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!!
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Friday, June 17, 2011
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.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Raw Thoughts, TNA Ejects A Fan, THQ/WWE, WWE Classics, The Chaperone Review, & More - May 31, 2011
After a crazy couple of weeks, things have slowed down a bit in the wrestling world.
Last night's Raw was an enjoyable show especially for a holiday show. A lot of times the holiday shows aren't that good because the ratings are usually lower on them. I felt bad for WWE for the technical problems that they were having at the beginning of the show. All I could think was that it had to be chaos backstage trying to figure out what was going on. This company rarely ever has technical problems so things are going to happen like that from time to time. The real bummer was that the R Truth segment looked pretty entertaining. We did get to hear a lot of it despite the audio and video being out of sync. The stuff with the "fan" was pretty good stuff. Truth and Cena had a good back and forth all night including the match. Truth later threw a drink in the fan's face on the way out of the building. Cena went over to the guy and wiped his face off helping him out. Yeah, obviously a plant in the crowd but it was interesting all night. I really like Truth as a heel. All eyes on Alex Riley. He has had two big weeks in a row with his brawls with Miz. Great stuff and the crowd is eating it up. The reaction was even bigger this week after the brawl was finished with the fans cheering Riley. I was stunned last week over the way that Kharma was booked but then understood more when the news came out that she is pregnant. No, this is not some storyline and is the real deal. Wishing her all the best with her pregnancy. She did a really good speech on wanting to get into WWE and her road to get there. The speech was finished by The Bellas who came out and stirred things up. I loved the finish of it with Kharma saying that she'd be back in a year and hoped that The Bellas were there too. I've said this before but I really like the Bellas as heels. Kharma has a ready made program for when she returns. However, this is WWE so I'd be amazed if they even remember this or care when she comes back. Remember Edge not going after the person that took him out and his reaction to creative of, uh, shouldn't I be going after that person now? Solid matches with Ziggler taking on Kofi and also with Rey and CM Punk.
Other notes from Raw. Again, I just know that Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn must have been losing their mind during that first ten minutes of the show. Really nice Memorial Day video played to open the show. They always do something really classy for Memorial Day. Anyone else find it as strange as me to just have Cole and Lawler suddenly just letting bygones be bygones and commentating next to each other again?
A news story got out last night from PWInsider.com. Every week, the site has ongoing live spoilers from the TNA Impact tapings. Last night, a story broke that their TNA correspondent that sends in the Impact spoilers as they happen was ejected from the building and also from Universal Studios. He was ejected for…..posting spoilers. To say that it stirred up a hornets nest online would be an understatement. Apparently, someone there did not like the fact that spoilers were being sent out. Why this is suddenly a big deal? I don't know. Spoilers have been a part of the business for a VERY long time now. Just curious if TNA realizes that it is 2011. Ugh, this company. I could rant about so many things with them right now but I'm just going to leave it at "ugh, this company".
Mick Foley posted on Twitter during Raw about how Alex Riley was his new favorite wrestler. Interesting that he was commenting so much about WWE programming on Monday night. However, this begs the question. If he was commenting on TNA at that time, it would be during the Impact tapings and would he be thrown out of the building as well?
THQ announced today that they are not going to be making any more of the Smackdown vs. Raw video games. Instead, the next series will be simply by year such as NBA 2K11 or things like that. WWE '12 is the name of the new game and there will be a lot of changes to the gaming. Probably a good idea as there is not near as much buzz on those games as there used to be. I think that is why there was that genuine excitement of the WWE All Stars game cause it was just so different.
Talk about a cool match to see on WWE Classics On Demand this month. The Undertaker vs. Unabomb from Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1995. Unabomb is of course Glen Jacobs who would go on to be Kane. Just a cool match to see those two face off that early on knowing how their careers would soon be tied together. Lots of good stuff in that Smoky Mountain shorties category including a couple of Chris Candido matches which brings Tammy Sytch on to the screen as well. That was when I first became a fan of Tammy Sytch was watching Smoky Mountain tapes back in the day.
I watched the WWE Film, The Chaperone which is one of their most recent releases. The movie stars Triple H and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I had heard that it was one of their better efforts and I give this movie a big thumbs up. Triple H plays the character of Ray. Ray spent seven years in prison after a robbery. It was part of a group effort though but the others escaped leaving him to take the fall as the driver. The movie begins with Ray being a free man. His goal upon leaving is to get his family back including his wife and daughter. Will Ray be able to stay on the straight and narrow or fall back into his own habits of trouble? Lots of good action, drama, and comedy in this movie. Triple H does really well in his role and I really liked the cast all around. When I saw the promos for this movie during Raw, it looked like it could be a fun movie. It was.
I am currently reading the Death of WCW book. It is a good read so far. A lot of the stories I already know but there are more details that I am learning about the company including back in the 90's build. I'm about 100 pages in.
That is all I have for this week. I still have some things on the horizon of ideas for editions of the List. Some are typed up and some will be done in the future. Hopefully, they'll be things that you'll enjoy reading. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Last night's Raw was an enjoyable show especially for a holiday show. A lot of times the holiday shows aren't that good because the ratings are usually lower on them. I felt bad for WWE for the technical problems that they were having at the beginning of the show. All I could think was that it had to be chaos backstage trying to figure out what was going on. This company rarely ever has technical problems so things are going to happen like that from time to time. The real bummer was that the R Truth segment looked pretty entertaining. We did get to hear a lot of it despite the audio and video being out of sync. The stuff with the "fan" was pretty good stuff. Truth and Cena had a good back and forth all night including the match. Truth later threw a drink in the fan's face on the way out of the building. Cena went over to the guy and wiped his face off helping him out. Yeah, obviously a plant in the crowd but it was interesting all night. I really like Truth as a heel. All eyes on Alex Riley. He has had two big weeks in a row with his brawls with Miz. Great stuff and the crowd is eating it up. The reaction was even bigger this week after the brawl was finished with the fans cheering Riley. I was stunned last week over the way that Kharma was booked but then understood more when the news came out that she is pregnant. No, this is not some storyline and is the real deal. Wishing her all the best with her pregnancy. She did a really good speech on wanting to get into WWE and her road to get there. The speech was finished by The Bellas who came out and stirred things up. I loved the finish of it with Kharma saying that she'd be back in a year and hoped that The Bellas were there too. I've said this before but I really like the Bellas as heels. Kharma has a ready made program for when she returns. However, this is WWE so I'd be amazed if they even remember this or care when she comes back. Remember Edge not going after the person that took him out and his reaction to creative of, uh, shouldn't I be going after that person now? Solid matches with Ziggler taking on Kofi and also with Rey and CM Punk.
