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Post by driver1980 on Sept 23, 2024 5:49:28 GMT -5
I’ve never been a big fan of the concept of the PWI 500. I’d rather journalists whittled it down to a more thoughtful list (UK magazine Power Slam did a Top 50 list). Who really wants to read 500 entries? Why not 100? What makes entry 432 better than entry number 431? I have always found it silly.
Anyway, I did enjoy this last night:
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Post by driver1980 on Sept 23, 2024 11:39:26 GMT -5
Thirty years ago today, Herb Abrams’ UWF put on a card, UWF Blackjack Brawl. The main event featured UWF World Heavyweight Champion Steve Williams defending the belt against Sid Vicious. Airing live on SportsChannel America, it was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Wikipedia lists the attendance as 600.  I haven’t seen this. Don’t know if it ever got a VHS release (I’d say that’s unlikely). |
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Post by dbutler69 on Sept 23, 2024 15:16:52 GMT -5
I recently watched Summerslam 1995
This is from Pittsburgh. Vince McMahon with Jerry Lawler (until the Yankem match) and Dok Hendrix. The main event is Diesel vs. King Mabel for the WWF Championship. The first match is Hakushi vs. 1-2-3 Kid
Hakushi wins when Kid goes for a spinning kick, but Hakushi catches his leg and plants him for the pin. This was a very good match. An excellent choice for an opener. I slight surprise that Hakushi won, but that’s fine with me. I know Hakushi slides down the card and will be gone from the WWF before too long. I read that they wanted him to tone down his cool moves because crowds were cheering him. I know we don’t want the crowd cheering heels, but that sounds kinda dumb to me. I think they should have made him a babyface, but of course we can’t have a Japanese babyface! While we’re on the subject of “coulda” they should have switched Luger back to a heel. The face thing wasn’t working and his booking was getting worse, and of course he was gone from the WWF very shortly after this PPV, In fact, he wasn’t under contract even at this point. Next match is Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Bob “Spark Plug” Holly
Triple H gets the win with the Pedigree when Holly ducks his head too soon on a backdrop attempt. I thought this was a decent match, though perhaps a bit disappointing considering the talent level of both guys. Next is The Smoking Gunns vs. The Blu Brothers (w/ Uncle Zebekiah)I’m not sure why the Gunns are facing the Blu Brothers rather than getting a title shot against Owen Hart and Yokozuna (who aren’t even at this PPV, for some reason) but whatever. Who am I to question the wisdom of WWF/WWE creative? Anyway, the Gunns win (thank goodness) with their Sidewinder (an assisted leg drop) and the match was decent, though nothing special. I am not a fan of the Blu Brothers but the Smoking Gunns are pretty good in the ring. One more thing, I’m sick of the announcers (mostly Vince) debating where it’s Jacob or Eli in the ring (since they’re identical twins). Who cares? Just call the darn match! Vince talks way too much about not knowing if it’s Jacob or Eli. Another annoying thing is that McMahon says “anything can happen in the WWF” about 10 times per broadcast. I’m getting sick of hearing that. Barry Horowitz vs. Skip (w/Sunny)
The story here is that Barry Horowitz, being billed as having never won a WWF match, and thus is 0 and however many hundred, pulled off the win of a lifetime when Skip got arrogant and was rolled up by Horowitz while he (skip) was showing off by doing pushups. Then, Skip demanded a rematch, and said he’d beat Barry in 10 minutes or less (one minute for Barry and nine minutes for pushups) so there was a 10 minute time limit. Barry lasted the 10 minutes and thus won the match by its stipulations. Then, just before this PPV, Skip inadvertently cost Hakushi a win against Horowitz by getting on the apron during their match and Hakushi crashed into Skip, allowing Horowitz to roll him up for yet another win! Anyway, we have a spirited match here, with excellent storytelling, and then Hakushi comes ringside, stands on the apron, and Skip is figuring he’ll do something to him for revenge. Hakushi then leaps into the ring, over top of everyone without making contact, and goes out the other side of the ring. Skip is distracted by this and it allows Horowitz to roll him up for the win! Horowitz wins! Horowitz wins! Horowitz wins! This was a really fun match. I loved the story told here, both guys performed well, and it was nice to see the faithful hand Barry Horowitz get this PPV shot. And the crowd loved it. Next up is the Women’s Championship match: Alundra Blayze (champ) vs. Bertha Faye (w/Harvey Wippleman)
Faye broke Blayze’s nose a couple of months ago (actually, Blayze had a nose job) so Blayze wants her revenge. In the incident where Faye broke Alundra’s nose, which was Faye’s first appearance, she came out with facepaint and wearing all black and attacked Alundra from behind and just beat on her. She looked really badass. Then, for some reason, they decided to turn her into a joke figure. She wears these ridiculous little girl type outfits and goes prancing around and Harvey Whippleman is in love with her (I read they in real life they didn’t get along) and frankly, I think the WWF shot itself in the foot here. Instead of building her up as a monster heel, they turned her into a joke so that they could make weight jokes about her, I suppose. Also, nobody from the women’s division (which, as far as I can tell, has maybe four women in it at this point, if that) has appeared on TV at all in at least two months, except for a short promo by Blayze a week ago, so this match has had no buildup at all. Some people probably forgot who these women are at this point. Oh, and in the introductions, the ring announcer referred to Alundra Blayze as “he”. Come on, she’s not that ugly! Anyway, Faye wins with a powerbomb in an upset to take the title. The match was okay, but not great. Blayze does some cool stuff, but Faye is not very good. The crowd really didn’t care about this. Oh, and I get some Vlad the superfan sightings here, as usual. Next is the Casket Match: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Kama (w/Ted Dibiase)
