Superstars 10-28-95 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, October 28th, 1995
Agridome
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

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We're getting Razor Ramon vs. Yokozuna today, which is pretty big by Superstars standards. They then show clips of the Diesel/British Bulldog match at In Your House. 

Marty Jannetty vs. Jake Steele

It sure feels like they are making Jannetty earn every cent on his comeback. Jannetty just came off a loss at In Your House, so here's your reminder that he wins matches. He hits the top rope fist and that's all. There's not much to say here. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show Alundra Blayze winning the Women's Championship from Bertha Faye on Raw. She then cuts a terrible promo about the New Generation. 

Jean Pierre Lafitte vs. Tony Roy

Speaking of guys who need to get back to winning, Lafitte is at the top of the list. His matches with Bret ruled and he needs something. Unfortunately, that would never come. Lafitte ties Roy up in the ropes and hits a splash. He hits the side suplex and the swanton for the victory. He continues to impress and he will continue to do nothing until he leaves. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time to go to Dok Hendrix and the Slam Jam. It's Karate Fighter time also. We hear from Diesel and he isn't happy with Bret Hart. 

They show Yokozuna in the back with Owen Hart, Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji. 

We get the sit down interview with Jim Ross and Shawn Michaels that they showed on Raw. 

Duke Droese vs. Roy Raymond

Remember Duke Droese? This is his first Superstars match since July. Duke hits an atomic drop and a dropkick. He hits the Trash Compactor and that is all. I guess he exists again and will have his little moment in a few weeks before going away for good. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Next week, it's Sid vs. Bret Hart on Superstars. 

Bob Backlund vs. Bob Clancy

Backlund on Superstars in 1995? Why not? It still blows my mind that Backlund was a headliner for years. I lost interest in this one. The Cross-Face Chickenwing is all you need to see here. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Owen Hart & Yokozuna vs. Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid

So this is a tag team match for some reason. Why wouldn't they just have advertised that? It's probably a better attraction than the one on one. Razor and Kid clear the ring and the crowd loves it. Kid and Owen do their thing, which is good. Owen then tags in Yoko, which is not good. The match slows down to a crawl as a result. Razor gets the hot tag to Kid and we get more action with him and Owen. We get a brawl, which leads to Razor and Yoko going outside. That allows Owen to hit a belly to belly suplex and pick up the victory. That was kind of out of nowhere. This was decent.

Match Rating: *3/4

We go back to Dok and he hypes up the Wild Card match. 

We hear from Sid in a wind suit and they make fun of Bret Hart having Canadian Football players with him next week. Bret says he'll see him in the ring. 

This was kind of an odd assortment of matches for the first one of the taping. I would have thought we'd get at least one more match that mattered here instead of Bob Backlund. Oh well, it's Superstars. 

Overall Rating: 36%

Monday Night Raw 10-23-95 Review

Monday, October 23rd, 1995
Keystone Centre
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada

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They talk about Diesel/Bret, the women's match tonight, the battle royal that is next and Shawn Michaels forfeiting the Intercontinental Championship to Dean Douglas, who then lost it to Razor Ramon. In all honesty, that's a decent way to make tonight feel important. 

Battle Royal To Become The Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender

Marty Jannetty, Sid, and Isaac Yankem all get televised entrances. Marty and Sid also get interview spots. King Kong Bundy is eliminated within 15 seconds. Just about the entire roster is in this one. This is a great example of a bunch of guys standing around doing a whole lot of nothing. We finally get a fairly large exit of guys and we are down to six. Savio Vega, Sid, Marty, Owen Hart, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Jean Pierre Lafitte are left. Just as I finish that sentence, Sid is eliminated. They show Razor in the back watching intently. During the commercial break, Bam Bam is eliminated by Jean Pierre. I would love to see Razor take on him next week on Raw. The crowd is chanting for Marty. This episode is creeping up on being half over. Marty is able to eliminate both Savio and Jean Pierre. He almost gets Owen out of there, but Owen does a nice bump to spin upside down into the ropes. We get another close call with him teetering on the edge of the ring. Owen was so good. We get some good action and then Owen sends Marty through the ropes and not over. Marty then grabs Jim Cornette's tennis racket and chases him around. Bulldog comes out and attacks Marty. Back in the ring, Owen is able to throw Marty over the top and become the #1 contender in a King Of The Ring 1994 rematch. Like most battle royals, the first three quarters were boring and the ending was good. 

Match Rating: *1/2

Lawler interviews Owen and he insults Bret for the cheap heat. 

They show some video footage of the main event, which is really surprising. I guess I always remembered them showing still photos at this time, especially the night after. 

We go to the Survivor Series Slam Jam with Dok Hendrix. This is the Karate Fighters in one of the more memorable product placements of the era. He hypes up the Wild Card match where Shawn Michaels, Sid, British Bulldog and Ahmed Johnson take on Dean Douglas, Yokozuna, Owen Hart and Razor Ramon. They then show Bob Backlund campaigning in the crowd in Canada. Back to Dok and we hear from Ahmed, who says he has Shawn's back. 

Avatar vs. Brian Walsh

The infamous Avatar debut here. I'll never understand why they had him put on the mask after he got to the ring. I'm also not sure why he has Fatu's colors. Avatar is a little sloppy, losing his balance on the top rope. He makes up for it by just doing a dive instead. He misses with a moonsault and Walsh hits a couple of clotheslines. Avatar comes back with a somersault clothesline and a backbreaker. The crowd is dead silent here. He hits a standing moonsault and then stands on his chest before leaping for a splash for the win. He got no build and was stuck wrestling a style that was nothing like the style that worked for him in the future. It's pretty easy to see why this failed. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

You can buy a cardboard stand-up for only $25. Call now!

WWE Women's Championship
Bertha Faye vs. Alundra Blayze

They show Bertha winning at SummerSlam, which feels like the last time we saw her. Bertha uses her size to dominate the opening portion here. We then get kind of an oddly timed commercial break with no drama. I know they got more into that in later years, but this one felt like there was no reason to not change the channel. When we return, Alundra makes her comeback. She tries to pull off a powerbomb, but Bertha hits the back body drop instead. Bertha climbs to the second rope, but Alundra pulls off her handstand head scissors. Harvey tries to get involved, but it backfires and Alundra picks up the win to regain the championship. After the match, Bertha chases after Harvey to the back. That would have been a lot more satisfying if there was anything that happened between the time Bertha won it and now. Bertha put on a good performance here, but it's hard to care when the promotion doesn't care. 

Match Rating: **

Next week, it's going to be Goldust's TV debut against Savio Vega and Razor Ramon defends his title against Owen Hart. We go back to Jim Ross and he interviews Shawn Michaels. He talks about how hard he worked for the Intercontinental Championship and it sucked having to hand it over to someone as overrated as Dean Douglas. They talk about his Survivor Series match and how he has some tests to pass before he can compete. 

This was a disappointing live edition, especially compared to the one last month. It wasn't bad by any means, but just felt a little flat. 

Overall Rating: 43%

Monday Nitro 10-23-95 Review

Monday, October 23rd, 1995 
Von Braun Civic Center
Huntsville, Alabama

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Randy Savage vs. Kurasawa

We're right to the ring action this week. This is the go home show for Halloween Havoc. I love how Steve McMichael calls him Macho Man Savage. Kurasawa is getting a lot of offense in here and they talk about how he broke the arm of Road Warrior Hawk. This match even gets a commercial break. When we come back, Kurasawa is still working on Savage. Savage gets an opening when he shoves Kurasawa's throat into the top rope. He immediately goes up top and hits the elbow drop and that's it. Kurasawa got a lot of shine here, but then the finish made him look pretty weak. I know it's Savage, but still. The match was a decent little TV match though. 

Match Rating: **

The announce team is talking about the night and then the lights go out. We then get the Dungeon of Doom guy yelling nonsense. They show us a block of "ice" and something about Halloween Havoc. This was terrible. Mean Gene is now with Kevin Sullivan and Giant. Sullivan says that this block of "ice" is the insurance policy. That's right, it's Yet-ay time. Giant was such a bad character. All of the fun from the Savage match was just entirely sucked out of the building with this segment. 

After the commercial break, Mean Gene is now with Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart. As much as I am enjoying Nitro and looking forward to the future of the show, I'm not sure how many more of these Hogan promos I can take. 

