DrVenkman PhD

I could be off base here because I was a youngster during Tyson's heyday and have never closely followed boxing, but to me, saying "Tyson's a household name even to non-boxing fans" is the equivalent of saying "Everyone whose never watched a football game in their life knows who OJ Simpson is!" or "Even people who hate basketball have heard of Dennis Rodman".

If you follow wrestling via Dave Meltzer, you can't NOT have heard of Mayweather. He was talking about him all the time during the Mayweather / Hatton 24/7 deal (which also aired about 5,000 times on The Fight Network here).

For the record, Sunflower is listing it as "Mania FREEView", (presumably as in WrestleMania), not the Superstars / Raw recap show from the 90s.

WWE.com is kayfabing that Hornwoggle may have brain damage and internal bleeding of the brain. Guess he's off TV!

I will say the 1998 WCW house show I went to either the week or night before WrestleMania XIV was awesome. I don't know if we lucked out by being in a major market (the show was at the Palace of Auburn Hills) at the height of the wrestling boom, but they put on a great show. Hogan jobbed clean to Sting in the main event (though Hogan did that weird "let's brawl outside the ring even though it's a cage match" spot that him and Savage did at Uncensored which is confusing to people). That Sid/Taker match is the infamous "oops I crapped my pants" match, I believe.

Well, the trademark issues only pertain to the 80s "Superstars OF WRESTLING" version. "WWF Superstars" is a-ok, and that's what it would be in 1993, but I digress. Yes, the schedule lists the March 27, 1993 (which spman tells me was really the 28th) Challenge as airing as Mania IX build-up.

The ceremony is always very good and they appear to be having a blast.

Primetime and TNT are expendable shows when 24/7 has theme specific programming. Last year they showed the WrestleMania III PTW and nothing else (despite the fact they had just shown that episode in January). There are obviously no PTW shows that build to Mania IX or X8, so we get a Challenge and Raw in their place. I like a change up like that every now and then.

So all this Hornswoggle vs. McMahon stuff is leading to a Finlay match at Mania, right? As for the Hall of Fame, yeah, it's not exactly the most legit hall in pro wrestling, but I enjoy the video packages and such for inductees. This also confirms Money in the Bank IV, if there was ever a doubt.

Actually one of the compliments I was going to give the PPV was there seemed to be more points where the viewers were able to just watch was unfolding without commentary hammering it down, but it did dawn on me it may have been a technical issue as well.

I see "Hart vs. Savage" listed as one of the HOF matches... hopefully that's not some WCW debacle. I like that Bret Hart was also given 9 matches... most 5 week months just split the match distribution up but still have it at 6. "10 Man Tag" is from Canadian Stampede, I assume. I assume "Mania Freeview" is some sort of Mania based free preview for non-subscribers. By my math, the 2nd MNW of April should be the July 7, 1997 Raw. I love that Raw and I hope there are no technical difficulties getting it.

It doesn't get really good until the build to Canadian Stampede (though the Austin / Bret / Ambulance angle from April is still great). I'm probably saying this with a Canadian bias, but the best parts of the angle are when they'd have Raw in Canada.

I was referring to the first attempt to get CENA counted out, thus Orton would win and retain.

Right... So, I'm looking at a non-finish to Cena/Orton at Unforgiven, Orton/HBK at Cyber Sunday, and Orton/Jericho at Armageddon. I guess Punk/BDV if we're being silly and counting the ECW title.

I can only think of Unforgiven and Armageddon. Did Cyber Sunday also have a non-finish?

It was his first cheap title retention tactic - he was trying to keep the winners purse AND not pin Cena.

I actually forgot that Armageddon's WWE title match ended in a DQ, but that was JBL attacking Jericho. This was one of those DQs where it made sense in the context of the match - Orton tried twice to get Cena counted out (the first time using video game logic where he fought on the rampway with Cena until 9, but they both jumped into the ring) and once to get himself counted out. When the 2nd try to get Cena counted out failed, he slapped the ref out of nowhere - it was kind of funny, actually. Still, a DQ ending is a DQ ending all the same... I just liked this one better than most.

It was weird hearing Tazz and Joey talk during the Punk/Chavo video package. All I made out was Joey saying Tazz could ask him a question, then he said something about when they go home, can he say Chavo... and that was it. They should probably never have a babyface do the triple suplex spot again either - even as the at home viewer, it was confusing as to if Punk was mocking Chavo or paying tribute to Eddie (and people are sick of that exploitation). It was a good thing Taker didn't get hurt when the chamber door opened by mistake and he tumbled out.

They did a good job making Umaga look like something after that whole one sided feud with HHH thing. The stacked samoan drop was amazing and he kept up dominating the match until taking 4 finishers. Hardy looked really good and for a brief moment I thought he may actually be winning, especially after the pedigree kick-out. Good show overall.

If I had to guess at the match order... 1. Flair vs. Kennedy 2. Punk vs. Chavo 3. SmackDown Chamber 4. Rey vs. Edge 5. Cena vs. Orton 6. Raw Chamber

Meltzer's preview:

Lately he's been pulling in the WWE folder though, perhaps forgetting he's not in his gimmick safe environment of CS. Czech accidentally called him funny during the POTYT and this is what we get for his sin.

Yes! CD quality version of Beth's theme.

It does, but only says it's from MSG. As seen previously in this thread I researched that and found they had matches in a row (which could also be seen in clip form on the Savage Coliseum Video). However, it would seem logical that it's the March show they use next month for the Mania theme. Then again, the 1997 MSG show this month seems to have nothing to do with the theme (well there are a lot of headlocks) and constantly hypes Mania 13. Would have been a better fit for next month, no?