Originally typed up on October 1, 2006
Hey everyone. I promised a review of the new WWE Brian Pillman DVD so here you go. First off, if you are wanting to watch this, you may not want to read this cause I'm going to spoil stuff that is said in it obviously.
Brian Pillman was a favorite of mine in the mid 90's especially when he made his way to the WWF. He was this loose cannon of a wrestler that you never knew what was going to happen with him. His loose cannon gimmick often made wrestlers wonder what was real and what was the character. He always kept fans guessing on what he was going to do next and actually he kept the talent and promoters guessing too. The internet was just starting to get going and he would use that to his advantage too. I've seen several people since try to pull off what Pillman was able to accomplish. Many people last year made the comparison of Matt Hardy to Pillman with what Hardy was saying on the internet and showing up at various shows looking like a loose cannon. Hardy wasn't able to pull it off though. It's the closest thing that I've seen but it got nowhere near Pillman.
The story part of the DVD runs 1 hour and 33 minutes long. Several of Pillman's family are interviewed for including his wife, Melanie. Others interviewed are Jim Ross, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Dusty and Dustin Rhodes, and others. The story opens up talking about his rough childhood as he had forty throat surgeries done due to the fact that polyps kept appearing. He would often have trouble breathing because of this. It was said to be unusual for kids to have this problem as Brian was two when this occurred the first time. This was the reason that his voice was always rough sounding cause of all the surgeries. The doctor that did the surgeries actually wrote an article about Brian cause of how rare of a case this was in kids. On to high school where they talk about Brian's football career. His size was always talked about as he was small compared to other players. He had very good success but colleges were afraid to put up the money in scholarships due to his size. Once again, he had to prove himself. He ended up being a walk on for Miami of Ohio. He sat on the sidelines and was treated badly cause he was a freshmen and also a walk on. He finally got put in during a play in practice. He ended up injuring one of the quarterbacks when he tackled him. When he went to the pro ranks, it was the same thing. No one wanted him cause of his size. He went to the local Cincinnati Bengals as a free agent. He made the team due to his performance in the last exhibition game. He was injured halfway through the season and was released. He went to the Bills and then to the CFL. After an ankle injury, he decided to try wrestling after he was told about it.
Brian called the Hart family who brought him in. Chris Benoit said that although Brian wasn't that good in the ring at first, he could really fly through the air. This became his persona, Flyin Brian. Jim Ross and WCW were sent a letter about Brian and asked to take a look. JR was interested immediately and had heard of him. He was brought into WCW. Paul Heyman talked about Pillman's high flying moves saying that Pillman was ahead of his time in what he could do acrobatic wise. Pillman studied Flair promos and matches while also reading books. The DVD doesn't go into any detail about how Flair helped train him. What really put Pillman on the map was the feud with Lex Luger. People were amazed at how good of matches that he was getting out of Luger. A little is shown of the team of Pillman and Z-Man. They were a fun tag team to watch and its a shame that they couldn't stay together longer. They then go into talking about the light heavyweight title. Pillman wanted to make the light heavyweight matches just as good and important as the rest of the card. They go into the matches with Jushin Liger which were always good. The highest profile match between the two happened at SuperBrawl 2 for the light heavyweight title. Dusty Rhodes comments saying that this match is one that he still shows to young wrestlers to teach them. Footage is shown of Brian and Melanie's wedding in 1993. Next up is the Hollywood Blondes tag team with Steve Austin. A lot of what Austin says about the team is also discussed in his book. Austin says that he found out about them teaming when Brian came up to him with all these ideas for their team. He went to Dusty who was the booker at the time and got the confirmation. Austin wasn't really happy about it cause he wanted to be a singles guy. Brian came up with the Blondes name and a lot of their outfits. They became really good friends and had a ton of fun being a tag team. Austin says that it was one of the happiest times of his career. Austin tells a story that is one of his favorites of them as a team. He tells about how after their match against Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas, Pillman was stiff with this belt that he was nailing Steamboat with. Steamboat cut this really mad promo after the match cause it really hurt and he WAS mad. Austin discusses how he and Pillman made each other better. The Flair For The Old segment with Flair and Anderson is brought up and Austin says that most of it was ad-lib. When asked about the split of the team, Austin says that it was basically politics. He said that they were put together to be the work horse and have solid matches but to put other people over. The problem was that they got hot and got over instead with the audience. They were stealing the thunder of the wrestlers that did the booking. JR has an interesting comment where he says that when you have an active wrestler booking that it is "a recipe for disaster". Hmm, that sounds familiar in the current state of wrestling. Austin and Pillman were mad over the split but didn't have enough power in the company to fight it so they didn't bother. He said if it would have happened later that they would have fought it and said no.
Next we go to the Horsemen era and loose cannon character. Eric Bischoff says that the loose cannon thing was Brian's idea. They play the famous Bobby Heenan clip where Pillman caught Heenan so off guard at ringside that Heenan said the f word on live TV. They don't say that Bobby had just had neck surgery and was worried about that and didn't know what Pillman was doing. One funny story to throw in this is that Bobby in his book said that after the show, he went and apologized for saying the word on TV. No one even knew what he was talking about and Bobby joked about how that was how that company was run at times with people having no clue. Next is the famous Pillman match with Kevin Sullivan where Pillman fought him for a few seconds. He then got the mic and called Sullivan "booker man" as he left the ring. Sullivan was of course booking WCW at the time and the two didn't get along. People didn't know what was going on with that and everyone was confused if that was planned or real. JR said that he even called Brian cause he was concerned and Brian led him on for a while before finally saying that he was playing a character. Nobody knew what was real and what wasn't with Brian cause he kept stuff to himself. Pillman then wanted to play off the Sullivan thing more and asked for WCW to publicly fire him as his contract was about to run out. Bischoff goes on to say that he often couldn't figure out if Pillman was working him or if he and Pillman were working everyone else. WCW did publicly fire him although still under contract and he showed up in ECW. Heyman was happy to have him if he wanted to show up. Brian told Heyman that it would be easy to make the fans cheer him but he wanted them to boo him. Heyman said that it took Pillman about 60 seconds before the fans wanted to hop the rail and beat him down. He beat up a fan at one point who was a planted fan. Heyman also says that Pillman was the only guy to have all three promotions talking about him at the same time. WCW was trying to resign him to a new deal as Pillman had told them that he would be back but he was said not to be doing so. ECW currently had him and was going to put him in the ring with Shane Douglas. He was talking about going on to WWF. Heyman said that he was about to cash in big time and make the biggest money of his career when the accident happened. The car crash shattered him physically and mentally. His ankle was shattered and he had no contract as his WCW contract had expired.
Pillman then goes to WWF who said that they would find a way to use him somehow. Many claim that he came back way too soon and made his ankle worse leading to more surgeries down the line. The gun incident from Raw is discussed with Pillman and Austin which was big time controversial at the time and really still is. I'll never forget watching that night when they showed Pillman pull a gun on Austin who had broken into his home. USA Network wasn't happy at all with this and made it clear that this shouldn't be done again. Several of the people interviewed said that it went too far but that it did get people's attention. Austin said that it really helped to start swaying things in the Monday Night Wars. Pillman returned several months later and got his revenge attacking Austin in the ring. Austin said that he has only been knocked out once in his career and that was by the Undertaker but the first hit from behind by Pillman almost had him seeing stars. Austin had a laugh over the story saying that he got beat up bad by Pillman that night in the ring but he was happy to see his friend get the revenge. They then move into the Hart Foundation. Pillman was honored to be a part of it and the Hart Foundation were honored to have him in there as he really was an honorary member of their family. Pillman's ankle was in bad shape and at one point had an infection in it. Pillman wouldn't quit working though and at one point had an IV hooked to it at home for antibiotics. He would unhook it, go to work, come home and hook it back up. That was how bad he wanted to work. He was put on the Shotgun Saturday Night show as a commentator so it would give him something to do while he was out of the ring. They thought he'd be a good guy to have on there. JR said that he really looked after him at this point but felt that Pillman was settling for being an announcer but wanted to wrestle. He would never admit that he was hurting and often lied about it to cover up his pain. He never complained about the pain but did take painkillers for it. He got back in the ring. JR did get concerned about Brian and wanted him to take a drug test cause he just wasn't himself. Brian was set off about having to take a drug test and felt betrayed by JR. He failed the drug test. The test results found muscle relaxers and pain killers but everything was prescribed to him. No street drugs in him. He was over medicating himself to get through the day of the pain. People saw the changes in him and wanted to help him desperately. He didn't want any help. He didn't say that he didn't need help but that he just turned it down. They move on to the Goldust feud which the DVD reveals that Brian and Terri Runnels dated in 1990 but she broke up with him and started dating Dustin. Dustin said that the feud was a bit much cause it hit a little too close to home. The DVD finishes with talking about Brian passing away on the day was of the Badd Blood PPV in St. Louis in October of 1997. JR said that two people were late getting there that day. One was Bret Hart and the other was Brian. They asked Bret when he got there if he had seen Brian and he hadn't. They called Melanie who said she had talked to him the night before. Her first reaction was that he had been acting strange and she was annoyed cause he had probably overslept and missed a flight. The police found him in his hotel room and notified the WWF. Melanie was asked about her interview the next night on Raw and she says that she wasn't pressured into it unlike what a lot of people believe. WWF took a ton of heat for interviewing her on the air on the night after. The official cause of death for Pillman was a heart attack. JR feels strongly that Brian passed away due to a broken heart cause he couldn't physically do what he wanted to do. Austin said that he was devastated when he heard the news and says that he thinks about Brian every day.
So, there you go. I don't know if I learned a whole lot of new info in this DVD but I enjoyed hearing stories from other people who knew him. I often wonder what Pillman would have done in the attitude era. Pillman was a guy that overcame the odds so many times and kept people guessing. You never knew what he was going to do in the mid 90's especially on Nitro. It was wild. He was a lot of fun to watch in 1989 during his high flying days. I actually did get to see Pillman wrestle live in Nashville at a house show about a month before he passed away. The heat that he got was amazing. I think me and my friend that was with me who I converted into a Pillman fan were some of the few people cheering for him in that building. It was fun. I recommend this DVD as I think it is definitely worth checking out especially if you were a Pillman fan. I told of the extras on it and they definitely picked out a TON of good ones. Take care and God bless!!
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Thursday, June 23, 2011
WWE: Shawn Michaels - Heartbreak & Triumph - DVD Review
Still working on getting the older review stuff up on the site. This was originally typed up on December 2, 2007.
I watched the new WWE Shawn Michaels Heartbreak & Triumph DVD that was released last week. I'm a huge Shawn Michaels fan and have been for over 15 years now so there was no doubt that I was looking forward to this DVD set. The DVD covers the ups and downs of his career. The biography part of the DVD runs 2 hours and 2 minutes in length. Various people interviewed for the DVD are Shawn, his parents, his wife Rebecca, his pastors, his high school friend and also his high school football coach, Triple H, Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Ted Dibiase, Marty Jannetty, Pat Patterson, and plenty more. I thought I'd go over some random thoughts on the DVD as I scribbled down some notes as I was watching it. The story covers his whole life including his parents talking about how they were hoping that Shawn would grow out of his wrestling phase as a kid. Shawn and Marty Jannetty were put together in a random tag team match and Shawn said he knew immediately that there was something special there. They were later paired up in the AWA. Shawn and Marty were always known as the party guys and trouble sometimes followed them. Sensational Sherri tells a story of how there were so many hotels that they got kicked out of cause of Shawn and Marty. They moved on to WWF after Pat Patterson had been watching them wrestle on TV. Things went bad though when they got there and felt immediately under a microscope. They decided to lay low cause they knew that they needed to be on their best behavior. Jimmy Jack Funk came up to them one night (in a bar if I remember right) and had some alcohol in him. He demanded to see what kind of party guys that they were made of. Shawn finally got tired of hearing it and picked up a glass and broke it over his own head. The story got blown out of proportion the next day and the talk had turned to how they trashed the bar completely. Their reputation proceeded them so their side of the story didn't go over at all. Ironic thing is that Jimmy Jack was one of them that hung them out to dry. Shawn and Marty were fired by Vince. Their dream had been shattered and they went back to working other territories. Shawn said that his heart wasn't in it at that point cause everything else just seemed ridiculous besides working for WWF. They went back to the AWA and also worked Memphis. Shawn started having fun again and they were then brought back to the WWF. They were determined to make this turn last and it did. The Rockers started their run in the WWF. The phantom title switch is shown on the DVD which has never seen the light of day as far as airing. The 2 out of 3 falls match against The Hart Foundation which was at a Saturday Night's Main Event taping had a problem when the top rope broke during the match. Shawn says the match looked terrible cause of it. The Rockers won the tag team titles and Shawn comments that they weren't happy with winning the tag team titles in that kind of match. They found out that the match was not going to air and that the belts would go back to the Hart Foundation due to the top rope breaking. Hmm, I've heard different stories about what occurred there. I've heard the constant story that Jim Neidhart's contract was up at the time of the title change. He hadn't resigned and the belts were put on The Rockers. After the match happened and before the show itself aired, Neidhart resigned and the decision was made to leave the belts on the Hart Foundation. That isn't mentioned on the DVD however. Great compliments from Arn Anderson where he discusses working with The Rockers. He said that he felt that he and Tully (as the Brain Busters) brought a level of maturity to The Rockers helping to elevate them. He then felt that after that, they learned things from The Rockers as well. Arn goes on to say that The Rockers may be the best tag team that he was ever in the ring with. Chris Jericho is all over this DVD and provides great comments. He talks about how The Rockers are still his favorite tag team ever cause they were doing things that other wrestlers weren't doing at that time. The decision was made to split up Shawn and Marty. Shawn admits that things were starting to get rocky between them cause they had been together for so long. He added that he was wanting more as well in his career. Jericho gives a great comment on the Barber Shop segment when the split of The Rockers happened saying that he was shocked and angry at what Shawn did saying "why Shawn?". Pat Patterson was the one that pushed for Sherri to manage Shawn telling Shawn that she'd be able to bring him to the next level as she had managed so many other great singles wrestlers. Shawn wasn't crazy at all with how he was being pushed as the sexy boy gimmick. He wasn't comfortable with it at first. After Sherri was gone, Shawn decided that he needed a bodyguard. He was watching WCW Saturday Night and saw Vinnie Vegas otherwise known as Kevin Nash. He thought the guy was hilarious and started asking questions about him. Word got to Nash and Nash told Ole Anderson that wrestling wasn't working out for him and wanted to quit. He got his release and went to work for WWF to be Shawn's bodyguard. LOL. The two clicked immediately and became good friends. Shawn was suspended when Vince told him that he had flunked a steroids test. Shawn greatly denies that he's ever taken steroids saying that he was taking prescription medicine at the time and maybe someone gave him something that showed up without his knowledge. Shawn flat out says very seriously that he has NEVER taken them. WWF wanted the Intercontinental belt back as he was the champion. Shawn said that he wasn't sending the belt back. So, when Shawn came back after suspension, they decided to do the two champions angle which led to the Razor Ramon ladder match. Everyone puts over how great that match was and it really was!! Triple H says that Ric Flair always says how Shawn went out that night and had a great match with a ladder. Not sure if that is Flair taking a little shot at Scott Hall or not. Talk turns to The Kliq after that. If you aren't familiar with The Kliq, this was the name that was given to the group of Shawn, Diesel, Razor, 123 Kid, and HHH behind the scenes cause they always ran together. Pat Patterson and Ted Dibiase talk about how the group could be too