I like the title if nothing else.

Disc 1
A Happy Story
Idyllic Childhood
Huge Fan
Training School
Working the Road
WCW
Sting
Vader
ECW & Japan
Mankind
Dude Love
Hell in a Cell
Mr. Socko
The Rock
Author
Triple H
Commissioner
Going Away
Randy Orton
Making a Difference
Edge
Retirement
Stand Up Comic
A Complete One-Off
Disc 2
Jack Foley / Les Thornton vs. The British Bulldogs
Superstars September 1986
Alternate Commentary: Mick Foley & Joey Styles

Cactus Jack / Gary Young vs. Scott Steiner / Billy Travis
AWA All Star Wrestling October 1988

Cactus Jack Manson vs. Brickhouse Brown
Wild West Wrestling April 1989

Cactus Jack vs. Keith Hart
Power Hour March 1990
Submit or Surrender Match

Cactus Jack vs. Sting
Power Hour November 1991

Falls Count Anywhere Match
Cactus Jack vs. Van Hammer
Clash of the Champions XVIII 21st January, 1992

Barbed Wire Match
Cactus Jack vs. Sandman
Ft. Lauderdale, FL May 1995

Cactus Jack vs. Shane Douglas
CyberSlam February 1996
Alternate Commentary: Mick Foley & Joey Styles

Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia
IYH: Cold Day in Hell 11th May, 1997

Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
IYH: Canadian Stampede 6th July, 1997
 
Disc 3
Dude Love vs. Rocky Maivia
RAW 17th November, 1997

Hell in a Cell
Mankind vs. Undertaker King of the Ring 28th June, 1998
Alternate Commentary: Mick Foley & Joey Styles

WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Mankind / Kane vs. New Age Outlaws
RAW 13th July, 1998

WWE Championship Match
Mankind vs. The Rock
IYH: Rock Bottom 13th December, 1998

WWE Tag Team Championship
Mankind / The Rock vs. Triple H / Shane McMahon
SmackDown 2nd September, 1999

Mankind vs. Al Snow
SmackDown 16th December, 1999

Hell In A Cell – Retirement Match
Cactus Jack vs. Triple H
No Way Out 27th February, 2000
 
Blu-ray Exclusives
Promos:

Sting’s Birthday Cake
WCW World Championship Wrestling 5th October, 1991

No Ear Surgery
WCW Saturday Night 10th September, 1994

Barbie
RAW 5th April, 2004

Cutting Edge
SmackDown 1st August, 2008

Relevancy with CM Punk
RAW 24th September, 2012

Stories:
Frank Foley
Snowed In
DeNucci Training School
Arrested in Italy?
Cactus Jack – The Name
Africa
Birth of Bang Bang
Losing Teeth
On the Spot
Wanted T-Shirt
Smoking Flight?
Anti-Hardcore ECW
Farewell in ECW
Vicious Suplex
Kevin Sullivan – Mentor
Rock ‘n Sock Jacket
Disneyland
Loogie Heard ‘Round the World
Commentator
Mr. Socko vs. The Cobra
Comedy Show
Favourite Mick Foley Persona
Sheamus Meets Mick
Christmas Cheer
Wardrobe
Thrifty Mick

Other than the Taker Cell match I don’t see any repeats unless the other Cell match is available somewhere.

Apparently I was wrong on the one night only appearance.  It looks like they’re setting up something with him and Ziggler which is kind of surprising given that they’ve done that feud already, but if anyone can fit into a show off match with Ziggler, it’s Jericho.

This occurred to me earlier today when I was talking about Ziggler in the Rumble.  think about the Smackdown title picture right now.  It’s STACKED.We’ve got the suddenly awesome Del Rio as champion and the following people to challenge him:

Big Show

Ziggler

Orton

Sheamus

Also you could throw in Ryback, Punk and Jericho as potential challengers.  That is a DEEP main event scene.  On Raw we have Rock, Cena and Punk and that’s it.  I’m way more fired up about the WHC right now than the WWE Title.

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 28, 2013
Location: Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, John Bradshaw Layfield

The Rumble is over now and the big stories are Rock winning the title and Cena winning the Rumble, likely setting up a title rematch that I don’t think many people are interested in seeing. Tonight is also Raw Roulette which is a gimmick that this show flat out doesn’t need. We should be getting ready for Wrestlemania but instead we get a night of gimmick matches and lame jokes instead. Let’s get to it.

We open with Vickie who has three roulette wheels behind her. One has superstars, one has stipulations and one has a bunch of HILARIOUS gimmicks on it. First up is Cesaro vs. Orton which gets a special referee.

Here are Punk and Heyman to the ring and they are TICKED. Punk says this is day 435 and he goes on a RANT about how he’s still champion and that he didn’t lose. Ropes are kicked and tiny pieces of hair follicles are probably pulled out. Punk says Rock couldn’t beat him without anyone’s help and that makes the fans cheaters. Vince and Rock are swindlers and Punk is going to crash Rock’s party tonight.

This brings out Vince who has this big goofy grin on his face. Punk calls him every insulting name he can think of but Vince says that he has proof that Heyman was behind the Shield attacks. Heyman: “Sir if I may…” Vince: “YOU MAY NOT!” Vince says he’ll be evaluating Heyman later tonight which might result in his firing. This was a pretty fast ending.

Randy Orton vs. Antonio Cesaro

The guest referee is the Miz, which I said before his music hit. This was obvious because Cesaro pinned Miz clean last night, meaning the feud must continue. Anyway this is joined in progress after a break with Orton getting two off something we didn’t see. Cesaro pounds away in the corner but gets clotheslined down again. A suplex gets two for Orton and we head to the floor where Cesaro’s back is sent into the barricade.

Back in and Orton slingshots Antonio’s throat into the ropes for two. Miz has done nothing of note so far. They trade European uppercuts with Cesaro taking over. Orton comes right back with a BIG backdrop to send Cesaro to the floor as we take another break. Back with Cesaro guillotining Orton on the top rope and heading to the floor for a bit. Back in and there’s a cravate for a bit before Randy charges into a falcon’s arrow for two.

Off to a chinlock but Orton fights out of it with his usual stuff including the powerslam. Cesaro comes back with a jumping back elbow off the middle rope (looked great) for two. He argues with Miz, allowing Orton to hit the backbreaker. Cesaro pokes Orton in the eye and gets in an argument with Miz, allowing Orton to hit the RKO for the pin at 12:45 shown.

Rating: C+. This was decent stuff but we were just waiting on Miz to do something. Like I said though there is no reason for Miz to be involved in this feud anymore. The guy lost clean in the title match last night so why should they still be interacting? The face turn continues to falter and Orton’s heel turn continues to not seem to be anytime soon.

Miz hits Cesaro with the Finale and looks at the Mania sign.

The next spin is by Ryback and he gets to make Vickie laugh. He starts by snorting at her and walking away.

Here’s Ryback to the ring and after a break we see Andre Agassi and Stefi Graf in the audience. The Prime Time Players, Ryback and Matt Striker are in the ring. Apparently this is a joke off. The Players make a joke about Striker’s luck with women that isn’t funny and didn’t make a lot of sense. Ryback asks what has four eyes, twenty fingers, and is about to be unconscious. The beating begins and Young runs away. Striker declares Ryback the winner and gets Shell Shocked too.

Backlund HOF video again.

Wade Barrett gets to pick his opponent tonight.

Wade Barrett vs. Bo Dallas

Dallas eliminated Barrett from the Rumble last and is the rookie from NXT. They fight in the corner a bit but Barrett hits his kick to the ribs to take over. Barrett loads up the Bull Hammer but charges into a belly to belly suplex for the shocking pin at 2:12. There’s Barrett’s first real feud as champion.

Cody Rhodes spins John Cena which is up next.

We hear about Cena being on Fruity Pebbles boxes, replacing Fred Flintstone. As stupid as it sounds, that’s a pretty big deal.

Cody Rhoes vs. John Cena

Cena starts fast with a dropkick and a fisherman’s suplex to send Rhodes to the floor. Cody says this is a waste of his talents and walks away, only for Cena to throw him right back in. The usual finishes for Cena at 1:56.

Cena talks about how some people don’t seem thrilled that he won. There were 30 people in the match last night but he’s the guy that won. Throwing Ryback out to win is the first step towards Wrestlemania, where he can face a champion of his choosing. Cena says this is a difficult step, but first let’s pause to tell Cena he sucks. Apparently it’s going to be either Rock or Punk for some reason. I didn’t hear talk of a rematch. Cena says that he can face Punk again but he’s come up short in six tries to win the title. But I thought Cena never lost anything.

On the other hand is the Rock. Cena talks about talking down about Rock even before Rock returned so that when Rock showed up again, there would be only one possible candidate. Then Cena spent a year feuding with Rock and there were times Cena showed him up completely. Everything was perfect until April 1 when he lost everything he had spent a year doing.

Cena says Rock won and there’s the chant for the champion. He asks which one he should challenge: the guy he has even money to beat or one of the two guys he seemingly never could beat. Cena makes his decision right now: the WWE Champion, whoever that is at Mania. That smells like a three way to me.

Before Cena can leave, cue the Shield to surround the ring. The beating is on, which basically kills the Cena leads the Shield rumors. Sheamus tries to make the save but here’s Ryback for the real save. Six man tag at Elimination Chamber maybe? Either way a big brawl breaks out with Sheamus being posted. Cena tries to fight them off again but gets beaten down. The TripleBomb leaves Cena laying.

Brodus and Tensai are going to have a lingerie pillow fight but Tensai says no way. They spin the other wheel and it’s a dance off but Tensai didn’t see it. COMEDY is coming people!

We see everything WWE did in Phoenix this week.

Time for the dance off but Tensai first takes off a robe to reveal women’s lingerie. Brodus has a heart attack. It’s time for the dance off with Brodus going first. Tensai doesn’t want to dance but Lawler says what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Tensai does some very awkward stuff including Gangam Style and some other outdated stuff. The guy that got to beat Punk and Cena last year everybody. Ron Simmons pops up for his one word. JBL: “I know that guy.”

Del Rio gets a body slam challenge with Big Show.

It’s time for the body slam challenge but Big Show knocks Del Rio out. He tapes the champion up to the rope and destroys Ricardo while Alberto has to watch. This goes on for awhile and is rather awesome with Del Rio being tortured mentally while Ricardo got the physical part. Also the revenge will be SWEET.

Kaitlyn vs. Tamina

This is a showgirl lumberjill match. The girls are in showgirl outfits which look good but the lumberjill stuff is played already. This is non-title too. Tamina takes over to start and takes Katilyn down with a chinlock. Kaitlyn is thrown to the floor and beats up I think Aksana in the process. Tamina gets hit by a headdress and Kaitlyn goes after her with some decent aggression. That goes out the window as she puts the hat on Kaitlyn but the girls all come in for the no contest at 2:58. Nothing to see here.

Here’s Rock to address the people. He says that the word to sum up the title win is FINALLY, because it’s been a long journey. Rock has won seven WWE Championships before but this one means more than any. He thanks the people and says the days of CM Punk saying the people mean nothing are over. Rock gets in his usual jabs at Punk and Heyman but here’s the ex-champion.

Punk says that he earned the title unlike rock who had it handed to him. If Rock has any respect at all, he would hand the championship back to Punk right now. Rock says come get it and says Punk can either come get it or stand up there like a coward. Punk comes to the ring but says he’s staying on the stage. He wants a rematch and lists off some places he’ll be this weekend but finally says let’s do it at Elimination Chamber. Also, this is ROCK’s rematch, not Punk’s. Rock says let’s do it.

Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow

This is a tables match because RANDOM! Sheamus seems to be favoring his left arm. Sandow runs to the floor to start and Sheamus is fine with beating him up out there. A table is set up in front of the ramp but Sandow runs away from it. We head to the other side of the ring where Damien finally dropkicks him down to take over. Another table is set up but instead Sheamus just throws it at him. Back in and Sandow takes out the injured (by the Shield) shoulder with a DDT. Apparently it’s Sheamus’ birthday today. Ok then.

Damien brings in another table and kind of Pillmanizes the arm with the table legs. Sheamus comes back with ease but misses a Brogue Kick that would have sent Sandow through a table. Damien charges but gets caught by the slingshot shoulder. Sandow hits him in the arm again and drops the Wind-Up Elbow. Sheamus is thrown ribs first into the side of a table in a painful looking move. Sandow goes up top, only to get shoved down to the apron for the ten forearms. A suplex back in doesn’t work but White Noise through the table in the corner is enough for the win at 7:21.

Rating: C. Pretty decent match here but the tables were more clutter than anything else. That’s the problem with Raw Roulette in general: these gimmicks don’t add anything at all to the matches. If you want Sheamus to beat Sandow with White Noise, you can do that just fine without tables. The match was pretty entertaining but it doesn’t accomplish much of anything.

It’s time for WWE Karaoke with Ryder and Khali and company as the contestants. Khali gets to sing Shawn’s theme song but after nearly crushing Shawn’s entire career, 3MB interrupts. Drew: “Whoa whoa whoooooooooooooa sweet child of mine.” I love Drew McIntyre now. He gets chopped in the head for his efforts and it’s a Rough Ryder for Mahal. The big chop and Tadpole Splash (Horny is part of “and company”) take out Slater.

Here’s Jericho’s latest return to Raw. He welcomes us to Raw is Jericho and thanks all of the Jericholics for watching at home, which is something he’ll neeeeeeeeeeeeeever forget a-gain. This brings out Team Ziggler with the namesake pointing out that Jericho is gone thanks to losing to Dolph six months ago. AJ says that was her idea but Jericho says put a leash on her already.

Langston says Jericho should leave before Big E. ruins the return. Jericho: “What does the E stand for? Your bra size?” Vickie pops up on screen and says she signed Jericho back to Raw and he gets to face Dolph tonight in a Strange Bedfellows match. In other words, they get to team up to fight HELL NO.

HELL NO vs. Dolph Ziggler/Chris Jericho

Ziglger and Kane start things off with the unlikely partners bickering as we take a break about 25 seconds into the match. Back with Jericho being tagged in reluctantly, only to take both Kane and the legal Bryan down. The Walls to Bryan can’t work and HELL NO collides. Jericho lets them fight and they start shoving each other. Ziggler tags himself in but Jericho slaps Kane in the back, leaving Ziggler alone in the ring. Chokeslam ends Ziggler at 5:40, over half of which was in commercial.

Here’s Vince to give Heyman his job evaluation. Before Paul comes out, Vince says Punk has been escorted from the building. They shake hands so Vince uses some liquid soap. He asks Heyman if Paul is behind the Shield or Maddox but Paul denies it. Vince asks Heyman if he’s ever lied. Heyman says something Vince’s dad says before saying of course he’s lied every day because promoters have to do that to survive. However, right now he isn’t lying of course.

Vince asks the fans if Heyman has an honest face or if he’s an honest man. The fans chant no so let’s go to the tape that Vince has. It’s of Heyman and Maddox in the dark somewhere with Heyman saying turn the camera off. The audio keeps going though and the cameraman turns it back on. Heyman talks about paying Maddox off to screw Ryback in the Cell and paying the Shield in general. He says he and Punk have been doing it together and the Shield comes up to surround Maddox. Maddox begs and is beaten down anyway as the camera goes out.

Back in the arena and Heyman is panicking. Fans: “YOU GOT BUSTED!” Heyman says that wasn’t him in the video and that Vince knows what it’s like to be falsely accused. Paul says he has a thick New York Jewish accent and it’s easy to impersonate. Heyman goes on a big rant about being falsely accused because of his success and saying that wasn’t him again. Vince says he’s going to have to future endeavor Heyman but LESNAR!

Brock is back (in bright yellow shoes) and circles the ring before getting inside to face Vince. He gets in Vince’s face and they touch noses. Vince says Lesnar shouldn’t do something he’ll regret later. Lesnar keeps telling Heyman to go back to the corner. He nods at Heyman and it’s an F5 for Vince as Heyman screams NO.

Overall Rating: D+. I forgot how annoying Raw Roulette can be. There’s nothing to most of these shows and that was the case here. The gimmicks get in the way of the matches which defeats the purpose. This is very reminiscent of Open Fight Night where the matches are the same ones we could see on any given Raw. Nothing much to see here and the show was a letdown coming off last night’s Raw.  The ending helps a bit but not enough.

Results

Randy Orton b. Antonio Cesaro – RKO

Bo Dallas b. Wade Barrett – Belly to belly suplex

John Cena b. Cody Rhodes – Attitude Adjustment

Kaitlyn vs. Tamina went to a no contest

Sheamus b. Damien Sandow – White Noise through a table

HELL NO b. Chris Jericho/Dolph Ziggler

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

That’s fine by me.  If nothing else she’ll make the class a lot better looking.

Last night was a good example of this.Something that I’ve mentioned before is how nostalgic characters are supposed to be used today.  The problem with having guys like Roddy and Dusty and Slaughter doing nostalgia appearances is that they’ve been nostalgic for such a long period of time that the impact is gone.  They’re stars of the 80s, not the 90s.

Last night on the other hand, we saw guys like Goldust, Godfather and the year before that we had the Outlaws in the Rumble.  This is pure nostalgia for people that grew up in the 90s and are a bit bored by modern wrestling at the moment.  Geez if you consider Rock much more than a nostalgia character at this point you’re missing the point.  WWE is FINALLY catering to the 90s fans whose wallets they built the Attitude Era on.  It’s fine to bring out the 80s guys every once in awhile, but mix it up with the 90s every now and then.

Coming into the Rumble, Ziggler was a big topic of conversation but last night not much happened.Ziggler had talked about cashing in MITB but he didn’t.  He talked about winning the Royal Rumble but he didn’t.  He’s been losing a good deal of his matches recently and while he’s certainly impressive with some of his matches, he hasn’t really won anything other than at TLC where he was defending what he already had.  Other than that, Ziggler hasn’t really accomplished much lately.  He has until July to cash in his case and as usual it seems like a matter of time before he does it.

I’m not sure what they’re doing at the moment because they’ve kind of booked themselves into a corner.  With Del Rio getting over very well as a face, that gives a minimum of four people who could be in the world title match at Wrestlemania: Orton, Ziggler, Sheamus and Del Rio.  Odds are it won’t be Ziggler in the title match but it’s clear that he’s going to have a top level match.  I’m thinking he gets put with Del Rio, although not for the title.  There’s always a chance he’ll cash in before Mania, perhaps after the Chamber.

Either way, Smackdown is pretty awesome at the moment with their title picture.

The Rumble was last night and there’s a LOT to talk about so expect a lot of posts from me today about various topics from the show.

One of the major things that happened last night was CM Punk’s 434 day world title reign came to an end.  The common response to this (mine included) is that the ending to Rock vs. Punk could have been better.  Let’s take a quick look at why and some other things about the title reign.First of all the problem I had with the ending wasn’t about the People’s Elbow but rather the spinebuster that set it up.  Rock had been talking about hitting the Rock Bottom and dedicated an entire promo to the idea.  The Elbow itself is fine for Rock to finish with as he beat Hogan with it plus multiple other legends.  It’s a finishing move for Rock so it’s not a huge deal at all.

As for Punk losing, you knew it was going to happen at some point.  It had to.  I mean, the guy had been champion since the November before last.  It doesn’t make Punk’s title reign a joke, it doesn’t make Punk look weak and it doesn’t do anything bad to him.  Everyone loses their title at some point, from Bruno getting pinned by Ivan Koloff to Hogan getting cheated by the Hebners.  Punk had to lose at some point and he was pinned at a Big Four show by the third biggest star in the history of wrestling.  That’s hardly getting surprised by a rollup by Primo.

Finally, where does Punk’s title reign rank all time?  The main problem for Punk’s reign is that almost everyone knew that he was losing the title to Rock at the Rumble for well over six months now.  That made nearly half of his reign feel like a formality than a championship reign that could go on forever.  That being said, it was still amazing to see in this day and age, especially given the people he was retaining against.  It doesn’t come off as one of the greatest reigns ever due to feeling like a transitional reign, but it’s going to be the longest we see for a VERY long time.  That’s something Punk can certainly be proud of.  How he didn’t win Wrestler of the Year from everyone is beyond me.

Source

Now keep in mind these are the same sites that said Benjamin, Carlito and others were LOCKS, yes LOCKS I SAY for the Rumble.  If this is the case though, things change a good bit as now they can stagger his feuds out a bit more.  This has to be a relief for WWE if nothing else.

Thoughts?

This seems to be the general consensus about the match that is about as obvious as you could ask it to be.So at the Rumble, Cena won the right to fight for a world title at Wrestlemania.  As luck would have it, Rock won the WWE Title and will likely be defending it at Wrestlemania.  If you’re too dense to figure it out at this point, it’s pretty clear that Rock vs. Cena II is happening in New York at Wrestlemania 29.  However, every opinion I’ve read of it since then seems to be the same: people aren’t that thrilled with the prospect.

That’s about where I am on it too.  Now don’t get me wrong: the match is going to be solid as these two can, no joke intended, bring it.  The problem isn’t having the match be good.  It’s having the match feel huge.  Rock and Cena had a year to set up the previous match and by the end of it, I had to see it.  I didn’t care what happened or how good it was but I needed to see the match.  With two and a half months to go and nothing new other than the title being on the line, I don’t see how this is going to come off as something nearly as huge as last year.

Do I want to see it?  Eh…..yeah I guess.  If nothing else the promo work will be amazing as always.  However, that comes back to the same problem: we heard these two talk about each other over the course of 14 months already.  Basically this coming Wrestlemania feels like reheating the feast we had last year: it’s still good but it doesn’t taste like it did straight out of the oven.

Is anyone fired up at this idea?