This post comes thanks to one of the new features on blogspot, the stats menu. One of things that you can do with the stats feature is find out which search terms led a viewer to your blog. Well, according to the amount of people who have ended up here searching for the Wendy's Triple Baconator, I take it that a lot of people are hungry. Anyway, I saw that some reader ended up on the Canon Review because they searched for WCW Monday Nitro: April 17, 2000. So obviously, somebody wants more information about that particular show, so I figured, why not watch this here episode of Nitro and see how it is. Since it takes place during the Bischoff-Russo era, I have a strong feeling that it will suck, but I've been surprised before.
- It's the night after Spring Stampede 2000, and as such we get a minute and a half of still shots detailing last night's show. A lot of crap happened and Mancow wrestled Jimmy Hart, that's all I remember from that show. Your idiots in the booth tonight are Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, and Mark Madden. A whole bunch of confetti and red balloons drop from the ceiling, and security guards are shown blocking the main entrance in order to block the Millionaire's Club from entering. Great, take the only people in the company that can draw off the show. Good strategy. Anyway, here comes Russo with his New Blood champions, Chris Candido (Cruiserweight Champion), Buff Bagwell, Shane Douglas (Tag Team Champs), and Scott Steiner (United States Champion). Russo gets on the mic, tells Jim Ross to kiss his ass, than introduces the new World Champion Jeff Jarrett, who also wishes for JR to smooch his backside. Jarrett expresses anger at not being asked to star in Ready To Rumble, which wouldn't make any sense since Jarrett was employed elsewhere at the time the movie was filming, than challenges Diamond Dallas Page to a Triple Cage Match straight out of the movie, which I'm sure everyone has seen at least 25 times, as it's just that great. Anyway, Eric Bischoff comes out with DDP's wife Kimberly, and the two go on to explain why Kimberly bashed her husband in the head with a guitar last night. Apparently, Kim is sick of being in DDP's shadow, and states that she's the real star of the Page family. Russo keeps talking while we cut to the parking lot, where DDP is calmly told that he's not allowed in the building tonight. DDP does not respond kindly to this, knocking out the unarmed security guards and heads to the ring. There's a riot squad around the ring, but they let DDP in without resistance. DDP gets a couple of shots in before the 5-on-1 advantage gets the best of him. Here comes the riot squad, and they start beating up the New Blood with nightsticks. They take off their helmets, and holy moly, it's Ric Flair, Sting, and Lex Luger of the Millionaire's Club! Who saw that coming? I think everyone did. Not the worst way to start, but it took a little too long to get going.
- To the back, where Bischoff chews out a group of New Blood wrestlers for not helping out earlier. Booker T takes exception, and the two exchange words before Booker and the rest leave in a huff. Hulk Hogan calls up Bischoff, and threatens him with a beating in five minutes. Shawn "The Perfect One" Stasiak and Curt Hennig wrestle each other in the first match of the evening. Ms. Hancock is out, for reasons unknown. Hennig hip tosses Stasiak a couple of times, but Stasiak uses punches and two body slams to take advantage. Hennig rolls out, Stasiak gets too close and Hennig pulls him out of the ring. Hennig chops Stasiak and bounces him against the guardrail and the announce table. Hennig sees Mark Madden, and does what any reasonable man would do and throws a cup of water in Madden's face. Unfortunately, the water does not short out Madden's mic, so I still have to hear him talk. Back in, Hennig Cartwheels out of an Irish whip! but Stasiak grounds Hennig with a clothesline. Stasiak uses a suplex to get a 2 count on Hennig, and goes to Irish whip Hennig, but that gets reversed and Stasiak ends up eating a kneelift for his troubles. Hennig with a running clothesline that catches both Stasiak and the referee. Perfectplex from Hennig, but there's no referee. While Hennig gets up to check on the ref, Stasiak digs out some brass knuckles out of his kneepad, and uses them to knock out Hennig. A Perfect Plant (kind of like an F-5, only Stasiak falls forward on his face instead of back) finishes Hennig off, and Stasiak gets the upset victory. Useless match that had no heat and did nothing for anybody. 1 out of 5.
- To the outside, where Hulk Hogan is surrounded by policemen blocking him from the building. Hogan gives the cops a Super Mega Stare, and the cops meekly back down for fear of suffering the wrath of Hulkamania. Apparently, Rockford, Illinois has the wimpiest police force in the United States. Hogan enters the building, seems to wander around as if he doesn't know where the entrance is, and the camera cuts to Stasiak stomping away on Hennig. Hogan, having found the correct way to go finally, comes out, saves Hennig from Stasiak's stomps and throws Stasiak out of the ring, and then we break for commercial.
- Back in the ring, Hogan has a microphone. He goes on about how he hasn't lost a step and is still the top dog and this and that, and challenges anyone in the back that wants to take his spot to come on down and get some. He then starts using his real name while running down Bischoff and Russo, so you know it's a SHOOT~! Hogan, or Terry Bollea as it were, claims that he has more heart than any other wrestler in the back. Well, that's sure to make him some friends. Hogan calls out Kidman, but Kidman shows up on the bigscreen and challenges Hogan to come back to the parking lot for a fight. Hogan rushes out, but he doesn't see Eric Bischoff and the notorious white Hummer. Uh oh.
- Mean Gene is with Jeff Jarrett, who has decided to put an open contract out, and the first New Blood member to sign it gets a shot at his World Title tonight. Hopefully it will be Shannon Moore. Jarrett then concludes the interview by calling Mean Gene a "Jurassic Slapass". Hey, that's my nickname! To the ring, where the Wall is going to wrestle Terry Funk for the WCW Hardcore Title. Yes, Bischoff and Russo's master plan to get the Hardcore Title is to send out The Wall. Funk slams a chair against the Wall's head to begin the match. Wall shrugs it off and throws Funk over the top rope out of the ring. Wall grabs the chair and heads to the outside, but takes a low blow. Funk uses the chair across the Wall's back, and climbs to the top rope. Moonsault press by Funk onto Wall, but that move didn't go quite as planned as Funk nearly lands on his on the outside. Ouch. Wall's up first and delivers a big boot to Funk. The two get on the announce table, and Wall piledrives Funk on the table, but it doesn't give at all and the two just fall off the table. Wall drags Funk around the outside, throwing him against one guardrail and slamming another guardrail against him. Further back, Wall finds a round cage, and uses it to slam the door on Funk's head a couple of times. Wall seems to be in control, until a bunch of tables mysteriously fall on Wall and knock him out. Funk puts a table on the Wall, double foot stomps through it, and gets the three count. A somewhat entertaining spectacle that was ruined by a crappy ending. I'll give it a 1.4 out of 5.
- To the back where Kronick demands a shot at the World Tag Team Titles tonight, but Russo denies them. Meanwhile, somebody signs Jarrett's contract, and when Jarrett sees who it is, he's not happy about it at all. Who is the mystery opponent? I bet it's The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea. Mean Gene is talking with DDP, who promises to gain revenge on Eric Bischoff for stealing his wife and will leave Mike Awesome laying tonight.
- Bob Probert's in the crowd tonight, watching the Mamalukes (Johnny the Bull and Big Vito) come out. In the back, Kronick is beating up the Harris Brothers, who were supposed to wrestle the Mamalukes but now they can't. What a shame, Kronick comes out instead and brawls with the Mamalukes. Full Nelson slam by Adams on Vito. Johnny the Bull does a flat-footed jump from the ring to the top rope, turns around and jumps back down, but eats a Bryan Clark chokeslam for his efforts. An F-5 from Adams onto Vito, and both Mamalukes end up taking Kronick's High Times finisher (double choke slam) before Adams gets the mic. He states that whoever faces them will end up in chronic pain and living a chronic nightmare, and Russo better give them a title shot or he'll find out what a chronic nightmare entails for himself.
- Vampiro comes out and grabs a mic. He says that Sting knows nothing about pain and that last night at Spring Stampede (where he came out from under the ring and dragged Sting down with him to presumably issue a beating) was only the beginning. At Slamboree, Vampiro promises to devour Sting. That starts Sting's music in the lights go out. The lights come back on just as Sting finishes his descent from the ceiling. Sting beats on Vampiro with his bat for a while, giving Vampiro a lesson in pain, as Sting put it. Sting finishes off with the Scorpion Death Drop to leave Vampiro laying in the middle of the ring. Sting proclaims WCW is his turf before leaving once again. Well, that made Vampiro look like a chump, building very little interest in their match at Slamboree since Sting just got his revenge right then.