much at times. Shawn said that they didn't have pull like people thought but weren't afraid to speak their minds on things. They cover the concussion angle with Shawn and Owen Hart where Shawn passed out in the ring live on Raw. Shawn had been attacked in a bar a few weeks earlier. Triple H comments that Shawn was being Shawn and some guys probably decided to show up this wrestler. Triple H also adds that he, Hall, and Nash were out of the country at the time and usually they all looked after each other. Kid was the only one with him and Shawn got beaten up badly. Shawn did come back after a few weeks and he pushed hard to do the concussion angle. When it happened, Shawn says only two or three people knew that it was angle and that didn't include the doctors. They took him to the hospital to make it look very realistic. It fooled me watching on TV. That is for sure!! Moving to WrestleMania XII, Pat Patterson was the one that pushed for the ironman match with Bret. Vince didn't want to do a match that long in length concerned that fans wouldn't want a match that long on a PPV. When Shawn won the belt, Vince told Shawn that he wanted him to have fun with his title reign and enjoy it. That didn't happen. Shawn put a lot of pressure on himself being the top guy. Triple H thinks that Shawn knew that he was the best guy in the business and wanted to prove it. Hall and Nash decided to leave for WCW and that hurt Shawn that two of his best friends were leaving. This brings us to the Farewell To The Kliq show at MSG. They once again showed the bootleg footage of the event which always surprises me. That is the only footage that exists of that moment except it appears that WWF did get some footage with their own cameras of other points in the night since they showed some footage of it on the DVD. The Kliq had talked about doing some kind of farewell for Hall and Nash for weeks leading to the show. They ran it by Vince who didn't really want to do it cause it broke kayfabe with some being faces and heels. It would confuse fans. Vince reluctantly agreed to let them do it. So, it all happens and they celebrate together at the end of the show. Vince asks if "it was important to them?" which they said yes, and Vince said "well, it was important to me then too". Bruce Pritchard comments on the DVD saying that he thought it was a "slap in the face" to the business. There was a lot of backlash over it and Vince had to lay out punishment for it. As has been talked about since it happened, Triple H took the punishment over it. He was the only one that could. Hall and Nash were gone. Shawn was champion. Triple H was the only one left. Triple H was said to have taken his punishment and not complained at all. Triple H says that Shawn was hurt over them leaving and told Hall and Nash to not come crying back to WWF when WWF was destroying WCW in the ratings in a few months. Well, that didn't happen as the nWo angle launched. Triple H says that Shawn became an "angry young man" trying to carry the company along while they were losing in the ratings. Vince and Foley talk about how Shawn was the glue holding the company together. Shawn makes a comment of "follow that" in the DVD which is something that I've heard over the years. Shawn would go out and knock a homerun out of the park with a match and then yell at the others to "follow that". Vince said that Shawn was very difficult to work with a times and that he took stuff from Shawn that he didn't take from anyone else before or after Shawn. If Shawn was told to do something that he didn't want to do, he'd do it but wouldn't like it. The Rumble 1997 win was special to Shawn as he felt that he was responsible to fill that Alamo Dome to capacity due to it being his home town. He did and he talks of how special that WWF title win was to him especially having his family and friends there. This brings us to when Shawn stepped away from the WWF. He forfeited the title in February 1997 due to a knee injury that his doctor told him could end his career. During this time, he also said that his mom made a comment to him that he didn't smile like he used to. She said it's like you've lost your smile. This was where the "lost my smile" speech came from with the title forfeiting. He was completely burnt out from all the pressure on him and was basically miserable. Shawn did comment on the rumor that has been flying around since it happened that his leaving didn't have to do with the fact that he was told that he was going to drop the belt back to Bret at WrestleMania. That was the original plan. Glad that didn't work out looking back cause Austin/Bret at that event may have never happened. They skip ahead to DX in late 1997. Shawn and Triple H pushed Vince to do more pushing the boundaries stuff and bring attitude to the show cause that was where the company was going and what the fans were into. They show the footage from Raw where DX aired the Farewell To The Kliq footage and yelled at Vince about it. I remember this at the time with how stunned I was that they were talking about and airing the footage of that moment. I was stunned!!! They started saying stuff that they wanted to say and it made others say true feelings back at them on the air as well. Funny comment from Jericho where he talks about a moment that Shawn was in an anklelock by Ken Shamrock but yet still had his lollipop in his mouth. Jericho laughs at it saying "it was very funny but what an a******". I cracked up at that. There were several DX segments where USA called WWF threatening to pull them off the air. This was where the DX public address came from where they mocked the call on what they were supposed to say and not say. This is the presidential address looking thing if you're confused on which one it was. WWF then got a call the next day from USA saying that they loved it and thought it was hilarious. Triple H says that DX was them trying to have fun and not make the business as stiff. We then move on to Montreal. Triple H says that he was the one that came up with the idea of what they could do to Bret commenting on how mad he was that Bret didn't want to do business right. Ted Dibiase comments that he still doesn't understand why Bret didn't want to lose there. The decision was made to do it and Vince told them to not let on to anyone ever that they knew in advance what was going to happen. After it was over, they got back to the locker room and Triple H says that the Harris Brothers met them at the door. They understood why it had happened and stayed with Shawn and Triple H all night to make sure nothing happened to them. JR says that he felt a lot of talent turned on Shawn that night when it wasn't Shawn's fault cause Bret was already leaving. They don't mention on the DVD how a lot of wrestlers were threatening to quit and not show up at Raw the next night. Foley was one of them as he talks in his book that he was about to not go to Raw over what had happened. We move on to Royal Rumble 1998. This is the casket match with The Undertaker that basically ended Shawn's wrestling career. It was kind of a fluke deal where Shawn was backdropped out of the ring and his lower back caught the edge of the casket on the floor when he landed. Shawn said that he was fine immediately but days later, he couldn't walk. Read his book where he explains the terrible pain that he was in. It's incredible. The doctor said that it was a torn up disc in his back. The doctor said that he could get him through WrestleMania but that was going to be it. Shawn would have to quit. This was when Shawn really went downhill knowing that his young career was getting cut short before he was ready. This wasn't on the DVD but I will say that Shawn did not have any physical contact for weeks leading up to WrestleMania trying to protect him. There was one time where he superkicked Austin on the stage on Raw and it sent pain all through his body. When that news got out at the time, I kept wondering how is he going to get through WrestleMania? They go into the DX workout that took place outdoors days before WrestleMania and how Shawn was not in the right mental state at that time at all. The match with Austin vs. Shawn at WrestleMania is covered and I know that Shawn hates that match cause of how bad of shape he is in. If you've never seen this match, you need to watch it. I like this match cause it showed just how hard Shawn was working in this match while barely being able to walk. Just watch how much pain that he is in through the whole match and how he still does all his normal stuff. This is one of the toughest in ring performances that I've ever seen in my life. It is just incredible and at the time, I knew this was his last hurrah and was just concerned on him getting through the thing. He did and JR comments about how happy that he was for Austin but then sad for Shawn. They don't comment about this on the DVD but Shawn was very angry about the Austin shirt being laid on top of him by Tyson. He was very against that happening cause of the symbolism but it did anyway. I think this is what set him off and resulted in him making a scene at the post show press conference which is shown. Shawn says that after his career was cut short, he did drugs and was just in terrible shape. Shawn says that he won't call it a depression but instead "feeling sorry for himself". He was home watching Nitro one night and saw this Nitro Girl named Whisper and was just amazed at how beautiful that she was. He eventually met her and they hit it off. They got married and she became pregnant with their child. She told Shawn that he had 9 months to clean himself up but he didn't. Triple H talks about how Shawn showed up at Raw in 2001 which was the night that Shane McMahon showed up at Nitro. He says that Shawn was not in his right mind at all. Triple H says that Undertaker leaned over to him and said that he'd just about had it with this guy. Triple H got Shawn out of there. There had been plans to do something with Shawn on TV but this scene ended those chances as Vince said he was done with him. Shawn then proceeded to call out Triple H in front of everyone making a scene saying that his best friend had stabbed him in the back and finished him off. Shawn tears up when talking about what made him turn around. He says that his son was crawling on him one night while he was an induced soma sleep commenting that dad was sleeping. His son was getting old enough to understand things that were going on. He says that he asked his wife one night where all the cookies went. She replied that you and your son ate them all and he had no remembrance of this. He called Kevin Nash who he hadn't talked to in a long time and they had a long conversation. Nash said that he needed to clean up now. Shawn commented on how he hadn't talked to Triple H in a long time to which Nash said that was Shawn's fault. Shawn said that he turned to his wife, Rebecca, and told her that he was done doing drugs and drinking and that was it. This is what snapped him out of it and things turned around immediately. Rebecca is a very religious person and he went with her to a bible study shortly afterwards and it changed his life. He became involved in the church and accepted Jesus as his lord and savior. Shawn called Triple H and talked to him. They had a good talk and Shawn thanked him for sticking by him all these years. He later got a call wanting him to return to WWE. He asked Rebecca what she thought and she was all for it. Shawn reappeared and was part of the nWo. Shawn kept wondering if he could do one more match. He asked Triple H if he'd want to wrestle him in one last match to which Triple H was all for. That match took place at SummerSlam 2002. Triple H comments at how amazed that he was at how good Shawn was for someone who hadn't been in the ring for over 4 years. If you've never seen that match, you really ought to watch it. You'd never know that he had been out of the ring for that long and it is incredible with the performance that he gives. They move to Survivor Series 2002 where he won the title and Rebecca says that the reaction that Shawn was given that night was incredible. She said that wrestling fans are so loyal to who they like and loved the reaction that he got. They move ahead to WrestleMania XIX with Chris Jericho. Jericho talks about how excited he was for this match cause he was a Shawn fan all of his life and how Shawn influenced much of his career. Jericho says that during the match that "he was 99% professional and 1% lunatic raving mark" getting to be in the ring with Shawn. Shawn says that match boosted his confidence a ton letting him know that he can still do this. The DVD jumps way ahead to Hogan/Shawn in 2005. As you can expect, these are two very clashing egos. Shawn says that he wanted the match to be face vs. face but Hogan later changed it wanting it to be classic face vs. heel. He also wanted it to be classic 98 heel Shawn which Shawn reluctantly agreed to. Dibiase says that Shawn should have won the match but it wasn't going to happen. Jericho says that the match was fun and one of Hogan's best matches ever. Jericho also points out how Shawn got the best match possible out of Vince McMahon at WrestleMania. Shawn talks about how the ladder that he jumped off of during it was taller than he was expecting. Talk moves to the Backlash match where Vince and Shane wrestled Shawn and God. Jericho comments saying that it was the "dumbest match ever for WWE beating Kennel In The Cell as far as an idea". Shawn didn't comment on this match at all. The story moves on to the DX reunion. Shawn said that years earlier that he would do or say anything and is now limited on what he'll do. He says he takes the responsibility seriously with what he does for kids and how he acts on TV. The story finishes up with talk of Shawn and Cena. Triple H confirms the story that it was originally going to be Triple H vs. Cena at WrestleMania. Triple H went down with the bad injury and he was happy to see Shawn get to be back in the WrestleMania main event. Shawn said that he had a lot of pressure on him in the match with Cena being the veteran. He knew if the match was bad that he would take all the heat for it. The match went good and Cena said that he was honored to be in the main event with Shawn. Some summaries at the end commenting on Shawn's career. Triple H calls Shawn the best person he has ever been in the ring with. JR says that Shawn is top one or two in ring performers ever.
The deleted stories on the DVD cover Shawn and Angle from WrestleMania 21. Shawn talks about how he trained hard to wrestle Angle knowing he'd have to have his "A" game to keep up with Angle. Really good feature on that match. There are several different stories including one about a fight between Shawn and Marty in WWF which Marty says that Roddy Piper instigated. Randy Savage ended up saving an arrest from happening when he arrived at the building and the police were in awe of him. He gave them autographs and no arrest happened. LOL. Marty says that it was a fight that shouldn't have happened but it started a separation between the two. One really funny story is about the bad brown tights that Shawn wore at Survivor Series 2002. Shawn talks in his book about how embarrassed that he was to wear them. The people that were making the tights hadn't finished them and they looked terrible. Jericho says that Shawn always wore these really cool flashy tights and was suddenly wearing these poopy brown tights. Triple H laughs about it saying that he looked over at Shawn in the locker room with a look of "are you kidding"? Shawn asked if they looked bad and Triple H gave a "no, they're great" response while thinking oh my goodness those things look bad.
Some stuff that was left off the DVD that I would have to have seen covered in the documentary. They didn't touch at all on the Shawn/Marty series of matches that they had with their feud. They had some great matches on the early days of Raw. They covered the Kliq but I would have liked to have seen a little of the last Shawn/Diesel match from Good Friends Better Enemies to go along with Hall and Nash leaving. They showed clips of the Shawn/Mankind match from Mind Games but didn't really go into great detail on it. That was a great match and definitely one of my favorite Shawn matches of all time. It could actually be argued as my favorite. They showed the Shawn title win from Sid but didn't really cover that feud at all including Sid turning on him years earlier. The title loss at Survivor Series 1996 to Sid wasn't covered at all. Come to think of it, they really didn't mention Sid at all even when they covered the Shawn victory at Royal Rumble 1997. They didn't really talk about how Shawn turned face in 1995 and how it all happened. One thing that was left out and I completely understand why was that they didn't cover Shawn's first time back in the main event at a WrestleMania since his return. That was WrestleMania XX against Triple H and Chris Benoit. That was a big moment that had to be overlooked now due to the circumstances around Benoit. I also should point out that Benoit is still continuing to be edited out of the Monday Night Wars show on WWE 24/7. They didn't really go much into major detail on how badly Shawn and Bret got along. They didn't touch at all on the fight backstage between the two at Raw in 1997 where they had to be pulled apart.
Thoughts on the matches. I didn't watch a lot of the matches on the set as I've seen 80% of them. I did watch the ones that I haven't seen. The one that I watched first was the tag team title change with The Rockers and The Hart Foundation. I have always wanted to see this match as I remember reading about it in the magazines as a kid and how the top rope breaking resulted in the reversed decision of the tag team titles. The match never aired on TV. There is no commentary on the match. This was a Saturday Night's Main Event taping so I'm sure that they just decided to not add commentary to it later on due to them deciding not to air it. I actually enjoyed the no commentary on the match as you were able to listen to the match more as far as the referee, crowd, and the wrestlers. I can definitely see why they didn't want to air this match as it is kind of a disaster once the top rope breaks during the second fall. Neidhart goes flying into the corner and that is when the rope falls apart on the other side of the ring. The reaction of when it happens is interesting to watch as you can see everyone figuring out what to do. You can also see anger too from the guys knowing that this match is going to look bad now no matter what they do. In between the second and third falls, the crew hits the ring and fixes the top rope. The Rockers win the match in the end and win the WWF tag team titles for their one and only time only for it never to be recognized. Lots of other good matches on it including the Rumble 95 win where Shawn wins after entering at number one, Rockers vs. Brain Busters from MSG which I've seen lately on something, Shawn vs. Jarrett from 1995 which I think is Jarrett's best match ever, Rockers reunion match from 2005 on Raw, the one hour match with Cena and Shawn from Raw back in the spring, a couple of fun AWA matches, and more. Nice that they put stuff on this set that wasn't on the Vault set from a few years back.
Overall, I give this DVD a big thumbs up!! The biography is very well produced. I'd definitely recommend picking up the book as a companion to the DVD to get the complete story due to time constraints on the DVD. When hearing the theme song used on the menus, I again have to ask why WWE can't get the updated version of his theme song. Why do they still use the 1993 version of his song? How hard can it be to go to the sound guy and get the rockier version? Anyway. LOL. Hope you enjoyed the review!!
