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What Are You Watching / Last Match, Event or Documentary You Saw
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To be fair, it wasn't WWE who screwed up Rey's title shot. Rey had deteriorated a lot since 2002, he'd also bulked up a hell of a lot and whereas he had the moves, he didn't have the same moveset he once had say, between 1996-1998. It's like when HHH came back from his quad tear in 2002, he'd bulked up by about another 50-60lbs and just didn't move as well as he did beforehand.
Anyway, seeing as i hadn't posted on this thread in about six months, as i'd taken a break from wrestling to focus on gaming and my work, i went back to it about 2 months ago and have been watching:
WWE RAW January-November 1994:
A truly horrible year for WWE, as WCW were making their first steps to become a contender to WWE on the PPV market. By the time November had come around, WCW had Ray Traylor, Hogan, Beefcake, Shark and Shockmaster, the Nasty Boys and The Road Warriors. That's a lot of ex WWE alumni for WCW who before now, wouldn't have even been considered in WWE's league. There was also a big buildup in WCW for Hogan vs Flair that year, a match that tanked on WWE house shows in 91-92 that it was scrapped for PPV.
I suppose the first feud to note really this year has to be Bret V Owen after Owen had turned at the 1994 Royal Rumble. The weekly promos are hard to watch during this feud, as Bret always was a whiny maggot as far as his promos were concerned, and Owen, as he'd later become the King of Harts this year, the King o' Promos he never was. It was still quite a fun feud to watch, you could tell both guys were really into it and enjoying themselves, and yet the feud still seemed very real at the time. Something that seems to be missing a lot today in my view.
Undertaker took half the year off this year, i'll try to be nice about this guy but it's gonna be hard given the horrible matches he was in. He "died" at the Royal Rumble that year and then after King Of The Ring that year, there are promos week after week from schoolteachers, fire marshalls, subway workers that they all claimed to have seen The Undertaker, which lead to DiBiase claiming that he was the first to bring him to the WWE, and he'll find him and bring him again. Which he does, only Paul Bearer begs to differ, saying that's not *his* undertaker. Well we know what happens at Summerslam that year, being one of the worst matches on the card. Undertaker would spend the rest of the year feuding with Yokozuna and then IRS.
Speaking of King Of The Ring, a couple more Harts came back that year! Bret put his belt up against Diesel in a title for title match at the 1994 King of The Ring. And promises to bring a family member with him to ringside after Shawn and Diesel beat him down on an episode of the Kings Court, Jerry Lawlers talk show. Bret's family member, is none other than his former tag team champion partner, Jim Neidhart. After nearly 25 minutes, Neidhart interferes and causes a DQ, with Bret coming out with his belt. Neidhart bolts and Bret is less than impressed. Meanwhile Owen has made it to the finals against Razor Ramon, and Neidhart comes out to interfere, only he jumps Razor to give Owen his KOTR victory and title. It turned out Neidhart was saving Bret's title for Owen. A few weeks later Davey Boy Smith would also make his return to side with Bret.
Other minor fun parts were the infamous Sumo match on RAW between Yokozuna and Earthquake. The match is somewhat interesting, but it's not one of those easy on the eye jobs. Crowd still manages to go totally bat-sh*t for it. Something that would be snoozed at today (Big Slow vs Akebono anyone?)
The Headshrinkers turn face as Lou Albano gets them a title shot against then champions, The Quebecers. The Quebecers and Johnny Polo (Raven) spend weeks mocking and making fun of the legendary Lou Albano, who has made more tag team champions in the history of the WWE. Lou challenges to bring a team out next week if they put the belts on the line, so they accept and the week after, out come the Headshrinkers! Bye bye title reign! It wouldn't last long as Samu is forced into retirement. They get in a third headshrinker in the form of Sionne (The Barbarian) and the crowd sh*t all over him. He finds his way to WCW months later and Fatu turns into about 20 different characters before settling on Rikishi in 1999.
The Headshrinkers drop the titles to Shawn and Diesel the week before Summerslam that year, for political reasons (they didn't want to drop them to a makeshift team like Bam Bam and IRS at Summerslam, and felt Shawn and Diesel had more continuity and made more sense), however Shawn causes Diesel to lose his IC title at Summerslam by accidentally kicking him in the face. Shawn is still out injured at this point but is hanging around Diesel to interfere in his matches, Shawn had worked very few matches after the ladder match in 1994. Which takes us to Survivor Series 94.
Lawler and Doink vs their midgets. I'm not gonna spend all year on this one folks, each week both get on each others nerves so Lawler gets a new midget one week, then Doink gets a new midget. Lather rinse and repeat for a few weeks. This is exactly why i can't watch WWE now. I said it before and i'll say it again, I want to see Hornswaggle wished the best in his future endeavors!
Tatanka sold out to Ted DiBiase at Summerslam and turned on friend, Lex Luger. Luger, who choked earlier in the year while he was being groomed for Wrestlemania main event finds himself in midcard hell. So the two end up captaining their respective teams for Survivor Series and Luger gets buried again.
Shawn ends up kicking Big D again at Survivor Series and the results were pretty disasterous, as Diesel chases Shawn out of the building, as the team split up and the tag titles are vacated. And finally an interesting turn of events took place in 1994.
One year earlier, Bob Backlund returned to the WWE to return in the Royal Rumble at 43 years old. He lasted a fair amount of time in there as well but just faded into obscurity after his Wrestlemania match against Razor Ramon. But he challenges Bret Hart to a match and Bret accepts. Now the plan was to Backlund to turn heel after being put under a spell by Papa Shango as WWE hadn't tested Backlunds heel mic skills in decades. However he was able to get over by himself. So the match takes place, Backlund loses. Bret offers the handshakes and Backlund snaps and acts like a man possessed. Enter Mr Backlund, the crazy old man, a character Backlund still portrays up til recently in TNA.
So it set up for Backlund v Bret at Survivor Series, towel submission match. Davey Boy in Bret's corner, Owen in Backlund's corner. Most of you know the deal here, after over 35 minutes, and Davey posting himself, Helen Hart grabs the towel and throws it in on Bret's behalf. Days later, Big D wins the title from Backlund in 8 seconds to start the most financially disasterous title reign in WWE history.
1995 will certainly be interesting to write about!
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WWF Monday Night RAW: January - April 1995
Spent the last few days sifting through this stuff, and believe me, a root canal without the injection would have been easier, more tolerable and not as mentally scarring. So i'll get to recapping the highlights, if there are even any.
This seemed to be more of an era of all filler and no killer. Although Hakushi did make his debut against a very young and very green Matt Hardy, when he was probably v0.18 beta! For all the hype and TV time WWE spent on Hakushi though, it was fairly forgettable and Hakushi was pretty much gone within nine months. Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith both found themselves feuding with seperate members of the Million Dollar corporation, so after a few occasional tag matches, they ended up being paired together as the Roidrage freak's on a leash... oops, i mean the Allied Powers.
Speaking of tag teams, Shawn and Diesel ended up vacating the belts a few weeks earlier to 1995 after Survivor Series, so there was a tag team tournament set up to determine the new champions, a true example of how bad the tag team situation was, when the 123 Kid and Bob Holly (subbing for the Smoking Gunns), Well Dunn, Bam Bam and Tatanka, The Heavenly Bodies and Headshrinkers mark II to name a few. The winner getting their shot at the 1995 Royal Rumble. 123 Kid and Holly win, but lost the belts on RAW the following night back to the Smoking Gunns. They shake hands and continue on the babyface routine. Had that happen today in WWE, Kid and Holly would have turned on them, and then continue to turn between face and heel about six times by the time they got from the ring to the back!
Shawn wins the Royal Rumble, and is now so busy that he drops his commentary position (i believe he suffered a hand injury after Survivor Series and needed time off), in preparation for Wrestlemania. Of course, his main event spot was hogged by the celebfest that was Wrestlemania XI, and Bam Bam Bigelow vs LT. After weeks and weeks of what seems like endless promos between Bam Bam and LT's "lawyers" and "agents", a match is eventually signed.
Oh i'd be completely insane if i had forgotten about the final nail in the coffin for the wretched feud that Harvey Whippleman and Howard Finkel were having. For the guts of three years, Fink received allsorts of verbal abuse from Whippleman, And this was the blowoff. A tuxedo match! This isn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination, and i'm imagining that it's the brainchild of Russo, as he pulled the same crap with Lethal/Dutt in TNA 13 years later.
We roll into February, and get the debut of Man Mountain Rock! Vince Signed Maxx Payne from WCW for reasons, probably best known to himself, he'd already had the grunge rocker gimmick down in Atlanta, but to even further gimmick him, they gave him a WWF shaped guitar, which he would play in the ring prior to his matches! Of course, the crowd didn't give a flying f*ck, and he found himself relegated to Superstars after a week or two.
The reason i'm recapping this rather than focusing on matches or many feuds, is because there actually wasn't any happening at the time! This is how bad the New Generation era was!
Until March, when Shawn and Davey are booked in a match to settle the score from the 95 Rumble. Shawn as usual carries the match, but we were lucky to even receive a match like this on RAW at this period of time, while Diesel was stinking up the ring with Jeff Jarrett. Bret might have taught Nash a few things about ring work, but he didn't teach him how to make chicken salad from chicken sh*t, unfortunately for all of us.
