What Are You Watching / Last Match, Event or Documentary You Saw

ShawnRaven

WWF Superstars August-October 1991

Don't expect many main event matches on these, but there was pretty decent buildups post Summerslam, Pre Survivor Series. Jake Roberts heel turn as he sides with Undertaker to form the Unholy Alliance. Sgt Slaughter turns face after what seems like endless weeks of promos all ending with "I want my country back"

Savage goes on a reinstatement campaign. Bret Hart is fresh off a failed program with Warlord after winning the IC title from Hennig, The Mountie is fresh off his feud with Big Bossman, and whenever he asks Jobbers if they know who he is, they all respond "The Jailbird". Both Bret and Rougeau are about to begin their fued about this point.

Heenan has retired from managing at this point but is walking around with the NWA World Heavyweight Title, which was heavy stuff at the time because it was never heard of having that belt on WCW television. Piper gets the first crack at Flair, by coming down to Heenan on The Funeral Parlour and spitting on the belt. Flair however, still has yet to debut.

So not much in the way of matches, but if you're looking for buildups and storylines. Superstars was the way to go from 1986-1992.

VR!

Fozzy

Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs Naomichi Marufuji - GHC Heavyweight Title Match, NOAH, September 29th

The winner of this match defends the belt against Samoa Joe later this month. Certainly not the best match either guy has ever had, but it had its moments, mainly with some cool stuff outside the ring. Misawa desperately needs to avoid the corners though. He slipped on a monkey-flip attempt, he slipped on the ropes just before he was about to dive out of the ring, and he severely messed up a Tiger Driver attempt off the top rope

Just noticed some interesting matches coming soon in NOAH: KENTA vs Ricky Marvin for the first time ever, Marufuji vs Doug Williams, and Misawa vs D'Lo Brown!

gimmick

Marufuji & Ibushi Vs KENTA & Ishimori

This is everything that is good about pro wrestling. Relentless pace, high spots, no let up, raw aggression, pure(o) awesomeness. There is a moonsault spot by Ibushi in this which needs to be seen to be believed. Man I had a smil on my face for the entire 25 minutes of that. See this match. And love this match. Defo MOTYC.

TheNumpty

Tonight's Raw, mostly non eventful until the end

The return of HBK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ShawnRaven

WWF Superstars October-December 1991:

Rounded off this year so i can get stuck into 1992. I generally watch this stuff all day. Matches were srtarting to break away from the jobber squashes as we had Ric Flair vs Jim Neidhart where Flair puts Neidhart on the shelf, knocking him out of the Survivor Series. Bret Hart gets electrocuted before his match with the Mountie after Jimmy Hart douses him with Water and Mountie nails him with the shock stick. Jake is the hot heel of the season replacing his python with a 14" cobra after sicking it on Sid, taking him out of the Survivor Series.

Savage is days away from being reinstated only to be called out by Jake Roberts two days before the Survivor Series and have the snake bite the arm off him for the guts of two minutes, a complete accident in reality as Jake couldn't get the snake off him! Undertaker gets his first WWE title reign, a grand total of five days before he drops it to Hogan again at Tuesday In Texas. Tunney has now declared the title vacant and up for grabs at the 1992 Royal Rumble.

Sgt Slaughter now has his country back after saving Jim Duggan in a beatdown from the Nasty Boys, nobody however could give a rats about this. Flair's "real world title belt" is now video distorted (in reality, WCW got the belt back and he was using a tag belt to continue the storyline).

And thats about it for now. Quite enjoyable stuff really.
VR!

krudler

wasnt the snake meant to bit savage? it had been milked so had no venom,although it probably wasnt meant to gnaw on his arm for that long, i remember seeing that when i was a kid and think jake roberts was the coolest wrestler ever, its such a pity his drink and drug problems got the better of him, i marked out when he turned up on raw 2 years ago, although he did look a fat mess

ShawnRaven

krudler wrote:

wasnt the snake meant to bit savage? it had been milked so had no venom,although it probably wasnt meant to gnaw on his arm for that long, i remember seeing that when i was a kid and think jake roberts was the coolest wrestler ever, its such a pity his drink and drug problems got the better of him, i marked out when he turned up on raw 2 years ago, although he did look a fat mess

Yeah it was meant to bite Savage, but not for 2 minutes! It was deemed too graphic for TV at the time as Superstars was on late afternoon slot that it had to be censored (although the uncensored version appeared on the Survivor Series PPV).

VR!

Goebels

Danielson/Morishima from Manhattan Mayhem II i think it was. This was the match people were calling 5 stars I think and I found it underwhelming. The first 15 minutes were great but then it seemed to fall apart. Another Japan-lite style match that pretty all Morishima's defences have been. Danielson was made to look like just another geek Morishima has killed. Ugh.

Fozzy

Chris Sabin vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - All Japan, late August

This was a really fun match, very fluid. Sabin worked on the leg early on. He went into X-Division mode a few times, pulling out big moves and not staying down for too long, so Nakajima would kick him and sort him out! Sabin can be really great when he's on the top of his game. Top-rope Cradle Shock in this one too. Nakajima's a really solid wrestler and had some nice counters. A thumbs up match

Mr.Nice Guy

Raw 16th November, 1998

Just been watching this episode which was the Raw after Survivor Series where The Rock became the corporate champion. The Rock gives a great heel interview in the ring and generates amazing heel heat. In contrast when Austin came out the place went ballistic for him. I can't recall an opening segment on Raw this year which came close to generating this kind of electricity. Time to get rid of the scripted promos and put a bit more passion and heart into promos.

rossie1977

Terra Ryzing V larry zybysko WCW circa 1994

Triple H does his best impression of ric flair in this match (its so uncanny he even looks like flair ). As the two northern boyz on commentary say; its hard to believe that ten years later he would be a 10 time world champ, married to Vince's daughter and basically running the show

flahavaj

Been Watching the ROH:Tokyo show tonight. A fun litle show. Itsquite surreal to watch an ROH show in the reserved atmosphere generated by the Japanese audience.

The matches are a mixed bag, with the quality slowly increasing throughout

The opener Romero/Richards vs Evans/Suzuki is below average, theres a lot of sloppy moments and Jack in particular is a litle below par here.

The next two matches with two NOAH trainees and Rave /Whitmer are instantly forgettable.

Match of the Night and indeed an ouside shot for MOTY is Shiozaki/Danielson. Excellent match. The psychology throughout is really really strong here, Danielson persistently works the arm having realised that Go can easily outstrike him. Shiozaki sells the arm really realy well and consistently. The finishing stretch is edge of your seat stuff. Fozzy is right, Danielson is even better now than during his title reign last year. Whereas last year his matches were slow and methodical, this year he has injected more intensity and more MMA style offence and seems to have the atitude that he should be killing his opponents off quicker. This guy truly is the best around at the moment and his resume of great matches this year grows by the month.

Delerious and Roderick Strong have a decent enough Fight Withouit Honour. Some nice spots with a ladder and a chair propped in the corner even prompt a "Holy Sheet" chant from the Japs at one stage!!!.

The 6 man tag Briscoes.Marufuji vs Sydal/Marvin/Aoki is a fun little match with a lovely finishing sequence. First time viewers of Marvin in particular will be well impressed. Once again I'm struck at how graceful and clean Sydal's offence is. Always a pleasure to watch, people underestimate how much he'll be missed as a consistent bright spot on their undercard. Briscoes, as ever, are just great. The little things they do such as Mark holding Aoki up for a suplex while at the same time taunting his opponents into reaching for a tag, really do make a diffference.

The main event is a very good match. Typical McGuinness fare here, lots of stiff clotheslines which will annoy some, but quite frankly is just fine by me. Morishima deserves more credit than he has been given for his ROH title reign, he has had several of good to very good matches with a variety of opponents of differing styles.

Overall a fun little show that has the added benefit of above average production for an ROH show seeing as how it was taped for Samurai TV.

ShawnRaven

WWF Superstars: December 1991-April 1992

Again, it's Superstars so dont expect five star matches but again, we were at the point that WWE could do no wrong. Flair had made his debut and was hot off his feud with Roddy Piper and thrown into the main event picture with Sid, Hogan and Undertaker. Tuesday In Texas came and went (and tanked in the PPV ratings). With Hogan getting his 4th title win over Undertaker, but due to interference, was stripped of the title. With Tunney putting it up for grabs at the 1992 Royal Rumble. Because it was Flair's interference, and in the interest of fairness. Undertaker and Hogan got to choose between numbers 20-30.

The new year rings in, and one of the beauty things of Superstars was if a segment happened on either Challenge or a House show, it'd be shown in it's entirety. Cue the Barbershop segment. The Rockers had been teasing a breakup since before Survivor Series 91. Rockers lost their tag match against the LOD due to Jannettys clumsiness and Shawn's overconfidence and the two of them punched each other out. The following week Shawn had a 1 on 1 with Ric Flair and Marty came down to even up for Hennig's interference, but caused Shawn to be DQ'd. So the barbershop segment was Beefcake's attempt to heal the wounds. We know what happens here, they shook hands, the hugged and then Shawn superkicks Marty and then throws him through the Barbershop window.

Royal Rumble came and went. Bret is stripped of the IC title (kayfabio tells us he lost to the Mountie due to a 104 degree temp, in actuality, Bret threatened to jump to WCW as he was unhappy with his contract). So by the time the Rumble is finished, Roddy Piper is the IC champion as he beat The Mountie, and Flair draws #3 and wins the thing after dumping Sid out with Hogans help from the outside. A decision that was cheered by the heel friendly New York crowd much to WWE's disgust that they overdubbed the cheering of Hogan being dumped out and Flair winning with booing on the TV programming.

Natural Disasters get screwed out of their title shot by Jimmy Hart as Hawk got injured and Hart claimed the team should be substituted by a fairer team, being DiBiase and IRS, with the consent of the Natural Disasters. It would later be revealed that the ND knew nothing about this, and of course, DiBiase and IRS won the belts and Money Inc, was born, ND turn face and that match is signed for Mania VIII

Speaking of Mania VIII. Hogan v Flair is signed for the card, much of the disgust of Sid, accusing Tunney of favouritism. Hogan and Sid are paired in a tag team against Undertaker and Flair, only for Sid to turn heel on Hogan and walk off. Afterwards the match is called off and Hogan has to face Sid while Flair gets to face Savage for the title. Unfortunately it got a bit messy as they signed the match and then added the angle, the "she was mine before she was yours" angle that had been done to death by Flair down south.

Meanwhile at said Saturday Nights Main Event, Savage is hot off his feud with Jake after his victory, but Jake goes backstage with a chair to nail either Savage or Liz coming through. But Taker turns face and prevents this by grabbing the chair, his reasoning being that he didn't teach Jake about the dark side for his own personal gain. Meanwhile Bret challenged the winner of Roddy v Mountie to face at Mania 8, which leaves all the significant matches of the card signed.

Yeah, this was a great time to be a wrestling fan. Last episode i watched was the one after Mania 8, as they focus on a Warrior v Sid feud, Hogan is nowhere to be found, presumabely retired. Bret wins his IC title back and they're already talking about a Shawn v Bret IC title match, of course that got aborted in favour for Davey Boy. Savage v Flair continues on, and the rest is meaningless drivel as it goes downhill from here. But i'll get back that in the next post on this thread

VR!

flahavaj

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Wow, man, just so many memories encapsulated in that one post. The Barber shop, "Its not fair to Flair,": that period around early 1992 from Rumble to Mania is possibly my favourite time period in wrestling in any promotion. Thats down in no small part to the fact that I vividly remember all these angles as a kid and it was probably a time period when I was most obsessed with everything WWF related. I miss the days when i truly believed.:mad:

Keep these reviews up man,they're good for the soul!

chopperbyrne

I remember all that stuff from when I was about 9.

Brilliant stuff.

gimmick

Just watching a few things at the moment.

In my room I am watching IWA:MS Ted Petty Invitational 2006. Only 4 matches in, and dont know who won the tournamnet, but so far, the standout match for me has been Quack Vs Colt Cabana. Not seen much of Quack, but had it in my head that he was an overhyped flip machine. Not the case at all. He actually goes hold for hold in an excellent match. Cabana, as always brings comedy to the ring, but also he is a great wrestler.

Downstairs I am watching ROH: Fight At The Roxbury. Not sure why i bought this DVD as the card pretty much sucks top to bottom. On paper that is. Once I started watching I was happy. Briscoe Vs Steen, Sydal Vs Generico, and the stand out so far, the 6 man tag bettween the Reslience and the NRC. I love how ROH and NOAH in particular make 6 man tags look important unlike WWE where they tend to be an inconvenience. The 4 way match was excellent also with McGuinness, Hero, Quack and Castagnoli. Not normally a fan of these type match, but this had a great pace, told a nice story and had great action.

~~~~~~~

VR, hwere did you get those WWF Superstars? Old recordings or what?

ShawnRaven

Years of recording, trading and general hard work!
I see i'm not the only one who watches different wrestling in different rooms. Usually i have a year of RAW in one room and Superstars in another, but the RAW's have bored me so i have The Ultimate Fighter in one room, and Superstars 92 in the other

VR!

gimmick

Well its kind of 3 rooms, as I watch on the computer as well when I am exiled from my living room while herself watchs Americas Next Top Model and the likes.

ShawnRaven

Don't i know that feeling, between Two and a half men, The Cack Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and The King Of Queens... i am thankful for my collection

Lads, don't move in with the girlfriend, seriously! It's the most mind warping experience you'll ever endure!

EVER!
VR!

chopperbyrne

At least you have other rooms/tvs!

I live with her in a one bedroom flat.

We have one 17" telly that just has basic cable.

Earphones and my laptop is my only escape!

ShawnRaven

Ultimate escape, take it into the jax, run a big-ass bath, stick the lappy on the bog and watch whatever the hell ya want...

... then enjoy her banging the door down because suddenly she wants to use the jax. Thats when you say. "better ask next door darling, i'm gonna be here for a while!"

Yeah, i dunno how she sticks with me to this day either
VR!

chopperbyrne

Bathtub!

Well look at mister la de da!

Some of us don't have the luxuries you take for granted!

Last wrestling match I saw was a Malenko/Benoit tag match.

Can't remember who they were against for the life of me.

ShawnRaven

Lol, some of us got an apartment with a damn bath! Don't blame us for yer shortcomings. Having a bathtub in yer place is hardly la-de-daw!

VR!

flahavaj

Ha ha its funny how we are all the same in our viewing habits!!!:D

Currently I'm watching an old VHS of Great American Bash 1991 on the Veedeo player in the sitting room. I've had it lying around for about 2 years since I bought it in a job lot on e bay for half-nothing. Its solid enough so far. Morton/Gibson former partners in the Rock n' Roll Express in the opener is a decent bout with some nice leg work and selling. In fact the thing that strikes me most about old NWA and early WCW is the quality of the selling and the PUNCHES. Man could those old school guys throw a good solid right hand.

Match number 2 is Dustin Rhodes/Tracey Smothres/ Steve Armstrong vs The Freebirds. Again a nice solid match. They really put Rhodes over strong. Finish is really nice with a bulldog/dropkick combo from Rhodes that I've not seen since. Next up is Pillman (under a mask as Yellow Dog i think anyway) against Johnny B Badd. Man does Johny B Bad suck the meat missile. Nothing much to see here, crappy DQ finish.

The Wrestlecrap kicks in with El Gigante Vs One Man Gang (is he the future Blue Meanie by the way, he certainly looks like him). People **** on Khali but he's ****ing Kobashi compared to Gigante. Best thing about this is a completely bizarre pre match promo by Kevin Sullivan OMG's valet. Wonderfully of the wall stuff. Had to take a break there, will finish watching today or tomorow.

Meanwhile on the DVD player I've decided to give some Chikara a chance with the wonderfully titled Retribution Rumble of Revenge and Rebellion to Remember.

First thing to bear in mind is that Chikara is by no means a workrate promotion.
If anything they're a tongue in cheek parody of a lucha fed. Most of what they do is not to be taken seriously and anyone expected to be blown away by ROH style workrate is gonna be sorely disappointing. Chikara generally draw around 50 people to their shows as is the case here. The undercard is a mixture of typically poor indy fare and some genuinely funny stuff. Many of the characters are bizarre such as Darkness Crabtree who's gimmick is a masked geriatric luchadore. I genuinely laughed aloud at some of his schtick such as his slow motion running of the ropes and hurting his own back on some of his offence.

Chris Hero brings the goodness in a decent bout with Eddie Kingston. Hallowicked, Gran Akuma, Icarus and Ultramantis Black also look like solid talents. The main is an 8 man lucha match, with Jigsaw, now of ROH fame the obvious standout and Larry Sweeney his hilariously awesome self. I enjoyed this DVD. There's something charming about Chikara, who continue to thrive in spite of it all, producing good clean fun that you will genuinely laugh at loud at in places.(not in a bad way).

Finally on the aul laptop I'm watching the Dragon Gate PPV from February 2005.

Typical fast paced fare here. The Main Event between Blood Gen and Do Fixer is fantastic stuff and there's more hatred and more of a grudge match feel than the exhibition they put on in ROH the following year. Naruki Doi and Masaaki Mochizuki are great in this match, Mochi just kicks Doi's head clean off a few times, but Doi really elevates himself by taking everything the veteran throws at him and getting the eventual pin. The undercard is pretty decent too with another great 6 man and some comedy from the always fun Stalker Ichikawa, who's still immersed in his quest for a singles win.
The only difficult thing about sitting through Dragon Gate's full shows is that a lot of the storylines are developed with mic work in the ring so basically i have to keep hunting on the net to try and find out if I've missed something important, (not being exactly fluent in Japanese, apart from Lariatooooand Tiga Drivaaaaa!!!). Minor gripe however.

flahavaj

gimmick wrote: »

Just watching a few things at the moment.

In my room I am watching IWA:MS Ted Petty Invitational 2006. Only 4 matches in, and dont know who won the tournamnet, but so far, the standout match for me has been Quack Vs Colt Cabana. Not seen much of Quack, but had it in my head that he was an overhyped flip machine. Not the case at all. He actually goes hold for hold in an excellent match. Cabana, as always brings comedy to the ring, but also he is a great wrestler.

Wait till you see the match Quack has later in the tournament. I'll say no more for fear of spoiling your fun but its the best 10 min match I've seen in a LOOOONG time. Enjoy.:D

Fozzy

flahavaj wrote: »

Meanwhile on the DVD player I've decided to give some Chikara a chance with the wonderfully titled Retribution Rumble of Revenge and Rebellion to Remember.

Funny you should mention that, I watched my first Chikara DVD last weekend. I really enjoyed it. I'll review it a bit later

ShawnRaven

flahavaj wrote: »

One Man Gang (is he the future Blue Meanie by the way, he certainly looks like him).

Nope, One Man Gang and the Blue Meanie are not the same person. One Man Gang is George Gray, he came into WWE in 1987 after Vince bought Bill Watts' UWF (bringing along Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Big Boss Man and Ted DiBiase with him). He remained that character until a few weeks after Wrestlemania IV when he finds his roots and reinvents himself as Akeem, the whitest black man since Phil Lynott. He had some notable feuds, specifically as a tag team of the Twin Towers with the Big Boss Man. Feuding with Hogan and Savage, The Rockers and Demolition before splitting up when Boss Man turned face. Akeem pretty mich faded into obscurity before leaving WWE before Survivor Series 1990. He returned to WCW as One Man Gang for a while. He went into semi retirement in 1992 with a couple of brief stints in ECW.

He had a heart attack in 2000 which caused him to lose a stack of weight. So much that he was called back as a once off in WWE to wrestle as Akeem for the Gimmick Battle Royal. Which he agreed to, problem was that he'd lost so much weight (ironically enough so did his tag partner Boss Man!) that he didn't fit into the Akeem costume anymore. So he wrestled as the Gang for it. He's still semi retired. Working the indy circuit occasionally.

Blue Meanie is Brian Heffron, a talentless slob who is a glorified comedy act, who's greatest accomplishment was boning Jasmine St Claire!

There ya go, hope that helps
VR!

krudler

watched survivor series 2002 earlier, always liked that event, missed spots a gogo aside the opening table match is quite good, brock drags a short and decent title match out of big slow,still looks damn impressive when he f-5ed him for the first time, crowd go ballistic for it

steniers debut was met with an absolutely massive pop,and he stiffed the crap out of matt hardy and chris nowinski

decent hardcore match between victoria and trish, great triple threat tag match between eddie/chavo, angle/benoit and rey/edge

good main event despite HHH nearly accidentaly getting killed by rob van dam early on in it, took some balls to gut it out to the finish,crowd go mental for michaels win

very good ppv overall,would give it 4 stars

gimmick

Fozzy wrote: »

Funny you should mention that, I watched my first Chikara DVD last weekend. I really enjoyed it. I'll review it a bit later

I bought the 3 nights of Tag World Grand Prix as well recently. Gonna watch this when i am done with TPI.

What I am wanting to get is some AJPW and CZW, the latter merely to have a rounded collection, cant see me liking it as I hate hardcore "wrestling".

ShawnRaven

krudler wrote: »

watched survivor series 2002 earlier, always liked that event, missed spots a gogo aside the opening table match is quite good, brock drags a short and decent title match out of big slow,still looks damn impressive when he f-5ed him for the first time, crowd go ballistic for it

steniers debut was met with an absolutely massive pop,and he stiffed the crap out of matt hardy and chris nowinski

decent hardcore match between victoria and trish, great triple threat tag match between eddie/chavo, angle/benoit and rey/edge

good main event despite HHH nearly accidentaly getting killed by rob van dam early on in it, took some balls to gut it out to the finish,crowd go mental for michaels win

very good ppv overall,would give it 4 stars

First WWE DVD i ever bought! Amazingly done too, nice bastion of extras. Probably the best PPV that entire year closly followed by Royal Rumble.

VR!

rossie1977

validreasoning! wrote: »

First WWE DVD i ever bought! Amazingly done too, nice bastion of extras. Probably the best PPV that entire year closly followed by Royal Rumble.

VR!

ahem summerslam 2002

rossie1977

flahavaj wrote: »

The Wrestlecrap kicks in with El Gigante Vs One Man Gang (is he the future Blue Meanie by the way, he certainly looks like him). People **** on Khali but he's ****ing Kobashi compared to Gigante. Best thing about this is a completely bizarre pre match promo by Kevin Sullivan OMG's valet. Wonderfully of the wall stuff. Had to take a break there, will finish watching today or tomorow.

One Man Gang and meanie would be the same person if meanie grew about 8 inches and put on about 100lb in weight

El gigante was much quicker than khali but his selling was awful. I am not sure khali is a better wrestler than gonzales who was a legit sportmans in his day (something i am not sure khali was). At 7'6 and 430lb it was always going to be tough to wrestle anyway, you try wrestling someone about 2 feet shorter than you (like gonzales did most of the time); you keep thinking you are going to hurt them.

I remember reading an article where big show stated that he had to be extremely careful in the ring because with his size and power he has the ability to break most wrestlers necks in a split second.

ShawnRaven

rossie1977 wrote: »

ahem summerslam 2002

Always found it over-rated. Michaels v HHH ruled the school and Kurt v Rey was a hot opener, the rest had been done to death that year and Rock v Brock did nothing for me.

VR!

Vince135792003

validreasoning! wrote: »

Always found it over-rated. Michaels v HHH ruled the school and Kurt v Rey was a hot opener, the rest had been done to death that year and Rock v Brock did nothing for me.

No it hadn't. Edge and Eddies programme was just beginning. The same can be said for RVD and Benoit. And Brock versus Rock was hardly old either.

ShawnRaven

I said it had been done to death that year, not before that event. OK maybe not for RVD /Benoit as Benoit had defected to SD, but Edge and Eddie definitely had, especially when they'd done the tag matches.

And Undertaker v Test, how about that match of the year candidate eh?
VR!

Vince135792003

validreasoning! wrote: »

D, but Edge and Eddie definitely had, especially when they'd done the tag matches.
!

That was Eddie and Edges first ever ppv match together. They had another a month later. Their feud culminated 2 months later in an awesome match on Smackdown.

I don't think they had been in many tag matches at that point either. The great tag match run on Smackdown really started from September on when they brought the tag titles back to the brand.

Mr.Nice Guy

Summerslam 2002 is one of my favourite ever events. I even thought Test and Undertaker had a fun match. Triple H wrestled the match of his life that night in my opinion. I loved how the crowd turned on Rock as well. As fondly as I look back on The Rock in WWE his babyface run was ridiculously stale at that point and the fans let him know it.

I recently decided to watch Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels in Hell of the Cell from In Your House. It still stands up well ten years on.

flahavaj

I think Summerslam 2002 is one of the strongest PPV's WWE ever put on in terms of the quality of the in-ring action. The Benoit match may have been the best non-gimmick match of RVD's career.

gimmick

Ill have to agree, I honestly think Summerslam 2002 is in the top 5 of WWE PPVs of the 2000s. Taker / Test aside it was an awesome card top to bottom. The fact it still provokes debate 5 years on shows it had something going for it.

ShawnRaven

gimmick wrote: »

The fact it still provokes debate 5 years on shows it had something going for it.

So does Survivor Series 97! And that had very few matches going for it!!
VR!

gimmick

^ Yes, but that is because that particular 2 minutes had so many repurcussions. I honestly cannot name another match on that card. And even that match itself was awful.

ShawnRaven

Definitely not the best match with Shawn and Bret in it.
And i've pretty much seen them all

VR!

rossie1977

thing about summerslam 2002 it had 2 very strong final matches and that is very rare in PPVs these days. The crowd were awesome that night, the sound has been toned down slightly on the dvd for the rock/brock match

the bit with finkel, trish and garcia was also very funny i thought

flahavaj

NOAH:27/10/07 Samoa Joe vs Mitsuharu Misawa

This is a post i made on another board if it reads a little strangely:

Just watched myself there. I have to agree with what some of the other lads have said, this match needed to happen in front of a hot ROH crowd. It really suffered from taking place in front of an audience that was unfamiliar with Joe and his spots. I can just imagine the pops he would've gotten in the Manhatten Centre for the elbow suicida, when he got Misawa up for the Muscle Buster and when Misawa kicked out of the Island Driver. It really makes you wonder how much of Joe/Kobashi's rave reviews were influenced by the crowd heat it got and not the actual match itself.

Anyhow the match was pretty average and it did look as if Misawa was holding back a little and it looked as if Joe was working a litle softer than usual especially on the running knee in the turnbuckles. Good to see joe kick out on the Emerald Frosion and at least being made to look strong in that way. The **** up on the Pele kick I would probably put down to Misawa being out of position. Id give this match no more than **1/2. Underwhelming.

Mr.Nice Guy

flahavaj wrote: »

It really makes you wonder how much of Joe/Kobashi's rave reviews were influenced by the crowd heat it got and not the actual match itself.

Try all of them!

gimmick

flahavaj wrote: »

NOAH:27/10/07 Samoa Joe vs Mitsuharu Misawa
It really makes you wonder how much of Joe/Kobashi's rave reviews were influenced by the crowd heat it got and not the actual match itself.

Not really - Joe Vs Kobashi is an absolutely top class match. The crowd heated added to it, not influence it. Misawa at this stage of his career is a disaster. People are saying he has one great match left in him. I doubt that very much from what I have seen of his stuff from 2006 & 2007.

flahavaj

gimmick wrote: »

Not really - Joe Vs Kobashi is an absolutely top class match. The crowd heated added to it, not influence it. Misawa at this stage of his career is a disaster. People are saying he has one great match left in him. I doubt that very much from what I have seen of his stuff from 2006 & 2007.

In hindsight, I think Joe/Kobashi is a decent match with an AMAZING crowd. Their reactions to just about everything, (even struggling over basis submission holds) they did in the ring made that match seem special. If you look back at Kobashi's career overall and all the great matches he had, I don't think the Joe match would even get in the top fifty. If they had wrestled that match in Japan no one would be pimping it as the MOTY. That thought crossed my mind when Joe and Misawa were struggling over some submission holds and the crowds reaction didn't seem special, yet when Joe/Kobashi did it in NY it seeemed like the most titanic struggle in the world. It(Joebashi, that is) certainly wasn't a 5 star match as given by Meltzer, who's become ridiculously erratic in recent times. If I was so inclined Id say it hovers around the ***1/2 to **** mark.

It IS must see, it IS memorable, it WILL go down as a landmark in ROH history, it DID elevate Joe to Superstar status and it DID have one of the hottest crowds I've seen ever and no one can say Kobashi didn't come to work his ass off, but the match is looked at in terms of in ring action alone is quite basic and something of an exhibition of Kobashi's spots. It pales in comparison to countless matches he has had in AJPW in the 90's and there's around a dozen matches he had in NOAH even after he deteriorated and became ground based Chopbashi that are far superior in every way.

There IS something magical about the match however and its an ideal place to start if your starting out as a Puro fan.

ShawnRaven

WWF Superstars April - June 1992

Hot on the heels of Wrestlemania 8! Hogan takes his ball and walks to Hollywood, Warrior returns losing about 50-60lbs and a lot of muscle definition, and credibility. Savage is now the WWE champion after pulling the tights on Flair to get the win. Bret is now the IC title holder after winning the title from Piper, who has now vanished into obscurity and Curt Hennig has now taken his place in the broadcast booth. And Flair, well, he still hasn't quit. He's still on Savage's tail now with allegations that Liz keeps calling him and leaving messages on his phone.

Summerslam is a while away at this point, and SNME is dying off (it's next and final one wouldn't take place until October), and Vince's head is in other projects, like the second annual Wold Bodybuilding Championship PPV!! I sh*t you not folks, Vince actually tried to do bodybuilding PPVs, including having Lex Luger shill one at Mania 8! Luger would end up being the guest poser for that PPV. Vince thought he had everything in the bag for this until all his bodybuilding guys (and some wrestlers) tested black, and as a result, they were some of the worst looking bodybuilders you'd ever see! Still didn't stop Vince from allowing Coliseum to release it on VHS! Luger as it turns out didn't even make it.

Back to wrestling, As Sid had been pencilled in for a run with the Warrior, Sid decided he wanted to go back to softball and left rather abruptly. His replacement? Papa Shango! You've probably seen the highlights of this on the Warrior DVD. But pretty much the highlights of that feud would be Warrior getting sick in the medical room and then the green goo dripping down from his head. Other highlights would be the same goo coming out of Okerlunds hand on a stage interview, and random jobbers feet being set on fire.

There was a big problem with star power come the middle of the year, so it was time to push storylines on midcarders. British Bulldog and Repo Man were thrown in the feud that everyone wanted to see, stemming from when Smas...oops, i mean Repo hogties and chokes out Bulldog for the guts of 5 minutes using his tow cable. Needless to say, the crowd didn't give a sh*t about this one.

One thing that did get the crowd's attention was Big Boss Man's new nemesis, who spent weeks cutting promos from an empty jail cell. Apparently this convict was badly mistreated by Bossman during his time as a corrections officer. A few weeks later after a Bossman match, we'd find out who he was. He'd be known as Nailz and he jumps Bossman after one of his matches and proceeds to beat him over with the nightstick for several minutes, leaving him black and blue. It would take months before that feud would conclude, and there's a reason why.

Bret and Shawn's first televised singles confrontation is teased here, but it also won't happen. Basically Summerslam was originally meant to be set for Washington DC (including a ladder match with Bret v Shawn for the IC title, the trial of which can be found on several comp tapes and DVD's). Of course, everything got shaken up completely as the PPV got moved to the UK at Wembley. A move considered a disaster by WWE who have since sworn they'd never do it again as it couldn't be aired live at the time. Instead it was pre-recorded and aired on the Monday.

We also had vignettes of a relative newcomer to the WWF... Razor Ramon. And thats where i get off for now. Once i've done a few more months, i'll post more up

VR!

flahavaj

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Spoilers!!!!!!

ShawnRaven

No results given away yet
Besides, you read the title, you didn't have to read further
VR!