Among other things, they’re all commentators who used to be world champion.  Why do we rarely hear about this?  JBL is the only one to hold a world title or even be a full time wrestler in the last ten years and we barely ever hear about his accomplishments.  How many fans do you think know Jerry Lawler was world champion in the AWA?  Most young fans probably just know him as some old guy who won’t shut up.  Mention that he’s a former world champion and that he beat a Hall of Famer in Curt Hennig to win the belt, or that he’s held over 100 titles in his career.  It would make people care more.  The same is true for Taz as he’s basically a younger and louder Lawler.

We had to skip ahead about a month here but it shouldn’t be a big problem. As far as I know there haven’t been any major changes, although at some point before the 15th, Jarrett’s Southern Title was held up after a match with Steve Austin so there’s no champion. Other than that everything seems to be the same. Let’s get to it.

Opening sequence.

Night Train Jackson vs. Sgt. O’Reilly

The show is starting a little early so some fans aren’t there yet. Jackson throws him around and dances a bit. He hits something like Old School and no sells a headbutt. See Jackson is black and in wrestling that means he has a hard head. Dropkick and a fisherman’s suplex get the pin. Squash.

The announcers talk about the Open Door Policy, which means if you want a match, talk to the promoter and they’ll try to get you one. That leads us to a video on the Texas Hangmen who are apparently violent. They shout a lot and no one, including the announcers, can understand it.

We talk about last week where Jeff Gaylord surprisingly joined up with JC Ice and we get a clip of Gaylord jumping Superstar Bill Dundee. Gaylord bailed on Downtown Bruno in the process.

Ronnie Leach vs. Jeff Gaylord

Gaylord is a power guy so he picks Leach up in a bearhug position and rams him into two corners. Backbreaker hits and he throws Ronnie to the floor. Apparently Ice has stolen all of Bruno’s talent, which means Bruno is heading to the WWF I believe. A modified powerbomb, the Dehumanizer, kills Leach and eventually a pumphandle slam gets the pin. Squash #2.

Dundee jumps Gaylord before Gaylord can go for an interview. Dundee rams him into the post to get rid of him. He talks about how he’s fighting to get his son Jamie (JC Ice) back. I forgot about that. Dundee says he’ll do whatever it takes to get him back and that includes beating up everyone that Jamie brings in.

Jerry Lawler will be at some hardware stores next week.

House show ads.

We hear about how Terry Funk won’t show up and defend the world title. We get a clip of him winning the title off Lawler in November. Eddie Gilbert tried to interfere and wound up costing Lawler the title. We also hear about the bounties that Funk put out over the last few months.

We finally hear from Funk for the first time in the nearly three months I’ve been watching this show. He’s being forced to come back to face Lawler in a rematch which will be two days after this show. Thinking of Memphis makes him spit and the people are even worse. Lawler is the worst of all of them but isn’t man enough to take the title from Funk. Apparently Jackie Fargo is going to be the referee again and Funk thinks he’s an old pervert. The match should be in Amarillo, Texas where men are men. Funk is only 46 here and he’s as evil as ever. Maybe he’ll stomp Fargo so Fargo’s heart will stop. That could be awesome.

Video on the career of Jerry Lawler. We get clips of him fighting probably 25 legends in a very impressive package. Pretty much every big name from the era (other than Flair, who I’ve seen Lawler face in Memphis when Flair was NWA Champion) is shown with Lawler beating them up, including both Funks, Hogan, Race, Savage, Rude, Hennig, and about twenty others. It’s really cool stuff. We also get a look at his work outside of the ring with kids. We also see clips from the Jerry Lawler Show, which is exactly what it sounds like and was a real talk/variety show that aired in Memphis. The whole thing runs almost nine minutes.

Mid-South show ad, including the Lawler vs. Funk match.

Lawler comes out and talks about the match coming up. It’s taken forever to get here but he’s ready. He’s not really fired up for it but is more calm and cautious. Win, lose or draw it’ll be his last match for awhile to heal from some injuries.

We get highlights from El Gran Pistolero vs. Danny Davis for the Light Heavyweight Title. Are there any matches on this show? The match is thrown out.

Davis says he was expecting a match and got a fight, and that’s not cool. He’ll fight Pistolero anytime.

Curtis Thompson/Brad Collins vs. Eric Embry/Tom Pritchard

Pritchard and Collins get things going. Tom and Eric are Texas guys so they keep explaining how awesome their home state is. It’s off to Embry who gets in some shots and then back to Pritchard. Both heels keep jumping between the apron and commentary. Pritchard tries a slingshot suplex that goes so badly it would make Tully Blanchard shoot himself so he could roll over in his grave. Embry hits a top rope headbutt for the pin. Thompson was never in the match.

The Texans make fun of Lawler and Tennessee.

Southern Heavyweight Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Steve Austin

The title is vacant coming in. Austin takes over quickly and stomps him down into the corner. JC Ice has the referee and Jeff’s small package is missed. Austin hooks a chinlock which only lasts a few seconds. Jeff tries to speed things up but walks into a knee to the stomach. Austin rolls him up in the corner and puts his feet on the ropes for two. A foreign object shot gets the same. Jeff hooks a quick sunset flip and gets the title back.

Rating: D+. Not the worst match ever but it was only a few minutes long and neither guy was all that great yet. This was more about pushing the Monday matches forward because of the post match stuff. Not much to see here and Jeff has the title back that he never really lost in the first place.

Jarrett gets beaten down by Austin and the other Texas guys but Eddie Gilbert makes the save. Jarrett says it ends Monday. Gilbert says bring on the blood.

Overall Rating: C+. This was much more like a go home show rather than a regular show which is an interesting change. The Lawler video is awesome and could easily be a HOF/retirement video all on its own. The matches were short here but it set up Funk vs. Lawler on Monday which is the whole point here. Good stuff but it could have been great with some better wrestling.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

It may be weaker at the top but it’s very strong throughout.

