IMG Credit: WWE

Main Event
Date: January 10, 2019
Location: Amway Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, Percy Watson

Now this one should be interesting. Earlier this week it wasn’t clear if this show was going to feature the debut of some of the NXT callups. Their matches took place with Main Event graphics up but it wasn’t clear if the matches were taped for the show or not. If nothing else, another studio show wouldn’t be that bad. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Yep it’s a studio show.

From Raw.

Bobby Lashley/Drew McIntyre/Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins/John Cena/Finn Balor

We start fast with Balor working on Lashley’s arm but getting knocked into the corner. Ambrose comes in and gets caught with a basement dropkick, only to drag Balor into the corner for a hard chop from McIntyre. The beatdown continues with Lashley hitting a chinlock but not being able to hit the spinning Dominator. Balor gets up some boots in the corner (it’s always the boots) but Lashley drives him straight back into the corner again.

One more chance gets Balor over to the corner so Cena can clean some house but the Glasgow Kiss cuts him off as we take a break. Back with Cena dropkicking Ambrose, drawing Lashley right back in to break up the tag. Lashley stops to pose and the delay lets Cena hit the AA to put both guys down. Ambrose cuts off the hot tag bid though and we hit the chinlock. They head outside with Ambrose sending him into the steps as we take a second break.

Back again with Balor getting the hot tag to clean house, including a double stomp and shotgun dropkick to Ambrose. The Coup de Grace connects but McIntyre is right there with the Claymore to cut him down. It’s too early to finish things up though as Balor gets over for the tag to Rollins. That means a springboard clothesline to McIntyre and a moonsault to Lashley and Ambrose.

The Falcon Arrow gets two on McIntyre but the Stomp doesn’t connect. The reverse Alabama Slam is broken up by an AA but Lashley spears Cena down. That means a superkick to Lashley and another one to McIntyre. The frog splash (with some crazy height) misses McIntyre though and Ambrose tags himself in. Rollins blocks Dirty Deeds though and hits the Stomp for the pin at 21:15.

Rating: B. Good, hot match to open the show as they try as hard as they can (in vein that is) to fight off the National Championship game. Rollins pinning Ambrose to continue their feud is fine, especially if Rollins vs. Lashley is going to continue. Having Cena in there is a good idea as you might not want to have him in a long singles match when he hasn’t been in the ring much lately. Solid match and a very good start to the show.

We get the Gene Okerlund tribute video. No Hulk Hogan part, though he’s mentioned.

From Raw again.

Here’s Alexa Bliss for the debut of her talk show, A Moment Of Bliss. After demanding and receiving a cup of coffee, we see a video on Ronda Rousey’s rookie year. Rousey is of course the first guest and wants to talk about the future instead of the past. She talks about someone who is more athletic than Charlotte and had a tougher road here than Becky Lynch. Rousey means Sasha Banks, so here’s Nia Jax (Me out loud: “GOOD GRIEF!”) to say that sounds like someone has a girl crush on Sasha.

Nia wants to know when she’s getting her rematch from TLC but here’s Sasha, who says she’s honored by the words. She’d love to face Ronda for the title and teach her how to lose with grace. Nia says the line starts behind her before she’s a 300.5 ounce (not pounds, but ounce) Samoan. Sasha: “B**** what line?” Sasha challenges her to a #1 contenders match right now but Nia has a seat and we take a break.

Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax

The winner gets Rousey, presumably at the Rumble. Nia does indeed get in the ring during the break as Bayley and Tamina are watching at ringside. Sasha kicks her in the face and tries a guillotine but gets thrown into the corner. A kick to the head rocks Nia until she runs Banks over with a knee. Nia drops her face first onto the barricade for a nine count as Bayley and Tamina get in a fight.

Back in and a Batista Bomb gives Nia two as we take a break. We come back with Nia holding her in a torture rack until Sasha slips out and starts in with the knees. The running knees in the corner set up the top rope Meteora for two but Banks can’t hold the Bank Statement. Nia misses the face breaker and it’s a Samoan drop to crush Banks again. There’s a corner splash and Nia loads her up in a fireman’s carry on the middle rope.

Instead of falling back though, Nia jumps down, dropping Sasha onto the corner in a nasty crash. That’s only good for two and Bayley dropkicks Tamina for a bonus. Banks comes back with a dropkick in the corner and tries a hurricanrana off the apron but Banks just falls off to the side in what looked like a botch. Back in and the Bank Statement finishes Nia at 13:23.

Rating: C.- Nia and Corbin are the kind of people who need to just go away for awhile. They just got done with some terrible stories and feuds but they’re still trotted out there every week with the fans getting more and more sick of them every time. Eventually they kill the show whenever they appear because the fans don’t want to boo them but rather just not see them at all. WWE keeps at it anyway, because even though they have the huge roster, they don’t want to start anything new but rather keep doing the same stuff over and over again, to worse and worse returns.

From Raw, again.

Intercontinental Title: Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose

Ambrose is defending and it’s Falls Count Anywhere. Seth jumps him from behind to start and we’re off in a hurry. The fight heads outside immediately with Rollins clotheslining him over the barricade. They go backstage with Rollins throwing Dean into a ladder but missing a shovel shot. Ambrose sends him head first into a metal case for two and then gets in a ladder shot for the same.

Back from a break with the fight in the crowd and Rollins diving off a barricade with a crossbody for two. Rollins punches him straight in the nose and they head to ringside with Dean being tossed into the barricade. Ambrose is right back with a drop onto the barricade for two and it’s time to peel back the ring mats. After a kiss on the head, Dean’s Dirty Deeds attempt is countered with a backdrop onto the concrete.

They head inside with a superplex into the buckle bomb into a superkick keeping Dean in big trouble. The Stomp connects but here’s Bobby Lashley to pull Rollins out of the ring. Lashley beats the heck out of him on the floor, including an overhead belly to belly. Back in and the beating continues, including the spinning Dominator and a spear. Dean covers the finished Rollins to retain at 15:22.

Rating: B-. It was a good brawl but they telegraphed the ending by about nine miles. There was no hiding Lashley interfering to cost Rollins the match and that brings up the bigger problem: they set Rollins up as being back last week, have him in a great performance earlier tonight, and then oh dang he lost. Well thanks for letting us get reinvested in him for….oh a week or so. I’m sure Lashley vs. Rollins will be fine and Ambrose can find something else to do, but it didn’t make for a strong main event to end a bad show.

Post match Lashley puts Rollins through a table to end the show.

And again from Raw.

Here’s Braun Strowman for the showdown with Brock Lesnar. Paul Heyman and Lesnar show up on the screen with Heyman talking about how Strowman is looking for a confrontation. The words that Strowman needs to understand are Card Subject To Change, because if Lesnar came out there right now, there would be no Royal Rumble title match.

Strowman stays in the ring, saying he’s waiting for Beastie Boy. Heyman tells Brock not to

worry about it and they stay in the back, with Strowman saying Lesnar must be scared. Lesnar finally comes out, walks near the ring, and starts heading to the back. Strowman says Lesnar needs to get back here….because he’s winning the title at the Royal Rumble.

This was AWFUL as they clearly have no way around the fact that Strowman is the challenger of the month and has no chance of winning. That’s what happens when you do this match twice with Lesnar winning both times, the most recent being without breaking a sweat. Side note: the last time Lesnar defended the title (not counting house shows) in a match that didn’t involve Strowman or Roman Reigns was in July 2017. And they wonder why his matches stopped meaning anything years ago?

And from Smackdown because we have some time to fill.

Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Carmella

The winner gets Asuka at the Rumble. The fans are behind Becky, which isn’t the biggest surprise in the world. Charlotte decks Becky to start and a shoulder to the ribs puts her on the floor. That doesn’t last long and it’s Becky coming back in for kicks to both sets of ribs. A clothesline has Charlotte in trouble on the floor and we take a break.

Back with Becky kicking Carmella again but getting her throat snapped across the top rope. Becky is fine enough to slam Charlotte onto Carmella for two but Charlotte is back up to slug it out. Carmella breaks that up and hits a Flatliner on Becky, followed by the Code of Silence to Charlotte. That’s broken up without much effort and Becky missile dropkicks Carmella down. Becky gets suplexed into the corner though and a big boot drops Carmella again.

Charlotte moonsaults onto both of them for a pair of twos and we go to another breaker. Back again with Carmella getting two off a hurricanrana out of the corner and frustration setting in. A suicide dive takes out Becky and Charlotte’s moonsault misses. Becky is back up to suplex Carmella on the floor and they’re all down.

Back in and Charlotte hits a top rope Natural Selection on Becky but has to break up Carmella’s attempt at stealing the pin. The Figure Eight goes on until Becky breaks it up with the top rope legdrop. Carmella has to break up the Disarm-Her to Charlotte and it’s a spear to Becky. A superkick drops Charlotte but Carmella gets pulled into the Disarm-Her for the tap at 19:23.

Rating: B. Carmella was holding up her end well enough here and the ending is the right call. Even if Becky doesn’t win at the Rumble, there’s a very real chance of her jumping into the Rumble itself or winning the title shot at Elimination Chamber. This was what the fans wanted to see and that made for a rather entertaining match, along with good action from all three.

Asuka comes out for the staredown to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. Well let’s see. It was mainly about Raw and Raw was terrible, so how do you think this went? I’m not sure why they felt the need to cram in so much from Raw when a good amount of stuff happened on Smackdown. We couldn’t have seen Daniel Bryan’s great promo or the very good tag match? No the solution must be more Lesnar vs. Strowman, which certainly wasn’t one of the worst segments of the year or anything like that. Bad show here, due to an overload of Raw.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

So this is something kind of interesting. A few weeks ago, someone asked me to rank the current wrestling shows that I watch from most to least enjoyable. I’ve heard of worse ideas so let’s take a look. Keep in mind that these are only the current shows and the only ones that I watch, so you won’t see many surprises in here.

1. NXT

Like it was going to be anything else. This show is the most enjoyable thing that happens to wrestling fans and one of the best weekly TV shows ever. They never get boring, their worst show is still better than almost anything anyone else produces, and it somehow keeps getting better. They’ve figured out exactly how to do the one hour a week wrestling TV show and I look forward to seeing it every time. This was #1 by a few laps and nothing is in its universe.

2. Smackdown

The more I think about Smackdown, the more frustrated I get at Raw. This show is proof of what WWE is capable of doing and how well they can still put together a big show. While it’s certainly not great, it’s a show that is both entertaining and well done, which is a rare sight on the main roster. The wrestling is good, the promos are better, and there’s a fun feeling here that you don’t get on Monday. Smackdown is very good, and evidence that WWE still knows what it’s doing.

3. 205 Live

If Mustafa Ali was still around, this would have been second. What used to be a terrible show that was little more than a chore to watch has turned into one of the best things going in WWE today. The action ranges from solid to great and it has the best non William Regal boss in WWE with Drake Maverick (must be a British thing). They bring in new talent and have a formula that works very well. Plus Maria Kanellis and that’s never a bad thing.

KEEP GOING!

4. Fusion

I know I talk about this show a lot but it’s become a well done wrestling show. It’s nothing that’s going to blow you away but for about fifty minutes a week, you get a nice blend of action in front of an entertained crowd with some talent you might have be overly familiar with. They’ve put something together in just a few months and it’s a perfectly enjoyable show. Check these guys out if you haven’t, as their show goes up on YouTube every Saturday night.

5. NXT UK

This place gets a hard time, but it’s really not that bad. The problem is the way the show is scheduled rather than what they actually do, and that’s not their fault. The other main issue is calling it NXT, which comes with a very heavy burden. It doesn’t offer anything that a show like Progress doesn’t do better, but the WWE production helps a lot. This is far from bad and cutting it back to an hour a week is going to do wonders for them.

6. Impact Wrestling

Yeah seriously. I know the show has the worst reputation in wrestling and a lot of that is justified, but they’ve gotten a lot better in the last year and a half. It’s still not a masterpiece or even a great show most of the time, but it’s watchable and the stories make sense. That’s a fine place for them to be and if they can continue taking the little steps forward, they might be able to rewrite some of their legacy. Just find a way to make the main events feel epic and they’re well on their way.

JUST AROUND THE BEND!

7. Ring of Honor

This show is the definition of feast or famine. When they’re on, they’re very on and can produce some of the best shows around. When they’re off though, it feels like a low rent promotion took a TV station hostage and ran their show. The women’s division is still a disaster and some of their other stuff isn’t that much better, but they know how to do the wild matches and athletic displays quite well. It’s a watchable show, but not something I really look forward to most of the time.

8. Main Event

Yes a recap show is somehow not on the bottom of the list. This show actually offers a nice service by showcasing the shortened version of the WWE week. The original wrestling occasionally will be entertaining but this is all about giving you a quick look at Raw and Smackdown. It’s fine for what it is, and that’s all it’s supposed to be.

9. Monday Night Raw

What is there even to say here? I’ve literally never missed an episode of Raw and I don’t remember a time when it felt this hopeless (not bad, but hopeless). It’s like they’re always content with not trying anything and would rather just coast until Wrestlemania season, do the Shakeup, and then get back to coasting again. Feuds go on forever with few people getting elevated, and that leaves you with a bunch of uninteresting people fighting for nothing, because the Intercontinental Title is the top title on the show. Without getting into another Lesnar rant, his absence is killing the biggest wrestling show in the world. That shouldn’t happen, and we’re almost to year three of it being the case. Fix that already, because it’s Raw and not Main Event.

What could be lower than this?

Yeah there’s nothing else here.  Nine shows a week is enough and nothing is beating Raw.

IMG Credit: WWE

Royal Rumble 2003
Date: January 19, 2003
Location: Fleet Center, Boston, Massachusetts
Attendance: 15,338
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

This is a really odd entry in the series as the namesake match is being treated as secondary to almost everything else. Really, coming into this show, there’s a good argument to be made that Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie is being treated as a bigger deal than the Rumble itself. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is your standard montage of wrestlers talking about what it means to go to Wrestlemania because the road starts tonight.

Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar

The winner is in the Rumble and the loser is out in the cold. They do the customary exchange of shoves to start with the fans almost entirely behind Lesnar. Brock drives him into the corner to little avail but the belly to belly works a bit better. A second works just as well but the third is countered with a scary toss over the top. Back in and we hit the choke, which you can tell is serious because Cole starts talking about Show’s shoe size.

Brock comes right back with the release German suplex but Heyman offers a distraction to break things up. A big boot and side slam drop Lesnar for all of ten seconds before he’s back up with an other belly to belly. Cue Heyman but he gets caught in an F5 attempt, only to have Show make the save with a chokeslam for two. A second attempt is countered into a sloppy F5 to send Lesnar to the Rumble.

Rating: D+. It was short (less than seven minutes) and had the only possible ending (it’s not like there are many other potential Rumble winners) so it’s hard to complain that much. The F5 didn’t look great but it was how the match should have ended. This probably needs to be about it for Big Show as a main event guy but you know that’s not going to be the case, which is part of the problem on Smackdown.

Chris Jericho is ready to win the Rumble and gets his World Title back at Wrestlemania.

Raw Tag Team Titles: Dudley Boyz vs. William Regal/Lance Storm

Regal and Storm are defending. Bubba punches Storm in the corner to start and hits something like a spinebuster. To really mix things up, Bubba grabs a leglock for a few seconds before handing it off to D-Von. Regal comes in and gets punched as well as this isn’t exactly shaking the feeling that it’s a glorified Raw match. The champs take over on D-Von with Storm drop toeholding him down into a sliding knee from Regal (nice spot).

We hit the cravate for a bit and a chinlock keeps D-Von in trouble. That doesn’t last long either though as D-Von fights up and makes the hot tag to Bubba for the house cleaning. Regal takes What’s Up but here’s Chief Morely for a distraction to prevent the 3D. It doesn’t quite work so well though as D-Von uses the distraction to grab Regal’s brass knuckles and knock Storm silly for the pin and the titles. Lawler: “I’m as confused as a baby in a topless bar.” He’s confused enough to refer to Regal as Steve.

Rating: C-. This was just a Raw match with a title change and considering Booker T. and Goldust never even got a rematch after losing the titles, I have no idea what the thinking here is. Were Booker and Goldust really that bad of a team? I know it’s a sin to get over without the company swearing off on it but it’s some of the oddest booking of the year.

House show ads. They didn’t edit this off the Network? I like having the complete versions but it’s a strange choice to keep in.

Nathan Jones vignette.

We get a long recap of the Al Wilson Saga, which still doesn’t make much sense and went on WAY too long if this is their big idea. Basically Dawn Marie decided she wanted to destroy Torrie Wilson’s life (I think?) by marrying Torrie’s father. She eventually went through with it but had so much, ahem, fun with Al on their honeymoon that he died.

Dawn blames Torrie for this and the match is on, even though it was booked before Al died. If this was all some big con by Dawn, what does she get out of it? Getting a match with Torrie? She seems upset and we haven’t gotten any scene of Dawn saying it was all made up so I guess we’re supposed to take it at face value. I know I harp on this a lot but I still don’t get how this was supposed to work.

Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson

Dawn is in regular ring gear and a black veil, which makes her look more like Jimmy Jack Funk (from the neck up) than anything else. Dawn elbows her in the face at the bell but Torrie takes her down as well as these two are going to be able to do. Torrie gets caught in a Fujiwara armbar as the announcers cover the story in detail. Well the recent part at least as basically everything after Armageddon has been forgotten at this point.

Dawn stays on the arm (that’ll teach Torrie for killing Dawn’s husband) and grabs a flapjack. They collide in a bad looking spot and the boring chants begin. Dawn actually hits a decent looking middle rope spinning clothesline, only to fall victim to that horrible swinging neckbreaker to give Torrie the pin.

Rating: F. Really, what else were you expecting here? The feud was as soap opera level as you’re going to have and the wrestlers are both models and little more. Somehow that’s about as much as you could have thought these two would do and hopefully it wraps up the story for good. I know it won’t but it would be nice.

Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon run into each other in the back with Stephanie being smug about Eric’s thirty days to fix Raw deal. Eric asks if her job is safe too but she doesn’t seem worried, partially because she has her own surprise for Raw. As with most cases of both GM’s on screen at once, this was a big waste of time.

Sean O’Haire tells us not to go to church.

We recap Scott Steiner vs. HHH. Steiner showed up in November and was immediately shoved into the title picture but hasn’t actually had a match yet. Instead it’s been stuff like a posedown, a bench press contest (which didn’t happen), arm wrestling and a pushup contest. The idea is that Steiner can do everything HHH can and might also be completely insane. The fact that they’ve barely been allowed to get physical should be a bit worrisome but HHH wouldn’t let us down.

Raw World Title: HHH vs. Scott Steiner

Steiner is challenging and HHH is in the ultra rare red trunks. Before the bell, Hebner holds up the title and insists that he’s the law around here no matter what. Steiner wins the early slugout and chops away in the corner, followed by the gorilla press to send HHH rolling to the floor. The champ’s back is sent into the post a few times and a hard Irish whip makes his back even worse.

We hit a Boston crab for a bit with HHH crawling to the ropes a few seconds later. That’s not very noteworthy, but Steiner falling over when the hold is broken isn’t the most encouraging sign. The facebuster is no sold and we hit a quickly broken bearhug. Steiner gets in the first belly to belly for two and Flair pulls him out to the floor.

Back in and Steiner charges into a boot to the face before being sent into the steps for good measure. HHH stomps and chokes in the corner with Flair adding choking of his own. Another neckbreaker gets two for the champ and you can see how winded Steiner already is. Flair chokes on the ropes again to fill in as much time as possible before Steiner reverses the Pedigree.

Scott catapults him into the buckle and grabs the second overhead suplex….before just collapsing next to the ropes. We’re not even nine minutes into the match and the guy can’t even stand up. Steiner picks him up for what looks like a Tombstone and you would think he was about to go into labor. HHH slips out and tries a Diamond Cutter but Steiner goes backwards with it like a regular neckbreaker. After all those years of working with Diamond Dallas Page he can’t take a standard face first bump?

You can hear the crowd losing their patience with this one. Flair plays cheerleader and the fans actually cheer for HHH, who may be boring but he’s at least looking competent here. The champ dives into another overhead suplex but Steiner still can’t follow up. Some Steiner Lines set up suplexes four, five and six, followed by a spinning version for two.

Steiner tries a tiger bomb and falls down, drawing straight up booing from the fans. The announcers are trying as hard as they can to make Steiner sound like a threat here and it’s going as badly as you would expect. HHH heads up top so it’s a superplex for two more. That’s enough to send HHH and Flair up the aisle but Steiner isn’t done yet and drags them back. As lame as an ending as that would be, it was the right call at this point.

A belt shot to HHH’s head draws some blood and they continue to stagger around ringside with no idea what to do. Another belly to belly (ninth suplex total) sends HHH outside again and they brawl into the crowd because THIS MATCH JUST CAN’T END. Back in again with Steiner doing the pushups and laboring through some right hands in the corner. Now Flair tries to get the referee to stop the match but the referee keeps going because he’s that kind of evil.

Steiner hates the match as much as everyone else does so he throws Hebner outside but THAT’S NOT A DQ EITHER. The tenth suplex gets two and you can see Steiner looking desperate. HHH gets in a low blow and rolls Steiner up for two. That’s FINALLY enough for HHH as he grabs sledgehammer and hits Scott in the ribs for the DQ, earning a chorus of boos that would make Roman Reigns proud.

Rating: N. For Not HHH’s Fault. For once, this can’t be blamed on HHH, who was just stuck in a horrible situation and couldn’t do anything with it. To be fair though, no one was going to be able to get anything passable out of this mess. Steiner wasn’t ready for this match and had no business going more than five minutes, let alone eighteen. The interesting thing here though is the first eight minutes ran more than well enough. It was a boring start but it was nowhere near a disaster or even really bad. The problem is the second half of the match where EVERYTHING falls apart.

You’ll hear a lot of comparisons between this Steiner and Brock Lesnar’s Suplex City but the key is in the delivery. Lesnar suplexes the heck out of people and then pops up to do it again. Steiner was suplexing HHH here and then taking twenty seconds to get to his feet out of pure exhaustion. When you can see wrestlers go twenty minutes without even breathing hard, there’s no excuse for a main eventer nearly passing out from exhaustion in the first ten minutes. There’s a reason this is remembered so horribly and it more than lives down to its reputation.

Post match Steiner hits him with the sledgehammer and grabs the Steiner Recliner. JR: “There’s no way out of this hold.” In other words, yes they’re actually doing a rematch. Bischoff eventually comes out and gets Steiner off of HHH as the fans are so apathetic towards any of this.

We recap Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle. Kurt won the title with help from his new agent Paul Heyman, who also represents Big Show. Benoit beat Show to become the new #1 contender and you know this is going to be a classic no matter what. That being said, there’s not much of a secret to the fact that they’re building towards Lesnar vs. Angle at this point. At least we can have an incredible match on the way there.

Smackdown World Title: Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle

Angle is defending. Benoit has to deal with Team Angle to start so that’s a double ejection. Chris tries a very quick Sharpshooter (which Tazz calls a Boston crab for some reason), sending Angle outside for a breather. Back in and another leg hold sends Angle to the ropes as it seems that they have a long time here.

Benoit easily wins a battle of the chops and gets two off a clothesline to the back of the head. A DDT onto the apron makes things even worse but Angle rolls away from the Swan Dive. The Angle Slam is reversed though and we hit the Sharpshooter. Angle grabs the ropes as well as a belly to belly (after that last match, I’m surprised those weren’t banned like bar stools on Frasier) to really take over for the first time.

We hit the chinlock with a bodyscissors on Benoit for a bit before a double clothesline puts both guys down. Back up and they trade German suplexes with Benoit getting the better of it. Chris takes too long going up top though and Angle runs the corner for the belly to belly superplex. The Crossface goes on a few seconds later with Benoit switching to the ankle lock (that’s like a Bingo space in an Angle match).

Kurt’s ankle lock is reversed into the Crossface which is reversed into a rollup which is reversed right back into the Crossface. Angle gets to his feet for an Angle Slam but there’s no cover. There go the straps though and it’s back to the ankle lock. Benoit gets two off a rollup as the announcers are losing their minds (rightfully so).

Kurt is sick of this submission stuff and tries a German suplex, only to have Benoit reverse into a release version, drawing quite the round of applause. With Angle three quarters of the way across the ring, Benoit hits the best looking Swan Dive I’ve ever seen for a delayed two. Angle grabs a powerbomb but drops Benoit face first onto the buckle, followed by another Slam for two.

We’re right back to the Crossface but Angle rolls through into the ankle lock which can’t be reversed this time. Benoit kicks him away instead, only to get caught in the ankle lock again. Chris tries to pull him into the Crossface but Angle holds on and gets the grapevine to FINALLY make Benoit tap because he was beaten and he knew it.

Rating: A+. I’ve seen this match several times now and I’m still exhausted just watching it. These guys were beating the heck out of each other with everything looking anywhere from great to unbelievable (that Swan Dive in particular). This was outstanding stuff and one of the best wrestling matches I’ve ever seen. There’s also a bit of a HHH vs. Cactus Jack vibe to it with Angle being backed into a corner and having to fight, only to prove that he is indeed the better man, at least on this night. Check this out if you haven’t seen it in awhile, or just because it’s worth seeing multiple times.

After an Anthology ad, Benoit gets the big standing ovation, which probably should have sent him to a World Title shot (at least) at Wrestlemania. Instead it was a spot in a three way for the Tag Team Titles because that’s how WWE worked in 2003.

Rob Van Dam and Kane agree that it’s every man for himself tonight.

Royal Rumble

90 second intervals (though Fink says two minutes) with Shawn Michaels at #1 and Chris Jericho at #2. If nothing else, at least Shawn is starting to look like a wrestler again instead of the tiny thing he was back at Survivor Series. Actually hang on a second as it’s Christian in Jericho’s clothes instead of Chris himself. Cue Jericho from underneath the ring to hit Shawn low. One heck of a beatdown ensues with Jericho busting Shawn open with a chair as Christopher Nowinski is in at #3. He’s willing to stay on the floor while Jericho beats on Shawn some more and easily eliminates him.

Nowinski is still on the floor as Rey Mysterio is in at #4. Rey tries to speed things up and slips out of a gorilla press, only to get punched out to the apron. As usual, Jericho celebrates early and gets dropkicked into the ropes. Nowinski FINALLY gets in and it’s Edge in at #5. Outside of Nowinski, that’s quite the first four. Spears abound as Rey gets back into it and Nowinski is sent outside but not eliminated.

Jericho is sent into the post and through the ropes to the floor. Rey and Edge shake hands and go at it with Rey hitting the 619 but he gets powerbombed to put both guys down. It’s Christian in at #6 with an offer to reform the team with Edge. That earns him a spear but here’s Nowinski to throw Edge and Mysterio to the apron. Chavo Guerrero is in at #7 as the Smackdown is strong with this Rumble.

Rey and Chavo do a quick lucha sequence with the 619 setting up a springboard seated senton. Christian eats a 619 of his own, followed by a hurricanrana to get rid of Nowinski. Jericho comes back in for a hard clothesline to get rid of Mysterio and here’s Tajiri in at #8. Things settle down a bit with Chavo choking Jericho in the corner and Tajiri not being able to eliminate Christian.

Bill DeMott is in at #9 and attacks various people in short order. The fans aren’t exactly thrilled here as we’re waiting on the big name to clean out some of these names. Tommy Dreamer is in at #10 to give us Dreamer, Jericho, Edge, Christian, Chavo, Tajiri and DeMott. Dreamer brings weapons with him and Edge knocks DeMott out with a kendo stick. Jericho and Christian hit a con-trashcanlid-o on Dreamer and get rid of him without much effort. Tajiri takes them both down with a handspring elbow but the Tarantula is easily broken up, allowing Jericho to get rid of him.

B2, still with the Cena entrance theme, is in at #11…and Edge gets rid of him in less than thirty seconds. Chavo is speared out next, followed by a bloody Jericho (from a Dreamer kendo stick shot) dumping Edge and Christian to leave himself all alone. Rob Van Dam is in at #12 because Edge/Van Dam vs. Christian/Jericho was out of the question for some reason. A superkick has Jericho in trouble and he’s catapulted all the way to the apron. Matt Hardy, who strongly dislikes mustard, is in at #13 and drops Rob with a Side Effect.

Van Dam gets double teamed for a bit until he flips over Jericho and kicks Matt in the face for good measure. The Five Star hits Jericho and it’s Eddie Guerrero in at #14. We get a rehash of Eddie vs. Van Dam from last year until Matt helps Eddie set up an ugly frog splash. That earns Eddie a Twist of Fate (Eddie is smarter than that) and it’s Jeff Hardy in at #15.

Jeff doesn’t buy the reunion idea either (like anyone would buy a Hardys reunion in 2003 or beyond) and beats Matt up, only to have Shannon Moore dive onto Matt to save him from a Swanton. That’s fine with Jeff so he crushes both of them as Rosey is in at #16. Matt gets backdropped to the apron as the eliminations have slowed WAY down. Test is in at #17 and gets to clean house a bit without eliminating anyone. You know, because Rosey needs to stick around.

A rapping John Cena is in at #18 giving reasons why he’s going to win this. The camera stays on him and for once it’s not the biggest problem as nothing is going on in the ring. Van Dam beats him up on the floor (maybe for wrestling in jeans instead of jean shorts for a change) and it’s Charlie Haas in at #19. Where are Lesnar and Undertaker to clear these people out? Jeff tries to run up the corner so Rob eliminates him, still leaving us with far too many people.

Rikishi is in at #20, giving us Rikishi, Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Matt Hardy, Eddie Guerrero, Rosey, Test, Cena and Haas. Rosey and Rikishi have a weird family reunion as Shannon comes in to protect Matt. That just earns him a double Stinkface, or at least it would have if Rosey hadn’t clotheslined Rikishi instead. Jamal is in at #21 to superkick Rikishi, who pops right back up with a Stinkface for his…..brother I believe.

Kane is in at #22 to clean house but he brings Rico in with a chokeslam to fill the ring up even more. Rosey is tossed in a hurry and it’s a double chokeslam for Matt and Shannon. Shelton Benjamin is in at #23 as the ring is WAY too full with eleven people in there, plus Shannon and Rico at various times. They all fight near the ropes and it’s Booker T. in at #24. We go to a weird closeup for an ax kick on Kane and there’s the Spinarooni. Eddie gets backdropped out and it’s A-Train in at #25.

A good looking A-Train Bomb (chokebomb) plants Cena and another one hits Van Dam but Rikishi superkicks A-Train in the face. Jericho is sent to the apron AGAIN but here’s a bandaged Shawn to go after Jericho, allowing Test to knock him out. Shawn stays on Jericho and that’s a Wrestlemania match. Maven is in at #26 (because this match needed two Tough Enough names) and goes after Kane as things slow down again. Goldust is in at #27 and doesn’t even last a minute before Team Angle puts him out. They do the same to Booker T. a few seconds later, making sure that the Booker T./Goldust team is swiftly beaten again.

Batista is in at #28 and gets rid of Test (after EIGHTEEN MINUTES, or longer than Edge and Mysterio combined) and Rikishi. Brock Lesnar is in at #29 and becomes the most obvious winner since….well last year with HHH actually. He wastes no time in getting rid of Team Angle before throwing Matt onto both of them. Now that’s how you clear out some bodies. Undertaker is in at #30 to give us a final group of Undertaker, Van Dam, Cena, Jamal, Kane, A-Train, Maven, Batista and Lesnar. Not the worst field actually.

Undertaker dumps Cena (Which could have set up a heck of a Wrestlemania match today but we wanted a reality show moment instead. Yes you did want that and Kevin Dunn told me so.) and Jamal (Why was he still there?) before Maven hits the same dropkick as last year. This time there’s no effect though, making Maven’s celebration a bit amusing.

After Maven is launched out, A-Train hits the A-Train Bomb on Undertaker. Van Dam and Kane get rid of A-Train and we’re down to five. Kane loads up Rob in a gorilla press….and throws him out in a smart move (not a heel turn). Batista and Kane are put down with a double clothesline and it’s time for Lesnar vs. Undertaker.

That’s broken up before anything can happen though and the Brothers of Destruction start taking over. Brock takes care of Batista and Kane so we can have the Undertaker showdown. The F5 is countered and Brock takes a Tombstone, followed by Undertaker dumping Batista and Kane. Batista comes back in and eats a chair shot, leaving Brock to eliminate Undertaker for the win.

Rating: B. There was a REALLY bad dead spot in the middle and some of the choices were all over the place (Test, Jamal and Rikishi all getting over fourteen minutes while Los Guerreros, Edge and Mysterio were all afterthoughts) but the ending was the right call. The final four wasn’t a bad group at all and having Lesnar dump Undertaker to win is as good a move as they could have made.

There was VERY little build to this match and they did well enough with it while they could. It’s not a terrible Rumble but there are many better options. Fix the middle part and get rid of people at a faster clip and it’s a great one, but as it is it’s just pretty good. Then again, for this year that’s quite the compliment.

The big problem here though is how weak the midcard and lower card is. Maybe it’s just the way some of them were booked but aside from Lesnar, Undertaker and MAYBE Jericho, was anyone a real threat to win here? Having an obvious winner is fine but it would be nice to build up someone else as a possible winner.

Overall Rating: B-. The World Title matches cancel each other out and thankfully the Rumble is there to make up for a nothing lower card. Lesnar winning was the obvious ending here and that left the rest of the show to really carry things. Angle vs. Benoit is must see and Steiner vs. HHH may be as well if you’re into unintentional comedy. The rest of the show though…..egads there’s nothing to see there. It’s a perfectly good show but the problems are very big and the Rumble isn’t good enough to make it a classic.

Ratings Comparison

Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar

Original: D

2013 Redo: C+

2017 Redo: D+

Dudley Boyz vs. William Regal/Lance Storm

Original: C

2013 Redo: D

2017 Redo: C-

Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson

Original: DD

2013 Redo: D-

2017 Redo: F

Scott Steiner vs. HHH

Original: G-

2013 Redo: H (For HHH)

2017 Redo: N (For Not HHH’s Fault)

Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle

Original: A+

2013 Redo: A+

2017 Redo: A+

Royal Rumble

Original: B

2013 Redo: B-

2017 Redo: B

Overall Rating

Original: B-

2013 Redo: C-

2017 Redo: B-

This is a rare instance where the original is much closer to the new ratings than the first redo. Maybe I was in a bad mood that day?

You can read the original review here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/01/22/royal-rumble-count-up-2003-best-match-ever/

And the 2013 redo here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/01/16/royal-rumble-count-up-2013-redo-2003-best-of-both-worlds-and-a-boring-rumble/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

This is old and horrible so I apologize in advance.

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 11, 1993
Location: Manhattan Center, Manhattan, New York
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Rob Bartlett, Randy Savage

Well since it’s the anniversary of this, why not do it? Raw more or less ended SNME which I’ll do that last original episode soon enough, as in about an hour from now. This is the show that completely revolutionized wrestling as it was the first show to be aired weekly on prime time cable. The production values were WAY up also as the lighting and the effects were stuff that was unheard of. We’re gearing up for the 93 Rumble which kind of sucked but whatever. Let’s get to it.

Sean Mooney who I didn’t think had a job at this point welcomes us to the show and keeps Heenan from coming in. This would become a running joke on the first few shows until Monsoon threw him out of the company. The arena looks small but cool. Rob Bartlett was a comedian from the Don Imus show and he is easily the worst announcer of all time but to be fair, I’ve read some comments from him since and he completely admits that he was awful, so at least he’s not delusional.

Koko B. Ware vs. Yokozuna

Koko comes out to what would become Owen’s music which makes sense as they were partners around this time. I wonder what’s going to happen here. They say their first swear word on the air which might be a first in company history. The tag line was uncooked, uncut and uncensored. I never got the uncooked part. How is that appealing? Bartlett just makes fat jokes about Yoko which makes sense. Vince is about as excited as humanly possible to be here. Bartlett makes jokes implying that Koko is Gary Coleman which is kind of funny but just out of place here. After Koko gets in no offense for about 4 minutes, the Banzai Drop ends this.

Rating: N/A. It was a glorified squash which is fine. I’m not sure how good this was for the first match in history but that’s fine I guess. This was just to push Yoko so that certainly accomplished its job. A lot of the earlier shows were almost all squashes so get used to it.

Ad for the Rumble.

We get a prerecorded interview from Heenan who talks about Perfect being scared of Narcissus, who was more commonly known as Luger. Heenan is WAY too excited about Luger.

Steiner Brothers vs. Executioners

The Executioners are masked jobbers as if it matters. That goofy clown as Vince calls him is at ringside and gets too much attention. Apparently his name is Doink. As for the match, are you really expecting anything other than total destruction? Apparently Mitch Ferhat, a former Buffalo Bill, is coming to the WWF. He never got there. The Steiner Bulldog ends it.

Rating: N/A. It was more or less the same thing as we got a match earlier, but with two guys instead of one. This is fine as it establishes two dominant forces for new fans which is a good idea.

A woman says that she’s Bartlett’s aunt. Naturally it’s Heenan in drag. This simply does not get old.

Razor Ramon comes out for a “special” interview. He’s fighting Bret for the title at the Rumble in case you didn’t know. It’s exactly what you would expect it to be as it’s just Ramon talking about Bret and how he’ll win the title and we see a clip of him beating up Owen on Superstars, which is why Owen isn’t here tonight.

Ad for Headlock on Hunger, which was a charity thing they were doing at the time to feed hungry people in Somalia.

Tatanka likes the Headlock on Hunger.

Intercontinental Title: Max Moon vs. Shawn Michaels

Max Moon may or may not have been Konnan. Shawn is just getting used to being a midcard deal so don’t expect much here. I don’t think it’s him here as it might be Paul Diamond, who was one of the Orient Express. We get more and more New York jokes from Bartlett that only a handful of people would get. He was great on a morning talk show but WAY off on a wrestling show.

They get the three un line here twice in one match as they try so hard to get that over as a tagline before they realized it sucked. Bartlett, in something that blows my mind, does an impression of Mike Tyson calling into the show from prison. This goes on over two minutes. Make that three. THEY’RE STILL DOING IT.

Seriously they did this for half of the match. Is this supposed to be funny or something? Am I supposed to be amused? After what felt like forever, Shawn hits the kick and that stupid suplex that he was using as his finisher at the time for the pin.

Rating: C+. It was an average match, but it had the DUMBEST commentary in recorded history. The match gets bonus points for being ok with those voices going though so there we are.

Ad for WWF Mania, a Saturday morning show.

Gene does the control center for the Rumble, which more or less is him talking about the major matches and we get promos from some of the guys in said matches, in this case Shawn and Marty. This is short but it was very effective at summarizing the entire show into a 3 minute video. Well done. We run down some people in the Rumble and get comments from Perfect. Ok now this needs to end as it’s about five minutes now. This was the first winner gets a title shot and it’s at 4pm. That’s just odd.

We have an Amish man trying to get inside. Guess who it is. He asks if anyone knows how to get onto the roof. I feel like I’m watching a Trix Cereal commercial. Also, WHERE DOES HE GET THESE COSTUMES???

Kamala exists and that’s about it.

Damien Demento vs. Undertaker

Who else would you get to main event the first show? Bartlett makes fun of Taker and I’m already tired of him. Demento is the guy that freaked out on youtube recently and freaked out about modern wrestling. He’s annoying as all goodness and this is his career highlight. We go over the matches for next week and that’s about all that happens in this match. The Tombstone ends this quickly.

Rating: N/A. It’s like 3 minutes long and it’s more or less a squash. That’s not that interesting.

Doink sprays Crush with water to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This started off ok but it felt like there was no flow to it at all. It just wasn’t that good of a show as far as establishing people like it was supposed to do. This show definitely assumed that most people were long time fans of the show and that’s not a good idea to do on a brand new main show.

Still though, this is one of those shows everyone should see at least once as it truly did completely revolutionize wrestling. Definitely take a look at it if you never have before or just to compare it to modern wrestling and see how much things have changed.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28 wrestling books. His latest book is the the Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!

The old version was awful so here’s a slightly better look.

IMG Credit: WWE

Fully Loaded 1999
Date: July 25, 1999
Location: Marine Midland Arena, Buffalo, New York
Attendance: 16,605
Commentators: Jim Ross Jerry Lawler

Since just having Undertaker vs. Austin for the title isn’t enough, there are a couple stipulations added on top. If Austin loses, he loses the title and the chance to ever challenge for the belt again. If Undertaker loses, Vince McMahon can never appear on WWE TV again. Or for a few weeks, whichever comes first. Let’s get to it.

The opening video focuses on Austin vs. McMahon (of course) with the idea that one of them has to go. This is set to an old song with clips of soldiers returning from war and famous goodbye speeches, including Lou Gehrig’s.

Earlier tonight, Undertaker attacked Austin and busted him open as the McMahons looked on.

Austin is looked at by a doctor.

The McMahons deny having anything to do with the attack. Vince guarantees Austin loses tonight.

Intercontinental Title: Edge vs. Jeff Jarrett

Edge is actually defending after winning the title the previous night at a house show. Jeff has Debra with him, who comes out in a green bikini with a jacket. Before the match, Jeff says no one is seeing the Puppies because they belong to him, just like that title. Feeling out process to start with Edge taking him to the mat for a half nelson rollup. Edge fakes Jarrett out with a middle rope cross body and gets two more off a sunset flip.

Jarrett grabs the title and teases walking out but uses it to sucker Edge out to the floor for a whip into the steps. Back in and Jeff starts going after the legs in his best Ric Flair impression, minus the charisma of course. Things get even better when Edge goes shoulder first into the post. Jeff switches over to the arm (to be fair he had barely started on the leg) before flapjacking the champ for two.

It’s off to the sleeper for a bit until Edge counters into one of his own and even backflips out of the belly to back suplex into a rollup for two. Edge falls head first into a low blow, followed by a swinging neckbreaker. Jeff is ready for the spear though and sends Edge outside, only to have the lights go out so Gangrel (recently split off from the Brood) can come out and……get beaten down by Edge.

Back in and a quick sitout powerbomb gets two for the champ as there’s a pool of blood on the floor from a missed Bloodbath (a Brood trademark where the lights would go out and someone would wind up covered in a red liquid) on the floor. Debra gets up for a distraction so Gangrel can snap Edge’s throat across the top though, setting up Jarrett’s forward legsweep (later known as the Stroke) for the pin and the title at 13:20.

Rating: B-. It was a bit too long but this was quite the opening match. Edge was getting better every day at this point and Jarrett was exactly the kind of opponent to make him look good. Jarrett gets a lot of flack for some stuff that he’s done but he’s a perfectly capable midcard hand who could have spent years putting people over and guaranteed himself a very nice career.

Austin is bandaged up and storms out of the trainer’s room. Jarrett is still in the ring as Austin comes out to give him a Stunner and let off some steam. With blood coming through the bandage, Austin promises that Undertaker is going into the match with stitches in his head too.

Tag Team Titles: Acolytes vs. Hardy Boys/Michael Hayes

The Hardys are defending after winning the titles from the Acolytes in a big upset. Hayes, the Hardys’ manager, is added in here because the Acolytes are that confident of their victory. It’s a brawl in the aisle to start with the challengers taking over on the far smaller champions. Hayes gets isolated and hit in the head with the steps. We finally get the opening bell with the Acolytes still in full control until Matt moonsaults off the top to take them both out.

Poetry in Motion hits Faarooq in the corner and Jeff’s Senton (not yet Swanton) gets two. We finally settle down to the regular match as Bradshaw puts Matt down before handing it off to Faarooq for two off a backbreaker. Hayes comes in and gets beaten down just as quickly but a quick running kick to Faarooq’s chest allows the tag off to Jeff. Things don’t go so well for him though as a powerslam lets the Acolytes take over again.

We hit the chinlock but Jeff fights up and dives over for the tag off to Matt. A quick Twist of Fate gets two on Faarooq but Bradshaw comes back in with a belly to back suplex for two on Matt. Jeff hits Bradshaw with Hayes’ cane (the same way they won the titles in the first place) for the same result. The Acolytes finally get smart and double powerbomb Hayes for the pin and the titles at 10:03.

Rating: B-. The ending made sense here and really was the only way they could go. You don’t want a face team to have to cheat to win all the time but it was clear that the Hardyz were the future of the division. Hayes was just there to take the fall (and therefore protect the Hardyz from doing the job) so everyone is fine. There were more than enough big spots to carry this and the match was a fun way to get us back to where everything needed to be.

D’Lo Brown says he’s waited nine months to get his European Title back.

European Title: D’Lo Brown vs. Mideon

Mideon is defending after finding the title in Shane’s bag and being named champion without winning a match. The now face Brown sends him into the corner and clotheslines Mideon out to the floor for a good looking suicide dive. Mideon takes over with the brawling before a weak clothesline gets two back inside. We hit the chinlock as Mideon swears at fans. That goes nowhere so Mideon gets two off a neckbreaker instead. Brown is sent into the buckle a few times but comes out with a bad looking tornado DDT (Mideon’s fault) for two. A Sky High and the Low Down (frog splash) give Brown the title back at 7:10.

Rating: D. Most of this was on Mideon who just wasn’t any good in the ring. He was a guy with some size who could barely do basic moves without screwing things up, such as that tornado DDT. It’s a bad match but at least Brown, who was on a nice little roll at this point, gets the title back and could be interesting as champion.

Al Snow has been even more insane since a spike has been put through Head. Snow talks about how he hears the screams all the time and wants someone to put him out of his misery.

Hardcore Title: Al Snow vs. Big Boss Man

Snow is defending and drops to his knees in front of Boss Man in the aisle, begging to be put down. Instead Snow grabs Head and hits the spike with his nightstick, which finally makes Snow aggressive like his normal (work with me here) self. They fight over to some empty seats before Boss Man hits him back through the entrance to really make this hardcore.

Snow comes back with a cardboard box full of papers for about as much effect as you would expect. Some strikes to the face have some more effect and a suplex through a table gets no cover. They fight further into the backstage with Snow going head first into a metal wall. Boss Man can’t get a golf cart to work so Al hits him with a plant. That just earns him a whip into a concrete wall as Boss Man punches him through a door.

It’s already time to head outside with Snow taking a bulldog on the concrete. A hubcap and traffic cone stagger Boss Man as Snow asks why Boss Man can’t help him. They head into the street where a car has to stop to avoid hitting them. Snow smiles as he’s rammed into a metal sign and Boss Man handcuffs him to a fence. He begs Boss Man to make it stop so Boss Man blasts him with a metal rod for the pin at 10:13 for our fourth title change in just over an hour.

Rating: C+. This worked a lot better than it had any right to as the Hardcore Title wasn’t such a mess yet with the 24/7 rule, meaning they could actually still do some creative stuff and not have to worry about people running in to steal the title for their thirty second reigns. It may not be much but at least it was something different than “I hit you, you hit me” for ten minutes.

We recap Kane and Big Show in a feud that has been going on for months now. It turned out that Undertaker was on Kane’s side again though and easily destroyed Big Show, only to have Undertaker attack Kane’s partner X-Pac to break up the partnership again.

Hardcore Holly, guest referee for Big Show vs. Kane (because he’s the Big Shot, which makes him perfectly suited to this story for some reason), says he’ll beat both guys up if either of them get in his face.

Big Show vs. Kane

JR acknowledges that their previous match at King of the Ring was a disaster, using his “bowling shoe ugly” metaphor. Kane goes after him to start but gets gorilla pressed out to the floor. I know we’ve seen Big Show do that for years but it’s still amazing to watch. Back in and Kane slugs away until Holly grabs his arm. The distraction lets Show get in a punch of his own, followed by a head knocker (as in setting for a powerbomb/piledriver but jumping into the air and coming down on Kane’s head).

Some headbutts only cause Kane to come back with right hands, only to have Show catch him in a powerslam. Even Holly tells him to hook a leg as Kane kicks out at two. More right hands stagger Show and a DDT plants him. Kane’s top rope clothesline looks to set up the chokeslam but Holly chop blocks him, allowing Show to hit his chokeslam for a fast count pin at 8:10.

Rating: D. This was indeed light years better than their mess the previous month (which included a choke hold that should have killed someone three times over) but this is a good example of overbooking. Who in the world thought Bob Holly needed an angle this close to the main event? He was only there for the ending and that’s really not necessary as he looked so out of place in the match.

X-Pac comes in to drop Holly with a kick, only to have Undertaker come out and help Big Show beat X-Pac and Kane down. This is the kind of thing you should be doing on TV, not pay per view.

Speaking of things you should do on TV, Austin attacks Undertaker as he comes through the curtain and sends him into a wall to bust Undertaker open.

We recap Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman, the latter of whom returned from a hiatus to attack Shamrock several times. Tonight they’re fighting in the parking lot in a circle of cars because that’s where kendo sticks and martial arts lead.

Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman

Shamrock is very banged up coming in and there are wrestlers sitting on the hoods of the cars. Oh and since they’re in a parking lot and both guys are in black, you can’t really even see that clearly. They fight between the cars with Blackman putting his foot through a window by mistake. Shamrock gets slammed on a hood and hit low before Blackman sends him into a few more cars. Blackman misses a tire iron shot as they keep leaving the circle of cars. Back in and Ken hammers away before choking him out with a chain for the win at 4:09. I won’t bother rating this as it wasn’t anything resembling a match but it was unique.

Undertaker roughs up Terry Taylor for trying to interview him.

Chyna and Billy Gunn don’t care what happened to X-Pac.

Chyna/Billy Gunn vs. Road Dogg/X-Pac

This is for the rights to the DX name as the team has been split by the countless heel turns and faction splits. Gunn and Chyna have matching thongs under mesh covering to give JR various fits on commentary. X-Pac is very beaten up due to Undertaker and Big Show’s actions earlier. Chyna grabs a headlock on Dogg to start before dropping him with a shoulder.

Dogg dropkicks her into Gunn and it’s time for a meeting on the floor. We get the showdown between Gunn and Dogg with the fans all over Billy. That earns the fans an F bomb before Chyna gets in a cheap shot from behind to let Gunn take over. Chyna kicks Dogg hard in the back and it’s back to Billy for no cover off a Jackhammer. The hot tag brings in X-Pac for more kicks but Gunn is still able to drop him with a hot shot.

The lesson here: Gunn is much tougher than Hardcore Holly, who was knocked silly by a single kick. It’s back to Chyna for a chinlock and a powerslam before we get the front facelock for the unseen tag. Not that it matters as the hot tag brings in Dogg a few seconds later as everything breaks down. The Bronco Buster hits Chyna and the pumphandle slam puts Billy away clean at 11:13.

Rating: D+. As annoyed as I tend to get about the overbooked finishes, something like this was actually needing a screwy ending. It’s a big blowoff match to a personal feud and Dogg just pinned Gunn (which also could have been a big pay per view match) for the win. It doesn’t help that it was just a basic match without anything helping it out, though I’ve seen much worse.

We recap HHH vs. The Rock, which is the rekindling of an old feud. They had an outstanding feud over the course of 1998 with HHH getting the final win in a ladder match. Now the roles are reversed as both guys want to be the WWF World Champion, which Rock has already been multiple times). At one point during this feud, HHH put Rock in a casket and beat on it with a sledgehammer in the first appearance of his signature weapon.

Rock makes fun of HHH for getting emotional over being held down for years over the infamous Curtain Call incident in Madison Square Garden (Shawn Michaels, HHH, Diesel and Razor Ramon broke kayfabe on Diesel and Ramon’s last night in the promotion and HHH was the only one significantly punished). He really was held down because he absolutely sucks. Rock promises to win and get the title back at Summerslam.

The Rock vs. HHH

Strap match won by pinfall (which counts anywhere) for the #1 contendership at Summerslam. HHH comes out to his awesome My Time theme music. The brawl starts in the aisle with Rock sending him into the post for an early advantage. HHH comes back with a few whips into the barricade and shots to the ribs before taking Rock inside for more of the same.

They head back outside and into the crowd this time with Rock punching him further into the crowd. HHH gets sent into part of the barricade but pulls Rock right into it as well. They’re actually using the strap well here, which really isn’t something you see that often. Some choking on the floor has Rock in more trouble. A hard strap shot to the face drops Rock again, only to have him pop up and get two off a suplex.

HHH isn’t that phased though (it was just a suplex) and sends Rock hard into the barricade again. They actually go back to the ring for the second time in the match as Rock starts another comeback. Cue Chyna (JR: “Or maybe it’s her twin sister.”) as HHH stomps Rock down in the corner again. A Rock Bottom out of nowhere should get the pin but Chyna distracts the referee so HHH can hit Rock low. HHH remembers the strap holding them together and chokes him in the corner.

Rock throws him off the top but pulls himself down at the same time. They get up again and fight up the aisle for a bit with Rock still in control. That doesn’t last long though as Chyna gets on the apron for a distraction, allowing Billy Gunn to run in and hit Rock in the head with a club. The kickout only ticks HHH off worse so it’s time to choke some more but Rock low blows his way out of the Pedigree. The strap is unhooked so Rock can hit the People’s Elbow, only to have Billy interfere again. That’s enough for the Pedigree to send HHH to Summerslam at 19:05.

Rating: B. This is one of those pairings that’s as close to a guaranteed good match as you’re ever going to find. The strap match might not have been the best gimmick but they’ve done almost everything else so there weren’t many other options. It’s good stuff either way though, even if I had to see Gunn interfere again.

We recap Austin vs. Undertaker. Austin took the title back from Undertaker on Raw after Undertaker won it 24 hours earlier in the highest rated wrestling match in American cable TV history. Undertaker wanted his rematch to be a first blood match, which is how Austin lost his first WWF World Title, thanks to Undertaker interfering. If Austin wins, Vince is off TV forever. If Undertaker wins, Austin can never have another shot at the title.

WWF World Title: Undertaker vs. Steve Austin

First Blood with Austin defending and Vince on commentary. Austin goes after him in the aisle (a common tactic on this show) and gets sent into the barricade. We even get some common sense as Austin covers his face while Undertaker throws punches. Undertaker beats him up the aisle but neither guy can send the other into the steps. Austin ducks the steps as they fly at his head and they fight into the crowd.

Undertaker ducks them as well though and takes Austin inside to stomp away in the corner. As you might expect, Vince isn’t exactly impartial as he tells Undertaker to kick at the stitches. Austin throws him into the other corner and rips at Undertaker’s cut as you can’t fault the psychology so far. Undertaker’s leg is wrapped around the post (if you can’t walk, you can’t defend yourself as well) but he kicks Austin over the barricade.

Vince is sure that Austin is bleeding when his back is turned to the camera but is proven wrong when Undertaker drags Austin back to ringside, only to miss a big chair shot. Austin sends him face first into the steps and chokes with an electrical cord. Back in and Undertaker trips over the referee and gets tied up in the ropes. That means it’s time for the chair but Austin has to knock out an interfering Shane.

The distraction lets Undertaker get loose and kick Austin in the face though, followed by a low blow. A quick Stunner drops Undertaker and draws Vince out of his chair to swing the crutch, only to have Austin punch him in the face. Undertaker gets the chair but here’s X-Pac to kick it into his face. Austin steals a camera and hits Undertaker in the face as well, drawing blood to retain Austin’s title at 15:31.

Rating: D+. These two just never could have a great match and it showed badly here. This was barely even a match as they were just brawling for fifteen minutes before the logical run-in ending. I wouldn’t be surprised if this style of a match wasn’t a way to hide an injury as neither of them really doing anything but wild brawling.

Vince comes in again and eats a Stunner but HHH comes out to beat down Austin. Rock comes out for the save but Undertaker gets up and goes after beats on Austin some more. Undertaker punches Shane out before leaving as Austin is busted as well. Vince gets one more Stunner, sending him off TV for less than twenty four hours as he was on Raw the next night. If that’s not enough, Vince would be WWF World Champion in September.

Overall Rating: B-. This show was up and down all night but it was strong enough in the parts where it needed to be. The two opening matches set the show on the right path and it was easy to sit through the rest, including a pretty strong strap match. The main event isn’t all that great but a lot of main events from this point really weren’t. It’s a good enough show all around though and one of the strongest from this era.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: July 19, 1999
Location: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
Attendance: 12,939
Commentators: Jim Ross, Kevin Kelly

Now how did I not go to this one? This is the go home show for Fully Loaded and….egads I have no idea what happened last time and it wasn’t that long ago that I watched it. That’s the real problem with Russo’s insane booking: nothing has a chance to stick and if you’re not watching every single week, you’re going to be completely lost. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a recap (thank goodness) of Steve Austin agreeing to some special stipulations in his match with Undertaker on Sunday. If Austin wins, Vince McMahon is gone forever but if Undertaker wins, Undertaker gets the title and Austin is never allowed to challenge for the title again. I really shouldn’t need this less than a month after I last watched this show.

Opening sequence.

Here’s the Corporate Ministry, with Vince in a wheelchair, to open things up. Vince says this is an historic night because it’s the last night Austin will ever be here as the WWF Champion. The stakes have never been higher and in reality, it’s Undertaker’s career on the line this Sunday. Undertaker isn’t cool with that because no one threatens him. He’s fine with opening Austin up on Sunday, but it’s personal and not business.

Vince says he signs Undertaker’s check and made him who he is today. That’s even less cool with Undertaker, so HHH intervenes to start another argument. HHH knows that Vince made him and knows his place so give him a chance to pay the boss back. Vince isn’t sure if he can trust Undertaker so tonight, it’s Undertaker vs. HHH with the winner facing Austin for the title on Sunday. The loser gets to face the Rock in the strap match.

Cue Austin…and he’s driving a blood bank trunk. If Undertaker wants blood, Austin has brought him a whole truck full. Tonight, Undertaker is getting locked inside and Vince can make a donation to the blood bank. So this would be another angle that, assuming nothing changes, was set up and blown off in the same night because….well something has to fill in the time.

Post break, Vince is worried but HHH says it’s cool. If Vince takes care of him, HHH will do the same.

Road Dogg vs. Chyna

This is a Dog Pound match, which means Dog Collar, because Russo needs to change the name of one of the most obvious gimmicks ever. Chyna won’t put it on (even though Dogg heard she and HHH had something like it last night) so Dogg punches her down, drawing in Billy Gunn to hang Dogg. X-Pac comes out for the save and threatens them with the chain. The bell never rang so no match.

The bosses panic when someone knocks on Vince’s door but it’s the Mean Street Posse.

Post break here are Shane and the Mean Street Posse for a chat. Shane wants to apologize to Stephanie because it’s the right thing to do. After telling Test that it’ll be ok, here she is in the arena. Shane makes it clear that he didn’t hit Stephanie on purpose and it was really Test’s fault because he let everything get out of control.

He’s been working to make things better though and Joey Abs is willing to take Stephanie back so it can be like it was supposed to. Stephanie says they went out once and it was a nightmare. Joey says he knows Stephanie blew it the first time with him but he’s willing to take her back. That earns him a slap and Stephanie storms off. Shane promises to do things mean street style.

Rock signs an autograph. Ok then.

We see the press conference announcing that Jesse Ventura will be at Summerslam.

Tag Team Titles: Val Venis/Godfather vs. Acolytes vs. Hardy Boyz vs. Prince Albert/Droz

The Hardys are defending and this is elimination rules. Ivory is one of Godfather’s ladies again. Bradshaw slams Matt to start but it’s off to Albert to catch Bradshaw in a powerslam. A side slam sets up a splash for two but Bradshaw is right back up with the Clothesline for the elimination. Venis comes in and hammers away until Bradshaw catches him in a fall away slam.

Val hits a spinebuster so Bradshaw tags Jeff….and then hits him in the back. Godfather’s big legdrop gets two on Jeff and it’s off to Bradshaw, who gets hit in the head with a cane for the pin. That leaves us with Venis/Godfather vs. the Hardys and Godfather hits the Ho Train on Matt. The Pimp Drop (Death Valley Driver) but Jeff hurricanranas Val down, awakening Matt for the fast pin.

Rating: D. So before the Acolytes get their regular title shot on Sunday, we have a four way elimination match for the titles on Monday? Is that really the best choice of booking? And to have the Acolytes get eliminated in the middle by a team they’re not facing in the title match? This is one of the screwiest booking decisions I’ve seen in a long time, or maybe just since the start of the show.

Jeff Jarrett tells Debra not to say anything tonight.

GTV shows us actor Ben Stiller and his friends talking about the show. It’s a plug for the upcoming Mystery Men movie but Stiller would rather check out Debra’s puppies. This includes burying his face in them, though they see the camera and aren’t happy.

Lawler is on commentary now and just in time.

Intercontinental Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Christian

Jeff is defending and has Debra with her. Before the match, Jeff tells Austin to stay away from him and the belt or Austin will be turned into a pair of boots. Christian wastes no time in getting two off a powerbomb and the reverse DDT is good for the same. A high crossbody draws Debra to the apron as Christian hits the yet to be named Killswitch. That means a very delayed two so Jeff goes outside for the guitar. Christian takes it away but the referee takes it away as well, setting up the also yet to be named Stroke for the pin to retain Jeff’s title. Energetic while it lasted.

