WWE Raw Live Report From Nashville - February 24, 2009

Preshow notes. Doors opened just after 5:30 and we were in our seats before 6:00. Arena was mostly full. Even the upper deck was mostly full. There was a part of it that was tarped off but it was one of the bigger crowds in Nashville in a while. Quite a bit of different merchandise at the show. Wow, t-shirts are now $30. Too expensive for me especially with that annoying WWE authentic patch on it.

ECW. The show opened at 6:45 with Kofi Kingston being the first one out. He took on Ryan Braddock. Braddock did a promo before the match saying that he was going to main event WrestleMania 27. Solid match. Kofi got the win. ECW was taped after this. It’s funny cause I haven’t watched a full show of ECW since the Smackdown/ECW tapings in Nashville back in September. DJ Gabriel and Alicia Fox made their way to the ring. Then, the lights went out and the WWE opening came up. The ECW pyro went off and the show was going. Then, Gabriel’s music went back up and they were introduced. His opponent was Mark Henry. Henry mostly dominated the match. Gabriel did get a little run of offense but Henry caught his move off the top rope and sent it into the world’s strongest slam for the win. Next was Tyson Kidd with Natalya taking on an enhancement guy. Kidd had my interest immediately when he was announced as from Calgary and wearing Hart colors along with being accompanied by Natalya. Wow, I really don’t pay attention to ECW considering I had no idea of him or that Natalya had been switched over. Kidd was trained in the Dungeon if you want to know. Kidd gets an easy win. The Tribute To The Troops music video then aired which looked and sounded incredible. I love seeing that video. Next was Tommy Dreamer taking on Paul Burchill with Katie Lea. Finish had The Boogeyman showing up and trying to drag Katie under the ring. Dreamer then hit a DDT on Burchill for the win. After the match, there was about 8-10 crew people that ran out to make sure they got all the worms cleaned up. They were done in probably 30 seconds tops. Next was the main event with Christian making his way to the ring first. Good reaction for him and I love the sound of the new version of his music. Jack Swagger made his way out and the match for the ECW championship was on. The match went back and forth a ton and the last five minutes of it really had the crowd waiting in anticipation of what the finish would be. There were a TON of near falls that had the crowd up. I was wondering myself who would win it. Swagger was able to send Christian shoulder first into the post which weakened Christian’s unprettier attempts. Swagger countered the last one into the gut wrench powerbomb for the win to retain the ECW title. Christian waved at the fans on his way from the ring and then the crew went into big time work to get the ring set up for Raw. The t-shirt guy came out and used the cannon to shoot shirts up into the crowd for about 10 minutes. It was to watch and filled time nicely. That has to be a fun job was what I was thinking. Fans were having fun. We had one shirt get close to us.

Raw. We went live at about 7:54 with the 30 second tease on USA previewing Raw. 8:00 came and the lights went out. Definite chills seeing that WWE promo opening up the show as the crowd was cheering. As the recap from last week was airing, Vickie Guerrero was sent into the ring. Good job on distracting cause I did not even see her make her way out. She announced that she was the GM for the night replacing Stephanie McMahon. She promised that she would do things right just like she does every week on Friday Night Smackdown. John Cena’s music hits and he gets a huge pop from the crowd. Very loud for his entrance. Cena goes on about how stunned he is over the Board Of Directors picking Vickie. He said that they should just bring back Adamle or even make Cole the GM. He then said that he wasn’t going to cry about it and welcomed her as GM just wanting her to do the right thing for the fans and not just for Edge. He said that he was cashing in his rematch clause for tonight. That then brought out Edge. I definitely went crazy for this surprise seeing him walking to the ring. I think I was one of the few fans of his in the arena but I made some noise. Ha ha. Yep, Edgehead since 1998. Big Show came to the ring with Edge. Edge complained about the match and said that he didn’t answer to Cena but answers to Vickie. Edge said that he felt bad for Cena cause he wants to be the loser guy that wants to have all the kids looking up to him. Edge said it will never happen with Cena being the greatest cause he is in the same era as himself which I thought was a good line. Show spoke up for Vickie wanting Cena to show respect to Vickie. Cena then asked where Show fit in in this equation and said he figured out referring to the love between all of them. Vickie then spoke up saying that she had chosen to put Cena in action tonight against either her friend or her family. Cena said that he would either be slaying a giant tonight or become the new world champion as he walked from the ring. Legacy was shown arriving backstage and they were looking all around for Triple H. First match of the night was the Money In The Bank qualifying match with CM Punk vs. Miz vs. Morrison. The briefcase hung over the ring as a reminder of what they were fighting for. It was a doubleteam for a while. There was an awesome spot in the match where Morrison did a shooting star off the apron which accidentally caught Miz. That looked really pretty in person. Miz was down on the floor for a while after that. Miz and Morrison eventually went at it when they each wanted the win. As Miz went to suplex Morrison back in the ring, Punk slid in and caught Morrision in the GTS. As he had him up, he used Morrison to knock Miz from the ring. Punk hit the GTS for the win and is going to Money In The Bank at WrestleMania 25. Punk then celebrated as he pointed to the WrestleMania sign. During the commercial, the WrestleMania music video from the My Network special set to Ladies and Gentlemen aired in the building. When they returned, we got to see the Triple H Smackdown interview once again which I thought was very good. Backstage segments aired with Grisham talking to Dibiase and Rhodes. Then, we got the funny segment of Santino meeting Dolph Ziggler and commenting on Dolph’s “abobinimals” instead of adominals. Funny. During this break, Grisham came out and the song “Signs” played over the sound system. Grisham had everyone hold up their signs as they put the best ones up on the screen. Fun segment and there were some clever ones. Some are in my sign of the night section. One girl had a sign that said “Cena Prom?”. Lots of good ones and it was a really fun way to fill up the commercial time. Next was Melina and Cryme Tyme taking on Santino, Beth, and Ziggler with Rosa. Good reaction to Melina and Cryme Tyme. I love the Melina entrance. Santino got a good pop too. Good comedy with Santino against Shad. He actually tried to tag out to Beth but then got pumped up and ran at Shad. Shad then hit a move on him and pinned him. Melina and Cryme Tyme get the win. Fun match. Shawn Michaels then appears up on the big screen walking through the back. In the building, WWE ran the WrestleMania 13 video package from a few weeks back. Back from commercial and the WWE WrestleMania 25 music video package airs set to Shoot To Thrill. Cena’s movie video did air in the building as it aired on TV as well. JBL’s music hits and the limo comes out on our side of the building. Yeah, just filling time until HBK’s music hits. Shawn Michaels music hits and he appears on the stage. Shawn’s entrance was a lot of fun and he was big time playing to the fans. Solid match and it was all about waiting to see Shawn win. JBL was on offense for a lot of it. One thing that looked nasty in person was Shawn taking that boot in the corner from JBL and then crashing on the floor. The finish had JBL sending Shawn over the top rope but Shawn skins the cat back into the ring. He turns around right into a clothesline. JBL then mocks Shawn and yells at him to get up. JBL then runs for the clothesline and then Shawn catches him with the superkick. Big pop from the crowd when he won. Shawn watched the replay of the finish up on the big screen. Shawn goes on to WrestleMania to face The Undertaker. Or does he? Kozlov makes his way to the ring. Shawn and Kozlov stare off. Shawn lands a couple of punches but then Kozlov picks Shawn up and slams him. Kozlov stands over Shawn and then left. It was later announced that Shawn will have to face Kozlov next week on Raw with the winner moving on to face Undertaker. Jamie Noble entered the ring during the commercial break. Upon return from the break, WWE aired a video piece on last year’s WrestleMania. Really well produced and it was fun to watch in the building. Noble was in the ring watching it as well. He then cut a small promo saying that he would last longer than he did last week. His opponent, Mike Knox. Yeah, no reaction to Knox. No one even stood up. Knox defeated Noble in 29 seconds as they timed it on the screen. Scary moment with the finish as Noble landed really badly hurting his neck. I didn’t even notice that Noble was down as WWE went to the video screen. They showed the video package of Ricky Steamboat as he was announced as the latest 2009 Hall Of Fame inductee. The video package was so great!! It was great to see the Steamboat/Savage match footage. I still say it is the greatest Intercontinental title match ever. I got chills watching the footage of the Steamboat/Flair match from Chi-Town Rumble 1989. Definitely a big round of applause for Steamboat and it was an honor to get to pay tribute to him live. It was then that I noticed that Noble was still down in the ring. A stretcher had been brought to the ring and the officials were not moving Noble. They had a brace on his neck and WWE was scrambling during the commercial break. It was clear that Noble wasn’t going to be out of the ring in time for the break to be over. They rushed Michael Cole up on to the stage to conduct the interview with Ricky Steamboat. Ricky Steamboat was introduced and it was an honor to give him a standing ovation. So great to see him. Steamboat thanked the fans saying that if it weren’t for the fans, he couldn’t have achieved this great honor. Chris Jericho’s music hit and interrupted him. Jericho thanked the Academy for not voting for Mickey Rourke to win the Oscar. He then said that Steamboat was just like all of the other legends that couldn’t leave the business except that Steamboat was working behind the scenes in the company. He continued to bash on Steamboat and his career. Steamboat fired back at how Jericho could never make up his mind on whether he liked the fans or not. He told a great story of how Jericho was a hypocrite and one of those fans years ago that met him and got his autograph as a kid. That is a true story by the way. It is in Jericho’s book and a good story. Steamboat said that Jericho had called him his hero. He said that Jericho never being able to make his mind up on how to treat the fans was being a hypocrit while adding that he himself never turned on the fans. Steamboat then said that he was something that Jericho may never be and that was a Hall of Famer. Jericho then had enough and punched Steamboat in the head with the mic as he yelled at him. This was an awesome segment!! What about Noble? Near the end of the segment, they rolled Noble off to the left of the stage to the backstage area. Definitely a lot of concern for him among all of us. After this segment, the commercial break seemed to go on forever. I noticed that at one point, the big screen went from black to having just a close shot of the ring. That screamed technical issues and sure enough it was. The commercial break went long and WWE played the Jeff Hardy “Rooftops” music video for all of us. It sounded and looked awesome in the building. I was looking at the clock at this point seeing the time thinking how are we going to fit in a possible Cena/Edge or a Cena/Show match along with the Triple H/Orton segment into just about 20 minutes. Next up was John Cena making his way back to the ring. Vickie Guerrero announced that the world title match would not be taking place tonight. Cena then said that he would be following her everywhere she goes until he got his title shot. She said that he would be facing family tonight and his opponent was named as Chavo Guerrero. My first thought is squash match and that was how we were going to fit this all in in time. Cena won with the attitude adjuster followed by the submission tap out. Cut to backstage and we see Legacy leaving their locker room with Orton with sledgehammer in hand. Legacy made their way to the ring and Orton said that he was standing right there waiting for Triple H to show up. Orton said that he was a victim and that he just wanted to move on with his career but the McMahons wouldn’t get out of his way. He justified what he had done over the weeks with his IED. Orton said that he hoped Triple H’s kids were watching last week so they could learn from their mother’s mistakes. Big pop from the fans as we saw up on the screen that Triple H was walking through the back. Big anticipation in the building waiting for him to walk through. No music for his entrance. He just walked through in his street clothes carrying the sledgehammer. He looked awesome up on the stage as he stared down Orton. Triple H slowly made his way to the ring. Orton talked saying for them to drop the sledgehammers and settle things like men. Orton dropped his and then Triple H dropped his. Triple H walked in the ring and Legacy slowly started surrounding him. As Triple H took off his jacket, we all cheered. Why? He had his back to us and we saw the sledgehammer tucked in on his back. As Legacy approached, Triple H pulled out the sledgehammer and took a swing at Orton who ducked. He caught Rhodes with it and then slid out after Orton. One wild swing missed Orton but he got the table with it. Triple H then chased out Orton as we all watched on our feet in the building. The lights dimmed out in the building so we could watch all the happenings on the screen backstage. Orton and Dibiase locked themselves in a room and put the couch in front to block it. Triple H beat the door down with the sledgehammer and then throwing himself into it along with kicking it. Triple H got in the room. He caught Dibiase with a couple of hammer shots. He backed Orton into in front of the mirror. A wild swing broke the mirror as Orton ran. Orton and Dibiase ran back down the backstage area with the talent watching. Orton and Dibiase then pick up pipes ready to fight and say forget it and run. We all laughed in the building at that. Cody is waiting with the car and they jump in. They don’t get away unharmed though as Triple H swings and shatters one of the back seat windows. The car speeds away and he throws the sledgehammer at it. WOW!! What a finish. It was incredible to watch this in the building.