Other notes from Raw. Again, I just know that Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn must have been losing their mind during that first ten minutes of the show. Really nice Memorial Day video played to open the show. They always do something really classy for Memorial Day. Anyone else find it as strange as me to just have Cole and Lawler suddenly just letting bygones be bygones and commentating next to each other again?
A news story got out last night from PWInsider.com. Every week, the site has ongoing live spoilers from the TNA Impact tapings. Last night, a story broke that their TNA correspondent that sends in the Impact spoilers as they happen was ejected from the building and also from Universal Studios. He was ejected for…..posting spoilers. To say that it stirred up a hornets nest online would be an understatement. Apparently, someone there did not like the fact that spoilers were being sent out. Why this is suddenly a big deal? I don't know. Spoilers have been a part of the business for a VERY long time now. Just curious if TNA realizes that it is 2011. Ugh, this company. I could rant about so many things with them right now but I'm just going to leave it at "ugh, this company".
Mick Foley posted on Twitter during Raw about how Alex Riley was his new favorite wrestler. Interesting that he was commenting so much about WWE programming on Monday night. However, this begs the question. If he was commenting on TNA at that time, it would be during the Impact tapings and would he be thrown out of the building as well?
THQ announced today that they are not going to be making any more of the Smackdown vs. Raw video games. Instead, the next series will be simply by year such as NBA 2K11 or things like that. WWE '12 is the name of the new game and there will be a lot of changes to the gaming. Probably a good idea as there is not near as much buzz on those games as there used to be. I think that is why there was that genuine excitement of the WWE All Stars game cause it was just so different.
Talk about a cool match to see on WWE Classics On Demand this month. The Undertaker vs. Unabomb from Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1995. Unabomb is of course Glen Jacobs who would go on to be Kane. Just a cool match to see those two face off that early on knowing how their careers would soon be tied together. Lots of good stuff in that Smoky Mountain shorties category including a couple of Chris Candido matches which brings Tammy Sytch on to the screen as well. That was when I first became a fan of Tammy Sytch was watching Smoky Mountain tapes back in the day.
I watched the WWE Film, The Chaperone which is one of their most recent releases. The movie stars Triple H and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I had heard that it was one of their better efforts and I give this movie a big thumbs up. Triple H plays the character of Ray. Ray spent seven years in prison after a robbery. It was part of a group effort though but the others escaped leaving him to take the fall as the driver. The movie begins with Ray being a free man. His goal upon leaving is to get his family back including his wife and daughter. Will Ray be able to stay on the straight and narrow or fall back into his own habits of trouble? Lots of good action, drama, and comedy in this movie. Triple H does really well in his role and I really liked the cast all around. When I saw the promos for this movie during Raw, it looked like it could be a fun movie. It was.
I am currently reading the Death of WCW book. It is a good read so far. A lot of the stories I already know but there are more details that I am learning about the company including back in the 90's build. I'm about 100 pages in.
That is all I have for this week. I still have some things on the horizon of ideas for editions of the List. Some are typed up and some will be done in the future. Hopefully, they'll be things that you'll enjoy reading. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Mickie James Helps The Flood Victims In Southern Illinois - May 29, 2011
Friday night was a fun night for me as I got to meet one of my all time favorites, Mickie James. Anybody that knows me knows that I've been a Mickie James fan for a long time now. When Trish Stratus retired back in 2006, I was already cheering for Mickie. Their styles reminded me quite a bit of one another and Mickie just took that spot left by Trish as my favorite in the women's division. How many times have I ranted in this Wrestling List about the use of Mickie James by WWE? Yes, I've ranted about TNA as well. I was thinking the other day on what is my favorite Mickie James match? I think it goes back to that first title win at WrestleMania 22 when she defeated Trish in Chicago. It was a really fun match and had an awesome crowd behind it. Chicago is known for being more of a heel kind of city so there were a lot of fans cheering for the heel Mickie James that night. Mickie would eventually make that face turn and hold six championships in WWE including the Women's and Divas titles. She was one of the most popular wrestlers in the company. She is fun to watch in the ring and has that great personality to go with it. Along with her wrestling schedule, Mickie also has been working on her career as a musician. She is scheduled to perform down at CMA Fest in Nashville next month. Basically, she is a very busy person these days.Carrier Mills, IL was the the host of this event as part of their Catskin Days. Bert Prentice's USA Championship Wrestling was on the bill for a show and Mickie James was announced for a special guest appearance. People came from all around to meet the current Impact Wrestling knockouts champion. Money was being raised to help benefit those that have been impacted by the terrible recent flooding. The show started with Mickie in the ring taking photos with fans. Make a donation and get your photo taken with her. I was, of course, one of those that said "sold" and had to get my picture taken with her. LOL. This again to the surprise of no one that knows me. It was a pleasure to get to meet her and she was extremely nice. She later had a table set up where she would sign autographs. She had a long line for the photo opportunity in the ring as well as the autograph signing at the table. Fans of all ages were thrilled to get to meet her and she was so kind and friendly to everyone. Just a great, great person. Later in the night, Mickie would help to present the money to the mayor of the money raised. It has been a really rough spring in the area for flooding and severe weather and every bit of money will count to help those in need. Mickie was extremely excited to be there to help to raise money. I know she made an even bigger fan out of me on Friday night.