While not much in the WWE, he was HUGE elsewhere and one of the most influential people in the history of wrestling.  If you want to talk about someone who is a lifer in wrestling, Rhodes is a good place to start.  He debuted 45 years ago and is still active in wrestling today.  Think about that for a minute.  That’s a LONG time to do anything, let alone be in wrestling.  Rhodes is a yes, and if you’re not familiar with some of his stuff from the 70s, look it up.  It’s far different than what he’s most famous for.

Curt Hennig

Hennig is one of those guys where the more I see of him, the more I’m impressed by him.  He had nearly unlimited talent and one of the best gimmicks in wrestling history.  Hennig came as close to living up to the name Mr. Perfect as you could get and the various sports vignettes he had were some of the best promos ever.  He never won the WCW or WWF World Title but he had a year long reign as AWA World Champion which is still solid enough to count for something.  This is another easy yes.

Jerry Lawler

Lawler is another guy that is legendary in the indies and one in particular, but he’s equally if not even more famous for being the co-voice of Monday Night Raw and therefore the WWF as a whole.  Lawler has been doing commentary for about twenty years now as well as still wrestling occasionally.  He’s never won a title in the WWE but he’s never needed to.  Lawler has long since been at the level where his reputation is safe no matter what he does.  Lawler is another yes and one of the few people who would make it into both the WWE Hall of Fame and any other wrestling Hall of Fame as well.

Nick Bockwinkel

This is another name that isn’t that well known by a lot of young fans but he certainly should be.  Bockwinkel was the father of the smart heel, as he was very crafty but also very skilled in the ring.  Before him, most heels were monsters that a hero would have to vanquish.  Bockwinkel came along and changed the entire idea, showing that heels could win with their minds instead of brute force.  He’s very similar to Ted DiBiase in that regard, which makes him a very influential man indeed.  He held the AWA World Title for over eight years combined and the tag titles for over three years.  That alone makes him an easy yes vote.

Mr. Fuji

I love Mr. Fuji!  (Five points if you get that reference)  This one might surprise you.  Fuji was a pretty lame manager, but he was a very accomplished tag wrestler.  He was a five time WWF Tag Team Champion and holds the record for most days spent as a tag team champion.  He held a tag title for 932 days.  Billy Gunn is second at 916 and had twice as many reigns.  The next place down is over seven months shorter.  Fuji managed Demolition during a large portion of their record tag title run and also managed Yokozuna to the WWF Title.  On top of all that, he was in FUJI FREAKING VICE (look that up if you want some old school hilarity).  I was thinking no at first but a little research says he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Jim Ross

If Jerry Lawler is in, Jim Ross has to be in too.  He’s been the voice of the WWE for what seems like ever now and he continues to be a great commentator.  His acting isn’t exactly top notch half the time and he can be more than a little annoying, but the best way I can sum up JR is this: he and Lawler on commentary just feels right.  Ross was also a force behind the scenes as he was VP of talent relations for a long time.  He’s a jack of all trades in wrestling and again I have no problem with him being inducted.

The Sheik

Not the Iron Sheik but just the Sheik.  This is a guy you probably haven’t heard of but if you’re a fan of ECW or Mick Foley or Terry Funk, you need to research this guy.  He’s arguably the father of hardcore wrestling in the US and was legendary in his main territory of Detroit.  Sheik also trained Raven and Sabu, which may or may not be a good thing in your eyes.  As for being in the Hall of Fame, this is more of a personal issue but I’m saying no.  Hardcore wrestling has done more to hurt wrestling than anything else and Sheik introduced the style to the world.  I’m saying no based on that alone.

The Wild Samoans

This is the team that started the entire tradition in the wrestling world.  From The Rock to Yokozuna to Rosey to Roman Reigns, it all started here.  The Wild Samoans were a very successful tag team and won multiple tag titles over the years.  Afa also has been a successful trainer and trained Mickey Rourke for the movie The Wrestler.  This is another team that is a yes, although there are a few other teams I would put in over them.

This is one of the most stacked classes from top to bottom ever and probably the best one yet with no huge negatives.

After Monday’s show, the tag titles are vacant. There was some kind of a controversial finish in the Fabs vs. Lawler/Jarrett and we’ll have a rematch two days after this show. Gee, I wonder if they’ll have Lawler talk a lot about it here. I’ve been enjoying these shows as they fly by pretty fast and Lawler is awesome at this point. Let’s get to it.

New Kids vs. Fabulous Ones

Tony dropkicks Stan down to start as Cornette is running his mouth on commentary. Miller is kicked down by Stan Lane the Karate Master so it’s off to Christopher. Brian superkicks Keirn down for two and Cornette is losing it. He goes to manage as Keirn can’t figure Christopher out. A backdrop finally puts him down so it’s off to Lane who gets caught in a quick sunset flip for two. Off to Tony who is slammed down with ease.

Jim is back on commentary to make the match that much better. The New Kids keep trying for a fast win because they can’t go man to man vs. the Fabs. Keirn slams Tony’s head into a chair on the floor and it’s back inside. Tony gets between Stan’s legs and makes the tag to Christopher. The Fabs double team him again and it’s back to the outside. Keirn is illegal and piledrives Miller for the DQ. It was a DQ at times and at times it wasn’t so it’s hard to keep up with.

Rating: C-. Not much of a match but this is how you give someone a rub. The New Kids weren’t proven yet so having them hang in there with a famous team like the Fabulous Ones and even pick up a win here is a great way to make the New Kids look a lot better. The Fabs couldn’t pin them which is a major key. Not a great match, but a good rub.

Lawler makes the save post match.

After a break Lawler says he’ll be at a sporting goods store today so come see him and get some free stuff. We get a clip from the tag title match on Monday where the Fabulous Ones cheated to hit three piledrivers on Jarrett. Lawler finally got the hot tag and cleaned house. The referee went down and Lane took a piledriver. Jamie Dundee, future wrestler but current referee, comes in to call for the DQ as the regular referee was waking up to count the fall.

Lawler says the titles are being held up and Dundee will be in their corner for the rematch on Monday. Also the special guest referee will be Jackie Fargo. That’s a huge deal. Lawler talks about the history with Fargo who mentored all three of them (Lawler and Fabs) and how the Fabs are nothing to be proud of now that they’re with Cornette. Solid promo here from Lawler.

Video on Jackie Fargo and his influence on the Fabs. This includes a clip from 1982 with Fargo saying if the Fabs ever changed their attitudes, he’d leave them.

Cornette talks about how the deck is stacked up against them because there’s no other way for Lawler to beat them. He says that after they get the titles, they’ll take out Fargo. That’s crossing the line to the Fabs and Keirn rips into him. They leave and Cornette is panicking.

Mid-South show ad.

US Male Curtis Thompson (a mailman) says he doesn’t want to be with Robert Fuller anymore. Neither does his new partner, who is named Chris Walker.

US Males vs. Bill Rush/Sgt. O’Reilly

So one of the guys is named US Male and the team is the US Males? So Walker doesn’t mean much at all here does he? Walker and the Sarge start and it’s off to the mailman quickly. Thompson slams him a few times so it’s time for Rush. A gorilla press gets about 10 reps and a suplex/cross body combination gets the quick pin.

Uptown Bruno’s boys run their mouths for a bit.

Brian Lee/Doug Gilbert/Dirty White Boy vs. Freezer Thompson/TD Steel/Night Train Jackson

White Boy and Thompson start us off and all of the heels get slammed. The first thirty seconds of this has Bruno saying one LONG sentence. Jackson has a pretty awesome name. Freezer gets taken down and it’s finally off to Steel. Jackson comes in and is immediately triple teamed and pinned. Squash here.

House show ads.

Lawler introduces some guys from the sporting goods store that he’ll be at later today.

We meet a new team called the Eliminators. One is in a mask and the other isn’t Kronus. The guy in the mask talks and that’s not Saturn so these are different Eliminators.

Eliminators vs. Keith Eric/Chris Frazier

The Eliminators go crazy and it’s a wild beating before the bell. We start with the masked one vs. Frazier with the latter being quickly thrown to the outside. Frazier gets thrown into the corner and a double team sets up a kind of top rope cross body/shoulder block for the pin. Total squash.

Mid-South show ads.

Cornette brings out the Fabs again and it’s the same thing again: Keirn will not jump Fargo, period. Since the last time they were here, a kid asked him to do anything but hurt Jackie. Keirn says he won’t fight Jackie no matter what and leaves. Cornette is freaking out and says they’ll win anyway because they’re awesome.

Tom Pritchard and Terry Garvin are here with Uptown Bruno and say they’re awesome, but they don’t want to be in Memphis. They support Funk, not Lawler and Dundee. Pritchard wants Jarrett’s Southern Heavyweight Title. Garvin says he’s a barber and is going to cut hair starting today. He says Danny Davis gets his blonde hair from peroxide, not his mama’s side or his daddy’s side.

Tom Pritchard/Terry Garvin vs. Danny Davis/Jerry Lynn

Pritchard and Davis start things off and that goes nowhere. Double tag to Lynn and Garvin and they run the ropes. Garvin hurts his knee on a leapfrog but he’s goldbricking. Lynn hits a king of tilt-a-whirl to take him back down and it’s back to Davis. His neckbreaker gets two and everything breaks down. Bruno sprays something on a towel and runs in to smother Davis with it, drawing a quick DQ.

Both guys are knocked out by the ether rag and Davis almost gets a haircut but the save is made.

Overall Rating: C+. This was a much better show as the stuff about Jackie was really interesting and a nice touch to add to the story. It makes this feel like a much bigger match rather than just another match where the tag titles are up for grabs. That’s really been missing from the shows so it’s nice to see them add it in. Good stuff.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Here’s the final show I have for these guys at the moment. We’ve jumped ahead another three weeks so hopefully we get something a little newer here. Also am I missing something or has there been no Lawler in a long time? Anyway this show can’t get much more boring so let’s get to it.

As usual we open with a clip from last week where Adams/Funk beat up Braddock/Chu-Hi but Tojo came in for the DQ. Adams came back with a superkick to take out Chi-Hi and that’s it.

Some chick sings America the Beautiful.

Chris Adams vs. Texas Battleship

No idea who Battleship is but he’s good sized. The fans chant Superkick and they circle each other a lot. Battleship is sent to the floor and Adams hits a suicide dive to take him out. Back in a top rope superkick ends this quick.

Here’s Lawler who is defending against JYD next week. Lowrance wants to know when Kerry gets his title shot as well. Lawler runs down all of Texas and says that he’ll be champion as long as he wants. As for JYD, he may have brought himself up from the gutter but he’s getting homesick. JYD has become a religious man lately since he’s been praying for something to happen to keep him from having to face Lawler. As for Lowrance, the people aren’t clapping for him. They’re slapping their heads to stay awake. Lawler is going to sit in on commentary.

Texas Title: Chris Youngblood vs. Kerry Von Erich

Well Lawler is certainly better than Garvin. Lawler wants to know how Kerry can call himself a Modern Day Warrior when he’s a washed up has been. Kerry is defending of course. He wants Lawler gone for his match but Jerry is allowed to stay. Lawler leaves on his own so he can watch Youngblood take the title. Kerry punches Chris to the floor to start and grabs a quick Claw but Youngblood bails.

We take a break and come back with Youngblood chopping in the corner. There’s a guitar on a pole match coming up. Holy Russo Batman! Youngblood hooks a wristlock but Kerry comes back with a discus punch to tie Youngblood up in the ropes. Chris tries to leave so they fight on the floor with Kerry’s face going into the post. Kerry takes a chair to the back but it’s not a DQ. Kerry tries the discus punch but he hits the post.

Youngblood works over the hand now. He’s a Medicine Man if I didn’t mention that. Back inside and it’s time for an abdominal stretch. You know, after Kerry punched a steel post. Kerry escapes and loads up the Claw but Youngblood blocks it. Kerry settles for the Stomach Claw instead but Youngblood punches out of it and we head back to the floor. Back in the ring the discus punch hits again as does a piledriver. Youngblood is up way too fast so Kerry rolls him up for the pin.

Rating: C-. This match was nothing great but WOW what a breath of fresh air this was to have someone out there that was capable of showing some energy instead of just standing around and moving very slowly. Kerry may have been drugged out of his mind most matches but he could get a crowd going and that’s more than most people lately have been able to say.

We recap Jarrett vs. Travis. Apparently Travis has been dressing up in an Elvis jumpsuit and hitting people with a guitar. The solution: a guitar on a pole match. We also get a quick video on Jarrett.

Billy Joe Travis vs. Jeff Jarrett

Lawler comes back to do commentary. Jarrett jumps Travis as soon as he gets in and they head to the floor. It’s so weird hearing the voice of Raw on here. Back in the ring and Jarrett whacks him with a chair. Billy for the pole but Jarrett gets a great right hand to stop him. After saying the word superplex, Jeff hits one to take Billy down. Jarrett DDTs Travis on the table which doesn’t move an inch. There’s a piledriver on the floor and partially onto a chair. We take a break and come back with Jarrett tombstoning Travis and getting the guitar. That’s what you have to do to win. Ok then.

Rating: C+. This was basically a Jarrett squash. That being said, it was entertaining because the idea was to have Travis be the Honky Tonk Man character, as in the guy that everyone can beat but he keeps eluding them. Once you get someone in there that gets their hands on him and tears him apart, he doesn’t stand a chance. This was part of the blowoff for that and it worked pretty well.

Post match Lawler comes in the ring and beats down Jeff. Out to the floor and Jeff goes into the post. Lawler hits Jarrett with the guitar, breaking it after about three shots. Kerry Von Erich makes the save. Lawler sells his punches incredibly well. The numbers catch up with Kerry and Lawler gets in some shots with the handle of the guitar. Jarrett makes the save with a chair.

Overall Rating: C. See now THIS is more like it. It’s not a great show or anything but there was actual energy in these matches. Jarrett looked like a big deal, Kerry was his usual self with firing up the crowd, Adams was good for getting the people going and Lawler is his usual heat generating machine. I want to see Lawler vs. Von Erich now and I’d assume there’s a tag match coming with those four. If I find any more of these shows I’ll throw them up as this one would have made me keep watching.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

So here we are: the King of the Ring. Now this was a revolutionary concept for the masses, as the last major tournament that was nationally shown was 5 years ago at Wrestlemania 4. A good big has changed since then. In this tournament, we have had an original field of 16 that is now down to eight here on the PPV, which looks like this.

Bret Hart
Razor Ramon

Mr. Perfect
Mr. Hughes

Jim Duggan
Bam Bam Bigelow

Lex Luger
Tatanka

Like I said, all of them had first round matches other than Bret who had a bye because he’s awesome. I’ll mention who they beat in their individual matches. Also on the card tonight is a world title match between the new champion Hulk Hogan, who came in and stole the title from Yokozuna so that a heel didn’t leave Wrestlemania with the belt as that would just be evil right? Anyway, this is their rematch, and it’s quite historic if I do say so myself. With all that said, let’s get to the show.

Our intro is mainly just a list of the brackets and Vince talking about the heartland of America for the first of about a thousand times tonight. Ross does the run of the mill intro as Savage can’t stand still which is funny for some reason. Apparently Hogan wanted us in Dayton so he can fight in the heartland of America. So Hogan, who wasn’t champion three months ago now determines where the shows are happening? That’s just amusing.

First Round: Razor Ramon vs. Bret Hart

Razor is relatively new here but not really. He fought Bret at the Rumble in an ok match. His way too bright color of the show is green. True story: for years I thought the razors on Ramon’s tights were blocks of machismo. This is just after he lost to the Kid so there we are. Heartland of American count: 4 so far. You can tell this show is a big event: it has its own stage. Bret works over the arm but Razor hits a clothesline which according to Savage was unbelievable. No not really.

It wasn’t that special and it happened so I’d be inclined to believe it. Heenan says this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, even though Bret won the tournament two years ago. Oh I almost forgot: Bret got a bye and Razor beat Tito Santana to get in. Ross is way too energetic here. Savage picks Perfect to win the tournament. We hit the floor for all of a second in a pointless few seconds. Ross accidentally calls Hart Savage.

The commentators are way over the top here and it’s kind of distracting. Razor is destroying Bret here so all is right with the world. Heenan says that Bret is the kind of guy that when he checks into a hotel and asks for a wakeup call at 1:23 AM and he kicks out when the phone rings. What in the world is Bobby on because I want some of it.

In a cool yet simple spot, Bret is up in the Razor’s Edge but backflips out of it and gets a small package for two. Razor takes him up to the middle rope for a belly to back suplex but Bret rotates around and lands on top of Razor for the pin in a cool looking ending.

Rating: B. I liked this. They didn’t have a ton of time to really flesh out the match and they didn’t have to. There’s a way to do a ten minute match and they had it working right. I liked it better than their Rumble match where Razor wasn’t ready for a match like that. He was much more developed here and it worked much better. This was good.

We get a recap of Taker getting beaten down by Mr. Hughes who stole the urn. He was a big power guy that was a bodyguard so naturally he never won a thing.

First Round: Mr. Hughes vs. Mr. Perfect

Perfect gets a very nice pop. Heenan being sick of Perfect is great too. Savage keeps referring to this as the finals for some reason. Hughes beat Kamala and Perfect had to beat Doink three times to get here. Heenan goes on a rant about how he made perfect and Ross just says wrong. That was great. Hughes is of course dominating but he’s just not that good at all.

He’s very limited in the ring but to be fair for someone his size there’s only so much he even has to do. Perfect bumps on a level that is usually only reserved for Shawn and Flair. Bret is shown in an inset about who he’d rather face and he actually gives an answer, saying he would rather fight Perfect.

That’s not something you hear that often. Perfect makes his comeback and actually hits a backdrop on Hughes. It kind of sucked but there we are. In a very stupid ending, Hughes just grabs the urn and blasts Perfect with it. Well ok then that’s one way to end it. That was dumb.

Rating: D+. This was just bad. Hughes just flat out wasn’t interesting at all as he was such an incredibly bland character. I mean seriously, he’s a bodyguard for hire. At least with Diesel they weren’t mercenaries but were characterized as the main guy’s friends. Hughes was the main guy and that’s just a failure. Perfect did everything he could out there, but he can’t make a good match out of nothing, and that’s what he was asked to do here.

Yoko and his cronies say they’ll win. He follows that up by eating a herd of cattle.

First Round: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Jim Duggan

Bigelow beat Typhoon in what I’m sure was a five star classic while Duggan beat Shango, so somehow this is the best possible matchup. That’s just disturbing. Duggan is wearing the red white and blue singlet at this point. Think of Angle’s old tights but with regular tights instead of shorts. They look horrible on him. Duggan is a favorite too apparently. There’s another heartland drop. Make that number six.

Scratch that and make it seven. It’s beyond vintage already. Duggan actually beats Bigelow up here for a good while. He can punch like few I’ve ever seen. This is his final run in WWF though as he would be gone in about a month or so. Duggan goes for a slam which apparently only a bad rib prevents from working. Bigelow hits a headbutt to stop that though. Make that number 8. We’re half an hour into the show mind you.

Duggan goes for another slam since the first went so well. Savage gets in another gem by saying notice we haven’t had a single cover for a three count yet. Well Macho that’s good because if we had then the match would end. We hit our second bearhug of the match and Duggan still won’t sell a thing. He hits the slam finally but when he goes for the three point clothesline, which is as stupid of a finisher as I can think of, he hits his head on the turnbuckle and the headbutt finishes this.

Rating: D-. Oh this was terrible. Luckily it was less than five minutes which is the only selling point for it. Duggan sold nothing and the whole rib thing went absolutely nowhere. See, psychology here would say that a guy that’s had all kinds of rib work done on him should have had some kind of rib issue related into the ending, such as going for a power move and falling, setting up the headbutt for the ending. This was just bad.

Terry Taylor talks to Bret who says he’s looking forward to fighting Perfect.

First Round: Tatanka vs. Lex Luger

Luger beat Backlund and Tatanka beat Giant Gonzalez. Luger is the Narcissist at this point and both he and Tatanka are undefeated at this point. They had teased Luger vs. Hart for awhile but it never happened. Luger has a steel plate in his arm so he was being forced to have a pad over it in most of his matches. Luger really did nail the self absorbed heel character.

He has to put it on or he can’t fight. Savage says the King of the Ring is the most prestigious ever. I love how things at the moment have to be built up. I get why it was done, but dang that’s just amusing. Tatanka starts off hot if nothing else. He was generic but dang the people responded to him. Heenan gets as close to being too far as you can get without going too far with his jokes about Tatanka. Why wasn’t Savage in this thing? I’ve never gotten that.

He says that the winner of the tournament should be considered equal to the WWF Champion. Well that’s over the top but if nothing else it does come close to validating the tournament as being a big deal. That’s not terrible. Bam Bam says that he wants Tatanka. Heenan says that Bigelow’s grandfather was Buffalo Bill Bigelow. I don’t know how to reply to that.

This turns into a pretty decent back and forth match, but given the amount of times that the announcers point out the fifteen minute time limit and the double undefeated streaks here, the ending is pretty clear. Luger is in control for the most part, but Tatanka does his version of Hulking Up towards the end. A chop gets two. A chop gets two. A chop gets two. A top rope chop gets two.

A top rope chop gets two. Starting to see why Tatanka didn’t really do a lot in the company? The announcers point out that neither guy can know the time limit is about to expire, which it does following Luger nearly winning it. There’s no announcement that we’re running out of time which is something that I like here. Why tell them?

It makes things more believable towards the end of the match. Anyway, we have a draw, but afterwards Luger acts like a face by asking for five more minutes. He confirms being a heel, even though that would end in like two weeks, by nailing Tatanka with the steel forearm to knock him out. Bigelow is in the finals now.

Rating: B-. This was another good match. While the ending was a bit predictable, sometimes that’s ok. These two were both rather limited in the offense area but they still put on a solid enough match for this to be passable. Tatanka didn’t do much other than chop people, but he knew how to work a crowd and it made up for everything else, which holds true for Luger also. It wasn’t pretty, but it did what it was supposed to do.

Perfect and Hart get into it a bit before their match to build up some drama. They actually argue over whose father would win. There’s an idea that you don’t hear talked about too much: Stu in the ring. You always hear about how great of a trainer he was but you never hear about him wrestling much. Bret says he remembers Summerslam, where Bret won his first IC Title over Perfect in a classic. This was really good and fun.