Dean Malenko & Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero & Mr. JL

Alex Wright is out on crutches with Guerrero and JL. Malenko and Benoit show some good teamwork, which leads to a dive from Malenko. Malenko then holds Guerrero for Benoit's dive, but Guerrero moves out of the way and he hits Malenko. Guerrero then launches JL to the outside on both men. Benoit then launches JL into the corner on Malenko. We then get a distraction due to a fight in the back between Scott Norton and Shark. Really? We get a commercial break during a Malenko abdominal stretch. These guys are getting quite a bit of time again tonight. They keep talking about Hogan every 30 seconds, but it's still something. Benoit hits a superplex and gets a 2 count thanks to Eddie breaking up the pin attempt. JL finally gets the hot tag to Guerrero and he gets the crowd into it. He hits an arm drag/headscissors combo. All 4 men end up in the ring and we get a little bit of an awkward spot where Benoit and Eddie fall out of the ring. Mr. JL is able to get in a pin after Alex Wright tripped up Malenko with his crutch and that's all. This was another pretty good showing for Eddie, as he seems to be the one who draws the most crowd response.

Match Rating: **1/2

As Eddie is walking to the back, he attacks Eddie for no reason. 

Harlem Heat vs. Sting & Lex Luger

It's interesting that so far in the short history of Nitro, they really have focused on really only having certain guys on the show every week and just sprinkling in a few others here and there. WWF seems to diversify a little more and probably due to the fact that they tape 75 shows at each taping. The Heat mostly dominate Luger while Sherri looks at a Polaroid photo of her and Col. Robert Parker. I didn't know that Eric Bischoff was part of the whole "Yet-ay" thing. I thought that was just Tony Schiavone. Luger finally tags in Sting and we get your typical no flow finish here. Sting hits a clothesline off the top rope and gets the victory. Out comes Giant and Kevin Sullivan and he gives chokeslams to Luger and Sting. Out comes Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. The crowd is definitely into this and I'm not really sure why. Giant no sells Hogans right hands and then knocks Hogan down. Hogan hulks up and then out comes the rest of the Dungeon of Doom. They clear the ring and then the lights start to flicker. The Yeti breaks out of the iceberg and we go off the air. Did they not learn anything from the Gobbledy Gooker? The match sucked.

Match Rating: 1/2*

We got two good matches here tonight, but everything Hogan sucked the life out of this show. The Yeti is an all timer in terms of sucking, so they also had that going for it. They didn't do a great job of really building any of the card for the show Sunday either, which is kind of surprising. They didn't even bother to run down matches or anything. I am guessing that was more of a Saturday Night thing? 

Overall Rating: 45%

In Your House 4: Great White North Review

Sunday, October 22nd, 1995
Winnipeg Arena
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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Toni Wilson sings the Canadian national anthem. We then get a message from Gorilla Monsoon, who tells us that he is not letting Shawn Michaels wrestle tonight due to his concussion. He will forfeit the title in the ring to Dean Douglas. He will then have to wrestle Razor Ramon tonight for the title. 

Fatu vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley

Fatu goes after Helmsley right away and hits a big back body drop. Helmsley sends Fatu into the ropes and he gets his head stuck in the top two ropes. Helmsley follows up with a piledriver once he's released and Helmsley is finally able to get out of his attire. Fatu is definitely getting the benefit of being the opening match here. He does a nice sell on a Helmsley clothesline and kicks out at 2. Helmsley goes for the Pedigree and Fatu counters to a back body drop. Helmsley hits a DDT, but Fatu no sells it and hits a super kick. Fatu hits a backbreaker and then a headbutt off the second rope. A sloppy cover allows Helmsley to get his shoulder up. Gorilla would have been all over him for that one. He climbs up to the top rope and misses with the splash. Helmsley hits the Pedigree and that's all. That gets a pop from a vocal minority in the crowd. This was a solid opening match and probably Helmsley's best match to date. 

Match Rating: **1/2

Jerry Lawler interviews Helmsley after the match and calls that the "most impressive match he's ever seen in his life". Sure, Jerry. Helmsley talks about how gross Fatu was and then we see Henry Godwinn sneaking from behind. They see him and Helmsley hides behind Lawler before bolting to the back. 

Dok Hendrix is back with British Bulldog and Jim Cornette to talk about his first ever WWF Championship opportunity. They once again show the highlight of him pinning Diesel on Raw. 

WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Smoking Gunns vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Razor Ramon

When you look back at the timeline, it really is kind of crazy that Razor was on a pay per view wrestling for two different titles, winning one of them and then he left the company in 7 months or so. Not that it's unheard of in the wrestling business, but they clearly were under the impression he would be here. The first big spot is when Bart is running the ropes, Kid pulls down the top rope and sends him flying to the floor. The referee was distracted by Billy there and the crowd loved it. Kid hits some kicks and tags in Razor to hit a fall away slam. They do a double team where Razor hits a fall away slam on Kid into Bart. Bart is finally able to get in some offense and then he and Razor collide as Dean Douglas is shown in the back watching and laughing. Billy finally gets tagged in and hits a huge back body drop. Kid really went flying there. The Gunns hit a vertical suplex/dropkick combination and Kid just barely kicks out. Billy misses a splash in the corner and hits his face on the ring post. With both men down, Bart distracts the ref again and Razor walks in and rolls Kid on top of Billy. The ref counts and Billy is able to get a shoulder up. Razor gets the hot tag and is able to take care of both Gunns. He sets up Billy for the Razor's Edge and hits it. The Kid wants the tag and Razor wastes a lot of time thinking about it. He tags him in and covers Billy, but Billy reverses the pin attempt and steals the victory. Kid is furious after the match and shoves Razor away when he goes to talk to him. Kid then dropkicks Bart from behind and hits a kick on Billy. Razor is able to calm him down. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

We go to Dok Hendrix so that he can sell us Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels cardboard cutouts for only $25. Dok tries to sell it by saying "Who wouldn't want Bret Hart standing in your room watching you sleep?" Oh, I don't know, probably everyone. 

Marty Jannetty vs. Goldust

I didn't realize that he didn't have the cinematic video look for his entrance at the debut. The chemistry is off a little at the start between the two performers here and Goldust looks for a timeout. Goldust slows things down and gives the announcers a lot of time to talk up his character. Marty is able to get Goldust outside of the ring, but Goldust throws him into the ring post. It kind of feels like this probably should have been over by now, given the hype for this character. Marty battles back and hits the Rocker Dropper. He goes up to the top, but Goldust moves and Marty lands on his feet. Marty eventually goes up top again and this time Goldust gets his foot up. He hits a face-first suplex and picks up his first victory. He seemed either a little nervous or rusty here, so it wasn't probably as clean of a match as he would have liked. It was as slow as I remembered though, which is a good thing. 

Match Rating: *1/2

King Mabel vs. Yokozuna

Both big men start throwing right hands and Yoko then knocks Mabel out of the ring. That may be about the most action we'll get in this one. Back in the ring, Mabel hits a leaping clothesline and we get another break. After a little bit of action in the ring, we get some outside the ring. The big finale is Yokozuna falling on top of Jim Cornette. We then hear the bell ring and both men are counted out. The crowd isn't fond of that finish. I can't blame them there. Both men get back in the ring and go face to face, while Mo and Cornette try to calm them down. They then hug it out and give a high five. This match was not Gorilla's best decision. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

It's time for the big forfeit. Dok Hendrix and Gorilla Monsoon are in the ring, as Shawn Michaels reluctantly hands the title over to Dean Douglas after a long pause. 

Intercontinental Championship Match
Dean Douglas vs. Razor Ramon

Razor enters and starts hitting the right hands. He hits the fall away slam and then clotheslines him over the top. It just seems like Razor has no interest in letting Dean get offense ever. Razor steals Jerry Lawler's water and dumps it on Dean's head. He goes for the Razor's Edge, but Dean dumps him over the top rope and to the floor. Dean goes off the top rope, but Razor catches him and hits him with his variation of the chokeslam. He sets Dean on the top rope, but Dean knocks him away. He hits a reverse crossbody, but Razor rolls through and gets 2. Dean immediately hits him with a dropkick, but Razor gets his foot on the bottom rope. Razor ducks a right hand and hits a back suplex. He puts his arm on top of Dean and the ref counts and rings for the bell. The announcers are confused and the official declares Razor the new Intercontinental Champion. Dean says that his leg was outside the ring. We see the replay and his leg did leave the ring. What a dumb finish. These two just did not kliq, I mean click. 

Match Rating: *3/4

Bret Hart is the guest announcer for the main event. Lawler tries to run away, but Bret gets in a few shots. He then chases him away. That was kind of lame. Dok then tries to sell us the hideous Shawn/Diesel shirt and then Diesel tells him that he's feeling funky. 

