I picked up Volume One of the Royal Rumble Anthology (1988-92) from Amazon.com. At $35 any of these sets is a great value, as each event comes out at $7 apiece. I do not know how many of you were WWF fans in the early '90s, but Coliseum Video copies of the events used to run in the neighborhood of $60. Next time your elderly neighbor complains about prices these days, remember not everything has gotten more expensive.
1988 Royal Rumble
It is harder to judge this event against the others, because it was not a standard Pay-per-view event. This show was essentially an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event with an extended battle royal attached. The Royal Rumble was not outstanding and not dull, and you got a Jumping Bomb Angels match in the deal. I still think the Islanders/Young Stallions match is poor. No crowd heat whatsoever and nearly ten minutes in-between falls. Given the show live must have run close to three hours, it has more of a vibe of "let's get this over with."
1989 Royal Rumble
The Rumble enough is solid enough but the undercard is very weak once you get past the opening tag bout. (Rougeaus and Dino Bravo against Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Hart Foundation.) Actually there are only four matches on the show, including the Royal Rumble. The Rumble itself is again fairly good, with Demolition entering one/two, the compelling Hogan/Savage angle, the Savage/Bad News Brown feud, and the Hogan/Twin Towers feud coming into play. The match dies off with Hogan's elimination, but watching DiBiase get his comeuppance makes the match watchable.
1990 Royal Rumble
As a kid I used to fast-forward through the undercards to get to the Rumble match itself. As a result, I missed the Valentine/Garvin feud. There is great stuff between those two guys, and their submission match is a great battle of psychology, with each guy sporting their own shinguards, losing them mid-match, Garvin pelting Valentine with his own shinguard to set up the finish. Up until 2000-02 gave us some good Rumbles, this was the second best of the bunch.
1991 Royal Rumble
For the first time, this disc gave me the opportunity to watch Koko B. Ware vs. The Mountie (it was cut from the CV version). It does not matter much, but it would bug people who are completists. The overriding theme here is the patriotism in the wake of the Iraqi War. Vince really mis-measured fan reaction and it caused him to set up a drastic failure in Hogan/Slaughter at Wrestlemania VII. The first hint should have been the end of the Warrior/Slaughter match. Security guards line the aisle for Sarge's return to the dressing room, and the fan hatred is lukewarm at best. As an aside, it is amusing that Slaughter stayed with the AWA until the bitter end and never held the title. Yet Vince gave him the WWF title within six months.
1992 Royal Rumble
Let me take a few moments and lay out the reasons why this Rumble match is whitout question the greatest of all time. Not only is it a great match, it links all the participants together and just about every point of the match means something in the grander scheme. The match is really split into two parts. Part one is the prologue, Ric Flair enters third, Bobby Heenan goes apoplectic, and Flair fights for survival. The first part is setting up Flair for ironman status. There comes a point where Flair eliminates the Boss Man and Flair is left alone for several seconds. Then the fun starts with Roddy Piper entering the fray. Then Jake Roberts with his heel character, alternatively turning on Piper and Flair as the situation dictates. You have the Undertaker entering, the Savage/Roberts feud, the Hogan/Flair feud, Sid Justice becoming a legitimate force, etc. It is solid action for the last 20-30 minutes, and watching 15 years later I am surprised how quickly everything unfolds after number 30 enters.
The whole set and each event is an easy thumbs up really. I will not do star ratings, but let me take a shot at ranking the matches.
Rumbles
1. 1992
2. 1990
3. 1991
4. 1989
5. 1988
Non-Rumble Matches
1. Rockers vs. Orient Express, 1991
2. Ron Garvin vs. Greg Valentine, 1990
3. Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Glamour Girls, 1988
4. Jim Duggan/Hart Foundation vs. Dino Bravo/Rougeaus, 1989
5. Roddy Piper vs. The Mountie, 1992
Greatest Moments
1. Ric Flair wins WWF Title, 1992
2. Virgil turns face, 1991
3. Roddy Piper shocks the Mountie, 1992
4. Ultimate Warrior/Hulk Hogan showdown, 1990
5. Demolition enters first and second, 1989
This is just a RAW and ECW column. So, you've been warned. RAW is from Hampton, VA.
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The new video wall is Fantastic. I purposefully capitalized that.
And our first match is Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. Kennedy.
- Kennedy hasn't been doing his entrance with the microphone recently. I wonder why? I watched the whole show much later than when it occured, so times are going to be there, and sometimes not there.
- When Kennedy couldn't bridge out of the pinning move into a backslide, I thought that was great, as was HBK's somersault pescado. I loved the finish, which constituted HBK going for that reverse figure-four, and getting kicked off. Then HBK kipped up, and hit Kennedy with SWEET CHIN MUSIC at 11:57 (shown) for the victory. ***. This was probably as good as a match between these two could get.
Randy Orton's with Vince McMahon, who's giving him reasons to shake hands with Jeff Hardy tonight, cause they're supposed to shake hands and all.
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The next match was Mickie James vs. Beth Phoenix for the Women's Title.
- Beth finishes with a fisherman's buster at 3:42. I didn't really care, *1/2.
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Todd Grisham is with HHH, who talks about Vince in HD. Mostly about how old he's gonna look, and then, he talks about the Rumble.
After, Brian Kendrick is with Cody Rhodes. Kendrick has to qualify for the Rumble tonight, and Hardcore Holly comes bustin' in, talking about how he'll get rid of anyone, including Rhodes, to win the Royal Rumble.
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So, the next match is the Highlanders vs. Finlay and Hornswoggle.
- What are the Highlanders, super jobbers? Anyway, Hornswoggle gets the pin after a frog splash. *.
And now Chris Jericho comes out, with great pyro, to talk about JBL. He says he'll fight him, to little fanfare. His return has been a disaster.
Vince is now with Jeff Hardy, telling him to never risk someone's life like he did last week.
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Brian Kendrick's Royal Rumble Qualifying Match is against.....UMAGA. Harharhar.
- Yes, I really laughed when I heard William Regal announce that Kendrick was facing UMAGA. This was a super squash, ending with the SAMOAN SPIKE at 2:20. **.
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Mickie James is backstage with Maria, and sad that she can't beat Phoenix. She leaves, and Ashley comes into the picture, talking about a party at the Playboy Mansion. And then, Santino Marella came in and said something so funny that I didn't even write it down.
And why is Big Pussy on Celebrity Apprentice?
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Hardcore Holly w/Cody Rhodes is facing Carlito w/Maria and Santino in a singles match, now.
- Why did Carlito stick around, again? He's been buried so far down on the card that he'll be a Heat regular by WrestleMania. I don't have HD, but even I can see how old Holly's looking. Santino distracts Holly during an Alabama Slam attempt, so Carlito gives him a BACKSTABBER for the win at 3:11. That's one of my favorite finishing moves, but the match was a mess. 1/2*.
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Now, we have HHH's match vs. a mystery opponent. His new entrance setup is the best of all of them. No time, given that I'm watching this via...nefarious means. It's a over-the-top gauntlet match, and his first opponent is Snitsky. Once this was announced as a gauntlet, I knew he'd be in it. What a terrible payoff to a terrible angle. Why'd I expect more? Moving on, HHH throws Snitsky out. And HHH's second opponent is Mark Henry. Uh, brand extension? Henry charges at HHH after a while, but HHH pulls down the top rope, eliminating him. Last is...an IRATE William Regal, who gets destroyed by HHH and tossed out. I guess this whole angle was just for the sole purpose of HHH putting himself over three guys. 1/2*.
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The last segment on this show was the scheduled handshake between Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton. Orton says that he respects Hardy, but Hardy says the exact opposite. He says that there's a lot of people whose hands he'll shake before Orton's. First, Jim Ross, second, Jerry Lawler, and third, Lillian Garcia. Then Hardy goes into the crowd, and shakes a bunch of people's hands. When Hardy gets back in the ring, he gives Orton a TWIST OF FATE. Well, Orton's definitely going over, because Hardy's had the better of him the last two weeks. If Hardy won, Orton would look awful.
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Show was...decent, the best segment was HBK/Kennedy, and the worst was that HHH gauntlet trash.
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Last night, I watched ECW, from, well, 1/21/08. This show took place at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I like that all the shows use the same set, it makes things look, uh, more important.
The first contest was an Over the Top Rope Challenge, between Kane, The Miz, John Morrison, Tommy Dreamer, and Shelton Benjamin.
- Well, I know who's winning this. Dreamer's looking fat, which bothers me. I don't like seeing guys I grew up watching age.
Order of Elimination: Dreamer by Kane at 1:00, Miz and Morrison by Kane and Shelton at 2:58, and Kane by Shelton at 3:01. Shelton skinned the cat and headscissored Kane out, to win. Cool. I was wrong. And THERE AIN'T NO STOPPIN' ME NUUUHHH. Kinda hard to rate that, but I'll go a bit less than **, with a *3/4.
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We get that Best Body Contest I was awaiting so much...at least they did it when I had to use the restroom. I missed most of it, but I saw Coach dancing to the music as I went out. And Kelly Kelly won. Wow. There are nowhere near as many kids in the crowd this week, it feels like RAW.
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Next was Kofi Kingston's debut, against a jobber named David Owen. Kofi's tracksuit is cool.
- That jobber did everything in his power to make Kingston look like shit. He succeeded. Kofi hits him with a really bad looking kick (because his opponent was standing so close to him) at 3:15 for the pinfall. DUD. That was not good.
Edge is with Chavo Guerrero in the back, because Chavo gets his title shot tonight. Soon Vickie Guerrero comes into the picture, cause it's Chavo's night. After, we get a GREAT Royal Rumble video, with facts and figures about the match. That may have been the best part of the show, thus far.
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The white kid is with Tazz again. He's facing the GREAT KHALI this week. About time. Khali gives him the HEAD CRUSH, for the win at 0:37. It's not getting so old, I suppose, but there aren't many other guys to feed him to. Umaga and Snitsky...that's about it, I think. *.
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And now, we have Chavo Guerrero vs. CM Punk in a...NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH for the ECW Championship. Well, that stipulation was a surprise, but not really.
- Edge is on commentary. I know where this is going. And I don't like it at all. Punk tries to get rough first, by pulling the turnbuckle pad off, although nothing comes of it...yet.
- The crowd is a little mild, but this time, Chavo gets heat. Punk drops Chavo on the exposed turnbuckle, and gives Chavo the GTS. Edge runs into the ring (fuck, not this shit) and gives Punk a SPEAR, which after a LONG period of Chavo lying around, gets Chavo the 3 count and ECW Title at 7:05. Oh, fuck that. *1/2. Well, there's no reason to watch this show anymore, but I will anyway. The Edgeheads bring Vickie down, and they all celebrate. Could they have made Chavo look worse? I'm glad Chavo got a push, but this is more like a bump. He hasn't done anything noteable at all. Awful. Awful. Awful. This match was MUCH worse than their others, as well, *1/2. Hopefully they bump this show up to being taped before Smackdown, because I can't see the people staying in the building to watch Chavo freakin' Guerrero. Just my .02. Nothing good can come of this for Punk, because he's not going to be put over Edge in the LEAST.
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Show was BAD, best segment was...Shelton winning the Over the Top Rope Challenge, and the worst was obviously that AWFUL title change. Horrid booking.
I'll have a CYBER SUNDAY review up on Friday. Or not until Saturday or Sunday. Haven't made up my mind.
7:30 p.m.
• Well I’m about ready to go off to New York. This is the first time in almost a dozen years since I’ve traveled by plane. [sarcasm]I’m sooooooooo excited. [/sarcasm] To make things better, I’ll be going to the state that elected Hitlery not once but twice. The things I do to pay my mortgage.
10 p.m.
• So Fred Thompson dropped out of the presidential race -- was he ever in?
• Heath Ledger's dead. Whatever.
No obvious indication? I'm not saying he OD'd or anything, but when you're 28, dead and with prescriptoin sleeping pills nearby, can't there be SOME indication? Then again, most of us (present company included) thought there was something fishy about Sean Taylor's death and it turns out there wasn't. But that was because we were all RACISTS~! I guess thinking that there is a chance this Australian-born actor might have died from something other than natural causes would make us xenophobes.
Using Baseball Reference's Play Index, I came up with a list of the best player seasons by players in their final year. This list comprises players in their last season, playing 100+ games, sorted by OPS+.
1. Ted Williams
Playing in 113 games, Williams hit .316 with 29 home runs, 72 RBIs, and 75 walks (adding up to a .451 OBP). Announcing his retirement before the end of the season, Williams hit a home run in his final career at bat.
