JoeDirt

Very good interview, Meltz's always are.

That rant on Russo is fucking crazy.

For the first time, I got to watch Bret's comeback interview the night after Buried Alive. It's really interesting. Bret talks flat out about how WCW gave him a great offer for a ton of money to come to them and how he thought it over for a long time before deciding to stay in the WWF. The camera cuts to Vince a few times as Bret talks, looking nervous, and then when Bret announces he's staying Vince claps and says "All RIGHT!" Bret admits clean defeat at WM12 to Shawn, but says there's something about Shawn that bugs him and he'll beat him the next time around. He then says that at the Survivor Series he's accepted the challenge of the "best wrestler in the WWF today" Steve Austin. Up to this point, had Vince been acknowledged as the "boss" in the WWF or just an announcer? Was that stuff with him a play to smart fans? Was the stuff Bret said a shoot on Shawn, a start of a build towards WM13, or a little of both? And why did Bret call a heel like Austin the best wrestler in the WWF? Heart felt feelings, something he was supposed to say, or something else?

Apparently Orton vs. Taker has been announced on ads airing on FX.

I was just wondering if there was anything to spurn the sudden transformation from gladiator to cult leader, but I guess he just debuted it out of the blue, huh? Was the group a controversy at all at the time for any racial reasons or was it not really that big of a deal?

Credit to PWInsider.com...I'll edit in more at the top post here when they update their site. Dark Match: *Shannon Moore & Frankie Kazarian defeated Big Vito & Nunzio when Kazarian pinned Vito. Velocity: *Paul London pinned Spike Dudley with a German Suplex. *Rene Dupree pinned Scotty Too Hotty. *Hardcore Holly & Charlie Haas defeated Mike Kruel & Fred Sampson when Haas forced Kruel to tap out to the Haas of Pain. *Booker T pinned Kenzo Suzuki. Smackdown *A video proclaiming JBL's Celebration of Excellence tonight as he's the longest reigning WWE champion in a decade. *Also being teased for tonight is The Undertaker vs. Mark Jindrak & Luther Reigns. They also announced Linda McMahon is there and will appear later tonight. *WWE tag Team champions Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio defeated The Basham Brothers in a long bout. *Backstage in the Diva locker room, Orlando Jordan invites the women to JBL's celebration. *Kurt Angle defeated Matt Martel (Striker from NYC independents and 3PW). Martel was announced from South Philadelphia. When Angle asked him what it felt like facing an Olympic Gold Medalist, Martel asked Angle what it felt like to lose to John Cena. Angle slapped him. He made Martel tap out with less than a minute left. Tazz got into the ring to congratulate Angle for being undefeated and asked him about the Shawn Michaels challenge on Raw. Angle teases speaking, then throws down the mic and walks away. *They showed a limo showing up for JBL's celebration. *They are setting up now for the celebration. *Heidenreich read a poem. Josh Matthews came up to him and brought up Booker T, and he recited a poem about Booker. *Orlando Jordan helps JBL get dressed. *JBL Celebration - JBL's celebration has catering and a live band, and guests. The Bashams and Orlando Jordan came out, followed by JBL. They had a musical tribute to JBL and presented him with an oil painting of JBL. Big Show hits the ring and trashes the set, but is taken down and tried up in the ropes. John Cena hits the ring and breaks the oil painting over JBL's head. Teddy Long announces Big Show and John Cena vs. JBL and Orlando Jordan later tonight. The segment took 40 minutes, including set up and breaking down the ring. *WWE Cruiserweight champion Chavo Guerrero pinned Funaki. Paul London hits the ring from the crowd and chases off Guerrero. *The Undertaker defeated Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns. Taker pinned Jindrak while Reigns and Jindrak argued and brawled with each other with the agents pulling apart. *Teddy Long said it might be his last night as General Manager. Carlito Caribbean Cool comes out. Linda McMahon, via satellite announces that she's read the petition but Long's decisions were in favor of Smackdown fans so he's retained as GM. *Big Show & John Cena defeated WWE champion JBL & Orlando Jordan. Thank you for logging in tonight with PWInsider.com

Well, all the HBK matches are good. Everything else not so much.

There's a really noticeable shift in creative around Survivor Series 1996, and I'm guessing Russo started to really get creative control around then.

London used a dragon suplex at No Way Out...maybe it was that? P.S - Reigns/Jindrak...the feud everyone was begging for!

More stuff edited in...a Heidenreich POEM~! JBL/Cena TOMFOOLERY~!

More results edited in at the top.