After the show. As the show ended, Vickie walked back out immediately announcing that a world title match was set to take place. It would be Edge defending against John Cena. Edge made his way to the ring. His pyro went off while he stood in the ring. Cena entered and got another big pop. Show made his way to the ring as well standing in Edge’s corner. Match didn’t go for a very long time. Cena went for the five knuckle shuffle and Show tripped him up bouncing off the ropes. Show pulled him out and the ref called for the DQ. A doubleteam on Cena went on. Cena avoided the spear and then turned into a chokeslam attempt. He avoided it and took out Big Show. Cena then hit the attitude adjustor on to Edge and that was it. Edge and Show bailed as Cena celebrated for the fans. Cena made his way down the aisle greeting the fans as he carried the world title. He held the world title up on the stage and walked out. That was the ending of the show at around 10:30.

Other notes from Raw. It really is interesting to see how many families are making their way back to WWE shows and it is really nice to see. There were a LOT of kids there last night. One of the more louder Nashville crowds as of late. The crowd was just kind of eh for the most part through ECW not really getting into anything. The crowd got into the Mark Henry/Gabriel match near the end when Henry got the win. The crowd was really into the Christian/Swagger match with all the near falls. Cena got a huge pop from the fans. The kids and the women love him. We had two kids over to the right of us with their Cena gear on complete with championship belts. No Lillian Garcia which was a bummer. Justin Roberts did the announcing for Raw. The Triple H/Randy Orton segment was great. We watched the chase up on the screen as they ran backstage. They turned the lights off in the building and had the sound cranked up in the building so you could literally feel the bass out of the sound system on every shot of Triple H swinging the sledgehammer or kicking the door. It sounded awesome and the crowd was eating it up in the building. Big cheer when he took out the window as Orton and crew sped off. The Steamboat/Jericho segment was awesome!! It was one of the things that I was completely glued to throughout the night. We just stood and took it all in. The WrestleMania 25 promo that aired set to "Shoot To Thrill" sounded incredible in the building. How funny was it when Cena said that Michael Cole could constantly say “vintage Michael Cole” when he was GM? That was what I had mentioned with his commentary a few weeks back. WWE loves that shot of the camera from inside Tootsie’s across the street and then walking outside to show the arena. They did the same shot at Smackdown back in September. It looked cool then and looked cool at Raw. It was funny seeing the ECW promo airing in the building for Christian vs. Swagger when we had just seen the match. Vickie Guerrero is a heat magnet. She was getting such big boos that I couldn’t even hear her at one point. Her “excuse me” is hilarious and we were cracking up. No Mickie James??!! I noticed that the WrestleMania 24 recap video had been reedited to have the World title match ending the music video. I love seeing the Tribute To The Troops music video in the building. The screen around the video turned to red, white, and blue while they were showing it. There were a lot of military guys from nearby Fort Campbell in attendance. Seeing that video always brings out emotions in praying for all of the military that are fighting for us. Seeing a Raw in the Road To WrestleMania was very fun and made the show even more important and we just had the feeling that big things would happen on the show. Fun to see the big WrestleMania logo hanging in the building. The advertised dark match had been Cena vs. Orton but I knew we weren’t going to get that when Orton ran out of the building. I wasn’t sure we were going to get a dark match but Edge was definitely a nice replacement for me.

Line Of The Night: “You all the sudden got a dose of courage cause you’re standing in the ring with a barbaric, disgusting 400 pound beast…and of course you brought the Big Show out too.” Cena to Edge referring to Vickie Guerrero.

Signs of the Night:
Chuck Norris Can See John Cena
Randy Orton Hit List: (check) Vince. (check) Shane. (check) Stephanie. (unchecked) Linda.
Hey Mom, does HD make me look fat

That is it for my Raw live report. Hope that you enjoyed it!! Really fun show and quite a bit of happenings on it. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!

No Way Out Results, Raw & Smackdown Thoughts, Christian Returns On ECW, & More - February 16, 2009

Welcome to the “I think Triple H is about to lay down a major beating to Randy Orton next week on Raw” edition of The Wrestling List.

News for the week. WWE News: Christian returned to WWE TV last week and I’ll talk about it later in the List. More inductions for the 2009 Hall Of Fame. The latest names include Terry and Dory Funk Jr which was announced on Raw tonight. Dusty Rhodes will induct them. You have to like the class by Terry Funk who commented recently that he is not worthy of the induction. Yes, you are Terry. Without a doubt!! The WWE Draft will be returning once again as it appears to be happening on the April 13 edition of Raw. There was big news last week from My Network TV. They are now going to become a rerun type network. The exception is WWE Friday Night Smackdown. That is the only program of theirs that will continue to be original programming. Things are definitely not looking good for that network if they are already going this route. Smackdown has done big business for the network obviously and has single handedly carried them to ratings success.

All right. Starting with last week’s Smackdown. Edge and Vickie opened the show with Edge talking about how he injured his neck last week due to the tombstone from The Undertaker. He laid the blame on Big Show for leaving him. Vickie said that she decided to keep Edge out of action for the night after consulting with his doctors so he could compete at No Way Out. Show made his way to the ring and mocked Edge while also adding that he was looking forward to beating up Edge on Sunday. He told Edge to do something instead of always relying on Vickie. Vickie made a fatal four way main event with Undertaker vs. Triple H vs. Big Show vs. Kozlov. That match finished the show. Good action in it including the faceoff of Triple H and Undertaker. The finish had Triple H hitting the pedigree on to Kozlov. Undertaker then hit the tombstone on Triple H. Show hit the chokeslam on Undertaker. Then, Edge jumped in the ring and hit a spear on to Show causing the DQ. Edge then held the title over his head as the show ended. Jeff Hardy returned to Smackdown following the attack by his brother. Big ovation for him. It was short comments from Jeff as Jeff said that brothers should have your back and didn’t know what was wrong with Matt. As Jeff talked, this music played that was what played with Matt’s comments a couple of weeks ago. Pictures of them over the years were shown. Jeff talked about how he had great memories of him and Matt watching the Rumble over the years but now the only memory that he had of the Rumble forever was betrayal. Jeff said he was moving on and concentrating on the chamber match on Sunday. MVP and Chavo Guerrero ended in a DQ finish when Shelton got involved and attacked MVP. Chavo then got up and hit the frog splash on to MVP to insinuate that he wanted a US title shot at Shelton. Miz and Morrison defeated The Colons when Morrison hit his finisher on Primo for the win. The stipulation set before the match was that the Bellas would go on a date with the winner of the match. So, get ready for some entertaining Bellas/Miz & Morrison date clips. R Truth defeated Zeke following a rollup. Maria got a win on Michelle McCool when Eve arrived to cause a distraction leading to Maria with the rollup from behind for the win. Before that, Michelle was really hammering Maria’s leg after she slammed it on top of one of the ropes. Michelle was quick to point out that Maria had help and that was the only reason for the win.

Other notes from Smackdown. I liked the moment of Jeff walking into the building backstage and getting greetings from the talent as he walked down the hall. I thought that was good. How cool was the spinebuster by Triple H on to Undertaker followed by Undertaker sitting up a few seconds later? I liked JR’s comment talking about the slow motion effect of Miz and Morrison’s entrance comparing it to himself entering the kitchen every morning.

