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Easy lineup, with two matches I love. Should be easy to knock out. ___________________ The first gift this time, is from Mickie James. It's Wendi Richter w/Cyndi Lauper vs. Leilani Kai w/The Fabulous Moolah for the Women's Title, from WrestleMania. Rock and Wrestling... Blow-by-blow: Richter punches Kai, but Kai follows with a kick, and an armdrag. Richter applies a hammerlock, and throws Kai to the canvas, but Kai gives her two snap mares to get out of it. She pulls on Richter's hair a whole punch and chokes her, until Richter applies a body scissors. Kai stands up, and gets taken to the canvas for 2, and then rolled up for 2. Kai misses a charge to the corner (eats feet), and Richter covers her for 2. Moolah pulls Richter's hair, so Lauper comes over and hits Moolah. Kai pulls Richter back in, and gives her a big boot. Richter gives her this F-U looking thing for 2, but Kai comes back with a backbreaker for 2. She slams Richter and goes up top for a crossbody, but Richter reverses it, winding up on top for the cover at 6:12. New champion, yeah, and all that. Match Analysis: Was a mess. One that I'd rather not waste more words on. 1/2*. ___________________ Jonathan Coachman's gift is Rock vs. Hogan from WM X8. That's all the description you need. Blow-by-blow: The staredown before the bout still gives me chills, even though I've watched this match at least 20 times. Both wrestlers lock-up, until Hogan pushes Rocky to the canvas. He poses, and the crowd goes apeshit. I still mark for this entire match, so everything is going to be insanely biased. Hogan gives Rock a shoulderblock, and poses more. Hell yeah, son! He gives him a clothesline, but Rock comes back with one of his own, and tells him to BRING IT. Rocky gives him the SPIT PUNCH, but Hogan seems deathly terrified of taking a bump over the top, so he scoots out of the ring under the bottom rope. Rocky throws Hogan back in, and clotheslines him after Hogan isn't able to backdrop the Rock. Rock goes for ROCK BOTTOM, but he gets elbowed away by Hogan, and then given a running elbow. Hogan gives him 2 elbowdrops, and a face stomp to boot. Rocky gives Hogan a spear, and the mount punch. Hogan then gives Rock a back suplex, which gets a 2 count. Hogan goes to the ABDOMINAL STRETCH, and then rolls Rock up for another 2 count. He gives Rock the BACK RAKE, and a few chops, before taking him to the corner. Over there, he gives Rock two punches, and bites him. Rocky gives him a few chops (huh), and Hogan misses a charge to the corner, but quickly gives Rock a chokeslam afterward. Hogan takes the tape off his wrists and chokes the Rock with it, and tosses Rock out over the top rope. He rams the Rock into the steel steps, and slams him throat-first onto the barrier at ringside. Hogan begins to take apart the announce table, seemingly to slam Rocky onto it, but the Rock gets there first, and rams Hogan into the table. Rock grabs a chair, but the official takes it away, preventing him from using it. Back inside, Hogan gives Rock a clothesline, and sidesteps when the Rock's running afterward, forcing the Rock to run into the official. Rock comes back with an ugly spinebuster, and the SHARPSHOOTER. Hogan gets to the ropes, but since the ref's out, why break the hold? Once Rock thinks he's done enough, he revives the referee, as the crowd chants "Rocky Sucks." Gee, they love him, don't they. Hogan gives the Rock a low blow, and a ROCK BOTTOM, which only gets 2. Hogan takes off his weight belt now, and hits Rock with it three times. If Hollywood hasn't used his belt yet, the match isn't going to be ending. Of course, he has to take some punishment too, after he misses a punch with the belt on his hand, and gets caught with a DDT by Rocky. Rock grabs the belt now, and hits Hogan with it 7 times. He gives Hogan ROCK BOTTOM, which gets an early 2 count. Oh my GAWD, he's HULKIN' UP! Boom, boom, boom, big boot, DROP THE FUCKING LEG, but it only gets 2. JR was going into raptures about how Hogan pinned Andre with the legdrop, so it's fitting that the move iddn't finish the match. Hogan gives Rock another big boot, but is unable to DROP THE FUCKING LEG. Rock gives him ROCK BOTTOM, and sends him down to ROCK BOTTOM AGAIN, then kips up and gives him the MF'ING PEOPLE'S ELBOW for 3 at 16:23. After the Rock celebrates for a bit, Hogan extends his hand in friendship. The Rock accepts the gesture, so Scott Hall and Kevin Nash go to the ring. They thought Hogan was NWO 4 LIFE, but I guess he's not, so they attack him. The Rock runs back down to the ring, and cleans house, along with Hogan. He wants Hogan to pose, so he does. That's the end of WM X8...oh wait, it's not. Match Analysis: ***. I don't have any problem with those that say the match wasn't that good, but come on. Not only that, but it should've been their only match, and the match at No Way Out 2003 should never have happened. But yeah, the show should've ended here. It would've been the perfect ending, Hogan passing the torch, and then Rocky coming back to help run off the dastardly NWO, who turned on the guy they thought was NWO 4 LIFE. For shame WWF, for shame. ___________________ Ok, here we go. CM Punk's gift is sure to be something good, and it was. Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Eddy Guerrero in a Mask vs. Title Match, for the WCW Cruiserweight Title, from Halloween Havoc. You know, when being Cruiserweight Champion meant something. Blow-by-blow: Eddy taunts Rey at the beginning of the match, but misses the punch he said he'd hit Rey with. Rey comes off the ropes with a quebrada, and he turns it into an armdrag. He gives Eddy a HUGE monkeyflip, then knocks him over the top rope and to the floor with a crossbody. He goes to dive onto Eddy from the apron, and gets knocked straight down to the floor, landing on his back. Eddy rams Rey, head-first into the steel steps. Ouch. Eddy hilos onto Rey when he comes back in, and gives him a European uppercut. Rey gives him a dropkick and goes for a handspring elbow, but Eddy gives him a back suplex after catching him. Eddy gives him a delayed vertical suplex for 2, and then a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Eddy tears at Rey's mask, but doesn't rip it, yet, anyway. He then gives Rey an abdominal stretch, and turns that into a pumphandle backbreaker, which gets two. Then they do the typical lucha sequence, where a guy rolls up from the mat and onto the opponents shoulders, taking him over, BUT THIS TIME, Rey springs onto the top rope instead, and gives Eddy a backflip DDT. Wow. That's way better than AJ Styles' quebrada reverse DDT. Part of that is because AJ does it EVERY match. Rey gives him a dropkick that puts Eddy on the outside, and springs up to follow Eddy, but Eddy gives him a dropkick, knocking Rey to the floor. Eddy rams Rey into the guardrail, and throws him back in, where Eddy applies a camel clutch. Love the back-oriented offense here. He tears at most of Rey's mask, leaving it with a gigantic hole in the material. Eddy applies a Gory Special, and Rey armdrags his way out of it. Rey misses a dropkick, so Eddy gives Rey a dropkick to the head, as Rey's down on the canvas. Eddy gives Rey an Argentine Backbreaker, and then applies a bow and arrow lock. Eddy gives Rey a back elbow afterward, and puts his foot on the ropes to CHEAT, but only gets 2. Eddy gives Rey a European uppercut, and then tosses him into the corner, where Rey goes upside down. Eddy gives Rey a dropkick, and then tries to get a running start to give him a baseball slide to the face, but Rey raises up, causing Eddy to slide into the ringpost, nuts first. Good thing the post was padded. Rey now FLIES off the top with a plancha (I figured out the difference between a plancha and a pescado the other day. What a fucking buffoon I am.), onto Eddy, who's on the floor. Back inside, Eddy tries a tilt-a-whirl slam, but Rey finds his way out of the hold, and gives Eddy a rana for 2. Eddy gives Rey a clothesline, but Rey finds a way to go through the ropes, 619 style, and headscissor Eddy to the floor. Rey flies out onto Eddy, who's on the floor, with a DRAGONRANA. No shit. Great stuff. Rey comes back in off the top, with a standing corkscrew senton, onto Eddy. It gets 2, so Rey slams him, and tries a springboard split legged moonsault, but eats Eddy's knees. Eddy gives him a sick looking powerbomb, which gets 2. The "Eddy Sucks" chant begins, so Eddy takes Rey into the turnbuckle. He misses a charge, and Rey gives him a spinning heel kick. Rey's springboard hurricanrana misses, as Eddy avoids it and catches Rey, turning the move into a backbreaker. Eddy goes up top, and Rey avoids the frog splash, so Eddy rolls through, as he usually does. Rey gets up on the top rope, and he gets crotched. Eddy tries to give him a back suplex, but he's pushed away. So now, Eddy goes for SPLASH MOUNTAIN. He gets ready to drop Rey all the way down to the canvas, but Rey counters with a hurricanrana, for the win and the Cruiserweight Title at 13:51. But most importantly, Rey gets to keep his mask. Eddy is really pissed off, so he attacks Rey after the match and throws him out of the ring. Match Analysis: It's certainly the best Cruiserweight Title match ever. Can't recommend this one enough. Most of the matches that feature this many highspots have a fuckup or two, but this one doesn't. It's an easy *****. I liked Eddy's back work the most. Almost all the moves and holds he used were moves that are supposed to target the back. ___________________ From the David Von Erich Memorial Show at Texas Stadium, it's Mike, Kevin and Fritz Von Erich vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts), for the World 6 Man Tag Team Championship. Self explanatory, isn't it. This was Shawn Michaels' gift. Blow-by-blow: As soon as the match starts, Fritz attacks Hayes. The Von Erich's clear the ring, so once Gordy finds a chair, he throws one in. It hit Kevin's hands or something, cause he's bleeding pretty badly from that area. David Manning grabs the mic, and says that the only rule in the match is that two people are all that's allowed in the ring. Kevin and Roberts start as the bell rings (I was timing before), and Kevin rams Roberts to the turnbuckle. As a result, Michael Hayes comes in, and basically says, "fuck the rules." Roberts hits Kevin, but misses a charge to the corner. Kevin drags Roberts over to Mike, who tags in and elbowdrops Roberts in the knee. Hayes comes in and slams Mike, but misses a splash off the 2nd rope. Fritz comes in and kicks Hayes, so everyone else joins in the fight. Fritz takes his belt off, and whips Hayes' ass with it. Harhar. Kevin and Gordy stay in when the ring clears, and Gordy rams Kevin to the buckle. I guess Fritz can't handle watching his sons get beat up, so he comes in and clobbers Gordy. If the Von Erich's win, Kerry takes Fritz's position in the team as a champion. Kevin goes for the CLAW, but Gordy stops it. Hayes comes in, and gives Kevin a clothesline, then takes his boot off and hits Kevin in the head with it. Roberts comes in, and thrusts his crotch into the face of Kevin. That's how it looked, but really, he was hitting him with his belt buckle. Roberts gives Kevin a backdrop, but Kevin lands near to Fritz, tagging him in. Fritz gives Hayes and Roberts a double noggin-knocker, and applies the CLAW, to a bleeding Michael Hayes. And then, Fritz gives Roberts the CLAW, until Gordy forces him to break the hold. See, this is one thing I don't like about World Class. Old man Fritz has to dominate, whenever he steps in the ring. Gordy and Hayes are then rammed into each other by the Von Erichs, and Kevin comes off the top with a crossbody to finish Roberts at 8:53. The crowd goes apeshit, but they were doing that for the duration of the match anyway. After the match, a "big Oriental" attacks the Von Erichs, until Kerry comes in the ring to break it up. The "big Oriental" was Killer Khan. Match Analysis: Wild. It's really hard to go into great detail, though. ***1/4. Just trust me, you want to watch it. ___________________ Ok, I'm done for a day or two. Nothing to watch, nothing to review.

I bring GIFTS!!! I'll be posting these in increments of four. ___________________ We're saving the best for last, so it'll be Val Venis' gift, right now. I thought this would be the skit where his dick got chopped off, and next week he said it wasn't, but it's not. Instead, it's Shawn Michaels vs. Carlito from 11/28/05. Blow-by-blow: Carlito spits in the face of people that aren't cool, obviously meaning Shawn, then knocks Shawn out to ringside. I like when Carlito spits on people. Carlito chokes HBK with his shirt, and rams him into the barrier at ringside. On the inside, Carlito does the move I saw on Wiki was called the Back Stabber, obviously to work on the back of Shawn. Carlito applies a headlock, and takes Shawn down to the canvas. He gives Shawn a shoulderblock when shot into the ropes, and goes for another, but Shawn gives him a hiptoss. Shawn tries to roll up Carlito, and gets thrown back, but misses a charge to the ropes, and SKINS THE CAT, to come back in. Carlito clotheslines Shawn over the top when he gets back in, and gives him a plancha out to the floor. Back in, Carlito gets 2. Carlito beats up Shawn, and now they each trade chops in the corner. Each guy delivers 5 to the other, and Carlito whips Shawn into the corner, where Shawn avoids a charge, and Carlito comes off the 2nd rope with a springboard crossbody for 2. Shawn gives Carlito the flying forearm, and kips up, but his knee buckled. OMG, IT'S A SHEWT!!! No, it really isn't, but anyway, Shawn's knee's in pain, so he rolls out to the floor. Great selljob, to the point where you actually COULD wonder if it was real. Of course it's not, as you see when Carlito gives Shawn a baseball slide. And we go to a commercial break. We come back, and Carlito has a half crab applied on HBK. Carlito chopblocks HBK and tries to apply another leglock, but HBK kicks him away a few times, keeping Carlito from applying anything. Carlito misses a charge to the corner when HBK gets up, so HBK tries to climb to the top. Very, very slowly. Carlito crotches him, and goes up for a back suplex. He gets knocked off, so Shawn turns around, and gives him the flying elbow off the top. He didn't exactly jump to do it, either. Shawn TUNES UP THE BAND, but his knee gives out when he tries to deliver SWEET CHIN MUSIC. A DDT by Carlito gets 2, and Shawn tries for SWEET CHIN MUSIC out of nowhere, but he can't get it, crumpling to the canvas. Then Carlito tries this reverse DDT looking thing, and gets pushed into the referee, after which HBK gives Carlito SWEET CHIN MUSIC, for the win, at 13:44, 10:10 of which was shown, due to commercials. Match Analysis: See, things like that are why main event wrestlers should have TWO finishers. It didn't make any sense for Shawn to finish the match with a superkick, after the legwork. It was still good though, and I'll rate it **3/4. In some of these young guy vs. old guy matches, I'll say who I thought should have gone over. Shawn definitely should have went over. FWIW, since I found it funny, when I quit watching the WWE altogether after Royal Rumble 2004, Orton was on RAW. I looked at the results for Survivor Series 05 the other day, and he was on Smackdown. Now he's back on RAW. Well then. I don't particularly care for that much switching from brand to brand. Yes, I know that had nothing to do with the last match. ___________________ Chuck Palumbo's gift is from WM 17, the Undertaker vs. Triple H. I'm glad he chose this, but not really. I'm not even going to watch the match again, so it's a copy and paste job. Remember, this all started because HHH said he's beaten everyone, Taker came out and said no, then HHH destroyed his bike. Yada, yada, yada. Blow-by-blow: This time, the dubbed music is the Ministry of Darkness music. I like. That's as far as I got before turning it off. They brawl on the outside, which is when I start the timer, when the action starts. Taker gets the best of it, and punches HHH who flies through the makeshift Spanish Announce Table. Just a regular table, in Dudley Boyz fashion. HHH with a high knee in the ring, and Taker no-sells it. He backdrops HHH, and clotheslines him. An Undertaker powerslam gets two, but he misses his elbow drop. Taker does a flying clothesline and goes up for OLD SCHOOL, but HHH armdrags him off the top. HHH with a neckbreaker that gets two, and two elbows to the head of Taker. HHH gets another neckbreaker, this time of the swinging variety, for a 2 count. HHH goes outside and grabs the SLEDGEHAMMER, as he gets this sick and twisted look on his face. That's good acting. The referee steals the SLEDGEHAMMER, and Taker slingshots HHH into the referee after a Pedigree attempt is reversed. Taker chokeslams HHH for a 2 count, and because it was ONLY a two count, Taker stomps on the ref and gives him an elbowdrop. He tosses HHH over the top rope and over to the floor, and HHH rams Taker's head into the steps. Taker backdrops HHH into the crowd, and they brawl up to the technical, usually off camera area. HHH hits Taker in the back and the head with a chair, and then wallops him all over the body with it. Taker chokeslams HHH "down to the floor," and I'll be honest, when I saw WM 17 on PPV, I thought HHH was dead. But, as we see on the replay, it was a well-cushioned fall. Taker jumps off the stage thing and elbowdrops HHH, and EMT's have brought out a stretcher to wheel HHH back with. Taker shoves them sumbitches out of the way, and the two men make their way back to the ring. Taker has the SLEDGEHAMMER now, and HHH gives him a nut-shot. HHH has the SLEDGEHAMMER, but Taker with a big boot. HHH goes for the TOMBSTONE but Taker reverses, and there's no referee to make the count. Taker "revives" the official, and picks HHH up for the LAST RIDE. HHH hits him with the SLEDGEHAMMER in mid-flight, and the cover gets 2. Taker's busted wide open, and HHH goes up for the 10 punch in the corner. Unfortunately for him, Taker gets the LAST RIDE (which I think looks visually better than almost all other powerbomb variations) for the 3 count at 18:58. Match Analysis: Fun, and the overly gimmicked chokeslam at the technical area really didn't bother me. A good, dramatic match which made me think HHH would be the one to beat Taker at Mania the first time I watched it. Cool finish too. ***1/2. Remember, I changed the rating cause of what I thought of the Brock/Taker match at No Mercy '02. ___________________ Gene Okerlund's gift to us, is Hulk Hogan vs. Nick Bockwinkel w/Bobby Heenan for the AWA Championship, and that took place on AWA Super Sunday, in 1983. The date in the description is NOT RIGHT. Blow-by-blow: Bockwinkel stalls outside of the ring, then comes back in, but bails again. He's scared of the HULKSTER, BROTHER. Hogan gives him a shoulderblock, and pushes Bockwinkel into the turnbuckle. Hogan gives him 2 more shoulderblocks, and Bockwinkel bails to the outside, to meet with Bobby Heenan. Bockwinkel comes back in with a few knees to Hogan's gut, and he tries a backdrop, but Hogan kicks him in the gut, and delivers a few knees of his own to Bockwinkel. Hogan gives Bock a doublestomp, and a backbreaker for 2, as Bockwinkel's feet are on the bottom rope. Hogan charges into the corner and runs over Bock, but Bock comes back with a few punches, which only get 1. Bockwinkel applies a front facelock type choke, and keeps reapplying it whenever the referee makes him break the hold. Bockwinkel covers Hogan for 2 and tries a piledriver, but Hogan gives him a backdrop to get away from the hold. Bockwinkel misses a charge, so Hogan punches away at him, and Hogan's cover gets 2. Hogan gives him a clothesline and elbowdrop for 2, then a shoulderbreaker for 2. Hogan gives Bockwinkel a kneelift and a powerslam for 2, but he's unable to DROP THE FUCKING LEG, DUDE. Bockwinkel gives him repeated shouldercharges in the corner and tries a scoop slam, but can't get it, so Hogan falls on top and gets 2. Hogan gives Bockwinkel another elbowdrop for 2, on a kickout that was screwed up by Bockwinkel. The ref just stopped counting, and Bockwinkel didn't kick out until a bit afterward. Hogan misses a charge to the corner, and Bockwinkel applies a sleeper. Hogan pulls him over his head and to the canvas, knocking Bockwinkel into the referee. Bockwinkel reapplies the sleeper, and Hogan rams him into the turnbuckle, where the ref is trying to recouperate. Ok, that's overkill. The crowd's shitting all over it, making matters worse. Now Hogan tosses Bockwinkel over the top rope. That's three different ways for a Dusty Finish in one match. Find another with that many. Hogan suplexes Bockwinkel in from the apron, and DROPS THE FUCKIN' LEG, for the 3 count and pinfall at 18:11. I love how "Real American" was edited in. It sounds like that was actually the music being played. Anyhow, Gene Okerlund's in the ring, to announce that AWA President Stanley Blackburn has reversed the decision, because Hogan threw Bockwinkel over the top rope. The crowd shits all over it, as they should. Match Analysis: The finish ruined a good match. Plain and simple. However, this was a classic match. Everything was going good, until the finish. And honestly, the AWA deserved to die a painful death after doing something like that. The crowd was primed for a title change. **1/2. Down from ****, which is where it would have been without that AWFUL finish. ___________________ Ok, when I said I'm saving the best for last, I meant that literally. As in, I'll be posting it at the end of the month! Hahaha, fooled you all. I'll post Steamboat/Flair from the Clash on New Year's Eve. There are multiple reasons for that, but namely because I want to end the year on a good note. I'll be posting more of these on the 8th.