- Hogan is still looking for Kidman, and asks some kids if they know where he is. Meanwhile, Jarrett moans and groans to Russo about his title match tonight against the mystery opponent. I bet it's Wade Barrett. DDP comes out as a fan holds up his book, Positively Page, which had recently come out around this time. His opponent is Mike Awesome, and the two waste no time as Page connects with a tornado clothesline and starts beating on Awesome in the corner. Irish Whip to the corner, but Awesome is able to springboard off the second turnbuckle with a back elbow, which almost gets a three count. A big splash from Awesome also gets 2. Irish Whip by Awesome, but Page is able to deliver a floatover DDT which also gets a two count. The two exchange clotheslines, and Page catches Awesome with a Uranage slam for a 2 count. Page eats a back elbow and goes to the outside, allowing Awesome to deliver a springboard lariat to the floor. Man, Awesome went a long way on that move. Awesome tries to give Page a standing splash against a guardrail, but Page moves and slams Awesome in the back with a chair. The announcers take this time to commentate about WCW's new lax disqualification rules. Back in. Page charges in with a chair, but Awesome slams his foot into the chair and into Page's face. A forearm to the chair in front of DDP's head sends Page to the outside. Chris Kanyon runs in, which gets a disqualifaction only half a minute after they talked about the new WCW's policy of letting fights go on. Kanyon takes a German suplex for his efforts, and Awesome goes to get a table. Kevin Nash's music hits, and Awesome waits for him to come to the ring. Instead Nash comes out of the crowd and attacks him from behind, before powerbombing Awesome through the table. Match was rushed, but if these two had 10 minutes they might of had a good match. Instead I'll give it a 1.5 out of 5.
- Tank Abbott is here, hopefully to beat up on Mark Madden again. Mean Gene is talking with the Tag Team champs, Shane Douglas and Buff Bagwell. What an odd combination. Bagwell and Douglas talk about their opponents at Slamboree, which are Lex Luger and Ric Flair, respectively. Douglas then calls Luger a jackass and challenges him to a match tonight, which Luger accepts, provided Vince Russo does not interfere. Tank Abbott is coming to the ring, and Mark Madden is throwing a fit for fear of taking another Tank beating. Abbott puts Madden in his place by yelling "Don't even look at me, fat ass". Ha, of all the wrestlers in the world, Tank Abbott is one of them. Tank goes on to explain that once again, until Goldberg comes back to face him, he will beat up another innocent person. This week's victim was to be part owner of the Chicago Blackhawks Bruce MacArthur, but before Tank could get started, Blackhawks' tough guy Bob Probert (perhaps the best fighter in NHL history) leaped over the rail and saved his boss. Security came out to break the two apart before anything could happen. Such a shame, because it would have been interesting to see those two go at it.
- Hogan asks Terry Taylor, who just arrived about 90 minutes into the show, where Kidman is. Taylor leads Hogan in Kidman's direction, and the fight may finally happen soon. Jarrett is informed by Russo that his mystery opponent still wants the match tonight, which greatly displeases Jarrett to the point where he calls Russo J.J. Dillion. Well, obviously that means that Jarrett's opponent will be Ole Anderson. Lex and Shane Douglas are out to have their match. Luger starts by punching Shane, and than spends the next minute or so using kicks, punches, and turnbuckle smashes all over Douglas, making the Franchise look like a jobber. Douglas finally gets a Russian legsweep and chokes Luger with a piece of tape. Irish Whip into the corner by Douglas, he charges, only to eat a boot to the face. Luger with a series of clotheslines, which brings out Buff, Buff comes out with his music and pyro going off during the middle of the match, distracting Luger and allowing Douglas to take advantage. Luger ducks a clotheslines and runs off the ropes, only for Bagwell to grab his foot. Luger drags Bagwell to the apron, but a low blow sends Luger down. While Bagwell preoccupies himself with Luger's manager Miss Elizabeth, Douglas whips Luger into the guardrail, near a fan with a Sting mask. The fan attacks Douglas with a bat, and reveals himself to be Ric Flair. The two go to beat on Shane inside the ring, and the ref calls for the bell. Russo comes out to drag off Douglas, and the three go to the back arguing about something. You know, for a show that is promising the promotion of the young guys, the young guys are sure taking a butt-whooping on this show. This was no different. I'll give it a 0.6 out of 5 and hopefully I'll forget that I ever watched this match.
- Hogan has finally found Kidman, after 1 hour of looking for him. He starts kicking Kidman's butt before Torrie hits him with a 2 x 4. That doesn't faze Hogan, so he grabs Torrie by the throat and backs her up against a post before Kidman makes the save. Kidman gets two punches on Hogan before Hogan just annihilates Kidman, throwing him against the wall and a plastic cart a few times before yelling that he will kill Kidman. Bischoff is seen hiding in the corner while Hogan picks up Kidman and throws him into a dumpster. Hogan sees Bischoff and goes after him. Bischoff goes in the Hummer, but it won't start, so he takes off up the ramp and out of the parking garage. Hogan decides to get in the Hummer and remarkably, it starts right back up. The hell? He then proceeds to ram the dumpster containing Kidman with the Hummer three times, which is probably illegal in most states. Hogan takes off in the Hummer up the ramp, presumably to commit vehicular homicide on Eric Bischoff. God, this is stupid. Kidman is then rescued from the dumpster and put on a stretcher by medical personnel.
- Jarrett comes out to wrestle the mystery opponent. That man could be none other than Josh Hamilton. Oh wait, it's Scott Steiner, accompanied to the ring by three of his 'freaks', I suppose. The match starts, and Steiner goes to work on Jarrett in the corner. A clothesline and elbow drop follows by Big Poppa Pump, and Steiner then slams Jarrett with a gorilla press drop. After Steiner whips Jarrett into the corner, Jarrett gets the boots up into a charging Steiner, and starts stomping away at his opponent. Cross body block from the top by Jarrett, that gets a two count. He follows up with a dropkick, but Steiner reverses an Irish Whip and then catches Jarrett on his shoulder as Jarrett leaps in an attempt to dodge Steiner. Slam into the corner by Steiner, followed by a choke while Jarrett's in the Tree of Woe. Belly-to-Belly gets two for Steiner, and after the two exchange low blows, Steiner gets the advantage and puts Jarrett in the Steiner Recliner. Out comes Booker T, who scissor kicks Steiner, drawing the DQ and saving Jarrett's title in the process. Booker grabs Jarrett and says, "you're welcome, punk". That makes for the third DQ of the night, when the announcers had been talking all night about how WCW is going to let their wrestlers fight. Match wasn't long enough to mean anything and wasn't all that good anyways. I'll give it a 1.2 out of 5.
- Hogan's in the back with a pipe, he finally finds Bischoff, and Bischoff takes off running all the way to the ring, Hogan backs up Bischoff in the corner and starts threatening him, when Bret Hart comes out with a chair. Hart swings the chair, but the show goes off the air before we see who he blasts with the chair. Hopefully it's both of them.
This show was 31 flavors of suck. The matches didn't go very long, the interviews tended to drag, and their was way too much Hogan walking around cursing backstage. Plus the show did nothing for the New Blood except make them look like chumps, especially Kidman and Vampiro. This was just one bad wrestling show. I'll give it a 1.8 out of 10, and I recommend nobody go back and watch this tripe. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any ideas for blog posts or reviews, or thoughts about this post, let me know about them either by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com or by leaving a comment.
Kidman & Hulk Hogan Brawl 17.4.00
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Showing posts with label Shane Douglas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shane Douglas. Show all posts
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Canon Video Challenge: Wrestlers and their names
Confusing title, isn't it? Well, let me explain. Today I'm going to do a video challenge where I take a name of a wrestler, search for that wrestler on Google Video, and then take the number of characters in their name and watch whatever number video that is. For example, if I type in Hulk Hogan, I would watch the ninth video down because the name 'Hulk Hogan' has nine characters. Got it? Well, even if you don't, I'm going to get started anyway.
1. Tony Atlas - Tony Atlas in Piper's Pit
Roddy Piper is doing his interview segment, and he runs Tony Atlas down for not having the guts to show up to the pit. But hold on a minute, because here comes Atlas, wearing half of a shirt. In case you are wondering, it's the top half. Piper sits Atlas down, and his bodyguard Bob Orton Jr. comes onto the set. Piper asks if Atlas got his big arms from eating soul food, and Atlas admits that yes, he likes to eat fried chicken and chitlins and pigs feet. Of course, Piper starts to scoff at Atlas's admission, and naturally Tony takes umbrage and starts getting up in Piper's face, which gets the attention of Orton. Piper says something along the lines of 'you're not so tough now, are you Tony?' But Tony gets the last dig in when he asks which of the Piper-Orton duo wears the skirt around the house. Piper gets one last comment in about watermelons or something and we go to break. Well, that was rather politically incorrect. The WWE certainly couldn't get away with that today. I don't know what to rate the segment, but I'll give Atlas's half shirt a .5 out of 5.
