawn Michaels is in the house! The Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy Some random MLB umpire is the referee. No idea why. This storyline goes back to the Taker vs. Taker Summerslam feud where Ted Dibiase’s Undertaker lost. Then Dibiase send IRS Bundy and Bigelow to attack Taker during the Survivor Series Casket Match. Taker vs. IRS followed at The Rumble, where the Million Dollar Corp got the urn. And here we are. What a waste of the Undertaker. In terms of look and appearance, Undertaker’s gimmick was at his peak here. Best entrance in all of wrestling. While Taker vs. Bundy name wise seems like a big deal…Bundy really couldn’t work and was an 80s guy. Taker’s 1995 is really something: IRS, Bundy, Kama, Mabel. What a waste. Taker gets back the urn, but Kama comes down to take it back from Paul Bearer. Bundy’s clotheslines look awful. The Undertaker pins King Kong Bundy in 6:36. In a cool moment, Bundy gives Taker the avalanche and Taker no-sells it, which is pretty bad ass and gets a rise from the crowd. Taker wins with the flying clothesline, I guess Bundy wasn’t going for the Chokeslam. Anyway, awful. Taker hits Bundy with some stuff that Bundy “sells”, Bundy hits horrible offense on Taker, the urn deal, and the finish. That’s the match. Somehow though…it was better than Taker’s last Mania match at Mania IX. MONGO. Somehow he messes up his one line. He’s on the NFL team that will second LT. The NFLers challenge the Million Dollar Corp. That’s actually a great idea, they should have had a 10 man tag. Turturro runs into Taylor Thomas and Bob Backlund playing chess. Backlund doesn’t know who Pamela Anderson is…and then Taylor Thomas checkmates him. Backlund goes crazy over JTT’s smarts. Funny segment, really because Backlund owns. WWF World Tag Team Championship The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Owen Hart and a secret partner Owen says he picked his partner because he beat his brother Bret at Mania…Yokozuna! Might as well hand the belts over now Gunns. Lawler and McMahon sell it like its death for the Gunns. Which is awesome. The Gunns were not good promo men. At least not in ’95. Only Shawn and Sid have had a good promo tonight. And Backlund…technically… Lawler brings up that Owen debuted as the Blue Blazer at Mania six years prior. I thought that was interesting. Owen’s partner was supposed to be Jim Neidhart, be he was fired previously, at least according to Bret’s book. This is a very well booked match. Focus is the Gunns keeping Yoko on the outside and doing all they can to double team Owen. It is interesting to see what is basically the inverse of the hot tag setup. Huge legdrop on Billy, and Billy sells it like a million dollars by rolling to the outside and crashing to the floor. Billy Gunn hairpulling Yokozuna down was a little ridiculous. Owen Hart and Yokozuna win the Tag Titles when Owen pinned Billy in 9:42. Yoko squashes Billy, then dumps Bart. Owen gets tagged in just to make the pin, which is also genius booking. It looks like Owen Hart took the shortest shortcut ever to win a title…which fit perfectly with the character. A good Mania moment for Owen, and a solid match overall. Finally. Solid promo for Bam Bam Bigelow. Amazing he didn’t draw more money. I Quit Match Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart Roddy Piper is the ref. This spawned from the Bret vs. Backlund WWF Title match at Survivor Series where Helen Hart threw in the towel. Of course, Bret never submitted, but since the towel was thrown in the title changed hands. So here’s a huge problem with this match. Piper sticks the mic in Backlund and Bret’s face asking “whadda say”. Backlund sounds hilarious saying no. Fans audibly laugh. Bret was not happy about this. Lawler asks Vince who Bret beat at Mania VIII and Vince says the British Bulldog. Seriously? This match is basically Stone Cold vs. Bret at Mania 13…only the exact opposite. It’s all submission holds and it’s not good. Bret Hart makes Backlund submit in 9:34. Backlund gets the Chicken Wing, but Bret counters and locks Backlund in his own hold. Backlund never says I quit, instead we just hear some groans and Piper calls it. Terrible. Bret called this his worst PPV match ever and I don’t blame him. Bret even looked pissed when it was over. Backlund says he saw the light afterwards. Weird thing too…these two had a great match (I think) at Survivor Series only five months earlier. Pam Anderson can’t be found! Oh no! Classic awful Diesel promo. It was fine until he screws