strummer

Also have to take into account that Vince McMahon did not believe in tag teams being any kind of draw at the top of the card. Vince believed tag teams were strictly midcard, therefore the Rockers were never put in a position to draw. In the NWA, tag teams were put on top and in a position to draw. Also, the Rockers had to work with inferior opponents, such as POP, Twin Towers, etc.

here's some more partial spoilers from gamefaqs: (edit, full spoilers up) "allright heres what i can remember last night. show opened with joey matthews and johnny nitro beating two jobbers. next was paul london against spike dudley, london won with the 450 splash josh matthews and some other dude, didn't catch the name came out for velocity tapings. mark jindrak beat one of the basham bros., ref banned one from ring side during the match. heidenriech beat a memphis guy with ease kidman & akio beat nunzio & funaki, think kidman did the shooting star press on funaki, cant remember tazz and cole walked out to the ring for smackdown tapings tony chimmel then told us to be ready with signs after the pyro goes off for the tapings tazz is in the ring and big show walks out. they talk about his upcoming match with akibono and show a tape of akibono in action. luther reigns interupts the precedings by driving some kind of jeep out. he tells show that the jeep is like a lot of akibonos and he is much stronger then him and says he'll show him by pushing it over. he tries but can't do it and the crowd laughs. he then runs to the ring and show chokeslams him. as show is leaving, he looks at the jeep and the crowd urges him to push it over. he then does and fails 3 times. he then just smashes the window and walks out. i think they'll edit this out. we wait for a few minutes and then show comes back out to try again. this time a guy runs in with a jack and jacks it up. show finally gets it pushed over and does some sumo stances. a video plays of chavo talking to eddie about him and rey, dont remember much of it. beer does that. Out next is a United States Championship match, or at least it was supposed to be. JBL accompanies Orlando Jordan and he is to face Scotty 2 Hotty. JBL is making fun of his size and Scotty superkicks both of them then hits JBL with the Worm. JBL is mad and he tells them he's wrestling. He proceeds to whoop Scotty. Next up, at least I think this was the next part, Teddy Long comes out and says that smackdown isn't just wrestling but to entertain. Out walks Carlito in Elvis getup with a guitar. He doesn't like it and Long has him sing an Elvis song. Of course he does horrible and the crowd lets him know it. He gets mad and walks off. Eddie finds Rey in the back and tells him he wants to have a match against him at Wrestlemania. Rey is kinda upset and he takes off for the ring because their match is up NEXT! Tag Team Championship match is next and it's Rey and Eddie vs. Hardcore Holly and Charlie Hass. Hass and Holly are walking to the ring when The Undertaker appears on the screen. He tells everyone that Orton made him mad last week when he slapped him and tonight there will be a sacrifice. He disappears and the intro for Holly and Hass continues on. Then Rey and Eddie come out. Rey and Eddie end up winning when Eddie hits the frog splash. Rey then gets on the mic and accepts Eddie's offer for the match. Oh yeah one other thing, during that match, Undertaker played some mind games by having the lights go off and the Screen start getting fuzzy. Next is my favorite part of the night. Shawn Michaels music hits but instead of HBK its Kurt Angle dressed up in HBK's attire. He does the whole entrance and with him is none other then Sensational Sherri. He gets on the mic and tells everyone that he's also an entertainer and he was going to prove it. He and Sherri then sing HBK's song with differnt lyrics that I didn't get cause I was laughing to hard. HBK interupts on the screen and let's Angle know he has a video showing his accomplishments too. It shows differnt parts of HBK's career. Afterwards, Sherri is crying because she is touched by it and Angle gets mad. He puts her in the Anklelock then ref's run out and break it up. Next we have a Cat fight between Dawn Marie and Michelle McCool. Dawn Marie wins. The screen shows us Carlito walking off wen smackdowns NUMBER ONE ANNOUNCA approaches him. He asks where he is going. Something is said and Carlito shoves the Elvis glasses in Funaki's chest and walks off. Funaki puts them on and starts to sing some Elvis when CCC walks up behind and Jeff Jarretts him with the guitar. He's knocked out and Carlito tells him that Carlito has left the building then spits apple on him. Michelle walks by and checks on him. I yell out for her to give him mouth to mouth which got some laughs since nothing else was going on. Oh again during the cat fight Undertaker did same thing he did during Tag team match with the lights and screen. Next I decided to leave for the concessions. It was Booker T vs. Rene Dupree. Didn't start because Undertaker's music started and he appeared behind him. From what I was told, Booker ran off and Rene became the sacrifice. Taker tombstoned him on the ringsteps. That was about it. He did the stretcher job thingy. Your main event is going to be........a debate between Cena and JBL. JBL keeps telling Cena he can't touch him or no shot at Wrestlemania. Cena never does instead he messes up JBL's limo, cuts his tie off and puts it on himself when JBL says he'd look better with a suit and tie. Then poors some water into JBL's hat. Cena is doing all this to try to get JBL to hit him but he never does. Think this is where it will end with Cena walking off and JBL mad. Our main event was Cena vs. JBL and it was actually pretty good. Cena wins with the FU. Tony says thanks and we leave. I could never get anyone to chant with me. I tried to start a Paul London, Funaki, Nunzio, and one of the jobber's chants but no one would. They only chanted for the big stars. Biggest pop was Cena, then Taker, Eddie, and Big Show JBL got the most heat, then Angle, Luther, and Carlito Fun show." GOOD GOD, only 2 matches! (3 if Dawn/Michelle is an actual "match") That is a hell of a lot of talking. This has to be a record for the least amount of wrestling on a show, maybe matching a Raw from 99. ---