WWE Raw HOLT report February 21, 2005 Penn State University Report by Dave Maddas of Altoona, Pa., PWTorch.com reader DARK MATCH (1) Vito beat Shane Mathews. I believe Mathews is from the local KCW wrestling organization based in Altoona. Mathews got a decent pop since they said he was from Altoona which is 45 minutes from Penn State. Vito got a good bit of heat and won the match, but I can't remember how he did win it. HEAT TAPING (1) Hurricane & Rosey beat two wrestlers. I was unable to hear their names. Rosey and Hurricane actually struggled against the pair but won with a pretty cool double team move. Interview segment with Coach talking to La Resistance. La Resistance complained about losing the tag titles when Tajiri and Regal hit the ring. Coach took the mic and basically challenge Tajiri and Regal to a six man tag if they could find a tag partner. When Coach asked for their answer Tajiri nailed both members of La Resistance with the green mist to signify yes to the challenge. (2) Maven beat Val Venis. Maven won the match after his very cool and high impact finisher. (3) William Regal & Rhyno & Tajiri beat La Resistance & Coach vs. Tajiri. Rhyno pinned Coach after Tajiri nailed Coach with a kick to the back of Coach's head. RAW NOTES The arena has only three-fourths full which was very surprising to me since Penn State has usually had a good crowd in the past for Raw. The entire upper level and several sections next to the hard camera were tarped off. With this poor showing I'm not sure we'll be seeing Raw for a long while if ever again. The crowd that was there was electric and in to almost everything. The only time they were really silent was during Chris Masters's match which was just a waste of time in my opinion and the crowd thought so too. There were a couple fans behind me that actually said, "Who in the hell wins a match with a full nelson?" During the Michaels-Orton tag match Michaels near the end of the match got into it with some fans at ring side and then again after the match was over. And it wasn't some little thing either. He actually went to the ringside barrier after the match and really got into it with the fans. I just watched my taping of Raw and it was right before Orton gave Edge and Christian the double DDT that you can barely see Michaels starting to argue with the fans. And then after the match when Orton is going up to the turnbuckle before the replay, Michaels has his back to the hard camera and he is again arguing with the fans at ringside. He then went to the ring barrier and got into the face of the fans, also. I was too far away to know what was said, but Michaels was pretty irate at the some of the fans. The crowd went nuts when Batista did the thumbs down and sent Triple H through the table. They were advertising a bonus match just for Penn State but they didn't have it which upset some people. Overall, I thought it was a good show live but was disappointed with the size of the crowd which could hurt our chances of Raw coming back --PWTorch.com

After posting that Punk promo, I figured I might as well make my own thread, like the one going in the General Wrestling forum. This is for indy wrestling stuff mostly, whether its full matches or highlight videos. This is a great highlight video of the Super Dragon/Excalibur vs. Kevin Steen/El Generico match from CZW Cage of Death 6...California vs. Canada: http://s13.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1UJSE55...SG2JAOLLTIF17DB And here's the Punk Wrestlerave promo: http://s13.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2IPYASW...IS1IW03HLYF1XKO Much more to come...

Teddy just doesn't do much for me as GM. But how much sense would it make storyline wise to just make Carlito the GM? Maybe they'll do the "you get 30 days to do better than him" or something, who knows. If they could get Austin or Foley to do it that could really help Smackdown out a lot, but that'll never happen. Anyways, RAW should be interesting leading into Mania. Hopefully Smackdown can keep up. P.S - I see Edge beating HBK next week after Angle interferes...that's really what should happen, as HBK is going over Angle at Mania anyways, and Edge could use another big win (I could see him being a Backlash opponent for Big Dave). PPS- Check out the receding hairline on Chris Masters. Wow, I wonder if he juices?

Good writeup. I was thinking for a while we might get a dream partner tag match with Benoit/Guerrero vs. Rey/Jericho, but now I'm not so sure. I could see Shelton vs. Snitsky going until Mania, as Shelton really needs a match with SOMEBODY, though it's too bad it has to be Snitsky. Edge is really a wild card here, as he seems to be the odd man out at the moment, unless they want to do something with him and his former tag team champion partner Hulk Hogan or something. I also think we could see a RAW and SD battle royal with the winner getting a title shot on whichever show he ends up on or something like that.

The HBK/Orton segment tonight definitely planted the seeds for Orton to go out and challenge Undertaker to a match at Wrestlemania, too. Kind of got lost with all the stuff that happened later.

Let's just all pray that between now and Mania Batista doesn't tear a quad or something. Who knows what they'd do then. They really need to book Batista strong at Mania. I'm talking like kicking out of a pedigree, doing his version of hulking up, spinebuster, powerbomb, new champion. This is the closest thing they've had in a long time of something getting REALLY big. Get Batista on all the late night talk shows going into Mania, that's for sure. And DAMN does Smackdown seem like a B-Show right now. Teddy Long has to go out there and say "well, I didn't get Batista...but our title match will still be good I promise!"

It's funny that the main buildup the whole night for No Way Out was made pointless the next night on RAW.

RAW tonight had a really cool moment in that final closing segment. It wasn't a great show overall, but it had that really cool moment. That's something that's been missing from RAW lately. There have been some solid shows, but nothing that you'd remember for a long time. Tonight had that moment.

Kinda early with the fight isn't it?

That Batista bomb was like the orgasm to that turn...whether there's going to be anything left in a few months, we'll see.

Wow, HHH is so smart he reveals all right in front of the cameras...

Wow, that was just horrible. Ah, an Orton promo to improve my mood.

How can they keep this division going with these being the only women that can wrestle? This is all they've got right here!

http://s13.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=02AE9D8...NX3DD3Y28K5AC9R Courtesy of the DVDVR boards, it's Chris Benoit vs. Randy Savage from February of 1996.