Raw Thoughts, Ring Of Honor, & More - May 26, 2011
Monday night's Raw entertained me. It was a lot better than the last couple of weeks. Last week was making me beg for it to be over. Monday night saw tributes to the Macho Man. The show opened with the in memory of graphic. At around 9:40 or so, a music video tribute played that was just incredible. The main event hit the ring after that and I had noticed the yellow boots that CM Punk was wearing earlier in the night. I was thinking that was a Savage tribute and then saw the tights that he was wearing as well. The classic pink with white stars Macho Man tights. Only difference was that he had his own name on the back of them instead of Macho Man's. It was a really nice tribute from Punk for one of his favorite wrestlers of all time. I love seeing tributes like that. Thank you CM Punk for doing that. I did notice one spot in the match where Punk was tagged in and did the slingshot jump over the ropes. He then ran across the ring and dropped an axe handle on the back of the head. There was a lot of other good stuff on the show and one segment that left me dumbfounded. I liked the opening segment where it looks like a feud is setting up for Cena and R Truth. I think that could be fun and the verbal exchange between the two was entertaining. Bret Hart was a surprise on the show. That added a lot to it. Bret was named the special ref of a match between the teams of Cena and Rey against Truth and Punk. Entertaining main event which ended with Bret putting Punk in the sharpshooter followed by Rey hitting the legdrop off the top rope. The Miz and Alex Riley. Wow, that was more than I bargained for with that segment. When Riley finally started hammering on Miz, I thought that we'd just get a little something and it would set up a feud. Minutes later, I was amazed that he was still hammering on him. Definitely put Riley over as a problem for Miz and the crowd was chanting for him. That was a brutal attack. Injury angle done with Del Rio taking out Big Show's knee with the car. Lots of time devoted to that Monday night with medical people trying to help Show who wanted no help. He eventually fought his way to his feet with the help of Kane. It should be mentioned too that the new Nexus defeated Show and Kane to win the tag team titles earlier in the show before that happened. Now, I have to talk about the thing that drove me absolutely crazy. The divas match. We get set for a 8 diva tag team match. Based on who I was seeing in the ring, I was happy to get it especially with several in there who don't get TV time anymore. Twenty seconds or so in, Kharma's music hits. All the divas line up for strength in numbers. Kharma gets in the ring and is surrounded by the divas. A big staredown ensues and I'm having all kinds of thoughts. Beth Phoenix being the one to step up to her. Wondering if Melina is about to get beaten down with how she has been used lately. Will it be a pile on? What happens? Kharma gets down on her knees and……cries. I could not believe it. All that build up as a monster and weeks of beat downs for them to have her sit down in the ring and cry. Ugh. You have got to be kidding me. I have heard why this turn suddenly happened but that is all they could come up with? Moving on, Michael Cole returns to Raw for the second hour in a much more somber mood after Over The Limit. I did wonder a lot throughout the first hour of the show if I was liking it more than normal due to the fact that I wasn't having to listen to arguing commentators distracting me from the action. Josh and Lawler were easy to listen to. I watched a little of Smackdown on Friday night and just could not take anymore of listening to Cole and Booker argue. Just takes too much away from the ring.
Other notes from Raw. I loved the interaction between Bret Hart and CM Punk. Punk would hit Hart moves and then laugh at Bret. The moment where he picked him up for the backbreaker and laughed right at Bret was awesome. I cracked up too at Punk yelling at Bret, "where did you learn to count, Canada?" Bret laughed at it too. How funny was Truth ranting at Cena and then quoting Legendary by saying "I want my son back". LOL.
CM Punk got three big names pulling for him last week courtesy of Twitter. Paul Heyman posted on Twitter this comment about Punk: "I'm sure he will get heat for me saying this, but @CMPunk is STILL the most underutilized talent on the WWE roster. And my apologies to to @CMPunk for the heat he'll get, but come on already. Punk is the best heel in the biz today! WAKE UP! It's amazing to me (and not in a good way) that WWE doesn't see how @CMPunk has brought out the best in every opponent". Stone Cold Steve Austin later saw what Heyman wrote and said "Agreed." Bret Hart also retweeted what Heyman had to say. Punk later responded to Heyman's comments saying "oh you know me, if I don't have heat I'm doing something wrong. Keeps me warm."
Big news out of Ring Of Honor last week. The company has been sold to Sinclair Broadcasting. This is a big move by ROH and we'll see where the company goes from here. The company has been kind of stagnant here in the last couple of years so something seemed to have to change. Gary Juster is being brought in to promote the live events and he has done this for WCW back in the early 90's. In the press release, the company said that the front office will not change. Jim Cornette is also remaining. ROH's Cary Silkin posted this on the ROH forum saying "It's a new dawn!! I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for all the years of support.As corny as it sounds if is was not for the fans and the passion of all of you we would have never made it to this day. ROH will now live on bigger and better than ever.We look forward to this new era of ROH. Lots of news will be coming out over the next few weeks and I am thrilled to stay on with the company and be able to enjoy a bigger and better Ring of Honor. Thank you Joe Koff and the Sinclair team for making this happen and I will see everyone in NYC !!! It's a new dawn!!" Sinclair Broadcasting has a big part of the United States with TV and will get the shows out to a wider audience. Hopefully this is a great thing for Ring Of Honor and can help grow the company.
Have clues finally started showing up on what the problem was between Randy Savage and Vince McMahon? Rowdy Roddy Piper posted on Twitter that "Randy slapped Vince in a bar. End of that story!!!". George Steele did an interview saying that he was an agent at the time of when Savage left for WCW in 1994. When Savage said what he was going to do, Steele said that Vince looked "broken".
