WWE Confidential March 15, 2003

March 30, 2003

WWE Confidential March 15, 2003

This review will go down in history. For once it has been completed I would have reviewed EVERY episode of Confidential. I'm not sure anyone else can say that. Hell, at The Smart Marks, Confidential is the only show that we have a review of every episode ever for. For those of you who are wondering why I missed this show the first time around, I was simply on vacation. That's enough about me.

This week on Confidential: Rikishi's story and the WWE's oldest fan.

Gene tells us all that Rikishi was shot in a drive-by shooting a while back.

Cover Story

Rikishi picks up the story from there. It was 1987; he was living in San Francisco, while training to wrestle. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rikishi describes the pain and fear he was feeling after being shot. Turns out he was "dead" for three minutes before the doctors shocked his heart back into rhythm. He believes that God let him live for a reason, which was to be good to his family.

At first he was embarrassed when the fans laughed at his ass. He got over by using high impact moves like the Rikishidriver and the splash from the top. He solidified his stardom with his dancing. He just randomly did it one day and went with it.

WrestleMania Moment - 1990: Ultimate Warrior d. Hulk Hogan

I didn't know Steve Austin had his own Raw commercial. Good stuff.

Segment 1: .5/1

Before They Were Superstars: Molly Holly

Nora Greenwald grew up in a small town in Minnesota. She was a part of a typical country family. She did gymnastics at age three, but admits that at age three all you do is roll around on the floor. In high school her team made it to the state finals twice. Nora's dad was a powerlifter, so she became interested in the sport. Her dad trained her and she went on to compete in a few competitions. Nora and her father would also restore old cars. While working at Subway, a trainer noticed Nora and convinced her to learn to wrestle. The footage of her first match ever is fucking hilarious. It was at an outdoor event in Florida. Maybe a dozen people are there. Nora's gimmick was that she would hand out stars to the fans and wave to everyone. Combining that with the ten kids watching the show is damn funny. For a while she worked the southeast indies. Dean Malenko saw her wrestle a tryout match for WCW. He agreed to continue training her. Randy Savage needed someone to teach his girlfriend, Gorgeous George, to wrestle. He chose Nora. The three became great friends, which in turn allowed Nora to join Macho's entourage in WCW. This was an interesting BTWS segment because it doesn't follow the usual formula.

Segment 2: 1.5/2

Degeneration X "invaded" the WCW Headquarters back in 1998. They drove the jeep with a canon to the front door and asked for Eric Bischoff. While waiting, they joked about how small the building was compared to Titan Towers. HHH shares that the group told the cops what they were planning in the hopes of avoiding trouble. The WCW security called the police and said, "A militant group consisting of 20 to 30 guys were planning a full scale attack on the building." Fortunately, Bruce Prichard was there to smooth everything over.

A few weeks later DX paid a stop to the CNN Center. They knew ahead of time that there was good chance they would be arrested. They ask for Ted Turner, so security starts telling them to leave. A Turner Exec, Dick Cheetum, sees DX and GIVES THEM PRESS PASSES! In no time a slew of other employees ask for autographs and crotch chop with the group. This is so funny in an ironic way. HHH adds that Bischoff is lucky DX never actually did what they originally planned to do. This DX stuff was lots of fun at the time and it's still entertaining to look back at.

Segment 3: 2.5/3

More with Rikishi. He discusses his Samoan heritage and sort of goes through the family tree. From what I know, it all started with Peter Maivia and his brothers Afa and Sika. From there you have Jimmy Snuka, Tonga Kid, Samu, Barbarian, Haku, Yokozuna and even the Rock. Yoko and Rikishi were very close first cousins. He misses Yoko a lot and shares a story about his generosity. When Yoko hit it big in 1994, Rikishi was still at the bottom. One day his wife calls at work to say that the heater is broken and their newborn is cold. Yoko heard about this and wrote Rikishi a big, fat check that could be used to fix the heater. One of the Samoan lessons is that if you are successful, you should share your success with those that helped you get to where you are.

Afa talks about the family. He's looking... uh... old. Up to 37 people lived in one house. That's how close they all were. They go into how religion and customs are very important to the clan. Rikishi does a little Samoan dancing and closes by saying that he wants to be remembered as a family man. This was alright.

Segment 4: 3/4

The WWE's oldest fan Gertrude Gash turned 107. She was born in 1895! That blows my fucking mind. This lady lived through the Wright Brothers, the Titanic, two World Wars and she is still kicking. She is even competent, so more power to her. If she could meet any one person it would be The Rock. I wonder if The Rock took Gertrude's feelings into consideration before turning heel. She must have been devastated. Anyhow, wrestling gives her something to look forward to every week. She talks about The Rock as if he were her son. The Rock taped a special birthday message for Gertrude. Touching little segment here.

Segment 5: 3.5/5

Kurt Angle and Big Show show us their respective racecars at a Stacker 2 race in Daytona.

Next week: The history of WrestleMania.

Segment 6: 3.5/6

It's pretty sad that a rerun completely outclassed the last few months worth of offerings. Seriously, this show needs to do a 180 and it needs to do it soon.

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