Semi-Finals: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect

Bret doesn’t have his jacket here. That just doesn’t look right. These two tended to have some scary chemistry together so I can pretty much guarantee this will be good if not great. Bret has a taped up hand that he didn’t have earlier. Bret wins the early sequence and the fans are into it. Savage mentions that Heenan was managing Perfect at Summerslam 91 and cost him the match.

Heenan gets all flustered trying to defend himself. Hint for you Bobby: you weren’t managing him back then, the Coach was. WE ARE LIVE! Oh and there’s another Heartland of American reference. Yep I was right. These guys are nailing it out there. Perfect, a face, is showing some heel tendencies. They point out that the winner should be the #1 contender.

That wouldn’t become an official rule until 2002 but it always was kind of an unwritten one. Bret’s athleticism really was underrated. He could move out there far better than a lot of people. He was very athletic and could do a small amount of flips, but he did them very well indeed. They mention that both guys used to be heels, which they call having a salty past here but whatever.

After trading control for awhile, they just say screw this and go insane on each other. The pace here is insane and the crowd is WAY into it. They trade a ton of near falls until Bret gets thrown to the floor and allegedly hurts his knee. Back in the ring and Bret takes over again by going for the leg, but hooks a figure four instead, and it’s as close to being on Flair’s level as any I’ve ever seen. He even gets the correct leg for once.

That of course doesn’t work so Bret goes for the ending sequence. I wonder something: who named it the Side Russian Legsweep? What is Russian about that move? Did the tsars use that in Siberian Death Matches against polar bears? Anyway, Perfect takes over again and after a long sleeper he can’t hit the Perfectplex, so Bret suplexes both guys over the ropes in an insane looking spot.

We’re back in the ring now with Perfect in control. He hooks a small package but Bret reverses it into a pin for a huge pop. They actually shake hands so Perfect can stay face despite acting a bit heelish during that match. That was great stuff.

Rating: A. This was top level work here. These two are a rare breed: they can simply be told what to do and then just go out and rock the house with it. I have yet to see a bad match from these two, but from what Bret has said they had a series in Alaska of all places that puts anything else they’ve ever done to shame. That is saying a lot. Anyway, this was an outstanding match and is well worth tracking down if you have about 20 minutes to kill. This was great.

We look at the brackets…because we didn’t catch the Bigelow vs. Hart is the final statement the first five times the commentators said it I guess.

Hogan, with a much thinner mustache says that he’ll beat Yoko in the heartland of America. I want one of Jimmy’s jackets because they just completely rock. A lot of the lines that Hogan and Jimmy use here would be in Hogan’s WCW song.

WWF Title: Yokozuna vs. Hulk Hogan

Yoko is billed as being from the Polynesian Islands despite having a ton of Japanese photographers (remember that) and a guy waving the Japanese flag. Apparently Hogan trimmed down for endurance here. Does that put him at maybe 302 or something I guess? Heenan says that this is a fresh Yokozuna and not one that just had a thirty minute match with Bret Hart.

In other words it’s the same as last time since Yoko vs. Hart was like 9 minutes. Also this is Hogan’s only title defense in two and a half months as champion so there we are. It was fairly HOLY CRAP WHO IN THE HECK IS THAT??? Someone has stolen Hogan’s attire and belt. That guy can’t weigh more than 260. Literally he’s got to be 40-50 pounds lighter than usual.

This is right around the time of the steroids trial, so there we are for an explanation. He’s billed at 302 which is the biggest lie in the history of wrestling. Yes even more than Vince is decent in the ring for a guy with no training. Ross calling a Hogan match just doesn’t work for me for some reason. He says he’ll slam Yoko. That’s just amusing. I can’t get over how small he is.

It’s obvious that he’s going to lose here, but the interesting thing is how that happens. They mention that this arguably should have been Bret vs. Hogan, which it really should have been to give Hart the rub of all rubs that I feel cost Bret’s career. Considering I wrote out a huge thread on this before I’ll spare the details, but the main idea is that Bret never had that big defining win over a guy from the previous generation to make him seem like a legit guy.

It in turn hurt Shawn as Shawn’s bit rub was from Bret, which made Shawn look sort of weak. And think about it: they’re both considered more or less failures as draws and I can’t think of anyone that puts them on Hogan’s level or maybe even that of Savage, and to me this is because they never got that rub. Can you imagine how big of a star Bret would have been if Hogan gave up to the Sharpshooter or even just got pinned?

Even Savage would have been a huge deal. I’ve always thought Hogan didn’t do it because he knew Bret would wrestle circles around him but that’s neither here nor there. The problem to me was simply that Bret didn’t get the rub that he needed and a lot of it can be pointed at Hogan I think, but anyway. Hogan’s chest is flatter than Stacy Keibler’s.

Yoko is dominant for the most part here, with the main idea being that Hogan is just outmatched here by the size and power of Yoko. He hits some offense here and there as I’m somewhat reminded of Hogan vs. Andre, although nowhere near as cool or important. So after about the world’s longest bearhug this side of an Andre match, Hogan starts his comeback but STILL can’t slam him.

He Hulks Up though and actually hits the leg drop, but when it’s time for the adrenaline fueled slam attempt, a Japanese photographer (who may or may not have been Harvey Whippleman) jumps up on the apron to take a closeup of Hogan.

The camera explodes in his face which leads to the belly to belly and leg drop to crush Hulkamania dead. Yoko is the champion and Hogan wouldn’t be seen on WWF TV for almost 9 years. He would go to WCW in about 13 months and change wrestling forever, again. Hogan is taken out here, and Hulkamania is over.

Rating: C-. This really was little more than a squash. Yoko completely dominated here for about ten or eleven minutes out of thirteen. I don’t think they could have built him up any stronger than they did. Like I said, Hogan was gone and it was time for someone new to step up to face Yoko. Now the big question was who. All signs pointed to one of two people: Bret Hart or Crush.

