Welcome to the “Shockmaster lives” edition of The Wrestling List.
Tonight’s Raw from Detroit had Dusty Rhodes as the “guest host”. I really liked the swerve that we got at the end of this show. It didn’t happen like I expected so I’ll set it up. Dusty opened the show by announcing that he had set a main event match of Cody Rhodes challenging Randy Orton for the WWE title. He announced that he would be in Cody’s corner while John Cena would be the special referee. Orton made his way to the ring and confronted Dusty. He ended up threatening to kick Dusty once again just like two years ago. Cody made his way to the ring giving credit to his dad. Orton questioned Dusty on why he would even think that Cody would want the match. Cody said that this was a golden opportunity and he couldn’t pass it up. Cody stayed loyal to Orton but just wouldn’t pass on this match. Orton said that with all the stipulations on the match that it looked like that the fix was in to which Dusty flat out said that the fix was in on it. So, the match is set to take place. Cena starts getting ready to ref. Dusty gets on the mic and reminds us of what he said earlier with him saying that he would do anything for his son. He adds by saying “sorry John”. Orton and Cody jump on Cena and attack him. Dibiase runs in and gets involved as well. DX then runs out to make the save. They are on offense until Triple H goes for a pedigree. Dusty takes his boot off and nails Triple H with it. The beating continues from Legacy as they leave DX and Cena laying on the mat. Dusty raises the arms of all of Legacy. Then, Orton RKO’s Dusty. He turns his back on Cody while Cody is standing there fuming over what just happened. Cody restrains himself while Orton just stands there. Really cool finish to the show. My guess was that Cody and Orton would join forces and not wrestle but I didn’t expect Dusty to be a part of it. I thought it would be a deal where Cody would pull one over on his dad. In other action on Raw. Chris Jericho defeated MVP with the codebreaker. Big Show and Mark Henry had a match with Big Show being DQ’d for pulling the turnbuckle pad off of the turnbuckle. Show rammed Henry into the buckle and then landed the knockout punch. Kofi Kingston retained the US title by winning the fatal four way against Miz, Swagger, and Carlito. Finishers were hitting big time at the end of the match but Kofi hit the last one and pinned Carlito. A six diva battle royal was held to decide who would face Mickie James for the Divas championship later in the night. It was between Beth Phoenix, Rosa Mendes, Alicia Fox, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, and Jillian Hall. Beth ended up staying on the apron for the end of the match. Gail and Jillian went at it with Jillian being eliminated. Then, Beth got back in there and kicked Gail off the apron to the floor to win the match. Mickie defended the title against Beth later on in the show. I liked the story of this match where it really looked like that Beth was set to win the title. Mickie had her shoulder destroyed through the match. It looked like Mickie had no chance. She countered Beth’s move into a DDT to get the win. Nice booking of a champion overcoming adversity to win the match. As a Mickie fan, I was also concerned that they were taking the belt off of her. Hornswoggle and Chavo wrestled AGAIN. This time in a Texas bullrope match. Please make this stop. Please!! Finish had Evan Bourne distracting Chavo which led to Hornswoggle getting the advantage. Hornswoggle tied up Chavo (Chavo also wore a cowsuit by the way) to win the match. Chavo attacked Bourne after the match but Chavo ended up on the receiving end of a tadpole splash from Hornswoggle set up by Bourne.
Other notes from Raw. The DX stuff with them watching the WCW DVD with Dusty was pretty funny. Didn’t you just love having to relive the “fingerpoke of doom” again with Nash and Hogan? Ugh. That very well may have been the main start of the downfall of WCW. Don’t forget that the lame finish to that WCW Monday Nitro show was countered by WWF programming of Mick Foley winning the WWF title against The Rock. Interesting that they brought up Shawn starting the attitude of the attitude era but then had to sit at home. I have always talked about that with how important Shawn was to the turn of the style of WWF at the time but then after all he did, he didn’t get to enjoy the boom of the business afterwards due to his injury. I never have felt that he has gotten the credit for helping to lay the groundwork for the attitude era. With the mention of The Shockmaster, how many people that somehow haven’t seen it went to You Tube to see what all the talk was about it? I did laugh at the reenactment of it tonight. That is one of those stories that will live forever in wrestling history of that night on the Clash Of The Champions. So, what was the point of Alicia pinning Mickie James last week when she is the second out of the battle royal this week? Nice to see the Mickie James/Beth Phoenix rivalary renewed. I’ve really enjoyed their matches over the last couple of years. Wow, this Hornswoggle/Chavo series is like a visit to the dentist that never ends. The final straw for me with Michael Cole was him saying “what a moooooooove” tonight when Hornswoggle landed the splash with the cowsuit head on. Please make it stop. This has to stop. Sometime. Right? Right??!!