Paul Heyman was on the ESPN Gross Point Blank podcast and had this to say about Randy Savage. I recapped what he had to say. He didn't know Randy that well. He met him a handful of times but was a huge admirer of his success. Just like Piper and Hogan in the 80's and 90's, he became a pop culture icon. His passing has touched a lot of people. Those that knew him were very moved by him cause he was so intense in his professionalism. Those that got the opportunity to work with him, I heard from many that knew him said that he did whatever he could to bring out the best. A lot of people are losing a part of their youth. In the business, he was someone that everyone universally respected. The most criticism on him is that he cared too much. Heyman then added, "I hope that is the worst that people can say about me is that I cared too much." Heyman was asked about the relationship with Savage and McMahon. Heyman said that something happened and there are ten billion rumors on what happened. Until Vince wants to go public with it which will probably be never, we'll never know. Every year that Heyman was there, Savage's name was brought up for the Hall of Fame. People would say that you've got to induct Savage and Bruno. Then, the subject was dropped immediately by Vince. In 2002 or 2003, his name was brought up and Vince looked down at the yellow note pad and said I don't want anything to do with that man. Jim Ross brought Savage up every year for the Hall of Fame and got shot down every year. Something happened but he doesn't know what happened. Whatever it was, it was pretty serious. Heyman said that he had seen Vince do business with people that he hated especially if there was money to be made. Savage was a sore subject with him.
That is it for tonight. Wishing all of you a great rest of the week!! Take care and God bless!!
Other notes from Raw. I loved the interaction between Bret Hart and CM Punk. Punk would hit Hart moves and then laugh at Bret. The moment where he picked him up for the backbreaker and laughed right at Bret was awesome. I cracked up too at Punk yelling at Bret, "where did you learn to count, Canada?" Bret laughed at it too. How funny was Truth ranting at Cena and then quoting Legendary by saying "I want my son back". LOL.
CM Punk got three big names pulling for him last week courtesy of Twitter. Paul Heyman posted on Twitter this comment about Punk: "I'm sure he will get heat for me saying this, but @CMPunk is STILL the most underutilized talent on the WWE roster. And my apologies to to @CMPunk for the heat he'll get, but come on already. Punk is the best heel in the biz today! WAKE UP! It's amazing to me (and not in a good way) that WWE doesn't see how @CMPunk has brought out the best in every opponent". Stone Cold Steve Austin later saw what Heyman wrote and said "Agreed." Bret Hart also retweeted what Heyman had to say. Punk later responded to Heyman's comments saying "oh you know me, if I don't have heat I'm doing something wrong. Keeps me warm."
Big news out of Ring Of Honor last week. The company has been sold to Sinclair Broadcasting. This is a big move by ROH and we'll see where the company goes from here. The company has been kind of stagnant here in the last couple of years so something seemed to have to change. Gary Juster is being brought in to promote the live events and he has done this for WCW back in the early 90's. In the press release, the company said that the front office will not change. Jim Cornette is also remaining. ROH's Cary Silkin posted this on the ROH forum saying "It's a new dawn!! I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for all the years of support.As corny as it sounds if is was not for the fans and the passion of all of you we would have never made it to this day. ROH will now live on bigger and better than ever.We look forward to this new era of ROH. Lots of news will be coming out over the next few weeks and I am thrilled to stay on with the company and be able to enjoy a bigger and better Ring of Honor. Thank you Joe Koff and the Sinclair team for making this happen and I will see everyone in NYC !!! It's a new dawn!!" Sinclair Broadcasting has a big part of the United States with TV and will get the shows out to a wider audience. Hopefully this is a great thing for Ring Of Honor and can help grow the company.
Have clues finally started showing up on what the problem was between Randy Savage and Vince McMahon? Rowdy Roddy Piper posted on Twitter that "Randy slapped Vince in a bar. End of that story!!!". George Steele did an interview saying that he was an agent at the time of when Savage left for WCW in 1994. When Savage said what he was going to do, Steele said that Vince looked "broken".
Paul Heyman was on the ESPN Gross Point Blank podcast and had this to say about Randy Savage. I recapped what he had to say. He didn't know Randy that well. He met him a handful of times but was a huge admirer of his success. Just like Piper and Hogan in the 80's and 90's, he became a pop culture icon. His passing has touched a lot of people. Those that knew him were very moved by him cause he was so intense in his professionalism. Those that got the opportunity to work with him, I heard from many that knew him said that he did whatever he could to bring out the best. A lot of people are losing a part of their youth. In the business, he was someone that everyone universally respected. The most criticism on him is that he cared too much. Heyman then added, "I hope that is the worst that people can say about me is that I cared too much." Heyman was asked about the relationship with Savage and McMahon. Heyman said that something happened and there are ten billion rumors on what happened. Until Vince wants to go public with it which will probably be never, we'll never know. Every year that Heyman was there, Savage's name was brought up for the Hall of Fame. People would say that you've got to induct Savage and Bruno. Then, the subject was dropped immediately by Vince. In 2002 or 2003, his name was brought up and Vince looked down at the yellow note pad and said I don't want anything to do with that man. Jim Ross brought Savage up every year for the Hall of Fame and got shot down every year. Something happened but he doesn't know what happened. Whatever it was, it was pretty serious. Heyman said that he had seen Vince do business with people that he hated especially if there was money to be made. Savage was a sore subject with him.
That is it for tonight. Wishing all of you a great rest of the week!! Take care and God bless!!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Randy Savage Tributes From All Around - May 24, 2011
WWE and TNA obviously released statements on the passing of Randy Savage. WWE issued this statement: WWE is saddened to learn of the passing of one of the greatest Superstars of his time, Randy Poffo, a.k.a. Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Poffo was under contract with WWE from 1985 to 1993 and held both the WWE and Intercontinental Championships.Our sincerest condolences go out to his family and friends. We wish a speedy recovery to his wife Lynn. Poffo will be greatly missed by WWE and his fans.
TNA released this statement: TNA joins the entire wrestling world in mourning the passing of the legendary "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Savage was one of the most talented athletes to ever compete inside a wrestling ring. He truly transcended professional wrestling, becoming one of the true "icons" of our sport. Millions of wrestling fans grew up watching Savage battle other legends such as Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat and many more.Savage appeared with TNA during our 2004 "Victory Road" and "Turning Point" events - memorable moments that we hope wrestling fans will never forget.TNA hopes all of our fans remember Randy Savage's amazing life and career, and how he helped shape the sport as we know it today.
Hulk Hogan is someone that has been posting a ton about Savage on his Twitter and Facebook accounts. He has really been hit hard by this news and talked about how Savage and him just started reconnecting lately after ten years of not talking. He has been posting fan videos and using his page as a way for fans to come and talk about Savage memories and post tributes.
Jim Ross has done an excellent blog on Randy Savage at www.JRsBarBQ.com which is very much worth a read.
Shawn Michaels comments on Savage came across my news feed late last week and I just loved what he had to say on Savage's advice to him. From Shawn's Twitter: "Greatest advice from "Mach"- I was angry & wanted to leave WWE. He said, Don't take urself out of the game. If ur still here...there's always a chance. If ur gone, there is no chance. It was then I determined never to leave. Stay in the "game" & there's hope."
Speaking of Twitter, here is a list of comments from various people on Twitter.
Steve Austin: "Just heard about Macho Man Randy Savage... Unmatched intensity in the ring. A hellacious performer and terrific promo. A real bad a**. RIP."
The Rock: The Rock: "RIP Randy Macho Man Savage - you were one of my childhood inspirations and heros. Strength, love and prayers to the Savage/Poffo family. Today Team Bring It will celebrate a life – we will kick a** and chase greatness #OOHHYEEEAAAHHH style!”
Roddy Piper: "Too SAD TO TWEET."
Shawn Michaels - "@IAmJericho jus txt me the news. We've lost one of the greats!! Our prayers go out to the family & friends of Randy Savage."
Hulk Hogan: "I'm completely devastated, after over 10 years of not talking with Randy, we've finally started to talk and communicate. He had so much life in his eyes & in his spirit. I just pray that he's happy and in a better place and we miss him. We miss him a lot. I feel horrible about the ten years of having no communication. This was a tough one. I just pray that Randy's happy and in a better place and we miss him. HH"
Trish Stratus - "Rest in peace Randy-my first inspiration in the ring. My prayers & condolences to the Savage family #RIPMachoMan"
Chris Jericho: "Randy Savage was a true influence and inspiration to me and taught me some very important lessons, in and out of the ring. Rest in peace, Mach."
Jim Cornette: "Our deepest condolences in losing another legend. R.I.P. Randy."
Howard Finkel - "I am profoundly saddened by the passing of one of the all-time greats, Macho Man Randy Savage. My condolences go out to the Poffo family."
Kevin Nash: "I lost a close friend today. If anybody in heaven is wondering who the cat is in the ugly cowboy hat is it's Randy. Love you Bro. Never another".
Rey Mysterio - "RIP Macho Man Randy Savage! Doing promotion in Seattle for Over the Limit ppv, was asked earlier today at a radio station, Who would I of loved to wrestle from back in da day? I said would of loved to hit it off in a 3ple threat, Macho Man, Ricky the Dragon, and myself!RIP RMS!"
Bret Hart: "I have no words to say. This one hits me hard. We lost one of the best.”
CM Punk - " (retweeted Bret Hart's words of) “@BretHart: I have no words to say. This one hits me hard. We lost one of the best.” (Punk then added this) This sums it up."
John Cena - "CeNation. The untimely passing of randy savage is indeed tragic. All true fans of wrestling will mourn this loss. One of the all time greats"
Christopher Daniels: "RIP Randy Savage, an inspiration who set the standard! As a fan watching Randy in WrestleMania 3, 4 and 5 was incredible! True Story: at Turning Point 2004 (AMW-XXX cage match), I asked Randy's permission to drop the elbow of the top of the cage! Randy's reply? "God bless you, brother, I don't even do the elbow anymore." And, he gave me a thumbs up after the match as well!
Mark Henry - "Wow family, one of my favorites is gone! Rest well (Randy savage) you will be missed. Savage vs steamboat look it up do yourself a favor family one of my favorite."
Kharma - "In utter shock about Macho Man. So much charisma in one soul. #ripmachoman"
Yoshi Tatsu - "The Macho Man Randy Savage was one of my heros when I was childhood and one of the best of all time. Rest in peace."
Darren Young - "JUST like that! Life can end. Tell those close to ya that you love them cause ya never know! RIP Macho Man"
Wade Barrett - "Bow to the kingdom of the madness. RIP Macho Man, amazing performer."
Curt Hawkins - "I carry this picture in my gear bag ...7yr old Hawkins & my 1st tag team partner. RIP Macho Man. http://yfrog.com/h097hykj"
JTG - "To one of my favorite Hall of Famers, inducted or not. Macho Man Randy Savage. R.I.P OOOOOOOOOH YEEEEEEEAH !"
Goldust - "Prayers go out to randy savage family.....god be with them in this tough time"
Vickie Guerrero - "RIP Randy Macho Man Savage. My prayers are to your family"
Ezekiel Jackson - "Whoa....just heard about macho man Randy savage...God bless the family, the wrestling world just lost one of the greatest ever...R.I.P"
Justin Roberts - "Macho Man...simply awesome. Incredible and entertaining in everything he did. One of the best ever. RIP"
Christian - "Sad 2 hear about "Macho Man"Randy Savage..Only met him once briefly.No doubt 1 of the best & influenced so many performers you see today RIP"
Scott Stanford - "Sorry to hear about the Macho Man! He was one of the best!"