So Kama took the Undertaker’s urn at a previous PPV and had it melted down and turned into a neckless, so this is a grudge match for the Undertaker. However, that was a couple of months ago, and this feud has had no buildup or no progression or interaction between these guys since then. The WWF has really done a poor job of promoting most of the matches in this PPV, except for the ladder match and the WWF title match. The Undertaker won, of course. This match wasn’t great, but was decent enough. It did last too long though. Kama had some really long rest holds on Undertaker. Take those away, and this match was all right. The crowd loved the end, though, so I guess this match served its purpose. Everybody seemed to forget the rules of a casket match. Kama went for a pin at one point and even announcer Jerry Lawler talked about getting a pin. Next match is Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Isaac Yankem DDS
Jerry Lawler wanted revenge against Bret Hart for losing the Kiss My Foot match, so he got his demented dentist, Isaac Yankem, to do his dirty work for him. Luckily, Yankem would get a better gimmick later in his career. I can understand Lawler wanting to get someone else to take care of Hart for him, but why make him a dentist? That just makes it a bit too silly. To make it worse, Yankem didn’t have one single wrestling appearance (at least not on the top two short – Raw and Superstars) prior to this PPV. It’s ridiculous to put someone into a major match in a PPV with zero prior TV appearances. The fans weren’t too invested in this, for obvious reasons. It goes back to what I said about the WWF doing a poor job of building most of the matches for this PPV. Anyway, the match itself was okay. The ending was bad (Bret wins on a DQ when Lawler gets involved) but Bret did his best to help carry the very green Yankem, who did at least give a good effort. And I’ll once again complain that Bret Hart’s music stinks, and they should have kept his Hart Foundation music. Next we get the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels (champ) vs. Razor Ramon
This was a really great match. It went for over 25 minutes and the time was well used. I don’t know whether this match or their Wrestlemania 10 ladder match was better, but they’re both great. Shaw wins, and the end was slightly botched as Shawn had trouble getting the belt down and had to try it again, but other than that, a classic match. I knew Shawn would win, but that didn’t detract from it. And the main event is for the WWE Championship: Diesel (champ) vs. King Mabel (w/Sir Mo)
This match kinda sucked. Diesel wins with a clothesline off the ropes for the win. It wasn’t well executed, possibly because Mabel did a sit-down splash on Diesel’s back even though Diesel told him not to do anything to his back because he had a back injury. Vince was reportedly furious and wanted to fire Mabel but Diesel supposedly talked him out of it. Oh, and it wouldn’t be a mid-90’s WWF PPV without a ref bump so yes, we get one of those here, too. Good, I was worried that the streak would be broken. Lex Luger shows up at the end to make the save as Mabel and Mo attack Diesel after the match. Really odd to see Luger here as he wasn’t appeared at all in the PPV and hasn’t really appeared on TV at all in a while (though he was doing some house shows) and the only storyline with him is that his tag team partner turned heel so I guess we weren’t sure whether or not Luger turned heel with him or not. Well, it didn’t matter as Luger turned to WCW a week or two after this, anyway. Overall, I thought that this was a decent PPV. One great match (the ladder match), one bad match (the main event) and everything else ranged from bearable to enjoyable. One of the better 1995 WWF PPV’s, anyway. However, once again the main event is the worst match on the card (or close to it) thanks to McMahon’s obsession with huge guys regardless of their skill level. The WWF roster in general is a bit thin at this point, though. As an aside, they set up a feud between Bam Bam Bigelow (who recently turned face - McMahon is falsely claiming that he quit the Million Dollar Corporation, but he was fired first) and Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation, but, much like the Undertaker-Kama feud, after setting things up they have proceeded to ignore it for a couple of months. Very odd booking. You can't totally hate the Blu Brothers, since they smacked around Shawn Michaels when he let his alligator mouth overload his canary @$$ one too many times. The SS t-shirts, in TNA, are a different story, though. Barry Horowitz did the losing streak into a fluke win several times, including a memorable turn, in Florida, where he was Jack Hart. He gets the win and sides with Percy Pringle and his Dynasty of champions and beat Mike Graham, in a tournament, to become the Florida Champion. Not too long ago, he rolled up another win, at Impact Wrestling, defeating Johnny Swinger. In regards to Japanese babyfaces, Tiger Mask was treated as a babyface, in the WWF, under Sr, as was Tatsumi Fujinami, and Taka Michinoku started as a babyface, before they brought in all of Kaientai (or switched him to working with them.....I wasn't fully watching WWF, at that point). Great Sasuke also worked as a babyface. Vince totally dropped the ball on Rhonda Singh, aka Monster Ripper, aka Bertha Faye. More of his hillbilly fixation and fat shaming. They brought in some women from All-Japan Women, then buried the matches. Typical. WCW didn't exactly do right by her, either (or Leilani Kai). Good point about the Blue Brothers! And yeah, Vince was definitely into fat shaming, and not just on the female wrestlers. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Sept 23, 2024 15:19:48 GMT -5
I recently watched Fall Brawl 1995This is from Asheville, North Carolina, with Tony Schiavone, Bobby Hennan, and Gene Okerlund. The main event is the Hulkamaniacs vs. the Dungeon of Doom. The first match is Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd
The winner is going to get a US Title shot against Sting. Johnny B. Badd beats Brian Pillman after a crossbody off the ropes at 29:13. This was an excellent match. It started very slowly, but built into something really good. Some very good storytelling here, too, though the end was perhaps a little anticlimactic I the way it happened. Both guys are faces here. One complaint I have is that this match had a 20 minute time limit. After the 20 minutes expired, and the bell rung to end the match, they then announced that the match must have a winner, so it will go into sudden death overtime. Why the HECK even both to have a time limit in the first place, then??? That makes NO sense! That’s just typical WCW stupidity. Also, as the match was about to expire (before anyone knew that they’d continue the match anyway) both wrestlers are trying submission holds, which doesn’t make a ton of sense with the clock ticking down. There was also one point where the ref stopped the count because one of the wrestlers was under the plane of the ropes (though not touching the rope). They never do this in WWF. There, you have to actually touch the rope. I guess WCW has slightly different rules. At least WCW did something smart by having this as an opening match. Next match is Cobra v. Sgt. Craig “Pitbull” Pittman
Both guys are new to WCW, especially Cobra, whom I’ve neve seen before. They both have military gimmicks and I guess the story here is that Pittman (the heel) abandoned Cobra on a mission. Anyway, Cobra comes out to the ring, but Pittman is nowhere to be found. As Cobra is looking over to the entranceway, waiting for Pittman to show up, Pittman reels down from the rafters behind Cobra and attacks him from behind! I have to admit, that was a very cool entrance. However, the match itself was nothing, as Pittman slaps his armbar submission hold onto Cobra after about a minute. The entrance took considerably long than the match. Next is the WCW Television Title Match: The Renegade (champ) vs. Diamond Dallas Page (w/The Diamond Doll and Max Muscle)
DDP is able to finish off the Renegade (a second rate Ultimate Warrior) with his Diamond Cutter after Max Muscle grabs Renegade’s foot. The Diamond Doll looks unhappy over her man’s victory, so I guess there’s trouble in paradise. This match was better than I thought it would be. It was nothing special, but it was decent. Next match is for the WCW World Tag Team Championship: Bunkhouse Buck and Dirty Dick Slater (champs) w/ Colonel Robert Parker vs. Harlem Heat w/ Sister Sherri
We’ve got a budding romance between Colonel Parker and Sherri as a side show here. The Nasty Boys come in and hit Slater with a boot for some reason, allowing Harlem Heat to cover and win. We have new tag team champs! The usual chaotic WCW tag team match. Anyway, this match kinda stunk, IMHO. Though both teams are heels, the crowd seemed to be rooting for Harlem Heat. Can’t say as though I blame them. Next is Arn Anderson v. Ric Flair
We get promos from both guys as well as a video package showing how these long time best friends have become enemies and now will face each other in the ring. This match went over 22 minutes and Arn Anderson gets the upset win when Brian Pillman comes ringside and kicks Flair in the head (which obviously the ref didn’t see) which allows Anderson to deliver his DDT and cover Flair for the win! This was a very good match. Excellent storytelling and good action. Finally, we get the WarGames Match: Hulkaaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Sting & Lex Luge) vs. the Dungeon of Doom (Kamala, the Shark, the Zodiac & Meng - w/Kevin Sullivan)
The stipulation is if Hogan’s team wins he gets five minutes alone in the cage with Kevin Sullivan It’s tough to see the action in these WarGames matches, with the type of cage they use plus the double ring. Anyway, Hogan of course cheats the second he enters the rings, throwing white powder in the heels’ eyes. What a scumbag. Of course everyone loves it, though. He follows with the back scratch and choking with a piece of tape from his wrist. What a hero. The “good” guys win when Hogan (of course) gets the submission on Zodiac in a Camel Clutch of sorts. The end was a bit anticlimactic. Personally I thought the match was boring, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it, so what do I know? Afterwards, Kevin Sullivan is supposed to get into the cage with Hogan. He tries to escape but is forced back in. Hogan beats in him for a couple of minutes, then the Giant (supposedly Andre’s son, and he had run over Hogan’s motorcycle earlier in the day) comes in and attacks hogan from behind and beats him down. Hogan is left in a heap as they call for parmedics. Heenan is laughing hysterically to close the show, which was awesome. So overall, I thought that the opening match (Badd-Pillman) was excellent, Flair-Anderson was quite good, and the rest of the show was not very good. However, I think a lot of people liked the main event, so that’s fine. Overall, a somewhat below average PPV, though not necessarily terrible. I pretty much agree with all of that. I don’t know if it’s apocryphal or not, but I did once read that Badd was complaining about pain after the match (rightfully so), and Hogan said something like, “If you knew how to work, you wouldn’t need to be so hurt.” Or words to that effect. If it is true, I think the logic was that Hogan was telling Badd that lots of high-risk moves lead to pain, whereas Hogan did more with less and wasn’t as hurt. Although, decades later, with Hogan complaining about what all those legdrops did to his hips, it sounds silly. Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair is the match of the card, a big dream match at that point. I agree with your assessment of it. I did quite like the Harlem Heat/Buck & Slater feud. WarGames just got worse as time went on, I felt (although 1996 is really good). I never liked the concept, and I am dismayed it now may be a permanent fixture of the Survivor Series event. My main issue with it has always been that until all of the guys are in the ring, no pinfalls or submissions can occur, so until everyone is in there, the other guys are passing time. There have been good WarGames bout, but I think it’s a tired and outdated gimmick today - and may have been back in 1995. I feel it’s had its day, and its living off its nostalgic reputation. I did find the “Giant being the son of Andre” nonsense to be distasteful. Didn’t Hogan, on one of the TV shows, say something like, “I’ll bury you like your father.” Or some such nonsense. What a nice babyface, eh? Vader was supposed to be on Hogan’s team, but as he left the promotion, Lex Luger took over. Would Vader’s inclusion have meant a better bout? I don’t know, my opinion on WarGames stands. But I have to say, why would Vader team with an egomaniac like Hogan who had dodged him throughout 1995? Actually, what might have been a good WarGames main event is Vader turning on Hogan and hooking up with the Dungeon of Doom. But no doubt we’d have then seen the next PPV feature a main event of the “invincible, unbeatable” Hogan wrestling against Vader and Zodiac in a handicap match - and winning it. It’s sad that the WWF chose not to capitalise on Vader’s popularity after the shitty way WCW had booked Vader in 1995. I believe Vader still had momentum and something to offer in 1996, and I wish the WWF had done more with him, but I guess the Vince Ego would have to have been put aside for that. I'm not a big fan of the WarGames format either. And yes, Vince definitely blew it with Vader. He bit himself in the butt with his ego and pettiness. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Sept 23, 2024 15:25:33 GMT -5
I recently watched Summerslam 1995
This is from Pittsburgh. Vince McMahon with Jerry Lawler (until the Yankem match) and Dok Hendrix. The main event is Diesel vs. King Mabel for the WWF Championship. The first match is Hakushi vs. 1-2-3 Kid
Hakushi wins when Kid goes for a spinning kick, but Hakushi catches his leg and plants him for the pin. This was a very good match. An excellent choice for an opener. I slight surprise that Hakushi won, but that’s fine with me. I know Hakushi slides down the card and will be gone from the WWF before too long. I read that they wanted him to tone down his cool moves because crowds were cheering him. I know we don’t want the crowd cheering heels, but that sounds kinda dumb to me. I think they should have made him a babyface, but of course we can’t have a Japanese babyface! While we’re on the subject of “coulda” they should have switched Luger back to a heel. The face thing wasn’t working and his booking was getting worse, and of course he was gone from the WWF very shortly after this PPV, In fact, he wasn’t under contract even at this point. Next match is Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Bob “Spark Plug” Holly
Triple H gets the win with the Pedigree when Holly ducks his head too soon on a backdrop attempt. I thought this was a decent match, though perhaps a bit disappointing considering the talent level of both guys. Next is The Smoking Gunns vs. The Blu Brothers (w/ Uncle Zebekiah)I’m not sure why the Gunns are facing the Blu Brothers rather than getting a title shot against Owen Hart and Yokozuna (who aren’t even at this PPV, for some reason) but whatever. Who am I to question the wisdom of WWF/WWE creative? Anyway, the Gunns win (thank goodness) with their Sidewinder (an assisted leg drop) and the match was decent, though nothing special. I am not a fan of the Blu Brothers but the Smoking Gunns are pretty good in the ring. One more thing, I’m sick of the announcers (mostly Vince) debating where it’s Jacob or Eli in the ring (since they’re identical twins). Who cares? Just call the darn match! Vince talks way too much about not knowing if it’s Jacob or Eli. Another annoying thing is that McMahon says “anything can happen in the WWF” about 10 times per broadcast. I’m getting sick of hearing that. Barry Horowitz vs. Skip (w/Sunny)
The story here is that Barry Horowitz, being billed as having never won a WWF match, and thus is 0 and however many hundred, pulled off the win of a lifetime when Skip got arrogant and was rolled up by Horowitz while he (skip) was showing off by doing pushups. Then, Skip demanded a rematch, and said he’d beat Barry in 10 minutes or less (one minute for Barry and nine minutes for pushups) so there was a 10 minute time limit. Barry lasted the 10 minutes and thus won the match by its stipulations. Then, just before this PPV, Skip inadvertently cost Hakushi a win against Horowitz by getting on the apron during their match and Hakushi crashed into Skip, allowing Horowitz to roll him up for yet another win! Anyway, we have a spirited match here, with excellent storytelling, and then Hakushi comes ringside, stands on the apron, and Skip is figuring he’ll do something to him for revenge. Hakushi then leaps into the ring, over top of everyone without making contact, and goes out the other side of the ring. Skip is distracted by this and it allows Horowitz to roll him up for the win! Horowitz wins! Horowitz wins! Horowitz wins! This was a really fun match. I loved the story told here, both guys performed well, and it was nice to see the faithful hand Barry Horowitz get this PPV shot. And the crowd loved it. Next up is the Women’s Championship match: Alundra Blayze (champ) vs. Bertha Faye (w/Harvey Wippleman)
Faye broke Blayze’s nose a couple of months ago (actually, Blayze had a nose job) so Blayze wants her revenge. In the incident where Faye broke Alundra’s nose, which was Faye’s first appearance, she came out with facepaint and wearing all black and attacked Alundra from behind and just beat on her. She looked really badass. Then, for some reason, they decided to turn her into a joke figure. She wears these ridiculous little girl type outfits and goes prancing around and Harvey Whippleman is in love with her (I read they in real life they didn’t get along) and frankly, I think the WWF shot itself in the foot here. Instead of building her up as a monster heel, they turned her into a joke so that they could make weight jokes about her, I suppose. Also, nobody from the women’s division (which, as far as I can tell, has maybe four women in it at this point, if that) has appeared on TV at all in at least two months, except for a short promo by Blayze a week ago, so this match has had no buildup at all. Some people probably forgot who these women are at this point. Oh, and in the introductions, the ring announcer referred to Alundra Blayze as “he”. Come on, she’s not that ugly! Anyway, Faye wins with a powerbomb in an upset to take the title. The match was okay, but not great. Blayze does some cool stuff, but Faye is not very good. The crowd really didn’t care about this. Oh, and I get some Vlad the superfan sightings here, as usual. Next is the Casket Match: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Kama (w/Ted Dibiase)