2. Jon Moxley - DGUSA.tv - Jon Moxley wins FIP World Heavyweight Title
Moxley's a wrestler on the indie circuit who has been getting some hype due to his wrestling and his promo skills. I've only seen Moxley once before this, at a Dragon Gate USA PPV. He said something, but the audio was just awful and I couldn't really make out what he was saying, so to be honest, I have no opinion on Moxley either way. This video shows highlights of Moxley winning the FIP (Full Impact Pro) Title. Moxley is shown putting a cross-face chicken wing on some wrestler I don't recognize, than exchanging moves in the title match against Roderick Strong. Afterwards, Moxley delivers a promo about his title win from the backstage area. After calling for some Cervezas, Moxley compares himself to Tiger Woods, "not just because he likes the skanks" but because he's a clutch performer that gets the job done, like Tiger Woods used to be. Moxley compares himself to other former FIP Champions like Daniel "Tie Choker" Bryan, CM Punk, and Homicide, and says that he will have a bigger impact on the sport than all of those other champions, promising to use the belt to "make a scar on the face of the wrestling industry." Moxley says that he will start making his mark with his appearance at Dragon Gate USA's next show on May 7, in Windsor, Ontario. Well, good for him. Moxley promises to take on all comers who don't like the sight of him holding the FIP belt, and that's where the video ends. I must say that compared to other indy wrestlers, Moxley's a rather good promo man, although he's probably done better ones than this. I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5.
3. Shane Douglas - Bill Goldberg vs. Shane Douglas, WCW Nitro, 9/4/00
Hey, this might be interesting. Douglas comes out with Torrie Wilson, and both he and Torrie run down Dallas before Goldberg's music interrupts Shane's sure to be legendary diatribe about how much Dallas sucks. Goldberg is accompanied by WCW's security force on his way to the ring. I never understood why they did that, especially with a guy pushed to be able to beat 10 men at once like Goldberg. Some three minutes after his music hit, Goldberg is in the ring and the match begins. Goldberg dominates at the beginning, putting Douglas in a leg submission hold that forced Douglas to the ropes. To the outside, Goldberg continues his control of the match until Douglas ducks a punch and Goldberg ends up slamming his arm against a ring post. Douglas goes to work on the arm, but all of that effort gets nullified a minute later when Goldberg slams Douglas down from a standing position using only his bad arm. Goldberg hits a short-arm clothesline and sets Douglas up for a spear, which brings out the Natural Born Thrillers. Despite the 6 on 1 odds, Goldberg goes through the NBTs as if they were wet tissue. Douglas gets some brass knuckles, but Goldberg spears Douglas down before the knucks could be used. Jackhammer, and Goldberg wins with ease, overcoming seven on one odds. Well wasn't that special? I'll give it 1 out of 5 just because it was short.
Bill Goldberg vs. Shane Douglas
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4. Bunkhouse Buck - Sting and Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck and Arn Anderson WCW Main Event 11/6/1994
Anderson and Buck are accompanied by Col. Robert Parker and Meng, making this perhaps the most awesome foursome in the history of wrestling. Sting and Dustin both are wearing ugly jackets, which must be the driving force behind their friendship. Sting's ribs are taped, which might come into play later in the match. Arn and Dustin start, Arn gets a few blows in but Dustin is able to take control of the match with a clothesline off the top rope. Sting and Buck are tagged in, and Sting gorilla presses the 245lb Bunkhouse over his head. Sting and Dustin remain in control with quick tags and high impact blows. At one point Arn tries to go for Sting's ribs, but Sting is able to fend him off with a series of kicks and punches. The commentators keep hyping the upcoming main event of the Clash, which has Sting teaming with Hulk Hogan and Dave Sullivan against Kevin Sullivan, Avalanche, and Earthquake. At one point Tony Schiavone calls it the biggest six man tag match in the history of national Television. That is a bold-faced lie. Back to the match, Dustin remains in control of the match until Buck catches him with a knee to the back. At this point, Arn and Buck keep Dustin isolated in their corner, punishing the youngster with some less than legal tactics. Bunkhose whips Dustin in, but Buck ducks too early and takes a boot in the face from Rhodes, which gives him time to tag in Sting. Sting fires away on both men, sending Arn to the outside. Col. Parker gets on the apron, but that backfires, as Sting whips Buck into Parker, knocking the Colonel onto Meng and Buck for a loop. Sting delivers a cross body block off the top rope, and there's the match. Quick little tag match that was quite enjoyable. I'll give it a 3 out of 5.
Sting & Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson & Bunkhouse Buck
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Well, I could go on, but I think I'll end it here for now. Perhaps I will do something like this another time. Until then, thanks for reading, and if you have any comments about this or other posts, or ideas for future reviews, than feel free to share them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
1. Tony Atlas - Tony Atlas in Piper's Pit
Roddy Piper is doing his interview segment, and he runs Tony Atlas down for not having the guts to show up to the pit. But hold on a minute, because here comes Atlas, wearing half of a shirt. In case you are wondering, it's the top half. Piper sits Atlas down, and his bodyguard Bob Orton Jr. comes onto the set. Piper asks if Atlas got his big arms from eating soul food, and Atlas admits that yes, he likes to eat fried chicken and chitlins and pigs feet. Of course, Piper starts to scoff at Atlas's admission, and naturally Tony takes umbrage and starts getting up in Piper's face, which gets the attention of Orton. Piper says something along the lines of 'you're not so tough now, are you Tony?' But Tony gets the last dig in when he asks which of the Piper-Orton duo wears the skirt around the house. Piper gets one last comment in about watermelons or something and we go to break. Well, that was rather politically incorrect. The WWE certainly couldn't get away with that today. I don't know what to rate the segment, but I'll give Atlas's half shirt a .5 out of 5.
2. Jon Moxley - DGUSA.tv - Jon Moxley wins FIP World Heavyweight Title
Moxley's a wrestler on the indie circuit who has been getting some hype due to his wrestling and his promo skills. I've only seen Moxley once before this, at a Dragon Gate USA PPV. He said something, but the audio was just awful and I couldn't really make out what he was saying, so to be honest, I have no opinion on Moxley either way. This video shows highlights of Moxley winning the FIP (Full Impact Pro) Title. Moxley is shown putting a cross-face chicken wing on some wrestler I don't recognize, than exchanging moves in the title match against Roderick Strong. Afterwards, Moxley delivers a promo about his title win from the backstage area. After calling for some Cervezas, Moxley compares himself to Tiger Woods, "not just because he likes the skanks" but because he's a clutch performer that gets the job done, like Tiger Woods used to be. Moxley compares himself to other former FIP Champions like Daniel "Tie Choker" Bryan, CM Punk, and Homicide, and says that he will have a bigger impact on the sport than all of those other champions, promising to use the belt to "make a scar on the face of the wrestling industry." Moxley says that he will start making his mark with his appearance at Dragon Gate USA's next show on May 7, in Windsor, Ontario. Well, good for him. Moxley promises to take on all comers who don't like the sight of him holding the FIP belt, and that's where the video ends. I must say that compared to other indy wrestlers, Moxley's a rather good promo man, although he's probably done better ones than this. I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5.
3. Shane Douglas - Bill Goldberg vs. Shane Douglas, WCW Nitro, 9/4/00
Hey, this might be interesting. Douglas comes out with Torrie Wilson, and both he and Torrie run down Dallas before Goldberg's music interrupts Shane's sure to be legendary diatribe about how much Dallas sucks. Goldberg is accompanied by WCW's security force on his way to the ring. I never understood why they did that, especially with a guy pushed to be able to beat 10 men at once like Goldberg. Some three minutes after his music hit, Goldberg is in the ring and the match begins. Goldberg dominates at the beginning, putting Douglas in a leg submission hold that forced Douglas to the ropes. To the outside, Goldberg continues his control of the match until Douglas ducks a punch and Goldberg ends up slamming his arm against a ring post. Douglas goes to work on the arm, but all of that effort gets nullified a minute later when Goldberg slams Douglas down from a standing position using only his bad arm. Goldberg hits a short-arm clothesline and sets Douglas up for a spear, which brings out the Natural Born Thrillers. Despite the 6 on 1 odds, Goldberg goes through the NBTs as if they were wet tissue. Douglas gets some brass knuckles, but Goldberg spears Douglas down before the knucks could be used. Jackhammer, and Goldberg wins with ease, overcoming seven on one odds. Well wasn't that special? I'll give it 1 out of 5 just because it was short.