Jeff Jarrett - "Just got a call w the news. RIP Randy. I met him when I was 11yrs old. He would always teach, correct, encourage, and compliment as my career progressed. I have NEVER forgotten the intricacies and attention to detail he taught me over the years. Randy always had a method to his madness. Randy is gone, but will never be forgotten. Thoughts and prayers are w the entire Poffo family. And, he may be the greatest card player the business has ever seen... When he lost, he was only setting you up to take more money from you!
Tommy Dreamer - "Randy Savage was the 1st person I saw piledrive someone thru a table. Thanks 4 all the memories. Hope u walk the aisle w/ Liz & Sherri again"
Doug Williams - "RIP #randysavage I was fortunate to see him live at his peak..."
Joey Styles: "There's no other way for me to celebrate the life & career of The Macho Man than to let him keep entertaining me.VIDEO: http://bit.ly/lZLBj8"
Karen Jarrett - "My thoughts and prayers go out to Randy Savage's wife and family!"
Mickie James - "Ooh No! My childhood favorite! RIP Macho Man... *finger in the air*
Jay Lethal - "R.I.P. Macho Man Randy Savage. You were amazing... Oohh yea!!!"
Shane Helms - "Totally heartbreaking news about Randy Savage. One of my all-time favs!! So sad!! RIP Macho"
William Regal - "Just heard of the passing of Randy Savage.A one of a kind great performer. RIP."
Jim Ross - "Just heard Macho Man died this morning of a heart attack while driving his vehicle in Tampa. Condolences to all Randy Savage fans/family."
Zack Ryder - "RIP MACHO MAN. One of my favorites and one of the best of all time. DIG IT! http://t.co/PSYmsrJ"
Bill DeMott: "When I got my start in WCW it was Randy that gave me the rub....my prayers and thoughts to the Poffo Family"
Jack Korpela: "Hogan vs. Savage at WrestleMania V was the match that got me hooked on WWE as a kid. RIP "Macho Man" Randy Savage. My condolences."
Natalya: "My prayers are with Randy Savage and his family right now".
Beth Phoenix: "No words for this very sad day. Condolences to Randy Savage's family, friends and millions of fans." #MachoMan
Darren Young: "JUST like that! Life can end. Tell those close to ya that you love them cause ya never know! RIP Macho Man."
Torrie Wilson: "Just heard the news of Macho Man Randy Savage passing... Rest in peace, Randy.
Lilian Garcia: "Just heard the news about "Macho Man" Randy Savage passing away. So sad. RIP Randy. My prayers go out to your friends & family."
The Bella Twins: "Very sad to hear about Macho Man... His family is in our thoughts & prayers... Truly an amazin' & captivatin' man!"
Gail Kim: "RIP macho man. Thank u 4 all the great yrs u gave us. u were part of the reason I loved wrestling...what u did 4 all..."
Ricardo Rodriguez: “Thoughts go to Randy Savage's family. Definitely an amazing talent and a great inspiration to many. Can never forget Savage vs Steamboat.”
There have been a lot of videos popping up online of different wrestlers being asked their thoughts on Savage's passing. Everyone is just stunned and saying great things. There was one that was done with Sean Waltman where he said that he woke up Friday morning and his phone had been lit up with texts and messages including from Triple H and more. He said that his first thought was that Scott Hall had finally passed. How sad is that??!! That just made me sad hearing him say that cause that is just awful to be anticipating that. Waltman talked about Savage with tears in his eyes through the rest of the video.
Diamond Dallas Page has posted a video online of his thoughts on Savage. He has such great things to say and you have to remember that the feud with Savage was what sent DDP to the different level. Their feud was incredible. Great comments from Page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4wmvpNIMK3c
Hulk Hogan has posted this video online with his words about Savage.
http://youtu.be/yITu6455sNU
Jay Lethal posted a poem in tribute to Savage. You may remember that Lethal did a Macho Man imitation gimmick in TNA.
You inspired me more than this world will ever know. Enjoy.
You were a tower of power that was too sweet to be sour,You were funky like a monkey every minute of every hour. For you, space was the place and time distortion had to be,And your fans here on earth wanted the madness for eternity. You met every challenge with fists clinched and face to face, You even fought and defeats dragons and snakes. Flying off the ropes with an elbow drop, There was no way you could ever be stopped. Identifiable by your voice alone, Even being Dubbed the macho king while you sat on your throne. We hung on your words with interviews memorable and classic, And we knew it was serious when you took off your glasses. I promise not to lose you in the sands of time, For you will always be that all time hero of mine.
The Ultimate Warrior has posted a video giving his thoughts on Randy Savage. It is a really touching video where he just talks about a guy that he respected so much. Warrior has always said great things about working with Savage and these two videos are really worth watching. Just a classy tribute by the Warrior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74NjMY5bsnc&feature=player_embedded
Lance Storm has posted an incredible blog about Savage and how Savage was really the reason as a fan that he got into the business. He also includes a couple of pictures that he took of Savage at live events including the big win for Savage at WrestleMania IV. He talks about meeting him during a Smoky Mountain wrestling show in 1994 and the advice that Randy gave him. Read this if you get a chance.
http://stormwrestling.com/052011.html
Slim Jim has spoken out about Savage and released this statement: "We're saddened by the loss. Randy was a beloved ambassador for the Slim Jim brand for many years and will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayer are with his family and friends at this time."
There have been reactions from across all the entertainment world on Twitter paying tribute including Ryan Seacrest, Alyssa Milano, Maria Menounos, Donnie Wahlberg, and more. Savage was honored at Yankee Stadium the other night with a graphic up on the screen after "Macho Man" was played for the crowd during a break in the action. Fans gave him a big ovation.