2. "Shoeless" Joe Jackson
This is actually 1920, as it took a season for the Black Sox scandal to break. Offenses around the league exploded, Jackson himself hit .382 with power and plate discipline. Jackson hit 42 doubles, 20 triples, 12 home runs, 121 RBIs, and only 14 strikeouts. With three games remaining in the season, Jackson and company were suspended by MLB in the wake of the Black Sox indictments. He was later banned for life the following season.
3. Nick Johnson
Johnson suffered a horrific leg injury in September of 2006 and missed the entire 2007 campaign. Will he ever play again? If not, note his .428 OBP for the Nationals in 2006, playing in a tough hitters' park.
4. Will Clark
After quietly producing quality seasons in Texas, Clark moved to Baltimore and missed half of the 1999 season. Clark played well in 2000 with the Orioles, staying healthy and again producing quality. Meanwhile in St. Louis, Mark McGwire suffered nagging injuries. The Cards looked to Clark as a stopgap, and Clark exploded, hitting .345 down the stretch and leading St. Louis to a Central division championship. The Cardinals tried to re-sign Clark for a LF job, but Clark elected retirement instead.
Let me note here that Clark's season in 1989 was every bit as good as Jim Rice's 1978, in context. Clark was a flat out better player with a better career, but of course got no Hall of Fame support.
5. Happy Felsch
See Joe Jackson. Felsch hit .338, collected 69 extra base hits, drove in 115 runners and played center field. Hall of Fame material? Probably not. He had a similar OPS+ careerwise as players such as Cesar Cedeno, Ray Lankford, Cy Williams and Rick Monday.
6. Mickey Mantle
When Mickey Mantle hit .237 with 18 home runs and 54 RBIs, he looked done. The composite batting line for the American League in 1968 was .233/.302/.346. Mantle's .782 OPS that season actually ranked 9th in the American League.
7. Dave Nilsson
Nilsson had something of a fluke season, hitting .309 in 115 games as a catcher. Nilsson departed after the season to play for Australia in the 2000 olympics, and has generally been an Australian baseball mainstay since.
8. Steve Evans
The only player on the list I never heard of. Evans jumped to the Federal League and had two very good seasons there in 1914-15. When the league folded, Evans disappeared from the majors.
9. Brian Downing
.407 OBP for the Texas Rangers in 1992 as a DH in 107 games. Downing had not played a game in the field since 1987, so only his bat carried him.
10. Buzz Arlett
Arlett hit .318/.387/.538 in his only MLB season with the Phillies. Arlett was a star in the Pacific Coast League, back when that meant something. Arlett could have easily had a productive career in the Majors, but like many players of his day preferred to stay closer to home in California.
Speaking of working on technical manuals, I recently came across a typo that resulted in a particularly hilarious sexual inuendo. There was a sentence in a document dealing with applying torque to a nut (tightening a nut on a bolt). In this case the word "torquing" became "tonguing".
This resulted in: "Hold nut stationary during tonguing".
Honorable Mention, Toughest Man Alive, 21st Century: John Coward
Link
This British Airways co-pilot successfully landed a Boeing 777 after the plane experienced a complete, catastrophic failure of both engines and the plane's electrical systems. This occurred seconds before the landing approach. Only a handful of people were hurt.
Actor Heath Ledger died. Nothing against the guy, but he's just an actor. Not a big deal really. But I expect a lot of hyperbolic praise will be forthcoming from the media, giving him near saint status.
I caught a bit of the two NFL playoff games on Sunday. (Yeah, I can dabble in the NFL if need be.) Had a few thoughts to share.
-Playing professional sport games in sub-zero conditions is fairly stupid in its own right. Players in short-sleeves and fans in body paint is downright ridiculous. I live in the Poconos, a climate that can get fairly chilly in the winter. At a certain temperature, you can deal with the chill but you don't mess around with it. It's dangerous. I can't help but think it would make much more sense to make use of Miller Park, and I can hear the howls of protest already.
-On that note, building flashy new MLB stadiums was wasteful enough but NFL as well? The multi-use stadiums in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were one thing. But before that, NFL teams frequently played in places like Shibe Park, Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field.
-The New York Giants based on the statistics are probably the worst team to play in a Super Bowl. The other teams with 6+ losses to reach the Super Bowl are the '79 Rams and the '88 49ers. How do they stack up long term? Let's see their three and five-year records.
Three year record
Giants: 29-19
Rams: 31-15
49ers: 33-13-1
Five year record
Giants: 39-41
Rams: 53-20-1
49ers: 58-20-1
I think that's pretty convincing. The reason I go with multi-year records is that a 14-16 game sample is simply not large enough to draw any firm conclusions. A good team wins year after year.
-Are the Giants a better team than the Packers because they won? Not necessarily. If the game were 30 minutes instead of 60, the Packers would be in the Super Bowl. One game decided by a margin of a single score hardly proves a damn thing. Any player or team can have a bad day. Again, I preach long term samples. The more data you have, the better conclusions you draw.
-Looking for weaker championship teams, I came across the 1932 Bears. No, they were not a weak team. They won seven games and lost one. They tied the other six. In their first three games, NEITHER team scored! They lost their fourth game by two points, 2-0. Interestingly their championship game was not played in Wrigley Field due to adverse weather. It was moved indoors to Chicago Stadium, a smaller sporting arena. On an 80-yard field, the NFL more or less invented arena football on the fly.
-With a team seeking a perfect season, this year's Super Bowl will no doubt draw high ratings. I do not know yet if I will watch. As you all know, I am not an especially big NFL fan. The bigger problem is that the commercials have become too big for their own good. The more I think about it, I am going to take a four hour chunk so that I can watch scads of advertisements? Not happening. I'm visiting my lady friend that weekend, I find her company more enjoyable. Besides, assuming a local sports outlet airs the Caribbean World Series again, my sports needs are satiated.
Stephen A Smith went off on Rudy Giuliani while on Hardball. On the face of it, it doesn't bother me, but what does bother me is that he gave no real reason for why he thinks Rudy would be a dictator (LMAO). Just another Wilbon with a louder mouth.
There'd be "no foreign relations"? Nice train of thought, Smith, well spoken.
In kkk's 8pm post I asked what his new job was. So in fairness, I'll partially spill the beans as to what I do.
I write greeting cards.
Just kidding.
I work on technical documents for Industrial Gas Turbines and Gas Generators. What are those? Do a search I don't feel like explaining it. I work for a giant (evil) defense contractor. I have to deal with people in a foreign country on a daily basis, which is just so much fun. I'm kind of both an editor and writer of technical documents.
8:45 p.m.
• Well today was my first day at the new job. Man, I wish you could just fast-forward a few months to the point where you get a handle on what you’re doing. I hate this “OK, now what do I do?” crap. I know this job isn’t as hard as I’m making it out to be, but I am one of those people that actually gives a crap about the work I produce and it will be hard to do anything tomorrow because I’ll be taking a three-day trip Wednesday through Friday (which probably means no KK’s Korner) to some work conference that will probably help me out quite a bit. I'm sure in six months I'll be bitching that I don't get paid enough for what I do.
• So while I was gone today, the better half “reorganized” the closets. Instead of having one closet for each of us, we now have one for our room and a closet for kkk Jr. She has “our” closet split in half – one side with a bunch of hippie shelves, the other side a “normal” look. Guess which one of us has all our things on shelves? Yep. I guess that’s what happens when one person gets MLK day off and one person doesn’t. I'm actually impressed that she managed to fit all our shit into one closet, but I know there will be problems with space in the future. Oh well, that's for another time I guess.
First, we have Smackdown. It's from Birmingham, Alabama. I forgot that I don't write about Prime Time or NWA, so this is going to be short. I liked when Heenan gave the camera the finger while naming off the people who won't manage Bam Bam. The rest wasn't so great.
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We flashback to the Rumble last year, where the Undertaker won. Thus, the Undertaker comes down to the ring. He's issuing a warning to the rest of the Rumble participants, that they'll REST IN PEACE. So, here comes Big Daddy V and Matt Striker. Striker talks, so Big Daddy comes to the ring, to fight the Undertaker. V gets beat up, so that's that.
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Tonight, we'll have CM Punk and Rey Mysterio vs. Edge and Chavo Guerrero. But right now, we have Finlay w/Hornswoggle vs. The Great Khali w/Ranjin Singh.
- Khali always makes me laugh. That good, or bad? Anyway, Hornwoggle hits Singh, so Singh chases Hornswoggle until Finlay gets in the way. I fuckin' hate how WWE goes to commercial at the beginning of a match, now.
- It's too easy for kids to like Finlay, just because of Hornswoggle. Unfortunately, that takes a lot of the edge out of his character. At the end of the match, Hornswoggle interfered so that Finlay could lowblow Khali. Then they beat up Singh, who took Finlay's shillelagh and threw it down the aisle. Khali then holds onto Hornswoggle until Finlay comes close, and applies the HEAD CRUSH on Finlay, getting the submission at 11:03. This was far better than I expected, *3/4.
After the match, Edge and Vickie Guerrero are in the back. She calls Edge a good father figure, as Teddy Long stands there, like an invalid. Why the hell does he just stand there all the time? Chavo comes in, and says he's sorry for calling Edge and Vickie embarassments. He thinks Edge is a good guy.
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Our next match is a tag team contest, it's Jimmy Wang Yang and Shannon Moore vs. Deuce and Domino w/Cherry.
- Deuce and Domino had me tuning out during the match, given how generic their offense is. The match finished with a Yang moonsault block, getting the win at 6:38. *1/4.
Finlay and Vince McMahon are in the back, where Finlay apologizes for what he said to Vince on RAW. After, Vince says that Finlay will face Khali next week in a Belfast Brawl. Cole no-sells that, and talks about Batista facing Mark Henry.
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And Batista vs. Mark Henry is on, right now.
- We see footage from Rumble '05, which Batista won. That's all I've ever seen of that show. Cole continually talks about WWE in HD, which I don't care about. At all. Henry and Batista be brawlin', until Batista wins with a spinebuster at 5:00. *, but harmless all the same.
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Next up is MVP's VIP Lounge, an interview segment. His guest is Ric Flair. Flair says that MVP reminds him of himself, but MVP says he's better than that. So Flair chops him, knocking down some of the furniture as a result of MVP falling backwards. That's the segment, which I found entertaining. The interaction between the two was good.
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Michelle McCool faces Layla next. Isn't the women's title on RAW? I know it is, so why is this happening?
- Cole needs to shut up about WWEHD. I'm going to turn this off soon, cause I don't wanna hear it.
- McCool gives Layla an Angel's Wings (Christopher Daniels finishing move), getting the victory at 3:52. 1/2*. I like that move, and so did the crowd.
We get a video for whatever new Diva is soon to debut, and after, Jamie Noble is with McCool backstage. Someone, that being Chuck Palumbo, ordered her roses. Noble says, "are you kidding me!" Chuck argues with him for a bit, and they then agree to get along with each other, as those are McCool's wishes. Don't care.
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Before the match, Vickie wishes Rey luck. So yeah, it's Rey Mysterio and CM Punk vs. Edge and Chavo Guerrero.
- The ECW Title Match between Chavo and Punk is next week. See, I thought so. Punk and Rey do stereo suicide dives onto their opponents, as we go to a commercial.
- Edge/Punk will be great when it happens. That said, the best portions of this match are between Rey and Edge. I like how Punk's shoulder injury played into the match. To explain, he didn't start selling it until it was worked on, so the crowd didn't catch onto an angle occuring later in the night. And then on ECW, it was rammed into the ringpost, so the viewers at home could understand why it was hurt. Good booking. Rey 619's Chavo, so Edge hits Rey in the knee with a chair. **3/4. Punk tries to save Rey, but the Edgeheads come down and beat on he and Rey, to end the show. Edge has got the better of Rey the last two weeks, so Rey should get something over Edge to head into the Royal Rumble.
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Show was decent. Best segment was Edge/Chavo vs. Rey/Punk, and the worst was that stuff with McCool, Noble and Palumbo. This was an entirely FORGETTABLE show. At least Cole stopped talking about WWEHD.
12:45 p.m.
• Time for pickks -- wait a second, I lost in the divisional round. Nevermind.
Oh what the heck: Chargers 7, Patriots 42; Giants 24, Packers 21.
10:30 p.m.
• Oh well, at least I appeared smart in one of my selections.
11:15 p.m.
• So a few days ago I was talking about the “Death Wish” movies, and I discovered there was a Part V. And like a sap I just had to watch it. Good God. An exploding remote controlled soccer ball? At least in “The Dead Pool” the RC Car of Doom was funny to watch. This … gah. However, it’s not like I was going into this one expecting much. But still. Jesus, Charles, did you really have to make one more? I guess maybe because “Death Wish IV” ended on such a downer – you know, your woman getting killed and all. Well, anyway, I had parts “II” and “III” on today as background noise, and I must say that my two favorite scenes from “II” are as follows:
And then there’s the black guy with the funky sunglasses trying to get away in that park shoot-out by holding up a ghetto blaster to his head while trying to back away. L to the O to the L.