WWF Championship Match
British Bulldog vs. Diesel

It's all Diesel in the early going, which is no surprise. Bulldog is able to dropkick Diesel over the top. When Diesel lands, he is a little off balance, so Bret helps hold him up and from falling onto the announce table. Diesel doesn't like it, so he shoves Bret. That distraction allows for Bulldog to chop block Diesel. I have to say, I am really liking the story of both of these guys never losing to Bret leading into Survivor Series. They are basically the only two on the roster who can say that. Diesel goes outside again and that allows Jim Cornette to drop an elbow on Diesel's knee. I have to say that it's really interesting that this show has a TV-14 rating, but modern day WWE does not. This is nothing compared to that. Cornette gets a bunch more cheap shots in. This may be the most active I can remember seeing Cornette. Unfortunately, that means it's work on the knee time. The Canadian crowd is probably around 50% in favor of Bulldog here. Bulldog goes for the vertical suplex but Diesel blocks it and hits one of his own. Bulldog is able to go back to the knees and then puts on the Sharpshooter. Bret is ripping on him for the poor variation. Classic Bret. Bulldog gets him up for the running powerslam, but Diesel shoves his way off and hits him with a big boot. Cornette gets in the ring and the distraction doesn't work, as Bulldog runs into Cornette. Diesel then limps his way to leap on the back of Bulldog. They're on the outside in front of the announce table and Bulldog shoves Diesel into the ring post. Bulldog then slaps the headset off Bret and Bret goes after Bulldog, which causes the referee to call for disqualification. Given where they were going with these three guys, that makes sense, but it is still a terrible finish for a pay-per-view main event. Especially since the last match had a funky finish and the Yokozuna/Mabel match had no finish either. They announce Bulldog as the winner, so now Bret and Diesel go at it. Officials have to come in to attempt to break it up. Henry Godwinn and the Smoking Gunns come out to help. Diesel breaks free again and we have another brawl. Now Bam Bam Bigelow, Savio Vega, Fatu and others are out and we leave in the middle of the brawl for a fun ending. This match was actually better than I remembered, it's just really the finish that made you go "meh". 

Match Rating: **

The actual ring action and storylines for this show actually were pretty fun. The finishes and booking were a little weak. This was a good example of a show not needing to exist in pay per view form. They could have done this stuff on Raw and built to Survivor Series like they did in years prior. For what it was (a throwaway show), it was mildly entertaining overall and I'm sure I liked it better than just about everyone on the planet. 

Overall Rating: 48%

Superstars 10-21-95

Original Airdate: Saturday, October 21st, 1995
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, Indiana

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Vince McMahon announces that we will not get Kama vs. Undertaker today thanks to the injury to Undertaker. 

Henry Godwinn vs. Tim Knox

Don't worry, Tim Knox isn't injured. This is your typical Godwinn squash ended with the Slop Drop. The noteworthy moment is Hunter Hearst Helmsley having someone come out and steal the slop bucket. After the match, Godwinn is upset. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We go to Dok Hendrix for the Slam Jam. British Bulldog says that he's going to be the new WWF Champion tomorrow. Marty Jannetty then cuts a terrible promo on Goldust. He's just so happy to be back. 

Hakushi vs. Dean Douglas

It doesn't take long for Skip, Sunny and Rad Radford to come out to watch. Hakushi handles Dean in the early going, hitting the leaping splash in the corner. Dean bores us to sleep with his offense. Hakushi comes back and hits the elbow in the corner. He drags Dean into the corner and does a springboard splash, but Dean gets his knees up. Dean kicks him in the ribs and hits the Perfect Plex for the victory. This was quicker than I expected. 

Match Rating: *

Fatu vs. Terry Richards

Fatu is making a difference, that's for sure. We hear from Helmsley with his terrible fake accent. Fatu hits the top rope splash for the easy win. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They are really milking this 6 man tag from Raw, as they show the majority of the match again here. 

It's time for the big interview with Diesel. He's taking Bulldog to obedience school. Get it? 

This Monday, it's a 20 man battle royal to take on the Intercontinental Champion. 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Joe Deegan

Lots of Helmsley this week. He sprays Fatu with his perfume bottle backstage on his way to the ring. We get a weird commercial break where Vince is talking and it just kind of cuts out. Helmsley hits the Pedigree and that's all. You would have thought Godwinn would have made an appearance here. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We go back to Dok one more time. Don't forget about Shawn Michaels vs. Dean Douglas. It's definitely happening. 

They run down the In Your House card one more time and we hear from Goldust again, who quotes Jaws. 

This was not a strong episode at all here today. It's the end of the cycle and it felt like it. Dean Douglas continues to flounder in his opportunity here and it's no wonder that they'll be moving on soon. This In Your House doesn't feel to have much hype to it other than them allowing Bulldog to beat Diesel in the tag match. We shall see how that turns out. 

Overall Rating: 26%

Off The Grid, Volume 53: Royal Rumble 1988 Review

Sunday, January 24th, 1988
Copps Coliseum
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

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Off The Grid, Volume 53:

Well, this is the first ever televised Royal Rumble and it was given away on cable TV to counter the Bunkhouse Stampede. It's been a minute since I've seen this show and nothing is really coming back to me as far as memories, so this is basically a fresh re-watch. Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon are our hosts tonight.

Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat

There can only be one Rick. This one will settle that. Steamboat is over here and gets the best of Rude at the start. Rude gets Steamboat to agree to a test of strength and Rude gets Steamboat to his knees. Steamboat is able to take Rude down and then works on the arm of Rude. Kudos to the lady in the hat that has the hands that clap on them, who is having the time of her life in this match. Steamboat really was the prototype for 80s wrestling babyfaces. He's so smooth here and always knows when to make his comebacks. The action goes outside and Rude hits a body slam onto the mats. Rude puts on a variation of the Camel Clutch and then Steamboat counters out with an electric chair. Steamboat goes for a splash, but Rude gets the knees up. We get a series of pin attempts from both men, but none are successful. Rude hits a clothesline and Steamboat kicks out at 2. Steamboat blocks the suplex and hits one of his own. Steamboat leaps off the top rope, but Rude throws the referee in the way and he hits him instead. Rude puts Steamboat up in a variation of a backbreaker hold and the ref asks for the bell to ring. Since everyone is an idiot in 1988, we're supposed to think that Rude won the match, when it was clearly a disqualification. The referee was nowhere near Steamboat to even hear if he would have submitted. Rude goes back into the ring to confront the referee and we go to commercial break. The match was solid, but probably would have benefitted from having a minute or five shaved off. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Mean Gene is with Jesse Ventura and we are getting ready for Dino Bravo's weightlifting. Ventura is his spotter and they bring out Dino and Frenchy Martin. Dino is trying to set a new record of 715 pounds in the bench press. This is compelling television. He does his warmup at 415 pounds. Dino tells the crowd that he needs complete silence to focus. He does a few other heavier lifts with ease. I can't believe anyone would ever allow this much television time to Dino Bravo lifting weights. We finally get to the world record attempt. You could have basically watched an entire episode of Cheers and came back to this show and not missed a thing. The crowd starts making noise and Bravo walks away in anger. Jesse asks the crowd to give the guy the chance whether they like him or not. Bravo does it thanks to Ventura pulling it up. Gene thinks he did, Vince questions it. This was death. 

Two Out Of Three Falls Match For The WWF Women's Tag Team Championship
Glamour Girls vs. Jumping Bomb Angels

It is still amazing to me that they had tag titles in the 80s. I'm not really sure why this is a two out of three falls match either. Jesse calls out Vince for not knowing their names and Vince just calls them by the color of their tights. Would it have been so hard as to find out two peoples names? The Angels are cult legends for fans of this time period and it's easy to see why. They are in another league compared to Judy Martin and Leilani Kai. Martin hits a face first over the head powerbomb and the champs pick up the first fall into a commercial break. When we come back, the Angels get a quick pin attempt when Tateno reverses a powerbomb. Yamazaki hits an enzuigiri and tags in Tateno. Martin mostly dominates her and eventually Yamakazi is tagged in and they double team her in their corner. Yamakazi fights out of it and Nareto hits a knee drop off the top rope. The Angels both go up to the top and hit a double missile dropkick behind the referee's back and we have new champions. The crowd gives them a really nice pop showing that good wrestling can always be appreciated. This was very good for the time and the Angels still would be good by today's standards as well. They show the replay and Jesse is right, Martin's shoulder was not on the mat for the pinfall. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

They talk about the backstory between Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan and then show some of WrestleMania III. They argue over Andre getting a 3 count on Hogan and then show the Ted DiBiase saga. I'm sure that the live crowd is having the time of their life during this segment that feels like forever. We finally get to the ring with Mean Gene for the contract signing. Jack Tunney is here along with Hogan, DiBiase, Andre and Virgil. This is just more death. This feels like I have been watching 30 minutes of nothing so far. Hogan and Andre finally sit down at this tiny table and Hogan hesitates. DiBiase berates him for it and then Hogan finally signs it. Even scumbag Vince thinks this could have been over 5 minutes ago. Andre finally signs it and then he slams Hogan's head into the table. This was horrendous television. 