up at the end. WWF Championship Diesel© vs. Shawn Michaels Celebrity time keeper and announcers and whatever. Shawn comes out with Jenny McCarthy. And Diesel is with Pam Anderson! Well no kidding. Shawn does look like a superstar here. Shawn has Sid in his corner. Vince still wasn’t sure HBK could look like a threat with a big man. For the second match, we get some action…then the face’s in ring pyro. Weird. Pam Anderson looks embarrassed to be there. Shawn Michaels has already stolen the show and we are 3 minutes in. Michaels’ actually clotheslines Diesel over and skins the cat. That would have been GREAT as the Rumble ’96 finish. Michaels off the top to the outside on Diesel! Michaels is literally saving Wrestlemania here. Michaels off the apron and splashes Diesel on the floor. You didn’t see this stuff in WWF ’95 for sure. HBK bulldogs Diesel by leaping off the top! The match does slow down and something seems off about Diesel’s comeback. It’s just hard to have sympathy for Diesel’s character. We miss the ref bumping off the apron. So HBK superkicks Diesel, but the ref is out. Sid throws the ref back in. Diesel gets a strong kickout at 2. There are boos. This is a very important moment in the WWF, and I will write why after the match is over. Backsuplex not enough either for HBK, and the crowd seems upset, it does look like the crowd turned against Diesel here, and they have. Diesel catches HBK off the top in the sidewalk slam position, which is ridiculous (in a good way). There is no heat on the Diesel Hulk Up. Diesel pins Michaels to retain in 20:35. Horrible powerbomb (which Nash blamed HBK in a shoot) to win. Match was great early on, but kinda went south, especially at the end. So let’s talk about the kickout. There are two accounts here, Shawn’s and Bret Hart’s. According to Shawn, he and Diesel were laying out the match and Vince wanted Diesel to look strong on a kickout. Shawn felt Diesel needed all the sympathy he could get (he is correct…and for the record HE did a great job getting it for him until the kickout) and this needed to be a one…two…barely up. HBK compared it to Lex Luger’s 93-94 push interestingly. He thought it would look like shoving Diesel shown the fans throats. HBK and Diesel insisted on the slow kickout, and Vince said no. Bret’s account of it was that as soon as the kickout happened, he thought Shawn had played Diesel and selfishly did all he could to make himself look good at Diesel’s expense (I think Shawn did do this, but not at Diesel’s expense. He got them BOTH over until the end). Bret thought Diesel’s reign was as good as dead when this happened, and he wasn’t completely wrong, although there are other reasons. Also in Shawn’s book, Shawn say the reaction is what led to his face turn the night after, which I’ll get to at the end of the review. Let’s just say that was a huge mistake in hindsight, especially since HBK was probably the best heel in the business at the time. Anyway, very good match, but I think the end (and the messed up finish) hold it back from being great. Somehow this was the overall Match of the Year for 1995. Crazy to me, since Bret Hart vs. Diesel at Survivor Series ’95 was a much better match. Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor Media has been all over ringside for this show, it reminds me of Bash at the Beach ’98. We get some NFL vs. Million Dollar Corporation stuff. Heavy chant for LT. Bam Bam threatens Salt-n-Pepa. Again, Bigelow would have drawn money as a monster heel. After listening to how Pat Patterson would insert himself into Mania somehow to get a Mania paycheck, I think it’s funny seeing him as the ref here. Huge start for LT gets the fans into it. Bulldog from Taylor! Taylor actually looks pretty damn good in the ring early on. Bigelow gets the advantage (which he should). Still good considering LT is involved. Bigelow hits a huge moonsault, but then tends to the knee. Seems like a way to get Bigelow’s moonsault in without LT just kicking out of it…but it really doesn’t look great for Bam Bam when LT kicks out anyway. Bigelow’s spinkick owns. LT survives a top rope Bigelow headbutt. I never realized it, but these are pretty big problems for Bigelow’s future. Lawrence Taylor pins Bam Bam Bigelow in 11:42. Taylor makes a comeback, then comes off the 2nd rope with a flying forearm for the win. Forearm did look good. This is a decent match, even good, especially considering that Taylor isn’t a pro wrestler. There is a problem here though. Bigelow wasn’t established as a main eventer and this loss did hurt him. Someone like Big Show could have done this, simply because Show is established, if that makes sense. LT survived a top rope Bigelow moonsault and flying headbutt. Still, for what it was, it was very good. I don’t think it should have mained though. Let’s talk about the two main events, because without them (and Owen!) this show is a flat out F. This becoming the catalyst to turning Shawn face was an unfortunate…near fatal WWF error. Shawn as a heel could have rematched Diesel (since he did beat him in this match really, ref bump screwed him), and if he won the title even faced off against Bret, Undertaker, and even had his match vs. Razor be the World Title match at Summerslam. INSTEAD…we got Shawn turning face…and Diesel vs. Sid for a few months before transitioning into Diesel vs. Mabel. They could have even done Shawn turning on Sid and did heel Shawn vs. Sid, as Shawn proved in ’96 he (and only he) could get great matches out of Sid. Keeping Shawn heel, and probably even winning the title, was the way to go. So we need top heels. Somehow we LOSE a top heel here in Shawn. What about Bigelow? Nope. Somehow Bigelow gets turned face because he lost to LT. The remaining top heels were Yoko and Owen (which would have been fine to be honest, although Yoko had lost a step due to being huge…or bigger than he was) Jarrett and Sid. Faces were Bret, Diesel, Taker, Shawn etc. Talk about unbalanced. Awful matches. A DQ in the IC title match. A decent tag. A very good World Title match that was hurt by its last 5 minutes. A main event that wasn’t bad, but I mean, it’s supposed to be the Wrestlemania Main Event. Pointless celebs. Normally something like this is a C, but like I said, this is Wrestlemania, and really should have been better than it was. Final Grade: D |
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Jul 13 2014, 09:48 PM Post #90 |
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Tyler
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Posted Image WWF Wrestlemania XXVIII April 1, 2012 Miami, FL Once in a Lifetime…(Of course, this was only true if you died with the next year or if you were born after this match) The Rock vs. John Cena was one of those dream matches you always hear about. What would happen if Sting fought Shawn Michaels? The Undertaker vs. Andre the Giant. Kurt Angle vs. Bret Hart…CM Punk vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. So what would happen if The Rock took on John Cena? In theory there was nothing wrong with this main event. The Rock was the top guy in the late 90s early 00s, Cena is the top guy now. Wrestlemania 28 made a ton of money to the surprise of no one. But even so, even this was a little bit missing for the hardcore fans. Hardcore fans would have preferred Punk vs. Austin as a top guy vs. top guy dream match for sure. The Rock coming back was exciting, but without the Attitude Era he was a bit watered down, regulating his gimmick to saying Cena liked Frutty Pebbles and Froot Loops and that Vickie Guerrero was fat. Cena…was just Cena. Booed and all. It was a bit underwhelming. To be fair, it didn’t really need buildup anyway. This show was designed to get the Attitude watchers back. In conjunction with WWE ’13 later, which was Attitude themed, WWE really was pushing to grabs those fans back and hope that they’d connect with the current roster, specifically CM Punk. So as a result, we have HHH vs. Undertaker III. Inside Hell in a Cell. Basically the HIAC Dream Match. How did Once in a Lifetime fare? The Card Lillian Garcia’s voice is amazing. World Heavyweight Championship Daniel Bryan© vs. Sheamus Sheamus won the Royal Rumble and was rewarded by being in the Mania opener. Interestingly, these two were slated for a US Title match at Mania 27, but was cut to make sure The Rock could talk for 20 minutes. Bryan won the World Title in a MITB-cash in scenario at TLC 2011, and became an entertaining annoying heel champion. He also began to get “YES!” over here. Sheamus pins Daniel Bryan to win the title in 0:15. Bryan kisses AJ and gets his head kicked off by Sheamus. One of the most awful ideas in WWE history here. I purposely reviewed Mania 11 before this because there is a connection here. I wrote about in the Mania 11 review that the Diesel strong kickout really hurt his run and caused fans to feel sympathy for HBK, leading to an ill fated face turn. Well, this is that times 1000. It killed Sheamus dead as a top face so badly he still hasn’t recovered in 