Speaking of funny, here is a post on the IMDB message board about “DWII”:
Woo-hoo!
11:45 p.m.
• Yeah, Roger, because we can't have people walking around with guns.
What gives someone the right to do that? Pesky Constitution.
AFC Championship: Houston Oilers vs. Los Angeles Raiders
Scoring Summary
HOU: White 4 Run
LA: Allen 7 Run
HOU: Dishman 12 Interception
LA: Jackson 46 Run
HOU: White 1 Run
LA: Horton 29 Pass from Schroeder
HOU: Hill 57 Pass from Moon
Chris Dishman had two huge interceptions as the Oilers advance to their first ever Super Bowl. With the game tied, on the last play of the first half and backed up on their own 9, the Raiders inexplicably chose to pass instead of running out the clock and Jay Schroeder threw a pick six to Dishman to give the Oilers the lead going into the half. Then on the Raiders final possession in the 4th quarter, Dishman picked off Schroeder again on a 3rd and Goal to go to seal the game.
NFC Championship: Minnesota Vikings vs. San Francisco 49ers
Scoring Summary
SF: Craig 17 Run (Kick blocked)
Scoreless 2nd Quarter
SF: Cofer 52 FG
Min: Reveiz 56 FG
Scoreless 4th Quarter
Pierce Holt had seven sacks in a defensive struggle as the 49ers win their third NFC Championship in four years. The Vikings had absolutely nothing going on offense amassing a pitiful 46 yards in total offense. This negated a superb effort by the Vikings defense that held the 49ers’ juggernaut of an offense to single digits.
Ok, it's the first Royal Rumble. Oddly enough, I'm going to write a full review, even though this wasn't on PPV. Why? Because it's important, just like all the Clashes and all the Saturday Night Main Events are important. So there.
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The opening graphic is 2 SWEEEEEET. Also, Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are the commentators.
Our first match, given away by Rude's music having been played all throughout the show's introduction, is Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat.
Blow-by-blow: Don't forget, I have this show. I've seen it a ton. Rude gives Steamboat a few hard shots to the kisser, so Steamboat comes back with a few of his own. Rude tosses Steamboat over the top, much like the participants in a special match later tonight will need to do, but Steamboat SKINS THE CAT back in. Once back in, he backdrops Rude over the top to the floor. Rude comes back in, and we have a TEST OF STRENGTH. Steamboat breaks the knucklelock of Rude, and takes him down, applying an armbar. Steamboat gives Rude an armdrag when shot into the ropes, and reapplies the armbar. Steamboat gives Rude a double chop, and an armdrag. Steamboat elbows Rude's arm, and splashes onto it. Rude gives Steamboat a back elbow after shooting him into the ropes, and attempts to gain control by ramming Steamboat's head into the buckle. Steamboat gives Rude another armdrag, and I've gotta point out, it's been armbars for 8 minutes, now. That's a lot of armbar. Steamboat knees Rude in the shoulder, and Rude comes back with another back elbow. Then he hits Steamboat in the back with a running knee, knocking Steamboat to the floor. He rams Steamboat's back into the ring apron, and slams him. He poses, and suplexes Steamboat back into the ring, getting a 2 count. Now, we go to the chinlock. A chinlock where Steamboat lets his arm fall 3 times, and raises it on the fourth. Yeah, that was a mistake. Steamboat picks Rude up on his shoulders, and drops him to the canvas. That was impressive. He goes for a running splash, but lands on Rude's knees. Rude gouges Steamboat's eyes, and gives him an atomic drop, for 2. Steamboat rams Rude's head into a turnbuckle 10 times, and chops him to the canvas, getting 2 on the pinfall. Rude takes Steamboat down with a headlock, and Steamboat bridges from the pin into a backslide, for 2. Here come the rapid 2 counts that I love. Steamboat rolls Rude up for 2, then tries a jackknife roll-up, getting 2. Rude goes for an inside cradle that gets 2, and Steamboat reverses it, getting 2. Rude gets a clothesline for 2, and tries a suplex. Steamboat blocks it and suplexes Rude, before going to the top. Steamboat goes for a crossbody, but Rude pulls the referee in front of him, to block the maneuver. Rude puts Steamboat in an argentine backbreaker for the submission, as the referee rings the bell at 17:41. HOWEVER, as Rude walks to the back, the announcement is made that STEAMBOAT wins the match by disqualification.
Match Analysis: **, for the torrid pace at the end of the match, which is typical of most Steamboat matches. That said, it was nowhere near the other matches I've seen between the two.
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Gene Okerlund's with Jesse Ventura, as we do the DINO BRAVO BENCHPRESS IN AN ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE WORLD RECORD. Sorry, we're going to fastforward until the end, because the beginning and middle are unimportant. We're at 715 pounds, 10 pounds above the record of 705. Bravo nearly walks off, because of the booing. He comes back and presses the weight, but he needs the assistance of Jesse in order to get it back to the bar. CHEATER. Thankfully, that's that.
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Our next match is the Jumping Bomb Angels vs. The Glamour Girls w/Jimmy Hart in a 2 out of 3 falls match for the Ladies Tag Team Titles. The Glamour Girls are Leilani Kai and Judy Martin.
- Thanks to this idiotic commentary team, we don't find out the Angels names until the second fall. Sure, I've watched them before, but I don't know their names that well. So I have to go this route.
- The Angels do some cool stuff, but not as much as they did in that match on PrimeTime that I rated. I'll link to this...Martin gives one of the Angels an alleyoop, which gets the Glamour Girls fall #1, at 6:11. I'm going strictly off the commentary, which could be wrong.
- Although Vince said the Angels names during the 2nd fall, he never established which was which. Too late anyway. A sunset flip in by one of the Angels gets them the second fall at 8:20. 1-1.
- This match isn't as good as their match from PTW, either. Anyhow, one of the Angels misses a senton, which gives me the thought that a miss of that move must be one of the hardest bumps you can take in that hard ring the WWF used to have. Anyhow, the Angels win the match and the titles with a double dropkick, at 15:21. I used a running time method, even though there were breaks in between falls. **1/2. Here's the link to the other match between these two...
http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/blog/kingo...?showentry=2410
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We flashback to WrestleMania III, where Andre nearly pinned Hulk Hogan on Hogan's first bodyslam attempt. This is basically a run of clips leading to the Andre/Hogan contract signing for the MAIN EVENT. Ted DiBiase says he's going to buy the title...Hogan needs to make a decision on whether to sell the belt or not...and he says HELL NO. DiBiase still thinks Hogan has a price, and on SNME, Andre attacked Hogan. If Andre wins the title, he says he'll sell it.
And here comes Andre, as we start the contract signing. I think it's weird to see a show this old (and not taking place at the Garden) taking place in a building that's still around. That said, the place was UGLY on the inside. Here comes Hogan, wearing white. DiBiase and Virgil are there, as is Jack Tunney. Andre won't sit down for a while, but eventually, he does. I wish Andre would've slammed Hogan through the table, but after both men sign the contract, he rams Hogan's face into the table and turns the table over, on top of Hogan. Ha. I love Andre's attitude.
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Before the ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH, I noticed that a kid wearing a Hulkster headband is nearly crying. Poor kid. Anyhow, here we are.
Blow-by-blow: The first entrant in the history of the Royal Rumble is...BRET HART. I find that fitting, not meant in a negative way, of course. And second, is TITO SANTANA. Hart works Santana over, and #3 is BUTCH REED. I'm going to say this early, the times between entry are completely random. This isn't every man for himself, it's face vs. heel tactics. And #4 is JIM NEIDHART. The heels work over Santana, and for some reason, they aren't able to throw him out. During that, Bret nearly KILLS Tito with a piledriver. So #5 is JAKE ROBERTS. And boy, does the crowd go nuts. He eliminates Butch Reed from behind, at 5:22. Roberts then tries to DDT Bret, but Neidhart clotheslines him, stopping all that. #6 is HARLEY RACE. I can't really do Jake's psychology justice, in a match like this, it only helps to make the match all the better. I can't say all that much in between entrants unless there are eliminations, so #7 is JIM BRUNZELL, and #8 is SAM HOUSTON. The Harts try to hit Sam, but Anvil hits Bret on accident. The Hart Foundation tosses Tito out, at 10:40. The time between eliminations is long, but to me, it's flying by. #9 is DANGEROUS DANNY DAVIS. Davis and Houston brawl, as Roberts has Race on the seesaw. You know, when he'd sit on the second rope and rock back and forth after being hit. #10 is BORIS ZHUKOV, who goes straight for Sam Houston. And #11 is DON MURACO, who's attacked by Nikolai Volkoff in the aisle. But see, Volkoff's not allowed in, and the reason for him having come out is attributed to him not understanding English. Well, Brunzell and Jake dumps Zhukov at 15:16, so Volkoff won't have help from his tag partner. So yeah, #12 is NIKOLAI VOLKOFF. Harley Race gets thrown out by Muraco, at 16:50. #13 is JIM DUGGAN, and as Race is walking to the back, he takes a swing at Duggan, who chases him to the back. #14 is RON BASS, who does nothing. Volkoff throws out Brunzell at 20:50, and #15 is B. BRIAN BLAIR. In a funny sight, Bret's kneepads are at his feet. #16 is HILLBILLY JIM, who backdrops Neidhart over the top at 22:50. #17 is DINO BRAVO, who enters just before Bass tosses Houston out from on top of his shoulders at 24:19. Yeah, Houston was sitting on top of Bass' shoulders. #18 is the ULTIMATE WARRIOR, who enters right before Muraco throws our ironman, Bret Hart, out of the ring at 25:40. #19 is the ONE MAN GANG, who comes right in and tosses Blair out, at 26:56. Then he tosses Jake Roberts out, at 27:10. Our last entrant, at #20, is the JUNKYARD DOG. Duggan gets rid of Volkoff, at 28:18, and quickly after, Gang gets rid of Hillbilly Jim at 28:31. Duggan then gives Davis a three point stance clothesline, knocking him out at 29:06, and then, Bravo and Gang get rid of the ULTIMATE WARRIOR at 29:22. Bass then dumps the JYD at 29:44, and Bass is quickly dumped by Muraco at 29:56. So, they waited until the end to do the rapid-fire eliminations. Our final four is Don Muraco, the One Man Gang, Dino Bravo and Jim Duggan. For some reason, Frenchy Martin gets on the ring apron, and Muraco dropkicks him off. Gang clotheslines Muraco over the top rope at 31:07, so we have a 2 on 1 situation. Gang accidentally eliminates Dino Bravo by charging into him at 32:20, when he meant to charge into Duggan. So we're at 2, and when Gang charges towards Duggan, Duggan ducks and pulls down the top rope, forcing Gang to fly over the top at 33:19. So, Jim Duggan wins the FIRST ROYAL RUMBLE.
Match Analysis: Slower than most Rumbles, probably because the guys hadn't worked in this kind of match before. Anyhow, the lack of star power sorta hurt this one, although you could see that this match was going to be a success from day 1. The crowd loved it. ***1/4.
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Craig DeGeorge is with Hulk Hogan, who rips his shirt off and talks a lot of trash about Andre the Giant.
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So, our last match on the night is the Young Stallions vs. The Islanders, a 2 out of 3 falls match.
Blow-by-blow: Powers and Tama start things off, but Tama doesn't really want to fight, so he ducks under the top rope. Tama comes back to the action and gouges Powers eyes, but Powers comes back with a scoop slam, causing Tama to go to the outside. Bobby Heenan's in Barbados, explaining his absence. Tama wants to shake hands with Powers, but Powers gives him an atomic drop. And then, Vince McMahon calls the bench press stuff boring. So why'd you book it? Powers misses a charge to the corner, so Haku and Roma tag in. Roma gives Haku an armwringer, but Haku gives him a shoulderblock. After, Roma tries to give Haku a hiptoss, but Haku reverses it into an UGLY one of his own, that looked like an armdrag. Roma gives Haku a crossbody for 2, and then he tags in his partner, as they give Haku a double back elbow for 2. Tama tags in, and slams Powers. He misses an elbowdrop, and tags in Haku, who gives Powers a back elbow for 2. Tama goes up top when he tags in, and gives Powers a flying chop. And then, he tags in Haku, and along with Tama, gives Powers a double headbutt. Haku misses a charge to the corner, and they both clothesline each other. The camera shows Tama's feet, and Vince makes this idiotic comment about how his toes are such that he could hang upside down. So naturally, Jesse calls him a racist, and starts talking about how Jimmy the Greek was replaced for a comment like that. Roma and Tama tag in, and Roma gives Tama a clothesline. He follows it up with a dropkick and a backdrop, and he dropkicks Tama again for 2. Tama then tosses Roma over the top, as Haku pulled the top rope down. So Roma's knee is hurt after landing funny, and he gets counted out at 7:53, to end the first fall. The Stallions go back to the dressing room for Roma to get treatment on his knee, so we see...
The Andre/Hogan stuff from earlier. Andre, DiBiase and Virgil are with DeGeorge, and the first two cut a promo on Hogan. Joey Marella (the referee of the current match) and the Islanders are in the ring, shootin' the shit. Funny. DeGeorge interrupts Andre once, so Andre elbows him in the gut. Haha.
The Stallions now come back to the ring, and we begin again. Roma must start the second fall, because he ended the last one. Tama works on Roma's leg and slams him, but eats knees on a splash attempt. Roma makes the tag to Powers, and Powers backdrops Haku for 2. The crowd is, uh, mostly gone. Powers gives Haku a clothesline and elbow for 2, and a dropkick for another 2 count. Powers then gives Haku a suplex for 2, and a back elbow. Powers begins to ram Haku's head into the mat, but that doesn't hurt at all, so Haku hits him in the gut. Tama comes in quickly and headbutts Powers, before tagging out again. When Haku comes in, the Islanders give Powers a double headbutt. Powers cradles Haku for 2, but sure enough, Haku comes right back with a backbreaker, for 2. Tama tags in, and gives Powers a flying back elbow. He then says, "COME ON SUCKA." Heh. Tama gets a snapmare for 2, and tags in Haku. Haku gets a dropkick for 2, and then a gutwrench suplex for 2. He applies an abdominal stretch, but Powers counters with a hiptoss. Haku slams Powers, but misses a rolling senton. Powers tries to tag Roma, but he can't, until Haku misses a dropkick. I don't really know why he tagged in Roma, but Haku and Tama went to town on the poor guy. Tama went up top without tagging in and splashed on his leg, and Haku forced Roma to submit with a half crab at 14:59.
We have a final word from Jesse and Vince, which ends the show.
Match Analysis: The crowd didn't care, but I liked it. Haku went through almost his entire moveset, which was good. **1/4, because it didn't feel like a waste of 15 minutes.
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Rating: Decent. All of the matches were solid, and we had the debut of a new concept match. Unfortunately, there aren't many heavy hitters on this show, so I don't recommend watching this more than once. It gets boring after the first few times, and this time, I was starting to feel bored.
Best Segment: The Royal Rumble. Easy.
Worst Segment: The Dino Bravo World Record Benchpress. I don't think anyone cared.
Loudest Sound: Jake Roberts, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase. I guess that's a copout to not name anyone surprising.
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Next will be a Random Thoughts piece, which'll be up on Monday.
At first I was going to watch the first Nitro, but instead, I watched the MNW program. And first up is Nitro, from Asheville, North Carolina.
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Last night was Slamboree. Don't forget that.
Gene Okerlund's in the aisle, as Ric Flair's coming out for an interview. MEANNNNNN Gene. It's the usual, until Syxx joins us. He knows he can take Flair, and he wants to do it tonight. Flair accepts, and Syxx pretty much slaps him. So, Flair chases Syxx, until Syxx runs to the back. Flair/Syxx sounds good, but so does every other main event featuring an NWO guy. And they all end the same, too.
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So, our first match is Prince Iaukea vs. Steven Regal for the TV Title. Regal won this title at Slamboree, from the Ultimo Dragon.
- It's not Lord Steven Regal anymore, it's simply, Steven Regal. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I don't know yet) this show is only one hour long. Iaukea's offense consists of roll-ups which only get a 2 count. Regal's really stiff throughout, which is nice.
- Regal gives Iaukea a REVERSE SUPLEX, and then, Iaukea submits to the REGAL STRETCH at 2:26. *1/2. Iaukea is shit, so his matches need to stay short.
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At Slamboree, Glacier was beaten up by Wrath and Mortis, until Ernest Miller ran in and saved him. HAHAHA. That's just great.
The next match has absolutely nothing to do with what they showed prior to this, given that Masa Chono is facing David Taylor.
- Mike Tenay's on commentary for this contest, and he says that there's going to be the debut of a huge star in Vegas. He got that one right. He also says that NWO t-shirts are huge in Japan. I have no idea as to whether or not that's true.
- Chono doesn't sell, you know. He wins with the STF at 2:58. 3/4*, Taylor got absolutely NOTHING.
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Mean Gene's with Sonny Onoo, who says that Chono has a debt to pay next week. He says that Chono's worst nightmare will be there. Does that mean....THE GREAT MUTA? Ok, I'll spoil it.
JJ Dillon then says that Nick Patrick is reinstated. Ok, that's fine with me.
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Speaking of Nick Patrick, he's officiating this match between Michael Wallstreet and AMERICAN MALE, Scotty Riggs.
- Wallstreet's wearing a shirt with an emblem picturing the letters, WCW, inside of a red circle, with a slash through it. Like, you know, a no-smoking sign. Anyhow, he's wearing it because he's not allowed to be in the NWO as per the terms of his contract, and he hates WCW.
- Patrick continually argues with Wallstreet. Continually. Wallstreet takes a foreign object out of his pants and tries to hit Riggs with it, but Patrick takes the object away. Riggs comes off the top rope with a sunset flip, but Wallstreet holds onto the top rope, trying to steal the victory. Patrick kicks Wallstreet's hand off the rope, and Riggs gets the 3 count at 2:49. That was so convoluted and ridiculous that I have to DUD it.
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Gene's talking to Mark Martin for some dumb reason, probably because Valvoline was one of their sponsors. Yeah, I'm sure that's why. He likes WCW and all, and Valvoline is giving away one of his racecars. Ok, then. Ric Flair was with him, and he talked a little bit of trash about Syxx.
Next we go On the Road with Lee Marshall to Nashville. FF.
Last night at Slamboree, DDP tried to attack Randy Savage with a crutch. Savage ran away, so that his buddies in the New World Order would be able to help him out. Well, he ran in and got clobbered by Page. Buff Bagwell and Vincent tried to give Savage support, but they were beaten on as well. Scott Norton though, he stopped the whole thing. The NWO beat DDP up for a bit, until THE GIANT made the save for Page.
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We have our token tag team match, as Mongo and Jeff Jarrett w/Debra are going to face the Steiner Brothers.
- Mongo's briefcase is all dented up. Can't he afford a new one?
- This is the last time I'll talk about Scott Steiner being roided up, but he reminds me of one of those pump up toys where you pump the toy and its muscles just get bigger and bigger.
- Scott gives Jarrett this insane samoan drop from up top. It looked so much better than Mortis' version. The crowd starts chanting "Reggie, Reggie." No, no. A t-bone suplex by Rick Steiner causes Mongo's foot to hit the camera at ringside.
- Debra gets on the ring apron to distract the official, but Mongo gets knocked down while holding the BRIEFCASE. Jarrett picks it up and thinks about hitting Mongo with it because of what happened at Slamboree. If you don't know, I'll tell you. Jarrett was facing Dean Malenko for the US Title, and Debra was at ringside with him. At the end of the match Jarrett was on the floor, and for some reason, Mongo threw him into the ring, and took Debra backstage with him. I think that's it, I haven't watched Slamboree '97 in a long time, and I have no desire to do it again. Anyhow, Kevin Greene runs down the aisle, takes the briefcase from Jarrett and hits Mongo with it, giving Rick Steiner the pinfall over Mongo at 3:35. *. After the bout, Mongo runs to the back, and has a pull-apart brawl with Greene. This happened during the commercial break, but we saw it when they came back.
Next week's show is two hours. Yay!
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Our main event is up next, and just as was said by our announce team of Tony, Brain and Larry, it's Syxx (Cruiserweight Champion) vs. Ric Flair in an obvious non-title affair.
- Syxx's gear says "thug" on the front of it. That made me laugh for some reason. Flair beats on Syxx for about 40 seconds of the :58 this match lasts, until Scott Hall and Kevin Nash make their first appearance on the night. They fucked Flair up, yo. Nash grabs a mic, and Piper better be strapped, cause they're comin' for him next. Wolfpac is 4 LIFE and NWO is 2 SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET. Obviously this is not rateable, and I'm not rating anymore of the 1 or 2 minute long matches prior to an NWO run-in. And boy, there are going to be a lot of them.
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Here comes an NWO member...oh, it's just Eric Bischoff. Of course, he has a microphone. He talks a bunch of trash about Sting, and says that Sting needs to give up his chase of Hollywood. He says he'd slap Sting if Sting was in this ring. So, naturally...
IT'S STING
Yeah, he comes out through the ring, meaning from under, busting a hole in the ring, and gives Bisch a SCORPION DEATHDROP. End show.
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This wasn't so hot. Rating is poor, the best segment was at the beginning when Syxx slapped Flair, and the worst was that Nick Patrick crap. I hated it, but the crowd loved it.
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It's MONDAY NIGHT RAW, from Mobile, Alabama. Wait a minute, wasn't RAW from Mobile this Monday? Talk about a coincidence.
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To open the show, we have exclusive footage of what happened once the show went off the air last week. Yeah, it was Bret Hart running Shawn Michaels into the ground, verbally speaking. Anyway, Shawn gave Bret SWEET CHIN MUSIC at the end of all that. The rest of the Hart Foundation chases Shawn to the stage, where they beat him up. Bulldog picks up Shawn to press slam him off the stage, but STONE COLD makes the save. He hits Bulldog in the back with a crutch, and both he and Michaels hold off the Harts.
Now, for the real beginning of the show. Austin gets a gigantic pop, this being the South, and all. Huge change from previous weeks, where he wasn't getting anything in the Midwest. He's going to talk to JR, I suppose. He doesn't care about Shawn, he just wanted to get at the Hart Foundation. Well, Shawn comes down to the ring, and says that he wanted to do the same. They share a common bond, you see. Austin wants Shawn to take his ass backstage. And now, they brawl. It was nice to see a good opening to the show, and not mindless blabbering. Officials pull them apart, and then, Owen Hart begins to say something on the TitanTron. He challenges both Shawn and Austin to a match next week, for Bulldog and Owen's tag titles. Hell yeah, son. Shawn wants to do so, but not with Austin. And Austin doesn't want Shawn as his partner, so they fight again.
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JR and King are on commentary again, which is good. No Vader vs. Crush tonight, because Vader's unable to compete, as a result of having his nose busted up by Ken Shamrock. Instead, our King of the Ring First Round match will be between Crush w/the Nation and Hunter Hearst Helmsley w/Chyna.
- As far as why HHH is allowed back in, it's because he wasn't briefed properly by the official last week, as Gerald Brisco says. HHH is back in because the WWF doesn't want him to take legal action. Well played.
- Heel vs. heel is never good. This is not an exception. HHH sends Chyna in the ring with the referee distracted, but the referee catches onto the charade. So now he's distracted by Chyna, and Savio Vega jumps on the apron. He tries to kick HHH, but kicks Crush on accident, giving HHH the pinfall at 3:56. *1/4. Savio and Crush push each other, so Faarooq comes to the ring to break that up. TEASING DISSENSION.
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Our next match is Bob Holly vs. Owen Hart (WWF Intercontinental Champion) w/Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldog, in a non-title match.
- Holly's from Alabama, so he's a little over, for once. Seeing as this is a non-title match, something's up. Something always has to be up. King interviewed two hicks earlier in the day, in a clip that was shown before the match...really wasn't that funny. Owen's friends left ringside, instead, they're standing at the stage.
- I liked this one very much, unfortunately, it was short. Owen went for the SHARPSHOOTER, but Holly grabbed him by the hair and cradled him, for the 3 count at 3:38. **, like I said, something was up. Anyhow, Owen's buddies try to attack Holly, but he runs away. This is how all 4 minute matches should be, all out.
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We flashback to that Paul Bearer stuff last week, in which he said he'd reveal a secret if Taker didn't came back under his wing. After, HBK's with Ken Shamrock. See, that's who he wants to be his partner. Ha.
Mankind has the first part of his interviews with Jim Ross. I can't quite do it justice, so watch it. I'd link to them on youtube, but they're not there. Only one is, I think, and that's not good enough. This one mostly talks about pain and being picked on.
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So, to follow that, we get this great match between Leif Cassidy and Scott Taylor.
- King talks about RVD before the match, seeing as he was on Raw last week. He puts down ECW a bunch, and the match begins with a Snow pescado.