Royal Rumble

Fink goes over the rules and we already have the first two in the ring, Bret Hart and Tito Santana. We do have a countdown on the screen, but the crowd can't see it. #3 is Butch Reed. I think he's going to have a great career here in the WWF. Jim Neidhart is #4, which leaves Tito in a bad spot. Jake Roberts is #5 and he's able to run in and eliminate Reed to a big pop. Harley Race is #6 and I will say the crowd is really into this so far. Ventura loves the match concept. Boy, was he wrong. Out comes #7, Jim Brunzell. #8 is Sam Houston, future nobody. The Hart Foundation chuck Tito over the top for the next elimination. At #9, it's Danny Davis. He's my pick here. Race does the old swinging in the rope gag, which is about as phony looking as it gets. At the halfway point, #10 is Boris Zhukov. I take back what I said, he's my pick. I didn't know he was in there. Jesse is amazed at Bret being in there for 15 minutes. At #11, it's Don Muraco and Nikolai Volkoff. Muraco fends off Volkoff in a 1 second standoff. That was lame. Zhukov gets eliminated and like I said, my pick is Danny Davis. Volkoff is #12, so I'm not sure why you'd want to get into a match earlier than you need to be. Race is eliminated by Muraco. Jim Duggan is out at lucky #13. Race gets in a cheap shot on his way to the back, but it hardly phases him. He tries to get back at him, but decides to go to the match instead. Ron Bass is #14 and Brian Blair is #15. This is starting to turn into standard fare now. Hillbilly Jim is #16 and he goes right to Neidhart and dumps him out. I am slowly losing interest in this one as Dino Bravo enters at #17. The Ultimate Warrior is in at #18 and he probably should have been the one to win this. Bret is finally eliminated, and Jesse acts as if he was in there for 4 hours. One Man Gang is #19 and Junkyard Dog is the last entrant. We're starting to get quicker eliminations with the pace picking up. Duggan levels Davis with a clothesline and eliminates him. Bravo surprisingly dumps out Warrior. We finally get down to the final 3 of Bravo, One Man Gang and Duggan. Gang eliminates Bravo and we are down to our finals. Duggan is able to pull the rope down and send Gang over the top to get the victory. I love the disgust in Ventura's voice with Duggan winning. This one is kind of hard to rate, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. The action was mostly decent, minus the last few entrants. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Hulk Hogan gives an interview and says Andre can't beat Hulkamania. Apparently the Intuit Dome crowd can.

Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Islanders vs. Young Stallions

So this is a match that happened. It just kind of feels like they are practicing moves here and the crowd at this point is tired. I am too. Not a single thing of note really happens. The Islanders throw Paul Roma over the top and we get a countout for the first fall just in time to go to commercial break. I actually do like the Islanders and think Roma is solid. This one just isn't clicking for me though. When we come back, the Stallions are in the back getting checked on, so they show us the Hogan/Andre spot again and then to Andre, DiBiase and Virgil for an interview in the arena. I have completely lost interest in this feud. We get another commercial break and then we get the second fall of the match. I'm just being honest, I barely even watched this one. They just sell the Roma injury and then Tama hits a top rope splash on the knee of Roma for the surprising 2-0 victory. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Vince and Jesse recap the show. They fight about the Dino Bravo lift scandal as if anyone could possibly care about this. Even this is brutally long. They finally put this show out its misery. 

This was just such a dull show. The Rumble and women's matches were both pretty fun, but a lot of the rest dragged on so long and was full of stuff I couldn't care less about. The Bravo and Hogan stuff in particular were absolutely a challenge to watch. 

Overall Rating: 40%

To The Max: AEW Double Or Nothing 2019 Review

Saturday, May 25th, 2019
MGM Grand Garden Arena
Paradise, Nevada

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Well, with me only having a few months left in my Max subscription and the uncertainty of the remaining Raw episodes ever being uploaded to Netflix, it seems like a good time to try and do these. 

Jim Ross, Alex Marvez and Excalibur are your announcers tonight. They run down the card for tonight. 

SoCal Uncensored vs. Strong Hearts

For people like me who have no idea who is on both of these teams, SCU consists of Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels and Scorpio Sky. Stong Hearts are Cima, T-Hawk and El Lindaman. SCU's pre-match mic work is pretty lame. The video quality seems kind of weird here and distracting. I'm not sure if it's just my stream or what. Scorpio hits a real nice dropkick on T-Hawk and we see that his lip is bleeding. We get a look at everyone here, which makes sense. The announce team so far reminds me of watching golf so far. The pace picks up when the Strong Hearts get on offense and the crowd politely cheers it. I honestly am not sure if any of these guys are currently in AEW. Sky gets a hot tag and jumps on the back of Cima. He then gets hit by a trio of attacks that the referee for some reason allows. He's able to kick out of a German suplex into a bridge while his teammates just watch on the apron. Sky rolls through a sunset flip and hits a dropkick to tag in Kazarian. We then an extremely telegraphed spot where Kazarian has a sloppy pin attempt and then hits a Northern Lights suplex into a pin attempt, but only gets a 2. Now we get the spot of the match where everyone comes in and hits moves. We get a double clothesline with Daniels and Cima. Kazarian hits a springboard hurricanrana to the outside and then Sky hits a somersault dive over the top. SCU hits a moonsault/piledriver combo and picks up the victory. This was a decent opener with too many telegraphs for my liking. 

Match Rating: **3/4

Four Way Match
Kylie Rae vs. Nyla Rose vs. Dr. Britt Baker vs. Awesome Kong

Brandi Rhodes comes out in ring gear and says that this triple threat match would be great, but she doesn't want a great match. She wants a match that would be awesome. That brings out Awesome Kong. We're off to a bit of a sloppy start here, as they try to get over Kong as the monster. Kong catches Baker, but then Kylie hits a suicide dive that takes out both. Rose hits a big spinebuster on Kylie and gets a 2 count. Awesome Kong is back in the ring and that leads to the tower of doom spot with Kong coming out the victor in that spot. Kong goes for the Awesome Bomb from the apron, but Britt is able to counter out and hit a kick. Nyla dives into her and that leaves Britt and Kylie in the ring. Britt hits a swinging neckbreaker and gets a close call. Britt hits a front suplex into a knee for the win. This was pretty disappointing overall, that really fell into the flaws of this type of match. 

Match Rating: *3/4

They show Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega getting ready for later tonight. 

Best Friends vs. Jack Evans & Angelico

Why do both teams have the same colored gear? I have always liked Trent Beretta. This one just isn't really catching my attention so far. It just kind of feels like they are working in slow motion a little bit. I can't emphasize enough how much the announce team is doing nothing for me. Trent hits a beautiful springboard DDT, but he's not the legal man and Evans kicks out of Taylor's pin attempt. Trent hits his running kneeand then some combo offense. They hug, which apparently is their thing. They hit a crucifix into a Diamond Cutter, but of course Evans kicks out. Evans leaps off the back of Angelico and hits a spinning kick. Angelico hits a crucifix bomb in the corner and Evans hits a 630 splash, but Taylor breaks up the pin attempt. The Best Friends hit a Doomsday Device version of Trent's top rope knee and they pick up the victory. This was a lot of let's hit big moves for no reason. 

Match Rating: **1/4

The lights go out after the match and when they turn back on, two guys who look like jobbers are in the ring. The lights go out again and when they come back on, more masked jobbers are there. They attack the competitors to some boos. The unmasked jobber hits a Torture Rack into a backbreaker on Angelico. They then hits an admittedly cool top rope combo and then pose. The lights go out again and that's all, thankfully. 

We now get a painful shill for tickets going on sale and Marvez doesn't get the date right for when they go on sale. 

Hikaru Shida, Riho & Ryo Mizunami vs. Aja Kong, Emi Sakura & Yuka Sakazaki

It's always good to see Aja Kong. Recapping matches like this is admittedly not a strength of mine when I don't know who 5 of the competitors are. Aja hits a big piledriver, but her teammates are able to interrupt the pin attempt despite the lame attempt by the other team to keep them there. As you would expect, there isn't much strategy here and it's more of a feature for all 6 ladies. Aja misses a back elbow off the second rope and that allows Shida to get tagged in. Aja tries to hit her with a can, but she misses and Shida grabs a kendo stick. Aja gets the better of it and hits her in the back of the head with the can. We get a superplex and then a guillotine leg drop, but Sakazaki breaks up the pin attempt. We get a moonsault from Sakura and the ref maybe counts to 3? The bell rings, but the ref says it's 2. Kong accidentally hits her with the spinning backfist. A running knee picks up the win for Shida. That was a fun match and the best of the night so far. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

We get a Cody Rhodes/Dustin Rhodes build up video featuring terrible music, as you would expect from pro wrestling. 