Post match the lights go out and Jarrett gets a Bloodbath. Edge comes out and brawls with Jarrett.

HHH sends Chyna to the ring with Billy Gunn and offers to take care of Vince.

During the break, Jeff yelled about Edge.

The Rock vs. Billy Gunn

Before the match, Rock says Billy isn’t feeling good but it’s probably just a little bit of Rock Fever. Billy can come out here and get his temperature taken. I think you get the joke here. The fight starts before the bell with Gunn getting in a few stomps as we officially get going. The Stinger Splash hits Rock but he comes out of the corner with that hard clothesline he uses when he comes out of the corner and needs a move like a hard clothesline.

Rock hits another clothesline but gets sent over the top with one of those really good looking jumps. Gunn posts him, which JR says wouldn’t even taste good with barbecue sauce. The chipolte ketchup would do it though. Back in and a Jackhammer sets up a chinlock as JR recaps the evening for Lawler. Rock fights up and hits a Samoan drop for a double knockdown.

The real comeback starts with the right hands in the corner and a hot shot of all things. There’s the Maivia Hurricane to draw Chyna up to the apron for a distraction but Rock hits the Rock Bottom anyway. Chyna chairs him down to break up the People’s Elbow though and the Fameasser gives Gunn the pin.

Rating: D+. I know they saw something in Gunn for years but as soon as the theme music comes on again, the joke gets old all over again. Gunn beating Rock at any time never felt right and continues to show how Rock wasn’t up to Austin’s level while he was still around. We’re getting closer and closer to Rock’s huge run and while he’s a big deal, he’s not Austin and won’t be for a long time.

HHH and Vince chat a bit more.

Big Boss Man vs. Al Snow

Snow’s Hardcore Title isn’t on the line here but he’s still insane after the spike was put through Head. Boss Man stands in the ring as Snow throws in a bunch of chairs. He throws in a prosthetic leg for a bonus and demands that Boss Man hit him. Boss Man does just that, knocking Snow cold with the nightstick for the DQ.

As a bonus, Boss Man cuffs him to the top rope for more stick shots. Snow looks elated and Boss Man is just confused. I’ll sign up on Boss Man’s side.

Edge/D’Lo Brown vs. Mideon/Gangrel

Brown is challenging Mideon for the European Title on Sunday in case this feels very random. It’s a brawl to start with Edge punching Mideon on the floor as Brown takes over on Gangrel inside. Things settle down to Edge and Mideon crawling around on the mat until Edge takes over with an armbar. Edge slips out of a slam and takes Mideon down, allowing the tag off to Brown. Everything breaks down and it’s a Sky High into the Low Down to finish Mideon.

Austin walks near Vince’s office…because he wants some water near the door. He’ll let us know when he’s coming for Vince’s blood.

Test vs. Steve Blackman

Blackman is a hired gun to take Test out. Speaking of Test going out, he heads outside to start beating Blackman up before the bell but a hard shoulder takes him down back inside. Test shrugs off a half crab but walks into a spinebuster to put him right back down. The bicycle kick misses though and Test hits a gutwrench powerbomb. It’s time for the pumphandle powerslam but here are Shane and the Posse for the DQ.

Ken Shamrock makes the save with a baseball bat and stares Blackman down before their fight on Sunday.

Countdown to the Millennium.

Blackman left during the break. This has been vital information.

Big Show/Hardcore Holly vs. X-Pac/Kane

X-Pac tells Kane to leave but has to settle for Kane fighting Show on the floor. That leaves Holly to hit the Falcon Arrow and go outside after Kane. Cue Undertaker to chokeslam X-Pac for….not a DQ, even though the referee was in the ring and telling Undertaker not to do it. Undertaker grabs the steps to take out both Holly and Show as we’ll go with the no contest because disqualifications don’t exist around here.

Post match (I guess?), Kane goes back to the ring to help X-Pac up but Undertaker tells him it’s over. Kane sees a replay of Undertaker attacking X-Pac though and that means a chokeslam to Undertaker. So is that a face turn? Or a heel unturn? Why is this so complicated Undertaker isn’t happy as Kane and X-Pac leave together.

HHH vs. Undertaker

The winner challenges Austin on Sunday but the loser faces Rock in a #1 contenders match. HHH has Chyna, plus Vince in a wheelchair, with him. For reasons unclear, Undertaker does a full entrance again despite being in the ring after the previous match. They slug it out to start (well duh) with Undertaker getting the better of it and knocking HHH out to the floor. That goes nowhere so they head back inside with Undertaker charging into an elbow.

A clothesline puts Undertaker outside again and a Chyna distraction lets HHH knock him into the steps. Undertaker hits a quick Stunner over the top rope as this is actually resembling a match so far. And since we haven’t had enough drama so far, we cut to the back where Austin says he’s coming for McMahon’s blood right now. Cue Austin to go after Undertaker for the DQ.

Rating: D+. I’ll take what I can get on this show as they certainly aren’t pushing the wrestling so far. It was a lot of punching and kicking for a few minutes but at least we got something with a coherent point. Austin running in wasn’t surprising as they already had both matches set up for Sunday and there was no reason to change anything. That would bring up the question of why you book these stipulations in the first place but the internet isn’t big enough to explain all the holes in logic.

Post match the fight is on with Rock running in to join the fight. Undertaker and Austin fight up by the blood mobile with Austin throwing him in the back. HHH and Chyna are gone and reality sets in for Vince in a hurry. Austin comes back to ringside and hits Vince in the head with the belt to bust him open. Naturally he uses the blood to sign the Fully Loaded contract and beer is consumed. That doesn’t end the show though as Undertaker comes back (having used his evil powers to open an unlocked door) and nails Austin with a beer can to bust him open. Posing with the title wraps up the show.

Overall Rating: D. It’s more of the same, but they did have a slightly better focus this week because of the pay per view. The problem of course is how everything comes and goes with no particular reason, including stories that aren’t explained and matches that are too short to be anything more than quick appearances. Things will get better in a few months, but that doesn’t make this time any easier to watch.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Royal Rumble 2002
Date: January 20, 2002
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 12,915
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

This is the first step to things falling downhill, as we’re a few months away from the Brand Split and things falling through the floor in quality. The main event tonight aside from the Rumble is Jericho defending his newly won Undisputed Title (which he won by beating the Rock and Steve Austin IN THE SAME NIGHT in case you didn’t know that) against Rock. HHH is back in the ring tonight also (he may have fought on Smackdown before this but I don’t think he did) so let’s get to it.

The opening video has clips of various Rumble wins in a photo album kind of theme. The theme for this year’s show is 30 Men, 1 Winner. I’ve heard worse ideas which we’ll get too very soon.

Tag Titles: Spike Dudley/Tazz vs. Dudley Boys

I LOVE Stacy as the Duchess of Dudleyville. I never remember her looking better. Anyway, Spike and Tazz are defending here in a reign that I don’t think anyone ever remembers. The Dudleys beat up Spike recently so he’s in a neck brace. The Dudleys attack to start and hit the belly to back neckbreaker on Tazz on the floor. It’s Bubba vs. Spike to start things off in a handicap match for all intents and purposes. Bubba rips the neck brace off and drops a big elbow.

Bubba shouts at Spike to get up as we get a very nice shot of Stacy. Tazz is back on the apron as D-Von hits a Hennig necksnap of all things. Bubba loads up a second brainbuster on Spike but gets countered into a Dudley Dog for no cover. The tag to Tazz is missed so Spike has to take a double flapjack instead. Spike avoids a headbutt from D-Von and makes the Dudleys clothesline each other. Hot tag brings in Tazz to clean house with suplexes. A big boot to Bubba’s head sets up a top rope cross body by Spike for two. Stacy interferes and gets put in the Tazmission. D-Von gets caught in the same hold and the champions retain.

Rating: D+. I have no idea what the point of this being on PPV was as it barely broke five minutes. Nothing with Stacy in the Dudley attire can be bad, but this came about as close as you can get. Actually scratch that as it wasn’t so much bad but just short. I have no idea why this wasn’t on Raw or something like that. Tazz would be retired very soon after this due to a horrible neck.

We immediately go to a recap of Regal vs. Edge which is based on Regal using brass knuckles over and over again. Edge got fed up with it and beat up a lot of people with a chair.

Edge has a chair with him tonight to counter the knuckles. Apparently he broke Regal’s nose recently.

Intercontinental Title: Edge vs. William Regal

Edge is defending. The referee checks Regal over and over again for knuckles and finds them in his trunks. Well you can’t say he didn’t do his job. The referee stupidly puts them on the ring post instead of like, giving them to someone to take to the back or something. Edge pounds away to start and chokes with his boot in the corner. He goes after Regal’s bad nose as Lawler claims conspiracy.

Regal comes back with a clothesline but Edge kicks him in the back to put both guys down. Being the British dude that he is, Regal suplexes Edge down for two. Make that four. Uh six. Yet somehow that isn’t three. Off to an arm trap chinlock followed by a hard forearm to put the champion down again. A double arm powerbomb hits Edge for two and they head to the apron. Edge busts out a DDT onto said apron, further injuring Regal’s nose.

Back in and they ram heads to put both guys down as the match continues to drag at a slow pace. Edge wins a slugout and takes Regal down with a spinwheel kick and a suplex for two. Regal suplexes him down as well, only for Edge to hit a big old clothesline for two more. The Regal Stretch goes on out of nowhere but Edge reverses into a terrible version of his own to no avail. A top rope spinwheel kick puts Regal down but he finds another set of brass knuckles. Instead of swinging them though, he pulls the referee in the way of Edge’s spear. Regal clocks Edge and wins the title.

Rating: D+. This didn’t click at all. Regal didn’t seem interested in selling at all and Edge wasn’t ready to carry a match by himself yet. He was getting to the point where he could but it would take a summer of feuding with Eddie to get him up to that point. Regal wouldn’t really do anything with the belt other than lose it to RVD. Nothing to see here.

Women’s Title: Trish Stratus vs. Jazz

Jacqueline is referee for absolutely no apparent reason and Trish is defending. Jazz is basically being a bully and has injured Trish’s hand coming into this. Jazz jumps Trish to start but misses a splash, giving Trish two off a rollup. A modified hot shot slows the champ down again and a legdrop gets two. Jazz works on the bad hand for a bit but Jackie pulls them out of the ropes. Jackie of course makes it all about herself and won’t count a cover on Trish. Stratusfaction hits out of nowhere for two and Jazz is up a few seconds later, basically no selling it. Trish hits a bad looking running bulldog to retain.

Rating: D. It was short, it was sloppy, the ending was stupid and Jackie was in it. What other kind of grade do you expect here? Stratus was starting to get better but it would take another year and Lita before she got amazing. Jazz was a pretty stupid pick to bring over to WWE as no one remembered her and she didn’t have the looks to back up any lack of hype. Bad match here.

Flair says he’ll win.

We recap Vince vs. Flair. Flair debuted after Survivor Series as the new co-owner of the company and has driven Vince crazy since. This led up to a street fight tonight between the two of them tonight which isn’t as big a deal as they were shooting for I don’t think. The highlight of it was Vince dressing up as Flair and saying destroying lives turned him on.

Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon

Remember this is a street fight. Vince shoves him down to start and struts, so Flair punches him down and struts as well. Flair wins a chop battle in the corner (duh) so Vince goes to the eyes to escape. There’s the Flair Flop followed by a Flair Flip in the corner as Vince is in full control. We head to the floor and get our first weapon shot, with Vince pounding on Ric with a metal Keep Off sign.

There’s a trashcan shot to the head and Flair is busted open. How thin must the skin on his forehead be? Anyway, Vince steals a camera from someone to take a picture of Flair’s cut before we head back inside. Since he’s a jerk, Vince starts working over the knee in (less skilled) Flair fashion. The leg is wrapped around the post and Vince puts on a Figure Four that Dusty Rhodes would be jealous of.

Flair turns the hold over and Vince IMMEDIATELY lets go of the hold. So not only is he better at it than some wrestlers, he’s also smart. Never let it be said that Vince doesn’t know what he’s doing. Vince bails to the floor and grabs a lead pipe that he used to bust Flair open in the build up to the match. Flair catches him coming in with a low blow and pounds away on the floor.