- Taylor nearly botches a springboard crossbody to the outside, and later, Cassidy gives Taylor a really hard spinebuster. Anyhow, Taylor cradles Cassidy on a front suplex reversal, giving him the pinfall. I didn't time it, because I was surprised at the quick start of the match. 3/4*, nearly botched spots in a match that short are a no-no. After the match, Cassidy jumps up in JR's face and starts screaming at him, like a maniac. I like this angle. He did this last week when losing, too.
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Sable's in the back, and hey, Austin walked in on her while she was changing. See, Austin wants her to be his tag team partner. Obviously, she won't do it. On that note, we go to
THE WARZONE
So, the Hart Foundation come to the ring, as Vince McMahon joins us for commentary during Hour 2. Boo. Bret starts talking, and the first thing I noticed is that he's getting better at this. Good thing. His surprise is that he'll be back at King of the Ring, and he wants to challenge Shawn Michaels to a match. We know why this didn't happen, but we'll go through it anyway. He says, if he can't beat Shawn in 10 minutes, he'll never wrestle in the US again. Shawn appears on the TitanTron, and tears into Bret. First he says that each of Bret's stablemates have to be handcuffed to the ringposts in order to get him to take the match. Now it gets good. We get the Sunny Days comment from Shawn, after Shawn claims Bret couldn't last 10 minutes in any situation. Day-um. Bret doesn't really say anything to counter that, ending the segment. He got owned, but that said, it's always better to take the high road.
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Our next match is Goldust vs. Rockabilly w/Honky Tonk Man.
- Before the bout, Goldust asks who would like to see Marlena. The people say yeah, and he says, he can do better. He'll bring out two Marlena's, his wife, and his daughter. It was funny to see his daughter run around the ring, and this was done, obviously, because of those interviews he's had in weeks previous talking about himself. Whoever (probably Russo) decided to have in-depth, multi part interviews with the wrestlers did a really, really smart thing. It helped character development immensely. If in fact that was Russo's idea, I'll have to give him his due, for that, anyway.
- At the end of the bout, Honky tries to hit Goldust with his guitar. Goldust takes it away, and breaks it over Honky's head, at 4:05. Why the time, you say? Because some genius decided that hitting a wrestler's manager is worth a disqualification. Minor nitpick, *1/4.
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Ahmed Johnson is in the back, he thinks Faarooq was right last week when he was talking about the lack of a black WWF Champion. He's no racist, though, and he says he'll be the first black WWF Champion, not Faarooq.
Stone Cold is with Harvey Wippleman, and he wants Harvey to be his tag partner. The Brooklyn Brawler comes into the picture, wanting to be Austin's partner. Austin kicks his ass, and says that Harvey has no choice. He'll be Austin's partner.
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Rocky Maivia faces Faarooq next, and Faarooq is accompanied by the Nation.
- PG-13 are gone. See ya. They didn't come out with the Nation tonight. Faarooq wants Rocky to join the Nation. Rocky tells him to shove it.
- These short matches are going to become increasingly more frequent, from what I remember. The DOMINATOR finished the bout at 2:49. *. No attack on Rocky, as the Nation just leaves.
We go to the back, as there's commotion. Well, the Harts are beating on Bob Holly. That's why you must job, son.
Following that, THE UNDERTAKER comes to the ring for an interview with Vince. He says that playing the race card was a bad decision for Faarooq. He also says he's neither black or white, but the REAPER OF WAYWARD SOULS. Man, I was HOWLIN' at that. Paul Bearer appears on the TitanTron, and wants to let the secret out. Taker says he needs more time to think about his proposition, that being that Bearer wants to manage Taker again. Taker has SEVEN days.
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Our main event is Jim Neidhart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin w/a crutch.
- The Harts come down to ringside early, and Pillman goes on guest commentary. He says that paybacks are a bitch, meaning for Austin. Austin attacks Pillman on the outside, and when Pillman gets up, he runs in and hits Austin with a crutch, at 1:50. No rating. Shawn comes to the ring with a chair, and cleans house. Safe, unprotected chair shots. He didn't go to town like most would. JR grabs a microphone, and tells both Austin and HBK that Gorilla Monsoon has stated that they MUST team up against Owen and Bulldog next week. You know how I said I write full match reviews for stuff of importance? This is definitely of fuckin' importance. And to end the show, Austin and HBK fight.
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Good way to end a poor in-ring show. The show still gets a rating of good, with the best segment being Shawn's burial of Bret, and the worst being uh, HHH's reentry into the King of the Ring. This is a historic show for so many reasons. I think we all know about Shawn and Bret fighting after that Sunny Days comment, so yeah. I don't really need to go into detail, do I? RAW wins this week, because, well, their show was longer.
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Now, the first Nitro, from the Mall of American in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I'm not giving anything the full review here, cause this column is running long as it is. Secondly, nothing's that important except for Flair/Sting, and there are far better matches between them. While I started watching WCW around this time, I've never watched this show. I have, however, seen Fall Brawl 1995. But I was 7 and that was a long time ago.
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A few words from Eric Bischoff (now, actually, when this channel first started running the MNW) open the show. Enjoy. He, Mongo and Bobby Heenan are on commentary.
The first match on the show, as we all know, is Jushin Lyger vs. Flyin' Brian. At least I think everyone knows that.
- Sounds good to me. Pillman botches a hurricanrana, bad enough that it gets a small mention. "He barely even got him with that one!" Mongo sucks on commentary. Boy, he sucks.
- Pillman didn't really carry his share of the load in the match. I'm just being honest. Anyway, Lyger picks him up for a german suplex, and Pillman frontflips forward, grabbing Lyger's legs victory roll style, picking up the win at 6:52. **1/4. Sorta disappointing.
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After the bout, Sting cuts a promo on Ric Flair. After, Bobby Heenan talks about the Monday Night War. Obviously, this was added in, and didn't occur back then.
Bischoff is with Hulk Hogan brother, Pastamania at the Mall of America's runnin' wild, brother, what's Bubba Rogers gonna do, brother, Pastamaniacs brother gonna run wild on Bubba, brother.
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And here we go, it's Ric Flair vs. Sting for the US Title.
- And while it's not as good as some of their other matches, boy, it's a fun one. Sting's wearing BRIGHT pink, and hey, WHO THE HELL IS THAT? It's LEX LUGER, GET HIM THE HELL OUT OF HERE. Bischoff nearly ruined that segment with his "shock and awe." He just sounded so...fake. Flair and Sting stopped to stare, as this happened prior to their match.
- Sting knocks Flair around, until Flair crossbodies Sting, which sends both out of the ring. That was pretty funny. During the "commercial break," Arn Anderson talked about WCW. Of course this was inserted in.
- Sting's done four gorilla press slams thus far. FOUR! Arn came down to ringside, at about 5:35. Sting does a superplex later, and Bischoff overreacts, similar to how Michael Cole does. You know, "he tossed him out of the ring, that's a THIRTY FOOT fall, Tazz." Like that. Flair slaps on the FIGURE-FOUR, and Sting makes it to the ropes. HOWEVER, Flair doesn't release the hold, and gets disqualified at 8:42 (shown). Arn comes into the ring, and both he and Flair fight to the back. They had a match signed for Fall Brawl, remember? A very fun *** match.
After the Flair/Arn fight, Scott Norton comes to ringside. He argues with Mongo, until Randy Savage comes out. He wants to fight Norton right now, but later, we find out that this match will occur next week.
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Back from the break, we have a Sabu video onscreen. Good one. Mean Gene says that some guy won a Harley Davidson. Ok. And on WCW Saturday Night, Johnny B. Badd will be facing Dick Slater, and the Blue Bloods will face Sting and Randy Savage. Sounds good to me.
Last of all that, we get a Mr. Wallstreet promo. YES! He didn't want any part of the New Generation, so he's in WCW, where the big boys play.
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The main event on this show is Big Bubba Rogers vs. Hulk Hogan w/Jimmy Hart for the WCW Heavyweight Title.
- Heenan mentions that Rogers was a prison guard. Good thing he didn't take the conversation further than that, cause I thought WCW wasn't allowed to mention him being the Big Bossman, or anything resembling it. Heenan also tells us of his conversation with Kevin Sullivan, where Sullivan says that Hogan will never understand what's going to happen to him. I'll see where this is headed at the end of the match.
- A guy in the front row has a Hogan Sucks sign, but this cop comes over, and he quits raising it up for the whole world to see. Rogers takes Jimmy Hart's jacket away, so Hogan begins to choke Rogers with it. I've gotta mention, the crowd is, um, not with Hogan's whole act here. To describe their reaction as mild is probably an overstatement. After the Bossman Slam, Hogan goes into the routine, to little reaction. Hulk-up, 1, 2, BIG BOOT, DROP THE FUCKIN' LEG for 3 at 7:08. *1/4, at least it was short and inoffensive.
After the match, here comes the DUNGEON. Oh my God. Honestly, my first reaction when seeing Leslie dressed as the Zodiac was, "what the FUCK." Kamala, Sullivan, the ZODIAC, Meng and the Shark were the ones I noticed. I think that was all of them. Anyhow, LEX LUGER came to the ring and saved Hogan. They nearly fight, so Sting and Savage run in to pull them away from each other. Then there's a "commercial," where Gene Okerlund talks about the MNW. He runs down for the interview on Nitro, and Hogan says, Luger doesn't have to prove anything to him, so he'll face him next week on Nitro. And that's the end of the show.
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Good debut show. That's my rating. The best segment was Sting/Flair with the Arn/Flair brawl, and the worst was that Dungeon of Doom shit. Man, that was terrible. The Zodiac walked down the aisle so damn funny. Well, watching this, I can see why they competed with the WWF. Their offering was better than what the WWF was doing at the time on Raw. There isn't much of a contest, unfortunately, they couldn't keep doing this. It wasn't possible to give away matches like this for free, I mean, Luger vs. Hogan in their first meeting, on Nitro? Looking back, it's not the best move for business, even if extremely enjoyable.
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Lastly, we have the Shorties Section, featuring 7 great debuts. I watched them in chronological order, and the first one was...Justin Hawk Bradshaw w/Dutch Mantel Uncle Zebakiah vs. Hakushi from 3/4/96. Note, all of the debutees(?) are listed first.
- In regards to these shorties, my thoughts aren't necessarily on the match. It's basically a reflective thing.
- I noticed people were complaining about JBL's flab a few weeks ago. When he was younger, there was more. Much more. Roddy Piper's on the phone, he's mainly talking about Goldust and the Ultimate Warrior. My, how things have changed.
- This match was basically a squash, and the CLOTHESLINE FROM HELL finishes the match at 4:11. Well, while some things change, others stay the same. He then hogties Hakushi, and Uncle Zeb brands him with a branding iron. *1/2.
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Our next one is Stone Cold Steve Austin's debut, against Savio Vega from 3/11/96. Ted DiBiase is Austin's manager.
- I guess Austin's time as the Ringmaster doesn't count. Austin's wearing white boots from his time as part of the Hollywood Blondes, in case you've watched this and didn't notice. They're laced differently, but me, I notice stuff like that. There's a black star on them, so, I figured it out. Also, Mark Henry's at ringside.
- Austin's style is far different than that which most people remember. Far more wrestling than brawling, here. This match ends with a double countout at 6:10 (shown). **...both men brawl after, which sets up their match at WrestleMania XII. Vega gets the best of the post-match scuffle.
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Third up, is FAAROOQ ASAD w/Sunny vs. Skip from 8/12/96.
- Faarooq's outfit....goodness. I've heard a lot about it, but my mind blocked out what it actually looked like. The helmet?
- It's pretty funny to see Sunny cheering on Faarooq while he kicks her boyfriend's ass. Jake Roberts is facing Jerry Lawler at SummerSlam 1996, remember. The DOMINATOR finishes at 4:31. There was an audible "ooh" from the crowd when Faarooq did that. I thought Faarooq would have the Hercules face theme. Guess not. *3/4, just a squash, but awfully entertaining.
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Chris Jericho's debut was on RAW, when he interrupted the Rock. Because the MNW will eventually roll around to this point, I'm not going to cover it. I found it funny that he "came to save the WWF," and he re-debuted a few months ago claiming the exact same thing. Am I the only one who noticed that? So, after this great debut...why exactly did he start wrestling in the midcard against guys like Road Dogg, Ken Shamrock and X-Pac? Cause he didn't work WWE style?
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Eric Bischoff's debut is up now. Well, it was pretty much the most surprising thing I've ever seen happen in Vince's promotion. They didn't add Booker's reaction to this, which means I don't really wanna watch it. I did, though, and it's boring, outside of the original shock factor. Don't rewatch this. When it happened it was the craziest shit ever. Oh yeah, I didn't even say what happened. Bischoff became RAW GM. Hopefully you knew that.
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Dave Batista faced Justin Credible on 11/4/02.