I'm not sure quite how to open this up, so for once, I'm at a loss for words. ___________________ The first match is Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Mysterio Jr., for the AAA Welterweight Championship. Just seeing that matchup made me want to watch the show more. Juventud picks Rey up in a fireman's carry, and slams him to the mat. He gives him an armscissors rollup for 2, and Rey applies a headlock. Rey gives Juvi two armdrags, but Juvi kips up and gives him two of his own. Juvi chops Rey twice, and gives him a spinebuster for 2. Both men do this strange thing, where their legs are locked together and both bridge out to a headstand position, and they slap each other. Both men slap each other while standing up, but Rey misses a springboard moonsault. That looked a million times better than the Lionsault. A monkey flip by Rey only puts Juvi on the ring apron, and Rey goes up top, giving Juvi a rana to the floor. That whole sequence was awesome. Juvi comes in and gives Rey a somersault legdrop, but gets clotheslined quickly, to stop his rally. Rey gives him a flying headscissors, and a springboard hurricanrana, so Juvi bails. THEN, Rey goes out to the floor, with a TOPE CON HILO, landing on Juvi. Rey puts a chair around Juvi's neck, and rams him into two ringposts. Heh, Extreme Lucha Libre indeed. Juvi grabs a light bulb from a fan, but notices what it is, and puts it down before entering the ring. Light bulbs in wrestling are not something I'm a fan of, so good. Juvi comes in and gives Rey a dropkick, then a release german suplex. Juvi goes to the apron, and springboards in with a spinning heel kick. Wow. Juvi gives Rey a sitout powerbomb for 2, and a legdrop. He then gives Rey a press slam to a fallaway slam with a bridge, and that gets 2. Rey chops away, and Juvi misses a charge to the corner. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned this yet, but Juvi's mask is funny looking. Rey gives Juvi a rana for 2, and then another, and a powerslam. Rey goes up top, but Juvi crotches him and goes for Splash Mountain. I've seen very few matches where this move hits, as Rey counters it with a hurricanrana at 9:30, for the win. Not clipped, thank God. Well, I've only seen WCW do this finish 20 times. But this was before those, so I'll rate it accordingly. It's ***1/4. Had it been longer, it probably would have been just as awesome as Rey/Psychosis. This wasn't a spotfest, but to clarify, I rate those on their own scale. Which is whether or not I find it entertaining, accompanied with a regularly weighted star rating. I really, really want to see their 2 out of 3 falls match from March of that year, now. ___________________ Lance Russell does his bullshit with the marcea hatt omves lal runoda, and then, CACTUS JACK(!) and Mikey Whipwreck make their first appearance of the show. Cactus has a Mr. Potato Head, and does a little reenactment of him losing his own ear in Germany against Vader. That was strange to watch. Cactus asks Mikey if he'd kill for him, and Mikey says, he guesses so. He says he and Mikey can face the Smokin' Gunns at Madison Square Garden if they win the match tonight. And, oh, his shirt. WWF'nF. Awesome. ___________________ To follow up with that, it's the Eliminators vs. Cactus Jack and Mikey Whipwreck w/Raven, for the ECW Tag Team Championships. Where's Jason? Mikey hates Raven, remember. So they both push each other during the ring introductions. Kronus and Mikey start, and there's a sign that says, Mikey: If Titan calls, please go sign. Ouch. Kronus pushes Mikey to the ground twice, and applies a wristlock. Mikey reverses it to a headlock, and gives Kronus an armdrag. Kronus bails, but back in, Mikey gives Kronus a droptoehold, and a headlock. Kronus throws him off, and tags in Saturn, who gives Mikey a shoulderblock. Mikey gives Saturn an armdrag and a hiptoss, then takes him over with a headlock, prior to tagging in Cactus. Cactus gets on the mic, and tells Mikey to get his ass out of the ring if he's not going to help Cactus the way he wants him to. This character is fucking gold. GOLD, I tell you. Cactus gives Saturn a headbutt and an elbow, then a big boot and legdrop, not Hogan style, for 2. Mikey tags in, but won't team up with Cactus for a move, so Saturn superkicks Mikey. He gives Mikey a RELEASE slingshot back suplex, forcing Mikey to land on his head. Holy fuck. See though, this is what I was saying about headdrops at the Pit. While I may like this, and it's within the context of the match...it is HIGHLY unnecessary. Kronus tags in, and both he and Saturn give Mikey a double STO. Kronus puts Mikey in the corner, and gives him a handspring back elbow. It looked just as good as the one Muta uses, maybe even better. No lie. I'm a believer in, the original is not always the best. Kronus goes to the chinlock, which certainly is not the best. It doesn't last long, though, as he powerbombs Mikey, while Saturn comes off the top with a kneedrop. Saturn gives Mikey a clothesline for 2 as he tags in, but tags in Kronus again, awfully quick. They do a sidesuplex with a legdrop type thing, but Cactus saves Mikey at the count of 2. Kronus gives Mikey an overhead belly-to-belly suplex, and Cactus finally gets the hot tag, after Mikey makes his way to the corner. He jumps on Saturn, who's draped along the 2nd rope, and gives Kronus the repeated forearms in the corner. Cactus goes to the apron after giving Kronus the CACTUS CLOTHESLINE!!!! and springboards to the floor, giving Kronus a back elbow which drives Kronus into the guardrail. Awesome. Cactus comes back in and gives Saturn a piledriver, and grabs a bottle from under the ring. He breaks it, and goes to stab Saturn with it. However, Mikey won't let him use it. Mikey dropkicks Cactus, but Saturn's unable to use the bottle too, as Mikey gives him a superkick. I love the, "he's against both sides" thing Mikey has goin' on. Mikey clotheslines both Eliminators and goes up top, giving Saturn a rana on the way down. He hits Kronus with a boot, but gets Totally Eliminated. I've watched quite a bit of ECW, and I just now noticed how much I love that finishing move. It's so fucking brilliant. It can't be understated. I'd say that a current team should rip it off, but that's blatant gimmick imitation. Even I can't condone that, although I said the original isn't always the best. But there's no topping that. The Eliminators pick up the pinfall and the tag titles, at 12:10. Raven attacks Mikey right after the pinfall, but Cactus pushes Raven away. SWERVE!!! as Cactus starts beating up Mikey. Typical ECW, but this is when you didn't really expect it, but at the same time you did, so it was ok. Not the, "oh fuck, I saw this coming from a mile away and it fucking sucked so hard, bro, even a mark would see that shit" kind of SWERVE you see now. Anyway, Russo couldn't write something as good as this show if he dreamed. Yeah, I said it. Raven hits Mikey with a plastic folding chair, and Cactus gives him the Double Arm DDT on the chair. No Bang, Bang. I've never seen this, and it's already my favorite Foley moment of all. He went from sometimes funny with Mikey to dead ass serious in a matter of seconds. I want to rate the match and post match ***1/2, so I will. Great stuff. ___________________ We clip away, and Joey Styles is in the ring with the Eliminators. Francine shows up, and plays nice with them. Unfortunately, her New York-ish accent is too strong for me to take it all that seriously. Now the Pitbulls come to the ring, and hang Saturn with their chain. OH MY GOD, IT WAS A SETUP. Kronus gets SUPERBOMBED, and Francine grabs a pair of scissors. They cut off Saturn's hair, as the crowd goes into raptures, and chants E-C Dub. Well, that was certainly a cool moment. ___________________ It's multiple promo time, as we go to the end of the show. The Gangstas want the Eliminators, it's as simple as that. Mustafa's laugh is great. Tommy Dreamer has a melting candle, and the wax is burning onto his hands. It's supposed to signify the desire he has. Wow. Cactus talks about Mikey, and how Mikey doesn't have an desire. Mikey drug him down, so he had to handle the situation his way. He says Vince told him to bring Mikey, but since he's not coming, Cactus will have to slap him like he was his own child. Ok, time out. That was one of the best promos I've ever seen. EVER. Shane Douglas makes an appearance and doesn't say anything, but...JT FUCKING SMITH! I listen to ah, Dean Martin, ah. Bill Alfonso and Taz follow, I don't really need to describe what they said. Fonz rambles like a nutcase, and Taz tells you how he's going to kick your ass. To the Pitbulls, and they'll get the Tag Titles. The Gangstas again, and they're getting the Eliminators. Beulah says something that doesn't matter much. Raven talks about the one thing in his life that matters...he doesn't say what it is, but he's talking about that ECW Title. Beulah again, more that doesn't matter. Scorpio loves women, and right now his is the ECW TV Title, but now that he has that, all the ho's is for 2 Cold (that was a great one too). Pitbulls...but we quickly cut to Saturn cutting off the rest of his own hair. He doesn't care about his hair. He doesn't care about being hung via the chain. All he cares about is the gold.....end show. ___________________ Rating: Excellent. An outstanding television show. A complete 180 from the last ECW show. The last one was everything I hated about ECW. This one was everything I loved about it. Loved that the matches were unedited, and the interview roll at the end was great too. They ran the show the night before, so they certainly rushed to get this show out. It was still great. Best Segment: Cactus' promos. Awesome stuff. Worst Segment: Beulah's promos. I just didn't care. ___________________ The Boston show is next. I haven't watched it yet, but I'm mildly interested. Wait, scratch that. Not doing it, cause it'll probably suck and I don't want to waste paper taking notes. Plus, there's quite a bit of fastforward material, and it's just a non-MSG house show. MSG shows are the ones that matter.

Since nobody was here, I figured I could watch this without someone getting pissed off about me watching something without them. Because the footage is really old, and all. ___________________ Starts off with a video package, of course, and now, to a match. It's Pedro Morales vs. Ivan Koloff, for Koloff's WWWF Title, and the match took place at MSG on 2/8/1971. Blow-by-blow: On a look at thehistoryofwwe.com, I see that the match has been clipped. However, I'll make an exception and rate it anyway, because I honestly couldn't tell. When I can't tell if something's clipped, I rate it, and it's probably clipped because the footage is so poor. Wow. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Koloff looked like King Kong Bundy. I'm so used to the, "my nephew Nikita" version that I had forgotten he looked like this before. Anyhow, both wrestlers act like they're going to box when the match starts, until Koloff begs off. Koloff threatens to leave, and Pedro grabs onto a headlock when Koloff comes back in. Pedro gives him a shoulderblock, and Koloff comes back with a backdrop. Pedro slams Ivan twice, and gives him two headlock takeovers. The crowd heat is off the charts. The ring also has 4 ropes, like a boxing ring. Pedro gets kicked, and Ivan grabs onto a chinlock. Koloff breaks it, and begins to choke Pedro with the strap on his attire. The crowd got PISSED off when he did that. Now Koloff wants to shake hands, but instead, we begin a TEST OF STRENGTH. Pedro monkeyflips out of it, but Koloff grabs onto a bearhug. Pedro gets out and slams Ivan, then does it again. Koloff gets 2 as Pedro can't slam him after an Ivan shoulderblock, and then, Koloff misses a splash. He gets a slam, though, but misses his finisher, a kneedrop off the top rope. Pedro goes up, and gets a crossbody for 2. Koloff rams Pedro into the buckle three times, then goes for a suplex, and on the cover, PEDRO MORALES lifts a shoulder at 2, gaining the win and WWWF Title, as Koloff's shoulders stay pinned to the mat. Crowd goes nuts, yadayadayada. Match Analysis: FWIW, at that point, the title wasn't going to stay on a heel for longer than a few weeks. Heels had to be brought in for the champion to face, business wasn't going to stay the same if a heel champion faced off against babyfaces that came in every few months. Or so that was the conventional wisdom. You decide whether it was right or not. Match was *, and I was glad to see it end. Hate that finish (both men's shoulders on mat, one lifts at 2) with a passion, though. I can understand its use, but when it comes out of nowhere like this? Hell no. ___________________ Bruno Sammartino vs. Killer Kowalski is joined in progress, and it's the same one from the shorties section two months back, which I never got around to watching. Let's put it this way, it's probably a good thing that the match is joined in progress. I fastforwarded, but Bruno bleeds, and the match gets stopped. Now THAT is a copout finish, UNLESS...it sets up a gimmick match at the next show. Which it did, a Texas Death Match. So no worries. ___________________ From Baltimore, Maryland on 4/30/77, it's Superstar Billy Graham vs. Bruno Sammartino, for Bruno's WWWF Title. It's in full. Blow-by-blow: Superstar pushes Bruno into the buckle on a lockup, and then does the same. Bruno returns the favor, and gives Graham an armdrag. Bruno applies a wristlock, then takes Superstar down to the canvas. Superstar puts his leg on the bottom rope to break the hold, then goes outside the ring to take a breather. Once he comes back in, we have a TEST OF STRENGTH that goes about 3, maybe 4 minutes. Superstar wins, Bruno comes back, Superstar puts Bruno's shoulders down for 2, and Bruno puts Superstar down to end the hold. That covers it. Superstar grabs onto Bruno's wrist, and Bruno reverses the hold, putting Superstar on the canvas. Superstar gets up, and begins to kick and punch Bruno. He chokes Bruno, and whips him hard into the turnbuckle. Bruno knocks Superstar out of the ring, and when Superstar comes back in, he's bleeding. Bruno punches Superstar a few times, but Superstar is able to grab onto a bearhug, after shoving Bruno into the buckle. Bruno also puts Superstar into the buckle after breaking the bearhug, but Superstar applies the bearhug again. Bruno hits Superstar a few times in the corner, and suddenly (somehow applies too), Superstar rolls up Bruno and sticks his feet on the ropes, giving him the leverage to get the 3 count and end Bruno's long title reign, at 13:45. Match Analysis: It's really quite simple to explain why the title change happened in Baltimore. There was no way Graham would have made it home safely, had the match been at the Garden. No way, no how. The match sucked, IMO. It was centered around three things. That doesn't quite cut it for me. 1/2*. Maybe that's being nice. I really, really like old wrestling, but so far, I haven't liked what I've seen. Thankfully, that changes. ___________________ Superstar Billy Graham vs. Bob Backlund is JIP, and cut to about a minute. Backlund wins the title with an atomic drop, while Superstar's foot is on the rope. Is that justice? I'd say so. ___________________ And again, another JIP match, Greg Valentine vs. Bob Backlund in a steel cage. I'd like to see this one in full. Anyhow, it's cut to 4 minutes, and ends when Backlund escapes through the door after giving Valentine a piledriver. ___________________ Finally, a match that looks good on paper. Sgt. Slaughter w/The Grand Wizard vs. Bob Backlund, for Backlund's WWF Title, from MSG on 5/23/83. Slaughter whipped Backlund like a government mule with a riding crop, so Backlund has all kinds of welts on his back. Blow-by-blow: Brawl to start, of course, as these two are supposed to hate each other. Backlund rams Slaughter into the ringpost a whole bunch, and the crowd goes nuts. Gorilla says that Slaughter is on "Queer Street," and this time, I'm not laughing because of the lack of politically correctness. During HBO broadcasts, whenever a boxer gets knocked down, Lennox Lewis says that the guy was put on Queer Street. So there. Slaughter bails, and upon getting back in the ring, is beat up more. Backlund elbows Slaughter in the face twice, and Slaughter bails again. When getting back in the ring, Backlund gives Slaughter a snapmare, then stomps on his face a few times. You know, where the guy spins on his opponent's nose. Really don't like that. Backlund gives Slaughter two flying forearms, but on the third attempt, gets clotheslined. Slaughter drops Backlund on the top rope, and gives him a kneedrop for two. Slaughter rakes Backlund's back, and then his eyes, on the rop rope. Slaughter gets a backbreaker for 2, and then a back elbow for 2. Slaughter gives Backlund a chestbreaker, but the referee is unable to make the count, due to the position of Backlund's feet. Slaughter gives him a double stomp(!), and a knee to Backlund's gut. Backlund tries to clothesline Slaughter, but can't, so instead, we get a double collision. Both men are down and out, until Backlund rises up and gives Slaughter a swinging neckbreaker. Backlund misses a charge to the corner, and gets suplexed for a 2 count. Backlund reverses another suplex attempt by Slaughter, into a suplex of his own, which gets a 2 count. Backlund gives Slaughter an ugly looking piledriver, made that way because Slaughter was overly protective of his neck. But really now, you can't be overprotective of your neck, can you? It's one of those things you have to do. It gets a 2 count, and Backlund tries another swinging neckbreaker, but can't get it as Slaughter grabs the top rope, leading Backlund to hit his head on the canvas. Slaughter shoots Backlund into the ropes, and gives him a dropkick, which gets two. This match is very fun, if slow. Slaughter drops Backlund on the top rope and gets an elbowdrop for 2. However, he misses a charge to the buckle, ramming his own shoulder into the ringpost. Backlund begins to hit Slaughter's arm, then applies the Crossface-Chickenwing. It's locked in, but near the ropes, the Grand Wizard hands Slaughter that riding crop, and Slaughter hits Backlund with it, getting disqualified at 15:55. Backlund gets the riding crop away from Slaughter, and hits Slaughter a few times, before Slaughter runs away. Match Analysis: Good, solid wrestling. The match featured a lot of good spots, most of which were the "highspots" of that era. Anyway, it's solid, and one of the better early (read: pre-1985) WWF matches I've seen. Yes, I know the WWF was around for long before that, and it really wasn't early. ***1/4. ___________________ Yes! Haven't seen this one in a few years, so I'm glad to review it. It's "The Incredible" Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik w/Classy Freddie Blassie, for Sheik's WWF Title. Yeah, they called Hogan "the Incredible," and I don't know why. It's from 1/23/1984 at MSG, if you didn't already know. When MSG was doing extremely well, as far as getting asses in the seats. Blow-by-blow: If you haven't seen any part of this match, you aren't a real wrestling fan. Hogan attacks Sheik, and gives him a back elbow in the corner. He takes Sheik's entrance attire, and clotheslines Sheik with it. Hogan gives Sheik a clothesline and kneedrop, then a choketoss. He spits on Sheik, and the crowd loves it. Hogan gets a big boot for 2, and then a running elbow and elbowdrop for 2. Hogan misses a charge to the corner, and Sheik takes over. The crowd is wild, of course. Not like during the Morales match, though. Sheik chops Hogan, and gives him a backbreaker for 2. Sheik "loads" his boot, and kicks Hogan in the gut. He applies a Boston Crab, but Hogan powers out of it in a hurry. Sheik gets a gutwrench suplex for 2, and applies the CAMEL CLUTCH, BREAK YOUR FUCKING BACK BRIAN BLAIR, IRAN #1, USA, AH PUH. Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. Hogan of course, powers out, and rams Sheik into the buckle. And then he DROPS THE FUCKING LEG, and HULKAMANIA'S RUNNIN' WILD BROTHER, as he wins his first WWF Title, at 5:40. Hurrah. Match Analysis: Simple, and short. How it should have been, BUT...I didn't like that the match went so quickly to the legdrop after powering out of the Camel Clutch. Would have liked to see a slam or big boot, prior to the finish. For that, *3/4. And I know how picky my criticism is, in this case. ___________________ No rating for this, cause I'm not doing the whole thing. I really enjoyed watching it, even though the matches weren't so great. Nostalgia trips are usually fun. What I review tomorrow depends on what happens today. How I feel, more or less. In all likelihood, it'll be Armageddon 2003. If not, it'll probably be the Jesse Ventura stuff. The best thing on part 2, IMO, was the title change from the Main Event. Andre the Giant: "I win the tag team championship, and now I present tag team championship to Ted DiBiase." Great stuff.