Bret had already had his chance and was widely considered to be the best “wrestler” in the company, but I don’t think a ton of people would have bought Bret beating Yoko just because of the size difference. I think Vince thought that too so he realized a transitional guy was needed to act as a mediator between Hart and Yoko. Like I said, all signs pointed to it being Crush at this point.

Soon thereafter and it might have been the next night on Raw, Yoko and Fuji announced the bodyslam challenge on the 4th of July aboard the USS Intrepid where any and everyone could try to slam Yoko which Hogan couldn’t do. For the next 3 weeks, Crush went on a monster slamming spree, slamming every big man in the company with relative ease. Savage built him up beyond belief as well, and again, every single sign in the world pointed to Crush slamming Yoko and then challenging for the title.

We get to the 4th of July and no one can slam Yoko, and the final challenger is Crush. The people on board are so behind him it’s insane. However, he can’t do it despite getting closer than anyone else. Fuji declares the contest over, but a helicopter painted red white and blue approaches the ship to land. A Hogan chant breaks out and out walks the American Hero…Lex Luger.

Yes, Luger, who less than a month ago was a cocky self centered muscle head is now an AMERICAN self centered muscle head. He gets an ok slam on him as the crowd more or less accepts him. To this day, I have yet to see or hear or read an explanation as to why Vince made the last minute switch, because I can guarantee you that at some point and probably for a long period of time, Crush was the guy.

The only thing I could think of was Vince saw Luger as being more marketable or something, which again I think makes some sense. I can see where Vince would be coming from with that, so that’s fine. Anyway, Luger gets this HUGE push, including a bus that drives around the country more or less in a presidential campaign thing to get people to say he should get the title shot.

That happened at Summerslam, and in one of the biggest WTF moments in wrestling history, Luger wins by count out. Eventually he would co win the Rumble, but he never got the title. That to me has always been why he’s remembered so badly for his WWF run. The Patriot angle was completely obnoxious and over the top that it was too much, but if he had won the title it would have made up for it I think.

In the end, Hart beat Yoko himself instead of Luger, and for the life of me I don’t know why. I’ve never bought the bar story (Luger got drunk and told everyone in the bar the ending to Mania, which doesn’t work for me because with no internet back then or really anything like it, how far could that word have spread to really ruin the ending?

Today Vince gives away stories to arenas full of people at Smackdown tapings, so I just don’t buy that story). Anyway, this ended Hulkamania and sent him to WCW a year later, so there we are. I love tangents.

Shawn says he’ll keep his title. There’s a big tall guy in sunglasses behind him that’s referred to as Diesel. He’s literally been around a week at this point, as he debuted on the 6th and this is on the 13th. He showed up at a house show and got Shawn the IC Title back from Jannetty. I don’t know if he was at Raw or not but I would guess no since Raw was likely pretaped that week.

If he was it was in a vignette or something like that. Anyway, Shawn has been champion again for a week and he’s defending later tonight. Oh there’s a cool story about Nash joining the WWF. He had been Oz in WCW (yes, as in the character from the movie. Ted Turner had gotten the rights to air the film and wanted to promote it on WCW, so instead of doing something like just mentioning it he turned the future 6 time world champion into Oz and gave him a manager named Merlin the Wizard.

And people wonder why WCW went out of business. The character was around for about three months if you can believe that.) Anyway, one day he got a call from Shawn who was a friend of his or from a mutual friend of theirs or something like that, saying that there was a spot for him in WWF as a tough bodyguard character if he was interested.

Considering he was a mobster character named Vinnie Vegas, he obviously jumped at the offer. However, he needed to get out of his contract. He went up to his boss and said that he didn’t think wrestling was the right career for him anymore. His boss had been told to cut the budget anywhere he could, so this worked out perfect for both sides. Nash was in the WWF literally 48 hours later and won the Triple Crown within a year and a half. That’s just flat out awesome.

Yokozuna celebrates a lot and Fuji says I told you so.

Steiners/Smoking Guns vs. Money Inc./Headshrinkers

Well, talk about a tough act to follow. This is nothing but filler here as I don’t think there’s any kind of a point to this match other than to give the crowds a chance to restart their hearts. There’s no story here that I can think of other than you have two face teams and two heel teams going at it. The Guns are about as new as possible at this point.

Ross says he doesn’t want to disrespect this match, so therefore we’ll be lucky to hear who wins. It simply can’t be worse than WCW was though. I will never forget a match between Ultimo Dragon and Steven Regal where literally over the entire course of an eight minute match there was not a single mention of either guy or the match itself until the very end where Tony said 2, 3 (he missed the one) we have a new Television Champion!

Yes, in a match not only on television, not only a title match, but a match where the title CHANGED HANDS, thereby making history as Gorilla liked to say, we have eight minutes of people talking about the NWO and not a word about the two guys in the ring. That’s just pathetic. Anyway, rant over. Scotty and Ted start us up so there we are. To say Heenan is happy is an understatement.

Now remember, we’re NOT going to talk about Yoko and the title match out of respect here. If we don’t talk about them anymore I’m going to scream from hearing about them too much. Ross is at least talking about the match so there’s that. DiBiase beats on Billy and hooks the Dream. Heenan says that Billy is fading into obscurity. I have too many jokes to pick from here. Billy gets a roll up out of nowhere to get the pin and the big brawl starts to the Guns’ awful music.

Rating: C. Eh what do you expect here? This was six minutes of just filler and it’s the absolute best thing they could have done here. No one was going to care about anything after what they just saw, so there we are. This meant nothing at all and it wasn’t supposed to. The wrestling is about what you would expect at a house show, but it wasn’t horrible or anything. This was much more about giving the crowd a breather instead of a real match, and there’s not a thing wrong with that.