I always thought his barber shop promo was great stuff. Plus, on From the Vault DVD, check out his promo from Challenge about the WM 10 Ladder Match

There must be no smart marks in Memphis

I believe Meltzer gave the Rumble match either **** or ****1/4. But I think Dave often overrated good matches from late 80s/early 90s WWF because there were so few of them at the time.

a longshot, but does anyone know the deal with Eric Embry killing off WCCW in the early 90s? I was actually a big fan of his when I was a mark, but whenever his name comes up on the net, it's met with disdain, so I'm assuming he was either a bad worker or must have done something to kill the territory. The wrestling magazines in the early 90s also used to kill him, outright saying the fans did not accept him as the top guy for an organization. Any ideas?

from Meltzer's update today: --After his performance on Tuesday against Kurt Angle, WWE has signed Marty Jannetty to a contract. It is not 100%, but he is expected to be on the Raw side and interact in some form with Shawn Michaels

If Ahmed wouldn't have been so injury prone, he definitely would have had a run on top

note for Patriots fans, Tom Brady will be hosting Saturday Night Live sometime in April

from Keller: H-Bull asked today in the VIP Forum: I really miss being able to watch that show on Saturday nights. The old version where they were actually in nightclubs not when they were taping it before Raw. Am I the only one who actually thought they were on to something special with that show until they gave up on it? WK answered: The concept behind Shotgun was that it would be a weekly Saturday night PPV for $9.95. The idea was to make it gritty and ECW-like, run it at nightclubs, use a core group of talent that wasn't regularly at house shows across the country each Saturday night so they could be live for Shotgun, bring in a couple new bigger names every few weeks and pull them from that night's house show, and run episodic TV that had a totally different feel from the other shows. McMahon approved the weekly PPV concept and then it was pitched to cable companies, who it turned out weren't receptive to it. With no cable support, they just turned it into a weekly TV series. Once the reality struck that it wasn't going to make enough ad revenue to be worth having a separate core roster and flying big names cross country to work between the Friday and Sunday big arena house shows, it basically quickly became just another weekly show without anything different about i

from searching, I believe this is the final Shotgun to air before the transformation to Jakked. August 21, 1999: Billy Gunn defeated Chaz...Intercontinental and European Champion, D-Lo Brown, defeated Prince Albert...The Godfather defeated Scott Zappa...Mideon and Viscera defeated Derek Dukes and Dominick DeNucci.