I watched the new WWE Shawn Michaels Heartbreak & Triumph DVD that was released last week. I'm a huge Shawn Michaels fan and have been for over 15 years now so there was no doubt that I was looking forward to this DVD set. The DVD covers the ups and downs of his career. The biography part of the DVD runs 2 hours and 2 minutes in length. Various people interviewed for the DVD are Shawn, his parents, his wife Rebecca, his pastors, his high school friend and also his high school football coach, Triple H, Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Ted Dibiase, Marty Jannetty, Pat Patterson, and plenty more. I thought I'd go over some random thoughts on the DVD as I scribbled down some notes as I was watching it. The story covers his whole life including his parents talking about how they were hoping that Shawn would grow out of his wrestling phase as a kid. Shawn and Marty Jannetty were put together in a random tag team match and Shawn said he knew immediately that there was something special there. They were later paired up in the AWA. Shawn and Marty were always known as the party guys and trouble sometimes followed them. Sensational Sherri tells a story of how there were so many hotels that they got kicked out of cause of Shawn and Marty. They moved on to WWF after Pat Patterson had been watching them wrestle on TV. Things went bad though when they got there and felt immediately under a microscope. They decided to lay low cause they knew that they needed to be on their best behavior. Jimmy Jack Funk came up to them one night (in a bar if I remember right) and had some alcohol in him. He demanded to see what kind of party guys that they were made of. Shawn finally got tired of hearing it and picked up a glass and broke it over his own head. The story got blown out of proportion the next day and the talk had turned to how they trashed the bar completely. Their reputation proceeded them so their side of the story didn't go over at all. Ironic thing is that Jimmy Jack was one of them that hung them out to dry. Shawn and Marty were fired by Vince. Their dream had been shattered and they went back to working other territories. Shawn said that his heart wasn't in it at that point cause everything else just seemed ridiculous besides working for WWF. They went back to the AWA and also worked Memphis. Shawn started having fun again and they were then brought back to the WWF. They were determined to make this turn last and it did. The Rockers started their run in the WWF. The phantom title switch is shown on the DVD which has never seen the light of day as far as airing. The 2 out of 3 falls match against The Hart Foundation which was at a Saturday Night's Main Event taping had a problem when the top rope broke during the match. Shawn says the match looked terrible cause of it. The Rockers won the tag team titles and Shawn comments that they weren't happy with winning the tag team titles in that kind of match. They found out that the match was not going to air and that the belts would go back to the Hart Foundation due to the top rope breaking. Hmm, I've heard different stories about what occurred there. I've heard the constant story that Jim Neidhart's contract was up at the time of the title change. He hadn't resigned and the belts were put on The Rockers. After the match happened and before the show itself aired, Neidhart resigned and the decision was made to leave the belts on the Hart Foundation. That isn't mentioned on the DVD however. Great compliments from Arn Anderson where he discusses working with The Rockers. He said that he felt that he and Tully (as the Brain Busters) brought a level of maturity to The Rockers helping to elevate them. He then felt that after that, they learned things from The Rockers as well. Arn goes on to say that The Rockers may be the best tag team that he was ever in the ring with. Chris Jericho is all over this DVD and provides great comments. He talks about how The Rockers are still his favorite tag team ever cause they were doing things that other wrestlers weren't doing at that time. The decision was made to split up Shawn and Marty. Shawn admits that things were starting to get rocky between them cause they had been together for so long. He added that he was wanting more as well in his career. Jericho gives a great comment on the Barber Shop segment when the split of The Rockers happened saying that he was shocked and angry at what Shawn did saying "why Shawn?". Pat Patterson was the one that pushed for Sherri to manage Shawn telling Shawn that she'd be able to bring him to the next level as she had managed so many other great singles wrestlers. Shawn wasn't crazy at all with how he was being pushed as the sexy boy gimmick. He wasn't comfortable with it at first. After Sherri was gone, Shawn decided that he needed a bodyguard. He was watching WCW Saturday Night and saw Vinnie Vegas otherwise known as Kevin Nash. He thought the guy was hilarious and started asking questions about him. Word got to Nash and Nash told Ole Anderson that wrestling wasn't working out for him and wanted to quit. He got his release and went to work for WWF to be Shawn's bodyguard. LOL. The two clicked immediately and became good friends. Shawn was suspended when Vince told him that he had flunked a steroids test. Shawn greatly denies that he's ever taken steroids saying that he was taking prescription medicine at the time and maybe someone gave him something that showed up without his knowledge. Shawn flat out says very seriously that he has NEVER taken them. WWF wanted the Intercontinental belt back as he was the champion. Shawn said that he wasn't sending the belt back. So, when Shawn came back after suspension, they decided to do the two champions angle which led to the Razor Ramon ladder match. Everyone puts over how great that match was and it really was!! Triple H says that Ric Flair always says how Shawn went out that night and had a great match with a ladder. Not sure if that is Flair taking a little shot at Scott Hall or not. Talk turns to The Kliq after that. If you aren't familiar with The Kliq, this was the name that was given to the group of Shawn, Diesel, Razor, 123 Kid, and HHH behind the scenes cause they always ran together. Pat Patterson and Ted Dibiase talk about how the group could be too much at times. Shawn said that they didn't have pull like people thought but weren't afraid to speak their minds on things. They cover the concussion angle with Shawn and Owen Hart where Shawn passed out in the ring live on Raw. Shawn had been attacked in a bar a few weeks earlier. Triple H comments that Shawn was being Shawn and some guys probably decided to show up this wrestler. Triple H also adds that he, Hall, and Nash were out of the country at the time and usually they all looked after each other. Kid was the only one with him and Shawn got beaten up badly. Shawn did come back after a few weeks and he pushed hard to do the concussion angle. When it happened, Shawn says only two or three people knew that it was angle and that didn't include the doctors. They took him to the hospital to make it look very realistic. It fooled me watching on TV. That is for sure!! Moving to WrestleMania XII, Pat Patterson was the one that pushed for the ironman match with Bret. Vince didn't want to do a match that long in length concerned that fans wouldn't want a match that long on a PPV. When Shawn won the belt, Vince told Shawn that he wanted him to have fun with his title reign and enjoy it. That didn't happen. Shawn put a lot of pressure on himself being the top guy. Triple H thinks that Shawn knew that he was the best guy in the business and wanted to prove it. Hall and Nash decided to leave for WCW and that hurt Shawn that two of his best friends were leaving. This brings us to the Farewell To The Kliq show at MSG. They once again showed the bootleg footage of the event which always surprises me. That is the only footage that exists of that moment except it appears that WWF did get some footage with their own cameras of other points in the night since they showed some footage of it on the DVD. The Kliq had talked about doing some kind of farewell for Hall and Nash for weeks leading to the show. They ran it by Vince who didn't really want to do it cause it broke kayfabe with some being faces and heels. It would confuse fans. Vince reluctantly agreed to let them do it. So, it all happens and they celebrate together at the end of the show. Vince asks if "it was important to them?" which they said yes, and Vince said "well, it was important to me then too". Bruce Pritchard comments on the DVD saying that he thought it was a "slap in the face" to the business. There was a lot of backlash over it and Vince had to lay out punishment for it. As has been talked about since it happened, Triple H took the punishment over it. He was the only one that could. Hall and Nash were gone. Shawn was champion. Triple H was the only one left. Triple H was said to have taken his punishment and not complained at all. Triple H says that Shawn was hurt over them leaving and told Hall and Nash to not come crying back to WWF when WWF was destroying WCW in the ratings in a few months. Well, that didn't happen as the nWo angle launched. Triple H says that Shawn became an "angry young man" trying to carry the company along while they were losing in the ratings. Vince and Foley talk about how Shawn was the glue holding the company together. Shawn makes a comment of "follow that" in the DVD which is something that I've heard over the years. Shawn would go out and knock a homerun out of the park with a match and then yell at the others to "follow that". Vince said that Shawn was very difficult to work with a times and that he took stuff from Shawn that he didn't take from anyone else before or after Shawn. If Shawn was told to do something that he didn't want to do, he'd do it but wouldn't like it. The Rumble 1997 win was special to Shawn as he felt that he was responsible to fill that Alamo Dome to capacity due to it being his home town. He did and he talks of how special that WWF title win was to him especially having his family and friends there. This brings us to when Shawn stepped away from the WWF. He forfeited the title in February 1997 due to a knee injury that his doctor told him could end his career. During this time, he also said that his mom made a comment to him that he didn't smile like he used to. She said it's like you've lost your smile. This was where the "lost my smile" speech came from with the title forfeiting. He was completely burnt out from all the pressure on him and was basically miserable. Shawn did comment on the rumor that has been flying around since it happened that his leaving didn't have to do with the fact that he was told that he was going to drop the belt back to Bret at WrestleMania. That was the original plan. Glad that didn't work out looking back cause Austin/Bret at that event may have never happened. They skip ahead to DX in late 1997. Shawn and Triple H pushed Vince to do more pushing the boundaries stuff and bring attitude to the show cause that was where the company was going and what the fans were into. They show the footage from Raw where DX aired the Farewell To The Kliq footage and yelled at Vince about it. I remember this at the time with how stunned I was that they were talking about and airing the footage of that moment. I was stunned!!! They started saying stuff that they wanted to say and it made others say true feelings back at them on the air as well. Funny comment from Jericho where he talks about a moment that Shawn was in an anklelock by Ken Shamrock but yet still had his lollipop in his mouth. Jericho laughs at it saying "it was very funny but what an a******". I cracked up at that. There were several DX segments where USA called WWF threatening to pull them off the air. This was where the DX public address came from where they mocked the call on what they were supposed to say and not say. This is the presidential address looking thing if you're confused on which one it was. WWF then got a call the next day from USA saying that they loved it and thought it was hilarious. Triple H says that DX was them trying to have fun and not make the business as stiff. We then move on to Montreal. Triple H says that he was the one that came up with the idea of what they could do to Bret commenting on how mad he was that Bret didn't want to do business right. Ted Dibiase comments that he still doesn't understand why Bret didn't want to lose there. The decision was made to do it and Vince told them to not let on to anyone ever that they knew in advance what was going to happen. After it was over, they got back to the locker room and Triple H says that the Harris Brothers met them at the door. They understood why it had happened and stayed with Shawn and Triple H all night to make sure nothing happened to them. JR says that he felt a lot of talent turned on Shawn that night when it wasn't Shawn's fault cause Bret was already leaving. They don't mention on the DVD how a lot of wrestlers were threatening to quit and not show up at Raw the next night. Foley was one of them as he talks in his book that he was about to not go to Raw over what had happened. We move on to Royal Rumble 1998. This is the casket match with The Undertaker that basically ended Shawn's wrestling career. It was kind of a fluke deal where Shawn was backdropped out of the ring and his lower back caught the edge of the casket on the floor when he landed. Shawn said that he was fine immediately but days later, he couldn't walk. Read his book where he explains the terrible pain that he was in. It's incredible. The doctor said that it was a torn up disc in his back. The doctor said that he could get him through WrestleMania but that was going to be it. Shawn would have to quit. This was when Shawn really went downhill knowing that his young career was getting cut short before he was ready. This wasn't on the DVD but I will say that Shawn did not have any physical contact for weeks leading up to WrestleMania trying to protect him. There was one time where he superkicked Austin on the stage on Raw and it sent pain all through his body. When that news got out at the time, I kept wondering how is he going to get through WrestleMania? They go into the DX workout that took place outdoors days before WrestleMania and how Shawn was not in the right mental state at that time at all. The match with Austin vs. Shawn at WrestleMania is covered and I know that Shawn hates that match cause of how bad of shape he is in. If you've never seen this match, you need to watch it. I like this match cause it showed just how hard Shawn was working in this match while barely being able to walk. Just watch how much pain that he is in through the whole match and how he still does all his normal stuff. This is one of the toughest in ring performances that I've ever seen in my life. It is just incredible and at the time, I knew this was his last hurrah and was just concerned on him getting through the thing. He did and JR comments about how happy that he was for Austin but then sad for Shawn. They don't comment about this on the DVD but Shawn was very angry about the Austin shirt being laid on top of him by Tyson. He was very against that happening cause of the symbolism but it did anyway. I think this is what set him off and resulted in him making a scene at the post show press conference which is shown. Shawn says that after his career was cut short, he did drugs and was just in terrible shape. Shawn says that he won't call it a depression but instead "feeling sorry for himself". He was home watching Nitro one night and saw this Nitro Girl named Whisper and was just amazed at how beautiful that she was. He eventually met her and they hit it off. They got married and she became pregnant with their child. She told Shawn that he had 9 months to clean himself up but he didn't. Triple H talks about how Shawn showed up at Raw in 2001 which was the night that Shane McMahon showed up at Nitro. He says that Shawn was not in his right mind at all. Triple H says that Undertaker leaned over to him and said that he'd just about had it with this guy. Triple H got Shawn out of there. There had been plans to do something with Shawn on TV but this scene ended those chances as Vince said he was done with him. Shawn then proceeded to call out Triple H in front of everyone making a scene saying that his best friend had stabbed him in the back and finished him off. Shawn tears up when talking about what made him turn around. He says that his son was crawling on him one night while he was an induced soma sleep commenting that dad was sleeping. His son was getting old enough to understand things that were going on. He says that he asked his wife one night where all the cookies went. She replied that you and your son ate them all and he had no remembrance of this. He called Kevin Nash who he hadn't talked to in a long time and they had a long conversation. Nash said that he needed to clean up now. Shawn commented on how he hadn't talked to Triple H in a long time to which Nash said that was Shawn's fault. Shawn said that he turned to his wife, Rebecca, and told her that he was done doing drugs and drinking and that was it. This is what snapped him out of it and things turned around immediately. Rebecca is a very religious person and he went with her to a bible study shortly afterwards and it changed his life. He became involved in the church and accepted Jesus as his lord and savior. Shawn called Triple H and talked to him. They had a good talk and Shawn thanked him for sticking by him all these years. He later got a call wanting him to return to WWE. He asked Rebecca what she thought and she was all for it. Shawn reappeared and was part of the nWo. Shawn kept wondering if he could do one more match. He asked Triple H if he'd want to wrestle him in one last match to which Triple H was all for. That match took place at SummerSlam 2002. Triple H comments at how amazed that he was at how good Shawn was for someone who hadn't been in the ring for over 4 years. If you've never seen that match, you really ought to watch it. You'd never know that he had been out of the ring for that long and it is incredible with the performance that he gives. They move to Survivor Series 2002 where he won the title and Rebecca says that the reaction that Shawn was given that night was incredible. She said that wrestling fans are so loyal to who they like and loved the reaction that he got. They move ahead to WrestleMania XIX with Chris Jericho. Jericho talks about how excited he was for this match cause he was a Shawn fan all of his life and how Shawn influenced much of his career. Jericho says that during the match that "he was 99% professional and 1% lunatic raving mark" getting to be in the ring with Shawn. Shawn says that match boosted his confidence a ton letting him know that he can still do this. The DVD jumps way ahead to Hogan/Shawn in 2005. As you can expect, these are two very clashing egos. Shawn says that he wanted the match to be face vs. face but Hogan later changed it wanting it to be classic face vs. heel. He also wanted it to be classic 98 heel Shawn which Shawn reluctantly agreed to. Dibiase says that Shawn should have won the match but it wasn't going to happen. Jericho says that the match was fun and one of Hogan's best matches ever. Jericho also points out how Shawn got the best match possible out of Vince McMahon at WrestleMania. Shawn talks about how the ladder that he jumped off of during it was taller than he was expecting. Talk moves to the Backlash match where Vince and Shane wrestled Shawn and God. Jericho comments saying that it was the "dumbest match ever for WWE beating Kennel In The Cell as far as an idea". Shawn didn't comment on this match at all. The story moves on to the DX reunion. Shawn said that years earlier that he would do or say anything and is now limited on what he'll do. He says he takes the responsibility seriously with what he does for kids and how he acts on TV. The story finishes up with talk of Shawn and Cena. Triple H confirms the story that it was originally going to be Triple H vs. Cena at WrestleMania. Triple H went down with the bad injury and he was happy to see Shawn get to be back in the WrestleMania main event. Shawn said that he had a lot of pressure on him in the match with Cena being the veteran. He knew if the match was bad that he would take all the heat for it. The match went good and Cena said that he was honored to be in the main event with Shawn. Some summaries at the end commenting on Shawn's career. Triple H calls Shawn the best person he has ever been in the ring with. JR says that Shawn is top one or two in ring performers ever.
The deleted stories on the DVD cover Shawn and Angle from WrestleMania 21. Shawn talks about how he trained hard to wrestle Angle knowing he'd have to have his "A" game to keep up with Angle. Really good feature on that match. There are several different stories including one about a fight between Shawn and Marty in WWF which Marty says that Roddy Piper instigated. Randy Savage ended up saving an arrest from happening when he arrived at the building and the police were in awe of him. He gave them autographs and no arrest happened. LOL. Marty says that it was a fight that shouldn't have happened but it started a separation between the two. One really funny story is about the bad brown tights that Shawn wore at Survivor Series 2002. Shawn talks in his book about how embarrassed that he was to wear them. The people that were making the tights hadn't finished them and they looked terrible. Jericho says that Shawn always wore these really cool flashy tights and was suddenly wearing these poopy brown tights. Triple H laughs about it saying that he looked over at Shawn in the locker room with a look of "are you kidding"? Shawn asked if they looked bad and Triple H gave a "no, they're great" response while thinking oh my goodness those things look bad.
Some stuff that was left off the DVD that I would have to have seen covered in the documentary. They didn't touch at all on the Shawn/Marty series of matches that they had with their feud. They had some great matches on the early days of Raw. They covered the Kliq but I would have liked to have seen a little of the last Shawn/Diesel match from Good Friends Better Enemies to go along with Hall and Nash leaving. They showed clips of the Shawn/Mankind match from Mind Games but didn't really go into great detail on it. That was a great match and definitely one of my favorite Shawn matches of all time. It could actually be argued as my favorite. They showed the Shawn title win from Sid but didn't really cover that feud at all including Sid turning on him years earlier. The title loss at Survivor Series 1996 to Sid wasn't covered at all. Come to think of it, they really didn't mention Sid at all even when they covered the Shawn victory at Royal Rumble 1997. They didn't really talk about how Shawn turned face in 1995 and how it all happened. One thing that was left out and I completely understand why was that they didn't cover Shawn's first time back in the main event at a WrestleMania since his return. That was WrestleMania XX against Triple H and Chris Benoit. That was a big moment that had to be overlooked now due to the circumstances around Benoit. I also should point out that Benoit is still continuing to be edited out of the Monday Night Wars show on WWE 24/7. They didn't really go much into major detail on how badly Shawn and Bret got along. They didn't touch at all on the fight backstage between the two at Raw in 1997 where they had to be pulled apart.
Thoughts on the matches. I didn't watch a lot of the matches on the set as I've seen 80% of them. I did watch the ones that I haven't seen. The one that I watched first was the tag team title change with The Rockers and The Hart Foundation. I have always wanted to see this match as I remember reading about it in the magazines as a kid and how the top rope breaking resulted in the reversed decision of the tag team titles. The match never aired on TV. There is no commentary on the match. This was a Saturday Night's Main Event taping so I'm sure that they just decided to not add commentary to it later on due to them deciding not to air it. I actually enjoyed the no commentary on the match as you were able to listen to the match more as far as the referee, crowd, and the wrestlers. I can definitely see why they didn't want to air this match as it is kind of a disaster once the top rope breaks during the second fall. Neidhart goes flying into the corner and that is when the rope falls apart on the other side of the ring. The reaction of when it happens is interesting to watch as you can see everyone figuring out what to do. You can also see anger too from the guys knowing that this match is going to look bad now no matter what they do. In between the second and third falls, the crew hits the ring and fixes the top rope. The Rockers win the match in the end and win the WWF tag team titles for their one and only time only for it never to be recognized. Lots of other good matches on it including the Rumble 95 win where Shawn wins after entering at number one, Rockers vs. Brain Busters from MSG which I've seen lately on something, Shawn vs. Jarrett from 1995 which I think is Jarrett's best match ever, Rockers reunion match from 2005 on Raw, the one hour match with Cena and Shawn from Raw back in the spring, a couple of fun AWA matches, and more. Nice that they put stuff on this set that wasn't on the Vault set from a few years back.
Overall, I give this DVD a big thumbs up!! The biography is very well produced. I'd definitely recommend picking up the book as a companion to the DVD to get the complete story due to time constraints on the DVD. When hearing the theme song used on the menus, I again have to ask why WWE can't get the updated version of his theme song. Why do they still use the 1993 version of his song? How hard can it be to go to the sound guy and get the rockier version? Anyway. LOL. Hope you enjoyed the review!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
WWE Raw's "Power To The People" Thoughts, Paul Heyman's TNA Plans, & More - June 21, 2011
Welcome to the "we got got by Little Jimmy's fan voting" edition of The Wrestling List. Wow, some of those voting results just made me scratch my head last night. I think I only predicted one of those things. Some of them even seemed easy on what the majority of fans would pick.