WWE’s No Way Out PPV was last night and I’m hearing really good things about it. Match of the night seemed to be the opener, the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match. How about that for an opener? There were big happenings on the show. Jeff Hardy and Edge were the first entrants in the chamber. Hardy ended up pinning Edge early on which meant a new champion would be crowned. The next order of entrants in the chamber was Kozlov, Big Show, Triple H, and then Undertaker. Undertaker eliminated Kozlov hitting him with the last ride. Undertaker superplexed Big Show which then was followed by a swanton from Hardy off of one of the pods and pinned Show. Undertaker eliminated Hardy with a tombstone. That brought it down to Triple H and Undertaker which was a huge showdown. The finish had Taker going for the last ride but Triple H was able to avoid it hitting the pedigree for the win. Triple H is the new WWE champion and this is his 13th title reign. Edge was then shown backstage furious over losing the title to which Vickie basically said that it was his own fault. Randy Orton defeated Shane McMahon in the no holds barred match. The finish had Shane going for the head kick on Orton but Orton avoided it hitting the RKO for the win. Jack Swagger defeated Finlay with a power bomb to retain the ECW title. Shawn Michaels had his wife at ringside for his match against JBL with the stipulation of Shawn getting all the money promised and being done with JBL if he won. If JBL won, he owned Shawn forever. Shawn won the match following the superkick and is done with JBL. The last match of the night was the Raw Elimination Chamber match. This match changed early when Edge took out Kofi Kingston as Kofi was on his way to the ring. Edge destroyed him with a chair and then ran into the pod shutting himself in it. Jericho and Rey Mysterio started the match and then was followed by Kane a few minutes later. Rey eliminated Kane following a dive from one of the pods. Mike Knox was the next person into the match. Jericho then eliminated Knox following a codebreaker. Edge was the next one into the match and after that John Cena. Cena wasn’t in the match for long as he was hit by a codebreaker, 619, and then a spear by Edge who pinned him eliminating him. This meant that a new World champion would be crowned. Rey was able to counter the walls of Jericho into a pin eliminating Jericho. This brought it down to a final two of Edge and Rey. Edge was hit with a 619 but was able to avoid Rey’s next move sending Rey crashing into one of the pods. Edge pinned Rey to win the match and the World title. Wow!! Some definite changes happening leading up to WrestleMania. The question was how would these title changes change up Raw and Smackdown.

Tonight’s Raw didn’t provide us with many answers just yet on the champions situation but one thing was clear, Randy Orton is about to get a beating from Triple H cause I’ve never seen that look on Triple H’s face before!! Ha ha. Edge and Vickie opened Raw where he gloated about his win and told the fans how wrong they all were calling him a loser after he lost the belt last night. He then ran around ringside pointing at all the people that were wrong which was hilarious. Vickie explained that when Stephanie left with Shane to the hospital last night that she became the next highest person in charge and said someone had to replace Kofi in the chamber match. She felt Edge deserved it the most. The decision stands and Edge is the official new World champion. John Cena arrived and congratulated Edge on his win saying that he had to give it to him for pulling it all off and winning fair and square. He then said that he didn’t like it though and wanted a rematch. Edge said that he just wrestled in two chamber matches which no one had ever done and wasn’t wrestling tonight. He said that if Cena wanted him, come to Smackdown looking for them. Edge pointed out their history and then mocked him. That set off Cena who grabbed him and told him that he will find him and hurt him. The other major storyline of the night revolved around Shane McMahon asking for a fight with Orton tonight with Legacy banned from the fight. Orton accepted and that was the main event of the night. Stephanie pleaded with Shane not to do it cause of how hurt he was after last night including his hospital stay. Stephanie was later seen on the phone pleading with someone about hurrying and getting there to stop this from happening. The fight goes on and Shane gets the best of him for a while including the fight going out deep into the floor level. The fight ends up back at ringside with Shane getting nailed into the table and the steps. Orton stays on offense for a while after that but Shane makes a desperation dive on to Orton sending him crashing over the table. Shane nails Orton with the ring bell twice and sets up a chair in the corner going for a Van Terminator. As Shane climbs the turnbuckle, Dibiase and Rhodes attack Shane. Cody hits his finisher and then Orton sets for the kick. He nails Shane with the kick and Shane is out. Stephanie runs down to the ring as does the paramedics to check on Shane. Shane is put in a neckbrace as Stephanie cries while Orton stands over Shane. Stephanie cries to Orton over what he just did and then he hits the RKO on Stephanie. Orton immediately falls down in the corner shocked over what just occurred. The crowd pops as Triple H runs into the ring and Legacy bails. Triple H checks on Stephanie. He then starts shaking and nears tears as he looks at Orton on the ramp who looked terrified. I can’t remember ever seeing this look on Triple H’s face before so that all played pretty well on TV. It left me thinking that Orton was about to get beaten down pretty badly!! Wait for the beatdown next week to occur. Other happenings on Raw. Chris Jericho continued to talk about Mickey Rourke and how he didn’t want Rourke to win the award cause it would encourage more washed up legends to return. Out comes Rowdy Roddy Piper who spoke against Jericho saying that he used to like Jericho cause he could talk and then back it up. He said that Jericho only judges and runs his mouth now. Piper said that the movie was about the respect for everyone in the business and about the thrill of performing for the fans. Piper went on to say that he would perform for the fans even if he had to crawl to the ring if they wanted to see him adding that old school is cool. Piper extended his hand to Jericho but then Jericho kicked him in the leg and proceeded to continue kicking while he yelled at Piper to crawl. Really good segment and Piper showed again why he is one of the best talkers ever. JBL made an announcement that he wanted to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania saying that he now had a bigger goal than his original and that was to end the streak. Shawn Michaels made his way out and mocked JBL throughout. The Hearbreak Kid was definitely back. Shawn said that it was Mr. WrestleMania who deserved the shot at The Undertaker. Shawn challenged him to a match next week on Raw where the winner will face Undertaker and JBL accepted. Priceless and William Regal defeated CM Punk and Cryme Tyme when Dibiase hit his finisher on JTG for the win. Melina defeated Beth Phoenix to retain the women’s title. Mickie, Kelly, and Candice made their way to the ring to even the odds against Rosa and Santino. That led to the distraction of Beth and Melina rolled her up for the win. Kane won a squash on Jamie Noble. Rey Mysterio defeated Mike Knox with a rollup out of the corner.

Other notes from Raw. Edge on two shows instead of one!! That is a good thing people. Yeah, all of you people that said he was a loser, you were wrong, wrong, wrong. Ha ha. I love his told you so speeches as of late. That character is such a jerk. I love it!! Ha ha. He’s my second current favorite behind Shawn. Yeah, you already knew that though. Edgehead since 1998. Great to see Rowdy Roddy Piper on Raw. Loved it!!! I’m thinking that we’re going to see Rourke next week on Raw possibly especially with the Academy Awards being over and I’m wondering what other legends may show up to confront Jericho. How great was it to see Shawn Michaels back in full form this week? The dance and the attitude was back and I loved it. HBK was back. Him poking JBL over and over just like last week was hilarious. Funny stuff when Edge told that kid that when he grew up that he was going to be wrong too. The kid got a laugh out of it too. That Saturday Night’s Main Event DVD promo was very cool. Classic stuff!! JTG was looking good on offense on that hot tag in the six man tag match. The WrestleMania moment this week was on WrestleMania IX. Yeah, not a very good WrestleMania. Very little that was memorable on that show. As a Hulkamaniac, I was thrilled with the ending of the show as a kid. I loved the ECW promo just seeing the Christian stuff. Funny that they were using the Disturbed theme for Austin’s HOF graphic. For a while, they didn’t use that music on the DVD’s and WWE 24/7 and replaced it with his other theme song. I loved the Disturbed theme song and like it better than any of his theme songs.

Announced for next week’s Raw in Nashville is Shawn Michaels vs. JBL with the winner facing The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25.

I’m assuming that we’re going to get a Shawn Michaels/Undertaker match at WrestleMania. Of course, I could be wrong. I know nothing as far as WWE’s WrestleMania plans. That is obvious considering the events of No Way Out. If it is Shawn and Undertaker, I think Undertaker has to win. I love Shawn Michaels but I love Undertaker having that streak. If Undertaker does ever lose to end the streak, Shawn is the one to do it though. After all of this speculation, watch JBL win. If JBL did win, what do you do with Shawn for WrestleMania?

Christian returns……on ECW. I didn’t see that coming. Not sure how that works out for Christian either. I just felt that bringing him back on Smackdown would have had a lot more momentum to it putting him around Edge and the Hardys. He did get a pop when he came out to confront Jack Swagger. He also did get a non title win on Swagger. Christian is using his old music. Well, sort of. The song is the same but it has been mixed and now has a male singer to it. Great to see him back anyway!! And, the peeps rejoice!!

Tomorrow night’s ECW main event will be Christian and Finlay against Jack Swagger and Mark Henry.

Stevie Richards appeared on last week's TNA Impact. If he is sticking around, I hope they do good things with him.

Here is a shocker but a good one!! WWE now has plans to release a Randy Savage DVD set once again. The release date is June 9th and will include a ton of Savage matches. This set has been off and on the future DVD release list for years now. For a future Wrestling List, I ought to make my own list of Savage matches that I would like to see included on the set. This will be a must buy set. Yeah, don’t expect for Savage to be returning for the set. Of course, who knows? I’m just saying that WWE is still very cold to him for some reason.

I did watch a fun NWA show from 1986 on Sunday. A very nice angle was on that show where the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette attacked The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering. Fun stuff.

Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!

