Darth Pipes

Ric Flair just did a major blade job on Raw this past week. Is the rule they show the blood live then ruin the footage thereafter? I understand why they blur the logs and alter the background music for 24/7 and the DVDs. Don't like it but I understand all the legal stuff. But bleeping the language and altering the footage in regards to blood is inexcuseable. I'm paying like ninety dollars a year to watch heavily censored wrestling footage? I remember a year ago that Flair didn't do a blade job at WM because they were trying to market to kids now. This didn't bother me because I didn't think Flair needed to be a disgusting, gory mess for his last match.

It's been my problem with 24/7. This is a pay service which clearly caters to the older fans. Only adults can order it and pay for it through their cable bill. Complete bullshit. It's also complete hypocracy on McMahon's part. The man who has given us, among other things, Katie Vick and wanted to be the father of Stephanie's child on-screen called TNA's programming reprehensible while defending the HHH/Orton home invasion angle. This led to Raw on Monday where Orton again beat up Stephanie McMahon and kissed her, acting more like he was going to rape her. Not to mention the "affair" storyline involving Big Show, Vickie Guerrero, Edge, and John Cena. Real family-friendly stuff you got going there, Vince. This is why I don't throw out my old wrestling tapes, including WM X-7.

Watching Hogan and Warrior again... -Forgot that moment where Hogan had Warrior in a front headlock and Monsoon said that move could be extremely painful, leading Ventura to say "Of course. Just ask Richard Belzer." That definitely couldn't have been Vince telling him to say that. -Something I didn't notice as a kid but that Canadian crowd was louder for Hogan. I'd say it was 55/45 Hogan to Warrior.

That probably was Savage shooting given how nuts he was.

Wait a second...they're black-and-whiting the main event? Because of the blood? You have got to be kidding me. I know they do that on the official website and that's fine with me but now the Wrestlemanias? Is this going to be a trend on the DVDs now?

That's too bad. I never recall a match between these two and I think they could be capable of a great one. Was Monsoon calling Savage "The Not-So-Macho Man."?

Another Wrestlemania match up between two guys that are dead. I remember in this match that Test really stiff kicks Guerrero in the face, to the point that even Paul E. grimaces.

That's the cage match. I remember seeing that when it was first on. MSG Classics aired it about a year ago and they didn't try to edit out the fan like they did in the Guerrero/RVD ladder match.

Team Dog Abuse...that was classic. And just remember, WMIV was "Hall of Famer" Koko B. Ware's only significant match in his WWF career. Didn't think about it but you're right about the heels doing very well. Imagine if they had stuff to the original plan with Dibiase winning the title.

Yeah, I caught that. He took a big fall and I was laughing my ass off. Good point, DrVenkman PhD. I remember Vince going on and on about punishment and how Andre "punished" Lanny Poffo. Uh...Vince, Andre hit Lanny Poffo with ONE headbutt and threw him to the outside. The whole thing took ten seconds. That's not punishing someone.

Did anyone who actually saw this WM vote for it? Even as a kid, I remember being fairly bored with it. I guess they didn't want to split the crowd against Savage but they missed a golden opportunity to have Savage/Steamboat II in the tournament. I would have had Savage win and Steamboat shake his hand afterwards, putting him over with the crowd further.

Like him or not (I think he sucks) but Mongo was OVER in 1997, especially around the time of the Horsemen breakup. Remember the Clash match against Jarrett when he won the US title? I'm shocked to this day that he did so much jobbing around that era, pretty much putting over Hennig, Goldberg, and the Bulldog one after the other. Plus, I was always a little surprised he didn't make it onto the roster for WCW/nWo Revenge. Did Bischoff just stand there drinking a cup of coffee while Mongo was talking to him or something? Another tragedy if they cut the new MNW episodes will be the time it takes to relive Mongo's glorious last moment in WCW-getting bleach thrown in his eyes and disappearing forever. I take it Benoit was involved in that?

I've heard Michaels didn't want to face Owen and obviously Austin didn't want to wrestle him again after Survivor Series. So politics kept Owen's career from going any higher. HBK/Owen would have been ideal but they just used that up on an upcoming Raw. Think they wrestled on a house show too. Watched some of that Nitro and it was good. La Parka & Psychosis v. Rey Mysterio & Juventud Guerrera was awesome with some unbelieveable spots. Scott Keith is right that that should have been put on Starrcade. I remember the Goldberg/Mongo feud had ended. I always thought it ended with McMichaels laying out Goldberg with a pipe, getting back his ring, cutting a promo about it, their match being canceled and Goldberg disappearing for about four weeks, only to come back stronger than ever. Didn't know they continued to feud next week. Though Mongo gets up in about ten seconds and goes after Goldberg. Amazing they were trying to keep Mongo of all people strong. After a few weeks, Goldberg was stronger than ever and the Mongo feud was not mentioned again.

