Royal Rumble 2012
Date: January 29, 2012
Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 18,121
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Booker T

We wrap things up here with last year’s show. The Rumble is back to the thirty entrant variety which is probably the best move all around. The odds on favorite is Jericho who returned very recently before this show. Other than that we’ve got Daniel Bryan defending his newly won world title against Big Show and Henry in a cage, along with Punk defending against Ziggler. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is of course about going to Wrestlemania.

Smackdown World Title: Big Show vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry

Bryan is champion and beat Show at TLC by cashing in his MITB case in 45 seconds. Show beat Henry at the same show and ran over Bryan’s girlfriend AJ on Raw to set all this up. This is one fall to a finish and it’s pin/submission/escape. Bryan immediately goes for the corner but Henry pulls him down and Show runs Bryan over for two. Show crushes Henry against the cage wall but has to stop to pull Bryan back inside. Bryan tries to run up again but Show catches him by the ankle and slams him back in.

Show loads up the WMD but hits the cage wall instead. The champion fires off some kicks but gets headbutted right back down. Bryan kicks the knee out even harder and fires off some kicks to Henry to keep the other monster down. He goes for the door but you know this isn’t ending that quickly. Henry makes the stop and demands that the referee CLOSE THAT DOOR. Show superkicks Henry down and it’s his turn to take over for awhile.

Bryan gets slammed down but Henry is back up again. A few punches put Show down because a dozen chair shots usually can’t, but a few punches can. Actually that’s a great way to keep Henry looking strong. The fans are cheering for Bryan as Henry and Show collide to put all three guys down. Show gets back up and clotheslines Bryan down a few times before superkicking him in the face. The chokeslam is countered and Bryan hits a tornado DDT on Show for two.

The LeBell (NO!) Lock is put on Show but Henry breaks it up in about a second. The WMD gets two on Henry but Bryan makes the save, which ticks Show off. Bryan SPRINTS up the cage but Show chases after him and grabs Bryan before he can get out. Bryan sits on the top of the cage and pounds away, only to be caught again. The champion is literally hanging from Show’s wrist before finally letting go and falling to the floor to retain the title.

Rating: D+. This really wasn’t all that great. At the end of the day, it was a lot of the same sequence over and over again with Show and Henry not having a ton of interaction at all. The ending didn’t look great either and I’m not sure why Show would just hold him out over the floor like that. This falls under the category of “…..really?” as it’s hard to buy Bryan keeping the belt here.

Long video on Cena and all the stuff he does for WWE. The man is insanely committed to that company.

Divas of Doom/Bella Twins vs. Eve Torres/Alicia Fox/Tamina/Kelly Kelly

The Divas of Doom are Beth and Natalya. Natalya and Tamina start things off and they collide a few times. Tamina slaps her in the face before chopping Nattie down for two. Off to Eve for that bouncing moonsault for two. Since that’s a pretty lame move, Natalya charges her into the corner and brings in Beth who blocks a rolling splash with knees to Eve’s back.

Off to let’s say Nikki for some basic stomps to the back and a quickly broken chinlock. Jerry is asked what he likes about the Bellas and he can’t even get an answer out. Not hot tag brings in Alicia who is immediately sent into the corner and chinlocked as well. Alicia finally counters by flipping Nikki forward and makes the actual hot tag to Kelly. There’s the screaming headscissors and a faceplant for two. Everything breaks down and almost everyone heads to the floor, where Kelly hits a HUGE dive to take everyone out. Back in and Beth SLAPS herself in to hit the Glam Slam on Kelly for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was your usual Divas match: they did their “sexy” spots, they had barely there outfits, Kelly screamed a lot, Beth beat up Kelly to end things. One interesting note from a year later: would they even be able to put together an eight Divas tag now? I’m thinking through the roster and I don’t know if I can name eight girls on the main shows right now.

We recap Ryder getting hurt at the hands of Kane. This was during the period where Ryder went from one of the hottest things in the company and US Champion to a rag doll that Kane destroyed over and over and over in the span of a few weeks until his push was completely destroyed. Eve blamed Cena for Ryder having his back broken for some reason.

Ryder is wheeled in and patronized by Johnny Ace (remember him?). Ace has a private room set up for Ryder but Eve comes up to yell at Ace first. Not much here but it’s setting up stuff later on tonight.

Kane vs. John Cena

This is when Kane had the welder’s mask look. Brawl to start with Kane beating Cena down into the corner as the fans are split on Johnny. A clothesline puts them both on the floor where Kane is sent knees first into the steps. Back in and Cena can’t hit the AA on Kane. That makes sense as after all, Kane is probably 175lbs lighter than Show who Cena throws around with near ease most of the time.

Kane kicks Cena down and gets two off an uppercut. A suplex gets the same and it’s off to a chinlock. Cena fights up and is sent into the buckle for his efforts followed by Kane’s stupid smother hold. John tries to counter into a Crossface but Kane comes out with a side slam. The idea here is that Cena can’t get anything going at all. The top rope clothesline takes Cena’s head off but Cena pops up and hits his shoulder block.

The Shuffle is countered by a grab of Cena’s throat and a big boot gets two. Cena blocks a superplex and hits the Shuffle off the top. That’s certainly a new one. The AA is countered by an elbow to the face and Kane kicks Cena out to the floor. Booker talks about how Cena is a good kid. I don’t think I ever recall Cena being called a kid since like 2004. Kane pounds on Cena in the aisle and that’s a double countout so we can do this match again next month.

Rating: D+. I know that’s a common theme tonight but it fits here again. These two didn’t work all that well together and the story was even worse. Then again, this was nothing more than giving Cena something to do for a few months until he could get ready for the biggest match of his career. This didn’t work for the most part.

The fight continues into the back where Kane finds a chair to lay to lay out Cena. To the shock of no one paying attention, Kane finds the door to Ryder’s private room and kicks the door in. Ryder is taken to the ring and tombstoned as Eve screams. Cena comes out to try to save Eve but gets chokeslammed by Kane who walks away. Ryder does a stretcher job, but somehow it would get even worse for him in the coming weeks.

BE A STAR!

Zack is wheeled out and Cena is booed for it. That’s the part of this story that never held up for me: why is this Cena’s responsibility? Ryder was the United States Champion. He should be able to defend himself.

We get a video on the Rock just like Cena got earlier. It’s shot in the back of Rock’s car and is more like a mini documentary. It focuses on how insane Rock’s life is and all of the stuff he does around the world.

Drew McIntyre vs. Brodus Clay

This is right after Brodus redebuted as the Funkasaurus so he was still a new character at this point. Brodus dances a lot, Drew punches him in the corner, Brodus headbutts him and hits the cross body (called WHAT THE FUNK) for the pin in about a minute.

Buy Slim Jims! For the troops!

We recap Punk vs. Ziggler who is challenging Punk on Ace’s behalf. This is during the “Ace is boring” phase where Punk made fun of him no matter what he did, so Ace helped Ziggler get a win over Punk to earn a title shot. Ace is also guest referee tonight just because. He’s openly admitted he’s going to screw Punk out of the title tonight, so HHH is going to evaluate his job status the next night on Raw, meaning Ace has to play nice.

Raw World Title: CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler

Punk is defending and Ace is referee. Johnny Ace is John Laurinitis but that’s a hard name to spell. Before the match, Ace says he’ll be the outside referee. Ok then. Wait we’re still not ready to go as Ace throws Vickie out as well. We finally get going and Ziggler tries a quick Fameasser which is countered into a failed GTS attempt. Punk tells Dolph it was that close. They feel each other out a bit longer until Ziggler starts strutting.

Punk finally gets his hands on Ziggler and puts on an abdominal stretch, complete with a wrapped toe and slicking back his hair ala Ziggler. Dolph heads to the floor and gets taken out by a suicide dive but shoves Punk off the top rope once they get back inside. Ziggler drops about eight elbows in a row and a jumping version gets two. We hit the chinlock with Ziggler cranking on the head way more than necessary.

The champ starts firing off chops and strikes before getting caught in the sleeper. That goes nowhere but neither does Punk’s Anaconda Vice attempt. Back to the sleeper but Dolph can’t get it on all the way. Instead there’s a perfect dropkick for two on Punk but the Fameasser is countered into a helicopter bomb for two. A swinging neckbreaker by the champ puts Dolph into the corner where the knee/bulldog combination actually works.

The GTS is countered into a slingshot but Punk lands on the middle rope. He comes off with a spinning cross body but Ziggler rolls through for a near fall in a cool sequence. The high kick gets two for Punk as does the Macho Elbow, drawing a Randy Savage chant. The GTS is countered again and the referee goes down as per the requirement in a world title mach. Punk hooks the Vice but Ace is checking on the down referee. Then Punk gets a rollup and there’s STILL no referee.

Ace sends the referee back in as Punk loads up the GTS, but Ziggler’s legs knock Ace to the floor. Ace sees the pin but refuses to count because he thinks Punk did it on purpose. Ziggler counters another GTS attempt into the Fameasser for two before pounding away a bit. The champ comes back with a slingshot and the GTS gets a pin from both referees to retain the title.

Rating: B+. This took awhile to get going as we were all waiting on the Ace stuff. The feud would go on for weeks until Jericho finally showed up to give Punk someone with charisma to feud with. The near falls at the end were a lot better than Ace, but it occurs to me that this was pretty much the same match he had last year. Good stuff though.

Rumble by the Numbers:

30 Superstars

1 winner

31 Hall of Famers in the Rumble

21 main events those Hall of Famers have been in at Wrestlemania

695 entrants who have been eliminated

39 entrants eliminated by Michaels, a record (Kane is second at 35)

13 consecutive Rumbles for Kane

11 eliminations for Kane in 2001

194,107lbs that have been in the Rumble, or over 97 tons, or 430 Big Show

421,883 people who have attended the Rumble

62:12 Rey Mysterio spent in the Rumble in 2006, a record

3 wins for Austin

1 second that Santino lasted in 2009

2 women who have competed in the Rumble

1, the entrant that has produced the same amount of winners as #30 at two each

27, the entrant with more winners than any other at four

55 percent of winners that have won the title at Wrestlemania

Royal Rumble

The Miz is #1 and talks about how he’s going back to the main event of Wrestlemania this year. His former apprentice Alex Riley is #2 which isn’t really surprising given how RANDOM these draws are. I always liked Riley and he always got a good reaction, which is clearly why he doesn’t get on TV more. Riley pounds away to start and runs Miz over with a forearm but walks into a big boot. Maybe it’s the old school fan in me but I don’t like a 6’0 guy using a big boot. Miz talks trash and low bridges Riley out with ease.

R-Truth, Miz’s former partner, is #3. Truth fires off some kicks and avoids the Finale before hitting a kind of powerslam. Miz gets sent to the apron for the second time but Truth turns his back to watch Cody come out at #4. A quick Disaster Kick puts Truth down (Cole says it hits Miz because those two are so hard to tell apart) and Truth gets double teamed for awhile. He manages to send Cody to the apron but gets caught in the Reality Check as the clock seems to be speeding up.

Justin Gabriel is #5 and things speed WAY up. A big spinwheel kick puts Miz down before Cody goes nuts on Gabriel in the corner. Primo is #6 to keep things low key to start. Actually he speeds things up as well and hits a sweet headscissors out of the corner to take Gabriel down. Truth hits the spinning forearm on Cody, only to be dumped out by Miz a second later. Since he’s still crazy, Truth pulls Miz to the floor and lays him out on the outside.

Mick Foley is #7 to fire up the crowd a little bit. He dumps Primo almost immediately before getting beaten on by Cody. Foley looks really old and slow here but to be fair, he is in fact old and slow. In a HILARIOUS bit, Ricardo Rodriguez is #8 but comes out in an old banged up, rusted out rental car. He’s even got the Del Rio scarf to hide some of his hideous pale body. We get a HUGE Ricardo chant as Foley and Gabriel have no idea what to do here.

Ricardo takes Cody down and pounds away before proposing an alliance with Foley of all people. They actually do team up and toss Gabriel, allowing Ricardo to do a CM Punk knee slide. We keep the comedy going with Santino at #9 and Ricardo runs from the Cobra. Santino beats on Ricardo and literally rolls him around the ring before pulling his trunks up and tossing Rodriguez.

Now we get my favorite spot of the match as Santino puts on the Cobra and Mick puts on Socko and it’s TIME FOR A DUEL!!! Before they can collide though it’s Epico at #10 but he falls to the powers of the socks and is out almost immediately. The socks COLLIDE until Miz and Cody pop back in (neither was eliminated) and dump Santino. Miz gets Socko but Cody dumps Mick. Fun comedy bit here to give us a good first act to the match.

Kofi Kingston is #11 and hits a double springboard clothesline before hitting a double Boom Drop. In at #12 is Jerry Lawler (Cole: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???”) and he causes Miz to hit Cody by mistake. Lawler speeds things up and hits the middle rope punch with the lowered strap, only to be put out by Cody. Ezekiel Jackson is #13 and gets to do the usual power moves on each guy while the others lay around.

Jinder Mahal is #14 and the fans start chanting USA, even though the only two Americans in this match are Rhodes and Miz. Great Khali comes in at #15 and Mahal panics. Everyone gets chops and Mahal is out in just a few seconds. Jackson tries to pound away and is put out almost immediately as well. Hunico is #16 on that stupid bicycle of his and hits a spinning cross body on Miz and his Angle Slam on Cody.

Khali chops Hunico down as the ring is staying relatively empty. Booker T is #17 to surprise Cole. You would think he would have noticed that the man sitting next to him for over two hours wasn’t wearing pants but he never was considered that bright. Now we get the spot of the match as Miz shoves Kofi to the floor but Kofi holds himself up by his hands. Miz shoves Kofi into a handstand but Kingston WALKS ON HIS HANDS ACROSS THE FLOOR TO THE STEPS to get back in. FREAKING AWESOME MAN!

Dolph Ziggler is #18 as the ring is starting to get full. Hacksaw Jim Duggan makes his annual return at #19 to pop the crowd huge. He cleans house for a bit and we get a DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER on Miz and Rhodes. Cody avoids a charge in the corner though and dumps Duggan in less than a minute. That’s the best idea at the end of the day. Miz and Cody team up to put out Booker and Khali at the same time.

We complete the trio with Michael Cole at #20. At the moment we’ve got Cole, Miz, Rhodes, Kingston, Hunico and Ziggler in the ring. Kharma returns at #21 in her only WWE match ever. She hits Cole so hard she knocks his headgear off so Cole eliminates himself. Well he gets to the apron where King and Booker eliminate him. Ziggler tells Kharma to get out so she DRILLS him. Kharma dumps Hunico but Ziggler sneaks up and eliminates her (Booker calls this doing the impossible. Not really Book.) to a ton of heat.

Sheamus is #22 to give us some A level star power. Well maybe B+ level. Things speed up with Sheamus destroying everyone and tossing Kofi out. There are the ten forearms in the ropes to Cody and ten to Miz as well. The Zig Zag is countered and Road Dogg is another surprise return at #23. He gets to clean house for a bit and earns a “you still got it” chant. In far less than 90 seconds, Jey Uso is #24.

Everyone pairs off until Jack Swagger is #25. After a few suplexes everything settles down into its usual brawling phase until Barrett is #26. He throws out Roadie and stomps away on a lot of people. David Otunga gets the lucky spot at #27 and poses a lot before he comes out. Not a lot happens so Orton comes in at #28 to pick things up a bit. Remember we’re in his hometown so everyone goes nuts.

Cody breaks up the RKO on Barrett so Randy hits the Elevated DDT on both Cody and Ziggler at the same time because he can. There’s an RKO to Barrett and he’s out. Chris Jericho, complete with a blackout of the arena, makes his return at #29. He’s still a face at this point and dumps Otunga to a good reaction. Big Show is #30 which was considered a letdown at the time. Dude, he was world champion a month ago. That’s hardly Darren Young coming out.

As Show comes in he pulls Swagger out from the floor, giving us a final grouping of Miz, Rhodes, Ziggler, Sheamus, Orton, Jericho and Big Show. That’s a pretty solid grouping. Show dumps Cody and Miz at the same time to get us down to five. Show tosses Ziggler as well to get us down to four. The big man cleans house but walks into an RKO, allowing Orton and Sheamus to pick him up and Randy clotheslines him out. Jericho dumps Orton immediately thereafter and we’re down to two.

The fans are entirely behind Jericho here so Sheamus runs him over a few times. Jericho’s bulldog is countered but Sheamus can’t throw him over the corner. Jericho charges into the Irish Curse but Sheamus can’t hit the High Cross. We get a great false finish with Jericho clotheslining Sheamus to the apron and then knocking him down to the point where Sheamus is hanging on by his leg. Sheamus comes back in with the slingshot shoulder but the Brogue Kick is countered into the Walls.

After the hold is broken Jericho gets knocked to the apron where he BARELY hangs on. They go to the top rope and both fall to the apron, meaning if they hit the floor they’re out. Both guys get back in and there’s the Codebreaker to Sheamus. Jericho gets Sheamus upside down but can’t get him out. A shot to the face ticks Sheamus off and he catches a Codebreaker attempt to put Jericho on the apron. The Brogue Kick sends Sheamus to Wrestlemania.