Bill Goldberg vs. Shane Douglas
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4. Bunkhouse Buck - Sting and Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck and Arn Anderson WCW Main Event 11/6/1994
Anderson and Buck are accompanied by Col. Robert Parker and Meng, making this perhaps the most awesome foursome in the history of wrestling. Sting and Dustin both are wearing ugly jackets, which must be the driving force behind their friendship. Sting's ribs are taped, which might come into play later in the match. Arn and Dustin start, Arn gets a few blows in but Dustin is able to take control of the match with a clothesline off the top rope. Sting and Buck are tagged in, and Sting gorilla presses the 245lb Bunkhouse over his head. Sting and Dustin remain in control with quick tags and high impact blows. At one point Arn tries to go for Sting's ribs, but Sting is able to fend him off with a series of kicks and punches. The commentators keep hyping the upcoming main event of the Clash, which has Sting teaming with Hulk Hogan and Dave Sullivan against Kevin Sullivan, Avalanche, and Earthquake. At one point Tony Schiavone calls it the biggest six man tag match in the history of national Television. That is a bold-faced lie. Back to the match, Dustin remains in control of the match until Buck catches him with a knee to the back. At this point, Arn and Buck keep Dustin isolated in their corner, punishing the youngster with some less than legal tactics. Bunkhose whips Dustin in, but Buck ducks too early and takes a boot in the face from Rhodes, which gives him time to tag in Sting. Sting fires away on both men, sending Arn to the outside. Col. Parker gets on the apron, but that backfires, as Sting whips Buck into Parker, knocking the Colonel onto Meng and Buck for a loop. Sting delivers a cross body block off the top rope, and there's the match. Quick little tag match that was quite enjoyable. I'll give it a 3 out of 5.
Sting & Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson & Bunkhouse Buck
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Well, I could go on, but I think I'll end it here for now. Perhaps I will do something like this another time. Until then, thanks for reading, and if you have any comments about this or other posts, or ideas for future reviews, than feel free to share them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Canon Magazine Review: Pro Wrestling Illustrated, January 1998
Some might say that I've got a bunch of junk in my room. To be honest, I'd be hard pressed to disagree with them. I have boxes and boxes of magazines, baseball cards, books, and who knows what else. It's gotten bad enough that I don't have enough room to put anything else in there at the moment. So why am I telling you and what does this have to do with a wrestling magazine, you ask? Well, I've decided to look back at some of the stuff I've accumulated over the years and review them from time to time. Up first is the January 1998 issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated, a magazine that covered wrestling as if it were real, and which featured Chris Jericho, Buff Bagwell, and the immortal Alex Wright on the cover with the heading "The Real New World Order: WCW's Hot Young Studs" That headline makes the magazine sound a bit like a porno rag, but nevertheless I will press on and turn the cover, which you can see right here, courtesy of amazon.com:
We start with my favorite part of any magazine, the reader letters. Uggh, this is always death. One man condemns Ken Shamrock for his actions at Summerslam 97, where he attacked the British Bulldogs and a bunch of WWF Referees. Another person is disgusted by wrestling audiences throwing trash into the ring, which, during the height of the nWo days, happened quite a lot. Nowadays, you hardly see anyone throw stuff from the crowd, but every once in a while, a fan will get rowdy and throw something to show their disapproval.
Up next are a few columns by some of the writers of PWI. In Ringside with Bill Apter, the then recent death of Fritz Von Erich is touched upon. We also learn that Reckless Youth beat American Kickboxer for the IWA Lightweight Title, and Akira Hokuto had to vacate the WCW Women's title due to chest pains. Clearly, the pressure of being WCW Women's champion was just too much for Hokuto to handle. In other columns, Stu Saks calls Hollywood Hogan a gutless wimp for submitting to Lex Luger's torture rack, Dave Lenker says that Arn Anderson should get back involved with the Four Horsemen after the events of Fall Brawl 97, which you can read about just below this post, and he also has a note about the then recent in-ring death of Joshi worker Plum Mariko, who died at the young age of 29 after taking a Liger Bomb on her head. Well, that sucks.
Now we get to the meat of the magazine, the feature articles. The first article is about The Giant, and how his focus on beating up nWo members may be hurting his career because, well, they really didn't decide on a reason. At one point they say he's being to passive, and then two paragraphs later they say he's be too reckless and aggressive. I guess this type of thing happens a lot when you have to try and make sense of wrestling storylines. Up next is an 'interview' with Shane Douglas, although from what I've heard over the years, the interview is actually a work of fiction. Douglas had recently won the ECW Title at Hardcore Heaven 97, so a lot of the story deals with that victory. At one point, Douglas, or whoever it is, says that he'll hold the ECW when he's 53, if he so chooses. I am willing to bet 9 million dollars that won't happen in 2017, when Douglas turns 53. Shawn Michaels and his recent attitude change is the subject of the next article. Not long after this issue went to press, Michaels would use his new attitude and form DeGeneration X with Triple-H, Chyna, and Rick Rude, but at this point nobody was sure of exactly what was coming other than a heel turn from HBK.
Next is the cover story, which talks about how Jericho, Wright, Bagwell, and Stevie Richards are the future stars of WCW. First of all, I think Richards had about five matches in WCW before he left/was fired, so I would qualify that as a misfire. Second of all, of the four, only Jericho really became a superstar, even if Buff had his moments. It's kind of hard to believe there was a time that Alex Wright was considered a future main-eventer, but by golly, there was. In fact, there's still time, as Wright is only 35, so come on WWE. Sign up Alex Wright, match him up against John Cena, and watch the cash flow in like wine. Surely Wright would be a better champion than that Sheamus character you've got holding the belt now. After that, the last feature article deals with Ahmed Johnson, which means I will skip it. Actually, it talks about how Ahmed Johnson feels regret over joining the Nation of Domination for the three weeks he was a part of that group, and how his decision may have led to Rocky Maivia joining the N.O.D. Then again, the Rock established himself as a big time star after joining the Nation, so maybe he should be thinking Ahmed for leading him on the path to superstardom.
Finally, there a couple of columns and features towards the end of the magazine. In the WWF vs. WCW section, the recent announcement of WCW adding a new prime-time show is discussed. That show turned out to be WCW Thunder, which was the best show in the history of television, if you discount all the other TV shows that have ever existed. In "The Steel Cage", Dave Rosenbaum argues that Curt Hennig's joining of the nWo is a good thing, because it will lead to Hennig and Ric Flair having a long feud full of great matches. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but the Hennig-Flair feud lasted a couple of months and kind of fizzled out without any memorable matches. In "Win Lose or Draw" Andy Rodriguez writes about Vader's recent face turn and his teaming with the Patriot against the anti-American Hart Foundation. Vader kind of sucked during this time, and he always was much better as a heel, so that wasn't exactly a time full of fond memories of the Man They (who're they?) Call Vader. Also, there are some recent results of wrestling cards around the country, as well as rankings of the top contenders in PWI's mind for all of the big companies. According to their rankings, Jeff Jarrett was the number one contender to the WCW World Title, even though he had been exclusively been wrestling in the middle of the card against guys like Mongo McMichael. I fail to see the logic behind that choice. Also, Phil LaFon was ranked no. 2 in the ECW Top Ten. I have no idea why, considering LaFon barely spent any time in ECW, but if I spent my time questioning the ratings of a magazine that writes about wrestling as if it's a real sport, than I think it would be a colossal waste of time. At the end, there's a "Wrestling Enquirer" section, which discusses the dismissal of ECW's Tod Gordon, who supposedly was trying to send a bunch of the ECW wrestlers to WCW behind Paul Heyman's back or something. Also, Tommy Dreamer's appearance in the USWA and Ricky Morton's appearances in FMW were discussed. Wait a minute, Ricky Morton was in FMW? I wonder if any video exists of this awesome occurrence.
Overall, this magazine wasn't a bad way to waste 20 minutes of time, even though some of the ideas discussed seem kind of ridiculous today. I'll give it a 6 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading a review of me reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future reviews, than share them either by leaving a comment or by e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com. Here's a video of The Giant chokeslamming Eric Bischoff for you, because I couldn't find any FMW Ricky Morton footage, yet.
Up next are a few columns by some of the writers of PWI. In Ringside with Bill Apter, the then recent death of Fritz Von Erich is touched upon. We also learn that Reckless Youth beat American Kickboxer for the IWA Lightweight Title, and Akira Hokuto had to vacate the WCW Women's title due to chest pains. Clearly, the pressure of being WCW Women's champion was just too much for Hokuto to handle. In other columns, Stu Saks calls Hollywood Hogan a gutless wimp for submitting to Lex Luger's torture rack, Dave Lenker says that Arn Anderson should get back involved with the Four Horsemen after the events of Fall Brawl 97, which you can read about just below this post, and he also has a note about the then recent in-ring death of Joshi worker Plum Mariko, who died at the young age of 29 after taking a Liger Bomb on her head. Well, that sucks.
Now we get to the meat of the magazine, the feature articles. The first article is about The Giant, and how his focus on beating up nWo members may be hurting his career because, well, they really didn't decide on a reason. At one point they say he's being to passive, and then two paragraphs later they say he's be too reckless and aggressive. I guess this type of thing happens a lot when you have to try and make sense of wrestling storylines. Up next is an 'interview' with Shane Douglas, although from what I've heard over the years, the interview is actually a work of fiction. Douglas had recently won the ECW Title at Hardcore Heaven 97, so a lot of the story deals with that victory. At one point, Douglas, or whoever it is, says that he'll hold the ECW when he's 53, if he so chooses. I am willing to bet 9 million dollars that won't happen in 2017, when Douglas turns 53. Shawn Michaels and his recent attitude change is the subject of the next article. Not long after this issue went to press, Michaels would use his new attitude and form DeGeneration X with Triple-H, Chyna, and Rick Rude, but at this point nobody was sure of exactly what was coming other than a heel turn from HBK.
Next is the cover story, which talks about how Jericho, Wright, Bagwell, and Stevie Richards are the future stars of WCW. First of all, I think Richards had about five matches in WCW before he left/was fired, so I would qualify that as a misfire. Second of all, of the four, only Jericho really became a superstar, even if Buff had his moments. It's kind of hard to believe there was a time that Alex Wright was considered a future main-eventer, but by golly, there was. In fact, there's still time, as Wright is only 35, so come on WWE. Sign up Alex Wright, match him up against John Cena, and watch the cash flow in like wine. Surely Wright would be a better champion than that Sheamus character you've got holding the belt now. After that, the last feature article deals with Ahmed Johnson, which means I will skip it. Actually, it talks about how Ahmed Johnson feels regret over joining the Nation of Domination for the three weeks he was a part of that group, and how his decision may have led to Rocky Maivia joining the N.O.D. Then again, the Rock established himself as a big time star after joining the Nation, so maybe he should be thinking Ahmed for leading him on the path to superstardom.
Finally, there a couple of columns and features towards the end of the magazine. In the WWF vs. WCW section, the recent announcement of WCW adding a new prime-time show is discussed. That show turned out to be WCW Thunder, which was the best show in the history of television, if you discount all the other TV shows that have ever existed. In "The Steel Cage", Dave Rosenbaum argues that Curt Hennig's joining of the nWo is a good thing, because it will lead to Hennig and Ric Flair having a long feud full of great matches. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but the Hennig-Flair feud lasted a couple of months and kind of fizzled out without any memorable matches. In "Win Lose or Draw" Andy Rodriguez writes about Vader's recent face turn and his teaming with the Patriot against the anti-American Hart Foundation. Vader kind of sucked during this time, and he always was much better as a heel, so that wasn't exactly a time full of fond memories of the Man They (who're they?) Call Vader. Also, there are some recent results of wrestling cards around the country, as well as rankings of the top contenders in PWI's mind for all of the big companies. According to their rankings, Jeff Jarrett was the number one contender to the WCW World Title, even though he had been exclusively been wrestling in the middle of the card against guys like Mongo McMichael. I fail to see the logic behind that choice. Also, Phil LaFon was ranked no. 2 in the ECW Top Ten. I have no idea why, considering LaFon barely spent any time in ECW, but if I spent my time questioning the ratings of a magazine that writes about wrestling as if it's a real sport, than I think it would be a colossal waste of time. At the end, there's a "Wrestling Enquirer" section, which discusses the dismissal of ECW's Tod Gordon, who supposedly was trying to send a bunch of the ECW wrestlers to WCW behind Paul Heyman's back or something. Also, Tommy Dreamer's appearance in the USWA and Ricky Morton's appearances in FMW were discussed. Wait a minute, Ricky Morton was in FMW? I wonder if any video exists of this awesome occurrence.
Overall, this magazine wasn't a bad way to waste 20 minutes of time, even though some of the ideas discussed seem kind of ridiculous today. I'll give it a 6 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading a review of me reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future reviews, than share them either by leaving a comment or by e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com. Here's a video of The Giant chokeslamming Eric Bischoff for you, because I couldn't find any FMW Ricky Morton footage, yet.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Canon Wrestling Review: ECW Hardcore TV, February 27, 1997
The second of two posts about ECW shows in the last 24 hours. Let's see if this show is any good, shall we?
- We start from Cyberslam 1997 with Joey Styles in the ring, who brings out the Pitbulls for an interview. Pitbull #1 (Gary Wolfe) has just recently come back from a broken neck, and wants revenge on the man that broke his neck, Shane Douglas. Wolfe compares Shane Douglas to Shawn Michaels, which apparently is fightin' words in ECW, because the Franchise gets on the mic from a stage in the arena. Douglas curses about 11 times in two minutes, because nobody in wrestling could work in swear words like The Franchise. Really, Taz is the only other wrestler that comes close to working in swears to Douglas. Douglas invites the Pitbulls to take him on up on the stage, and the Pitbulls follow, but Douglas's Triple Threat members Chris Candido and Brian Lee are lying in wait, and the three take out the Pitbulls. Lee chokeslams Pitbull 2 through a table, and the Triple Threat stand proud over their fallen foes.
- Up next is a Tables and Ladders Tag Team Match from Cyberslam 1997 with the Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) defending their ECW Tag Team titles against the team of Sabu and Rob Van Dam.We get a handshake between Van Dam and the Eliminators at the beginning of the match, while Sabu does his trademark point to the sky pose. The match starts with Van Dam and Saturn trading holds, the two then start to trade punches. Van Dam with a standing dropkick gets two, Kronus and Sabu are tagged in, and since both of these men are a little crazy, Styles expects wackiness between the two. Instead the two trade some holds and Kronus eventually gets the advantage with a uranage suplex. That gets two. Sabu puts Kronus in a camel clutch, but Saturn dives off the top with a clothesline to break the hold. Saturn tags in, but Sabu regains the advantage with some punches. Sabu tags in RVD, puts Saturn in a camel clutch and holds him while Van Dam dropkicks him in the face, nearly breaking Saturn's nose in the process. That gets two. Both men are up, and Van Dam and Saturn attempt hammerlocks before Saturn gets the advantage and crotches Van Dam on the top rope. Saturn with a springboard clothesline to the outside and RVD is down. Saturn gets a ladder, but Van Dam is up. While the two fight for the ladder, Sabu dropkicks the ladder into both men, and the fight is now ON! Both teams brawl on the outside for a couple of minutes, Sabu gets whipped into a wall at one point. Now everyone is back in, and Sabu throws a chair at Saturn. Triple Jump Moonsault by Sabu gets two. Van Dam with a moonsault off the second rung of the ladder gets two. Sabu and RVD place Saturn on the ladder and sets up for Rolling Thunder. It connects, but Kronus breaks up the pin. Van Dam gets kicked in the face by Saturn, and gets the ladder thrown into him. Saturn sets the ladder in a corner, whips RVD in, than tags Kronus, who does a double springboard elbow. Sabu breaks up the count, while Saturn returns with another ladder. Saturn just throws the ladder straight into the side of RVD's head. That probably hurt. Saturn sets up the ladder in the corner, whips RVD in, but Van Dam reverses and Saturn goes down after hitting the ladder. RVD has Saturn in a Surfboard, and Sabu dives off the top and clips Saturn in the chest, barely connecting. Sabu uses a ladder to hit the Arabian Face Buster on Saturn, but Kronus breaks up the count. Sabu is tagged in, the two try to double clothesline Saturn, but Saturn delivers clothesline to both men. Saturn is still down, so Sabu gets up and slingshots himself from the apron to do a flipping leg drop. That gets two. Kronus is tagged, and the Eliminators tag Sabu with double superkicks. Kronus with a bodyslam and a twisting senton on Sabu, but RVD breaks up the fall with a dropkick to Kronus. Falcon arrow by Saturn on Sabu, but Sabu kicks out. Somehow Saturn and Sabu end up in the crowd, while Kronus gets whipped into the corner, where a ladder has been set up. RVD runs into Kronus but gets dumped over the top rope, while Sabu dives onto Saturn. These guys look tired. On the other side, Van Dam does a moonsault off the guardrail onto a standing Kronus. Back in the ring, Saturn hits a Frankensteiner on Sabu. That gets a two count. Van Dam and Kronus come back in, and Van Dam gets body slammed. The Eliminators set up a six foot ladder, and Saturn dives off the top onto Van Dam. It would have been more impressive if Saturn did that off the top turnbuckle, but oh well. Sabu dropkicks the ladder into Saturn, drags Kronus outside of the ring and sets him up on a table. He then slingshot leg drops Kronus through the table. Van Dam takes forever to set up the next spot. He puts a ladder in the corner draped over two ropes, sets Saturn on it, ducks under the ladder to get on the top turnbuckle and attempts a split-legged moonsault onto Saturn. He ends up overshooting his target and nearly land head-first onto Saturn. Nice try, but that would be nearly impossible to hit perfectly. Sabu and Van Dam with slingshot kicks onto Saturn, Kronus breaks up the cover with his fist. Saturn eats another slingshot kick from Sabu, than Van Dam sets him up in the corner, and the two do the "Whisper in the Wind" move that the Hardys lifted from their repertoire. Van Dam tries to catch Saturn with a kick, but nearly hits Sabu instead. The two stare at each other, which allows Saturn to dropkick RVD into Sabu. The Eliminators hit two sloppy looking Total Eliminations on RVD and get the victory. Post match, the Eliminators shake hands with Sabu, but RVD refuses, and he and Sabu have words. I see what they were trying to do with this match, but somewhere in the middle it kind of fell apart and became a spotfest, and not a very good one at that. I'll give it a 1.7 out of 5.
- Taz comes out with Bill Alfonso and some jokers wearing "Team Taz" merchandise. He's here to wrestle Tracey Smothers in another match from Cyberslam. This is Smothers' first match at the ECW Arena, and he gets a mixed reaction. Taz starts the match by slapping Smothers straight in the face. This causes Smothers to get angry and the two start trading blows on the ground. Front headlock Taz plex from Taz gets a two count. Smothers is able to keep Taz off balance with a series of punches and kicks, and uses a sunset flip and a flying body press to get a pair of two counts. Jawjacker elbow (hey, that what Styles called it, so I'll go with it) from Smothers gets a two count. Smothers whips Taz in, but Taz ducks a clothesline, goes behind Smothers and hits him with a German Suplex. That spells the beginning of the end for Smothers, as Taz gives Smothers a T-Bone suplex before sinking in the Tazmission, causing Smothers to tap out. Short match that showcased Taz and gave Smothers some credibility. I'll give it a 2.3 out of 5.
- Chris Candido does an interview saying he could be a hardcore legend just like Terry Funk. Candido does a good Terry Funk impression, I must say. Raven and Brian Lee come out to the ring. The Eagles' "Desperado" plays and Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer come out to the ring for a big time tag team match. The stipulation is that if Terry Funk pins Raven, than he gets a shot at Raven's ECW Title at Barely Legal, ECW's first pay-per-view coming up about two months after this. The introductions are given in the match starts, but Raven grabs a microphone. He says to Tommy that Dreamer hasn't pinned him in two years, but tonight Raven will let Tommy pin him, if he wants to cost his mentor Funk a shot at the World Title. Raven says Tommy doesn't have the stones to do it, which sends Tommy into a rage, punching a prone Raven. Back up, Dreamer hits a powerslam on Raven and covers him, but quickly gets up because he can't cost Funk his title shot, even though he's become obsessed with beating Raven. Tommy's dilemma will continue next time, because that's all the time for this week.
Well, this show featured a rather lengthy title match and Taz doing his thing, so it wasn't all bad. But I liked the show I watched earlier a little better than this. I'll give it a 6 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post or about ECW in general, or ideas for future posts, than share them by leaving a comment on the blog, or send me an e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
- We start from Cyberslam 1997 with Joey Styles in the ring, who brings out the Pitbulls for an interview. Pitbull #1 (Gary Wolfe) has just recently come back from a broken neck, and wants revenge on the man that broke his neck, Shane Douglas. Wolfe compares Shane Douglas to Shawn Michaels, which apparently is fightin' words in ECW, because the Franchise gets on the mic from a stage in the arena. Douglas curses about 11 times in two minutes, because nobody in wrestling could work in swear words like The Franchise. Really, Taz is the only other wrestler that comes close to working in swears to Douglas. Douglas invites the Pitbulls to take him on up on the stage, and the Pitbulls follow, but Douglas's Triple Threat members Chris Candido and Brian Lee are lying in wait, and the three take out the Pitbulls. Lee chokeslams Pitbull 2 through a table, and the Triple Threat stand proud over their fallen foes.
- Up next is a Tables and Ladders Tag Team Match from Cyberslam 1997 with the Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) defending their ECW Tag Team titles against the team of Sabu and Rob Van Dam.We get a handshake between Van Dam and the Eliminators at the beginning of the match, while Sabu does his trademark point to the sky pose. The match starts with Van Dam and Saturn trading holds, the two then start to trade punches. Van Dam with a standing dropkick gets two, Kronus and Sabu are tagged in, and since both of these men are a little crazy, Styles expects wackiness between the two. Instead the two trade some holds and Kronus eventually gets the advantage with a uranage suplex. That gets two. Sabu puts Kronus in a camel clutch, but Saturn dives off the top with a clothesline to break the hold. Saturn tags in, but Sabu regains the advantage with some punches. Sabu tags in RVD, puts Saturn in a camel clutch and holds him while Van Dam dropkicks him in the face, nearly breaking Saturn's nose in the process. That gets two. Both men are up, and Van Dam and Saturn attempt hammerlocks before Saturn gets the advantage and crotches Van Dam on the top rope. Saturn with a springboard clothesline to the outside and RVD is down. Saturn gets a ladder, but Van Dam is up. While the two fight for the ladder, Sabu dropkicks the ladder into both men, and the fight is now ON! Both teams brawl on the outside for a couple of minutes, Sabu gets whipped into a wall at one point. Now everyone is back in, and Sabu throws a chair at Saturn. Triple Jump Moonsault by Sabu gets two. Van Dam with a moonsault off the second rung of the ladder gets two. Sabu and RVD place Saturn on the ladder and sets up for Rolling Thunder. It connects, but Kronus breaks up the pin. Van Dam gets kicked in the face by Saturn, and gets the ladder thrown into him. Saturn sets the ladder in a corner, whips RVD in, than tags Kronus, who does a double springboard elbow. Sabu breaks up the count, while Saturn returns with another ladder. Saturn just throws the ladder straight into the side of RVD's head. That probably hurt. Saturn sets up the ladder in the corner, whips RVD in, but Van Dam reverses and Saturn goes down after hitting the ladder. RVD has Saturn in a Surfboard, and Sabu dives off the top and clips Saturn in the chest, barely connecting. Sabu uses a ladder to hit the Arabian Face Buster on Saturn, but Kronus breaks up the count. Sabu is tagged in, the two try to double clothesline Saturn, but Saturn delivers clothesline to both men. Saturn is still down, so Sabu gets up and slingshots himself from the apron to do a flipping leg drop. That gets two. Kronus is tagged, and the Eliminators tag Sabu with double superkicks. Kronus with a bodyslam and a twisting senton on Sabu, but RVD breaks up the fall with a dropkick to Kronus. Falcon arrow by Saturn on Sabu, but Sabu kicks out. Somehow Saturn and Sabu end up in the crowd, while Kronus gets whipped into the corner, where a ladder has been set up. RVD runs into Kronus but gets dumped over the top rope, while Sabu dives onto Saturn. These guys look tired. On the other side, Van Dam does a moonsault off the guardrail onto a standing Kronus. Back in the ring, Saturn hits a Frankensteiner on Sabu. That gets a two count. Van Dam and Kronus come back in, and Van Dam gets body slammed. The Eliminators set up a six foot ladder, and Saturn dives off the top onto Van Dam. It would have been more impressive if Saturn did that off the top turnbuckle, but oh well. Sabu dropkicks the ladder into Saturn, drags Kronus outside of the ring and sets him up on a table. He then slingshot leg drops Kronus through the table. Van Dam takes forever to set up the next spot. He puts a ladder in the corner draped over two ropes, sets Saturn on it, ducks under the ladder to get on the top turnbuckle and attempts a split-legged moonsault onto Saturn. He ends up overshooting his target and nearly land head-first onto Saturn. Nice try, but that would be nearly impossible to hit perfectly. Sabu and Van Dam with slingshot kicks onto Saturn, Kronus breaks up the cover with his fist. Saturn eats another slingshot kick from Sabu, than Van Dam sets him up in the corner, and the two do the "Whisper in the Wind" move that the Hardys lifted from their repertoire. Van Dam tries to catch Saturn with a kick, but nearly hits Sabu instead. The two stare at each other, which allows Saturn to dropkick RVD into Sabu. The Eliminators hit two sloppy looking Total Eliminations on RVD and get the victory. Post match, the Eliminators shake hands with Sabu, but RVD refuses, and he and Sabu have words. I see what they were trying to do with this match, but somewhere in the middle it kind of fell apart and became a spotfest, and not a very good one at that. I'll give it a 1.7 out of 5.
- Taz comes out with Bill Alfonso and some jokers wearing "Team Taz" merchandise. He's here to wrestle Tracey Smothers in another match from Cyberslam. This is Smothers' first match at the ECW Arena, and he gets a mixed reaction. Taz starts the match by slapping Smothers straight in the face. This causes Smothers to get angry and the two start trading blows on the ground. Front headlock Taz plex from Taz gets a two count. Smothers is able to keep Taz off balance with a series of punches and kicks, and uses a sunset flip and a flying body press to get a pair of two counts. Jawjacker elbow (hey, that what Styles called it, so I'll go with it) from Smothers gets a two count. Smothers whips Taz in, but Taz ducks a clothesline, goes behind Smothers and hits him with a German Suplex. That spells the beginning of the end for Smothers, as Taz gives Smothers a T-Bone suplex before sinking in the Tazmission, causing Smothers to tap out. Short match that showcased Taz and gave Smothers some credibility. I'll give it a 2.3 out of 5.
- Chris Candido does an interview saying he could be a hardcore legend just like Terry Funk. Candido does a good Terry Funk impression, I must say. Raven and Brian Lee come out to the ring. The Eagles' "Desperado" plays and Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer come out to the ring for a big time tag team match. The stipulation is that if Terry Funk pins Raven, than he gets a shot at Raven's ECW Title at Barely Legal, ECW's first pay-per-view coming up about two months after this. The introductions are given in the match starts, but Raven grabs a microphone. He says to Tommy that Dreamer hasn't pinned him in two years, but tonight Raven will let Tommy pin him, if he wants to cost his mentor Funk a shot at the World Title. Raven says Tommy doesn't have the stones to do it, which sends Tommy into a rage, punching a prone Raven. Back up, Dreamer hits a powerslam on Raven and covers him, but quickly gets up because he can't cost Funk his title shot, even though he's become obsessed with beating Raven. Tommy's dilemma will continue next time, because that's all the time for this week.
Well, this show featured a rather lengthy title match and Taz doing his thing, so it wasn't all bad. But I liked the show I watched earlier a little better than this. I'll give it a 6 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post or about ECW in general, or ideas for future posts, than share them by leaving a comment on the blog, or send me an e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Canon Wrestling Review: ECW Hardcore TV, March 26, 1996
Sorry for yesterday's lack of activity, I had a lot to do and the whole day was just bonkers, so by the time I sat down on the computer, I was too exhausted to come up with anything to review. But fear not, as I plan on double dipping today, so you fine people get not just one, but two whole Canon Reviews! Isn't that exciting? What do you mean you don't care? Anyway, this review, as you could probably tell by the title, is an episode of ECW Hardcore TV, the weekly television show that ECW had back in the day. Since all the wrestling I've reviewed seems to be WCW shows, I wanted to switch it up a bit, and what better way to do that than watch some Extreme Championship Wrestling at the peak of their run. So I will, by golly. This episode was originally shown on March 26, 1996.
ECW Hardcore TV: March 26, 1996
We start with clips from a brawl taking place in the crowd between The Bruise Brothers and the unlikely duo of Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas. Somebody gets thrown through a door, one of the Bruise Brothers gets hit with half of a table by Dreamer, just another night at the ECW Arena. The ECW Intro plays, and Joey Styles welcomes us to the show. Styles starts by talking about Cactus Jack, who recently had wrestled his last match in ECW at the Big Ass Extreme Bash (great name, by the way) against Mikey Whipwreck.
Highlights of the Jack-Whipwreck match are shown. We start with Mikey hitting a Russian leg sweep on Jack on a chair. Mikey tries for a victory roll near the ropes, but Cactus dumps Mikey off his shoulders onto the timekeeper's table outside the ring. The table doesn't break, so Mikey just bounces off the table in what had to be a painful bump. Jack sets the table up against the ring post, and gives Mikey a back suplex onto the table, which once again does not break. That table's as tough as a two dollar steak. Inside the ring again, and Whipwreck has a chair. He hits Cactus as hard as possible in the head with the chair twice. Despite those hellacious chairshots, Cactus kicks out at two. We get some brawling out in the crowd, and Whipwreck snap suplexes Cactus on a stage. Mikey climbs up to a higher stage of the arena, and dives some eight to ten feet onto Cactus. Back inside, Whipwreck tries an aerial attack, but eats a Cactus Jack forearm on the way down. Cactus has a chair, and pounds a downed Mikey in the back three times with it. Cactus picks Mikey up, and piledrives him on a chair. OUCH! That gets three, and Cactus wins his last ECW match. Post-match, Cactus crawls after Mikey, who tries to scurry away like a scared child. But Cactus catches Whipwreck, picks him up on his feet, and raises Mikey's hand in a show of respect. As the song "New York, New York" plays (because Cactus is going to the WWF, which is based in New York). Cactus calls out the two men that "without them, there wouldn't be an ECW" One's a creative genius, while the other is a visionary. That's right, it's none other than . . . Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie? The three then do one of the worst Rockettes dance routine in the history of mankind, and then embrace in the ring. Now that's an exit, there, a million, billion stars. Cactus Jack then went to the WWF, where he did okay for himself, all in all. I'll give this whole segment a 4.8 out of 5, good stuff here.
- It's time to sell some merchandise. Brian Pillman plugs his 1-900 hotline. Did anybody actually call his hotline? If so, let me know. Hey, you can buy a Sabu T-Shirt for the first time for 20 dollars, or an EC F'N W shirt. In between all of these ads, a highlight video of Cactus Jack is shown. The video ends with a screen that says "Cactus Jack, 1985-1996, Bang Bang, He's Dead". Jack would come back to life a year later, albiet in the WWF, but still. After all that, Joey introduces us to the next match, which also took place at the Big Ass Extreme Bash between the "last survivor of the Hart Dungeon" Chris Jericho and the "One-Man Crime Spree" Taz.
- Jericho comes out to "Electric Head part 2" by White Zombie, while Taz comes out to Kiss's "War Machine" with his manager, Bill Alfonso, who blows his whistle every three seconds. As you can imagine, that gets annoying quickly. The match starts, the two tie up, and Taz counters with a Fujiwara armbar. Jericho reaches the ropes, and the two tie up again, Jericho gets a top wrist-lock, but Taz bridges out. Taz tries a German suplex, but Jericho goes behind and hits a German of his own. That gets two. Taz goes to the outside, he climbs back on the apron, but Jericho hits a springboard dropkick from the turnbuckle, sending Taz back to the outside. Jericho runs to the turnbuckle and dives on Taz on the outside of the ring. Back in, Jericho does the Superfly splash and a Lionsault, but both moves only get two. Taz whips Jericho into the corner, goes for the German suplex again, but Jericho turns around, only to take a Northern Lights suplex. That gets two. Both men get up, and Jericho superkicks Taz. Jericho climbs to the top, but Taz catches him and sets him up for a super back suplex, but Jericho flips out of it and clotheslines Taz. Jericho whips Taz into the corner, but Taz bounces off and catches a running Jericho to deliver a T-Bone Taz plex. Jericho landed on his head after that move, and the referee calls for the bell. But Jericho gets up and demands a restart. He knocks Taz down, but after missing a punch, Taz German suplexes Jericho on the back of his head. That looked like it hurt. Taz locks in the Tazmission and Jericho has no choice to give up. Taz keeps the hold on, despite the best efforts of Little Guido and the Eliminators to break it up, but Brian Pillman, who Styles claimed helped train Jericho (never mind the fact that the two men hadn't met until 1996) comes in the ring and jumps around like a crazy man, causing Taz to let go and stare down Pillman. Taz then Germans Little Guido just because he can, and Pillman leaves, only to clothesline an oncoming El Puerto Ricano and back suplex him on the floor. That brings out Shane Douglas, who tries to get to Pillman but Pillman escapes through the crowd. Douglas and others check on Jericho while Taz leaves the ring. The match was pretty good, so I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5.
- The main event of the show is next, as Raven defends his ECW World Championship against Shane Douglas. Raven comes out on crutches and with his flunkies Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie. A video is shown highlighting the relationship between Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, and the Sandman, three rivals that have come together due to a common hatred of Raven. Douglas comes out, but before the match starts Richards gets the mic. He tells Raven not to wrestle because Raven has gout. Ok then. Raven says there will be no match tonight, but Douglas takes umbrage and hits Raven with the microphone. Richards with a Stevie kick, and both men are down at the start of the match. Raven hits his patented Evenflow DDT, but only gets two. To the outside, Raven throws Douglas agianst two guardrails and gives Douglas another Evenflow DDT, this time on a chair. Raven gets in the ring and tells the ref to count Douglas out. Douglas gets to the apron at eight, only to eat a kneelift by Raven. Douglas gets back up, only to receive a running punch from Raven. This time Douglas doesn't get back on the apron until the count of nine. Raven tries to suplex Douglas in, but Douglas counters and drapes Raven over the turnbuckle. Douglas knees Raven in the head and Raven flies to the outside. Douglas with a suicide dive on Raven's lackeys, and then turns his attention to Raven. Back in, Douglas with a chairshot on Raven, and a DDT on the chair for Raven. Raven's valet Kimona Wanalaya breaks up the count, but gets spanked for her efforts. Raven with a low blow and Douglas is down. Raven whips Douglas into the corner and charges after him with a chair, but Shane pulls the ref into his path. Raven knocks the ref down. Douglas hits Raven with his own crutch, and delivers belly-to-belly suplexes to Richards, Meanie, and Raven. But the ref is down. The Bruise Brothers come out and deliver a double big boot to Douglas. Raven with the cover, but it only gets two. Raven charges with a chair, but Douglas kicks it into Raven's face. Hotshot onto Raven gets a two count. Douglas sets up the chair, and atomic drops Raven onto it. A clothesline knocks Raven out of the chair, and gets a two count. Douglas tries to throw Raven head first into a chair in the corner, but Raven counters and throws Douglas into it. Evenflow on a chair by Raven, and that gets the three count. Post match, the Bruise Brothers come out and try to post Douglas crotch first, but Dreamer makes the save. Dreamer gets overwhelmed by the Bruise Brothers and Raven, but here comes The Sandman, with Singapore cane shots for both the Bruise Brothers, Raven, Stevie, and Meanie. Dreamer DDT's Raven, puts a chair on Raven's foot, and tries to take out Raven's gout ridden leg, but the Sandman stops him, indicating he wants to do it. While the two are arguing, Douglas dives off the top rope onto Raven's leg. Raven leaves while Douglas, Dreamer, and Sandman have a standoff. Match was a bit of a mess, but it was ok. I'll give it a 2.6 out of 5.