- Credible's look is real funny. Also, Batista looks to be far more mobile in this clip. He destroys Credible, and finishes with the sitout powerbomb at 1:25. *. This was fine.
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Remember how Goldberg debuted on Rock Appreciation Night?
- Well, I do. Rock's talking about retirement, which brings me to another topic. Why do all these idiots act like the Rock owes WWE and the fans something? Sure, I'd like for him to come back for a night, but he doesn't owe us shit. I hate reading people's comments about how ungrateful he is. Grow up. Whew, now I feel better.
- Rock said he's beaten everyone, so Goldberg comes out. You wanna know who's next, well, YOU'RE NEXT. Spear, and that's that. WWE fucked Goldberg's run up so bad, but in truth, I don't think it would've been a success anyway. He was 4 years removed from his peak, and once you go away, it's hard to regain the fan support you had before. It's not like he stayed active on television like Austin and Hogan do. Sure, they fucked Goldberg up, but you have to enter the new fan into the equation. You can't push people solely on old success in different promotions, because there are going to be people out there who don't care about that, and don't want to care about that. They're worried about right now. The roster (as a result of the brand extension) was too thin to have him squashing people all the time, so, we got what we got.
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The last debut, was Mickie James' debut. She teamed up with Ashley and Trish to take on Torrie Wilson, Victoria, and Candice Michelle. This is from 10/17/05.
- This should be short. What's up with Victoria being dressed like white trash? Anyhow, she cradles Mickie at 1:47 for the win. *. Mickie does Trish's finisher to Victoria in an attempt to impress Trish, and that's it. I think we know where this goes, to the lesbian thing.
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Wow, that was a long column. Anyway, that's it. Next, I'll review Royal Rumble '88, and after, I'll review Smackdown, PTW and the NWA weekly offering. The Lakers play on Monday, so I'm going to watch the 10:00 hour of RAW first, and then the 9:00 hour second, when I find RAW on dailymotion or something. So basically, in reverse. It's the only way.
Joe Podnanski on his blog wrote a piece about RBI opportunities. Baseball Prospectus in their book Baseball Between the Numbers wrote about worst players who drove in 100+ RBIs. I figured to take a look at guys who drove in 130 or more runners in a season, to see if anyone actually had a bad season in the process. One clearly did, Moose Salters.
Salters in 1936 drove in 134 runners with the St. Louis Browns. His numbers look superficially good, but the entire American League that season hit .302. Of the six left fielders in the league who played more than 100 games, Solters ranked fifth ahead of only Joe Vosmik. Solters undoubtably saw many RBI opportunities thanks to three hitters on the team who produced a .400+ on base percentage (Harlond Cliff, Lyn Lary and Beau Bell). Oddly, Salters' year was a down year between two good ones.
While we are having fun with the Play Index, let's see who the worst pitcher was to win 20 games. Before I run this search, I am almost certain it will be a player from the 19th century, probably very early in the existance of the organized leagues. Indeed, we find Jack Lynch, who went 23-21 with a 3.61 ERA for the New York Metropolitans. A 3.61 ERA is bad? When the league average is 2.79, yes. One thing to note about 19th Century baseball. While Lynch allowed 152 earned runs, he allowed 243 total runs, 91 unearned runs. Teams committed so many errors that team defense contributed perhaps more to run prevention than team pitching.
Moving forward to the 20th century, we come up with Henry Schmidt. Schmidt went 22-13 with the Brooklyn Superbas, his 3.83 ERA leading to an 83 ERA+. He had the best win/loss percentage on his team, though they finished fifth overall in runs scored. Schmidt never pitched an inning in the majors outside of 1903.
Modern time, it is Lew Burdette. Burdette pitched 289.7 innings, walked 38 batters and gave up 38 home runs. Admittedly the ERA+ totals are not impressively low, showing that most 20 game winners have legit talent, particularly if they do it more than once. (I did not say Hall of Fame talent, so don't jump the gun on Jack Morris.)
Coming up in the near future, best swansong seasons of all time. You can probably guess #1.
My birthday is a week from today. Hooray. I really haven't cared about my birthday much since I was 18. So last night while watching TV, this conversation happens. I'm sure you can guess who's who:
"What do you want to do for your birthday?"
"I don't know."
"Oh, come on. There's got to be something you want to do."
"I might take the day off work, I guess."
"That's it? You don't want to go eat or do something fun?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know! You decide. It's your birthday!"
"I'll think it over."
*two minutes later*
"Ok, well, what do you WANT for your birthday? I have no idea what to get you."
"Nothing." (note: with sfaJill, 'nothing' is never an acceptable answer to this question)
"What if I got you a pair of fuzzy pink slippers then? You'd be ok with that?"
"Only if you think I really need a pair of fuzzy pink slippers..."
"Well, if you don't tell me what you want, you just might get some then."
"Did you see that Circuit City is offering 36 months of no interest financing on all TV's $999 and up?"
"No. So what?"
"So there you go. That's what I want."
*she thinks this over for moment*
"You want me to buy you a big TV for your birthday?"
"Yes."
"Hmfph. Good luck with that one."
Ah, wedded bliss...
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Jason Garrett has apparently turned down both the Falcons and Ravens head coaching jobs and will stay on as Offensive Coordinator in Dallas for at least one more year. Good. After four years of Bill Parcells's conservative style and the overall futility of the offense the five years before that, it was refreshing to see Redball (as he's affectionately known) open the playbook wide open and actually use all of the weapons available to him.
Sure he didn't run the ball enough at times and apparently went insane in the fourth quarter of this last Sunday's loss to the Giants (calling a 65-yard bomb into triple coverage on 3rd & 20 from your own 40 with just over 4 minutes to go when you must score a touchdown and then sending everyone into the endzone against a dime defense on 4th & 11 instead of having one guy run underneath the defense and get the first down when you still had time to spike the ball and run at least one play into the endzone before the game ended is the definition of insanity), but there aren't too many guys I'd rather have running the Cowboys' offense for the near future than Garrett. Good move, Jerry Jones.
This RAW is famous for one thing. HHH/HBK. That's all you need to know. I was mad that the RAW from 1993 with Razor/Kid on it didn't win the PYBO, but it's ok.
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At the beginning of the show, we flashback to Orton/Foley, two weeks ago. Hey, I remember this. Things like that are what pushed me away from RAW. Foley wouldn't fight, see. You can call me a mark or whatever, but I just had it at that point. I knew they were building to something more, but I didn't have the patience.
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Now that the show itself has started, Randy Orton comes out, to Mick Foley's music. He says Foley's not just a coward, but a smart coward. Great scripting, guys. He wants to be announced as the winner of their "match," and Lillian Garcia does that. He's now the Hardcore Legend. For some unexplained reason, Booker T comes out. Complete nonsense booking. He wants to face Orton for the Intercontinental Title. Ok. However, Mark Henry attacks him. Orton then runs to the stage, and accepts Booker's challenge.
Backstage, Eric Bischoff tells Mark Henry that he's just as worried as he is. Teddy Long then says he wants to collect on his favor from Survivor Series, tonight. Bischoff says he can do it next week. And Long will, belee dat.
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The first match on the night is Rob Van Dam vs. Scott Steiner.
- Sorry, I don't have the tolerance to write full match reviews for anything other than PPV's or matches that I deem to be of importance posted on 24/7. Besides, I cover the angles in-depth, and now that I've started writing about the current product, something has to take a hit. I said I would do full reviews of the MNW, but I can't. This fits into that category. Besides, I don't think it's a big deal. The way I do these is thorough enough that you can get the full picture without a full match description, because if any angle happens throughout, I'll write about it. It's easier to read, too.
- This was about a million times better than I thought it would be, which was a surprise given that Steiner was a useless piece of shit by this point. Given that RVD gave his best effort, this was a fun contest. No surprises though, it ends with the 5 STAR FROG SPLASH at 6:07. *3/4. Steiner's choking was tiresome, though.
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During the broadcast, seeing as it's from San Antonio, there will be HBK Moments. You know, because San Antonio is Shawn's hometown, and he's facing HHH tonight. The first moment is his title win over Sid at Royal Rumble 1997, which just so happened to occur in San Antonio.
The WWE Rewind was from 2 weeks ago, when Chris Jericho and Christian got into a scuffle. And now, they're arguing. Christian's mad that he got ditched for a girl. It'll all be ok, kid.
Now Jonathan Coachman is at WWE Headquarters, for the boardroom meeting to decide on Steve Austin's future. Vince McMahon is going to be the one to argue against Austin, and someone else will argue in favor of him.
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Before their match against two jobbers with Ric Flair as the special guest referee, Bubba Ray Dudley's in the back with D-Von, and Bubba thinks that Foley just may be a coward. Harsh.
So yeah, the Dudleys are facing two jobbers with Ric Flair as the special guest referee.
- It's a beatdown. Flair tells Bubba not to punch with a closed fist, but he does anyway. So Flair disqualifies both of them at 1:49. I thought that was funny. *. Bubba knocks down Flair, so his tag team partner Batista comes down and beats on both Dudleys. Since, you know, Batista and Flair are the World Tag Team Champions. Anyway, Flair looks so much younger than he does now. It's disturbing, cause it looks like Flair's aged 10 years in the last 4.
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And we have another HBK Moment, this time, from SummerSlam 2002. Obviously it's from HHH/HBK, which is one of my favorite matches. It has really obvious flaws, though.
Eric Bischoff is with all the referees, and he says he wants them to be tough, just like Flair.
After, Coach shows up again, and Vince says he needs to look to the future, in an explanation of why he argued against Austin. Boy, does that statement ring true even today. His whole speech says a lot about what's wrong with the company now, and back then even more so. Progress has been made since 2003.
Lastly, Terri is interviewing 3 of the Divas involved in the 6-woman tag later. Trish, Lita, and Stacy, FWIW. She talks with them until STONE COLD STONE COLD STONE COLD drives into the picture. I think I just found a new phrase.
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It's time for the Intercontinental Championship match, between Booker T and the champion, Randy Orton.
- This was fine, but like I've said before, I don't understand the need for a chinlock in a 6 minute match. Both guys should've went all out.
- At the end of the bout, Kane comes to the ring for some reason. Booker's distracted by that, so Orton gives him an RKO, which gets him the pinfall at 5:58. So Orton retains his title, *1/2. After the match, Kane gives Booker a chokeslam. Why, exactly. On the surface, this makes no sense, but they probably had a match a few weeks later in which Booker was squashed.
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The last HBK Moment is from Survivor Series 2002. I have no problem admitting that I marked when HBK won the Elimination Chamber match.
Coach is with Linda McMahon, who argued in favor of Austin. Blah blah blah.
Chris Jericho finds Trish Stratus, and gives her a Christmas present. To be nice, I'll say that this is some of the worst acting I've ever seen. She's all sad and stuff. Leave acting to actors. Leave wrestling to the wrestlers. Why is it so hard for WWE to understand this?
Austin's in the back, waiting for the phone call. He gets a call, but it's un-important.
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Finally, we get our Happy Holidays Match. It's Trish, Stacy Keibler and Lita vs. Victoria, Molly Holly (Women's Champion) and Miss Jackie.
- Happy Holidays is basically saying that they're all wearing holiday themed stuff.
- This match is sort of a pile of shit, which is given with Jackie involved, and it ends when Trish gives Molly STRATUSFACTION, at 3:24. After the match, Victoria helps Molly up, but hits her with the title belt. That makes sense, cause Victoria is supposed to be crazy.
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Austin is back again, and he gets the phone call he was waiting for. Well, he doesn't want to be co-GM, so he leaves.