Raw & Smackdown Thoughts, Saturday Night's Main Event DVD Lineup, No Way Out Preview - February 10, 2009

Last night's Raw was the last Raw before the No Way Out PPV this Sunday. Solid show. The show opened with Ric Flair. Flair put over how happy that he was to be back on Raw. Chris Jericho interrupted and showed a video of them embracing at Flair's Raw farewell tribute. Jericho said that he never would have done it if he had known then what he knew now about Flair not being able to get out of the business and relinquish the spotlight. Flair said he wouldn't have done it either if he knew what a punk that Jericho was. Flair went on to say that he would never step back in the ring out of respect for WWE and for Shawn Michaels. Jericho said that Flair needed the spotlight to which Flair said yes, cause he was the nature boy. That was funny stuff. He went on to say that he was doing appearances and all for the fans cause he wanted to give back to them. Jericho went on to say that the talent respected him more than they do Flair and wanted Flair to rip on the fans cause he was better than the fans. Flair gave an emphatic no and about a minute later, he punched Jericho. Jericho bailed out and left as Flair strutted around the ring. Good segment. Randy Orton spoke about Stephanie and how she shouldn't be worried that he was going to hurt her because he wanted her around to see another McMahon taken out which referenced Shane this Sunday. The main event had Randy Orton taking on The Undertaker. Stephanie watched from the monitor in her office. The finish had Undertaker having Orton up for the tombstone. Cody and Dibiase jumped in the ring and attacked The Undertaker causing the DQ. It was a triple team on Undertaker. Shane ran in and attacked Orton. Undertaker got up and delivered chokeslams while Orton bailed out. Shane then sent a message to Orton nailing the Van Terminator on Dibiase as he kicked the trash can. Shawn Michaels was put in a match with Mark Henry by JBL as a tuneup match for this Sunday. The match was short. Shawn got a chair from under the ring. Henry blocked the chair attempt and the ref called for the bell. Shawn then superkicked the chair at Henry. JBL got in the ring saying that Shawn had better abide by rules on Sunday or he would own Shawn. JBL continued to bait Shawn by saying that he should bring his wife to show what a broken down man that he is and also added that he would always have a job for a beautiful lady in the office as well. Shawn was furious but could do nothing. Chris Jericho, Kane, and Mike Knox defeated the team of John Cena, Kofi Kingston, and Rey Mysterio. Kofi went for a springboard move but got hit with the codebreaker in mid air with Jericho pinning him. Good match. CM Punk retained the Intercontinental title against William Regal when he pinned him following the GTS. Priceless defeated Cryme Tyme when Cody hit the crossrhodes on to JTG for the pin. Beth and Jillian defeated Melina and Kelly. Rosa tripped up Melina in the ropes which led to Beth hitting the slam for the win.

Other notes from Raw. Already announced for next week's show is Melina defending the women's title against Beth Phoenix. Was it me or were the fans a little more riled up at Jericho last night than they have been? Anything to do with that fan incident on Sunday? Probably. Still impressive that Shane can hit that Van Terminator. No one still does it like Rob Van Dam though. These WWE facts just continue to crack me up. I look forward to reading them just for the ridiculousness of them. The one last night was that WWE's Voices CD was the #1 soundtrack defeating soundtracks from Twilight and Slumdog Millionaire. Again, it is really great that you are defeating soundtracks that have been out for MONTHS!! How great were the looks back at WrestleMania 3 and 13??!! That Austin/Bret match is still incredible and WrestleMania 3 is just that immortal event that just leaves you in awe when you see it.

On to Smackdown. First, I saw the previous week's Smackdown. I liked the Matt Hardy promo to open the show. His reasoning of turning on Jeff was basically that he was tired of taking care of him while Jeff got all the attention. I also loved Edge coming out and saying "I told you so". I thought that was hilarious with him saying that he had been telling everyone that he had nothing to do with what was happening with Jeff. Ok, now on to last week's Smackdown. Solid show which opened with a battle royal to set the last qualifier for the Elimination Chamber. Vickie announced that Jeff would have a spot if he was able to be there. The battle royal came down to a final four of Kozlov, The Colons, and R Truth. Kozlov dumped both Colons and then headbutted Truth later throwing him out. Kozlov gets the last Chamber spot. Other happenings in the battle royal had Khali doing a lot of eliminating while MVP eliminated Shelton Benjamin. The main event of the night was Triple H and Undertaker teaming together against Edge and Big Show. Edge and Show have been not getting along very well with Show continuing to push Edge's buttons. Edge almost took a pedigree at one point and bailed out of the ring. Show looked at Edge and gave him a "that was that close" to a pedigree. Edge and Show would argue at the end. Edge shoved him and then Show gave him the knockout punch. Undertaker got the tag and hit the tombstone on to Edge for the win as Show walked off. Shane Helms did an interview with Grisham about how disgusted that he was over what Matt had done to Jeff since they all got into wrestling together. He was so proud that Jeff had made their group of friends all proud and he was furious that Matt had ruined it for him. He said that Matt had always had an ego. He called out Matt saying that he was looking for him. After the break, Matt was in the ring calling out Helms saying that there was no need to look for him cause he was there in the ring. Helms made his way to the ring and the fight was on. They brawled around ringside. Matt tried to get away over the barricade at one point but Helms pulled him back. Helms ended up getting thrown into the steps. Matt got him in the ring and trapped his arms and proceeded to just throw elbows repeatedly into Helms head knocking him out. Matt then walked out and left. Cool stuff with Matt. MVP got a non title match win over Shelton Benjamin. The finish had them hitting head to head. MVP was able to recover and nail him with a kick for the win. Miz, Morrison, and Kendrick defeated R Truth and The Colons when Miz distracted Carlito leading to Kendrick hitting the kendrick for the win. Eve made her in ring debut taking on Michelle McCool. They played up Eve's lack of experience with Michelle faking a problem with her eye leading her to attack Eve. Michelle won when she did a leg drag from the turnbuckle and turned it into a leg submission hold getting her to submit. Umaga won his second squash match in a row defeating Kung Fu Naki. He defeated Jimmy Wang Yang last week.

Other notes from Smackdown. They promoted that Jeff Hardy would be returning on this week's Smackdown. JR interviewed Matt where Matt said that he didn't have a brother anymore like he said last week. Matt also warned that Jeff might not show up cause Jeff tends to have things happen to him. Matt said he'd be ready and waiting for him. It's wild that WWE is pushing MVP as a face now. I'm just glad that he is winning again. Hopefully, they keep pushing him. I like his overhead throw move that he has going. Looks good. Isn't it wild to hear Edge's championship stats? He is a 7 time WWE champion now and this was his 43rd overall championship. Wow, impressive stats. Hey, Kizarny is back on TV. (crickets). Seriously, what a bad gimmick. How did WWE not know that gimmick was doomed from the beginning?

WWE.com has posted plenty of information on the new Legends Of WrestleMania game including photos, a roster, and more. The game will be released on March 24th. Here is a link to check it out: http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/legendswrestlemania/?cid=2009EP-00

I picked up the new WWE Voices CD. That Randy Orton theme is just awesome!! Get the Best Buy version if you're buying cause you get an exclusive second disc with about 7 or 8 more songs on it.

WWE's Best Of Saturday Night's Main Event DVD set hits stores today. This is a must have for fans. I have been waiting for them to release a best of set. For any of you younger folks, Saturday Night's Main Event was our chance as fans to see big matches. The Saturday morning shows usually were squash matches and SNME was a chance to see Hulk Hogan and the bigger names have big matches. I always remember how excited I would be to look in the TV Guide to see what the lineup was going to be for each one. I spent many Saturday nights up late watching these shows. Here is the lineup of matches on it and my random comments about some of them.
WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. Cowboy' Bob Orton
Saturday Night's Main Event May 11, 1985

Uncle Elmer's Wedding
Saturday Night's Main Event October 5, 1985

Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff
Saturday Night's Main Event October 5, 1985

A Trip to the Zoo
Saturday Night's Main Event October 5, 1985

Gene Okerlund - Field Reporting

Halloween Contest
Saturday Night's Main Event November 2, 1985

WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Funk
Saturday Night's Main Event January 4, 1986

Randy Orton Reflects on his Dad

Boxing Match
Mr. T. vs. Cowboy Bob Orton
Saturday Night's Main Event March 1, 1986

Gene Okerlund - Settling the Score

Snake Pit Match
Jake the Snake Roberts vs. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat
Saturday Night's Main Event October 4, 1986

Jake the Snake Reflects on Saturday Night's Main Event

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Jake the Snake Roberts
Saturday Night's Main Event November 29, 1986

Gene Okerlund - The Steel Cage Match

Steel Cage Match
Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff
Saturday Night's Main Event January 3, 1987 (this is the classic cage match with the controversial finish)

Gene Okerlund - The 8th Wonder of the World

Battle Royal
Saturday Night's Main Event March 14, 1987 (Hogan and Andre clash before their WM 3 main event)

Natalya Neidhart Reflects on her Dad

Best 2 out of 3 Falls
Hart Foundation vs. British Bulldogs
Saturday Night's Main Event May 2, 1987

Gene Okerlund - Insurance Policy

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Honky Tonk Man vs. Macho Man Randy Savage
Saturday Night's Main Event October 3, 1987 (The classic moment of the forming of the Mega Powers. What a moment!!)

Mega Power Formation
Saturday Night's Main Event October 3, 1987

The Union of the Mega Powers

"Piledriver" Music Video
Saturday Night's Main Event October 3, 1987

Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Bret Hart
Saturday Night's Main Event November 28, 1987 (Very fun match)

Extras

* First Ever Match on SNME
Ricky Steamboat & The US Express vs. The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff & George The Animal Steele
Saturday Night's Main Event - May 11, 1985

* "Real American" Music Video
Saturday Night's Main Event - March 1, 1986

Disc 2

Gene Okerlund - Turning Back the Clock

WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy
Saturday Night's Main Event January 2, 1988

Gene Okerlund - The Rematch

WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant
Main Event February 5, 1988 (The moment of Hogan losing the WWF title after a four year reign with a HUGE TV audience watching on NBC)
Ted Dibiase Reflects on his Dad

Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Ted Dibiase
Saturday Night's Main Event March 12, 1988 (I always loved their matches and this is a solid one for sure)

Andre Passes Out
Saturday Night's Main Event March 12, 1988
(I'm thinking that the date on this is wrong cause if this is the passing out due to the snake, that happened on the October 29, 1988 SNME)

Hulk Hogan vs. The King Harley Race
Saturday Night's Main Event March 12, 1988

Gene Okerlund - Macho Madness

Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Andre the Giant
Saturday Night's Main Event November 26, 1988
(I remember being terrified as a kid worried that Savage was going to lose the title to Andre on this night cause of the size difference between the two)

Hacksaw Jim Duggan Reflects on His Flag Match
Saturday Night's Main Event November 26, 1988

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Ultimate Warrior vs. Honky Tonk Man
Saturday Night's Main Event January 7, 1989

Beefcake Shaves Ron Bass' head
Saturday Night's Main Event January 7, 1989

Gene Okerlund - A Supreme Alliance

Twin Towers vs. Mega Powers
Main Event February 3, 1989
(This is the night that the Mega Powers split up)

Gene Okerlund - A Grueling Encounter

Steel Cage Match for the WWE Championship
Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bossman
Saturday Night's Main Event May 27, 1989
(Very fun match and an incredible superplex from the cage)

Best 2 out of 3 Falls
Rockers vs. Brain Busters
Saturday Night's Main Event November 25, 1989
(Definitely watch this match)

Extras

* Brother Love Interviews Hulk Hogan
Saturday Night's Main Event - November 26, 1988

* Dusty Rhodes vs. Big Bossman - Sapphire's Debut
Saturday Night's Main Event - November 25, 1989

Disc 3

Gene Okerlund - Hogan vs. The Genius

Mr. Perfect & The Genius Smash the WWE Title
Saturday Night's Main Event November 25, 1989
(This was when they destroyed Hogan's title. Yeah, I was not a happy camper!!)

Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior vs. Mr. Perfect & The Genius
Saturday Night's Main Event January 27, 1990
(The show that had Hogan and The Warrior not getting along after a Warrior clothesline caught Hogan)

Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura on Horseback
Saturday Night's Main Event April 28, 1990

Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. Perfect
Saturday Night's Main Event April 28, 1990

Arrogance

Rockers vs. Hart Foundation
Saturday Night's Main Event April 28, 1990

Gene Okerlund - Intercontinental Competition

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Mr. Perfect vs. Tito Santana
Saturday Night's Main Event July 28, 1990

Oktoberfest
Saturday Night's Main Event October 13, 1990

20 Man Battle Royal
Saturday Night's Main Event April 27, 1991

Bret Hart vs. Ted DiBiase
Saturday Night's Main Event April 27, 1991

Gene Okerlund - FOX Takes Over

Undertaker & Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan & Sid
Saturday Night's Main Event February 8, 1992
(This was all about leading to WM8)

Roddy Piper Shocks The Mountie
Saturday Night's Main Event February 8, 1992

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels
Saturday Night's Main Event November 14, 1992
(Shawn's Intercontinental title win for the first time)

Gene Okerlund - The Return

Street Fight
Shawn Michaels vs. Shane McMahon
Saturday Night's Main Event March 18, 2006

RKO on Hulk Hogan
Saturday Night's Main Event July 15, 2006

5 on 2 Elimination Match
D-Generation X vs. Spirit Squad
Saturday Night's Main Event July 15, 2006

Gene Okerlund - One of the Greatest Rivalries in Sports

WWE Championship Match
Edge vs. John Cena
Saturday Night's Main Event July 15, 2006

Gene Okerlund - Television History

Extras

* Alfred Hayes & Gene Okerlund Go On Safari
Saturday Night's Main Event - July 28, 1990
* Shawn Michaels Talks About Winning His First Intercontinental Title
* Matt Hardy Talks About Boxing Evander Holyfield

Here is the preview for this Sunday's WWE No Way Out PPV. Both world titles will be up for grabs in separate Elimination Chamber matches. On the Raw side, John Cena defends the World title against Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston, Kane, and Mike Knox. On the Smackdown side, Edge defends the WWE title against The Undertaker, Jeff Hardy, Triple H, The Big Show, and Kozlov. Shawn Michaels takes on JBL in a winner take all match. If Shawn wins, he is free of JBL and gets all the money promised to him by JBL. If JBL win, he owns Shawn forever. Randy Orton takes on Shane McMahon in a no holds barred match. ECW Champion Jack Swagger defends against Finlay.

Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!

Raw Thoughts, WWE 24/7 February Preview, TNA PPV Preview, and More - February 3, 2009

Raw was an all right show. I didn't hate anything on it and they took the Orton angle to another level based on what McMahon he almost took out this time. Let's start from the beginning. The show opened with Shane McMahon who said that he had been approached by Orton's legal team last week but was surprised that there was no legal talk. Instead, Orton had challenged him to a match at No Way Out. Shane had accepted it and it will be no holds barred. Orton then walked out saying that Shane should ask himself how he single handedly beat up all three of them last week. Hey, I had the same question last week!! Orton said that he saw the face of Shane coming to the ring with a purpose but paid more attention to the roster on the ramp. Orton said he told the guys to not throw a punch and to just take the abuse cause they would have the whole roster on them if they did throw a punch. Orton then tried to set up Shane with looking like he was ready to fight. As he approached, Dibiase and Cody jumped in the ring but Shane was prepared grabbing a kendo stick and laying out some abuse with it. Later, Orton was seen talking to Legacy backstage. Later after that, Stephanie and Shane were seen walking backstage. They were both jumped by Legacy. Well, Steph just got knocked down and they all hammered Shane. However, this was what I was talking about with taking it to a different level. Orton started warming up for his kick and was going for Stephanie. Shane jumped in at the last second and took the kick in the stomach saving his sister. I thought that was a big angle. Orton then had a look of shock on his face again as he came to the realization of what had almost happened. We later saw Stephanie talking to Kane asking if it was a done deal. Kane was awarded a spot in the elimination chamber after he made a call to The Undertaker who Stephanie has Orton facing next week on Raw. John Cena wrestled Chris Jericho in the main event. Solid match. Lots of counter moves at the end. Cena did a cool reversal of the Walls Of Jericho into the STF for the tapout victory. JBL did a performance appraisal of Shawn Michaels seeing what kind of job performance that he had done for him. Shawn said that he had done everything he could and that it was JBL's fault that it wasn't working. JBL told Shawn that he had failed just like he had failed at his finances and his family. JBL said that he was thinking about releasing him while Shawn said all he wanted was to superkick him. JBL said that he'd be fired if he did that. He then offered Shawn a proposal. Winner take all at No Way Out. Shawn vs. JBL. If Shawn wins, he gets all the money that he was promised and he is a free man. If JBL wins, he owns Shawn's name forever and Shawn will have to work for him forever. Shawn wasn't sure whether to go for it or not. JBL then went with the family route asking if he wanted his kids to some day say to him, were we not worth fighting for? Shawn accepted the match. JBL continued to bait him with poking him and slapping him. Shawn was shaking and wanting to do something about it but ultimately just left. William Regal and Layla defeated CM Punk and Mickie James. Punk was on offense but then Layla stepped in the way of Regal on the floor. That was enough to get Regal on offense. Mickie took out Layla. Punk was crawling in the ring and got punted by Regal. That got him the pin. Regal and Punk will rematch for the Intercontinental title next week. Cryme Tyme against Priceless ended in a DQ when Priceless kept doubleteaming Shad in the corner. They then hit a DDT with Dibiase holding Shad's legs in the air while Cody delivered the DDT. Looked cool. Kane and Mike Knox defeated Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston. The finish had Rey going for the 619 on Kane but Knox caught him in mid air. Rey got away and had his springboard caught by Kane into a chokeslam with Kane getting the pin. Beth Phoenix defeated Candice Michelle. After the match, they told Rosa to attack Candice which she did. Nothing much else happened in that match. Chris Jericho talked about Mickey Rourke and the story of legends in the business not knowing when to get out mentioning Ric Flair and what he is doing now instead of going out gracefully after WrestleMania. It was announced that Flair will be on Raw next week from Oakland.

Other notes from Raw. This Raw was in St. Louis and let me tell you that the show in Cape was better than the one in St. Louis based on what I saw. I haven't seen ECW results but there were much better matches and action on the house show in Cape. House shows people. You need to go to them. They're fun. That shot from the upper deck after the opening pyro was really sweet!! Wasn't it ironic having Cena vs. Jericho in St. Louis when Cena's Raw debut on The Highlight Reel was in that building as well? Orton was definitely over in his hometown of St. Louis just like he was in Cape Girardeau. Did you see the "Where's X-Pac" sign? I also liked the JBL sign that was right in the middle of the ringside area opposite the main camera. Pretty funny. Did you see the sign that the guy had pointing to the kids that said "headbutt here" referencing Rey Mysterio and that they had on masks? Cool stuff there. Rey did go to them too. I haven't even really thought about the fact that WrestleMania 2 had the only steel cage main event in WrestleMania history. Nice little fact that I had overlooked. How cool was it to see the WrestleMania X segment with the look back at Owen/Bret and Shawn/Razor? That WrestleMania is one of the best ones ever based on those two matches. I don't watch ECW but that one guy that dances with Alicia Fox sure is a modern day looking Alex Wright. So, Cena's fireman's carry is now called the attitude adjustor. About time they named it. I liked the throwback name better. Very cool to see those stills of the show in Cape of Mike Knox winning the battle royal to get in the Elimination Chamber. I thought they would show video of it cause there was a guy recording it in the aisle.

I haven't seen Smackdown yet but hope to later in the week. So, I can't comment on it as I have yet to even read any reports of the show. Looking forward to seeing if they followed up on the Matt Hardy story of why he did what he did.

Chris Nowinski's group got some major press last week when their research showed that an 18 year old athlete was showing signs of brain damage after having several concussions. Nice to see that they are making major progress with their studies!! Here is a link to an article about it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-concussion28-2009jan28,0,7204581.story

If you've been watching AWA on ESPN Classic, they have switched back to airing UWF shows instead. Can they air World Class stuff??!! I'm wondering if they have the rights to air those like they do the AWA stuff. Please air World Class with music unedited!!

Here is the preview for WWE 24/7 programming for February. If you're around in this area, not sure if you're going to see it or not based on the ice storm. We'll just wait and see. The theme is Black History Month. Big Ones airing include WWE Vengeance 2002, WCW Bash At The Beach 2000, and WWE No Mercy 2008. Old School house shows airing include Philadelphia Spectrum (March 1987), MSG (December 1982). TV classics continue to air with ECW (August 1996), WCCW (June 1983), Monday Night Wars (Raw and Nitro from December 1997), NWA (September 1986), Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling (Debuting on WWE 24/7 with November 1981), WWF TNT (airing the last ever episode from September 1986), WWF Prime Time Wrestling (January 1988). The Hall Of Fame profile will be on Bobo Brazil. They will also be airing the new Rock DVD. Shorties for the month revolve around this month's theme.

Here is the lineup for this Sunday's TNA Against All Odds PPV. The main event has TNA Champion Sting vs. Kurt Angle vs. Brother Ray vs. Brother Devon. TNA Tag champions Beer Money against Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed. TNA Legends Champion Booker T taking on Shane Sewell. Knockouts Champion Awesome Kong vs. ODB. Petey Williams vs. Scott Steiner. Abyss vs. Matt Morgan. More matches announced on Impact. What does it say about TNA that I can't even tell you anything going on in that company? The shows that I listen to barely even talk about TNA unless it is to just make fun of the booking. Why can't this company be better?