Cody Rhodes vs. Dustin Rhodes

This is the famous Triple H entrance for Cody. That is probably the one thing I knew about this show ahead of time. After we get the slow build with the crowd very much into it, we are off to the races. Dustin, as is well documented, is in great shape here. Dustin gets some time to show off, and deservedly so. Brandi gets herself involved and hits a spear on Dustin, which leads to her ejection. Diamond Dallas Pages comes out and carries her to the back. Dustin is busted open, which feels like it's a little too early in this match. It is a very unique visual since Dustin is wearing red face paint. He is gushing big time though. Dustin hits his signature powerslam for a 2 count. Cody then slaps on the Figure Four in the center of the ring. Dustin reverses it eventually and the hold is released. Cody takes off his weightlifting belt, but the referee takes it away. Dustin gets it and pulls down Cody's pants and spanks him with it. Dustin gets in a burst of offense, but it's not enough. A low blow and a Cross Rhodes by Cody, but Dustin kicks out at 2. Dustin hits a Cross Rhodes, but now Cody kicks out. Cody hits a vertebreaker and then a Cross Rhodes and that's enough for a pretty anti-climatic finish. This was good, but ultimately disappointing. That's always a problem with watching a show after a consensus is formed. I am pretty good at keeping an open mind, but sometimes expectations can be hard to meet. Again, this was good, just not something that blew me away. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

Cody after the match tells Dustin that he signed up for a match with the Young Bucks and that he doesn't need a partner or a friend, he needs his older brother. They hug and the crowd loves it. 

They talk about Hangman Adam Page winning the battle royal earlier in the night, who will get a chance to be the first AEW Champion. Looking at some of the people who were in the battle royal, this seems like such a bad idea. Why wouldn't the people on the main card get a shot at becoming the #1 contender? The finish of the match looked to be pretty poorly booked as well. 

They bring out Bret Hart to unveil the AEW Championship title belt. I love that Bret always jumps at a chance to make Vince mad. He brings out Adam Page, who walks to the ring with a limp. When he gets to the ring, MJF comes out. He was the last person Page eliminated in the battle royal. MJF cuts a pretty generic promo, but I did like it when he called Page "Seabiscuit". Out comes Jungle Boy and then Jimmy Havoc. This now just looks like the most indie-rific segment you could have. They attack MJF and then go through the crowd. Bret then holds the AEW Championship belt up and they don't even have a camera on the belt at first. Having Bret here was awesome, but this segment was terrible. 

We get a hype video for the tag team match coming up, which is the main reason I had interest in this show 6 years ago. 

AAA World Tag Team Championships
Lucha Brothers vs. Young Bucks

I do not believe I have ever seen the Lucha Brothers in a match. Maybe I caught a Dynamite match at some point, but I don't recall. I honestly have only seen a handful of Young Bucks matches. We get lots of flippin' and floppin' to start. We get a couple of miscues from the Bucks that they are playing up. I really don't even feel like trying to keep up with this match, so I'm just mostly going to watch it. No one reads this anyways. We get a bunch of superkicks and it leads to all 4 men on the ground. Matt hits a top rope brainbuster and then they hit like 5 moves after and it's not enough to win the match. The Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver and that's all. They crammed a lot of action, no question. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I was there live. 

Match Rating: ***3/4

These spots where they are showing the 3 announcers is just so awkward. I think Jim Ross would agree that this was not his best night in terms of chemistry. This leads into the hype video for the main event. 

Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega

Ah, yes, "Judas". Another terrible wrestling song. And look, a barrel that has the Cracker Barrel logo on it. Nothing says main event like a terrible chain restaurant. Give me Karate Fighters any day. Watching them take the barrel out of the ring is just hilarious. As someone who grew up as a huge Jericho fan (and now has more than mixed feelings about that), seeing him look like how he does here is very much how it probably felt for Ric Flair fans. And of course, fast forward to 2025 and he is still wrestling. Why? I guess how else would he fund his wife's trips? Oh yeah, there's a match going on. Jericho gets distracted by the crowd and he just looks like the drunk uncle no one wanted to invite to the pool party. Omega is bleeding from the nose now and Jericho is pulling a table out from under the ring. Omega does a baseball dropkick. Jericho just stands there with the table and Omega dives and Jericho kind of moves to the side and I'm not sure if that was a counter or not. Omega then hits a stomp on top of the table to Jericho's legs. Jim Ross then tells us the wrong website for the company. I'm at the point where I feel like I have been watching this show for 3 weeks. A Lionsault is countered and we're told it is "very well scouted". The guy has been wrestling for like 35 years. I'm not sure you need to "scout" very much to know that. Eventually, Jericho is able to hit a back body drop over the top rope and through the aforementioned table. Jericho hits a Codebreaker from the top and now we are at the part where the crowd chants both guys names. Some stuff happens and I am exhausted. Jericho hits the Codebreaker and the Judas Effect and picks up the win in a really poor ending. The finishes tonight have all been very ineffective in just about every match. The Jericho victory is hit with a lot of silence from the crowd. The match itself was pretty good, but I wouldn't have booked this as the main event of the first big show of my wrestling organization. 

Match Rating: ***

Jericho gets the microphone after the match and makes fun of the crowd. He says that Chris Jericho is AEW. It's not a company for the fans, it's a company for him. He brags about all the success and says the reason for all of it is him. He wants the crowd to thank him and then we get our big closing moment to the show with Jon Moxley coming through the crowd and into the ring. This was the ace in the hole that this show needed. He hits a DDT on Jericho and the crowd loves it. He then hits it on the referee. He picks up Omega and tries to do the same, but Omega drives him through the ropes and they battle into the crowd. They battle up on top of the giant poker chips on the stage and Moxley hits a DDT. He then hits an Attitude Adjustment off the chip and onto the stage. 

This show desperately needed that ending because this felt like one of the 8 hour WrestleMania shows. Don't get me wrong, some of the matches were good, but this felt extremely long and I didn't walk away really becoming a fan of anyone presented here. Look, I can't stand Vince McMahon. He is garbage. I do like the way WWE is presented better, but I prefer the older style of wrestling for the most part. If you loved this show, as I know that a ton of people did, I get it. I like SummerSlam 1995, so obviously I'm not a perfect critic. This one to me was just somewhere in the middle that left me feeling the same way after as I was before. 

Overall Rating: 51%

Monday Nitro 10-16-95 Review

Monday, October 16th, 1995 
Albany Civic Center
Albany, New York

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Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael kick things off talking about the potential team of Ric Flair and Sting for tonight. 

WCW Television Championship Match
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Johnny B. Badd

DDP knocks him out from behind with the title belt while Badd is still finishing his entrance in the ring. DDP pins him and counts to 3 himself before shooting off Badd's canon. They announce it as a disqualification. So yeah, this was no match. 

Match Rating: No Rating

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit

This isn't the beginning of the cruiserweight division, but this is the beginning of WCW's credible side of ring wrestling on Nitro. I know a youngster like myself had never seen wrestling like this in 1995. We get a cool spot where Eddie is going for a back suplex and their momentum takes them to the floor. The crowd is reacting to the moves, which is a start also. Guerrero hits a nice springboard DDT despite his injured arm. McMichael says that if we aren't a WCW fan after this match, you are dumber than dirt. Eddie goes for the Frog Splash, but Benoit gets his knees up. Benoit hits the powerbomb into a pin, but Eddie is able to kick out. Benoit hits a full nelson belly to back suplex into a bridge and this time it's enough. These guys were given time and they delivered. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

Bischoff then tells us that they are working on a cruiserweight division. We then go to Mean Gene in the ring, who hypes up the WCW Hotline with mentions of Shawn Michaels getting beat up by a fan. He then brings out Taskmaster and Giant. The Dungeon of Doom is infamous for a reason and all of this is just beyond cringe. 

On WCW Saturday Night, it's going to be Disco Inferno vs. Alex Wright and Jim Duggan vs. VK Wall Street. 

Disco Inferno is out again before our next match. 

Meng vs. Jim Duggan

Meng attacks Duggan while he's up on the turnbuckle waving the flag. Duggan is over with the crowd, as per usual. We get his usual punch and clothesline match. Meng no sells a body slam and hits Duggan with a superkick. He puts the spike in the side of the throat and that's it? That was a brief squash for a guy like Duggan without any shenanigans. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We hear from Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart in all black again. He claims to be able to stop an elephant in his tracks and make a promoter get down on his knees and cry. Hogan always sucked to me, but this is next level bad Hogan. 

Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman vs. Ric Flair & Sting

There is no Sting in the corner of Flair to begin. The crowd is chanting "We want Sting", but it's still Flair on his own and he gets hit in the back of the head with an elbow from AA. Flair then somehow puts on the Figure Four (after somehow trying to put it on the wrong way). He gets it on both guys, but the numbers game is too much. Arn hits a spinebuster and out comes Sting to a big pop. Pillman gets a cheap shot in on Sting and they continue to work on Flair. He gets a tag into Sting and he cleans house. Sting hits an inverted atomic drop and then clotheslines Arn over the top. He then crotches Pillman on the top rope and he too falls to the floor. That's a countout and a really lame finish for the match. Bischoff has often said that WCW's worst trait was their finishes and it has definitely been on display in the early days of Nitro. This was very house show. 

Match Rating: *1/4

Sting and Flair get interviewed by Mean Gene and they are best friends now. I'm sure that will not backfire at all. 

We go back to the announce team for the recap. Next week, we'll get to see Sting and Lex Luger against Harlem Heat, who surprisingly haven't been on the show much yet. 

This was a pretty good show that was highlighted by the Benoit/Guerrero match. The rest of it wasn't anything special, but it was an easy watch. 

Overall Rating: 59%

Monday Night Raw 10-16-95 Review

Original Airdate: Monday, October 16th, 1995
Welsh Auditorium
Grand Rapids, Michigan 

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We get a lengthy hype video for the cage match. 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Doink

Doink is still a thing. He grabs Helmsley by the nose, as Vince disapproves of Lawler using the term "blue blood". Helmsley looks a little hesitant compared to earlier squashes. Doink tries to steal the match with a few quick pin attempts, but Helmsley is able to kick out. Doink misses with a reverse crossbody off the second rope and hits the Pedigree for the win. This was meh. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Barry Horowitz talks to Hakushi about baseball.

WWF Tag Team Championship Match
PG-13 vs. Smoking Gunns

It's kind of weird that PG-13 is just getting a title shot. We hear from Gorilla Monsoon about who Mabel is going to wrestle at In Your House now that Undertaker is injured. He has decided that it will be the guy that helped injure Taker and that's Yokozuna. Thanks a bunch, Gorilla. The Gunns outsmart the newcomers at every opportunity to begin until PG-13 shifts the momentum by tripping Billy while running the ropes. Billy finally tags in Bart and that's about all it takes to take care of PG-13. I thought that would be a little bit more enjoyable than it was. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

Next week, it's Alundra Blayze vs. Bertha Faye. Remember them? 

We go to an interview from a house show with Dok Hendrix, British Bulldog and Jim Cornette. Did they purposely leave so much extra time in this taping where the last two episodes have had so much filler in it? This was a short interview. Vince then teases that he's going to break the story involving Shawn Michaels. 

We hear from Ahmed Johnson again and doing the best you can for your mom at school or something.

Dean Douglas vs. Joe Dorgan

They show the attack on Michaels by Dean last week on Raw. Vince tells us about the "unprovoked attack by 10 thugs" in Syracuse. They have Shawn Michaels now on the phone and that distracts from another awful Douglas squash. He doesn't even finish the interview before the match finished. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We go to Dok trying to sell us a hideous Diesel and Shawn shirt. They then show them getting the smaller cage ready for Lawler. They run through the In Your House card again, as the stalling continues. We hear from Goldust again and then they show the Mabel/Undertaker saga. We hear from Paul Bearer before we finally see the moron dentist come down. 

They announce that next week we will have a battle royal to become the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Champion.

Steel Cage Match
Isaac Yankem vs. Bret Hart

We get lots of punching and kicking until we get to the drama. Lawler switched the locks on the cage door and then we go to commercial break. When we come back, we get a special bulletin running on the bottom of the screen to call the WWF Hotline to find out more about Shawn Michaels. Meanwhile, Bret is able to press slam Yankem off the top rope. He then slaps on the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring. He holds it on long enough that he thinks he can climb. Lawler starts climbing and knocks Bret back to the mat. Out comes Gorilla to order him to get in his shark cage. Lawler doesn't listen, so Bret climbs and knocks him back down. Yankem is able to take advantage, but Lawler also gets thrown in his cage. This was the first time I had ever seen this gimmick before and loved it. Yankem starts climbing and gets halfway over, but Bret meets him up top. He gets Yankem back in the ring, but crotches himself on the top. We then get the famous Lawler nosebleed where he actually made his nose bleed by creating a scab prior to the taping and then opening the scab while in the cage. Yankem is once again halfway over the cage, but Bret grabs the leg and pulls him back in. Yankem is just so limited that there isn't much you can do with him here. Lawler drops in the key to the lock, but art imitates life and he's too dumb to open the lock. Bret rolls him up and then punches him in the jaw. He hits a bulldog and the backbreaker. He hits the second rope elbow drop and climbs up and over for the win. I mean, this was fine for what it was, but not much more than that. Bret can only do so much. 

Match Rating: **

After the commercial, they tease that Lawler isn't going to be lowered. 

This episode felt like an afterthought and the stalling from last week continued. Throw in a weak Douglas squash and a disappointing showing from Helmsley, this was barely as good as an average Superstars episode. 

Overall Rating: 38%

Superstars 10-14-95 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, October 14th, 1995
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, Indiana

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We get a hype video for Waylon Mercy/Diesel before the intro song. 

Jacob & Eli Blu vs. Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid

I'm not really sure why they didn't use the Blu brothers more. I say that because we sure were tortured with the DOA era and this is significantly better in my opinion. Jacob gets a heat segment in on Razor, somewhat surprisingly. Razor is able to get a knee to the face of Eli and tag in the Kid. His hot tag doesn't last long, as the Blu's hit a double back body drop. The Smoking Gunns are out now to take a closer look. We get a commercial break and Kid is still getting worked when we return. He finally gets the tag into Razor and he goes for the Razor's Edge. The other Blu attacks him from behind and we get all four men in the ring. The Blu brother has Razor up for a body slam, but Kid comes off the top rope and dropkicks him into a pin attempt and picks up the victory. We get a brawl afterwards and the victors get the last laugh also. This was fine for what it was. 

Match Rating: *1/4

We go to Dok Hendrix to talk about In Your House. We hear from Dean Douglas about his match with Shawn Michaels. I am so confused on where I am with this timeline since I had to watch like 20 Raw episodes in a row before the move to Netflix. We hear from Paul Bearer and Undertaker about the Mabel match. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tom Knox

They show Bam Bam catching a large fish just in case you're wondering how far he's fallen on the roster. They just talk about Lawler being in the shark cage on Raw instead of the match. Bam Bam wins. Great writing by me. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We hear from Ahmed Johnson talking about the best you can for your mom. 

Smoking Gunns vs. AC Conner & Scott Stevens

Billy hits a headscissor counter and Conner sells it like a Frankensteiner, which is kind of cool. Razor and the Kid are out to check out this match. The Gunns hit the Sidewinder and get the victory. The match feels more like a backdrop to the Kid/Razor relationship.

Match Rating: 1/4*

Next week, it's Kama vs. Undertaker right here on Superstars. 

Skip vs. Sonny Rogers

We finally get some of the Sunny intro. Vince and co. talk over most of it and then we get a commercial break. Skip hits a second rope leg drop, but says that's not enough and mocks Barry Horowitz. Skip does the whole cocky heel thing until he hits the top rope hurricanrana for the victory. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We see highlights of the 6 man tag match from Raw. 

Diesel is interviewed by Jim Ross and everyone is talking about Diesel's losing streak. Diesel is all fired up about it and says to watch. 

Waylon Mercy vs. Diesel

Diesel brawls with Waylon for a minute or so and then out comes British Bulldog. Diesel goes after Bulldog and they start brawling. The bell rings and Mercy is your winner by countout to keep up with the losing streak angle. Diesel runs back in and hits the Jackknife. He then starts hitting Mercy with right hands until Shawn Michaels pulls him off. He goes back at it again and then a whole bunch of officials pull them apart. This was nothing. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We go back to Dok and he gives us an interview with British Bulldog. Dok then runs through the card for In Your House. 

We hear from Shawn and he talks about being the excitement in WWF. Next week, it's Dean Douglas vs. Hakushi. Plus, an interview with Diesel. 

This was your usual Superstars, but the feature matches were a little disappointing. Outside the lengthy recap of the Raw match (which was a good match, I just didn't need to see it again right after watching it), the rest went by quickly. 

Overall Rating: 40%

One Night Stand 2007 Review

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
Jacksonville, Florida

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Stretcher Match
Randy Orton vs. Rob Van Dam

It's looking like this may be my last show to watch for 1997 for some time since Netflix seems to be in no hurry in uploading more Raw episodes. I'm enjoying 1995 much more, so I'm good with it. RVD is all over Orton to begin, hitting a number of kicks. Orton gets a shot on the head of RVD and he oversells the concussion way too much. RVD is able to hit a kick when Orton goes for the RKO. When RVD leaps up top, he falls to the floor and the announcers are showing no concern to help sell this angle. Orton hits a standing dropkick and continues to attack the head. He rolls RVD onto the stretcher, but he falls over along with the stretcher. RVD fights back and hits a leg drop on the stretcher. He goes for a Rolling Thunder, but Orton hits an awesome counter into a powerslam. RVD goes for a somersault splash over the top rope onto the stretcher and misses. That looked painful. Orton lifts RVD off the ground and puts him on the stretcher and starts wheeling him up the ramp. Orton falls to a knee and then RVD gets up. RVD fights his way back, throws him on the stretcher and pushes him past the finish line. That was a terrible finish. This was shocking at the time, as RVD was leaving here and everyone expected him to put RVD on his way out the door. After the match, Orton attacks RVD from behind. Orton then punts him in the head and then hits the draped DDT off the barricade and to the floor. Proof that winning a match doesn't mean you were put over. RVD gets medical attention and is put on a stretcher. The match had the couple of cool spots, but the rest was nothing special thanks to the concussion angle, which is what they were going for. 

Match Rating: **

Vince McMahon tells Shane that they end Bobby Lashley tonight. 

Tag Team Tables Match
Sandman, Tommy Dreamer & CM Punk vs. Elijah Burke, Marcus Cor Von & Matt Striker

It's good that they keep giving Punk spots on pay per view, I think he has a future. He and Dreamer do the Dudley "Get the tables" bit, but the crowd doesn't pop for it for some reason. Things break down after that and Sandman hits Striker with the kendo stick. Sandman and Dreamer try to suplex Striker through a table, but Burke moves it. Burke hits his corner elbow drop on Punk and Striker slides a table in the ring. They try to throw Punk through the table in the corner, but Dreamer makes the save. Sandman goes for his top rope huricanrana, but Striker sends him to the floor. Cor Von hits a variation of a powerbomb on Punk and stands the table up and sets Punk on it. Cor Von goes up to the second rope, but Sandman hits him with the kendo stick. Dreamer hits a piledriver on Burke. Cor Von grabs Sandman to the floor. Punk hits a superplex on Striker onto Burke and through the table. That was kind of a messy finish. This was basically a TV match with a table spot. The guys gave it their all though for the short amount of time they were given. 

Match Rating: **

Edge and Orton are in the back. Orton talks about how his two former partners are battling in a steel cage tonight. Orton says that he's on the biggest role of his life, taking out RVD and ending the career of Shawn Michaels. Orton says that if he gets picked over to SmackDown, with Edge being to champ, he'll be next. Edge says that he'll end up just like Batista later tonight. 

Ladder Match For The World Tag Team Championships
The Hardys vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team

This is the epitome of a thrown together match. The only reason it exists was to give an excuse to have Jeff Hardy and Shelton Benjamin in a ladder match together. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but it would be nice if they would actually do anything with Benjamin. They get right to business here and the ladders are immediately introduced to the match. Matt pulls Charlie Haas off the ladder and hits him with an electric chair. Matt and Jeff both reach the top of the ladder with their hands on the belts until Shelton tosses a ladder at them to knock them off. We get our first true ladder spot with the Hardys double hip tossing Shelton onto a ladder set on top of two more ladders. They then slam Haas onto the same structure. The next big spot is with the ladder on the barricade and ring and they throw Shelton from the ring onto it. They put Shelton back on it and Jeff goes up to the top, but Haas interrupts. Matt comes in and hits the Side Effect on Haas. Haas sets Matt onto a ladder laying on the ring and another ladder. He holds him in place and Benjamin leaps off a ladder in the ring and hits him with his legs open onto Matt's back. Interesting choice of landing. Back in the ring, Haas and Jeff battle at the top of the ladder and Jeff suplexes him off the top. Jeff is climbing and Shelton tries to springboard himself from the top rope, but messes up and makes a nice recovery by doing a somersault kick into the ladder and causing Jeff to fall. All four men climb the ladders and are battling up top. The Hardys get shoved off, but land on their feet and shove Haas and Shelton down. Shelton falls over the top rope and through the ladder outside the ring. Jeff hits a Swanton on Haas and they climb to retrieve their title belts for the victory. This wasn't necessarily as memorable as a lot of ladder matches, but they really did a great job keeping the pace at a frantic speed. 

Match Rating: ***3/4

Great Khali yells, Ranjin Singh talks and I don't listen. 

Lumberjack Match
Mark Henry vs. Kane

Why do I do this to myself? Every time I see Kane wrestle, I hope it's my last. Henry drives Kane's back into the ring post and then the lumberjacks throw him back in the ring. I will never forget this match because to me this is the "bearhug match". Henry slaps it on for what feels like 3 hours. Kane is able to dump him through the ropes and then leaps off the top. Kane hits a top rope clothesline inside the ring and hits the chokeslam. Then Kenny Dykstra and Chavo Guerrero attack Kane because lord knows we have to protect Kane here. Henry puts on the bearhug again. Michael Cole says he is sucking the life out of Kane, but he forgets to mention the thousands of people watching this crap. The ref rings for the bell and the crowd moans. This sucked more than you could ever imagine. JBL keeps lecturing us on how Bruno Sammartino used the bearhug. Great, that was decades ago. 

Match Rating: 0 Stars

They show The World's Greatest Tag Team and Hardys getting checked on by the doctors. The challengers are arguing with them and a brawl ensues. 

Street Fight For The ECW Championship
Mr. McMahon vs. Bobby Lashley

Lashley instantly leaps over the top rope and lands on Umaga. Shane throws Lashley in the ring and takes some shots at Lashley, but then gets clotheslined and tossed over the top rope on Umaga. As you would expect, this just turns into a 3 on 1 situation. This is absolutely thrilling television. Lashley eventually makes his comeback and hits Vince in the head with the steel chair. He then unleashes on his back with the chair. The numbers game catches up again and Shane hits the top rope elbow drop onto Lashley through the table. This is just such a boring storyline and match. Lashley comes back, he hits the Spear and wins. Great.

Match Rating: 1/2*

Maria is flirting with Santino Marella. Todd Grisham comes in to get Maria's thoughts on the pudding match coming up and she gives an intelligent answer because that's funny. Candice then says that she'll beat Melina in any kind of match for the third time. Candice comes in with her horrible acting and asks for a kiss for good luck, so Maria kisses her instead of Candice. In comes Ron Simmons. 

Pudding Match
Candice Michelle vs. Melina

This is as good as you would expect. Candice wins. This was stupid. Maria comes out to congratulate her and she throws Maria into Melina in the pool of pudding. The referee gets thrown in too. This show sucks. 

Match Rating: 0 Stars

Steel Cage Match For The World Heavyweight Championship
Edge vs. Batista

Edge immediately tries to win via escape and as you would expect, it doesn't work. That leads to a short Batista offense sequence until Edge is able to dropkick Batista into the cage. That slows down things big time and it has the feeling of a match that gets 20+ minutes, except it won't get anywhere near that. Batista is able to hit a superplex. Batista tries to go off the top rope, but Edge catches him with a dropkick. I will never understand how Batista had better chemistry with Undertaker than he did with Edge. Batista slingshots Edge into the cage and gets a 2 count. Edge comes back with a Spear and that gets a 2 count. Batista hits a spinebuster, that gets a 2. It kind of just feels like they are doing moves. Batista goes for a Batista Bomb, but Edge is able to grab the cage and holds on. He gets up to the top, but Batista is able to drag him back in. Edge is able to knock him down and then start climbing again. Batista tries to climb through the door, but Edge beats him out. What a boring finish that was. The cage match is such a watered-down gimmick that it takes something really special to make a good one. This one felt more like the kind you would get from a TV main event. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Falls Count Anywhere Match For The WWE Championship
Great Khali vs. John Cena

Let's see if Cena is able to top his ** miracle at Judgment Day against Khali. So far it's all Khali, so you can guess how it's going. Cena tries to get something going by going up to the top rope, but Khali chops him and sends him to the floor. They spill out into the crowd and Cena sort of hits him with a TV monitor. Cena goes for the FU, but he can't get Khali on his back. Cena then uses the boom camera as a weapon. He gets Khali on his back, but Khali hits him with his elbow. Khali then picks him up and throws Cena onto the crane that is part of the entrance set. They battle on the crane and Cena gets Khali up for the FU and throws him off the crane. Cena covers him and that's all. Yeah, that wasn't as good. Cena tried, but it's no easy task. 

Match Rating: *

This show sucked big time and was even worse than I remembered it being. Kudos to the four men in the ladder match for putting their bodies on the line, but the rest of the card was so poor. I sure hope that is the last time I ever see that Kane/Mark Henry match. I can't imagine that I'll ever watch this again.

Overall Rating: 26%

Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIV Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, June 2nd, 2007
Air Canada Centre
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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John Cena vs. Great Khali

Hey, we're showing you this match for free, but buy the pay per view tomorrow with them fighting again! Cena attacks Khali as soon as he walks in and tries to get him up for the FU, but fails. Khali pretty much manhandles Cena here, as really the only purpose of this match existing is to make you think Khali will win the title tomorrow night at One Night Stand. Cena tries to get Khali up for the FU again, but this time he gets him in the air, but Khali elbows him. He hits the double hand chokeslam and then covers him with one foot and gets the pretty unprecedented win over Cena here. Cena basically never loses anything and they are throwing it away for this feud on a pointless show. After the match Khali yells at Cena and then Ranjin Singh says that Khali will beat him anywhere and become WWE Champion. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

There is nothing more that I want to see than an arm wrestling match between Mr. McMahon and Bobby Lashley. I definitely also want to see a whole segment just showing me the backstory on this feud too. Vince does the typical heel move of backing out to get ready. He then says that he won't embarrass Lashley tonight, only tomorrow night. So he brings out Mark Henry instead. Lashley is starting to come back, so Henry attacks him. Lashley comes back with a spear, but then Vince hits him with a chair to the back. This could have never existed and no one would have complained. 

Maris is with Edge and he says that he is the greatest. 

Batista & Chris Benoit vs. MVP & Edge

Benoit and MVP kick things off. Edge is supported here in Toronto tonight. When Batista is in there, no one wants a piece of him, but MVP is the one stuck with him. Benoit hits a trio of German suplexes and then knocks Edge off the apron while climbing the top rope. That gives MVP the extra time to roll out of the way of the diving headbutt. Benoit is able to hit an enzuigiri on Edge, but MVP prevents the tag to Batista. Benoit is finally able to make the tag and he hits a couple of clotheslines before hitting the running powerslam. Edge distracts Batista and then grabs his title belt before leaving the ring. Benoit hits a spinebuster and Benoit hits the top rope headbutt for the victory. This was as basic as it gets. 

Match Rating: *1/4

They show Finlay, Hornswoggle, Boogeyman and Little Boogeyman heading to the ring. 

Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman

Hornswoggle climbed under the ring before the match. We get a moment with Finlay and Little Boogeyman and Finlay slaps him. Little Boogeyman hits a DDT on Finlay and then he tags Hornswoggle, who we can only see his hand from the apron. Hornswoggle rolls up the sleeves and gives him the hat. That distraction allows Finlay to hit a kick to the head of Little Boogeyman. Little Boogeyman is able to get a small package in on both Hornswoggle and Finlay, but both attempts are broken up. Boogeyman then chases Hornswoggle to the back. Finlay kicks Little Boogeyman in the face and picks up the win. As good as Finlay is in this role, I think we can move on. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Just in case you didn't realize that this show is just all filler, here is Extreme Exposè. While they are dancing, they show Little Boogeyman chasing Hornswoggle. Boogeyman gets involved and Finlay hits him with the shillelagh and then mocks his dancing. It comes back out to the ring and they lift up Layla and Brooke on their shoulders for a chicken fight. Little Boogeyman then chases him back up the entrance ramp. I would not be too mad if Netflix continues to take their time on uploading 2007 Raw episodes. 

Kane, Doink & Eugene vs. Kevin Thorn, Viscera & Umaga

Just when you think things can't get any worse, they give you Kane. Doink stalls to fill airtime here and then Thorn finally hits him with a clothesline. Eugene is wearing his superhero costume and now has buzzed hair. Umaga takes care of him and I can't believe this match is still going on. This is a 3 minute and done match. Instead they're making us sit through 11 minutes of it. Viscera hits his big side slam on Eugene and Eugene rolls out of the ring. Kane gets tagged in and takes care of the other team. He hits the worst looking top rope clothesline in the business on Thorn, but Umaga breaks it up. Thorn tags in Viscera and he misses a splash in the corner. Kane hits a chokeslam and wins. This was absolutely terrible. 

Match Rating: 0 Stars

We then get a music video recap of this turd of a show. 

I am far away from reviewing all of the Saturday Night's Main Events, but I would be shocked if this one doesn't end up in the bottom 3. There were no redeeming qualities to this one and did nothing to make me want to watch One Night Stand. 

Overall Rating: 24%

Monday Nitro 10-9-95 Review

Monday, October 9th, 1995 
Rosemont Horizon
Rosemont, Illinois

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They show Hulk Hogan getting his moustache shaved off. Eric Bischoff, Bobby Henan and Steve McMichael are all wearing Chicago Bears jerseys. Heenan's has a ? instead of a number. Sting joins them and says that he has a solution for a problem between Randy Savage and Lex Luger. 

United States Championship Match
Shark vs. Sting

Shark's gear has to be among some of the worst there is out there. Shark hits a few moves until he misses in the corner. Stink leaps into him from behind, causing Shark to hit the ring post. Sting hits a top rope crossbody and that's it. Whatever. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show all of the Hogan drama from last week again. 

Sabu vs. Mr. JL

It's probably a good idea to let Sabu wrestle someone who is used to Sabu's style. With this being a Chicago crowd, they are very much into Sabu. Sabu hits a lot of the high notes. He goes for a hurricanrana off the top, but Mr. JL blocks it. Mr. JL goes off the top rope, but Sabu catches him for a powerbomb. He puts on the Camel Clutch and picks up the victory. After the match, he hits a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor. This felt chaotic in a good way for 1995. 

Match Rating: *1/2

Mean Gene is in the ring with Sting and Lex Luger. In order for Sting to solve the problem, he calls out Randy Savage. Sting wonders why Giant hasn't put his hands on Sting. Sting tells him that he's paranoid and talks about how all of them want to become champion. Sting says that if Luger beats Meng and Savage beats Kamala, the two of them should square off. Luger isn't happy about it and Sting calls him disgusting for that. He says he's tired of sticking up for Luger. Luger looks like he's trying not to crack up. Luger agrees and Savage does as well. This was really cheesy. 

They show Chris Benoit arriving in a limo. 

Disco Inferno is out to dance again. They cut off his music and he turns on his boom box as Big Bubba enters. He keeps doing it while Hawk comes out too. He then steals a kid's WCW hat and puts it on the spike of Hawk. Right. 

Big Bubba Rogers vs. Road Warrior Hawk

Hawk hits a powerslam on Hawk and then Disco Inferno starts dancing on the ring. Hawk rips his shirt and chases him down the aisle. It causes a countout and that's all. Lame.

Match Rating: 1/4*

Mean Gene brings out Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart. Hogan comes out in all black and tells both Gene and Jimmy not to talk. Hogan talks trash, but Gene says that won't happen because he is barred from the arena tonight. He then talks about Vince McMahon choking on his own ego for whatever reason. He then talks about beating Gorgeous George in heaven. I don't know, he's just doing his usual nonsensical promo. They show Giant and Taskmaster trying to get in the arena with a monster truck. The cops won't let him in, so Hogan says he'll go back there himself. 

Steel Cage Match
Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair

They hype up this match as being a pay per view caliber match and they aren't wrong there. However, we go to commercial within the first minute, which never helps. When we come back and Arn hits a spinebuster. Out comes Brian Pillman to start climbing the cage. Flair sees him and shoves him to the floor. Flair tries to put on the Figure Four, but Arn hits Flair with something and that's enough to pick up the win. They show the replay and he has brass knuckles. They couldn't have given us a few more minute of ring action there? 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Ric is fuming and goes to the announcer booth. He says he wants both Pillman and Arn next week. We then get more recap stuff from the announcers. Next week it will be Diamond Dallas Page vs. Johnny B. Badd, Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero and Meng vs. Jim Duggan. 

This was another underwhelming show. They had a hot crowd and didn't really take advantage of it. They are so stuck on anything Hogan, that they just don't care about much else. Even the Luger and Flair segments always seem to be rushed. This wasn't bad, just not as good as I felt it should have been.

Overall Rating: 42%