I don't have time to do the NWA or the AWA special show, so, I'll just say what I thought of the former at the end. Haven't even watched the AWA show yet. ___________________ OH YEAH, the SHAH. These are the highlights that typically open the show, so I'll rattle them off. The Shah beat Mr. Hughes...2 Cold Scorpio beat El Puerto Ricano...now a promo about Cactus Jack kissing Vince's ass. Yes, Cactus just said that. Now, highlight of the Headhunters winning a match, then we cut to an actual match. And yeah, I didn't know it was going to be a match, I thought it was going to be another highlight. It's The Pitbulls vs. The Gangstas, for what it's worth. Anyhow, Stevie Richards is in the ring, apologizing to Francine for kicking her in the face. He acts all nice, gives her some Fluff (yeah, I just typed that), but then screws everything up by asking her if she's pregnant. Funny. She gets all mad, so the Pitbulls attack Stevie and the Blue Meanie. The Eliminators come in, and beat the Pitbulls up. The Gangstas are just standing there, which makes it all the funnier. 911 hits the ring, and chokeslams the Eliminators and Gangstas. They aren't just standing there anymore. 911 does the same to Meanie and Richards, and now, a clip job. That's just great. Tod Gordon orders the match to continue for some unseen reason, and Taz and Bill Alfonso make their first appearance. Taz chokes out 911, and Axl Rotten comes in the ring, then gets Totally Eliminated. 911 chokeslams the Eliminators, and the Pitbulls clothesline New Jack out of the ring. It's almost impossible to keep track. The Bulls superbomb Mustafa Saed, and Fonz breaks up the pin. Gordon tries to attack Fonzie, so Taz enters to pull Gordon away. Stevie superkicks Francine, and the Gangstas win after a chairshot. I don't rate clipjobs, but that was a mess. Maybe even the most overbooking I've ever seen. Probably negative star worthy. ___________________ JT SMITH, ah, the Dudleys are in the ring, ah, as it's supposed to be Buh Buh Ray Dudley and Dances with Dudley vs. JT Smith and Axl Rotten. JT won't let Buh Buh stutter out his name, and JT continually goes into his, ah, thing whenever he takes the mic away. Axl tells JT to shut the hell up, and JT hits Axl with the microphone. Buh Buh does his powerbomb on JT, where he false picks up JT a few times, presumably stuttering. That one got a big laugh out of me. The powerbomb gets three after about 20 seconds of the match. *, cause it was that much better than the last match. Axl and JT fight after the match, but the picture instantly cuts away to highlights of Sabu vs. RVD. This show is FLYING into stuff, making it nearly unwatchable. ___________________ Speaking of flying into stuff, now we have Shane Douglas and Tommy Dreamer vs. Mikey Whipwreck and Cactus Jack, for Mikey and Cactus' ECW Tag Team Titles. Tommy starts the match off with a shoulderblock, and we go into an armbar sequence, which features Mikey kipping up, and getting a flying headscissor and hurricanrana. Mikey gives Tommy an armdrag, but Tommy comes back with a clothesline before Shane tags in. He rams Mikey into the buckle, and dumps him to the outside. For some reason, Dreamer won't let Douglas use a chair against Mikey. Mikey rams Shane into the rail, and hits both Tommy and Shane with a steel chair. Mikey goes up top, and frontflips into the crowd, landing on one of his opponents, presumably Dreamer. Clipjob, and Cactus is in the ring, talking about how they don't need weapons to beat Shane Douglas. Cause he was a failure in the WWF, see. Clip again, and Jack's delivering forearms to Shane, along with the "BANG, BANG." Shane goes up top and gets a shoulderblock, then a dropkick and snap suplex. He dumps Cactus to the outside, and Tommy whips him into the guardrail. Tommy hits Cactus with a NINTENDO, and then on the inside of the ring, hits him with a mannequin dummy, like the ones you see with clothes on them in the store. Tommy baseball slides a chair into Cactus' face, and then, Shane hits Cactus with a chair. Mikey takes the chair away, and dumps Shane to the outside. Jack rams Shane into the ringpost, then gives him a swinging neckbreaker on the concrete floor. Clip again, and fuck, I'm ready to stop. Shane drops Mikey into a chair, and then gives him a delayed vertical suplex. Mikey's busted open, and we have another clip. Fuck this. Anyway, Jack gives Shane a droptoehold into a steel chair, and that's the end of the match, so Cactus and Mikey retain their titles. Raven gave Tommy a DDT, too. I'm never reviewing a match with an equal amount of obvious clipjobs. I can live with the subtle stuff like at WrestleMania's 5 and 6, but this? Fuck no. I don't rate clipjobs, but this looked like a decent match. Shane Douglas cuts a promo, talking about Jack being a hypocrite, for using a weapon when he said he wouldn't. We then cut to Sandman and Woman, and they both seem pissed off at each other. ___________________ It's Raven w/Kimona Wanalaya vs. Sandman w/Woman, for Sandman's ECW World Title. Entrances take a while, and for once, I applaud the clipjob here. Sandman's hitting Raven with a Singapore Cane, and then gets a DDT for 2. He canes Raven again, and then hits both Raven and the referee with the cane. Raven gets the cane and gives Sandman some of his own medicine, so Tommy Dreamer runs into the ring. We all know who he fights with, and that's Raven. Cactus Jack runs in, and gives Sandman a double arm DDT. Tommy fights Jack, so Meanie comes out to help Cactus a bit. Shane Douglas comes out, and all 4 brawl to the back. Sandman rams Raven into the buckle, then slams him and gives him a chairshot. He misses a legdrop from up top, so Raven DDT's him onto a chair, and wins the ECW Title. My notes say that there wasn't a clipjob after the first, and I don't know if there was action before the cane shots, so I'll rate it. *. If there was, disregard. Woman's in the ring, and she's happy Sandman lost the ECW Title, so now, he can come with her to WCW. He won't do it, and he wants his beer opened by Woman right now. 2 Cold Scorpio (Sandman's partner) comes to the ring, and tells him to calm down. Sandman tells him to choose what side he's on. At first he says, since he ain't gettin' no ass from Sandman, so...it's obvious what he has to do. But in typical ECW fashion, Scorpio chose to be on Sandman's side. Scorpio carries Woman out of the building, and the show's over. Yeah, that was her last ECW appearance. ___________________ Rating: Bad. The last match saved this from having been one of the worst wrestling programs I've ever watched. Too much, too quick. Hell, it was worse than Russo's booking. Not all ECW shows are like this, but this one in particular was brutal. Best Segment: Raven vs. Sandman, for Sandman's ECW Title. Worst Segment: The Pitbulls vs. The Gangstas. To be fair, I could have done without everything. Loudest Sound: The Nintendo No Sound: JT Smith. The crowd wasn't liking him at all, or so it seemed. ___________________ Back to the NWA show, it was good, I just didn't have time. Any squash show that features a title change, in this case the Mid-Atlantic Title, from Krusher Khruschev to Sam Houston, is a good show. The crowd loved the ending to that match, which featured the Road Warriors coming to the ring and beating up the rest of the Russian Team, and helping Houston cheat to win, by throwing Houston onto Khruschev, and holding Khruschev's leg for the pinfall. Outside of that, not a whole lot, except for the angles they showed. One was Jimmy Valiant being piledriven on the concrete floor by Tully Blanchard (just like the Four Horsemen said), and the Midnight Express attacking the Rock n Roll Express after their match, by driving Ricky Morton's throat into the tennis racket of Jim Cornette. Fun show, although Pez Whatley's promo kinda bothered me. Way too stereotypical. ALSO, Khruschev injured his knee during the title bout, and wasn't on TV for a while. So it'll be Ivan and his nephew Nikita only, for a little bit. ___________________ Anyhow, I don't know what I'll write about next, but for the History of the WWE Championship DVD, I'm only doing stuff from before the PPV Era. So yeah, anything that was on PPV or NBC is out the window, and won't be reviewed.