Let's get right into last night's three hour "power to the people" edition of Raw. There were bizarre picks and booking going on. The booking one really left me thinking what in the world but I'll get there. Fans were able to vote by text on opponents and stipulations throughout the night. The only one that I got right on predicting was Kelly Kelly being picked as the opponent in the Divas title match. I wanted Beth Phoenix but I knew Kelly would get the pick. I like Kelly and congrats to her on winning the Divas title last night. I was surprised to see Eve as such a distant third in the voting. I'm assuming her recent kind of heelish actions played a role in that? Then, I knew things were about to go off the rails when we got to the next pick which was an opponent for Evan Bourne. The picks were between Jack Swagger, Mason Ryah, and Sin Cara. I'm thinking how it will be great to get a battle between the high flyers with Bourne and Cara. Cara is way over with the crowd and he'll get the vote especially with him being the only babyface as well. Wrong. Ryan gets the pick and beats Bourne. Just bizarre. He also won by 51% of the vote to Cara's 30% and Swagger's 19%. Next is Kane and Mark Henry with the fans picking the stipulation. The winner is an arm wrestling match getting 52% of the vote. What was kind of telling to me at this moment was the crowd in Baltimore all groaning at this result. Now, I kind of used that as a barometer on what fans were going to pick. It just didn't add up with that reaction and what the audience picked at home. Fans were chanting during this one and not good things. This crowd also chanted "Batista" at Mason Ryan which was pretty funny too. The next crowd pick shocked me pick wise and booking wise. Dolph Zigger and Kofi Kingston for the U.S. title. Choices are 2 out of 3 falls, submission match, or a Vickie is banned from ringside match. The fans can't stand Vickie and the logical prediction is that it will be the win. Wrong again. 2 out of 3 falls wins by a large margin! Couldn't believe it. I'm not disappointed though with the pick though. I was disappointed to see them come back from commercial and realize we had missed the first fall. We go into the third fall tied. This is where the booking makes no sense to me. The two end up on the floor battling it out. The announcers start rambling about how if the match ends in a countout that the belt won't change hands. Umm, why??!! That is the rule in a one fall match but this is a two out of three fall match. Kofi gets hit by the mic by Dolph which gets the DQ. Kofi wins by DQ. No title changes hands. Why? Yes, there was a DQ finish in the third fall which would normally make the title change hands. However, we're counting falls here. Kofi won two out of three falls which should make him U.S. champion. Booking didn't make any sense there. CM Punk was put in a triple threat match against Rey Mysterio and Albert Del Rio after Punk's standoff to open the show against the Raw General Manager. The winner of the stipulation was a falls count anywhere match. I didn't have any opinion on that one and there didn't seem to be a clear favorite there. Punk gets the win in sneaky heel fashion which I loved. Afterwards, Punk announced that his contract is up at the Money In The Bank PPV and that he is leaving. He plans on winning the title and taking it with him. This plays off of the rumor that we've been hearing for a while now that Punk was leaving the company. I'll speak more about this in a moment. Daniel Bryan defeated Cody Rhodes in a no count out match. I thought the fans would vote for the sillier gimmick with the bag match. Dibiase came out afterwards and he and Cody doubleteamed Bryan. Next was the dance competition. Name Vickie Guerrero's dance opponent which was Michael Cole. Ok, I expected that one with the choices being Cole, Lawler, or Booker T. The main event had a six man tag with Cena, Riley, and Orton taking on Miz, Truth, and Christian. The winning stipulation was an elimination match. It came down to Truth, Christian, Cena, and Orton. Truth was pinned following a RKO. Christian then hit a spear on to Orton and eliminated him. It came down to Cena and Christian and I knew immediately how this match was going to end. Orton hits Christian with a RKO which sets him right up for Cena. Cena finishes off Christian and stands tall at the end of Raw again. Just seen this way too many times.
Other notes from Raw. WWE has just released this news as I have been typing this. WWE has apologized for a "technical issue" with the Mason Ryan vote. They said that a "voting backlog" from the previous vote of Kelly Kelly carried over to Ryan. That explains the vote there. I still want to know the reason for some of the rest of the voting. LOL. Two lines of the night were Punk's I'm going to make snow angels over here until you name me number one contender and then Truth's I got got by Little Jimmy line. Loved both of those lines.
Curious to see how this all plays out with CM Punk. Interesting twist with Punk saying he is leaving and taking the title. That is going to be a great crowd environment. Why do I say that? Well, the PPV is being held in Chicago. This is the hometown of CM Punk who always gets a big reaction there. Chicago is also a very anti-Cena town. They have booed him bad for MANY years now. Add those two together and the crowd should take that match to another level. I'm looking forward to it.
Shane McMahon did an interview with the Los Angeles Times talking about leaving WWE. Shane did say that there was still tension between the two of them over his exit from the company. You can read the interview here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/06/shane-mcmahon-is-his-own-man.html
Paul Heyman recently did an interview with 1130AM The Fan where he spoke about what his plans were for TNA. It was definitely an interesting look at what could happen. First, he said that Dixie Carter was absolutely somebody that was so extremely nice and had trouble firing anybody. Just goes to show that he is very loyal. That actually was one thing that worked against Heyman coming in. Heyman's plan was to build the company against all the young talent. His big push was to get rid of all the legends. Well, not all the legends. Leave one legend around. Let him be the standout personality with all the young guys. That way all the focus is on the young talent and the one legend that they do have gets to stand out instead of having twenty legends all in the same company that all feel the same. He had other ideas as well including music but it really makes you wonder what things would be like now in the company. He did say that he was not going to take it over with what was being talked about. He thought it was doomed to fail from the start and was not about to jump into something that he didn't feel could be successful. I'm not a fan of what the company is right now and that bums me out. I want to be a fan. I say that over and over. Here is the link to the interview:
With me making that last statement, there is a bit of interest with the build to the Destination X PPV. Talent from the past is being brought back to build around the focus of the X-Division style of the show. This may be a SPOILER ALERT cause I don't know if this has been announced on TV yet. So, if you don't want to know the main event, skip the rest of this paragraph. Ok, you've been warned. The main event is going to be a rematch of what many people consider to be the greatest match in the history of the company and that is AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels. So, that is a good start for the show. Several talent is showing back up including Austin Aries, Jimmy Rave, and Kid Kash who had a match on last week's Impact.
TNA has released Desmond Wolfe or as you may know him, Nigel McGuinness. No word on why he has been released but there are rumors. No idea though and a bummer to see him gone from the company.
One thing that I like that WWE Classics On Demand is doing now is that they have a Rewind section. Basically, it is a section for repeat programming on the service. For me, it is good cause they show some stuff that was shown before I had access to the service. An example is the fact that they've started airing the TNT shows from the beginning again. When I finally had the service, they were probably a year into it time wise on the shows so I missed the first year of the TNT shows. I've enjoyed a lot of it especially the Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch on location stuff which has been funny. If you missed any of the early roundtable shows, those are being aired in that section as well. Thankfully, I have seen all of those.
That is all for today. Wishing all of you a great rest of the week!! Take care and God bless!!
Let's get right into last night's three hour "power to the people" edition of Raw. There were bizarre picks and booking going on. The booking one really left me thinking what in the world but I'll get there. Fans were able to vote by text on opponents and stipulations throughout the night. The only one that I got right on predicting was Kelly Kelly being picked as the opponent in the Divas title match. I wanted Beth Phoenix but I knew Kelly would get the pick. I like Kelly and congrats to her on winning the Divas title last night. I was surprised to see Eve as such a distant third in the voting. I'm assuming her recent kind of heelish actions played a role in that? Then, I knew things were about to go off the rails when we got to the next pick which was an opponent for Evan Bourne. The picks were between Jack Swagger, Mason Ryah, and Sin Cara. I'm thinking how it will be great to get a battle between the high flyers with Bourne and Cara. Cara is way over with the crowd and he'll get the vote especially with him being the only babyface as well. Wrong. Ryan gets the pick and beats Bourne. Just bizarre. He also won by 51% of the vote to Cara's 30% and Swagger's 19%. Next is Kane and Mark Henry with the fans picking the stipulation. The winner is an arm wrestling match getting 52% of the vote. What was kind of telling to me at this moment was the crowd in Baltimore all groaning at this result. Now, I kind of used that as a barometer on what fans were going to pick. It just didn't add up with that reaction and what the audience picked at home. Fans were chanting during this one and not good things. This crowd also chanted "Batista" at Mason Ryan which was pretty funny too. The next crowd pick shocked me pick wise and booking wise. Dolph Zigger and Kofi Kingston for the U.S. title. Choices are 2 out of 3 falls, submission match, or a Vickie is banned from ringside match. The fans can't stand Vickie and the logical prediction is that it will be the win. Wrong again. 2 out of 3 falls wins by a large margin! Couldn't believe it. I'm not disappointed though with the pick though. I was disappointed to see them come back from commercial and realize we had missed the first fall. We go into the third fall tied. This is where the booking makes no sense to me. The two end up on the floor battling it out. The announcers start rambling about how if the match ends in a countout that the belt won't change hands. Umm, why??!! That is the rule in a one fall match but this is a two out of three fall match. Kofi gets hit by the mic by Dolph which gets the DQ. Kofi wins by DQ. No title changes hands. Why? Yes, there was a DQ finish in the third fall which would normally make the title change hands. However, we're counting falls here. Kofi won two out of three falls which should make him U.S. champion. Booking didn't make any sense there. CM Punk was put in a triple threat match against Rey Mysterio and Albert Del Rio after Punk's standoff to open the show against the Raw General Manager. The winner of the stipulation was a falls count anywhere match. I didn't have any opinion on that one and there didn't seem to be a clear favorite there. Punk gets the win in sneaky heel fashion which I loved. Afterwards, Punk announced that his contract is up at the Money In The Bank PPV and that he is leaving. He plans on winning the title and taking it with him. This plays off of the rumor that we've been hearing for a while now that Punk was leaving the company. I'll speak more about this in a moment. Daniel Bryan defeated Cody Rhodes in a no count out match. I thought the fans would vote for the sillier gimmick with the bag match. Dibiase came out afterwards and he and Cody doubleteamed Bryan. Next was the dance competition. Name Vickie Guerrero's dance opponent which was Michael Cole. Ok, I expected that one with the choices being Cole, Lawler, or Booker T. The main event had a six man tag with Cena, Riley, and Orton taking on Miz, Truth, and Christian. The winning stipulation was an elimination match. It came down to Truth, Christian, Cena, and Orton. Truth was pinned following a RKO. Christian then hit a spear on to Orton and eliminated him. It came down to Cena and Christian and I knew immediately how this match was going to end. Orton hits Christian with a RKO which sets him right up for Cena. Cena finishes off Christian and stands tall at the end of Raw again. Just seen this way too many times.
Other notes from Raw. WWE has just released this news as I have been typing this. WWE has apologized for a "technical issue" with the Mason Ryan vote. They said that a "voting backlog" from the previous vote of Kelly Kelly carried over to Ryan. That explains the vote there. I still want to know the reason for some of the rest of the voting. LOL. Two lines of the night were Punk's I'm going to make snow angels over here until you name me number one contender and then Truth's I got got by Little Jimmy line. Loved both of those lines.
Curious to see how this all plays out with CM Punk. Interesting twist with Punk saying he is leaving and taking the title. That is going to be a great crowd environment. Why do I say that? Well, the PPV is being held in Chicago. This is the hometown of CM Punk who always gets a big reaction there. Chicago is also a very anti-Cena town. They have booed him bad for MANY years now. Add those two together and the crowd should take that match to another level. I'm looking forward to it.
Shane McMahon did an interview with the Los Angeles Times talking about leaving WWE. Shane did say that there was still tension between the two of them over his exit from the company. You can read the interview here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/06/shane-mcmahon-is-his-own-man.html
Paul Heyman recently did an interview with 1130AM The Fan where he spoke about what his plans were for TNA. It was definitely an interesting look at what could happen. First, he said that Dixie Carter was absolutely somebody that was so extremely nice and had trouble firing anybody. Just goes to show that he is very loyal. That actually was one thing that worked against Heyman coming in. Heyman's plan was to build the company against all the young talent. His big push was to get rid of all the legends. Well, not all the legends. Leave one legend around. Let him be the standout personality with all the young guys. That way all the focus is on the young talent and the one legend that they do have gets to stand out instead of having twenty legends all in the same company that all feel the same. He had other ideas as well including music but it really makes you wonder what things would be like now in the company. He did say that he was not going to take it over with what was being talked about. He thought it was doomed to fail from the start and was not about to jump into something that he didn't feel could be successful. I'm not a fan of what the company is right now and that bums me out. I want to be a fan. I say that over and over. Here is the link to the interview:
With me making that last statement, there is a bit of interest with the build to the Destination X PPV. Talent from the past is being brought back to build around the focus of the X-Division style of the show. This may be a SPOILER ALERT cause I don't know if this has been announced on TV yet. So, if you don't want to know the main event, skip the rest of this paragraph. Ok, you've been warned. The main event is going to be a rematch of what many people consider to be the greatest match in the history of the company and that is AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels. So, that is a good start for the show. Several talent is showing back up including Austin Aries, Jimmy Rave, and Kid Kash who had a match on last week's Impact.
TNA has released Desmond Wolfe or as you may know him, Nigel McGuinness. No word on why he has been released but there are rumors. No idea though and a bummer to see him gone from the company.
One thing that I like that WWE Classics On Demand is doing now is that they have a Rewind section. Basically, it is a section for repeat programming on the service. For me, it is good cause they show some stuff that was shown before I had access to the service. An example is the fact that they've started airing the TNT shows from the beginning again. When I finally had the service, they were probably a year into it time wise on the shows so I missed the first year of the TNT shows. I've enjoyed a lot of it especially the Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch on location stuff which has been funny. If you missed any of the early roundtable shows, those are being aired in that section as well. Thankfully, I have seen all of those.
That is all for today. Wishing all of you a great rest of the week!! Take care and God bless!!
Friday, June 17, 2011
WWE Raw Thoughts, Ryder, Classics, & More - June 17, 2011
Welcome to the "they wanted Ryder" edition of The Wrestling List.
Monday night's Raw was a three hour affair from Long Island, NY. Hot crowd and they popped huge for Austin. It think it is fair to say that there were more long term hardcore fans there than there is in other cities. That is usually fair to say anytime they get into that area. Austin hosted the WWE All Stars special edition of Raw as the general manager. I enjoyed it for the most part. More than I have in recent weeks. Austin was fun. I liked the exchange with him and Miz. Going with other segments later on, it was about time that we got an Austin/Punk segment. Really good stuff there too. They played off of each other really well. Austin has been pushing Punk on Twitter lately. It can't hurt to have guys like that in your corner when your contract is about up. Punk may be leaving here soon as he seems ready to get out of there which would be big time bad for WWE. Sticking with Austin, I liked the GM segment with him where he destroyed the computer. The threats from him were funny and then we got the payoff on it. The main event had John Cena taking on CM Punk. Wow, what a loud crowd during that and they were vocal against John Cena. Cena just isn't going to be liked in that New York area it seems. It's been that way for over five years now and doesn't appear to be changing. Funny thing is that they used to pop huge for him when he was in the rapper gimmick. Different character though completely. John Morrison returns….sort of. He was ready to take on Truth by word of Austin. Then, he is found laid out in the back. Speaking of Truth, he is great as a heel. One of the best things on the show and the "little Jimmy" thing is just hilarious. Christian and Randy Orton had another face off but Christian backed off. Then, the threat was made that they couldn't touch or Orton would be stripped of the World title. How does the Raw GM have that kind of power? I don't know. Maybe I missed something on how they explained that but I didn't hear it. Great to see Rowdy Roddy Piper on the show. Piper's Pit was the host of the back and forth words between Riley and Miz. After words got exchanged, Austin made a match with Miz and Piper. $5,000 on the line. Riley as the special ref. He helped Piper get the win and Miz loses the money.
Other notes from Raw. Did you hear those "we want Ryder" chants? If you didn't, how did you miss them??!! WWE should have brought him out or done something with him during the show. Three hours and you have a crowd begging for him. Surely, you could put him on the show somewhere. Isn't it amazing that this guy has gotten himself over online with his videos? It shows the power of the internet cause the guy is getting reactions despite hardly being used on TV. His videos have been getting attention for months now and WWE is going to have to look at doing something with him. Definitely good with the comedy. Chris Jericho took to Twitter to rip on WWE for not using him on Raw as well. He has a lot of supporters from big names in the business. Wondering when WWE will decide to listen? I wondered how much offense that Sin Cara would get with a live show and the answer was the finish. Poor guy.
A strange thing happened recently at the Smackdown tapings. Vince McMahon apparently decided to play a rib on Mark Henry. The bigger rib may have been on the fans in attendance. Henry was sent to the ring. He kept waiting for his opponent who never came out. This went on for a LONG time. According to the live report, it went for about 30 minutes. Henry eventually got furious and went to the back demanding to know what was going on. It appears that Vince played a rib on Henry. However, the fans stayed and stayed and stayed waiting to see another match. It would leave a sour taste in my mouth especially for me knowing that I travel usually a couple of hours to see a show. I could have put that on my travel time and get home earlier instead of waiting on this match to never happen just so a joke could be played.
Jim Ross posted on his Twitter lately about taping a new set of roundtable shows for WWE Classics On Demand. The addition to the panel was Kevin Nash. Apparently, there is a show done on the nWo. That has to be an interesting discussion and Nash is a good storyteller and talker. Should be fun to watch.
I'm happy to see the lineup for this month for WWE Classics On Demand. Specifically a house show from MSG from April of 1989. The event is one of the WrestleMania V rematches of Hogan and Savage. Very nice. Like the rest of the lineup as well and looking forward to watching it.
I mentioned lately how intriguing it was that Mick Foley was talking a lot about WWE as of late on his Twitter considering he has been with TNA. Well, it appears that he is gone from TNA and his exit was put into the storyline last week on Impact. Foley gave his thoughts on TNA in a column recently about what he didn't like about the company and all. I assume we'll see him back in WWE before too long.
Another guy is done with TNA and that is Tommy Dreamer. He finished up with the company this past weekend with the Basebrawl shows in Marion and Memphis. He posted on Twitter about how it started to rain in Memphis just as his music started to play for his last match entrance. He definitely pondered the timing of it with the rain delaying the show at that very second.
The next TNA PPV, Destination X, is going back to its roots. I think you'll be very happy with the main event. I know I am but I also worry about anything that company does lately. I would post the spoiler of the main event but they might take my Twitter away from me. Oh, I think I've said too much. Yep, there goes Twitter. Seriously, what is wrong with that company? I just don't get it.
That is all for today. Wishing you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!
Monday night's Raw was a three hour affair from Long Island, NY. Hot crowd and they popped huge for Austin. It think it is fair to say that there were more long term hardcore fans there than there is in other cities. That is usually fair to say anytime they get into that area. Austin hosted the WWE All Stars special edition of Raw as the general manager. I enjoyed it for the most part. More than I have in recent weeks. Austin was fun. I liked the exchange with him and Miz. Going with other segments later on, it was about time that we got an Austin/Punk segment. Really good stuff there too. They played off of each other really well. Austin has been pushing Punk on Twitter lately. It can't hurt to have guys like that in your corner when your contract is about up. Punk may be leaving here soon as he seems ready to get out of there which would be big time bad for WWE. Sticking with Austin, I liked the GM segment with him where he destroyed the computer. The threats from him were funny and then we got the payoff on it. The main event had John Cena taking on CM Punk. Wow, what a loud crowd during that and they were vocal against John Cena. Cena just isn't going to be liked in that New York area it seems. It's been that way for over five years now and doesn't appear to be changing. Funny thing is that they used to pop huge for him when he was in the rapper gimmick. Different character though completely. John Morrison returns….sort of. He was ready to take on Truth by word of Austin. Then, he is found laid out in the back. Speaking of Truth, he is great as a heel. One of the best things on the show and the "little Jimmy" thing is just hilarious. Christian and Randy Orton had another face off but Christian backed off. Then, the threat was made that they couldn't touch or Orton would be stripped of the World title. How does the Raw GM have that kind of power? I don't know. Maybe I missed something on how they explained that but I didn't hear it. Great to see Rowdy Roddy Piper on the show. Piper's Pit was the host of the back and forth words between Riley and Miz. After words got exchanged, Austin made a match with Miz and Piper. $5,000 on the line. Riley as the special ref. He helped Piper get the win and Miz loses the money.
Other notes from Raw. Did you hear those "we want Ryder" chants? If you didn't, how did you miss them??!! WWE should have brought him out or done something with him during the show. Three hours and you have a crowd begging for him. Surely, you could put him on the show somewhere. Isn't it amazing that this guy has gotten himself over online with his videos? It shows the power of the internet cause the guy is getting reactions despite hardly being used on TV. His videos have been getting attention for months now and WWE is going to have to look at doing something with him. Definitely good with the comedy. Chris Jericho took to Twitter to rip on WWE for not using him on Raw as well. He has a lot of supporters from big names in the business. Wondering when WWE will decide to listen? I wondered how much offense that Sin Cara would get with a live show and the answer was the finish. Poor guy.
A strange thing happened recently at the Smackdown tapings. Vince McMahon apparently decided to play a rib on Mark Henry. The bigger rib may have been on the fans in attendance. Henry was sent to the ring. He kept waiting for his opponent who never came out. This went on for a LONG time. According to the live report, it went for about 30 minutes. Henry eventually got furious and went to the back demanding to know what was going on. It appears that Vince played a rib on Henry. However, the fans stayed and stayed and stayed waiting to see another match. It would leave a sour taste in my mouth especially for me knowing that I travel usually a couple of hours to see a show. I could have put that on my travel time and get home earlier instead of waiting on this match to never happen just so a joke could be played.
Jim Ross posted on his Twitter lately about taping a new set of roundtable shows for WWE Classics On Demand. The addition to the panel was Kevin Nash. Apparently, there is a show done on the nWo. That has to be an interesting discussion and Nash is a good storyteller and talker. Should be fun to watch.
I'm happy to see the lineup for this month for WWE Classics On Demand. Specifically a house show from MSG from April of 1989. The event is one of the WrestleMania V rematches of Hogan and Savage. Very nice. Like the rest of the lineup as well and looking forward to watching it.
I mentioned lately how intriguing it was that Mick Foley was talking a lot about WWE as of late on his Twitter considering he has been with TNA. Well, it appears that he is gone from TNA and his exit was put into the storyline last week on Impact. Foley gave his thoughts on TNA in a column recently about what he didn't like about the company and all. I assume we'll see him back in WWE before too long.
Another guy is done with TNA and that is Tommy Dreamer. He finished up with the company this past weekend with the Basebrawl shows in Marion and Memphis. He posted on Twitter about how it started to rain in Memphis just as his music started to play for his last match entrance. He definitely pondered the timing of it with the rain delaying the show at that very second.
The next TNA PPV, Destination X, is going back to its roots. I think you'll be very happy with the main event. I know I am but I also worry about anything that company does lately. I would post the spoiler of the main event but they might take my Twitter away from me. Oh, I think I've said too much. Yep, there goes Twitter. Seriously, what is wrong with that company? I just don't get it.
That is all for today. Wishing you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Impact Wrestling Base Brawl In Marion IL - June 10, 2011
Last night was the first Base Brawl event from TNA Impact Wrestling. It was held in Marion, IL at Rent One Park which is the home field of the Southern Illinois Miners.First, here are the results of the event. The show opened with Jeremy Borash in the ring hyping up the crowd. He would be in the ring in between matches all night. He does a great job and backstage passes were given away. Some kids got some backstage passes and the look on their faces were great. They were so excited. First match was Robbie E with Cookie taking on Eric Young. Lots of comedy in this match. Robbie and Cookie started dancing to the music. Then, the ref started dancing with Cookie. Not long after that, the Miners mascot got in the ring and started dancing with Robbie but Robbie didn't know it was the mascot. Cookie was in the corner looking horrified telling him to turn around. Eric then rolled up Robbie for the win. Borash introduced Earl Hebner who ended doing the whole Hitman gimmick pose in the ring including wearing the Hebner t-shirt that is being sold. Next match was Velvet Sky taking on Angelina Love. WSIL's Kevin Hunsperger accompanied Velvet while Winter accompanied Angelina. The finish had Winter trying to interfere but it backfiring on Angelina leading to a rollup pin for Velvet for the win. Matt Morgan and Scott Steiner was next. Steiner was a heat magnet with the crowd. Thought he went over the line with getting heat but that is just me. Morgan gets the win. Next was my favorite match on the show. AJ Styles and Devon taking on Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer. Interesting that Dreamer got to come out to the regular version of Man In The Box. Old school ECW feel to that entrance. I wasn't crazy about Bully Ray's heat tactics either but being an ECW fan, it was pretty tame from back then. LOL. I really enjoyed just listening to the interaction in the ring including the taunting back and forth between Bully Ray and Devon. Trash talking while hitting and reversing moves. It was fun. AJ is just incredible with his high flying stuff. AJ and Devon did the classic wassup to Bully Ray. AJ dove over the ropes on to Bully Ray. Devon pinned Dreamer with a spinebuster. Afterwards, Devon taunted Bully Ray to get back in the ring. Bully Ray teased that he was going to and then bailed out. Dreamer gave a wave as he headed to the locker room. I should point out that there was a ECW chant at the beginning of the match. Devon was all pumped for it. I looked at Dreamer who just had this look on his face of not being able to hold back a grin for the chant despite trying to stay heel. Just loved seeing that. After the intermission, Matt Hardy took on Kazarian. Kazarian hit a move that I had not seen before as I am not a frequent watcher of the show. It was like a backwards piledriver that looked awesome. Kazarian wins the match. Main event time with Kurt Angle taking on Jeff Jarrett. Not as long as I expected it to be. Toward the beginning of the match, Jarrett kept jawing with Hebner. Hebner finally shoved him and said do you want to go. They tied up and Jarrett was sent to the ropes. Hebner nailed a hip toss on to Jarrett who looked completely stunned. The finish had Angle hooking on the anklelock and getting the submission win. The show ended with the fireworks show.
It was extremely hot at the event. It was outdoors of course but it was just even hotter than normal making it very uncomfortable at times. The $50 ticket got you into the meet and greet before the event with many wrestlers making their way down the line on the field to sign autographs and take pictures including Tommy Dreamer, Devon, Kazarian, Robbie E, Cookie, and more. It was fun to just sit back and have the wrestlers come to you. Usually it is the other way around. Everyone was in a good mood and happy to sign and take pictures. AJ Styles signed in the dugout for his action figures. If you bought the action figure, you were able to go get in line and get it signed by AJ but that was the rule on that. A photo opportunity up on the main level of the park where you could have your picture taken with Velvet Sky for $10. I felt bad for Velvet a lot of times cause she looked like the heat was too much and it was really hot up in that area. Just no breeze at all. Matt Morgan signed over at the merchandise table. At intermission, Angelina Love and Winter signed at the merchandise table. Angelina was in full zombie type gimmick. After the show, Jeff Jarrett signed and took pictures at the merchandise table. While that was going on, Kurt Angle was taking pictures in the ring. You could pay $20 and get your picture taken with Kurt and it didn't matter how many people that you had in your group. $20 paid it. It was fun to do the meet and greet stuff. Not really that crazy about how certain people would sign for free and these others wouldn't but that was the company call and their way of making money. I thought the $50 meet and greet pass should get autographs from whoever you want that is available but that is just me. I absolutely had to pay the money to get the picture with Kurt and he was extremely nice to everyone. Fun deal there and I think that is a great money maker for the company to do. Getting to meet Dreamer was very cool especially with this being his last weekend in working with the company. I told him that I was a long time ECW fan and he said "me too". Cracked me up. Don West was in full selling mode at the show. He works hard for sure and was all over the place with the microphone announcing signings and all.
So, there you have it. The happenings of the first Basebrawl event. Memphis gets the second one tonight. Hoping that you all get cooler weather! Wow.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Looking Back On My Favorite Moments Of WCW Monday Nitro - June 6, 2011
WWE is set to release a Best Of WCW Monday Nitro DVD set tomorrow. The set will be hosted by Diamond Dallas Page and will include matches and moments over the run of the series. It just popped into my head that it might be fun to do a Wrestling List looking back on my favorite moments of WCW Monday Nitro.
WCW Monday Nitro premiered in September of 1995 and went right head to head with Raw. Well, it actually didn't go head to head on its premiere night as Raw was preempted that night on USA Network. So, Eric Bischoff went with the plan to air the first Nitro on a night unopposed when fans would be looking for wrestling. Yeah, I think that might have worked. Yeah, it did work! The opening had great action, an interesting environment in the Mall of America, and the first of many surprises that we would get on Nitro with the return of Lex Luger. Keep in mind that Luger had just been with the WWF at the time so his return to WCW on a live Nitro was a complete shocker to everyone watching. This premiere is definitely in my list of favorite moments. This show gave us big matchups and stars on a live broadcast making us wonder what could happen next. This was such a huge alternative to what WWF was giving us on Raw in 1995. Lots of cartoony gimmicks and the only highlights for the company were Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and those top level guys.
Savage/Hogan/Flair/Giant. This was a battle between these stars to be WCW World Champion. These four battled one another in early 1996 to become champion. The title changed hands on multiple occasions. There were twists and turns such as Elizabeth turning on Savage to go with Flair. She was his before she was Savage's by the way. Anyone get that 1992 reference? I enjoyed the matches of these four as they went for the title.
Memorial Day 1996. Scott Hall's debut on Nitro. Oh, what was to come with this. Hall showed up in basically the Razor Ramon gimmick except for the clothes. Fans were abuzz at his talk of "we are taking over". If you weren't a fan that knew the inside stuff, then you were thinking that WWF was showing up on WCW programming. I loved the stuff with Sting standing up to him as well when Hall would repeatedly show up. Enter in Kevin Nash a couple of weeks later. The set up for the nWo was underway. Some of my favorite Nitro moments were after the reveal of Hogan being in the nWo. They were taping TV down in Orlando. A black limo would show up and I was just glued to the TV wondering what was going to happen when these guys got out. All fans were glued to the TV. We had the moment where they went up into the top of the venue covering up the WCW letters. They attacked the WCW roster in the back including Nash throwing Rey Mysterio like a dart into the trailer. It was just a different level of TV than we had ever seen. These guys that were just there to wreck havoc and you never knew when they were going to show up.
1-2-3-4, next week, 5. That was the signal that Ted Dibiase held up during a live broadcast when he sat ringside and started counting nWo members. This became a lot of what the fall of 1996 would be in WCW. Who was the next to join? Would somebody turn on WCW? You just never knew. An attack would play out when The Giant would turn on WCW and join up with the nWo and unleash a big time attack on Randy Savage.
Sting. This was a big deal as 1996 came to a close in WCW. We had the supposed attack of Sting on Luger in the parking lot on a Nitro show which made it look like Sting had joined the nWo. However, Sting denied it was him but with all the turns of people to the nWo, nobody believed him. So, Sting would show up at Fall Brawl in the War Games match as scheduled. He cleaned house on the nWo and then left saying now do you believe me. It was an awesome, awesome moment. Then, he would walk out on WCW on the next edition of Nitro. This would see the emergence of one of my favorite things in wrestling history. The black and white "crow" looking Sting who would just watch the happenings of the action in the tops of the buildings. Not saying anything. What was on his mind? Whose side was he on? He would make his way to the ring, lay out somebody, not say anything, and leave. It was great TV. He didn't say a word for months. Sting would later start getting to the ring by propelling from a cable to the ring. It was an amazing sight and one that would send fans into a big reaction. It came across great on TV and also live as I saw Sting drop down in the building in Nashville on Nitro to one of the loudest roars that I've ever heard at an event. The mystery of Sting would be great TV for many months on Monday Nitro.
Lex Luger wins for WCW. The big Luger/Hogan match for the WCW title was built up on a Nitro in August of 1997. Luger pulled out the win and won the title giving WCW a big celebration against the nWo. Then, WCW would put the belt back on Hogan days later at the Road Wild or Hog Wild PPV, whatever it was called that year. Just took some of the big momentum off of it.
Goldberg/Hogan. Some still point at this match as a problem that WCW had putting this first ever epic encounter on free TV on Nitro. Me? I didn't really have a problem with it. They went for the ratings gold with it and packed the Georgia Dome with it. I see both sides of the argument though. Goldberg had all sorts of momentum in 1998 with him steamrolling competition and had the crowd in the palm of his hands. I still love to watch those crowds react jumping out of their seats when Goldberg would hit the spear. With his undefeated record, it was a matter of time before he would get to Hogan. July of 1998 would see that. Goldberg would defeat Hogan to win his first WCW title in front of a loud and pumped up crowd in Atlanta.
Chris Jericho. When you read his book, you realize that Jericho knew he wasn't getting attention from management so he just did whatever to get attention. It worked! Jericho's Nitro segments are some of my favorites in history. Lots of great comedy stuff with Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, and others. The 1,004 holds segment is still one of my favorites. Jericho proclaimed that Malenko was the man of a 1,000 holds that Jericho was the man of a 1,004 holds and was going to read them all off. Almost every other one of them was an arm bar. Hilarious stuff. When they went to commercial, they came back and he was still in the ring reading moves. Great, great stuff. Jericho had great segments and matches over the years on Nitro and I always have to think Jericho when I think of Monday Nitro.
The Four Horsemen are reunited. Charlotte, North Carolina hosted one of the biggest Nitro moments ever. The Horsemen had been separated. Flair and WCW had all sorts of backstage issues. However, this was the night that the Horsemen rode again. The culmination of this big moment would be Arn Anderson in the ring finishing up the promo when he said that he almost forgot somebody and introduces Ric Flair. Horsemen country goes crazy and Flair walks out in his suit all sorts of teary eyed. Flair does his usual great promo and the Horsemen were back.
January 4, 1999. The fingerpoke of doom. Ok, just kidding. Not in my favorite moments. Ranks up there with my least favorite moments. Most of which include Vince Russo.
Bret Hart knocks out Goldberg in Canada. I had forgotten how good this segment was until they showed the footage again on a recent Legends of Wrestling roundtable show on WWE Classics On Demand. The basic set up was that Nitro was in Canada in 1999. Now, you know that Bret Hart got a huge ovation walking out there and the crowd was eating up everything he said. He laid out the challenge for Goldberg. Goldberg answered it and hit Bret with a spear. They then both laid on the mat to the stunned reaction of everyone wondering why Goldberg was unconscious after hitting the spear. After a minute or so, Bret staged to his feet and revealed that he had a piece of metal around his waist which Goldberg knocked himself out on with the spear. Bret had outsmarted and KO'd Goldberg in Canada and the crowd went wild over it.
Speaking of Bret Hart, I have to mention another incredible Nitro moment and that was the tribute match to Owen Hart. Bret returned to Kansas City and a match was made with him and Chris Benoit to pay tribute to Owen. They put on a classic match and Bret was the winner. Afterwards, he pointed upward to Owen. With the Benoit tragedy, this moment will likely never be seen again in WWE footage unless they just show Bret paying tribute and they ignore the match completely.
August 9, 1999. The return of Hulkamania. I loved this. They had been teasing a Hogan face turn for a while. The fans had gotten back behind Hollywood Hogan. On this night on Nitro, the red and yellow returned along with the "American Made" music. The crowd went nuts as he teamed with Sting and Goldberg. It was the first time to see Hogan in red and yellow in over three years and the crowd ate it up. One of those moments where you saw fathers nudging their kids and saying this is what I grew up on.
Sting vs. Ric Flair. How fitting was it that these two competed on the last Monday Nitro ever? Two of the guys who had meant so much to the success of WCW got to go at it one last time. Was it a mat classic? No, but it was a great ending to the show to have these two competing against each on this night in March of 2001.
WCW Monday Nitro had its big place in pop culture. Nitro parties were held all over the country every week. It changed the landscape. Nitro was the reason that the then WWF had to step up to the plate and try to grab that audience back. Nitro always had surprises whether it was from talent moving over such as the night that Rick Rude appeared on both Raw and Nitro. Nitro went from one hour, to two hours, and eventually on to three hours. Yeah, three hours was way too much TV and add into the fact that Thunder was airing on TBS at the time of the three hour Nitro's and that was five hours of wrestling programming just on those two shows alone. Nitro was exciting and innovative. It was sad to see what the show became in the later years especially with what it was for so long. It was that unpredictable show that you couldn't wait to tune in to. I remember Nitro for the early years of entertainment. If there was no Nitro, the wrestling landscape would not have changed into what it became. You need that great competition out there and it was there for both companies. The Monday Night Wars are a time that will live on forever in fans minds. If you weren't there to witness it, stories can be told that will do it justice. The truth is that the stories can't even really live up to what we saw unfold week after week as these two companies battled for cable TV supremacy every Monday night. It was cutthroat, vicious, exciting, fun, and the real winners were all of us fans that got to witness it.