That is all for today. Take care and God bless!!

WWE Raw House Show - Live Report From Cape Girardeau - 2/1/09

Well, look who is in that picture!!! It is the one and only Shawn Michaels. And I went crazy cheering when he came to the ring. People with me had fun watching my reaction to seeing him. Only the second time that I've seen him and I got to see him wrestle for the first time. I attended my 20th live event on Sunday afternoon at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. VERY fun show. I want to thank my crew that I had with me at the event. That is the most fun that I've had at an event in a while. We laughed so much and just had fun goofing off while enjoying the action.

We rolled into town around 1:00 and saw some of the superstars entering the building. We saw Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio entering into the building. Rey was signing autographs. The line to get in left everyone confused. They only opened up one entrance leading one single line looping all around the parking lot. The concern turned to whether people were going to be inside at the start time. They then opened up another set of doors in the front getting people in much quicker. We found our seats right at 2:00. We sat down and the show started. Incredible timing. I should point out first that this was a great crowd. There was a section up in section 108 that was making a lot of noise. They stood for most of the night and were loud. They made the show even more fun!! We even had this group of girls in front of us that were cheering for a lot of the heels as well.

The show opened with Tony Chimel making his way to the ring to the Raw theme song. He announced that there would be an Elimination Chamber qualifying battle royal on the show which I thought was a really cool idea giving house show attendees an exclusive. He also announced what I knew was coming and that was that John Cena was not there which was met with a round of boos. Cena was off of the lineup on the building's website but the local TV advertising still had him on it. Chimel said that fans could get a full refund if they wanted one by the time of the start of the second match. WWE has really got to stop advertising the big names and not delivering. I felt bad for the kids that were there wanting to see Cena and then not getting to see him. The show opened with Kofi Kingston coming to the ring. Good reaction to him from the fans. He took on Dolph Ziggler. Dolph opened the match talking and then the match was on. Kofi is fun to see live with all of his high flying moves. Kofi won the match with a spin kick to the head. Solid match. Next, Chimel introduced Mickie James who would be out and about in the crowd throughout the night. Her deal for the night was to pick some fans for various things throughout the night. We looked around for Mickie and she was just a few rows up from us. Her mic wasn't working so she had to yell what was going on. Chimel helped her out as well. She picked out a couple of kids to ask a trivia question to which was where the location of WrestleMania 25 is. They got it right and were moved up to front row seats. This brought us to the women's match of the afternoon with Melina defending the women's title against Beth Phoenix. Melina's splits entrance is fun to watch. Just incredible. The match was solid as well. Get ready for those comments to be a theme in this recap. The start of the match had Beth shaking Melina yelling at her to "give me back my title". The finish had Beth with a standing vertical suplex back into the ring but Melina countered it into a small package for the win. Melina celebrated while the ref had to hold back Beth from her frustration of the loss as she wanted to go at Melina. Beth stood in the ring for a bit very upset over the loss. The next match was a really fun one. On the announced lineup, Jack Swagger was supposed to defend the ECW title against Matt Hardy. It was understood that the match likely wouldn't happen cause it would make no sense now story line wise. So, the replacement was Tommy Dreamer challenging Swagger. Good ECW chant from the crowd especially up in section 108 which I of course jumped in on. I was thrilled to be cheering on Dreamer. Dreamer cut a promo before the match talking about his contract and how he has promised to win the title by the time his contract ends or he'll retire. He said that he was going to win the title that afternoon and that Cape would then see the biggest contract signing in history. I was thinking automatically that this match was unfortunately going to be a squash. I couldn't be more wrong. Very back and forth match and a lot of fun. Swagger kept taunting Dreamer to wrestle him on the mat. Swagger got down on all fours in the ring and then Dreamer just ran and kicked him which got a pop. Dreamer then proceeded to mock him with pushups and began dancing. Swagger ended up on the floor and Tommy ran off the apron doing a flip landing on Swagger. He jumped up on the rail yelling to the crowd "that's what I'm talking about". There was a lot of near falls toward the end of the match. The finish had Dreamer getting posted and then hit with a Swagger suplex for the win. I was so happy that the match was a good competitive one. That gets us to the next match. Rey Mysterio vs. Kane. Kane is just a monster in person. Rey got a big pop from the fans. It took him a while to get down the aisle as he was greeting the kids with the masks in the aisle. I believe he got every one of them. The size difference between the two of them is just wild. This match was a lot of fun. Kane's offense just looked nasty on Rey. I just have to think that the big guys love wrestling little guys cause they can do so many moves with such ease. At one point, Kane just wrapped Rey around the post and pulled him. Everything Kane hit on Rey looked nasty and we had a lot of fun and laughs during this one cause everything looked so brutal. Rey went for a 619 attempt which got a big pop but Kane avoided it with a clothesline. Rey ran off the apron and jumped on Kane at one point. They got back in the ring. He climbed up on Kane landing punches in the corner with the crowd while Kane continued to throw him off. The third attempt to run back with the punches got a nasty boot in the face. The finish had Rey going for the 619 again but Kane caught him in the choke. As he lifted him for the chokeslam, Rey countered it into a rana sending Kane into the ropes. That set up the 619 and the springboard splash for the win. Really fun match. A mad Kane chased Chimel around after the match. Intermission time after about one hour into the action. Mickie James was reintroduced to the crowd and she made her way back to the ring. She was going to pick a fan out of the audience to be the guest bell ringer for the next match. She picked this little girl out of the crowd and the two of them sat by the ring. Next was Randy Orton taking on CM Punk. I loved Orton's entrance as he just made his way out slowly staring down people along the way. His theme music played straight through once telling how long his entrance was. He leaned down and stared down Mickie and the girl at ringside. There was a guy dressed as Gene Simmons at ringside which I'll talk about later. Orton stared him down as well which was hilarious. Orton was very over in Cape Girardeau including getting a big RKO chant from section 108. Orton is from St. Louis so that had something to do with it but the fact of the matter is that Orton is becoming a heel that fans are getting behind regardless. CM Punk got a good ovation coming out and this was my first time seeing him. I gave big cheers and chants for him throughout the match. Orton kept getting major chants from the crowd and was definitely the crowd favorite. He tried to deflect it by saying that St. Louis was his home but there was no way that he was claiming a lousy town like Cape as his own. That didn't deflect the cheers. Section 108 was very rowdy for Orton chanting his name. He then took the mic and walked to the floor. He looked up at them saying that he didn't need their help and to sit down. It was hilarious and actually just egged them on even more cheering him. ha ha. I do have to say that I like Orton more and more when I see him at live shows. He always puts on a great show in Cape. We had a nice battle between the Punk and Orton fans with cheers and chants. Yep, I was on the Punk side. However, like I said, I like Orton more and more. Section 108 was ripping on Punk even going to yelling "Chicago sucks". Orton hit his top rope propped up DDT which looks nasty!! We had a LOT of laughs during this one cause the crowd environment for this match was just GREAT. Lots of great back and forth action. The finish had Punk going for a springboard and getting caught in the RKO. They mistimed it slightly so it didn't look that great. So, Orton picked up Punk and hit another one for the win. Next was the 6 man battle royal for the Elimination Chamber spot at No Way Out. The participants were odd as far as who you knew wasn't going to get the spot as it was Dolph Ziggler, Cryme Tyme, Ted Dibiase, Cody Rhodes, and Mike Knox. I thought for sure that either Cody or Dibiase would win it. The order of elimination had Cody out first following a skin the cat move by JTG that sent Cody over the top rope. Wow, couldn't believe he was the first out. JTG was then thrown out by Ziggler and someone else that I missed. Knox got Ziggler on to the apron of the ring and then Shad sent Ziggler to the floor for the elimination. That left a last three of Dibiase, Shad, and Knox who stared off before going at it. Knox eliminated Dibiase which left me shocked that one of Legacy didn't make it to the end. There was no doubt who was winning it at that point cause Shad sure wasn't going to win it. Knox hit a dropkick that looked good and we said that might be his best move EVER. ha ha. Knox won with a big boot to the face that sent Shad over the top rope. Knox qualifies for the Elimination Chamber. Main event time as Chris Jericho made his way to the ring. Jericho got on the mic saying that it was a good thing that the barricade was there to protect the fans cause he would have beat up every man, woman, and child in the building. It was great stuff!! We laughed a ton at his comments. Shawn's music hit and he got a huge pop from the crowd. Section 108 was big time into Shawn. They loved him. All the fans loved him. They kept wanting him to hold up the DX sign which he kept looking at them asking if that was what they wanted. He'd hold up the DX sign while Jericho would get furious over it. Great back and forth matches and one of the best matches I've ever seen live. First time that I've seen Shawn wrestle live!! Shawn sells like a mad man. There was one spot that left us laughing cause it was so awesome. Shawn got whipped into the corner and sent him into his turnbuckle flip landing on the apron. Jericho does his springboard dropkick and Shawn CRASHES on the apron and then to the floor as he spit up into the air. It looked incredible. We were all is awe of it with how nasty it looked. They did a lot of pin reversal attempts including bridging up which looked cool. Shawn kipped up and went for the superkick. Jericho ducked it and hooked him into the walls of Jericho. Jericho thought that he won the match when the ref made him break the hold. However, Shawn had gotten to the ropes. As Jericho argued, he turned and got superkicked. Shawn then gets the pin and the win. Great match. Shawn celebrated afterwards applauding the fans and roaming around ringside. He signed some autographs including signing a kid's HBK cowboy hat.

We roamed outside to see the wrestlers leave. Several signed autographs. Several had left by the time we got out there. The fans over on the side were yelling for autographs. I can't remember if it was Cody or Dibiase, but I think it was Cody, went over like he was going to sign autographs and then turned around walking back. Pretty funny heel move. Mickie James and Melina were riding together. They honked as they left and Melina blew kisses to the fans. Tommy Dreamer walked out and went to sign several autographs. He was incredibly gracious with the fans. Shawn walked out to a big ovation and he waved to all of the fans. Jericho made his way out. He did the same heel tactic of looking like he was going to sign autographs and turning around. He laughed as he did it which was hilarious. He was riding by himself. Everyone was out of there pretty quickly. I was sure they would all be leaving quick to go watch the Super Bowl.