Shorties section, and the lineup looks different, to say the least. But FIRST, that Piper vs. Hogan match needs to be reviewed. So, here. ___________________ From The War to Settle the Score on February 18th from Madison Square Garden, which aired on MTV, it's Roddy Piper w/Bob Orton against Hulk Hogan w/Cyndi Lauper & Captain Lou Albano, for Hogan's WWF Title. Gorilla Monsoon and Gene Okerlund are on commentary. Blow-by-blow: Bagpipes play as Piper makes his way to the ring, and BOB COSTAS (you wouldn't see this now) introduces both Piper and Hogan. Piper breaks a guitar before the match, to let everyone know what he thinks of rock and roll music. Piper then does the Snuka "I love you" thing, obviously making fun of the Superfly. Hogan's well known "Real American" music is dubbed in. I'm sure of it. Hogan shakes Mr. T's hand before the bout, and we'll see why in a little bit. Piper tears his shirt off and throws it into the crowd, and once someone grabs the shirt, a couple people fight over it. Real mature. Both wrestlers brawl at the beginning of the match, and Hogan gives Piper a back elbow after getting the better of the fight. Hogan slams Piper twice, and then elbowdrops him. Hogan bites Piper, as I notice that Hogan has a lot more hair than I'm used to seeing him have. Piper clotheslines Hogan, and gets a 2 count. Piper double thrusts Hogan in the throat, and applies the sleeper. Hogan breaks the hold, after powering out and lowering his head while running into the buckle, putting Piper's head into the buckle. Orton gets up on the ring apron and chokes Hogan as the referee is distracted, but Hogan rams Orton's broken arm into the ringpost. Paul Orndorff makes his way to ringside, as Hogan gives Piper an atomic drop. Ref bump time as Piper pushes Hogan, so Orndorff comes in and stomps on Hogan, after which he gives Hogan a kneedrop from the top rope. Lauper gets up on the apron, so Orndorff and Piper stalk her, apparently acting like they're going to beat her up. Mr. T helps Lauper down, and gets in the ring. Crowd went nuts for that. Piper and Orndorff attack Mr. T, until Hogan finally gets up, and Hogan pulls the heels off T. And now, we see T and Hogan staredown Piper and Orndorff, giving away what the WrestleMania main event will be. The police come in the ring before the 4 can throwdown, at around 7:12. Hogan wants Piper and Orndorff now, but they don't oblige, walking to the back instead. Hogan wins the bout by DQ, but who cares about that. It's all about Mr. T getting involved, now. T, Hogan and Lauper celebrate, and that's it. Match Analysis: *1/4, but how the match was wasn't really the point. It was just a vehicle to get Mr. T and Hogan vs. Piper and Orndorff set up. Anyway, I hadn't seen this before, and it was a fun watch. ___________________ From WrestleMania 2 in Chicago, we have a battle royal, and the participants are Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Ted Arcidi, King Tonga, Hillbilly Jim, Big John Studd, Tony Atlas, B. Brian Blair, Jim Brunzell, Danny Spivey, Pedro Morales, BRUNO Sammartino, the Iron Sheik, Jimbo Covert, Bill Fralic, Russ Francis, Ernie Holmes, Harvey Martin, THE FRIDGE, and Andre the Giant. This one really is impossible to review, unlike the one at the MSG show I reviewed a couple weeks ago. The total combined weight of the wrestlers involved...5,612 pounds. Yo. Order of elimination goes like this...Tonga, Covert, Holmes, Brunzell, Atlas, Morales, Martin, Arcidi (at this point, I notice that Fridge is wearing a thong. Gross.), Spivey, Blair and Hillbilly, Fralic, Sheik, Bruno, and then, it gets easier to review. Studd dumps Fridge, but Fridge pulls Studd out after a handshake. Bret, Francis, Neidhart and Andre are left, and a double dropkick by the Hart Foundation ties Andre up in the ropes, and then, Francis gets eliminated. Andre gives Bret a big boot, then rams the Harts heads into each other. Neidhart gets dumped, and then Andre press slams Bret to the floor, where he lands on Neidhart. Andre wins the battle royal, which was a given. 8/10, the uniqueness of having football players involved made it worth watching. ___________________ I've already said I'm a big WCW 1992-93 fan. Well, I am awaiting the next two matches. This match is from Superbrawl II in Milwaukee, it's CACTUS JACK vs. Ron Simmons. Huge Foley fan here, I don't care if people don't like him being on WWE programming now or in other recent times. I also don't know why people get all mad about things like that, but anyway. Jesse Ventura's commentary is intact. Blow-by-blow: Simmons is supposed to be a babyface, well, he gets booed. They really love Cactus Jack, just hate Simmons, or weren't inclined to cheer for a black guy. Just sayin'. Cactus starts the match with an eye rake, but Simmons misses a charge into the corner. Cactus attempts to do the Cactus Clothesline, but does the spot where he hangs himself by his neck in the ropes. Impressive visual. Jesse whines about Simmons not helping Cactus out of his predicament, even though Simmons was doing exactly what Jesse wanted. Cactus tries to run into the crowd, and Simmons catches up to him and rams him into the guardrail. Simmons smashes Cactus' face into the canvas, and slams him on the inside. A Simmons legdrop gets 2, Cactus gives him an elbow afterward, and a clothesline. We see that the Junkyard Dog is in the crowd, as Cactus gives Simmons a double arm DDT. A Cactus legdrop gets 2, and he dumps Simmons. He slams Simmons on the outside, and goes up to the 2nd rope. YES! CACTUS ELBOW, no wonder this guy's body was so screwed up. Cactus chokes Simmons along the top rope, then Simmons misses a dropkick. Cactus goes to the chinlock, but gets belly-to-belly'd as Simmons begins his comeback. Simmons tries to dive onto Cactus, but flies onto the entrance ramp that WCW always had attached to the ring in those days. Cactus comes out after Simmons, but gets spinebustered by Simmons, on the ramp. Yeesh. Back in the ring, Cactus gives Simmons a bulldog, and goes up to the 2nd rope. Simmons catches him coming off the turnbuckle and powerslams him for the win, at 6:30. After the match, ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER comes down the ramp, and into the ring. Things like this ARE why I liked WCW during that time period. It was ridiculous. Abby acts like he's going to hit Cactus with his staff, but instead, he hits Simmons with it. See, Simmons and Abby had teamed up a few times, after Cactus and Abby had a dispute about Abby being "electrocuted" at Halloween Havoc 1991. But now, Abby shows his true colors. Junkyard Dog decides to make his way to the ring, beating up security on the way. He saves Simmons from the beating, and gives Abby and Cactus a piece of their own medicine. JR says, "this is like fightin' in the hood." I really laughed at that one, but this time, didn't feel guilty about it. Match Analysis: The angle after the match was awesome, so although the match wasn't spectacular, I'm glad WWE 24/7 stuck around to show us the angle. The match was **, and most of that is for Cactus' wild bumps. WCW was so over the top then that it was a joy to watch, and moreover, their tag team division was probably the best (workrate wise) there's ever been. ___________________ From Clash of the Champions XIX, as part of the Quarterfinals for the NWA Tag Team Championship, it's Terry Gordy and Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Rick and Scott Steiner. The tournament finished up at Great American Bash '92, for those who are interested. By that I mean, the tournament took up the entire PPV, outside of a Sting/Vader match Awful, awful idea. The tournament had "representatives" from different countries. You know, to reinforce the concept of the NWA being a world organization, and all. Blow-by-blow: Gordy and Rick start, and they trade amateur wrestling moves for about 6 or 7 minutes. If you don't like amateur wrestling, you won't like the match. Gordy tries a half crab during that sequence, and Rick gets to the ropes. Scott comes in and tries a belly-to-belly, but can't get it, as Gordy backdrops him instead. Scott tries to bridge out of the pinning attempt, but Gordy's so damn big that he just can't do it. Scott gives Gordy a t-bone suplex instead, and now, Dr. Death tags in. Williams takes Scott down, but they wind up in the ropes. Rick tags in and gives Williams a belly-to-belly, then takes him down. Williams slaps Rick across the face once he comes in, and gives him a huge lariat, which Rick sells with a backflip. Yeah, Rick Steiner just backflipped off a clothesline. I was surprised. Gordy comes in, and clotheslines Rick again for a 2 count. Rick gives Gordy a belly-to-belly on a counter move, then Scott tags in. Scott gives Gordy a backdrop and STEINERLINE, then does that front underhook suplex of his. It's not a powerbomb, he just drops the guy to the side. So, suplex. Scott misses a dropkick, so Gordy applies an STF. Terry lets go of the hold and tags in Williams, who sticks out his knee for Gordy to drop Scott Steiner on. Williams gives him a backbreaker for two, and takes out the leg of Scott. The left knee is the body part which is in pain in this match. Gordy tags in and gets a powerslam, before applying a leg grapevine. He breaks the hold and tags Williams in, who along with Gordy, gets in a 3 point stance and delivers a shoulderblock to Scott. Scott dropkicks Williams as his leg was being held, and tags in Rick. The referee doesn't see it, though. Rick lines Williams out, then brawls with Gordy. Afterward, he powerslams Williams, but the referee never saw the tag. Outside the ring, Scott Steiner gets chopblocked on his bad knee, and Rick's still brawling with Gordy. Williams gives Scott a press slam which turns into a powerslam for 2, and then Scott gets his leg taken out by Gordy as the referees back is turned, leading to the pinfall for Gordy and Williams at 15:13. Match Analysis: Hate, hate, hate that finish. Always hated it. It came out of nowhere, just when the match was starting to get good. Hopefully the Beach Blast '92 match is better, and hopefully we get to see it soon. **3/4. IMO, that's pretty much the definition of a match that gets a 3/4. Something about the match has to be off (in this case, the finish) OR it has to be lacking that extra something to give it a boost. I think I've explained myself. ___________________ From Great American Bash 1997, it's Kevin Greene vs. Mongo McMichael w/Debra. Blow-by-blow: JR said the match was bowling shoe ugly, well, we'll see. Greene sprints into the ring, and gives Mongo a forearm and clothesline. Mongo bails, and trips Greene, then smashes Greene's knee into the ring apron. He rubs Greene's face into the mat, and taunts Greene's mother, who's in the crowd. Mongo brings Greene over to his mother, who hits Mongo with her purse. I laughed. The crowd chants "MONGO," cause they're in Illinois and all. Mongo's a former Chicago Bear, see. Mongo kicks Greene in the ribs, and gives him a neckbreaker for 2. Greene gets a Thesz Press, but when he charges into Mongo again, Mongo gives him a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Greene gives him a 10 punch in the corner after a few rights, but is given an inverted atomic drop by Mongo. Mongo gets a dropkick for 2, and whips Greene hard into the buckle. He twists Greene's ankle, as Dusty slips in a Benoit reference during the match. Greene comes back with a dropkick, and goes to the top for a clothesline that gets 2, only 2 because Mongo's foot was on the bottom rope. Greene clotheslines him over the top rope, and gives him a bodyslam. Debra tries to show some skin in order to distract Greene, but that doesn't do anything. On the inside, Greene misses a charge towards the corner, so Mongo starts choking him. Jeff Jarrett comes down to the ring, and hits Mongo with the briefcase on accident. OOPS. Greene pins Mongo at 9:22, and gets the win. Match Analysis: This is pretty much what led to Jarrett being kicked out of the Horsemen, in case you were wondering. JR's on crack. The match wasn't bad, it was probably the best singles match I've seen with Mongo involved. I'm dead serious. *3/4. ___________________ From Wrestlemania X7, the last match in the shorties section this month is The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, for The Rock's WWF Title. The match is no disqualification. Blow-by-blow: Austin's music is changed back from the Disturbed version, to the version we all know well. Bothers me a little. The Rock gets booed, as we know. I think all of us have seen this match. Austin misses a belt shot at the start of the match, and Thesz Presses the Rock. Austin with an elbowdrop, but as he runs the ropes again, Rock gives him a swinging neckbreaker. Both try for the Stunner, until Austin tosses the Rock out of the ring. And Rocky hit the floor HARD. They brawl into the crowd, and trade punches, before they come back to the ring. Austin's face gets rammed into the announce table, but he comes back with a clothesline. The crowd is so rabid for this match, words can't really describe it. Austin scrapes the face of Rocky with his knee brace, and on the inside, as Rocky's draped along the 2nd rope, Austin jumps on him and gets a 2 count. An Austin superplex gets two, and guys...we aren't even 5:00 into the bout yet. Austin takes the buckle pad off, but Rocky gives him a flying forearm. A belly-to-belly throw by the Rock gets 2, and then he clotheslines Austin over the top rope. He scares the referee away after ramming Austin into the table, but gets hit by the ring bell and blades. There's hardly any blood. The Rock climbs on the table, as if trying to get away, but falls through it. Back in, Austin tries to ram Rocky into the exposed turnbuckle, but he's unable to, so Austin gets a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Austin STOMPS A MUDHOLE WALKIN IT DRY on the Rock, but gets clotheslined after arguing with the ref for a bit. Finally, the ROCK rams Austin into the exposed turnbuckle, and returns the favor from earlier, hitting Austin with the ringbell. Now Austin's bleeding, as Rocky's cover gets a 2 count. Rocky beats Austin up, all the way around the ring. He elbows Austin twice, as Austin's on the apron. Austin fights back BAH GAWD, and slams Rocky on the barrier outside the ring. He slingshots Rocky into the post, and hits him with a television monitor. Now Rocky's bleeding, but I've got the feeling it was fake blood. He and Hebner were awfully close to each other after Rocky got hit with the monitor, and for a long time too. Plus, why would he blade twice when he has to shoot a movie? He wouldn't. On the inside, Rocky applies the SHARPSHOOTER. Well, they're going for WrestleMania 13 here. The visuals work. After, they do the same with Rocky caught in the SHARPSHOOTER, thanks to Austin. Funny little spot. Rocky gets out of the move, but Austin applies the SHARPSHOOTER again. Rocky gets to the ropes, but there's no DQ. So, Austin flips the bird at Hebner. Austin breaks the hold, and goes for the MILLION DOLLAR DREAM. Rocky does the spot where he kicks off the turnbuckle to put Austin in a pinning predicament, but only gets two. They're going for really obscure shit here, that the casual fan just isn't going to notice. I like that. Rocky gets the STONE COLD STUNNER for a 2 count, so Vince McMahon decides to grace us with his presence at ringside. An Austin spinebuster gets 2, so Rocky returns the favor with a spinebuster of his own, which leads to...THE PEOPLE'S ELBOWii! It only gets a 2 count though, because that dastardly Mr. McMahon pulled the Rock off during the count. Rock chases Vince, but as he gets back into the ring, he hits ROCK BOTTOM, thanks to Austin. Austin's cover only gets 2, so he tries the STUNNER. Can't get that, as Rocky pushes him into Hebner. Ref bump time. Austin gives Rock a lowblow, then holds the Rock for Vince to hit him with a chair, which he does. The first time I saw this match, live, I thought for sure that Vince would hit Austin. The ref's out for the count, but when he wakes up, Austin's cover gets 2. Rock gets a ROCK BOTTOM, but Vince distracts the official. Rocky punches Vince, but gets STUNNED as he turns around. His sell of the move is so ridiculous, but I like it. It gets a 2 COUNT, the crowd really thought the match was over. Austin gets handed a chair by Vince, but the single chairshot gets 2. He's thinking, "what does it take?" Finally, Austin says "fuck it," hits Rocky 16 TIMES with the chair, and pins him for the win at 28:07. The program shows Vince and Austin shaking hands, but not the beer drinking that comes afterward. Match Analysis: It's the best WWF Title match ever. Do I need to say more? *****, and I liked the ending, contrary to what most people think. All the spots were well done, and fake blood doesn't bother me. After all, it's a fake sport. ___________________ For the shorties and Piper section over the whole month... Rating: Great. Selection MAYBE could have been better, so no full rating. I would've liked to see something different than the William Perry thing. There was a lot to choose from. Best Match: The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. Duh. Worst Match: Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper in a boxing match. This match was dogshit, so, when WrestleMania 2 gets reviewed, I'll review it. Can't do loudest sound on this...kinda irrelevant. ___________________ Well, ECW will be up next. I want to do Survivor Series '95, but I have to wait.

ECW looked easy, and it was. So here. ___________________ An Axl Rotten video package opens the show, and you know why? It's cause he's facing Rob Van Dam in the first match. In Rob Van Dam's FIRST ECW match, as well. Van Dam and Rotten both do some faux karate kicks, and Rotten starts the action with an eye rake. Van Dam does a japanese armdrag, then gets a springboard crossbody for a 2 count. RVD does these funny looking karate punches on Rotten, and puts Rotten into the corner, where he does that 'ram into a guy twice with the shoulder, then flip and do it again' thing. Rotten rakes RVD in the eyes, inevitably causing Van Dam to miss a spinning kick (of course that wasn't the reason). Rotten does a t-bone suplex, which certainly was a surprise to me, and clotheslines RVD, so RVD does a 360 sell of the move. Nice. Axl slams Rob and goes up top, but misses an elbowdrop. This match ain't as bad as I thought it'd be. Rob gets a legsweep, and a big splash from up top for 2. Axl winds up on the outside, and Rob comes out with a somersault plancha. Rotten comes in, and gets kicked by Van Dam as Van Dam came off the top rope. A standing moonsault gets 2, and Axl misses a charge in the corner after some left hands. Rob finishes Axl with a spinning slam and split-legged moonsault. *3/4. That's probably one of the best Axl matches I've seen. No joke. Remember, Jim Cornette hates Ian Rotten, not Axl. I don't disagree with him. Ian and his promotion, IWA-Mid South, are a large part of what is wrong about independent wrestling. I'm obviously referring to their violent nature. ___________________ A video package runs which highlights events from the past few weeks of ECW television. Those highlights are...the return of the FRANCHISE, Francine being totally eliminated, Cactus Jack helping Mikey Whipwreck win both the TV Title and Tag Team Titles from 2 Cold Scorpio, the subsequent reaction from Raven when Cactus tried to bring Mikey to give the titles to Raven, in which Raven and Cactus had a bit of an altercation. Last but not least, we have the clip that denotes a possible Taz/911 feud (which never happened, because 911 left ECW), and Beulah's announcement that she's pregnant. The video package was pretty long, and the audio was terrible. Bad song selection. ___________________ Taz is facing Hack Myers, and I'd be making a big mistake if I didn't mention Myers' nickname. It's "the Shah." Now, you ask, why is it the Shah? Well....after every move, punch or kick that he does, both he and the crowd yell out, SHAH. It's actually funny. When I saw the nickname and heard the 'shahing' for the first time, I thought it was a little dumb. But it grew on me, and it's pretty damn funny. Bill Alfonso accompanies Taz to the ring, and he's wearing a Cowboys jersey. In Philadelphia. That's a big no-no. The heat deflects to Taz as it's supposed to, and the crowd starts a "fuck you Taz" chant. Hack starts with a "shah", no, excuse me, armwringer, but it doesn't do much, as shown when Taz hiptosses him. Taz applies an armbar, but Hack makes it to the ropes. Taz gives Hack a droptoehold and applies a rear naked choke, but again, Hack reaches the ropes. Hack starts a comeback, which consists of punches, until Taz gets a halfnelson Tazplex. A release german suplex puts Hack on his head, and the Tazmission finishes. Well, that didn't last long. *. Taz tells everyone to fuck off. Nothing about 911, just a bit about Sabu, and the statement made in the last sentence. ___________________ Next is a bit of footage from House Party 96, unfortunately, it's a hack job. I've heard good things about this match between Sabu and Stevie Richards, though, so try to find it. Sabu does a sunsetflip powerbomb from the ring to the floor on Richards, and it's worth noting that the floor isn't padded. Of course, this IS EXTREME. The thud of Richards head on the concrete was sick. Sabu wins it with the atomic Arabian facebuster, btw. ___________________ Now, we go to the end of the show, even though Styles and Tazz said we'd see footage of Sandman vs. Konnan. Guess not, and it's probably for the better. Strange as I am, I wanted to see it. The promo reel goes in this order. Tommy Dreamer and Beulah, Raven, Richards and the Blue Meanie, Fonzie and Taz, the Pitbulls, the Eliminators, and the Franchise tells Tommy Dreamer that he'll team up with Tommy against Whipwreck and Cactus. The FRANCHISE wants Cactus. He doesn't care about Mikey. ___________________ End show. Not as good as last week, I suppose that's the only way to give these an overall rating. They're short, so if you read this before watching and don't like the sound of what's there, don't watch it. Or watch it, and be bored. Whatever. Notable for the debut of RVD, and not much else. It took me about 20-30 minutes to type this, so hey. Easy review, that's why I got it over with. Prime Time Wrestling has to be next, otherwise it WILL go off. And I haven't watched it yet.

I'm really amped for this set of matches. I've never seen Vader/Flair. Again, in chronological order... ___________________ From March 1st, 1976, it's "The Big Cat" Ernie Ladd vs. Bruno Sammartino, for the WWWF Championship. Of course, Bruno's the champ. On this same show, Ric Flair made his MSG debut. Blow-by-blow: Ladd played at Grambling, and for the Chargers in the AFL, so it fits with the football theme 24/7 has goin' on. Ladd's gigantic. One of the biggest wrestlers I've ever seen. Bruno armdrags Ladd twice, but during the armbar that occurs after each armdrag, Ladd winds up in the ropes. Ladd grabs onto a bearhug and gets a few 2 counts as Bruno's down on the mat, while cheating by putting his feet on the ropes. The official sees the cheating each time, so Ladd breaks the hold, then hipblocks Bruno. Ladd chokes Bruno while shielding the actual choke from the ref, and once the official finally catches him, he hits Bruno in the throat 3 times. Bruno comes back and knocks Ladd over the top rope with a few punches, and Bruno chokes Ladd with his boot. Wait a sec. Isn't Ladd the heel? Strange to see a babyface resort to those tactics in that era... Bruno with a backdrop (Ladd looks funny doing the front flip over. His legs are HIGH in the air. Think Andre.), and Bruno rams Ladd's face into the mat. Ladd grabs a foreign object out of his trunks, and continually hits Bruno with it. Ladd football tackles Bruno twice, then gives him two legdrops. Ladd slams Bruno and heads up to the top rope. He misses a big splash, and gets pinned at 10:19. Apparently the match is clipped, because the announcer said 11:25. I don't believe it, though. Match Analysis: The rating scale is different for matches that take place pre-1980. For me, anyway. Of course, most would say this match was a DUD. No. *3/4. The ending docks 1/4. Wrestling was different then, so my ratings should be too. The ending came out of nowhere, and I really didn't like it. Prior to that, it was solid. ___________________ I'm not reviewing the Pillman match. Let me explain why. 1. I don't like Stampede Wrestling. The camera makes me nauseous. I don't know why. To some of you, that probably makes me a bad person. 2. It's a 6 man tag, in a promotion in which I don't know the participants. Automatic grounds for a non-review. Sorry. I might come back and do the review in the next week or two, but I doubt it. ___________________ The next match is from Wrestlemania XI, and it's Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow. Yes, I'm saving Vader/Flair for last, and this is exactly how I watched them. Taylor brought a bunch of linebackers with him, and Bigelow brought the Million Dollar Corporation. Pat Patterson's the special referee, and Jim Ross enlightens us with the fact that Patterson trained LT. No, not on the actual match broadcast. He would've been taken out back and shot had he said that. I'm one to assume that the reason Patterson is the ref IS because he trained LT. That's why there are special referees in a lot of these celebrity matches, see. That's a guess. Blow-by-blow: Bam Bam shoves LT, and LT slaps him. LT gives a flying fist to the face of Bam Bam, and he clotheslines Bam Bam over the top rope. Bam Bam misses a charge, and LT gets a bulldog for 2. You know they've shown too many highlight clips of this match when I can remember every spot and I've only seen the match once before this. And I mean, I can remember every spot, exactly as it takes place. Ring position and all. Bam Bam comes back in, and gets hiptossed right back out. The linebackers and the Corporation mix things up, although they don't fight, and Bam Bam takes control. Bam Bam headbutts LT and bodyslams him, then LT gets raked in the eyes. LT is really good at acting like it's a real match. It's sorta business exposing, but he fights with Bigelow for every single move. Even on punches. Bam Bam goes for a Boston crab and gets it, but his weight makes it so that he has to go to a half crab. He can't stay in a squat position for a long period of time, obviously. Bam Bam pulls LT away from the ropes, and applies a variation of the indian deathlock. LT makes the ropes and Bam Bam applies a headlock, but LT back suplexes him out of it. That's an awfully dangerous move for someone with little-to-no wrestling experience to be trying. Bam Bam headbutts Taylor twice, then gives him a legdrop and his (strange looking) moonsault for a one count, only a one count because Bam Bam sold the knee and couldn't cover LT. LT with a gutwrench suplex that looked blown, like he was going to powerbomb or piledrive Bam Bam. Bam Bam with an enziguri and a headbutt, and he goes up top for a DIVING headbutt that gets a 2 count. LT with some shoulder charges in the buckle, then he goes up to the 2nd rope and hits Bigelow with a flying punch for the 3 count at 11:43. DiBiase's embarassed, cause Bigelow got beat by a football player. Match Analysis: I don't know why Bigelow agreed to do the job. Personally, I would have had it written into my contract that I'd have a run as champion, honestly. If such a thing could occur, but Vince would probably have changed the name of the title. Bigelow should be embarassed, and the WWF should have been too. The pop for LT's win was embarassing. Non-existant, at that. **. ___________________ From Nitro, on the night of July 6th, 1998, we have one of the dumbest business decisions in the history of this country...yes, I said this country, not just the wrestling business; it's Goldberg vs the champ, HOLLYWOOD HOGAN BROTHER, for the WCW Heavyweight Championship. Goldberg beat Scott Hall earlier in the night, so he's "107-0." Apparently JR officiated one of Goldberg's high school football games. That's neat. Blow-by-blow: So, during Hogan's entrance, he says "he's going to kick GOLDBERG'S......(long pause) BUTT." Watch the clip, and you'll laugh. Hogan also looks like he's wearing a sock on his head. Goldberg starts off with a headlock and shoulderblock, then Hogan grabs onto Goldberg with a front facelock. The TEST OF STRENGTH follows, and Goldberg wins. Hogan gets to the ropes and begins to SCRATCH THE BACK of Goldberg, then he breaks out his weightlifting belt and hits Goldberg with it twice. Goldberg steals the belt, then throws it out of the ring. Goldberg doesn't need that shit. Goldberg applies a full nelson, but Hogan lifts his leg back in order to kick Goldberg in the nuts. Hogan with a clothesline and chokehold, then a scoop slam. He misses an elbowdrop, and gets clotheslined. Hogan bails, and puts his belt back on. Hogan comes back in and dumps Goldberg to the floor, then tosses him into the guardrail. Hogan hits him with a chair three times (this is the kinda shit WCW did that makes no sense. They let this go at random, then disqualify someone for the same thing 20 minutes later.), and on the inside, Hogan slams Goldberg and DROPS THE FUCKING LEG twice. For some reason that again, makes no sense, Curt Hennig's on his way to the ring, when Hogan seemingly has the match in hand. Why? Anyway, Karl Malone and DDP follow, and Malone gives Hennig a good looking DIAMOND CUTTER at ringside. Goldberg kicks out of the cover by Hogan, SPEARS HIM, and looks mean for a little bit. Then, Goldberg JACKHAMMERS him for the pin at 8:12. The commentary in this match was really, REALLY good. Match Analysis: Let's get the rating out of the way. *. Dumbest thing ever. Ever. Even more dumb is that these two NEVER headlined a PPV against one another. The most surprising thing...Hogan never got his job back, and he did this one CLEAN. If I'm wrong about him not getting his job back, correct me. I'm pretty sure that I'm right, though. When this Nitro gets posted, I'll ramble about this for a long time. Not now. ___________________ The last match I watched yesterday was from Starrcade '93, and it was Ric Flair vs. Big Van Vader, the WCW World Champion. Not the WCW International World Champion. I can't explain, because I have to keep people interested for when entire shows are posted, and not individual matches. That way, I'll be able to save my thoughts about the whole thing, and summarize it. It's a title match, and that DOES need to be noted, cause this was WCW. You never know unless you're told, and even then, you still don't know. Harley Race comes along with Vader, btw. If Flair does not win this match, he must retire. A little note before the match, the commentary is awesome. AWESOME. Jesse Ventura's commentary is included, so that's a plus. WCW in 1992 and 1993 is also great. Pre-WWF 2000, find me a better workrate period in this country. Can you? I don't care what the haters say. Blow-by-blow: Vader poses before the match, and the Flair chants start early. They lock-up twice, and each time, Vader tosses Flair across the ring. Flair bails and Vader chases, but that's what Flair wants. So Vader quits running, and calmly enters the ring. Vader headbutts him, and applies a knucklelock. Vader then slaps Flair and clotheslines him, and says, "FLAIR AIN'T MAN ENOUGH FOR THIS." I love Vader's running commentary of his own matches (all quotes from him will be capitalized, along with the usual stuff). There isn't enough of that going on in wrestling today. The fans are dead-ass quiet during Vader's offense. Not because he isn't over. But because they're scared shitless of him. Flair chops Vader, and Vader pushes him out of the way. Flair tries to run away, but Vader catches him and press slams him into the guardrail. The ring seems sorta large for WCW, I have to say. "WHO'S DA MAN," but Flair comes back and runs Vader into the ringpost on the outside. Harley Race gives Flair a big left hand, and Vader standing suplexes Flair into the ring, and then as Flair tries to bail, he does it again. Standing suplexes are when the suplex'er' doesn't go down to the canvas. Vader headbutts Flair, then beats him up with left and right hands. Vader whips Flair into the buckle and we have a Flair Flip, as he tumbles to the concrete floor after nearly colliding with a cameraman. Vader with a stiff LARIAT (yeah, "lariat" when it's stiff, clothesline when its not. duh), but Flair begins to chop him. Vader sells nothing, with a grin on his face. Gotta love him. Vader gives Flair a rough looking fall-down slam, and a clothesline from the 2nd rope. Vader then taunts the crowd, but I can't tell exactly what he said. He takes Flair down, then goes up to the 2nd rope and misses a big splash. Flair gives Vader three overhand flying chops, the 2nd of which didn't even touch Vader. At least he didn't sell it. The third one puts Vader down, and then Flair gives Vader a kneedrop. I'm loving this match. Vader comes back with a clothesline and superplex, after which, he screams, "WHO'S DA MAN." Flair's mouth is bloody, and I don't believe it to be of the blood capsule variety given the nature of Vader's work, so there. Vader misses a splash, unfortunately for Flair, he tries to run into Vader and Vader trucks him. Ouch. Harley stomps on the face of Flair outside the ring, then steps on Flair's throat. See, Harley and Flair had a cage match at Starrcade 1983, which was the first Starrcade. That was 10 years before this, and Flair took the title from Harley for the last time. Meaning that Race never got it back, obviously. So, the random attacks make sense. For a lot of reasons, that among them. Just a small part of a great story being told. In the ring, Vader misses an avalanche after a few chops from Flair. Flair chops him more, but this time, he gets avalanched. Harley tells Flair that "he should quit," and Vader grabs onto that knucklelock again. Flair puts Vader down again with left hands, right hands and some chops, and somewhere in this sequence, Vader's mask comes off. It looks like Vader's having that problem with his eye again. It's not coming out like during that Hansen match, but it's really swollen. After a bit, he starts bleeding from above the eye, probably because Flair potatoed him. Well, Vader did it to Flair, so...Flair rams Vader's left leg into the ringpost, and grabs a chair. Harley's distracting the ref because he has a look on this face that leads the referee to believe Harley's going to punch Flair, and Flair hits Vader with the chair on Vader's left leg, and then onto the head. Back inside, Flair bites Vader, jumps on Vader's left leg, and attempts to apply the FIGURE-FOUR. Vader kicks Flair away from him, though, and tries to go up for the VADER BOMB. Unfortunately for him, he misses. Flair locks on the FIGURE-FOUR, and Harley jumps onto the ring apron. See, kids, this is what a manager is supposed to be. He doesn't steal the heat, he makes people hate VADER more. Not so much himself. Vader reaches the ropes and gives Flair a big boot and elbow to the gut, as he goes up for the MOONSAULT. Holy freaking fuck, he misses and Flair tries to cover him, so Harley goes up top and misses a diving headbutt. OLD MEN ARE FLYING!!!! The referee shoves Race out of the ring, and the crowd goes nuts. Anyway, Flair gets a flying forearm and Vader trucks Flair again, but this time, Vader comes up a little woozy, presumably from Race's headbutt, trips over Flair, and gets rolled up by Flair for what is announced as #11, at 21:09. He still held the belt when the NWA left WCW, but the NWA stripped him. That's how he lost world titleholder status during that time.. Counting WWF Titles, this was number 14. By my count, others vary. Here are his title wins up to that point, over Dusty, Race, Race again, Kerry, Dusty, Garvin, Steamboat, Sting, WCW proclaimed him champ (+1), Fujinami, Royal Rumble, Savage, Windham, Vader. That's just my opinion. Others definitely vary. His loss to the Midnight Rider in Florida really doesn't count. Anyway... Match Analysis: Perfect ending to a great match. It wouldn't have made sense to have Vader quit, so that finish is out. Flair can't retire, so that's out. Harley can't directly cost Vader the match, but he has to play a part, given the history he has with Flair. Vader can't get pinned on anything that doesn't look flukish, given his monster heel status. So, Flair trips him and pins him. Simple, right? Of course it is. ****1/2. Hard to give it full marks because it started sorta slow, but it REALLY picked up. Everything after the first, "WHO'S DA MAN" routine was GOLD. Schiavone's over dramatic commentary is too much. "HE PICKED HIM UP" or "HE'S GOT IT LOCKED IN" are staples of my childhood. It doesn't disappoint here. Tony sounds like he's truly afraid that Flair's going to die in there. For all those that say Flair always does the same match, have them watch this. And when it's over, tell them kindly..."no." ___________________ Rating will come when I review the next 5 matches that'll be posted in 2 weeks. The quality is abundant in this month's selection. IF my brother's here today, Survivor Series '90 will be next. If not, the NWA show will be. I can watch that with my mentally challenged cousin and he'll mark out for the duration.

Yeah, I don't know what to call this. Hence the shitty title. FINALLY, NEW CONTENT! ___________________ Just a synopsis of the 40-or so minute piece they posted... Highlights from Piper's Pit. Roddy Piper v. Jack Brisco for the Mid-Atlantic Title. Piper wins after hitting Brisco with a roll of pennies. Piper wanted 10,000 dollars to face Brisco in the first place, and Wahoo McDaniel and Ricky Steamboat each had to put up 2,000 dollars in order for it to be paid. David Crockett looks strange without graying hair and a beard. Very strange. Now, the Frank Williams Piper's Pit. I think everyone's seen it a million times. Then, the Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff vs. Hulk Hogan and Mr. T match from Wrestlemania I is shown in its entirety, but I'm not reviewing it. When they post WM I or post this in the shorties section, I'll review it. But not now, because I don't particularly review things in the HOF or DVD documentaries they show. I either summarize, or give my opinions of what's on screen. And I like Piper a LOT, I don't need to bore everyone with that. The ring's real bouncy, which is odd for WWF action. I'm not used to that when watching the WWF. His Hall of Fame induction finishes, and now, to the matches that have been posted. ___________________ In chronological order... First, we have Roddy Piper vs. Jake Roberts from Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and the match aired on 6/23/1982. Bob Caudle and Ricky Steamboat are on commentary. Not that I can't believe it, because I can, but it's so ODD to see these two facing off on a syndicated program in the 80's. Unreal. Blow-by-blow: Roddy's wearing plaid, and it looks like Jake borrowed from Piper's future wardrobe. Meaning that Jake's wearing blue, like Piper did later on in his career. Jake starts off with an armdrag, and both guys trade hipblocks. Piper with some HARD chops to the chest of Jake, and he applies a front facelock. Both men trade chops before Piper rakes Jake in the eyes, and Jake comes to his feet with blood on his face. Piper with a back suplex, and somehow Jake's knee winds up on top of Piper for a 2 count. Jake with a sunset flip for 2, and Piper gets a kneelift for two. Piper reverses a Jake bodyslam attempt so Piper can apply the sleeper hold, but Jake makes it to the ropes. Piper misses a kneedrop and Jake gets a backdrop. Jake gets a kneelift of his own for two, and as Jake goes to run the ropes, Sgt. SLAUGHTER trips Jake up, so Jake wins by DQ at 6:54. Piper hits Jake from behind, and Steamboat comes in to stop the attack. Of course, Piper leaves. Match Analysis: Bizarre. I bet that if you asked someone in 1982 which one of the guys involved in this match would be the WWF Champion later on down the line, not many would say that Sgt. Slaughter would be the guy. Strange to see a match from that era without someone involved being dead. Speaking of that, none of these three matches have a dead person as one of the participants. Not something one would expect to see, now. *3/4. ___________________ The next match took place on 7/13/1985 at Madison Square Garden, and it's Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff. Blow-by-blow: Orndorff and Piper trade right hands as the bell rings, and both men go out to the floor. Orndorff rams Piper into the guardrail, and on the inside, leaps off the top rope with a standing elbow to the head of Piper. Piper slaps Orndorff as Orndorff has him in an armwringer, and Piper gains control by ramming Orndorff's head into the turnbuckle. Orndorff locks the arm of Piper around Orndorff's leg and wrenches it, but Piper gets a high knee and clothesline. Unfortunately, the camera gives us a not-so-nice look at Orndorff's ass, to the point where his ass takes up the whole screen. Couldn't the production truck move off that? Anyway, an Orndorff backslide gets two, and after the count, Piper dumps him to the outside. Piper rams Orndorff into the post, and brings him back in. He gives Orndorff a front facelock and then a headlock takeover, but Orndorff bridges out into a backslide. No count though, Piper's feet are in the ropes. They trade blows, and Orndorff crossbody's Piper out to the floor. I know Piper likes that spot a lot, I've seen him do it before. In the next match, for one. Orndorff rams Piper's head into the apron, then drapes him along the top rope as he slams Piper's head into the mat while pulling him back in. Piper sells it hilariously, as his body goes into shakes and tremors. Bob Orton hits the ring, and pushes Orndorff off the top rope. For some reason, the ref doesn't disqualify Piper. Orton hits Orndorff with the cast, and now the bell rings at 8:44. Orndorff is busted open, and Orton and Piper give him a double suplex. The BRITISH BULLDOGS (yeah, that was a WTF moment. I didn't expect THEM to hit the ring.) come out to save Orndorff, and eventually they get the better of Orton and Piper to the point where the two heels are forced to leave. Orndorff wins, but he doesn't look satisfied. Match Analysis: Good for Piper in the WWF. His matches in the WWF, for the most part, aren't that entertaining. That's not why I like him to begin with, though. **. ___________________ The last match posted in this update is for the Intercontinental Championship. It's the challenger, Bret Hart vs. the champion, Rowdy Roddy Piper. From Wrestlemania VIII, of course. Heenan's commentary is great. On a re-review of a particular match, when they post it again, so to say, I'll cover the commentary much more. So, yeah, the review of this show will be different for this particular match. Blow-by-blow: Thankfully, they show the pre-match promo. I'll review that when the whole event is posted. Bret's in his all pink attire, and I don't know who the referee is. Both men trade armdrags before Piper takes Bret down to the canvas. Piper has his arms locked around Bret, and Bret runs and ducks down so that Piper goes out under the top rope. Clever. Piper spits at Bret to establish that he'll be playing the heel tonight, then we have a test of strength. Piper chops Bret after they exchange armwringers, and he rams Bret into the turnbuckle. Piper chops him more, and Bret gets a running dropkick. Bret plays possum on the canvas, holding his shoulder, then rolls Piper up for a 2 count. I think that's the first time he did that in the WWF, I'm not sure though. Piper slaps him, and now IT'S ON. Bret crossbody's Piper to the floor (see what I said about Piper liking that spot) even though it took a while for both men to get to the floor, and Piper holds the ring ropes open so that Bret can come back in. What a guy. Piper makes the referee check Bret for weapons, and Piper slugs Bret in the face with his left hand as Bret's head is down, so obviously, Bret couldn't see him. Wink, wink. Bret blades off the punch (blading was a no-no at the time) and Piper rams his head into the buckle. Piper with a bulldog that gets two and a dropkick for 2, but Bret comes back with a sunset flip for 2. Piper with some lefts and rights for 2, then a Bret flying forearm puts Piper out of the ring. Piper comes back in and both men clothesline each other. Piper goes up to the top as Bret is playing possum AGAIN, and he drapes Piper's feet on the ropes, then rams his face into the canvas. Here comes the usual, Bret with a inverted atomic drop, suplex, russian leg sweep and backbreaker, but Piper blocks the SHARPSHOOTER. Bret goes up to the 2nd rope for his elbowdrop, but he eats Piper's boot on the way down. The two combatants trade punches from their knees (I was going to say "trade blows from their knees," but for some reason, I didn't. Hopefully you can make sense of it.) and Piper rams Bret into the referee. Piper clotheslines Bret out, then rams him into the steel steps. Piper grabs the ringbell, but thinks better of using it. Cause he's a good guy at heart, 'ya know? He tosses the bell out and puts Bret in a sleeper hold, but Bret kicks the turnbuckle pad in the corner, and the momentum puts Bret on top of Piper for the 3 count, and the win, at 13:50. I can't describe the finish any better than that, sorry. It was like Bret-Austin at Survivor Series 1996. Match Analysis: I won't say too much, but this match is WAY underrated. I don't see what keeps this from being a great match, considering that most people don't put it in that category. It told a great story, and moreover, helped launch Bret on his push that culminated in him winning the WWF title later in the year. Would it have been the same had Bret beaten the Mountie (or insert mid-card heel here) at WM 8 to get the title back? No, of course it wouldn't have. ****1/4. One of my favorite matches. ___________________ Same as the Undertaker DVD. When the rest is posted later this month, a full rating will follow. I'll say this much though, what they've posted is definitely watchable. I didn't particularly enjoy the Wild Samoans stuff from last month.

Ok, I've had enough days of not doing any of these... ___________________ This match is from No Mercy 2002, and it's a Hell in a Cell match, featuring the WWE Champion Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs. The Undertaker. Remember, Taker has a broken hand. Blow-by-blow: Taker swings his hand that's in a cast at Brock and Brock dodges him, then takes him down. Taker elbows Brock a few times, but a Brock powerslam gets 2. Brock charges into Taker, and Taker hits Brock in the gut with his cast. Brock bails out of the ring and Taker chases him, and Taker hits Brock in the head with the cast a few times, making Brock bleed. Quite a bit of blood, too. Taker rams Brock into the steps, then the Cell, and grates his face along the Cell. A cover on the outside gets a 2 count, and Taker torpedo tosses Brock into the Cell afterward. Taker does that legdrop where he sets the other wrestler up on the apron and runs down the apron to legdrop him, then goes up top. He clearly had 2nd thoughts about whatever he was going to do, as he comes down with a "something." I really don't know what it was. Taker kicks the Cell into Paul Heyman, and Heyman blades. Again, a lot of blood. Brock accidentally runs into Heyman, but Brock recovers and spinebusters Taker into the Cell, hard. Heyman hands Brock a belt, and Brock ties Taker up, against the Cell. Brock hits Taker in the back with a chair, and then hits the "broken" hand, repeatedly. The belt breaks, and Brock bites Taker on the hand. Back inside the ring, Brock rips the cast off. Brock does this thing where he swings on one of the Cell support beams like Tarzan and kicks Taker a few times. Taker hits Brock low, down low, then pushes him down into the ring. Taker with an elbowdrop into the ring off the top for a 2 count, and Taker kicks Brock into the Cell. Heyman screams out, "we're losing Brock" and he screams pretty much for the rest of the bout. It's funny. Taker dives out under the top rope onto Brock, and Brock gets up first, tossing Taker into the Cell. Brock throws the steel steps into Taker, and now Taker's bleeding. That's a LOT OF BLOOD, much more than that of the other two who are already bleeding. Brock throws the steps into Taker again, and we go back in the ring. A Brock spinebuster gets a 2 count, and Brock doesn't know what he needs to do in order to win. Taker goes up for OLD SCHOOL, but Brock armdrags him off the top rope. Brock goes for the F5, but Taker counters with a chokeslam for 2. Taker with an avalanche, and he goes for another, but Brock counters with a boot to the face. Brock gets backdropped on a BROCK LAST RIDE attempt, and a Taker running DDT gets 2. The LAST RIDE is countered again as Brock rams Taker into the buckle, and as Brock climbs the corner to punch Taker, Taker FINALLY gets the LAST RIDE. However, Brock grabs the ropes on the cover, so the next logical step is to TOMBSTONE him. Taker goes for the TOMBSTONE but Brock reverses it so that he's in TOMBSTONE position, and then Brock launches Taker into position for the F5, and gets the 3 count to retain his title at 27:15. Brock climbing up the Cell to celebrate is left out of the DVD program, so we'll stop there. Match Analysis: In good conscience, no, this was not better than Taker's match with HHH at WM 17. But since I felt this match was ***1/4, I need to change the rating of the WM 17 match to ***1/2. It would only be fair. Not only that, this was the last great Hell in a Cell matches before they went to shit for a while. I don't remember whether or not the other ones after the 50 minute classic (sic) was better than this. Good for what it was, a brawl with a lot of blood. ___________________ The next match is from the first Smackdown only PPV, Vengeance 2003, and it's The Undertaker vs. John Cena. Blow-by-blow: IMO, Cena is far better in this role. As a cocky heel that doesn't give a shit what other people think, that's what Cena does best. His rap is corny, but good. Cena slaps Taker at the start, and gets tossed into the corner. Taker dumps Cena and tosses him into the table where the ring bell is situated. Cena grabs a waterbottle and takes a swig, then spits it into Taker's face. Taker tosses Cena into the guardrail, then back into the ring. Taker gets that apron legdrop, and a cover on the inside gets 1. Taker goes up for OLD SCHOOL, gets it, and a chokeslam, and Taker pulls Cena's head up at 2. Way to make the guy look like a jobber. Taker goes for the LAST RIDE, but Cena jumps over him and DDT's him. Cena goes to unwrap the turnbuckle, but he stops midway through doing so. He kicks Taker and chokes him, then after a Taker clothesline, Cena finishes taking off the turnbuckle pad. Taker misses a charge toward the exposed turnbuckle pad, and Cena knocks him out of the ring with a flying shoulderblock. Taker has some "internal bleeding" going on, but a Taker clothesline gets a 2 count after he misses a big boot. Taker with a dragon sleeper, but Cena gets a spinebuster for 2. Taker with a clothesline after both men trade right hands, and Taker goes for the TOMBSTONE. Cena counters and goes for the F-U, and that's also countered. Taker with a legdrop for two, but Cena hits Taker with his chain. Cena gets the F-U for a 2 count, and for the third straight match on this DVD, Cena goes into the corner to punch Taker, and Taker LAST RIDES him out of there, winning the match. Third straight time that spot has been used... Match Analysis: I believe the word to use is overrated. I've seen in the past that this match drew pretty good star ratings, but it was a glorified Taker squash. He did nothing to make Cena look strong, Cena was only made to look weak. **1/2. I ain't feelin' it. ___________________ Now, we have a BURIED ALIVE match, it's from Survivor Series 2003, and it's the Undertaker vs. Mr. McMahon. Blow-by-blow: Vince prays to a "higher power" before the match, which I find incredibly funny for multiple reasons. Well, that didn't take long. Vince blades on Taker's first punch. Vince is GUSHING blood all over the place, and Taker rams Vince's grapefruits into the steel ring post. Heh. Then he does the same on the other side of the ring, and rams Vince into the announce table. Apparently, Vince threatened to have Taker's wife raped during the buildup for this match. Wow. Taker chokes Vince with a television cable and hits him with a TV monitor. Taker goes up to the stage where the grave is, and grabs a shovel. He hits Vince with it and I have to say, this might be the most blood I've ever seen in a match. It's all over the place. Taker grabs the steps and rams them into Vince's left leg, and we go TOWARD THE GRAVE. Vince gets his only offense of the match with a headbutt to the nuts of Taker and he then hits Taker with a shovel. Taker pulls Vince into the grave, and opens the forklift door in order to bury him. Taker, bury? harharhar. Kane comes out of the forklift and puts Taker into the grave, and Vince climbs into the forklift and dumps dirt into the grave for the win, at 11:58. Match Analysis: Wow. Only thing keeping it from -*'s is the blood. DUD for the blood. Dumb. ___________________ The last match on this DVD set is the return of the Deadman w/Paul Bearer in tow, at WM XX. He's facing Kane. Blow-by-blow: Taker's entrance was awesome, what with Bearer coming out and the Druids. Kane keeps saying "you're not real" throughout the bout. OK. Kane bails early and Taker whips Kane into the apron of the ring. Taker does that legdrop on the apron, and back inside, avalanches Kane while Kane's in the turnbuckle. Bearer screams, "HOW DO YOU LIKE IT," and Taker goes for the LAST RIDE. Unfortunately, they blow a spot where Kane is supposed to counter and drop Taker along the top rope. As I was saying, Taker does not get dropped along the top rope, he just falls down in a heap. Kane with a big boot and right hands as the MSG crowd thankfully does not chant "you fucked up." Kane gets a sideslam and goes up for a flying clothesline that gets a 2 count. Kane misses a charge at Taker, and Taker gets a running big boot and legdrop. He goes up for OLD SCHOOL, but Kane catches him in a choke. Taker returns the favor, and Taker's the one to try the CHOKESLAM first. However, KANE gets the CHOKESLAM and taunts the crowd for a bit. Taker sits up, and no-sells a Kane big boot, then hits a flying clothesline on Kane. Taker gets the CHOKESLAM, and then the TOMBSTONE for the finish at 6:56. Match Analysis: 1/2*. Not good, but I don't think it was supposed to be anything other than a quick vehicle to re-establish Taker. I don't think he needed it, though. That's the end of the DVD! ___________________ Now, ratings for the entire DVD. Rating: Good. Unfortunately, a large majority of the matches are those that most people have probably seen. No hidden gems here, except for maybe the Bret v. Taker match from One Night Only. That match, and a match vs. Kurt Angle from Smackdown in 2003 were cut from the 24/7 airing of the DVD. Best Match: Shawn vs. Taker from Badd Blood 1997. Worst Match: Yokozuna vs. Undertaker from Royal Rumble 1994, and Taker v. Hogan from Survivor Series 1991 gets a dishonorable mention. ___________________ The review of the show from the Spectrum in Philadelphia will be posted either tomorrow or Tuesday. I haven't made up my mind yet.

Time for something easy to review.... ___________________ The first match in this part of the DVD is from Fully Loaded 1999. It's for the World Wrestling Federation Championship, and the challenger is, of course, the Undertaker. The Champion is Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the match is a First Blood, End of an Era match. If Austin loses, he can't challenge for the WWF Title again. If the Undertaker loses, Vince McMahon will have to leave the WWF "forever." Blow-by-blow: First, this mix of the Undertaker's music kicks ass. Austin made Taker bleed earlier in the night, and Taker tells the referee not to worry about that cut. Second, Vince McMahon is a guest commentator for the bout. Austin comes out and Taker meets him in the aisle. They brawl, and Austin swings the Smokin' Skull belt at Taker, but misses. They're by the guardrails in the aisle, and Austin is covering up to protect himself from the rights and lefts that Taker is throwing. Taker knocks Austin into the crowd after a right hand, and throws the steel stairs at him. But they miss, and Austin tries to hit Taker with the steps. Taker kicks him in the gut, throws him over the rail, and rams him into the announce table. Finally they get in the ring, and Taker chokes Austin with his boot. Taker tries to rip the stitches out of Austin's head from attacks on RAW in the previous weeks, then chokes Austin, but Austin chopblocks him after a missed big boot. Austin goes for the left leg, and tells someone out there, "you got this shit." Austin kicks him in the nuts, and for some reason, the crowd's kinda dead. I've never seen this show, so I don't know why. Austin rams the left leg of Taker into the post, and on the outside afterwards, Taker knocks Austin into the crowd. They trade rights, and Taker knocks Austin back to ringside. For some reason I like this match, even though the crowd may not. Taker grabs a chair, and swings it twice, both times missing. He attempts to swing it a third time, and Austin drop-toeholds him into what's left of the steel steps. Austin chokes Taker with a television cable, during the process, he takes a mini-electrical fan and rams it into Taker's face. Taker pushes the ref back in the ring, then trips over the ref and winds up tied in the ropes. Shane McMahon runs in with a chair, and he takes a hard chairshot from Austin to put him on the outside. Austin is gonna hit Taker with the chair, but Taker gives him a big boot. Taker kicks Austin in the groin, and takes off the turnbuckle pad. Steve with a low blow, and a STONE COLD STUNNER. Vince McMahon hobbles to the ring and tries to hit Austin with a crutch because he's hurt, so he can't walk, see. Austin has a chair after he hits Vince, but Taker hits Austin in the back with it. X-PAC (WTF?) comes down to the ring and spinning heelkicks the chair into the face of Taker, and Austin grabs a television camera. Oh yeah, now I remember why X-Pac came down to the ring. He was partners with Kane, and Kane had a match with the Big Show. Who was the Undertakers partner. Anyhow, Austin hits Taker with the camera, and WE HAVE BLOOD. BAH GAWD, BAH GAWD. The ref's down, so the match isn't stopped immediately. Taker goes for the TOMBSTONE, and Earl Hebner sees that Taker's bleeding. We all go "RING THE FUCKING BELL," and the match is over at 15:38. Austin gives Vince a STUNNER, and Triple H comes out. THE ROCK comes out to attack HHH, and we brawl. Taker hits Austin with the chair, and Austin's bloody. Austin hits Taker with the crutch of McMahon's, and Shane gets punched by Taker. Finally, the brawl breaks up. Austin offers to give Vince a goodbye handshake, well, he does that, then gives him a Stunner. Match Analysis: Wow. People complain about Russo's use of run-ins in TNA, but what I saw there, now THAT was overbooking. It was fun though, and well within the context of the match and other angles that were going on at the time. **1/4, although that may be overrating the match, I liked it. ___________________ This match is from Wrestlemania 17, and it's The Undertaker vs. Triple H. Remember, this all started because HHH said he's beaten everyone, Taker came out and said no, then HHH destroyed his bike. Yada, yada, yada. Blow-by-blow: The dubbed music of the Undertaker actually sounds pretty good. Like that could be his real music, or something. Unusual to find good dubbed music on this channel... They brawl on the outside, which is when I start the timer, when the action starts. Taker gets the best of it, and punches HHH who flies through the makeshift Spanish Announce Table. Just a regular table, in Dudley Boyz fashion. HHH with a high knee in the ring, and Taker no-sells it. He backdrops HHH, and clotheslines him. An Undertaker powerslam gets two, but he misses his elbow drop. Taker does a flying clothesline and goes up for OLD SCHOOL, but HHH armdrags him off the top. HHH with a neckbreaker that gets two, and two elbows to the head of Taker. HHH gets another neckbreaker, this time of the swinging variety, for a 2 count. HHH goes outside and grabs the SLEDGEHAMMER, as he gets this sick and twisted look on his face. That's good acting. The referee steals the SLEDGEHAMMER, and Taker slingshots HHH into the referee after a Pedigree attempt is reversed. Taker chokeslams HHH for a 2 count, and because it was ONLY a two count, Taker stomps on the ref and gives him an elbowdrop. He tosses HHH over the top rope and over to the floor, and HHH rams Taker's head into the steps. Taker backdrops HHH into the crowd, and they brawl up to the technical, usually off camera area. HHH hits Taker in the back and the head with a chair, and then wallops him all over the body with it. Taker chokeslams HHH "down to the floor," and I'll be honest, when I saw WM 17 on PPV, I thought HHH was dead. But, as we see on the replay, it was a well-cushioned fall. Taker jumps off the stage thing and elbowdrops HHH, and EMT's have brought out a stretcher to wheel HHH back with. Taker shoves them sumbitches out of the way, and the two men make their way back to the ring. Taker has the SLEDGEHAMMER now, and HHH gives him a nut-shot. HHH has the SLEDGEHAMMER, but Taker with a big boot. HHH goes for the TOMBSTONE but Taker reverses, and there's no referee to make the count. Taker "revives" the official, and picks HHH up for the LAST RIDE. HHH hits him with the SLEDGEHAMMER in mid-flight, and the cover gets 2. Taker's busted wide open, and HHH goes up for the 10 punch in the corner. Unfortunately for him, Taker gets the LAST RIDE (which I think looks visually better than almost all other powerbomb variations) for the 3 count at 18:58. Match Analysis: Fun, and the overly gimmicked chokeslam at the technical area really didn't bother me. A good, dramatic match which made me think HHH would be the one to beat Taker at Mania the first time I watched it. Cool finish too. ***1/4. ___________________ From Judgment Day 2002, this match is for the Undisputed Championship, and it's the challenger, The Undertaker vs. the Champion, Hulk Hogan. Blow-by-blow: Hogan's ring entrance took a while, and it could give someone a seizure. The lights in front of the stage setup hurt my eyes. Taker's wearing Hogan's weightlifting belt to the ring, and once Hogan gets in, Taker smacks him with it a few times. Hogan finds a way to get the belt away, then hits Taker with it three times. Hogan clotheslines Taker as JR says, "this won't be a classic." No shit, huh. Hogan backdrops Taker and dumps him, and then he goes into HULKAMANIA BROTHER and tears his shirt off. Hogan with an eye rake, but Taker gives him a headbutt on the outside. Still on the outside, Hogan whips Taker into the steps. Hogan with some chops, but Taker gets an armbar and goes up for OLD SCHOOL. Hogan crotches him and gets a superplex (WTF?) for 2. It looked kinda funny. Taker with a chopblock, and he rams Hogan's knee into the ringpost. He wrenches the leg, but Hogan continually kicks Taker in the head to get out of it. They trade right hands, then Hogan misses the BIG BOOT AND LEGDROP, and Taker grabs Hogan's leg in a half crab. Hogan gets to the ropes and both men trade right hands. Hogan misses a clothesline, and Taker gives him the ugliest chokeslam I've ever seen. Hogan kicks out at two, and Hulks up. We all know the routine, 3 right hands, a big boot, and HE DROPS THE FUCKIN' LEG, but only gets two. A Taker running DDT gets a 2 count and Vince McMahon makes his way to the ring. Taker goes and grabs a chair, but Hogan kicks it into his face. He gives Taker the LEGDROP, but the ref isn't counting thanks to Vince. Hogan punches Vince and legdrops him, but Taker hits him with the chair and chokeslams him at 12:23 to become the new Undisputed Champion. Undertaker tells Hebner to put the belt around his waist, and he goes and grabs the chair "for his motorcycle." He "Team 3D's" him, you know, cause of what they did to Shark Boy, and that's it. Match Analysis: Not a DUD, cause I was entertained. And I thought it was better than their match at Survivor Series 1991 so...I have to give it 3/4*. It was kept short, and to the point. That was for the better. If both men had more time for this match, it would have been terrible. With a capital T. ___________________ An overall rating of the DVD will be coming soon, when I post Part 6. Since there's not much content that I haven't reviewed on 24/7 right now, I'll take my time.

Now, the DVD set moves into the heart of the Attitude Era. I don't mind that, as it's a time period I enjoy. Most people say that a person's favorite wrestling period is the one they grew up on. I don't necessarily disagree, even though late-80's NWA is my favorite, this is right behind. I don't give a damn how many people look back and think it sucks. If you disagree, comment and we can discuss it. And since the Kings won, I'm doing this tonight. Otherwise, I wouldn't work on it until tomorrow. ___________________ From IYH: Unforgiven in 1998, we have The Undertaker v. Kane w/Paul Bearer in an Inferno Match. Prematch: This is the end of the UT/Kane feud until they come full-circle with partners they each don't trust, and then they decide to team up themselves. Rinse and repeat about 10 times, and you have Kane's career. The inferno visuals are cool, they kept the flame low so everyone could see. Blow-by-blow: They trade punches (and I had the feeling I'd be saying that a lot...), until UT avalanches Kane in the corner. Kane's in this phase where he sells nothing, from nobody, so that's what he does. It's even worse than when Taker does it. UT goes up for OLD SCHOOL and the fire blaze gets really high, almost to the knee of UT as he's standing on the ropes. Kane just drops him on the turnbuckle, and hits him with some rights. Whip hard to buckle, rinse and repeat 3 or 4 times. Kane powerslams UT and they both try to smother each other, until Bearer tosses a chair into the ring. Kane hits UT with the chair, and then the camera pans to Bearer wiping the sweat off his face. Yeah, I'm sure those flames are hot. Kane pushes UT toward the flame AND BAH GAWD HE'S GONNA PUT HIS ASS ON FIRE, but Taker finds his way away from it. Taker gives him a russian leg sweep and a legdrop. CHOKESLAM, CHOKESLAM STRAIGHT TO HELL by Kane, so logically, Taker must return the favor. Then, both guys give each other a big boot. It looked weird. Undertaker misses his running, flying clothesline, and he almost flies too far and into the flames. That was close. Kane sideslams Taker and goes up to the top rope, but UT crotches him on the turnbuckle, then superplexes him. Kane gets tossed out over the top rope, but the flames don't get him. OK. What's the point of the match then. As Kane walks towards the back, Vader makes his first televised appearance since No Way Out of Texas, and gives Kane a piece of his mind. The two wrestlers get a little closer to the ring, and UT FLIES over the top rope with a tope, knocking both men down. Taker chases Bearer onto a stage set-up on the side, and puts a drum through Bearer's head after Bearer gives him a WEAK ASS chairshot. Bearer does a blade-job, and back at the ring, Undertaker knocks Kane into the fire after Kane CLEARLY put on a flame-retardant sleeve or something, and that's it. HE'S ON FIRE, OH MAH GAWD. The bell rings at 16:01. Match analysis: It was weird. Really weird. Not negative star worthy or anything, but the booking was bizarre. The guys never should have left the ring, but then again, Kane would never have been able to put on the flame-retardant sleeve. It's not BAD though, like one would expect. The gimmick (and other reviews out there) tends to have people thinking the match is dogshit. *. ___________________ From King of the Ring 1998, it's Mankind vs. The Undertaker, in Hell in a Cell. Prematch: We all know what happens here. UT limps out and climbs the cell. Nothing else sticks out except for the sheer number of lighters while the lights are turned out. Goodness. Blow-by-blow: Undertaker goes up the Cell, takes a few chairshots and throws Mick off the Cell. The bump still holds up to this day, and it will hold up forever. Two shittier workers, and nobody would have given a fuck. But because it was these two guys, because the Undertaker character was going in a darker direction, and because Mick Foley was supposed to be a sick sonofabitch, it worked. Moving on from that, I like seeing Hugo Savinovich of the Spanish announce team sprawled out after the giant throw off the Cell. It always makes me laugh. Terry Funk, Sgt. Slaughter and Vince McMahon make their way out, he does a stretcher job, BUT HE AIN'T DONE, BAH GAWD, HE'S CRAZY, HE'S SICK! Stop here. Nothing tops this. I would have loved to seen Mick return the favor, and that would have been the perfect way to end the match, IMO. They both re-climb the Cell, and Undertaker headbutts Mick. That's a strange thing to see Taker do. Then Taker chokeslams Mick through the Cell. This bump is more impressive than the first, I think. Once UT struggles to get through the hole in the Cell, he chokeslams Terry Funk out of his shoes. Legit LOL there, from both my brother, my father and I. Like I said, I don't watch these alone. This channel brings back good, old memories. Taker punches Mick, and Mick falls down in a heap. It's almost funny, in a sick way. Then the infamous clip of Foley's tooth in his nose follows, and he SAYS that he was trying to stick his tongue through a hole in his lip, but his beard kept everyone from seeing it. For some reason, I'm not so sure about that one. Taker goes up for OLD SCHOOL, but Mick knocks him off. Taker grabs the stairs because Mick can't hold them, so they improvise and Taker launches the stairs into Mick's injured shoulder. Geez, dude. Watch out. Taker then flies into the cell, and you can see the guy scraping his blade up toward his face, trying to get his face to cut. Business exposure, kids. Learn to love it, learn to live with it, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, AND SO ARE THE FOUR HORSEMEN. Sorry. Back in the ring...Mick piledrives Taker onto a chair for two. I'm calling him Mick because his mask is gone, see. A legdrop onto Taker as a chair is draped over Taker's face gets 2, then Mick gives him an ugly looking double arm DDT. He goes under the ring...and we have TACKS. OH MY GAWD, TACKS, TACKS, HE'S SICK...but Mick gives UT FINGERS IN THE MOUTH a MANDIBLE CLAW instead. UT lifts Mick on his back, and then drops him onto a small portion of the TACKS. But Mick ROLLS IN THEM. A chokeslam on the tacks gets most of them stuck to Mick's back, and then Mick gets TOMBSTONE'D for the finish at 17:38. Match analysis: 1. Both bumps off the top of the Cell were nuts. 2. Most people deride the match because they think all it was, was two big bumps and some thumbtacks. No. Fuck those people. The match told a story. A story about two sick motherfuckers that would do anything to win. The only thing that irks me, is that they weren't trying to win anything in particular. Except for pride. And with the history of these two, that's all it takes. I'm stuck in the middle about how I really feel about this match. I've watched it about 10 times including the live airing, I have it on DVD, and my opinion still hasn't changed. So my rating shall be in the middle, as well. **1/2. It isn't the best one of these matches, but it's memorable, and with damn good reason. ___________________ From King of the Ring 1999, it's a World Wrestling Federation Championship match, with the challenger being The Rock, and the Champion being The Undertaker. Undertaker is accompanied by Paul Bearer... Prematch: Undertaker is just sick at this point, I'll leave it at that. Yes, this is the PPV where Billy Gunn wins the King of the Ring. No, I haven't seen the whole PPV, or this match. I made a point not to order any WWF PPV's post WM XV until Royal Rumble 2000, and I haven't seen a single one in between, although I watched RAW all the time. My parents felt that ripped off by WM XV, and I didn't disagree. Instead, we ordered WCW PPV's. Yeah. Blow-by-blow: Ref bump quick and early before anything starts, and if history is any indication, it should be good. Remember Ground Zero 1997? Unfortunately, when Vince Russo's booking, both logic and history is thrown in the garbage. This match was 3rd from last at this PPV, Billy Gunn's KotR win and a shitty Austin ladder match followed. Anyway, ROCK BOTTOM, HE JUST HIT ROCK BOTTOM, but there's no ref. The new one gets to the ring, and Bearer pulls him out while he was making the count. Fuck. Overbooking at the start? I'm used to that at the finish. Bearer punches the new ref to the ground, and a UT chokeslam gets 2. This match is going in reverse. Rocky clotheslines Taker to gain control, and does his spit punch to finish the combination. This guy was, and is, GOLD. He throws UT out of the ring, and now we brawl. They beat each other up near the stage, and on the way back toward the ring, Taker suplexes Rocky in the entranceway. Back in, and an Undertaker cover gets a 1 count. Armwringer and OLD SCHOOL follows, but nope, Taker's nuts must suffer after being crotched along the top rope. Rocky has a water bottle, and he takes a swig and spits it out at Taker. He's still getting the catchphrases down, and stuff. Into the crowd we go, and Rocky pours beer on Taker. Back near the announce table after some shitty brawling, and Rocky rams the face of Taker into the ringbell. Taker grabs the bell, and Rocky has a chair, and the weapons meet. Who the fuck came up with that idea. The visual is terrible, and accomplishes nothing other than that hitting a bell with a chair hurt Rocky. Bearer then hits Rocky with his shoe. Uh. Lots of Taker punches, and his running DDT gets 2. To the chinlock we go, then Rocky powers out and gives Taker a samoan drop for 2. Double clothesline follows, and Rocky's up first. A Taker TOMBSTONE attempt leads to a Rocky counter, as Rocky DDT's him. Ref bump after a whip and collision, and we HAVE THE PEOPLE'S ELBOW. THE PEOPLE'S ELBOW PAD COMES OFF, AND HE DROPS THE FUCKING ELBOW for no count, as there isn't a ref to do so. Taker gives Rock a nutshot, and Bearer has a rag. He soaks it with ETHER. AND BAH GAWD, IT SMELLS LIKE ETHER. This shit is so fucking stupid, I remember when Taker was going to embalm Steve Austin alive and that sort of booking really reminds me of it. Maybe because it's done by the same guy, I dunno. Well, actually, I do. Rocky steals the rag after a clothesline, and smothers Undertaker with it. But Triple H HAS to come to the ring, and he HAS to PEDIGREE Rocky, and JR has to call him a lousy, no good son of a bitch, and we have to have a run-in, and just fuck it I want this to be over. Taker somehow gets his finger on Rocky as both are out, but Rocky kicks out at 2. Taker gets up first, and TOMBSTONE'S Rocky for the win at 19:47. HHH came out because he's in the Corporate Ministry, ya know? Match analysis: It's a really shitty, really overbooked title match. My initial rating while watching it was *1/2, but after thinking about it, there's really no way I can go that high. The brawling sucked. The booking sucked. The promos before this match on RAW sucked (yes, I do remember. Learning tree yourself, bitch.). Just the overall writing of the company sucked, but damn, I look on it fondly. The match is 1/2*, and I can't possibly watch it again. If you can't book a 20 minute straight wrestling match ONCE in your ENTIRE fucking life, chances are you're on the wrong business. And you show me a match that Russo booked all by himself that went more than 20 minutes, without run-ins, ref bumps, ether soaked rags, human torches, graveyards, celebrity world champions, a tazer, a heel turn, a "shoot", "blood" coming out of the ceiling, partners that hate each other, tits and ass, or any other shitty gimmick out there... and I'll show you Michael Jordan. Seriously, if anyone can find a straight, non-gimmicked, Russo booked wrestling match with none of the things I mentioned, I'll review it. I don't think such a thing exists. To be truthful, in this case, Undertaker carried the match. I'm not shittin'. I don't know if this match, with this booking, could have been any better. ___________________ And that's it. I don't know what I'll do next, but I'll have something done tomorrow. I sure would like to see some comments after some of the statements I've made... This part of the DVD is worth a watch, if you haven't seen the Inferno match. But if you want to watch it until the end, please take caution. And try to laugh, as often as possible.

Ok, before I start, I'll throw out a few snowflakes for the matches in the first two parts of the DVD. SPOILERS The Undertaker beat Hulk Hogan, from Survivor Series 1991: 1/2*. Junk. Yokozuna beat The Undertaker in a casket match, from Royal Rumble 1994: Complete and utter trash. -***** for the whole thing, just -****1/2 for the actual match. Having all those guys come in the match gave a reason for UT's long hiatus. That was the first wrestling match I watched. Yeah, no shit. So how did I become a wrestling fan? The tape I got from the video store was at this spot when I started watching. I didn't rewind it, I could only watch one match before I went to sleep, and I didn't have time. The Undertaker beat Diesel, from WM 12: It's ok. **3/4. The Undertaker beat Mankind in a Buried Alive match, from guess what, IYH: Buried Alive: Solid match, the entire spectacle was shitty. It took forever to bury "Undertaker" to the point where they could go to the finish of the show. ***. And then they fought again, at Revenge of the Taker: I thought that was much better. ***1/2. Bret Hart beat The Undertaker, from SSlam 97: Good wrestling match, but real long. ***1/4. And now, to the review. ___________________ From In Your House: Ground Zero, it's The Undertaker v. Shawn Michaels. Prematch: They're having this match because of the incident at Summerslam where HBK hit UT with a steel chair, costing UT his title. We all know what this feud leads to. Blow-by-blow: I started timing way before the bell rang, because I feel that was the time that should be recorded. Once UT gets in the ring, he punches the ref. So the bell doesn't ring for 5 more minutes. Slaughter tells HBK to get back in the ring, because HBK's scared shitless of The Undertaker. Undertaker tosses the ref out of the ring, and onto HBK. HBK runs like hell, and tries to break down the door of the House setup the WWF had going for these shows. UT press slams him onto the stage, then punches HBK, and HBK bumps the whole way down the ramp, back toward the ring. I'm sure that hurt. UT throws Shawn into the stairs, chokes him with a microphone cord, and slams him over the guardrail. We go back in the ring, and UT clotheslines Shawn. There's no referee to count the pinfall, so UT picks Shawn up. Then he whips Shawn into the buckle, and Shawn goes upside down. NOW we have a ref, it's Earl Hebner btw, and Shawn asks him to disqualify the Undertaker. Shawn cuts out UT's left knee, and the bell finally rings. UT tries a chokeslam but gets a boot to the midsection, then Shawn tries an axhandle from the top and misses. He then gets dumped, but on his way back in, he tries a sunset flip that he can't finish. UT picks him up from the ground, chokes him, and then throws him. UT then puts Shawn in position to do that spot where Shawn launches himself into the air, and lands on the top rope, crotching himself. Shawn does that, then gets clotheslined by UT. UT goes for OLD SCHOOL, but gets crotched along the top rope. UT winds up on the outside, and Shawn baseball slides into him. Shawn attempts a plancha, but is caught by UT and slammed into the ringpost. UT punches Shawn in the nuts, and backdrops Shawn for a 2 count. Shawn finally gets some offense with a swinging neckbreaker, but UT sits up. Shawn puts his running boots on, and grabs a chair. He's not able to hit Undertaker, though, and UT grabs the chair. Hebner grabs the chair, and Shawn dropkicks UT into Hebner. Shawn goes up, and does his elbowdrop off the top twice. Rick Rude comes out and tosses Shawn some brass knuckles, and coldcocks Undertaker. Once a new referee comes to the ring, the cover gets a 2 count. The new referee gets punched out, and HHH and Chyna have made their way to the ring. HH beats up UT, and Shawn takes care of Hebner, as he comes to. Someone in the crowd heckles HHH, so he tells them to suck it. Crotch chop, motherfucker. Under Shawn's eye is a cut, and it looks to have came the hardway, when he came off the top rope to the floor to hit UT. Shawn misses SWEET CHIN MUSIC BAH GAWD after a TOMBSTONE reversal, and then UT beats him up and grabs the brass knuckles out of Shawn's pants. He hits Shawn and HHH with them, and covers Shawn, but the referee is too tired to make the count fast enough for UT to win. UT chokeslams Hebner, then Tim White comes down to the ring at 21:58 (my time, which is far different than the other ones out there) and rings the bell. No contest. That's the 4th ref to make an appearance during the match. After that, HHH gets chokeslammed into Shawn, but Shawn hits UT with SWEET CHIN MUSIC. UT gets tied in the ropes, and Shawn runs and tries to hit him with a chair. But UT kicks the chair into his face, see. Shawn gives SWEET CHIN MUSIC to all of the officials that make their way to ringside in an attempt to break this up, and during the process, UT TOMBSTONES HHH. Now wrestlers from the back make their way out to stop things, with Rocky Maivia among them. He's wearing an ugly ass shirt. A huge UT tope onto everyone on the outside, including Shawn, and DX leaves ringside. And that's it. Match analysis: I've never seen this match before. It's terrific, and sets up the following month's Hell in a Cell perfectly. Just awesome. ****1/4. It's a must watch, and the best WWF brawl up to that point. It might sound overbooked, but it's not. It's brilliant. ___________________ I'm skipping UT/Shawn from Badd Blood, cause they're posting the entire event this week. I took notes, and I'm going to put the match review on the Badd Blood review. ___________________ From Wrestlemania XIV, it's The Undertaker vs. Kane w/Paul Bearer. Prematch: The WWE put in the prematch video package, which I feel is the best one WWE has done to this date. It recapped the feud perfectly, and got me excited for the match the first time I saw it. The druids appear during the entrance for UT, but the part where Kane tombstoned Pete Rose was cut out. Too bad, I really like it. Blow-by-blow: Staredown to start, and Undertaker throws the first blow. Kane elbows UT, then tosses him into the turnbuckle. UT does the same, and then we have a UT big boot. Kane clotheslines him, and puts him in tree of woe position at the turnbuckle. Kane then suplexes UT across the ropes, and clotheslines him from the top rope in order to dump UT to the outside. Kane chokes him on the inside, and gives him some high knees to the midsection. UT climbs up Kane's shoulders, but Kane drops him. We go to the outside, and Kane beats up UT pretty bad. Stairs to the midsection, and we go back in on a Kane suplex. A Kane chokeslam gets 2 after Kane picks UT up off the canvas, so we go to the chinlock. Kane works around that for a while, which is nice, a straight out chinlock for 5 minutes is boring as fuck and a crutch for shitty workers. An Undertaker big boot gets Kane to the floor, and Undertaker FLIES to the outside with a tope, but misses and goes through a table. Not as impressive as it once used to be, I hate to say. The bump doesn't hold up. Back inside, and Kane clotheslines Undertaker after jumping off the top rope. They trade right hands, and a Kane TOMBSTONE gets 2. No-sold afterward by UT, and then UT clotheslines him to put Kane down for the first time in the match. UT chokeslams Kane, and Paul Bearer says, "DAMN YOU UNDERTAKER, DAMN YOU TO HELL." Pretty weird moment, but I enjoyed it. Evil Paul is cool. An Undertaker TOMBSTONE gets two, a legdrop follows, and Kane sits up. UT TOMBSTONE again, and it gets 2. Then UT goes up to the top, hits Kane with a flying clothesline, and TOMBSTONES him for the pin at 16:58. Kane and Bearer lay UT out after the match, and that's it. Match analysis: It's just a decent match. The crowd wasn't very into it, and I attribute that to three things. 1. The Dusty Finish of the Rock/Shamrock match. The crowd went nuts for Shamrock winning the IC title, but they were sorta dead until the main. 2. The tag title match before this one finished backstage, and there was no giant Titantron to watch the ending on. Just the video screens on the scoreboard. 3. Position on the card. It was right before the main, and this match probably should have been right after the mixed tag, when the crowd was hot. But good luck getting UT to go down the card, even though it was the right thing to do. I gave the match ***, had there been more heat for the match, the rating would have been higher. I DO punish matches that don't have crowd heat, with a few exceptions. If you don't have heat, something's wrong. ___________________ This part of the DVD is a must watch. I'll do the next part tomorrow.