Well, that was fun. This show was a lot of fun to watch and showed what ECW was all about, a hard-hitting wrestling show with great characters such as Raven and Cactus Jack and interesting storylines. Overall, I'll give this episode a 7.4 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post, or ideas for future posts, than let us know about them either by leaving a comment on the blog or by sending an e-mail to KtheC2001@gmail.com.
ECW Hardcore TV: March 26, 1996
We start with clips from a brawl taking place in the crowd between The Bruise Brothers and the unlikely duo of Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas. Somebody gets thrown through a door, one of the Bruise Brothers gets hit with half of a table by Dreamer, just another night at the ECW Arena. The ECW Intro plays, and Joey Styles welcomes us to the show. Styles starts by talking about Cactus Jack, who recently had wrestled his last match in ECW at the Big Ass Extreme Bash (great name, by the way) against Mikey Whipwreck.
Highlights of the Jack-Whipwreck match are shown. We start with Mikey hitting a Russian leg sweep on Jack on a chair. Mikey tries for a victory roll near the ropes, but Cactus dumps Mikey off his shoulders onto the timekeeper's table outside the ring. The table doesn't break, so Mikey just bounces off the table in what had to be a painful bump. Jack sets the table up against the ring post, and gives Mikey a back suplex onto the table, which once again does not break. That table's as tough as a two dollar steak. Inside the ring again, and Whipwreck has a chair. He hits Cactus as hard as possible in the head with the chair twice. Despite those hellacious chairshots, Cactus kicks out at two. We get some brawling out in the crowd, and Whipwreck snap suplexes Cactus on a stage. Mikey climbs up to a higher stage of the arena, and dives some eight to ten feet onto Cactus. Back inside, Whipwreck tries an aerial attack, but eats a Cactus Jack forearm on the way down. Cactus has a chair, and pounds a downed Mikey in the back three times with it. Cactus picks Mikey up, and piledrives him on a chair. OUCH! That gets three, and Cactus wins his last ECW match. Post-match, Cactus crawls after Mikey, who tries to scurry away like a scared child. But Cactus catches Whipwreck, picks him up on his feet, and raises Mikey's hand in a show of respect. As the song "New York, New York" plays (because Cactus is going to the WWF, which is based in New York). Cactus calls out the two men that "without them, there wouldn't be an ECW" One's a creative genius, while the other is a visionary. That's right, it's none other than . . . Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie? The three then do one of the worst Rockettes dance routine in the history of mankind, and then embrace in the ring. Now that's an exit, there, a million, billion stars. Cactus Jack then went to the WWF, where he did okay for himself, all in all. I'll give this whole segment a 4.8 out of 5, good stuff here.
- It's time to sell some merchandise. Brian Pillman plugs his 1-900 hotline. Did anybody actually call his hotline? If so, let me know. Hey, you can buy a Sabu T-Shirt for the first time for 20 dollars, or an EC F'N W shirt. In between all of these ads, a highlight video of Cactus Jack is shown. The video ends with a screen that says "Cactus Jack, 1985-1996, Bang Bang, He's Dead". Jack would come back to life a year later, albiet in the WWF, but still. After all that, Joey introduces us to the next match, which also took place at the Big Ass Extreme Bash between the "last survivor of the Hart Dungeon" Chris Jericho and the "One-Man Crime Spree" Taz.
- Jericho comes out to "Electric Head part 2" by White Zombie, while Taz comes out to Kiss's "War Machine" with his manager, Bill Alfonso, who blows his whistle every three seconds. As you can imagine, that gets annoying quickly. The match starts, the two tie up, and Taz counters with a Fujiwara armbar. Jericho reaches the ropes, and the two tie up again, Jericho gets a top wrist-lock, but Taz bridges out. Taz tries a German suplex, but Jericho goes behind and hits a German of his own. That gets two. Taz goes to the outside, he climbs back on the apron, but Jericho hits a springboard dropkick from the turnbuckle, sending Taz back to the outside. Jericho runs to the turnbuckle and dives on Taz on the outside of the ring. Back in, Jericho does the Superfly splash and a Lionsault, but both moves only get two. Taz whips Jericho into the corner, goes for the German suplex again, but Jericho turns around, only to take a Northern Lights suplex. That gets two. Both men get up, and Jericho superkicks Taz. Jericho climbs to the top, but Taz catches him and sets him up for a super back suplex, but Jericho flips out of it and clotheslines Taz. Jericho whips Taz into the corner, but Taz bounces off and catches a running Jericho to deliver a T-Bone Taz plex. Jericho landed on his head after that move, and the referee calls for the bell. But Jericho gets up and demands a restart. He knocks Taz down, but after missing a punch, Taz German suplexes Jericho on the back of his head. That looked like it hurt. Taz locks in the Tazmission and Jericho has no choice to give up. Taz keeps the hold on, despite the best efforts of Little Guido and the Eliminators to break it up, but Brian Pillman, who Styles claimed helped train Jericho (never mind the fact that the two men hadn't met until 1996) comes in the ring and jumps around like a crazy man, causing Taz to let go and stare down Pillman. Taz then Germans Little Guido just because he can, and Pillman leaves, only to clothesline an oncoming El Puerto Ricano and back suplex him on the floor. That brings out Shane Douglas, who tries to get to Pillman but Pillman escapes through the crowd. Douglas and others check on Jericho while Taz leaves the ring. The match was pretty good, so I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5.
- The main event of the show is next, as Raven defends his ECW World Championship against Shane Douglas. Raven comes out on crutches and with his flunkies Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie. A video is shown highlighting the relationship between Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, and the Sandman, three rivals that have come together due to a common hatred of Raven. Douglas comes out, but before the match starts Richards gets the mic. He tells Raven not to wrestle because Raven has gout. Ok then. Raven says there will be no match tonight, but Douglas takes umbrage and hits Raven with the microphone. Richards with a Stevie kick, and both men are down at the start of the match. Raven hits his patented Evenflow DDT, but only gets two. To the outside, Raven throws Douglas agianst two guardrails and gives Douglas another Evenflow DDT, this time on a chair. Raven gets in the ring and tells the ref to count Douglas out. Douglas gets to the apron at eight, only to eat a kneelift by Raven. Douglas gets back up, only to receive a running punch from Raven. This time Douglas doesn't get back on the apron until the count of nine. Raven tries to suplex Douglas in, but Douglas counters and drapes Raven over the turnbuckle. Douglas knees Raven in the head and Raven flies to the outside. Douglas with a suicide dive on Raven's lackeys, and then turns his attention to Raven. Back in, Douglas with a chairshot on Raven, and a DDT on the chair for Raven. Raven's valet Kimona Wanalaya breaks up the count, but gets spanked for her efforts. Raven with a low blow and Douglas is down. Raven whips Douglas into the corner and charges after him with a chair, but Shane pulls the ref into his path. Raven knocks the ref down. Douglas hits Raven with his own crutch, and delivers belly-to-belly suplexes to Richards, Meanie, and Raven. But the ref is down. The Bruise Brothers come out and deliver a double big boot to Douglas. Raven with the cover, but it only gets two. Raven charges with a chair, but Douglas kicks it into Raven's face. Hotshot onto Raven gets a two count. Douglas sets up the chair, and atomic drops Raven onto it. A clothesline knocks Raven out of the chair, and gets a two count. Douglas tries to throw Raven head first into a chair in the corner, but Raven counters and throws Douglas into it. Evenflow on a chair by Raven, and that gets the three count. Post match, the Bruise Brothers come out and try to post Douglas crotch first, but Dreamer makes the save. Dreamer gets overwhelmed by the Bruise Brothers and Raven, but here comes The Sandman, with Singapore cane shots for both the Bruise Brothers, Raven, Stevie, and Meanie. Dreamer DDT's Raven, puts a chair on Raven's foot, and tries to take out Raven's gout ridden leg, but the Sandman stops him, indicating he wants to do it. While the two are arguing, Douglas dives off the top rope onto Raven's leg. Raven leaves while Douglas, Dreamer, and Sandman have a standoff. Match was a bit of a mess, but it was ok. I'll give it a 2.6 out of 5.
Well, that was fun. This show was a lot of fun to watch and showed what ECW was all about, a hard-hitting wrestling show with great characters such as Raven and Cactus Jack and interesting storylines. Overall, I'll give this episode a 7.4 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post, or ideas for future posts, than let us know about them either by leaving a comment on the blog or by sending an e-mail to KtheC2001@gmail.com.
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