So Kama took the Undertaker’s urn at a previous PPV and had it melted down and turned into a neckless, so this is a grudge match for the Undertaker. However, that was a couple of months ago, and this feud has had no buildup or no progression or interaction between these guys since then. The WWF has really done a poor job of promoting most of the matches in this PPV, except for the ladder match and the WWF title match. The Undertaker won, of course. This match wasn’t great, but was decent enough. It did last too long though. Kama had some really long rest holds on Undertaker. Take those away, and this match was all right. The crowd loved the end, though, so I guess this match served its purpose. Everybody seemed to forget the rules of a casket match. Kama went for a pin at one point and even announcer Jerry Lawler talked about getting a pin. Next match is Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Isaac Yankem DDS
Jerry Lawler wanted revenge against Bret Hart for losing the Kiss My Foot match, so he got his demented dentist, Isaac Yankem, to do his dirty work for him. Luckily, Yankem would get a better gimmick later in his career. I can understand Lawler wanting to get someone else to take care of Hart for him, but why make him a dentist? That just makes it a bit too silly. To make it worse, Yankem didn’t have one single wrestling appearance (at least not on the top two short – Raw and Superstars) prior to this PPV. It’s ridiculous to put someone into a major match in a PPV with zero prior TV appearances. The fans weren’t too invested in this, for obvious reasons. It goes back to what I said about the WWF doing a poor job of building most of the matches for this PPV. Anyway, the match itself was okay. The ending was bad (Bret wins on a DQ when Lawler gets involved) but Bret did his best to help carry the very green Yankem, who did at least give a good effort. And I’ll once again complain that Bret Hart’s music stinks, and they should have kept his Hart Foundation music. Next we get the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels (champ) vs. Razor Ramon
This was a really great match. It went for over 25 minutes and the time was well used. I don’t know whether this match or their Wrestlemania 10 ladder match was better, but they’re both great. Shaw wins, and the end was slightly botched as Shawn had trouble getting the belt down and had to try it again, but other than that, a classic match. I knew Shawn would win, but that didn’t detract from it. And the main event is for the WWE Championship: Diesel (champ) vs. King Mabel (w/Sir Mo)
This match kinda sucked. Diesel wins with a clothesline off the ropes for the win. It wasn’t well executed, possibly because Mabel did a sit-down splash on Diesel’s back even though Diesel told him not to do anything to his back because he had a back injury. Vince was reportedly furious and wanted to fire Mabel but Diesel supposedly talked him out of it. Oh, and it wouldn’t be a mid-90’s WWF PPV without a ref bump so yes, we get one of those here, too. Good, I was worried that the streak would be broken. Lex Luger shows up at the end to make the save as Mabel and Mo attack Diesel after the match. Really odd to see Luger here as he wasn’t appeared at all in the PPV and hasn’t really appeared on TV at all in a while (though he was doing some house shows) and the only storyline with him is that his tag team partner turned heel so I guess we weren’t sure whether or not Luger turned heel with him or not. Well, it didn’t matter as Luger turned to WCW a week or two after this, anyway. Overall, I thought that this was a decent PPV. One great match (the ladder match), one bad match (the main event) and everything else ranged from bearable to enjoyable. One of the better 1995 WWF PPV’s, anyway. However, once again the main event is the worst match on the card (or close to it) thanks to McMahon’s obsession with huge guys regardless of their skill level. The WWF roster in general is a bit thin at this point, though. As an aside, they set up a feud between Bam Bam Bigelow (who recently turned face - McMahon is falsely claiming that he quit the Million Dollar Corporation, but he was fired first) and Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation, but, much like the Undertaker-Kama feud, after setting things up they have proceeded to ignore it for a couple of months. Very odd booking. I thought this was a vast improvement on the two previous SummerSlam PPVs. I won’t repeat what I posted about some of these matches in my “1995: The Year In Review” post. I do think there is a lot that is enjoyable here, although the women’s ‘division’ is a joke. To think we went from “one, two or three opponents” at a time for Blayze to an era where there’s a Woman’s Royal Rumble. I’d heard there were plans for Blayze vs. Sunny at some point, which might have been fun in a way, with the veteran teaching the arrogant youngster a lesson. The Lex Luger run in is really random. Why is he there? It’s as random as when Papa Shango ran in during the Hogan/Sid Justice WM VIII bout despite him having, to the very best of my knowledge, no history with either Hogan, Justice or Wippleman. Did Luger have a beef with King Mabel? I don’t remember one. He had no particular affinity with babyface Diesel. So I really would love to have seen an explanation as to exactly why he was there. I know it’s pedantic, but I like run-ins to have logic. (There was a time when Hulk Hogan ran in after a Rockers vs. Powers of Pain bout; I suppose you could argue the heavyweight was defending the lightweights from a beat-down by two brutes, but at that point, it just seemed random) I wonder, were there plans for Luger? Dissension between him and Diesel, perhaps? It would have made more sense for someone like Shawn Michaels to do the run-in. Honestly, logic should matter even in professional wrestling. I don't know if there were plans for Luger or not. MY guess is they didn't plan too much on him until he signed a new contract (I think his contract had expired by now and he was on a per appearance basis) which of course never happened. And thanks a lot, Ricky Jackson, now I really want a maple walnut milkshake! |
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Post by dbutler69 on Sept 23, 2024 15:28:59 GMT -5
I recently watched In Your House 3 from 1995. It’s in Detroit, Michigan. A 3 man booth – Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross. Just get McMahon out of the booth an then we have something!