Rating: A-. This is one of those Rumbles that is great fun as you watch it live but it loses some steam on a second viewing. They spent a bit too much time on nostalgia and funny ideas here but they were still really good ideas. The ending with Sheamus and Jericho ROCKED and I have no idea why they never got to have a long PPV match. This is a really good Rumble but it never reaches that excellent level that some of them get to.

Sheamus celebrates a lot to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. The Rumble is a unique show as it has a way to save itself from a bad first half. That’s what happened here as the last two matches were certainly good enough to save it from the horrible first few matches. As usual the last two guys would both get world title shots with the winner getting the opening match instead of the real main event, but going on before Rock vs. Cena is hardly torture.

Ratings Comparison

Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry vs. Big Show

Original: C-

Redo: D+

Bella Twins/Divas of Doom vs. Alicia Fox/Kelly Kelly/Eve Torres/Tamina

Original: D+

Redo: D+

Kane vs. John Cena

Original: D+

Redo: D+

Brodus Clay vs. Drew McIntyre

Original: N/A

Redo: N/A

CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler

Original: B

Redo: B+

Royal Rumble

Original: B+

Redo: A-

Overall Rating

Original: B-

Redo: B

Just like last year, not much difference here.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2012/01/29/royal-rumble-2012/

That was fun. I really enjoy going back and doing these shows over again as a lot of them have great moments that you forget about over the years. The Rumble is a very unique show as it’s probably the only gimmick PPV that works almost every year. Over the years there have been a lot of gimmick shows like Survivor Series and most of them wind up being terrible at some point. The Rumble has been bad at times to be sure, but there has never been a period where the match wasn’t at least fun in some regard or valuable at the end of the day.

The best Rumbles tend to be the ones that follow the three act structure (dominant midcarder taking over to start, a lot of midcarders and lower guys in the middle, main eventers to wrap things up) with the best ones likely being 2000 and 2001. The comedy spots can help a lot as at nearly an hour, it’s hard to keep things serious the entire time. The only bad thing about it anymore is that it comes right before Elimination Chamber which takes away the feeling of the Road to Wrestlemania. Still though, it’s an excellent series and most are worth seeing if you haven’t before.

Speaking of Wrestlemania, I’ll be releasing the Redo series of that starting on March 10. I hope you enjoyed this as I did and it’s time for Wrestlemania season.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Royal Rumble 2002
Date: January 20, 2002
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 12,915
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

This is the first step to things falling downhill, as we’re a few months away from the Brand Split and things falling through the floor in quality. The main event tonight aside from the Rumble is Jericho defending his newly won Undisputed Title (which he won by beating the Rock and Steve Austin IN THE SAME NIGHT in case you didn’t know that) against Rock. HHH is back in the ring tonight also (he may have fought on Smackdown before this but I don’t think he did) so let’s get to it.

The opening video has clips of various Rumble wins in a photo album kind of theme. The theme for this year’s show is 30 Men, 1 Winner. I’ve heard worse ideas which we’ll get too very soon.

Tag Titles: Spike Dudley/Tazz vs. Dudley Boys

I LOVE Stacy as the Duchess of Dudleyville. I never remember her looking better. Anyway, Spike and Tazz are defending here in a reign that I don’t think anyone ever remembers. The Dudleys beat up Spike recently so he’s in a neck brace. The Dudleys attack to start and hit the belly to back neckbreaker on Tazz on the floor. It’s Bubba vs. Spike to start things off in a handicap match for all intents and purposes. Bubba rips the neck brace off and drops a big elbow.

Bubba shouts at Spike to get up as we get a very nice shot of Stacy. Tazz is back on the apron as D-Von hits a Hennig necksnap of all things. Bubba loads up a second brainbuster on Spike but gets countered into a Dudley Dog for no cover. The tag to Tazz is missed so Spike has to take a double flapjack instead. Spike avoids a headbutt from D-Von and makes the Dudleys clothesline each other. Hot tag brings in Tazz to clean house with suplexes. A big boot to Bubba’s head sets up a top rope cross body by Spike for two. Stacy interferes and gets put in the Tazmission. D-Von gets caught in the same hold and the champions retain.

Rating: D+. I have no idea what the point of this being on PPV was as it barely broke five minutes. Nothing with Stacy in the Dudley attire can be bad, but this came about as close as you can get. Actually scratch that as it wasn’t so much bad but just short. I have no idea why this wasn’t on Raw or something like that. Tazz would be retired very soon after this due to a horrible neck.

We immediately go to a recap of Regal vs. Edge which is based on Regal using brass knuckles over and over again. Edge got fed up with it and beat up a lot of people with a chair.

Edge has a chair with him tonight to counter the knuckles. Apparently he broke Regal’s nose recently.

Intercontinental Title: Edge vs. William Regal

Edge is defending. The referee checks Regal over and over again for knuckles and finds them in his trunks. Well you can’t say he didn’t do his job. The referee stupidly puts them on the ring post instead of like, giving them to someone to take to the back or something. Edge pounds away to start and chokes with his boot in the corner. He goes after Regal’s bad nose as Lawler claims conspiracy.

Regal comes back with a clothesline but Edge kicks him in the back to put both guys down. Being the British dude that he is, Regal suplexes Edge down for two. Make that four. Uh six. Yet somehow that isn’t three. Off to an arm trap chinlock followed by a hard forearm to put the champion down again. A double arm powerbomb hits Edge for two and they head to the apron. Edge busts out a DDT onto said apron, further injuring Regal’s nose.

Back in and they ram heads to put both guys down as the match continues to drag at a slow pace. Edge wins a slugout and takes Regal down with a spinwheel kick and a suplex for two. Regal suplexes him down as well, only for Edge to hit a big old clothesline for two more. The Regal Stretch goes on out of nowhere but Edge reverses into a terrible version of his own to no avail. A top rope spinwheel kick puts Regal down but he finds another set of brass knuckles. Instead of swinging them though, he pulls the referee in the way of Edge’s spear. Regal clocks Edge and wins the title.

Rating: D+. This didn’t click at all. Regal didn’t seem interested in selling at all and Edge wasn’t ready to carry a match by himself yet. He was getting to the point where he could but it would take a summer of feuding with Eddie to get him up to that point. Regal wouldn’t really do anything with the belt other than lose it to RVD. Nothing to see here.

Women’s Title: Trish Stratus vs. Jazz

Jacqueline is referee for absolutely no apparent reason and Trish is defending. Jazz is basically being a bully and has injured Trish’s hand coming into this. Jazz jumps Trish to start but misses a splash, giving Trish two off a rollup. A modified hot shot slows the champ down again and a legdrop gets two. Jazz works on the bad hand for a bit but Jackie pulls them out of the ropes. Jackie of course makes it all about herself and won’t count a cover on Trish. Stratusfaction hits out of nowhere for two and Jazz is up a few seconds later, basically no selling it. Trish hits a bad looking running bulldog to retain.

Rating: D. It was short, it was sloppy, the ending was stupid and Jackie was in it. What other kind of grade do you expect here? Stratus was starting to get better but it would take another year and Lita before she got amazing. Jazz was a pretty stupid pick to bring over to WWE as no one remembered her and she didn’t have the looks to back up any lack of hype. Bad match here.

Flair says he’ll win.

We recap Vince vs. Flair. Flair debuted after Survivor Series as the new co-owner of the company and has driven Vince crazy since. This led up to a street fight tonight between the two of them tonight which isn’t as big a deal as they were shooting for I don’t think. The highlight of it was Vince dressing up as Flair and saying destroying lives turned him on.

Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon

Remember this is a street fight. Vince shoves him down to start and struts, so Flair punches him down and struts as well. Flair wins a chop battle in the corner (duh) so Vince goes to the eyes to escape. There’s the Flair Flop followed by a Flair Flip in the corner as Vince is in full control. We head to the floor and get our first weapon shot, with Vince pounding on Ric with a metal Keep Off sign.

There’s a trashcan shot to the head and Flair is busted open. How thin must the skin on his forehead be? Anyway, Vince steals a camera from someone to take a picture of Flair’s cut before we head back inside. Since he’s a jerk, Vince starts working over the knee in (less skilled) Flair fashion. The leg is wrapped around the post and Vince puts on a Figure Four that Dusty Rhodes would be jealous of.

Flair turns the hold over and Vince IMMEDIATELY lets go of the hold. So not only is he better at it than some wrestlers, he’s also smart. Never let it be said that Vince doesn’t know what he’s doing. Vince bails to the floor and grabs a lead pipe that he used to bust Flair open in the build up to the match. Flair catches him coming in with a low blow and pounds away on the floor.

Vince takes a monitor shot to the head and in a weird spot, we see a replay on the monitor on the table as the live match goes on. Vince is busted open now and we head back inside. Scratch that as we go back outside immediately where Flair’s family takes pictures of Vince’s cut. Set it up earlier, pay it off later. Good move. Back in and Flair kicks him low again just because he can, cracks him in the head with the pipe and ends it with the Figure Four.

Rating: C+. At the end of the day, this match makes as much sense as almost anything you’ll see. Vince controlled at the beginning, but at the end of the day he’s a boss and Flair is a veteran wrestler and athlete. It makes sense for him to be able to shrug that off and destroy Vince with relative ease once he got the upper hand. On top of that we got some good blood and Vince getting hit in the balls so how can this not be entertaining?

Stephanie talks trash about everyone else in the Rumble and runs down Debra as well. Austin walks up and WHAT’s her away. Cole gets a bit of it too. This is when the bit was brand new and still kind of funny, as opposed to now when it ruins almost every serious promo.

No highlight package for the world title match? For those of you not around in 2002 (LUCKY!), Jericho won the title in December, beating Rock along the way. It makes sense for Rock to get the first shot, especially since they feuded over the end of the year.

WWF World Title: The Rock vs. Chris Jericho

Jericho still has both titles because HHH wasn’t there to win the first Undisputed Title and get the new belt. Rock decks him immediately and the champ heads to the floor, only to run back in and get punched some more. Jericho misses a charge and hits the post but pulls off a hot shot out of nowhere to give himself a breather. They trade strikes in the corner before Jericho hits a spinwheel kick to Rocky’s arms for two.

A suplex gets two for Jericho and for some reason Rock’s left thumb is sticking out. The champ unhooks a buckle but can’t get the Walls. A missile dropkick gets two on Rock and it’s off to the chinlock. That goes on for a good while so Chris goes up again, only to get crotched and superplexed. A belly to belly suplex gets two for Rock but Jericho clotheslines him down and hits the Lionsault. Due to high reasons of arrogance, Jericho waits forever to cover and fights with the referee after getting two.

Another dropkick attempt by Jericho is caught in a Sharpshooter, but here’s Lance Storm for a distraction while Jericho taps. Christian comes in as well and is promptly punched out by Rock. Jericho hits a Rock Bottom on Rock for two and the frustration begins. The champ loads up a People’s Elbow but Rock nips up and sends Jericho out to the floor.

Both guys are rammed into both announce tables before Jericho’s Rock Bottom attempt is countered into an AWESOME looking Rock Bottom by Rock from one table through the other. That only gets two back inside before Jericho counters another Rock Bottom into the Liontamer (yes I said Liontamer instead of the Walls). Ok now it’s the Walls, which allows Rock to make the rope.

The jumping clothesline takes the referee down by mistake, allowing Jericho to blast Rock with the belt. Another referee slides in and gets two off that and Rock DDTs Jericho down. Rock covers….and Nick Patrick won’t count. There’s a Rock Bottom for his efforts and a People’s Elbow for Jericho but there’s no referee. Rock checks on Hebner, allowing Jericho to hit him low, send him into the Chekov’s Gun in the shape of an exposed turnbuckle. All that plus a rollup with his feet on the ropes is enough for Jericho to retain the title.

Rating: B. This took awhile to get going but once things picked up it turned into what you would expect from Rock vs. Jericho in a nearly 20 minute match. The overbooking worked here as Jericho needed something to boost him up to Rock’s level, which is what you’re supposed to do as a heel. Good stuff here and a very fine title match.

Shawn Michaels, in a really stupid looking Texas flag shirt, is at WWF New York. He picks Taker or Austin to win the Rumble.

Video on the Rumble. The main picks to win are Taker, HHH, Angle and Austin.

Royal Rumble

Rikishi and Goldust are #1 and #2 respectively and we’ve got two minute intervals. Goldie walks around Rikishi to start and gets punched in the face for his efforts. Rikishi knocks him around for a bit but can’t quite drop the big load on Goldie’s chest. A backdrop puts Goldust on the apron and Boss Man is #3, making it 2-1 against Rikishi. Goldust gets punched in the face but Boss Man pounds Rikishi into the corner. The heels explode after a long one minute partnership.

Bradshaw is #4 and hopefully he can pick things up a bit. He beats up everyone as Rikishi loads up the Stinkface on Boss Man. A superkick and a clothesline put Boss Man out and there’s a Samoan Drop to Bradshaw. Goldie pounds away on Bradshaw in the corner and gets powerbombed for his efforts. Lance Storm is #5 and absolutely nothing of note happens until Al Snow (on Tough Enough at this point) is #6. Bradshaw kills Storm with the Clothesline as the fans want Head.

Billy of Billy and Chuck is #7 and we’re still waiting on something to happen. The fans are still into this at least so it’s not a failure at this point. Storm and Snow fight to the apron with Snow superkicking Lance to an elimination. Billy dumps Bradshaw and Undertaker is finally #8 to pick things up a bit. A chokeslam kills Billy (the third in the series, not starring Uma Thurman) and another one puts out Goldust. Snow and Rikishi are dumped out and Billy follows them, leaving Undertaker alone to a big reaction. He’s evil here in case you’re not up on Taker history.

Matt Hardy is #9, which is interesting as Taker injured both Hardys and Lita. The redhead gets in along with Matt and helps him take the big man down via a low blow. Matt hits a Twist of Fate and stomps away but can’t get Taker out. Naturally Jeff Hardy is #10 because that’s how the TOTALLY RANDOM draw works in the Rumble.

Taker slugs down one of the best tag teams ever in just a few seconds, only to get caught in the Twist/Swanton combo. Again, why would you use moves that keep a giant on the mat? Not that it matters as Poetry in Motion is caught and Jeff is easily thrown out. The Last Ride kills Matt and he’s gone too, leaving Taker alone again. The clock during that segment was REALLY long too as they were roughly three minutes each to get the whole segment in.

Maven from Tough Enough is #11 but Lita is on the apron. Taker PUNCHES her down, drawing the Hardys back in. Taker dumps both of them again, but Maven dropkicks Undertaker in the back and eliminates him in arguably the biggest surprise elimination ever in the Rumble. The look on the Dead Man’s face is hilarious as he has absolutely no emotion at all. He calmly turns around, gets back in the ring, and mauls Maven, sending him through the ropes to the floor. A HUGE chair shot cracks Maven’s head and the beating continues until Scotty 2 Hotty is #12.

Taker punches Scotty down and throws Maven back in to eliminate him, which under old Rumble rules would count. The beating goes into the crowd as there’s nothing in the ring at the moment. Christian is #13 but has no one to fight because Scotty is still down. Instead we go to the back where Maven is rammed face first into a popcorn machine. Taker eats a handful of popcorn and finally leaves Maven alone.

Scotty gets in and walks into a DDT as DDP is #14. Nothing of note continues to happen until Scotty superkicks Page through the ropes to the floor and hits the Worm on Christian. Page sneaks back in and throws Scotty out as Chuck is #15. They all beat on each other for a bit with Christian and Chuck teaming up for a bit. Godfather, now the owner of an escort service in an attempt to salvage the gimmick, is #16 and brings out 12 good looking women with him. Page is eliminated off camera during this.

With Godfather in the ring after about 15 seconds due to dancing, Albert is #17. He’s the Hip Hop Hippo at this point and lasts about 45 seconds before being tossed by the villains. Godfather is dumped soon thereafter, and here’s Saturn at #18. Chuck and Perry slug it out as the fans cheer for the Ho’s leaving. Nothing happens again, until Austin is #19. Chuck is the first victim, getting stomped down in the corner. There goes Christian, Saturn gets a Stunner, Chuck is eliminated, Saturn is dumped, Christian gets thrown back in, Stunned and thrown out again, Chuck gets the same as Christian, and Austin takes a breather.

Val Venis is #20 (and also returning) and things go about as you would expect, although Val does get in some offense and survives until Test is #21. A double teaming lasts for a bit until Austin remembers who he’s fighting and dumps both guys in a few seconds. Austin does his watch bit when no one is in the ring with him. Notice the difference between the big stars and the regular guys: the big ones are CONSTANTLY trying to keep the audience entertained instead of letting them die.

Speaking of entertaining the crowd, HHH is #22. The entrance takes about a minute and a half, they stare at each other for about twenty more seconds, and the slugout only lasts for a few seconds until Hurricane is #23. Luckily for him, the legends knock each other down so Hurricane can tries a double chokeslam. The look on Austin’s face is hilarious as the two of them dump Hurricane with ease.

Austin and HHH chop each other in the corner until Faarooqq is #24 and lasts about that many seconds. Mr. Perfect makes a surprise return at #25 to a big surprise reaction from the audience. He looks a bit, shall we say, tipsy here. Perfect chills on the floor a bit as JR makes a mistake, saying Perfect debuted at the Rumble in 1993. In reality he was #4 in 1989. Austin and HHH double team Perfect to no avail so here’s Angle at #26, drawing the rare double chant of YOU SUCK WHAT.

HHH and Angle pair off as do the other two guys and the match slows down a bit. Kurt starts suplexing people but can’t dump HHH because Austin makes the save due to reasons of a big ego. Big Show is #27 in his one piece women’s swimsuit. Angle gets chokeslammed so Austin and HHH double team the big man to limited avail. HHH saves Angle, presumably because he wants Kurt’s help to get Show out. Makes sense I guess.

Show dominates everyone until Kane is #28. HHH gets chokeslammed so we can have our battle of the giants. Jerry: “They’re not getting any smaller are they JR?” Uh yeah Jerry, actually they are. They do the double chokeslam spot but Kane kicks Show low and picks him up, slamming him to the floor. AWESOME display of strength there, but Angle immediately dumps Kane to get us back down to four.

Van Dam is #29 and hits a Five Star on Angle who is down from something we didn’t see. Everyone but HHH gets kicked down so he hits a Pedigree to put Van Dam down. Booker T is #30, giving us a final group of Booker, RVD, Angle, Perfect, HHH and Austin. Booker throws out RVD without having to do anything else thanks to the Pedigree. We get a Spinarooni, followed by a Stunner and elimination to get us down to Austin, Angle, HHH and Perfect.

Austin hits a slingshot into the post on HHH who walks into an Angle Slam. Angle rolls some Germans on Austin and the C/Kurts try to dump Austin. Austin hits some HARD right hands to break that up but as he tries to dump Perfect, Angle runs up and dumps the Rattlesnake. Austin pulls Perfect to the floor but Kurt sends Austin into the steps to break it up. Steve still isn’t done as he comes back in with a chair for all three guys. Eh he’s Austin so he can get away with it.

Angle accidentally clothesline Hennig but doesn’t eliminate him. There’s the PerfectPlex (BIG pop for that) to Kurt but HHH dumps Perfect a second later. Angle and HHH stare each other down and the Game pounds away on him to take over. Kurt gets HHH to the apron but can’t get the win. HHH chokes away but charges into a backdrop, sending him to the apron. Kurt makes the classic mistake of not making sure the other guy is out and gets clotheslined to the floor, giving HHH the Rumble. For you trivia guys, this is the longest Rumble ever to date, even going 11 seconds longer than the 40 man version.

Rating: C+. This has some very bad spots in it but the rest of the stuff is solid all around. Once Austin gets in there things pick up a lot, but the 18 guys before him don’t do much. Taker’s elimination came too fast which hurt things here, as there was no one of note from #9 until Austin at #19. Still though, the good stuff here was good enough to check this out, but you might want to fast forward some parts of it.

Overall Rating: B-. This is a pretty good but certainly not great show. 2002 was a bad year for the company on Raw and things were clearly starting to look weak here. The main problem was the lack of elevation of anyone new to the main event in the year, as the main events for almost every PPV were people who had been there before. There’s nothing on here that’s required viewing but there’s also nothing terrible on here either. Check it out but don’t expect to be blown away.

Ratings Comparison

Spike Dudley/Tazz vs. Billy and Chuck

Original: C-

Redo: D+

William Regal vs. Edge

Original: C-

Redo: D+

Trish Stratus vs. Jazz

Original: D+

Redo: D

Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon

Original: D+

Redo: C+

Chris Jericho vs. The Rock

Original: B+

Redo: B

Royal Rumble

Original: C-

Redo: C+

Overall Rating

Original: B-

Redo: B-

Yep, about the same for the most part here.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/01/21/royal-rumble-count-up-2002-game-on/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Monday Nitro #129
Date: March 2, 1998
Location: Corestates Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

The main story tonight is we have an NWO guy teaming with a WCW guy to face two more NWO guys in the main event of Hall/Hogan vs. Sting/Savage. We’re less than two weeks away from Uncensored and the card is already shaping up very nicely. Hopefully WCW can rebound after a weak showing on last week’s show. Let’s get to it.

After some clips from Savage’s beatdown last week, we see the NWO arriving. Nash is already here for some reason.

Chris Benoit vs. Scotty Riggs

Benoit sends him into the corner to start but can’t hit the German suplex. Instead he clotheslines Riggs in the back of the head and hits a belly to back for two before sending Riggs to the floor. Benoit follows him out and chops Lodi, only to have Riggs get in a shot from behind. Back in and Benoit counters a vertical suplex into a snap suplex, only to be clotheslined down for two. We hit the chinlock for a few seconds before Riggs sends Benoit into the corner. They seem to botch what was supposed to be Riggs going into the post before Benoit rolls the Germans and hooks the Crossface for the submission.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t bad but it didn’t have the time to get anywhere. We’ve been through Benoit fighting the Flock already so this wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before. Raven is gearing up to fight Page on Thunder but Benoit is still stuck in the same place he’s been for months, which sums up his run in WCW in a five minute segment.

Ric Flair hypes up the main event for some reason.

The announcers talk about Randy Savage winning the Harvard Lampoon’s Man of the Year award.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff with something to say. Eric calls Savage a midget and says things can still be healed. Hogan is tired of hearing about Savage who isn’t even famous enough to get on Leno or Conan. The NWO is for life but Savage has gotten just enough rope to hang himself. He brags about being able to beat Sting and Savage and makes bald jokes in an eye rolling line. All his disciples know he’s too sweet, which is probably supposed to introduce Beefcake’s new name. Hogan rambled a bit but this was fine.

Gene and the Nitro Girls are at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Juventud Guerrera vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

They trade arm work to start with Juvy doing Owen Hart’s spinning nip up counter but getting caught by a clothesline. They speed things up a bit and both guys flip around a bit before Chavo hits another clothesline for two. Juvy flips over the corner and hits a pair of springboard missile dropkicks for no cover. Chavo avoids a charge in the corner and jumps to the top to snap Juvy’s throat across the top. Back in and the tornado DDT is countered into a sloppy looking rollup before hitting the Juvy Driver and the 450 for the pin.

Rating: C. This was fine and followed the tried and true formula of letting two small guys fly around the ring for four minutes to fire up the crowd. Juvy was a few steps ahead of Chavo at this point but Guerrero would wind up being the better all around wrestler. Juvy looked good despite losing the mask, although I still don’t agree with the decision to take it off of him.

Psychosis vs. Prince Iaukea

During the entrances we’re told of a new music video from Stuck Mojo featuring Page and the Flock which will debut later tonight. Psychosis jumps him to start and hits a quick baseball slide to send the Prince into the barricade. Iaukea avoids a dive and sends Psychosis face first into the barricade to take over. Back in and Psychosis hits a pair of left arm lariats while shaking his right arm.

Iaukea gets two off a dropkick to the back of the head and they slug it out a bit. Psychosis gets two of his own off a spinwheel kick and hits a dropkick to the back of the head of his own. A top rope hurricanrana gets two on the Prince followed by the guillotine legdrop but Psychosis pulls Prince up at two. Psychosis crotches Iaukea on the top and tries a top rope victory roll but Iaukea falls on top of him for the pin.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t bad but it wasn’t a good idea to have it right after the Juvy vs. Guerrero match. Psychosis looked decent but Iaukea continues to be one of the most uninteresting guys I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing that separates him from any other generic wrestler out there and that’s not good for a show like Nitro.

Ad for Uncensored.

Raven vs. Disco Inferno

Disco wears the same kind of hat that HHH wore in 2000 which doesn’t suit him at all. Disco kicks him into the corner to start and hits a quick swinging neckbreaker for two before sending Raven to the outside. Raven sends him into the barricade and drops Disco onto the apron to take over. A chair is brought into the ring but Disco sends Raven face first into it instead to take over. Disco chokes away with some tape but Raven hits the drop toehold onto the chair and the Evenflow is good for the pin. Short but better than I expected.

More from the party with Gene talking to a bored cop and some guy from Cleveland.

Hugh Morrus/Barbarian vs. Public Enemy

Both teams bring tables with them but Public Enemy has a trashcan as well. The can is thrown into the ring and it’s a big brawl to start. Public Enemy is over huge with the Philly crowd and apparently this is a Philadelphia street fight. Jimmy Hart gets in some shots of his own on Rocco but Barbarian and Morrus clothesline each other.

Grunge puts Jimmy on the table but Barbarian makes the save so Morrus can superplex Rocco through the table. Morrus hits Barbarian with a high cross body by mistake and the other table is brought in. Rocco dives through Morrus (the table was breaking before he dove) for the fast pin. Another short match but Public Enemy was WAY over.

Here are Savage and Liz (looking GOOD tonight) with something to say. Savage says he’s tired of carrying Hogan for all these years and without the NWO, Hogan wouldn’t have a life. Savage calls Hall and Hogan cowards and says Sting will do business Savage’s way. Here’s Sting (still not carrying the belt which I haven’t seen on TV since SuperBrawl) with a mic for once. The survey says Hall is dead but he hasn’t forgotten what Savage has done over the years. Sting will only be doing things his way.

Goldberg vs. Sick Boy

Goldberg hits a quick gorilla press drop and a clothesline to stop a charging Sick Boy. Sick Boy slips off a springboard and the fans let him have it. Goldberg says hit me with your best shot but it’s the spear and Jackhammer for the pin.

We get the music video with the band (Stuck Mojo) playing in a ring as the Flock watches from ringside. They get inside and dive right back out onto the fans as the band plays. DDP finally gets in and cleans house with a wooden chair. Raven and Page stare each other down to end the video. The song is called Rising if you want to check it out.

Here’s DDP for an interview right after the video ends. He has a title defense against Raven on Thursday and since Raven likes quotes so much, Page’s quote is Raven is about to get BANGED. Page leaves, which seems rather silly considering what comes next.

Hammer vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Hammer jumps Page as he comes in and hits a quick powerslam for no cover. Page is stomped down in the corner but he comes back with rights and lefts while Hammer argues with the referee. He goes up onto the ropes to rain down right hands but Hammer hits him low to stop Page cold. DDP spins around Hammer’s shoulders and hits a Diamond Cutter but Raven runs in for the DQ before a cover.

Raven beats Page down but Benoit makes the save. All three guys brawl to a break.

More Nitro Party stuff.

Bret Hart is looking forward to facing Hennig because the NWO is a bunch of liars and bullies. He’s here to tear the NWO down brick by brick and at Uncensored, Hennig will learn that Bret is the best there is, was and ever will be. Also Stu Hart can beat up Larry Hennig any day.

British Bulldog vs. Scott Norton

Norton shoves Bulldog around in a rare occurrence for the Brit. Bulldog comes back with a regular slam followed by a powerslam (not the powerslam mind you) but Norton clotheslines him to the floor. Norton loads up a powerbomb on the floor but stops to shove the referee away for a DQ.

Bulldog and Norton brawl up the ramp. So Norton seems to have replaced Mongo, which is an upgrade…..I think?

The announcers talk about the main event some more.

Konnan vs. Super Calo

Before the match, Konnan says Juventud is a punk for losing his mask and is no longer raza. Konnan grabs the arm to start and they speed things up with Calo hitting a quick armdrag. An awkward looking shove puts Konnan down (looked like someone missed a cue) and a dropkick puts him into the corner. Konnan hits the rolling clothesline to take over but the announcers are talking about Raven vs. Page vs. Benoit being made official for the PPV. Calo hits a quick clothesline and dropkick for two but Konnan hits the cradle DDT and the Tequila Sunrise for a fast submission.

Juvy comes out to prevent Konnan from taking Calo’s mask. A match is made for next week.

Here’s Ric Flair with something to say. Flair wants to know why Gene is at the party but Flair is here. Actually he already knows: he wants to see the main event. Well he already promoted it earlier. Flair starts talking about Bret but here are Hennig and Rude to interrupt. Flair says he’s Eric Lindros (Philadelphia hockey star for those of you unfamiliar) and they’re the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hennig says if Flair is a 14 time champion then he’s also a 14 time loser. Flair gets ready to fight and Hennig comes in for the brawl but Rude rakes Flair’s eyes to give Hennig the advantage. Ric comes back with a low blow and goes for the leg but Rude comes in again for a Hennigplex and a three count from Rude. Bret FINALLY comes out for the save.

More Nitro Party stuff.

Jim Duggan vs. Scott Steiner

Duggan spends too much time walking around the ring and gets decked by White Thunder. Two Duggan clotheslines have no effect but a third knocks him out to the floor. Back in and a big slam puts Steiner down but Steiner comes back with a butterfly powerbomb for no cover. Steiner hooks a chinlock but Duggan morons up and shrugs off the forearms to the back.

Right hands stagger Scott but he tries a middle rope sunset flip of all things for two. Duggan pounds away in the corner again but he misses a charge and goes face first into the post, sending him out to the floor. Back in and the spinning belly to belly sets up the Steiner Recliner for the submission.

Rating: C-. This was actually decent with Duggan playing the role of plucky fighter far better than I expected him to. That being said, Steiner shouldn’t have had this much trouble with a jobber to the stars like Duggan so soon after his major heel turn. It’s no wonder why it took so long for him to get over.

Booker T/Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero/Chris Jericho

This is a rematch from Thunder where Eddie/Jericho won. Before the match Jericho declares this Monday Jericho and says his first guest is Eddie Guerrero for this tag team. Booker starts with Jericho with the latter still wearing the Juvy mask around his neck. Some quick forearms knock Jericho into the corner but Chris comes back with a middle rope dropkick for two. Eddie comes in and everything breaks down with Dean and Booker clearing the ring.

Eddie and Jericho hug on the floor as the good guys beg for them to come back in. Eddie comes in again and drops to his knees to beg but Booker forearms him in the head. A dropkick to the leg puts Booker down and Jericho comes in for a double clothesline. Eddie’s slingshot hilo gets no cover but another forearm puts him right back down.

Off to Dean as things break down again and Booker superkicks Guerrero in the back of the head. Dean breaks up a Lionsault but Booker misses a side kick to Eddie. Booker and Eddie fall to the floor and it’s Dean and Jericho inside. A slow motion Attitude Adjustment puts Jericho down and the Cloverleaf gets the win for Malenko and Booker.

Rating: C+. This is another of those matches that’s an easy layup for two given the talent in there. It’s also an easy way to set up Jericho vs. Malenko at the PPV and give the fans reason to believe Malenko can win. Booker and Eddie already have a reason to face each other so this advanced two feuds at the same time. Good stuff.

Here’s the Nash and the NWO B-Team with something to say. Scott Steiner gets to the point by asking his brother Rick to join the NWO. Here are Rick and DiBiase with Rick immediately joining with the too sweet sign to all the members. Rick surprises them with right hands but Buff stops him before he gets to Scott. A big beatdown ensues but Nash pulls away from a powerbomb. He loads up another one but Rick backdrops out and here’s the Giant to get his hands on Nash. Giant headbutts Nash down and gives him a good powerbomb, only to hurt his own neck in the process.

During the break security try to handcuff the Giant but the cuffs don’t fit.

Brian Adams vs. Bret Hart

This is Bret’s Nitro debut. Adams jumps Bret as he comes in and hits a gorilla press gutbuster to send him to the floor. Bret sends him into the post to take over back inside and pounds away in the corner. The Russian legsweep looks to set up the Sharpshooter but Adams gets a rope. Brian hits a clothesline to take over and hits a slow motion tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. A turnbuckle comes off somewhere in there but it’s Adams going face first into it, setting up the Sharpshooter. Before he can tap out though here’s Hennig for the DQ.

Rating: D. Of all the opponents they could have picked for Bret’s debut match on Nitro they picked Adams? I don’t know why the guy was signed in the first place as he’s just a generic power guy who doesn’t do anything special in the ring at all. You can already see Bret being wasted from here, as he debuted as a referee, wrestled one very good PPV match and is now fighting Brian Adams. That’s not a good sign.

Sting/Randy Savage vs. Hollywood Hogan/Scott Hall

We’re finally to this match which Tony has hyped up like it was the original NWO match. The problem here is the match is going to have about ten minutes and odds are it ends in a run in. I get the idea of hyping up the main event, but when the match isn’t going to be anything special it makes you look bad. Schiavone is famous for this and tonight is the first time he’s really done it for a match that isn’t all that huge. To really pound it in, Buffer does the big intro and calls it the main event of the evening, but Tony corrects him by saying it’s the main event of all time. It’s a big match but it’s making Tony sound silly at this point.

This is a rare instance of Hall being treated as one of the top guys in the NWO. After the first few weeks of the team he was always a step below Hogan and at times below Nash. From what I can find, this is the only time Hogan and Hall teamed together without Nash there too. On the way to the ring, Bischoff holds up a sign saying “Raw fears ratings.” Sting STILL isn’t wearing the belt. What’s up with that? I don’t think I’ve seen it since he won the title and I’m almost forgetting he’s champion.

