Speaking of incredible video packages.It’s early 2002 and Ric Flair has taken over half of the WWF.  Vince refused to accept this and one night on Smackdown announced that he was going to poison his own company by bringing in the NWO.  Flair knew what this meant and made one last Hail Mary attempt to stop Vince from doing this.  Here’s what he did.  THis is as good a video package as I’ve ever seen, even better than My Way.

 

I’d LOVE an up to date one of these.

This is one of those things that WWE is just flat out better at than anyone else.Ever since last week, I can’t get that Monster song from the Daniel Bryan vs. HHH video out of my head.  I threw the video package for Bryan vs. HHH up on Youtube and my goodness is it amazing.  The same can be said of the Cena vs. Wyatt video and Lesnar vs. Undertaker.  WWE has an incredible production team that puts together the best recap videos I’ve ever seen.  Ten years from now, new fans are going to be able to watch those videos and hear everything they need to know about these feuds.

It’s something very important when it comes to the future.  Looking back at old WCW, TNA and even a lot of old WWF shows, there is almost zero explanation for why a lot of matches are taking place.  It’s just assumed that the fans have watched most of the shows and know the backstory.  That’s not very bright and makes it hard for new fans to jump in.  I know not every company can afford that kind of production, but I’ve seen good recap videos made for an e-fed with a budget of $0, oddly enough done by the same band that plays Monsters.  It can be done and it can be done well, and when it is, it’s something very valuable.

Smackdown
Date: April 11, 2014
Location: Cajundome, Lafayette, Louisiana
Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole

WWE is on a roll right now and the main story is Shield/Bryan facing off against Evolution with Kane taking Flair’s place. Other than that we’re likely to get more from the newest Paul Heyman Guy Cesaro, which was one of the most interesting things to come out of Raw. Also WWE seems to be bringing up new people from NXT so maybe we’ll get another debut tonight. Let’s get to it.

 

 

We open with the In Memory graphic for Warrior. Cole does a voiceover offering condolences to his fans and announces that Raw will be a tribute show. I’m so glad he got that one moment last week so this can actually feel genuine. Warrior passed away after this was taped so there won’t be any references to his passing during the show.

 

 

Opening sequence.

 

 

Here’s John Cena to get things going. Cena says the fans sound tired but he asks if they’re ready to go. Wrestlemania XXX started with the most iconic moment John Cena has ever seen with Hogan, Rock and Austin standing together in the middle of the ring. Cena lists off some other highlights from the show before getting to Bray Wyatt. Bray tried to turn a man into a monster but he still can’t see Cena.

 

 

We also saw the Streak broken, but then we saw the Game get played and a NEW WWE Champion. That was just Wrestlemania, because everything really went down on Raw. We turned Silver into Super, believed in the Shield, found out that Brock Lesnar was the one and heard the WWE Universe change his theme music. On top of that, on Monday John Cena was taught to Bo-Lieve, found out what you need to have a party, saw a big man named Alexander Rusev and the Divas division finally turned the Paige.

 

 

Cena lists off various nicknames and says he’s none of those things. He’s the standard bearer and measuring stick. If someone wants to stand on top of the WWE mountain, they have to go through him to get there. Cue the Wyatts with Harper saying time heals all wounds. Unfortunately, Cena has just given them more time to hurt him. Bray wishes he could feel pain sometimes but he’s different.

 

 

We all should embrace our differences and now he can’t stop smiling after losing at Wrestlemania. He feels so good because he saw that Cena isn’t hollow inside. Bray sees a lot of things inside himself and is thrilled because Cena is just one push away from becoming a monster. Wyatt will have to go to further extremes to make Cena because that monster, so hang on because this ride is just starting. He’s got the whole world in his hands.

 

 

We get some headlines about the Streak ending.

 

 

Big Show vs. Cesaro

 

 

Heyman does Cesaro’s intro and the King of Swing comes out without music. Paul brags about guiding Lesnar to a victory over Undertaker and says how it allowed him to pick the next big thing in Cesaro. They shake hands to start as Heyman joins commentary. Cesaro bounces off Big Show and falls to the floor. A loud chop knocks Cesaro off the apron but he gets back inside and tries to suplex Big Show from the apron.

 

 

That goes as well as you would expect and Big Show suplexes him to the floor, only to have Cesaro land on his feet. He tries a sunset bomb but Show sits on his chest to crush Cesaro against the apron for two. Cesaro bails from the KO Punch and has a meeting with Heyman. Paul’s advice: take his air. Back from a break with Show charging into a boot in the corner and getting caught in a sleeper.

 

 

Show drives him into the corner to break but misses a charge and gets put in the sleeper again. The giant shakes him off again and runs Cesaro over, only to have the chokeslam countered into a third sleeper. Heyman actually gives us some backstory by saying he had given Cesaro the advice that won him the battle royal. Big Show misses a middle rope splash and Cesaro loads up the Swing, only to have Jack Swagger run in for the DQ at 8:35.

 

 

Rating: C-. Cesaro not winning by pin is fine here as he held his own against a big name and even got the win. The match with Swagger will close the Real Americans chapter and give us a good moment when he swings Jack. Heyman is just so perfect as the guy bragging about his clients and makes you want to watch Cesaro even more.

 

 

Show cleans house but gets caught by some uppercuts from Cesaro, setting up the Neutralizer to a gasp from the crowd.

 

 

Los Matadores vs. Ryback/Curtis Axel

 

 

The announcers talk about being Bo-Lievers despite no vignette airing. Ryback throws Diego around to start but gets caught by a dropkick. Not that it has much effect though as Ryback powerslams Diego down for two before tagging Axel in for the first time. A clothesline to the back of the head gets two and it’s back to Ryback who gets two off a clothesline of his own. We hit the chinlock for a bit before a charge in the corner gets two on Diego.

 

 

Back to the chinlock from Ryback as this has been one sided so far. Diego fights up and makes the tag to Fernando for almost no reaction at all. Fernando cleans house and gets two on Axel with a leg trip DDT. Torito dives onto Ryback but gets caught in midair, only for Fernando to make the save. The distraction lets Axel hit his neckbreaker into a cutter for the pin at 5:00.

 

 

Rating: D-. What a dull match. Neither team means anything at all and they’re getting less and less interesting every time they’re out there. Los Matadores aren’t even that good in the ring anymore as they just do basic stuff and shout OLE a lot. Ryback could work well if given the chance on his own, but Axel just has nothing right now.

 

 

Van Dam says stuff is changing but it’s cool when you’re RVD.

 

 

Damien Sandow vs. Rob Van Dam

 

 

Sandow elbows him in the jaw to start but gets his head kicked off for his efforts. Rob poses but gets rolled up for two, only to get caught by Rolling Thunder. Another kick to the face sends him into the barricade but he comes back with some shots to the knee. Wind-Up Elbow gets two on Rob but he comes back with a rollup and another kick. Sandow breaks up the Five Star but gets shoved off when trying a superplex, setting up the Five Star for the pin at 4:22.

 

 

Rating: D+. Just a match to more firmly establish that Van Dam is back. There’s only so much you can get back out of beating Sandown though. The only good thing for Sandow is that he’s getting to the point where they’re going to repackage him after losing so much. It’s a bad way to go but it’s modern WWE.

 

 

Adam Rose vignette.

 

 

It’s Hogan time. Hulk praises Daniel Bryan’s performance at Wrestlemania and says he turned it into Yes-tlemania. The sight of Bryan holding both titles up gave him chills, so here’s Bryan in person. Daniel wants to tell the Hulkster something: this has been the best week of his life. He’s getting married soon and he just won the title in the main event of Wrestlemania.

 

 

Daniel talks about growing up watching wrestling and seeing Hogan as the biggest star in the world. He prayed every night to be able to main event Wrestlemania and took his vitamins to get 24 inch pythons. Bryan has been a Hulkamaniac since before he can remember but there’s one thing that would make it even better. He asks for Hogan’s music to be played and the posing begins. This is another of those things that never stops making me smile.

 

 

The second hour begins with another In Memory graphic for Warrior.

 

 

Bad News Barrett vs. Kofi Kingston

 

 

Barrett does the catchphrase to start but gets kicked down for his efforts. Some more kicks have the same effect and the Boom Drop connects for good measure. Bad News bails from Trouble in Paradise before laying out Kofi with the Bull Hammer for the pin at 2:10. That was Barrett’s only big move of the match.

 

 

We get the Thank You video from Raw which is a nice touch.

 

 

Santino Marella vs. Fandango

 

 

Apparently Fandango has dumped Summer Rae and replaced her with Layla. Not a horrible trade. Santino hammers away to start as the announcers talk about the dictionary. The hiptoss looks to set up the Cobra but Layla steals the sock, allowing Fandango to grab a rollup for the pin at 1:30.

 

 

Video on Paige about how she’s the anti-Diva. If nothing else we get to see what the Paige Turner is supposed to look like. This transitions into a video from Monday of the title change.

 

 

Adam Rose is still coming.

 

 

We recap the end of Raw with Shield officially turning face by attacking HHH and pals.

 

 

On Main Event, Shield said they were prepared for war with the Authority’s injustice.

 

 

Back live with Kane telling Batista and Orton that they need to put their differences aside and fight their common enemies. He wants Bryan for himself but Orton and Batista both want him for themselves. Kane says that’s what’s wrong with them because they all need each other.

 

 

Usos/Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton/Batista/Kane

 

 

Batista shoves Jimmy into the corner to start as we hear about HHH battling with Shield over Twitter. Off to the injured Jey who takes a shot to his bad ribs as the heels take over. Orton comes in and stomps away before ripping off the tape. We take a break and come back with Kane knocking Jey out of the air with an uppercut for two. Back to Orton for a catapult into the bottom rope and another two count.

 

 

Randy shrugs off a chop and dropkicks Jey down before tagging Kane back in again. That goes nowhere so here’s Orton again for a chinlock with a body vice followed by the powerslam for two. Daniel offers a distraction though and Jey nails a Samoan drop. Kane can’t break up the hot tag and it’s hot tag to the World Champion. Bryan kicks Kane to the floor for the FLYING GOAT before the Usos dive on the other heels as well. The brawl continues on the floor and it’s a double countout at 9:00 shown of 12:00.

 

 

Rating: C-. Basica formula stuff here though I’m not sure why we couldn’t have Bryan hit a knee on one of the guys for the pin or at least slide back in to beat the count. Either way, at least he didn’t get destroyed and the Usos didn’t get pinned either. I’ll take the draw over a champion getting beaten any day.

 

 

Orton and Batista lay out the Usos post match but the Shield runs in to stop Kane from chokeslamming Bryan through the table. Shield chases off the other guys as well and Kane takes the running knee followed by the Triple Bomb to end the show.

 

 

Overall Rating: C. This show wasn’t bad but they were clearly out of steam at this point. This was really just a supplement to everything else that had happened in the last few days and a sequel to Raw minus the interesting stuff. It’s certainly not a bad show or anything like that but there’s nothing worth seeing here.

 

 

Results

 

Cesaro b. Big Show via DQ when Jack Swagger interfered

 

Ryback/Curtis Axel b. Los Matadores – Neckbreaker into a cutter to Fernando

 

Rob Van Dam b. Damien Sandow – Five Star Frog Splash

 

Bad News Barrett b. Kofi Kingston – Bull Hammer

 

Fandango b. Santino Marella – Rollup

 

Usos/Daniel Bryan vs. Kane/Batista/Randy Orton went to a double countout

 

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

 

 

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:

 

My goodness he’s set the bar high for most meaningless World Title reign.

OH YEAH it’s the Macho Man.

 

As has been becoming more common, no timeline of course as it’s freaking Randy Savage.

 

We’ll start with the end of one of the longest stories in WWF history: the Mega Powers Exploding. The story had been built up for over a year but could arguably be traced back over twice that long as the two were rivals from the time Savage debuted in the WWF. Here’s the main event of Wrestlemania V with Savage defending the WWF Title against Hogan.

 

WWF World Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage

This is huge and Savage is on fire here. As I said Liz is in a neutral corner despite never being Hogan’s manager as a singles guy ever. Savage comes out first for no apparent reason. Savage immediately heads to the floor to stall as you would expect him to do. The fans HATE him at this point after loving him like crazy a year earlier. Hogan finally shoves Savage down and it’s time to stall some more.

Back up and Hogan shoulders him down again for the third trip to the floor for Savage. As Jesse and Gorilla get in an argument over the value of managers, Savage grabs a headlock. Hulk shoves him off and Randy heads outside, only to hide behind Liz in a truly evil move. Back in again and Hogan actually uses a nice amateur move and hooks a front facelock. That wasn’t bad at all. Savage powers out of it (surprising as well) and pokes Hogan in the eye to take over.

A top rope ax handle gets one on Hogan and it’s off to an armbar. In something you don’t often see, Hogan is pulled down to the mat by his hair. It feels weird even typing that. Hulk uses a handful of trunks to launch Randy out to the floor and Jesse freaks out. Back in and a clothesline puts Randy down, followed by a series of elbow drops. Hulk is bleeding above the eye.

Randy gets in a shot to the face and puts on a fast sleeper which is transitioned into a chinlock. Hulk comes back with an atomic drop but an elbow drop misses. A shot into the buckle sets up a rollup with trunks for two on Hulk. Savage stomps on his fingers which ticks Hogan off. Hogan slams Savage to the floor where the champion doesn’t want Liz’s help. Hulk follows him out and rams Randy’s face into the barricade.

Savage escapes being posted and sends Hogan in by mistake. After sending Hulk back in, Randy yells at Liz a bit more and shoves her up the aisle. The referee ejects Liz, making the only interesting factor a nonfactor. Back to the floor and Savage drops the ax handle off the top to send Hogan throat first into the barricade. Savage goes after the throat with various evil measures but the elbow only gets two. Hulk Up, big boot, leg drop, new champion.

Rating: B-. It’s Hogan vs. Savage so these two are always going to have at least a watchable match, but at the end of the day this was pretty much designed to be a Hogan win and that’s what it wound up being. The smart move would be to have Savage keep the title by DQ or something, causing Hulk to chase the title until Summerslam for the title change. But instead we go with the easy (and not horrible) ending. It’s a good match here but not great.

 

We’ll jump ahead to Savage’s second title reign and a rare title defense from this time. From June 19, 1992 in Sheffield, England.

 

Randy Savage vs. Shawn Michaels

Shawn now has Sensational Sherri Martel with him. Savage still has a bad knee from Wrestlemania so he’s coming in at a disadvantage. Shawn takes him into the corner to start but Savage escapes with ease and sends Shawn to the floor. They fight for control over a hammerlock before Shawn charges into a knee in the corner. Michaels bails to the floor with the champion following him out. Randy throws a chair into the ring which winds up doing nothing.

Back in and Savage clotheslines Shawn out to the floor before dropping a double ax handle smash to Shawn’s face. Sherri and Liz get in a fight on the floor until Randy breaks it up and sends his wife to the back. Shawn uses the distraction to get in a shot to the back and take control. We head back inside with the champion getting caught in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two.

Shawn stomps away and hits a swinging neckbreaker for two, only to have one of his kicks caught by the champion. A slingshot sends Shawn face first into the post before Savage snaps Shawn’s throat across the top rope. Michaels is sent back to the floor for another top rope ax handle before being sent into the post.

Back in and another top rope ax handle gets two for the champion but an attempt at a fourth is countered by a punch to the ribs.

Michaels slams him down and hits a top rope fist drop for no cover as Savage rolls out to the floor. Shawn sends him into the barricade before going back inside, only to throw him back out to the floor. This is early in Shawn’s singles career so he doesn’t have a lot of experience or a deep offensive set to draw on. We head back in again and a right hand gets two for the challenger before Savage runs into the referee.

Randy takes over again and slams Shawn down before hitting the top rope elbow. There’s no referee to count the pin though so Sherri comes in to kick Randy a bit. Monsoon wants Randy to punch Sherri in the face because he’s not a nice guy at times. The referee comes in to count two on Michaels as Liz comes back to neutralize Sherri. Randy hits a top rope cross body for two before Shawn gets the same off a top rope sunset flip. Savage runs across the ring and heads up top for another cross body which is good enough to retain the title.

Rating: C-. The match was watchable but it was clear that they were out of stuff to do after about ten minutes. That’s a problem when this match runs just under seventeen. Shawn would get FAR better in the future while Savage would stay about the same for years to come. This would also be Liz’s last appearance with the WWF due to her real life divorce from Savage.

 

Off to WCW for a bit in one of Savage’s best feuds in the promotion. From Great American Bash 1997.

 

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage

Falls count anywhere. Buffer calls it lights out, which has meant a bunch of things over the years. Liz looks great tonight but Kimberly looks a bit better. Page comes in through the crowd and it’s on. A quick cutter attempt doesn’t work and Savage heads to the floor. Page dives on his but the ribs are still bad so it puts both guys down. Back inside Page takes him down with a clothesline and another off the top.

Back to the floor and they go into the crowd with Savage in control. They fight up towards a concrete wall and then through a door into the concourse. Page gets a crutch and waits for Savage to come back through so he can break the crutch over his back. Back to ringside with Savage hitting something like a spinebuster to further mess with Page’s ribs. Page gets a weapon somehow but Savage has powder to slow him down.

Page manages to hit him with whatever he had and both guys are down. Savage gets up first and takes the tape off of Page’s ribs. For no apparent reason he piledrives the referee and Page has an opening. He hits a headbutt but Randy goes right back to the ribs. A second referee comes out and is tossed as well. Savage sends him to the floor and goes after Kimberly but referee #3 (Nick Patrick) makes the save.

They fight up by the stage and there’s a VIP picnic area which they destroy. Dusty freaks out because there’s a barbecue pit. Page wins the battle of the smoked meat and it’s back to the ring. Savage gets crotched on the post and pancaked. The Cutter is countered by a jawbreaker and they head outside again. Savage loads up a piledriver on the exposed concrete but Nick Patrick makes the save and gets decked as a result.

Savage snaps (into it), sending Patrick into the barricade and beating up a photographer. Page comes back to send him into the steel and they go back in. A low blow stops the Diamond Cutter but another attempt at it connects. Both guys are down so here’s Hall. Page fights him off but Savage clocks him with Hall’s belt. The Outsider’s Edge lets Savage hit the elbow for the pin.

Rating: B-. Pretty solid brawl here but at the end of the day, so what? It’s certainly better than their Spring Stampede match and since Page won the first one I have little problem with him losing here. The NWO stuff was annoying but you knew it was coming. Pretty decent main event though and certainly the best in months.

Back to 1988 and Savage’s first World Title reign. He was still feuding with Ted DiBiase and would face him in a cage for the title on June 25, 1988.

WWF World Title: Ted DiBiase vs. Randy Savage

 

Oh yeah. This is on Savage’s DVD. I love that Fink has to tell us that it’s a cage match, WHEN THE BIG FREAKING CAGE IS AROUND THE RING ALREADY. I know fans are viewed as stupid but come on now. This is escape only and we’re in MSG so the crowd is white hot. DiBiase jumps him as soon as the bell rings. He misses a knee drop though and they slug it out from their knees. This is looking more like a fight than a match which is always cool when you have the talent to pull it off.

 

DiBiase beats him down and goes up the cage but Savage makes the save. The crowd is way into this already. Savage blocks a shot into the cage, I think. Actually maybe he did because he’s down already. Ted runs again but Savage makes another save. DiBiase gets his feet caught in the ropes coming down so Savage goes up, only to get caught by Virgil to put him back into the cage.

 

Randy sends him into the cage and goes up but gets punched by Virgil again. They’re doing a lot of “one guy goes up, the other guys saves, then reverse it”, which is great for building drama. Liz asked Superstar Billy Graham earlier today for some advice. “My advice is to gain about 50 pounds so you’ll look better.” That man is an idiot! DiBiase goes for the door but Savage makes the save. Then reverse that order and they do it again.

 

Both guys go up on opposite sides of the cage but Virgil makes the save. DiBiase jumps down for absolutely no apparent reason and stomps on Savage some more. A suplex is countered by Savage and he goes for the door but Virgil slams the cage on his head to break it up again. Graham goes on another rant about how Liz needs to gain weight to help her man. Savage makes another save as DiBiase goes for the door. He goes off on DiBiase as Virgil climbs up again. A fan climbs the cage to help Savage but Randy rams the heels’ heads together and climbs down to retain.

 

Rating: B. Solid old school style cage match here with the whole thing being based around drama and near escapes. Graham being an idiot got old fast, with him wanting the premiere sex symbol of wrestling ever up to that point to put on 50 pounds of muscle. Seriously, he said that. Anyway, fun match with lots of drama and DiBiase as the most evil thing around makes for a good main event.

 

We’ll go even further into the past for Savage’s first major show: the Wrestling Classic. It’s a one night tournament and here’s the match of the night.

 

Semi-Finals: Randy Savage vs. Dynamite Kid

Oh dang that sounds really good. Again with the fifteen minutes though. There’s two matches left so they’re cutting it to fifteen minutes. That’s just brilliant isn’t it? They’re in different outfits again which they would do much better in 1988 at Mania 4. Savage is all patriotic in red, white and blue. Savage shows off his muscles which isn’t something that you see that often. Gorilla makes fun of his name and Jesse shuts him up by calling him Orangutan Monsoon. That was just funny.

This just looks awesome. Imagine Benoit against Savage and that’s what you’ve got here. In another great line, Gorilla asks what the point of having Liz out there is. Jesse says look at her and if you can’t figure it out you’re on your own. Jesse and Gorilla are just flat out greatness together. I really do see Benoit when I look at Dynamite. They’re that similar, even down to their muscle masses.

Considering the greatness of Hogan at the top and with great wrestlers like these two and Santana and Steamboat, how in the world could the WWF lose? In short, they simply weren’t going to for a good while. In a GREAT ending, Savage goes up to the top but gets crotched after an amazing dropkick. A perfect top rope superplex puts Savage down but he manages to hook his legs up with Dynamite’s for the pin. AWESOME ending.

Rating: A. Five freaking minutes for this? That’s ALL? I would pay to see more of these two as this was just great stuff. Screw the A-, as more time would make this an A+. Anyone that says neither of these guys were good in the ring, watch this match and if you still say that I’ll smack you with a halibut. That was a great ending and a great match.

 

Back to the future for the feud that brought Savage back to the ring. Savage was brought out of retirement when Jake Roberts and Undertaker attacked him at his wedding. Randy demanded a fight with Roberts at This Tuesday In Texas and that’s exactly what he got.

 

Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage

Savage jumps Jake in the aisle and we’re off. The crowd isn’t cheering so much as roaring. I mean they’re hardcore here. The thing is it’s kind of hard to take Savage seriously here as he’s got a feather on his hat that’s at the very least a foot and a half tall. That’s just freaking huge. Ok good it’s gone now. As for why this feud is happening, Savage had gotten married but Jake wasn’t invited to the bachelor party because he was a heel. Well if nothing else that’s creative.

That led to Savage coming out of retirement to fight him, but one day on I think Superstars, Jake beat down Savage and put his (devenomized) cobra onto Savage’s arm, but it held on too long and the bite was worse than expected. Jake also shoved Liz, which made him the biggest heel in forever. They were supposed to be opposing captains in the Survivor Series main event but due to the cobra attack, Savage was deemed too hurt to fight so we got this instead.

Jake goes kind of low to break the momentum. Savage’s arm is screwed up because of the snake bite injury too. In a nice little touch, Jake rips the bandage off of the arm and there’s blood under the tape. His arm was fine, but they thought about it here enough to make it look like he’s injured worse than he really is.

Since the arm is so hurt Roberts is beating the heck out of Savage. Just as I say that, Savage gets a quick shot in and within 30 seconds he gets Jake down and hits the elbow for the win in a match that felt like it had 3 minutes cut out.

Now we get to the important part though. Savage gets the bell but the referee stops him, allowing Jake to get a quick DDT. Savage is down but Jake is still hurt too so Savage actually beats him to his feet. A second DDT puts Savage out cold though and Jake is up now. After faking leaving, Jake comes back and goes under the ring to pull out a little bag. This doesn’t sound like much but it’s an absolutely INSANE reaction for every tiny movement.

Liz comes running down and is FREAKING on Roberts. Jake is feeding on her fears here and it’s amazing stuff. Savage kind of gets up and he takes an unprecedented third DDT. No one had ever taken more than one before this so that was completely insane. He puts the cobra handler glove on and Liz just completely loses it. Jake slips the glove off and says that Liz better beg if she wants to save him.

They stand up and Jake secures his place in the 7th circle of eternal torment BY PUNCHING LIZ. Jack Tunney comes out to glare at Jake and suspend him for having a snake with him until he points out there was no snake in the bag, which confuses Tunney to no end, which is impressive for him as asking his name confuses him more than likely.

In the back, Jake says that when he hit Liz, it was the best feeling he’s ever had and he would pay to be able to do that again. He ends it by saying that Savage can come back again, but to bring his wife again because Jake can make her into something even he would want. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but this was one of the best heel promos I’ve ever seen in my life.

Rating: C+. The match is a fast paced mess but the angle is just completely awesome. The problem was there was never the big match that these guys so desperately needed where Savage could destroy Jake with like 5 elbows or something because Flair came in and changed everything around.

 

Now we’ll look at a match in the company that made Savage a big deal. Back in the territory days, Savage’s family ran a company called International Championship Wrestling which went to war with Jerry Lawler’s CWA. They did a lot of the same stuff that happened in the Monday Night Wars like giving away results, but in the early 80s. The interesting thing though was eventually Savage wound up in Memphis, setting up a huge war with Lawler. Here’s a loser leaves town match from June 3, 1985 to finally blow the whole thing off.

 

Jerry Lawler vs. Randy Savage

 

The referee is on the floor so this can be an even bigger fight. Savage bails to the floor a few times and we get our first lockup nearly two minutes into the match. A right hand knocks Savage into the corner and it’s time for more stalling. It works so well that they do it again but this time Savage goes to the floor and throws in a chair. We get even more stalling until they spit at each other.

 

Lawler hits his second right hand and Randy goes outside again. We’re over five minutes into the match already. Back in and Savage snaps Lawler’s throat across the top rope to take over. Jerry hits Savage low to put him right back down and Savage bails into the crowd. We take a break and come back with both guys going down off a collision. Jerry fires off left hands but misses a charge into the post.

 

Now it’s Savage with right hands and a running knee to send Lawler off the apron. Jerry gets posted and busted open as this is all Macho anymore. We head back inside as Lance Russell says we’re 27 minutes in, meaning about fourteen minutes were cut off in the break. Savage hammers away at the eye and the referee stops the match due to the cut. That’s not good enough for Randy though as he wants things to keep going. Lawler says he’s not going out that way and says it should be a pin. That’s fine with Savage and they fight goes on. The strap goes down and Jerry goes nuts, ending Savage with two fist drops and the piledriver.

 

Rating: C. This was almost all backstory which is why a lot of the match wasn’t all that entertaining. The stalling is something you just have to get used to in Memphis but it doesn’t make for a bad match. It also would have helped to not cut out nearly fifteen minutes from the middle. Savage would be in the WWF in about a week.

 

We’ll jump ahead to WCW now as Savage faces someone you may have heard of in a US Title Tournament match on May 27, 1995.

 

US Title Tournament Second Round: Steve Austin vs. Randy Savage

 

Austin beat Jim Duggan to get here while Savage beat Butcher. Savage takes him down to start as the announcers talk about Flair beating up Savage’s dad at Slamboree. Austin is thrown to the floor and into the post….before the big elbow ends this in just over two minutes. Did I mention Austin was on his way out?

 

It’s back to the WWF and a match with one of Savage’s longest running rivals for the WWF Title at Wrestlemania VIII. I’ll throw in the awesome post match promos as a bonus.

 

WWF World Title: Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage

There’s no Liz in sight to start and Savage comes to the ring last. Oh and Mr. Perfect is in Flair’s corner which will come into play later. Flair tries to walk up the aisle so Savage decks him from behind. Perfect makes a save by throwing Randy down as things are looking chaotic already. They get into the ring and Savage starts fast with some shots into the corner and punches down onto Flair’s head.

Heenan is at his most biased ever and his voice is almost cracking already. A clothesline puts Flair down and a back elbow gets two. Flair comes back with a big backdrop to put Savage out on the floor as the champion takes over. Flair rams Savage’s back into the apron and takes over with a few suplexes including a belly to back for two. Heenan wants to see the pictures and I can’t say I blame him.

A big chop puts Savage down for two and we head to the floor. Savage has his back rammed into the apron again and Flair suplexes him back into the ring for two more. Randy comes back with a single right hand and the place ERUPTS. A swinging neckbreaker puts Flair down but he pokes Savage in the eye to take him down. The champ goes up top, only to jump into a clothesline from Savage. Savage whips him into the corner and we get a Flair Flip to the apron where Ric runs up top, only to jump into another clothesline for two.

Savage hits his third clothesline in a roll to send Flair out to the floor. A top rope ax handle sends Flair into the barricade followed by a shot into the post. Flair is busted open and there’s the Flair Flop on the floor. A suplex puts Flair down on the floor again as Heenan is begging for the match to be stopped. Back in and Savage pounds away before hitting a top rope ax handle for two.

The top rope elbow hits but Perfect breaks up the pin. Thankfully the referee doesn’t call for the bell as Perfect throws something to Ric. The referee is bumped but it’s not that bad. A shot to the face with the object puts Randy down but it only gets two. The fans are losing their minds on these kickouts. Flair pounds away and is pulled away by the referee, allowing Perfect to blast him in the knee with a chair.

This brings out Liz who marches through some suits (one of which being worn by Shane McMahon) as Flair works over the leg. The knee crusher sets up the Figure Four (complete with interference from Perfect). Heenan: “SHOW ME THE PICTURES!” Randy turns the hold over but Flair breaks it quickly. Savage’s leg is done but he grabs a two count off a small package. Flair says this is for Liz as he stomps on the knee even more. He grabs Savage’s leg but Savage gets in a quick right hand and rolls Flair up (with a handful of trunks) for the pin and the title.

Rating: A. If you ever want a match based on the good guy overcoming insurmountable odds, this is pretty high up on the list. Savage came back from EVERYTHING and while Liz was there, she wasn’t a major factor at all. The match is a masterpiece with both guys looking great. Savage was in a career resurgence, despite being world champion only three years earlier. Anyway, great match here and it still holds up very well today.

Post match Flair tries to kiss Liz, triggering another brawl. Perfect helps take Savage down and lets Flair pound away for a bit. Referees finally break it up and Savage is announced as the new champion to a big roar.

Flair, Perfect and Heenan go on a huge rant against Savage with Flair saying that Savage is going to be lying about being champion and lying about having the love of Liz. They tell Savage to do it again and claim that Savage was a cheater which won’t work again.

Savage gives a rebuttal, saying that he’s going to go after Flair no matter where or when it is. He hands Liz the title and says that it’s hers. As for Flair, Savage is for him and it’s going to continue. I love these two promos and they still work very well.

 

Another of Savage’s major rivals was of course Hulk Hogan and as I mentioned, they fought several times before Wretlemania V. Here’s one of those matches from December 30, 1985.

 

WWF Title: Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan

This is one of about 1000 matches these two had and since it’s from around 85, this should be sweet. Apparently this is the first time they’ve ever fought so Savage is almost brand new at this point. Savage poses to start and they finally lock up with Hogan shoving Savage away with ease. Hogan establishes his power advantage early on so Savage bails, hiding behind Liz as he would tend to do.

LOUD Hogan chant starts up as Savage stalls even more to big time heat. We’re in the Garden again if you didn’t guess that. The fans are ridiculously into this as it was easily the biggest match in the world with Hogan being the unstoppable champion and Savage being the best heel in company history, being totally insane and amazing in the ring. You have to keep in mind that heels until then were either evil foreigners or big muscle guys.

Enter Randy Savage who is not only nuts but is young, small and fast. No one had ever seen anything like him and he was pushed as an absolute killer. This would have easily been the main event at Mania had the timing been right. By waiting four years to pull the trigger on that it was huge and the buyrates reflect that.

Savage’s stalling is awesome here as the fans want to see him get his head kicked in but he won’t do it. Hogan catches him coming off with a cross body and throws him to the floor. Savage pulls Liz in front of him again as the stalling and everything here is just working. Savage jaws with some fans so Hogan is like screw it and blasts him. Hogan takes too long to get in though and Randy takes over.

Double axe from the top to the floor has Hogan in big trouble. Savage gets back in to BIG heat. The Hulk Up happens rather early it would seem and the big boot sends Savage to the floor again. More Liz interference allows Savage to take Hogan down and hit the big elbow for two. Hogan gets up but hits the referee by mistake. Savage gets the belt and jumps off the top to clock Hulk who is on the floor.

Hogan is busted open and down on the floor. Savage wakes up the referee and literally does the counting for him in a funny bit. Savage grabs the belt and runs in the ring with it, declaring himself champion. I don’t see why he shouldn’t be. He defeated the champion in a title match didn’t he? He carries the belt with him and then is TICKED when he’s told it didn’t change hands.

Rating: B. Another great match here with both guys having a ton of fun out there. This was a natural fight and it worked like a charm every time. These early matches they had were definitely the best matches they had as the novelty was still there. This was very fun as the crowd was way into it. Solid match and very fun.

 

One more WWF match from the 1980s that I bet you’ve never seen before. This is one of the matches that eventually caused the Survivor Series.

 

Randy Savage/Harley Race/Adrian Adonis vs. Roddy Piper/Junkyard Dog/Ricky Steamboat

This is elimination rules and it was a brand new idea at the time. They were popular enough that a PPV version was made later in the year. For some reason, Slick is on commentary. These are all matches at Wrestlemania and the last appearance in MSG for Piper so gee, I wonder who will win here. Savage runs and hides from Steamboat but they wind up starting.

Savage tries to roll away and it’s Race in now with no tag. Off to JYD and it’s rolling headbutts time. They look at each other for awhile as Steamboat plays cheerleader. Belly to belly puts JYD down and it’s off to Savage again. He loads up the elbow but stops to yell at Steamboat. Piper shoves Randy into the now legal Steamboat. My goodness I’d love to see Savage and Piper have a feud. Not the kind they had in WCW either.

Off to Adonis and he runs from Piper. Everything breaks down and all six are in there. A double suplex puts Roddy down and Adrian hooks the sleeper on him. That doesn’t last and Piper hooks a sleeper which is broken up just as quickly. JYD is waiting on an opponent now. I know it sounds like I’m skipping a lot but they’re moving in and out of there so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep up with.

Adonis works on the Dog but hits him in the head because heels are stupid. Everyone goes to the floor and Roddy hits Adrian with a chair. Back to some form of sanity as Piper hits a belly to back suplex on Race but Savage breaks up the cover. This has been incredibly fast paced. And there’s a bell. Uh……why? Adonis and JYD were both counted out because they were legal. Ok then.

Piper vs. Race now and make that Piper vs. Savage. Piper blocks a suplex as Gorilla and Slick argue. Savage misses a shot into the ropes but Race prevents the tag. And never mind as he makes it just a second later. Steamboat speeds things up on Race as Slick yells about karate. Everyone gets in again and my goodness is there some talent in there. There isn’t a bad combination at all out there.

Steamboat rolls up Race but Savage reverses it and somehow it gets the pin, after about 15 seconds of Steamboat being down. I don’t think so but whatever. Ok so it’s Piper vs. Race/Savage. Piper of course is all cool with going straight for Race and they go to the floor. Savage tries to hit him with a chair but they get back in and somehow Savage is now legal. Top rope double axe gets two. Powerslam gets two for Race. Piper grabs a gutwrench suplex but Savage makes the save.

Savage goes up but the double axe hits Race, allowing Piper to steal a pin and it’s 1-1. Now THIS should be awesome. And this is how Piper goes out of MSG? This works I’d think. Race won’t leave so Piper throws Savage into him and then bulldogs Randy down. Savage tries to bail but suckers Piper in and gets the first punch in. That weird clothesline Savage does takes Roddy down for two.

They start choking away at each other and this is so awesome. Piper actually shows off his strength and holds Savage up in a choke. They collide and Savage is knocked to the floor. Piper gets up but then lays down and plays possum. Savage goes up for the elbow but Piper moves and a small package ends the Macho Man. TOTALLY AWESOME and vintage Piper.

Rating: A. I had a blast with this. The talent levels out there were completely insane and they gave us twenty minutes of a great match. These matches could work so well if they were done right and this one was, especially when they have the time to put it together. The eliminations were a bit off, but this was probably the first one ever. Great match though and an absolute blast.

World War 3

Arn Anderson, Alex Wright, Brian Knobbs, Ricky Santana, David Taylor, Scott Armstrong, Sting, Joey Maggs, Pez Whatley, Disco Inferno, Meng, Stevie Ray, Mark Starr, Buddy Lee Parker, James Earl Wright, Lex Luger, Eddy Guerrero, Cobra, The Giant, Paul Orndorff, Khris Kanyon, Bobby Walker, Bobby Eaton, Chris Benoit, Randy Savage, Marcus Bagwell, The Yeti, Kurosawa, Hugh Morrus, Zodiac Man

VK Wallstreet, DDP, Scott Norton, Brian Pillman, Craig Pittman, One Man Gang, Super Assassin #1, Mr. JL, Bunkhouse Buck, Kensuke Sasaki, Mike Winner, Hawk, Shark, Steve Armstrong, David Sullivan, Scotty Riggs, Johnny B. Badd, Black Bart, Steven Regal, Dick Slater, Maxx Muscle, Super Assassin #2, Fidel Sierra, Kevin Sullivan, Jerry Saggs, Jim Duggan, Booker T, Big Bubba, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan.

If I’m right then the first twenty of that list are in one ring, next in another and the last in a third. No clue which is which but whatever. There are three teams of commentators: Tony and Bobby, Larry Zbyszko and Chris Cruise (I don’t know him either) and Dusty and Eric. Let’s get this over with as the word mess could be defined as this.

First of all there are three cameras and the screen is cut into three small shots. We’re not told which is which. Not that it matters as you CANNOT SEE A THING! Seriously, they’re so crowded and so small you can’t see anything. Once we get a ring down to ten they go to other rings until there are 30 left and they all go to one ring. That makes PERFECT sense right? Having 30 people at once in a ring couldn’t go bad could it?

Ok so Eric and Dusty have ring 2. Tony and Bobby have ring 1 and the other guys have ring 3. Got it I think. Cruise is trying but he’s annoying so far. Keep in mind this is all pre stuff and the match hasn’t started yet. I’m just killing time until everyone gets to the ring. Buffer calls it the best battle royal ever. They’re going to show the 92 Rumble? Ok now he just needs to shut up so we can get through the end of this. Ah there we are. Oh wait we have to do a ton of pyro first.

Ok ring 1 is the center ring. Got it. Hogan is there. I think Sting and Luger are in ring 2 with Giant. That puts Yeti in ring 3. Hawk fights Hogan. That’s weird to say the least when you think about it. The problem becomes clear early on: FAR too people being eliminated. We have no one gone in the first minute or so. Never mind as Yeti is gone. Everyone goes after Savage but that doesn’t work of course. Hogan and Flair are on the floor fighting.

That’s another thing they improved on later as people keep going through the ropes and under them, making it very confusing. MIKE WINNER IS OUT!!! A bunch of heels go after Hogan. Guess how well that works. This three camera thing is idiotic. Knobbs puts Mark Starr out. See what I was talking about when I said too many jobbers? Three guys are out of ring 1. Hogan gets ganged up on again and does a nice thing of punches to get out.

That was far faster than I’ve ever seen Hogan throw them. Bagwell and Kanyon are out so there are 17 left in ring 3. Stinger Splash hits someone as Black Bart is out. Anderson and Luger are fighting on the floor but they’re both in still. Benoit and Savage are fighting. That’s a good sounding feud. Imagine that in 98 or so. Dang. Another jobber is out. Giant goes off and puts like 3 or four out at once which was really badly needed.

Sting vs. Giant is a fun feud. That ring is thinning out a bit. Ring 2 in case you care. In ring 1 a guy is taken out on a stretcher. Shockingly, all of the big stars are still left. Ring 2 is being broken up as we have ten left there. They went into ring one, so ring 2 is eliminated I guess you would say. Instead of dropping us down to two cameras of course, we stay with three. Brilliant.

Benoit hammers on DDP which is another solid sounding feud. Wallstreet is out, more commonly known as IRS. Norton is gone too. That’s enough and we head into the first ring as we have approximately 30 left. Screw the rules I guess. Savage beats on DDP. It’s about 2 years away but that was a great feud. Everyone beats on Hogan with Zodiac choking him with his boot. I say choking when I mean putting his foot about a foot from Hogan’s throat.

You can see the tights between the gap. That’s pitiful. Pittman, like an idiot, puts a cross armbreaker on a guy. Pillman goes after Hogan. That’s just odd to see. 29 to go apparently. Bubba and Duggan put each other out. Dave Taylor vs. Hogan is weird to see. Luger has been on the floor for the majority of the match. That’s kind of smart. Screw the kind of part actually. It’s brilliant. Disco is out. Hogan vs. Booker T is ANOTHER weird combination.

Now why did these guys never get to fight Hogan other than in a massive mess of a match? Jerry Sags and Booker are both out. That puts us at 23 and you can see the ring FAR more clearly now. Savage and Luger fight in another ring, and when I say fight I mean do nothing of note. Regal is gone as Hogan and Giant start fighting. DDP and Badd go out together. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Pittman is out and we’re getting low on people now. Benoit is gone blast it. 16 left. It’s mostly big names and a few midcard guys left. Kurasawa is out. He doesn’t get to sit on the throne of blood with the title I guess. Meng is out. Zodiac is gone. Sorry for just listing names off like that but there isn’t much else to say. Morrus is gone and I think that’s 10 to go. Bit more than that actually. Pillman is gone.

Hogan puts Hawk and Sasake out. That gives us ten left: Hogan, Orndoff, Gang, Luger, Savage, Giant, Sting, Guerrero, Flair and Anderson. Not bad. Orndorff remembers its’ 1995 and is tossed. The Horsemen go after Eddie but he gets out of a spike piledriver. He and Arn do a nice sequence. Naturally Eddie would do nothing for a LONG time after this. Flair gets a figure four on him for good measure. Savage tries to slam Giant but since HE ISN’T OVERLY STRONG it doesn’t work.

Eddie is out and we have 8 left. Savage is referred to as a former world champion and then chokeslammed. Hogan puts both Horsemen out, confirming that he is indeed better than you. The final six are Hogan, Savage, Luger, Sting, Gang and Giant.

Since getting rid of Anderson and Flair at once wasn’t enough, Hogan puts out Sting, Luger and Giant AT THE SAME TIME. Sweet goodness this gets ridiculous at times. Giant pulls Hogan to the floor but no one sees it. Savage dumps Gang out to WIN THE TITLE! Sweet. Oh look Hogan is upset. You put Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger and The Giant out inside of 40 seconds. BE HAPPY MAN!

Rating: F+. This was more or less a disaster. The camera work is the biggest issue here. It is AWFUL. You flat out cannot tell what is going on for the majority of this match and that just doesn’t work at all. That and the ton of jobbers being in there. I mean seriously, Pez Whatley? Cut this down by 15-20 guys and it’s FAR better. Other than that though, this was awful.

Post match, Gene comes out to talk to Savage, and, and I can’t believe this, HOGAN WON’T LEAVE!!! Yes, to everyone’s shock, Hogan throws a fit about how he should be champion and how he didn’t go out and how there is a cloud over Savage’s reign. Savage more or less says he’s champion and get over it. I love that.

 

Now for the main two matches, which I’m sure you can guess for yourself.

 

Intercontinental Title: Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat

The fans give an audible pop for Savage which even the announcers have to acknowledge. George Steele comes out to back up Steamboat and show off that green tongue. They shove each other around a few times before Randy takes an early breather. Savage misses a back elbow and Steamboat hits a pair of those perfect armdrags of his. Randy is lifted into the air via a choke and it’s back to the floor.

Back in and Savage gets in his first shot before sending Ricky into the buckle. Steamboat immediately comes back by grabbing the wrist and lifting Savage into the air. Savage comes back with an elbow to the face before sending Steamboat over the top and out to the floor. Randy starts going after the throat but has to stop to try to get his left arm working again. Steamboat sends him into the buckle and chops away, sending Savage into the ropes.

With the champion tied up, Steamboat fires away with a vengeance. Savage gets loose and Ricky hits a cross body for two, kicking off one of the fastest sets of near falls you’ll EVER see. Randy finally slows him down with a knee to the back and a toss over the ropes, only to have Ricky skin the cat. Savage throws him out again and knocks him into the crowd for good measure. The top rope ax handle keeps Steamboat down even longer and Savage is in full control.

Savage hits a clothesline for two which Gorilla doesn’t like. Gorilla: “That could be a disqualification.” Jesse: “For what?” Gorilla: “Intentional.” Jesse: “Well of course it was intentional!” Gorilla could find some weird stuff to complain about at times. After a pair of Savage suplexes for two, Ricky starts firing back and sends Savage out to the floor. A top rope chop gets two for the challenger and they speed things up all over again.

We get another chase on the floor followed by a sunset flip by the Dragon for two. They trade ANOTHER great pinfall reversal sequence as Jesse declares this one of the greatest matches he’s ever seen. A slingshot sends Savage face first into the post and there’s a sunset flip for two for the Dragon. Savage reverses an O’Connor Roll with a handful of tights for two. Randy uses the tights again and sends Dragon shoulder first into the post.

They reverse an Irish whip and the referee gets bumped. Randy hits another clothesline and drops the big elbow but there’s no referee. Savage goes to get the bell but Steele takes it away. That earns the Animal a kick in the head so he shoves Savage off the top. Steamboat is back up and famously counters a slam into a small package for the pin and the title.

Rating: A+. This is the greatest match of all time so what do you expect me to give it. I’m amazed at how well this holds up nearly 26 years later as there is nothing wrong with it at all. The story goes that these two practiced this match at Savage’s house for three months beforehand and it shows. Not a thing is even close to screwed up and they’re so fast out there it’s unbelievable. How anyone can say this is anything but perfect astounds me to this day. If you haven’t seen this before, watch it now and take notes.

And of course from the following year.

WWF World Title: Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase

Savage and Liz are now in white and Andre is with DiBiase. Macho blocks some punches in the corner but Andre trips him up like a jerk. Andre does it again and Savage is catching on that he’s got a problem. They trad some cranking on the arm and DiBiase’s sunset flip doesn’t work. A clothesline gets two for Randy and he sends DiBiase to the floor where Andre says go ahead and jump.

Realizing he’s in trouble, Savage sends Liz to the back the obvious reason (hint: the fans are chanting HOGAN). DiBiase hooks a chinlock and heeeeeeeeeeeere’s Hulk. The look on Hogan’s face and his jaws going all over the place make him look high as a kite. Ted pounds away in the corner and Andre pulls Savage to the outside. Hogan jumps the giant but Savage is in big trouble.

A gutwrench suplex gets two for Ted but he goes up top for reasons of general stupidity, earning that slam off the top by Savage. Randy tries a quick elbow but only hits the mat. DiBiase puts on the Million Dollar Dream but Hogan, ever the hero, comes in and whacks DiBiase in the bak with a chair. Savage runs to the top and the big elbow gives him his first world title.

Rating: B-. This was a decent match and the place went NUTS for the win, but they were both really tired and it slowed them down a lot. The Hogan cheating wasn’t really necessary and it made Savage look a bit weak, but at the end of the day it didn’t make that big of a difference. Still though, huge moment here.

It’s Randy Savage. I think you can guess my opinion.

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Impact Wrestling
Date: April 10, 2014
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

Dixie Carter is back tonight. Let’s all just take a minute to prepare ourselves for this. You can almost feel the power struggle starting from here. Officially she still has some power in TNA as she runs the behind the scenes stuff as opposed to MVP running the on camera stuff. Tonight is all about her wrath, which means it’s time for some bad acting. Let’s get to it.

We open with an In Memory graphic for Warrior.

Dixie Carter arrives and has something planned for tonight.

There’s a ten man gauntlet tonight for the title shot at Sacrifice.

MVP says Magnus successfully defended his title against three men last week but tonight he finds out his next challenger. Samoa Joe won’t be one of the entrants because he’s “not available.”

Gauntlet Match

It’s basically a ten man Royal Rumble. James Storm is #1 and Gunner is #2 and of course the brawl is on in the aisle. They get inside with Gunner avoiding a middle rope ax handle and taking him into the corner for a stomping. Storm is in even more trouble until Bobby Roode comes in at #3 to give him a breather. Beer Money reunites for a bit but Gunner shrugs off the ten rams into the top turnbuckle. Bully Ray is #4 and cleans house as you would expect him to. A double suplex has no effect though and he clotheslines Beer Money down.

Gunner and Ray load up What’s Up to Storm but Roode makes the save Ethan Carter III comes in at #5 to give the heels an advantage. Ray shrugs everything off and chops away but Roode punches him down in the corner. No one has been eliminated yet. Carter and Roode try to toss Ray until Bobby Lashley is in at #6. The big man cleans house and hammers on all the heels until Gunner, Ray and Bobby have a three way standoff. That goes nowhere and they keep beating up the villains.

Abyss is #7 and cleans house but Ray tries to toss him. Magnus comes out for commentary as we take a break. Back with Sanada having entered and Eric Young entering at I believe #9. No eliminations yet. Everyone fights against the ropes and teases a few eliminations but no one is really close. Willow is #10 and we get a showdown with Carter. A Twisting Stunner has Carter in trouble as Spud wheelchairs down to ringside, only to pop up and pull Willow down for the elimination.

Abyss chokeslams Sanada and throws him out but walks into a spear from Lashley. Roode throws the bald Bobby out though, only to get tossed by Ray. We’re down to Ray, Gunner, Storm, Carter, Abyss and Young. Ray is about to go off on Carter but Roode trips him up, allowing Carter to throw him out and get us down to five. Storm nails a superkick to Gunner and easily throws him out.

The three heels team up on Young but he skins the cat and eliminates Carter on the way back in. Abyss lays him out again though and the double teaming continues. Eric trips both of them up though and actually hits the top rope elbow on Abyss. Storm takes him right back down with the Backstabber though, followed by an Orton Elevated DDT. The Last Call misses though and Young throws him out. Abyss hits Shock Treatment on Eric but can’t get him out. Young fights back with some right hands and an ax handle, followed by a clothesline for the win and title shot at 26:21.

Rating: D+. ERIC YOUNG? This is the guy they’re giving a title match to? Not Gunner, Ray, Joe, or ANYONE ELSE??? They have like five PPVs a year and the guy who was doing a Dr. Frankenstein gimmick earlier in the year is getting one of the main event slots? He’s more bearable when he’s serious but my goodness this matches my head hurt.

Eric calls out MVP post match. The boss comes out after a break and Eric says he does a great job. Young isn’t a doctor but since this is live TV, anything can happen. What MVP just saw was Eric earning a title shot. This is live TV though and Eric is feeling crazy. He wants his title shot TONIGHT. MVP asks if he’s sure and says it’s on. Magnus says that’s fine because everything abides by his rules. MVP says there are no Magnus Rules in effect, meaning the title changes hands on a countout or DQ and Abyss is banned from ringside. If anyone interferes, they’re fired on the spot.

Spud, in a jacket that looks like it was involved in an explosion at a paint factory, has a surprise party for Dixie. She tells him to tone it down and accuses Spud of selling her down the river. Dixie leaves but as Spud follows her out, Willow invades the room and cleans house.

Angelina Love vs. ODB vs. Gail Kim vs. Brittany

The winner gets Madison at Sacrifice for the title. It’s a brawl to start with the girls pairing off in the corners. Gail and Angelina start double teaming Brittany but get in an argument over who gets the pin. Brittany fights back and cleans house until ODB comes back in and runs everyone over. Angelina takes a Bronco Buster but Gail kicks ODB down. Brittany hits a handspring moonsault for no cover on ODB but walks into a Downward Spiral from Love. Eat Defeat doesn’t work and Velvet sprays hairspray in Gail’s eyes, setting up a Brogue Kick from Angelina for the pin at 4:37.

Rating: D+. Well that was….obvious. Angelina has been feuding with Madison for weeks now so the match at the PPV is the logical progression of the story. It wasn’t anything to see but Brittany got to show off a little bit. I’m still not wild on the Beautiful People reunion as we’ve covered just about everything they can do.

Dixie comes in to see MVP and mocks some of the stuff he’s done lately. Apparently MVP stands for Massive Violation of Power. She says all of this is because of one disgruntled wrestler and she’ll take care of him tonight. Dixie wants him in the front row for her moment tonight.

Robbie E.’s flight is canceled but MVP thinks Jesse and Zema should defend the titles against the Wolves tonight unless Robbie can make it here by bell time.

We recap Eric getting a title shot tonight.

Magnus thinks Eric is making a huge mistake.

Here’s Dixie for her big moment. She immediately calls out Bully, drawing a WE DON’T LIKE YOU chant. Ray comes out and the fans want him to put Dixie through a table. He thanks her for being around this week but Dixie talks about Roode suckering him into an attack a few weeks ago. Dixie rubs it in that Roode put Ray through three tables last week before ranting about him costing her the company.

Ray says this is the fans’ company and the wrestlers’ company but never Dixie’s company. They talk over each other a lot until Dixie says she wants her money back for Ray not doing his job. Ray says he’s spent it on a new car and at Rick’s Cabaret in New York. “You’d like it. They’ve got a lot of wine, women and song. A lot of women actually.”

Ray loads up his catchphrase but Dixie slaps the mic out of his hand. She’s from DALLAS, TEXAS and is responsible for every check that comes out of the company. Dixie slaps him in the face but Roode jumps Ray from behind. They load up a table but Ray fights back, only to have Roode bail from a powerbomb. Ray stares Dixie down and we take a break.

Post break Magnus wants to know what Dixie is doing. She says she’s going to her hotel, having a glass of wine and going to bed. Magnus calls her a typical woman and Dixie yells about him having an insurance policy before leaving.

Tag Team Titles: Wolves vs. Zema Ion/Jesse Godderz

The Wolves are challenging. Eddie chops Jesse to start but Davey (now with a blond mohawk on top of his regular hair) makes a blind tag and double teams Jesse down. Zema snaps Davey’s throat across the top rope to give the champions control. The Wolves send the champions outside and hit stereo suicide dives to take them down again.

Back inside and Jesse slips in a knee from the apron to stagger Eddie, only to have him catch both of them in a hurricanrana at the same time. Hot tag brings in Davey to clean house with kicks and suplexes. A missile dropkick gets two on Godderz and the toss into the kick looks to get the pin, but Robbie E. runs in for the DQ at 3:43.

Rating: C-. Not bad here but this time the ending was somewhat in doubt. I actually thought they might change the titles here, which would have been a bit too early with the PPV coming up in a few weeks. The Wolves are the best team in the company and having them chase the titles for a few months is a good idea.

Christy is going to shock us with something about Samuel Shaw tonight. She wants to talk to him in the ring about commitment.

Here’s Christy to the ring to invite Samuel for a chat. She insists that he’s not creepy and says this whole thing is complicated. Shaw says he’s the love of her life and she agrees. Christy asks if he trusts her and she rubs her hands over his face. She wants to know if Shaw would go anywhere she asks him to go but he just slowly rips off his glove. Christy makes some rather suggestive noises and tells him to close his eyes.

A van with the words Psychiatric Services shows up on screen and of course Anderson pops out. He comes into the arena and rubs his hands behind Shaw’s back before laying him out with a Mic Check. The fans chant funny farm and Anderson chucks him over the top. He crawls towards Christy but Anderson chucks him into the van in the back. Shaw pops out and runs away though, making this whole segment pretty worthless.

Willow blames Carter and Spud for costing him the gauntlet match and wants a handicap match next week.

Impact is coming to New York City in June.

TNA World Title: Eric Young vs. Magnus

Eh why not. It worked at Wrestlemania XXX. Young scores with a quick dropkick and flips over the corner before strutting down the apron. Apparently Young has a bad arm coming into this to really hammer in the similarities. Magnus avoids a charge into the corner and sends Eric out to the floor with a big running knee. Back in and Eric sends Magnus to the floor, only to get nailed as he tries a suicide dive.

Magnus sends him into the steps and we take a break. Back with the champion getting two off a gutwrench suplex and we hit a sleeper on Young. Eric is quickly out of the hold but gets caught in a camel clutch to work on the back as well as the bad arm. Young powers up into an electric chair and both guys are down. Back up and some forearms and a clothesline drop Magnus. The arm seems fine at the moment. Eric tries a wheelbarrow slam into a neckbreaker but mostly drops Magnus on the way down.

The top rope elbow gets two and Magnus nails the Michinoku Driver for the same. He brings the belt into the ring but the referee takes it away. Young loads up a Death Valley Driver but gets hit low for two. Magnus is livid and gets caught in a crucifix for two. Eric comes back with a piledriver for the pin and the title at 13:05.

Rating: C. Eric Young is the TNA World Champion. Yes it’s a blatant ripoff of Daniel Bryan on Sunday, but Eric Young hasn’t earned the spot like Bryan has. He’s a comedy guy that has kept a job for a long time. That doesn’t mean he should be the World Champion. I’m assuming this doesn’t make it past Sacrifice, but I’ve only been able to tolerate Young for this many years. Having him as World Champion is too far for me.

Overall Rating: C. The ending just doesn’t do it for me as I’ve already explained. The rest of the show wasn’t bad, but this is the kind of show you need to build up to. I get that they needed to do everything in one night, but let us know in advance that this is coming. The Dixie stuff didn’t do anything for me but it’s probably continuing over the next few weeks. The wrestling was ok tonight but this is a very questionable way to use a story like this.

Results

Eric Young won a gauntlet match last eliminating Abyss

Angelina Love b. Brittany, ODB and Gail Kim – Bicycle kick to Kim

Wolves b. Zema Ion/Jesse Godderz via DQ when Robbie E. interfered

Eric Young b. Magnus – Piledriver

 

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NXT
Date: April 10, 2014
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Jason Albert, Rich Bocchini, Alex Riley

There aren’t a ton of stories coming into tonight but the main event out of last week was Sami Zayn vs. Corey Graves being stopped to to Sami’s head injuries. Other than that we also might be building to Neville vs. Clay in the future which isn’t the worst idea for a first new opponent for Adrian. Let’s get to it.

We open with an In Memory graphic for Warrior.

There’s a new commentator named Rich Bocchini tonight. No idea if he’s a permanent replacement for Phillips or not.

Adam Rose vs. Danny Burch

The fans think the party entrance was awesome. Rose prances around the ring to start but gets knocked into the ropes. He leans back and keeps lifting his feet to stop the charging Danny before running him over with some shoulders. Rose cranks on the arm but gets dropped by a single right hand. Adam comes right back with something resembling a Bronco Buster and more prancing, followed by a middle rope elbow for the pin at 2:54. Albert dances post match.

We look back at Sami Zayn being injured last week. The referee says he was doing the responsible thing and stopped the match for Sami’s safety.

Corey Graves says that was just the beginning.

Sasha Banks vs. Bayley

Banks runs her over a few times for two each but Bayley comes back with rollups of her own. Sasha just goes off on her and hammers away before pounding on the back of Bayley’s head. She chokes away in the corner and stomps on Bayley for two. We hit a double arm choke for a bit but Bayley fights up and comes back with some forearms. A running clothesline sets up a middle rope elbow to the jaw for no cover. Sasha tries to fight back but walks into the Belly to Bayley for the pin at 3:12.

Rating: D+. Not much to see here but the hugging obsession is almost impossible to not like. Sasha has charisma but there’s only so much she can do if she keeps losing like this. That being said, both of these girls are almost ready for the main roster. They’re not at Paige’s level, but most of the Divas in WWE aren’t either.

Sylvester LeFort vs. Mojo Rawley

Rawley crushes him in the corner to start and hits a Rear View followed by Hyperdrive for the pin at 47 seconds. Now THIS is what Rawley should be doing.

Post match Brodus Clay comes out to powerbomb and splash LeFort. “Better than Batista!” Clay still wants Neville and thinks he’s earned a shot. He calls out Adrian again and here’s the champion to call Brodus out on his whining. They stare each other down but Brodus walks out.

Oliver Grey is back but Camacho cuts off his promo. He doesn’t like Adam Rose wanting to party all the time but Oliver cuts him off as well. Oliver wants a match against Camacho next week and it’s on.

We look at the NXT guys at Axxess.

Khali is here and gets a hug from Bayley. CJ Parker comes up and is really hoping Khali recycles. Khali shouts in Punjabi but Bayley translates: the big man wants a match next week.

Here’s Bo Dallas for a big announcement. He’s seen what the YES Movement has done so it’s time for the BO Movement to occupy NXT. The fans literally turn their backs on him and Dallas freaks out. “I GAVE YOU COOKIES!” He goes to ringside to yell before heading back in and falling to his knees in tears, saying this makes no sense. I could get behind a Bo Dallas that loses his mind.

We take a quick break to say Don’t Try This At Home and come back with Bo’s meltdown continuing. The fans want NO MORE BO and he weakly tries to turn it into Let’s Go Bo. Now it’s a Bo-Tista chant until JBL makes a rare appearance with a huge grin on his face. “Bo, your movement doesn’t have enough people to occupy a see saw.” He makes a match right now.

Justin Gabriel vs. Bo Dallas

They circle each other to start until Justin nails a few cross bodies. A rollup gets a close two and Dallas bails to the floor. The fans want cookies as Dallas comes back in with a headlock. Justin fights up and sends Bo back to the floor again but gets knocked off the top rope. A suplex sets up a cravate from Bo and he sends Justin hard into the corner.

Dallas levels him with a clothesline but gets sent into the corner as well to put both guys down. Gabriel fires off a series of hard strikes and gets two off a springboard cross body. Bo reverses a tilt-a-whirl slam into a reverse DDT for a close two and both guys are winded. A hard kick to the back puts Bo down but he avoids a top rope Lionsault. Justin comes right back with a small package for two but walks into a double arm DDT for the pin at 10:00.

Rating: C. Not bad at all here as Bo is finally getting some character development that he’s been needing after losing the title. That character can only be taken so far and the meltdown was the logical progression for his character. Gabriel was his usual strong hand in the ring here and looked good flying through the air.

Overall Rating: C+. This was more like it as the show set up two matches for next week plus a title program with Adrian’s first challenger. Dallas going nuts was a great addition and the main roster guys’ appearances continue to be used properly. I liked this show a lot as it felt like an old school NXT show.

Results

Adam Rose b. Danny Burch – Middle rope elbow

Bayley b. Sasha Banks – Belly to Bayley

Mojo Rawley b. Sylvester LeFort – Hyperdrive

Bo Dallas b. Justin Gabriel – Double arm DDT

 

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Back to the tag team division with LAX. This will be a bit different as they were only a regular team for a few years in TNA so it’s going to be a very compact series of matches.

 

The team officially formed on New Year’s Eve 2005, though at this point it was Konnan leading the team of Apolo and Homicide. Apolo was soon replaced by Machete, who was thrown out of the group by the end of March. Hernandez joined the team and would remain partners with Homicide for the team’s entire run.

 

The first major angle for the team saw them refuse to wrestle due to discrimination against Latinos. Jim Cornette said as long as there was a work stoppage, there would be a check stoppage. This led to their first PPV match at Victory Road 2006.

 

LAX vs. Sonjay Dutt/Ron Killings

LAX has their own announcer who speaks Spanish. There’s a section of the arena that has “graffiti” all over it. Dutt is a guy that is always around and no one ever really cared. Killings is more commonly known as R-Truth. It’s weird to hear What’s Up as his theme music but he wrote it so it’s officially his song so it’s here in TNA also. His entrance takes forever here as we get into the rarely heard third verse.

LAX jumps them to start and Hernandez goes sailing over the top which wasn’t his intentions. Homicide hits a big dive to take out Dutt but Truth takes out all of LAX in return. Truth vs. Homicide in the ring now. Truth wipes himself with Homicide’s headband. Sunset flip gets two and we get a pinfall reversal sequence. I’ve never been a fan of homicide but he’s moving pretty well here.

Off to Dutt now who speeds things up a bit and gets two on Homicide. I think this is your X-Division tag match here. The guys both get dueling chants. Hernandez comes in and Dutt can’t do a thing to him. Since Hernandez did well while he was in he tags out to Homicide who didn’t do well while he was in there. We hit the chinlock on Dutt for a few seconds but Dutt speeds things up again which doesn’t work that well.

Back off to Hernandez as this is some weird cousin of power vs. speed. Dutt tries to move again and gets caught in a backbreaker that Truth has to break up. Homicide sends him to the floor and Konnan hammers away a bit more. Sonjay speeds things up again (notice a pattern here?) and it lets him bring in Truth.

Truth takes over with his usual odd offense and throws in Konnan’s rolling clothesline. Gringo Cutter by Homicide gets two. Truth blocks a suplerplex and gets a Falcon’s Arrow from the middle rope for two. They go to the floor so Hernandez and Dutt go at it some more. Finally the speed works but Homicide cracks…something with a chair and gets taken down by Truth. Sonjay goes up and Konnan hits him with a slapjack to allow a Border Toss to end this.

Rating: C. Just a tag match here as we’re 45 minutes into this show and nothing has stood out at all yet. LAX is getting a push here which I guess is fine. They would get the titles in a few months and hold them for all of a month, showing once again that brilliant TNA booking. These tag matches so far have been glorified squashes. I’m not sure I get the point.

 

Soon after this LAX went after the Tag Team Titles and won the belts from AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels on Impact in August. The rematch was an Ultimate X match at No Surrender 2006.

 

Tag Titles: LAX vs. Christoper Daniels/AJ Styles

LAX are champions. After some big match intros (with JB messing up LAX’s combined weight) we’re ready to go. The ring is cleared out very quickly and now it’s Homicide vs. AJ. The murder enthusiast goes up but Daniels makes a quick save. AJ can’t get there either as the fans know this isn’t ending that quickly. Homicide hits a suicide on the dead guy (angels are dead people right?) out to the floor as this is kind of a mess to start.

AJ is like screw it and hits a HUGE spinning moonsault over the top to take out Hernandez. That looked great. Hernandez wants to dive but Daniels makes the stop. Koji Clutch is broken up by Homicide. Hernandez tries what Monty Brown called the Alpha Bomb but it results in double teaming by the champions. There’s a modified Border Toss and AJ is half dead.

Hernandez brings in a ladder, showing some intelligence. In a nice move, AJ sends Homicide under the ladder on an Irish whip and then shoves it onto him. That looked good too. The ladder is gone now. In another cool move, Hernandez and Daniels are on top and Hernandez grabs him by the throat and hits more or less a choke overhead belly to belly to send Daniels flying.

AJ gets up and breaks up Supermex trying to go across with the forearm. Homicide pops Styles with a chair and goes across but he has a bad shoulder. Styles goes after him but Homicide gets a cutter off the X and both are down. Daniels goes up and Tenay sounds orgasmic. Hernandez goes again and again is caught. AJ speeds things up and a Pele takes Supermex down and there’s the moonsault DDT to Homicide.

The challengers try some double teaming but Supermex is too strong. Konnan sets a table on the floor but AJ escapes the Border Toss through it. More double teaming slows the big dude down including the BME and Spiral Tap. AJ manages to get the Clash off the apron to Homicide through the table in an awesome spot. Konnan clocks him with a slapjack off camera. Konnan comes in but Daniels goes on top of the structure in the insanity and dives onto the X, pulling down the titles to win. Scary SCARY finish as if he misses that he’s more or less dead.

Rating: A. I know TNA tends to overhype some of its stuff but this was indeed awesome. It was totally insane and doesn’t stop at all from bell to bell. The ending is awesome and there are enough jaw dropping moments in this to make everything work. This is well worth checking out, if nothing else for the spectacle of the ending. I see why this was match of the year for sure.

 

The final rematch was at Bound For Glory 2006 inside a cage.

 

Tag Titles: LAX vs. Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles

Styles and Daniels are the champions. The champs run in and the brawl is on. Unfortunately they have to tag in this which really takes away the violence aspect of it. I wouldn’t bet on it lasting long though. AJ and Homicide start with the dropkick spot putting the murder inspired one down. Off to Daniels as the champions hit a combination clothesline/belly to back suplex for two.

Styles comes back in for a backbreaker for two. AJ gets sent into the cage and it’s off to Hernandez. Styles moves around quickly and manages a tag but gets sent into the cage anyway. Homicide’s torndado DDT is countered but SuperMex takes his head off with a clothesline. The challengers look like they’re setting for a Doomsday Device but Hernandez drops him backwards and Homicide hits a top rope elbow for two. Nice change of pace. AJ is busted but we didn’t get a shot of him until now.

Konnan slides in an object to Homicide which goes into Daniels’ head. It appears to be a fork but Hebner doesn’t see it. Off to Hernandez to give Daniels a neck rub. Homicide gets a bottle of tequila from somewhere and spits some into Daniels’ face. They go up top and Daniels hits a sitout hiptoss for two to break the momentum. There’s the tag to AJ who hits the backflip into the reverse DDT for two. Everything breaks down as you would expect it to and Daniels clotheslines Homicide over and over.

The champions go high low on Homicide and are firmly in control. Hernandez has his face rammed into the cage and AJ hits the Pele on Homicide for two. Now Homicide gets the fork put in his head. AJ has no problem with the referee seeing that but Homicide hid it earlier. Hernandez starts going on another rampage but walks into a Pele to put everyone down.

AJ goes to the top of the cage (I think you can only win by pin/submission), drawing a please don’t die chant. The others catch him and try a Tower of Doom but AJ can’t get into position so he stays on top. That’s good as I was legit scared of him taking that bump from there. Instead he hits a HUGE cross body to Hernandez off the cage for two. Homicide hits a cutter on AJ but walks into an STO from Daniels.

Hernandez runs over Christopher and goes to the top of the cage also. He misses his splash and if he’s still alive I’ll be stunned. Daniels tries the Angel’s Wings on Hernandez but Homicide got a coat hanger from Konnan to choke him out. Konnan gets it back and chokes him from outside the ring. Hernandez breaks up the Clash and the Gringo Killa gives LAX the titles back.

Rating: A-. Another great match here with them finally saying screw this tagging stuff and letting it all hang out there, which is what you’re supposed to do in a big match. That dive by AJ was incredible but for some reason, probably fear, Hernandez’s didn’t get much of a reaction at all. Still though, great match but somehow it isn’t as good as the Ultimate X match they had the month before.

The next match was against the best TNA tag team of all time and is from Genesis 2006.

 

Tag Titles: LAX vs. America’s Most Wanted

LAX has the titles. Konnan says TNA and Cornette can’t stop him from burning the flag tonight or there’s going to be a lawsuit. AMW jumps them and the brawl starts on the floor. I think the match has started but I’m not really sure. AMW double teams Homicide in the ring and throws him on top of Hernandez on the floor. Things settle down with Harris vs. Hernandez. Harris pounds him down but can’t hang with the power so it’s off to Homicide.

Hernandez comes back in very quickly and hooks a one arm chinlock. The champs tag very quickly as Homicide chops on Harris so Hernandez can choke him on the floor. Off to a Homicide chinlock which sounds like police jargon. Harris comes back with a spinebuster and both guys are down. Storm (looking really strange without the beard) starts a USA chant before he gets the hot tag.

Hernandez throws him over the top but Storm skins the cat and comes back with a headscissors. James has to fight both of them at once and Harris saves him from the Border Toss. Harris comes in and hits something like a hybrid between a Thesz Press and a shoulder block to take SuperMex down. Suplex gets two. Homicide runs in for a tornado DDT to take Harris down.

Storm comes in but I don’t think there was a tag. That brazen cheater. AMW loads up the Death Sentence but Hernandez makes the save. He goes up top and grabs Harris by the throat, throwing him over his head in a choking belly to belly superplex for two. Hernandez hits a powerbomb to set up a Homicide frog splash for two.

Gringo Killa is escaped and AMW hits something like a Hart Attack for two. Enziguri from Storm to Hernandez and Harris adds a top rope clothesline to take the big guy down. Death Sentence hits but Konnan has the referee. Homicide comes in with the blowtorch for the flag to the back of Storm’s head for the pin to retain the titles.

Rating: B-. This was much more of a brawl than a match and based on the story, that’s what it should have been. AMW wasn’t going to be around much longer but they were still a name, so having them put over the hot new team of LAX was probably the best thing they could have been used for. Fun stuff here.

Post match LAX goes to beat up Gail but Petey Williams comes out for the save as AMW gets back up. Jim Cornette comes out and says the titles are stripped. That would be overturned and the belts would be returned on Thursday. The title reign was considered one continuous run. Since this is Cornette, it takes a few minutes to get through that, including a big patriotism speech. The fans HATE this decision too. If they don’t give up the belts by Thursday, they’re fired.

LAX’s next big feud was against Team 3D, with LAX attacking various friends of Team 3D. This led to a Ghetto Brawl (street fight) at Destination X 2007.

 

LAX vs. Team 3D

This is a ghetto brawl. LAX are tag champions (still NWA for the next two months or so) but this is non-title. Machete is here for a one off moment as he pushes Konnan in his wheelchair. It’s Homicide/Hernandez though so at least you don’t have to figure anything out. You can win by pin, submission or putting someone through a table. The show is dedicated to Ernie Ladd who died the previous night.

Johnny Rodz, the guy that trained Team 3D is here as LAX both beat him up recently. Big brawl to start us off of course as the fans want blood. Homicide gets a tornado DDT onto something on D-Von as he cleans house on his own. All LAX to start here as we hear about how Team 3D wants the NWA Titles. Hernandez hits a HUGE dive over the top as Ray uses a mannequin head. When you’re stealing ideas from Al Snow, you’re in trouble.

Homicide hits Ray in the head and Ray wants more of it. The second one knocks him back so maybe he’s not that intelligent. Into the crowd we go with D-Von vs. Hernandez and Homicide vs. Bubba. D-Von uses a crutch on Hernandez and grabs some sunglasses from someone. The pairings get together after about two minutes and they switch off.

Hernandez is thrown into a wall. Tenay: “He fought the wall and the wall won.” He’s been holding that one in since the end of WCW hasn’t he? The fans chant this is awesome and it’s been pretty solid so far. Back in the ring and D-Von gets a powerslam on Homicide for two. Hernandez throws D-Von around a bit until Bubba comes back in. The garbage cans are black here so they look a bit more realistic.

Ray pelts one at Hernandez who was on top so he can get a superplex. No cover though as Homicide gets a pretty decent top rope rana for two. What’s Up to Homicide and it’s time….for beers? Ah now it’s Table Time. A table gets set up but the Latino Nation, which is like 6 guys, runs in for a big beatdown.

Rodz comes in and of course can clean house despite being 67 or so here. LAX gets up and OLD MAN BEATDOWN BABY!!! D-Von’s “brothers” come in and it’s a total ethnic war. Reverse neckbreaker and Doomsday Device both get two on either LAX guy. Border Toss doesn’t work on D-Von as Hernandez walks into the 3D for two as Machete pulls the referee out. The gangs come back so BUBBA DIVES OFF THE TOP ONTO ALL OF THEM!!!!!! WOW!!! Shelley comes down for no apparent reason and hits D-Von with his camera (huge pop/chant for that) and adds a frog splash through the table so Homicide can get the pin.

Rating: B. Fun brawl here which went everywhere and felt like a brawl instead of some stupid tag match. This went 15 minutes and it didn’t get dull which is the key to it. Very fun brawl with the gangs actually being a nice addition. Not sure why this was the opener but it was certainly good.

 

The rematch was an electrified steel cage match at Lockdown 2007.

 

Tag Titles: Team 3D vs. LAX

No Konnan to start. This gets big match intros as it’s basically the first of two main events. The lights are dimmed for this so it’s almost blue. Apparently the current going through the cage is only on in certain places at certain times. They don’t have to tag because when the cage is electrified, tagging is pretty stupid. Team 3D controls to start. This is a hard match to call because they’re moving around kind of strangely here, due to trying to avoid the cage. It’s not bad per se, but it’s not the most exciting thing in the world.

What’s Up hits and at least D-Von was very tentative about going up due to being next to the cage. LAX takes over and uses whatever cheating methods they can. D-Von is busted and Homicide’s hand touches the cage to give us the first electrocution in the match. I didn’t expect to have to write that. Hernandez is busted too. He goes up but D-Von manages to crotch him. Homicide is crotched as well and we get nearly stereo superplexes.

D-Von beats up Homicide, hitting a powerslam for two. Konnan has been wheeled out. Whoever wheeled him out beat down the outside referee and gave Konnan some rubber gloves. Hector Guerrero, the Spanish announcer, jumps that guy (we can’t see who he is) and stares down Konnan. Apparently the guy who wheeled Konnan out was trying to get the key to the door. Hector unlocked it and the door is open. It’s hard to tell what’s going on due to the light. Bubba yells at him to hand him an F’ing table.

The delay allows for LAX to get a quick takeover but Hernandez stops to yell at Hector, so Hector slams the door on his head. The double neckbreker gets two on SuperMex. Bubba Bomb gets two on Homicide. Samoan Drop gets two on D-Von. Top rope elbow gets the same. This has gotten a good deal better. HUGE layout powerbomb gets two on Homicide by Bubba.

We get the first big electrocution spot as Hernandez Border Tosses D-Von into the cage and he vibrates like a fish on a fish frying plate. He’s COVERED in blood, which would be more effective if you could see it. The fans aren’t that thrilled with this as they chant Fire Russo. A middle rope elbow gets two for Bubba. D-Von is apparently fine after the MASSIVE ELECTROCUTION as a Doomsday Device gets two.

The table gets loaded up and D-Von is placed onto it. Hernandez puts some rubber gloves on but takes forever to do it. He climbs to the top of the cage but since he took FOREVER, the splash through the table misses. Looked awesome though. The Dudleys take over on Homicide, throw him into the cage, botch a 3D off the cage and then hit the 3D for the pin and the titles.

Rating: D. Yes it was bad, but it wasn’t THAT bad. I mean, if you compare this to the blindfold match it’s a masterpiece. The cage stuff was stupid and I’m really not sure what the point of the lights was. Maybe the cage sucked too much electricity out? Anyway, not a horrible match but it was probably way too much for the payoff they got out of it.

The team would turn face over the summer and go after the titles again. Their first step in getting them back was facing Triple X in a #1 contenders Ultimate X match at Bound For Glory 2007.

 

Triple X vs. LAX

Senshi (Low Ki/Kaval) and Elix Skipper representing Triple X here. This is Ultimate X and for the #1 contender spot. Think that’s enough Xs in this match? XXX goes for the X almost immediately but LAX (see what I mean?) makes the save and it’s a big brawl to start. These matches are hard to call for the most part as they’re pretty all over the place. With just four guys though it’s far easier to do.

It’s so weird seeing Kaval out there over three years ago like this. Homicide gets a chance to make a run but Senshi makes the save. Both teams are pretty much just beating each other up here to wear them down (wouldn’t that cancel the beating up part?) so they can go up (I guess that gives up the advantage again) and pull the X down (are you getting my boredom here?)

Homicide gets his signature tope con hilo to take out Senshi. Hernandez goes up and JUMPS halfway across the cables and almost gets there that way. That guy is freaking scary. A lot of near grabs for both teams here but LAX is clearly the more dominant team here. Skipper goes all the way up to the top of the structure and hits a MASSIVE cross body to Homicide in the ring.

In a cool looking spot, Skipper and Homicide both do the look up at the ceiling crawl and hit a double neckbreaker to bring the other guy down. That was a new one. I’m not a fan of that overhead shot. Granted that might be the constant camera cuts that TNA is obsessed with. In a painful and STUPID looking spot, Homicide is put in the Tree of Woe as Senshi does the Warrior’s Way onto him.

If you’re Homicide, WHY WOULD YOU SIT UP? You know his finisher is the double stomp so why would you give him the right positioning for it? Mike Tenay says we’re in the ATL. My head hurts again. Skipper stops Hernandez from diving over the ropes which would have been cool to see. Border Toss by Hernandez to send Skipper flying to the other two guys on the floor. Hernandez gets the X with ease just afterwards.

Rating: B-. Bunch of big spots in there which were nice and the match worked pretty well. Hernandez is shown off as the mega star of the team which makes sense as he’s by far the bigger deal. This was a pretty good match but as usual with these matches it would help to have them be for the titles rather than a shot at a later date at said titles. But Pacman Jones is a tag champion at this point so we can’t have that match. Such is TNA.

 

LAX would lose their shot so it was another #1 contenders match at Destination X 2008.

 

LAX vs. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Rock N Rave Infection

The winners are #1 contenders for Styles and Tomko. Christy Hemme isn’t human. She can’t be. Wow it’s weird to think that the Guns are the reigning tag champions as I’m typing this. We hear about how they’ve never won the belts. They wouldn’t for over two years. That’s pretty freaking sad. We keep hearing about should Earl Hebner’s vote be changed by Jim Cornette. Don’t worry about what it was or anything.

Sabin and Homicide start. Dang the Guns are fun to watch. Hernandez gets a LONG suplex on Lance Hoyt (Vance Archer). This match is kind of a mess but not entirely. Hernandez does the Undertaker Dive which isn’t as good as Taker’s but still looked good. Shelley takes two amigos and the third is him into a backbreaker from SuperMex.

LAX is dominating here and they’re likely the best team at this point so they’re getting that right. We then see why Rock and Rave never went anywhere as Rock hits the worst clothesline this side of Donald Trump to put Shelley down. A very slow moonsault misses though but no hot tag. Hernandez comes in again and cleans house with some not very good power moves. They crank things up again and with everyone on the floor, Rave takes the Border Toss to end it for LAX.

Rating: B-. PERFECT choice for the opener here. They were flying all over the place and things were definitely fun here. The fans are into it now and things are going very well. That being said, the rest of things are probably going to all be downhill from here as the rest of the card has a tendency to go downhill after the first match. This did a good job of not going insane with just big mess all over which is rare. This was good.

 

The Tag Team Titles would be vacated around this time and held up in the Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament. The idea was that random pairings would face established teams, but at the end of the day it was LAX vs. Team 3D in the finals at Sacrifice 2008.

 

Tag Titles: LAX vs. Team 3D

Wow the top face team is facing the top heel team in the finals. Who saw this coming? We get little clips talking about how each team got here. 3D gets in Hector’s face so Homicide gets a running start and takes Bubba out with a tope con hilo. It’s a brawl on the ramp to start with no one really having a distinct advantage. I’m not sure if this is part of the match or not.

Ray gets in some weak weapon shots and sends Hernandez into the steps. No one has been in the ring yet. Ok now we do have people in there with D-Von vs. Homicide and the bell finally rings after about three minutes of brawling. D-Von is sent to the floor almost immediately but Ray shoves Homicide off the top to prevent a dive. The fans chant 187 as the Dudleys control.

Delayed vertical gets two for D-Von. Ray throws on a triangle choke/head scissors as again we’re waiting on the hot tag to Hernandez to do the dominating. Tenay says Team 3D is taking advantage of a situation here. Well yeah, just like any team would do. There’s the tag to Hernandez and we go old school with a double noggin knocker. He puts them both on the floor with a double dropkick and then hits a huge dive.

Devine is here again and he pulls out a table. Hector comes around and the power of Lazertron puts Devine down. Hector goes up top and jumps through Devine and the table which more or less was a dropkick while a guy was on the table. It was weird but the guy is retired. Back in the ring Hernandez takes a superplex and a top rope headbutt for two. 3D gets two on Homicide because D-Von let him up. Oh ok he wasn’t legal. Homicide hits something like a rana off the top (after being down for maybe 8 seconds off a 3D). D-Von goes up top and gets caught in a Border Toss and a frog splash for the pin and the titles.

Rating: C+. Fun brawl but the tournament took forever to get here. It wasn’t bad or anything but it’s the third time tonight we’ve seen these teams. You can only get so into them here which is the problem that these one night tournaments have. The final was probably the best match but not by all that much.

 

Here’s the rematch from Slammiversary 2008.

 

Tag Titles: Team 3D vs. LAX

3D are the heels. Knowing them though they’ll turn twice on the way to the ring though. D-Von vs. Hernandez to get us started. Ray has a chain to start but it gets taken away. I hope the referee at least said please. The fans want tables almost immediately. Good sign in the crowd: “D-Von! Get the table dancers!” The champs dominate to start but it’s off to Ray pretty quickly.

Ray tries to get technical with Homicide for some reason. The fans still want tables. Homicide is like cool man and grabs some armdrags to get control. Ray puts him on the top and pats his head so Homicide dropkicks him down. Hernandez clears the ring (no tag. Cheaters) and both of them dive through the ropes to take out the Dudleys. Homicide tries to go up again but D-Von shoves him down, sending his head into the railing.

Ray punches Hector Guerrero and knocks Salinas down. Ray holds up a title belt for some reason while D-Von works on Homicide in the ring. A back elbow puts Homicide down and the Dudleys act all innocent and nice. I miss heel teams doing things like that. Big side slam by Bubba gets no cover. Back to D-Von and the fans say 3-D sucks. I agree. It just makes some of the background clearer and the glasses make the movie darker.

The referee misses the hot tag and the half brothers beat Homicide even more. By trying to stop homicide, does that make them vigilantes/crime fighters? They go up top and Homicide bites the ear and hits a jawbreaker to take D-Von down. There’s the double tag and the fans do not care at all. Hernandez gets a back drop to Ray, prompting him to shout DIOS MIO!!! The delayed vertical hits D-Von for two.

Homicide comes back in with a top rope cross body for two. What’s Up is set up for Hernandez but Homicide makes the save. Salinas and Hernandez do What’s Up on Ray with Ray saying come on. Johnny Devine comes in and is taken out by Hector. Ok then. D-Von takes Homicide up top but Hernandez makes the save, resulting in a Gringo (Diamond) Cutter off of Hernandez’s shoulders for two. Everything breaks down again and Ray hits SuperMex low. They set for 3D but Homicide rolls up Ray while D-Von is waiting on Hernandez to turn around for the pin. I like that.

Rating: C. Not a great match or anything but the ending was good. The problem here I think is that we saw the same match the previous month at Sacrifice so it’s not like this is some great new idea here. Salinas’ looks are the best thing about it with the ending coming a close second. Not great but it was fine for what it was I suppose.

It was time for some new blood in the division, so here’s LAX defending against the new team of Beer Money at Hard Justice 2008.

 

Tag Titles: Beer Money vs. LAX

The same rapper from earlier sings LAX to the ring. Well this does result in Salinas shaking her hips so it’s not all bad. Beer Money beat up Homicide on Impact and hurt his eye. Roode vs. SuperMex gets us going officially but there’s enough double teaming that it’s hard to tell for sure. Storm gets beaten up too and takes a 30 second delayed vertical suplex. Hernandez is scary strong.

Storm heads to the floor and Hernandez hits a huge dive to take Beer Money out. Homicide comes in to beat on Roode in revenge for the eye injury. Storm spits beer at Homicide to blind him and take over. They work over the eye and the neck a bit with Storm pounding away at it. The bandage is off. A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker by Roode gets two. The challengers hit a double suplex and shout their names.

An Orton elevated DDT gets two. Off to one of the least convincing chinlocks I’ve ever seen from Storm. It looks like he’s cuddling Homicide. Roode uses Three Amigos to some solid heel heat but really gets them mad by slapping his chest. A frog splash misses and both guys are down. Hernandez claps for Homicide and has some small hands. There’s the hot tag and it’s time for power moves.

Beer Money double teams him to get him down and the blockbuster gets two. SuperMex hits a double clothesline and tags Homicide in again which is probably not all that smart. He hits a frog splash of his own for two as Storm kicks out. The tagging aspect has been forgotten here. Roode hits his spinebuster and Storm hits a Backstabber to the back of Hernandez.

The champs are both down in the ring and Beer Money is on the floor. Hernandez uses Homicide as a missile and Border Tosses him on top of Beer Money. Salinas and Jackie fight on the floor and the distraction lets Roode break a beer bottle over Homicide’s eye for the easy pin by Storm for the titles.

Rating: B. Another good match from Beer Money as they know how to use a tag team formula as well as almost any modern team. LAX is a team I never got the universal appeal of but they were pretty good here. The eye injury was a good help to the story for the most part and we got a solid match out of it. Good stuff.

 

We’ll take a quick break from tagging and look at Feast or Fired at Final Resolution 2008.

 

Feast or Fired

Cute Kip, Sonjay Dutt, Jimmy Rave, Lance Rock, Alex Shelley, BG James, Jay Lethal, Chris Sabin, Curry Man, Consequences Creed, Hernandez, Homicide, Shark Boy

TNA rips off another WWE concept here with this one. There are four briefcases, one over each corner. In three are title shots, one for the world, one for the tag, one for the X and in the fourth there’s a thing that says YOU’RE FIRED. Original no? You have to get the case to the floor, not just off the hook to obtain it. Naturally we need 13 people in this right? Eight certainly wouldn’t have worked as you would have had four winners and four losers. Nah, we need 9 losers.

It’s a total mess of course where you can’t tell anything because even at the end there will be ten people in there. Everyone goes for cases but they can’t get there obviously due to the army stopping everyone. There’s no point in trying to keep track of what’s going on. Shark Boy goes for a sunset flip because he’s very stupid and pulls down Sonjay’s tights. Curry Man and Shark Boy both go up but the saves are made.

Dutt jumps up on Hernandez’s back in a cool spot but gets caught by Lethal, his big rival. Rave almost gets it but Hernandez grabs him down and throws a Border Toss onto a ton of people. Since the ring is empty otherwise he manages to get Case #4 (they’re individually numbered) and escapes with it.

The Outlaws tease a reunion/fight but decide against it. Shark Boy saves Kip from getting a case and hits a Stunner on Lethal. Rock hits a sweet release F5 on Shelley before going up in another failing attempt to get a case. Homicide and Curry Man fight on top of the ropes over a case and headbutt the heck out of each other. Curry Man, Christopher Daniels in a mask if you weren’t familiar with that, gets one and flips off the top onto a pile of guys to escape with #3.

Fameasser to Rave but Shelley kicks his head off and the Guns take over. Sonjay vs. Lethal for a bit is won by Lethal but he can’t quite get a case down as he’s caught in a Gringo Cutter from Homicide. Dutt can’t stop Homicide as he gets Case #1. So we’ve cleaned out a lot of the ring and gotten down to ten people. Far better now and that’s only half sarcasm.

The Guns take out Rock (Vance Archer) but Shelley is stopped by Rave. Tower of Doom spot by the Guns to Rave. Lethal almost gets the case but the Guns take care of him as well. This whole match is nothing but people climbing up and others saving them and about every five minutes someone gets a case down. Shelley gets the case down but holds it up, allowing Lethal to springboard across the ring and grab it to steal the case and get to the floor.

Rating: C+. Fun stuff but it’s the walking definition of a spotfest as there were WAY too many people in there. Cut this down to like 8 guys and the quality goes WAY up. This wasn’t bad but the formula got a bit old after awhile. The whole match is overkill but it’s fun overkill so I can’t complain that much here.

 

The team wouldn’t do much else together and would split by September. They would however reunite at One Night Only: Hardcore Justice 2 in 2013.

 

Disciples of the New Church vs. LAX

This is a street fight. The Disciples are a team from the early days of the company and are comprised of Sinn (Kizarny from about five years ago in WWE) and Slash (member of PG-13, a Memphis tag team). Sinn is in a tie and pink pants and Slash is in something resembling shoulder pads. Homicide starts with Slash (thankfully minus the pads) and the later howls a bit. A jumping back elbow gets two for Homicide as we’re still in the tagging portion of the match. Homicide gets two more off a tornado DDT out of the corner and it’s off to SuperMex.

Off to Slash who is immediately taken down by an over the shoulder backbreaker before being catapulted into a Homicide lariat for two. The Disciples take over on Homicide but Hernandez comes in to clean house as things break down. Hernandez puts on a hard hat for some reason as Homicide bulldogs Slash on the apron. Sinn gets beaten up with a stop sign before being sent back inside by Homicide.

All four guys are back in now and this is a pretty lame street fight. Slash misses a Swanton Bomb and gets choked by Homicide as we get back to the tagging. Homicide gets caught in a reverse FU from Slash but things break down again. Slash is sent to the floor and Homicide lays out Sinn with a Gringo Cutter, setting up a top rope splash from Hernandez for the pin.

Rating: D-. What in the world was this? The street fight portion of this lasted maybe two minutes and the rest was nothing more than a regular tag team match. The Disciples were a bad choice for this as almost no one remembers them and they were pretty terrible in the ring. LAX was a good team in their time but in a bubble like this they were just kind of there.

Overall LAX is a team that was much better when they had a story behind them. They were a team with a lot of talent and the ability to put on good matches with any set of opponents. Konnan was able to talk them very close to the top of the company, which is saying a lot for a team that started off as your generic foreign guys. They’re a good combination and worked very well out there together.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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Today is Undertaker, so the timeline is thrown out the window again.

 

I could have just posted Wrestlemania matches here and this would have been the longest entry in the series.

 

We’ll start with a strange period in Taker’s career: the MMA Cowboy of Death and a very popular match against Kurt Angle at No Way Out 2006 for Angle’s World Heavyweight Championship.

 

Smackdown World Title: Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker

It’s the remix for Angle’s music here which I never liked. That title just looks AWESOME on him. He was a guy that was incredibly valuable to have on the roster for instances such as this. Batista was hurt and so they needed a credible champion. Angle is someone they could throw the title on and have it be completely realistic. That’s always a great thing and it worked perfectly here.

Taker literally takes four minutes for his entrance. Think he’s taking long enough? Cole’s voice sounds like it’s giving out. Angle tries to get a hold on him early on and Taker goes to the ropes. That’s a bit odd to see I’d think. Angle hits the floor when nothing works. Cole says neither of them have ever tapped. What the heck has he been watching for the seven years Angle has been in the company? He’s lost an Ultimate Submission match and Jericho made him tap on Raw once. Also Benoit made him tap multiple times. Yeah that’s nonsense.

Taker works a headlock which is odd to see him using. Off to the arm and a short arm scissors which gets him nowhere. They’re going back and forth here and it’s working for the most part. Definitely a slow build as we have nearly half an hour to go and no more matches. Old School connects and Taker busts out a Downward Spiral of all things for two.

Snake Eyes hit but Angle hits a SWEET release German for one. The dueling chants begin which makes sense as these are both faces. There’s some chick at ringside that screams louder than Melina. Taker gets knocked off the apron and into the railing. Angle dives at him and is caught before being rammed into the post. The apron legdrop is VINTAGE! Back in and Angle blocks a chokeslam with some kicks so Taker just hits him in the face to put him back down.

Angle goes for the knee and gets the post figure four. Solid stuff here so I apologize for the lack of humor. There’s nothing to make fun of. Patrick gives this big lecture to Angle about keeping it in the ring and Angle nods at it. Patrick turns around and Angle is right back out there which was rather funny. They’re building very slowly here but Angle is picking it up a bit.

Back to the floor again with Taker drilling him with knees. Taker’s knee is messed up a bit and this time he’s selling so we’ve got that going for once. It’s noticeable how much more swearing there is here. Angle grabs the legdrop on the apron this time and gets the ankle lock. Angle holds him on the floor against the ten count, breaking at seven and then breaking the count before going right back to the ankle. That’s sweet stuff there.

We hit the ring again and Taker is caught in another leg lock for a bit. More dueling chants start up. Taker counters mounted punching with a triangle choke and Angle is in trouble. Amazing that Fedor can’t last 10 seconds in one but Angle can last like 30 in it. We hit the floor again and Angle is in trouble. They’ve broken the count like 10 times so far which isn’t something you see that often. It adds some realism to the match as they’re not ignoring rules for the sake of convenience.

Taker clears off the announce table and then rolls in to break the count again, even though I’m not sure one was going on. Angle grabs Taker and puts him through the other announce table with the Angle Slam out of nowhere. Angle stops the count at 9 including some F Bombs. Back to the floor again with Angle pounding away. Taker wouldn’t have beat the count back in. He reverses Angle and sends him into the steps. GREAT match if you can’t tell that.

Taker goes up but gets caught and takes some punches. Angle sets for a suplex but Taker knocks him back. Angle is all like boy I said I’m suplexing you so I’m suplexing you and runs up the corner to throw Taker down in a belly to belly. Somehow that only gets two. Fans are way into this. Angle throws more punches so Taker kicks him in the face. Sometimes you can’t beat the simple stuff.

Chokeslam is countered into the ankle lock and Taker is reeling. Taker can’t shove him off so he pulls him in, grabs the head and locks on the triangle choke again. Angle reverses that and hooks the ankle lock one more time. Taker rolls through and finally gets out of it. Chokeslam mostly hits but Taker kind of dropped him which might have been intentional due to the ankle. That gets two as I’m loving this stuff.

Last Ride is reversed into a sunset flip and Angle grabs the ankle lock AGAIN for like what, the fifth time? Yeah two in the previous sequence and two on the floor. Dang man. Taker can’t get the ropes so he kicks Angle off AGAIN. Angle Slam connects for TWO. Sweet merciful crap this is awesome. Angle pulls down the straps as Taker sits up in a great visual.

They slug it out and Taker sends him in and grabs the Tombstone. Angle reverses and Taker reverses and ANGLE reverses into the SIXTH Ankle lock, this time with the grapevine attached. Taker raises his hand to tap and he’s in the middle of the ring. Taker rolls them over and kicks Angle in the face again to become the ONLY person I’ve ever seen to survive the grapevine ankle lock.

Angle slips up behind Taker as he gets up and hits ANOTHER Angle Slam (NINE freaking finishers from Angle if you’re keeping track) and Angle rolls him up but Taker busts out (and perhaps debuts) the Hell’s Gate (not called that yet and still called a triangle choke here. Thank you martial arts master Tazz) and Angle is in big trouble. Angle is almost out and after the second arm drop he pops up and jumps over into a cradle while the choke is still on and gets the three! Taker thinks he’s won and Angle is DONE. Post match Taker says he has Angle’s number. I guess he’ll text the rematch request.

Rating: A+. Screw Meltzer and his love of Japanese guys and his cruiserweight obsession. THIS is your match of the year. These two beat the tar out of each other and it was nothing but awesome the whole way. For some reason (Angle leaving for TNA) they never had the big rematch. THIS should have been the main event of Mania rather than a 9 minute triple threat with Angle dropping the belt to that freaking moron Rey so that Eddie could have his second moment at Mania.

Both guys looked awesome out there and they threw everything they had at each other and then the ending worked perfectly. Both guys more or less lost and it lets Taker keep his credibility. Much like the Benoit match at the 03 Rumble, Taker didn’t get beat so much as he got caught. That’s a very key thing and it helps a lot here. Excellent match and well worth going out to see.

 

Undertaker would of course have a ton of success at Wrestlemania, including main eventing Wrestlemania XXIV, challenging Edge for the title.

 

Smackdown World Title: Undertaker vs. Edge

Edge has Teddy wheel out Vickie who is in a wheelchair as always. The Canadian is defending here. The champ pounds away to start but gets clotheslined out to the floor. Back in and Taker comes back with a Stunner onto the top rope to put Edge down. Taker slugs away but charges into a boot in the corner, only to come back with the jumping clothesline for two. Old School is countered but Taker rolls forward and armdrags Edge down.

Edge sends Taker over the corner by avoiding a big boot, possibly injuring Taker’s arm in the process. A spear sends Taker off the apron and into the barricade to work over the ribs a bit. Edge hits a hard baseball slide to send Taker back into the barricade as the match slows down a bit. With Undertaker on the apron, Edge hits a running neckbreaker to snap Undertaker’s neck across the top rope.

Back in and Edge pounds away even more before hitting a spear into the corner for no cover. Instead it’s a dropkick to put Taker down again and Edge goes up, only to be shoved down to the floor with a sick thud. There’s the Taker Dive to continue the Wrestlemania tradition. Taker drops the apron legdrop and heads back inside for the Last Ride but his back won’t let him use it.

They head outside again and Edge drops Taker back first onto the barricade, sending the big man into the crowd. Off to a half crab by Edge followed by a very modified Indian Deathlock which Undertaker kicks away. Back up and they slug it out with Taker getting control and the cheers from Undertaker. The challenger gets the better of it and hits a running clothesline in the corner. Make it a pair of them followed by snake eyes but the big boot is blocked for two by Edge.

The chokeslam is countered into the Impaler DDT for two. The second chokeslam attempt works but it only gets a near fall as well. Old School is broken up again and Edge pounds away in the corner but has to counter the Last Ride out of the corner with a neckbreaker for two. These counters are getting awesome. The Last Ride (more of a regular powerbomb here) hits but it only gets two. Edge counters the Tombstone into the Edge-O-Matic for ANOTHER close two. The fans aren’t buying Edge’s near falls.

Back up and Taker’s big boot hits the referee before Edge takes down the Dead Man. A low blow breaks up a chokeslam bid and Edge blasts Taker in the head with a camera. Taker sits up and like a dolt, Edge tries a Tombstone. Taker reverses into one of his own and here’s another referee running a LONG way down the aisle to count two. Cue Hawkins and Ryder (as in Curt and Zack, the Edgeheads) to distract Taker and let Edge hit the spear for two. NOW the fans are fired up about the kickout. Another spear connects but Taker grabs the Hell’s Gate submission out of nowhere and Edge taps away the title to make it 15-0.

Rating: A. I kept hearing about how great this match was and while I remember it being good, I don’t remember it being this good. It’s pretty safe to say that this is Edge’s best non-gimmick match ever and it’s one of his best ever period. Great match here and it would set up a series of solid gimmick matches between the two over the summer.

We’ll stick with that Wrestlemania theme and go to the greatest show of all time for his underrated match against HHH.

HHH vs. Undertaker

Taker gets to do his long bike ride down the aisle, meaning he can speed it way up, which looks pretty awesome. I use that word a lot in this but it’s true. The fight starts on the floor with HHH losing a slugout. They break ANOTHER Spanish announce table with Taker still pounding away. We get in the ring for the opening bell where HHH hitting the jumping knee to the face. Taker has no interest in selling that though and pounds on HHH in the corner even more.

A big backdrop puts HHH down as do some clotheslines in the corner. Taker powerslams the Game down and there’s the jumping clothesline to do it again. HHH breaks up Old School though and hits a neckbreaker for two. A few elbows to Taker’s neck have him in even more trouble and there’s a neckbreaker for two. See what psychology is like? It’s not that hard. Taker comes back with rapid fire punches but gets caught in a facebuster.

HHH goes to the floor and gets the sledgehammer but the referee takes it away from him. Instead HHH loads up a Pedigree but gets catapulted into the referee, crushing him in the process. There’s a chokeslam to HHH but the referee is slow to count, meaning it only gets two. Taker beats up the referee to knock him out cold before throwing HHH out to the floor. HHH is backdropped into the crowd and the brawl is on. Taker punches him up to the tech area which is a very rare sight.

HHH tries to climb away to escape, but he climbs up higher and higher. Taker catches him anyway and pounds him in the head before sending him up to the next level. HHH finds a chair and blasts him ten straight times about the head and body. He loads up another shot to the head but Taker grabs him by the throat and chokeslams HHH off the tower onto something we can’t see. It winds up being a crash pad but the throw looked GREAT. Taker wants more and drops an elbow off the tower down onto HHH for good measure.

Before HHH can be taken to the back by EMTs, Taker beats him up even more and even knocks down the medics. We head back to the ring where the referee hasn’t moved for six minutes and hasn’t been looked at whatsoever. Back to the ring with HHH basically dead. Taker picks up the sledgehammer but HHH kicks him low to save his life. A big boot to the face of HHH takes him down though and it’s time for a slugout.

HHH loads up a Tombstone but since he’s not Kane (or Sid apparently, Taker easily counters into one of his own. There’s STILL no referee though as he’s been out cold for ten minutes (from a kick in the back and an elbow drop mind you). Taker finally shakes him back to life before loading up the Last Ride. HHH grabs the sledgehammer though and knocks Undertaker silly with it…..for two. I lost my mind on that kickout back in the day.

Taker is busted open and HHH is having a fit. The Game pounds away at the cut in the corner but makes the fatal mistake of going to the middle rope for more leverage, allowing Taker to grab the Last Ride to plant HHH and make himself 9-0 at Wrestlemania. Taker lays on the ropes after the match and the shot of him busted open but smiling is sweet.

Rating: A. This is one of the great matches that no one talks about for various reasons ranging from their rematches to the match that immediately followed it. It’s absolutely great though with both guys beating the tar out of each other and some excellent drama on the near falls. This was the match that made sure you knew Taker was still a player while keeping HHH strong at the same time. Great fight.

Then there’s that one time he beat Hogan for the WWF Title at Survivor Series 1991 in a big shocker.

WWF World Title: Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan

Taker is “undefeated” here, which means overseas tours and house shows don’t count because Tito beat him in Spain and Warrior beat him on a bunch of house shows. Feeling out process to start with no one being able to get a real advantage. Taker shoulders Hogan and Hulk regroups a bit while Taker reaches to the urn. Back in and Taker chokes away in the corner in a shot you see in a lot of Taker video packages.

Bearer chokes Hogan a bit and Taker slams him. A big elbow misses and the place pops loudly. Hulk pounds away but he can’t put Taker down. A slam doesn’t work nor does an elbow to the head. Hogan clotheslines Taker to the floor where the dead man lands on his feet and pulls Hogan outside. Back in and Taker chokes away some more as does Bearer. Taker starts smothering him as you can see the Hogan super fan, a guy who dressed up like Hulk (including yellow trunks) sitting in the front row and freaking out.

This hold goes on for a good while, which is just Taker having his hand on Hogan’s face and doing nothing else. By long I mean like two and a half minuets. When the whole match is only thirteen minutes, that’s a long stretch. Hogan comes back with some shoulder blocks that don’t do much, only to have Taker clothesline him down again. There’s the Tombstone but Hogan is up before a cover. He pounds away on Taker and knocks him down to one knee which is a new thing for Taker.

Hogan gets a good slam as Flair is on his way to the ring. I miss that black and white robe. That thing was spiffy. Hogan takes out Flair with a right hand and big boots Taker, only to have Bearer grab his leg. Taker loads up the Tombstone as Flair slides in a chair. The piledriver on the chair gives us a new world champion and a decisive face pop for the dead man. Taker holding the title like it’s a coupon for a free coffee at a Shell station is a nice touch.

Rating: D. Yeah this match completely sucked but we have a new champion and a reason to watch Flair vs. Hogan, which never happened for various reason. Hogan would beat Taker for the title at Tuesday in Texas six days later, but the title would be held up and decided in the Rumble, where Flair would win it and set up Wrestlemania. Bad match, but a BIG moment.

To really mix things up a bit, we’re going to Michinoku Pro, a Japanese promotion, for a match against Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi) on October 10, 1997.

Undertaker vs. Jinsei Shinzaki

Hakushi is down in the ring to start which appears to be part of his gimmick. That’s fine with Taker as he grabs Hakushi as he gets up and nails a chokeslam. Some big right hands get two and Old School gets the same. Back up and we get a Flair Flip out to the floor with Hakushi in early trouble. Some right hands knock Hakushi onto the apron and a suplex back in gets two. Hakushi comes back with a quick hurricanrana for two and he goes after the leg. An (I assume) unnamed Bruce Pritchard is in Undertaker’s corner.

Undertaker is put in the Tree of Woe for all of two seconds before escaping to kick Hakushi in the face. More kicks to the leg drop the big man though and a top rope headbutt injures the knee even more. They head outside but Undertaker catches him diving off the top and drives him into the post a few times. Back in again and a powerslam gets two for the Dead Man but Hakushi goes after the knee again. Moonsault gets two but the headbutt hits mat as Undertaker sits up. Chokeslam gets two and the tombstone gets the pin.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t much to see but it’s probably my favorite period for Undertaker. He was slowly dropping the undead stuff and just started beating people up because he could. It helped that he was at war with Shawn and just about to start the Kane feud as well so good things were happening for him.

Speaking of the Shawn feud, here’s how it started for him. From Summerslam 1997, as Bret Hart was the top heel in the company after the Border War.

WWF World Title: Undertaker vs. Bret Hart

Remember that Shawn is guest referee. Bret hits Undertaker in the back with the belt to start and pounds away but Undertaker throws him away and out to the floor. The champion misses a charge into the post and is sent knees first into the steps by the Canadian. Bret tries to jump off the apron at Taker but is caught in midair and slammed into the post. Back in and Undertaker works on Bret’s back before sending him into the corner a few times.

Off to a bearhug on Hart followed by a big boot to the face, but Taker misses a legdrop. A second big boot misses though and Bret goes after the knee. Hart cannonballs down onto Taker’s knee and kicks the leg out from under the 6’10 champion. As a small sidebar, Vince says that you’re not 6’10 when you’re on the mat. I’m pretty sure he still is actually, but he just can’t use that height advantage.

Hart cranks on the leg even more and puts on the Figure Four for good measure. This brings out Paul Bearer for some reason which angers the champion. Undertaker turns the hold over to escape before going after Bearer. Bret uses the distraction to jump Undertaker from behind and send him into the barricade. There’s the Figure Four around the post by Bret as he stays on Taker’s leg. Owen Hart and Brian Pillman of the Hart Foundation come out to ringside.

Taker’s leg is wrapped around another post and Bret flips off a yelling fan. Shawn hasn’t been a factor as referee yet. Back in and Bret puts on another leg lock but Taker rolls it over and uses the good leg to kick Bret in the face. With no provocation, Undertaker drops to the floor and beats up Owen and Pillman. Back in and there’s the chokeslam but Shawn is watching for more Harts. Bret heads to the floor and rams Undertaker’s back into the apron and post to take over again.

Shawn tells Bret to get back inside or the match is over. They head into the ring again with Bret getting two off a backbreaker. A suplex puts Undertaker down again and there’s the middle rope elbow for two. Bret hits a DDT for the same but Undertaker drops him face first onto the turnbuckle for two of his own. Hart goes after the back again but can’t hook the Sharpshooter. The chokeslam is countered with a kick to the leg but Undertaker hits an uppercut to put Bret down.

Undertaker hits his jumping clothesline to take over again before whipping Bret chest first into the buckle for two. Bret tries to go up but gets chokeslammed down off the top for a close two. Old School is countered and Bret superplexes Undertaker down but he can’t cover. Instead he puts on the Sharpshooter but Undertaker kicks him away, which is the first time the hold has been completely broken. Another clothesline puts Bret down but he escapes the Tombstone and puts on the Sharpshooter around the post in a new move. Taker kicks him off and he crushes Shawn in the process though.

Bret brings a chair into the ring and lays out Undertaker with no Michaels to see it. Shawn limps back into the ring but the count only gets two. Bret erupts on Shawn and flips him off before pounding away in the corner again. Shawn picks up the chair and is spat on by Bret. Shawn swings the chair but knocks Undertaker out cold, giving Bret the pin and the title.

Rating: B+. This took a lot of time to get going but with thirty minutes to use they had more than enough time to waste. Hart winning was definitely the right move after he spent all summer on top of the company. This opened up a lot more options than Taker was providing, which is what a champion is supposed to do.

Post match Undertaker is FURIOUS and goes after Shawn. The Hart Foundation celebrates to end the show.

Now the first match between the two, from In Your House 17: Ground Zero.

Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker

 

Michaels’ entrance takes so long that his music starts over again. The lights go out, the thunder starts rumbling, and the crowd wakes up again. Undertaker turns the lights back on with a big crack and Shawn hides behind the referee. Undertaker stalks him around the ring but Shawn keeps hiding, so Taker punches out the referee. Michaels bails to the floor and tries to walk out but Commissioner Slaughter orders him back to the ring. Undertaker throws the referee onto Shawn to slow him down, and NOW the beating begins.

 

Shawn tries to run again but this time he can’t get through the door to the house set, allowing Undertaker to slam him down on the steel. Michaels is thrown into some shrubbery before being tossed back down the ramp. They get back to ringside with Shawn trying to crawl anywhere he can to escape. Undertaker chokes him by the timekeeper’s area with Shawn desperately trying to ring the bell to end the match.

 

Undertaker punches him onto the announce table then punches him right back off of it, knocking Shawn into the barricade. They head back inside for some elbow drops from Undertaker before he rams Shawn into the buckle. Remember that the match hasn’t actually started yet. Shawn is whipped into the corner and out to the floor as Slaughter sends out a second referee. Michaels actually begs the new referee to disqualify Undertaker but the referee values his life too much to do that.

 

Back inside and Shawn gets in a cheap shot to the knee when the bell FINALLY rings. Shawn pounds away in the corner but is easily shoved off. The same sequence happens again but Undertaker grabs Shawn by the throat. A kick to the knee gives Shawn a breather but he goes up top and jumps into a right hand, giving Undertaker control again. Shawn’s sunset flip is countered by a lifting choke with Shawn being thrown around again.

 

Undertaker whips him into the corner and Shawn lands stomach first onto the top rope. Some kicks to the ribs launch Shawn crotch first onto the top rope as the destruction continues. Undertaker cranks on the arm for a bit and drops a leg on it for good measure. Old School is broken up with Undertaker being crotched on the ropes to finally give Shawn a breather. Taker rolls to the floor but he catches Shawn’s dive in midair to ram his back into the post.

 

A backdrop gets two for Undertaker and Shawn is caught trying to escape again. Shawn comes back with a quick neckbreaker but Undertaker casually sits up. Michaels bails to the floor and grabs the chair that started it all, only to have Undertaker kick it back into his face. The referee finally remembers to do his job and takes the chair away, so Undertaker kicks him in the face.

 

Shawn pounds Undertaker down and hits a pair of long range elbow drops. Cue Shawn’s bodyguard Rick Rude to throw a pair of brass knuckles to Shawn, who knocks Undertaker out cold. A third referee comes in but Undertaker kicks out at two, earning him a beating from Shawn. HHH and Chyna come out to ringside as well with HHH getting in some cheap shots on Undertaker. The Dead Man’s knees are sent into the steps as the second referee is woken up again, only to be drilled by Shawn as well.

 

Michaels makes the huge mistake of letting Undertaker get back up though and they slug it out again. A clothesline puts Undertaker on the floor but he lands on this feet, only to have HHH and Chyna go after him. Shawn drops a top rope ax handle on Undertaker’s back and chokes with a cord as HHH gets in some shots.

 

Back inside and Sweet Chin Music is blocked and Undertaker throws Shawn into the corner for more punishment. A big right hand drops Shawn and Undertaker gets the brass knuckles. Michaels is laid out again and HHH gets a right hand with them as well. Undertaker actually actually covers but Michaels gets up at two. The referee gets a chokeslam and here’s referee #4 to FINALLY throw this out.

 

Rating: A. This wasn’t a wrestling match in the slightest but it wouldn’t have made sense for it to be. It was however probably the best fight you’ll ever see, with incredible carnage and a furious Undertaker obsessed with getting his revenge. There wasn’t a ton of blood, but we’ll get to that later. Excellent brawl though and even more proof of how great these two are at multiple styles.

 

It’s still not over as Undertaker isn’t done yet. He throws HHH at Shawn but Michaels is able to score with Sweet Chin Music, knocking Undertaker into the ropes with his arms tied up. The fourth referee is punched out and Shawn gets the chair, but Undertaker kicks it back into his face and loads up a tombstone, only to have HHH make the save.

 

Officials come in as HHH is tombstoned, leaving Shawn alone again. Wrestlers come in to try and break up the fight and Shawn is finally taken to the floor. Undertaker shakes the wrestlers holding him off and DIVES OVER THE TOP ROPE to get at Shawn, which was the debut of said dive. DX bails to the back and the show ends with Undertaker alone in the ring.

When that didn’t work, the solution was to lock them in a new kind of cage: Hell in a Cell. From In Your House 18: Bad Blood.

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

 

Inside the Hell in a Cell and the winner gets a shot at Bret next month at Survivor Series. The thunder starts to rumble and the gong goes off, bringing the crowd back to life for the first time in a long while. The entrance takes it sweet time as Shawn is forced to think about what’s coming. Undertaker turns the lights back on and Shawn is terrified as reality sets in.

 

The slow stalking around the cage floor begins before they head back inside, only to have Shawn launched across the ring. A ram into the buckle sends Shawn flying again so he tries some punches, only to be whipped HARD across the ring again. Undertaker rams his shoulder into Shawn’s before hitting Old School for no cover. A slam and legdrop get two on Shawn and some big right hands send Shawn down again. Michaels is thrown over the top and out to the floor as the pain is about to begin.

 

Undertaker continues to walk very slowly around the ring, hitting a single right hand after another. He tries a powerbomb on the floor but Michaels fires off right hands, only to be rammed back first into the cage wall. Now Undertaker picks him up and rams Shawn back first into the post, then the wall, then back to the post and back to the wall again. Shawn manages to escape being rammed in again and sends Undertaker into the wall, but Undertaker shrugs it off and punches Shawn down.

 

Shawn is sent face first into the steps and choked a bit but he FINALLY sends Undertaker into the post to get a breather. Since the outside doesn’t work at all for Shawn, he heads back inside, only to have his neck snapped across the top rope. A dive over the top takes out Undertaker and an elbow off the apron keeps Undertaker down. Michaels slams the steps down onto Undertaker’s back a few times before piledriving him down onto said steps.

 

A top rope ax handle sends Undertaker into the cage again and we head back inside. Shawn finds a chair under the ring and the fans are very pleased. Some chair shots to the back put Undertaker down for two so Shawn ties his arms up in the ropes. He doesn’t tie up the feet though and Undertaker kicks him down before backdropping Shawn onto the cameraman. Shawn beats up the cameraman, which becomes important later.

 

Michaels gets in a cheap shot on Undertaker to knock him to the floor before taking a breather. Back inside and the flying forearm and nip up make Shawn a little more cocky. The top rope elbow gets two as Slaughter has the door unlocked to get the cameraman some medical attention. Sweet Chin Music lays Undertaker out but he sits up. Shawn tries to run through the open door but Undertaker grabs him almost immediately. Michaels is catapulted into the cage wall (on the outside), cutting him open. Now the fun begins.

 

In one of the iconic shots of the match, Undertaker puts Shawn on his shoulder and rams him into the cage wall again. Shawn collapses next to the cage but Undertaker is just warming up. A quick low blow puts Undertaker down and with nowhere else to go, Shawn climbs up the side of the cage. He makes it all the way to the roof but Undertaker follows him. Undertaker counters a piledriver with a backdrop as we go to a wide shot to show how awesome this looks.

 

A gorilla press slam puts Shawn down on the roof again and a kick to the ribs sends Shawn to the edge. He tries to climb down, but in the really famous shot of the match, Undertaker stomps on his hands, sending Shawn flying off the cage and through the announce table. Undertaker still isn’t done and throws Shawn onto the other announce table as Shawn’s face is just covered in blood.

 

The stalking continues as the announcers are losing their minds at all this. Michaels crawls back into the Cell but can barely see through the blood. A running clothesline puts Shawn down on the mat before taking him to the top for a SUPER CHOKESLAM. Now we get to the poetic justice portion with Undertaker grabbing the chair. A big chair shot to the head puts Shawn down and Undertaker signals for the tombstone…..and the lights go out.

 

Organ music begins to play and Paul Bearer walks a huge man in red down to ringside. Vince: “THAT’S GOT TO BE KANE!” He rips the door off the Cell and climbs into the ring to stare down Undertaker. Undertaker is STUNNED as Kane raises his arms up and pulls them down, causing fire to shoot up from the ring posts. Kane tombstones Undertaker down and walks out, allowing Shawn to drape an arm over Undertaker for the shocking upset.

 

Rating: A+. This is one of the best matches of all time and the culmination of one of the best put together stories ever. While the brawling is incredible and the violence is off the charts, the storytelling carries this. Undertaker stalking Shawn to start and getting every single bit of punishment in that he could until Shawn used his speed and intelligence to get some control was brilliant. The torment Undertaker put Shawn through was perfect with Michaels being completely destroyed throughout the match and being dead to rites until the ending.

 

Kane making his debut here was perfect as well, with the story being just far enough in the past that people weren’t thinking about it but not far enough that everyone knew who Kane was as soon as he walked out. This set up a feud that went on and off for thirteen years between the brothers, but we’ll get to that later. By the way, I told you Fake Diesel would be worth something someday. He’s the guy playing Kane.

We’ll come back to Kane later on, because now we’re jumping forward about ten years to Wrestlemania XXIII, as Undertaker has won the 2008 Royal Rumble and is challenging Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Smackdown World Title: Batista vs. Undertaker

Teddy Long does the intros here for some reason. We lso get the druids and the torches, which look AWESOME in the huge stadiums like this. The bell rings and Batista spears Taker down before pounding away in the corner. Undertaker fires off right hands of his own but Batista throws him right back into the corner. The fans are totally behind Undertaker here. They head to the floor with Undertaker being sent knees first into the steps as is his custom.

Back in and Batista hits a top rope shoulder for two. If you’re listening to Cole, you would think he had hit a 450. A big clothesline puts Taker down for two but Undertaker comes back with right hands and a running charge in the corner. The Snake Eyes and big boot combo puts Batista down and a legdrop gets two. Old School connects but Big Dave powers out of the chokeslam to huge booing.

The jumping clothesline puts Batista down again but only for two. Taker puts him on the apron for the elbow and legdrops before busting out the Taker Dive as is his custom at Wrestlemania. Taker pounds away even more but Batista counters to throw him through part of the barricade to take over. With Undertaker dazed, Batista loads up a powerslam from one announce table through the other, which actually isn’t countered.

Back in and that only gets two so the champion pounds away more for good measure. Batista loads up the Bomb but Taker plows him into the corner to counter. Dave comes right back with a belly to belly suplex for two. He pounds on Taker in the corner like a schmuck and of course there’s the Last Ride for two. Taker has a breather but walks right into the spinebuster.

Batista doesn’t cover though and gets caught in a chokeslam for a VERY close two. The Tombstone is countered and Batista hits the spear and Batista Bomb for an even closer two, shocking the champion. Batista loads up another Bomb but Taker backdrops out of it and avoids a spear, setting up the Tombstone for the title.

Rating: A. The idea is that these two were annoyed and decided to have an awesome match to show everyone up. These two would go on to have more great matches on shows where Batista actually had a chance to win. This was the feud of the year and it’s hard to argue as they could both work the power game like few others.

We’ll jump ahead a bit more for the final blowoff to Undertaker’s war with DX that ran over four Wrestlemanias. This was all about respect though and never was personal.

HHH vs. Undertaker

This is inside Hell in a Cell with Shawn Michaels as guest referee. Undertaker basically became Batman in his cave and wanted a rematch to prove he could beat HHH. As in like he already did. This is also billed as End of an Era, but what era that was never actually became clear. The announcement of the Cell was perfect as HHH said he wanted one more thing, which was presumed to be Streak vs. career. It’s a good lesson in letting the feud set the stipulations, not the calendar. Undertaker debuts his new mohawk here to a gasp from the crowd. The Cell is lowered to Memory Remains by Metallica.

Taker pounds away into the corner to start with “carcinogenic” right hands according to JR. HHH pounds away as well but gets thrown out to the floor soon thereafter. HHH is sent into the Cell a few times and a backdrop puts him down on the floor again. Taker sends him into the steel over and over as it’s one sided so far. Now it’s the steps instead of the Cell with Taker in full control. Back in and a facebuster is no sold and down goes HHH again.

Old School connects and we head back outside again. Shawn isn’t a factor yet. The steps go upside HHH’s head and set up the apron legdrop. Back in and HHH hits a DDT, which somehow makes us completely even. The steps are in the ring now so HHH slams Taker’s head into them a few times. A Pedigree onto the steps is blocked with a backdrop but HHH comes back with a spinebuster onto the steps, only to get caught in the Hell’s Gate. In an impressive power display, HHH lifts Taker up into a powerbomb to break the hold and get two as well.

HHH throws in a pair of chairs and cracks one of them over Taker’s back. Taker is whipped into the steps in the corner before they’re sent to the outside. JR says there are no laws in the Cell. Other than you win by pin or submission and all that. HHH goes off with the chair, DESTROYING Undertaker Austin/Rock style. Shawn takes the chair away and tells HHH to cover Undertaker because he’s not going to quit. Trips takes the chair back and shoves Shawn down before pounding on Taker even more. He tells Shawn to end it before he does.

Taker says do not stop it as he’s getting back up. He turns around though and is hit in the ribs and back by the chair but it only gets two. HHH is starting to get frustrated so he hits Taker in the back with another chair and it’s time for more pathos with Taker saying don’t stop it. Cue the sledgehammer for a shot to the head for ANOTHER two. HHH (who is cut over the eye) has no idea what to do now.

The Game pulls up the hammer to slam it down onto Taker’s head but Shawn pulls it away to prevent the murder. Shawn is ready to stop it as Taker can barely move. Michaels raises his hand but Taker pulls him into the Hell’s Gate to stop him. Trips breaks it up with a hammer shot but Taker comes back with a low blow and Hell’s Gate on HHH. There’s no referee though and Taker lets it go from exhaustion with his opponent out cold.

Another referee comes in as Taker hits a last effort chokeslam for two. Taker chokeslams the referee (I believe that’s the same referee he beat up in 2001 against HHH as well) but walks into the superkick into the Pedigree…..FOR TWO! I lost my mind watching that live because I really thought it was over. Now HHH shoves Shawn to the floor and Taker sits up to scare the life out of HHH. Taker erupts on HHH with a big boot and running clothesline, setting up snake eyes and another boot.

The Tombstone connects but HHH is up at two. Shawn has no idea what to do as both guys are slowly getting up. They slug it out from their knees before getting to their feet for more HARD punches. Another Tombstone is countered into the Pedigree for a VERY close two. HHH goes for the hammer but Taker steps on it to stop him. A HARD chair shot to the back puts HHH down and another one keeps him down.

Some more chair shots get two on HHH so Shawn screams at them to end this. HHH tries a hammer shot to the face but Taker easily blocks it. They stare each other down and HHH gives Taker a crotch chop. Trips walks out of the corner into a hammer shot to the head. HHH tries to climb up Taker’s body but the strap comes down, the throat is slit, and the Tombstone makes it 20-0.

Rating: A+. This is another reason why I’m not so wild on last year’s match: they’re capable of SO much better and this is proof. This match told a great story with both guys destroying each other with Shawn being stuck in the middle and trying to figure out what do do in each situation. It’s a great match, it’s a great fight, and it’s pure emotion the entire time. Great stuff here, and most importantly of all: there were moments where I thought it was over. I never bought that as a possibility last year.

After a few moments on the mat, Taker sits up but falls right back down. He pulls himself up on Shawn and they embrace. HHH is still out cold. Shawn and Taker lift him up and carry him out of the ring. They embrace on the stage in one of the most iconic images you’ll ever see. You don’t often get to use that word, but it’s true in this case.

 

Back to 1997 again for a match that people often forget. Few will argue that Mankind was one of Undertaker’s top rivals of all time. This is one of their only matches for the WWF Title, from In Your House 14: Revenge of the Taker

 

WWF World Title: Mankind vs. Undertaker

 

I think we’ve covered the backstory for this one enough already. For perhaps the only time in his career, Undertaker charges from the floor into the ring and the fight is on. Undertaker has a bandage on his head from where Mankind burned him recently. They slug it out to start and a running right hand to the head puts Undertaker down. The Cactus Clothesline puts both guys on the floor but Undertaker of course lands on his feet. A HARD whip sends Mankind into the barricade and a standing chokeslam does it again.

 

The third whip sends Mankind into the crowd and the Undertaker is in full control. Mankind is whipped into the barricade yet again as we head back to ringside. Back into the ring with Undertaker still pounding away and driving him down with shoulder blocks. Undertaker lets go of the hand on Old School so it’s a diving clothesline instead of a forearm to the back. Paul Bearer gets on the apron to prevent the tombstone and a quick shot with the urn gets two for Mankind.

 

The champion gets pounded down in the corner and a running knee to the head puts him down again. We hit the nerve hold on Undertaker before Mankind turns it into a reverse chinlock. The much stronger Undertaker is able to turn around though and fire off right hands to the ribs to escape. A very hard shot sends Mankind out to the floor and Undertaker sends him face first into the steps. Mankind comes back with a pitcher of water and shatters it over the champion’s face to put him back down. A chair to Undertaker’s head still doesn’t draw a DQ and JR demands to know why. Good question actually.

 

Mankind drops an elbow from the middle rope to the floor in one of his signature spots. The bandage is ripped off of Undertaker’s head and the injury is just ugly looking. Undertaker finally gets back inside where a pulling piledriver gets two for the challenger. The same move gets no cover but Mankind does screech a lot. Undertaker staggers around for a bit before hitting a jumping clothesline out of nowhere. The referee is knocked down and Mankind gets the Mandible Claw to knock Undertaker out cold.

 

Another referee comes in and gets the Claw as well for reasons of Mankind is insane. Bearer throws in a chair but Mankind wants the steps. In perhaps the only time in his career, Undertaker dropkicks the steps into Mankind’s face, and now it’s time to fight. A BIG chair shot to the head knocks Mankind silly and Undertaker throws him into the ropes to tie Mankind up by the neck.

 

The champion rips Mankind’s mask off and smashes the steps into Mankind, knocking him off the apron and head first through the table in a scary looking crash. Back inside and a chokeslam only gets two, shocking the crowd. Taker isn’t playing anymore though and it’s a tombstone to retain the title.

 

Rating: B-. This got really good once they stopped the pretense of a wrestling match and started fighting. A ticked off Undertaker is just fun to watch and this was no exception, especially when you had a human pinball like Mankind to bounce all over the place like he did. The match wasn’t particularly good, but it was fun which is what this show desperately needed.

 

Post match Undertaker goes after Bearer but has to fight off Mankind. Undertaker kicks something out of Mankind’s hands and kicks Mankind to the floor. Mankind dropped a lighter and flash paper, so Undertaker lights it up in Bearer’s face to burn him like Mankind burned Undertaker.

 

We’re going to jump even further into the past to see an earlier incarnation of the Undertaker. This is from the USWA from 1989.

 

Punisher vs. Steve Williams

 

Williams isn’t the Williams you’re thinking of. He’s a pure rookie here and would soon change his name to Steve Austin. Punisher is under a mask here and a member of Devastation Inc. Williams is thrown around to start but grabs a headlock. Punisher easily suplexes him down and nails the big clothesline, setting up the legdrop for the pin. Total squash. This was billed as Austin’s first match but I have a problem believing that.

 

Back to more modern times now as we see what might be the greatest match of all time. From Wrestlemania XXV.

 

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

Shawn comes down from the top of the set all in white, Undertaker comes through the stage in blackk, symbolizing heaven vs. hell. Now THAT is an entrance. Feeling out process to start with Shawn circling around Taker and sticking with a few jabs here and there. Michaels pounds away in the corner and hits a hard chop but taker catches an incoming right hand. Taker LAUNCHES him into the corner and nearly out to the floor, only for Shawn to jump off the top and over Undertaker to get away.

Shawn might have hurt his knee but he’s channeling his inner Bret by goldbricking. Taker will have none of that and throws Shawn into the corner for more punishment. Michaels comes back with chops in the corner but gets backdropped down to stop the momentum. Taker drives some shoulder into Shawn but Shawn takes him down with a clothesline. The reverse Figure Four (called a regular one by that idiot Michael Cole) has Taker in trouble but he finally slugs his way out of it.

Taker pounds way in the corner but has to stop to shake life back into his leg. Snake eyes and the big boot put Shawn down and a legdrop gets two (brother). A chokeslam is countered into the Crossface by Shawn but Taker rolls over onto his side to block a lot of the pressure. After an attempted rollup by Undertaker, Shawn cranks on the hold a bit more, only to have Taker fight up and hit a big side slam for two. Back up and they slug it out with Shawn taking over via a flying forearm.

There’s the nipup but Shawn doesn’t tune up the band. Instead it’s a pair of atomic drops and a clothesline but as Shawn goes up, he jumps into the chokeslam. He escapes THAT and tries the superkick but is too far away, meaning the kick only hits Taker’s chest. It puts Taker down so Shawn tries the Figure Four but Taker counters into Hell’s Gate. Shawn flails around and gets a foot on the rope for a fast break but he’s clearly staggered.

We head to the floor for a bit but Taker misses the apron legdrop. A baseball slide keeps Taker on the floor but as Shawn tries the moonsault to the floor, Taker moves and Shawn CRASHES onto the concrete. Back inside and Taker sits up and busts out the Taker Dive, only to overrotate and CRASH in a terrifying landing. Shawn thankfully pulled a cameraman in the way to block some of the impact but this scared me to death live.

Shawn tells the referee to count in a kind of mid-match heel turn but Taker makes it back in at nine. Another superkick attempt is ducked and a HUGE chokeslam gets an insanely close two. The fans are getting way into these near falls now. The Tombstone is countered, the superkick is blocked, the chokeslam is escaped and NOW the superkick hits for a very delayed two count. Shawn is up now and looks all ticked off.

Taker grabs him by the throat but the Last Ride is countered into a sunset flip bid, but THAT is countered into the biggest Last Ride ever for two. Watching this match for probably the fourth time I actually thought that was the finish. Think about that for a minute. Taker goes up top and misses a top rope elbow but as Shawn tries to skin the cat, Undertaker catches him in the Tombstone. He sticks the tongue out but THAT gets two, I believe making Shawn either the first or second guy ever to kick out of all three of Taker’s finishers.

Taker nearly collapses from the shock and has a look on his face saying he has no idea where to go now. Shawn spins out of a Tombstone bid into a DDT and both guys are down. Michaels slowly crawls to the top and drops the elbow for no cover. Instead he tunes up the band again and the fans are all over him as a result. The kick hits clean and Shawn covers almost immediately but it only gets two. These kickouts are getting better and better each time.

They fight up from their knees and use each other to pull themselves up before slugging it out with everything they’ve got. A big boot puts Shawn down but Taker charges into a boot in the corner to put him down. Shawn climbs up top and tries a moonsault press, but Taker somehow catches him in mid air for another Tombstone to make him 16-0, and that’s your match of the year.

Rating: A+. Masterpiece, excellent, classic, best match they’ve ever had, best match of all time candidate etc. Pick one, as they’re all appropriate. This is one of the only matches ever where I’ve been on the edge of my seat the entire time and lost my mind on the kickouts. Absolutely outstanding here and one of the best matches I’ve ever seen, and that covers quite a bit of ground.

Back to the Kane match, in their first showdown ever after six months of build. The backstory here is way more than I want to get into but Kane is Undertaker’s brother and is back for revenge after Undertaker accidentally burned their house down.

Here’s Pete Rose to be ring announcer. After getting a warm reception, Pete turns heel on the audience and rips on them for losing for so long. Pete sounds a bit drunk here but not too bad. He makes fun of the Red Sox and there go the lights, cuing Kane. We debut a three year long running joke of Kane beating up Pete, this time with a Tombstone, sending the crowd into delirium. There go the lights and it’s time for the mother of all Undertaker entrances. Druids come out carrying torches and we hear music that sounds like Gregorian chanting. Undertaker walks out under a tunnel of fire and we’re ready to go. AWESOME.

Undertaker vs. Kane

There’s the bell and they stare each other down before Taker pounds away with no effect. Kane shrugs them off and LAUNCHES Undertaker into the corner but Taker is too quick. Kane comes back with a clothesline but Taker immediately sits up. A tombstone doesn’t work for Kane so he puts Taker in the Tree of Woe and stomps away. This is only Kane’s second match in the company to date so we don’t have a lot to go on with him.

A clothesline in the corner puts Undertaker down again as Bearer talks trash. Kane draps him over the top rope and there’s a forearm to the back of the head. Back in and Kane pounds away in the corner but Undertaker covers up. Taker gets a running start at Kane and winds up on the red one’s shoulders, only to be (kind of) slammed face first into the mat. They head to the floor with Taker being dropped face first onto the barricade. A Paul Bearer distraction lets Kane drop the steps onto his brother’s back.

Paul gets in some stompings before Kane suplexes Taker back in. Taker says bring it on and hits a few clotheslines, only to charge into a chokeslam for two as Kane pulls his brother up. We hit the chinlock for over a full minute before Undertaker fights up with punches to the ribs. A back elbow puts him back down though and an elbow drop sets up another chinlock by Kane. Taker fights out of that one as well, only to try to crotch Kane on the top rope. That doesn’t quite work though as Kane bounces on the top rope and falls to the floor.

Instead here’s a Taker Dive but Kane throws him through the Spanish Announce Table in a spectacular crash. Back in and the top rope clothesline gets two for Kane and Bearer is shocked. Taker loads up a Tombstone out of nowhere but gets countered into one by his brother but it only gets two. Kane is TICKED so they slug it out with Taker getting the better of it.

A clothesline puts Kane down and there’s a chokeslam by Undertaker. The Tombstone hits Kane but it only gets two. You can hear the fans gasp at the kickout. There’s another Tombstone but THAT just gets two so Taker goes up for a top rope clothesline. The third Tombstone FINALLY ends it, even though Kane would have been up at 3.1.

Rating: C-. I’ve heard this called terrible and yeah it’s bad, but it’s definitely not horrible. They would have been better suited cutting out about two minutes but even without that missing this was still a solid power match. It was clear they were getting winded by the end, but this is one of the matches where the crowd carried things. There’s nothing wrong with that and it worked well here. Nowhere near as bad as I remembered it.

There’s only one match you can close out Undertaker with, and it’s from King of the Ring 1998.

Hell in a Cell: Undertaker vs. Mankind

Now this was an interesting case for several reasons. First of all, this had been done once before so people knew what it was like, but instead of having Shawn who would run from Taker in there, Foley was crazy and no one knew what he would do. Foley brings the chair to the ring, and in his own words or as close to his book as I can remember, makes his first big mistake of the match and starts the match on top of the cage like Terry Funk suggested.

That should have been a bad omen right there. In case you don’t like insane violence, I would advise you to leave. Once you go that, I would advise you to get over it and grow a set of balls. You’re a wrestling fan dang it now act like one. Even 11 years later I’m uneasy watching this match. There’s an eruption for the gong and when the lights go out the lighters go up which is always cool.

This was right around the time when Taker was becoming demonic thanks to Vince, leading to the Ministry period which Taker wasn’t incredibly fond of. And there goes Taker and you know what’s coming next. Foley punches him on his way up there, which is dangerous in its own right. Foley has a chair up there with him. The wide shot of this is just awesome looking.

Taker is grabbed by Foley and steps through the Cell a bit, which is bad sign number two. That gets a noticeable gasp from the audience. You could feel that something huge was coming and they’re setting up for it. And there it is. Taker grabs Foley from behind and throws him off the Cell where he falls 15 feet to land, actually make that crash, onto a table and then to the concrete.

Ross’ legendary shouting of As God as my witness, he is broken in half and They’ve killed him make the moment that much better. This bump changed wrestling forever, as this easily becomes the biggest bump in history and is still to this day the standard that everything tries to live up to. No one saw this coming and it scared the hell out of a lot of people, myself included.

I mean seriously, he got launched 15 feet to the floor. He does that even slightly wrong and he’s dead. Not injured or out of action. Dead. Taker legit thought he had killed him for a bit there and I can’t say I blame him. Ross and Lawler are STUNNED. You have to remember that Foley isn’t a small man. He’s about 6’2 and 300lbs going easy on him. That’s just completely mind blowing when you think about it.

Terry Funk is here and he takes the table off of Foley as Taker is still standing on top of the cage. I’ll even excuse Ross’ stupid line of this might be the shortest Cell match ever, as it’s the second of all time due to the situation at the moment. On the constant replays you can see the crowd rising up for it and it’s a completely awesome sight. Now something that isn’t notmally taken into consideration is Taker during this part.

Think about what he’s going through here. His character is that of an emotionless killing machine, and he’s possibly just killed a man or crippled him. He now has to stand up on top of the Cell and wonder what he’s just done. They raise the Cell to get Foley out as Taker is going even higher up in the air. To scare me to my core, Taker gets cheered for this. Attitude Era fans were bloodthirsty man.

They lower the cage and it hits the steps because they’re kind of stupid but whatever. And now just to blow whatever remains of the minds of everyone on the planet, Foley gets up and while smiling, climbs the cage again. His left shoulder is completely out of socket or he’s a great actor, and here we go again.

Taker is STUNNED. And now in the spot that allegedly did the majority of the damage to Foley and was COMPLETELY unplanned, Taker chokeslams Foley through the Cell to the mat and the chair falls with him, slamming into Foley’s head on the mat and knocking him completely out cold. Foley has said that the cage was loosened but not to that extent.

The idea had been to have it sag in the middle but not break and then have him fall from about 8 feet instead of what happened here. He also said he doesn’t remember most of what happened after that and didn’t remember it until he watched it on tape and still doesn’t remember all of it. Those two bumps both made Foley famous but also ended his active career eventually as he never completely healed from them.

Ross and Lawler again make the match with their calls of That’s it he’s dead and Will somebody stop the match! Again, remember that Taker didn’t expect his. Taker hops down to the mat and beats up Funk and then goes after Foley. They were supposed to end it almost immediately after that but Foley refused. Now somewhere in here, Taker breaks his ankle or he had it broken coming in so he goes really slowly.

Granted that helps Foley a lot because Taker goes a lot more slowly than usual so Foley can try to get something together. We get the famous shot of Foley with his tooth in his nose and him trying to put his tongue through the hole in his lip for some reason which makes him look like he’s smiling in probably the defining shot of the Mankind character.

Foley is somehow on offense here and knocks Taker to the floor, which I think is where he breaks the ankle. Somehow that’s a tiny injury. No he’s still walking around fine. Taker’s shirt is ripped to pieces here. Taker dives through the ropes for Foley but Foley collapses and Taker eats cage and now he’s bleeding. Yeah the foot/ankle is messed up now. Foley hits a piledriver on a chair for two. Foley’s arm might have popped back in as it’s looking better. Since this match hasn’t been insane enough, Foley goes under the ring and gets out a bag, comtaining thumbtacks.

You can hear in Lawler’s voice that he thinks this is insane. You also have to remember that this was something that hadn’t been done before. Abyss hadn’t made this a standard thing yet so this truly was shocking at the time. Taker counters into the Tombstone but Mankind counters into the Mandible Claw. Somehow Taker stands up with Foley on his back and there they go as he goes back first into them.

You could see a slight bit of padding under Foley’s shirt, but none over his arms. After the match in the locker room when they were being looked at, Foley asked if he got to use the tacks. Taker replied “Mick, look at your arm.” Then he gets a chokeslam on them. In a moment that’s overlooked, Foley more or less no sells the chokeslam and is up in about 3 seconds. The Tombstone mercifully, at least I guess you could call it that, ends it.

Jerry says that just after I type it so I win there. Foley’s wife more or less insisted that he retire after this but of course that didn’t happen. To say this was insane would be an understatement. It’s the most violent mainstream match in history and I don’t think it’s ever going to be topped. Yeah there’s more violent stuff in indy companies and in Japan, but that’s designed to be like that.

This was the WWF more or less saying screw you WCW, we can go to a place that no one is ever going to top and then they went out and did it. Also, the fans cared and weren’t in it for a freak show. That’s why this is different. Foley WALKS OUT. There’s being tough and being stupid and he passed stupid a few miles back. The fans give him a standing ovation and Foley is a legend.

Rating: A-. Now I’ve heard a lot of people criticize this match and say it’s garbage and what not, and the reply I always give is the same. Look at the name of the match: Hell in a Cell. Hell. Does that sound like a pleasant, old school, Lou Thesz vs. Dory Funk special? No not really. It sounds completely insane and violent. That’s the point of this and that’s what it was.

It was supposed to be completely over the top and crazy. You can’t grade this on the same scale you grade a traditional match on. Violence like this is effective as all hell when it’s in moderation, which is what ECW never learned. The violent matches are fine, but they need something to balance them out. Anyway, this was a classic in a sense, and it made both men all the more famous.

Undertaker has never been the top guy in the company but he’s been one of the few constants through several eras. He’s had a lot of different incarnations over the years but he’s at his best when he just starts breaking stuff. Undertaker can get violent with the best of them and even though the Streak is gone now, it’s always going to be remembered as something that went on for years and was amazing at times. For a glorified gimmick wrestler, Undertaker has had some great matches over the years and can play one of the best giants in wrestling history.

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Monday Night Raw
Date: April 7, 2014
Location: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, John Bradshaw Layfield

It’s the night after one of the best show in years and the big question is where do they go from here? For the first time ever, Undertaker is coming off a loss at Wrestlemania in what very well may be his last match. Other than that we’ve got a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion in the form of a goat man. Tonight is usually one of the most fun shows of the year. Let’s get to it.

As you might have heard, I was in the arena for the show so this is my second viewing. It’s being written the Wednesday after so a lot of things have changed.

We open with the Monster video on Daniel Bryan’s career that aired at Wrestlemania. The song fits so perfectly. The video eats up nearly five minutes but it’s awesome.

The arena is filled with the YES chant and here’s Daniel Bryan to drive it them even harder. Bryan is wearing the World Heavyweight Championship and has the WWE Championship in his hand. I wish they would just get rid of one already. Even JBL admits that Daniel Bryan is an A+ player. The music stops and the DANIEL BRYAN chant begins. They go on so long that Bryan asks if the people ever get tired. The fans switch into the NO chant and Bryan says be careful that you don’t hit the people next to you.

The YES chant starts again and Bryan joins in but says after this his shoulders need a break. Daniel talks about starting the pose two years ago and now everyone in the WWE Universe is united under one word. He’s cut off again by a YOU DESERVE IT chant and you can see Daniel is getting overwhelmed by the reaction. He says he deserves it a little bit but the fans deserve the rest. The YES stuff isn’t about a movement or anything else, but about the power the fans have to make a change. It gave him the chance to stand up to the Authority and now he is the WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION.

The fans strike up the band one more time but here are HHH and Stephanie (in a very nice black dress) to interrupt. They stand on the apron and the fans aren’t pleased with HHH. Cole: “It’s going to be one of those nights.” HHH says he isn’t going to step into the ring because he doesn’t want to do something he’s going to regret. Bryan: “You’re not getting in the ring? Hang on a second.” Bryan gets right in his face and starts another YES chant in a great bit. The boss says enjoy this while you can, because tonight Bryan is defending against HHH himself. HHH throws the mic down so hard the cube falls off and we get a final chant.

After a break HHH and Stephanie are in the back and talking about how great tonight is going to be. Batista comes in and says he wants his rematch because it’s HHH’s fault that Bryan was in the main event. He says he earned a one on one shot at the title but Orton comes in and says he wants his rematch tonight. HHH says he himself is getting the shot but the other two will at some point. Stephanie gives them a Tag Team Title shot as a consolation prize. HHH reminds them that when they work together, things go their way.

Wyatt Family vs. Big E./John Cena/Sheamus

The fans clap along to the Wyatts’ song. The good guys come out after a break, during which a video aired about WWE’s issues with cars over the years. Seeing the Wyatts stand in the ring and watch was rather odd to see. Cena is of course absolutely LOATHED by the smarky crowd but he smirks it off. In something that is going to catch on fast, the fans chant JOHN CENA SUCKS in time to his music. It’s a brawl to start until we get down to Cena vs. Bray. A big right hand drops Cena and the fans go NUTS. Cena comes back and you would think he lit Santa Claus on fire.

Sheamus comes in off the tag and stomps away in the corner to a slightly less hateful reaction. The fans chant for Bryan before chanting for Erick Rowan who comes in off the tag. A running forearm drops Erick into the corner and he hammers away with right hands, only to be shoved down to the mat. Sheamus fights back with a knee to the side of the head and it’s off to Big E.

The champ picks up Rowan for three straight backbreakers, drawing the ONLY face pop of the match for his team. Off to Harper, who accidentally runs into Rowan to knock him off the apron. Cena comes back in for a quick Protobomb and the Shuffle (minus the run). An AA doesn’t work so Harper slams him face first into the mat for two. Bray gets the tag and we take a break.

Back with Cena fighting out of a Harper chinlock as the fans chant for the Family. He still can’t get the AA though and Harper drops him with a DDT for two. Rowan comes back in for a legdrop as the fans sing He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands. Wyatt stomps a mudhole until John fights up with a hard clothesline. You can actually hear a TINY Let’s Go Cena chant but the singing drowns it out again.

Bray headbutts him down and it’s back to Harper for some uppercuts. Cena fights up and makes the tag off to Sheamus to clean house. The rolling fireman’s carry puts Harper onto Rowan but a Wyatt distraction breaks up the Brogue. Back to Big E. as everything breaks down. Big E. loads up the Big Ending on Bray but Harper breaks it up with a nice looking superkick. Harper hits a suicide dive to take out Sheamus and the place goes NUTS. Bray spider walks out of the corner (Lawler: “CALL YOUR LOCAL EXORCIST!”) and gets a Wyatt’s Gonna Kill You chant, setting up Sister Abigail on Big E. for the pin at 10:30 shown at 13:14.

Rating: C+. This would fall into the category of fun rather than good and there’s nothing wrong with that. The crowd was awesome here because of one major reason: they chanted about stuff going on in the ring. Not the announcers, not wrestlers that haven’t been on the show in years, not Justin Roberts. They were chanting about the Wyatts and John Cena and the match felt like a much bigger deal as a result. The Wyatts looked great here too.

Slam City ad.

Bo Dallas vignette, with Dallas playing something like a motivational speaker. “It’s not pronounced impossible, but I’M POSSIBLE.” The fans liked the idea of this, even though it took awhile to get to the reveal of who it was.

Fandango/Summer Rae vs. Emma/Santino Marella

Summer looks great in blue. The guys get things going with a quick dance off but Fandango quickly runs from the Cobra. Off to the girls and Summer is quickly caught in the Dilemma followed by the Emmamite Sandwich (zero need to change the name) and the Emma Lock (bridging Indian Deathlock) for the submission at 1:30. This was just a way to showcase Emma.

Here are Lesnar and Heyman for the ultimate bragging session. Heyman bows down to Brock to just drive the crowd even crazier. JBL brings up the comparison to Bruno losing the title to Koloff and that’s really the only thing you can compare the Streak to. Paul introduces himself and says he’s glad to represent the conqueror of the Streak. Brock has a nasty looking black eye.

Heyman talks about the Streak lasting nearly a quarter of a century before being broken in three seconds. The fans are LIVID which Heyman says is a lack of intelligence. He hates to say we told you so, but WE TOLD YOU SO! How could anyone doubt Heyman’s mind or Brock’s physical attributes? Brock isn’t here to make people smile. Instead he’s here to shock the WWE Universe and put tears in the eyes of children.

If that’s not great enough, Heyman wants to shoot a bit. Five seconds after Undertaker walked through the curtain, Undertaker collapsed (apparently a true story). He was taken to the hospital and Vince McMahon went with him instead of staying for the main event of Wrestlemania. Undertaker is lucky that he was pinned so soon, because Brock wasn’t stopping until the Streak was dead.

What really gets to Heyman is that after the match was over, “John Bradshaw Layfield and those other two things called announcers, plus 80,000 other people in the Super Dome Hogan, not the Silver Dome, gave Undertaker a standing ovation.” However they should have been chanting the winner. That brings him to tonight. This is supposed to be the wildest crowd of the year and every member of this audience is just like the WWE locker room: they’re all wannabes.

Everyone back there wants to be Brock Lesnar but Brock doesn’t like anyone. “He barely tolerates me!” Brock isn’t going to suck up to a bunch of people that fly in once a year for Raw after Wrestlemania. A lot of people say they could have broken the Streak, but BROCK did it. A lot of people wanted to fight in the Octagon and be the UFC Champion but BROCK did it. A lot of people wanted to be the NCAA Heavyweight Champion but BROCK did it. Everyone else is a wannabe because BROCK LESNAR is the one.

A lot of people came up to Heyman last night and said they could have broken the Streak. “Yeah? Well why didn’t you?” BROCK did, and he’s the 1 in 21-1. Heyman hears a WHTA chant so he slows down and repeats the 1 in 21-1 line. There are legends, Superstars and Hall of Famers. All of them are plural though, and there’s just one BROCK LESNAR. This was one of the best promos ever and Heyman just owned the audience and the locker room. I kept waiting for someone to come out and confront him, but I’m glad no one did. This needed to be all about Brock for the night, not setting up anything else just yet.

Adam Rose and his party bus are coming. The fans ate this up with a spoon. It’s another example of a character that is different and the fans responded to it faster than another version of “cocky heel that is better than you” or “plucky face that just wants to compete.” It’s a character rather than a gimmick and that’s always going to work.

Tag Team Titles: Randy Orton/Batista vs. Usos

The twins are defending. Something that took a little getting used to this weekend: seeing the Usos just standing there during the previous entrance. I knew they were there due to how the entrances worked but it looks odd in person. Batista draws the YOU TAPPED OUT chants but easily takes Jimmy into the corner for a tag off to Randy. Jimmy fires back with some right hands but Orton headbutts him back. The fans are already bored and start a Y2J chant, followed by one for CM Punk, Justin Roberts and JBL. The Usos are sent to the floor and destroyed until it’s a double countout at 2:15.

Orton hits an Elevated DDT on the floor to Jimmy and Batista nails a LOUD Batista Bomb to Jey on the steps. They were smart to keep this one short before the fans took things over again. I would have preferred it wasn’t against the champions though.

Damien Sandow vs. Rob Van Dam

Van Dam got a nice reaction but it wasn’t deafening. A quick kick sends Sandow outside but he comes back in with some forearms to the back and shoulders in the corner. Another kick to the face puts Sandow on the apron and a third sends him to the floor. Sandow is draped over the barricade for the spinning kick to the back and the fans think Rob still has it. Back in and Rolling Thunder sets up the Five Star for the pin at 2:49. Just a return squash.

Rey Mysterio vs. Bad News Barrett

Barrett gets one of the loudest pops of the night for his first match since late last year. The fans chant for Barrett right after the bell and he grabs the mic for the catchphrase, only to get nailed by some forearms, making Rey a heel for the night. A headscissors sends Barrett to the floor and Rey hits the sliding splash under the bottom rope. Back in and Barrett counters a headscissors and kicks Rey in the stomach to take over.

An OLE chant starts and Barrett gets two off the Winds of Change. Barrett nails him with a running knee in the corner but Rey breaks up a superplex attempt. A headscissors doesn’t work for Rey but he nails a spinning DDT for two, followed by the 619. Rey goes up but gets crotched down, setting up the Bull Hammer for the pin at 3:50.

Rating: C-. The match was nothing but hopefully the company realizes they’ve got something here with Barrett. He looked good in the ring and the fans were WAY into him. See what happens when you have a talented guy wrestle instead of just making stupid jokes that no one remembers?

Video on Alexander Rusev.

Another Adam Rose video, taking him inside his bus. “This is my current ex-girlfriend, and this is my future ex-girlfriend.” He also says you need little people to have a big party and that he loves bunnies because they hop. This is going to get over in a hurry.

Alexander Rusev vs. Zack Ryder

Lana is officially named the Ravishing Russian. That won’t last but she looks good in the short skirts. This is exactly what you would expect (plus a nice jumping kick to the face) and ends in 1:19 after the Accolade (Camel clutch) with Ryder tapping very quickly.

Hall of Fame video.

And now for the part that is hard to watch. The Ultimate Warrior comes to the ring with a rather red face. He certainly looks to be in good spirits though. Warrior puts on a coat like he used to wear back in the day and does the rope shake a few times but already looks blown up. He says it’s been hard for him to find the words to say this evening so he pulls out a Warrior mask to get into old form.

Warrior tells Warrior (yes that’s right) to shut up and let him do the talking. He talks about no one becoming a legend on their own because everyone’s heart beats their last beat and they breathe their last breath. However, no one’s memory is ever forgotten because the storytellers will carry their spirit on forever. The fans are the legend makers of the Ultimate Warrior. He sees some in the back with the Warrior Spirit and they can make those people legends as well. The spirit of the Warrior will run forever. That’s absolutely chilling as he would be gone less than 24 hours later.

We get a cool video on all of the work and equipment that it takes to broadcast Raw. However, none of it would be possible without the fans. This drew a WE ARE AWESOME chant in the arena.

Here are AJ and Tamina with something to say. AJ talks about being the Divas Champion for 295 days, which is the longest reign ever. Several months back she tore the Divas a new one and no one has been able to prove them wrong. Last night she showed why she’s the hero of this story because it was AJ Lee vs. the world and she overcame the odds again. She was a poor girl in New Jersey to being the best Diva in the world.

AJ has to pause for a CM Punk chant before saying she is the Divas division…..and here’s the debuting Paige. The fans absolutely love her but AJ wants to know why she’s here. Paige says she’s here to do what no one else would: congratulate her for her win. AJ says every Diva should be doing that but she doesn’t need the congratulations. Paige needs to go running back to NXT because AJ doesn’t need to hear this. AJ calls her sweet and offers her a match right now. Paige says she isn’t ready and gets slapped in the face for her efforts. AJ says ring the bell and let’s make it a title match for fun.

Divas Title: AJ Lee vs. Paige

AJ jumps her to start and hammers away before parading around the ring. Paige powers out of the Black Widow (despite slapping AJ’s leg which looked a lot like tapping) and mostly botches the Paige Turner (kind of a snap reverse Angle Slam) but gets the pin and the title at 1:18. The place went NUTS at the pinfall and AJ has no idea what to do.

Another Bo Dallas vignette.

Here’s Hulk Hogan for the Andre trophy presentation. He gets the building name right to an approving reaction and talks about what a great Wrestlemania moment the battle royal was. Hogan knew Andre was smiling when Cesaro won and says the battle royal will keep going every year. Apparently there were 31 men in the battle royal last night and here’s the one that survived.

Cesaro comes out in a shiny jacket with Zeb Colter by his side. Hogan shakes his hand, congratulates Cesaro and actually leaves without saying anything else. Zeb takes the mic and says a real American should do the talking. He promises to give the mic back to Cesaro in a minute so Cesaro can “say what kind of a guy he really is.” Cesaro is a guy who was invited into the Real Americans fold ten months ago. He made Cesaro a Zeb Colter Guy but Cesaro takes the mic. “I’m sorry Zeb. I’m a Zeb Colter Guy. I’m a Paul Heyman Guy.” The fans take a second to realize what they heard and start up the YES chant.

Heyman comes out with a big smile on his face and says he’s now the advocate for the King of Swing, Cesaro. Colter is livid as Heyman shakes Cesaro’s hand. Heyman calls Zeb grandpa and says this is a shocking week for Paul Heyman Guys. Paul heads outside to tell the announcers (including another JBL and those other guys comment) how to address the King of Swing. The fans chant the new nickname as Swagger hits the ring to attack Cesaro and BREAK THE TROPHY. Cesaro goes after him and we go to a break.

During the break, Brad Maddox came out and said clean up the mess so we can have a match. The crew came in to clean things up and a guy with a broom swept out the ring. The fans gave him a “Let’s go sweeper!” chant and he even gave a fist pump when he was done. It was a little thing but gave us a nice moment nonetheless.

Cesaro vs. Jack Swagger

Back with Cesaro fighting up and hitting a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. Heyman is holding the Andre statue, minus its right leg. Swagger tries to leave but gets kicked in the ribs and thrown back into the ring. Cesaro goes up top but Jack runs the corner and suplexes him down to take over.

Jack cranks on both arms for a bit but gets caught by some European uppercuts. A powerslam gets two on Cesaro but the Vader Bomb hits feet (Swagger landed one during the break). Cesaro nails the superplex from the apron and some running uppercuts in the corner. He loads up the Swing but Jack runs away for the countout at 5:15.

We recap the opening segment.

Stephanie is in the back with Shield and Kane. Her orders for the night are to make sure HHH leaves with the WWE Title because this was an injustice. Rollins says that’s fine but wants to know where the Outlaws are. Ambrose thinks they’re gone for good but Kane isn’t pleased. He goes on a rant about how expendable Shield is before running his mouth too much, revealing that HHH ordered the attack on them a few weeks ago. Stephanie goes back to the injustice line and says what HHH wants, he gets.

WWE World Heavyweight Title: HHH vs. Daniel Bryan

The title now has YES plates. Instead of HHH, here are Batista and Orton. They surround the ring and beat Bryan down with both guys hitting their finishers. Kane comes out to add a chokeslam and here’s HHH. He demands the bell ring but like any villain, he takes his time and the Shield is here for the save. Why HHH didn’t cover Bryan while they were heading to the ring is anyone’s guess. The “match” officially started but we’ll call it a no contest at about eight seconds.

Shield gets on one side of the ring while Orton/Kane/Batista are on the other. The fans chant HOUNDS OF JUSTICE while HHH says don’t do it. He says this isn’t going to be a war but walks into the spear and it’s on. Rollins and Ambrose lay out Orton and Batista with dives (Ambrose’s mostly missed) and HHH is all alone. Bryan is getting up and with the YES chant going through the roof, it’s a running knee to the boss to end the show.

The post show scene was excellent as well with Shield all saying the Believe line and Bryan giving a very emotional speech about how he’s living his dream because of all the fans. WWE played a video that was made by people you’ll never see in front of a camera, but he thanked the crowd personally, nearly breaking down in tears.

Overall Rating: A. Oh yeah this worked. First and foremost, they kept the crowd from getting too out of hand. Yeah they booed Cena but there’s really no way around that. This show was very fun and a great way to introduce several new characters (or return some that we haven’t seen in action in awhile). The matches were just there as a backdrop for all of the action and for a show like this, that’s the best decision possible.

Bryan vs. HHH is amping up and there are a few options for Extreme Rules. You could go with Bryan vs. HHH II in a gimmick match with Shield taking on the other three, or you could do an eight man war with the title on the line. The key thing though is there are options. We’ve been building to matches we’ve known for months now and a change of pace is very nice. WWE is white hot right now and they’re reloading for Extreme Rules. This was an incredible weekend and if they even keep up most of this momentum things are looking great for the next few months.

Results

Wyatt Family b. John Cena/Sheamus/Big E. – Sister Abigail to Big E.

Emma/Santino Marella b. Fandango/Summer Rae – Emma Lock to Summer

Usos vs. Randy Orton/Batista went to a double countout

Rob Van Dam b. Damien Sandow – Five Star Frog Splash

Bad News Barrett b. Rey Mysterio – Bull Hammer

Alexander Rusev b. Zack Ryder – Accolade

Paige b. AJ Lee – Paige Turner

Cesaro b. Jack Swagger via countout

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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