Vince takes a monitor shot to the head and in a weird spot, we see a replay on the monitor on the table as the live match goes on. Vince is busted open now and we head back inside. Scratch that as we go back outside immediately where Flair’s family takes pictures of Vince’s cut. Set it up earlier, pay it off later. Good move. Back in and Flair kicks him low again just because he can, cracks him in the head with the pipe and ends it with the Figure Four.

Rating: C+. At the end of the day, this match makes as much sense as almost anything you’ll see. Vince controlled at the beginning, but at the end of the day he’s a boss and Flair is a veteran wrestler and athlete. It makes sense for him to be able to shrug that off and destroy Vince with relative ease once he got the upper hand. On top of that we got some good blood and Vince getting hit in the balls so how can this not be entertaining?

Stephanie talks trash about everyone else in the Rumble and runs down Debra as well. Austin walks up and WHAT’s her away. Cole gets a bit of it too. This is when the bit was brand new and still kind of funny, as opposed to now when it ruins almost every serious promo.

No highlight package for the world title match? For those of you not around in 2002 (LUCKY!), Jericho won the title in December, beating Rock along the way. It makes sense for Rock to get the first shot, especially since they feuded over the end of the year.

WWF World Title: The Rock vs. Chris Jericho

Jericho still has both titles because HHH wasn’t there to win the first Undisputed Title and get the new belt. Rock decks him immediately and the champ heads to the floor, only to run back in and get punched some more. Jericho misses a charge and hits the post but pulls off a hot shot out of nowhere to give himself a breather. They trade strikes in the corner before Jericho hits a spinwheel kick to Rocky’s arms for two.

A suplex gets two for Jericho and for some reason Rock’s left thumb is sticking out. The champ unhooks a buckle but can’t get the Walls. A missile dropkick gets two on Rock and it’s off to the chinlock. That goes on for a good while so Chris goes up again, only to get crotched and superplexed. A belly to belly suplex gets two for Rock but Jericho clotheslines him down and hits the Lionsault. Due to high reasons of arrogance, Jericho waits forever to cover and fights with the referee after getting two.

Another dropkick attempt by Jericho is caught in a Sharpshooter, but here’s Lance Storm for a distraction while Jericho taps. Christian comes in as well and is promptly punched out by Rock. Jericho hits a Rock Bottom on Rock for two and the frustration begins. The champ loads up a People’s Elbow but Rock nips up and sends Jericho out to the floor.

Both guys are rammed into both announce tables before Jericho’s Rock Bottom attempt is countered into an AWESOME looking Rock Bottom by Rock from one table through the other. That only gets two back inside before Jericho counters another Rock Bottom into the Liontamer (yes I said Liontamer instead of the Walls). Ok now it’s the Walls, which allows Rock to make the rope.

The jumping clothesline takes the referee down by mistake, allowing Jericho to blast Rock with the belt. Another referee slides in and gets two off that and Rock DDTs Jericho down. Rock covers….and Nick Patrick won’t count. There’s a Rock Bottom for his efforts and a People’s Elbow for Jericho but there’s no referee. Rock checks on Hebner, allowing Jericho to hit him low, send him into the Chekov’s Gun in the shape of an exposed turnbuckle. All that plus a rollup with his feet on the ropes is enough for Jericho to retain the title.

Rating: B. This took awhile to get going but once things picked up it turned into what you would expect from Rock vs. Jericho in a nearly 20 minute match. The overbooking worked here as Jericho needed something to boost him up to Rock’s level, which is what you’re supposed to do as a heel. Good stuff here and a very fine title match.

Shawn Michaels, in a really stupid looking Texas flag shirt, is at WWF New York. He picks Taker or Austin to win the Rumble.

Video on the Rumble. The main picks to win are Taker, HHH, Angle and Austin.

Royal Rumble

Rikishi and Goldust are #1 and #2 respectively and we’ve got two minute intervals. Goldie walks around Rikishi to start and gets punched in the face for his efforts. Rikishi knocks him around for a bit but can’t quite drop the big load on Goldie’s chest. A backdrop puts Goldust on the apron and Boss Man is #3, making it 2-1 against Rikishi. Goldust gets punched in the face but Boss Man pounds Rikishi into the corner. The heels explode after a long one minute partnership.

Bradshaw is #4 and hopefully he can pick things up a bit. He beats up everyone as Rikishi loads up the Stinkface on Boss Man. A superkick and a clothesline put Boss Man out and there’s a Samoan Drop to Bradshaw. Goldie pounds away on Bradshaw in the corner and gets powerbombed for his efforts. Lance Storm is #5 and absolutely nothing of note happens until Al Snow (on Tough Enough at this point) is #6. Bradshaw kills Storm with the Clothesline as the fans want Head.

Billy of Billy and Chuck is #7 and we’re still waiting on something to happen. The fans are still into this at least so it’s not a failure at this point. Storm and Snow fight to the apron with Snow superkicking Lance to an elimination. Billy dumps Bradshaw and Undertaker is finally #8 to pick things up a bit. A chokeslam kills Billy (the third in the series, not starring Uma Thurman) and another one puts out Goldust. Snow and Rikishi are dumped out and Billy follows them, leaving Undertaker alone to a big reaction. He’s evil here in case you’re not up on Taker history.

Matt Hardy is #9, which is interesting as Taker injured both Hardys and Lita. The redhead gets in along with Matt and helps him take the big man down via a low blow. Matt hits a Twist of Fate and stomps away but can’t get Taker out. Naturally Jeff Hardy is #10 because that’s how the TOTALLY RANDOM draw works in the Rumble.

Taker slugs down one of the best tag teams ever in just a few seconds, only to get caught in the Twist/Swanton combo. Again, why would you use moves that keep a giant on the mat? Not that it matters as Poetry in Motion is caught and Jeff is easily thrown out. The Last Ride kills Matt and he’s gone too, leaving Taker alone again. The clock during that segment was REALLY long too as they were roughly three minutes each to get the whole segment in.

Maven from Tough Enough is #11 but Lita is on the apron. Taker PUNCHES her down, drawing the Hardys back in. Taker dumps both of them again, but Maven dropkicks Undertaker in the back and eliminates him in arguably the biggest surprise elimination ever in the Rumble. The look on the Dead Man’s face is hilarious as he has absolutely no emotion at all. He calmly turns around, gets back in the ring, and mauls Maven, sending him through the ropes to the floor. A HUGE chair shot cracks Maven’s head and the beating continues until Scotty 2 Hotty is #12.

Taker punches Scotty down and throws Maven back in to eliminate him, which under old Rumble rules would count. The beating goes into the crowd as there’s nothing in the ring at the moment. Christian is #13 but has no one to fight because Scotty is still down. Instead we go to the back where Maven is rammed face first into a popcorn machine. Taker eats a handful of popcorn and finally leaves Maven alone.

Scotty gets in and walks into a DDT as DDP is #14. Nothing of note continues to happen until Scotty superkicks Page through the ropes to the floor and hits the Worm on Christian. Page sneaks back in and throws Scotty out as Chuck is #15. They all beat on each other for a bit with Christian and Chuck teaming up for a bit. Godfather, now the owner of an escort service in an attempt to salvage the gimmick, is #16 and brings out 12 good looking women with him. Page is eliminated off camera during this.

With Godfather in the ring after about 15 seconds due to dancing, Albert is #17. He’s the Hip Hop Hippo at this point and lasts about 45 seconds before being tossed by the villains. Godfather is dumped soon thereafter, and here’s Saturn at #18. Chuck and Perry slug it out as the fans cheer for the Ho’s leaving. Nothing happens again, until Austin is #19. Chuck is the first victim, getting stomped down in the corner. There goes Christian, Saturn gets a Stunner, Chuck is eliminated, Saturn is dumped, Christian gets thrown back in, Stunned and thrown out again, Chuck gets the same as Christian, and Austin takes a breather.

Val Venis is #20 (and also returning) and things go about as you would expect, although Val does get in some offense and survives until Test is #21. A double teaming lasts for a bit until Austin remembers who he’s fighting and dumps both guys in a few seconds. Austin does his watch bit when no one is in the ring with him. Notice the difference between the big stars and the regular guys: the big ones are CONSTANTLY trying to keep the audience entertained instead of letting them die.

Speaking of entertaining the crowd, HHH is #22. The entrance takes about a minute and a half, they stare at each other for about twenty more seconds, and the slugout only lasts for a few seconds until Hurricane is #23. Luckily for him, the legends knock each other down so Hurricane can tries a double chokeslam. The look on Austin’s face is hilarious as the two of them dump Hurricane with ease.

Austin and HHH chop each other in the corner until Faarooqq is #24 and lasts about that many seconds. Mr. Perfect makes a surprise return at #25 to a big surprise reaction from the audience. He looks a bit, shall we say, tipsy here. Perfect chills on the floor a bit as JR makes a mistake, saying Perfect debuted at the Rumble in 1993. In reality he was #4 in 1989. Austin and HHH double team Perfect to no avail so here’s Angle at #26, drawing the rare double chant of YOU SUCK WHAT.

HHH and Angle pair off as do the other two guys and the match slows down a bit. Kurt starts suplexing people but can’t dump HHH because Austin makes the save due to reasons of a big ego. Big Show is #27 in his one piece women’s swimsuit. Angle gets chokeslammed so Austin and HHH double team the big man to limited avail. HHH saves Angle, presumably because he wants Kurt’s help to get Show out. Makes sense I guess.

Show dominates everyone until Kane is #28. HHH gets chokeslammed so we can have our battle of the giants. Jerry: “They’re not getting any smaller are they JR?” Uh yeah Jerry, actually they are. They do the double chokeslam spot but Kane kicks Show low and picks him up, slamming him to the floor. AWESOME display of strength there, but Angle immediately dumps Kane to get us back down to four.

Van Dam is #29 and hits a Five Star on Angle who is down from something we didn’t see. Everyone but HHH gets kicked down so he hits a Pedigree to put Van Dam down. Booker T is #30, giving us a final group of Booker, RVD, Angle, Perfect, HHH and Austin. Booker throws out RVD without having to do anything else thanks to the Pedigree. We get a Spinarooni, followed by a Stunner and elimination to get us down to Austin, Angle, HHH and Perfect.

Austin hits a slingshot into the post on HHH who walks into an Angle Slam. Angle rolls some Germans on Austin and the C/Kurts try to dump Austin. Austin hits some HARD right hands to break that up but as he tries to dump Perfect, Angle runs up and dumps the Rattlesnake. Austin pulls Perfect to the floor but Kurt sends Austin into the steps to break it up. Steve still isn’t done as he comes back in with a chair for all three guys. Eh he’s Austin so he can get away with it.

Angle accidentally clothesline Hennig but doesn’t eliminate him. There’s the PerfectPlex (BIG pop for that) to Kurt but HHH dumps Perfect a second later. Angle and HHH stare each other down and the Game pounds away on him to take over. Kurt gets HHH to the apron but can’t get the win. HHH chokes away but charges into a backdrop, sending him to the apron. Kurt makes the classic mistake of not making sure the other guy is out and gets clotheslined to the floor, giving HHH the Rumble. For you trivia guys, this is the longest Rumble ever to date, even going 11 seconds longer than the 40 man version.

Rating: C+. This has some very bad spots in it but the rest of the stuff is solid all around. Once Austin gets in there things pick up a lot, but the 18 guys before him don’t do much. Taker’s elimination came too fast which hurt things here, as there was no one of note from #9 until Austin at #19. Still though, the good stuff here was good enough to check this out, but you might want to fast forward some parts of it.

Overall Rating: B-. This is a pretty good but certainly not great show. 2002 was a bad year for the company on Raw and things were clearly starting to look weak here. The main problem was the lack of elevation of anyone new to the main event in the year, as the main events for almost every PPV were people who had been there before. There’s nothing on here that’s required viewing but there’s also nothing terrible on here either. Check it out but don’t expect to be blown away.

Ratings Comparison

Spike Dudley/Tazz vs. Billy and Chuck

Original: C-

Redo: D+

William Regal vs. Edge

Original: C-

Redo: D+

Trish Stratus vs. Jazz

Original: D+

Redo: D

Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon

Original: D+

Redo: C+

Chris Jericho vs. The Rock

Original: B+

Redo: B

Royal Rumble

Original: C-

Redo: C+

Overall Rating

Original: B-

Redo: B-

Yep, about the same for the most part here.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/01/21/royal-rumble-count-up-2002-game-on/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: Major League Wrestling

Fusion #37
Date: January 4, 2019
Location: Scottish Rite Temple, Miami, Florida
Commentators: Rich Bocchini, Tony Schiavone

How are we over nine months of this show? We’re still down in Miami after last week’s attempted murder.. This week is a bit of a nicer note as Pentagon faces Teddy Hart in what should be a preview of a Tag Team Title match. There’s other stuff around here besides people being stabbed in the kidneys so let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a recap of last week’s attack on Konnan, which still doesn’t feel right. Tom Lawlor made the save, albeit after the stabbing.

Opening sequence.

LA Park vs. Gringo Loco

They take turns playing to the crowd before the bell and the fans are WAY behind Loco here. A hug sets up some posing together before the match, allowing Park to get in a cheap shot and take over. How rudo. They go outside into the crowd to avoid the whole wrestling thing early on. That means a lot of walking around with an occasional punch thrown until it’s back to the ring for the Park strut.

The dueling chants begin, much to Park’s annoyance. Park gets in a few belt shots to make the fans gasp instead of cheer, which is quite the change of pace. They head outside again with Park powerbombing him through a pair of chairs, with Tony talking about how it should be ok as long as no one bleeds. Park finds a Mexican flag to wrap around his head, drawing a USA chant.

Back in and Park gives us some pelvic thrusts (I didn’t need to see that) but misses a charge in the corner. Another strut takes too much time, allowing Loco to hit a double springboard into a cutter for a rather near fall, freaking Salina out horribly. Loco throws him outside for a flip dive and a dropkick through the ropes keeps Park in trouble.

It’s time to head to the entrance with Loco diving off the set with a crossbody for a huge dive. Back in and Loco takes his sweet time loading up Spiral Tap, allowing Park to roll away with no problem. Park stops to yell at the referee and accidentally crushes him twice in a row. He’s fine enough to see Park hit a spear and then count a pretty fast three at 12:18 though.

Rating: C. This is a match where you have to keep in mind what you’re getting. They made no secret about the fact that this was going to be a fight instead of a wrestling match and that helps things out a bit. Neither seems like they’re going to be able to wrestle a mat classic so go with what they can do instead. It’s the best they can do so go with that instead of embarrassing themselves.

Post match Park makes some rather sexual gestures to some people in the crowd.

Kotto Brazil talks about Ricky Martinez attacking him in the nightclub. He has to wear an eye patch for the time being but he’ll get his revenge.

Here are the fines from Promociones Dorado TRYING TO KILL Konnan:

Salina: $15,000

Low Ki: $15,000

Ricky Martinez: $7,500

Hijo de LA Park: $7,500

Not a bad place to be after what they did on national TV.

On the phone, Konnan says he’s in bad shape and promises to give Low Ki and company what’s coming to them.

Low Ki talks about how Tom Lawlor got started at Battle Riot and now he’s coming for the title. Tom isn’t a conqueror though and Low Ki is going to make an example out of Tom in front of his children.

Fred Yehi is back from his three month international tour but he’s been keeping up with what’s been going on around here. That’s why he wants to fight Low Ki with his bald head next week. A fight, not a match.

We look back at Ace Romero defeating Simon Gotch last week to win $20,000.

Romero is going to spend half the money on food and half on something that makes his eyebrows go up. He’s coming for the World Title though.

It’s time for the Super Fight Control Center. This includes the Lucha Bros vs. the Hart Foundation for the Tag Team Titles plus a few people who don’t have matches yet.

Next week: Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Pillman Jr. in a Singapore Cane match.

Dreamer talks about the history of the cane and how painful it can be in a variety of ways. He brings up the original caning match in ECW (of course) and how much damage, both physical and mental, has been done to him over the years. Pillman doesn’t know what he’s in for.

Teddy Hart vs. Pentagon

Non-title. The Hart Foundation plus a former University of Miami football player are in Hart’s corner while Pentagon is on his own. As a bonus, Smith is now dressed like Hart, which oddly works for him. The fans are behind Hart again, which tends to always be the case, and the announcers have to acknowledge them. CERO MIEDO gets a nice chant of its own though so this is far from one sided. Hart offers a handshake but gets CERO MIEDO instead so Hart punches him down.

They slug it out with Pentagon getting the better of things but Hart reverses a suplex to the floor into a Stunner. Teddy’s hanging piledriver (Orton’s DDT but a piledriver) sends Pentagon to the floor and there’s the moonsault to make things even worse. In the classic heel move of the night, Pillman offers a distraction so Smith can get in a cheap shot. Pentagon fights back against all three Harts at the same time but Hart pops him in the jaw to cut him down.

They fight back to the apron and that means a Canadian Destroyer to crush Hart, though of course he’s right back up a few seconds later. Hart can barely stand and a second Canadian Destroyer, this time from the middle rope, makes things even worse. Since Hart can’t stand, Pentagon ties him in the ropes for the loud chops. Hart can’t manage the walk over Pentagon’s back for the sunset flip so it’s a regular dropkick for some more success. A moonsault gives Hart two and the top rope moonsault elbow gets the same.

Pentagon scores with a superkick in the corner and the Fear Factor (still called the Pentagon Driver here, which has to be a copyright thing or something) gets two on Hart. Something like a Whisper in the Wind drops Pentagon again and now the Lionsault (minus the run) connects for two. Pentagon can’t break the arm as Hart is right back with a Backstabber. A DDT and the powerbomb into a Backstabber finish Pentagon at 11:20.

Rating: B-. The more you watch Hart, the more impressive his comeback really is. To have become the joke that he was for so many years and then turned into this rather impressive performer is nearly remarkable. His matches are entertaining and while they’re a bunch of high spots, they’re well done high spots and that’s enough to keep you around for a long time. Good stuff here, with a win over Pentagon being something worth mentioning.

Overall Rating: B-. The matches were rather good and they advanced the stories well enough. Above all else I’m impressed by how well they’ve managed to build Lawlor vs. Low Ki so many months in advance. I want to see the match, even if it’s the most obvious ending in the world. This show worked quite well and I had a good time, which is always a good thing to be able to say.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: Ring of Honor

Ring of Honor
Date: January 9, 2019
Location: 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana

I must be confused because it seems that we’re already back to regular shows, even though Final Battle was only a few weeks ago. Usually it’s the better part of a year so this is quite the nice treat. The big stories coming out of the show were Jay Lethal retaining the World Title and the Briscoes winning Ladder War to become ten time Tag Team Champions. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Ian is in the ring with four men who have earned World Title shots as of late: Chris Sabin (Proving Ground match), Flip Gordon (won the Sea of Honor tournament), Dalton Castle (contractually obligated rematch) and Marty Scurll (won the Survival of the Fittest tournament). Tonight it’s a four way with the winner getting a title shot at Honor Reigns Supreme on January 13. Ian introduces Lethal but gets Matt Taven instead.

Taven doesn’t see anyone worthy of getting a shot. It’s good to see Flip’s face again because his head has been buried in the Young Bucks’….yeah you get the idea. Is it 2012 again? That’s the only way Sabin could be relevant in the World Title picture. Marty Scurll must be sad because he’s not tall enough to ride the train to Jacksonville. That leaves him with Castle, who he beat at Final Battle. Go off and fake another injury already. This brings out Jay Lethal, with Taven spitting on the title. The fight is on with referees and agents having to break it up. Nice opening, with Taven FINALLY showing some personality.

Jeff Cobb vs. Luchasaurus

This is a Proving Ground match, meaning if Luchasaurus can win or go to the fifteen minute time limit, he gets a TV Title shot. Luchasaurus kicks him in the head at the bell for an early two and hits a spinning kick to the head for two more. That just earns him a spinning belly to back suplex, followed by Cobb putting him on the top for a dropkick. Luchasaurus kicks him again and hits a chokeslam as we take a break.

Back with Cobb hitting a running uppercut in the corner but walking into a superkick. A jumping kick to the side of the head drops Cobb again but Cobb catches him with a belly to belly superplex. Cobb muscles him up for a piledriver and the Tour of the Islands finishes Luchasaurus off at 6:56.

Rating: C+. There’s something to be said about a monster who can throw around another monster. That’s just not normal no matter how you spin it and that’s what happened here. It’s not a great match or anything, but it’s a fun spectacle and I’ll take that over a standard match most of the time.

Kelly Klein vs. Nikki Addams

Before the match, Kelly grabs the mic and says starting right now, every one on one match she’s in, will be a title match. Dang and I had “non-title again” all ready to go. Klein hits her in the face at the bell and gets crushed in the corner for her efforts. Addams misses a running boot in the corner though and it’s off to a cravate.

Back from a break with Addams backhanding Klein in the head and now the running boot connects for two. Addams takes too long going up top and gets pulled right back down, sending Klein into a fit. K Power is broken up so Kelly knees her in the face to retain at 4:44. Too short to rate but Addams didn’t look great.

Post match here’s Jenny Rose to say they have some unfinished business. They have a match on January 13 so it’s already a title match, but let’s make it a street fight. Klein says it’s on.

Beer City Bruiser is upset that Silas Young won’t talk to him. Brian Milonas says go talk to him in the locker room.

We look at Bully Ray, the Briscoes and Shane Taylor attacking the Elite after their final match. The whole thing is on Honor Club.

Video on Marty Scurll beating Christopher Daniels to end his ROH career at Final Battle.

Here’s Daniels in a suit for a chat. After a THANK YOU DANIELS chant, Daniels says Final Battle wasn’t a good night for SCU. The only thing left for him to do is say goodbye but he’s going to take the memories with him. The memories of the first main event against Low Ki and Bryan Danielson. Of that first World Title match going 60 minutes in 100 degree heat and every opponent who became his friends and brothers. Finally, the memories of becoming World Champion after all those years. He says goodbye but here’s Joe Koff to say thank you as well.

What Daniels did at Final Battle made Koff rethink things. Daniels defended Cary Silkin, who played such a huge role in ROH. That showed Koff that he did it for Ring of Honor and not himself. Therefore, here’s his new contract to continue wrestling around here. Daniels hugs him and holds up the contract but here’s Shane Taylor to jump Daniels from behind.

A dive takes Taylor down and the fight is on but Taylor throws him into the post. They head inside with Taylor kneeing him in the face and blasting him in the back with a chair. Greetings From 216 on the chair wrecks Daniels neck all over again and Taylor rips up the contract. I hope that’s not how Ring of Honor thinks contracts works.

Marty Scurll vs. Chris Sabin vs. Flip Gordon vs. Dalton Castle

One fall to a finish with the winner getting a shot on January 13 with Jay Lethal on commentary just in case Taven isn’t gone. Scurll bails straight to the floor to start and tries to get the fans clapping. Castle gets sent outside so it’s Sabin and Gordon trading some standing switches. That goes nowhere so they dive onto Castle and Scurll to keep the fans into things.

Back in and Sabin missile dropkicks Scurll right back out of the ring and Gordon nearly does the same thing to Castle. Gordon and Sabin don’t seem thrilled to fight each other so Castle cleans house and we take a break. Back with Castle throwing Gordon down again but getting kicked in the chest by Sabin. Marty is right back up to send Sabin outside for the apron superkick, only to get chopped by Gordon.

With Gordon being knocked down, we hit the quadruple submission. Since that’s completely ridiculous, the holds are all broken up and Sabin shoves Scurll off the top, setting up a triple high crossbody. A tornado DDT to Gordon lets Sabin kick the other two down at the same time but Castle is back up with a suplex. Gordon kicks Castle in the head and gets two off a running shooting star press. Sabin snaps off a hurricanrana but Gordon rolls through and scores with an enziguri. It doesn’t do a ton of damage though as Sabin is back up with kicks to Gordon and Scurll but he walks into the Bang a Rang to give Castle the clean pin at 9:04.

Rating: B-. It was a bit wild but that’s kind of the point here. You have to give all four of them title shots at some point and Castle is as good of a next challenger as anyone. It’s pretty clear that this is going to wind up being Taven taking the World Title from Lethal, which is about as uninteresting as you can get. Therefore, enjoy what you can get in the meantime because it’s going to go downhill pretty soon.

Post match Lethal comes in and shakes Castle’s hand to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. Good show from top to bottom here with a combination of solid angles and matches. This felt like a good fallout show from Final Battle, which tends to take forever more often than not around here. At least we got a nice show here, even though there’s a lot that still needs to be done. More of this, and this company will get that much better.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

In case you miss this part, this was written BEFORE the rally.

https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/kbs-review-awe-aew/