It’s a big brawl to start with Bischoff in there to help out too. Sting and Savage clean house with Sting fighting Hogan on the floor instead of the guy he’s defending the title against in two weeks. Hall and Savage are fighting off camera while Sting whips Hogan with the weightlifting belt. Savage and Hall get back to the ring with Randy whipping Scott with the belt. We officially get going with Savage elbowing Hall in the face before bringing in Sting for a Vader Bomb of all things for two.

Back to Savage for the double ax handle before Sting drops an elbow for two. Savage pulls Hogan off the apron and sends him into the barricade. Randy comes back in for elbows to the head but Hogan comes in with some kind of metal object to knock Savage silly and give the NWO control.

It’s Savage playing face in peril now with Hogan pounding him in the head and clotheslining him in the corner. Hall gets two off the fallaway slam and it’s back to Hogan for more punching. There’s the big boot but Savage avoids the leg drop. The hot tag brings in Sting for two quick Stinger Splashes as everything breaks down. Sting loads up the Scorpion on Hogan but the NWO runs in for the DQ.

Rating: D+. It was your standard main event tag with a somewhat faster pace. How this changed the wrestling world I’m not sure but one thing is very clear: Sting may be world champion but that doesn’t mean much. I don’t think his match with Hall was even mentioned here and they might have had 30 seconds of contact in a ten minute match. It’s clear that whatever Hogan is doing is the top story and the world champion is a distant second.

A bunch of WCW guys come out for the save and Hogan names the new guy Disciple to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. Much like Thunder this was a very easy show to get through. Nothing on here was bad and the worst stuff was all short. That being said, a lot of this show is just there. It’s not very good, it’s not very bad and it just exists. It’s the kind of stuff that you watch and then forget about five minutes later, which is bad when there’s about an hour of it a week. On the good side though, Uncensored looks like a solid card and the television hasn’t been bad leading up to it. This was a show building to the PPV and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Invasion
Date: July 22, 2001
Location: Gund Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Attendance: 17,964
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jim Ross

So this is easily the most requested show since I’ve stated doing the reviews so I might as well get it out of the way. This is the infamous INVASION of the WCW/ECW Alliance. Since I’ve already explained my thoughts on the Invasion as a whole in the Survivor Series 2001 review the talking about it here is going to be somewhat limited but I’m sure I’ll have something to go on and on about in here somewhere.

The main event is the Inaugural Brawl, which is just a big ten man tag. Other than that the card is relatively boring other than Hardy vs. Van Dam for the Hardcore Title. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about Roosevelt and the Nazis and Japanese Army. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Ok, I know Vince likes things big, but this is ridiculous. The logo for the show is this weird hybrid of Shane and Vince’s faces. It’s kind of cool but more creepy.

Mike Awesome/Lance Storm vs. Edge and Christian

Hmm I wonder who is winning here. Edge and Christian’s music cuts Storm off. That’s rather amusing. I’ve always liked Storm so that has something to do with it. Edge is the reigning KOTR at the moment if that means anything to anyone. Christian and Awesome start us off. Storm vs. either of the faces could be most interesting. Edge gets down and Christian goes for a dive over the ropes. He slips though and nearly has a very bad fall.

Odd hearing WWF fans say YOU SCREWED UP. Awesome sans mullet is odd looking to put it mildly. Christian is getting beaten down for the most part here as you would expect. Why you would expect that I’m not sure but it sounded right in my head. Cole is really new at this whole commentary thing at this point and it shows badly. Edge gets the tag and takes out various heels. Edge rams Storm into Christian which would mean something in a few weeks/months.

The rollup only gets two though and we slow down for a bit. The crowd is hot here as they tend to be in Cleveland. Pretty decent tag match here. Awesome sets Edge for a powerbomb but Christian spears Awesome so that Edge falls on top for the pin. Nice ending.

Rating: B. Very good choice for an opener here as both teams were trying out there and it showed very well. Edge was getting hot around this time and it would have been a world title reign had a few things gone right. This was fun though and a great opener.

Vince is happy. Regal, in a collared WWF shirt and tights, says Austin is here. He gets Raven later. Well that’s an odd combination if there has ever been one.

We recap the feud between the referees. Yeah it was bad. It results in this.

Earl Hebner vs. Nick Patrick

Of all people, Mick Foley is the referee here. Yeah I don’t get it either but whatever. He’s wearing a Marvel t-shirt so I can’t complain at all. Nick comes out with an army of referees which is just funny looking. Earl does the same. It looks like the world’s weakest gang. Oh and they’re in refereeing gear.

Take a wild guess as to the quality of the work here. Do I need to offer commentary on this one? It’s a glorified lumberjack match. Foley throws out the WCW referees. Earl hits something resembling a spear for the win. Patrick gets in Foley’s face and guess what happens. I think you know the drill.

Rating: N/A. I’m not grading two non-wrestlers like I would grade regular wrestlers.

We recap Debra getting abducted on Smackdown. Debra complains about it. She makes Stephanie look like a great actress. Taker’s wife Sara isn’t much better. She’s attractive though.

We recap the APA vs. Palumbo and O’Haire. It’s tag champions vs. tag champions. Basically the APA called for the WWF locker room to join forces to fight in the war. The WCW Champions jumped them at WWF New York.

APA vs. Sean O’Haire/Chuck Palumbo

No titles on the line here, despite them both being champions of some sort. Dang O’Haire had the look down to a science. So did Palumbo. We get a mention of Kevin Nash. He and DDP were the guys O’Haire and Palumbo beat. Teddy Long informs them they have seven minutes. Oddly enough Farrooq was managed by Long back in the day.

Oddly enough this is a pretty back and forth match. Bradshaw busts out a DDT of all things. Never seen him use that I don’t think. Farrooq gets a standing switch. This is FREAKY. Oddly enough this is pretty back and forth with no one really dominating at all. The Clothesline From JBL ends it. This never got off the ground at all.

Rating: D. Just boring stuff here. You could clearly see there was very little thought put into the matches here. These two teams just were kind of there. It’s not bad I guess, but this could have been on Superstars or something like that. Pretty weak.

Vince is with Jericho in the back and says Vince is the difference between ECW/WCW and WWF. He’s exactly right actually. Oh and Heyman sucks.

Stephanie hates Jericho. WOW her acting reaches new levels of suck. Heyman is sitting in the back and then goes off on Billy Kidman, saying he has to win this next match.

X-Pac vs. Billy Kidman

It’s champion vs. champion again. This is in the X-Factor era. Yeah no one cares AT ALL. Kidman’s music was rather groovy. Pac is total heel here but he’s the face because of the company he’s in. Waltman should be good here though as he’s always good against smaller guys. Scratch that about Waltman being the face. They still hate him. I’ve always liked Cleveland.

Apparently you don’t want to be the first to lose. Dang I thought you always wanted to lose. What was I thinking? They got close to the WCW/NWO issue with the announcers being completely idiotic looking by saying one group was the crowd favorite when they were being booed out of the building. They pick it up a bit with some nice high impact stuff. Pac catches a diving Kidman coming off the top in an X-Factor.

That looked pretty stupid, but I’d think that’s because it’s the stupid X Factor. Bronco Buster is blocked with a boot to the balls. I love alliteration. That sets up the Shooting Star Press for the pin. According to Ross, the Bronco Buster is a high risk move.

Rating: C+. Not bad but not great at all. The most interesting thing here was the crowd. The match itself is ok but not bad. Pac was always at his best against small guys and he was far less annoying here. Nothing great but the SSP is always sweet.

DDP babbles about nothing.

Torrie and Stacy try to sound sexy and just fail. They like the Hardys apparently.

William Regal vs. Raven

We get a brief history of Raven’s career, minus Johnny Polo that is which might be his best gimmick. It’s a slugfest to start which Regal is good at. He was very physical around this time and it always came off rather well. His feud with Jericho was a highlight of his career to me. All Regal so far. That forearm to the face that he uses for a cover is great. We get a slingshot as I wonder what the point of this was.

The fans think this is boring and I can’t really say that I disagree. It’s not bad, but this is as basic as you could imagine. They look like they’re both rookies who know very few moves at this point. It’s more or less all punches and clotheslines. They’re crisp and such, but this just isn’t that interesting. You know what it reminds me of? An old SNES wrestling game where you have like 5 moves and everyone has the same set no matter what their size is.

The boring chant is really loud now. You can tell there is no story here at all. Raven gets thrown to the floor and for zero explained reason, Taz runs out and hits a suplex on Regal to allow Raven to hit the DDT for the pin.

Rating: D-. Just like I said before, this was just boring. I have no idea what the point was here but this didn’t come off well. It was just a wrestling match, but with this being a PPV, this wasn’t acceptable for me.

Taker and Kane get a pep talk from Vince. Taker doesn’t like Vince talking about his wife.

Billy Gunn/Albert/Big Show vs. Kanyou/Hugh Morrus/Shawn Stasiak

Again, what in the freaking world is the thought process on this show? It makes no sense at all. This was made on Heat. Oh and Albert is IC Champion here. He’s still in X-Factor and the song is still awesome. Stasiak is using Mr. Perfect’s gimmick, down to the music. It was idiotic. In a cool spot we get a triple press slam from the WWF guys. Gunn and Kanyon start us off. This was Billy Gunn push #2837G.

Kanyon does an odd combination from a Russian legsweep into a Stroke. Nicely done. We get the traditional melee and Albert hits a bicycle (Pump kick that Sheamus uses) kick to Shawn and by hits I mean misses Shawn completely but has it sold anyway. This is pretty much all Albert.

Fameasser hits on Morrus. For you newer fans, Morrus is more commonly known as Bill Demott. Stasiak hits a reverse DDT so Morrus can get the pin. This was a MESS. Show hits chokeslams all around post match. Show debuts the Alley-Oop which he should do more often as it looked pretty cool.

Rating: F+. Just horrid here and I have even less clue what the booking here was supposed to be. This was a weird choice to say the least and I guess it was to showcase the WWF guys but it came off like a bunch of jobbers beat them. Made no sense.

Shane talks to Booker and says the Alliance (not named that yet but close enough) is up 4-3 because of Chavo beating Scotty on Heat. That answered a LOT of questions actually as no one got how later in the Alliance said they had an extra win. I was at a friend’s house watching this and we spent 40 minutes after the show trying to figure it out. We had lists of matches and charts etc going and NO ONE got it. Yeah I’m just killing time now.

Regal fires Tajiri up.

Taz vs. Tajiri

This was the ECW Title match at I think Heat Wave 99 and it was a glorified squash. Apparently Tajiri is popular for staying in the WWF. Ok then. Hey they actually mentioned the Heat Wave match! Sweet I’m not insane. Taz hooks a bunch of suplexes and submissions, which makes me think instantly that Tajiri will win. In at least the last two matches and maybe more, the guy or guys that dominate early loses in the end.

Handspring elbow gets a BIG pop. Didn’t see that one coming. We hit the floor for all of 5 seconds and I’m bored out of my mind. The Tarantula helps that a bit. Tajiri kicks the heck out of Taz for a LONG two. Those kicks are LOUD too. Just as it’s getting good, the mist hits as does a kick for the pin.

Rating: D+. This got really good for like 30 seconds. Other than that though it just wasn’t interesting at all. Again, I don’t get the point in these 5-6 minute matches with zero point to them at all. Could have been a lot worse though.

Jeff and Matt talk about Jeff’s match with Van Dam. Van Dam pops up and cracks the HECK out of Matt with a chair. That sounded great.

Hardcore Holly is at WWF New York and gets on a plant for wearing a WCW shirt.

Hardcore Title: Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy

Why all the TNA on TNA violence? RVD’s outfit is tiger print of all things tonight. He looks like Tony the Tiger in spandex. This should be fun. Hardy isn’t a huge deal yet but he’s in the midcard. Van Dam is WAY over. Crowd is red hot for this as it was more or less the second featured match on the card. Hardy goes for his run the rail spot and Van Dam makes the stop by jumping up on it to stop him. Nice.

Into the crowd now. This is totally sloppy and totally a mess but since it’s a hardcore match, it’s working rather well actually. The crowd is helping it a lot also. Van Dam takes a bow which is a very nice touch. With Van Dam on the apron, Hardy slingshots over the ropes into a powerbomb to the floor. Sweet looking spot and it’s ladder time. This had to happen. In another sick spot, Hardy is on the top of the ladder, and I mean the big one, and is pushed off and crashes to the floor.

This was what gave us the “How do you learn to fall off a 20ft ladder” soundbyte. In another, say it with me, sick spot, Van Dam is crouched but jumps into the air for a Van Daminator that looked GREAT. It knocked Hardy through the hole into the stage to the floor. We’ve reached the part where it’s just them beating the living crap out of each other and the fan are flat out eating it up.

The belt is in the ring as Hardy gets a nice German Suplex. Jeff is bleeding a bit. Swanton misses. With Jeff down, Van Dam puts the belt on Hardy’s chest and hits the 5 Star for the pin. Fun match.

Rating: B+. This is a great example of a match where you have to consider what was going on out there. This wasn’t meant to be a mat clinic or anything. This was about high impact, high intensity over the top spots and that’s what the fans got. This was fun stuff and the crowd loved it. Great match.

Angle is annoyed for some reason. He says he’ll own the invaders tonight.

We actually have a video package about the bra and panties tag match. Seriously? Short version: Trish and Lita hate each other because of them trying to steal the Hardys from each other. Torrie and Stacy do the same thing. Yeah let’s just get to it. See, the thing they never could get around was that Torrie and Stacy had no talent other than looking good. Trish and Lita at least could fight.

Torrie Wilson/Stacy Keibler vs. Lita/Trish Stratus

Mick Foley appoints himself guest referee here again. This was smart if nothing else as it gave a person people actually care about to the match. Torrie and Stacy have weird entrance music. Lita was a legit big deal at the time and was the biggest women’s star more or less since Sable and Sunny. Seriously do you want commentary here? Trish was getting better every day at this point but still wasn’t that good yet.

Stacy gets her top ripped off. Lita has the same done. Trish vs. Torrie now and Trish loses her shirt somewhere. There goes all of Torrie’s clothes. Stacy gets her pants ripped off to end it. Mick picks up the clothes after the match which is funny.

Rating: N/A. Not a wrestling match, so there you go.

Stephanie gives the pep talk. That’s amusing. Heyman takes over which is a major upgrade.

Austin is acting like himself.

We recap this, which started with Shane buying WCW. They finally switched the roles as a face had WCW and a heel had WWF. Then one night Vince said he was tired of this so he said let’s have a match. The five guys he picked were ECW guys, you get the rest. Dreamer and Van Dam debuted that night. Austin had been an idiot since he turned heel so he started being the old Austin again.

More or less he kept saying he wouldn’t be his old self until he said he’d do it. No big moment of clarity or anything. He just changed his mind. Yeah there wasn’t much of a story other than they don’t like each other, but did there need to be? Oh and DDP stalked Taker’s wife. Stephanie being revealed as the ECW owner is one of my favorite moments ever. Oh and Freddie freaking Blassie showed up for a pep talk.

Inaugural Brawl: Team WWF vs. Team WCW/ECW

WWF – Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Kane, Undertaker

WCW/ECW – Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno, Dudley Boys

All three Alliance bosses get entrances. Now Vince gets an entrance. It’s been over 12 minutes since the last match ended and we’re not even to the wrestlers’ entrances yet. So yeah for you trivia buffs, this is the other non-ECW PPV that the Dudley Boys main evented. Kane and Taker were still kind of tag partners at this point but not really. So apparently Taker and Kane are balanced out by the Dudley Boyz? Ok then.

Oh and this is just a ten man tag. No special rules or anything like that. And pay no attention to the fact that both Taker and Kane (albeit as a jobber) used to work for WCW. Rhyno makes it the third ECW guy in a row. Talk about a push that died after this. Next is Jericho, who is about as opposite of Rhyno after this show as you could ask of anyone. Stephanie and Jericho was one of the funniest feuds I can ever remember.

Booker is US and World Champion at this time but he would hand the US Title to Kanyon soon after this. This just feels entirely thrown together. Sting is mentioned on a WWF PPV for likely the only time ever. Stephanie dancing to Booker’s music is just hilarious. Angle gets a HUGE pop despite going the wrong way down the ramp.

The level he reached about two months from now was insane. DDP is apparently the biggest deal in the Alliance. Dang did they ever jump the gun here. The 9 mentioned start fighting in the aisle and we have Austin. Notice a certain one sidedness here?

Austin and Rhyno start us off. Austin hits a superplex off the top. Sweet goodness. Jericho gets a NICE pop for the tag. Booker, the only one of the WCW/ECW guys to get a legit push in WWF comes in. Angle gets another great pop. This was after the peak the company had a few months earlier, but it was still a huge deal. This evolves into your standard big time tag match with various people beating on each other with no one really controlling for a ton of time.

DDP hits a Stunner on the top rope on Taker to finally get something resembling control. Austin works on a wristlock on Booker. There’s something you don’t see everyday. We’ve been at this for about ten minutes now and there hasn’t been any long term control. There isn’t much to say here either though as it’s exactly what you would expect it to be. Heyman is awesome at being completely evil when he has to be.