WWF @ New York City, NY - Mirage Nightclub - January 4, 1997 Shotgun Saturday Night - debut episode; hosted by Vince McMahon and Sunny; included Todd Pettingill visiting with Rocky Miavia, Goldust, and Marlena in the VIP area, with Bob Backlund taking offense to Marlena's cleavage; included Sunny announcing that the following week she would provide one of her own personal sex tapes to counter Marlena's flashing and to prove that Sunny was the sexiest woman in the WWF: The Flying Nuns - Sister Angelica & Mother Smucker (the Headbangers) defeated Henry & Phinneas Godwinn (w/ Hillbilly Jim) at around the 12:30 mark when Angelica pinned Phinneas after Brother Love hit Phinneas in the head with his book of love; during the match, the crowd chanted "Holy shit" and "Go to Hell" towards the Nuns; at one point in the contest, Pettingeil interviewed Hillbilly at ringside about the Nuns; mid-way through the bout, Brother Love made a surprise appearance at ringside to manage the Nuns; after the bout, Todd Pettingiel interviewed Brother Love and the Flying Nuns in the ring, with Brother Love renaming them the Sisters of Love (Brother Love's first appearance in over a year) Goldust (w/ Marlena) defeated the Sultan (w/ Bob Backlund) via count-out at 9:31 after Marlena climbed on the ring apron, as Goldust was about to be caught in the Camel Clutch, and flashed Goldust's opponent; following the incident, Backlund threw his jacket on Sultan so that he wouldn't see and the two left ringside; during the bout, Pettingill interviewed Backlund at ringside regarding his comments about Marlena's clevage earlier in the show; late in the contest, Backlund went to the commentary table and berated Vince McMahon, Sunny, and Pettingiel Ahmed Johnson defeated Crush (w/ Clarence Mason, D-Lo Brown, and other members of the Nation) via disqualification when D-Lo interfered as Ahmed attempted the Pearl River Plunge; during the bout, Pettingiel interviewed Mason at ringside; after the bout, the Nation held Ahmed for Crush to hit him over the head with a steel chair; moments later; Goldust, the Godwinns, and Hillbilly cleared the ring and, after he regained his senses, Ahmed led the chase outside of the areana onto 56th St. where he eventually hit the Pearl River Plunge on D-Lo on the hood of a car Mascarita Sagrada Jr. pinned Mini Vader at around the 6:30 mark with a missile dropkick; prior to the bout, footage was shown of Jim Cornette picking up Mini Vader at the Port Authority Bus Terminal after Mini Vader was driven in from Mexico; before the match, Sunny danced the Macarana as Pettingill sang "Mascarita" to the tune of the dance song; Jim Cornette did guest commentary for the bout before going ringside; after the match, Cornette verbally berated Mini Vader before both minis stripped Cornette of his pants

I can't believe Christy is only 24 either, she looks at least 3-4 years older. I've found that most of the women look younger when they are not wearing layers of makeup on their face.

a weird myth/rumor that was on the net in 1998. John Tenta was going to be brought in and given a monster heel push and be put with Austin to headline King of the Ring 98. But when Tenta was signed, Vince was still mad at him for bailing out on the WWF in 94 and going to WCW and as a result was given the Golga gimmick as "punishment"

During the early stages of the NWO angle in 1996, my cousin and I were dying to see a feud between Kevin Nash and the Giant. We thought the matches would be "awesome" 1996 was my last year as a mark thank God

from PWI: I attended last night's house show at the Crown Arena in Fayetteville last night. The big news of the evening is that during an angle with The Coach, Ricky Steamboat was announced as the newest member of the WWE Hall Of Fame. Of course, this led to Coachman running down Steamboat and the Dragon laying him out! Also, I heard people saying that Matt Hardy was outside meeting with fans before the show, but I didn't see him if he was.

Name a wrestler and give the worst year of his career. Shawn Michaels-1993. Totally dogged it in the ring for almost the entire year. Gained weight and slowed down considerably. Got into problems with drugs and had a nasty contract dispute that caused him not to drop the IC title in the ring. Just a horrific year for Shawn. HHH-1996. Jobbed to Warrior at WM. Had his intitial heel push stall big time. The Clique incident putting him on job duty. Not winning the King of the Ring as he was supposed to. Not even appearing on the Summerslam PPV. His push towards the end of the year helped, but an overall bad year. Bret Hart-1999. Start/Re-start on several pushes. Was going to feud with Hogan, then wasn't. Jobbing the US title to Piper. The Owen tragedy. Bickering betwen family members. Dealing with Russo and a career ending injury at Starcade Flair-1991. Dealing with Jim Herd. Just a political mess. Was supposed to job to Windham, then Luger, then just quit after not being able to take it anymore. Herd wanted to totally change Flair's look and halter his push. If Flair hadn't jumped to WWF, his career could have really come to an end. You could also argue the past few years for Flair, but I really think he's having fun out there.

man, why all the baseball bashing X, there are a lot of people on the board that just happen to love the game. I love football as much as the next guy, but opening day in baseball is met with great anticipation, always has been always will.

Shaniqua was not fired, she quit. They loved her look so much that they were willing to give chance after chance, even though she had a horrible attitude

well, Meltzer on the Wrestling Classics board just said he doesn't think the story is true, so maybe the guy was lying or got mixed up

Once April 3rd hits, the city of Boston wouldn't care if Larry Bird, Bob Cousy, and John Havlicek came out of retirement, were put in a time machine back to their primes, and led them to the finals. Boston is all about baseball.

I don't know about Marty working a top program with Bret, he had little to no charisma and couldn't cut heel promos. Yes he was a better, much smarter worker, but I don't know if he would have gotten as over as Shawn did

the Mets/Dodgers deal is official

Michigan State pulling away. Don't know if Vermont has any more runs left in them.