First D’Lo and now the Gut Check thing. Let’s recap.
Ivelisse – Smoking hot, has an MMA background which is the hottest sport in the country and Ronda Rousey is arguably the new face of the sport, can move, can wrestle, can talk, has a ton of potential, WWE thought she was good.
Tapa – Can’t do much in the ring, doesn’t look great, but she’s Barbarian’s niece.
The complains write themselves.
I kid you not,D’lo Brown. I’m literally laughing out loud at how stupid this company is.
That’s nice of them.
NXT
Date: March 6, 2013
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Tony Dawson, William Regal
We’re back in Florida for more NXT where the Shield made their presence known again last week, breaking up a #1 contender’s match between Conor O’Brian and Corey Graves after presumably attacking Bo Dallas. Other than that we had the Wyatt Family get even stronger than usual by having Bray himself get in the ring for some destruction. Let’s get to it.
Here’s Commissioner Dusty Rhodes to open things up. He announces the main event for tonight as Graves vs. O’Brian vs. Dallas for the next shot at the title with extra security to keep the Shield from interfering.
Welcome Home.
Adrian Neville/Oliver Grey vs. Judas Devlin/Scott Dawson
Neville and Grey are tag champions but this is non-title. There’s no Grey though and Neville doesn’t know where he is. He was here earlier but somewhere in between there he disappeared. Neville agrees to fight them on his own and starts against Dawson. A quick arm wringer puts Dawson down and it’s off to an armbar. It’s off to Judas who is a big tattooed man with long hair. Judas doesn’t do much of note before it’s back to Dawson.
Devlin comes back in for a chinlock as the numbers game is starting to catch up with Neville. As the hold is on, the Wyatt Family drags Grey out to the stage. Grey is barely conscious and is reaching towards the ring. Neville fights out of the hold but is distracted by Grey, allowing the team to take over again. Dawson puts Adrian on the top but gets knocked down, allowing Neville to hit the corkscrew shooting star press for the pin at 3:21.
Rating: D+. Not much to see here but it’s about the story rather than the match. The Wyatt Family wanting revenge for losing in the title match is the right idea and it sets up a good dynamic of the much smaller champions having to fight the monsters with an even bigger disadvantage. That shooting star is absolutely stunning too.
Neville checks on his partner post match.
Leo Kruger vs. Yoshi Tatsu
The fans cheer for Yoshi as I’m guessing they meant to go to the Nintendo convention instead of this show. Kruger grabs a headlock to start but gets caught in an atomic drop followed by a second one for good measure. Kruger comes back by sending Yoshi’s shoulder into the buckle before cranking on the arm on the mat. Yoshi finally makes a rope and fights up but a shot to the arm stops him cold. Kruger hits a big clothesline and finishes Tatsu with a seated armbar at 2:59. Total squash.
Sasha Banks/Cameron/Naomi vs. Audrey Marie/Alicia Fox/Aksana
Cameron and Naomi dance a lot before the match. Fox and Banks start things off with Sasha taking over with a headscissors. Off to Aksana who has just as much luck as her partner before it’s off to Cameron. Oh wait we need a dance break. Back to the wrestling now with Audrey getting in a kick to Cameron’s back from the apron to take over. Aksana puts her in the corner and does that crawl of hers, only to get caught by a cross body for two by Cameron.
Back to Fox who gets a quick one count off a northern lights suplex. Off to Audrey now who hooks a body scissors which only lasts for a few seconds before Cameron can tag off to Naomi. Things speed up as Naomi hits a flying clothesline to Audrey and an enziguri for two on Aksana. A leg lariat is enough to pin Audrey at 4:25.
Rating: C-. As usual, the Divas of NXT are far more interesting and talented than those of Raw and Smackdown. Cameron isn’t much in the ring but Naomi has good athleticism and energy. Unfortunately here the focus was on the main show girls instead of the more talented NXT girls because they’re the “stars”.
Bo Dallas talks about how his career is skyrocketing right now due to winning the NXT Tournament and beating Wade Barrett on Raw. Bray Wyatt comes up and talks about laying out Dallas a few weeks ago. If Dallas had accepted Wyatt’s offer to join the Family, he would have been protected against the Shield last week. Bo says stay away from him because he isn’t interested. Wyatt calls him a foolish young man.
Alberto Del Rio will be here next week.