Bob Barker will be the guest host next week on Raw.
The Air Canada Center website is saying that Trish Stratus will be the host on September 14. Hoping that is true!! Definitely pumped to see Trish back on Raw again!!
Chris Jericho recently spoke to the Baltimore Sun about how WWE is not doing a good job building new stars. Really good comments and here they are: "We’re in a crisis period in WWE and we need to build new guys. When Shawn Michaels came back to Raw, he said, “Whose been built since I left?” On Smackdown we’ve built [John] Morrison and [Dolph] Ziggler and Cryme Tyme. The Intercontinental title has been rebuilt now with Rey Mysterio. But I can’t tell you on Raw who has been built over the last six months. They better do it soon, because when this generation of performers is gone, who will replace them?" http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestling/blog/2009/08/qa_with_chris_jericho_2.html There have been other stars saying similar things to the media lately including The Miz saying how Punk vs. Hardy in the main event was a breath of fresh air instead of seeing the same five guys main eventing shows.
There was a 15 Divas Battle Royal that took place before the SummerSlam PPV. It appears that it will be an extra on the DVD when it is released.
Well, I was thankful to get the phone call on Saturday night saying that WPSD had preempted the WrestleMania NBC special. They instead decided to run a Tennessee Titans preseason game and ran the special at 1:30 in the morning. So, I adjusted and got the special recorded. Amazingly produced as expected. The segment that closed the show was fittingly enough, Shawn vs. Undertaker. What a video package they put together for that match. Even the video package that they did before it was incredible showing the buildup to the match. I will never forget watching that match. I still say that it is one of the best matches that I have ever seen in my life. I am very careful with that statement all the time so the fact that I am using it means a lot. I thought that as the match kept going. So many false finishes where you just thought this has to be the finish. Then, it would just keep going. The crowd was just eating it up. The special did a great job of capturing the emotion of that match. They did a very cool segment on Austin’s appearance at WrestleMania including superstars talking about Austin’s career and mixing in Hall Of Fame ceremony footage. Really well done!! There were a lot of songs used on that special that I was unfamiliar with but loved with the video packages. I’ve since downloaded several of them.
Big Show, Ted Dibiase, Cody Rhodes, and The Great Khali had a short comedy segment on The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien last week. It was an all right segment which basically had Show and Khali destroying Cody and Dibiase.
WWE will be releasing another Hulk Hogan DVD set later this year. They are pushing that the set will include matches never before released on DVD. I’m very interested to see the match lineup for this set. It will be nice to see matches put on this set that aren’t as common such as PPV matches. I’m excited about it. Like I said, I want to see the lineup.
Here is the preview for WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand for September. The theme for the month is Stone Cold September. Yep, the month will focus on Stone Cold Steve Austin. Lots of Stone Cold programming to be had including: Clash Of The Champions 23 which is headlined by The Hollywood Blondes against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson; SummerSlam 1998 with Austin defending the WWF title against The Undertaker. The 2009 Hall Of Fame ceremony will be airing including bonus footage. Happy about that as I didn’t get the WrestleMania DVD as I was specifically waiting for the Hall Of Fame to air On Demand. Shorties for the month will also revolve around Austin moments over his career. TV Classics airing include: NWA (January 1987), ECW (November 1996), World Class (August 1983), Prime Time Wrestling (April-May 1988), Monday Night Wars (January 1998), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (November 1995), Mid-Atlantic (January 1982). Old School house shows airing include MSG (September 29, 1988) and the Meadowlands (October 14, 1984). The Greatest Superstars of the 90’s DVD will be airing in September. The WWE Judgment Day 2009 PPV will air as well. The Hall Of Fame profile will be on Bret Hart including a program and lots of matches. Also airing will be the winner of the fan voting between In Your House: Revenge Of The Taker, WWF St. Valentine’s Day Massacre 1999, and WrestleMania XIX. If I had to pick, I’d vote for St. Valentine’s Day Massacre which featured the Austin/McMahon cage match from Memphis, TN.
That is it for this week. Nice to be back into the normal writing routine this week. Wishing you a great week. Take care and God bless!!
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