Angle is in some trouble here and the Spinarooni hits. Page hits a spinning powerbomb on Angle which is one of my favorite moves. So after nearly 20 minutes we get to the traditional face in peril sequence of the match. We go old school with Austin getting the tag but the referee didn’t see it. I love things like that. Diamond Cutter on Angle and it gets NO reaction. Cole of course calls it a neck breaker while Ross, 10 seconds after it, says the name right.

And here is the brawl that you knew was coming. Rhyno hits the Gore on Booker and Taker finally gets his hands on DDP again. Chokeslam to Page. Booker and Austin fight on the floor while the WCW referee gets a Last Ride. Taker and DDP go into the crowd while Austin’s knee is messed up after going into the steps. Kane is fighting both Dudleys.

That’s how you can tell Taker is a bigger deal than Kane: when Taker did that, they got their own match. It’s table time. Kane hits a chokeslam through the announce table on D-Von. He got him UP there too. Rhyno and Bubba put Kane through the Spanish Announce Table. Good to see a tradition still alive. Jericho puts Rhyno through the table the Dudleyz set up. Booker and Angle are the only guys still conscious. Oh and Bubba also.

The referee is still looking at Austin’s knee. Yes I’m listing a lot of play by play but you have to here so you know what’s going on. Angle fights off Booker and Bubba with an ankle lock and the Angle Slam, back when it was a good finisher, respectively. And there goes the referee. Cue the finish. Vince grabs the WWF Title and throws it to Angle. Shane gets it though and down goes Vince.

It’s Booker vs. Angle now. Angle hits his pair of finishers on him, Austin throws the referee in, kicks Angle in the head, Stunner, pin, WCW/ECW wins. Austin turned heel again, shocking JR despite him having done the same thing TWO AND A HALF MONTHS EARLIER. Austin and the three Alliance leaders have beers to end the show.

Rating: B. This did something I didn’t think it did: it made the far weaker WCW/ECW team look legit. This was all about making WWF look like they were in danger and it did that. WWF never had the advantage in the whole match until the very end. WCW/ECW controlled this as they should have.

Austin turning heel had to be done given the totally rushed nature of this angle but that’s neither here nor there. The match wasn’t terrible either, so I’d say this was a success. Not a classic or anything, but a success.

Overall Rating: B-. Now think about this for a minute. Yes, most of the matches completely sucked. Actually all but like 3 did. However, this was based around the main event. I don’t recall any other matches other than the hardcore title one being advertised. Oh and Bra/Panties. Other than that, this show wasn’t up to a high quality in the ring because it didn’t need to be.

This was about two things: the main event, and making WCW/ECW look like a threat. Once the PPV ended, no one cared who won the matches or who was even in them. All that mattered was the Alliance won the night and the main event in particular. This definitely isn’t a show you would want to watch for the show itself, but the main thing here is that the huge angle got rolling.

Now to be fair, the angle bombed about as ten times as much as anyone on the planet could have asked it to, but no one knew that at the time. This should have been an angle that went on for at least a year or two, not five months. Anyway, if this was any other show, it would be a C- at best. However, this was a historical show, and as a stand alone show I thought it was successful. On a long term basis though, bad. Like, really bad. Other than for historical issues though, I wouldn’t sit through it.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Great American Bash 2008
Date: July 20, 2008
Location: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
Attendance: 12,454
Commentators: Jim Ross, Mick Foley, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Tazz, Mike Adamle

This is the last of the Bashes and the card looks pretty good. The main event is for the Smackdown Title and is one of the few big matches that never got a big time PPV main event slot: HHH defends against Edge. Other than that we have a parking lot brawl with JBL vs. Cena and Jericho vs. Michaels in a match where HBK’s eye is bad. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about Vickie and Edge’s wedding. Edge them cheated on her with wedding planner Alicia Fox but this was ok I guess. The rest of the video is about the matches I mentioend.

Oh and this is officially the last show before PG began.

Smackdown Tag Titles: John Morrison/The Miz vs. Finlay/Hornswoggle vs. Jesse/Festus vs Curt Hawkins/Zack Ryder

Miz and Morrison are defending. Festus is Luke Gallows who freaks out at the sound of a bell. Jesse and Festus clear the ring so the champs send Horny in to fight him. Smart move guys. Horny wants to try it but instead dives through the ropes to take out the champ. Festus vs. Miz gets us going officially. Off to Jesse with the only world champion to be found in this match in trouble.

Morrison and Finlay come in and the Irishman is in trouble. Foley asks why you would tag into someone on another team since this is one fall to a finish. Miz and Morrison use various nefarious techniques to hurt Finley and it’s off to the chinlock. Miz and Morrison switch in and out twice and Finlay gets in a shot. I don’t think Hawkins and Ryder have been in yet and as I say that Ryder comes in to steal a pin attempt, getting two.

The former Edgeheads/Major Brothers hammer away on Finlay but he counters into the rolling fireman’s carry slam, whatever that was called. The Irish Club is brought in and I don’t know who got hit as Miz and Morrison ran in to break it up. Finlay gets in a shot on I think Hawkins and it’s off to Horny. Jesse tags himself in to beat on Hawkins. There’s the not hot tag to Festus and he cleans house. He and Jesse load up a rocket launcher but Ryder pulls Festus to the floor and Jesse gets slammed off the top. Hawkins pins Jesse for the surprise title win.

Rating: C-. Hey, you ever seen one of those multi team tag matches where not a lot really happens because there are so many teams that nothing can get going at all and no one is able to get anything going and the ending is a big mess with a team that didn’t do much stealing the win and it wasn’t bad but you’ve seen something just like it before? Well this was one of those matches.

US Title: Matt Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin

Shelton is the Gold Standard and challenger. The announcers point out that no one has ever lost the title at the Bash and of course they treat it like the same show as the WCW incarnation. Shelton takes over with a headlock but Matt takes over with an armdrag of his own. A quick Pay Dirty (Little Jimmy) and Twist of Fate are both countered and Matt takes over again.

Matt tries to skin the cat but Shelton dropkicks him to the floor. Shelton rams him into the post to take over. The fans are into this and I presume they’re behind Hardy but I can’t really tell. It might be split. Matt tries a Side Effect but Shelton counters into an STO for two. The Dragon Whip looks to set up the Stinger Splash but Matt counters. Middle rope leg and sunset flip get two for Matt. Twist attempt is countered and Shelton looks for a middle rope belly to back superplex but Matt knocks him off. Moonsault gets knees and Pay Dirt gives Benjamin the title.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t bad but I really didn’t get into it. Matt was certainly better as a guy that was chasing the title rather than actually holding it. Matt would go on to win the ECW Title soon after this as Shelton would hold the US Title for like 8 months and then would just chill on ECW until being released in 2010.

On Monday, Punk said Batista saved him so that Batista would get his shot tonight because Punk is the easier victory. He says he’s not the biggest or the strongest or anything like that. He’s the man that proves everyone wrong, CM Punk, World Heavyweight Champion. I like that ending.

Here’s a video from Smackdown where HHH showed Edge cheating on Vickie with Fox (not yet a Diva).

ECW Title: Mark Henry vs. Tommy Dreamer

Henry is champion and Dreamer is challenging because he’s Tommy Dreamer and it’s the ECW Title. Oh Mike Adamle: how I forgot about you. Tony Atlas is with Henry here. Dreamer has Colin Delaney with him. Delaney is a jobber that Barry Horowitz would laugh at. Dreamer charges at Henry because he’s not that smart. Single leg fails miserably. Mark runs him down and this is pure dominance as expected. Henry steps on his face. That has to hurt.

Henry grabs the wrist and works on the arm for absolutely no logical reason. Dude YOU’RE MARK FREAKING HENRY! GO DESTROY A SMALL CITY! The fans correctly chant boring and I’d be doing it too….maybe. Now back to the arm. The fans try to cheer for Dreamer but he gets beaten even worse. A splash (called the World’s Strongest Slam by Adamle but corrected by Tazz) misses and here comes Dreamer. A neckbreaker gets two for Tommy. DDT puts Henry down but Atlas distracts. Dreamer goes after him and then goes up, where Delaney turns on him, shoving him off. The Slam ends this.

Rating: D-. What a boring match. Tazz freaking out over Delaney turning is kind of funny. This went nowhere at all and was a VERY boring match with Henry literally crushing him for most of the match, other than that weird arm stuff. Dreamer would beat up Delaney for awhile before they finally got rid of his worthless self.

We recap Shawn vs. Jericho. This is kind of a complicated one. So Shawn retired Flair at Mania and Batista was MAD about it. He demanded a match with Shawn and got it at Backlash. Jericho was referee for some reason. Shawn claimed to injure his knee and won anyway. Jericho had Shawn on the Highlight Reel and said Shawn faked it. Shawn denied it but Jericho persisted. Eventually Shawn admitted he was faking it but Jericho wanted more of a confession than that. It turned into them arguing about who was better and then Jericho accidentally (allegedly) injured Shawn’s eye. Shawn is coming back tonight.

Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels

They stare each other down and here we go. It’s a slugout to start and Jericho controls early. Shawn may have bad ribs but he manages to get in a shot at Jericho’s knee to take over. There’s a reverse Figure Four and Jericho is in trouble early on. Jericho gets in a shot though and the springboard dropkick to the apron makes Shawn backflip on the apron and land on the floor.

Jericho works on the ribs but mixes in some face shots (remember the eye) to show some very nice psychology. Shawn hits the forearm and nips up but the kick is countered into the Walls. He manages to get the rope and fires another kick which is blocked as well. Clothesline gets two for Shawn. Shawn loads up the big elbow but Chris crotches him. Jericho loads up a superplex but gets knocked off and Shawn can hit the elbow.

Here’s Jericho flunkie Lance Cade who breaks up the superkick but Shawn manages to avoid a Codebreaker attempt. Jericho gets a rollup for two and is then promptly launched to the floor. Shawn goes up and tries a moonsault to take out both guys but mostly splits them to crash to the floor. That looked PAINFUL. Jericho pops him with an elbow and the eye is bleeding. Jericho turns into a shark, going after the eye.

Shawn is covered in blood quickly and just has his hands up to try to defend himself but Jericho goes right for the eye with punches. Cade even gets in a shot. Shawn keeps saying don’t stop it. Jericho rams in headbutts and Shawn is in big trouble. Out of NOWHERE Shawn grabs a Crossface but Jericho breaks it pretty quickly. There is blood all over Jericho and Shawn.

Shawn makes the referee promise not to stop it so Jericho hammers away even more. They check it again and Jericho asks if Shawn said keep it going. He’s told Shawn said yes so Jericho kicks him in the face. Even Jericho’s hair has blood on it. Chris traps Shawn’s eyes and shouts in his face as he gets in a bunch of unprotected shots until the referee finally stops it.

Rating: B. It was a great beating and a great example of how blood can help a match and visual a lot, but it didn’t quite reach epic levels, probably due to the ending just being a repeat of everything that had happened for the majority of the match. They would have better matches coming up, but this certainly wasn’t a bad one.

Shawn gets his eye checked post match to eat up some of the ton of time they have left on this show.

Edge is surprised when JR asks him how he feels. He says HHH has taken away his personal life and this is all he has left. All Edge can do is take the WWE Title.

Divas Title: Michelle McCool vs. Natalya

This is for the inaugural title and there’s probably some stupid tournament that set this up. Michelle takes her to the mat and speeds things up. Natalya takes over and hooks a surfboard but Michelle counters (impressively so) into a heel hook attempt which is countered. Nattie hooks the Sharpshooter but Michelle gets the ropes. A second attempt is countered into the heel hook and Michelle wins the title.

Rating: D. The joke here was that hopefully Michelle enjoyed the Undertaker semen that came with that belt. I’m not sure how much anyone cared or if anyone on the planet that didn’t work for WWE thinks there was a need for another female title, but they unified it…eventually, as in like two years later.

Jericho comes out to interrupt the celebration and says keep your ticket stubs because this was the night of Shawn’s last match. Shawn has a detached retina, meaning he’s finished.

We recap the Raw Title match. Punk won MITB and cashed in on Edge after Batista destroyed Edge to open a Raw. Batista I guess too offense to Punk winning the title that way and treated Punk like an easy challenger, which to be fair is how he’s been treated since.

Raw World Title: CM Punk vs. Batista

Punk looks like a kid. He has to stick and move to avoid the power game but Batista gets in a clothesline and boot for two. Batista gets sent to the floor and Punk hits a baseball slide. A suicide dive is mostly countered. I was at a house show about two weeks before this so I saw a lot of these spots before they happened here. Batista reverses a whip into the corner which Lawler calls a desperation move.

It’s amazing hearing Cole and Lawler as a decent commentary team. Cole is good at setting up King with softball questions to knock out of the park. Lawler needs someone to lead him in and then he can more than take care of himself on there. Batista hooks a camel clutch which is broken pretty quickly. There’s a leg lariat by Punk to send Big Dave to the floor. Top rope cross body gets two.

Punk goes for the corner knee but gets caught in a Bomb attempt. Batista takes him down and shakes the ropes. Here’s another try at the Bomb but he grabs the rope again. The corner knee hits and a GREAT high kick takes Big Dave down. Into the corner and Punk grabs the arm which he pulls back over the ropes. That looked cool. Punk hammers away but walks into a clothesline. A charge goes into the post and they head to the floor where Batista KILLS PUNK DEAD with a spinebuster. And here’s Kane for the DQ. Big Dave wins.

Rating: D+. I knew that ending was coming and I still rolled my eyes. This was getting to be something good, but at the end of the day Punk looked beaten and Kane came in. It’s REALLY not going to hurt Batista to go down to a rollup or something. Punk never really had a chance in this title reign and never lost the title. Hate that ending.

Wait…..HOW IS THAT A DOUBLE DQ???? KANE NEVER TOUCHE……oh screw it. Batista powerbombs Punk post match.

We recap Cena vs. JBL. JBL declared martial law because Punk was champion. He had private security carry Cena out. Cena and Cryme Tyme came out and helped Punk keep the title. This turned into the usual culture war of these two. A parking lot brawl was proposed and accepted. JBL attempted to run Cena over in one of the dumbest looking spots you’ll ever see. There was a camera in the car and from where Cena would have been sitting. Jibbles missed of course.

John Cena vs. John Bradshaw Layfield

This is in “the parking lot” and likely was taped earlier today for the most part. JBL is in a shirt and tie and has a crowbar. He takes the tie off at least. They have the circle of cars set up and a referee out there. Something metal hits the ground but we don’t know where it was from. Now a car turns on and Cena drives it at the car JBL is standing on. Ok now it’s on.

Cena chokes him with jumper cables. Then he slams a car hood on him. Now he jumps JBL’s balls. That would kind of, um, KILL HIM. Cena picks up an oil drum and chucks it at a car which JBL tries to escape in. Bradshaw gets in some shots but nothing significant. They knock a car door off. Cena went through it so JBL takes over. Powerbomb on a car gets two. Cena gets dropped on the top of a car for two.

Cena goes through a window and isn’t busted open. Did they hit the blood quota earlier or something? This is really dull by the way. Cena is knocked down then thrown into the back of a car and JBL goes to get a gas can out of his limo. He covers the car with the gas and throws a lighter on it. Uh yeah I’m done here. They put it out but JBL is stealing a forklift. Cena gets out and Bradshaw is mad.

They brawl even more and Cena takes over, throwing JBL into a car then into a car. Cena gets the forklift and spears the car. He lifts the car up and drives the forklift into the arena. JBL gets beaten up on the stage. There’s the Shuffle and Cena loads up the FU. Instead of flipping the fool like a clam shelled cellular phone, he walks towards the car and JBL escapes and throws Cena off the stage into the windshield for the pin.

Rating: N/A. This had nothing to do with wrestling. It was bad, whatever it was. They got WAY too ridiculous here and I’m sure the fans loved seeing a total of maybe three minutes of this live. They were setting up JBL as the next challenger to Punk and Cena moved onto Batista, but this was still bad.

We recap Edge vs. HHH. The whole wedding thing is recapped again but in greater detail. I think that’s about it to the story.

HHH says he regrets nothing.

Smackdown World Title: HHH vs. Edge

How this is used at the Bash and not Wrestlemania I’m not sure. Edge takes him down immediately and they head to the floor. HHH throws him into the barricade and a big forearm back in the ring puts Edge outside again. HHH misses a charge and Edge gets a breather. A quick spear by Edge takes Trips down but the Game hammers away. HHH is champion if I forgot to mention that. There hasn’t been a lot of sustained contact in this.

Edge rams him into the barricade and then the apron a few times. Now to the table. Off to a body scissors to work on the injured ribs. HHH escapes and pounds Edge about the head and shoulders. A Canadian dropkick puts HHH down but he comes back with right hands and a clothesline. Facebuster puts Edge on the floor but Edge slides in so he can miss a baseball slide.

Edgecution might have knocked HHH out on the floor but he manages to kick out back inside. Edge goes up but jumps into a slingshot and a DDT of HHH’s own. That’s still my favorite move. It only gets two here but it looked pretty good. Edge-O-Matic gets two. It’s the reverse X-Factor if no one has any idea what that is anymore.