Other notes from the show. There was a fan that was there dressed as Gene Simmons. Wow, it was very realistic. I kid you not that this guy had a line of fans wanting pictures with him at intermission and also after the show. There was a WWE guy shooting video of the battle royal which I thought would air on Raw but it didn't. Instead, they just showed still images of it. Like I said, great crowd!! This crowd made the show even more fun. Best crowd ever in Cape of shows that I've been at.

WWE 24/7 - Roundtable Show - Best Groups/Factions Recap - October 6, 2008

I thought I’d give a little recap of the newest WWE 24/7 Legends of Wrestling roundtable that recently aired on 24/7. This is the first show with the new panel which consists of Jim Ross, Mick Foley, Ric Flair, and Tazz while being hosted by Gene Okerlund. The topic of the show was about factions/groups in wrestling. No surprise that The Four Horsemen are put over huge on this show and that would have been true even without Flair on the show. First, I have to say that having Flair and Foley sitting side by side on this panel was intriguing considering their recent past. Each is asked to name their top three favorite factions ever. Foley goes with The Varsity Club (Tazz actually brought them up as one of his favorite groups so Foley played off of that), Hot Stuff International, and The Horsemen. Flair picked The Freebirds, Evolution, and The Horsemen. Flair really put over The Freebirds huge saying how they were like The Horsemen with just wanting to get over and make the product better. They all put over Hayes for bringing theme music into wrestling with World Class as Flair said that Hayes was way before his time on that idea. Tazz went with The Horsemen, The Freebirds, and the original DX. JR picked The Horsemen, original DX, and The Hart Foundation of 1997. JR put over how great The Hart Foundation was saying how they had great in ring workers and talkers and then had the sizzle on the steak when they added Brian Pillman. The nWo was obviously a major topic on the show. Mixed reactions to them which is common among many in wrestling. Foley put them over huge saying how they really helped bring the WWE to the next level cause the nWo elevated WCW forcing WWE to change their ways to compete. They all agreed that it got way out of hand with Gene joking to Flair that the two of them were the only ones in WCW at the time that weren’t in the group. Jericho actually talks in his book saying the best thing that ever happened to him was not being a part of the nWo. Flair has nothing good to say about the nWo. Flair said that the difference between the nWo and The Horsemen was that the nWo had a lot of average guys that beat everyone 300 times in 2 years. Flair joked that The Horsemen never won matches and always were looking to make the others look better. He said they’d lose and then show up the next night acting like it never happened. Flair also talked about how the nWo was great for business initially but said overall that they were the worst thing to ever happen to the business cause he feels their backstage takeover put the company out of business. Flair said that factions should help the company but that they were on their own agendas. They all agreed that the nWo was great at the beginning but then got way out of control. One topic that was discussed was about how groups should always make single stars when the group breaks up. They talked a lot about DX and JR called Shawn Michaels the point guard of the group while Triple H was able to elevate. JR also talked of Gunn and Road Dogg being average in the ring but that they were brought up to the next level with X-Pac being the guy to stir things up on camera. JR said that DX was allowed to be all over the place with their creativity unlike today where talent isn’t allowed to get out of the box that they’re supposed to stay in. Flair said he wished that The Horsemen had the level of production value and free reign that DX had cause he said that they would have been way bigger. Foley’s example of a star breaking out from a group was The Nation Of Domination with Farooq being the leader but then The Rock being the one that jumped ahead out of it. Foley also talked about The Brood saying that he always tells stars to be ready to jump ahead if they get an unexpected chance on TV. He spoke of a night where Gangrel was stumbling on his lines and the mic ended up in Edge’s hands and he did this great promo that helped Edge get further ahead. Flair said that the same happened with Evolution talking about Orton and Batista being the ones to break out into singles careers. Flair joked that if he was still 35 years old that Evolution would still be around. Flair talked about The Horsemen being a group that had strong in ring performers and talkers saying that any of them could go forward strong after the group disbanded. When Foley asked Flair who he considered to be THE FOUR of the Horsemen, he said himself, Arn, Tully, and Barry Windham. Foley jokingly asked about Paul Roma and Flair said he wasn’t a true Horsemen and also threw Sid’s name in as well on not being a true Horsemen. Flair mentioned about how the four of them that he mentioned would look to top each other with matches. They always wanted to have the best matches out of the group. The panel was also asked to name their top worst factions ever and this had some interesting answers and stories. Gene mentioned The West Texas Rednecks. Foley mentioned The Dungeon Of Doom (he said that the group never formed any kind of chemistry) and then said that the worst ever was The Union which consisted of himself, Vince McMahon, Test, and others. Yeah, The Union was bad so I agree with Foley there. Tazz mentioned The Cabinet which consisted of JBL, Orlando Jordan, and Amy Weber. He said he knew it was bad cause he had the job of color commentator every week trying to make that sound good. Flair to no surprise says the nWo. JR mentions the No Limit Soldiers (he said that it made him embarrassed to be a wrestling fan and made him want to flip to local on the 8’s on the Weather Channel), The Oddities, and The Spirit Squad. JR said that The Spirit Squad was a group of guys who were too young and too green having to compete with people that they weren’t ready to compete with yet. Tazz defends the guys in the group saying that he was sitting in on the meeting when the idea of the male cheerleaders was pitched to the guys. Tazz said that they had a look in their eyes of “oh no” when it was mentioned but went the company way of saying that would be a great idea. Ha ha. They all mentioned that the most important thing with groups is chemistry. If there is chemistry off TV between the group, then it is going to be better on camera as well. Some other notes from the show. Ric Flair sure isn't shy of taking shots at Shane Douglas. The reason that Shane was brought up was cause Tazz was asked about the groups that ECW had and he said that The Triple Threat was their biggest group. Flair joked with Tazz saying that he knew that Tazz had to want to be a Horsemen when he was growing up. Tazz said of course but you wouldn’t take a Horsemen from Brooklyn. Ha ha. Flair told a great story about running up a $4,000 bill at the Marriott in Baltimore with The Horsemen and how his credit card bounced and flew like Michael Jordan across the room. It was also the biggest money making night in the history of that particular hotel cause they had 1,000 people there. Basically, Flair told everyone on the air in a promo that they were staying there and invited everyone so that many fans showed up in the lobby. JR tells of the night that he was out with The Horsemen and how he met his future wife that night. I was disappointed that The Dangerous Alliance got left off of the discussion. This was a fun show to watch and the next subject for the roundtable will be “the most important wrestling moments”. That will debut later down the line on WWE 24/7. Here is a clip that WWE has posted from the Groups show.

WWE 24/7 - Old School - MSG 10/18/91 Review - September 22, 2008

This is Forever Flair month on WWE 24/7 and the Old School show of October 18, 1991 that just finished airing had a definite Flair feel to it. This was Ric Flair’s debut at Madison Square Garden. I had never seen this show so I was really looking forward to seeing it. On commentary is Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, and Lord Alfred Hayes. I really can never get enough of Monsoon and Heenan together and they had a lot of funny moments in this one. I’ll throw their moments in during this recap as well. Opening match had The Texas Tornado defeating Big Bully Busick following the tornado punch. Yeah, I thought the Busick gimmick was lame when I was a kid and time passing hasn’t helped it either. It was an all right match. IRS was next taking on The British Bulldog. Gorilla mentioned that IRS might be able to be bribed to which Heenan says the only person that would take a bribe would be Jack Tunney. I loved Heenan talking about how useless of a pet that a bulldog is saying that it all it does is slobber and drool. This match got really good in the last five minutes. I was also wondering just what was up with referee Danny Davis in this match as well. Monsoon was also ripping on him as well. IRS sneaks in a tag rope and then proceeds to choke the Bulldog with it. Bulldog gets out of the ring and goes to get a tag rope as well. He chokes IRS with it. IRS then counters it hitting a low blow. All of this is right in front of the referee. LOL. Bulldog hooks a small package but the time expires in the match sending it to a 20 minute time limit draw. Solid match but the ref just watching all of this illegal activity going on and doing nothing but counting was just bizarre. The commentating ripping on it as well was funny. The Mountie got a win on Jim Neidhart in the next match when The Mountie used the tights to help him get the win. This was post Hart Foundation for Neidhart so he had his High Energy looking outfit on. Heenan mentioned his outfit saying that Neidhart was going to go looking for a cab after the match. I laughed at that. Main event was next with Rowdy Roddy Piper taking on Ric Flair. Big pop for Flair at MSG. Classic stuff at the beginning with Piper throwing his shirt at Flair followed by Flair woooing at Piper in the corner and Piper spits back at him. Really fun back and forth battle between the two and the fans at MSG were going crazy for it. Of all the refs over the years, WWE has made Earl Hebner look the worst and this was no exception. Hebner is yelling at Heenan on the outside and then gets blasted by Piper and Flair when he isn’t paying attention. Piper hooks a small package but no ref to make the count. Davis runs out to help Hebner taking over the match for a moment. Flair nails Piper in the head with a chair. Neither ref saw it. Hebner finally makes a count and Piper kicks out at two. Piper goes out and grabs Alfred’s chair out from under him. He goes to hit Flair with it and then Hebner grabs the chair from behind before the contact could happen. Flair nails Piper with a punch from the apron knocking Piper down. Flair dives over the ropes and makes a pin. Flair has his feet on the ropes and Hebner makes the three count. Fittingly enough, Piper nails Hebner and Flair with a chair after the match. Seriously, they make the refs look like the most useless people on the planet. LOL. Next was The Big Boss Man taking on Colonel Mustafa. IRS comes out before the match saying that Boss Man is a tax cheat. Mustafa nails the distracted Boss Man. IRS walks to the back. Boss Man runs to the back looking for him. I figured it would be a countout win for Mustafa but Boss Man runs back to beat the count while not finding IRS. Boss Man would win with a standing spinebuster type slam. Next was Bret Hart defending the Intercontinental title against The Berzerker. Good logic moment from Gorilla as the match started. Gorilla mentioned that the title shouldn’t be in jeopardy because Berzerker had never won a match by pinfall cause he always won by countout after he threw his opponent from the ring. That’s right!! I had forgotten that he won matches that way. Nice logic from Gorilla in that point. He was always good in details like that. Lots of fans mimicking Berzerker’s talking gimmick which was funny. Bret ends up winning a pretty entertaining match with a crucifix pin. That takes us to El Matador vs. Hercules. Ugh, I couldn’t stand the El Matador gimmick when Tito started doing it. It never made sense to me as a kid why he couldn’t just be Tito Santana. This was around the time when WWE was changing long time talent to new gimmicks. This was said to be the debut of the El Matador character in this match. The win goes to Santana after hitting the flying forearm to the back of the neck. Heenan called it the flying hallapino which was classic followed by him asking if Matador “cuts his ears off now” after the win. Last match of the night had the Legion Of Doom defending the tag team titles against The Natural Disasters. The ending of the match had a real head scratching moment. Animal ends up getting destroyed in the ring. Hawk is trying to get in the ring. Typhoon hits the big splash on Animal. They knock Hawk off the apron so he is done. Earthquake hits the big earthquake finisher. Earthquake doesn’t go for the pin but gets up and throws the ref out of the ring causing the DQ. They had an easy three count as they would have had to peel Animal off the mat taking their tag team finish. Why would you throw the ref out when you had the match won? Get the pin, win the tag team titles, and then throw the ref out while you’re holding the tag team titles. Yeah, I know logic. LOL. What was funny was that they didn’t even cheat either. They did all this damage clean. Gorilla was saying the same thing about how stupid it was while Heenan argued with him on it. Heenan then talked a minute later about how stupid it was making it sound like he had just come up with the idea. As the show went off the air, they announced the next MSG show would have the first ever meeting of Hogan and Flair the next month. As the show ended, Heenan again mentioned how stupid the Disasters finish was and then Alfred said “cheerio” while Heenan followed with “cheerios”. Great stuff!!! I really enjoyed this show. Yeah, the booking defied logic at times with the finishes but oh well. Seriously, when you do that much damage on a tag team finish, get the pin and THEN hit the ref. I’ll support you on hitting the ref after the win cause of all the stupidity that they did in this show. LOL!!!!!!