2014. It ironically MADE Bryan. Fans were already chanting YES!, but now it was deafening. WWE smartly didn’t turn Bryan face either, they let it build up. Sheamus winning a solid 12-15 minute match would have been solid for him. Also, while this should never really be done, it can be done just fine sometimes even for the World Title (see Diesel vs. Backlund). But the opener of WRESTLEMANIA and a WORLD TITLE match shouldn’t be 15 seconds. It was also reported later people were filing in and didn’t even realize they missed the match until later. Incredible. Team Johnny in the house. The Miz received a huge demotion, since he was in the main last year. Randy Orton vs. Kane Kane was still wearing the steel mask here in his 2011 monster comeback. Apparently this feud is over Kane losing to Orton in some forgettable match in the summer of 2011, and he was disappointed in himself for shaking Orton’s hand. This was after Kane’s “Embrace The Hate” campaign with Cena and Zack Ryder. For the record, this should have been Ryder and not Orton. Daniel Bryan chants start the match. Way to go WWE. Way to go. Interestingly this is the third straight Mania with Orton far away from the main event. Streak would end at 4. Michael Cole calls Orton’s DDT a bulldog. Good to see Cole is on tonight. Pretty boring match overall. Kane pinned Randy Orton in 11:00. Chokeslam from the top rope wins it. Didn’t look nearly as good as when Matt Hardy took it at Summerslam ’04, but it got the job done. Interestingly, this match was apparently decided this way to screw up betting lines. Santino and Mick Foley advertising Deadliest Catch. Good thing Mick never had a pirate gimmick... DAMN! Intercontinental Championship Cody Rhodes© vs. Big Show Ludicrous idea of Big Show wanting a Wrestlemania moment after being a joke in so many Wrestlemanias. Sorry if I don’t buy a multi-time World Champion (including as recently as a few months prior) as thinking winning the IC title is his big Mania moment. The intro video for this is gold though. I became a big Cody Rhodes fan around this time. Spear off the Disaster Kick was cool I guess. Big Show wins the title in 5:18. Knock out punch for the win. Big Show cries afterwards. Again, pretty ridiculous. Match was a whole lot of nothing. It was a shame Rhodes’ long reign ended here. Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos vs. Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres I do think it is pretty awesome that Menounos is a huge WWE fan. I always thought it was interesting that the Stinkface became a Diva move even thought it was originated by Rikishi. Nice somersault senton from Kelly. I miss Beth Phoenix. Maria and Kelly win when Maria pinned Beth in 6:49. Roll-up for the win. Not bad considering one team is Kelly and a celebrity. End of an Era Hell in a Cell Match Triple H vs. The Undertaker Shawn Michaels is your special guest referee. This is a long storyline that really began at Royal Rumble 2007 with HBK vs. Taker’s Rumble finish. Last year, Taker beat HHH at Mania 27, but didn’t walk out. That was his justification for the match, he didn’t want that to be his last memory. This is HHH’s chance again to Break the Streak. Jim Ross will be calling this! Somehow a bald Undertaker still looked bad ass. Surprisingly we get the Metallica theme on the Network for the Cell. No wasting time here. Both men go right at one another. A good knock out brawl so far. Each throwing the other into the cell. Steel steps. How HIAC’s in the PG era need to be done. HHH goes for a pedigree on the steel steps…and Taker backdrops him off. Nice! Spinebuster on the steps! Taker shocks HHH right afterwards with Hell’s Gate! HHH powerbombs Taker out of it! Good play on the Mania 27 ending. Out comes the chair! Also a good play on last year’s match. HHH goes nuts with the chair. HBK tries to stop him, but that’s not gonna fly in HIAC of course. This establishes HBK’s conflict. HHH tells HBK if he wants it to be over, then to end it himself. HHH then shoves HBK away. Taker tells him not to stop it. It is really pretty awesome and the crowd gets into it. HHH takes it to a level he didn’t last year and brings in the sledgehammer! Sldegehammer to the face. Kinda believable as a finish, and fans get into the false fall. HBK stops HHH from squashing Taker’s head with the sledgehammer, which woulda been something. At the time it was pretty believable that HBK could end it at some point to end the streak, which is what makes this so effective. Taker locks HBK in the Hell’s