The main event is supposed to be a “Triple Threat” match with all three WWF titles up for grabs in the same match! If Diesel (WWF champ) and Shawn Michaels (Intercontinental champ) defeat the tag team champs, Owen Hart and Yokozuna, then they are the new tag team champs, in addition to keeping their own belts. However, if they lose, then whichever one of them gets pinned, loses his belt to the guy that pins him. So, if Yoko pins Diesel, he would be the new WWF champ in addition to he and Owen retaining their tag team belts. Also, if you lost by DQ or countout, you lose the belts! All this instituted by “fan friendly” interim WWF President Gorilla Monsoon. This all sounds great, but…Owen Hart is not in the building! Gorilla tells Jim Cornette that Yoko still has to defend the tag team belt, so unless he wants Yoko to do it by himself, Cornett had better find him a partner PDQ! And through the broadcast we do see him talking to various wrestlers.
First match is Savio Vega vs. Waylon Mercy
Odd choice for an opening match. Waylon Mercy is an interesting character, but Danny Spivey’s body is shot at this point and he can hardly move in the ring. Savio Vega is okay, but he’s not going to be able to carry Mercy to a really exciting match. Vega wins with his spinning heel kick, which I would have considered a surprise at the time but I think McMahon had pretty much given up on Mercy at this point. It’s a shame that Spivey couldn’t make something of this character.
This was an okay match. Savio was okay but Mercy didn’t look good and the match was a bit boring.
Next match is Sycho Sid (w/Ted Dibiase) vs. Henry O. Godwinn
Our hog farmer is now a face after dumping a bucket of slop on Ted DiBiase. Sid is in DiBiase’s stable and he, too, got slopped by HOG.
Sid wins with his powerbomb. This match had good storytelling, but was boring. After the match, Ted and Sid argue over which of them will slop the prostrate Godwin, but Bigelow (who also has a grudge against the Million Dollar Corporation) comes out and grabs the slop bucket, but hen Kama arrives and attacks Bigelow. Ted grabs the bucket but Godwin has by now recovered and comes up behind Ted, takes the bucket, and dumps it on him. Another $3,000 Armani suit down the drain!
Next match is The British Bulldog vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
Bulldog is by now the heel here. Bulldog gets the win after about 12 minutes with his powerslam. This was on okay match, but a bit slow and boring. If they’d cut a few minutes off of it and greatly shortened some of the rest holds, it would have been decent.
Next match is Dean Douglas w/Bob Backlund vs. Razor Ramon
Dean Douglas gets the win with a rollup and a handful of tights at about 15 minutes. The finish was sloppy, and there were several other sloppy moments in this match (I don’t think these two had good chemistry) and there was YET ANOTHER FREAKING REF BUMP but overall it was a decent enough match. The best match of the night up to this point, though that’s not saying much.
Next is Bret Hart vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte
Lafitte had previously stolen Bret’s jacket, which he wears to the ring. He’s also been stealing other Bret Hart related items, such as the Bret head that Hakushi used to take to the ring (why would anybody want to steal that?) and some sunglasses that Bret had given to a fan.
Anyway, we get a really good match here. Bret wins with his sharpshooter, applied with both guys lying on the mat in a nice twist, after about 16 and a half minutes. Bret then takes his jacket back. By far the best match of the night.
Finally, we get the “Triple Threat” match: WWF World Title/Intercontinental Title vs. WWF Tag Titles: Yokozuna & The British Bulldog (w/Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) vs. Diesel & Shawn Michaels.
So, Jim Cornette has gotten Bulldog (wearing some nice looking red and gold tights) as Yokozuna’s partner, so we’ve got us a match!
However, I have to say that, if I were a paying fan, I’d feel a bit ripped off here. This was a bait and switch. I like Bulldog, but I was looking forward to seeing some Shawn-Owen action and we don’t get that. I read somewhere that Owen was late to the arena because he was witnessing the birth of his child. If that’s so, I wonder how much time they had to plan this Bulldog replacement. Was it something they only learned about hours in advance?