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Here we go, the match I've been waiting for. Shawn Michaels vs. HHH w/Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Blow-by-blow: They lock-up at the start, until HHH takes control with a hammerlock. Shawn reverses the hold, and gives HHH a headlock. HHH rolls HBK up for two, but Shawn still has the headlock applied. HHH shoots him into the ropes, where Shawn gives him a shoulderblock. Shawn runs the ropes again, but HHH gives him a back elbow. HHH goes to toss Shawn out, but Shawn SKINS THE CAT, and headscissors HHH to the floor. Shawn then punches Ric Flair, and lands on both Flair and HHH with a springboard crossbody. Both men come back in the ring, where HHH grabs onto a wristlock. Shawn reverses, and charges into him with his shoulder; afterwards, he takes HHH down to the canvas. He gives HHH an armbar, and when HHH tries to give Shawn a hiptoss, Shawn reverses it into an armdrag. HHH straddles the 2nd rope in an attempt to get Shawn to break the hold, but Shawn kicks the rope, causing HHH's nuts to feel some pain. Shawn gives HHH another armdrag, but HHH quickly gets back up, and takes Shawn to the corner. In the corner, HHH charges into Shawn, and they begin to trade blows. Shawn tosses HHH over the top rope after getting the better of the slugfest, and he follows HHH to the outside. Shawn chops him a few times, and sends him back in, where he applies a sleeper. HHH tries a back suplex, but Shawn flips over him and rolls him up for 2. HHH takes Shawn down with a headlock, but Shawn bridges out of the pinning hold to a backslide for 2. HHH rams Shawn into the turnbuckle, but misses a charge, so when Shawn charges at him, he backdrops Shawn over the top rope.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
We're back, as HHH is bringing Shawn back into the ring. He chokes Shawn with his boot, and gives Shawn a backbreaker, which gets a 2 count. Everything done in this match has been simple. And yet it's one of the best matches in the history of RAW. HHH gives Shawn two elbowdrops to the back, and punches him a bit, for a 2 count. Shawn tries to come back, but HHH tosses him out of the ring. He tosses Shawn's into the steps, and the announcers talk about how Shawn's shoulder looks to be separated. I'm no doctor, so I can't say. Shawn tries a sunset flip on the inside and gets 2, but HHH comes back with two clotheslines for a 2 count. HHH puts Shawn in an abdominal stretch, and uses leverage from Ric Flair in order to cheat. He grabbed onto Flair's hand, see. The referee stops him when he sees it, and Shawn gives HHH a hiptoss. Shawn chops away at HHH, but HHH comes back with the leaping KNEE TO FACE. That gets a 2 count, but see, HHH hurt his knee. HHH tries a backbreaker, but Shawn reverses it into a kneebreaker. Then he applies a FIGURE-FOUR leglock, which makes the crowd go apeshit. The referee is distracted by HHH, though, so Flair gouges HBK's eyes. HHH dumps Shawn to the outside, but Shawn comes back in quickly, and up to the top rope. Shawn misses with a double axhandle, and HHH tries for the PEDIGREE. Shawn reverses it into a backdrop, thankfully for him. Shawn gives HHH a shoulderblock, and falls to the canvas exhaustedly, headbutting HHH in the nuts. After a bit of rest, HHH gets up, and is given an inverted atomic drop. And another one. Shawn gives HHH the flying forearm, and he KIPS UP. I love when the crowd and the announce team go nuts for that. Shawn goes up top, for the FLYING ELBOWDROP. Shawn then TUNES UP THE BAND, but Flair gets on the ring apron. So Shawn knocks him down, while HHH hits the referee. Ha. HHH blocks SWEET CHIN MUSIC, and gives Shawn a DDT. Flair gives HHH hit title belt, and he hits Shawn in the face with it, only getting a 2 count. HHH goes for the PEDIGREE, but it's blocked by Shawn. HHH kicks Shawn into the referee, so he's down again. Bischoff comes to the ring in an attempt to revive the referee, while HHH takes a turnbuckle pad off. Shawn rams HHH into an exposed turnbuckle, and BISCHOFF makes the count, which only gets 2. HHH is bleeding, as Shawn tries a 10 punch in the corner. HHH puts him down, but Shawn gets a right for 2. HHH gives Shawn the KNEE TO FACE-BUSTER, for a 2 count. He goes up to the 2nd rope, but eats Shawn's boot on the way down. Shawn is sent upside down at the exposed turnbuckle, but comes down and gives HHH SWEET CHIN MUSIC, for 3 at 29:12, 26:13 of which was shown.
But wait, HHH is still the champion, because...Shawn's shoulders were down during the pin attempt. I nearly forgot why, for some reason. Ric Flair tries to attack Shawn, but he's given SWEET CHIN MUSIC. And Shawn punches Bischoff, for daring to say that he's not the new champion. Shawn walks backstage, and Bischoff fires him. When I first saw this (I flipped channels, came across it about a minute in, and stuck around), I thought this was a sure town-killing finish. UNTIL
STONE COLD STONE COLD STONE COLD makes his way to the ring, says that he's back, and that Shawn is rehired. He also says there's going to be a rematch (which wasn't up to par) and he gives Bischoff a STONE COLD STUNNER, to end the show.
Match Analysis: This was easily the RAW MOTY for 2003. That Smackdown MOTY was obviously Angle/Benoit from the Rumble, which was just a little better than this. Seeing as this wasn't as good, I'll go one mark lower and call it ****1/2. If you have a problem with that, it's probably because you have a different rating scale. Matches from any of the large promotions in this country are obviously rated on a different scale then those from say, Japan. At least for me. I have no problem throwing out snowflakes if the match is deserving. This certainly was. If I worked for the WWE as a trainer, I'd have this match shown to all my trainees. It's so simple, and so well done. I suppose it would've been fine to have Shawn go over, but HHH just won the damn belt two weeks before. If only we could see something like this on TV now. Oh well.
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Rating: Great. Just because of that one match.
Best Segment: HHH/HBK.
Worst Segment: All the boardroom stuff. Who cares, you know they won't get rid of Austin.
Loudest Sound: HBK, Austin, Ric Flair as referee, and HHH. No surprises.
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I already said what I'm putting up next. BTW, the MNW will be on that, too. It'll probably be...the first Nitro, RAW and Nitro from 5/19/97, and the shorties section. I think that'll do.
2 p.m.
• So I was driving into work today and there was a radio commercial that caught my ears. Some of you may remember when I opined about a local restaurant chain and its stupid Frownie mascot. Well, this place is bringing back a promotion where if you order certain menu items you get a menu item of equal or lesser value free. No problem with that. However, the ad went something like, “Try a classic King’s dish like the new breakfast scramblers (or whatever the entrée was).” How can a “classic” dish be “new”? And I thought TNT’s “Instant Classics” were bad.
• Yeah, this is going to throw off Emily’s routine. I’m sure he doesn’t have ANY of these episodes on DVD.
9 p.m.
• So I gave my notice to my genius employers on January 4. Guess when they finally decided to put a classified ad in the paper? Today.
• I was at the grocery store today and I went to the chicken section of the store. I noticed that there was a sale on cock. However, it wasn’t the buy-one-get-one-free but rather some XX-cents-off nonsense which is still a rip-off. However, what had me laughing was the handwritten addition made to the “sale” sign. Because there are several varieties of chicken in the chicken freezer bin and only one brand on sale, there are oftentimes handwritten FYIs on these sale posters. Anyway, the handwritten addition to this sign read “Black lable only.” Sigh.
• Speaking of food, Swift Terror brought up some of his never-buy-generic brands. For as cheap as I am, I don’t typically buy generic-brand material. If something is on sale and I have a coupon then I get it. The only brand name I “have” to buy is Miracle Whip. Oh, and Heinz ketchup – Hunts is disgusting. Generic pasta is blech, although I don’t really buy Chef-Boy-R-D. Oh, my beef stew has to be Dinty Moore. Generic Cola is awful, although I’m not much of a pop drinker anyway. Oh, yeah. Crystal Light iced tea >>>> generic or that 4C shit. I steer clear from the generic Kix equivalent. And when it comes to bbq sauce, I’m only Bull’s Eye, Jack Daniels or KC Masterpiece. I tried some watery Kraft shit once and that was it. (Or was it Open Pit?) Well the aforementioned chicken I buy is grocery-store brand. I also eat grocery-store brand bread and milk. That’s about all I got for now.
9:15 p.m.
• I’ve seen a few headlines about this being the 10-year anniversary of Lewinsky-gate. You know, I really didn’t care much about this scandal. I guess the best thing to come out of this (other than Bill’s jizz on a blue dress) was having Congress preoccupied with impeachment rather than meddling with the economy and my day-to-day life. Good job, Monica.
• I just heard some top-of-the-news story on RIGHT-WING RADIO about how with this “recession” people are having a harder time than ever dealing with credit card debt, mortgage and car payments. Uh, am I supposed to feel bad for someone that racked up unnecessary expenses on plastic and now can’t afford his standard of living because gas is $3+/gallon and milk is a similar price? Hey dumbfuck, who do you think you are – Congress?
Speaking of these people, I sure can't wait until there's a Democrat president to go along with a Democrat Congress.
Yeah, because nothing says "helping out the middle class" better than food stamps.
10 p.m.
• Ha. I was flipping channels and came across the last 20 minutes of "Death Wish 3." These “Death Wish” movies are so laughably bad – especially after Part II – that they’re awesome. However, when the final commercial break took place, I soon discovered that there were FIVE of these films. Now I always counted “Murphy’s Law” as a “Death Wish-lite” movie, but they actually made another one after Charles Bronson blew some guy up with a rocket launcher after his girlfriend gets offed? Wait a minute, I could be talking about more than one “Death Wish” movie.
First, we have RAW. I was watching the Laker game, so I tuned in at 9:48. I flipped over and saw HBK giving Trevor Murdoch SWEET CHIN MUSIC, and I know there was some Diva crap before that. There was some stuff with Orton and Hardy too, and they have an Intercontinental Title match later. Now, we begin. Again, this is an exact copy of my great notes.
The colors are to let you know that I'm talking about a different program.
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When I tuned in, the first thing on was HHH vs. Snitsky. Boy oh boy.
- Snitsky is one ugly motherfucker. Not only that, but he makes these strange sounds while on offense. I don't like this guy, but I think he's funny. Why exactly is he in the WWE, again?
- Back from the commercial break, and that was probably a rough two minutes for the live crowd. I don't really want to think about it. JR calls Snitsky "Bowling Shoe Ugly." Well, I have to agree. At least there haven't been any restholds.
- Nevermind. There's a bearhug! On a PEDIGREE attempt, Snitsky backdropped HHH over the top rope. Then, he tries to hit HHH with the steel steps. He's unable to, though, as HHH gets disqualified by hitting Snitsky with a steel chair, at 10:06. HHH grabs the SLEDGEHAMMER, hits Snitsky in the gut with it, and PEDIGREES him. Whoop-dee-doo. 1/2*...why was this 10 minutes, again. Anyway, HHH destroys the small screen below the actual TitanTron, and Vince allows him to go back into the Rumble, IF he wins his match next week.
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JBL cut a promo on Chris Jericho next, in which he talked about Jericho's kids needing to know that his father's a coward. Then there's lots of pyro, to end the whole thing.
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Next up was a 5 Man Royal Rumble, with 30 second intervals between appearances. This was some Hornswoggle thing, so I expect stupidity. And Lord, did I get it. The crowd can't even see the fuckin' thing, for one, second, nobody wants to watch a midget Royal Rumble. There was a mini-Kennedy, mini-Mankind, mini-Batista and mini-Kane. Lastly, Khali came out, but was beaten up by Finlay. -***** for that whole thing, I never want to discuss it again. Went about 7:50. Afterward, Finlay has a discussion with Vince, in which he says he doesn't want their deal to be broken. Uh...
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How are they going to squeeze the main event and this Flair match into such a short time? Well, it's Ric Flair vs. William Regal.
- Both wrestlers come to the ring and we go to a commercial?
- Well, Flair cheats to win on a roll-up, while holding Regal's tights. Only 2:07 of the match was shown. This Flair stuff is being bungled beyond belief. Moreover, he's looking so worn down that I don't even think he'll be able to make it to WrestleMania. Just my opinion. Match was unrateable.
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Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy in a match for the Intercontinental Title, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Orton kicks Hardy in the nuts after 8 seconds, ending the match via disqualification. No rating, again. My original thought was, why give this match away on free TV? Well, they didn't, thankfully.
- Both men brawl to the stage, where Orton goes to punt Hardy in the head. Hardy gets up and backdrops him onto some sort of platform, a bit below the stage. I can't really do this angle justice, so bear with me. Hardy climbs up a support beam beside the stage, stops and...CLIMBS UP MORE. He's way up there. Then, he gives ORTON A FUCKING SWANTON BOMB, from about 15 feet up. Holy shit. This got over huge. HUGE, I tell you. JR and the King (no, not me) immediately stopped their commentary, as paramedics stretchered both men off to end the show. Hardy's gotta get the strap at the Rumble. GOTTA. He's their most over performer right now. What a good way to end a shitty show. Hardy's being put over so strong that this can't possibly be fucked up. He's been made into a star.
The show as a whole was terrible, but the ending was great. Meet in the middle and we'll call it decent.
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I didn't have time to watch the show from MSG that was posted on 24/7. Sorry. I got a bit through it and fell asleep. Kerry Von Erich looked too young, even for him.
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Next up, THE FIRST EVER MONDAY NIGHT RAW. Of all the updated stuff, I was waiting for this the most.
Sean Mooney starts things off, and you know, Bobby Heenan's not allowed in the building tonight. Rob Bartlett's on commentary instead. And the 1993 intro to the show is just as kickass as I remember it.
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WELCOME EVERYONE TO MONDAY NIGHT RAW. Commentary team is what you'd expect, Vince, Savage, and Bartlett.
Koko B. Ware vs. Yokozuna w/Mr. Fuji is our first match. Hey, the High Energy version of Koko.
- WHAT THE FUCK. I didn't realize that High Energy used what would stick around and become Owen Hart's music. Sorry, that threw me for a loop. I love Koko's ring attire.
- So, to sum things up, Yoko doesn't hit the canvas all match, and finishes things up with the BANZAI DROP at 3:46. *. Bartlett couldn't stop talking about Yoko's ass. Well, things like that are going to become commonplace throughout the show.
The promo for Royal Rumble 1993 is cool. Then we flash to Jim Ross talking about the importance of RAW to the business as a whole. Well, I agree there.
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Bobby Heenan then cuts a pre-taped promo in which he talks about "Narcissus." It's a good thing they changed that to "Narcissist." The original was not the best.
That serves as our lead-in to The Executioners vs. the Steiner Brothers.
- The Executioners aren't important, so you missed nothing. The Steiners have this entrance music that I can't describe. Meaning that I don't know whether or not it's good. BTW, Doink the Clown is in the crowd. Good.
- Even then, Scott was really roided up. One of the Executioners blow an Irish whip, so they'll be punished for it. The Steiners fuck 'em up, as ECW fans would chant in the same building a few years later (though totally unrelated to the match at hand), and the bout ends via pinfall after Rick bulldogs one of the EX'S as they were seated on Scott's shoulders. I love that finisher, even if it probably injured a lot of guys. Thoroughly enjoyable contest, **.
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Heenan's dressed as a woman, but he's not allowed in the building, as Mooney finds him out. Well, darn.
Edge talks...basically, whenever I say someone talks, it's about the importance of RAW.
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Now we have an interview with Razor Ramon. I covered his accent in the PTW writeup from a few weeks before this, I think. Well, he's ready for the Rumble, MANG. Numero uno, mang, the #1 contender. He wanted this to be personal, so he attacked Owen on WWF Mania last week. After the interview's over, he tosses his toothpick at Vince. Yes!
Back at the announce table, the guys talk about Headlock on Hunger. And Tatanka has something to say about that. SPIRITS AND NONSENSE!!!
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The next matchup is Max Moon vs. Shawn Michaels, for Shawn's Intercontinental Championship.
- I don't know what to say about Max Moon. He does some cool stuff, like a running seated senton off the apron to Shawn as Shawn was standing up at ringside, much later in the match.
- During the "commercial break," HBK talked about RAW. Yeah, they placed that in there.
- Doink comes to ringside, as Bartlett is doing this AWFUL Mike Tyson impersonation. What did we do to deserve that? I was surprised to see that this wasn't a squash. Shawn wins the bout, by gaining the pinfall after the SIDE SUPLEX. It's just a back suplex, but since Gorilla Monsoon took extra care to make sure it was called the Side Suplex, hell, I'm calling it the Side Suplex. **. 7:52 of the bout was shown, who knows how long the commercial was. I know I can steal use the time from thehistoryofwwe.com, but I don't want to.
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HHH talks, and then...
We cut to a RUMBLE REPORT, with Gene Okerlund. Shawn Michaels will face Marty Jannetty, with Sensational Sherri at ringside. Shawn says that Sherri will most certainly be with him. Marty says he'll get everything he wants, including the Intercontinental Title, and that Shawn doesn't really know what Sherri's going to do. Now Okerlund starts listing a few (a lot, really) of the Royal Rumble participants, but I'll just list the guys who cut promos. Mr. Perfect said that he has a perfect opportunity to win the Rumble. Well, he didn't say that, I did, cause that's what he should've said. Mr. Fuji babbles on about how Yokozuna's going to win the Rumble, and lastly, Jim Duggan talks about how he'll win the Rumble. Tough guy this, tough guy that, USA, USA, HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN HOOOOOOO, alright. You know, the Rumble winner goes to WrestleMania this year. Also, Bret Hart faces Razor Ramon. But that's seemingly an afterthought, isn't it.
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Heenan tries to sneak in AGAIN, this time as a Rabbi. I was so pumped up after that RUMBLE REPORT that I wrote Rabbi as "Rumble." I'd show you, but there are so many things on this piece of paper that I don't want you to see. Mooney catches Heenan again, so Heenan gets all upset.
Mick Foley talks about RAW, now. From what I've been told, Reverend Slick converted Kamala last week on WWF Mania. WHAT? I'm glad I haven't seen some of this stuff.
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Our main event is DAMIEN DEMENTO vs. The Undertaker, with Paul Bearer as Taker's manager. I tuned out Bartlett after the Tyson stuff, so he could've been bad this whole time. I don't know.
- Vince thanks DON IMUS for Rob Bartlett being there. That explains a lot about Bartlett's awfulness, doesn't it.
- Well, it's a squash. Taker finishes it off with the TOMBSTONE at 2:25. *.
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Vince talks about RAW, and how the live audience helped make the show what it is today. Definitely.
Doink comes to ringside, and talks about how he's not bothered by Crush. Crush comes out, and talks some trash, brah. Well, Doink squirts him with a water pistol (yes, I call it that), so Crush chases him. How is Doink supposed to be the heel in all this? The crowd at the Manhattan Center loves the gimmick. Crush chases Doink, but eventually, he leaves the poor guy alone, so we can listen to Crush's great entrance music.
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I know I said that I pride myself on not being silly, but I really took it to another level with this show. I couldn't help it, because, after all, WWF 1993 IS silly. Don't worry, I won't do that again for a while, likely until another RAW or a WWF Superstars is posted from 1993. By my standards, that was a good show. I was entertained throughout, and by my "would I have liked it then, but with a smarkish mindset" standards, undoubtedly I would have. If you can, watch it. If you can't watch it, find it. Unless you've seen it already, or have it on video.
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Last, I watched WWECW, last night.
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The "Cutting Edge" opened the show. Yeah, that's some interview segment with Edge as the host. Edge talks about the Rumble, and when mentioning Rey Mysterio, you immediately notice that there's a lot of kids in the crowd. Like, a whole lot. This'll have something to do with what I say later. Anyhow, he shows us what happened last week on Smackdown, when he and the Edgeheads beat up Rey Mysterio after Rey's match with Chavo Guerrero. So, this somehow gets to the point where CM Punk is the guest. Edge says he's been watching Punk, and that he reminds Edge of himself. Punk says he respects his opponents, but he can beat Chavo if he faces him again. And he can beat Edge too. Chavo then comes out, and challenges Punk. Punk accepts, but is pushed by Chavo into Edge. Then Punk gets his ass beat, and his shoulder gets rammed into the post by both guys, who then leave with the damage done. I didn't know what to think about that, on one hand, you gave the guy no rub from a confrontation with Edge, secondly, you took all the heat away from Chavo, who's in the middle of this program. Unless we're getting to Edge/Punk in the near future, I don't like this at all.
After the commercial break, Edge leaves. That means he'll be there later.
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The next match is a tag team match, with the Highlanders facing John Morrison and the Miz. I don't know if this was a WWE Tag Team Title match or not.
- Miz and Morrison need to start entering together. It's tiresome to watch tag team partners have two separate entrances. Yeah, "they have big egos." So what. Make them argue over how they enter or something.
- I don't understand why the Highlanders are here, and why they're playing pseudo-babyfaces. Pseudo because nobody is cheering them, see.
- Of the two Highlanders, I like Robbie better. The match finishes after the Reality Check (kneelift, neckbreaker) at 2:57. *1/2. That finisher sucks, but I expected it, given that the Miz is the guy who does it.
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Here's another Kofi Kingston vignette. It won't be hard for him to get over, because the general public (AFAIK) likes the whole Jamaican thing. I expect great things from him, given what I've read about his in-ring work. He debuts next week, on ECW. Good. Perfect show to debut him on.
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Kelly Kelly comes out, and talks about HD. Then she disrobes. Anyone watching the show saw what she was wearing, and if you didn't, don't worry, it was nothing much. Literally. I kinda have a problem with this, given the number of kids in the crowd. If you want the product to be marketed toward kids, which given characters like Hornswoggle is what they want, do that, and get rid of this. You want to show this stuff, stop with the kid oriented stuff. Make up your mind.
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The white guy from the past few weeks is with Tazz again. He'll be facing Kane this time. Chokeslam finishes after 1 minute. 1/2*. I don't know about the rest of us, but I'm starting to get bored by this.
The ECW GM, that Estrada guy, is with CM Punk. The match will go on. Well, duh.
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The injury report from Hardy's dive last night is that Hardy left the hospital before being evaluated, and Orton had to stay overnight. They're putting over Hardy so strong in this whole thing that I have a hard time believing he won't win at MSG. It's unfortunate that WrestleMania is coming up, seeing as HHH is probably going to win the Rumble. The trigger was probably pulled too quickly on this feud, but it should go until No Way Out at the least.
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So, it's Shelton Benjamin vs. Nunzio.
- Hey, someone from actual ECW. Have I mentioned that Shelton's turnbuckle powerbomb is great?
- Shelton's inverted bulldog finishes at 3:05. Move needs a name, and I think Tazz gave it one, inadvertently so. "The Gold Standard." After the match, Shelton grabs a mic, then says, THERE AIN'T NO STOPPIN' ME NOWWWWWW, and gives him another inverted bulldog. I know a few people hate that catchphrase, but I love it. His voice cracked toward the end, making it that much better. *1/2.
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Now we have our main event, Chavo's 3rd Chance, featuring him taking on CM Punk. Taken directly from my notes, to let you know what I was thinking about the booking here.
- Punk's favoring his shoulder, of course. I don't like this, because I suppose it hurts Chavo's....status. While he's not been portrayed as strong, there needs to be incentive to care about the eventual title match, so winning semi-clean is the only acceptable course of action.
- There's Edge, going on commentary. Told ya so. A good thing is, with Edge there, people aren't going to lose focus on the match, or leave, like last time. We're going to have another long overrun, which is ok. I don't like knowing exactly when the show will end.
- When Chavo punches, it looks SO weak. Why that is, who knows. It's like he's too cautious. Each of these matches have been distinctly different, which is good. This one is better than the other two, I believe. Punk gets tossed outside, and clobbered in the head by Edge's World Heavyweight Title. So, Chavo wins by countout, at 11:18. **3/4. That was pretty much the worst ending possible. Let's look at the possible options.
Draw. Yeah, right.
Punk wins. That's fine.
Punk loses by DQ, after Edge hits Chavo with his title. That's ok.
Chavo gets the pinfall, clean. Not happening.
Chavo gets the pinfall, after Edge interference, and his own finisher. Best possible option.
Chavo wins via an arm-oriented submission. This is ok, too.
Chavo wins by countout, while having no direct impact on the end of the match at all. Dogshit.
Again, why should I care about the title match? It doesn't do anything for either participant, and given the booking, I doubt this match will happen at the Rumble. If it does, it won't be of any length. Tazz said that Chavo would probably want to have his title shot next week, given his mindset. Punk isn't going to face Edge anytime soon, so...I don't get it. If he did face Edge, he'd only lose. That shouldn't even be an option, but it's the only way this thing will go. He's not going to get a rub from it either, as it could only last until No Way Out. It'll never go to WrestleMania.
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Anyway, that was a shitty ending to a pretty good match. Decent show. In the next installment, I'll have a whole bunch of stuff to read, including my thoughts on Smackdown. But first, the HHH/HBK RAW has to go up, which it will, tomorrow. I'm not typing up anything about the first ECW on TNN show, because it was basically a clip show. The segments on that will be reviewed on it's own merit when posted on it's original program, whether it be Hardcore Heaven '99 in the case of Lynn/RVD, or wherever that Taz/Rhyno match came from.
This study is creating a buzz about perceptions of high-priced wines versus low-priced wines. Everybody is talking about this, man they are just goo-goo over this story. People in the study were more satisfied with wines labeled at a high-price over the same wine labeled with a low price. So what? How is this not a no-brainer to everyone? Of course people are influenced by price, not to mention product labeling in terms of looks and packaging. The perception is, high price means better and we all fall into that trap more often than not.
Now I will say that lower priced generics or store brand products at the grocery store are, by and large, crap. There are certain products that I will always pay more for the brand because the brand name product is just plain better. But for other products, the generic version is fine.
My No-Generic-Ever list:
peanut butter (Jiff)
barbeque sauce (no store brand ever, may try an unknown premium brand)
salad dressing (same as BBQ sauce)
spaghetti sauce (same as BBQ sauce)
cookie dough (only Pillsbury or Nestle)
Nutri-grain bars
Quaker oatmeal (the kind you add hot water)
baked beans (Bushs)
orange juice
Generic Ok list:
bread
100% fruit juice, e.g. cranberry/apple juice
ice cream
some cereals
