Monday Night Raw
Date: September 27, 1999
Location: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
Attendance: 10,369
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re back to the chaotic days again and HHH is once again the WWF Champion, having won the Six Pack Challenge last night at Unforgiven. Steve Austin is not happy with this result and is apparently next up the new champion, which isn’t likely to go well. The rest of the main event scene has to fall out from there as well so let’s get to it.

Here is Unforgiven if you need a recap.

We open with some stills from the Unforgiven main event.

Earlier today, Vince McMahon negotiated a deal to end the referee strike. Thank goodness. They’re also allowed to be more firm with the wrestlers.

Opening sequence.

Here are HHH and Chyna for the big celebration. HHH doesn’t care what the fans think and they can kiss his a** every time he holds the title in the air. Last night he proved that he is the Game and no one is in his league. The best part of it all though was Steve Austin himself having to count the three on the Rock. It doesn’t stop there Austin, because he is next.

Cue the British Bulldog, who tells the Game Boy that they had a deal, saying that if either of them won the title, the other would get the first title shot on Raw. Bulldog wants the title tonight, but HHH makes it clear: he lied. That’s fine for Bulldog, who says he’s taking HHH out one way or another tonight. HHH says screw you, which doesn’t surprise Bulldog so he spears HHH down. Chyna makes the save and HHH gets in a low blow but the referees break it up. Cue Vince McMahon to say HHH will defend the title tonight…against the Rock.

We look back at Fabulous Moolah attacking Ivory.

Jeff Jarrett talks to Tom Pritchard about something.

Mick Foley is here….with balloons and someone under a sheet. Oh boy.

Stephanie McMahon and Test go tuxedo shopping.

Here are Jeff Jarrett, Miss Kitty, and Tom Pritchard for a chat. Jarrett says that Debra and Chyna were completely out of line last night so he wants a men vs. women tag match tonight.

Big Show vs. Chris Jericho

Before the match, Jericho, with Mr. Hughes, brags about ending Ken Shamrock’s WWF career because he is a bad mamma jamma. Now it’s time to rid the WWF of its biggest waste of sperm. Jericho comes right at him and is promptly thrown down as Prince Albert joins commentary. Hughes offers a distraction and Jericho gets in a boot to the head. Show powers out of that with ease and loads up the chokeslam but Albert gets on top for the DQ. Who is DQ’d for someone just getting on the top? I can’t imagine it matters.

Albert dropkicks Show but here is Road Dogg to go after Jarrett.

Mankind is talking to whomever is under the sheet when Stevie Richards, dressed as Dude Love, comes in to say he is one of the dozens. Mankind is more worried about losing royalties.

Chyna warns Tom Pritchard to stay out of things.

Here is Steve Austin to a chat. He doesn’t have a problem with the Rock, but there is no reason for him to get the title shot over Austin. Therefore, he wants Vince McMahon out here RIGHT NOW for an explanation. Cue Vince, who thanks Austin for reinstating him and yes Austin was promised a title shot, but he was never told WHEN. Vince gives him the title shot at No Mercy and after clarifying what Vince said, Austin says that better wind up being true.

GTV shows the Mean Street Posse throwing out I believe Terri after, ahem, activities, though Pete Gas isn’t happy.

European Title: Steve Blackman vs. D’Lo Brown

Brown is defending, having won the title last night. Droz comes out to do commentary as Brown kicks Blackman down and hits a Stunner over the top. They go outside and Blackman hits him with the kendo stick for the DQ after less than two minutes.

Post match Blackman uses the stick to beat up a security guard (the one who tackled him at Unforgiven) and Droz stomps on Brown. Then he vomits on him. Mark Henry comes out to check on Brown, who isn’t interested in listening.

During the break, Mankind ran into Steve Austin who did not seem impressed with the balloons.

Here is Mankind, with the balloons and gifts, but minus the person under the sheet. Mankind apologizes for attacking Rock last night and hopes that the Rock N Sock Connection can go on for years. First of all, he’d like Rock to come out here, or he’ll accept that the team is dead. Cue the Rock, who has a title match tonight so he wants to know why he’s here. Mankind: “This is big Rock. This is important. In fact, THIS IS YOUR LIFE!” JR: “What?”

Some fireworks go off and…nothing happens, though apparently a big poster of the Rock was supposed to come down but it didn’t work. Balloons and confetti go off and Mankind has a voice ask if “Dwayne” would like to answer a question. This brings out the first guest: Rock’s former home economics teacher (ignore that the name Mankind gives doesn’t match the chyron, which also says she’s an English teacher), who would have been the first to smell what the Rock was cooking.

Rock asks if she remembers how much he liked to make pancakes (JR: “Uh oh.”). Instead though, he had to make cookies and muffins, but FINALLY, right before summer vacation, he was allowed to make pancakes. But unfortunately, she was all out of Aunt Jemima. Rock asks if she still likes to bake break and if she knows her rolls. Well then she should know your roll, shut your mouth and check her Aunt Jemima, no pancake having a** directly into the Smackdown Hotel. The teacher (whatever her name is) leaves and Mankind has another surprise.

Next up is Rock’s high school football coach, but Rock won’t shake his hand. Rock brings up the last game of the season where he made a big sack and then DDT’d the quarterback. The coach made him run sprints in front of all the fans, which wasn’t nice. Rock asks if coach will blow his whistle one more time…and then do something special with it (Lawler: “Oh no.”). After telling coach where the whistle can go, Rock tells him to leave and even Mankind agrees.

Rock tells Mankind to get on with it so Mankind teases saying the MILLIONS. Rock: “Don’t you ever do that.” We get the real version and then Mankind brings out Rock’s high school girlfriend. Rock won’t let her hug him but does bring up various nights on her parents’ couch with various levels of physical involvement. She would tell him to “go for second base” but then stopped him. Rock: “YOU CUT THE ROCK OFF ON SECOND BASE!”

Now she wants to go one on one with the Great One and serve him a piece of that p******* pie? Lawler is DONE off that line. That’s not happening either so she can get out of here. With nothing else working, Mankind says he didn’t know it would go this badly but stop! They are chanting his name.

Mankind apologizes for how bad the guests have been, but it’s time for the people’s presents! First up: matching Rock and Sock jackets (and yes, their names are on the front). That’s not it though, because we have MR. ROCKO! And yes, Mankind does the voice for the whole thing. Finally though, it’s time for whomever is underneath the sheet (who came down at some point). That would in fact be….YURPLE THE CLOWN!

She gives Rock an IYQ sticker (read it out loud) and even Rock doesn’t know what to say. Finally, Rock asks her name, which of course doesn’t matter. Mankind says it DOES matter because he went through a lot of effort and expense to make this nice. Rock has insulted everyone and sometimes Mankind finds him to be a very ungrateful little man. It matters because Yurple is going to lead Greensboro in a birthday singalong.

Yurple sings and a cake is wheeled down, complete with candles. Rock says he appreciates his fans, but his birthday is May 2 “you stupid son of a b****.” Mankind: “It’s just that for some reason, every day I get to spend a little time with you feels like, like somebody’s birthday.” Before Rock has to find a way around that one, HHH runs out with the sledgehammer, which sends Rock and Mankind running. HHH pops some balloons to blow off some steam.

I’ve seen this a bunch of times over the years and I appreciate it more every time. This is the kind of segment that could not have worked with anyone else because Rock could get away with being such a jerk and Mankind was just so lovable that he pulled it off. It went on for about twenty five minutes and it is basically one long continuous joke that works throughout.

The whole point is how stupid it is but these two have such amazing chemistry that it somehow worked. Mankind screwing everything up, including not even having Rock’s birthday right, was great and I still remember watching this live and quoting it for years. I wasn’t the only one either, as this is still the highest rated non-match in WWF history and a mind blowing nine million viewers.

Granted it went nearly 12 minutes over and Vince yelled at both of them, only to then see the numbers and back off in a hurry. Does it build to anything? Not in the slightest, and that’s not an issue in the slightest here. Still an all time classic and one of the most perfectly put together ridiculous things you’ll ever see in wrestling.

Here are the New Age Outlaws, with Road Dogg saying they’re tired of not being respected. The open challenge is on and we see the Hollys getting ready to accept. That’s not how it goes though.

Tag Team Titles: New Age Outlaws vs. Kane/X-Pac

The Outlaws are defending. X-Pac and Dogg shake hands to start and Dogg grabs a headlock as the Hollys come down to do commentary. Hardcore isn’t happy with not getting a shot as Kane comes in and gets pummeled in the corner by Gunn. Kane boots Gunn in the face (that’s a long reach) but Dogg breaks up a chokeslam. Everything breaks down and the Hollys come in to jump the Outlaws for the fast DQ.

Post match the Hollys get quadruple teamed out.

Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young are here to teach Ivory to respect her elders.

Ivory vs. Fabulous Moolah/Mae Young

Non-title Evening Gown match and Jerry Lawler is worried. Young takes Ivory down to start but gets flipped over by her boa. Ivory goes for the dress and gets slammed, with Young covering because the instincts are still there. Back up and Ivory manages to get Young’s dress off and sends her outside, only for Moolah to drop Ivory. Moolah easily strips Ivory for the win.

GTV sees Val Venis find Mr. Rocko in the trash and put it in his jeans.

Jeff Jarrett/Tom Pritchard vs. Chyna/Debra

Hold on though as Chyna says she’ll only do the match if she gets a title shot at No Mercy for winning. Debra opens her top to distract Pritchard and Jarrett Figure Fours Chyna. Miss Kitty gets in for a catfight with Debra, leaving Pritchard to hit Chyna with the guitar…and she falls on Jarrett for the win in just over a minute. Well that’s dumb.

WWF Title: The Rock vs. HHH

HHH is defending and Steve Austin is on commentary. HHH hammers him into the corner to start fast but gets tossed over the corner for his efforts. The fight is quickly taken into the crowd and then back to ringside…and then back into the crowd. They get back inside for a change with Rock in control but he walks into the facebuster.

The Pedigree is countered with a catapult into the corner and Rock grabs a Samoan drop. Rock clotheslines him to the floor but gets dropped onto the announcers’ table. HHH grabs a chair and the referee gets shoved down before yelling at Austin. The Stunner into a Rock Bottom plants HHH…but British Bulldog runs in for the DQ.

Rating: C-. The match was just a big brawl until the ending segment, which is fine enough, but it’s a bit disappointing to see it go this way. At the same time, they weren’t exactly hiding that the Bulldog was going to get involved here as it’s pretty basic storytelling, but after a night of nothing matches, having one regular match would have been nice.

Bulldog powerslams HHH to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. This is a hard one to rate, as the show is the usual fast paced Attitude Era insanity, but there’s that big segment in the middle which is so out of nowhere and goes so well that the rest doesn’t really matter. They started getting ready for No Mercy and barely touched on Unforgiven outside of the main event, but that only means so much when a third of the show is built around one thing. Good show overall, though there’s probably a lot of nostalgia in there.

 

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Monday Night Raw
Date: July 24, 1995
Location: Louisville Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky
Attendance: 4,181
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Vince McMahon

We’re done with In Your House II and Diesel is still the WWF Champion, having beaten Sid in a not so great lumberjack match. Shawn Michaels won the Intercontinental Title from Jeff Jarrett in a far better match. Other than that though, we are on the way to Summerslam and that might not go so well. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a look back at Shawn Michaels winning the Intercontinental Title.

Opening sequence.

Shawn Michaels vs. Jimmy Del Ray

Non-title and Jim Cornette is here with Del Ray. Michaels starts fast by taking him down for an armbar but Del Ray is right back up. A springboard out of the corner doesn’t work for Del Ray as Michaels knocks him to the floor. Back in and Del Ray hits a quick DDT and takes over, including a boot rake to the eyes. Some hip gyrating sets up a (gyrating) neckbreaker for two on Michaels and we hit the chinlock. Del Ray misses a top rope splash and Michaels hits a running forearm. A superkick drops Tom Pritchard (who was apparently here too) and another finishes Del Ray at 5:19.

Rating: C+. Well, this was at least better than Michaels’ match against IRS last week, mainly just because it was shorter. Michaels is on a roll at this point and he shouldn’t be needing that much time to take out someone like Del Ray. Not a good match here, but less bad, and for this time period, I’ll take that.

Post match Michaels teases stripping, as he tends to do.

We look at Jeff Jarrett’s live singing debut, but there are accusations that it was NOT REALLY HIM. And yes, you’re supposed to be interested by this.

We look at Shawn Michaels beating Jarrett again.

We recap Bret Hart vs. Hakushi, who had some great matches.

Smoking Gunns vs. John Faulkner/Rick Stockhauser

The jobbers have matching tights so they might be a regular team. Faulkner’s headlock doesn’t last long on Billy but it’s off to Stockhauser for an elbow. Billy fights out of trouble with ease and Bart comes in for the left hands. The Sidewinder finishes in a hurry at 2:01.

Merchandise shill….for Jeff Jarrett gear.

Goldust is coming.

Fatu wants to make a difference in his hometown of San Francisco.

Waylon Mercy vs. Gary Scott

Mercy hammers him down at the bell to start and chokes away. A hard whip into the corner has Scott in more trouble and the sleeper finishes for Mercy at 2:02.

We go to the Summerslam Control Center, which turns into a recap of In Your House. Ah the days of pay per view replays. King Mabel is ready to come for Diesel next, because we have to see some horrible things from time to time.

Bret Hart vs. Hakushi

Hakushi has Shinja with him. We get a little weird before the match as Hakushi pulls out a Hart mannequin head. Uh, right. Hart goes after Shinja to start so Hakushi jumps him from behind. Back in and Hakushi’s Vader Bomb hits knees, allowing Hart to hammer away. The backbreaker connects and Hart slugs at the ribs. A whip into the corner is reversed and Hart goes back first into the post as we take a break.

We come back with Hakushi hitting a nasty kick to the face, followed by a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. A top rope headbutt to the back gets two and we’re off to the nerve hold. That’s broken up and Hakushi rolls him to the floor and we take another break. Back with Hakushi connecting with a Asai moonsault but Hart is right back up. They get back in for a backbreaker into a middle rope elbow, followed by the bulldog for two on Hakushi. Hart gets knocked down again but he avoids a top rope headbutt. The superplex into the Sharpshooter makes Hakushi give up at 16:24.

Rating: B. Match of the month on the show so far, which really shouldn’t be a surprise. They’ve been in the ring before and worked well together so it makes sense to give them a rematch. Hart can work well with anyone and Hakushi was ready to hang in there with him. Yes I’m as shocked as you are that Hart stole the show, as he was doing it time after time in this era.

Post match Hart beats up Shinja for a bonus. Cue Jean-Pierre Lafitte to steal the bag from before the match.

Dean Douglas has the Report Card, where he talks about the importance of knowledge. This was bad, but what else were you expecting?

Jerry Lawler yells at Shawn Michaels and doesn’t see much in his future. Michaels isn’t impressed to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. The main event helped carry things here, but you could only expect so much when the focus was on Hart and Michaels. There are only so many talented stars on the roster at this point and this focused on two of the really good ones. They rest of the show was the usual collection of squashes, but Hart vs. Hakushi is worth a look.

 

 

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Continental Wrestling Federation TV
Date: October 8, 1988
Location: Civic Center, Montgomery, Alabama
Commentators: Charlie Platt, Dutch Mantell

Back again with the second of four straight weeks of TV that I have here. We’re done with the Road to Birmingham now so it should be interesting to see where things go. Gilbert is gone, Pritchard is the champion, the tag titles didn’t change hands, and other than that there isn’t much else I can think of. Let’s get to it.

A masked guy is gunning for the Dirty White Boy. No name is given for him.

This is the “Showing of the Stars”, whatever that means. The voiceover lists off some of the people in action tonight.

Private Powell vs. Davey Rich

Well at least it’s not Davey Richards. He’s part of the Party Patrol you would hear about in the previous week’s show. The ring is small, like a WCW one. Rich takes over with a headscissors and a headlock. He works the arm which goes on for awhile. I think they botch a flip of some sort as I think Powell was supposed to use a monkey flip kind of thing but Rich jumped and crotched himself. Back to the arm and this is REALLY dull. Rich is in Hogan colors. They botch a sunset flip out of the corner and Rich gets the pin.

Rating: F. So they spent five minutes working on the arm and botching half of the moves they were trying? This was awful and there was nothing redeeming at all, even imaging Hogan being a member of the Party Patrol. Nothing to see here and not a good sign for the rest of the show.

The Bullet (Bob Armstrong in a mask, the guy that opened the show) is here but first let’s hear about those house shows. Bullet says that there are a lot of people here with talent and that’s about it. Dirty White Boy comes out to call him out and the match is next.

The Bullet vs. Dirty White Boy

They immediately slug it out and apparently this is a big feud. The White Boy (also known as Tony Anthony. Isn’t that a little redundant?) hammers away to take over. This is more of a brawl than a match, but with the names in there, were you expecting anything else? Off to a chinlock by Anthony. Make that a LONG chinlock which gets two arm drops. Bullet hits a clothesline and starts his comeback. There’s a whip brought in from somewhere and the match is thrown out.

Rating: D-. This was only somewhat better but it’s mostly punching and chinlocks. Oh before I forget: Anthony was in WWF for awhile as T.L. Hopper if you remember him. Bullet is Road Dogg’s dad and that’s about the extent of his fame. Not much of a match and I’m assuming the history of this is a lot more interesting.

Post match Jerry Stubbs and the Dirty White Girl (seriously) comes in for a beatdown. The Party Patrol makes the save.

Since this is an old TV show, we get part of a commercial. This commercial features ERNEST P. WORRELL!!!!!! He’s from Lexington so he’s kind of a local hero.

The announcers talk about how the Rich Cousins (Party Patrol) are awesome. If you don’t believe us, here’s a taped match with them in it.

Pat Rose/Deuce Mason vs. Davey Rich/Johnny Rich

Johnny vs. Rose gets us going. Off to Deuce and this is looking like a total squash. Yep a shoulder block (seriously?) ends this in like 40 seconds.

Ken Wayne is here on commentary for the next match. He’s the US Junior Heavyweight Champion again.

Tom Pritchard vs. The Grappler II

This is after the Road to Birmingham tournament which Pritchard won but there’s no reference or title to be seen. He references having his hair and having a new car so this is after the Birmingham show. Grappler is a guy in a mask and the original was a huge deal in Portland. Ok so Pritchard is officially Heavyweight Champion. My guess is this was taped before the Birmingham show with commentary added later. Very basic match and we talk about the Night of Champions coming up. Pritchard controls with a headlock….and that’s enough of that.

We cut to the back where White Boy and Stubbs (the new tag champions which wasn’t mentioned when they were in the ring) talking about Bullet and the Rich Cousins. They switch to an inset window and Pritchard keeps the headlock the whole time. Grappler finally hits a suplex to take over and we talk about an elimination tag match coming up. They’re not exactly Survivor Series matches and the rules are too complex to figure out. Jerry Stubbs is called Mr. Perfect here. That gimmick was either about to start in WWF or already had.

Grappler hooks something resembling a chinlock but it’s more like a nerve hold. Pritchard makes the comeback and Wayne complains about everything he does. I guess this is to build up to a match between them. Pritchard hits a spin kick to the ribs and makes his real comeback. Grappler slams him and drops a leg for two. Pritchard hooks a backslide but the time limit runs out at two. The new heavyweight champion just wrestled to a draw in his first match as champion. WOW.

Rating: D. Honestly when this match was going on for awhile, I jokingly thought to myself that they would go to a draw in the first match in Pritchard’s reign, but then chuckled and said there’s no way they would do that. AND THEN THEY DID IT. The match was nothing special, but I don’t get the booking here in the slightest.

Big brawl post match. Wayne offers to let the announcer touch his hair before he goes.

White Lightning (this company borders on racial issues with these white themed names) talks about the elimination matches they mentioned earlier. We get an old match of Horner’s and the announcer tells us he wins. Well thanks for the drama.

Tim Horner vs. Private Powell

Did the world really demand two Private Powell matches? Bullett is on commentary. Powell takes over to start but walks into an atomic drop and bridging O’Connor Roll for the pin. Lasted maybe 90 seconds.

Willie B. Hert vs. The Counteract

Willie is your standard happy dancing black character. Count is in an executioner hood and I don’t see this going long. Willie beats him up and sends him to the floor. Instead of following up, it’s a dance party. Willie works on the arm and the crowd is DEAD. A suplex gets two. There’s a forearm and it’s finally done. That was like six or seven minutes lone somehow.

Rating: D-. Does this company get paid by the arm work? They seem to LOVE that kind of stuff and it wasn’t anything to see here. Hert isn’t interesting but is supposed to be a fun character I’d assume. Nothing to see here but that’s to be expected in this company it would seem.

Willie talks about Night of Champions but some blonde guy comes up and yells at him. He’s a champion of some sort. Oh that’s Wayne….again. They get in the ring and their match is next time.

Overall Rating: D+. It was a very different show this week but more boring. There was no real focus of the show and it seemed like they were all over the place. Pritchard vs. Grappler is long and that’s about all it had going for it. Not much here, but lucky me I get to do two more weeks of it. Anyway, not much to see here but at least it’s a pretty short TV show.

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Continental Wrestling Federation TV
Date: October 8, 1988
Location: Civic Center, Montgomery, Alabama
Commentators: Charlie Platt, Dutch Mantell

Back again with the second of four straight weeks of TV that I have here. We’re done with the Road to Birmingham now so it should be interesting to see where things go. Gilbert is gone, Pritchard is the champion, the tag titles didn’t change hands, and other than that there isn’t much else I can think of. Let’s get to it.

A masked guy is gunning for the Dirty White Boy. No name is given for him.

This is the “Showing of the Stars”, whatever that means. The voiceover lists off some of the people in action tonight.

Private Powell vs. Davey Rich

Well at least it’s not Davey Richards. He’s part of the Party Patrol you would hear about in the previous week’s show. The ring is small, like a WCW one. Rich takes over with a headscissors and a headlock. He works the arm which goes on for awhile. I think they botch a flip of some sort as I think Powell was supposed to use a monkey flip kind of thing but Rich jumped and crotched himself. Back to the arm and this is REALLY dull. Rich is in Hogan colors. They botch a sunset flip out of the corner and Rich gets the pin.

Rating: F. So they spent five minutes working on the arm and botching half of the moves they were trying? This was awful and there was nothing redeeming at all, even imaging Hogan being a member of the Party Patrol. Nothing to see here and not a good sign for the rest of the show.

The Bullet (Bob Armstrong in a mask, the guy that opened the show) is here but first let’s hear about those house shows. Bullet says that there are a lot of people here with talent and that’s about it. Dirty White Boy comes out to call him out and the match is next.

The Bullet vs. Dirty White Boy

They immediately slug it out and apparently this is a big feud. The White Boy (also known as Tony Anthony. Isn’t that a little redundant?) hammers away to take over. This is more of a brawl than a match, but with the names in there, were you expecting anything else? Off to a chinlock by Anthony. Make that a LONG chinlock which gets two arm drops. Bullet hits a clothesline and starts his comeback. There’s a whip brought in from somewhere and the match is thrown out.

Rating: D-. This was only somewhat better but it’s mostly punching and chinlocks. Oh before I forget: Anthony was in WWF for awhile as T.L. Hopper if you remember him. Bullet is Road Dogg’s dad and that’s about the extent of his fame. Not much of a match and I’m assuming the history of this is a lot more interesting.

Post match Jerry Stubbs and the Dirty White Girl (seriously) comes in for a beatdown. The Party Patrol makes the save.

Since this is an old TV show, we get part of a commercial. This commercial features ERNEST P. WORRELL!!!!!! He’s from Lexington so he’s kind of a local hero.

The announcers talk about how the Rich Cousins (Party Patrol) are awesome. If you don’t believe us, here’s a taped match with them in it.

Pat Rose/Deuce Mason vs. Davey Rich/Johnny Rich

Johnny vs. Rose gets us going. Off to Deuce and this is looking like a total squash. Yep a shoulder block (seriously?) ends this in like 40 seconds.

Ken Wayne is here on commentary for the next match. He’s the US Junior Heavyweight Champion again.

Tom Pritchard vs. The Grappler II

This is after the Road to Birmingham tournament which Pritchard won but there’s no reference or title to be seen. He references having his hair and having a new car so this is after the Birmingham show. Grappler is a guy in a mask and the original was a huge deal in Portland. Ok so Pritchard is officially Heavyweight Champion. My guess is this was taped before the Birmingham show with commentary added later. Very basic match and we talk about the Night of Champions coming up. Pritchard controls with a headlock….and that’s enough of that.

We cut to the back where White Boy and Stubbs (the new tag champions which wasn’t mentioned when they were in the ring) talking about Bullet and the Rich Cousins. They switch to an inset window and Pritchard keeps the headlock the whole time. Grappler finally hits a suplex to take over and we talk about an elimination tag match coming up. They’re not exactly Survivor Series matches and the rules are too complex to figure out. Jerry Stubbs is called Mr. Perfect here. That gimmick was either about to start in WWF or already had.

Grappler hooks something resembling a chinlock but it’s more like a nerve hold. Pritchard makes the comeback and Wayne complains about everything he does. I guess this is to build up to a match between them. Pritchard hits a spin kick to the ribs and makes his real comeback. Grappler slams him and drops a leg for two. Pritchard hooks a backslide but the time limit runs out at two. The new heavyweight champion just wrestled to a draw in his first match as champion. WOW.

Rating: D. Honestly when this match was going on for awhile, I jokingly thought to myself that they would go to a draw in the first match in Pritchard’s reign, but then chuckled and said there’s no way they would do that. AND THEN THEY DID IT. The match was nothing special, but I don’t get the booking here in the slightest.

Big brawl post match. Wayne offers to let the announcer touch his hair before he goes.

White Lightning (this company borders on racial issues with these white themed names) talks about the elimination matches they mentioned earlier. We get an old match of Horner’s and the announcer tells us he wins. Well thanks for the drama.

Tim Horner vs. Private Powell

Did the world really demand two Private Powell matches? Bullett is on commentary. Powell takes over to start but walks into an atomic drop and bridging O’Connor Roll for the pin. Lasted maybe 90 seconds.

Willie B. Hert vs. The Counteract

Willie is your standard happy dancing black character. Count is in an executioner hood and I don’t see this going long. Willie beats him up and sends him to the floor. Instead of following up, it’s a dance party. Willie works on the arm and the crowd is DEAD. A suplex gets two. There’s a forearm and it’s finally done. That was like six or seven minutes lone somehow.

Rating: D-. Does this company get paid by the arm work? They seem to LOVE that kind of stuff and it wasn’t anything to see here. Hert isn’t interesting but is supposed to be a fun character I’d assume. Nothing to see here but that’s to be expected in this company it would seem.

Willie talks about Night of Champions but some blonde guy comes up and yells at him. He’s a champion of some sort. Oh that’s Wayne….again. They get in the ring and their match is next time.

Overall Rating: D+. It was a very different show this week but more boring. There was no real focus of the show and it seemed like they were all over the place. Pritchard vs. Grappler is long and that’s about all it had going for it. Not much here, but lucky me I get to do two more weeks of it. Anyway, not much to see here but at least it’s a pretty short TV show.

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