I'll have more on Savage and the other happenings in the wrestling world later on. Been a wild and sad week for sure.
TNA released this statement: TNA joins the entire wrestling world in mourning the passing of the legendary "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Savage was one of the most talented athletes to ever compete inside a wrestling ring. He truly transcended professional wrestling, becoming one of the true "icons" of our sport. Millions of wrestling fans grew up watching Savage battle other legends such as Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat and many more.Savage appeared with TNA during our 2004 "Victory Road" and "Turning Point" events - memorable moments that we hope wrestling fans will never forget.TNA hopes all of our fans remember Randy Savage's amazing life and career, and how he helped shape the sport as we know it today.
Hulk Hogan is someone that has been posting a ton about Savage on his Twitter and Facebook accounts. He has really been hit hard by this news and talked about how Savage and him just started reconnecting lately after ten years of not talking. He has been posting fan videos and using his page as a way for fans to come and talk about Savage memories and post tributes.
Jim Ross has done an excellent blog on Randy Savage at www.JRsBarBQ.com which is very much worth a read.
Shawn Michaels comments on Savage came across my news feed late last week and I just loved what he had to say on Savage's advice to him. From Shawn's Twitter: "Greatest advice from "Mach"- I was angry & wanted to leave WWE. He said, Don't take urself out of the game. If ur still here...there's always a chance. If ur gone, there is no chance. It was then I determined never to leave. Stay in the "game" & there's hope."
Speaking of Twitter, here is a list of comments from various people on Twitter.
Steve Austin: "Just heard about Macho Man Randy Savage... Unmatched intensity in the ring. A hellacious performer and terrific promo. A real bad a**. RIP."
The Rock: The Rock: "RIP Randy Macho Man Savage - you were one of my childhood inspirations and heros. Strength, love and prayers to the Savage/Poffo family. Today Team Bring It will celebrate a life – we will kick a** and chase greatness #OOHHYEEEAAAHHH style!”
Roddy Piper: "Too SAD TO TWEET."
Shawn Michaels - "@IAmJericho jus txt me the news. We've lost one of the greats!! Our prayers go out to the family & friends of Randy Savage."
Hulk Hogan: "I'm completely devastated, after over 10 years of not talking with Randy, we've finally started to talk and communicate. He had so much life in his eyes & in his spirit. I just pray that he's happy and in a better place and we miss him. We miss him a lot. I feel horrible about the ten years of having no communication. This was a tough one. I just pray that Randy's happy and in a better place and we miss him. HH"
Trish Stratus - "Rest in peace Randy-my first inspiration in the ring. My prayers & condolences to the Savage family #RIPMachoMan"
Chris Jericho: "Randy Savage was a true influence and inspiration to me and taught me some very important lessons, in and out of the ring. Rest in peace, Mach."
Jim Cornette: "Our deepest condolences in losing another legend. R.I.P. Randy."
Howard Finkel - "I am profoundly saddened by the passing of one of the all-time greats, Macho Man Randy Savage. My condolences go out to the Poffo family."
Kevin Nash: "I lost a close friend today. If anybody in heaven is wondering who the cat is in the ugly cowboy hat is it's Randy. Love you Bro. Never another".
Rey Mysterio - "RIP Macho Man Randy Savage! Doing promotion in Seattle for Over the Limit ppv, was asked earlier today at a radio station, Who would I of loved to wrestle from back in da day? I said would of loved to hit it off in a 3ple threat, Macho Man, Ricky the Dragon, and myself!RIP RMS!"
Bret Hart: "I have no words to say. This one hits me hard. We lost one of the best.”
CM Punk - " (retweeted Bret Hart's words of) “@BretHart: I have no words to say. This one hits me hard. We lost one of the best.” (Punk then added this) This sums it up."
John Cena - "CeNation. The untimely passing of randy savage is indeed tragic. All true fans of wrestling will mourn this loss. One of the all time greats"
Christopher Daniels: "RIP Randy Savage, an inspiration who set the standard! As a fan watching Randy in WrestleMania 3, 4 and 5 was incredible! True Story: at Turning Point 2004 (AMW-XXX cage match), I asked Randy's permission to drop the elbow of the top of the cage! Randy's reply? "God bless you, brother, I don't even do the elbow anymore." And, he gave me a thumbs up after the match as well!
Mark Henry - "Wow family, one of my favorites is gone! Rest well (Randy savage) you will be missed. Savage vs steamboat look it up do yourself a favor family one of my favorite."
Kharma - "In utter shock about Macho Man. So much charisma in one soul. #ripmachoman"
Yoshi Tatsu - "The Macho Man Randy Savage was one of my heros when I was childhood and one of the best of all time. Rest in peace."
Darren Young - "JUST like that! Life can end. Tell those close to ya that you love them cause ya never know! RIP Macho Man"
Wade Barrett - "Bow to the kingdom of the madness. RIP Macho Man, amazing performer."
Curt Hawkins - "I carry this picture in my gear bag ...7yr old Hawkins & my 1st tag team partner. RIP Macho Man. http://yfrog.com/h097hykj"
JTG - "To one of my favorite Hall of Famers, inducted or not. Macho Man Randy Savage. R.I.P OOOOOOOOOH YEEEEEEEAH !"
Goldust - "Prayers go out to randy savage family.....god be with them in this tough time"
Vickie Guerrero - "RIP Randy Macho Man Savage. My prayers are to your family"
Ezekiel Jackson - "Whoa....just heard about macho man Randy savage...God bless the family, the wrestling world just lost one of the greatest ever...R.I.P"
Justin Roberts - "Macho Man...simply awesome. Incredible and entertaining in everything he did. One of the best ever. RIP"
Christian - "Sad 2 hear about "Macho Man"Randy Savage..Only met him once briefly.No doubt 1 of the best & influenced so many performers you see today RIP"
Scott Stanford - "Sorry to hear about the Macho Man! He was one of the best!"