WCW Monday Nitro premiered in September of 1995 and went right head to head with Raw. Well, it actually didn't go head to head on its premiere night as Raw was preempted that night on USA Network. So, Eric Bischoff went with the plan to air the first Nitro on a night unopposed when fans would be looking for wrestling. Yeah, I think that might have worked. Yeah, it did work! The opening had great action, an interesting environment in the Mall of America, and the first of many surprises that we would get on Nitro with the return of Lex Luger. Keep in mind that Luger had just been with the WWF at the time so his return to WCW on a live Nitro was a complete shocker to everyone watching. This premiere is definitely in my list of favorite moments. This show gave us big matchups and stars on a live broadcast making us wonder what could happen next. This was such a huge alternative to what WWF was giving us on Raw in 1995. Lots of cartoony gimmicks and the only highlights for the company were Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and those top level guys.
Savage/Hogan/Flair/Giant. This was a battle between these stars to be WCW World Champion. These four battled one another in early 1996 to become champion. The title changed hands on multiple occasions. There were twists and turns such as Elizabeth turning on Savage to go with Flair. She was his before she was Savage's by the way. Anyone get that 1992 reference? I enjoyed the matches of these four as they went for the title.
Memorial Day 1996. Scott Hall's debut on Nitro. Oh, what was to come with this. Hall showed up in basically the Razor Ramon gimmick except for the clothes. Fans were abuzz at his talk of "we are taking over". If you weren't a fan that knew the inside stuff, then you were thinking that WWF was showing up on WCW programming. I loved the stuff with Sting standing up to him as well when Hall would repeatedly show up. Enter in Kevin Nash a couple of weeks later. The set up for the nWo was underway. Some of my favorite Nitro moments were after the reveal of Hogan being in the nWo. They were taping TV down in Orlando. A black limo would show up and I was just glued to the TV wondering what was going to happen when these guys got out. All fans were glued to the TV. We had the moment where they went up into the top of the venue covering up the WCW letters. They attacked the WCW roster in the back including Nash throwing Rey Mysterio like a dart into the trailer. It was just a different level of TV than we had ever seen. These guys that were just there to wreck havoc and you never knew when they were going to show up.
1-2-3-4, next week, 5. That was the signal that Ted Dibiase held up during a live broadcast when he sat ringside and started counting nWo members. This became a lot of what the fall of 1996 would be in WCW. Who was the next to join? Would somebody turn on WCW? You just never knew. An attack would play out when The Giant would turn on WCW and join up with the nWo and unleash a big time attack on Randy Savage.
Sting. This was a big deal as 1996 came to a close in WCW. We had the supposed attack of Sting on Luger in the parking lot on a Nitro show which made it look like Sting had joined the nWo. However, Sting denied it was him but with all the turns of people to the nWo, nobody believed him. So, Sting would show up at Fall Brawl in the War Games match as scheduled. He cleaned house on the nWo and then left saying now do you believe me. It was an awesome, awesome moment. Then, he would walk out on WCW on the next edition of Nitro. This would see the emergence of one of my favorite things in wrestling history. The black and white "crow" looking Sting who would just watch the happenings of the action in the tops of the buildings. Not saying anything. What was on his mind? Whose side was he on? He would make his way to the ring, lay out somebody, not say anything, and leave. It was great TV. He didn't say a word for months. Sting would later start getting to the ring by propelling from a cable to the ring. It was an amazing sight and one that would send fans into a big reaction. It came across great on TV and also live as I saw Sting drop down in the building in Nashville on Nitro to one of the loudest roars that I've ever heard at an event. The mystery of Sting would be great TV for many months on Monday Nitro.
Lex Luger wins for WCW. The big Luger/Hogan match for the WCW title was built up on a Nitro in August of 1997. Luger pulled out the win and won the title giving WCW a big celebration against the nWo. Then, WCW would put the belt back on Hogan days later at the Road Wild or Hog Wild PPV, whatever it was called that year. Just took some of the big momentum off of it.
Goldberg/Hogan. Some still point at this match as a problem that WCW had putting this first ever epic encounter on free TV on Nitro. Me? I didn't really have a problem with it. They went for the ratings gold with it and packed the Georgia Dome with it. I see both sides of the argument though. Goldberg had all sorts of momentum in 1998 with him steamrolling competition and had the crowd in the palm of his hands. I still love to watch those crowds react jumping out of their seats when Goldberg would hit the spear. With his undefeated record, it was a matter of time before he would get to Hogan. July of 1998 would see that. Goldberg would defeat Hogan to win his first WCW title in front of a loud and pumped up crowd in Atlanta.
Chris Jericho. When you read his book, you realize that Jericho knew he wasn't getting attention from management so he just did whatever to get attention. It worked! Jericho's Nitro segments are some of my favorites in history. Lots of great comedy stuff with Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, and others. The 1,004 holds segment is still one of my favorites. Jericho proclaimed that Malenko was the man of a 1,000 holds that Jericho was the man of a 1,004 holds and was going to read them all off. Almost every other one of them was an arm bar. Hilarious stuff. When they went to commercial, they came back and he was still in the ring reading moves. Great, great stuff. Jericho had great segments and matches over the years on Nitro and I always have to think Jericho when I think of Monday Nitro.
The Four Horsemen are reunited. Charlotte, North Carolina hosted one of the biggest Nitro moments ever. The Horsemen had been separated. Flair and WCW had all sorts of backstage issues. However, this was the night that the Horsemen rode again. The culmination of this big moment would be Arn Anderson in the ring finishing up the promo when he said that he almost forgot somebody and introduces Ric Flair. Horsemen country goes crazy and Flair walks out in his suit all sorts of teary eyed. Flair does his usual great promo and the Horsemen were back.
January 4, 1999. The fingerpoke of doom. Ok, just kidding. Not in my favorite moments. Ranks up there with my least favorite moments. Most of which include Vince Russo.
Bret Hart knocks out Goldberg in Canada. I had forgotten how good this segment was until they showed the footage again on a recent Legends of Wrestling roundtable show on WWE Classics On Demand. The basic set up was that Nitro was in Canada in 1999. Now, you know that Bret Hart got a huge ovation walking out there and the crowd was eating up everything he said. He laid out the challenge for Goldberg. Goldberg answered it and hit Bret with a spear. They then both laid on the mat to the stunned reaction of everyone wondering why Goldberg was unconscious after hitting the spear. After a minute or so, Bret staged to his feet and revealed that he had a piece of metal around his waist which Goldberg knocked himself out on with the spear. Bret had outsmarted and KO'd Goldberg in Canada and the crowd went wild over it.
Speaking of Bret Hart, I have to mention another incredible Nitro moment and that was the tribute match to Owen Hart. Bret returned to Kansas City and a match was made with him and Chris Benoit to pay tribute to Owen. They put on a classic match and Bret was the winner. Afterwards, he pointed upward to Owen. With the Benoit tragedy, this moment will likely never be seen again in WWE footage unless they just show Bret paying tribute and they ignore the match completely.
August 9, 1999. The return of Hulkamania. I loved this. They had been teasing a Hogan face turn for a while. The fans had gotten back behind Hollywood Hogan. On this night on Nitro, the red and yellow returned along with the "American Made" music. The crowd went nuts as he teamed with Sting and Goldberg. It was the first time to see Hogan in red and yellow in over three years and the crowd ate it up. One of those moments where you saw fathers nudging their kids and saying this is what I grew up on.
Sting vs. Ric Flair. How fitting was it that these two competed on the last Monday Nitro ever? Two of the guys who had meant so much to the success of WCW got to go at it one last time. Was it a mat classic? No, but it was a great ending to the show to have these two competing against each on this night in March of 2001.
WCW Monday Nitro had its big place in pop culture. Nitro parties were held all over the country every week. It changed the landscape. Nitro was the reason that the then WWF had to step up to the plate and try to grab that audience back. Nitro always had surprises whether it was from talent moving over such as the night that Rick Rude appeared on both Raw and Nitro. Nitro went from one hour, to two hours, and eventually on to three hours. Yeah, three hours was way too much TV and add into the fact that Thunder was airing on TBS at the time of the three hour Nitro's and that was five hours of wrestling programming just on those two shows alone. Nitro was exciting and innovative. It was sad to see what the show became in the later years especially with what it was for so long. It was that unpredictable show that you couldn't wait to tune in to. I remember Nitro for the early years of entertainment. If there was no Nitro, the wrestling landscape would not have changed into what it became. You need that great competition out there and it was there for both companies. The Monday Night Wars are a time that will live on forever in fans minds. If you weren't there to witness it, stories can be told that will do it justice. The truth is that the stories can't even really live up to what we saw unfold week after week as these two companies battled for cable TV supremacy every Monday night. It was cutthroat, vicious, exciting, fun, and the real winners were all of us fans that got to witness it.
Friday, June 3, 2011
10 Count - Influential Matches Of The 90's - WWE Classics Review - June 3, 2011
The edition of 10 Count that has been recently airing on WWE Classics On Demand did a list of the most influential matches of the 90's. Just thought I'd review it and provide their top ten list. It definitely brought back some memories for sure. I enjoy their 10 Count shows that they produce.
10. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. I can definitely see the argument of this match deserving to be in this list. This was something that just wasn't done much at the time. Not at all actually especially in that company. The top two babyfaces in the company headlining the Super Bowl event. Fans were split on who they liked and it set the standard for the future where it would be ok to have top faces battle for the championship. It proved that it would draw a ton of interest.
9. Edge and Christian vs. The Hardys in the ladder match at No Mercy 1999. This sent the ladder match to another level. Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon had the biggest ladder match spotlight at WrestleMania X and also SummerSlam 1995. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels also had the first big ladder match which was featured on a Coliseum Video release. Ladder matches had been held since but this one took it to another level. The Hardys and Edge and Christian took risks that no one had seen. The fans were just in awe of it. These were guys that took the chance they were given and putting themselves in the minds of fans. It took their careers to another level and set the standard for what was yet to come in the future with them and also the ladder match.
8. Bret Hart vs. The British Bulldog for the Intercontinental title at SummerSlam 1992. This match closed SummerSlam. That was the importance of this match that this closed the show. The Bulldog going for the title in his home country inside of a packed Wembley Stadium. This was a sign of things to come with the focus of the company going to some of the smaller guys and more in ring style including guys like Bret. I realize that I'm making that comment but that the Bulldog who was bigger won the match and the title. Just saying that this was a straight up wrestling match including it being two babyfaces. Plus, you had the rivalry of the UK fans being behind the Bulldog. Bret was booed by a lot of the fans because he was against the home team. This would go to another level years later with The Hart Foundation in 1997.
7. The Rock vs. Mankind from Raw on January 4, 1999. Absolutely agree on this one. This might be considered the night that the final finish was put on the Monday Night Wars. You've all heard the stories on this one. Mick Foley's dream comes true winning the championship. WCW had their big show on this night at the Georgia Dome. It finished with the fingerpoke of Hogan pinning Kevin Nash and the nWo was reformed. That turned a lot of fans off but the big moment on WCW's end was Tony Schiavone on commentary spoiling the results of Raw as it was taped that night. He mocked how Foley was going to win the championship and how that would really put people in the seats. The result was the ratings going full tilt and people tuning over to Raw to catch the moment. The moment was a lot of fun and that crowd was just incredible. Austin's music hits and it was one of the loudest pops that I've ever heard. He comes to the ring and nails The Rock with a chair. Keep in mind that Vince and the corporation were at ringside with The Rock while DX was the counter in the corner of Mankind. Austin puts Mankind on The Rock after the chair shot and the three count goes on and it results in one of the biggest pops and long crowd roars I've ever heard as well. The crowd went nuts and the people did at home too. We had a group of us together at the time watching it. We were let down with the WCW finish but optimistic about the nWo reunion. However, the room went nuts when the title changed hands. I remember that clearly. One of the most important nights in the Monday Night Wars.
6. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio at Halloween Havoc 1997. When you think about either of these guys, this is the match that gets talked about a lot. Just a tremendous match that stole the show at that PPV. The cruiserweight was a big part of the 90's with several of them getting center stage in ECW and then on to WCW. A lot of the early WCW Monday Nitro era was built around the division and you knew you were going to get some fun matches. Eddie vs. Rey was one of the best matches of this era of WCW.
5. Raven vs. Terry Funk at ECW Barely Legal 1997. ECW Barely Legal was the first PPV for the company and a huge step. I was so excited to see the company get to PPV. I actually didn't get to see this show live because my PPV company at the time didn't carry it. I wouldn't see an ECW PPV live until the 1997 November To Remember. Raven vs. Terry Funk was the headline of this show with Funk winning the opportunity to face the champion. This was also the year of the Terry Funk retirement. One of many. LOL. It was great to see Funk win the title and it was a great tribute to him by the talent and the fans. A fitting end to a great first PPV show by ECW. One that was very scary on how close it was to not finishing with the ECW Arena handling more electrical juice than it was able to. The story is that the power went out in the building just after the show went off the air. Back to how that company always was and it was fighting to the end. Can't argue with this being on the list at all.
4. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997. I can't imagine this being an influential match in the 90's. Yeah, I'm just kidding obviously. This match did so much in wrestling history with the happenings around it. Bret Hart is on his way out of the company and is told the finish of the match. However, the plan was to get the belt off of him. Vince comes to ringside. Shawn turns Bret over for a sharpshooter. Hebner calls for the bell. Shawn wins the title and gets out of there. Bret spits in Vince's face. The crowd is furious. Bret destroys the whole ringside area with his family by his side watching it go down. Backstage, Bret punches Vince. All this going on as the Wrestling With Shadows crew are shooting their Bret Hart documentary. It would be talked about for years to come and it really launched the Mr. McMahon character which would take the company in a new direction with the Austin/McMahon feud. Bret would go on to WCW where they unfortunately had no idea on how to use him. The finish of this match has been done over and over and over and over again. So much that I just about have my mind explode when I see the finish. This match absolutely influenced so many things whether it is talent, characters, booking styles, matches, or whatever.
3. Undertaker vs. Mankind in the cell from King Of The Ring 1998. What can be said here? This match is one of the most talked about matches of all time. People have dissected it by watching it, talking about it, reading about it , you name it. Mick Foley gets asked about this match all the time and goes into great detail about it in his first book. I think this took the company to another level of wild matches and shocking moments. I still remember watching this match as it happened on TV. I was just laying on the bed and settling in for it. Suddenly, Foley goes right off of the cell to the floor. I jumped up off the bed thinking what in the world just happened??!! Eyes wide as could be. I had never seen anything like that before and just hoped that he was ok. About ten minutes later, I'd be wondering the same thing when he crashed through the middle of the cage. A group of us got together the next day and that match dominated the conversation of the day including us watching the match again. This match took the cell matches took the cell matches to another level and influenced in the minds of the fans just how crazy these matches could be. There were a lot of wild moments in the 90's and this is one of the first mentions, if not the first mention.
2. Sting, Lex Luger, and Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and a surprise partner at Bash At The Beach 1996. The Hulk Hogan heel turn. I've talked about this already recently in my favorite heel turns list so there really isn't much to go over. Big surprises can go over huge and there was a payoff with this one. It launched WCW into another stratosphere with popularity that it had never seen before. The nWo was the hottest thing going for a long time and this match is definitely one that people will talk about when it comes to the 90's.
1. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV. The Austin era has begun. There are several stories in this match. First was the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin. The World Wrestling Federation was starting to climb back in the ratings with the Monday Night Wars and Austin was a huge reason. People loved Austin. That attitude of defiance. People were tuning in to see Austin and wrestling merchandise was starting to be seen back in the mainstream. The Attitude Era was underway and Austin led the way. One thing that I often feel bad about especially at the time was that Shawn Michaels was a big reason for the starting of the Attitude Era. The company was taking back off and he was going to be on the sidelines watching it. Shawn was beaten up at this point. He was having major physical problems especially after a back injury at the 1998 Royal Rumble. Shawn was kept out of the ring cause his back was so bad. It was common knowledge on the internet at the time that Shawn was hurt. Being a huge Shawn fan, my concern was just seeing him getting through the match and it was tough to watch. This was still might have to be the gutsiest performances that I have ever seen. He just would not slow down. Broken and battered but refusing to not go all out in this match. Every flip into the buckle or every other big spot had me cringing knowing how bad he had to be hurting. Shawn gutted through and dropped the title to Austin. Shawn will be the first to admit that he was an attitude problem behind the scenes at the time so he was tough to deal with in this particular period. I can't imagine how hard that must have been with what all he was dealing with. Don't forget also about the Mike Tyson involvement in this match. This was a big name star in the main event at WrestleMania. It got the media attention and it got WrestleMania XIV seen on all sorts of media outlets. Tyson was a big deal in getting to appear for the company. With Tyson and the attitude era underway, the company was on their way with going back to the top.
10. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. I can definitely see the argument of this match deserving to be in this list. This was something that just wasn't done much at the time. Not at all actually especially in that company. The top two babyfaces in the company headlining the Super Bowl event. Fans were split on who they liked and it set the standard for the future where it would be ok to have top faces battle for the championship. It proved that it would draw a ton of interest.
9. Edge and Christian vs. The Hardys in the ladder match at No Mercy 1999. This sent the ladder match to another level. Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon had the biggest ladder match spotlight at WrestleMania X and also SummerSlam 1995. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels also had the first big ladder match which was featured on a Coliseum Video release. Ladder matches had been held since but this one took it to another level. The Hardys and Edge and Christian took risks that no one had seen. The fans were just in awe of it. These were guys that took the chance they were given and putting themselves in the minds of fans. It took their careers to another level and set the standard for what was yet to come in the future with them and also the ladder match.
8. Bret Hart vs. The British Bulldog for the Intercontinental title at SummerSlam 1992. This match closed SummerSlam. That was the importance of this match that this closed the show. The Bulldog going for the title in his home country inside of a packed Wembley Stadium. This was a sign of things to come with the focus of the company going to some of the smaller guys and more in ring style including guys like Bret. I realize that I'm making that comment but that the Bulldog who was bigger won the match and the title. Just saying that this was a straight up wrestling match including it being two babyfaces. Plus, you had the rivalry of the UK fans being behind the Bulldog. Bret was booed by a lot of the fans because he was against the home team. This would go to another level years later with The Hart Foundation in 1997.
7. The Rock vs. Mankind from Raw on January 4, 1999. Absolutely agree on this one. This might be considered the night that the final finish was put on the Monday Night Wars. You've all heard the stories on this one. Mick Foley's dream comes true winning the championship. WCW had their big show on this night at the Georgia Dome. It finished with the fingerpoke of Hogan pinning Kevin Nash and the nWo was reformed. That turned a lot of fans off but the big moment on WCW's end was Tony Schiavone on commentary spoiling the results of Raw as it was taped that night. He mocked how Foley was going to win the championship and how that would really put people in the seats. The result was the ratings going full tilt and people tuning over to Raw to catch the moment. The moment was a lot of fun and that crowd was just incredible. Austin's music hits and it was one of the loudest pops that I've ever heard. He comes to the ring and nails The Rock with a chair. Keep in mind that Vince and the corporation were at ringside with The Rock while DX was the counter in the corner of Mankind. Austin puts Mankind on The Rock after the chair shot and the three count goes on and it results in one of the biggest pops and long crowd roars I've ever heard as well. The crowd went nuts and the people did at home too. We had a group of us together at the time watching it. We were let down with the WCW finish but optimistic about the nWo reunion. However, the room went nuts when the title changed hands. I remember that clearly. One of the most important nights in the Monday Night Wars.
6. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio at Halloween Havoc 1997. When you think about either of these guys, this is the match that gets talked about a lot. Just a tremendous match that stole the show at that PPV. The cruiserweight was a big part of the 90's with several of them getting center stage in ECW and then on to WCW. A lot of the early WCW Monday Nitro era was built around the division and you knew you were going to get some fun matches. Eddie vs. Rey was one of the best matches of this era of WCW.
5. Raven vs. Terry Funk at ECW Barely Legal 1997. ECW Barely Legal was the first PPV for the company and a huge step. I was so excited to see the company get to PPV. I actually didn't get to see this show live because my PPV company at the time didn't carry it. I wouldn't see an ECW PPV live until the 1997 November To Remember. Raven vs. Terry Funk was the headline of this show with Funk winning the opportunity to face the champion. This was also the year of the Terry Funk retirement. One of many. LOL. It was great to see Funk win the title and it was a great tribute to him by the talent and the fans. A fitting end to a great first PPV show by ECW. One that was very scary on how close it was to not finishing with the ECW Arena handling more electrical juice than it was able to. The story is that the power went out in the building just after the show went off the air. Back to how that company always was and it was fighting to the end. Can't argue with this being on the list at all.
4. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997. I can't imagine this being an influential match in the 90's. Yeah, I'm just kidding obviously. This match did so much in wrestling history with the happenings around it. Bret Hart is on his way out of the company and is told the finish of the match. However, the plan was to get the belt off of him. Vince comes to ringside. Shawn turns Bret over for a sharpshooter. Hebner calls for the bell. Shawn wins the title and gets out of there. Bret spits in Vince's face. The crowd is furious. Bret destroys the whole ringside area with his family by his side watching it go down. Backstage, Bret punches Vince. All this going on as the Wrestling With Shadows crew are shooting their Bret Hart documentary. It would be talked about for years to come and it really launched the Mr. McMahon character which would take the company in a new direction with the Austin/McMahon feud. Bret would go on to WCW where they unfortunately had no idea on how to use him. The finish of this match has been done over and over and over and over again. So much that I just about have my mind explode when I see the finish. This match absolutely influenced so many things whether it is talent, characters, booking styles, matches, or whatever.
3. Undertaker vs. Mankind in the cell from King Of The Ring 1998. What can be said here? This match is one of the most talked about matches of all time. People have dissected it by watching it, talking about it, reading about it , you name it. Mick Foley gets asked about this match all the time and goes into great detail about it in his first book. I think this took the company to another level of wild matches and shocking moments. I still remember watching this match as it happened on TV. I was just laying on the bed and settling in for it. Suddenly, Foley goes right off of the cell to the floor. I jumped up off the bed thinking what in the world just happened??!! Eyes wide as could be. I had never seen anything like that before and just hoped that he was ok. About ten minutes later, I'd be wondering the same thing when he crashed through the middle of the cage. A group of us got together the next day and that match dominated the conversation of the day including us watching the match again. This match took the cell matches took the cell matches to another level and influenced in the minds of the fans just how crazy these matches could be. There were a lot of wild moments in the 90's and this is one of the first mentions, if not the first mention.
2. Sting, Lex Luger, and Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and a surprise partner at Bash At The Beach 1996. The Hulk Hogan heel turn. I've talked about this already recently in my favorite heel turns list so there really isn't much to go over. Big surprises can go over huge and there was a payoff with this one. It launched WCW into another stratosphere with popularity that it had never seen before. The nWo was the hottest thing going for a long time and this match is definitely one that people will talk about when it comes to the 90's.
1. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV. The Austin era has begun. There are several stories in this match. First was the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin. The World Wrestling Federation was starting to climb back in the ratings with the Monday Night Wars and Austin was a huge reason. People loved Austin. That attitude of defiance. People were tuning in to see Austin and wrestling merchandise was starting to be seen back in the mainstream. The Attitude Era was underway and Austin led the way. One thing that I often feel bad about especially at the time was that Shawn Michaels was a big reason for the starting of the Attitude Era. The company was taking back off and he was going to be on the sidelines watching it. Shawn was beaten up at this point. He was having major physical problems especially after a back injury at the 1998 Royal Rumble. Shawn was kept out of the ring cause his back was so bad. It was common knowledge on the internet at the time that Shawn was hurt. Being a huge Shawn fan, my concern was just seeing him getting through the match and it was tough to watch. This was still might have to be the gutsiest performances that I have ever seen. He just would not slow down. Broken and battered but refusing to not go all out in this match. Every flip into the buckle or every other big spot had me cringing knowing how bad he had to be hurting. Shawn gutted through and dropped the title to Austin. Shawn will be the first to admit that he was an attitude problem behind the scenes at the time so he was tough to deal with in this particular period. I can't imagine how hard that must have been with what all he was dealing with. Don't forget also about the Mike Tyson involvement in this match. This was a big name star in the main event at WrestleMania. It got the media attention and it got WrestleMania XIV seen on all sorts of media outlets. Tyson was a big deal in getting to appear for the company. With Tyson and the attitude era underway, the company was on their way with going back to the top.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
My Favorite Wrestling Heel Turns - June 1, 2011
Heel turns if done right can completely turn things around for a company. The right person. The right storyline. The right way. Of course, there are many heel turns that flopped and continue to flop. Come to think of it, I may need to do a List in the future of the worst heel turns ever. However, this is a list of my favorite heel turns and the stories around them. Remember that these are sudden turns where a moment happened. There are many others I could list but they didn't involve a particular sudden moment.
Here we go in no particular order.
Trish Stratus - WrestleMania XX - March 20, 2004. This is a favorite heel turn of mine cause of how unexpected that it was. Good for how well it was done. Good for how she ran with it afterwards. I'm a big Trish fan and was at the time too. It was exciting at the time to see her able to take her character in a different direction. There had been a triangle at the time between Trish, Chris Jericho, and Christian. Trish and Jericho had paired up with Christian being the heel. During the match, Jericho caught an elbow from Trish with the story being that she thought it was Christian. Christian rolled up Jericho and got the pin. After the match, Trish launched an attacks of slaps on Jericho that was fast and furious. Christian would follow up with an unprettier in the middle of the ring. Trish joins up with Christian. It led to a great series of matches and added more to that really fun feud of 2004. Trish would remain a heel for a while and was fun to watch.
Shawn Michaels - December 1991. Who knew just how important this heel turn would be? The trouble between The Rockers had been brewing for a while including problems at Survivor Series 1991. The Barber Shop was the site for what many fans hoped would be where they would work out their troubles. However, things didn't work out that way. There was the tease that all was well including them posing as the segment came to an end. All was not well after Shawn followed it with a superkick. Shawn then launched his singles career next by firing Marty through the Barber Shop window. The rest is history. Shawn went on to become a big heel for the company and a go to guy for those great solid matches even that early on in his career. The Rockers were a very popular tag team and the split gave us many great matches between the two former partners.
The Rock - Survivor Series 1998 - November 15, 1998. The championship tournament was the setting for this big turn in St. Louis in what was called the Deadly Games tournament. I need to throw another mention of a great heel turn in this moment as earlier in the night, Shane McMahon had a good turn of his own. He ran into the ring as a referee to make the three count for Austin but it didn't happen. He paused after two and gave Austin a salute. Shane was now paired up with his dad. In the tournament finals, the McMahon's had used Mankind to do their bidding against the man who was picking up some serious steam as a face, The Rock. Rock looked poised to become the next champion and the fans were ready for it. However, they didn't get it like they had planned. Rock turned and joined up with the McMahon's to become the "corporate champion" instead of the people's champion. This was a surprise to me as they had really made a turn with Rock. Fans had turned him heel as Rocky Maivia. As The Rock, fans were turning him back to a face. This set up a feud that would last for many years with Rock and Austin.
Andre The Giant - 1987. I tried to decide about this one on whether it was a sudden turn kind of deal. It really was. Just done in a different way. The others required an action in the ring. This one required one thing and that was the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight title, Hulk Hogan, and Bobby Heenan. Andre walked out on to the set of Piper's Pit with Heenan. Jesse Ventura was also there stirring things up about how Hogan had been ducking Andre cause he was afraid of him. Andre shows up with Heenan demanding a title shot. A stunned Hogan is in shock that Heenan is with Andre and refusing to believe what he is seeing. Heenan says if you don't believe it, maybe you'll believe this Hogan. Andre proceeds to rip the cross right off of Hogan's neck. Piper looks for reaction from Hogan who is shocked and saddened at what is just occurred. This would lead to Hogan and Andre at WrestleMania 3. Andre was one of the most beloved superstars at the time so for him to join forces with Heenan against Hogan was a huge deal.
Ric Flair - Clash Of The Champions X - 1990. What a memorable night that was. Flair and Sting had been teaming together upon Flair's return from injury in 1989. The tease of trouble was probably given at Starrcade 1989 when Sting defeated Flair in the iron man tournament which gave Sting the overall victory. In early 1990, the Horsemen were reformed and Sting was right there with them. It seemed likely that he would join the group. However, on this night of the Clash, Sting was kicked out of the group and viciously too. Telling him how he was not a Horsemen and Flair just lighting him up with comments. Later in the night, the already booked cage match with the Horsemen taking on the Gary Hart crew did take place. The story of the match was Sting trying to get into the cage being pulled away by security as he tried to get to Flair and the Horsemen. That was the story. The real life situation that played out was much worse. During one moment of jumping up and climbing the cage, Sting banged his knee hard against the cage. It would require surgery and Sting was out of action for many months. He would arrive at shows on crutches at times including Wrestle War 90. With Sting's injury and Flair's heel turn, Luger was turned babyface. Sting would be there to try and motivate Luger to win the world title. The Horsemen got involved and Luger's attention to saving his friend instead of trying to fulfill his goal of becoming world champion. The match was eventually set up once Sting was healthy. Sting would defeat Ric Flair at The Great American Bash in July of 1990. Flair's heel turn that night at the Clash was a vicious one and set up one of my favorite feuds of that time with Sting and Flair.
Owen Hart - Royal Rumble 1994. All you had to do was tag me. That was what Owen yelled after he left Bret laying in the middle of the ring. I was not a Bret Hart fan at all at that time in my young life. Any time somebody rose up against Bret Hart, I was ready to jump behind them. When his brother was the next to rise up, I was immediately on board. This was such a great heel turn. Trouble had been coming up between the two with Owen being jealous of his older brother, Bret. The two seemingly had patched things up in a united front to go after the tag team titles at The Royal Rumble against The Quebecers. The story of the match was Bret's knee getting beaten on throughout. Owen kept cheering Bret on to tag him. Instead of tagging though, Bret tried to go for the win himself and hooked the sharpshooter. Bret went to the mat in pain and the ref stopped the match. Bret was helped to his feet and once he was on his feet, down he went. Owen delivered a kick to Bret knee sending him crashing to the mat. Owen then yelled "all you had to do was tag me" all the way to the locker room. I remember thinking at the time that he was right. Owen was ready to try and win but his brother wouldn't tag him. Owen was in the right. Even more to my biased anti-Bret stance. LOL. The two had an incredible series of matches in 1994 and on into 1995. I love hearing Bret talk about how much he enjoyed their matches. You could tell they loved working against one another and they stepped up delivering big time in their matches. Bret and Owen is one of my favorite feuds of all time including great matches at WrestleMania X and a cage match at SummerSlam 1994. Owen would get that big win at WrestleMania stunning the wrestling world and sending me and my friend into a cheering ovation of celebration. LOL.
Stephanie McMahon - Armageddon 1999. This pick will be met with likes and dislikes. I loved this turn. It set up for a lot of great TV in the future. The McMahon Helmsley era began on this night in December of 1999. Stephanie had been played up to be the good girl all year. Nice storylines of love with Test earlier that year. Just the girl that you cheered for with her having to battle her father and brother. Test and Stephanie would be ready to be married on a Raw episode. Triple H despite being threatened about interrupting it had a video to air. Stephanie had passed out at her bachelorette party and Triple H took her. He married her at a drive thru wedding chapel while she was passed out. The video aired and the two were married so Test couldn't marry her. The feud between Vince McMahon and Triple H came to a head in this no holds barred match which blew away expectations on how good it was going to be. Vince would go for revenge for his baby girl. Vince was destroyed by a sledgehammer and Stephanie weeped over her dad. Triple H wound up to nail her. She turned around to see Triple H with the sledgehammer and had a look of shock and horror on her face. She gets up, smiles, and hugs Triple H. Who saw that coming???!!! LOL. Stephanie and Triple H were in power and it was the start of a great relationship on TV. It also ended up being the start of a real life relationship for them outside of the ring.
Paul Orndorff - 1986. A well built heel turn. He had been teaming with Hulk Hogan and jealousy started to consume Orndorff. Hogan was getting all the attention and cheers and Orndorff couldn't stand it. Orndorff got infuriated when he made a phone call to Hogan at one point and was told that Hogan was too busy to be able to take the call. This all exploded during a match between Hogan and Orndorff taking on King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd. Hogan and Orndorff would collide at one point during the match. Orndorff would hold the eye every time that Hogan would try to reach over to tag. Eventually, Orndorff clotheslined Hogan and hit him with a piledriver. It was put over huge as a horrible attack and turn on his friend. The feud would draw a lot of fans over its run. Over 60,000 at The Big Event in Toronto where that match headlined the show. There was also the big championship cage match on Saturday Night's Main Event in 1987 where there was a controversial moment of the two dropping down out of the cage at the same time. The ref ruled it as a tie and restarted the match leading to Hogan winning and retaining the title. This was a really good feud back in 1986-1987.
Randy Savage - The Main Event - February 5, 1988. The Mega Powers are ready to explode. I remember watching this as a kid and being so infuriated with what I had seen. I was a true and proud Hulkamaniac and this heel turn rocked me as a kid. The Mega Powers were formed in 1987 but things really got rolling for the team in 1988. Savage would win the WWF championship at WrestleMania IV. For the next ten months, teases were laid in place where Savage wasn't so thrilled with what he was seeing out of Hogan. Hogan hugging Elizabeth. Eliminating him at the Royal Rumble. The moment on Saturday Night's Main Event where Hogan was in trouble but Savage wouldn't come to his aid despite Elizabeth's pleas while Savage said that Hogan would be ok. Many moments. It all boiled over to The Main Event airing on NBC. The Mega Powers vs. The Big Boss Man and Akeem. This was the feud that had been going on for many months. The story of the match was when Savage was thrown from the ring on to Elizabeth. She was knocked unconscious. Hogan went to her aid quickly and Savage was not happy about it. Savage looked for a tag but there was no Hogan. Hogan carried Elizabeth to the back where she was tended to by officials. Hogan returns to the ring and is ready for the tag. He gets a tag all right. A tag or slap right to the face. Savage bails and leaves Hogan to face the two opponents. Savage rants and raves to Elizabeth about Hogan. Hogan wins the match and returns to the back where he gets an angry Savage who says that Hogan is jealous of him. How he had lusted after Elizabeth. The result was a belt to the face of Hogan followed by a vicious assault while Elizabeth cried in the background. The following months after would see Savage doing promos looking back on the last year and giving his points on how Hogan had done him wrong. They were great promos. Elizabeth stayed in the middle supporting both of them. The Mega Powers exploded at WrestleMania V with Hogan winning back the World Wrestling Federation championship. Savage would launch another assault on Hogan after the show was over which we did not see on TV until the following week. The feud would continue with a series of rematches through the year. Sherri joined with Savage. Elizabeth would make some appearances in Hogan's corner. It was great stuff.