Sweet! The Fink deserve it. Always liked when he was Jericho's sidekick. His funniest moment though came when he was facing Lilian Garcia and he said to Stacy Keibler (who was at ringside) that she shouldn't be stirring up any trouble. He added... "But looking at you now I can safely say there's something stirring in my trousers!" It's a lot funnier with Finkel saying it in his announcer's voice.

It was cool seeing the Hogan/Backlund tag team match. That was one of Hogan's only matches before he won the title and it was the passing of the torch with Backlund being phased out. Funny to see Hogan use more scientific wrestling and some of his old Japan moves. I read a few years ago they aired those Championship Wrestling shows with Hogan, Orndorff, Piper, Mean Gene debuting. I would love to see those again and the Bobby Heenan Show.

Elizabeth's deubt, the coronation of the Macho King (with Lanny Poffo doing the honors) and a bunch of promos equals gold. They have one from TNT and Savage was always gold there. Only thing missing is his insane promos before and after his comeback match against Jake Roberts.

Thanks. I know a lot of TV on DVDs have edited music to cut down on cost but it's always frustrating when it comes to wrestling. About Rude, I think this is the problem Warrior had when he became champion. By the time he had become champion, Hogan had destroyed the credibilty of most the major challengers. Dibiase, Savage, Hennig, etc. That left Rude, who Warrior had already feuded with the previous year and who was coming off beating a washed-up Jimmy Snuka at Wrestlemania. Rude was pulled out of the mid-card for that feud. A good example of how Hogan ruined a lot of Warrior's opponets...during Survivor Series 90, it was annoucned that Warrior would defend his title against Ted Dibiase on NBC's The Main Event. So, you would think the company would have kept Dibiase strong at the Survivor Series. Nope! After being the sole survivor of his earlier match, he's pinned cleanly by Hogan during the final elimination main event. Meanwhile, Rick Martel (whose is a hot but mid-card feud with Jake Roberts) is allowed to keep his heat by intentionally getting himself counted out. With opponents like this, it's no wonder Warrior's title reign was a flop.

This was one of the few not-so-good NWA shows this week. I read on the Mid-Atlantic blog that during this time, Crockett had wrestling on Saturday morning and Sunday so the Saturday night show was basically like a C-show and it felt that way. Even the video quality isn't as good. They don't show the whole set and David Crockett stays completely off-camera, not that I'm complaining there. Weird seeing Magnum here and knowing he'll be in a car accident ten days for the airing of that show.

Anyway, watching the Snuka/Rude WMVI match-up and I have a few observations... -Snuka's theme music has been inexplicably dubbed over. I say inexplicably because his original music had no words except for someone saying Super-Super-Superfly in a distorted voice. Did Rick James estate sue or something? The dub is very noticeable and dubs over a funny Steve Allen joke where he says Snuka is "so ugly that a vampire came into his room one day, took one look at him and bit the bed post. -I did hear one unintentionally funny Monsoon line though. Rude misses a dropkick and lands on the back of his head, prompting Gorilla to note that "he came hard on the back on his head." -Snuka's skin seemed very white in this match.

I look forward to it in the 'I know it's going to be bad" way. Is this the PPV where Hogan really no-sells Vader's powerbomb, which at that point was a back-breaking instrument of destruction? The staggering part is Hogan no-sold the powerbomb during the build-up to Clash of the Champions. The BUILD-UP!

Watching All-American Wrestling, you've got more heel Piper which is always good. You've got "Mr. Homoerotic" Paul Orndorff and his great love of booty shorts, and you have a video of Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in NYC of the 80s. T just rambles on and on until the point I was starting to fall asleep. That footage has seen better days.

One thing the build to WM has shown me on 24/7 since I've had it is Hogan (and Mr. T) might have been the bigger stars but Piper drove that first WM storyline. He's 99.9% of it. Without him, it wouldn't have nearly been as effective.

I'm looking forward to checking out All-American Wrestling. You get a Piper's Pit with him, Orndorff, and Orton. Nothing beats Piper's Pit when Piper was a heel. When he was a face...

Backlund and Graham barely looked like they were hitting each other. On his DVD, Graham tells an interesting story leading up to that match. According to him, he overdosed the day of the match because of all the pills he was taking and went to the hospital. He told the doctor he was going to leave and yanked out everything he was hooked up to. Two orderlys came in to stop him but after taking one look at him, move out of his way. Might be where that bandage came from.

Agreed. This was definitely the highlight. The Sherri/Robin match was pretty good as well.