The date on the program description is wrong. You can't have a show air on 1/4 when the footage was shot on 1/5, obviously. I'll do the logical thing and say this is a 1/11/96 review, not that I'll title it as such. To start with, before the entire program, WWE put in a video package of The Pitbulls. I don't review the Tazz/Styles portions of the show where they talk about the past, so we skip ahead to the program. ___________________ Flashback to "last week", as we have Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie in the back cutting a promo and all of a sudden, THE FUCKING FRANCHISE SHANE DOUGLAS makes his re-debut, as he wonders what the hell happened to ECW... I believe that would apply to the present as well. ___________________ Now, to the "present," and Joey Styles is in the ring, as he usually is, to introduce the show, of course. Bill freaking Alfonso comes out to the ring, blowing his whistle and screaming about Taz not getting any respect. I love Alfonso's whistle gimmick. Taz then confronts Joey and says he's sick of this shit. He wants to beat Joey's ass. 911 and Tod Gordon come out, Tod attacks Joey and the refs get in-between 911 and Taz. Thank God, I don't want to see that shitty match. Some wrestlers come out to help the officials, as the fans chant "Let them go." I say, "How about no." They separate, but El Puerto Ricano is in the ring, wearing a shirt that says, "Fonzie Must Die." Well then, Taz sees the shirt, and Tazplexes the guy RIGHT ON HIS HEAD. 911 hits the ring again as a result, but the Eliminators come out and Totally Eliminate him, dude. Jason's with them and he's full of laughs, until Rey Mysterio hits the ring, that is. What the fuck happened to THIS Rey Mysterio, he's all over the place, flying and taking out Kronus and Saturn. I guess we have a tag match, with The Eliminators against Rey and 911. Never once was anything mentioned about a match, until about a minute into their fight. So I don't have a time. Taz comes back to the ring and chokes 911 out with his towel, and I've gotta say, make up your fucking mind. Go to the ring and stay there, or go to the back and stay there. Rey and Saturn are brawling on the outside, and afterward, Kronus gives Rey a bodyslam in the ring. A standing moonsault gets 2 for Kronus. 911 suplexes Saturn in the ring, and at the same time, Kronus gives Rey a powerbomb. Total Elimination on 911 and Taz is back to choke 911 some more. Perry Saturn powerbombs Rey, then the Eliminators whip Rey into the ropes, but get double DDT'd for their trouble. 911 finds his way back to the ring, and Rey goes onto his shoulders for a chickenfight. Saturn goes up for the Eliminators, and Rey jumps to the other side and rana's Saturn off for the pinfall. I liked that spot. After the match, Rey is Totally Eliminated, and the Pitbulls hit the ring. They look pissed. Francine attacks Jason, but she is also Totally Eliminated. That's the end of that until Jason hits one of the Pitbulls with a steel chair, and they bail soon afterward. Damage Control are out, and Francine does a stretcher job. Totally overbooked trash. Entertaining overbooked trash, that is. **. I can only take so much of that, though. Also, that's 911's last match in ECW for a while, and he only made a one show appearance a few years later. End of a chokeslamming era. ___________________ ECW then cuts to Styles, as he introduces a segment where Jimmy Del Ray accepts Mr. Hughes as his bodyguard, after him being offered Mr. Hughes by Damien Caine. Whatever. The match is Buh Buh Ray Dudley w/the rest of the Dudleys vs. "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray w/Curtis Hughes. Buh Buh can't say his name, as I'm sure most of us know. Del Ray dropkicks him as he's trying to stammer it out, and we're underway. Buh Buh dumps Jimmy, and begins to dance. Very entertaining, even though the wrestling on these shows really lacks. Clipjob, and we come back with a Dudley avalanche for a 2 count. Swinging DDT from the top by Del Ray, then Hughes gets on the apron. Buh Buh's DDT finishes at a clipped 2:45. 3/4*. Buh Buh's music isn't dubbed, thank goodness, and that's cut once Shane Douglas makes a surprise appearance at the ECW Arena. He wants to teach Buh Buh some English, and slaps the taste out of Buh Buh's mouth. And that's that. ___________________ A useless Rey Mysterio promo... ___________________ And now, we have what this episode is famous for. The Beulah pregnancy angle. I have to say, this shit does not hold up at all. I was almost embarassed to be watching it. I'm not going to recap it. This kind of shit is what inspired Russo to do his Crash TV garbage, so this is one of my least favorite things I've seen in the wrestling business. What some people call, "pushing the envelope," others call trash. I'm in the group that calls it trash. It just doesn't hold up whatsoever, and I wanted to get that off my chest now. I won't say anything negative about it from now on. ___________________ My spiel about this show....overbooked. The last episode was far better. If someone watched this episode and called ECW, "Extremely Crappy Wrestling," I wouldn't disagree. Buh Buh's gimmick is really funny, so it gives this show a higher rating than I would give it otherwise. My rating: Decent. I was entertained, but I couldn't handle it for more than 45 minutes, the length of the episode. The pregnancy angle kinda put a downer on this episode, IMO.

Easy, short reviews here, so I'll get them out quick. The Kings need a win tonight, so hopefully posting this on the same day will bring a victory to Los Angeles. Each section is denoted in bold. Mad Dog Vachon Vachon attacks Joe LeDuc at the start of this clip, so LeDuc does a bladejob to go with the cast on his arm. Once things settle down, Vachon beats up some jobber, cobra clutches him and LeDuc is back and bandaged up.... He gets his revenge and shit. Then Baron von Raschke and Vachon cut a promo. Baron just stands their looking mean and Vachon talks in his loud, crazed voice. I could have done without that, even though I love the Baron. It was pointless for WWE to put that on their on demand channel, IMO. Terry Funk Now, I have a problem with this. If you're showing Terry Funk, show something from the NWA or ECW. Not from Florida. Terry's with Gordon Solie and Dory Funk, and they narrate a clip of a previous match where Terry faced Dusty Rhodes. Dusty has a cast on his arm and hits Funk with a couple of elbows, and during the narration Funk's doing nothing but bitching. After a couple elbows, Dory comes in and attacks Dusty. NOW WE HAVE DA COLLA BROTHA, as Dusty juices. The Funk's try to rebreak Dusty's arm, and the babyfaces come out of the dressing room to save him. This angle looks really similar to the angle where Flair and the Andersons broke his arm inside a steel cage after Dusty saved Slick Ric after his match with my nephew Nikita. Misused the theme of this month. They should have used a barbed wire match. The Missing Link The match here is the Missing Link and Bruiser Brody vs. Terry Gordy and The Great Kabuki. Gordy and Bruiser brawl to the back and disappear for the duration of the bout, so this turns into a singles match. Kabuki nerveholds Link to death, and me too, because I'm bored to death. That's literally all he does for the duration of this bout, until Michael Hayes hands Kabuki nunchucks and Kabuki hits Link with them for the DQ at 8:11. DUD. That was terrible. Another one I could have done without. Buzz Sawyer Prematch: Now, this is what I was waiting for. The match is Buzz Sawyer, The Great Muta and The Dragonmaster vs. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Ole Anderson. Flair's the Champ, here. Sting had been attacked by the Horsemen earlier in the night, so 5 of these guys are heels. Muta is not a heel, as the crowd goes batshit for him. The Dragonmaster is Kendo Nagasaki, in case you didn't know. That was his gimmick from Florida. From Clash X, from Corpus Christi, Texas. This is the show in Mick Foley's book where he talks about facing Mil Mascaras and attacking some guy from a band after the match. I've always wanted to see this show. Jim Ross and Jim Cornette are on commentary. Blow-by-blow: Arn attacks Buzz Sawyer to start, and Buzz returns the favor with some hard chops to the chest of Arn. Sawyer throws Arn into the cage, and Muta does some Liu Kang type flying attack at Arn, in which he hits Arn with about 5 kicks. Flair and Dragonmaster come in, and Flair chops him to death, Ole in with some knees, and Arn and Muta come in. Muta hits a handspring elbow that's probably the best looking one I've seen, and the crowd goes nuts. Nuts, I tell you. Muta applies the STF, and WE GOTS COMPANY AT RINGSIDE BRUDDA, and STING's trying to get into the cage to attack Ric Flair. Tom Zenk and Brian Pillman come out and try to pull Sting down from the cage, and they succeed this time. Ole backdrops Buzz into the cage and SAWYERS BENT IN HALF, BY GAWD and I happen to agree with that sentiment. What a tough bump that looked to be. The guy was so zonked out on crack that it didn't matter. That's why he's dead, you know. Now we have a historical moment in wrestling, as Sting goes back to the cage, and blows his knee out as he tries to climb in. Uh-oh. It can be instantly seen that there's a problem, because Sting immediately stops what he's doing, and he can't get to the back without assistance. His knee is fucked, as is the angle the NWA set up earlier that night. Buzz Sawyer suplexes Arn and goes to the top like Superfly, but he misses the splash from the top of the cage. Arn spinebusters Dragonmaster, and we have a pier-6 brawl. Arn DDT's Dragonmaster at 6:13 for the win. Match analysis: The Sting injury really threw the NWA into a loop, it killed their main event for WrestleWar, and they tried to fall back on Luger in another attempt to turn him into their Hulk Hogan. As we know, it didn't work, for multiple reasons. For one, Luger couldn't talk like Hogan. Number two, I've read stories that the guy always felt he was above the business. He treated the fans like shit, how are they going to get behind him. They aren't. In Sting's first televised match back, he got the NWA belt. That was in July. In the meanwhile, the NWA didn't know what the fuck to do. They put Sid Vicious in the Horsemen (ugh), and debuted El Gigante. Then they did a Flair vs. Junkyard Dog main at Clash XI, and Sting made his comeback and saved JYD. They really, REALLY need to start showing this shit. Strange match, *3/4. For the whole spectacle, the entertainment value is off the charts. I'm going to tack the review of Killer Kowalski vs. Bruno Sammartino to the two Wild Samoan matches I still have to review. So, I didn't forget about that. Comments are appreciated.

I'm bored, so I'll type this out now, instead of later. I far prefer the one hour shows as opposed to the 2 and 3 hour ones, because it's easier to review them. From the Sportatorium in Dallas, this is World Class Championship Wrestling. Yadayadayada, the host is Bill Mercer. We start with Brian Adias vs. Buddy Roberts of the Fabulous Freebirds, Michael Hayes is at ringside. This is right after the angle where the Freebirds slammed Kerry Von Erich's head with the steel cage door, so the crowd hates the Freebirds. Hayes cuts a promo to start and we're underway. Roberts grabs onto a side headlock and takes Adias over three times. Adias dropkicks him after getting up from each takeover, and Roberts bails to the outside. I'm not all too familiar with WCCW, so I kinda though Adias was a jobber. He's not. Buddy grabs onto Adias arm and gives him an armlock figure-four. I like that move a lot. Not much here, except for Buddy's bloody knee, and they pick up the pace once the ring announcer says there's two minutes left in the bout. Buddy hits Adias with a nice swinging neckbreaker for a two count, and I believe it when someone says, that's how the move's supposed to be done. Because it is. Roberts follows with a backbreaker and 2nd rope elbow, each get a 2 count. Adias sunset flips over Roberts for two, and we have a time-limit draw at 8:26. The times are always fudged on the time-limit draws, of course. I don't recall very many announced time-limit draws going the duration of the announced time-limit. Anyway, I kinda liked it. *1/2. ___________________ After a commercial break (and I love WCCW's intro to commercials, btw), we go to the Freebirds house. During this promo, country music plays in the background. It fits, see. The Freebirds have a Georgia flag (which at the time, had the stars and bars of the Confederacy on it) hanging up in the background, and they defend their position on why they attacked Kerry Von Erich during his title match against Ric Flair at the beginning of the month. It was shown last month, and I thought it was ***1/4. Another break, and we come back with Michael Hayes in the ring, as he will be facing off against Al Madril. I thought Madril was a jobber too, but Mercer says he's a former Texas State champion. OK. Hayes stalls for a while, and plays the "chickenshit heel" role very well. Not much to see here, until Hayes piledrives Madril and decides not to cover him. Hayes then beats up Madril, and Jose Lothario comes down to the ring to save Madril, so Hayes gets the DQ win at 7:46. I had no idea Lothario was still wrestling at this point. 3/4*. ___________________ Promo time, and Lothario wants to fight Hayes anytime, anywhere. He says it's ok to beat someone, but to try to hurt them after they're beat is crossing the line. Andre follows with a promo of his own about the upcoming 6 man elimination match... And now it's time for the main event! It's a 6 man elimination match, and the winner gets 5,000 dollars. You can be eliminated by pinfall, submission or going over the top rope, and it's every man for himself. The participants are Kerry Von Erich, Terry Gordy, Wild Bill Irwin, Bugsy McGraw, King Kong Bundy, and Andre The Giant. Kerry goes straight for Gordy, a Freebird, before the match starts. They brawl before Andre gets to the ring, and once Andre hits the ring and the match starts, out Kerry goes after Michael Hayes pulls the rope down as Kerry's trying to put Gordy out. That took 10 seconds. Kerry tries to brawl with Gordy, but the officials send him out of the building. Andre makes Bundy look like a child, and that's no exaggeration. Andre tries to choke out Gordy for a really long time, but Bundy takes him down. Once Bundy does that, he throws McGraw out at 2:40, and we have 4 men left. Andre's still trying to choke Gordy, but Irwin gets in the way. Uh-oh. Andre throws Irwin out of the way like Irvin's a child, and Andre's still after Gordy. The crowd loves Andre. Irwin keeps trying to impede the Giant, but Andre throws him out of the way like a jabroni. Bundy tries to slam Andre, but he can't. The other three men triple team Andre for a really long time,until Andre throws Irwin out at 10:38. One thing I've drawn from this match is that Andre probably didn't like Gordy. Or it seems like it. Gordy almost goes out, but Hayes saves him. Andre goes over the top rope at 11:15 to chase Hayes, so he's gone. And he's pissed, too. Bundy then slams Gordy for a two count, as we have two men left. Bundy then misses an avalanche and gets put out over the top via a Gordy dropkick, at 12:54. Gordy wins the match, and the 5,000 dollars. I really liked the Andre portion of this match, because the guy really knew how to work the crowd, and he was still mobile enough to work. He didn't use the ropes to get up at all, and he wasn't stuck to the ropes during his matches like at the end of his career. ** for the whole thing, I was entertained. ___________________ Brian Adias and Kerry Von Erich cut a promo about Adias match vs. Terry Gordy next week, and wow, Kerry is terrible on the mic. Why didn't they reshoot that? Anyway, the show's over. Now, as we flashback to the present, Hayes is with Buddy Roberts in the studio. Wow, Roberts looks to be in rough shape. It also looks like he's had a bout with throat cancer, as he needs to push on something attached to his chest to be able to speak. Poor guy. They then tell a story about Gordy being double-booked because of Ole Anderson, and they bury the guy. I don't even think Ole likes Ole, as I've never heard a single person say something good about him. Did he piss on everyone, or what? ___________________ Rating: Above-average. That was a fun way to spend an hour, and it was nice to see Andre before he became immobile. Hopefully with the update tomorrow comes some good stuff.