Intercontinental Title: Crush vs. Shawn Michaels

Total filler here as we need something to flesh out the card with. Crush was about to get the biggest push of his career which stopped dead one day but we’ll get to that later. Crush is in BRIGHT orange and yellow and purple. Maybe that’s why he didn’t get the big push.

Shawn has his famous music here as well as some monster named Diesel with him. This is his television debut as the Crush loving begins. We talk about who could slam Yokozuna which would become one of the most awesome moments in wrestling history. Shawn won the title 6 days prior to this (nice job having a house show on Raw night) so this is his first major defense.

Savage has a man crush on Crush. Shawn uses his speed here and snaps off a nice jab which looked good but didn’t ever do much. Kind of like Crush in a sense. He hits a pair of nice leap frogs and avoids Sweet Chin Music and is just showing off here. Heenan: “Remember a friend in need is a pest.”

Almost nothing but power from Crush here which is the best thing he can do here. Diesel saves Shawn when he’s in big trouble. Apparently Crush is the total package. Well if Luger isn’t using that gimmick why not Crush? Is that even a gimmick? Outside Diesel sends Crush into the post for Shawn to take over.

In a dangerous spot, Shawn slams the back of Crush’s head into the post. That isn’t something I’d expect to see again ever which is a good thing. Shawn, the genius that he is, won’t let the referee count Crush out when he would have easily gotten it. Double axe hits Crush and Savage can’t believe his man love is in trouble.

Every time Crush does something Savage decides that it means he can slam Yokozuna. I get that he’s supposed to push towards future angles but this is ridiculous. We start the final part here as Crush begins dominating. And here is an army of Doinks. Ok make that a pair. This angle just went on and on to no end. Shawn hits Chin Music to the back of Crush’s head to end it. He chases the clowns away.

Rating: C-. The hype for Crush begins, but for some reason it never finished. Even here they’re building up Crush as a possible world title contender. He certainly had the look and power, but again they never pulled the trigger. Shawn was just kind of waiting around on something to do. That would come soon enough.

It’s not a great match but it certainly isn’t that bad. For the life of me, I don’t get why they picked Luger of all people. Actually I do, but I don’t get why they built up Crush and then never went with anything. It was just odd.

King of the Ring Finals: Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Bret more or less is being held together by duct tape at this point. They mention we might not have enough time to show the whole match, but since this isn’t WCW in 1998 that won’t happen. Apparently the winner “has to be” the #1 contender. Not really but whatever. Bigelow throws Bret over the ropes and Bret crashes onto the floor and Bret is dead. This might as well be named the Bret Hart Appreciation Match as it’s just the announcers talking about how injured he is and how he’s so brave.

Egads even I’m sick of it already and we’re 4 minutes into this. Oh but as courageous as he is, he’s destined to lose apparently. So Bigelow more or less gets away with murder here as Bret is just completely gone. They go to the floor and after a mini Bret comeback, the power is too much and he’s left on the floor for awhile. Luna comes out with a chair and I think hits him with it.

It was more like she was waving it at him to give him a breeze as she barely swung at all. Anyway, Bigelow comes out and gets him and the headbutt…gives Bigelow the win? Yeah, he actually got the pin on Bret who looked like road kill at this point. HOWEVER, since Bret put up such a tough try, another referee picks now to have his first time ever to come out and say that there was interference.

We’ll overlook the fact that Bret was dead and the headbutt was what beat him anyway for the sake of having a story. Since the referee, Earl Hebner in this case, like Bret so darn much, he sends him back into the match to get assaulted even more. So we restart the thing. Oh Fink messed up and said the decision was reversed but of course that was waved off. The announcers say the decision should be reversed and Bret should have just won anyway so there we are.

Bobby says Bret is going to need five new limbs. Thanks Bobby. Hart’s selling here is insanely awesome here. He actually hits a belly to back suplex which looked good all things considered. Oh look: Bret is getting beaten up even worse than before. He keeps surviving even longer though, eventually managing to throw Bigelow over the ropes.

Bret, despite having had his teeth kicked in all night, busts out a pescado as I’m impressed. He initiates the ending sequence but Bigelow powers out of the Sharpshooter. Bret hooks a victory roll though, an amazingly gets the pin as the place goes insane. That was a cool performance.

Rating: B+. This is all Hart here. I know there’s not a lot in the summary, but that was nearly a 20 minute match. Hart was selling like a salesman out there and made Bigelow look awesome. For some reason Bigelow never did anything of note other than feud with Doink soon after this which was always odd to me. Either way, the match here was intriguing to say the least as Bret sells himself to death. Granted the restart was kind of stupid and I’m not sure why they did it but it was fine either way.

It’s coronation time. I love how Savage and Heenan have both been either the King or managed two kings before, yet they proclaim this the first time. Have to love the way you can change history on the drop of a hat like that. Jerry Lawler comes up and says that he’s the real king and challenges Bret, who calls him a coward for not even entering.

Jerry of course beats the tar out of Bret, including a few shots with the scepter that legit injured Bret’s back. The beatdown ends the show, so yes, Lawler reigns supreme to end a WWF PPV.

Overall Rating: B-. This isn’t so much a solid show but a solid Bret Hart performance. The whole thing is about him and that’s just fine. He completely dominated the show and the fans ate it up. Obviously the other big thing is that whole Hogan is gone for nearly 10 years aspect but why mention something that’s not important?

This might as well have been the Bret Hart PPV, and in reality it was. Either way, this made Bret somehow seem more legit than his world title reign which I’m not sure how that works. Anyway, the show was good and Bret looked awesome. This was a fun way to introduce the show and the blockbuster in the middle helped a lot as well. Check it out if you have time as it’s not bad at all.

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