RAW gives us another decent match a couple of weeks later, with Bret Hart vs Owen Hart in a no holds barred match. It actually looked like a lot of work went into the match, which was somewhat risky considering they were both booked for Wrestlemania in seperate matches six days after the match. This particular match would be on the special Pre Wrestlemania RAW. Which had Vince McMahon and Todd Pettingill in suits discussing most of the PPV. Pettingill's mullet is shockingly bad at this stage (and to make matters worse, he TIES IT BACK for the occasion). Even I never did that! (yes, i had a mullet in 95, so did a lot of people but at least i didnt have The People's Mullet in 2002!)
By this stage Shawn needs another bodyguard due to 29 jealous wrestlers over his Rumble win making him a marked man. Shawn employs two weeks before Mania, and again, crowd doesn't give a f*ck, until the day after Wrestlemania when Diesel offers Shawn a rematch and Shawn accepts, in seperate interviews on the same night. When Shawn gives Sid the night off, Sid responds in kind by giving Shawn about 3 or 4 powerbombs, severely botching the first one where Shawn lands on the side of his neck and shoulder.
Dibiase needs a replacement for Bam Bam after the embarrassing defeat to LT at Wrestlemania, so while Bam Bam turns face and chums with Diesel and Shawn, DiBiase has recruited Sid into the corporation. Problem there is he still has Hasbeen Volkoff, an angry Native American and a MMA style wannabe in Kama. DiBiase had several crowning achievements in his WWE days, but his stable wasn't one of them.
Introducting IN YOUR HOUSE! A new PPV being hyped up now that Wrestlemania is over and done with, but June is too long to wait for King Of The Ring, so we'll throw on a PPV in May too! And what more incentive to tune into a PPV, than to get a competition going where you can win, you guessed it, a house in Orlando, Florida.
TNA might wanna think about this for future plans... I'm sure Dixie Carters pop won't mind shelling out the money like he has done for the last three years.
Thats me done for now, if i can get through more in the next few days, i'll post up.
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validreasoning! wrote: »TNA might wanna think about this for future plans... I'm sure Dixie Carters pop won't mind shelling out the money like he has done for the last three years.
All that TNA bashing is a turn about face from two days about talking the TNA PPV. Anyway...0 -
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alan dunne 27 wrote: »They're some good write ups Shawn. I've only seen this thread now but i'll go back through it for other posts. I saw all them PPVs and RAWs through rose coloured glasses. I was about 10-12 and assumed that WWF was the only wrestling there was!
Cheers.
I'm actually gonna be taking a 2 week sabbatical from the internet soon, so i'll have watched a good bit of stuff to post up on this thread. I'm not doing it as religiously as i used to thanks to my interest in House, Heroes and MMA overtaking Pro Wrestling.
The RAW 95 one has been an absolute chore though, i won't deny that.0 -
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I liked this write up. But Im surprised the elevation of DDP didnt make the cut.
I'm saving that one for March-AprilI need to rewatch that Ladder match as I remember it being ****e. I dont think either man liked it either.
Yeah you said before you didn't rate it. They didn't like it either. I wasn't trying to overpraise it though. I was using it as a comparison to the rest of the card, which was an abortion for all intents and purposes, and that was the brighter spot on the card, regardless of how good or bad the match was.Im guessing you are hating hearing the NWO theme at this stage. It was really crappy that your only reprieve from them (the crusiers) only served as a backdrop for Tony & Co to talk about the NWO.
The NWO wore out it's welcome by this stage, and the bookers knew it as well which is why they tried splitting em into the Wolfpac and Hollywood as it wasn't winning any fans over, nor was it winning over anyone backstage. However it did sell merch, to me, it was the only reason the NWO lasted as long as it did. But by February 1997, it got very boring.The booking really worked against the Steiners, Horseman & Piper. This very clear rewatching it.
I think the Steiners were as good as done as a tag team by this point anyway, The Horsemen were only brought back in by Bischoff as a nail in Vince's coffin because the NWO sure as hell weren't doing that by themselves (regardless of what marks out there choose to believe), and I'm not sure what they could have done with Piper after the angle with Hogan? They basically rehashed a 12 year old angle with one of the biggest star of the company, the same company that was a revolving door for Flair at the time so putting Piper against him next wouldn't have worked.
Piper knew it as well. The company was a mess.0 -
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To be fair, he didn't say he was a spot monkey, he said "before anyone jumps on him and calls Necro a spot monkey", which would imply that it's been doing the rounds for years.
No more 5am finishes for you Alan, it's affecting your train of thought. 0
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