Anyway, this was a decent enough match. When it was Shawn vs. Bulldog it was quite good, otherwise it wasn’t much.
The faces win when Owen shows up, jumps off the top rope, gets hit in the gut then jackknifed by Diesel, then pinned and the faces are the new tag team champs. That ending made no sense at all (more WCW level tag team stupidity), as Owen obviously wasn’t the legal man, since he wasn’t even in the match. I think the decision gets reversed the next day, but this is yet another reason for the paying customer to feel ripped off.
Anyway, overall, another fair to middling PPV. There were no terrible matches, but the only match I’d go out of my way to see again was the Bret Hart vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte. Everything else was very skippable. Plus the titles didn’t really change hands after all, even though we were GUARANTED that a title would change hands at this PPV.
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Post by driver1980 on Sept 23, 2024 16:22:29 GMT -5
I recently watched In Your House 3 from 1995. It’s in Detroit, Michigan. A 3 man booth – Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross. Just get McMahon out of the booth an then we have something! The main event is supposed to be a “Triple Threat” match with all three WWF titles up for grabs in the same match! If Diesel (WWF champ) and Shawn Michaels (Intercontinental champ) defeat the tag team champs, Owen Hart and Yokozuna, then they are the new tag team champs, in addition to keeping their own belts. However, if they lose, then whichever one of them gets pinned, loses his belt to the guy that pins him. So, if Yoko pins Diesel, he would be the new WWF champ in addition to he and Owen retaining their tag team belts. Also, if you lost by DQ or countout, you lose the belts! All this instituted by “fan friendly” interim WWF President Gorilla Monsoon. This all sounds great, but…Owen Hart is not in the building! Gorilla tells Jim Cornette that Yoko still has to defend the tag team belt, so unless he wants Yoko to do it by himself, Cornett had better find him a partner PDQ! And through the broadcast we do see him talking to various wrestlers. First match is S avio Vega vs. Waylon Mercy
Odd choice for an opening match. Waylon Mercy is an interesting character, but Danny Spivey’s body is shot at this point and he can hardly move in the ring. Savio Vega is okay, but he’s not going to be able to carry Mercy to a really exciting match. Vega wins with his spinning heel kick, which I would have considered a surprise at the time but I think McMahon had pretty much given up on Mercy at this point. It’s a shame that Spivey couldn’t make something of this character. This was an okay match. Savio was okay but Mercy didn’t look good and the match was a bit boring. Next match is Sycho Sid (w/Ted Dibiase) vs. Henry O. Godwinn
Our hog farmer is now a face after dumping a bucket of slop on Ted DiBiase. Sid is in DiBiase’s stable and he, too, got slopped by HOG. Sid wins with his powerbomb. This match had good storytelling, but was boring. After the match, Ted and Sid argue over which of them will slop the prostrate Godwin, but Bigelow (who also has a grudge against the Million Dollar Corporation) comes out and grabs the slop bucket, but hen Kama arrives and attacks Bigelow. Ted grabs the bucket but Godwin has by now recovered and comes up behind Ted, takes the bucket, and dumps it on him. Another $3,000 Armani suit down the drain! Next match is The British Bulldog vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
Bulldog is by now the heel here. Bulldog gets the win after about 12 minutes with his powerslam. This was on okay match, but a bit slow and boring. If they’d cut a few minutes off of it and greatly shortened some of the rest holds, it would have been decent. Next match is Dean Douglas w/Bob Backlund vs. Razor Ramon
Dean Douglas gets the win with a rollup and a handful of tights at about 15 minutes. The finish was sloppy, and there were several other sloppy moments in this match (I don’t think these two had good chemistry) and there was YET ANOTHER FREAKING REF BUMP but overall it was a decent enough match. The best match of the night up to this point, though that’s not saying much. Next is Bret Hart vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte
Lafitte had previously stolen Bret’s jacket, which he wears to the ring. He’s also been stealing other Bret Hart related items, such as the Bret head that Hakushi used to take to the ring (why would anybody want to steal that?) and some sunglasses that Bret had given to a fan. Anyway, we get a really good match here. Bret wins with his sharpshooter, applied with both guys lying on the mat in a nice twist, after about 16 and a half minutes. Bret then takes his jacket back. By far the best match of the night. Finally, we get the “Triple Threat” match: WWF World Title/Intercontinental Title vs. WWF Tag Titles: Yokozuna & The British Bulldog (w/Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) vs. Diesel & Shawn Michaels.