Gate to stop him from ending the match…and HHH comes down on Taker’s head with the sledgehammer! Wow! Taker gets Hell’s Gate on HHH…there’s no tap out or referee though. It leaves all three men lying. Charles Robinson in the house! Chokeslam, HHH kicks out. Taker responds by chokeslamming Robinson of course. Taker goes for the Tombstone, but HHH pushes Taker into Sweet Chin Music from HBK! I swear, that was the streak right there. Pedigree…and Taker kicks out! I was shocked when I first saw that. That was perhaps the greatest false finish I’d ever seen. HHH throws HBK out of the ring…and then Taker shocks HHH with a sit-up! Amazing. Tombstone…but HHH survives. Pedigree…but Undertaker survives. Crowd is eating all of this up. Taker’s turn to beat the shit out of HHH with the chair. HHH’s professional receipt. Taker stops HHH’s sldeghammer attack. One last DX crotch chop and Taker whacks him with the sledgehammer as HBK’s back is symbolically turned. The Undertaker pins Triple H in 30:45. Tombstone for the end. Taker, HHH, HBK walk out together in what SHOULD have been Taker and HHH’s last match. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Anyway, right here is a sure top 10 Wrestlemania match, and arguably top 5. It had everything and booked two guys perfectly. A perfect match of history, carnage and false finishes. This is why Brock Lesnar vs. HHH DIDN’T work next year, and arguably why Lesnar vs. Taker didn’t two years later. Incredible. My co-Match of the Year in 2012, only because TLC 2012’s Kane/Bryan/Ryback vs. Shield match was insane. I have trouble deciding between the two. But incredible. Absolutely incredible. It really should have been the End of an Era. It was perfect. Hall of Fame time. Flair in the Horsemen, Edge are the main events. Weird that Edge retiring was three years ago. Heath Slater gets beat up by Flo Rida. Slater is pretty hilarious. Team Teddy (Santino, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Zack Ryder, The Great Khali, Booker T) vs. Team Johnny (The Miz, David Otunga, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre) Winning Team’s GM becomes sole GM or something like that. I always hate the color shirts thing for big teams. It totally takes away from the individuality of the wrestlers. Same for them not having their own music. Why the hell was Otunga the team captain?! Same goes for Santino. Eve came out with Ryder as well. Never guess how that goes wrong. Booker T gets a majority of the time. I like Booker T, but that seems counterproductive at this point in terms of giving younger guys a chance. Somehow throwing Hornwoggle at Mark Henry was a good idea? Seriously? Ziggler has to save Miz from a Cobra. Long way from fighting Cena I see. Awesome Rough Rider where Miz counters…but Ryder lands on Ziggler anyway. Team Johnny wins in 10:38 when Miz pins Zack Ryder in 10:38. Eve does the WOO WOO WOO taunt with Ryder in the ring, but the ref tries to get Eve out and this distracts Ryder. Miz gets the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. This would build up to Miz vs. Ryder right? Of course not… Eve then kicks Ryder low. Just kill off a popular young guy why don’t we? People who hate Ryder now just ignore how over he really was. Worst part was Ryder was actually showing some character here of actually getting pissed at Eve instead of just being the happy-go-lucky face he was. Anyway, good way to get everyone involved. Sure as hell better than the other crappy multi-man tag matches we saw in the past (like at Mania 27, for example). WWE Championship CM Punk© vs. Chris Jericho Big Johnny runs into Punk and waives the DQ rule, so if Punk is DQed he loses the title. Not Punk’s best acting job there… Story here: Jericho came back to challenge for the Best in the World title. For some reason, this turned into a Punk is sober/family isn’t sober angle, which missed what this feud could have been. It did lead to some Punk anger stuff which fits the Big Johnny waiving the DQ rule. They try to tease some DQ stuff early on with Punk, Jericho slapping him in the face and Punk going nuts, etc. Jericho asks Punk how his sister is…and Punk gets a chair. He’s about to nail Jericho in the head with the chair, with Jericho giving Punk his head yelling “your father’s a drunk!” It actually looks pretty awesome. Jericho suplexes Punk from the apron to the floor, which looked great. Match surprisingly slows to a crawl. It’s not a bad wrestling match, but it is surprisingly how the crowd really isn’t into it. Unfortunately, I think they were burned out emotionally from Taker vs. HHH, and it’s hard to buy Punk’s anger here. Excellent Lionsault into the Walls of Jericho, even if bother were countered. Codebreaker is an awesome move. Very nice impact on the Lionsault. That’s one of the downfalls of the move as it often looks okay at best, but it looked great here. Punk goes for the hurricanrana…and Jericho stops it and locks in the Walls of Jericho! Great counter that woke up the crowd! Punk’s flying clothesline is countered into a Codebreaker! Nice spots! Punk gets ready for the GTS, and Jericho counters into the Old School Walls of Jericho (which I would consider the Lion Tamer). Coulda bought it as a finish for sure. Really cool Anaconda Vise sequence where Jericho kept getting pin attempts. CM Punk retains the title in 22:38. Punk gets Jericho in the center of the ring with the Vise this time. No way out for Jericho and he taps. Despite some odd points towards the beginning, the match owned otherwise. They should have just the straight wrestling match without all the silly anger stuff. Main events are coming through for sure. We get Brodus Clay. He tells the fans to call their mama’s on their phone. Then Brodus’s “mama and her bridge club” come out and dance to the Funkasauras music. An absolute waste of time. If I were Sheamus or Daniel Bryan I would have quit the company on the spot. The Rock vs. John Cena We get some musical performance from MG Kelly and Flo Rida and a whole lot of other people that should have also had Sheamus and Bryan thinking about quitting. In all seriousness, obviously they’d not quit over this, but they should have been offended over this. Some world title. What a shame since Sheamus and Bryan tore it up next month. They get booed. And then the real boos come out, here comes John Cena! You would think if WWE wanted him to get at least a 50-50 reaction they wouldn’t dress him up in Boston Celtic green in Miami but what do I know. Nice strategy from The Rock, making Cena listen to Flo Rida first. No wonder he won. Here it is. A year of build-up. All this “both legends in their prime” thing is a little off. No way The Rock in in his prime. This definitely has a huge match feel for sure. Cena does get some “Let’s Go Cena” chants. This is a pretty good back and forth match, with both guys trying to see who’s got what. Fans are really in this the whole way. First AA Rock kicks out of, of course. Rock Bottom! Kick out! This is the kinda thing that bothered me about this match. Cena hits his top rope legdrop when Rock was coming up, a standard move, and he’s shocked it didn’t beat Rock. That doesn’t fit the context of the match. Rock’s sharpshooter was always a thing of beauty…lol. Cena’s STF is so terrible. The People’s Elbow was a good false finish. Rock actually hits the crossbody off the top, something he hadn’t done since 1997, and Cena rolls though with an AA. Great false finish as Rock kicks out! The Rock pins John Cena in 33:34. Cena mocks Rock and goes for a People’s Elbow…but Rock gets up and hits the Rock Bottom for three! A lot better of a match than I remember it, pretty good back and forth contest of two wrestlers of their level. The image of Cena sitting on the ramp a loser is pretty strong. This of course set up Cena-Rock II. Well, this is an interesting show as the main events all delivered and everything else was there. All three main events delivered big time too, especially Taker vs. HHH. Historically, it didn’t do too much it was meant to do. CM Punk’s reign kept going, Cena got his revenge next year (although was nearly killed by Lesnar on the way), Taker and HHH unended an era? No one really got over any more than they were coming into Wrestlemania. Except Daniel Bryan. It’s a huge blunder on this show, the whole Sheamus-Bryan incident. Forget about Bryan for a second, he was getting over at some point no matter what. Sheamus has been ruined for years now. They ran with him through 2012 and he was booed throughout. Fast forward to 2013 when Cena is about to choose his Summerslam opponent and he asks the crowd about Sheamus while fans wanted Bryan. People still haven’t forgotten. This could have been an A, but it drops to An A- with the Bryan stuff, and down to a B+ as the first hour wasn’t good AND the Brodus Clay and musical acts were just a slap in the face to the World Title. Final Grade: B+ |
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4:46 AM Jul 11
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4:46 AM Jul 11