Jeff Jarrett - "Just got a call w the news. RIP Randy. I met him when I was 11yrs old. He would always teach, correct, encourage, and compliment as my career progressed. I have NEVER forgotten the intricacies and attention to detail he taught me over the years. Randy always had a method to his madness. Randy is gone, but will never be forgotten. Thoughts and prayers are w the entire Poffo family. And, he may be the greatest card player the business has ever seen... When he lost, he was only setting you up to take more money from you!
Tommy Dreamer - "Randy Savage was the 1st person I saw piledrive someone thru a table. Thanks 4 all the memories. Hope u walk the aisle w/ Liz & Sherri again"
Doug Williams - "RIP #randysavage I was fortunate to see him live at his peak..."
Joey Styles: "There's no other way for me to celebrate the life & career of The Macho Man than to let him keep entertaining me.VIDEO: http://bit.ly/lZLBj8"
Karen Jarrett - "My thoughts and prayers go out to Randy Savage's wife and family!"
Mickie James - "Ooh No! My childhood favorite! RIP Macho Man... *finger in the air*
Jay Lethal - "R.I.P. Macho Man Randy Savage. You were amazing... Oohh yea!!!"
Shane Helms - "Totally heartbreaking news about Randy Savage. One of my all-time favs!! So sad!! RIP Macho"
William Regal - "Just heard of the passing of Randy Savage.A one of a kind great performer. RIP."
Jim Ross - "Just heard Macho Man died this morning of a heart attack while driving his vehicle in Tampa. Condolences to all Randy Savage fans/family."
Zack Ryder - "RIP MACHO MAN. One of my favorites and one of the best of all time. DIG IT! http://t.co/PSYmsrJ"
Bill DeMott: "When I got my start in WCW it was Randy that gave me the rub....my prayers and thoughts to the Poffo Family"
Jack Korpela: "Hogan vs. Savage at WrestleMania V was the match that got me hooked on WWE as a kid. RIP "Macho Man" Randy Savage. My condolences."
Natalya: "My prayers are with Randy Savage and his family right now".
Beth Phoenix: "No words for this very sad day. Condolences to Randy Savage's family, friends and millions of fans." #MachoMan
Darren Young: "JUST like that! Life can end. Tell those close to ya that you love them cause ya never know! RIP Macho Man."
Torrie Wilson: "Just heard the news of Macho Man Randy Savage passing... Rest in peace, Randy.
Lilian Garcia: "Just heard the news about "Macho Man" Randy Savage passing away. So sad. RIP Randy. My prayers go out to your friends & family."
The Bella Twins: "Very sad to hear about Macho Man... His family is in our thoughts & prayers... Truly an amazin' & captivatin' man!"
Gail Kim: "RIP macho man. Thank u 4 all the great yrs u gave us. u were part of the reason I loved wrestling...what u did 4 all..."
Ricardo Rodriguez: “Thoughts go to Randy Savage's family. Definitely an amazing talent and a great inspiration to many. Can never forget Savage vs Steamboat.”
There have been a lot of videos popping up online of different wrestlers being asked their thoughts on Savage's passing. Everyone is just stunned and saying great things. There was one that was done with Sean Waltman where he said that he woke up Friday morning and his phone had been lit up with texts and messages including from Triple H and more. He said that his first thought was that Scott Hall had finally passed. How sad is that??!! That just made me sad hearing him say that cause that is just awful to be anticipating that. Waltman talked about Savage with tears in his eyes through the rest of the video.
Diamond Dallas Page has posted a video online of his thoughts on Savage. He has such great things to say and you have to remember that the feud with Savage was what sent DDP to the different level. Their feud was incredible. Great comments from Page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4wmvpNIMK3c
Hulk Hogan has posted this video online with his words about Savage.
http://youtu.be/yITu6455sNU
Jay Lethal posted a poem in tribute to Savage. You may remember that Lethal did a Macho Man imitation gimmick in TNA.
You inspired me more than this world will ever know. Enjoy.
You were a tower of power that was too sweet to be sour,You were funky like a monkey every minute of every hour. For you, space was the place and time distortion had to be,And your fans here on earth wanted the madness for eternity. You met every challenge with fists clinched and face to face, You even fought and defeats dragons and snakes. Flying off the ropes with an elbow drop, There was no way you could ever be stopped. Identifiable by your voice alone, Even being Dubbed the macho king while you sat on your throne. We hung on your words with interviews memorable and classic, And we knew it was serious when you took off your glasses. I promise not to lose you in the sands of time, For you will always be that all time hero of mine.
The Ultimate Warrior has posted a video giving his thoughts on Randy Savage. It is a really touching video where he just talks about a guy that he respected so much. Warrior has always said great things about working with Savage and these two videos are really worth watching. Just a classy tribute by the Warrior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74NjMY5bsnc&feature=player_embedded
Lance Storm has posted an incredible blog about Savage and how Savage was really the reason as a fan that he got into the business. He also includes a couple of pictures that he took of Savage at live events including the big win for Savage at WrestleMania IV. He talks about meeting him during a Smoky Mountain wrestling show in 1994 and the advice that Randy gave him. Read this if you get a chance.
http://stormwrestling.com/052011.html
Slim Jim has spoken out about Savage and released this statement: "We're saddened by the loss. Randy was a beloved ambassador for the Slim Jim brand for many years and will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayer are with his family and friends at this time."
There have been reactions from across all the entertainment world on Twitter paying tribute including Ryan Seacrest, Alyssa Milano, Maria Menounos, Donnie Wahlberg, and more. Savage was honored at Yankee Stadium the other night with a graphic up on the screen after "Macho Man" was played for the crowd during a break in the action. Fans gave him a big ovation.
I'll have more on Savage and the other happenings in the wrestling world later on. Been a wild and sad week for sure.
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