So, Jim Cornette has gotten Bulldog (wearing some nice looking red and gold tights) as Yokozuna’s partner, so we’ve got us a match! However, I have to say that, if I were a paying fan, I’d feel a bit ripped off here. This was a bait and switch. I like Bulldog, but I was looking forward to seeing some Shawn-Owen action and we don’t get that. I read somewhere that Owen was late to the arena because he was witnessing the birth of his child. If that’s so, I wonder how much time they had to plan this Bulldog replacement. Was it something they only learned about hours in advance? Anyway, this was a decent enough match. When it was Shawn vs. Bulldog it was quite good, otherwise it wasn’t much. The faces win when Owen shows up, jumps off the top rope, gets hit in the gut then jackknifed by Diesel, then pinned and the faces are the new tag team champs. That ending made no sense at all (more WCW level tag team stupidity), as Owen obviously wasn’t the legal man, since he wasn’t even in the match. I think the decision gets reversed the next day, but this is yet another reason for the paying customer to feel ripped off. Anyway, overall, another fair to middling PPV. There were no terrible matches, but the only match I’d go out of my way to see again was the Bret Hart vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte. Everything else was very skippable. Plus the titles didn’t really change hands after all, even though we were GUARANTED that a title would change hands at this PPV. My view on the PPV is pretty much akin to yours, and I agree that Bret vs. Jean-Pierre is the best match on the card. I’m not entirely sure I preferred that gimmick to his stint in The Quebecers, though. As I reviewed two of the PPV’s matches on that Year in Review tape, I’ll be lazy and copy and paste my thoughts here: I guess the ending was feelgood, seeing the champs holding all the titles. But just how many times did Shawn lose a belt without actually being pinned? He was stripped of it in 1993; he and Diesel were stripped of the tag titles in 1994, leading to a tournament; he forfeited the IC Championship in 1995; there’s him and Diesel being stripped of the tag titles for a second time in the event we’re discussing; he “lost his smile” and gave up the WWF Championship in 1997; he and Austin became tag team champions in 1997, but the belts were vacated; and he intentionally lost the European Championship to his D-X partner Triple H in 1997 on Raw. Blimey. That’s six championship losses without being pinned, and a mockery (kayfabe, though) pinfall loss to Triple H in 1997. That has to be some sort of record that would put even Hulk Hogan to shame.  I mean, imagine how strong a team would have looked if they’d actually pinned Shawn and Diesel for the tag team championships in 1994 and 1995. Imagine what beating Shawn for the European Championship might have meant for, say, Vader or someone. It doesn’t look commendable, does it? |
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 23, 2024 19:56:00 GMT -5
Thirty years ago today, Herb Abrams’ UWF put on a card, UWF Blackjack Brawl. The main event featured UWF World Heavyweight Champion Steve Williams defending the belt against Sid Vicious. Airing live on SportsChannel America, it was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Wikipedia lists the attendance as 600. I haven’t seen this. Don’t know if it ever got a VHS release (I’d say that’s unlikely). Some of the Herb Abrams UWF junk got VHS releases, though the package copy didn't make it clear it was the later one and not the Bill Watts UWF. Using Steve "Dr Death" Williams didn't help that. That one was released on dvd, from Best Film & Video Corp (of which, this was neither). |
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Post by driver1980 on Sept 24, 2024 5:13:58 GMT -5
Forty years ago today, on an episode of Maple Leaf Wrestling, Greg Valentine defeated Tito Santana to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. It took place in London, Ontario. Valentine would go on to defend the title against the likes of Tito Santana, S.D. Jones, Rick McGraw and Junkyard Dog.
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Post by commond on Sept 24, 2024 5:20:40 GMT -5
Forty years ago today, on an episode of Maple Leaf Wrestling, Greg Valentine defeated Tito Santana to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. It took place in London, Ontario. Valentine would go on to defend the title against the likes of Tito Santana, S.D. Jones, Rick McGraw and Junkyard Dog. One of the greatest feuds in WWF history! |
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Post by driver1980 on Sept 24, 2024 5:37:08 GMT -5
Forty years ago today, on an episode of Maple Leaf Wrestling, Greg Valentine defeated Tito Santana to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. It took place in London, Ontario. Valentine would go on to defend the title against the likes of Tito Santana, S.D. Jones, Rick McGraw and Junkyard Dog. One of the greatest feuds in WWF history! Didn’t Tito and Greg have a cage match at some point? I’ll have to look that up. |
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Post by commond on Sept 24, 2024 5:45:26 GMT -5
One of the greatest feuds in WWF history! Didn’t Tito and Greg have a cage match at some point? I’ll have to look that up. They had a bunch of great matches in '84 and '85. I don't know how many of the them are on YouTube since the WWE has the Cock, or whatever it's called, but you really need to watch as many of them as you can. |
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Post by driver1980 on Sept 24, 2024 7:37:52 GMT -5
Well, the WWF/WWE Network interface is unusable now, so I am gonna cancel my subscription soon and stick to YouTube and Dailymotion. As many sites have reported, it’s impossible to find specific things now, you can search for a PPV and no sign of it. And during a PPV you can no longer click on the bar below and go to specific matches. Well, you can’t on my smart TV.
Must have been designed by some sort of idiot.
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Sept 24, 2024 12:30:53 GMT -5
One of the all-time great feuds. A decent chunk is on YT but most of the awesome MSG matches aren't
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Post by driver1980 on Sept 25, 2024 7:46:59 GMT -5
Look at this: itrwrestling.com/news/vince-mcmahon-has-no-sympathy-for-people-who-retire-go-die/Get lost, ya disgraced moron. Easy for him to say that. What about an old guy who’s been working minimum wage for decades? Or a guy who’s been working in a physically-demanding job for decades? I know someone who may retire next year, he’ll be 67 in 2025, and he works as a glazier. He feels ready to retire. Lots of people find things to do in retirement. I won’t be watching the Netflix documentary, I have no interest in what a morally-lacking guy like him has to say. And what growing did he do? He certainly didn’t grow morally, did he? |
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