WWE 24/7 - Old School - Boston Garden 8/6/88 Review - September 1, 2008

I watched the August 6, 1988 WWF Boston Garden house show over the weekend that has aired on WWE 24/7. I thought I’d review it and give some thoughts. I love recapping old school shows so here we go. The show obviously had a lot of focus on matches leading up to SummerSlam 88. The commentary team was Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes, and Superstar Billy Graham. Opening match had Outlaw Ron Bass pinning Koko B. Ware. The ref was distracted and Bass used his bullwhip (remember Miss Betsy) on Koko nailing him in the throat leading to the pinfall. Yeah, that wasn’t a very fun match. Next up is the Hart Foundation taking on The Rougeau Brothers. Funny moment right off the bat when there is a fan that has an oil painting that they made of Bret Hart and he shows it to Bret. Alfred hates it and does commentary ripping the fan on it for being terrible and then the others jump in behind him. I was thinking “what is up with the face commentary team ripping on fans”. Ha ha. They completely ignored the fan later when the camera got a shot of one that he also had for Smash of Demolition which I thought was very good. Another Alfred moment during this one that had me thinking “what???” was when he said that the ref was having a hard time telling Jacque and Raymond apart cause they look so alike. WHAT??? They didn’t look anything alike!! LOL. Anyway, the ref gets distracted by Jimmy Hart. Bret has a sleeper on Jacque and then Raymond jumps off the ropes with an axehandle to the back of the head. Bret falls and Jacque lands on top of him to get the pinfall. Next is Leaping Lanny Poffo taking on DJ Peterson. The commentary team pushes Peterson as this great newcomer. I was a diehard wrestling fan even at the time that this show happened and I don’t remember Peterson at all. Poffo does his classic poetry reading it off of the Frisbee. Do you remember when WWF sold his frisbees in the merchandise catalog? Ah, memories. Poffo does a very cool looking springboard into a swanton type move that doesn’t get the three count. Poffo goes for a bodyslam and then Peterson counters it into a cradle for the win. Peterson won??!!! Is this the only win that he ever had in WWF? Next is the Intercontinental Championship match with The Honky Tonk Man defending against Brutus The Barber Beefcake. This was one of my favorite feuds of 1988. Peggy Sue comes out with Honky but it is Jimmy Hart dressed up as her. Beefcake counters saying that he has Georgia in his corner. Out comes George The Animal Steele in drag dressed as a punk rocker. Funny stuff. Georgia then brings “Mine” (remember his plush toy) out of the bag and Mine is dressed up as a punk rocker too. This match doesn’t go very long. Beefcake has the sleeper on Honky Tonk. Hart jumps in the ring and is taken out by Georgia. The megaphone was dropped on the apron and Honky gets it nailing Beefcake over the head to break the sleeper. Honky Tonk gets the pinfall. Beefcake had dominated the match until that point. After the match, Brutus nails Honky Tonk with the megaphone and then he and Georgia grab a hold of Jimmy ripping all of his Peggy Sue clothes off of him. They strip him right down to what appears to be a thong as he runs down the aisle to the locker room. Remember that Honky Tonk would lose the Intercontinental title just a few weeks later to The Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam in around 30 seconds. Next is a non-title tag team match with WWF tag team champions, Demolition, taking on The British Bulldogs. Match ends with Fuji on the apron for the distraction leading to Ax hitting Dynamite from behind with a double axehandle. Smash then pins Dynamite to win the match for Demolition. WWF Championship match is next with what is probably my favorite feud from 1988, Randy Savage vs. Ted Dibiase. That Savage and Elizabeth entrance is still so classic to watch. The ending of the match has the fight on the floor. Savage hits an atomic drop sending Dibiase crashing into the ring post. Savage rolls in the ring to beat the count and win by countout. Dibiase ends up grabbing Elizabeth as she was standing on the apron. He proceeds to twist her ankle. Savage sees what is going on and chases Dibiase to the locker room. He returns to check on Elizabeth and carries her out as the announcers push that her ankle is swollen. Final match of the night was a lumberjack match between Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Andre The Giant. Andre ends up getting the turnbuckle off the corner exposing the steel. Duggan gets rammed into it but then Duggan avoids Andre’s headbutt which catches the steel. Duggan hits the three point stance sending Andre crashing into the steel again. The ref gets distracted by Ax on the apron who was a lumberjack. Duggan then nails Andre with the 2x4 and breaks a piece off of it on the impact. Andre falls out of the ring. The lumberjacks try to put him back in but Andre takes them all out getting back in himself. Duggan ends up getting put into the steel and then Andre drops an elbow for the pinfall. Did you notice how almost all the heels won on this show? That is what I kept noticing all through it. Overall, this was an all right show. But nothing can’t miss. Some matches were obviously better than others. Savage/Dibiase and Beefcake/Honky Tonk were my favorite matches on the show.

WWE 24/7 - Roundtable Show - Worst Characters Thoughts - June 9, 2008

I recently watched the new Legends of Wrestling roundtable show on WWE 24/7. Fun show that focused on the discussion of the worst characters in wrestling history. One of the first mentioned, to no surprise, was The Shockmaster. If you aren't familiar with him, this was the artist formerly known as Tugboat in a mask making his debut at the Clash Of Champions in WCW. Well, he was supposed to crash through the wall and he did BUT he fell through the wall and his mask tumbled to the ground. He got up and continued his promo while the character was ruined. Dusty Rhodes tells a great story about it where he said that he was booking at the time backstage. They practiced the wall thing earlier in the day and it went great. The problem was that David Crockett put a plank at the bottom of the wall so that was what he fell over. Dusty said that when it happened, he laughed all night. When he met up with him backstage after it happened, he tried to be encouraging and motivate him but Dusty couldn't quit laughing. Dusty said that they had to take himself to another room away from the backstage environment cause he couldn't quit laughing at what had occurred. WWE has posted a short clip of this discussion from the show on their You Tube site. I highly recommend checking this clip out to hear part of the story.

I did catch WWE miss a WWF reference in a show lately. That roundtable show that I was just talking about on WWE 24/7 has Pat Patterson referring to Dusty Rhodes coming to the "WWF". Hearing those letters on a broadcast now just has an instant reaction of clicking in your head. I caught it immediately thinking oops, they missed that one. Also, Patterson said those letters as they were discussing the topic on the recent taping so it wasn't old footage that it was on.

WWE 24/7 - Roundtable Show - Tough Guys Review - December 3, 2007

The new roundtable show is up on WWE 24/7 and the topic is tough guys in and out of the ring. This is the first show with the new panel consisting of Jim Ross, Mick Foley, Tazz, Michael Hayes, and Pat Patterson. I love these roundtable shows!! Some fun stories told about several stars over the years. Different wrestlers discussed included Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Danny Hodge, Bruiser Brody, Shelton Benjamin, and more. They talk about how there were some territories back in the day that would encourage talent to go to bars and get in fights to show how tough that they were. However, if you got beat up, you were fired. LOL. Mick Foley tells a funny story about Kurt Angle that he hoped wasn't supposed to be kept a secret. He talked about Angle coming to him on the day of the Royal Rumble 2000 PPV in MSG. Angle was set to face Tazz which was Tazz's debut for the company. Foley says that Angle asked him "what do I do if he starts shooting on me?" Angle was concerned that Tazz might try to test him. Tazz laughed at this with basically a feeling of there is no way he'd want to test Angle. They all put over Angle through the whole show as someone that you wouldn't want to try out. Tazz told of when he was riding with Angle and Lesnar together for a time and said that Angle and Lesnar were very competitive against each other. JR said that they each wanted to be alpha male was what was going on. They put over Lesnar big too for being a tough guy. Shelton Benjamin was put over by JR as someone that you wouldn't want to try and test either. Foley tells a funny story about Harley Race. He tells of Harley Race intimidating someone trying to get Foley medical treatment and it revolved around insurance and regulations in that particular state. He told the medical people that they were going to take care of Foley and it would be fine. The medical people proceeded to go into the regulation/insurance stuff to which Race repeated what he just said. Foley was taken care of without hesitation. They all put over Harley as one of the toughest guys ever in the business and someone that you did not want to make angry. There are plenty of other stories told that were a lot of laughs. Check out the show if you get a chance.