Hulk Hogan - Bash At The Beach 1996. Was there ever a heel turn so vicious and so angrily received by fans? The number one good guy. The childhood hero. The guy who stood for everything right in wrestling. The Real American. The red and yellow turns to black and white. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash arrived in WCW in the summer of 1996 with the tease that they were still with the World Wrestling Federation. If you were a fan watching on TV and weren't familiar with the inside workings of the wrestling world, I can't imagine how your brain must have went crazy over this. The rest of us on the internet and all knew that Hall and Nash were due to show up in WCW at any time. The big moment was set. The Outsiders looking to take apart WCW and they teased that they had a third guy. A match was set up at Bash At The Beach with Hall, Nash, and a surprise third guy taking on Sting, Lex Luger, and Randy Savage. The match started and there was no third guy. Paranoia reigned through the match. Luger was injured early on. Things look bad at the end of the bout and out comes Hulk Hogan. Here comes the hero to save the day. Crowd goes crazy. Then, you hear the crowd cheers turn to gasps as Hogan legdrops Randy Savage. Hogan had turned and gives Hall and Nash the thumbs up. It was a surreal moment. What followed was Gene Okerlund walking in the ring getting an interview. Hogan would tell the fans to stick it while the ring was littered with trash. To follow up on the trash, Hogan would tell the fans that the garbage in the ring represents every one of the fans. In just a few minutes, Hogan shredded everything on that persona and became the most hated man in wrestling. The nWo was formed and a new era of WCW was born. It was a night that will never be forgotten and the result was a LOT of fun especially in those first several months of the nWo.
Trish Stratus - WrestleMania XX - March 20, 2004. This is a favorite heel turn of mine cause of how unexpected that it was. Good for how well it was done. Good for how she ran with it afterwards. I'm a big Trish fan and was at the time too. It was exciting at the time to see her able to take her character in a different direction. There had been a triangle at the time between Trish, Chris Jericho, and Christian. Trish and Jericho had paired up with Christian being the heel. During the match, Jericho caught an elbow from Trish with the story being that she thought it was Christian. Christian rolled up Jericho and got the pin. After the match, Trish launched an attacks of slaps on Jericho that was fast and furious. Christian would follow up with an unprettier in the middle of the ring. Trish joins up with Christian. It led to a great series of matches and added more to that really fun feud of 2004. Trish would remain a heel for a while and was fun to watch.
Shawn Michaels - December 1991. Who knew just how important this heel turn would be? The trouble between The Rockers had been brewing for a while including problems at Survivor Series 1991. The Barber Shop was the site for what many fans hoped would be where they would work out their troubles. However, things didn't work out that way. There was the tease that all was well including them posing as the segment came to an end. All was not well after Shawn followed it with a superkick. Shawn then launched his singles career next by firing Marty through the Barber Shop window. The rest is history. Shawn went on to become a big heel for the company and a go to guy for those great solid matches even that early on in his career. The Rockers were a very popular tag team and the split gave us many great matches between the two former partners.
The Rock - Survivor Series 1998 - November 15, 1998. The championship tournament was the setting for this big turn in St. Louis in what was called the Deadly Games tournament. I need to throw another mention of a great heel turn in this moment as earlier in the night, Shane McMahon had a good turn of his own. He ran into the ring as a referee to make the three count for Austin but it didn't happen. He paused after two and gave Austin a salute. Shane was now paired up with his dad. In the tournament finals, the McMahon's had used Mankind to do their bidding against the man who was picking up some serious steam as a face, The Rock. Rock looked poised to become the next champion and the fans were ready for it. However, they didn't get it like they had planned. Rock turned and joined up with the McMahon's to become the "corporate champion" instead of the people's champion. This was a surprise to me as they had really made a turn with Rock. Fans had turned him heel as Rocky Maivia. As The Rock, fans were turning him back to a face. This set up a feud that would last for many years with Rock and Austin.
Andre The Giant - 1987. I tried to decide about this one on whether it was a sudden turn kind of deal. It really was. Just done in a different way. The others required an action in the ring. This one required one thing and that was the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight title, Hulk Hogan, and Bobby Heenan. Andre walked out on to the set of Piper's Pit with Heenan. Jesse Ventura was also there stirring things up about how Hogan had been ducking Andre cause he was afraid of him. Andre shows up with Heenan demanding a title shot. A stunned Hogan is in shock that Heenan is with Andre and refusing to believe what he is seeing. Heenan says if you don't believe it, maybe you'll believe this Hogan. Andre proceeds to rip the cross right off of Hogan's neck. Piper looks for reaction from Hogan who is shocked and saddened at what is just occurred. This would lead to Hogan and Andre at WrestleMania 3. Andre was one of the most beloved superstars at the time so for him to join forces with Heenan against Hogan was a huge deal.
Ric Flair - Clash Of The Champions X - 1990. What a memorable night that was. Flair and Sting had been teaming together upon Flair's return from injury in 1989. The tease of trouble was probably given at Starrcade 1989 when Sting defeated Flair in the iron man tournament which gave Sting the overall victory. In early 1990, the Horsemen were reformed and Sting was right there with them. It seemed likely that he would join the group. However, on this night of the Clash, Sting was kicked out of the group and viciously too. Telling him how he was not a Horsemen and Flair just lighting him up with comments. Later in the night, the already booked cage match with the Horsemen taking on the Gary Hart crew did take place. The story of the match was Sting trying to get into the cage being pulled away by security as he tried to get to Flair and the Horsemen. That was the story. The real life situation that played out was much worse. During one moment of jumping up and climbing the cage, Sting banged his knee hard against the cage. It would require surgery and Sting was out of action for many months. He would arrive at shows on crutches at times including Wrestle War 90. With Sting's injury and Flair's heel turn, Luger was turned babyface. Sting would be there to try and motivate Luger to win the world title. The Horsemen got involved and Luger's attention to saving his friend instead of trying to fulfill his goal of becoming world champion. The match was eventually set up once Sting was healthy. Sting would defeat Ric Flair at The Great American Bash in July of 1990. Flair's heel turn that night at the Clash was a vicious one and set up one of my favorite feuds of that time with Sting and Flair.
Owen Hart - Royal Rumble 1994. All you had to do was tag me. That was what Owen yelled after he left Bret laying in the middle of the ring. I was not a Bret Hart fan at all at that time in my young life. Any time somebody rose up against Bret Hart, I was ready to jump behind them. When his brother was the next to rise up, I was immediately on board. This was such a great heel turn. Trouble had been coming up between the two with Owen being jealous of his older brother, Bret. The two seemingly had patched things up in a united front to go after the tag team titles at The Royal Rumble against The Quebecers. The story of the match was Bret's knee getting beaten on throughout. Owen kept cheering Bret on to tag him. Instead of tagging though, Bret tried to go for the win himself and hooked the sharpshooter. Bret went to the mat in pain and the ref stopped the match. Bret was helped to his feet and once he was on his feet, down he went. Owen delivered a kick to Bret knee sending him crashing to the mat. Owen then yelled "all you had to do was tag me" all the way to the locker room. I remember thinking at the time that he was right. Owen was ready to try and win but his brother wouldn't tag him. Owen was in the right. Even more to my biased anti-Bret stance. LOL. The two had an incredible series of matches in 1994 and on into 1995. I love hearing Bret talk about how much he enjoyed their matches. You could tell they loved working against one another and they stepped up delivering big time in their matches. Bret and Owen is one of my favorite feuds of all time including great matches at WrestleMania X and a cage match at SummerSlam 1994. Owen would get that big win at WrestleMania stunning the wrestling world and sending me and my friend into a cheering ovation of celebration. LOL.
Stephanie McMahon - Armageddon 1999. This pick will be met with likes and dislikes. I loved this turn. It set up for a lot of great TV in the future. The McMahon Helmsley era began on this night in December of 1999. Stephanie had been played up to be the good girl all year. Nice storylines of love with Test earlier that year. Just the girl that you cheered for with her having to battle her father and brother. Test and Stephanie would be ready to be married on a Raw episode. Triple H despite being threatened about interrupting it had a video to air. Stephanie had passed out at her bachelorette party and Triple H took her. He married her at a drive thru wedding chapel while she was passed out. The video aired and the two were married so Test couldn't marry her. The feud between Vince McMahon and Triple H came to a head in this no holds barred match which blew away expectations on how good it was going to be. Vince would go for revenge for his baby girl. Vince was destroyed by a sledgehammer and Stephanie weeped over her dad. Triple H wound up to nail her. She turned around to see Triple H with the sledgehammer and had a look of shock and horror on her face. She gets up, smiles, and hugs Triple H. Who saw that coming???!!! LOL. Stephanie and Triple H were in power and it was the start of a great relationship on TV. It also ended up being the start of a real life relationship for them outside of the ring.
Paul Orndorff - 1986. A well built heel turn. He had been teaming with Hulk Hogan and jealousy started to consume Orndorff. Hogan was getting all the attention and cheers and Orndorff couldn't stand it. Orndorff got infuriated when he made a phone call to Hogan at one point and was told that Hogan was too busy to be able to take the call. This all exploded during a match between Hogan and Orndorff taking on King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd. Hogan and Orndorff would collide at one point during the match. Orndorff would hold the eye every time that Hogan would try to reach over to tag. Eventually, Orndorff clotheslined Hogan and hit him with a piledriver. It was put over huge as a horrible attack and turn on his friend. The feud would draw a lot of fans over its run. Over 60,000 at The Big Event in Toronto where that match headlined the show. There was also the big championship cage match on Saturday Night's Main Event in 1987 where there was a controversial moment of the two dropping down out of the cage at the same time. The ref ruled it as a tie and restarted the match leading to Hogan winning and retaining the title. This was a really good feud back in 1986-1987.
Randy Savage - The Main Event - February 5, 1988. The Mega Powers are ready to explode. I remember watching this as a kid and being so infuriated with what I had seen. I was a true and proud Hulkamaniac and this heel turn rocked me as a kid. The Mega Powers were formed in 1987 but things really got rolling for the team in 1988. Savage would win the WWF championship at WrestleMania IV. For the next ten months, teases were laid in place where Savage wasn't so thrilled with what he was seeing out of Hogan. Hogan hugging Elizabeth. Eliminating him at the Royal Rumble. The moment on Saturday Night's Main Event where Hogan was in trouble but Savage wouldn't come to his aid despite Elizabeth's pleas while Savage said that Hogan would be ok. Many moments. It all boiled over to The Main Event airing on NBC. The Mega Powers vs. The Big Boss Man and Akeem. This was the feud that had been going on for many months. The story of the match was when Savage was thrown from the ring on to Elizabeth. She was knocked unconscious. Hogan went to her aid quickly and Savage was not happy about it. Savage looked for a tag but there was no Hogan. Hogan carried Elizabeth to the back where she was tended to by officials. Hogan returns to the ring and is ready for the tag. He gets a tag all right. A tag or slap right to the face. Savage bails and leaves Hogan to face the two opponents. Savage rants and raves to Elizabeth about Hogan. Hogan wins the match and returns to the back where he gets an angry Savage who says that Hogan is jealous of him. How he had lusted after Elizabeth. The result was a belt to the face of Hogan followed by a vicious assault while Elizabeth cried in the background. The following months after would see Savage doing promos looking back on the last year and giving his points on how Hogan had done him wrong. They were great promos. Elizabeth stayed in the middle supporting both of them. The Mega Powers exploded at WrestleMania V with Hogan winning back the World Wrestling Federation championship. Savage would launch another assault on Hogan after the show was over which we did not see on TV until the following week. The feud would continue with a series of rematches through the year. Sherri joined with Savage. Elizabeth would make some appearances in Hogan's corner. It was great stuff.
Hulk Hogan - Bash At The Beach 1996. Was there ever a heel turn so vicious and so angrily received by fans? The number one good guy. The childhood hero. The guy who stood for everything right in wrestling. The Real American. The red and yellow turns to black and white. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash arrived in WCW in the summer of 1996 with the tease that they were still with the World Wrestling Federation. If you were a fan watching on TV and weren't familiar with the inside workings of the wrestling world, I can't imagine how your brain must have went crazy over this. The rest of us on the internet and all knew that Hall and Nash were due to show up in WCW at any time. The big moment was set. The Outsiders looking to take apart WCW and they teased that they had a third guy. A match was set up at Bash At The Beach with Hall, Nash, and a surprise third guy taking on Sting, Lex Luger, and Randy Savage. The match started and there was no third guy. Paranoia reigned through the match. Luger was injured early on. Things look bad at the end of the bout and out comes Hulk Hogan. Here comes the hero to save the day. Crowd goes crazy. Then, you hear the crowd cheers turn to gasps as Hogan legdrops Randy Savage. Hogan had turned and gives Hall and Nash the thumbs up. It was a surreal moment. What followed was Gene Okerlund walking in the ring getting an interview. Hogan would tell the fans to stick it while the ring was littered with trash. To follow up on the trash, Hogan would tell the fans that the garbage in the ring represents every one of the fans. In just a few minutes, Hogan shredded everything on that persona and became the most hated man in wrestling. The nWo was formed and a new era of WCW was born. It was a night that will never be forgotten and the result was a LOT of fun especially in those first several months of the nWo.
WWE WrestleMania III Championship Edition - DVD Review
I am going to start getting some of my older stuff up on the site including some older DVD and book reviews. I also want to get some of the earlier Wrestling List stuff up here from 2000 and after that. So, here is a review that I typed up in March of 2007.
WWE released the WrestleMania III Championship Edition DVD last week. I have gotten it and have already watched it. Here are my thoughts on it. There are two versions of WrestleMania on this set. The first disc features the show itself. The second disc features a "pop up" version. Let's start with the event itself on disc one. The show looks amazing on DVD. Quality of it looks great. It is amazing to compare this full version to the Coliseum Video version released in 1987. The Coliseum version runs somewhere around 2:45 in length where as this version runs 3:05. There were a lot of things on this version that I have never seen as I've only seen the Coliseum version. The Coliseum version had most of the wrestler entrances cut out and a lot of the exits. I also noticed that some of the clips of the buildup to some of the matches had been cut short on the Coliseum Video version. Here are some of the things that I'll mention that are different between the two versions. The Coliseum version has the WrestleMania press conference in it but it isn't on the original version. It's a shame that they didn't use that as an extra on this set as it is very entertaining. This version shows the story that I've often heard about where a fan jumped in to celebrate with Roddy Piper after he won his farewell match. Piper celebrated with him too and then security took him down quick. That was edited off of the Coliseum version as I had never seen the thing with the fan. One thing that makes much more sense on this original version is why Jesse Ventura was carrying the Bulldogs' mascot, Matilda, back to the locker room on the cart. Jesse went to ringside and wanted to be introduced to the fans before that six man tag match. Then, he ended up being left with escorting Matilda to the back. It never made sense to me why the heel announcer just went down there to get Matilda to bring back. Well, that is why he was down there, to be introduced to the fans. Pretty funny. The original version ends different than the Coliseum version. On the Coliseum version, we go right from Hogan into a picture slideshow recapping the events with the music of Real American on a loop from the live arena. On the original version on this DVD, Gorilla and Jesse do a short recap and wrap it up. The picture slideshow is then shown but the music with it is a re-airing of Aretha Franklin singing America The Beautiful from the beginning of the night. On to the music changes. Not too many to report but there are some. The opening music for WrestleMania III is intact which was great to hear. Ricky Steamboat's music is gone which was Sirius by Alan Parsons Project. The music it was replaced with is at least similar in sounding. Hillbilly Jim's music is replaced and the ring intros for him and his team have been dubbed over with new audio. Hmm, that is bizarre especially when Junk Yard Dog's theme song is on there. Both JYD and Hillbilly's songs were on the Wrestling Album that was released in 1985 so it's bizarre that they can play one but not the other. Koko's music has been replaced to Piledriver which was what he used later that year. All other music is intact although there isn't a LOT of music being used in this era to begin with.
The pop ups include pop up facts reminiscent of the old VH-1 Pop Up Video show. Also part of the pop ups is interviews with people looking back on the event. Here is a list of everyone that is involved in the pop up interview segments: Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, Cowboy Bob Orton, Mean Gene Okerlund, Ron Simmons, Hillbilly Jim, Raymond Rougeau, Greg Valentine, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Edge, Gorilla Monsoon, Ricky Steamboat, Gerald Brisco, George The Animal Steele, Chris Jericho, Jake The Snake Roberts, Jimmy Hart, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Nikolai Volkoff, Iron Sheik, Jim Brunzell, Bobby Heenan, and Pat Patterson. Some of the highlights of the interview pop ups include Vince McMahon talking about standing in front of that huge crowd and thinking how proud his father would be of this show. Vince gets choked up when talking about it. Rowdy Roddy Piper talks about how he looked around at the fans as he stood in the ring before the match and how he never did that but wanted to take that moment in. Chris Jericho talks about the infamous story of how he and his friends would watch the Steamboat/Savage match over and over memorizing the multiple two count sequence in the match and they would do the match themselves. Several superstars have told of doing the same thing. Steamboat tells of how he and Savage knew of how many people were going to be watching this and they wanted to do their best to steal the show. Mean Gene talks about how nervous that Savage and Steamboat were before the match as both were pacing backstage. John Cena discusses how when Hogan won, he and his friends were jumping around throwing stuff and throwing food cause they were so excited that Hogan won it. He said that his dad and grandfather were also going crazy. Edge said that he listened to the radio all night cause there was a DJ that was giving out WrestleMania results as they happened. Edge says that this is how much he loved wrestling that he was listening to the radio just to hear the results as they couldn't afford to go to a closed circuit location to see it. He said that he was jumping all around the room happy when he heard that Hogan had beat the Giant and also bodyslammed him. Edge felt the Giant couldn't be beaten and was happily surprised. Bobby Heenan talks about how much pain that Andre was in after the match when they got backstage. Andre was in bad shape by that point in his career physically but Heenan said that Andre never would complain to anyone about how bad he was hurting all the time.
Extras on the set include several interviews from Hogan, Savage, and Steamboat in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania from various WWF shows. The battle royal from Saturday Night's Main Event is shown and also the Hogan/Andre contract signing. The Savage/Steele match from 1/3/87 Saturday Night's Main Event is on the DVD as well which was where Steamboat showed up when Savage tried was trying to bail out on the match.
I definitely recommend this DVD as it is very well produced. Plus, I love having a full version of the show instead of what I did have even though it does have a few music changes. I can deal with those though on this one. The "pop up" is a very cool idea and I hope they release some classic shows like this in the future. This was the 20 year anniversary of WrestleMania so how about a 20 year anniversary DVD of the first Survivor Series this winter.
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