Spear misses and HHH rolls him up for two. Edge kicks him in the head to put HHH right back down as we’re running low on time. Spinebuster takes Edge down but the Pedigree is countered by ramming HHH into the corner. Edge superplexes him down and here’s Alicia Fox. She tries to slid the title in to Edge but Vickie comes out and breaks it up. Now the girls fight in the ring and the fans seem into it. Edge accidentally spears Vickie which I think is what put her back in the wheelchair. The distraction lets the Pedigree end it.

Rating: B-. Good match but it felt kind of there. It’s good but it feels like an afterthought instead of a big time title match, which is what these two should be. Vickie and Alicia had to get into this because that was by far the bigger story and I’m more than ok with it, but it didn’t help the match seeming just there. It was good though.

Overall Rating: C. This was almost the same as the previous year’s but not quite as good from a wrestling perspective. The main event isn’t as good but the show wasn’t bad overall. 2008 was just kind of there as a year for WWE. They were getting some stuff together but it really wasn’t that great. Still though, this wasn’t bad but I’m never going to want to see it again, which happens a lot with these shows.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Thunder
Date: February 26, 1998
Location: Five Seasons Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan

After a weak Nitro we’re here in Iowa to hopefully get things back on the right track. Sting is the world champion again but Hogan and the NWO destroyed him on Monday like he was any other guy. WCW is finally starting to unite against the NWO though with Flair, Hart, Luger, Sting and maybe even Savage coming together to fight back. Let’s get to it.

Dean Malenko/Booker T. vs. Chris Jericho/Eddie Guerrero

The fans immediately go off on Guerrero and it’s Booker elbowing Jericho down to start. A spinebuster puts him down again and we take an early break. Back with Guerrero missing the slingshot hilo and being backdropped out to the floor. Tony tells us that these four will be in singles title matches at the PPV with Dean challenging Jericho and Eddie challenging Booker. Jericho pulls Dean to the floor for a snap suplex and now the fans are all over the Canadian.

Eddie and Chris hit a double shoulder for two on Malenko as this crowd is very hot. Tony tells us that the over the top DQ rule has been abolished. I never liked that rule so good for it being gone. Jericho hooks an abdominal stretch but Dean quickly hiptosses out of it. Malenko goes for the tag but Eddie dropkicks him into a Liontamer attempt to break it up. Dean kicks Chris away and makes the hot tag so Booker can clean house.

Guerrero slows him down with a dropkick but Booker hits the side kick for two. Everything breaks down and Booker hits the ax kick on Eddie but Jericho makes the save. Eddie hits a brainbuster on Booker, waits for Dean to have Jericho in the Cloverleaf, and hits the frog splash on Booker for the pin.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t quite up to the level of the matches with Benoit instead of Booker but it was fine. The thing I want to focus on is Eddie waiting those few seconds to hit the frog splash. If he had done it immediately it would have looked stupid that Dean wouldn’t break up the hold. By waiting for Malenko to put on the Cloverleaf and turn his back to the cover, Eddie made the whole sequence much more realistic. I love little things like that.

Tenay brings out DDP for a chat. Page praises Benoit for giving him the best match of his career and says they respect each other. They also agree that Raven is a piece of garbage, which brings out Raven and the Flock. Raven wants his US Title shot and Page says anytime, so Raven picks next week.

Brad Armstrong vs. Fit Finlay

Finlay quickly takes him to the mat to work on the ankle for a bit. Back up and Brad grabs Finlay’s leg, only to get caught by an enziguri. After doing nothing of note on the floor we head back inside for a beating from Finlay with uppercuts and right hands. Armstrong grabs an arm but Finlay whips him into the corner for an easy escape. Finlay looks like he’s toying with Brad here. Finlay charges into a boot in the corner and gets caught by a middle rope crossbody for two. Brad gets two more off a belly to back suplex but Finlay gets bored of being beaten on and tombstones him for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was an odd pairing but they would actually five three times on this show before the end of the summer. I don’t know where they’re going with this Armstrong Curse idea but I’m surprised they’re giving Brad Armstrong of all people a continued story like this. It’s not a major story but Armstrong is one of the last people you would expect to get a story at all.

Davey Boy Smith vs. Dave Taylor

Bulldog hits a quick shoulder and a clothesline to send Taylor out to the floor. Back in and the crowd is already booing Taylor despite Bulldog not being the nicest guy in the world in his WCW run. Tony tells us (he’s a chatterbox tonight) that Mongo will be out for a few weeks because of his broken arm. A suplex gets two on Smith but he pops up, hits the real vertical suplex and powerslams Taylor down for the pin.

Tenay brings out Hennig to talk about his match with Bret at Uncensored. Mike talks about Bret turning the NWO down, which Hennig says makes Bret stupid. Hennig is the man Hogan picked to deal with Bret and actually uses the my dad beat up his dad line. He’s got Neidhart tonight but isn’t worried at all. I can’t say I blame him on that.

Goldberg vs. Rick Fuller

Fuller is a big guy with a decent look. The NWO music comes on for a few seconds during Fuller’s entrance in a production error. The place goes NUTS for Goldberg who is definitely a big deal now. Heenan wants to know how many matches Goldberg has won in a row. Tony: “All of them.” Goldberg takes him to the mat with ease and no sells a big boot before hitting the two moves for the pin. This was about a minute long.

The Flock comes to ringside.

Yuji Nagata vs. La Parka

Parka swings the chair and does the Karate Kid crane kick to start. Nagata will have none of this foolishness and kicks Parka in the leg and side to take over. A sidekick puts La Parka down but he kicks Nagata in the back of the head to stagger him. Nagata is out in the Tree of Woe for a running spin kick to send him to the floor.

The masked man brings the chair into the ring as a launchpad to jump to the top rope and dive down onto Nagata in a nice move. Yuji is sent into the chair (no DQ on that for some reason) and then back inside for a corkscrew dive from the top. Cue Disco Inferno to give Sonny Onoo the Chartbuster for no apparent reason, allowing Yuji to kick the chair into La Parka’s face and get the win via the Nagata Lock.

Rating: C-. It wasn’t dull but I’m not sure what was going on here. Wasn’t Disco fighting with La Parka as recently as the last PPV? The match was one of Nagata’s more interesting ones but that might have been due to La Parka showing off a lot. Also it would have been better for Nagata to pin him off the chair kick instead of a leg lock which hadn’t been set up at all but that’s nitpicking.

Hall comes out for the survey with the boys in black taking another one. He gets his shot at Sting in two weeks and is clearly the favorite. He’s been in the ring every night for two years and all Sting has is a cool entrance. Sting has to prove how good he is at Uncensored so bring it on. Nice and simple promo to build up the title match.

Buff Bagwell does Scott Steiner’s entrance ala Michael Buffer. Scott is now known as White Thunder which never got over as a nickname. Scott talks about having breakfast with Luger, Sting and Rick on Sunday morning but the next night Luger was challenging him to a fight. Steiner accepts but doesn’t get why Luger thinks he’s the Total Package. Luger went to college and is an educated man, but he didn’t go to Michigan. Michigan wanted Scott Steiner because he’s a better athlete, so Scott sings part of Michigan’s fight song. And they wonder why it took so long for him to get over.

Scott Steiner vs. Marty Jannetty

Steiner destroys him as Tony talks about Sting/Savage vs. Hogan/Hall on Monday. The announcers think it’s a trap and Sting would have to be crazy to agree to that match. Well Sting may be the dumbest man in the history of wrestling so it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s being trapped. The match is a total squash with Scott hitting a gorilla press, belly to belly and the top rope Frankensteiner for the pin in about 90 seconds.

Curt Hennig vs. Jim Neidhart

Neidhart easily shoves him across the ring and Hennig bails to the floor. He’s pulled back in by the hair (“OWWWWWWW!”) as Scott Steiner comes in to the announcers’ desk. He says the door is still open for Rick to join the team and it’s the best decision he’ll ever make. Neidhart puts on a bearhug but here are Vincent and Adams for the DQ.

Davey Boy makes the save for his brother in law.

Raven vs. Kevin Nash

Now that’s an interesting pairing. Before the match, Raven says this is going to be a battle royal with the rest of the Flock being the other participants. Raven sits down in the corner as the Flock charges at Nash (one at a time of course) and is easily elimination. Nash powerbombs Lodi twice to a big pop, sending Nash to prison and costing him $100,000. Raven wins by default.

US Title: Chris Benoit vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page is defending. They trade wristlocks to start with Page taking him down in an armbar. Benoit reverses into a chinlock as we hear what sounds like a canned DDP chant. Page rolls out of the chinlock into a stalemate which turns into a fight. They lock up and fall out to the floor before going into the crowd. Page hits a hard right hand to knock Benoit back to ringside and gets two off a swinging neckbreaker.

Benoit goes after the big bandages on the ribs with a kick to the stomach and a front suplex onto the ropes to put Page down. Page is whipped hard into the corner and Benoit grabs him for a northern lights suplex but just drops him on the ribs for two. Benoit stomps him down in the corner but Page comes back with right hands. We’re on a wide shot now as it appears Page is busted open. Raven comes in for the DQ a few seconds later.

Rating: C. This didn’t have the time to go anywhere but it set up the main event next week a bit better. Three way feuds like this are almost always interesting because there are so many different ways they can go. Benoit is getting a solid rub out of this as he can hang with higher level talent, but a title win would be nice.

Benoit and Raven fight to the floor and Page dives on them to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This was a really light show and I mean that in a good way. We got some good wrestling and angle advancement but there wasn’t any heavy lifting to make the show hard to sit through. That’s a really nice thing to have as an alternative to the story heavy Nitro. Uncensored is looking good other than the main event, which could sum up almost any WCW PPV from this era.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

This is the problem with doing so many DVDs of one guy.Disc 1

Documentary
The Game
Growing Up
WCW
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Ninth Wonder of the World
Mick Foley
D-Generation X
Leader
DX vs. The Nation
Champion
McMahon-Helmsley
The Rock
Injury
Evolution
DX Returns
Torn and Rebuilt
Randy Orton
Actor
The Undertaker
Chief Operating Officer
A Unique Breed

Disc 2

Jean-Paul Levesque vs. Ricky Steamboat
WCW Saturday Night – 3rd September, 1994

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Dude Love
One Night Only – September 1997

Iron Man Match for the WWE Championship
The Rock vs. Triple H
Judgment Day – 21st May, 2000

No Disqualification Match
Triple H vs. Kurt Angle
Unforgiven – 24th September, 2000

Disc 3

All Championships on the Line
Triple H & Stone Cold vs. The Undertaker & Kane
Backlash – 29th April, 2001

World Heavyweight Championship
Triple H vs. Rob Van Dam
RAW – 30th June, 2003

Last Man Standing Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H
Royal Rumble – 25th January, 2004

Road to WrestleMania Tournament Match
Ric Flair vs. Triple H
RAW – 6th February, 2006

Return from Injury
Triple H vs. King Booker
SummerSlam – 26th August, 2007

Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship
Triple H vs. Randy Orton
No Mercy – 7th October, 2007

Non-Title Match
Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H
SmackDown – 21st November, 2008

Triple H vs. Chris Jericho
RAW – 30th November, 2009

Blu-ray Exclusives

No Disqualification / Career on the Line
Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar
WrestleMania 29 – 7th April, 2013

Stories
Motivation in High School
Hard Way In
Paul Scream
Resume
Sherri
Diamond Cutter
Hunter Hearst Helmsley – The Name
Wild ‘n Crazy Guys
Evolution’s Fifth Member ??
Shawn’s Comeback
WrestleMania 26
Two Movies at Once
Commemorating the End
Worst Gas on the Planet
Candy Bar
Praising the Boss
Behind the Scenes – Photo Shoot
Behind the Scenes – WrestleMania 29 Weekend
Taping Wrists
The Levesque Game
King of Signs

There’s some decent stuff here such as the Iron Man match but there’s nothing great on here other than that.  I’d just watch the Iron Man match on Youtube and leave the rest.

Monday Night Raw
Date: July 15, 2013
Location: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York
Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

It’s the night after Money in the Bank and the main stories are Orton and Sandow winning the briefcases. Cena retained his title, meaning that Orton is lurking in the shadows for whomever the champion is over the next year. We also saw Heyman screw Punk after berating Axel for screwing Bryan, with only the latter being a surprise. The road to Summerslam begins tonight so let’s get to it.

Opening sequence.

Brad Maddox opens the show by announcing Ziggler vs. Del Rio in an MITB rematch. He’s about to explain why he’ll be the greatest GM of all time but Cena interrupts. Cena says Brad has already made history because this is the only time during his administration that he won’t be the most hated person in the ring. The jury is still out on Maddox so we should give him a chance. Maddox sucks up to Cena and has been a fan of his since he was a teenager. Therefore, Cena gets to pick his own opponent for Summerslam.

The fans immediately start the YES chants but Cena thinks he could face anyone from Michael Cole to a Bella Twin. Cue Randy Orton who says Cena might not be champion at Summerslam. Orton says he isn’t cashing in tonight because he doesn’t want to make the same mistake Cena made last year. He isn’t going to cash in when Cena is ready though, and Cena will never see it coming.

This brings out Fandango of all people to send the crowd into the dance. Fandango says he’s Orton is going to cash the case in against him because the people want to see Fandango vs. John Cena. He does his name but Orton jumps him to start a fight. Fandango…..actually sends Orton the floor but Orton comes back in and lays out the dancer. Maddox makes a match between them right now.

Randy Orton vs. Fandango

This is joined in progress with Orton in control but missing a knee drop. Fandango gets in some shots to the face but Orton sends him to the floor and into the barricade. Orton sneaks up on him with a big clothesline and gets two off the belly to back suplex onto the barricade. Fandango takes over again with a cravate and the Randy Savage chant begins. Randy pounds away in the corner and gets two off a dropkick. Fandango gets a kick to Orton’s head to take it to the floor. Randy is sent into the steps and we take a break.

Back with Fandango getting two off something we didn’t see. Fandango hooks another cravate but has to counter the backbreaker into a belly to back for two. Orton comes back with a clothesline in the corner and a t-bone suplex for no cover. A superplex puts Fandanago down but Randy hits some clotheslines and the powerslam instead of covering. The Elevated DDT is countered by a kick to the head but Fandango is crotched on the top. Now the Elevated DDT connects and the RKO is good for the pin at 13:05.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t bad but did anyone believe Fandango was going to take out Orton the night after that big of a win? He didn’t look bad out there but losing again isn’t going to help him at all. Then again Fandango had the nerve to get something over with the crowd so of course he’s going to lose every match he’s in.

Ziggler FINALLY breaks up with AJ over last night. AJ stares off into the distance.

Here’s Mark Henry with something to say. He gave it all he had last night and he came this close to winning the title. Henry has no regrets about what he did but wants to face Cena again at Summerslam. He took Cena to his limits once and he can do it again. Instead of Cena he gets the Shield of all people to surround Henry. Mark fights them off as well as he can but the numbers finally catch up to him. Henry fights them off for a bit but a Reigns spear finally puts him down. They actually hit the TripleBomb to leave Henry laying and impress the crowd.

Maddox is on the phone when Jericho comes in. He knows Jericho wants to be champion and the best way to do that is to impress Cena. Jericho could do that by facing say….Rob Van Dam? Chris likes the idea and Maddox smirks a bit.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler

Non-title here. Ziggler scores with a quick dropkick and a neckbreaker for two followed by the ten elbow drops. The champion comes back with a kick to the ribs and the reverse superplex. Dolph pounds away but gets caught in a HUGE backdrop to the floor as we take a break. Back with Del Rio still in control but missing the low superkick. Instead Del Rio launches him into the air before stomping his head.

Del Rio tries a charge into the corner but gets caught in a tornado DDT for two. They slug it out but Del Rio BLASTS him with a right hand to take over. Ziggler ducks a charge and hits a big dropkick for two but can’t this the Fameasser. A German suplex gets two for Alberto and he fires off some headbutts to daze Ziggy. The cross armbreaker is countered into a swinging neckbreaker but Del Rio comes back with an enziguri for two.

Alberto puts him in the Tree of Woe but misses a charge to send himself shoulder first into the post. Now the Fameasser hits for two out of the corner…..but the bell rings. Yep it’s AJ with the evil look on her face and the distraction lets Del Rio hit the low superkick for the pin at 13:43.

Rating: C. This was decent but not as good as last night. The WWE formula of “guy gets over so let’s have him lose every big match he’s in”. Why they think this makes people care about him is beyond me but it’s what we’re going to get no matter what. Ziggler has now lost twice in a row but I’m sure it makes him look stronger or something like that.

Post match AJ goes nuts on Dolph until Langston comes out to run Ziggler over. The Big Ending leaves him laying and AJ kisses his unconscious mouth.

R-Truth comes out for a match but is cut off by the Wyatt Family. The Family takes Truth down and send him to the floor. Harper looks to Wyatt for approval and Bray gets into the ring. He says there’s no such thing as a hero anymore but the people have become addicted to the illusion of what a hero is. The people need someone to tuck you in bed at night and kiss you on the cheek. Everything isn’t alright because the man who made everyone is a liar. Your own flesh and blood turned his back on you but Wyatt will never turn his back on you. Maybe he’s been the answer all along.

