Spring cleaning appears to be upon us.Sakamoto, Briley Pierce and Audrey Marie are all gone from NXT.  Sakamoto was originally Tensai’s lackey and had a good look to him.  Pierce is Dolph Ziggler’s brother.  Marie wasn’t great in the ring but she was absolutely gorgeous.

More to come, most likely.

According to his Twitter.  No real surprise here as he was about as generic in the ring as you could ask for.  His character wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t interesting at all for the most part.

This might be the start of the annual spring cleaning releases but it’s too early to tell.

I want to have its children.

There has been a lot of talk lately about Antonio Cesaro’s position backstage and how he hasn’t been pushed anymore because he’s considered boring.  This can be attributed to the WWE Creative team.  Again.Let’s see: he held the US Title for months on end and rarely got to defend it, he lost far more often than he won as champion, and once he lost the title he became a yodeler. That was the major gimmick of the guy who was put in the main event of Tribute to the Troops to face John Cena: He yodeled.

Why in the world would the fans care about this guy? He was treated like any other jobber and the fans stopped caring about him. Cesaro wasn’t the biggest star in the world, but he puts on solid matches and plays the smug foreign heel to perfection. There’s money in that kind of a character and there has been for years. The solution from WWE’s creative team? Make him a yodeler.

The same thing happened with Ryder.  He was over with the fans so the WWE crushed him for whatever their reason was that time.  Presumably because he got over against the company’s wishes.  I mean, why would you want to make money off a character who has done the hardest part of the job for the writers: making the fans care about him.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy.

It’s not one you would expect.Back at Over the Limit 2010, Punk was fighting Rey Mysterio and got cut open.  As usual, the match was stopped for a doctor to look at it.  The crowd starts to chant BORING, and Punk goes nuts.  In just a few seconds he hits about five moves on Mysterio, all faster than you’ll ever see Punk move anywhere else.  Punk took offense to the crowd thinking his match was boring because it had to be stopped and he wasn’t going to accept that because it meant he wasn’t doing his job.  That’s something so few people take pride in anymore.  How many people have you seen in a match with a five minute run time and they just throw on a chinlock for a minute of the match?  It’s a cheap way to get through a match and not fair to the people that paid to see you have an entertaining match.

Saturday Night’s Main Event 1
Date: May 11, 1985
Location: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Long Island, New York
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

So I figured this was a good one to get around to. This is the fallout show from Mania but there isn’t a ton of fallout. No one really knew what this was going to be like but it was an experiment worth trying at least. It was the first chance a lot of people would have to see these guys on television as it was shown on NBC in prime time which was unheard of back then. Either way, this should be fun so let’s get to it.

As usual we open with the main faces for the night talking. Wendi Richter and Cyndi Lauper are talking about the match with Moolah tonight and Hogan and Mr. T. say they’re ready for Bob Orton tonight. As always, the music rocks. Jesse is in pink. He can get away with it though.

Iron Sheik/Nikolai Volkoff/George Steele vs. Mike Rotunda/Barry Windham/Ricky Steamboat

That’s quite the face tag team. This was on the SNME DVD (great DVD that should certainly be picked up if you can find it. Awesome stuff on it) as an extra. Blassie is with the heels and Albano is with the faces. The two foreigners had taken the tag titles from the US Express at Wrestlemania for a token tag title change.

About a year prior to this, the US Express had been using Real American for their theme music. That went to Hogan of course and here they use Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen which works like a charm for them as it’s perfect. We start with Windham and Steele which is an odd matchup if there ever has been one.

Sheik was hitting the end of whatever usefulness that he had at this point. Rotundo would soon head to WCW and become a member of the Varsity Club, ending in an awesome moment with Rick Steiner taking the TV Title from him after months of being talked down to by him. Wow what a tangent that was.

Oh and he’s more commonly known as I.R.S. Oddly enough the faces dominate early on. We go to commercial with the faces dominating. We begin the awesome SNME tradition of not having action during commercials so we don’t have to be all confused about how we got to a point during a break.

Wow there are four hall of fame wrestlers in here and two on the floor. That’s rather impressive, especially considering that the two that aren’t in there are two of the three most talented. Steele comes in and his teammates abandon him, allowing Windham to get a quick rollup for the pin. Steele eats a turnbuckle and the tag champions beat him up. That doesn’t last long as Albano comes in to calm him down and Steele is a face.

Rating: C-. Eh this was fine. It wasn’t meant to be anything special other than a way to get Steele out of the dark side, but the heel offense consisted of about four Volkoff punches and other than that it was a complete squash. I don’t get why it was so one sided, but it did its job and wasn’t bad at all so for the first match in show history this was perfectly fine.

The heels blame Steele for the loss and Steele and Albano scare them off.

Piper’s Pit

The guest is Paul Orndorff, who was Piper’s partner in the main event of Wrestlemania. Orton is there as well. Paul more or less says go ahead and try to beat me up to Orton which Piper tries to defuse quickly. Piper has to be high on something. Either that or he’s just completely insane. I’m not sure which it is.

Piper keeps insulting Orndorff and then he would jump up and yell at both guys who run and scream. Piper finally gives up and calls Orndorff a piece of garbage and Paul cleans house. A piledriver is blocked by a cast shot from Orton. Mr. T. makes the save. Ok, we get it: Mr. T. is in a wrestling company. Let it go already.

Hogan says he dedicates the match tonight to his mother. Ok then. He’s also happy about Paul’s recent face turn.

WWF Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Bob Orton

Hogan coming out to Eye of the Tiger is some combination of odd, awesome and epic. You figure out the proportions. Naturally it starts out with Hogan completely dominating Orton. This was also on the DVD but the color and picture quality were WAY better there. It looks bad here to say the least. This is exactly what you would expect it to be: Hogan works the arm and then a shot from Orton gives him control. Our hero is in trouble. WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO???

Well at the moment he’s going to get his teeth kicked in a little more. And of course there’s the comeback and you know the finish. Actually I typed too soon. Hogan drops an elbow and uses a headbutt of all things. Orton takes over again. This is most odd indeed. Hogan fights out of the superplex and comes off the top rope! He goes for the leg but Piper runs in for the DQ. The heels beat up T and set for the double team but Orndorff runs out for the save and the full face turn.

Rating: C. This was just pure average. It was what you expected but the DQ was kind of odd. It’s not like a pin would have been odd here but whatever. This was fine for what it was. Hogan gets on TV and the biggest star got to showcase himself.

After a break we come back to the three of them posing and you can just tell that Vince wants to screw all of them.

Gene is with Cyndi Lauper and Albano. Lauper has a VERY annoying voice. These two started the Rock N Wrestling Connection and launched wrestling into the stratosphere.

They air her new video which has about ever wrestler with a cameo in it other than Piper who shows up to yell about it. That was awesome actually.

Women’s Title: Wendi Richter vs. Fabulous Moolah

Before the match, Moolah says she’s tired of the interference so Lauper is barred tonight. The reading of the announcement that Lauper is gone tonight takes the better part of forever to get through and FINALLY we get to the match. This was match number two that fueled the mega run that wrestling went on.

We’re on the floor nearly immediately. To say Richter was popular at this time was the understatement of all time. She would actually main event house shows if you can believe that. Surprisingly, Moolah is being beaten down for the most part here. Considering she was champion for about 30 years, that’s saying a lot. Yes I know she didn’t really hold it that long but that’s kayfabe for you. Richter gets a quick small package for the pin.

Rating: D+. This is just long enough to grade but there isn’t anything of note here. It’s ok but that’s about it. Women’s wrestling back then was more of a mess than it is now, but the women could work MUCH better than they can today for the most part. Ok not really but these two had a feud going and that was better than nothing. Yeah the match sucked and I’m rambling.

JYD has his mother here for Mother’s Day. Her name is Bertha.

Pete Doherty vs. Junkyard Dog

Take a wild guess who wins here. Grab Them Cakes is a decent song if nothing else. Them Cakes means a woman’s hips in case you were wondering. Oh never mind that’s Another One Bites the Dust. Wow my hearing must be off. And it’s a three minute squash with Doherty being on the floor for a lot of that. JYD and his mom dance afterwards.

Rating: N/A. This was just thrown in for filler as a lot of stuff was around this time.

We come back to see Cyndi Lauper’s Mother’s Day party. It’s just a long line of wrestlers with their “mothers” including Hogan. They all say they love them and then a food fight starts.

Jesse and Vince wrap things up.

Overall Rating: C+. It got the big names on TV other than Andre but he was a very sporadic guy at this point. This was fine for a debut but you could see that it was a lot of rehashing Mania which to be fair was so groundbreaking that they didn’t have a lot of other stuff to go with. Also, that was the hottest thing in the world back then so they were right to go with it I guess.

Not bad but a lot more for entertainment than wrestling which is fine. Great job of showing who everyone is though so that’s a major plus. Check it out because it’s a huge deal as far as starting a big tradition so there we are.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at:

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 10, 1993
Location: Manhattan Center, New York City, New York
Attendance: 1,200
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, Randy Savage

Back to 1993 as we’re approaching King of the Ring. Tonight we have a tournament qualifying match as well as an Intercontinental Title match between Shawn Michaels and Jim Duggan which is a lumberjack match, likely due to Shawn running in the previous match. Other than that it’s hard to say as these are still the early days for the show. Let’s get to it.

Earlier tonight Shawn was outside of the arena when Mr. Perfect jumped him and slammed Shawn onto the hood of a car.

Heenan goes on a rant about how Duggan was behind Perfect attacking Shawn. Perfect and Duggan associating with each other just sounds wrong.

King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Typhoon vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

They collide off the ropes a few times with no one going anywhere at all. Typhoon slams him down and Bigelow (kind of) slams him down as well. Off to an armbar on Bigelow but Bam Bam suplexes out of it. They head to the floor with Typhoon being sent into the steps to shift control. Typhoon is rammed into the buckle to put him back on the floor as Bigelow is bleeding from the top of the head. Back in and we get a chinlock….and take a break. THIS MATCH needs a break??? Bigelow avoids a charge in the corner, hits a Samoan drop and the top rope headbutt sends Bigelow to the tournament.

Rating: D-. These battles of the giants usually suck and this is another version which did just that. Typhoon was such a worthless wide load that he never accomplished anything at all. Nothing to see here although that headbutt was kind of cool. When that’s the highlight of a match, you can tell it was lame.

Yokozuna vs. PJ Walker

Walker is more famous as Justin Credible. Yoko chops him down and ENDS Walker with a belly to belly and a legdrop. A splash in the corner sets up the Banzai Drop and we’re done in about 90 seconds.

Mr. Perfect vs. Iron Mike Sharpe

Before the match, Perfect looks at one of the overweight Raw girls and puts his gum in her mouth. Sharpe shoves him around to start but Perfect comes back with a quick dropkick, sending Mike out to the floor. Back in and Perfect chops away before hitting the Hennig neck snap. They trade some hard chops before Perfect takes over with a knee lift. Heenan is channel surfing while watching TV at the announce table. Now we’re watching him watching TV at the announce table. The PerfectPlex ends Sharpe with ease.

Rating: D+. Just a squash here and we got the weekly “comedy” bit thrown in here. I have no idea why they did those bits like Heenan watching TV but they were rarely funny and hopefully would stop soon after this. Hennig continues to look good but he would be disappearing soon because of back issues.

Mr. Hughes vs. Cannonball Kid

Hughes is debuting Harvey Whippleman as his manager. This is another squash with Hughes pounding away with almost no resistance whatsoever. A big boot and Bossman Slam end the Kid. The next week it would just be The Kid and he would face Razor Ramon. I think you know the story.

Promo for All-American Wrestling, which I didn’t know was still on TV at this point.

Intercontinental Title: Jim Duggan vs. Shawn Michaels

This is a lumberjack match but before the match, Duggan jumps Yokozuna. Shawn is defending and comes out in jeans and a t-shirt on crutches. Perfect goes after Shawn and indeed the champions was faking. An atomic drop puts Shawn down so Vince says that Shawn is going to lose the title tonight. A slam and elbow get two for Duggan as Heenan is losing his mind. There’s a suplex by Duggan as the fans think Shawn is gay.

Hacksaw stays on offense as we hear about Duggan NEVER getting a title shot before. I know 1988 was a long time ago Vince but come on. Duggan chokes away in the corner as Yoko is glaring at him from the floor. A HARD elbow staggers Shawn and it’s off to a reverse chinlock by Duggan. Off to a quick bearhug on Shawn but Duggan lets it go pretty quickly. Duggan slugs him down as this has been completely one sided so far. Shawn gets tied up in the ropes and Duggan pounds away even more. Michaels tries to take a walk but gets thrown back in as we take a break.

Back with Duggan slamming Shawn down again but missing a knee drop. Shawn takes off his own boot and blasts Jim in the face with it to take over for the first time this whole match. Duggan is kicked to the floor but comes back in and slams Shawn’s face into the mat. Somewhere in there Duggan has hurt his leg so he very slowly runs into Shawn’s boot in the corner. Off to a chinlock by the champion but Duggan fights back with a clothesline.

Duggan chokes away in the corner and slams Michaels down for two. Now Hacksaw puts on a chinlock of his own but the three point clothesline puts Shawn on the floor as we take another break. Back again with Shawn missing a splash in the corner but hitting Duggan in the ribs with a knee. Bam Bam Bigelow distracts the referee, allowing Shawn to throw Jim out to Yokozuna. A big splash CRUSHES Duggan but Mr. Perfect runs in for the DQ.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t as awful as I would have expected, but at the end of the day it’s Jim Duggan in the year 1993. How much faith can you put into the guy at this point? Also given that it was a lumberjack match, the ending was pretty clear from the get go. It’s not a bad match or anything and for a TV main event, this wasn’t bad at all.

The lumberjacks brawl to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This was your typical early Raw: mainly squashes and a long main event with this one running nearly twenty minutes. The problem is none of the matches are particularly good and nothing on here is required viewing (although the Duggan match is on multiple home video releases for some reason). Not a terrible show but it’s nothing great.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship for just $5 from Amazon at:

Apparently there won’t be any more episodes taped, at least for the summer.  The show is part of a programming block and the TV season ends soon, meaning the show will be gone for the summer.

I never watched it but anything that lightens the load of TV the WWE produces every week is a good thing.

Apparently during Smackdown, Ziggler got a nasty concussion.  No word on if he’ll be out of the PPV or not but it’s too early to tell at this point.  This certainly could shake things up though.

Main Event
Date: May 1, 2013
Location: Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield

This is a request due to the opening match for the show. I’ve heard words like classic and match of the year candidate about it so maybe it’ll live up to the hype. I rarely look at Main Event due to it being WWE overload for me, but as usual I have issues turning down requests. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Kofi beating Cesaro for the US Title a few weeks back.

Cesaro, now in a beret and sunglasses, says that he’ll dominate with technical skill and tenacity.

US Title: Kofi Kingston vs. Antonio Cesaro

Kofi is defending if that wasn’t clear. The crowd chants USA for a match between a Swiss man and an African. That never ceases to amaze me. Anyway they feel each other out with Cesaro trying to use the power game to take over early on. Kofi gets behind him as they fight for arm control. Cesaro takes it to the mat with a grip around the ribs but Kofi rolls into a cradle for two.

Antonio pulls him to the ground again but Kofi drives a knee into the arm to take over. Cesaro slams him head first into the mat and it’s off to a headlock. Kofi tries to fight up but gets thrown down with the gutwrench suplex. The champ comes back with a kick to the head and a spinning springboard splash for two. Cesaro bails to the floor and we take a break. Back with Cesaro getting two off a European uppercut and hooking a chinlock.

A legdrop across the back of Kofi’s neck gets two as does a butterfly suplex. There’s a move I haven’t seen in a long time. Back to the chinlock followed by a hard knee to Kingston’s chest. Kofi comes back with some quick dropkicks and the Boom Drop for no cover. He loads up Trouble in Paradise but Cesaro bails to the floor. Kofi goes after Cesaro but has his neck snapped over the top rope. His leg gets caught in the ropes as well, apparently injuring it.

Cesaro gets back in but walks into the SOS for two. There’s a Juvy Driver of all things to Kingston for two and a running European uppercut gets the same. Another gutwrench attempt is countered into a sunset flip but Antonio counters into a rollup for two as we take another break. Back with Kofi knocking Antonio out to the floor and hurricanranaing him into the steps.

Back in again and Kofi tries the spinning cross body but gets caught in mid air, only to roll into a cradle for another near fall. Cesaro takes him down again though and stomps on the bad leg before putting on a half crab. Kofi crawls out and gets a rollup, only to get caught in a half giant swing. That’s a new one. Back to the half crab and Cesaro drags it to the middle of the ring. Kofi crawls over to the bottom rope and out to the apron, so Antonio climbs to the middle rope and superplexes him down from the apron for two more. That’s INSANE strength.

Another double stomp to the chest gets two more for Cesaro and it’s back to the half crab. Kofi gets to the rope so Cesaro loads up the Neutralizer. Even on one bad leg, Kofi is able to backdrop out of it and hit Trouble in Paradise to the back of the head, knocking Cesaro out cold for the pin to retain at 18:30 shown of 25:30.

Rating: A-. Really solid match here with a length that you almost never get anymore. The leg work was fine and the story was solid here: Cesaro is a better wrestler and is smothering Kofi but Kingston can get one Hail Mary shot to win the match. I liked it when Khali and HHH did it back in 2008 and I liked it here too. Excellent match and I get people praising it as much as they have been.

Post match Kingston says he had a bad start to the year but kept fighting and won the US Title. He talks about becoming a father last week and gives a shout out to his wife and son.

Post break Kofi is in the back when Cesaro jumps him. He crushes Cesaro with a crate of some kind and says you don’t take from Antonio because he takes from you.

The Raw Rebound talks about the end of the show with Shield pinning Cena and Ryback showing up because he never left. This shocked no one.

Justin Gabriel vs. Heath Slater

McIntyre tells Slater to rock Gabriel’s face. Feeling out process to start with Gabriel sending Slater to the mat and mocking the band. Off to an armbar by Justin as we hear about the history between these two. Slater can’t shake the hold but a Mahal distraction lets Slater make the rope. Cole: “Drew has something wrong with him.” JBL: “YOU THINK???” They trade some headlocks before Gabriel puts on the armbar again.

Back up and a headscissors puts Slater on the floor and a suicide dive takes out Mahal and McIntyre. They try to get at Justin and earn an ejection for their efforts. Justin throws Slater to the floor again and we take a break. Back with more of the armbar on Slater as the announcers are talking about the Bay City Rollers and their cassette collections. Gabriel loads up the 450 but gets powerslamed down off the top rope for two.

We hit a chinlock on Gabriel as Cole makes air guitar jokes. A hard whip into the corner gets two for Heath but Justin comes back with some kicks and forearms. Gabriel gets two off a springboard cross body and goes up. After breaking up a superplex, the 450 connects on Slater for the pin at 9:45 shown of 13:15.

Rating: C+. This is the same good match we’ve seen from these guys several times before. Gabriel continues to be a solid performer almost every time he’s given more than a minute to work with, yet he can never get any significant time on TV. Slater is fine in this role as the goofy jobber and there’s not a thing wrong with playing that role. Good stuff here.

Overall Rating: B. Solid TV show here with an excellent match and a quite good match to follow it up. Main Event is basically WWE’s wrestling show where you can get some good action which doesn’t mean much and doesn’t require much thinking. The US Title match is very good and while I wouldn’t call it a classic, it’s worth checking out.

Results

Kofi Kingston b. Antonio Cesaro – Trouble in Paradise

Justin Gabriel b. Heath Slater – 450 Splash

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at: