Monday Night Raw
Date: May 24, 1999
Location: Kiel Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

This is the Owen Hart tribute show. The previous night Owen Hart fell to his death at Over the Edge in a botched stunt as the Blue Blazer. That was one of the hardest shows I’ve ever had to review so I know this isn’t going to be easy either. Tonight isn’t about angles or titles etc but about celebrating the memory of Owen Hart. Let’s get to it.

We open with everyone on the stage and in the aisle as you might expect. Big Owen chant starts up. We ring the bell ten times in a moment of silence. The place goes QUIET for this too. Everyone applauds at the end with an Owen chant. We get a video tribute on the Titantron.

Vince narrates and talks about how great a person Owen was outside the ring as well as in it. Owen was a prankster and was more than just one of the wrestlers. He was a friend and a brother to everyone. This is interspersed with pictures of him in the ring and with his family. He was 34 years old.

JR more or less says this isn’t about wrestling tonight and it’s about Owen. There will be ten matches tonight and that’s about it. The ratings for the matches aren’t going to be judged on the normal criteria as that’s not fair in the slightest. Almost all of my criticisms in this shouldn’t be taken as seriously as it’s not like these guys can think clearly for the most part.

First interview is Foley who says that his son’s favorite wrestler is Owen Hart. His son kept getting his hair cut like Owen and Mick was proud of him for it. These aren’t promos and aren’t from characters but rather from the people portraying them. Foley says there’s probably a special place in Heaven for Owen.

Bradshaw talks about how cheap Owen was on the road but he did it because he wanted to retire early and spend time with his family and kids. He hopes Owen’s kids know what a great father they had.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Test

Jarrett says Owen wasn’t a nugget. There’s an address given if you wanted to make a memorial tribute to Owen which would go to the Alberta Children’s Hospital which was Owen’s favorite charity. Nothing wrong with that at all. Jeff hammers away at the member of the Union. Lawler hasn’t said much at all until JR asks him something. Test takes over with a slam. House shows have been canceled apparently. Top rope elbow misses and Jarrett gets a single arm DDT. Jarrett gets caught in the gutwrench powerbomb for two but hits the Stroke and the Sharpshooter ends this in less than two minutes.

Mark Henry reads a poem about dying. All of these interviews are in the back in front of a basic blue screen. He starts crying as he says this.

Droz says that he only knew Owen for about a year but he was the only person that could walk into a locker room and make everyone smile. Owen loved ribbing people no matter what it made him looking like.

Tag Titles: Kane/X-Pac vs. Edge/Gangrel

Kane and X-Pac are tag champions. Rather surprising they would do a title match on a show like this. Kane has the Owen armband on too. Christian is with the challengers here. We don’t know much about them at this point but they fight using the Freebird Rule. Pac and Edge start us off. Edge hasn’t been around that long and is under 26 which is odd as heck to hear.

Pac goes down to a spin kick and Edge takes over. Pac seems a good bit off as you would certainly understand here. Who would have thought Edge would become a far bigger star than Kane? Off to Gangrel and Kane now and a double DDT takes Kane down for about a second. Kane takes over and hammers away on everyone and it’s off to X-Pac. Christian’s interference gets them nowhere so Kane cleans house again. Bronco Buster to Edge and a chokeslam/elevated splash ends Gangrel to retain the titles.

Rating: D+. This was just a squash for the tag champions so there isn’t much to talk about in it. Of the ten matches tonight, this is the longest at 4:02. Nothing special at all but it’s not supposed to be. I never liked Gangrel though so this was never going to be that much at all.

HHH and Chyna talk about Owen. Chyna talks about a hair thing she and Owen had going on. HHH breaks down while talking but says you never saw bad things out of Owen for the most part. He implies that Owen shot on him at the Rumble one year. This takes awhile to get through.

Dave Hebner tells some Owen stories.

Hardy Boys vs. Kaientai

The Hardys don’t mean much at all and are low level heels with Michael Hayes managing them. Kaientai rushes the ring and it’s on fast. Double teaming to Matt as the foreigners take over to start. Swanton Bomb (not called that yet) to the floor to Taka by Jeff as the Hardys have taken over.

Jeff tries a Phoenix Splash (moonsault with a twist into a 450) but eats canvas. Michinoku Driver gets no cover and it’s a double tag. Funaki and Matt hit the floor and Hayes interferes. Taka takes both Hardys out as the crowd isn’t that impressed. And the Twist of Fate ends Funaki. Nothing match so no rating.

Bruce Pritchard (Brother Love) says basic stuff about Owen.

Dustin Rhodes tells a story about Owen pouring hot sauce in a pot of chili Harley Race made so Harley Race used a stun gun on Owen.

Hardcore Holly vs. Ken Shamrock

Shamrock outmaneuvers him with ease as you would expect. Holly tries an armbar which gets him nowhere. Cradle gets two for Shamrock. They speed it up and Shamrock takes over. Ankle Lock ends this with ease. Total squash.

Faarooq says they were family.

Test tells a story about doing two shows on one day but the first was canceled due to snow. He’s in sunglasses while he does this mind you which is kind of stupid. Owen prank called him and said that the second show was up to him and the guy said Test says cancel the show. He didn’t find that out until the morning of this Raw apparently.

Billy Gunn vs. Mankind

Billy does his if you’re not down with that, but substituting Owen for “that”. That’s fine….I guess. Ross talks about Owen stealing his hat. Gunn puts Foley in the corner (no one puts Foley in the corner!) and hammers away. Mankind puts him on the floor but has to stop to pull his pants up (thank goodness). Back in and Gunn works on the knee. Apparently Foley has been doing Chef Boyardee commercials. Gunn goes to the floor to get a chair but as he gets back in it’s a Mandible Claw and Billy can’t get back in time and it’s a count out. Another short (understandable) match.

Foley does Owen’s WOO after the match.

Jeff Jarrett, one of Owen’s best friends and former tag champion partner, says that you have very few friends in this company. He had seen Owen recently more often than his family and now he misses his friend. He talks about how great Owen is and how Owen had integrity which is rare in wrestling. Owen made things entertaining and fun. Jarrett promises to tell Owen’s kids how great their father was.

Cole introduces a video about Rock vs. HHH and Austin vs. Taker for the title from last night. Uh…yeah, not something they likely should have done. There was a fast count to take the title from Austin, which apparently was a last second change due to Austin not wanting to wrestle due to the death of Owen. That’s more or less the only storyline stuff you’ll see tonight.

Edge talks about Owen mentoring him in his limited time here in the company. As a lot of people have said, Owen can make people laugh. Edge was in Owen’s last match, a tag match with Edge/Christian vs. Owen/Jarrett. At the end of this you can hear a producer say “thanks Adam” just before Edge leaves.

Acolytes vs. Mark Henry/D’Lo Brown

Henry is Sexual Chocolate here. The Acolytes are in the Corporate Ministry. Faarooq and Henry start and it’s of course power vs. power. Both partners come in and you can tell not a lot of people are interested in this. Farrooq’s thong is sticking out of his tights. JR and Lawler talk about Bradshaw and Steve Blackman getting into an argument at their baggage claim at an airport. Ok then.

Farrooq gets a DDT on Brown for no cover and it’s off to Bradshaw again. Never mind as Farrooq is back in again. We talk about Owen’s funeral a bit as Bradshaw takes over. Brown makes a blind tag and gets drilled. Neckbreaker gets two on D’Lo. Bradshaw accidentally kicks Farrooq and Brown rolls up the future JBL for the pin.

Rating: D+. Just a tag match here. The Acolytes would become pawns in the Corporate Ministry thing which broke up relatively in a few months if I remember right. Henry and Brown never went anywhere as they split over Brown trying to make Henry lose weight for the sake of his health.

Pat Patterson misses Owen.

Hardcore Holly says Owen can make people laugh and ribbed a lot of people. Holly talks about Owen putting Holly over in Mobile a few years ago which would be before Holly meant anything (yeah just go with it). Holly didn’t exactly seem the most interested in being here.

Road Dogg vs. Godfather

No match as Road Dogg suggests they open some beers and tell some Owen stories in the back. I can live with that.

Paul Bearer says something that sounded like a poem.

X-Pac reiterates that Owen was a funny guy.

HHH vs. Al Snow

Odd choice for a match here but this is an odd show. Snow is Hardcore Champion. We get the My Time music which is always cool to hear. This is a regular match and not hardcore. They do some fast paced technical stuff to start which is where Snow was a lot better than he was given credit for. After we hit the floor for a bit we go back in and HHH takes his head off with a knee.

HHH hammers away and Chyna gets a shot in as well. The expected dominance begins with a vertical suplex to set up the knee drop for two. Snow gets a clothesline and the headbutts as HHH does a Flair Flop (Ross: Looks like he just got off of Space Mountain.). Snow misses a moonsault and there’s the Pedigree to end it.

Rating: C+. Much better than you would expect here. When Snow kept things calm he was actually really good in the ring. The Flair stuff was really rather funny as HHH was a big fan of Flair and you can tell that. Good little match here and definitely the best one of the night so far.

Road Dogg can barely hold himself together and talks very fast.

Brisco says Owen was a great performer. Owen never cut corners either.

Big Show vs. Goldust

Blue Meanie is with Goldust here. Goldust has black face paint on here. He shoves Meanie into Show here and it’s more or less a handicap match. Show doesn’t seem to mind and a pair of chokeslams ends this in maybe a minute. Show would be world champion at Survivor Series.

Debra cries during her talk, saying that she spent a lot of time with Owen. She talks about how she took Owen for granted a bit because she didn’t think he’d be gone. Owen made her life better. She keeps looking for Owen and it’s weird not to have him around anymore.

Shane talks about the pranking stuff again. He tells a story about Bret and Shane out drinking a bit so they went back to the hotel and woke up Owen. Owen stole their stuff or something the next day.

The Rock vs. Val Venis

Val does his usual intro but says this is about Owen, not him. Very true. Rock has a bad arm from last night. He gets on a corner and does the FINALLY bit. He says tonight he’s here to entertain Owen and throws in some catchphrases. This was more of a Rock promo with Owen being in there just a bit. Val goes for the arm, they slug it out a bit, Rock Bottom and People’s Elbow end this in less than a minute.

Ross tries to talk about Owen but he can’t do it. Jerry talks about being in the ring with Owen after he fell last night and says never leave your family without saying you love them.

Here’s Austin to close the show. This was an interesting one as he and Owen had legit issues back in the day, namely Austin not wanting to work with Owen when Owen came back after Montreal due to the botched Piledriver. I can see both sides of it, but this was seen as a lot more of a corporate thing than a genuine tribute. Austin doesn’t say anything but rather toasts Owen, leaving the can in the ring. A shot of Owen on the screen takes us out.

Overall Rating: N/A. This was a very odd show. First and foremost, the emotion wasn’t there as much. I won’t say it felt forced, but I didn’t really seem to care as much about this one as I did the Eddie show. I wasn’t a fan of either guy, but the Eddie show was legitimately hard to sit through at times. This just kind of came and went although it’s a very similar show. I won’t grade it because obviously that’s not the point. However, this was odd for some reason and it’s hard to put into words what that reason it. It was all about Owen, but something didn’t feel right on it. Odd indeed.

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:

Smackdown
Date: May 24, 2013
Location: CenturyLink Center Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, John Bradshaw Layfield

We’re past Extreme Rules and the main story is of course HHH. He collapsed at the end of Raw while Curtis Axel was laying in the ring with no one paying a bit of attention to him, so odds are we’ll hear about getting an update on him on Raw tonight. Other than that we have Del Rio confirmed as the #1 contender for Ziggler whenever Dolph is healthy again. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the HHH/Heyman stuff from both Extreme Rules and Raw. We also get a little bit about Shield winning three belts as tonight it’s Kofi vs. Ambrose for the US Title.

Here’s the Miz for MizTV to open the show. Miz says that he’s versatile because he’s going to host this show and then he’ll win back the Intercontinental Title soon after. The guest tonight is Fandango who thankfully brings Summer Rae with him. Before Miz can ask him a question, Fandango stops him for the correct pronunciation of his name. Miz counters with some “reallys” and shows us a clip of the tag match from Raw where Fandango stopped for a dance.

Miz wants to know how obnoxious Fandango is. Fandango threatens to dance all over the face of anyone who comes near Summer before questioning Miz’s own ego. Miz says that Fandango looks like a dancing bag of Skittles which isn’t too far from accurate. The fans chant bag of Skittles, making Miz declare Fandango the new Fruity Pebbles. This brings out Wade Barrett with his horrible new music.

Barrett says he’ll get to Miz in a minute but first of all he’s angry at Fandango for tiptoeing through the tulips instead of being Barrett’s partner. Wade threatens Fandango if he ever does that again, so Fandango corrects his pronunciation. Miz says Barrett needs to focus on him because Miz has a title shot later tonight. Barrett punches Miz in the face and the brawl is on. Fandango and Summer leave as a referee comes out to break it up.

Intercontinental Title: The Miz vs. Wade Barrett

This is joined in progress after a break with Miz challenging. Fandango is also sitting in on commentary. Miz fights out of a chinlock and hits a flapjack, only to be taken down by a back elbow. Fandango says that he had to go to the back on Monday because his glitter was coming off. Barrett puts Miz on the top rope for a kick to the ribs for two and it’s off to a chinlock.

Back up and Miz hits a running knee lift and a bit boot. Fandango asks JBL to hit his music because apparently Bradshaw can do that. It’s time for some dancing as well as for the Winds of Change to Miz for two. Miz gets two of his own off a rollup before hitting a baseball slide to Fandango. A dropkick takes out Barrett’s knee but Fandango kicks Miz in the head for the DQ at 2:56 shown. This was angle advancement and barely a match at all.

Fandango and Barrett double team Miz post match but Barrett hits Fandango with the Bull Hammer as a receipt for Monday night. In something you almost never get to say anymore, Barrett stands tall.

Daniel Bryan is muttering to himself in the back when Kane comes in. He says that they both lost the titles, which Bryan interprets as Kane blaming him. Bryan insists that he isn’t the weak link as his paranoia continues.

Jack Swagger vs. Daniel Bryan

No entrance for Swagger again. Bryan goes right at Swagger and pounds away before sending Jack to the floor for the suicide dive. He fires off kicks to the chest against the barricade before taking it back inside for a near fall off a missile dropkick. Jack takes Bryan down off of a clothesline before putting him in the Tree of Woe for some knees. We take a break and come back with the two of them colliding before Bryan hits a running kick to the face in the corner.

More kicks to the chest have Jack in trouble and a running kick to the face gets two. Swagger finally catches one of the kicks in a high angle belly to belly for two of his own. Daniel rolls out of a gutwrench suplex but gets caught in the Patriot Lock, only to be rolled through for another near fall. The Vader Bomb hits knees and a HARD kick to Swagger’s head sees Bryan not cover but rather stomp Swagger even more. There’s the NO Lock for the tap out at 5:36 shown of 9:06.

Rating: C+. This was pretty decent and it’s cool to see a far more aggressive Bryan. I could go with the idea of him destroying people because he wants to prove how awesome he is in the ring. Also, when is the last time he beat someone with the NO Lock? It also seems that Swagger is back in the midcard all over again, which is pretty much what was expected once this feud with Del Rio died down.

Post match Bryan beats on him even more. The referee mentioned something about reversing the decision but no official announcement was ever made.

We get a package of stills from the last man standing match on Sunday. Cena will be back on Raw.

We also get all the Ryback stuff from Monday with him challenging for an ambulance match and throwing Ryder in the ambulance.

Here’s Damien Sandow in the ring wearing a suit. There’s a table in front of him and as usual, he seems annoyed. Sandow talks about seeing two people compete in a series of stupid competitions, ranging from a tug of war to arm wrestling to a truck pull. Tonight, Sandow wants them to deal with some mental issues. There’s a tied up rope on the table and we hear the story of the Gordian Knot. Sandow has Matt Striker try to untie the knot while making fun of the education system when Striker can’t do it.

Cue Sheamus who makes fun of Sandow’s hobby of playing with knots. Sheamus talks about playing with Rubic’s Cubes as a kid before picking up the knot. He tries to untie it but Sandow gets impatient. Damien pulls out a pair of bolt cutters and hacks it up. Sheamus tries a Brogue Kick but Damien bails to the floor, shouting I KNEW IT! Instead Shaemus offers to teach him about Newton’s Law, which means he throws Striker through the ropes at Sandow. Your lesson of the night: when you get outsmarted, throw human beings.

Chris Jericho vs. Big Show

That’s a pretty fast recovery from Orton’s punt. Jericho charges straight at Big Show for some reason as Matthews compares Jericho to Johnny Depp. JBL: “Johnny Depp never has been been inside a WWE ring and neither has Jay Silverheels or Tonto.” Show shoves him down with ease and catches Jericho in a bearhug. He lets it go for no apparent reason, allowing Jericho to dropkick Show’s knee out and pound away, only to be caught by a spear for two. Jericho escapes the chokeslam attempt and goes up, only to jump into a loud chop to the chest.

Show goes to the middle rope but misses an elbow drop, allowing Jericho to hit the Lionsault for two. The Codebreaker is countered into a sunset flip attempt but Show pulls him up with a chokeslam, only to be pulled down by a DDT for two. The Walls are easily shoved away and there’s the chokeslam but Jericho rolls to the floor. Jericho escapes a ram into the post by sending Show into the post himself. Jericho hits a decent Codebreaker to send Show into the timekeeper’s area which is good for a countout win for Jericho at 6:30.

Rating: C. As usual, there’s only so much Jericho can do with a guy Big Show’s size but they tried. The Codebreaker was better than I would have expected and Jericho managed to not get crushed. This is also a good win for Jericho to bounce back with, as both guys are capable of losing match after match but be just fine.

Post match Big Show picks up a chair but Jericho kicks it out of his hands and beats Big Show with it for fun.

The Raw ReBound is the introduction of Curtis Axel and the match with HHH, followed by HHH collapsing.

Here are Heyman and Axel with something to say. Heyman brags about his success with Lesnar and Punk and now he’s pointing his finger at Axel. Curtis himself gets to speak and says that in one night, he accomplished more than his father and grandfather ever accomplished. He took HHH’s best shot and then left him laying. Curtis says that he won on Monday and says his name a few more times. That was just day one and tonight is day two.

Curtis Axel vs. Sin Cara

This is joined in progress after the break with the stupid lights back again. Sin Cara spines out of a fireman’s carry before firing off some kicks. A standing rana takes Curtis down and there’s the wrist drag out of the corner. Curtis throws Cara to the apron and stomps away in the corner. Randy Orton is talking about Curtis Axel RIGHT NOW on the WWE App. Cara comes back with the Tajiri handspring elbow and a crossbody for two. A top rope version of the crossbody misses though and the formerly known McGillicutter (running one arm neckbreaker) gets the pin on Cara at 3:00 shown.

Rating: D+. Not much to see here but at least Axel got the win. Why he couldn’t have hit that move on Monday and won by countout or something is beyond me, but I’m sure he somehow got a bigger rub by not winning than winning or something like that. Anyway, he looks fine here and while it would be interesting to see him go straight at someone like Orton right away, I can’t picture that happening.

US Title: Kofi Kingston vs. Dean Ambrose

Kofi is challenging of course. Dean goes it alone on this one and seems to have some fans on his side. Kofi fires off some kicks and right hands but gets taken down by a fast shoulder block. Back up and Kofi gets no count off a dropkick before getting taken down by another shoulder. Ambrose chokes with his leg on the mat but Kofi fires off more dropkicks. A middle rope ax handle gets two on Dean but as Kofi goes up top he has to dive on Reigns outside. Roman and Seth come in for the DQ at 2:30.

Post match Shield beats on Kofi until Sheamus and Randy Orton make the save. If you’re a Smackdown fan, you know the drill from here.

Kofi Kingston/Randy Orton/Sheamus vs. Shield

Joined in progress again with Sheamus slamming Reigns down for two. Off to Orton for some headbutts to Rollins and right hands in the corner. Kofi comes in to work on the arm for a bit before it’s back to Randy to crank on the arm as well. Rollins finally gets in a knee to the face and makes the tag off to Ambrose who takes the US Champion down with ease. A knee rake across the face allows for the tag back to Sheamus but Ambrose gets in a shot to the ribs.

Back to Rollins who pounds away in the corner, only to get caught in mid air off a middle rope cross body. Reigns and Ambrose have to save their partner from the ten forearms to the chest as we take a break. Back with Ambrose hitting a knee to Sheamus’ ribs before it’s back to Reigns for stomps in the corner and a lot of trash talk. Sheamus fights out and avoids a charge from Reigns, sending him shoulder first into the post. Hot tag brings in Orton for all his favorites, including the Elevated DDT.

Ambrose bails to the floor to avoid the RKO and Reigns gets in a shot to Orton. Reigns comes up limping though, which is apparently a legit ankle injury. Back in and Rollins pounds on Orton before it’s back to Dean for a front facelock. Rollins comes in again for some right hands to the head as this is basically a handicap match now. Randy gets in a right hand but gets caught in a downward spiral into the middle buckle to put him right back down. Orton comes back with more right hands and snaps off a quick superplex to put both guys down.

The hot tag brings in Sheamus to face Ambrose (Reigns didn’t have his hand out but was instead waving Rollins over to Ambrose) and house is cleaned. Even Reigns takes a shoulder to the ribs before Ambrose is hit with the rolling senton into the forearms to Rollins’ chest. Reigns breaks up White Noise on Dean with a spear but rolls to the floor for an RKO from from Orton. Kofi comes in and gets two on Dean, but it’s Rollins tripping Kingston up, allowing Dean to hit the bulldog driver for the pin at 11:48 shown of 15:18.

Rating: B-. The usual good wild six man tag for Shield here. The fact that Reigns was able to take a shot to the ribs, throw a spear and then take an RKO suggests that the injury isn’t all that bad so maybe he just tweaked the ankle a bit. We also got the ending we needed here with Dean pinning Kofi, so hopefully we don’t have to sit through another rematch on PPV between them.

Overall Rating: B. This show worked well for the most part. We got the potential start of a three way feud for the Intercontinental Title, Bryan being edgier, Axel winning a match and the usual good Shield match. On the other hand, I’m not sure where Jericho vs. Big Show can go that would be all that interesting. Also what was up with that Sheamus segment? I can’t imagine him in a feud with Sandow after how many times he’s beaten Damien up. Also the segment didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know, so what was the point of that? Good show this week for the most part though.

Results

The Miz b. Wade Barrett via DQ when Fandango interfered

Daniel Bryan b. Jack Swagger – NO Lock

Chris Jericho b. Big Show via countout

Curtis Axel b. Sin Cara – McGillicutter

Kofi Kingston b. Dean Ambrose via DQ when Shield interfered

Shield b. Kofi Kingston/Sheamus/Randy Orton – Bulldog Driver to Kingston

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:

WCW Pro
Date: May 23, 1992
Location: Civic Center, Columbus, Georgia
Attendance: 3,000
Commentator: Tony Schiavone

This would be six days after WrestleWar, but my guess is that this was taped months beforehand, meaning there won’t be any references to it. This is another specialized Chicago edition of Pro, meaning it only aired in Chicago markets and had different commentary. It should be your usual hour long TV show either way. Let’s get to it.

Diamond Stud vs. Dan Beard

Stud fires off some hard chops in the corner to start as the fans seem to be very into him. A chokeslam puts Beard down and a belly to back superplex does the same. The Diamond Death Drop (think the Razor’s Edge) is good for the pin. The reason to think Razor’s Edge? Stud would be in WWF as Razor Ramon in about five months.

Actually we to hear about WrestleWar as Tony talks about the Freebirds winning the US Tag Titles before hyping up Beach Blast 92, which was an AWESOME show.

Tony also runs down the rest of the card.

Madusa says Steamboat lusts after her while listing off some random movie titles such as Basic Instinct, Seven Year Itch and Fatal Attraction.

Eric Bischoff previews Beach Blast, which actually has some matches made. We hear about the Miracle Violence Connection vs. the Steiners, which actually main evented the show. The Steiners say they’ll defend their titles here in America.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Richard Morton

Morton is a heel here and part of the York Foundation. He attacks in the corner but gets caught by a lariat to take him down. A gorilla press puts him down as well before Dustin pounds away with right hands. Dustin keeps pounding away but Morton begs for mercy…which Rhodes grants. A hair pull brings Rhodes down and it’s off to an armbar.

Back up and Dustin pops him in the face to take over again, only to be caught in an atomic drop. This should be far better than it actually is so far. We hear about Rhodes vs. Stud coming up which sounds pretty good. Their matches in 95 were solid so maybe this will work too. Morton puts on a chinlock before sending Dustin into the corner, only to be caught by a lariat and a bulldog for the pin.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t horrible but you would expect a lot more from two guys as talented as these two are. Morton was basically a jobber by this point while Rhodes was about to enter the US Title scene. The match wasn’t too bad, but they could have done much better with about ten more minutes and a story.

The Freebirds say don’t do steroids.

Here’s the Diamond Stud with something to say. We get a clip of Stud costing Rhodes a win against I think Bobby Eaton. Stud says that he’s the only real Stud and he’s tired of hearing about Rhodes being one too. It’s so strange to hear Hall’s voice without the accent.

Greg Valentine/Taylor Made Man vs. Freebirds

This is non-title and that’s Terry Taylor in case you weren’t clear. The Birds don’t have the belts here despite being called champions by Tony, making me think the match happened before the show but the commentary was recorded after. Garvin and Taylor start things off and they shove each other around until Jimmy grabs a wristlock. Off to Hayes as the fans want a DDT. Taylor shoves him into the corner and brings in Valentine who is immediately chopped back.

Garvin is back in now and the makeshift team pounds away at him. By makeshift I of course mean former US Tag Team Champions but they don’t even have a name so they’re makeshift. Garvin is beaten down again due to a lack of talent but elbows out for a tag to Hayes. Michael speeds things up and lays out both guys with that good left hand of his. A cross body gets two on Taylor but Valentine sends Hayes into the post for the DQ.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t bad but they were flying through it so fast that it didn’t have time to develop. They were doing a fifteen minute match in a five minute time span here and it didn’t work all that well. To be fair though, the idea of these two teams fighting for more than about five minutes is kind of terrifying, although they had a really solid match at WrestleWar so what do I know?

Eric tells us about the 30 minute Iron Man match with Rude vs. Steamboat at Beach Blast.

Steamboat says he’s ready for Rude.

Rude says that he gets stronger as the night goes longer. Just ask the ladies.

Eric also tells us about Cactus Jack vs. Sting in a falls count anywhere match. Jack would call that the best match of his career for a long time.

Scotty Flamingo vs. Larry Santo

I wonder if the jobber is related to El. Flamingo quickly takes him down with an armdrag and pins him about 40 seconds later with an awkward looking piledriver. Flamingo would eventually become manager Johnny Polo in the WWF and Raven in ECW.

Famous Chicago sportscaster Jack Brickhouse talks about WCW being a member of the NWA and recalls some memories of working with various promoters. We hear about the NWA World Tag Team Title tournament, which stopped WCW cold.

Cactus Jack wants to know why the fans don’t care about him. He also doesn’t care that the title isn’t a title match because he doesn’t think Sting will be champion by then. Jack was an awesome villain because he only cared about violence and hurting Sting rather than the title, which was very different.

Vinnie Vegas/Mr. Hughes vs. Ricky Steamboat/Nikita Koloff

Vegas is a sleazy Vegas high roller which isn’t as bad of a character as you would expect. Hughes is a big power guy who played a bodyguard for years. Steamboat has a broken nose so he’s in a mask at the moment. Ricky and Hughes get things going here and it’s armdrags all around. Vegas is sent to the floor so Steamboat cranks on Hughes’ arm, only to be taken down by pure power and crushed with an elbow drop. Off to the even bigger Vegas who easily slams Steamboat down so let’s try Nikita.

Koloff can match power with anyone so he pounds away on Vegas’ arm and hooks an armbar. Vegas’ height keeps it from being much of a hold, so Nikita shoves him into the corner and now they fight over a lockup. Nikita takes him down with a shoulder and it’s back to Steamboat. There’s something cool about Ricky pounding away on a giant. Everything breaks down and a top rope chop to Vegas’ head takes him down. The high cross ends him a few seconds later.

Rating: C. For a challenge match, this wasn’t much of a challenge for Nikita and Steamboat. To be fair though, Hughes was nothing of note and Vegas was nowhere near what he was going to become. Nikita was back from leaving for a few years and was far smaller than he used to be and wasn’t as interesting as a result. In case you’re wondering, Vegas would become Diesel in about a year.

Eric previews the bikini contest at Beach Blast between Missy Hyatt and Madusa and wants to be a judge. Missy tells Madusa to keep her clothes on.

Tony previews next week’s show and we’re out.

Overall Rating: C+. For a 45 minute show, this was pretty good actually. We got some squashes, a feature match and some previews for one of WCW’s best PPVs ever. 1992 WCW was surprisingly solid with Sting tearing it up against everyone he faced. The interesting thing here though was the Outsiders both appearing. That’s one thing I never got: both guys had been in WCW like four years before and it was like they were aliens invading when the NWO formed. They had been there before, so it’s not like them jumping companies was unheard of. Anyway, surprisingly good show here.

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:

I saw someone mention this and it makes a lot of sense.It’s clear that TNA is doing the Sting from 1997 storyline with AJ.  That would be fine but the motivation doesn’t work.  Sting had been WCW’s flagship for years and then they decided they didn’t trust him when the NWO lied about him.  AJ is like this because he lost a match to Christopher Daniels.  Yeah there was all the stuff before that with Claire, but once AJ was exonerated of that he was fine.

In other words, AJ is just whining and we’re supposed to be all upset because he can’t get over a loss to a guy he’s fought (and lost to before) like a thousand times?  That’s kind of hard to buy into.

Impact Wrestling
Date: May 23, 2013
Location; USF SunDome, Tampa, Florida|
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re in Hogan’s hometown tonight with another live episode. The main stories tonight are Aces and 8’s patching in AJ Styles and potentially finding out who James Storm’s partner will be in the four way tag. That match is up in the air though as Storm has an abdominal injury and is supposed to be out of action for several weeks. Granted in a tag match he can stand on the apron and do little more. Let’s get to it.

We open with a graphic wishing condolences to those affected by the storm in Oklahoma, as well as a number donate to the Red Cross. In case you’re interested, the number is 90999. Text REDCROSS to that number and a $10 charge will appear on your phone bill.

We recap the events of last week with Sting agreeing to put any future title shots on the line as well as Joseph Park earning a future TV Title shot.

Here’s Hogan to open the show. He immediately plugs his beach shop and says that he was drinking with Shark Boy last night. That’s a random name drop. He also has his TNA family here but a member of the team is going to join Aces and 8’s. If that’s what AJ wants to do then so be it, because Hogan has someone who is always going to be loyal to him, which brings Sting out to the ring.

Sting says he doesn’t want Hogan to change anything about the title match at Slammiversary because he needs to take Bully’s power from him. Sting flubs his lines a bit and eventually says that he wants to take Ray’s pride from him. Hogan again offers to take the stipulation away, but here’s Brooke Hogan because we haven’t seen her in the ring lately.

She talks about driving wedges between everyone and says she was the catalyst for everything going up in smoke. Brook says she has to take responsibility and is so proud of the Knockouts, so she’s going to resign as the head of the Knockouts division. Hulk says no but before we can get a rebuttal, here’s Ray for more talking.

Ray says it’s none of their faults, but rather his own fault for Hulk not knowing how to run the company. It’s Ray’s fault for stabbing the Hogans in the back and turning everything upside down. However, there’s one person in the ring that Ray does blame and that’s Brooke. He loves Brooke very much and will never take his ring off….and that’s it.

Suicide is back next.

Suicide vs. Petey Williams vs. Joey Ryan

Kenny King is on commentary as I believe the winner of this joins Sabin and King in the Ultimate X Title match at Slammiversary. Suicide hooks a quick Black Widow on Petey but gets sent to the floor by Ryan. Joey hooks a quick suplex on Petey but stops to rub oil on his chest. Suicide hooks a sweet hurricanrana off the top to take him down before putting Joey in an Indian Deathlock and an abdominal stretch on Petey at the same time.

Petey gets out and tries the Destroyer, only to have Suicide backdrop out of it and send Joey to the floor as well. A flip dive takes both non masked men down but Joey takes Suicide down back in the ring. A boot to the face from Joey breaks up the Destroyer again but Suicide takes him down with a kick to the head. Suicide picks up Ryan like a tiger suplex but pushes him forward and hits a Codebreaker to the chest for the pin on Ryan at 4:03.

Rating: C. Was anyone begging for Suicide to be back? He wasn’t really anything significant back in the day but now he’s big enough to get video packages about his return? Suicide looked fine out there but at the end of the day, there’s already a story between Sabin and King so why do we need to see Suicide thrown in?

Chris Sabin offers to be Storm’s partner but James thankfully declines. Apparently the X Champion can still cash in the title for a world title shot.

Brooke comes up to Bully in the back so he can say he still loves her.

Velvet and Mickie are in the back and Velvet’s knee is still hurt. Mickie offers to postpone their match but Velvet says no because they’re best friends or some jazz like that.

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Tournament Semi-Finals: Sam Shaw vs. Alex Silva

The winner of this faces Jay Bradley at Slammiversary for the spot in the Series. Before Silva comes to the ring though, here are Aces and 8’s to say that Shaw has advanced. Wes Brisco says that he’s taken Silva out in the parking lot because he should be in the tournament instead. Shaw gets beaten down by Doc, Brisco and Bischoff, meaning no match of course. Magnus comes out and runs off all three guys, who of course are afriad of one guy they’ve beaten down time after time.

Magnus says that Shaw is his friend from wrestling camp so this is personal. Apparently it’s Magnus vs. Brisco right now.

Wes Brisco vs. Magnus

Magnus hits a quick gutwrench suplex and pounds away, sending Brisco to the floor as we take a break. Back with Brisco ramming Magnus into some buckles and putting on a quick chinlock. A forearm to the back keeps Magnus down and Brisco pounds away in the corner. Magnus fights up again but the Aces and 8’s come in for the DQ at 7:56.

Rating: D. What was the point of that? We hear a lot of talk about how Magnus is the future of TNA and all that jazz, so make sure to have him only win via DQ against Wes Brisco? This didn’t accomplish anything and was a waste of time on top of that. I like Magnus but for the life of me I don’t get how they’re booking him. The Aces and 8’s booking is looking more and more like the NWO every day.

Samoa Joe returns to make the save for Magnus.

There will be another inductee into the Hall of Fame at Slammiversary.

Ray congratulates the bikers on helping Wes out there. AJ will be here later.

We look at Kurt Angle in New York in an attempt to save Olympic wrestling. There was an international exhibition at Grand Central Station.

Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson

Before the bell, we see AJ arriving in the back on a motorcycle. Feeling out process to start with Angle taking Anderson down and kicking him in the head. Anderson is stomped down into the corner before Angle suplexes him down for two. Kurt speeds things up but misses a charge into the corner, slamming his shoulder into the post. Anderson goes after the arm with a hammerlock and a slam out of said hammerlock for two. Off to an armbar but Kurt fights out of it with an armdrag and a middle rope dropkick.

Kurt can’t immediately follow up because of the arm, but he manages to snap off a belly to belly for two. The Angle Slam is countered into a fireman’s carry roll for two by Anderson, but Kurt comes back with the rolling Germans. Anderson pops up with a Mic Check for two, but he takes WAY too long on the top, allowing Angle to run the ropes and belly to belly him down. Before Angle can finish him off though, here’s AJ at ringside. He hugs Tazz, allowing Anderson to hit Angle low for the pin at 8:38.

Rating: C+. As usual these two have good chemistry together, but the story here was about Angle and Styles rather than the match at hand. That’s all fine and good, but my gut says this isn’t as easy as having AJ join the bikers that fast. It all seems too simple, especially for a company that LOVES swerves like TNA. Good match though and Angle vs. AJ will be the same.

Gail Kim says she should be getting the title shot tonight, not Mickie James. Taryn comes in and destroys her.

Video on James Storm being such a great tag team wrestler. We also talk about Storm being put in the four way tag title match at Slammiversary.

Here’s Storm to make his announcement with and Hernandez on commentary. Storm talks about how awesome tag wrestling is but here are Roode and Aries to interrupt. Roode talks about how he carried Storm and then beat him for the world title. Before Storm can announce again, here’s Bad Influence with another interruption. Kaz and Daniels say it doesn’t make a difference who Storm picks so Storm says shut up so he can talk.

Cue Shark Boy of all people to say that he’s here because Storm needs a partner. They both like fishing, drinking beer and kicking some bass. Before Storm can say anything, here’s Robbie E to say he can make Storm a champion at Slammiversary. He even has tag names for them: Beer Bro, America’s Most Bro or Gym Tan Beer Bro. Shark Boy and Robbie argue until Gunner returns and lays out both guys with a Rock Bottom backbreaker to Sharky and a torture rack to Robbie. Storm shakes Gunner’s hand and says he’ll see him at Slammiversary.

Joseph Park is worried about getting a strap at Slammiversary but Sting says it’s ok. With that out of the way, Park talks about Sting beating Bully Ray. Apparently next week it’s Sting/a partner of his choice vs. Team 3D. Sting wants Park to talk to Abyss about being the partner but Park can’t do it for some reason. Sting says justice has to be served and that’s enough to inspire Park to get his brother to help.

We run down the Slammiversary card.

Knockouts Title: Mickie James vs. Velvet Sky

Velvet is defending and has a bad knee coming in. Mickie takes it down to the mat to start and cranks on the arm, only to have Velvet hit a fast dropkick for two. They slug it out until Mickie hits something like a swinging Bubba Bomb before hooking a full nelson as we take a break. Back with Velvet down and being put in a chinlock, only to fight up with an armdrag. Velvet fires off some clotheslines but her knee is giving out again. A headscissors gets the champion nowhere and I think they screw up a sequence setting up a Russian legsweep.

The second attempt works a bit better but Velvet is sent into the corner for a kick to the ribs. Now the headscissors works for Sky but her knee gives out after Mickie is down. A hard chop block takes Velvet down and Mickie has that evil look on her face for the first time in way too long. The MickieDT is enough for the pin and the title at 8:47.

Rating: D+. Mickie and Velvet both looked GREAT out there in their outfits, but the match was so sloppy that it was dragging things down. Velvet continues to look just a step above lost in the ring and Mickie can only do so much with her. Mickie seemingly turning heel here is a good thing though as she can play the psycho villain very well. The match wasn’t much though.

Video on AJ Styles turning his back on TNA.

Aces and 8’s drink a toast to Mr. Anderson and AJ Styles.

Here are the bikers to patch in AJ. Ray talks about D’Lo dropping the ball but praises Anderson for stepping up. This brings out AJ so Ray can suck up to him a bit. They give AJ his first beer and amazingly enough Styles drinks it down. Didn’t he drink with Storm before? Cue Angle to whine about AJ selling out but Styles puts on his cut. Angle charges in like an idiot and gets beaten down as Ray hands AJ a hammer. Styles hits Angle in the knee with said hammer, only to hit the rest of the bikers with it as well. AJ bails to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Not the worst show in the world but there wasn’t much in the way in in ring action. A lot off the segments, mainly the tag team stuff, went on WAY too long. The ending was what it was but it’s going to be part of a much longer story of course, as it always is in TNA. This was better than last week’s show but that’s not saying much.

Results

Suicide b. Joey Ryan and Petey Williams – Gutbuster to Ryan

Magnus b. Wes Brisco via DQ when Aces and 8’s interfered

Mr. Anderson b. Kurt Angle – Low Blow

Mickie James b. Velvet Sky – MickieDT

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:

NXT
Date: May 22, 2013
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Tony Dawson, William Regal

We’re a week away from the big NXT battle royal but tonight’s main event is Corey Graves vs. Bray Wyatt, as the Wyatt Family is apparently targeting people like Graves and Kassius Ohno for reasons yet to be named. This seems to be another filler episode before we get to next week where things start all over again, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Let’s get to it.

Welcome Home.

Curt Hawkins vs. Sami Zayn

Sami is independent mainstay El Generico minus a mask. The fans immediately start chanting OLE which is Generico’s trademark chant. Hawkins has short hair now, in case you’re not up to date on your Curt Hawkins news. Zayn takes him down with a set of armdrags and some chops in the corner for good measure. Hawkins elbows out of the corner and hits a quick enziguri for two.

Off to an early chinlock by Hawkins but an OLE chant gets Sami back up to his feet. Hawkins misses a forearm in the corner and gets caught in a belly to back suplex for no cover. A dropkick gets two but Hawkins comes back with a very excited slam. For the first time ever, we get a Let’s Go Hawkins chant but he can’t hook what looked to be a powerbomb. Instead Zayn grabs his wrist and runs up the corner into a tornado DDT for the pin at 4:14.

Rating: C. This was pretty much a squash but Zayn looked good out there. He has a solid presence to him and even though he’s a smaller guy, his offense comes off like it has some force behind it. Hawkins is as generic of a wrestler as you’ll ever find, but then again he has something resembling a resume and isn’t terrible in the ring so he makes for a good jobber. Good debut here for Zayn.

Video on Corey Graves, explaining why he has so many tattoos. There’s a CM Punk vibe to this and he closes with a good line: “I’m not here to leave a mark. I’m here to leave a scar.”

Antonio Cesaro vs. Yoshi Tatsu

Ok, Cesaro HAS to be able to beat Tatsu right? I mean, it’s Yoshi Tatsu. EVERYBODY beats Tatsu. Cesaro pounds him into the corner but gets caught by a quick cross body for no cover. Yoshi fires off some kicks but gets caught by a vicious European uppercut and the Neutralizer ends this in 52 seconds.

Post match Cesaro wants to know if that was the best competition he can get. There’s no one on any show that can challenge him, but here’s Sami Zayn to disagree. He speaks multiple languages, including Arabic which Cesaro doesn’t understand. Zayn goes to French instead and the match is on right now.

Antonio Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn

Cesaro quickly powers him down to start but gets spun around as Zayn leverages his way out of a test of strength. A springboard wrist drag sends Cesaro to the floor as take a break. Back with Zayn holding an armbar but being dropped throat first on the top rope. Zayn is whipped hard into the corner for two before it’s off to a chinlock. Sami fights up and tries a sunset flip but Cesaro does the DX crotch chop of all things before stomping onto his chest for two.

Off to another chinlock before Zayn comes back with a rollup out of the corner. A high cross body is caught by Cesaro in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two and a running European uppercut gets the same. Off to some rights and lefts in the corner by Antonio before he loads up a suplex, only to have Zayn slide down his back and roll up Cesaro for the pin at 5:00 shown of 7:20.

Rating: C. Nothing of note here but it was good to see Zayn get such a solid push to start. He was in trouble for most of the match but it makes sense that a guy as strong as Cesaro could throw Sami around like he did. This is a really good debut for Zayn and I really liked what I’ve seen so far.

Emma is in the back but she’s apparently taking Audrey Marie’s interview time. Emma keeps screwing up Audrey’s name and suggests Audrey dance to relieve stress. Audrey says get out before I take you out. Emma: “Can we go to lunch? I haven’t eaten today.” She dances off and smacks Audrey in the head as she goes.

Video on Bray Wyatt which looks more like the old ones.

Here’s some guy named Enzo Amore to talk. Enzo is from New Jersey and has almost every stereotype you can think of. He sees a bunch of fake tough guys in NXT and talks about people being a bunch of G’s.

Enzo Amore vs. Mason Ryan

Ryan throws Amore around like he’s not even there before chopping him down. Running snake eyes sets up a running clothesline by Ryan before a torture rack neckbreaker ends Amore at 1:26. Ryan is still nothing of note.

The Raw ReBound talks about Ryback demanding an ambulance match.

Stephanie McMahon will be here next week for an announcement.

There’s also a #1 contenders battle royal next week.

Corey Graves vs. Bray Wyatt

Bray shoves him around to start and still has that gray mask on his face. Graves takes him into the corner and pounds away a bit before putting on a front facelock. The Wyatt Family looks concerned as Bray is in some trouble early on. Graves gets the mask off of Wyatt so Bray heads to the outside. Not that it matters as Wyatt puts the mask back on and pounds away on Graves back in the ring.

Graves gets up a knee to stop a charging Bray before putting on a figure four neck lock over the top rope to slow Wyatt down again. Bray is fine with that though as he hits a running cross body as we take a break. Back with Wyatt holding a chinlock, only to get up and miss a charge, sending him out to the floor. Graves misses a baseball slide though and Bray sends him into the steps. Bray kicks him in the chest a few times before taking it back inside for another chinlock.

There’s the splash in the corner but Graves escapes the dancing into a rollup for a close two. The mask comes off again so Bray hits another cross body to put Graves down. Back up and Corey punches the exposed face and makes a good comeback, sending Bray reeling. A clothesline in the corner staggers Bray and a chop block puts him down. The Family is knocked down and there’s the Lucky 13 leg lock, but Harper breaks it up via a distraction by Rowan. Sister Abigail ends Graves at 8:41 shown of 12:11.

Rating: C. I was digging Graves here as his comeback was working well, but the Family getting the win was probably the right idea. There’s only so much you can do for Graves here without making the Family look weak, so the cheating was probably the right call. Graves looked good though.

Post match Kassius Ohno returns to try to make the save but gets laid out by the Family. Bray talks about being a monster to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. The wrestling here wasn’t great but they did a good job with the storytelling here. Next week we’ll have a new #1 contender to Langston’s title so we can have a new main event feud to build around. I was really impressed by Zayn tonight and he seems to have a feud set up with Cesaro already. Good show here but for different reasons than usual.

Results

Sami Zayn b. Curt Hawkins – Tornado DDT

Antonio Cesaro b. Yoshi Tatsu – Neutralizer

Sami Zayn b. Antonio Cesaro – Rollup

Mason Ryan b. Enzo Amore – Torture Rack Neckbreaker

Bray Wyatt b. Corey Graves – Sister Abigail

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:

WWF House Show
Date: February 22, 1982
Location: Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 11,513
Commentators: Dick Graham, Kal Rudman

Here’s a show from an era that you don’t often hear from. This is during the Backlund is champion era and is one of the many house show cities that had its own TV show. In other words, this show was filmed and aired on TV in the Philadelphia market. Snuka is making his Philly debut tonight and Backlund is facing Bob Orton, presumably for the title. Let’s get to it.

The announcers talk about the show for awhile. They sound nothing like what most wrestling announcers do and I’m not sure if I like that or not. There’s talk of some new hold called the Crossface Chickenwing.

We get a clip from last month of Tony Atlas vs. Jesse Ventura. Jesse is controlling with a full nelson but misses an elbow drop. Atlas comes back to dropkick him to the floor and Atlas goes after him. Jesse rams Tony into the table and busts him open then slides in to win by countout. Atlas wants to keep up the fight but Jesse runs. The full match ran 15 minutes apparently but we only got about three here. There’s a cage match later between these two.

Gary Michael Capetta is the ring announcer. For some reason he gets booed.

Charlie Fulton vs. Larry Sharpe

Sharpe is far more famous as the trainer of Bam Bam Bigelow, Raven and Big Show among a lot more. He’s a pretty boy in white. Sharpe jumps Fulton to start and knocks him to the floor and it takes awhile for Charlie to get back in. Sharpe throws him back out to the floor again as Fulton is looking pretty awful here. Fulton comes back in with right hands and grabs the arm.

Sharpe headbutts him in the ribs and takes over again. Fulton is a guy that never really went anywhere so I’m curious as to whether he’s a jobber here or not. Fulton comes back with nothing but punches and is kicked in the face on a backdrop attempt. Sharpe goes up but gets slammed down. Since Fulton can’t manage to make a sandwich without getting beaten up, Sharpe throws him into the ropes to take over (as in Sharpe whipped him in and Fulton hit them chest first and fell down) and hits a piledriver to end this.

Rating: F+. What was that? Fulton was TERRIBLE out there and looked like a jobber that didn’t realize he was a jobber. Sharpe didn’t do much better but he looked like he was far better out there and the bigger deal. Also that wasn’t a bad piledriver. This was a very strange match though as it was like a squash that went awkwardly.

Sharpe says his conditioning is bad so that’s why it took so long. That’s not something you often hear.

Baron Mikel Scicluna vs. Pete Sanchez

The Baron is in the WWE Hall of Fame for some reason, despite most people having no idea who he is. He’s a heel here and the announcer says he’ll probably use a foreign object. He’s from Malta so if it’s a Maltese object is that really foreign? We start with a bearhug on Sanchez which isn’t a normal starting move. Sanchez grabs a headlock and Baron looks bored. Baron hides in the corner and might have pulled out an object.

The referee stops to check him for weapons but doesn’t find one. Baron goes to the corner with his back to the ring again and again the referee checks him. Where would he have gotten an object in between there? Pete grabs a wristlock and the referee kicks Baron’s arm off the ropes. He then makes the FASTEST COUNT EVER but Baron gets his shoulder up. That would be a heel turn move today.

We play hide the object again and apparently there is one in existence but the referee can’t find it. Typical. Baron almost shoves the referee but that isn’t a DQ. Baron chops him down and I kid you not, he looks like he’s in slow motion. Pete takes over and kicks him very low but it’s also not a DQ. Baron pulls out the object, holds it in the air like he found it in a Hylian dungeon and hits Pete in the throat with it for the pin.

Rating: D-. This show is three and a half hours long. Oh what have I gotten myself into? The wrestling in the early 80s was….how do I put this nicely……REALLY BAD. It’s mostly punches and kicks here and the whole foreign object bit. We get the idea but that was the whole match. To be fair though, it’s 1982 and this is the second match on a card and it runs 8 minutes. I’m probably overreacting here, but it’s still pretty boring.

Pete finds the object post match and drills Baron with it.

One of the announcers says hi to a fan that Backlund has talked to who is too sick to be able to come to a show. Cool.

Swede Hanson vs. Laurent Soucie

Now there’s a new announcer who must be in his mid 70s. Swede tries to control with a top wristlock to start and takes it to the mat controlling the arm. And never mind as they break it up quickly. Here’s the basic story of the match: Swede tries to put a hold on him, Laurent runs away. Laurent hits him with a forearm and Swede looks annoyed. Apparently Swede has a habit of slapping people in the face. Well that’s just rude of him. In a really sudden and different ending, Swede grabs a backbreaker and bends Laurent over his knee, which gets a submission.

Rating: D. Well they’re getting better. Not a good match or anything but it’s a step up over the other two dismal performances we saw earlier tonight. This show is somehow almost forty minutes in now and it’s been dreadful. Swede was another generic bad guy which is getting a little tiresome.

Mr. Saito vs. Johnny Rodz

Saito is a Japanese guy and Rodz is supposed to be nuts. He trained a ton of ECW guys, namely Dreamer, Taz and the Dudleys. Saito jumps him to start and I think Rodz is the heel here. Rodz is in trouble but does the equivalent of Hulking Up and shrugs Saito off. He grabs a headlock and cranks on that sucker. A middle rope elbow to the head is followed by a second one and Saito is in trouble.

Back to the headlock and Saito tries to crawl over the ropes to escape. That’s quite a headlock. Saito comes back with a superkick and a middle rope chop to the shoulder. Here’s a nerve hold and Rodz’s arms start shaking. Saito strikes away in the corner but misses a charge to allow Rodz to hammer away. Rodz tries an O’Connor roll out of the corner but Saito ducks, sending Rodz’s head into the corner which gets the pin. Well you can’t say they’re overused finishes.

Rating: C-. It might be because of how weak the first three matches were but I was getting into Rodz’ energy out there. He wasn’t doing much else besides punching but sometimes that’s all you need to do. Not a good match or anything and we had another unusual ending but it’s by far the most entertaining match of the night so far.

Intercontinental Title: Pedro Morales vs. Jimmy Snuka

Snuka has only been around for a few months at this point but the fans are loving him, despite him being a heel. The announcers aren’t sure what to do with him because they know he’s popular but he’s supposed to be the evil savage. He has a thing for flowers apparently. Snuka wrestles barefoot which is another thing that made him different. The fans here are split which is a weird sight.

They fight over a top wristlock to start and Snuka complains of a hair pull. Snuka takes it to the mat with arm control and Dick Worhle is the referee. He died a few days ago so that’s kind of sad to see. Now Snuka pulls the hair to keep the advantage. See how easy a heel move that is? Such little things like that one are just lost in modern wrestling.

Snuka runs him over and headbutts Pedro down as the fans applaud. Now keep in mind: Pedro is a very popular guy. He held the IC Title forever and was a former world champion. However, Snuka was a totally different kind of guy and the fans, especially the Philly crazy people, took notice and loved him. Pedro is in trouble and gets knocked to the floor by a forearm. All Snuka so far.

Out to the floor and Pedro goes into the apron. Back in and Pedro is almost knocked right back out. Off to a chinlock for a few moments and Pedro FINALLY gets up. He hits his first decent offense of the match in the form of a backdrop but Snuka takes him right back down again. A middle rope headbutt half kills Pedro and you would think that Snuka was the top guy in the company based on the fans’ reactions.

That only gets two though and Snuka has a headache from the headbutt. Pedro grabs the face and works it over (that’s not something I’m used to typing) and starts his comeback. He hits his big left and Jimmy looks like he’s dancing. Out to the floor and Snuka tastes the steel. A BIG left hand sends Snuka flying into the ropes. Snuka rakes the eyes which doesn’t really do much good. Pedro hits a knee to the chin and then shoves the referee because of that firey Latin temper of him. Now Pedro throws him to the floor and it’s a LAME DQ.

Rating: C+. Well it wasn’t a classic or anything as Pedro was way too fond of just throwing the left hand but the crowd was very energetic for this as they were both very popular guys. Notice that the match is very similar to the rest of them but the names are bigger. There wasn’t much variety in this era and it shows badly at times.

Pedro throws the referee down again and again. Snuka nails Worhle and the brawl continues. Out to the floor and Snuka goes into the post. They KEEP FIGHTING and Snuka headbutts both Morales and the referee at the same time. Snuka finally leaves and the fans aren’t pleased with Pedro. Cool brawl though. Morales is mad about the brawl and says bring Jimmy on again anytime.

Steve Travis vs. Blackjack Mulligan

Mulligan is Barry Windham’s dad and Husky Harris’ grandfather. He’s also about the size of the Undertaker so this is a painful match for Travis. Travis is thrown to the floor and gos into the post quickly. Back in Travis charges into a knee in the corner and Mulligan hooks the Claw around the throat. Travis manages to get in some offense to send Mulligan to the outside where he takes a quick walk. Back in Mulligan hooks the Claw in a nerve hold and Travis is in trouble again. Steve elbows his way out of it but walks into a back elbow as he runs the ropes which gets Blackjack the pin.

Rating: D-. Just an observation here, but you don’t see a lot of near falls at all. The fans spent most of the match chanting for Andre because of a battle of the giants thing going on but he never showed up. The Blackjacks were old school heels in the black hat wearing cowboy attire but they were pretty effective back then.

Mulligan berates the commentators post match because no one knows what he’ll do next so there’s no point in talking about him. Can I introduce you to a Mr. Michael Cole? Oh and he’s the real giant because he’s AMERICAN. He’ll just take all of Andre’s deals and contracts while he’s at it.

WWF World Title: Bob Backlund vs. Bob Orton Jr.

This is Orton’s return it seems. This is called the main event despite three more matches after this. Backlund outmoves him to start and trips Orton easily. Orton, a very good scientific wrestler in his own right, can’t keep up with Backlund at all and almost gets sent to the floor because he can’t even stand up when Backlund goes after him. There’s an abdominal stretch by the champ but Orton escapes.

Backlund hooks a top wristlock so Orton braces against the referee to backflip out of it. The champ trips him immediately but it was a cool visual. We get a test of strength and Backlund monkey flips him over but maintains the grip. Off to a bodyscissors as this is all Backlund so far but he’s not doing much damage. Instead he’s getting in Orton’s head which is a lot more interesting.

Backlund fakes him out on two monkey flips so Orton tries an elbow. Backlund avoids THAT and Orton is ticked off so he heads to the outside to cool off a bit. Backlund looks awesome so far. Orton tries an armdrag and is IMMEDIATELY taken into a headscissors. Backlund is so fast. I just realized they’re both named Bob so I had to go back and edit that name out. Pinfall reversal sequence results in a backslide for two for Backlund.

Orton wants a handshake and actually doesn’t sucker Backlund in. They go to the ropes and Backlund gives him a clean break but the Cowboy doesn’t, smashing Backlund with an elbow. Out to the floor and Backlund goes into the steel as Orton takes over. Backlund gets whipped over the railing and may have hurt his back. Somehow he’s not counted out so Orton stomps on him some more.

Here comes the superplex which is Orton’s finisher. Why can’t more people use basic moves like that and have them be built up as finishers? Anyway Backlund breaks that up and hits a middle rope forearm to knock Orton into the corner. Backlund hooks a suplex and pounds on Orton. Orton is in big trouble and rolls to the floor. Back inside and Backlund hits a not that great piledriver for two.

Orton comes back with a belly to back suplex and both guys are down. They slug it out from their knees and Orton gets his knee up in the corner to take Backlund down. Orton goes lucha and tries a Vader Bomb but it gets knees. Backlund knocks him to the floor which doesn’t last long as Backlund knees him in the head and dropkicks him right back to the floor. Now Orton is running which is where we get to the interesting part of Backlund which I’ll get to later. Out to the floor and Orton finds a rope from somewhere to choke Backlund with and the champ misses the count, giving Orton the win.

Rating: B. This was a very fun match as Backlund was the guy who was rather uninteresting until he was pushed to the edge when he would blow everyone away like he did here with Orton. He’s a fun guy to watch and would be even better in stuff like Texas Death Matches where his back was to the wall and he had to fight for everything he had, which he could do quite well. Fun match and by far the best of the night so far.

They put the cage up for Ventura vs. Atlas.

The announcers say Orton should go back to the NWA because he’s not ready for the WWF. Now there’s a line you might never hear again.

We get a sitdown interview with Jesse Ventura who talks about how awesome the East-West Connection (Ventura/Adrian Adonis) are. They’re in People Magazine according to Jesse. There’s no place to hide in a cage and after Ventura has beaten Atlas in everything else, a cage is the last place for them.

Tony Atlas says he’s not going to let Ventura up, which goes against what his daddy taught him but it’s ok here. He’s not worried about the blood either. This interviewer is really bad. They also talk about Rocky 3 and Hulk Hogan (I didn’t think he’d be mentioned at this point) and then they talk about Mr. T. being a wrestler. Nah that would never work.

Now the announcers talk about whatever they can to fill in time while the cage is finished. They talk about Backlund vs. Orton for a long time and show some clips of it to show how awesome Backlund is.

Jesse Ventura vs. Tony Atlas

In a cage in case you’re really dense. Ventura wants a referee in there with him. Yeah see back in the 80s, you didn’t win by some lame pin. You had to get out and leave your opponent in there to win. Jesse stalls forever and tries to escape almost immediately. Atlas gets his hands on him and chops him down before ramming Jesse into the cage. A headbutt puts Jesse down and this is one sided so far.

Ventura gets in a shot but Atlas blocks the shot into the cage. The second attempt works though and Tony is down. Things slow way down as Tony is busted open. Jesse goes up but comes back inside instead of leaving. I’ve heard a lot about how Jesse isn’t the best in ring worker ever but he was a human heat machine and could get a crowd worked up as well as any heel on the roster. That seems to be the case here as the action is awful but Jesse plays to the crowd like a master.

After a very slow beating Jesse goes up but Atlas makes the save. Jesse gets pulled down off the top and might be bleeding a bit as well. He tastes the steel and sells like a master. Then he does it again. And again. Man that’s a serious cut on Jesse. He gets in a shot and Atlas is down again. Jesse goes up and poses but Atlas climbs the cage in what must be record time to climb out and win.

Rating: C-. The selling was good, but the cage felt more like it was hurting them, as they had to find a way to incorporate it. The high amount of punches and forearms got old too which made the match dull. The ton of blood helps though, although the ending sucked with Atlas just leaving instead of beating Jesse down and then leaving.

Jesse calls conspiracy.

Here are the Official Wrestling Ratings.

10.Jay Strongbow
9. Ivan Putski
8. Tony Atlas
7. Bob Orton
6. Adrian Adonis
5. Greg Valentine
4. Pedro Morales
3. Jesse Ventura
2. Black Jack Mulligan
1. Jimmy Snuka

Jimmy Snuka, sounding much more coherent than usual, says he’s from the Fiji Islands and raised in Hawaii. The interviewer compares him to Antonino Rocca (Look him up) and we see some clips of Snuka. Apparently cliff diving prepared Snuka for what he does now. Jimmy talks about working in a gym in Hawaii and getting involved in wrestling. This is a lot more like a real interview rather than a promo. The WWF is tough but he wants to be champion. He’s not coming off as heelish here at all.

Here’s a video package on various wrestlers set to way too happy music.

Mr. Fuji vs. Rick McGraw

Fuji is a tag champion. Feeling out process to start and Fuji grabs the evil nerve hold. That eats up like two minutes until McGraw throws him into the corner and punches away. And never mind as he misses a dive and Fuji ties him up in the ropes. He chokes away and that’s a DQ win for McGraw.

Rating: F. This is one of the final matches on the show and it’s kind of like the last half hour of Saturday Night Live: they have the time to fill but they’ve used up all their good stuff so here’s something boring that still qualifies as professional wrestling so you can’t sue us for false advertising.

We hear about an upcoming battle royal. Some of the entrants are listed and I’ve reviewed that match before for Best of the WWF Volume 4. Also Backlund vs. Orton in a lumberjack match.

Ivan Putski vs. Adrian Adonis

LONG stall before the match start as Adrian wants to stay in the corner a bit. With his jacket still on he jumps Putski and ties Ivan up with the jacket. There’s an atomic drop and a knee drop off the middle rope. Putski is holding his groin due to the atomic drop from earlier. Back in the ring and Adonis hooks a sleeper. That gets two arm drops but Putski stands up and rams Adonis’ face into the corner. Adrian goes up but gets crotched. Putski goes off on him but Adonis goes to the eyes to escape. He tries a sunset flip but Putski sits on the chest for the pin.

Rating: D. Another bad match here but I think this is the last one on the card. This was just like the previous match but with bigger names in it. Adonis would be a somewhat big time heel for awhile before becoming too fat to tie his own shoes. Putski got old in a hurry and didn’t really do much other than be an ethnic face.

The announcers talk for about seven minutes to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. This is a hard one to grade. Some of the good matches are ok with the world title match being quite good, but three and a half hours is WAY too much for this, especially with how weak some of these matches were. It’s amazing how much different the Hogan era is as he blew up the whole idea of what pro wrestling was before he arrived and it changed things. Whether that’s for the better I’ll leave it up to you.

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:

So this was kind of a big deal but I didn’t have the chance to really talk about it in detail.  It’s now two days later so here are some more thoughts on it.I’m still very much the same on it as I was before: I love the idea of pushing Axel, but I can’t stand the way they ended the show.

McGillicutty had been a guy who clearly had skill and looked very poised in the ring but he never got a chance to shine on his own.  The biggest reason of all was his stupid name: Michael McGillicutty.  I don’t know if you’re a fan of the show I Love Lucy, but Lucy’s maiden name was McGillicuddy, which is the first thing that comes to my mind whenever I heard Axel’s old name.  The name sounds like a low level dinner theater actor, not the name of a talented wrestler.  Again I’m not sure why they can’t just call him Joe Hennig, but I’m sure it’s some high concept idea that doesn’t make sense once you think about it for more than two minutes.

The idea of putting him with Heyman is a great move, especially given the amount of success Heyman has had lately.  Heyman putting his seal of approval on you is usually a good sign (Heidenreich aside) and it’s hard to argue against the theory that putting someone with Heyman is going to mean success for them.  Axel has the look, the skills, the poise, and everything else that he needs to win.  It was a good debut for the character and all that jazz.  Good move here.

Then we get to the problem.

The second HHH’s music hit, he became the focus of the whole thing.  Axel stopped mattering, with HHH even saying move away so the adults can talk.  What’s even worse is that Axel actually did step away as Heyman and HHH talked in the middle of the ring.  Then HHH slaps him in the face and Axel…..does nothing.  He falls down and just sits there as HHH smirks and says that they’re having a match later tonight.  Again, it’s all about HHH and Axel is just some new guy for him to beat up later in the night.

Then we get to the match and HHH beats up Axel like he’s any other guy.  He stomps Axel into the corner and then pounds on him outside as well.  Axel comes back in and gets in some shots to the jaw, but they’re nothing special: a dropkick, a middle rope punch and that’s about it.  HHH comes back, hits two of his signature moves (facebuster and spinebuster) and knocks Axel to the floor.  They start to head back in, HHH can’t get back in, the show ends with the focus entirely on HHH.

Based on what we saw, Axel was either completely destroyed after about five minutes of action with him being in control for about two of those minutes, or he’s just too nice a guy to follow up on HHH.  The idea of the match was that HHH was so banged up from his match with Brock that he couldn’t finish off Axel.  There-in lies the problem: it wasn’t Axel who did this.  Axel could have been any other guy int he match on Raw and HHH still would have been hurt.  That’s the same problem that has plagued the HHH vs. Brock feud.  Brock Lesnar could have been any other heel and now Curtis could have been any other guy who could hit a dropkick and throw right hands.  It wasn’t some big move from Axel that caused HHH to not be able to continue, but rather Lesnar’s actions the night before.

That’s what this boils down to: Lesnar and Axel are both just people who happen to be involved in a HHH story.  It has nothing to do with either of them specifically, but rather they’re just around and doing various things while HHH gets the glory (side note: Brock Lesnar has beaten HHH twice now.  The night after both of those victories, HHH gets promos in the middle of the ring.  Lesnar hasn’t been live on either show) and the attention.  This seems to be the start of some big long concussion angle with HHH and if we can get to Axel and Lesnar later on that’s cool, but the focus is ALL going to be on HHH.

I’m fine with HHH having a storyline, but the thing is he’s going to be around and likely on camera in WWE for the next twenty five to thirty years.  Brock probably has a year or two left and Axel is just getting started.  Do we really need to have HHH’s big story NOW?  Do we need to put him ahead of Lesnar and some new guy that apparently you’re going to push as a big deal?  From past experience with HHH stories, that’s by far the biggest thing you’re going to hear about over the next few weeks, because in HHH’s WWE, he can’t just be the big story.  He has to be the ENTIRE story and Heaven help you if you disagree with him on it, because he has no problem telling you why it should be about him in a 20 minute promo.

ECW on Sci–Fi
Date: February 16, 2010
Location: Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Byron Saxton

Well as you can tell this is the final edition of the modern ECW show. There are a total of two matches on the show: a tag title match and Big Zeke, a muscleheaded no talent hack that would never have gotten more of a second look in ECW and Christian who would have been ok there. Take a guess as to how this is going to end. NXT would debut the next week so let’s get to it.

We get to meet the NXT rookies and pros tonight.

Tag Titles: The Miz/Big Show vs. Goldust/Yoshi Tatsu

Miz has three belts at the moment, all of which would cause him to become my #1 draft pick in the fantasy league. Doesn’t this make you riveted to the screen? I mean it’s clear that two guys like Dust and Tatsu have a great chance to win the belts here. Goldust and the smaller champion start us off. Yoshi is fast but Goldust comes in and gets drilled by Show as we take a break.

Tatsu comes in and kicks a lot which gets him nowhere. Show busts out a headlock takeover of all things. Well that’s not something you expected. Yoshi has an eternal flame of pride. This just isn’t that interesting as there’s just a total lack of drama and it’s hurting things here. Goldie comes in and cleans the kitchen (not enough to be the whole house) but gets punched and the Skull Crushing Finale ends this.

Rating: D+. It looked like they were trying but come on: Tatsu and Goldust? Is that really the best they could do? They couldn’t bring Dreamer out of mothballs for this? It just didn’t do anything for me and while it was ok, no one cares about Goldust as a serious contender at this point and Tatsu hadn’t done a thing. It just fell flat and that’s never good.

The first pairing we see is Jericho/Barrett. Barrett is obsessed with money apparently. Where did that aspect of his character go?

Next up is Hardy/Gabriel. Gabriel is a cross between Johnny Damon and Adam Lambert.

Tiffany, the GM still and not a member of Blonterouge or whatever the name is now, addresses the ECW audience and is interrupted by Ryder and Rosa. He wants into the title match and says there’s nothing Tiffany can do about it.

MVP and Skip Sheffield are a team. No not really.

We do the final Abraham Washington Show and I have a feeling this isn’t going to be funny. He thinks they’re in St. Louis to get cheap heel heat. He talks about how he’ll be a free agent soon so people get to pay for him. He says he has the biggest name in wrestling for his final guest and of course it’s himself. Cue Shelton for no apparent reason.

Shelton really was bad on the mic. This is painful. He reminds Abe that everyone is a free agent now and gets interrupted by Vance Archer who had been feuding with Shelton for awhile. The Dudebusters come out and say they’re the most important thing on the show. Kozlov comes out and yells. Dang Vince really wanted to kick the original ECW to death didn’t he?

There’s the big brawl and Washington is mad because they’re messing up his furniture when he’s a single payment away from getting his security deposit back. Kozlov and Shelton shake hands and leave for no apparent reason.

Another pairing is Carlito and Michael Tarver.

The I think fifth pair is Daniel Bryan and Miz. And cue the IWC exploding over it.

We talk about the Elimination Chamber since that’s on Sunday.

Christian and Slater are announced.

Christian comes out and says it’s been a year since he came back. ECW isn’t a demotion to him but rather home. He talks about how he got to be the star on ECW and he’s loved every bit of it. Tonight is for the ECW Originals and for ECW. Oh come on now you know he’s losing. There’s an ECW chant for you. He’ll be proud to be the final ECW Champion. This came off well and made ECW sound very respectable and like a good thing.

Punk and Young, who apparently has incredible strength, will be a team.

ECW Title: Ezekiel Jackson vs. Christian

This is under Extreme Rules and Christian brought a shopping cart of weapons. Christian gets him to the floor and here’s Ryder to be a jerk. He gets beaten up like a little nitwit and Tiffany bounces down to the ring to take down Rosa. Back from a break and it’s all Big Zeke. Christian hits the Pendulum Kick into a trash can lid into Zeke.

Regal and Zeke set up a table but get it knocked into their faces. Some WEAK kendo stick shots give the advantage back to the Canadian. This was far better on the first viewing. Regal interferes and breaks up the Killswitch and Jackson slams Christian through a table to completely kill the history of ECW forever. Until TNA redoes it soon and kills its corpse.

Rating: C-. It’s ok but the ending was again fairly clear. You knew Vince was going to go with the big title change to end things and that it would be fairly stupid. The match was ok at best but with three interferences for Jackson it became watered down and overbooked. Glad to see they kept with the original ECW vision on that one.

We close the show and the brand with R-Truth being Otunga’s pro and the big musclehead holding the ECW Title. I’d love to see Heyman’s reaction to that.

Overall Rating: D. This was just bad. It’s really more of a commercial for NXT than anything else. Christian’s speech was nice but this was about ending ECW once and for all which was just done to let Vince have a good feeling about it at the end of the day. I wish this had been the end of ECW but of course TNA wants to get a few more dollars out of it while they can so here we go all over again. ECW dies once again with nothing to show for it. Yeah I’m stunned too.

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 Nitro #120
Date: December 29, 1997
Location: Baltimore Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance: 12,196
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Mike Tenay

We’re into a new era in WCW now as Starrcade 1997 is finally over. We round out the year with this show, where the story is who is actually the WCW World Champion. Sting did win the title, after being pinned by Hogan by way of a “fast” count. The problem is the count wasn’t exceptionally fast, therefore making it look like Hogan won clean. Tonight is allegedly a huge night for WCW but I wonder how they manage to screw it up. Let’s get to it.

We open with stills from last night of Sting winning the title.

Purple and yellow balloons are dropped because WCW is awesome!

The Nitro Girls dance to start.

Larry Zbyszko gets a bit entrance for saving Nitro for WCW. Tony suggests that NWO fans watch Cartoon Network once their moms go to bed. Larry says now he wants Hall.

Glacier vs. Goldberg

Glacier jumps Goldie to start so Goldberg punches him square in the head. A release slam puts Glacier down again and it’s spear/Jackhammer to end it.

Gene brings out Bret Hart for a chat. During his entrance, the announcers think that they jumped the gun about Bret joining the NWO. Bret talks about actions speaking louder than words and how yesterday was about justice. As for the NWO, Bret agrees with a fan by saying they suck. The NWO is a bunch of scum and they remind him of the scum he just left. Could it be because most of them used to work there?

Bret is glad to see the rise of WCW because he looks forward to matches with Luger, Sting and Giant. He runs down some of the prominent members of the NWO, saying that Hogan is going to pay the biggest price. There won’t be any running away like there was a few years back, because it’s time for them to fight.

As the announcers talk about Bret’s promo, Raven gets a mic and says that he and the Flock will give Benoit pain if that’s what he wants.

Chris Benoit vs. Van Hammer

Benoit goes right after the Flock, but amazingly enough he gets beaten down by six guys at once. Van Hammer pulls him into the ring and pounds on him before nearly botching a superplex. Benoit avoids a charge into the corner and throws on the Crossface, drawing in the Flock for a DQ. This was nothing.

Post match Benoit gets beaten down until Mongo makes the save.

Here’s Flair with something to say. He congratulates DDP on his victory and bringing the US Title back to WCW. As for Hennig, Flair still has unfinished business with him so watch out. This brings Flair to Sting, who brought it back where it belongs. Flair congratulates Bret for making the save last night because Bret is in the big leagues now. Bret may be a big time columnist and referee, but Flair has a column from the Baltimore Sun. Flair reads comments from the paper, which basically say Flair is the best ever. The author of these comments: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, both mentioned by Flair.

Cruiserweight Title: Ultimo Dragon vs. Eddie Guerrero

Eddie is defending and jumps Dragon from behind in the aisle. A very quick powerbomb puts Dragon down and a suplex does the same before Eddie puts him on top. Dragon fights back but has his super rana countered. A tornado DDT puts Dragon down but he counters a suplex into the Dragon Sleeper for the tap out and the title in less than 90 seconds. So Eddie dominates the division for months before tapping out in a minute and twenty six seconds? Really?

Post match Eddie beats up Dragon and throws him to the floor.

Here’s the NWO for the first time tonight. It’s Hogan and Bischoff with Hogan already posing on the stage. Bischoff says that Hogan is still champion so treat him as such. Hogan says made wrestling today and IS wrestling, so let’s get some facts straight. He talks about how JJ Dillon said Nick Patrick was the only referee for the main event last night and we get a video showing Dillon saying just that. Hogan also remembers Patrick counting the pin and calling for the bell, so here are some stills of the bell not ringing.

Now we get slow motion video of Bret beating up Nick Patrick and Hogan bragging about winning the match clean in the middle of the ring. To a degree, that’s rather true which is one of the many problems with last night. He and Bischoff are open for suggestions as to how to fix the problem, and it better be soon.

Heenan comes back to the broadcasting booth, saying that he was being brave last week rather than joining the NWO. That’s very Heenan of him. Bobby ranting and raving about how he’s the only one that loves WCW is funny stuff.

US Title: Mortis vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page is in light jeans here for some reason and starts with a headlock and neckbreaker for no cover. Vanderberg gets on the apron, allowing Mortis to hit Page low to take over. A wheelbarrow mat slam gets two on the champion and Mortis pounds away in the corner. He does Page’s spinning finger point and drives Page face first into the mat for two. A spinwheel kick gets two on Page but he breaks up the Flatliner and lays Mortis out with the Diamond Cutter to retain.

Rating: D+. Oh come on like Page was going to lose the title the night after he won it. Mortis is a good choice for a spot like this as he has a solid look and an incredibly solid moveset, but once he became Chris Kanyon he was just another guy and that’s where his career pretty much hit its ceiling.

Here’s JJ Dillon who says that Sting officially is the world champion, and apparently he’s going to defend the title against any member of the NWO tonight. Gee I wonder which member is going to take him up on that.

TV Title: Booker T vs. Disco Inferno

Disco is defending. He dances to start and is booed, so Booker raises the roof to a good reaction. A hard clothesline puts Inferno down as the fans are almost silent. Disco misses an elbow so Booker breakdances a bit before taking it to the floor. The champ is whipped into the barricade but catches Booker with a Chartbuster (Stunner) onto the top rope as they come back in. Both guys fall back over the top and out to the floor. This time it’s Booker being sent into the barricade as the crowd stays silent.

Disco breaks up the count before bringing Booker back in, only to be caught in a sunset flip for two. Off to a chinlock by the champion as we’ve had a grueling three minutes of action so far. Back up and a neckbreaker puts Booker down as the announcers talk non stop about Sting’s challenge. Disco gets caught by a spinwheel kick and a backbreaker to set up the Harlem Hangover for the pin and the title.

Rating: D. Not only did the match bore everyone to sleep but the announcers literally talked about the match for two seconds. Booker T’s singles career gets started here and would wind up having a TON of titles in addition to ten tag titles. The match mostly sucked though as there was no chemistry here at all.

JJ is back out and says no one has accepted the challenge. Bischoff comes out and says Hogan accepts the challenge. This is yet another big SCREW YOU to the PPV fans, as they get nothing exclusive because the main event of the biggest show of the year is being given away for free 24 hours later.

Curt Hennig vs. Chris Jericho

Here’s a match that could have been awesome if their careers hadn’t overlapped like they did. The cleanshaven look still doesn’t look right on Rude. Hennig looks mad tonight and it’s time to talk about Hogan vs. Sting. Tony claims that the fans going for popcorn are off to call their friends and tell them about what’s happening. If the friends are wrestling fans, wouldn’t they likely be watching the show? Jericho sends Hennig to the floor and Curt has a conference with Rude.

Back in and Hennig pounds away on Jericho in the corner with punches and chops before putting on a chinlock. Tony actually complains about Bischoff whining too much. TONY SCHIAVONE is annoyed that someone is whining too much. Jericho fights up and slams him down but botches the Lionsault by not flipping at all and landing back first on Hennig’s knees. The PerfectPlex ends this a second later.

Rating: D. This was barely a match at all as a long portion of it was spent with Jericho in the chinlock. The commentary here is really annoying though as they don’t even react to stuff like the botch because they’re too busy being smug about keeping Nitro last night. This was a lot weaker of a match than I was expecting.

Post match Jericho goes nuts, banging a chair against a post while shouting about how he’s sick of this.

Here’s Scott Hall with something to say. The announcers spend the entire entrance talking about how the NWO sucks and cracks themselves up in the process. Hall says that being here in Baltimore for the holidays is just too sweet. The NWO wins the survey and that’s it. Seriously that’s the whole promo. Were they running four minutes short or something?

Buff Bagwell vs. Lex Luger

Another match that you were supposed to have to pay to see last night, but here it is for everyone anyway. To be fair though, this is their FOURTH match against each other on Nitro and their sixth this month counting a Saturday Night match and the PPV match. Tony and Mike go on a rant against Bagwell for bragging about a winning streak against Luger but all the matches being DQ’s or countouts. I guess we’re ignoring the pin from last night because it might make the NWO look good.

Norton pulls Luger’s leg as a distraction to start, causing Luger to chase him around. Buff jumps him as he comes back in and the Bagwell control begins. He jumps up and down on Lex’s back before getting two off a neckbreaker. The Blockbuster misses and Luger hits his clotheslines followed by a powerslam. Norton gets knocked off the apron and the Rack ends this quick. Nothing to see here, but well done WCW by having Bagwell lose in three minutes the night after the win that was supposed to elevate him.

WCW World Title: Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan

Hogan really does look weird without his belt. Sting power walks to the ring and just like last night, is beaten down by a few Hogan punches. Hollywood hits him with the belt over and over. Sting gets choked on the mat as it’s completely one sided so far. They head to the floor with Sting still stumbling around. We’re a minute in and the world champion has had no offense. A slam puts Sting down on the floor before heading back inside. This is the most offense Hogan has been on in years. Sting Hulks Up and gets in his first offense after a minute and forty seconds.

Sting pounds away in the corner and sends Hogan out to the floor. Hollywood is whipped into the barricade and we head back inside without the missing splash against the steel. An atomic drop puts Hogan down but Hogan comes back with some chops and a clothesline in the corner. Hogan pounds away at the head and gets two off the big boot. Back up and they collide with Hogan going down, allowing Sting to do the falling low blow spot. Hogan gets up again and slams him down, only to miss the leg drop. Sting stomps on his hands and hits the Splash….but we’re out of time and the show ends.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t much as we only got about five minutes. However, Sting looked FAR better here than he did last night, which is exactly what he should have done at Starrcade. The problem here though was Hogan continued to look like he was wrestling any schnook off the street instead of the great hope for WCW. The ending sucks too but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Overall Rating: C+. This wasn’t that bad, but it’s a sign of terrible things to come. That ending basically signaled the end of Sting meaning much in this war against the NWO, but we’ll get to that at a later date. As for the rest of the show, it wasn’t have bad with everything going very quickly and a lot of stuff happening, including two title changes. You can see a lot of 1998 coming up here and it doesn’t look all that bad. We’ll get to the horrors soon enough though.

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: