This is a different kind of wrestling show. The idea here is that the hosts sit in a studio and introduce matches to us. The matches would usually be from one house show that was filmed and then shown on programs like this. The most famous hosting duo for this was Gorilla and the Brain, producing some of the best banter you’ll ever hear. Let’s get to it.

Unfortunately, this is the Jack Reynolds era. Reynolds is fine but he’s pretty generic.

Most of this show appears to be from the March 17, 1985 MSG show.

Charlie Fulton vs. Rocky Johnson

Fulton has a big beard and that’s about it. Rocky is apparently returning to the company here. He takes Fulton to the mat in a head scissors and speeds things up with something close to a nip up and some armdrags. Charlie gets in a few punches but Rocky rolls through some clotheslines and a BIG sunset flip wins it. The referee was way out of position just to tick off Gorilla.

Rating: C-. Rocky is a guy that the more I see of him the more I like him. He was really fun to watch and depending on who you believe, he might have been in line for Hogan’s push had Hogan not signed. Still though, not much here but Rocky didn’t have much to work with in Fulton.

Jesse says his headdress is a Manhattan golf hat for when he swings the clubs in Central Park.

Barry O vs. Rene Goulet

Speaking of not having much to work with, I get this match. The O is for Orton, as he’s Randy’s uncle. We talk about Wrestlemania which was two weeks after the airing of this MSG show. The show aired at 1pm which is so strange to hear in modern times. They go to the mat for some generic stuff. Barry controls with a headlock on the mat as the announcers ignore what’s going on. To be fair they’re talking about the main event of Wrestlemania so I can’t argue much.

Now he really cranks it up by putting Rene in an armbar. Rene comes back with his Claw. A Von Erich he is not. Barry slams him and Rene counters into a devastating headlock. The crowd completely turns on it due to the levels of boring this is hitting. Goulet knees him down but gets caught in a small package for the pin.

Rating: F. The audio and video messed up as I was watching it. Even the recording equipment knew that this match sucked. MSG was booing it and I can’t say I disagree at all. The mathc sucked as neither guy was doing anything past first gear in the entire thing. Why this needed nine minutes is beyond me.

The announcers talk about the upcoming matches. They do this between every match.

Jim Neidhart vs. SD Jones

Jones pulls the beard to start. Why don’t more people do that? What kind of a name is Special Delivery anyway? Is that supposed to be intimidating? Jones works on the arm as Neidhart can’t get out of it even with a slam. Neidhart clotheslines him on the top rope and hits a right hand. Gorilla wants a DQ for that punch. Jones shrugs off being rammed into the top rope. See he’s black, so he automatically has a hard head. Jones comes back with left hands which Gorilla has no comment about. He sends Neidhart into the corner but walks into a powerslam for the pin. One shoulder was clearly up but the referee was blinded by boredom.

Rating: D. Good grief these matches have SUCKED so far. No wonder the fans are getting sick of this show so far. Neidhart was actually a decent singles guy but his generic power game got lost in the shuffle with all the other power guys of this time. Putting him with Bret was the best thing they ever could have done.

Jesse thinks Bundy is the Burt Reynolds of wrestling. Ok then.

Ricky Steamboat vs. Terry Gibbs

This is the first match that wasn’t in order on the show. Gibbs jumps him to start and is promptly backdropped. Gorilla is alone on commentary here. Gibbs keeps pounding Ricky down but he’ll run every time Dragon comes back. This makes for a match that keeps starting and stopping. We get a chase around the apron and Ricky speeds things up with a chop. Gibbs hits an atomic drop but Steamboat comes back with a variety of chops and the cross body gets the pin.

Rating: D+. Can we get a single good match in this whole show? Or even a match that doesn’t make me want to go to bed? Steamboat is great of course but there’s not much he can do when he’s stuck in there with a guy like Terry Gibbs. This didn’t work well at all, much like the rest of the show so far.

Intercontinental Title: Tito Santana vs. Greg Valentine

Lumberjack match. This was the main event of the house show and is called the feature match here. There were other matches talked about to start the show but there’s no sign of them here. Then again, that’s probably a good thing. Greg is defending here. Tito explodes on him to start as is his custom. Valentine rolls to the floor in a daze but only Steamboat will throw him back in.

Back in Santana hits an atomic drop and knee lift. Valentine gets in a shot as Rocky Johnson gives Jimmy Hart the death stare. Tito hits a move called the Headknocker and Greg bails again. This time he winds up on the good guy side and is thrown back in. The crowd is really getting into this. Another knee lift gets two. Valentine gets more and more frustrated as no one will cut him a break but he’s scared to death of the fired up Tito.

Greg finally gets a boot up in the corner to take over. He pulls the hair a lot and slams Tito’s head into the mat for two. Greg works over the knee which he injured to take the title in the first place. He throws Tito to the floor a few times and then won’t let Santana back in. Hammer is getting warmed up now and slams in forearms to the chest. Knee drop gets two.

Being kind of an idiot, Valentine slaps Tito twice before going for the Figure Four. Santana rolls him up for one and it’s time to slug it out. Hammer puts him down and drops an elbow for two. Tito gets both feet up in the corner to put Greg down. Valentine is in trouble as JYD beats up someone on the floor. Tito sets up the Figure Four but Valentine rolls to the outside. Back in a forearm sets up the Figure Four but Greg makes the ropes. They slug it out and in a weak ending, Greg gets sent into the ropes and they hit heads. Both guys are out cold and Greg falls on top for the pin.

Rating: B. This is one of those matches that is almost impossible to screw up. These two had one of the greatest rivalries of the 80s and one of the best ever in company history. For some reason you never hear about it though. It’s probably due to Savage coming in and taking the title from Santana and dominating it for a year afterwards.

Overall Rating: D. The main event is good but OH MY GOODNESS did the stuff leading up to that suck. The rest of the house show sucked too so I can’t blame the fans for booing like they were. To be fair though, two weeks later they saw Wrestlemania so they can’t complain that much. Bad show here though.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon at:

Superstars
Date: April 7, 2011
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia, Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Scott Stanford, Josh Matthews, Jack Korpela, Matt Striker

Drew McIntyre vs. JTG

Recap of the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Shawn was the headliner.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Tyson Kidd

We see Cena challenging Rock to a match at Wrestlemania 28, a year in advance. The match worked to put it mildly. For no apparent reason, the Corre ran out to interrupt the ending. This never went anywhere at all but we do get about three minutes of Rock and Cena beating up Slater.

Santino Marella vs. Ted DiBiase

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon at:

Anyway, assuming this is true:

1. It’s Cena’s fault right?  Everything else is.  We better turn him heel and then complain about how lousy his heel turn was executed.

2. If Rock wants to leave, I have no issues with it, much like I have few with Austin bailing in 2002.  He doesn’t owe WWE or the fans a thing.

3. It’s not like he lit the world on fire last night so why not let him go?  It doesn’t really add much anymore.

Thoughts on this?

These are in order from the list of WWE Home Videos from Wikipedia.  Remember: if I leave it off, it’s because I haven’t seen it.  Let’s get to it.

Bret Hitman Hart – Best There Is, Best There Was, Best There Ever Will Be

Three hours of Bret goodness.  Do I need to explain this?  If nothing else it has his matches with Owen and Austin from Wrestlemania if you haven’t picked them up on one of the 1000 other DVDs they’re on.  You also get some good matches with Steamboat and Perfect.  Definitely worth checking out.

Brian Pillman – Loose Cannon

I saw this once years ago and I barely remember it.  The documentary was good but the matches are just ok.  It has the Liger match from 1992 and the Canadian Stampede match which are his career highlights, but other than that it’s nothing great.

Hard Knocks – The Chris Benoit Story

This was one of the better DVDs you’ll ever see and was released just after he won the title at Wrestlemania.  It covers every major match of his career and has some absolute gems, including the Owen tribute match (also on Bret’s DVD), his match with Great Sauske from Japan, his WCW and World Title wins, and an awesome documentary about him returning home to Edmonton as world champion.  If you can sit through it (and find it), definitely worth looking up.

Cheating Death, Stealing Live – The Eddie Guerrero Story

This didn’t work as well as the Benoit DVD but it’s still not bad.  The documentary is better than the match selection, as you hear about Eddie’s drug abuse and personal demons leading up to his recovery and title win.  The matches…..I’m not sure about these.  The problem with the matches is it feels like WWE pulled some random matches out of a hat, threw in the Halloween Havoc 97 match and called it a day.  It’s good, but only the documentary is worth checking out, unless you haven’t seen Eddie vs. Rey from Havoc.

Jake the Snake Roberts – Pick Your Poison

I threw this on one Saturday afternoon when there was nothing good on TV and that’s about all it’s good for.  The documentary sounds more like a plea for sympathy than anything else and I heard a few holes in the stories he told which didn’t match up with the timeline of actual events.  The match selection is also pretty weak as when you think about it, Roberts didn’t have a lot of big matches.  If you’re interested in this you can get it for about $5 on Amazon, but I wouldn’t pay more than that (and I don’t think I did actually).

Mick Foley- Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops

This isn’t much actually as it’s more of a documentary than a definitive DVD, but we’ll get to that later on.  The matches here are nothing special other than the Mind Games match which we’ll revisit later on.  As much of a Foley fan as I am, I wouldn’t bother with this as it’s just over an hour and more of a quickie job you might get for like 2 bucks back in the old Blockbuster days.

NWO – Back in Black

If there has ever been a bigger hatchet job of a DVD, I’d love to know what it is.  This has a really good start with the 1996 stuff, then 1997 is covered in about 5 minutes, we hear about a moment in September of 1998, then it’s 2002 and the NWO is in the WWF.  The NWO is a VERY interesting subject which would make for a good 9 hour or so DVD, but this is just two and a half hours and definitely not worth looking for.  I watched it on the internet and actually went around seeing where the other parts were, because I didn’t believe they cut out as much as they did.  Definitely not worth any time or money.

Ric Flair – The Definitive Collection

This was the sequel to the Ultimate Flair Collection and it’s a different look at Naitch.  This is much more about his life than his in ring work, which is a very interesting subject to say the least.  There are some solid matches on it as well though, with stuff like his 94 match with Steamboat, the 89 Bash against Funk and COTC 1 vs. Sting.  If you pick this up though, pick up the Ultimate Collection as well to get the other major stuff that is included there.  Worth seeing though for the documentary alone.

Road Warriors – The Life and Death of the Most Dominant Tag Team in Wrestling History

As a Road Warriors fan, this was a must for me.  Again the documentary is the better part as the Warriors’ matches aren’t the kind of performances that you can make a long DVD about.  The problem is they squashed most of their opponents, so how can you really get excited after seeing the same things time after time?  The good thing here is it’s only two discs, which was the right call.  Good stuff here though and worth checking out if you’re a fan of the team, which you should be.

Born to Controversy – Rowdy Roddy Piper

Now THIS is what I’m talking about.  Piper is one of the most entertaining guys you’ll EVER see and this is a great set about him.  You get every major match in his career and a good documentary, but more than that you get TWENTY FOUR PIPER’S PITS.  If that doesn’t sell you on this, you’re in the wrong place.  You can get this for like 6 bucks online and I highly recommend it.  His book on the other hand, stay FAR away.

The Shawn Michaels Story – Heartbreak and Triumph

Considering there are at least three Shawn DVDs, it’s kind of hard to remember which is which.  I do remember liking this one though as it focuses more on his life than his matches.  That being said, it’s 9 hours of Shawn Michaels.  How could this not be good?  You also get a rarity with the Rockers winning the tag belts and the Shawn vs. Cena match from London in its entirety.  Good stuff here.

The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior

Then on the other hand there’s this one.  The problem here is that the WWF’s new stance is that Warrior was garbage and a flash in the pan.  Granted they didn’t mind making this flash in the pan the main event of Wrestlemania 6, the second main event on Wrestlemania 7 and th ebig surprise at Wrestlemania 8, but what difference should that make?  This is the DVD where they criticized him for wearing a baseball hat because apparently that made people not want to see him fight Jerry Lawler.  The DVD is nothing special but it’s pathetic hearing the company dump on him after all the money they milked out of him.

McMahon

Now this is a good one.  It’s two hours of praising Vince and how amazing he is.  If you know your history, this is one of the funniest DVDs ever, as Vince talks about backing out of the Georgia Championship Wrestling deal because “they didn’t want to do business” and other gems like that.  THe quality of the set is pretty low, but it’s absolutely hilarious to hear Vince spin things to benefit him.

Greatest Stars of the 80s/90s

These are two different sets but I figured it was easier to just do them together.  The idea is you’ll see a profile of a wrestler for about 10-15 minutes then later on, you get matches from that wrestler.  It’s a good way to show every major name from the generation in one set without getting into too much detail on what’s going on and boring the audience.  These are both fun and there’s a 21st century edition that is probably the same idea.  The 80s and 90s sets are both worth checking out with the 90s being a bit better and faster paced.

Starrcade – The Essential Collection

NOW we’re getting somewhere.  This is one of the few WWE DVDs that I went out and bought as soon as it hit the shelves.  The idea is it’s the top 25 Starrcade matches ever in a countdown format, with each five hosted by someone who was famous at Starrcade.  The match selection is questionable with some headscratchers in there and I still say Tully vs. Magnum should be #1, but it’s a WWE set and we have to praise Flair (even though his best Starrcade match isn’t even #1).  The documentary is…..odd.  Basically they spend 45 minutes talking about the first three shows, then 5 minutes on the next 14 of them and that’s it.  That being said, the first 45 minutes are GREAT and incredibly interesting stuff.  This is worth checking out, but I’d have Youtube open to find some other matches to supplement it.

The Monday Night War

This is one I’ve watched about ten times and it’s still interesting today.  The set mainly focuses on WCW, which is the smart thing to do as it was the dominant force for most of the War.  The problem is once we get past Warrior in WCW, there isn’t much to talk about other than WWF pounding WCW into the ground, so you know they spend a lot of time on it.  It’s a very solid set though and worth seeing if you haven’t before, if nothing else for the matches and extras (such as Cornette’s rants).

The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling

This is a lot like the Best of the 80s and the 90s.  Not much to say here and it’s not much to watch either.  The documentary isn’t bad but it’s not worth going out of your way to find.

Raw DVDs

There are a TON of DVDs on Monday Night Raw and I really can’t remember which I’ve seen and which I haven’t, so pretty much pick and choose.  I remember the 15th anniversary being good and I think I saw the top 100 moments DVD but I can’t remember for sure.

Rise and Fall of ECW

Anyone who follows me knows I do not like ECW.  However, this is one of if not the best DVDs WWE has ever produced.  It covers EVERYTHING about the company and has some fascinating stuff from behind the scenes.  If you haven’t seen this, go find it because I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Rise and Fall of WCW

This is almost a sequel to Monday Night Wars and it’s not nearly as good.  Some of the logic on here is laughable with Hogan and Nash seemingly being blamed for almost everything that happened to WCW, which is absurd.  This is another version of WWE deciding how history goes, which gets old in a hurry.  Not worth seeing.

Top 50 Superstars of All Time

I think I watched this but I’m not 100% sure.  The list is confusing to say the least but it’s not bad.  Assuming I actually saw it that is.

Hulk Hogan – The Ultimate Anthology

Do I need to explain this?  9 hours of Hogan awesomeness.  Yes this is good.

Macho Madness – The Ultimate Randy Savage Collection

This would be another that I ran out and got when it came out and I’m glad I did.  This is the perfect Savage set with almost every major match in his career plus a solid documentary.  I don’t have much else to say here other than watch this and you’ll see why everyone speaks so highly of Savage.

Mick Foley’s Greatest Hits and Misses

THIS is what we needed to get to.  If there’s a great Foley match you want to see, it’s on this set.  Foley does some commentary on the matches which is very interesting stuff of course.  There’s a special Hardcore Edition of this with a third disc of his mid-2000s stuff which makes it even better.  Between this and his books, you can’t go wrong.  Check it out and read all four of his books as well.  Great set here.

The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection

I mentioned this earlier so I’ll keep this quick.  It’s 9 hours of Flair matches from the 80s and 90s and has some of the highest quality matches on any set you’ll ever find, making it well worth tracking down.

From the Vault: Shawn Michaels

This was one of the first WWE DVD sets and it’s  excellent.  You get the Cell vs. Undertaker, the ladder match against Razor, the Iron Man match, the Mind Games match, the no holds barred match against HHH, and one of my all time favorites in his street fight vs. Diesel, plus some solid extras.  This is one of my personal favorites and AWESOME stuff.

The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment

I don’t remember much of this, but it’s 9 hours of the Rock with a ton of promos.  That enough for you?

Allied Powers

This is a showcase of tag team wrestling and it’s another solid release.  The problem here is it gets repetitive after awhile as you can only sit through so many tag matches in a row.  It’s the “documentary/match” formula again so it works ok, but I’d recommend watching it over a few days instead of at once.

Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event

Another great one, features everything it needs to feature, room for a sequel, great stuff all around.

History of the Intercontinental Championship/WWE Championship

Again it’s two different DVDs but they’re grouped together here.  Both are good enough but with subjects like this, you really can’t hit every highspot (and I would know, as I wrote a book about the WWE Championship.  Details on the front page) in such a long history.  These could both get sequels very easily.

Best of Smackdown: 10th Anniversary

This is a countdown bit with a look at the top 100 moments in the show’s history.  Some are matches and some are moments, but they cover pretty much everything ever on the show.  If you like Smackdown, you’ll like this.  I can’t get much simpler than that.

That’s about it.  As is the case with everything, some are hit and miss and your enjoyment will vary based on personal taste.  The best are Rise and Fall of ECW, Essential Starrcade and Foley’s set with Flair sprinkled in there somewhere.  Anyway, go watch some of these.

http://www.wwe.com/classics/intercontinental-title-tournament-finally-uncovered-26102625/page-4

You know, because they wouldn’t lie to us.  This is awesome.

No Mercy 03 is downloading so here’s a show you don’t often see: it’s from Wrestlemania Sunday. Who knows when this was taped but it’s literally airing hours before the biggest show ever. This should be interesting as far as seeing what they say about the upcoming show. Other than that I don’t know what to expect but the matches are taped so it’s not like we’ll be missing much. Let’s get to it.

The theme song is very patriotic.

The featured match is the Bulldogs vs. Goulet/Barry O. I’m riveted to see that. Yep Gene is talking about Mania which is today at 1pm. He runs down the card for today and plugs Wrestlemania whenever he can.

British Bulldogs vs. Barry O/Rene Goulet

The announcer messes up Barry’s name by calling him Bobby. Dynamite and Barry start us off and Dynamite uses the speed to escape whatever is thrown at him. Off to Davey and this must be near their debut. Jesse says he’s never seen the Bulldogs before so you know it’s early in their run. Back to Davey who hooks a crucifix for two. Off to Goulet and both guys get missile dropkicks from Dynamite. Goulet hits a clothesline to bring in Barry. Davey cleans house and the Bulldogs use their stepping stone headbutt spot to pin Barry. BIG pop for the Bulldogs.

Rating: C+. Just a squash, but man the Bulldogs were great when they started out. They were pulling off stuff that had never been seen in America so everyone reacted to them very strongly. Dynamite was so far ahead of his time it’s unreal. Can you imagine him against Jericho or Mysterio in 1996? It would have been incredible.

UPDATE! With Lord Alfred Hayes. It’s about JYD who likes to dance with kids. Ok then.

Big John Studd vs. Jim Young

Studd has $15,000 cash and Andre the Giant’s hair. Young fails at a slam and the pain begins. Andre comes out and beats Studd up for the quick DQ.

Gene sums up the big matches for Mania.

Cyndi Lauper says her girl Wendi Richter will win the title back on Sunday.

Gene is on the phone with Liberace who wants to know where Orndorff gets his robes. He has to drop the call though to talk to the camera.

Mad Maxine vs. Susan Starr

Maxine is a freak with a green mowhawk and allegedly 6’4 but that looks like a stretch. Starr runs away a lot but they spend most of the time circling each other. Starr even gets a leg lock on her. Maxine shrugs it all off and hits a suplex for the pin. This was really bad.

Gene reminds us that you have to see Mania on closed circuit.

Off to Piper’s Pit with Orndorff and Orton. They make fun of the Mania poster. Mr. T. is called a souped up spider monkey and has a banana smeared over his face. Hogan gets an egg. Orton’s arm is still hurt. It’s a very slow healing injury you see.

Mr. T. and Hogan are in New York to train. They’re on a building somewhere but Mr. T. wants to go to Central Park and beat up muggers. And that’s just what they do. Well they go to Central Park and T gives him training in “street fighting”, which means running in place. They go to the gym to train to Eye of the Tiger and hit each other in the head while sitting on the floor with their legs interlocked. Then they get on a train while people cheer. Now they’re in MSG with a piece of wood on the floor. They fire each other up, and that’s it. This was out there man.

Gene talks about Mania some more.

Greg Valentine vs. Pete Pompeii

Bruno is alone on commentary and this is joined in progress. Oh thank goodness Vince jumps in. Valentine is IC Champion here but it’s non-title of course. This is a squash and Valentine pounds him down before hooking a chinlock. He hooks a quick half crab, drops a middle rope elbow, and finishes with the Figure Four.

Rating: D. Just a squash but a long one. That being said, we needed something longer than usual to fill in the time. Vince can’t pronounce the jobber’s name, calling him Pompell which is funny to me for some reason. Other than that, not much to see here but it’s a squash so what are you looking for?

Gene runs down the card again and brings in the US Express. Albano is here too and is clean shaven. He says they’ll win and keep the titles. The champs say the same.

Gene talks about Wrestlemania a lot to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. You can’t complain much about the show because the majority of this was to talk about Wrestlemania. It’s a big commercial and to their credit, they hyped the show up pretty well. It’s still boring but they were trying at least which is really all you can ask for. Plus if its the day of the show and you have to go somewhere to see it, you’ll already know if you’re going or not by this point.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Here’s Wrestlemania if you’re interested:

Alex Riley vs. Heath Slater

Wrestlemania ad.

Wrestlemania Magazine ad.

We recap the setup for the Divas tag with Maria Menounos.

Tensai is coming. Now if only he would go.

We get a video on what Rock vs. Cena means to both Rock and Cena. This is from the Once in a Lifetime special. I remember watching this and getting more fired up for a match than I ever have before. I HAD to see it.

Justin Gabriel vs. Tyson Kidd

Kidd and Gabriel shake hands post match. See what I mean?