Summer Rae insists on being called the First Lady of NXT and insists on the interviewer introducing her again. Rae talks about putting Paige on the shelf for good and taking away her popularity. If Rebecca, the interviewer, ever introduces her improperly again, she’ll be taken out like trash.
Shield reassures us that they’re still here to shield us from injustice. The injustice from last week was O’Brian, Dallas and Graves believing they deserved a title shot. Ambrose talks about putting a crack in the foundation of WWE. They’ve done it on Raw and Smackdown so it’s time to do it here on NXT. It should be Rollins getting the title shot, not any of those three.
Corey Graves vs. Conor O’Brian vs. Bo Dallas
The winner gets the title shot at Langston at some point in the future. O’Brian runs over Dallas to start and Graves stomps away. Conor doesn’t seem interested in helping him so instead he beats up Corey for a bit. Graves manages to send him to the floor and puts Bo in a chinlock as we take a break. Back with Dallas sending Graves to the floor but as he follows, Conor pops up to clothesline Dallas down. With Conor on the apron, Corey fires some shoulder to his ribs. That gets him nowhere though as O’Brian knocks him away and gets two off a top rope clothesline.
Dallas is back in now but O’Brian keeps full control of the match. Conor wraps his legs around Graves’ head for a neck crank, getting two as a result. The attention shifts to Dallas now with O’Brian throwing him into Graves in the corner which gets another two count. Graves gets a boot up in the corner to stagger O’Brian, allowing Dallas and Corey to double team Conor with a double suplex.
The alliance is short lived though as they start fighting each other again, resulting in a belly to back suplex by Bo. Dallas pounds away in the corner but stops when he sees Bray Wyatt on the apron. We take another break and come back with Graves pounding away on both guys. A gordbuster gets two on Bo and there’s a half crab for good measure. Conor breaks it up but Graves beats him down as a result. Dallas is sent to the apron but goes up and gets crotched right back down. Corey loads up a superplex but O’Brian pulls him off the ropes and slams him face first into the mat.
Bo hits a quick missile dropkick on Conor for two as Bray is coming closer to the ring. O’Brian is sent face first into the buckle and has Dallas use his body as a springboard for a tornado bulldog on Graves, getting two. A DDT gets two on O’Brian but Graves kicks out Dallas’ leg. There’s the 13th Step leg lock on Bo but O’Brian comes in and puts Corey in a Koji Clutch to break the hold.
Bo breaks up that hold and is all fired up now. O’Brian is dropkicked to the floor and the belly to belly puts Graves down, but Wyatt pulls Corey to the floor. Bo breaks his concentration and yells at Wyatt, allowing O’Brian to hit him with a full nelson slam for the pin at 12:11 shown of 19:11.
Rating: B. Good stuff here as they had a lot of time to work with. Wyatt and Dallas building their story was a good idea and it makes the most sense to have O’Brian win, as he and Langston have unfinished business to get to. This was a solid main event and it sets up more for future shows, so what else can you ask of it?
Overall Rating: B. There was a lot of angle advancement here with a good match to top it off. The Wyatt Family getting a renewed push is a good thing to see and hopefully we’ll get some more of the awesome promos to back it up. NXT continues to be an entertaining week to week show as they make you want to come back for more. So few shows get that concept anymore and it’s nice to see for a change.
Results
Adrian Neville b. Scott Dawson/Judas Devlin – Corkscrew Shooting Star Press to Dawson
Leo Kruger b. Yoshi Tatsu – Seated Armbar
Sasha Banks/Cameron/Naomi b. Audrey Marie/Alicia Fox/Aksana – Leg lariat to Marie
Conor O’Brian b. Bo Dallas and Corey Graves – Full Nelson Slam to Dallas
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews
Part of a double shot today due to me being busy yesterday.Honorable Mention: Edge Cashes In (New Year’s Revolution 2006). A girl I knew was a Cena fan and bragged about him winning the Chamber. She went to bed and then Edge came out. Oh the great time I had the next day over that. This is still the gold standard for MITB cash-ins.
Honorable Mention: Goldberg Wins WCW Title (Monday Nitro – July 6, 1998). When I was ten years old, Goldberg was AWESOME. I wasn’t the biggest fan of his in the world, but a monster vs. Hogan for free on Nitro? You know I was going to be all over that. Goldberg destroyed Hogan, in one of the biggest jobs Hogan ever did.
5. Jeff Hardy Wins WWE Championship (Armageddon 2008). I’m not a big Jeff Hardy fan, but I TOTALLY bought into the Hardy Chases the Brass Ring story from 2008. I fell asleep earlier in the night and missed most of the show but turned it on just in time to see Hardy dive off the top and hit the Swanton on HHH before pinning Edge, FINALLY winning the championship he had spent all year chasing. We’ll get back to a similar story in a bit.
4. Backlash 2006. I was there. Not much else to say about this one.
3. Hogan Slams Andre (Wrestlemania 3). It’s the most famous scene from the biggest match ever at the biggest show ever. Hogan slamming Andre is the moment that made him immortal and cemented him as the biggest star of all time. You can hear the crowd gasp when Hogan picks him up and then explode when Andre hits the mat. There’s a reason this makes every highlight reel ever in the history of WWE. It’s never going to be topped no matter what happens in the future, period.
2. Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth Reunite (Wrestlemania 7). This is the only moment ever in wrestling that actually brings a tear to my eye. Savage had turned monster heel on February 3, 1989 and dumped Liz in the process. He hooked up with Sensational Sherri somewhere along the line while becoming the Macho Man. Liz had barely been seen since but was spotted in the crowd for Savage’s career ending match at Wrestlemania 7.
After Savage lost an amazing match where he gave it everything he had, Sherri turned on him, screaming about how he had cost her her career too. This prompted Liz to come out of the crowd and save Randy, who was shocked to see her there. With nothing left to lose, Savage realized the error of his ways and embraced Liz, finally going back to where he belonged. He then opened the ropes for her as opposed to her doing it for him as she had for years, showing that he was a changed man. If you’re an old fan, this will still work wonders.
1. Mick Foley Wins WWF Title (Monday Night Raw – January 4, 1999). This is the ultimate feel good moment for me as a fan. As someone who was overweight for a good portion of my teenage years (I walked into 6th grade standing 5’11 and weighing 230lbs), seeing someone else who was told he wasn’t the right size or didn’t have the right look win the world title and become the top man in the company always makes me smile. He spent his entire career scrapping and clawing and FINALLY he got what he had earned. That’s a perfect story and the moment never gets old.
WCW Pro
Date: March 7, 1992
Location: Civic Center, Columbus, Georgia
Attendance: 3,000
Commentator: Tony Schiavone
This is another show I’ve never looked at before but it’s the equivalent of probably Main Event today, not to be confused with WCW Main Event which is an entirely different show. We’re a few days past SuperBrawl which means Sting finally won the world title back from Lex Luger, who is on his way out of the company now, not be to be seen again for over three years. I’m not sure what to expect from this one so let’s get to it.
We open with Rude talking about how he’s beaten Sting before and he can do it again.
P.N. News vs. Fred Avery
News is a 400lb white rapper who is as stupid as he sounds. Avery weighs about 300lb himself and is from Wyoming of all places. News pounds away and dropkicks (kind of) Avery down. A clothesline puts Avery down again as does a fireman’s carry/Samoan Drop. News pounds away very slowly and hits a side slam before strolling around even more. Off to a reverse chinlock for a bit as this is dragging already. A belly to belly puts Avery down and a top rope splash ends this. News’ music was playing before the splash even hit.
Rating: D. News was as fat a fat slob that ever entered the ring this side of say Loch Ness. This was slow and plodding with News walking around the ring, likely in search of a Twinkie to prevent collapsing. He feuded with Steve Austin of all people at this time because when you have Austin, you put him in a feud with a fat tub of goo like News who can barely move an inch.
The new World Champion Sting talks about a title defense against Rude in Chicago.
Terry Taylor vs. Larry Santo
Taylor gets things going by sending Santo into the corner and dropping him with a jawbreaker. Santo is sent to the floor as we hear about Taylor taking Marcus Bagwell under his wing, only to turn on him in an attempt to destroy him. Taylor drops some knees on the back of the head and puts on a Boston Crab which goes nowhere. Taylor won’t even cover off a sitout powerbomb or a powerslam. The Five Arm (a forearm with a semi-clever name) puts Santo out of his misery.
Rating: D+. Not that this was good but it was better than the drek we sat through before this. Taylor though is one of the guys that I never have cared for no matter what he did, primarily because of his lame gimmicks. At this point he was the Taylor Made Man which meant he wore nice clothes. Seriously, that’s it.
Danny Wilson vs. Abdullah the Butcher
Butch is a guy who will run over everyone in sight and doesn’t care about rules at all, making this a more intense than usual squash. That’s what I can’t stand about these old shows: there’s nothing to say about them because it’s the same stuff over and over again. It’s the same destruction over and over again and there’s nothing to say here. Wilson is thrown to the floor and run over with a shoulder block back inside. Two big running 400lb elbows end this.
Rating: F+. Again, what do you want me to say here? Thankfully Butcher didn’t stab anyone in the head or main Wilson this time which is a step in the right direction for him. I’ve never been a fan of the guy as he’s in that camp that thinks bleeding everywhere and dropping an elbow or two makes you a wrestler. Now granted he’s done different stuff before, but his WCW stuff was dreadful.
We get a video from Jesse Ventura at the post-SuperBrawl party. Sting shows up for an impromptu press conference. He says he’ll face anyone who wants to face him and he’d love to defend it in Japan. Sting talks about how strong Luger (the guy he beat) was before Jesse asks what the trash talk was about. Apparently they were saying this is it and they were asking each other if they were ready. Sting doesn’t know who his next opponent will be but here’s the Dangerous Alliance, headed by Rick Rude.
He’s very happy about Sting being champion and offers Sting a drink. Sting says he has no reason to drink with Sting so there’s a drink to the face. Sting is ready to fight right now and it’s on with Rude getting a front facelock and riding Sting down with ease. The rest of the Alliance shows up and Sting is WAY outnumbered until security makes the save.
We get a segment called the Brickhouse Bonus which is an editorial from Jack Brickhouse, a legendary Chicago sportscaster. This is the Chicago version of WCW Pro, which is the same from a content perspective, but has stuff like that thrown in, along with ads for Chicago shows.
Young Pistol Steve vs. Ricky Steamboat
Steve is Steve Armstrong of the Armstrong Family. Feeling out process to start with Ricky carefully taking him into the corner. Steve heads to the apron as we’re over two minutes into this with barely any contact so far. A few shoulders put Steve down before Steamboat slaps him for no apparent reason. Ricky wants a test of strength but Armstrong stays in the corner. Armstrong grabs a headlock takeover out of the corner as they’ve got a lot of time to use here.
Another headlock takeover puts Ricky down again but Steamboat counters into a top wristlock. They go to the mat for some chain wrestling until Armstrong goes to the hair to keep him down. They get back up again with Steamboat taking over via a clothesline and a chop. Out to the floor now for nothing of note so we head back in for Steamboat to keep control. Armstrong goes into the corner a few times but he sends Ricky’s head into it instead to take over again.
Some punches to the face keep Steamboat down as Tony rambles about someone slapping someone else in the face. I would have more details about that but listening to Tony Schiavone makes my head hurt. A suplex puts Armstrong down but Armstrong hits one of his own on the Dragon. Ricky pops back up though and pounds away on Steve in the corner. Steamboat misses a clothesline and it’s off to a surfboard by Armstrong. A sunset flip gets one for Armstrong but Ricky rams him face first into the mat. Armstrong misses a charge and hits the ropes, allowing Ricky to go up top and finish with the cross body.
Rating: D+. This is one of those matches that was long for the sake of being long which doesn’t make it entertaining. At the end of the day, this was a former world champion against a lower midcard tag guy. This would be like Orton taking ten minutes to beat Epico. At the end of the day, it’s really hard to stay with a match that long when it’s just ok. Nothing to see here.
We run down the house show card again.
Rude says he’s going to show Chicago who the better man is between he and Sting.
Brian Pillman says don’t do steroids.
Overall Rating: D. This was your basic show from this era: a bunch of squashes and a feature match which didn’t work all that well. 1992 was decent at times, but you need more than this for a show to work. To be fair though this was the lower level show of the era which didn’t do it any favors. This was boring stuff, but at least it was relatively short.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews
But look at the tag division from WM 16 to WM 17.Coming into Wrestlemania 16 (April 2, 2000), Edge and Christian had never won the tag titles. Going into Wrestlemania 17 (April 1, 2001), they were record 6 time tag champions and would win their 7th titles that night. In the same year, five other teams (Dudleyz, Hardyz, RTC, Too Cool and Rock/Undertaker) all won tag titles. That’s about one title change every month, yet people complain when it changes every three months today. This was a golden era of tag wrestling though right?
Yet he never gets the credit for it….Randy Savage. Let’s look at his Mania career.
Wrestlemania 2: retains the IC Title.
Wrestlemania 3: greatest match of all time.
Wrestlemania 4: wins the World Title.
Wrestlemania 5: main event, Hogan’s second best match ever
Wrestlemania 7: second biggest and by far best match on the card, Warrior’s best match ever
Wrestlemania 8: wins world title, match of the night
Why doesn’t Savage get credit for such a career at Wrestlemania? That’s a fine career, let alone just at Wrestlemania.
http://www.wwe.com/inside/paul-bearer-passes-26096670
That’s rather sad. No word on what happened yet. He was 58 years old.
Kind of a big deal but it’s the easiest to write.
Honorable Mention: Edge. Before he became the ridiculous character that he was in the Rated R days, Edge was AWESOME, tearing Smackdown apart in 2002 and being on the verge of the world title until a neck injury put him on the shelf for over a year. I was a huge Edgehead back in the day as the look and the music got me totally into his stuff. There’s a fourway on Smackdown with him facing Angle, Guerrero and Benoit which is as good a TV match as you’ll see in a long time.
Honorable Mention: Rey Mysterio. Back in the mid to late 90s, Mysterio was like nothing else I had ever seen before. When you go from the big brawling guys of the 80s to Bret and Owen on the mat earlier in the decade to Mysterio jumping all over the place and doing flips that no one in America had ever seen before, how in the world can you not be impressed? Some guys would probably wind up doing it better, but Mysterio was doing it first and did it best back in the 90s.
Honorable Mention: Tito Santana. Santana is a guy where the more I see of him the more I like him. The guy was incredibly talented and had some very solid charisma, as he could get a crowd going no matter what he was doing. Santana is the original Kofi Kingston, as he won various other titles and got a once in a blue moon world title shot. He never was a threat to win the title, but it was next to impossible to have a bad match with him. That’s very valuable and it allows for a lot of help on a card.
5. Kane. Kane is a guy who constantly goes from being dull to entertaining at the drop of a hat. His debut back in 1997 is still one of the most awesome moments I can remember, as you had heard about Kane for months and months until he FINALLY debuted in the first Hell in a Cell match. It was clear from that moment that Undertaker was in for a fight and that’s what he got. Think about it like this: Steve Austin was the hottest thing in the world for well over a year but Kane took the title from him two months after he won it. That says a lot about him, even if it was for just one day. Throw in the HILARIOUS anger management stuff and Kane is one of the most entertaining guys I’ve ever seen.
4. Randy Savage. Again, the more I watch this guy the more I appreciate him. Savage is so smooth in the ring it’s unreal, as he can go from high flying to mat wrestling to brawling and back again like it’s no problem at all. On top of that, Savage was NUTS and had some of the most over the top and insane promos you’ll ever hear. Wait why am I bothering to explain this? If you don’t know who Randy Savage is, why are you reading this? The man is awesome and in a few years he’ll probably be higher on this list.
3. Hulk Hogan. Dude, it’s Hulk Hogan. He got me into wrestling as a kid and he kept me in it for years. It’s a simple idea: he’s a hero and he fought off the bad guys. It’s amazing how simple of a concept that is yet so many people over the years have tried to/insisted on overthinking it. While Hogan has done a lot of bad things over the years, without him there wouldn’t be a modern wrestling for him to do bad things in. That pretty easily makes up for all of it and there’s not much of an argument against it.
2. Sting. As much as I liked Hogan, there’s something about Sting that I like that much more. Sting is one of those guys that is indeed timeless and has done it all in wrestling. Yes I said did it all, because he doesn’t need to go to WWE. He’s one of the biggest stars of all time (get over yourself WON HOF. To suggest that Sting isn’t a main event star is ridiculous) and had one of the most intriguing stories in the history of wrestling, which just happened to draw a fortune. I love the guy and he’s always awesome.
1. Mick Foley. Foley on the other hand is awesome on a completely different level. One of my favorite movies is Rocky, which clearly had a lot of influence on the Mick Foley character. The night he won his first world title is still perfect and makes me smile every time I see it. On top of that though, Foley really is a brilliant character. Many people see him as three different interchangeable characters, but in reality it’s one who has multiple personalities that manifest themselves at the appropriate time. That’s a really interesting and deep idea which has never been done other than this that I can think of. On top of THAT, a few years ago I got to meet Foley at a book signing and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy, which made him all the more awesome. Go read his books as they’re certainly worth it, even Countdown to Lockdown.