Truth gets back on the apron with a chair but Bray sends the monsters back. He offers Truth a free shot with a big smile on his face and his eyes closed. The monsters sneak up on truth but Wyatt hits a splash in the corner. The beatdown is on and Truth is destroyed before Bray kisses him on the head and hits Sister Abigail (swinging Downward Spiral). Bray says that’s not the truth he seeks and that Kane needs to follow the buzzards. The lights cut out and we go to a WWE App poll for who gets to face the Real Americans.

Video on the Performance Center.

Zeb Colter and the Real Americans rant about the American melting pot and tell Cena to pick one of the Real Americans for his match at Summerslam.

The WWE App vote selects the Usos to face Swagger and Cesaro (other options were Tons of Funk and the Prime Time Players).

Usos vs. Real Americans

Jey starts by punching Cesaro into the corner before bringing in Jimmy off a tag. Cesaro hits a quick gutwrench suplex and brings in Jack for a Vader bomb. Jimmy dives into the corner for a tag and everything breaks down. Cesaro’s gutwrench is countered into a rollup for the pin by Jey at 2:17.

Damien Sandow vs. Christian

Sandow bails to the floor to start before catching Christian coming back in. The Canadian loads up a tornado DDT but gets shoved out to the floor to give Damien control. Back in and the tornado DDT connects for two on Sandow and a high cross body gets the same. The Terminus is countered and a middle rope back elbow puts Sandow down. Sandow hits the Russian legsweep but the Wind-Up Elbow is countered into a rollup for the pin for Christian at 3:07.

Rating: D. Again let me get this straight: you have a guy win a major match after losing everything for months and he loses the first match he has as the briefcase winner. Yet this company continues to wonder why no one can get over as either a face or a heel in this company. The match was nothing of note.

Post match Sandow declares himself still the savior of the briefcase but Cody Rhodes runs in to chase him off.

Vickie Guerrero was asking people to sign a petition for her earlier today.

Naomi vs. Brie Bella

Naomi hits a quick high kick to send Brie to the floor but Brie trips her up for two. A hair drag sends Naomi down and Brie cranks on her head a bit. Naomi comes back with some dropkicks that miss so badly the announcers have to acknowledge it. The Rear View sets up a high cross body for the pin on Brie at 4:11.

Heyman bailed from the arena as soon as the show was over last night.

Here’s a ticked off CM Punk. He knows Heyman and Lesnar are here tonight and wants them here right now. He only gets Heyman who says he’s looking at an empty ring. Heyman says Punk was nothing when he got to WWE but Heyman built Punk into something. The two of them were WWE Champion for 434 days and nearly beat the Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak. Without Heyman though, Punk isn’t the best in the world anymore.

All day people have been calling Heyman a Judas but here’s the truth: Punk let everyone down by losing to Undertaker and then walking out on the company. Now Punk has found himself and thinks he’s better than Paul Heyman. Heyman played him and now history is going to say that he dumped Punk instead of the other way around. Punk wanted things to be personal so Heyman made it personal last night. Punk has no wife, no children and is estranged from his mother and father.

All Punk has is the WWE Universe and their respect and affirmation. All Punk needs is the WWE Championship but Punk took Heyman’s best friend away. So Heyman took the chance at the WWE Championship away from Punk and the WWE Universe. Punk made Heyman swear on his children but it was Heyman’s children who made it clear. They asked him why Punk didn’t listen to their daddy and Heyman said it’s because CM Punk can’t beat Brock Lesnar.

Punk says he made the mistake of trusting Heyman and all he’s got to show for it are 13 staples in his head. Heyman knows how relentless Punk can be because he won’t stop if there’s something he wants. Punk wants Heyman and swears on Paul’s children that he’ll get him and will go through every one of Paul’s associates to do it. Heyman has no future because Punk is going to take everything he has until it’s just the two of them left.

Heyman knows Punk is telling the truth but writes Punk’s future on the ground. He shouts IT’S CLOBBERING TIME and here’s Lesnar. Heyman tries to jump Punk but Punk fires off forearms to Brock. Lesnar takes him down with knees to the chest but CM keeps fighting. Punk is LAUNCHED over the announce table but he dives at Brock anyway, only to be rammed into the post. Brock lays him out on the table with an F5 and stands over his prey. Punk can’t breathe and is holding his throat. Absolutely amazing segment here and one of the best in a LONG time.

Khali asks Cena for the title shot and Cena answers in whatever language Khali speaks. Khali is pleased.

HHH and Stephanie come in to see Maddox and mess with him about the main event tonight. They tell him he only got the job because he was standing there.

Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho

Feeling out process to start with van Dam firing off forearms to take over. The fans tell him he’s still got it but he walks into a dropkick from Jericho. The ECW chants start up and Van Dam takes Jericho down with a spin kick to set up the monkey flip. Jericho comes back with the enziguri for two and a belly to back suplex puts Van Dam down as we take a break.

Back with Jericho escaping a bodyscissors and trying the Walls. RVD escapes but gets kicked to the floor but catches Jericho in the face with a spin kick for two. Back to the body vice but Jericho counters into a powerbomb to escape. Jericho rolls away to escape Rolling Thunder but hits a moonsault off the apron to take Jericho down as we take another break.

Van Dam runs Jericho over but Jericho comes back with shoulders of his own. A top rope elbow to the head drops Van Dam but he avoids the Lionsault. Now Rolling Thunder connects for two but Jericho gets the same off a DDT. The Walls are countered and RVD superkicks Jericho down. The split legged moonsault misses and Jericho hits the Lionsault for two more. Van Dam kicks Jericho in the face but the Five Star attempt is broken up. A top rope front flip takes Jericho down but a standing rana is caught in the Walls. He makes the ropes and kicks Jericho down again before hitting the Five Star for the pin at 21:30.

Rating: C+. This is firmly in the category of long rather than good. It wasn’t a bad match at all but getting over twenty minutes is a big stretch. Thankfully it was a completely clean win which is what Jericho is best at: putting people over. Both guys looked solid and Van Dam can still go, but you could have cut five minutes out of this easily.

The roster is on the stage for Cena’s decision. Cena talks about how the fans don’t always agree with what Cena does but it’s because they’re honest with him. A decision this big needs help from the WWE Universe. The fans immediately chant for Bryan but Cena wants to list off some names. The fans aren’t impressed with the birthday boy Heath Slater or any member of 3MB.

They’re a little more interested in Randy Orton but even less in Great Khali. Del Rio is booed out of the building and Jericho gets some polite applause. RVD of course gets a good reaction but the fans aren’t interested in Fandango or Sheamus. No on Ryback as well so Cena asks if there’s anyone he’s forgetting. The YES chants begin but Cena says he has his decision. The Daniel Bryan chants cut Cena off but he says he respects the beard. Cena’s pick is……..Daniel Bryan, drawing the biggest cheer Cena will EVER get in New York. Cue Bryan and the place goes NUTS. He does the chant in Cena’s face to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was an interesting show as there were definitely parts that dragged, but the stuff that was good was REALLY good. The Wyatt Family was amazing and thankfully the WHAT chants were pretty silent as most fans were interested in what they were watching instead of chanting. Summerslam has me drooling at a rate that I haven’t seen since last year’s Wrestlemania. Punk vs. Heyman and friends is going to be amazing and Cena vs. Bryan should rock as well. This was a solid show ad much more entertaining than last night’s PPV.

Results

Randy Orton b. Fandango – RKO

Alberto Del Rio b. Dolph Ziggler – Superkick

Usos b. Real Americans – Rollup to Cesaro

Christian b. Damien Sandow – Rollup

Naomi b. Brie Bella – High Cross Body

Rob Van Dam b. Chris Jericho – Five Star Frog Splash

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Smackdown
Date: July 12, 2013
Location: Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, Virginia
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield

It’s the final show before Money in the Bank and the card is entirely set. Tonight is going to be about trying to gain momentum heading into the PPV, so expect a lot of singles matches between the guys in the ladder matches. Hopefully the World Heavyweight Championship ladder match can get some attention for a change instead of the All-Star match dominating the shows. Let’s get to it.

Also before I get going, this morning I won some house show tickets from my local radio station. I know the wrestling expert used to read stuff from here, so in case he is again, thanks for not knowing your music videos Shorty.

Opening sequence again. I could go for that being a normal thing.

Daniel Bryan vs. Christian

Not a bad way to start things up. Bryan grabs the arm to start but is taken down by a shoulder block and a middle rope dropkick gets one for the Canadian. Bryan comes back in with kicks to the arm and some knees to the chest for two. Christian kicks out of a bow and arrow hold and hits a spinebuster of all things for two. The middle rope back elbow gets two more and a backdrop sends Bryan to the floor. Christian misses a baseball slide and gets caught by a clothesline and the running knee from the apron as we take a break.

Back with Christian getting two off a missed Bryan dropkick in the corner. Christian cranks on the neck but misses a charge and falls to the floor but a right hand breaks up the suicide dive. Bryan sends the already damaged arm into the steps and they head back inside with Christian damaged. Bryan backflips out of the corner but gets caught in the spinning sunset flip for two. They slug it out (kicks for Bryan vs. punches for Christian) with Bryan taking over, only to have the back of his neck snapped against the top rope.

Christian misses his high cross but Bryan misses the flying headbutt. Both guys are down but it’s Christian getting up first. Bryan fires off the kicks to the chest but Christian ducks the big one to the head and hits the reverse DDT. The spear is countered by a pair of kicks to the head for two but the spear hits from out of nowhere for two more. The crowd is WAY into this. The Killswitch is countered and Christian tries another sunset flip out of the corner but he dives into the (once again) YES Lock for the submission at 9:25 shown of 12:10.

Rating: B. There wasn’t much to talk about in this match because both guys were on point the entire time. Christian was his usual solid self while Bryan had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. Changing the name back to the YES Lock is a good idea for the chants and it should make Bryan even more over with the crowd. The psychology in the end with Bryan learning from the past mistake was a nice touch.

Dolph Ziggler comes in to see Teddy Long but is told he has the night off. Ziggler wants to be out there competing but Teddy doesn’t want interference in Del Rio’s match with Sin Cara. Dolph accuses Del Rio and Teddy of being in cahoots together but forgets about it because he’ll win the title on Sunday.

Seth Rollins vs. Jey Uso

No intro for Jey. They fight over a lockup to start until Jey sends him into the corner to take over. Rollins pulls him off the middle rope for two and a belly to back suplex gets the same. We hit the chinlock but Jey is up quickly and no selling rams into the buckles. Jey fires off elbows to the face and the running Umaga attack in the corner but Reigns distracts him. Jimmy superkicks Roman down as Jey hits a Samoan drop, only to have Reigns offer another distraction, allowing Seth to crotch him. A running knee to the back of Jey’s head (the Black Out in NXT) is enough for the pin at 4:08.

Rating: D+. The match was ok but I don’t see the point in having Jey lose here when his team is a big underdog in the title match on Sunday. The Usos continue to look good but they don’t have much of a chance on Sunday at all. It’s a good sign for the future of the Shield that all three can hold their own in the ring as Rollins did here.

We get a clip of Vickie being fired and Brad being named as the replacement. Why couldn’t the segment on Monday been 20 seconds like it was here?

Chris Jericho vs. Curtis Axel

Non-title again as this is a rematch from Monday where Jericho won by pin. The champion takes him right into the corner for a mudhole stomping fifteen seconds into the match. Jericho comes back with a middle rope dropkick for two but Axel hammers him down again. Chris jumps over a charge in the corner, sending Axel shoulder first into the post. The Codebreaker is countered with Jericho being sent face first into the buckle as we take a break.

Back with Axel getting two off a middle rope elbow. Axel rubs his forearm over Jericho’s eyes and chokes him on the ropes. He ducks his head though allowing Jericho to kick him in the face, followed by a northern lights suplex for two. The Walls can’t go on and Axel hits a snap Saito suplex for two. Jericho sends him face first into the buckle and hits a high cross for two but can’t hit the Lionsault. Axel knocks Jericho off the apron and gets two off a neckbreaker back in the ring.

Another Walls attempt is countered into a small package for two but Jericho comes back with an enziguri for a near fall of his own. Curtis is backdropped to the floor but Jericho misses a baseball slide and Axel hits a clothesline. Bryan and Christian did that exact same sequence in their match. Axel yells at Jericho and sends him back inside but Jericho hits the Codebreaker on the way back in. Unfortunately for Chris it knocks Axel to the floor and it’s a countout at 7:25 shown of 10:10.

Rating: C+. This took some time to get going but Axel picked it up a bit in the end. I don’t like the idea of Axel losing twice in a row, especially when Jericho has a worthless match with Ryback on Sunday. Such is life for the Intercontinental Champion, but I guess we’ll forget all about this when Axel beats him with a rollup after interference from Heyman right?

Post match Axel freaks out but Heyman calms him down.

As a sidebar, during the match JBL was talking about Jericho’s career and said Jericho has gone toe to toe with and defeated Vader. I’ve never heard of this match and can find no evidence that it ever happened. Does anyone know anything about this? Odds are it would have been in Japan or Germany.

Ryback vs. The Miz

This is a rematch from two weeks ago where Ryback gave up due to his knee injury. I’m not sure when they did it but Feed Me More has been dropped from Ryback’s entrance. Miz makes Ryback miss to start and low bridges him to the floor. A baseball slide actually connects tonight, followed by an ax handle off the apron. Back in and Miz tries a sunset flip but gets caught and tossed into the corner. A powerslam puts him down and Ryback drops down onto Miz’s back to work on the ribs. Miz is whipped hard into the corner but slips out of another powerslam attempt to get in a shot to the knee.

Ryback runs Miz over and rams his head into the mat a few times but a splash hits knees. A dropkick to the knee puts Ryback down and a big boot sets up the corner clothesline and the top rope ax handle for no cover. The Figure Four is blocked so Miz hits a DDT on the leg to soften it up even more. A Stunner on the leg out of the corner has Ryback screaming in pain but he says not to stop the match. He has the referee help him to his feet but fires off a Meathook and the Shell Shock for the pin at 5:54. I can appreciate some good goldbricking.

Rating: D+. This is another good example of how stupid WWE’s booking is. Inside of fifteen minutes, both people in the IC Title match on Sunday have lost matches. Who is the favorite in that match? The guy who didn’t lose as badly? No one cares about the title or the champion because WWE gives us no reason to care about the title or the champion. Also wasn’t Ryback the guy who went through a war with Cena for the WWE Title but can barely make it through a six minute match now? The lack of consistency in this company is pathetic.

Sheamus can beat Orton because an Irishman drove out all the snakes. As for Sunday, he isn’t known as someone who carries a briefcase but maybe he can put his cornbeef and cabbage in there. Once he wins, the pints are on him. Oh and he thinks Renee is cute. It was as added on at the end as it sounds.

A bunch of the Divas are in the ring for the contract signing between Kaitlyn and AJ. AJ picks up the pen but addresses the “sequined sisters of the sparkling pants.” She knows none of them like either her or Kaitlyn, but no one cared about the division until she won the title. AJ wants to be congratulated by everyone but Teddy says we don’t have time for that. The champion signs but she doesn’t think Kaitlyn should do that. Kaitlyn signs and AJ smiles. AJ pulls out her phone and reads off some of the texts that Kaitlyn sent to her secret admirer.

Apparently she doesn’t trust Natalya, thinks the Funkadactyls don’t care about anything but the reality show and that she’s tired of being put into a mold just for bodybuilding. AJ offers her a chance to tear up the contract but Kaitlyn says she’ll never let another needy, clingy man crazed psychopath destroy her again. She’ll be champion again while AJ is locked in a padded cell rocking back and forth. AJ slaps her but Kaitlyn shoves the table and AJ’s chair into the corner, giving AJ a terrified look. Langston makes the save so Kaitlyn slaps him too and spears AJ in half. This was a great segment and actually has me wanting to see the match.

Wade Barrett vs. Fandango

This is a result of Barrett knocking Fandango out for saying his name when told not to. Colter and company are at ringside and are now known as the Real Americans. That’s much better than Colter’s Militia or whatever their name was for like a day. Cole makes political jokes as Barrett kicks Fandango in the face for two. Colter questions Sandow’s citizenship and Barrett hits a backbreaker for two. Barrett pounds on Fandango in the corner but the Scholars come out to yell at Colter. The distraction allows Fandango to kick Barrett in the head and roll him up for the pin at 1:47.

In case you’re wondering, yes that’s all the time the Smackdown MITB match is getting tonight.

Kane is out of the All-Star match due to the Wyatt Family’s attack.

We get an extended Wyatt Family vignette leading into a video of the attack on Kane from Raw.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Sin Cara

Sin Cara comes out second for some reason. Cara goes right after Del Rio with forearms to the head and is WAY more aggressive than usual. JBL thinks something is up and Sin Cara hits the Zig Zag on Del Rio. Cole thinks there’s nothing going on and JBL goes into full ARE YOU KIDDING ME mode. It wasn’t quite La Parka vs. Randy Savage but I love a good masked man segment.

Cara poses on the ramp but here’s Vickie Guerrero to screech at us. No one has shown her any respect since Monday and she even had to buy a ticket to be here tonight. She rips up the ticket and is marching around ringside so here’s Teddy with security to get her out of here.

Teddy catches up to Sin Cara in the back and demands an explanation. Dolph Ziggler pops up next to both of them and Teddy is very confused.

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus

They fight over a lockup to start before it turns into a fist fight. Sheamus takes it into the corner with forearms but the referee gets him away, allowing Orton to get in some right hands of his own. A quick suplex gets two for Sheamus as the dueling chants begin. Sheamus powerslams him down for two but Orton sends him out to the floor. Sheamus rams him into the announce table but Orton comes back with a clothesline as we take a break.

Back with Orton holding a chinlock with a bodyscissors. Back up and they slug it out again with Orton going down off a clothesline. Sheamus starts firing off the ax handles to the head but Orton comes back with his clotheslines and the powerslam for two. Orton kicks Sheamus in the face but walks into the Irish Curse. White Noise is countered into the backbreaker for two and both guys are down. The Elevated DDT is countered with a backdrop, setting up the ten forearms.

Sheamus hits the rolling senton and calls for the Brogue Kick but Orton ducks away. Sheamus goes to the middle rope but gets caught in the Elevated DDT out of the corner. An RKO attempt is blocked and Sheamus loads up the top rope shoulder but Orton crotches him down. A superplex attempt by Orton is blocked into both guys falling out to the floor….and here’s Daniel Bryan with a ladder. Both guys get back in and Bryan lays them out for the double DQ at 9:40 shown of 12:20.

Rating: C+. This was a good match for the most part but the ending was clearly going to be inconclusive. Bryan continues to act like a heel despite being the most over guy on the roster, which makes me think WWE either has a convoluted plan for him or they have no idea what they’re doing. Either way this was good stuff but the ending hurt it.

Post match Bryan goes up the ladder but Sheamus pulls him down. Christian comes in too and all four guys go for the case. Bryan shoves Christian off but walks into an RKO, allowing Orton to climb the ladder and unhook the case to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. We had good wrestling here and the PPV matches were built up (albeit some far less than others). What more can you ask for out of a go home show? The World Heavyweight Championship MITB match is being given no love at all but it’s such a wide open field that several people could win it. The whole show worked pretty well with nothing bad an a very good Divas segment in the middle. Very good show this week and MITB should be awesome.

Results

Daniel Bryan b. Christian – YES Lock

Seth Rollins b. Jey Uso – Running stomp to the head

Chris Jericho b. Curtis Axel via countout

Ryback b. Miz – Shell Shock

Fandango b. Wade Barrett – Rollup

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus went to a double DQ when Daniel Bryan interfered

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Monday Nitro #127
Date: February 16, 1998
Location: Tampa Fairgrounds, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

It’s the go home show for SuperBrawl but more importantly Louie Spicolli died the day before this show of a drug overdose and choking on his own vomit. I’m not a fan of the guy but that’s a shame no matter how you look at it. As for the show tonight, the main event is Hogan/Savage vs. Sting/Luger in a preview of two matches on Sunday. Let’s get to it.

We open with the ringing of the bell in Spicolli’s memory. Simple but classy.

Clip of the end of Thunder with the big brawl between WCW and the NWO.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff to open the show, flanked by the majority of the team. Hogan continues his theme from Thunder of the ABC’s of people they’re coming after. A is anyone that supports WCW, B is for Bret Hart and now C is for the corporate gaga against the NWO. Hogan says it’s the corporate people who are holding the NWO back, but there’s no amount of money Hogan won’t pay to take over the world, and that includes making Nick Patrick the referee for Hogan vs. Sting III.

The D stands for the Dummy that is the Macho Man. Hogan already beat him last week but Savage didn’t even have the guts to apologize for turning his back on the team. The one thing that really put him over the line though was sucker punching Hogan last week on Thunder. Cue Savage who says he’ll beat Sting and Luger on his own and then he’ll beat Hogan up himself, but he’ll leave a little bit so Hogan can make the apology himself. Hogan says he’ll be the one beating his partner up and Eric calls Hogan the Heavyweight Champion of our world to end things.

George Steinbrenner is in the audience.

Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus

Tony asks Larry about Louie Spicolli but Larry says to let it rest. That’s the only thing to say if you have to bring it up. Jimmy Hart chases Hugh down the aisle and says there’s an offer Morrus can’t refuse. Whatever that means it seems to fire Morrus up. Hugh comes up to Goldberg during warmups and the brawl is on. Morrus gets in some quick shots but Goldberg escapes a suplex and the two moves connect for the pin. Usual Goldberg stuff.

Video on the Steiners winning the tag belts last week.

Hall and Nash come up to the broadcast booth with Nash wanting to know why they have to wait until Sunday for their title rematch. Nash rants and raves about WCW politics keeping the Outsiders from what belongs to them while Tony says it’s not his decision. Larry gets up but Nash threatens to unplug his dialysis machine. Zbyszko threatens to make Hall scream and that’s about it.

Mark Starr vs. Sick Boy

A Lodi distraction allows Sick Boy to jump start the match. A slam sets up that sweet springboard dropkick and Sick Boy is looking good so far. Starr is suplexed down and choked on the ropes for a bit but he makes the quick jobber comeback. Lodi trips him up though and a Pedigree ends Starr quick. Sick Boy had some potential but he was never more than a jobber in the over crowded WCW.

Public Enemy vs. Outsiders

WCW seems to win the survey but it’s close. Hall starts with Grunge and there’s the toothpick throw. Scott drives in shoulders as the toothpick is stuck in Grunge’s beard. Grunge hits a quick backdrop for two and it’s off to Rocco who covers Hall and tags right back out. Everything breaks down and it’s a big boot for Rocco and a chokeslam for Grunge. Grunge takes Hall to the floor and loads him onto the table but Dusty makes the save. Hall puts Johnny on the table and Nash powerbombs Rocco over the top and through Grunge for the DQ.

Nash is arrested and chants Attaca. The fines for the powerbombs are now at $200,000.

Nitro Party winner.

Nick Patrick compares himself to Bill Clinton and is considering Hogan’s offer to join the NWO due to being locked out of WCW.

Mike Enos vs. Barry Horowitz

Barry jumps Enos off the apron to start which is probably his only chance. He fires off some right hands but walks into a backbreaker once inside. A pumphandle slam puts Barry down and Enos drives some headbutts into his back. Horowitz gets a quick rollup for two but walks into a powerslam for the pin. Was Enos contractually guaranteed one win in his run or something?

Mongo and Bulldog get in another fight in the back.

Second hour begins.

Bret Hart is here for the first time in nearly a month.

La Parka vs. Yuji Nagata

Nagata immediately takes him down with kicks and chops in the corner but La Parka comes back with an enziguri. A spin kick sends Yuji to the floor and the place is WAY into La Parka. The skeleton guy hits a big dive to take Nagata out on the floor in a rare high spot. Not that announcers could stop talking about Hart and the PPV for five seconds to call it but that’s to be expected. Back in and Parka tries another cross body but gets rolled through for two. Some clotheslines take Yuji down but he rolls away from top rope splash.

A cross armbreaker is quickly escaped so Yuji sends him to the apron. La Parka hits yet another high flying move with a corkscrew plancha before heading outside to get the chair. Nagata’s manager Sonny Onoo distracts the referee as Disco Inferno runs out and hits the Chartbuster on La Parka due to the chair shot from Thunder. The Nagata Lock is good for the submission back inside.

Rating: C-. At least La Parka is getting a push, albeit a tiny one. The guy got over with some ridiculous stuff but the fans like him and that’s all that matters. Yuji wasn’t too bad here and Disco coming out makes sense given the events of last week. The high spots were good here and it was a more entertaining match than I was expecting.

We hear Hogan’s comments about Bret Hart from Thunder.

Nitro Girls.

Kidman vs. Ultimo Dragon

Kidman jumps Dragon to start and takes him down with a back elbow. Dragon is backdropped into the corner headstand before hooking a rolling sunset flip for two. A hotshot puts Dragon down and Kidman sends him flying with a headscissors. Dragon is taken down again by a headlock takeover as this is surprisingly one sided. Ultimo finally comes back with a headscissors and the rapid fire kicks.

A giant swing of all things puts Kidman down and they trade rollups for two each. Dragon catches him with a spin kick to the face and the top rope hurricanrana takes Kidman down. Kidman counters the Dragon Sleeper into a Michinoku Driver for two but the third attempt at the Sleeper is good for the tap out.

Rating: C. This took a few minutes to get going but it picked up by the end. Kidman could go when he had a good opponent to work with and that was certainly the case here. This match is also an example of one of WCW’s other strengths: everyone has a very distinct look. It’s rare to see two people in WCW who dress similar as their outfits are unique and stand out. That’s a very helpful touch.

After some footage of DDP saving Benoit on Thunder, here’s Page with something to say. Page talks about how competitive the two of them are and how Benoit wants to stand on his own two feet. Page however had to make the save because he wants Benoit at his best come SuperBrawl. On Thursday it’s Benoit/Page vs. Saturn/Raven (it took Page a few tries to get the names right), and here are the Flock members to jump Page but Benoit makes a save before anything happens.

Meng vs. Barbarian

This is the brawl you would it expect it to be from the start with both guys on the mat pounding away. Back up and Barbarian charges into an elbow in the corner but Meng’s clubbering is countered by a whip into the corner. They pound on each other even more with Barbarian taking him into the corner and both guys shouting a lot. Headbutts have no effect on both guys but Meng staggers him with a big boot. Jimmy Hart breaks the wooden chair over Meng’s head to no effect so Meng puts him in the Deathgrip. Barbarian hits four straight Kicks of Fear to put Meng down for the pin.

Rating: C. This falls into the category of entertaining nonsense. Sometimes there’s nothing more fun than having two monsters beat the tar out of each other for a few minutes. Barbarian kicking Meng in the head over and over was a good idea to end the match and it made for entertaining TV. What more could you ask for from this pairing?

More Nitro Girls.

Disco Inferno vs. Perry Saturn

La Parka runs out and destroys Disco with the chair during Disco’s entrance. Rick Martel comes out and wants the match against Saturn despite having a TV Title match tonight.

Rick Martel vs. Perry Saturn

Martel takes over with a quick armdrag and we head outside with Martel sending him into the post. Back in and Martel fires off knees in the corner but a flying headscissors is countered into a hot shot. A missile dropkick gets two for Saturn but he jumps into a punch on another high risk attempt. Martel spinebusters him down but Kidman’s distraction lets Riggs knock Martel out. The Rings of Saturn get the academic submission as Martel is out of it.

Rating: C-. The more I see of Martel the more impressed I am. He comes out of retirement to put on consistently decent to good matches including an impromptu one here. It’s another good example of WCW having such a deep talent pool that they can have interesting stories with decent matches up and down the card.

Bobby Eaton vs. Curt Hennig

Speaking of throwing some veteran out there, here’s Bobby Eaton for the first time since April. They trade slaps to start until Hennig chops him out to the floor. Rude throws him back in so Hennig knee lifts Bobby back to the floor so Rude can throw him in a second time. Let’s do that sequence one more time in case you didn’t get the point already. Back in and Eaton takes advantage of Curt yelling at the fans by clipping the knee. Tony lets us know that Hennig has been gone because of his knee so there’s some psychology thrown in. Not that it matters as Hennig hooks the PerfectPlex for a pin out of nowhere. Glorified squash.

Baseball legend Wade Boggs is here.

Hour #3 begins.

Tat Titles: Vicious and Delicious vs. Steiner Brothers

As always here, Scott Steiner will only be referred to as Scott and Scott Norton will only be referred to as Norton. Rick starts with Buff and we’re into the posing a few seconds in. Buff quickly slams him down and does his strut, but Rick comes right back with an overhead belly to belly suplex. Off to Scott for a quick chinlock but it’s quickly back to Rick vs. Norton in a power match.

Rick takes Norton down with a clothesline before it’s back to Scott for another chinlock, this time with a knee in the back. Back to Rick for a wristlock but Norton shoves him into the corner, only to miss a charge in the opposite corner. Buff finally does something right by distracting Rick long enough for Norton to shove him to the floor and then into the barricade. Back in again for a neck crank from Norton and a choke from Bagwell. Rick ducks a clothesline and powerslams Buff down. Everything breaks down and Rick hits the bulldog on Bagwell but the NWO comes in for the DQ.

Rating: D. There wasn’t much to this one as Norton/Bagwell were the NWO jobbing tag team and therefore no threat to the belts at all. The fact that the Outsiders were getting their rematch on Sunday didn’t give me much hope for new champions either. It was interesting to see Rick dominating the ring time though as the Steiners’ troubles continue despite them winning most of their matches.

Scott makes the save with a chair.

TV Title: Rick Martel vs. Booker T

They talk some trash to start but Martel jumps Booker from behind. Rick yells at the crowd as he pounds on Booker but gets caught in a backdrop. Booker kicks him out to the floor as the fans tell Martel he sucks. Back in and Martel walks into a spinebuster, sending him right back to the floor. Booker works the arm back in the ring and gets two off a knee drop. Rick gets to his feet and catches Booker in a hot shot to take over before sending Booker to the floor.

Martel gets in some cheap shots on the floor before putting on a chinlock to slow things down. There’s the Quebec Crab but Booker is quickly in the ropes. A spinwheel kick takes Martel down but the referee is bumped. Cue Saturn to go after Martel but Booker kicks him off the apron. He hurts his knee in the process though and Martel puts on the Crab for the submission and the title.

Rating: C+. Martel has something special going here as his comeback hits a big milestone. This three way feud is interesting stuff as you Saturn’s logic is questionable (he can beat Martel but not Booker so why help Booker?), Booker has a case for a rematch and Martel turned to get the title.

Here’s Bret to answer Hogan’s statements about costing him the title. Bret disagrees and says that Hogan is scared of him. If Hogan wants to find him, Bret isn’t going anywhere and all Hogan had to do was say his name once. Hogan has been ducking him for years and it’s time for them to step into the ring.

This brings out the debuting Brian Adams (Crush from the WWF) who says he has Bret’s back anywhere anytime. He offers Bret his hand….and here’s the NWO for the beatdown. Adams is of course part of the NWO, shocking no one with a brain. Hogan comes in for the big beatdown but Flair comes out for the save. This could and likely should have been the start of a Starrcade program between Bret and Hogan.

Here’s JJ Dillon to mediate the TV Title issue. He has all three guys come out and makes it Booker T vs. Martel with the winner of that defending against Saturn later in the night.

Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho/Eddie Guerrero

Benoit trades chops with Guerrero to start, sending Eddie running away to Jericho. Jericho comes in but has to be convinced to take the belt off. Benoit runs Jericho off and it’s Malenko vs. Eddie now with Guerrero being launched onto the top rope. Dean picks him up in a powerbomb but drops Eddie over the top rope instead, causing the heels to have a quick meeting. Back in and Dean drops Eddie with a flapjack before bringing in Benoit for the snap suplexes.

Eddie tries to slide through Benoit’s legs but gets grabbed by the hair and pulls him up into a German suplex. Dean is in with a Boston Crab to annoy Jericho and everything breaks down. Eddie hits the brainbuster on Dean but Benoit makes the save with the Swanton. Jericho comes in with a missile dropkick to Dean but Benoit breaks up the Liontamer attempt. Eddie dives onto Benoit to take him out as Dean misses a dropkick. Jericho loads up the Liontamer but Dean rolls through into a pinning combination for two. That counter is countered into a rollup but Dean counters the counter into the Cloverleaf for the submission.

Rating: B-. These four continue to have the match of the night and the crowd reactions to Jericho vs. Malenko are getting louder and louder. With Benoit rising up the ranks to challenge for the US Title and Guerrero being his usual awesome self, these matches are rapidly becoming the highlight of the shows.

Bischoff says Hogan is paying Nash’s fine.

Hollywood Hogan/Randy Savage vs. Sting/Lex Luger

Savage jumps Sting and Luger in the aisle to start the fight and Hogan sends Sting into the barricade. Hollywood hammers on Sting inside but Sting comes back with right hands to send Hogan out to the floor. Savage and Luger head into the ring now with Savage choking on the ropes.

They’re the official starters but when Savage goes to tag Hogan he’s out on the floor with Bischoff. Hollywood gets on the apron so Randy tags him with a forearm to the back. Three elbow drops get a near fall on Luger but Hogan’s legdrop misses. Hot tag Sting and Hogan is almost immediately in the Scorpion. Here’s the NWO as the match is thrown out.

Rating: D+. Did you really expect anything else here? There’s nothing wrong with setting up the two PPV main events in one TV match as it kills two birds with one stone without doing the same match twice. This was your usual NWO style brawl and the match itself only lasted a few minutes but it was entertaining enough to get by.

Hogan and Savage go at it as Flair and Hart come out to clear the ring to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. They did a good job of setting up SuperBrawl but a lot of this stuff could have been cut out. If this show was just two hours it would have been one of the better episodes they’ve had in a long time. Most of the stories are clicking and WCW continues to be on a roll at this point. Another good show this week.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at: